The Abode of a OTC RPG Judge

Let's tally this eh?
 

• Not a great games-at-reveal lineup. Yes, I know. "But Humva, they're saving it for E3!" Then reveal the console at E3.
• No backwards compatibility for Xbox 360. This bit of information seems to be confused from the sites I've checked though, but the majority at the moment is saying no backwards compatibility.
• A fee for your friends to borrow and play your games. Not an activation fee, no, the full price of the game.
• The Xbox One needs to connect to the Internet once a day.
• You can only trade your bought games via Microsoft's own service.

 
The tl;dr version. Lackluster reveal (subjective). No backwards compatibility. A fee to borrow. Semi-always online connection. Unable to trade in games at Gamestop.
 
I'd rant, but there are many others on the internet doing an infinitely better job of it than I. I only say... when Anonymous inevitably DDOS attacks the Xbox Live servers? Microsoft isn't going get a shred of pity from me.

Oh this entry is going be fuuuuun. But I feel like this is something that needs as much publicity as possible.

So. Nintendo recently talked with a certain website about some videos hosted there. Long story short Nintendo wants all all the money from the ads on videos featuring their products. Because of copyright law, they can do that. Now, let's look at this for a moment. What Nintendo is targeting is the let's plays, where game personalities review and play games for the consumer enjoyment. This is known to be a huge marketing boon, exposing your game to hundreds of thousands if not millions. A ton of people buy games based off these videos; I know I do.

Now you may be saying "OK they help Nintendo cool, but they're using Nintendo's stuff, it's their right to do what they will." Perhaps so, but being allowed to do something doesn't make it right. A lot of these game personalities make their living off these videos. There was one guy I watched called ColbyCheeze, making League of Legend videos was his job. Imagine if Riot Gaming took that ad money from him.

Let's look at the numbers here. How much money do these LPers really get? Well, aforementioned certain site pays their users one third a cent for every view. This makes for some real easy math. One view is one third a cent. Ten views is three cents. A hundred, thirty. A thousand, three dollars. A hundred thousand, three hundred dollars. A million, three thousand dollars.

Now, some users have massive fan bases and get millions of views on a regular basis. But while Nintendo has their eyes on the big channels with the big bucks (because we all know Nintendo, a multimillion dollar company, needs a couple extra thousand bucks), their policy affects the little guy. Take ColbyCheeze for example. His videos use to get around two to four hundred thousand views. He put out about a video a week, sometimes two. His yearly income from ads hovered around ~50k, which the mean American income is around 45k so that's alright for a single guy in an apartment. Is he getting super rich off of Riot's game? No, and that's why Riot promised a long time ago never to do what Nintendo is doing now. Colby has given Riot several thousands of new players, and Riot is appreciative of people like him around the internet, giving them free marketing.

Fact of the matter is at the end of the day, what Nintendo is doing here is greedy, plain and simple. Are they in the legal right? Yes. Is it their right to govern what is done it their intellectual property? Yes. But having the right to something doesn't make all your decisions correct. The LPers on that certain site and indeed, sites around the internet, give Nintendo free marketing and many many new customers, and for what? A third a cent a view. Is that really so much that Nintendo feels that it needs it?

Maybe the 3DS launch and the WiiU launch hurt them more than initially thought. So now they're taking it out of the pockets of people who make their meager living off of hawking their game to the internet. Pro move Nintendo.

So I decided to write a blog entry at midnight with my tablet. This should be fun.

Tonight I'm talking about secrets. We all have them, some for the better, some for the worse. But sometimes there are things that we carry with us through our day to day lives. They shape us, define us, and yet we don't reveal that about ourselves. I'm not referring to that secret that you sleep with a stuffed bear at night (I do, stuffed bears are cool), I'm referring to things that make you who you are as a person. Sorry stuffed bear, you just don't define me as a person.

There's a few obvious things that spring to most people's minds for such defining secret characteristics, but it's not always something to clear. There are a great multitude of things in this world that can define a person but they don't want to talk about. Maybe it's something innate to them, maybe it's a group they're part of. Maybe it's their personality, maybe it's their friends. Regardless, they have something core to them, that they won't talk about.

