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CC Dispatch [128] Do You Think He Envisions Scenarios?

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Re: CC Dispatch [128] Do You Think He Envisions Scenarios?

Postby angola on Sun Dec 21, 2014 5:39 am

TPA Update, angola, Issue 44, March 22, 2011.

I have written a lot of articles in my lifetime - and some have appeared in large publications throughout North America - but I have rarely written anything as boring as my first article for the CC Dispatch:

The TPA (Tournament Players Association) has seen little movement atop the Scoreboard since the last issue. sonicsteve continues to lead with 23.06 points. Bones2484 is second with 18.52 and HighlanderAttack is third with 18.18.
There was one tournament accepting signups when this was written. A terminator tournament titled "I Would Hate to be You" run by ralphcptc. Be sure to visit the Create/Join a Tournament area to sign up for future TPA events, which will be ending in the next two months.
New tournaments are posted on Mondays.


I definitely got more creative as time passed, but we all must start somewhere.

The best articles in the Dispatch that I remember were Master Fenrir's hilarious columns about the clan scene. I want to say they came out in the 2011 or 2012 era, but it all runs together for me.
Highest rank: 48th. Highest score: 3,384. Feb. 9, 2014.
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Re: CC Dispatch [128] Do You Think He Envisions Scenarios?

Postby -Maximus- on Sun Dec 21, 2014 9:43 am

Critic review attempt #2 (I was not the only person on the previous)

CC Dispatch [Issue 87: 16-1-2013] Cairns-Speak
Postby thehippo8 on Wed Jan 16, 2013 8:26 pm

The return of interviews! Interviews are a great addition to dispatches, it is interesting to learn more about some people.
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Re: CC Dispatch [128] Do You Think He Envisions Scenarios?

Postby dakky21 on Sun Dec 21, 2014 4:26 pm

And here goes my one liner since my English skills are not up to the task:

Dispatch Trivia - Round 1 of 10 by iAmCaffeine , Issue #104

Before this trivia by iAmCaffeine, I was barely reading the dispatch. When this contest started, I started to read each issue and look where that got me - successful organizer of the Guess The Map dispatch contest AND a TeamCC media volunteer!
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Re: CC Dispatch [128] Do You Think He Envisions Scenarios?

Postby ooge on Mon Dec 22, 2014 7:20 am

Dispatch critics contest.

CCdispatch{121} Guess the map-round 2.by dacky21

Having participated in round 1 of Guess the map it was the round 2 dispatch that I realized I have been hooked into this contest.Now it is round 9 and this contest has gotten HARD. Well done to Dacky21 in hosting this and good luck to those who have participated in this.
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Re: CC Dispatch [128] Do You Think He Envisions Scenarios?

Postby Leehar on Wed Dec 24, 2014 11:07 am

thelord wrote:Issue 13 gozarThe Tournament Roll of Honour
Here are some recent tournament winners.

”Point Grabbers Quadruples Edition” -barterer2002, Bones2484, Rogue Warrior, Jetpac
”Escalating Classic Tournament”- freyme
”Davis Cup”- qwert and Natewolfman
”’You’re Eliminated’ V”- BaldAdonis
”Can U Rule the World?”- acores2005
”Cairns Coral Coast Masters: Division 2”- Jay513
”Cairns Coral Coast Masters: Division 3”- Zemljanin
”Yanks vs Rebs”- V.I. and jiminski
”Feudal Wars Singles Tournament”- JCsolidrock
”Who Rules The House?”- Godd
”NHL League”- Clive
”North America vs. Europe vs. The World”- negoeien
”Going Down Under Tournament”- ^MsCarolyn^o

I went for the semi random approach. Issue 13 as it is vaguely unlucky. Also can not be scored with two intensity cubes. Article as I do not recognize a single name on the list as still playing! #Stampmeup

I'm certain Clive is still playing, and is in fact a TD now.
I see a few members of G1 there as well, although they do seem to have all retired

Thanks for the pic dakky.
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Re: CC Dispatch [128] Do You Think He Envisions Scenarios?

