The huge abandoned workshops of what once was one of the biggest manufacturers of electro mechanics worldwide. The company, which was specialised in electronic engines for trains and alternators for power plants, was already found in the 1880’s, although it got its name when it changed hands around 1900. Around 1990, the group went bankrupt and fell apart into different concerns of which only one is still active today.

It is hard to get out on these dreary winter days… so I am getting lazy. That also means I’m getting lazy over my posts… well I don’t know if it is so much being lazy as not wanting to admit to the world in general that I have not been doing any riding for over two weeks. I have been busy in my shed though, giving my bikes an overhaul. I finally bought a proper cable cutter… oh what a joy! It has driven me into a frenzy of cable replacement, removing all those old and untidy wires, replacing them with quality lubed cables and tidying them up with nice neat caps.

Looking out at the snow now and having another mug of tea. It will be nice to get out over the holidays – and I’m sure Santa will bring some bike-related goodies to further spur my guilt and get me out on the wheels before new year.

NERD ALERT! Iron Man 2 hits us HARD May 7, 2010! And they got Don Cheadle to replace Terrence Howard, which can only make the movie like 20 times better, IMO. (They should change ol boy name to TERRIBLE Howard, if you ask me.)

I was having a convo earlier today with a friend, and we got on to the subject of creating a work with a more meaningful theme. Anybody can write a story/make a movie/paint a picture with an obvious theme, you know?

A Romance novel where the protagonist has been hurt before so she strings the poor love interest along for three years but his heart yearn for her every second

A swashbuckling Sci-Fi adventure with a dashing protagonist that liberates a peace-loving alien clan using his trusty photon gun, which he’s coincidentally named Bella

But what about the meaning? The deeper meaning that we get from manipulating plots and subplots, putting our characters through the ringer, and setting up the amazing climactic sequences that leave readers gasping? How do we tie in what’s REALLY important to us in our work?

It’s not a difficult question to answer, really. In fact, it’s easy to answer, but hard to pull off. I’ve struggled since i began writing to be able to let up on my slash-bang-crash comic book nature for something more….real, more meaningful to people who may read my work.

We all have issues meaningful to us. Mine are “afro-relevant” (copyright 2009, any use of this term entitles creator to fifty cents from using party) and my work should reflect some of these concerns. Striking this balance is hard, but I’m up for the challenge.

ARTISTS! CREATORS! MINDCRAFTERS!

I challenge you to do the same! Kill the tired tropes and make your work more meaningful!

LET’S GET IT!!!

December has come and I’ve been derelict in writing.  So many things I should be writing.  In addition to my appearing in December, so have V:TES previews of the Heirs To The Blood set.

Additional information is available at http://www.white-wolf.com/vtes/index.php?line=Checklist_HeirsToTheBlood but I just wanted to do what everyone likes to do – comment on the new cards spoiled.  Card images are from White Wolf’s web site.

The most common reaction to a new card is to overrate it.  There were people arguing that Tortured Confession had uses when it was first spoiled.  I easily fall into the trap as well.  The trap comes from thinking about all of the possibilities and consider the best uses of the card.  The reality, though, is often that a card’s best uses aren’t any better than what already exists.

I’d play with this card.  It has three different uses, after all.  But, I’m not into playing Baali rockstar decks.  In those decks, cancelling Auspex becomes far more important while blood costs are more complex costs when doing Soul Gem tricks.  Makes The Textbook Damnation more useful.  Still, I’m not impressed.

Stars:  **

Then, anything to do with combat seems to enthrall a large segment of the player population.  Here we have someone who can easily Grapple + Disarm someone, Freak, and stealth through a built in Graverobbing.

Unfortunately, even with Presence – the second most useful out of clan discipline in general, I don’t see much use in anything like a good deck.

However, the second most common reaction is to underrate a new card.  This comes from not having full information on sets.  If Thanatosis stops being pathetic as a discipline, then maybe there’s some additional synergy in the disciplines that I don’t see.  If not, I see people trying to build really bad combat decks.

Stars:  ** (questionably, but Samedi seem to be underrated in general)

Combat … and combo.  There’s a reason that Magic categorizes players into Timmy, Johnny, and Spike psychographic profiles.  Johnny is the combo player, and while I tend to hate combo decks, I can appreciate the appeal of them (up to a point).

Choir is far too many players’ dream.  It’s a linear mechanic in a game without a lot of clearly linear mechanics.  It’s also boring as hell and completely awful as a strategy.  On the other hand, Choir doesn’t need to be boring or awful.  In my post about what I think Heirs should give, I consider developing the Choir mechanic by having cards key off of Choir.

As for this card, it’s a fascinating card for people who want to get deeply into probability in deck construction no matter how terrible a deck you may end up with.  While it has been pointed out on the newsgroup that it not being a Choir has advantages with Freak Drive (Change of Target would work, too).  It’s not itself a Choir and does absolutely nothing without Choirs.  Cards like that tend to be truly awful.  I don’t see how this makes Choir any better.  Three actions to do 6 pool damage is just not that impressive.  Sure, it can oust people.  But, then, so does bleeding or voting.  For all that decks prepare for bleed and don’t prepare much for these sorts of actions, relying entirely upon the combo is fragile where bleeding is not, and not relying entirely upon the combo means having to deal with one of the deck’s strategies being very awkward.

Stars:  *

Nine capacity is far too often where we find horrendously designed vampires.  This design is pretty bad.  Great, Kiasyd with Animalism.  That’s fine if there are at least two others with good enough discipline crossover.  +1 bleed, blah.  Look at top three cards, marginal.  The history of the game has been to play high caps for their titles, their superior Presence, and their specials.

Stars:  ** (Might be a weak Kiasyd, but Kiasyd have Dominate + stealth)

There so needs to be some cost reduction for Temporis.  It would be amusing if Temporis got stealth or other evasion out of this set as that would make this card even worse.  As it is, it’s an expensive comboish card that doesn’t do anything that wouldn’t be far easier to do with Obfuscate without paying any blood.  Now, if it weren’t a bleed action but an action modifier (just like Flurry of Action should have been an action modifier), it would be hawt with voting (Voter Cap your other votes to refill the engine).

Stars: *

Lot of folks are commenting on the combo potential.  It’s value add, sure, but if I squint at this card, I can ignore the completely unnecessary Necromancy and focus on a vampire who only has all of the best common disciplines in the game and the Freak Drive discipline.  Sure, inferior Dom and Pre are not the hotness, but you are getting all sorts of overlap possibilities with other vampires, and there’s that +1 stealth thing.  Presence (if loser Presence), Freak, quality specials, every bounce discipline – that seems more like a reasonable high cap.

