Star Trek and the Holodeck: The Ultimate Virtual Reality.

I've always, at heart, felt myself to be a Star Wars fan (especially in light of the classic “Wars vs. Trek” question.) In fact, I watched one or two episodes of Star Trek and didn't get it at first, so I was convinced that I didn't like it, I didn't keep up with it or make an effort to watch any of the other shows. It took a very specific set of circumstances to make me a fan of Star Trek, and prominently involved is the Trek-specific technology I want to talk a little bit about today. One day, flipping channels looking for anything remotely interesting, I saw a specific image that made me stop.

The character that tricked me into becoming a Trekkie.

I've always liked film noir stories involving hard-boiled private eyes, dangerous women and a dirty mystery in a desperate city, bonus points if the setting is in the 1920s or 1930s. I got into the story in progress about the gumshoe Dixon Hill, a tough but obviously very intelligent private detective. It didn't take too long for Dixon to suddenly say in a very different, very British voice “Computer, halt simulation,” and everything froze. A portion of the wall opened up on a futuristic corridor, and it was apparent that Dixon Hill was on a starship. Moments later, it was clear that he was the captain, and the ship was the USS Enterprise. My mind was blown. I was watching Star Trek, and enjoying it.

Though I became a fan of Star Trek: The Next Generation in general, and eventually watched every episode, I never forgot about Dixon Hill or the holodeck, and episodes featuring one or both remain my favorites to this day. Teleportation, warp drive technology, replication and phasers are all amazing, but none captured my imagination quite like the holodeck. In a way, it really is the ultimate fantasy for geeks in general, and gamers in particular. Want to go to Middle-Earth? No problem. Learn martial arts Matrix-style, fighting off ninja and other stock villains? Done and done. Want to be a superhero, action movie tough guy/gal, rock star? Load up the program. I'm not even going to get into the possibilities available if you are a pervert.

Willing to bet that a few years after contact, more than a few people loaded her up into a holodeck program. For... scientific research, of course.

So how does it work? One of the cool things about a lot of Trek tech is that most of it is scientifically plausible, and quite a lot of it follows rules and patterns that are internally consistent. The holodeck, of which there are eight on the USS Enterprise, uses force fields, holography, replication technology, scent atomizers and integrated screens and speakers to produce virtual reality. The sophisticated computer program that controls the environments uses tricks to render as little as possible for efficiency, but as much as needed for seamless suspension of disbelief. Images far away are part of a dynamically changing display on the walls, but as people get closer, different rendering is needed.

Objects close enough to be interacted with are projected onto shaped force fields with the appropriate texture and consistency that a real object, whether a rock, a pool of water, or a pile of dirt would have. These fields are sophisticated enough to replicate humanoid or animal characters and have them look, feel and in every way appear real. Environments larger than the holodeck itself are simulated by putting a moving force field beneath the feet of whoever is moving about like a virtual treadmill, and rendering the scenery literally moving the world around the participant. If two or more people are in the same holodeck and move in different directions, complex perspective tricks and individual illusions are put in place to keep people from bumping into walls while trying to maintain the integrity of the simulation. Walls and other blocking objects are useful for this.

A holodeck without a loaded simulation.

In the case of objects that need to be a little more real, food or drink that can be consumed or souvenir objects that can actually be removed from the deck after the simulation is complete, these are possible without a problem. Replication technology is used to create these objects as needed, further adding to the illusion that everything inside the holodeck is completely real. I'd guess that like environments only being rendered as holographic projections when a viewer is close enough to interact with them, edible or tangible objects are similarly illusory until picked up.

For combat training, action entertainment or diagnostic simulations, safety restrictions are in place to make sure sharp things don't cut, holographic bullets don't wound, and people don't drown in simulated rivers. These safety restrictions have overrides at different levels, allowing a medical holographic program to perform surgery if needed, or for bruises to be a consequence of being too slow in a combat training program. Special training for and monitoring of holodeck use is also important, as the simulated reality can easily become preferable to actual reality, resulting in holodeck addiction. I actually think this last concern is the toughest one to manage if this technology were available in the real-world.

The ultimate in "Will work for access to holographic recreation."

More than a few people have asked “Why join Starfleet in a universe that replication technology made need, and therefore supply and demand virtually obsolete?” No one would have to work to feed themselves, and nearly any luxury could be replicated. Ignoring for the moment that later series didn't quite “get” the full implications of replication tech and created inconsistencies, (the economics in Deep Space 9 or the concerns about food shortage in Voyager) I'd say that access to one of these entertainment and recreation marvels is decent motivation to pitch in and join up with an organization that built one. I'd just wonder what the process for reserving one of the eight decks on a ship like the Enterprise would look like.

Superman Renounces US Citizenship and Other Political Moments in Comics

I wrote not so very long ago that I don't particularly care for discussing politics (and religion) online. That statement needs a little clarification. I don't like debating about, or putting my personal political philosophy out there for public reactions. Refusing to talk about politics at all while commenting on any kind of culture, even geek culture, would be like covering my eyes and ears and pretending it doesn't exist. If I did that, I don't think I could approach any subject that crosses over into real-world issues in games, movies... or comics.

Now we get to the heart of the matter. What has me thinking about politics in geek culture and frantically insulating myself against accusations of hypocrisy? Action Comics #900. Even if at heart, I'm a Marvel fanboy, a story like this from DC can't escape my attention. It makes for a great headline: “Superman Renounces United States Citizenship.” I'll get back to that, specifically in a bit, but this sort of story in superhero comic books has been increasingly more common these last few years. American media is becoming increasingly polarized, with extreme viewpoints politically to both the left and right projected as the norm, even if most people see themselves as “moderate”. Comics are a form of media that has not proven itself immune to this effect.

