So Long WOW

The unthinkable has been done, I have quit World of Warcraft (WOW).For those who have been living under a rock for the past 6 years, WOW is an MMORPG(Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game). Known to be highly addictive, difficut to quit and having a subscriber base of 12 million to date, WOW is the de facto industry leader in fantasy themed MMORPGs. For myself, I was introduced to the game back in 2006 and since then I have had the chance to see the game progress from a maximum level 60 to level 80. When it was released initially WOW had a maximum level of 40 compared to other MMORPGs such as Ragnarok Online which allowed a maximum level of 100 and higher. However it proved to be both a profitable and sustainable strategy of expanding the maximum levels slowly in stages as gamers will not be affected by the unbalance that occurs when working adults get ass wiped by teenagers who have more time on their hands for leveling of the characters.

The strategy WOW used to entice players to keep playing(USD $15/mth subscription fee) is the gear reward system. The more you play the higher the chance of you getting that epic piece of equipment for your character. Walking into cities with full epic equipment means you're elite because the stats on the equipments lets your character hit harder/increases your health bar so you can take more damage/heal more with every cast( depending on which character class one plays). To get these epic equipment one has to spend countless hours(3 hours on weekdays, 5-8 on weekends) fighting monsters with 25 to 40 other players. Most guilds used a point system to calculate your attendance in these fights(we call them raids). When a piece of random equipment drops from monsters, you will be able to use these points to bid for the piece if its meant for your role/class.

As the game progressed, Blizzard realised that although they removed much of the "grind"(tedium of leveling up one's character endlessly) compared to most other MMORPGs, there was still issues of working adults feeling ostracized because they lacked the time to organise 40 people to raid or spend time in battlegrounds getting PvP gear(Player vs Player combat ). Hence in the 2nd expansion of the game called Burning Crusade, the raids were reduced to 10-25 man sizes. Arenas were also introduced so players could fight short combat rounds and gain points to purchase PvP gear. In the 2nd expansion they also introduced 2 new races, flying mounts that allowed the players to ride gryphons and chimera in a new continent named Outlands and 10 more levels to a maximum level of 70. The 3rd expansion named Wrath of the Lich King had the maximum level increased to 80 and introduced a new class: death knights. At the same time Blizzard was acquired by Vivendi and grouped with Activision into Activision Blizzard. This was also the time when the number crunching came to WOW, they started selling vanity pets and mounts. As an experienced gamer with more than 20yrs of gaming under my belt I could see where the game was heading : Profit Margin Maximization and dumbing down of the game to satisfy the majority of casual lazy gamers who don't bother learning their characters mechanics or maximising their gear.

And as expected the coming expansion Cataclysm(SGD$60) which will hit stores tomorrow, will only have 5 more levels, bringing the maximum to 85. The other cosmetic changes were bringing in 2 new races: goblins and worgens, allowing some races to roll classes previously unallowed eg Tauren Paladins and Human hunters, changing the original Azeroth map and allowing flying mounts in Azeroth. There was also a bit of reduction in unecessary stats like Mana Recovery and introduction of "stored power" for special attacks in various classes. All in all not attractive enough to entice me to continue my subscription. Also my calculations showed me how much this game has costed me financially and how I can buy 5 new single player games for every year I spent playing WOW. Moreover 4 years of raiding without much success(thanks to guild dramas & work commitments) I have seen probably only about 50% of the high end raid content. Coupled with high latency of 500-800ms compared to US players of sub 100ms its a miracle I stayed for 4 years. That also attests to the addictive nature of the game.

So to close my WOW chapter I will say So Long WOW. To the guildies who I have played with I hope you guys will continue to enjoy the game. Hopefully I have entertained you guys with my silly naked dancing Rezzledaz and my awesome pink pigtailed Ashikubido(which means Art of the Ankle btw). Meanwhile I will pick up my old love of photography and start heading to the gym to build myself. And to say goodbye together are my lovely Level 80 characters:

风云2 Movie Review

Had to write something because this movie sucked so bad. In short the Pang brothers managed to mutilate 风云 with their horrible cinematography. Non comic books fans will probably leave the cinema with question marks floating above their heads as there was a substantial portion of the storyline that was unaccounted for. The first was the poisoning of the pugilists. Although there was a chunk of introductory text, it failed to portray the rich story that explains the grudge between 无名 & 绝无神 and also the intricate plotting by 绝无神 which led to the poisoning of the pugilists. The movie also failed to explain what the spinal cord signifies and why super powered kungfu masters were fighting over that piece of ancient vertebrate.