I come writing this as a hypocrite; I have far too many secrets for my own good. But while I rest on my isle of secrecy, I can see the downsides of such a lifestyle. Many hide their secrets because they fear society or their loved ones shunning them. I once knew a guy who was part of a gang and didn't want to tell his family. The dude wasn't a criminal, and he'd later leave that group to stay that way. But when he joined it wasn't for some self-serving motive, he wanted companionship, and he turned to people he could trust. People who made the wrong choices, but people who were still his friends. But in keeping that a secret from his family, he lived two lives, and that's never a good thing. He deceived those he loved and he deceived himself.

Now, as I stand from my position on the top of the mountain preaching, what of me? What of me and my secrets? Why am I on the internet, rambling away about secret aspects being bad while doing nothing myself? Perhaps because I am a coward. There's little point in beating around the bush, I just don't have the stomach to do it. And in doing so I justify others in their own fear. You lead by example, after all.

But look where that's gotten me. No where except a stress induced ulcer and a position of where I can't speak up, lest I risk a complete family collapse. So I put that off to another day, when I'm suppose to be stronger, smarter, better. Because cowardice and social strife is fun.

Moral of the story? Don't be a tool like Humva and actually fix your problems when they come up, not ten years later.

Saw it in glorious IMAX 3D.
 
It was a pretty good movie. Well worth attendance, and it's plot was certainly engaging. Unlike my fellow movie goers, some of which grumbled about the second act bogging things down, I felt the movie remained strong. Without revealing many spoilers, the majority of the story actually involves Stark without the suit, and I think Robert Downey Jr. really makes the character come to life and just work. The man seems born for this role, and while the movie does kinda end on the idea that Iron Man may be retired to the Marvel vaults, I seriously doubt that with such critical fame and success that they'd axe it so quickly. Downey is aging with each movie however, and alas in the future he may not be fit enough to play the part, though I have faith that he'll be able to stick with it.
 
Over all, my suggestion is to see the movie. It's a fun ride, it stays strong throughout, and if this is the end of the Iron Man movie series, it definitely left us on a good note.

Two new parties performed particularly well: Bright Future, which won six seats, and the computer activist Pirate party, with three.

-BBC News
 
Lost any doubt I had in moving to Iceland. Gotta get over there as soon as I get my degree.

Check your favorite news provider's website, it's bound to be on there. Three explosions have gone off in Boston, there's a reported two dead and twenty three injuries, both figures rising. More bombs are being found planted around Boston.
 
It's... not good folks.

For a while now, I've contemplated on my future. It's a scary thing; I'm reaching the point where soon, I'll be a legal adult. High-school will be over and I'll be off to college, to maybe get a scholarship and become a mechanical engineer. If everything works out, I'll go to work at one of the local aerospace firms, designing and working on military aircraft, though it's possible it'll be civilian, depending on which manufacture I get a job at.
 
But things never go according to plan. As I speak my family is undergoing bankrupcy; we're seventy five thousand dollars in credit card debt and paying the mortgage. So far two people we've spoken with at the bank have either attempted to intentionally mislead us or simply weren't aware of the numbers themselves, as a solution we were offered, while it would of saved us several hundred dollars in the first three months, would of actually increased our monthly payments afterwards. If it weren't for the fact that my father is rather paranoid, we'd of probably fallen hook line and sinker for that trick. But we didn't, so we're continuing onward, and maybe the judge will have mercy on us when we go to court to try to get out debt resolved.
 
Basically my family is far from the best of economic situations, and across this great nation of America, quite a few other families are undergoing similar situations. We're continually told the economy is going get better, and one day it will, but the end doesn't look close. This puts a crimp in my life plans. Will America still be the place for me when I graduate with my masters of mechanical engineering? Or will I flee to Iceland, try to get away from whatever political crisis it is in the 2020s? I've always wanted to go to Iceland, always talked about setting up a home there, but in reality I've always understood it's a dream and nothing more. It'd be expensive, and I'd have to leave everything behind, including my family.
 
