a.d.d.

In my last post, I discussed how RPGs were like real life - or perhaps real life is like an RPG. In any case, I think they went wrong in one regard. Drops.

Scenario: Hunting for rare itenz
Location: Some high level map
Mobs: ..... uhm, let's say... spiders... yes high level spiders, ugly and nasty critters eh?

What did they deserve to get mercilessly killed? They're just protecting their home right? We're the ones picking fights here... they're not really [Lv150 Evil Spider]... they're just [Angry Protective Creature]. Anyway, I digress. Ok. You succeed in killing a couple thousand. And you're starting to get bored. And then it happens. *Holy light shines down upon the ground next to a freshly hewn mass of green blood and legs. The [Insert grandiose sounding adjective] Ultima Reaving Sanguinary Powerblade of Darkness and Destruction ©. The rare drop of the map. A sword whose splendour exudes from your hands. In town, it hovers upon your back, restless. The hilt within grasp at your head's side. The blade send sparks behind the ground you trod as it stretches and tapers to a victorious point behind your feet. Somebody asks you: "Zomgoamzog, where'd you get that?!"

Then you falter. A... spider. wtf, you'd think that something that big would rip the spider in half. How did the thing get that item anyway? Did it eat a giant? It's stomach must be in some other dimension as it surely would never fit in the belly of a spider. Your aura of reverie is shattered as your realize you're playing an unrealistic game. So anyway, all of that was just to say: drops are amazingly illogical. Oh, and... why didn't the spider just pull that thing out and start whacking you with it? That always confuses me too. When mobs who could very easily destroy you with the weapon they have stored in who-knows-where on their body (maybe in their back-pocket). But no, they choose to use their dinky generic sword that barely scratches your glorious armor. (Or in female character's cases, lack thereof).

Drop size also perturbs me sometimes. More so in first person shooters than in RPGs. I love how the gun models on the ground are smaller than your foot, yet it still manages to look big when you're holding it. Surely you're not that tall for items to start looking small in perspective. And isn't it also amusing that most FPS games have you wearing magic boots? What magic boots? Oh, you know, the one that allows you to strip the ammo from the gun, put it in your reserves, and send the physical weapon into another dimension - because you certainly don't just discard the gun. Those magic boots.

I'm not bashing games. I'm merely observing how such ridiculous concepts are in games and a lot of the times you just take it as it is.

Anyway, the main topic of my post this time is disorganization. Though, I think I'm gonna end up bashing Facebook - because it's the best example of what I'm about to type about. I think our generation is A.D.D. by design. Maybe by design isn't the right way to describe it, but here, let me explain.

We get so much information thrown at us in our everyday life and we are forced to digest it all. Whether we like it or not. We have developed manners of streamlining this process of digesting this information given to us. It works fairly well (more so than our elders [simply by being more accustomed to it]). We are able to ignore the unimportant, and grab multiple different pieces of information at once. Take a look at a news channel. Sometimes they'll be talking about news and they'll be running a streamer of text at the bottom. Couple this with maybe some stock quotes in the lower left. You've got yourself a pretty busy image thrown at you. Still, we manage to scarf down the information fairly successfully.

Here's Facebook bashing time. Take a look at my homepage:
I can't even remember what Facebook used to look like anymore. I know it wasn't this garbaged up. I never did use it much anyway. Still, once you manage to process all this mess of *USELESS* information into your brain. To me, it feels like my brain is getting fragmented, with no hope of ever being defragged for the next hour.

Now, here's why I say we're getting A.D.D. If you manage to find a way to consume all of this information quickly, your brain will be set up to expect this kind of display of information. I think our attention span is getting seriously stunted due to this effect. We expect information to be displayed curtly and for all of it to be thrown on us at once. I don't know if this is a good thing or not. We certainly are better at multi-tasking (nah, multi-threading is a better term) than our previous generation, but it is at the disadvantage of losing our concentration for long periods of time.

What ever happened to the simple and straightforward? Everything has to now be flashy, showy, and "look cool". But in my opinion, a lot of these new trends are awfully ill-conceived and ill-executed. Maybe that's why Google does so well. We have the desire for simplicity, but we see too much complexity these days.

I truly don't know whether or not this is a good thing or a bad thing - having the ability to process such amounts of information in one go. But I do think that it certainly does play a major role in our attention span. I wish I could stop to slow down my thinking process sometimes. I feel like I'm racing to get things done and get things into my brain. It can easily get overwhelming. This kind of frightens me, wanting to slow down, but not being able to.

I miss LEGO blocks. How many of you have played with LEGOs when you were a kid? I'd expect probably everyone. Such simple things, those pieces of plastic. So much could be done with such a simple building block. I was such a huge LEGO fanatic when I was a kid. Makes me nostalgic thinking about... maybe when I get back home where all my LEGO bricks are neatly arranged and packed away, I'll bust them out and have a session with my inner and previous self.

I kind of wish I had kept all the boxes to the LEGO sets I got when I was a kid. You know, as a collection kind of thing. Sadly, my kid self didn't think this far in the future and threw the boxes away and the instruction manuals are probably strewn across the house in various and unknown locations. Still, I did organize all my LEGOs into containers ... and I still remember too.

• Flat pieces (1/3 height) that are 1 dot wide
• Flat pieces that are 2 dot wide
• Flat pieces that were smooth at the top
• Flat pieces that were greater than 2dot wide
• Bricks that were 1dot wide but less than or equal to 6dots long
• Bricks that were 1dot wide and greater than 6dots long
• Bricks that were 2dot wide
• Bricks that were 2x2
• Forward slanting bricks - where the dots were located on the shorter plane
• Backward slanting bricks - where the dots are located on the plane
• Special small pieces - ropes, the (1)x(1)x(1/3) pieces, lights, guns, sticks, etc.
• Special large pieces - like boat bottoms, walls, etc
• Windows and doors
• Body parts
• Technic pieces (I wasn't too much into the Technic sets - but I did admire the expensive ones... like the red race car with pneumatic doors *drool*)

I also wish I had pictures of my creations. I suppose at the time, we only had those 35mm cameras (pre-digital camera) so taking pictures would have been costly. Still, I wish that I had some kind of memento from those days. I had so many cool things! Spaceships, houses with working defenses that shot LEGO bricks from invaders, forts with trap doors, ultrasonic speedboats, hovercrafts and hoverboards of all types, airplanes, jets, super-sleek cars... I miss LEGOs so much. I think my prized item is my Star Wars LEGO 7181 Ultimate Collector's Edition TIE interceptor. I begged so long to get this thing when I was a kid (I guess it'd be 7 years ago since the set was released in 2000). I finally got it for Christmas and at $100, it was insanely high for any single item I'd ever gotten for x-mas (that I can remember), and I was ecstatic. It's so sleeeeeeeeek. Call me a dork; I know it and embrace it. Here's the only picture I could find on my computer of the set.

It's a shame my Heavyarms Custom is taking a nap. 'cause he's hardcore too. Apparently, my TIE Interceptor is one of the more rare of the collector sets? I could be wrong and just boasting.

Makes me happy thinking about being when I kid. Anyway, I think I'm done for now. Until next time, enjoy life!