World Of Goo sales experiment.

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2009/10/20/world-of-goo-sale-provides-fascinating-results/comment-page-1/

Different views

http://www4.ncsu.edu/~tenshi/Killer_000.htm

This caught my eye because their views are so different from my own. Things that struck me as entirely ordinary and meaningless, are attributed as having some deeper meaning, that makes little to no sense to me, since I don't see any reason for things to be different.

Standard MMO controls are horrible.

Champions Online has convinced me that the standard MMO control scheme, of picking a target, then using the chosen power on it, is horrible. It only works because most MMOs are fairly slow games. If I want to do something a little more complicated than just attacking the same target repeatedly, it becomes a nightmare. Most action games would be almost unplayable using the MMO standard UI. Losing a fight because I can't get the controls to do what I want them to, is not a fun way to play.

I need a way to make my buttons/keys do what I want them to, independant of what character I'm choosing as my target. I want to be able to hit the heal button, to heal someone who's injured, and not have to target them first. I want to be able to give each power a separate and independent targeting system that they use when clicked/pressed/activated. I'd like to be able to have my debuff powers automatically pick targets who don't have the debuff yet.

Champions Online has made progress with the auto-target system, but whenever I try to do something other than just charge in and beat stuff up, I find myself fighting with the controls and the system, more than with the enemies.

(Posted while in a very bad mood after some very frustrating attempts to use the healing drones, and the charged heal)

Love?

http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=what%20is%20love%3F

http://dailycasual.com/?p=345

Virtual Economies

http://www.walrusmagazine.com/articles/2004.06-economics-game-theories/

Go squirrel!

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/6018173/Squirrel-is-surprise-star-of-holiday-photo.html

"No! Im the Batman!"

http://www.funnyjunk.com/funny_pictures/36790/No+I+m+Batman/

Keeping the learning going.

I decided to try out the game Plants vs Zombies. I found it interesting how the game introduced it's mechanics, and the way it attempted to vary the game play. I believe it is important to have variation in games, to maintain the sense of learning. If every stage is approached in the same manner, it can quickly become repetitive (though repetition is not always bad; it is in fact, a rather important part of learning.)

Previously, I had been thinking about some other Turret Defense style games such as Monsters (PS3) and Defense Grid the Awakening (on Steam). While thinking about them, I'd come to believe that it was a good idea to vary the balance of the towers occasionally, as a way to encourage different approaches to different levels (and perhaps even the same level sometimes).

The expansion to Monsters, did change the balance of things, making it a somewhat different experience from the game's initial levels, which I believe helped make the expansion better since what towers were most effective in a given situation, had to be learned all over again.

The primary form of variation presented by the Monsters game was in the form of what path the monsters took, and what sorts of monsters came. Each level often involved memorizing a different build order, with the task of figuring out the right build order being the main challenge.

Defense Grid the Awakening created variation primarily through excellent amounts of variation in level layout. Different levels could often require vastly different approaches to beating them. In some instances, the levels would be designed in such a way, that many different approaches could all work, allowing creativity to thrive.

Plants vs Zombies doesn't have complicated level design. It's a fairly simple game. To create challenge, they give players a variety of different types of plant (tower) that all end up competing for the same resources, presenting the player with the difficult task of figuring out what to plant, when, and where. The primary tug-o-war was between investing in the now (damage dealing plants), and investing in the future (resource producing plants).

The variation Plants vs Zombies provided came largely in the form of new plants frequently becoming available, and the changes between day, night, and the backyard with a pool. These changes affected what plants were available, and where they could be placed.

Short amusing game.

http://armorgames.com/play/4309/this-is-the-only-level

Sometimes, changing the mechanics is a more valuable trick than changing the level.

Hilarious 3rd Edition DnD observations.

http://everything2.com/title/Humour%253A+D%2526D+Third+Edition

"Deities are capable of casting Contact Other Plane to converse with themselves - but they "resent such intrusion" and even have a flat percentage chance of lying to themselves."

"The 20th level Expert Trapmaker with Search, Profession: Trapmaker, Craft: Trapmaking, Knowledge: Famous Traps and Knowledge: Magical Traps all maxed out at 23 ranks, cannot attempt to find a trap if the Search DC is over 20, but the 1st level rogue with none of those skills can."

