Happy Veterans' Day

Missed it since I was out of town over the weekend but even though it's a day late, but happy Veterans Day to you all.

I've never been in the military myself. Although I have had friends, relatives, who've signed up like so many other Americans in this day and age, I have no idea of the pain and loss and anguish it can bring. Any more than the joys and rewards it can also lead towards. But what I do know is that I talk a lot. I say things about video games and music and even the war. Words that I wouldn't be able even say if it hadn't been for the brave men and women who've given a part of their lives over in service to this country. What I don't tend to say, though, is how grateful I am for that.

So, let me just say thank you. Thank you for your courage. Thank you for your service. And, especially, thank you for your sacrifice. It's something that should never be forgotten and, rest assured, I never have.

Random Thought of the Day

Compromise is not telling other people what you want and expecting them to give it to you.

Credo: These Things I Believe

I believe I don't hate America.

I believe I'm not a traitor.

I believe the United States is the greatest country ever.

I believe democracy is the worst form of government except for every other kind.

I believe my country is sick and not getting any better.

I believe that the Iraq War was a mistake and is a disaster.

I believe that it's our disaster and we, as a nation, bear the ultimate responsibility for what happens because of it.

I believe, though, that there's no hope of it getting any better, no chance that anything we do will matter at this point, and the best thing to do is end our involvement and see to our own borders.

I believe President Bush will do everything in his power, including lying and misleading the public, to keep that from happening.

I believe the Democrats in Congress have fiddled while Rome is burning and, unless they can show some spine, they're going to pay the price for it.

I believe we're worse off today than we were six years ago. Less safe, less prosperous, less influential, less able to give our children a better future. Less.

I believe my country shouldn't be torturing people.

I don't believe these views are contradictory.

I believe the Constitution gives me not just the freedom to voice these opinions but also the responsibility. That, as a citizen of a government formed by me, of me, and for me, it's my duty to let those representing me know what I think about the issues of the day. To force them, if need be, into action to take care of those issues. Because it's my country. And if it's wrong, that reflects poorly on me.

I believe I could do more to make my voice heard.

I believe in the separation of church and state.

I believe it's been way too long since I've been to church. And it'll be even longer before I go back.

I believe in evolution.

I believe we have problems.

I believe that there are solutions to our problems.

I believe we can find them if we look hard enough, work long enough, and are open-minded enough to embrace them.

I believe we've come a long way.

I believe we've got even further to go.

I don't believe I'm a racist.

I don't believe I'm a sexist.

I believe I probably lied at least once there.

I believe there's something more to life than getting rich, getting more stuff, and getting old.

I believe I've said enough for now.

Mission Restatement

Because you can't, you won't, and you don't. S.Rex, coming to rock the...

The Fallacy of the False Apology

Context.

Never apologize and never explain - it's a sign of weakness. - Marion Michael Morrison

Turn your weaknesses to strength. - Unknown

Admitting the mistakes of the past is meaningless. Useful only for asking for forgiveness. Accepting the mistakes of the present is essential because only by admitting they're happening can you work to correct them.

Guild Wars: My Unsolicited Advice For GW2

The first, the absolute first thing you need to do from a PR standpoint is to do the official wiki one better. You need an officially unofficial site that the gaming public can flock to, and you can't leave it to the community to come up with one for you. You need to get out into those blue waters and establish that site yourselves, leaving the fan community to take care of the niches and corners you leave in your wake.

It doesn't have to be part of the official site itself, but it has to be clearly linked, tied to the game in fundamental ways. The functionality of it has to be built into the game itself from the very beginning. Players need to have something like a wiki, something like a forum, something like e-mail or private messages, right at their fingertips and a fansite provides all of that along with a horde of volunteers and devotees who'll be willing to donate the time and energy to keep it running. Sure, you might have to pay out a bit for servers and bandwidth, but the benefits you reap in terms of creating, fostering, and encouraging a community of rabid followers easily offsets those costs. People will play the game, be drawn into that community, become part of it, become informed, enriched, and encouraged by it and keep playing, keep paying, more than they would otherwise.

A few disclaimers here and there. Notices that the opinions expressed, the information contained, the voices raised, aren't part of the company's view. That this site is supported, subsidized, because the developers realize how important a place to talk and share is to their players, have seen in the past just what it means to everyone involved, but it remains, somehow, separate.

Another official wiki is great, would be an amazing resource, but it can be even better. Integrate it, for one with forums. Forget talk pages, let users deal with things in threads and discussions in a medium that handles them better. Handles things other than raw information better. Because these unofficially official forums would team with players looking to trade, to connect, to form groups and guilds and teams, just as much as they will to share their works of fandom or their suggestions for improvements. Make sure that, just like the current wiki, that the right developers are there, involved, posting, commenting, participating. Even the appearance that they care and will respond to their loyal public a long way. And, yes, there will be flame wars and misstatements and controversies and everything that comes from interacting with the public but, that's okay.

That's what you have your qualified, dedicated moderators for. That's just makes you seem human, makes you seem even more a part of it all. And, in the end, it's not really official. It's a fan site, it doesn't really count. It can all be walked back, if it needs to be. But your site, these forums, they're not just a place for people to come and find the way to beat a mission or where that skill they've been coveting can be found. It's a meeting place. A hub. Of activity but more importantly of the kind of connections that drive an online, multiplayer game. It's easy to get swept up, to get carried away by that stream but it's a powerful one and, if you take the right care, you can tap into it, for the betterment of all.

It might take some new software. A new PHB or wiki code, one that's optimized for this sort of thing. But you have plenty of talented programmers who can lash it together. And if they can't, well, that's when you throw things to the fans and say, “Hey, we could use some help here. If you're willing to work for free, we're willing to not pay you. Unless, of course, you think having a better site, a new functionality wouldn't be compensation enough on its own.” They'll help. They'll jump at the chance, thrill at being just a small part of it all. Maybe almost half of them won't pan out, won't have the talent or the drive to do anything but promise. Maybe the other half flakes and leaves you high and dry. Doesn't matter if only one in a hundred of their ideas is a good one when you have thousands of them.

But imagine what the game will be like when it's tied, integrated, connected to a purpose built site full of forums and wikis. If creating an account registered you on such a site. And the game linked to the site, pointing people to it so they could use its many resources even as they played. Global announcements, help files, directing people that answers and more can be found at this amazing place where the fans and developers have come together to make something out of the nothingness between.

