Economies in MMORPGs

Alright, so recently I’ve had a reintroduction of MMORPGs in my life, stretching from Ragnarok Online to Fiesta Online to RuneScape to Neopets and other generic MMOs. I’ve decided to look at these games from an analytical point of view rather than simply a “let’s have fun” point of view, to see why these games are fun.

Since Neopets is so different from everything else, I’ll start with this one. If you don’t know what Neopets is, you’re a sad sad person. Anyways, I recently returned to it, and I have a few comments to make. Firstly, it’s fairly obvious that the neopoints system is broken. It’s so broken I can’t really describe how broken it is. With basic marketing skills, you can make a huge sum of cash. Why is it so in Neopets?

There aren’t enough cash sinks. When you “play” Neopets, you’re usually just going around the Games section of the site, playing your favourite games, and collecting Neopoints for your scores. Because almost everyone does this, this is a HUGE source of Neopoints. As we know, if the number of Neopoints rises quicker than the number of items, then inflation occurs and Neopoints lose value, and overall, things get more expensive. This source of income makes the economy very unstable.

Compounding the problem is the lack of cash sinks. In an ideal game, the sources of cash would equal the number of cash sinks, or possibly slightly less to account for player growth. This is not the case with Neopets, however. Almost every place where money can go out, more money can come in. (case in point: Wheel of Excitement). The only reliable sink of Neopoints are the NPC shops. You might think, well there are player shops too, right? But those don’t act as cash sinks, because thye simply transfer Neopoints from one player to another. Upgrading the shop is a cash sink, yes, but the shop itself is not. The problem with the NPC stores is that their stocks are way too low. Thus, a few minutes after they restock, they’re all empty again. This cycle is why Neopoints are so undervalued, and items are so expensive.

Moving on, we see RuneScape.  RuneScape is very similar to Neopets. There is no control system set on the economy, basically, and it is allowed to grow and change with ingame events, hosted or not. For example, some items that were only given out on special anniversary events years ago have become “rares”, with sky-high values because of supply and demand. Unlike Neopets, however, this system works significantly better because of the abundance of both sinks and sources. This allows prices for normal commodities to remain fairly stable over long periods of time (i.e. yearly averages). However, due to the lack of an economic restraint, day-to-day prices vary. Coal, for example, can sometimes go from between 100 GP per unit to 200 GP per unit. This provides tremendous opportunity for merchants to buy low, and sell high.

Next up is EVE Online. EVE is a spaceship game, where most of the control of the entire game is given to the players. There are measures in place, of course, but overall it is a lot freer of an MMORPG. Like the rest of the game, EVE has a stable, but still player-controllable economy. EVE is divided into several regions, and each region has its own individual market. Because prices vary market-to-market, a profit can be made buying from one region, shipping the goods to another region, and selling it. Unlike other games, however, there is no real “safe” space in EVE. There are places with heavy police activity, but often you’ll die before the police arrive if the pirate is skilled. Thus, the trader must make an important decision: be ineffective, and fly a combat ship to transport only a little bit of goods at a time, or fly a vulnerable transport ship, and risk having your goods destroyed? Overall, it is very similar to RuneScape, with more of a risk-vs-reward factor in it.

Now I’ll discuss your “typical” MMORPGs. These games, like MapleStory, World of Warcraft, etc… have economies heavily influenced by NPCs. Many items that you want will be available from an NPC store, somewhere, and prices usually vary depending on distance to the store. For example, right next to the store would be the people who desperately need more cash and are thus selling it at below-NPC prices, whereas far away, a merchant might be looking to make a profit by having above-NPC prices on items that are frequently needed. This is easily the most stable economic model, as no matter how much money you have, unless something screws up very badly, the price of items available at the NPC will remain constant. If there is severe deflation, however, caused by excessive drainage of cash, the economy could sink and most items would become available at below-NPC costs. This is rare, however.

