Against Awards Shows

Image by Marco Recuay. Filed under Creative Commons. Some rights reserved. Source: Flickr

Another day, another controversy explodes on the Internet. Controversies, and the obsessive social media coverage that they receive have become almost synonymous with award shows. Why, with Kayne's arrogant interruption of Taylor Swift, Miley Cyrus desperately trying to shock at the Video Music Awards, Ellen DeGeneres making an awful transvestite joke about Liza Minnelli at the Oscars, or Sofia Vergara's irony at the Emmys taken too seriously, we tend to forget that these shows are about the awards. It seems almost routine that these shows always provoke some controversy to tweet or blog about ad nauseaum. It's just so fascinating that in a post-Madonna age, liberal and conservative alike can still be offended, and even "outraged" (a terribly misused term), by a woman shaking her ass on TV.


I have the misfortune (or fortune, rather) of missing out on these controversies that will distract journalists from otherwise newsworthy stories, because I don't watch award shows. I don't see the point. They're really a waste of time, if you think about it, and I'm briefly going to articulate exactly why.



You're an observer, not a participant

I didn't get to vote in The Dark Knight for Best Picture. I didn't get to nominate Legend Of Korra: Book 2 for a Golden Globe. I'm not getting an award because I wasn't involved in any of the shows, nor are any of my friends and family. These decisions are all made by persons I'll probably never know. Of course, popularity can have an influence on the choices of those in charge, but the verdict ultimately lies with them. So why should I be involved? Why should I care? What good does it do for me?

Is it for validation? Can you only feel justified in liking art if it wins an award? I'll love Breaking Bad, regardless if it wins Best Drama. I'll abhor Gigi, even though it won Best Picture. I'll still listen to the Airborne Toxic Event, even if they never earn a Grammy. You should like art for reasons important to you, not to society, or those who claim to speak for it.

Or do you watch these shows to see artists that you admire finally get their due recognition? Well, that's fine and all, but chances are, you'll see other artists that you don't know or care about get their fair due as well. Think about it, do you really care about who wins Best Sound Editing at the Oscars? In most cases, the person or show you'll want to win, will only catch the spotlight for less than five minutes, and that's even if they win.

Yes, yes, and yes. I know that the People's Choice Awards, the Teen's Choice Awards, and the Kid's Choice Awards allow the public to vote online, and they deserve credit for that. However, that still doesn't fix the problem of sitting through so much boredom. (Well, the Kid's Choice Awards have slime, at least!) It's still people getting awards. No plot, no climax. Not to mention that you can't choose who gets nominated (as far as I know.) That being said, these viewer participation awards don't always select the best of choices, after all, One Direction won Favorite Band for 2014. It is also noteworthy that Whitney Pastorek of Entertainment Weekly suggested that public's participation may be more marginal than advertised,

"Let's be honest: As the very clear post-show disclaimer explained, a complex system of "E-Polls" and market research and extravagant math went into choosing the nominees you saw upon your screen. And that system led to a telecast in which praise was lavished on a crassly commercial cross-section of demographically advantageous properties starring celebrities who were willing to show up." ("The People's Choice Awards: You showed up? Here's a trophy!").

By the end of the day, you're watching people you'll never know hand each other awards for two to four hours. Awards that you, likely, had no real effort in giving.You're only real participation is as a view count.

Much of what's going on might not even be that relevant to you

Kelly Clarkson, Rihanna, Taylor Swift, Robin Thicke, Lady Gaga, Katy Perry, and Beyonce are among the musical artists most represented by the Grammys as of late. This is one of the reasons I can't watch the Grammys, I don't listen to any of the new artists. Spinal Tap sounds better than a lot of what reaches Billboard these days. Now I'm not one of those retrophiles who hates new music simply because it's new. I love Nujabes, Airborne Toxic Event, DJ Okawari, and I even think that Kyary Pamyu Pamyu is a little catchy. The singles "Rolling In The Deep" by Adele and "One Engine" by The Decemberists are excellent, while The Foo Fighters' Wasting Light was a great rock album. Simply because I don't particularly like any of the artists who often win Grammys doesn't make me better than those who do, it simply means that the Grammys aren't for me.

