Scientists: Mining Shows Intelligence

A lot of Eve players claim that anyone who mines asteroids has to be as dumb as the rocks they shoot.  But now two scientists claim searching for signs of asteroid mining is a good way to detect intelligent life in the universe.

"Finding advanced alien races in other parts of the galaxy isn’t so hard, according to Duncan Forgan of the University of Edinburgh and Martin Elvis at the Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. Rather than look for direct evidence of cloud cities anchored to far-off rocks, we simply need to ask ourselves what our civilization might look like in the future, then look for signs of that. Specifically, we need to look at other planetary systems’ asteroid belts for signs of mining.

"The idea is that at some point, our home planet will run short of natural resources, and when that happens we will have to tap asteroids for sources of metals and other materials that will enable future economies and technologies. Any other advanced, intelligent civilization would likely face the same challenge, and by scanning faraway asteroid belts for signs of interplanetary mining operations, we should be able to pick up signs of life with current and future telescope tech."

Great.  So those involved in Hulkageddon are not bored gankers.  They are uber-serious roleplayers who are just engaged in scientific inquiry.  I guess the killing of the ships is just to see the reactions of their test subjects, and if they QQ too much even though the whole game knows about the event, that just means our roleplayers just found some semi-intelligent life.

While Reading A Forum

I encountered this bit of wisdom while reading the Druid section of the Runes of Magic forums.

"You can't believe everything you read on the internet; that's how World War I got started." - Kevin Butler, Director of Rumor Confirmation

Sunday Odds And Ends

I'm back to posting. Hopefully work will settle down, but the less said about work, the better. I probably will not post every day, but that just depends on time.

Over the last couple of weeks I've been listening to more game radio and not too many podcasts. Online Gaming Radio's Tuesday night EverQuest 2 block has been a staple of mine for a long time, but I'm also listening to Eve Radio and New Eden Radio. Except for the classic rock it is not exactly my kind of music, but the music does fit Eve Online. And quite frankly, I'm more interested in the on-air talent anyway.

In Eve Online, I've joined Eve University and attended a couple of classes. So far I'm liking it although the Uni has enjoyed peace since I've been in. I'm a carebear, but I've got a couple of Rifters fitted for tackling and am training up my EWar skills to be effective in Vigils. Okay, as a Minmatar player that means target painting, but hey, pilots flying missile boats will like me.

In EverQuest 2, I'm seriously considering canceling my account. I don't really have time to play a lot and I'm getting bored with crafting in the game. I've been doing it for over 3 years and industry and trade in Eve is new and fresh. Last night I was playing EQ2 and I wasn't having fun. I'm paid up through the end of the month, but I don't really see myself playing anymore. The hardest part of giving up the game will be giving up a character I've played so much, so I'll see if I can really give it up.

UPDATE: Eve University was wardec'd at 11:56 GMT today. Looks like it's time to prepare for war.

Sunday Odds And Ends

Swine flu and firings at work overshadowed most of the events of last week. But thanks to writing this blog Sundays are becoming a day of reflection on the week. So while what's happening at work isn't the greatest, I can look back on my hobby and find some good things.

Last week I went back on a music video/YouTube kick triggered by The Instance's Scott Johnson & Randy Jordan's open letter to Blizzard asking for more podcast content from the official BlizzCast podcast. While looking around I found a lot of the coverage of CCP's FanFest 2009 made it to their channel on YouTube and I have had some fun watching them. CCP really makes a point of informing the player base of the basics of what they are attempting to do.

SOE and my home game EverQuest 2 don't really have a great presence on YouTube, so when I want some good EQ2 music videos, I turn to the musical ranger and Online Gaming Radio personality Jethal Silverwing and his guild's website Kithicor.org. I really like what he's done with the site and have added a link to it. Looks like I may have to set up another category on the blog for web radio sites/personalities.

Speaking of EverQuest 2, not only is the Halloween event, Nights of the Dead, beginning on October 16, but the CSMs are holding a special live event, The Norrathian Rat Race, on each server from October 13-November 6 (Hat tip to Feldon at EQ2 Wire for both pieces of news). And ZAM has the latest developer chat logs from the session they hosted on October 8.

And while the news swirls around EQ2, I finally managed to get my ranger her 200th AA point. Aside from the achievements which I am not going to do, I still need to raise 2 more skills, safe fall and slashing, to 400. Alcohol tolerance does not count; I'm still at 5 points and have no plans on leveling that skill. Once those are done, my ranger is pretty much finished developing until the next expansion hits the shelves in February.

Back in New Eden, I had a blast yesterday running missions. Both accounts had the skills queue set up for a couple of days so I just jumped in my Rifter and started doing missions. I thought I'd do a couple and move on to something else. Well, with videos from Fan Fest playing on my second computer and only taking breaks for lunch and to do laundry, I ran missions for 8 hours. Yipes! Time flies when you're having fun.