Postby Dukasaur on Fri Dec 26, 2014 1:01 am

People who qualify for the Newsletter stamp:

  1. Critics contest entries
      (name dayhourminute result)

      grt 150538 ok
      ooge 151100 notvalid
      josko.ri 151110 ok xtra
      King Tet 151158 ok
      SilverWill 151226 ok xtra
      Mad777 151505 notunique
      Bart-Jan 151520 ok
      harvmax 151944 ok
      Silly Knig-it 161433 ok
      sempaispellcheck 161505 ok xtra
      hwhrhett 161544 ok
      Jdsizzleslice 161706 ok
      thelord 162200 ok xtra
      hopalong 170029 ok xtra
      mookiemcgee 170036 ok xtra
      stealth99 171805 ok xtra
      -Maximus- 181409 notunique
      the warrior65 200631 ok
      angola 210639 ok xtra
      -Maximus- 211043 ok
      dakky21 211726 ok
      ooge 220820 ok

      xtra= people who will be considered for xtra prizes.
  2. Guess the Map Contest
      (name dayhourminute)

      grt 151135
      Mayville 161939
      cooldeals 171445
      Ffraid 172205
      Swifte 181428
      Tripitaka 222003
      Serbia 222112
      Flow520 231415
      jonofperu 241051
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Re: CC Dispatch [128] Do You Think He Envisions Scenarios?

Postby Mad777 on Fri Dec 26, 2014 8:36 am

Since my topic was already taken I'm posting another which I think hasn't been brought up yet and I remember enjoyed to see that craziness with the 200th tournament of HA;

CC Dispatch [Issue 42: 8-2-11] eddie & the players

Section interview with HA.....

This tournament was just insane! :D

I couldn't believe seeing that much player in one tournament, this will be hard to beat for sure, crazy challenge from HA but he did just fine!

(Hoping this is a good choice in order to get my stamp 8-) )
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Re: CC Dispatch [128] Do You Think He Envisions Scenarios?

Postby lokisgal on Fri Dec 26, 2014 11:09 am

Guess the map review

By far this has been one of the most fun challenges of the year. Its been a tough one tougher every week as you can see by the number of people who have stopped entering - I know for me I am nearing the point where I cant get the slices of the maps big enough on my screen to find them but I keep trying. Id like to see more contests like this in the coming year! Good work to Dakky!
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Re: CC Dispatch [128] Do You Think He Envisions Scenarios?

Postby b00060 on Sat Dec 27, 2014 8:17 am

CC Dispatch [Issue 90: 1-3-2013] Boo!!

Tournament Tips by DaveH

I found this article interesting because it outlined how he was saving an event, something I find as a tourney organizer very admirable.
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Re: CC Dispatch [128] Do You Think He Envisions Scenarios?

Postby agentcom on Sun Dec 28, 2014 1:48 pm

I can't believe no one has done this one yet :)

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This article, "The Dispatch Critics Contest" by Dukasaur describes the contest that has led to the last several posts. It is from this edition, #128, of the Dispatch. I chose this article because I'm feeling a bit meta today. The biggest question that I have is whether I will be able to write one sentence explaining why I "find that article interestings." There are several hurdles that I will have to overcome in order to do that.

[I'm posting this now, so that no one else steals "my" article. I'll be finishing up the post in a bit.]
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Re: CC Dispatch [128] Do You Think He Envisions Scenarios?

Postby agentcom on Sun Dec 28, 2014 3:52 pm

I can't believe no one has done this one yet :)

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In order to get my passport stamp, I decided to write one sentence on Dukasaur's "The Dispatch Critics Contest" in this edition, #128, of the Dispatch. I chose this article because I'm feeling a bit meta today and thought it would be amusing to write a review of the article explaining how and why to write a review of an article. Now that I've got title, author and issue number out of the way, the biggest question that I have is whether I will be able to write one sentence explaining why I "find that article interestings." There are several hurdles that I will have to overcome in order to do that.

First off, I'm not sure what it means to find something "interestings." It could by a typo, but then again I see that there is a book by Meg Wolitzer with that title, so I guess I have to start there. Since I don't have time to read the whole book right now, I will be depending on reviews. But hey, that seems like a pretty meta way of analyzing things to me.

