Back in Vegas

Nothing really to post at the moment, but I am back home in Las Vegas and I thought I should at least say as much.

I did want to mention that Business Class is definitely the way to go for 18 hour flights. I finally cashed in some of those Qantas frequent flier miles. It's not like I haven't flown First or Business Class before, but 18 hour flights are where the value starts to outweigh the cost. I also paid a little more for a flight with less dead time between flights, Perth to Sydney to L.A. to Las Vegas, but there was a 4 hour unscheduled delay in Sydney which, even though they tried to make up time, caused me to miss my connecting flight out of L.A. The next flight out wasn't until a few hours after I got in and it was also delayed a bit. All in all I wound up in Vegas at about 6 hours after I was supposed to.

I also once again missed the last 10 minutes of a movie I was watching. This one was City of Ember. Last time it was Deception. Both times I would have been able to finish the movie if the Captain would have shut up when he ran out of things to say over the PA.

"Well folks we ahhhh should be ahhhhhhh landing here pretty soon and ahhhhhhh..."

Seriously, try writing out what you are going to say before picking up the mic and learn to stfu when you run out of things to say. It's very obvious that public speaking is very new and exciting for these pilots.

Who Watches the Nachos?

Look what Tim drew for me!

The story behind the nachos is that when Tim was first switching over to being a Content Designer, Ellen had asked if he should be invited to the design meeting.

I said, "Sure, but he has to bring the nachos."

Tim failed to bring any nachos.

The next design meeting, I had this sambrao that I bought for one of Interzone's theme days, this one being "Mexican day" which may have also been Cinco de Mayo but probably not. I filled the rim of the hat with corn chips and brought along some salsa to show Tim that a proper design meeting has to nachos.

Synthtube and the Tech Vixen

I’m putting up two new sidebar links. Celebrate as much as you deem appropriate and can handle under such conditions.

First for Alex Ringis, the sound designer at Interzone, we have SynthTube.

"SynthTube is a site that collates and reviews the best Synthesizer-related videos from YouTube and around the web, and reviews them, with a specific focus on highlighting the gear and performers involved in their creation"

Alex was recently BoingBoinged for his video of the naked baby playing a synthesizer. You can relax while watching it, at no time does the baby pee on the keyboard. I was so tense the whole way through, because I was just waiting for the little tike to let go.

Second up, we Liza of the many blogs/projects/hobbies, who may have something this time if she sticks with it (poke poke). As you may know from comments on other recent blog posts here, Tech Vixen just went up this weekend

Tech Vixen is a network of blogs all about technology, written from a woman's perspective. We are currently running four blogs in total - the main blog with news and links to the sub-blogs as well as "Gaming Vixen", "Comp Vixen", and "Gadget Vixen".

As we are just starting out, we are on the lookout for interested women (17 years or older) who are interested in running one of our sub-blogs (the gaming slot is already filled, but "Gadget Vixen" and "Comp Vixen" are still open). We are also looking to start new blogs regarding web development/blogging and other techy topics. Bloggers are able to monetize their sites by including ads in the content of their posts on the sub-blogs.

Head on over to the site for more information.

Liza also just put up a post about me leaving on her site. Now I'm all sad and mopey.

Goodbye Interzone

I just got back from my Interzone going away dinner. I was bit overwhelmed by it all and I had this lump in my throat the whole time. I think I was hit more by this than when Westwood closed which is saying quite a lot.

It was great to see everybody. I think the attendance was more a credit to the good Italian food rather than my presence. Not that they served cannoli though, what was up with that? How can you call yourself a real Italian restaurant without good cannoli?

The crew at Interzone are amazing, so many people so bought in on the project. There was some very nice things said about me and what I've done, but to be completely honest, I was standing on the shoulders of some really talented people. I also have to thank everybody for having faith in me and giving me the opportunity. Thanks again.

I do feel like I have let everybody down by leaving. I really didn't want to go. I really wanted to see this out. But too many thing have piled up and I have to take care of things with family back in the U.S.

I do want to express my anger at Liza and Jeremy though. The picture on that card will haunt me forever! You have not heard the last of me! Vengeance shall be mine!

The Last Gilmore Girls Post

Wow, season 7 of Gilmore Girls was completely off the mark. It was like all the characters were replaced by pod people who thought they were the real people, but if you looked real close you could see they were different. The plots and storylines were okay, but the execution wasn’t tuned. What was an entertaining show filled with interesting and eccentric characters became an annoying melodramatic parody of itself.