Stars:  *** (especially if I factor in having a terrible group number, so want to do half stars in these ratings)

It’s interesting how much the value of paths vary.  The Path of Paradox is obscenely powerful.  The Path of Typhon not so much.  While Squirrel Balance is a strong card, and I’m sure there will be blood costing Spiritus cards in the set, this card is currently a waste of space.  To change that will necessitate seriously good, blood costing cards.

Stars:  * (in reality, it would be zero stars with what currently exists, but one must assume there’s a reason for this card)

Gargoyle cards just don’t make sense to me.  Visceratika gets stuff you don’t care about mixing with Fortitude and Potence, Tupdog is ludicrous, etc.  I’m struggling to see how this isn’t the anti-Tupdog – an awful card that has hardly any uses.  It’s similar to Aabbt Kindred only somehow actually worse.  The card would be properly designed by eliminating the (additional) drawback.  Still, as a challenge it will peak the interest of people … like me.

Stars:  * (it’s hard to give anything zero stars)

Wow, this is bad design.  Openended effects are just conceptually bad as they may be open to breakage.  If they aren’t open to breakage, it’s probably because what they do is weak.  This isn’t weak.  Yes, there’s a practical limit to how often you’ll untap even playing actions that untap you, a boatload of Freak Drives, and whatever.  But, it’s a big limit.  I actually don’t see it being so difficult to generate 20 pool off of this card.  Now, whether the deck that does that is any good is a completely separate issue.  The key with this card is either running a bunch of copies or searching it out.  Any of Magic of the Smith, Vast Wealth, Sibyl’s Tongue, Inconnu Tutelage, Drop Point Network, etc. come to mind.

Stars:  ** (building around it is questionable)

Bleeding successfully is easy, so that special will kick in most turns.  The combat special is a reasonable deterrent.  Whether it’s Flurry of Action, Dual Form, or any of the other ideas someone has mentioned on the newsgroup, it’s still playing a big vampire that isn’t game changing.  No bounce discipline, no Freak Drive discipline, no Rutor’s Hand discipline, too many combat disciplines leaves me to wonder whether there’s significant help for Baali in the set or whether there is some sort of Protean theme to pursue with them.

Stars:  ** (it could be so much worse)

What commenting on previews makes me want to do is go back and look at how I rated cards in the past and see how well my predictions for them turned out.  Maybe a return to the Ebony Kingdoms post, though I still haven’t seen enough people play with EK to clearly determine what is what.

Collection of short video stories inspired by Nikola Tesla……

By Helena Bulaja

GMT Games just put out the deluxe edition of Twilight Struggle with a new board, counters, and deck which included seven optional cards. Since I already own the game, I just picked up the upgrade kit. On Saturday Rick and I sat down to play; it was my seventeenth game and his fourth, but our first with the optional cards. In an effort to see if the new optional cards really balanced play, we decided not to bid. I took the US; he took the USSR. (I won in turn ten scoring.)

The Cambridge Five, early war (USSR): This card forces the US player to expose all his scoring cards. Then the USSR player gets to add one influence in any region named on one of the scoring cards. This was played twice by me (US), but it never benefited Rick. It seems like a relatively harmless card in most situations.

Special Relationship, early war (US): If the US controls the UK before NATO is played, the US gets one influence in any country adjacent to the UK. If it is played after NATO, he gets to add two influence to any Western European country and two VP for his trouble. We saw this come out once in the late war, and it provided a much-needed boost to me at the time. I can see how if this came out on multiple occasions, it could really wreck the USSR’s day! It’s just another way for the US player to chip away at an early USSR lead, and it gives you more reason to play NATO too.

They don't just track Santa!

NORAD, early war (US): Holy cow. What a card. I played this early on, and it gave me reason to want to see that DEFCON track drop to two. If the US controls Canada and the DEFCON track drops to two, the US player gets to place one influence in any country that already has US influence. This is an excellent way to shore up your defenses in light of an aggressive USSR player. Throughout the game, I was able to place three influence through this effect until Quagmire canceled it.

Ché, mid war (USSR): The USSR player gets to make a coup attempt against a non-battleground country in Central America, South America, or Africa. If the coup is successful in removing any influence, he gets another coup attempt. After asking about this on Board Game Geek, it seems both coups count as military ops (they’re not “free” attempts), which fulfills a requirement for the turn. This came out once, and it was a great way for Rick to make headway in Africa and Central American when he was lagging a bit. This is a powerful card for sure.

Our Man In Tehran, mid war (US): Heck, it’s just fun to say the title out loud five times fast. If the US controls one country in the Middle East, the US player may take the top five cards from the discard pile and discard any of them (the others are reshuffled back into the deck). When I played this in the Late War, it let me get rid of four USSR events which never came back (no more reshuffles). I’d suggest saving this card if at all possible until you can permanently dodge a few bullets.

Yuri and Samantha, late war (USSR): The USSR receives 1 vp for each US coup attempt made during the rest of the current turn. This was played in turn 10 after I had made my military ops requirements, so it didn’t do any damage. I could see how this might matter in a very tight game, however.

AWACS Sale to Saudis, late war (US): The US player gets two influence in Saudi Arabia, and Muslim Revolution may no longer be used as an event. If the US player can get this out early in the late war phase, it will probably stop the play of Muslim Revolution once.

All in all, the new additions are welcome. The cards are definitely in the US player’s favor (four to the USSR’s three) in terms of events and ops value (2.8 to the USSR’s 2.3). As the US player, I felt I had a bit more breathing space, and not so terribly screwed by Rick driving that early war DEFCON track down to two. My only complaint is that these cards have some pretty serious errata issues already, but it sounds like GMT will be shipping out fixed versions of the affected cards by February (for now, you can check out the errata in this pdf).

I’d love to hear your experiences with these new cards. How have they affected play?

Over the past couple of posts, I’ve explored a variety of properties that can make game collection mechanics more engaging.  In this last post, I’m going to focus specifically on a single game – Treasure World.  Treasure World is a collection-centric game for the DS that involves wardriving as a means of collecting a number of unique treasures.  It got some good publicity around the blogging community around the time of its release (primarily due to a well-circulated writeup on Offworld).  At this point, though, the game appears to have fallen into obscurity, garnering very little attention at all anymore.  Fortunately for us, the game serves as a great subject for examination with regard to the topic of collections.

