Printers Hate Me.
Which is funny, considering I used to run a print shop! (Almost as funny as my near phobia about cold calling and my long years in ... phone sales. Go figure.) No, it can be virtually guaranteed that if I really need to use a printer, something will go very, very wrong.
I'm on the verge of running Mouse Guard as an off-week game alongside D&D. After playing it Furnace last weekend I have finally understood it as a whole, rather than as fragmented parts and it was excellent. One of the things that made it excellent was the little cards the GM had prepared with some of the rules on them. Thats far to simplistic to explain the awesome of these things - so I decided to make my own. The pics are downloadable on t'interweb.
Right, so I decided to try to print them in colour. Not wanting to tackle the Prontaprint around the corner and its extortionate prices, I thought I would try my father, who has a colour printer. Of course, his new colour cartridge and his new black cartridge refused to print in anything other than grainy black and white. The Gow Curse had hit this printer. Put me within 5 feet of a printer and it becomes nothing more than a rather unwieldy paperweight.
So I will use my printer at home, in black and white. That won't be a problem. I bought some card and splashed out on a laminater. I've been gagging for one for ages and at £9 from ASDA it was an absolute bargain. OK, so I set the printer to 'card' and upped the quality and ... greyscale. Greys, not blacks. Oh for fecks sake! Right, thats fine, that will do. Oh, and the ink wasn't fixing properly to the card. Wonderful. And then it starts smudging and smearing and ... really, why do I bother.
The cards are made. They look ... OK, but clearly shite. Considering my history with printers, I should have known really. It was never going to work well....
Showing posts with label Technology. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Technology. Show all posts
Saturday, October 17, 2009
Tuesday, October 06, 2009
Facebook Thoughts
Some random stuff:
1. Facebook is cool, but I am finding a sticking point when it comes to my different 'faces' in public. What would be really cool would be being able to have a facebook to address my close friends, one to interact with the wider gaming community and one to interact with my students. As it is, the assumption that my interests are shared equally amongst all of my friends is annoying. Its like a living example of the old Geek Fallacies thing.
2. One of my students was astounded that I didn't have my profile on lockdown on Facebook? I was curious as to why I should do that. After all, the information there is for people to read isn't it? Oh, don't tell me - you write stuff on Facebook status updates that you don't want some people to read? Pretty silly putting it on the internet eh? I've learned my lesson.
3. Farmville. Could it be used as a teaching tool for simple resource management? There is very definitely a number of strategies that you can pursue depending on the time you have and the willingness you have to click squares continuously. I doubt it would ever get accepted but I reckon you could do something regarding costs and returns on investment!
1. Facebook is cool, but I am finding a sticking point when it comes to my different 'faces' in public. What would be really cool would be being able to have a facebook to address my close friends, one to interact with the wider gaming community and one to interact with my students. As it is, the assumption that my interests are shared equally amongst all of my friends is annoying. Its like a living example of the old Geek Fallacies thing.
2. One of my students was astounded that I didn't have my profile on lockdown on Facebook? I was curious as to why I should do that. After all, the information there is for people to read isn't it? Oh, don't tell me - you write stuff on Facebook status updates that you don't want some people to read? Pretty silly putting it on the internet eh? I've learned my lesson.
3. Farmville. Could it be used as a teaching tool for simple resource management? There is very definitely a number of strategies that you can pursue depending on the time you have and the willingness you have to click squares continuously. I doubt it would ever get accepted but I reckon you could do something regarding costs and returns on investment!
Wednesday, April 02, 2008
GameTech
As some of you might know, I have a simpleton's fascination with collaborative technology. I don't think I'm particularly good at it but it sits out of my reach like a beautiful siren, calling to me.
I think part of the impetus has been that I have been part of so many collaborative projects in the past. I never did archive fanfiction - I jumped straight into the wacky world of shared universe chronological fanfiction. Essentially setting up a faux comics publishing company. Its a lot more work than just writing some fanfic - there are release schedules, editors, continuity and web presence to consider. Back in the day, the coordination of these things was a nightmare. How much easier it would have been with a wiki and a Facebook Page.
