Divine Misfortune - Book Review

Divine Misfortune by A. Lee Martinez

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Mortals and Gods meddling in each other's affairs is never a good idea. But when the world has domesticated Gods to the point of needing to advertise via a matching website (think Match.com but instead of matching for love they match for divine favor) you're in for a few bumps along the way.



A. Lee Martinez is easily one of my favorite authors. It's hard for me to possibly like him ore than I already do but the fact that he actually gives a shout out to World of Warcraft: For the Horde! in his defecation makes me practically swoon with geek girl fandom.



I devoured this book in just a few sittings. Martinez's writing style is such a pleasure to read that the story practically jumps off the page into the imagination with no effort on the readers part.



The concept of the book is not entirely new but Martinez spins new life into this godly tale. It's fun, fast paced and funny. Another great read by Martinez.







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Changeless - Book Review

Changeless by Gail Carriger

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


The second book in the Parasol Protectorate had so much to offer but only manages to deliver towards the end of the book.



It took me several months to actually get through this book as I would pick it up, read a chapter or two and then set it down again without so much as a thought to actually reading it. The beginning of the book moves slower than snail's pace and is missing all the elements that made the first book so enjoyable; namely the fascinating relationship between Alexia and her husband. It's not until Alexia floats to Scotland dragging behind her sister, best friend, maid, clargiver Tunstell and the mysterious Madame Lefoux that the book begins to pick up. It's then off at a whirlwind pace when she reunites with her husband; it was at this point I couldn't put the book down.



I would consider this book a "filler" episode but it certainly sets up the story for the next book as well as setting expectations high for "Blameless". I imagine, and would hope, that much of what comes from this plot, that's not directly related to Alexia and her relationship, will make it's return in later books.



I forgive the author for the plodding pace of the first half of the book because she managed to make me feel real emotion and a snap of incredulous heartbreak for Alexia. I'm looking forward to the third book and this is a must read for the fans of this series. Choke it down like medicine because you'll feel a whole lot better at the end and be ready to, and looking forward, to the next installment in The Parasol Protectorate.



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His Mom Loves This

As a follow up to yesterday's posting on the Dead Space 2 ad campaign, I wanted to post this video of Dino Ignacio's (lead interface designer for the game) mom's reaction to the game.

Now this is a cool mom. Does it mean the game can't be cool anymore? ;)

Your Mom Hates This

EA has decided to throw this "brilliant" marketing for it's newest game release, Dead Space 2. I sure wish you could hear my sarcasm as I say the word, "brilliant". Just replace "brilliant" with "idiotic" and you get my drift.

Thanks EA for bringing the video game back a few steps. Really, thanks. What you did here was neither clever nor funny. AND I take particular offense as a market researcher that you did this entire thing under the guise of market research. This isn't research!




First off, Dead Space 2 is rated M for mature. That means 18+. It gets that rating for a reason. Let's not forget who plays video games, not the younger crowd but the older crowd. Does the 18+ crowd really care anymore if their mom hates this game

Second, you picked conservative America precisely so you could shock these people. You could have showed them images from the latest SyFy movie special and you would have still gotten the same reaction even though we all know how horrible SyFy original movies are.


Deborah Gibson and Tiffany in MegaPython vs. Gatoroid...need I say more? Didn't think so.


Third, who are these women exactly mom to? They all look like they could be grandmothers which means their children are long grown and they're out of the loop of electronic media. I'm a mom. I think the Dead Space games are amazing! I have young children at home but you'd never touch me as a target because I'd completely disprove your theory about "your mom hates this".

In one way, you're right, "this mom does hate this"... but guess what? I hate the ad campaign and whatever jackass thought it would be a good idea. I don't hate the game, just you for this nonsense.

Gaming Justice

Riot games, the company behind the amazing RTS like game League of Legends has announced that to help combat the rising issue of jerks on the internet they will begin using crowd sourced gaming justice.



You can read the entire article HERE.

I like the idea in concept. I don’t know how many times I’ve been on and had some jerkface just absolutely ruin my gaming experience. My husband tells me that I need to grow a thicker skin and in many ways he’s absolutely right. The world is filled with jerkfaces and the virtual realm is no exception. I could do an entire different blog post about this (and just might) but for now I want to focus on what LoL is doing to try and rein this problem in.

In WoW I get no satisfaction by simply reporting them to Blizzard and getting the reply that “they’re sorry” and “they’ll investigate” but I should “use the /ignore function”. I’m glad they needed to tell me to use that function, as if I already don’t have a sizable list of people to ignore. The /ignore solves nothing. The offender will move onto another target or they’ll simply pop off, make another character and let the harassment start all over. Although, on a side note, I do wish in real life that I had that capabilities to /ignore people.

What LoL is proposing is interesting and I’ll be keeping an eye out to see how it works out. They’re going to allow the players to judge offenses and dole out punishment. We see in communities that players tend to defend their own anyways and keep people in line whenever possible. They’re just taking the concept a step further and actually giving the players the power to do something.

There are problems with their proposed system though. First, they’re allowing only high level characters to be judges. While this means you’re getting people who have put in their time, it doesn’t mean they’ll be the best judges in this situation. So now you’ll have elitist jerks judging jerks. Just because you have a high level character does not make you the best person to pass on judgment.

