Tweet of the Day: Crossroads: Character, Context, and Procedure: The Core of the Police Procedural

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ANN News Desk

From Alliance News Desk on the Citadel

June 17, 2196

Asari School Bombed

by Amita Quita

CITADEL, KITHOI WARD- Minutes ago, a massive explosion shook the Larathos Institution on Kithoi Ward. Larathos was the first school on the Citadel to cater to the children of Asari diplomats, politicians and business leaders. Video shot seconds before the explosion (cue shaky omni-tool video of several asari girls posing for a snapshot) shows a shuttle parking in front of the school while parents pick up their children. Several seconds later the shuttle explodes (the camera shakes under the blast of the explosion, mix of wounded from different species as well as blood splatter in different colors, mostly blue stain the floor among the smoking debris ) causing as of yet an unknown number of casualties. C-sec deployed a quick reaction team to the area and are evacuating the entire K-100 block around the school.

ANN News will bring you more about the story as it develops. Our prayers go out to the victims of this attack.

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Tweet of the Day: Defining Genres: Science Fantasy

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ANN News Desk

From Alliance News Desk on the Citadel

June 16, 2196

“Crisis” on Lorek Intensifies

by Amita Quita

CITADEL, PRESIDIUM- In a surprise move, the Citadel Council classified the Krogan Expeditionary Forces on Lorek as “Council Peacekeepers” amidst increased fighting in the capital. Fighting intensified  after a new group calling itself, “The Daughters of Esan” (See: Lorek, History), launched an assassination and sabotage campaign against high caste members of the planetary government. Dozens died within on the night of June 11. Within hours, gruesome pictures of dead mid and high level government officials flooded the extranet along side explicit reports on abuses (most of a sexual nature) by these officials of their asari slaves.  The colonial government responded with massive dragnets, public executions and airstrikes on the slums of the city inhabited by lower caste batarians and non-batarian sentients.

Meanwhile the krogan expanded their positions on the outskirts of Jalnor, the colonial capital, and set up refugee camps for those escaping the fighting. Ga’vor L’icos, the head of  Lorek’s Colonial Authority, accused krogan forces of, “Establishing sanctuaries for insurrectionist, anarchist and law breakers.” To wit Clan Chief Turtman, current leader of the KEF, replied, “He is more than welcome to inspect the camps for himself. We will be waiting with guns ready.”

Ga’vor L’icos also leveled similar accusations at the Citadel Council. In response the Council released the following statement:

The Citadel Council is deeply concerned at the news emerging from Lorek. The history of the world is one filled with inter-species conflict. The krogan, as a Council Member species, are in the best position to monitor the situation and render help to the civilians caught in the crossfire. We invite all parties to agree to an immediate ceasefire and initiate negotiations to resolve any and all unresolved issues at the root of the current conflict.

Tweet of the Day: Writing Excuses 8.24: Project in Depth-Kiss Me Twice

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Man vs. Nature

Man vs. Society

Man vs. Fate

These are the elements at the heart of the Sliding Scale of Free Will vs. Fate. The trope’s page gives us several points along the scale, but I’ll concentrate on the essence of the scale. Any time you have an individual confronted by a force larger than himself you have an invocation of Fate, where in Fate stands for all the things the individual can not control or shape. Fate then takes many forms, from a hurricane barreling down on an expose coastal town, the ever grinding gears of bureaucracy in a totalitarian government or the will of distant deities. It becomes a question of “agency” the power of an individual to shape the world around them. Some stories argue that any one person, with enough courage and will can take on any challenge (the Free Will side of the scale) while others posit that at best Free Will is an illusion, men are merely pawns of whatever force guides the universe, be base natural impulses (reproduction, survival, shelter) or some physical embodiment of Power (such as a deity) that has complete control of the universe.

Common twists to the story include the classic Greek ploy of the self-fulfilling prophecy, in which the characters often fulfill a prophecy by trying their hardest to avoid it. In these scenarios, the law of unintended consequences is in full effect. Another is that the actual agency of an individual diminishes in direct inverse proportion to the (supposed) power they have within an organization. A third option is to have a character believe that their actions were all for naught, the show him, or the reader the effects of those actions on a grander scale.

Wherever the story lands on the scale very much depends on the author and their world view.

