Princess of Mars #Blogg100

#033 [XXXIII]
Princesses of Earth [How will we fight over the last freshwater of Earth?]

Princess of Mars

I’ve put it off for a long time. Seeing the movie Princess of Mars or John Carter of Mars. Say what you want about all criticism the movie has gotten. For a late night Matinee of the silly old school Fairy tale type it is perfect. My just the right kind of cheese for my taste. And we get to see “Julius Caesar” and “Mark Anthony” from Rome playing the same kind of characters.

“Everyone’s cause is sacred”

“They didn’t name it Princess of Mars because they thought boys wouldn’t see it. Then they didn’t name it John Carter of Mars because girls wouldn’t/ see it with Mars in the title. So instead we got John Carter, which nobody saw. Smooth.”

Future commission

My thoughts go to process of of dying planet. Earlier this week a special “Future commission” on assignment from the Swedish Government presented their report on what the Future might look like and what to do about it… It has been called toothless to say the least. If we can’t bring ourself to take action now when we all can play nice and have no imminent disaster on our hands. What will happen when the opposite is true?

Princesses of the Future

I would like my little Princesses to become future Princesses of Planet Earth. At least in one of the many Tribes that will still live here.

To borrow some quotes from Jayce in League of Legends

“This is what the future looks like”
“I fight for a brighter tomorrow”

I will bring down the hammer and I will light our path

Oh and by the way. I have been to Mars. And the sites in the movie looks much more real in real life.

Lord Commander Sillion of the Isfarian Space Navy

Mug Loving #Blogg100

#034[XXXIV]
Wanna piece of me? [I melt for no one!]

My M&M Mugs

When I walk into M&M’s store on Times Square in New York and saw these mugs I just know I had 2 get them. What mugs or glasses we drink our brewages from has hug impact how we experiences the taste of them. As Dan Ariely has shown in his studies. When I saw the huge Red Round Mug in front of me. It instantly reminded me of my red mug I used to have as a child. I also love the round form with the thick walls that will keep my Tea or hot Chocolate warm for long while drinking. I was instantly sold to me. And it made such a great couple with the green one as well.

Mug Loving!

Terra Mystica

Tzolk’in

Gamer slang

There are also 2 great quotes inside the mugs. “Wanna piece of me?” and “I melt for no one!”. Today (11 am) I started my day where I left it early this morning (6 am). Meeting people and playing boardgames at the gaming convention Gothcon in Sweden. When we sit down and play games in the hallways and the classrooms at Hvitfeldtska High-school many people walk by or stay and watch the games. A few of them commented on the language we where using. We use a lot of gamer slang, friendly thrash talk, and a lot of Swinglish words.
“Iskallt” [Ice cold] comes to mind when someone pulls off a daring move.

It’s just how we gamers roll

Imperial gaming

In a hallway I came across some people playing one of my all time favorite boardgames: Imperial. I noticed that they used the Nobish Investor card variant. So I asked if they have played allot. 3 where beginners a one guy had played it around 10 times. He didn’t even know that there where a better variant of the game designed for real gamers. So they where really glad when I explained how the game was supposed to play. I also noticed that there where no flags in the ocean areas. This was a ruled I remember that we also missed on our very first play thinking that you only got points for the land areas.

I watched them for a while pointing out moves and strategies each and every one could make. Then they cheered me on my merry way. It is always such a powerful feeling you get when hanging out with gamers and helping each other. That’s what I like the most of gaming convention like Gothcon or PAX. The Positive vibe you get from meeting most people here.

Gothcon Mugs

International TableTop Day

Today is also International TableTop Day all over the world. And that is so fitting here in Sweden with Gothcon and all. Speaking of Gothcon and mugs and all … Like many Conventions here in Sweden, Gothcon has a special mug printed every year that you buy too get free Tee and Coffee throughout the Convention. Being a Mug Lover myself, I of course have to collect them all.

