-_-Sacred-_-

So we had this new update for Valve’s Portal which said, “Changed radio transmission frequency to comply with federal and state spectrum management regulations.” Which I personally thought was an ode to eventual conversion to HD Radio since the US recently did the over-the-air TV switch. Apparently, there was more to it than that.

The Theory Thread

The above link will take you to Steam’s Forums where a 50+ page thread has been going to try to distinguish exactly what is going on. Long story short, Valve is taking a note from the Lost alternate reality web based interactive drama that was done about 2 years ago by inserting several small hints around which lead to your next hint. This makes for a very technical and puzzle filled game of hide-and-go-seek as it were.

So what has been found so far? Well, there were 12 radios added into the game, all apparently broadcasting morse code and help in unlocking a new achievement. If you use the codes you can generate a number which connects to a modem. The modem is connected to a BBS system which runs under the host name of GLaDOS. And as of posting this, someone on the Something Awful forums just got into the BBS and the following popped up:

So, what does it all mean? Well, some have thought that it might be the distress code from the Borealis though this seems unlikely as Portal is highly believed to be farther back in the past than that. So what could it be?

Honestly, from a lore perspective, I would guess this would be a distress signal from the government after ‘The Incident’ with Gordon Freeman in the test lab. Yes, all the way back to the first game. Why would they have us go back to the first game you may wonder. From a lore perspective, this shows exactly what our new ‘cyborg’ friend was up to during the first game and what exactly happened to Aperture Science, maybe even giving some hints as to why Glados went nuts and killed everyone.

Code Black, No One Survives!

Aperture Science worked with the government on a regular basis and infact competed with Black Mesa for the defense contract. They won and as such were given everything they could have ever wanted and more. Black Mesa was like the red-headed stepchild of the science world at the time. They had the stereotypical underground bunker, the failing rate equal to that of any US president in the last decade and security officers that looked like they were the scientists that got kicked out for receiving Cs in college.

In the second game you find out that you were more or less set up by your administrator to open a portal to Zen and bring upon the Combine Wars. It was originally portrayed that by destroying most of the world, Breen could rise to power and be ambassador to the Combine. This in turn took out both Black Mesa and Aperture Science. So…

It’s a bit of a stretch but I wouldn’t put it past Valve to do this, what if the G-Man was owner of both companies? What if he set Glados up to wipe everyone out and then in turn saved 2 people to clean up the mess? Ofcourse this being Gordon Freeman and Chell, one male and one female, ofcourse. Which would start to imply that they may have really meant to kill off Alyx in Episode 2 but pulled from the idea after the critical fan reaction. So if Aperture Science was wiped out by a remote command and Black Mesa was wiped out by the government trying to contain the alien out break, where’s the connection?

I See Dead People

One of the easiest explanations would be that the G-Man is a very evil ‘man’ (I still fully believe he is from Zen or Zan) and is using everyone for his own enjoyment / profit. He has the power to more or less throw you in and out of stasis at will and only loses that power finally in Episode 2. Chell has yet to hear from him but that doesn’t mean she won’t. In a sense Glados is her version of the G-Man and from what little we’ve heard, Glados may still yet exist.

The other idea is that Breen started the alien out break with his agreement with the Combine and this sent a trigger to Aperture which in turn sent a trigger to the government. I’m honestly guessing they are throwing out Opposing Force and Blue Shift as cannon now since those weren’t made solely by Valve. Let’s face it, Shepherd ain’t coming back. So I’m gonna completely ignore any notion that the government were already on their way to Black Mesa and just happened to get caught in the alien attack.

