Japanese playing around with DRM

This really is sad to me.

I loved having the Japanese as my videogame masters for almost two decades now. They chose the trends and they developed their "wacky" games, and I ate them up like they were candy. But Japan is xenophobic, and much like America they have a pride at being the best at everything, barely ever taking the humble route. I like that about them. I feel a kinship.

Now though, its just sad.

A few years ago we had Western(when I say western I mean culture) companies scrambling to include this new thing called "DRM" to our PC games to try and keep piracy down. It literally caused a few games to fail. The money made off sales did not make up for the money it cost to put something on PC, and for about a year they were blind, stuck to their guns and claimed it was all piracy, not DRM that did it.

Digital Rights Management, or DRM, is a way to make it difficult for pirated copies of a game to work. Its not as easy as it sounds, or as nice. Many games required that you were online to be able to play, even in a game without multiplayer. What you got was a flicker in your internet due to Yahoo restarting, and you'd get the great "Game Over you pirate!" message, and you were screwed.

They are beginning to see the light. It doesn't stop piracy, it just sets up a challenge to hackers. On top of not stopping piracy, it actually annoys the ever loving piss out of legit gamers that payed 50 bucks for your game. Entire websites dedicated to selling games without DRM are thriving(Good Old Games, Google it).

We thought DRM was done and on its way out the door...

And then someone in Japan goes "hey, can't we use an internet connection to somehow keep pirated copies from accessing the game?" and his buddies cheered "YES! its BRILLIANT! Why have we not thought of this before??"

So now, with Japan's game industry literally in the toilet, less and less of their game titles being made and selling in the West, they are about to shoot themselves in the foot. Because not only is their DRM schemes going to be annoying, its going to hit our market a full 4 years into us evolving this crap OUT of our own games. While the cycle in Japan will be: Indifference, Annoyance, Protest, Retraction, Acceptance, the west is going to be on step 25: Fuck it, I won't buy it.

Season 2 Minecraft: The River 5 Vengeance in Mine!

I started out pretty simply. I ran out at dawn, found several creepers and killed them with arrows. It takes about 5 arrows to kill them, so the "sling" sound was pretty fulfilling, but it was not enough for me. They weren't suffering.



For something filled with gunpowder, these guys sure do take a long time to burn. Which is actually fine with me, they squeal while they burn to death. Just light the ground in front of them on fire and they run strait through. Ah. That felt good.

But was it really enough? No.



This guy fell in a hole, and was then helpless. He couldn't escape, just hop there, hoping I would get close enough for him to explode... but I had other plans. I covered the hole with wood... nice flammable wood. Then I stacked gravel, nice heavy gravel on top. Oh? You didn't know that gravel falls as if held down by gravity? Neither did he.



It would be bad for him if somehow that wood was to disappear and allow all that rock come crashing down on his head.



"I don't deserve this." he said to me.
"Deserve ain't got nothin' to do with it" I said, as I lit the wood.

I then remembered I get extra rewarded for killing Creepers.



Poetic justice.



"I'll see you in hell" this one told me.

"Yeah... I reckon so" then I lit the fuse.




EDIT
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To anyone that is new to this, this is season 2, titled: The River. Season 1 was titled: The Bay. You have to dig back a few posts to find The Bay as this is my gamer blog and I have some non-minecraft stuff going on.

Minecraft: The River episode 03

The grunt work begins.

Remember that open mouth of hell I said I found? Well, I'm on top of it here to get a survey of the landscape below. I'm trying to plan out the path I want to take the river through the hills in this area near my Tree House.



It is not very easy to see a simple path through. The strait line method doesn't really match the contours of the land, nor does it really "feel" that's where the river would go. So I have to kind of take a detour as you can see in this shot here:



A bit further along the path, you can see that it goes beneath Hook Mountain and continues on towards the ocean in the valley between Hook Mountain and the other cliffs opposing the mountain.



So here we go, the first real big cut. I knew I was not going to do any turning just yet, so I dug strait lines in the direction I had decided. Next I started clearing the dirt out, and then I had to switch to picks so that I could get the rock out. I wanted to save all this dirt in case I needed it later. I made several big storage boxes near the tree house to hold much of it.



Finally I broke the dam once again and let it flood the area.



I know this wasn't the most interesting of updates, and I promise its not a season of "I cut here, I flood here" so stick with me, more cool stuff to come!

Minecraft: The River episode 02

So today I was to set up and get ready to work on the River. I thought I would test the waters a bit, and learn how water worked in the world. At this time I did not even know if I would be able to make a river.



You can see Fort Lookout in the view, and that the bay turns into a sort of river and elbows off into the distance. You can also see that the river blocks up rather early in a very shallow spot, it looks perfect for my plans.



The blockage is short, so the plan is to simply cut right through the area. First I find my depth:



A creeper from the night before helped me out with that... while I was surveying, it ran down and exploded right beside me. No complaints I guess, I did not die, and now I have a start.



Next I cut a shape out in the way I wanted the river to go. I made sure not to make it too strait and to have some variation in its path so it did not look too man made. After cutting the shape, I start hollowing out the land.



