Wesley James Rands

Words, thoughts and pixel's; all the building blocks you need.

[wjrands]

I love the irony of civil disobedience being done at Walden Pond.

[wjrands]

The FCC Thinks We're All Idiots

Just a few days ago, the FCC voted in favor of a pretty uniformly terrible proposal to allow internet fast lanes. And throughout the 99-page proposition, FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler makes one thing painfully apparent: The FCC thinks we're all a bunch of goddamn idiots.

[wjrands]

My guess is Alternative discard costs? FoW has been king for way too long IMHO.

[wjrands]

It does not matter how slow you go so long as you do not stop.

Wisdom of Confucius

[wjrands]

Between two eternities

As an individual you have two eternities stretched out before you in both directions. The first is the limitless future and the second is the past that is beyond anything we can perceive or understand. It is only during this moment between the two that we are actually alive, that we actually get to do any living.

When I practiced Zen and Taoism more actively I able to strike a kind of balance between those three endless forces. I won't say it was perfect, but I was enjoying my life a hell of a lot more. However over the last few years, debt, and an unstable job and living situation and years of negative conditioning have gradually eroded away the basis of my "zen". I have been spending entirely too much time looking at all the possibilities of the future and not enjoying the here and now.

Part of the problem is I grew up on complex games of strategy, being a "two step thinker" is great when you are playing chess. But it tends to backfire when you are trying to build a life, the world is not an enclosed space and a thousand outside forces can invade even the most careful wrought plans. Life instead presents opportunities, and only with experience can we see those opportunities to take advantage of them. We cannot plan for them, we cannot account for them, they exist entirely within that moment between two eternities. If you have ever caught yourself falling in love with someone, then you might know exactly what I am talking about.

I find myself saying: "once my debt is paid off I will have time for writing" or "I will start dating again once work settles down", but the truth is all I am doing is putting off life. Writing is my purpose in life why would I wait till my bills are paid off to fulfill my purpose in life? The answer is guilt and worry, byproducts of staring into that endless abyss of probabilities we call the future. Not only is it causing me stress, but it causes me to be indecisive. Once I have made a decision, I commit to it with my heart and soul. However getting me to commit to a course of action is a painstaking process. Some days I cannot even decide what I want to eat and oftentimes I skip meals in frustration. 

Before I move on to the fixes I need to make two points: The first is that I am reminded of something one of my martial arts instructors told me. He asked me philosophically "What is the difference between yes and no?" and challenged me to say yes when I would otherwise say no. And I did. I tried new foods, new music, new books, and made new friends. I also discovered a whole slew of things I didn't like, but that is expected. The second is that planning is itself not a bad thing, it's the over thinking, over planning and rigidness that break up the natural flow of life that I seek.

So I have a problem living in the moment, and it affects my life by making me indecisive, causing me to miss opportunities and not enjoy myself. Thankfully I have all the tools in my box, I just need to learn to utilize them again.

Zen and the art of intuition.

People are endowed with a powerful sense of intuition, I personally know many people who are highly intuitive and don't even realize it, interestingly everyone's intuition is different. My own intuition is very strong about certain things and really bad about others. One example is I have a sixth sense for people, when I actively pursued martial arts I was very good at reading people to dodge and block. I have met people who can arrive at complex calculations by intuition or guess the outcome of a game with a high level of success.

Intuition comes partly from experience, and partly from biological hard wiring. We all have a sense of ourselves that is ingrained from birth, we feel danger instinctively, we all seek love by instinct. But experience is where intuition is refined. After years of gaming I can sense when an enemy is feinting, when he is teching and when an attack is imminent. It's not just reading the obvious signs, somehow my intuitive brain is able to read farther into the situation then my conscious brain can. There are many stories of experts gaining a "six sense" when it comes to their field, once a person has a certain level of experience they often develop exceptional intuition.

Intuition then is a powerful tool, and a vital component to Zen. When it comes to daily life most of us are experts, but we have long since stopped listening to our intuition. Or in some rare cases we give credence to our fears and call it intuition. "I am afraid of what will happen if ________" so my intuition says I shouldn't. It's an easy trap to fall into. So we have to live intuitively without fear!

Zen and Wu Wei are about releasing your conscious mind, about releasing your conscious desires and about releasing your desire to control life. Letting our intuition guide us with occasional guidance from our minds. Living in the moment but glancing from time to time into both the future and the past. Although it is action without thought, it is not thoughtlessness. Instead of grasping tightly at the reigns we must loosen our grip and trust ourselves. That act of self trust is the hardest part, because we have grown to distrust ourselves. Trust and self-confidence is the final key to Wu Wei.

