Nerd Bacon News: April 2015 (2)

Has everyone had their fill of bad games yet?  I hope not, because we still have a little chunk of April left!  It's not too late to head to your local used spot and grab a few abysmal looking games for a few bucks.  Old NES / SNES / Genesis games based off of TV shows, toy lines, and movies are usually a safe bet, but who knows?  You might uncover a gem you never knew existed!

We're really happy to see so many of you getting involved with the site in so many ways.  Several of you help us pump articles on Facebook, the Twitch streams seem to be a success for all involved, and we even have some of you eager to spearhead our presence on additional social networks!  While we are extremely grateful that our name and our community is expanding in these ways, we do want to take just a moment to point everyone in the same direction.  Don't forget that Nerd Bacon is about reviews reviews reviews!  Again, we're more appreciative than you know for all this peripheral activity, we just don't want to lose focus of our main goal, and that's to build up as many reviews as possible.  It's a slow process and we need everyone's help.  I know it's easy to lose sight of the writing when getting involved with other aspects of Nerd Bacon, but don't be ashamed if you need to take a break in order to get back to some reviewing.  That is and always (well, for the foreseeable future) will be our number 1 goal.

Remember that Greased is about all of you as well!  Don't hesitate to send in questions, comments, suggestions, or anything else that might improve or add to our efforts.

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Next Month - May: E3 Prep

E3 is coming in June, and in order to try and make the most of it, we want to go ahead and start making the necessary preparations now.  Even if you've never written a news piece before, you're welcome to join the fray - that's what May is for, to get you ready for when the big stories start flying.

Why is E3 such a big deal?  For those who don't know, it's an actual event where all kinds of individuals from the gaming industry share their latest developments.  In fact, this is where we get many of the year's most important announcements.  Highly anticipated games and sequels are often first glimpsed at the expo, many of the expected "big sellers" for the holiday season are expounded upon, and best of all, new hardware is often debuted.  Although the 9th generation is probably a few years away, we're bound to see a few all-new pieces of cutting edge technology.  

One day we hope to go ourselves or send a small team on our behalf, but until then, there's plenty we can do to keep up with the events via a simple internet connection.  If you want to get in on the E3 action, start letting us know as soon as possible.  We want to make sure we know exactly who is participating so that we can make the best possible use of our man(and girl)power.  We want accurate reporting and timely reporting - we want to get this news out while it's still fresh, not 12 hours later.  Once details about E3's keynote speeches start becoming available, we'll be able to lay down more definite schedules.  For now though, we want to get a good idea of who is seriously interested in helping us through this year's coverage.  

Our very own E3 veterans include The Watchman, Variand, ChronoSloth, and NerdBerry.  Hopefully we'll be bringing in some tips, tricks, and words of advice from you guys for May's first newsletter.  A certain level of virtual infrastructure will need to be set up prior to the event as well, which will also be occurring in May.

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A Friendly Reminder

I was looking at individual member productivity, and I'm seeing a saddening trend - about 50% of our members responsible for 90% of the work. Now I know that a couple of you are around to provide support to Nerd Bacon in ways other than writing articles, but we do have some limited expectations from everyone else. We do aim to be forgiving and understanding of special circumstances, but this is intended to be a temporary measure, not an excuse for extended inactivity. Please keep in mind that we require a certain level of commitment, effort, and participation on your part. Members NOT meeting these expectations will be warned and unheeded warnings will be followed by terminations.

For a detailed look at our policies, visit this page. All we are really asking for is 1 articlpe per month on average. Please keep this in mind. Most of you are doing excellent, but a few of you have fallen well below the expected minimum!

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Nerd Bacon has a Minecraft server!

That's right, The Bacon has its very own Minecraft server courtesy of resident tech wizard Variand. If you're a fan of Minecraft, here's your chance to get really creative.  Note that this is a test server, so performance problems and crashes may be an issue.  If you notice any significant lag or crashing or other issues, contact Variand right away.  If it works out, we may see special Nerd Bacon servers for other games as well!  Anyone interested should get in touch directly with Variand@NerdBacon.com.

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Review Spotlight

• Art Lessons With Mario Paint (Video) - NerdBerry
• Just...watch...it...

• E.T. The Extra Terrestrial - Atari 2600 - Variand
• Being hailed as "the worst game ever" leaves some pretty big shoes to fill for a reviewer.  Check out this great example of how Variand separates fact from myth and examines not only the game's flaws, but also where it succeeds.

• Modding 101 Part 4: Load Order - DIY - student 20
• Nerd Bacon's slowly growing collection of DIY articles are testament to those of us who have ever dared to go beyond buying a game, putting it in the console, and playing it.  From simple hardware modifications to complex software manipulation, there are all kinds of ways to take your gaming to the next level.  In this article, student 20 wraps up his introductory modding series by offering up instructions and concepts related to "load order."  
  

• MKX DLC Causes Waves of Dissapointment - The Cubist
• Nerdberry says:
• I want to take a second to put a spotlight on Cube's MKX DLC Disappointment news article. Cube didn't just find this news piece online, he experienced this himself. He took a frustrating situation and did some research on what others were going through. He then turned his personal experiences into an informative article! The article is perfect in length for a news piece being that it's not sooo short that it looks like we're baiting people to the site. And it's not soooo long that it annoys and overwhelms readers. It hits the sweet spot on all fronts and being that the game is SO new, it is both appealing and very current. I can't say for certain, but I reckon it didn't take long for Cube to put his thoughts to paper. This is a great example of using your personal feelings and translating it into a news piece!

