First live stream

Picture of Old Geezer's Xbox controller — `Old Geezer's nifty looking controller`

Monday night was my first live stream. FacelessJim set us up for a game in Grounded. Much to mastervara77‘s chagrin, a new home base had to be built separate from the one they had set up in their previous game. However, the fourth participant, gymleadrbryan happily spent much of the game constructing a home base, stopping occasionally to fight spiders and ants and things. He did disappear for a while when a monster spider attacked him – apparently he’s not very fond of spiders. In a masterstroke of subtle humour FacelessJim named the home base “The dog park,” in reference to our mission of “teaching an old dog new tricks.” mastervara77 was much amused by that, as evidenced by her laughter about 25 seconds in to the recording, which can be seen on FacelssJim’s channel embedded below. Unfortunately, Twitch doesn’t have a nice embed interface, so it’s just an url to click on instead of a pretty picture.

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1802830673

First up was to select a character – I chose Pete, because he looked like the nerdiest of the options. A short explanatory video gave the backstory – the town’s teens were all going missing, turns out they were being shrunk in a “Honey I Shrunk the Kids” type of scenario. FacelessJim had me learn the controls. Once explained they seemed fairly easy, and will get easier with practice. I finally figured out (with FacelessJim’s assistance) how to move around the world we found ourselves in. After a while, he showed me how to pick up objects and how to zip into the inventory to get things. Lots of fun.

I was online with them for a couple of hours, before marital duties called me away (my wife and I watch television together starting around 10 pm for a couple of hours). Even though I got killed by giant spiders and things a few times, it was quite enjoyable. Probably the best part was when I finally got an axe and a spear and was practicing. The one button on the controller swings the spear or axe, and the one underneath it throws it. Once I figured that out by accidentally throwing instead of swinging I had a great time throwing it, because FacelessJim, who was shepherding me throughout the experience, would retrieve it from wherever it ended up and bring it back to me, just like a pet dog would. Lotsa fun!

Looking forward to joining them for another game soon!

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Ready to Start

Getting to the point where we’re ready to start the gaming process has taken longer than expected. First there was the delay when we realized my laptop wasn’t going to be able to handle Grounded, even though the system check said it could. FacelessJim then had to order the parts and build it, as detailed in the post “New Computer Build” from March 27. After the build, Faceless loaded Windows & some essential stuff, then I had to pick it up, and buy a couple more things that I thought Faceless was getting, and he thought I was getting. I had no controller, mouse or keyboard. I swear he told me to get a PS2 controller, but when I called him from the store to say I couldn’t find any he insisted he’d said an X-Box controller for Windows 11. I could hear his thought process – “Oh, no, this is going to be disastrous!”

I decided to make a separate profile for gaming, as I have grandkiddliewids that also use this computer when they’re here, and I don’t want them getting into the OldGeezer3 account. By the time I was ready with the profiles and downloading other software and applications that I use, it was time for me to fly off to the American Southwest to present a paper, and attend other presentations, at a conference. I got back in the early hours of this morning. One of the bonuses was that I saw a bird there that I had never seen before, so one more for the life list (I’m also a birdwatching twitcher). It was a yellow-crowned night-heron.

A few things that I had noticed when I got back. Faceless’ followers had risen to 273, up from less than 100 when we started this project. The fundraiser for Hemi, Faceless & Vara’s ~~son~~ dog’s operation had exceeded both the original target and a supplemental one, thus allowing them to go ahead and book it, which is going to happen in May. I’d mentioned earlier that Faceless and Vara are living on a shoestring budget as neither has a job, so we are hoping that gaming will help in that regards. Many, many heartfelt thanks to those that donated, and for those who joined in the games they played and participated in the rewards and sent them the various effects that they get a percentage of the price of them. At some point I’ll get the lingo down – that is, after all, the point of me starting to game with them, to teach and old doggie new tricks, even though trix are for kids.

I’d mentioned to a couple of gamers at the conference what I was doing with Faceless and Vara, and they expressed interest in hearing about the journey at the next conference, at which point the light went on. What I am in fact doing by documenting this journey is an autoethnography, and yes, I could present a paper on this at next year’s conference. Interesting idea, that I’ll have to run past Faceless and Vara.

Anyway, I feel primed and ready to go!