Even this model, however, will have items that are unable to be purchased from an NPC. In MapleStory, this took the form of extra stats items that were only dropped by monsters, as well as scrolled items, which only had a chance to work. In a nutshell, this gave the items a huge layer of flexibility. A sword might only cost 10000 mesos from the store, but perhaps if there was a sword with 2 extra attack dropped from a monster, it would be worth 20000 mesos. Then, if that sword was successfully scrolled with 6 out of 7 60% chance attack scrolls, the price would skyrocket into the millions. These variables are not constant, however, as long as the upgrade scrolls are not available directly from NPCs, as then the supply would change day-to-day, and with it, the price. Even if the scrolls were available from NPCs, luck with how good of a weapon you get would play a huge factor, and if there was a lucky day where several awesome weapons were made, the relative value of those weapons would go down.

Just some stuff to think about, the next time you hop into an NPC store for some goods.

- Vinny

Blogging

Valentines Day. Yay.

Blogging, meh.

I find it as more of a source of personal ranting/complaining about the things in life, as well as a way to express my opinions on stuff, even if they’re never heard. It’s a good feeling, knowing that someone out there might read your site and because of what you write, change their decision about something.

Of course, that’ll never happen. No one reads blogs, except the hugely famous ones like Engadget. So what really is the purpose of writing these opinionated pieces if, most likely, no one will read them?

I guess it can be said that blogging to me is like writing in an impersonal journal. If no one reads it, it’s good because it also gives me a place to vent ideas, opinions, if I have anything to say. If someone does read it, I’m not keeping super-personal things in here, and they can get a taste of my perspectives and ideas on life.

Then again, for some other people,  blogging acts as a way of making new friends, or “blog buddies.” Personally, I find the idea kinda stupid, but to each his/her own, I suppose.

Do I really have anything more to say? Not really. I blog for myself, I blog for anyone who bothers reading this. But I’m more important. If I don’t feel like blogging anymore, I won’t. (although that won’t happen right now due to a different reason, partially why this blog post is so crappy and pointless)

BLOG BUDDIES! Go stick your head in a microwave.

- Vinny

Apathy

I have returned from the grave!

Okay, so recently, I’ve noticed a huge problem. (well, I noticed it before, but it seems a lot more significant now) Teenagers just don’t care about what is happening around them, even when the Internet is around, and news is easier to obtain than ever before. We expect all our information to be spoon-fed to us, and we don’t actively pursue it, or we believe that anything not fed to us isn’t worth knowing. This is being capitalized upon by clever marketing, which also makes things less important seem really significant.

For this, I’m going to use examples from technology. The Macbook Air came out recently (well, not THAT recently, but fairly recently). Most people know about it. They’ve heard all over the place about how thin and light and awesome it is, and how overpriced it might be. Is that hugely significant? Not particularly, in the grand scheme of things. Sure, this is a new step in portability, but really, it’s not that important.

Compare this to the 700MHz C-Block. Heard what’s been going on? No? Well it’s a lot more important than some random new laptop line. I’ll leave it to you to figure out what’s been happening. (Google ftw)

This then could be expanded somewhere else. When a teacher practically needs to beg you to ask questions about things you’re unsure of, something’s wrong. Sure, part of it might be you think that others will think that you’re stupid for asking the question, but really, many people are just lazy. They think, “Oh, I don’t get it. It must not be important.”

Well you’re wrong. It probably is important, and you probably just lost marks somewhere for not asking the question, and over time, bad habits stack up. That’s bad.

Think about it. Did the great scientists make discoveries by not doing anything? Of course not. They went ahead with experiments, tested out their ideas, and didn’t screw up. If all the scientists in the world just sat around waiting for information, we wouldn’t be getting anywhere. As a whole, our generation needs to get off our behinds and make something happen. Until then, we’re just like everyone else: insignificant, and unimportant.

So yeah. That’s all I have to really say. Be active. kthxbye

- Vinny

How to Win

How to win? How to eat cake? How to mine for fish?

Okay, I’m bored, so I’m going to write something. This is a controversial article about gaming. Eh.

I think that there are 3 types of gamers.

One is the casual gamer, playing for some fun in where they feel safe, then moving on when they’re bored.

The second kind is the serious gamer. This person does everything he can to gain an edge in gaming. He’s ranked on the top leaderboards, etc…

The third type is the gamer who learns a game and tries to circumvent its systems. They view each game as a challenge.

