Final Fantasy 4: Onward to The After Years

FF4 is a surprisingly quick game (completed in under about 17 hours played.) There are a few points of real difficulty, but even those can be breezed through by simply doing fights as they come. I reached the end game on the moon at about level 57 across the party by the time we used the crystal in the last fight. Simply knowing how the Active Time Battle system works this time changed the whole world. I knew what counters were used by what monster; Behemoths were no longer a long, drawn out fight once I realized they countered every hit with a nasty attack. Rubicant was no longer a stopping point once I realized how his cloak works; and the water turtle demon Caganazzo, or whatever, was a push over.

Final Fantasy 3: The Last of the NES Era

After beating the Cloud of Darkness, we say a fond farewell to the NES era Final Fantasy games. Even though I was playing the remake, I still felt the danger of things going wrong in the battles enough, and there was a real hint of danger throughout the game play. Coming off of FF2, the body count among our heroes is much lower, and the tone is lighter. Most of the world is not destroyed, and our friends are reunited in the end. FF3 sets up a nice, hopeful spot between the depressing worlds of FF2 and FF4.

Squirrel!

For all your distraction needs.

Squirrel!

Get It Right -- Even If You Don't Get It Fast

This is a lesson we're supposed to learn every time there is a terrible tragedy. We are always told that we should slow down, wait to have all the information before making ill-formed opinions and statements. I've discussed this before here and here. So, we're back to this pressing question: How can we encourage the media to actually do their job and get breaking stories right before accidentally sending out loads of incorrect information? In what other field, besides blogging, politics and journalism, do we allow this level of incompetence to go unchecked?

So, when you decide to report on a mass shooting, it behooves you to get the right suspect, describe the attack correctly, identify your victims correctly and behave like decent human beings while doing so. Not getting things right also causes people to wonder why journalists might accidentally embarrass themselves in other ways. Journalists: These sorts of stories are easy lay-ups if you would be patient and not be suckers.

Verify your work. It's not that hard, and if you were in any other field and routinely turned in such shoddy, poorly checked work, you would be fired. Sometimes, it is OK to be a little slow if you can get it right without having to embarrassingly backtrack and say "Never mind." Ignore the Second Amendment issues for all purposes on commenting and focus on how we can convince the media that accuracy is more important than showmanship.

The Public Says It Wants Compromise

Namely, they want it on the fiscal cliff. Yet, every action the public has taken gets in the way of compromise (electing a divided government, remaining blissfully ignorant about Simpson-Bowles, kicking the can down the road for decades to reach the fiscal cliff, not punishing politicians who won't even pass a budget, etc.)

Compromise requires both sides to give something up that they want, and it often requires what is given up to be a little painful for both sides. It requires parties to negotiate in good faith, and it requires stakeholders in the negotiations (that is, average Americans) to pay enough attention and hold people accountable.

If you want compromise, then vote for people who are likely to reach compromises as opposed to political ideologues, whether they be Tea Party extremists or Pelosi-wing Democrats. America will not get compromise if we keep rewarding behavior that has never, in the past, brought about compromise. Now, doing something is not always better than doing nothing, and if the something being offered by both sides is unacceptable, then the only something that will happen is sequestration.

Now, here's the interesting thing about sequestration: Like any bargaining position, you should not agree to it or make a threat unless you are willing to pull the trigger on it. You don't kick in the door to your bank and yell at them about bad service unless you are willing to cut a check to yourself for your entire account and walk to the next bank over and open up shop there, for example. So, everyone who agreed to sequestration made a sort of tacit agreement that this was a worst-case acceptable compromise if they couldn't come up with anything better.

So, just remember that if it happens, and act accordingly.

Men, Women, The Wars There Of

So, after I gave such a bang up review of the Demise of Guys, there's a new book that seems to want to talk about the same theory (though I don't yet know what it suggests.) Now, obviously, Men on Strike has not been released, so I can't make any judgment what-so-ever on what it says. This is important for you to remember. I have no intention of reading that book either, it really isn't my cup of tea.

First of all, I don't think there is a War on Men, though I do agree with the author's point that we should not solely be looking at men as the cause of the problem. It's a very feminist and egalitarian opinion I hold, but: I think both genders are contributing to whatever problem (if indeed, there is one) with lower marriage rates.

Extra Credits Video

Video here.

This is something that I try to explain to people, that I think this video does better than I could. One thing I try to explain when playing games is the difference in power in classes, strategies, etc. For example, in most Final Fantasy games, you can pretty much ignore much of the complexity the game offers by simply finding the exploitable bits and exploiting to the hilt.

One Reason I Don't Watch a Lot of TV

... is that I notice things.

For example, I like Frasier. So, to fill in between writing, I am half-watching it. Little things bother me all the time, but sometimes, there's just a big thing. In Episode 4, they set four places at the table; only after Niles arrives does he tell them Maris isn't coming. If that's the case, why do they only set four places?

This is why I can't have nice things.

Tax Law: Eagle Art

Interesting tax question: Should art be valued what it is technically worth (in this case, the appraisers are right in my opinion: It is worth zero dollars since any sale of it is illegal) or what it would be valued at on the open, non-law influenced market? Several important folks came to my same decision: "Since the artwork couldn't be sold, logic dictated that it be listed as having zero value, which is what the Sonnabend family's three appraisers, one of them Christie's auction house, did."

Final Fantasy 2: Complete

I finished Final Fantasy 2 yesterday evening. One of the most interesting things about this is that it was actually, for all its NES-level story-telling capability, a fairly dark game. A lot of heroes end up dead, and our heroes do not reconcile with each other at the end. Leon is sort of a proto-Kain, but he pulls it off better since he doesn't seem to slip in and out of mind control as easily as a cartoon character. As with FF1, the early limitations really showed in the game; grinding by hitting yourself and your friends in the head is... thankfully a system Final Fantasy dropped. The other problem with FF2 is that, much like some of the later Final Fantasies, your characters start to blend together, ability wise, if you're going for max effectiveness. By the end of the game, Firion, Mariah and Gus were only different in that Firion swung two lances, Mariah used two swords and Gus had two axes. All three could heal and buff effectively, and attack magic was of nominal use.

This is another game that is fun in the sense that you get a feeling of overcoming challenges, until you hit the mid-game when some odd combination of equipment and spells lets you sit on easy street until a random encounter in the final dungeon with monsters that do a percentage of your max HP as damage. Then, once you clear the two floors they are on, it is smooth sailing. I expected the boss to actually transform into a super powered. final true evil form. He did not. Oh well, on to Final Fantasy III, which brought us the Job System as we think of it.

Below are some pictures from my failed adventure to the Air and Space museum today, as the lecture I was hoping to attend was canceled.

Walking Dead Episode 5

Warning. Below there be spoilers.

Final Fantasy 1: Complete

 Between down time in Delaware and the train up, I've completed reading Redshirts and finished FF1. Tomorrow/later today, I'll be starting up on FF2. This is one I don't even think I started. But first, let's reflect on what we've learned from FF1. Why the delay? NaNoWriMo has done a number on my pushing through Final Fantasy.

First, the game did not age well, even with a graphics update. The dungeons start off incredibly harsh, but by late game, you can trivialize them all with usable equipment. The only resets I was forced to make were in the ice caves in random encounters against multiple dark wizards who spammed Fire 2. The actual figuring things out part was fun, but I wonder if anyone who didn't have the where-with-all to talk to everyone would be able to do it. I finished the game, on Normal, at average party level 31. A bit high, but there were too many encounters that, even with a thief, attempting to flee ended up costing too many resources if we failed.

For when it came out, the game was innovative, fun, and it gave people a chance to dabble in party creation and minor customization. The amount of character customization is going to go up (then ratchet back down later in the series), but for an NES-era game, the initial four-man choice gives it some potential. There was a time when the purist in me would want to suggest people start with FF1 for learning the series; that part of me died when I realized that, while I liked the novel challenge of managing resources and juggling potions and antidote supplies, most players will not.