Stuck in a mission? Well, there's a full-fledged wiki where you can find all the tips and tricks you need, customized to your desired level of spoilers (Just want to know what you're supposed to do next but don't want to find out the plot ahead of time? Want to figure out these answers yourself? Great. No, you want a map and a helping hand to guide you through everything? Well, we've got that, too.). Looking for a group to play with? Hey, we've got forums where you can get recruited into a guild. Want something a little less permanent, only looking to urn this particular challenging instance and need some help? Hey, we've combined the party search with a calender, so you can schedule a raid or plan to join a group ahead of time. Whatever it is you need, whatever you can't find in game, we've got it here, for you. By you. By the developers. By us, together. You. You can be a part of it all, too. All you have to do is take that one, trembling step into the brave new world. But it's a small step because we've worked so hard to knock down the barriers and ease your way. Join. Come join. It's easier than you think.

It doesn't replace the fan community. It supercharges it. It co-opts it and all the energy and volunteerism it brings. All those people, all those participants, it's a rich source of data, of feedback for the game and how it works. The stark truth with these sorts of places is that only smaller and smaller percentages of people take part or even barely manage to participate. But if inclusion is built right into the system then it's much easier for people to pass through those gates. And those who pass through find it harder to leave. The ones who are part of the community, who feel like they belong, who feel like they've got ownership over some small piece of it all, those are the ones who stay. Those are the ones who are the fans, who'll buy your game and extol its virtues and play it all the same. The more people you invite into the outer layers of that club, the larger the potential population even as the hard, cold knife of statistical reality slices away at the faithful.

I used to make posts like this all the time. In the dark, in the secrets, behind the walls at one fansite or another. To steer opinion, to focus our energies, to unveil some new project or initiative to drive us forward. Because that's the kind of administrator/moderator/manager/whatever I was. I'm an ideas person and every so often some bright, amazing idea pops into my head, and I just have to hammer it out there. When I ran those kinds of sites, when I had a say in how they would be improved, that's the kind of idea I shared. Not because I was paid. I've never accept a dime for any of that sort of thing, never even got a t-shirt, going so far as to turn down any credit, any compensation, I felt was undue. Not because I had to, because when I'd had enough, I was able to throw up my arms and walk away free of any obligations. But for the simple reason that I wanted to be part of it all and I don't know any other way of doing so that to do my best in service of whatever cause I've made my own. The thing is, I might be a unique individual, my own specific set of talents and motivations, but I'm not the only one who feels that way. Not the only who'd work so hard, care so much, for something I have no reason to. There are other like me out there, just waiting for the right chance, the right circumstances, to show everyone what they can do. And you know what? I started out as just someone who clicked a link, followed it to site, read a few threads, made a few hesitant posts and got swept up in the excitement, in the rush of events to find themselves somewhere, something different than just another face in the crowd. If only for a moment. And I like to think I made the most of my brief moment in the shining sun, used it as a chance to better not just myself but everyone around me, the only way I know how. But it happened to me. It can happen to others, too, if only they're given that chance. Why not give them as much of one as you can? Why not be better?

A Good War?

I suppose since I've come out of the closet as a detractor of the Afghanistan war and my corresponding views on the Iraq war should be more than clear by now, that it might seem as though I'm an opponent of any and all wars. One of those dirty, stinking hippy pacifists that seems a subject of such concern. Which, I assure you, I'm not. I don't oppose all wars, just the stupid ones.

War is such a costly, terrible endeavor that it's not something to be undertaken lightly. For the safety and security of a country and a people's beliefs it has to exist, has to be a recourse that can be pursued. But only when all else fails. War isn't the second or third option, it's the last one, to be used when all other options have failed (As the Asimov quote goes, “Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent”). Because as much as people want to talk about glory and honor and how a war might improve the national character or whatever is the latest, ultra-modern model of “dulce et decorum est” that they want to wheel out to justify a conflict, the sad truth is that war kills people. People who don't deserve to die. People who might otherwise have gone on to full, happy lives.

And while that might seem like a pacifist's creed - that all life is sacred and deserves to be respected - I pitch it in more utilitarian concerns. Each person killed in war is one who would otherwise be alive and contributing to society, to civilization in some other way. Each life lost diminishes us all for the simple fact that humanity is a complex net of interwoven dependencies and removing even one person makes the entire system poorer. Just as the resources spent on warfare might be better spent elsewhere, to more of a net benefit, so are those people a squandered resource. They're labor, they're scientists, they're poets, who might have done nothing much important but might also have the potential to do something amazing, to have a lasting impact on the course of human events. You don't know, after all, where the next Shakespear or Picaso or Hawking will come from, and they could just as easily be caught in the shrapnel and ravages of war as anyone else. That human toll has to be taken into the calculus of whether or not the cost of a war is worthwhile.

And for me, what offsets that cost has to be dauntingly, almost insurmountably high. In fact, I think I'd go so far as to say that a country should only wage war in the face of an existential threat. Only if the fate of their nation hinges on the outcome of the fight. Because when the gamble could result in your having nothing left at the end of the game, then it's alright to wager everything you have on the outcome being in your favor – you can't tolerate the risk of it being anything else. But there is no such thing as a good war, no such thing as war that's just, only the dirty, desperate fight for survival that should be avoided at all costs. And that's many things but a thing of grace or something to be respected it's not.

To say as such. To say that war is terrible and should be avoided is not a position of weakness. That's not a position borne out of fear or cowardice. It's a recognition, instead, of the hideous costs that war brings with it. That it leaves lives, economies, nations ruined in its wake. And far from being the view of wide-eye innocence, it's the hard won viewpoint of experience. Of tired warriors returning home from the field of battle. Of those who've headed the warning of history not to follow along that dark path. Or even of those who favor somber reflection over the flush of emotions.

Why Advertising Matters

If you ever wondered why corporations like Ford or Apple spend millions of dollars on marketing their already incredibly well know products – products that everyone who's going to be interested in purchasing have already heard about – well, here's why:

Kids think food tastes better if it's wrapped in McDonald's foil.

I think it's pretty good common sense that advertising does affect behavior. If it didn't, there are a lot of dollars and hours being wasted on it. And while it might those resources might not be used the most efficiently, I think enough people have been involved in the ad game that if it didn't drive behavior then someone would have found a better way by now. But the scary thing here is that the brand marketing created by McDonald's is driving irrational behavior.

Even carrots, even carrots, wrapped in a McDonald's wrapper tasted better to the discerning palate of a five year old. Oh sure, they'll eat mud if you're not looking but, trust me, they'll let you know if something doesn't taste right. That's how powerful, that's how effective, the advertising we're bombarded with can be. And if this effect is solely limited to McDonald's, I'd eat, well, McDonald's.