Note that just because someone cheats doesn’t put them in #3. They must be cheating just because that’s how they view the game. A person in #2 could cheat for an advantage, and a person in #1 might get pissed at someone and cheat to kill him/her.

I’m going to ignore group 3, because in a way they play a totally different game than groups 1 and 2.

When 2 meets 1, 2 always wins. Some people claim that it’s because 2 plays more, and that’s somewhat true, but even someone with the mindset of 2 will beat 1 once they know the game. Their mindsets are what set them apart.

1s tend to avoid 2s, since they always lose. Within their society, they create their own “rules” and “honour code” to make themselves comfortable, and ridicule those who break these rules. For example, if in a large map, you always get the sniper rifle and kill tons of enemies before dying, the other players will either accuse you of cheating or call you a sniper whore. Change to a rocket launcher, and now you’re a rocket whore. You HAVE to play casually if you play with 1s.

Think about that. If I do the same thing every round, shouldn’t that be giving you an advantage? If you’re so weak that you’re unable to stop something this simple, do you really expect me to bend down just because you’re being owned? If there really is no way to counter my technique, wouldn’t I be stupid NOT do use this technique?

The 2s, rather than whining about these methods, choose to also use these techniques, and find counter-techniques. Once enough people know the counter-technique, techniques will be made to counter those, and on and on, until the “best” techniques have been discovered.

Now it’s obvious why when 1s and 2s meet, the 1s get owned. The 2s use techniques that the 1s have never seen, as they tend to avoid the 2s. The 1s choose to handicap themselves further by not using even the most basic effective techniques, as they’re “cheap”.

Think of the games you play. What things do you choose to do/not do just because everyone else tells you to do so?

On a related note, the packets in Facebook Pets are not encrypted. Hax0rz away.

Promotion of Small-Scale Organizations

Generic link: http://www.wired.com/gaming/gamingreviews/commentary/games/2007/11/gamesfrontiers_1105/

Seriously, does anyone actually click it? Well, just in case, it’s an interesting article connecting Halo 3 over Xbox Live with the mentality behind terrorism, and suicide bombing in general. Very interesting article. Go read it.

So yeah, it’s been a while since I said anything, and even longer since I’ve said something serious. (aka. not gaming). Due to some recent events that have popped up, I decided to write this article on how to market a organization so that people actually want to join. Basically, how to attract people to your cause.

Firstly, your club must have a purpose. A “let’s hang out and talk” club or “cool people” club won’t get anywhere. The more specific your club is, the more likely it will attract an interested person. Realize, however, that the more specific a club gets, the smaller its possible audience becomes. A generic club has a huge audience, but no one comes. A really specific club has a tiny audience, but everyone in the audience comes. The goal is to find the perfect point where you will get exactly the number of dedicated people you want for your task. A video gaming club, or an anime club will have somewhere around the maximum number of participants possible (it’s on the “point” for specificness), while a Super Mario gaming club will have less people who are more dedicated to Mario.

Your club must benefit its members in some way. Whether it’s meeting new people (a horrible reason, no one would join such a club), learning new things (ehh, an okay reason), feeling good (a great reason, whether it’s fun or doing what’s right), or actually earning stuff (money?), your club needs to appeal to your audience.

Your club must DO STUFF. Meetings don’t count as doing stuff. Go out, have a party. Do something. Keep the interest in your club going, and give them something to look forward to, rather than the next discussion of politics.

Your club must have a specific audience, and market only to that audience. I went over this a bit before, but having a specific audience matters. It allows you to have all of your members specialists in their field, and improves efficiency dramatically. If you market generally, generic people who aren’t really motivated will come, and your club will suck.

If you decide that you MUST advertise your club, do so discreetly. Personally, I think word-of-mouth works fine if you know enough people, but if you don’t, it’s fine to put in an announcement over lunch: “Whatever Club will be meeting Tuesday after school in room 999 to discuss why life is horrible.” Just don’t say, “EVERYONE COME TO THIS AWESOME CLUB! You must come, it’s a chance of a lifetime! Meet awesome people, learn new things, explore new ideas! Join us today, in room 999 after school!” If I’m genuinely interested in your club, I’ll come if I hear the first announcement, but I might not if I hear the second. If I’m kinda ehh about life, I might go only if I hear the second, but since that means I have no clue what I’m doing, your club gets dragged down. Plus, it’s really annoying.

