Games are fun.

Right?

It’s only natural to want to share that fun with other people, as fun is multiplied by the number of friends with whom you share it.

A couple years ago, a bunch of people who were planning to have fun playing Mythic’s Warhammer MMO had had so much fun being excited about the game before it was even released, that they just had to share it. They got together and all launched blogs and started writing about it — and now many of them are among the top MMO bloggers in the industry.

We did the same sort of thing with Wizard101 blogs. There’s been blog groups for EVE Online, World of Warcraft… pretty much every game out there.

It turns out that writing about the games you play is even more fun.

None of these new bloggers expected to find fame (though some did) or attract thousands of readers (though some do). They wanted a place to share their excitement and game experiences and thoughts about gaming with friends and other gamers, so they started a blog.

YOU can start a blog. You SHOULD start a blog. Right now. Try Blogger (host of my bridge blog) or WordPress. Come up with a cool name for your blog, figure out what you’re going to write about, and start writing.

So, now that you have a blog, you’re a blogger. Grats! Your very next step is to head over to the Newbie Blogger Initiative and check in. Through the month of May, over 70 bloggers will be writing about how and why they blog and giving tips for getting words on the page and eyes on your blog. Because the absolute best bit about blogging is talking with other fans.

Look for a couple posts about blogging here in the next month — and check out the Newbie Blogger Initiative forums for the dozens of other blogs who will be giving their own take on this whole blogger thing.

And in the meantime, check out Google+, where a lot of great MMO discussion goes on every minute of every day :)

Stargrace of MMO Quests interviewed me about gaming :)

Reshared post from +Stephanie Morrow

A new monthly feature I've added to MmoQuests, hope you all enjoy it as much as I did writing it! Congratulations +Brenda Holloway, it is well deserved.

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MmoQuests.com » Feature: Inspirational Girl Gamer for November – Tipa
Feature: Inspirational Girl Gamer for November – Tipa. Posted by stargrace in Of Interest, Real Life. It's time for a new monthly feature here on MmoQuests, one inspired by an email I had received…

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Beware, Joggers

Today’s run was a little better than Monday’s. 5.3 mph vs 5.2 mph, so when I say a little better, that's what I mean. However, I ran nearly all the first two miles without any sort of walk break, and only needed maybe a 30 second walk before I headed into and finished the third mile. When I finished the 5K, I was more exhausted than I usually am, but in just a couple minutes I felt great. Warmed down with the walk home and some stretches and Wii Fit-taught yoga poses.

I warmed up, however, with the "100-Up" exercise that I read about in a NYT article about barefoot running (http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/06/magazine/running-christopher-mcdougall.html?_r=1). The goal here is to get you out of running shoes and into a more natural gait where you land on your forefoot instead of your heel, with less energy lost to impact and more toward forward momentum.

While the exercise was a good warm up, I find it almost impossible to use that gait while running, perhaps because I am still wearing the running shoes, and the shoe has its own idea of the proper gait (this is, after all, why there are running shoes). I have tried a couple of times, and I move MUCH faster, but I also get exhausted sooner.

This is the difference between running and jogging, which is what I do.

I can see a threshold in front of me, where, while running, I think about the motion and the music instead of the course and where I can sneak in a few seconds of walking. I can't cross it yet, but I can see it. Once through it, I should be able to work further on speed.

For the first time since my first 5K run several weeks ago, my legs hurt. This is a good thing. I'm finally beginning to push up against my current limitations.

After biking through the course for the Manchester Road Race this morning, I really have to hand it to the course designers. Sure, it would be nice if it weren't partially up the side of Mount Everest, but the steep ascent only lasts for the first couple of miles, after which there's a steep DOWNhill followed by a flat stretch of a couple miles and then another downhill race to the finish line.

The hills at the start will separate the pack. The descent at the end means your friends and family see you coming down running. Even if you're a noob like me.

Youtube automatically detected the eerily appropriate background music, oddly, and put up a link to buy the track. That's new. Does it make it okay that I used the track, then?

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