Crime and Punishment

We have all grown accustomed to being punished. First by our parents, then by teachers, church leaders, bosses and significant others. Even if we do not see it, or feel punished it is there. We are sculpted in a thousand different ways to fit within society or as Miguel Ruiz puts it "We are domesticated" into society, and taught what is ok. We are taught to conform to the standards of others. Oftentimes when we act according to our own desires or against society we are punished, to confound matters when we act within the rules of society we are rewarded. This means that added to our intuition is a sense of right and wrong given to you by society. Given the choice between our innate values and the values domesticated into us from birth, many people stick with what they are taught because it is comfortable. When you do something, ask yourself why? What happens if I do the opposite of this?

I bring this up because it factors into self-confidence and trust of intuition. Many of us are taught not to trust our instincts, we are taught to trust "logic" or "god" or "family". Because we are taught not to trust ourselves we doubt in the wisdom of our intuition, we doubt in the choices we make and it leads to that dreaded second-guessing. It is because of thinking like this that we become homogenized and lose much of our individuality and willingness to act outside of our comfort zones. If you want to be confident in yourself and your intuition, you have to try to unshackle yourself from all the sins of the past, all the domestication and burdens you have been forced to carry. Even if we cannot unshackle ourselves completely, being aware of the fact that we are sculpted by these "punishments" will give us a deeper insight into ourselves and why we act the way we do.

The Apex of living

We can indeed live within that moment between eternities, I am doing it right now. Instead of worrying about my life, I am putting my thoughts into words one moment at a time. But it isn't easy, just like each and every other person in the world I carry burdens of guilt and years of conditioning about what I should and shouldn't do, or think or feel.

I will not let my worry and obsession over planning to ruin my present, I know that my life has problems. But if I wait for them to be resolved before I start enjoying life, I will be at my deathbed wondering when my life is going to start.

Today I resolve to act within the moment, to enjoy life and stop worrying so damn much.

[wjrands]

Building Momentum

Yesterday I was in an online competition with several other players, and I ended up racking up an impressive kill count and ended the game virtually unscathed. At the end of the game one of my teammates asked me how I was able to do it, and I answered him truthfully; I had momentum.

Psychological Momentum is a big deal in the world of competitive sports, which they refer to colloquially as the "Hot Hand" or the "Big 'Mo". It's really a powerful force; the more we succeed (or rack up kill counts in our favorite online games) the bolder and more confident we become, which in turn leads us to more success. It becomes a self sustaining cycle for awhile until it is broken either by failure, fatigue or dumb luck. The player turns his attention inwards "What did I do wrong?", and the concentration brought forth by momentum is broken.

As human beings we often internalize the things that happen to and around us, even when logic dictates otherwise. I started my kill streak with a beautiful skill shot, the first kill of the game in fact. It was a difficult shot to pull off, but the fact of the matter is my enemy miscalculated and put himself in a bad place. I didn't say "god my opponent is such an idiot", no I internalized my success with "What a fantastic shot". And I internalized each and every success that followed.  Even when I missed or let an enemy escape, I glossed over it.  "I will get him next time", I told myself.

The inverse is also true however; failure and negativity can be internalized too. We fall into patterns of "I'm not good enough" or "Why does this keep happening to me?" that propagate more failure and negative energy. Each negative thought builds on what came before, until the original cause is buried beneath layers of absolute and total emotional bullshit. It's momentum; and whether it is forward or backward, momentum is a real and powerful force, a force people tend to follow without even realizing it. A failed project can result in a bad day, then a bad week, then a bad month and soon the whole year is fubar. We don't remember the failed project, only the momentum it started.

If we think of the universe as a series of cycles (which I do), then momentum makes perfect sense, it determines the direction and intention of our progress in life. If I am positive and I work hard, I will take a cycle that reflects that. If I am plagued with doubt and negative emotions, I will slide down into a cycle that reflects that too, and a single deviation in the road is all it takes to set us on a new path. I told myself "I will get him next time" and not "I am such an idiot for letting him get away."  The first one kept my positive momentum going and the second would have sunk it. The honest truth is, life is full of negative things but if we let them break our positive momentum  it becomes difficult to get it back; the more momentum we have, the harder it is to break.

I won't pretend to be the world's greatest expert, nor is my life perfect. But I have found a few ways to keep my own positive momentum going that I will share with you. Most of them seem pretty simple but in practice it is much harder then it seems.

Accept failure, defeat and negative events. But don't dwell on them; accept, learn and move on.

Look for little positive things to re-enforce your positive cycle. If work is difficult, be thankful you have a job. Look for something positive inside a problem.

Take this advice from a writer, challenge/conflict is interesting. If everything goes right the first time, life would be boring. Maybe it won't work for you, but it works for me.

Have a safety net, people you love and trust can help nudge you away from a negative cycle. Even just talking is enough to reaffirm yourself to a more positive path.

Ignore emotional vampires and banish the perpetually negative from your life. Remember that internalizing thing I mentioned earlier? These people will make your life hell if you let them inside you, if banishment is too harsh then minimize the damage they cause.

