Quotulatiousness

June 25, 2011

This week in Guild Wars 2 news

Filed under: Gaming — Tags: , — Nicholas @ 00:01

I’ve been accumulating news snippets about the as-yet-to-be-formally-scheduled release of Guild Wars 2 for an email newsletter I send out to my friends and acquaintances in the Guild Wars community. The early part of this week was very slow, but Thursday was ArenaNet’s Press Day and Friday was Fan Day, so lots of information started to come out on Friday morning.

Part 1: Discussion of previous news

  • If you listen to podcasts, you might want to subscribe to the Guildcast weekly podcast
  • Reminder: the official Guild Wars 2 wiki is still growing, so it’s worth checking it out now and again for new information.
  • Talk Tyria considers the debate about ArenaNet’s announced ‘no stand-alone expansions’ policy. “We’ve known ANet plans on adding expansions in one form or another for Guild Wars 2. Those sorts of things come naturally with most in this genre of gaming. But with their plans on bending MMO conventions, it’s fun to think about what exactly would an expansion entail. What sort of shiny, new gifts under the tree can we expect, or dare we desire, for future content? And how, exactly, should they be released? Ignoring the stand-alone component, traditionally new expansions come with new explorable areas and quests, a new class or two, a brand new story, a few tweaks and upgrades to the world, graphics and mechanics, and something novel to the game.”

Part 2: Guild Wars news

Part 3: Guild Wars 2 news

  • Flameseeker Chronicles: Of revolutionary design, babies, and bathwater. “The “revolutionary” aspects of Guild Wars 2 might be an old topic, but it’s one that’s been on my mind lately for two reasons. First, a couple of my colleagues and I got some hands-on time with Star Wars: The Old Republic at E3. One consistent feeling was that it’s a good, solid game but nothing revolutionary. (I was very impressed with it overall, even though I feel it’s not a game for me.) That sparked a lot of discussion regarding the fact that BioWare never claimed that the game would be revolutionary, so the argument is pointless. I can certainly get on board that train of thought, but it still set me thinking about this aspect of game design.”
  • Kill Ten Rats Guild Wars 2 Fanday. “A couple weeks ago ArenaNet contacted me and 14 other lucky fans for a huge event. We were all invited out to Seattle to visit the new ArenaNet office on June 24! For this humble blogger, this was seriously a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. [. . .] Thursday will be travel days for most of us, with the fans from Europe possibly starting earlier. That night we will have a meet’n’greet dinner with the Community Team. Friday, we head to the brand new studio! ArenaNet has filled the day with tons of activities, most of which they won’t tell us so as not to spoil any surprises. We will get to play a Guild Wars 2 demo (with no NDA, but no video), and developers are taking time out of their busy schedule to join in on the fun.”
  • MMOsite: More juicy details on profession selection. “In a recent long interview with Tap Repeatedly, Jon Peters and Jonathan Sharp, two game system designers from ArenaNet, disclosed some details about Guild Wars 2‘s profession settings. Here, let’s have a quick reading about the information they disclosed in the interview.”
  • Arenanet and the Seattle Symphony at PLAY! “The Guild Wars 2 arrangement of PLAY was, unsurprisingly, gorgeous and breathtaking. ArenaNet told us in their blog announcing their inclusion in PLAY that they had prepared a new cinematic for it, which got people excited and curious. Here’s what stood out to me. It’s not comprehensive, as I don’t have cameras in my eyes (and I abide by the rules of the concert hall of course).”
  • NCsoft announces San Diego Comic-Con events and schedule. “If you’re planning to attend the San Diego Comic-Con next month, and if you happen to be a fan of Guild Wars or City of Heroes, then NCsoft wants you to swing by its booth while you’re in the neighborhood. Attendees will be able “to meet artists and developers from City of Heroes Freedom and Guild Wars 2.” NCsoft will be giving the latest news on City of Heroes‘ recently announced free-to-play transition as well as giving fans the opportunity to take Guild Wars 2‘s Engineer class for a spin. In addition to all of that, City of Heroes‘ Desdemona will be making appearances at the booth while City of Heroes comic artist David “Noble Savage” Nakayama whips up free illustrations of selected CoH players’ characters. The artists of Guild Wars 2 will also be present to sign limited-edition postcard art books.”
  • Jonathan Sharp talks underwater combat. “Here at ArenaNet we don’t think breathing is fun. We figure that you have to breathe every day IRL (in real life), so why should you have to work to breathe in a game — even underwater? There’s a huge amount of underwater content in Guild Wars 2, and we want you to be able to explore it all without stressing about drowning. When you dive underwater, a breathing apparatus is instantly put all up on your face. We provide you with a default breathing apparatus, but you can find all sorts of cool gear to help keep you exploring the depths of the ocean.”
  • Guild Wars 2 has full-featured, distinct underwater combat (and we’ve played it!) “It’s time to ditch the snorkel–Guild Wars’ sequel lets us finally dive beneath the water’s surface, and there’s a deep and wonderful world beneath the waves. We went up to ArenaNet’s Seattle-based studio yesterday to swim around the ponds, oceans, rivers, and lakes of Tyria, meet it’s friendly and not-so-friendly aquatic inhabitants, and shoot them with our speargun.”
  • Into the Dungeons! “Dungeons are multiplayer, instanced adventuring areas. Unlike most of the rest of Tyria, which can be explored by solo players, dungeons are designed to be played and enjoyed in pre-arranged groups, composed of either your regular guildies or a pick-up team. Whereas our event system creates a dynamic, ever-changing world and our personal story allows you to weave a tale unique to your character, dungeons represent an evolution of the original Guild Wars game experience: instanced areas with a single group of players running through them. [. . .] At the time of this writing, we have eight dungeons in Tyria. They are not beginner’s content; the earliest of them requires characters who’ve reached level 35.”
  • Tweets from the Guild Wars 2 Fan Day:

    • “Day and night cycle is currently two hours. 1:20 of daylight and 40 of night. Possibly will change before release. -Colin”

    Eric talking about what they will expect from dungeons and underwater combat.

    Underwater combat is different. Underwater skills, weapons, breathing apparatus. Downed: u lose life, regained when you surface

    Dungeons have 2 modes-story & explorable. Most PUGs can do story mode well. Explorable is harder & needs a more organized group

    Mike Z showing the fans our how content designers use our custom tool, Duo, to spawn monsters and such.

    If you have read the books, you will see some nods to the books in the game.

    #gw2fanday like being in A gallery http://lockerz.com/s/113718818

    Character art room. Not only are there pirates in the game, but you can wear pirate outfits, too. =D #GW2FanDay ~RB

    Charr can customize their pelts, so you can look like a tiger or an ocelot if you want. #GW2FanDay ~RB

    Animators can get really creative with asura more so than the other races. Room for a bit of humor in movement. #GW2FanDay ~RB

    Customizable body shape, facial features, charr body patterns, norn tattoos, sylvari patterns, asura ears. #gw2fanday At the least.

    Cinematics take advantage of concept art for cinematics and story telling. Concept art layered w/ proprietary tool. #GW2FanDay ~RB

    No pre rendered cinematics. Rendered in real time. Emotive story telling through our cinematics, using concept art. #GW2FanDay ~RB

    [Neo] Incredible suit of armor looks incredible. http://yfrog.com/klnpthj

    [Neo] Sylvari Camp. #GW2FanDay http://yfrog.com/kibsnuj

  • GuildMag‘s first round-up of items from GW2 Press Day (including a few already listed above). “Like you might have heard on other fansites, or on twitter, ArenaNet is having 2 open house days at their newest office! The first open house was for the Press, sites like PCGamer and MMORPG.com were invited over to come and play the latest demo build in which underwater exploration and the Catacombs played a major role. Below you can find a list of current newsposts around the web, but we’ll be sure to have another one up tomorrow to include all the stuff that the Fans, whom are currently at the office having a Fan day, will share with us.”

