Moral Inflexibility in Games

So games with moral choice systems have been getting better, no longer is the choice to either save the orphan or burn him alive, but it's still got a long way to go.

Take for example the Tenpenny Tower's quest in Fallout 3, where the "good" action is basically acting like a retard, or in the same game the Vampire quest line where you are basically acting like an enforcer running a protection racket. Then there are a number of quests in Mass Effect 2, a game that generally gets the moral choice system pretty right, for example one of the first "found" missions you do via scanning has you finding data that could harm your partners if released to the public.

Of course the good action is to send it to the authorities, the neutral to send it back to them, and the "evil" to keep it for yourself, seems pretty straight forward right? send it to the public to be a good guy, wrong, moral choices very rarely exist in a vacuum, you never forget in the game that you're working with them because it's the only choice, so antagonising them is plain stupid, the good choice should be to keep the data, and the evil choice should be to send it back to them. After all there is nothing stopping you releasing it once you're done with them? Now some people might say that fits the definition of Mass Effect 2's morality system, which defines the actions as moral and ruthless, and keeping the data back is pretty ruthless (I'd personally say intelligent).

But the problem is, in most games with a moral choice system, it's one or the other, you can't be an angel and a demon, and there is no reward for being a well rounded character, and you're punished for taking different actions, for every "evil" action you take, even in games that don't take away from your "good" score like Mass Effect 2, you're punished because you've lost access to those "good" points which can drastically effect the plot, forcing you to make decisions you'd never make in the same situation if it was reality.

You often hear players say "this playthrough I'll be evil" or similar, but is that something we want as gamers? or would it be better to let us play the game as we want? making decisions based on the situation as if we were there, rather then forcing us to conform to a pre-established moral system.

Raise the legal drinking age to 21?

So the other night I was watching Q&A on the ABC where they had the PM Kevin Rudd being asked questions by a bunch of 16-25 year olds (I think that was the age group), and one of the questions was "should the legal drinking age be raised to 21" now he waffled a bit, saying there needed to be studies to see if it would have an impact on the road toll, good answer, but when asked his personal opinion if he wants it, he said "of course".

Now this yeah I'll be 30, so it has no impact on me, I don't have kids, don't plan on having kids, so again no impact on me, but one thing I would like to point out, is the double standard.

In Australia 18 is the age when you are considered an adult in all things, you can drink, you can drive (not at the same time you morons), you can enlist, or join the police forces, etc, etc. My issue with the idea of raising the drinking age, which for all I know might actually make an impact, is that it splits that, either you're an adult with all the rights and responsibilities that come with it at 18, or your not.

If you're not careful you'll end up with situations like they have in America where kids are fighting wars before their legally allowed to buy a beer, and frankly, that disgusts me.

Damn American Dates!

Okay this might sound kind of petty, but it's an annoyance and we all know how well I deal with those don't we? So I'm watching the Fallout New Vegas trailer (see below) and at the very end it says "Fall 2010"... and I just want to /facepalm because I have no fucking clue when that is, for starters Australia doesn't have "fall", we have Summer, Spring, Winter, Autumn, so is "fall" Spring or Autumn? And then there is the fact that the seasons are reversed down here, Summer is around the new year... Winter is the middle of the year...

Why can't they realise that the Internet is a global thing and just say "Q3" 2010? Everyone can work out what quarter 3 means, it means July to September... anyway looks pretty nice, even if it confuses the fuck out of me on when it's coming out.

Limitations of English

So last night I was doing a bit of day dreaming while I was suppose to be fixing something, I had made a note to someone online that I was a little bit sad now that I've finished Dragon Age and Mass Effect 2, very good games, as it means that there aren't any games coming out anytime soon that I'm really excited about.

At this point he told me "get a life!"... which put my back up as I replied this sadness wasn't "a family member died" or even "my pet died", it was a tiny sadness on par with "oh, my favourite TV show is finished for good". He apologised and empathised, understanding what I meant.

But that got me thinking, English is so wonderfully precise about something, with dozens of different words with slightly different meanings for some things, but so horrible imprecise about emotions.

Take for example the word Love, in English the word can mean so many different things, all depending on context, yet other languages such as Ancient Greek they had 5 different words for love, each depending on context, the two most famous were Agápe (family / friend love) and Éros (romantic love).