I referenced part of this problem earlier. Even if an artist I enjoyed was getting recognition, I'd have to wade through a bunch of other artists who I don't care for just to get there. The Video Music Awards may supposedly represent my generation, but they don't represent all of us. 

This even happens with the high-brow Academy. After all, how many of you actually saw Slumdog Millionaire, Nebraska, An Education, The Reader, or Michael Clayton before they were nominated for Oscars? Though, yes, these awards can help bring public attention to those lesser known films (which is a good thing), but again, is it necessary to watch the show just to get that? I think the press releases, critical reviews, and film festivals can get that much accomplished.

Don't even get me started on the Tony's. I know that I couldn't afford to see all of those shows on Broadway. Could you?

All of the results will be available online after the show.

I've hinted at this point before, but it needs repeating.

It's not as if, if you miss the show or forget to record it that you'll never get the results. You could easily save hours out of your evening and just get the results from Google. That's what it's all about, isn't it? The results: who won and who lost. Still want to see acceptance speeches or performances? Fine, look them up on YouTube. See how much time you've saved.

Again, I don't see the larger point in watching these award shows, you really get nothing out of it, aside from a chance to drool over your favorite celebrities. There's a channel for that, it's called TMZ, but I wouldn't recommend that you watch it.

I recognize that this essay has been rather, well, short, compared to my others, and I suppose it's because I don't feel the need to waste too much ink on convincing the Average Joe that watching celebrities congratulate each other is something that we see every day. No need to turn it into a televised event. That's just masturbation.


Bibliography:

"One Direction Wins Favorite Band At People's Choice Awards 2014" Perez Hilton. January 9, 2014. www.perezhilton.com

Pastorek, Whitney.  "The People's Choice Awards: You showed up? Here's a trophy!" Entertainment Weekly. January 8, 2009. popwatch.ew.com

PB 5540, Star Wars The Arcade Game!

Greetings fellow droids, in this episode we take a gander at Star Wars the Arcade Game by Parker Brothers, a port of the Atari vector arcade game. If you think that's confusing, wait until you hear THE REST OF THE STORY. It's a fun one! Coming up next is Tomcat F-14 Flight Simulator by Accolade, a late 80s release. I would especially like to know if you had this game when it originally came out. Please send your thoughts to me at 2600gamebygame@gmail.com by end of day November 3rd. I can't believe it's almost November. As always, I thank you for listening.

Star Wars on Random Terrain
Star Wars on KLOV
Bob Smith interview by Kevin Savetz on the ANTIC podcast
Michael Becker interview by Scott Stilphen
Atari Age Trakball modified games thread
Star Wars Trakball Series in the Atari Age store
Stragglin' Jim's Star Wars controls hack
Dan Kitchen interview by Classic Gamer 74

Helping Kriel Company

Since I've been following what has been going on in CID, and given that I own both Khador and Legion, and love both Man-o-War and Blighted Ogrun, I did a lot of dojo over the last few months while I was out of actually playing the game. 

Now that I'm coming back to play Warmachine again and I've settled back on Trolls, there have been a few things I've noticed as a problem before I took my hiatus as well as the things that have changed for themes and list building in the newer themes that PP has designed.  Mostly this is to go over the few problems Trolls face in our themes, most of which is in Kriel Comapny.

Saving Horthol

One thing that other themes have been getting that Trolls lack is that generally their Dragoons count towards the free points.  Laddermore adds to the free points counter for Storm Division, Man-o-War Dragoons add to the counter for Man-o-War, etc. One thing that would be a huge quality of life improvement for Troll lists in both Band of Heroes and Storm of the North would be to change it so that rather than just Trollblood Units counted towards free points it could be "Trollblood Units and Dragoons" or just change it to call out the specific unit types to allow Horthol to count towards the points.

This would really be a quality of life improvement for list building and it would get Horthol back onto the table without severely hamstringing what can be taken in addition to the beasts for these unit heavy armies.