It makes me wonder just how many other, subliminal, subconscious desires have been molded by marketing departments. Just what's rattling around in my head because some ad exec was trying to sell a few more bars of soap. Because, of course, the effect might be most apparent in children but there's probably some influence on the behavior of even the most rational. And from all types of sources, not just commercial advertising. How about from the soundbites of a political campaign as they try to drive their message home? Or the stories that are repeated ad nauseum on the news? Or even the narratives we tell each other, the truisms and adages we reinforce on a daily basis. The thought of what they're doing to our minds isn't as scary as the thought of what they could do, if someone really understood how to use these techniques. If someone, some company, some society, put the time and effort into understanding just how far they could influence people with advertising and not just leave the bouncing and tumbling to the random twists of the marketplace.

But even from such chilling news can come good things. I have, by the way, already sent an e-mail to my cousin, my sadly much younger cousin, who already has a young child and advised her to save some wrappers from her next trip to Micky D's should my niece ever develop finicky eating habits. Take whatever you want, fold it up nicely in the – cleaned - wrapper and serve it up to your child. Tell them it's from Ronald's new line of McVeggies, it's no worse than the white lies you tell them about Santa Claus. And in the ongoing battle to get your kid to eat her broccoli, I think our parents will take any weapon they can get their hands on.

We Are All Digby Now

Sigh, woe to my sadly unkempt blogroll. I really have to update it one of these days. Prune out those sites that have gone the way of the buggy whip, like Billmon and Soluna. And maybe even plant a few more seeds. Oh, if I only had the time and the energy. Like any project, the longer I leave it the more daunting it grows and the easier it is to find another way to idyll away my time. If I ever do get around to it, though, you can rest assured that the almost criminal lack of a link to Hullabaloo would be one of the first mistakes I'd correct. Way back when this blog started, I added links as I wrote something about them. And the problem with Digby's pad is not finding something brilliant to just point at and nod. It's picking from all the amazingly insightful things to concentrate on just one at a time that I have difficulty with.

Anyhow, word is that sometime tonight, Digby's ultra top-secret identity will be revealed at a dinner at Take Back America. And while I wish the soon-to-be unanonymous architect of that great site nothing but the best I can't help but feel....odd about this. As you might guess from my own pseudonym, I'm pretty comfortable with that cloak of faceless namelessness that tumbling around the inter-tubes provides. Even though it seems to bother some people, I've had so many screen names and tags and handles in so many places that it's second nature to me. More importantly, I've known so many other people as only a string of text that I'm just as comfortable with the not knowing of others. Stared at so many posts and IMs and text messages that contain only the faintest hint of authorship that it doesn't matter to me. What matters isn't what someone looks like or even what their voice sounds like, all tinny and grainy on the other end of a VOIP, no, what matters is what they've written. It's those ideas, searing white hot right into my own mind that are important. Not where someone's from or what their accent sounds like. I'll even give them a pass on grammatical accuracy even though that one rankles a bit. It's where they're going. What they're getting at. Their thoughts and ideas that I care about. How well they express them. How they settle amongst my own. Anonymous, pseudonymous, or complete with a bio page and directions to their house to shake hands, whether or not I know their identity has nothing to do with how we interact.

And yet, somehow, it does. Knowing who someone is in, for lack of a better term, real life changes things somehow. Inevitably, irrevocably. It makes it realer, somehow. More visceral. Connecting not just on the level of cerebration but through some kind of deeper, more primal senses. The ones that let us recognize the humanity in and of others, I suppose. It's a weird feeling. Whether it's stumbling across a picture of a friend you've only ever known as a particular voice on a message board[1]. Or whether it's talking to a guildmate on vent, on teamspeak, on Skype, on the phone for the first time and realizing that they're about 13 years younger than you thought. Or the always jarring, “Dude, you're a girl/guy? I had no idea.” conversations. Or even just meeting that favorite author who's only ever been a portrait shoot on a book jacket to you. Somehow seeing them moving, the muscles in their face pushing and pulling as they sound out the words of that text you've been saying to yourself all along without realizing it, well, it's not bad, it's not good, but it's different. The kind of unsettling, awkward different that you're not sure you should even feel at all. All that you've imagined, all that you've conjectured, all the little details that you've never suspected you were filling in they get swept away and replaced by the mundane. And, for me anyway, it seems like that person is a little smaller. A little more ordinary. A little less imposing.

When you find out that, yeah, they're just a person after all.

Perils of the modern age, I suppose. But, still, you could mask over the alias and cover up all the identifying features and those words would still burn just as fiercely. That intellect would still be just as sharp as that tongue. And, somehow, losing that mask just makes the world a little less mysterious. Because when someone can be anyone, well, they just might be me. Or you. Or everyone else. Just another voice in the choir. Where the only thing that matters is just how well you sing out into the night. I might be the only one, though, but I've never cared to find out who Digby is. And more importantly just who she isn't. Because when you think there's a giant behind your shoulder, one you can't get a good, clean look at, but one who's thunderous voice is ringing off the rafters, well, it makes it a little easier to think your own can carry.

[1] – Not the only case where I've found a friend's face but, still, this is too good an opportunity to pass along misinformation to pass up. I don't care what anyone says. This is an impostor. Actors hired to play a role. There is no iQ. The real Ensign is a malevolent AI residing in a series of decommissioned, Cold War era computers. His only loves are logic, calculations, and Hello Kitty. I know, I've seen the server stacks.

Script Frenzy: Fantasy Sucks

Let's face it, fantasy sucks. That might sound like an odd thing to say for someone who's currently writing a fantasy screenplay but, well, there it is. As a genre, fantasy literature, fantasy films, fantasy whatever is a backwater. Oh, to be sure, there's plenty of it. As an avid gamer, for example, there's no end of MMO and RPGs and others that mine that territory. Books lining the shelves in the bookstore. Since Lord of the Rings there isn't a year that goes by without some kind of fantasy film coming to the theaters. It's an expansive genre, a popular one, but not a vibrant one. Not one that really lives up to its potential.

Maybe it's because I come from more of a sci-fi background myself. But I expect something more than a retread of the Hero's Journey. Science fiction, as a genre is broad. It's used as a backdrop to tell any number of stories. You get stories about far flung empires and logical battles of wit with Asimov, you get lurid, flowing, poetic stories from Bradbury. You get cyberpunk, you get space opera, and you get dozens of tales being told about hundreds of topics. Fantasy, on the other hand, seems to be stuck trying to replicate Tolkien over and over again. You get authors churning out novel after novel of their own, pale imitation of Tolkien's richly detailed world. Volume after volume of text, divided up into multiple volumes so the authors and publishers can wring more money out of the fans.

For every R.R. Martin (And even there I'm a bit skeptical because although I liked the start of a Song of Ice And Fire about a thousand pages in I realized there's an awful lot there but not exactly a point yet. The series isn't finished so, who knows, but I think it's something that would benefit from a lot of editing. With a hatchet. Good writing bogged down by the demands of the format.) there's an Eddings or Paolini. Writers who seem to be doing nothing more than jot down their latest table top campaign. Repeating the same themes, the same concepts with their own stamp on them. Every story has a hero, every world a dark lord, there's a magical macguffin, and every place is some sort of weirdly idolized view of the world from the perspective of western medieval Europe. And the attempts to change that – to blend with another genre like steampunk or stories with a more oriental setting than the typical pastoral fare or whatever - amount to nothing more than dressing up those tropes in funny clothes and trotting them out as something new and exciting. Oh, look, it's fantasy but they've got top hats and pistols or it's about plucky young children instead of the hidden king.

I don't know, maybe I just haven't been reading the right authors and, if you've got any suggestions, feel free. But I think I've done a fair amount of sampling and searching out of these kind of tales. To be fair, there's good stuff to be found. Stories that are rewarding to explore. Authors that are invigorating to read. But it all seems to be telling the same story. Even the short stories I've seen are just trying to rehash the sense of some vague mythological fairy tale or legend (Which also applies to probably the last good fantasy novel I read, American Gods by Gaiman). It's all overwraught, overblown fap. There's no variety. There's no originality. There's no innovation. No authors trying to push the boundaries of what you can do with fantasy telling. The genre hasn't had a real giant in the field since the earliest days of the Inklings. When the modern template seems to have been set in stone.

Which seems like such a shame to me because, as a genre, fantasy has a lot of potential. Like the sci-fi it normally gets lumped at, it allows for a much broader canvas than what's currently being taken advantage of. Sci-fi, good sci-fi, works because by stepping away from the modern world it allows the author to hold up a mirror to the reader. Revealing not just the foibles of their world but something about that elusive universal human condition. At heart, it's not about the laser rays or ion trails, it's about the people. It uses the technology to pose moral questions, creating interesting dilemmas, and set novel premises in front of the characters. And through them the reader.

Fantasy can do the same thing. And the really really good stuff does. But it's mostly all concerned with the same issues of destiny and camaraderie of that heroic journey to toss a ring in a mountain top or pull a sword from a stone, whatever. The wealth and breath of humanity, the choices and problems and consequences we encounter aren't dealt with. They aren't tackled. They aren't brought to light and left up for the audience to puzzle over. Instead it's trapped in the shambling undead – the fantasy equivalent of stories about soulless robots clanking around and doing robot things disconnected from human emotion or concerns. Formalistic stories that have no impact on anyone.

To me, the central element of a fantasy story isn't about a young peasant who finds out he's got to save the world or about that group of heroes banding together to stop some evil. It's about magic. The presence of something, somewhere, somehow that transcends the normal, mundane everyday world and lets the fantastic happen. That's what fantasy can use. That's what lets it separate itself from the real world. That's what lets them hold up that mirror to the audience. The sense that there's something mystical, something out of the ordinary, something beyond the senses, on the tip of the fingers, balanced on the end the nose, in the corner of the eyes, just out of sight, just out of reach, but still tangibly there is how fantasy can explore its topics. It's the entryway past the reader's defenses that lets the author deliver their carefully coded message. They'll give the author that magic and the author can use that to create living, breathing characters. Tell cautionary tales, explore hidden and taboo themes, celebrate the human spirit or pity its weaknesses in the morals those characters relate. Ones that resonate and leave the reader better for having known them.

It could be so much better. And I wish I was a good enough writer to be able to do something with that feeling of mine. I'm not. But that doesn't mean I'm not trying with my own script. Maybe it's because I've had too many art classes. Read too many pretentious books. Maybe I'm just a little too deep into the mad spirit of the Frenzy. I don't know. But what I'm trying to do is to use those standard fantasy tropes, or at least the impression of them, to tell something different. Something more grounded and bound to the everyday concerns of the modern age.

My story isn't about gods and monsters dueling in the clouds. It's about people. People thrust into a world they didn't make and having to deal with choices they'd rather not have. Who just happen to live in a world where magic exists and can do some amazing things. But it's not a deus ex, it doesn't solve everything. It doesn't solve anything. It's just another tool, wielded the way people use swords or typewriters or anything else that helps them to shape their existence. Princesses might be saved, but the kingdom isn't. The fate of the world isn't going to come down to a swordfight. No one wiggles their fingers and gives everyone a happy ending. My favorite characters don't get on a boat and sail off into immortality. The world I'm making is going to keep spinning and the story I'm telling is just one small part of it. And I'm telling it because I think it's a story that anyone listening can find something of value in.

The world is ripe for fantasy, after all. LotR was a smash. There's a generation of children who've grown up on Harry Potter. Years ago these were the people who were raised on the pulps and serials that were transformed by the atomic age into a vital literary genre. The potential is there for someone to take the fantasy genre to the mainstream. To take it out of that stifling niche it's been trapped in for too long. And to throw open the door to experimentation, exploration, and iteration down a thousand paths from the highbrow to the low. I'm not mad enough to believe that I'll actually succeed. But I'm just mad enough to believe I have to try.

Ah, Nubbed It

Been wanting to write this one for a while. But I don't think I quite did it right. The general idea is that you couldn't have another da Vinci today because the scope of topics to cover for someone to be a “Renaissance Man” or at the bleeding edge of any number of topics is too broad. For one person, anyway. There's just too much data to absorb. And that amount grows every day thanks to the churning of the hive – simply staying current let alone getting ahead of the curve these days is a monumental task. And while the data one needs to process is ever growing the human mind is finite. And it hasn't gotten any better or any worse since the time of da Vinci or anyone before him – human beings are the same. There's just a lot more of us and a lot more perspectives that build to the understanding of our world. So someone can't hope to gain true mastery of a wide variety of subjects but they can skim over them and use that basic understanding to build something new – if, of course, they're willing to step outside of their boundaries every once in a while. If not obliterate them entirely.

The Fallacy of Force

“Power comes from the barrel of a gun.” - Mao Zedong

The quote from Chairman Mao is one that gets thrown around a lot. That it stems from the same mind that birthed the Little Red Book and the Cultural Revolution should be illustrative. Yet, it remains a popular one because it's both simple and direct. Much like what springs from it. However, while the concept of force and the readiness to employ its power is a necessary one it is not the end all and be all. Power as a means in and of itself is an Orwellian idea that leads to the Orwellian nightmare. Power must be tempered and supported by other traits and other qualities or else it becomes brute, unthinking force – as dangerous to those who set it in motion as it is to those it's been aimed against.

