To play this game you have to...

Last Saturday, I finally got a good look at the game Maple Story.

It is a cutesy 2-D sprite based platform game, that is supposed to be free to play. All you have to do is go to the website and download the client. So, despite being tickled at the 25+ year olds playing this game, I decided to give it a try. (Hey, it is FREE, and I am a gamer).

However, after an excruciationg download of 204MB, of which I initially tried getting from the international mirror instead of the one closer in South East Asia, and installation, I found out that I have to sign up as a member of another site, before even being able to sign up for the game.

Here is the catch. They needed me to provide them with a National ID number. (NRIC for Singaporeans). Me, being the paranoid person I am, used my Passport number instead, as it has less 'abusable' potential. The next page asked for my full real name and full real address. (They claimed it to be information needed in case they need to send me gifts, and that my account will be banned if I provided them with false information). There I paused again, and finally decided not to register.

You can call me paranoid, but in today's world, Identity theft is very possible. What would happen if my personal information got leaked/hacked from this company? It is just to play a game for goodness sake, a 'FREE' one at that. I am am already quite cautious with using credit cards online, but this is really asking for too much info.

Another game that I came across recently is Second Life. This is basically a virtual world like The Sims, where you can tailor made your own alter-ego from scratch and live a virtual life. The difference is, in Second Life, you can even make a living by creating/trading virtual goods, being a landlord, running a disco and myriad other ways. This game even has its own 'currency exchange rate' versus real money (in US$). If you are a heck of a designer, you might be able to make some pocket money. Surprisingly, the basic version of thie game is also free, although you need to be a paying member to lease/own virtual buildings and operate your business.

I have not attempted to sign up with Second Life, as this type of game currently does not draw me. So I do not know if they have as 'stringent' a requirement as Maple Story.

The interesting this is that the way these games generate revenue is similar to this Game Designer's Player Pyramid theory. Essentially, while the general players do not need to pay, those who wish for more privileges in game can pay to get them.

It is truly an interesting (Virtual) World out there...

Bus loonaticks

This month have encountered at least four weird people when taking the bus, two of which was in the space of less than 1 week.

One was listening to music, really loud music.

One was trying to make music, really awful music.

One was mumbling incomprehensible words, punctuated by really loud "MATI!" and "DIE!" (they mean the same thing) for at least 40 minutes straight. (He was still going at it when I got off the bus)

One was humming a song in an undechiperable language, that got louder as time goes by.

This reminded me of a post I read somewhere where a person felt that her 'personal space' was being violated when another person in the cinema asked her to stop discussing the movie so loudly. Isn't she also violating other people's 'personal space' with the inecessant chatter?

Frankly, I am at a loss of what to do in this kind of situation. Asians are generally stereotyped as passive, while I think actually it is more of a "Face" thing. On top of that, I am not confrontational in nature. But, should I even give face to someone who's obviously not giving the rest of us any?

The guy yelling DIE! obviously has a screw loose somewhere, unless he's a plant by Candid Camera, or a P.H.D. student doing a thesis on how people react to a raving madman. At least the 'loud music guy' was playing some pretty good Japanese ones...

Subliminal advertising?

When I was on my way to a dinner event yesterday, I found myself crammed into an MRT caboose that was filled with blood bank advertisements. They were using various "Fact style" statements such as: "Do you know that blah blah blah". What amused me was the red colored thought bubbles pasted strategically on the windows such that it seems that they originate from the people sitting right beneath them. It says: "I think you should donate" (something like that, I can't remember the exact wording).

What is interesting is the usage of *you* in the message. It made it look like the person sitting there is asking whomever he/she is looking at to donate blood. I felt that the message might have been more effective if it said: "I think *I* shall donate" instead, as it gives a voluntary feel, instead of the current 'you are being arrowed' feel.

Which brought me to my next thought. Who's paying for this advertisement? In some parts of the world, people can get payment from selling body fluids, but I am pretty sure that blood donors here do not get anything (maybe a drink and a cookie). The money has to come from somewhere.

