Cyberman 8

An open letter to a Chinese Gold Farmer

Hey there. Yes. You, there sitting in Beijing on the computer.

SURPRISE MOTHERFUCKER!

I have to wonder - what were you thinking? That my World of Warcraft account, because it hadn't been active for nearly a year was fair game? So sorry to disappoint. NOT!

See, I may not have been active in the game, but I have friends who are. Friends who know me in "real life" and know my phone number. And when they SAW you on my character, not responding, when they KNEW I didn't have the funds to spare to reactivate my account (because I told them), they knew to call me. And I immediately logged into Blizzard's Battle.net account and changed the password and booted you off. Bet you were surprised!

So asshole. You wasted time and money hacking my account and what's the score? Here's the tally:

-- You either wasted a one-month referral or paid for one outright. Either way, your loss, my gain, cause now that free month to play is MINE!

-- You spent a hell of a lot of time mining and got my character's mining skill maxed out. Thanks! But now I get to do with it what I want. SUCK ON IT.

-- You added some top-end mining bags to my character. Which are now MINE.

-- Ah yes, you mined a LOT of Cobalt and Saronite ore. You filled one whole mining bag and part of another with the stuff. Well, I've now smelted all of it and it's on the market and -I- get the gold for it! It's now MINE.

-- You effectively leveled my character one whole entire level. I only had to do the barest smidge of work to put her over the top. Thanks for the boost! But that character is MINE.

-- You must've made some gold in that 8 hours. I don't remember having that much. But it's now MINE, and I now have a flying mount in Northrend because of that gold. Thanks!

-- You sold off a lot of my gear, but because there was only an 8 hour window of time to work with to track the records down, the GMs were able to completely and utterly restore every last bit of it.

-- You wasted about 8 hours of time, and GAVE me a full month of free game time. FOR NOTHING.

Oh, and the Gmail account you hacked? New password, and I'm combing my systems now to make sure I don't have any traces of your keylogging malware bullshit. No getting back that way!

I believe the technical term for this situation is TOTAL CURBSTOMP.

Karma, it's what's for breakfast, bitches!!
Cyberman 8

A Star Blazers Retrospective

Ok. I've tried to explain my love for this show before. But I don't think I ever -quite- put it across well enough. 

THIS guy is MUCH better at setting up the context of what was going on at the time and why Star Blazers was such a watershed moment in TV animation history. Please watch it! 


-Logan
--------------------
"Love is the first casualty of war... It does not 
allow us to be our better selves."
-Desslok of Gamilon
--------------------

Cyberman 8

(no subject)

For those of you who have played the game and noted an amusing movie advertisement on Ilium... well here's the trailer. :D





There are simply no words for how funny and full of EPIC WIN this is! ^_^
Cyberman 8

(no subject)

Coservative blogger Allahpundit opines: 

Current media narrative on the Ground Zero mosque: Shining beacon of liberal values bursting through the overcast skies of American intolerance. 

What do you want to bet that the media narrative on the GG gay bar will be: Dangerous provocation that needlessly inflames cultural tensions in the ostensible service of liberal values. 

How very insensitive. 

I’m announcing tonight, that I am planning to build and open the first gay bar that caters not only to the west, but also Islamic gay men. To best express my sincere desire for dialogue, the bar will be situated next to the mosque Park51, in an available commercial space. 

This is not a joke. I’ve already spoken to a number of investors, who have pledged their support in this bipartisan bid for understanding and tolerance. 

As you know, the Muslim faith doesn’t look kindly upon homosexuality, which is why I’m building this bar. It is an effort to break down barriers and reduce deadly homophobia in the Islamic world. 

The goal, however, is not simply to open a typical gay bar, but one friendly to men of Islamic faith. An entire floor, for example, will feature non-alcoholic drinks, since booze is forbidden by the faith. The bar will be open all day and night, to accommodate men who would rather keep their sexuality under wraps – but still want to dance.


Not an idea that would play well with Christians or Jews vis-a-vis property adjacent to a church or temple, but oh well: If we’re going to celebrate tolerance regardless of the sensitivities of the surrounding area, let’s celebrate! And the best part? Because, as we’ve been assured many times, the “Park51″ cultural center will be a model of moderation, gay Muslim men don’t have to worry about being seen entering Gut’s establishment. Flaunt it all you want, fellas; you’re in Moderate Town, U.S.A., on that block. I look forward to the congratulatory Mike Bloomberg press conference.
----------

Anyway, how about a few ideas - in the name of multiculturalism and diversity of course! Here is the Top Ten list of possible names for the new gay bar!