It makes me wonder why English with it's complex grammar and wide range of words for the simplest concepts doesn't have different words to convey different levels of the most complex thing humans can experience, emotions, hell we don't even have our own word for "person I'm going to marry" having to borrow it from the French (fiancée).

It's odd, really.

Vatican popes slippers in mouth...

So the Vatican has opened it's big gaping maw yet again and done more to hurt Christian progress then any number of Muslim extremists... by commenting on a fucking movie.

The Vatican has described the science fiction film 'Avatar', which has taken $1 billion (£600m) at the box office, as bland, cliched and overly-sentimental.
Telegraph.co.uk

I mean seriously, I didn't really care for the plot that much, or the acting (by humans at least), but the effects were exceptional, and the 3D interesting if not a little annoying after a while (fucking 3d glasses suck)... but honestly, it's not like Dogma which everyone knew was going to hank them off majorly, as far I can remember it doesn't even reference human religions, just the one it made up, and damn near all Fantasy and Sci-Fi fiction (book, games, movies, etc) does that, so what the fuck are they doing?

It's either a ploy to get attention by bagging something "popular" (I'm at least happy it beat that Twilight shit into the ground money wise, if they want to beat up on a movie, try that dribble, unlike Avatar it at least has it coming) or they are honestly stupid enough to think people want them to do movie reviews rather then you know... doing shit that actually matters... sort of like the various governments around the world.

I'm not a huge fan of the catholic church, that's not for any faith based reasons, which I wont get into, but rather their lack of doing anything, they have massive amounts of money and real-estate, constantly open their traps, and totally fail to live up to Christ's legacy.

You know Christ the dude who went around not only preaching and saving souls, but doing a lot of practical earthly good at the same time.

So yea... they need to shut their pie holes and start acting like Christians... you know doing good works rather then sitting around in their palace drinking expensive wine and eating 5 star meals.

3D: Time Is Circular.

So what's with the obsession about 3d all of a sudden? Sure Avatar was an awesome movie effects wise and the 3d was pretty cool (apart from the fact my bladder was about to explode after a 3 hour movie without an intermission... and my nose hurt from two sets of glasses sitting on my face)... but really why all the 3D rage?

Are people really that into it? 3D movies (can sort of see the attraction if it suits the movies, but most movies would be ruined in 3D), but 3D home TVs and 3D video games? pfft it's a novelty I guess...

But really I'm not that interested in it, I doubt I'll ever buy a 3D TV unless it's one of those things that can bog standard with the model I want, and I know I'll never bother with 3d games, it's just something else to give me a damn headache, I already can't read what's on my TV without my glasses, so wearing two sets all the time to get the details and the effect would just ruin it for me.

Also frankly I play games for the game play, not the graphics, the graphics are icing, the game play is the cake.

I guess it's all James Cameron's fault... Avatar was great... but it's like being back in the 80s with everyone (companies) pushing 3D on us... What's next? Shoulder Padding?

"Racist" Australian KFC Ad - An Australian Rant

So here is my rant back at the fucking septic tanks.

KFC Ad: Americans need to pull their heads in.

A KFC advertisement that shows an Australian cricket supporter giving fried chicken to West Indies fans has caused outrage in the US, where it has been interpreted as racist.
http://news.ninemsn.com.au/national/990933/racist-kfc-cricket-ad-causes-uproar-in-us

So the yanks are being stupid asses again. I could sort of understand the buzz over the Jackson Jive skit, but this... it's just beyond pathetic. It's an ad focused on Australians... who at the time are playing Cricket against the West Indies... it has nothing to fucking do with the fucking yanks. So fucking pull your heads in you cocks.

Dragon Age Expansion!!!

Woot. Seriously fucking awesome, 15+ more hours of Dragon Age!!!
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/97247-Updated-Dragon-Age-Origins-Awakening-Wakes-Up-On-March-16

http://dragonage.bioware.com/awakening

Word Ban List of 2010

Using an app to tweet about sexting? One university wants you to watch your language.

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2009/12/purging-the-queens-english-of-tweet-app-and-sexting.ars

I seriously fucking agree, take your time and use the Queen's English you fucking twits, there are tons of words, you don't need to invent new ones.

Studs and Sluts

I was half asleep last night when a thought came to me, you see I had been reading a forum and one poster made a rather heartfelt rant about the double standard regarding promiscuity in our society, in that while men who sleep around are considered studs, woman who do the same are considered sluts. It's hard a new thing, been around for thousands of years, no matter how unfair people might feel it is, and I doubt it will go away any-time soon, I personally think it's rather unfair myself, but the question came to me, where did the double standard come from?

