Minecraft Review

There’s a certain, magical sense of childlike wonder permeating throughout every moment of Minecraft that few of us have experienced since the cessation of our childhoods. It is a memory marked by the wondrous sense of innocence that we took for granted before our lives became inundated with the harried strife of reality, a memory of a time when every day brought with it a joyful new experience, a time when every nook and cranny of the enchanted world could have been a cave filled with forgotten treasure, a world where monsters lurked under the bed every night and we cried to our parents to protect us. For all of us, it has been decades since we last experienced that euphoric sense of novelty accompanying every moment of our existence, the very next morning becoming something we perpetually dread. Childhood has been lost forever to the insatiable maws of tomorrow, innocence is shattered forever while we desperately try to put together the shards, be it through our first breakup, our first job, or even the rite of passage of entering Elementary School.




And thus is the beauty of Minecraft. It is through the simple joy of exploration through which a long-forgotten facet of our each of our individual histories is recalled to life. This is an incredible game recalling a time when everything was new and hope bled through our fantasies into reality. It thus goes without saying that this is not a game for the decade, but one for eternity.

Gameplay
In simplest terms, Minecraft is a sandbox/RPG in which every component of the gameworld can be modified by the player and used as a tool. The goal of the game’s RPG component is to collect resources and build structures during the day to survive the night, during which the monsters roam. This is an extremely open-ended style of play and the game’s infinite range of possibilities becomes immediately perceptible. There is a goal to Minecraft and there is a final boss and end sequence, but the game’s already open-ended main quest is easily eschewed when one realizes the creative potential the game’s construction system offers. In short, the player must collect arcane materials buried deep in the earth to create a portal to another dimension to slay the “Ender Dragon”. It’s a childlike set-up that could have been conceived in any number of Kindergarten recesses and perfectly appropriate for the imaginative nature of the game.

What happens between the player’s initial spawn and the defeat of the Ender Dragon is totally up to the player. This freedom, shockingly enough, does not feel overwhelming, but liberating. Within moments, a single thought implants itself in the player’s mind: “I can do anything in this game!” Roaming the procedurally generated gameworld guided only by the built-in achievements guide is an exercise in glee. That cave over there? Grab a torch, let’s go spelunking in it! The grassy meadow over there? Go ahead, pick some flowers. The islands in the distance? Not a hard swim, I even see smoke rising from an NPC village there. All the resources you discover from deconstructing the gameworld can be used in the single most robust crafting system seen in gaming. Within minutes, the gameworld becomes a playset for your imagination, a kind of modern-day LEGO set. The trees, rocks and caves become the components for your tools, weapons, armor and houses, you begin to see the world around you differently.

That is until nightfall. Despite the joyously hyperactive imagination of the daytime, night in Minecraft is greatly reminiscent of a child’s dread of bedtime. The monsters of Minecraft are brutally persistent in their tenacity to chew on your brains, zombies will moan from unseen dark corners and skeletons will fire arrows at you from a distance. None of these enemies compare to the terrifying onslaught of the Creeper. A quadrupedal mass of wrinkled green skin, the Creeper is perpetually haunted by a sad, mournful frown. The most advisable thing to do when encountering one is to run the hell away. The Creeper can explode for an instant kill, causing the player to lose all progress, resources and equipment, respawning him at the game’s start. Watch out for these enemies, as they are terrifying to encounter. Night in Minecraft effectively becomes as horrific as enduring nights as a young child, the perpetual threat of monsters lurking inches below your mattress. Its a brutally haunting game to play and beautiful in the memories it evokes.


A memory that will always stay with me originates from a few hours ago as I emerged from my safehouse prior to the break of dawn. Armed with a newly crafted stone sword, I beat down the zombies that were knocking at my door throughout the night and saw some cows and sheep across the strait on an island. I swam across the strait and slayed the animals for meat, wool and leather, the intent of weaving a warm jacket lurking in my mind. I heard an unfamiliar moan and raised my head to see, staring from about twenty feet away, a Creeper. I backed away, turned around, and made a break for it, sprinting as fast as I could go. I jumped into the strait and splashed my way across, thinking that the water would separate us because it could not swim. I emerged on the opposite bank and turned around, wading, already halfway across the river, was the Creeper. Terrified, I dashed away, fumbling over a hill, turning my head periodically to observe its progress as it quickly gained on me.

