Hey team,

Things may seem to have been moving slowly but a lot is happening. Earlier this month I visited VR Mystery School inside of VRChat to give a lecture on this topic of Occult Gaming. The topic of ‘Self Initiation within Game Archetypes’ is a theme that I came up with trying to give the best overall intro to a section that should be easier to grasp. Self-Initiation is maybe not even the right word in most cases as its often more Guided than anything. Give the video a watch and many thanks to TarotReaderFrog for creating and curating the virtual space! Expect the slides sometime next month after I add game references.

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Also, there is now a fine place to find all the links for GameArcane: Linktree
All the links, one place. You LOVE to see it!

Finally, my real life is in some transitions which will give me more time and space to work on this project. Let me know if there is anything that really interests you or something that you really wish was more researched. Let me wax philosophical for a moment too… Sometimes I wonder about the need for different levels-or speeds- of progress. Sometimes when playing a game, speed is one of the most essential qualities. Not just speed runs, but in competitions and just for the sake of time management. Yet one thing I’ve found with rituals is that the timing is usually more important in the name of rhythm.

In that vein, when analyzing and devising different information and wisdom. Not only quick short time bursts are a way for advancement, but gradual iteration and accumulation over time. Even failures this way can add to the whole. Ritual experience works in this way, and is perhaps a key way that we can use our time in games to advance our goal.

An update to branding soon, and aiming for a 2nd post at the end of the month!

-XTO

There’s a lot of talk about how, when a new year begins, there is no real thing that changes. Everything continues on like normal and the construct of time bears no witness to our machinations. However, I think this is a little suspect. The magic of Calendars is long tested, we have evolved and our minds have grown in the direction of dissecting our experience down and categorizing it. Maybe a ‘New Year’s Resolution’ is just something that each person make up but the change in year definitely has some impact on us whether we are conscious of it or not.

ANYWAYS… I want to focus on both the events of last year and the plan for the following year, and where things sit now.

The two big changes in the past year:

• Twitch stream started with regular scheduling
• This very website was created to connect the different internet media

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As for the now-now, GameArcane has a web presence on these web locations:

• Website
• YouTube
• Twitch
• Reddit
• Discord
• Twitter
• Steam

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What sort of things are on the horizon, both for this year and further out.

• YouTube Video Series/Essay
  • GameArcane part 2/3
  • GameArcane part 3/3
  • Magic the Gathering Color Theory
  • Video Reviews
• Bulletin Board
• VR Chat room
• Game Reviews
  • Steam Curator page reviews
  • Video Reviews
  • Website Wiki/reviews
• Twitch Affiliate
• Occult Dictionary
• Game List wiki
• Visual updates and overhaul to website and other media
• Sound effects and music
• Twitch overlay and scenes

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Wow that’s a lot of stuff!

This whole project started on Reddit as a way to bring awareness to the conjunction of these seemingly different topics, and with almost 700 followers its definitely the largest of the different splinters but hardly the most active. Twitch stream is live 3-4 times a week but only sees about 4 average viewers.

One goal for this year may be to just bridge the gap between these different services. Without any editors or team other than a few selfless moderators, the task is large, but never impossible.

Reach out at gamearcane@gamearcane.com for any suggestions you have!

So, starting on October 15th, I’ve been working on updates to the website, stream, etc. of GameArcane as part of a 30 day improvement project put on by Day[9].

https://day9.tv/dk30/project/5f72c98c3ed87c045178652ev

https://day9.tv/dk30-about

The stream has been constant enough but it is time consuming. Editing the videos in Twitch is not too hard for simple trimming. YouTube takes a bit longer to load I’ve found. However both of these will need to be regular, once a month tasks for maintenance.

A decent update so far will be the releasing of a new visual style and theme to this website, it still needs more media however. The choice of hiring work is tempting but I can always try making it myself even with a learning curve at times.

The wiki will need some decent work and thought, maybe a project for next month really, but should still get some attention. Perhaps start at the elements, or meditation.

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The next week’s prompt is as follows:

• Update stream overlay graphic
• create and animate stream alert popups
• check ways to increase viewer count to eventually achieve Affiliate

Before the 15th I was already working on these and finished something at least to temporarily use. I will aim to find some time this week to work on media, like the overlay graphic and buttons/banners to use across platforms. The current alert popup is good enough for now so that’s basically complete.

The next hurdle is viewer count. More specifically Twitch Follows, as the stream needs 50 followers to reach Affiliate. Could use some reseach, also spend time on Twitter??? SEO is screaming at me.

Try and try and try again, we will renovate, and improve. Iterate to succeed upon previous failures. Something I’ve thought about in terms of Dark Souls and Magic the Gathering is the amount of detritus you must wade through to find success, however fleeting.

Something like that.