An opinionated geek's views on everything

Writer's Block?

2011-09-29T16:50:00.000-04:00

I've long desired to write. Ever since I was little, I dabbled in fiction and poetry and the like. Turns out I'm god-awful at poetry, but I can come up with some decent story-telling when the mood strikes me.

And that is the problem. The mood generally strikes me when I'm busy working... far away from a computer, with no time to even jot down ideas. (Interesting note: did you know that people once wrote things down on paper? How bizarre!) By the time I get home, my ideas no longer inspire me, or I've forgotten them, or I'm too tired to think straight and just go to bed only to repeat the miserable cycle!

But I don't actually consider it writer's block, mind, because I'm certainly not a writer. Not yet. I need to be writing stuff before I can call myself a writer!

Yet when the desire is there, and the free time is available, I always find myself staring at a blank word document. What gives!?

Where did the summer go!?

2011-09-26T21:50:00.000-04:00

Obviously, blogging is one of the first things to go when my life gets too busy.

I'm meaning to get back into the habit of posting, if for no other reason than that I desperately need more practice at writing.

Sidebar: I've been debating the idea of getting augmented, if such a thing was available. I think I'd go with minor neural augmentations while retaining all my limbs and organs intact. Maybe then I could finally learn to play more than a few children's tunes on the violin?

I love that my job involves lots of travel. I've been able to see the four seasons of my beautiful Mountain State like never before, and consistently stumble upon cool things to see and do that I never knew existed.

If nothing else, my time in Japan helped awaken the inner tourist within me. Plus, my time away has helped me to really see West Virginia with fresh eyes - Always before, I took its beauty for granted.

And yet I possess a thirst for a more urban existence. Inexplicably, I long to replace my green hills with steel ones, my sleepy towns with bustling crowds. I've always longed for "the city", ever since I was a kid. I remember saying I'd live in NYC someday. (Since then, I've found out how grungy NYC can be... especially if you don't have a lot of money!)

I'm not sure where I'll end up in the next few years, but I know that my time in my home region is a brief rest before setting out on my journey once more.

The Video Game Dream

2011-06-29T08:32:00.000-04:00

Upon occasion, when I'm indulging in a game with a determined (read: obsessive) focus, I'll have dreams of the game after finally succumbing to that pesky need for sleep.

Sounds fun, yeah? My enjoyment of the game doesn't have to end just because I'm not playing it anymore! Unfortunately, these dreams are invariably exhausting, repetitive, and boring. I can only seem to enjoy game-dreams when they come randomly, such as my recent Skyrim experience.

Another interesting situation is when you've been playing a game with such dedication that you begin getting confused in real life, either seeing things and interpreting them as things you know from the game, or else trying to utilize functions of the game's UI in your daily activities.

For example, I distinctly recall one sleepy Sunday morning from my childhood: I sat in a pew at the Baptist church my family attended, and my half-dozing brain tried to figure out how to "right click" my preacher to /con him.

If you never had the joy of a stolen social life thanks to EverQuest, allow me to explain: to right click, or "/consider" something, was to see how strong it is compared to you and whether or not it is hostile. This was something that wise players did obsessively, because unlike the MMOs of today that coddle our youth, EverQuest was brutal in its design and had all sorts of very powerful, very hostile creatures seeded throughout low level areas.

Looking back, I'm amazed at how much time I spent playing EverQuest. That was one brutal MMO by today's soft standards.

Pneumatic Dreams

2011-06-28T11:21:00.000-04:00

The other night, I had a dream that I was playing Skyrim. It was vivid, too: I felt the rain on my face as I raised my sword and slew Daedra. I could smell the lush flora mixed with the muted decay of an ancient stone fortress. (Obviously, my subconscious didn't quite get the climate of the frigid northern province.)

My dream so moved me that I literally woke up out of breath, such was my desire to play the latest chapter of the Elder Scrolls. That, or else I had some sort of serious respiratory infection.

Upon catching my breath (which was disturbingly hard to do), I dutifully began installing Oblivion. "The next best thing," I vowed to myself. Truthfully, this has been a long time coming; I had meant to play through Oblivion more than three times previously.

Twice I gave up after my characters became unplayable due to the game's inherent design, and twice more due to Alienware's dubious hardware. (I've told that story before, haven't I?)

This time, though, I imagined myself carefully analyzing the skills I could control and leveling up in a rigid pattern that would net me the maximum attribute bonuses possible. Oh yes, I'm that kind of nerd.

I realized how serious my illness was when I woke up three days later, with Oblivion installed and ready and yet steadily neglected. I had spent the entire intervening period in bed, coughing all the while. Oh, there was a brief sojourn to the doctor's office at some point, followed by x-rays and super antibiotics. Its sort of a haze for me, to be honest.

All I know is that when I have time off from everything but bed-rest, I ought to be playing games. That I couldn't muster the energy to sit in a chair is testament to the severity of my indisposition.

Today's the first day that I actually feel up to sitting in my chair, though sadly I'm not sure I can do all that much else quite yet.

Do you ever dream of video games? That's something I'd like to further explore, but I think that it'll save for another post.

Stay healthy!

Portal 2's Pre-Release ARG

2011-04-18T11:19:00.001-04:00

So initially I was really pumped for Portal 2's ARG.
The set-up was intriguing to begin with; trying to figure out wtf regarding the Potato Sack games, then realizing the connection and finding new Portal related levels in some of my games. All of that was masterfully done.

The puzzle solutions of the ARGs were fun to read about, which is generally how I participate in those sorts of events. (I'm strictly a wiki "the events so far" kinda guy.)

Once the potential for an early release was announced (as foretold by some clever soul), I became very committed to doing what I could to aid the cause. I tried recruiting my friends as well, but of the five who could participate, only one was dedicated.

Another two were spotty with their help and refused to leave the computer running overnight. (They are obviously traitors to the cause, and in fact were likely sent by the Combine to keep tabs on what's happening.) The other two didn't even pretend to participate. Needless to say, I was disappointed.

As of 10:45 on Monday morning, current projections show that we're only shaving a handful of hours off the release.

Now that I'm a working stiff, I'm no longer in a position to stay up until 4AM for a new release; especially on a weeknight!

In other words, it would appear that this "early release" event has turned out to be a spectacular failure. True to their word, the developers put the game's release into our collective hands... Turns out that most people didn't want it bad enough, I suppose.

Now, I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that I don't think this is what the developers were wanting when they envisioned this cooperative event. What started out fun ended up transforming into frustration and disappointment. Were I a game designer, that's not what I'd want my core fan-base to be associating with my new sequel.

All I know is that this weekend ended up having a pall cast over it by mid-Saturday, and I'm left feeling quite despondent going into my very busy work week. It is doubtful I'll get more than a few hours of play-time a day until the weekend, which is exactly why I was so excited that Portal 2 could have been released over the weekend.

Do you think the event back-fired? Perhaps it is still too early to say. Some miracle might still cause the game's early release at a reasonable time, like say 5:30 this evening?

One can still dream...

Portal 2 Early Release!?

2011-04-15T13:47:00.000-04:00

Who called that shit?

Portal 2 ARG Excitement

2011-04-14T23:05:00.004-04:00

Is this what I hope it is?

I'm left wondering what the connection will be between Portal 2 and potatoes...

If it is indeed going to be released early, that would be so amazing given that I've actually completed more than a week's worth of work and could take a three day weekend! Whew...

(What is an ARG, you ask? A very good question!

Basically, think along these lines.)

Unfortunately, I really doubt that they would just plain release it early. What's more likely is that there will be some sort of connection with the Potato Sack games.

Theory: We're going to be given a task to play those games until we collectively log enough hours, at which point Portal 2 will unlock early.

Corporate Dinosaurs and the Internet Comet

2011-04-06T11:13:00.000-04:00

Why is it that I go to wikipedia to find out when new Futurama and House episodes are going to air?

I've been to the respective official homepages of both of these websites all of once each; I either could not find the information I wanted, or had to search to the point that it was a pain in the ass. Sure, there's plenty of fun and interesting behind-the-scenes tidbits, trivia, and cast interviews, and I would positively watch those things every time I visited the respective sites.

But you see, I don't visit the sites. The only reason I ever seem to visit official sites like that is in search of schedule information. I would then be sucked in by the extras, and spend hours at their site, seeing their advertisements, even watching promos for other shows on their networks.

Working in a job so intricately tied to marketing has really made me more aware of various marketing related subjects. One thing that I continually return to is how the big media companies just do not seem to get it. There is a legion of consumers who would happily part with their disposable income in exchange for music, movies, and TV shows, if they felt like they were getting a fair shake...

Yet corporations have let greed and fear alienate the consumer masses. Greed prevents them from offering prices that are conceivably fair, considering how easy it is to illegally obtain the same product for nothing. Fear prevents them from letting consumers truly own their digital property, which is truly its own topic and something I've mentioned before.

Though I am against piracy, I can understand where the general consensus justifying it comes from. My own personal frustrations trying to utilize lawfully purchased software have left me with a very bad impression of DRM, and serves as perhaps the most effective argument against its use; DRM punishes the legitimate consumer, while serving as a delaying strategy at best when it comes to piracy.

And so the big media corporations continue to alienate their legitimate consumers while remaining wholly ineffective at stemming the piracy tide. They also continue to make their official websites cumbersome and annoying, giving ground freely to alternative sites that have information displayed more readily.

I'm left to wonder if it isn't the end of days for media corporations struggling vainly in a post-internet world that daily becomes less hospitable for bureaucratic red-tape giants.

Bullshit DLC

2011-02-19T10:44:00.000-05:00

I don't know why I'm surprised. Is it really even a little bit unexpected that corporations would see DLC as an easy way to nickel and dime gamers into paying three times as much as they would for a proper expansion?

Don't get me wrong; on the whole, I like the idea of DLC. It offers a steady stream of new content to gamers, and is a much safer investment on the part of developers. Win-win, right? Except when they offer us bullshit DLC.

I think the first shining example of this was the horse armor for Oblivion. Sadly, that nonsense is fast becoming the rule rather than the exception, and that's ignoring the new trend of having to buy DLC to actually play the complete base game.

What's a gamer supposed to do?

The Paradox of Gainful Employment

2010-12-31T11:59:00.000-05:00

Before, I had all the time in the world but literally no income. I played games I already owned, but was unable to justify the purchase of new games at full price. I was like a miser, eagerly awaiting Steam sales and price reductions.

Now, I have a great job that gives me a decent amount of disposable income with which I can purchase all the games my heart desires. (And I have a big heart, which has an equally big appetite for games.) Of course, this disposable income is due to my working all the time. In other words now that I have the money for games, I don't have the time!

Life is so paradoxical.

I finally finished playing the first Bioshock. It took me forever to finish it, but this was not by my design.

First of all, let me say that I purchased the original Limited Edition version of Bioshock for one reason, and one reason only: the Big Daddy figurine. I mean, sure, I had heard all the excitement behind the upcoming release and I love me a good FPS game, but (as previously noted) I tend to not purchase new releases.

Since I had it, though, I figured I'd go ahead and play it. Yadda yadda yadda, a few years later it was finally working... but after I had played a few hours I got side-tracked and it was another two years before I could finally revisit the game and put it to rest. I happened to beat it while Bioshock 2 was on sale, and figured that was a pretty good opportunity to continue my adventure in Rapture seamlessly.

Of course, I immediately had issues with trying to get Bioshock 2 working. This time, however, instead of a DRM issue the culprit was Games for Windows Live.

In theory, I like the idea of GFWL. Achievements are fun, and now that I own an Xbox 360 (yet another sacrifice I've made to help fight the recession) I enjoy the integration between the PC and the console.

In practice, however, more than 50% of my experience with GFWL has been with it as a gatekeeper, jealously preventing my access to the games I've paid good currency to obtain. But maybe that's a topic for a whole 'nother day...

Long story short: it took multiple reinstalls (which, in one of the few downsides to digital delivery, means several hours a pop) in addition to hours of consulting The Oracle, and finally an entirely separate download of the GFWL client prior to installation of Bioshock 2 before I could finally get it to let me play the damn game.

All I'm saying is: Anyone else nervous about problems getting Bioshock Infinite to install and run properly?

B-1: First Impressions

2010-12-31T11:28:00.000-05:00

There are plenty of hardcore reviews out there with benchmark results and the like. Though I'm an avid gamer, I don't usually bother with that type of stuff. I prefer to focus on the more practical matters... I don't ever monitor my frames per second. I don't overclock my processor. I could go on, but you get the idea.

It isn't for a lack of knowledge, but more a lack of reward compared to time invested. I just want to play games, you know?

So, with that introduction, I give you my casual-user's first impressions of the Asus G73JH-B1.

The laptop is sleek and a pleasure to use. I'm not a big fan of mousepads, never have been, and as I've said previously this is my first laptop. I haven't quite gotten the hang of using it yet, but I won't hold that against this particular laptop.

One of the soft rubber supports that is glued onto the under-side of the laptop was apparently loose and came off the first time I set the laptop down. That was disappointing, though not a big deal by any means.

There are no lazy or dead pixels. Windows 7 is a bit of a learning curve, and already I've ran into some compatibility issues with older games. Bioshock (with the 1.1 patch) in particular seems to be unresolvable; after countless hours spent consulting The Oracle, I failed to find a single effective fix that didn't involve downloading and running myriad third-party software.

Still, that's an OS issue and is neither here nor there... Though I can't say I'm entirely surprised by Bioshock's cantankerous nature.

Windows 7 - early verdict

2010-09-30T00:08:00.000-04:00

I hate this shit. It's not just that I loath learning new OSes, which I do, but the simple fact is a lot of my bread-and-butter games/programs are running into issues with Windows 7.

The Oracle suggests that I'm not alone, but surprisingly has no solutions that don't involve running a passel of third party apps and software suites just to get your games to work. I'm not trying to play dos games here, this is stuff from as recently as two years ago!

