Memoires (Part 2 - Guildification)

"Who we choose to be around us defines who we are."

Guild Crest - Most Wanted Postals

Due to the inherent social nature of MMO's, all games offer a formal system to create organisations of players, these go under various names - Clans, Corporations, or in World of Warcraft's case, Guilds.

Guilds allow players to band together under one banner, to provide aid to each other in the form of shared expertise, shared resources and also familiar faces to group with in order to advance through the harder content in a game.

Naturally, Guilds vary in size, attitude and purpose. Some are just social affairs - essentially there to provide a private chat channel for a group of friends and unite them under a funny name, others are a whole lot more well organised and serious in nature, with strict screening processes for new members, a clear vision and goal and well defined roles for the members to fulfill (i.e. someone who has learnt Alchemy will be obliged to provide free potions for the guild to use, in return for this they are able to use ingredients gathered by other guild members free of charge to help advance their skill in that profession).

Guilds that managed to establish themselves as the top dogs on each server stood essentially at the pinnacle of the social ladder, and were (in general) accorded respect and admiration for their accomplishments by the rest of the player base.

At the time, I had no idea about any of that - but some way through level 13, I felt that I should start looking around for a guild. It would make progressing through the game easier, and I felt that it would be fun to have a regular bunch of people to play with as well, instead of the solo game I had enjoyed up until then.

Auberdine - artist's impression.

I had spent about a week based in Auberdine at that point. It was rather depressing. There was always an air of melancholy hanging over the small town and the surrounding forests - no doubt driven by the proliferation of fel wildlife and malcontent spirits lurking in the mists. Even the sun seemed to abandon it's duties in this land; it's rays weak and wanting.

I sighed as I arose from bed, the ninth day now. The serenity of Teldrassil had become nothing but a distant memory now, pushed to the corners of my mind by days filled with exploratory quests - more often than not ending up in fierce combat against wayward spirits or the enraged and diseased animals that still called this blighted shore their home.

I pulled on my garments - a simple cloth tunic and pants, dirtied and ripped, along with a comfortable pair of well made cloth boots that had been my latest purchase. I fastened my belt - tough hide which was now fast falling apart under heavy use, and girdled my trusty mace. A parting glance as I headed for the door revealed that in the short time I'd been here I'd managed to make a thorough mess of the tiny room I stayed in; stacks of paper parchments were scattered all over the desk, empty potion flasks rolled around on the wooden floor and a pile of dirty laundry sat in the corner, growing larger by the day.

Didn't know you were such a slouch!

Not compared to you I'm not!

Touché.

Anyway...

It was on that day I met Chaspal. A meeting dictated by chance more than anything. I was walking through the town centre of Auberdine, out towards the ruins of Ameth'Aran, when suddenly a voice called out from behind me.

"You! You're a Priestess right?"

I turned to face the stranger. In my travels, I've met a lot of rogues, and in my experience they generally fall into two classes; the rogue-ish sort, who love to tell a good tale and enjoy some friendly riposte before attempting to pickpocket you, and the other, assassin, sort. Silent but deadly. You know...the stare at you then stab you whilst you weren't paying attention type (and then they would pickpocket your corpse, although strictly that's probably better classified as looting).

I looked up at his unsmiling face, and immediately put him into the latter category.

"I need some support down south, there's a Furbolg tribe which could potentially give Auberdine a lot of trouble. Come?"

I didn't really have anything better to do, so I agreed.

So, yes, I did indeed meet this Rogue called Chaspal in Auberdine. I remember he was maybe four or five levels higher at that point, but struggling with a quest (if memory serves me right).

We ended up grouping, and he must have taken a shine to me as a healer because we ended up doing several quests together (or so I remember). They were of the rather trivial sort, i.e. collect 5 bear asses, then go kill 5 monkeys etc, so having someone to chat to definitely made it more enjoyable. He also seemed like quite a friendly bloke, despite what Lyara says.

I also noticed that Chaspal was part of a Guild called The Revenants - in fact, he was the Guild Master. It was a pretty good name, or so I thought, so I decided to ask him whether I could join.

He had a think, then told me that although they needed healers, I was a bit low level. He said that I should get to level 15 and then talk to him again before logging off. At this point, I was pretty determined to join, and so I set my nose to the grindstone and began questing like mad.

Thankfully, it was the weekend, so I ended up playing all day, and the next time I bumped into him I was level 18.

I could imagine him nodding approval as he extended a guild invite. As I was about to accept it, I realised that I knew absolutely nothing about the guild apart from the name, and Chaspal. For all I knew, they could have been a guild of LBGT roleplayers (such guilds do exist!). Still, what the hey, I thought, and clicked the "Accept" button.

"Lyara has joined the Guild." popped up a little message on my chat box.

Several "His" and "Welcomes" came in from various other guild members who were online. It turned out that I had joined an exceedingly small guild, with only 7 members (me included). Of these, six were officers. It turns out I was the first fully fledged member to join.

I learnt quickly that the officers in the guild had met in the beta test, and were so enamoured with each other that they'd decided to stick it out in the release of the game. That sounded pretty cool to me.

What was also cool to me was I was now a member of a guild. It was like I now belonged somewhere - I had a flag to fight for.

Auberdine pier

We stood on the pier in the late afternoon - the sun, having given it's token effort for the day, was well on it's way back down to the horizon. Waves lapped softly at the supports, slapping them gently and rhythmically. Rows of elven lanterns hung from graceful supports, shimmering pale blue.

"So, is there some sort of ceremony?" I asked.

"No," he replied, communicating amusement with the slight upturn of one corner of his mouth; Chaspal was an elf who's speech was as pointed as his weapons.

"Here." He tossed me a small wooden badge, emblazoned with the guild crest - a droplet of water surrounded by ripples. "Congratulations, you're now a member of The Revenants."

And so, sometime during the late afternoon, on the tenth day after I'd left Teldrassil, between the second and third lanterns on that pier, I became a Revenant.