Welcome to the cult of gamers~!

As I wandered into my usual gameshop hangout after my dance practice today, I saw the storekeeper explaining a game of Carcasonne to two guys. From their spoken English, I immediately pegged them as Indonesians. As the storekeeper was busy, I took it upon myself to recommend them some games. It turned out that they had been to Settlers before, and the group of 5 of them decided to buy some games (the hook of addiction has sunk!). They were not aware of gamers night though, and so of course I have to induct them to the ritual. Muahahahaha! Anyway, they ended up buying a set of Settlers of Cattan, + the expansion for 5-6 players. I even took them down to Burger King to have a demo game. (The shop should pay me comission man :D)

Oh yeah, both NTU graduates, and one of them share the same name with Sonic. What a coincidence eh? Looks like we have more converts!

On another note, you know that technology is really proliferating when:

Your auntie asks if you have a girlfriend yet - through E-mail, and
Your mom asks you the same thing - through SMS.

Or maybe it just meant that I am getting older... merde~!

Humour vs Humor

I had fun looking through some of the online comics from sonic's blog. I have never figured him much as a computer gamer though, to have enough association to enjoy Penny Ardace.

Humour comic creation is basically the linking of two objects/events that are supposedly totally unrelated, in the most funny way possible. Some people may object to one, or both, or even all the events, and some people may object to the associations. But events, objects and associations can only come through experience. For example, it it really hard to explain a joke about sushi, to someone who does not know what on earth a sushi is, or the parody of budweiser's "WAzzzzuuuuppp!" to "WAzaaaaabiiiii!" to a person who knows nothing about the beer, or sushi, or both.

And sometimes, even really common words could result in a faux pas. (Saying "I am coming!" in the wrong crowd would earn you sniggers... for safety, use "Be right there!") Unless of course it was intentional (an innuendo). Banana -> Peel -> Slip could be associated in various different ways, (you with the dirty minds out there, stop sniggering!)

Just like when I was playing my MMO last night.　Someting said by one of my party members had me laughing. It was: "たしかに" (確かに) -> "I think you're right"
Background: Our party was about to go out and hunt some monsters, and worms were the best for our level range. Then one person in the party suggested we try crabs (蟹). I said that we were probably too low a level to fight those yet, and I pointed out that one member of our party is 2 levels below the rest of us. Then he said: "たし蟹" (たしかに) -> "Definitely Crab".

This is a 駄洒落 (だじゃれ), which is a form of wordplay, where the same pronounciation can be written in different ways - hence has different meanings. What we call '像声' in Chinese, and 'Puns' should be the closest in English. Unfortunately, this genre of humour is viewed as more for the older generation in Japan, for reasons unknown to me (maybe you need more experience to appreciate the characters?). Which is interesting as it seems that people who enjoy English puns are usually of the younger generation (do correct me if I am wrong).

I consider it an accomplishment in language learning when you can begin to understand humour in that that language. Not everyone is a poet, but everyone sure can appreciate a good laugh. Until then, for those learning Chinese, be careful when saying "May I ask you something?" in Chinese. (我要问你，可以吗？Versus 我要吻你，可以吗？)

Get paid, to game...

Came across this tidbit from one of the boardgaming forums.

Sweden should be noted as the only country in the world (as far as I know) where a organised game group of five person get over 2000 sek or 250 $ each year from the state (if the members are under 25 that is)

Isn't that wonderful?

You can also read about the gaming (non-computer) situations from many countries on this thread. *click here*

Tag..... or not....

Seems that I got tagged to reveal my quirks, so I guess I shall~

1. I like doing things alone. Be it watching movies, or having lunch. Quite a few people find it weird that I am able to go to the movies alone, and still totally enjoy myself.

2. I tend to apply defensive strategies. In RTS (Real Time Strategy) games term, I am what is called a Turtle. Behind the defensive barrier, I shall build a mighty army and overwhelm opponents when their resources are stretched thin. Unfortunately, things very seldom work as I planned, and this is the reason why I do not like playing Conflict-type boardgames.

