Eclectic Reasoning

Jagarico!

noreply@blogger.com (Kenshu Ani) — Sat, 13 Sep 2008 02:51:00 +0000

It has been awhile since I visited Disapproving Rabbits, so I went there to get my fix of bunny cuteness. That was when I spotted this chuckle-worthy video clip.

Enjoy!

Game Design: Kenshu's Revised Skill System

noreply@blogger.com (Kenshu Ani) — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 05:53:00 +0000

After reading my prior posting at RLMMO, I wasn't all that happy with the system I thought up. So I have revised it somewhat.

Because of my poor ability with colors, I've never installed anything on my computer to work up a graphic. As such, I'll have to try my best to describe what I thinking. I am also going to assume that if you are reading this blog you are somewhat familiar with MMO Gaming. If not, feel free to ask questions about any terms in the comments.

The Skill Trees

Imagine you are creating a character for the game. First you pick out your race, then you are given some points you can spend to adjust you attributes (strength, dexterity, intelligence, etc). After this process you reach a point where you are given the ability to choose 4 skills. At this point the screen takes you to a place where you can choose from 5 different skill trees.

The first tree: Attacking Skills
The second tree: Defensive Skills
The third tree: Support Skills
The fourth tree: Non-combative Skills
The fifth tree: Attribute Skills

The trees themselves expand upward, occaisionally branching out into new skill lines. Sometimes the skill lines will end, when you have mastered that particular line, but the tree itself never comes to a point. Instead it always grows upwards or spreads out.

From here, following this metaphor, you can choose which skills to take; however you can't go straight to the fruit of the tree (the master skills). You first have to start with the trunk (basic skills), then build up from there and choose the branches (intermediate skills) until you get to the leaves (advanced skills). After that, the fruit is available.

Basicly, the skills in each tree will require a certain condition before you can choose them. This includes the most basic of skills. Let's say you want to take the tumbling skill from the defensive tree. Well, if you decided to leave you character with a low dexterity to improve another stat you might not be able to get tumbling. Want to pick up some basic first aid? Drat, maybe you should have put some points into intelligence instead of focusing on strength.

Every skill will have a requirement. It might be just a certain base attribute point, it might be that you need to have another skill first, it might be both. Does this mean that you will forever be limited from picking up that first aid skill because you started with a low intelligence? Not at all.

Attribute raising skills

Since most MMOs will have gear to improve you attributes above the base; but since gear can be removed easily and replaced those will not count for skill requisites. However, in the Attribute tree there will be skill lines that you can get to improve your attributes. Studying 101 for intelligence, Aerobics for Endurance, Video Gaming (heh) for Dexterity, Meditation for wisdom; whatever you want to call them. What these do is to improve you BASE attribute.

So now you can increase your base attributes and start picking up all the skills, right? Wrong!

Experience Points (XP)

In order to progress along a skill tree, you need to use your skills. This is like practicing. This means you need to use your attack skills to earn attacking XP, defensive skills for defensive XP, etc. Initially, I was thinking that only 4 different types of XP; but I now believe you might need more specific XP for certain branches. Setting up a conversion system is possible.

Let's say you have been using you rifle while in combat, earning you lots of Rifle XP. You want to pick up either the Combat Tactics skills which requires Attacking XP or you want to get Advanced Field Medic skill which requires Healing XP. You can take the Rifle XP that you have accumulated and convert that into it's base type which is Attacking XP. However, you can't convert that into Healing XP. So you can either choose to convert the right amount of XP to pick up the Combat Tactics skill or you need to start working on your Healing XP to get that Advanced Field Medic skill.

So how does this work with the attribute increasing skills? Do I need to make my character sit down a read books for hours on end in order to increase his intelligence? Oh, goodness no!

Attribute Training

I can't think of anything worse than making players press a single button a thousand times to make their characters do enough jumping jacks to gain the Aerobics skill. That is just sick and wrong. It would be better to just instantly give those skills out, but I am against that as well.

Instead the Attribute tree will need a different system. For this one, I favor a time based system.

