Showing posts with label generators. Show all posts
Showing posts with label generators. Show all posts

Saturday, September 22, 2012

Review: Donjon

This site is completely new to me. Or, more accurately, a good DEAL of this site is completely new to me. In fact, anything that is not the Fractal World Generator is a whole new world. (I can be very obnoxious sometimes.) I decided to go through this generator, by generator, by generator, by generator. Y'see, unlike the other generators, that I had either seen before or were very small and could be understood rather quickly, Donjon is similar to the Sanctum or Chaotic Shiny in that it is a conglomeration of a multitude of generators.

 Usefulness: 4 out of 5

 Donjon is very focused on Dungeons and Dragons and Dungeon Mastering. That makes it "sort of" useful for writers (you have to make sure you're not archetyping too hard, which DnD tends to do). However, unlike many of the generators I normally frequent, this has a nice set of SciFi world/system generators. It'll give you planets! That's so convenient if you want to write a SciFi but don't want to worry about all the planets you're not ACTUALLY writing about.

The naming generators are pretty intense, about as hardcore as Rinkworks. You pick a main group of names (like "Outsiders") and then a subgroup (like "Earth Elementals"). There are so many options as far as names go, plus he separates them into Fantasy and SciFi.

Fun: 1 out of 5

This is a boring website. Oh god, it's so boring. The design is bland, there is no humor involved. It's not fun. I can find literally no redeeming qualities in it, as far as fun goes.

Hipster: 5 out of 5

I've been on this site a multitude of times and never realized that there was more than one generator. That should be answer enough.

Thursday, September 20, 2012

Review: Fractal World Generator

This is a really cool generator I get to review today. This generator creates planets. Yes, readers, whole planets! Combine with, say, Chaotic Shiny's culture and constellation generators and you could have a home for your novels for the rest of your life.

Usefulness: 3 out of 5

I think this generator has a limited popularity. Yes, it's crazy convenient to have a world map generated for you in seconds, with the option to adjust certain parameters. However, any WriMo who needs an entire planet created for their novel is probably going severely overboard.

The generator has multiple different style planets as well, which means you can create your home world and the planets in the system, which can be incredibly useful for SciFi writers who may need a plethora of planets to discuss.

Fun: 3 out of 5

This is totally biased. In all honesty, I should give this a 1 out of 5. So, for those of you who don't care about my biases, just assume that's what it is.

However, I must say, it's really cool to just magically create a planet at the click of a button. I like to think I'm playing god and "Letting there be light" all throughout the universe. So, if, like most writers, you have a serious God complex, this can actually be pretty enjoyable.

Hipster: 4 out of 5

I have no idea what this website is. I have never actually looked into it until now. You can generally find a link to this generator on writers' forums, hidden in their somewhere, but only to the generator. However, the side links say that it has multiple generators involved (that I have never heard of anyone using). Obviously, this will involve a second review to determine the value of the rest of the site.

Tuesday, September 18, 2012

Review: Rinkworks Name Generator!

Rinkworks is one of my favorite places on the web, specifically because of their Book-A-Minute series. As someone who is from the Internet, you would've thought I'd already know about their name gen. Nope. Not a clue. This is proof that people on the internet don't look past what they're looking for/at.

Usefulness: 5 out of 5

Let me tell you why this is so useful, because I've been giving a lot of perfect scores for these gens. THIS is useful because it is the first and only generator I've found that truly let's you control what is generated. The Advanced System has a damn instruction manual to teach you how to gnerate names based on YOUR personal preferences. I would explain it here, but it's quite long and honestly, I haven't completely mastered it yet. But it's the perfect generator for someone who's attempting to build their own culture. You can define vowels, consonants or even strings of letters to include in the names.

And, say that's too much work for you (as it would be for me in the midsts of NaNo-frenzy). Rinkworks also has a thorough "Simply" interface that cane generate names from, if I can count correctly, 33 different categories. Including Pokemon. And, well, you'll always have me at Pokemon.

Fun: 2 out of 5

 The Advanced interface really drops points for the overall fun. Yes, I want to give it a 5 out of 5 because POKEMON, but I didn't. That was responsible of me, wasn't it? Due to the fact that you have to read a long instruction manual to use this tool, it really drags you down.

Hipster: 4 out of 5

The actual Rinkworks site is more of a 3 out of 5. The Book-A-Minute thing is pretty damn funny and gets visitors coming. The Name Generator, however, is hidden enough that I didn't see it until now (which I'd like to say is years after first finding the site, but I honestly can't remember). While this could just mean that I'm blind as a bat or oblivious, I'm going to instead assume that it's just hidden away and only sneaky people can find it. It's gentler on my ego.

Saturday, September 15, 2012

Review: Behind the Name: Random Name Generator

I will be doing a review of the Behind the Name website later in the semester, as far as naming websites go. However, since we're on the topic of generators, I wanted to review their Random Name Generator.

