QBlog
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The everyday blog of Richard Bartle.Mon, 18 Mar 2024 08:19:04 GMTen-gbDune Done
http://www.youhaventlived.com/qblog/2024/QBlog180324A.html
We went to see <I>Dune 2</I> at the Ipswich IMAX yesterday. We were seated in the cinema for over 3 hours.<BR>
<BR>
I didn't know my bladder was still that strong. Judging by the race to the gents afterwards, I wasn't the only one suffering, either.<BR>
<BR>
It was much better in the old days when there was an interval, even id the ice creams they sold were rock solid and the Kia Ora they sold was so dilute that it could have been made by homeopathists.<BR><BR><g:plusone annotation="inline"></g:plusone><BR><BR>
<IFRAME SRC="http://www.facebook.com/plugins/like.php?href=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youhaventlived.com%2Fqblog%2F2024%2FQBlog180324A.html&layout=standard&show_faces=true&width=450&action=like&colorscheme=light&height=80" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" style="border:none; overflow:hidden; width:450px; height:80px;" allowTransparency="true"></IFRAME>Crunch
http://www.youhaventlived.com/qblog/2024/QBlog170324A.html
Just as I opened the internal door to the garage yesterday afternoon, I spotted something heading for my mouth. I was speaking at the time and didn't shut my mouth in time. Something got inside and I crunched it.<BR>
<BR>
It was hard, broke into pieces (that were also hard) and tasted horrible. Some of it got stuck between my teeth. I didn't manage to recover any bits that could identify what it was, or even what colour it was. It wasn't very large — maybe 4mm across at most — and it didn't sting or anything. I still had its flavour in my mouth an hour later and had to buy an overpriced Lindt creme egg from a card shop to get rid of it.<BR>
<BR>
I think it was a spider.<BR><BR><g:plusone annotation="inline"></g:plusone><BR><BR>
<IFRAME SRC="http://www.facebook.com/plugins/like.php?href=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youhaventlived.com%2Fqblog%2F2024%2FQBlog170324A.html&layout=standard&show_faces=true&width=450&action=like&colorscheme=light&height=80" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" style="border:none; overflow:hidden; width:450px; height:80px;" allowTransparency="true"></IFRAME>Europe
http://www.youhaventlived.com/qblog/2024/QBlog160324A.html
I bought this stencil when I was in my late teens, to use for making games. It was only of limited use, because it was a fixed size (fairly small) and didn't include country borders. Also, I was hoping they'd bring one out for the eastern Mediterranean but they didn't. In the end, it was more convenient to trace maps from my atlas.<BR>
<BR>
<IMG SRC="http://www.youhaventlived.com/qblog/2024/europe.jpg"><BR>
<BR>
It has East Germany, Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia on it, so is somewhat out of date now. On the one hand, I ought to put it in the recycle bin because I haven't used it for 45 years and it's a breeze to obtain scalable maps from the Internet now if I need one.<BR>
<BR>
On the other hand, it's a relic of the past.<BR>
<BR>
Hmm, so a bit like me then.<BR><BR><g:plusone annotation="inline"></g:plusone><BR><BR>
<IFRAME SRC="http://www.facebook.com/plugins/like.php?href=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youhaventlived.com%2Fqblog%2F2024%2FQBlog160324A.html&layout=standard&show_faces=true&width=450&action=like&colorscheme=light&height=80" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" style="border:none; overflow:hidden; width:450px; height:80px;" allowTransparency="true"></IFRAME>1,000,000 Years BC
http://www.youhaventlived.com/qblog/2024/QBlog150324A.html
When I was at school, I used to run a postal games magazine. It was mainly for the games <I>Diplomacy</I> and <I>Railway Rivals</I>, but I would also occasionally publish rules for new games that I or my subscribers had invented. If enough people wanted to try them out, I'd run it.<BR>
<BR>
