WilfridWong.com

Where Good Things Are Meant To Be Shared

WilfridWong.com header image 4

Marvel Heroes Online: Picking Your First Hero (Or Rather Second)

May 21st, 2013 by Wilfrid
Respond

In about two weeks from now – June 4 to be exact – Marvel Heroes Online will go live.  From what I have observed, the mere mentioning of Marvel Heroes has already got the fans excited.  How not to be?  You’ll get to play out your favorite heroes joining others to battle the iconic villains.  Besides, to start playing this massively multiplayer online game, you don’t need to spend a single cent.  The game is free-to-play.  But is it really so?  How would your gaming experience be affected by going free all the way?

What an adorable ... thing!

Well, you have come to the right place.  I have been playing the closed beta for months.  Thanks to an account reset, I have tried out 14 heroes out of 21 using in-game currency provided during beta and have progressed pass the midway point.  Here are a few thoughts to share with regards to free-versus-paid gaming experience.  As a disclaimer, the game is still in beta and Gazillion may still change it as we speak.

  • To start playing Marvel Heroes, you get to pick one of the characters offered free-of-charge: Daredevil, Storm, Thing, Scarlet Witch, and Hawkeye.  I have tried all but Hawkeye.  My conclusion is that this basic tier feels underpowered compares to the premium heroes.  They are noticeable weaker and they lack some of the practical as well as fancy powers other premium heroes have.
  • While I did not have fun with these basic heroes, I really enjoy playing the game with some of the premium heroes.  You can keep on playing the game and hope to obtain one of these heroes for free – which could take some time (in fact, I haven’t seen one dropped yet).  Or you could spend real money and buy a hero that you would love to play.  I would highly recommend so since time is more valuable then money.  The rest of this article helps you to make that decision.
  • You are likely to stick to one hero until you have completed all the eight chapters because switching heroes reset game progress.  Also, since all heroes share the same inventory and stash, you would run out of space much faster by leveling multiply heroes at the same time.
  • The free edition provides you with an inventory space of 40 and a stash space of 48 shared by all your heroes.  This may seem a lot but it’s barely enough to get by.  Medical kits only stacks up to 10 per slot.  Crafting materials – the space eater – do not stack.  Also, if you plan to pass items to your other heroes, that 88 slots are going to fill up very quickly.  You can however spend real money to buy space.  Two more general stash of 48 slots each, three more for potions, and one stash for each of the 21 heroes.  I have no idea how much that would cost you.  From early levels, I have already been struggling with space.  It seems to me that I would need to buy one or two extra stash once this game is live.
  • Want to look different from the rest of the heroes?  Costumes are available for purchase with real money too.  Each costume may cost as much as the hero himself.  At minimum  each hero has three different costumes for sales.  Iron Man has eleven costumes at beta!
  • While some consumables like XP and rare item boost purchasable using real money seem optional, the ability to reset chosen skills to me is mandatory.  Why?  The skill trees are designed so much so that you have to go for a reset once new skills open up as you level pass a certain point.  Because only 7 skills can be active at any time, I would highly recommend to put all the points to these 7 skills (as well as the passive ones) instead of spreading them across to all skill options.  Rarely you need to swap skills for different fights.  Fortunately, I have seen this power reset potion (or device) dropped freely from time to time.  If you are desperate for a skill reset, the online store is your best friend.
  • There are some companions for purchase too.  In the past I used to buy them for other MMO games.  Again, totally optional like costumes but they are there if you feel lonely in a villain infested world.

In summary, my suggestion is to start the game with one of the freely offered heroes and go through Chapter 1.  Once you get to the point whereby you feel you may like the game, purchase a premium hero and be prepared to buy other stuffs like extra stash.  If you need some advice on picking your second hero, read on!  I have some insights to share.  What if you want to stick with the freely offered heroes?  Thing starts off good due to high durability and strength.  But due to a lack of mobility and speed, some of the boss fights would be pretty hard.  Storm is kind of weak and looking at the stats of Hawkeye, I am not impressed either.  Scarlet Witch is OK as a caster type of hero if kiting play style is your cup of tea.  Daredevil is a melee hero with range attack making it also a viable choice among the five heroes.

I have tried 14 out of 21 heroes on beta.

I have tried 14 out of 21 heroes on beta. That includes Black Panther, Black Widow, Cable, Captain America, Daredevil, Hulk, Iron Man, Jean Grey, Ms. Marvel, Scarlet Witch, Spider-Man, Storm, Thing, and Thor.

When it comes to picking or rather buying your heroes, I have some insights for sharing.  Now, I understand that this can be a personal choice because you may have a liking towards certain Marvel Heroes.  So, my insights are purely from a game play perspective.  My aim is to equip you with the right information so that you can make an informed decision.

