For anyone interested in helping others, here is the latest Gates Notes article with a link to their goalkeepers report. They are really trying to help us in Africa and I believe their good work will bring its own rewards.
What COVID-19 means for the world’s poorest
By Bill Gates
It’s amazing how much can change in twelve months.
At this time last year, when Melinda and I released our foundation’s 2019 Goalkeepers report, we told you about a lot of progress on the Sustainable Development Goals. And we expected 2020 to bring even more improvements.
Then COVID-19 struck. After 20 years of stunning advances toward global goals to improve health and reduce poverty, the pandemic stopped progress in its tracks. For low- and middle-income countries, COVID-19 has set back economies, health systems, and food systems by several years—and in some cases a decade.
In this year’s report, we survey the damage and discuss how to start reversing it. It won’t happen overnight, and it will take a coordinated global effort, but I do believe we can get back on track to meet the Sustainable Development Goals. I hope you’ll take a look.
http://www.gatesnotes.com
CG - News - Microsoft buys ZeniMax Media
Now this is interesting news to anyone that has a love for games and especially those made by Bethesda
***"Microsoft quickly pivoted from its failed TikTok bid and dropped a cool*** ***$7.5B*** ***to acquire ZeniMax Media, the parent company of game publisher Bethesda Softworks (Doom, Fallout, Elder Scrolls). "*** https://link.thehustle.co/click/21574122.111692/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cudGhldmVyZ2UuY29tLzIwMjAvOS8yMS8yMTQ0ODg3Ny9taWNyb3NvZnQtYmV0aGVzZGEtc29mdHdvcmtzLXplbmltYXgtYWNxdWlzaXRpb24teGJveC1nYW1lLXBhc3Mtc2VyaWVzLXg/5f3bda102c81bf63145e4524B5a58e27e
This is the most money spent by them ever on gaming and I wonder what this will mean to my favourites like Elder Scrolls and Fallout. Will we see a even bigger commercialisation? Will we see this as the new hero in a game...
All jokes aside, this is big news if they increase the budgets and keep the same game quality (Fallout 76 is another story...) They do say that it is to offer more to their Xbox Live offerings, this is great for console although I do not know if they are going to work this towards the general PC gaming community.
***"Microsoft has new consoles debuting on Nov. 10, the Xbox Series X and stripped down Series S version. It will be competing against Sony’s new PlayStation 5 console."***
They also have steak in other gaming companies that produce Halo and Minecraft and those are going great to date, I am keeping my hopes alive and hoping that I do not hear that iconic voice asking "how can I help you today?"
***“We believe the deal checks a lot of boxes for Microsoft, such as strengthening the Xbox/Games division product portfolio as competition increases, boosting the profile of Xbox subscription services, and providing more content for the company’s cloud gaming initiatives,”***
As a RPG fanatic, this is good news although it is worrying that most of their articles revolve around Console and their battle against Sony Playstation.
GG's
OMG - Old Man Gamer
OMF - Options Expiring
Bitcoin Options Expiring
By (OMG)Old Man Gamer | (OMF) Old Man's Finances | 5 minutes ago
Seeing as I am a trader and have been for some years now as a sideline, I found the options expiry very interesting seeing as 83k BTC is going to make quite a big splash. We have also seen that the BTC whales are Hodling and the price has been quite stable between $10500 and $11000 and I have liquidated a few of my lower positions in BTC and ETH so that I can do some re-buys at a lower level.
*"Although the current $1.9 billion worth of options signal that the market is healthy, it’s still unusual to see such heavy concentration on short-term options."*
BTC options have now hit Billions and it can lead to some serious drops, this is by no means a set fact before Friday but it is definitely something to be kept in mind when opening and positions before then. I have been locked into some low level trades over the last few weeks seeing I missed my last buy-in bottom by 4.2 % average on my trading coins.
