Here's looking at you, kid!

Truth is often times much stranger than fiction. 

Say you discovered a new protein, for instance, in the human eye.  Maybe it was wholly unknown to human scientists/biologists for the last 50 years.  But you've discovered it and also determined its function.  The little bugger makes for fast communication between the eye and the brain.  So what do you call it?

If you are in Japan, you name it after a well-known Pokemon, of course!  Pikachu to be exact.  Read it all here.  All together now:  "Pika Pika... Pikachuuuuuuuuuu!"

I loved The Empire Strikes Back. It was the first movie sequel that didn't suck.  The best moment of the movie wasn't the revelation of Luke's father.  It was where he entered the valley "strong in the dark side of the Force" on Dagoban.  Luke asked innocently, "What's in there?"   To which Yoda sagely replied, "Only what you take with you."  That little piece of advice still resonates fiercely with me.

On the Escapist website (seriously, read it!) an article was posted a while back discussing a particular game, The Torture Game 2.  In short, this is a game where you can dismember and torture a figure of a man/mannequin.  However, there are no screams of pain or protests by the man.  The writer was perturbed by the fact that she couldn't get the game, until she realizes that the context of the torturing MUST be provided by the player.  If it sickens you, then by society's rules, you are normal.  And vice versa.  However, it's you, the player, that must provide the context.  It's a fascinating insight into the psyche of the player.  And it reminded me strongly of Yoda's advice.

In any situation or choice, your actions or decisions are influenced by what you bring with you; the baggage you carry around with you.  That makes games like Bioware's Mass Effect such a seminal experience.

... but where was the computer scientist?  Because these three discussed the Turing Test without having a real-deal programmer/scientist to explain to them the technicalities of creating an intelligent, conscious machine. 

With the release of the RPG starter kit for XNA, the bug has bitten me again to continue my involvement in games.  It was reading a Gamasutra article on dialog between the player and the computer that I stumbled on this nugget, A Coffeehouse Conversation on the Turing Test.  This piece can be read here (http://www.cse.unr.edu/~sushil/class/ai/papers/coffeehouse.html).  It was published in 1981 by Douglas R. Hofstadter, a professor of Cognitive Science at Indiana University in Bloomington.  I don't know whether this conversion really took place or not, but it makes for some thoughtful reading.

Real artificial, conscious intelligence is still very far away.  Robot designers are still trying to create a believable walking robot, much less getting it to think further than how to greet you properly and asking if you want sugar in your coffee. Matrix-like intelligence requires vast computing power that we just don't have readily available.  However, I believe it will happen.  I also believe humanity will not be ready for the consequences. 

That being said, I'm SO looking forward to watching WALL-E this weekend.

Sheesh, its the end of the year!  Wow, time flies when you are having fun.  I hope everyone had a very enjoyable, blessed Christmas and are looking forward to the coming new year.  I wish each and everyone a happy, prosperous and gaming-filled 2008.  May all our wishes come true.

Unfortunately, its not all sunshine and roses this side.  My game dev has essentially grinded to a halt.  I'm currently working with some Americans on a work project and since they only get up at 4 pm my time, I'm busy with them till 7 pm (my time).  I am, however, busy with a tutorial on a screen saver I wrote.  This project has festered in my brain for a long time and I finally got the creative urge to do and finish it.  As usual, documenting it is taking a lot longer.  I'll upload it and the documentation "when it's done".  (Don't worry, this isn't another DNF).

Happy New Year!

State: Finished, Normal difficulty
Char: Default John Shepard, Level 49 (17000 away from L50), 90+ Paragon
Play Time:  about 38 hours

I finished this awesome game last night.  Its so much goodness that the main quest thread felt like 2 hours instead of the clocked 18 hours.  I did all of the side quests (bar 2 or 3) and that took 20 hours.  That dragged on a bit.

But when I started part 3 of the main quest I was already a bad-ass level 40 assault rifle junkie and just rocked through it like a hot knife through butter.  The ending is a bit predicable in terms of plot, but the execution is so awesome that it doesn't matter.  This game is just like an interactive movie, but with awesome gameplay.  I would be proud to show this to non-gamers if they don't mind the combat sections too much.  I loved the combat, by the way.  Every review slams Bioware on the combat, but I loved it for its simplicity.  Sure, I didn't use the biotic stuff much and some of the biotic skills would have been handy in the end, but I made is through just fine.

I'm so jazzed up about this game that I can start immediately with a new character and not feel the drudgery of playing through the game again.  I haven't reached the saturation point of the game yet.  That makes it a truly remarkable achievement in my book.  Oblivion reached its point 250 hours in.  KOTOR and KOTOR2 only after 100 hours each (ie. two play-throughs).

Bioware, I applaud you.  Don't take to long with the next installment!

Achievement-wise I've unlocked about 50%.  You need to play through the game at least twice to unlock 75%.  The stuff the remains locked at this point is the individual skill achievements (use throw 150 times, use barrier 150 times, etc.) and the Level 50 and Level 60 achievement.  The L50 one is doable.  I didn't finish all the side quests and didn't kill all the enemies, so getting the remaining 17 000 XP shouldn't be too difficult.  As for the L60 one, I'm not sure what path you should carve to get an additional 100 000 XP (thumb-suck).