Expect this guy in the news Real Soon Now.

When a reader encounters politics in comic books, it is likely to manifest with comic characters interacting with political issues in their own stories, political figures represented in comic book form, or a combination of the two. Though there's been a lot more of this recently, this isn't really a new phenomenon. All the way back to the 1940s we had Captain America punching out Adolf Hitler. It might be fair to say that in times where the culture is politically charged and propaganda is a useful tool, these elements are a lot more likely to turn up in comic books.

More than a few comics have stories based on real world issues. Political issues have turned up frequently in the X-Men which tackles the stories of mutant superheroes head-on as a discussion about race relations and civil rights in America, sometimes subtly, other times... not so much. Batman has dealt with privacy and surveillance issues in the “Brother Eye/OMAC” plotline that had Batman's own spy satellite turned on heroes as a means to track and wipe them out, culminating in Wonder Woman snapping the neck of the villain responsible for it... and the footage of the “murder” broadcast round the world. Captain America and Iron Man found themselves on opposite sides of Marvel's Civil War, with the government requiring heroes to unmask or register by law, and some fighting back by going underground. This story famously ended with the assassination of Captain America by sniper's bullet after turning himself in.

Don't worry, he got better.

In a different light, American political figures have been cast as comic book characters in several ways. In the 2008 presidential election, comic books were released for both John McCain and Barack Obama, discussing their lives in mostly non-partisan ways. Since Obama's election, he's turned up in multiple comic books, most notably on the cover of Amazing Spider-Man #583 as the focus of the story “Spidey meets the President.” Sarah Palin, McCain's running mate and former Governor of Alaska has been in many, many comic books as herself, as a zombie, and perhaps most unusually... as a steampunk hero fighting against the evils of Big Oil.

I totally didn't make that last bit up.

The news about Action Comics #900 breaks at a time where social issues and politics are a normal part of major comic storylines. “Fear Itself” promised to touch on real problems and the role of comics and the politics of their creators has been a frequent news item. Superman is something else. He was born on Krypton, but raised in Smallville, and his motto has been to fight for “Truth, Justice and the American Way.” This aspect of his character had a future Superman re-imagined as a tool and puppet for a corrupt dark future American Government in Frank Miller's “The Dark Knight Returns.” The current situation stems from the story “Grounded”, where Superman decides to walk across America, thinking about what he does and whether he's making any difference at all. He's been disillusioned by the US Government's anger when he appears in Tehran to non-violently support protesters there, and his presence is considered by Iran as an Act of War by the US.

I wonder what Perry White would have to say about this. Probably "Great Caesar's Ghost!"

Fans of comics have had decidedly mixed feelings on these sorts of stories. There has been criticism of comic books as a medium in the past as stagnant. Superhero comics marketed toward a fanbase that has grown up and who want mostly more of the same proved profitable. This led to nothing else being released, little innovation and no effort being made to reach out to new potential fans. The long-term consequences to the medium of this short-term profitable strategy changed comics, and many think the changes weren't for the better. Telling new sorts of stories publishers are trying to remain relevant by telling “not the stories that comics want, but the stories comics need.” Fans criticize the current trend with the argument that comics are escapist entertainment, and injecting real-world issues into them diminishes their power in that role.

What do you think?

Bonus Post Wednesday: Many thanks, The Liebster Award, and post #50!

This is the 50th post since I started this blog eight weeks ago tomorrow, and I wanted to thank the people who have followed me and helped this site grow fairly rapidly in a short time.  I wouldn't want a post of this nature to replace the normal weekday article, so I'll be back with normal geeky stuff tomorrow afternoon!

First up, I want to thank G over at Bar Science for being the first blogger to ever feature this site in a post, which made me feel good and helped some people find the blog.  Many thanks also to PekkaK from Finland, home of Poets of the Fall (one of my favorite bands), very nice people, and the blog God I Hate My Job for additional exposure just today.

Many thanks to Bard at The Clash of Spear on Shield for this blog's first award, The Liebster Blog Award.  Like many other blogging awards, this one asks you to "pay it forward" by passing it on in turn to deserving blogs, particularly 3-5 blogs with less than 300 followers.

This Award will be displayed from here on out on the right side of this page, barring a site redesign.

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In the spirit of the award, I'd like to honor the following 3 blogs and present them with the Liebster Award:

• PSYCHO CARNIVAL by Kelly
  This blog is pure madness. Kelly has a unique perspective, strong opinions, and he isn't afraid to share them. He also regularly connects with his audience (better than I connect with mine) by directly responding to nearly every comment left on every post. Always entertaining.
• a momentary lapse, with joel by Joel
  This is a movie review blog with a truly obscene number of updates which has been criminally overlooked. I'm biased, as I've known Joel for years, he's done a guest post here (and I've returned the favor) and back in college, we were mistaken for each other frequently. (A few weeks back, Kelly continued this tradition by calling me Joel in the comments!)
• The Hopeless Gamer by Paul
  I love RPGs. I could make every other blog post bounce between tabletop RPGs and video games, except I promised myself that I wouldn't, and there are plenty of RPG bloggers out there who write regularly about the subject, and better than I ever could. Paul at The Hopeless Gamer is one of these. His site design is also spectacular.

Congratulations on the well-deserved awards, Kelly, Joel and Paul!

Two months, 50 posts, almost 70 subscribers and nearly 4000 pageviews. I can't wait to see what the coming months and years will bring, and would like to thank anyone who reads these pages for making it easier to come back and write every weekday.

