Archive - 2013
July 2nd
Players Who Suit Ingress
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Tue, 07/02/2013 - 21:43In 1996, Richard Bartle wrote and article, Hearts, Clubs, Diamonds, Spades: Players Who Suit MUDs in which he explored four basic player types in text based virtual reality games called MUDs or Multi-User Dungeons. He summarizes these types as follows:
So, labelling the four player types abstracted, we get: achievers, explorers, socialisers and killers. An easy way to remember these is to consider suits in a conventional pack of cards: achievers are Diamonds (they're always seeking treasure); explorers are Spades (they dig around for information); socialisers are Hearts (they empathise with other players); killers are Clubs (they hit people with them).
He uses this to explore ideas like game stability and player interactions and recently, I've been wondering how this relates to the Augmented Reality game, Ingress.
In Ingress, players interact with one another, destroying opponents portals, fortifying portals that other faction members have captured, recharging portals, exchanging gear, etc. There is an achievement aspect in terms of what level one is and how much gear one as accumulated.
I suspect that the player styles may change as people level up as well as when an area gets more players of one faction or another, and that each player has a little bit of each style.
For example, I probably started off primarily as an achiever, seeking treasure and trying to level up. Once I reached Level 8 in Ingress, which is currently the highest level possible, my focus on seeking treasure has diminished, but I still seek a basic amount of treasure. Now that I'm Level 8, I tend to move more towards being an explorer or a socializer. I like exploring new areas and I like interacting with players.
I've met some players who fit very nicely in the into the socializer category, always dropping inventory for new players and helping them get started. I've ran into players who remain very focusing on achievement, trying to build up Level 8 farms, and gather as much gear as they can from them. I've run into others that focus mostly on tearing down other people's farms.
Another component of Ingress is establishing links and fields. With this there are several different styles, that I haven't really figured out how they best fit to Bartle's model. Some people rarely link, or create links to support a farm. Others create long wild links, which make it difficult for others to link but don't serve any other apparent purposes. These links are used to establish fields. Some people establish large fields, mostly as an achievement, which the killers take down as soon as possible. Others create lots of small fields, overlapping as much as possible.
Bartle spends a bit of time talking about interactions between different styles of players and it is useful to read through the section, think about what sort of player you are, what sort of players are around you in your faction, and what sort of players are in the opposing faction. It may provide insights that can make the game more fun for players, no matter what style they adopt.
So, do you play Ingress? What style of player are you? What style of players are around you in your faction? What style of players dominate the opposing faction? How do these insights change the way you approach the game? Or, do you think Bartle's ideas don't translate to Ingress? Is there something that better explains player interactions? Let me know your thoughts.
July 1st
SummerTime
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Mon, 07/01/2013 - 06:23Rabbit, Rabbit, Rabbit. The persistent light summer rain has yielded to the occasional residual drops falling from leaves and gutters. July has arrived and I greet it with the monthly harkening back to simpler days of childhood where three small words could invoke good fortune.
May was the busiest month, and I had hoped that things would slow down in June, yet it was still so busy that I needed to carefully plan out each day. I haven't written a similar plan for July.
I took Friday off from work, and even though it was a busy day, going from a funeral to a swearing in ceremony, it still felt like a day off. Saturday was full of the typical summer time tasks, a trip to the dump, mowing the lawn, swimming at the pool, and then gathering with some long lost friends of Kim, it also had summer pacing to it.
Some of this is due to a nasty canker sore that has been afflicting me. I am assuming it is this canker that has resonated through out the right side of my head causing an earache, headache, and fatigue. I slept as much as I could during the weekend and am still tired.
I won't end this blog post like I do many other start of month blog posts, highlighting the upcoming planned activities. Instead, as much as possible, I'm planning on slowing down and listening to the last drops of a summer rain storm fade into the sound of birds greeting the morn.
June 29th
Joe Dey's Missed Opportunity
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Sat, 06/29/2013 - 12:58Friday afternoon around 150 people gathered in the Center Gym at Woodbridge to celebrate the swearing in of newly elected and appointed members of various boards and commissions in town. These are people who give of their time to work together with their friends and neighbors in Woodbridge to help make our town a better place.
Just a few days earlier, the incoming Board of Selectmen gathered to vote on appointments to there boards and commissions. Due to family logistics, I watched the proceedings from home on Channel 79. As a member of the Government Access Television Commission, I was disappointed with the sound quality of the broadcast, but I could hear enough to make the following observation.
Selectman Joseph Dey expressed concerns about how the process was being handled. He talked about how he wanted more information about the people he would be voting on. It is a laudable request that he failed move forward with.
I am fairly involved in town politics, but I suspect that I know less than half the appointees and I would have loved to hear more information about these people who volunteer to serve our town. If Selectman Dey had been truly concerned about who was being appointed to the various boards and commissions, before each vote, when First Selectman Ellen Scalettar asked if there was any discussion, Selectman Dey could have said something like, "I don't believe I know Neelam Gupta. Why do you think Neelam would be a good member of the Economic Development Commission?"
I must admit, I'm not sure if I know who Neelam is and would have appreciated hearing the answer. I'm sure it would have been informative, and I suspect I would have ended up thinking Neelam would be a good commissioner.
Instead, Selectman Dey abstained on just about every vote, winning him the nickname among some local political pundits of Joey the Abstainer. One person commented on Facebook that they were "surprised that he was unaware of some of the bigger names at the Town Hall. For example, Terry Gilbertson is a fixture and was an easy vote to NOT abstain from." The response was, "perhaps Selectman Dey represents those in town who chose not to know who their neighbors are or what is going on in town".