  • Price Tag: Each hero comes with a price tag: 600, 900, 1200, and 2000 in-game currency.  Heroes with the lowest price tag are usually basic.  Their general stats are usually low or they are crippled with some aspects such as mobility.  At 900 and 1200, heroes often come with extra resources to manage.  Like Jean Grey being able to turn into a phoenix, Ms. Marvel fights better as she takes on punishment, or Thor gets more powerful as he is overwhelmed by enemies.  At 2000 price tag, some heroes can be real fun to play.  Like Spider-man’s ability to swing across enemies with his web and look striking too.  While a high price tag does not necessarily mean that the hero is for you, it is a good indication on where you should start looking.  I would start from 1200 up.
  • Hero Stats: Each hero comes with 6 stats.  They are durability, strength, fighting, speed, energy, and intelligence.  A detail explanation can be found at the bottom of this entry.  In a nutshell, the higher overall stats your hero has, the better the game play.  Higher durability and fighting increases survivability and damage output.  Speed affects both move and attack speed.  There should be a balance between strength (physical damage) and energy + intelligence (energy damage and mental a.k.a. DoT damage).  My preference is physical damage output because there is a certain edge to be at the front of the battle, collecting health and spirit globes before others do.  Or simply, progress ahead of the group.
  • Hybrid Build: Normally, in other online games, you may choose to pick a tank class or range damage class or melee damage class and be merry with whatever game play that suits you.  However, in Marvel Heroes, I enjoy hybrid builds much better.  Because tank classes such as Thing or Hulk aren’t that tough.  There isn’t a dedicated healer class therefore making a tank class less attractive.  Range damage classes such as Jean Grey may be powerful from a distance, she would need to do a fair bit of kiting against melee enemies.  Some melee classes like Black Panther is pretty fun to play being able to leap onto the back of the enemies and deliver melee damage.  But against bosses that require space may be a challenge.  Hence, from my experience, those heroes who are excel in both melee and range and with a decent amount of durability are the most enjoyable ones to play.  Such as Ms. Marvel, Thor, and Captain America.  All of them are able to deliver respectable damage up close and decent damage at range.  They are pretty high in durability too.
  • Escape Skills: While stats and builds may give a good indicator on how enticing a hero is, you have got to spend some time reading up on the shortlisted heroes utility abilities as well.  Take Ms. Marvel as an example, she is able to lunge forward knocking off enemies along the way and get behind them (Spider-Man has similar ability too).  She also gets to fly over enemies and obstacles (like Jean Grey in phoenix form).  That versus Storm’s leaping backward and still facing the enemies, I would much prefer lunging forward instead.  You would need sufficient escape skills to get you out of sticky situations, especially so during boss fights.
  • The Fun Factor: Sometimes, we play a character because it is fun.  Being able to fly around, turn into a phoenix, or swing around like Spider-Man does can be fun.  Having a high intelligence level hero like Iron Man and hence speeds up the leveling experience can also be fun.

Now that you know how to pick your hero, where shall you start?  First, visit the official Marvel Heroes website and check out the heroes’ stats as well as some story write-up.  Then, visit the official wiki website and look through the skills available for your shortlisted heroes.  Pay attention to hybrid build and the escape skills and pick one that suits you.

What about me?  My favorite hero has got to be Ms. Marvel.  She has a set of well rounded stats.  As a hybrid build, Ms. Marvel is able to neutralize enemies up close, from afar, and in a group at ease.  She also has the right sort of escape skills to get out of sticky situations.  Thor and Captain America both rank high on my list too due to their well rounded hybrid builds.  Looking at the fun factor, Spider-Man and Jean Grey score high.  Iron Man is another viable option though the game play seems a bit less exciting compares to say Ms. Marvel and Spider-Man.  But being able to gain experience points faster, that alone is quite a plus point.  Oh yes, did I mention that fun looking Mark I or Mark II costume for Iron Man?

Ms. Marvel is really fun to play!

Here is a little bit extra for those who want to know what the attributes mean.

Durability

  • Reduces incoming damage
  • Improves health regeneration
  • Reduces stun duraction on you

Strength

  • Increases your physical damage
  • Allows you to throw objects of increasing size
  • May add stun to your melee powers

Fighting

  • Increases damage with fighting powers
  • Reduces incoming damage from fighting powers
  • Reduces spirit cost for fighting powers
  • Increases attack speed with fighting powers

Speed

  • Increases move speed
  • Increases fly speed
  • Increases attack speed
  • Reduces slow durations on you

Energy

  • Increases energy damage
  • Increases mental damage (a.k.a. DoT)
  • Improves spirit regeneration
  • Reduces spirit cost for energy powers and mental powers

Intelligence

  • Increases experience point gain
  • Increases mental defense
  • Increases attack speed with mental powers

Categories: For the Geeks
Tags:   · · No Comments.

Iron Man 3 Is Fun!

May 18th, 2013 by Wilfrid
Respond

Now, this is a pretty fun movie to watch.

Initially, I wasn’t sure if I should watch Iron Man 3.  I remember the Iron Man five years ago was great.  I did not like Iron Man 2 and could not remember what the plot was.  Not even a single bit.  Part one was memorable.  Part two was forgettable.  But since both my buddy TK and my wife were keen on part three, and the box office seems to do well, why not give one of my favorite actors Robert Downey Jr. another chance?

As it turns out, Iron Man 3 is fun!  It reminds me why I love the first installment.  There is this human factor as we get to see more on the vulnerable side of Tony Stark than a hero in suit.  Tony Stark as an engineer who is playful at heart and he loves to create.  The end products may or may not work as intended.  Loving it.  I am trained as an engineer and I can relate to this aspect of the show. Again, nothing really going on with the Pepper character.  There are some silly moments too, like assembling an anti-terrorists outfit and gear using common goods purchased from a local DIY store.  Or blowing up robots in order to create a firework.  But all in all, an entertaining movie.