I've often looked back on that point and wondered how things would have been had I said no to his request for my aid; it seemed like it was by pure chance that I accepted his proposition. But as I reminisce now, it has come to my realisation that fate often plays it's hand under the guise of coincidence, and in the grip of destiny, we have less choice in matters than we think.

Memoires (Part 1 - Humble Beginnings)

February 12th, 2005, one day after the official release of the game, it began...



As someone who had played other Warcraft games before, I was familiar with the fantasy world which Blizzard had created, and the thought of being able to participate actively in it was an exciting one indeed. If you've ever read a good book or saw a movie and thought to yourself: "Damn, wish I could spend some time in that world." then you know the sort of feeling I had, and so you can imagine the gleeful anticipation that came with the granting of said wish.

Are you ever going to introduce me?!

Shh...hey...I was getting around to it.

No you weren't, you were just rambling as always, and what is it with you and all the dramatic tendancies; I mean, "Gaping maws of blackness..." really? If you could see me, I'd be rolling my eyes and flicking my hair in a disdainful fashion.

Er...

Oh, for Elune's sake, I'll introduce myself then. I'm Lyara, the Night Elf Priestess that this here person/douchefag created on the Dragonblight server.

Name calling already? You've only been on this blog for 6 lines!

Well, you're the guy who gave me a name which translates into Gnomish as "Weird", so suck it. Also, why is my text in this stupid red colour? I don't like it.

...pick a colour then, and we'll carry on with the story.

Yay! 

Really?

Kidding! I'll go with this one, it's the colour of my hair. ^^

I had to put up with this for two years...

Go on then, take it away.

Teldrassil, the home of the few remaining Night Elves. 

Up until that point, a sheltered life amidst the eternal dusk of the forest floor was all I had known, but when I enrolled as a Priestess of Elune, my life changed. The tasks I was given were simple at first - culling the local wildlife to preserve the balance of the ecosystem, investigating taints, collecting herbs and so forth. However, I progressed quickly in strength and magical aptitude through devoting my spare time to the study of spells from all the disciplines of priesthood and the training of my body and mind.

It wasn't long before the serving Priestess at Aldrassil recognised my talents, and sent me onwards towards the town of Dolanaar, where it seemed my services were more required than ever. It seemed that the fel taint had suddenly sprung up in all sorts of places, and the Furbolgs were driven mad by it. 

I remember being sent to the village of Starbreeze to investigate - what seemed to be a simple task turned into carnage as the Furbolgs attacked. The guardian Sentinels were too far away to lend aid in time, and I...arrived to see innocents being cut down and the village pillaged and torched for all it was worth. Compared to the trials I have been through since, perhaps this is small, but this was the first time I had witnessed such devastation, and forever this will be etched into my memory.

So, it turned out that after some investigation, the Chieftan of their tribe had been corrupted by some Fel Moss. He was beyond saving, unfortunately, so I was sent to dispatch him. He came at me, a flailing, insane mass of limbs and fur, and I, no longer a stranger to combat at the point, sidestepped his attacks with ease and put him down in as humane a fashion as I could.

After that, I was sent to Darnassus, the capital, where I was received in the Temple of Elune and commended on my achievements. I was even allowed to pray beneath the statue of Elune, albeit briefly. The senior Priestesses told me that I had potential, and to further my training, I would be sent away from Teldrassil, onto the continent of Kalimdor.

I had come of age in the Night Elf hierarchy, and thus, travel was to be expected. However, the thought of leaving all I had known behind weighed heavy on my mind. I stood for an age at the docks of Rut'Theran village - the port town of Teldrassil, and stared across the grey seas. The waves crashed without purpose against the roots of our great tree, the deep rhythmic booms interrupted by the chittering of the hippogryphs in their stables. A sudden determination gripped me; I wouldn't be like those waves, breaking fruitlessly against an unyielding shore. I felt a calling, a drive, something...urging me forward to a destiny as yet unknown to me, but it was a good feeling, to have a sense of purpose in one's life.

Hey, that was surprisingly good. I was expecting snarky comments and an exceedingly blunt account of things.

Not bad for being a bunch of pixels, a few kilobytes of data and a figment of your imagination, right?

To be honest though, after all that, you can hardly criticise me for my dramatic tendancies.

I can be a hypocrite, I don't care...you whiny girl.

...

So anyway, this was pretty much the first ten or so levels of my time in WoW, which were spent questing around the Teldrassil area. It was a really exciting time of the game, when everything was new and fresh - there was a feeling of limitless possibility.

Because I'd started a day later than everyone else who had bought the game on launch day, the starter areas wasn't too cramped, but there were still enough people around so that the area-wide chat was lively and populated. The general atmosphere was one of marvel, as people communicated their delight at discovering new things as they progressed through the first few levels of their characters.

The art direction was great - even though the graphics weren't cutting edge at the time, there was a cohesiveness and a certain stylism to the look they had gone for, and everything fitted together well - Darnassus especially was a memorable place, with it's graceful marbled architecture, intertwined, as most elvish dwellings are, with nature. Slender bridges connected the various sections of the city together, spanning over a central lake. The ambient sound of water was everpresent, as were the quiet jinglings of the wisps (elvish spirits) which populated the place.

God those wisps were annoying. They'd never move out of the way and if you tried to walk through one you'd never hear the end of it...they'd just follow you around and jingle at you. Blasted things.

Darnassus

The core gameplay mechanics were simple to learn, and everything was well explained. The quests were also well constructed and had an overall narrative, which made the various tasks such as collecting x number of plants seem meaningful. To be honest though, this was all within expectations.

The point at which this game really grabbed my attention though, was the first hippogryph ride away from Teldrassil. Normally, when you take a form of transportation within a game, it goes to a loading screen and then you arrive at your destination (unless you're playing a game like Gran Turismo, where it would then probably defeat the purpose of it...but I digress).

Not so here.

