AggroChat 77 – Undertale Feels

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Undertale

This week we talk about some strange stuff, but I guess in the grand scheme that is par for the course.  This was the birthday week of our very own Tam, and we wish him a happy belated birthday.  Grace on the other hand had a week full of travel, and while she showed up to give it the good college try…. sounded like just about the tiredest human being I have ever heard.  As such we shuffled her off to bed and said we would be ready to talk about Wildstar next week.  As far as what we actually did talk about this week…

  • Tommy Westphall Universe Theory
  • Star Wars the Old Republic
  • Star Wars X-Wing Minatures
  • Undertale
  • Bringing out Emotions While Playing Games
  • Fallout New Vegas
  • Star Wars the Old Republic
  • Wildstar
  • Star Wars Galaxies
  • Megaman Battle Network
  • Steredenn
  • Magic the Gathering – Battle for Zendikar
  • Destiny

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Thalen Reads Little Fuzzy

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Because if the Fuzzies are sapient beings, the Company's charter is automatically void. - Gerd Van Riebeek
This week we're having a look at a science fiction classic from 1962, H. Beam Piper's Hugo nominated novel Little Fuzzy. Far from the high tech starship filled fare that some fans seem to think science fiction used to entirely consist of, Little Fuzzy is a story of corporate overreach, legal maneuvering, and the question of just what defines sapience.

Thalen Reads Little Fuzzy

The story of Little Fuzzy takes place on the planet Zarathustra, a Class III uninhabited planet wholly owned for some years now by the Zarathustra Company, a corporation which has profited greatly from the riches of the frontier planet. Prospector Jack Holloway returns home from a days work to find a small furry humanoid creature has wandered into his hut. Befriending it, Jack takes to calling it 'Little Fuzzy' and adopts it as a sort of pet. It quickly becomes apparent, however, that Little Fuzzy is much more intelligent than a dog or cat. He and his family show many signs of being sapient, and the question of their sapience is central to the story.

If Fuzzies are sapient, that means that Zarathustra is not a Class III uninhabited planet at all, but a Class IV inhabited planet. This would make the Zarathustra Company's charter null and void. Unsurprisingly, the higher-ups in the Zarathustra Company are horrified by this thought and decide to do their utmost to suppress and discredit any evidence of Fuzzy sapience.

Little Fuzzy is a book with hardly any physical conflict whatsoever; apart from one extremely important moment, all of the fighting over the fate of the Fuzzies and of the Company's charter takes place through legal maneuvering and sneakiness. At times I thought the Company was being overly sloppy, but when you consider the degree of effective omnipotence they've enjoyed in Zarathustra it becomes more believable that they would underestimate the abilities of a septuagenarian prospector and his friends.

Although the concept of space colonization is integral to the story, advanced technology is hardly in evidence at all. Apart from the veridicator, a high-tech lie detector, future tech is mentioned in passing if at all. Jack's rifle, for instance is not described as any more advanced than a typical real-life hunting rifle. Character interaction is what matters here, not fancy imaginary thingamajigs.

I can't recommend Little Fuzzy enough; this was a great book with enjoyable characters, a couple of clever twists, and some fascinating philosophical questions at its heart. You should absolutely read it, especially as it's in the public domain. See for yourself the fate of the Fuzzies, and the planet Zarathustra.

Thalen Reads Little Fuzzy

by
Because if the Fuzzies are sapient beings, the Company's charter is automatically void. - Gerd Van Riebeek
This week we're having a look at a science fiction classic from 1962, H. Beam Piper's Hugo nominated novel Little Fuzzy. Far from the high tech starship filled fare that some fans seem to think science fiction used to entirely consist of, Little Fuzzy is a story of corporate overreach, legal maneuvering, and the question of just what defines sapience.


The story of Little Fuzzy takes place on the planet Zarathustra, a Class III uninhabited planet wholly owned for some years now by the Zarathustra Company, a corporation which has profited greatly from the riches of the frontier planet. Prospector Jack Holloway returns home from a days work to find a small furry humanoid creature has wandered into his hut. Befriending it, Jack takes to calling it 'Little Fuzzy' and adopts it as a sort of pet. It quickly becomes apparent, however, that Little Fuzzy is much more intelligent than a dog or cat. He and his family show many signs of being sapient, and the question of their sapience is central to the story.

If Fuzzies are sapient, that means that Zarathustra is not a Class III uninhabited planet at all, but a Class IV inhabited planet. This would make the Zarathustra Company's charter null and void. Unsurprisingly, the higher-ups in the Zarathustra Company are horrified by this thought and decide to do their utmost to suppress and discredit any evidence of Fuzzy sapience.

Little Fuzzy is a book with hardly any physical conflict whatsoever; apart from one extremely important moment, all of the fighting over the fate of the Fuzzies and of the Company's charter takes place through legal maneuvering and sneakiness. At times I thought the Company was being overly sloppy, but when you consider the degree of effective omnipotence they've enjoyed in Zarathustra it becomes more believable that they would underestimate the abilities of a septuagenarian prospector and his friends.