For those of you unfamiliar with the game, here’s a brief overview of the collection mechanics in Treasure World.  The game revolves around using the DS to scan for and find real-world wireless access points.  Each unique point is a “star” in the game’s virtual cosmos.  Each star you stumble upon is then “scraped” for treasure that is immediately added to your collection.  These treasures range from avatar customizations (clothing and gestures) to a large variety of unique objects that can be used to populate a customizable plot of land called a “songscape.”  Not all stars yield treasure, though.  Some stars yield stardust instead, which can later be spent at an in-game store to purchase treasures that have not yet been discovered (for 20 stardust each).  Players can then sync their games with Club Treasure World – a community site where players can share their songscapes and show off how many treasures and stars they’ve found.

And that’s really the sum of the game – collecting treasures.  Hence, the game’s title.  It’s a pretty solid idea, and an enticing one for collection-loving players such as myself.  But after less than a couple of months of my wife and I toting the DS around everywhere, we finished our treasure collection with little fanfare.  It was anti-climactic.  In fact, the entire collection experience felt like it was missing something.  I personally derived little joy from obtaining those treasures and completing the game’s specified subsets of “constellations” and “galaxies”.  It just wasn’t the same as other collections, and it was only recently that I realized the reason staring me in the face.

I have a theory about the enjoyment of collecting objects – especially those belonging to a steady-stream collection.  I postulate that, assuming all elements of a set are equally probable of being found, one’s enjoyment (or, in economic terms, “utility”) from acquiring a new element of a collection is proportional to the statistically expected time it would take the player to find a new element.  In layman’s terms, the harder it gets to find a new object, the more the person enjoys it when he finally does find one.

In a classic collection scenario, a player striving to complete a collection will get more and more enjoyment out of finding new elements as they get harder and harder to find.  It’s just the simple pleasure of revelling in one’s own good fortune – the rarer the fortune, the more… fortunate… one feels.  The problem with Treasure World, however, is in the stars – or, rather, the stardust.  If I recall correctly, every star that the player discovers yields either a new treasure or some amount of stardust.  Assuming that the player discovers stars in a relatively steady stream (I’ll revisit this assumption later), then the player is guaranteed to acquire stardust at a regular rate.  Since just about all of the treasures in Treasure World can be purchased for the same amount of stardust, the player is logically guaranteed the ability to add a new treasure to his collection after a short period of time.  Applying my theory of collection enjoyment, we can see that elements of the set never really become difficult to find.  There’s no rarity or good fortune involved.  After enough time (and in reality, it didn’t take much time at all), one could garner enough stardust to purchase the exact treasure they want for their collection.  Completing the collection is guaranteed.  This is why there was no exhilaration in collecting the various treasures or in completing constellations.  The game, though it purported to be about collecting, felt more like it was about grinding - putting enough time into an activity to get an eventually guaranteed result.  There was no joy in looking at our discovered “constellations” of treasures because we just ended up buying them to completion in the order they were listed.  It was no different than looking at a progress bar.

Now let’s revisit that assumption I made earlier – that stars come in a steady stream.  This isn’t actually true – the game actually stores identification information for each discovered star.  I’m not sure whether it internally remembers the SSID or MAC (if that’s possible to acquire without establishing a connection), but in any case, each access point in the world will only ever be registered as a single star in the game (barring any deliberate hackery), regardless of how many times the DS “sees” it.  So in reality, the collection of stars is an exploratory one and not a steady-stream one.  One must visit new locations to find new stars.  Also, because of the indirect way that acquiring treasures is linked with finding new stars, one could classify the collection of treasures as a challenge collection more than anything else.  My reasoning for this is as follows: since one new treasure can be acquired for every 20 new stars discovered (at max), then the progress of your treasure collection is becomes little more than a reflection of the number of new stars you’ve found.  This deduction is just another way of describing why the treasure collection itself wasn’t all that interesting in the game.

One thing that my wife and I did enjoy, however, was the star collection.  The star collection (and not the treasure collection) was the true exploratory collection.  Our enjoyment of the game came from hearing the DS chirping away as my wife and I scraped some alternate route home from dinner.  And we absolutely loved seeing the odd and occasionally obscene SSID’s that people gave to their access points.  The potential strength of Aspyr’s game was in its integration with real-world exploration.  But the way the game placed emphasis on the treasures, one would think that the treasure collection was the exploratory one, which is why I felt so cheated.  Treasures were not as intimately tied to the exploration process as I had hoped.

I think Aspyr’s ideal Treasure World would involve associating each and every access point with a unique treasure that is chosen deterministically by hashing whatever access point identifier the game was using.  In other words, they should remove stardust entirely (or it should be used for some unrelated minigame), and they should make each access point give the same treasure for all players that scrape it.  That way, the collection of treasures are directly tied to the exploration of the environment – almost like DS geocaching.

I can see the practical reasons for implementing the stardust mechanic, but it simply destroys that classic collection experience.  In fact, with stardust gone, some of the forgettable or underutilized features of the game suddenly come to life.  Players will have much more incentive to trade when they aren’t able to buy whatever treasure they want.  Every treasure will be labeled with the SSID of the access point where the player found it, which isn’t the case when the player is allowed to purchase treasures.  (My wife and I loved seeing our treasures stamped with that information.)  Also, Club Treasure World’s Google Maps-powered Treasure Map (where players can mark where they found particular treasures) becomes vastly more relevant and useful for people looking for those elusive elements missing from their collection (especially if treasures were made to belong to different levels of rarity).  In any case, by making treasures more difficult to find, the game opens up a huge number of ways to further enrich the treasure-hunting community.

It’s unfortunate that Treasure World failed to live up to its enormous potential.  Sure, it was a niche title to begin with, but with a few adjustments, they could’ve made rabid, endlessly dedicated fans out of those that played it (my wife and I included).  We could hope for a sequel, but given the state of the company, that doesn’t appear likely.

Our Treasure World cartridge has since been removed from where it was once a fixture inside of my wife’s DS.  With a completed treasure collection and our star count at its maximum value, there really isn’t much reason to bring it around anymore.  It’s been placed onto my shelf of “finished” games.  Shame, really.  My wife and I don’t take those spontaneous detours home anymore.