Hence: Power comes from the barrel of a gun. Strength does not. That comes from the hand resting on the trigger and the will that decides whether or not to pull it.

The Fallacy of the Polymath

Polymath. From the Greek polumathes. Polu or poly meaning many. And math meaning to learn. Thus the term means someone who has literally “learned much.”

The most common example of a polymath would be Leonardo da Vinci, a master not only of painting and sculpture but engineering and the sciences. It's the idea of the Renaissance Man or the Uomo Universalis- someone who is the sum of a society's learning. And one who attempts to know as much as possible about all that can be known. However, the trend in societies and technologies is towards ever greater specification. As the pool of knowledge expands those who attempt to understand are driven into specializations. Niches, if you will, where their knowledge can truly blossom. Those who attempt to generalize are left behind and bereft of the true depth of learning they need to comprehend let alone compete. Yet, at the same time, those who narrow their focus into their own pursuits can easily lose sight of all others. Becoming trapped in a stovepipe of their own making they feed out only what they've preselected to feed in. And it's only those who take a broad view of things who might be able to see the forest for the trees. It's the polymath who can step outside the boundaries of the niche and perform the necessary synthesis of creation. Yet as they create they add to the knowledge that everyone who comes after will have to learn in order to progress further – making it less likely for another polymath to emerge. But, then, learning becomes trapped looking backwards and not towards the potential futures of progress as the polymath, like Big Brother, becomes buried under a torrent of information. Synthesis, then, in the modern age comes not from those who “learn” much or are capable of mastering many disciplines but from those who experience much and flit from one niche to the next. And, of course, leaving connections behind that others can follow.

How Strunk and White #13 Applies to Guild Wars

The other day I mentioned in passing that although skill icons were beautiful art they were, in fact, rather poorly designed because they don't tell you what a skill does at a glance.

Let's look again at the icon of a skill I pointed out – the moan-inducing Avatar of Melandru (Sorry, still haven't found a highres version):

It's one of my favorites, at the moment - even though I just happened to pick it out at random. I could go on and on about the graphical beauty of the design there. How the use of placement forces the cooler elements into sharp relief while causing everything to glow with an inner light – an excellent use of the Dervish colors of bright orange and dark blue. And how the lines within the composition draw the eye past the beckoning, almost accusatory gaze of the figure in the foreground and towards the obscured, washed out figure in the background – almost seeming to shimmer away into nothingness yet still framed by the brilliant orange outline around it. In other words, pretty. It doesn't however, tell me what's going to happen when I use the skill. Not if I haven't seen it used before. If I have then I know the figure in the background looks like what my character will when I assume that different form – that's the Avatar of Melandru I'll become. I don't recognize the character dominating the left-most portion of the canvas, so to speak, but I'm going to guess it's some NPC that's a Dervish and would be recognizably so to someone more familiar with the lore or the concept art than I am (Which, you know, I pay attention to it but I don't go crazy about it or anything. Could possibly be a picture of the goddess Melandru but it doesn't look quite like the one's I've seen. Nor does it really look like any of the "name" Dervish NPCs. Judging from the other pictures I'd go with a representation of the goddess. Either way, same point really.). So, the image depicted is a rather subtle allusion to a Dervish transitioning into a godly incarnation. Doesn't tell me anything about being immune to Conditions or gaining extra health, though (Although there are clues to that, read on and see if you can't figure out what they are.), though. So although it's a very well done icon, I think it's getting too clever for its own good.

This is, I think, an example of what I like to call the "achievement effect". Basically, when you get a bunch of artistic designers together what they'll do is continually try and top each other. When one of them comes up with something brilliant that becomes the standard everyone else aspires to and they won't consider their own artwork an achievement until they pass that point. That becomes the new benchmark and so on. The quality of the product being churned out improves, certainly, but unfortunately artistic concerns aren't always design ones. And what makes something work as a piece of art don't necessarily mean it's going to fit into the larger work that is the modern video game production. There needs to be someone there to keep the creative types in check and on task. That's, I'd think, the game's producer or lead designer but, what, really do they know about visual design? Probably not a whole lot. But, then, what do the graphic designers who produce the art assets know about how people are actually going to play the game? Again, probably not a whole lot. Because a modern game, especially an MMO (Even an MMO-lite like Guild Wars that's basically a multiplayer CRPG like Diablo or Baldur's Gate.) is a very complex product with so many moving parts that no one person can hope to understand it all. So, unless care's taken you get stovepiping where the different parts that go into making a game turn out work that's meeting their own requirements but when assembled together doesn't quite meet the goal of having a game people will want to play.

Not that Guild Wars isn't a game I want to play or anything, I'm just theorizing. But what I'd think should happen in a game like Guild Wars where you have an ever-growing list of skills and special effects that now stands at over 1000 and will only grow with each expansion (By my count, there'll be 400 new skills, nearly a third of which will be elite skills, come the the next expansion - 75 for two new classes plus 25 for everyone before that. 450 for chapter 4. 500 for chapter 5. And so on. We'll be at 3k in no time that way.). That's 1000 things that players will need to recognize and respond to. So, it seems to me that a major goal of the design of everything about them would be easy recognition.

That's not quite so easy to do when you have 1000 different items, of course, because that means each one has to be distinctive enough to stand out from the pack. But each skill has a different icon and skills in the same line have similar casting effects and all the rest. So, at some level, the designers understand the importance of having players know what they're using and what's being used against them. I just don't think it goes far enough, for the most part.

Take, for counter-example, how Assassin skill names work. That was one of the nicer elements of the previous expansion, I thought. But, basically, there are certain words that, if they appear in the name of an Assassin's skill, you can figure out what that skill does. If it says "Black" it's dealing with hexes. "Golden" means enchanted. "Lotus" means you'll gain energy. So, knowing there was a "Golden Lotus Strike" last time around that would give you energy if you hit a target while enchanted it's easy for me to figure out that "Black Lotus Strike" will do something similar but only if the target is hexed.

Simple, efficient, and it communicates the purpose and mechanics of the skills in an elegant way. Might not provide the exact damage and duration or anything but the gist of things is there at a glance. You can go through the Assassin list and pick out a lot of these words and, from them, determine what the skills are doing (Except, don't bother because someone's already done it for you.).

Similar things happen with Warrior skills, especially the attacks. If you've got a "Chop" you know you're dealing with an axe skill. "Bash" and you've got a hammer. "Slash" and you're talking about a sword. If it says "Strike" you can't be certain what kind of weapon but you at least know it's a melee attack. Anything that says "Shot" and you know you're dealing with a bow attack and that's a different profession.