The novel seems to be a comparative retrospective about a generation's "coming of age." According to the NY Times, the book describes the baby boomers' quest for exceptionalism as largely futile:

“Specialness — everyone wants it,” he tells her in frustration, fed up with her invidious comparisons to her childhood pals. “Most people aren’t talented. So what are they supposed to do — kill themselves?”


NPR give's the plot a bit more room to breath in a lengthy interview with the author. The book follows a group of young summer campers from the summer of 1974 through adulthood. The title comes from the name that a group of young summer campers ironically gave themselves in the summer of 1974. Except that "The Interestings" are unironically and actually interesing to Jules Jacobson, the fifteen-year old protagonist. This emotion--a bundle of excitement, insecurity, envy, pride, expectation and disappointment--is one that follows Jules throughout her life.

The random page that I pulled up from Amazon's "Look Inside" feature lends support to these interpretations (p. 207):

The train came, and Jules Jacobsen stepped on and thought: I am the loneliest person in this subway car.

...

After a certain age, you felt a need not to be alone.... While Jules lay alone in the bedroom on Cindy Drive, her two good friends lay without clothes in Ash's bed on the sixth floor of the Labyrinth. Ethan Figman [a boy whose advances Jules had rejected as a youth] in his vulnerable nakedness was somehow maybe even beautiful. He was no different from anyone in the world. He wanted what he wanted, and he'd found it, and now he and Ash were dumbly happy in their shared bed.


Indeed, the moral of the story, as described by these reviews, is more Rolling Stones the band than rolling stones the adage. Or, as Liesl Schillinger of the Times concludes:

“You didn’t always need to be the dazzler, the firecracker, the one who cracked everyone up, or made everyone want to sleep with you, or be the one who wrote and starred in the play that got the standing ovation,” Jules tells herself. “You could cease to be obsessed with the idea of being interesting.” Now there’s an interesting idea.


So, what then does it mean to write a sentence about the interestings-ness of an article? Is it finding a bit of something special or satisfying in something that is unexceptional? In a sense, that is one way in which we use the term "interesting." "Hmm ... interesting," even when not uttered sarcastically, often is meant to convey something much more sober than surprise--something that is merely odd or, at best, unique. Some, like bartender Dave Arnold, even consider it a mild epithet. Arnold, whose contributions to the alcoholic science include extensive use of liquid nitrogen, advises fellow drink slingers to "Gauge success by whether your guest orders another, not by whether he or she thinks the drink is 'interesting.'"

But understanding Dukasaur's prompt in this fashion poses a set of unique problems, at least if I am willing to get a tad more meta and try to get into his head (perhaps for the reason of winning one of those prizes). I mean, in the more advanced version of his contest, he is clearly looking for the superlative: the "best," "well-written," "intelligent" and not "half-assed." Could this same author be posing a simpler challenge that involves explaining the uniquely mundane or the mundanely unique? Further, not to go all meta on you or anything, would Duka's ego bear my description of his article as such? Or is this definition of interesting, in fact, the solution to the riddle that is the "simpler" version of the contest?

At this point, I think I must give up this quest to write one sentence about what I found interestings/interesting. Or in the spirit of my quandry, perhaps, I should say that I will table this endeavor, in its current, unpacked form until I can dust (ibid.) the idea and cleave or garnish more oversight to the topic.

As such, I hereby submit this post as an entry into the second and "more challenging" contest of critiquing this article.

I think it's a strong contender. Or ... how shall I say this more meta-ly? ...

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Re: CC Dispatch [128] Do You Think He Envisions Scenarios?

Postby osman76 on Mon Dec 29, 2014 3:29 pm

CC Dispatch [Issue 124] Borg, Bots, and the First World War
http://www.conquerclub.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=430&t=207873

The article with the introduction of the Great War is a milestone for CC! It is just crazy to begin an event that will last 4 years! I hope i will still playing CC after 4 years!
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Re: CC Dispatch [128] Do You Think He Envisions Scenarios?

