I played Mass Effect 2 through already and it's a great game. I wanted to play it through again, since there are several different choices you can make during the game that will affect various outcomes. There are also choices you can make BEFORE you start the game, via Mass Effect 1. There's an option to import your old character, but unfortunately I don't have that save game anymore, so tough luck for me.
When you start up ME2 without importing, the game uses a predetermined set of results from the first game. These are static, not randomly generated. So the ONLY way that you can find out what happens if, for example, you chose to save the council in the first game and not let them die (as is assumed by ME2), you have to play through the ENTIRE ME1 game again, and save the council, and then import that character. Seriously, why??
Why don't you let me play the game as I want? It is MY game, right? I buy a copy of a game, and the only way I can play portions of it is to buy ANOTHER game, spend 20-30 hours on it and THEN I can actually play all of my game. Oh wait... there are multiple choices in some parts, so it looks like I'll have to play through ME1 more than once, then import all of those characters into ME2. Why not just let us pick what happened in the previous game? What harm does that do? One of the developers even made a mistake when talking to Penny Arcade, saying you could go through a list and pick various options when creating a new character. He didn't realize that this option didn't make it into the final game, and it was only the pre-release version that he was talking about.
I'm bored as shit lately, and I really would love the opportunity to play through ME2 again, but this time with different starting conditions. Why not let me? Great game, Bioware, but come on... the whole idea of a sandbox type game is that you can replay it over and over, making different choices every time, increasing replay value. Why block out this pregame setup, specifically limiting the way I"ll be able to play? Fuckers.
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Monday, January 11, 2010
diversity
I've seen multiculturalism and diversity discussed in two different ways. Intelligent, objective-minded people are aware of various cultural idiosyncrasies and behaviors and use them to their advantage. For example, the Japanese put a very high weight on respect for seniors and traditionally avoid direct confrontation. The French, on the other hand, tend to love intelligent, witty debates. These observations aren't racially motivated, they're based on the climate where a "French" person was raised and taught how to act. You may draw the same conclusions about someone born and raised on a mid-west farm as opposed to someone who grew up in Beverly Hills... their world views will most likely be very different. The only time this pushes over into the realm of "racism" is when you start making accusations like "You're from a farm? You must be stupid and not know what a cell phone is!" or "Oh, he's Japanese, he'll do whatever someone older tells him to do." I've taken project management classes where we were given country based generalizations of populations in order to better manage multi-cultural groups. This wasn't to make us into racist PMs, saying the Indians couldn't be trusted because they'll agree to anything a superior says... it was to make us understand that it goes against Indian culture to disagree with a superior... so if you have someone on your team, constantly agreeing with you, you may want to step back for a minute. Does he really agree with me, or does he just not want to disagree?
The other type of discussion says that everyone is a racist. EVERYONE. We need to promote diversity because when people are given the chance, they WILL be racist and do everything they can to cater to a certain skin color/religion/background/foot size (or something else just as ridiculous). So obviously we need to make sure everyone falls over backwards in order to accommodate anyone who is currently considered a minority. Actually... let's be more specific. I believe the current politically correct term is "marginalized"... since most "minorities" aren't the minority anymore. Anyone falling into this school of thought is too busy running around calling everyone racist and making sure every group of people out there has every marginalized population accounted for (and not caring if there aren't any non-marginalized populations included) to even begin to think of what they can do to actually STOP racism.
If you think about it... what is currently perpetuating racism? Obviously there is a correlation between the intensity of major incidents and the knee-jerk racism against the perpetrators of said incident (terrorist attacks = I hate Muslims, France doesn't like our war = I hate the French) that will always exist, but what else is currently going on that labels people based on their skin color or backgrounds? Cultural awareness. How exactly are we supposed to move beyond race, when a bunch of insane crusaders are making absolutely-fucking-sure that we make sure we notice skin color FIRST, and the actual person second. Take my company, for example. We have mandates for our diversity spending. We have to make sure that of every company we contract out to, at least 30-40% of them are either minority owned (obviously this directive is outdated... they use "minority" instead of "marginalized"), women owned or owned by a female minority (which, unfortunately, does not count twice). Right from the start of an engagement, we have to split up each subcontracting company into groups based on their sex and color of their skin. How is that not racist?
Oh, you think that is completely fair? That we need to give those marginalized populations a shot at business they otherwise wouldn't get? Won't giving business to a MWB (minority or women owned business) that doesn't deserve it based on merit just marginalize that population even more? What about the white owned company (since what else is really non-marginalized at this point) who scored better than the MWB, but doesn't receive the business award because (and only because) it's owned by a white male?
