Year: 2008

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Mostly Everything

Remembering Grim Fandango

Grim Fandango. Manny Calavera. The Companeros theme song. I’ve been on a retro stint lately, and recently downloaded Grim Fandango (1.1GB) and can finally run it on a decent computer (the last time I ran this, I had a Pentium MMX)! For those of you who’ve played it, you’ll definitely agree with me that this is one of the best adventure games ever made alongside hits like Monkey Island, Quest for Glory, Maniac Mansion and … Zak McKraken.

What was sad was this Lucasarts production only sold about 95,000 units in its peak in 1998. The main culprit was the shift to more action oriented games (first person shooters) such as the original Half Life by Sierra / Valve. This really killed the role playing adventure genre and the last that I’ve seen that remains of this is The Longest Journey series.

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Mostly Everything

Blog Action Day 2008: Poverty as the First MDG

As a development studies guy, the campaign to end poverty is a tangible one. Not too many people know about the eight Millennium Development Goals for 2015. First on the list is Eradicate Extreme Poverty and Hunger.

There are three targets:

Target 1:
Halve, between 1990 and 2015, the proportion of people whose income is less than $1 a day

* Higher food prices may push 100 million people deeper into poverty
* Conflict leaves many displaced and impoverished

Target 2:
Achieve full and productive employment and decent work for all, including women and young people

* Full employment remains a distant possibility
* Low-paying jobs leave one in five developing country workers mired in poverty
* Half the world’s workforce toil in unstable, insecure jobs

Target 3:
Halve, between 1990 and 2015, the proportion of people who suffer from hunger

(This is where I stopped and looked at my post and said to myself, who am I kidding?)

Honestly I don’t feel very comfortable talking about physical poverty. I oftentimes think I can relate, or even empathize with how they really feel. But the sad truth is that I will never know and saying “I know how you feel” or “THIS is what we should do to help them” is an exercise of many assumptions.

I don’t believe in those one shot medical missions, nor do I believe in “PR-driven” outreach programs. Because at the end of the day, the ones who “feel good” aren’t the poor.

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Mostly Everything

Remembering Day of the Tentacle

That video above is a 20 minute speed run of one of the most boggling adventure games I’ve played.

The main reason Day of the Tentacle sets itself apart so greatly despite sharing a handful of elements with its predecessor is the fact that it draws from completely different inspirations. With Maniac Mansion, Ron Gilbert and Gary Winnick sought to tribute the horror/scifi B-movie genre. With Day of the Tentacle, that influence was replaced by the work of Chuck Jones. If Maniac Mansion is like playing through a cheesy horror movie, Day of the Tentacle is like playing through a Saturday morning cartoon, and everything from the brand of humor to the puzzle design reflects this. Knowledge of the previous game is not assumed, and there’s definitely a “reboot” feel to the whole project – this game is in a completely different spirit than the original, sporting a new style and tone. Not that this change was an unwelcome one. In fact, that Day of the Tentacle is very much Maniac Mansion’s equal in terms of quality is probably the mildest praise one will see bestowed on the game, which tends to be considered among the best ever produced.

If you’re old enough to remember Laverne, Hoagy and Bernard from Maniac Mansion 2 or Day of the Tentacle, you’ll really appreciate this 20 minute speed run. I was banging my head just trying to figure this game out back in 1993. These were the days when nobody heard of game FAQS. I remember wasting hours on the phone with friends as we cracked our heads to figure Day of the Tentacle 2 out. In retrospect, here is a great article that talked about one of the best adventure / puzzle games ever made.

Thoughts at 2300 HRS

I rarely ramble, but here are a few things that have been on my mind lately.

1. We need more valuable and diverse local web property. All I see are blogs, forums and micro sites. It would be nice to venture into original and useful properties to build value. But then again, it might be the culture as well.

2. I think it’s silly that a number of bloggers bear some sense of enmity with journalists in general. It’s not about what medium you write in, it’s who you are that makes you. Just because it’s “new media” doesn’t make journalism “old media.” A little respect would go a long way. We’re all more closely intertwined than you think. So are bloggers better..? Again, it’s about what you do. Can’t we just quit it and learn from each other?

3. I think know that IPTV or Internet television is going to make bigger waves in 2009. Smaller area for penetration, higher quality control for content. And the ironic thing is that it won’t be snowballed by television networks.

4. I have another big hunch that we’ll be seeing less of “Make Money Online” in 2009 and more of “Make Meaning Online.”

5. Arise, local venture capitalist to fund new media projects!

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Mostly Everything

Audible Recommendations: Predictably Irrational, Gaiman’s Graveyard Book, Batman

The alternate title of this post is “The British Pop Culture Invasion.” 🙂

Ah, to make up for the lack of recommendations for the past few weeks, here are three books I downloaded with my subscription from Audible. The first is a Diggnation recommendation from Kevin Rose titled Predictably Irrational. I got this version as it was cheaper on audio than it was on the shelf (Phoebe bought the tome version), and it’s narrated by this British guy with a strong James Bond accent. Winner.

Why do our headaches persist after taking a one-cent aspirin but disappear when we take a 50-cent aspirin? Why does recalling the 10 Commandments reduce our tendency to lie, even when we couldn’t possibly be caught? Why do we splurge on a lavish meal but cut coupons to save 25 cents on a can of soup? Why do we go back for second helpings at the unlimited buffet, even when our stomachs are already full? And how did we ever start spending $4.15 on a cup of coffee when, just a few years ago, we used to pay less than a dollar?

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