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Wanna Host a Twitch Stream?

We've had an overwhelmingly positive reaction to our members' Twitch streams so far as well as additional interest from those willing to host a stream.  Even if you can't commit to anything regular, you're welcome to host a stream of your own provided we have enough notice to get the word out!

Resident tech wizard Variand can be extremely helpful for those of you wishing to get a Twitch stream off the ground but don't know where to start.  Typically this will involve a trial run, and assuming all goes well, we'll be ready for an actual live event that Nerd Bacon will promote.  If you're serious about hosting a stream of your own, contact Variand at variand@nerdbacon.com and you guys can take it from there!

Oh, and don't worry about hosting a flawless performance.  Besides, your trial run will help you figure out what does and doesn't work, what it's like to both play the game and interact with the visitors, and what technical issues you may need to address.

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Stream for Charity

InfiniteKnife has set up a Nerd Bacon team on Twitch that will help raise money for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. For all the details on how to get involved, email InfiniteKnife@NerdBacon.com.

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Get Involved! Get Greasy!

Hey! Listen up! We want you guys to help out and be a part of Greased! We'd love for you to send in comments, questions, and any other newwsworthy information that might hold relevance to other members. We'll consider any other ideas you may have as wel, so don't be shy. Make Greased yours!

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Site Developments

When it comes to getting members together and getting to know each other a little better, the Twitch streams have been a runaway success.  This presents us with a logical question: how well would a chatroom fare on the site?  We tried it out a long time ago with a whole separate cast of characters, but after seeing how lively the Twitch chats are, we think it's an avenue worth talking about again.  So our question to you all is this - would you be interested in having a chatroom on Nerd Bacon?  We could extend the functionality beyond that of members, so that perhaps when we have a following we'll attract some regulars.  But with so many people on the go and spending less of their computer time actually sitting down in front of a computer, it's worth gauging the interest of you all before we set one up.  What are your thoughts on a Nerd Bacon chatroom?  Would you use it?  Any ideas about how to get everyone (or at least a good number of people) involved on a regular basis?

Also, coming in the near future, will be a small Badge Expansion.  These new badges will focus primarily on the type of content generated by each member and should serve to illustrate each member's diversity to some degree!  (You can bet that we'll have one for contributing directly to our newsletters as well!)  We aren't quite ready to unveil the new batch just yet, but stay tuned.  We're also working towards displaying these badges in everyone's authorbox (perhaps in an extended form?) so sit tight while we find the time and energy to do so.

And while we're at it, does anyone have any cool ideas regarding other neat ways we can display or otherwise use the badges?  We love the idea of having little icons to accumulate...it's sort our version of a gamer score meets merit badges.  Let us know what you come up with, however implausible, and we'll see what we can do!

Note:  Many of you still don't have any of the new badges credited towards you.  This is because I haven't heard back from you regarding the very short questionnaire sent out a while back, or it's because you're extremely new.  If you're extremely new, that's ok.  You can check out our Bacon Badges page and email me regarding what conditions you've met!

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Support Your Fellow Baconeers!
by NerdBerry

Newcomer Nerdy Friend (many of you might know her as Allie from Girls Got Game) has a personal YouTube channel called No Lives Left that she's hoping to grow. Her and her boyfriend head the channel, so let's show some support to a fellow gamer and subscribe to her channel! Visit No Lives Left here!

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Until Next Time...

That'll wrap up Issue #2 of Greased!  Remember that we are always looking for capable editors and social media managers.  Anyone who could help us in these respects would be greatly appreciated!  We also want to keep pulling in new members and explore additional methods of exposure and money-making opportunities.  NerdBerry and The Cubist have a 100% open-door policy when it comes to communication.  Got a thought, suggestion, complaint, or concern?  Feel free to come to us with it, big or small.  And this doesn't just apply to concept and direction either - having technical problems?  Experiencing issues with another Baconeer?  You can always come to us about anything and your privacy will be respected!

Please continue to help us grow and spread the word as much as you can!  If you don't know where to start, take a look at all the badges you can earn and start from there!  I know we may seem busy, but we really do pay attention to what you guys do on an individual level, and it does not go unnoticed.

As April winds down, keep a few things in mind:

• E3 is coming!  Do I want to help?  How can I help? (Hint: emailing us is a good start!)
• Authors and above (20+ published articles) can experiment with new types of articles!  Some of you have been wanting to flex your writing muscles for some time now, so here's your chance!  Show us what you've got and give readers one more reason to visit the site.
• Earn badges! (More info here.) And be on the lookout for a few new ones!
• Do what you can to promote us socially; it only takes a few clicks.
• For those eligible, don't forget about your blogs and "about" pages!

Many of you have worked extremely hard for us this month and deserve a big fat thank you.  We're really impressed with how so many of you embraced this month's theme of "foolish games" and we hope that many of you will be just as fervent about the upcoming E3!

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