I’m a future educator, and I’ve recently started my internship at a local school to get practice in my field before taking on a class of my own. Amid all this controversy over Common Core and other things that I’m not going to weigh in on (at least not today), I felt that one important thing to consider is why a lot of teachers get fed up when people talk about giving us money, and when they point to how “inefficient” our spending is as it stands. Continue reading “Sunday Extra: Funding Teachers for Student Performance”
Category: Uncategorized
Sunday Extra: Why Creative Commons Can Be Awesome (Or Fail)
So one of the things that I love about Creative Commons is how it’s really brought certain things to light. Stuff like Eclipse Phase has proven that you can give away products for free and still sell copies based on people’s enjoyment of your work; it’s a platinum seller at DriveThruRPG (disclaimer: I’m a reviewer there), but it’s also available for free from anyone who cares to send you a copy; the developer even has download links on his blog! Still, Creative Commons has some problems with it. Continue reading “Sunday Extra: Why Creative Commons Can Be Awesome (Or Fail)”
Sunday Extra: Will Kindle Print Replica books really only work on “Kindle Fire Tablets, iPad, Android Tablets, PC, and Mac”?
So the other day I was shopping for some of my textbooks on Amazon and discovered that they had a Kindle edition. Not wanting to lug around a big heavy book, I opted to go digital and tangentially save a tree or two, and get it for my Kindle. Now, there’s just one problem with that; these were “Print Replica” books, and they aren’t actually available for my old-school Kindle (the kind that has a keyboard, from back before there was any other kind). Well, oops. Or was it? Continue reading “Sunday Extra: Will Kindle Print Replica books really only work on “Kindle Fire Tablets, iPad, Android Tablets, PC, and Mac”?”
Sunday Extra: Why Video Game Narratives Fail
One of the greatest things that ticks me off as a gamer is when I’m playing a game and I can know where everything is going from the very beginning-there’s no element of surprise or suspense, and even if there is it’s only because characters act in unbelievable ways. Now, there’s a whole plethora of issues that cause this, everything from the fact that modern gameplay tends to not be as emergent as we claim it is to the fact that writers often can’t write video games or their stories do not get integrated into the game correctly. Continue reading “Sunday Extra: Why Video Game Narratives Fail”
Extra: Mercenary Kings (Early Access)
So yesterday I got an e-mail announcing the early access to Mercenary Kings, which I Kickstarted, and my Steam key. Needless to say, I was more than a little excited (I did, after all, think it was going to be good, and I did give them money). For those not in the know, Mercenary Kings is a Metal Slug-esque arcade shooter; imagine something that falls between a Castlevania game and the original arcade games in terms of pace; lots of bullets, lots of speed, character customization, and more. Continue reading “Extra: Mercenary Kings (Early Access)”
Sunday Extra: A Hint of Things To Come
I’ve never drawn out these guys’ logo before, and I don’t actually know if I’ve ever written much stuff to the public about them.
As a side note, the teaser is more in the art-style than in the image itself. In the Orchestra universe, Transsolar is a megacorporation that specializes in high-tech fields such as space flight and energy weapons. They’re known for their ruthlessness and massive resources; those with a focus on conspiracy theories speak of everything from aliens to World League sponsorship and more when discussing how they rose to power and prominence, though nobody can prove much about the corporation’s shadowy beginnings.
More certain, however, is Transsolar’s current influence in the world. While they do not maintain any major corporate enclaves (a sign that some would say reveals their allegiance to the World League; their only extraterritorial holdings are a small New Californian retreat), they employ just under a tenth of the world’s general workforce; mostly through lesser subsidiaries such as their consumer goods retailers rather than as a research branch. As far as faceless megacorporations go, they keep out of the public sphere-they’re known to the masses for their space research programs, while the academic world knows them as manufacturers of laboratory grade lasers, scanners, and other electronics.
Transsolar has many major defense contracts with the World League, but there are rumblings that they may be terminated soon due to unsatisfactory outcomes. Some people suggest that they kept the best results of their research for themselves, but other than unverified reports of a massive gunship attacking a military police train outside of Tokyo little is known for sure.
Extra: Planetary Annihilation Alpha Impressions
I’m in the alpha for Planetary Annihilation; I’ve mentioned Total Annihilation here before, and I was a pretty easy sell on a spiritual successor, especially one in which planets can be weaponized. Since I have alpha access, I think I’ll post up some of my impressions here; nothing too far on the technical side, but some stuff that I found interesting.
Continue reading “Extra: Planetary Annihilation Alpha Impressions”
Extra: The Importance of Earnest Questions
I don’t spend as much time on Stack Exchange as I used to, but I used to frequent the sites, and one thing that I noticed very quickly was the amount of loaded questions being thrown around. Questions like “My friend said this, but I think it’s this. I’m right, right?” came up more often than one would hope. Disregarding the fact that this directly undermines Stack Exchange’s purpose, it’s also plain dumb, since instead of hearing the actual answers presented by the majority of posters, they accept whoever purports their position first as the “proper answer”, regardless of the facts. Continue reading “Extra: The Importance of Earnest Questions”
Extra: Gamer Guilt
I know a lot of gamers who won’t admit to it, or if they do will only admit to playing things like Portal or other cerebral but less mainstream games. Personally, I don’t go around saying that I’m a gamer either, even though I, of all people, recognize the value of gaming and I make it an important part of my studies, and have generally come to the conclusion that gaming tends to give people certain advantages. There’s a few reasons why I don’t really describe myself as a “gamer”.
Table Reflection: Playing with Women
Okay, I’ll admit it, I’m a guy (as in male, XY chromosomes, plentiful testosterone). Most of the people I hang out with and run games for are too. I don’t have insight into women from a marketing perspective, so I’m not going to try to talk about how to interest women in gaming. Instead, I’m looking at a simple thing; handling women and men at the tabletop while playing roleplaying games (this applies a little to any community which is male dominated and often perceived or legitimately believed to be actively hostile to women), mostly from my own experiences as someone whose table often includes a woman, written to guys who wonder why women don’t want to roll up a barbarian and join them. Continue reading “Table Reflection: Playing with Women”