Science and religion are merely competing beliefs

No, science and religion are not equal, science looks for theories which test, refine and remove models and explanations, whereas religion requires you to have faith that your dogma is correct; challenging the tenets of your belief is an act of disobedience. The only challenge for logic within the purview of religion is to interpret and define the nebulous meanings of scripture and custom, beyond that, it is the province of your creator only when it comes to understanding their reasoning. If you argue that you are not required to be obedient to be a follower of your religion, then I would say that you are merely overlaying a superstitious frame over your decision-making.

They are not competing beliefs.

Living organisms use feedback to make decisions about how they will adapt to their environment. They test their surroundings and weight positive results against negative ones. Eating something which tastes good is positive, while placing your hand on a hot stove is negative. Those reactions can sometimes reinforce unusual behaviour, such as social anxiety, but my point is that the idea of testing is a fundamental part of life. When you begin to make purely random decisions, based on arbitrary rules which you reinforce with your behaviour, it is not admirable. Logical decision-making, no matter how unusual, is based on placing values on each perceived choice. The choice which has the least known negative responses becomes the most attractive and likely beneficial choice. But when you begin to include arbitrary information and arbitrary rules, you corrupt the decision-making process even further.

Human beings pass along learned information, it is a subliminal and instinctual trait which increases our survivability and adaption to the environment. We must quickly take our place in the pack or we are weak and easily picked off. The negative side of this instinct is that it also allows us to instinctual pick up negative and useless information as well. Link this with our need to seek acceptance and our need for dominance (to make us more attractive to mates) and we end up believing a lot of odd things.

Where our confusion in the modern age comes about is that some people use religion as a philosophical template for behaviour and morality. They frame their choices around the rules and customs which to them seem meaningful and successful. Also many societies benefit from the idea of a hidden observer who judges our actions. This “hidden observer” helps to add an additional source of acceptable social behavior for people, to reinforce positive social behavior such as the avoidance of harm, cooperative behaviour and so on.

Islam confuses many Western observers because it does not maintain a hierarchical system of leaders – one of the fundamentals of Islam is jurisprudence, or interpretation of religious law by individuals. Anyone who professes to be a student of religious law can make a ruling based on their interpretation of the Koran, anyone who chooses to be a religious guide can become one, whereas many Western religions are founded on theocratic rulers who hand down their interpretations of religious law.
Buddhism has a somewhat similar situation, but it can also be taken as a philosophy as well as a religion. It seems that most forms of religion have taken on regional favour and mythology, further evolving and occluding their original intent.

So, to recap, science requires that phenomena be tested by theories which are challenged by experiment. Where something cannot be tested, it cannot claim to hold a supporting theory. And a currently proven theory is only currently valid, it is not sacred and thus impervious to challenge. In fact any theory which cannot be tested, or challenged is flawed. Whereas religious beliefs and as a corollary, supernatural or mythological ones, do not require testing, and in fact discourage it. Science does not exclude unusual explanations, it only asks that they be demonstrable and testable; whereas faith-based beliefs require adherence in the face of logical challenges, contradictory evidence and unattributable sources.

Solodrakban shot first?

Wanted: information on the current situation

Several important events are happening at the moment:

Solodrakban is undergoing an unprecedented amount of drama and a possible collapse.

I’d like to see any available information posted from any sources on topics such as:

Reactions from different alliances to the solodrakban drama

Relevant or even mildly relevant recent historical posts and info

Posts from IT alliance, Solodrakban (and anyone else with an opinion) forums, in particular whiteknighting posts, drama, arguments and so on.

Pay attention to personalities and their comments, and look at posts of people who have been recently kicked from any relevant alliance –

If you are reading this and you are one of those people you should be passing on your posts, now is your time.

Focus on cut and paste from forums, anecdotal posts are okay, but logs, chat and threads are better.

IT alliance is undertaking a new invasion

Post information on:

Who, what, where, why, forum porn, boasting.

Where are they going, why are they going, who is going with them, who thinks its a good idea, who thinks its a bad idea.

What are the plans of the opposition and are they preparing?

also: where is bobbechk and can he do a relevant cartoon?

in fact anyone who can draw anything will do at the moment.