Nostalgia Sells

So back to the original question, why go back to the start of the game? Well, they seem pretty adamant about bringing the story to a final conclusion with Episode 3 / Half-Life 3 (Cmon, taking this long to develop, it better not be another 6 hours killing spree), and they seem like they genuinely want to include Portal into the universe as an avid story arc. So bringing the game back to the start both shows the character and how she will be introduced in Episode 3 (I don’t think episode 3 will be released with portal 2) and give them plenty of back story time to work with until they’ve made enough portal gun games to saturate the market. It’s a marketing move in earnest when they decide that, “Hey, why not go back to the start and make Portal in the same time period. Just insert some memorable story elements every now and then to make the player believe that Gordon and Chell are in the same world.” (Ofcourse that not being a quote…)

I don’t blame Valve if they go this path, I’d do it too, to be honest. Finish up one of the best franchises ever and release 3-4 games instead of just one. So what does this mean for Episode 3? I think we still have a few years before it’s even announced. As for Portal 2, I think it will be coming next year most likely with a new story, multi-player (prob more of a competitive challenge mode instead of the deathmatch mode we are all hoping for) and a real level builder that is easy to use. Honestly, I don’t know if I’d pay $50 for another Portal game though, I’d probably end up pitching in with someone else, split the cost and pick it up on a Steam sale a few years down the line.

Thera

So coming in from Torrent Freak, we hear that Victoria Espinel is moving forward with plans to up the Anti-Piracy laws for the United States. These would include the creation of a special ‘anti-piracy’ task force in affiliation with the FBI, higher fines for civil cases and harsher punishment for criminal cases. Now, first I’d like to point out one thing, we are one of the most passive-aggressive countries in the world when it comes to our criminals. Someone kills someone, we defend them to our dying breath that they should not get the death penalty and instead should rot inside a jail cell for 60-80 years. But then a decade later, we notice they are wasting away and so we decide that we should educate them, give them a life of the outside world while still away from all the ’sane’ people. And then, every now-and-then, we get the bright idea to let one of these guys out to have a second chance and yet, we are amazed when three more people end up dead.

Yet when it comes to pirates, jay walkers, people who litter or even smokers, we bring out a gun ready to put them down right then and there. What the fuck people!?! Seriously, are you fucking retarded? Nevermind that, we live in America, course you are… Anyways, so we have this new idea that piracy is to blame for our economic crisis. Let’s look at their evidence, A. The economic crisis is around the world, so is piracy, B. Our crisis is bad, so is piracy, C. Must of been bad people to make a crisis, pirates are bad! Seriously, that’s about all the evidence they have, sure they have the ’statistics’ from the RIAA and the MPAA but as seen, time after time, those statistics are about as accurate as Jay Leno’s jokes are funny… Oh, too soon?

We Want Your Opinion *cough*NOT*cough*

And to add insult to injury, they are now asking for the public’s response in what Obama keeps spouting as a transparent administration. Ya know, if it were so transparent, why are we still dealing with ACTA? Why are we still holding secret meetings between the vice-president and several AP Lobbyist? Why are the media told to blacklight stories that they posted? Do you really think that your facade of giving two shits is gonna make up for all of the behind-the-curtain activities you have performed without our, the citizens of the United States, approval? This nation was made by the people and for the people. We are the ones that matter, not your presidential cabinet and lobbyists that pay you off so handsomely. We are your source of power.

Row Row, Fight The Powah

So in a 1970s style tyraid to ‘Fight The Power’, I’d like all of you to head on over to the Pirate Party – US site, and fill out the form there. This will send out an email in your name via proxy. I also ask you to contact your senators and congressman along with Intellectual Property Enforcement at (202) 395-1808.

OBJECTION!

Let them know that copyright laws are already complete bollocks and we will not stand to see them get any bigger or worse. Do your research, show them that the economy is not in shambles because of piracy but rather a failed globalization of the marketplace along with the aftermath of corruption in several of the largest businesses in the stock market. Don’t let them use piracy as a scape-goat like the media industry does, it just doesn’t work and won’t make for a better tomorrow. Show them that even with harsher penalties, it will not help our government, economy or public morale. (Mainly because no one can afford the ones we have now, let alone harsher ones) And finally, show how their definition of piracy (copying and sharing of copyrighted content through unauthorized means, yes that even includes ripping CDs and putting the music on your I-Pod in many cases) is not harmful and infact can be beneficial as a tool to help spread knowledge of their product and that it can be a great marketing tool.

Famous Last Words (what I’m not gonna be struck down by god for this article?)

Remember, music and books were originally public domain, words are simply words, sounds are simply sounds, who should have the right to tell you what you can and can’t do with your media that combines both?