Now to turn on some football and do a little dual-box mining in Eve for the first time. I'm really interested to see how it turns out.

Sunday Odds And Ends

I'm watching the finals of Eve Online's Alliance Tournament 7 on Eve Tv and I love it. One thing I have to say after watching Pandemic Legion is Oh. My. God. I'm sure that Dillon Arklight and War Childe from the PODDED Podcast are very happy watching that setup. CCP is also trying to get a peak currency record on the Tranquility server and Eve TV is on its way to a record as well. I heard that Eve TV hit over 10,000 viewers during the round of 16.

The one thing about watching and listening to the tournament is I may decide to fly a Thrasher instead of trying to go straight to a Stabber or Rupture. I keep hearing that a Thrasher is a good mission running ship.

In EverQuest 2, the guildie I wrote about leaving the game let his account expire on the 17th and now the two guild leaders who were in the game when I joined my guild are now playing Aion. I can see interesting times ahead.

But the news out of EQ2 isn't all bad. I managed to hit the level cap on my carpenter, giving me a level 80 crafter for each tradeskill class. I'm hoping to finish the epic tradeskill quest line on my last three crafters by the end of the day. Just in time for the deployment of GU 53 on the live servers Tuesday.

Not much else. Just watch the round of 16 in AT7. Wow! I hope the rest of the tourney is this good.

Sunday Odds And Ends

Just some random thoughts from the last week.

As much as I like the Alliance Tournament, this is the first weekend of the American football season, so I'll be watching that. Thankfully I can watch the matches at the Interstellar Correspondents' special AT7 site later. I won't feel guilt because the IC is posting the results almost immediately. And, of course, I can still listen to the matches on the radio.

On the podcast front, the opening skit for Through the Aftermath #18 is worth the download, even if you are not interested in hearing an in-depth review of Fallen Earth from two people who played the closed beta. As expected I loved Channel Massive #103 and Van Hemlock #67. I actually wrote down a few quotes from the Van Hemlock podcast that I liked.

Van Hemlock On Lord of the Rings Online:
How many heroic hobbits can you have? One. Me.

On disturbances outside the studio:
Jon: There are noisy children outside.
Van Hemlock: Oh dear. Get the sniper rifle.

On Jon's theory about how he gets re-interested in Eve Online when he starts getting tired.
Van Hemlock: Does reverse psychology work on yourself?
Jon: Yes.
Van Hemlock: Wow.
Jon: I'm really quite predictable.

I'd offer up some lines from Channel Massive but I try to keep the blog workplace safe.

In Eve Online, I really loved Darrin's post on Rifters on The Common Sense Gamer. Not least because I play a Minmatar and use a Rifter to run missions. I'm switching from shield tanking to speed and armor tanking. The whole armor tanking is taking some getting used to, but I'm not afraid of NPC cruisers anymore. Well, as long as they don't have frigate and destroyer support, that is. Combined arms isn't just a real world military tactic. NPCs using ECM to disrupt my targeting, on the other hand, is annoying, but I'm starting to develop tactics for that also.

Oh, and my training for Minmatar Industrial IV finished while I was writing this, so I'll be buying and equipping a Mammoth as soon as I post this. No more Wreathe!

In EverQuest 2, Feldon at EQ2Wire pointed out more Game Update 53 news, this time about a live event based on the ruined Ulteran Spires in Zek, Everfrost, Lavastorm and the Enchanted Lands. If you're interested in the latest feedback, head on over to the forums.

Sunday Odds and Ends

Just a few items I don't think I'd write a full post on.

In Eve Online, I listening to the first day of Alliance Tournament 7 on Eve Radio and am currently listening to New Eden Radio for the second day. First, I'm amazed that the event is so big that 3 on-line radio stations, Eve Radio, New Eden Radio and Split Infinity Radio are covering the event. I haven't listened to the Split Infinity Radio coverage, but if you want all AT7 all the time, then tune into New Eden Radio. The Eve Radio coverage just covered the matches and switched over to music between matches while New Eden Radio has a panel of players talking about the tournament. I can't listen to the full coverage today, but so far I'm looking at listening to New Eden Radio next weekend.

Also, I'd like to say bravo to CCP who managed to get the first day's matches up on their channel on YouTube within 24 hours.

Due to the AT7 coverage, I haven't really listened to a lot of podcasts. Channel Massive #102 was interesting as Noah actually accused Jason and Mark of being too intellectual in discussing the episode's Blog-O-Steria. The discussion turned from theory posts to bloggers who want a lot of attention.

This week we saw the end of two podcasts. The new RealmsCast is now finished, with Beau wrapping his Free Realms coverage into Spouse Aggro, but Spouse Aggro is not a podcast I'd advise kids to listen to due to language. The second podcast is How I Wow due to Patrick Baja taking a job with Blizzard in Paris. Episode 21 has been posted with The Instance's Scott Johnson as the guest.

