Gamer Jesters Podcast - Episode 7 - Season 2 Premiere

https://anchor.fm/gamerjesters/episodes/Episode-7---Dec-29-2018-e2uc31

This week we are talking about The Game Awards, Super Smash Bros DLC and our predictions, The Playstation Classic price drop and what we wish was on it, PS PLUS, Predictions for 2019 and much more! 

I won a DailyGoodie Box!

Dailygoodie box is sort of a subscription type of box without an actual subscription. It ditched the subscription based model instead you sign up on their site and fill out some profile questions, and interact with their offers in hopes that they send you a message to your inbox saying you have a box on your way. The box features usually more healthy, natural, or organic type of products. In exchange for getting a box for free you just have to leave some feedback on the products you receive.
It is an interesting model and if you are lucky enough to be chosen a unique way to try new products.

I was chosen via a facebook post.  They are huge on doing social media giveaways. They usually will ask a question or tell you about a product on Facebook and give between 50 and 100 boxes away a day. Just to people who answer their questions on Facebook. There doesn't seem to be a particular method to how they choose people So you just have to give them your comments and hope for the best. I had received mine after answering a question about what I like about DailyGoodie Box. The short version of my post involved me talking about how involved the community was on social media and everyone is friendly towards one another and having the chance to try products I otherwise may pass up on. That seemed to be good enough to work for me. Not saying the same answer will help you get selected. I had replied to nearly 20 of their posts before finally getting selected for one so replying is now guarantee. Let's get to the review shall we!!

This was a vegan friendly nail polish and an energy gum

Witch Hazel Shampoo and Conditioner and An all Natural drug free sleep aide

Pure Fruit Bar and a Mojito Energy Drink

Hangover Prevention.. Tea and some sort of protein bar

 I am a guy and I don't normally wear nail polish. Back in my Emo/Goth phase I was all about that. I might break out nail polish on occasion for a character for comic con or a costume party. So I figured I'd try it. It was vegan and animal cruelty free.  That was nice but overall the quality wasn't the best. It took a few coats more than I expected to actually get the colour to match the bottle. It goes on very thin at first. Not the thickest nail polish. Holds up well though so I guess that's a plus.  The energy gum I found to be lacking long lasting flavour and I noticed no boost in energy. I feel that was a bit of a let down.

The napz sleep aide I tried on a few different occasions. It basically is just sleepy time tea in a capsule form. It gives you the same benefits of sleepy time tea without having to run to the bathroom all night. Depending how you normally react to sleepy time tea this would be the same general thing. For me I was able to fall asleep within 30 minutes and it helped relax me a bit.  Had that nice calming feeling where my mind was able to just relax. I actually enjoyed this product. It did leave me a bit groggy in the morning but it wasn't the worst.

The witch hazel shampoo and conditioner were different for me. I hated the smell of it right from opening it.. The lavender didn't do much to balance out the hair dye type of smell this shampoo had. It was nice for drying out my hair though. I mean that in a good way. In the heat and humidity my hair retains oil so it was nice to get some of that excess oil out.

The fruit bars were disgusting.  I was expecting them to be good but I don't know if it was the Apple/Blueberry combo or that it was just bad. The fruit filling tasted overly dry. I would not eat any more of those. The energy drink had a bit too much sugar for my liking but the flavor wasn't bad. I did like the mojito flavor. Wasn't as overwhelming as most energy drinks tend to be.

Had no use for the hangover prevention. I did take one before a night of going out but I noticed no difference. The protein bar was much bigger than expected and the peanut butter flavour was wonderful .The rest of it was sort of on the bland side. It was however rather filling. It was chewy enough to make you slow down and enjoy it a bit.
The tea was this ginger type of tea. To me that tasted a bit like kombucha tea without the vinegar type taste that the fermentation normally gives kombucha tea.

Overall this was a cool box to get. I am not sure that I would pay for a monthly subscription if they ever offered one. There are plenty of other options for healthy oriented type of subscription boxes.  So for now I am thrilled having the chance to try to win a box on occasion. It is an unexpected treat and I got to try some new products I may otherwise have never tried. From this particular box I'd be most likely to start buying Grandpa Soap Company's Witch Hazel Conditioner/Shampoo and The Napz sleep aide.

Crowdtap a survey type site that I actually like!