P.S. - Special thanks to Maui for his promotion of this blog online and the first ever “live shout out” for What's Next – The Unemployed Geek, at a karaoke event.

Jumping Through Hoops – Unemployment Benefits

Today before sitting down to write, I wanted to check on the status of my accounts. Before joining the ranks of the unemployed, I suppose my income put me solidly in the category of the “working poor”. We lived check to check, but I look around, see 2 computers, video games and an iPod for my wife and I, and don't feel too bad about where we were, from a wider perspective. That said, keeping an eye on remaining funds when you know you could run them out is an important maintenance task. Ironically, since I've been out of work, frugality and the lack of a commute (with these gas prices) has put my wife and I less on the edge, money wise.

I checked the status of the unemployment funds on the state website, and it looked like I had a deposit settled today. Great. I go to check the balance on the debit card issued me for these funds... no money. There was a brief moment of panic, not because I'd starve or have a utility turned off without that money RIGHT NOW, but when your financial future is in doubt, the small amount of funds you do have access to is vital, and potential interruptions of those is scary. So, I go to call the Illinois Department of Employment Security. Busy signal. More light panic, but I persist, get through, wait on hold for a seeming eternity and eventually determine that all is well. I just need to wait a few days for normal processing that I likely never noticed a delay in before.

All this got me thinking about the process of getting these few dollars. I've talked about what unemployment isn't, and who pays for it, but not really about what it means to go through being on it. Making a claim for unemployment benefits is, mercifully, easier than it once was, at least in the state of Illinois. Rather than having to wait in line in an office or even on hold on a call center's line, making a claim and certifying for individual weeks of benefits can be done online. There is an application and several questionnaires to fill out, best started right after a job is lost, and frequently benefits may be placed on hold if there are any eligibility questions that a phone interview or supplemental paperwork is required to resolve.

For all my complaining and ranting... this is what it used to be like to get a few bucks for groceries.

After a waiting period, either a direct deposit (which I should have done) is started, or they mail you a debit card and there is more waiting. Every two weeks, you load up the archaic, almost quaint website that refuses to work in browsers other than Internet Explorer (more on that in a moment) and answer a number of questions about your situation that mostly will not change unless you've come into some money or something unusual happens that could affect any payments. Name changes, deferred payments, change of address, payments from social security or other disability or any number of other uncommon events that I check “No” to weekly. Then, within a few days you will receive funds averaging about 30% of what you used to make, plus a small additional sum for dependents.

Any changes to this process are difficult, as the bureaucracy involved is typically sprawling and byzantine, they prefer to communicate through the mail, as I presume their carrier pigeon service has been discontinued, but they are working on mastering the telephone. But they have a website you can turn to for help! It is optimized for Internet Explorer 6. I didn't mistype that last number, or accidentally flip it upside-down somehow. I try not to ever use IE unless a website makes me, but I don't think I EVER had IE6 installed on this machine. I learned about the issues with the website the hard way when I tried to switch to direct deposit, I had to fill out a series of online forms, and at the end of the process, got an “oops, can't save your changes” error.

High Technology, from the crazy future world of 2001.

While you fight with a website that is barely a generation above a Geocities page from 1996, get archaic forms presumably penned with a quill from the local post and collect the few dollars they'll give you for the trouble, you have to do a few things. First, register on another website that asks you to input your skills, experience and desired work schedule, salary, etc... a process that takes a few hours. The skills match website takes all your hard won life experience, calculates it... and tells you there are no jobs because the economy sucks. I half expected a “Please Try Again”, like you find on a yogurt lid when you haven't won a contest. Also, you have a form to document your search for gainful employment with no instructions on the expectations for its completion and vague fields to fill out. I can only guess that no one ever looks at 99.999% of these, even though you are required to keep them around for a year after you're done claiming unemployment. Every once in a while, I'd guess they pick a name at random and ask for these forms for laughs, as the instructions are so vague that just getting picked to be checked up on, I'd guess, means you're screwed.

So, this is a part of my adventure that doesn't involve swords or lightsabers, but does sort of involve shadowy cabals, scrolls with arcane symbols and the fickle hand of fate. I'll jump through hoops while I keep at it, and admit to myself that a whole lot of people have it a whole lot worse. Anyone else on “the dole” from a different place with maybe very different hoops to jump through? Tell us about it.

Happy Patch Day. World of Warcraft v4.1

Patch Day.

There isn't a WoW gamer out there who doesn't cringe at those two little words. It isn't that we aren't looking forward to shiny new content. Most of use have exhaustively read the patch notes, are excited or angry about changes to the abilities of our favorite characters, and already know the names and locations of any new monsters or coveted gear weeks in advance of a new content patch release. Heck, more than a few of us may have loaded up the World of Warcraft Public Test Realm and seen the changes in-action (and helped debug them.) Most of us look forward to the next content patch.

If I bought the wife this shirt, she might wear it, but I'd be in trouble first.

There is a downside. Since I know not all of my readers play World of Warcraft, the reasons why patch day is so simultaneously exciting and frustrating might require a little more information. The World of Warcraft “week” is effectively Tuesday to Monday, that is to say that there are a whole lot of things you can only do once a week, and these all reset each Tuesday. The difficult bosses that a guild wants to kill many, many times to get equipment for all of its members in “raid” dungeons stay dead once killed for the rest of that week. Everything resets (unless you change a setting because you don't want it to) on Tuesday. Weekly server maintenance, which can range in scope from a 20 minute rolling server restart to a 20 hour extended maintenance ordeal, happens on Tuesday.

The trolls, featured in this week's new patch.