So yeah, I guess this is all I have to say. Go organize fun activities now.

Ignore the following, it’s just a Google experiment:

Semiahmoo Student Ventures
bqshang
http://semiventures.2.forumer.com/index.php?act=idx

Super Mario World

Link: http://www.weebls-stuff.com/toons/Magical+Trevor/

Okay, decided to write about SMW. Recently I unearthed my old Super Mario World cartridge below a pile of other crap, and plugged it into my Nintendo DS. I basically went, “Holy shit,” as I realized how much time I’ve spent on this game.

Here’s all the crap I’ve accomplished:

- 600 Lives, just accumulated as I did all the other crap.
- Completed the Star World, found all secret exits.
- Completed the Special World.
- Defeated Bowser.
- Found every exit in every level.
- Grabbed every Yoshi coin in every level.
- 9999990 points, the max attainable amount.

This may not seem very significant if you don’t understand how huge a game SMW is.

There are 22 normal levels, 15 levels with more than one exit, 7 castles, 4 button switches, 5 ghost houses, 4 fortresses, a ghost ship, 5 Star World levels that require you to find the secret exit, and 8 ultra-difficult Special World levels and the final Bowser castle. That’s 67 levels in total.

Every one of these levels has at least 5 Yoshi coins, mostly in annoying and obscure areas.

Now, this game is one of the most awesome games ever made. Unlike many other games, which just introduce you to the game, and you basically do the same things over and over again with more and more difficulty, SMW actually has a ton of content introduced through the entire game.

WARNING: Spoilers ahead.

The game starts out on Yoshi’s Island, which is a very simple area designed to get you to know the game. Then you move onto the Donut Plains, which introduce some interesting new content. The first one you encounter is the Cape, which allows Mario to fly, if you can learn to control it. You also go into your first-ever underground level here, with the self-scrolling screen and crushing pillars. This means that if you’re too slow, you’ll either be crushed by a pillar or by the edge of the screen and a pillar. Donut Plains also introduces “secret” exits that lead to different areas of the map, as well as Ghost Houses filled with Boos and mysterious exits. If you find the secrets in the first two levels of the Donut Plains in reverse order, you also unlock the first underwater level. The DPs also contain the first entrance to the fabled Star World, as well as the first “slippery” ice level.

After the DPs, you move onto the Vanilla Dome. This area has two paths, the regular path and a secret path. The main section of the Vanilla Dome is completely underground. If you choose to take the regular path, you go through various areas, including a ghost house, and discover many interesting things, including lava. The normal route finishes with the regular finish, the castle. It is worthy of note, however, that this castle is one of only two castles which can be skipped in the game. If you so choose, you can take the secret passage, which introduces you to the first vertically-oriented map, Donut Secret 1. As well, it introduces you to DOLPHINS! Yay dolphins. Anyways, the secret passage ends with Vanilla Fortress, the first fortress in the game.

After you beat either the Fortress or the castle, you move onward to the Twin Bridges area. This area is the shortest area in the game, because it is divided into 2 different sets of levels depending on which exit you decided to take out of the Vanilla Dome. If you opted for the regular exit, you end up on the bottom bridge. This bridge is called the Cheese Bridge, and fittingly-named, the level here is called the Cheese Bridge Area. There is a secret exit here to Soda Lake, which is an underwater level filled with torpedos (ugh). After that, you go on to Cookie Mountain, which is filled with annoying moles that pop out of walls and the ground. After that is the castle.

If, instead, you decide to take the secret path, you go to Butter Bridge. This is a series of two similar yet very different levels, Butter Bridge 1 and Butter Bridge 2 (omg, how do they come up with these names?). The first level is a self-scrolling level where you need to jump from platform to platform at just the right speed. Too quick and you end up sinking (the platforms sink), too slow and you fall to your death. Butter Bridge 2 isn’t very significant a level, except that I can just fly through it and ignore all the enemies. After BB2, you end up at the castle, which is where the two paths converge again.

