Homecoming

Gentle reader, please relax and allow me to regale you with tales of that Gotham jewel: New York City.

I arrived shortly after nightfall. Twas not my first visit to the Big Apple, so I immediately recognized the stench wafting in as the train's doors opened. My nose confirmed the conductor's announcements; I had arrived at my destination.

No doubt about it, New York is a huge city. Too big, in fact. I dislike how long it takes to get around, and how expensive it is, and how many people there are. And how dirty and stinky it was.

Don't get me wrong, though... It was lovely fun to visit, but I would very much prefer to not live there at any point in my future.

The week went by quickly. I engaged in various tourist pursuits, exploring Central Park, the Met, and the Natural History Museum. I visited Staten Island, saw the Statue of Liberty, hung out at 30 Rock, viewed the cityscape from The Empire State Building's viewing deck, and wandered the meandering streets of the Village.

I enjoyed traipsing around the city, despite the blisters on my feet. I ate delicious bagels for breakfast and dined on exotic cuisine by night. (Mostly Thai. Sooo good!)

All in all, it was glorious... and I am very pleased to be home.

"Better dead than red!"

Kotaku has a good little piece on Diablo III, if anyone's interested.

I'm getting ready to go to New York City for a week, so I'll not be updating. I'm looking forward to doing the tourist thing and getting my second glance at the Big Apple.

Travel is something I love to do. While I was living in Japan, I visited both China and Vietnam. I was very interested to see these communist nations, and was surprised to find that there really wasn't a huge difference in the city life compared to Western democracies. The lives that these commies lived actually seemed very similar to my own.

Nonetheless, this article is a good example of the potential downside of a "communist" government. (The article is from Game Politics, which is a really cool website if you're interested in that type of thing.)

If you are like me, a video game maniac who can literally play games for eight hours straight, then the article represents a horrible alternate reality. Vietnam's authoritarian government imposed limits on how much of one's free-time can be spent gaming.

I've heard of similar practices in China, as well. I can understand that they think its best for people to be productive and not waste their time on games, but it sure chafes me to imagine the government getting in my business.

Freedom truly is precious.

The other side of the coin (Making Excuses)

Back when West Virginia had its most recent mine disaster, I felt that the corporation responsible for operating the site was in the wrong. They were playing fast and loose with safety, they had been penalized for doing so in the past and had failed to fix things, and then we had the worst mine disaster in four decades.

Some people whose families' livelihood depended on those mine operations vehemently disagreed with this opinion, claiming that the miners themselves were more than happy with safety conditions and that it was all a big happy family. If the miners didn't want to work there they could always just quit, they suggested. I never did come to agree with such an opinion.

Now, however, I can perhaps see the other side of the coin. The Bayer Chemical Plant at Institute is phasing out one of their chief and most profitable items manufactured here in West Virginia. This could end up costing a lot of jobs in the local area, and might even affect some members of my family.

On the one hand, chemicals that cause health problems in children? Very bad. But part of me wants to rationalize; they may cause problems. If the application of such chemicals is carefully controlled, then the risk is minimal. And I could go on.

It is very interesting to see how easy and powerful one's ability to rationalize is, at least when something very important to the beholder is at stake.

A friend of mine has pointed out an entirely different concern about the article, however; if it is no longer being used due to unacceptable health risks, why on earth are they phasing it out? Why not shut it down immediately, and destroy the stockpiles?

I wish I could say I'm surprised by such lack of logic from a government regulator, but I figure it is just part of a government plea bargain with the Bayer corporation, and that's the best they could get so they'll take it.

Anonymity and the True You

One thing that both fascinates and horrifies me is the phenomenon of how easily people become total assholes when they are no longer under the constraints of society.

Take the internet, for example. We are virtual strangers on a digital frontier. Sitting in front of our computers, we have complete safety and anonymity; here you are truly free from the consequences of your actions.

Most people can easily become a bit of a jerk when they have a clear "enemy", such as while playing an online game against strangers, but aren't necessarily out to attack people otherwise. A few people, however, tend to revel in their freedom and go out of their way to be a jackass.