Not looking where I was going, I fell into a crevasse and injured myself. Looking up into the hole through which I fell, I saw that I rolled down about a hundred feet… losing the Creeper in the process… Wonderful… Getting back to the surface and back to the safehouse is going to be so much more of a bother. I lowered my head and saw, jutting out from the cobblestone of the mouth of an extensive system of interweaving caves and catacombs, a cache of glittering diamonds. Like in life, one downfall opens up a host of new opportunities. I picked up my pickaxe and set to work. When the diamonds were gone, I ventured deep into the cave system, eagerly seeking out an adventure.
Minecraft’s second game mode is called “Creative Mode”, and removes the constraints of hunger, experience, health, resources and gravity to allow the player to construct anything he can imagine freely. With the available mods and texture packs, incredible stuff can be done. Just look at some of the things the community has conceived.

Further proving the LEGO comparison: Minecraft has already been popping up in art and computer science classes all around the country. Its an exciting proposition with the potential to do a lot of good for society

Graphics and Audio
Minecraft, running on the same Lightweight Java Game Engine, of whose components I am using to power Dark Deception, suffers from scattershot performance. Despite the minimalistic and attractive 8-bit aesthetic the game adheres to, only on minimal settings is the game playable at an acceptable frame rate, at least on a common laptop. To run the game at its best, you’re going to have to turn off fancy graphical features such as ambient lighting and high-render distances. Its a shame, since Minecraft isn’t supposed to be visually awe-inspiring to begin with. It nonetheless channels the first moments of any Bethesda game at all times. A strong incentive to keep exploring is to see what incredible natural structure the procedurally generated world will come up with next, the vastness of valleys and mountains constantly pushing the player to go further.

From an audiovisual standpoint, it would appear that Minecraft is still under construction even this late in its release cycle. C418’s piano orchestrations sound great in the game, and the simple piano and synth soundtrack frames the game's theme well, adding great emotional ambiance. Sound effects have been vastly improved since the game's beta and now apply to all the game's objects. The high dynamic range of the audio gives night time a palpable sense of creepiness as zombies and creepers moan right outside the door.

Impact and Community
Minecraft’s creator, Markus “Notch” Perrson, expressed interest from an early point in making Minecraft open-source after sales died down. Already a vast amount of the game’s codebase is open and modifiable, giving the game an unforeseen educational and creative value. More importantly, the game’s openness has spawned a mammoth mod community unseen since the hacker culture of the early 90s. If playing the core game gives the illusion that anything can be done in Minecraft, editing the game’s source and installing modifications proves that anything can be really done in the game.

The game’s empowering truly comes to life in the various community mods for the game. Portalcraft, for one, turns the entire game into a reimagining of Valve’s subversive puzzler. An upcoming Zelda mod promises to build another entry in the venerable series, complete with functional items, environmental puzzles, dungeons and bosses. Pokemob, nearing a state of completion, recreates the entire Kanto region with complete character models for the original 151, and, oh yes, all the gameplay functionality of the original game, such as inventory, battles and Gym Leaders, will be implemented in the mod. Sadly, no word on Missingno.

Minecraft’s openness has had a social impact on my community. I witnessed several people from my school who had no interest whatsoever in video games become enthralled by the idea of learning how to program in Java and build character models. Despite a lockdown on modifying school computers, Minecraft executables began to pop up on desktops like weeds. School bandwidth plummeted as multiplayer servers were clandestinely run on the community network. Its an easy game to become instantly obsessed with, and the extent of community mod support extends the value of an already infinitely replayable game to Olympian heights. A new generation of independent game developers is being incubated right now, and they are supported by the freedom that Minecraft’s code base affords them.

