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I Love Comments

Over at my book blog, I received the following pair of comments last night. I am reprinting them in their entirety because I love that the internet lets adolescent girls express themselves fully when someone gives their favorite book an insufficiently positive “read it” recommendation. Arguments are soldiers, so there is no daylight between “agrees with me unconditionally” and “villain who must be silenced permanently.”

Anonymous said…
OK, I’ll tell you this right now..reading this ‘spoiling’ reveiw was a waste of time I’ve read this book and it is amazing the reason it is so long is amazingly obvious, the author has drawn out the book so everyone no matter how large or small the attention span can read and understand her yearning and longing, Stephenie Meyer is an amazing author and I deeply look forward to reading another book by her i have read all of them Twilight, New Moon, and the amazing as usual Eclipse to follow, I can’t really believe that the writer of this review can say such a thing it is utterly ridiculous and i pitty anyone who agrees with or for that matter reads this putrid discription of New Moon….I hope you fully understand my hatred for you and your obviously slow mind….you shouldn’t be aloud to voice your opinion online, in the world or ever honestly.

Anonymous said…
never ever say anything outloud, ever again you don’t deserve to be able to talk.period.end of story.i personally dont care if you dont like this book i just cant believe that you would say such a think…i pitty you and i hope you understand that i fully and utterly hate not you but your horrid outlook on this completly wonderful book…

I have honestly never been prouder of any feedback I have received. I wonder how she would feel if she knew I have an advance copy of Stephenie Meyer’s next book.

: Zubon

Loving Lady Grey

Last month’s searches included someone looking for Lady Grey porn. This struck me as odd. I have never had fantasies about the head of CoX’s Vanguard. Maybe folks are going for the schoolmarm/librarian, “take your hair out of that bun and let loose” thing, or maybe it is because she can summon tentacles.

I developed a different sort of fondness for her running her task force recently. I decided that I sold it short in my previous discussion of Issue 10, so I want to discuss the awesome fun. The task force uses interesting new concepts to make otherwise standard content interesting and rewarding. Spoilers abound below the fold.

Continue reading Loving Lady Grey

New Computer Bleg

I would like a new gaming rig, and it will be new because my current motherboard is not going to let me upgrade usefully. I have not looked at specs at all in the past two or three years, so I have no idea what I should be getting, what is a good deal, etc. I would like a system that will run most current games at high graphics settings (say City of Heroes/Villains, the Orange Box, maybe The Lord of the Rings Onlineâ„¢: Shadows of Angmarâ„¢ or something similar) and could be expected to run the next generation at medium settings. I don’t think I have anything resource-intensive except for games, and I don’t need to be at the bleeding edge there.

Any recommendations? I would prefer to stick with Windows XP (no install CDs from last purchase, grumble) and not need to put it all together myself. Dual monitors could be neat. Pricing a Dell XPS put me around $1500, which is not an unreasonable amount for me, but I don’t know enough to know where to look for better these days. Systems, specs, sites, deals, friend-of-a-friend who can hook me up, whatever: I welcome your input.

: Zubon

Character Contemplations 6: Furious Badger (Katana/Super Reflexes Scrapper)

She fights for ponies This Scrapper is loosely modeled on my wife. My wife can be a very angry badger. Furious Badger was the name I picked for my first beta character, and she was intended to be something simple and safe my wife could play. My main priorities there were passive powers (fewer buttons to worry about) and high survivability. I went with an Invulnerability/War Mace Tanker. That character, particularly solo, was very weak. I became very tired of six-shotting white minions, so switched to a Scrapper for live.

I do not think that I picked Katana to mirror my wife’s Scrapper, PrettyPonyLady. She went with Invulnerability, and I took Super Reflexes. Both sets have four passive powers; combine that with Fitness and an auto-power, and you need not think about one-third of your powers. Convenient, that.

Continue reading Character Contemplations 6: Furious Badger (Katana/Super Reflexes Scrapper)

Legislative Feature Creep

Touching one last moment on the Roberts-Castronova podcast, in this election year I like the comparison between feature creep and the political need to “do something.” Games that try to do everything usually do most things poorly. The candidates will promise to solve every problem under the sun, including contradictory “problems,” and they are not even using a test server to check for unintended consequences.

A call for limited government is a desire to end feature creep in the legislature. Federalism is beta-testing before trying to upload new things to the central server.

: Zubon

Reflecting Worlds

Returning to yesterday’s discussion of the Roberts-Castronova podcast, they also discuss how virtual worlds reflect on our non-fun-based economy and jobs.

First, they note that few people have problems with different outcomes given equality of opportunity. This is mostly true: we think of our games as a meritocracy, where skill and/or time invested will yield results. The equality is not perfect, and we hear more from the dissatisfied. “I play rock. Nerf paper. Scissors is fine.” We prefer that games favor the exact balance of skill and time that we bring to the table, and it is always easy to think that The Other is being favored unfairly. Many people question whether opportunities can ever be equal when lawyers play alongside college students: different people start the game with differing amounts of time and money.

I like the discussion of the artisan economy. In real life, specialization and division of labor are the drivers of productivity and prosperity. That is book one, chapter one, sentence one of Adam Smith. Our in-game worlds are often structured such that an individual can do everything, and the transaction costs of trade are greater than the benefits of specialization. We like being able to do everything ourselves, and we are not alienated from our labor when we can start with ore and end with a sword. Or when we start with a sword and end with a shinier loot sword.

Linking the two, we work as we wish and yield gains accordingly. Farm for gold when you need it, use the auction house as you will, play an alt today and raid tomorrow: the system is designed to let you exercise your options, rather than constraining you to a single path. That could cause interesting effects on jobs and careers if new workers expect that flexibility. We already have a younger generation that more quickly changes jobs and expects rewards and fulfillment.

Finally, we want to earn things. We get no satisfaction from having something given to us, and we would quickly get bored with a “game” of picking up gold pieces off the ground.

: Zubon

Merging Worlds

One of ours talks to one of … a different group with which I associate myself. Edward Castronova of Terra Nova fame spends 72 minutes with Russ Roberts on the economics and sociology of online worlds. I think the early parts make an appropriate sacrifice of specificity for clarity (for a lay audience). I was surprised to hear that Prof. Castronova has never used the Linden Exchange.

An early topic is whether and why people are moving to Permutation City. Online worlds are designed for human happiness, community, and a large degree of meritocracy and equality of opportunity. Why wouldn’t you want to spend time in a world designed for your happiness, surrounded by like-minded people? Permanent flow.

I do not know that I support the view of virtual reality as a “fantasy world,” as opposed to a new world of our creation. I interact with people around the world through the internet, often with more meaning than the social pulp I have in meatspace. If we can create artificial intelligences, the majority of conscious minds in existence may not have carbon-based bodies. Will the children of our minds pity the children of our genes, bound to mortality? We may yet shed these fleshy fetters and join all our children at Omega Point.

: Zubon

Russ Roberts uses the phrase “going to the next level.” I choose to interpret that as “leveling up” rather than liquid evil.