Contrast that with how the Monk skill list uses "Mend" or "Mending". It's either a way of providing regeneration or it takes care of conditions. It gets muddled, in other words, and lacks a distinctive, consistent meaning. So, coming back to the game when I see "Mending Touch" I have no idea what that skill does until I can actually look at the description. But if there'd been a little more discipline on the part of whoever decides the skill names that wouldn't be a problem.

My point would be that sometimes it's better to get a little clunky for the good of the game. Simpler, easier to read skill icons and names might not be very rewarding for the people who dream up such things and work hard to make them. But they'd provide a lot more benefit to the players and people who use them. Because they won't just look nice they'll work. And that efficiency has an elegance all its own.

Oh Noes!

I am, in fact, not a black person. And I've just used the word nigger in a post. I expect the earth to stop turning and the seas to spin away into space any moment now.


Hasn't happened yet?

Odd.

Well, anyway, my liberal guilt (And I was raised Catholic so, trust me, I know from guilt.) compels me to apologize. Except, you know, I'm not going to. Instead, like a lot of things, I'm going to explain.

I've heard it said it's a lot easier to beg for forgiveness than for permission. But I've always thought it was easier to explain what you've already done than what you're planning to do.

And there's been no plan here except to say whatever I feel about whatever I want. And while I'd be lying if I said I didn't feel a momentary twinge of fear as soon as I finished typing, well, the n-word I'm not exactly into self-censorship. Nor, for that matter, am I really into any form of censorship. I'm more a fan of personal expression, really. And that means that people get to use whatever they want to express themselves however they want.

Just as long as they're prepared to deal with the consequences.

So, I believe that anyone should be free to use whatever words they want to make a point. Any point, really, and it's up to them to decide what that point is and how they're going to make it. Not me or anyone else. But, then, I also believe people should be free to stab each other to death. And that the police should be free to arrest them. And the prosecutor free to try them and send them to jail to rot for the rest of their miserable lives.

Consequences.

That seems to be another dirty word. So you'll excuse me if I mention it from time to time.

And Now A Message From Quality Assurance

Had to turn on comment moderation thanks to some drive-by blipverting last night. As a longtime mod I don't imagine they'll work all that much differently than a moderation queue at a forum. You make your comment and I have to come along and approve it before anyone else can see it. For me it'll be just like old times. However, it is an added step that I'd rather do without. Sorry for the inconvenience but links are what makes the internet run. And that means they're important. So, I don't want my blog to be used to link to anything I don't personally approve of and, therefore, reserve the right to delete any and all comments advertising sites or services that I don't recommend.

Or, you know, that I find poorly written.

Or contains the word "purple".

I don't really have to have a reason to delete any comment is what I'm saying and I can do it whenever I want.

I do try to be reasonable and let other people have their say, of course, and I think my track record as a blogger and a moderator on countless forums shows that I don't break out the delete stick unless it's warranted.

So, I wouldn't worry too much unless you're just posting a link to a site. If you happen to mention one while you're trying to engage in the ongoing conversation, great. But if all you're doing is coming here to boost your traffic, well, better throw yourself a pity party because I won't. If you want me to link to well, anything, really, feel free to contact me and ask. I'll be happy to, but I'll want to check things before I pass it along on the off-chance it might be objectionable to me or to my readers.

If you don't get my permission first, things like the following unpleasantness can happen to you.

You see, I have been involved on forums and sites where the great, teaming unwashed masses of the general public have come to grace the world and their fellows with their wit and erudition. I know the rules of the game, so to speak, even the ones that don't often get written down. I've talked about how to handle things and thought about it and researched it. Not because I was ever paid to do so, mind, but because as someone who was a moderator I thought it was my responsibility to do the best for the people who's lives I affected. Just as a deeply and humbly spiritual person I feel it's my responsibility to do the same for anyone I meet. I'm only one person, of course, and I can only do so much, but I can't do anything less than that and still look at myself in the mirror.

So, I know the thing to do here is to just ignore things. Be transparent, let the audience know what's going on and that the staff (ie little ole me) is on top of and in control of the situation. Let any flames or trolls or trouble flare out as you deprive them of oxygen and attention. Don't link to them, don't encourage them, don't play along with them – stay above the fray. Address legitimate concerns and grievances. Listen to people. Consider the feelings of everyone involved and try to find some solution that leaves the fewest people unhappy. Everyone's right an no one party is correct. And the important thing is not to overreact and make things even worse than they are. It's hard and everyone's human so things will get under your skin sometimes but that's when you need to realize you're not alone – there's a whole team of people helping you, one way or another – so take a break and calm down while they handle things. I've taught such things. I've counciled such things. And I've even tried to practice them.

Of course, I also know that sometimes you've got to throw the rulebook out of the window.

And crack some motherfucking skulls.

See, last night someone anonymously posted to my blog about their new site – www.evolutioncult.com. Or .org. Or .info. Or dot anything, really, they seem to have registered just about every domain with that identifier that they could. They all point to the same place. Now, it seems pretty natural as my blog's called the “Cult of Evolution” and their site's called the “Evolution Cult”. A little bit of google searching for their own name and they'd have stumbled onto me, I'm sure. In fact, I've done so myself and the post that pops up (3^rd on the list, I'll add – pretty impressive considering I've only been in operation for about a month at this point.) is the exact same month-old one they commented on.

However, if you actually go to that site (which, don't, I'll spare you the effort) you'll see that the phrase “Cult of Evolution” is one they're not unfamiliar with. It's a particularly loaded phrase amongst a subset – a, thankfully, very small yet vocal subset – of those who happen to be critics of the scientific theory of evolution. Oh, and that google search I mentioned? You don't get it from “Evolution Cult”, you get it from “Cult of Evolution”. And, yes, it is a theory. So is this idea I have that if I fall from a very tall height I'm going to die. I don't exactly have any proof of this, mind, but I'm not exactly in a hurry to climb up to a skyscraper and prove myself wrong. There are, of course, other uses of the particular combination of letters that make up the word evolution. But I'm pretty sure the scientific one is the one in question here. And, make no doubt, if you go to that evolution cult site it will be in serious question.

It's, in my humble opinion, little more than a clearing house for Intelligent Design ideas and concepts. And, as with any hostile meme, a recruitment center. Like most good critics of the theory of evolution they use the language of science to make their arguments. And the language of science is a good one for criticism because it freely and readily admits that any theory could be wrong – that there is always some doubt. Because as cold and logical as it may seem science is a human instrument and nothing human is every perfect so, therefore, there must be some doubt to whether it's real or not.

