The state of MMO's in 2013! I always meant to write something about MMO's and haven't before. Probably because they just bore me to tears these days... In the beginning they were fun and new, so many people all together in these new "worlds" to explore and play in together! Then there were seemingly endless same-ol boring cookie-cutter re-hashes of the same early ones. Last couple years been a whole bunch of "lobby shooters" spewed out masquerading as MMO's... pvp-pay-to-"win" junk. People have a strange difficulty understanding what makes a game pay-to-"win", it seems simple to me, if you're buying advantage then it's pay-to-"win", simple. People have gotten all worked up about them as if they were so wonderful, BAH! Thngs like anything made by Wargaming.net, the russian-mobster pay-to-"win" people who have forever claimed (till recently where they finally admitted it) they weren't pay-to-"win". But who now all-of-a-sudden said they will be removing all pay-to-"win" from their game (without giving concrete details). Wonder if the fanbois will now finally admit to the truth of it, or continue their pathetic fawning worship of this juvenile UN-balanced pvp-trash ...?

But there is some hope! The Asian-market has been creating some things that (if we ever see them in the west) may be above the crap we have currently in the west these days. Archeage comes to mind (I can do without the cat-people, but it's a staple of Asian-market MMO's what's to be done?), it looks fun and to have a greater sandbox depth then what we've seen in recent years in the west. I don't and won't mention any of the recent "action" type so-called MMO's (even when they really are MMO's) as I am no fan of turning MMO's into arcade button-mashers. Not that I don't luv a old-school arcade game now and again, I just don't have any stomach for turning MMO's into "action" hyper-kinetic button-mashers. I have yet to see any of those games that I've been impressed with.

I actually am liking what I'm reading about The Elder Scrolls Online, and am hopeful about it. And yes there is EverQuest Next, of which we know almost nothing except that they scraped and re-did a earlier version (I agree with this article, we need a return to actual consequences, bring back the corpse-runs!) that they themselves were not happy with, this says something at least about SoE's determination to get it right (at least I hope so)! As a fan of the original EverQuest back in it's glory days of Kunark I am hopeful. EQ2 was fun before the Shadow Odyssey took it down bad directions (IMHO), and it's now at a point where, it's just not aged well (again IMHO), gotten ridiculous with crazy-armor/mounts/appearance-pets, etc. that tend to come along with "free-to-pay". They are planning on actually showing it in just a few weeks time, and we will finally get a look, get some real details! There is talk that they may well be planning a launch this year, we'll see. Maybe, finally the long awaited and longed for MMO's renaissance is coming!

Been awhile...

Wow it's been a long time since I put anything up on here... Well I did get side-tracked on the Current TV Community site for the past couple years (I was a very frequent poster there). Now it has lamentably passed into the final night... We shall see if the people who bought out Current will have any kind of community forum site. I do see there's a new Network coming that is already being talked about as a possible successor to Current. Pivot TV coming Aug 1st. No idea if they'll be available for viewing in my area. I see Joseph Gordon-Levitt has a show that will be on it. He is a excellent actor, I have yet to see a single performance of his I didn't think worthy.

Did get a wonderful dog also who takes time to care for (needs his daily walkies! and play-time in the yard!). Great Pyrenees from a area rescue shelter. Finding him was the best day I can remember! Dogs are the best, and saving a good dog is the most rewarding of things!

Oh Harrisburg!

Poor Harrisburg, can't catch a break! Not only is there no money (the city is broke -in more ways then one!-, and trying to go into chapter 9 municipal bankruptcy protection). Our Mayor Linda Thompson is increasingly the laughingstock not only of Pennsylvania but now the whole country... Current TV commentator Keith Olbermann (who I think very highly of!) featured Thompson in his 'Worst Persons' during the Oct 20th broadcast of "Countdown with Keith Olbermann" (Unfortunately there doesn't seem to be a video up for this episode). For the record the prayer-vigil to "heal" the cities fiscal woes has not met with favor from-on-high. Maybe the mayor just isn't righteous enough to attract the attention of him on high? Who can say... 

The Denial of Death By Ernest Becker

I very recently saw (thank you so very much  Netflix adviser!) a powerful documentary
Flight from Death: The Quest for Immortality (the trailer can be watched here http://wp.flightfromdeath.com/ ), one of those that really haunt you, and make you see everything in a very different light. But also admittedly, paradoxically, a dark light. Fairly recently had the revelation that everything in the (human) world can ultimately be reduced to human psychology. All the "great and weighty issues" of the day, are actually about the workings of human psyches. Is the Israeli/Palestinian conflict about land?, politics?, religion?, resources? Or..? about the ego's and identities of these peoples in conflict? Sure there are these other issues, but behind them, and the reason they fail to come to some kind of resolution is the very things that they are talking about in the video. Their beliefs about themselves and a very destructive inability to get beyond them. (without seeing the video the above probably really won't make any sense, sorry!) 

"Following the work of the late cultural anthropologist, Ernest Becker, and his Pulitzer Prize-winning book Denial of Death, this documentary explores the ongoing research of a group of social psychologists that may forever change the way we look at ourselves and the world."

Again need to say, the documentary is a definite eye-opener! Worth watching. I'm in the middle of reading the Ernest Becker book (available through Amazon in paperback. Not easy reading, and Becker is just too much the apologist for Freud's personal hangups, but still, excellent! I find myself wondering if Becker knew (or could acknowledge) Freud's major cocaine addiction!?).

