Ah, Our Tragically Unaware Generation...

Recently, my mom was sitting in at a class at Boston University on current trends in the business world. During this class, the professor posed a question asking how many people knew about the massive water contamination catastrophe in West Virginia. Out of the 45 students in the class, not 20, not 10, not 5, but 2 students raised their hands. It seems that our generation has become less and less aware about things that are going around in the world around us, and more focused on what is happening in our small section of the globe. This event happened to be one I had heard about on NPR, but do I read the newspaper daily? No. Should I? Probably, if I want to be able to be a global citizen and have any sort of effect bigger than my family or school. Now if the professor had asked who was arrested for DUI and drag racing last weekend, I guarantee that hand upon hand would shoot up. This is the fundamental problem with the world nowadays, we focus on what is fun, and lighthearted, and don't care about other problems that don't effect us, or even some that do.

Reflection on Unit One and Collaborative Work

Just like this year has proved, English class has been different. From a paperless classroom to an informal exam, it has been unlike any other English class I've ever taken. Using a seven day "unit" system is just as abnormal, but abnormal doesn't mean bad. Having the unit system is a new idea, and one that needs to be refined before use. It has its strengths, but like any system, it has its flaws too.

The unit system creates a environment of organization, as each student and the teacher know what the general idea of the day should be. This could allow for the teacher to think more narrowly about what is being taught on any given day. More importantly for me though, is that each students knows what to expect each day. A unit system combined with Schoology, where every day can be posted allows students to look ahead, and see if they need to plan there time differently. It allows us to learn to manage our time better, and if we don't, then we are missing an opportunity.

However, the system was not without its faults. The unit system does fail to provide creativity. While having an organized schedule, the system only will work if it is followed, and cannot be abandoned at random times. So each day can only have a select amount of ideas to choose from. The only way to solve this is to create broad topics for each day.

The unit system accomplishes many goals and provides organization, with little downside other than a little bit of restriction, but not much. Refining this system could allow for interesting possibilities, and I look forward to seeing the progression of the system over time. I think the system is good, and with some refining could be great.

FTL: Faster Than Light. Game Review

I recently started to play a game that I bought awhile ago, but never really put much time into. FTL: Faster Than Light. FTL is a rouge-like game, where you micromanage a starship through eight randomly generated sectors. The game is not very complicated on the surface, but gets much harder as you progress.

In FTL, you travel through 8 randomly generated sectors, fighting ships, collecting scrap, upgrading your ship, finding crew members, and much more. Each sector consists of "beacons", which are randomly generated. To travel from beacon to beacon, you Faster Than Light Jump. (Hence the name).

A map of one sector:

 

When I first sat down and played FTL, I thought that the game was going to be very easy. How could a game where I can breeze through the first sector in under 5 minutes be difficult? I was so hopelessly wrong. FTL requires you to be able to strategize your final boss battle from the second you start the game. If you reach sector 7 and don't have the right things upgraded, you could lose to the first ship you find. FTL isn't a game you can beat the first time you play through. It requires you learn what to prioritize, and what to ignore. I highly suggest everyone go buy it on Steam for $9.99, and I will have a gameplay going up soon!

Rating: 9/10

The only reason this would not get a 10/10 is because the game can be kind of boring when first starting a run, as you have little options until later on. I sometimes don't want to play because I know I'll have to go through the first 3 sectors, which are easy and boring. This can be solved by playing on normal instead of easy, but normal is incredibly hard.

Is Global Warming a Myth Because of One Cold Weekend?

Last weekend was extremely cold. No one can deny that. For some reason, one way or another, North America has had a cold couple of days, and everyone reacted a different way. Some people just accepted the cold as a weather pattern, and as nothing more. Others , mostly those who are skeptical of global warming's existence took it as an opportunity to prove their claim. They said that, "How could it be possible to have global warming when we get this cold weather?" and "Forget global warming, we have global cooling." While this may make sense to them, looking deeper shows that their claim is completely inaccurate. Yes, while we have had cold weather this winter, global warming is a real thing, and isn't disproved by two sub-zero days. It seems as if now days, every event that doesn't seem to match up with a particular idea is wrong, and nothing can prove it anymore. This happens in all areas, not just the environment, or politics, but everywhere. I think that we all need to start to respect each others opinions more, and be able to look beyond one example where the idea may appear wrong, or show the opposite of what is actually happening. So as you go on, try to looks at any idea through a different lens, not just the one that you see now. Don't disregard anyones opinion for one exception, because you could end up looking really stupid.