Gills vs Lungs

http://www.newscientist.com/blogs/shortsharpscience/2009/08/why-whales-dont-have-gills.html

Makes me wonder how long it takes for Giant Squid to get as large as they sometimes do.

RFID chips are not safe.

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2009/08/fed-rfid/

RFID chips are a potentially serious security risk. Not enough is being done yet to protect against the risk they entail. It's like having a password that can be seen by anyone with the right equipment (and it's not hard to obtain the right equipment if someone wants to).

I believe this is the best argument I've seen so far, for allowing easy full respecs in a game:

I'm for easy full respecs at any time without a cost or time requirement. Want to know why? Well I am a hardcore Guild Wars vet and the devs in that game allowed full respecs anytime you were in town. This led to ALOT of customized builds and experimental builds from anyone because they weren't stuck with one build and they didn't follow the FOTM builds because the freedom allowed players to customize their own build to their own style without frustration of re-leveling. One great advantage to this is that it allows the devs to easily take a close look to see what exactly the FOTM of the month is and allows them to adjust the abilities accordingly. This led to one of the most balanced "mmos" in existence.

I see the endgame for many people in CO to be about the team arena and running prebuild guild teams. This is exactly what Guild Wars is and allowing people to respec completely easily in the training area will not only help the devs balance the game much easier and better, but will pretty much let anyone come up with character builds on their own without much time dedication and frustration. There are literally thousands of character builds in Guild Wars made famous by even the most casual of players because they were allowed to experiment, and even though many were one trick ponies, it did not lead to FOTM builds at all.

Of course there will be FOTM builds, but if we are allowed to easily respec the devs not only will have an easy time adjusting skills but as players we will get to enjoy changing dynamics in the power abilities rather than being left with stagnant abilities that pretty much won't be changed since launch.



Think of it like this, lets say Guild A is number 1 on the server and running a current FOTM and is dominating the arena. Guild B (who is in 2nd place) can either spend weeks releveling alts to compete with the FOTM, or they can easily respec and counter the build that Guild A is running and thus keeping the arenas from becoming stale and boring. This changes Flavor of the Month into Flavor of the Moment.

Written by TheKommissar
http://forums.champions-online.com/showpost.php?p=730938&postcount=12

In a PvP environment, being able to quickly and easily change tactics and power choices can dramatically enhance the meta game, and greatly increase the speed with which new tactics and counters are developed.

...

http://shakespearessister.blogspot.com/2009/08/why-not.html

A neat trailer for EVE online

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08hmqyejCYU&hd=1

EVE has a level of complexity most games can only dream of. It is also one of the most cruel and unforgiving games out there.

Real Money games.

I tried out some Entropia, to learn a bit about how it worked, and test how feasible money making is in that game. The game does not appear to follow standard MMO structure. Instead, it appears to follow classic Casino rules. The basic gameplay is essentially a bunch of slot machines. You put money in, and hope to get some back. As far as I can tell, the fundamental constriction on the game's balance of resources, is the simple fact that anything can be sold back to the makers of the game for PED (the in game currency) which has a fixed exchange rate with US$. Due to this, they must carefully control the cost of acquiring loot, and the value of said loot to ensure you can never get more than you spend.

Personally, I think it would be better to make a game that followed the MMO model more closely instead of the standard casino model. A game where you truely could participate in nearly any activity without spending real money. It would just take time. I feel like there is a gap waiting to be filled.

Take EVE Online's market structure, and focus on time as a resource. Add Entropia's Real Money backed internal currency (with a highly restricted supply). Then have the entire game designed such that a player doesn't ever actually need currency to advance. All things can be obtained if spends enough time on enough things. Standard MMO advancement means that an old player will likely have an advantage over new players, but ideally the gap should not get too big, possibly due to resource sinks.

Due to the need for currency sinks (to pay for the game service) combined with an ever growing amount of non-currency resources, the game is likely to suffer from some rather strong deflationary pressure. However, the lower the price is for goods, the more likely people are to prefer paying real money, instead of time, to acquire them, which would help lift prices back up. I would be very interested in learning what price things end up stabilizing at.

Study shows how college major and religious faith affect each other

http://www.scienceblog.com/cms/study-shows-how-college-major-and-religious-faith-affect-each-other-23617.html

{dead link} A theory on what drives societies downhill.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_tvJKf4JYcM ... link died.