It’s fantastic how well the N64-controller suited Mario 64 and Zelda: Ocarina of Time. And the triggers on the 360-controller works really well for shooting in FPS and for stepping on the gas driving games.

It’s by no means a coincidence and you can always look at a controller and see how it’s meant to be used.

But what if that wasn’t the case?

A while back I was at the release party for Dark Nebula for the iPhone and I and its designer (Anders Hejdenberg) started discussing what would happen if you gave the developers a seemingly random controller to work with.

I can’t imagine how much research and surveys there’s behind each and every controller Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo release on the market. There’s a thought behind each button and stick, of course.

“This would be great for this kind of input. These will be great when using both sticks. Let’s make this one analogue.” etc. etc.

Even with the Wii Remote there’s just as much “this is how it’s thought to work”, especially with the Nun-chuck add-on.

And some games even bring their own hardware along, like the recent Tony Hawk Ride which seems to be an utter failure. We also have my personal favorite, even though I unfortunately haven’t played it. Steel Battalion with their huge kick-ass controllers.

Tony Hawk Ride's board-thingy.

Seriously, how can one not want to play around with equipment taking up your entire table?

User friendliness is overrated!

Anyway, my point is that there’s always a plan of how the hardware is to be used. A convention most developers abide by and make games that fit that grand scheme. Most FPS are controlled the same. Most Driving games are controlled the same, and so on.

But as mentioned, what if you gave the developers a seemingly random input device? Imagine a sphere with buttons all over? Or just a lump of clay which the computer can use to determine the pressure and current form. Wouldn’t that be awesome? But what would happen? Would we start getting new kinds of games or just new ways of mapping “old” ones?

Personally, I have no idea. But I’d love to see it happen.

Clay 360

Author : TERISNA, AGUS

Stabilisasi adalah salah satu langkah untuk mengantisipasi sifat kembang susut pada tanah ekspansif. Beberapa usaha stabilisasi tanah expansif yang telah dilakukan antara lain adalah mencampur tanah asli dengan semen, kapur, Geosta, dan lain-lain, atau mengganti tanah expansif dengan tanah yang lebih stabil. Pada penelitian ini dicoba pemakaian abu sekam padi yang merupakan waste product dan kapur untuk menstabilisasi tanah expansif yang diambil dari kawasan Surabaya Barat. Dalam penelitian ini 60% sampai dengan 80% prosentase Kapur diganti dengan Abu Sekam Padi. Percobaan laboratorium yang dilakukan meliputi karakteristik tanah asli, perilaku swelling, dan strength tanah. Dari hasil penelitian diperoleh bahwa campuran abu sekam padi dan kapur dapat menurunkan nilai Free Swell sehingga secara otomatis dapat menurunkan pula Swelling Pressurenya Hasil percobaan ini juga menunjukkan adanya peningkatan kekuatan tanah (strength) yang ditandai dengan peningkatan nilai UCS (Uncofined Compressive Strength). Dari hubungan antara nilai UCS dan lamanya perawatan (curing) tanah campuran didapat bahwa kekuatan tanah mencapai optimum setelah dilakukan curing 14 hari. Sedangkan swelling optimum dicapai setelah curing 7 hari. Berdasarkan hasil tersebut maka abu sekam padi sebagai waste product dapat digunakan untuk mereduksi penggunaan kapur sebagai stabilisasi tanah ekspansif, sehingga biaya untuk menstabilisasi tanah ekspansive akan lebih murah. Kata kunci : stabilisasi, tanah ekspansif, swelling, curing, optimum, strength.

Keyword : soil, stabilzation, mechanics, swelling, curing, optimum, strength

Sumber : http://repository.petra.ac.id/933/

Since Oreilly auto parts has started gaining global recognition, they are no more difficult to find. For mechanics as well as vehicle part dealers looking for automobile parts, the web is perhaps the best reserve that can be utilised. There's no more need to search junk yards or wait in lines at the community Oreilly Auto Parts store looking for used parts. Knowing how and where to look for an auto part can save you time as well as disappointment. There are already several car part dealers, mechanics, in addition to even customers using the web to find vehicle parts with good quality success.

Auto part marketers have made vehicle part buying simple for patrons on the internet. The hunting and searching for car parts at local stores such as Oreilly Auto Parts or Pep Boys Car Parts are slowing down. Auto parts shops are permitting seekers the chance to leaf through on-line, vehicle parts catalogs. Consumers will look for any kind auto part on their online stores, by make plus model of the vehicle they are in search of. Not only can consumers hunt for automotive elements but conjointly tools and equipment needed to put in these parts.

For any, online auto parts marketers have store finder options that help prospective customers obtain the closest Oreilly Auto Parts store or Murrays Auto Parts store in their area to pick up the part they bought. There's a wide selection of vehicle sorts that these online vehicle parts stores offer for, such as vehicles, motorcycles, trucks, rv, et cetera.

One of the most excellent features supplied with buying auto parts on-line is possessing the ability to decide on next day delivery permitting you to receive your part within twenty four hours. For the most part, shipping and handling for this service is free of charge. On certain difficult to get to parts, there could be a setback, although this can be not a significant distress.

Together with other things that may be ordered for with car parts on-line are accessories, tools, chemicals as well as fluids. These extras are for sale on the majority of each web site that sells vehicle parts. This is often a great convenience for home shoppers. You do not have to travel into an Oreilly Auto Parts store or Pep Boys Auto Parts to shop for incidental items. You'll be able to order through an on-line web site, furthermore it will be sent to you. There is no hassel and no waiting in lines.

An extra privilege to shopping at on-line car part websites is they gives advice if you've got questions. There are; a way to articles, with do it yourself articles to lead anyone all through the install of a part. These websites can conjointly refer you to a home repair store in your area. These portals are a huge resource to any person.

So, with this information of looking for auto parts on-line, why pause within a neighborhood Oreilly Auto Parts store or Murrays Auto Parts store? It is expedient and hassel free to get your parts on the internet. There are on average specials with coupons offered at these sites which makes it more captivating to shop for online.

Searching for the proper oreilly auto parts for your car in a way you will not be cheated?, then visit all about auto part site.

sherman auto parts

If you’re intrigued by the beautiful impossibilities of quantum psychics, but overwhelmed by the majority of texts on the subject, Quantum is a fantastic book to read. It’s a very lively journey into the exploration of quantum mechanics. Although it can be tough to follow in parts, for the most part it’s a layman’s explanation of the most important theory known to man, complete with many side-notes and illustrations. Jim Al-Kahlili states in the synopsis, “This book untangles the weirdness of the quantum world, explains the theories, explores their consequences and presents a cutting-edge guide to the current state of the science.” We think if you’re the average curious reader, you’ll finish the book with a much deeper rooted understanding of what you once viewed as the terrifying complexities of quantum mechanics. Thanks for Reading.