Conclusion
If there is one game you purchase this year, let it be Minecraft. Minecraft touched my soul in a way that I never imagined possible after my tenth birthday. This is a pioneering game and the embodiment of the values of freedom upheld by computer hackers that have been drowned out since corporations began to encroach on the medium. Notch and Mojang have effectively captured lightning in a bottle: the childlike playfulness that drew us to gaming in the first place. As we became entrenched in shooter after shooter, fighting game after fighting game, we have forgotten the youthful joy we so desperately sought after. How fitting is it that the original wonder of childhood would manifest itself in a world that, much like our own, is procedurally generated, be it through science or the rule of God. Minecraft shines as a beacon of hope, not just for gaming, but for mankind. Play this game… and tremble. 5/5

Sign of the Times

Sign of the Times, a photo by -Marlith- on Flickr.

Goodbye Borders, you've done well to show us that the only thing that's going to get the nation to read is a "Going Out of Business" Sale. Thank you also, for giving comfy chairs to sit on as I demoed books before buying them off Amazon.

Mass Effect 2 Review

I have discussed my dear Mass Effect series before on this site from a philosophical/moral perspective and praised it for pushing morality beyond binary norms of good and evil, instead critiquing player’s actions from a deontological and teleological perspective. While that stood as more of a critique of the game as a literary work, here I will discuss the game from a more traditional, “review” standpoint.

Yet, before we begin, I must make a single, absolutist statement. Buy Mass Effect 2, the game is a wondrous journey into a richly imaginative universe populated with interesting characters and incredible worlds.

Gameplay

From a gameplay perspective, Mass Effect 2 is an amalgam of third-person shooter and role-playing game tropes, its main gameplay sections being divided into combat and conversation. Fighting is done in semi-real time, allowing the player to pause the action at any point during a battle to assign commands and cast “spells”, when played in real-time, Mass Effect 2 operates very similarly to a cover-based shooter, forcing the player to dance in and out of cover with visceral grace. Upgradable powers and experience points level out the game’s RPG elements, adding the strategic depth of character development to the game. Ultimately, Mass Effect 2’s combat engine creates a perfect marriage of RPG and shooter elements, and as a result, what we have is a fluid cover-based shooter with enough tactical depth to recall classics like Diablo and Knights of the Old Republic. While it is true that Mass Effect can be considered to be a “casual-ized” and “dumbed-down” RPG, this works to the game’s benefit, having fewer opportunities to level-up and fewer points to allocate makes upgrade decisions more meaningful.

Nonetheless, combat is marred only by questionable friendly AI. While there are squad commands for holding positions, advancing and retreating, these do not necessarily work, and when left to their own intuition, oftentimes fail to use cover. It is truly jarring to see your feeble, mage-type character vault over a barrier to engage a horde of Krogans using his weak pistol.

Where it comes to conversation, Mass Effect 2 radically simplifies discussion through its “Paraphrase System” and its dialogue wheel. Up to six dialogue choices can be chosen from a radial menu, each of them summarized in brief on it. While this does reduce the amount of reading one has to deal with, it does create some awkward moments when the paraphrased choices fail to embody the tone and nature of the inherent dialogue choice. And as a result, Mass Effect 2’s conversations are imperfect.

Where the game’s conversations do excel at, though, is the narrative impact that each interaction has. Relationships between characters can be built or destroyed, and the choices that the player will make will have far reaching impact far beyond the scope of the immediate games. As a result, the Mass Effect trilogy feels less like a series of self-contained games, but rather a single continuous story meant to be played from start to finish. Indeed, the narrative power afforded to the player by the game justifies the name, the player has a Massive Effect.

That said, Mass Effect 2 suffers from a few technical faults. One such problem comes in the form of load times, which, while not monumental, are still annoying in environments that require many map-transfers or reloads. This is especially problematic in the multi-leveled Normandy. Crew member reside on each of the ships different floors, and suffering a 45 second load time to converse with each floor of characters remained a severe turn-off to the game’s best aspect.

Furthermore, a few technical problems, such as slow-loading textures and glitchy collision detection on vehicular levels are inherited from the game’s predecessor. This however is rare and occurs only during a few select DLC chapters.

Story

Mass Effect 2’s story ties directly into the events of the first game, thus, it comes as highly recommended to experience the tale of the first game before plunging into Mass Effect 2. (The PC version is $20 on Steam and has relatively tame system requirements for an action-RPG, I was able to run it on a 2.0 GHz Pentium Laptop with an integrated graphics card.) That said, Playstation 3 players can download a beautifully drawn interactive comic book summarizing the events of the first game. What tames this prospect is the fact that the comic does little to emphasize the moral weight and impact of the game’s choices and characters, and thus, while the player might understand the first game’s story, little in way of emotional connection is established.