I can't help but wonder if he's right.

Online Culture

http://www.nola.com/news/index.ssf/2009/07/loyola_university_professor_be.html

"Myers, who in 1984 became one of the first university-level professors to study video games. He believes it proved that, even in a 21st century digital fantasyland, an ugly side of real-world human nature pervades, a side that oppresses strangers whose behavior strays from that of the mainstream."

Sadly, my own experiences lead me to conclude that the increased fragmentation of society caused by virtual worlds and virtual communities, actually increases the tendency towards exclusion of others.

When there is one main group, the excluded ones band together even when they don't have much in common. Because there are so few around with similar tastes/interests, they can't exclude people different from them and still have a group.

Online, where communities are easily entered and left, once a community reaches sufficient size, it starts developing it's own set of traits/behaviors that become required for acceptance. Stray, and they will condemn you.

Neat pics of Lava

http://delightnature.com/volcanoes/the-natural-phenomena-a-lava

Tragedy of the Collectathons

http://www.gamespite.net/toastywiki/index.php/Games/TragedyOfTheCollectathons

Humor

http://www.abeautifulrevolution.com/photos/uncategorized/2007/06/14/iron.gif

Depression

http://www.happinessinthisworld.com/2009/03/08/the-true-cause-of-depression/

Reminds me of an article I read elsewhere on the idea that despair is a natural response to discovering that a goal cannot be reached, developed to help a person stop trying, and move on to something else. Depression then, could be the result of a person being unable or unwilling to abandon the goal, thus causing the despair to stick.

More Than a Traumatic Birth

http://web.archive.org/web/20100922004327/http://www.truebirth.com/2008/02/more-than-a-traumatic-birth/

People often underestimate the psychological impact of life's horrors.

By Danell Swim
February 10, 2008

Childbirth is regarded as the most painful episode of a woman’s life, but also the most joyful. When women speak of a traumatic birth experience, most assume it to be an extremely painful event, or that something necessitated an emergency situation. For some, that is all the traumatic event is; 12 hours of tortuous labor with a supportive person by their side. Or a drop in the baby’s heart rate that sends everyone scrambling to get him out before he’s harmed. But for some, the traumatic event goes much deeper.

Sometimes women are held down while pleading to be let go; having vaginal exams forced on them; and their waters broken without giving consent. Some women call this Birth Rape, because it can be such a violent act that centers on their genitals, without their permission. The term is shocking, and upon hearing the stories of these women who have been assaulted, it is accurate.

We know from psychologists that most rapists do it not for sexual gratification, but for power. It may be the same for these care providers, who are so unfit to be working with vulnerable, emotional, feeling human beings.

EK in CT told me of her painful experience:

My doctor told me that I he had to check my cervix, but he was in a hurry and “couldn’t wait” for my contraction to end. I was on Pitocin and the contractions just went on and on. So he forced his hand inside me after I screamed for him to stop, without using any lubrication. He told me “you’re only dilated to 5cm, don’t be such a baby” and left the room.

Unlike a painful childbirth, or a situation where there is a medical emergency, these Birth Rapes are perpetrated by an individual, or several individuals. It is not medically necessary, and yet the act is horrific, and leaves emotional and sometimes physical scars.

Pam recounts the traumatic cesarean birth that still haunts her:

Seven years ago I was scared into an induction. I was held down and told I had to let the doctor break my water. I was told it was my fault my cervix was swelling. I was butchered open, 9″ wide, and left with a gaping wound. I suffered complications and had additional surgeries. It scared me forever. A scar that extends deep within my soul. I had terrible PPD and PTSD. The flashbacks were consuming and wrecked my family’s life.

Like rape victims, women who are victimized during birth are made to feel responsible for the act itself. They are told that it has to be this way, or that their baby will die if it isn’t done this way. Sometimes, they aren’t even given the opportunity to say no, as they are (like Pam) held down against their will. Later, they are told that they were bad, and it had to be done. Coercion is a tactic that many assailants use.

The result of these experiences can be life-long. These traumatic birthing experiences bring about more cases of post-partum depression (PPD), and sometimes even post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Some women choose to not have more children, while others just live with the lie and pretend that everything is fine.