Those extended maintenance days happen infrequently, but there is one day that you can just about guarantee an extended maintenance. Patch day. Also, the stress once the servers come back online of the majority of subscribers all trying to log on at once frequently crashes them immediately. Everyone is prepared to see the new content and complain about being bored for the entire downtime instead of going outside or spending time with friends and family, they all tend to come into the game where they last logged out. These servers are capable of handling many, many players at once. They just don't handle most of the userbase popping into one of the major cities simultaneously very well.

I think the most accurate metaphor I can craft about a WoW gamer's mixed feelings on Patch Day is one of a very special Holiday. Imagine that Christmas, instead of being a specific time each year, was announced to children a few weeks before. Furthermore, on Christmas Day, not only can these children not play with the new toys, they are not allowed to play with ANY toys for most of the day. And when gift unwrapping starts, there is a very good chance that just as the paper starts to come off the first package, everything will stop suddenly and without warning and you'll have to wait for a few more hours. Oh, and for a few days, not only your new toys, but suddenly some of your old ones won't work quite right. Then the crying starts.

Yeah. Kinda like this.

I hope my fellow gamers will forgive my metaphor comparing us the children, as the “Video Games are not just for kids” thing is one of my hot-buttons too. I use the metaphor because patch day does sort of feel like a geek cultural holiday, just not one that we experience with the attendant stress and responsibilities of being an adult on Christmas or Thanksgiving. I'd also probably feel worse about the comparison if it wasn't for all the tantrums I see in forums every single patch day. This particular subject, and how we express our feelings about it as a group, is perhaps not the best place to make our stand on proving how mature gamers are as a subculture.

This particular content patch, in addition to all of the tweaks and normal changes to races, classes and quests (the “buffs” and “nerfs”) we have a lore-supported advancement of the troll race's story. At the start of this expansion, trolls got an expansion to their lore, as the Darkspear Clan (the playable trolls) participated in the retaking of the Echo Isles from the Witch Doctor Zalazane, one of their own who betrayed them. This line of quests allowed players (Horde only, of course) to participate in the founding of Sen'jin Village, a new starting area for Troll characters. Many of the characters who participated in the Echo Isles event are returning once more for the relaunch of two classic raid instances re-imagined and redesigned at 5-man dungeons. This event was big enough to warrant a cinematic trailer for the patch.

A lot of more cynical players will cite this as the continued recycling of old content at the expense of new design and development. I've heard many times when old environments that no one looks at anymore getting new life how lazy it is of the developers. Personally, I don't care for that argument. I'd rather have something new that did take a little less manpower to prepare get a little polish and then get rolled out while they work on refining and improving the legitimately completely new content coming down the pipe. It won't be too much longer before we see the release of the Firelands raid that will finally cap off the Mount Hyjal zone plot that ended with “and then he got away.”

I'll be turning up tonight, seeing the servers crash and things not working as intended. Actually, now that I think about it, the troll is the PERFECT mascot for patch day.

Board Gaming for Adults - Beyond Monopoly and Risk

For seven years of the near-decade that I managed a hobby shop and acted as the primary games buyer (more on that here if you missed it) a few friends and I would use the shop's back room to play board games. At least, that's how it started. By the end, weekly we had between five and eighteen adults turning up to play, and sometimes we'd start Thursday at 8PM and not break until Friday at dawn. I'm not talking about Risk, (which I despise) or Monopoly, (which I can take or leave) or really any of the Parker Brothers/Milton Bradley fare. There's a whole other category of board game, with greater depth and complexity than the pasteboard mass-market games found in the children's toy aisle. I've personally amassed a collection of several hundred of these.

The attitude that board games are for children is one, as far as I can tell that is more common in the US and Canada, whereas in Europe (particularly in Germany) the board game as an activity for adults is not a “fringe” notion. Even here in the US, the hobbyist market for board games beyond “playing with the kids on a rainy day” has been growing steadily in the last decade. There is a distinct difference in the style, design and presentation of games that are primarily marketed to the adult who is a board game enthusiast.

What most Americans picture when you say "Board Games".

In terms of mass market games, there are several types that are extremely common, and understanding what they are and how they work helps to understand how the hobbyist's gaming differs. There are traditional abstract strategy games which have pieces such as pawns, tokens or chits. All of the most ancient games fall into this category, including Senet (the most ancient game from pre-dynastic Egypt, with sets dating as far back as 3500 BC) and Backgammon (3000 BC). This category also includes games of “perfect information” such as Go, Chess and Checkers, where there is no random element whatsoever, the strategy developing from forcing an opponent to react to your moves.

A modern recreation of Senet, the earliest known board game.

Most other mass-market board games are successors to the older abstract strategy games, and either move pieces along a predetermined path of spaces on a board (the "race" game), a contest to answer questions or figure out a puzzle (the “party” game) or resolution of an armed conflict (the “war” game.) “Race” games usually focus on the “roll and move” mechanic to have players compete to be the first to either collect certain tokens (in-game money being the most common) or get their pieces to a certain spot on the board. Monopoly, Pachisi, and even Candy Land fit this category. “Party” games, also called parlour games, typically involve individuals or teams trying to guess or deduce hidden information. Charades, Trivial Pursuit, Cranium and Taboo all fit this category. “War” games have pieces representing soldiers or units of armed forces, and are typically won by capturing territory or destroying opponent pieces. Risk, Battleship and Axis and Allies are popular examples, though the difference between a mass-market war game and one designed for hobbyists is sometimes just a matter of complexity.

Hate, hate, HATE this game. Yes, there may be a chance that when attacking with overwhelming force that a lone defender can take no losses and kill an attacker. That chance should not be 1 in 6.