That last sentence, by the way, is what someone with a little understanding of logic can do with such a language. Twist it, turn it in on itself, and make it loop around until it has nothing to do with logic. The site in question is full of such things. They're called psuedo-science. “Psuedo” by the way, is a fancy way of saying “fake”. So, trussed up in faulty logic and wrapped in a language almost but not quite unentirely like science, the site seems to be rational. And open-minded. Full of useful tips and and respectable authors with letters after their name writing serious essays about important things. But, don't be fooled, it's a logical trap designed not to persuade anyone with a healthy scientific background but those who have only a vague impression of what science should be. Thesis, counter-thesis, and synthesis – there's a starting point, someone raises an argument, and somehow everyone comes to agree on something.

How do I know about such things, you ask? Well, because I'm making one of my own. Not a logical trap per se because, believe me, I'm not a scientist. And I have no interest in evolution except as a governing metaphorical lens through which the world can be viewed. I am, however, a fanatic.

You act surprised, but it's true. I'm a person of strong beliefs – those beliefs just happen to include that my beliefs might, on occasion, be wrong. But I believe what I believe with a passion. And I'm no scientist but I can be a crusader. You see, I didn't happen to pick the name “Cult of Evolution” out of a hat. It was a deliberate choice on my part. And I was hoping for exactly what happened earlier this morning – someone to stroll by looking to pick a fight about evolution. It's a honeypot, in hacker's terms, designed to lure in the unwary by offering them the promise of easy pickings. This whole place is a twisted mirror image of the Evolution Cult (In, I'll add, more ways than one) because I'm not trying to impart my fanaticism on those who'll take up the cause, I'm trying to instill doubt in those who'll give me half a listen. Just, you know, as a side project.

What can I say? I like to think big. I'm just not ready because I'd hoped to learn to be a much stronger and persuasive writer by this point. I mean, I've gotten better, but not enough to single handedly put down the ridiculous arguments fronted by those who follow the creed of Intelligent Design. Because, really, I'm about all it should take. I'm not particularly smart, I'm not particularly intellectual, I'm not particularly educated, all I have is a willingness to listen to other people and an urge to seek consensus, but even I can see that intelligent design is a bunch of wishful thinking held together by hope and vitriol.

And I'm more than a bit hesitant to step into things with such a group because, well, idiots beat you by dragging you down to their level where they're much more experienced. These are, make no mistake, some very smart idiots. I'm nowhere near creative enough to come up with something as wonderfully satirical as the Flying Spaghetti Monster. I'm not even going to try. Oh, I'd like to, of course, because that's exactly the sort of mocking that makes me feel ideas like intelligent design aren't anywhere near as scary as they really are.

But, see, while I enjoy the Pastafarian movement, I'm not sure if it actually helps anything. Part of what drives these intelligent design people is a feeling of insecurity. They expect to be mocked and ridiculed and while it does make them angry it only validates their arguments – the same way that responding to a troll in a flame war makes their day – and confirms that everyone else is as unreasonable and unrational as they expect. It feeds their sense of resentment. Their anger. Their isolation and persecution. It, in so many words, plays right into their hands. And I'd suggest that there's probably a better way. I haven't quite found it yet, though, or I'd be using it now. So, instead, I'd like to get something off my chest. And, perhaps, explain just why this bothers me so much.

It's always bothered me that these sort of arguments resort so quickly to religion and to God. Because, like it or not, I am about as spiritual as the people who came up with the ideas that seem so antithetical to the religious. Which is to say, a lot. The scientist as a godless atheist is about as valid a stereotype as the ignorant bible thumping church goer. And I really wish that people so eager to refute the one could avoid reinforcing the other. But, no, whenever these arguments arise whether it's creationism or intelligent design or just a criticism of the very idea of evolution, it's not long before the religion card is played. Well, it's not going to work on me. Because if you want to talk faith, I'll talk faith. If you want to talk facts, I'll talk facts. And the fact is my god's better than yours. Because my god or gods or whatever it is that I happen to worship is, in fact, a private matter. It's not something that needs to be pushed out into the public square or validated in any way or form. My faith, my beliefs are strong enough that I don't need anyone else to tell me to believe in them. And I don't need to tell anyone to believe in them, either. Because, in no small part, what I believe is that spirituality is a private, individual journey. Other people can only guide you along the path that you and you alone can walk, they can't walk it for you. And that path leads to the almighty, however it is you might choose to define it, and ever deeper connection with something larger than an individual. Something greater than a single person. It's a beautiful, sacred, holy thing and I'm outraged that my faith can even be called into question because of what I believe. And absolutely chilled that it could even be related to the faith's of those doing the questioning. Sickened, really. Because another thing I've come to believe – on my own spiritual journey – is that these people's faith cheapens my own. Tarnishes it and covers it in the filth of their ignorance and their prejudice.

They push and they push and they provoke and push others to their own extremes. Then they act surprised when people start to tune out all their shouting and yelling. It confirms their worst fears – that they're wrong and small and all alone – and only drives them to yell that much harder. I don't know, maybe they think if they shout hard enough they'll drown out the emptiness in their own souls. The one they've filled with their own voice rather than the love of god. And I don't know where they get their religion from but in mine, we call that “doubt”.

The advocates of intelligent design are so caught up in their pride that they don't realize what they're doing. They're so concerned with saving everyone else's souls that they can't see the mote in their own eyes. I don't particularly care what they do with themselves. If they want to rot away into obsolescence while the rest of us move forward to solve problems that, you know, actually matter then so be it. It's sad but I don't try and tell other people what they should be doing with their lives. And I expect the same courtesy. My tolerance of other's is not acceptance. And it ends when their beliefs start harming my own and everyone else's. Because these people are headed back to the stone ages. They're headed the way of the dinosaur. Well, one of us is. If, of course, you believe in evolution or small changes leading up to something big over time. Which, well, anyone who knows their history or their religion, or their chemistry, or just about anything should see is a pretty intuitive and self-apparent concept. But in order to subvert the evidence that scientists have gathered to prove that such a concept isn't just intuitive but logical those who advocate intelligent design have co-opted and subverted the entire language of science. They cast into doubt that which shouldn't be for the basest of reasons because they, themselves, have no doubt that their actions are right. And they bring us all down into their muck with them by doing so. My country was founded on the idea that everyone should be free to believe what they believe in – whether they happened to be in the largest majority or the smallest minority. Each should be protected from the other and encouraged to develop and cherish their own beliefs. Free, at last, from the fear that their beliefs alone would tar them with any brush.