Oh well, let's see what FF2 brings. Oh? Red Shirts? I approve (even if at some points it is written in present tense.)



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P.S.,

Hopefully everyone had a Happy Thanksgiving! Now that the festivities are over, if you plan on going out into the wild during Black Friday, have fun. If you can. It just seems unnecessarily hectic and crowded. Two things I do not like.

A Fundamental Misunderstanding of Free Speech

"After the Citizens United decision on free speech and political spending, he found a way 'to save the court's credibility.'"

Here's a question: Why was the court's credibility in any danger? Citizen's United, at the most basic level, says people are free to associate together and spend their personal money as a collective enterprise to engage in Free Speech. Why, exactly, is that bad thing? I'm big on free speech, and if we restrict people's ability to work as a group to attain political speech, then we don't have free speech.

That is the fundamental misunderstanding: That we can restrict political speech because more than one person contributed to it. Private citizens should have the ability to coordinate together and put out political messages. The answer to bad speech is more speech. If you don't like the political movie, don't pay to see it, or kickstart a counter-documentary. In today's connected world, there is no excuse for quashing unpopular political speech just because it is unpopular.

Right, back to not blogging as I head home for Thanksgiving.

Mice and NaNoWriMo

35k, so my goal for today is reached. My personal writing goal has been modified to take into account missing some days while I am in Delaware; if you are shooting for an average words/day rate to hit 50k, by the end of today you should have 28,322 (roughly 1,666*17). Spoilers below, so avoid reading this if you want to be able to read the mouse story when it is done without being spoiled.

I Like Lawful Good Heroes

“You were supposed to stop them,” Uzzah said, almost hissing as he drew nose to nose with Thomas.

“No. I enforce the council’s ruling. You’ll find I have done so. To the letter.”

Birds!; Mice and Mystics; NaNoWriMo

Birds!

I apologize for lack of blogging, especially for the next few weeks. Here is my one-paragraph review of Mice and Mystics. First, the minis, rulebook and physical stuff is pretty awesome looking. The cards and map tiles aren't extremely durable feeling, but they held up to a day of play just fine. The rules are crisp, easy to pick up and relatively intuitive. Having only played through the first two scenarios (and only partially through the third), one thing I thought was odd was not letting everyone have access to all six heroes in the first scenario to pick from. Splitting the party in the second scenario also was awkward feeling because the player who played Lilly had a pretty boring experience until we got there. Overall, I approve. Next time I play, I'll try and take some pictures of the board and give you some more important thoughts. Below the fold is my NaNoWriMo update.

On People Not Being Suckers

If it looks like it is fake, it is probably fake. A lesson someone in Denver is probably learning right now. Painfully so, in fact. On the bright side, if you live in the Denver area, I have a sneaking suspicion a position or two may be opening at this ABC News affiliate.

Journalists: Get it fast, but get it right.

I'm going back to NaNoWriMo, where the mice at least do their due diligence.

Veterans Day, 2012

“At the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month! A simple telegram of three lines brought us the great news: ‘At eleven o’clock today in accordance with the terms of the armistice, firing ceased on the American front.’ It meant five words to us ‘The War is Over!’ and ‘Home.’ We knew it was true and for days we knew it was bound to come, but still it didn’t seem real. Could the world really be freed of the curse that has infected it for fifty-two months, could the end really have come to the organized efforts of men to kill, could we look forward to tomorrow without wondering what horror it might hold in store for us and those for whom we cared!”  -- Hermann Moyse, Sr., letter to his fiancee
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"I have today signed a proclamation calling upon all of our citizens to observe Thursday, November 11, 1954 as Veterans Day. It is my earnest hope that all veterans, their organizations, and the entire citizenry will join hands to insure proper and widespread observance of this day. " -- Pres. Eisenhower, on signing the bill that changed Armistice Day to Veterans Day. (Photo here)

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Today is Veterans Day. It was originally Armistice Day, which marked the end of what is now known as World War I, but is now known as Veterans Day. Remember that; it's important.This link has a photo of the post-armistice signing. Here is the official homepage for Veterans Day.

Mice and Mystics

I finally got to open my box of Mice and Mystics. From the rule book and the training video, it looks like a nice cross between Super Dungeon Explore and Warhammer Quest. This is a thing I can get behind. Pictures are below.

Civil War Lecture Series at the Smithsonian

Hey, you know what is happening tomorrow? An amazingly cool sounding lecture in DC. The one I'm talking about is "Astride Two Ages: Technology and the Civil War Symposium." Right now, there is a U-Stream where they're discussing intelligence and the telegraph system in the Civil War and how it was used for command and control by the Union and Confederacy. Did you know that the Confederacy lost loads of experienced telegraph operators, which hindered their capabilities?

Also, the guy giving the speech just said: "The Yankee Juggernaut." PhotoShoppers: Make it happen.

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P.S.,

On Twitter, Lee Stranahan said: I'd like a world where Harry Reid and John Boehner are both co-manging a Denny's in Butte.

I replied: Let's write a Web TV Series. He's an ex-boxer from Nevada; he was raised in a saloon. Together: They Fight Crime.

NaNoWriMo: Day 4 Update

Day 4: 7,400~ words. That puts me slightly ahead of the day to day words-to-day curve to hit 50,000. So far, I'm taking it slow and steady. I'm also keeping in mind that people publish Stephen King, so I don't need to worry too much about quality.

NaNoWriMo: Day 1

Today has been slow on the writing front. Namely, we're about 1,700 words after the first spurt of writing. There's still some more to get done today (namely, my goal is to get to the point where our hero and his trusty companion make it to the giants' lair, so probably another thousand words or so.) One thing I've found is that I actually like this story. I've decided that instead of giants and regular sized people, the story is going to be about mice and human scientists. I'm going to avoid spoilers, but I also like the ending. The mystical artifacts are actually things that have gone missing from the laboratory that the scientist wants back, which he enters into a pact with the mouse: If the mouse finds his missing items and returns them, the scientist will agree to stop his testing on animals and free the ones he has in captivity.

Now, since simply writing such a cheesy story (see what I did there?) was going to be too easy, I've added a layer of challenge. That is this: Since the main of the story is told from the point of view of the mice, who live in a small community in the sewers of any city, U.S.A., with everything above ground simply being The Sky (sort of like Fraggles and Outer Space, I realized after writing these first few pages), they should never call themselves mice. They also really shouldn't take much special notice of their mousey features. Having a tail or whiskers is normal to them. Like I explained to someone, we wouldn't have people say: "My brother, the human, said," so the mice are just mice. They'll not refer to rats as rats; their rather large, wild predators that hunt in packs through the sewers. Birds and stray cats on the surface are sky creatures; people are giants.

I don't know why the mice all have Biblical names (including minor ones), but I do like it. I also like that I've decided our hero mouse is not the most competent of the scouts; the story begins with him being caught trying to sneak out after curfew and being chewed out for his incompetent nightly excursions that have cost the community two of their other scouts. There are some obvious influences that you can see right away on the story (see the reference to Fraggle Rock above), but I also see obvious Red Wall type allusions. Probably Mouse Guard too, if I had read more than the Free Comic Book Day Mouse Guard story. Even though I haven't received my copy of Mice and Mystics, that's probably nestled somewhere in my subconscious and driving the plot and characterization. So, despite initially not being too in love with this topic, I am actually falling in love with the story potential and the characters.

National Novel Writing Month Tip 01: Write. No matter how bad or clunky the words feel: Write. You cannot edit an empty page. I think I should make that a quote for the blog and on my Facebook page, since it is probably the cornerstone of my developing writing philosophy.

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P.S.,

Do you want updates of the Mouse Story as I write it? Contact me, and if there's enough interest, I'll transfer the file to Google docs and post updates with my NaNoWriMo blog updates.