10:  "Muslim Brotherhood" 
9:    "72 Virgins" 
8:    "Sultans of Schwing!"
7:    "I Call It My Sword"
6:    "The Fertile Crescent Moon"
5:    "Kuran Kuran"
4:    "Midnight at the Oasis"
3:    "Princes of Persia"
2:    "Holiest of Holies"

And the number one possible name for the new gay bar - 
1:    "Submission"
 
 
Cyberman 8

Why is the state involved in marriage at all?

Ed Morrissey writes:

Now that a judge has issued an incoherent ruling that the federal government has a 14th Amendment interest in the definition of marriage after more than 140 years of apparent disinterest, it may be time to reconsider government involvement in marriage entirely. Townhall’s David Harsanyi offers the argument that government involvement may do more harm than good to the institution, and results from a historical mistake in the first place. Time to get on with the divorce, Harsanyi insists:

In the 1500s, a pestering theologian instituted something called the Marriage Ordinance in Geneva, which made “state registration and church consecration” a dual requirement of matrimony.

We have yet to get over this mistake. But isn’t it about time we freed marriage from the state?

Imagine if government had no interest in the definition of marriage. Individuals could commit to each other, head to the local priest or rabbi or shaman — or no one at all — and enter into contractual agreements, call their blissful union whatever they felt it should be called and go about the business of their lives.

I certainly don’t believe that gay marriage will trigger societal instability or undermine traditional marriage — we already have that covered — but mostly I believe your private relationships are none of my business. And without any government role in the institution, it wouldn’t be the business of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, either.

Be sure to read it all. I’ve written about this repeatedly over the last several years, and while I don’t think that this is an easy path to adopt, it’s going to be the eventual solution. Not only does it take government out of people’s private lives, it also means an end to a divisive and essentially meaningless debate — and it protects houses of faith and ends a potential government interference in matters of religion.

Let’s first dispense with the idea that the government protects the sanctity of marriage. It doesn’t; if government ever did that, that ended with no-fault divorce. Marriage, as run by the government, is the only contract in this country that can be broken by one party alone with no adverse consequences. (Well, that and professional sports contracts, I guess.) Partnership agreements in the business context would disintegrate without at least the threat of government enforcement of its provisions. Marriage as run by government has been disintegrating for decades, as the divorce rate shows, and that has nothing to do with gay relationships.

We would do much better to require people to create partnership contracts in the civil context than get marriage licenses for issues like property sharing, access to family, and so on. If people want to live together and share their lives to that extent, it’s healthier and much less confusing later to have those issues expressly spelled out in an agreement up front, just like any prenuptial agreement today. If two people don’t want to go that far in formalizing their relationship, then they shouldn’t be considered married anyway — and shouldn’t get access to “palimony” and have debates over oral contracts, and so on. If you don’t get it in writing, it doesn’t exist, in the context of personal partnerships.

Then, if people want to get “married,” they can go to the institutions that actuallycare about marriage: churches, synagogues, mosques, temples, and so on. Marriage can be a private, faith-based recognition of a sacramental relationship that exists outside of the civil context entirely, and houses of faith can set their own requirements as to what it means and who can participate — just as they do now. Not only does that protect the sanctity of actual marriage much more than a government, but it also means that government has no way to poke the camel’s nose of intervention into the religious tent, as it were, to force houses of faith to conduct marriages that violate their tenets in the name of fairness. Divorcing marriage from the state and dissolving the partnership between government and religion benefits the latter more than the former.

Let government define and enforce contract law, not marriage. If we don’t follow that path, people will shortly become very unhappy about the eventual government definition.

Morrissey pretty much lays out my position on this whole thing. I'm all for letting gays and lesbians get married. And I also am all for getting government out of everywhere it can be removed. Especially out of people's private lives. Why not take care of both and let everybody do what they want?
Cyberman 8

EPIC GAMING TYPO!!

In the spirit of the Top Gear presenters version of friendship I'm going to embarrass my friend. Feel free to return the favor anytime, dude. ^_^

So me (Sassinak) and Foxboy (Rebecca Heisman) are running to a mission and we pass a whole group of of about 15 clockwork in nice neat rows, sort of parade-rest formation (like the N5 Series from I-Robot). And he executes one of the most epic typos... 

...in the world.
 
