Joe DeRouen's Blog, page 13

Off to the Presses!

Okay, so one thing is abundantly clear: I suck at maintaining a blog. It’s been almost two months since I last posted an update. I hear by pledge to try to do better in the future! All of that said, I just approved and paid for the “Small Things” cover (front, back, and ebook version) and am finishing inputting edits to the manuscript. If luck holds out, and I think it will, it should be finished and ready to ship to readers by the very end of Thanksgiving!

Want to purchase an autographed copy directly from me? Just visit this link!

http://joederouen.com/?page_id=176

The book will also be available from Amazon, and by order through just about any brick and mortar store. I also intend to have a book signing in Rogers, Arkansas at some point.

Thank you all for your support! I’m super excited to see this coming to fruition and have my next novel all ready to edit as soon as “Small Things” is off to press.

City of Heroes – Will We Let the Villains Win?

NcSoft announced August 31st, 2012, (on my birthday, no less!) that they were shutting down popular super-hero based MMORPG City of Heroes. Sure, it’s one of the older MMOs out there (started in 2004) but, darn it, it’s MY MMO! I’ve been playing since 2008, and my now-ten-year-old son got his own account two years ago. We have our own super group and regularly play together, keeping Paragon City safe for all its citizens. And NcSoft wants to close it.

Even the developers of the game are baffled by this decision. From everyone’s account, the game was making money. But NcSoft, which is based in Korea, wants to concentrate more on their other games, such as Aion, which is extremely popular in Korea. Efforts from fans are now being made to interest another company in purchasing CoH. There’s also a petition that over 10,000 players have signed, urging NcSoft to reverse their decision. There’s still room for more signatures:

http://www.change.org/petitions/ncsoft-keep-ncsoft-from-shutting-down-city-of-heroes#

For a lot of people, including myself, CoH is a home away from home. It’s a play to go to blow off steam, talk to friends, and feel heroic in an otherwise non-heroic world. Yes, it’s a game, but it’s a game to which many of us have devoted a lot of time. We’ve met people who’ve become true friends, we’ve met spouses, we’ve had family game nights stretching through the years years. We’ve formed a community. Can City of Heroes be saved? Even with ten thousands signatures and various Facebook pages filled with folks getting the word out, (http://www.facebook.com/groups/149334415206830/) it seems doubtful. But when have you ever seen Spider-Man give up? How about Batman? Well, if those famed and fabled heroes never gave up, then Gentleman Gladiator, Cerulean Shadow, Vermillion Shield, Abe and Abbi Kadabra, and the host of other super heroes and villains that populate City of Heroes can’t very well give up either, can they?

So what can YOU do? Sign the petition, of course. Get involved in the Facebook groups. Visit CoH’s forums at http://boards.cityofheroes.com/ and see what others are up to. Join Tony Vazquez’s efforts to crowd source and outright purchase CoH. (http://www.cohtitan.com/forum/) Are you a former player, or maybe just a fan from afar? We need you as well! Everyone’s efforts might be in vain. No matter what we do, NcSoft may just let CoH go silently into that good night. That might happen. But if we do nothing, we know beyond a shadow of a doubt that that’s exactly what WILL happen. Be Batman, be Spider-Man. Be Wonder Woman. Be Gentleman Gladiator. Don’t give up. If we must go down then go down we will, but we’ll go down fighting.

Games I Play

I don’t consider myself a “gamer,” per se, but I do play a number of games, first and foremost City of Heroes. COH is a MMORPG, (massively multiplayer online role-playing game) similar in scope and function to World of Warcraft, but with super heroes. The game has been around since 2004, and I’ve been playing since 2008. In the game, you create one or more super heroes (playing one at a time) using a variety of components, including their origin, archetype, and primary and secondary power sets. The game boasts perhaps the best costumes in the genre, allowing you to choose from an exhaustive amount of options and colors to visually create the hero that exists in your mind’s eye. I play many different heroes, but one of my favorites is Gentleman Gladiator, a hero who has existed since people first started keeping history. When one Gentleman Gladiator falls in battle, another rises to take his place. The current incarnation of the Gentleman Gladiator is British and was called to service in London during the second World War, after the last Gladiator fell in battle in Nazi Germany. Legend has it that he was a Royal Air Force ace pilot on his deathbed after a skirmish with a Luftwaffe squadron, and was magically healed of his wounds at the moment of his predecessor’s death. He doesn’t appear to have aged a day since then. Gifted with amazing prowess with a blade and a magical shield, the Gentleman Gladiator fights for the opressed, the down-trodden, and the innocent. Nerdy, huh? But I love it!