I'm exhausted, I worked all day today, I work all day tomorrow, and I'm officially giving up on the laptop until the weekend. When I next have free time, I shall spend it playing fun games on my old, slow yet stable Frankenstein rig.

Why is it that I'm always shocked when I pay for a "gaming computer" that can't play games? A bit unfair to Asus perhaps, but there it is.

Consumer Market

2010-09-28T22:51:00.000-04:00

Youtube needs to enable a play-all function that just lets a user begin a continuous stream without being in a "playlist". I'd use it over Pandora sometimes if that was possible, but alas...

Reaping My Reward

2010-09-28T17:22:00.000-04:00

Since I began my job, I've received two items paid for by my Unemployment Benefits. (That is to say "my pay-check".)

The first item was long overdue, seeing as how my last camera quit working about a year ago and I've been without one since then.

My second purchase was a bit of an indulgence, but seeing as how I'll be staying in hotels for a few weeks and then head down to Florida until Christmas, I felt like it wasn't a hard decision. I purchased the Asus Republic of Gamer G73JH-B1, which is a fancy shmancy name for "powerful gaming notebook", though its size and weight make it a "desktop replacement".

Indeed, my own Frankenstein PC cobbled together from cheap Chinese hardware purchased piece-meal in Den-Den Town was in vast need of replacing. It even lags when playing Bioshock 1!

Expect first impression reviews on the new stuff here in a few weeks, and more thorough reviews later on.

Meanwhile, I relish in my ability to join the ranks of the consumer. Spending money to help fight off the evil recession while simultaneously earning experience towards Journeyman Rank IT-guy; life is good.

Hiatus

2010-09-15T11:02:00.000-04:00

It occurs to me that I must announce a hiatus. I'm going to hit the ground running, starting tomorrow. I'll be working locally for a few days, then off to Cincinnati, and after that I'll be down in Florida for eight weeks! Busy, busy!

Unfortunately, I don't yet have a laptop (though I plan to remedy that eventually,) so I suppose I shall have to cease updating for the time being.

I must pack, pack, pack!

Ciao, my friends.

The Process

2010-09-13T16:46:00.000-04:00

I sit here in amazement, remembering what I felt after first hearing about a job what is, for this point in my life, literally a dream job. After applying for the position, I was so excited about the possibilities. I looked out the window and imagined how wonderful it would be if I could actually manage to get it.

Throughout the process of applying, interviewing, and verifying my employment history, there have been lots of ups more recently followed by lots of downs.

I'm incredibly happy to say that I managed to get the job. My dream job.

I am going to keep this short because there is a celebratory filet mignon that has my name on it.

Day Six: The End Is Near!

2010-09-10T10:29:00.002-04:00

My grand isolation shall come to a close tomorrow.

I look forward to returning to my simple lifestyle as a gamer-gatherer. Coffee in the mornings, video games until the evening, then settling in to some family bonding before a return to gaming until I retire.

Ah, what a life I lead!

Now I must attend to my chores: there are still beers needing imbibed, and I hope to have a proper buzz before I watch WVU cream Marshall. Go 'eers!

Day Five: A Return to the Serene Siesta

2010-09-09T13:12:00.000-04:00

Today is a day for great rejoicing! This afternoon there shall be friends over for a small cookout, though due to filial obligations they have to depart early, which happens to be perfect since tonight is Futurama Thursday!! And since I missed last weeks, I get to enjoy not one but TWO new episodes! Woo hoo!

I've had some good news regarding yesterday's crisis, and appear to be out of immediate danger (figuratively, of course) but still find myself navigating the shoals at night. We're almost to the safe harbor, so close, and my nerves can't take any more worry so I'm going to relax and enjoy life once more.

Shelby has got it in her head that she's a helicopter, and continually is shaking her ears in an attempt to lift off. It is hilarious to watch by day, but a bit disconcerting when one's attempting to sleep.

Day Four: Where our hero earns his right to a cold beer

2010-09-08T16:35:00.000-04:00

I was awakened quite early by an errant phone call.

Little did I know that this occurrence was the least of the many bad things that would cascade into my life by noon.

I really don't feel like going into the gory details, but here's the abridged and nonspecific version:

There was some bad news in an email, followed by an outright crisis of my own careless making, followed by frantic damage control, lots of furious errand-running, emailing, and phone calls, which finally culminated in a sudden and anticlimactic finish.

Throughout this ordeal, I had the invaluable assistance of a dear friend to whom I am eternally grateful. Thank you. I'd also like to thank those friends who kept my spirits up through compliments regarding my rugged good looks. Less-than-three.

The time for panic is over. Now I simply sit here, experiencing a calm reflection that the storm has passed. Alea iacta est, there is nothing more to be done. I await my fortune.

If I were the type to believe in omens, I'd take comfort from the following event - I went outside to relax with a cigar. While standing on the deck, I saw an incredibly beautiful blue butterfly fluttering about, and I thought "it sure would be cool if it alights on my hand, like in the movies". And then it did just that.

Exile: Day Three

2010-09-07T15:31:00.001-04:00

Well, yesterday was an experiment in extended drinking. I was able to nurse a buzz for over thirteen hours! Best of all, thanks to proper hydration efforts I awoke today with nary a hangover.

Today, unfortunately, has been a day of business. No time to take care of the beer that desperately needs imbibed until later this evening.

The expeditions' spirits are still high, as of yet. We are in good cheer and although We miss the solace of community, We are able to fake it well enough by referring to Ourselves in the royal "We".

I shall keep thee up to date with further news, should it occur. Until then, drink a beer for Us?

Exile: The Beginning

2010-09-06T13:37:00.001-04:00

Supplies were laid in, including that which is all-important: beer.

I've just returned from gathering supplemental provisions, and feel like I'm ready to settle in for my week's exile.

What's that? Oh, you haven't heard?

Yes, for crimes against hygiene, I've been sentenced to living one full week... completely alone.

Well, "completely alone" isn't quite accurate. There is my faithful companion, Shelby, whose chief distinction is a plaque that reads: "The world's most slobbery dog".

Worry not, dear readers; I shall faithfully record my experience for posterity. It actually began yesterday, and so far it has been blissfully smooth sailing.

For now, I must be off. It is the hour of the Vidya Game, and I am late for my labor.

The Churchmouse

2010-09-03T20:07:00.000-04:00

I went for a bike ride this evening, and happened upon a cat that was chasing a mouse. The mouse eventually got away, claiming sanctuary on the holy ground of a Baptist church. I reckon the cat would have granted him solace, if only due to a strong fear of Cat Hell if nothing else... but just in case, I ran a bit of interference for the mouse.

And so I interfered with nature. I disrupted the local mouse genetics because if that mouse couldn't escape a fat lazy house cat in the first place, maybe it shouldn't be reproducing? The theory of evolution is based on changes resulting from genetic selection; whatever combination of genes are best at living long enough to reproduce, right?

I mean really, when you think about dog breeds or different types of crops, that's precisely what we've done. We selectively breed the plants and animals in order for certain characteristics to become predominant. So why is it that when you begin discussing the application of such practices on humanity, it suddenly becomes a terrible subject that should not even be considered? Eugenics seems like an idea that, at the very least seems worth discussing, in my opinion.

Controversy shmontroversy!

"These are the demands and sayings of Lee."

2010-09-01T15:31:00.000-04:00

So I was chilling out, not really sure what I wanted to write about now, and then got caught up with the breaking news story occurring in DC about a gunman having entered the Discovery Channel building.

Apparently, he wrote a list of demands before taking his action, and published it at www.savetheplanetprotest.com. (The link's to the Google cache version since the original site is down.)

I started doing some digging and found this thread, in which you can see his extremist viewpoint being mocked by fellow conservationists who criticize him for being unreasonable and unrealistic. This was from back when he first got arrested for protesting outside of the building in 2008. His hatred seems highly focused on Discovery, and it is creepy and fascinating to see his anger displacement and fixation on the channel when

Very interesting how the internet has created a wealth of information that can be sifted through even as events unfold. If your google-fu is strong, it's amazing what you can find.

Craziness.

Homecoming

2010-08-30T11:44:00.000-04:00

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!"

2010-08-20T14:53:00.000-04:00

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)

2010-08-18T10:39:00.000-04:00

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

2010-08-16T10:53:00.001-04:00

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!

2010-08-13T14:47:00.018-04:00

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

2010-08-11T13:51:00.003-04:00

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

2010-08-09T13:01:00.000-04:00

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!

2010-08-06T11:02:00.000-04:00

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

2010-08-04T11:52:00.000-04:00

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

2010-08-02T12:17:00.000-04:00

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.

Captain Malcolm Reynolds is Jim Raynor

2010-07-30T12:44:00.000-04:00

One of things I really noticed about Starcraft 2 is how they created a very vivid theme. It is most definitely a Western, which may be what they were trying to do with the original Starcraft? Unfortunately, all I really felt was "rednecks in space" for the Terrans in the first game.

What I'm pretty sure is a violin, used to just set the tone of the adventure, occurs regularly throughout most of the campaign. It reminded me very much of Firefly. Several times, in fact, I very much got the feeling that the writers had at least seen Joss Whedon's Space Western. Not that I'm complaining, mind.

I think it works very well, and although I see a similarity it could just be the natural result of anyone who knows what a Western is, and then adapts it into a Sci-Fi adventure. In any case, it is a damn good theme and really creates an enjoyable and vivid video game experience. I'd truly liken it more to an interactive cinematic experience, as I said before.

The multiplayer, on the other hand, seems to be a bit lackluster as far as innovation goes. Then again, Starcraft didn't originally become the multiplayer RTS due to innovation; it was the perfectly calibrated balance between the units and teams that created such a legacy, and I have every confidence that they will continue their proud tradition.

Of course, success in Starcraft depends very much on the number of your actions per minute. In other words, it is all about the micromanagement... something I'm not a huge fan of personally. In fact, I've long maintained that the Real Time Strategy genre was a bit misnamed; seems like its mostly a focus on tactics, with minimal strategy necessary.

In any case, I love the theme and overall storyline to Starcraft 2: Wings of Liberty, and I can't wait for the next installment in the series!

Now to try my hand (yet again) at the final mission of the campaign. Been stuck for days now! :(

Starcraft 2 - First Impressions

2010-07-28T17:34:00.000-04:00

Having done little else for the past 36 hours, I thought I'd write a quick post talking about Starcraft 2. So far my experience has been quite fun! I've had three crashes, (two lockups requiring a restart, and one crash to desktop) so I feel like it is pretty damn stable for a newly released game.

The game-play is fun, familiar yet innovative. The storyline is amazing, in my opinion truly more like a cinematic experience than a video game story. The voice acting is superb, the animation is excellent, and the characterization is almost universally very well done.

I really enjoy the way the campaign is set up, too. It is very fun and offers some choices in way of how you proceed, as well as the order you take various missions and campaign-wide unit upgrades. There's a lot of small touches that make it really come alive, too.

My favorite thing so far is just the sheer number of different mechanics they built into the campaign. Most missions are so completely fun and unique that it is really an experience to play through them. I'm excited at the possibilities, and can't wait to see some awesome user-made custom maps.

All in all, if you were on the fence about buying it, I'd highly recommend it. Even if you don't like RTS games in general, there's a casual mode and the story itself is so good that it'd be worth it in my opinion.

And with that, it is past time I get back into the game and try to figure out a strategy that'll help me beat the last mission!

RPGs - Part 1

2010-07-26T11:07:00.001-04:00

No, not that kind of RPG...

When I was a little kid, we had some table-top role playing games and some Nintendo cartridges. Do you remember the joy of the original NES games?

Blow on it, put it in, doesn't work, push it up and down repeatedly for twenty seconds, doesn't work, take it out and blow again, doesn't work, push it in and out five times, light some incense in front of Nintendo Power Magazine, say a prayer to the Game Master, turn it on, and finally rejoice! After 30 minutes of hard labor you can enjoy your video game of choice. Kids today are spoiled.

Anyways, RPGs generally had some basic elements: levels, experience, hit points, statistical values representing strength, intelligence, etc. They tended to be fairly linear, and usually involved an entire planet to explore.

Nowadays, the label RPG has evolved to take on a plethora of meanings. We have FPS-RPGs, Puzzle-RPGs, MMORPGs, Sports-RPGs, and I could go on. What ever happened to a good old fashioned game of Fighters and Red Mages who are trying to save the world?

It seems like the idea of what an RPG is continues to evolve. I find myself less interested in playing the latest offerings, such as Final Fantasy 13. I just don't want to feel like I'm on rails, watching a story unfold while fighting a bunch of bullshit random encounters in between cut-scenes. I'll watch a movie if I want to see a story unfold.

No, what I enjoy are games where you truly have choice. Where your actions impact the world. I'm a fan of the open-ended sandbox style of role-playing game. Apparently, there now exists two camps in the world of RPG creation. There are the highly linear, rigidly defined J-RPGs (so called due to the Japanese inception of this design), and there are the open-ended, loosely defined Western RPGs.

We'll take a closer look at the differences next time.

For now, I must go and prepare for the coming storm. Upon wings of liberty do Heaven's Devils approach.

Cable - Why Pay?

2010-07-23T14:37:00.000-04:00

The guy who wrote this article is emblematic of what the future holds for entertainment. I for one will never pay for cable TV when there are so many free legitimate options on the internet. Many people follow the legally questionable practice of downloading TV programs through bit torrent sites.

The creators of South Park recognized that fact, and took control of their show's distribution by offering it for free (with limited advertisements) on the show's official site. This seems like a progressive move, and the direction that entertainment is truly heading.

Adult Swim likewise faced the inevitability of preventing free distribution of their product, offering episodes available to watch through their website. They embraced the idea of hosting a fan-community, integrating forums and web games into their site.