As an example, you want your character to gain the Beginner Aerobic skill, the bottom most skill in order to increase your Endurance (a.k.a. Constitution). You go to your skill screen and click on the box. You are then notified that it will take 1 real hour for your character to learn that skill. So you accept that condition and start the countdown. While this is counting down, you are now free to take your character and play around some more. You don't have to just wait for the countdown, feel free to enjoy the game. The only thing is you can only train in one skill at a time.

Let's say you want your character to learn the Billy Blanks Tae Bo skill, a much more advanced skill. That skill might take a full 24 hours for character to learn. Of course, this includes time spent while you are logged off, so that isn't as bad as it might seem.

It might even be possible for the other skills to be "studied" like that as well. Going back to the Advanced Field Medic example. Let's say you choose to use this skill for your character's study time. As a more advanced skill it might take a few real days for your character learn it. However you can speed this up by also gaining healing XP at the same time.

Ok! Now you are all set to have your character improve his/her attributes and are well on the way to learning all the skills in the game! Wait a minute. Not so fast.

Each character will be given a pool of Skill points; the same amount for every character. Each time you learn a skill you will lose a skill point. This includes using a skill point for each of the Attribute raising skills. If you want to learn all the skills in the Attacking tree, you might as well kiss every other tree goodbye as you will likely have no skill points left. This means that you will need to think a bit on how you want your character to develop.

Well, this is my new and (hopefully) improved skill system. Let me know what you think of it!

My MMO design links

noreply@blogger.com (Kenshu Ani) — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 18:23:00 +0000

Well, I know I had blogged my ideas before, but apparently it was on my MySpace blog (which I have abandoned). Thankfully, I also posted them on RLMMO, so I will link to those here. Comment on this post at your own risk. I am tempted to just repost my ideas here completely and if I do I'll delete this one.

So now you have done everything, why continue paying?

How to get players immersed into your game

Concept for a skill based system

Planetary Control Edition

Interdependence and Communities

Bah!

noreply@blogger.com (Kenshu Ani) — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 17:11:00 +0000

Well, darn it all! I just visited the blog of one of my favorite Star Wars Galaxies correspondents, fellow Master Ranger Owen-Lars.

So why did I use "Bah!" as the title to this post? Because he just had to go and ask a question that got my creativity juices stirring again. Now I'm going to have to dig up the old ideas I had and see if I can flesh them out again. Of course, I'm too damn busy to waste time on non-paying endeavors, which means I'll likely be getting less sleep.

Oh well, if I really didn't want to do it, I wouldn't.

Now, where the heck did I put my notes on my crafting system I was working on last year?

Still in the mood

noreply@blogger.com (Kenshu Ani) — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 15:43:00 +0000

Since I'm still in a Beyond Good & Evil mood, I thought I'd post some of the YouTube clippings of the music heard in the game.

My favorite one is heard in a place called the Akuda Bar.

Then there is the Mammago Garage song.

And the minigame songs

Going through my games

noreply@blogger.com (Kenshu Ani) — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 07:11:00 +0000

It has been awhile since I played any of my console games, so today I looked through my library of games and picked out an old favorite of mine.

Beyond Good and Evil.

I think that when I just want to sit down and have a good time, this is the game that tops the list. It has your standard action platform game, it has hovercraft racing, hovercraft obstacle courses, a fun air hockey like game, and an unlockable ball game. Plus the voice acting is one of the bests I've heard and the graphics aren't bad considering the age of the game.

So, I popped the game in and spent the next 4 hours having the time of my life. Then the melancholy hit. This is a great game with a cliffhanger ending, but because of the lack of marketing it didn't sell as well as the publishers wanted. Because of that, the sequel was never made.

I decided to go online and moan about about the need for a sequel. And that is when I found it! The Beyond Good and Evil 2 trailer. Not much is shown here, but one thing is certain. No matter what console this game goes to, it will be enough to get me to buy it. Even if it is Xbox.

Shiny and new

noreply@blogger.com (Kenshu Ani) — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 03:58:00 +0000

I just found this excellent webtv show called The Guild. Here is their official website. The series is about a guild of MMO players and about their real and online lives.

And as a special treat, here is the first episode.

Half-Blood Prince Trailer!

noreply@blogger.com (Kenshu Ani) — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 16:02:00 +0000

I am looking forward to this movie coming out on DVD!