LC says:

The birth rape at the end of my second pregnancy is still always on my mind and the post traumatic stress still remains. Sure, I go throughout my day, functioning, smiling, but in my head I’m a mess. Everyone thinks I’m fine because I look fine and I got my healthy baby and I’m alive.

Some women refuse to see healthcare workers again, neglecting their own health and that of their children.

AM wrote to me about her post-partum period:

For 2 years after my son was born, I refused to take him to the doctor, or go to one myself. Even driving by the doctor’s office where I knew my old doctor worked was enough to make me sick. I identified with women who turned away from medicine for holistic treatment, but it wasn’t because I believed in it, it was because I wanted to believe in it. Because I was too scared to do anything else.

The treatment these women received was enough to make them suffer to their very core, and do irreparable damage to their psyche. And yet the doctors who committed the act still practice, and the cycle continues.
Upon graduating from medical school, young doctors take an oath to protect their patients, and treat them with respect. In order to practice in this country, they are pledged to gain informed consent from their patients before providing treatment. Despite these oaths, they are causing such harm to women who deserve their utmost admiration and kindness.

This is why women choose to call it Birth Rape. Yes, it is used to shock. It is used to bring attention to something that is so significant, and yet never talked about.

It is Birth Rape, and it happens every day.

Written by Danell Swim · Filed Under Editorials

Compassion

http://www.happinessinthisworld.com/2009/05/17/what-compassion-is/

"the feeling of genuine compassion for another person is, in my view, one of the most joyful experiences available to human beings."
I have had the opposite experience. For me, genuine compassion is one of the most painful things I can experience. This is why I avoid people.

Random Pics

http://2photo.ru/uploads/posts/4268/20071120/joe_baran/20_11_2007_0044537001195507712_joe_baran.jpg

http://blog.lisianne.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/02/phare-le-four.jpg

The Good Guy Contract

http://www.happinessinthisworld.com/2009/05/24/the-good-guy-contract/

Go Squirrel!

http://www.maniacworld.com/squirrel-obstacle-course.html

Difficulty in Games

I've come to realize something that probably should have been more obvious to me. Whether or not I enjoy difficulty in a game depends almost entirely upon how much I enjoy what is being made difficult. For example: I often have little interest in a real challenge in City of Heroes, because my primary interest in the game is the story and character creation.

When attempting to follow a story arc, I generally find any difficulty to be a hindrance to my enjoyment of it. The (almost) only time I enjoy difficulty in CoH, is when I'm on a team. Even then, whether or not I enjoy difficulty depends almost entirely upon what type of character I'm playing.

If I'm playing a tank, I favor having little to no difficulty. My primary focus is typically upon keeping the fights coming quick, and gathering large numbers of enemies into a single place (herding). Often, the part I most enjoy about tanking, is having a large number of enemies trying and failing to take me down. Any difficulty then diminishes that joy.

If I'm playing a damage dealer, I don't mind having enemies prove hard to kill. In fact, having them go down too fast can make it boring. However, if I find myself in danger of dying all the time, it's not going to be fun.

If I'm playing a character who provides the team with buffs, having teammates or myself take large amounts of damage diminishes how much I feel I am helping, which makes things less fun. Often, I find that when I play a support character, I want things to be easy but not so easy that I feel useless.

If I'm playing a healer, I tend to like having the difficulty level vary. Times of difficulty engage me in my healing efforts, and make me feel needed, while the easier times allow me to rest, relax, and recover for the next time I'm really needed.

In another game, God Hand, I found the difficulty helped improve my fun. For me, the main joy of the game, was setting up different selections of moves on the combo button, to find the perfect combo that could let me win fights with little more than one button. The difficulty of the fights, combined with the complexities of how the various moves worked with each other, made the task an interesting challenge.

When playing Skies of Arcadia, I found some areas of difficulty to be enjoyable, while others were annoying. The basic combat was of limited interest to me, and while some fights offered interesting challenges, it really wasn't something that improved the game for me. The challenges I did enjoy though, were the ship to ship fights. I really enjoyed the ship vs ship combat system, and found many of the challenges to be quite interesting. It was a bit of a disappointment that soon after finally gaining the ability to use whatever weapons and accessories for the ship I wanted, the challenge level of those fights went way down. Once a full heal spell was acquired, it became laughable.