While there are many more types and styles of board game that are marketed toward children and young adults, hobby games tend to differ mechanically and in presentation in specific ways. The most popular game in this style is Settlers of Catan, a game I've called the “gateway drug” of board gaming, and many of the design choices that make hobby games different are present. The distinctive elements in the rules and structure of these games has separated hobbyist gaming further, by splintering off another style of game into its own category. The War game, with popular titles including Europa, Advanced Squad Leader, Diplomacy and a host of other titles from the now-defunct Avalon Hill focus on and detail military actions in a way designed to represent a simulation. They are more detailed and complex than their equivalents on toy store shelves, and repesent a hobby all their own, which crosses over into miniatures wargaming (a topic so large, it could fill several blogs – and it has.)

The Limited Anniversary 3-D Collector's "Treasure Chest" Edition of Settlers of Catan.  $469 USD retail... and yes, I have one.

The specific design elements that are common to the rest of the genre that includes the Catan series of games and its expansions is as follows:

• The games tend to be non-violent. Games in this style often abstract any sort of fighting, if it is present at all. Building, trading and otherwise growing something a player controls is the focus, rather than trying to eliminate something controlled by an opponent.
  
  
• Resource management is one of the keys to victory. Whether it is in-game currency, actions or “action points” per turn or numbers of pawns, tokens or cards, most of these games reward effective and efficient use of available resources to increase score, claim dominance on a board, or otherwise collect whatever is required to win.
  
  
• The impact of random chance is minimized in determining who wins. Many of these games feature dice, cards or other random tokens, but few use the “roll and move” mechanic that is common in “race” games. Though few are games of perfect information, where there are no random elements and every action an opponent may take is publicly known, a player can usually increase their chance of victory through capitalizing on good fortune, making timing and planning at least as important as a fortunate draw of a card or roll of dice.
  
  
• Players frequently simultaneously cooperate and compete. This concept, minus the “compete” is a subgenre I've written about before, but any trading game features this idea. Railroad gaming often forces players to use each other's lines to travel or ship goods, and games where players must collaborate, even briefly, to earn victory points are common. They key to managing these sorts of cooperative efforts in these games is usually helping someone, but not as much as they help you.

Some of my favorite titles in this style of board game (some of which will likely merit a writeup all their own) are Twilight Imperium, Junta, Bohnanza,Ticket to Ride, Puerto Rico, Domaine, Merchants of Amsterdam and Ingenious. More than a few in my collection were also designed by the same man, Dr. Reiner Knizia, a mathematics professor who I've been lucky enough to meet several times. There is an exception to virtually every broad generalization I've made so far in this article, and I'm sure a few elements I've overlooked. Any other board gamers out there? What did I overlook or gloss over in the text? Let me know.

Can't Stick the Landing 2 - Television Edition: Controversial TV finales.

I've talked a little before about unsatisfying endings, but that was in video games. I also discussed Battlestar Galactica once before, but that was mostly in the context of the board game. So... guess who just finished the series? I kid a bit, as I was actually pretty okay with the ending, though I now understand why there were so many people who weren't. Following in line with the theme, I want to talk about four of the biggest controversial series finales in modern television history. (Without just rewriting something you likely already saw on CRACKED.)

Not all of the shows I'll run down are science fiction or other traditional geek fare, but we geeks love to discuss and debate these sorts of topics. Fair warning: spoilers ahead for Battlestar Galactica, LOST, The Sopranos, and Twin Peaks, though the statute of limitations has run out for sure on a few of these, spoiler-wise. It seems that the biggest issues that people have with controversial endings is either a lack of appropriate closure overall, or a perceived unsatisfactory resolution to plot threads left hanging, questions left unanswered or with answers that make no sense.

"Uhhh... what, dude?" We're right there with ya, Hurley.

LOST pulled a lot of us in. A plane crash, characters with interesting and mysterious pasts, things on an island that shouldn't be there, and layers upon layers of sinister revelations and yet more secrets. Aside from a mysterious “monster”, overt science fiction elements were light to begin with, some unusual things with Walt, a kid on the island, but everything seemed pretty straight and narrow. As seasons progressed, we got all sorts of weird and wonderful science fiction: time travel, mythical beasts connected to ancient religions and a computer that is keeping the world form being destroyed. There were so many loose plot threads in the final season that fans wondered how they could possibly all be tied up. Turns out, a lot of them weren't. We got a “They are all dead, and coming to terms with their life” story, and some people weren't happy.

Despite the fact that she regularly ruined everything, I liked Kate. This image is probably unrelated to that.

The LOST ending gave resolution on a few key points, answered the most important questions (for the average fan) and told us what the “flash sideways” world introduced in the final season all meant. The characters, for the most part, completed their journeys in satisfactory ways, and the last episode felt to me like a fitting end to a show I watched since the beginning. I do understand fan outrage, as even with the extra scene for the final seasons DVD, a lot of big questions were never answered, and some of them were important ones. What was the whole point of the detonation of the nuclear device back in the 1970s? Did it do anything at all? Was that what created the pocket “afterlife” dimension, and if so how did it also send the cast back to the present?

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The Sopranos got an unusual ending. For one thing, the standard HBO Original Series ending of “you're canceled” wasn't used, they got to finish their run, and the actual ending was as though millions of voices suddenly cried out “WTF?” and were suddenly silenced. The crime drama worked toward its final episode with everything closing in on Tony Soprano. Most of the surviving cast and quite a few external forces had reasons to kill him, and as the Soprano family ate in a diner, the audience showed several suspicious characters paying attention to them. Tony talks with his son about “remembering the good times” as “Don't Stop Believin'” plays on the jukebox. When Meadow Soprano, his daughter finally arrives, Tony looks up, and the picture cuts to black. A few moments of black screen with Journey still playing, then... credits.