I clicked on the hippogryph, and what happened next literally took my breath away, as Lyara mounted the beast and it proceeded to take off, flying over the sea towards the continent of Kalimdor. Perhaps it just because it was in absolute defiance of my expectations, but that moment really opened my eyes to the fact that there was a world there. I mean, it was virtual, but at the same time, it felt real...if you know what I mean.

That was cool.

I looked around one last time before taking the last of my silvers and giving it to the hippogryph master. He directed me to one of his steeds. It croaked and bore me upwards with great thrusts of green feathered wings. Soon I was high aloft and over nothing but sea. The cold wind bit into my face, and I grasped the hippogryph tightly, not wanting to be thrown off. 

Behind me, all that I had ever known receded slowly into the greyness of a clouded day, and in front, lay my future, whatever that was to be.

Memoires (Prologue)

I poked at the campfire in a vain attempt to stoke the dying embers. Around us, the forest stretched away in all directions, tree branches forming shadowed archways; gaping maws of blackness. It was windless on the forest floor and the moonlight barely penetrated the thick canopy.

I kept my sword close, though I suspected that I wouldn't be in any danger; I was in her company after all.

She sat quietly beside me on a log, staring into the red hued remnants of our fire. She was my elder by a few hundred years, not that you'd know just by looking: Night Elves don't age. Only in her bright eyes, set like iridescent sapphires against the lilac of her skin, did the depths of her experience and wisdom show, and only in her wearied and deliberate movements could you see the strain of a thousand battles and the toll that they had taken.

Her name was Lyara, and I had come to listen to her story. She was regarded by most of our village as an eccentric, and lived a reclusive life. I however, as a student of history, knew her legacy. I knew that, had it not been for her and the alliance of brave heroes she had been the leader of, I wouldn't be alive today; none of us would.

Lyara's tale awaits...

A quick primer for those of you who don't know - World of Warcraft is the most popular Mass Multiplayer Online (MMO) game in the world, with over 11 million subscribers logging into the fantasy lands of Azeroth to play.

And, for those of you wondering what an MMO is - it is, in general, a game which can only be played online, by connecting to a server which runs a persistent world. The player will create a character in this world, to roam and explore this virtual realm, interacting with other characters in the process (most of which will also be played by other players). MMOs are unlike normal games due to the fact that the world does not stop when the player stops playing, his/her character is merely placed in stasis until the next time he/she logs on. They are also unlike normal games due to the complex social interactions that are allowed to arise by having a lot of players running around a persistent world.

A lot of the harder challenges in the game are designed to be tackled by a large group of players (up to 40 in World of Warcraft) - i.e. if you want a slay a dragon, you'll have to grab some mates. This places an emphasis on the ability to co-operate and co-ordinate with a large group to achieve a common goal.

MMO's have gotten a pretty bad rap in the press, mainly due to some of the horrendous addiction stories that have been aired by the media i.e. the Shawn Woolley incident, amongst others. There's no way to put a positive spin on it, so I'm not going to try to; it's the dark side of these games that they lend themselves easily to addiction by their nature.

However, it's not all bad, but it seems to me that the real delights of an MMO are not readily understood by those who do not play and have not experienced it - which includes a lot of the ill informed media outlets spewing their vitriol. In an attempt to explain some of why these games are just so good, and often grab players for years at a time, I'll be writing a series of blog posts in which I recount my own adventures through the World of Warcraft, starting from my beginnings as a Night Elf nobody, to how I rose through the ranks and became the de facto leader of one of our server's most respected and elite guilds, our successes and failures, and finally my eventual acquittance.

It's a World of Warcraft story. Get ready!

p.s. I was trying to find some World of Warcraft related pictures to post, and stumbled upon this cosplay...:D

My Life of Videogames

Warning: Gratuitous amounts of nerd content. You have been warned!

I've decided to take this evening off from revision, for not very much reason other than the fact that I'm tired and "The Fear" hasn't really worked itself into me enough to motivate me to work.

This was good, because well, I didn't have to do any work. On the other hand, I've spent a lot of my time pining for my PS3, which unfortunately is locked up in an inaccessible store cupboard.

Seeing as how that avenue of entertainment was unavailable to me, and also as I am ridiculously excited by the impending release of Portal 2, I spent some time playing the flash version, which is still pretty good fun!

I then got a bit contemplative, as you do, because when you spend your downtime solving death traps by jumping through inter-dimensional portals, you get contemplative. Maybe.

Anyway, I got musing on the subject of why I have such a soft spot for video games. I know this is nothing special, and is in fact pretty common nowadays, but still amongst most of the people I know (with the exception of a few friends from home), I appear to be the biggest aficianado.

I can't even remember when I started gaming or who introduced me to it, as some of my earliest memories revolve around an old SNES that my parents had in China. They would let me play once a week on Saturday nights. I can only ever remember playing two games - Contra, which I could never get past the first level of, and another game which I don't know the name of, which I could never get past the first level of.

Believe me, I tried my best, but at 4 years of age there is only so much hand eye co-ordination one can muster.

Then I came to England. Videogames went out of my life for a little while - if I remember correctly, which I probably don't.

Anyway, I remember when I was maybe 8 or 9, getting my first Playstation - good day of my life right there. It came with two games, V-Rally and Gran Turismo. I remember being overawed at how a product could fuse the two fascinations of my life - cars and gaming, into one seamless, playable package. God I played those two games to death. None of my friends could touch me at either of them, although I suspect that was because they were more interested in football (I still can't fathom why).

One particularly vivid memory sticks out when I couldn't sleep one night, and woke at 3am. With the flawless reasoning of my 10 year old self, I decided that if I couldn't sleep then I may as well complete a race on GT. I crept over to the TV and turned it on, aware that if I woke my parents all hell would break loose. Then I raced 5 laps around Autumn Ring - the tensest laps of my life. My ears were standing on stalks, listening for the slight creak of floorboards. 10 minutes later, I won it, my hackles were up the whole time. Just as I saved my progress, I heard footsteps on the landing. I shut off the console and the TV and pretty much flew back into bed. My mum checked in on me several seconds later and was none the wiser. Huge result.