Dave

O get off it already, you knew I was going to write about it, so put up with it! For those just tuning in, there was a bit of internet DRAMA today where apparently people thought bullying was cool… Let me tell you, it FUCKING AINT!

So I’m not going into the whole story, giving names (you know who you are anyways) or even telling you much on the situation, but I am going to delve into what the fuck these idiots were thinking and why they need to find better things to do with their goddamn bloody time!

I Have Standards

So a fairly well known podcast host who is married to another, fairly well known podcast host posted a story about his standards and how he, more or less, ignored people if they broke those standards. It’s a list of typical stuff that most normal people find mildly offensive. He more or less said that it was easier and safer to ban and ignore these people than to put up with their crazy asses, and to a point, I completely agree.

Seems harmless, right? His site, his blog, his standards… Yea well apparently some ass wipes wanted to try making a mockery of this post and started, not only bullying him on twitter in comments but then getting others involved. For one individual, this was completely against everything he had talked about on a podcast less than a week ago. Hypocritical right?

Lashing Back

The problem with being attacked is that most people attack back, whether aggressively or passively. The problem on this front was that these people were not only banned, but were then being redirected to a rather vulgar site. This was a bit too far, I’ll be honest with you, if your skin isn’t thick enough to fight back without a tactic like that, then your so called standards just dropped in meaning. Whatever the case, this kept going on for hours.

I finally contact his wife via Twitter and go WTF is going on? Which then got her involved and it more or less ended from there on out.

Harassment Isn’t Fucking Cool

Ya know, I’ll admit, straight out that you can call me a hypocrite for posting this article. I have harassed people, I’ve fought back on several occasions, and hell I made one kid cry and I’ve curled up in a ball and wanted to cry myself. The point is that, no matter what side you are on, it ain’t worth it and it ain’t fucking cool. We are a growing people, we learn (atleast most of us do), and we do stupid things to learn from those dumb moves. If we were all perfect, we’d be bloody boring as hell and probably as dumb as a brick. But we do have to think of others. Most of the people involved today were well matured into what should be adults, but acted little more than children on a playset.

That’s disappointing at best, and to be a fan of atleast 3 of the involved is hard to swallow. We’ve seen it before, 2 shows going at it in some marketing deal but this was anything but some marketing deal, this was real-life, bull shit bullying of the lowest possible degree. And honestly, even though public relations mean shit today, I’m not sure I can even listen to the guy who was being a dick today or not. And what pains me even more is that little was learned from this, most of them just shrugged it off.

Whether we want to admit it or not, we are all humans, behind that text is a person and we have to remember that. They may or may not have a thick skin, they may or may not come back at you and they may or may not go completely nut-o if you touch their buttons. From a safety position, it’s just as dangerous to post a blog entry as it is to post a comment. A blog entry puts your heart on the line (unless you are a news blog) and allows others to look at your weak points. Posting a comment is like firing a gun; the bullet could be made of chocolate or can be made of fiery magma. If the person is as crazy as you believe, you can expect a visit at your house eventually.

Why Care?

So why even give 2 shits? Mainly because we are human, we have one giant thing in common and that is that we all have feelings. (OMG I said the F-Bomb) Honestly, as much as I rant and rave to entertain others, I’m not like that in real life. Most likely you’ll see that in my new show. Sure, I like to give a good show and enjoy my hobby (hell I even help other people out with my charity work), but I’m not gonna give up my humanity just yet.

I will find it interesting whether I make the standards or not. If I do, cool, maybe I’ll continue to interact with this couple more than just listen to their show, if not, o well, plenty more people to have fun with. Wouldn’t be the first nor the last person to ban me from their internet life.

Thera

This is a reminder that we will be attempting a live broadcast of The Sacred Podcast Season 5 today at 4pm EST, 9pm GMT. Embed is below…

Thera

Yes, I’ve finally gotten my ass in gear to post Season 4 in it’s entirety. Let this also serve as an announcement that we are COMPLETELY DONE, with Podbean. I will probably rant more on their lack of service, ineptitude when it comes to professional behavior and why you should stay the bloody hell away from them at all costs, later tomm when SEASON 5 PREMIERS!

