When Your Hut Is On Fire

Found this inspiring story on Christianster posted by timotyt. Read and be blessed. ^_^

The only survivor of a shipwreck was washed up on a small, uninhabited island. He prayed feverishly for God to rescue him. Every day he scanned the horizon for help, but none seemed forthcoming.

Exhausted, he eventually managed to build a little hut out of driftwood to protect himself from the elements, and to store his few possessions.

One day, after scavenging for food, he arrived home to find his little hut in flames, with smoke rolling up to the sky. He felt the worst had happened, and everything was lost. He was stunned with disbelief, grief, and anger. He cried out, “God! How could you do this to me?”

Early the next day, he was awakened by the sound of a ship approaching the island! It had come to rescue him! “How did you know I was here?” asked the weary man of his rescuers. “We saw your smoke signal,” they replied.

The Moral of This Story: It’s easy to get discouraged when things are going bad, but we shouldn’t lose heart, because God is at work in our lives, even in the midst of our pain and suffering.

Remember that the next time your little hut seems to be burning to the ground. It just may be a smoke signal that summons the Grace of God.

Ikariam Version 0.2.8

I was pondering whether to write an article about this freshly rolled out version of my favorite browser game or wait for version 0.3.0 and then write about that. The Ikariam boards have a list of features and bug fixes that 0.2.8 provides and addresses (respectively) so what is there to write about?

Well, let me write about some of the repercussions of some of the new features. First off is what I call simultaneous pillaging. This happens when two players attack the same city at roughly the same time. In the past, both players would become attackers and even help each other out by combining attack powers against the city’s defenders. Now, those attackers fight each other, one becomes the defender for the city, (presumably the first to arrive, and we’re talking seconds here so don’t question the use of the word simultaneous ^_^) and the other the attacker of the city. So if before, people were happy sending one man armies to pillage inactives, now, the tendency is to beef up the pillaging troop – increase those phalanxes, heck even include steam giants – so that if an unexpected opposing force is met, you still win. I guess this is what the game designers want, and it can mean people will be discouraged from pillaging or people will send more troops during pillaging.

But in my opinion, players are better off maintaining their previous attack pattern of sending one-man armies for pillaging inactives. As a group, all players will benefit more from this. Sending more soldiers in a troop increases the upkeep. There has always been a risk of a one-man pillaging troop dying because of the defensive power provided by a wall even if the city is uninhabited. Now, that risk has increased because of the possibility of meeting an opposing pillaging troop. But the rewards remain the same – that is the resources and gold received from the city being attacked. So at this point, I don’t think increasing your upkeep five fold is worth it.

The above advice may be sound for exploratory pillaging – finding out if an inactive city has a good amount of loot. But what if you already know that a particular city really has a high payoff? Then that is the time I would be ok with increasing the number of soldiers to include in the pillaging troop. You are now protecting a good source of revenue so making sure that you successfully pillage may be worth the additional upkeep. Just hope that nobody else has discovered that city and has encountered and lost to your troops, or else they will counter by increasing their own pillaging force. Then you do the same, they do the same… Zero Sum Game instead of a “Pillaging Synergy”.

A second new feature which I really like is the Alliance Ranking System – an administrative feature available to the Interior Minister (Home Secretary) of an alliance. Instead of being just a “member” of an alliance, you can have “made-up” ranks. You could make up traditional ranks such as private, lieutenant, and colonel. Or you could make up silly ranks like “Merlin the Magician” or the “Wizard of Oz”. This beats the traditional setup of having a Leader, Diplomat, General and Interior Minister (Home Secretary), then the rest of the players in the alliance as “members”.

Ranking at the time of this writing can be based on Total Score. You can promote a player to the next higher rank if he points become greater than a cut-off Total Score which you set. There are special ranks, which do not take points into account. A use I find for this is the ability to designate a player as an “Inactive” or as someone on “Vacation” mode. That way, whenever a member of the alliance enters the embassy, he sees which players are which. Too bad this feature can’t be automated yet – where the system really checks if the player is inactive or on vacation mode and sets these as the default ranks for that player. Right now, you’ll just have to set these up manually. But who knows, things might change in the future.