I can only wonder how long it will be before these practices are adopted by mainstream media across the board.

This is the future?

2010-07-21T10:48:00.000-04:00

I remember growing up, and there being lots of talk from the late 80's through the early 90's about how crazy and different the world would be in the next millennium. Flying cars, teleportation, giant robots... turns out none of that came to be. Here we are in 2010, and we don't even have sexbots?! I'm disappointed in the glacial pace of technological growth.

Then again, I read this article the other day and feel like its pretty damn exciting! Now that is a crazy high-tech futuristic change to the world that I'd love to see become a daily sight.

What about you, my faithful reader-legion? What sort of technological advances did you expect to see by now? Will there any other near-future revolutions in our daily lives?

What can World of Warcraft teach us about the inception of society?

2010-07-19T12:38:00.000-04:00

I've been perusing the pages of Jared Diamond's The Third Chimpanzee lately, and I will admit it has been a wonderful read so far. One of the things he touches on is how important longevity was towards the survival and increasing success of various ancient human tribes.

This was because of the phenomenal nature of personal experience in an era that predated record-keeping. From an example given in the book, let's say we have two hunter gatherer tribes. One has an average lifespan of 40 years, the other 60 years. They both inhabit a region in which food becomes scarce for a year.

The first tribe dies off due to not having enough nourishment. The second tribe has a few elderly members who recall a previous food shortage, and know that certain plants and nuts can be safely consumed for nutrition, in spite of their unappetizing taste.

And thus, longevity can literally be the difference between an entire tribe's surviving or dying off. Due to the simple ability to share their experience.

I often think about how powerful language is. The ability to communicate clearly and accurately to each other, to formulate plans and talk about past, present, and future. The ability to put emotions and feelings and other intangibles into symbolic form. Even the ability to just think is pretty much reliant on articulating your thoughts into words, no?

All of this came to my mind while I was learning some new raid encounters in ICC 25 the other night. For those of you who avoided getting hooked on World of Warcrack, basically there are "raids" where you join up with 9 or 24 other people, (there's two different sizes to every raid encounter,) and then you go in and participate in difficult "boss" encounters which are highly technical and require exceptional performance and communication from all members of the raid.

In order to learn these fights, we could go in and die 30+ times as we slowly learn the mechanics of each fight. That'd be a rough way to go about it, though. Instead, due to the power of communication, an experienced raider (elder tribe member) is able to explain the fight's strategy (strategy for survival) and prevent the inexperienced raiders from making mistakes.

Through the experienced person's communicating and sharing with the rest, we all are able to survive and prosper. Haha, probably a bit of a stretch as far as analogies go, but I enjoyed the idea when it first occurred to me and thought I'd share.

One last thing: I threw the word "inception" into today's title as homage; it is an amazing film, go see it if you haven't!

The shrieking of indignant internet users

2010-07-16T13:28:00.000-04:00

I saw this post over at Kotaku about how Valve's gonna implement a totally optional software survey in the future.

Wait. Do you... do you hear that?

Listen.

It is the shrill sound of nerd rage.

Most responses to this news are from Kotaku readers indignant of the fact that Steam would dare to request permission to scan their Windows generated program list.

There's a lot of very impassioned claims that people would never let a friend snoop around their computer, let alone a corporation. Kinda makes ya wonder what these people are hiding, no?

I understand the desire for privacy, and I hate invasive snooping as much as the next guy. And don't get me wrong, I'm no fanboi. But I do possess a reasonable level of trust for Valve and have no problems letting them grab my installed programs list.

I figure they'll either try to sell me relevant products that I want to use and will gladly buy, and/or figure out what programs cause compatibility issues with various Steam games and hopefully patch a fix.

I mean, really, what's the worst that could happen?

Dick Pix

2010-07-14T12:05:00.000-04:00

So apparently guys have collectively decided that the best way to a woman's heart is by taking pics of one's.. how should I say.. man meat, and then emailing it to one's target of romance. The only conceivable result is an instant swoon, followed by love ever-lasting. Amirite?

Now, I have been told by some well-meaning but clearly delusional people that this is, in fact, not so seductive... but I'm not really convinced.

In order to put my doubts to rest, I'd like to conduct a test. I've compiled some pictures of really big dicks, and would like to see if you, dear reader, find them arousing. Let the viewing begin:

Dick Pick 1
Dick Pick 2
Dick Pick 3
Dick Pick 4
Dick Pick 5

Well, what say you?

Serenade me with the song that will quiet my burning question: are dick pix truly an effective method to seduce a woman?

Why "global warming" is still controversial:

2010-07-12T13:05:00.001-04:00

In this Washington Post article, Stan Cox supposes that we ought to all give up our air conditioning so as to help save the world from global warming. And of course when I say global warming, I mean the sort caused by the actions and machines of humanity.

This article is a pretty good example of why a lot of people are still ambivalent towards climate change and taking action to help protect our planet. People like Al Gore have spear-headed an extremist movement that ostracizes anyone who dares to doubt, doesn't welcome dialogue and debate, and is constantly pushing the doomsday scenario.

No matter how true this message may or may not be, a lot of people just won't buy into it when its crammed down their throats in such a ridiculous fashion. Calling on the average North American to give up our air conditioning is exactly the wrong way to go about achieving meaningful change in the world.

This is emblematic of the incredible miscalculation that was made by people like Mr. Gore who wanted to tell the world to change their ways, while he and the other elites are still flying around in their private jets and enjoying a lavish lifestyle.

If you really want to help encourage societal change, then here's a few simple steps:

1) Stop ostracizing anyone that has doubt. I constantly see people get called all sorts of dirty names for not instantly and whole-heartedly believing in man-made global warming. What the fuck? Its like an aggressive religious belief, and that further scares people away. Just say something like "I can understand your doubt, but you should check out the arguments for it. Besides, it wouldn't hurt to try and be more eco-friendly in our lifestyles, right?"

2) Come up with practical solutions, not these pie-in-the-sky ridiculous notions that would completely transform society overnight. We're not going to give up air conditioning, and we're not going to transform our economy to alternative energy sources without a lot of baby-steps. Propose something plausible and you'll get a lot more support.

3) Drop the extremism do-or-die mentality. It doesn't work. You tried it, and I can't fault you for it. We've only got one planet, and there's plenty of examples of past societies going extinct due to lack of environmental management. This is serious shit, admittedly, and precisely because of that we can't afford to lose our cool; if one strategy (the bat-shit crazy religious-like fundamentalist approach) fails to win enough support, let's have the wherewithal to adopt a new strategy with a better likelihood of success.

I apologize if any of this sounds too reasonable to hardcore environmentalists, but really I just want humanity to take better care of our "island" and not go the way of Easter.

Wife Aggro

2010-07-09T12:59:00.000-04:00

So recently I've begun playing World of Warcraft again, and one of the common reasons that people end up having to stop playing before they're good and ready is the dreaded "wife aggro".

Now at the risk of sounding sexist, I've truly never heard of a case wherein the wife is playing and the husband is angry at being neglected. I'm not saying it doesn't happen, but I've never seen it.

So, what do you do when you have wife aggro? If you're a lamer, (or care about your marriage,) then you'll log off. But let's explore some alternative choices before we do anything as drastic as leaving your raid early!

1) One word: Chloroform.

2) Work out a barter system. If she leaves you alone on raid nights, take her out to a romantic comedy (or whatever it is she personally would enjoy.)

3) Subtly encourage her to find a boyfriend on-the-side. With you seemingly ignorant of her indiscretions, she'll either be out enjoying herself or home and feeling so guilty that she'll let you play in peace.

4) First of all, it is imperative that you have two WoW-capable computers in your household for this to work. Create a level 1 character, then approach your spouse while she's in a good mood. Ask her for the favor of watching over your character while you run out for a few minutes. Show her the basics, then leave for thirty minutes. Come back home and she ought to be well hooked and ready to have you install WoW on the second computer! And the best part: an X-53 Touring Rocket!

5) Should your wife prove resistant to everything else, then just how compatible are you two anyway? I mean, on the one hand you have a living breathing human of the opposite gender who is apparently attracted to you. On the other hand, you have pixels that, if you sink hours and hours into the game (and get lucky), will start showing purple and give you a sense of achievement. Tough choice, I know...

And that, my friends, is sound advice on how to handle the inevitable "wife aggro" problem. Hopefully Blizzard's working on a patch to address this issue, but until then feel free to bookmark this post.

The fight has begun!

2010-07-07T11:42:00.001-04:00

As I previously stated, Arizona's new law targeted at curtailing illegal immigration has now become a battle over states' rights verses the federal government. Call me a conspiracy theorist, but I really do believe we Americans have a lot at stake regarding states' rights.

Should the feds steamroll a state's ability to govern itself without undue federal interference, then I truly believe it might create an actual secession movement. And the last time that happened, a lot of Americans died.

And really, no matter what your opinion is regarding illegal immigration and the potential for discrimination and abuse, it is an important precedent that has long-reaching consequences completely unconnected to the issue at hand.

The fact of the matter is that illegal immigration is a problem in Arizona, and the federal government was not enforcing the laws they have on the books. What Arizona did was simply create a state law to allow them to enforce federal laws that aren't being enforced by the feds themselves.

To me, this is a clear case of the federal government's failing to protect a state, and then trying to prevent the state from protecting itself. A dangerous precedent, indeed.

Modern politics has become so mired in retaining popularity for one's future political career that nobody has the willingness to make the right choices, regardless of how unpopular they are. What I would give to see a government full of men who truly wanted the best for their nation, and not just for themselves and their wealthy elite allies. But alas, that is a dream that neither elephant nor donkey could fulfill.

The Perils of Summer? The only danger was to my wallet.

2010-07-05T10:12:00.001-04:00

Steam's sale is coming to a close here in a few hours. The end result is that I spent $95 on various games, buying 24 different titles. There were maybe 15 more that I was on the fence with, but I had to keep telling myself that even though I could save $2 here and $3 there, it would ultimately be better for me to just play through the games I already own but haven't beat. Speaking of beat, there's a really fun game you should check out if you like music. And who doesn't like music?

I wonder if other gamers had an equally hard time of resisting Steam's wicked temptations? I suppose I'm safe until next year's Christmas season, at least... which happens to be less than six months away! Is it too early to start preparing for the Yuletide celebrations?

Oh, the weather outside is broiling...

Exhaustion

2010-07-02T23:34:00.001-04:00

Just got in, spent all day on the road. I'm exhausted, good night.

Standing at the edge of endless oblivion

2010-06-30T13:17:00.000-04:00

Yesterday evening, I was wading in the surf at high-tide. The sun was setting behind me, and I stood before an endless stretch of water. Its untold murky depths inspired my thoughts to wax philosophical for the first time in all of my visits to the beach. To borrow from Calvin & Hobbes, it made me want to go inside and turn on all the lights.

It is interesting to have lived abroad and now be home again. Occasionally I still get culture shocked. In these situations, I feel like a tourist visiting a foreign land, here to observe the American people and their way of life. I can't quite decide if this is annoying or wonderful. Often times I find myself enjoying the ability to see things through a different viewpoint, but just as often I find myself a little bit scared that I have forever lost my ability to just be an American in America.

Last night, there was a huge storm front about 50 miles inland. It provided an amazing electrical show that was as entertaining as any fireworks I've ever seen. I enjoyed it, along with a cool night-time beach breeze, while I smoked a cigar. Sometimes there are sublime moments where you are completely at peace and content with life... I savor such fleeting occasions. Last night was one such time, and it was delicious.

Vacation!

2010-06-28T11:56:00.000-04:00

I'll be going to the beach this week, leaving here in a bit... I might not get a chance to post while I'm out of town so consider yourself warned, faithful reader.

Did I use singular case because I only have one faithful reader? No! It was... it was just a thematic choice. That's all.

Anyways, beach ahoy! I'll make sure to report on any oil if it happens to appear in South Carolina.

Perils of Summer!

2010-06-25T14:05:00.000-04:00

I was feeling ill last night and had a hard time going to bed in spite of how exhausted I felt.

In the middle of the night, I woke up soaked in sweat and shivering, with stomach cramps. I had felt feverish before so I'm thinking the fever must have broke and long story short, I had a rough night and feel pretty sluggish today. My reflexes are slow and I'm feeling like a zombie.

Just in case anyone's interested, Steamworks is having a huge summer sale (like as big as their Xmas sale) from now until the 4th of July. There are daily specials as well as a ton of games with a reduced price for the whole duration of the sale. Check it out every day and you're bound to see a great deal on a game or two that you'd enjoy.

A short post today.

2010-06-23T13:09:00.000-04:00

This is really cool. Check it out!

Shogun 2: Total War

2010-06-21T11:21:00.000-04:00

So E3 revealed that the next title in the Total War series will be a remake of the first TW game. Shogun: Total War was originally released a decade ago, in June 2000. I didn't really notice it until two years later, when I was at the beach and had just been introduced to James Clavell's epic novel Shogun. Seeing a game called Shogun: Total War in a bargain bin at the Colonial Mall, I immediately picked it up. I hadn't heard of it previously, but the setting was the same thing as Clavell's story, so I figured it was worth checking out.

It quickly became one of my favorite games ever, in spite of how horribly buggy and unstable it was. (Even fully patched, the game was notorious for requiring constant saves to guard against the inevitable crashes.) In fact, I never once got to see a siege fight, because for some reason trying to render a castle would always cause a crash on my PC. Regardless, I adored the game and I'm super pumped that they're re-releasing it.

And if you haven't read Shogun, buy and read it. It is such a cool story of political intrigue and cultural differences. In fact, it is directly responsible for my living in Japan for three years. Now, I know some people just don't enjoy reading, and if that is how you feel then I would strongly recommend the miniseries as an alternative.

In the meantime, let's just say that this is the most excited I've been about a Total War release since Rome!