Yes, it will be awesome! So join me tomm around 4pm EST for fun, excitement and perhaps a guest, hmm? We will be attempting to stream live on UStream though it may not work out. If not, you can catch the archive later this week.

Thera

Oh the age-old question of, “How to turn a pirate ’scum-bag’ into a legitimate consumer?” The answer is pretty simple, give them what they want. Pirates want 3 major things, they want media THEIR way (mp3’s with no DRM), they want unhindered access to the media (none of these bogus restrictions) and they want to be able to share it (friends, family, fans). That’s it! Some may say, “And we also want it for free!” but fuck those guys, seriously, those aren’t potential customers, those are the freeloaders that have given ‘pirates’ such a bad name to start with. A reasonable person is willing to pay to have the above demands made if the price is right.

Come on Down!

So the question is, what is the right price? How to make it affordable, profitable and marketable? First step is to look at your costs, ACTUAL costs! Not some bogus number like, $25,000 to share 100 songs, that’s bull shit and you know it. Let’s say that for 100 songs, it costs you $200 to share it with 1000 people. That includes royalties and resources to share. So you take that $200 and you figure that at $.50 a week, you’d broken even right? So that makes it $2 a month. Now, most people are willing to pay between $5-10 just to have their musicy goodness. So you raise it up to $5 a month at first, you are now making $3 profit per person, per month!

Music gets shared? Big deal! As long as there’s something to pull them back into their sub for more, they won’t cancel. Sure, many will ignore the whole thing, but let’s face it, you’re never gonna get money from those guys anyways. Focus on the people that are willing to support you, give us better options, more features and better communication with artists and the community at large. Put the music back in the hands of the people, let them choose how they deal with their music and stop wasting, not only your money but our tax dollars on shit that is pointless to go after. Seriously, piracy ISN’T the reason the economy is in the crapper, large companies who broke the law is why that happened. So stop blaming piracy on everything, stop trying to cure it! Try to make an alternative that most people will look at and want to support.

Thera

So, as I posted on Twitter, Knights at the Roxbury finally fell this last week. After 9 months together, tensions finally boiled over to the point of Officers being kicked and the guild disbanding in less that 4 hours. It really is a testament to how derivative Wrath has made us. Let’s face it, Wrath has to be noted as one of the best, worst expansions in MMO history. I say best, because it brought many features that we liked, including a great leveling experience, but worst because of how end game was portrayed. We went through 4 iterations of how raids were ’supposed’ to work.

Iteration One, Bring the Player, Not the Class / 10 Easy, 25 Hard

Originally they were all gungho about the BTPNTC thing that they ended up forgetting what was really important, making things fun. Many of the encounters in Naxx were dumbed down to the point of instant steam-rolling pleasure that many ignore those first months of raiding. Then they flaunted their “hard” mode on Sarth 3D which, I will admit was a very, very nice encounter. I still have yet to find enough competent people to pull it off. But the problem was that they were also awarding BETTER gear for 25 man over 10 man, which was setting the standard that 10 MUST be easier, right? Sarth 3D and in some cases, Saph, Maly and even KT 10man were HARDER than the 25man encounter.

Iteration Two, Hard Modes

I won’t bash Ulduar, because, let’s face it, Ulduar IS the best instance up til now. They introduced ‘Hard Modes’ which is something that I was COMPLETELY against and stated several times, “Would never work in a million years!” Well they proved me wrong and I ate my words live on air. The problem was that as guilds progressed through Uld, they would start to attempt hard modes and some succeeded. But Blizz didn’t want that, so they kept buffing hard modes to where they are today. There is such a gap that middle core raids can’t really expect to complete hard-modes without being obtusely overgeared.

Iteration Three, Forced Binary Hard Modes w/ Attempts / THE ALMIGHTY BADGE CHANGE

Binary hard-modes were the worst invention EVER! Encounters were either filled with face-rolling boredom or would smash your raid up against a wall, rape everyone one-by-one, would steal your wallet through repair bills and everyone would be told that they sucked and to, “NEVER COMEBACK… BITCH!” Ok, so maybe that was a little harsh, but seriously with such a gap and a limited amount of tries to complete the encounter, there was little reason to try if more than 3-4 people in your raid sucked. One other thing happened, which was the dreaded badge change. This single change was more or less a complete gear reset to T8.

