Submitted by Abalieno on June 30, 2009 - 13:25.
Pat received the page proofs.
This is what we know to this point:
- The book is 889 pages long and so about the size of The Bonehunters (approximately 360k words).
- Official publication date is even earlier than expected: 17 August.
- The book comes with a note from Erikson warning readers that this is just the first part of a two-volume novel and that it doesn't have the same structure of other novels.
I'll update this post with more tidbits if Pat comments the book on the forums while he reads like he did for Toll the Hounds.
Okay, three chapters and 118 pages in, and that's as far as I'll go today.
Very good thus far. An underlying sense of doom pervades the narrative, and you know that the end is coming. Even though early in the game, there has already been a major surprise that I never really expected. Interestingly enough, although there are myriads storylines woven into this series, SE introduces us to additional characters and plotlines. This far in the series, they must be of capital importance, I guess.
That and what is likely the most important reading of the Deck of Dragons yet. . .
Good stuff! The pace was atrociously slow for about 2/3 of TtH, and if not for that spectacular ending the book would have tanked to a certain degree. Not so with DoD. You can feel that the build-up is almost over, and the shit is about to hit the fan in a way that will make past convergences look like a walk in the park.
More to come. . .
--
212 pages into it, 6 chapters down, and Book 1 done, and it's still very good.
You know at the end of RG when Icarium entered his machine and we thought that nothing really happened. Well, something did. Something MAJOR. . .
While I'm not going to reveal which POVs are featured thus far, since a lot of you have asked I can say that the narrative is comprised of the usual suspects among the Malazans and the Letherii. A bit more interesting is the fact that we get to see the Shake, the Khundryl Burned Tears, the Perish Grey Helms, and more in the spotlight.
Good stuff, this!
Submitted by Abalieno on June 27, 2009 - 12:20.
   
Best Served Cold - Joe Abercrombie - 534 pages
Big hardcover densely written. With 44 lines on the page it's bigger than the page count would say. I had expected to find an actual map in the book, but the map is only on the cover and then segmented as background for the various chapters. The cover art and style in general is excellent but that thin pointy sword and coins on the page with map in the back make it look too much like a book about pirates, with treasure to dig somewhere.
There are many, many reviews on the internet already, all celebrating excellence, followed by forum posts saying it's not all that good and so confirming it IS that good (forum dwellers enjoy to have contrasting opinions without motivating them). This is a standalone volume, a rarity in the genre. It is still set in the world of the previous trilogy and with some characters reappearing, but not requiring previous reads. Easily one of the very best of the year, Abercombie himself said on his blog that while the book didn't come out easy it's still the best he wrote to this point. This is particularly important because I consider this the first real proof he is a "writer". Not only he surpassed in quality and productivity his rivals (Rothfuss and Scott Lynch, both stuck in their own success), but this is the first book that came out of his "job". The First Law trilogy was something that he worked on for a long time, ideas and characters developed for many years. Here he demonstrates that he doesn't have just one bullet to shoot and that he can command his art ;)
Return of the Crimson Guard Ian C. Esslemont - 1047 pages
In this case the new bigger mass market UK version, smaller than the page count would say since they continue this bad habit with Esslemont of using a huge typeset, 34 lines on the page. Comparable in actual size with Deadhouse Gates as you can see from my updated wordcount.
I have the suspect this isn't the last edition of the book I buy, since there are rumors that Canada is publishing using the old mass market format and I'd like to have the whole series in the same format, along with the fact that I find the smaller version more fitting as well (since the typeset is already quite large and I like more concentrating in reading than turning pages).
In the meantime the real wait is for Dust of Dreams, rumored to be around 350k (so at least smaller than the last 3 volumes and matching Memories of Ice). Page proofs sent to Pat for a review, we can expect some comments in a week or so. I repeat this is extremely important because this book is the first part of the real conclusion of a 10 volumes long series. The moment of truth for many aspects.
A Magic of Twilight - S. L. Farrell - 574 pages
First volume of a tetralogy (I think) and written by one of Martin protegee. For how disrespectful and unfair it sounds this should be a "second tier" kind of fantasy even if from the few pages I read it may become a pleasant surprise. There's an excess of fabricated words that you have to look in the glossary at the end of the book, justified by the attempt to do some worldbuilding inspired by Renaissance in Italy. A lot of those terms are derived from italian words slightly modified, so it sounds a bit silly but it's not too distracting.
Four maps between city maps and surrounding, and a particular structure. As in Martin's books each chapter has the name of the character having the PoV, but here these sections are short (5-6 pages or even less) and then bundled together in bigger chapters/sections that are meaningfully named (prelude, beginnings, harbingers, movements, encounters, maneuvers, endings, repercussions etc...). Maybe the very short PoVs will fragment the narration too much, but they also make the book more lively.
So you have this redone renaissance with a spark of magic and a plot that seems all focused in politics and scheming. All framed in a artsy simil-Venice. Rather fitting for those who love Martin.
Canti del Caos - Antonio Moresco - 1070 pages
You don't know about this book because it's italian and I don't think it will be exported anytime soon (and it would also be quite hard to translate). 15 years to come out in its completed form, it's a monumental work whose ambition tops everything else that is Literature. This is one writer we have in Italy completely dedicated to literature, living for literature. Heavily experimental, mixing all known genres together and lacking a "plot" or normal flow. It's chaos made into words, delirious and ruthless, without imitations. It is considered a world-book, many different stories contained into it, mixing together impossible characters and situations. Loved, hated, surely pretentious.
Submitted by Abalieno on June 25, 2009 - 01:14.
I don't write about mmorpg anymore if it's not about leftovers. I guess I'll comment this.
Seen on Rock-Paper-Shotgun:
EA will merge Mythic and Bioware to create a new MMO and RPG division. The new division will apparently be headed by BioWare boss Ray Muzyka, while BioWare’s other co-founder, Greg Zeschuk, will become Group Creative Officer. Mark Jacobs, the outspoken boss at Mythic, will apparently be leaving the company
It didn't end too well, did it?