Second, they’re requiring you spend at least 60 seconds on a case. The thought is that by requiring someone to spend 60 seconds on a case they will actually put some thought behind it and not just use click judgment or botting to make decisions. 60 seconds?! Are you kidding me… 60 seconds isn’t enough time to make sure someone has actually read, thought about and put some effort in making a decision. If you look at the way the system will work, it’s going to take a lot longer than 60 seconds to read through this.



Third, anyone can make a statement about someone else…where is the chance for the offending player to make their case? You can’t actually have a tribunal when you’ve only got ½ of the story. Now granted, they’re passed onto a Riot employee for review but the initial decision is based on a partial story.

Fourth, they plan on keeping the judge’s name hidden from the offending player but not the offending player’s name hidden from the judge. I think it should be anonymous across the board. Just because someone is a high level character and a judge doesn’t mean they can’t hold grudges either.

Finally, it seems to me as if Riot is being a bit lazy here. Why not just do the job yourself? I’m sure they get a flood of complaints but by passing the buck to the players is a double edged sword. On the one hand it does help the players feel a bit more invested in the game. It gives them a feeling of control, no matter how small that control may be. On the other hand it really does feel as if Riot is trying to figure out how to handle the number of issues they are getting without having to increase staff or man hours by passing this on to player volunteers. The more offensive cases are passed onto the Riot employees anyways so this really seems to be that they’re using players as a filter.

All in all I think it’s an interesting experiment to see what can be done about the increasing problem of people acting out online. With a few tweaks I think it will be a great system. However, it’s not truly a crowded sourced judgment as spelled out in the article. It’s about putting the power to judge in the hands of the players. A true crowd-sourced gaming justice system would have the players voting on offenses and appropriate punishments. Crowd-sourcing requires a crowd. Either way, I’ll be watching to see how this works in the long run.

In my forest of cute...

I came across these fun and amazing items today and wanted to share. I'm absolutely in love with the work that missmonster has posted on DeviantArt and you'll notice that most of what's here is hers. You can check out more of her amazing work here:

http://missmonster.deviantart.com/

If I had the cash on hand I'd buy each and every one of these things. I am a HUGE collector of things that are cute or have some amazing personality to them. All the below classify.

Tentatiger




Werewolf


Yeti Guys



Feed Meh Please



I want to cuddle with these at night!

Cute-thulu
I want to cuddle with these at night!



Brimly the Drofliw



And by far the most amazing thing I've ever seen! My b-day is coming up soon...anyone want to get this amazing rug for me?

Working at Geek

Lately I’ve felt some guilt about not being “geeky” enough or doing my duty to keep up with the geeky universe. It’s this gnawing feeling that just won’t go away. The more I think about it, the worse it becomes, the more guilty I feel and the more I try to pinpoint exactly where this feeling of guilt is coming from ; especially since being a geek isn’t supposed to be work. Being a geek means being who you are and doing what you love but lately it feels as if we’ve slipped away from that. Lately it feels like we’re in a race to out geek one another and it’s starting to take its toll on me.

Geek used to mean simply doing what you loved and having a passion for it. These were things that weren’t mainstream but rather misunderstood passions that meant something to those who engaged in those activities. I remember hanging out in the basement playing D&D with mounds of snacks and Mountain Dew, enough to keep us going until that damn dungeon was conquered or the GM just smited us to show who was really in power. I went LARPing on the college campus grounds, running around pretending to be a werewolf engaging in heated battles that would peek so furiously we had to drop character before it came to actual fists being thrown. When I moved to Japan I sold my car so I could have enough disposal cash to purchase a Playstation 2 (not yet out in America) and as many games as I could afford; and I did just that, cramming my tiny apartment with every game I could get my hands on including all the collectables and special editions I could ship home. I remember just gathering a group of people together and playing Bass Fishing until the sun came up and we were happy, we were content, we just were geeks.

Recently geek has become so mainstream that I wonder what it really means to be a geek anymore. With social media and information available to use at the touch of a button we can find anything we want and profess to be passionate in areas that we otherwise wouldn’t have access to or even think about. Now, I confess to my fair share of internet trolling for information but I’ve never just picked up a new aspect of “geek” by it.

Money also seems to driving force behind being a geek. I fall victim to this myself. I just recently paid 3x retail for a Monster High doll because I couldn’t find her in the stores and absolutely craved to have her. I have this thing for zombies and she’s so cute that I wanted her for my desk at work. My husband just stared blankly at me when I told him how much I paid for a “fashion doll”. It’s just hard to explain the affinity I feel with her personality… strange but after all, I’m geeky that way.

The thing is, I feel like I just can’t keep up anymore. There’s so much information that comes through my Twitter stream on a daily basis that I feel so small and insignificant in my own capacity to be a geek. I am a geek…I know it. Maybe I’m just too old to keep up with the younger geeks or maybe I’m just feeling the tides of change coming in and I’m having a hard time adjusting to it.

Then again, maybe I’m just old and it’s such an integrated part of my life that I don’t even think about being a geek. As I tell my kids, you need to live your life without worrying about what other people think and live for your passions and what makes you happy and if that falls into the realm of geekhood so be it!