That said, Mass Effect 2 takes place approximately two years after the events of the first game. Protagonist Jane Shepard is killed by a passing alien ship before her charred body is captured by Human-Supremacist organization Cerberus. Aliens called Collectors from deep space are abducting human colonies and Shepard, now a galactic hero from her exploits against the Reapers of the first game, must investigate the problem and assemble a team to deal with it. What follows is an epic and very personal saga involving a multitude of realistically written characters. Surprising plot twists keep the story interesting with every mission, and the battle to attain each crewmember’s loyalty is both moving and entertaining. A wonderfully realized universe is filled with imagined histories and lore. One of the best aspects of Mass Effect is its “Codex”, an encyclopedia of lore so well written that the game’s optimistic sci-fi universe seems to be a viable place to spend one’s imagined life.

Calling the character arcs “interesting and realistic” does little to describe the depth and care put into their creation. Characters are exceptionally well written and feature incredible voice acting. Through idle conversation and active “loyalty missions”, the player must develop a relationship with each of them, and by the game’s conclusion, the player will feel like he has made a lifelong friend of these virtual characters. Particularly memorable is the saga of Garrus Valkarian, a Turian operating his own version of justice on the crime-ridden planet of Omega, his long-ingrained memories of revenge and injustice characterize him as one of the game’s most interesting characters. Mordin Solus, a hyperactive Salarian doctor, who initially comes off as a source of comic relief, contributes strongly to the game’s extensive lore by his regrettable involvement in the Genophage, a synthetic disease that severely damaged the galaxy’s population of Krogan. While the game may be dark in tone, intense drama and self-referential humor are done with such great care that exploration is fun and rewarding.

One of two problems that can be said of Mass Effect’s narrative is that the paraphrase system occasionally creates moments where the player does not feel in control of the conversation. This is especially apparent during conversations with potential romantic partners, where Shepard will invariably open a conversation with a flirty line whether or not the player wants to participate in a romantic subquest.

The second problem comes in terms of the game’s morality system. While eschewing a single, sliding-morality meter in favor of two meters for respective “paragon” and “renegade” choices. The two are meant to symbolize the player’s tendency to adhere to either deontological and teleological ethics in given situations, which, in theory, is a great idea that will eliminate binary morality. What makes this problematic is that situational choices are still binary in nature. Players who adhere to the deontological path are portrayed as noble, kind and heroic, whereas players on the teleological path see their Shepard’s behave selfishly and cruelly, forming Sith-like facial scars. This reduces what was intended to be a multifaceted and realistic version of morality into a binary one.

Graphics and Audio

From a graphical perspective, Mass Effect 2 is an artistic and technical triumph. Alien races are convincingly portrayed and go far beyond the “Muppets in Space” the original Star Wars was decried for. Even more striking is the diverse variety of worlds that the player will traverse through. The Asari colony of Illium evokes Coruscant’s skyscrapers with saturated blue and purple to create a very cosmopolitan-feeling planet. Similarly, the red and brown streets of slummy Omega work wonderfully to showcase the decrepit imagined history of crime-filled ghettoes and gangs. The post-apocalyptic wasteland of Tuchanka is impressive in the scope of destruction it has suffered, and the memories of a previous civilization are evident in its Varren-infested surroundings. Each planet is artistically unique and impressive, making for an imaginative diversity of styles unheard of in most games.

Technically, Mass Effect 2 is far improved over the first game. Facial animation is incredibly detailed and bridges the uncanny valley with grace. Lighting, particles and textures realize the artists’ vision with skill and finesse, and Mass Effect 2 is one of the prettiest games on consoles… at least when its not hit by one of its exceedingly rare graphical glitches.

From an auditory perspective, Mass Effect 2’s cast of skilled voice actors is a treat for the ears. An inspired performance by Jennifer Hale as Jane Shepard is a highlight, her tonally intense yet open style connects the player to her actions wonderfully. Seth Green’s “Joker” and Martin Sheen’s Illusive Man also give wonderful performances, conveying respectively the character’s sarcasm and mystery with finesse. Sound effects and music set the emotional tone well for combat and conversation, adding to the intensity of the game’s battles.