Anyway, time passed and I grew, nursing this addiction. When my mum took me shopping, I would just go to the magazine section for the 40 minutes it would take her to do the weekly shop and read the latest Playstation Magazine from cover to cover - I was never allowed to buy it, of course.

Secondary school rolled around, and soon I had graduated from Playstation onto PC Gaming, and I played everything I could get my hands on, particular favourites included Starcraft, Warcraft and Counterstrike.

Back in the day, I think the reasons for my addiction to jeux vidéo were pretty clear - pure and simple escapism; from restrictive parents, from the awkward / geeky existence that comprised most of my school life, escape from the mundanity of the real world into something interactive and engrossing and fantastical.

I never really got into puzzle games or things like that, I always preferred the more complicated and complex RPGs, and games with a long longevity and replayability (this was probably also because my parents would only buy me two games a year, once for my birthday and once for Christmas; I had to make sure they lasted!).

Fond memories exist from those times - late night multiplayer HoMM3 sessions lasting hours, multiplayer Worms - in the end I got bored of the normal game and would just do rope races.

And then, I discovered MMORPGs...boy, did that nearly screw me up educationally for life! But, I think I'll talk about my adventures in World of Warcraft in a separate post; it deserves that much.

Fast forward to today - why am I still so into gaming? Well, the truth is, the desire isn't the same as it used to be, however, when I can play without feeling guilty, I can still happily sink days into a game and feel pleased about it afterwards. I guess there's just something intrinsically satisfying about understanding, mastering and then beating a system, but more and more I find that gaming is a fantastic way to consume a gripping and engaging story, and many publishers and developers are exploring the medium and delivering great offerings.

At first glance, you would probably say the medium is more film than book, but actually, I think it may well be more like the latter. By having direct control, there is a link established between the player and his/her character that cinema just can't replicate, but anyway, exploring video gaming as an art form is a whole different topic in itself, and not something I can do justice to in this post.

Back to the point! Err...yes. Video games - good. Football - boring.

Anyway, a spiel about a love for videogames wouldn't really be complete unless I included my favourites, so here it is, my Top 10 Favourite Games of All Time (to date!).

10) Warzone 2100 - I will always remember this being the game that introduced me to Real Time Strategy gaming. I played through the campaign of this maybe four times by the time I traded it in, exploring all the different modes of difficulty. Shame they never made a sequel. It was a groundbreaking RTS effort at the time, with base continuity, a first for 3D on the Playstation, combined with great graphics for it's time and a story and scenario which I found quite appealing. It also had a custom tank designer, which as you can imagine I spent hours fiddling with.



9) House of the Dead series - Right, an arcade rail shooter. This game used to draw me to it at the arcades with morbid fascination when I was around ten or so, however, I would never dare play. Too scary. It was only years later that I plucked up the courage to put in some coins and have a go, only to get my ass kicked time after time. There have been 4 iterations of it now, but the first one is the one I'll always remember.

8) Uncharted 2: Among Thieves - I guess you could say it was the spiritual successor to Crash Bandicoot in a way. A balls to the wall adrenaline rush from start to finish, packed with humorous touches and unbelievable polish. This is the Hollywood blockbuster of video games and a massive rollercoaster ride that grabs you and doesn't let go. It pushes the boundaries of the action genre for sure, with massive set pieces and such well defined characters. Although the plot is rather standard action fare, it's in the telling of it that this game really shines.



7) Starcraft/Starcraft II - An iconic classic. There's not a whole lot to say about this game which hasn't already been said by many thousands upon millions of people. It's just really good, and if you want to play competitively online - really hard, think Chess on steroids against an overclocked Deep Thought.



6) Warcraft III: Frozen Throne - The Warcraft universe is possibly one of the most fleshed out fantasy worlds in existence, and Blizzard offered a polished and compelling RTS set within it with a great character focused story and a new hero mechanic which was almost RPG esque. Not to mention the map editor, responsible for such addictive things like Hero Siege and DoTA.



5) Mass Effect series - Whilst the trilogy isn't yet complete, the first two parts were more than enough to get it up to 5th on this list. I am a huge sci-fi fan, and having the chance to take part in my very own space opera was like a dream come true. The first game has possibly one of the most epic climaxes of any game on this list, and it was just so moving.



4) World of Warcraft - This game took out 2 intense years of my life. I don't regret it and I would do it all over again. Although, perhaps it wasn't the game though, so much the amazing people I met whilst playing this game that made it so good, but then, without Blizzard putting those compelling raiding challenges together, who knows whether I would have even met them in the first place.



3) Gran Turismo - What's there to explain? I love cars, Polyphony Digital obviously love cars too. A match made in heaven.



2) Metal Gear Solid series - Konami's signature series of Tactical Espionage Action essentially redefined a whole genre, but let's put that aside. At the time of playing, I found it hard to appreciate the subtler aspects of this game - the social commentary, the philosophising, which now, after completing MGS4 I'm finding quite fascinating. When I first played, I rememer being engrossed with the sneaking around, the stealth and figuring out the guard and camera patterns so I could sneak by. Alerts were high adrenaline and an unbelievable rush. I will also never forget some of the boss battles - Mantis of course, for screwing with the controller, but also Sniper Wolf, partly because her character was memorable, but also because duelling across a frozen wasteland with sniper rifles, whilst the wolves howled and the snow tore around the screen was something quite special indeed. And of course, the infamous torture scene, responsible for friction burned knuckles the world over.

Subsequent games have not been without their high points - most notably the microwave duct crawl in MGS4 and the final battle - damn, that was heroism defined, but, for me, nothing in the series can quite match up to that first title on the PSX.

Oh, and the main theme.



1) Final Fantasy VIII - This was the game which showed me the possibility that video games could have as a storytelling format. It was also the game which introduced me to the Final Fantasy series, and to role playing games in general. Even looking back on it today; whilst the gameplay lacks the refinement of today's offerings, the core of it still holds up excellently, and the story, essentially boiling down to the character study of a traumatised young adult, following in his footsteps as he tries to reconcile the fear of being hurt with the human need to not be alone, is one that is timeless and one I hold close to my heart. Wrap this up in a universe dripping with a mixture of fantasy and sci-fi detailing and a world shattering plot, combine with a fantastic soundtrack - the orchestral mixes of which I still listen to today and you get a game that's as good as it comes. Others come close, but none equal.