Game Design Concept: Lifebars, hitpoints, and health

           In almost every video game, there is some sort of "health" or hitpoints, but almost always, each game has a unique and interesting way that they express this, and the way the game interacts with the health. So today I am going to take a few case examples and talk about each of them, and note the similarities and differences, and which one is the best. I'd like to talk about Call of Duty, Team Fortress 2, The Legend of Zelda, and Super Smash Brothers.
           First up, Call of Duty. Call of Duty uses a very standard health system for FPS games, with a health bar that depletes when you take damage, and will regenerate after a few seconds if you are not hit with any more damage. While it may not seem this way on the surface, this system is based off of numbers. You have a number of hitpoints, and each attack takes a set amount of damage off of this number until you reach 0. Just because the representation of the health is not a number, doesn't mean that a number isn't associated with that bar.
            So moving on to Team Fortress 2, which is similar but at the same time different. In Tf2, health is a number, not a bar, and each attack deals a set amount of damage, much like Call of Duty. However, in Tf2, the way to regenerate health is to pick up a health pack, which heals a set amount of health instantly. This encourages a completely different play style from Call of Duty. In COD, when you are low on health, your best option is to hide and wait until you are at full, where as in Tf2, when you are low on health, sometimes your best option is actually to run towards the enemies and run over some health. Also numbers in Tf2 are a huge deal. If you are under 150 health, you have the danger of getting one shot killed by a sniper, but at 151 health, a headshot will not kill you. So which to I like better? While both are good, I like Tf2's system better, as it encourages being aggressive, staying in the fight, and being strategic, where as in COD, the health encourages hiding, and no real strategy. But this isn't a dig at COD, that will come later, trust me.
             So moving on to the completely different idea that Nintendo uses in the Zelda games. Here you health is in hearts, and collecting heart containers increasing the amount of hearts you can have at maximum. And yes, I cannot compare Zelda to FPS games in the same way, as they are drastically different, but I still would like to talk about it. In Zelda, the hearts are taken away by attacks from enemies, usually in half heart increments. The way you regenerate hearts is by collecting hearts from dead enemies, pots, and much more. The way the life is set up encourages exploring, and pushing forward, as usually there will be more hearts on the horizon. You can go back to find a place where you can get hearts, but that takes time, and going forward is better, and sometimes works out. Also, the penalty for dying in Zelda is not that bad. You start at the beginning of the area you were in, and u get three hearts to start out with, which is about 6 hits before you die again. This also encourages just moving forward, as even if you fail, there isn't much of a consequence. So, do I like this style? I do, however in any other game but Zelda, it couldn't work very well, especially FPS games. Now, Super Smash Bros. is basically taking what I've said so far, and doing something so utterly different, that it is hard to comprehend. In Super Smash Bros., the damage you take from other players increases your "Percent" which as it gets higher, just makes you fly around more when attacked. The only way to kill someone is Smash is to send them flying out of the arena, and damage just makes them easier to send flying. There is really no way to lose percent, except by dying, making any damage you take matter. So again, is this idea good? It's different. I like the way it's set up, but much like Zelda, this mechanic wouldn't work in other games. So overall, each game is different, and there is no right way to express health, but what I'd like you to take away from this is that there are so many ways to express health, that almost any way is viable and good. So think about games you love, and their health systems, because you may like the game a little less if you do. (I'm looking at you COD)

Podcast on the decline of the Republican Party.

It uploaded to Hayden's soundcloud account, please ignore his face. Anyway a podcast on the decline of the Republicans and how they can fix this. Make sure to comment!




The link I mentioned to Paul's blog. Gerrymandering.

Black Friday: Useless?

Almost everyone has heard of Black Friday, and most have heard of Cyber Monday. Black Friday the day after Thanksgiving where all of the retail stores and shops have massive sales, lowering their prices by up to 90%. Cyber Monday is similar, but instead of shops, the online stores have huge sales. Now, while some people have the same opinion on both of these, I have distinct opinions on both days. Black Friday in my opinion is an outdated, dangerous, weird, and unnecessary tradition. First of all, online shopping is more convenient, as you don't need to wait outside a store for hours beforehand, and then charge in, and have fights over certain items. It is also incredibly dangerous, as people have died and been seriously injured. Creating such a dumb, dangerous situation is bad, but the danger is not just to the customers that choose to come, but also to the employees that cannot choose to come or not, and some employees have been trampled, fought, and abused throughout Black Fridays over the years. Having people die over good deals on TVs is ridiculous. Cyber Monday is not just safer, but more convenient to the customers. I would like to see Cyber Monday become more popular, and Black Friday begin to die out, as Thanksgiving to some people is just thought as the prelude to Black Friday, and that is sad. Also, interesting fact, buying some items right before Christmas is cheaper than buying it on Black Friday. Anyway, next year, think of this when you are buying something at Macy's on Black Friday: You're part of the problem.