Thoughts: Project: MyWorld

So Realtime Worlds just announced a new project, Project: MyWorld. They're billing it as "if Nintendo built Google Earth", and thus far, it looks quite cool. Essentially, here's what it is (from what I saw, anyways):

• Take Google Earth and generate 3D models for every building, mountain, river, forest, lake, etc. Basically, generate the world in 3D.
• Give people the ability to edit said world in a Wikipedia-esque fashion. That is to say, let them modify or add buildings so that the virtual world is more accurate to the real world.
• Toss in minigames: Driving, flying, fishing (from what I saw in the demo, probably lots more to come).
• Add on top of that a Monopoly-like property system, allowing people to purchase specific buildings, etc.
• On top of this all, overlay social networking: Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, and so on and so forth.

And in a nutshell, that's what it looks like RTW's trying to accomplish. It's definitely an ambitious project.

The videos released thus far can be found here (I would just watch the walkthrough, as it has everything from the trailer plus explanation and much more in the way of features). [EDIT: It seems that the walkthrough video has disappeared for the time being.]

From the commentary thus far, it looks like people are pretty split between cynic- and optim-ism on Project: MyWorld. I'm a bit ambivalent as well: While there'll definitely be room for typical internet-immaturity, the "Wikipedia-style system" that is hinted at in the extended walkthrough video just might work, if this project does catch on like Wikipedia did, with a dedicated group of player moderators.

One thing that I am a bit concerned about is the "property system". Although the video doesn't fully flesh it out, I'm wondering how property ownership will work. Could someone in the first week or so of the game accrue huge amounts of money, then purchase any and all desirable property? Time has proven that people are very good at finding and exploiting ways to gain huge amounts of money, both in the virtual and real world, and it'll be interesting to see if and how RTW fights this.

That also brings up the questions of the monetary system. The walkthrough video hints that currency will be obtained by contributing. Will contributions have to be approved before they "earn" compensation (I seriously hope that this will be the case)? Will players be able to earn money through the minigames? Or purchase ingame currency a la Second Life (Actually - and I'm a bit embarrassed because I just thought of this - Project: MyWorld seems very evocative of Second Life)? In any case, I fully expect a fairly robust virtual economy to develop.

Finally, I'm curious about how (and if) players will be "split up". Traditionally, massively multiplayer games tend to have multiple 'servers', which are separate copies of the game world. Players are split up into these 'servers' (sometimes called shards) to avoid overpopulation and stress on the game. A few games, such as EVE Online, choose instead to put every player into a single game world. These games tend to feature much larger worlds (In the case of EVE, an entire universe), and for this reason I'm predicting that Project: MyWorld will opt to put all players on a single copy of the world (Hell, if the real world can support all of us, the virtual one should hopefully be able to support a much smaller community of people).

All that said, I'm interested in how this develops. Second Life, when it debuted, was also billed as game-changing, but from what I've seen, it hasn't majorly changed the face of the world - virtual or otherwise. Regardless, I'm keeping my fingers crossed and hoping that RTW can live up to its ambitions with this project.

Assorted Thoughts

So, I didn't get to bed until around midnight last night, and was up for a while after that just sitting around and looking at the moon. It's interesting to think: At the moment that you look at the moon, how many other people are doing the exact same thing? Who and where are they? Why are they looking at it? Will you ever meet them?

... It might even be interesting to organize a "holiday" of sorts, with all participants looking at the moon at the same time for some period of time, and just, well, thinking.

As a point of reference, my mom spent 4 years doing her residency in Detroit when I was a kid, and we only got to see her a couple times a month, at most. I can remember my dad telling us about how even though we were hundreds of miles apart, we could all look at the moon and know that she was there in Detroit, looking at the same moon.

Anyways, that's me philosophizing (read: rambling) a bit.

On a only-somewhat-related note, I've added a music list over on the right-hand bar, with songs that I've been enjoying of late.

Because I've got some time on my hands at the moment, I'll do a bit of explaining why I like them.

I've heard Home by Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros a couple of times before, but only recently found the name and such. On a certain level, I think the song evokes the general feel of what I was just writing about with the moon, etc.

I just recently heard Perfect In Between by Champion, and like it for the exciting, triumphant tone that it has. I could see this one being used in an action movie, during some sort of exciting character reveal.

