The Empirical Manifesto

# apt-get install frotz uudeview (macOS brew install frotz uudeview)
# uudeview -I [game].hqx
# frotz [game]



^{https://archive.info-mac.org/game/}

There's probably something fundamentally wrong with me. What that might be, I have no idea. I got my first PC in 1995 - a "clone" as anything not manufactured by IBM was called back then, this one an HP Pavilion with a whopping 16MB of RAM and a 1.6GB hard drive. It came pre-installed with the newest operating system, Windows 95. To afford the $3200 price tag, I opened a Best Buy credit card and told myself if it helped me get an IT job when I separated from the Air Force, I would never begrudge the cost.

Being brand new to PCs, Windows operating systems, and pre-installed apps, I became preternaturally fascinated with the ability to cut and paste images from one photograph into another with the random pre-installed graphics manipulator which came bundled with my PC. One day after work I took a 5x8 photograph of my supervisor accepting an award out of its frame on his desk and ran over to a friend's house who owned a parallel port scanner and wrote the enormous TIF file to my Zip drive, quickly returning the photo to its proper place that evening. That Christmas, I slid a beautiful print of him shaking hands with Santa, the award now reading, "Merry Christmas." That was the beginning of the end for me.

As these things sometimes play out, younger me escalated both the frequency, and absurdity of my new pastime, touching on all manner of controversial topics at the time - through imagery - to the point I was threatened with being officially admonished if I didn't cease my shenanigans.

Then, in 1996 I was given a pirated copy of Adobe Photoshop 4.0. You know the rest. Its the Year of our Lord 2022 and nothing has changed.

Global Chat and Online Forums are a wondrous, yet frightening thing; you can learn so many new ideas, helpful hints, and gain previously unthought of perspectives on a great many things while simultaneously discovering not only the worst of humanity, but also pervasive beliefs predicated on mind-blowing ignorance amidst a coalition of dismissing different, yet equally valid new or different perspectives. The dichotomy can be overwhelming to those who thrive on epistemology, and, if I'm being honest, likely comforting to those who don't. Then again, being able to perceive, acknowledge, understand, and practically apply the knowledge that some do, and some do not, seemingly further compounds the chasm between those who gleefully embrace completely radical ways of piecing disparate pieces together, and those who not only cannot, but willfully choose not to do so, for reasons they themselves do not even understand, even when others may, much to the chagrin of everyone involved. Unnecessarily long sentences asides, we not only see this same scenario played out over and over again from a global level, but all the way down to its microcosm in our own communities on a personal level. And it permeates everything.

I was reading a series of tweets recently which had challenged (for me) some fundamental truth in a way I'd never before considered. I found it radical, unsustainable, and foolish. I knew immediately which of my acquaintances would support it, which would balk at it, and of those two groups, which within each would either not know why they held the opinion they did, or would proffer to know absolutely and without question. Not knowing why you hold a opinion or knowing exactly why you hold an opinion both can be problematic if one is not open to questioning it, or worse, believing it is the only valid opinion. I wondered why I considered the tweet's subject fundamental, or unsustainable, or foolish - was it because that was all I knew? All I had ever experienced? Was it because of how I was raised? How my parents were raised? How their parents were raised? So much has changed in the last several hundred years and the last several hundred years before that I wondered why we still cling to demonstratively incorrect assumptions which may (or may not have) been valid generations prior. I still vacillate between willful ignorance or objective synthesis being key to intrinsic happiness. The answer is likely as varied as the opinions on the matter.

In that same vein, I've been playing a new video game. While every aspect of this game is distinctly incommensurable to the previous games I've played, a common thread amongst its base persists - there is only one way to play the game - their way; despite the innumerous combinations of gameplay or reasons for playing. On the surface, it is absolutely harmless to come across someone who hasn't yet pieced together the array of uniqueness from which is borne, among other results, true innovation. Or joy. Or satisfaction. Less harmless when that opinion is rooted in such a way it cannot be swayed with equally valid variations. Yet we run across it again and again and again in our families, our friends, our communities, and our (admittedly woefully limited) ascribed ideologies. But that's the thing about intrinsic happiness I suppose; some require variety, others, a prescribed, unalterable path. My concern isn't with that difference, rather those who believe theirs alone irrevocable/sacrosanct/incontrovertible.

For a rambling, disjointed list of a mix of both related, and unrelated reasons, I decided to play Dungeon Siege.