I just did some Googling of the show and found out that Amy and Daniel could not come to an agreement with the network and they left the show at the end of the sixth season. I’m not saying she was some creative genius, or that there is anything wrong with Dave the new guy in charge, but the change was noticeable and bad for the show. From the ratings of that last season it looks like I wasn’t the only one who noticed the problems.

Thank for nothing Bendis! Though, I did finally finish Secret Invasion so I can finally catch up on the Bendis Tapes at Word Balloon. Hmm, maybe I'll save them for the airplane trip. I also tried to register at Bendis' web site, Jinx World,so I could post on his forum, but they won't accept non-free email addresses such as yahoo.com and I don't want to use the hewitt.org address anymore.

Monkey Buisness

A cartoon in the New York Post criticizing the stimulus bill recently passed by President Obama is being called racist. The cartoon is referencing the shooting of a pet chimpanzee last week, pictures police officers shooting a chimp and saying, "They'll have to find someone else to write the next stimulus bill."

This is what I was dreading with our new president. I was tired of the whole "black" President stuff before the election was over and I've been dreading the whole racism retort used to blast any type of criticism of his policy after he was elected. Don't get me wrong, due to our country's unfortunate history, finally breaking the "old white men" trend is great and all. But, I certainly hope people voted based on the candidates and their ideas and not their skin color.

Barack Obama is THE President of the United States of America, not the "black" President. Any attack on him or his policies should be devoid of reference to the melamine content of his skin and any defense used against those attacks should be build on more solid of a foundation than a house of racism cards.

If some narrow-minded pin-head gets one arm free from his spiffy white jacket that ties in the back long enough to grab a crayon and draw a quick portrait of THE President in black face, clan robes and dancing a barefoot jig with fried chicken in one hand and watermelon in the other; I don't need somebody to point out that it's racist. I can make that mental leap myself, thanks.

Being politically conservative, I am anticipating railing against some future policy decisions of this administration. I just want to warn everybody now, anybody planning on calling me a racist should fill out the aggravated assault paperwork now. It will save the police time later.

I'll also come clean and say I didn't vote in the last election. I waited too long to update my absentee overseas ballot stuff after moving to Perth. Do you know who I would have voted for? I don't. I was never a big McCain fan, but I also don't know if I would have crossed the isle and voted for President Obama. I think the whole reason I hadn't made up my mind about either candidate is that I am weary of anybody who the media is excited about during the election. Remember McCain was the media darling in the 2000 Republican primaries.

P.S. There are still way more cartoon chimps lampooning President Bush, and I'm pretty sure they aren't racist either.

P.P.S. Personally, I am for the Jon Stewart economic plan: (watch the video)

1. Create a stimulus package that will bail the working class out of debt.

2. The money will go to the financial industry via workers paying off their debt.

3. This will increase the liquidity of the banks.

4. People, free from their debt, will have more money to invest in the economy.

Leaving on a Jet Plane

I’m pretty much packed. I’m just waiting on the moving estimates now to see how much more I am going into debt without a job. I bought the tickets already. I fly out next Wednesday morning and land in Vegas 10 minutes before I take off.

They rejected Jeremy’s application to take over the lease on the house here. There would have been no break in rent, no need for showings, no prepping the house, transfer of the bond over, etc. Now I have a week to figure out what to do with the stuff I can’t take. Jeremy now has to figure out where he is going to live.

All this and the final season of “Gilmore Girls” is really bumming me out. If popular entertainment has taught me anything though, I am pretty sure it’s all going to end on a big, happy, finding 3 packs of Smarties* in your overcoat from the previous winter, moment. Granted, that will probably be depressing too but I can handle that. The last few women I have gone out with are still fresh enough in my mind to keep me grounded on the whole romantic front. That and the theme music to the show really gets on my nerves, it’s like a nice cold slap across the face which keeps things in perspective.

I got one more disappoint lining up. I could avoid it if I speak up, but I’m hesitant because I kinda have a morbid fascination to see if doesn’t happen.

Oh and no pity party by the way. I’m big on the whole karma thing. The more things suck the bigger payoff I expect later. Unless I’m paying off all the crap I’ve done in the past… hmm better to stay positive. Though, if I’m expecting a payoff does that go against the karmic philosophy? I haven’t really read up on the subject, I’m more flying by the seat of my pants kind of guy. One more thing, can you tell me if this thing on my back looks more like a parachute or a knapsack?

