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DC Universe Online

Batman

Batman in DCUO

I’ve been playing DC Universe Online (hereafter to be called “DCUO”) a lot lately.  It is a Massive Multiplayer online game based on the DC Comics franchise.  It allows you to play a superhero (or supervillain) and interact with all of the DC characters we’ve all come to know and love: Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, the Flash, the Joker, Lex Luthor, Bizarro, Gorilla Grodd, Circe, and so on.  It goes by three different models: Free-to-play (free, but you don’t get all of the character options), Premium (where you get some but not all of the character options on a pay basis), and Legendary (where you pay monthly, and get access to all character options and DLC).

It’s a fun game, and it’s nice to play in the settings that I read about in comics (Metropolis, Gotham City).

However, I can’t help but feel that the game has missed an opportunity to make the game even more fun.  For example:

First of all, all players should be encouraged (if not outright forced) to play both a hero and a villain character, at the very least.

Secondly, all players are PvP (there is an option to turn off PvP, but that’s no fun).

Third, and this is most important: The villains need to be cut loose after a certain level.  There just aren’t enough opportunities for the villains to cause mayhem.  Where are the banks that villains can rob to finance their schemes?  Where are the museums holding artifacts of arcane power for a villain to try to steal?  The armored cars for a simpler villain to knock off?  What about hirelings/henchmen?

Let’s describe what I’m thinking about:

The Villainous Victoria (a mystic blaster) decides that she needs some cash to make improvements to her Sanctum Sanctorum.  She

the villainous Victoria

The Villainous Victoria

and a handful of thugs break into the Gotham Bank on River and Third in Gotham City.  As soon as she does, a timer starts.  She has a base time of 2:00 to finish whatever she is doing (this time can be increased due to her powers and skills, and decreased based on how well the bank is protected).  After the timer is up, all of the heroes within a few blocks of the bank (within a reasonable character level range) are made aware of the robbery, and get an opportunity to stop it.

If Villainous Victoria gets captured, she should have to log off (or sit in prison), until she either busts herself out, or is busted out by her henchmen, or 8 hours, whichever happens first.

If Villainous Victoria gets away during the robbery, she can use the money she gets to buy the demonic portal she needs for her plans to succeed, make improvements on her base (the demon summoning room is needing a fresh coat of paint–that virgin blood gets everywhere), hire more henchmen, and so on.

Any other ideas?

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On the First Amendment of the US Constitution

First, let me get a legal disclaimer out of the way:  I am not a lawyer.  I am a layperson who has an opinion and who can read English.  Do not use this post as any kind of legal advice.  Seek out a lawyer for that.

Let me first begin by giving the full text of the First Amendment to the US Constitution:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

It is specifically the “Religion” clause that I’m going to tackle.  Note what this says about the “establishment of religion.”  This requires a bit of historical context.

The original colonies that made up what would eventually become the United States of America were originally people who had been persecuted in England due to their religious beliefs: Quakers would settle in Pennsylvania, Catholics settled in Maryland, Puritans would settle in Massachusetts, and so on.

The United States was not and is not one faith under God.  It was many faiths: Catholic and Protestant alike.

England, at the time all of this was happening, specifically had an “official” religion for much of its more recent history.  This was usually the Church of England (at least since the reign of Henry VIII), but at various times has also been Catholic (pre-Henry, but also during the time of Mary I, Elizabeth I’s half-sister and at various other times), and whatever the hell Oliver Cromwell was.  But there was hardly a time in England’s history that it didn’t have an “official” religion.

For the US, this Amendment made it specifically clear that our Founding Fathers weren’t brooking any of that nonsense.  They specifically forbade Congress from establishing any religion as an “official” religion of the US, mostly because they knew that no one would agree what that religion should be.  The solution: it should be none of them.

Okay, to put it another way.  Let’s say you had walked into a courthouse and had seen this on the wall (assuming you are Christian, that is):

In the name of Allah, Most gracious, Most merciful
Praise be to Allah, the Cherisher and Sustainer of the Worlds
Most Gracious, Most Merciful.
Master of the Day of Judgement
Thee do we worship, and Thine aide we seek
Show us the straight way
The way of those on whom Thou has bestowed thy Grace, those whose portion
Is not wrath, and who do not go astray.

–Qu’ran

(source)

What would your reaction be?  For a Muslim, this would be a mindful prayer, and would have a specific meaning to him.  To you (a Christian), this might be an effrontery.

So, before you get up in arms about how you’re being persecuted for being a Christian because the Supreme Court ruled that you cannot post the Ten Commandments in front of your town hall, understand that this is to protect your own rights as a Christian/Muslim/Jew/Pagan/Heathen/Atheist.

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A Man Playing Female Characters

One of my Christmas presents this year was a gift card, which I promptly used to reinstate my Eve Online account.  I decided to start from scratch and create three new characters, hoping to find one that sticks.

The first new character I created was Erinn Ferguson, a Gallente field tech

.Erinn Ferguson

I didn’t realize that you could modify the wireframe subtly when I created her, and so she looks kinda young to me (maybe 18 or 19).

Next, I created Tom O’Malley (a Gallente shipping magnate):

Image

This one, I made as close to me as I could, given the limits of the client and apparently my video card (or lack thereof).

Then there is my newest character which I just made this week.  This is Mila Shardani, a True Amarr. I haven’t decided what I’m doing with her yet.

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This one I gave all of the sexy.  Since she is Amarr, I gave her a little modesty, or else I would also have made her wearing as little clothing as I felt I could get away with.

There are some who would criticize me for this, as if I’m misleading people into thinking that I’m a woman.