Categories: Fantasy & Sci-fi · Movie Reviews
Tags:   · No Comments.

The Enlightenment: A Journey Of Ingress

April 28th, 2013 by Wilfrid
Respond

I have been wanting to write an article on Ingress – an augmented reality game by NianticLabs@Google or better known as the Niantic Project – for months.  But every so often, the more I dive into this ‘game’, a new dimension of game play and awareness has opened up.  That prompted me to observe more reminded me the inadequacy of my understanding.  Now that I am at the end game, while the journey from now on may still be long, it is a high time to share my initial thoughts of Ingress.

How Ingress Has Changed My Life Thus Far

Perhaps a better way to introduce this augmented reality game is by listing out how in the last three months, Ingress has changed me.

  1. I walk a lot more these days, progressively over time.  My daily walking exercise can go up to 10 km a day, including pockets of sprinting activity.  For someone who seldom exercise and often stays behind a computer at work and at home, this is amazing.
  2. My wife comments that my heartbeat is now slower and more steady (yes, we hug each other to sleep each night).  I feel healthier too.
  3. I have met more new friends face-to-face than I ever would have in years.  And we keep in touch regularly.
  4. I have discovered new and interesting places, monuments, and artworks that I would have easily missed.
  5. I have rekindled with my photograph passion and am actively taking pictures of what would be interesting locations for future players.

A Brief Introduction to the Lore

Level 8, finally!

The folks from the Niantic Project insist that Ingress is not a game.  That it is real.  The following extract from the book The Alignment Ingress sheds light to Portals, Exotic Matter, and Shapers – the key ingredients of this ‘game’.

Portals are transdimensional anomalies through which order data was transmitted via exotic matter (XM). Nobody knew what was contained in this data, only that it is sequenced and thus engineered by some intelligent.

All of which beg the question of who or what is on the other side of these portals? Again, nobody knew. For the timing being, whatever they are have been coined with the term “Shapers”, because it appears that this ordered data in exotic matter had for centuries been shaping human thought and influencing human civilization. The existence of the world’s ancient shrines, monuments and cities around XM portals made the link indisputable.

Because of that, agents (or players) all around the world are examining ancient and modern architecture, monuments and street arts, sending photographs to NianticLabs for XM verification.  In fact, this aspect forms an important part of the game, in allowing the players to expand on the Ingress universe.

Core to Ingress is two factions divided.  The Enlightened and the Resistance.  The Enlightened (green) believes that we shall open our eyes and look upon the exotic matter and Shapers as an inspiration towards our next evolution.  The Resistance (blue) believes that the key to survival is to be free from Shapers’ influence.  Hence, the eye and key as the respective logos for the two.

Shapers are entities with an agenda. Whether it is for good or evil remains to be seen. But if the Shapers have wanted to destroy humanity, they could easily induce humans to destroy themselves. So far, however, we have not noticed any violent intentions for the Shapers.

The only thing anybody knows is that the Shapers want something from people, and that nobody knows what it is.

The conflict between the two factions is very real.  In a way, it can be rather sad to see how Ingress has divided my friends into two camps.  Whatever the future holds, the very notion of Enlightened and Resistance seems to have the power to attract two distinct set of personalities into either camp, generally speaking.

To sign up for Ingress, visit http://www.ingress.com/.

What About the Game?

Ingress can be thought as a game of capture-the-flag using real world landmarks as the objects of contest.  Both factions compete to capture the portals.  Once the portals are captured, depending on the availability of resources called keys, teams can then form triangular fields.  The larger the field is, the more Mind Unit (i.e. estimated human presence within the area) it controls.  That figure rolls up to the global level and ultimately influence how the battle between the two factions turns out.

It is worthwhile to showcase field creation in Ingress.  Because that is where the fun lies.

  • Portal A can be linked to Portal B so long as the player is physically close to Portal A and has a key to Portal B.
  • A key of a particular portal can be obtained by hacking of that portal.  Key dropping is random in nature.
  • Once a link is established, the key is consumed.
  • A field is formed when three portals are connected to each other.
  • A link cannot cross an existing link, cannot be established to an enemy portal.
  • A link can be created from a Portal lying at the boundary of a field into any Portal inside the field.  But not vice versa.  Layered fields – i.e. fields within a field – created this way rewards more Action Points (for leveling) and Mind Units.
  • A larger field can envelope another smaller field in totality creating another type of layered field.  Doing so rewards more Mind Units.
  • Each link a Portal has adds to the strength of that Portal making it harder to be destroyed.
  • Creating links and fields rewards more Action Points than destroying links and fields.
  • How far apart the Portals can be linked depends on the level of the Portals.  Higher level Portals can be linked from a further distance than lower level Portals.

Because no two portals are deployed the same way even at the same location – due to human positioning, GPS accuracy (or rather inaccuracy), the portal’s level, and how connected the portals are – the approach to the capture of a portal or a set of portals can be different in any given day.  Besides, new portals are frequently added into the game.  Ingress game mechanic evolves over time too.

Forming fields in CBD is hard!