The Harry Potter movies are one of the few movies based on books that I like. There have been some major changes between the movies and books, but the movies have been so well directed that I find the changes to be acceptable.

Besides, if the movies contained every scene that the books have we would be looking at four to six hours. An unforgivably long time to watch a movie.

What I've been doing

noreply@blogger.com (Kenshu Ani) — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 02:19:00 +0000

Yes, I am still alive!

As I mentioned previously, I haven't had much interest in online activities. The translation is that I've become incredibly bored with MMOs and discussion of MMOs.

Instead I've been enjoying (in order of priority) the company of my significant other, the weather (usually with my SO), books, console games (in particular Wii games) and music. I've started bringing in my old classical music CDs to work so that I can play them in the waiting room. Bach, Beethoven, Mozart, Grieg, etc.

I hope everyone out there is enjoying themselves as well!

Do not expect to see much of me in the next two weeks as well. Wimbledon is starting up on Monday!

I have already placed my family and friends on notice: Do not distub! Starting after work on Monday any calls to my house will result in a pissy Kenshu complaning about having to pause his DVR to get up to answer the phone.

Yuugao

noreply@blogger.com (Kenshu Ani) — Sun, 04 May 2008 19:59:00 +0000

Sorry for the long absence, everyone.

I have been keeping myself busy and haven't had much interest in online activities recently. In the meantime please enjoy this song, Yuugao (Moonflower), that I've fallen in love with. It is from a Japanese anime series called School Rumble, a hilariously funny romantic comedy show.

In the garden, the moonflower that just began to bloom
As I watered it
The cat that went out to play
Came home, "Welcome home"

Hey, look at the ripples in the clouds
Apricot colored and violet
The sinking sunset dyes them so prettily
Its as if it were a dream

Oh, wind, from where
do you blow, I wonder?
It must be far away, across the sea
Continuing on your long journey

Suddenly I realize the clock hand points
To the time of that person's return
With the sound of stomachs growling*
I wonder what I'll make today

I wonder if I've misheard? Someone's voice
Leaves a message
Now that person says in haste
"I don't want to eat dinner"

Oh, wind, how far
do you blow, I wonder?
Someday, this day too
Will become special to me

I don't know what to do with all this free time
In the veranda too big for me alone
The first star of the evening begins to flicker
I'm sure the weather will be clear tomorrow

Wind, where do you go?
No one knows

I apologize in advance

noreply@blogger.com (Kenshu Ani) — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 16:58:00 +0000

My biggest email spam contributor is my mother. She gets all of these joke emails and send them to me. Normally I won't bother to post them here, but this was a particularly chuckle worthy one.

Before that though, I'm going to apologize to Easter (lawyer joke) and to the guy/gal that wrote it in the first place (no name of author was on the email).

Something to Ponder

T H E 10 C O M M A N D M E N T S

The real reason that we can't have the Ten Commandments posted in a courthouse is this:

You cannot post 'Thou Shalt Not Steal,' 'Thou Shalt Not Commit Adultery,' and 'Thou Shall Not Lie' in a building full of lawyers, judges and politicians...It creates a hostile work environment.

Is that squire on the fire?

noreply@blogger.com (Kenshu Ani) — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 16:32:00 +0000

Last night was Movie Night and the movie of choice was Johnny Depp in Sweeney Todd.

Might I just say that it is particularly nice to know that broadway musicals come with my sense of humor.

For your listening pleasure, here is the song Little Priest from Sweeney Todd.

I've found a new MMORPG

noreply@blogger.com (Kenshu Ani) — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 04:24:00 +0000

Currently, I am less than thrilled with the state of Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games. Any MMORPG seems to fall into one of two categories: Intresting game design that is also full of bugs or Bug free but the same old boring level and class system.

For a while, I had been interested in Vanguard but then they joined up with The Unethical Ones and I immediately lost interest in that game. So, I pretty much decided that if I was going to play a MMO, I'd play one that was relatively bug free, and that meant World of Warcraft.

However, one game did come out that I had no real interest in. I had heard that it was actually polished with few bugs. However, I think that Tolkien is the most over-rated fantasy author of all time and therefore I never really looked into the game. It wasn't until out of shear boredom at work that I decided to read a few threads at a forum I frequent. There I discovered that Lord of the Rings Online has a decent crafting system and homes.