I don't remember how I came across CROWDTAP but I'm glad I did. For those of you that aren't familar with Crowdtap this is how they describe themselves

Crowdtap is a community of people who come to discover and try products from popular brands, create content, and spread the word with their friends. On Crowdtap, you’ll have the opportunity to:

• Explore and test products
• Share feedback and influence products and initiatives from major brands
• Share your opinions and experiences with our community
• Earn points (and redeem for rewards!)

They deliver on the majority of those points and it is a fun time. The most common thing you will see on crowdtap is multiple choice 1 question style surveys. They are usually worth about 3 points each. I usually end up seeing between 20 and 30 of these ad day. It may not seem like much but it adds up quickly. The next most common thing you will see if the OPEN ENDED STYLE questions. These are still usually 1 or 2 questions and worth around 20 points. You don't see them as often but you may get between 1 and 5 a day. On a few rare occasions there are focus group style questions. Those are a bit longer. They may have between 10 and 20 questions but they usually give around 100 or 200 points when you complete them. On occasion you do get a few surveys that qualify you for a potential sampling opportunity. The amount of points that they reward very and for leaving some honest feedback you get to keep whatever the product it is they send you..  I recently got to try out a few Lysol branded products. As with many of the sampling type of sites the opportunities you get to sample products is not very often. 

WHAT ABOUT THE REWARDS?

One thing I hate about most survey sites is the rewards take way too long to get and have such high point values. I actually feel like Crowdtap is a bit more generous in that regard. It didn't take me long at all to earn enough points to cash out for a $10 Playstation giftcard. They recently changed their rewards. In the past you automatically got a $5 amazon card for every 1000 points you earned. Now they have multiple values as far as giftcards and a few different ones to choose from. The downside is now your points are only good for a year after you earn them. So it is best to keep track of when you earned your first few points if you have a particular reward in mind.

The site has gone through a lot of changes recently and there is even an app on the way as well as personal referral codes coming out according to a recent social media post they made.

It took me less than a month to earn enough points to get my 2000 points required for my Playstation card. I am not sure if that is a normal occurrence or I just had an influx of opportunity. Either way I feel crowdtap is one of the more rewarding Survey style sites. If you aren't already using it then put it on your radar!

This is small preview of the common multiple choice questions. I had already answered a few so I could be over 2000 points to get my reward.

Some of the virtual gift cards you can choose from

Redemption was easy. You just confirm and they send to your email and within a couple of hours you have your giftcard.

Jesters Game Talk Podcast 1

Gaming update Podcast: Googles Yeti in Episode 6

Disney Brings the Magic to Codenames

Thanks to Tryazon and Usaopoly I was selected for the chance to host a Disney Codenames party. I love a good game night and I love to throw a little get together for several of my friends.

For some reason I thought The Little Mermaid was a wonderful theme.

I even decided to make a mixed drink that I called Ariel's Under The Sea Punch. It was delicious!

Anyway if you aren't familiar with what Codenames is let me explain a bit. There are two teams competing against each other. Pictures and words are laid out on a 5X5 grid. There is also a small card that tells which pictures and words belong to which team. One person on each team is the giver of clues. 1 word only clues and a number that correspond to how many pictures or words are on the grid. The game is simple enough but it gets competitive  quite quickly.

This is an example of the how the game is laid out. There are two colors that represent each team. If you were the red team you might give your teammate the clue of ANIMAL 4. Meaning there are 4 animals that are the red color. 

The real fun of codenames is coming up with clues. That is not always an easy task because sometimes what seems like an obvious clue could make your teammate choose the wrong teams card. It should be noted though that this game is best played if you have seen a variety of Disney movies. I mean most common movies are covered. If you are a huge fan of the Disney universe then you won't have any issues in figuring out what cards belong to what movies. The game can be played with either words or pictures, but I found the pictures version to be more fun. Especially since the artwork on most of the cards is stunning. 

Overall I had five people show up at my party. Which is a rather small number. The game can be played with 2-8 people but I have found four or at the most 6 to be the magic number.  We played a couple of different ways first with 3 on 3 and then since we had a second game in our kit we decided to break up and do two separate 3 player modes.

We became the main players as Group 2 was enjoying their version and the Disney music videos in the other room after they split from us leaving us on this side of the table.

Group 2 taking a break from playing. I apologize for the lousy quality of this pic. I didn't realize till the party was over that the sun ruined this image..

It was a fun day to be had by all and everyone had a good time at the party. I will be adding this to my regular game nights as a social ice breaker type game. I thank Tryazon and UsaOpoly once again for giving me the opportunity to host this party. 