On the good news front, I think I’ve dropped enough hints to the parents that for a belated birthday present I wanted a repeat of the Mother’s sauce and Dad’s assembly and cooking of the Fratillies.

Fratillies (probably spelled wrong) is an amazing Italian thing, like pizza taken to the next level. We discovered them when my dad was stationed at San Vito Air-Force base when I was a kid. So you know a panzerati (probably also spelled wrong) is right? If not it’s like a pizza, folded in half, and baked. Fratillie is the same thing only umm broiled? Deep fried? Umm cooked in a vat of oil, which ever that is.

* I did actually find 3 packs of Smarties in my giant leather overcoat (and my watchmen button, woot!) Actually it was 3 packs of Fizzers, which is what they call Smarties here. Smarties in Australia are more like M&Ms. To totally blow the lid off the cover-up, M&Ms are a total rip off of Nestlé Smarties. I lost that bet last year, though I just found out that American Smarties were called Smarties before Nestlé Smarties which were originally called Chocolate Beans. Here are some relevant selected sections from the various Wikipedia entries. Knowledge is power.

Nestlé Smarties are a colourful sugar-coated chocolate confectionery popular in Europe and the Commonwealth of Nations. They have been manufactured since at least 1882, originally by H.I. Rowntree & Co..

Rowntree's of York, England have been making "Chocolate Beans" since at least 1882. The product was renamed "Smarties Chocolate Beans" in 1937. Rowntree's were forced to drop the words "chocolate beans" in 1977 due to trading standards requirements (the use of the word "beans" was felt to be misleading) and so adopted the tagline "Milk Chocolate in a Crisp Sugar Shell".

The brand became known as "Nestlé Smarties" in 1993, five years after Rowntree's was acquired by Nestlé. Smarties are no longer manufactured in York; production has now moved to Germany, where a third of them were already made. Outside Europe, Nestlé's largest production facility for Smarties is in Canada, where Nestle has been manufacturing products since 1918.
In the United States, Smarties are a type of artificially fruit-flavored candy produced by Ce De Candy, Inc., from 1949 through the present. They are marketed in Canada under the brand name Rockets, to avoid confusion with Nestlé Smarties. The original product is the English Fizzers from Swizzels Matlow. In 1949, the brother of the chairman of Swizzels Matlow traveled to the US and established Ce De Candy.

M&M's Chocolate Candies are candy-coated pieces of milk chocolate with the letter "m" printed on them, produced by Mars, Incorporated. Popular in the United States, several variations of the candies exist, including plain milk chocolate, peanut, peanut butter, dark chocolate (with and without peanuts), and almond. First produced in 1941.

Forrest Mars, Sr., founder of the Mars Company, got the idea for the confection in the 1930s during the Spanish Civil War when he saw soldiers eating Smarties, a chocolate morsel covered with a hard sugar shell so that the chocolate would not melt.

Friday the 13th

I went by work today and Brad pounced on me as soon as I was in the door and drug me in front of the students he is teaching at TAFT. He was giving them a tour of the office and a sneak peak at Interzone Futebol.

I gave them a quick history of my career in the game industry and then told them a few stories that Brad cleverly fed me openings to. He is such a great straight man, I think it's his hair.

Then I went to buy some more packing tape and bumped bumpers with somebody pulling out behind. I had been blinded by a giant van parked next to me and I was so worried that another car was going to hit me as I was pulling out, that I didn't see the guy behind me. Both cars were fine. I had a smudge and he had a smudge and the plastic of his bumper popped out. It popped back in fine, nothing broken.

Then I went to the bank to cash in my jar of coins. I asked if they had a counting machine, knew of another branch that had a counting machine, or if all else fails if I could have the little baggies to separate the coins into, in that order.

They said no, the nearest branch was a 20 minute drive away (and it was already after 4:00), and yes BUT... the other bank next door had a counting machine and they didn't think you had to be a member to use it.

I went back to the car to get my jar which I had been driving all over town with, and despite the fact that I used the seat belt to hold in place, was spilling all over ever few minutes. That's when I found I had locked the keys in the car with the engine running... again.

Thankfully, the last time I did that I joined the RACQ. But since I had transferred my cell phone over to Richard to get out of my hellish contract with Satan (aka Telstra) I didn't have a phone. After a few minutes I found a phone booth (wow, how quaint) and called RACQ.

The time I spent listening to the automatic hold messages: A very very long 15 minutes in which time I shouted back at each of their little, "Aren't we great?" messages that wanted me to pay more money to sign up for more insurance features.

