Cross-posting broken

Card games, web games, and thou

This entry was originally published at Alan's Journal

I finished opening the 10 boxes of DBZ TCG yesterday (120 booster packs).
I ended up with at least 4 copies of each common, so that’s fine. I also ended up with at least 1 copy of every uncommon (2 copies of every uncommon except one, 3 copies of every uncommon except three). That’s also decent.
However, if you don’t include the foil cards, I ended up missing 2 rares (Black Dragon Support and Black Z Warriors Gather, but I received a foil Black Dragon Support in the first box). Given that I had 4 copies of some of the rares (5 if you include foils), this is rather disappointing.

I played through CMU Adventures again today, making a defense/magic character. Certain spells (sex appeal and aging, in particular) become crazy powerful at higher stats, dealing 100+ damage per cast. I really need to work on the game more. In particular, the early game is still way too difficult. Healing items are rare and not terribly effective, and I ended up having to leave one person alive to use purely for healing when I got knocked down to low health. Once you pass the first boss, the game becomes a breeze though, so that part is probably fine.

I’ve been kinda getting back into KoL… at least, been “getting into” it enough to want to complete the remaining level 11 and 12 quests so I can fight the sorceress. At least things are incredibly easy now because I’ve been spending all my adventures (during my hiatus period) at the gym raising moxie and muscle (which are now about twice my myst, which is supposed to be my primary stat). Whee.

I should do more with my weekends.

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Combined TCG, Take 2

This entry was originally published at Alan's Journal

The CTCG site has been updated with a new “minimal translation” format.

I realized today, looking over my card games, that most games are already based around some sort of battle system. Therefore, linking games together should be as simple as providing a way for these different combat systems to work together. At least, this should work for games that are primarily battle-based… notsomuch for exploration-based things like Star Trek CCG.

The goal of the minimal translations is to allow you to play your turns normally as your game would define (play Pokemon and Energy and Trainers, power up your DBZ fighter and play Supports, play a storable Monster or hidden card or PC equipment or PC, etc). The only time the rules need to step in is during an attack to define how the attack is handled across game boundaries.

The translations for the three existing games so far seem to make sense in my mind, but perhaps I missed something. As always, feedback is appreciated.

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Shame on you

This entry was originally published at Alan's Journal

Shame on every single American who voted for props 8, 102, or 2 and enshrined discrimination in the state constitution.

But doubly shame on all the African-Americans who voted for it. It was not long ago that you didn’t have the right to marry people of different races. How ironic that you now want to deny that right to people of different genders.

A quote from an African-American woman I found on a blog post talking about gay marriage:

As for it not being the same thing, well I read an argument several years back. It was over a hundred years old. It spoke of all the reasons black people should not be allowed to marry, not each other, and not whites, why they should not be citizens, why they should not be allowed to own land, why they should not be allowed to vote. Why they were trying to seek more rights than white citizens had. Why it was against God, country and religion.

It chilled me to the core - If you crossed out every instance of ‘negro’ in that document and put in ‘gay’, it was nothing more or less than what is being said by some people today. No difference at all.

If those things were all horrible lies about people like us, how can the same arguments suddenly be truth for others who aren’t like us?

And how as black Americans can we support this bias?

If you voted for the propositions, please, think about that. Think about how unthinkable it would be today for you to suggest that Blacks or Asians should only marry within their race. And ask yourself why it is suddenly okay to deny that to people based on gender.

Also, QFT:

Symbolism matters to disenfranchised people in a way that is hard to explain to those of us who always knew we could be anything we want to be in America. Forget president. Gay people can’t even be spouses, though Britney Spears could have her umpteenth marriage tomorrow just by stumbling into a quickie Vegas chapel. Scott Peterson has the legal right to marry on death row after murdering his wife and unborn child.

No matter how undeserved, straight people never lose the right to marry; no matter how worthy, gay people cannot earn it.

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*sigh*

This entry was originally published at Alan's Journal

California is lost, as Arizona (surprisingly) was and Florida (even more surprisingly because of the percentage) was.

At least I can have hope that many of the homophobic bigots will die out in the coming years (seeing as it tends to be older people who are less tolerant) and replaced with the sane, tolerant, moral youth.

At least I can have hope that we now have a president in office who believes discrimination is wrong and that marriage rights should be available to all, even if he does not believe in full marriage equality.

At least I can have hope that the supreme court will not be going so far right that this country starts to fall apart and that gay marriage bans thus won’t have a good chance at passing.

Until then, I mourn the loss of this state (and this country) to the religiously-induced bigotry is unfortunately so prevalent in society today.

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