Category Archives: Warblings

It’s beer o’clock!

  By Ron | April 30, 2013 - 11:41 |
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Those who know me know that I enjoy a good drink every now and then.  Those who have the misfortune of living with me experience this all the time (and then, they decide to bring out the Penalty Shot at a whim, but that’s going off on a bit of a tangent for this post).  I blame my Rhodesian heritage: back in that long-lost culture, having a daily glass of wine, typically when returning from a hard day’s work, was considered the norm.  (My mother frequently cites this as the reason for Rhodesia having far less of a drinking problem than South Africa, because people there were “taught to drink responsibly”.  Or at least, it was that way in the 1970s… well before my time though.)

That kind of still lives on: some office environments find that the occasional drink at work stimulates social interaction, and can actually result in some decent ideas and brainstorming being thrown around.  (It does depend on the working environment: informal ones, such as your typical IT company, would do just fine with this, but don’t try this in the manufacturing sector, the petrochemical sector, or — worst of all — in government.)  This is actually one reason why there’s usually beer supplied at our company-wide meetings and catch-up sessions (the other reason is that it’s the only way to entice the Development Department to actually attend these).  In fact, some places are taking this a step further and are offering free wine to customers on Fridays, though, as much as I would like to take them up on their offer, boutique stores are not my kind of thing — and I will reach though my laptop and slap the first person who suggests that “that’s how guys roll in the Cape”!  (The other reason involves someone who I sadly parted ways with somewhat acrimoniously, but of that, I will say no more.)

But that’s not what prompted this blog post.  What did prompt it was this morning’s run to the Vida in the office park for my morning cappuccino.   For the first time after their recent renovations, I noticed this:

Beer on tap!

Yes, that is indeed beer on tap.

And no, absolutely no idea why I didn’t notice it earlier — I guess I’m still half-asleep whenever I wander into there.  (No, you may NOT ask me how I negotiate the R27 every morning, because apart from heading through there after the majority of the traffic, I honestly can’t give you an answer to that!)

Perfect for your typical developer.  Now, the challenge: how to keep this particular one functioning at the Ballmer Peak…

(Mandatory disclaimer: there is a difference between drinking responsibly and drinking irresponsibly, and the latter is definitely not condoned within this context.  If you don’t know said difference, rather don’t try to find it in the first place.)

What is worth fighting for?

  By Ron | April 24, 2013 - 17:17 |
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A few weeks ago, I completed the Isle of Thunder storyline in World of Warcraft.  It picks up after events already documented, with Lor’themar Theron’s Sunreaver Onslaught and Jaina Proudmoore’s Kirin Tor Offensive working with the neutral Shado-Pan Assault to (1) bring down the Thunder King (which is what my raid team is trying to do, if only we weren’t stuck on Horridon) and (2) procure ancient artefacts that they could use against Garrosh when the time to depose him finally comes.

The climax of the storyline involved Taran Zhu (leader of the Shado-Pan) defusing the conflict between Theron and Proudmoore:

I see now why your Alliance and Horde cannot stop fighting. Every reprisal is itself an act of aggression, and every act of aggression triggers immediate reprisal.

The cycle ends when you, Regent Lord, and you, Lady Proudmoore, turn from one another. And walk. Away.

I didn’t think much of that at the time, certainly not from outside the game universe.  But then we had the Boston Marathon bombings, and while I only maintain a passing interest in current affairs, something about that attack and the Isle of Thunder questline seemed connected, somehow.

If we take a look at the global war on terror, there’s a clear pattern of aggression and reprisal.  We can look at the 9/11 attacks, and events on either side of it for a clear example.  al-Qaeda felt aggrieved by the U.S. millitary presence in Saudi Arabia, their backing of Israel in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and probably countless other things, so they took out the World Trade Center in an act of reprisal, which triggered the United States to strike at al-Qaeda in Afghanistan, which led to a massive conflict in Iraq, continued U.S. drone strikes, continued terrorist attacks… basically, it’s one whole vicious cycle of reprisal and aggression.  Just as what’s happening in the World of Warcraft universe at the moment — in a way, it’s almost eerie of how it mirrors global, real-life events.  (As of me writing this, the perpetrators of the Boston attack are believed to have close ties with Chechnya — I’m unaware of any hostile connection between Chechnya and the U.S., so if someone would fill me in, it would be much appreciated.)