Often people claim to find humor in such behavior, termed trolling, and they do it because they find it funny or rewarding to get other people angry or upset. I have no clue what inspires such behavior, though I suspect it is linked to the "griefing" culture that has made me stay away from PVP servers.

I wonder what it is inside some people that makes them be so hateful when they are consequence-free. Regardless, after a few hours spent surfing the web, I often take a moment and marvel at how society is such a remarkably effective tool at curbing the baser aspects of human nature.

They say that you show your true self when nobody is looking.

Interesting.

Happy Friday the 13th!

Had a job interview today, and what a lucky day for an interview!

I guess America's latest folk hero is having an equally bad day, with lots of doubts being cast on his original story. The power and irresponsibility of the mainstream media really concerns me. People trust the media to bring them news, yet what the media really wants is ratings. In an effort to out-do their competition, they run stories that they haven't verified and sway public opinion before all events are known.

I for one greatly distrust the mainstream media, and hope that more Americans will start to do likewise.

America's Latest Hero

Move over, Captain Sullenberger! America's got a new hero of the skies.

I'm sure everyone has heard the news about that flight attendant who, after an excessively rude passenger cursed him out, got on the intercom and thanked those passengers who were not rude, then grabbed two beers from the galley and escaped through the plane's emergency chute. He was arrested "in a sexual embrace" at his home a few hours later.

When I first heard about that, I seriously thought "This guy is the man!" Apparently, so did most everyone else in America. Public opinion is overwhelmingly sympathetic with him, and I'm sure that this will factor into whatever punishment he ends up receiving.

I think that it was his grabbing two beers, reportedly saying "there goes 28 years" as he slid down the chute, and then being arrested in the midst of getting his last jollies before jail, that really makes this guy's story resonate with America. He may have lost his cool and flipped out, but he did it in style.


I for one love it, and hope he gets a very lenient sentence.

Update: Are things not quite as they first seemed?

RPGs - Part 2

Where did the weekend go? Time flies when you're house-sitting, I suppose. A long time ago, I posted my first entry talking about RPGs. Now the time has come to finish up my analysis of the differences between Western RPGs and JRPGs. In general, there are two major design concepts that set them apart: class definitions and how linear they are.

I find this a fascinating subject, because it really speaks volumes about the cultural values and expectations within our respect societies. The Japanese have a very rigid social hierarchy and everyone generally knows their role. Theirs is a highly defined society, with specific phrases that are to be used in specific situations.

Western countries, on the other hand, tend to value freedom of choice and individuality. We don't have specific roles rigidly assigned in any given situation. We tend to be more adaptable, and able to think outside the box a bit more easily.

Now of course, I'm speaking in gross generalizations and there will be countless examples that break the rules I'm portraying, but I still maintain that generally speaking these are hallmark traits of our respective cultures. And I equally think that our approach to designing role-playing games demonstrates this.

JRPGs tend to have classes, each with their strengths and weaknesses, which work together in their niche roles to defeat the Big Bad Evil Guy. Western RPGs tend to veer away from set classes and adopt a more skill-based approach, allowing the player to customize their own unique "class" that fits their preferred play-style.

As far as the continuation of plot, Western RPGs again value more of an individualistic approach which affords the player as much freedom as possible. The world is often open-ended and ready to be explored, with the only limiting factor being how fierce a region's opponents are. Japanese games are more like Final Fantasy XIII, which is very much set on railroad tracks with almost no open-ended exploration opportunities given to the player.

Western RPGs are like ordering a lunch at a restaurant, where you get your main item and two side items, plus a dessert, all individual choices to be made. Japanese RPGs are like choosing which bento lunch-box to buy, all prepackaged with a main item, two side items, and a dessert. The only choice to make is which prepackaged bento do you want?

Do you think my opinion is bullshit? I welcome you to tell me so. Poke holes in my argument, mention DA:O, rip on my lack of proof-reading. All comments are welcome :)

Civ 5 exlusively on Steam!

Short post today. I'm actually really quite busy; been applying to tons of jobs and trying to clean up my wreck of a room before I have to go house-sit for a week. (Nintendo Wii here I come!)