Positive momentum is really something to be savored, but don't fret when the cycle swings downwards.  That is natural too. Just try to focus on the positive and you will find yourself back on the path in no time.

[wjrands]

Lao Tzu and SOPA

Although I am extremely sick today, I wanted to fire another shot at SOPA before the blackout tomorrow. Writers often borrow from other writers, we encourage sharing because we know the truth, the only place for an idea to live and thrive is free, anything else is murder. Being too sick to write my own long anti-sopa rant I decided to leave a bit of wisdom from the Tao te Ching. Even if you are not a Taoist or interested in Eastern Religions I think it is perfect for this situation.

Do you think you can take over the universe and improve it? I do not believe it can be done. The universe is sacred. You cannot improve it. If you try to change it, you will ruin it. If you try to hold it, you will lose it

-Lao Tzu

The internet is rough around the edges, but it has become a living ecosystem. If the people behind SOPA try to "improve it" they will break it, and in more then just a metaphorical sense. I have already written several politicians and sent numerous letters documenting in great detail my total hatred of this bill. I recommend each and everyone one of you do the same.

[wjrands]

The Stack

I consider abilities to be the cornerstone of interesting game design, Last time I talked about interesting choices in my post about Hunters in World of Warcraft, but now I want to add to that discussion another aspect of spells and special abilities: timing.

This article is primarily about the CCG Magic: The Gathering, if you don't play magic or have no interest in the mechanics of CCG's I don't recommend this article to you. I also assume you are already somewhat familiar with the basics of the game, if you are not I recommend Star City Games YouTube videos on the subject.

Since April 1999 Magic has been built firmly on a system called the stack. The stack is a essentially an order of operations for playing batches of spells at the same time, at essence it is an eloquent and well designed system that can handle literally any kind of situation the game could possibly throw at it. To demonstrate I will simplify the stack the same way I was taught when I first entered competitive play, it is still a common example even today (I found it several times when doing the Google research for this article.)

Under most circumstances spells and abilities resolve according to a system nicknamed FILO; Also known as the First in Last Out rule. Simply put spells and abilities resolve in the reverse order that they are played in, the first spell cast being the last spell to resolve. It isn't a complex system but I still want to walk through the process for clarity; whenever a spell is cast it is added to the stack, if no other spells are added, that spell resolves as normal. However if I cast a lightning bolt and my opponent casts a counterspell, the counterspell resolves first and prevents the lightning bolt from being cast. Now for that more complicated example I promised, it will show how timing comes into play somewhat starkly:

Lets say you have a 2/2 Grizzly Bears and I choose to cast Lightning Bolt on it, in response you cast Giant Growth on Grizzly Bears. Because Giant Growth was cast last it resolves first, your Grizzly Bears becomes 5/5 then my Lightning Bolt resolves next for a non-fatal three points of damage.

Oh snap, it's da bears.

Pretty strait forward so far right? But timing is important here, watch what happens if we reverse the order of spells.

Lets rewind: you still have a 2/2 Grizzly Bear, however this time you are preparing to attack me. In anticipation of that attack you cast Giant Growth, in response I cast Lightning Bolt. Because Lightning Bolt was cast last and therefore resolves first: the Bears take a fatal 3 points of damage and dies. Giant Growth no longer has a legal target and is put into the graveyard. By choosing to wait until my enemy casts Giant Growth I effectively nullify two of his cards (The bears and Giant Growth) which nets me slight card advantage. (Another topic I will cover someday in more detail.)

Nothing ruins your day like 10,000 volts to the face.

Before the advent of the stack, magic had some unwieldiness that was unfriendly to new players. With the revision of rules that occurred in 1999 the game became both more simple to play and added a layer of strategic timing. I personally believe that abilities are an extension of the players will on the gamescape, and that having a simple versatile system for handling the timing of those abilities is an essential element to the mechanics of the game.

[wjrands]

SOPA and the new era of censorship

As the Americans learned so painfully in Earth's final century, free flow of information is the only safeguard against tyranny. The once-chained people whose leaders at last lose their grip on information flow will soon burst with freedom and vitality, but the free nation gradually constricting its grip on public discourse has begun its rapid slide into despotism. Beware of he who would deny you access to information, for in his heart he dreams himself your master.

                       -Commissioner Pravin Lal (Alpha Centauri)

If you read many tech sites, gaming news sites or the like; you are likely already aware that the Stop Online Piracy Act (Heretofore referred to as SOPA) and it's equally twisted sibling PIPA are winding their way through the legislative fast track. Oddly in a political climate so polarized that the two sides can't agree on waffles for breakfast; Somehow SOPA is overwhelmingly bipartisan.

What the hell is SOPA? 