The movie had a good portion of it being presented a la 300(The spartan movie which was also comic derived) style. Felt like an insult to Chinese comics. Why do we need to flatter Western comics by pirating the 300 cinematography? 风云 is such a classic Chinese comic with its own rich storylines and mythos. I blame the directors for the failure. The actors were doing fine except for Charlene Choi, and its probably not her fault because it was more of a casting issue. Charlene Choi's cheerful face is a foil for the comic's 第二梦 who is more of a reserved and melancholic personality. Kenny Ho was great as 无名 he has a more intense and suave look than Sun Xing who portrays 无名 in the TV series. The veteran villain Simon Yam was 杀很大 and was particularly impressive with that line "从此武林，我就是神话!".

The other saving grace was probably the 万剑归宗 Vs 不灭金身 scene. It was quite a CGI Spectacle that was true to the comics.万剑归宗 in 风云 comics is the pinnacle of swordsmanship.Only a handful of masters grasped this technique.无名 was the master in that era who mastered the skill. When 万剑归宗 is unleashed thousands of surrounding swords are levitated telekinetically and hurled towards the opponent in a relentless maelstrom of fury. It's more of a 终极招数 aka final technique and as per described one can imagine it is only used against an extremely formidable common enemy who has slain numerous pugilists, otherwise there wouldn't be this many swords lying around would it?

Take a look

http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XMTE3MjUxNTg0.html

Please stick to the horror genre, Pang brothers. I give this movie -6/10. Fail! Movie goers save that money for a better show. If you want a solid 风云 movie stick to the original or watch 风云决(The animated version).

Rebooting the Immune System

Did you guys hear the good news? German doctors have cured AIDs. Actually they didn't start out trying to cure AIDs, they were simply trying to do a bone marrow transplant for a patient with leukemia & AIDs. This however is not just any old marrow transplant. The marrow comes from a guy with a resistance to the HIV, meaning he has the CCR5-Delta 32 gene. So it was a pretty new procedure. The patient probably figured he had nothing to lose. Anyway in the end, the doctors realised that the HIV in the patient's bloodstream reduced to a extremely low level and so the guy was cured of his AIDs.

For those who are unaware of what stem cells are. Stem cells are part of the repair system of multicellular organisms. These reproduce through mitotic division and can differentiate into different cell types. Stem cells can be found in the bone marrow and since the marrow came from a donor with CCR5-Delta 32 gene it grows into T cells with receptors that does not allow the HIV to "dock" and insert its viral DNA which causes the cells to be infected. The bad news is finding people who have the HIV resistance gene CCR5-Delta 32 because this gene is completely absent in East Asians. This gene is more prevalent (about 10%) in European populations as it was a resistance built up after the Black Death plague. So like they say, that which doesn't kill you makes you stronger.

Well I guess the first biotech to find an Asian embryo with the CCR5-Delta 32 will be a forerunner in stem cell lines producing marrow to cure the rich AIDs victims. Meanwhile its still retroviral treatments.

Whats your Totem?!

In the native american culture the people believed in animal spirit guides. American Indians see animal spirit guides or totems as powerful guardians of the land or spirits of living animals. Some psychologists conjecture that a vision or message from an animal spirit guide may be certain aspects of the human psyche resurfacing from the pre-conscious ancient human mind. For example, fish living in the sea are associated with the unconscious mind and symbolize a deep mind. Perhaps evolutionary memory may exist, we don't really know since memory is still largely a mystery.

Carl Jung believed that personalities can be categorised into archetypes. The Self, the regulating center of the psyche and facilitator of individuation.The Shadow, the opposite of the ego image, often containing qualities that the ego does not identify with but possesses nonetheless. The Anima, the feminine image in a man's psyche. The Animus, the masculine image in a woman's psyche. The Persona, how we present to the world. Based on his analytical psychology theories there are quite a few personality classification tests that arose. One of the most commonly used is the Myer-Briggs Type Indicator or better known by its abbreviation MBTI. Here's a good link where you can take this test and check for yourself what personality type you are.