So I pondered and wondered, no doubt many feminists (and why is that word no long brings to mind Women's Sufferage but instead brings to mind an image of a high healed foot stamping on a male throat?) blame it squarely on "patriarchal" intuitions of the past, and they may have a point, but personally I think it goes back farther then that.

When you think about early, very early, human society you need to understand we were closer to our instincts, and woman held a great deal of power, every man wanted to pass on his genetic legacy, while the women only wanted the best of the best, just look at any group dynamic of animals for an example, the strongest and most powerful males breed with as many females as they can, the weak don't.

So from that prospective it makes sense, early human men had this inbuilt need to spread their genetics around as much as possible, while the females wanted only the best, thus limiting themselves to one partner.

And today this is still with us, man who sleep around are considered virile, while women who do the same are considered aberrant.

Of course this pondering doesn't absolve people from not overcoming their prejudices, far from it, many instincts we have need to be overcome, take for example the desire to strangle someone really fucking annoying, but it makes me wonder, what other societal behaviours we have that come from such roots?

Any thoughts?

Sequel Needed: The Day The Earth Stood Still (Remake)

So here I am thinking about a movie I watched months ago, wondering if anyone else got the ending... I decided then and there I was going to make this post, you see the remake of the classic Sci-Fi movie The Day the Earth Stood Still was not only crap it had one of the stupidest endings ever, if you look at it from a "what would really happen after this" point of view.

I'm thinking of making this a series of posts called "Sequel Needed", anyway on with the show.

You see Expressionless Man (Keanu Reeves) comes to Earth to talk over what we are doing to our planet, something about there only being so many life supporting worlds out there and watching us kill one is kind of a downer, so he shows up, the yanks being yanks shoot him, hold him against his will, and refuse to allow him to speak to the UN (though what he thinks the UN can do is anyone's guess, it's a toothless tiger).

Anyway skipping over the stupid, the movie ends with him being convinced by a young black kid and his white step mother to spare the human race, you see he was going to kills us all with a swarm of nano-machines or some shit, only he changes his mind and instead stops all our current technology from working... that's right boys and girls, no cars, no planes, no power stations, no Ipods, even fucking wrist watches stop working...

And this is him showing mercy I'd hate to be on his bad side... I'd personally rather of being obliterated by WMD in one step rather then deal with the fall out of his "mercy". No I'm not showing my geeky roots, I'm not talking about life without internet... I'm talking about starving to fucking death.

Let's check the death tool from his "mercy", first off no power, okay everyone on life support in hospitals everywhere just died, mothers, brothers, sisters, fathers, old people, new born babies, just died. Millions dead. Everyone in an aeroplane, dead. Millions dead in car accidents, dead, dead.

Now we get to the real fun, no cars/planes/boats? How are we going to harvest our food and then transport it? Oh what? we can't? That's BILLIONS dead over the next few months, in one of the worst ways imaginable. Yea look up what a horrible way that is to go, and this is him showing fucking mercy? Jesus.

At a guess I'd say something like 90% of the Human Race would be dead within a year of the end of that movie, maybe more given what happens when you put a ton of dead bodies in one spot (pandemic time!), and then guess what? The survivors are going to be pissed the fuck off, this is where the sequel is needed, let's call it The Day The Earth Stood Still: Humanity's Revenge.

Knowing that there is alien life out there and they royally fucked us over would do what thousands of years of war, kings, queens, emperors, prime-ministers, fuhrers, and presidents have failed to do, unite humanity in a common cause, getting revenge.

As a race we're not a nice group of people, I personally think if Aliens ever show up above our planet they'll take one look at the shit we're capable of and run like hell.

I could see our race spending centuries rebuilding, making technology that works around whatever this dick did, building interstellar vessels, weapons of incredible destruction, and breeding, all the while teaching our children to hate this guy, and then one day, we'd go to war. And that's where I want the movie to be based, us fucking up this "Federation of Races" that decided it was allowed to murder our people.

The remake makes the following assumptions, technology is evil, we'd be better off living in caves, and people as a group are capable of forgiveness... err big fucking no on both counts. We do need to treat our planet better, but Christ, the death of billions is not a fucking a fucking answer. Fucking Hollywood bullshit.