Bookclub in November: Dystopia re-visited

Last Updated on Thursday, 1 March 2012 11:10 Written by Kadomi Tuesday, 22 November 2011 06:33

blogged about bookclubs before. I joined the bookclub my WoW friends are running, but I found that throughout the year I had little time to participate. For November I did have the time, hooray. This month’s selection was Science Fiction, and yet strangely enough both books that were voted in by club members are not what I would consider Science Fiction at all. Both are based in the future, of course, and yet I would label both as dystopian, or at least utopian.

If you look at Wikipedia’s list of dystopian literature, it’s very noticeable that in the 21st century there’s been more dystopian literature published than before, and I don’t see this trend stopping anytime soon. If only for copycats jumping on the Hunger Games train. I never read Battle Royale, so I don’t know how much of a derivate it is, but I did really enjoy Hunger Games and Catching Fire when I read them earlier this year. But why the sudden fascination with dystopia in general? I do not know.

As a warning, if you’re in the book club and haven’t completed both books yet, this might be a tad spoilery, in particular about Oryx and Crake. But nothing that would really ruin the experience. Read at your own risk.

The main selection this month was Divergent by Veronica Roth. I hadn’t heard of the book before but the synopsis was interesting enough. The basic premise is that there are different factions that live in a dystopian Chicago. They are the selfless Abnegation, the honest Candor, the daring Dauntless, the intellectual Erudite or the somewhat hippy-sounding Amity. The city is surrounded by a fence, most of the buildings are in ruin, and no one uses the train system anymore but the Dauntless. The main character, the very compelling Beatrice aka Tris, doesn’t quite seem to fit in with her own faction, the selfless Abnegation who basically form the government, and decides to join another faction when she turns 16. Her initiation into the new faction, her contacts with the other initiates, some good folks, some very bad, and the overlying story arc of factions on the brink of war, are very fast-paced, full of action, and interesting story turns. We never find out what happened to cause all this ruin and splintered society into the factions to keep another war from happening. The splintering didn’t bring about peace anyhow.

It’s YA fiction, so don’t expect a literary masterpiece, but it’s a pageturner. It’s a fast, fun read and so far I think everyone who’s read it is excited for the sequel to come out next year. I definitely will be picking it up for sure. If you enjoyed The Hunger Games, there’s no reason you wouldn’t love Divergent. I really appreciate all these stories about girls ready to kick ass and take names. The only part that was a bit meh for me was the love story, but again, it could have been worse.

The second choice for the month was Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood. I hadn’t read any of her books for years, so I had few expectations going into it. Now that I completed it I would like to say that Divergent seems fluffy and light-hearted compared to it, and that I really enjoyed it. It’s set in the not too far future, in a world that’s dominated by gene-technology, splicing and big co operations. The protagonist is Snowman, the last survivor of a giant catastrophe that befell the world. What catastrophe it is? The author is taking her sweet time revealing it. Snowman is suffering, living alone in the wilderness, his only company being the Children of Crake. In flashbacks we find out that Snowman used to be a boy called Jimmy, living in one of the big Compounds of the rich scientists working on gene-projects. Jimmy’s father is working on the pigoon project, basically pigs grown to serve as organ donors for men. The marriage of his parents falls apart because his mother can no longer live this life in the compounds, where science and progress rule over men. Jimmy befriends Crake, his genius schoolmate, and they spend a teenagehood together that I found terrifyingly descriptive when it comes to their Internet endeavors. Basically everything that’s out there today, just in more brutal, soulless, disgusting. From watching child pornography to watching death row live across the world, to weird games where brutality faces civilization, called Blood and Roses. Inbetween, you learn the story of Oryx, the girl both Jimmy and Crake fall in love with. Her background is Asian, and she was forced to work in the sex trade from childhood days on. I found her story the most stomach turning, because of its frightening realism. It’s a world ruined by global warming, devastated by technology, where biological weapons and germs dissolve people into goo in corporate warfare.

Eventually the story culminates in the truth behind the disaster that wiped off humanity, and then ends in the only fist-punching moment this book provided. I was really frustrated with the end, because it solves nothing for me. Ultimately, it’s a beautifully written book of a future that seems very possible, and that’s what makes it so disturbing. I don’t think this book would be for everyone, but it was for me, as I am reading another book of hers right now.

Read any good books lately? Do you enjoy dystopia? I am at a loss what to read next, but I think I’ll finally tackle all of Tad Williams’ Shadowmarch books.

Spiel ’11: for boardgame nerds

Last Updated on Thursday, 1 March 2012 11:10 Written by Kadomi Monday, 14 November 2011 09:11

ermans love board games. A lot. In fact, they publish more board games each year than any other country in the world! That’s how much we love them. Now, mind you, I used to love them a lot more until I got married to the most competitive board game player in the world. I introduce her to games and after playing once or twice she gets so good at them that I never want to play again. And yet I keep playing.