The Lent Term Experiment: Week 8!

Week 8 finally ended on Wednesday.

So, that's it.

I'm officially done Learning Stuff. No more lectures as an undergraduate left. It's now just my project and exams to go (five of them to be precise).

The first of my exams will be startng on the 2nd May, around 6 weeks from now. It's an odd feeling, knowing that it will all be coming to an end in a few months. Right now though, it's a sort of distant thought on the horizon, not something to be considered too deeply in light of all the Tripos goodness that awaits me first.

The fact that Week 8 comes to an end also brings to an end my time keeping experiment.

Personally, it has been quite interesting for me. I have discovered that I sleep a lot more than I thought I do - however it could just be an artifact of that fact that I am a 4th year, and thus old by Uni standards. Old people need their sleep, okay?

I have also discovered that I spend a lot of time procrastinating - not that I didn't know that already, but to quantify it is a little eye opening. However, it has also been revealed that I do put in a reasonable amount of consistent work throughout - which is good, although it was by far not enough given that I am yet to do any examples questions from the latter half of the four courses I am taking this term.

I've been told that this is not uncommon for 4th Years, but whether it is or not, I am not going to worry about it too much, and instead I'm taking solace in the fact that my project is going well and that in the last meeting, my supervisor got so excited by the latest batch of results that he idly suggested that I should write a paper on it and get it published.

Cue incredulous "Are you joking?" look.

Apparently he wasn't: cue one boggled undergraduate mind (as if the degree wasn't enough).

It doesn't seem right to even suggest something like that to me. I mean, writing papers and stuff are for those academics who live on a different plane of existence and have IQ's far higher than mine. For me, it's crazy talk! Although, I have to admit that the idea of having a published paper under my name does tickle my intellectual ego somewhat.

Anyway, self aggrandising diversion aside (I'm allowed to talk myself up okay? It's MY blog!), I decided for the final week to have a look at some total stats which were interesting to me.

Total Productive Work Time: 259 hours (average of ~30 hours per week)
Total Sleep: 480 hours (average of ~8 hours per day)
Total Procrastination: 82 hours (average of 9.5 hours per week, or ~1.4 hours a day)

Procrastination took up 24% of my work time, this figure is probably a little higher in reality, but it's still quite a lot!

It also appears I spend on average 3.8 hours per day not really doing much of anything. This is probably not true - some of this time is probably more accurately labelled as procrastination, although I know do tend to spend ~2 hours eating dinner and ~1 hour on lunch most days, along with showering and cycling to places etc, so maybe that figure is quite representative.

Pie Chart showing time breakdown.

The complete 8 week timeline.

If you are wondering what that massive spike of Free Time in the final week was all about, it was because I went to the Yonex All England Badminton Championships - a whole weekend of nothing but (mostly) guilt free watching of international Badminton, and cheering myself hoarse for China. Fun times.

In the first post of this series, I said I hoped it would enlighten people as to how much time the degree takes out of your life, and well, given that I have worked (or attempted to work) ~40 hours per week on average, and am still far far behind on things, the conclusion can only be "a lot".

Anyway, I hope you have enjoyed this series of posts, or at least found them mildly entertaining, or maybe just found them as something to read to procrastinate with, it's why I write this blog after all!

Peace out for now!

The Lent Term Experiment: Week 7

Apologies, this is a day late again.

Firstly, my thoughts and prayers go to those who have been affected by the earthquake off the coast of Japan, and I wish them the very best in dealing with this huge disaster that has befallen them.

This week, I have been busy getting frustrated by Computational Fluid Dynamics, or rather, the excessive amount of time it takes to do it.

Expectations for computers have changed a lot over the last decade or so - in the early 2000's, it was pretty much expected that if you wanted to view a picture, you'd need to wait for a few minutes. Streaming movies? Don't even think about it.

Nowadays though, our expectation for computer response is that it should be instantaneous. If a website takes over a few seconds to load, people complain at it being slow. Think about that for a (slow) second.

How does this relate to CFD and frustration? Well, as it so happens, CFD is very slow. This is because simulating air, believe it or not, is actually pretty difficult and as such hogs an inordinate amount of computer time. We use local workstations with 24 Gb of RAM and the Intel High Performance Cluster in Swindon which has 384 Gb of RAM on tap, as well as the latest Xeon 64-bit processors, and yet our mesh generation still takes anywhere from 10 to 30 minutes, and a complete set of iterations to reach a solution anywhere from 3 to 5 hours.

This is mildly frustrating, because the meshing program we use is powerful, and thus by the inverse relationship governing how Powerful a program is versus how User Friendly it is, it is not particularly user friendly. For example, there is no undo button; if you mess something up, be prepared to either reload a previous save, or to travel in a roundabout way to fix your mistake.

Also, if you make a mistake in say, Excel, it will usually take a few seconds to fix (even without the use of an undo button). If you make a mistake here, it could be one which sends the computer into it's own little happy world of number crunching for a LONG TIME, and you as the user will be left stranded, staring at a non-responsive screen, for however long it takes. Clicking the wrong button can feel like writing a deliciously dirty text to your significant other, and then realising it's been sent to your mum.

Anyway...here is the week 7 graph.

The Varsity Report

 Warning: This is a long one, you might want to bring some food and drink for the ride, and perhaps a tent.

26th February 2011.

On this date, a most epic of confrontations was confronted by the confrontational Badminton teams of Oxford and Cambridge, for it was the date of the Badminton Varsity.

The day kicked off at 9.30am, as the doors to The Perse Sports hall was opened and the competitors flooded in. Setup work began, with the nets being put up, and the banners and scorecards. A buzz of nervous tension flooded the atmosphere - the anticipated day had finally come, and all the players were raring to go, eager to prove themselves and grab glory for their University on the courts.