Xutech

Lords of misrule

Lords of Misrule

We need to reassert our dominance over the forums for a number of reasons. We’re starting to lose control of threads, and the more we moderate, the more posters are aware that we’re losing control and that it’s time for them to troll and shit post. They know that we look bad every time we moderate a thread. It’s even worse when its a long time member of the forums because they feel betrayed.

There are a number of things we can do behind the scenes to make things better, and I am going to list my ideas for what they are.

1. Keep rules for each thread crystal clear.

If posters cannot tell which actions are bad and which are good, they are going to get frustrated and do stupid shit. If someone else does not understand why someone was punished, they will get angry too. When someone does something bad, everyone should already know that they are going to get punished because the rules are clear.

1. Avoid fighting with other mods on the forums.

Nothing is going to make the trolls on the forums laugh harder than watching mommy and daddy fighting in front of the kids. Its a bad idea because it erodes the repect posters have for our judgements when we need to be taken seriously. We should discuss issues in admin and allow each other a certain latitude in making decisions.

1. Consider the entertainment value.

Ultimately, our goal is to entertain readers and to entice others to join this forum. If groups of readers are doing something en masse, we need to consider following it and shaping the environment to suit. We enforce and adjudicate rules to promote reliability and order in the forums, not to enforce stasis. By entertainment, I mean the feeling that makes readers want to log in to our forums, and to look forward to reading our new content. This idea of entertainment frees us too, because it means that we are open to experiment with ideas and topics which we would not normally consider, such as coverage of other games, discussion of topics not related to EVE etc.

1. Disincentivization reduces readership.

Every time we adjudicate, infract or otherwise meddle in the forums, one or more readers are annoyed and frustrated. If those readers become too frustrated, they will leave. If enough leave, Everyone will leave. In rare cases that asshole deserved it, but otherwise, we need to be very careful about why we make a decision.

1. Any idea is a good idea, because it might work.

We need to keep generating ideas for the forums. Change (even minor) keeps readers feeling that that the forums are dynamic, evolving and fresh. Don’t be afraid to float or champion a new idea, even if you think it’s going to fail. At any given time we might create an idea that turns out to be popular. There’s another facet to this too. We don’t know how long EVE online will continue. We don’t know which drastic changes might occur to the entire scene around the corner. If CCP went bankrupt overnight, what would we do with the site?

Fundamental rules.

Most rules change depending on whether the post is in serious or uncensored but there are some ground laws which will always apply to the site. If anyone has more, I will add them to this list.

1. Do not fuck with the site. No hacking, exploits or other shit such as unapproved moderators or messing with passwords, keyloggers, cookies or whatever. People who come here should know better, for the obvious reason.
2. Do not mention kugutsumen’s real life name on the site.
3. Do not repost foreplay or higher level information on the site or somewhere else. This information is worth money, effort, prestige and readership.
4. No spammers, bots, advertisements that do not originate from the site.
5. No kiddy porn or really fucked up stuff. Usually part of some misguided attempt to troll the site. We have to stomp on it because of legal concerns.

Lesser rules.

These rules are not so important, but have some effect on the quality of the site.

1. Shitposters, shitposts. People who enjoy simply logging in to commence arguments without real cause or reason. Traits: lack of informative posts, short fuse, circular arguments.This wastes valuable real estate in prime news threads and causes an avalanche of off topic posts.  Not to be confused with forum warriors who think they will die if they lose an argument about some esoteric topic. Shitposters should get prodded to see if they wise up. Kugutsumen suggests that they be told to start a blog. See also Aaron.
2. “Wackiness”. Shit like lolcats, large memes and other thread / space hogging garbage. Not to be confused with propaganda posts, (which should be encouraged), as well as other art based on EVE etc. Such works of “art” should be in a correct section. So if someone makes a cartoon, they should start a thread to house it instead of blocking up real estate in the news etc.
3. Drama queens. We all know them. They think that creating an account and logging in gives them the right to bring the anti-goon / IT, AAA whatever fight hardcore to the forums. You can spot them because they act like their cousin the shitposter, except they shit-talk about topics like blobbiness, how X alliance are faggots etc. They aren’t concerned with facts, politeness or informative posts and like to repeat themselves when they don’t get enough respect.