Found my DSII hardpack of discs, but not my DSI install disc. Its somewhere in the house. Went through a dozen or so boxes, couldn't find it, bought it on Steam for $7. Discovered some bright, enterprising person or persons has made available an (enormous) HIGH-DEF skin for it. I go to download that and it requires the first Expansion Pack, Legends of Aranna, which I also have somewhere in this house. I find the first install disc for the Expansion Pack in my DSII hardpack and can only assume the second install/play disc is in the DSI case - the one I cannot find. But! Knowing myself so very well, I pull out my trusty aged external with all my game ISOs on it, because I know I made backups of every physical media I own for times exactly like this. Including, of course the game I just bought on Steam for $7. Not quite as smart as I think I am as it turns out.

AT ANY RATE I have a mix of ISO and UIF on my backup drive and ye olde standby MagicISO stopped working on Windows awhile back so I look up how to convert UIF-to-ISO and apparently there's a tiny installable app named (oddly enough) UIF-to-ISO and it looks eerily familiar, so I bring up the Window search bar and sure enough it is already installed on my system, so yay, but apparently I also only have the first Expansion Pack disc as an UIF (now ISO) and not the SECOND disk. WTF is even wrong with me?

Clicked the VPN button in the address bar of Opera on my linux workstation and I'm suddenly sipping vodka in the Ukraine. I torrent (I know, I know) a cracked verison (its not like I already don't own this game twice) and pull down...three (3) disks??? All in *.mdf format. Thankfully I already have iat on a beefy box I made to convert SGI disk label *.img files (not that that worked):

root@beefy:/xfer/ds_loa/Disks# iat DISK1.mdf DISK1.iso
Iso9660 Analyzer Tool v0.1.3 by Salvatore Santagati
Licensed under GPL v2 or later

Detect Signature RAW at 2440
Detect Signature RAW at 4888
Detect Signature RAW at 7336
Detect Signature RAW at 9784
Detect Signature RAW at 12232
Detect Signature RAW at 14680
Detect Signature RAW at 17128
Detect Signature RAW at 19576
Detect Signature RAW at 22024
Detect Signature RAW at 24472
Detect Signature RAW at 26920
Detect Signature RAW at 29368
Detect Signature RAW at 31816
Detect Signature RAW at 34264
Detect Signature RAW at 36712
Detect Signature RAW at 39160
Detect Signature ISO9660 START at 39184
Detect Signature RAW at 41608
Detect Signature ISO9660 END at 41632

 Image offset start at 0
 Sector header 16 bit
 Sector ECC 384 bit
 Block 2448
 29% [:=====>               :]

Each ISO took under 60-seconds to create (beefy) and 20-seconds each to pull over to my Windows box using scp. The enormous HIGH-DEF mod-pack was behind one of those throttling sites unless you pay a fee, so I'll include that on my external with the ISOs when I decide to do this again in 10-years booting from Microsoft Windows Cloud^TM

At any rate, the game looks FANTASTIC at 1920x1080. I can't even imagine how much work had to go into that, but it looks fresh and nothing like the 2002 it looked like when I started.

---

https://www.wsgf.org/dr/dungeon-siege --> For more resolutions (ex.: 3440 x 1440. Have to HEXEDIT the .EXE file)
https://www.nexusmods.com/dungeonsiege1/mods/44?tab=files --> High resolution texture pack (5.7Gib)
https://www.pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/Glossary:Anisotropic_filtering_(AF) --> Force anisotropic filtering
https://www.moddb.com/games/dungeon-siege/addons/dungeon-siege-high-resolution-textures <-- Skip the paywall above (Thanks Leslie!)

In order to introduce GF to more RPGs, I loaded the first Dungeon Siege, Diablo II, and TERA on her computer. She chose TERA to start. SO BE IT! They have introduced a couple new classes since I last played; a human-only "brawler" and an elin-only "ninja."


I deleted my crosseyed Slayer to make room for her

To say the latest chapter in Pirate101 is challenging is an understatement. Its worse than the Magnificent Seven promotion quests. Especially the ophidians, which goes something like this:

EPIC HIT
RELENTLESS --> EPIC HIT
RELENTLESS --> EPIC HIT
BLADE STORM --> EPIC HIT
BLADE STORM --> EPIC HIT
RELENTLESS --> EPIC HIT

Dead Pirate.

