UnReal World: URW Review

Finland, the iron age. A time before medieval rule, kingdoms, or warlords even knew Finland existed. Pagan gods were the only rulers, and free tribes roamed the wilderness, often on the knifes edge between prosperity and death. UnReal World, or simply URW, is a harsh reminder of how difficult and uncontrollable life was, and still is for people living in the 'wild'.

URW is a work in progress available for public beta and pre-purchase, created by two absolutely hardcore Finn dudes. Sami Maaranen and Erkka Lehmus are not only programmers, but do this survivalist stuff for real. Erkka lives full time in a self-sustaining country collective (like one of those 'pilgrim experience' villages you probably went on a field trip to, only full time and for real). He has a degree in theoretical philosophy, whatever that is. Sami is a pen-and-paper RPGer that spent most of his childhood running around the forests, making his own bows, and later, immersing himself in primitive survival and craftsman skills. He's also the head programmer, working on machines about a decade old.

URW is a RPG, similar to a dungeon crawler, only you're not, y'know, in a dungeon. The interface is not the easiest thing in the world to pick up, but the extensive encyclopedia and in-game help will have you familiar with things within a few play-through. And yes, you will be playing through this game quite a few times. The free demo version gives you six in-game days to survive. You'll be lucky to survive more then two on your first few tries. However, URW is not a game that's trying to kill you. It's more of a case of you failing to survive.

The game is quite realistic, and some people may be turned off by that. You need to be constantly wary of food, water, and shelter. Animals are not generally actively aggressive (unless you walk right into them), but be wary. You can be killed by a squirrel if it scores a particularly lucky hit. Take it from me, squirrel bites freaking hurt.

Character creation is quite in-depth, allowing you to choose a tribal affiliation (which effects starting 'skill' stats), physical and mental stats (determines by random dice roll, but don't worry, you have endless re-rolls), and then five specialization categories, where you can improve your starting skills.

The graphics are simple, but we are not here for pretty pictures. The complexity and depth of the game is the draw, as is the unique nature of it. Where many survival games are very linear, URW is completely open-ended. You can hunker down and build a house on the edge of a lovely pond and farm turnips, or go a-questing for adventure, burning villages down, slaughtering cattle, and finding interesting ways to die. Games can last a few minutes, or many, many hours of play-time.

The game's web page is simple, but gives you all the necessary info. Thoth's URW page is a fan-made FAQ and information site, that also includes a custom tile set should you feel like changing the graphics around a bit. The forums are active, and quite helpful if you have any questions.

By the end of this post I will be able to spell sciatica properly

The Sciatic nerve is a large nerve that resides in, and is a massive pain in the ass. That is, when the damn thing is acting up. Most of the time for most people, it's just another functional part of the nervous system.

But hell hath no fury like a sciatic nerve scorned (or inflamed).

See, I've got a bad back. It's a good month when part of it is not hurting. Usually, it's the upper back that kills me, but for the past month, I've been experiencing pain that would be most accurately explained as 'stabbing'.

Imagine that by some terrible and ill-planned decision, you've had a wire strung through your lower back to your upper thigh. Now, imagine that every time you bend, sneeze, try to get out of a chair, sit in one position for more then five minutes, or anything else that requires the full participation of your spine, the wire is electrified.

I am fortunate to have an excellent chiropractor, one that is not a quack/jerk/insane. She is also a very understanding chiropractor, making appointments for me on her days off, odd times of day and night, and other such favors.

Eight and a half hours until I see said chiropractor. 10am cant come soon enough.

Those Rascaly RIAAites

Download Uproar: Record Industry Goes After Personal Use

It seems that RIAA is finding new and innovative ways to sue people. Apparently, now copying your CDs onto ITunes is now against RIAAlaw. Never mind that ITunes actively encourages you to do it. Here's the case in a nutshell.

Now, in an unusual case in which an Arizona recipient of an RIAA letter has fought back in court rather than write a check to avoid hefty legal fees, the industry is taking its argument against music sharing one step further: In legal documents in its federal case against Jeffrey Howell, a Scottsdale, Ariz., man who kept a collection of about 2,000 music recordings on his personal computer, the industry maintains that it is illegal for someone who has legally purchased a CD to transfer that music into his computer.

So, theoretically, if I bought a bunch of used Lords Of Acid CDs off of Ebay and then uploaded them onto my computer, and then sent one song to a friend for his listening pleasure (and to prove how good the Lords Of Acid are), the RIAA would consider me along the lines of a child molesting rapist murderer. The seller of CDs would be charged with unauthorized re-distributing of copyright material, I would be charged with making unauthorized copies with the intent to re-distribute, and my friend would become linked to a horrible terrorist-run ring of music pirates or something.

The Howell case was not the first time the industry has argued that making a personal copy from a legally purchased CD is illegal. At the Thomas trial in Minnesota, Sony BMG's chief of litigation, Jennifer Pariser, testified that "when an individual makes a copy of a song for himself, I suppose we can say he stole a song." Copying a song you bought is "a nice way of saying 'steals just one copy,' " she said.

So, back in the days of boot disks and backup copies of Windows, we were stealing right out of Bill Gates pocket? Ol' William must be a kinder soul then we originally thought, letting us ragamuffins pickpocket him with nary a complaint.

But lawyers for consumers point to a series of court rulings over the last few decades that found no violation of copyright law in the use of VCRs and other devices to time-shift TV programs; that is, to make personal copies for the purpose of making portable a legally obtained recording.

So then what the hell are we arguing about?

The RIAA's legal crusade against its customers is a classic example of an old media company clinging to a business model that has collapsed. Four years of a failed strategy has only "created a whole market of people who specifically look to buy independent goods so as not to deal with the big record companies," Beckerman says. "Every problem they're trying to solve is worse now than when they started."

In a nutshell, RIAA is trying to sue it's way into survival. There's nothing I can say that has not already been said on the issue of RIAA being a corporate dinosaur. Now, all we can really do is watch them flounder in the pleistocene tar pits of the media age.