God night everyone and play more games “Together” face to face drinking your favorite brewages from your favorite mugs 🙂

@LordSillion

Gothcon #Blogg100

#035[XXXV]
Meeting old and New Friends [Easter, a Swedish Gaming Holiday]

Clash of Cultures

Tonight a have meet many new and old friends playing boardgames with each other on Sweden’s Largest Gaming Convention: Gothcon. I got to play my new favorite Clash of Cultures and the new game Ground floor.

Playing Ground Floor

Happy Hunting!

@LordSillion

Prepping for Gothcon #Blogg100

#036 [XXXVI]
Gamers Assemble [It’s time to kick ass and meet nice people]

Tomorrow is the largest gaming convection in Sweden. Gothcon
I have 2 new games that I’m bringing with me and are now sitting and learning the rules. The first is Ground Floor the game from Kickstarter. The second is Marvel Legendary which I bought on PAX East in USA.

Life is a Game!

@LordSillion

The Locust and the Bee #Blogg100

#037 [XXXVII]
We Must Tax Resources [Not work]

Yesterday I was listening live to the RSA event The Locust and the Bee. It was with Geoff Mulgan about his new book The Locust and the Bee: Predators and Creators in Capitalism’s Future.

Now only available as a PodCast.

Geoff Mulgan

Predatory or Creativity

Or capitalistic society with now has taken over the world was just supposed to be a temporary one before we invented a new better one. Many Thinkers argued about what was to be the next step.

A capitalistic system is both Predatory and Creative one. Just like Good and Evil. No country or company or human being is just one but a combination of both. In order to succeed we need to keep one side back and make the other flourish.

Witch our 2 bears will we feed? The Cruel Ferocious Hunter or the Caring Compassionate Loving Bear?

What we can do that will work wonders in the short term is use economic incentives. For the solutions we have to put our trust in local cites as Nation States don’t have the resolve to do anything in time. But what the Nation State can do is use taxes as incentives. Her we have to lower the taxes on work and raise taxes on using unrenewable resources from nature.

My Twitter question to Geoff Mulgan to which I got an answer:

“What role will Social Media play? Will it unite or divide us in terms of collaborating globally and locally?”

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Circular Economy

Another topic of the week on Twitter has been the Circular Economy  and #CEsthlm.  I will get back to this tomorrow.

In the mean time check out Anders Wijkman when he talks on Swedish Radio.

[SWE] “Vi lever i förnekelse” – Anders Wijkman om ekonomin och klimatet

He has previously written a book in English with Johan Rockström called Bankrupting Nature: Denying Our Planetary Boundaries.

@LordSillion

House Sillion – Life is a Game #Blogg100

#038 [XXXVIII]
Peter Dinklage is the Man [6 days to go to GoT]

House Sillion – Life is a Game

House Sillion – Life is a Game

In anticipation of the upcoming premier of Game of Thrones this weekend HBO has created this brilliant campaign that lets you create your own House sigil and motto: Join The Realm. Follow in on Twitter to #JoinTheRealm

Mine fittingly goes with what I talk much about here on my blog: A new Game of Power for you, Life is a Game

More Love

More Game of Thrones love. Westeros has a facebook page with whats going on.

Comicbookgorl19 gives the History of Targaryens.

Found out there was Swedish Premier of Game of Thrones tonight as well. First I miss it in New York last week and then I miss it here too.

Check out Peter Dinklage on The Daily Show.

[SWE] Lyssna också på podcasten Nördsnack Episode 4 om Game of Thrones av med Samuel Linde och Jakob Hultman.

Peter Dinklage

@LordSillion

Our story comes to an end back in New York #Blogg100

#039 [XXXIX]
Game of Plots – House of Secrets [Plot me up]

This is part 8 (8) of Bro Tour USA where me Lord Sillion and my brother Fredrik visits New York and PAX East in Boston.

Bro Tour USA 2013

Back in New York

Last night we came back to New York after 3 days in Boston and PAX East. Real all about in my previous posts.