“Anyone who is not shocked by quantum theory has not understood it.”    -Niels Bohr

Being a Wrench Bender isn’t for everybody. It takes a special love of fixing things in order to look past all the dirt and grime, the cuts and bangs that are an inevitable part of this work. Most folks will look at a mechanic’s dirty, dark uniform, the black lines of oil and rust and dirt tattooed under their fingernails, the heavy work boots and that distant look that comes across every good mechanic’s face, and assume we’re all just working stiffs who settled, who drifted to manual labor.

If most folks thought that, then most folks would be wrong.

One of my favorite things about this business is how almost no one knows how smart mechanics are, how much training and certification they go through just to be able to bend a wrench on your behalf.  Remember, career guys like me have seen cars change from sticking a screwdriver in a carburetor to get the gas/air mix going again to the series of computers that run your car today. What applied 20 years ago, heck, 5 years ago, is out the door today.

Except running a repair shop like QUALITY TIRE SERVICE, we see 30 year old cars to last year’s model and we have to know how to fix ‘em all. Like I said, you have to have a fire in your belly about fixing things to handle not just the physical demands of the job, but have the ability to hold all of that experience in your head and call on it when the need arises.

That sort of glazed over, distant stare I mentioned just a minute ago, that’s the surest sign I know that one of my guys is on the trail to solving some seemingly impossible problem with a customer’s car. When I see that look I know their mind is running through all the possibilities, checking the likelihood of each one, accessing their experience, zeroing in on the solution.

It ain’t perfect, but I tell you what, I’ve seen more satisfied customers after I’ve seen that look than Carter’s has pills. It just pleases me no end that some of the smartest people I know are covered from head to toe in dirt and oil.

Everyone has preferences for the equipment they use.  Simply ride what you feel comfortable with.  During the winter, each of the tire categories have their strengths and weaknesses.  Give them a try and see what works for you and your bike.

Via: http://www.flickr.com/photos/curt/ / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

Skinny Slicks:  22-28mm, smooth tires.

Some people like these because they can cut through slush and snow with little resistance.  However, because they are so thin, they need a higher air pressure in the tire, which results in a smaller contact surface with the pavement.  Slicks also have very little traction and are not good for riding over ice.

Knobby Tires:  32-48mm, knobby tires.

Tires with a thick tread are ideal for plowing through snow.  The shape of the tread is designed to deflect snow away from the tire, thus giving a smoother ride.  Wider tires give you more contact with the road, and the lower air pressure makes them less slick on ice.  Go with tires as wide as your bike frame will allow for.  Make sure to check the rotation direction on the tire before mounting them to the wheel.

Via: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jim_lahey/ / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

Studded Tires:  32-48mm, with metal studs.

While these tires are often very expensive compared to normal tires, they are worth the investment because they perform brilliantly in the snow and on ice.  The metal studs grab the ice which gives superior traction and control in a variety of conditions.  These tires also have thick tread like a normal knobby tire does, so they also work well at diverting the snow.  One drawback is they are much heavier than regular tires, and can slow down and tire you out.  But, I say it’s worth it to have better control on the icy streets.

Mum bought a game for $20 at the same time we bought the new (now not so new) Harry Potter game for my birthday, back in July. This game happened to be The Golden Compass. I haven’t even bothered to watch the movie let alone read the books, so I honestly wasn’t interested. When we went on our family holiday and my 8 year old cousin was allowed to play it, I finally took notice.

The game has many different mechanics; it’s not simply running and roaming around a sandbox environment giving you free run of the game. It is however a wonderful 3D environment, allowing players to explore the areas and levels. You do follow missions and the storyline, but it’s not as simple as that.  Players can control the polar bear, Ioerek, who in turn, as you would know if you’d read the books or seen even bits of the movie, can talk. He has limited attack mechanisms but is able to complete combos when being attacked by wolves. You also use a combination of different mechanics to make your way through the game.

Not only do you play as Iorek, but you also control the main character, Lyra. Lyra is a young (I’d say 12 year old) girl who has her daemon, Pan, with her, who can take many different forms. Daemons are a part of a person’s soul, and they will suffer grave loss and depression without their literal other half. Pan is a feret at times, but can change into different forms to help Lyra get around. For example, by allowing her to glide like a hawk across larger gaps, or using the “sloth swing” to reach higher distances.

You can interogate different characters within the game, and deceive them. In order to be successful in this deception, you must complete a series of mini games, the number depending on how hard the deception is to conquer.  In my personal opinion, this adds depth to the game that a lot, most games lack. Instead of simply running around and attacking, you complete the mini games, you must balance and use concentration to walk across thin beams, among many other things. I found the different amount of mechanics used within this game to be fascinating; there’s so much to do.

Overall, this game received poor ratings. Maybe because the movie wasn’t so successful, who knows. But people should definitely try this game out. Not wanting to sound like a game review here, it definitely is better, much better than the reviews and harsh critics gave it. Even if you don’t ultimately like the game, you must appreciate the diversity this game holds, and take into consideration the number of games that don’t have many different activities to complete within the game. A lot of games you simply fight and conquer your enemies. Within this, there is so much more to do, so much more explored within the context of the game.

I applaude Sega for a pretty darn good game in my opinion. May not be the best, no, but I love the use of  these different tactics and mechanics, it has really opened my eyes to a different side of gaming.

Via: http://www.flickr.com/photos/h_is_for_home/ / CC BY-NC 2.0

Here is the Grease Rag Schedule from December 3, 2009- March 18, 2010.  Check out our fliers around town (if you would like to take some and hand them out or put them up, please email greaseragmpls@gmail.com)

The votes are in and for a while it looked like we would have a three-way tie for the next scene of the month, but at the last moment The Wolf pulled out ahead. So here, by popular demand, is the next scene from The Wolf!

“Are you kidding me?” Greg said.

The mechanic, identified by his name tag as Carl, shook his head.

“A broken axle?”

“Yep. You must’ve hit them rocks pretty hard.” Carl took another bite of his sandwich and, around a mouthful of what looked like chicken salad, said: “Want to take a look at it?”

