If I Had One Super Power...

I have very nerdy friends (this should surprise nobody). It stands to reason, then, that some nerdy discussions are taken somewhat seriously. The usual question, the hypothetical where if somebody had one superpower, what would that power be, has made my friends face-palm. Apparently, I have this tendency to not take advantage of a situation and get the most power out of it. Actually, in a lot of cases, I know that I do this. This is entirely intentional; I'm not interested in simply having power, and a lot of the typical powers seem to have lost their flavor with me. I need something interesting, with unconventional uses and unique potential, even if I don't end up at all powerful.

Which is why I've come up with this power a while back. If I had one super power, it would be to instigate, inspire, and lead people into bollywood-style song-and-dance numbers. Of course, it doesn't need to be bollywood. It could be any song. A more famous example of this is the T-Mobile commercial that reached millions. Why this, though, when anything at all could be possible?

A few reasons come to mind. First, it's awesome. Second, I have a background being a performer, and remembering how much fun that was makes me believe the power of performance would be super fun. Third, it's one of the few powers that wouldn't obviously be a power, and in a world without them, that's a vital attribute. Fourth, it can get you out of trouble. Fifth, it's an interesting power that needs to be used creatively for its greatest effect.

So tell me, what do you think? What power would you have? Leave a comment, and if you're not registered, please sign up and tell me what you think.

In the Hot Seat

The other night I played the Game Master at game night. We played on for about 9 hours this time (one of the player's worked the night before, and was tired). We got through about 2/5 of the way to the end of the first book of six. It's been a long while since I had taken the seat as the MC, as it were. Perhaps it was too long.

The game itself went well, although a little rocky at the end, when the players had to recognize what the Non-player characters (NPCs) had thought about them. There are egos at the table, and discussion can get a little heated, even if entirely fictional. Here is something obvious: anyone who creates has a bias toward their creation, and the players have a bias toward their characters. This is entirely natural; after all, if you don't look out for it, nobody else will. At any rate, it was a little difficult for their characters to be seen as second-class by anyone, yet they were. It was rockier than any battle they got themselves through, which says something about their proficiencies. What exacerbates this situation is that there is no civilization to speak of in this adventure path, save for the very NPCs they now must deal with.

I feel as though I need to get faster on my toes regarding NPC attitudes, so I can quickly think and make the decisions that they would make. This is a core competency that would serve me well leading these guys from here on.

And now for something completely different.

I mentioned before in this blog how I'm not a big fan of the game industry attitude. There is a huge sense of entitlement and a colossal arrogance running through the minds of executives and hardcore gamers alike. So here's the general premise for the industry right now: used game sales suck, and we need to either stop it, or we need to get a cut of the deal. Yup, I'm serious.

It should not surprise you, then, to know that I agree with the counterpoint; if the games were worth keeping, they wouldn't be resold. Furthermore, trying to weasel your way into their hands for good will only make people not buy your product in the first place. People don't want to be tricked into owning a game, they want to want to own the game. Playing games with your customers will lose said customers right quick. Nobody wants to be hassled like the industry wants to hassle their customers. Games are expensive already, and making things worse by taking a cut of used sales only increases the price of used games. Threatening specialty retailers like Gamestop to go download only is not really hurting Gamestop anyway; they'll just sell the prepaid online cards instead of your games, take up less shelf space, and get the same profit margin they had before. On top of that, you're losing sales from people who want a physical media copy of your game. There's no winning against what the people demand from your business, just ask the RIAA how they did when they went against what the people wanted. The music industry was dragged kicking and screaming into digital distribution, because that's what people decided that they want for their music.

If the people decide that your brand of gaming is worthless, you must accept that.

Keep Up That Clicking

I don't play too many games on my PC. What I mean to say is, I don't play too many PC games. The occasional game here and there will get my attention, but otherwise, I stay to my consoles. But lately, the old PC has been getting more than its usual share of attention when it comes to the games. Not for new games, mind you, as who has the patience for that anymore (warning: language for the link). No, I'm referring to games I already have, but forgot to get the most enjoyment out of them the first time.