Nope, for anyone. I guess you would expect me to be all happy about this since I wrote so much negative stuff about Mythic and especially about Mark Jacobs along the years. Nope, I'm not. Justice is done? Nope.
Justice is when things are understood and people collaborate to work toward something better. Justice is to see things realize their potential and draw the best from the people who made them. There's little justice in seeing something fail, even if there are good motivations behind the failure. Or whatever, even if you still won't call this failure.
And there's also no justice when you're proven right, and yet you can't put it to any use.
Submitted by Abalieno on June 18, 2009 - 00:00.
 I'm rather impressed, this is the first cover for a book by Steven Erikson that Tor publishes and that doesn't suck. Beside the horrible green used in the name, the image is a rather faithful representation of awesome duo (minus the manservant, the real protagonist).
The book, till now only available in limited hardcover, is going to be published in September by Tor for the american market, trade paperback only. It collects all the three novellas Erikson wrote, probably in their story order, but not in publishing order (The Healthy Dead was written after the first, but comes third in reading order). Erikson has already the contract to write three more as soon he finds the time.
Maybe more people will read what I consider Erikson's masterpiece and, without a doubt, the very best thing I ever read in fantasy and sci-fi. This book is my all time favorite (even if the first novella can't reach the awesomeness of the other two).
The summary on the Tor page is also quite fitting for what's written in the book.
Submitted by Abalieno on June 12, 2009 - 10:59.
 Return of the Crimson Guard, second book by Esslemont and suggested read after The Bonehunters or Reaper's Gale, is out in mass market format in UK and available at the usual places. (amazon.co.uk and bookdepository)
Even for this version they are going to use the slightly larger format they started to use with the MM version of Toll the Hounds. Sadly.
The real question is whether it will contain the prologue form Stonewieleder or not. The MM version of Night of Knives had the prologue and a few pages of the first chapter of RotCG, but Esslemont had already completed the book, while we don't have any news about when the next book should come out.
In the meantime the wait for Dust of Dreams continues. It should be out by the end of August and in a couple of weeks the first reviews should come out. The moment of truth.
Submitted by Abalieno on June 6, 2009 - 11:28.
If you can.
He's only in north-east Italy circumscription and I can't vote him directly. I wanted to vote Debora Serracchiani of PD, but she's also in another zone and I don't know anyone who's listed in mine.
My vote goes for Sinistra e Liberta' even if it's a vote lost (won't likely reach 4%), at least for once I won't feel betrayed.
With xenophobia and right-wing already winning in exit-polls and polls in other zones of Europe this time a vote of protest is a meaningful one.
Things are going to get much worse before they can get better.
Submitted by Abalieno on May 25, 2009 - 04:22.
 Instead of sticking to a series and read every volume before I move onto something else I try to cover as many authors I can, so that I can have a better idea of the fantasy genre as it is today. The mysterious K.J. Parker isn't one who gets as much attention as other, more popular writers, but in comments and reviews I read she (we assume it's a she, but the true identity is unknown and name used just an invention, being mysterious like that) has a very good reputation and more than once caught my attention. Especially when Pat posted an excerpt from a recent book that I thought was brilliant. I made a mental note to buy that book when it came out (a standalone), but sooner than that I read some more comment of an earlier trilogy she wrote (The Fencer Trilogy) whose first book was a detailed and realistic description of a siege to a city, down to the smallest details.
The siege and a lot more I found in the 500 pages of the book. I'm not one to have prejudices, but thinking that the writer may be a woman couldn't be more misleading. There's a constant in her writing that I read is common to all her books, and it is the cynicism. This is a story that is always told from a detached point of view. Surgical. It's like a screen that filters and separates the one who tells the story and what goes on in it. You are, in reading and sharing the seat occupied by the writer, an observer. This is a displacement that is always present. But the cold, detached point of view is perfectly balanced and matched with a sense of humor that makes the writing always interesting.
It's easy to be mislead by the premises. Along with the cynicism there's also an obsession with the technical details. At times the book stops to be a story and becomes a technical manual about how to build siege engines and other tools of war. It explains the materials, how they are chosen, how they are treated, all the steps that are required up to the final output. Then explains you how to use them. Whether it is about fencing or how to properly plan the siege to a mythical high-walled city that is the theme of this book. One would assume that a read couldn't be more boring and I imagine you thinking right now of reading this book and falling asleep after two paragraphs. Instead it's surprisingly compelling and it's all merit of the writing itself.
As odd it may sound, this is a character-driven book. None of the characters stand out as memorable. There isn't any way to quickly describe them and the reason is that they aren't stereotypes. This is far from a typical fantasy novel and more alike to an historical fiction that isn't historical simply because the setting isn't real. But it is real in every element that forms it. An imagined story whose aspects are meticulously researched. The same treatment that goes in the setting goes in the characters. We don't have key-roles or striking, recognizable characters. We have normal people, defined even here with attention to the detail. They are part of their world down to their mentality. If I had to make an example I'd use Richard Morgan. If in Richard Morgan you have a fantasy written through a modern eye (like we see in the dialogues), here we observe characters that truly live in the book and are shaped by what's around them. With plenty of natural blind spots.
The execution here is excellent. You can't avoid to admire what the writer did here. The way she can transform potentially boring parts in pages that you can't stop reading. What is up-to-date is the point of view, the writing itself and cleverness, even wisdom, disillusion. Cynicism again. Black humor. Sometime you feel like you are observing one wicked experiment where guinea pigs struggle and die in the most cynical ways. That detachment between what we know as people of our time, opposed to a medieval world with all its simplicities. You can see what is coming and it produces a wicked sense of humor since you aren't there, you are observing how people are stupid, or just victims of their time. Victims of simple beliefs. Or just victims in general because no one can really control anything.