Sunday Odds and Ends

I posted a little more frequently last week and I may keep it up if the ideas keep coming to me. But I had a couple of things I didn't have time to mention.

First, Beau Turkey (a.k.a. Beau Realmscaster) is continuing his experimental podcast work and hit a home run with RealmsCast #4, a vidcast concerning the new racing content in Free Realms. Beau's avatar actually is narrating the vidcast and I think that Beau just did a really good job putting it all together.

Next are a couple of podcasts that feature interviews with industry professionals. First, Sister Julie and Sister Fran posted the second half of the Scott Hartsman interview in No Prisoners, No Mercy #42. Next week the pair will interview Total Biscuit from WoW Radio. The other podcast is Beau's interview with Acclaim's Community Manager "The Historian" in Spouse Aggro #87. No Leala this week; just Beau conducting the interview.

I haven't expanded on the topic, but I really think that World of Warcraft and EverQuest 2 are slowly becoming the same game, and not because SOE is desparately copying WoW trying to keep the game alive. I think that The Instance's coverage of Blizzcon pointed out a couple of things that WoW is borrowing from other games, including EQ2. The biggest items in Cataclysm are the guild advancement system, finally revisiting old zones and making higher level versions of their instances (EQ2's recent Lavastorm revamp in GU51 and last year's introduction of Runnyeye 2 comes to mind) and the raising of the level cap only 5 levels to match EverQuest's level cap increase introduced in last year's Seeds of Destruction expansion. But is the new path system going to be Blizzard's way of copying EQ & EQ2's alternate advancement trees?

While Blizzard was busy announcing the new WoW expansion at Blizzcon, SOE has been working on Game Update 53, which was released onto the Test server last week. Feldon over on EQ2 Wire has been all over the subject and anyone who plays EQ2 should be visiting his site on a regular basis to stay up to date with all the GU53 news. Another site to watch is MmoQuests as Stargrace is currently posting about her experiences on the Test server. She reminds us all in her post about the new achievements system that the system is a lot like WoW's. Yes, the merge toward the creation of World Of Everquest: The Shadow Cataclysm is a two-way street. I'll be following her posts next week with great anticipation.

I did have one initial thought about all the items that will be tagged with the heirloom flag. Does this mean that the EQ2 devs are going to crack down on the practice of selling "loot rights"?

Finally I get to Eve Online. I've been playing for 3 weeks now and am really enjoying the game. Now that I have some more skills trained up I'm really enjoying flying the Rifter and I plan on being able to start flying cruisers next week. I figure I'll need to start flying a Scythe to start doing some serious mining in areas I can use secure cans. Believe it or not, I also am looking at industrial ships and would really like to own a Mammoth and eventually a Prowler to do a little blockade running. Now that I feel a bit better about my knowledge of the skills system, I'm thinking of writing an article on certificates based on a newbie's experience. I'm glad they were around to help me pick my skills for my Rifter, but they just provide a base and sometimes you have to figure out what's more important, a piece of paper or a more efficient use of skill points. That's a point I just discovered this weekend while playing around with EveMon.

I don't know if I'm going to write a post like this every Sunday, but it was a lot of fun to write, so who knows :)

Odds and Ends

I’m a little behind on my writing, so I thought I’d throw together a quick post on what’s happening.

First, Warp Drive Active #45 was posted over at Virgin Worlds today. I really want to hear the shows take on the BoB vs. Goonswarm war. Oh wait, BoB is now KenZoku. Also on Virgin Worlds today, Brent posted Van Hemlock #40 and No Prisoners, No Mercy #24.1.

Next, from the EQ2 Test Server:

Appearance slots for primary, secondary and ranged weapon slots have now been activated! In addition to the requirement that you must be able to use the item, it must also use the same skill as the item equipped in your normal slot. For example, you may only use a Great Axe in your appearance slot if you are also wielding a Great Axe in your equipment slot.

Woot! I really want to run around showing off my Raincaller bow. I don’t care that the bow is SO tier 7, I want to run around Norrath with it on my back!

I’ve mentioned before that the people I work with are into World of Warcraft. I was in a conversation with two of them and discussed the upcoming two-specc’ing option in the upcoming patch. They told me the cost would be 1000 gold, and both the players, one 80 mage and one 76 warlock, told me that they wouldn’t get it for their mains. The warlock also has a fighter and he probably will pick up the two-spec ability for him. I’m not linking any facts; just giving the views of two people who have played the game for 4+ years.

Finally, for fans of parody songs based on MMORPGs, Jethal Silverwing has released two songs this week. The first is an EQ2 based song called “Can I Get a Heal”, a parody of the Carrie Underwood song “Jesus Take The Wheel” and is posted over at the Legion of Kithicor website. The second song is a Warhammer Online based song called “Crazy Elf Swordmaster” based on “Funky Cold Medina” by Tone Loc. The song is posted at Warhammer Geek. Check out the new songs from one of the best around.