Instead, Selectman Dey may have been trying to make a point about his inability to work constructively with other elected officials. He may have been seeking to place the blame on the other elected officials, but in the end, it appeared that he was the problem. I hope, for the sake of the town, he learns how to work better with others as his term progresses.
Now some of you may raise the concern that asking questions about the nominees would have made the meeting much longer. That too, is a valid concern, but personally, I would have liked a longer meeting hearing great things about my friends and neighbors that volunteer to help in our community. Hopefully, we will get other chances for this.
June 28th
First Steps...
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Fri, 06/28/2013 - 23:36At the end of the commencement ceremony for the 2013 CT Health Leaders Fellowship, we were all invited to stand and take one step forward, symbolizing the first step of a thousand mile journey. It is a journey of eliminating health disparities. I had spoken earlier about being an equal opportunity activist, and that this journey was but one of many journeys I am on.
All of this came back to me in many ways this past week. Thursday night was the annual Nurse's dinner at the Community Health Center. One of the stories was of a 450 pound diabetic man who had fallen through the cracks of the American health care system. A care-coordination nurse tracked down his story and followed through to help him get bariatric surgery. He has already lost thirty pounds and with therapy, is starting to walk again after having been bedridden for over a year.
Later, we heard a little bit of her story, an immigrant from a war torn country, who struggled with diabetes and depression through school, but eventually became a nurse at CHC. The patient is on his journey of recovery, aided by a nurse who has taken difficult first steps in her journey to this country and her journey to becoming a nurse.
The story stayed in my mind Friday morning as I went to the funeral of a former classmate and co-worker of my wife. Emily was taken from us way to early, by complications from diabetes.
This week also saw important other steps in our life together as a country. The Supreme Court dismantled key parts of the Voting Rights Act, but it took away some restrictions on gay marriage. I watched the wedding ceremony streaming across the Internet where plaintiffs in the challenge to Prop 8, Kris Perry and Sandy Stier were married.
I read stories about Paula Dean and Rachel Jeantel and I thought about how much work still needs to be done before all people truly are treated equally in all states, no matter what their race or sexual orientation is.
I imagine that the 450 pound patient celebrated the first steps in his recovery as he sat back down and rested after the strain of those steps. Tonight, I go to bed emotionally weary, celebrating first steps, lamenting steps backwards, and mourning the death of a friend.
June 26th
Glass Log - Day Thirteen
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Wed, 06/26/2013 - 21:12On Friday, June 14th, I went into New York City and to pick up Google Glass. It was a quick, uneventful trip. The Glass office on the eighth floor of Chelsea Markets had all the feel of a trendy New York City creative space sparsely decorated with tall ceilings a large windows looking out over the meat packing district.
After picking up Google Glass, I stopped by at the Apple Store next door. One of the sales people asked a bit about glass and we talked about the prospects for it. I then head dinner with two of my co-workers as we discussed how we hope to use Glass at work.
My initial reactions is that it reminded me of when I picked up an Apple Newton twenty years ago. For those who don't remember the Apple Newton, it was a handheld device, the precursor to the personal digital assistant and ultimately the smartphone. It is probably only a small number of older early adopting geeks that remember the Apple Newton, and I wouldn't be surprised that Glass will be remembered in the same way two decades hence.
Most people I've met have been fascinated by Glass, though some express concern about privacy. One person tweeted, "If you're wearing Glass, you've turned yourself into a sense organ for a corporate being. Not even a metaphor, that's the real situation."
I responded, "I, for one, welcome our new #glass providing overlords." I'll the discussions of the new form of the social contract in the digital world for a later time. I believe there is value to Glass if you use it with your eyes wide open.
Over on Facebook and Google+ there has been more of the discussion about facial recognition. Personally, I would be a big fan of facial recognition on Glass, even if it were only opt-in. If I see one of my thousands of friends, followers, or connections from Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn or Twitter, I'd love to be reminded of who they are and how I know them.
The facial recognition would also be great for a politicians. Imagine working a crowd and being able to tell if the person you are speaking with has written to your office about an issue, has donated or volunteered for your campaign, or other information like that.
By the time I got on the train home, that first day, the battery had died. After trying to recharge it, I found Glass would not start back up. I spent much of Saturday talking on the phone with folks at Google, trying to find ways to restart Glass. By Monday, the decision was to RMA it. Now came the issue of how to do this. Normally, they ask people to return to where they got Google Glass and swap it. It is about a two and a half hour trip if I drive into the city, longer, but more comfortable, if I take the train. So, we explored other ways to do the exchange.
For people that live a long distance from a Google Glass store, they can get a new pair shipped, and then return their broken pair. All they need to do is allow Google to put a hold for $1,500 on their personal credit card. I don't have that sort of money to spare, and they wouldn't take a hold on a corporate card, so on Tuesday, I headed back into New York to get a new pair.
This pair has worked much better. I've taken pictures and videos, I've gotten information via Google Now, the New York Times, CNN, Twitter, and email. I've started to explore the development environment.
I recently received a survey from Google about how I use and like glass. As a wearable communications device, I really like it. The sound quality is not all that good for doing phone calls, or listening to information, but it is good enough to get alerts. The screen is okay, but I worry that if I used it a lot, I might get eye strain.
That said, when someone else isn't borrowing Google Glass, which happens a lot, I wear it almost all the time.
What will the replacement for Google Glass look like? Will it include other health monitoring tools like pulse, blood pressure, blood oxygen levels, etc, combining the best aspects of other wearable input devices, like Fitbit? Will it become smaller and even less noticeable?
I'll keep experimenting with Google Glass and talking with others doing the same. What do you think?