For those unfamiliar with the format of Varsity Badminton (which will be most of you, I imagine), it is as follows:

Each team comprises of 6 players. Each of the players plays one match against their opposite number in singles. The 6 players will then form 2 doubles pairs. All the doubles pairs will play each other. This results in the final score for each team comprising 6 singles matches and 9 doubles matches. Each match is played as a best of 3 ends, to 21 points. The overall victor is determined by totalling the score of the 1st and 2nd teams. The 3rd team results do not count.

The 3rd team, captained by Tom Beaumont, began with an exceedingly strong showing. Eric Lai of Cambridge took down his opposition Ben Morgan 21-17, 21-9 to secure the first win for Cambridge. This appeared to open the floodgates for the light blues, as Tongtong Zhu and Tomoki Otani followed it up with straight set wins against their Oxford opposition.

However, the Oxford men rallied, and the remaining 3 singles was more of a close fought affair. Tim Barendt of Oxford took the first end off Chris Kassam of Cambridge 21-15, however, the experienced PhD student, displaying nerves of steel and a level head, bounced back to take the next two 21-11 and 21-12. Next up was David Cheuk of Cambridge, who started poorly and dropped the first end 17-21. However, like Chris, he bounced back to win the next two 21-12, 21-12. This put the overall score at 5-0 in favour of Cambridge.

Tom Beaumont stepped on court, hoping to make it a clean sweep for Cambridge in the singles. However, his Oxford opposition, Bao Yiyang had different plans in mind. A closely contested first end ended up 14-21 in Oxford's favour. Tom then recovered in the second end to take it 21-17, setting up yet another rubber. Unfortunately, Tom was unable to keep his composure and consistency and Bao romped away to a 21-10 victory, securing one point for Oxford.

 David Cheuk in flight.

With the singles over, the doubles started in earnest. Oxford, rejuvenated by Bao's win, began to play with fury, and this made for some exceedingly close games. Of the 9 doubles matches, 6 of them went to three ends. Commendations must go to Tom Beaumont and Tomoki Otani, who took all three of their doubles matches - a clean sweep!

Chris goes up for a smash! Tongtong at the net.

Eric and David have a tactical discussion at the interval.

Although Oxford pushed Cambridge close, the majority of the games still went to Cambridge, and after the play was done, the final score stood at Cambridge 12, Oxford 3. A triumphant victory for the light blues.

Tom laments a mistake.

Tomoki laments Tom's mistake. ;)

Attention now shifted to the 2nd team matches, which began to rage on the courts of the Perse School. A big win was predicted by Phil Bao, the 2nd team Captain. However, this prediction had been met with much skepticism, given the historical strength of the Oxford Men's squad.

Clockwise from Top Left: Balint Gal, Phil Bao (captain), Roger Yin, Chin Lik Tan, Hung Duong, Haixi Yan

However, history proved to be just that - history, as the singles games got underway. Hung Duong took a confident 21-11, 21-17 win for Cambridge, notching up the first point for the 2nd team. Haixi Yan, the 5th singles player, struggled with nerves and ended up dropping the first game 18-21. However, after a little coaching and calming down, went on to easily win the next two ends 21-15, 21-8. The next three singles were easy straight set affairs for Chin Lik Tan, Phil Bao and Balint Gal.

Hung takes the first point for Cambridge!

Haixi Yan fighting hard.

Finally, Roger Yin, playing as the number one singles player for the Cambridge second team, stepped on court to face Keshav Nahar of Oxford. Roger's nerves got the better of him, and he struggled with length and consistency, and as a result fell to the Oxford player 16-21, 9-21.

Roger Yin.

Despite this disappointing loss, Cambridge were still 5-1 up going into the doubles.

It appeared that the Oxford Men's seconds had had their expectations turned upside down, and they were struggling to cope with the intense and aggressive Cambridge play. This manifested itself in a complete rout for the dark blues in the doubles, as they lost all of them. Cambridge took 8 of the 9 doubles in straight set victories, and finally, after a gruelling 3 ender which went all the way, Chin Lik Tan and Hung Duong perservered against Clinton Lau and Keshav Nahar to secure the final match 21-17, 19-21, 22-20.

Phil Bao in full flight. Balint Gal looking for the net kill. Oxford on the defensive.

The final result for the men's seconds stood at Cambridge 14, Oxford 1. A huge result for Cambridge, and vindication for Phil Bao, whose faith in his team was rewarded in full, as the result was the best the 2nd team had had since 2002.

In the opposite half of the hall, the Women's matches were taking place, starting off with the 2nd team.

Left to Right: Annie He, Sophie Wu, Sarath Latham, Jo Brant, Jessie Ke, Jennifer Li

The Women’s 2nds match was perhaps the most closely contested one of Varsity. Jennifer Li made a promising start for Cambridge, after taking her singles in a gruelling 3 ends. Sophie Wu and Sarah Latham unfortunately could not quite match up to their Oxford counterparts, and lost in straight sets. Next up was Jessie Ke, who provided another win for Cambridge after another gritty and hard fought 3 setter. Annie He stepped up to the plate next, and again could not quite match up against the Oxford offering, falling short in straight sets. Finally, Jo Brant, the Captain, finished off the singles with a convincing 21-17, 21-18 win for Cambridge against the number one Oxford player, Clara Ng.

Jennifer Li.

 After the singles were played, the scores stood level at 3-3.

Things were equally close in the doubles, as Jo Brant and Sarah Latham lost against the Oxford 1st pair in straight sets, won against the 2nd pair in straight sets, and then proceeded to fight the 3rd pair in a nailbiting 3 setter of a game which unfortunately saw Oxford triumph.

Sarah Latham and Jo Brant in action!

Jennifer Li and Jessie Ke took two of their matches in straight sets, but were unable to make an impression on the Oxford 1st pair, losing in straight sets.

Flying Jessie.

