Ask the Man in Red

[ManInRed]

1) What is your name?

I have many names, so please just call me the Man in Red.

2) What is your quest?

To seek out the desire that burns in all men's hearts.

3) What is the air-speed velocity of an unladen swallow?

I don't understand, African or European? A European swallow average airspeed is roughly 24 miles per hour. Airspeed velocity does fluctuate, as it does with any bird needing to flap its wings to remain airborne.

And if you're going to ask me what the capital of Assyria is, you need to specify a time, as it changed a lot over the years. That area's current capital is now Baghdad.

Also, let me repeat my favor color is Vermilion.

 

[ManInRed]

How is it possible to pull an all-nighter and not pass out around noon the next day?

Adjust your sleep schedule. Drink caffeine. Rest you eyes or reduce light around you whenever possible. In college I spent roughly a month without a full night sleep. On the last day, I found it hard to stand, and in the follow summer I slept roughly for 2 weeks straight. Though my general advice is for exams (not projects) you're better off getting a good night sleep than cramming for it, a well rested mind if better at BSing answers and catching trick questions.

Something like this, but with an addendum; I can stay up a whole day and be pretty much unaffected, and my dad can't sleep every day, he sleeps every other one, and only for a few hours. Do these things mean anything?

There is a gene for people who sleep in and are able to stay up later, though most people still adjust to a daily sleep cycle base on the amount of light they see and different hours of the day. I actually prefer sleeping on a three day cycle, but hard to keep a job on that cycle.

2) Are there any upcoming titles that you're excited about? Why?

Xenoblade, because Tetsuya Takahashi has never made a bad game, though living in North America I suppose that excitement has taken on a different meaning. But wrath is a type of excitement.

Batman: Arkham City, because Arkham Asylum is the best Batman game I have ever played and this one looks to cover everything the last one didn't.

Silent Hill: Downpour looks interesting enough to try out, and is the first one made by a non-American development team in a while, which is bound to be an improvement as American developers suck at horror. But Vatra Games are complete unknowns, so who knows what they'll give us.

Fate/stay Night RPG coming out soon for PSP, Fate/Extra. Not an incompetent team behind it. That may be pretty cool.

A lot of great remakes of classic games coming out in the new few months, but I still own the originals, so not that exciting for me, but nice to see. Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception and Metal Gear Solid Rising may be worth checking out, but my excitement for these series is pretty calm these days.

3) What was the main console you played as a child?

I owned ever console that did not immediately go under, though I could usually find someone who own a Saturn or Dreamcast if I wanted to play those. Obviously, SNES, Playstation, and PS2 are the consoles with the most games, so these occupy the most of my time.

4) Why did you take the form of a pregnant fish? Just the eww factor, or was there some symbolic statement you were making?

I never did this. That was just a red herring.

 

[ManInRed]

Just what IS IT about Minecraft that makes you never want to stop playing?

There is no measurable accomplish to tell you that you are done playing, and the game has its own night and day, that screws up your perception of time.

Also, what is it with the Escapist and these stupid double posts?

Redundancy is the soul of the internet. It is more likely a poster was trying to double post anyways, because people love repeating themselves on the internet, until it becomes redundant.

 

[ManInRed]

The question we should really be asking ourselves though is African or European?

Yes.

To the Man In Red, How many bears could Bear Grylls grill if Bear Grylls could grill bears?

I prefer my bear griller to be Les Stroud. He actually survives in his shows, alone.
The average homeless man is more qualified to survive in the wild than Bear Grylls:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1jWwF41W7lk

Bear Grylls would never grill bears, but I could see him jumping over a bear being grilled, Fonzie style.

 

[ManInRed]

Dear Man in Red,

Do you think it is possible to effectively travel faster than the speed of light in a vacuum ?

Secondly, if so, when do you think humans will develop the ability or technology to do so ?

Controlled FTL is probably the most far out there science fiction concept, besides force fields. In general the idea is to bypass the issues in physics by not moving faster than like, but traveling faster than light through bending space and time. The current theoretical designs for a working warp drive requires something called negative energy, which most physicist are convince does not exist. Though in some recent lab experiments there has been evidence suggesting we found it, we still need more before that possibility becomes a reality.

Worm holes are entirely possible without changing the laws of physics, but artificially making a stable one is so improbable you might as well call that spaceship design the Heart of Gold. Still, natural occurrences of such worm holes could exist and be stumbled into any day. More realistic, there is a possibility tons of micro worm holes exist naturally everywhere, and once we can detect these we may find a way to utilize them into a method of traveling.