National Novel Writing Month

With 2012 coming to a close, my page-a-fiction a day has been in stops and starts. Now, while I have no intention of joining the actual website, National Novel Writing Month is an amazing motivational tool for lots of writers. So, for the month of November, I'm going to change gears, and instead of chewing through a variety of short stories (most of which I disliked), my goal is going to be to tell an overarching, longer story. Frankly, my biggest worry is that I'll waste a lot of time writing crap.

Fergie Goes Home

I haven't blogged recently due to work and a special guest.

She was deciding if she should stay or if she should go.

Walking Dead: Episode 4 Review

Walking Dead, Episode 4: Review (now that I've played it.) Spoilers. You will be spoiled. Do not go below the fold.

Today in Sweets

Have I ever made a post and snarkily noted "first-world problems?" If not, let today be the first with some news in the world of sweets.

First, the Wall Street Journal, brings us news of something dire in the land of Starbucks. I can't think of a reason we'd be so low on such a vital product, but I do feel for those who cannot get their fix. I like that the WSJ is able to be a bit tongue in cheek about it too: "Then, a 'terrible tragedy happened,' he said. 'I placed my order, and the barista informed me that they were out. I was so distraught.'"

At least, it is tongue in cheek, right? Right? The Romenesko quote reminds me, vaguely, of the story of Russians (or Cubans, mattering on the anecdote) ruefully thinking about the ruling class's incorrect belief that there is bread in the store because they see it in their own. I kind of want to go to a Starbucks, buy a pumpkin spice latte, and then take a picture of it to this blog with a caption: "I don't even like coffee, and I got one."

But, I also don't want to start a riot.

In our second bit of news for today in sweets, MSNBC brings us one of those accidents in science that might revolutionize an industry. Namely, colored honey. Except, well, the people who stumbled upon this discovery have decided that they, well, actually hate novelties and making money, and will instead turn their noses up at the discolored, but otherwise perfectly normal honey. No, really:

"As for the M&M's-infused honey, union head Frieh said it might taste like honey, but there the comparison stopped. 'For me, it's not honey. It's not sellable,'" he said.

Think of it like when you would add food dye to water and set some white carnations in it to get pretty colored flowers. Only, instead of flowers, it is honey. Colored honey could be the wave of the future (something Sarah Hoyt on the Instapundit blog pointed out as well.) Here's my plan. Create a bee-friendly green house filled with candy plants, a la Willy Wonka.

Bam. We've protected bees, and we will be able to sell color-coordinated honey to people who may want green honey. Because it worked so well with ketchup. Look, I'm just the idea guy. But, if a bee keeper, an engineer and a candy magnate want to get together and make this idea come true, I'm only asking for 5 percent.

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Edit: Today in sweets, ice cream goes to space. It is like the world always conspires to give me the best link for any post after I hit publish. No matter. This is the internet, and I can edit to my heart's content. The coolest part of this is that the freezers storing the ice cream double for science research once it gets to space.

... Did you see what I did there?

On Secrets and Worlds

So. My hiatus on the Secret World has gone from "unknown" to "probably permanent." It isn't that The Secret World is a bad game; it does a lot of things well. Character customization is fun, when you can find groups dungeons are quick, fast and challenging. The plot is that better than most MMOs, and stronger than some single player games.

I don't want to rehash everything it did wrong and that it did right. It was an ambitious title, and it succeeded in delivering a lot of things (and failed in others.) This is not a knock against The Secret World, but I only have time for one MMO, and sadly, Guild Wars 2 is that MMO. I like what both are bringing to the genre (that is: more customizable characters, more detailed worlds, ways to dip to play with other characters, etc.)

If someone were to write a history of MMOs, the Secret World deserves an honorable mention. There have been a lot of forgettable MMOs, and a lot of MMOs that promised a lot and petered out. But, from the word go, you could tell The Secret World was a labor of love. Either way, I think that it was a brilliant game (and still is, actually.)

Oh well. Tomorrow, links; next week, back to normal blogging.

Walking Dead Game Episode 4 Trailer

Telltale's Walking Dead has a trailer up for Episode 4 (warning, below there be spoilers.)

Let's Talk About the Vita

Let's talk about the Vita. Here's a thing, I love handheld gaming. I have a Nintendo DS, fondly remember playing on my Game Gear, and now own a 3DS and a PS Vita. I don't have a smart phone, but I hear you can play games on those too. You can, sometimes, throw birds at pigs. Or something.

But, right now, let's talk about the PS Vita. I currently am playing Duodecim (the Final Fantasy fighting game) on it. Now, I also bought the prologue for the opening story sequences. But, here's an annoying fact. The DLC that comes with the prologue? You can't directly download that on to the Vita. To get it, I had to hook up to my roommate's PS3 and do a data transfer.

Likewise, I had to do the same thing for my copy of Final Fantasy Origins for my November Final Fantasy binge/marathon (mattering on which tone makes you happier.) These are issues I should not face with digital, mobile gaming. I tried to use Media Go, but the file type that Media Go downloads is not the same that the Vita uses.

This is before we get to the fact I get an error when trying to add money to my Playstation Wallet via their online tools. If I want to buy things from the store, I have to go somewhere and purchase a Playstation money card then input the card's code. This is the opposite of convenience. Here's the thing, I love the Vita. It has the potential to open up whole new avenues of gaming.

It cannot do that, however, if poor service continues to plague it, and if it expects users to be able to access a PS3 to access the things they paid for. That's one thing that very rarely happens in a brick and mortar store. If I walk in, pick up a game box and take it to the register, they rarely take my money, then tell me they cannot give me the game I paid for. They even more rarely refuse to take my money when I try and give it to them.

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P.S.,

Apparently, my soloing guide on The Secret World made it on to Reddit. Does this make me a real blogger? I feel kind of bad having neglected The Secret World for Guild Wars 2 (and non-video game things.) Speaking of neglecting things, I should put some solid time into Guild Wars 2 this weekend...

Also, in my ever more useful advice: "Don't be a sucker," if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is not. What do you mean I'm months behind on complaining about the Vita and days behind on complaining about people not getting that article was a satire? Man, and for a short while there, I was doing so well being topical.

Final Fantasy Marathon: Official

I am here-by making it official. Starting November 1, I will be starting a Final Fantasy Marathon. I don't know what the purpose of that Marathon will be, but it will happen. So, you know, expect a lot more commentary on Final Fantasy and nostalgia. If you want to join me, let me know. We can compare notes and giggle like school girls when we gain a level. Feel free to join up and drop in and out of the Marathon at your leisure (I imagine a lot of drop outs for 1, 2 and 3 -- they're painful to play at times.)

... Yeah, that makes two days of rather light posting. This week is going to be light, but I'll make up for it in October.

Giving Credit Where Credit Is Due

It is very rare for journalists to do actual journalism. Recently, though, CNN did it. Here's a link to their site about it. Now, I can see why State does not want their dirty laundry aired, and if CNN were to post personal information about the ambassador, I'd understand being offended. But, this is information that is actually pertinent to the story at hand.

Now, did CNN break the pledge? I guess it matters; if they confirmed the reports with other sources, I would think that they didn't. That is actually what you're supposed to do with anonymous sources or sources you don't trust. You independently verify them, then print what you find out, torpedoes ahead and all that.

What's more important, is if I were part of State, I'd be embarrassed, that's right, that CNN managed to secure and search a scene before government allies were. That just puts the cherry on top for how unprepared we were for what happened in Libya. It's not a pretty picture.

And, so, I want to give CNN kudos for reporting on that not pretty picture. I mean this earnestly; I am not being sarcastic. I beat up on journalists when they screw up, but this time? They did right by the public for independently verifying facts and reporting them.

Kudos to CNN.