Nothing demonstrates this German love of board games better than the annual Spiel convention in Essen. Spiel is the German word for game, just so you know. This annual convention is four days long and is the biggest, public gaming convention in the world. Yup, larger than GenCon! This year it was 10 halls of the convention centre, packed full with gaming goodness. Board games, card games, games for small kids, war games, pen&paper and LARP, big booths full of second-hand games, etc.

We hadn’t made it to the convention for a couple of years, even though it’s only about 45 minutes away from where we live. This year, we made it out there on a Sunday, accompanied by a couple, my spouse’s co-worker and his wife. They were a lot more prepared than we were, because they brought huge backpacks along for ease of carrying, and we didn’t bring anything. Little did we know.

When we got there, we got lucky, because a bunch of people were looking for more folks, so they could buy a group ticket. Considerably cheaper! We filled out their group, one of the guys collected money, bought the tickets, and we merrily parted ways. Only nerds are so efficient.

The couple we went with were eager to get into the two halls dedicated to LARPs and pen&paper games. They made me wish I still had time to play pen&paper regularly, because those were good times. This meant that Cinna and I were pretty much on our own for the rest of the day. Which was fine, more time for us to get a look at board games. Unfortunately, it was so crowded on Sunday that we did not make it into any playtesting. We watched a lot of people playtest, so we got some impressions of new games, but there just never seemed to be any room for us to play ourselves. We didn’t try that hard though, mostly because we didn’t want to stand around waiting for a long time.

We briefly watched a game of the Carcassonne World Championship. I think it was Austria vs Finland. Two very serious-looking guys who played Carcassonne like other people play chess. The tournament seemed very male-oriented but I am pleased to say that the Carcassonne world champion 2011 is a lady from the Netherlands, Els Bunten. Woot! I didn’t see her play, unfortunately. Apparently it was the first world championship that was not won by a German. If you haven’t played Carcassonne, it’s a fun tile-based building game that is very very easy to learn, and IMHO very hard to master. It’s also the game that my spouse is so good at that I refuse to play it with her. Ahem.

We ended up buying a couple games, but I wish we bought more. We bought the heaviest game in the world (which is what it felt like), Qwirkle, Spiel des Jahres, board game of the year. I will tell you more about that and my upcoming Spiel des Jahres series soon! I also managed to get my hands on a used copy of Sherlock Holmes Criminal Cabinet. It was THE favorite game of mine as a young teen. Nothing ever fired up my imagination like this game. You can play it solo, competitive or as a team effort. What other game can claim that? I am looking forward to playing again.

They had an incredible deal on Alhambra, the core game and all expansions for like 40 Euro, but I just couldn’t convince myself to buy it. In retrospect I am totally regretting it. I also wish I had spent more time checking out 7 Wonders, it’s supposed to be phenomenal.

We also bought us two Carcassonne bowls. Pretty ceramic with meeples? Check! Look at how lovely this stuff is! Yes, it’s a mug in the picture, I couldn’t find any of our bowls and am too lazy to take a photo right now. You can check out more of their gamer ceramics on their website.

Remember when I mentioned that our friends were better prepared? They had all their purchases and their jackets in the backpacks, whereas we sweated and had to carry our heavy purchases around, until I had enough and checked both items. There were a lot of folks who ran around with shopping strollers stacked high with games in them. A perfect place for Christmas purchases, because games were very cheap! Many bargains to be had. Next time.

I definitely noticed a lot more international publishers at this convention than in the past. It’s still dominated by the German giants, like Schmidt Spiele or Amigo for all things TCG, but there were a lot of smaller booths with American or Scandinavian, or even Korean games. We tried a Korean game, but it was so bizarre that we didn’t really wait for a coach to assist us with it.

I had fun, but next time I would definitely maybe take a day’s vacation and go on a Thursday. The Sunday family crowds were a bit too much.

How about you guys, do you enjoy board games? I know at least one board game geek amongst my readers, but how about the rest? Have you ever tried German-style board games? Enlighten me!

Why I am currently having fun in WoW

Last Updated on Thursday, 1 March 2012 11:12 Written by Kadomi Thursday, 10 November 2011 06:37

ell, it’s been a while, hasn’t it? This blog started with high aspirations, but then it all fell apart. 2011 has been a rough year for me on a personal level. My mother died, I lost the job I had for eight years, and other little, random tidbits. I started hating WoW and quit blogging in that other blog you might have heard about. At the time I stopped posting here, I quit WoW completely, and spent all my free time writing Dragon Age 2 fanfic. Some of them were posted here even. It did consume me for a while. Then I got run over by the Steam summer sales and had my next obsession, the Assassin’s Creed games. Then summer was over, I had some free time, picked WoW up again, and made some drastic decisions.

I realized I still wanted to play an MMO and raid. I always enjoyed raids. But I couldn’t do it on Kadomi anymore, for various reasons I will go into later. In TBC I had run both a US and EU account, and raided on little dwarf paladin. Just a bit of Karazhan and some 25-mans that made me run for the hills, pretty much. I was teetering on the brink of being too hardcore back then, and decided focusing on my US account was safer. Over the years I always regretted the decision to go to the US-servers. Nine hours of time difference are a huge obstacle if you want to achieve anything in the game that goes beyond dailies. From one day to the next, I quit Kadomi. Quit my shaman. Resubbed to EU. My US account is now inactive. I am back on Forscherliga, my old, trusty, German RP realm.