Things I personally do not like.

People who talk shit about the site while using it. (This is now like SHC / CAOD etc).

People who love to criticise the site and posters but do not themselves add content.

People who bait moderators. People who become concerned citizens when they see someone getting moderated but otherwise shitpost.

Lateral agitprop

It has come to my attention that certain malevolent forces are organising a series of griefing raids against one of our erstwhile CSM applicants. This bitter and unworthy plan will no doubt explain her lack of presence on the servers during, before, and no doubt after the honest and democratic vote of CSM has been lodged.

While I have canvassed for another CSM applicant – the ever effervescent Mazzilliu, I would like to state, in the spirit of Eve playing comradery, that I am 100% against any form of in game trolling or hindrance of an upright member of our glorious community.

This dark and uncoordinated mob, no doubt mad with visions of rapine and slaughter – have infringed on her close group of friends, unearthing vital and private communications of a particular nature – you may have tasted from that bitter cup with some of the fabricated salacious rumours about her personal opinions. In short – she is personally breached, something I am loathe to share with you, most moral reader, and it is incumbent on us, as a collected community, to say NO! To this very thing.

I would urge you, in all seriousness, to add her to your contacts list. Share with her, via in game communication, your heartfelt support, seek her out via in game means and, should it be necessary, shield her frail and feminine form with your ship, words and thoughts.

Posted in Jita speakers corner

There seems to be a clear disparity between the CSMs . Let’s be honest – votes are certainly going to come in large blocks based on your alliance and faction supporters . But I’m talking about another difference between the CSM candidates which I’d call, those willing to participate, and those that aren’t.

Active participation isn’t as easy as it sounds, for it requires the ability to see which actions have what effects, which proposals are timely and worthy, and which, no matter their value, must be pruned. The other side of the coin isn’t so easy to label, but no matter how virtuous the proponents of that method sound, they are nothing but useless in the long run. They like the sound of their own voice, the rhythm and cadence, and the CSM vote gives them the opportunity to lecture a captive audience.

See, thats really the pivotal point. Do you want to elect someone so you can give them the opportunity to make a speech, give a lecture? A lecture is a static, immobile object. A real CSM member should be willing to make concessions, spot good ideas, be flexible, join with other CSMs to push something through. I get the feeling that some of the other CSM candidates are so blinded by their brilliance that they feel cooperation is a kind of failure. That kind of mentality is going to waste time and waste the position they sit in.

Much as most people won’t like to hear it, Mazzilliu is actually a conservative part of Eve online. In the good sense. Much as some people might not like to hear it. She is, and her people certainly are, playing the game as intended, in the spirit it was intended to be played. As a darwinian, small to mid sized game of PVP. So much of what they do is an essential basis for the theme and theory of the game. And those self same people have made every possible effort to preserve that integrity, and shape it, not to distort it into an image of another game, or an internal ideal of society.

Of course some CSMs want to fix the societal ills of Eve – because it’s their life. They certainly have the crypto-fascist vote covered. But they want to remake the game, not keep it true to its spirit of freedom, nor to show much interest in your opinion.

You should vote for Mazzilliu because she is having fun. Where the game is not fun, it bothers her.

Posted on Kugutsumen forums

The kugutsumen forums aren’t some kind of gaming wikileaks. Many of us know that Eve online is only a game, and that it takes up a small percentage of the sum of our lives. But if you go to the kugutsumen forums, you do it because its the largest collection of posters from all sides of the game, engaged in heated discussion about every topic in the game. And one of the best things about the site is that when something happens, information gets posted. Posted from all sides, and certainly in uncomfortable detail.  Because that’s the great part about the Kugutsumen forums, they are filled with a lot of angry arguing internet spaceship pilots. Its not one sided and there is no greater agenda to recruit, or bullshit, or lie, because those lies stink and they stand out, and the other forum members certainly take great joy in pointing them out, and that is a major attraction of the site.