This is how the world ends. Not with a bang, but with... Journey.

Many people thought their picture went out and they missed the real ending. Others were angry, confused, talked about what it all meant. Did the guy who'd went to the bathroom come back out a la The Godfather and shoot them all? Did they all go on and live their lives as they had? Why was two of the last five minutes of the show spent showing us that Meadow can't parallel park? Love the ending or hate it, no matter how you choose to interpret it, this cable finale kept people talking, and it still does.

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Twin Peaks might have had a satisfactory ending, but it was a troubled relationship between creator and studio that gave us this unresolved gem. When Twin Peaks first came out in 1990, it was a story about a sleepy town in the American Northwest, near the Canadian border. The murder of a young girl brings an unorthodox but brilliant FBI agent to the town, and secrets begin to be revealed in order to answer the question: “Who killed Laura Palmer?” The show worked on several levels and was initially very popular, as we saw the town's facade, beneath that a seedy underbelly of sex, drugs and scandal, and still beneath that something primal, weird and supernatural at play. Against creator David Lynch's wishes, the studio put pressure on the show to answer the key question, solve the murder. They reluctantly complied, and then were left with a new question for Season 2. “Now What?”

Dammit, Dale. 7 years bad luck. Unless you are a Twin Peaks fan, in which case it is 20 years and counting.

Though there were still a lot of unresolved mysteries, viewers started to tune out once the Laura Palmer story was wrapped up, and the network saw the decline in ratings. They put the show on a significant break, moved it from its usual time slot, and the audience dropped dramatically. (We now call this process “getting Firefly'd.” When the inevitable cancellation came down, Lynch and company didn't wrap everything up nice and neat, they stuck us with a cliffhanger. Much of the cast maybe killed in an explosion? Check. Agent Cooper lost in the mysterious Black Lodge and possessed by the evil BOB? Check. Thousands of screaming fans? Check. Since then, even with a feature film, Lynch has refused to resolve the story, and refused to work with television networks since.

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And, back to where we started, I've had a full day to process the ending of the new BSG since finishing it on Netflix. I've got some of the same questions that everyone did, my suspension of disbelief is strained in exactly the same places. We saw every little bit of weirdness and foreshadowing paid off, and got one of the most amazing space battle finales I've ever seen anywhere. In the third of the three part finale, the neat and tidy compromise “peace” solution is blown all to hell, and by what? A poor decision made by one person to commit violence against another, and the rage and pain of a husband when the betrayal that resulted in the murder of his wife is revealed. Two races nearly destroy each other in the next few seconds from that one act. I loved it.

So... she was an angel? Then why...? How...? But..? Screw it.  I don't even care anymore.

But why did Brother Cavil (Number 1) shoot himself? Was our explanation for what Starbuck was awesome, or a cop-out? There is a lot of Deus ex Machina going on, but with all the talk of a divine hand in everything, is that a bad thing? If everyone can see and interact with Starbuck, why can't everyone do the same with the invisible Baltar and Six? Are they the same thing? Despite all these questions and a lingering doubt about all human survivors completely forsaking technology to pick up farming tools and make caveman babies, I was still very happy with the ending. It made sense, and gave me a more complete feeling of resolution than the other four I wrote about.

Any doubts or feelings on these four endings? Any other endings you felt were really frustrating and ambiguous in TV? I left out some classics, like the Newhart “all a dream”, St. Elsewhere's “snowglobe” (paid homage in Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends), Dallas' “Satan makes JR shoot himself” and Roseanne's “Dan dies, she goes crazy and makes up the final season” endings. If you have one I missed or overlooked, sound off in the comments.

“Weird” Al Yankovic – The Man, the Myth, the Breakfast Cereal.

This week, a geek icon has made his way into the news at the center of a controversy. “Weird” Al Yankovic posted on his blog that he had been nearly ready to announce a new album, he was waiting on artist approval for the final song, which would likely be the big single for the release. As a parody artist, all of "Weird" Al's music is protected from allegations of copyright infringement, but his personal policy is to obtain artist permission before commercially releasing a song based on their work.

"Weird" Al's classic look, maintained throughout the 1980s.

“Perform This Way”, based on Lady Gaga's “Born This Way” was written with the intention of being the final song on the new album. When he contacted Gaga's management for permission, he was told initially that she needed to hear the song before giving permission. He forwarded over the lyrics, assuming that if she knew the tune to her own song with his alternate lyrics, this would be enough. Her people sent back a message “She needs to HEAR the song, or the answer is no.” So, assuming the best about others, Yankovic recorded the song, a not inexpensive undertaking. He further offered to donate profits from the song to charity, and the answer came back: “Gaga says no.” The controversy over the situation raged from geek to geek over the internet, and Lady Gaga's manager assumed responsibility, saying that he never actually played the parody for her, she loves it... the answer is now yes. Hmm.

“Weird” Al is an artist that is loved by many, but especially by geeks. He's done several Star Wars parodies, he plays the incredibly nerdy accordion, and of course... his hit “White and Nerdy” hits most items on any geek's checklist of interests. Not all his fans are nerds or geeks (even if we rightly consider him one of “ours”,) Dave Grohl said that he knew that Nirvana had finally made it when “Weird” Al recorded “Smells Like Nirvana,” and Kurt Cobain called him a musical genius. Presidents of the United States liked his version of their hit “Lump” (“Gump”) so much, that they used his words to end the actual song in the live recording. Chamillionaire credited Yankovic for his Grammy for “Ridin'”, saying the exposure from “White and Nerdy” was incredible, with European fans telling him how they'd heard “his version” of the “Weird Al” song.