Six Months Later: An Xmas Update

2010-06-18T10:52:00.000-04:00

Last Christmas, I got a new LCD monitor for my computer.

Well, after I had resolved the initial stuck pixels, I was pretty happy with the monitor. Until early April, that is; a line had appeared on my display, going the full length from top to bottom, on the right-hand side of the screen. It was only a single pixel wide, but still quite distracting. It would be a random color, usually somewhere between white and blue, often teal.

I was busy with my college courses at the time, so unfortunately I couldn't just immediately send it in for repair. And so more lines appeared. One at a time, at first, but eventually two or three new lines would appear, marching across my screen, destroying my ability to read or see anything on a two-inch block of my LCD. Quite annoying.

Turns out it was what they call a tab fault, and was easily fixed when I sent it in after classes were over. I was a bit miffed that the replacement I was sent had a dead pixel (not stuck, truly dead) right in the middle of the screen, but to Samsung's credit when I called to complain they were very apologetic and immediately authorized my sending it back to receive a new replacement.

Thankfully, third LCD's the charm! All pixels are working correctly and I have no complaints.

In other news, it is only six months until Christmas is here once again. I'm excited for another holiday season here in the States!

What does the future hold?

2010-06-16T12:37:00.000-04:00

On October 29th, 1929, Wall Street was shocked by a complete collapse of prices on the stock market. The plunge continued for a full month, and thus began the world-wide Great Depression.

This directly led to the rise of extremism throughout Europe, with fascist groups taking over in Spain, Germany, and Italy. It also was responsible for the military coup that took control of Japan.

The rise of extremism in various countries eventually resulted in World War II.

Now we have the so-called "Great Recession". It certainly has created a great deal of unrest, some of which is dangerously reminiscent of the past. Jose Manuel Barroso, President of the European Commission, gave a very stark warning about the potential for the democracies of Greece, Spain, and Portugal to collapse under the current economic strain.

Revolution can occur when people lose faith in their government. Kinda like what happened in Okaloosa County, Florida. The county commissioners voted to take action without regard to the red-tape filled chain of command that exists through state and federal governments. They're saying that the government isn't working; it is neither efficient nor effective for their needs. And they're willing to go to jail, if that's what it takes.

I wonder if this isn't an isolated case. It certainly seems like a lot of people, all around the world, are fed up with what they see as government that just doesn't work.

May we live in interesting times, indeed.

Web Security 101

2010-06-14T11:17:00.000-04:00

As some of you may recall, my WoW & gmail accounts were hacked a while back. Recently, I've also heard of a spate of email and facebook accounts being hacked. Just about anyone can become a victim now.

Especially with sites like facebook out there, which may have less than adequate privacy measures, it seems that a person's information (and even one's identity) is less safe than ever. (By the way, if you use facebook you should follow the instructions on this site to make sure your information is secure.)

Not a week goes by that I don't hear about one of my friends or acquaintances being the victim of a hacker. The days of lax web security are over.

Let's review some basics when it comes to web security. Passwords should always contain both letters and numbers. Have a different password for every account you have; you don't want all your eggs riding in one insecure basket, no?

Also, try to make your passwords not be a single word, and not be a logical association of words. "God" is a terrible password... extremely easy to guess by a hacking program, and statistically this is a common password. "GodIsGreat" would be another bad choice... a logical association, and no numbers. "GodTaco164Cheetah9" would be a wonderful password, though it might be a bit too long for some accounts. Regardless, you get the idea; random and illogical = secure.

Also remember to be extremely wary of seemingly legitimate messages, even if it appears to be from people or websites that you know. Many times, people can fake who it appears to be sent from. (This is called "spoofing".)

The official-looking email might ask for your account information and password, or perhaps your credit card number. Often they will threaten something if you don't respond quickly. If there is a harsh threat included, be extra careful... that's almost a sure give-away that it is a scam email. (This practice is called phishing.)

Often times, suspect emails will include a link to the official website. You might click on it, and it certainly appears to be the legitimate website... but appearances can be deceiving. What you need to do is be very careful about trusting links. Compare the web address from a link with the one you have bookmarked. Often, though the sites look identical, you can spot a minor difference in the web address. Instead of www.yourbankwebsite.com it might be www.youbankwebsite.com ... which of course would lead to your account information being handed over to hackers if you tried to log in at the latter site.

Remember, some virus programs are even able to send you email from your friends computers (if they've been infected) or else appear to have been sent from someone you know. You must always be very vigilante if you get an email that doesn't make sense, or only contains a line of text and a link. "This is hilarious: (link)", for example, would be very suspicious and I wouldn't click on it until I contacted my friend and confirmed they really did send it.

One last tip: make sure your web browser and operating system is fully up-to-date. (In case you don't follow, a web browser would be Internet Explorer and an operating system would be Windows XP, for example.) Often times, updates will repair some flaws in the security of these programs... so you always want to have them completely updated.

The days of being able to keep your head down and remain lax about your internet security are over. Make sure you're not the next victim!

Piracy Isn't Hurting Any Companies!

2010-06-11T11:05:00.000-04:00

At least, that's what 45% of the GameFAQs community believes.

Recently, their daily poll featured this question: "Do you believe piracy is a real problem for the video game industry?" Over 31,000 responders feel that piracy is OK because "they're still making billions". Another 6,000 feel that stealing games somehow makes the victim-company more money than if their product wasn't stolen. I can't say that I'm surprised, given the human capacity for rationalizing something that we want to believe.

Smaller developers can suffer and even go under if their games are pirated. Furthermore, even if the bigger companies won't be hurt too bad by piracy, rampant theft of their product only encourages them to come up with increasingly more draconian DRM measures... this ultimately hurts legitimate customers. That's right, piracy doesn't only hurt the developers and the publishers... it hurts your fellow gamers.

Sure, we can bitch and moan and say that the big companies shouldn't treat their legitimate customers like the enemy, (and I will no longer buy from certain companies precisely because of such an attitude,) but at the same time I don't think its entirely fair to get mad at a company that's just trying to protect its product from being stolen. The responsibility rests with those who steal.

The poll results can be seen here.

The ills of technology

2010-06-09T11:47:00.001-04:00

I found this article very interesting. Its about how constant multitasking can rewire our brains, and gives an example of a young tech guru who has lost the ability to focus his attention on any one thing. He's constantly looking for "something else" to the detriment of his family-life and even his work.

Now, I do believe that this family represents a good example on the extreme end of things and I fully admit that heavy use of technology can rewire a person's way of thinking. I have no particular beef with the findings of this article whatsoever.

On the other hand, it seems like they got a really dysfunctional / scatterbrained married couple who just happen to be heavily into technology.

That said, some people will read an article like that and think "technology is bad". Maybe people like these parents who are upset about how an educational video game is being used in New Mexico schools. The game is successful enough that the kids actually want to play it, even though it requires the understanding and use of mathematics.

"We are feeding the addiction of these children to video games," said parent Marlene Perrotte. Indeed, we should abandon an incredibly effective tool that actually gets kids excited to learn about math. Because, as Marlene so eloquently put it, "We are feeding the addiction of these children to video games." I shudder.

And before you go, make sure to check out this test to gauge how well you can filter out distractions. Even though I would be considered a high multi-tasker, I scored perfectly. This just furthers my belief that this article took an extreme worst-case example family just to make the story sexy.

Replay Value

2010-06-07T12:13:00.000-04:00

Replay value is generally thought of as a good thing. With that in mind, my obsession for 4X sandbox games means I'm an incredibly frugal buyer. Three years later, I still play Civ4 regularly. That's a good investment!

This does have a side-effect, however. It leaves me with very little time to explore more traditional "play until you complete the story-line" games. Throw in my having recently fallen off the griffin, and I barely have time to sleep! (Yes, that's right, I'm back on WoW these days.) I purchased Tropico 3 recently and have really enjoyed playing it when I get the chance, but I just can't seem to break away from the endless replayability of 4X games.

Which brings me to the question: To a hardcore gamer, is "replay value" actually a misnomer? I have plenty of free time and yet constantly feel like I'm growing even more behind on the list of games I mean to play.

This list... it includes PS2 titles. And even one or two PS1 games! So let me tell you, I am seriously starting to shy away from games that are said to contain "high replay value". Of course with me not having a job, I'm also shying away from games that cost more than $5.

Ah, the troubled life of a hardcore video gamer with too many games and too little time. Some days I can't even manage to get out of bed in the morning.

Luckily, my computer is right beside my bed, so that doesn't cut into game time!

Sixty-six years ago today...

2010-06-06T11:37:00.000-04:00

Today is June 6th, 2010. It is now a little after 11 in the morning.

Sixty-six years ago, today, a young man from West Virginia such as myself might not have just finished enjoying a Tudor's biscuit and coffee for breakfast. Instead, he might have already spent more than five hours on a beach in Normandy, France, as part of the largest amphibious assault landing in all of history.

Here's an excerpt from the speech read to all the troops involved in the D-Day operation.

"You are about to embark upon the Great Crusade, toward which we have striven these many months. The eyes of the world are upon you. The hopes and prayers of liberty-loving people everywhere march with you."

It was written by General Eisenhower, leader of the Allied armed forces. You can see the full speech at this website. If you're interested in knowing more about the actual invasion as told by the men who were actually there, I encourage you to check out this wonderful website put together by the United States Army.

I can't imagine what the world would be like today if those brave men hadn't fought and died in order to secure liberty for their sons and daughters. Nor can I imagine how terrible the atrocities would have been if the Nazi regime been allowed to remain in control of Europe. We already know that in the short time they were in power, they left a terrible legacy in the Holocaust. How much worse might it have been without the ultimate sacrifice given by many young men around the world?

Today is a day of remembrance. Today is a day to honor those who laid down their lives so that you and I might live in freedom.

Concise.

2010-06-04T20:56:00.000-04:00

I don't normally do this, but I'm feeling very worn out and I really found today's Penny Arcade comic to be hilarious. So, please enjoy.

"May you live in interesting times"

2010-06-02T11:35:00.000-04:00

The title of today's post is an ancient Chinese curse. You see, to the Chinese "interesting times" meant a lack of stability. In other words: chaos, starvation, sorrow, and death.

As a child, I would always love to watch World War II movies with my dad. I grew up on stories about the war as told by my grandfather, a veteran who fought under Patton in the Third Army. Even as recently as high school, I recall thinking to myself about how amazing it must have been to live through such momentous events as those that transpired from the Great Depression up through the Cold War.

Of course, I started to reconsider my opinion that I would never experience anything like that shortly after 9/11.

Nowadays, with North Korea and Iran developing nuclear weapons, the former's increasing saber rattling, and Israel losing Turkey's good will (not to mention the increasing loss of world opinion) along with America's purposeful backing away from staunchly supporting Israel... let's just say I'm no longer convinced that I won't live in equally monumental times of change.

As a side note, I think this woman is the perfect example of what I hate about modern litigation. I think that even though Google is providing directions, it still falls upon the user's shoulders to use some common sense.

It is a tragedy that she got struck by a car, and I don't even particularly mind that she's suing the person who hit her (though I don't necessarily believe she ought to win... if she was walking on a road without a sidewalk, it might be her fault,) but to sue Google for "careless, reckless and negligent providing of unsafe directions" is beyond ridiculous.

Happy Memorial Day!

2010-05-31T11:42:00.003-04:00

I'm going to celebrate today with lots of hotdogs, hamburgers, and movies!

Hope everyone does the same :)

The Bachelor's Life

2010-05-28T09:40:00.000-04:00

Ah, yes, the single life. As a guy, I've set up a nice bachelor pad and enjoy hanging with my buddies. Sometimes, though, I ponder my circumstances and wonder if I couldn't be doing something more to meet a nice girl?

I've given lots of thought to this lately, since one generally doesn't meet eligible partners of the opposite sex (or same sex, whatever you prefer) in one's mother's kitchen.

Yes, I've pulled the timeless classic; as an adult, I have now moved back in with my parents. My bachelor pad happens to be the spare bedroom.

It is a temporary arrangement as I hunt for a job and start saving up some cash now that I'm back State-side. (At least, that's what I reassuringly tell my parents. Personally, I wanna live as long as I possibly can! I cite Failure to Launch as a personal inspiration.)

This situation does, however, present a considerable amount of problems when it comes to dating.

Nor does it help that I don't actually have a cell-phone. So I give out my parents phone number, right? And when girls call, invariably during the one hour a week that I'm not actually in the house, playing video games, they're always confused by the answering machine which fails to mention me.

Oh, and I don't exactly have a car, so I'm always like "could you swing by and pick me up?" And as I mentioned before, I don't have a job yet. So like, I always have to make sure the girl is willing to pay for me. (I'm a modern man, freed from outdated concepts of gender roles!)

If things work out well, the lucky gal and I can come back to my (parents') place and sit on my bed, watching TV. Of course, the door has to stay open - house rules. "Aren't you 26 years old?" Yes, well, when you're not paying rent, you have to roll with the punches.

Most of the time, I get bored of TV and try to show them World of Warcraft. Which of course, by "show them" I mean "ignore them for". More often than not, when I log out for the evening they're nowhere to be seen. Mysteriously slipped off during the raid, apparently. Again.

Yes, life as an ~~eligible~~ bachelor is pretty sweet. I just wish I had more opportunities to bump into women in my daily life. You know, women who didn't give birth to me.

On Gaming Addiction

2010-05-26T10:27:00.000-04:00

I first started hearing about video game addiction back during the early Evercrack days. It was blamed for at least one suicide, for countless divorces, and for several child neglect cases.

I was just a teenager at the time, and since I didn't venture outside of the family computer room very often, I wasn't particularly wise to the ways of the world. I didn't realize that everyone was looking to blame their problems on outside factors, and not on their own dumb-ass choices. What I did know was that the media seemed to be unfairly blaming a video game that had no undue influence over my own life.

