This Week In Geekdom

Happy weekend everyone. Despite having an hour less of weekend to work with, the past few days have, thankfully, been extra productive on the costume front. It's always exciting to reach that point at which the costume stops looking like heaps of raw material and begins to take the shape that, until that point, existed largely in your mind. Speaking of positive developments, the GIR and I were finally able to procure reasonably priced housing for Gen Con which, as you may remember, was a bit tricky to do this year. Copious thanks go out to Asmadi Games, who made this arrangement possible. Also, as a related aside, registration for vendors was apparently just as horrific and chaotic as it was for normal badge-holders, despite having an extra month to work out issues with the routing site. Go figure.

But ok, enough of that and more of This Week in Geekdom!

Comics

Archie Comics is getting a new chief creative officer and this is just one of many changes in store for the classic publisher.

Justice League, coming to a supermarket near you(?) DC Comics has teamed up with General Mills to offer four limited edition collectable comics inside specially marked boxes of breakfast cereal. Each of the comics is half of a two-part story, the conclusion of which can be read on the companion website.

The rise and fall of Marvel's Ultimate comics line.

TV

Arrow returns to the small screen with all new episodes Wednesday nights. Check out the extended trailer below. Green Arrow and Deathstroke! Squee!

 

Science/Technology

Space-bound objects pass by our planet on a regular basis, but this past Wednesday we had a closer-than-expected brush with an asteroid. Just how close? See for yourself.

For those of you paleontology buffs who bristle at the inclusion of a T. Rex in the Jurassic Park films, you can now mentally superimpose this recently discovered super predator as a chronologically appropriate substitute.

We all know that our solar system is colossal, but this interactive display gives you a very clear idea of how far removed we are from our celestial neighbors. 

Having One Ring to Rule Them All may not be entirely far-fetched after all.

When the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) first became operational, detractors screamed that the experiments conducted within would produce black holes that would unmake existence as we knew it. After a few years of activity, the researchers that staff the LHC have concluded that no, they have produced no black holes.

Working in 4 or more dimensions is common practice for quantum physics, but what about working in zero dimensions? Turns out that, not only is this possible, but the potential applications of zero dimensions are astounding.

What happens when an galaxy cluster assaults a galaxy proper? These incredibly beautiful images.

Thank you Hubble telescope

 

NASA is setting its sights on a mission to Europa. Here are the very preliminary details of this future venture to Jupiter's super fluid moon.

We are <that> much closer to having real-life power lifting suits thanks to the engineers at Italy's Perceptual Robotics Laboratory. Check out video of their mechanical "body extender" in action here.

Hyundai is on the cusp of rolling out the first mass-produced hydrogen fuel cell car.

Games

As if we needed another reason to work ourselves up over the development of the Oculus Rift. Now developer Ubiquitron has an active beta of classic, NES-style Legend of Zelda for the forthcoming virtual reality platform. Bonus: video of the beta!

Speaking of NES, it's no secret that Nintendo has been falling further and further behind its major console-producing competitors over the course of the past few years. One of the many reasons behind this downward trend is Nintendo's refusal to create ports to allow its games to migrate to mobile platforms. Nintendo veteran Kensuke Tanabe offered this explanation as to why you won't be seeing Mario or Zelda on your tablet or smartphone anytime soon.

Can playing Tetris actually be good for you? This study found that playing the classic spatial awareness game significantly reduced players' cravings for food and alcohol. Next step, the Tetris diet?

Do you love Sim City, but find the current experience...lacking. That's certainly understandable for a whole host of reasons. If city-building is your goal, take a look at Shining Rock's Banished. This indie-produced simulator was developed by a single programmer and allows players to create medieval era hamlets and carefully balance the resources and conditions that influence this minute bastion of humanity.  

Movies

Filming for the still-untitled Batman vs. Superman movie is just about to begin, but already fans of the comic foundation of the film are up in arms. While some of this is to be expected, given our reputation for nigh-instantaneous outrage, much of the controversy stems from director Zack Snyder and his intent to 'explode' existing canon.

General Awesomeness

Legos; is there anything they can't fix? Now we have another reason to love our favorite feat of Danish engineering. Ian Moore, a member of Lego's corporate team, built this diorama of an MRI, then donated the scene to Royal Berkshire Hospital in the United Kingdom to be used as teaching tool to alleviate anxiety in children about to undergo an MRI.

I leave you guys with this recreation of the opening sequence of the movie Skyfall as rendered in Grand Theft Auto V. As always, best wishes for an awesome week ahead!

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Game "Review": The Lowdown on Orin Rakatha

Hi everyone! Sorry for the hiccup between posts, but, with just about a month left until PAX East, almost every spare moment has been dedicated to costuming (update on that in the very near future!). I say almost every spare moment, because that time not giving over to sewing and painting was spent on the interview at the core of this post.