One such game, designed by Russel and Sean Noonan, was a mass caveman melée brawl. The game was fairly simple and the rules weren't entirely complete. Each player had a number of pick points to spend on attributes (strength, constitution, dexterity, intelligence) and weapons (bow, rock, small rock, club, bearskin, stone dagger). People of intelligence 5 could opt to be a shaman and have juju powers, but with limits on what weaspons they could use. I asked the readers of my zine what they thought, and from the responses changed some rules and added more. The immediate problem everyone saw was that players would try to avoid getting into a fight and it could well end up with two players on opposite sides of the map each holding position waiting for the other to attack. To counter this, the aim of the game was changed: no longer was the last caveman standing declared the victor, but there'd be a cavewoman over whom each caveman was fighting. The cavewoman was dubbed Raquel, spoofing the movie <I>1,000,000 Years BC</I>, and the game was named after the movie. It was proposed that if we ran a second game, that one would be <I>999,999 Years BC</I>, although we never did because when I went to university I folded my zine as I didn't have time to write it any more.<BR>
<BR>
Remember, this was 50 years ago. If you don't like the idea that cavemen would be fighting over a cavewoman then you need to go back to the 1970s to complain about it.<BR>
<BR>
One of my own innovations was to give Raquel some sovereignty. Yes, cavemen could overpower her and try to drag her to the edge of the board (to win the game), but she could struggle free. When she did, she would run to the most attractive caveman nearby. How did she decide who was the most attractive? Well, cavemen were given a looks attribute into which players could put some pick points, but overall attractiveness could be increased by issuing shouts. You got one shout to supply with your movies. If Raquel liked what you shouted then your attractiveness would improve. The gamesmaster (that would be me) decided if Raquel liked what she heard.<BR>
<BR>
This is where it gets interesting, and it's why I thought I'd post about it.<BR>
<BR>
Cavemen being cavemen, their vocabulary was limited. They could use each other's names (and Raquel's), but beyond that they were only allowed to use words from a limited list. The more intelligent the character, the more words they were allowed. In addition, I allowed players to invent one new word, once in the game, which would then also be available to every other player.<BR>
<BR>
There were 80 words on the initial list in total, with five levels of intelligence.<BR>
1: AAAGH!, bad, fight, friend, good, HAHA!, happy, her, him, hit, hot, kill, me, not, one, go, pretty, run, sad, strong.<BR>
2: big, clever, club, knife, little, lose, spear, stone, stupid, take, throw, two, ugly, weak, win.<BR>
3: arrow, bow, can, cut, dead, enemy, give, hard, how, hurt, in, make, out, shoot, shout, soft, three, want, why, will.<BR>
4: backward, bearskin, down, fire, forward, four, from, juju, maim, red, side, tell, to, up, when.<BR>
5: attack, blood, blue, defend, green, head, help, if, right, yellow.<BR>
<BR>
It takes but a quick glance at that list of fairly innocent words to extract sentences with less-than-innocent meanings. The words 'make' and 'out' are right next to each other, for example, so it's easy to work with those. The word 'spear' quickly developed an agreed-upon metaphor among the players, and because 'bearskin' sounds like 'bare skin', that extended its meaning, too. Raquel didn't like anything too crude ("give me head"), which meant players went with double-entendres and innuendo rather than outright smut.<BR>
<BR>
It was a surprisingly-enjoyable game, largely because of the shouts. It's not the kind of thing you could adapt for computers, as it needs a human to judge the value of the shouts. Still, it did teach me a valuable lesson that has served me well in the years since: no matter how much you limit players' vocabulary, if they want to say something then they'll say it.<BR><BR><g:plusone annotation="inline"></g:plusone><BR><BR>
<IFRAME SRC="http://www.facebook.com/plugins/like.php?href=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youhaventlived.com%2Fqblog%2F2024%2FQBlog150324A.html&layout=standard&show_faces=true&width=450&action=like&colorscheme=light&height=80" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" style="border:none; overflow:hidden; width:450px; height:80px;" allowTransparency="true"></IFRAME>Magnolia
http://www.youhaventlived.com/qblog/2024/QBlog140324A.html