Next I break the earth dam, and the water rushes in. It doesn't fill fully like real water, so I have to bring in water using a bucket to fill the corners, but in no time the river is connected with the pond and we have the makings of a waterway.

It has actually been several weeks since season 1. I did things like planted trees and flowers near Fort Lookout, I explored a bit more around the area. I am ready to move to a new area, so I think of where my river is likely to take me and I know how much work is going to keep me from Fort Lookout. I find two trees up in the hills and I make myself a tree house in their leaves and branches. I later add a simple chimney stove on the ground so that I can cook myself some food.

Cecil and Boromir: The link between FF4 and LotR

Its pretty excusable for Final Fantasy 4's story to be a bit sparse on detail. The limited ability to even spell White Dragon better than Wtdrgn shows us all that. The one thing many people ask is how could Cecil have been a Dark Knight yet still able to become a paladin later.

For better explanation I say look to Lord of the Rings. Boromir is told by his father that to save his kingdom they must get and bring back the weapon of the enemy. One of the most evil powers in the world is to be gotten by Boromir and be used by him for good.

In FF4 we learn that Cecil's "adoptive" father was the King of Baron. Its widely known the King changed and became obsessed with getting crystals. It was during this time that Cecil became leader of the Red Wings as a Dark Knight.



I posit the assumption that what happened to Boromir happened to Cecil. With no real proof, I say the King told Cecil that to protect the kingdom he would have to use the powers of the enemy. He did it out of duty.



That is how you get a mopey dark knight that feels bad about killing. We get a dark knight that almost goes insane with releasing a bomb on a village. We get a Dark Knight that can turn into a Paladin with no relapses into his former ways. We also get Rosa talking about the kindness of Cecil in past tense.

Would Boromir have been as redeemed? Probably not, but then again putting on black armor isn't nearly as tough as carrying a ring with almost limitless power.

Episode 7 Season 1 Finale: Minecraft: The Bay

Ok. Today is the day.

If you remember from the first episode I saw the mountain and made a plan for the cave area. The gathering of wood was because I decided to NOT make it from stone. The exploration that nearly killed me was because I was scouting the housing location. The underground river area was refined so I could get to the back of the mountain easier. So here we go, lets define the area again:



So I realize now I never showed the raw cave really before. The cave was already in very good shape, there were a couple of holes, but I filled those in so I would not hurt my ankle walking through. On the left of the picture you can see the "back" area that I made in Episode 6 and how it connects.



First I decided to take advantage of the crater the exploding green monster made way back in episode 2. I decided to make an open area porch here. Well... the real reason is because monsters were able to get up in this area, I put a door here and constantly had skeletons shooting arrows at me, and I'm sure the green monsters could explode here and hurt my main home, so I sort of made a barrier by having an outside(repairable) porch here to block their way.



I next started hollowing out and filling in the back area here with wooden panels. In the interest in keeping the front more natural looking, I did not do the entire front area in wood panel. I went down to the front and thought about what I was going to do. Then I remembered the Grand Canyon, and their Sky Bridge thing they have there. So I did this:



I know that this looks crazy bad from the ground. Glass is not totally transparent in this game so it makes the front disturbing, but I don't mind it as much because in my mind it would look great in real life haha. Anyway, this is what it looks like down the steps:



The floor is made of glass, so from the safety of Fort Lookout, you can look all along the bay and watch the sun come up and observe all around. I love this room, it is very cool to stand in.



I finished my "home" and I am happy with how neat it is. It is in a great location where I do not have to worry about monsters. It has plenty of room to move around in so I am not bored at night. Its easily accessible to me, and it has kick ass views of the surrounding area. I hope you enjoyed reading my first Season, and I hope it was not too boring. Season 2 is already in the works, but it will be a while, so I will switch back to talking about other games for a while.



Season 2 coming soon: The River.

Episode 6 Minecraft: The Bay

Minecraft has lots of mining in it. I mine many times though you do not see it here really. All my torches, my refining of steel, and my cooking of ham requires coal in order for it all to work. To tell the truth I have not mined very far into the ground, and really the only amazing thing I've found under there is that underground river. So here are some pictures of my trip to the mine I call "The Gravel Pit". This is the mine that is past the waterfall bridge that has gotten me most of my coal. Its full of gravel everywhere. The last of the 3 pics in this one picture is some coal beside some iron ore.



As you can see in these pictures, I have a furnace. You can burn many things in the furnace. Wood of all types work, you can burn most anything made of wood. Coal is the best bang for your buck really, it burns much longer. If you put iron ore in the furnace with some coal, you get steel. With steel you can make a full suit of steel armor.



Ok, so now back to the bulding. The back of my mountain opens up to Cyclops mountain as you can see in the picture. Where the cave opens in the rear the land forms a nice little table. It is here that I start framing the floor. I have some decisions to make. The view, to tell you the truth, behind the mountain is not great. Its just a fragmented shell compared to the beautiful front facing the bay.