And finally, there’s the “Defend Port” and “Defend Town” features that I really think will dramatically change how battles especially during alliance wars will be fought. Although I haven’t personally tested this on a massive scale for fear of the “returning pillaging troop replaces massive defensive army being attacked” bug, it really has potential to increase an alliance’s defensive strategy. Before, the advantage was always on the attacking force. Three allied players can setup a their mobile colonies on an island against a single player and all that defender could do was hope that his walls were “high enough” and that his forces could withstand a triple pronged simultaneous attack. Now, those three attacking forces will have to fight each other if they land simultaneously. The defender can also have land forces from his friends or allies towns “blockade” his town for a maximum of 8 hours. And in theory, what this should do is treat both troops from different players as a single defensive force – sort of like a defensive Occupation.

Before, ship battles were always one player versus one player. Allied attackers could not combine their ships nor could allied defenders. But with the “Defend Port” feature, defenders could gain the upper hand in sea battles. Again, in theory, the two defensive fleets will be treated as one defensive force fending off the attacking armada.

Other changes are aesthetically pleasing or annoying (depending on each player’s point of view). Enough has been said on the Ikariam Boards about the “10 Combat Reports per page” and how this affects bashing. Over all, with a few pet peeves, I like the new version and await to see how these will affect the mechanics of the game in weeks to come.

Smallville S08E01

Spoiler Alert: If you haven’t seen the episode, read at your own risk.

Whenever Star Trek TNG ended a season with a cliff hanger, I would eagerly anticipate the first episode of the next season knowing that they would do justice to all the suspense build up during the season ender. And they never failed to disappoint since the season opener would tie lose ends left by the ender nicely.

But I really don’t appreciate Smallville season openers since they always have a way of rushing things instead of utilizing what they have built up in the final episodes of the previous season. Take this new season where they show Clark without his powers. Apparently, the destruction of the Fortress of Solitude stripped the Last Son of Krypton of his amazing abilities and has rendered him human. Then why don’t the writers build stories around that handicap? Let him be human for a few episodes, show that the big blue boyscout can survive on his smarts and even humanly brawn, (in the same way a famous detective from Gotham can). Show Clark trying to beat article deadlines without his super speed for typewriting or getting to the news scene. How would he deal with traffic, get a scoop or without his super hearing for eves dropping? And the school paper was the last time Clark wrote articles so how will he develop his journalistic skills for the big league? Who teaches Clark how to be a real reporter? Who influences him in this profession?

Being human would also have helped in creating stories revolving around his relationship with Lois – perhaps make her doubt that Clark could never be the future Superman because she sees that he is only human. Sure, Lois saved Clark’s behind in this episode, why not have more of that where not only Lois, but all the other super powered characters save Clark for a change. Instead, they give Clark his powers back immediately, and get this, make it appear as a trade off for the Martian Manhunter’s super powers. First of all, if the Martian Manhunter was even near fire, he would freak out and weaken. If the human Clark and the Martian Manhunter were both in a weak state, how would the Manhunter be able to fly back to Earth. (Ok ok, it’s the writer’s excuse to say that we won’t be seeing much of the Manhunter this season, but cmon, don’t just destroy DC lore, have some sense of continuity).

I remember Smallville’s opener for the Phantom Zone season. That is what an opener should be like. It helps tell the viewers what the coming season will be about. Instead, we as an audience are still being given hints about Veritas – which is so last season and so about Lionel Luthor and pals. There have also been reports about having dual identities as the theme of this season, but then the members of this show’s Justice League agree to lie low so I don’t think the episodes will be about exploring their double lives. Quite frankly, I’m not sure I know what to expect this season.

If I were a writer for Smallville, I’d really be worried, especially with that other super hero show. Comic fans will probably support both shows, but that other show really has people hooked, not just because the effects are great, or the variety of super powered heroes to explore, but because the stories are brand new and have never been told – tough for Smallville since we know most of Superman’s stories. This is the challenge for a Smallville writer, how to get viewers interested.

For me, Smallville was always about retelling Sup’s tales in a way that these would fit with modern times. And if Season 8 is the final season and the beginning of the red and blue legend, why not show Sups rescuing people, not merely from super powered villains, but from ordinary accidents, bank robbers, terrorists attacks like the 911, or natural disasters like hurricane Katrina? Why not be the reporter who happens to be at the wrong place at the wrong time, but saves the day and gets the scoop too? Why not be the reporter who does not remain neutral and simply states the news, but have compassion on the victims of the event that he has to rescue the victims. Show the transformation where Clark not only cares for his friends or loved ones, but begins to care for people in general, and values the lives of others. This season could be Clark’s coming of age in fulfilling his destiny as the greatest hero the DC universe has ever known. Telling how he becomes that should be the main theme for this series’ final season.