Although written by congressional staffers (Corrupt ones at that), SOPA is the latest in a long line of tyrannical measures brought forth by the RIAA (and it's sister organization the MPAA) to curb the rise of content piracy online. The measure would allow the RIAA/MPAA/ETC to request a blacklist for websites that shows, refers to or links copyrighted material. They can also turn off your income by making it illegal for Paypal and other companies to process transactions to blacklisted sites. The perfectly innocent images of my hunter from World of Warcraft posted on this blog would qualify me under this law to have my site taken down and Paypal accounts frozen.

Not just bloggers; other gaming sites like GameFAQs, OcRemixes, SpeedRuns, and all kinds of content-derived sites could be shut down immediately and permanently. Sites like Facebook, Twitter, Flickr and DeviantArt would be forced to take down fanart, cosplay and other copyright protected works or risk being blacklisted/punished. That doesn't seem too bad right? Well it gets worse.

How bad can it get?

I can safely say without being accused of hyperbole that SOPA will break the internet. If you don't believe me take a look at how it works. I am going to say it one more time for emphasis, SOPA will break the internet.

Of course the internet wouldn't stay broken. The world is too invested in the internet to just let it stay broken, so eventually the powers that be would cobble together a bastardized version with all the censorship and blacklist intact. Then everything would be perfect right? We could live in a world free of piracy, where content creators get paid equitably for their work and the RIAA doesn't sue 80 year old grandmothers for downloading Hip Hop Albums.

Well no.

You see the United States is a very conservative country when you look at the makeup of the whole world, and the majority of the people in the world think that SOPA (And 90% of our post 9/11 laws) are Orwellian in nature. Currently the united states is considered a fair arbiter and administrator of the World Wide Web. A position that generates substantial income for us, but already other countries and organizations are taking steps to counteract the influence of the United States, and rightly so. They fear what will happen when the US Government finally enacts wide spread censorship, and the tyranny that will inevitably follow it. Tell me RIAA, how many jobs will the United States lose when Switzerland becomes the new backbone of the world information infrastructure? The pirates and the world would both circumvent us, and we would become irrelevant. Piracy will still exist and we will be royally screwed.

Demographics and new business models.

The American Assembly and the University of Columbia are currently working on statistical data that shows what the average American thinks about Piracy. The early results can be found here, and they are staggering.

Only a slim majority of Americans (52%) support penalties for downloading copyrighted music and movies-and limit this support to warnings and fines. Other penalties, such as bandwidth throttling and disconnection receive much lower levels of support. (Excerpt from the American Assembly report)

48% of the people think you shouldn't face penalties for illegally downloading material. That is not an insignificant number, and the efforts of the RIAA and MPAA are adding to those numbers every day. Huge majorities of the population believe you should be able to share copyrighted material with friends and family, huge majorities of people oppose massive disproportionate fees to people who break copyright law.

But interestingly people are significantly less likely to pirate when provided with acceptable alternatives. Alternatives like Netflix and Hulu have had noticeable impacts on the amount of movies and shows pirated in the USA, it is fact that people are willing to pay reasonable rates for good content, and they don't like being gouged and they certainly do not want to be flooded with ads while they are trying to relax and enjoy some shows they just paid for. Steam has enjoyed record breaking growth this year on the same premise, you get a virtual smorgasbord of content for reasonable prices.

Hell, the Freemium model could work here with some variation. League of Legends is free to play, but I've easily spent 50$ on LoL stuff in the last 6 months. I personally know musicians who give away free copies of their CD's and ask only that you buy some Merch. In my own field of writing many writers release free or steeply discounted versions of their books to drum up readership, one of my favorite writers Paulo Coelho not only advocates the sharing of books, but personally loaded his own books onto torrenting sites. Piracy dramatically increased his sales revenue and he has the documentation to prove it, and his is hardly the only successful example.

So why is the MPAA and RIAA doing this?

I'm going to be blunt here, I'm not a journalist and I'm not bound to be neutral or objective: The RIAA is deeply stupid.

Steve Blank wrote an excellent piece here, about how the industry has lost the ability to innovate and how it reached that point. The RIAA has a history of fighting against losing battles against innovation that stretches back into its conception. They even fought the VCR tooth and nail: Jack Valenti himself once famously said to congress "I say to you that the VCR is to the American film producer and the American public as the Boston strangler is to the woman home alone." Really Jack? Home media is now something like 80% of the industries profit and you wanted to ban it? How could somehow so shortsighted be left in charge of a billion-dollar industry?

Jack Valenti was hardly the worst; the RIAA and it's sister companies are run by executives and lawyers who have no respect for the creative process of their "clients" or the technological innovation that is shifting how media works. If you think this isn't about censorship then consider this story. The RIAA had a video removed from you-tube that was posted by 50 Cent himself to protest SOPA, talk about playing dirty. Of course in that same vein we also have the story of the famous blogger who was asked by various companies to post and discuss music on his blog. ICE (at the behest of the RIAA) seized his domain for 1 year, violating his right to due process and costing him a substantial part of his income, as well as his creative voice. The list goes on and on.