In my work area, I often can take my time capturing portals and creating fields.  Not so for the portals in the Central Business District.  To create the fields above, I had to defend and recapture the portals a few times over.  To shock-and-awe the enemy with the fields, I had to do a final capture, dash across the few portals at the bottom, and create the link within a short time!

My Milestones

Due to the fact that I am obsessed about taking screenshots, I am able to put together the milestones of my journey with Ingress.

  • Jan 29 – Training day.
  • Jan 30 – Discovered 2 portals in my work area in the afternoon.  In the evening, headed downtown and attempted to strike a level 6 portal as a level 1 and had my first taste of you’ve been hit!
  • Feb 1 – Submitted my first portal via email.  It was approved approximately 2 months later.
  • Feb 5 – Hit level 2 by hacking and recharging portals.
  • Feb 22 – Captured my first portal at Greenwich.  It was a new one, unclaimed.  I was meeting with my buddy Mark for lunch in a mall up north.  I was level 3 by then.
  • Mar 4 – Took down a level 6 portal at Changi City Point as a level 3 and the one next to it as well.  By then, there were 6 portals in my work area.
  • Mar 14 – Took down Singapore Flyer portal for my wife to deploy.  My first experience as someone who helps others to level instead of getting the maximum Action Points for myself.
  • Mar 15 – Finally met one of the high level agents in the Expo area.  Together, we built fields and I leveled up to 4 in no time.
  • Mar 22 – The number of portals in my work area has steadily been increased to 8.
  • Mar 23 – Charlie a.k.a me finally got to team with with my ‘angels’ – Hana, Moana, and my wife – and we struck Central Business District in late evening hours.  Hana and I smashed portals and Moana and my wife deployed and upgraded them.  It was a fun evening until Hana dropped off the radar and lost contact (out of battery).
  • Mar 26 – Leveled up to 5 by building more fields in my work area.
  • Mar 29 – Started to team up with my wife during weekends.  The two of us maintain a portal cluster near our home.
  • Apr 5 – Resistance has a fast leveling agent in our work area that flipped the portals in record time.  That pushed me to level 6 in record time as well.
  • Apr 16 – The Resistance agent continued to up his tempo.  With more portals going live, that gave both sides more opportunity to progress.  On that day, I leveled up to 7.
  • Apr 28 – Even as the Resistance agent in our area has reached the level cap of 8, he continued his obsession in destroying our fields and denying his faction members of gaining any easy Action Point.  Due to the sheer number of portals and links, even when I did not do much, I gained quite a bit of Action Points every day.  As for the final push to level 8, I systematically captured the portals from Changi Business Park to Expo and later on, two locations in Bedok.  The operation ended at 04:55 once I reached the level cap of 8.

This comes from my work area!

On the night before I hit level 8, I revisited my work area on a weekend after midnight.  By now, there are 15 portals in the area.  Compare to only 2 when I first started playing Ingress 3 months ago.  See that missing link?  Regretfully, the game did not allow me to link even though I have the correct key.  What a pity.

Leveling Progress: Balanced or Not?

I used to have this discussion with Leo – my friend from Google+ – on how balanced or imbalanced leveling is in Ingress.  Here are two graphs for sharing.

Level versus Dates

This chart shows the pace of leveling across level 1 to 8.

Action Points acquired versus Dates

This chart shows the pace of Action Points acquisition across level 1 to 8

As a disclaimer, this analysis is academic in nature because there are so many variables that affects the pace we level up in Ingress.  There has been feedback that leveling is a lot slower in the beginning, which in my case, it is somewhat true.  The rate of leveling from 2 to 4 is slower than from level 4 onward.  This could be due to a few reasons.  Most portals in Singapore are pretty high level.  It is quite impossible – and inefficient – for any agent lower than level 4 to capture a portal.  In addition, what can be linked has already been linked.

In my case though, it is because I have met the local agents face-to-face when I was level 4.  They have helped me a great deal.  What is interesting is that in order to maintain the linear progress from level 4 to 8, I actually had to double my pace of Action Points acquisition each time I level.  Given the fact that I have also devoted more time to help others to level during that period of time (and hence indirectly slowed down my pace), one explanation is that I have become even more active.  And the increased number of portals and the new places that I have visited helped.  Our local Resistance agent going nuclear on us in the past month helped too.

In Search of Inner Happiness with Ingress at End Game

I have learned a lot during this short period of time.  Not only from a game mechanic’s perspective, but also how I see things in life.  More amazingly so, I have learned from some who are so much younger than me.  In some ways, I feel I am enlightened.