So it turns out that I'm a INTJ- Introverted Inuitive Thinking Judging. Apparently people of this personality type are a mere 1% of the population. Great... we are nearly extinct. I guess that's logical since socializing isn't very high on our scorecards, we are unlikely to sow wild oats all over to beget little INTJs =p. Joking, personality does depend a lot on influences other than genes. Think this test is pretty spot on. If given autonomy and freedom of creation, I'll be at my best form. Rationality is my baseline and that really poses a problem in that I seldom fall head over heels in love. Guess that's my fatal personality flaw.

Also having this INTJ personality tends to make people think I'm arrogant and distant. People who know me well though will tell you that I'm a dedicated friend in deed and one who keeps friends for life. I just tend to think a lot, read a lot and analyse a lot. Just ring a bell to grab my attention to wake me from my waking meditation and I'll be there haha. If I were to identify a spirit animal most like me I would say its a cat. Give me my ball of wool and I'll amuse myself for a looong time. Here kitty kitty!

Money Matters

Came across a valuable piece of golden financial advice in Yahoo pages. It can be accessed with this link : http://finance.yahoo.com/retirement/article/106000/10-Steps-to-Retire-a-Millionaire.

Most of us obsess over money and know its important. We strive to study hard and then work hard at our jobs to earn it. And as we earn more, we desire better things: a comfortable home we can be proud of, a comfortable car we can be proud of, holidays we can remember for life. Oh wait bankruptcy! Hey I shouldn't be bankrupt?! I'm well educated, have a decent job, am smart as hell etc. Yaddah yaddah. As mentioned in the advice prescribed within the Yahoo page link, it is a lack of planning, a lack of patience and a lack of savings.

Planning isn't just laying out the goals: Condo, car,holidays. It is how to achieve all these step by step without going into an oversized debt and having enough emergency funds to tide one and family through sickness/unemployment.

Economy function in cycles, there will be booms and recessions. One can expect to meet 1 recession at least once during their lifetime. Money should be saved during economic booms,purchases/travel trips made during recessions and investments performed on the upcurve of the recession. That's how assets grow.

Never ever invest in something we do not understand about. If you only understand property invest in properties and rent out. Equities are good if you can understand the country and the companies its being invested in. Shares are great if you possess a keen awareness of that particular industry and know about the latest developments, major government projects or blockbuster products. Never trust others with your life savings, do that homework and understand the investment. Consult 2nd or 3rd opinions with people who are experienced in that field. Do not take out a loan over an investment, that's akin to gambling. Invest a substantial amount of your savings but never all of it. Keep an emergency fund that will last you half a year.If you can't do that it means you have affordability issues and your financial state is brittle. Fludity is important it allows transfer of funds to investment, to pay for that stay in hospital etc. Cash is king.

An asset in my opinion is something you own/pay >50% of. A liability is something you can manage to own 10-20% of and strive to service a loan for. Liabilities get you into debt. Debt is the best way to ensure one's stay in poverty. Financial freedom is about getting away from debt. A small loan is better than a large one. Affordability should be a huge consideration in purchasing. Think about it why do companies like Courts offer installments, its because it lulls the customer into thinking he/she can afford 10 items when in fact his/her financials may allow for much less.

When friends or relatives approach for loans, issue an IOU. Loans are easy to make out but if you ever intended to recover that sum, make sure you know that debt recovery is one of the worst jobs one can find. Just look at the amount of bad debts banks chalk up.

Credit cards are one of the worst temptations ever in my book. If you lack discipline just take out 1 visa and 1 masters and that should be enough. When you issue sub cards, make sure you understand the person well. If that person is prone to spending spree and has responsibility issues, put a low limit on that card. Similarly if you have no financial discipline, rein yourself by setting a low credit limit on that credit card.

There's a difference in spending on what we need, spending on what we want and frivolous spending. Have a expenditure budget and challenge yourself to find out that minimal sum you can survive on. You'll find that you don't require much to survive. Remind yourself daily that money doesn't come easy and financial falls are difficult to recover from, it may possibly break your marriage, estrange you from your family/friends, cause your death because of the inability to pay for that crucial medical procedure. Now we don't want that do we?

Be patient, save, work hard and afford what you can. One step at a time. Start small. We all learnt to crawl, walk and then run. True there are those who start running faster but make sure you're utterly convinced that you're that special running baby, otherwise you may just cripple yourself for life.