3rd world America

Here in east coast Pennsylvania we've had a time of it recently! Last week power outages form Irene now today they're turning off the water (in Harrisburg) so I heard though I've seen no official post online. I do see where gas is being turned off, and there are "Mandatory water conservation notices". Wow! Even the brain-dead wrong-wingers ought to be able to tell that climate change is REAL! Regardless of their mad-ideology. We had the massive heat wave earlier in the summer, now massive storms and all the damage and tragedy they've created. Put those together with the 3rd world state of our crumbling away infrastructure and things are getting really bad. Starting to think the lunatic-fringe survivalists are onto something. At least as far as the necessity of being self-sufficient. If I had the money I'd definitely be looking at getting a small house in the country (enough land to grow a few vegetables maybe) with some passive and active solar, it's own well, wood-stove, etc. Something that isn't going to get flooded. Something with it's own heat/water/electricity! In today's increasingly 3rd world america you can't count on even the basic utilities to be reliable. It's an open, well known fact that Harrisburg's water delivery system is -very- old, and in extremely bad condition. Of course there's no money to do anything about it, and there doesn't seem to be any will to do anything about it. The power grid in general across the country is well known to be a chaotically pieced together mess that's also very old, and extremely out of date. Don't even want to talk about the condition of the roads and bridges! Sub-standard cell phone and internet service in comparison to REAL first world nations. It's all pretty bleak and very few people are really seriously talking about it. Only hope I've seen at all as far as serious interest/discussion recently was a interesting interview on Charlie Rose last night. Tom Friedman of The New York Times & Johns Hopkins Professor Michael Mandelbaum on their book 'That Used To Be Us: How America Fell Behind In The World It Invented And How We Can Come Back'

Capitalism, a love story

Just finally got around to watching "the right's" (who should be known as "The Wrong") Great-Satan the one-and-only Michael Moore's Capitalism, a Love Story.  A very important movie that should be viewed by anyone with 2 brain cells to rub together. Oh it's definitely -not- a joy to watch, very much the opposite. Very sad to see the things that have been done to so many decent people (by no fault of theirs) by a small number of the absolute scum-of-the-earth. And of course "the wrong" continue preaching their mad-evil laissez-faire style capitalism that destroys the country they claim so fervently to love and worship (though it's clear their true worship is none other then old Mammon himself). After their precious trickle-down has proven itself over the decades as false (gotta love that, "trickle down", so very true to "the wrong", image of the rich pissing on... well everyone else... you know, the masses, the american people, and the people of the world as a whole). Well as long as the 1% gets it's money!, and remains safely enthroned in power for eternity-amen! That's all that really matters.

If this, what we have today in america, is the beauty and wonder of capitalism, then bring on the Socialism! Or at least some decent Social-Democracy like they have in those sane European countries (the ones that terrify "the wrong" so desperately)! Places where the real citizens have actual health care for instance, not just the few. Where there's a real safety net for the people.

Books! Cyberpunk Sci/Fi. Part 1

Probably bout time I actually put something here other then political, so here goes! A loving tribute to some favorite books!

I do love to read (who doesn't love a good book, come on!). Always have. Good Sci/Fi and Fantasy as far as fiction goes. I have been a huge fan of Cyberpunk Sci/Fi since it's inception in the early 80's (it's early glory days when most the best were written). See below a list of some of the best of the genre (and a few not technically Cyberpunk, but books that influenced it, or seemed to have been influenced by it). A quick list of some of the "best of".

These first 3 non-fiction books were known to have strongly influenced a few of the early “classic” cyberpunks. So I must list them. Very interesting general theme of accelerating change in culture driven by ever faster innovations in science and technology.

Future Shock

The Third Wave

Powershift: Knowledge, Wealth, and Violence at the Edge of the 21st Century

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True Names...and Other Dangers
Also stated by some of the classic authors as having a huge influence (and a very worthy read regardless). Find myself re-reading this every few years also.

Across Realtime
Not exactly Cyberpunk but shares many of the basic concepts and ideas that set Cyberpunk aside as a special sub-genre to Science fiction. Excellent book made up of 2 smaller books, and a short story that all go together. "The Peace War", "The Ungoverned", and "Marooned in Realtime".

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I absolutely love this short story collection. I still re-read the stories from time to time. Bruce Sterling's introductory essay is a excellent introduction to Cyberpunk.

I'd recommend almost anything written by Bruce Sterling!

Involution Ocean
Early Sterling, his first novel, my copy has copyright 1977, and there's a introduction by none other then Harlan Ellison!

The Artificial Kid (Context (San Francisco).)

Islands in the net




Probably my single all time favorite book! I always wished he would have written more in this setting.

Holy Fire (Bantam Spectra Book)
Another absolutely brilliant book by Sterling, “post-Cyberpunk”, about a fascinating near-future where the "Medical Industrial Complex" is the biggest, most powerful part of the economy. And very sensible old people run the world.

Distraction
An yet another, also brilliant work by Sterling. This one about a near future spin-doctor. Believable and frightening near future.

A Good Old-Fashioned Future
More post-cyberpunk near future excellent short stories. I'd love him to write a book (or books) based on some of these characters. "Deep Eddy", and "Bicycle repairman" are favorite stories of mine in this collection. I'd love to read more about these characters.

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The below 3 are something special also. They take place in a near future unnamed North African city. There was going to be a 4th book unfortunately Effinger died in 2002 before he finished it. The first 2 chapters of what was to be the fourth book titled "Word of Night" can be read in the short story collection "Budayeen Nights" listed below (I haven't had the pleasure of reading them myself, but I look forward to doing so after re-reading the previous 3 books).

When Gravity Fails

A Fire in the Sun

The Exile Kiss

Budayeen Nights