*"This is the opposite of the last ten days, as BTC’s 3-month implied volatility ceded to 63% from 76%. Although not an unusual level, the rationale behind such relatively low options premium demands further analysis."*
Anyone that has traded on an exchange in regards to Crypto will be able to tell you that there is no silver bullet but large market movements are definitely something to watch out for. I am setting up with a small liquidation in hopes of evening out that missed bottom buy mentioned previously. We are also trying to shake off the tech-stock correlation but that is for the future, now we are looking for a major market move so that we can increase our coin holdings.
*"As of now, there are no signs of weakness from options markets, but as Ether options stand at $450 million, any number below $1.5 billion would certainly not look desirable for Bitcoin."*
This is not financial advice and is only meant to show what I am up to, I am not a financial adviser
GT's
Old Man's Finanace
**edit:** *this is the drop I was identifying and it took place shortly after I posted this first on Publish0x (looks like an old man might make some money here ;)*
CG - LiteBringer
Hello everyone and welcome to my first article away from Splinterlands, I have chosen to put some LTC into LiteBringer and I have been playing it on and off for the last few days. Anyone interested can check out the game HERE https://www.litebringer.com/
My first impression on this game was the art, which reminded me of Heroes of Might and Magic with some LTC added and I have always been a fan of RPG games ***(anyone else looking forward to the Badur's Gate 3 release?)*** so this was right up my alley. Installing the game was pretty straight forward and setup/keys part is also easy to follow if you are used to playing Blockchain games. I also decided to put 0.025 LTC in so that I can get a little ahead on the initial grindy stages and see how the boss fights work out, this took around 1 hour for setup to money available but I do tend to be multi-tasking permanently so I could just have lost track of time.
****Character Creation****
This will be your first step to playing and the miner fee for creating the character is as small as the quest fee's, I chose to go with the **Sorceress** as my main class and they are usually known to be off to a slow start but becoming immensely powerful later on in games. I also added the other two classes afterwards when I saw there was a bit of grinding in my future, lots of elements must be gathered.
after you have chosen the name and sex of your character and it will be available on the main screen so that you can choose whether you want to go on a quest directly or there are also character and inventory screens but those only get relevant once you get items. When you get into the quest screen you will have to pay a subscription fee to be able to go on quests and it works out to 2 lights per approximately 30 days (I chose to put 60d on my main and then 30d on my sub classes), you will also have to pay a small miner fee but this is really tiny.
****Inventory****
As you progress you will find items and elements from opponents which will be level dependant as you start, **Green** rings are safe and **Red** is a no-go. When you have received your first items, then you will get to the **Inventory** screen to equip items relevant to your character. To the right you will see which items are equipped and to the left you will see items that your character can wear.
I am trying to set up full elemental sets but that will take some time to get together, I therefore decided to farm some XP with my main and gather with the two subs. The all have different equipment with different types and higher levels, there are 8 different elements to take into consideration too with opponent elements can limit your effective power.
****Questing****
***Hint:*** *Creatures that drop elements initially drop less XP than ones dropping items or nothing at all.*
You can replay battles for the elements and items and there is also a small chance that you will be able to get some high tier loot, I am currently farming full tilt and I will keep everyone following up to date as I go along and as usual I will do the Check & Balances from in-game profits and losses. My first hurdle will seem to be this fellow
My main is now almost on 600 power so there is quite a way to go before I can change that into a green ring of success, this is also the first match that shows how much grinding there is to do out there. I am also going to build my first elements into my main inventory so that I have full effective power in the match and that will help me see how the elements interact.
