Hulk Movie 2008

Warning: Spoiler alert!!! Watch the movie first =D

The Hulk movie starring Edward Norton was good. I didn’t enjoy it as much as I did Iron Man, but it was better than the previous Hulk movie. Norton makes Bruce Banner look geekier than Bana did. But I actually prefer Jennifer Connelly as Betty Ross. The guy who played General Ross played him perfectly.

I wasn’t really a Hulk comic fan. I remember being able to watch the Hulk TV Series starring Lou Ferrigno way back. And I think the movie pays a lot of tribute to that show, especially the scenes where Banner’s eyes are focused on as he transforms into the Green Giant. The movie also portrays Banner as a wanderer, similar to the series, traveling from one location to another in search of peace, a cure, solitude … or just to get away from hurting the people he loves. Another thing they might have taken from the show was the “days without incident” idea, showing how many days Banner has been able to go without transforming into the Hulk.

One thing comic fans will really enjoy in this movie is the action, something the Bana movie lacked. The Hulk is chased by the military this time, and all that show case of military technology, particularly the sonic weapons, were amazing. Abomination wasn’t bad either, but I wonder why he wasn’t able to beat the Hulk since he is a combination of the Hulk’s blood and Captain America’s super soldier serum. Chalk it up to the amount of Hulk blood he received, I guess (plus the fact that the hero always wins).

But I guess the most intriguing aspect of the movie for me is the introduction of the Leader villain. Mr. Blue in the movie is a scientist who tries to help Banner find a cure for his condition. Banner provides him with blood samples and he tries to find a way to reverse the Hulk’s transformation. But a scuffle with Abomination resulted in his brain being infused by the Hulk’s blood. Is it possible that he will be the villain in the next Hulk movie or perhaps the much anticipated Avengers movie? Only time will tell.

Ikariam: The Traveller

For anyone playing on Ikariam’s Lambda server, finding the traveller would be like Indiana Jones finding tons of treasure. This player just sprang out of nowhere about a month ago and immediately landed on the Top Score’s number 1 spot because of only one statistic — Gold Stock.

traveller
Total Score 678,310
Master Builders 5,845
Building Levels 46
Scientists 2,346
Levels of Research 52
Generals 0
Gold Stock 46,011,724

That’s 46 million gold. To give you a perspective, his closest competitor in that category only has 6 million gold. Clearly, this traveller fellow was able to exploit a bug allowing him to generate that much gold. Some say that he may have been able to do this by not making his citizens work in mines and saw mills. But I don’t think he can generate that much money in a month with the building levels he has.

I don’t know if the guy has been banned. If he has, then shouldn’t he be removed from the top score listings? But he has stayed on the top spot since his appearance so his account is still out there.

Large alliances would have a better of scouring the map of Lambda. More players searching certain sections of the map would allow them to find the traveller’s towns. Having a General score of zero means that his towns have no land or sea defenses whatsoever, so pillaging him, not for his mineral resources but for his gold would really be rewarding. Even I have started on my personal quest to find his coordinates. =D

If you happen to know or find his coordinates, share them with me will ya? 46 million gold is enough should be shared don’t you think?

Ikariam Corruption Patch 0.2.5

It has been two days since Patch 0.2.5 has been applied and the complaints about corruption have continued increasing in the Ikariam forums. Many players are unhappy because they feel that they have not been warned in advance about the update (although if they have been visiting the forums frequently, they might have had an idea that it was going to be implemented sooner rather than later). Majority also feel that the corruption percentages applied are higher than what was originally planned.

Why is corruption such a big issue for long time players? Well, for one, the higher the level of corruption, the higher the amount of reduction in the gold and resources produced by a colony. Increased levels of corruption will also decrease the happiness in a town which could result in negative levels of population growth – an exodus of a town’s citizens.

Corruption can be dealt with in the short term by upgrading taverns and museums. This has made the price of wine rise dramatically, much like we see the price of oil rise these days in the real world. Marble which used to be the most sought after resource may soon be superseded by wine, at least for a short time (until people have been able to bring things back under control or if the game developers intervene).

In the long run, the best way to deal with corruption is to upgrade the levels of Governor’s Residences to the same level as a Palace. And this is where long time players and newcomers are divided. Long time players typically have 5 or more colonies while newcomers have 4 or less. Those who have 5 or more towns have been able to ignore the effects of corruption prior to the update since the impact was small. But now, they can either stick it out and continue playing Ikariam or quit the game. In a way, the update makes having a maximum of 4 towns as the most practical number possible. Some would advice those with five or more colonies to destroy one or two, but I understand the sentiment of those who have invested their time and effort into gathering the resources needed to construct that additional colony. What was the point if they will only see it go up in smoke just because someone decided to change how the game was played?