Olympus has Fallen… indeed…

What more to do in New York. Me and my brother are also big Movie and Tv-Series geeks so naturally we wanted to got and see a great movie in a big theater when we are here in the US. Unfortunately nothing good was showing so we made our hopes to the for us unknown Olympus has Fallen with Gerard, Morgan and Eckhart. It started out as a really cool movie. The sound is amazing with the new Dolby ETX. But halfway through the plot got so unbelievable that all suspension of disbelieve got thrown out of the “Oval Office Window”. It setts up a Narration about how things are done regarding military strategy. And then Stops doing it according to that Narration.  We started discussing and dissecting the plot in the movie theater. Why why why can’t they for the love of god just do this:

“Hey, Great to see you man.
Look we are doing Multi-Million-dollar movie that is going to be seen by millions of smart people.
Can’t you just spend an hour going through the script to see if we have some mayor plot holes?”

Let’s put our hope that Oblivion, which is Morgan Freeman’s next movie, will be a lot more worthy of him. But it was  fun to see it in New York as the whole theater was cheering as a bad guy bites the dust.

House of Secrets – Game of Plots

Back out out on the street we see this huge poster of the new TV-Series House of Cards. 

House Of Cards

And all the cabs driving around all have the Game of Thrones poster on them for the upcoming Season 3 premier on March 31.

As big TV-Series Geeks, my brother and I is seldom exited to go and see many movies any more. As so many of them have to many plot holes. We instead immerse our self with geek love into many of our favorite TV-Series. Like Game of Thrones, Revenge, Battlestar Galactica, Continuum, The Sarah Connor Chronicles, Flash Forward, Rome, Vampire Diaries, Boss, The Walking Dead, Stargate Atlantis and The Borgias. There will we the commitment to a story worth put our StoryTelling Soul into. Although some of the has been canceled before they could tell their story to end out of sheer stupidness, many are aloud run free and bless us with their magic.

Storytelling magic is where we human lives. Let’s tell way more and meaningful stories to each other!

This is the End of Bro Tour 2013 with me and my Brother going to New York and PAX East in Boston. Oh and I’m going to miss the Milkshakes 🙂

@LordSillion

League of Legends Kick Ass #Blogg100

#040 [XL]
Need … More … PAX [Miss it all ready]

This is part 7 (8) of Bro Tour USA where me Lord Sillion and my brother Fredrik visits New York and PAX East in Boston.

Curse Party

Today we left Boston on train back to New York for one more day there. The 3 day passes where already sold out so we didn’t go for day 3 of PAX. Witch is a piety now that I know how much good stuff there where left to experience and many great people I wanted to meet. So we start collecting our thoughts on PAX and what to make of it.

Being Social [All types of gamers in one arena]

PAX is a really unique thing in the gaming industry. Where all kind of gamers can meet. And where the developers get chance to meet and interact with the fans and gamers. A large part of the show is course videogames as this is the biggest market. But here we get all kinds and even the hardcore gamers who play or keep up with every kind of game. And the we have all the panels and shows witch are plentiful and very interesting. But to sum it up in one word. It’s all about being Social with other gamers. We like to meet and hang out with each other. To meet new and old friends. To share knowledge and experience with each other. To Network.

Social tools and networking [The new way doing things together]

And all of this has been made easier each year with the growth of new and better social media. No it’s very easy to interact before, during and after the event. To find interesting people and cool stuff to do.
Twitter has been huge using the hash tags #PAXEast and #PAX. Instagram is catching on. Especially for sharing all the cool pictures of all the cosplayers. And new for this year has been Vine, where you can make a quick 6 second audioless video of anything cool you want to show of. All using the same hash tags to find it. Thanks to the mostly good Wi-Fi it has also been possible for me to live-stream some of the panels I went to using Bambuser. Here my new iPad mini has been an invaluable and fantastic tool for all the streaming and social media usage.