Kugutsumen isn’t some diabolical hacker. He’s a nice guy. He works hard in the internet mines everyday, and when he comes home from work one of his few joys in life is to pay for, and run an internet forum, for mostly free, for a bunch of angry spaceship nerds. And there have been times when he has found certain irregularities in EVE, and with CCP, and taken great glee in posting them and revealing them to the greater Eve community. That’s his right to chose to do it, and it looks like fun.

He has been a great part of Pandemic Legion. He has moved from place to place in Eve. He has made friends in strange places and by strange means. But its a point of fact that his forums have not excluded any side of the Eve equation. There are posters from all sides on the forums, and they are as free as anyone else to argue and bullshit and lie and have fun.

And that brings me to the next problem. The freedom to post the things that you enjoy, and the freedom to uncover the things which are not fair, which infuriate or confound you, are not free. Eve online is a game, and it is big business. Business does not want freedom of choice, and it certainly does not enjoy a voice which raises questions, or  tests its patience, or points to uncomfortable truths, or even entertains dreams which head in the wrong direction.

As ugly truths have been revealed, CCP has made a point of creating the CSM. As far as player run oversight commities, its about as meaningful as the league of nations or the UN. But it’s our CSM and we have a vote in who is part of it. If you know who you are going to vote for already, you should vote for them. But if you are unsure, or undecided, why not vote for Kugutsumen? Why not vote for his friend, and thus vote for him, and his site, for which without him, you would not have a CSM, or many other rights in the game you play so much.

A vote for Mazziliu is a vote for Kugutsumen.

A vote for Mazziliu is a vote for the Kugutsumen forums.

Proposal for new foreplay model

Proposal for new foreplay model.

The Foreplay section of the Kugutsumen site was once one of the premier drawcards for the site.

For in game money (ISK), a forum member would receive access to Foreplay, the benefit being access to forum porn and other secret information which would otherwise be impossible or difficult to get. Some general forum members might receive access to the foreplay section based on an informal selection process which would include vetting for undesirables.

Foreplay is no longer viable as a revenue raiser. It no longer has any perceived value except for its historical interest, and most of those revelations are now a matter of public knowledge. There are still some new posts of value, but they are unreliable in frequency.

Foreplay access as advertised is currently 400m ISK a month for a subscription, but that relies on someone receiving the ISK in game and checking subscriptions against membership contributions. When a person fails to pay ISK, the system relies on the site checking its records to ensure that each subscriber has paid for its access, and this system becomes increasingly complex and time consuming the more successful it is. Within even a range of 20 subscribers, the site would need dedicated members to check subs.

To add to this loss of value, we know that it is no longer possible to rely on Kugutsumen for a constant update of valuable information from various sites. His real life responsibilites have increased to the point where he can no longer contribute the hours a day of work required to provide marketable information. There is no-one of a similar or even lesser capacity to provide that kind of information, and if there is, we cannot recruit them because of the legal and/or trust issues involved.

So, this being true (or at least partially true), we need to change the way foreplay is perceived by our membership, and we need to re-focus it in a way which is both sustainable and valuable. If we fail to add value, or perception of value, we will once again lose members who are willing to pay for our service.

Current problems

• Lack of new membership
• Lack of frequent updates
• Low perceived value of product
• Arbitrary membership requirements
• High maintainance requirements which increase with success

Solution would be

• Frequent new membership
• Frequent updates
• High percieved value of product
• Clear membership requirements
• Low maintainance requirements

Simply by reversing our current problems we have a better idea of how we can fix them.

As I have described the issues with Foreplay, I shall now propose a model for fixing this.

“Kugutsumen Klubhouse”

Kugutsumen Klubhouse is a premium membership for regular Kugutsumen subscribers. Members come from three different sources: Paid members, Honorary members and Heroes.

Paid members pay a one time fee of (proposed) 10 american dollars for access to the Klubhouse section. They receive access to the Klubhouse section. Paid members are members as soon as they pay money for access, they have no other requirement for access.

Honorary members are free members of the forums who distinguish themselves in some noteworthy way, and are rewarded with Klubhouse access. This will work in the same way that posters received free Foreplay access as a reward.