Postby Dukasaur on Thu Jan 01, 2015 11:34 pm

Mad777 ok
lokisgal fails to mention issue number
b00060 ok
agentcom ok xtra
Osman76 ok
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Re: CC Dispatch [128] Do You Think He Envisions Scenarios?

Postby Dukasaur on Wed Jan 14, 2015 12:16 pm

Reviews that went beyond the basics:

grt wrote:My Critic Review

CC Dispatch [Issue 120]. Guess the Map -- Round 1 by dakky21

Without doubt this article was the first that came to mind. It was the first time I really became involved in a Conquer Club event and there was an air of excitement around this competition. Personally, I am fascinated by maps and love puzzles - so this was a perfect combination. Three words to best describe my feelings at the time of reading "intriguing, enthralling and refreshing". Good job dakky21 :D
josko.ri wrote:My Critic Review

CC Dispatch [Issue 55: 21-09-2011] Who's Forgiven? by safariguy5

When Master Fenrir had contacted me for being interviewed for his Newsletter column called "Hardballs", I was greatly honored. I consider the column the best ever on CC (at least for Clan section of Newsletter), because Master Fenrir has been doing it with a great courage, humor and intelligence. Reading his columns was always a nice rest for my brain channels with a great dose of humor involved within it. I have always admired his writing style.
In the Dispatch 55, the interview with me was published, and (surprisingly for me) it was contained not only of my answers but also about introduction part written by Master Fenrir. The introduction was written in amazingly well spoken and accurate way, thus making the Newsletter Issue 55 the most memorable for me up to date.
SilverWill wrote:My Critic Review:

CC Dispatch [Issue 114: 08-04-2014] SoC Graduate Grilling - Janomike and doublediamond by macbone

For me this was probably the first article on CC that I actually stopped for a few minutes and looked at. It shows that CC wants to take the time to work with each of their members and give them the opportunity to improve both as a free player and one that spends money. I looked in to the SoC a while ago and saw quite a few players signing up and not all were cadets and cooks but even some players that had a higher rank then I did and been on the site for years. Just goes to show that everyone can learn something if they put their mind to it. Of course, the one drawback is the long wait due to the number of people wanting to get into the program and the lack of mentors for the players that sign up (part of the reason I haven't signed up for it so I have figured out other ways to learn new strategies) but even though there is a bit of a wait, the players that come out of the class seem to have much more confidence in their gameplay then when they first started. In the end, that's much more important since it takes people like Janomike and doublediamond who want to learn and advance in the games to keep this site a fun and competitive place and also people like macbone and MudPuppy that wish to help people to learn and to encourage them to succeed when they might not normally try to. All I can say is: Keep up the good work! :D
Mad777 wrote:I did like this article about the Guess the map contest, dakky21 puts a lot of effort into that one looking for THE map shot no one will be able to found ;) . (still not the case with 12 contestants having all good answer after 8 rounds)

From:

CC Dispatch [Issue 120] Two Contests, Mafia Back, UI Update

show: Guess the Map -- Round 1 by dakky21
Bart-Jan wrote:My critics

CC Dispatch [Issue 128 16-10-13] Guess the Map -- Round 9 by dakky21

I chose this 'Guess the Map' contest just because it was in the current CC Dispatch, but my comment is about the contest in general. Basically I think it too difficult. I gave it a couple of tries, the first time it was published and somewhere after that as well. Even today I tried to solve the puzzle. It might be just me, being too impatient, but I only managed to find two. I know there are plenty of people who are in fact able to find all 9, so the problem must be with me, but still I think it is a bit too difficult.
sempaispellcheck wrote:From CC News [Issue 19: 25-10-09] (because 19 is my favorite number):
"A Newt's Tale" by elfish_lad

