Okay, so I have been taking a lot of opportunities recently to talk about how much I love NaNoWriMo and one of their supporters, 4thewords, and I'm going to take another to do that today.
So, for those not aware, NaNoWriMo is the organisation behind NaNoWriMo and Camp NaNo writing competitions which are basically the size fifteen steel toe capped boots buried in the ass of a lot of writers in April, July and November. It is the spur which reminds us to do like Dory and just keep swimming, because if you aren't writing, the magic may never come out. (I mean, maybe one day you'll fart glitter, but I'm not going to bet anything I want to keep on that, so let's just write instead.) 4thewords is a productivity tool/ game where you create an avatar of something called a Dust Warrior and join in the fight against the Dust (if you're lucky enough to not live with your mother and you tell her you're fighting the Dust, she'll either think you've gone mad or you're cleaning, one gets you good attention, the other, not so much...) It's all challenges and quests and resources and do dads and shiny things and I have the personality of a magpie; I like me the shiny, shiny things, so I like the hell out of this thing.
They also did Pride like a Boss. Or a whole team of Bosses. Or even better, a parade of glitter coated, hot pant wearing, flag flying BOSSES. There was a whole different wardrobe for Pride (necessary) and you dressed your avatar off and sent them to walk in the parade. It was even made so that people who are not Dust Warriors could see it, love it and possibly even join in, because when Pride across the world was cancelled, people came out in force across the internet and shows the love for diversity, inclusion, representation and just a love of love really.
I love that 4thewords focuses on a tiny nugget of writing - just four hundred and forty four words per day gets you a streak point (and no, those points cannot be used to allow you to streak in the pride parade) - and it fits so well with nudge theory, because if you can't do that, that's cool, just log in once a day and it is possible to "fix" your streak for free. You can also, if you are inclined to, buy a product called a Stempo (it looks something like a boomerang with one of those static currents that makes your hair stand on end running through) and fix days ahead if you'll be offline or fix days before if you've been ill or the internet failed. You can earn Stempo in the game or you can buy them. It's not like normal game add ons though - there is no requirement to buy Stempo to keep going in the game and actually, it's nice to buy some things like that because a well fed developer is a happy developer and a happy developer makes you nice quests to play with and we like quests! Also, the damn thing is incredible so they deserve every cent that they earn through it and more. (God, am I gushing?)
So, how do I suck at 4thewords? Back to my magpie personality, I like all things shiny. I want to have all of the wings that you get for streaks - I love my current metal pointy ones!! - I want to do all of the quests, at once, now, and immediately - and that's not possible - and it can be a bit like chess, that having a game plan is helpful, but even when I have one, I go off of it so quickly.
One of the rolling quests through the game is fighting ten monsters daily, twenty weekly and thirty in the bi weekly quest. It gives you keys to chests when you do these quests, so it makes sense to keep space in your questbook for them and do them when they come through so you keep churning through keys, particularly as you can sell them in you don't need them, but the seemingly unlimited inventory means you don't need to if you don't want to. My quest book is always too full to do this though, because I don't possess a brain. It also makes sense to try and get through the daily quest of five thousand words. partly because it rolls over into the next day if you don't finish the whole amount in the one day and because it gives you the chest that goes with the ten monster quest key. Keep opening them and you get coins and other stuff that can be pretty useful. Again, makes sense to leave room for that, and then you have the special events like our current aliens, and you get a whole load of time limited quests that give you even more cool stuff, but if you start with a full quest book you either have to 'toss' a quest with little progress, diminishing interest or where you're collecting items, because you can't lose progress on that unless you use the items for something else and that's going to happen if it's there in the book or not, or try like hell to finish something before you can start on the new super shiny, time limited thing. I have anxiety - how well do you think that plays out?
There are some short quests, and then there are some big ass quests where you have to defeat a large number - well, twenty five - of the 'bigger' monsters where it takes more words to defeat them. For example, Ylly, for seven hundred and twenty words. Twenty. Five. Of. Them. Or Desert Rudakai. Defeat fifteen of them for eighteen hundred words each monster. Seriously. One thousand, eight hundred words PER MONSTER.
If logic were to rule the day, I wouldn't keep to many of these bad guys around at once, but recently I seem to have filled my quest book with them and it's daunting as heck, but then I also have a couple of streak quests (again, not about streaking in the parade) and one had forum posts attached to it. Thankfully there isn't a rule about setting up a thread just to talk to other people trying to race their way through that quest or a few of us, probably either the introverts or the obsessives, would be screwed.
So, other than being the proof I need to level up my nerd credentials, I hope that this little blog about my love affair with 4thewords has made you consider giving it a try, or if you're already a Dust Warrior, I hope that my view on tactics gives you some food for thought at the very least. Without further ado, FOR THE VALLEY!! I'm going to sleep before I turn into an even bigger nerd.
Charlieswrite
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