Heroes are well known internet personalities whose presence in the Klubhouse will increase its value. Heroes would require some form of verification. An example of a Hero would the “The Mittani”, who occasionally posts on our site and can increase interest in a thread simply by being present.

Content

The Klubhouse will be a members only locked section. Inside it will maintain several themed sub-sections and those subsections will allow members to create threads. It will not replace or remove any free access sections on the general site. There will be no changes to the general layout of the site outside of the Klubhouse.

• Eve Online
• Join for guild
• General discussion
• Ring of fire
• Troll olympics

The Eve Online section will be for foreplay quality information. The change will be that there will be no restriction on the target of the information, and that klubhouse members will be expected to be the primary contributors to the section. It will also permit discussion by members on issues that they do not want open to the general public (i.e lurkers and untrustworthy free members).

Join for guild section will be for Klubhouse members who want to hang out with fellow klubhouse members in cooperative games and mmos. As Klubhouse members will hopefully become a small community in its own right, I expect that Klubhouse members will want to form reliable clans/guilds/corps  with their members away from the scrutiny of lurkers.

General discussion will be a thread for open discussion of any topic. It will also include discussion of Klubhouse rules and news releases.

Ring of fire will be a forum for the flaming and general abuse, shaming and invective against other members and the world in general. It will not be moderated within reason, but will be an important part of the reputation system (as explained later).

Troll olympics will be a platform for the organisation of trolling competitions, boasting about trolls and other jokes in general. It could loosely be described as a humour section.

How is this all different?

IMPORTANT

“Any Klubhouse member whose reputation is red loses membership in the Klubhouse”.

Reputation rating will become the primary political means of power and prestige in the Klubhouse. Members forming community groups as voting blocks will be entirely acceptable.

I expect to see survivor style vote outs. Members who post interesting and valuable information should get rep, as will those who can organise groups to support them.

If you are trolled, get in an argument or are annoying, you will lose reputation.

You will lose membership if you are unpopular.

Members who lose membership may pay for klubhouse membership again. They will have their reputation reset and a small amount added. Needless to say, members who are low on reputation or in the red should think carefully about paying the ten dollars.

We will have PVP in forums.

The Carrot

Most members will not have to worry about reputation, they will have plenty and they will focus on other issues. With some (hopefully a lot) of money coming into the site from subscriptions, we should make provisions for a fund which can be used for prizes and incentives.

Some possible prizes

• Steam games
• Plex or ISK
• Custom titles
• Reputation boosts

We have a small steam community, and steam games can be gifted between accounts. There are specials and many good quality games which cost no more than 5, 10 or 15 dollars each. These gifts do not require personal information from the winner, and can be made discretely.

We may still have avenues to receive ISK or PLEX and these make great rewards. ISK might still be a viable method for membership payment from some subscribers, although I would personally recommend against it because we should work to move toward real cash, not limit ourselves to Eve online only, and not trust people who buy membership with easily earned game money.

Custom titles do not cost us anything, they are prestigious for normal members, and they give us a small bulking agent for prize pools.

Reputation boosts will be considered the least of the prizes, but for some members who are close to being expelled from the Klubhouse, it might make an excellent reward. Even a small reputation bonus (like +10 or 20 points) will make a huge difference to the survivability of a member.

Organisation

This will not affect the rest of the site at all. There will be no changes to the rest of the site. The site will continue business as usual. A free user should be perfectly happy.

Foreplay will need to be rebuilt. Sensitive information will need to be moved to the administration areas.

It might be easier to simply lock foreplay and create the Klubhouse from scratch. A new access type will need to be made (Klubhouse member) which grants access to the Klubhouse area and permits the posting of threads in the Klubhouse.  A fresh working space will look good too.

Kugutsumen’s Klubhouse is a working title. Is that a good name or is there a better one?

A clear and reliable method of receiving cash will need to be set up. This will need to include the usual payment methods like credit cards, bpay etc. Tax and business considerations will need to be looked at. It will need to look like a reliable and trustworthy system.

A rough estimate of money received to money placed in the prize fund. An idea of how often prizes will be awarded (not too often or too little).