Iteration 4, Oooook, You Want Hard, We’ll Give You Hard, After You Do 3 MONTHS of Normal! / Badge Change Pt 2

So, yea, now we are at ICC. I wrote about how certain roles, specifically healers are more or less being told to GTFO because Blizz decided the encounter should require a variety of classes. Guess what Blizz, most guilds struggle to find just enough of a certain role! Why force them to find a certain class role combo? OY! The other big thing was that the badge change continued, resetting EVERYONE with half a brain to T9. It’s the final straw for many guilds, atleast 4 of the top 10 guilds on my realm have closed up shop since ICC hit. We are talking some of the best of the best too, Knights was rated as 9th US, History of Violence was 14th… Now these guilds are GONE, POOF, BLAM-O!

Recap

So here we are, we’ve been through Easy Mode raiding – Hard Modes – Forced Binary Modes / Badge Reset – Force Class Spec Combos / EVERYONE GETS T9!

If your guild is still alive, be proud and have a back-up! Cause your guild is a ticking time-bomb in Wrath, and god knows when it will blow up!

So let’s face it, when we all heard the pick the player not the class bull shit back in 2008, we knew it was too go to work fully. This has come to fruition with lack luster raid content (Ulduar being an awkward exemption) and now the loss of the philosophy entirely in Icecrown Citadel. Now, for people that have yet to hear the whole hubub about ICC and how it is pissing some classes and specs off and yet others are calling it “too easy”, let’s wise up a minute.

First Wing, Easy Wing, Buffalo Wing

You ever hear the thought that Buffalos (Bison to some) are scarier than they actually are? They are rather big, but in all actuality, they are little more threatening than a bull, and, at least in America, we have plenty of idiots willing to go tooth-to-tooth with a bull. Well, that dragged out analogy fits with the first wing of ICC as well. You have Lord Marrowgar and Lady Deathwhisper, basic encounters that are fairly simple and easy to do. You then have The Gunship Battle which is more of a loot piñata than anything else. And then you have your first challenge, even though most are claiming this as little challenge. The problem here is that they kept with their previous ideals of make the first encounters easy. Though this does work as an entry for progression, it does make one wonder why they didn’t just make the gear available for badges, you know, instead of giving us more horribly overpowered crap for doing some dailies.

Second Wing, Same As The First, A Little Bit Harder and a Little Bit Worse

So the problem started to arise in the 2nd wing, encounters started to ramp up in difficulty and it became less an issue of difficulty than class viability. It was August of 2008 and we were min-maxing classes all over again. Seriously, Blizz said this was all taken care of, that classes wouldn’t be inherently better, let alone be a requirement.

So, you might remember that I wrote an article last week based on the announced closing of WC Radio and how little information had been given as to the light of such events. Since then, more information has been gathered and I find it my responsibility and duty to not only correct this but eat my own shoe as it were. It was pointed out recently via Emperor1G host of the Emperor’s Court that much of this John aka Totalbiscuit hatred was misplaced and that this had actually been in the works for months upon months. Infact if anyone is to blame for shows falling by the wayside it is probably that of the hosts themselves, letting time slip out of their grasp.

Now, even though Emperor has yet to make any final decisions on his show in particular (aka the one I’m hoping finds a new home), many others have. Several shows are moving to their new home on the Original Media For Gamers label. Totalbiscuit is starting his site anew at Cynical Brit and others are bound to come with news in the coming weeks. As an avid fan and supporter of everything that has been a result of WC Radio, I will continue to update with posts. If you want to check to see if there is any news that I may have missed, head on over to WC Radio’s Homepage and check!

As for my previous post, I will make an update in the foot note and I apologize to TB and all the management over at WC Radio as they are probably being hounded with such nerd rage right now. They don’t need rant sites like mine, giving them more shit than is needed.

