Organizational Idea: A Gaming Calendar of Events
It appears that the days of the one game gamer are over. With so many games constantly coming out, and all of the older games that have been played already, that I and other gamers are likely to be more than one game gamers for the foreseeable future. This topic of conversation came up yesterday during my Twitch live stream, and I thought to myself, given that I have a desire to play multiple games and so do many others, would it be a value add to create a gaming calendar of events for my specific community of the games that I want to play? This calendar would take the in-game event calendars of a number of games and take them outside of the game on a viewable and sharable calendar format that my community at large can look at in case they wanted to join me in my gaming endeavors.
On the one hand, I like the idea a lot. It would keep me on a schedule so that I would not miss the most important aspects of the games that I enjoy. It would also keep things fresh for me and my channel as it would add a level of variety into the mix that would be both enjoyable to myself and my community and would also cut down on burn out by trying to stick to one game only. For example, while Albion Online seems to be the main game for the moment, we could easily take the important events and weekly tasks and put them into a calendar so that I can focus on the highest value-added activities during the week. This would include the Adventurers' Challenge, Faction Warfare Challenge, and Conquerors Challenge. If we wanted to go super granular, it could even include the daily bonuses that Albion has in its calendar as well.
On the other hand, the calendar cannot be made far too rigid as new announcements of games and events are constantly being added, and hence, some things may have to be put on the backburner if there are conflicting activities between different games on the same day. I have to be very careful to not make the calendar feel like a job and have room to make some form of executive decisions on days when I simply do not wish to play the game that is scheduled. That kind of defeats the purpose, but I know myself and sometimes it is just hard to play a game due to burnout.
There are a few games I currently have installed in addition to Albion Online that I can attempt to create a calendar with, including; Shroud of the Avatar Forsaken Virtues, Elder Scrolls Online, and Path of Exile 2. I know of a few events currently happening in Elder Scrolls Online, namely the Night Market and the Golden Pursuits that go along with it. I also know that a major update to Path of Exile 2 is coming on May 29th, 2026 that should be pretty fun to check out. In regard to Shroud of the Avatar, I simply wish to check that game out again since it has been quite some time and I am craving a more traditional sandbox adventure. Additionally, the events I put on the calendar can be self-directed goals that I have so the pressure to only play a game during an event, especially when the event calendar is not very populated, is eased through self-directed activities. An example of this could be a sky shard farm in Elder Scrolls Online in a zone or two as a reason to log in and play that game.
I think another reason I am thinking of creating this type of a gaming calendar is because I am likely going to have a part time job starting next week. I already wrote about my thoughts in a previous blog post about the Gas Station Clerk position, and I know that it will likely have a pretty significant impact on my steaming schedule. I would likely not be able to stream every single day anymore, so keeping my community abreast for when I do have time to stream would be another excellent benefit of the streaming calendar. This could also be put on the calendar to let people know that there will not be a stream because "Blackboa is Working IRL" or something of that nature.
Given my desire to do this for myself, I will start doing some research on appropriate tools to use. I know that Twitch itself has a calendar attached to it, so that may be the best place to start. I also know that google calendar has a robust calendar attached to Gmail that may also be helpful. I would also imagine that discord may be available for ease of creating a calendar as well. It would be perfect to have a channel specifically for that and create it on a monthly basis. I look forward to sharing my next moves with my community through an interactive gaming calendar.
Until next time,
Blackboa