  1. Keep It Fun and Fair - In a player-versus-player multiplayer online game like Ingress, it is easy to grow possessive and obsessive on what you think are rightfully yours.  That can be mentally tiresome.  Think of Ingress as a basketball game with no end.  A basketball game is interesting when you see two teams have a fair share of ball possession and interaction.  Think beyond yourself.  Think beyond your faction.  Ingress as a whole is fun because we from either faction enjoy playing it.  A healthy dose of frustration is OK because when done right, usually that makes a game fun.  But there is no point in having too much fun on your own in the expense of others.  Give others a chance to play.
  2. Role Playing in Moderation - I love the role playing aspect of almost any game I have played.  That enables you to submerge deeper into the fantasy world.  Yes, there are two factions in this game and unfortunately, not every one is friendly to each other.  This does not have to affect real life relationship though.  Try to be sensitive on the things you say or you may find yourself losing a real life friend over a game, which is rather unnecessary.
  3. Be a Mentor – It is never too early to take on a mentor role and help out the new players.  Show them the tips and tricks.  Think before action.  Do I really need to take down those fields when I don’t need the Action Points any more or shall I leave the job to someone who needs it?  Shall I fully deploy a portal when there is a much lower level player around?  Once you are approaching the level cap, you are leveling others as well.  Be it as they will help you or not in the future.
  4. Help to Build and Sustain a Community – I am fortunately enough to be invited into a local community and meet many helpful people who would go totally out of their way simply to assist.  It is not easy to build and sustain a community.  Some are paying it forward.  How about you?
  5. Explore -While Ingress revolves largely around portal capture and field building, a vital part of the game is to explore new places.  I enjoy visiting new clusters that I have not been to.  All I have to do is to follow the portals and most of the time, I am rewarded with the discovery of new places of interest.  And when you discover new places that are not yet in the game?  Submit them as portal suggestion for the future players to explore.
  6. Meet New Friends – I know many are shy meeting strangers and prefer to play alone.  It is normal to feel that way.  I can tell you that Ingress rewards handsomely when you group with others and you would tell me that you are not hang up with progress (which in your heart, you might).  Let me share this with you.  You are likely to find common interests among Ingress players than any random strangers you meet on the street or friends of your friends.  Because the game encourages frequent collaboration, you may end up meeting your new friends in Ingress more than your existing real life friends.
  7. Be Creative – Doing the same thing again and again can be boring.  The key is to be creative and find something fun and different to do.  Recently, my enemy agent and I like to tear each other’s fields apart and build something totally different, incorporating layered fields design.  Your community may be doing a large scale operation too.  Participate and do something new.  That way, you may keep the passion alive and not fall into the same old grinding routine.

My first attempt to build a relatively large field.

One day, I was unable to build any fields in the usual Changi City Point cluster (where the high concentration of green dots was) because a friendly agent has out of nowhere created a long link into the mall cutting off any possibility of creating decent fields.  Further investigation showed that we only needed one more link from the beach into the mall to complete the triangle.  Knowing that our enemy agent would unfailingly tear down all the green portals before 7 pm, I was racing against time to reach the lone green by the beach (bottom left green dot).  I was not familiar with the area and got lost.  In the end, I have jogged 1.2 km along the beach in order to reach the portal before time ran out.  That day, before my jogging, I have already walked in excess of 12 km.  But I made it, scoring more than 30,000 Mind Units.  The game does not reward effort like this.  However, I felt fulfilled that day knowing that I have done something different for a change.

Categories: For the Geeks
Tags:   No Comments.

The Alignment Ingress By Thomas Greanias: A Worthy Read?

April 27th, 2013 by Wilfrid
Respond

The first novella from the augmented reality game Ingress.

This may not be a popular post among the Ingress community because those who are playing this augmented reality game and have read the novella seems to love it.  However, just because everyone seems to love Nolan’s Batman series doesn’t mean that there aren’t common voices within that have a different opinion.  Here are a few observations for sharing if you are curious to know if The Alignment Ingress is your cup of tea.

First of all, let me say that I am a huge fan of Ingress and its communities.  I have spent many walking hours playing the game.  I enjoy reading books that are spawned from a game, like the novels from World of Warcraft.  Reading The Alignment Ingress, I would expect to have a better clarity on the lore and the characters involved.  I enjoy reading mysterious and code solving types of novels like Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code and The Lost Symbol.  This novella has a promising start with a picture of Queen of Sheba and a celestial map of Virgo – both appear to match each other perfectly.  There is a treasure to be discovered.  The Alignment Ingress has a fair amount of military weaponry jargon, which I am OK with as I have once ground through Tom Clancy’s mightily thick books.  But here lies the challenge, this novella is short.  Packing all these ingredients in and making it an entertaining read is no easy feat.

There are two main characters in this novella: Conrad Yeats and Hank Johnson who seek ancient treasure and truth.  Conrad Yeats is a known character from the author’s previous books.  So if you have not read any of Greanias’s books in the past, you probably would find it a little bit hard to relate to some of the characters because character development in this novella is scarce.  There are Ingress related explanations dotted throughout the book – which is good for those who play the game more than following the lore in Ingress website.  What I find missing is how the dots connect to each other.  Yes, I now know what exotic matter is, even chaotic matter that is not yet live in the game.  ADA, the female voice from the game.  Various organizations.  And portals of course.  But how do all these really link to each other?  More importantly, what is the Shapers and the real agendas of different entities?  The novella doesn’t say.  Out of nowhere, the two factions – Resistance and Enlightened – are mentioned.  But why such division from the start?  Who are leading the factions?  How do the characters in this novella relate to these factions?  It doesn’t say either.

On the puzzle solving bits, the beginning was promising.  I was anticipating a Da Vinci Code-like journey.  Throughout the mid section of the book, more insights mixed with Biblical events are thrown in.  It is only till the very end when the solution is revealed.  It is a great ending no doubt despite a lack of depth.  However, I wish I was able to solve the mystery alongside with the narration as the plot progresses like Dan Brown’s books.