Let's go into a little example. An African-American child grows up in a poor household and goes to a really shitty school. She doesn't have textbooks, doesn't have good teachers and can't really learn in such an environment. She studies hard, does comparably well in said school, and then fares decently well on whatever college entrance exam she decides to take. She then applies to colleges. They look at the sheet, see the "minority female" boxes are checked, and she goes into a smaller pile, where they will take into account the fact that she had a substandard education and deserves a shot against the other children who had every opportunity in the world. That seems fair, right? Now let's say her next door neighbor does the exact same thing. He goes to the shitty school, shares textbooks, etc etc and does just as well (but not that great) on his exams. He applies to the same schools, but... Oh look! The "Caucasian male" boxes are checked! He goes in the main pile and obviously will NOT be getting any special treatment since he's white, and he therefore must have had racial advantages that all those children in the small list did not. Fuck. That. Shit.
If you really want to put some affirmative action bullshit in place, base it on socio-economic background... base it on the level of education the person received... base it on something that ACTUALLY MATTERS. Don't base it on skin color - that makes you racist, you hypocritical fuckhead. If anyone was actually reading this, they are probably thinking "OH SHIT... WHAT A RACIST!!!" What if I told you I was a black female? Or a Muslim paraplegic? Or an Argentinian mongoose? Would that matter to you? Would my skin color change your stupid opinion, you fucking racist???
The other type of discussion says that everyone is a racist. EVERYONE. We need to promote diversity because when people are given the chance, they WILL be racist and do everything they can to cater to a certain skin color/religion/background/foot size (or something else just as ridiculous). So obviously we need to make sure everyone falls over backwards in order to accommodate anyone who is currently considered a minority. Actually... let's be more specific. I believe the current politically correct term is "marginalized"... since most "minorities" aren't the minority anymore. Anyone falling into this school of thought is too busy running around calling everyone racist and making sure every group of people out there has every marginalized population accounted for (and not caring if there aren't any non-marginalized populations included) to even begin to think of what they can do to actually STOP racism.
If you think about it... what is currently perpetuating racism? Obviously there is a correlation between the intensity of major incidents and the knee-jerk racism against the perpetrators of said incident (terrorist attacks = I hate Muslims, France doesn't like our war = I hate the French) that will always exist, but what else is currently going on that labels people based on their skin color or backgrounds? Cultural awareness. How exactly are we supposed to move beyond race, when a bunch of insane crusaders are making absolutely-fucking-sure that we make sure we notice skin color FIRST, and the actual person second. Take my company, for example. We have mandates for our diversity spending. We have to make sure that of every company we contract out to, at least 30-40% of them are either minority owned (obviously this directive is outdated... they use "minority" instead of "marginalized"), women owned or owned by a female minority (which, unfortunately, does not count twice). Right from the start of an engagement, we have to split up each subcontracting company into groups based on their sex and color of their skin. How is that not racist?
Oh, you think that is completely fair? That we need to give those marginalized populations a shot at business they otherwise wouldn't get? Won't giving business to a MWB (minority or women owned business) that doesn't deserve it based on merit just marginalize that population even more? What about the white owned company (since what else is really non-marginalized at this point) who scored better than the MWB, but doesn't receive the business award because (and only because) it's owned by a white male?
Let's go into a little example. An African-American child grows up in a poor household and goes to a really shitty school. She doesn't have textbooks, doesn't have good teachers and can't really learn in such an environment. She studies hard, does comparably well in said school, and then fares decently well on whatever college entrance exam she decides to take. She then applies to colleges. They look at the sheet, see the "minority female" boxes are checked, and she goes into a smaller pile, where they will take into account the fact that she had a substandard education and deserves a shot against the other children who had every opportunity in the world. That seems fair, right? Now let's say her next door neighbor does the exact same thing. He goes to the shitty school, shares textbooks, etc etc and does just as well (but not that great) on his exams. He applies to the same schools, but... Oh look! The "Caucasian male" boxes are checked! He goes in the main pile and obviously will NOT be getting any special treatment since he's white, and he therefore must have had racial advantages that all those children in the small list did not. Fuck. That. Shit.
If you really want to put some affirmative action bullshit in place, base it on socio-economic background... base it on the level of education the person received... base it on something that ACTUALLY MATTERS. Don't base it on skin color - that makes you racist, you hypocritical fuckhead. If anyone was actually reading this, they are probably thinking "OH SHIT... WHAT A RACIST!!!" What if I told you I was a black female? Or a Muslim paraplegic? Or an Argentinian mongoose? Would that matter to you? Would my skin color change your stupid opinion, you fucking racist???
Friday, January 8, 2010
exercise
I want to be in great shape... I want to put on about 20 more pounds of muscle and get rid of 5-10 pounds of fat. I'm not in bad shape now... I'm 6'4", so it takes a massive amount of eating to put on weight... either fat or muscle. If I really wanted to put on 20 lbs of muscle, I'd have to eat 3-4000 calories a day. That may not seem like alot, considering most fast food combos are 1000-1200 calories themselves, but it would have to be 3-4k of good, vitamin/protein rich calories. Oh, and did I mention I'd need around 200+ grams of protein a day? Even with 2 protein shakes a day, that still leaves 100+ grams. The pure cost of all this food is enough to make me want to quit even before I start.