I had arrived at the right conclusion by faulty reasoning. The way I saw it, there couldn't be an addiction because I myself had not been addicted. I would eventually learn about how different people do have addictive personalities and can indeed get hooked on video games.

But I was dead right on the media's unfairness. The ratings-mongers saw a sensational story in video game addiction, and they set about demonizing it as a threat against the nation's children! What's so effed about this is how video games are far less addicting than cigarettes, alcohol, gambling, and most illegal drugs.

It just depends on the personality.

I am happily blessed with a personality that allows me to play games that I love for 12 hours a day if I have nothing better to do, but at the same time if I have a social life (which, at this time, I do not) or a job (nothing happening there either) then I could easily control my gaming so that it wouldn't prevent me from having fun, hanging with friends, or getting enough sleep to feel well-rested the next day. (I mean, 100% experience bonus? Totally worth being well-rested!)

Speaking of WoW, I started playing again recently, and it has caused some of my friends (who had also quit) no small amount of strife. A few of them have become worried that they might be lured back as well, and they apparently lack that control which helps regulate how much time one chooses to spend with a particular vice.

How about you? Are you in control of your gaming, or do you have an addictive personality type such that you have to carefully avoid playing games that are "too fun"?

Lost Series Finale (Spoilers a-plenty!)

2010-05-24T13:05:00.000-04:00

Well, I watched the Lost series finale! It was pretty amazing and I felt really happy with how it ended. Not everyone agrees with me, but I felt like it was a great ending to a great series.

Warning: Spoilers Ahead!

So basically, not every question was answered. In my opinion, the show was never about the mysteries as much as it was about the characters. And in wrapping up the story about these people, they did a very good job.

I love how the alternate time-line worked out. I love the overall realism inherent in the depiction of the way things are, and how they managed to make it optimistic at the same time.

The recent episode that gave us the history of the Man in Black and Jacob was one of my least favorites. I don't care about those characters, and I don't care that much about the island's mysteries. Things are the way they are, and it takes the fun out of something when you go and explain it all. In fact, that's probably the thing I liked most about that episode; the lack of clear-cut explanation.

I find it very interesting that all of my friends are split pretty evenly about their enjoyment of that episode. Some loved it for providing many answers, and others (like myself) didn't care about it because we want the story to keep focusing on the characters we know and love.

Kind of like how a lot of people were getting upset with Robert Jordan, may he rest in peace, for continually introducing and developing new characters in his Wheel of Time series while not advancing the well-developed characters' various plots. (Nonetheless, still an amazing series and perhaps my favorite. I highly recommend you get started if you haven't read it thus far!)

It will be interesting to see if approval for the series finale follows along the lines of love/hate for the MiB/Jacob episode, but with opposite representation.

Now I suppose its time to start watching one of the new series that people have been recommending. V, perhaps? (Gotta love anything with Morena Baccarin in it!)

Playing God

2010-05-21T11:28:00.000-04:00

I woke up this morning thinking "What on earth am I gonna blog about?"

Of course, as soon as I went online I was bombarded with the news about artificial life actually being realized.

Huh.

Well, I will say that I'm not the least bit surprised at all the hullabaloo. I am a bit surprised at the Catholic Church's reaction, with a cautious approval given the appropriate constraints. That is far more progressive and forward-looking than I've ever come to expect from the Vatican.

On the other hand, all the uproar from various groups claiming that this is Pandora's Box... well, I will grant that it very well could be. There's always that possibility. But I'm just not as worried as they think I should be. Call me a Modernist, but I put more faith in humanity's capacity than most groups would like to believe. Especially the religious types, who believe God, in his/her/its divine wisdom, created human beings to suck. Awesome.

I don't think progress happens without taking steps towards the future. This seems like an appropriate baby-step into the world of genetic engineering. And given the political fallout, I feel like it had to come from a relatively independent scientist. Hopefully from now on, it can be regulated and become mainstream, with the end result being a capacity to cure genetic diseases.

Or maybe it'll be with a small terrorist group able to wipe out the human race.

Either way, I feel like Earth will be better off for it. :)

Gamer Skills

2010-05-19T12:57:00.000-04:00

So, as I said last time, Mom's learning to play a new type of game. The experience of helping her learn the controls and all has really brought to my attention the vast amount of worthless skills I've picked up in my lifelong career as a dedicated gamer.

It also reveals to me why the industry tends to be rather unwelcoming of newcomers. Almost all games are designed with an assumption that you know the basics. Sure, they always have that introduction of the key binds in the opening level, but nonetheless if you have never played that type of game before, the learning curve is steep!

I never noticed this myself, because I'm already equipped with the skills necessary to start playing just about any game and intuitively understand its controls due to my vast experience in almost every genre.

I also enjoy games such as the Grand Theft Auto series, where you have a world to explore. Learning to find my way around such games has, I sincerely believe, helped me to develop a better sense of direction.

Playing Everquest through high school and early college helped me to develop my typing skills; I can type over 90 wpm nowadays!

What skills has playing video games given you?

Video Games and Mom

2010-05-17T10:56:00.000-04:00

Although this is over a week late, I thought that in honor of Mother's Day I might share the tale of my lifelong efforts to get my mother involved in video games.

At a tender age, I got Dr. Mario for Christmas (at my excited and persistent request.) Of course, I just thought it was another Mario game... not realizing this was more akin to Tetris. It turned out to be far more more fun for my mother than it ever was for me, and she began enjoying the occasional use of video games.

Flash forward to a summer during my college years, where I was having one last hoorah with Civilization 3 before Civ 4 was released. She expressed the tiniest glimmer of interest in what I was playing, and without wasting any time at all I promptly installed it onto her laptop and showed her how to access the tutorial.

Needless to say, the jump from simple-puzzle game to complex-turn-based-strategy wasn't an easy transition. She had me sit and help her play through a few maps, and she took copious notes. I discovered these notes tucked away in the Civ 3 instruction manual the other day, as I was sorting through some old stuff in the attic. I fondly remembered my mother's brief foray into the world of gaming, and thought "it is a shame she gave up."

Then, a thought popped into my head: "Isn't Portal free for the month, to celebrate Steamwork's Mac release? And doesn't my mother have a nice Mac?" So I told her if she wanted, I could download a free game for her and she expressed interest. Thus began my mother's journey into the realm of nausea and motion sickness that prevents her from playing more than 90 minutes at a time. Haha, but to her credit, she's doing extremely well for someone unused to the WASD/Mouselook movement schema.

I have to say, I'm proud of my mother's propensity to give my favorite hobby a try, and hope that this time I can entice her with enough easy puzzle games that her new hobby sticks.

I think I'll save Civ V for after she masters the basics, though.

How far is too far?

2010-05-14T10:14:00.000-04:00

This here is a bit old, but I've been meaning to mention it.

In April, a militia-group was rounded up and placed under arrest for planning to shoot up a bunch of police officers. There was a debate over whether to release them or not, since their case was mostly based on speech alone, with no definitive plan of action to show intent.

On the other hand, if you arrest a group of radical militants that meet together to talk about how the government holds tyranny over their lives, and that the only way to stop it is to become martyrs in a grand gesture of multiple murders, then you let them go free briefly before their trial... does this not give them incentive to believe their views and furthermore give them no reason to not act on them?

I believe in the protections of free speech, and I don't believe in locking people up for no good reason... but I also recognize a need for public safety.

I just don't know how to think on this one. What about you?

A rant on American Judeo-Christian extremism

2010-05-12T09:56:00.000-04:00

After watching last night's episode of LOST (whew... intense!) I thought this would be funny to share. Press The Buttons seems like a fun site, I'd encourage you to check it out if you have some time to kill. And you obviously do, because you're reading my useless drivel! ;)

If you're less into video games and more interested in scary political realities, then maybe you could waste some time at the Texas Freedom Network instead. Texas terrifies me. They are seriously re-writing history under the guise of correcting a liberal bias, and their public school textbooks will now be ingraining generations of young Americans with highly slanted, politically conservative views on history. I don't identify myself as "right" or "left," "Democrat" or "Republican", and I personally hate hate hate the two-party system and how it polarizes Americans. It seems like a castration of the brains.

Every time I see "straight party vote" options, I rage. There is such a huge range of issues that everyone seems to ignore.

There is so much demonization of the "other side", whichever side you're on. People that disagree with you about what's best for our country are obviously trying to attack you and your way of life. It is so ridiculously divisive, and splits people fairly evenly into two equally stupid camps of fanatical extremism.

I wish I could believe that a wealthy elite enclave that rules from the shadows created this system to make people easier to rule over... but sadly, I'm convinced that it is truly just an ignorance developed by ourselves, with no grand Sith Lord's manipulations that brought about such a state of affairs.

In any case, let me say that I hate extremism on both ends of the spectrum, but the recent Texas decision regarding their public school text books seems like something Orwellian. There is no real "debate" about America being founded on secular principles, most especially the separation of Church and State, by Deists. They weren't Christians, and they didn't want America to be a Christian nation. There's no debate.

Anyone that says otherwise is perverting historical fact in order to push a religious agenda. Doing so seriously threatens the very freedom that America espouses as sacred. Yet they can't see their hypocrisy, nor envision why it would possibly be a bad thing to force Christian mantra as a State institution. Sheria Law is a lot harsher, but at the same time it seems to me like a slippery slope.

I might just go back to Japan if this type of religious extremism continues to spread.

Nintedo's Next Big Thing

2010-05-10T12:34:00.001-04:00

When I saw this article in the Japan Times, I knew I wanted to share it with my vast legions of readers.

I've previously written about my views on piracy, as well as a treatise on Nintendo being the only true innovator in the gaming console industry, so I'm aware that I'm in danger of repeating myself.

I merely offer this under-development hand-held featuring 3D capabilities (which do not require special eye-wear) as further proof that Nintendo is the only company that's doing any real innovation. The others merely continue to make consoles more graphically powerful, but for reasons unknown do not seem to possess the creative spark necessary to do something meaningfully different with subsequent generations of their products.

As far as the undisclosed anti-piracy measures they mention, I'd say that makes a good deal of sense. Outside of the States, there's an incredibly popular underground product called the R4. It is a small DS-game-sized cartridge with a slot for a micro SD memory card, and includes a USB port for the memory card. You download pirated DS game roms, transfer them onto the memory card (which also contains the R4 firmware), thus enabling you to play whatever games you want without having to go through the trouble of actually paying for said intellectual property.

It is big business in Asia; I recall street vendors in Osaka selling them every few blocks in the electronics district. They used to be widely available in actual stores, but they've been driven underground due to a crackdown by Nintendo. Supposedly they're a big ticket item in Europe as well. I'm not surprised that Nintendo views this as a major threat to their revenue, and it does seem rather unfair that the developers of the R4 are making a tidy profit by selling a means to easily steal the hard labor of game developers.

I vaguely wonder if human morality will catch up to the concept of intellectual property at some point during my lifetime?

Nostalgia: Exosquad

2010-05-07T08:17:00.002-04:00

I'm not sure if anyone remembers Exosquad, but it was one of my favorite TV shows as a child. It dealt with a lot of mature issues, including: the ethics of "playing god", racism and the fight for acceptance, death and loss, working hard towards your goals, perseverance, teamwork, religion, and politics.

That's a lot to throw into what is nominally a kid's show, eh? But I remember it resonating within me, because even as a kid I got the idea that the world wasn't as rosy as the other kids' shows would have me believe.

One of my favorite things about Exosquad was how it avoided painting a simplistic "good verses evil" schema; they went out of their way to show that the "bad guys" were actually treated very poorly and were unfairly oppressed when they rose up to fight against humanity.

I'm sadly not familiar with modern day kids' cartoons, but I hope that there's at least one similar show out there that can help the young'ins get a head start on understanding and being ready to deal with so many heavy issues.

If you're interested in watching it, either for the first time (bear in mind it is a kids' show and furthermore its from the 90s...) or else for nostalgia's sake, you can find them here thanks to Hulu.

On a different note, we have yet another "my hot beverage was hot" lawsuit, this time against Starbucks. I swear, historians will refer to our time period as either the age of liability or the age of entitlement. Either way, I find it kind of embarrassing.

I'm off to my last undergrad final ever!

Cinco de Mayo

2010-05-05T12:21:00.001-04:00

A Californian columnist thinks that Americans should stop celebrating Cinco de Mayo.

I completely disagree with him.

Don't get me wrong; I have no illusions that when we celebrate Cinco de Mayo, it has anything to do with a Mexican military victory against French imperialists.

We just celebrate it because its fun. In the same vein that we celebrate St. Patty's day, even though most of us aren't Irish. Or how many non-Christians celebrate Easter & Christmas. And many non-pagans celebrate Halloween. And on, and on, and on.

Holidays are about having fun, and one thing I love about Americans is that we don't really need much of an excuse to create a very in-depth holiday replete with very specific traditions and ways to celebrate.

Anyways, this Gringo's off to enjoy some drunken revelry at my local Mexican restaurant!

Early May already?

2010-05-03T11:41:00.002-04:00

Well, I'm afraid that my post on procrastination will have to wait. I've been consumed with writing a research paper for over a good 72 hours straight now, and am very nearly finished.

In order to not offend your sensibilities of fairness, I shall try to offer this tidbit; Greece's financial meltdown might just result in a civil war. I figure its either that or the rise of an ultra-nationalistic fascist government.

Disagree? Chime in with your own predictions.

Also, I found this bit of news to be not at all biased! I've always been quite skeptical of the supplement industry, myself. It seems like most Americans think they can eat McDonald's three meals a day for seven days a week, but as long as they also take Echinacea that their health situation should balance out.

I remain unconvinced of the claims made by the supplement industry, especially when compared to the facts presented by a more reputable source.

Speaking of Mayo: I'll see you on Cinco de Mayo, my faithful readers.