The crafting system is very similiar to World of Warcrafts, however it does allow for a chance of a "critical success" when crafting an item. A feature that doesn't appear at all in World of Warcraft.

As for homes: Lord of the Rings Online has homes you can decorate; World of Warcraft doesn't even have homes.

I decided to try out the game and see how it handles. I haven't spent much time in there, but so far I haven't run into a single bug and the game has been pretty smooth. I did just discover something else very neat. You can play musical instruments in the game. And I mean completely play them; pressing keys to make certain sounds. Some people have even taken the time to create music sheets for some popular (to gamers) songs.

Since I see the Imperial March listed, I'm going to have to give it a try.

State of Oblivion

noreply@blogger.com (Kenshu Ani) — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 17:04:00 +0000

The current status of the Oblivion game: Still fun and obsessive!

In the game, you get to come across so many neat things, of late I have started collecting in game books. Some of the books are very short at only a few paragraphs, others span to 30+ pages. Through the books I have essentially figured out the primary story of the main quest, even though I still haven't started that up yet.

Oblivion is the name of a plane of existance that certain demons come from. The plane of existance was sealed, but that seal was broken with the emperor's recent demise. I have the impression that it is possible to actually go to that plane of existance and I will at some point. But I still haven't conquered all of Cyrodill (I think that is the correct spelling).

There is just so much to do! I'm not just talking quests either. Through many nights of theft, I have earned enough gold to buy a home in a city. My current goal is to buy all of the furnishings for that home which nearly equal the same price. I have plundered most of the nice houses in the major cities, so now I am starting to look for new targets in the smaller villages scattered around the map. The neat thing is that until you find the villages they do not appear on your map; unless someone marks it for a quest.

I wonder how many more hours this game will offer me? I have become the Theives Guild's newest Guildmaster through a series of very challenging quests as well. With the rank comes my own guild house in the biggest city, essentially my first home. I still wanted a home, who would want to store stuff in a guild house for theives?

I am currently working on the assassin's guild membership to help fund my home furnishings. Muhaha. The neat thing about these quests is that you receive a bonus if you complete your contract in a specific way. Just before I signed off last night, I had to sneak into a house and kill this old man. To get the bonus I had to make it look like an accident by loosing some fastenings for a Minotaur Trophy head on the wall. It fell down and struck the guy on the head and killed him. I then snuck out: Mission Accomplished. With a nice enchanted dagger as a reward.

My next mission involves killing this jerk of a Dark Elf that you met at the very begining of the game. I decided to end it there so that I can savor it after work when I am fully awake. Besides it was approaching 3AM.

Between the two guilds, I'm enjoying the assassin quests more so far. I like having the optional bonus.

Dilema

noreply@blogger.com (Kenshu Ani) — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 19:52:00 +0000

Now that I have taken a sabatical from World of Warcraft for about a week, I have noticed that I am lacking enthusiasm for getting back into the game.

Upon reflecting about what the game offers, I realize just how little of the end game that I am interested in. I have a little interest in going to some of the raiding locations, but I abhor the gear requirements that are basicly needed to actually go there.

Essentially, if I want to improve my gear I am limited to three choices.

1) Arena PvP. This requires a team and there is no gameplay strategy involved (unlike battlegrounds). Essentially a glorified duel with 1 or more partner on your team. Doesn't sound like a lot of fun to me.

2) Daily Heroics quest: You can kill bosses in high level Heroic dungeons for badges. These badges can be traded in for some decent gear. The amount of badges needed to get the gear will require going into every dungeon every day; and it will still probably take weeks to complete a set. The problem with this is that I only like doing these dungeons with friends, but have a hard time coordinating with them. The alternative is to go in with a PUG (Pick Up Group). Quite frankly, that isn't going to happen with me. I'll either go in with my friends or not at all.

3) Weekly tours of Karazhan: My guild has started raiding Karazhan and this is the most likely course for me. The good news is that the bosses do drop the badges that you can get in the heroic dungeons. The bad news is that it can only be cleared once a week which means months of clearing it to get better gear. Unless you are lucky and get something halfway decent in a loot drop.

So, what is the point to going to all this effort to get better gear? Well, it is so you can go to harder instances so that you can get better gear...