[Team] Rebecca Heisman: Big Spawn of Cocks can be creepy no?
[Team] Sassinak: O_o
[Team] Sassinak: Yeeees....
[Team] Rebecca Heisman: CLOCKS!
[Team] Rebecca Heisman: *REDFACED TYPO OF DOOM*
[Team] Sassinak: ((*Whooping in laughter*))
Cyberman 8

Sick SICK Plotbunny...

Okay. Was reading Eva fanfic earlier today (which as we all know, CAN'T be good for the soul...) when a description from the self-insert author about what the Eva's REALLY are... and what Rei really is. Stuff I'd known about already but hadn't thought of in awhile, and the ideas... 
 
...bounced off a little memory fragment from another, possibly equally sick american show...
 
And I'm finding myself going... "No... nonononononono no... NO! AGH! BAD BRAIN! STOP that!"
 
And... I think I'll just leave this here for someone else to pick up. Share the pain, as it were... 
 
Dr. Fuyutsuki: [after examining the test type EVA-00 for the first time] What the hell is this thing made out of, Gendo? 
Gendo Ikari: [suspiciously] Erm.. Nothing. Just applied macro genetics based in part on what we found in Antartica. 
Fuyutsuki: Come on... 
Gendo: All right, fine, I might have used a few unorthodox parts. 
Fuyutsuki: Just tell me one. 
Gendo: [mumbling] An... orphan. 
Fuyutsuki: A what? 
Gendo: [clearing his throat] An orphan? 
Fuyutsuki: Did you say... an ORPHAN? 
Gendo: [weakly] Yeah, a little orphan boy. 
Fuyutsuki: It's powered by a forsaken child!? 
Gendo: [defensive] Might be, kind of - I mean I didn't use the whole thing! 

EVANGELION: "CAREERS IN SCIENCE"
Cyberman 8

Voice of Speed Racer, Peter Fernandez, Passes Away

Anime News Network announcement

I'm deeply saddened about this. More so than usual for such a notification. I actually got to meet and talk with Peter briefly at Anime Weekend Atlanta a few years ago along with several other fans. A kind, sweet gentleman with a ready laugh and a ton of small stories. You could tell he was truly getting an enormous kick out of seeing what the popularity of Speed Racer had amounted to and getting the proper recognition for his work. And truly curious (though somewhat bemused) about the rest of the anime world at the convention.

The most interesting thing at the time was the intersection of him, Corrine Orr (who voiced Trixie and several other voices through the years - including Nova from Star Blazers 3rd Season) and Amy Howard (who voiced Nova on the first two seasons of Star Blazers). Peter himself had done the voice of Mark Venture, the Argo's navigator and pilot in the 3rd season. And Peter actually went to some lengths to APOLOGIZE to fans (and Amy) for not using the original voice actors from the first two seasons! But like the rest of us in fandom at the time (mid 80s), he couldn't FIND them (because they were working non-union and uncredited.)

Why the weird names like "Cruncher Block" "Inspector Detector" and "Snake Oiler" in Speed Racer? Why the run-on sentences? Well the translations they got were sparse. REALLY sparse. So he had to make up a lot of dialogue. And they were dubbing on a pretty tight schedule. So the names were whatever would fit best that the actors could REMEMBER without effort and having to check back to the script so often for! If some of the dialogue sounded like they were making it up as they went along, well... they WERE.

He also wrote the lyrics for the classic Speed Racer theme - "Here he comes, here comes Speed Racer..."

If you watch the Speed Racer movie. Peter is in it as a cameo. Corrine too. He's the old newsman at the first Thunderhead race in the beginning. The "Local Newsman guy" in the fedora commenting on Speed. Kudos to the Wachowski's for that bit of class.

RIP Peter. You were a gentleman. In the classic sense. A gentle man.
Cyberman 8

Goodbye World of Warcraft

And I mean forever.

(EDIT: UPDATE -

WHEW!!!

Looks like Blizz backed down (for now). Looks like the massive amounts of account cancellations and a thread on the official forums that apparently went over FIFTY-THOUSAND Negative posts got their attention!

I'm cautiously optimistic. And (for now) I'll re-consider my plans to play the game again.

But no reason not to keep the swords sharp. I bet this isn't the end of it.

Still - PARTY!

(I'll leave the original post below, though.) )

==========

On Tuesday, Blizzard announced that it will begin forcing participants in its game discussion forums–where players go to gab about World of Warcraft and other games–to post comments using their real first and last names. The change will go into effect mid-July on forums for Starcraft II, an upcoming online game, and follow after that for World of Warcraft discussion forums.

In a post on its discussion forums, Blizzard said its forums have “earned a reputation as a place where flame wars, trolling, and other unpleasantness run wild.” (A “troll” is Internet slang for a discussion group provocateur who likes to rile up other chatters with nasty or off-topic posts.) That’s largely because Blizzard has allowed its discussion forum participants to identify themselves by their in-game character names.

When asked if there was any way to opt out of this 'service', players were told, "Don't post on the forums."

In Blizzard’s discussion forums, game players said the policy would lead to everything from identity theft to spam to stalking by “Internet crazies.” One poster said he was worried that a new girlfriend will could discover his “closet-gamer habit” by Googling his real name.

And all of these people are being told, in effect, if you don't feel comfortable posting on our spiffy new troll-free forums, then... go away.

So let me get this straight -

If I want to play your game, that means that AUTOMATICALLY my user info will be shared with facebook? My REAL name? Potentially my address? Where I work?

FUCK. YOU. NO!!!

This all may seem alarmist, but... when one of the Customer Service reps posted HIS name, within 5 minutes the results were in. Someone with his name, living in the same state, had their FULL information posted, their Facebook page slammed, their phone ringing off the hook. A player posted their name as a demonstration, and within 20 minutes, another player unknown to them was calling their work telephone and reciting facts about their house, their car, their pet, and their recent vacation.

What about people who are in actual DANGER if their personal information gets out? Like women? How about LGBT?:

I’ll just put in my two cents as one of many of the 15 million (according to CBC article) players worldwide. As a member of the LGBTIS community posting my real name ona forum with a reputation like World of Warcraft’s is a very real personal danger for people like us. If you don’t believe that, just use Google to search for “Transexual hate crime” and see what comes up.
Another commenter said: 
As a female player who’s been harassed several times, I can say that this is going to be a horrible change. I absolutely refuse to post on the forums under these conditions. If I have a tech problem I’ll just have to use the in-game feature to report it now, rather than going to the forums. This may mean a longer wait, but why would I want 11+ million other people to view my name? I did research and only 5 other people have my first and last name in the U.S. There needs to be stronger laws against this.


Another commenter says:

After 5 years with Blizzard, ACTI stock, 14 accounts including my own, wife, children, and other family member accounts, as well as every game they’ve ever published I’m finally pulling the plug and calling it quits with this company. Enough is enough and I refuse to spend another dollar on a game that i’m paying for only to have my real name plastered all over the internet due to this idea of “social gaming”. Now you’ll be able to log-in to play a game but leave that game with real life people looking up your information or possibly even stalking you just because you play?

I didn’t sign up for Facebook due to privacy issues and had I known that the Activision/Blizzard merger would lead to this I would have never invested my money, time, or personal information to this company. It’s a sad day when you see a company that used to love it’s customers start to love the money more to the point that it will be it’s downfall.


And:

Rule one on the internet has always been to keep one’s personal information private. There are employers who may reject applicants who are found posting on World of Warcraft boards. There are people who play WoW who have ex-spouses or ex-lovers who might do them harm. There are people who play WoW who are in professions and jobs that discourage having their real names on the internet. At a minimum, this will put women and people with non-white sounding names off of the forums, since there’s a very high probability that their posts will be met with ridicule and harassment.


Why is Activision/Blizzard pushing for this?

Why do you think? They think they can make more money.

Activision has entered into a partnership with Facebook to "cross-pollinate" the social media site with data culled from the players. When they accomplish something, it'll get posted. When they get some nice gear, it'll be posted. When they level up, it'll be posted. All in a gambit to get the person's friends to try the game out. At least that's their theory. I think the whole thing is going to be short-circuited by people making completely false identities in order to play. To say nothing of the people who are just going to quit outright in justified anger.

I haven't even played the game in over 9 months. I have less than 50 forum posts to my (in-game) name. But now I'm going to be calling their customer service to make DAMN certain that every scrap of private information that they might have had on me is GONE and I'm going to be telling them in no-uncertain terms why I will never be coming back.

Congratulations Bobby Kotick (CEO of Activision Blizzard)! You finally found a way to kill the goose with the golden eggs!

I always wondered what it might take to carve away the massive share of the market that WoW represented. I sure wouldn't have called this, though!

This makes me unutterably sad as well as angry. I loved the Warcraft world. Loved the lore (even as inconsistent and changeable as it could get.) Loved the concepts and the art. Loved the races (I played mostly alliance, but Horde stuff was still awesome.)

I am sad that I will never be able to visit that world again. But this is the end.