The time I spent waiting for the guy come after the call: A very quick 15 minutes in which I assured numerous passers by that I didn't think the car would overheat despite the noises the fan was making trying to keep it cool.

In the end, the jar of coins was just shy of $140 AUD, a little less than last two times which topped $150. I didn't shake it as much this time trying to cram more coins in so as to avoid having to go cash them in.

I am supposed to have some people come to look at the house today but they are about 30 minutes overdue. Jeremy put in an application to take on the lease but we still haven't heard back from the owners. Cross your fingers, because if he doesn't get the lease I am going to have to scramble to sell my furniture and white goods at the last minute.

Nemeses

Tired of hearing me go on about the Gilmore Girls yet? Well, don’t worry they are just the MacGuffin in this story. I say “story” but you can go ahead and read that as “rant.”

I mentioned before that I talked to the girl working at Blockbuster about when season 1 disc 2 was due back in. It was actually case #2 containing discs 3 & 4. I felt it was important to update you on that mistake, as I know you are taking notes for the test later. She pointed out that the people who just watched discs 3 & 4 were probably going to want discs 5 & 6 next. She recommended that I check them out now, so I could jump ahead of them.

Discs 3 & 4 were finally returned late yesterday and now I've watched up to disc 6. Just after putting up my last post, I realized that I would be finished with it in a few hours and have nothing to watch in the morning. I jumped in the car and tore off to rent all of season 2. It was with a cold, creeping, horror that I realized that case #1 of season 2, containing the first two discs, was already checked out!

It was them! My Gilmore Girls nemeses! They did the same thing! They checked out the first two discs to leap ahead of me! They aren’t due back till next Thursday. They are probably just going to sit on them until I return the last 2 discs of season 1!

Again, we only have Brian Michael Bendis to blame. I bet he is in league with those slow watchers! He probably goes over their house ever night and they all snuggle up on the couch with popcorn and share a blanket that they spread over their legs. They probably only watch one episode a night so they don't spoil it by rushing too fast. Oh but sometimes they can't help it, they just get too excited and they watch (gasp) two in a row!

I bet they think they've won. Well, they haven't! I have the rest of season 2 and they better just pray that I'm going to return them! I could just take them with me when I leave the country! What would they do then! Yeah, that would learn ’em not to mess with me!

I saw all of the seasons at the mall for $24 AUD each, but A) I really don’t have money to spend at the moment especially since I just quit my job and bought new shoes and B) I don’t want to have region 4 discs!

What Kind of Day It Has Been

I guess the major update is that I resigned as Creative Director of Interzone yesterday. It was a result of a lot of things accumulating at once. You many already know that I’m not big on the sharing of personal details, so I'll just say it was a very amicable break and the door is still open for me possibly returning in the future. I want to say that the team at Interzone was one of the best I have ever worked with. I honestly have never seen such a high percentage of the team be so bought into the product and willing to do what ever it takes to make it work. Nick, my boss, also had some very nice things to say in my ‘I leaving’ email thread about how I transformed the game from where it was to something both development and corporate could buy off on. It was very mushy and I’m expecting an excellent letter of recommendation.

At the moment I’m sitting here trying to enjoy my last day of relative normality before I have to actually put some sort of plan in motion to move back to the United States. There is all sorts of stuff that I'll have work out such as selling the car, furniture, white goods (what they call major appliances here in Australia), etc. I even splurged and had an ice-cream (pralines and cream in a waffle cone of course) to help cushion the chaos that will start in the next few days.

Currently though, I am going a little nuts trying to find some reference in this episode of the Gilmore Girls (Christopher Returns) of when Lorelai made plans to meet Luke. In going through the episode several times I have found all sorts of mistakes. Reflections of the crew in the window, shadow of the mic, and one scene where Christopher says that tomorrow is Saturday making it Friday night, which is when they should be having the weekly dinner at her parent’s house. This is also the second time that Dean mentions that he has a motorcycle though he told Lorelai that he didn’t have one when she first grilled him about dating Rory. And this whole thing about what was said the previous night at the dinner table, they never made it to dinner. I also think it’s raining in the baseball game scene in the beginning and that they are filming under tents or something. You can hear the rain and occasionally see some heavy raindrops. Anyway, I have finally figured out that the plan with Luke was set up from the previous episode and that is the night she is supposed to help him paint the diner. I probably would have figured out that faster, if I had let the episode finish instead of stopping it and going back to the beginning. Oh I am so going to write a nasty email to Bendis for doing this to me!

