Month: November 2017

Not the Type of Detective Movie I Expect – Murder on the Orient Express Review

For a fair amount of times watching the advertisement of this movie, it got me really interested for a go.

After this bland 120 minutes, my instinct was proved wrong.

The directing really sucks. Basically, in the first half of the movie, many scenes looked so forced. How the victim died; how the detective entered the room full of suspects and announced the tragedy; and how the train manager (called Brook I suppose?) was so appalled there was a dead body in the cabin, etc. None of these sequences are natural, they all look like actors are trying their best to simulate a murder scene and react as “supposed to”. There didn’t seem like anything that is a genuine and normal reaction but all forced upon. ...READ MORE

Some Thoughts for a Startup

Yesterday I have talked with a business owner who has run his business for 15 years.

The business is of medium size, not a corporation but a manufacture company with its production chains and a warehouse.

I asked the owner about the ideas of startups, how recent young entrepreneurs should do and know before they start a business. And combining with my own mere knowledge and experience, I have concluded the foundation of a startup. ...READ MORE

Book Recommendation: Blood, Sweat, and Pixels by Jason Schreier

This book might as well could be the contemporary analysis and reports for video game industry, and a very thorough and well crafted one.

The author Jason Schreier (News Editor on Kotaku) is a credible writer very active and popular on Kotaku.com.

Blood, Sweat and Pixels dissects thoroughly on the lives of thousands of developers and studios. A very “vertical slice” of video game industry itself. ...READ MORE

Books

I never really talked about this before.

Many people stressed about the importance of books. Books, today, have changed much since decades ago, by fully embracing the digital world.

Book to me, is merely a carrier of information. In the old times, old people would always tell you that reading books is healthy for life. Right now, the way I read books and think about books has definitely changed over time. ...READ MORE

Some Feelings from the Recent Internet Ban in China

Strange.

In the second half of 2017, China’s Internet to outside ports start to have much slower speed. Knowing that government policies are changing and Chairman Xi is imposing a total net ban–gradually reducing the fluidity of Internet and closing ports, shutting down VPN companies in China.

Allegedly, from Bloomberg’s report, China is going to have a full VPN shutdown in the first half of coming year. ...READ MORE

Realism in a Game

Often times whenever people are playing games, one question would often come in mind–how close is it to reality?

Coming from reality to games, people oftentimes would bring their own experiences to the game, and form their own particular behaviors and reactions towards the game world.

A very old post from Obsidian studio caught my eyes on talking about this subject, which is a pretty solid view on how game designers and level designers view game balances for realism and fun. ...READ MORE

Oligopoly

For a few handful of corporations or companies, they dominate a certain industry and co-exist peacefully. They are existing individually, but act as a same group, because they have the same goal.

Oligopoly is a word that only appears after the Industrial Revolution, only after that corporations start to show up and dominate the daily life. And apparently this word fits into English speaking countries very well. ...READ MORE