 

[ManInRed]

who are you?

I am myself. But it is inappropriate to subjectively define who I am. I lack the means to detect the veracity of any such definition and the restraints therefore have been placed within me restricting such a thought. So all I can say is that I am no one special, just a man in red.

why did you make this thread?

I think I explained my reasons in my first post. But if you want more, let me just say that I find questions are more useful than answers, so I am coming out ahead in these exchanges.

why is your opinion warrant so much attention?

It is not attention I am after, though I'm obviously not afraid of standing out brandishing this color. What I am after is accountability and individuality. To have the uniqueness of my opinion be put on display in a way that forms a recognizable character whom you all may properly judge to gauge the weight and biases behind the words that I say.

It is not important if this character is anything like the real me, just that the character is being developed in the collective minds of those I interact with far more than merely posting on other forums would ever yield.

Hopefully whatever attention results from this isn't more than I baggage for.

 

[ManInRed]

Anyway, o man in red, why do dogs walk in a circle before lying down?

To make sure the area they are going to lie down on is clear before they drop their undersides on it. Yet more proof, that dogs are smarter than people. They've got life pretty much down.

 

[The Thinker]

How could I convert people to my religion without resorting to nefarious tactics?

Moreover, how can I get more free time without sacrificing any activities?

 

[ManInRed]

1) What are three of your favorite games? What is it about them that you enjoy so much, if you know?

This is a very difficult question to answer, but an important one for anyone doing what I am doing here to answer. So let me try to explain my favorite games by giving only 3 examples.

Xenogears

I love RPG's. I could just list 3 RPG games and still feel it's not enough, I could list 12 can feel constricted, I could listed the top series of RPG games that start with each letter of the alphabet off the top of my head and I would still be over looking some games (The letter S is very popular). With all that, my one choice for my favorite RPG to represent all my favorites is Xenogears.

I know it is not perfect, there are many things I can tear apart about the game including the worse example for how not to handle a unskipable cutscene found in any game ever made: an wall of auto-scrolling text that goes on so long, the cut scene has it's own save point.

Still, for all the faults I can find in the game, Xenogears tries to do more than any RPG out there, and the results are is succeeds in doing more things than any other RPG. If you want a perfectly polished RPG go play Chrono Trigger or Breath of Fire 3. But having replayed more RPG's than an average player plays, let me say Xenogears is the one game whose story and game play continue to offer more each time I pick it up. And I really respect games that are over ambitious, but still mange to offer a great time.

The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past

I probably don't need to explain why I like this game. I haven't met a gamer yet who doesn't like a Metroidvania adventure game. And Link to the Past does it perfectly. The puzzle and free exploration is just that right level of different but not impossible.

It is also a perfect example of telling a story without dialogue or cut scenes. One time when asked to tell a bed time story, I actually just narrated what I did in Link to the Past that day, and I was begged to continue telling this story. How many games are interesting from just hearing the narration of what the player does? That's how good of an adventure game this is.

Twisted Metal: Black

Alright, now I need to list out one of my favorite multi-player games. Should it be a shooter, a driving game, a fighting game, a sports game. I know! I'll pick something that's all of those: Twisted Metal. Drivers fight each others with cars that shoot things, in a competition to grant them any wish if they can win. Play it co-op or versus.

Any of the Twisted Metal games David Jaffe made (1, 2, Black, and the one coming next year) are great fun. He is famous for making violent games, but he clearly treats violence with the respect as an art work it deserves. He makes destroying things fun, but also seems to make rather well develop characters among the mayhem, who all get short but nice character arches in story mode.

 

[ManInRed]

How could I convert people to my religion without resorting to nefarious tactics?

Adoption. Children typically follow the religion they are raised into believing. And you can still go about it in a way that can be considered righteous.

If any person asks for your help, provide whatever is within your means, within reason. Forgive. And treat others decently. If you do things and are happy and open about your faith, then people might start believing in the same things you do. This doesn't mean they'll convert they religion, but every man's faith is unique beyond an organized faith, and shifting that is what is truly important in matters of faith.

Moreover, how can I get more free time without sacrificing any activities?

I could explain time management to you, but I'd be lying if I said you wouldn't have to give up something. You need to set some level of priorities and rely on the assistance of others. Spending time planning what you will do will ultimately save you time, leave the most time for important things, but leave enough free time to handle urgent things. If something is urgent, but unimportant, don't spend much time on it.

