Starcraft II Beta Down, The Zerg

Starcraft II Beta Down

It was fun while it lasted but the first phase of the SC2 beta has come to an end.

"We previously announced that the first phase of the StarCraft II beta test would be coming to a close in all regions on Monday, May 31. In order to prepare for the final phase of beta testing, we plan to extend the current phase in all regions until Monday, June 7. After this date, the beta test will be unavailable for several weeks while we make some hardware and software configuration changes for the final phase of the beta test and the release of the game. We plan to bring the beta test back online for a couple of weeks prior to the game's launch to complete our testing. We’ll have more details to share about when this final phase will begin at a later date."

Posted by Nebu (May 28th 2010)

The Zerg

I found Terrans a fun but at times a hard to manage race. Mobility was becoming an issue in our team games as it is hard to call off an attack to aid an ally's base. I decided to give Zerg a try and was quite impressed. The units are definitely less durable but not only do they have the numbers advantage, they also make up for it in movement speed.

In a 3v3 or 4v4 situation, I found myself able to come to the aid of an ally being attacked then launching a counter attack shortly after, in addition to increased harassment abilities. Creep (the main Zerg mechanic that allows them to build structures) further increases movement speeds as well as HP regeneration and this deters attackers from trying to out maneuver you on your home turf. The Hatchery mechanic of building units allows for one structure to build all units (given you have the necessary prerequisite structure) which enhances Zerg's ability to counter specific units of the opposing army on a short notice.

Harassment is one of the main experiences that I have enjoyed playing as Zerg. The Mutalisk, a small air unit capable of hitting air and ground, is often dreaded because of its mobility and fast shots. Massing a handful of these is enough to keep the opposing team on the defensive while your allies claim territory and resources. There is no better feeling than to punish those who have poor building placement as this will sometimes cost them the game.

I have been practicing my Mutalisk harassment and starting to get the hang of things. It's a shame that I will have to wait several weeks before I can resume.

To end this off, here is the Zerg theme!

One Month Later, Books, Starcraft II: Terran

One Month Later

It's been a month since the last time I blogged. I am still WoW-free and have kept myself busy with reading books, watching TV / streams and playing Starcraft 2 Beta. I also watched the WoW 3v3 tournament yesterday and I will leave my review for next blog.

Let's get caught up shall we?

Books

I have grew fascinated with Marketing in the past month and went ahead and ordered a whole bunch of books from Amazon. This is the first time I am using the online service and I am thoroughly impressed with the polished interface. Ordering books is a breeze and the site makes sure you are updated on the status of your orders every step of the way: when it's being prepared to ship, the time it leaves the holding area and any stops in between. I experienced no problems so far and will be ordering more in the future.

Here is the book list so far:

Ogilvy on Advertising (David Ogilvy)

22 Immutable Laws of Marketing (Al Ries, Jack Trout)

22 Immutable Laws of Branding & 11 Laws of Internet Branding (Al Ries, Laura Ries)

Positioning: Battle for the Mind (Al Ries, Jack Trout)

Marketing Warfare (Al Ries, Jack Trout)

Differentiate or Die (Jack Trout, Riven)

Focus (Al Ries, Laura Ries)

Tongue-Fu (Sam Horn)

POP! (Sam Horn)

Tipping Point (Malcolm Gladwell)

"Ogilvy on Advertising" is a classic read and highly recommended to anyone who is serious about pursuing Marketing as a career. David Ogilvy is known as the "Father of Advertising" and helped revolutionize Marketing in the 1950s to 1970s with his ad agency Ogilvy & Mathers. He stresses on the importance of marketing research which is an important factor to gaining a leverage in the positioning your product against competitors. Ogilvy advocates ads that educate and promise benefits over those that are flashy and funny that serve no purpose other than to awe.

The books by Al Ries, Laura Ries, Jack Trout and Steve Rivkin all contain the underlying themes of positioning in the consumer's mind and brand focus. Customer perception is very important as it sets up boundaries of the market share a company can reliably own. To be first in a category is the strongest way to enforce dominance in the consumer's mind and any following brands must respect this fact. Focus is the only way to steal market share from a more established competitor and this involves sub-categorizing and becoming a specialist. I enjoyed reading their books starting from "22 Immutable Laws of Marketing" but as I went through subsequent books, I found they tend to repeat themselves too much. I had great difficulty finishing "Focus" as it contained 80% of the material from previous Ries and Trout works. In the end it was a positive experience but I would recommend reading any 3 or 4 at most of the books listed above from these authors.

Sam Horn's "Tongue-Fu" instructs readers on ways to dealing with difficult people in difficult situations. It contains some interesting tips such as "Using AND instead of BUT" and "AAA method (Agree Apologize Action) for customer representatives". "POP!" on the other hand is more of a marketing book that deals with innovative ways to creating brands and slogans that 'pop'. She encourages the use of alliteration, pentameters and word play to increase memorability. An issue I had with Horn's books is the difficulty I had in staying focused and interested. I find that sometimes she goes into too much detail and then repeats herself at the very end with a summary of the entire chapter no matter how trivial it was. Overall, these two books are a good reference guide and I do not regret buying them.

I have heard of Malcolm Gladwell's "Tipping Point" but it was only recently that I finally decided to try it out. I am thoroughly impressed. His writing style is a refreshing sight after reading through many informal writing formats and his story telling keeps me turning pages. Gladwell writes about the factors (the 'Tipping Point') responsible in creating trends which leads to the success or failure of companies and societies. The three laws in his book are: The Law of the Few, The Stickiness Factor and The Power of Context. Law of the Few states that three types of personalities are responsible for spreading epidemics to others in a society. These three archetypes are Connectors, Mavens and Persuaders. Connectors are socialites who have an immense network of groups of people; they act as the channel of distribution that makes the spread possible. Mavens are information perfectionists who seek to help the masses by educating them on what they know. Mavens are responsible for breaking down barriers that would otherwise alienate people from rising trends. Persuaders are the perfect salesmen, while not knowing as much information as Mavens or people as Connectors, they have a charm to them that helps them convert any doubter much more easily than any of the other two archetypes. The second law is the Stickiness Factor and it deals with how present information to the masses and make it too irresistible to let go. This involves a simple restructuring or presentation of the message that helps create a bigger, long-lasting impact on people. The Power of Context says that people are easily influenced by the environment they live in and it is almost always a catalyst in the success or failure in tipping an epidemic.

That's it on books for this month.

Starcraft II: Terran

I switched to Terran to complement my friends who mostly play Protoss. It definitely requires more micromanagement as units are not designed like battering rams like Zealots or Immortals. Units like Vikings or Siege tanks have dual modes that are crucial in certain situations and failing to transform at the right moment can spell disaster for that battle and consequently cost you the game. SCV worker units are responsible for repairs on mechanical terran units, unlike Protoss shields and Zerg units that regenerate on their own. Marines are fragile and sometimes require a bunker to survive and Ghosts have to be controlled and cloaked when under assault. My favourite has got to be the Ghost and I try to employ its use in most of the team games I play. EMP (takes away shields and mana), snipe (deals 45 damage ignoring armor) and nuke gives Terran a psychological advantage over their opponents.

Terrans were fun but I have now gone onto playing Zerg.

Here's the Terran SC2 Theme:

Starcraft II: First Impressions, Protoss Background Music

Starcraft II: First Impressions

I recently installed the Mac version of Starcraft II Beta and so far things look pretty good. It's more or less like its predecessor with regards to three races (Terran, Protoss & Zerg) duking it out for intergalactic domination on a 2D battlefield plane with a good amount of reused units. There are however very significant differences such as graphics, music, units, interface and specific racial quirks that further differentiate the races from one another.

The graphics have definitely been turned up a notch as the system requirements greatly increased. Every single unit, building and even environmental obstruction is 3 dimensional. This is a vast difference from Starcraft 1 where the units were 2D slices taken from a 3D model of a unit. Music in SC2 beta is more subtle and I personally prefer it over Starcraft's scores. (See below for Youtube of the Protoss theme.)

They really cranked up the interface. Players can now select an unlimited amount of units, rally units to resources or other units, queue up workers to build multiple buildings, and keep track of idle workers. A good bit of these changes were translated from Warcraft III, which was the game released sometime after Starcraft 1 and years before Starcraft 2 was even announced.

The most notable aspect of Starcraft 2 would be the unique abilities each race received. I am talking about the Terran MULE, Protoss Chrono Boost and Zerg Queen. These changes do not seem to affect the gameplay all that much but if you keep using these abilities frequently at optimal times, the overall result will be drastic and most likely be a deciding factor in a close match. The Terrans have the ability via Command Center to summon a temporary unit (nicknamed MULE) to serve mainly as a resource gatherer that has the ability to gather more mineral/gas per round than the average worker unit. The Protoss Chrono Boost is an ability that a Nexus can use to increase the speed of unit production or upgrade research time by 50% of a selected building for a limited amount of time. Zerg Queen is the new early game unit that can inject extra larvae into a hatchery/lair/hive, heal units and buildings, and take the role of base defender.

I mainly play 2v2 as Protoss with a friend (who plays Zerg) and for the time being we're a little more than 50/50 win-loss ratio sitting somewhere in the Gold League. It's not the greatest achievement but we're still learning the ropes and having fun at the same time. I find it much more stressful than playing World of Warcraft Arenas as there are many things happening at the sametime and the skill cap is a lot higher with hardly any global cool downs to deal with.

That's enough SC2 for now, till next time!

Update: Starcraft 2 is slated to be released on July 27th 2010. Source.

My favourite unit (Void Rays) doing what they do best.

Protoss Theme Music

As mentioned above that I play Protoss and enjoy the music. There's a certain 'epic' feeling to it that I can't explain.

Here's a Youtube video of what I have been hearing for the past 3 days.

What's My Motivation? Why We Play the Top 100 Games, Starcraft 2 Beta for the Mac!, Garudoh's VG Music Collection, Butterflies and Hurricanes by Muse

What's My Motivation? Why We Play the Top 100 Games

An interesting study was released over at Kotaku taking the top 100 games (taken from GameRankings.com) breaking them down into categories based on goals and tallying it all up into one neat pie chart. The results are interesting to say the least.

Check out the full article here.

Starcraft 2 Beta Released for the Mac!

It's finally happened! Source.

I was fortunate enough to be selected as a beta tester a few weeks ago but unfortunate enough to own a PC incapable of handling the game. This is definitely great news for Mac users everywhere.

Expect to see coverage on my trials and tribulations learning this game in future blogs!

Garudoh's VG Music Collection

Whenever I need to get my fix of nostalgia, I turn to Youtube user Garudoh's channel. He maintains an impressive collection of video game music dating back to the 80s to the current titles we see today. They are unaltered and is accompanied by scenes of superb gameplay.

The collection is currently on its 531st piece and there are bonus videos like the Evolution of Final Fantasy series and his personal picks.

Butterflies and Hurricanes by Muse

Embarrassing Blogging Mistake, Freeware Feature: CC Cleaner, Robot Unicorn Attack!, Ghosts n Stuff by Deadmau5

Embarrassing Blogging Mistake

When I first started blogging 3 days ago, I found it strange that the text editor's interface was severely lacking in features but I was too focused on coming up with blog ideas and did not ask too many questions. Today I realize that I have been blogging all this time in "Edit HTML" mode.

Yikes.

I quickly click "Compose" mode and there we have all the features that I have been missing out on: fonts, colours, sizes and bullet points! So from this point onward the blogs should look a lot better and will be changed slightly everyday until I find the right look.

Freeware Feature: CC Cleaner

Highly recommended freeware to clean up your PC and get some hard drive space back . Use CC Cleaner to get rid of temporary files, form & download history and cookies from most of the major internet browsers, as well as invalid entries and MRU's (most recently used) lists from Windows registry.

Works for Windows XP/Vista/7.

I've used CC Cleaner for almost 2 years now and so far there has been no problems.

Robot Unicorn Attack!

Robot Unicorn Attack by Adult Swim is a bizarre looking side-scroller with a unique feel to it. Right away you are sent to a fantasy world with purple hills, butterfly collectables, star obstacles and 3 wishes instead of 3 lives.