There is a fair bit of technical jargon with regards to drones and explosive that lost me for a moment.  Not because I have no interest in the topic.  This novella does not have the luxury of the length of Tom Clancy’s books that explain the parts in great details.  But I enjoy seeing how modern day gadgets like Nexus devices and the social media site Google+ are being mentioned.  There seems to be a tinny bit of romance too.  I guess only those who follow the author’s previous books may be able to relate.

All in all, maybe I am expecting too much, The Alignment Ingress is still a pretty good read for the most hardcore fans.  Ironically, I seem to enjoy reading a link from the novella that leads to a chapter from another up-coming book by Felicia Hajra-Lee called An Exotic Matter the most.  There is a fair bit of suspense and an interesting character development within.  I am curious about what that may turn out.

The Alignment Ingress comes in two digital versions (as far as I know).  I bought the Kindle version.  On a hindsight, if I were to have a Nexus tabulate, the Google Book version would have been a better choice.  Because the novella contains links to external sites and that don’t open well in Kindle PaperWhite, I have to toggle between reading on a Kindle and on a PC so as to dive into these extra bits of the story.

Categories: Fiction
Tags:   · No Comments.

The Girl Who Leapt Through Time By Yasutaka Tsutsui

April 24th, 2013 by Wilfrid
Respond

A Japanese novelette

First, a couple of interesting points about this book and the author.  The title story was written between 1965 to 1966 and was translated into English on 2011.  This English version has two stories: The Girl Who Leapt Through Time and The Stuff That Nightmares Are Made Of.  Just over 200 pages in length, this Japanese science fiction is a quick read.  Yasutaka Tsutsui is also the author of Paprika, which was made into a film.  I remember liking that film a lot.

The Girl Who Leapt Through Time is fast pace and entertaining.  One day, fifteen-year-old schoolgirl Kazuko has discovered by accident that she is capable of time travel.  Leaping back and forth in time, Kazuko is trying to convince her friends this new found superpower of hers.  To Kazuko, the ability to leapt through time is more of a problem that has be solved rather than an opportunity to be exploited.  As a part-science-fiction-part-drama-and-romance, The Girl Who Leapt Through Time doesn’t dwell too deep onto the technical details.  The story has also elegantly avoided the topic of temporal paradox.  All in all, I was glued to the story from the first page.  My only disappointment is that the story has ended too soon.  It has a beautiful ending, don’t get me wrong.  I just wish the story would last longer.

Then, there is this odd piece called The Stuff That Nightmares Are Made Of.  While the two stories do not seem to relate to each other, it does have this common theme of erasing memory.  Masako has certain phobias that have been haunting her since young.  And she discovers that not only she has this problem, the people around her too.  Like The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, the author is taking the readers a journey of mystery and discovery.  The Stuff That Nightmares Are Made Of does not seem to have the magic like the titled story does.  It is a good albeit short read nonetheless.

Categories: Book Reviews · Fiction
Tags:   No Comments.

Weekly Diary Summary EP01 – From Google+ Posts

April 21st, 2013 by Wilfrid
Respond

It is happening, however much I wished to deny or defy it.  Google+ is becoming my preferred blogging platform.  The level of engagement and the quality of discussion over there is phenomenon.  In my decades of blogging, I have not seen something quite like that.  Not that I am hugely popular in Google+.  There is something special about this social networking platform.  It is so open, yet I feel so much more comfortable interacting with friends and strangers who most have a real name and a real face against them and are truly passionate about the topics of their interests.  Looking back, deleting my accounts from Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn in one go and focus on one single social platform is probably one happy decision I have made.  Best is relative.  To the least, I am not stressed over multiple platforms feeling the need to cater for the audience from different channels.  One is all I need, for now.

Apr 21, weekly summary of G+ posts.

Enjoying the current platform is one thing.  I have seen online services come and go.  The only thing invariant is the website I host.  Perhaps it is worthwhile to write a weekly diary summary in here for my future reference while self-reflecting on the things I have done over the week.

One evening, I was watching Formula One on TV.  I opened an apple cider from the refrigerator.  And I posted a random picture on G+ as well as in one of the Google Messenger group chats.  Interestingly, those who love to drink cider really know cider.  They can recognize the drink I was having and talk about the cider that they prefer.  Another evening, closed to midnight, I met up with a Canadian whom I have come to know over Ingress.  To wrap up the day, we had two cans of cider because we have once talked about cider over online chat.  I can’t remember what I drank.  It wasn’t as sweet as Somersby.  But it did have a certain ‘kick’ to it.  My knowledge on cider is limited.  Back in UK, the only beer I knew was lager, bitter, and cider.  I was not aware of any sub-categorization beyond that.

Talking about Ingress, this week has been an exciting week for this augmented reality game.  I popped by East Coast Park and took photographs of the surroundings using my mobile phone.  That trip was purely for portal submission and strictly speaking, not playing the game.  It is an aspect that allows players to expand the game universe.  The next day, I ventured into a park near my office that I did not even know of its existence, if not for my passion to discovery and submit Ingress portals.  It was an adventure of its own.  Perhaps, more rewarding so was that one particular portal submission has gained the recognition from Ingress.  In return, Ingress has given me with an activation code and I can use it to recruit one friend into the game.  Sweet.

