Online Games and Fiction

I have alway enjoyed games and puzzles. I remember when I was a child we had an Nintendo system. I spent many hours playing games. My favorite type were the role playing games, or RPGs for short. Creating my character, doing quests and earning levels, it was always so much fun. One game I will never forget is Ghost Lion. This was a simple style RPG, but what made it so memorable was it was the only game I ever played with my father. Dad and I spent hours trying to figure out what to do next, and where the next part of the puzzle was. Mom played too, but that game was mostly just me and my dad.

So, it only follows then that when I got a computer, I would play PC versions of the same type of games. Then came internet, and my choices of games got even larger. I came across an RPG game called The 4th Coming, or T4C for short. Now, I will review that game in detail one day soon but for now I want to go in another direction.

This was a multiplayer game, and I met many people there. Quite a few are still friends today, in fact that is where I met my boyfriend, Ducky. This post, however relates to another player. A man who went by the name Raist Justice. He turned out to be a writer, and has written an 8 book series based on this game with the 9th book in progress. The greatest part of his stories is the fact that the books are self contained. You don't need to really know anything about the game to understand and enjoy the story. He included player characters in his tales though and I was honored to have my game name and character included.

In honor of his stories, I decided one day, after months of his asking, to finally write a short story explaining my characters history. My story starts with the birth of my character Lady Ru, and continues up to the point where she was included into the Brimstone stories of Raist Justice.

His stories begin far before my character had been born, so my short tale doesn't begin to even cover the depth of his work. But it does allow those that knew me to see how my character began. I will end this post here for today, as it is getting long, but tomorrow I will post the first part of Lady Ru's story for your reading pleasure.

Remember, this story was my first attempt to ever write fiction, so it may not be very good. All comments will be welcome, so please, whether you hate it or love it or anything in between, please let me know.

And if you are interested in reading the Brimstone stories by Raist Justice, you can begin reading them here, Brimstone, Book 1.

Puppies, Dogs and So Much More

I have been spending the last few days talking to you about some serious thoughts I have been having. So I think today I will lighten it up a bit and tell you about a great game I play.

Virtual Pups is a free online simulated dog game. I love this game because there is so much to do. I am not a big fan of games where you have set goals and have to do things in certain orders. Virtual Pups is limited only by your imagination. And best of all it is free. As soon as you create an account you can buy dogs, bet on events, make new friends in the chat or the forum.

Virtual Pups is a game that can be enjoyed by an adult or a child, so is a good way for families to share an interest. There are well over 100 breeds of dogs to choose from, so you have a chance to own the dog of your dreams.

What can you do? How do you play? Well, I can tell you right off there is nothing to download. This game is completely browser based, so if you can look at a web page, you can play this game. As for what you can do, oh there is so much possible. You can become the owner of a boarding kennel, try to become one of the best trainers available, event your dog in a wide range of competitions, or simply try to breed the best dog of your choice. You could try to get a dog with the highest stats, or work to make it true to life, or make it the best in another way.

Pedigrees are provided on every dogs page, you can trace their blood line all the way back to the original dog they came from. If you want to start from the very beginning, you can import or buy a foundation dog, normally called a foundie or import. This is a dog that was computer created, it has base stats, so you can pick and choose what to train it in or what stats to improve.

Or if you don't want to start that way, you can buy or rescue a regular dog. This type has parents listed on it's page and has a bloodline record. Some of these dogs have already been improved with selective breeding to improve certain stats, or breed to a color, or whatever the breeder's goal was.

You can play Virtual Pups for free, with no payment ever. But if you are at all like me, you will eventually choose the sponsor option. This gives you added benefits, like a dedicated kennel type with a different bonus for each type. Unlimited turns, so you can play as long as you wish each day. There are many benefits to 'sponsoring up', as I call it. Not the least of which, it helps to pay for the game to continue running.

But I don't have any extra money for this? Ah, but here is the nice thing. Many people will sell sponsors, or upgraded kennels to other players for game money or in game services. I got my first sponsor by training dogs. A player that had some extra cash, but was short on time, paid me for training a certain number of dogs to their needs, by upgrading my kennel to a sponsor. This was great. I got my sponsor upgrade, they got their dogs trained, and the owner still got the cash for the upgrade purchase to keep the game going. Everyone wins in that way.

Can I win the game? Well, yes and no. There are no set goals to the game, so it is not possible to win the game and be done with it. But, yes in the manner that you accomplish the goals you set out to do, that could be considered winning. The great thing about that is, you can simply choose another goal to work to, and the game can be played indefinitely.

I love Virtual Pups. It has allowed me to own, breed and event my favorite breed, and I am currently working on breeding the best dog ever in my chosen breed. I have 5 sponsors now, one of each type available, and I have spent very little real money in acquiring them. All but one were purchased from other players with game money or services.

So, if you are looking for a family oriented game, without all the violence and profanity so common these day. If you always wanted a dog but have allergies or no space or any other situations where you can't have one. If you want just one dog or a few hundred, this is the game for you.

Head on over to Virtual Pups, create your account, name your kennel and take the first steps into the world where dogs are everything. There is much information, tips and tricks in the forums; in chat, there are other players willing to help you get started, to answer any questions you may have.

Come and join me there, there is so much we can do.