New computer

Before we began the process of teaching an old geezer new tricks, and seeing if I could actually learn how to game, we did an equipment check. I already had XBox set up, as I have several grandchildren who come over and use my computer to play their games. Following FacelessJim’s instructions I downloaded first Grounded, the game we would be playing, and then Discord, which apparently you have to use in order to get into the livestream to converse with the other players. Sounded fairly straightforward, yeah? Well, not quite. Downloading Grounded was a cinch, and, first hurdle overcome, the computer check said that Grounded would work just fine with my system. Yes! No need to spend multi 💲

Then on to Discord. After setting it up, first they couldn’t hear me. Now I knew from doing Zoom meetings that the headset I’m using works just fine with both speakers and mic, with no reverberations. So I checked the settings in Discord and finally got the mic and headphones to work, just that everything anyone said echoed. After about 10 minutes I managed to get the echo off my mic, but everything everyone else said still echoed. The others (Faceless, mastervara77, and thennightmarefox) were being very noisy. Someone kept throwing things at Faceless’ face, and in addition to the noise it made when it hit his face, he would let out a squeal every time. Very annoying, especially when the real-time squeals and the echoing squeals overlapped. One of the benefits of having adult kids is that they go live on their own so you don’t have to hear them squealing and bleating on all the time.

Anyway, eventually with the help of Google I found a setting in Discord that allowed noise suppression, and, voilà, when I rejoined the game in progress (how long do these games go on for?) the echo had disappeared.

Yeah! Now I was all set to join in and whoop the butts of these upstart kids! (when you’re my age, a 32-year-old is still a kid). Problem is, when I tried to do anything it was slower than molasses. Worse than that, it was slower than Faceless getting out of bed in the morning. I logged off, then tried running it in one player offline mode, and it was just as bad. Turns out my computer was not adequate for the job.

Now the question became – do I love my son enough to invest in a gaming computer so that we could get this cockanamie idea off the ground, and help him supplement his income? Well, if we could get his career as an influential gamer off the ground then yes, it would be worth it in the long. run. My mother-in-law had just died at almost 103 years old, and had left me a small amount of money in her will, so I decided I would use that to help pay for a new computer. OK, the money hadn’t actually arrived yet, but I would use my line of credit & pay it off when the money did arrive (see: Micawber Principle). A look at the cost of a few computers made me gulp, then Faceless mentioned he could build one from scratch for a lot less money by buying the individual components. So yeah, one minor earthquake and an e-tranfer of funds later, and the building process was underway.

Yesterday, the last of the components arrived at Faceless’ house. He is going to record the build, and explain what he is doing, and adding it to his YouTube channel. That should be happening this Friday. I can’t wait to get it and to get started with the gaming process.

Introducing the main characters

There are three main characters involved in teaching this Old Geezer new tricks.

First up is the old geezer himself. Old Geezer is a retired librarian, whose first personal computer was a Radio Shack TRS-80 computer, which had 16K of RAM, and used a cassette tape as backup. I just realized that I got this a full decade before FacelessJim was born. Over the years Old Geezer became the lead on introducing computers to the library for both staff and public use, and helped develop a massive database of photographs and information dealing with local history. Previous gaming experience is limited, with my favourite game being a pinball game made for the PS1, which was unfortunately never upgraded to any other version. I still own that disc.

Old Geezer decided to learn how to game using Twitch after watching FacelessJim and mastervara77 play Grounded and seeing the interaction they had with their followers, who welcomed my presence in their chat room. In fact, some of them now call me dad, and others grandad. It is obvious from watching FacelessJim game that his mother and I were completely unsuccessful in stemming his use of bad language!

Next is FacelessJim. Faceless describes himself as a wolf Vtuber who loves to play games, open Pokemon cards, and hang out, which is evident when you visit his channel. Faceless has two older siblings, and plans were in place for a younger sibling, and then, well, he came along and his mother and I decided enough was enough and I got a vasectomy. Not saying that he was a difficult child, but, to quote Robin Hood, Men in Tights, “what an unusual child.”

In real life, Faceless loves paintballing and is an accomplished and meticulous CNC operator (he uses special cutting machines to make tiny parts for satellites). He’s taken this penchant for creative detail onto his home base, with his own laser cutting and engraving machine to make specialized equipment for paintballers, as well as gift items that are totally customizable. He uses some of these as rewards and draws on his channel for those who subscribe. Visit his Etsy shop, JimsEngraving. I was watching one of his live streams the other day where he gave away one of the laser engraved photo tiles that he was going to engrave with a photo of the winner’s choice.

FacelessJim’s avatar was created and is copyrighted by @JuliaWinterPaw

mastervara77 has known Old Geezer and Faceless since she and Faceless were in elementary school, and Old Geezer moved to a house across the road from mastervara’s family. In high school they developed a symbiotic relationship and became inseparable, so much so that when Old Geezer got remarried and relocated to a town further down the highway Faceless and mastervara threw their lots in together and led a somwhat nomadic existence until they settled into their current home with their children, a cat, dogs, and an iguana, and a whole bunch of fish. The fish they actually raise for food in an aquaculture setup where the water is filtered through an aquaponic garden to grow their vegetables.

mastervera has an impressive collection of whips, handcuffs, and other devices that Old Geezer would prefer not to know about. I suspect that their use may be in some way associated with her name.