Comments on: The Sunday Papers

By: Zuffox

Zuffox — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 15:29:29 +0000

You should give the Sore Thumbs tumblelog some attention; it’s one of the ~~best~~ penultimate game blogs on the interweb.

Also; please consider converting your comments to Disqus. It’ll make it much easier to follow the discussion and particular users on your blog.

By: Esha

Esha — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 03:11:59 +0000

@kellner

I have an Egan book or two (I’ll admit though that the only one I can remember the name of is Permutation City… but, I mean… Permutation City, how could I even forget that?), but my favourite Science Fiction author is still Mr. Banks, it’s just something about the way he writes that appeals to the transhumanist in me.

And yes, I do occasionally read Nature too. I have to admit though that even for one such as I it can sometimes be a little too heady, New Scientist just allows me to take in a bigger data-dump at once, if somewhat truncated (as you’ve pointed out there). I can usually separate the news from the science within the confines of mine own noggin, anyway.

But yes, love Nature when I have the time to sit down and really digest it and let it percolate.

By: kellner

kellner — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 13:54:00 +0000

Esha – Read any Greg Egan? BTW, New Scientist is good, but, like all pop science never really tells the entire story with all the context and ramifications. For the real thing you need to check out the peer-reviewed journals, or at least Nature.
As for videogames I’ve always credited my 3D visualisation abilities to TIE Fighter etc, and nothing will give you an intuitive handle on orbital dynamics like playing Elite without the autopilot.

By: Polysynchronicity

Polysynchronicity — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 05:22:49 +0000

Fullmetal Alchemist wouldn’t be what I called chemically accurate. But as far as I remember, it paid attention to conservation of mass and (sometimes) chemical composition – Ed listing the elements that go into a human body is what springs to mind.

That’s ignoring the Philosopher’s Stone, with which you can pretty much do anything.

By: Frosty840

Frosty840 — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 02:36:19 +0000

::Insert sad, tired repeat of now-ten-year-old rant about EA/Maxis releasing “expansion” packs that are actually “paying extra money for features deliberately left out of the main game” packs.::

EDIT: @RichPowers’ comment

By: Radiant

Radiant — Sun, 14 Sep 2008 22:20:25 +0000

You linked to that Tom Chick piece before.

By: Noc

Noc — Sun, 14 Sep 2008 18:04:31 +0000

Fullmetal Alchemist has several fantasy elements, but it takes the basic science of chemistry very seriously.

What.

No. The “Law of Conservation of Plot Elements” is not science.

By: Adam

Adam — Sun, 14 Sep 2008 17:07:58 +0000

@Rich: Good god, that stuff is horrifyingly scary. I would of thought Will Wright was quite wealthy already from The Sims, and its fifty million expansion packs. I for one will not buy anything from this “Spore Store”.

By: RichPowers

RichPowers — Sun, 14 Sep 2008 15:42:54 +0000

@Adam: EA’s made it well-known that Spore will drive a massive expansion and merchandise store. From Wikipedia:

There will be an iTunes-style “Spore Store” built into the game, allowing players to purchase external Spore licensed merchandise, such as t-shirts, posters, and future Spore expansion packs.[72] There are also plans for the creation of a type of Spore collectible card game based on the Sporepedia cards of the creatures, buildings, vehicles, and planets that have been created by the players.[21] There are also indications of plans for the creation of customized creature figurines; some of those who designed their own creatures at E3 2006 later received 3D printed models of the creatures they created.[81] The Spore Store also allows people to put their creatures on such items as T-shirts, mugs and stickers.[82]

By: Dinger

Dinger — Sun, 14 Sep 2008 14:28:35 +0000

Dang, that Everquest-Terra Nova study raises some questions.
So there are more EQ2 players in their thirties than in their twenties: is this true in general for MMOs, or does it reflect that the Everquest-Everquest2 community is nearly ten years old, and that the “core demographic” tends to age with the game?

Religion and Mental Illness. US EQ players are generally less religious than the US population as a whole, and have a higher incidence of mental illness.
Does this mean that online communities provide the source of belonging that many people find in their local organized religion and a place for those who have real-world social impediments? Or is it simply a reflection of the fact, shown elsewhere in the study, that the EQ2 population as a whole is considerably better-educated and better paid, making it a demographic that is less religious and more likely to seek diagnosis for mental illness?

Finally, geezus, look at those average playing times! 20-24 hours/week! That’s worse than television. I wonder how the demographic maps against those susceptible to addiction. It’s just too bad that Mr. Blow only gets linked to for his comments on exploiting the mechanics of addiction.

(okay, someone on slashdot linked to “Operant Conditioning”. Mutatis mutandine, I suppose)

By: richmcc

richmcc — Sun, 14 Sep 2008 13:10:57 +0000

I saw an opera version of the Handmaid’s Tale once. It totally ruined post-feminist examinations of gender relations in dystopian societies for me. The opera bastard.

By: YggdrasilHugger

YggdrasilHugger — Sun, 14 Sep 2008 13:05:26 +0000

SF is fiction. People just irresponsibly make up scientific knowledge, the cads. I guess that good writers, writing for adults, do try to be consistant with what is already known. Gattaca is a good example of a more adult SF movie in my opinion as it has science that you might hear about on the news and isn’t about comic book heroes or talking animals and the like.