 Annie He and Sophie Wu lost against the Oxford 1st pair, but managed to push them to three sets. They then took a closely fought game against the 2nd pair. This meant that the score for the Women’s 2nds stood at 7-7 as they went into their final match.

Annie He (left), Sophie Wu (right).

Cambridge took the first set convincingly, winning 21-18. However, Oxford came back strongly in the second, to take it 21-11. Annie and Sophie tried to regroup and fight back in the deciding end, however, the Oxford pair had gathered too much momentum and could not be stopped. They took the match, claiming a narrow 8-7 victory for the Oxford Women 2nds.

This marked the first time since 2004 that the Women's 2nds had lost to Oxford.

The Women's 1st team then stepped on court. Although the squad had suffered from the graduation of two of it's top seeds, the players were determined to do their best and retain the title for Cambridge.

Left to Right: Mary Wang, Sammy Jones, Emily James (Captain), Ploy Achakulwisut, Katie Scotter, Laura Birkinshaw-Miller

Sammy Jones gave Cambridge something to cheer for straight off the bat, by winning a rather epic first singles game. She came back strongly after dropping the first end to win 13-21, 22-20, 21-17. Mary Wang, the 5th position player, took an assured 21-14, 21-19 win to move Cambridge 2-0 up.

Mary Wang in action!

However, the run of good results would not continue, with Laura Birkinshaw-Miller struggling to find form against Rachel Kenny of Oxford, losing 18-21, 16-21.

Ploy Achakulwisut, the 3rd seeded Cambridge player started off positively, looking to prevent Oxford from drawing level. She played well against Ishani Khazanchi of Oxford to take the first set 21-15. However, the dark blue competitor was not phased, and outmanoeuvred Ploy to take the second set 11-21. The 3rd set was a closely matched affair for most of the way through, however, the Oxford player's composure could not be broken, and she took the 3rd end 14-21.

Ploy!

The overall score now stood at 2 apiece.

Katie Scotter started off strongly against Sarah Finch, Oxford's 2nd seed. Unfortunately, she could not quite manage to grab the first end, losing it in a closely fought 18-21. Sarah Finch, buoyed by her success, romped home to take the second end 21-10.

Katie Scotter clears.

Emily James, top seed for Cambridge, struggled badly with nerves. The tenseness hampered her movement and shots and she was unable to provide a challenge for Simone Finkmann of Oxford, who breezed the match 21-6, 21-10 to put Oxford 4-2 in the lead after all the singles had been played.

The doubles was a much more positive affair for Cambridge.

The 3rd pair, Sammy Jones and Ploy Achakulwist, managed to push Oxford's 1st pair very close in their first game, however, could not maintain the intensity in the 2nd, and lost 21-23, 6-21. However, they took heart in their strong performance and carried that into their second match against Oxford's 2nd pair. The light blue pairing took a closely fought first game 21-19, the second game was even more well matched, with no pair having the advantage at any point in the game, however, the dark blues managed to squeak through 24-22. The Cambridge pairing started off the 3rd end badly, trailing 8-14 at one point, however, they managed to find their form again, and clawed their way back to win 21-18 in thrilling fashion. Their energy spent, they found Oxford's 3rd pair a challenge to play, and lost in straight sets.

Sammy and Ploy engaged in a fierce rally.

Laura Birkinshaw-Miller and Katie Scotter were Cambridge's veteran 2nd pairing, having played with one another for a number of years now. In their first match, they took an assured and confident win against Oxford's 3rd pairing, 21-15 and 21-17.

Laura and Katie on the attack!

They then became embroiled in a series of gruelling 3 setters.

Against Oxford's 2nd pairing, they lost the first game 19-21, after some fierce rallies which they could not close out, however, this did not affect their composure and they took the second game 21-17. Going into the decider however, the Cambridge pair hit a rough spot in their form and could not recover, leading Oxford to win 8-21; a disappointing result.

They then went against Oxford's 1st pairing, and lost the first game 9-21. However, they managed to re-focus and picked up their game to dominate the second game 21-13 to set up another rubber. The decider was a nervy affair at the start, however, as the score progressed towards the business end of the match, the Cambridge pair began to play increasingly better, and edged out their opposition to win 21-16.

The Cambridge first pair of Emily James and Mary Wang were a fresh pairing, and as such were relatively inexperienced compared to Oxford's offerings, some of whom had been playing together for years. This showed in their matches, as they struggled to convert defense into attack, which put them on the back foot in a lot of rallies. This saw them lose against the Oxford 1st pair 16-21, 16-21, and then against the 2nd pair 21-19, 19-21, 16-21. However, after a tense and nervous fight in the first game against Oxford's 3rd pair, they took the match 26-24, 21-10 to give Cambridge another point.

Emily James and Mary Wang.

At the end of play, the scores stood at Oxford 9, Cambridge 6, leaving a delighted Oxford women's team to celebrate breaking the stranglehold which Cambridge women had held since 2003.

With only the Men's 1sts left to play, the scores stood at Cambridge 27, Oxford 18. This meant that in order to claim the overall Varsity victory, the men would only need to win 4 matches of a possible 15. This would be no mean feat to achieve however, as the Cambridge team had been convincingly thrashed 14-1 in the previous Varsity. However, with a new year came a shuffling of the teams as players joined and left, and this year the Cambridge men were hopeful, after training hard in the weeks leading up Varsity, of performing well and achieving a creditable score.

Clockwise from Top Left: Amit Alleck, Sam Pickup, Ben Watson, Chin Kiat Tan, James Li (captain), George Zhao (captain)

The singles began with Ben Watson representing Cambridge against Mike Senior of Oxford. Ben was hampered by jangling nerves, however, managed to play himself through them and took the first end 23-21. After getting a game under his belt, he then went on to take the second end 21-14, getting Cambridge off to a great start.

Ben goes up for a smash!

Next up was George Zhao, the 5th singles player, playing against David Williams of Oxford. There was history between the two opponents, with both having trained and played together for the same county for a number of years, before moving to their respective Universities. In their previous competitive match-ups, George had never managed to take the win from David. Today, he hoped to break that duck.