<IMG SRC="http://www.youhaventlived.com/qblog/2024/mag.jpg"><BR><BR><g:plusone annotation="inline"></g:plusone><BR><BR>
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http://www.youhaventlived.com/qblog/2024/QBlog130324A.html
On the left, a booklet my grandmother gave me for keeping stamps in. On the right, today's stamps.<BR>
<BR>
<IMG SRC="http://www.youhaventlived.com/qblog/2024/stamps.jpg"><BR>
<BR>
They must be bigger because they cost so much more than in the old days.<BR><BR><g:plusone annotation="inline"></g:plusone><BR><BR>
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http://www.youhaventlived.com/qblog/2024/QBlog120324A.html
If you're going to put election posters on the walls of toilet cubicles, you have to expect they're going to be defaced.<BR>
<BR>
<IMG SRC="http://www.youhaventlived.com/qblog/2024/vv.jpg"><BR>
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Still, all publicity is good publicity!<BR><BR><g:plusone annotation="inline"></g:plusone><BR><BR>
<IFRAME SRC="http://www.facebook.com/plugins/like.php?href=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youhaventlived.com%2Fqblog%2F2024%2FQBlog120324A.html&layout=standard&show_faces=true&width=450&action=like&colorscheme=light&height=80" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" style="border:none; overflow:hidden; width:450px; height:80px;" allowTransparency="true"></IFRAME>Town Names
http://www.youhaventlived.com/qblog/2024/QBlog110324A.html
English surnames tend to derive from relationships ("Johnson"), locations ("Welsh"), occupations ("Cooper") and personal characteristics("Short"). The ones based on locations could be related to countries ("Scott"), counties ("Kent"), settlements ("London") or other geographic features ("Hill").<BR>
<BR>
It occurred to me that most of the ones that are from town names tend to be from the north of England and the east Midlands. You hear of people with a surname such as Carlisle, Berwick, York, Durham, Hull, Preston, Bolton, Wakefield, Bradford, Sheffield, Derby, Chester, Warrington, Scarborough, Lancaster, Lincoln, Mansfield, Leicester, Grantham, Burton, Stafford, Crewe, Spalding, Mansfield and plenty of others.<BR>
<BR>
You do get a few from the southwest, but not so many: Bath, Poole, Barnstaple ... I'm drawing a blank after those. Likewise, in East Anglia there's maybe Dereham, Cromer, Wymondham and Hadleigh.<BR>
<BR>
No surnames from the west Midlands spring to mind, and none from the home counties either apart from London, Dover, Maldon and Hastings.<BR>
<BR>
These are traditional surnames; I don't include ones made up by comedians or royalty. They're also the larger towns; I'm sure there will be villages that have associated surnames (Norton Disney, for example). It seems odd that so many are from the north and east of England in comparison to the south and west, though.<BR>
<BR>
I'm sure there's an explanation for it somewhere, but why waste idle speculation on actual fact?<BR><BR><g:plusone annotation="inline"></g:plusone><BR><BR>
<IFRAME SRC="http://www.facebook.com/plugins/like.php?href=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youhaventlived.com%2Fqblog%2F2024%2FQBlog110324A.html&layout=standard&show_faces=true&width=450&action=like&colorscheme=light&height=80" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" style="border:none; overflow:hidden; width:450px; height:80px;" allowTransparency="true"></IFRAME>Box Office
http://www.youhaventlived.com/qblog/2024/QBlog100324A.html
These are the top-grossing films 2003-2022, according to <A HREF="https://www.boxofficemojo.com/year/">Box Office Mojo</A>:<BR>
2022 <I>Top Gun: Maverick</I><BR>
2021 <I>Spider-Man: No Way Home</I><BR>
2020 <I>Bad Boys for Life</I><BR>
2019 <I>Avengers: Endgame</I><BR>
2018 <I>Black Panther</I><BR>
2017 <I>Star Wars: Episode VIII - The Last Jedi</I><BR>
2016 <I>Finding Dory</I><BR>
2015 <I>Jurassic World</I><BR>
2014 <I>Guardians of the Galaxy</I><BR>
2013 <I>Iron Man 3</I><BR>
2012 <I>The Avengers</I><BR>
2011 <I>Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2</I><BR>
2010 <I>Avatar</I><BR>
2009 <I>Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen</I><BR>
2008 <I>The Dark Knight</I><BR>
2007 <I>Spider-Man 3</I><BR>
2006 <I>Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest</I><BR>
2005 <I>Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith</I><BR>