I have also decided to take a break from my current audio book, “Of Fire and Night” the fifth of seven books in the Saga of Seven Suns series by Kevin J. Anderson, to listen to “The Graveyard Book” by Neil Gaiman. It is written in classic Gaiman style and I give it a thumbs up. You'll probably find it in the “Young Adult” section of the book store but don't let that fool put you off.

One thing that I have been wondering about is why they aren’t pimping Gaiman more on his movies? There was no mention of his name in the advertising of any of his movies so far including the upcoming “Coraline”. He is a best selling author with a rabid fan base. Why wouldn’t they at least toss out a “Based on the novel by Neil Gaiman” in the ad? Granted, the fan base being as rabid as we are, most of us knew about each movie long before it was presented to the unwashed masses.

Edit: I accidentally clicked the wrong thing and added Gaimen instead of Gaiman to my dictionary and didn't notice Neil's name was misspelled all over the place. Fixed.

Global Game Jam

Last week I missed the Global Game Jam. I had a personal event happen that Friday night and then took a drive down the coast of Australia on Saturday to sort my head out.

Anyway, here is a LINK to all the Perth entries. If I had been there I would have seen myself working on Under One Roof.

I haven't played all the Perth one's yet but I've poked through the overall list. I have to say that as a whole, the Perth entries would appear to be heads above most of the rest.

Bendis must be made to pay!

I blame Brian Michael Bendis. Not only that, but it’s his fault as well. Now, I know you have not yet committed yourself enough to this narrative to Google who the hell Brian Michael Bendis is, let alone put forth a ruckus demand for an explanation, but I’ll just carry through anyway.

So not much to do over Christmas Holidays last month. It’s the middle of the summer here and it’s hot. It’s hot like Vegas, but with that added touch of humidity to make sure the sweat sticks to you instead of just being wasted by dripping off and soaking the carpet. I’m holed up in my room, scrolling through the list of cable channels on the TV guide. I was fully intending to just stare endlessly at the myriad of shows sliding down the TV screen until I passed out and got some much needed sleep. But instead of a walk in stardust, I noticed… Okay it’s hard to admit this; because once I say it, it’s out there and I can’t take it back… I noticed that the Gilmore Girls was on.

Okay, let’s jump back a bit. Brian Michael Bendis has mentioned this show in the past. He’s a writer I like, you could even say a favorite writer. You still haven't Googled him so I’ll just toss out that he is a comic book writer. I am just going to give you a compliment by assuming the revelation of his medium did not drop your expectations of him; though, we are still on for this all being his fault. One of my secret little hobbies is to check out the things my favorite writers like. So, I watched an episode of the Gilmore Girls. Two, I watched two episodes of the Gilmore Girls. There were two episodes on, one after the other. Really it was just easier to keep it on that channel than exerting all that energy searching for the remote and changing the channel.

Now it’s a month later and it wasn’t when I found myself programming the cable box to record episodes that I realized I had a problem. It wasn’t even when I found myself obsessing about the fact that of the three episodes I was watching every week, they were from two different seasons and it was totally spoiling the flow of the overarching storyline.

It was today that I realized I had a problem. I stopped at Blockbuster on the way home from work knowing full well that I had a huge late fee. I went up to the counter, without even a female companion with whom I could pretend to be dating and only renting the DVDs at her insistence. It was right after convincing the girl behind said counter to look up when season one disc two was due back because they only had disc one and three. If you knew more about me, you wouldn’t be at all surprised by that. She wisely pointed out that people who rent disk two will probably be looking to rent disk three, and that I should rent disk three now and preempt them. That is when I realized that I had a problem.

So yeah, I’m sitting here and I just finished watching the whole season one disc one of Gilmore Girls. I'm already jonesing out that disc two isn't due back at Blockbusters till the end of the week. Brian Michael Bendis must be made to pay for this, because it is all his fault.

Joseph's Day Out

I was up at the ungodly hour of 5 AM this morning to catch Lance Armstrong in the final stage of the Tour Down Under. Unfortunately, I don't get the sports channels and was greeted with instructions on how to upgrade my Foxtel cable plan instead. So I sensibly went back to sleep.

When I finally crawled out of bed just after high noon, I was in the mood... the mood to drive. I started to drive towards Fremantle but when I got there I kept driving. This is what I kinda call 'using the force' to drive. I usually use it to try and get somewhere in particular, but I used to use it while bike riding to just get lost.