The controls are simple (Z = jump, X = dash) and you get into the action right away. The music is something worth taking a note of as its nothing like any of the traditional games I've played.

It's currently rated at 7.1 on the site and I recommend anyone to play it at least once or twice. Not a bad way to pass time.

My highest score is 32024.

Ghosts n Stuff by DeadMau5

Megaman 2 (iPhone) Review, Organ Donor by DJ Shadow

Megaman 2 (iPhone) Review



I was really excited when I first saw Megaman 2 for the iPhone while browsing through the App Store. This was a game I played and thoroughly enjoyed back in the early 90s. With the exception of the Pseudo-Direction Pad, the game is unaltered for the most part; music and graphics stayed true to the original. However, after 1 minute of tapping I came to a realization that reaching Woodman's level is going to be a lot tougher than I remembered.

The controls are atrocious. I knew the pseudo D-pad was going to affect gameplay to a certain degree, but I did not think it would be game breaking. Everything felt unresponsive; I had trouble moving and shooting. It's so bad that It felt like Megaman had aged with the franchise. The game would also lag and speed up randomly and in addition to all that, the music would abruptly loop as if you were playing a song on repeat in WinAmp.

Someone in their QA department dropped the ball on this one.

Conclusion: This unpolished remake is not worth $5. Do not want.

Organ Donor by DJ Shadow

World of Warcraft is a Feeling, A Glimpse into my MMO Career, Epic Music Video

"World of Warcraft is a Feeling, who needs a social life?"

-Pure Pwnage

I have been on this game [WoW] since a month after its launch in February 11 2004, taking a month off here and there to catch up on other things. Let me tell you this game is dreadful. The story line is weak, the game mechanics are redundant and boring, most of the music is forgettable, graphics are always subpar relative to other games and the leveling process takes way too long. Yet, even with all these flaws in the game, I keep playing and have probably spent years in /playtime across all my characters. And despite all this time spent, I consider myself a casual player with average in-game accomplishments.

WoW is a big social media network, more or less like a glorified MSN or AIM with objectives to give oneself a sense of achievement. Guilds and the people in it are the main reason why people stick around for so long. You are empowered with a feeling of responsibility and a looming fear of disappointing real people in a video game. This is the driving force behind the addiction.

A Glimpse into my MMO Career

Here is a brief summary of what I've done in-game:

Time Span: ~ 1.5 years
Class: Human Mage (60)
Server: Eonar (PvE, Alliance)
Guild: Guardians of Dawn (PvE Guild)
Role: Raider, DPS
Accomplishments: Molten Core, Blackwing Lair completed, Knight Lieutenant Rank in Battlegrounds
Armory: N/A (did not exist back then)

Time Span: ~ 2 years
Class: Gnome Warrior (60-80), Night Elf Druid (70)
Server: Shattered Hand (PvP, Alliance)
Guild: Ramen 60-70 (PvE Guild), NEDM 80 (PvE Guild)
Role: Ramen Guild Master / Main Tank, NEDM Casual Member, Druid PvP Healer
Accomplishments: Molten Core, Zul'Gurub, Anh'Qiraj (20), Gruul's Lair, Magtheridon's Lair, (I retired at this point but the guild went forward) Serpent Shrine Cavern, Tempest Keep, Black Temple and Sunwell Plataeu; 2v2 - 1750s (Season 3 and 4), 3v3 - 1900s (Season 3 and Season 4)
Armory: LINK

Time Span: ~1 year
Class: Blood Elf Paladin (80)
Server: Shattered Hand (PvP, Horde)
Guild: Catalina Wine Mixer (PvP Guild)
Role: PvP Healer
Accomplishments: 2v2 - 1900's (Season 7 and Season 8), 3v3 - 2246 (Season 8), 2100 (Season 7), 5v5 - 2234 (Season 8)
Armory: LINK

These are the 4 characters I focused on the most. I have countless other characters I have levelled on the side out of sheer boredom or curiosity. That's all for now, I'll cover different aspects of WoW and other games in more blogs to come.