Thera

ALERT! WARNING! GO BACK!

This is the original post in all of it’s utter blasphemous glory. This post has misinformation and assumptions that have been clarified and or completely nullified. I alert all of you to take the following with a grain of salt and read the update to this post which is linked at the bottom. Enough practical reasoning has been given for the closing of their station to merit a huge ass warning up here. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!

Original Post

Aight, was gonna do a different type of post but screw it, I want to rant about controversial decisions. What brought this around was the announcement of WC Radio closing it’s doors at the end of January 2010. Now, I’ve been around the radio station for a while, and infact I started listening in earnest about 3 months after it came back the 2nd time (about 6 months after it first opened up). As Ron White would say, I’ve been around a while… You know I support just about everything they do, infact I’ve posted nearly 300+ stories that include something to do with WC Radio. So it came as a surprise that Totalbiscuit is closing it down.

Background

I’ve been an avid supporter since the start, sure I’d disappear and come back but the hosts they had were incredibly talented and their entertainment was top of the class, bar none! But over the last half year things were slowly changing, we had shows that started to branch out, shows leave the station entirely, the banning of any live broadcasting during Blizzcon (for the panels) and the site was attacked several times by script kiddies. The station has taken the highest of praise and lowest of scutiny from just about everyone, their brother, their brother’s sister and their brother’s sister’s dead cow…

For those who weren’t around at the start, the station was originally owned and operated by a man known as Athalus. infact you can read an Abridged History of WC Radio here. It was later decided that TB would become station owner with his wife as co-owner. Year after year, the station both flourished and perished, riding the perpetual rollercoaster of internet radio. They have seen everything from exclusive access to Blizzard resources to having their own staff attempt sabotage to the station. Needless to say, it was a bumpy ride for all involved, listener and staff alike.

Sir Deathwhisper

But now comes the end of an era as TB put it in his Twitter feed. And it is a little disturbing on just how sudden it came and just how little information we know. Originally I had thought that this had been a planned closing and that all of the staff were knowledgeable about this and that everything would transition over smoothly. Now, thanks to Emperor1G from the Emperor’s Court, we have been notified otherwise. Apparently, this WASN’T known by all of the staff at all and several are wondering what the hell to do. And all though it is the vocal minority right now, it is interesting that even the donators have no knowledge. I donated to help the station blossom, and now it is closing? Rose more than eyebrows myself. Now, I’m not calling TB a thief and infact I think the exact opposite. I fully believe that the cost of operating the site had flown away from what little income they had generated. But needless, this was never communicated to listeners or donators. Infact they were taking donations at a per show basis called the ‘Tip Jar’ which was to help the hosts themselves.

NERD RAGE ZOMG

So what the hell? I’m asking the same question that many listeners are asking and apparently a few host are asking, “What the bloody hell happened that needed such drastic action?” Seriously! What the hell would be so bad that they were compelled to shut it down? It makes no sense! I mean obviously there is a reason and it isn’t being told, by anyone! And unlike someone getting fired from a volunteer organization, this isn’t something that most companies keep hidden away in a chest. If it was money, just say so! If it was that the staff were burnt out from time and effort needed, then let us know! I’m just shocked at how secretive this is being performed. It’s not a big deal! Hell even if the RIAA were suing them due to royalties not being paid or some shit like that, it ain’t that big a deal. Thousands of companies are being affected by that right now.

I guess my own feelings on this are that the listeners deserve answers. This needs some type of justification. Sure, it’s their site, they do whatever they want, but ya know, when you are such a big site with this many fans, you have certain obligations. Otherwise, you just ruin your own reputation. And I know TB has no problem with that, but it’s gonna hurt the rest of the shows later too. Everyone will hear them and the first thought they will think is, “Oh, you were on that old radio station that died for no reason.”

Just Add 2 Cups of Reasoning

If there is a reason posted, I will gladly change this post to reflect that they did come out to inform the listener base but for right now, this is a rant on controversial decisions.

Thera

Edit

There has been an update to this story, rather than edit this one, I made an entirely new post. Refer to: Sacred Status: WC Radio More Explained.