I am going to leave this here for now and if you would like to see how my journey goes then sub and I will see you on another page
GG's
OMG - Old Man Gamer
CG - Splinterlands Roller Coaster
CG - Splinterlands Roller Coaster
By (OMG)Old Man Gamer | (OMG) Old Man Gamer | 1 second ago https://www.publish0x.com/@HeXian68 https://www.publish0x.com/old-man-gamer-omg
Thank you all so much for reading an old man's ravings about games and crypto, I am working on my OMF financials built around my uneducated trading plays, but that is a story for another day. So let us take a look at my gains (as yes, even after everything there are still gains)
Last season I started with my Peakmonster value at $47.05 and it the previous story is HERE (publish0x) https://www.publish0x.com/old-man-gamer-omg/crypto-gaming-splinterlands-part-3-tournaments-xvrnedn
So now lets us look at the transaction values by taking all my transactions, putting them into excel and then working out the individual items, please keep in mind that the DEC and card values can fluctuate quite heavily sometimes. When I looked at my total on Monday it was $55 for list and I normally use list so that I have a silver lining :)
1. Tournaments - total gain ***2914 DEC***
Tournament Entry Fee -91 Tournament Payout 3005
2, General play and season rewards - total gain ***3565 DEC***
Quest Rewards 274 Ranked Season Rewards 477 Ranked Battle Reward 2813.977
There it is...***6479 DEC*** and ***500 Coins*** from a referral, for a total gain (seeing as I put all my winnings back into the game) of around 2000 power which puts me in Silver 2, Unfortunately I am down money by adding cards but also stuck in a conundrum of gaining power to get higher or just bite the bullet and choose to stay in Bronze...(yeah, that is an option for some unfathomable reason) and have a chance at some packs even though some 100k power players have the same idea. There is so much chaos in that system that I am just plodding along till they can sort out how to keep DAU's and stop higher level players from dominating lower levelled players and therefore making the game a lot less fun for them.
With all of that out of the way, lets take a look at preferred plays, I am going to place a few matches below so that I can try to give you an idea on how it matches up to different opponents. All of this will hopefully help you make more informed decisions about your buying/lending etc.
Dragon/Earth vs Death- Dragon Earth vs Death - We were closely matched but there was one moment that made it happen and I love it when I have a creature with Sneak or Snipe just wrecks a legendary so that they have no effect. Whilst there are more random misses (that is a good thing for newer players) it also makes it difficult to justify some of your lineups. https://splinterlands.com/?p=battle&id=3484fda3169bc0cb8e687a219a9ad015869564fb&ref=hexian68
Dragon/Death - Dragon/Death vs water - Here it was such a random match that I will just leave it for you to look at. I usually prefer the Dragon splinter seeing as it gives so much more variety to your choices after restrictions, always have to try and remember the individual level caps...it does keep it interesting as long as we all have the same timer ;) https://splinterlands.com/?p=battle&id=1ff400c4b2825f88449b0b3e37cb6fe92e598ba9&ref=hexian68
Earth vs Earth - Eastwood vs Lyanna, She is so strong and I have lost so many battle against her, and here I 'cheesed' it big time and I really used anything but this for the last 6 battles followed by what happens when you Leech 44 Rating points in one go Take The Win. https://splinterlands.com/?p=battle&id=c7491dbb7341ce45c438adc7b63610d5356fc7e7&ref=hexian68 https://splinterlands.com/?p=battle&id=e6ae29ceb6ea6a0fb0aa924bbbc36ee7c2f599c2&ref=hexian68
Still enjoying the game as a whole and the base play is a lot of fun when you get to mess around with different builds, now just to get enough together so that I can get a few more higher level summoners up and running.
See you on the battlefield
GG's
CG-Splinterlands
CG - Splinterlands
By (OMG)Old Man Gamer | (OMG) Old Man Gamer | 13 Sep 2020 https://www.publish0x.com/@HeXian68 https://www.publish0x.com/old-man-gamer-omg
Hello all, been elbows deep in databases getting back to work but most of the chaos has been controlled and that gives me a little time to get up in Ranks. Through building all of my in-game profits into cards to get my level up...here is my first silver 2 League reward which was either tragic or funny (if you don't laugh, then you'll be crying)
*I really try not to be too negative and this is not helping...*
Been getting some very good matches lately and I am quite happy to say that I placed in the money again quite a few times this week, I am also happy to see that they did not make the competitions Whale-Only and kept the caps at the same levels. The small amounts that I win there have been helping me move up but overall it has so little effect on power level. a 0.07 cent common card only adds 15 power and I have done blogs on this before so I will leave it there.