The fifth area is the Forest of Illusion. This area is really annoying. It has lots of catepillars, and many paths in this area make you go around and around in circles. The real exit in this level is the secret exit in FoI 3, but there’s also a secret exit in FoI 4 that takes you to Forest Fortress and then Star World.

After FoI, we go to Chocolate Island. This area is special because of all of its big and little dinosaur things. Choco-Ghost House introduces you to Boos that turn to stone if you look at them, and allow you to step on them without penalty. CI 3 has a secret exit that allows you to proceed further, to Chocolate Fortress, but if you take the normal exit, you end up going around in a big circle, back to CI 3. How irritating. CI 4 is a very strange level. It’s difficult to explain, but it’s strange. After CI 5 you get to the castle, and then onwards to the last area of the game, the Valley of Bowser.

The first level is a Sunken Ghost Ship. This area is annoying because there is a middle segment where tons of Boos are always appearing and disappearing, making it hard to travel. A hint: the Boos always appear in the same spots, relative to your screen position. Use that to predict where they will appear next. After this level, you get to “officially” enter the Valley of Bowser.

Now here we are, at the last area of the game. Even at this stage of the game, new concepts are still introduced. For example, in VoB 1, we’re introduced to the Giant Moles that we can step on without killing. This is useful when there is a surface filled with black cutting thingys (don’t know what they’re called ) and you need to get across: just ride on its back. In VoB 2, there is a secret exit that allows you to go to the Valley Fortress, past which is the secret Back Door that allows you to skip half of the final Bowser dungeon. Even in the final dungeon, new stuff are still introduced. There is a dark level, where everything is difficult to see. However, there are light switches that will turn on a light for a short period of time. Afterwards, you battle Bowser, and hopefully win.

So you’ve won. Now what? Well, you can try to beat the Star and Special Worlds. You start with the Star World. Hopefully, by this stage in the game, you’ve discovered at least one entrance to the Star World. If not, I’ll tell you where they are: Donut Secret House, Vanilla Secret 1, Soda Lake (after Cheese Bridge Area), Forest Fortress (after Forest Secret Area and FoI 4), and finally, Valley of Bowser 4.

These Star World levels are special in a very unique way (redundant, I know). Each level gives you a coloured baby Yoshi. You can hold it, and when you walk into small enemies or objects the Yoshi will eat it. Once it eats enough, it’ll grow into a full-grown coloured Yoshi, and before where only green Yoshis would appear, these would start also appearing randomly.

Once you beat Star World 5 and find the secret exit, you’re set for a special treat: Special World. By far, Special World is the hardest area in the game. It is so difficult, that once you beat it, the game will start keeping track of high scores on each of the levels. For each second left on the clock at the end, you also get 200 points, so it’s very difficult to attain a “perfect” score, especially considering the difficulty of the levels. There are 8 levels in total, and there’s not much I can say about them. They are: Gnarly, Tubular, Way Cool, Awesome, Groovy, Mondo, Outrageous, and Funky. What happens when you beat all of them? Something very significant and interesting. I won’t ruin the surprise, although you probably could just find it on Google.

So that’s my SMW blog post. Hope you learned something. Go play. (I’m not telling you to download a ROM and emulator and play it, nor am I advertising that I can provide links to such items. It’s obvious that you should buy a Game Boy Advance and a copy of Super Mario World just to enjoy this one game. I would never have illegit copies of ROMs (my copies are legal, they’re backups of the game which I do indeed own.). )

So yep, enjoy the game to the fullest. I certainly did.

- Vinny

Internet Memes

To those of you unfamiliar with internet culture, a meme is basically something really popular and funny but usually simple that spreads over the internet like a virus. This is often a quote from popular culture, but may be supplemented by a picture or video.

Some popular memes include (most of these links are cool variations on the meme or the origins of the memes, but the memes are fairly simple phrases):

ORLY? – http://www.orlyowl.com/orly.jpg

IT’S OVER 9000!!!!!! – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TBtpyeLxVkI

so i herd you liek mudkips – http://www.toadking.com/6×9=42/mudkipsthead.jpg (WARNING, EXPLICIT TEXT)

ALL YOUR BASE ARE BELONG TO US – http://www.allyourbasearebelongtous.com/flash/

THIS IS SPARTAAAAAA!!! – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yddMQ6eXqEk

Sometimes memes also appear in smaller societies, rather than these memes which have popped up over the entire internet. They’re basically the same, except people outside their society won’t understand what they’re talking about (heh, the “Correct” dread).