Job Type Affinity

Back when I was in school, our teachers loved to use frameworks like Michael Porter’s Value Chain or the Boston Consulting Group Matrix. Frameworks are used to try to understand things, the why’s and the how’s, and if you’re lucky, perhaps you can deduce the where and when.

So I’ve been doing a lot of thinking on my current state of being “in-between” jobs. And in the process, I’ve developed what I call the Job Type Affinity Framework. Jobs are classified as Easy or Difficult and Repetitive or Sporadic. The definition of easy or difficult will probably depend on the person making the distinction. Mozart probably considers what he did as easy, but composing music for me would be difficult. The same thing goes for categorization of what is repetitive and what is sporadic. I’ve heard some people say that they hate doing the same thing day in and day out, so to them that task is probably repetitive. Others might only do a task once a month but still feel that it is repetitive.

The idea is that each person is fit for certain types of jobs and will only find longevity in fields (I, II, III, IV) where they find the most satisfaction. And satisfaction is attained through a combination of Growth (Personal and Professional, Recognition), Salary (or Rewards), Free Time (or Freedom), and Lack of Stress. Some value their free time more than their growth. Others may not mind being overstressed as long as they are well paid.

Each field or region (I, II, III, IV) has certain trade-offs between the sources of satisfaction. A computer programmer who may be doing difficult repetitive tasks of putting up websites will most likely be paid more than a baggage boy in a supermarket. But that baggage boy will most likely have more free time on his hands since he usually works between 9 to 5, while the programmer may need to “camp” in the office until the project is done. The stress levels are usually greater in tasks that are more difficult. Some people can’t stand the stress that comes with the job so they opt to do something else.

I also believe that Growth or Learning is affected by the environment. Repetition ingrains something on our minds but having too much stress can also take away from the learning. Also, if you’ve been doing the same thing for say 10 years, the added learning diminishes over time. But if you take on entirely different tasks, then the added learning is improved. This is the reason why some people might opt for job rotation or lateral movement than being promoted to a higher level doing more of the same.

So if you find yourself not lasting in the jobs that you’ve been doing, try to analyze which region the job falls in. Are the amounts of sources of satisfaction enough for your appetite? If not, then you really might not last long in that type of work. It is best to find the area which complements your needs for satisfaction.

Note: Frameworks are to be used as tools to try to understand things so if you feel that something is “wrong” with this framework, then let’s discuss and see what can be revised and what can be retained =D

InstantAction

So I saw this ad by InstantAction for 3D browser games and I thought “Wow, that would be really cool”. And they said that it was free. So instead of playing the usual stuff, I decided to check it out.

Three games immediately caught my attention. The first was Think Tanks and with the exception of the long loading time, it was fun and enjoyable. You get to be a tank and blast every other tank on site. Really just lots of fun and mayhem. There are three types of “free” tanks that you can control, one really quick and agile but with low firepower and toughness, the other tough as nails but hard to maneuver, and the third was somewhere midway.

But after a couple of rounds of the same old thing, I got tired. There is no concept of improving except being able to access other maps at higher levels. No weapon upgrades except that which bonus power ups on the map give and these fade after use. To access “better tanks” one would have to buy something like points or tokens and for a game that hasn’t even gotten me playing for a week, I find the sales pitch just a bit premature and a bit of a turn off.

So I decided to try another game, a browser based RTS (Real Time Strategy). But after seeing the Earth Worm Jim type of screens, I decided to look at the 3rd game. So far that’s 2 strikes.

The video of the 3rd game showed much promise. It looked like Half-life or Counter Strike… but on a browser… awesome!!!. So I decided to try it out. Loading for a couple of minutes… hmm, ok seems worth the wait, I’ll watch some TED video while waiting. The TED talk is done and still, the download is not done. Watch another TED video. Finally, the download is finished but “an error occurred” and they want me to report what happened to their technical support? Sorry but that’s three strikes and I’m out of here.

Unless InstantAction changes the way it does things, I’d bet it would end up like one of those start ups that never took off. Other gaming companies can learn from it by “not imitating” its mistakes. I usually link to websites I believe in but in this case, I wouldn’t bother. If you want to try it out so bad, then just Google it.