The Immigration Debate - Or Is It?

2010-04-30T09:42:00.000-04:00

I find myself uniquely qualified to chime in on the immigration debate that has recently been sparked by Arizona's new law.

You see, when I was in Japan I experienced this exact situation. Japanese law allows police to request proof of a person's visa status, and on multiple occasions I was stopped and asked to show my identity card.

You know what? That makes sense to me. I wasn't offended, because I had nothing to hide. It is a country's right to enforce the integrity of the system that gives citizenship to the people living there, as well as a duty; it is necessary to protect the lawful citizens of a nation from those who don't respect the law.

The fact that they are making it illegal on a state level to be in the country illegally (which would be federal law) just goes to show that the federal government isn't effectively addressing the problem. A state ought to have the right to pass a law like this and look after its own, especially when the feds aren't doing anything to resolve the problem.

America has been incredibly lenient on illegal immigration for a long time, and I think it is a good thing that we're going to start taking things a little more seriously. If you are lawfully in the country, you have nothing to worry about.

In my opinion, though this is starting out as an immigration debate, I think that ultimately it will turn into a state's rights battleground. The federal government will try to impose its will on Arizona, and Arizona (and probably Texas) will fight against this. When the dust settles, I can only hope that the states will have reaffirmed their right to govern themselves with minimal federal interference.

Update on Net Neutrality

2010-04-28T19:04:00.000-04:00

Recently I talked about a court ruling on how much power the FCC has for regulating the net.

A good friend of mine sent me a very interesting article that shows the FCC isn't in fact as powerless as we thought. Looks like Net Neutrality could still be a reality. Good news after all!

The Age of Litigation (Or: I Exercise My Noble Freedom to be an Asshole)

2010-04-28T11:42:00.001-04:00

So instead of considering the fine art of procrastination today, I want to comment on the recent iphone fiasco and Gizmodo in particular. (I'll try to get to the other topic in early May.)

You see, some guy found a prototype of the next gen iphone and sold it to a journalist-blogger website, which started revealing a lot of juicy secrets. Apple didn't like them reporting all about it, so they had the police get involved.

Now we've got a debate over whether or not bloggers are protected under journalist laws, as well as what exactly the laws entitle journalists to do.

In my opinion, it is obvious that this is a case of private property which is still in a prototype stage and that releasing information on it is almost certainly harmful to the company. By purchasing it and then analyzing and reporting on it, Gizmodo did something definitely unethical and probably unlawful.

I agree with the people who claim that journalistic legal protection does not extend to committing illegal acts for the sake of creating a source; they exist so that journalists cannot be forced to reveal sources. There's a significant difference here.

Furthermore, I'm not a particular fan of Gizmodo in the first place. A while back they pulled a "prank" that in my opinion shows that their modus operandi is basically selfish and antisocial.

What they did wasn't a prank, in my opinion. It could have been, if they didn't take it so far, and if they had revealed what they were up to shortly after pulling it. But the worst part in my opinion is their lame justification and complete lack of regret.

They paint their actions by associating them with the noble idea of "civil disobedience", claim that the prank "pays homage to the notion of independence and independent reporting", and say that any journalists who criticize their actions are obviously just corporate lapdogs who have sold out.

Seriously? This is the worst sort of self-righteous closed-mindedness, and it pisses me off. So I'm really not that surprised to know that Gizmodo is claiming a moral high ground and suggesting that the purchase of known stolen property and then revealing trade secrets is somehow related to freedom of information.

Suppose some kid I don't know steals my neighbor's diary, then sells it to me for five bucks because he knows I'm always desperate for any old topic to blog about, and I start revealing Old Man Thompson's secret obsession with Hello Kitty... is this seriously about freedom of information?

The problem with modern day society is that we keep taking ideals of freedom far past their logical extension. The justification of selfish and antisocial behavior, wrapped up in the guise of something noble, is so pervasive that we have to debate about whether or not its wrong to steal something secret and then make it public. This type of thing used to be common sense.

The fact that its not is exactly what's wrong with our modern day society.

**Update 4/30**
Here's some info about the guy who originally found & sold the iphone. Sounds like he's full of regret now that he might get in trouble!

On the fine art of procrastination...

2010-04-26T09:03:00.000-04:00

Actually I'll just post about this on Wednesday.

The Eikaiwa Industry

2010-04-23T10:18:00.003-04:00

When I was in Japan, I worked for NOVA, which was the largest English conversation school (eikaiwa) up until it went bankrupt. Their bankruptcy was a huge shock to the industry, which was quite the juggernaut throughout Japan's bubble economy and still sizable up until NOVA's late 2007 bust. Many students lost thousands of dollars already spent on prepaid tuition, which is the industry's standard system of payment. Naturally, people lost trust in the industry and the remaining companies struggled to keep what they could of a declining customer-base.

Eventually a large conglomeration which specializes in taking over failed companies and making them profitable again purchased NOVA and took over operations. I stayed on with them (off and on, long story) until I came back home.

A few days ago, Geos (another one of the "big four" names in the industry) went bankrupt. Back before I came home in late 2009, we had been hearing rumors that they were having cash-flow problems... so I can't say that I'm all that surprised. It is interesting, however, to hear that the same company which purchased NOVA is taking over Geos in a similar fashion. Sounds like they were ready to move this time around.

For students, this is a good thing. For the young people who see teaching as a convenient means to support themselves while spending a year or two in Japan, however...

In the eikaiwa industry, pay & working conditions are inevitably on the decline. I think that makes sense given the economy and all, and don't begrudge the companies for making hard decisions. But at the same time, I can't help but feel like the industry is changing irreversibly, and that makes me sad. My time in Japan, made possible by the eikaiwa schools, really helped me to grow as a person and simultaneously have some amazing adventures.

To all my friends still in Japan, good luck in an uncertain future! (Drink some Super Dry for me, will ya?)

**Update 4/28**
The Japan Times has a new article explaining how this is gonna work out. Sounds like the Geos teachers will get a much better deal than the NOVA folks did.

Technology & Human Culture

2010-04-21T09:37:00.001-04:00

I've been thinking a lot lately about how technology has really changed the rules regarding socialization. With free social networking sites and voice-chat services, long-distance relationships (both platonic and otherwise) have taken a completely different form from even fifteen years ago.

I lived in Japan for a few years, and was able to talk to my parents for free using the internet. While not a replacement for being able to spend time together physically, it was nonetheless a convenient way to stay in touch and made the distance feel far less than "on the other side of the world".

Now I'm back in America, but I still chat daily with the friends I made in Japan. I'll admit that I'm an incredibly lazy guy, so if snail mail was the only means to keep in touch then I couldn't be bothered.

Another interesting this is how simple it is to talk with people from other countries, nowadays. I've had random people from China & Vietnam contact me on Skype just because they were curious about meeting an American. The ease with which you can reach out to people on the other side of the planet is pretty amazing, and I imagine will go a long ways towards eroding cultural biases all over the world.

Of course, with new technology comes new problems of etiquette. Often times, I'm busy with multiple tasks while I'm chatting, which means I tend to only pay attention sporadically. Countless times, my lack of immediate response is taken by a friend to mean that I'm offended by something.

Another thing: I often hear the joke "it isn't real until its on facebook" regarding break-ups. And don't get me started on how our friendships are now codified and displayed via text! Relationships as well, though they include the convenient "its complicated" catch-all.

I just find the new technological aspect to human social interaction to be quite fascinating.

The Net: Tomorrow's Battleground?

2010-04-19T09:17:00.000-04:00

The United States military is asserting its right to "fire back" as a defense not only in real-life, but also on the web. As a completely uninformed civilian, I'd say that sounds reasonable to me. But it makes me think: will tomorrow's world wars be fought in server-rooms and offices?

Many economic and diplomatic experts these days claim another world war is impossible due to the fully internationalized economy; we're all so integrated with each other that it simply wouldn't be possible. Perhaps they are correct when it comes to a physical war, but what if it was a world war fought only on cyber battlefields? (And no, I'm not talking about a first-person-shooter :P)

It is an interesting thing to think about. Would the civilians of this type of war not even know it was being waged? Or would they constantly have their bank accounts disappear, infrastructure destroyed, basic services shut down, etc?

I suppose tomorrow's soldiers might look quite a bit different from the ones we've known previously. Goodbye muscles, hello sickly looking kid with glasses? Haha :)

How much control should the government have over internet usage?

2010-04-16T10:47:00.024-04:00

Korea is taking strong measures to prevent citizens from staying up all night playing their favorite games. This isn't a new concept; China did something similar back in 2005.

Some places have laws about how late a bar can be open, so I suppose there's a precedent of government intervening in the hours that we're allowed to engage in behavior that may be harmful to ourselves, but I'm not convinced that a lack of self-discipline with video games is the same thing as imbibing powerful intoxicants.

When China did this, it made a lot of news but I personally didn't find it to be incredibly worrisome; China is an authoritarian dictatorship. South Korea, on the other hand, is supposed to be a democratic republic... and I'm a bit shocked and quite worried about this type of heavy-handed authority being used in a nominally free society.

Do you think this type of thing is justified? How much authority does the government have when it comes to limiting freedoms in the name of the greater good?

On Net Neutrality

2010-04-14T10:13:00.017-04:00

Net Neutrality is an issue that I've been following avidly for some time.

For anyone who isn't aware of what net neutrality is or the implications of it, here's a brief run-down:

Basically as things stand, the internet is a realm of equals. There is no premium service where certain websites get better connection or more bandwidth; everyone has the same access to anything.

This guarantees that, for example, a small independent news site can be accessed by anyone on any ISP, authoritarian regimes and their censorship notwithstanding. Net Neutrality guarantees the free flow of information and communication.

Without it, an ISP could block access to Fox News, or make it so that Fox News was the only website you could view. They could also start charging a premium rate for access to popular websites. The possibilities for corporate control over information are endless and terrifying.

Recently, a panel of three judges decided that the FCC can no longer enforce the idea of Net Neutrality. (Link here.) It boils down to a lack of legislation supporting the FCC's claim of the right to enforcement.

I strongly hope that Congress will enact the legislation necessary to give the FCC some teeth when it comes to these issues, because the alternative has the potential to be downright Orwellian!

Wanna work in the gaming industry?

2010-04-12T10:20:00.048-04:00

As promised: If you're interested in working in the gaming industry, I just might have some tips for you!

At PAX East, I attended the So You Want to Get into the Game Industry panel. The biggest thing they pushed was networking. In particular (if you don't already have some contacts) interning can be a great option. If you do land an intern job, work hard. It sounds like common sense to me, but supposedly a lot of people get in and then think "I won't work hard until I get paid", and of course they end up not getting the job at all.

If you're going after a job, start working at it before you apply. Build some game mods, or maintain a blog. (^_^) Try to attend unofficial meetings / groups of industry insiders. Apparently in the urban hubs, there are plenty of these around and newcomers are welcome.

Include a cover-letter with your application. A well written cover-letter. Mention any people you know; name-drop. If you met the person at a panel years before, mention it. Also talk about games that you love (show your passionate side) and in particular games from the company you're applying for.

When going for an interview, don't overdress. Apparently (and I'd double check but this is seriously what they told us) the industry frowns upon people who dress super business-like for their interview. Something business casual is preferred.

Make sure you do your homework before the interview. When a company asks if you've played their games, don't be in a position where you have to say no or lie. Play some of their games & know what the company is about!

Once you have the job, don't act entitled. Work your butt off. Meet deadlines. And don't think that it isn't a real job just because its in the gaming industry; maintain an appropriate level of professionalism. Also, don't be discouraged by setbacks. Layoffs happen a lot in this industry, and the industry is relatively small. Do not burn bridges, or take a layoff personally.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is all that I'm willing to share. (Hey, its a competitive industry after all; gotta keep an edge.)

Good luck in your futures, and hopefully we'll meet up to work on Fallout 4 or Civilization 6 together!

Civilization 5

2010-04-09T09:48:00.003-04:00

I remember the first time I played Civilization 4... the game loaded, and then began singing to me. I had been worried about all the changes they were making to my beloved series, but in the end it turned out to by my favorite iteration yet! A lot of folks are similarly worried about Civ 5, but I have to say that after seeing the demo, I'm not too worried. Our highly anticipated game is in safe hands.

The game world is beautiful. Absolutely beautiful. Now bear in mind, the build we were shown was an early Alpha, so this information may not remain accurate. From what we were told: roads are no longer going to be integral for your empire, but rather will act as a trade link. You'll want to build roads as minimally as possible, because they will actually hinder resources gathered from the tiles they exist in.

Did I say tile? I meant to say hex. If you haven't heard, Civ 5 is switching to a hexagon system that I think looks pretty interesting. It will certainly add a lot of new strategic possibilities when units are engaged in combat. The design team said that they really wanted to revolutionize the way wars occur in Civ 5. To this end, they're limiting military units to one per hex, giving ranged units the ability to fire from afar, and making units a lot more expensive and a lot more powerful. Combat will no longer necessarily leave one unit wiped out, and ranged units can play a significant role in backing up melee units.

They are also limiting cities to where only one unit can garrison them. The general idea is that wars will occur and be decided outside of the cities. And obviously, no more Stacks of Doom. I love the direction combat is taking since one of my least favorite aspects of Civ is unit spam.

I asked a few questions towards the end of the session. From what I was told:
-Civilization/Leader traits will be very distinct and heavily contribute to the playstyle
-Unique Units will truly be unique, not just a small stat bonus but something that other units can't do
-City States are in the game to "make things happen" between the larger empire-like civilizations, and are very effective at that; they provide substantial bonuses if you're friendly with 'em (depending on the city's focus, such as war or economics), but can also be captured
-Conquest no longer requires you to eliminate all over civilizations; just take and hold all their capitals (which I'm not too thrilled about, actually)
-Barbarians will have a "home city", and if you capture the home city you stop the barbarians (unknown if this is going to be literally one home city on a world, or if it'll be lots of home cities that spawn barbarians continuously and can be captured one by one)
-You can spend gold to "purchase" an expansion of your cities borders
-Cities will expand an additional hex, rather than two like in previous games it'll go out to work up to three hexes away

Overall, I'm really excited about what I saw and looking forward to the finished product. I can't wait!