3. I am not very religious, and I do not like it when people go all religious, especially on me. I believe that religion is a very personal thing, and not soething to be badied about. There are forces out there that are beyond current human comprehension and I just do not try to define it, or follow other people's definition. If you would like to thank a certain being for every single good thing that has happened to you, go ahead, it is your perogrative. Just don't drag me along, or even hint to me that I am doing you the favor because that particular being led me to do so.

4. I am extremely lazy, especially when it comes to maintaining/initiating contact with other people. The prettiest gal in singapore could give me her phone number, and I could still just be too lazy to give her a call.

5. I do not like perpetuating chain-like stuff. This could be one of the reasons why I really do not like MLM. So I shall teleport this link into the nearest black hole, where it shall never get out again. Muahahahaha~

Managed to chase back some of my backlog. Whoppe!

Goofing off or.... ?

As I have said, it has been a hectic week, and it shall continue for at least 2 more weeks. I am like 2 days behind schedule in my translation, as the current project timeline did not include the time I needed to update the translations from my previous 2 projects. So, onwards~!

Which brings me to today's topic. There was a study carried out at www.salary.com that said, the average America spends 2.09 hours 'goofing off' each workday, not inclusive of lunchtime. The study equates this to the fact that since work is invading personal time (e.g. on call engineers), personal time has decided to invade back. And that this is a reflection of people's 'resentment' of having to work longer hours for the same compensation.

For me, I beg to differ. I do not believe that a human being can work nonstop for an 8 hour stretch a day. The brain will just go sluggish and start to produce sub-par work. Then again there is the 80%-20% study, which I found very interesting. This study shows that the natural, optimum rate of efficiency is 80%.

The experiment goes like this: Put 20 kindergarten kids in a room with toys, let them roam free for a while, and asked them to stow away the toys after 15 minutes of play. It was observed that roughly 16 of them will do so while the other 4 continued to play.

The second day, 4 of the 'lazy' kids are removed from the group, and the same thing is repeated. This time, it was observed that 13 kids kept their toys and 3 continued to play.

The third day, the 3 'newly lazy' kids are removed, and the same thing is repeated. This time, 8 kids kept the toys, and 2 continued playing.

All the monitoring was done by a hidden camera, and it is interesting to see that whenever the 'unproductive' element is removed, an approximate 20% worth of 'new' unproductivity always enter the system. This 'rule' was found to apply even in the hardworking community of ants, and bees. Interesting no?

Now we know why there are people out there who get paid to practically do nothing. They are there to make up the 20% inefficiency quota. Now, if only they do not get paid so much money...

Bzzzzz

Gah.. been really really busy this week, and have not came across much out of the norm things...

Anyway, I went to IMM and did some grocery shopping on Sunday (one that contributed to my recent financial plight). Bought my instant noodles (统一), some snacks, bread, and a large tin of egg rolls. Then I went to the 3-in-1 KFC-Pizza Hut-Taco Bell outlet there to have the Lasagne set. I feel that this Fast Food outlet is very interesting. For one, I can have Lasagne at a much cheaper price compared to if I had gone to a Pizza Hut store (albeit it being in tin foil container), and get a drink+fries on top of it. The only thing that I don't like are the plastic utensils, as fighting against the oh-so-delicious burnt cheese that is stuck to the container with them is a brutal, losing battle.

Well, until I find another eatery that offers delicious (I do like the Pizza Hut) Lasagne at this kind of reasonable price, this outlet is going to remain as my fave Lasagne fix. So, if you see a fashion-challenged guy tucking into Lasagne with wild abadon (with lots of cheese scrapings), that might be me :P

1 more day of poverty...
(I also can type Chinese now! 你好!)

*Really* thin wallet...

I just took a peek into my wallet and I have... *gasp* 8 dollars to last me the whole week (my budget). It seems that I have really overspent this quarter of the month. Dance event, Boardgamer's meetup, Grocery shopping, and the dinner treats...

Thankfully I found another canteen near my workplace that serves good food at low price. ($2 for rice, 1 meat dish, 1 vegetable, and 1 side! - I took egg). Looks like this is going to be my favourite new lunch hangout. As for dinner.... I guess it shall be instant noodles until this weekend (until my funds replenish ><).

I just remembered that I inadvertedly gave a treat to my friend yesterday too.. I forgot to ask him to pay for his share of KFC Coupon! Woe the forgetful wolf.....

Thinning wallet...

It seems that Saturdays has turned into my "Gourment Adventure Day". On a whim, I decided to try out this pasta eatery that I saw in the far corner of Takashimaya's food alley. These are called "デパ地下" or literally "Department store basement" in Japanese.

I was first attracted by their open kitchen concept, where I can see the Chefs (there were 3 of them) fighting a constant battle against an army of slip orders. One chef will deftly start to hit 2-3 fyring pans on the electric stove, toss some olive oil followed by some garlic and onion, and add the various sauce base (tomato, cream) into the fragrantly caramelizing ingredients. At the same time, he will be grabbing pastas and reheat them in boiling water, before adding them to the pans, and passing them to the second chef for other ingredients. The third chef is in charge of passing the dish to the servers, and 'flash washing' the pans for the next dish.

I decided to try their Meatball Linguine in Arabiatta sauce. They had an interesting order system where you can basically pick a type of pasta out of four, the sauce to go with it, and the 'toppings'. Then they assigned me to a seat, and I waited for my pasta.

My pasta arrived, steaming in red tomato sauce and accompanied by 5 meatballs. I twirled the pasta on my fork, huffed and puffed on the juicy bundle to cool it down, and took a bite. Mamma mia! It was hot! (spicy!), but the pasta was al'dente and tasted good. The meatballs was unfortunately small, and kind of dry.

It turned out that "Arabiatta" means spicy tomato sauce, and this was actually quite an interesting experience, being my first ever spicy pasta. For $9.00, it is a pretty good buy, though this would be my first and last Arabiatta - spicy food is not my forte. The name of the place is "Ambush", and it is just beside the Hokkaido Romankan - a katsu (カツ) eatery, which seems to make a good target for my next adventure.

Drats! Coffee-ed again.

Today I bid goodbye to the pack of pack of Lipton's Jasmine tea that had been keeping me warm for a few months, and welcome a bottle (jar?) of Indocafe Original Blend (free! it was 'free'!).

Once again, I botched up my first cup of coffee. (See a pattern here?)
Then I came to a realization. This cup of coffee is just like life. No matter how simple a task it seems to be, there is a high chance that a person will botch it up when he/she's doing it for the very first time. Personal preference matters, size of cup matters, size of spoon matters (although it never said what spoon, betting on a tea spoon is smarter than betting on a table spoon), and other factors.
To complicate matters further (as usual), the effect could be more severe when it involves other people. Like if you are making the coffee for someone else instead. That person might be very particular about his coffee - (temperature, sweetness, cream, thickness, blah blah blah..., or simply because that person is an Italian), and if that person is someone who holds your fate in his/her hands, it might mean the end of the world. (Yea, over a cup of coffee...) It has been said that avid tea drinkers can differentiate cups of tea where the milk was poured in before the hot water from the ones where the milk was poured in after the hot water. I am sure there are also areas of coffee appreciation that is of this level of connoisseur'ship.

As for me? Well I am lucky that I like thin coffee, with plenty of sweetness. Nothing that an addition of water and sugar can't fix.

Railroad Tycoon - Gamer's meetup 06 Sept 2005

Yey! Another episode of gamers meetup!

I took off from work on the dot today, despite being slightly behind schedule in my work just to get a nice seat at the location. And this sessions seat was good indeed.

I got there pretty early, and so managed to play a game called Lost Cities with Sonic.

Lost Cities
This is mainly a 2 player game, and the aim is to start expeditions to gain points. Each expedion that is started requires an investment of -20 points, and players are supposed to use 5 sets of coloured number cards to make +ve points out of their expeditions.

Sonic got the grasp of the game very quickly, and managed to beat me soundly by running me out of time. (Once the numbered cards in the draw pile is ehausted, the gme ends) The second game was mine though, as Sonic overextended his expeditions and ended up with few precious points. At this time, Miss L. came along and I had a game with her. This game too I managed to win, by throwing a lot of red herrings her way (Sonic was being a fish-munching Zhuge Liang). We were then joined by Mr A., and off we go for a game of Blockus.

Blockus
This is a game of blocks, where your aim is to put as much of the blocks you own on the playing board, and prevent other people from doing so. The rules are simple, but the play is pretty deep. Those who hate geometry better stay off this game.

I got the Blue pieces, Sonic has Green, Mr A. Yellow, and Miss L. Red. The game started with each of us racing towards the center of the board, and Sonic managing to block Yellow from developing too far. I was eyeing Red's territory while she was busy enroaching on Green's, and blocked Yellow from getting too far into my own. However, the insidious Green managed to utilize gaps on the board to sneak past Yellow's blockade, and ended up gaining a foodhold on mine! No other player managed to use Green's technique for the game. It was a total rout.

We were then joined by Miss E (I claim credit), and off we go for a game of Niagara Falls. I managed to steal a pink gem from Sonic, and had a comfortable lead with 3 gems in my pocket. Sonic had 2 gems, Miss L had 2, Miss E. had 3 (multiples) and Mr A, had 3. My canoes were laden with the last 2 gems that I needed, but alas, they were stolen by Miss E. Sonic too lost a boat trying to prevent me from winning the game, but all effort was to no avail as the unassuming Mr A. won by sneaking in the last gem past the rest of us. There were also interesting oments, like people move teir empty canoes downstream as they do not want their gems stolen.

We then went on to play Ticket to Ride: Europe
This is a rail building game, where you are given routes to complete, and each track that you complete also nets you points. Players can choose to do one of the folloiwing three actions on each of their turns: Get resource card, Lay a track, or build a station. The person with the most points at the end of the game wins.

This was an amusing game. Sonic somehow managed to get himself hemmed in between the tracks being built by the two ladies, unable to construct his masterplan smoothly. (Being his normal self, he had picked a pretty ambitious route to complete first) I was happily developing my own tracks in East Europe before Miss L. built a track that distrupted my network. Mr A. was often losing tempo when it comes to resource gathering to Sonic, and I somehow got pretty lucky in terms of colleting wild cards. The first person to take a huge lead was Miss E. She had managed to complete a 20 points route, and had a comfortable lead. Unfortunately, she was not ambitious enough to go for anoter route card soon enough, and was overtaken by Sonic when he completed his 21 point route! By this time I had completed one minor route, and was eyeing the longest track on the board, which yields 21 points. Mr A. managed a good showing, but was not very lucky with his resources. Nearing the end of the game, I was collecting green cards, denying Sonic of a needed color, and finally overtook him by completing the 21 point track. Europe belongs to me~!

This was a very nice group. We managed to keep Mr E. long enough for all the games (he initially said he had little time), and we had two pretty ladies, who are not slouches at boardgames (Miss L. got second in Tickets to Ride and did better than me and Mr A. at Blockus. Miss E. was pretty close to winning Niagara Falls, and she's a first time gamer.), at the table! What more could a boardgaming wolf ask for?

Words people use

As I was reading about a game I used to play (still collecting some), I am quite bemused with the word they use to name their new 'world'.

It is basically a world made up of nothing but buildings, with no natural river, forst or mountain in sight. They named the world 'Ravinca', and one of the main characters is named Razia (she's an archangel). Sounds cool eh? The thing is, when you flip an Indonesian - English dictionary and find this.

When I read further, the current storyline happens to center on an up and coming law enforcer Agrus Kos, Wojek Veteran. Interesting coincidence... he even looks slightly like an Indonesian Dayak. I wondered now if their creative team picked the word because they know that it has that meaning. (There is one episode in Dragonlance where the spell incantation was a whole string of 'old' Indonesian tounge)

Gah.. I might have to start buying to collect this set >

Mango mango

I decided that my treat yesterday was not quite enough, so I headed to Takashimaya to pay a visit to the new Japanese 'Fast Food' Restaurant called "Pepper Lunch" that I saw on my way home last week.

But before that, for you mango lovers out there: I found the Indonesian mango "Harum Manis" (Fragrant Sweet) in Carrefour Singapura Plaza selling at $1.55 each. They are still green though, so you'll have to keep them aside for 2-3 days before consumption. Their nice mango aroma will tell you when they are ready to eat.

So, as I was queueing, one of the servers walked down the line to take down the number of seats that is needed by the groups of people. I was the only '1' among a sea of 2,3,4's. (There was even a 5, a group consisting of a guy, his gf and 3 other pretty good lookin ladies. Bummer...)

The restaurant is very well decorated, and have pretty comfy seats too. The generous use of wood in their furninshings coupled with warm lighting and delicious aroma of cooking food made me feel like I was back in Japan. That is, until the group of 4 ladies to my right started yakking about their work and life in Singlish :D (I seem to be getting this JApan flashbacks pretty often recently... I wonder why...).

My food arrived steaming on a black, round hotplate, and the server began explaining to me how I should 'cook' the food before tucking in. On the hotplate was a mountain of beansprouts, some greens, carrots, and meat with butter. It was pretty good. I had a 'Hamburger and Steak combo with rice and green tea' (The green tea is the Japanese version, kinda bitter). I was hoping for better rice though, (am quite fussy when it comes to Japanese rice) but I guess in Singapore, this is the 'normal' standard for Japanese rice. The damage came to a total of 15+ bux, and although this restaurant does have an authentic Japanese taste (in Singapore), I was quite miffed as for the same price, (1000yen) I could have gotten a better meal in Japan.

A good place overall. Recommended for taste and ambiance.

1 down, 1 to go! (Ad infinitum)

Whew...

I have finally finished one project today, only to have another one looming over next week. (A big one too, this one is going to take roughly 2 months, my thickest set of documents yet)

So, I decided to give myself a dinner treat!

Being the fast food person that I am, I am pretty much clueless about restaurants (not to mention the stingy side of me does not want to spend that much moolah) So~ at first I wandered to pizza hut, thinking to get myself some nice lasagne, but it seems that the offer period had lapsed, so there goes the nice layer of creamy, cheesy, chewy pasta and meat in tomato sauce.

Then I got to delifrance, and I saw the big banner saying beef *something something* pasta. It looked *really* good. I took a look inside the store and.. ah hah! An empty seat! So I walked over, plonked my bag, and the heavy paper bag filled with documents (yeh yeh.. homework...), and queued up in anticipation of a mouth watering plate of beef pasta. Unfortunately, the server informed me that the offer period for that dish is over (as in they are not making it anymore). why on earth do they still have that banner out there?!?! Such a tease! Hrmph!

I finally settled down for the new "Grill to order" menu at long john silver's. The griled chicken was pretty good, and I am quite pleased to say that long john silver's cooks good rice.

For dessert, 5 pieces of original tutu cake!

Fragrance in the wind

One (of the many) thing has always baffled me.

How is that the some ladies could stay so sweet smelling after walking under the hot sun for like 2-3 hours. I mean, sometimes I noticed some that has put on a little too much perfume, but these are different.

You walk past them on a busy street, and 1-2 seconds later you run into a trail of fresh, pleasant fragnance. (Good stuff...) Even if I bathed, soaped and scrubbed myself really really well (including the belly button, inner ear and back of ears...), applied some powder, and go out from the house, I would not be able to detect any lingering fragrance after 30 minutes or so.

Does some human females have this capability of retaining fragrant molecules around their body? Or somehow artificially repoduce some pleasant smelling secretion based on the auguents that they apply to their bodies? Or was it just my olfactory organ playing tricks on me?

I would like to know this secret of smelling fresh the whole day long~