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Tweet of the Day: Polish Gothic

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ANN News Desk

From Alliance News Desk on the Citadel

June 6, 2196

Raid on Lorek

by Amita Quita

PRESIDIUM, CITADEL- Images from a recent Torkugan’ battle group raid on a batarian terrorist facility on the outskirts of Lorek’s capital purport to show a vast bomb factory. Documents attached to the video showed plans for all manner of explosive devices, from small chemical explosives that can be carried on a vest or backpack to massive shuttle bombs designed to level entire city blocks. One particular device was labeled a “Element Zero Enhanced Fussion Bomb.”  We asked Alliance Marine Col. Michelle Andrade (ret.) if such a weapons was feasible.

“When humanity discovered the existence of element zero, some governments tried to enhance their legacy nuclear stockpiles by using the energy released in a fission or fusion reaction to power a massive mass effect field. Theoretically such a device could easily exceed the one hundred megaton upper limit in modern fusion devices, but as far as I know no human government succeeded, nor did the Alliance or any government in Citadel, so this weapon remains in its conceptual stage. Even then, such weapons are banned by the Citadel Accords on Weapons of Mass Destruction and the building or deploying of such a weapon would be considered a war crime and a crime against all sentient species.”

A second video surfaced a few hours later showing an engagement between the krogan battlegroup and Jalnor’s military police. As seen in the video, the krogan ambushed the incoming forces then led a strong counterattack that dispersed the rest. When interviewed by a ANN information partner about the raid Clan Chief Turtman said, “We remember Wrill. We keep our promises.”

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Tweet of the Day: We Have Always Been Fighting This Fight

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A crazy week for gamer and tech geeks. Two of the three major game console manufacturers announced the next generation machines and the reaction was…mixed.  We gamers are passionate about our hobby just like any other fandom. Expect the intensity of advertising, claims/counterclaims and positioning to rise as the holidays come ever closer. The future of the multibillion video games market rides in the balance. But that is half a year away, for now lets see what this past week in blogging brought us:

• Sun: TV Tropes-Mass Effect/After Earth Chronicles From T-W
• Mon: TV Tropes Monday-Translation Microbes
• Tu: Mass Effect/After Earth Chronicles- ANN News: Sanctions Blocked
• Fri: Space for Rent- Three Cheers for the Status Quo

That’s it, see you next week.

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Tweet of the Day: Privilege and Entitlement in Geekdom

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What is going on here?

The picture above doesn’t make a lot sense, not without proper context. Do you remember my post on corporate hubris? It turns out Mr. Adam Orth, former employer of Microsoft got fire for letting the cat out the bag a bit too soon:

It turns out that Microsoft was planning to release their console with built in DRM (Digital Right Management, a common anti-piracy format) by having users plug their machines to the internet and have a cyclopean little brother (in the form of the Kinect 2.0) watching everything you do. Yes, you can toggle a few privacy settings, but the damn thing won’t work if you don’t have the Kinect. Which is the reason why it costs $100 (US) more than its immediate rival. Microsoft tried to soft sell these new “features” but the truth of the matter is that Sony won by virtue of not changing a thing.

Yes, a company “won”  E3 by maintaining the status quo.

But why? Simply put from a consumers point of view all these new features are either unnecessary (such as having to include people on a list so you can share games, hence Sony’s reply in the picture above) or downright intrusive. They reveal a monopolistic attitude.

We own the product.

We will decide what you do with your property.

We will “allow” you to share with friend

We will inform you of authorized dealers to whom you can sell the product you “rented” from us.

We…

We…

We…

At the many features touted are not even aimed at the consumer base. You see consoles are the kissing cousins of the old arcade games. Literally the sprung up with the promise of “Bringing the arcade home.” A straight forward experience where in you dropped a coin on the slot or pushed a cartridge in place and started playing.

Simple, no?

Yet something changed in the last few years, something that has pushed the big game developers/distributors and Microsoft to shift from trying to compete to trying monopolize. I heard many answers to why this is happening, but it seems to me that fear has to do a lot with it. The costs of making Triple-A tittles (the industry equivalent to summer blockbusters) has risen as has the risks. Instead of adjusting to fit the changing market Microsoft and it distributor allies have sought to lock it down. The sought to maintain their own status quo. That’s right, by changing the way games are treated, property wise, they are seeking to maintain their dominant position in the market without having to compete in that market. Distributors like EA and Activision demand that every game have multiplayer options, which means that single-player experience gets short changed, and it also means that they have invest in server space costs well after the initial sell.  They spend millions on advertising in spaces where most of their audience doesn’t dwell and flood those that do with endless costly trailers that offer little to no insight into the actual product. They go the safe route of pushing an endless series of sequels until the franchise/IP is turned to mush.

In other words, they shift the burden to the consumer for a series of bad marketing policies.