Some modern companies see this as a medium for advertising. Mostly they’re idiots. You can’t really purposely make a meme. It just appears when something really catchy, funny, or stupid occurs.

Meh, I’m out of ideas. I’d list random memes from more specific things, but you won’t get it.

Here’s a video of EVE politics, have fun: http://www.student.ru.nl/martindevillers/xeticvs5.html

Good night.

- Vinny

Life’s Reality, Death’s Dreams

Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sdUUx5FdySs

It’s very sad. An animation about a kiwi (a flightless bird) trying to achieve its dreams. Not much else to say, except watch it, shed a tear, and come back to read the rest of this blog.

Today I’m going to discuss a very somber topic, the topic of life vs. death, your dreams vs. reality.

Nothing to say. People die. People have dreams.

Good night. (hey, it’s midnight)

- Vinny

How to not be a douchebag

Yes, I missed yesterday’s post. Whatever. I was lazy. I’ll write a longer post today to make up for it, as it is a more interesting topic.

Alright. In practically any group of people, there are the smart people, and the not-so-smart people. When I say smart in this context, I don’t mean marks/school-smart, but people who know how to handle themselves in the world, people who can solve problems and not make themselves look like idiots. Besides, if you can make yourself look smart, no one will know how dumb you are, and that’s good enough.

I’ve given this some thought, and have some basic tips on how to not be a dumbass.

#1 – Think/Plan before you act.

Not much to say about this one, as it is so obvious. Prepare yourself for the consequences of your actions. Let’s say that you need a certain type of pen. It is possible that all the stores nearby are sold out of this kind of pen. Your plans should know what you plan to do if you’re missing a part. Perhaps have a “backup” plan. At the very least, know what you’re trying to do.i

#2 – Use logic/probability.

This blends into #1 quite well. In fact, all these blend into each other. Be able to see a probable sequence of events that will occur. If X happens, Y happens. If you don’t want Y do happen, don’t let X happen. Simple. Also, don’t expect to win the lottery jackpot, but that’s a given .

#3 – Respect doesn’t come from your past, it comes from the present you.

What this basically means, is that people in the world don’t really care what you were before, only what you are now. You could have been a billionaire at age 18, but if you’re 40 and broke, guess what? You’re broke! If people look into your life, most likely it won’t be filled with praise, but they’ll be trying to figure out where you screwed up so that they don’t screw up in the same way. You’re not going to be much better off.

#4 – Don’t screw with people for no reason.

You want to have a happy life. Others want happy lives. It’s a lot easier to live a happy life with a bunch of friends than a bunch of enemies. Be happy! Make friends!

#5 – Go with the flow.

Alright. In history class, you’re taught about all the cool old people who came up with brilliant ideas that were at first rejected but after years of research and stuff found to be true. You do not learn about those who tried to propose new theories, but were turned down rightfully though. People who come up with brilliant theories that were correct are called geniuses. People who come up with incorrect theories are called lunatics. Don’t be a lunatic.

#6 – Assume that others are reasonable people too.

We must assume that others are reasonable. Most people are logical, functional human beings, and because of rule #2 above, we need to try to assume everyone can think. Don’t make people “prove that you’re smart enough to do X or whatever if it’s a simple task”. That just insults them for no good reason (hey, that’s #4!)

These are very basic concepts, but if you apply them in specific scenarios, they’re very useful. Here’s a few (somewhat controversial) topics and my opinions on them:

#1 – There aren’t any major conspiracies right now.

By “major” conspiracy I mean, OMG, Bush is covering up 9/11, it was actually done by a squad of bomber squirrels injecting people with TNT, and then blowing themselves up, causing a chain reaction and downing the world trade center! Bush tries to cover it up as he got help from aliens with mind-control and DNA-altering powers to genetically mutate squirrels as a test and now is unleashing it onto mankind to make us all zombie slaves! RUN!

Uh, no.