Conclusion

Mass Effect 2 is one of those games that will take over your mind and inhabit your thoughts and daydreams. With a cast of lovable characters, an inspired universe and visceral-yet-strategic combat, Mass Effect 2 surpasses its predecessor with aplomb and solidifies its place with RPG-greats like Chrono Trigger and KOTOR. Play this game. 4.75/5

Pictures from E3 2011: Day 3

Today one of my childhood dreams came true. Hit the jump.

My intention with this post is to show the parts of E3 that the gaming press does not cover. Pictures of the actual experience and endless excitement that comes out of this kind of convention. Enjoy.

 

So yeah, its an experience that every gamer must go through. If Muslims make the Hajj to Mecca sometime in their life, gamers make a similar pilgrimage to E3. Tons of free stuff, and everything in the post came from the public parts of the exposition, none of the press-only areas were featured here. Peace.

Impressions from E3 2011: Day 2

Nintendo’s incredible ability to draw disdain at E3 for what would be incredible and innovative products was in full force today. It unveiled a new console called the WiiU, which eschews the motion controlled wand of its predecessor in favor of a touchscreen tablet with buttons and dual analog sticks. It kinda looks like a LeapFrog product.

But asides from that, this new console is a very smart move on Nintendo’s part. The Wii’s main flaws came out of its lack of processing power (which restricted it from getting the AAA multiplatform franchises which defined the generation) and the inability to opt for traditional controls for developers. Here, Nintendo is using a gaming technology that they introduced which proved to be far more successful. The Nintendo DS introduced touch-screen gaming which, in recent years, has practically revolutionized the smartphone gaming market and initiated a massive new movement in casual gaming. Installing that functionality into a home game console will make WiiU’s games more fun to play from a traditional viewpoint. “Hardcore” developers are already bringing their mainstream games to the console. Games like Assassin’s Creed, Batman: Arkham City and Ninja Gaiden 3 will all be featured on the console during its 2012 launch.

Osama’s Death and the Human Condition

“I mourn the loss of thousands of precious lives, but I will not rejoice in the death of one, not even an enemy. Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.” ~ Penn Gillete (misattributed to Martin Luther King Jr.)

I, like the vast majority of Americans, was pleased to hear that Osama Bin Laden was eliminated. I joined in with the commemoration online, only to say “wait a moment, this is just too messed up.” Twitter and Facebook saw its greatest ever traffic and Wikipedia was plagued with consecutive edit-conflicts. For the most part, I can easily say that in the past two days, I have seen the best and worst of Americans. I commend the dedication and bravery of the Navy SEALS that completed the mission and eliminated Osama, but impugn certain American people for their vulgar and unethical reaction to the news. Needless to say, this controversy raises puzzling questions about the human condition.

Celebrating Revenge – Thoughts in No Particular Arrangement
An eye for an eye will make the whole world blind. ~ Gandhi


I, by no stretch of the imagination, back Osama Bin Laden or the al-Qaeda terrorist organization. The actions they have preformed are truly detestable and have placed thousands in states of oppression, loss or death. Nonetheless, to celebrate the death of a human being is truly disturbing and in very poor taste. 

Some of the most inflammatory images from September of 2001 are of radical Islamists celebrating the attacks on the World Trade Center, which, with no doubt, have been imprinted on the collective consciousness of the world as a whole. There are perturbing parallels between the celebration of Bin Laden’s death and the celebration of the attacks on the World Trade Center. In both cases, the death of individuals was commemorated in unethical ways, thereby dehumanizing people. The social media hubbub surrounding bin Laden’s death stoops us down to the “evil” we sought to eliminate. As Dylan eloquently said, we “became our own enemy in the instant that we preach'”.

Because of that, I remain supportive of the military's decision to give Osama a traditional Islamic funeral. Disposing the body in any other way would have inflamed tensions across the Middle East and would have propagated Islamophobia in a nation struggling to open its mind to controversial religious positions.