Orin Rakatha is a novel RPG world carefully crafted by a cadre of deeply devoted gamers over the course of the past 27 years. Now, after literal decades of live action role-playing in the Orin Rakatha universe, the creators of the epic realm aim to take their efforts to the next level by publishing a formal campaign sourcebook. 

The Kickstarter associated with this endeavor can be found here. The premise is fascinating and will appeal to all those gamers with a love of deep characterization. I sent a series of questions to the creative team behind Orin Rakatha. The below are the responses they so graciously provided. 

Check out the pitch page for more images!

The effort to formalize Orin Rakatha into a published sourcebook has clearly been a long time in the making. What prompted you guys to want to take this step?

In our video we quote 'we are getting a bit too old to chase the Trolls' and it's not unlinked that a few of the team mark their half a century this year. So much of what we have done over the years has been saved in different formats, some even before we all had computers, and with the current part of the campaign coming to an end this was a good time to collate all the information. So we thought why not go one step further and make it into something that everyone could benefit from? Furthermore, making the sourcebook would also be something that everyone who had done our LARP adventures since 1986 could have as a keepsake and reminder of what they were part of.

You describe the world of Orin Rakatha as fantasy, but it feels a bit…let’s call it grittier than traditional high fantasy. If you had to apply a genre to this campaign setting, what would you call it?

So there are elves, orcs, wizards, goblins, warriors and priests so it is, in one way, a traditional high fantasy setting, but we do agree that it has a gritty, more real edge to it. Fundamentally, this comes from the way the story was written, so firstly in the more traditional sense the story was written down by the referee organising the LARP events, but what defines Orin Rakatha is the nature of the story development, in that it has been played out and the story developed by hundreds of people both taking part in events and writing and developing the plot as it went along. So as we commute this into the books you'll get the flavour of a number of people’s perspectives on the story. So, in short, it's a high fantasy campaign but with a real edge!


What would claim were your most significant influences during the creation of Orin Rakatha?

If the Kickstarter is successful, we'll see a lot more of this gorgeous artwork.

The team and the players of Heroquest LARP developed as the fantasy genre developed in the UK. Early on it was Dungeons & Dragons and Lord of the Rings and it's moved over the years as the fantasy genre has developed and become more accessible to everyone. But the single most significant influence during the creation of Orin Rakatha has been our players; most GM's will know this secret - the players come up with all the best plot ;0)


Building a world that is truly system agnostic is quite a feat. Did you find that challenging? Enjoyable? Both? Also, did you feel the world worked equally well with all systems?

We've been faced with similar challenges over the years to constantly keep the hundreds of adventures we ran interesting and, whilst always adding something new every time, we have managed to adapt everyone’s ideas to fit into the world as a whole. We feel that any games master will be able to fit an interesting and exciting world like ours into their own game(s).  We are, at our core, story tellers, which comes from our LARP heritage, but we are also hard-core gamers and writing from the story aspect then looking back as to how to add the 'mechanic' has been both enjoyable and challenging; the clash between fluff and crunch (and frankly which one different people think is most important) is one that we hope we'll meet evenly. Currently, we are working on Pathfinder and Fate direct compatibility; the former being the one we are most familiar with but the latter, being new to us, has been most enjoyable when we've been considering how to incorporate. We are also currently reviewing a couple of other systems including Savage Worlds. One thing we want to make sure is that the stats and mechanics don't get in the way of the story so we'll be deploying appendices / separate reference charts to ensure they don't get in the way of each other. 


‘Where Worlds Collide’ is the tagline for the project and ostensibly speaks to the respective realms of tabletop and LARPing. Many gamers have a strong preference as to whether they LARP or play on a tabletop. How is it that Orin Rakatha is able to bridge that proverbial gap and appeal to both demographics?

The 'Where Worlds Collide'  tagline covers two aspects of what we are doing; firstly yes it’s a side nod to our LARP / RPG heritage, but mainly it's about the people who populate the world of Orin Rakatha having journeyed there from other worlds or planes of existence. Using D&D as an example, each tower of inhabitants comes from their own prime material plane; this is why it should be easy for a games master to incorporate their world into ours. As an example let’s say your own campaign in whatever system you were currently using was coming to an end and you were looking to move to something new – you could have your party of adventurers release some ancient power artefact or enemy who causes some form of world-ending situation. Your players, along with a mix of survivors, find a method to escape to Orin Rakatha and have to adjust to the new world, its laws, etc. This would give you limitless ideas and adventures the players could go on.  And whilst there are those that only LARP and those that only play Table-top there are a large number in the middle. The Kickstarter is a table-top RPG product and we are definitely targeting that market. Although plenty of LARPers also play around the table, we are getting more and more into that age bracket - it gets your knees in the end all that running through forests ;0)

The characterization seems to be the core strength of Orin Rakatha and a play testing pool of over 1000 participants must have given you all plenty of characters to work with. Did you have any favorite concepts that came out of that process?