Every week I seem to discover a new Google toy to play with. Google documents are a really interesting way of document sharing, Google calendar sort of works, but like so many other things it only works when everyone uses it. Google Alert is amazing when you want to know what people are saying about something on the web. GTalk (the instant messaging function of Gmail) is really useful as it is a messenger that you can have on any PC, wherever you can log-on.
Of course, there is always something in the back of my head that is crying 'tech for tech's sake!'. For years our gaming group has managed to get by using a messageboard, the pub and the worlds most elaborate IM system (some people call it World of Warcraft...). However I can't help thinking that there is a gaming solution out there that can use these new collaborative technologies and bring them together to enhance and enrich the gaming experience.
The question is, what is it?
The no-brainer would be a wiki or a set of Google documents that would hold collaborative world data for your campaign. If a player wanted to add something, it goes into the shared documents and is approved by the GM. A Google calendar can be added, not for the group's timeline, but for the game's timeline. Could the social aspects of Facebook somehow be brought in to allow for some sort of bluebooking affair online? What sort of game could use access to Youtube videos or Flickr photo archives to it's benefit?
Could this open your game up to more participants? I remember the nature of the old Chains of Steel vampire larp I was part of and wonder how that would have used this new technology? The LARPers played the national politics out and that formed the backdrop to the on-the-table game. How would that work now with the possibility of international participants having a real impact and adding that extra layer to the gaming experience?
And the greater question - would this media rich gaming experience actually deliver anything more satisfying that you would get from pen and paper and a bit sheaf of loose leafed notes?
It fascinates me. I'm pretty certain it can only be of value in a game which is longer term and greater depth than some of the ones that we have been playing recently (Pendragon excepted, obviously) but it would be a case of making the technology fit the game rather than the game fit the technology...
Neil
I think part of the impetus has been that I have been part of so many collaborative projects in the past. I never did archive fanfiction - I jumped straight into the wacky world of shared universe chronological fanfiction. Essentially setting up a faux comics publishing company. Its a lot more work than just writing some fanfic - there are release schedules, editors, continuity and web presence to consider. Back in the day, the coordination of these things was a nightmare. How much easier it would have been with a wiki and a Facebook Page.
Every week I seem to discover a new Google toy to play with. Google documents are a really interesting way of document sharing, Google calendar sort of works, but like so many other things it only works when everyone uses it. Google Alert is amazing when you want to know what people are saying about something on the web. GTalk (the instant messaging function of Gmail) is really useful as it is a messenger that you can have on any PC, wherever you can log-on.
Of course, there is always something in the back of my head that is crying 'tech for tech's sake!'. For years our gaming group has managed to get by using a messageboard, the pub and the worlds most elaborate IM system (some people call it World of Warcraft...). However I can't help thinking that there is a gaming solution out there that can use these new collaborative technologies and bring them together to enhance and enrich the gaming experience.
The question is, what is it?
The no-brainer would be a wiki or a set of Google documents that would hold collaborative world data for your campaign. If a player wanted to add something, it goes into the shared documents and is approved by the GM. A Google calendar can be added, not for the group's timeline, but for the game's timeline. Could the social aspects of Facebook somehow be brought in to allow for some sort of bluebooking affair online? What sort of game could use access to Youtube videos or Flickr photo archives to it's benefit?
Could this open your game up to more participants? I remember the nature of the old Chains of Steel vampire larp I was part of and wonder how that would have used this new technology? The LARPers played the national politics out and that formed the backdrop to the on-the-table game. How would that work now with the possibility of international participants having a real impact and adding that extra layer to the gaming experience?
And the greater question - would this media rich gaming experience actually deliver anything more satisfying that you would get from pen and paper and a bit sheaf of loose leafed notes?
It fascinates me. I'm pretty certain it can only be of value in a game which is longer term and greater depth than some of the ones that we have been playing recently (Pendragon excepted, obviously) but it would be a case of making the technology fit the game rather than the game fit the technology...
Neil
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