In Hellgate: London, one of my big complaints, is with some of the missions that get difficult in a very annoying way. They add in some extra mini-game style challenges that become extremely frustrating when they don't go well. If the difficulty were low enough on them, it might not be an issue, but several times I've had them prove to be a very unpleasant challenge. Overall, I find my enjoyment in Hellgate: London does not come from the challenges the game presents, but instead from the randomness, special effects, and the carnage. I also had some interest in the main story, though that only lasted until I beat the game. As a result, difficulty was generally an annoyance, not a pleasure.

I suppose the general system I like most, is when the story can be gotten with little or no difficulty, but difficult challenges are available for those who want them. I do believe it is important for almost any game to include an easy mode for people who just don't have much interest in the challenges. MMO's should not be excluded from the easy mode rule in my opinion (you just won't get much bragging rights for winning on easy).

Neat pic

http://www.lyzard.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/07/potrait.jpg

Is it possible to "surpass" humanity?

http://web.archive.org/web/20060219051539/http://www.popsubculture.com/pop/bio_project/sub/more_than_human.html

The darker side of life...

http://web.archive.org/web/20110511133208/http://www.canow.org/canoworg/2009/07/slut.html

Game Prices

It's occurred to me that the game companies may be following out dated pricing and sales systems. Valve discovered through experimentation on Steam that temporary price cuts could dramatically increase profits. This really should not be a new thing. Many other stores have been doing this for years.

Often the main limitation on doing big sales, are places like Walmart that simply price things as low as they can, and still turn a profit. This forces other companies to either inflate their normal prices, (when compared to discount stores) or lose money on items they cut prices on for the sale boost.

Games however, are generally unique, preventing the heavy price competition other products deal with. Each game company has a monopoly on their game, allowing them to charge much more money if people want to play it.

I'm beginning to think the lack of competitive pricing may be hurting the game industry as a whole. If a game launched with a big short sale, it could build more hype, and get more noticed. It's best to pull in as many people as possible, early, instead of waiting until later when there's more competition to unleash the tempting offers and deals.

A simple thought experiment regarding the new game Champions Online coming out: Champions Online is made by the same company that made the still running City of Heroes game. Due to both games featuring heavy character customization, and superheroes, there's likely to be a lot of overlap in who the two games appeal to.

So, since both CoH (City of Heroes) and CO (Champions Online) are competing for players, and both charge $15 a month for their subscriptions, the two biggest factors for many players is likely to be newness (CO is new, CoH is not) and price. Which means if CO were to cut their price in half or more (down to $25 or less) there would be a lot less reason for current players of CoH to not try out CO. If they went as low as $15 for the first month (maybe include 3 months free with the retail purchase so it can remain a high cost item) then they could probably steal a lot of customers from CoH.

It can be hard to keep up when the world changes so fast.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xHWTLA8WecI

My favorite part was around 1:51 where it's mentioned that current schools need to prepare students for jobs that don't yet exist, using technologies that haven't been invented yet, to solve problems that we don't know are problems yet.

With the rate at which new things come, can we keep up?

Pretty

http://theroxor.com/2009/07/12/the-beauty-of-lightning-storms/

http://wall.alphacoders.com/images/Earth/Earth-Field-50448.jpg

http://amolife.com/image/landscapes/dangerous-beauty.html

Attention demands

When I read that Champions Online was expanding their power bar from 7 to 14 slots, I got a little concerned. How many of those powers would I need to pay attention to?

In City of Heroes, I found that once I got more than 4 or so click powers, I'd start getting worn out really fast by the effort and attention required to manage them. I'm generally not comfortable using more than 3 powers most of the time.

One character I've stopped playing for this very reason was a radiation/sonic defender. I found near the end, that trying to use 6 different abilities which each have their own independent cool down, caused me enough stress to make it very much not fun.

Written on 20090719

{paywall}The human psyche is a complicated thing.

http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2009/07/05/the_nature_of_temptation/?page=full

Amusing

http://www.smbc-comics.com/index.php?db=comics&id=1582
Experimental madness.