Usefulness: 5 out of 5

Now, I'm sure some of you are thinking, "Noooo Meghan, Behind the Name can't be a 5! It's only one generator!" And, technically, Some of You, you'd be correct. If I was basing the usefulness of a site on how many generators it had, Behind the Name would get a 1. However, that's not what this rating is based on. The usefulness of this one generator is exorbitant. This generator can name anyone. You can use it for a YA novel, maybe, the name of the sexy Italian male lead. Or maybe you need it for a historical piece, some Norse vikings off to conquer the world. Maybe you're naming some fantasy characters- You could use a less well-known culture to pull names from, or just pick the "Witch", "Fairy", or "Kreatyve" options. Hell, you can even name Transformers style. This generator packs some serious heat.

Fun: 1 out of 5

Outside of the short list of "interesting" options (Witch, Transformer, Hippy), this generator is not very much fun. Okay, I'm being really nice saying that. This generator is boring. You go to it, hit your buttons and move on.  No playing around here.

Hipster: 2 out of 5

Behind the Name itself is a pretty well known website. It contains the history and etymology of not just first names, but surnames as well, so it's the kind of site that is frequented by more than just writers. This little generator sits on the sidebar just waiting for you to click it. However, the shoddy layout and graphics of BtN may make finding things a little difficult- It's hard to look at something so ugly for so long.

Friday, September 14, 2012

Review: The Forge (By Thewingless.com)

I've been playing around with this guy for a while now, and I have to say I'm not very impressed. The site and it's layout are gorgeous- well-designed and minimalist with a color scheme that doesn't make me want to claw my eyes out. I was so happy looking at the design that I thought about adding  design element to my grading scheme. However, using the actual generator interface was such a downer, as you'll see based on my grade.

Usefulness: 2 out of 5

Oh dear. The Forge is a really interesting concept. It's actually 4 generators, The Forge, the Landforge, the Spellforge and the Beastforge. It's a pop-up, kind of like a flash game, which lost it points right off the bat, because I do NOT want to have to deal with pop-up blockers when I'm trying to generate. The naming generator, the Forge, is shitty. No other words for it. Some of my suggestions were "Stone Slayer", "Sprite Dust" and "Maiden Form", yes, Maiden Form, like the bra. The Beastforge creates stereotypical beasts, the Spellforge stereotypical spells and the Landforge, you guessed it, stereotypical realm names. With a non-traditional interface and such uncreative suggestions, I'd skip the Forge all together and just head to Chaotic Shiny or the Sanctum.

Fun: 1 out of 5

Learning a new generator interface is not fun. Especially when generators are as simple as they can get to begin with. It's not fun to get shitty suggestions. If the Forge generated interesting names/beasts/spells/realms, it might actually be fun to figure out how everything works, play around with retaining bits here and changing bits there. However, this is not the case. It's boring. Honest truth.

Hipster: 5 out of 5

This is a sort of biased answer. I had never heard of this site before trolling through the NaNo forums. It comes from what looks like a personal site, something called thewingless.com, that leads to a scifi-esque layout. The Forge itself stinks of hipster, with an "About" and "History" page, explaining how the generator has a "stunning, streamlined user interface" and how "names have power".

Not Reviewing: The Ever Changing Book of Names

Abbreviate EBon, the Ever-Changing Book of Names is shareware.

This means I'm not reviewing it. Sorry guys, not happening. I don't download things from the internet.

But, as it IS a name generator, I figured I'd mention it, give it it's own post and, maybe, if one day I have a reader who ISN'T my thesis mentor, someone can tell me what they think of it.

Thursday, September 13, 2012

Review: Chaotic Shiny

Oh Chaotic Shiny. You are so wonderful. Not as dear to my heart as the Sanctum, which has been with me since my first foray into the web-based writing world, way back in '05, but still wonderful.

Now, I'm just going to dive right into the review of this site, solely because I am about to do something I never thought I would. Try not to be angry at me, as I go over my own scale to descrbie how great this site is.

Usefulness: 6 out of 5

If Seventh Sanctum is the pinnacle of usefulness, Chaotic Shiny is the stratoshpere. It's like, having nukes in Civ 5 when everyone else has warriors. It's ass-kicking and name-taking. Shiny contains many similar generators to the Sanctum, broken up into similar categories. However, Shiny succeeds in two places the Sanctum does not. One, Chaotic Shiny generates a LOT of words. The "CivGen", or civilization generator, generates 50 separate words describing different aspects of your newly created civilization, ranging from culture, to population, to economy. You can even put in constraints, like what time period the civilization thrived in (ancient to far future) and whether or not they possess magic. For those of us who are just winging it when NaNo comes along, Chaotic Shiny is the place to go for substantial plot details.(You know this site is good when it can generate a valid DnD 4e character, dice rolls and all)

Two, Chaotic Shiny tied itself intrinsically with National Novel Writing Month.  Not only does Shiny have a generator meant to motivate us, suggesting that "If you write 163 words in a row that questionably-dressed hottie you've been eyeing will turn out to prefer your gender, after all.", but they even have a NaNo calendar app for FREE on their product site. NaNoWriters, you have found your home. Not only does Shiny know that you can't be bothered to come up with your own complex ideas, but they know just how hard it is to write your simple ones too. Shiny has your back through it all.