Speaking of triumph, Triumphant by Röyksopp also has an awesome tone. I saw a video of the song synchronized with clips from BBC's Planet Earth, and the two meshed almost perfectly. The song definitely brings to mind images of majesty, and is very aptly named.

One thing that I think would be awesome is a collaborative work by BT and Röyksopp. BT's got a pretty unique style that adds a lot of emotion and interesting themes to the electronic music that he specializes in, and Love Can Kill You, to me, is one of the best examples of this. For another one, try Forget Me.

Finally, Everyday by Carly Comando is an excellent contemporary example of how powerful an instrument the piano by itself can be. (There's plenty of classical examples, but it'd take a long time to list all of them. D:)

The Beginning of the... Beginning?

One week until August. Three weeks until I finish with my current job. One month until I begin college. Interesting.

I'm usually not a very sentimental person, but as I move closer to the big day (Of note: That may be the first time that I have ever used the phrase "the big day"), I'm really starting to look around and realize that all of this is going to change. It's strange to think that I've been living in this house for essentially my entire life, and in what amounts to the blink of an eye, I'll be living somewhere completely different, with completely different people. Not to be too melodramatic, though - CU Boulder is just a bus ride away from home, and I fully expect to be coming back to visit at least twice a month. If only to go out for dim sum with the family.

Even still, it's a major reminder that absolutely nothing in life is static, and almost everything about one's current way of living can change at the drop of a hat (Also of note: I don't think I've ever used the phrase "at the drop of a hat", either).

Sentimentality aside, I need to start packing up stuff to bring along with me for move-in on the 19th. I've decided not to bring my (huge) desktop, and will instead be taking my new laptop. Speaking of that, I ended up returning the Lenovo that I had purchased before and am currently waiting for a new HP to come in. More on that particular escapade another time. I also need to go out and buy supplies, notably some sort of organization system. I'm currently considering getting one of those filing crates and a bunch of hanging folders to organize stuff by class, etc. In addition to that, there's the usual: loose-leaf paper, notebooks, whatever. For my... artistic side, I'm thinking about getting a Moleskine sketchbook. It's a bit on the expensive side, yeah, but I figure I'll give the high end a try.

Decisions, decisions.

Miscellaneous Miscellany

So, I'm mostly recovered from orientation. Sleep-wise, anyways. I'm still a bit tense today, partly thanks to what transpired last night.

I'd been working on stuff/talking with people online, and got off the computer at around 10:00PM, when my mom called me downstairs. She'd discovered that someone had inadvertently left the back door open, and our cat Tiger (A neutered indoor cat, mind you) was nowhere to be found around the house. At this point the household pretty much mobilized into search-and-rescue mode - checking every nook and cranny in the house, etc. Once we'd established that he was very likely not anywhere in the house, we grabbed flashlights and spread out to search the immediate vicinity of the house. Similar situations have happened before, and he was usually somewhere right by the house (e.g. in the garage, somewhere on the deck/porch, etc.). This time, however, we had no idea how long it had been since he got out - my guess being that the door was left open sometime just after dinner - and on that vein, how far he might have gotten.

So. We searched around the house for about an hour, but he was nowhere to be found. By this time it was past 11PM, and the seriousness was really starting to set in. We've got deer, foxes, the occasional mountain lion, etc. in the area, and any one of those could be a serious threat to an indoor cat. My dad and I decided to drive around the neighborhood to see if we could spot him - and at the very least, keep other animals away (Also, we were shining flashlights into neighbors' yards, which may or may not have come across in a strange way).

As we pulled back up the street after fruitless searching, we noticed my brother running down to meet us, with the news that he had seen and grabbed Tiger from under our across-the-street-neighbor's car. Seems he had been hiding out somewhere in their yard the whole time.

It turned out well, but the whole situation was pretty stressful. I'm a pretty logical and rational person, but I have limits, and I almost reached them last night.

On a less worrisome note, I found an interesting website today that claims to analyze your writing style and tell you what famous writer you are most like. Having put my blog entries in individually thus far, it seems that I write like a horrifying amalgamation of David Foster Wallace, Douglas Adams, and Kurt Vonnegut. Actually, that's pretty cool. Vonnegut has a lot of interesting stuff, as does Adams. I've never read anything from David Foster Wallace, but from what I'm looking at right now, it seems like he was something of a satirist like Adams and Vonnegut.

Orientatinating

So, I'm home from orientation at CU Boulder. And I even learned a few things.