June 24, 2011

Even with the Post Office on strike, deliveries must be made

Filed under: Books, Liberty, Media, Randomness — Tags: , , — Nicholas @ 13:07

Just before lunch, the UPS guy dropped off a couple of books from my latest Amazon.ca order:

That’s The Declaration of Independents: How libertarian politics can fix what’s wrong with America by Nick Gillespie and Matt Welch, and Fuzzy Nation by John Scalzi. Now I’m just waiting for Rule 34 by Charles Stross to complete the order.

QotD: Defending the indefensible

Filed under: Books, Law, Liberty, Media, Quotations — Tags: — Nicholas @ 12:09

If you accept — and I do — that freedom of speech is important, then you are going to have to defend the indefensible. That means you are going to be defending the right of people to read, or to write, or to say, what you don’t say or like or want said.

The Law is a huge blunt weapon that does not and will not make distinctions between what you find acceptable and what you don’t. This is how the Law is made.

People making art find out where the limits of free expression are by going beyond them and getting into trouble.

Neil Gaiman, “Why defend freedom of icky speech?”, Neil Gaiman’s Journal, 2011-06-24

“Damn! Another cursed Mordecai!”

Filed under: Books, Cancon, Media — Tags: , , , , , — Nicholas @ 12:02

Barbara Kay takes issue with the token that Montreal has chosen to commemorate Mordecai Richler:

Mordecai Richler is Canada’s biggest claim to literary fame. If he had been born and lived in any other province but Quebec there would have been an outpouring of ideas on how to commemorate his life and achievements: perhaps renaming streets in his honour, building schools bearing his name, or erecting a statue featuring the disheveled genius wryly peering over his pince-nez at a smoked meat sandwich on wry…er, rye.

Instead Montreal’s political mandarins have decided he is getting a gazebo — a crummy little open pavilion at the foot of Mount Royal, with no known connection to the author. A place for people to come in out of the rain. Not quite a public toilet, but close.

That’s like naming the change house at an outdoor skating rink after Margaret Atwood, a pellet dispenser at the zoo after Yann Martel, or a maintenance shed after Margaret Laurence. But then, if Mordecai Richler had been born outside Quebec, maybe he wouldn’t have been inspired to the kind of savage indignation that made him such a household word (and often not in a good way) in his native Montreal.

She provides a rather more appropriate memorial gesture:

Here’s an idea: Montreal is riddled with potholes. The French for “pothole” is “nid-de-poule,” literally a chicken’s nest. How about if the word is officially changed to “mort-de-caille(ou)” which means “death of stone” (well, death of pebble, close enough). Henceforth let all Montreal potholes be called Mordecais. In this way, his name will forever be on every Montrealer’s lips, because Montreal potholes are ubiquitous and eternal, and yet not in a good way – “Damn! Another cursed Mordecai!” I think Richler himself would have appreciated the irony, and approved.

Cato Institute: The President doesn’t take an oath to the UN charter

Filed under: Government, Military, USA — Tags: , , , , , — Nicholas @ 11:08

Speaking of unusual drink ingredients

Filed under: Randomness — Tags: , — Nicholas @ 09:33

I’ll be honest and say I would never have imagined this being a popular beverage:

The hard cases among you who subscribe to the “I’ll drink anything, me” school are directed to the Green Man Pub in Wellington, which is serving up shots of apple-infused horse semen.

The tempting equine oyster concoction — dubbed Hoihoi tatea — forms part of the NZ boozer’s entry into the 14th annual Monteith’s Beer & Wild Food Challenge, and the stallion magic water is apparently proving popular with women.