Some nice pictures

http://thebigfoto.com/when-day-meets-night-and-we-see-stars

The Two-Party Swindle

http://lesswrong.com/lw/mg/the_twoparty_swindle/

Amusing Pic

http://www.gimmiethescoop.com/img/income-to-debt.png

Looking forward to Champions Online.

What I've seen of Champions Online through previews, and developer interviews, has made me rather excited about it. However, most of my excitement comes from the desire to really delve into the character creation and figure out how all the various power options in the game work. I've often had great fun messing with character creation in CoH, and in fact, I find the creation and experimentation to be my favorite part of CoH, and often the only reason I play. Champions Online promises an even greater amount of creative freedom, and the ability to mess around with things a lot more.

What I fear, is that I will run into the same problem I always run into. My enjoyment of the game will come almost entirely from the creative aspects, and actual gameplay will become the chore that must be done to enjoy the parts I love.

One example of the sort of problem I've had in the past was Diablo II. I'd get the idea to try building a character around a certain power. Sometimes it would be a power available early, and it'd be great. Other times, it'd be something only available late, and I'd have to try slogging through the game long enough to get there. Often, I'd get bored first, and never finish my concept. I have a lot of incomplete Diablo II characters that never managed to really explore the concepts I had built them for.

Written on 20090711 (yyyymmdd)

Regarding the MMO

http://doublebuffered.com/2009/07/14/no-mmorpg-will-ever-beat-world-of-warcraft/

This guy makes some points I hadn't thought of before. They also seem to be some very good points. Such as:

"Unless you have breaks and social hubs built into your game (the waiting-for-the-round-to-end time of CounterStrike can serve this purpose well), players will never develop the long term social ties needed to sustain a community. This is also why there’s never been a good MMORTS: the amount of brainpower needed to manage units in a way that engages RTS players doesn’t leave a whole lot left over to build social bonds."

I kinda feel like that was the core observation of the article. The one of greatest import (at least for me).

Game Core Mechanics

It occurred to me that CoH's main gameplay can be little more than hitting buttons at the right time. When the power lights up because it's ready for use, you hit the button to use it. There is a lot of strategy involved in creating a character, and deciding how to use it, but once that's done, the actual use of the character, tends to not be very deep. The bit about hitting the button when it says it's ready, reminds me of DDR.

Another thing that occurred to me, is that the common boss design in action games, where there's a visible animation before a big attack that needs to be either dodged or blocked, is in many ways similar to a quicktime event, in that it's just hitting the right button when the onscreen cue tells you to. Though quicktime events tend to be more straight forward (making them easier) and often involve having the character do feats not normally possible in the game mechanics.

With regard to the block when told mechanic. One varient I thought was neat was something I encountered in Skies of Arcadia. In the ship to ship battles, there would be a colour code to each segment of time in battle. The colour told you how dangerous a given moment would be. This generally encouraged you to block during the most dangrous ones. However, the most dangerous segments were often the ones in which you could do the most damage too. So there was a choice there between blocking, or gunning, and the different weapon types actually offered more than two ways of handling it.

I really don't know if these things I've observed are good things or bad things. I do know, that I often wish things were different, but I don't know what I'd want it to be. I'm reminded of how I love building decks for Magic The Gathering, but don't have much interest in playing the game. However, if I don't play, I can't learn how well my decks work. So the gameplay becomes a kind of chore I have to get through to do what I like. I find I have similar sentiments about most games that I play, and don't know how to fix it. I fear that even if I did find a game that did things in a way I really liked, I'd probably finish it too quickly due to it not being feasable to produce enough quality content to really keep me interested a long time. Sorta like how I can read books far faster than their authors can write.

Written on 20090710 (yyyymmdd)

Manipulated photos

http://www.toxel.com/inspiration/2009/01/30/photo-manipulations-by-tebe_interesno/

Cute Pics

http://www.masalatime.com/?p=3962

Marketing Music

http://www.pbs.org/mediashift/2008/12/nettwerk-ceo-terry-mcbride-puts-fans-in-charge-of-bands346.html

"We started initially with T-shirts. We found out that the T-shirts that the fans designed -- even if the artists didn't like them -- the people who went to shows liked them more than the ones that the artists designed. That was consistent whether it was Barenaked Ladies, or Avril or Sarah -- the fans' T-shirts always sold more. The fans would do the designs and vote up the ones they liked, and filter them to the top, and we would take the top 3 voted designs and put them in production. And they were consistently the top sellers out there.