Dark Knight

This is the sequel to Batman Begins and continues in the tradition of humanizing the hero. Great cast with sterling performances by the late Heath Ledger as Joker, Gary Oldman as police lieutenant James Gordon and Aaron Eckhart's Harvey Dent aka Harvey 2 Face. Yes the villains stole the show for this one. That is not to say that the good guys are lousy. Christian Bale, Morgan Freeman and Michael Caine stood well and were convincing characters. Heath Ledger is the core of this movie, if he stood on the street today you'll be clenching your fist at his Joker. He has truly surpassed Jack Nicholson's rendition and brought much depth to the villain.

Joker is a twisted psychopath hell bent on wreaking havoc and bringing chaos by mass murder. He enjoys bringing people to their limits where the distinction between good and evil mashes into a blur. Kill or be killed, ridicule the hunted hero etc.The Joker challenges the principles and the plans of the goody two shoes, has a blatant disregard for life and generally does what he feels like. He brings the bad guys to their knees as well. An agent of utter chaos.

Harvey Dent as the new DA(district attorney) is a tough as nails lawyer seeking to clean up Gotham city's underworld. He put the mob boss trial and threatens the criminals in busting their money laundering by the Hong Kong accountant Lau. Lauded as the White Knight of Gotham he is soon thrown into a horrible situation of being a target of Joker's brainwashing. First his life fell into jeopardy as Joker hunt shim down during a fundraiser ball. This was followed by the kidnapping of both himself and his girlfriend Rachel Dawes in which Rachel perished. He begins to doubt the system of justice and is eventually broken down by Joker to give into his own madness. He begins vengeance on all who were involved in the course of events which led to Rachels death, deciding the fate of his victims with a toss of his coin.

I don't want to give away much of the plot because its a must watch 2008 movie.Overall I give it a high 8.5/10. Great acting, good action, well melded CGI. Very Impressive piece of work.

赤壁 Review

赤壁 aka Red Cliffs is the site of a famous battle near the end of the Han dynasty. It is also the title of John Woo's latest war epic. This movie boasts a stellar cast including: Tony Leung(Zhou Yu), Takeshi Kaneshiro (Zhuge Liang), Zhang Fengyi(Cao Cao),Zhao Wei(Sun Shang Xiang), Chang Chen(Sun Quan), Li Chi Ling(Xiao Qiao, Hu Jun(Zhao Yun) etc.

Before the movie screened I watched the trailer and had doubts about the choice of casting Takeshi Kaneshiro as Zhuge Liang. I was proven to be right. Takeshi didn't manage to deliver an in depth interpretation of Zhuge Liang. He had large shoes to fill with remarkable performances by predecessors like Tang Guo Qiang. Takeshi didn't manage to bring across Zhuge Liang's brilliance. Historically Zhuge Liang was described as a tall good looking man with his trademark goose feather fan. Takeshi fits the profile but to me he is just too pretty to imagine him being married to an ugly wife. ps:The real Zhuge Liang was married to an ugly daughter of scholar Huang Chengyan.

Tony Leung's Zhou Yu was intense, sometimes brooding and generally well portrayed as a renaissance man. Zhou Yu was an accomplished musician and tactician. Kudos to Tony Leung for his ability to bring the character to life. Downside, he looked a bit too old and gruff as Zhou Yu. I had always imagined Zhou Yu to look more refined, cultured and younger.

Zhang Fengyi was good as Cao Cao. He delivered as usual. His Cao Cao was proud , lusty, cocky and cynical. I'm slightly disappointed though that the deeply suspicious nature Cao Cao was missing in action. Other than that I'm pretty happy with his portrayal.

Now comes the horrible Liu Bei and the Zhao, Guan, Zhang cast. It was utterly bad. You Yong's Liu Bei looked like a decrepit farmer, Guan Yu was portrayed like a gentle teacher on steroids who morphs into incredible hulk during battle and Zhao Yun was just plain brutish. It was especially disgusting in the Bagua Formation when the fighting scenes looked like they came straight out of the Dynasty Warriors video games. Unrealistic battle where the Wei soldiers just ran like lemmings into the formation without fighting the Sun-Liu soldiers.

End of the day I give it a 6.5/10 and do not recommend hardcore fans or people with no inkling of 三国 personalities and events to watch this movie. John Woo should stick to guns. Sweeping war epics should be left to directors like Ridley Scott.