The pub’s chef, Jason Varley, said: “Ladies thought it was great — a couple were going to go home and get their husbands to eat grass.”

More information at the Dominion Post site.

Newspapers still trying to adapt to a vastly changed world

Filed under: Britain, Economics, Media — Tags: , , — Nicholas @ 09:04

In a blog post at the Guardian, Roy Greenslade puts the financial changes into a bit of perspective:

So prepare — if you’re of a certain age — for a warm nostalgic bath. In 1950, with TV sets in only 9% of homes, a British street of 100 houses could be relied on to buy 140 newspapers a day and 220 on Sunday.

In 2010, with each of those houses containing an average of 2.6 TVs, the same street bought just 40 papers a day, Monday to Sunday.

Some advertising revenues fled to TV as it developed in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, but not in such great numbers as to ruin newspapers, which could still rely on huge circulation sales income.

In 1966, the Daily Mirror sold 5.1m copies a day, the Daily Express 4m and the Daily Telegraph 1.4m. Last month, those titles had circulations of 1.2m, 631,000 and 635,000 respectively.

It was one of the things that struck me on my first trip back to England in 1979 — although not as badly as the bone-chilling damp — was the profusion of newspapers available. I was used to Toronto, where you could get the Toronto Star, the Globe and Mail, and the horrible little upstart pleb rag, the Toronto Sun. Seeing all the different papers was quite an eye-opener.

No wonder why he chose to title the post “Those were the days, my friends, we’d thought they’d never end…”

June 23, 2011

More on Mexico’s plight

Filed under: Americas, Government, USA — Tags: , , , — Nicholas @ 12:08

With the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives losing control of their crack-brained “Operation Fast and Furious” (aka “Gunwalker”), you’d think that the firearm problem in Mexico has gotten worse. Even if the low estimate of 2500 weapons delivered to the narcotrafficers is accurate (most think it’s at least 4 times that number), it barely puts a dent in the extent of Mexico’s problems:

By now it should be clear that the Mexican drug cartels have taken over the country. They’ve murdered journalists, politicians, judges, businessmen, police, soldiers and each other, with impunity. Their control is so complete that they’ve set up roadblocks to extort blood money from anyone bold enough to believe they have the right to travel freely. They’ve murdered so many people that they’ve resorted to dumping lifeless bodies into mass graves.

Every single day, there’s a fresh story of murder and mayhem. Today, it’s “Eight Bodies Found in Mountains in Northern Mexico” and “Gunmen Kidnap 7 from Drug Rehab Center in Northern Mexico”. The crime-related casualties number in the tens of thousands. That’s to say nothing of the thousands physically and psychologically maimed by torture, or the millions of Mexican living in fear, denied their basic human rights. The Taliban have nothing on these guys.

In other words, adding a few thousand guns from American sources isn’t even a drop in the bucket as far as Mexico’s real problems are concerned:

The ATF purposely mislead Americans to believe that “90 percent of Mexican cartels guns come from Bob’s Gun Store.” That lie was exposed: 88 percent of guns confiscated by the Mexican authorities and successfully submitted for trace to the ATF came from America. (Not necessarily American gun dealers either, BTW). How many qualifiers can you stick in a stat to make it bark like a dog? More importantly, the total population of guns confiscated by the Mexicans in that stat was 30,000.

Now consider the fact that the Mexican police and military are thoroughly corrupt. In fact, there’s every reason to believe that these two entities have supplied the drug cartels with majority of their box fresh military-grade weapons. Weapons that American and foreign weapons makers sold to the Mexican authorities legally. And that means the Mexican have no reason to confiscate any weapons — other than creating a little security theater and transferring ownership from one cartel to another.

This is amusing

Filed under: Cancon, Soccer — Tags: — Nicholas @ 11:21

There’s only one team in the world I favour over England, and they just saved themselves from elimination with this effort:

H/T to David Akin for the link.