There are no winners. There's also a kind of predestination that is bound with the idea of progress. The medieval world is allegory of "change". Of science versus beliefs. One day before the age of enlightenment. Parker here is the innate, perfect writer for the task. In the same way there's this dualism of modernism and pre-modernism, the writer incarnates the perfect match and dualism of the soulless meticulous technical detail and the sense of humor and originality that ties everything together. Art and tech. Enhanced with an air of magic that exist in the book, but that is another allegory of itself. Not a showy, controllable magic. Not fireballs, invisibility, flight or other useful uses. Not devices and desires. But an hopeless fight against destiny and its whims. Trapped guinea pigs that can only believe the illusion in front of the eyes and that are fated to be victims. Humorous tragedies of life that you enjoy only till you understand that the huge distance between you and them is an illusion too.
Don't expect from this book a story with heroes, spectacular battles or even complex political intrigue or power struggle. Don't expect escapism or identification. This book needs brain and is great when you admire its cleverness in all its aspects. It has none of the trappings that appeal to younger readers, none of the immediate appeal and satisfaction. It is infinitely more subtle but also more satisfying. In any case this is an original voice that is precious in the genre. The flaw is that she wrote many books and, while investigating many different aspects and improving in what she does best, they all play with similar tones. But if you want to explore human genius and despair at once, this is the best journey.
P.S.
First volume in a trilogy, but the ending is so satisfying that you can take this as a standalone. The choice to move on the next books is on the reader more than forced by the plot.
Submitted by Abalieno on May 22, 2009 - 10:24.
Some time ago there were flames on the forums after some people continued to compare the Malazan series to Dragonlance. I started to explain that if Erikson wasn't original it wasn't because he copied Dragonlance, but because the idea of the Ascendants came right from Glen Cook's "Taken", and, before that, from greek mythology with all its meddling gods with humanized flaws.
Nothing is truly originally, especially in fiction. Everything is influenced by what was before. Literary genres are still the same, we play with the same narrative structures, the same tricks. Creativity isn't about shaping alien concepts. It is about molding what we know into something clever or moving or sincere or authentic or spectacular.
I posted a short quote from a character in Dickens' novel. It got my attention somehow. Now I know why.
That character is the exact copy of Erikson's Kruppe. From the physical description to the style of dialogue it is a faithful representation. This is interesting because I used to read that Kruppe was a character that Erikson borrowed right from one of the later books in the Black Company series.
How amusing to have another proof that you can never pinpoint the origin of ideas, even when they seem so obvious.
Dickens:
Mr. Chadband is a large yellow man with a fat smile and a general appearance of having a good deal of train oil in his system. Mr. Chadband moves softly and cumbrously, not unlike a bear who has been taught to walk upright. He is very much embarrassed about the arms, as if they were inconvenient to him and he wanted to grovel, is very much in a perspiration about the head, and never speaks without first putting up his great hand, as delivering a token to his hearers that he is going to edify them.
“My friends,” says he, “what is this which we now behold as being spread before us? Refreshment. Do we need refreshment then, my friends? We do. And why do we need refreshment, my friends? Because we are but mortal, because we are but sinful, because we are but of the earth, because we are not of the air. Can we fly, my friends? We cannot. Why can we not fly, my friends?”
Mr. Snagsby, presuming on the success of his last point, ventures to observe in a cheerful and rather knowing tone, “No wings.” But is immediately frowned down by Mrs. Snagsby.
“I say, my friends,” pursues Mr. Chadband, utterly rejecting and obliterating Mr. Snagsby’s suggestion, “why can we not fly? Is it because we are calculated to walk? It is. Could we walk, my friends, without strength? We could not. What should we do without strength, my friends? Our legs would refuse to bear us, our knees would double up, our ankles would turn over, and we should come to the ground. Then from whence, my friends, in a human point of view, do we derive the strength that is necessary to our limbs? Is it,” says Chadband, glancing over the table, “from bread in various forms, from butter which is churned from the milk which is yielded unto us by the cow, from the eggs which are laid by the fowl, from ham, from tongue, from sausage, and from such like? It is. Then let us partake of the good things which are set before us!”
The persecutors denied that there was any particular gift in Mr. Chadband’s piling verbose flights of stairs, one upon another, after this fashion.
Erikson:
The slippered foot probed daintily downward, wavering until it touched ground. A rather plump calf, knee and thigh followed. The short, round man who emerged was wearing silks of every colour, the effect one of clashing discord. A shimmering, crimson handkerchief was clutched in one pudgy hand, rising to dab a glittering forehead. Both feet finally on the ground, the Daru loosed a loud sigh. 'Burn's fiery heart, but it's hot!'
The short, round man blinked myopically, mopped his brow once again, then beamed a smile. 'Representative of the City of Darujhistan? Indeed! None better, Kruppe says, though he be a lowly citizen, a curious commoner come to cast kindly eyes upon this momentous occasion! Kruppe is suitably honoured by your formal, nay, respectful welcome - what vast display, Kruppe wonders, will you formidable warriors unveil when greeting the Council of Darujhistan's official representatives? The sheer escalation now imminent has Kruppe's heart all apatter with anticipation! Look on, to the south - the councillors' carriage even now approaches!'
Kruppe was the first to lower himself into a chair - at the head of the makeshift table. He held a tankard and a handful of Rhivi sweetcakes. 'Such rustic environs!' he sighed, round face flushed with pleasure. 'And traditional pastries of the plains to lure the palate. More, this ale is most delicious, perfectly cooled—'
He offered everyone a broad, crumb-flecked smile. 'But please, let us get under way lest this meeting stretch on, forcing the delivery of a sumptuous supper replete with the dryest of wines to whet the gullet and such a selection of sweets as to leave Kruppe groaning in fullest pleasure!'
Submitted by Abalieno on May 20, 2009 - 06:16.