Then there's the highly annoying body chemistry flaw that I seem to have. It's a well-known fact that exercise releases endorphins, and endorphins make you feel good. Simple. Yes, the workout is painful, but you have a steady stream of endorphins pumping through your veins and once that workout is over... you feel exhausted and completely satisfied. When I say "you", I mean everyone else but me. And a very minor percentage of others out there. Exercising feels good for me, but only in the sense that I know I'm improving myself, and that's a good thing. Otherwise, I don't receive any sort of "high" at all. I ran cross-country for 6 years in school and hit the "runner's high" twice. Twice... in six years. I have finished exercise routines feeling angry, irritable, miserable and ready to destroy everything in sight.
I boxed for a little over a year to the point where I could have been in actual amateur competitions, but it never made me feel all that great. I liked knowing that I was becoming stronger and more able-bodied (I've never thrown a punch in a fight, but know that I could seriously damage someone if it came down to it), but I never felt the "Wow... that boxing class ruled!! I love training!!! All my stress and anxiety are gone!!!" I only felt tired and beat up. I think the only reason that I kept going almost every day was because the class was offered every day, and I just felt like I shouldn't miss a class. Eventually I got to the point where I stopped seeing improvements in my skills, lost interest and never went back.
I have a home gym now that I try to use regularly and try to do some yoga to improve flexibility... but there have been times where I've been 5-10 minutes into a workout and have to stop, not because I'm in pain or can't make it through, but because of a slow swelling sense of anger and hate starts to build up inside me. It's not so simple as "Man, I hate this instructor, they make it look so easy" or "I hate this pain in my arms/legs/body"... it's "I fucking hate EVERYTHING and want to watch it all crash and burn in a maelstrom of pain and anguish." Clearly I have rage issues.
I also have depression issues, to which everyone has told me "Start exercising!!! It's the best way to help fight those depressive feelings!!" Unfortunately I've gone into a workout feeling great, and left it feeling like the world sucks and there's no point in continuing. Maybe it's blood sugar, maybe it's brain chemistry... if there's an easy fix out there, I'd love to know what it is. I seriously think that if I was one-on-one with one of those "in your face" trainers, yelling at me to push through the pain... I'd punch the shit out of them. I'm not 500lbs, I have no problem running a mile or two and I don't have any health problems whatsoever. I would like a better physique, more stamina and greater flexibility, but at this point in my life, it's just not fucking worth the aggravation.
Then there's the highly annoying body chemistry flaw that I seem to have. It's a well-known fact that exercise releases endorphins, and endorphins make you feel good. Simple. Yes, the workout is painful, but you have a steady stream of endorphins pumping through your veins and once that workout is over... you feel exhausted and completely satisfied. When I say "you", I mean everyone else but me. And a very minor percentage of others out there. Exercising feels good for me, but only in the sense that I know I'm improving myself, and that's a good thing. Otherwise, I don't receive any sort of "high" at all. I ran cross-country for 6 years in school and hit the "runner's high" twice. Twice... in six years. I have finished exercise routines feeling angry, irritable, miserable and ready to destroy everything in sight.
I boxed for a little over a year to the point where I could have been in actual amateur competitions, but it never made me feel all that great. I liked knowing that I was becoming stronger and more able-bodied (I've never thrown a punch in a fight, but know that I could seriously damage someone if it came down to it), but I never felt the "Wow... that boxing class ruled!! I love training!!! All my stress and anxiety are gone!!!" I only felt tired and beat up. I think the only reason that I kept going almost every day was because the class was offered every day, and I just felt like I shouldn't miss a class. Eventually I got to the point where I stopped seeing improvements in my skills, lost interest and never went back.
I have a home gym now that I try to use regularly and try to do some yoga to improve flexibility... but there have been times where I've been 5-10 minutes into a workout and have to stop, not because I'm in pain or can't make it through, but because of a slow swelling sense of anger and hate starts to build up inside me. It's not so simple as "Man, I hate this instructor, they make it look so easy" or "I hate this pain in my arms/legs/body"... it's "I fucking hate EVERYTHING and want to watch it all crash and burn in a maelstrom of pain and anguish." Clearly I have rage issues.
I also have depression issues, to which everyone has told me "Start exercising!!! It's the best way to help fight those depressive feelings!!" Unfortunately I've gone into a workout feeling great, and left it feeling like the world sucks and there's no point in continuing. Maybe it's blood sugar, maybe it's brain chemistry... if there's an easy fix out there, I'd love to know what it is. I seriously think that if I was one-on-one with one of those "in your face" trainers, yelling at me to push through the pain... I'd punch the shit out of them. I'm not 500lbs, I have no problem running a mile or two and I don't have any health problems whatsoever. I would like a better physique, more stamina and greater flexibility, but at this point in my life, it's just not fucking worth the aggravation.
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