Your social media reputation and your future employment prospects

Filed under: Cancon, Media, Technology — Tags: , , , , , — Nicholas @ 09:30

Chris Greaves posted this link, which should be a warning to everyone to be (even more) careful about your online reputation:

Camille Cacnio, a part-time receptionist at a car dealership, was caught in a 3-second video clip, stealing clothing from a looted store during the Stanley Cup riots.

She was fired.

Professional mountain biker Alex Prochazka posed in front of a burning car, while wearing a T-shirt from his sponsor Oakley.

The sunglass company promptly dropped him.

Carpenter Connor Mcilvenna declared the riots “awesome” on his Facebook page, and posted several pro-riot status updates, such as “atta boy vancity!!! show em how we do it!!!” and “vancouver needed remodeling anyway….”

RiteTech Construction was listed as his employer on his Facebook profile, and the next morning, Mcilvenna was fired.

His boss said he was flooded with emails and didn’t want the company’s reputation linked to the man.

“I think this will be a turning point in how employers look at social media,” said Peter Eastwood, a partner at Borden Ladner Gervais in Vancouver. “This is an extremely powerful tool that has potentially enormous and immediate consequences for a business.”

This is something the early bloggers had to face, that what you post online (or what is posted about you) will be there forever. No rational employer is going to offer you a job in future without at the very least running a Google search on you, and there’s already a niche market for employers to explore (doing a deeper search on prospective employees). Background check and personal references? I’m starting to wonder why employers even bother going through the motions any more.

Shock, horror! Dutch court clears Geert Wilders of hate charges

Filed under: Europe, Law, Liberty, Politics — Tags: , , , — Nicholas @ 09:05

Perhaps there is still a faint bit of hope for freedom of speech in Europe after all:

A Dutch court has acquitted rightwing politician Geert Wilders of hate charges, saying his anti-Islam statements, while offensive to many Muslims, fell within the bounds of legitimate political debate.

Judge Marcel van Oosten said Wilders’ claims that Islam is violent by nature, and his calls for a ban on Muslim immigration and the Qur’an, must be viewed in a wider context of debate over immigration policy.

The judge added that the remarks could not be directly linked to increased discrimination against Dutch Muslims.

Wilders unmoved as the verdict was read, but his supporters in the public gallery hugged one another and clapped after the acquittal.

Wilders, one of the most powerful and popular politicians in the Netherlands, was accused of inciting hatred and discrimination against Muslims through numerous public statements, and with insulting them by comparing Islam with Naziism.

“I’m incredibly happy with this acquittal on all counts,” Wilders said outside the courtroom. “It’s not only an acquittal for me, but a victory for freedom of expression in the Netherlands.

Yahtzee reviews Duke Nukem Forever

Filed under: Gaming, Humour, Media — Tags: , , — Nicholas @ 00:09

June 22, 2011

“Medicalizing” bad behaviour to avoid guilt

Filed under: Health, Media — Tags: , , — Nicholas @ 12:09

Frank Furedi looks at a disturbing ongoing phenomenon in western society: the “medicalization” of bad behaviour:

The rebranding of promiscuity as sex addiction is not confined to Britain. Throughout Europe and the US the numbers of sex addicts is said to be on the rise. Anthony Weiner has recently been diagnosed — by the media and self-styled experts at least — as a ‘sex addict’. Following the revelation that he sent rude pictures of himself to various women online, Weiner has been widely depicted as a sick man. ‘He needs treatment’, one expert told the Associated Press, because apparently, without help, ‘sex addicts’ can go ‘completely out of control and destroy their lives’.

[. . .]

Lust, infidelity, betrayal and the drive for sexual domination have always presented a challenge to a society’s grammar of morality. However, the contemporary conflation of a bad habit with a medical problem is symptomatic of the difficulty that Western societies now have in making moral judgments about human behaviour. Sometimes, even people who claim to possess religious convictions find it difficult to ascribe guilt to immoral behaviour. That is why behaviour that was once denounced as sinful is now increasingly discussed through the language of therapy rather than the language of morality.