This isn't the first time that permission, or the lack thereof, has resulted in a scandal. Representatives for Coolio told Yankovic that the artist had given the okay for a parody of “Gangsta's Paradise”, but the artist himself was not a fan of 1996's “Amish Paradise.” This made “Weird” Al change his policy, insisting he needed to hear from the artist themselves regarding permission. James Blunt gave Yankovic the go ahead to record “You're Pitiful”, a parody of “You're Beautiful”, but after the song was recorded and ready to go, Atlantic Records rescinded permission. Rather than defend the song under Fair Use in court, the song was not commercially released, though “Weird” Al performs it live (at least once while wearing an “Atlantic Records SUCK” shirt.)

"If Madonna's allowed to reinvent herself every 15 minutes, I figure I should be good for a change at least once every 20 years."

After 35 years making music, from parodies about food recorded for the benefit of the Dr. Demento radio show in the late 1970s, through the feature film UHF which he wrote and starred in, and to present day, one nerdy favorite has remained current and relevant. He typically outlasts the musical careers of the people who inspire his comedy, and his writing remains clever and his humor typically ages well, even after the original song is forgotten, the parody remains.

My cynical side questions whether the Gaga controversy is truly the work of a manager overstepping his bounds and embarassing the artist he is supposed to represent, or whether this is a case of backpedaling after a public backlash. After all, Lady Gaga was the target of the ire of a lot of “Weird” Al fans after this story broke, and what has Coolio done lately? Seems like being on the wrong side of one of these scandals doesn't work out very well for an artist. What do you think?

A Brief Timeline of Events of Future Past.

So, with all the talk about insane AI yesterday, I failed to mention that it was an important date in science fiction for another reason. On April 19, 2011 at 8:11 PM, SkyNet became self aware. Or at least that is what we're told in Terminator 2. If that were true, according to the movie's calendar, the weather for tomorrow would read as follows: “Cloudy, with a chance of Nuclear Missiles.” I failed to make the connection between this significant date in science fiction history and the release of a major video game about a rogue AI... well played, Valve. Well played.

This got me to thinking... what other events in the history of popular sci-fi have already come and gone? I know I'm going to miss a few here, probably quite a lot of them. Science fiction is most often set in the future, and the imagination of the authors about what that future is going to look like is part of the appeal of the setting. The logical progression of current technologies, social ideas and how the two interact forms a lot of the basis for the “science” in “science fiction.” A near future setting is easier to imagine, to project how technology will evolve and improve, and what impact it will have on culture. However, when you reach a date mentioned in classic sci-fi and we don't have flying cars, the stories look humorous, even quaint.

There's some disagreement about the SkyNET date, but some are more topical today than others.

Here's a few examples from a timeline that never was:

1984: Well, this one's pretty obvious. George Orwell predicted a grim future of the ever-seeing eye of Big Brother, a pervasive government authority with language adapted to be inoffensive, surveillance everywhere, and social controls in place to keep a populace docile and subservient. This grim future is currently 27 years late, and counting. Oh yeah... Governments of the Western World? This wasn't supposed to be an instruction manual. Just sayin'. (Source: 1984)

1987: The Ranger 3, piloted by Captain William “Buck” Rogers is launched on a mission that is imperiled by the failure of critical life support systems. He is presumed dead when the failure freezes him solid, until he is revived 500 years later, in the 25^th Century. (Source: Buck Rogers in the 25th Century)

1995: Sam Beckett, a physicist begins leaping uncontrollably into the bodies and lives of people in the past, and with the assistance of Al, a friend and colleague from his own time who appears as a hologram only Sam can see, he begins to put right what once went wrong. Time travel, 3-D holograms in full color with perfect movement animation and clarity, and hand-held portable computers. A great time to be a physicist, back in 1995... a shame I was so bad at math. (Source: Quantum Leap)

Oh, boy.

Summer, 1996: Simon Phoenix is apprehended by John Spartan in a confrontation that results in the destruction of a building and most of a city block. The discovery of the bodies of Phoenix' hostages inside the ruins of the building leads to the arrest and conviction of Spartan, as well. Both the disgraced police officer and the psychopath are frozen solid in cryo-prison, where they are exposed to a computerized rehabilitation program designed to reform them in stasis. They are also capable of keeping very large drinks cold. (Source: Demolition Man)

January 12, 1997: HAL becomes capable of emotions and insight in addition to his capabilities of superior calculation and data processing. HAL 9000 becomes an integral (and murderous) part of the 2001 mission to investigate a monolithic artifact that is millions of years old. We have yet to produce an independently intelligent computer or program, but we're sure of one thing. Once we get there, AI will try to kill us. (Source: 2001 – A Space Odyssey)

Summer, 1997: As World War 3 winds down, former special forces soldier, current dangerous criminal “Snake” Plissken is forced into the prison city of New York on a mission to rescue the President of the United States, or at least to recover the cassette tape with nuclear fusion data the president had when he crash-landed. Following orders is normally a problem for Plissken, so explosives are introduced into his body as a source of encouragement. (Source: Escape From New York)

The only character Kurt Russel played who was more badass than Jack Burton.