My checks and balances at the end of the month will be interesting when I take my current DEC and Coin totals then see how much my $ value increased in regards to my power. I can still take part in all the KME and Bronze Blunderbuss fights which will help with $ value increase and the KME, for me, is actually a good equaliser where you can work on your base strategies. I have spoken about it HERE and I am still looking for that nr.1 spot in the KME. https://www.publish0x.com/old-man-gamer-omg/crypto-gaming-splinterlands-part-3-tournaments-xvrnedn
So I came across a few interesting interactions as I have been playing and I find that there are a lot more misses on creatures , please feel free to let me know if I am looking at this from the wrong perspective.
Fire vs Fire - Interesting, Sometimes you can lose the game to those misses and anyone who has played against Evasive creatures enough will tell you that too. https://splinterlands.com/?p=battle&id=0efd7d3143b58b3746f7a5965272edd4551c7cbf&ref=hexian68
Fire vs Earth - Missing, in this game the opponent was a little closer to my power but relied heavily on his Orc and Retaliate, luckily I fielded a good low level Fire Haste manoeuvre that clinched it for me https://splinterlands.com/?p=battle&id=1c1bd7c524df80ddc406ae16460f416ab8424f3b&ref=hexian68
Light vs Death - Over Tanking, here the opponent chose to go with the larger Rex and it does not work out so well using only a tank and not having support from the back line. I usually go with some smaller tanks in the lower Mana ranges, and look at the 7-9 Mana troops only when I have around 20 Mana to play with. https://splinterlands.com/?p=battle&id=9c3c0df9f08e455a7695e7090ec47b126c031d7b&ref=hexian68
When you look at internal strategies then you can take a few routes in regards to battling an opponent and catching them off guard when checking their last battles, keeping in mind that they can look at yours too.
Clicking on someones profile and checking their last battles becomes a lot more relevant as you play in tournaments or at higher Leagues and you will have to make your decision quite quickly. Below you will see a bigger profile view and you will also be able to go into their collection and last battles on their FULL profile (buttons on the top right) if you have the time and you have nimble fingers.
Now you can see what they are able to bring to the field and also have much more information before going into battle (battle IQ is not underrated). I find the first view good enough for the most part but if I go up against higher power level opponents, then I have to give it a lot more thought.
Stay strong and I will see you on the battleground
GG's
OMG - Old Man Gamer
Splinterlands - Strats
Hello there, welcome if it is your first time - I like having a good chat and wouldn't mind a battle or two if you send an invite in game
After being dropped to Silver all the way from Champion...I have decided to go on and see how much their new power level system is going to change daily and end of season rewards *Check the hints*
Part 2 - Strategy and learning from my mistakes
The First part of the game strategy to understand, is how the two points below will affect your game and how you can try to maximise your cards to suit each round:
Elements
Summoners Level Cap and your Playable Card Power
**Elements**
This could be the single most important factor when you begin playing the game. The valid elements for the individual games will determine which summoners you get to pick and it can also make certain choices made in regards to card levels irrelevant. You could put all your hard fought for DEC into the earth element, then you do not get to pick it in quite a few games and even though you do not lose money when you lose a game, you do lose some of your daily earning %.
***Hint:*** *The DEC capture rate regenerates at 25% per day and tournaments do not affect the capture rate*
I found that you must get at least one Summoner of each element up to lvl 2, I still have to get my lvl 2 white element and I compete all the way to Diamond 1 with a close shot at Champion a few times (this is now power locked and have severely lowered the daily rewards). The daily DEC coupled with card rewards can start adding up quickly and you will definitely benefit from buying individual elements cards just to have the pick when you do not get your favourite Splinters, some of them cheaper than 1 cent. After you have diversified into each element, then you can start building at least 3 strong elements that will be your game winners with higher level summoners. If a little money is not an object then put a little in and you will be able to have your lvl 2 summoners with really solid creatures to keep you in Diamond. I have put around $40 in (taken from other trading accounts and just dust accumulated) and my card values come in around $45 market value, which is not impressive, but this is money that I am making while I play something I really like and would have played anyway.
