Monday, November 26, 2007
nothing is sacred
In an example of gaming imitating life:
Suicide Bombing Makes Sick Sense in Halo 3
A long quote from the article:
I used to find it hard to fully imagine the mind-set of a terrorist.
That is, until I played Halo 3 online, where I found myself adopting—with great success—terrorist tactics. Including a form of suicide bombing.
This probably bears some explanation. I’ll begin by pointing out a basic fact: A lot of teenage kids out there play dozens of hours of multiplayer Halo a week. They thus become insanely good at the game: They can kill me with a single head shot from halfway across a map—or expertly circle me while jumping around, making it impossible for me to land a shot, while they pulverize me with bullets.
I can’t do those things. I haven’t got enough time to practice as they do: I’m an adult, with a job and wife and kid, so I get maybe an hour with Halo on a good day. I wind up sucking far, far more than most other Halo 3 players, and despite the best attempts of Xbox Live to match me up with similarly lame players, I usually wind up at the bottom of my group’s rankings—stumbling haplessly about while getting slaughtered over and over again.
So after a few weeks of this ritual humiliation, I got sick of it. And I devised a simple technique for revenge.
Whenever I find myself under attack by a wildly superior player, I stop trying to duck and avoid their fire. Instead, I turn around and run straight at them. I know that by doing so, I’m only making it easier for them to shoot me—and thus I’m marching straight into the jaws of death. Indeed, I can usually see my health meter rapidly shrinking to zero.
But at the last second, before I die, I’ll whip out a sticky plasma grenade—and throw it at them. Because I’ve run up so close, I almost always hit my opponent successfully. I’ll die—but he’ll die too, a few seconds later when the grenade goes off. (When you pull off the trick, the game pops up a little dialog box noting that you killed someone “from beyond the grave.”)
It was after pulling this maneuver a couple of dozen times that it suddenly hit me: I had, quite unconsciously, adopted the tactics of a suicide bomber—or a kamikaze pilot.
It’s not just that I’m willing to sacrifice my life to kill someone else. It’s that I’m exploiting the psychology of asymmetrical warfare.
Because after all, the really elite Halo players don’t want to die. If they die too often, they won’t win the round, and if they don’t win the round, they won’t advance up the Xbox Live rankings. And for the elite players, it’s all about bragging rights.
It does make a lot of sense. I never got into online multi-player games, but I’m well aware how intense some people get about them. The tactics of asymmetrical warfare are well suited for an underdog who wants to get even. In a manner of speaking, it’s the gaming version of trolling—you do it to enjoy yourself and to get a rise of some others.
It’ll be very interesting to see if gamers are smarter than the real-world policy makers. I doubt gamers cling to ideology, which gives them a huge edge.
bad news for Consi
Poker Bots on the Rise
Looks like computer-aided online poker may spoil the fun of online gambling.
The same group at Alberta has just shown that their Polaris program is on the verge of taking down poker professionals. In the recent “Man vs. Machine” Poker Championship, Phil “The Unabomber” Laak and Ali Eslami barely beat Polaris two sessions to one (with one a virtual draw). After the tournament, Laak candidly acknowledged that “the bots are closing in.”
But the rise of gambling bots may soon depress online poker participation for a very different reason. In the very near future, online poker may become a suckers’ game that humans won’t have a chance to win. Bots are quite scale-able and it will be virtually impossible to prohibit computer or computer-assisted online playing.
Poker sites are trying to assure customers that they will kick bots off their site and seize their assets. But unlike the statistical trail left by crude poker cheats at Absolute Poker, it is possible for bots to randomize their strategies and even hire individual humans to run them.
Ultimately the Albertus Polaris program and its offspring could be more effective than any Justice Department indictment in crippling the growth of online gambling. Indeed, our government might even think about subsidizing the development and use of these bots.
Thursday, November 22, 2007
Happy Thanksgiving, just for Zilch!
I couldn’t help thinking of him when I saw this entry from the 2007 Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest:
As master luthier Francesca turned the night-black ebony tuning pegs of her latest creation, a flamenco negra guitar with glowing palosanto back and sides, she thought about Vicente, his manly left hand soon caressing this same fretboard in an outpouring of mournful tarantas and siguiriyas, and at that very moment her g-string snapped.
Jim Holman
Gresham, OR
Monday, November 12, 2007
good for them
US catholics urged to resist use of church as ‘political tool’
A diverse group of prominent lay Catholics - including 11 former ambassadors and former chairmen of the Republican and Democratic National Committees - have called for a more civil tone to replace the ‘divisive rhetoric and partisan attacks that define’ national political debates in the US.
They have also urged that catholics resist attempts to use the Catholic Church as a political tool.
Now how about a bunch of evangelicals to follow suit?
the poor fellows
Proposal Could Tip Irish Priests Over Legal Limit
Both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland want to lower the legal blood alcohol level for drivers. Priests are afraid it might affect their ability to motor around after Mass.
...
“Perhaps it could be enough for you to fail a drink-driving test,” the Rev. Brian D’Arcy, a priest from Enniskillen, told the Irish Times. “I don’t like to use the word wine, as it is Christ’s blood in the Eucharist—but it still has all the characteristics of wine when in the blood stream.”
Ireland’s Road Safety Authority is advocating a reduction in the legal driving limit from the current level 0.08 percent blood alcohol content to 0.05 percent. Government officials in Northern Ireland are pressing for a similar reduction. Priests say the new limit would put them over the legal limit after fulfilling their duties during the Mass, which include drinking all consecrated wine not distributed during communion.
I’m surprised they aren’t pushing the 0.08% limit already. I don’t care if they don’t like to use the word wine or not, but that’s what they’re imbibing. If it puts them over the legal limits, then there are simple answers: If you rather drink the wine than flush it down the drain, then walk, sleep it off first, or use a designated driver. I fail to see why religious ritual should trump public safety.
Posted by elwedriddsche on 11/12 at 09:15 AM
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Saturday, November 10, 2007
A Step Towards Justice?
I hate Fred Phelps. I’ve been to a funeral where the bastards showed up to picket and the family was shielded by bikers. I would like nothing better than to slap the shit out of these folks. So, when a 10.9 million dollar verdict was rendered, I want to be in favor of it. See story.
Yet, the verdict controverts the First Amendment. Fred Phelps must have the freedom to say what he says, no matter how offensive to me that may be. Anything less allows a jury to dictate what is and what is not appropriate speech. The right to free speech is one that should not be subject to the whims of 12 people.
As much as I hate Phelps, I hope the verdict is set aside.
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