RPG Types

Here's something that I've been wondering for awhile. Which type of RPG do I like more? There are games like Mass Effect and Dragon Age, where your hero is a poorly sketched persona that you give meaning and voice to, within certain constraints. Then, there is the Final Fantasy/JRPG type hero, who has a growth arc throughout the story. What I think people like about the Mass Effect/Dragon Age type characters is ownership, so you can play the character how you want, both in the drama of the game and the mechanics of the game. I've been tinkering around, for awhile, with a game to test that. At the outset, you would be given all of your party members as a blank canvass.

You could apply background traits to them, define relationships, set up their class/type and focus, etc. So, the up front part of building your party dynamic is all done at the beginning. Each party member has a defined story arc, but their progression through that story arc changes based on how you answer questions about their background, etc. The only issue, of course, is that you need the decisions to matter and have weight.

Either way, it is always good to get a better feel for "what sort of things do I like?" If, for no other reason, than so you have a better idea what to spend money on.

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P.S.,

If you haven't played the Phoenix Wright games, you can fix that this Fall. Also: Yes. This got the law tag.

Dissidia Duodecim...

... is the most fan service-y thing I have ever bought. I saw a screenshot of Laguna shooting Kefka... IN THE FACE.

I was sold. Right now, I'm just playing through the prologue, but, you know, I think this will be a great handheld time waster at bus stops. So far, I am gravitating towards the mages (like Terra and Kuja,) but I can be persuaded otherwise.

Free Speech Sidebar

After seeing all the uproar over an idiot who made a bad film, a lot of people seem to be flirting with the idea the government should do something about it. Now, don't get me wrong. I've said it before: The film is probably horrendous. Heinous, even. Offensive? Sure. Whatever. I haven't seen it, and I have no intention of seeing it. (If people have yet to get me to see Pulp Fiction, I'm pretty sure I'm going to be able to resist the allure of Stupid Idea We Had While On Drugs or whatever it is called.)

The point being, some people have been saying that the film maker is an unsympathetic person. This is being used as a reason why the government should be heavy handed with him. Here's the funny thing about rights: We wrote them down specifically to protect unsympathetic people. I had a thought I shared with my brother once; I said that it must suck to be a lawyer and get some really obviously evil guy off on a technicality because of a warrant or some other small nitpicked detail.

I could see it going something like: "Honestly, yes. Jim may have eaten his own son's brains out of his wife's skull. But, the prosecution failed to deliver certain documents during discovery and tampered with the jury pool," blah, blah, blah, Lifetime movie of the year. It is the tough cases where our commitment to free speech is tested the most, or really, any ideal.

The guy may be a complete jerk; I don't know. But, people are allowed to be jackasses in America. I don't like that people are, in fact, jackasses in America. I would rather, like cats, that there be no jackasses in America. That is not in the cards. Polite society can shun jackasses (and should.) The government, though, has no place in flexing muscles to shame and chill speech.

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P.S.,

Did you know there is a Final Fantasy fighting game? I... I have to add something to my games to play list.

Sunday Gaming Update

As I slowly move through Guild Wars 2 (I'm a Sylvari Elementalist), I realize I have a... gigantic backlog of "games I want to play." Since I can't make decisions about important, let alone unimportant, things, let me make a blog peace offering. What game should Matt play next?

I'm Not Suggesting EVERYONE...

"And I’m not suggesting that all stressed-out fathers should just get baked. ... But for me, at least, the benefits clearly outweigh the risks." I just don't like the reasoning that goes into this sort statement. I'm not suggesting EVERYONE act in this way, but it totally works for me."

Politicians Are Just People

Politicians are people. As people, they have flaws. Because of that, I've been thinking about our relationship to politicians after watching most of the DNC and all of the RNC. Besides the general "vote the bums out" theory and Eastwood's "let them go" line, the general idea is that we need to try and bring politicians back down to earth.

An A.P. Article on Shopping

"If I don't have a coupon or it's not on sale, I just won't buy it," says the Yaphank, N.Y., resident

Walking Dead: Episode 3

Spoilers below. Do not click if you don't want to be spoiled.

Do Something Someone!

You often here that someone should do something. I have some very important insight on that front. Just because someone should do something doesn't mean X should do Y. For example, you should not jump out a window. That is a thing. You are a someone. You should not do that thing. Sometimes, someone doing something is counter productive to a thing getting done.

In fact, sometimes, something is worse than nothing. Just food for thought. In gaming, sometimes the right thing to do is not burn a cooldown or to pass the turn. That's tactical play. In politics, you need to also remember to not do something for the sake of doing something. Keep your powder dry, so to speak. Inaction is sometimes the right choice.

With that in mind, go do something.

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P.S.,

Today someone got to my blog by Googling my name. Now for the eternal question: Stalker or fan? Please be fan.

Internet, We Need to Have a Talk

Hi Internet, can you sit down for a second? We need to have a talk. We seem to have cross purposes. See, when I make a claim, I provide proof or links. When you make a claim, you provide cat pictures, if that.

Guild Wars 2: I Am Playing It

Not right this exact second, but in the grand scheme of seconds, it is an activity that takes up many of them. You could say, GW2 is now in my rotation of games to play. I am a Sylvari Elementalist as my main. This is a new departure from my normal play style, as I am playing a sticky melee-ish burst DPS. My world, it is being rocked.

One thing I like about GW2 is that it is simple, yet complex. It is a lot like the Secret World (and Guild Wars 1) in that regard. Expect to get some more specifics about team building and character tweaking as I get more familiar with the game. For now, all you need to know is that I'm on Sea of Sorrow and that you can ask for my account name if you want to play with me.

From what little I played over the weekend's pre-release, here are a few things I really like:

1. Weapons give you an identity. They mean something to your character and define what you do.

2. Traits and utility skills shape that identity.

3. Each class can be competently played in many ways with a variety of tweaks, without each class just feeling like a hodge podge of abilities. Class hit their theme well and feel like they flow in combat.

4. Events are fun, quick to join and dynamic.

5. Playing with your friends is painless.

6. You can fiddle around in PvP with your character then return to your PvE progression without falling behind in PvP.

7. The game world is laid out well and logically (you know where you should be going next.)

Those are the big things; go play.

The Moon and the Man Who Walked On It

Yesterday, Neil Armstrong died.

"One small step for (a) man, one giant leap for mankind," indeed. There are a lot of rumors about that trip, and Snopes as usual is reliable in rebutting and explaining them. There are plenty of tributes out to him that are better than I can do.

I wasn't even born when he walked on the moon. But, the fact that a man had walked on the moon changed history. Between his death and Sally Ride's, we can see history starting to fade. Luckily, we have much better record keeping than we've had in the past, so we won't be losing nearly as much as we used to lose when great people passed on.

The moon seems so far away, yet it has a huge impact on the planet. Not just in the literal, tide altering ways. Eclipses, full moons, whatever you can think of, the moon has been a part of mythology since we've got records of it. Walking on the moon, however, has done very little to demystify it. It is still a powerful symbol, even if we've planted American flags there.

Lucky for us, I think, we've had an amazing space program that's done more for humanity than simply beat the Soviets. America's astronauts will inspire our country probably for as long as we're a country. I tried to find a way to explain that more succinctly, but I was beaten to it: "As long as there are history books, Neil Armstrong will be included in them, remembered for taking humankind's first small step on a world beyond our own," said NASA Administrator Charles Bolden. Entirely true.

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P.S.,

Curiosity, the nifty Mars rover, has some pretty big shoes to fill. Some day, when we get people to Mars, we'll need to try and recover Curiosity and the other Mars rovers to put them into the proper museum.

Drake Calculator, Guild Wars 2 and a Joke

This is why you don't do stress tests on weekday afternoons then release on weekend nights and think everything'll be hunky dory. This, of course, being that Guild Wars 2 is suffering through the normal MMO launch pains of the servers having died. The next problem is that I have been sorely misunderstanding the Hall of Monument rewards; they are not starter weapons/armor. They are skins. On the one hand, this means they literally are purely vanity awards, which makes me happy. On the other hand, this means I was wrong, which makes me unhappy.