I eventually wound up at Point Peron aka Cape Peron. I got to see two dolphins jumping around in the water which was pretty damn cool. There is also a pillbox style observation building on the hill built during World War II. I tried to get pictures of the dolphins and the pillbox, but the sun wasn't cooperating with the iPhone's camera which is pretty much crap. Here is a link to a picture of the pill box that I googled.

It was still kind of early so I tried to use the force to find somewhere else interesting, but I found it was taking me back home by a much more efficient route than the way there. So I swung back through Fremantle and had a late lunch at Joe's Fish Shack. Yes, that's 'Fish' not 'Crab.' I was hoping to get my favorite BBQ Dungeness Crab, but they don't even serve crab which is probably why the changed the name around. I went in looking for the souvenir shop thinking I might be able to buy a "something smelt fishy at Joe's" t-shirt, you know like the "I got crabs at Joe's" t-shirts they sell at their normal restaurants. They didn't even have a counter of over priced 'Joe's' themed merchandise! Can you believe it?

Update!

I haven’t posted in awhile for a number of reasons, the foremost being the computer I usually sit and type things up on died over Christmas. Well, it turns out that it was just the video card that died and I’ve managed to get it up and running again.

I’ve had some people ask me recently about the Watchmen Movie legal case as it was supposed to go to court again back on the 20th. Good news is that Fox and Warner Brothers settled, and the movie is still on track to come out on 03/06/09. Here is a link to a Variety article, pardon the giant ad that pops over the screen.

There is a semi-interesting bit at the end of the article about moving release dates of movies opening on the same date as movies from the other studios so they wouldn’t compete and using actors contracted to the other studio. I really love the statement "Warner Bros. and Fox, like all "Watchmen" fans, look forward with great anticipation to this film's March 6 release in theaters." Which translates to, "We are sorry to have upset you with this fight Mr. Fanboy, please see our movies."

My friend Brad also pointed out if you keep with the whole counting down to midnight on the clock theme, that release date is pretty cool.

I’ve been watching the Watchmen Motion comics on iTunes and although I like it, I really wish they hadn’t edited it down. They didn’t cut it down very much, you would hardly notice, but they cut out a few of my favorite lines. There was also some critisim on the iTunes feedback about one guy reading all the voices, and as major fan of Audio books I agree. With a production like this they should have dramatized it with several actors. It isn't a straight audio production of somebody reading a story where is okay to have one narrator.

I have also been listening to Comic Geek Speak's Watchmen Footnotes episodes. Just eating up anything "Watchmen" until the movie comes out.

Another thing I’ve been doing is messing around with an Interactive Fiction editor. At first I started to use Adrift, which I had experimented with back in 2004. Although there have been a few bug fix releases, there really hasn’t been a new version since 2003. I quickly found myself having the same problems I had before all over again. So I switched over to Inform7 which appears to be much more powerful.

I also tried wearing my beard differently; I shaved my jaw line so I essentially had a goatee with full sideburns, pointed in. Nobody really commented on the change though so I took that as a bad sign and reverted back to my normal shaving routine. Speaking of which… I went to buy new razor blades and found that a pack of Gillette Mach3 blades cost something like (actual numbers may be a bit off as this was a month ago) $24 AUD. But at the same time they were selling the new Schick Quattro Titanium Freestyle razor on sale for $14 AUD. The blades for it were also on sale for that price. So I was able to buy this new razor with 3-blades, a 4th edging blade, and a battery operated hair trimmer and another box of blades for 4 dollars more than a box of Mach3 blades. Too back the Schick razor SUCKS! It isn’t giving me anywhere near as close a shave as the Mach3 did. Now I have to wait till I go through all these blades and buy a whole new Mach3 as I threw the old one out. BTW neither Gillette or Schick are getting links to their websites because both of them pissing me off with their auto-redirecting to Australian versions of their sites and requiring special version of flash players.

Finally, for my "in the news section" South Australian Attorney General Michael Atkinson, who has been blocking an 18+ rating in Australia has given an interview where he explains his rational. It basically boils down to the same old untrue crap about how games are more interactive and you are "rehearsing harmful behavior," "desensitizing children towards violence," and that video games are "addictive." He states that only a few very video games are denied classification (read as banned in Australia) each year. What I don’t think they is realizing is that a large number of games that maybe should be classified as 18+ are instead being classified as 15+.

Oh, one last thing. Every few months or so I would look up Fez which I blogged about last February. They have finally put out a press release announcing their publisher on their new website. They put up a new picture the other day comparing the old graphics to the new. I don't know what to think about the new graphics, they look like old school console graphics which leads me to wonder about what platform they are going to release on.

Happy New Year MMIX

There was a man,
whose name was Lang,
and he had a neon sign.

Now Mr. Lang was pretty old
so they called it,
"Old Lang's Sign."

Will We Watch the Watchmen?

I posted a in-depth write-up that linked to basically everything you wanted to know about the Watchman legal dispute between Warner Brothers and Fox back in August.

Now Variety is reporting that on Wednesday Judge Gary Allen Feese issued a ruling that says, "Fox owns a copyright interest consisting of, at the very least, the right to distribute the ‘Watchmen’ motion picture." The judge said he would issue a more detailed ruling soon.

An earlier Variety report said that Fox wasn’t looking for monetary compensation either, they may seek to prevent Warner from EVER releasing Watchmen.

The quote from "a source close to the litigation" said, "When you have copyright infringement, there are some damages you never recover."

So far Warner Brothers has not backed off a release date of March 6, but Warner spokesman Scott Rowe declined to comment on the ruling.

Game Damage TV pilot

My friends Yug (aka Guy Blomberg) and Matt (aka Matt Burgess) over at Australian Gamers and their friend Yahtzee (aka Ben Croshaw) of Zero Punctuation fame have put together a video game review TV show pilot called "Game Damage."

You can view the pilot over at their site www.gamedamage.net. Please spread the news and link around, as the more word of mouth they get, the better the chance they have of getting it picked up.

Here is their emotional plea for your support:

It's taken us a VERY long time to get to this point, but we're proud to say we have uploaded the pilot for our potential gaming TV show 'GameDamage' onto the interwebs.

Goto http://www.GameDamage.net to check it out!

The 23-minute show is a pilot episode to stir up interest. Game Damage represents a new face of gaming media; fronted by three proven individuals with a genuine love and enthusiasm for games, it combines light and squashy gaming humour with a delicious crunchy centre of reviews, previews and 'discussions' on the many facets of the subculture (read: shouting arguments).

But creating a series with this level of professional quality (ha ha) doesn't come cheap, and if we're to live the dream we need all the exposure we can get. Gamers, non-gamers, come one, come all to http://www.gamedamage.net, watch the video, browse the site, join the forums and tell us what you think. We promise to at least pretend to listen.

You know I say, "My friends over at Australian Gamer" but the only time they answer my emails now is when I disguise them as porn advertisement spam. What is up with that?

How I Would Do the WoW Torture Quest

The World of Warcraft torture quest, The Art of Persuasion, keeps popping up on news sites, so I thought I would finally throw my two cents in.

Here is Richard Bartle's original post that started the debate,and his follow-up post to the responses it got.

In the quest, Librarian Normantis wants you to torture an Imprisoned Beryl Sorcerer so that he reveals the location of Lady Evanor who has been abducted. He says that he can’t do it himself because the Kirin Tor code of conduct frowns upon it. He gives you the Neural Needler and you have to stick the guy a few times with it while he; at first taunts you, then says that he knows nothing, begs you to stop and then finally tells you where Lady Evanor is being held, though hedging that by saying that trying to save her is folly. If you are so inclined you can keep poking him while he tells you he doesn’t know anything else.

Bartle was saying that Blizzard failed with the torture quest because it was nothing, it didn’t mean anything, and it was just another couple of mouse clicks in a quest chain. It wasn’t just that you torture the Sorcerer that is the problem; it was the actual quest design that failed because it didn’t take advantage of the torture concept. A lot of people seem to miss this point. And comparing it to hundreds of non-player characters (NPCs) you actually kill isn’t valid; because it is not the same thing.

The textbook way this should be done is to offer the player a choice with a reward for torturing the NPC but also a negative consequence. Is the reward worth the negative consequence?

Let’s look at a perfect example already in WoW, raising your reputation with the Blood Sail Buccaneers by killing citizens of Booty Bay. Which you can read about here.

The reward for doing so is the Bloodsail Admiral’s Hat (item level 60, 63 honor, +25 stamina and right click summons a Bloodsail Parrot non-combat pet) and the title “Bloodsail Admiral.” It is basically just a cosmetic reward, albeit a rare one that you aren’t going to see a lot of people doing. Let’s not forget that prestige is also a big reward in these types of games.

The negative consequence is ruined faction with Booty Bay, and even damage to your reputation with other goblin factions. Basically, you can no longer get quests or buy items from NPCs in those towns. I should also note that if you are trying to cash in an in-game reward from the WoW trading card game, it’s very difficult because the NPC you use to enter the trading card code is in Booty Bay.

Is it worth it? Not for me to say, that is for each player to decide. The point is there is a choice with both a reward and consequence.

Now let’s take that basic example apply it to the torture quest. We will make it a choice.

Same setup, Lady Evanor, an important leader of the Kirin Tor, has been abducted. Librariam Normantis had captured a Beryl Sorcerer who may know where she is being held. He is unwilling to torture the captive himself and presents that option to the player.

The player has two response options with Librariam Normantis; one where you agree to torture the prisoner and one where you don’t. Both cases offer you a quest – one quest to torture the guy which has some nice item rewards to choose from and the other quest where you don’t torture him and get no reward, but go off to complete a bunch of other quests to kill the bad guys without the aid of Lady Evanor. Both quest lines can come back together in the end or not, it’s just you have to decide if you will torture the guy and get the item reward.

Problem is that is a cowardly way out. 99.9% of the players will poke the guy till he squeals and then take the reward. 0.0099% will do the same and just tell everybody they didn’t and only 0.001 will take the moral high road and say no. In the end it doesn’t mean anything because not getting the item reward isn’t enough of a choice.

We have to make the consequence something real. We also want to put the weight on the torture, making it the negative choice that the player deliberately does. So let’s say there is no torture quest offered in the chain.

Instead Librariam Normantis tells the player that Lady Evanor has been abducted and they have captured a Beryl Sorcerer who may know where she is being held, but he isn’t talking. He mentions that they found the Neural Needler on the Sorcerer when they captured him but that the Kirin Tor does not condone torture. The life of one person, even Lady Evanor, isn’t worth the loss of the moral high ground. He stressed that the Kirin Tor will not stand by anybody who performs or condones such torture. He then gives you another quest, based on some clue he has devised from the Sorcerer, a Sherlock Homes based “rare mud on his shoes” thing, and is sending you off to investigate. I would make this a Nexus dungeon quest that shows a decent reward.

However the Neural Needler is right there on the table next to the captured Beryl Sorcerer, it is even giving off a little pulsing spark. If you click on it, you get the option to use it on the prisoner to get him to talk. The text makes it clear this goes against the wishes of Librariam Normantis and the Kirin Tor and that you will not be able to deal with them afterwards. That’s it. No reward is shown for using the Needler, but still the temptation is there.

If you use the Needler you automatically fail the previously offered quest and can’t get it again. You also lose a large amount of Kirin Tor faction preventing you from getting any more quests from them. However you do get a quest to go rescue Lady Evanor based on the information you gain from the torture.

I would leverage this in several more quests later on, playing up on the “one life isn’t worth sacrificing your morals” line from Librariam Normantis. What about two lives, a dozen lives, or the lives of all the Kirin Tor?

Resume & History

Although my Internet connection appears to be working, I can't connect to WoW. I can't even get to their homepage. Well that isn't completely true, I can kinda connect but both the game and the web page take forever to load and I get disconnected soon after.

I spent the day updated my resume and history pages and getting them up on Google Sites. The Resume and History links over the right now link to the updated version. The resume is pretty much the same except I am now Creative Director at Interzone. The history page was just updated to talk about Fury's shipping and me going from Auran to Interzone.

All I have left to do now is get this blog's graphics files up onto Google Sites and I won't have to worry about Hostopia, the actually people who ruined joseph.hewitt.org, not NetIdentity, whose email hosting I will still try to keep.

Anyway, I'll do that later. I think I am going to play some more Left 4 Dead, because Zombies aren't going to kill themselves.

Time Travel

Ever wonder what you would do if you could travel through time. What if, here at the end of 2008, you knew things from the future? Like what if you knew that Slumdog Millionaire was going to nominated for 10 Academy Awards and win 8, including Best Picture? What could you do with that information? Is there big money to be made betting on the Academy Awards?

What about MTV's Video Music Awards? I heard some people think Beyoncé had one of the best videos of all time, but I'd put my money on Taylor Swift having the Best Female Video.

Okay, forget those entertainment awards, I know you can bet on sports events. So knowing that the Steelers will defeat the Cardinals by a score of 27-23 in Super Bowl XLIII would probably be worth a few pennies.

But of course the big news is the aliens that will land on the White House lawn in early October 2009, and I'm pretty sure I can make big money off all the waves that even makes in the financial markets, if I only had some seed money. How can I convince somebody to give me a large sum of money before October?