Playing the choose-your-own-adventure MMORPG Star Wars: The Old Republic gives one the opportunity to amass "light side" or "dark side" points which affects one's alignment, and ultimately, gameplay. When partied up, my son and I often review the possible responses together, and discuss reasons for our potential choice - as they are often not as black and white as one might expect. Sometimes the alignment is affected by choosing a path which goes against what an authority figure expects us to do, while other times it comes down to our own moral code on what we believe the correct action should be. In some cases, doing what we're told goes against what we feel is right. Much like in the real world, we have to live with the consequences of our actions. Unlike the real world however, an unknown mediator levies real-time judgement upon us at every interaction. Who indeed has the ultimate authority to point our moral compass, and why?

In discussions with my son - especially when we disagree upon a course of action - we seek to understand each other's point of view for making disparate choices. What constitutes a "right" or "wrong" choice? Sometimes its as simple as not wanting to be rude - marginalizing someone different than ourselves or endeavoring to make ourselves appear better than someone else at their expense, or a desire to help someone less fortunate than ourselves. Other times however, its not that simplistic - We may be motivated by our own interests; elevating ourselves. But making short-term morally suspect decisions in order to fulfill a larger "end to a means" morally sound outcome is an age-old argument which limits creativity, so when, if ever, is it acceptable?

Moral absolutists may consider moral relativists nothing more than undisciplined (or liberal) absolutists perhaps because they have a singular starting point of origin and no usable process in which to decouple that belief. Similarly, relativists may eschew absolutism as archaic without perhaps a solid understanding of the universal concepts encompassing both - not that I would dare attempt to simplistically air both sides of an ages-old argument. Some believe applying absolutes more broadly will lead to peace on earth^[1] while others believe that can only be achieved through less dichotomous thinking.^[2] One might in fact take time to ponder the inherent complexity of the two sides as to why disagreement exists rather than just assuming their upbringing instilled a special understanding in themselves and everyone else is wrong or evil (or that evil is the only true path to moral absolution). Confirmation bias is a powerfully magical ingredient in personal empirical studies when one is trying to prove themselves correct.

So my son and I end up doing what every one does, we weigh the variables in a sort of equation. Address our own needs, compare our altruistic goals against our selfish desires - look at the costs and rewards of our actions - ask ourselves if we are acting out of doing no harm or avoiding harm, and deciding how far out of societal norms or our own comfort zone we wish to extend ourselves, look back to see if there is a pattern of outcomes from previous choices we've made before acting.

Because it is a game, we can give in to, or dismiss empathy. We can allow ourselves to respond to emotion over reason depending upon our mood with far less consequence than in the real world. The important thing, I think, is that we do acknowledge it is a choice, and strive to make the best one with the tools we've been given, just like in real life.

So I'm not really playing a new MMORPG, but my son is. And he really wanted me to play alongside him. So after a week or so, I created an account and we've been questing together, first as Republic Troopers, and later as Jedi Knights.

He got a subscription early on, and I decided I would just purchase what I needed through in-game cash. Problem is, even logging in as me, Bioware sent my credit card purchase to my son's account. Which is totally ok, if they would let me submit a trouble ticket. But they won't! BECAUSE I'M NOT A SUBSCRIBER???

Good God.

I had my son submit the ticket.

michelle1963, I keep trying to get these to you - thought I could do so parcel post, but alas. They can't be stored in the guild bank so I'm hoping "no trade" means no brokerage and not that we can't exchange them individually.

I imagine there are numerous reasons people on player-versus-player (PVP) game servers battle one another, both surreptitiously and through subterfuge, and overtly with apparent declarations - the variety of which also accounts for my own presence there, despite never being the aggressor. I employ a pay-it-forward outlook, assisting and helping others where I can, never interfering with another's quest. There are those who believe however, that presence alone on a PVP server is a license to asshole. So be it.

These types generally generate a pervasive noise on chat, ceaselessly extolling their own virtues, all the while bullying other players. I never interact with their drama unless I myself am killed, and even then, I do so silently.

The odd thing about these individuals is their uncanny ignorance of game-mechanics; the same game they're currently playing. My low-level character is rarely the only character on the server. There's nothing quite like signing off after I've been killed, logging back in as my level 60 reaper, hunting them down, killing them in the midst of their show-off, then logging in again as my lowbie continuing to play as if uninterrupted. Watching their varied and punctuated reactions is always amusing. As is ignoring their verbose taunts and immature name calling.

I love being an adult.