I wanted to tell you why I am currently having fun, didn’t I? Here we go:

1. I am playing a new class at 85, with a playstyle that I find actually compelling. I last played this paladin in TBC, and I remember that I was mostly a buffbot and Flash of Light spammer. Now the healing style is very different. Lots of instants, lots of cooldowns to use, procs to watch for. I feel very engaged when healing on her. I like being engaged. It’s what made me dig warrior tanking and snooze over paladin tanking, e.g.

2. I really enjoy my guild. It was a bit of an adjustment. After 5 years of DotH, I hadn’t really seriously been in any other guild. I joined the guild that my RL friends are in. It was advertized as a bit of older crowd that raids casually, and that’s what I am looking for. Now, ultimately they don’t raid that rarely, they’re just more fun- than progress-oriented. In the beginning I struggled a bit with them being so much on Teamspeak, but that’s actually not a bad thing. I must have the DotH thing in my brain still that you do not use voice chat. Well, I do now.

The guild runs a so-called learner’s group, because they have a bunch of people who are not that experienced yet or are looking to have their hand held a bit. The group is run by a very friendly lady who sounds like she’s from Austria, and she really teaches basics. What’s a focus target, what’s a line of sight pull, everything that us old hands already know, and newer players never learn anymore while leveling. My paladin is still a bit scrubby, so I joined them for my very first Zul Aman run yesterday. It was a lot of fun! Every boss was patiently explained, the newish tank got a lot of suggestions, and it was the best 5-man experience I had in years. It did help that ZA is still a challenge at my gear level. I had reached the ilevel requirement for the Zuls like 30 minutes before the run.

The only thing that made me sad was to see my beloved ZA as a 5-man, nerfed in so many respects. Those were some really cool 10-man boss fights back then. I will always fondly remember Hex Lord as one of my favorite encounters.

I totally endorse such learning groups. They also raid BWD and BoT with this learner group. I really think that’s a very cool idea. It’s the opposite of elitist douchenozzling that seems so common in WoW.

3. I don’t know if I got lucky, but so far the German PUGs have been a lot nicer than the US PUGs I ran. Everyone always says hi and bye, and sometimes you will be lucky and people are chatty. People say thanks if a run goes well! Sure, you meet the occasional twat, but that’s really uncommon. One run, we wiped our way through the last part of the Deadmines, and no one minded. No one dropped. I don’t know, it definitely feels different.

4. I actually feel appreciated. That part is a bit embarrassing, because this is me enjoying Internet flattery. One of the reasons I didn’t enjoy my return to DotH after my 5 month break was that I felt incredibly superfluous. My times didn’t match up with my closest friends in guild at all. I didn’t want to pug on Kadomi. DotH’s new raid times didn’t really work for me. I love having my weekends free now, but I was willing to commit to Saturdays at least, to keep raiding. Well, what can I say, I cleared a Saturday, and got benched in favor of a tank who hadn’t even signed up for the raid in the first place. Who is a dear friend, so I felt bad about being upset, but I was. And that was the straw that broke the camel’s back.

In my new guild, people keep dumping epic gear on me. BoE JP boots? Check. BoE VP bracers? Another present, check. Gems, enchants, you name it. The raid leader was in the learning group and eagerly wanted to know if I want to do Firelands with them soon. Yes. Yes, I do. It’s a stupid sentiment to have but I enjoy being wanted, and I enjoy not living in my own WoW bubble anymore. 15-20 people on at all times when I am on. People everywhere. It’s insane. I love it. I didn’t know how crippling the timezone difference was.

And that’s my novel why I really enjoy WoW at the moment. I realize this torrid love affair I currently have will not last forever. After all, it’s a rebound relationship. We broke up before, and we will again. What’s hot and exciting now will be dull in a few months. Maybe only weeks. SWTOR and GW2 look mighty fine as well, and I am polygamerous. I am going to pre-order SWTOR, and I think I might end up with Supercool Cantina. Those guys are hilarious on Twitter, and Pewter‘s going to join them as well. Might as well have the coolest European WoW players all in one SWTOR guild, right?

Wall of text crits you for 20 MEGA DAMAGE. Btw, I support item squish over MEGA DAMAGE.

Will I be regularly blogging about WoW now? I don’t think so. I still mourn Kadomi, and I feel I have betrayed my beloved horde playing alliance now.

Will I be regularly blogging again in general? Heck yeah! Strict schedule. Posting 3 times a week. Monday, Tuesday, Thursday. I have lots of ideas. I am still a nerd. I have done nerdy things. I just haven’t shared them outside of Google+.

P.S.: I love Google+. I now have a Google+ page. Circle me! I don’t know why so many WoW tweeps don’t dig it. I do.