More about Ingress, there was a huge operation involving agents from Singapore and Malaysia physically shuttling across the borders of Malaysia, Singapore, and Indonesia in order to paint a large part of our countries green.  That was one inspiring operation.

My few-week-old niece Lydia is growing up steadily. I wish I could spend more time with her.  But, her three years senior sister Bethany has been getting all my attention, whenever I pay them a visit.  Totally understandable.  My dad, on the other hand, is actively posting photographs onto Google+.  Some dated back to the time when I was still a little boy.  I guess my 78-year-old dad is wasting no time to catch up.

Categories: Diary
Tags:   1 Comment

Drucker: A Life In Pictures By Rick Wartzman

April 11th, 2013 by Wilfrid
Respond

Drucker

Whenever I show this book to my friends around me, looking at the book title, the first reaction would often be, “Who is Drucker?  Could it be Peter Drucker?”

Indeed.  This is a photo book on the life of Peter Drucker.  Drucker was an Austrian-born American whose writings contributed to the foundations of the modern business corporation.  To quote from the author:

Drucker discerned some of the major trends and events of the twentieth century before almost anyone else spotted them: the Hitler-Stalin pack, Japan’s impending rise to economic power, the shift from manufacturing to knowledge work, the increasing importance of the service factor, the fall of the Soviet Union. “Peter Drucker’s eyeballs,” Harvard University’s Rosabeth Moss Kanter once marveled, “must contain crystal balls.”

Drucker: A Life in Pictures has done a good job in painting a picture of who Drucker was.  He was a teacher and was used to give lectures in universities.  He was a management consultant, worked with Jack Welch of GE and Donald Keough of Coca-Cola as well as other other large corporations like P&G.  He was a counsel for the government and had corresponded with the White House.  He was an adviser to the social-sector.  His wife and he took a deep interest in Japan after their first visit.  His books have been published in more then 40 languages.  Druker has played a role in educating the world on the development of management.  In his mind, he was always a writer and his legacy is his writing.  Of the 39 books of his, two-thirds of these books were written after he had reached his mid-sixties.

Interviewer: If you describe your occupation, would it be “writer”?

Peter Drucker: I always say I write.

Interviewer: What, then, has inspired your books more than anything?

PD: The same thing that inspires tuberculosis.  This is a serious, degenerative, compulsive disorder and addiction.

Interviewer: An addiction to writing?

PD: To writing, yes.

Drucker: A Life in Pictures is perhaps one of the more unique books I have reviewed.  While written by Rick Wartzman – executive director of the Drucker Institute at Claremont Graduate University, the photographs are by Anne Fishbein, curated by Bridget Lawlor.  A majority of graphic content comes from letters and memos, certificates and handwritten notes – all of which reveal a personal insight on one aspect of Drucker that may be less familiar to the readers.  At the beginning of each chapter, there is a brief interview, which further illustrates a personal side of Drucker.  Reading through the book is like  journeying through a museum in my own pace.  A recommended read for those who wish to know more about Peter Drucker.

Hardcover: 192 pages
Publisher: McGraw-Hill; 1 edition (January 15, 2013)
ISBN-10: 0071700463
ISBN-13: 978-0071700467

Categories: Book Reviews · Non-Fiction
Tags:   · · No Comments.

Warm Bodies – A Highly Anticipated Zombie Romance

April 6th, 2013 by Wilfrid
Respond

A zombie romance story.

Ever since I have watched the trailer of this movie, quite some time back, I have always been wanting to catch Warm Bodies on a big screen.  Cynthia and my buddy TK’s response to my overwhelming enthusiasm has been lukewarm.  Until they have watched the show with me.  They love it.

I am unsure why the global fascination on zombies and the undeads.  Online games like World of Warcraft have them.  They have been the prime targets in many shooter games.  Even in Call of Duty and Saint Rows 3 whereby I don’t see how zombies get into the stories, but they are there.  As though in our mind, the apocalypse happening in the future would turn many of us into the rotting zombies.  Dead, but not quite dead.

Warm Bodies in essence is a story about a zombie named R and a human girl called Julie.  And R has a friend called M.  Do the names like Romeo, Montague, and Juliet ring a bell?  It seems that Shakespeare would continue to inspire, all the way to the apocalypse and beyond.

This story is interesting because it is told from the perspective of a zombie.  R narrates most of the plot.  The way he sees things, the first time he falls in love and somehow manages to suppress his hunger for Julie’s brain.  Zombies eat human brains for the memories within, and to feel human again for a short while.  There seems to be a constant yearning for the zombies to feel human.  Indeed, this love between R and Julie has triggered an effect to the zombie community and turning them warm.  Hence the film’s title, Warm Bodies.

The relationship between zombies and human is slightly more complicated than us versus them.  Zombies that have given up hope to feel human again turn into skeletons.  In this three-way relationship, zombies emerge as the protagonists while flaws from the human and the skeleton such as apathy and distrust would leave the audience something to think about.