Unlike most teenagers my age, I don't really feel any great urge for independence. Perhaps I will in the future, but as it is now, I'm content where I am. There's annoying aspects of my life, certainly, but I'm too attached to my family to go far. Maybe some day later I'll go to Los Alamos and work with the guys down there, or maybe even go to MIT and work on the wonders they do every day. But at least then I'd still be in the same country as my family; I could jump in the car for a vacation and go visit them. Transatlantic flights from Iceland to Kansas are definitely not the cheapest.
 
And of course, there's my immediate economic situation and my fears of not being able to go anywhere in life. My family will have no money when I go to college; and while the tuition rates at WSU aren't that bad, a job or internship on the side isn't going be able to cut it. My performance as a student here and now is crucial to my future of getting scholarships, and while I doubt I'll be completely ignored, as it stands my grades simply aren't good enough to compete with the uppercrust. Perhaps I give too much credit to myself, but this honestly isn't a fault with my intelligence. My work ethic is near legendary for being terrible, and I really do not apply myself enough. It's my hope that I'll be able to do well on the ACT and be able to apply for scholarships from that, because while grades are important, it's in my experience that they pay much more attention to the ACT than your overall grades. And besides, I'm a mostly A, occasional B student, and while my father might give me the riot speech for those Bs I don't think it'll kill me.
 
So maybe my concerns about getting scholarships are unwarranted. So now we move onto what I'm going do with my life. It's always been "become an engineer, go do cool stuff." Which, really, planning much more in-depth is an exercise in futility. I've always wanted to get into some measure of politics; not the government, of course. But I've always felt it's the responsibility of every citizen to make his or her voice heard. The concept of every vote counting is a correct one, simply on the basis of crowd mentality. If a million people decide their votes don't matter... well, that's a million votes gone, isn't it?
 
And of course, there's more than just voting. There's societal reforms, there's picketing, rallies, assemblies. Making a change simply by stating your opinion is something I think not enough people do out of the logic that "I don't really matter in the grand scheme of things." But the individual does matter in the grand scheme of things, because an individual's thoughts and ideals can be more world-changing than any one groups. The idea of individual expression and the ability to speak your mind is an important one in a free society. To let it be dominated by one view point is ultimately stagnant. The ability to change people's opinions is such a crucial one, and we who live in America and indeed, the rest of the free world, often take for granted the ability to do that. And yet many of us don't choose to use this innate human right.
 
Some of us have our excuses. What will people think? What will people say? What will people do? How will I be seen in the eyes of society?
 
And I can relate to that. I live in a family who I disagree with on many accounts. My father is about as conservative as they come. I know that, at some point in the future, I will have to confront my family over my beliefs and, indeed, my own personal being. I don't look forward to that day; some parts of me just want to continue the secrecy forever. The thought of being expelled from my family is something that shakes me to the core, and for all the love I know my parents have for me, it is a literal conflict of world-views. History shows us that such things can and have torn loving families apart and caused so much suffering and pain.
 
But it is the world we live in. Secrecy and private thought changes nothing. Even as I type this I speak hypocritically, because I haven't come to that all important decision. Yet I can see that hypocrisy. The importance of an individual, standing up and telling society his or her opinions, is something that we all must be willing to do. To be cowed into fear is to have that fundamental right taken away from you by your own choice. On the grand scheme of things, one boy telling his family the truth is not relevant. But this is the grand scheme of things! There is no one boy; there is a thousand, a hundred thousand, a million boys and girls, and that changes things. A million choosing to stand up for their right to speak what they think. Saying one individual cannot change things on the larger picture is a fallacy, because it is the larger picture, composed of the billions of individual pictures. To say that you can't change something big is to ignore the fact that you are part of that something.
 