In this article, elfish_lad (or the Newt, as he was apparently called in those days, for a reason which was unknown to me until nagerous helpfully pointed it out) put a hilarious Canadian spin on a tale so many of us know all too well - the turn that goes from "Aw yeah!" to "Aw crap." in a matter of seconds.
He opens by comparing himself and the reader to a none-too-swift character in a "made for Television, Funded by Arts Canada, C Grade Horror Movie," who opens a door he should have known not to open and is repeatedly stabbed in the forehead for his trouble.
As his turn goes from "Oh yeah! I'm on a roll! No one can stop me now!" to "...wait. Where'd all my troops go?" he narrates his thought process as a one-sided dialogue with the famous and all-too-often ignored Voice of Reason, linking back to his opening metaphor with the line "How did this knife get stuck in my forehead anyway?!?!”
He describes his meteoric rise and terrifying fall through the ranks from the perspective of a young boy on a metal slide in short shorts in summer. Ouch.
Finally, on a less personal note, he tells the (probably exaggerated, at the very least) story of a coworker who ended up losing her house to a coffee habit.

I LOVED this article. elfish_lad put a very humorous spin on the age-old lesson that many players (including myself) don't ever seem to be able to learn: "Quit while you're ahead." Now, I don't think he meant it in the sense of quitting CC entirely, of course (though it's not an unreasonable interpretation) – just in the sense of learning to end your assaults while you still have some troops to defend with.
But the best part of this article, for me, wasn't even the humor. No, what really made me love this article was that it was relatable and written in a sympathetic tone. Here's a player, writing almost a year before I joined, who may as well have been talking directly to me. He's saying: "You're not the only one – I do it, too, and there are plenty more just like us."
In that tone, the closing admission that he was just going to go right back to what he'd been doing made you laugh and made you feel for him, all at the same time.

sempai
thelord wrote:Issue 13 gozarThe Tournament Roll of Honour
Here are some recent tournament winners.

”Point Grabbers Quadruples Edition” -barterer2002, Bones2484, Rogue Warrior, Jetpac
”Escalating Classic Tournament”- freyme
”Davis Cup”- qwert and Natewolfman
”’You’re Eliminated’ V”- BaldAdonis
”Can U Rule the World?”- acores2005
”Cairns Coral Coast Masters: Division 2”- Jay513
”Cairns Coral Coast Masters: Division 3”- Zemljanin
”Yanks vs Rebs”- V.I. and jiminski
”Feudal Wars Singles Tournament”- JCsolidrock
”Who Rules The House?”- Godd
”NHL League”- Clive
”North America vs. Europe vs. The World”- negoeien
”Going Down Under Tournament”- ^MsCarolyn^o

I went for the semi random approach. Issue 13 as it is vaguely unlucky. Also can not be scored with two intensity cubes. Article as I do not recognize a single name on the list as still playing! #Stampmeup
angola wrote:TPA Update, angola, Issue 44, March 22, 2011.

I have written a lot of articles in my lifetime - and some have appeared in large publications throughout North America - but I have rarely written anything as boring as my first article for the CC Dispatch:

The TPA (Tournament Players Association) has seen little movement atop the Scoreboard since the last issue. sonicsteve continues to lead with 23.06 points. Bones2484 is second with 18.52 and HighlanderAttack is third with 18.18.
There was one tournament accepting signups when this was written. A terminator tournament titled "I Would Hate to be You" run by ralphcptc. Be sure to visit the Create/Join a Tournament area to sign up for future TPA events, which will be ending in the next two months.
New tournaments are posted on Mondays.


I definitely got more creative as time passed, but we all must start somewhere.

The best articles in the Dispatch that I remember were Master Fenrir's hilarious columns about the clan scene. I want to say they came out in the 2011 or 2012 era, but it all runs together for me.
stealth99 wrote:I am writing on an article from Issue 27. It was dated March 17, 2010. The secret of dice by natty_dread.

I was inspired to chat about this article because of your "hidden" complaint on your dice results over the last two weeks. You referred to them as "Intensity Cubes" so I searched for an article that dealt with exactly that, "Intensity Cubes". I did not have to read past the first line of this article to know I had come to the right place. Here it is:

A lot of discussion has arisen lately on the integrity of the intensity cubes...


This article is worth reading. I'll post it at the end of my critique.

In the article, the author very boldly tackles the age old problem of DICE, more specifically, BAD DICE. This subject never goes away. In fact, it doesn't even matter if I am on a different web site playing a different game. I can be playing poker on one of the poker sites and I will still hear the guy across from me complain about his run of luck. he will curse the site and make claims about the game being being rigged. The sad thing is that he believes what he spews. We have our share of those players here at CC. Why is this?