The vast flood of Facebook pages commemorating the incident is proof of the mindset that young Americans are approaching this moment in history with. For one, before it was taken down, a page titled “And that’s how we outdo a Royal Wedding” reached over a million fans in two days. Ultimately, a vast number of people are attempting to make a joke out of it. Perhaps even more appallingly, people invited their accounts to be hacked in droves in a bait-and-switch scam that promised “Pictures of Osama’s Execution”.
Vengeance begets vengeance. National security is not necessarily better off right now. Obama acknowledged that when he said “There is no doubt that Al-Qaeda will continue to peruse attacks against us. We must, and we will remain, vigilant at home and abroad.”


Consider the above cartoon. For many Americans, “Justice” is synonymous with revenge for the 9/11 attacks. If revenge is the primary motive for the celebration of Osama’s death, how can that be considered “Just”? As I said, revenge begets revenge in an eternal negative feedback loop of violence. How can the death of the perpetrator of the 9/11 attacks undo the loss of three-thousand lives? It just adds to the death-toll.

Other Thoughts
“Although revenge resembles some conceptions of justice, vengeance is usually depicted as more injurious and punitive as opposed to being harmonious and restorative.” ~ Wikipedia

Some of my social media contacts have made some rather thought-provoking comments, the best of which I will share below. Given the need for anonymity, I have omitted the last names of the respective commenters.

i think if people celebrate his death and him being killed, it's ironic. it's like they're on their way to becoming like him, in being murderous, so it's wrong to rejoice. it's true that the world is alleviated of the burden of the things he does. and that is good. but how are people different from him as a person enjoying murder, if they are celebrating his death? that's the real question ~ Vincent

Mr. Armstrong raised a good point today in the car on the way to practice. He said that people's celebration of Osama's death is mirroring that of the Muslims almost to the point of animosity. ~ Nyan

I've been rather contemplative about what happened. (It's my job). I think it's a commendable military accomplishment. But what upsets me is this: we are the country of the freedom of expression. We invented flight, hand-held computers, and harnessed the power of the atom. But we still have no genuine alternative to the idea that violence begets violence.
Indeed, Obama reiterated the point last night: "we did not choose this war." It is only forced if there is no alternative. And the lack of that alternative, to me, is not in the least worth celebrating. It ought to be our challenge that we, who are capable of such incredible feats, also become the people who answer the question of peace, who rise above acts of hate and respond lovingly, who put an end to the kind of destruction that continues to plauge our condition.
Perhaps. I'm guessing that, at least descriptively, the collective-action account is a good one. But I wonder, for one, whether it's actually *right*, and in what sense. It seems as though the sense in which it's right, here, is a pragmatic one, in so far as it's the most efficient means to a resolution (we still get to maintain our values, life stays pretty much the same for most of us, and we don't have to deal with other violent acts in the short-run).

But it also seems obvious that this sense of "right" is a rather shallow one, and we should be holding ourselves to higher standards. I'm guessing you agree. I suppose the problem you're pointing out is that we lack, at the very least, a practical answer to the question of how to change people's attitudes and (so) behaviors towards violent acts.
My tentative answer is, perhaps predictably, that this is at least the obligation of our educators and other spiritual and cultural leaders: preachers, artists, and especially philosophers (one which, I think, not enough philosophers take seriously). It requires, that is, the "revolution of values" of which Dr. King spoke so forcefully. ~ Josh

I second that it was a bit disturbing that people were celebrating someone's death. I don't mean to give Osama a eulogy and I definitely didn't love him, but he *was* a father and husband, much like many people in this country. ~ Nyan

This is also very fertile ground for not just hating Muslim extremists (which is justified), but also Islam in general. Being Jewish, I have my concerns with Islam and how they treat Jews, but not all Muslims fit the category of "extremist"; I guess I'm in the middle of the road about it. ~ Sam