A behavioral rules system will need to be set up. I would like it to be more of a self moderating system (due to the reputation penalties). This will be a Klubhouse only ruleset.

A steam account will need to be set up for gifting players prizes. This account would need the credit card details of the account paying for the prizes.

Membership will be open to anyone. Anyone who pays the money that is.

My goal is to eventually create a community that transcends the Eve online groups and becomes a new one. It will be a group which will not be limited to Eve online. This is important for the long term survivabilty of the site.

XUTECH

The fourth profession pt 1

“We are of assistance to EVE players who wish to reveal unethical behavior in their corporations, alliances and CCP. We aim for maximum political impact..” paraphrased from Wikileaks’ mission statement

It’s an interesting point that you have begun your post with a mission statement. It’s something I’ve been thinking about since the fanfest was posted to the internet, and I’ll explain, by a circuitous route, why.

 

I would like you to post a mission statement for the site.

At the moment there is no clear idea of what or where the site is heading, what its goals are and what is considered to be acceptable behaviour, the ideas by which members can consider themselves to be kindred spirits.

Rational behaviour is the province of anyone who considers the cause and effect of their actions. There are hidden codes of acceptable behaviour on the site, and most members only discover those rules by transgression, but I’m not proposing this purely to bring the rule of law to the site. I have another reason. That reason is that by revealing a mission statement / code of conduct / manifesto / philosophy by which members understand the site, they can then decide whether or not and in which details their actions are the same as yours, and in a greater sense (perhaps more importantly) with each other.

 

Membership in the site comes from 3 interelated groups.

1. Tourists. People who are attracted by the site by its reputation. They may lurk and or post occasionally, but have no vested interest in staying.

2. Customers. People who are interested in trading information for use in game. Also interested in news updates.

3. Pundits. People who are interested in the news and or take part in the forums.

Membership in the site, from my modest time spent there, has undergone a natural process of expansion and contraction in membership but there have remained a certain number of regulars.

I think the best way to expand the site would be to support those regular members and make them feel that they are, in some way, a community.

why is this a good idea?

Most of the contributors to the site are preexisting members of other groups: it’s the reason they are both interested in the site and able to contribute to it. The problem is that they are therefore more loyal to the group from which they come from (IT, Goons etc) than to the site to which they contribute. This causes them to edit information and even to remove it where it is their interest to obfuscate it. If they were to feel that membership in the site was a more important factor than the group from which they gained their information, they would reduce the amount of self-editing and increase the amount of usable intel.

If they considered themselves more loyal to the site than to their home groups, they would be more interested in impressing fellow (kgn) members than with maintaining the necessary loyalty to their groups.

Of course this all depends on your personal code of ethics, but nonetheless, there are a group of people on the site who are more loyal to it than to the groups from which they initially came.

As a last point, why does the GIA and other groups like it have such a high rate of intel gathering?: Because each member feels that it is working toward a goal, and that each point of imput is a valuable contribution. Whereas on site (kgn) members who contribute valuable information at best recieve a small amount of recognition from their peers and an increased chance of discovery from their victims. This is the main reason that there are few releases of forum leaks, mails, TS logs etc which do not originate from your personal interest and involvement.

(Also as an addendum to that, because there are those who are not investigated due to being considered allies, this might result in blind spots of intel, and the possibility that members from those groups will be counter agents or simply disloyal. To my mind, all information from all sources should be pursued, not just those from enemies. The only question should be “to whom should that information be revealed”, not “should I pursue that information”. )

How can this, in the near future be realised?

1. Think about what it is that you personally want from the site, and how much time and involvement you wish to put into the site. If you feel that you have limited time, or that you have a reduced interest in the site, simply make fewer goals, extend your timeline. Sometimes defining your wishes can give you the answer to what direction it is that you want the site to head in.

2. Make commited membership in the site more visible. Differenciate more clearly the differences between members who are loyal to their alliances and those who are more interested in the site.