Maker Gear 3D printed Tachikoma

More XP [3D printing my own gear in the future]

What more did I experience? We saw Maker Gear. A similar but a little cheaper 3D printer than MakerBot. I got a chance to buy the new Deck-building card game Marvel Legendary. It can’t be sold in Europe due to licensing problems and I have herd so much good things about it. So as big Marvel fan I’m really glad to get a hold of a copy as it has been sold out pretty much everywhere here in the US.

Nocturne

Welcome to the League of Draven [Sometimes you gotta make a door]

As a big fan of League of Legends it was really awesome to meet so many of the developers that has but their hearts and minds into this fun game. They deserve all the love they where getting at this place. Maybe their time has come to hit in Sweden too. I for one would be very exited to work with or for Riot Games for their overall presence in Sweden. What should I do to make that happen? I have a few ideas how to make that happen. And will get right on it as soon as I’m back in Sweden with proper internet.

“Punch First! Ask questions while Punching!” – Vi the Piltower

@LordSillion

PAX day 2 FTW #Blogg100

#041 [XLI]
Meeting my Heros [League of Legends Pub Crawl]

This is part 6 (8) of Bro Tour USA where me Lord Sillion and my brother Fredrik visits New York and PAX East in Boston.

–

Up early to go to a most exiting panel.

The Impact of Video Game Design Techniques for Boardgames

The Impact of Video Game Design Techniques for Boardgames. This is with Geoff Engelstein, Christopher Badell, Colby Dauch, Matt Morgan and Russ Wakelin among others who I have talked to on twitter before the event. I promised them to bring Swedish Fish – Salmiak Candy from Sweden. Witch they very much appreciated.

The panel was very interesting and I have live streamed it using Bambuser so that you can see it here. http://bambuser.com/v/3463625.

As the gaming industry is booming, boardgame design can learn much from vidoegame design.

After the panel I got a chance to talk to both Russ and Geoff. Geoff who has designed 2 boardgames already is demoing his new Team Co-op game: Space Cadets Warp Duel. I have filmed the walkthrough if you want to take a look.

The Boardgame area

Me and Jerry Holkins

Cruising around

There is allot of raffles around the exhibition hall. We enter some of them. There is a very large crowd on the MSi one when the give away some graphiccards, Motherboards and in the end a whole gaming rig. Guess who wont it. After drawing allot of numbers that no-one in the crowd has the draws my Brothers number 🙂

Fredrik is a very Happy Camper

The rest of the day we are just cruising hitting some panels and walk main hall talking to people. We find out that later tonight Riot Games are going to have a Bar Crawl spread out over 9 pubs each with a different role and character attached to it at 8pm. Then we all meet up together at 10pm at “The Nexus”. Very cool concept so we have to go.

League of Legends and Riot Games are extremely popular here in the US. In the swag bag of PAX we all got a bracelet showing 1 out of 5 roles you can have in the game. And there have been frequent trading and giving away to acquire all 5 of them. I myself prefer to play Jungle with Vi or Hecarim, Top with Vi or Nidalee and Mid with Diana

League Of Legends Pub Crawl

League Of Legends Pub Crawl

After having a delicious pizza at a place call California Pizza we move on to the pub to meet the fans and “The Rioteers”. The First question we ask each other is who do you play? Well I have palyed alot over the last year and my favorite characters are Vi, Hecarim, Diana and Nidalee. So Naturally we headed to the “Vi Pub” called The Vault on Water Street in Boston. Well there we met Mike Laygo @ohmikegoodness who is the animator behind Vi the Piltover. We have an awesome time. This what I love with the US. All the fist bumping and cheering of each other. They even have a special LoL drink list.

@LordSillion and @ohMikeGoodness

At 10 we move on to The Nexus only to find over 200 people in a long queue. At the front we finds out that this is a small pub and is already full. Maybe Riot Games underestimated how popular an event like this should be. Any how. I know there is a big party for WildStar at the hotel across from the convention center. So I head there instead. I meet some of the Awesome people from the Twitch VIP party yesterday and they got me on the VIP list here too 🙂 I meet a lot of awesome people in the gaming industry here. More Fist-bumping and cheering. Oh and I met VoyBoy on the Party too 🙂

LordSillion and VoyBoy

Let’s get to the fun part!

@LordSillion

How to make it at PAX East in Boston #Blogg100

#042 [XLII]
PAX day 1 [Gaming, Education and Networking]

This is part 5 (8) of Bro Tour USA where me Lord Sillion and my brother Fredrik visits New York and PAX East in Boston.

–

Live From PAX Blizzard queue

Today was PAX East day 1. And what a day full of impression it have been. Arriving at the enormous Boston we quickly com inside just to join a massive horde of People queuing up to enter the exhibition hall.

Live going into the exhibition hall

The Horde waiting to get in

The Horde vs Penny Arcade

69 000 people has signed up to go to PAX East. And here you can find all sorts of gaming, gamers, ninjas and pirates. Many people has but down enormous amount of time and energy to create a cosplay costume of their favorite gaming characters. There a large selection panels happening all day and night all related to gaming in some kind. The most popular ones will have long queue outside.

Gaming and Education [We learn through Friends, Fun and Feedback]

I picked two panels regarding gaming as an education tool and using badges and gamification in school. I have filmed both using Bambuser. Apparently Ninja filming is still a unknown concept here too. The first one was really good about how to us a real and well designed game to teach kids about water quality with real scientific data and simulations. It was held by Steve Swink. Read about it here Game Designers are Defining the Next 50 Years of Education.

See it on my Bambuser: Gaming in Education part 1, Gaming in Education part 2

The Doctor’s Cure (Plague: Modern Prometheus)

The second one was about if badges could teach kids in school to learn things. Using statistical studies. Just like grades badges don’t work on all people. Even if they tried to state that their is a difference between extrinsic and external motivation I still think it motivates for the wrong reason.

Take a look yourself: Badges

Bianca Woods who sat next to me also live blogged both panels. So I will try to link them in here.

Exhibition Hall [League of Legends and Cosplay]

In the exhibition hall you can find some of the Large giants in the gaming industry along side small indie developers and tabletop gaming like Wizard of The Coast and Privateer Press. There is a ridicules long line to try out the Beta of the MMO Neverwinter. There are allot of new MMOs (Massive Mutiplayer Onlinegame) coming that are present here, City of Steam. WildStar is hosting a very large presence here with their very World of Warcraft looking MMO. Blizzard is showing of the Console version of Diablo III and they also reviled a new game. It’s a freemium online Collectable Card Game called HearthStone.

Then we have the super crowded Riot Games booth. League of Legends has taken the world with storm. In their booth they have a full on eSports show with some teams playing.

League Of Legends at PAX

Even if most people here are commonly dressed you still get the feeling that the place is crowded with cosplayers because they stand out so much. The most common them among the cosplayers are very clearly League of Legends. When I get home I put up all my pictures of the cosplayers.

Taric, Lulu, Sona, Janna

Woad Ashe

Ironman

Jayce

There is free Wi-fi throughout the whole convention and the use of social media like Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and the new Vine is prominent. But far from every one is is using it.

Network and Party [Social interaction is at the core of everything]

The Last panel I went to today was one about Breaking Into Gaming & Partying On! with some of the most prominent people in the videogaming business. They discussed how to get a foot into the gaming industry. Of course you need to be good at what you do and have real passion. But if no-one knows about it that won’t do you any good. We are still humans living in a human world. You have to go to the right conventions and on them you have the meet right people. And that you do by being social on the right parties. It’s all about partying on. See my live recording of it here with Martine Paris, Amy Brady, Warren Price and others.

Live Stream: Breaking Into Gaming & Partying On!

Breaking Into Gaming & Partying On!

Wildstar Party

So using Social media I managed to find out that there where a Twitch party tonight at club Boston Royal. I went and meet some great people in the gaming industry. Some of them who where on the panel.

SWEDEN! Faith Harrison shouts at me 🙂

@LordSillion