Games like Diablo 2 and Guild Wars. Now, these games weren't made by the same company, but a lot of the same people ended up on both of these projects (after a massive exodus from Blizzard, but before the latest exodus when they were bought by Activision). Now, I've played these games a lot already, but it seems as though I just hadn't had enough of them, because I'm back, clicking away at odd shocks of free time. You know, like this blog.

Either way, the people who made these games know something of how to keep someone playing, because there are plenty of people online playing these games. It is really easy to get a team of four together in either of these games, for example. I even have a couple of coworkers who play some of the time, too. And before you ask, yes, there are nerdy cashiers aside from me. In fact, out of the 4 male cashiers on grave shift, only 1 of them doesn't have a nerdy tattoo. Also, before you ask, yes, we are greatly outnumbered by the women in the department. All I have to say about that is, hey, at least I'm not the one male beverage server in the whole casino.

Anyway, in celebration of the increase in mouse-clicks, here are some clickables.

Whalias

Tim Curry in The Worst Witch

Penny Arcade

Metroid Metal

Automatic Mario World Madness

Jon Lajoie on Youtube

Enjoy!

Face Deep into the Palm

Everyone has the same bad joke for people who are working. This, of course, depends on the job someone is doing, but it seems most people have the same awkward sense of humor for strangers. Sometimes, however, one person will go the extra mile.

I was making change for this lady that started off with the usual dialogue:

"How would you like your $90?"

"Hundreds... hehe."

*Dead silent glare*

"I'd like fives."

The "Hundreds" reply is everyone's bad joke for cashiers. When you're the pizza guy, it's, "Over here, buddy." Ugh, I may not know who I deliver to, but I know where they are, and that's not where you're standing, ass.

Anyway, I give her the money (in fives, of course), and then she says something I swear I thought was a joke at first.

"That counting was really good. You should get a job that works with a lot of money."

What could I do; I cringed.

"Noone's ever said that to you?!"

"Nope."

"Huh."

See, that could have been taken as an insult to the job, but that's not how she meant it. It couldn't have been, after all, what job could she be referring to? Some work days I handle more than a million dollars, as in the bills go through my hands. No, that wasn't it at all.

Face-palm.

Big Red One

Link here.

I can't say that I've experienced the Xbox360 Red Ring of Death (ever notice how Microsoft's showstopping errors have the words "of death" in them), although as mused in the article, I probably don't play it enough to cause the error anyway.

Anyway, 54% is far beyond acceptable for a rate of failure. School children would get and F for failure, so what sort of standard should we hold for a corporation full of adults working as a team?

Also, I figured Sony's rate of failure would have been lower than 10% after their experience with the PS2's high rate of failure as well. I did expect Nintendo to be close to that coveted Sigma 6, as ever since NES model 2, they've had around that rate. After all, my Virtual Boy still works, and only a few hundred thousand of those were sold in America.

Work Rant Time

Some silly and petty items came from the work this week. First up, the ticket software was updated for the whole casino. So while that was going on, no tickets were redeemable for 10 hours. Not that fun, as I wasn't sure if any of the 300+ tickets I took on Monday were any good. It would have been bad news for me to hear that a ticket I took was a duplicate from a machine error and now I owed the casino 250 bucks.

Second, the credit card system was also updated the night after. Trouble is, this also went down, but we had no warning that is would be down when it was. I was actually in the middle of a cash advance transaction and it never printed before we lost connection to the server. Okay, don't panic, we have a backup server for these things. And, as it turned out, that was down, too. So, I had to tell this lady that not only can we not get her money, we don't know if she was charged for it or not. She had to wait for more than 30 minutes to get her cash. She went on about how unbelievable this place is, what kind of service is this, and I don't exactly blame her. So, when it came up, everything seemed okay. But when I closed...

Well, she was charged twice. We had to file an exception, with a memo, with the company the ATMs and cage retrieval systems belong to so that extra charge can be removed. What made that paperwork especially long, however, is the additional effect the server connection loss had on the checks: duplicate numbers. On four of my checks, and who knows how many others for other cashiers, there were different checks with identical numbers. That's just great. In the meantime I hope we don't get an angry customer blaming us for her high credit card bill.