PAX East, Part 2: Panels and Games!

2010-04-07T10:47:00.001-04:00

The first panel I attended on Friday was Online Gaming Communities and "Real Life" Relationships, which I thought was quite interesting, having met several good friends online prior to meeting up face-to-face.

After that, I had hoped to attend Storytelling in the World of Interactive Fiction, but it was unfortunately already full by the time I rushed to the auditorium after the former panel was finished.

I also attended Girls and Games: The Growing Role of Women in the Game Industry. In an industry / subculture that's overwhelming dominated by males, I thought this would be quite interesting. Unfortunately, it turned out to be sort of ridiculous. There was a male moderator who kept repeating the questions, like verbatim, to the panel... as if they needed a translator or something. Everyone could hear just fine, the questions were spoken into a microphone the first time. It seemed almost sexist, as if they couldn't have an all-woman panel without a male to make sure things worked well.

There were plenty of other panels without a moderator, so I'm just not sure what was going on there. But to me, the worst part of it all was that there were tons of questions and these repetitions really ate into the time-slot. The moderator kept making stupid jokes (which also tended to be border-line sexist) and generally seemed unnecessary.

During the weekend, I also got a chance to try out 3D gaming, which was pretty awesome. I played a first person shooter and had to admit, the 3D technology was pretty amazing. Just like the movies, only its interactive! Pretty rad stuff.

I also got to see a hands-on preview of Civilization 5! I'll talk more about that next time, but I will say that the game is absolutely gorgeous.

My favorite panel, by far, was So You Want to Get into the Game Industry? It was ran by several industry insiders, including the legend: Chris Avellone. He wasn't fielding any questions on Fallout: New Vegas, unfortunately... but it was pretty amazing to actually see the man behind some of my favorite games.

This panel was extremely informative for those of us interested in joining the industry, and I took copious notes. This Monday, I'll share the advice we were given; look for it then.

PAX East, Part 1

2010-04-05T21:11:00.000-04:00

So arriving in Boston, I was immediately surrounded by a throng of folk obviously there for the same reason, and who took the same train. In fact, on the train itself it was fairly obvious that there was a large contingent of nerds on their way to PAX East.

From the very beginning, I noticed how loud and annoying and obnoxious they were. Not to say that every person heading to PAX on the train was engaging in such behavior, but I do think that a general lack of awareness / concern for social norms is the rule rather than the exception throughout the "geek" subculture. I find this interesting, and ponder why it is so.

Don't get me wrong. I'm the last person to try and subject societal norms on people arbitrarily, just to "fit in". But there are certain behaviors that I would consider "anti-social"; things that you don't do in public because it is rude and disruptive to everyone around you. And based on my experience at the convention, I suppose that just isn't commonly understood amongst geeks.

In all seriousness, this convention really opened up my eyes to why there exists so many negative stereotypes about the geek subculture. I hadn't realized, I guess because I am a hybrid geek / normal person who drinks alcohol, attends parties, etc... It was disappointing to realize, because I love geek culture!

That said, there were plenty of normal folks with normal social skills at PAX East so please don't mistake my meaning.

The convention wasn't too crowded outside of events, but a lot of the time panels and such that I wanted to attend were quickly at full capacity. I missed out on a few that way (quite disappointing!) and hope that in the future they'll work on having bigger spaces available.

I never had to look hard for an enforcer (the helpful go-to folks) so that was nice. They had food within the convention area, but I tended to end up with a chunk of free time every day so I always left the convention itself and bought something in the mall. The con food smelled nice, though!

All in all the area was quite nice, and I feel like they chose the venue well.

Next time, I'll talk about some specific panels.

Still sick...

2010-04-03T19:06:00.000-04:00

..but I'm on the mend! My plan is to take it easy this weekend and return to regular posting on Monday.

PAX East: Initial Report

2010-03-30T10:24:00.000-04:00

OK so I had a lot of fun and saw a lot of cool things, but I also caught a case of ConCrud, some nasty amalgamation of various regional colds all mixed up in the big meat-vat that was the teaming masses of convention attendees... I feel terrible!

Anyways, saw Civ 5, that was awesome. Saw and played Red Dead Redemption, that also looks awesome... it's the latest offering from Rockstar Studios and particularly comes from the team that makes the GTA series. Might be time I buy a PS3 or XBox 360.

Will give more detailed reports as I can, but I just woke up and feel awful. My head is pounding, my nose is stuffed in between sneezes, my throat is parched... ugh.

PAX East

2010-03-22T14:33:00.001-04:00

I'll be attending PAX East and have a lot of work to get done beforehand, so I'm gonna take the week off from updates.

Hopefully Monday I'll be able to write about how PAX went. Looking forward to it!

Terrible Game Ideas

2010-03-19T14:05:00.000-04:00

I was playing a game while chatting with my friend, and all of the sudden the worst game idea came to me: Bargain Hunter!

I can't explain it, but I just had a really fun time imagining how bad I could make a game. I came up with an idea along the lines of of the old Bazaar system in Luclin era Everquest.

Basically it was a decent sized zone where you would leave your character while you weren't playing, and the character would become an NPC vendor selling items that you chose, at prices that you set.

My game idea would be a vastly larger zone full of similar NPCs, minus the search functions, and you'd be given a shopping list and would have to go and manually check each vendor to see if they sold the items you needed and at what price.

Points of course are based on if you found the best bargain available. Harder levels would include fluctuating prices and competition with NPC buyers.

What a terrible game idea, right? Sounds like it wouldn't be fun at all! I have no idea why I had so much fun coming up with the concept, but there you go.

Have a great weekend!

Thirsty Gamers

2010-03-17T12:11:00.000-04:00

Every gamer knows that you can only click that mouse so many times before you work up a mean thirst!

Back when I was playing EverQuest, I tended to down Mountain Dew (the regular and Code Red) and Dr. Pepper. It was my rapid consumption of soda during this time in my life that inspired me to make the switch to diet soda!

These days, thanks to my time spent in East Asia I am fond of drinking tea while gaming. I also consume massive amounts of Diet Dr. Pepper and the occasional Diet Mountain Dew.

What beverages do you enjoy while killing orcs and the like? Do you have different preferences depending on the game you're playing?

Thoughts on Japan

2010-03-15T09:52:00.001-04:00

Recently, Tim at Kotaku posted a (very) lengthy rant about his chosen country of residence, Japan.

In it, he lists many problems he has with the Japanese culture.

As I said, it is a massive read. I was interested since I spent three years living in Japan, myself. In many ways, I can agree with him and totally understand where he's coming from.

In order to save you some effort, I'll list some of his main points here:

Anime sucks
Smoking in public is excessive and not really frowned upon
Japan isn't vegetarian-friendly
Mandatory drinking with co-workers
Passive-aggressiveness is rampant in Japanese culture
Cost of living is expensive
The weather
Cultural differences piss Tim off

All-in-all, I think it was a fairly good read for someone who has delusions of Japan as a magical place where you can geek out and be happy and everything's just like in some Japanese cartoon. And I also recognize that a large part of his rant is just that; a rant. It is a way to blow some steam, a cathartic way to complain and get it out of his system. However, I still have a problem with a lot of his points because basically half of his rant is just that cultural differences piss him off. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

First of all, anime does suck. I hate it. Since I tend to be interested in geeky stuff, people generally assume I love anime. The fact that I went to Japan does nothing to help this image. I enjoy the occasional animated series, so long as it isn't unreasonably difficult to suspend my disbelief. I like something grounded in reailty, especially sci-fi. Ghost in the Shell is perhaps my favorite, and I enjoyed Cowboy Bebop as well. But most of the anime genre is innane and boring, and I simply cannot fathom how people can enjoy watching it. Stuff like Inuyasha, seriously? (Protip: All Japanese consider that show to be a children's show. Nobody else watches it, even the hardcore anime otaku types.)

Secondly, I'm not a smoker so I can fully empathize with the lack of regard for non-smokers in Japan. Cigarette smoke will permeate your clothes within an hour of leaving your apartment; it is disgusting.

Now, I'm no vegetarian, but I can still be on board with that complaint as well. I've dated a vegetarian or two in my time, and it has given me some awareness for the merits of such a lifestyle. I try to occasionally enjoy a vegetarian meal of my own. This is nearly impossible in Japan. Even the stores don't really help you out in such an endeavor, especially if you don't happen to read the three Japanese alphabets. (Technically speaking, I suppose only two are really "Japanese" while the third is simply Chinese characters with different pronunciation.)

Mandatory drinking with co-workers... that's a tough call. I love to drink. Partying is fun! So I didn't mind the occasional office party, especially since they were pretty rare; my company mostly segregated the foreign staff and didn't hold us to Japanese cultural expectations.

Once in a while I was obliged to join a party for team-building reasons, even though I didn't feel like doing so. But the thing is, as a rule this is a free party. Either your boss or the company itself will be picking up the tab. And it isn't at all hard to not drink at the party. This sort of gets into a cultural difference, which is why I'm not fully on board with his complaint. If you just order a drink, then that's enough. You don't have to actually drink it. As long as you maintain appearances of group conformity, then you won't be unduly pressured. Maybe a coworker or two will pester you to get sloshed, but no more so than in our own culture.

This sense of entitlement that Japan has to change to fit my culture is rather common among foreigners living there, and it kind of pisses me off. I think that if immigrants come to America, they ought to learn enough English to participate in everyday society and respect our customs. It is total bullshit that Walmart employees can no longer say "Merry Christmas" because they might offend someone's sensibilities. And yes, I'm aware that plenty of long-time American citizens practice many forms of religion, but the fact that our primary culture is being warped in order to not offend a minority's sensibilities really fires me up.

Tolerance means we put up with something. It doesn't mean we bend over backwards to change our whole way of life just in case someone is offended by a simple customary Holiday greeting. I myself am not a Christian, yet I enjoy giving and receiving Merry Christmases during the appropriate season. By this same token, I'm vehemently against going to a foreign culture such as Japan and trying to impose my own cultural values on the country and its people. Blame my undergrad in cultural studies, but that's just the way I see things.

Passive-aggressiveness is indeed rampant in Japan. Again, a cultural difference. Japanese are very indirect. They simply do not conceive of the world as we do, and it isn't a virtue or a vice, it is just their conceptualization of the world and how we interact with it and each other. Now of course I'm using gross generalizations, but for our purposes they are true enough.

Having lived in the worst neighborhood of the second largest city of Japan, I can happily say I much prefer their passive aggressive culture to America's aggressive aggressive culture. Violent crime, especially against strangers, is practically nonexistent in Japan. Theft is rampant, but at no point did I have to worry about getting mugged. Even assholes on trains or other public places are generally passive, and this makes for a much more pleasant every day experience, in my opinion.

Cost of living? That's a totally legit complaint, the cost of living in Japan is a bitch. That's due to circumstances, though, and not something you can really pin on the Japanese culture or people. But if you plan on going there, be aware that it is really freakin' expensive!

Ah, yes, the weather. I've long maintained that the East Asian climate is by far the worst in the world. Bitterly cold winters due to strong wind chill factors, soupy summers of sweat-drenching heat and humidity, and just a very brief "in between" season twice a year where you think my God, what pleasant weather for a month or two. No doubt about it, the weather in Japan sucks.

Everything else he mentioned was just cultural differences that annoyed him. Fair enough, I say. A good rant is therapeutic. It helps him to deal with his annoyance without taking it out on random Japanese people. But I think there's a few hints hidden within his rant that shed some light on where he's starting from. The translation he offers to "otsukaresama desu" is "you're tired". I would say it means "I recognize that you worked hard", and have had Japanese people corroborate me on this. Quite a difference as far as feeling goes, and I think it says a lot about the type of person who translates an affirmative and uplifting phrase into something so negative.

A large part of adapting to Japanese culture was to remove myself from my own cultural prejudices, so far as I was able. I understand that theirs is a communal-based society that doesn't value individuality in the way that my own culture does. This is reflected in their language and social norms, including speech patterns and even entertainment.

And that is the crux of my problem with his overall rant. I think it is fine, healthy even, to get up on a soapbox and let off some steam. I don't even mind when foreigners bitch about their host culture. I certainly understand many of the negatives people see about America, and can often agree. Hell, I've bitched about some Japanese cultural things that were particularly nonsensical to my Western individualistic worldview.

But the thing is, doing so in small groups with your fellow expatriates is one thing... doing so to a large audience with absolutely no familiarity or awareness of the culture being attacked is something completely different.

Doing so breeds ignorance, and doesn't really an accurate representation of life in a foreign culture. Most Kotaku readers have never been to Japan, which leaves them with an exceedingly unfair impression. This type of thing can give way to a particularly hateful type of ignorance, and that scares me. By demonizing a foreign culture, it creates the idea of the "other". This easily lends itself to dehumanizing foreign peoples.

I'm certainly overreacting, but rest assured I'm aware of that. His post just struck a chord with me, and I'd been mulling over specifically why that was for a while. So now I've had my own rant and we all feel better, don't we?

Silly Chinese Hackers!

2010-03-12T12:08:00.070-05:00

I quit playing WoW a little over ten months ago. Recently, I went on a short vacation and while away from home, I checked my Gmail. The PC I used was apparently infected with a key logger, because that very day some Chinese hackers took control of my World of Warcraft account.

Now, ordinarily, I would never have noticed. In this particular case, however, I was visiting with some friends who I used to play WoW with. One of them is still a very active player, and we started talking about the latest events and how the gave is evolving. I started getting curious about the game and thought I might play casually when I get some free time, just to stay in touch with my friends.