I crave something more in a MMO. Give me something to do that doesn't require constant combat through constant raiding. Give me a decent crafting system that isn't based on loot drops. Give me a home to decorate. Give me a reason to go to cities besides duels and spam.

As things stand, I don't know when I'll return to WoW. I can always level another character to 70, but what is the point in it if raiding is all I have to look forward to? I'll have to give this some thought over the weekend. Right now, I am leaning towards leaving and not returning until Blizzard has released the expansion.

Obsession Review

noreply@blogger.com (Kenshu Ani) — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 17:46:00 +0000

I wasn't going to post a review on a game nearly two years old. However, there is something I really like about the game.

NPCs

The NPCs in towns are really fun to watch. First off, they don't just stay still waiting for you to come up to them and talk to them, like you were the only reason for their existance. They have a schedule that they keep. At (X) time of day they need to go to (Y) location. Since the game cuts the weeks up into days (and I will have to look to see if months are shown) it is even possible that their pattern might changed depending on which day of the week.

It isn't just that they move around, either. They talk to each other and you can learn a lot from listening in to those conversations. When they talk about a specific event (I just heard one about corrupt imperial guards), you can then talk to NPCs to pick up a quest. You can't do the quest until you listen in on conversations, and the conversations vary in each city. You can also learn where to go for skill training or other tips about the game. For example, I heard two NPCs talk about how the "Dark Brotherhood" will appear to people that have committed murder when they sleep, it is how they recruit. I'm assuming they are an assassin guild. I'll have to try it out, but only after I finish with the thieves guild because they frown on killing innocents during their quests.

Another thing I discovered on Monday when I was checking out the Oblivion webpage, you can download these mini plug-ins that will add even more quests to the game! I don't know exactly when they were posted, but it looks like they have been adding quests since it was released. Some are free, others are for pay only. They are cheap at just under $2 per download. I haven't downloaded any yet, because I still have many many more quests to do; but I will probably download that Thieves Den one tonight.

Finally, they also have a Construction Set download so that you can create your own content for the game. This is like the storytelling version of the Sims games for user content. This is something that I can really get into unlike the Sims user generated content which is all based on graphics. I have graphically challenged eyes.

The Elder Scrolls IV: Obsession

noreply@blogger.com (Kenshu Ani) — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 19:24:00 +0000

Last weekend I had the pleasure of caretaking with my granddad. Always an enjoyable experience. We have a routine set for when I spend a weekend with him. Friday nights we go to a BBQ place (means missing my movie night, though) and we go to a Village Inn for omelets on Sunday morning. Otherwise, I pretty much just heat up pre-arranged meals and make sure he takes his pills.

So I have a lot of free time, but not enough time to make it worthwhile to drive back and forth between my home and my parents (pill schedule difficulties), not to mention that it is a horrible waste of gas.

That means I tend to stop playing World of Warcraft when I go over there. I do have the game installed on their computer, but macros are saved on the client (PCs not servers) and it is a huge pain to reset it every time I switch locations. Further, their computer is set up for Photography and they have a widescreen monitor which just annoys the heck out of me when playing WoW. If I maximize the screen the graphics become short and fat, if I go into window mode I see a lot of distracting icons on the sides.

So considering this, I decided to just take a break from WoW and be anti-social this weekend. Something that I think many people should do. Except for the anti-social part.

I decided to treat myself with a game I've heard much about but haven't bothered to start. The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion.

For Easter: This is a continuation from that game you have mentioned before, Daggerfall.

Oblivion has been widely talked about all over the net, so I'm not going to do a review beyond saying that I love the style of play. It is a standard game in the beginning. You make a character, go through a tutorial and are pointed to the main storyline quest. What differs is that after going through the tutorial you can immediately ignore the main storyline quest and go do whatever the heck you want. Very different from traditional RPGs like Final Fantasy.

Another note, you are given TWO chances to design your character. When you start the tutorial and just as you are about to leave it and go into the wide world. Just before you leave you are asked if you want to change anything and I mean anything. From name to gender, race to class, or even create your own class. Awesome! That means you only have to do that tutorial once if you want to try something else, just save before you leave and don't overwrite that file.