So, while you wait for the servers to come back up, play with this. It's just... SPACE! If you recall, I actually wrote about a lecture I attended that covers NASA's attempts to find these habitable planets. The short end being, this is so totally awesome I needed to share it.

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P.S.,

Oh yeah. My joke.I am sure other people have thought of it. But, ahem.

Dairy Queen to increase its offering: Now offering Cool Treats, Hot Eats and Phat Beats.

... I'm not a funny person.

Get It Fast, But Get It Right 2

Where "it" is the story. Journalism has been kind of going down hill lately. Because journalists are not taking my advice to not be suckers. Which means that sometimes a news organization needs to admit that they rushed to a bad faith assumption and accidentally slandered someone. Yes, calling someone a liar is slander, which is why the correction is so prominent. And the WaPo even tweeted an apology, so, kudos to them.

I think we should replace "Correction" with "Groveling for forgiveness" in this case. The WaPo shot its load early, was wrong, and then had to retreat under the withering fire of the Twitter-verse. Is it really that much effort to verify that the person your news organization wants to call a liar really is one before you jump on it? Though, it is unlikely a candidate for the highest office in our country would spell something wrong.

Wait, typos are common and happen routinely? The deuce you say?! Well, I guess that makes sense why the WaPo took the extra step to verify... wait, they didn't? Well then.

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P.S.,

A few of those links are not like the others. Also, I did not realize I already had a post with this exact name, hence the 2.

Last Words on Zakaria Plagiarism

The whole cycle of the plagiarism story is coming to an end. While it was clear from the start what happened, and that it was unacceptable at most institutions, some held on and ignored it. CNN and Time didn't see enough of an issue with the plagiarism, and some at the Daily Beast insist it wasn't plagiarism at all, or in fact, racially motivated jealousy. It seemed that it should have been clear that plagiarism is unacceptable. Maybe the world of news aggregation has blurred the line between journalism and copy/paste. But, for now, at least, even Zakaria acknowledges what I went through pains to point out in my first post on this: academic institutions have clear policies on what counts as plagiarism and his actions fit the bill. Kudos to him for accepting responsibility with more than just saying "I'm sorry."

CNN and Time though? They've got some learning to do.

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P.S.,

Good morning! I know I say I want to try and only have a post a day. But, if I do a quick hit like this in the morning, I might push out something else in the evening. How will you know if I do? Follow me on Twitter @mjs69002!

Panels on Preserving Playing Pong

The lecture I attended today was called "Playing Pong in 2100: How to Preserve Old Video Games." There was a live stream, but I've been unable to find it anywhere online. If I do find it, I'll put the link here. Before you read below the fold, you may want to get up to date on The Art of Video Games exhibit at the Smithsonian. Luckily, I have some insights on that front already. Once you've read that and seen this wonderful squirrel a nice young woman was feeding, you can click below to get actual coverage of the lecture.

So adorable!

Unacceptable CNN and Time

Zakaria keeps his job. Unacceptable. Plagiarism is a firing offense. It is not a journalistic lapse; it's plagiarism. I'm glad to see ethics are important to CNN and Time; it was plagiarism, even per Yale's standards.

Unacceptable CNN and Time. This is really disappointing; you're supposed to be journalists, act like it. So, now you know. Nothing wrong with stealing ideas. If you're famous enough.

From the Smithsonian Blog

Dear Smithsonian,

When one of the most comforting counter measures is: "We could just set a nuclear warhead off in our atmosphere and effectively destroy all technology, sending us back to the pre-electrical age at the minimum," you're... doing reassuring wrong. This is the sort of hubris that leads to our downfall.

This link was too fun to wait to share till tomorrow night's link round up.

Go have fun now.

New Concept of End Game

Part of the problem with MMOs, I think, is that there needs to be a new concept of "end game." Everyone (including me!) wants "end game" gear, this is reasonable. Not everyone (including me!) wants to do end game raiding. The main catch, I think, is that we need to define end game the same way we do in a single player game.

F-Bomb: In the Dictionary

No, literally. I guess it matters how you view the dictionary whether this is a good or a bad thing. If you view it as the sort of official lexicon of a language, that which is accepted and recognized, then this was an inevitable result. If you view it as something else, a sort of gatekeeper of language, guarding it from the barbarians at the gates, then this is a bad thing. I am undecided as to my thoughts on the matter. So, convince me.

Plagiarism Is a Firing Offense

There seems to be some extremely slow feet dragging at CNN and Time. Fareed Zakaria seems to have been suspended for a month for plagiarism. Now, the interesting thing with this is this is right on the heels of Jonah Lehrer resigning in disgrace for fabricating some quotes (which I learned about at Ann Althouse's blog.) The New Yorker, apparently, holds its writers to a higher ethical standard than Time and CNN.

Healing in The Secret World

I've been reading the forums over at Funcom's site. Just like when I described soloing builds, I have some very basic thoughts on putting together a healing deck. This is going to involve a little more heavy thinking for you than the post on solo builds, but it is also hopefully going to help set you up for success.

First, unlike soloing, there are some must-haves for healing. You can heal the early instances without them, but they are just so powerful that not having them makes your build suboptimal.

Unscripted Random Images

You are lucky that this random picture does not involve unexpected goose poetry.

I did not touch this. This is what I saw on my way to work.

Curiosity and Books

I finished "The Drunkard's Walk" today on my ride home. Yet, I still feel a gaping hole in my life, as though I have accomplished nothing of value. Because I have not landed robots on Mars. Do you know how much that puts your life into perspective, not landing a robot on Mars? The robot even has a verified Twitter feed!

If you are curious about Mars, start reading. Go forth, learn. Meanwhile, I need to go look for a new book.

On Coins

Here's a thought experiment I can't remember where I heard it. Imagine you have a coin. How many (unbroken) flips of it turning up heads would it take for you to consider the coin not a fair coin? I'm sure someone out there can do math or something to find a statistical answer. But, go from your gut.

How many times do you need to lose before you think a game is rigged? It's kind of a tolerance test; they have them for pain. The marshmallow test, for example, is another kind of tolerance test. That tests how much self control the kid has; this is testing how much trust you have. Would your threshold change if the person proctoring the flips was someone you trusted? How much?

I've been thinking about this off and on again for a few months. A few flips in a row of heads could be a natural fair coin. A string, of say, HHHHHH, is theoretically possible, if unlikely. As the string gets longer, it gets less and less probable, but not -- technically -- impossible.

Some people are comfortable pulling the trigger sooner. I doubt, in real life, there is anyone who would say they could never make that choice since the improbable scenario in front of them was technically possible, therefore it must be proven the coin is unfair through a hard proof as opposed to an indirect proof (such as a 1,000 unbroken string of heads).

How certain do you need to be before taking action, such as always betting heads or walking away from a cheating coin?

Now, let's reverse this. How long of a string of losses would you take before you decided the coin was unfair? Assume that you are free to change your bet from heads to tails each flip, yet each time you are wrong. How long would it take you to assume you were being cheated and not just unlucky? More importantly: Would you ever reach that threshold, or would you walk away before you hit that point? Would that threshold change if you were making penny bets as opposed to dollar bets?

The problem with this, though, is I've poisoned the well. You know you will always lose the next bet from the rules of the game. Now, you could try and do man-on-the-street style interviews to test it with people who don't know they are about to be cheated. You can't really take their money though, since, you know, you are going to cheat them. That changes things again; they can only gain, never lose. You offer them up a dime each win, and tell them they can only lose from their winnings, but never go negative. How long would people keep going?

Just some thoughts; thinking about it now might help you know how to deal with future events. Or it might not, it may just be frustrating because you can't come up with a good answer. Even with math. So, keep on trying! Or just watch corgi cam. Your choice.