        The death of Osama Bin Laden IS something meriting celebration. Not because he was killed, but   because our country defeated a enemy who terrorized and would have continued to terrorize innocent civilians the government swore to protect. True, a live capture of Osama would have been preferable... but during a firefight you do what you have to do to make sure you complete the mission and stay alive. Osama was not just an enemy of the country, but also a dangerous man in the moment who had the immediate means and motivation to kill those who attempted to capture him. I find no fault in the action the seals took. Still, the point is valid that Osama's death will undoubtedly cause many more terrorist attacks in the near future, but I need to point out two important points of my to be considered with the threat of retaliation strikes. First, although Osama's death will spark attacks in the near future, how many attacks would he have sparked if he continued living? And how many attempts and threats aimed to secure Osama from US captivity would he have been taken alive? Second, to let Osama live/not capture him at all in fear of a terrorist attacks shows that we have truly refused to do what our ideals dictate due to fear and terror... which is exactly what we are fighting this war against. It is the United State's position to allow absolutely NO NEGOTIATIONS with terrorists, and that is what we need to continue to keep the higher moral ground. ~ Diego 

Peace,
Kevin

UPDATE: U.S. Says bin Laden was Shot Unarmed. The plot thickens. 

UPDATE: Thoughts on the Bin Laden Kill

It has been a good 18 hours since the story first broke that Osama has died, and the reaction that I’ve been seeing is disturbing. One particular newspaper has a rather inflammatory headline that exemplifies how f_cked up all of this is. Hit the jump to learn my thoughts on all this.

•  I commend the U.S. military’s decision to give Osama a respectful burial at sea. The corpse, as per Islamic tradition, was washed three times and wrapped in a white cloth before being buried.
•  During Obama’s speech, Twitter saw its greatest ever traffic at 5000 tweets per second
•  This will only complicate things further as Al-Qaeda and other extremist organizations seek retaliation. I come to question whether or not the world is better off with bin Laden dead.
•  Again, the reaction of celebratory revenge enrages me. Despite Osama’s evil and detestable actions, that does not qualify that we deny him basic human dignity and respect.
•  The saying that anyone “deserves to die” is just plain disgusting.

And that’s my two cents. How about yours?

Comments on Osama’s Death

Whoa, now that’s what I call a crapflood… Facebook is even busier than it was when the Giants won. I can’t edit the Wikipedia article without dealing with several edit conflicts. The article on his death has already underwent its own AFD. Without a better term to describe it, the madness is “lit”. As I am pressed for time, I want to say these two thoughts.

- The reactions that I have been coming across on both Facebook and Twitter are perturbing. Celebrating the death of Osama is little more than celebratory revenge and means relatively little in the big-picture.

- Obama’s speech did little to inform the American public of the details of the incident and instead backed the same celebratory revenge mindset that many are backing.

- Ultimately, this could complicate the big picture as Radical Islamic Extremists are enraged at the death of a leader.

Ultimately, I hear this news with trepidation. I will nonetheless follow developments and details in the coming days.

Commentary on Greg Mortenson and the Three Cups of Tea Controversy

A major controversy has arisen in the past few days over allegations that certain parts of Mortenson and Relin’s memoir Three Cups of Tea were fabricated. A beautiful narrative, the book deals with Mortenson’s experience in rural Afghanistan and his personal efforts to combat terrorism by building schools for Afghani children. Admittedly, some parts of the book were far fetched and questionable in their accuracy, particularly claims that he was rescued by a remote village on a failed climb of K2 and that he was kidnapped by the Taliban. In a defense, Mortenson did state that parts of the book were shortened or abridged for the sake of narrative proficiency and that the news media are exaggerating the extent of the controversy.  

Nonetheless, to reject Mortenson’s mission because of rumors regarding the veracity of his memior is to miss the mark. Even though the title of this blog is “question the answers”, I still come in defense of Mortenson’s mission. The Central Asia Institute is a real nonprofit that does construct schools for girls in rural Afghanistan. In short, Mortenson’s mission holds that if young Afghanis are given a modern, world-encompassing education then extremist groups like the Taliban will run out of people to commit acts of terrorism. If Mortenson were to exaggerate aspects of his story, the mission of his nonprofit remains unchanged and commendable. While his journalistic ethics may be impugned and questioned, the philosophy backing his educational quest remains moving and worthy of enthusiastic support.

Needless to say, I will be keeping a close eye on the investigation of the CAI and will be open to reconsidering whether or not this non-profit will remain worthy of support.

Tactile Cave 0.95 (Finally!)