Lately, I’ve also been playing a lot of Texas Hold ‘em on-line poker. While I mostly play for “fake” money, at Party Poker, you can not only play with real money, but also take part in all sorts of online tournaments. For those new to the game (or for those, like me, who want to learn more) there are a copious amount of free tutorials, including how to play, the best hands, poker theory, the psychology of the game, how to play multi-table tournaments, etc. It’s an incredible resource for the poker enthusiast, and you can choose from a multitude of different languages, including Slovenian. I just finished viewing a fascinating tutorial about betting strategies and “stealing blinds,” which is the concept of forcing the opposing players to fold before seeing the flop. There is a lot of great information here that will really help you improve your game and maybe even win some actual green stuff.

Though I despise Farmville and all of the various “Mob” games, I do play a few games on Facebook. Farkle is one of my favorite go-to games when I have a few minutes to kill. Farkle is similar to Yahtzee, though also completely different. The object of Farkle it to score at least 300 points by rolling ones and fives or at least three of any number. If a roll doesn’t produce a usable score, you “Farkle” and lose your turn. I also play The Ville, a game similar to The Sims (some may say too similar) or Yoville. You create a character and build up their house, wardrobe, and net worth. I’m level 42 now, and it goes to 60, so it’s about time to look for something new!

And those are some of the games I play. Next time, I’ll write about writing. I promise!

Damned If You Do…

After finally reading the much-talked-about Fight Club, with which I was disappointed, I swore I’d never read another Chuck Palahniuk book. I’m glad I didn’t keep that promise. Damned is actually, well, damned good! This novel follows the exploits of 13-year-old Madison Spencer’s trip to hell after a Marijuana overdose, and all she encounters in that fiery region. The story is a Breakfast Club of sorts, as Maddy (the chubby outcast) meets Babette (the cheerleader,) Patterson (the jock,) Leonard (the nerd,) and Archer (the punk.) The story, told in first-person and alternating flashbacks to Maddy’s life with her current adventure, is satire at it’s best. At times funny, touching, and caustic, it’s a hell of a good read.

(Click below to buy the book from Amazon!)

Putting off Things We Enjoy

Earlier today, my ten-year-old son had guitar practice. When I reminded him of the class, he grumbled and looked annoyed, yet he’s really enjoying learning the guitar. After every lesson, he proudly tells me what he learned, and is excited about the next lesson to come. So why does he grumble when it’s time to go?

I love to write. I’m about to publish my first novel. Before it‘s published, however, I need to add a new chapter that I’ve decided will help flesh out a particular character just a little more and tie up a loose end I left untied in the original manuscript. I’ve been putting off penning this additional chapter for over a week. I enjoy writing, I love the characters I’ve created, and look forward to adding the first new chapter to my novel since it was originally written in 2004. Am I stuck for ideas? Nope. So why haven’t I done it? I think it’s for the same reason that my son grumbles about guitar class. There are too many distractions, too many opportunities to do something else. There’s always a Facebook status to check, or a super hero to level up in the MMO I play, City of Heroes. Or, in my son’s case, there’s always a new video to watch about Mine Craft.

And so, instead of jumping right into that chapter, I decided to blog about the whole “putting off” thing. Oops! I guess that’s just another way of procrastinating, isn’t it? So if distractions abound, and they do, what is the solution? Swear off Facebook for a week? Cancel cable television? I’m not sure. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go play a few Facebook games and give myself time to think about it.