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P.S.,

Don't cheat people at games of chance. Also, direct link to the corgi cam YouTube page.

Theories On Games...

... which is different from game theory. Badminton is getting a lot of news for obvious reasons. Now, read and get up to speed on that. There are a few key take-aways from this story and lessons learned. First, you should always give it your all.

Second, if you want to encourage a certain kind of behavior, structure your rules to encourage that behavior. I'm sure there are probably different, more cogent ways of explaining this, but let's look at why this scandal happened. The teams wanted to increase not just their odds to win the gold but their country's odds as a whole. To do so, a loss at this juncture was a surer bet than a victory, to avoid having to knock each other out at the next round. However, what the Olympics wants is for players to play their hearts out (see the first lesson.)

ABC News: Man Steals Puppy... in His Pants

What the heck people? Can't I go to sleep without the world going crazy? I don't think it is asking too much for people not to stuff merchandise down their pants.

Especially when that merchandise is living, breathing puppy. Look, this is not the most heinous crime in the world. No one died, so, it really isn't even that high of a priority crime in the grand scheme of things. But, a person who will steal a puppy? That's... the lowest kind of person.

Oh, also, ABC seems to have fixed its habit of auto-playing videos.

Oh, and Gore Vidal is dead.

Star Wars: Free to Play

Everyone seems to be piling on Star Wars for going free to play. I don't think that is necessarily a bad thing; though it is clearly not what people trying to keep making money off it wanted. Subscriptions are down. With competition for free to play coming from Guild Wars 2 in a few weeks (and The Secret World taking their slice of niche, story-seeking players), Star Wars needed to stop the bleeding.

That's before we even look at the panda in the room.

Algebra: X + Y = What?

Here's a thing from the New York Times. One thing I always think about headlines and titles is that they should very, very rarely be questions. If your reader can answer the question quickly, easily and definitively, the reader will not be a reader for you. That's fine if you just need page views. But if you want to actually persuade people with your persuasive essay, I would ding any editor who changes your headline to a question.

Geese in Chantilly

I was in Chantilly today to see a show, which if you are in the area, I suggest you try and see it too. Less impressively, I saw geese. Clearly, it is time for some goose poetry.

Get It Fast, But Get It Right

One thing that always bothers me about violence in the news is the rush to provide answers when we don't have them yet. It happens all of the time; the most recent shooting in Colorado is just another example. Any big news story is prone to errors. Sometimes, you just get things wrong.

In today's hyper-fast, super-connected world, you just can't do that any more. The Affordable Care Act ruling, for example, was a huge error in reporting from CNN and Fox. They got it the absolutely backwards. In the Colorado shooting, ABC accused the wrong man of being the shooter. Their reporter on the air even said, basically: "We don't know if this right, but let's throw it out there and see what happens."

The news is, in a way, a race. If you break a story, it can make your career. You can get movies made about you and live on easy street. You can get people to leak information to you and break more stories. It's a great cycle.

But, when you're wrong? In today's day and age... not much really happens. NBC can edit tapes without letting listeners know, and all that happens is a few nameless people get shuffled to a new job. As I was typing this, a perfect example demonstrated itself on Twitter. Here's the tweet. Here's the story. If you read the tweet, what do you think?

Well, that a Romney aide is citing Romney's Anglo-Saxon heritage for something. The story however is clear that it is the exact opposite; that an anonymous source that makes this claim is being rejected by the campaign. It's just sloppy reporting. ABC has good people on its staff; this sort of sloppiness should not be sneaking out. Anonymous, unsourced, comments, rejected by the candidate, somehow are news. Not only that, but the comments are blatantly racial. The journalist who initially printed that should never have went with something so incendiary without having a name willing to be put with the quote, if he even had a quote. But, it is more important to be first rather than right.

Journalists need to be a bit more skeptical. Folks: If it is too good to check, you should probably check it.

Eric Shields, The Secret World

Not everyone adjusted to the shift in climate the same. Georgia was good air; clean. The shift to working at the National Archives in D.C. had been incredibly hard on Eric Shields. The air was dirty, the pace faster. He was used to arriving at the office early by 8:00 a.m.; in D.C., he was one of the last people in. He took his job seriously, and he was good at it. It was an honest day's work for an honest day's wage.

He quickly found a routine. He found the Starbucks on his way to the office; he found his hole in the wall for lunch. He found his book store and his movie theater. He cheerfully pretended to enjoy going out for drinks with his coworkers and found creative excuses to ignore their invitations as often as possible. He had a schedule, and he kept to it almost religiously.

He wasn't really aware of the change in his routine at first. He slept in a bit one day; a bit more the next. Then, he was rushing out the door, tired. Then, he didn't show up one day until 9:00 a.m. His work didn't suffer; he just stayed late. But, each day, he found getting up more and more tiring. There were little things wrong too. Things he tried not to think about; burns on his clothes, things broken he thought had been fine when he went to bed; he blamed it to stress from the terrorism reports from Tokyo.

Then, one day, he just couldn't get up. He called out sick. Then a second; the tremors were getting worse and worse. The small apartment he hid away in was starting to show wear and tear; he blamed it on sleep walking. He woke up to the smell of burning one night and barely put the fire out before the smoke alarm went off; that night he set up a camera to see what was going on.

"Steve, I can't come in today," He said into his phone the next morning, as he hit play on the video again. "I've got some stuff I have to get together."

"Listen Eric, I don't care how bad of a headache it is; the only thing you have to get together are the papers for the testimony up north tomorrow," His boss said. "You've been keeping up with that case, right?"

"Yeah, Smithsonian says the documents are theirs; local museum in Canada has got papers saying otherwise. Look, I'm not up for travel right now."

"I don't care if you're up for travel; I snap, you jump," Steve said. It was 7:15 a.m. Eric didn't know how he did it, especially these days. "We need the work, and we need to up our burn rate on useful reports for when Congress or the Smithsonian come sniffing around for things to cut."

"The papers are nothing exciting Steve; Judge Carson from Maine went north to retire, brought some old court cases from the 1800s, a few letters to the editor about taxes. Drafts of state court opinions and motions that never got filed," Eric said. Judge Carson was a hanging judge, or as much of a hanging judge could be who specialized in tax law. "They're not even of local interest; I barely found them interesting. I don't see why the Archives even wants them."

"Because they're part of our heritage as Americans, Eric," Steve said. "Heritage and grant money. Besides, if we leave them there, Canada'll just let them rot in some records room."

"We can't restore them if that grant doesn't come through."

"The grant won't come through if we don't have results," Steve said. "Look, you're a team player, right? Get up, shove some pills down your throat and get your ass on a flight out there. This has the potential for a big win for the red, white and blue."

"It's a few hundred pages of a dead judge's memoirs no one even remembers, Steve. Normandy was a big win; Midway was a big win. This is nothing. Besides, I really can't today," Eric said. He hit play on the video again and watched it. "Send Shelly; she's smart. She likes to ski too, so everyone wins."

"Yeah, yeah, fine. Look, I just need you to come in. Tomorrow."

On the video, Eric watched as the strange lights danced while he was asleep. He had seen plenty of the fake ghost videos on YouTube; good for a sort of adult scary story before bed. This was different; he knew he had not tampered with the video. No one else could have either. He called in his resignation the next day; right before he started calling around worried that he was hallucinating.

That's when he got the knock on his door that changed his life.

Space and Sally Ride

According to Sally Ride's page, she died earlier today. She was the first American woman in space. Even though I am not a girl, I remember her being one of the go to figures for little girls when I was growing up as an example of women in modern science. Space has a special appeal to me, and this is kind of a bit of a punch in the gut.

Here's a nice little video from YouTube with Ride talking for about two minutes or so about her experience. Here is her bio from NASA, and here is a very basic introduction to her life. It's good that we were able to capture a lot from her life and experience; the amount of people who have been to space is so small that each of their experiences is immensely valuable to us.