Fixing Kriel Company

Trolls have some very strong themes, but Kriel Company is by far our least represented theme force, and for good reasons: it is extremely restrictive.  The inability to take any of our beasts without a ranged attack, and thus no access to Rage outside of a Mountain King really changes what kinds of things our lists can play into.  This is a very frustrating turn of events since all of our heavies are effectively designed around having access to the Rage animus.  We pay a premium for access to ranged heavies because we can turn them into respectable melee threats.  The theme has little to no armor cracking unless you go down the Gargantuan route.

What is upsetting is that other factions "Ranged Only Themes" aren't similarly restricted: Sons of the Tempest and Winds of Death can still take their Centurions and Gladiators.  Trolls are pigeon holed in that our other themes effectively remove almost all of our ranged options especially ones with "legacy models" that formed the core of a lot of combined arms lists in MK2 and put them all into a single theme (SotN gives us two ranged units and one Battle Engine to make a combined arms list).  

It's also not as if our shooting options are inherently good or oppressive. Most if not all of them are fairly average at best, with short ranges across the board. They require specific caster support to be really effective – that's why our "ranged casters" are extremely powerful and synergistic and would be utterly broken if put into another faction (imagine either Grim or Gunny in Cygnar or Legion).

The 'official solution' for getting armor cracking in Kriel Company is to say that we should just take a Mountain King if we want Rage, but then we start working against what the theme wants to get benefits. Once you take the Mountain King you can't afford to take any other heavies without cutting into theme benefits elsewhere and the list suffers for it.

I believe there is a more elegant fix to Kriel Company's problems rather than just allowing Maulers to be taken or by giving something like the Blitzer Rage as a special animus in theme.  After all, putting Maulers into KC would make yet another theme where we take "Mauler + Other Heavy" and call it a day before moving on to taking the non-beast options that count towards the free points.

One theory is to make all Warbeasts, Battle Engines, and Units count towards the free points, but up the requirement for a "free" item to 30 points instead of 20.  This means KC will still max out at 3 free items, but taking a larger battlegroup or a Gargantuan isn't a huge loss.  I think this is warranted given that the theme doesn't have access to any of the really strong melee unit options that are available in Trolls.

It also gives us another theme that would allow more variety if we wanted more than just "Beast Points + 15" worth of Warbeasts without hamstringing the theme.  It's not as if Trolls have the fury management to make a seriously effective battlegroup based gunline like Legion or Skorne could, but even if we did we could just build that in Power of Dhunia and have access to Rage via a Mauler right now.  

If you wanted to play beasts and have them be powerful in melee you're still playing a "Gargantuan list" where the SR packet still favors multiple heavies vs. gargantuan/colossals.  You're still not taking lots of ranged units with our melee beatstick casters that don't support them because they're just not particularly effective without the support from our ranged focused casters.

Overall, I don't think this change breaks the game, or even makes Trolls particularly oppressive. It would just help get our ranged units and maybe even a War Wagon back onto the table vs. having us be a overly melee focused faction. 

Please PP, help make those units see the table!

UCLan Games Design Christmas Party 2019!

Great Christmas Party! Great Company! Lots of fun. Happy Tutors :)

The photos speak for themselves:

Wishing all our lovely Games Design students a very Merry Christmas and a wonderful, happy and healthy New Year 2020!

Have a great holiday and see you next year.

Crysis 2

System Requirements

OS: XP/Vista/Windows 7

CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo with 2Ghz, AMD Athlon 64 x2 2Ghz

RAM: 2 GB 

HDD: 9 GB

GPU: NVidia 8800GT 512Mb RAM, ATI 3850HD 512Mb RAM

Download The Game Here

Reminder: 10Th Online School Championships - 8 February 2020.

It is expected that Blake Govender (Oakhill School) will be playing in order tomaintain his spot in the Protea Team.

MSSA is proud to announce that it will once again hold its 10th School Provincial Online Championships on 8 February 2020.

The championship may be used by gamers to qualify for eligibility to be selected for the National Squads, from which the National Teams shall be drawn, should MSSA need to choose a team for any of the titles played in such championships.