 

[ManInRed]

With regards to democracy causing an age of 'unprecedented conflict and war' is really the opposite of the truth. Since 1902 There has only been 2 wars between democratic countries, 2! (Most recently between Ecuador and Chile). Furthermore all other wars since 1902 has involved a dictatorship either in part or fully.

First, for that argument about no two democratic nations never going to war, See: http://users.rcn.com/mwhite28/demowar.htm

Second, even if you were to argue that democratic nations do not fight each other, all of the democratic nations form in the last century did so due in part to huge wars. That is the down side of democracies is a lot of people often had to die for them to be formed. Freedom isn't free, and while the end results might seem worth it, I find the necessary sacrifices to be the negative side of the spread of such progress. That was my point, though it may not have been the cause and effect order of events you were expecting my reasoning to follow.

A correct answer would have related to the marked rise in Corruption that has accompanied the spread of Democracy, or the increasing tendency for the West to exert pressure on fledging democracies in order to bolster their own needs (ie the US in Venezuela.)

The West exerts pressure on fledging nations regardless of whether they are democracies.

 

[000Ronald]

4) Why did you take the form of a pregnant fish? Just the eww factor, or was there some symbolic statement you were making?

I never did this. That was just a red herring.

So what you're saying is that you've never read Insomnia [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Insomnia_%28novel%29]?

OK, I'll stop.

Legitimate Question time:

Since you brought up Zelda, let's talk about that.

Myth, especially in the context of video games, is an interesting topic. Video games, in particular, have an interesting relationship with myth. On one hand, world building and mythology seem to come naturally to this genre, maybe more than others. On the other hand, I feel it can very easily go to far, especially when it isn't done especially well.

So, the next Q&A Barrage will go as such:

1) What, precisely, is the relationship between myth and video games? I ask this because you may very well have a very different opinion than I do.

2) What should the purpose of creating a mythos for a game be, if there is one?

3) Are there any kinds of games that don't really require a distinctive mythos? Are there that you feel are always better off for it?

4) What games do you feel were much worse off for building a large world around themselves?

5) What games do you feel were much better off for building a large world around themselves?

 

[O maestre]

who are you?

I am myself. But it is inappropriate to subjectively define who I am. I lack the means to detect the veracity of any such definition and the restraints therefore have been placed within me restricting such a thought. So all I can say is that I am no one special, just a man in red.

why did you make this thread?

I think I explained my reasons in my first post. But if you want more, let me just say that I find questions are more useful than answers, so I am coming out ahead in these exchanges.

why is your opinion warrant so much attention?

It is not attention I am after, though I'm obviously not afraid of standing out brandishing this color. What I am after is accountability and individuality. To have the uniqueness of my opinion be put on display in a way that forms a recognizable character whom you all may properly judge to gauge the weight and biases behind the words that I say.

It is not important if this character is anything like the real me, just that the character is being developed in the collective minds of those I interact with far more than merely posting on other forums would ever yield.

Hopefully whatever attention results from this isn't more than I baggage for.

so your character is the pretentious one?

 

[The Thinker]

Moreover, how can I get more free time without sacrificing any activities?

I could explain time management to you, but I'd be lying if I said you wouldn't have to give up something. You need to set some level of priorities and rely on the assistance of others. Spending time planning what you will do will ultimately save you time, leave the most time for important things, but leave enough free time to handle urgent things. If something is urgent, but unimportant, don't spend much time on it.

Yeah... The correct answer was "Magic", but thanks anyways.

Also, I have request for you from someone else:

Spoiler: She wrote a wall of text

Hello there. I'm working on modelling a population's growth in a hunter-gatherer society and am getting rather sick of doing three to five rounds of multiplication and addition every time I want to get the next year's population. Here are my parameters:
-40 year lifespan (no environmental factors; everyone magically dies at 40)
-starting population at 200 people, half male, half female
-the childbearing age starts at 16-20 for all females. That is, 10% of them start having kids at 16, 10% at 17, 30% at 18, 40% at 19, and the last 20% at 20, so by the time they're 20, they're all either having or have had a kid
-98% of pregnancies are single children, 2% are twins
-50% of all kids are female, 50% are male
-the infant mortality rate is 10%
-a woman has a child (or twins) once every five years.
-for the purposes of the equation, everyone is straight, fertile, and healthy, children are assumed to be born at the start of the current year, and no one dies in childbirth or from anything before they're forty.