Anyways, I hadn't been staying up to date on Civ 5 and when I recently checked it out, I was surprised to see that it is apparently a Steamworks exclusive! That is a tremendous marketing slam-dunk for Steamworks, and as I'm already an avid user of Steam I don't mind one bit. I'll be interested if others aren't quite pissed off, though. I understood when Valve was making us go through their digital delivery service to play their games, but Civ 5 is in no way connected prior to this dark partnership.

If you want to read about it, here's an FAQ they posted.

In case you have a decent memory, let me just say I'm still planning on finishing my RPG post... someday.

Life in small town America

My parents moved to a new city while I was abroad, and I've been staying with them since I've come home. I grew up in the previous home, located in a town that wasn't incorporated. The traffic was terrible, there was no sense of community, and overall it just didn't feel like the small-town America I had seen on TV or read about in books.

That has since changed, as my new home is very much the picturesque slice of Americana that would make Mark Twain smile. Town hall, town police station, a community that rallies around the town's school sports organizations... I truly felt like I had arrived, and this in particular was the perfect salve for my homesick soul. I wanted more than anything to see small-town America when I got back from Japan, and now I had it.

I've taken to exploring on my mountain bike, just traveling all through the town as I learn the various roads and neighborhoods. I often will ride out to main street and watch the sunset, where they have some benches by the train tracks that run through our town. I like to enjoy a cigar while the sun descends, and just really relax.

Of course, on Monday while I was there, two police officers approached me. They told me that they had a call, that someone described me exactly and said I was selling narcotics. "Now why would they say that," the officer inquired. The tone was confrontational, and the onus of proof was suddenly on my head.

I am still amazed that anyone can just call in a report such as this. I was minding my own business, but some ultra-conservative redneck saw me smoking something that wasn't a cigarette and they instantly assume I'm a drug dealer?

Now, in all fairness: as soon as the police officers heard me deny the claim, and explain that I was just minding my own business smoking a cigar, they immediately dropped the confrontational tone and even apologized for wasting my time. "Welcome to a small town, it was probably just some nosy old person." In the end they introduced themselves, shook my hand, we made some small talk, and they departed while wishing me a good day.

Still, it was a jarring experience that has definitely marred my image of this new town as an idyllic American community. Irony is that I'm one of the devoutly law-abiding people, who strives to live up to Plato's description of a "virtuous citizen".

In other news, the (corporate) powers that be have agreed to some sort of net neutrality agreement, though critics say this would be a dangerous precedent suggesting that corporations can self-regulate, which may lend itself to abuse in the future. I can't decide how I feel either way, and am going to wait for more details before giving it any serious thought. Still, very interesting.

I promise: this is the last post about Starcraft 2 for a while

I finally beat the campaign, and it was a glorious ending! That sure was a tough final mission, though. I felt like the difficulty helped make it feel epic, and therefore fitting... but boy am I glad to finally have it behind me.

Now on to hard difficulty! Ugh, or maybe I'll take a few days off. Raynor's given his Raiders some R&R for a job well done. Maybe even more than well done... maybe burnt. Maybe even charred.

So, my final thoughts now that I've dabbled in the multiplayer and finished the singleplayer: Overall, the single player experience is a very fun and well-created campaign experience that would bear at least two play-throughs, and possibly more depending on your personality. Once you complete the campaign, there's plenty of challenge missions that help prepare you for multiplayer by familiarizing you with various units and counters, along with more advanced strategies.

When you're finally ready, you can hop into the beginner's league and play 50 unranked matches that give you a feel for how to play online. They include a very cool utility at the end of a match; you can see your opponents build order, along with income rates and troop production/army strength.

Players that actually care about getting better can reverse engineer a better strategy and incorporate it into their own. Even better, replays are very easy to save and watch now, giving you the perfect opportunity to study strategies that have proven more effective than your own.

Although multiplayer seems to be fairly well balanced, it is still the 90's insofar as actions-per-minute are what wins a battle. It is all about micromanagement, and that doesn't particularly appeal to me. I'll likely wile away most of my hours on Battle.net in the comfortable embrace of the use-map-settings category. Already there are plenty of impressive game-types, including tower defense and even a first-person-shooter mod!

Truly, what we'll see done using the Starcraft 2 map editor is going to be a veritable wealth of tangible fun. I can't wait to see what happens in the coming months.