Bonus Stage: Changes

There have been various sundry changes in and involving the Tales of the Aggronaut site over the last few days/weeks.  Most of these have been fairly subtle and in the background, and have just been snuck in here and there by me.  However, with one of these changes being pretty significant, I figured today would be a good day to do one of my “Bonus Stage” posts and catch everyone up.

Chibi Bahmi Bel

This one has been in the works for a long time, since starting to play Rift.  One of the hallmarks of my website was the adorable Chibi version of ZA geared Belghast.  It was given to me by a good friend of mine Audrae, who if you follow the link has a special nack for Chibis.

For the Bahmi Belghast, she went off in a new direction for her.  She created it entirely in Adobe Illustrator using meshes for shading and such.  I really like the results and it gives a completely different feel to it than the original had.

As attached as I am to the new Chibi, I just could not bring myself to remove the original Zul’Aman Belghast from the banner.  So now you have a composite banner that includes both chibi’s back to back.  I think it works, but I am biased.  One thing is certain, the new Chibi looks amazing.

Website Facelift

Over the weeks since leaving WoW I have been making a series of tweaks to “unbrand” the website from being a purely WoW based one.  While doing these tweaks I have tried to give it a more “Rift” feel without making it a blatantly recognizable Rift-Only website.  I am not sure if I accomplished this, but I am overall fond of the tweaks.

One of the newest features is the blogroll.  In the past my blogroll was always out of date with what I was actually reading on a regular basis.  It was a pain to log into the dashboard and add and remove links, so it was something I did on a very irregular basis.  This lead me to start searching for an easier way to let my readers see exactly what I was reading.

Thanks to some helpful information from the interwebs… I have updated the website to pull in my actual Google Reader information.  Now you can see exactly what I am subscribing to and reading on a daily basis.  Currently the Blog Roll is divided into three categories: Rift Leaning Blogs, WoW Leaning Blogs, and General Gaming / Geek Stuff.  Of note, the last category is where I keep very obviously multi-game blogs like Spinksville or Kill Ten Rats for example.

Official Rift Fansite

You might have noticed, that I have added a logo to the bottom of the sidebar along with the Twisted Nether Blogcast ones.  I was contacted by Trion and told that they were going to add me to the Rift official fansites list.  I halfway expected a WoW Insider style bump, but overall there has been a slow trickle of people arriving at the blog from the list.  I am guessing that the majority of Rift players simply do not know about that page.

I think it is pretty cool that the Rift community support staff has been reaching out to various websites.  They definitely seem more aware of the gamer community and are making more gestures to support it than I have ever seen from another game company.  I am not exactly a major blog, so the fact that they have chosen to add me shows me that they are actually out in the trenches reading what the community has to say.

Gameography

I blatantly stole this concept from the blog “We Fly Spitfires”.  Over the last week a new link has appeared at the top of the blog, to my very own version of a Gameography page.  This was a fun little exercise as I tried to remember all of the various MMO games I have played, characters, and approximate levels.  I limited myself to only listing games that I have subscribed past the first month. 

In addition to games played, I created a list of all the various Alphas and Betas I have participated in.  After awhile this began to feel almost like a gaming resume.  I honestly didn’t realize it had been so many different Betas until I listed them out.  I knew that I had been in plenty, I am always looking for the ability to try new games as they are being developed.

Ariad The Gamer

I updated my about page, to rework it and add a significant change to this blog. Always in the past this has been solely my work, for better or worse.  However I was approached by a friend of mine, who wanted to start submitting articles.  I’ve know Ariad for going on seven years now, and had many a long winded discussion about gaming theory and application.  I am constantly amazed by his breadth of knowledge.

This is a significant paradigm shift in my blog.  No longer is Aggronaut, my personal vent platform.  Now we have actual contributors.  In the past we have had guest posts, but never a full contributor.  I am not sure if we will be adding any more, but I think this is certainly going to be a boon for my readers. 

I can’t promise that Ariad and I will always see eye to eye on issues, but I can promise that everything he posts will be as well thought as his comments always have been.  I hope you will all welcome him with open arms.  His first post should be arriving shortly.  I know I personally am looking forward to it with great anticipation.