MSSA's School Online Championships has become South Africa's largest official online championship. It is an event that lasts from 10H00 until 18H00 and has proved itself to be a most enjoyable event.

The esports titles to be played in all MSSA's school championships and leagues are as follows:

Period/genre	Title	Platform	Age restriction	Players
Shooter	CS GO	PC,	16	5 v 5
	Paladins	PC/console	12	5 v 5
Sport	FIFA '20	PC	3	1 v 1
	PES 2020	PS 4	3	1 v 1
MOBA	Dota 2	PC	12	5 v 5
	League of Legends	PC	12	5 v 5
	Clash Royale	Mobile	12	1 v 1
	VainGlory	Tablet/cell	12	3 v 3
Fighting	Street Fighter V	Console	12	1 v 1
Card	HearthStone	Mobile	7	1 v 1

MSSA would also like to take this opportunity to thank all the dedicated Educators for ensuring that the school teams are ready-and-able and for giving up so much of their time and patience. Only once the learners have left school will they really comprehend what the Educators have done for them.

The championship would not be possible without the continued support from Educators.

Thank you!

Tournament Structure:

As per the MSSA's rules, being:

• If less than six players, the championship shall be a Round Robin Championship
• If 6 to 10 players the championship shall be four rounds as played to the Swiss System
• If 11 to 30 players the championship shall be five rounds as played to the Swiss System

Eligibility:

• Any player/team who is a Registered Player affiliated to a school affiliated to MSSA may enter through such school club.

Entry fee:

• Entry is R35.00 per Registered Player.
• Only fully-paid-up Registered Players may participate in this event.

Entry date:

• Entries need to be submitted by no later than Wednesday, 5 February 2019.

Registration:

• To register, the Educator-in-charge must complete the Google Drive document. The entry form may be found on Google Drive. Educators are to download the entry form, completed the downloaded form, and e-mail it to Mind Sports South Afica. The link for such form is: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1M07rv0ER9jqE25IqMNZqGlsUPqJaE_X2/edit#gid=1844490715

Age restrictions:

Educators must ensure that their teams/players are compliant with South Africa's age restrictions per game title. Under-aged players shall not be allowed to compete.

Medals:

Medals shall be awarded to the first three gamers for both men and women in the following categories:

• MEN: The top three places (1^st, 2^nd, and 3^rd)).
• WOMEN: The top three places (1^st, 2^nd, and 3^rd))

Please note that the medals shall be awarded to the players at the next LAN championship in which such team/player enters and participates.

Colours:

• School Provincial Colours: All Players that win all of their Matches at a Provincial Championship will earn School Provincial Colours. All Players who score within the top 50% in a specific Period at a any two (or more) Provincial Championships, and who also score within the top 50% at a National Championship in the same period and in the same year, will earn School Provincial Colours.

When and Where:

• 8 February 2020
• The first round will start at 10H00. Players shall be given 60 minutes to complete each round. 
• Players must all be on-line at 9H00.

The championship is accredited as being of the same status as a provincial championship. This means that the championship shall be used for the following:

• The awarding of school provincial colours;
• The awarding of medals for 1st, 2nd and 3rd places for both men and women;
• The ability to qualify for National Team Trials. 

As usual Trials shall be done at a LAN venue, and the team that can best represent South Africa shall then be selected.

Shout casting:

• The MSSA shall decide who may shout-cast the games.
• Anybody wishing to be appointed as a Shout-Caster must apply in writing to mindsportscorrespondence@gmail.com 

Also read:

• Why schools and universities should invest in esports.
• https://esportscommentator.blogspot.com/2019/09/entry-fees-for-provincial-and-national.html
• How school clubs affiliate for the 2020 season.

• 2020 Calendar of Events
• The various events held by Mind Sports South Africa.
• Why schools and universities should invest in esports.
• New National Team Selection Criteria
• Selecting the national Protea teams for Mind Sports South Africa.
• MSSA's umpiring course - 25 January 2020.
• The road to Eilat