“Yeah, sure.” Greg wouldn’t know a broken axle from a double-axel, but there was no reason the mechanic had to know that.

“Okay. C’mon.” Carl led him into the service bay, where their SUV was up on a lift. The garage reeked of urine, the stench overpowering the usual grease and oil odor he associated with car repair shops. When that bottle had smashed into his windshield, the stuff must have flowed into every orifice and soaked into every porous surface it could find. He was probably going to have to get the whole thing steam cleaned to get rid of the stink.

“Check it out.” Carl pointed at the the front wheel on the passenger side, which was cocked at a nearly forty-five degree angle. “Busted axle. I can order the part but it’ll take a few days to get here. How long you staying?”

“A week.”

“A week.” Carl considered this over another mouthful of his sandwich. “If the part comes in on time I can have it ready by the time you leave.”

“And if it doesn’t?”

Carl shrugged. “I guess you’ll have a longer vacation then.” The mechanic eyed Greg critically. “Looks like you could use the rest anyhow.”

“Shit,” Greg said.

The mechanic’s little smile vanished and he pointed to a smudged sign on the wall that said Keep Your Profanity Off The Premises. Greg almost asked Carl if he was serious, but then noticed a number of other signs with variants on the same theme related to immodest attire, strong drink, and tobacco use. “Um, sorry,” Greg said. “Just upset, you know.”

“No harm done. So are we gonna do this thing or what?”

“Yeah, I guess so.”

“Okay then. The office manager will write up an estimate and call your insurance company.” Carl headed back toward the waiting room; Greg followed. He wasn’t quite comfortable having something major like an axle replaced at a garage he knew nothing about, but the cops had said it was a reputable place. It was also the only garage in town, which made the choice a little more obvious, unless he wanted to pay to have his car hauled thirty miles down the interstate.

Greg didn’t see an office manager until Carl took off his mechanic’s hat, pulled a clip-on necktie out from under the counter, and snapped it onto the collar of his jumpsuit. He followed this up with a pair of thick glasses, though the lenses appeared to be just ordinary glass.

“I’m Carl, the office manager,” he said. “Can I help you?”

One or two posts ago, I rhetorically asked, “What’s worse, dealing with a werewolf or having to get your car fixed by an unknown mechanic?” Not to give too much away, but we’re getting pretty close to the point where this question will be answered most definitively. Here’s a hint: It’s the werewolf.

The poll has been reset, so voting can now commence for the next scene of the month!

I posted a while back that Gray and I were working on our own game, working title “Menagerie”. I also haven’t given up thinking about game “mechanics”, what we love about different ones, and what we hate.

Boardgamegeek has a way to search for games by mechanic and a quick search shows that there are a few that I know I LIKE immediately: Pick-up and Deliver, Trading, and Worker Placement. The games that I also that where these appear? Hansa (P&D), Mare Nostrum (Trading), and Agricola (Worker Placement).

But what mechanics do I HATE?

I use this word specifically to get to heart of the matter. There are number of games that I dislike of course, and a few that I HATE, but I wonder if it’s more the mechanic, or more the theme? Well, let’s start with the mechanic first… Give this pole a try, and let’s see what the consensus is! (I’ll bet you can guess which ones I hate)

In my last post, I talked about some of the basic components of what I feel comprises a good virtual collection.  One of the things I mentioned (about first-party Nintendo collections in particular) is that the act of collecting becomes more compelling when the player is given greater opportunity to appreciate the collection.  In this post, I’ll explore a corollary to that assertion: a collection becomes more compelling when a player is able to appreciate another player’s collection.  I think it’s safe to say that when collections move beyond the isolated realm of single-player, the driving motivational forces of collection become not those of tangible experiential rewards, but of those age-old vices of envy and pride.  The potential to demonstrate one’s superiority (or better fortune) to others is enough to make the other set-collection guidelines practically obsolete.  The very idea behind a game like Progress Quest is evidence that the compulsion to achieve in the eyes of one’s peers can be used to motivate any activity – even if that activity is purely comprised of watching numbers go up.

When considering the profound effect of exposing a player collection to the outside world, my mind immediately jumps to the Animal Crossing series.  The advent of WiFi support for the DS’s Animal Crossing: Wild World allowed players to enter each others’ towns via WiFi, a feature lauded by many reviewers as one of the best things to have ever happened to the series.  Why?  Because the player’s collection of fossils, fish, bugs, and Tom Nook’s eclectic decor suddenly went from being an odd, private obsession to an odd, shared obsession  – one in which players can admire each others’ wealth or fulfill each others’ wants.

So clearly, making a collection “public” adds a lot of motivational force to the act of collecting.  But what does it mean to make a collection “public”?  The ultimate goal of a “public” collection is to grant players the necessary means to demonstrate their ownership of particular elements of the collection and to foster social interactions within the context of the collection.  Of course, this doesn’t really narrow our definition down because, at the very least, every player can demonstrate ownership of a collection by, well, showing it to someone else.  Even in a single-player game, a player can bring his friend to the TV, load up the game, and point at all the little baubles that he’s discovered.  Or he can take a screencap and boast about it on a blog or forums or whatever may be his e-peening channel of choice.  So really, designing a collection to be “public” becomes more about optimizing and enriching the – ahem – “collective” experience.

Typically, games publicize collections in two ways.  The most straightforward method is to allow quick and easy viewing of others’ collections.  And, as is the case for collections in isolation, the extent to which one is able to appreciate a collection, whether it be his own or not, can easily influence the strength of the motivation to complete that collection.  On one end of the spectrum, there are collections such as Modern Warfare 2’s emblems, Virtua Fighter 5’s emblems, and Street Fighter IV’s titles.  These collections allow players to show off an individual element of the set as part of their avatar or their online identity, much like one might wear particularly rare or powerful loot in an online MMO.  On the other end of the spectrum are Xbox 360 achievements.  Players can easily view their accrued achievement collections on xbox.com.  They can sort their collection by game, they can compare their collections with other players, and they can view various stats – total across all games, total per game, percent completion, etc.  There’s even a third-party web widget that can be added to blogs and forums to show off total gamerscore.  All of these are simply tools that players can use to further appreciate and share their progress in the great hunt for achievements.  It’s no wonder such achievement-based collections became such a widely adopted standard in gaming (PS3 trophies, Steam achievements, game-specific implementations that are far too numerous to count).  And when Playstation Home was first announced years ago, my neurons lit up at the thought of admiring glistening, unique trophies from across all of one’s game collection adorning a vast, customizable trophy case in all three glorious dimensions.  Maybe for PS4?  I still dream of it…