Doing something like that requires a lot of people to be involved in it (we all know Bush is too dumb to do that by himself), but each person we add is another factor for a leak. Add in all the places where someone could see it, etc, the chances are like 2%. See #2 above.

#2 – Your idea’s dumb! Deal with it!

This really goes down to logic. Is your idea really actually useful? Is it effective? If not, don’t spend millions of dollars trying to sell it!

Here’s an example: A diet fork. Supposedly this fork is designed to be hard to hold, so you end up putting it down between bites. This in turn causes you to eat slower. Oh, wow. Now, suppose someone dieted and used this fork. Will he really lose weight? Nope, he’s just wasting more of his time, as he eats the SAME AMOUNT OF FOOD. Ohmygawd. IT’S A FORK! IT DOES NOTHING! And yet whatever dumbass company that decided to manufacture it is still selling it! ?!?

What the hell.

Source: http://today.reuters.com/News/ArticleBlog.aspx?type=technologyNews&w1=B7ovpm21IaDoL40ZFnNfGe&w2=B82x9Ksc5UNVzDjpITcIrRbi&src=blogBurst_technologyNews&bbPostId=Cz5A0tigZHRJuAXlGJlxgn5mCz3Mv80hUN79JBCxHIbgNKfVR&bbParentWidgetId=B9Ttx

#3 – How to seem like a know-it-all / how to get help

I get moderately annoyed when people ask me to solve problems that are really easy but really specific. Use Google. 99% of the time, your problem is documented somewhere on there, with steps to solve it. Now, some harder problems you might not understand the language for, and that’s fine. Show me that you’ve at least tried to solve the issue, and that lessens the work that I need to do. Really, half the time, I only have a basic understanding of your problem, and guess what? I use Google to find the solution, and tell you in simpler terms. You can try to make my life a little easier, after all, it’s your problem . If you approach any tech-support guy for a computer, he’s probably going to feel the same way, so make him/me happy, and do your research first.

Now that I’ve gone completely off-course, I’d like to remind all of you not to be douches. Eh, whatever. If you’re a douche, your life is gonna suck anyways. Not my problem.

- Vinny

Net-speak

Link thing: http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/368557; Animator vs. Animation II, it’s a flash cartoon. Go watch.

Anyways, I wanted to discuss net-speak today. Why? Cuz. Out of interesting topics. Whatever.

Net-speak can be classified into 3 categories: acronym usage, leet-speak, and bad grammar/punctuation.

#1 – Acronym usage. This is what you mostly think of when someone says “net-speak”. Things like, LOL, WTF, SPAM, LMAO, ROFL, MYOB, GTFO, STFU, TBH, on and on and on.

This originated from lazy people who didn’t know how to type properly, and thus decided that over instant messengers messages weren’t getting across in time. To save themselves the effort of typing things over and over again, they began to use them, as did their friends who learned about them, and they spread from there.

#2 – leet-speak. This is characterized by the usage of numbers and special characters to form the images used by the lettering. Supposedly this is used by hackers, but nope, it isn’t. A real hacker usually would use much more legible writing, because why bother typing out all the random characters? It doesn’t make reading it any harder for anyone wanting to read it, and just screws with inter-hacker communications.

#3 – Bad grammar. People are lazy, what can we do? They don’t want to press the shift key or any of the keys for punctuation. Some of them might also be from foreign countries, and thus are unable to follow the conventional rules of grammar. It really annoys some people (including me), but most people don’t mind it. Meh. I’m alright with it as long as I can read and understand it.

So what is this doing to us, the younger generation, as a society? As technology grows deeper and deeper into our lives, are we losing our ability to properly communicate?

Well, not really.

Yeah, we are getting lazy, but people can still understand each other over the internet, and if people don’t understand what you’re saying, you have some issues. Most people are able to properly use grammar and punctuation if they feel like it, however, and thus people will be still able to communicate.

It does mean, however, that we’re either getting lazier or smarter, or both. We’re getting lazier because we are reluctant to type our own language out properly. On the other hand, are we getting smarter and more efficient by eliminating characters in English that aren’t needed and simply bettering our language? Only time will tell. This is but another phase in the evolution of a language.

- Vinny