All of them and too many to list, as if you miss one we'd be in trouble with them. Many of our mini campaigns affected more than one of the non-player character (NPC) towers and some encompassed the whole world. Adventures lasted from a few hours, to a few days to campaigns lasting several years. At the core of the player character facing aspect of game is the concept of 'Fortunes Keep' or the three towers of the Kern Valley Alliance, which is one of our favourite aspects. I am sure Games Masters in the past, like us, have wrestled with the concept of how to encourage 'team-play' and rationalise 'joining together' between characters of very different alignments and beliefs; just why does the paladin adventure with the rogue, the goodly cleric with the sorcerer of the dark arts; the list goes on. Well, all our players wanted to do this so in the very early days we adopted a triumvirate allegiance between three groups: The White Retreat (those that follow the light), The Valley Tower (those that follow the balance) & Wolfhold (those that follow the dark arts) and we wrote a code of conduct for them in that they would strive to work together on Orin Rakatha for their own 'greater good' (in our previous LARP world most of them had been sworn enemies). This allows a fantastic mix of adventuring party make up without the need for complex overlapping or contradictory reasons as to why they would adventure together (not that there is ever complete harmony!)

You are all very experienced gamers, but can Orin Rakatha appeal to a new player?

Absolutely! We aren't lording loads of experience; we are writing a campaign world that will work just as well for new GM's and players as it will for those that have been around the table top for a couple of decades. At this core is a new world setting that new players might want to start a brand new journey in or experienced players may want to drop in and out of or just use parts of for their existing campaign. 

Is there anything that readers should know about that isn’t on the Kickstarter page? Is there anything that a gamers may be surprised by if they tried to play in Orin Rakatha for the first time?

The laws that govern Orin Rakatha and the way Orin Rakatha works are unique, so yes they will be in for a few suprises because it isn’t like other worlds and this should be fun for new and experienced players alike. Much of how this has happened was to redress some of issues we saw in early LARP's but which translate very well to the table top and, for us, remove some of the 'why doesn't this happen' questions when considering armies, over-ranked monsters and 'player-centric' plots; Orin Rakatha's mechanic provides answers to these. Without giving away too much; the whole land is created and in some way managed by what are called 'mystics'. They provide shelter on the land in towers and control the cleansing mists, which clear the land of the fallen and manage the flora and fauna. To live on Orin Rakatha you must adhere to the laws of the lands. The physical land, and the magic that underpins it, are all linked and the power of the people that walk across it influences what they meet on the land, paths are changed and routes divided to manage the balance. Have you ever wondered why when you are part of a low-level group of adventurers that you don't constantly get over-run by much more powerful monsters? On Orin Rakatha the land manages its resources to ensure that it meets what it considers to be a threat (the players) with its best matched resource - so the wandering monsters and groups of protagonists are directed by the land itself.

Many thanks to Mike and the rest of the team behind Orin Rakatha for participating in this virtual interview. For those of you out there who adore a deep, multi-faceted role-playing experience. This may very well be the ideal campaign world for you. There are 25 days remaining on the Kickstarter, so, if this piques your interest, be sure to pledge soon!

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This Week in Geekdom: Copyright Infringement Edition

Hey guys. With all that's been going on in the past couple of days I just haven't been able to focus too much on writing new posts. The notion that some coward is out there profiting off of the theft of my (copyright protected) writing conjures both fury and sadness. A profound thank you to all those out there who have offered support. Your kind words and offers of legal assistance are deeply appreciated.

At the same time, there are millions of issues facing the world right now that are far more pressing. What has happened has happened. It sucks, but I don't pretend that it's anything more than an unfortunate side-effect of using a creative medium in the digital realm. I always try to make an effort to donate blood during times like these as a reminder that my troubles are tiny and the effort I'd waste being upset could instead be spent trying to help people with actual problems.

Image by SAFE Corporation

In that spirit, I wanted to provide resources for those out there who believe they, too, may have experienced internet intellectual property theft.

Note: if you are the owner of a blog who has also had proprietary content stolen by the owner of gamedonation.com please contact me via one of the social media sites for the Care and Feeding of Nerds or directly at nerdycare@gmail.com.

Olivia Rose over at Kissmetrics.com has one of the most concise, thorough step-by-step guides for how to seek redress if your internet-based intellectual property has been stolen. All of her tips can be highly effective, but the most direct way to take immediate action against the party that has stolen from you is tip #3: finding out who is hosting the offending site.

WhoIsHostingThis.com is a very straightforward way to accurately ascertain the thief's core website structure. Once you know what service the thief is using, you can usually file a claim directly with the host (look in the 'support' section of their website). It's in the host's best interests to not aid and abet parties who are infringing on a copyright, so they may respond to your claim quickly. 