[. . .]

The problem with this recycling of bad habits and degrading behaviour as medical problems is not simply that it fails to hold people to account for the choices they make and the consequences that their actions have. Yes, a lot of people — including celebrities such as Keith Urban, Tiger Woods, Michael Douglas and Lindsay Lohan — can present themselves as victims of an addiction rather than as lecherous and self-regarding individuals.

But the real problem is the message that this diseasing of human behaviour sends to all of us. The fashionable label of ‘addictive personality’ encourages people to acquiesce to their worst instincts in a quite fatalistic way. Addicts are portrayed as victims of circumstances beyond their control: they are literally counselled to accept powerlessness as the defining feature of their existences. Sexaholics Anonymous mimics the 12-step approach of Alcoholics Anonymous. The first step that a sex addict takes on the road to sexual sobriety is to admit that ‘we were powerless over lust’.

What is a balance-sheet recession?

Filed under: Cancon, Economics, USA — Tags: , , — Nicholas @ 12:07

Stephen Gordon has some really nasty looking diagrams explaining just what a balance sheet recession looks like:

I had never heard the expression “balance-sheet recession” before this recent episode, and it’s time I got around to a comparison of the household balance sheets of the US and Canada. Of all my “Canada is not the US” posts, this is the one that makes me most grateful.

The quarterly data goes back to 1990, and it’s good to put the last few years in context. I’ve scaled all the series by price (the consumption spending deflator) and population. Here is the net worth series:

There’s been talk of a Japan-like ‘lost decade’ in the US; that seems optimistic. US real per capita net worth is back to what it was back in 1999.

More (and somewhat scarier) diagrams at the original post. It doesn’t even finish on a high note:

The US data go back to 1952, so I was able to check the last time the real, per capita value of US housing equity was at its current level. Even after looking at all of these graphs, the answer astonished me: 1978. Nineteen seventy-freaking-eight.

QotD: Who’s more smug than Bono? The “Bono Pay Up” protesters

Filed under: Africa, Media, Quotations — Tags: , , , — Nicholas @ 12:00

[T]he Bono Pay Up lobby, far from challenging Bono’s gobsmackingly paternalistic attitude towards Africa, is encouraging him to put his money where his mouth is. Its message is effectively: Stop talking about saving Africa and go out and actually save it! The campaign group claims that it is because of individuals like Bono, who export bits of their business overseas in order to avoid paying high taxes at home, that Africa is a mess. Some of that tax could be used for the foreign aid budget, you see. Not only is this a spectacularly naïve view of the massive structural problems facing underdeveloped nations in the Third World — as if their woes could be magically fixed by Bono and others stumping up a bit more tax — but it also suggests, explicitly, that it is up to rich white men to save downtrodden Africa.

According to Bono Pay Up, if Bono paid his taxes in a more “ethical” fashion, he could help to alleviate “suffering in the developing world”. Unless the protesters succeed in shifting Bono’s personal habits, “the poor will always be with us”, they claim. In short, all it takes for the poor to be lifted up from their empty-stomached, teary-eyed existences is for a few good men — white ones, naturally — to behave more ethically and caringly. It’s the White Tax Man’s Burden. In focusing on Bono’s alleged hypocrisy, the protesters are actually trying to bridge the gap between the Bono persona (saviour of Africa) and the Bono reality (he pays his taxes in a weird way). That is, they want him to become what he claims to be — the Moral Viceroy of Africa — and to show the Dark Continent how to reach the light. A plague on both their houses. If there are any African bands playing at Glastonbury I hope they lay into the Bono Pay Up lobby, and then use its silly placards to wallop Bono.

Brendan O’Neill, “The ‘Bono Pay Up’ protesters have achieved the remarkable feat of being even more smug than Bono”, The Telegraph, 2011-06-22

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