A few years ago ATI couldn't compete with nVidia. They made some good cards, but you always had too many small issues on this or that game and the drivers weren't always good.
Last year ATI releases the 8400 series and it was suddenly the ONLY choice. The videocards were surprisingly cheap and the performance very solid. In the past the "best choice" would change every few months, today the best choice is still similar to the one of one year ago.
This is just the result of the Farcry 2 benchmark on my PC, with a standard 4850:
October 2008
Average Framerate: 47.47
Max. Framerate: 62.76
Min. Framerate: 38.11
February 2009
Average Framerate: 49.51
Max. Framerate: 66.72
Min. Framerate: 39.68
May 2009
Average Framerate: 52.49
Max. Framerate: 67.24
Min. Framerate: 40.78
A few years ago when I ran a benchmark I was always getting slightly worse results every few months. This is not a huge improvement, but at least with every driver they make a small step forward and none backwards.
Between the first and second release they fixed some sharp choke points (the performance curve is now much smoother), between the second and third there was an overall increase. Not too bad considering this was already a very good card with solid performance when it launched.
Submitted by Abalieno on May 19, 2009 - 00:30.
Just a quote from Dickens' Bleak House (it's longer but I decided to cut it). Here it goes:
'My friends,' says Chadband, 'what is this which we now behold as being spread before us? Refreshment. Do we need refreshment then, my friends? We do. And why do we need refreshment, my friends? Because we are but mortal, because we are but sinful, because we are but of the earth, because we are not of the air. Can we fly, my friends? We cannot. Why can we not fly, my friends?'
Submitted by Abalieno on May 16, 2009 - 01:07.
I did enjoy watching the season finale, but if I think about it it was one of the worse episodes since the very beginning.
My enjoyment mostly depended from good pacing and screenplay. Once again Lost had an execution that was superior to the actual merits. I only expected (and pretended) one thing from this finale: that it told us if the incident was meant to reproduce "things as we know them" or if the losties were successful to change the timeline.
Well, the finale is everything BUT that. There are three different meaningful segments. The first that introduces Jacob and anti-Jacob, the second with the losties and their attempt to explode the bomb in the bast, and a third in the future (of whatever timeline) with Lock now duplicating himself.
There isn't much to say about the first and last segment. All the elements introduced are new, showing us a whole new story to retcon to all we've seen till this point. So we got a new factional split (Jacob, anti-Jacob) that we need to include in the already chaotic scenario. This part could be the interesting part, but you can see now the discussion in the forums, all the arguing on the new elements sounds ridicule at best. I swear, if Lost didn't work to bring up to this point, NO ONE would watch the show on the premises we have now. Egyptian gods who fish in the ocean and have extremely improbable dialogues. Resurrections. Evil clones. Apparitions.
If there's one thing where Lost succeeded is in making us bite onto all this without too many concerns. Take it seriously. This is the MOST RIDICULE plot ever. Yet we are able to chat, between us, like it's something "serious".
The second chunk with the losties is fun to watch, but, really, think about it. It's the worst writing ever. A bunch of unbelievable motivations only to create improbable attrition between the cast. None of what was shown was important if not to delay some more what everyone knew was going to happen anyway. It was all drama around the characters. Juliet changing idea, the silly testosterone brawl between Sawyer and Jack, more blood. How much blood Jack lost in the last two episodes? A change of scenes and blood becomes make-up to make these faces more 'seasoned'. The love tension between Jack and Kate when they chat amiably while Sayid is dying in the van. The intense looks. And finally the drama scene between Sawyer and Juliet while he tries to desperately save her. How all fucking gratuitous.
Soap-opera grandmas are pointing their fingers and laughing at all of us. Soap-operas nowadays have more dignity than that. We got a collection of everything awful in this show, glazed anew with typical scenes and dialogues that are cut & pasted from the most trite tradition without any effort.
And then we got more mumbo-jumbo about Locke and evil-Locke, Jacob and anti-Jacob (conveniently dressed too). Simply put: more nonsense. Here they lost me, because I'm really not interested about what they are doing here. The whole thing about the Dharma, the experiment, the weird apparitions and so on where engaging and interesting. Now it's all collapsing into a big joke. A messy pile where they put everything nerd they could find. The pretense of believability, that was the quality at the base of this show, has blown up into nonsense.
If I have to guess the anti-Jacob is also the smoke monster, who is also evil-Locke. Jacob enjoys messing with people, while anti-Jacob is the one who prefers being left alone and would like as well to get rid of Jacob and enjoy a quiet life.
In short, we got all the hints that the last season will be a disaster.
(of course there's only one foot left of the statue, it's all unbalanced on the front. It's a miracle that it stays up like that)
Submitted by Abalieno on May 8, 2009 - 05:13.
I read that some people didn't like the latest two episodes, while I think they were great and finally moving toward a conclusion instead of introducing redundant elements.
My current speculation: they are all going to die.
Why?
Well, things are now so complicate that it's impossible to deal with them on their own level. So I'll simplify a lot. The current time travel theory, proven by the fact that Locke sees himself and Daniel exists at the same time as adult himself and in the belly of his mother, is that copies are made of those who travel. Ben turning the wheel caused the island to "skip" (with Sawyer and friends). When Jack and friends go back to the island they join the same "jump" of Sawyer and go back in the past. This means that there are two Sawyers and two Jacks.
Their goal is now to blow up the island, so that everything there changes and the event that leads to the plane crashing won't happen. This also means that the plane, with their "copies" aboard, won't crash and they'll have a normal life.
This logic explains the time paradox that happens to Locke (the compass). In the same way copies are made when you jump in the past, copies are made even if you jump in the future. So Locke can basically give himself the compass.
But what happens if one Sawyer leaves with the submarine with Juliet and the other Sawyer does not crash with the plane? That we have two Sawyer around. I don't think this is going to work, so there's a possibility that if the plan works, then their copies need to die, so that their copies in the future can go on. There's some toll that probably needs to be paid as things are never easy.