After months in limbo, the new 0.95 version of Tactile Cave is out and available under a CC-license! This new version features looping music, new art assets and improved debug. Its embedded below!


Not working for you? Check out the original applet at http://www.openprocessing.org/visuals/?visualID=26875

To progress past  the first screen, hit enter. Tap space to start the game after reading the instructions screen!
Have fun! This is Team Corsehead’s first project!

EDIT: With the current given frame size, the game will not be played properly on this site. Check out the original applet at openprocessing for the best version. 

Five Tips for Bloggers

Today is the fourth birthday of this blog, and in the past year, the site has reached a surprising level of success. With over 800 pageviews a month, the content of the site has improved considerably.

In a medium that has grown as saturated as the internet, being heard becomes a tremendous challenge. Being interesting is even harder. Having a .blogspot.com url diverts many from a site and getting regular readers is difficult. In addition, many sites run by people my age consistently feature uninteresting and non-compelling content worth only a cursory glance. Through my few years of experience, I hope to impart advice to other teenage bloggers. Without further ado, I present Five Tips for Bloggers.

5. Keep it Concise: Considering the massive range of content available on the internet and the sheer pace at which information moves, it is no surprise that readers have short attention spans. In order for content to be read, it must be presented in a format that would support such attention spans. Coming across a "Wall of Text" is intimidating and will drive readers away. Indeed, in past months, the problem of conciseness has been the single biggest challenge this blog has faced. With the last three important posts being well over 1500 words, some of my better pieces of content have not yet received the attention they deserve. In general, short paragraph structure keeps readers interested and keeping posts under 1000 words ensures that readers will read entire posts.

If it is any consolation, Diana Hacker writes in her stylistic manual The Bedford Handbook: "Don't expect web site visitors to read in the traditional way: word by word. Most will scan your site, looking for information of interest and ignoring the rest. To keep the attention of a Web audience, make your page layout and writing style as user-friendly as possible"

4. Post Regularly A regular and predictable blogging schedule will keep subscribers revisiting your site. While the majority of my pageviews come from Google, I still have a few subscribers. Nonetheless, predictably so, the months where I have lapsed in my writing have shown a reduced number of site-visitors. As with the body, staying active will keep the blood of your site flowing. Generally, I attempt to write a new post each week. This is especially important in the early months of your site, as your site will come off as an abandoned project. Stay consistent, stay lively.

 3. Nobody Cares About You: I try to avoid discussing my personal life and relationships in this blog. This is done not to protect my privacy, but because no one would take interest in it. Sociologically revelatory musings are fascinating and keep readers entertained, but musings about personal feelings and issues are not. While there may be the occasional exception like Tynan of lifenomadic, who lives a nomadic life interesting enough to enthrall people unfamiliar with him, the vast majority of us are not blessed with the wealth and opportunity to enable such a blog-worthy lifestyle. Indeed, a stranger's baby pictures and a teenager's histrionically antisocial meditations would be interesting only to the writer. Avoid such kind of writing to ensure that readers will give more than a cursory glance at your content.

2. Be Awesome: Even though nobody cares about you, this does not necessarily entail that what you can make and do will not be interesting. Everyone has something to teach to another, and it should be a goal for the blogger to enliven his/her readers with interesting content. Show your best self in your work by seeking to teach your readers something that only you can teach. For me, this interesting subject matter takes the form of video games, and by reviewing games that I feel strongly about, I hope to leave my readers with a deeper knowledge of the games that they play. A journal of an uninteresting life will bore readers, a journal of an awesome life filled with awesome ideas will entertain them and leave them happier.

1. Learn from Your Mistakes Perhaps the most important piece of advice I have to give: learn from your mistakes. In retrospect, most of your early work will suck and look bad in comparison to your most recent stuff. More often than not, you might want to delete them in embarrassment. Don’t delete them! They serve an important purpose in charting your growth as a writer. You will make mistakes and you will have your share of failures: sometimes the idea for a post will fall flat or a previous post might not reflect who you are now. Being honest to yourself and learning from these failures is critical to success anywhere. The content of these five tips were developed from my own failures as a blogger and I hope to impart this piece of wisdom to you.

Thank you, and best of luck in your online endeavors.

Peace

Kevin