Valve is a legendary computer game company responsible for Half Life. Now they're a monolithic entity which is known for its online distribution/other platform, Steam. Every year Steam is the meta-location for sales where the prices are low enough to trick you into buying games you will play for five hours then forget. Steam includes a library that tallies up the amount of games you have, and the amount of hours you have wasted on each.
In late 2011, Steam began its ambitious Holiday Sale/Contest Event. The premise was simple but awe-inspiring: users would complete various trivial/useless tasks (known as 'achievements' in gamer parlance) in order to win various paraphernalia including games, coupons, and chances to win further prizes which were cunningly disguised as useless bits of coal. This was the first time in history that I witnessed and experienced achievements having an actual purpose, and an actual real-world benefit. This is the sort of thing that will either be forgotten in the dismal future of gaming, or will inspire a great upcoming era where interesting games are buoyed by thoughtful, interesting distribution.
The event got people to replay old games for the sake of a small chance at winning something. Each day there were a handful of new things to do, and once again the participants would be heartbroken to receive a free copy of a game they already owned, a useless piece of coal (which could be crafted into heartbreak), or a coupon which would be valid into March 2012. Now it was a generous decision to allow participants to finish achievements until the last minutes of the contest.
Well the event finished, and there is a draw which will take place on the 3rd of January, 2012. The winner takes every game available on Steam. Other prizes exist but are vague and generally related to wishlist fulfillment. I will say that it was an interesting and largely successful event, though when it started there were some hiccups with the Steam service and at times the company's servers were swamped with download requests and purchases.
Valve clearly means to be good to both the industry and its consumers, as events like the Christmas Sale 2011 show. Publishers sell a lot of units on the basis of sale pricing, and customers tend to buy things they would otherwise ignore, because the price (and season) warrant a bit of curious purchasing. Everybody enjoys themselves and content producers profit. On top of that win/win situation, Steam offered an interesting contest event which encouraged users to replay titles they may have forgotten about, in the exciting pursuit of prizes. Looking back, it was perhaps the best Steam sale thus far.
Showing posts with label atoms. Show all posts
Showing posts with label atoms. Show all posts
12/14/11
The Atom Analogy
In my mind and less in my speech, and of course also in the writing and speech of others, I really enjoy and admire the atom analogy. Steak and gravy go together like carbon and hydrogen atoms. People are really like atoms. Really. They are lone individuals but they form compounds and bonds. And since everything is made of atoms the analogy is undeniable. You'd have to be contrary and perverse and maybe even ignorant to deny it.
You have essential unity via essentially individual units [chaotic unity, of course, but you get what you get]. The universe and its near-infinite children. Surely this is a cliche so utterly used up that it can no longer be regarded for its innate profundity. And this is an era in which truly profound things are rarely unexploited, and many go unnoticed, and explanations are plentiful but useless.
This is no trick of relativity, either; it is the flow of energy in a near-infinite system, a constant. So humans are like atoms and minds are like particle waves, and it makes sense to an ignoramus such as myself because there are particle waves and atoms which constitute existence. And a dam in the flow, another cliche: the river of life, of time, as symbol.
And what happens when too many atoms get together? When they are large atoms in a small space, strange things may be known to happen. Weird events unfold and pathetic explanations are offered half-heartedly. In the face of such overwhelming reality any response is valid, but no response is perfect. So an atomic blast can be likened to the cultural, but especially political and scientific, mentality that created and employed them.
It could also be likened to any crisis, or any situation. All it would take is a little ingenuity and time and flexibility. The analogy doesn't have to be terrifying, or depressing, or uplifting. In the end it is only so much information, among so much other information, that may or may not convey an idea or relation.
The information cliche has to be recalled - information age, intellectual property, the internet. The fatal overdose and over-reliance on indirect information. And yet without indirect information we would be as good as blind, liable to agree to any sort of political or social manipulation. And 'chemical realism' proposes: a statistically mediocre, unfair, yet still incredible life that may or may not be understandable. Everything else is secondary, to use another cliche.
In such a reality, runaway events are not unknown. Their products can be disturbing or beautiful. All outcomes are possible and likely, variety and monotony are equals, there is the positive sense of an open-ended question that has been posed since our eyes opened. Status is part illusion and part deception when elementary similarity is the only trustworthy rule. The question is do we use Occam's Razor, or Occam's Lathe?
You have essential unity via essentially individual units [chaotic unity, of course, but you get what you get]. The universe and its near-infinite children. Surely this is a cliche so utterly used up that it can no longer be regarded for its innate profundity. And this is an era in which truly profound things are rarely unexploited, and many go unnoticed, and explanations are plentiful but useless.
This is no trick of relativity, either; it is the flow of energy in a near-infinite system, a constant. So humans are like atoms and minds are like particle waves, and it makes sense to an ignoramus such as myself because there are particle waves and atoms which constitute existence. And a dam in the flow, another cliche: the river of life, of time, as symbol.
And what happens when too many atoms get together? When they are large atoms in a small space, strange things may be known to happen. Weird events unfold and pathetic explanations are offered half-heartedly. In the face of such overwhelming reality any response is valid, but no response is perfect. So an atomic blast can be likened to the cultural, but especially political and scientific, mentality that created and employed them.
It could also be likened to any crisis, or any situation. All it would take is a little ingenuity and time and flexibility. The analogy doesn't have to be terrifying, or depressing, or uplifting. In the end it is only so much information, among so much other information, that may or may not convey an idea or relation.
The information cliche has to be recalled - information age, intellectual property, the internet. The fatal overdose and over-reliance on indirect information. And yet without indirect information we would be as good as blind, liable to agree to any sort of political or social manipulation. And 'chemical realism' proposes: a statistically mediocre, unfair, yet still incredible life that may or may not be understandable. Everything else is secondary, to use another cliche.
In such a reality, runaway events are not unknown. Their products can be disturbing or beautiful. All outcomes are possible and likely, variety and monotony are equals, there is the positive sense of an open-ended question that has been posed since our eyes opened. Status is part illusion and part deception when elementary similarity is the only trustworthy rule. The question is do we use Occam's Razor, or Occam's Lathe?
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