Misadventures of SLOTH

With permission from original author Dan Wood, I transformed his great online typing tutorial "A Basic Course in Dvorak" into presentation mode.
http://sagez.net/amuseum/abcd.html

Some time in the past, I've read some discussions on how the universe was created, whether it was by design or by chance. Most of you have probably also seen some of the same arguments from both sides. But what eventually happens is that no one is able to convince the other side that they have the right answer. What you end up with is a bunch of half-informed web pages using half-truths and logical fallacies to support their side.

What brought about this post was that I had another great notion while seated on the great thinking chair (i.e. toilet). The idea came back to me about if God was not confined by time when he created the heavens and the earth, then why does the Bible insist that God created everything in six days? No more, no less. This question actually leads to many interesting answers, but nothing seems quite correct to me and only leads to more questions.

For one, how does one define day and how is it used in the Genesis passages? In many languages, including English and Hebrew (in which the original Scriptures were written), day can have many meanings depending on how one uses it. Many religious and philosophical sites will argue that the day has no other meaning other than being a 24-hour time period; while others try to use scientific allegories to extend the word day to cover a long period time as short as thousands of years to as long as billions of years. Unless God needed a realistic model, so he spent billions of years to test things out. But it sounds like God already planned everything out, and just needed six days to create everything. Neither solution really answers why God really needs six days or six billion years to accomplish anything.

Let's say God uses day so that us mere humans can understand the scope of the creation project. Would you be more impressed to know that the universe actually existed billions of years before we existed, or would you be more impressed to know that God has the power to create an entire universe in just six days? Not that God needs to justify or to boast his powers. After all, you don't have to believe in miracles to believe in God.

Another thing is

MMORPGs are big time wasters. (And nobody knows more about wasting time than me.) Many MMORPGs are mostly rehashes of older games and badly executed. Despite the fact that this genre is designed with years of gameplay in mind, almost none of the games out now stay fun after a few months. So I've decided to throw in the towel after a disappointing three months of "playing" World of Warcraft. (I actually got bored after two hours in beta. I got the game to play with friends. I actually spent the bulk of the time making addons for the UI.)

MMORPG, for those who have been living under a rock for the last few years, is an acronym for Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game. Hundreds of thousands of players (per game, if lucky) pay monthly fees to simultaneously engage and live a second life in a virtual world. Examples of this genre are EverQuest 1&2, Ultima Online (UO), World of Warcraft (WoW), Asheron's Call 1&2, Dark Age of Camelot (DAoC), Star Wars Galaxy (SWG), Final Fantasy XI, Lineage 1&2, and many others.

My first long-term residence in the fantasy online world was Asheron's Call 2 (AC2) when it first came out in late 2002. Before that, I have forayed into UO and EQ, but they didn't impress me. The thing that AC2 hooked me was their great combat system and the freedom to explore the continent of Dereth. Travel was quick with recalling magic and portal ringway system. It usually doesn't take more than five minutes to get from one location to any other place. All that was great for the beginning. In fact, I still think AC2 beats the competition from levels 1-15. But things start to slow down after that, and then you feel the grind.

Whenever a MMORPGer hears the word grind, it usually reminds them of tedium, boredom, and waste of time. Some use the word treadmill to describe a grind. Basically, you fight a bunch of enemies (which are affectionately called mobs) to gain experience points so that you get higher levels, more skills, and items, so that you can fight even tougher mobs--and the cycle starts over. Now, realize that this is the premise of most RPGs, so what's the big deal, right? Unlike single player RPGs that is meant for only dozens of hours of gameplay, MMORPGs are meant to keep players paying for months and even years. So, the treadmill is stretched out so that it takes a dedicated player months and even years to reach the top level. It becomes a problem if 1) you find the game not that fun or even downright boring and slow, 2) you don't have that much time to play the game, and/or 3) there is nothing to do once you have achieved the top level. Unlike single player RPGs, there is no final boss to kill to see the plot ending. A MMORPG is supposed to be endless. In many cases, this means endless grinding and tedium.

So, many MMORPGer talk about an endgame, which is sort of an oxymoron for this genre. MMORPGs are entertainent meant to last for years, and both fans and game developers don't want it to end, so how can one play the endgame? The players look for the endgame when they reach the top level. Since their characters can't gain any more experience, they need new activities to occupy their time. Usually the designers put in things like raids, player-versus-player (PVP), crafting, and rare items. Most of these things found in the endgame generally require a lot of time to setup and to complete, and getting the rare loot also requires a lot of luck. Either the rare loot is absolutely essential for your character to compete in future endgame events, or its advantage over your old gear is very marginal. Either way, it is a chore. I'd rather become a professional gambler than go through this tedium.