As someone not involved, and hence as a neutral observer, I don’t believe that it’s my place to take any side here but, like Taran Zhu, I have to ask the question: can all of those in this global conflict turn from each other and walk away?  Right now, I feel that that’s improbable, to say the least.  As things stand at the moment, there’s too much fanaticism, hatred, indoctrination and the like on both sides that suggest that either side, much less both, are capable of doing this at this point in time.  Perhaps future generations will be able to break out of this cycle.  One can always hope for that.

Granted, it’s difficult to do, and I speak from personal experience here.  I’ve been in more conflicts than I’d like to admit where relations have deteriorated into such a cycle, and every time, I’ve struggled to even realise that such a cycle exists, and then struggled even harder to break it.  (Some such cycles, I’ve yet to break.)  That’s not to say it’s impossible.  It’s definitely possible.  But if I have so much difficulty with this on a personal level, I wonder just how long it would take on a global level.  Maybe for those involved, as it is for me, some form of virtual escapism is the answer.

Maybe we should ask the question from back in the Mists of Pandaria trailer: what is worth fighting for?

The Relationship Explanation

  By Ron | January 7, 2013 - 14:32 | ,
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Following my last entry, I was asked in meatspace for some clarification on my statement on choosing to stay single.  Since I get asked this a lot (people who meet me seem to have some strange misconception that I’d make high-quality lover and spouse material), my only answer now is to take the “picture speaks a thousand words” approach, and (with apologies to Randall Munroe) provide an obligatory xkcd comic:

Yeah, story of my life.

Yes, I survived the end of 2012

  By Ron | January 4, 2013 - 17:03 |
1 Comment

So, I’ve survived the end of the world, the New Year’s celebration (and, keeping with tradition, the parts that I remember were awesome, but I don’t remember much…), the mini-relocation to Parklands (with the real relocation at the end of this month).  2013, bring it on!

Not much else to write about at the moment though.  Everyone who was down for Little Annoying Sister’s wedding and Christmas has gone home, I’m back at work, my raid team is back raiding again (and getting some decent progression in after some roster issues that plagued us towards the end of last year), and people’s attempts to hook me up with $female over the New Year were dismal failures due to my resistance (I have good reasons for staying single, and right now, I’d prefer to keep things that way).   In other words, same old, same old (although I’m now fighting R27 traffic instead of M3 traffic)– so, this is just a quick post that only has the purpose to let folks know that I’m still around.  Or suck up needless bytes of database storage.  But whatever.

And so, the madness begins…

  By Ron | December 3, 2012 - 21:48 |
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With days remaining before Little Annoying Sister ties the knot, the intensity levels have gone up a few gears — the rest of my family arrived this evening from their two-day roadtrip from Durban.  So, from now until just after Christmas, there’ll be four people crammed into my two-bedroom flat.  In fact, at the moment it’s five, because one of my aunts from Australia is down for the Joyous and Special Occasion specifically.

I’ll just leave this image here to illustrate what my living quarters are like:

Yes, I’m feeling /that/ claustrophobic…

Thankfully, the dive-bombing kamikaze pilot has been evicted, so that’s one less thing to worry about.

That being said, so long as I’m left alone on Tuesday and Thursday evenings (when my raid team of Extremely Crazy People act as cannon fodder for the bosses in Mogu’shan Vaults and Heart of Fear), I should be able to survive.  In fact, we’re likely to be taking a break from raiding anyway (because of people going away on holiday) — which reminds me, I actually need to bring this up with the rest of my raid team tomorrow night…  (Yes, I’m a slacking raid leader, sue me.)

I’m still around!