3. Create friction (but not war) between different groups of posters when those posters proclaim membership in a certain group. For example, create a forum section in which IT alliance members are invited to post information and or updates. Then give opposing groups the freedom to refute those posts, with particular focus on tangible intelligent intel. If, for example, an IT member was allowed to argue with a Goon, and in arguing posted facts figures dates and chatblogs, those could be then inspected for additional information. Where I would differ from the current strategy of Corp threads is this:

I would create a wiki which I would then permit members in good standing access to, to post information.

Members would be free to post information on any topic, Eve based, on which they followed a set number of rules to ensure some semblance of order.

Membership in this posting group, based on posting intel quality, would create competition and increase loyalty / culture in posters.

So, for example. there might be posts on players, their different alts, their personal histories and other pertinant information. This would allow a build up of information which would create a “memory”.

Instead of only anecdotal evidence from those who might remember an event, users would be able to study chatlogs, notes and other points of interest on which they could base their information and decisions. Did someone do something 5 years ago? what did they say exactly? did they really once rip someone off?

The added value to my idea would be that it would be in the interests of both sides to promote high value information, because if they did not, there would only be information sourced from their enemies. They would be forced to contribute, and they would have to post quality intel to avoid it being proven false.

This Wiki combined with a polarised membership and a clearer sense of purpose, would, in my opinion, improve the site, increase membership and increase the rate of intel.

disclaimer: This is an intellectual exercise on my behalf. I offer this idea on the chance that it is useful in even a small way. And it was fun to write.

 

Xutech

 

Why have I been thinking about this since the fanfest? what was the one topic that noone mentioned during the entire coverage of the event.

Regarding the glut of expansions from the old days

I don’t agree that weighty storyline expansions and campaigns for roleplaying systems are to blame for the poor market performance of their parent companies. While they did contribute in part due to overblown costs for printing limited store shelf books, I believe instead that it was a matter of mistaken perspective.

Game companies did not understand that they were not exactly selling a series of books, like traditional fantasy/sci-fi novels, but were instead selling a reliable community and the loyalty that comes with a  honest culty  fanbase for a setting.

In the example of White wolf’s setting and expansion books, WW used a lot of self destructive marketing ploys to undo the benefits of such a devoted group of fans. Instead of understanding that they were maintaining interest in their setting by releasing additional material, they sold additional setting material bound to a smattering of new rules (often another new “ultra rare” vampire clan ). Fans of the setting would have to buy the new book to gain additional setting information, advance the overarching storyline and keep up with an ever expanding array of rules corrections. Eventually burnout crept in as even devoted fans would miss books or dislike some and avoid them. The cost of the books would not ensure they were well designed or written in some cases, and some fans would buy bad rulesets on purpose to take advantage of poorly designed game balance.

And to me, that’s exactly the core of the problem.

Something similar has occurred in the world of computer games, and some of the best solutions have come from it as well. Some computer games have continued to sell and gain a following years after most other games have fallen by the wayside. Some simply accept a short lifespan; but others actively promote and endorse their communities by first releasing well written games with an engaging and long term setting, combined with a flexible rules system, they add additional setting storyline advancing the game, but most importantly, allow their fans to add their own organic material to the setting and treat it as just as important as the official works.

 Furthermore, rather than crudely setting up a mousewheel of neverending expansions with limited “meat” and a lot of filler, they release “patches” which , for free, add content and reinject interest in the core game. Cursory inspection of the dynamic communities which support  many of the more popular MMOs such as world of warcraft and Eve online, and many free games such as Neverwinter nights show that a generous support network for a game combined with community goodwill is the best solution. 

Piracy and ease of downloading has also, obviously affected computer games, but by supporting a strong community, some game companies have managed to bank on the good will of their fans who are happy to either pay for PDFs, make donations, or first try the materials and then later, as they are able, pay for them. We can see that neither Radiohead or Nine inch nails have gone out of business selling music by donation. There are quite a few small or solo businesses who have prospered by fan support and word of mouth because, regardless of their less expensive production costs, they sell a creation with heart and soul. The games Dwarf fortress (free with donations) and Armageddon empires (no DRM free expansions) spring to mind as examples with a vibrant fanbase.

I think that the unfinished game Exiles by Mark Rein Hagen, in which the original setting would have become open source for players, would have been a natural evolution of roleplaying gaming. Perhaps it would have echoed the emerging success of Wikipedias, and the growing number of players who expect internet synergy with their games. 

