In this episode we talk about both Objectivism and religion. I notice there have been a few skirmishes over this stuff in earlier episodes, so let’s get this out in the open. And over with.

About a year and a half ago we had a thread where an Objectivist weighed in on Objectivism in BioShock. It made for an interesting thread and was surprisingly civil, given the subject matter. I usually discourage or shut down discussions about politics and religion here on the blog because they generate anger without really contributing anything. But we can’t very well discuss a game that supposedly features this philosophy as a central theme and not talk about the philosophy.

And now that I’ve played the game I’ll pose this question: In the game, Andrew Ryan sets up this place with a certain degree of totalitarian thugishness that runs antithetical to Objectivism. Specifically, banning certain types of trade and religion. The idea of regulating thought and trade are about as counter to Ayn Rand’s philosophy as you can get, even if you’re dealing with ideas and trading in things she would have disagreed with.

So… is this showing that Andrew Ryan wasn’t really an Objectivist? Or did the author of BioShock just not understand Objectivism?

Before we get started I’ll repeat my earlier warning:

Please remember that this is a geek blog. We have a nice community here. We get along well enough, and I’d hate to see bitter feuds appear over previously obscured fault lines in the group. Keep it civil and don’t make it personal. Don’t post angry. I’d rather get along and talk about gaming than have a fight which will cause division without changing anyone’s mind.

41 comments? This post wasn't even all that interesting.

This week you can play Champions Online for free. Old account. New account. Everyone plays for free.

I signed in. Star on Chest was just where I left him. The robot cowboy amusement park was right where I remember it being. In fact, I couldn’t find a single thing that had changed. No new content. In a year. (That I could spot.) I flipped through the character creator and after ten minutes I only managed to find one new costume piece. This game really needs more content.

Although, if you’ve never played before they will have enough content to keep you busy for a week. Just don’t read the quest text.

They have a celebratory cake in the super’s decadent city center, where you can gather and emote with other players in a crowded mess of spooling chat text and lag. It’s more fun than I make it sound.

And yes, when you arrive at this location the game makes a “cake is a lie” joke. Sigh. Everyone knows that only the saddest, most desperate sort of hacks are still making cake jokes.

EDIT: Ah. They have added new content, but it’s in the higher level areas, which is why I didn’t see it during my tour.

30 comments. It's getting crowded in here.

So, the history of Mass Effect. Let me explain. No, there is too much. Let me sum up:

The Rachni invaded the galaxy and it was bad. They were winning and nobody could figure out how to make them go away. Then the Salarians discovered the semi-primitive Krogan, handed them space-age weapons, and threw them at the problem.

The Krogan… in Space!

The Salarians discovered the Krogan and introduced them to the world of interstellar travel and galactic future toys. With space age guns and armor they were more powerful than ever, and their natural aggression made them want to fight the Rachni. All the Salarians had to do was equip them and give them a lift, and they had an almost endless supply of fearless bloodthirsty badasses to throw at the Rachni problem.

This was a very Salarian solution. You can probably see the unintended consequences coming, but the idea had a clever simplicity about it that let the Salarians defend the galaxy without putting their fragile butts in direct combat.

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151 comments. Sure. Just keeping adding more. It's not like my server has finite HD space.

In this episode I brought up the subject of the BioShock DRM. While exotic and new at the time, it’s pretty much the order of the day now for a lot of PC games. Josh mentioned it’s getting better, which is also true. It depends on where you draw the line and what games you care about. Ubisoft has taken the idea to new an absurd heights. Other companies are following the example set by Steam and are trying to sugarcoat their phone-home systems by actually offering some features in return. Blizzard is a great example of this. The new Battle.net requires periodically renewing activation (this is based on hearsay) but offers a ton of new features. Evaluating what you’re really getting for your $60 is becoming increasingly complex.

Still, I’ll always remember BioShock as a forerunner is this regard.

There are 72 comments here. I really hope you like reading.

Yes, this comic actually went up a week ago, but since I was afflicted with blindness and making little-girl noises for a week I didn’t get around to linking it until now. Heads up: If you’ve got an old set of red / blue 3D glasses, you might want to hunt them down now. (Although the comic is perfectly intelligible without them and was made with the expectation that most people wouldn’t have them.)

And yes, I am aware of how silly it was to be making stereoscopic images when I was nearly blind in one eye.

I love anaglyph images. I remember in the 90′s I would take screenshots from adventure games like Space Quest and cut the image into its component pieces. Then I’d reconstruct the thing as an anaglyph. A couple of people asked about how these are made. So here is the short version, inasmuch as anything on this site could be counted as “short”:

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41 comments? This post wasn't even all that interesting.