When I tried to log in to my account in order to download the game client, however, I was unable to do so. I assumed it was a problem from where previously I was playing in Asia and my account had been merged to Battlenet.Asia. Little did I know...

So I called up Blizzard tech support right before they closed, and explained my situation, and they reset my password for me and transferred the account from the Asian Battlenet to the US version. At that point, the Chinese hackers who were already well into looting my account and noticed the password change. They took it one step further by locking me out of my Gmail account!

This happened while I slept, and when I woke up the next morning I noticed immediately that something was wrong because my Gmail notifier was logged out and couldn't log back in using my old password. Further investigation revealed the same problem no matter how I tried to access Gmail.

Having never encountered anything like this before, I decided the only possible explanation was that my account was compromised. I immediately filled out the Gmail account recovery web-form, and within thirty minutes they had verified the problem and restored full control back to me.

I then waited for about 45 minutes (until Blizzard's call center was open again,) and called them to restore my account. Again, this happened pretty much as soon as I told them what was up, and the account was restored over to me.

Since I had downloaded and installed the game client while I was sleeping, I was instantly able to log in and verify that I had control of my account. Imagine my surprise when I realized that the Chinese hackers had reactivated my account, using their own credit card! Free month of game-play in exchange for my brief troubles? Why thank you Xi Wang!

Where did I come up with that random Chinese name, you ask? Well, he changed all my Gmail account information: the language to Mandarin, the time zone / location to Beijing, and the name to Xi Wang.

Good 'ol Wang tried to reset the password once after I got the account back, but realized all bases were covered and he no longer had any chance at regaining access.

By early afternoon, the fine GMs at Blizzard had researched and restored my account to pre-hack status. And so I learned the lesson that one can no longer play WoW unless one is using a Blizzard authenticator.

Early Adoption

2010-03-10T11:17:00.001-05:00

Looks like Sony and Samsung are rolling out 3D TVs!

My dad and I were discussing this after watching Avatar 3D and I have to admit, I'm a bit surprised at how fast it is happening. Now, these models still require the silly glasses, but I figure it won't be too long now that we won't need the glasses at all!

They appear to be quite pricey, close to $4000, which is about 50% more than the cost of a similar sized non-3D model. I suppose only those with large amounts of disposable income will be early-adopters.

What are your thoughts on early adoption? I tend to wait, just because I try to be frugal with my cash when I can. I'm generally a generation behind on console systems, making it MUCH cheaper as I go through the massive game catalogs.

This does leave me a bit forlorn every time there's a huge release for the latest gen systems, though. I'm currently looking on sadly as my friends enjoy FFXIII and Heavy Rain.

Regardless, until I once again have gainful employment, I won't be able to partake of the most recent offerings that the industry puts before us. I avoid the harrowing tales of early adopters, but I equally miss out on the fun that goes along with being the first to own a new system or game.

So is early adopting something you regularly do? Only with specific products? Only once in a while? Does it depend on your disposable income?

Perhaps someone will regale us with a tale of early adoption horror...

The WoW Standard

2010-03-08T14:36:00.000-05:00

I remember a time before every game was designed around four basic quest types: Find X of Y, Kill X of Y, Go to (and possibly deliver X to) Y, or Escort X to Y.

I remember when quest givers didn't have metallic punctuation marks to easily distinguish them. I remember games that didn't rely on a point-based system of three talent trees. I remember an era when every game wasn't based on World of Warcraft.

Their system is good, don't get me wrong. The mechanics are well thought out, and it provides a ton of diversity while remaining very easy and accessible to softcore gamers.

I appreciate that WoW has helped make gaming (and especially MMORPGs) more mainstream. I'm just tired of seeing it copied, often exactly, in so many games that have nothing to do with the WoW franchise.

Let's try to break away from the tired old standard and come up with some innovative new systems instead?

Some complaints about water vapor

2010-03-05T18:02:00.000-05:00

As I've recently said, I enjoy Steam and think it is fairly innovative and is the template that most digital delivery systems will someday follow.

At one point, I was talking about how convenient it was to respond to my friends via an integrated Instant Messenger. I could chat without tabbing out of the game, one of my favorite features.

The only problem is that it isn't truly built into the game's interface, but rather is through the Steam UI overlay. This usually isn't an issue, but occasionally I do have problems with the hardcoded nature of the Steam UI. I think it would be infinitely more useful if I could remap the commands and otherwise have more control over the UI in regards to specific games.

For example, in Mount & Blade, if you hit tab in a town or city, it takes your character away from the area and you have to start over from the outskirts if you go back in. Since Steam's UI is hardcoded to activate from Shift + Tab, this can be annoying.

Another point of contention: when you get a chat message from a friend, it appears unobtrusively in the corner of the screen. Not a big deal in most games, but some of them have important information right behind where my friend is spamming me with penis jokes. I need to see ammo, health, time remaining, whatever... so if I could choose where the chat mini-window showed up, that would be so much better.

Yet another annoyance is the fact that some games auto-pause when you open the STEAM UI, and others do not. Often times I'll be at a boring point in a game and I'll want to chat with a friend while I'm waiting. Many games, this works like a charm. In others however, it annoyingly makes certain that the game's paused and therefore I'm not whiling away the boring parts through social interaction.

None of these are major issues, to be sure. Minor annoyances that add up, yet I tend to be forgiving considering that Steam is a "first generation" community-based digital delivery service.

Recently, they started an open beta regarding an overhaul of the Steam UI. I've begun participating in it, and definitely feel like there are some improvements. Overall I'm not entirely pleased, but it is a beta so I'll reserve judgment for when it is officially "done".

It will be interesting to see what the end results are... hopefully some of my complaints will be addressed.

Portal Update: Ending has changed!

2010-03-03T18:52:00.002-05:00

Some of you may already be aware of the recent update to Portal that added an extra puzzle to each level, and the achievement that goes with it.

Well, I was on Steam about an hour ago and just exited a game when I got a little notice that Portal had finished updating. I checked the update log and it says "Added valuable asset retrieval" ... sound familiar to anyone?

I played through it from the last level real quick and beat it, and found out that they updated the ending of the game!

You can see it here.

Certainly seems like Portal 2 and/or Halflife 2: Episode 3 are right around the corner!

Digital Delivery: The Future of Gaming?

2010-03-03T09:52:00.001-05:00

I remember when I first purchased Halflife 2. I was so pissed that it came with some arbitrary chunk of software that I had to install with it. "What the heck is Steam? I don't need it! This is insulting!" Et cetera, et cetera.

However, after the initial birthing pains, I now recognize Steam as one of the greatest things that happened to gaming. Now, bare in mind, I'm not a Valve fan boy. I'm definitely not saying Steam is the best of the digital delivery services. But I will claim that it took the concept and made it mainstream.

Prior to having Steam shoved down my throat, I was fairly old fashioned and conservative when it came to online buying. I certainly never quite felt comfortable with the idea of digital-only purchases. After playing through Halflife 2, I uninstalled Steam, but ended up coming back when Episode 1 was released. Then it stayed on my system and slowly I purchased a few more titles, usually directly from Valve.

I was vaguely aware that other games were offered on Steam, but the catalog selection was never very robust the few times I had checked on it. That all changed by the time Portal came out, and I started noticing their twice-a-week sales promotions. Slowly, my game collection started to build up, until Christmas of 2010 hit and I was sitting on a small chunk of cash. The skies opened up and angels began to sing as I spent only $150ish and got $500 worth of gaming goodness. It was beautiful.

At this point, I'm afraid I don't know much about Impulse. I purchased GalCiv II and one of its expansions on it, but other than that I haven't felt the need to use it for any gaming purchases. Partly this is due to Steam getting its nefarious intoxicants into me first, and partly because the last time I used Impulse, it was just a digital delivery service.

Steam, on the other hand, is a social experience. Their in-game instant messenger is by far my favorite feature. It can transform a single player experience into something much more akin to multiplayer.

One thing I love about MMOs is playing with friends. One thing I hate about MMOs is the random assholes I have to deal with. When the latter began to outweigh the former, my brain switched into a singleplayer mode and I gave up World of Warcraft. I have yet to feel the desire to go back to an MMO now that I've got a reasonable amount of my real-life friends playing on Steam regularly.

Often times, my friends and I will play through the same game at the same time. This results in a very fun experience as we share tips, strategies, funny situations, bugs, complaints, et cetera. This is all done without having to alt-tab out of the game, which can lead to stability issues and is generally a lot more of an effort than simply responding from within the game interface itself.

I once read an article about how single-player gaming was a fluke, an anomaly that was a result of technology limitations. They pointed out board games, card games, and how it wasn't until video games that single player became a popular option. This was years ago, and I never did agree with the premise. Many games simply do not lend themselves to multiplayer style.

However, I do believe that the future of single player games is to include social aspects, such as what we're now seeing in Steam. That much of the "single player an aberration" idea, I can agree with. Gaming, even when you're playing by yourself, is still (ideally) a very social experience. How many times have you played through a single player game and then spent hours discussing it with friends who did likewise?

I hope that more of the digital delivery platforms emulate Steam's example and provide more opportunities to complement my single player games through communicating shared experiences with my friends. Preferably from in-game!

Socializing... A Necessary Evil?

2010-03-01T17:19:00.003-05:00

Like any dedicated gamer, I loath the events that force me to walk away from my poorly lit cave and into the wider world. Sometimes it's necessary. Indeed, add alcohol and I can genuinely forget about my obsession with games for a brief span.

But sometimes, you just want to game. Especially annoying is when your friends suspect that the reason you're ducking a social event (even informal events, like meeting for movies or some board games) is just to stay home and wallow in single-player goodness.

As any true gamer knows, peer pressure can have a profound impact on your plans. I plan to skip wing night and make it to the Shadow Fortress in Torchlight, but my friends refuse to listen no matter how many times I repeat that I'll only need a few more hours and I'll be there! And they literally drag me, kicking and screaming, into the car.

To avoid such unseemly situations, I've decided to compile a list of excuses for avoiding social events.

1) Swine Flu - Its new, its sexy, and the CDC has strict guidelines requiring you to stay home!
2) You just aren't up to seeing people tonight... "You see, man, I just watched that episode of Futurama with Fry's dog, and... I just can't tonight. Yeah, I'll be OK, I just need some time... thanks for understanding."
3) Your short story is being considered for publication, and the editor wants to do a phone interview to discuss the possibilities!
4) This one requires a bit of prep work; for weeks beforehand, you need to keep talking about some nutty conspiracy theory involving a mysterious science project. Maybe involving the Large Hadron Collider in Europe? I dunno. But anyways, after the ground work is laid out, you can say "Go out? Tonight? No way!" and explain that their experiment is scheduled to take place then. Works best if you can plan it specifically to coincide with something in the news to back up your nutty story.
5) You are upset because your short story was turned down, after all, and aren't in the mood to hang out.
6) If you're in school, then you have an essay due. If you're working, then your boss gave you an assignment at the last minute and you gotta burn the midnight oil to get it done.
7) "Ah man, at the last minute something came up with my family."
8) Convince your friends that you are actually a superhero and have to go meet with the President or fight some crime. Something urgent.
9) Fake your own death.
10) "Better not.. my IBS is really acting up!" (Very effective!)

Now I'm sure all gamers have their own unique excuses, so feel free to share your advice.

Oh, by the way, I've recently been hearing some crazy stuff about what's going on at CERN. Scary. Anyways, see ya next time!

Video Games as ... art? (Picasso Sniper 4 now on sale!)

2010-02-27T11:50:00.001-05:00

Kotaku had an interesting commentary on the zombie genre and its recent movement away from zombies as a mystical / unexplainable phenomenon, and into the realm of science with each game having a (mostly) plausible explanation.

Ever since the Spring of 1996, I have enjoyed a really well done zombie survival game. I have also noticed the shift in the genre, both in film and in video games, away from the mystical and towards the scientific.

I think it has less to do with the notion of unexplainable zombies being stale and played out, and more to do with the growing awareness of the dangers of pandemic. As per my last post, I really believe that the idea of infectious diseases has just entered into the public consciousness in such a way that it is terrifying yet conceivable to imagine a disease like rabies, which turns a family member into a violent stranger.

This scenario is far scarier than the idea that a passing comet has a mystical power, or that hell is full to overflowing, precisely because it is a lot more relevant to modern life.

I've loved video games since I can remember. Throughout my lifetime, I've been able to witness the evolution of games from insanely difficult arcade style offerings that had little or no story, to the extremely complex interactive novels that seem to be the modern archetype.

I really do believe that as a new, interactive form of media, it took a while for both the technology and the artists to catch up to its possibilities. Now, please don't misunderstand and think I'm one of those pretentious nits that thinks every single game is a form of art. Sometimes you just wanna shoot zombies in the head. I'm well aware of that.

In fact, very few games these days are, as a whole, intended as a work of art. It is still an industry fueled by profits, and these days games sell based on how fun they are to play. That said, there are still "artistic moments" in most games, and I suspect that this idea will continue to develop along with the game industry itself.

Games are evolving to become more meaningful to our modern lives. They often have parallels to real events. In many cases, they have a subtle commentary about contemporary politics. I believe that games will continue to develop in a way that they remain relevant to our modern lives, much like other forms of media.

I was browsing the forums at GameFAQs a few months ago, and distinctly remember someone posting about how outrageous it was that a game on the current Iraq War was in development. They said it wasn't something we should be entertaining ourselves with, or crassly making money on. Other posters responded with the logical continuation of that line of thought, asking if the original poster thought no movies should be made on any controversial subjects, too?

This line of ignorance, where video games aren't valid as a form of expression, is thankfully on the decline. Yet I suspect this narrow-minded attitude will struggle on, frustratingly impossible to make fully disappear. Much like the insurgency in Iraq.