Raubi Marie Perelli has this helpful breakdown of the legal applications and distinctions between plagiarism and copyright infringement. For the definitive text on copyright law as it is practiced in the United States, visit this link.

These are additional sites/resources that are enormously useful:

- Copyscape (allows blog owners to determine if their content is being stolen)

- The official text of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) (protects creators of internet-based intellectual property)

- Speaking of DMCA, you can work directly with that portion of the copyright office to file a take down or even use their free protection alert banners like the one now featured on this blog.

- Ginny Soskey's extremely useful article about how to combat internet copyright infringement.

This sort of theft is a distressing reality, but we are far from helpless.

None of the above should be construed as or considered legal advice. If you're pursuing legal action against the parties who have infringed on your copyright, contact an attorney.

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Burglary

This is not an update I ever would want to write but, given just how common the practice is, I suppose this sort of thing could almost be considered an eventuality when you write in the digital sphere.

Earlier today I discovered that a website, http://gamedonation.com, has been stealing content from the Care and Feeding of Nerds. This isn't just a matter of 'hey, that kind of sounds like me'; the posts are lifted from here wholesale and are re-published word-for-word. Literally. Down to the tags I use to categorize entries.

I never gave permission for this action, nor is the owner of the offending site authorized to use my content. I've updated the site to move the text that used to exist in the 'copyright' tab in the menu that appears along the right-hand margin of the page into a new clickable page, Terms of Use, that you can see just below the main banner at the top of your screen. This was theft, pure and simple, and it is a violation of my copyright.

More than that, it feels like a violation not of my physical person, but of something trickier to put a single word to. The best approximation I can come up with is this. A few years back, I came home from Thanksgiving dinner to find that my house had been broken into. Mercifully, not very much was stolen or destroyed, but the knowledge that people had invaded that personal space without permission and acted as they saw fit was arguably worse than losing material goods.

This blog has been a labor of love. It was supposed to be a fun hobby that maybe, if I was lucky, entertained a few people. Maybe it's my fault for putting so much of myself out there or…in here…you know what I mean. It's a wild internet and these things happen all the time, but knowing that only makes this almost imperceptibly easier.

I've filed formal claims with Google (who hosts this site) and GoDaddy.com (who hosts the thief's site) citing copyright violation. I've also reached out directly to the thief asking that the stolen material be removed. I'm not sure what the next steps are or will be. Honestly, there's some thinking to be done about the future of the blog as a whole. If I do close up shop, I'll at least put up a final post saying just that. 

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This Week in Geekdom

Sweet mother of Thor, it finally stopped snowing! Granted, there have certainly been more than a few winters in recent memory that featured prodigious amounts of snow here in New England, but the relentless pacing of this year's storms makes these quiet periods seem incredibly welcome.  Meanwhile, I will continue to shamelessly count shoveling as a trip to the gym. But enough of the snowbound updates and on to the Week in Geekdom!

Science/Technology

It may not be a hoverboard, but we may get a bit of Back to the Future in real life beginning next year. Nike designer Tinker Hatfield confirmed that we will see power laces featured on sneakers in 2015. 

Tomorrow, February 17th, asteroid 2000 EM26 will make a pass by Earth. You can watch this interstellar flyby live as it happens here.

The most recent issue of the journal Nature Communications detailed the development of this, an inexpensive polymer with the ability to 'heal' itself.

Rumors of the death of lunar rover Jade Rabbit may have been a bit premature. On Thursday, Yutu was confirmed to be able to receive terrestrial signals.

The upcoming edition of Physical Review Letters contains research that may appeal to those of us with non-linear locks. A joint effort by engineers from MIT and the Université Pierre et Marie Curie have created this 3Dmodel of curly hair.

The use of fusion as a viable energy source got a little bit closer to reality as researchers were able to confirm that they could produce more energy with such a reaction than was utilized to ignite the fuel. Bonus: the lead researcher has a name befitting of scientific badassery/burgeoning supervillainy. 

Feats of Geekdom

File this under Taking Science Fair Projects to a New Level. Using Legos and a few bits of miscellaneous hardware, Seventh grader Shubham Banerjee was able to create this novel Braille typewriter. 

There's cross stitching, and then there's this opus from artist Aled Lewis. At 30 feet in length, the Coruscant Tapestry captures the events of all six Star Wars films in carefully placed embroidery thread. 

General Awesomeness

In a belated nod to Valentine's Day, here is an explanation of love from some of your favorite Star Trek characters.

Speaking of Valentine's, researchers at the University of Oslo were able to crack the runic code utilized by Vikings. The results were coincidentally appropriate.

As always, best wishes for an awesome week ahead!

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