If this is what happens then Sawyer will never meet Juliet as they've never met in the standard timeline (Sawyer never crashed, Juliet never needed to go to the island as the island blew up). This brings the whole theme led by Kate who actually doesn't want this reset, while Jack and Sayid consider what happen miserable enough to be worth of cancellation:
"It was not all misery."
"Enough of it was."
Along this, there's the theme of destiny. Here destiny is moved by the island. It's the island who moved them exactly at that time before the "incident" that are trying to prevent. It's also the island that hand picked Locke, Ben and others without sending them in the past. What's the purpose? My guess is self-destruction but motivations are obscure and impossible to figure out at this point.
But if you look at the bigger picture, you can definitely see a common theme. Locke "knows" now. He's the only reliable one. Locke also says that Sun is going to be again with Jin. Why? Because it all still belong to the main timeline: the plane doesn't crash and Sun and Jin where together on that plane.
So this is starting to look a lot like Donnie Darko:
In fact, the time travel stuff is more of a smokescreen. At heart, this is the story of a young man who is doomed -- and a merciful God who gives him twenty-eight days of a life that never existed, in which to become a hero and a rebel, and to find love.
With the difference that in this case they aren't doomed, and will be able to go on with their previous life. It wasn't just a dream, but close.
But before they save themselves, they all have to die. Those in the past in order to complete the plan and let their copies live. Those in the future because they are orphans of a timeline (the island blew up, so Locke and Ben can't be on it, timeline-wise those scenes happen BEFORE what we're seeing in the past).
There's a problem, though. Sun has a picture of them in the Dharma initiative, and there's also a sixth season to fill. So this hints that, if the future is their future as that picture hints, they won't succeed in blowing up the island.
Or maybe the picture itself is a fake the island produced.
Submitted by Abalieno on May 7, 2009 - 02:14.
I guess it's worth pointing out.
Yesterday was EA financial conference and this time there is no mention of Warhammer subscription numbers in the official report. Probably because subs numbers don't look all that awesome (if you trust x-fire, the game is steadily but slowly losing activity, that considering various factors would lead me to guess the sub number at 280k in the most optimistic case).
From other sources it was repeated the 300k number for the end of March. I don't consider this reliable but it's an hint that either they are where they were in December, or under but still around that number. If the numbers were higher you can bet Mythic and Mark Jacobs would be all over the forums boasting better results, instead there's absolute silence.
So I'll be optimistic despite all hints of numbers being lower, and say Warhammer is at 300k.
What is instead proven is that Eve-Online has 300k confirmed now.
In January Eve had 250k. Warhammer 300k. Four months later Eve gained another 50k, Warhammer is either there stalling, or losing behind the scenes.
The surpass happened.
Because, you know, after a few years every game is stale and ready to be replaced. Or so they say. I wonder where Eve will be in another year. And I wonder where Warhammer will be.
Submitted by Abalieno on May 4, 2009 - 23:26.
Almost three years after the original attempt, I spent the Sunday revising my EPIC install of Baldur's Gate. That means the first and second game integrated seamlessly and with more than 170 patches and fixes applied.
I spent some time researching the possible conflicts and incompatibilities, so I hope the final result is solid. Then I even made one 4Gb zip file and I'll burn it on a DVD, to keep it for the future :)
I wonder if I'll make out of Candlekeep this time.
An old discussion of whereabouts can be found here.
(And, yep, I even added the Saerileth NPC. It has quite a reputation online.)
Submitted by Abalieno on April 28, 2009 - 23:41.
 20th Century Boys is a 22+2 volumes long manga series by Naoki Urasawa that is rather popular in Japan.
In a way it can be considered the japanese version of Stephen King's IT (as the recent "Kappa No Coo" animated movie is the japanese version of E.T.). The narrative proceeds in parallel following a group of friends as kids and then when they grow up, all done through flashbacks and glimpses and then a whole lot of retro-connections and new revelations that make you go back and reread to try to figure out something new. There aren't all that many works of fiction with an elaborate mythology with payback on the long run, all the while trying to unveil mysteries and tie together the multiple plot threads. Lost, Battlestar Galactica, X-files, Erikson's Malazan series, Akira, Evangelion, Donnie Darko, these are examples of mythologies that have a certain ambition and development in common, and all of them are flawed in a way or another.
The manga was great because it creates so many speculations. The more volumes you read, the more crazy theories come up and Urasawa keeps you constantly on the brink of some huge revelation that never comes but also never completely disappoint. It's the kind of manga that you read frenetically to reach the last page, then are left wanting more. This movie is one of the most faithful transpositions of fiction I've seen, but it kinda fails to be good as its own thing, and it's also not so good even when linked to the manga. It tells nothing more.
However, it's full of awesome and makes you go quickly through the manga. Where it fails is in feeling authentic. Even the manga has some naive parts but they seem to work better as one of Urasawa's skills is about playing these common, naive themes and make them look serious and dramatic. The movie, in being a movie and not for some flaws of transposition, appears more "stiff" and fake-ish. The acting is nowhere realistic and instead of drama you have the effect of a comedy, so when there are dramatic scenes that would require some involvement you are left watching with a big disconnection with what is going on.
The movie doesn't seem to miss any step, though. The plot is all there, nothing is out of place and the cast, especially the kids, seems coming alive out of the drawn page. But again it doesn't work to its full potential because all the time is used to follow the plot and not enough to develop characters and have the spectator care for them. I have no idea what is going to think of this movie one who didn't read the manga. Even after twenty-two 200-pages long volumes I still mistake a character for another, or completely forget someone. The risk is that this movie would be extremely hard to follow, or maybe the opposite, it would be more easy to like because you can focus on a simplified exposition and so recollect only what's really relevant.