Epic Music Video

With today's blog being a Warcraft-themed, it is only fitting that I share this video:

Craft of War: Blind by Percula (Music: Hide and Seek by Namie Amuro)

Brief Introduction; IT Security Basics; The Music I Enjoy

Brief Introduction

Hello,

My name is Peter and this is my very first blog. I will be covering topics that interest me, as well as things that I found helpful. So you can expect coverage on computer technology-related subjects, places to eat, music choices, TV shows, comics, video games, etc. A bulk of my interests are quite dorky, so I apologize in advance.

(For more information about me, you can visit my Facebook).

Let us get started!

IT Security Basics

There are a number of ways to protect yourself from today's onslaught of viruses and spyware.

1) Get a Mac.

Security through obscurity. Hackers don't really feel like hacking Macs when 90% of the computers out there have Windows installed. Just take a look at the Top 20 most popular programs downloaded at Download.com. You'll notice that not a single antivirus or anti-spyware program can be found for Macs until #28 (iAntivirus, which sometimes slows down my system, so I deleted it). Sadly, the same cannot be said for Windows. Right off the bat, we get 4 Security programs!

Online banking is a lot less stressful with a Mac.

2) Stay with Windows: Install Antivirus, Anti-spyware, Software Firewall, Hardware Firewall, Alternate Browsers, etc.

Thanks to a certain Streetfighter2.exe I became more diligent in keeping my computer clean and free of malware. The best part is, I use only freeware and so far there has been no problems. Here are the security software I use:

Antivirus Suites (Choose one only)

AVG - Free antivirus that does its job. I have used this for a while now and it has grown from only being an antivirus scanner to a full suite of tools, including email protection, anti-spyware, browser protection, etc.

Avira Antivirus - Another free antivirus that I am currently trying out and it's managed to catch a few things AVG has missed. It has the same array of tools AVG has in its arsenal.

Anti-spyware / Anti-malware (You can install all 3)

Adaware - Like AVG, these guys have been around for a long time. The scanner now comes with a suite that includes shields and email/browser protection.

Spybot Search & Destroy - (Freeware) I use this to cross check with Adaware for spyware. The downside of Spybot is that it finds a lot of false negatives and there are times it does not really delete what it claims to have deleted.

Malware Bytes - (Freeware) Very potent Anti-malware detector. Highly recommended.

Software Firewall

Virus prevention is one thing and virus containment is another. Certain viruses (trojans) take over your machine and send information out. Examples of these would be keyloggers or Denial of Service attacks. A software firewall will be able to catch these types of outward traffic and alert you.

Zone Alarm - Solid software firewall that allows many levels of control on network traffic. The one downside would be the need to enable every single connection manually.

Hardware Firewall

A hardware firewall is usually built into a router and sometimes your modem. This hides your computers and any open ports from being seen by the outside. Hackers use IP sniffers to detect ports which they use as entry points into your machine. Routers are configurable to filter out unwanted sites and control outgoing traffic, as well as block incoming traffic via IP address or URL. This presents another layer of security for your home network.

Alternate Browsers

Again, "Security through obscurity" comes into play here. Check out this graph I pulled from Wikipedia:

Internet Explorer (IE) is deemed to be the most unsafe browser and over the years, there has been a shift toward Firefox as the browser of choice. As a result, Firefox is now uncovering all sorts of security issues.

The key here is to not be afraid to take part in a software exodus and try new browsers. Personally, I have been using Safari on the Mac (read above) so things have been alright on my end. But I would recommend those who want to try something new to try Google Chrome. The load times of Chrome are pretty fast and the URL bar also serves as a Google search bar.

In the end, I am not too keen on which browser is great and why but all I can say is, the more popular a browser or operating system is, the more likely it will be exploited. So keep that in mind and keep trying new things.

The Music that I Enjoy

For those that don't know me, I enjoy a wide selection of music. I listen to Pop, Trance, Chill Out/Ambient, Jazz, Oldies, Classical Music, Videogame Music and Japanese music. I also do a lot of streaming and the sites I frequent are: Sky.fm, Last.fm, Rainwave.cc, and iTunes Radio.

Here's a video to end off my first blog:

009 Sound System - Dreamscape


Till next time!