In 2005, we took it a step further by releasing Barenaked Ladies songs in stems [pieces of the music tracks]. That sparked the idea for the guys who created Rock Band. That was more of a remix. Now I'm more about the mix; to hell with the remix! We have an artist named K-OS, and we released all of the stems two weeks ago, and the fans have not heard the album. It's not due out until March, so they are actually mixing the album. So we will release physically and digitally the artist version and the fan version. And when we go to radio, we will service the artist version and fan version. So we are taking it the rest of the way." - Terry McBride

Understanding others?

http://doublebuffered.com/2009/06/16/the-players-are-wrong-but-listen-anyway/

I believe that in any conversation, it is important to understand why the other party says what they say. In my experience, understanding why is the key to truly helping people. Otherwise, you just end up going in circles.

Started up CoH again...

While I find the new Mission Architect to overall be pretty brilliant, I also find the game as a whole feels buggier than I remember it being before. This might be partly due to my memory forgetting little annoyances, but I don't think that would account for all of it. The game just feels like it's not as well polished as it had been when I first started playing.

Felt a need to link this one.

http://www.sinfest.net/archive_page.php?comicID=3204

Scary Story

http://web.archive.org/web/20120309062036/http://skepticalob.blogspot.com/2009/06/yes-patient-might-die-but-im-not-going.html

Life size Gundam.

http://www.kenleewrites.com/2009/06/odaiba-gundam-at-night.html

Atheism as a Stealth Religion

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-sloan-wilson/atheism-as-a-stealth-reli_b_76901.html

Sometimes, the same patterns of thought will appear in seemingly opposite locations.

Neat pictures.

http://elenakalis.carbonmade.com/projects/2170790#1

Dealing with homeless.

http://www.furiousseasons.com/archives/2009/04/study_housing_homeless_drunks_and_letting_them_drink_saves_millions.html

Sometimes, generosity is cheaper.

Key Duplication.

http://www.jacobsschool.ucsd.edu/news/news_releases/release.sfe?id=791

Seems technology is making it easier than ever to duplicate someone else's keys.

The robot future:

http://www.tgsa-comic.com/view.php?page=2008-04-02

While I'm on the topic of Religion...

http://scienceblogs.com/grrlscientist/2009/05/god_only_seems_nonexistent.php

'tis for laughs. May it amuse.

Quotes from Bertrand Russell

http://talkingincircles.net/2008/06/17/quotes-from-bertrand-russel/

"There is no logical impossibility in the hypothesis that the world sprang into being five minutes ago, exactly as it then was, with a population that “remembered” a wholly unreal past. There is no logically necessary connection between events at different times; therefore nothing that is happening now or will happen in the future can disprove the hypothesis that the world began five minutes ago." - Bertrand Russell

This is why I see no contradiction between the idea of God creating the world 10k years ago, and the theories of Evolution and the Big Bang. The former is much like the idea of it forming five minutes ago. The latter would then be the "wholly unreal past". In life, whether or not the past is real doesn't matter, only whether or not the information gleaned is useful.

Brain Shivers?

http://www.howtodothings.com/health-and-fitness/a4391-how-to-understand-brain-shivers.html

That's a bit scary.

The downside of Romantic Comedies.

http://survivingtheworld.net/Lesson206.html

Solving an Impossible Puzzle: MMO Controls

http://doublebuffered.com/2009/05/11/solving-an-impossible-puzzle-mmo-controls/

Surprise Rewards

I think rewards in games are most effective when they are either surprising/unexpected, or earned (challenging to acquire). I think the idea of trying to surprise players with unexpected rewards is one game designers would benefit from embracing. Though I imagine it's a tactic that would get more difficult the more common it is.

Amusing little game.

http://kld.mybrute.com

The game will generate a "brute" from a name. Apparently KLDR is a guy, but KLD is a girl.

200903160351

The fantasies that I dream. The ideas dancing in my mind. The movements and connections deny my efforts to tame them. While I dream of becoming these things, in truth I wish to create them.

The fantasies of my mind, the ideas I fail to capture. They are not beyond reach, I merely lack the patience to build them. It is not that they cannot exist, but that I do not give them life.