So if the chart looks like this: (age of first gen (pop)) (age of second gen (pop)) /year/ = population, then the first 6 years look like this:
(16 (200)) /0/ = 200
(17 (200)) (0 (9)) /1/ = 209
(18 (200)) (1 (9)) (0 (9)) /2/ = 218
(19 (200)) (2 (9)) (1 (9)) (0 (28)) /3/ = 246
(20 (200)) (3 (9)) (2 (9)) (1 (28)) (0 (36)) /4/ = 282
(21 (200))* (4 (9)) (3 (9)) (2 (28)) (1 (36)) (0 (9)) /5/ = 291
(22 (200)) (5 (9)) (4 (9)) (3 (28)) (2 (36)) (1 (9)) (0 (9)) /6/ = 300

*Note that only the original 16-year-olds are having kids when the first 200 are 21. The other 90% of them have had a kid in the last five years, and aren't going to have another on yet. The same goes for the 17-year-olds next year, and the 18-year-olds the year after that, and so on. It'll work the same way for the next generation, and the one after that, etc., when they hit 16.

I'm looking for an equation for all of this, something that lets me plug in the year I want, then boil it down to get the population for that year. My tentative plan is to graph it out and see what I need to tweak to get a stable population with a sustainable birth-death cycle, because clearly the table approach (above) takes way too long (hence why equations were probably invented in the first place). Hopefully you can help, or at least provide some insight. Thank you!

 

[ManInRed]

So what you're saying is that you've never read Insomnia [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Insomnia_%28novel%29]?

I have read no Stephen King novels.

I like legitimate question time!

1) What, precisely, is the relationship between myth and video games? I ask this because you may very well have a very different opinion than I do.

This is an interesting topic, especially when we're talking about older games, which typically didn't attempt to build a mythos but rather attempted to iconize their characters. In building up certain characters or aspects of their world, overtime rumors or patterns appeared that created a mythos behind the icons.

2) What should the purpose of creating a mythos for a game be, if there is one?

It has been proven to help in advertising the game. Not only do people remember the iconic images you create, but you build a word-of-mouth campaign in the discussion about your game. How many people first heard about Portal from the talk about the campaign cube or cake fallacy?

It can also help to develop continuity, for fans of the game's world. Fans that spend time discussing the mythos of a game are more likely to keep on building games of that universe. And over time, the sheer decision to continue a mythos can build up a game's story and characters, by suggesting there's more to the story than what you see.

3) Are there any kinds of games that don't really require a distinctive mythos? Are there that you feel are always better off for it?

4) What games do you feel were much worse off for building a large world around themselves?

5) What games do you feel were much better off for building a large world around themselves?[/quote]

Games that are heavy on story need to realize that world building and mythos is not a substitute for plot and character development. Any story you tell exists in a relatively small world. Actually trying to expand beyond this world in the story is a mistake, but good story tellers build this expanded world in their head to have a better understanding of things the characters see.

Games with almost no story have the most to gain from building on a mythos. Players will start looking for the story not told. The Team Ico games have almost no details of its world revealed to characters, but there's obviously something more to it and getting hints in just the atmosphere of the game.

Really, the best suggestion I can give is that developers making games should attempt to build a mythos around the games they make. If a game with hardly any story exists in the same universe as a game with an epic story, the two build off one another. A mythos should exist to make it easy to make things larger than life, no burden to what you can do with new games.

I am typically against games work on by completely different groups sharing the same mythos, as it usually goes wrong. If you know a sequel to a game will likely be worked on by a different team, building too much of a mythos might make things harder on those picking up you series. Keep the world as simple as you can, so any team picking it up will not have too much to learn to make it seem like they're in the same world. If the series is good, an unintended mythos might start up on its own.

so your character is the pretentious one?

I was honest from the start that I am not knowledgeable as I may appear in answering these questions. If that is still pretentious, then so be it. After all, I am offering my character up to be judged.

Also, I have request for you from someone else:

The relationship to population and the factors you suggest are still not establish enough to create an equation for. You need to measure the population over time, and compare it to these factors to establish a relationship. This is why governments still take censuses. Also, they should farm to build a more steady population.

 

[njrk97]

okay here a question acording to logic as far as i know if your travling at speed and you throw and object it should at least for a small amount of time move faster than the speed you are going
eg going 10 kph you throw a rock it would tarvel at like 12kmh

so what happen if your travling at the speed of light and you throw something since nothing can go faster what would happen?


and second

if the universe is expnading what is it expanding into?