The RIAA is quite simply too stupid to live. Each time they trample a civil liberty or wrongly accuse someone they highlight their own stupidity and hypocrisy that much more. They are trapped in an antiquated business model and would rather lock the United States (And the world) into an ineffectual, tyrannical and outdated system. Instead of embracing new technology and new markets, they spend millions buying off politicians and stamping out new and creative systems. Look at History; If the RIAA had it's way the VCR, CD-Burner, Radio and Cassette deck would all be banned, think about that for a second.

So what the hell happens next?

Despite the financial and political power the RIAA possess they don't have a mortal lock just yet. Google, Facebook, Twitter, Amazon and others have publicly discussed a nuclear option to show their solidarity should the push to pass SOPA proceed. Imagine getting online to discover no Google for the day, no checking Facebook, No celeb Tweets and no ordering the latest books off Amazon. If SOPA or PIPA passes these companies would lose millions, as they would incur massive upkeep costs in the removal of trivial copyright violations. Not to mention a hobbled internet isn't a very good platform to run a company with. Many experts think the losses could mount into the tens of billions; How do you think that will affect the global economy you feckless thugs?

Now back to what really scares the shit out of me in this situation: Censorship. If you don't hate the MPAA and RIAA as much as I do after reading this post then I have one more thing for you to see. The head of the MPAA Chris Dodd thinks that China is the model we should use. Really? You could have left China out of the argument and still made some valid points, but you invalidate yourself when you bring a country that censors EVERY aspect of it's citizens lives into the debate. Dodd is nothing more then another paid thug who can't wrap his head around the fact that the world is changing, another VCR-banning fossil that should leave thinking to younger more flexible minds.

Look at China, look at the censorship paradise the RIAA and it's ilk want to create and tell me honestly that seeing the rest of the world follow a similar track doesn't make you ill. The internet is lining up against the censors: Fringe hacker organization Anonymous is gearing up for the biggest attack in it's history. Organizations dear to my heart like the EFF, and fellow writers of all political stripes are setting aside their differences and uniting to stand up against excessive and invasive censorship SOPA represents. Hundreds of tech companies and organizations have taken sides for or against, even the ESA I once supported is one of the principle supporters of the bill.

Regardless of your views on piracy please share these links to your friends and family. Despite what the RIAA, MPAA and ESA tells you, this isn't about Piracy; it is about control and censorship.

I also want to thank all the incredible writers and researchers I linked to, and give credit to them for their incredible efforts to fight this constitutional abomination.

Wesley James Rands

[wjrands]

Fix Hunters

Today I managed to fix my World of Warcraft UI following my unfortunate bout of restlessness earlier, a fact I quickly took advantage of; running a handful of dungeons on my alts and it really solidified a thought that I have had all throughout cataclysm. I know my blog isn't exactly on the Alexa top 500, but it does give me a limited forum to air my discontents. I'm sorry If you don't play World of Warcraft, because this post probably won't be of interest to you, unless you have an interest in the finer points of game mechanics. (Which I hope you do)

Here is goes:

Dear Blizzard, Please fix hunters.

I can already see the response on the comments : "Hunter DPS is fine", Hunters are doing great right now! Look at how great their damage is in Firelands and Dragon Soul! It's difficult to argue against that, in PvE hunters are often near or at the top of the charts, But I don't characterize a class as broken because it has lousy damage, especially a class that is prized for it's consistently high damage. No I save that damning condemnation for classes that are uninteresting to play.

Sid Meier coined a phrase about game design that should be treated as gospel when it comes to making games.

 A [good] game is a series of interesting choices. In an interesting choice, no single option is clearly better than the other options, the options are not equally attractive, and the player must be able to make an informed choice.

-Sid Meier

When I play my fire mage in a dungeon, I have 3-4 viable options when it comes to what strategy I use in a given situation. Sometimes one doesn't work as well as the others, I note when it doesn't and try to figure out why, when I come across a new situation or enemy; I have several viable rotations I can experiment with. I could talk about the nuts and bolts of a fire mage for a full post, but I want to draw a contrast. My fire mage Adul plays very differently in different situations, Furthermore when it comes to "clicking abilities" no two battles are the same, because of how fire mages are built they have a high number of procs. I frequently have to adjust my abilities during a battle according to those procs. Because of that, the flow of the battle is different every time, and that makes for more interesting game play.

Now why am I upset over how hunters are built? Well to be entirely honest I only need 3 buttons for most of a fight. There aren't any interesting choices when it comes to playing a hunter, and it's entirely the fault of the new hunter resource "focus" and it's signature abilities (Cobra shot and Steady Shot) . For the non-hunters allow me to explain why this mechanic is so goddamn boring; Hunters (With the exception of beast-mastery hunters) have 100 energy, a special shot from my bow requires anywhere from 25 to 50 focus (Without talents) and that energy recovers very very slowly. I can use two, maybe three shots before I am completely out of focus and unable to use abilities, if my energy came back at a reasonable rate that would be OK, but focus regenerates at a glacially slow rate, the only way for a hunter to reliably recover focus is to use Cobra Shot or Steady shot.