Despite the flaws with realism, stiff acting and lack of serious character development, it's an interesting movie that tries to keep an impossible balance between looking "serious" and making a caricature of everything. In the end it's what makes it awesome. It plays with wonder and many of the typical japanese unrealistic situations common in the mangas. The manga version does all of this much better, this movie is the most faithful transposition possible, especially the iconography. Some scenes seem done as movie first, and then drawn in the manga.
Even if almost two hours and half long, this isn't all. Just the first of a trilogy :)
P.S.
You may notice that the end song in the movie is the same I posted about three years ago.
Submitted by Abalieno on April 25, 2009 - 01:45.
Huff, I didn't want to enter this debate, but since everyone seems to agree with her, I'll have to disagree:
Why do I ask? Mostly because I know a lot of talented game designers in the industry that most people have never heard of in their life. They don’t read blogs, they don’t read design theory novels, they don’t analyze the psychological reasons why people interact how they do. They simply know how to make good games, and don’t use theories behind it.
This sounds as realistic as someone playing wonderfully an instrument without having ever studied music.
Made worse by the fact that game design isn't art, it is science. Sure, there are artistic aspects, but I quite believe that the practical ones are more relevant. If things work there's a reason. Maybe some designer can have an innate talent and get things right from the start, or without knowing exactly the motivations. But those motivations exist and if you want to succeed more than once it's a good practice to start looking at the causes. I believe that an analytical mind is more useful than a creative one, in this field.
The circulation of ideas, from my point of view, helps immensely as long you know what to do with it. Or we would be stuck remaking pac-man (that for many actual designers isn't far from truth).
But *real* game designers? They'll hardly write or read anything. They are too scared that out there everyone knows better then them. Being deaf and blind is the only way they have to stay sane. As long they don't lose their job.
Submitted by Abalieno on April 25, 2009 - 00:24.
In February I said I was going to hope the new Jumpgate was a good game. I'm still hoping, but the more I read about the game the more I got my hopes crushed.
I could summarize what's wrong in a quote of the producer from the last dev chat, it explains what's wrong at the core:
Hermann: When you look at game development it's my preference to always please everybody.
And pleasing everybody is the shortest route to please no one and make a forgettable game that enters and then exits the market within a few months, without anyone remembering it.
The "concept" that I identify with my hopes about Jumpgate is about a game with space combat, with intuitive controls and big battle with awesome dogfighting, following the tradition of X-Wing, Freespace, Wing Commander and so on. Add some warring factions and territorial control and it would become a dream of a game.
Without going through the usual missteps (game is based on experience and levelling up, PvP only exists in instanced battlegrounds), it's the controls to be the biggest issue. Especially in the perspective of a PvP game.
As with the quote above, the devs think of pleasing everyone. Jumpgate classic had an horrid flight control. You know, the kind where the direction where your ship points IS NOT the direction where you are going. The kind where the whole game is about not blowing up when you're trying to dock. It's all there. Or "Newtonian physics". I tried it in Jumpgate, it was not fun. I tried it in all those 2D top-down asteroids clone, it wasn't fun. It's not that it's hard to master, but then it gets better. Nope, it's just not fun.
Now, this new Jumpgate will have a different flight model. Ships will fly in the direction they are pointed to. You turn and the ship changes direction. But they are also trying to please everyone. So you can switch freely between one flight model and the other. It's your choice.
Isn't everyone happy?
No, I'm not. It's not my fucking choice. I want dogfighting gameplay, ok? Dogfighting gameplay means that there is maneuverings. You trying to stay on the tail of your target, anticipate his moves while trying to dodge the bullets of others. This is dogfighting gameplay. I want this. Now think that I'm chasing my target, right in the center of my bulls eye. I'm about to fire when my target does a 180 spin and starts firing right at me while his ship is flying in the other direction. WHERE THE FUCK IS MY CHOICE NOW? HUH?
There isn't any damned choice. If you allow a different flight model to exist, then it will have an effect on MY gameplay. If ships spin around freely then there isn't any dogfighting, it's a wholly different game. And, FOR SURE, you aren't pleasing me.
So, as a game designer, it is your choice whether to make a game in a way or another. It isn't written anywhere that one flight model has the right to exist, while the other hasn't. But "giving players the choice" is a fucking joke. Is about not taking responsibility of what you are doing and destroy gameplay in every way possible.
I guess this sums up why Netdevil never made a decent game: they are unable to make choices.
The best answer was this one though:
DK_FR: Is the game going to be released in June or later?
Mike: Possibly.
Are you deaf or drunk? Possibly.
--
I also wanted to add this passage, because they seem to drown into really simple design quirks:
Hermann: The original game had multi-faction squads and right now we're planning that won't be the case. A controversial issue. The reason is that it starts to interfere with core problems. For example, if you're in a multi-nation squad, say there are five Quantar and five Solrains, and you're out in an open PvP scenario in the same squad capturing a beacon, do the Solrains kill the Quantars? And how do you communicate that difference to people? That also goes for instanced PvP, when you join a squad of people you plan on playing with them a lot. But if there's any implied negative relationship between the groups then it conflicts directly against that.
It's a core issue which can get really big as more people are added to the game. If you have a game that is separated along any kind of a line, they tend to isolate players. We don't want to isolate people completely, but there are these natural points where it just becomes easier to separate people in some way and enforce that with gameplay rules, rather than confusing that by letting people mix as much as they want. Then having to fight the gameplay problems that come from that.
They have a problem with multi-faction groups. They want these groups to exist, so that the factions don't isolate players, so they can group freely together. But then this can be confusing.
So, since they can't decide for anything even here, they give up on the system and just removed multi-faction groups. They preferred isolation to confusion.
Excuse me, but why are things confusing as you say? In PvE no one cares. You shoot mobs, so you don't care to recognize if another player is in an enemy faction or not. Besides, either you are enemy or aren't. No?