The other primary means of involving others in the collection process is to introduce a greater sense of community and collaboration by allowing and supporting trades.  This obviously isn’t as well-suited to achievement-based challenge collections, but it works particularly well for steady-stream collections and possibly even for exploratory collections in some instances.  The ability to trade has been key to many gaming franchises that are built upon collections.  What we old timers once universally called “collectible card games” (CCG) are now more often known as “trading card games” (TCG), with the emphasis clearly placed on the appeal of the trading aspect.  And, when referring to the ability to trade elements of a collection, Pokemon is probably the first videogame that comes to most gamers’ minds.  Its last iteration (and the only one I’ve played over the last decade) – Pearl and Diamond – augmented the pre-existing wireless trading process by giving players the ability to trade Pokemon over WiFi.  Players could search worldwide for people willing to trade for the Pokemon they wanted and offer their own Pokemon up for trade by setting up criteria for the Pokemon they wanted in return.  Viva Pinata allowed trading of pinatas between friends.  Fable 2’s hero dolls could be traded online (although, to its discredit, online trading was the only way of acquiring them all).  It’s practically heresy for a modern-day collection-centric game to forgo online trading.  Culdcept Saga really missed an opportunity there by neglecting to implement a trading system.

And then there are probably collective interactions that we as gamers have yet to discover and experience.  Here’s hoping some talented designers find some new and exciting ways to foster creative interaction between budding collectors.

In my final post on the subject of collection gameplay, I’ll be exploring a particularly subtle yet important property of set collection whose absence becomes a noticeable detriment to the extremely niche DS game Treasure World.

Slight aside: minutes after finishing up the text of this post, I saw this in my RSS.  An Escapist article on the very same subject of collections!  It tackles tangential issues with collection gameplay rewards, but you might want to give it a read for the sake of thoroughness.  I was going to leave a comment on it, but since I don’t have an Escapist account (and don’t really feel like getting one since the content has, in my humble opinion, degraded since they moved to the 2.0 format – bring back the print-worthy format and the amazing writers!), I’ll just leave my comment here:

“…the orbs disappear until I earn enough XP to change to Silver tier.” Seriously?  As a collector, that frightens me.  I’d have to re-explore the entire environment after reaching each tier to make sure I didn’t miss some invisible orbs.  And even if you just made it so that you can continue to collect them and the Silver tier rewards are put on-hold until you reach that tier, you still get an (admittedly more localized) issue where the collecting player will be immediately overpowered after each tier transition.

Recently while doing my laundry, I noticed a cone shaped receptacle at the top of the central shaft of my washing machine. My roommate told me it was for fabric softener, and that the cone holds the liquid in place until the spin cycle, at which point the fast rotation of the shaft causes it to migrate out to the edge of the cone, where it can then drip over the edge into the bottom of the washer. I wondered, given a particular cone steepness, how fast would the shaft need to spin to overcome the force of gravity holding the fabric softener in place? As you can see in the force diagram, we assume the cone is symmetrical with a radius “r” and angle of steepness “θ”. Ignoring friction and viscosity effects, there are two forces acting on the drop of fabric softener: a normal force “N” and gravity, which is simply the mass of the liquid “m” multiplied by the gravitational constant .

At the threshold point where all forces are balanced, the liquid does not accelerate in any direction. Any rotational velocity higher than that will cause the liquid to migrate out of the cone. At the threshold velocity, the vertical component of the normal force equals the gravitational force:

And the horizontal component of the normal force equals the centripetal force:

By solving this two equations simultaneously (by substituting for N), we find that the threshold rotational velocity is determined by:

Where the angle of steepness is somewhere between perfectly flat and vertical:

Surprisingly, the mass of the liquid has no effect on the threshold speed. Considering the cone in my laundry machine has a radius of about 2cm and an angle of steepness around 45° (=π/4), the threshold velocity would be about 0.443 m/s. Dividing this by the circumference of the cone (0.126 m) gives an angular velocity of about 3.5 rotations per second. In other words, the washing machine must rotate at least 3.5 times per second to “push” the fabric softener over the edge of the cone. Seems pretty fast! No wonder washing machines consume so much electricity.

I am currently knee-deep in the playtest of Ed Beach’s latest game, Virgin Queen. In previous posts, I revealed the earliest design themes and some pictures. Having digested the most recent rules documents and seeing a few phases of a four-player scenario play out, it’s time to reveal some of the updated mechanics:

Margot flirting.

Marriages: These have been integrated rather seamlessly into Here I Stand’s diplomacy mechanics. In order to make diplomacy more interesting and easier to learn, a marriage sub-mechanic has been introduced. Each European power has a number of unmarried royal persons, each with his or her own “eligibility” rating. By offering them in marriage to other powers, you both get the chance at earning victory points and cards. In a recent playtest, I cemented an alliance with Spain as the French. To seal the deal, Margot Valois married Philip II. We placed their two pieces in an “engagement” box on the board, and at the end of the turn, we will see how successful the marriage was. Rolling dice and adding eligibility ratings, we can go all the way from “Husband murdered” to “Founds a new dynasty.” Clever!

Activating Minor and Inactive Major Powers: One of the common gripes about Here I Stand these days is how players can start phony wars. For instance, the Hapsburgs often agree to go to war with Venice so that the Papacy can intervene, get the Venetian key, and thus another card to fight the Protestant player. Now players can spend the CP value of cards to get bumped up on an influence track for a particular minor or inactive major power. When a card is played which requires you to “resolve the power’s status,” each player with influence with that power rolls a die and adds his influence rating. The highest roller gets to activate that power. In my current game, for instance, the French player starts with one influence in the Holy Roman Empire (an inactive major power in the four-player scenario). If the mandatory event German Intervention gets played, I’ll get to roll a die and add my influence. If I am the highest roller, then I get access to a small hand of Holy Roman Empire cards, can move those armies, build fleets, etc. This elegant way of fixing the “dummy war” problem is well-integrated, and doesn’t add complexity to the game.