The morale of the story if I may add would be such.  Healing between groups of different people – be it as rich and poor, healthy and disabled, different religions and non-believers, and different cultures – would start with acceptance and love.  Change is possible.  Casting away prejudice and fear so as to see things from a different perspective.  Realizing that the very thing you fear about the other one could well be the same thing the other one too fear of.  And perhaps, we are not that different after all.

Categories: Fantasy & Sci-fi · Movie Reviews · Romance
Tags:   · 1 Comment

My Niece Baby Lydia

March 31st, 2013 by Wilfrid
Respond

The ward at the medical center has a similar layout to the one we have visited three years ago, when my niece Bethany was born.  Yesterday – March 30th – my mother, my wife, and I drove to the same center, as we did in 2010.  I was not rushing in, as I did before.  Partly because I had a terrible backache.  Also partly because we knew what to expect.  My sister was admitted to the medical center in a Saturday morning.  Two and a half hours later, Lydia was born.  Lydia did not take as long as Bethany did.  I read somewhere that the second one may come out relatively faster than the first one.  Who knows?  Maybe my sister is getting the hang of childbirth.  Maybe the third one may pop out even faster.

She is Lydia

My first reaction in Chinese when I saw Lydia was: She is made from the same cookie cutter!  Figuratively speaking, this means Lydia looks the same as Bethany as a toddler.  I beat everyone to the usual discussion of which part of the baby resemble to which parent.  Freshly delivered from the womb, Lydia looks the same as Bethany.  Period.  That drew a lot of debates – not unexpectedly so – between Benny the proud father, Lora my beloved sister, my mother, my wife, and soon, the in-law side of the family.  I even took out a picture of Bethany taken when she was very young.  Only time will tell if I am a genius or I am missing the details.

I am not entirely sure how my sister feels to have another girl.  To me, that is extraordinary.  Two daughters in one go.  Sure, while it is less likely I would be drinking beer with my nieces and watching Formula One on TV, I can relate to girls better.  I can’t wait to bring them out for shopping, with their daddy’s credit cards.

Cynthia was especially curious how the three-year-old Bethany would react when she first met Lydia.  I reckon Bethany must have some level of understanding that a baby once inside her mother’s tummy is now sleeping peacefully by her mother’s bed.  Bethany was calm as her parents made the introduction.  When her grandparents tried to ask her questions, Bethany quieted them with a gesture signaling them that her sister was sleeping.  I was touched by the whole scene.  So young, and she has this sense of responsibility.  We whispered to each other, not wanting to upset Bethany, which is better for Lydia I reckon.  All the while, little Bethany sat on her mother’s bed quietly looking at her sister Lydia.  Given any other days, Bethany would have been running around and making laughter.  This level discipline suddenly struck me as an exhibition of growing up.

I noticed that in the ward, everyone was looking at Lydia, smiling at her.  How would little Bethany feel now that she may no longer be the sole center of attention?  I took out my mother’s tablet and signaled Bethany to come to the far end of the room.  Her father gave his blessing and we were playing her favorite pinball game, which I have installed for this very occasion that I have anticipated.

Avid readers may have followed my observation on Bethany and our pinball game.  New to our previous encounters, Bethany now has this awareness of losing.  A ball going down the drain is no good.  Now she gets it.  She would get all tensed up when she lost, holding fists and getting frustrated.  But when she managed to hit the bell at the top of the machine, she would smile and said slowly: This is … FUN!

Normally, I praise Google’s effort in evolving the Android platform.  In the new Nexus design, there is no physical buttons on the front of the device.  Instead, the three buttons – back, menu, and running applications – have become part of the touchscreen at the bottom.  This has given me tons of headache when Bethany now keeps on hitting those virtual buttons by mistake.  The game would suddenly disappear and she would get a shock every time that happened.  I would need to tell her that it is OK and show her how to return to the game.

And that happened every 20 seconds or so.

I am thinking, would Lydia grow up to like playing pinball and racing games like her sister?  Or would she have a whole new different personality?  Just one day before Bethany was born, my sister was playing racing game on my computer.  Now I wish I had instill some video gaming excitement to Lydia days before she was born.

Categories: Diary · Memorable Events
Tags:   · 1 Comment

Chico And Rita – A Spanish Animation Film Of Love And Music

March 30th, 2013 by Wilfrid
Respond

A Spanish animation film

The 8th Spanish Film Festival in Singapore is ending soon.  See if you can catch Chico & Rita (2010) at The Arts House today.  Admission is free on a first come basis.

Chico & Rita is a Spanish animated feature-length film.  The first that was nominated for the Oscar.  The artwork is beautiful.  Each frame could well be made into a wall painting.  The soundtrack throughout the film is equally beautiful, especially for the jazz music lover.  Set in Cuba, a pianist called Chico meets a singer called Rita.  And they have fallen in love.  However, circumstances seem to often get into their way.  Chico & Rita is a journey of love and music from Cuba’s Havana to New York and Las Vegas in a span of five decades.  Due to the rich history behind Chico & Rita and the fact that many of Havana’s pre-revolutionary buildings had decayed, the filmmakers have looked into the photograph archive in order to recreate the era and the mood.

This story is rather dark.  So is the mood.  Perhaps it is the pain the gives forth such beautiful music and inspires such exquisite artwork.

The drawing of Chico & Rita is exquisite.

Categories: Animation · Foreign · Movie Reviews
Tags:   No Comments.