2004 <I>Shrek 2</I><BR>
2003 <I>Finding Nemo</I><BR>
<BR>
Those are US domestic box office figures by calendar year. <A HREF="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_highest-grossing_films#High-grossing_films_by_year">Wikipedia's list</A>, which covers worldwide box office and seems to be well-sourced, produces some different results but it counts the years differently so it's difficult to make comparisons (it puts <I>Avatar</I> in 2009, for example).<BR>
<BR>
Whatever, none of the movies 2003-2023 won the Academy Award for Best Picture. None of the directors of these movies won the Academy Award for Best Director. None of the leading actors in these movies won the Academy Award for Best Actor for their role. None of the leading actresses in these movies won the Academy Award for Best Actress for their role.<BR>
<BR>
The people who are complaining that the top-grossing film of 2023, <I>Barbie</I>, ought to be winning the Academy Awards for Best Picture, Best Director or Best Actress should not be surprised.<BR><BR><g:plusone annotation="inline"></g:plusone><BR><BR>
<IFRAME SRC="http://www.facebook.com/plugins/like.php?href=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youhaventlived.com%2Fqblog%2F2024%2FQBlog100324A.html&layout=standard&show_faces=true&width=450&action=like&colorscheme=light&height=80" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" style="border:none; overflow:hidden; width:450px; height:80px;" allowTransparency="true"></IFRAME>Facebook Ads
http://www.youhaventlived.com/qblog/2024/QBlog090324A.html
Oh no! My Facebook ad blocker has stopped working since that outage last week. I'm now seeing all those advertisements that I was previously shielded from. Jeez, it's almost unusable!<BR>
<BR>
That said, one of the ads was for a product I may well purchase as a birthday present for my wife.<BR><BR><g:plusone annotation="inline"></g:plusone><BR><BR>
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http://www.youhaventlived.com/qblog/2024/QBlog080324A.html
Midjourney isn't very good at creating playing card images.<BR>
<BR>
Clockwise from top left: hearts, clubs, spades, diamonds.<BR>
<BR>
<IMG SRC="http://www.youhaventlived.com/qblog/2024/qohcds.jpg"><BR>
<BR>
For clubs, it's downright misleading. Not one of the four images actually features a club.<BR><BR><g:plusone annotation="inline"></g:plusone><BR><BR>
<IFRAME SRC="http://www.facebook.com/plugins/like.php?href=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youhaventlived.com%2Fqblog%2F2024%2FQBlog080324A.html&layout=standard&show_faces=true&width=450&action=like&colorscheme=light&height=80" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" style="border:none; overflow:hidden; width:450px; height:80px;" allowTransparency="true"></IFRAME>Fieldnotes
http://www.youhaventlived.com/qblog/2024/QBlog070324A.html
I was interviewed for a book a couple of weeks ago, <I>Fieldnotes from the Metaverse</I>. Only extracts will be used in the final publication, but the full interview is available <A HREF="https://fieldnotesfromthemetaverse.com/2024/03/05/interview-with-dr-richard-bartle-the-bartle-types-games-studies-and-virtual-worlds-as-identity-laboratories/">here</A>. The questions were more specific than usual, in that the interviewer wanted to delve deep into particular topics, but they were nevertheless not ones I hadn't been asked before.<BR>
<BR>
I'm looking forward to the book when it comes out, because other people have also been interviewed for it who undoubtedly have much more interesting things to say than I do!<BR><BR><g:plusone annotation="inline"></g:plusone><BR><BR>
<IFRAME SRC="http://www.facebook.com/plugins/like.php?href=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youhaventlived.com%2Fqblog%2F2024%2FQBlog070324A.html&layout=standard&show_faces=true&width=450&action=like&colorscheme=light&height=80" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" style="border:none; overflow:hidden; width:450px; height:80px;" allowTransparency="true"></IFRAME>Campus Cat Day
http://www.youhaventlived.com/qblog/2024/QBlog060324A.html
It was Campus Cat Day yesterday at the university. There were posters and ads all over, advertising the fact.<BR>
<BR>
<IMG SRC="http://www.youhaventlived.com/qblog/2024/ccd1.jpg"><BR>