Lastly, as in last night, I dealt with the particularly bossy bosses. My cage supervisor was the same one I never get along with. She lectures everyone regarding how exactly to do their job, because it's the rules (it's not the rules, just her rules). In one night, she told me what kind of paper to print my reports on (legal), and why (to see numbers that are incomplete anyway), where exactly to place my chips in my own bank (my bank is temporary), and why (for people that aren't at work right now), that I need paperwork for every in-cage transaction (even if all I'm doing is handing out a verified strap of 1s for a 100 dollar bill), and why (if someone's not balancing, someone is liable), and that I need my cage tracker program up before I open my window (when I actually don't), and why (when the reason makes no sense, and also is not in any guideline at all).

The other boss that was a prickly one was the vault supervisor. She decided to do every vault transaction by herself, leaving the vault clerks to add up some money and twiddle their thumbs, at the same time making everyone who needs something of a transaction decades behind schedule. My relief was the new guy (who she had a field day with), he ended up miscalculating one of his totals, and needed to start from scratch after 30 minutes of waiting at the vault for money. This made the bank-in for the day shift late, which made my closing time late, as I was the only window open in the main cage.

When I finally closed, I called the vault and asked which window to send my transactions (new procedure, made necessary by poorly designed software). After getting everything ready, I head to the vault and wait my turn. And wait my turn. Mind you, this is getting pretty early in the morning, so I'm sleepy and just leaning on my cart. I have 2 transactions, and I gotta wait for them. After another 30 minutes, it turns out my second transaction needed to be sent to a different window. So, I get back in the program, clear out the second transaction, post it again under a new window (VERY poorly designed program), get back to the vault, collect my money, sign bunches of papers (seeing as now they come in bunches), and get ready to go home. I'm thinking all this time that she simply couldn't tell me beforehand to send it to a different window, when she had all the information she needed to tell me.

But seriously, that new program must be first-year-student-of-software-design quality. It makes more machine logic sense than person logic sense, which means it's a pain in the ass to use. It doesn't matter if I get (which, eh, I do), everyone needs to get it, and not everyone is computer savvy. But it's more than just understanding it, as it is required to fill the needs of everyone who uses it. I'd say it's pretty bare bones in that respect. Out of all the ones to get, my bosses opted for the cheapest. Not a bad idea in most cases, but when it comes to computer programs, and indeed computer hardware, often times, what you pay for is what you get.

No Respect At All

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/pre-owned-sales-have-no-benefit-to-publishers-livingstone

At first glance, this might seem a reasonable argument. But then, after taking it in I realize: he already got his money for the game once. If that customer didn't keep the game, that is not the customer's fault. He decided that he was done with it, and wouldn't ever like to play it again. Do you ever hear of furniture people going around yard sales and demanding a piece of the pie? Of course not, that would be silly. In a normal world, it is greedy and disrespectful. So why is this guy reasonable?

Unfortunately, he is not alone in this sentiment. I've seen numerous quotes much like this from many big 3rd party publishing companies.

I'd put in more, but that'd just be a rant, and I need to get to work.

Symbolism

I can't call myself religious, yet a quality that religions of all kinds exhibit I find myself drawn to. The symbols and what they represent are fascinating to me. Almost like learning a language, interpreting these symbols are an interest of mine.

I have 2 tattoos. Both are symbolic. In fact, both have modified religious symbols in them. Just a glance at them is usually not enough. To even begin to know their meaning, most people need to ask for help. I use symbols from things that I know, and form them into a combination that's relevant to me. This has been my process for both, and I'm drafting a third. Anyway, this is not the main point.

There are many sources for symbols, for their purpose and origin, most of which are old. These sources shed light on older values from previous cultures; this enthralls me as well. One of my favorite books in junior high was beowulf, mostly because it taught me what some of the values they held for men during that time were.