***Hint:*** *(This article has burn - related content and this might not be the best choice with Power Levels capping your growth) Overview and Economy was handled in the first piece that you can find here* - Blog 1 - OMG Splinterlands Overview and Economy https://www.publish0x.com/old-man-gamer-omg/crypto-gaming-blog-1-meet-me-and-lets-take-a-look-at-splinte-xpjveek
**Summoners/Power**
Try not to upgrade creature cards from the individual elements before you have upgraded your summoner, they will be level locked and lose a lot of power in the game while you are being matched to someone of your Playable Card Power. It can make a big difference when you have a lvl 1 Summoner and it locks your higher lvl troops, that have been upgraded, to a lower level but you still get matched to a player that has the lvl 2 summoner and they can bring more power to the board. That being said...You should have at least one of every summoner even at lvl 1 so that you do not just lose games without at least a chance of some picks.
I will take a look at the individual Summoners and what cards they either buff for your side or de-buff on their side in individual pieces, there is a lot to check out from authors on this platform too so you will have a wealth of information on this. Trying to keep your card levels low in regards to your summoners is a very valid strategy and I even burn/sell some cards if I cannot use them, I have too many and so that I do not inflate my Playable Card Power.
***Hint:*** *Not all of the Summoners cap their troops at the same level, make sure you check the Summoner stats*
I chose the following Elements to level up and I am going to give some idea's and one battle for each
Earth Summoner and Element - Earth Element Unicorn Nymph https://splinterlands.com/?p=battle&id=2e95b6b15318f4f635bcb91a3448c2ac6edb54e5&ref=hexian68
A very powerful Element with a lot of healing and I have had so much success...Golden Unicorn matched with a Wood Nymph can be so OP sometimes that I am busy setting up a compilation video. The Unicorn alone can negate a lot of magic damage and the Nymph just keeps healing him back up whilst the other creatures you got to choose will keep hitting them hard. The earth element can be Mana intensive so fielding lower Mana Cap battles will be more difficult in the beginning
Fire Summoner and Element- Low Mana Fire Element https://splinterlands.com/?p=battle&id=f9f95dceb14d76fb2c3b0952e5224d2a298130a9&ref=hexian68
Can be extremely quick whilst also having a lot of Blast and Sneak abilities that can quickly cripple opponents by taking out their value creature i.e the Wood Nymph mentioned above. With the fire element it is easier to field a low Mana Cap battle and you will also love the Living Lava that has a damage reduction, the Blast ability of the Fire Spirit coupled with the damage reduction of the Living Lava can break a back line with low health.
***Hint:*** *Place a Kobold Miner in the lineup, get him up a little in level and that 2 Sneak damage for 2 Mana can quickly kill their back line*
Dragon Element with Earth Combo - Dragon element keeping Earth Combo https://splinterlands.com/?p=battle&id=2687debd24aaf8583ae7114831c8ce2d29df224f&ref=hexian68
This element is a great cross-over for summoners, you get to play the Dragon element cards and you get to mix that with one of the other playable elements too. This can be a big deal especially when you have an element with low level summoners and still use the element with a lvl 2 Dragon summoner. Seeing as it is playable with all active mana elements, it is very versatile and can really snatch seemingly impossible battles like the one above.
I think that will be it for now and this should help you make a better informed decision when you choose which cards you want to level up and how you want to spend your DEC.
GG's
Old Man Gamer
***My Shameless Referral link:*** *https://splinterlands.com?ref=hexian68*
OMG - Gaming reviews and hints - Splinterlands - Part 1
Crypto-Gaming Blog 1 - Meet me and lets take a look at Splinterlands
By (OMG)Old Man Gamer | (OMG) Old Man Gamer | 27 Aug 2020 https://www.publish0x.com/@HeXian68 https://www.publish0x.com/old-man-gamer-omg
WOW, you are reading this and it is my first piece (and the first piece I am placing on Read.Cash), let me know what you think and feel free to follow me here and on Publish0x
Seeing as I am the new guy, I am just going to list a few things that will help us all actually have a good time here.