Although the concept of space colonization is integral to the story, advanced technology is hardly in evidence at all. Apart from the veridicator, a high-tech lie detector, future tech is mentioned in passing if at all. Jack's rifle, for instance is not described as any more advanced than a typical real-life hunting rifle. Character interaction is what matters here, not fancy imaginary thingamajigs.

I can't recommend Little Fuzzy enough; this was a great book with enjoyable characters, a couple of clever twists, and some fascinating philosophical questions at its heart. You should absolutely read it, especially as it's in the public domain. See for yourself the fate of the Fuzzies, and the planet Zarathustra.

Media Consumption 10/3/2015

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Week of PS4

This week was pretty much the week of me intending to play other games… and then never quite getting off of my PS4 in time to actually do that.  As a result I spent most of my time upstairs in my office with my chair turned to the side pointing at the television that runs my consoles.  Also as a result I did not really watch any television other than last Sunday night, which means that portion of my usual media consumption was pretty scant.  However that said I did watch a bunch of really interesting things on the Internets own television station…  aka YouTube.  As a result this episode of Media Consumption is largely going to focus on things I found interesting on YouTube.

Tommy Westphall Theory

So firstly I have to give a major shout out to the PBS Idea Channel for creating videos that are almost always thought provoking or at least makes me want to discuss whatever it is they are talking about with my friends.  This week however they posted a video that quite literally blew my mind.  Tiny fireworks went off followed by lots of mental pain… as I attempted to reorient myself to accept the notion that what they were saying could be real.  They delved into this idea called the Tommy Westphall Universe Hypothesis, where essentially over four hundred different seemingly unrelated televisions shows… all occur in the same universe.  To make things even stranger the suggestion is that this entire universe exists in the mind of one autistic boy named Tommy Westphall that appeared on Saint Elsewhere.  If this sounds interesting then by all means watch the video and prepare to make mind explodey noises.

Ahoy – Nuclear Fruit Series

The problem with the internet is that things change regularly… and there is little to no way to track down what things previously were called.  There is this great channel that is currently called Ahoy, but I cannot for the life of me remember what the original name was.  Essentially it is a channel that does these awesome videos that explore video game concepts with amazing narration and artful two dimensional graphics.  I first was made aware of the channel through the Brief History of Graphics series where they delve into computer games and explore the various eras and the graphical changes that came into play as part of them.  There is also a really great series called Iconic Arms where they delve into the ubiquitous guns that we use in shooter games, and the origins of them… usually delving into the maker and the real world conflicts they were actually used in.  Today however I am here to talk about their latest five part series called Nuclear Fruit, where they delve into our fascination with nuclear warfare and the games that were inspired by it.  As of writing this there are only four parts available but the next part should arrive this coming week if they follow the standard schedule.  If you look in this playlist the video appears to be available but just flagged to “private”.

Cool Ghosts – The Taken King: Does it Fix Destiny?

If for some reason you missed this yesterday, I am a really huge fan of this video.  It does an excellent job of highlighting the things that felt wrong with Destiny Year One and the way many of those have been improved in Year Two.  Yesterday I also went into my own reasons for why I think the game is in a much better state, but still the video is well worth watching.  Matt Lees the guy who appears in the video makes absolutely brilliant videos, the problem being they are somewhat sporadic.  My hope is that his new “Cool Ghosts” initiative where he collaborates with another friend will serve to be a fertile ground for new content.  In the mean time we can always just re-watch his crowing achievements of the PS4 and Xbox One reveals.

Fear the Walking Dead

Media Consumption 10/3/2015

There is a huge part of me that is excited for this weeks Fear the Walking Dead…  because it means this season is over and we can return to the normal Walking Dead television show.  In all fairness I have to say last weeks episode had things finally starting to get interesting.  From this point out… I am going to delve into a ton of spoilers and if you have not been watching this show you might just want to stop reading this sub section.  We found out a bunch of stuff that does not bode well for the characters.  I have a feeling that there is no way that they are getting out of tomorrows episode without at least losing one of the characters.  Essentially the crazy old man… aka Daniel Salazar… aka the only person who has the survival instincts necessary to survive the undead apocalypse…   has kidnapped the soldier that his daughter Ofelia is sweet on.  Then he proceeds to do what so many fathers have wished they could do to the guys dating their daughters…  slowly peels away his skin in a cruel torture ritual.  The thing is…  as horrible as this act is… it is quite literally the only way he was able to get him to spill the beans about operation Cobalt.  This is apparently a planned execution of all of the civilians when they abandon the Los Angeles Basin.  As we go into this weeks episode it is essentially the day these events are supposed to play out.  That said it seems like most of the soldiers who would have been involved in said plan… got nommed on in an overrun hospital.  So here we go…  things are finally going to get crazy…  because I am tired of this suburban living under armed guard phase of the show.  Let the bodies hit the floor!  It is seriously time to weed out some of the characters.