Comments for New Rule

Comment on Today on “Why Didn’t I Think of That?”… by weblog.probablynot.com » An MMO You Could Take To The Bank

weblog.probablynot.com » An MMO You Could Take To The Bank — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 13:06:14 +0000

[…] over on Raph Koster’s blog, with his post about the RPG Piggy Bank. Then David McDonough ran with it. Now here are my thoughts which began over on […]

Comment on Brooks on Immersion by Darius K.

Darius K. — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 15:02:13 +0000

Yeah, I sadly will never read that book because I freaking hate zombies. The whole idea just creeps me out.

Comment on LAN Nostalgia by Carrie

Carrie — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 19:07:02 +0000

I’m still disappointed that I only got into games my freshman year in college, and didn’t start officially identifying myself as a gamer until a few years later (due to the highly negative connotation and the fact that the “gamers” I had met were very rude, unpleasant people), because I have definitely missed out on these kinds of things. LAN parties are so integral to the culture, but as you said, being older gamers means significantly less time to organize the events. There’s just something about playing an online game with your friends in the same room…purely online multiplayer can never capture that.

Anyway nothing insightful, I just really enjoyed this post

Comment on The Point by David

David — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 18:06:57 +0000

I used to wrestle with the very same questions. I wanted to do something “worthwhile” with my life. Then I really thought about it, and wondered whether anything at all was worthwhile, given that human society will eventually die out, the earths crust will be subducted back into the mantle and regurgitated, wiping out all traces of our existence, then the sun will explode and wipe out the solar system. Anti-depressant meds helped with that one, and enabled me to come up with this: “Worthwhile” professions, such as the teachers, doctors and ministers, are concerned with the basic survival of people and functioning of society.

That’s great and all, but if absolutely everyone was dedicated to those pursuits, to survival and basic societal functioning, that would make us no different than animals. They do nothing beyond surviving and procreating. What sets us apart as people is that a percentage of our populace can dedicate themselves to non-survival related pursuits, namely the arts. Literature, music, dance, movies, and (to a certain extent, and hopefully more in the future) videogames.

Why did your grandmother in her Red Cross uniform save people’s lives? So they could live. And living includes doing things beyond surviving. Someone needs to create and facilitate the things people do to enrich themselves and enjoy their lives. Those someones might as well include you and I.

Comment on The Point by Darius K.

Darius K. — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 15:44:54 +0000

I often feel the same way you do, David. I’d like to believe commenter Michael’s arguments are true, but I still find them weak…

Comment on The Point by Michael Phillips

Michael Phillips — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 04:58:26 +0000

Entertainment is not trivial. Not every human endeavor can be measured in concrete terms, but that doesn’t mean that the ones that can’t be measured in pounds of rice and hours of medical attention are not important.

Games do not make the world a better place beyond simply making people temporarily happy.

Temporary happiness, short term forgetfulness, a moment of distraction, these things can be a gift beyond price to a person in the wrong circumstances.

Even were that not true, your claim itself is false. Games can help bridge gaps in experience and in understanding. They can help provide a common cultural currency that helps to bring their players together in ways that they would not have done in their absence. They can help people overcome difficulties with social function.

It is too late for me to finish this. I’ll try to pick up the thread later, but there are already enough people who would trivialize entertainment out there, who would have us believe that enjoyment is somehow unworthy or impure, that some how, mental health is unimportant. Don’t let them convert you.

Comment on With Highest Honor by danwilkins

danwilkins — Fri, 23 May 2008 23:53:35 +0000

I had a long message typed out here, and then I deleted it and am starting fresh.

Theres a reason for this; you said it all much better than I. It’s unfortunate that more often than not now, those who excel at their studies are often not recognized for their work anymore, since it does not see as much of a “financial success”. “What gain is there from studying games?” Is what I imagine many speculating.

“It’s not hard to study for a test and take it. It’s hard to make your company expand to another town though; thats worth noting!”

I believe it’s become more a separation of the business of college, and a college of business. It’s not about academics sometimes, and it needs to be.

Either way Dave, there are many people who hold you in very high esteem at this school, so don’t let those gowns fool you; people are going to shake your hand and say what a fantastic job you did either way, and they’ll do it specifically for you, not a handshake for everyone.

Comment on With Highest Honor by David McD

David McD — Fri, 23 May 2008 14:37:13 +0000

No worries

That’s a sad story. I can’t imagine a more demoralizing instance than one where the professor simply hands out passing grades. I would have felt disgusted if my classmates who didn’t work as hard as I had still passed simple because the professor had a quota to fill.

Comment on With Highest Honor by Alvaro Cavalcanti

Alvaro Cavalcanti — Fri, 23 May 2008 13:40:43 +0000

(sorry for the truckload of text, I didn’t noticed it)

Comment on With Highest Honor by Alvaro Cavalcanti

Alvaro Cavalcanti — Fri, 23 May 2008 13:40:03 +0000

Interesting. I have never given it a thought before, but I do agree with you. When I graduated, back in 2002, a few classmates received honors, and one of them received the highest honor. He is from a Portuguese-speaking country in Africa (I can’t recall which one) and his government was paying for his education. He was a very, *very*, dedicated student. Everyone on the class knew it, and admired it. He was the only student selected for my college’s first Scientific Initiation Project (something like a R&D project, driven by the University and paid by the government, I don’t know if you guys have something similar) and no one was surprised by it, it was fair.

Even though I wasn’t much motivated myself to accomplish good grades, as you said the companies don’t care about your grades and I already knew it by that time, not even my college gave a damn, just like yours. As a private college, they had some “rules” about students failing classes, people said that at least 50% of the students must pass on each class.

I remember a class called Grafos (Graph) which was very difficult, and about 75% of my class was going to fail it, then the professor (or the direction) decided that we should had a second final, and even then a lot of people couldn’t get the pass score, and then the teacher, who was correcting the tests while students were taking it, decided to ask everyone what was the grade they needed in order to not fail the class. So it was just a matter of you state the grade you needed and then you would get it. That simple.

Hopefully I didn’t need that help, I managed to achieve my score on the second final itself, but I remember that from that moment on I was completely unmotivated, and began to not care to my grades anymore. It’s true that I graduated one year after my class (it took me six instead of five years) but I got my Bachelor’s degree and was happy, and relieved.

Some people say that the University is still the same, while others say that it has changed. But I bet it’s ever worse. Since I graduated several (around 10) private colleges spawned here on my town, and it hasn’t raised the education level, I guarantee, since the competition amongst the universities and college to become more and more aggressive.

Well, it’s really a shame, but I do hope you manage to get motivated again and keep your GPA at good levels. After all, your college may not care about honoring students, but if you keep standing out among your classmates, THEY will remember it, and will consider you as a role model.

Keep it up, man.