So I've decided to make a full wooden structure here. Wooden floors, wooden walls, and a wooden wrap around porch. The far end that you see with the flowers will stay sort of natural. There's a nice tree there with the flowers and I like the look out that side. In this next picture you can see the opening that leads to the bay, just a tiny bit there in the background.



While working on the porch, I slip and fall. I actually land in a hole that is hard to get out, when suddenly I hear a hiss. Yes, a hiss just like the one when I was on the mountain all those days ago. I turn around to see THIS



Some kind of cactus monster that hisses and runs like a mad man strait to me. It explodes and I barely make it out with my life. Another crater was made, and I was tossed several feet away from the explosion. I am told they call them "creepers". I think that's far too nice a name. I've killed zombies on fire, but these things could blow up my entire house... I'm scared of these guys.

This is the fruits of my labor, the back of what I'm unofficially calling Fort Lookout.

Episode 5 Minecraft: The Bay

Ok. So I like stone structures, they show strength. They last a long time. Its classic. Minecraft, however, has an abundance in stone. An abundance of ugly ass stone. If you want to show you got class, you use wood. Wood is harder to get, and the components cost lots of wood. So I have to go out and find me a forest. On the opposite side of the hollow mountains is this nice plain with trees. You can see how the river from the bay bends off into the distance.



At first I went about it a silly way. I cut down the smaller trees I could reach. When the leaves or wood got too high up, I built an earthen ramp to reach it. This took forever and dulled my tools. It took so long that I spent the night on top of a platform one night... it was not fun. So I knew there had to be a better way. While I sat there, I had a brainstorming session. Finally it hit me. At daylight I hopped down and over to my shelter to get things in order.



As I chop downward the ladder pieces fall with the wood and I get them back very easily. Walking around up in the trees is a bit dangerous though, I decide to bring a lunch next time so help me out with getting hurt from being careless and falling. I aim for the large, massive trees that grow near the mountains. The wood from one of these trees easily equals that of 4 or 5 regular trees. While doing this, I realize a way to clear the leaves after I get all the wood out.



Unfortunately a sheep wondered too close to a burning pile of leaves. I tried to get some water, but by the time I had gotten back, the sheep was ashes. I would not feel so bad if it didn't burn the wool off before it dies.



With the wood that I now had, I decide that I need an easy way to get from my shelter to my soon to be home. I remember that the underground river cave actually opens up at the top to near the upper cave. I mine some stone from the mine near my shelter, and I go about organizing the cave. I add steps and I close in holes so that monsters can no longer hide. A few torches and I'm good to go.



The river was wild and went nowhere really. It made alot of noise but that was about it. I dam the river upstream and carve out the pool below so that the water is calm. It is a good source of fresh water now, and with the steps and wood platforms I can travel fast to the front or back of the mountain.

I had some left over wood, and a new found knowledge of water manipulation. I run down the coast to the waterfall just beyond the bay, near the cave I found with the coal. I dam the waterfall and I dredge the bottom of the river so that the water flows easily and reaches the bay with little effort. Next I construct a bridge so that I can easily cross.



The Bay is taking shape and I am able to move around much better than before. I am ready to start constructing my home, fort, lookout tower, light house, or whatever you want to call it. The conclusion to season one is near. Next, the 2 part episode detailing my building.

Episode 4 Minecraft: The Bay

When I last left you, I had explored the mountains in view of my home. While it was exciting for me, it was not really advancing my current goal of making the bay a habitable and logical "Home Base". I identified that I needed to explore, but it was behind my "home" mountain that I had not seen. So I proceeded to check it out.

Immediately rounding the corner, I see the large mountain that is sort of a "sister" mountain to my home mountain. It has a giant hole in it that almost looks like an eye. I decided to call this Cyclops mountain after the mythical giants with one eye. Directly in front of this was an arch that I had to go through to reach the back of my home mountain. It looked disturbingly like someone shot a cannon through 2 mountains now that I look at it in the pictures...



Anyway, it was on the other side I was facing that I saw this huge monolithic shape appear on my horizon. I got closer and saw an amazing looking mountain that after some thought I've named Anvil Mountain.



While I was looking at Anvil mountain I realized that my mountain had several caves in the back. One obviously lead strait through where I was planning on building a lookout fort. The other lead to an unexpected location. I illuminate them in these pictures but you can see that it lead to the underground river near my home!



Then things got CRAZY. While looking at my home I heard a sound, a "uhhhhhhhhhh" kind of sound. I went to my home and I closed my door and grabbed my sword. When I rounded the corner, I was met by this!



HOLY CRAP, zombies are real and they just happen to be invading my home area. I fought off this one eventually, but it scratched me up something awful. As the sun came up, I was able to see it was a whole gaggle(herd? crowd? flock?) of zombies. I recalled that in the movies the zombies couldn't survive during the day, and sure enough as the sun rose higher they caught fire. I thought I was in the clear.



Except apparently they take a while to die from fire!



I had to kill a zombie... that was on fire! How could it get worse than a zombie on fire? Fire is scary enough. Zombies are freaking mind blowing. Flaming Zombies are pure nightmare fuel. I survived the night and survived the morning and decided I needed to kick things in to high gear and get some stuff done.