Steady Shot (I'll omit mention of Cobra shot for convenience) regenerates 9 focus (before talents) when you use it, if you're a marksman hunter and you fire it twice, you get a temporary damage bonus. Doesn't sound too awful does it? Except if you accidentally take Steady Shot off your bar, you won't be able to do anything else as you wait for your focus to regenerate. Steady Shot is not an "interesting choice", it is something a hunter is required to do if he wants to deal any sort of damage. I'm not saying a class shouldn't have a signature ability or a primary attack, Adul the fire-mage is very fond of the fireball spell and it's clear that it was designed to be his primary single-target damage spell. But if I decide I don't want to use Fireball, I'm still viable, just slightly less efficient. If Dawnstalker the hunter doesn't use Steady Shot, she sits for 7 seconds waiting for enough focus to use another ability.

Because of the damage boost, it's optimal for a hunter to "pair" steady shots together when focus is low.  Again this is a perfectly viable mechanic, it rewards a player for planning his shots and focus use ahead of time. However the real situation is that playing a hunter is always  hitting the "1" keybinding for steady shot pairs, followed by the ability they actually want to use, followed by two more pairs of steady shot. Sounds exciting doesn't it? The boredom with Steady Shot is my primary beef, but as a mechanic it's fairly terrible for other reasons; for example if I fight another player and he runs into my melee range, I can't use Steady Shot anymore, I am essentially focus starved until I get away. In the same vein, if my enemy runs behind a pillar (fairly common in player vs player combat) for cover, my steady shot does nothing and I'm focus starved again. To compound that problem Cobra shot has a cast time, which means it cannot be used while moving, this can be remedied by an ability called Aspect of the Fox, the downside however is AotF causes your damage to take a steep hit. Because of how Cobra Shot is designed I have to choose between damage or mobility, Which again isn't a terrible tradeoff.  But given the difficulties hunters have with fighting in melee, such a steep penalty in PvP is often fatal.

To put it simply Hunters deliver consistently high damage in Player vs Environment combat because they are railroaded into a simple way to play, but the clunky focus and cobra shot mechanics are annoyingly deadly in Player Vs Player combat, and in battles where mobility is vital. But the most important and perhaps damning thing I can say is to reiterate Sid Meier's point, If I'm not making interesting choices I'm getting bored and I'm not having fun.

[wjrands]

The Many Worlds of Super Mario

A few months ago this came across my radar.

Like many writers I consider multiple realities to be a delicious topic for writing; although by far the best writing on the subject was done by a writer by the name of Michael Moorcock; the entire concept of a fictional Multiverse was made popular by his Elric series in fact.

This is a topic I want to cover more in depth in the future; in the mean time I recommend you pick up some Elric books and read up. If things go well I'll post more of these "short" posts with links to objects I find interesting... as well as my own commentary.

[wjrands]

Reduce, Reuse and Recycle

Over New Years I was able to enjoy some awesome games of MTG: Commander (Also known to old school players as Elder Dragon Highlander) with friends and family. I thought I would take some time and share part of my own personal philosophy for building an interesting EDH Deck, plus shed some light on staples you may not be aware of.

Once again I'm going to assume you are familiar with the basic rules of MTG Commander, if you are not I recommend you take a look at the Official Rules before you read the rest of this article.

Anyone who knows the format is familiar with the intense power level that Commander brings to the proverbial table, Commanders themselves are generally fearsome beaters, capable of massive card advantage or provide utility that is rarely seen in constructed. Games last longer, and priority is given to both a sturdy mana base and generation of card advantage. I call my approach the 3R Principle: Reduce, Reuse and Recycle. I'll dive into that today because although it seems small, without it your deck will run out of steam while others maintain their beatdown.

Reduce, Reuse and Recycle.

Card advantage is essential in Commander, woe is the player without cards in his hand and abilities to trigger when the game enters the home stretch. Card advantage itself is large enough to be a topic, but its important enough that I will touch upon the basics here. Each card you have in play and in your hand (in theory) represents a threat, either it's damage in the form of a creature or burn spell, counter-magic designed to lock-down an enemies threats or some other form of utility that helps you win. If you can use one spell to remove two of an enemies creatures, you gain a slight card advantage as your enemy used two cards and you destroyed them with one card. If you play a card that allows you to draw four cards for the price of one card, you have given yourself an additional three card advantage over your enemy.

Creatures that have come into play effects are particularly good at generating card advantage, usually you get a spell and a good chump blocker (or combo piece, or re-animator bait) for the price of one. Good examples include:

Acidic Slime is perfect for Commander, when you play it you get the immediate value of destroying an artifact, enchantment or land; plus you get a 2/2 Deathtouch that is capable of taking down even the largest of enemy beaters when they come knocking.