First of all, I half-jokingly tell people that since the perspective as you play these characters is in the third person, I would rather stare at a woman’s ass all day than a man’s ass.

Secondly, I am reminded of a joke I read somewhere, “The internet: Where the men are boys, the women are men, and the children are FBI agents.”  In other words: caveat emptor.

Thirdly, I don’t play the female characters any differently than I do the male characters.  Essentially, they are males with boobs.

What do you think?

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How Dogs Would Communicate If They Could Talk

Have you ever wondered how dogs communicate with each other?

Dogs are amazing creatures, and science is just now beginning to appreciate how intelligent these animals are.  A recent episode of PBS’s Nova pointed this out: Dogs can naturally do things that many humans take for granted–things that not even a chimpanzee can do, such as understanding a human’s hand gestures and facial expressions.

Dogs are limited in speech, this much is evident.  A close listen to dogs who can supposedly “talk,” reveals that while the vowel sounds sound very close to sounds a human might make, the consonants are severely lacking (the famous video of a dog supposedly saying “I love you” sounds more like “Rye Ruh Rue.”)

Part of the problem is that a dog’s lips are simply not made for the kind of speech we use every day, nor is their tongue.  This eliminates many consonants that they can speak.

Besides, naming things based on how something looks does not make sense for a dog, since their sight is hundreds (if not thousands) of times less detailed than their sense of smell.  Additionally, they don’t see color the same way we do; for example, a dog can only see blue, yellow and gray (source), so a dog calling something “red” just doesn’t make much sense.

Also, dogs have no concept of a deity, so all names ending in “-el” are out: Michael, Gabriel, Raphael, and so on.

But a dog “calling” something based on its scent makes perfect sense to me.  Humans would call her “Ms. Fluffy,” but dogs call her “Lilacs In Spring.”  Humans call him “Rex,” but dogs call him “Hint Of Garbage.”  (I just made myself laugh)

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I Have a Confession to Make

I hate Christmas music.

There is a radio station local to me (WALK, 97.5 FM out of Long Island) that starts playing Christmas music right around the week before Thanksgiving, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week until the day after Christmas.  They started playing it about a week ago.

Assuming that WALK started playing Christmas music on 11/19.  Yes, you read that right: 11/19.  Most of us have barely gotten over the hangover from our respective Halloween parties by 11/19, and this station is already playing Christmas music.

The worst thing is that there is a grand total of about twenty, maybe thirty songs that they play over and over.  Midnight 11/19 to midnight 12/26 is 864 hours of Christmas music.  Figuring an average of 4 minutes per song, that means that each song has been played 648 times by the time it’s all said and done.  I swear to Christ, if I hear “Holly, Jolly Christmas” one more time, Imma choke a bitch.

So, I find the most obnoxious System of a Down album I can tolerate (usually Toxicity), and play it on repeat until 12/18.  I allow Christmas music then, because I mean, after all, it is Christmas.

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Coming Up With A Story For Minecraft

I’ve been on vacation for the past week, dealing with family issues.  But I did get a lot of Minecraft time in between.

I’ve been playing 1.9 pre-release 5.  It doesn’t add anything massive or major to PR 4, but it does sort of suggest a possible story-line to Minecraft.

First, when you start (and this has been since Beta was released way back when), you’re alone, with only the clothes on your back.  You have to find a way to survive the first day.  You have no memory of what occurred, but there are clues:

  • There are abandoned villages and mines peppered throughout the world;
  • Zombies are the only other humanoid (other than pigmen, but as they’re only found in the nether realms, they don’t count) beings you encounter, and they’re not exactly… friendly;
  • One of the mobs you encounter are the Endermen (introduced in 1.8), and they’re a huge hint of what’s going on.

 

These hints make it clear that some sort of disaster has occurred, linked to the Endermen somehow.  I happen to know that part of the endgame will be going to the world the Endermen originate from (cleverly called “The End”), and fight a dragon.  The End is reached by a specific portal that itself can only be reached in a specific place and must be activated.

Now, this suggests to me that part of this disaster is linked to The End.  Imagine this scenario:

  1. A medieval society develops ability to travel between worlds (the Nether and The End).
  2. Opening up a portal to The End allows the Endermen to come through.
  3. The End and the world do not get along with each other very well.
  4. Something Bad ™ happened, and all of the humans except the player were killed.
    1. This Something Bad is obviously linked to the dungeons and mob generators sprinkled throughout the world.  Endermen can move blocks: maybe they’re responsible for the dungeons?  Maybe the dungeons are responsible for the missing people?
  5. The humans leak into the World nightly as mindless Zombies.
  6. The player wakes up on the beach with no memory.

Hmmm…. thought-provoking.

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November 11th is Veteran’s Day

Some facts about Veterans that you may find alarming:

  • A US Veteran attempts suicide every 80 minutes (source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk)
  • “Estimates of the rate of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) among veterans returning from Iraq range from 12% to 20%. With deployment topping 1.5 million this summer [2007], and the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) having treated more than 52,000 persons, the greatest effect of those mental health issues has yet to be experienced.” –source: http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/565407
  • “As of June 2010, a total of 171,423 deployed Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans were diagnosed with PTSD, out of total of 593,634 patients treated by VA.” –http://www.veteranstoday.com
  • A person with PTSD is 14.9 times more likely to attempt suicide than those without it (source: http://www.mirecc.va.gov)

Here is a complete Frontline episode on this very issue, following the members of one particular company deployed to Afghanistan.

[Here's] a startling statistic: Since the Iraq war began, a total of 18 soldiers from Fort Carson have been charged with or convicted of murder, manslaughter or attempted murder committed at home in the United States, and 36 have committed suicide.

Read more: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/

Just some food for thought on this Veteran’s Day.