And this country is a great one. A guiding light, I believe, that shows the way to something braver and better not just for this nation but for the whole world. It's a nation founded on the ideas of rationality and enlightenment. Founded for the common benefit. That grew to great power thanks not only to the character of its people and their many co-existing faiths but also because of the industry and scientific drive to create, innovate, and invent. We used to be a nation, a people, who valued science and the idea of progress. And I'm not sure just where along the line we lost that driving force. But I do know that the chilling effect of those who question and corrupt the spirit of discovery with their own intellectual dishonesty isn't helping matters.

They are, to put it bluntly, destroying my country from the inside out. And anyone who destroys my country is my enemy. And I will do everything in my power to destroy them in kind. These are the sorts of people who think we're fighting some kind of culture war, after all. And they've just met a warrior for the other side. I'm only one person, of course, and I can only do so much but I'm going to do all I can.

And I don't fight fire with fire. I fight it with napalm.

How Kindergarten Applies to Creative People

Alright, this might be because I’ve read a lot of comics books. Or it might be because I’m numbered among the first generation that really took the plunge into the digital age and got exposed to things like forums and chatrooms and play by post roleplaying early enough. Or it might be just because I’m a crazy freak out of touch with reality. If I had to guess, I’d pick the last one – never let me down so far. But I’m always a bit surprised that shared world literature isn’t more popular than it is.

That link’s a little misleading because I don’t necessarily mean a series of stories in a shared setting by a number of authors – the way the EU Star Wars fiction works. But I mean any sort of common setting populated by different characters used for any series of books even those by a single author. The only requirement, though, is that each book in the series be at once self-contained and somehow part of the greater whole. Each part of the overall series can lead to any other part and, somehow, does so that a reader can start at any one part of the cycle and still have a satisfying experience. It’s decentralized, in so many words, from the rigid structure of each novel being a sequel to the previous one. And in this modern, hectic world, it would seem to me to be a smart way to develop a book series and cultivate its following – don’t require that a huge investment in order for each individual experience to pay off.

Maybe that’s because my first introduction to the idea was through Discworld. Great series, by the way, all by the same author and all dealing with the same crazy world but each book can be read completely in isolation from the others. But reading them with the other thirty odd books that have been written about the place reveals new depths and connections as you move through different viewpoints and themes. Pratchett’s a better writer than he gets credit for, I think, and far more clever. Anyone who gives the world L-space has to be doing something right, at least.

But Prachett’s not the only author doing this or the only way of going about it. I already mentioned Star War’s Expanded Universe where a controlling authority allows others into their sandbox but there’s also things like Wicked that use work that’s fallen into the public domain as a springboard. And there’s even people trying to create these things from scratch rather than from any existing intellectual properties like the Ring of Fire novels. And, well, me as I’m following the Discworld model with my Clans of the Highborn novels – which is what got me thinking of this in the first place.

But, I guess I feel as communication technology improves and the costs of distribution and dissemination get lower and lower that we’ll see more of that sort of thing. The ease and speed at which people can write is just going to improve (Not saying anything about the skill, mind). And an easy way of getting into writing would be what today we call fanfiction – just take someone else’s plots or characters or setting or whatever else you don’t have the time or talent – yet – to create and play around with them. Take others stories and tell them in your own way. Maybe even tell a few of your own one day. This isn’t anything new, after all, it’s how in times past that cultures and peoples developed what we call mythologies today. Fantastic stories that still speak to us today because even though they’re about gods and monsters and all the rest they’re still, at heart, about people. And they were made, somehow, better for not having any one author. They were told and retold and told again over the years to meet new audiences and different challenges. We could do the same today – and I’d argue, we are – but we’d just have to get authors to give up their insecurities and work together. They’d have to learn how to share.

Couldn't Have Said it Better Myself

I'm beginning to realize: When wmd speaks, you should listen.

Man, I so need to do a word war with him in next year's NaNo. Because something tells me he's a lot further ahead than I am on this whole “writing” thing. And I think I'm going to listen to him and set some challenges for myself.

The Fallacy of the Lazy Programmer

There's an adage in the programming industry (Which you can find gleaning on the cyber plains I'm just not sure to whom it's originally attributed.), or so I've heard, that goes something like this:

“If you want something done, give it to a lazy person: they'll find the quickest and easiest way to do it.”

Anyhow, as anyone who's dealt with a lazy person will tell you that sounds like a nice idea, in theory, but in practice whatever you give a lazy person is going to remain undone – they won't finish it and that's because they're disinclined to put any effort into things. Relying on the least interested to do the work is a sure recipe for disaster. The trick, then, is making sure that you have a lazy person who's also highly motivated. With the proper incentive waiting for them once the work is done the lazy person can be surprisingly industrious. There needs to be, in so many words, a big enough reason for them to actually get off their lazy butts and overcome their natural inertia. So the key is finding something that interests them.

The Tragedy of the Long Tail

The Long Tail.

The Long Tail says that the principle benefit of online shopping comes not from lowered prices or through avoiding of location specific tariffs and taxes but through the greater options available to the consumer thanks to a nearly unlimited selection of the available goods. Because the costs of storage and distribution are markedly lower than with a traditional “brick and mortar” establishment, online retailers are able to open up their deep catalog – those many items they tend to sell a little of – rather than focusing on their short catalog – those few items they sell many of – and can draw their profits from trading a high volume of only marginally successful individual items. This means that online retailers are particularly well suited for niche marketing.

The Progress Paradox

At a certain point too many options becomes just as harmful as too few. Because people freeze when confronted with too many choices with no clear cut answers as to which one is best. The effort to determine which of any dozens of marginal benefits is seen as not worth the time it would take to compare and contrast – so the natural impulse is to remain with what’s already been working even if there is another option which can be proven to be better. More options is not always the best, the answer is better or more efficient options.

The Long Tail and the retail policies it represents are not isolated events but symptoms of a clear trend in society. As it grows larger it tends to split apart into smaller and smaller groups which are easier to manage – empires rise but empires also fall and break into tribes. These niches continually look inwards instead of outwards as they become more and more self-sufficient even as they become more insulated from the effects of their isolation. In the present day, technological advances that have opened new lines of communications the paradoxical trend has been for culture to slip away from consensus and towards numerous mutually exclusive groups. Because these groups can more easily talk to one another, find one another, and have their needs met through the equivalents of niche marketing, they can withdraw from the greater society and spiral into their own, private worlds. And, since an individual within one of those worlds is surrounded by like-minded persons - who speak and act and behave in similar manners - it’s very difficult for such an individual to notice that they’ve moved out of the mainstream and into a subsidiary branch. A vicious cycle develops that – absent any moderating influences - should result in the loss of anything resembling the normality of the mainstream. Which, itself, results in the collapse of those interconnected niches who can no longer support themselves.