Karmic guide is my personal VIP for creatures with come into play utility. She's pro-black, flying and brings a creature directly from the graveyard to play! I don't think I have ever regretted drawing a Karmic Guide. She is also the perfect segue to the reuse topic. Being able to bring back a key card reliably is very important, that is where being able to reuse comes in. I will go into two types of reuse here, the first is reoccurring cards and the second is graveyard recovery. The first card I will show is a prime example of both.

Disturbed Burial is without a doubt one of the most efficient cards you could possibly put into a Commander deck, once you reach the requisite 5 mana to play it without losing it, you have a reliable method of fishing your dead creatures out of the graveyard and eventually back into play. The only real downsides are the high mana cost and the creatures still need to be recast from the hand. Buyback itself is a very powerful mechanic in Commander, and other notable cards include Whispers of the Muse (Which builds card advantage), Allay, Corpse Dance and my personal favorite:

Artifacts are a popular source of mana fixing, if your enemy lacks a beefy Artifact Creature feel free to dismantle his mana base every turn. Anything that can be used over and over again can turn the tide of battle in a long game. The next two examples are buffs that have a considerable amount of potential replay.

Excellent reusable tutoring meets

Cheap and efficient beatdown.

Both of these cards are excellent examples of cards that can be used over and over again. Unless your enemy happens to be packing a source of exile you are free to buff your creatures and search for spells over and over again. Other fine examples include all the recursion enchantments (Cessation, Sleepers Guile, Slow Motion, Sluggishness, Spirit Loop, Glistening Oil, etc.) and equipment such as Mask of Avacyn, Whispersilk Cloak and Champions Helm. Being able to reuse a card will generate a huge amount of card advantage over the long run, and it puts you into a stronger position as your enemies waste cards.

The final aspect of the 3R principle is to recycle your resources. Find ways to squeeze the smallest amount of use out of your cards before they are destroyed, if you have a Mogg Fanatic sacrifice it for one damage when your opposition sweeps the board with a Wrath of God. Hold useless extra lands in your hand, it pads your hand against random discard and keeps your enemy guessing what you might be saving. Plus it gives you some leeway if the board is reset. Add cards to your deck that can allow your cards to have one final chance at being useful... Fecundity, Grave Pact, Krark-clan Ironworks, Karmic Justice, Attrition and my new favorite: Martyr's Bond.

Whenever something you control dies you should try to either profit from it, or hurt someone for it. Keep your creatures busy from the moment they hit the board till the moment they hit the graveyard, squeeze all the value out of your creatures you can!  These are some very basic examples of cards that can provide some serious staying power to your commander deck, don't forget Reduce, Reuse and Recycle the next time you sit down at the table to build decks, you won't regret it.

[wjrands]

Early Reflections on Wu Wei

How do you find meaning and clarity when there is so much to the world? The answer from the Taoist perspective is "Wu Wei" or non-action, Buddhists call it Zen, and competitors of all stripes call it "The Zone". It is that perfect moment when everything slides into place, when we are at the height of our awareness.

It is in that moment that we are fully alive, freed of the ego and intellect we simply exist and act. It is not a place of mindless passivity, nor is it a place of thoughtlessness or greed, to reach the state of Wu Wei is not easy feat. First you must reach the height of your abilities and than paradoxically you must release your intellect from the process.

I could write volumes on the process of attaining Wu Wei, but that isn't today's topic.

How many moments do we get like that in life? How many times before we shuffle off this mortal coil can we experience a moment of true fulfillment?

Since the first time I touched upon it, I have sought Wu Wei in everything I have done. I feel it when I test myself against worthy challenges, I feel it when I cleanse myself with meditation and Tai Chi. Each of those things brings me closer to Wu Wei, brings me closer to harmony with myself.

It is not a lasting perfection, I don't believe such a thing is possible, it is the infinitesimal taste of perfection, it is that hint of the unattainable that if we attempt to grasp; fades like a dream.

Everything is automatic and yet... intentional.

The mind is quiet, and yet it is alive with power.

Each moment of Wu Wei shows us something profound about the nature of life, and the moment we realize... it disappears.

Sometimes these moments happen purely by happenstance, mostly they are the product of constant training of the self. I have experienced hundreds of moments like this in my own life.

Think about the moment you tasted that sweet clarity, within that moment you could fully perceive your purpose in life, your destiny.

That is the essence of my belief.

[wjrands]

Defeated (By Caffeine)

Whenever I attempt to cut myself off caffeine my body reacts violently, first I crash followed by epic nausea, dizziness and neurological pain that rivals the worst migraine. My personal crusade of kicking the Caffeine habit faltered before  it even really began.