The future of machines. A world of wonder, a world of games. The reason writings elude me, is I lack a story. A transhumanist world, where all options truely become available. What will humanity do? They fight, they play, they reason, they invent, and they continue to discover.
The natural mind is now well understood. Though few stay natural for long. Augmentation has yielded a race of cyborgs. It is not always easy to distinguish between reality and fiction, since so much of reality IS fiction. People live in worlds of their own making, with personalities and cultures constantly changing and complicating themselves faster than science can keep up with. New technologies arive every day, spread like wildfire, and just as swiftly, fade from view.

To create a story, requires an understanding of their minds, which I don't believe I can achieve. Their concepts and ideas would be so different from what we have now, that it is like trying to predict something which is unknowable. After all, even my description of it, is only given from our viewpoint. The views of those inside that world would be so different as to be beyond my ability to imagine. I have only the tiniest hint of what such an experience might be. Vague ideas and wild imaginings of concepts that would have no anchor within our own understandings.

The Mentality of an Abused Child

http://www.violentacres.com/archives/168/the-mentality-of-an-abused-child

That page contains a good question. Probably more than one.

Passive income?

http://geniustypes.com/passive_income_strategies/

Felt a need to link this. Though it's too bad my passive income amounts to only $10-15 a year with no opportunity for growth. I don't really have the interest/passion required to make something worth more. I always dream of easy money, but I know I'll never get it. I'm too lazy.

Humans and A.I.

http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/anissimov20090109/

I think his complaint is missing something. Mainly that his explanation for how things could go wrong describes something that already happens: We already have intelligent sentient beings with no morals doing their best to make money without concern for how much it costs others. Having an AI take that role won't really make things any worse than they already are.

I expect that the future for most AIs will be fairly safe, because any AI's that prove dangerous will be killed off, and evolution will handle the rest, just like how we domesticated dogs and other animals (yes I realize dogs still kill people now and then, but so do swimming pools).

The real danger is what will be done with by people who wish to do harm to others. Genocide committed by robots. Terrorism committed by robots. Etc... Humanity is it's own worst enemy, and I doubt the invention of better AI's will really change that.

Power Collision

http://www.champions-online.com/node/181

The first question was regarding power collision. While I understand it being impractical to keep track of whether or not projectiles collide with one another, I think it'd be entirely feasible to create a power collision system. Two implementation possibilities that come to mind are: when two characters are targeting each other, any power used during the other characters activation time, will collide with the other character's power. Alternately, there could be an option for powers that are automatically used to counter attacks made against the character by being used in response to and colliding with incoming attacks. My biggest concern would be 1v1 fights turning into stalemates where all attacks are blocked by the other person's attacks.

200901072315

What are the new things that I see?

Champions online is yet to be released. The ideas I gain from reading about it, provide interesting ruminations about possible game designs. Unfortunately, I fear the game itself will prove far less capable than my mind might dream of. I suppose that's to be expected. My imagination always outpaces reality.

City of Heroes continues to impress me. I find new ideas about what makes a game good, and each time find that elements of my discovery are already implemented. The one thing I feel is missing, is the connection between the player and the world. The whole fiction seems disconnected, needing no player action to proceed. Whatever you do, the story remains the same. I'd rather just read a book.
That makes me wonder, is there a market for small booklets with the stories of CoH? Like, each story arc could be sold as a small booklet, and maybe one page biographies for various characters as well. If it were priced at a dollar or two, it might sell. I suppose it'd have to be a PDF file at that low a price though.

Perhaps the ultimate aim of story based games is to become a form of cooperative story telling with the player and the game as participants.

Testosterone is powerful stuff

http://www.nytimes.com/library/magazine/home/20000402mag-testosterone.html

Wow.

Long recharge times...

While I often dislike powers with long recharge times as a player due to the inconsistency inherent to such abilities (I can't really include it in my evaluations of character effectiveness), I've come to realize that such abilities can be good game design. The reason for this, is the increase in variability of the gameplay. When certain powers are only available some of the time, it creates variability in difficulty and (depending on what sort of power it is) how the fight unfolds.

Examples of these powers in City of Heroes are: Hasten, Accelerate Metabolism, Recovery Aura, Regeneration Aura, and the various teir 9 powers (the last one in a powerset).