This is a PvP problem. PvP is also only instanced. Think about it for longer than two seconds? Good, problem solved. American's Army made everyone believe the other faction was "terrorist", no matter of the side you were on. So will Jumpgate game designers manage, in an instanced room, to flag an enemy group as "enemy"? This must be a really hard task. In Eve-Online they use red cross for dangerous targets. In Quake they make one side "red" and the other "blue". It seems to work quite well and it doesn't matter if on the same faction there are giant eyes, demons or other weird things. You look at the dominant color and that's it. You shoot.
Will Netdevil daring game designers succeed in reinventing the wheel? A controversial question.
Submitted by Abalieno on April 22, 2009 - 01:59.
 | I've yet to go past page 20 of Reality Dysfunction (because I read at least a few pages of every book I buy) but decided that I had to buy the third volume.
The risk is that they run out of copies. On amazon.co.uk (the only place where you would want to buy Hamilton, as the American versions are horrendous, when they aren't split) there's only one copy left in total. Volumes 1 and 2 in the trilogy are unavailable in hardcover. Only this one was and it's the most representative. It's one of the biggest hardcover ever produced, in my wordcount it stands at 470k words for 1160 pages, 40 lines per page. 1.61 kg of weight. Longer than the whole Lord of the Rings, longer than any fantasy epic I know.
For the value of what's inside, this is considered, the three volumes together, as one of the best space operas if not the very best. The first two volumes are rated somewhat better and this third one is criticized because it ends too neatly and with a big deus ex machina. Still it looks a worthwhile read and there are good chances that Hamilton will return to this universe when his current project is over.
The complete wrap around cover is one of the best I've seen. Elegant, sexy book.
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Submitted by Abalieno on April 20, 2009 - 06:06.
Yep, that's what was the chart below from.
It's a while I've been reading about hermetism, then last week I watch the second episode of Fullmetal Alchemist and at some point they show an image of the tree of life (1, 2, 3). I decided that I wanted to know the meaning of it. Not just a general sense about what it is about, but all the symbols and writings on it. So, starting from the wikipedia, I went looking for all kinds of infos I could find, but as always on the internet, it's easy to get lost.
The first intent was to look into bookshops to find the most complete and deep book about Kabbalah I could find. I'm not interested on the "practical" rituals and meditations that are popular nowadays, nor the most religious aspects. I wanted to read about the myths, the symbols, their meaning. I wanted to recognize words and symbol, know what they mean.
The problem is that on amazon and other book shops the majority of the material seems composed of short books (150-200 pages) that deal with some specific aspects. I wanted instead some kind of full guide that I could use as a reference every time I read about something, something exhaustive. I even tried asking on the forums to see if someone could give me hints, and discovered that it is quite popular. Many recommend books by Gershom Scholem (such as "Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism") but I was worried that these academic works only gave historical notions but nothing really about the Kaballah itself, its meaning and mythology.
So I started looking for less orthodox books, like the tradition of the Golden Dawn. It seems that western occultism is a messy mixture of Kabbalah (the spiritual aspects) and Medieval traditions (the magical and ritualistic aspects). If you want to look for "authenticity" then the Golden Dawn is the worst starting point as possible. They put everything together and then interpret and transform things their own way. Too much made-up stuff and not enough with some kind of value. But for me they could be useful, I was just looking for the mythology and the Golden Dawn filtered all the deep religious aspects only to save the mystical and mythical ones. Problem is that only 1/5 of the books I could find was about "theory", with the rest filled with weird magical rites and celebrations, magic formulas etc... Since I'm not going to try to evoke Cthulhu all those pages wasted on rituals were useless to me. I'm interested in the meaning of them, and what they are based on, not to know a list of instructions to do this and that.
Thanks to the internet I could delve into the books and make a better choice before I purchase something. From the occultist side I found a huge torrent that has a majority of the texts I was looking for (Israel Regardie, Waite, Eliphas Levi, Crowley and a bunch of other books on the Kabbalah). Without wasting money now I can see if there's something in there that isn't bullshit and is worth purchasing.
But it's from the more authentic side that I found the most interesting material. To begin with I was looking at this textbook. It seemed big enough to be complete, then I discovered that the whole book was available through that "google preview" button. Not just a few pages, all 800+ of them. If you quickly scroll to the last pages and then move up, you can find a number of insane charts like the one I copied below. That was some interesting and fascinating stuff. The more cryptic, the more curious and intrigued I am. The same way I wanted to understand the tree of life, now I wanted to understand those charts.
Later I discover that the book is published by an association in Israel. Through their site their WHOLE literary production is available for free. Included the whole 800+ pages textbook with the crazy diagram available as a pdf download. Hooray! That is more material that I could ever hope to find. And it's not all. This association gives free online courses. There are free downloads of the videos of the lesson in Hebrew, that are then translated in different languages, along all the material that you are supposed to use, like other books and manuals. Moreover, all the 10.000 video lessons they gave up to this point are archived and available again as free download.
The new course started yesterday and you could skip registering just by knowing the right link.
I have all I need (and more), now I only have to find the time :)
Submitted by Abalieno on April 18, 2009 - 03:59.
I've already summarized my position on internet piracy. It hasn't changed now.
The Piratebay trial is a joke. The industry wants a show, something to make example of. Politics and law should NEVER mix. Politics defines the law, but then the law must have a practical use, not a political one. It should be objective and impartial. Prosecuting someone because law was violated is one thing, another is prosecuting one because of his political ideas, or to make an example, or to publicize an action.
The Piratebay trial has ENTIRELY different purposes than those exposed during the trial. Already for this reason it should be halted. Closing the tracker is secondary to the feedback across the media, secondary to the real intent behind the trial: it's a political and cultural war.