The effects of the caffeine aren't even what bothers me, it kills me when I am dependent on something that isn't essential, or natural, It bothers me that I have an addiction that I cannot control. I can turn off pain, endure physical and emotional injury... but I can't even quit drinking soda for a few days without a nervous breakdown. Each attempt makes me feel more and more pathetic.

With the sheer amount of other stuff going on in my life I simply can't afford to waste time and attention on something that is essentially ego. It leaves me feeling defeated and more then a little humbled. I've had success in cutting down but the second I have a stressful day or a role playing night it's back to the bottle for me. (Especially when I'm the DM)

The caffeine withdrawals did induce a deep-sleep which left me some very interesting dreams though, I guess that is consolation for now.

[wjrands]

When things don't change any longer, that's the end result of entropy, the heat-death of the universe. The more things go on moving, interrelating, conflicting, changing, the less balance there is-and the more life... Life itself is a huge gamble against the odds, against all odds! You can't try to live safely, there's no such thing as safety. Stick your neck out of your shell, then, and live fully! It's not how you get there, but where you get to that counts. What you're afraid to accept, here, is that we're engaged in a really great experiment, you and I. We're on the brink of discovering and controlling, for the good of all mankind, a whole new force, an entire new field of anti-entropic energy, of the life-force, of the will to act, to do, to change!

-Ursula Le Guin, The Lathe of Heaven

[wjrands]

The Knapsack Problem

Recently I’have been playing too much Pokemon: Emerald,  raising my Pokemon for transfer to the illustrious Diamond and Pearl. Having long played the franchise I thought I would share one of my favorite ways of looking at the game. It involves a fairly basic math puzzle: The Knapsack Problem.

A knapsack problem is one of the more interesting ways to understand how someone’s mind works. Essentially you have a set number, like the space in a backpack. The goal is to fill the backpack as optimally as possible. It has implications in all fields of gaming: in World of Warcraft it can help determine the optimal raiders for a dungeon, or the best items to take going into a certain area. In Strategy games it can help determine the optimal use of the food/unit limit. But since I’m playing Pokemon that is what I am going to use as an example.

If your unfamiliar with Pokemon you should find most of the terminology similar to other RPGs. If your unfamiliar with gaming slang… try to keep up; I will try to keep the language clear.

In a Pokemon battle the trainer is allowed 6 Pokemon with 4 moves each. That is 24 moves total. What is the most effective use of moves? The enemy could literally choose from millions of possibilities for his team design. When you take moves into consideration the number pushes past anything I care to try to quantify and while it is possible to account for all the type combinations it would spread your team woefully thin.

I prefer to think of gamer's as falling into two categories in this area: Greedy and Paranoid. Lets give each type of gamer a Swampert and see what they do with it.

A greedy gamer wants to optimize his teams power; He decides to give his Swampert Earthquake and maximizes his attack statistic. Although Earthquake is a very powerful move but has no effect on flying enemies. Luckily Swampert learns Ice Beam. (Very effective against flying Pokemon ) Because the greedy gamer put all his stats into attack his earthquake is extremely powerful but his ice beam is next to useless.

The paranoid gamer on the other hand wants to minimize his chances of being caught off guard; coincidentally this is the category I fit into most often. I would take that same Swampert and give it balanced stats with Ice Beam. It’s true that damage output is lower then the greedy gamer  but to compliment it I am useful in more situations. The majority of gamer's fit into both categories and sway between them by circumstance. It is a weakness in psychology that can be exploited with sharp eyes.

Lets take a look at one of my most powerful Pokemon as an example. The beautiful and sturdy: Milotic. The proper way to display him among competitive gamer's would look something like this:

Milotic (M) @ Leftovers Trait: Marvel Scale (50% higher defense when suffering) EVs: 58 Special Def / 252 Special Attack / 200 Def Modest Nature (+SAtk, -Atk) -Ice Beam -Surf -Recover -Mirror Coat

This is a pretty standard build for Milotic. Mirror Coat reflects special attacks back, recover makes up for the damage sustained in those attacks. Aside from that move he has very little versatility, he does pack a water move for extra damage and an ice move for taking out Grass/Flying/Dragon types.  His defenses are top-notch (Thanks to marvel scale and a naturally high Special Defense) and his modest nature gives him incredible special attack. (At the loss of attack, but he has no moves that use attack.) Combined with Recover he can take an incredible amount of punishment before going down.

His power comes at expense of his versatility however; and it was a choice I make gladly, under the right circumstances Milotic can finish off two-three enemy Pokemon without fainting. Under the wrong conditions he is a deadly liability. The stunning lack of versatility can be made up on other parts of my team. Remember this is 1/6th of the Pokemon I have and uses 4/24th of the total moves I have available.

So think of the knapsack problem next time you play something. What would give you the most value? What do you sacrifice? Does it fit your overall strategy? It’s the dynamic values of our choices that make our games so very interesting.

[wjrands]

Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength; loving someone deeply gives you courage.

-Lao Tzu, The Tao Te Ching