THINGS THAT I LEARNED

Oh, wow, that's an intimidating title. Let's try again.

LIFE LESSONS FROM ORIENTATION

Well, that'll do.

1. Rape is bad! :D

2. Pool is really really hard! D:

3. College campuses are hard to navigate at night! :D: (wait no, that's not a valid face)

4. Registration for classes is stressful! DDD: (Extra mouths for emphasis!)

Yeah, that's about it. When I wasn't being taught that rape is bad, I was sitting around a lot. Well, to be fair, it was periods of sitting around, separated by periods of walking around. Sort of like high school, except I am proud to say that I actually learned things in high school.

I did meet people, though. Can't be a complete cynic. I miraculously overcame my usual solitarityfulness (That word is completely made up) and talked to people. And it went well! Hooray.

As far as registration goes, I'm satisfied but not ecstatic about the whole thing. Nearly all of the biology classes were full, so I guess I'm not taking one of those first semester unless spots open up. Same with most of the electives that I had planned to go for. Bah. Could I, like, pay for registration priority? That'd be really cool and I'd be completely fine with it. Though, other people probably would be as well. So, mostly back to square one. In any case, I've got chemistry and Calc 3 as my major courses, and some other nonsense to fill up some other credits. Including Intro to the Bible. Oh, that should be fun.

That's about it for orientation, really. On an unrelated note, my laptop should be coming in tomorrow and I'm pretty excited about that. If I'm bored, I'll take pictures.

P.S. Speaking of pictures, I promise I'll put some up from California soon*.

*Plus or minus one month. In all likelihood, just plus.

Miscellaneous adventures through time, space and AP scores

Well. Seems like all sorts of stuff is happening. From the top, then!

AP scores came in yesterday. I took BC calc and psychology, got 5s on both. Yayhooray. Wasn't altogether surprised at the score on calc, to be honest (hell, I was almost expecting to be audited), but was amused by the 5 on psych. I distinctly recall making up some terms and flat-out skipping another. Oh well!

So, I believe it's thank you time again!
Mr. Stearns: Thanks for guiding us through the curriculum this year (and dealing with some of the dumber things that we did). While I'm pretty good at picking things up, I do need someone to show me how to get started. So, thank you again.

Let's see. My orientation session at CU is tomorrow, and I realized earlier that I have no idea what I'm supposed to be doing in terms of class registration, course requirements, etc. Should be... Interesting.

Finally, my new laptopp should be coming in within a day or two. Surprisingly, UPS appears to finally have become competent, having shipped it from North Carolina to Kansas in just two days. Previously, they liked to ship it north a state or two, then west a bit, back south, etc. The final test will be to see if it sits in Commerce City for weeks on end.

That's about it for major news. I guess it's worth mentioning that this entiire post was written on my new cell phone (an LG Rumor Touch from Virgin Mobile), making it the longest thing I've ever written on a phone. Yeah, me!

On Ideas

I have an idea.

And it's driving me crazy.

Ideas always seem to come at the strangest times - or perhaps it's the complete opposite. This one came while I was lying in bed at night. After puzzling it over for a while, I grabbed a notepad and wrote down two words so I wouldn't forget.

Now I'm beginning to regret doing that.

I usually don't mind ideas so much. They give me something to think about when there's nothing much to do. It's interesting to go over possibilities, expand complexities, consider solutions. But this idea has developed like crazy - and it wouldn't be a problem, but for the nature of what I've come up with.

Y'see, to fully realize my idea would take... well, a lifetime. And I'm not even sure that it's possible. But the repercussions of this idea's realization could - and I do not exaggerate here - change the world. For better or for worse, I have not yet determined. Probably depends on who has the final thing.

You'll note that I've been intentionally vague on this idea, and that's for one (I freely admit) selfish reason: If this idea does come to fruition, I want to be part of it.

So. I'll keep turning this around in my head. Maybe I'll do something with it. Maybe I won't.

On a somewhat less morbid/melancholy/m-word note, I've put up an info page (containing a rather Miserable reference) and am otherwise working on prettifying - wait a moment, SpellCheck says that "prettifying" is a word, what the hell, I didn't know that - the blog. Also, when I'm at home and have some time, I think I might put up some pictures from the trip to California.

Also also: God damn, Blogger does some weird stuff with formatting.

EDIT: Damn, it does. I have no idea what the hell it's doing. Can someone teach Blogger basic HTML, please? D:

The First of (Hopefully) Many

I'm writing a blog!