Your choices are relevant to both your world and the greater world. Because a million people, a billion people, all making their own choices, is more important than anything else. What their choices are is irrelevant; what they do is irrelevant. Be it for good or evil, at least that individual made a choice. If we choose to fight the evil, then we have chosen to fight it. If we choose to fight the good, then we have chosen to fight it. Who is right is up to personal belief; and that personal belief is more sacred than anything else.
 
I suppose, you could sum this up as the concept that saying one individual is irrelevant in the grand scheme of things is akin to saying one Representative in the House of Representatives is irrelevant. Certainly, there are 434 other representatives. What harm could one do? But if all 435 Representative decided one day, their vote didn't matter and just stared at home... well, that would be rather bad, wouldn't it? The individual effects things on an individual scale. A million individuals effect a million individual scales. A million pictures stitched together to make one big picture.
 
Well. I went from talking about my economic crisis to politics and the importance of choosing things for yourself. I suppose I'll quit while I'm ahead.
 
I thank anyone who stuck with me through this series of rambles. Likely, it is ridden with typos and I made a fool of myself somewhere in it. I tried my best to avoid any major political issues but alas, this is BZPower. I can only hope for a peaceful discussion of the importance of free will.

The blog, it liiiiiiives!
 
Ahem. So, SimCity. We finally got a major installment to the series after waiting ten years after SimCity 4. Loved SimCity 4, I need to get my disks back from my cousin sometime so I can play it again. Alas, I remember reading about SimCity in an issue of Game Informer and instantly going "well this sucks." Why? Because EA touted their always online feature. You're always online. Always. Can't play offline from my understanding, though I may be wrong. From all that I've read I've been given the impression that the game is effectively a small-scale MMO.
 
Now, don't get me wrong. MMOs are cool. But I know what EA's thinking was; it wasn't "hey, people can be social and link their cities together and it'd be so cool!" No, it was "Those darn dirty pirates can't use our game now!"
 
So why did I say it was going suck? Because of history. This is less of an MMO type implementation and more like an always-online DRM. Allow us to take a brief glance at the history of this. Ubisoft, and their numerous games that experimented with it, Assassin's Creed being infamous for its various DRMs. Blizzard with Diablo 3, who's servers were utterly crushed. They also suffered similar outages with Starcraft 2, but significantly less rage followed that due to a slightly different implementation. If one wishes to do a google search, you can find plenty larger lists of games that tried this and failed terribly. Why, EA itself is no stranger to this; it's Origin service has been known to... have issues from time to time.
 
And they still decided to do this with SimCity.
 
And guess what.
 
They're having problems.
 
Many people are having connection issues and their game experience is being basically crushed. EA assured us that they were prepared for this, just as Ubisoft and Blizzard assured us they were as well. Fool me once shame on me, fool me twice shame on you, fool me thrice and that's just being absurd. So now there's a major backlash going on and EA is trying to do damage control, attempting to take as much load off their servers as possible.
 
How many times is it going take before the gaming community wakes up and says, "gee, I've heard this before, and it ended terribly. Why should I put up with this?"
 
I understand the concerns at hand; piracy is becoming a serious problem. But always-online DRM, or always-online "features" that just happen to be mandatory, is not the solution. Fact of the matter is that any sysadmin will tell you, you can never be prepared for all stages of traffic, especially with something as big as SimCity. Hundreds of thousands of people bought it and started playing it on the opening day; that's a lot of traffic, a lot of computational power, and ultimately it crashed the unprepared servers.
 
So until the day comes that the major gaming companies can get their act together, the gaming community needs to do something about it.
 
Editors Note: Ubisoft prefers the "log in" method of DRM; not technically always online, rather, you simply log into their servers when you boot the game and then after that, your game will run splendid. Their servers still crashed.

That moment when you wake up in the morning to look outside and see your whole world covered in a few inches of snow and you say to yourself "...****, this is pretty amazing."
 
I want to go outside and do stuff but I don't want to disturb this perfect layer of snow.

Though if the hacker's social media comments are to be believed, maybe not for long.

Fingers crossed on how the next 'bout of cyber battling goes down.