  By Ron | November 21, 2012 - 23:13 |
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I haven’t posted anything lately.  Here’s why:

  • The intensity at work went up several notches.
  • Getting my World of Warcraft raid team sorted with the new expansion — in fact, getting the guild as a whole sorted.
  • Helping Little Annoying Sister out with final wedding preparations (the big day is early next month).
  • The big one: I’m moving out of my current flat at the end of the year.    Goodbye Rondebosch (and all your drunk students), hello West Coast!

And a few minor reasons as well that I can’t think of right now.

So now you have it.

Overcoming challenges, the virtual way

  By Ron | July 17, 2012 - 15:52 | ,
1 Comment

Currently, my World of Warcraft raid team is taking on Yor’sahj the Unsleeping on heroic (read: insanely difficult) difficulty.  Now, I understand that many of you don’t play World of Warcraft, so I’ll explain the boss encounter briefly: every now and then, he summons four differently coloured slimes on the edge of the room that slowly creep towards him, and that give him some rather potent abilities when they reach him.  Only one can be killed (the rest become immune), which means that, as raid leader, the encounter is a test of my leadership abilities — I need to see which slimes have spawned, direct the rest of the raid to kill the one which I believe will result in certain death, and then give the raid the correct strategy for surviving the effects of the other three.

In my case, I have a unique problem: the fact that I’m pretty much totally colourblind.  I’ve found my own unique ways of dealing with this over the years, the main example being traffic lights.  I determine what to do based on position: top light tells me to stop, bottom light tells me to go, middle light tells me I’d better stop sometime soon (although any self-respecting South African driver will tell you that it really means “go faster”, particularly the ones on the other side of the Vaal River).  Of course, this is a lot harder at night; however, I’ve worked out that the “green” light is considerably brighter than the other two (I’m also extremely light sensitive, which in this specific case is actually a Good Thing).

However, the Yor’sahj fight, when we first attempted it (on normal mode) presented a unique challenge for me — the game tells me which combination of slimes has spawned, but then I need to run over to it and start whacking it hard, which is a bit difficult when you’re uncertain if you’ve run over to the right one.  An example would be when Yor’sahj spawns the purple and blue slimes, with purple being the kill target.  Those two slimes spawn next to each other, and I’ve often called out “kill purple” and then run over to blue instead.  And don’t get me started on the case when Yor’sahj sadistically decides to spawn red, green and yellow (it’s the traffic light thing again).

My solution: the other nine pairs of eyes.  The rest of the team knows full well that I really struggle with this, and so help me find my way to the correct slime that I had just called out.  I may be the one directing the strategy, but at the end of the day, we’re a team working together towards our end goal (that next boss kill on heroic difficulty).  My condition provides a unique challenge for this encounter, but working together, we’re able to compensate for that.

This actually touches on another interesting point.  People say that computer gaming is childish, breeds violence, and so forth; that World of Warcraft is an addiction as bad as illegal drugs… at least, those are the opinions that mass media would like us to have.  And yet, while I jump into the game to escape from reality for a while, there are plenty of real-world skills if one only takes the time to dig a little deeper.  Leading the raid allows me to refine my organisational, leadership and diplomatic skills, while raiding itself is a great way to learn how to work as a team (which is pretty much essential in the workplace in this day and age).  It’s through this teamwork that I’m able to overcome elements that impede me as an individual.

Indeed, this has been touched on by people far more qualified than I am.  Mark Chen, a self-professed gaming researcher who holds a doctorate in educational technology and learning sciences recently published his dissertation-turned-book Leet Noobs: The Life and Death of an Expert Player Group in World of Warcraft.  (The book is available on Amazon if you’re interested, but unless you’re familiar with psychology, it’s rather heavy reading.)  His experiences were from the Molten Core raid in the game’s earliest days (when the raid size was 40 players: definitely far more challenging from several points of view).  The following quote sums up my thoughts perfectly:

I would hesitate to call it “addiction” from the media effects standpoint: It is not a sinister, time-sinking, life-destroying activity. Instead, the knowledge is so much a part of me now… I long for it; it sustains me. It has become a part of who I am. My identity depends on this cultural knowing of what it feels like to be raiding in Molten Core. But rather than taking away from my life, it enriches my life…. Through gaming, I know nostalgia and melancholy, joy and triumph, success and failure, sadness and anger…. Gravitating towards these activities is only addiction in the sense that people are compelled to engage in the activities that define who they are…

We’re only getting Yor’sahj down to ~50% right now before someone makes a small mistake that wipes the raid (heroic difficulty is extremely unforgiving).  But that kill is coming, and it will be an especially sweet victory for me when we get him down.