From a business perspective, Game Forge should probably listen to the voice of its customers if it wants this game to continue in popularity. There have been more complaints than praise. And we know that one negative comment has more effect and impact on a product’s future than a positive comment. Ikariam became successful because players invited their friends to play the game. It grew because of word of mouth. It might also end up dying because of word of mouth.

But perhaps the game isn’t breaking even in terms of profit. With the growth in player base, the company has to invest in additional developers and personnel – to handle bug fixes and complaints – and servers – to handle the player load – that they are ending up with losses rather than gains. Maybe the purpose of the patch is really to decrease the player population of the game parallel to corruption reducing the population of a town. People running a business know their needs and their actions have been planned and discussed prior to implementation. So while players may become unhappy, this might be Game Forge’s way of filtering their market. Perhaps they will introduce a product soon that will get rid of corruption for a price ($_$). A reduction in gamer population will no longer call for the need of additional personnel and hardware.

I love the game Ikariam. It has been the best browser based game I have played so far and have invested my time in the longest. And as the saying goes, “the best things in life are free“. But there is also another saying – “all good things must come to an end“. Is this the beginning of the end?

UPDATE:

Ikariam version 0.2.8 is out. Read this post to find out about the details.

Smart Money & the Future

If “smart money” or “e-cash” (electronic cash) becomes the main stream, will telcos eventually have to be governed by the government, central bank, or monetary authority of a country.

Wikepidia defines Monetary policy as follows:

Monetary policy is generally referred to as either being an expansionary policy, or a contractionary policy, where an expansionary policy increases the total supply of money in the economy, and a contractionary policy decreases the total money supply. Expansionary policy is traditionally used to combat unemployment
in a recession by lowering interest rates, while contractionary policy has the goal of raising interest rates to combat inflation (or cool an otherwise overheated economy).

Since e-money eventually will take the place of paper money, then government may set limits on the amount of e-cash allowed in circulation. But with electronic crimes getting more and more sophisticated, one has to wonder how security measures will be put in place. Modern day governments still have to deal with counterfeits by creating all sorts of devices to segregate real money from fake ones. It might be easier for criminals to manipulate electronic data making this task more difficult and complex.

Stealing money would involve stealing gadgets carrying the e-cash. Would bank robberies cease to exist in the traditional sense? Would the underworld’s demand for hackers grow more and more? How will money laundering evolve? These are probably just some of the things that will evolve as people begin to shift to this form of payment.

Finally, the Biblical prophesy of having a mark on the forehead or the right hand in order to buy goods in the last days is becoming more and more feasible. Combine smart money with biotechnology – implant “chips” in people under the guise of safety against fraud or theft, and people will probably agree to this, paving the way for the reign of the Anti-Christ.

Lakers vs. Celtics 2008

Finally, it’s official. The Los Angeles Lakers will struggle with the Boston Celtics for the 2008 NBA championship. It will be Kobe, Odom, and Gasol versus Allen, Pierce, and Garnett. For Kobe, it is a time to prove that he is now the main man and will earn the title without being under the shadow of Shaq. For the Celtic trio, it might be their last chance of gaining that elusive championship ring that they’ve missed for so many years now working apart from each other.

People say that the match up is all about tradition. I’ve never been able to watch the Magic versus Bird match ups in full. So I guess to me, all that really remains of the Lakers-Celtic battles of old are the names and the uniforms. The players are all different. The coaches are all different. The game of basketball though stays the same.

For Kobe, it will probably be a heart breaker if he doesn’t win the NBA Championship on the year he finally won the MVP award. But that seems to be a starting tradition in the NBA since Nash won his two and Nowitzki his first. So hopefully Kobe won’t feel bad if his season doesn’t end with a bang. And don’t get me wrong, I am a Lakers fan … and a Bulls fan, and this Lakers team looks a lot like the 1990’s Bulls.

But for many NBA fans at the beginning of the season, the excitement started with the trade for Garnett. Fans more or less anticipated this moment. And unlike the star studded cast of the 2004 Lakers (Bryant, Payton, Malone, O’Neil), the members of the Boston trio still have what it takes, and I’m not seeing any problems with egos and sharing the ball. So I will have to pick Boston as the favorite to win the NBA Finals. They have fought hard for it – talk about having the best regular season record and going through two game sevens in the playoffs. And I think that the team that has gone through so much hardship deserves to win. To them and their fans, victory will be much sweeter.