In summary, I would have to say, that aside from games and entertainment as a passionate study, another, perhaps equally passionate study of mine, is historic culture and language.

PS3 slims up

Sony, in an effort to keep their Playstation business alive and momentum and interest in their products, has cut the price and announced a slim version of the PS3. Not a moment too soon, either, as Sony being in dead last has hurt their profitability quite a bit. Now, 23 million units worldwide in 3 years is by no means bad, just not what Sony is used to, and because of that assumption of domination, their money is all screwy. By comparison, the XBOX 360 is at 31 million in 4 years, and the Wii is at 52 million in 3 years. What happened during this time? Lots.

I'm not really sure where to begin when it comes to a game industry discussion, but one way to start is with a few facts. First, the PS3 price has been reduced several times since its introduction, to half its original price as of next month. Second, several models have been discontinued in favor of newer models already, the slim version being the most drastic aesthetically, each one compromising the original design and taking a feature or two off to save money. Third, even the ambitious launch PS3 didn't have all the features and hardware that the original design had, so a change in direction had to have been clear late in development, if, certainly, not now. Finally, the Playstation division of Sony has eaten all of its profits from the first two Playstations, which were very successful machines, and then some more on top of that because of all the funny business that is the PS3.

The slim PS3 is more for Sony than it is for consumers. It cuts costs for them in terms of manufacturing and shipping and whatnot. Smaller die chips, cooler machine, smaller case, quieter fans, all sorts of stacking benefits like that. Don't get me wrong, ordinary people can benefit, too (says the guy who doesn't keep his 360 in his room because it's too loud), but largely, it's a positive cost-cutting measure for Sony.

The price cut will drive growth in the short term, catching all those people who were holding out on a price cut, or simply didn't believe the PS3 was worth 400 bucks, but afterwards, momentum will slow down again as far as I see. The reason #1 I believe this is the games. Not exactly the games themselves, more like the overall selection of games. The appeal is not quite there outside of the core audience. Look at the upcoming titles, and you might see what I mean.

I don't mean to be sour, here to bash on Sony when they're down. I'd rather see the company succeed, but the current plan and strategy doesn't seem to fit what interactive entertainment needs right now. The values they carry are the same ones from back then, what, 15 years ago. The game has changed since then, and they need to adapt with the times. From someone who loves games, I can't wait 'till the future Sony arrives.

Anime

I watch all kinds of anime. There's the stuff that's new, and has a new episode each week, and there's also the stuff I missed the first time and watch what feels like in bulk. Marathons of giant weaponry, spiky hair, slapstick sugar-rush comedy, way too many characters with foreign names, voice actors screaming into their mics, its a wonder how anyone keeps this stuff straight. In fact, often times my roommate will pause the anime and turn to me with a question. Frequently, this question is, "Who's that again?"

Currently, the shows I watch most are One Piece, Bleach, and Katekyo Hitman REBORN. I just finished Sumomomo Momomo and Golden Boy. I'd have to say, though, that my favorites that I can go back to and watch over and over are Trigun, Cowboy Bebop, and Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann. They're each about 26 episodes, so they don't overstay their welcome, and keep things moving and entertaining the whole way through. The US might consider these shows miniseries in a way, because taking away credits and recaps, they're all around 10 hours apiece. One Piece, however, I've seen from the beginning, and now that show is on episode 413 this week.

With all this exposure to the japanese language, any would figure that I might learn a few things. Well, sadly, I haven't learned much in the way of language, but culture has been easier to pick up. How to address someone, for example. The blessing before the meal, where your shoes go when you enter a house, where to sit in a room or train, how to excuse yourself, are all examples of things cartoons can teach you.

It's sleepy time now.

Money Stress

Probably the biggest source of stress for my daily life stems from worries about money. I get by with the money that I make, but I'm not sure how. Mathematically, it doesn't work. My bills are just too much, yet I've paid them up to now.