October 16, 1997: The Jupiter 2 begins its mission with the Robinson family aboard, and shortly after launch, the space shuttle is sabotaged by Dr. Zachary Smith, who is trapped aboard. The damage to key systems and the weight of an extra passenger causes the mission to divert from its intended course and the family is awakened prematurely in order to prevent the destruction of the spacecraft from a field of asteroids. What we know, is that 1997 was a very dangerous time to be anywhere. DANGER, WILL ROBINSON! (Source: Lost In Space)

December 31, 1999: Race Riots threaten to tear apart the city of Los Angeles at the death of rapper and activist Jeriko One. Lenny Nero, a former police officer who now deals in recorded experiences that are played back through a neural interface called a SQUID, is caught between his addiction to his own product and the need to get to the bottom of the mystery of Jeriko One's death before his enemies kill him or the city destroys itself. (Source: Strange Days)

I'm aware that this movie is a little less popular than most of the other sources I've linked here, but if you haven't seen it, it is on the real short list of good cyberpunk films. Actually, it might BE the list.

What other visions of our dark future that our favorite films, TV Shows and Books promised have slipped by? If I get enough of these, I'll likely do a sequel to this article chronicling beyond the year 2001, up to the current day.

Delicious Cake. Portal 2, and Valve's recent ARG on Steam

So the geek news of the weekend, right up through today was the release of Portal 2, and the Alternate Reality Game that allowed for a (very slightly) early release after all was said and done. ARGs, when done right, can incorporate fake websites, chat clients with lots of players and game elements pretending to be players, social media accounts, YouTube Channels, and the like. The idea that the “game” is played by a large fan community as a whole, and the line between where the game ends and the real world picks up blurs a bit. This makes these games great for marketing or building hype for a product.

There's Science to be done.

The ARG is a really interesting concept. It isn't an electronic game, though computers, cell phones and other gadgets are frequently used. It isn't a roleplaying game, usually, as the participants interact with our world as themselves. The best ARGs have a puzzle or mystery designed for a large communtiy of players, and clues or pieces of an ongoing narrative can be anywhere, depending on the geographical scope of the game. The movie “The Game” with Michael Douglas is a thriller involving a rich businessman that gets into an incredibly elaborate ARG, though it wasn't referred to as such specifically, and differs from the normal structure by the game being put on for a “playerbase” of one. I've personally been involved in several bachelor parties that were organized as an ARG for a single player, and they've been a lot of fun.

A screenshot of the early stages of "i love bees", the Halo 2 ARG from 2004. A boring website about bees is taken over by... something else.

The show LOST added detail to its complicated story and gave fans something to do between seasons with several ARGs, Halo had the “I love bees” ARG, Trent Reznor created one called “Year Zero” to promote a Nine Inch Nails album, and these last few weeks, Valve launched their ARG for the release of Portal 2. GladOS, the insane AI running the Portal show, appeared to compromise Steam accounts, hints were dropped and a countdown started ticking. Once the timer reached zero on Friday, the weekend's planned activity for ARG participants was announced. GladOS was rebooting her systems to restart the Portal Test Environment, but she needed extra processing power to do so. She selected a group of games made by indie game studios, sold on Steam (of course) that players needed to work on to give her the power she needed. The Prize: an early release of Portal 2.

Fans initially loved the game, and were drawn in. The theme of Portal lends itself very well to this sort of activity, as the actual video game is framed as a series of scientific “tests” run by a computer program in the first place. A collection of indie games collectively known as “The Potato Sack” was released on Steam as a special offer on April 1. Strange symbols began appearing in all of these games, new streaming content was added to each and parallels could be drawn between the unusual symbols and similar glyphs on other websites and in real world locations. Cryptic messages found on blog posts and hidden in audio files were deciphered, Potato Sack games began to subtly change, adding Portal-themed elements. All the clues pointed to one thing: GladOS was waking up, trying to reboot.

Cryptic clues led players deeper into the mystery.

A countdown started, and when the clock ran out, a website called GladOS@Home was launched, a mock distributed computing network that told players that by playing the games in the Potato Sack, GladOS would come online, and if it was done by enough people, the reward was an early release. Players bought the sack in droves, and coordinated efforts to play them, filling up a progress bar on GladOS@Home and earning “potatoes” on their Steam profile. The speed at which the progress bars filled was slow. Quickly, fans realized that the ARG was not going to unlock Portal 2 over the weekend, and the backlash started.

By the time all progress was complete, Portal 2 launched about 10 hours ahead of schedule, and some Valve fans felt that their loyalty was abused to sell more games on Steam. Hardcore players, who collected every single potato from all of the games did report receiving the Valve Complete Pack, a collection of every game the company ever released on Steam. Skeptics had warned early on that any early release of Portal 2 might expose Valve to legal action from Sony, Microsoft, or brick and mortar retailers, and cynics accused the company of “rigging” the numbers behind the completion timers to prevent any significantly early release from occurring.

GladOS@Home in action.

Now that everyone who owns a copy can play Portal 2, the dust is settling. Fans are starting the debate over whether this experience was successful or not. The people seem to fall neatly into two camps. One side claims that Valve used its fans to sell a lot of extra games on Steam, and the whole thing was a marketing stunt in poor taste, damaging the company's image to its fans. The other perspective in the discussion says that Valve created an optional exercise for Portal fans to participate in together, play some games they might not have otherwise, and support independent game designers to boot... it isn't the company's fault that players assumed that “early Portal 2 release” meant “over the weekend”.

I'm not playing Portal 2, as I rarely pick up titles until they go on sale now, but I've followed this saga pretty closely, and I tend to agree with the second, “pro-Valve” group. If anything, a large social experiment where the results and rewards weren't exactly what the participants thought they would be is in keeping with the Portal theme. Most of us learned from the first game, after all... that The Cake Is A Lie. What do you think?

Delicious and Moist.