So, go read a little about her life.

Welcome to Egypt

Welcome to Egypt! Once you finish Blue Mountain, you'll find the next zone is actually a bit of a breather compared to the jump you faced from Savage Coast. Keep on keeping on, and you shouldn't have too many problems. Just remember...

MMO Update

30/30 on my Hall of Monuments. I finally gave in and just sold all the things I'd been hoarding to buy armor sets for my main character and dedicated them for the last two points. So, I went from rolling in ectoplasms and other crafting supplies to dirt broke. Which is fine, since I have no real intention of ever joining Guild Wars 1 again, unless someone tempts me back.

As for The Secret World, I should be heading in to Egypt this weekend. Lots of people seem interested in what the "best" solo build is, judging by the searches bringing people here and here. Since that's the case, let me put, below the fold, some of the builds I'm currently using on my way into Egypt. During a normal play through, you probably won't have access to all of these builds by the time you are leaving Blue Mountain, since you probably won't stay and dabble in as many weapons as I did. But, I thought having a few examples might be useful.

Soloing in The Secret World

Someone asked in /cabal the other night about builds. The key to strong solo builds is synergy and flexibility. The flexibility won't happen until you have got enough AP to buy multiple abilities in more than your starter two weapons, but early on it is good to build with that flexibility in mind. Some more advice on soloing below the fold, here are some common traps to avoid.

Walking Dead: Episode 2

I finished my first play through of the Walking Dead: Episode 2 last night. Let me up front say it was a good time. I had some gripes, but by the time I got the game, most of the show stopping bugs seemed to have been gone, or I have a computer set up that is impervious to them. Either way, I can't knock it for failing to run properly. Let me say up front about some of my thoughts below: There will be spoilers. If you want the tl;dr version: Good game. Should buy

The game is plot; it is not very gamey. You will not have fun in the traditional sense. It is more of an experience or an adventure book. You are guiding Lee from point A to B, with awkward action scenes in between. That's fine; it is what I expect from the game. If you want a game though, you may want to look elsewhere. This is, primarily, a story experience.

With that said, it delivers there. Anyway, on to the more spoilerific thoughts.

Writing Friendship Is Hard

One interesting, and hard, part of writing is getting interpersonal relationships just right. Romance, for example, is really, really hard to do. I'm talking real romance, not purple prose (though, without having tried it, I'm going to assume that is also hard. I just think things I have not done are hard.) Getting a friendship right is probably harder. Romance you have easy cliches to help ease you into it; that's a different whine for later though.

Friendship is harder; you have buddy cops and awkward friendships that work. But writing them well is hard. Sort of like how writing comics is hard. Ideas of friendship morph over time, as well. So, some friendships that were well-written even just a few years ago, seem awkward today. Tropes that work in some cases (you can go to TV Tropes to look through them yourself) don't work everywhere.

The other reason is that you want to show, not tell, in writing as much as possible. I am lazy; I like to handwave details whenever possible. Saying: "Jon and David knew each other for years and consider themselves friends" is easy. Crafting a whole scene where David and Jon are on the phone after their wives go to sleep talking about comic books and their kids' sports is hard. But, the second one tells you they know each other well, though not necessarily how long they know each other, unless you work in to the conversation how they loaned each other comic books when they were kids, and it is clear their friends. They're staying up late at night to talk with each other just to catch up.


The other problem is that friends act around each other in ways that often they don't bother explaining. You have in-jokes, nicknames, noodle incidents, etc., that you bring up that are never explained with real friends. Outsiders feel like outsiders. You don't want your reader to feel like an insider. He or she should be an insider. As inside as possible! You can try and weasel around this by using a point of view character or first-person narrator. They can fill in the blanks with asides or flashbacks.

Next, you have an issue with body language. When two people are friendly, you can see it. Sense it. This is why movies and plays have it easier. They can cheat and do lots of little things that if you keep describing get repetitive. Jon and David could always glance at each other and smirk at a dinner scene when either could make a dirty joke that would offend their wives or kids. It'd be funny for the audience; it would be tedious to write in every time they do it, and if they only do it once it doesn't show us how much they are on the same wavelength. But, with a visual medium, you suddenly can cheat! You can pack more information in less. Cheating like this is good!

So, writing friendships is hard. By the end of this blog's run, you can probably make a list of things I whined about being hard to write.

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P.S.,

This is a mini-theme at Althouse's blog. She linked over to this NYT piece, that says: "Schedules compress, priorities change and people often become pickier in what they want in their friends."

You can start the process of turning random people in random places into friends just by talking. Also, it helps for people to be as judgmental as they were in college as opposed to as uptight and narrow-minded as the NYT thinks we become as we age. In college and high school, people my age routinely had friends with radically different beliefs than theirs. If that's not still happening once you get older, ask why.

The NYT is trying to make things harder than they really are. Also? Several of their examples of friends not working out are just people being jerks. Who asks about other people how much they make, and who does not know the proper response is: "Enough?"

The Kinds of Builds You Need -- Secret World

Initially, I posted this here. But, it is good enough that I thought I should get double use out of it. In The Secret World, you'll hit Blue Ridge Mountains, which will become one of the harder, more frustrating zones. Or so I'm told. I've dallied there a little bit between questing, and it doesn't seem significantly harder than Savage Coast; you just have to go slower and do a proper gear check.

But, you want to know how to make a good build? Let me give you a down and dirty example. It's not great, but it works, usually. The general Guild Wars rule of solo builds applies, with a slight variation, due to the combo point mechanic. Build for synergy; outlast pressure damage; deal sustained damage; be able to spike; know when to engage. Simple stuff. Example below the fold.

On Writing Fiction

I'm still trying to write a page a day, and I'm doing it. It is more painful these days because I don't know where this one should end. For every other story I've put together so far this year for my fiction a day piece, I've known where I wanted to start and what I wanted at the end. I reworked one story because I ended up disliking the end. Then I disliked the second ending too. It just was a crappy story, all told.

But, I'm really at a loss for this story. I haven't written sword and sorcery fantasy in a long time, so I just feel like I'm losing my grip on how this world works. It's really slow and really painful to write. Which brings me back to a point I've hammered home probably a dozen times now: Do your pre-writing. Make your outlines. It will make your life easier.

Right now, I have a vague idea on what to write. I know where the story should go. But all my stories are ending rather depressingly lately. Well, OK. Across the Gap ends positively, what with the little brother living, but it's kind of a neutral ending. Maybe after this story, I should write an unambiguously happy story. Maybe call it Rainbows and Sunshine: A New Day.

As always, writing is better than not writing. Even if you are writing crap, which most of what anyone writes is. That's why you have editors. Oh well, back to writing crap.

Managing Expectations

I'll make no secret: The Secret World had some serious launch issues. Chat was broken, missions were bugged. The only thing it did not have was crash to desktops or server queues. For an MMO launch, it was decent. Average. That is faint praise, but I am not trying to damn it. Despite the many faults, it really is a fine game.

They delivered on their world. They gave us a fun, engaging environment. The skill wheel is amazing. What's more important, they developed a relatively new, strong, IP. That is something that happens very rarely in a world that thought it was high time to remake a Spider Man origins movie. It was a risky move, and they deserve kudos for not only taking that risk, but delivering. One thing work has taught me is that managing expectations is important. If you're going to promise the sky, you better be able to deliver the moon.

Challenge, accepted, I guess, over at Funcom. This is something I always like about designing games and fiction worlds. You get to aim big. The gaming community, as a whole, is rather forgiving of some failures. It is also rabidly aggressive and borderline psychotic about some successes. It's like a microcosm of the real world, only we get to blow up robots and zombies.

... Our world is better.

Why Are Gamers Such Jerks?