The first set was a tense affair, as both players struggled to find form with a lot of unforced errors. However, George fought through his nerves to take the first game 21-16. David came back strongly in the second set, and the score was neck and neck the whole way through. The scores reached 20-20, with neither opponent being able to open a gap until five points later, when George finally managed to secure the second game 25-23.

George Zhao stretches in mid-air.

This put Cambridge up 2 points, leaving the team needing only two more to take the Overall victory.

James Li was up next, against the Oxford captain, Christopher Lim. Both players settled in quickly and the result was a dynamic and fast paced game which saw plenty of deceptive and attacking play. However, James could not quite keep pace with the deception of his opponent and lost in two closely contested sets 18-21, 18-21.

Samuel Pickup, Cambridge's 3rd singles player, stepped up next, facing off against Russell Kueh of Oxford. Sam capitalised on early errors from his opposition to take the first set 21-19. However, Russell bounced back in the second set 21-18. Going into the 3rd, there was nothing to tell between the two players, Sam found holes in Russell's net play, whilst Russell employed fast attacking smashes down the lines to pick up his points. In the end, Sam's defense was unable to hold, and Russell took the 3rd end 21-18, closing out a great match and denying Cambridge the chance to creep closer to the overall victory.

Sam Pickup in full stride!

Amit Alleck then faced Alistair Reed. The two players had similar playstyles and both played fantastic Badminton, in what was probably one of the best singles matches of the day. However, Amit found himself unable to break the consistent play of Alistair and lost in two thrilling sets 19-21, 15-21.

Amit in action!

Chin Kiat Tan then faced James Buffham, and quickly found himself outplayed in all quarters by the Oxford top seed, who had previously been in the England development squad. The result was foregone conclusion, with Oxford winning 21-10, 21-14.

Chin Kiat Tan lunges!

The doubles began, with Cambridge hunting for the final two points that would give them the Overall victory.

Amit Alleck and Chin Kiat Tan opened up for Cambridge, however, the two were a fresh pairing and were still relatively inexperienced in the art of doubles play. The Oxford pairs, as soon as they recognised this, exploited this fact to win comfortably, by being patient and moving the Cambridge pair out of position by well placed counter attacks, and then exploiting the subsequent holes to finish the rallies.

James Li and George Zhao, now a veteran pair of 3 years, were the 2nd pair for Cambridge. They started off slowly, losing to the Oxford 3rd pair in straight sets - 15-21, 16-21.

This was a disappointing start for them, however, they stayed focused for the remaining matches. Against the Oxford 2nd pair of Christopher Lim and Alistair Reed, they again did not manage to get the best of starts, and dropped the first game 21-16. However, the light blue pairing came out all guns blazing and forced Oxford to yield 21-12 in the second set. The 3rd set began in a tense fashion, with both sides getting off to a slow start. However, George Zhao made a string of mistakes which gave Oxford the lead, and they kept that until the end of the match, closing out the 3rd end 21-16.

Favoured formation - James Li up for the smash, George Zhao covering the net.

Against Oxford's 1st pair, George and James again started off slowly, and struggled with getting on the offensive. They dropped the first set 16-21. However, in the 2nd game, they tried some different strategies which put them on a level footing with the Oxford pairing of James Buffham and David Williams. The rallies were fierce and fast as both sides liked to play a very flat and attacking game. James and George focused their attacking efforts on David, as they discovered he had a slightly patchy defense. After an intense game of high quality Badminton, they took the second set by the slim margin of 25-23. The 3rd set became a psychological battle more than anything, as the players struggled to maintain focus and intensity. The two pairs were neck and neck until the scores began to creep past the 15 all mark. Then, the Oxford pair put in a concentrated attack and managed to pull away, leaving the Cambridge pair with no answer, eventually losing 16-21 in the 3rd.

The scores were now 29 - 28 in favour of Cambridge, as the Oxford Men's 1st team showed again their dominating doubles play. Cambridge's hopes now rested on the first pair of Ben Watson and Sam Pickup. They began strongly, playing with controlled aggression and perfect placement of defensive shots, allowing them to take Russell Kueh and Mike Senior, Oxford's 3rd pair, in straight sets 21-17, 21-13. This put the scores at Cambridge 30, Oxford 28.

Ready to receive.

If Oxford won the next two matches, then Varsity would have to be decided by game difference.

They played next against Oxford's second pair, Christopher Lim and Alistair Reed. In the first game, the intensity of Oxford's play caught the Cambridge pair a little off guard, and Oxford sported a very solid defence which Sam and Ben found very hard to break. This led them to lose in a closely fought set 18-21.

In the 2nd set they changed up their strategy, and fought much harder for control of the net. This proved to be a great tactical move, as it put pressure on Oxford's lifts and netplay, with the result being many easy net kills and many lifts which Oxford forced long and wide, handing the next set to Cambridge with a convincing score of 21-11.

Going into the decider, there was everything to play for. Both pairs threw themselves into the fray, feeding on the energy of the moment and playing some thrilling Men's doubles, Ben provided big smashes from the back court and Sam was lightning quick at the net, setting up the attack neatly and also darting in to make decisive kills. As the scores neared the 19 mark, there was still nothing to seperate the pairs by. Finally, at 19 apiece, Ben and Sam broke free of their opposition, and scored two quick points in succession to take the decider 21-19.

Ben and Sam on the offensive.

This meant that Cambridge had reached the magical 31, and had claimed the overall victory!

In the final match, Ben and Sam faced off against Oxford's 1st pair of James and David, and were beaten soundly 18-21, 14-21, unable as they were to regain the intensity of and focus of their previous match.

Overall, a fantastic day of Badminton was played by all, with ups and downs and plenty of thrilling matches for the spectators to enjoy. Cambridge reclaimed the overall win from Oxford by the slenderest of margins, as the final score stood at 31-29, and this concludes the Varsity report.

All there is left to say in closing is: