New Blogger Initiative: Sage words from Berath’s Brain Burps

As part of the New Blogger Initiative, each sponsor blog has been asked to write at least one post giving advice to new bloggers.  Unfortunately I’m led to understand this also includes Berath’s Brain Burps. A flaw in the Initiative I think.

But anyway, here goes. I suppose, one of the first things for anyone to consider, is why blog at all. Well for starters, don’t blog for:

• fame
• fortune
• favours

‘cos it ain’t going to happen in 99% of cases; though there may be that 1% where a lucky gaming blogger has stumbled upon a sponsorship with Mr Kiplings cakes or Millies Cookies. Pause, think on that, then dismiss it.

I blog for entertainment. I enjoy writing. I enjoy gaming. When I was younger I kept a diary. Never expected anyone else to read that, I don’t expect that people to read this. Knowing that people do and that they enjoy Berath’s Brain Burps is nice and adds to things, but it’s not my main drive.

It’s noticeable that this blog seems to be one of the only blogs in the Initiative that doesn’t mainly focus on MMOs, I’m likin’ the shooters and lovin’ TF2, though there are a handful of new blogs which look at other gaming genres, one looking at League of Legends (Scattered Thoughts) and another at Starcraft II (Adamant Nomad) and I’ve found a TF2 blog just starting out (TFScribbles). Certainly, considering how many people play shooters, there don’t seem to many who blog about them, at least on a more personal level, especially compared to MMOs.

I’m not sure why there’s this lack. Is it because people  who focus on MMOs tend to be more reflective and articulate whilst fps players just care about shooting the mans and can barely string two words together that don’t comprise an insult?  There was a thread on the Super Monday Night Combat forum where someone concluded that shooter communities were generally dim-witted and loud, TF2 was specifically mentioned. They also spoke about MOBA communities saying they were generally fairly smart (but also extremely volatile), though I ‘d like to add here that Super Monday Night Combat, which I’m playing as well, has been classed as a cross between a MOBA game and an fps. Conclude what you like there.

But anyway, what am I trying to say? Well, even though the genre does not seem to be that popular amongst the personal gaming blogs in my community, since first person shooter-type games are the games that at the moment I love playing most, they’re the games I write about. And it’s that, that keeps me going. So, new bloggers, find your game/genre/platform of choice, find your raison d’etre that must be yours and based on no-one else, because it needs to keep you writing when your hit rates are barely a couple a week  and not even search engines seem to be able to find you. Because if you don’t love what you’re writing, you won’t.

(There, I think that was alright. I’ll just get my MMO-playing friend to check,  she looks over every post, capitalising the ‘i’s, she says, putting in the full stops and commas and removing the profanities; they just slip in….she’ll do right by it)

ETF2L Season 10 draws to a close

Season 10 in the European TF2 League is just drawing to a close. We’ve seen some good games at the top, a bit of drama; teams folding with other teams being unexpectedly promoted as a result and interesting line-up changes, along with the usual amount of low-level inter-player abuse and mild (or sometimes not so mild) homoerotic innuendo that goes to make up our happy little Tf2 world.

My clan has a team in Division 5. And it has been exciting to watch them, as they attempt to arrange games and get everyone together at the same time to play bearing in mind work commitments, life commitments and time zones. Sometimes they’ve made up to three or four arrangements in the same week. It’s kept me on the edge of my seat.

I think some matches have been played, though these seem a small, insignificant part of it all. We seem to have done well, though regarding actually winning games, perhaps less so.

But to be honest, in my opinion, any team that has made it through the Season, as a team, has done good.

The TF2 WDG community

Whilst I was about it I thought I’d link a Youtube video. A Youtube video produced by Tommy the Cat (of the WDG community). It gives a glimpse of what the WDG community gets up to on the Public Server, this includes Berath. That is, me. I can be glimpsed turning blue and flying part way through.

I suspect it may have a niche appeal, but not to worry, there is some more poetry coming soon!

Been to i43

Back.

Exhausted.

So, to be going on with; two photographs of the TF2 community taken after the TF2 final between Epsilon eSports and Infused.Tt (Epsilon eSports won). There aren’t two photos because there’s a giant chasm preventing mixing, dividing the TF2 community, some geekish battle or controversy over some small generally incomprehensible point of order (though of course, being geeks there are still plenty of those). There are two photos because a lot of people weren’t listening when the first one was organised and so another one was sorted.

TF2 community no.1

TF2 community no.2

The first has some names added for those interested enough to zoom in for a closer look.