***There are going to be different opinions here, nice and respectful is the way to go***
Constructive criticism is not only welcomed, it is encouraged, as long as you remember the main point above
If there is anything you would like me to look into, please leave a comment and I will take a look if possible.
No scamming or unrelated comments, we are here to have some fun and see what is out there for **Games,** **Crypto** and **Block-Chain**
**About me:** You may have seen my OMG logo, and I am definitely and old man that loves gaming. I have been gaming since all we had was a stick in the mud and then moved on to struggle with spectrum, later followed by those pesky GW Basic books where one misprinted line of code broke your entire game..never stopped playing everything and anything since then.
I am an Analyst for a national franchise in my home country of South Africa and that should wrap up the basics, I will answer any questions if reasonable and as long as the main point gets followed.
Here we are going to look at the many ways that Crypto and Block-chain can either be used to play/pay in regards to games and I will try to give as honest an opinion as possible with any little tips I found along the way.
Now that we have gotten all the formalities over with, lets take a look at...
**Part 1 - My First Steps**
**Genre: TCG (Trading Card Game)**
**URL:** *https://splinterlands.com*
**My Shameless Reference Link** *(we both get stuff)* : *https://splinterlands.com?ref=hexian68*
**My Reaction:** 4.5/5 (I would introduce it to my parents)
There is a bit too much to put into one piece (especially since I was carrying on about myself and those pesky points) so I am going to break it into a few parts). I have been playing Splinterlands for a few months and it is a game that you can easily pick up, but it takes time to be able to really compete. I did pay in $10 for the spell book, this is just so that you have a bigger stash of initial cards to play with and it really helps with the $30 spent to buy coins for packs and buying individual cards on the market, see the hint below.
Setting up an account was an easy process and I had absolutely no problem, all instructions were clear and I found that their discord is quite active for various groups i.e support, marketing and they have a nice community. I was also lucky enough, right at the start, to receive some cards from community members so that I could at least compete. Some of the other members that started with me had friendly competitions going and the overall feeling there was positive.
The first important part to understand is the basic economy and I am going to put it as simple as possible to start with
Credits
This is an in-game currency which is 1000 credits for $1
Can be used to buy booster packs or individual cards from the marketplace
Can be purchased with PayPal and Crypto, with many different options
DEC (Dark Energy Crystals)
This is a in-game currency as well and forms more of a part in every day use, but its value does fluctuate.
Can be obtained via daily battles, tournaments and selling/leasing/burning cards on the market
Can be traded on Hive Engine, Tron Trade.
There is a lot more that can be said but there are plenty of comprehensive guides (I will also be adding some) so that you can easily navigate and understand. There is also a lot more that comes with the account in regards to Tron and Hive and I found it quite useful.
**Hint:** *If you are going to be buying packs on the site then you should rather buy them with DEC rather than the Credits, charge for the pack is 2000 credits or 2000 DEC and the DEC value is usually lower than the Credits by quite a large margin.*
The main strategy of the game is interesting and it is still a game where people who spent money will get better rewards and place higher in most tournaments. That being said, the early levels and building your cards is fun too, they found multiple ways where you can gain cards and DEC while you are still at low levels. Playing the game daily and gaining ranks can be a bit 'grindy' at times but it does not take long to finish daily quests or finish off a small tournament if you are running short on time.
The tournaments have a chance to get you some DEC (there is a buy-in that varies) and if you can read your opponents in smaller level cap tournaments, then you can make a profit. I have made much more value out of the smaller 10 DEC tournaments and it is worth the try seeing as I won 800 DEC many times and there are higher prizes.
This is where I am going to stop off for now and I think that it is definitely a game that you can gain value out of and in future articles I am going to look at the markets, strategy, card types and sincerely hope everyone that reads this will enjoy it.
Ciao for now
(OMG) Old Man Gamer
@OMG-OldManGamer