... Oh dear, I am writing a blog. How does one begin a blog?

I suppose I could begin with who I am. Many of you reading this probably already know who I am, but for the benefit of the (probably nonexistent) readers that don't, here goes.

My name is David Chen (As you may have guessed from the title of the blog. Good job, you!). I'm 17 years old at the time of this writing and live in Colorado. I graduated from the International Baccalaurate program in high school a few months ago. And... well, I'll deem that sufficient for the time being.

Why does someone start writing a blog, anyways?

My Life Since Graduation

Okay. I can do this! Rewind three months, to just after graduation. Pretty good ceremony. I must admit, however, that I'm still not convinced that I am, indeed, graduated. Hopefully it'll set in soon. So. Graduation's over, and my family's off to California. Left the night of graduation, so I wouldn't have to go to any graduation parties. Wait, that came out wrong. Anyways, we were in California for a week, visiting Yosemite, Sequoia, and Kings Canyon National Parks. Suffice to say, I saw a lot of mountains and a lot of trees. Good trip.

As for what I've been up to since we got back... well, I think I might need some more subtitles for that.

Work and Play

I've been working three or four days a week since we got back. It's probably better for me than sitting around at home all day, anyways. We had planned to go to China this summer as we've done in years past, but with the Worlds Fair in Shanghai (where my mother's family lives), it'd be altogether too hectic. So, instead, I'm workin'. Keeps me busy, I guess.

Despite that, I've still got a ridiculous amount of free time - more than I know what to do with. I find that I like to be engaged most of the time, and so do my best to find things to do. Since summer started, I've gone through four 1000+ page novels in a series (now working on a 5th). I'm also continuing to practice taekwondo (though we're off this week). Beyond that, as insane as it sounds, I've been learning things. I figured out a Calculus 3 topic that I should be covering next year, multiple integration, the other day and plan to continue with that (Mr. Stearns, if you're reading this, what were some of the other topics you mentioned?).

The Big Day

... That was yesterday. IB test scores released! I'd rewind again and tell the harrowing story of how nervous I was, but I'd be lying. Truth be told, I've never been too worried about this sort of stuff. I won't bother putting up my scores (I assume I'm allowed to share them, anyways), but yeah, I passed and earned my diploma. Yayhooray. Which, I suppose, prompts a few messages to hopefully-possibly-readers. Quickly, look for your name!

Ms. Morgan: Thanks again for being my EE supervisor! It was a great experience (even the awful smell) and I really appreciate your guidance during the whole process. Also, your name gets to appear twice!

Ms. Morgan and Ms. Talle: Thanks for all your work in preparing us for the test. I felt extremely comfortable with the topics being tested - which was unthinkable a few years ago. Also, Ms. Talle: Thanks again for those smoothies!

Mr. Buck and Mr. G: I took the IB Math test last year, but a thank-you is still in order. Thank you for teaching the techniques and, in another sense, the mindset needed to excel in math. (Mr. Stearns: Your thank-you comes later, since AP test scores aren't out yet - to my knowledge, anyways - but, in preparation for the more serious one, thanks for allowing all of that Scrabble at the end of the year!)

Mr. Mehlbach: I've always been better with analysis and the significance of historical events than remembering the specific dates, but you prepared me to do both in an engaging and challenging setting. Thanks! (Insert bow here.)

Mrs. Kirby: Thanks for teaching me to enjoy poetry - I was never a huge fan of it prior to your class. Thanks also for helping me be able to express myself better through discussion, etc.

Looking to the Future

Ah, yes. THE FUTURE. A place of mystery and wonder! A time when we shall be assisted by robotic helpers to - oh, wait, not that far into the future.

I'll be attending CU Boulder next year, and majoring in Biochemistry (Probably a crazy choice, but oh well - I've ever been the math/science type). I'm going to orientation... exactly one week from today, actually, and I realized the other day that I have no idea what I'm doing as far as class registration and such goes, being the first in my family to go to college here in the States. Should be an interesting experience.

Apart from that, I'm not overly concerned about the transition to college. They also say that the transition from middle to high school is big, but if I remember correctly, that wasn't too bad, either. Sure, this one's going to be more major, but I'm not worried. Let's hope!

So that's that, then. I've finished my first blog post! That wasn't so bad. Now let's see if I can keep this up.