It has finally happened. After more than nine days(!!!) of accumulated playing time, nearly sixty levels, a couple dozen dungeon runs, and countless hours of wiki-reading, I am at long last sick and tired of this damn game and all its crap.

This is actually a good thing. I needed to reach this point. As with Champions Online and Lord of the Rings Online, I find the writing flows better once I push through the initial obsession stage. As the charm wears away I’m more and more able to see the mechanics and the lore and find humor in them.

When I write a Let’s Play I do so by running through the same content again and again, so now that I’ve lost interest in my main character I’m mucking about leveling alts through the early game. Which leads to…

My new hunter Bowhaver and his faithful tiger Eisenhower. Bowhaver is named after mister gun-possessor himself.

Shadowless, my recently-shelved main character, has pets with Old Testament names. (Aside from Eddie.) This one will have presidential pets. I really, really wanted to name my pet Nixon, but that name is verboten for some reason. Garfield would be better for a cat, but I’m sure that one will be forbidden for other reasons.

Of course if I get a bear I’ll name him Roosevelt.

Note to self: Get bear.

A crystal cave, which is located in Un’Goro crater. I love this place. I wonder how many people even get this reference. It borrows from Land of the Lost – the original Saturday-morning show from the 70′s, not the recent Will Ferrell remake – which was part of the Krofft Super Show, which I wrote about back in 2007. In both the show and the World of Warcraft zone, you’ve got this valley filled with dinosaurs, and a series of mysterious pylons that are controlled with colored crystals. In the show, the Marshal family gets stuck in the Land of the Lost. In WoW, the base camp is called Marshal’s refuge.

I logged in last weekend to find the Goldshire inn filled with plumes of colored smoke. This place is usually filled with dueling nutters and people trying to roleplay. (Lots of overlap in those two groups.) But this time it was just smoke. I have no idea.

There are 75 comments here. I really hope you like reading.

There’s nothing more tedious than a health-update blog from a sickie. Oh, the gangrene is so much better today. The oozing has nearly stopped and I hardly notice the smell! Thanks so much for the well-wishes everybody! I’d give you all thumbs up but I just had them off yesterday.

But some of you asked. So…

Yes, I’m doing better. I’m free of the merciless pain and burning that defined my existence last week. I’m no longer bumbling around the house, curtains closed, sunglasses on, head down, and wincing whenever something brighter than a cooling ember enters my field of view. That was a rough patch, to be sure. My usual practice when I get sick is to distract myself with movies or games, both of which involve looking at things. So I spent a lot of time focusing on just how uncomfortable I was. And complaining.

But that part is over. My right eye is still slow to adjust, but I can look out the window again as long as I work up to it slowly. The eye is also very blurry, although I strongly suspect that’s just a temporary condition.

Now that the pain is gone I have to say I’m really enjoying the rest. I’ve been running at capacity for half a year now. I have a weekly column, a webcomic, a video series, a let’s play, and a blog, all of which feed on my videogaming. As my workload increased, I cut back on my other hobbies in order to keep up. I couldn’t very well justify spending a half hour with an anime when that same allotment of time with a game could spark an article or a joke.

But this week I let everything slide. (Except the column, which pretty much wrote itself this time.) At one point I discovered that while sitting in front of my monitor was too painful, I could sit across the room from the television. So I sat on the couch with my kids and watched three hours of Avatar: The Last Airbender. My review: That was a really, really good show.

By Saturday I was back to playing videogames. Usually I have to keep playing new games to feed the column, comic, etc. But on Saturday I was able to say “screw it” and play whatever I liked. Which turned out to be Mass Effect. What a tremendous game. I’d forgotten just how good it was in places. It’s also painful to think about how badly the setting gets mangled. It’s like going back and watching The Matrix after seeing Reloaded and realizing that the questions that tantalized us in the beginning turned out to have drooling nonsense for an answer. Alas.

I wish I could play this game, except with Dr. Modin Solus in it. That would be perfect.

So that’s how I’m doing. Getting better. All hail modern medicine.

There are 76 comments here. I really hope you like reading.

Problem: Games industry is experiencing competition that is undercutting their prices!

Solution: Erect a bureaucratic system of controlling access to game content on an itemized basis. Then tell gamers they’re cheaters for shopping elsewhere.

I admit that I am not a businessman, yet I remain convinced that there is nothing wrong with this industry that couldn’t be fixed by just one person with an MBA and average-level intelligence.

Yes, I’m very much aware that I’m shouting into the hurricane here and nobody is going to listen. But what the heck, right? It’s a living.

197 comments. Keep commenting and you're liable to break the internet.