Bringing FRAG LAN back from the dead

  By Ron | July 4, 2012 - 17:57 | , ,
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If you’re ever taken the time to read the crap on the About Me page, you’ll know that I co-founded the FRAG LAN back in 2007.  Sadly, since I left Durban, it appears that the event has slowly gone to the dogs (as evidenced by an article on Do Gaming).

Of course, I don’t want to see something that I started disappear like that, so I popped on to their forums (after a good deal of time and effort trying to remember what my password was!) to offer some advice.  I’m not sure how long the post will stay there though, so I’ve reproduced the contents below:

Right.

First off — long time, no see folks. To answer the most obvious question, yes, I’m still alive, Cape Town is treating me well, and Web Africa offering uncapped is definitely no longer “unsustainable” (lead developer on that project). ;)

Now that the pleasantries and formalities are out of the way, on to business.

I haven’t kept in touch with what’s been going on with the LAN since my move to the non-ANC province, but a recent article on Do Gaming pretty much told me the entire story: in the interceding years, the LAN has pretty much been run into the ground and currently has an extremely uncertain future. Now, I’m not here to bash anyone in particular (well, too much!), mainly to offer my own input and suggestions on how to get out of the hole that the LAN has dug itself.

I can pretty much sum up the below simply as follows: get the LAN back to its roots.

The LAN pretty much started out as a small 5-man event in my parents’ double-garage in 2007, and we decided to explore expanding it further. A few months later, it had outgrown both our imaginings, and the resources of those involved; that’s when James came onboard and took it further, and eventually took it over. The only problem was that James seemed to be far more interested in the bottom line than gamer satisfaction, and I guess you all know the rest. (Even I struggled working with him at times, although to be fair, my opinion on things was always taken into serious consideration.)

However, the great thing about those early days was the camaraderie that existed between the event organisers and attendees at the time. The early goal was simply to provide a social event for people to just go and enjoy themselves for the weekend, and we managed that really well. It was easy for us because there was nothing else at the time — UberLAN had recently shut up shop, and Vendetta started at roughly the same time (and went for a little while until James managed to sabotage that effort). From the sounds of things, that’s all but disappeared, with the organiser goals and attendee expectations being totally at odds. That needs to change.

I don’t buy the opinion that “LAN gaming is dying”; despite the always-online requirements of this day and age (which I don’t necessarily approve of, but that’s a different story), there are still times and places for us folk to pack up our PCs, head off somewhere for a weekend, and kill players with the gauntlet while holding the BFG (yes, I was on the receiving end!). But it needs to be done right. If you need an example to model yourselves off of, one need look no further than Organised Chaos in this part of the world — the primary objective there is for the attendees to have a great time, everything else is secondary. (I have contacts within OC management, so if you’d like me to facilitate any kind of knowledge sharing, I’d be happy to help.)

I do think that Doug has the right idea; he’s trying to focus on becoming more gamer-centric while weeding out the seedier elements and getting the event back to what it should be. Thing is, he is going to need your help — if you guys want LAN gaming in Durban to survive, it’s up to the entire Durban gaming community to seize the initiative and get things back to where they should be. It’s going to be a long and hard process, but if everyone pulls in, it’s definitely possible.

Over to you guys.

Carpe Diem.

UPDATE: I’ve had a few folks contact me for clarification about the Vendetta sabotage part.  My only response was to point them in the direction of the embrace, extend and extinguish Wikipedia article.