Not helping matters at all, I have a roommate who can afford to pay more for whatever. This month we have a 300 dollar electric bill. I went crazy when I first saw that, but it barely fazed him. When we first moved in, he needed the silver package cable TV, when I didn't need that at all, just internet. When I can watch all of any shows I want to watch using only internet, TV is just added cost for me. When I don't need the air conditioner on at 3am, it's added cost for me when it is. I take several cost-saving measures for myself, only to look cheap in front of him. It's a simple cost for me there, though; no decision to make, as I simply don't have the money.

You'd figure maybe minimum wage would be about the level where you had to live a low-class life, for American standards. If I still made minimum wage, I wouldn't be living here, rather, I'd still be living with my mom. Looking back further, before I was born, there were families where one guy could provide for his whole family with a regular job. Now, you won't see that unless that guy is fairly well-off.

I can see how most anybody can be caught off-guard by high rate credit cards and hidden costs and medical bills and all these things. I've lived those experiences myself, and I'm usually careful about how my money is spent. Now especially, I have to be disciplined to make ends meet. One care-free weekend takes a lot of care to establish. No wonder I stress so much.

RP Today

One of my hobbies is role-playing. We get they guys together once or twice a week and play our turn-based team strategy social game for hours on end. Every once in a while, we get long sessions. Tonight will be one of those sessions. We will be sitting at the table for 12+ hours slaying demons, negotiating our way into a masked ballroom party, and losing our way in a towering megalopolis among the many other situations we find ourselves in. Yeah, we're pretty into it.

To help illustrate the material we work with for these games let me give a number: 300. This is about the number of sourcebooks we use for our games. Not all at once, mind you, we have our limits (in this case, the brain).

Our game of choice is actually a hybrid. We play Dungeons & Dragons 3.5/Pathfinder with house rules. How do you play more than one game? These two are not identical after all. That's because what they are is close enough for conversion on the fly. To be up to speed on everything is also a team effort, however.

Thinking about it, learning rules for a new tabletop RPG after you've already learned one becomes fairly easy. I've learned more than a few systems, and I have one of my own. People tell me that's how programming languages are, and I can only hope they're right.

Comcast sucks

Today is a common day. Today is a day with a few intermittent issues keeping an internet connection. As I write this post, the connection is down. I get to post as soon as I get back online. But this struggle is as sure and common as death, taxes, and piracy.

I can't place the blame entirely on Comcast, though they've not been much help. When the guy came over to replace the modem, everything was better than ever, at speeds I would gladly pay the Comcast Premium® for. As soon as he left, it was back to normal let's-torture-Brian-because-it's-funny-and-everyone-else-is-doing-it speeds. ¿Que paso? Where did all those bits go? Why is it that when I do get a connection, it's DSL speed, and sometimes, I get nothing?

Well, finally I'm getting a good picture of why this situation is as it is. Some of the time, the DNS is down somehow. Other times, well, I just don't know for sure. I know the wiring in the apartment is shoddy and cheap; that could be significant. Fact is, that in the time I typed this out, my connection has been up and down twice.

Smells Like Cinammon Crotch In Here

If you're like me and you have a sensitive sense of smell, you probably wouldn't like my job. It so happens that at a casino, nearly nobody makes the time to bathe. B.O. is rampant, plus there are a special few with, well, unique aromas. Powerful odors emanate from most customers be it body odor, cologne covering up body odor, and roulette. Oh, let's not forget about the smoke.

The only establishments in the state that allow smoking indoors nowadays has to be casinos, and these customers take advantage of this fact I just made up by smoking vigorously.

There's no consideration for anyone's health here, smoking or not. Blown smoke through the windows, coughing, spitting, pulling money out from inside a bra, finding money covered in fluids/blood/toilet water, I've seen all of this happen to me. And, they have the cajones to smell awful, too? Ugh, bad day at work I guess.

I Can't Call Myself a Gamer

There, I said it. I just can't do it, after all that's happened in the past few years. Before, calling yourself a gamer carried a stigma I was okay with, even if it was untrue. You know, the nerdy, lack-of-social-skills kid with Power Ranger underwear. Now, whew, now is much worse, if you pay any kind of attention to what these guys are saying. These self-important, bull-headed, argumentative, testosterone-driven assholes are nothing like me (thankfully). I will call these guys hardcore. Okay, there are plenty of good ones, but they're not nearly as loud as the ones demanding attention and respect for the biggest entertainment industry in the world. There is plenty more to this, though.

The only reason that video games are any bigger than movies or music is revenue. There's simply more money flowing through the industry. This is not because of the number of people who play video games compares at all to even people who read books. About 40% of US households even own a console, while anyone can tell you that nearly everyone, if not everyone, has a DVD player. Despite this, hardcore demand recognition as a mainstream media, to have truly arrived, when, despite recent efforts of Nintendo and other companies, it just hasn't happened yet. Making things worse is the usual reaction to things that sell well that hardcore don't like. It will be something along the lines of the game is too casual, a fad, simple, or the worst offense, not a game. Why would anyone celebrate the mainstream, diverse media industry in one breath while hate anything not directly aimed at pleasing them in another?

I don't demand any respect for games, or the games industry; I would much rather let games stand on their own merits. After all, there is plenty to like about games, as long as you use them to enjoy yourself.

Prototyping

I've done lots of prototyping for a classic pen and paper role-playing game for years now. Lots of ideas were tried, some very radical, but now I feel I have a good sense of where this game can go. Looking at the shelves of hobby shops, studying the games already there and on their way, I've done lots of research. It's about time to start getting the content together.

I suppose one way to get things moving is to get more in on the project. There aren't too many people I know that are interested in design, though. Most of my friends that are interested in what I do are more suited for development than ground-level design. Perhaps I simply need to crack down and write it all out myself; not out of the question, I got this far on my own, but I see myself making my goals more years from now with this method. So far what I've done is take something that's bugging me, and fix it in a week. Baby steps.

Compounding this is what little free time I have I need for my many interests, hobbies, and chores. It's much easier to take out the trash and talk to friends than write out power balancing formulas and conditional modifiers. I have a friend who's really worried about my happiness, so much so that every time I see her she asks me if I have a girlfriend, and if not, what I'm doing about it. That subject is for a whole new post.

Overall, I'm happy with what I have done, but realize that what's there is only the skeleton. Satoru Iwata once said at a game developer's conference, "...making things easier for players, makes things harder for developers." Since doing this self-education on game design, I couldn't agree more.

Lack of Energy

It seems to me a rare occurrence to have an average level of vitality. Sure, sometimes I have plenty, like at a concert, but largely, my days seem to drag on with needing to catch my breath after a brisk walk upstairs. It's certainly not age, as I'm not close to old enough, plus even younger days were similarly, yet less so, effected. I'm heavier than I was a few years ago, maybe a bit overweight, but certainly not fat. So far, it's been a mystery as to any cause.

My roommate and close friends recommend I see a doctor. I believe this is a good idea, though with my recent experience, I wonder about the efficacy of this move. Aside from the dentist, every doctor visit this year and last was wasted money. Clearly I need a new doctor. Along with that, a physical, the works, as I haven't had anything of the sort in at least seven years.

Looking online has brought on some funny remarks with serious undertones. I didn't do this myself, rather my roommate has. He had said many things before, but most recently, he told me it was Ondine's Curse. Nevermind the rarity of such a disease, in all likelihood, I'd already be dead. Plus, it's almost always genetic. There's noone who's ever mentioned any hereditary disease like this one. I give him credit, though, as he's lived with me for nearly three years; and if anyone is aware of any conditions I might have, he's it. So I take his underlying message with me, and get ready to see a new doctor very soon.

Here I Am

Considering that I have a massive dislike of social networking apps, it's a wonder what it is I am doing writing this. Well, to be honest, I want to keep up with my close family and friends. My cavaets with MySpace and Facebook and their ilk come from the extended social circle I really don't care for. I send text messages, but even that can only go so far with what I want to communicate. So, here I am, in case anyone wants to see me. I'll just be mumbling to myself in the meantime.

To help find a place for thoughts before they leave me, that sounds about right.