Sony decided that they seen this before, and won over their consumers by the virtue of not imposing any restrictions on their experience.

Game Console+Games+Gamers=Fun.

Hurray for the status quo indeed.

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Tweet of the Day: Emotional Responses: Science, Romance and Science Fiction Romance

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ANN News Desk

From Alliance News Desk on the Citadel

June 1, 2196

Sanction Blocked

by Amita Quita

PRESIDIUM, CITADEL-Anonymous sources with links to the Council report that the Turian and Human councilors blocked an attempt by Councilor Tevos to impose financial sanctions on Thompson-Ramos Security Services, a security contractor with multiple contracts on the Verge and throughout the Terminus systems in the wake of a recent battle in the Imri system. ANN information partners have secured footage of TR Security warships engaging unknown ships near the system’s mass relay. Our experts claim that the unknown vessels are similar to the type of armed transports used by pirates throughout the Terminus systems. Representatives for the company have yet to make a statement on the recent battle and the company’s extranet page lists its CEO, Theodore Thompson-Ramos, is on an extended leave of absence.

In other news, a new batarian political group, the Batarian Assembly, has petition the Council for recognition and aid. Their extranet site claims that the group goal is to rebuild Khar’Shan free of the influence of the old Hegemony. Their slogan is, “A Free World For A Free People!” The Council has offered no official response to this request, but representatives for the Turian and Human government released a joint statement in which, “We hope to reestablish links with the batarian community and hope to see the batarian restored to their rightful place in the galactic community.”

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Tweet of the Day:  Writing Excuses 8.23: Microcasting

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If you need a quick explanation why everybody, be they aliens, angels or ancient Romans out of time, speak perfect English (or the story chosen language) then this is it. It could be a device, spell or effect of the environment. Often the trope avoids rare words, idioms, or cultural references, but only if the author wants to make a play on words. Other limitations include new or very old languages, or creatures that communicate in strange ways.

This trope is common in speculative fiction because not everybody is a gifted linguist like Tolkien that can create entire languages out of thin air. The author most also remember when the microbes are not in effect, such when a scene aliens speak among themselves, sans the main character presence. If they still speak in the works chosen language then it is Translation Convention.

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Tweet of the Day: Crossroads: The Difficulty of Police Procedural Speculative Fiction

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So here is the final installment of tropes found in the Mass Effect: After Earth Chronicles series. As always, this post contains spoilers for the Mass Effect series and the After Earth Chronicles Terminus Campaign. Feel free to check out the story here , then come back and see if the tropes fit.

Tropes T – W

• Take Cover: A necessity when the enemy is shooting at you with combat gunships. Even then, a biotic barrier does come in handy once in awhile.
• Taught by Experience: All the key characters have years of experience in their chosen field. Part of their job is taking said experience and using it to train others.
• Technology Porn: All over the place: advance ships, omni-tools, mechs, and so on. Theo being a tech focused character (Infiltrator) helps.
• Theme Naming: Almost everything in the universe of ME has a theme going. The ships under Theo’s command are named after Greek heroes/mythological creatures. Also counts as a shout out to such sci-fi series as Macross/Robotech and Babylon 5. The first location in the story is named after an upper plan from AD&D/D&D mythos as is the system, Arvandor, in which it is found.
• Translation Convention: Played with. Everyone in universe has translators, which are constantly updated, so everyone appears to speak in English, but species like the hanar still have peculiar forms of speech that are difficult to follow even with a translator.
• Translation Microbes: Everyone in-universe uses translators.
• Tribal Face Paint: Rodan’s sports a silver/platinum face paint that is somewhat reflective.
• True Companions: The command crew doesn’t balk at Theo’s orders, regardless of how crazy or unconventional they seem.
• Unobtaium: Element Zero powers almost every physics breaking device, from artificial gravity/anti-grav to FTL.
• We Will Use Lasers in the Future: Largely averted. Due to mass effect tech, projectile weapons dominate the battlefield.

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Tweet of the Day: Devilish

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Another week of summer, hot, sticky summer. Still angry at the monopolistic attitude from Microsoft/EA, but then again, this is Microsoft we are talking about. I’m also comforted by the idea that people are speaking out, not only against game manufactures but in other areas as well, such as women writers sticking up for their genre. A mix bag for sure but you take the good with the bad. Now lets see what this week brought us:

• Mon: June 2013 Blog Chain- Lord of the Flies
• Tue: TV Tropes- Mass Effect/After Earth Chronicles From Q-S
• Fri: Space for Rent- Skin in the Game

Short and sweet. Until next time!

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