Myr

I finally beat the main game and have all the achievements. I've started the DLC, of which there are 3. Unfortunately, DLC 1, the New God, takes the worst parts of the main game and focuses on them completely. To me at least. I hate timed things a LOT. Especially timed things where if you mess up, you fall to your death and have to start again. The main game had a fair few of those, but the worst of them were optional. Not so with DLC 1. DLC 1 is focused totally on that crap. *sighs*

Would anybody be really surprised to learn that I am an avid reader? I have a tendency to overindulge on different topics to not only learn, but to see other people's points of view on the same topic. I'll skip the obvious tie to society's ills over not listening to each other's points of view. I just completed reading a book dealing with Gamification and how it relates to marketing. The book is "Press Start - Using Gamification to Power-Up Your Marketing" by Daniel Griffin & Albert van der Meer. I have a couple of books on this subject and this one flows much easier than the other and it has a more accessible approach to implementation of its concepts. Why am I reading about gamification and marketing? Well, one reason is to be aware of the manipulation that is always going on around us. Professional marketing runs the western world. Though I suspect a long overdue crash is coming on that after so many people experienced the cognitive dissonance associated that occurs when they put lipstick on a pig and tell you it is the centerfold out of Play Girl. On a topic like Gamification, it is extraordinarily easy to dive deep down into a rabbit hole, as this is a topic that stands on a foundation of human behavior, psychology, game theory, marketing, and motivation. It's all wrapped up together. Humans, after meeting their basic needs of food, shelter and safety, are motivated by rewards. Games we make are designed to make use of our motivations and provide rewards. Marketing uses these to get you to buy what they want you to buy. Marketing is like a magic trick... they do big flashy campaigns showing you a product to make you aware of it. But that's not really the main driver. "Product Placement" is. Seeing others performing the desired behavior. Making it a game, adds another layer on top by rewarding specific behavior (and depending on game, punishing bad behavior). Gamification Elements are things like Badges, Trophies, Achievements, Leaderboards... Plenty of people are motivated by getting recognition. Others by competition. Others are on a journey to better themselves. Some people are into it all. This book focuses on harnessing this and channeling it where you want to go and not abusing it. Because it is REALLY easy to abuse. Those loot boxes in mobile games? Those little gateways where you have to pay $1.99 to continue or wait... the fear of missing out. The fear of missing out is a HUGE HUGE HUGE way to manipulate people. The sale will only last another 3 hours, buy now or miss the discount! There are only 4 left, Order now! (Does that look familiar?) That's the fear of missing out. I've been using this book and others from a white hat side of things. How can we motivate more people to do what we want? What does Gay Authors want? We're still refining this, but this is what we're looking for: We want to encourage authors to post new content (stories/chapters) We want to encourage readers to post feedback (reviews, story comments, chapter comments) We want to encourage readers to react to content (reactions (like's,etc) We want to grow the community and retain members. (Keep people coming back every day or at least every week to see what's new) We want to grow Premium Content Membership to keep the site Viable. (The more people that subscribe, the more stable we are as when people come and go, it doesn't cause wild swings. ) Thankfully, what we desire feeds into each other and is not in conflict. Adding some game elements on top of what we have, just adds a new layer of motivation for some people that helps the cycle keep going. Anyway, this turned into a bit diversion, but know that I'm always doing research to improve the site. Not all aspects will appeal to all people, but it doesn't need to. Different strokes for different folks and all that.

@wildone Beware of the dark side of the pun, for once you cross over it shall forever dominate your routine...

So, I tend to do this naturally, as most writers in Fantasy and Science Fiction would. If you spend the time building a world, you want more than one story in it. It's only natural to do the same with contemporary stories and it's always a little delight for the reader when it happens. Not too dissimilar to the delight you experience when Spider-Man shows up in Captain America Civil War.

The Story Archive will automatically update the status of a story based on how long it has been since it posted and if the author doesn't visit the site. Since you haven't been approved yet from the queue, the system considers it over that time requirement. Once you didn't visit the site during the required time, it updated the status to Temporary Hold. You can change it when it is out of the queue.

George R.R. Martin is on year 10(?) and counting for Winds of Winter, the next book in the series. So yeah. It can take awhile.

I picked up this book recently in my never ending quest to improve my writing skill set. It's a short book that is a very quick read. I'd recommend it as it targets a weakness that a lot of stories have and it gives practical tips on how to spot the problems and how to fix them Definitely worth the read. It's available on Kindle as well if you like to keep your library digital.

Feedback is something we are always looking at here at Gay Authors. Feedback is the only thing most authors here get as payment for their hard work. And based on our ongoing poll of our authors, feedback is what motivates authors to write more. You like that story you are reading? You want more of it? Be sure to do your part by providing feedback and letting the author know that someone is reading and that it is worth their time to keep writing. For our authors, we have an important topic in the Writer's Circle on Feedback and motivation. Please take the time to weigh in.

This is now fixed.

There are a tremendously large number of people on social media that wouldn't see context if it walked up behind them and gave them a well-deserved kick in the backside. This is definitely a great reminder to keep context in mind. Thanks @Comicality!