Fun: 4 out of 5

Shiny doesn't tie with Sanctum here because of their lack of contests. Shiny has a similar amount of humor based generators. However, the Sanctum ups the ante by having hilarious art contest using their generators.

Something that must be mentioned, however, and a large part of the reason that Shiny gets a 4, is their RPG Drinking Game. Yes, Chaotic Shiny randomly generates a drinking game based on RPG tropes. Srsly. I don't even know how to begin explaining how awesome that is.

Hipster: 3 out of 5
 Shiny's not Sanctum. Sanctum's tie to Deviant Art will probably make it the least obscure overall  out of everything I review (save, maybe Holly Listle). Shiny is not entirely obscure. Shiny has a huge product site and a damn good following both of writers and gamers. Chaotic Shiny is the kind of website that, if it's not incredibly popular now, has so much potential to be incredibly popular in the near to immediate future.

Wednesday, September 12, 2012

Review: Serendipity

In keeping with the last (and my first) post, I'm reviewing another generator site today. Serendipity Generators, at nine.frenchboys.net, is a site you can find through the sidebar or Seventh Sanctum. Serendipity is similar to the Sanctum in that it is a conglomerate of different generators. However, Serendipity, unlike the Sanctum, is nowhere near as exhaustive. In fact, recently (like, as of 9/12/12), the site has been undergoing some changes that have caused the full list of generators to be unavailable.

Serendipity is probably best known for the French name generators, though they also have Japanese, Medieval (which is really more English) and Fantasty name generators as well. (Just a hint, the beginning of the word links to female generators, the end to male.)

Usefulness: 3 out of 5

Serendipity can be incredibly useful, in a limited scope. The naming generators are the best. They provide accurate sounding names that are not going to confuse your reader. The City and Stronghold generators provide a good chunk of text describing your possible locations. However, with some of the generators missing, this site is almost useless compared to the Sanctum. It eeks into a 3 solely because of the varied modern name generators it provides- a counterpoint to the Sanctum's primarily Fantasy ad SciFi namers.

Fun: 2 out of 5

Noooot really anything fun going on with the current selection. Not that that's a problem. All the generators do their job splendidly. It's just, nothing's funny, nothing's particularly interesting about the site. It's a generator site and that's that.

Hipster: 3 out of 5

This is a little hard to judge. Serendipity IS on the Sanctum's linklist. Therefore it cannot be completely obscure. Plus, the site explains that spammers took down the full generator list. This means that its got a following, for sure. However, because I have been unable to 1) google it (it is not present in the first page of a "serendipity" google search, which is partly due to an overused name) or 2) connect it to any big name websites (besides the Sanctum), I must assume that Serendipity is at least a little bit obscure. Writers may pass it around their inner circle, but it has a relatively small presence on the web.


Saturday, September 8, 2012

Review: Seventh Sanctum

Seventh Sanctum is a website that is dear to my heart. I have used it hundreds of times to flesh out details in a novel. It is a "generator" site- Hundreds of lines of code created to produce random outputs in certain categories. My favorite section of the site? The Naming Generators. It contains 23 different generators that can name characters in styles from "Dark Elf" to "Western". It also contains naming generators for places, taverns and pirate ships.

Usefulness: 5 out of 5

This website is so incredibly useful. Say you need to describe a slew of potions in a magician's den for your high fantasy epic? Potion Generator. Say you need some technologies from the far future or, more accurately, some crazy sounding devices for your Dr. Who fanfiction? SciFi Tool Generator. Best of all is the "Writing" section of the site, which contains over a dozen generators for plots and story ideas. Have no idea what you want to write for NaNoWriMo? No problem! Just pick your favorite plot generator and you'll have a novel idea in no time. The Sanctum also has extensive links to other generator sites, organized by what section you're looking in. Not only is the site itself super useful, but it is just as happy to send you somewhere else if you aren't getting what you need.

Fun: 5 out of 5

A lot of generators on this site are just hilarious. The Cat Being Name Generator, for those of us writing werepanthers or anime-style catgirls, can suggest names in the vein of Thundercats, with offerings like  Felinni and Caracal-a. The Humor section, though small, contains generators for Questionable Spells, Questionable Anime Attacks, and Evil Animal Minions like the "berserk android squirrels!"

Hipster: 1 out of 5

This is a judge of how obscure this website it. The Sanctum is not obscure. You will hear mention of on almost any writing forum on the Web. A good portion of the site's following are artists from Deviant Art, a highly popular art-post and critique website. Deviant Art users participate in art contests based on the Sanctum's many generators. With such a widely known and popular website tied so closely to the Sanctum, it is one of the least obscure writing tools on the great wide Web.

Overall, the Sanctum is an incredibly convenient site for the NaNo months as it decreases the amount of time you need to spend on logistics and the time-consuming act of "being creative". Instead of agonizing over what would be the best name for the IT department working with the cops to try and catch your murderer, you can just click a button and bam, "Bureau of Programming Installation and Implementation".