Reformation and Counter Reformation: Another common complaint with Here I Stand is that resolving the religious game takes far too long. Ed Beach has developed a new way of resolving Reformation and Counter-Reformation attempts that both reflects the changes in the religious game in this new era, and moves the game along more quickly. The English, Spanish, French, and Protestant players can all either “preach sermons” or “suppress heretics” (think “publish treatise” or “burn books”). Spending 2 CP gets you four attempts. You first look at the map and determine whether any spaces are eligible for “automatic conversion.” If you wish, you can immediately flip these, which means no more rolling seven dice, knowing you’ll probably get your “six” result anyway. Once this is done, each remaining attempt equals a die. You roll those dice, and each “five” or “six” result means you flip an eligible space, while each “one” result means you place unrest on an eligible space.

The religious game is further enhanced by a special action only the Protestant player can take. This is a “rebellion.” Spending one CP, a player can start two rebellions. Choosing a space which is currently under Protestant religious influence, but French or Spanish (actually Dutch) political control, the Protestant player just flips them to his political control (assuming no enemy units in the space). Those planning on playing the Catholic powers will quake in their boots–if this space is fortified, a Protestant army pops up on that same space! This is why I’m currently rushing my French forces to unoccupied fortresses that are seething with discontent…

These are just three system that have clearly evolved in a positive fashion since Here I Stand. Stay tuned for more updates as the playtesting process continues, including systems that don’t seem to gel quite yet.

Hi there. I have been waiting for your proposals but i haven’t received any to date. So if you feel your idea might be stolen due to publicity, then i’ll be glad if you send it via email to: noahongoro@gmail.com
I have a wild thought that i will throw out to you all: I’ve been spending some time marvelling at the jet engine. It is actually one of the best inventions and breakthroughs in the aviation industry. When you look at the build, it looks light and it really is because there aren’t many complex components. Looking at the power it produces, then one realise how big this achievement was.
The jet engine operates on a simple principle; a mass of air is ingested, compressed, mixed with fuel, ignited and accelerated backwards to produce forward motion.
In as much as the jet engine is now the universal engine for most aircraft, it has several limitations. One good example is that it chokes at high altitude due to thin air making it strain.
I would like us to think about the next concept of aircraft that will be more convenient and efficient than jet engines.
My thoughts still convince me that we can retain the main concept of action and reaction and develop around it.
Newton’s third law is a very interesting phenomena and could be utilised in a technical way other than the literal sense. Well, i will give my idea and explanation in the next post. You can subscribe to my rss blog feed above or follow me on twitter to keep up to date with my blog post. For now, its a big thank you and bye bye.

In the United States, our first school experience is called Kindergarten. One of the lessons we learn in Kindergarten is about Primary colors.

The primary colors are Red, Yellow and Blue. They are called the Primary Colors because every other color in the world is made by combining those 3 primary colors. We learn those combinations as secondary colors. Yellow and Blue make Green. Red and Yellow make Orange. Red and Blue make Purple. It’s an epic combination.

Class based RPGs have their primary colors as well. I’m fortunate enough, or just old enough, depending on how you want to look at it, to have played many RPGs going all the way back to the PnP (Pen and Paper) Dungeons and Dragons 1st Edition.

In that time I’ve observed that the RPG world has primary colors or more correctly, primary classes. Rather than the 3 you learn about with Art, there are 4 in RPGs. These four are Fighter, Cleric, Thief, and Magic User. The Fighter had a huge hit point pool and his main focus was on dealing damage with his weapon. The Cleric had limited weapons skill but was greatly valued for his ability to heal his team mates. The thief was weaker than the Fighter, but had a deadly attack that required special positioning to use. The Magic User had a tiny hit point pool, but could do more damage with his spells than even the best fighter could with his sword.

As games matured secondary colors were added, usually combining elements of the Fighter with elements of the Magic User. You even saw attempts at Jack of All Trades classes like the DnD Bard.

These primary colors would evolve into the primary roles we see in modern MMORPGs. The Fighter, with his huge hit point total evolved into the Tank role. The Cleric evolved into the Healer role. The Thief would become Melee DPS while the Magic User would become Ranged DPS. Again Developers gave us the Oranges and Purples of Tank/DPS, and Heal/DPS.

Just as understanding the relationship of primary colors and secondary colors helps us understand the world of art, the understanding of primary classes helps us understand the world of RPGs and MMORPGs.

First let’s apply this understand to the well known MMORPG, World of Warcraft.

WoW has 10 classes. 4 of those classes are primary colors and 6 are secondary colors. The Rogue is your classic Thief. The Hunter, Warlock and Mage are shades of the Magic User. The other classes are more of a template that is built upon in WoW with Talent trees. Paladins can end up more like a Fighter or more like a Cleric. Druids can wind up in just about any color and are the closest to the DnD Bard as a Class that tries to do a bit of everything.

Tension exists between the Primary Colors and the Secondary Colors, and as the game has matured the Developers continue to address this tension.

Originally, they gave the Secondary Colors penalties, the so called Hybrid Tax, to offset this tension. Now the penalties have been reduced, but the trade off is that the Secondary Colors are made to choose which Primary color they will emulate. Green that is so blue, one might as well call it blue. A Fighter / Magic User who spells are so weak, and weapons so strong you might as well call him a Fighter.

Next, let’s apply this understanding to a new game like Star Wars the Old Republic.

SWTOR has revealed all 8 of its classes, but as we analyze these 8 classes we quickly see not 8 classes, but 4 pairs. These are Smuggler/Sith Agent, the Jedi Knight/Sith Warrior, the Jedi Consular/Sith Inquisitor, and the Trooper/Bounty Hunter.

The Thief here is probably the easiest to see. The Smuggler/Sith Agent use the trademark sneaking and with the Sith Agent, we even have stealth. While the Jedi Knight/Sith Warrior will have Force powers that might seem Magic User like, their preference for dealing with the situations with their swords paints them more as the Fighter. The Magic User appears to be more easily seen in the Trooper/Bounty Hunter. The spells of these classes may be unlike the typical Magic User, but the archtype of high damaging attacks from a distance seems to fit very well with these two classes. This leaves the Jedi Consular/Sith Inquistior there to take up the Cleric. This is probably the biggest stretch as the Inquisitor has been described as throwing around Lightning Bolts which certainly seems to be more Magic User like. But I have to wonder if we won’t see these two classes falling more into the Cleric role as more information comes out about them.

Whereas WoW seems to be dabbling mostly in the palette of secondary colors, the Developers of The Old Republic seem to be leaning more to primary colors. It will be interesting to watch what ramifications both good and bad come from these formative choices of which color palette to use when designing the class structure.