The hypocrisy of this fight starts from semantics. Pirates are "thiefs", and copying is "stealing". The moment you hear, in every context, an argument that is dramatized beyond its real scope is the moment you should understand that the argument is being manipulated. When you are on the right side you don't need to spin words and present things under an untrue light. Whenever hypocrisy shows, it reveals a personal interest. And that interest surpasses ANY desire for truth. You take whatever is convenient to you. Lies, truths. What matters isn't truth, but convenience.
On these sole premises it's enough for me to judge this trial as dishonest and unfounded. There are no facts, no truths. Just twisted semantics, speculations and convenient arguments. If lies are the foundation of your claims, then those claims don't deserve to be heard. Even less in trial.
The facts: I read that the main cause of the sentence was that the guys were operating the site for a profit. During the trial the prosecutors tossed around fancy figures about how much those guys earned. I do not care. It's a trial, either you have proofs, or you don't. Numbers have to be exact, proven numbers. Opinions don't matter. If you want a sentence based on those arguments then tell the police to figure it out. Even if it's money from donations it should be money that must leave a track.
Main point: since this whole argument is already a "shade of gray" kinda thing. Then whether they make money or not is, imo, a good starting point where to draw a line.
IF (case 1) it's the money the center of the argument then. 1) you track that money, then give it all back to RIAA. 2) if you can't track the money anymore, then you sentence the piratebay guys to operate the site "publicly", meaning that donations will be monitored by the police, so that they can control that nothing is being earned. Problem solved. Real criminal organization don't operate for free. They operate for an interest. Money is the best point where to draw a line between what's legal and what isn't. As with drugs, it's (practically) better to monitor than to forbid.
Sounds fancy? Yes, because it's another sign that the motivations are elsewhere and that this whole thing is a farce.
IF (case 2) instead the center of the argument is about the service itself. Then you stop the service. You have probably noticed how the RIAA, ESA and other organizations are so cheerful about the event. Yet the Piratebay is operating as always. Why they are happy if the service is sill there and pirates are still sharing illegally as they always did? Because, again, the real intent is secondary to closing the service. The real intent is to win a political battle. The real intent is to sue people for their ideas. Because they challenged the establishment, and so needs to be punished. Made an example of. If the service is the problem, you stop the service first and foremost. You don't need to put in jail anyone as the guys brought to the trial aren't guilty of ANYTHING. The existence of the system is. The system is what they should deal with. The act of creating the system is not a violation of the law, the use of the system is. And the existence of the system favors the breaking the law. So you stop the system, but there is NO ONE who is responsible of violating the law.
If not, it's because it's a political trial and want to prosecute people because of what they think and represent. It's not the existence of the system, but it's political message. During the trial was asked why they don't sue Google, as Google also indexes illegal material. The answer was that Google "cooperates". Hence the Piratebay is to sue because they don't have the right attitude, because they challenge openly the industry. For their ideas.
IF (case 3) the argument is the copy of material, that is forbidden by the law. Then the Piratebay guys ARE INNOCENT. Clean. No proofs were brought at the trial that those individuals shared themselves illegal material. They provided a service. They aren't directly responsible of anything and cannot be processed for these motivations.
There aren't ANY other arguments that are coherent. The problem is either money, the service itself, or the material being distributed. Yet the industry sole concern is to hit the individuals. Fine them for fancy amounts of money and put them in jail. Why? Because it's a political and cultural problem, whose real impact is entirely symbolic. The problem is, politics shouldn't enter a trial. This can't be allowed and it's THIS to set a worrying precedent. That you can be sued for what you think or for what you represent. For your political ideas. Or for your intentions. For behaving outside the norm they've set. Because you threat the establishment and they can't allow it.
Absolutely nothing of what happens here is new. With every counterculture that grows to a menacing point the result is that individuals are hit for their political ideas. If no proofs exist, they are invented. You hit innocents if you have to. What matters is the result.
But while history demonstrates that countercultures never survive for long, it also demonstrates that there's no victory. This industry is dead. What we have now is a "shock wave" that started with the internet. Sharing. The circulation of ideas. If I could go in a shop, take an apple and copy it, and then go back home with my copy, it wouldn't be called "stealing", it would be called a miracle. The truth is that the cultural importance of the internet is way bigger than its negative impact on the industry and innocents involved (people losing jobs): growing pains.
"Intellectual property" is a fraud invented to protect the status quo. This industry doesn't anticipate trends or evolution, it stops them. The premise and original intent is: things have to stay the same. They threat that we'll have a world with no musicians, no writers, no artists. It's childishly naive. They want us to believe that this world and our future needs them. That this industry, the way it exists now, is indispensable. They want us to believe that we can't live without them. It's not. It's dead weight. It proved that it cannot adapt, that it cannot favor the development of culture, that the singular economical interests come first and foremost.
Well, we don't need any of that. This is a cultural battle that is way more important than its specific aspects. If the industry can't adapt or transform, then it has to go. It's garbage. And I can assure that we won't lose anything of what's important in there. We'll have musicians, writers and artists. Better musicians, better writers and better artists because the culture circulates a lot more and is able to reach a lot more people. This is progress: knowledge as a human right, and not as a privilege.
If this industry has still money to waste to found RIAA, ESA and others, then it means there is no crisis. A crisis leads to cut what is superfluous. This is no crisis. They are one step from saying that the economical crisis is caused by pirates. But we know that the pyramid is reversed. Crisis fall from the top. Those guys up there are those responsible. They are the cause, we pay - as always.
This is a cultural battle: they are trying to convince us we're guilty. They give us their own sins. They make mistakes, they blame us.
My practical response to all this is small and simple: I stop giving them money. I stop buying games, music, DVDs, going to see big movies productions. It doesn't mean "more piracy", it means "I can do without you". I'll buy more book and supports what I think is worth of my money. I'll pay for what is a good service and not for what is a desperate defense of an obsolete system.
Boycott the rest. The sooner they go, the better for everyone. With or without Piratebay, show them they have no future.
Stop pirating, and stop giving them money.
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