Here's a question I wonder about whenever I go to game forums. When did my fellow gamers suddenly all become childish ranters? If you ever want to really, really feel that the human race has failed, join League of Legend and go to the Tribunal. Maybe I'm just getting old, but in Gemstone, no one ever used casual racial slurs against their own team.

I don't think that gamers, as a population, have become crass homophobic racists. It's the internet as a whole. I'm not pro-censorship; I'm a free speech absolutist after all. But you know? I can get behind self-censoring. We used to call it good manners. I wonder if people act like this at table top games with strangers. I doubt someone tells someone running a suboptimal list at Warhammer to go die in a fire. Ok, they probably do.

So, for the next few days, I'm going to try to be extra nice to people. Extra nice. This is going to be a... horrifying experiment. Since The Secret World says their chat problem is half fixed, I'll try today! In TSW's defense, it is one of the least toxic communities I've seen in awhile.

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P.S.,

Escutcheon, RP server. Play with me.

Bare Minimums

When you make a product, there are certain standards that should apply. For newspapers, for example, you expect clean editing, the right pictures with the right articles, etc. For games, you expect a clean, understandable rule book, all the pieces to fit and be there. For food, you expect it to taste right and not kill you. For MMOs, we seem to have... no real expectations except a "smooth launch," which really just means not too crappy of a launch. Games that have smooth launches tend to be smaller, niche games, basically because they are not stressed as heavily during the initial week.

A Few Random Updates

Not much to post today before I go to be responsible. If you play the Secret World, my character there is Escutcheon. Send me a tell in game if you want to play. If you want a role play Illuminati guild, I humbly suggest these guys. I should be on this weekend and potentially this evening. Have fun. Shoot zombies.

Speaking of zombies, Telltale's The Walking Dead Episode 2 released recently-ish. I totally missed the email or whatever update thingie would have let me know that. Here's a review. I may set aside some time this weekend to play it myself. I probably will not. They promise another episode in August. But, it is Telltale, so, don't expect it.

Oh, and an article from Politico for the zombie tag. I honestly never thought I'd see a headline like that ever written just because, you know, mythical cannibals tend to steal the headline. Maybe next week, we'll have manticores making headlines.

Making Content Last

Some games have lots and lots of content. Some games… don’t. MMOs, for the most part, need to have not just loads of content, but they need more content that their players can readily access. Let’s take SW:TOR, Guild Wars 1 and The Secret World as our samples.

July 4, 2012

My Independence Day thought: During the power outage, some guy commented -- sarcastically -- "Oh, the power is still out. What a great country we live in."

I wanted to say: "Uh... yeah. 99+% of the year, you are capable of literally using satellites to look down on other countries and Skype ACROSS THE GLOBE. Some people can SKYPE INTO SPACE. In almost place at almost any time, I can get food, lemonade and cookies. We're a freaking great country."

Also, we celebrate by blowing things up.

Edit: I got to see the fireworks and hear the show. So, all's good. Let us label today: Productive.

Actual Supreme Court Decision

"It is not our job to protect the people from the consequences of their political choices." This is probably the most important quote from Roberts' opinion for the Court. Now, this isn't a law blog, so I'm going to spare you a lot of details. But, after joking on the Supreme Court yesterday, I figured I'd give you a quick run down of my thoughts on the matter. If you don't care about the Supreme Court case, then uh, don't click below.

Official Supreme Court Predictions

Ok. My official prediction. In a 5-4 decision, the Supreme Court finds in favor of Predator in Alien v Predator. Kennedy writes for the majority, as always, noting that "They've got lasers and space ships. Game, set and match." Concurring, in full, Thomas writes that "We cannot overlook the technological superiority and ranged combat power of the Predator."

Ginsburg dissents, citing Aliens "superior numbers and acid blood."  Scalia concurs in part, but dissents in part, noting that "It would not be a total curb stomp. Some of those ugly mother f****** are going down."

No decision will be reached in Batman v Superman, with it dismissed for lack of standing. Roberts, writing for the court, notes: "This shit'll never happen. Now, Lex Luthor v Joker, that is a ripe issue for the court." Sotomayor, in addition, noted that "If an evil doppelganger Batman or Superman were to challenge his good opposite, we would be able to revisit the case. However, this would not be a precedent setting case, as the evil nature of the alternate universe Batman or Superman would, necessarily, differentiate them from their good counterpart."

Also, on the legal question, "Who you gonna call?", the Court will remand the decision to New York, with Kagan noting while reading the decision that "Cats and dogs living together is a matter for local state regulations." On the second legal issue, in a per curiam decision, the Court finds that the answer is "Yes" to the question: "Are you a god?"

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P.S.,

Inspired by Tapper's #otherSCOTUSpredictions Twitter hash tag.

The Secret World: Giving a Character Character

Below, we have some fun character development for The Secret World. It is my not fact-checked application to the guild we mentioned in the last post. I'm not willing, you see, when it comes to applying to guilds to jump through hoops. But, if I get the opportunity to, you know, apply in character? I'll take the time to do it.

I don't think some of these things are real things. This character probably is as "realistic" as a standard academic you'd see on "Bones" or "White Collar." In short. Not really. Plus, he swallows a magic bee.

Playing With, Not Next To

Yesterday, I mentioned that one of the biggest issues in the modern MMO is that we are playing next to, not with, each other. In short, we're engaged in parallel play. Well, technically, it is associative play, since we're all playing together in the same activity, but that's not as well known a phrase. But, for the sake of accuracy, let's call it associative play. MMOs biggest hiccup is that, for the most part, in the grand scheme of things, we do not have a way for players to engage in meaningful cooperative play frequently enough.

Have We Out Grown MMOs?

That's a question that came up last week or so. Johnson makes some good points and arguments, and I don't want to piggy back too much off of what he says. So, go read it, come back, then go below the fold. Underneath is one of my rambling "thoughts on game design" posts. So, keep that in mind. It is rambling and not proofed.

Oh, before you go read it though. Remember, June 27 is a GW2 stress test. Some of us will be at work, or something close to work, so we won't be able to play it. You could say that we've out grown mid-day stress tests.

Fiction Update: Zombie Story Rough Draft

The biggest note for today is that the first rough draft of the current story is complete. Here's the link for the story if you want it. If you don't want it, reading on will be kind of silly, since I'm going to talk about the experience of writing it.

Do You Play The Secret World?

Do you play The Secret World, and do you want to play with us? My main will be Escutcheon. Send me a message if you join, and we can play games together. He'll be easy to find. He likes guns and books (though in the live game, he'll go shotguns and pistols.)

The shotgun is for shooting. The book is for reading.

More screenshots below the fold.

Measuring Success for Games

Since we're talking about MMOs lately, Guild Wars 2 has a good read. Now, I understand Johanson's point at making the grind of subscription based MMOs sound as terrible as they are. But, realistically, people are not going to plug away at their dailies and progression if they do not find it fun. Some people may choose to suffer a certain amount of indignity, provided the rest of the game is fun.

But, it does ask a really good question: "If we chose fun as our main metric for tracking success, can we flip the core paradigm and make design decisions based on what we’d like to play as game players?"

Play It Your Way Ethos

One of the big selling point of a lot of upcoming MMOs (and most past MMOs) is that you can play your character your way. Look at Guild Wars (1 and 2!), The Secret World, The Matrix Online, Champions, etc., etc. Even games with fairly strict character progression and talenting structure, like Star Wars, insist you can play it your way. But, I'm curious what you would need to do, from a design stand point, to really let players play it their way.

Matt Makes a Runesmith!

Today, I realized, that we needed a Rune Smith.

We now have a Rune Smith.

He has a book. It is filled with grudges.

Instead of a great weapon, he has a shield.

That is all. I have a headache from adjusting to new glasses. So, no real content today. Go to yesterday and read about The Secret World or check out the Veritech. Or, read about a little girl in a futuristic Western. Or, you know, things I haven't written.