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The cat's name is apparently Pebbles, although that sounds to me as if it was decided by a committee. Everyone calls it Campus Cat when they want to refer to the bad-natured, unfriendly, feral beast. Quite why we suddenly had a Campus Cat Day when previously we didn't was not made clear. I'd normally have expected the university to publicise some obscure-but-worthy cause instead (yesterday was also Disociative Identity Disorder Day) and for students to publicise some obscure-but-cooler-sounding cause (it was also National Absinthe Day), but no, we got Campus Cat Day.<BR>
<BR>
Today, I found out why.<BR>
<BR>
<IMG SRC="http://www.youhaventlived.com/qblog/2024/ccd2.jpg"><BR>
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Apparently, someone thought it a worthwhile investment of university funds to raise a monument to the entitled, aloof, malign animal. The plate reads: "In celebration of CAMPUS CAT aka Pebbles, who brings joy to the lives of thousands of University of Essex students and staff".<BR>
<BR>
Not if they don't wash their hands after petting him, he doesn't.<BR><BR><g:plusone annotation="inline"></g:plusone><BR><BR>
<IFRAME SRC="http://www.facebook.com/plugins/like.php?href=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youhaventlived.com%2Fqblog%2F2024%2FQBlog060324A.html&layout=standard&show_faces=true&width=450&action=like&colorscheme=light&height=80" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" style="border:none; overflow:hidden; width:450px; height:80px;" allowTransparency="true"></IFRAME>Pasted
http://www.youhaventlived.com/qblog/2024/QBlog050324A.html
I caught a splash of toothpaste on my shirt this morning, right where the buttons are, and I can't get it out. It's resistant to all attempts to remove it. I've already given one lecture with it on prominent display and am about to give another. My students are going to think I'm a slob — which I am, but I don't want them to know that.<BR>
<BR>
I think it's bonded to the fabric.<BR><BR><g:plusone annotation="inline"></g:plusone><BR><BR>
<IFRAME SRC="http://www.facebook.com/plugins/like.php?href=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youhaventlived.com%2Fqblog%2F2024%2FQBlog050324A.html&layout=standard&show_faces=true&width=450&action=like&colorscheme=light&height=80" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" style="border:none; overflow:hidden; width:450px; height:80px;" allowTransparency="true"></IFRAME>Why Not?
http://www.youhaventlived.com/qblog/2024/QBlog040324A.html
Mother's Day is approaching, and I'm now seeing ads and spam emails trying to guilt me into buying stuff. It's not going to work, because my mother died last year, but spammers neither know nor care about this. They ask me "Why not buy your mother flowers for Mother's Day?" but don't want to be told the answer. They just want to sell flowers, or at least give the impression that they do.<BR>
<BR>
One particular kind of spam I'm seeing more of is the drip, drip, drip vairety. The idea seems to be that in order to persuade you that they're a legitimate company, the spammers send periodic emails; eventually, these become familiar and you accept the company as being real. They probably only want your credit card details for nefarious purposes, but they can be patient about when you give them it.<BR>
<BR>
Now, in order to do this they need to send regular emails to build the recognition they need. Greetings cards are great for this! They can send their spam for occasions (graduations and weddings in summer) and for yearly events (Christmas, New Year, Valentine's Day, Easter, ...). <BR>
<BR>
This could conceivably work, but somewhat entertainingly they make special offers to try to draw you in — but not ones that are too good to be true. 4 for the price of 3 is more like what a real company would offer, rather than 3 for the price of 2.<BR>
<BR>
So, they just put a bunch of occasions, events and stock images into their spam machine to fill in the blanks on their template and off they go!<BR>
<BR>
I'm sure that there must be some people who think 4 identical Mother's Day cards for the price of 3 is a good deal, but in general I suspect not.<BR><BR><g:plusone annotation="inline"></g:plusone><BR><BR>
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