Playing RPG Playing RFPG

Ok, I bit! Previously I had mentioned that because I was getting towards my yearly Final Fantasy playthrough, I am starting to pine over the idea of creating a blog that chronicles my RPG playthroughs and make a more concerted effort to actually play them on a more regular basis. Well, I kinda started the process.

I first started by looking around and trying to figure out methods to contgrol my ADHD for long term projects. Like I had mentioned, this is the thing that has always stopped me previously. I always go in with intent and even blog a few times about whatever I'm playing, but I get bored/distracted and move on.

I'll be honest, the stuff I found, wasn't particularlyh helpful! I couldn't find much new info out there. Some doozies... Just do it (thanks), accountability budd (this helps actually but I don't really have anyone), break up the project into smaller tasks (how with something that never ends?), etc. But the gamify one got me thinking. It isn't a new idea, but I did start contemplating, how do I begin gamifying playing games and blogging about it?

Slowly but surely, ideas started entering my brain on how to do this, and I started getting really into the idea (actually not abnormal for ADHD people to get obsessed about stuff like this short term, keeping it up is the trick). The main thing that really got me going is really the basis of gamification... what if I started getting xp for blogging about the games I played? And getting levels? What would that look like?

And so I set out trying to come up with skills. I decided I wanted to have a skill that was directly related to the blogs I created, but I also wanted skills that related to the type of RPG I was playing. I started coming up with skills for each era of RPG, I then thought of types of RPGs that exist (JRPG, WRPG, Tactics, etc), what kinda system to play them on (Console v Computer), style of gameplay (open world, turn based), genre (fantasy, sci-fi, realistic), and a few more. Overall, I have come up with 21 total skills for this.

I then started putting it together. I named all my skills to kinda sound like actual skills rather than just naming them what they are (I'll be honest, they mostly kinda sound like spells but whatever). This could potentially alienate new readers, but who cares, this is supposed to be fun and I want to create fun for myself. The blog skill is called runecrafting, and the idea is that every few levels, I get a rune automatically, this kind of emphasizes my overall level as a player.You get xp when you blog about a game, in every skill that applies. So if I blog about Final Fantasy... I might get an xp for blogging, 1980s RPGs, JRPGs, Fantasy, and turn-based.

I have also really pushed myself over the weekend to create another new website. I initially was going to put it here, but I decided I still wanted a place for other random thoughts and didn't want to merge the two. And I felt the RPG thing would just completely takeover this one anyway so separating from the get go is probably a good idea. I named my blog Playing RPG Playing RPG. The name is kinda long and cumbersome, and because of that I doubt I'll keep it forever, but for now, the wordplay humors me.

I'm actually quite proud of the site, I think it's one of the best I've ever made. It's designed to look like the UI of an old 80s style RPG and the whole site does a good job at being responsive for mobile which I've never really worried about before. I also managed to merge the idea of a traditional blog and a traditional static site. Each game is designed to have its own "hub" that contains info on the game, and the blog entries in it that you can go through via blogroll. The skills themselves will kinda act like a tagging system too, where you can click on a skill and see all the posts that qualified for xp on it.

I still have a lot of ideas that haven't shown themselves, and/or that I need to flesh out still. I already decided I'm going to make a stamp for every game I finish that you will be able to grab from the game's hub. I also kinda thought of an idea to create stickers for people too. I also have a loose concept to spawn monsters and defeat them in battle to get cool items as part of the theme, but that's going to take a lot more work and make sense to me. I'm definitely open to any ideas anyone might have on the subject, but I figure a lot of that I can add as new features along the way, maybe as a way to keep me excited long term. In the meantime, I think I have a solid base to get me started.