Codenames is one of my favorite games to play and I have a few different versions. This holds up and plays just as well as the rest of them. It is geared towards the Disney fan. So if not everyone in your group is a huge fan of Disney then I would personally say stick to the regular or casual themed versions of the Codenames game. With that being said I would normally give regular code names a 4.5. out of 5. Since this retains a lot of what makes that fun but loses the casual element, I give this....

4 out of 5 Stars
★★★★☆

The Battle of Karaoke Apps: Smule's Sing vs Starmaker. Which one will win?

SMULE SING APP

STARMAKER KARAOKE

Karaoke is a passion of many people. Gone are the days of having to go get your karaoke fix at the bar and wait for your turn to sing a song that the dj may or may not have. There are options online such as websites like Singsnap. While they have their own app, I believe it is only available for IOS devices at the moment. I may review Singsnap the website in a future update. Youtube is another wonderful option for karaoke but with that lacks the ability to record yourself to the karaoke track. Let's get this sing off started and see which app will go home the winner. 

ROUND 1 - Song Selection, Quality,  and Vocal Effects

Both of these apps have an amazing selection of songs to choose from. When it comes to terms of quality of the songs Smule has the advantage. While both apps do sometimes suffer from uploads where the vocals have been removed in audacity, or not at all. Smule blows Starmaker out of the water when it comes to the overall quality and presentation of the songs. For example on Smule you can preview what the karaoke track sounds like before you sing it. This helps you determine if it is worth recording and what kind of quality the track is. It doesn't appear that you can yet do that on Starmaker. Both apps do have a rating system for quality of the tracks but not everyone rates the quality accurately leaving a mixed result. When it comes to vocal effects both apps are similar. Both have an auto tune type of effect, reverb, and different styles. Even though Starmaker's effects are all free and you can apply them during or after.  Smule does have some VIP effects but they still have overall more variety and control. 

This Round goes to SMULE 

ROUND 2 - Who has the better free version?

Both of these apps are free to use. While I don't know off hand if either has a recording limit I have not hit it on either one of them and I have a few hundred songs recorded. The Vip versions of the apps are the same price $4.99. The vip versions both do the same things. They remove ads, give you a few exclusive songs that may have a higher quality or in some way be better than one you can find for free. They both give you the option to join a duet for free. Where they differ is with Smule you have to be VIP to start a duet, or sing solo. On smule you are rather limited to hoping someone has sung a version of a song you like so you can join them. On Starmaker you currently have the option to do a solo, start a duet, or join a duet all for FREE!  

This Round goes to STARMAKER

Round 3 - Popularity

Both of these apps have a ton of users. You will rarely not find someone to duet with. Starmaker does have a few more features that tend to appeal those looking for more followers. The option to send gifts and contests hosted by the app. It does start to fall into the category of a lot of people just following others in hopes that they get more followers. On Smule I feel like I've made some better connections and found a few regular singing partners because not everyone is just liking and commenting whatever gets posted. Although in that regard with the daily rankings and higher chance for exposure to gain more followers... Starmaker edges out Smule if you are looking to get a little more views.

This Round Goes to STARMAKER

Round 4 - User Interface

One important thing is how the app looks and interacts overall. Honestly both apps are very similar in that regard. Their UI is very similar. I did find Smule to be a bit more user friendly the first time logging on. Everything was very easy to navigate through. Starmaker isn't difficult to navigate through but it didn't feel as natural or fluid if that makes sense. In terms of other visuals the songs display similar singing cues for duet. Person A is given one color and Person B is given another and there's a third color that indicates when to sing together. On Smule the words are bigger and bolder and move more naturally and the transition in color changes is much smoother. On Starmaker it is a bit more rough. One bonus starmaker has here is the ability to skip straight to the song. For songs with longer intros that is a nice bonus if you are pressed for time but that doesn't totally make up for where it is otherwise sloppy. 

THIS Round goes to SMULE

Round 5 - Extra Features

This could be the decision maker for a lot of people. Some of the extra features in Starmaker are interesting. Such as the previously mentioned contests, singing rooms, gifts giving, and  daily rankings. While Smule doesn't have those it does have the ability to do large group songs and probably its most fun feature SING WITH THE ARTIST. Being able to do duets with some of today's top recording artists is an experience many fans dream of. Not many will get to ever do that in real life so this is the closest that they will get. That does increase the fun factor.

THIS ROUND goes to SMULE

TOTAL
SMULE 3 STARMAKER 2

Winner: SMULE

It was a close contest. Neither app is bad and each has their own unique charm that make them both incredibly fun to use.