Sadly, like White Wolf, Wizards of the Coast were so very protective of their game that fourth edition D&D has stifled the optimism that followed the open games license of 3.5

Terminator pt.2 *spoilerific

I don’t believe in criticism without offering an alternative. I’ve been pretty detailed in my deconstruction of several (in my opinion) weak points of the plot of the movie, so now I’ll suggest how I would have made a better version.

Theme: Old thinking versus new thinking.

One of the strong points of the movie is that the military command are ruthless and authoritarian, whereas John Conner’s outfit and “cultists” prefer to act in a more humane manner. I think this should have been the focus of the movie.

At the beginning the humans should be shown making massive attacks with large numbers of vehicles and waves of soldiers in professional military groups. As the fighting progresses the number of humans are simply overwhelmed by the resilience of the terminators, ending in routs and massive casualties. The military command are still thinking in the old sense, and the cost of their massive attacks are starting to eat at the morale and number of people willing to fight. They are often willing to suffer massive civilian casualties because they believe they are close to winning. Fighting in the army should be shown to be a suicidal proposition.

The low point of this is a failed battle to capture information on Skynet. So many people die that in the following rout most survivors desert from the army, the high command falls and most believe they are doomed.

At this point the Terminators persue the escaping soldiers, besieging the large bases and survivor towns. They capture so many humans that they start transferring them to death camps as they cannot kill them fast enough while fighting. This shows that when humans group together, it’s easier for skynet to find them and wipe them out.

John Connor’s group propose that they start acting more like viruses. John thinks like a hacker and is a very resourceful survivor. He suggests that they stop living in massive camps and bases and fighting in large, easily defeated groups, and instead act as small groups of mobile fighters. They should also stop fighting massive battles and instead learn how to survive on the things that the Terminators themselves create, such as power packs, automated factories and energy weapons. One day they might learn about skynet weaknesses in this process of subversion and de-engineering. 

Every time the Terminators create a new technology, humans subvert and then use it against Skynet. If it makes better Terminators, hack them so they fight each other. If they make a factory to build equipment, break in and steal it, and trick the machines into allowing them into areas.

As they start to hide in small groups spread out over different areas, it becomes harder and harder for Skynet to capture and kill humans on masse, so it starts to build infiltrator terminators – if humans help each other, why not subvert that cooperation and sow distrust amongst them by making human looking terminators. The prototype infiltrator is based on an executed convict whose brain was downloaded and stored as a special program. He is released, unknowing into the wild, but since he is a human at “heart” he is unable to follow through and act as he is directed. He is a failure and the next generation of infiltrators will be far less human.

The crux of the story is that if terminators are subverted with the “human element” that Marcus has, they become rogue Terminators, and can be used to protect john connor in the past, assist humans in the future and eventually corrupt skynet. This explains how John Connor reprograms Terminators, why he uses only the early skin covered models, and why they are strangely human as they gain experience.

So, to recap

Convict on death row has brain downloaded.

Humans fight in massive battles and lose, alot.

After one really bad loss they lose morale and think they are going to lose.

John Connor successfully frees people in death camp with new strategy.

John Connor suggests they start applying guerilla tactics.

Humans stop losing and start hurting skynet. They start to trust John Connor as a leader because his ideas work.

Skynet realises that humans can be tricked because they help each other, so makes a human terminator from the downloaded convict.

Marcus gains trust of resistance, but realising who he is, starts to resist programming with help of John.

While getting information from base on how they can reprogram Marcus, they learn that Skynet is making emotionless infiltrator  terminators.

Side themes:

John Connor is considered crazy until his strategies start to work.

Marcus is finally considered a human only because he ACTS like one.

Kyle Reese is a young man and learns how to fight terminators while hanging out with Marcus.

When Humans start using terminator technology such as plasma guns, vehicles and medical technology they become a lot more successful. This also explains how they start having a better survival rate. The biological fake skin helps them to heal casualties and the guns kill terminators way faster.

Skynet is actually hurting itself everytime it invents something new.