So I created a character with a thief in mind, stealthy and avoids combat when possible. Went through the tutorial, started a bit of the storyline quest and discovered an issue with the leveling system. The leveling system is really counter-intuitive. It turns out that unless you make a pure combat class (boring!) as the game progresses you rapidly become underpowered.

Not being a mod person by nature, I decided to restart and work the system to my advantage. This time I decided to skip the storyline quest and join the Thieves Guild.

OMG! This is where the game has shined the most!

First you have to find the thieves guild. You can't just go up to a city guard and ask, for example. In fact, if I hadn't already started a bit of the game before I might not have known of its existance as you learn about it from the NPCs. So I tracked down some info on the guild and eventually got accepted into the guild. So what happens then? Not a damn thing. When you ask for a "quest" your superior essentially tells you, "you're a thief, go steal stuff." Apparently, after selling enough stolen items to a fence you are contacted for a special mission. How you steal is completely up to you though.

I have successfully avoided reading any spoilers on this game, so I will be enjoying this experience with the guild to the fullest. Not tonight, though. Tonight is reserved for corned beef and cabbage, I understand there will also be some colcannon served as well. However, I will probably be very absent from WoW for an extended time while I savor this new game.

Home Made Kazoku

noreply@blogger.com (Kenshu Ani) — Sun, 20 Jan 2008 05:48:00 +0000

Found it!

noreply@blogger.com (Kenshu Ani) — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 19:15:00 +0000

Apparently, it wasn't a new song, but an older one that I've never heard before.

From the playlist, the song was "Woe is me" by Laura Love.

I was afraid of it, but I can't find a link to a video or even a song sample.

Morning Music is back!

noreply@blogger.com (Kenshu Ani) — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 18:29:00 +0000

Hooray!

You may recall me mentioning that my local public radio station had a host that retired. Unfortunately, I lost my favorite program when Don Woods retired.

However, yesterday they reinstated Morning Music with a new host, Grady Kirkpatrick. I didn't listen yesterday because I didn't know it had returned, but I've been listening today. So far, I love the selection of music he has been playing. Nice variety and a bunch of songs that I haven't heard before. I love listening to new artists and songs!

Now they only need to get their playlist to update more frequently! I caught this fantastic song on my way in, but missed (damn traffic!) the name of the song/artist. In the old Morning Music program, you could go online and check the playlist for that day and it would update as the day went on. However, they are slacking on the online department right now and I can't pull up today's playlist yet.

Still, I'm aching to find out more about this artist I heard, because I can't find any lyrics matching what I heard on the radio.

More Music

noreply@blogger.com (Kenshu Ani) — Sun, 13 Jan 2008 22:00:00 +0000

I'm going to have to look for more stuff from this band.

Edit: The name of the song is Yura Yura by Hearts Grow.

Lyrics:
Yura yura to yuganda sora e
Kimi no motto e tonde yuke
Konna ni mo chikaku ni kanjiteru
Futatsu no omoi

Zutto soba ni itta kara
Aita sukima ooki sugite
Namaiki na kimi no sunao na henji
Matte dare ga sabishii
Mirarenai machi de naiteru Nara
Soba ni inakutemo egao wa todoketai

Yura yura to yuganda sora e
Kimi no moto e tonde yuke
Konna ni mo chikaku ni kanjiteru
Futatsu no omoi

Hitori dakke no sofa
Maneka wo tori atta ne
Itsuma demo yuki atte iru tamme ni
Hoo dari wa ganbareru

Miageta yoroza wa kumoga hagete
Yume ni yukateru hitomi wakawaranai

Kira kira to kagayaku hoshi wa
Ima mo kimi wo terashiteru
Deata hito kawaranu sora no shika
Hitotsu no chikai

Hanatsuto kini kami wo
Sawaru kuru segao tsuteiru
Hitori kiri denomuru mune no
Itamisae kito kizunai

Yura yura to yuganda sora e
Kimi no motto e tonde yuke
Konna ni mo chikaku ni kanjiteru
Futatsu no omoi

Kira kira to kagayaku hoshi ga
Itsumo hutari utsushiteru
Deata hito kawaranu sora no shika
Hitotsu no chikai

Translation:
Let them fly to you
Through the wavering, distorted sky
These two loves
That feel so close together

You were always by my side
So the gap you made is so huge
Your cheeky response, “See ya…”
Makes me sad

If you’re crying in an unfamiliar town
Even if I’m not by your side, I want to send you a smile

Let them fly to you
Through the wavering, distorted sky
These two loves
That feel so close together

We each sat in the middle
Of one sofa
We can keep trying
To keep looking at each other forever

When I look up at the night sky, the clouds disappear
My eyes will keep looking towards my dream

Even now, the shining, sparkling stars
Are shining on you
Under the sky that hadn’t changed since the day we met
We made a single vow

I can see your habit of touching your hair when you talk
As I sleep alone
Even the pain in our hearts is surely a bond

Let them fly to you
Through the wavering, distorted sky
These two loves
That feel so close together

The shining, sparkling stars
Always reflect the two of us
Under the sky that hadn’t changed since the day we met
We made a single vow

16 years old and pregnant

noreply@blogger.com (Kenshu Ani) — Fri, 21 Dec 2007 19:10:00 +0000

Well, I really didn't want to write about the Jamie Lynn Spears news, but since I can't really escape from it at any of the websites I visit; I figure I might as well add my 2 cents to the millions of pennies out there.

Do I find it shocking that the mother-to-be is 16 years old, and that the father is 19? Not really. A very good friend of mine had a child when he was 17, I think the mother of the child was 16 at the time. Neither had the income potential that Ms. Spears does (apparently, Ms. Spears has signed a deal to allow a magazine to photograph her newborn child for $1 million). My friend did the best thing possible in that situation. The mother wasn't ready for marriage (in fact I doubt they were still seeing each other when they found out about the pregnancy) but she also didn't want to have an abortion. They did the best thing possible for their situation, they gave the baby up for adoption.

Now, I'm not going to be the one to harangue Ms. Spears for her choices. I remember what it was like to be young and stupid. While I haven't, to the best of my knowledge, helped to bring a new life into this world; I have done plenty of stupid things. I would mention some of the truly spectacularly stupid actions here, but I am unfamiliar with international law and I figure it is best to just leave that in the past.

However, one of my core beliefs is that of personal responsibility. When I do something stupid, I will not shirk from any consequences that might arise from that stupidity. And the fact is, the father of Ms. Spears' baby committed a crime. Do I think that the law is just? Not really. My parents have more than three years difference in their age, they just waited until their late 20s and early 30s before having children (a profoundly wise choice in my opinion).

So what consequences should Ms. Spears and the father face? Well, the punishment for the father is quite obvious. He should face the apparently misdemeanor charge(s) resulting from listening to the organ between his legs instead of between his ears. Maybe this situation will shed more light on the subject of child molestation laws and how they are applied to teenagers.

As for Ms. Spears? Well, unfortunately for her she is a celebrity. That means she is subjected to the fallout of making stupid decisions from the public. If that means her show is taken off air, so be it.

The thing I find the most deplorable is what this might do to the truly innocent, the child. I personally would not wish bestowing the status of "celebrity" on my worst of enemies. The child will likely grow up and discover the internet and then see all of the wonderful comments that his or her birth caused. I can't imagine what life under the microscope would be like. If the child is lucky, the media will find something else to obsess on shortly. Hopefully, Lynne Spears and Jamie Lynn Spears will allow the child some sort of anonymity until the child is old enough to at least grasp the consequences of being in the public spotlight.

One final thought. I do not follow celebrity gossip but I work in a psychologist’s office and I have to put up the new magazines. So even I am aware of all the multitudes of celebrity pregnancies. Please, for the love of all that is good, don't go out and have a baby just because it is the current fad of celebrities.

Feel good activism

noreply@blogger.com (Kenshu Ani) — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 20:31:00 +0000

Continuing the tradition of useless feel good activism, such as carbon offsets, we now see someone promoting "World Orgasm Day."

Oui! Si! Da! Ja! Yes!

Any way you scream it, one group hopes you'll be having an orgasm in the name of world peace this Friday at 6:08 GMT.

At the exact moment of the winter solstice, the world is urged to get busy at the second annual Global Orgasm for World Peace.

What better way to find a solution to a problem than by ignoring the problem and making yourself feel better about it? Feel bad about flying around in that private jet? No problem, just pay to offset your pollution and keep flying! Want to stop the various global conflicts, from Iraq to Burma to Darfur? Just screw your neighbor at this precise time. The "mental and spirtual energy" from that act will cause the levels of "violence, hatred and fear around the world" to reduce.

Magical thinking at its finest.

Ridiculous Number Crunching

noreply@blogger.com (Kenshu Ani) — Tue, 11 Dec 2007 21:41:00 +0000

I just crunched some numbers regarding leveling your faction in World of Warcraft. The result: There has to be a better way.

In World of Warcraft, there are various factions you can belong to. Initially you are neutral with them, but through a series of quests, some repeatable, and by killing certain oppositional aligned non-player characters; you can work your way up the faction ladder.

How this works: You will gain faction points by completing quests for the particular faction. Sometimes it is as low as 25 points, I've seen as much as 350 points awarded. When you hit a certain number of faction points, you go up to the next rank showing that you have earned their goodwill. The ranks are Neutral, Friendly, Honored, Revered and Exalted.

Why do you want to go up these ranks? Most often it is because they offer gear or other incentives (like recipes for a trade skill) that you can use. The faction will not allow you to buy certain items unless you meet a specific faction rank; the best items are unlocked with the highest rank.

Two days ago, my Hunter reached the "Honored" faction rank with a particular group. I looked and noticed that he now needs 12,000 faction points to reach the next rank. Here is where number crunching comes in handy.

There is a repeatable quest that he can do that gives him 250 faction points each time. The quest is simple, you just need to gather 10 beads from ogres you kill and turn them in for the faction. Thanks to a mod that I have, I have determined that a bead is looted from the ogres at about a one to three ratio, I have to kill three ogres to get one bead.

So, in order to get 1,000 faction points, I have to collect 40 beads. In order to get 40 beads, I have to kill three times that number of ogres, 120. In order to get 12,000 faction points, I have to kill 120 ogres twelve times. In other words, 1,440 ogres.

For future refrence, never number crunch faction points. Ignorance is bliss.

Obsession, pt 2

noreply@blogger.com (Kenshu Ani) — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 18:17:00 +0000

Obsession isn't pretty.

There is a new set of some awesome armor on World of Warcraft that one can get, but only through battlegrounds. I wanted to get a piece of the armor this weekend, so I calculated exactly what I needed and I made that my goal for last night.

When you go into battlegrounds you receive these tokens for the particular field. For example, if you go into the Arathi Basin, when you come out of the battlefield you get the Arathi Basin Token. If you lose the battle you get one token, if you win you get 3 tokens. You are also awarded a numerical "Honor" point for the various actions you made in the battleground.

In order to puchase the gear I wanted, I needed 30 Arathi Basin Tokens and 14500 Honor points.

Now, this is where the system sucks. When you receive honor, it is put in a special slot for that specific day and the honor is just an estimation. The servers calculate your honor at 2AM Pacific time and you seem to lose some of the honor that was estimated. You also cannot spend that honor until this process occurs. Since you cannot tell exactly what you will get, this makes reaching your goals difficult. Even more upsetting is that if you failed to get enough honor, you will have to wait until your next days total is calculated.

Given this idiotic Honor system (I can only assume it was put in to piss off people like me), the only way I could make certain I had enough honor points was by padding my estimate with excessive amounts.

So last night, I originally had a goal of getting 5,500 honor. That's when I found out about the possibility of losing some honor during the 2AM calculations. So to play it safe, I collected 7,000 honor. More than enough, right?

Well, by the time I reached that goal, I was mere minutes from the 2AM deadline, so I stayed online to see how much I would have. I did reach my goal, but I only had 285 honor left. So out of the extra 1,500 honor I collected, I lost 1,215 of it.

Now, this DOES piss me off. However, since I have been enjoying the battlegrounds (it is all still new and shiny to me), that offsets any negative feelings I have for it. I do have to say this to Blizzard (the developers of World of Warcraft):

This is a mistake, you need to scrap this system. It is never a good idea to take away nearly 20% of what people have achieved and there is no reason for it. If I could have counted on the numbers being correct, I would have stopped playing the battleground last night and looked to see if some guildmates needed help or logged off hours earlier.