The author attempts to answer this question through a very humorous and professionally written piece that explores the actual source of our dice, Random.org.

What exactly do you study or evaluate, if there is a "perception" of unfair dice? The author of the article chose to investigate the source of the dice and to gain a better understanding of the factors involved, so he could determine if they were fair or not.

I would have considered a simple statistical study. That's what I did at my favorite poker site when I felt that I was being ganged up on by lady luck. I spent hours and hours over a period of 3 months, gathering data and evaluating data, only to discover that the numbers were bang on, right where they were supposed to be.

Instead of using statistical studies to solve this problem, perhaps we'd be better off studying human behavior. I know that I see player after player getting beat in a poker game and lash out blaming another player at the table for his loss (ignorant and factually incorrect). When we are beaten, we want someone to blame. It makes us feel better. We can handle losing provided we make it clear that, "it wasn't my fault". We want to feel like a victim. The last thing we want is to admit that we simply got beaten. The reverse is also true. When we have good luck, we want to believe that we are playing well. We are much more likely to notice bad luck than we are likely to notice good luck for those very reasons. Therefore, the last person you should ever ask about the fairness of dice, is a CC player experiencing a run of bad luck.

One other factor that seems to convince people that the dice are "off" is Oddities. Rolling eight of the same number in a row. Killing 12 troops without taking a single loss. Losing a 13v2 attack. Those things drive us nuts when they go against us but we allow it to roll off our backs when the luck is riding good. What is amusing about this common misunderstanding, is that statistically speaking, we should become concerned when these oddities disappear. Given the number of rolls we take here at CC versus our Real Life games from the past, in some cases thousands of times more here at CC, it stands to reason that we will see many more oddities. When you have a 99% chance of winning, you will indeed lose that one game out of a hundred. You will play enough here to see it occur and when it does occur, it won't be a miracle and the world won't be coming to an end! Those Intensity Cubes are working just fine here at CC.

ARTICLE BY natty_dread

A lot of discussion has arisen lately on the integrity of the intensity cubes, aka. dice. By "a lot" I mean a lot even by CC standards. Threads of dice complaints seem to be popping up like mushrooms in rain. General discussions is so full of them, that some are spilling over to Q&A.

What causes this sudden uproar of disgruntled dice rollers? Are the intensity cubes truly flawed, or is an unusually large portion of CC having mental PMS? The most vocal of the complainers are even threatening to quit CC over their dice troubles.

I set out to investigate the matter. It seems that dice complaint threads have been posted on CC ever since CC started. By searching the keywords "dice + complaint" one can find 256 matches, the first one of them from February 2006... that's one month after CC launched!

So obviously, this phenomenon is nothing new. So if the dice have been "flawed" for the whole existence of Conquer Club, how come we still have members? My next stop was random.org, from where CC acquires the numbers on our cubes. I read their website to find out how exactly our random numbers are produced:

Random.ORG wrote:Regardless of which physical phenomenon is used, the process of generating true random numbers involves identifying little, unpredictable changes in the data. For example, HotBits uses little variations in the delay between occurrences of radioactive decay, and RANDOM.ORG uses little variations in the amplitude of atmospheric noise.



So, atmospheric noise. What is atmospheric noise you may ask? Well, Wikipedia has the following to say on the matter:

Wikipedia wrote:Atmospheric noise is radio noise caused by natural atmospheric processes, primarily lightning discharges in thunderstorms.



So let me get this straight. Our dice rolls are dependent on the weather? Should I stop playing when it rains? Do I get more sixes when it snows??

Again I dug around at Random.ORG.

Random.ORG wrote:You could argue that the atmospheric noise used as a source for the RANDOM.ORG numbers can be viewed as a chaotic but deterministic system. Hence, if you knew enough about the processes that cause atmospheric noise (e.g., thunderstorms) you could potentially predict the numbers generated by RANDOM.ORG.

However, to do this, you would probably need knowledge of the position and velocity of every single molecule in the planet's weather systems. This is of course infeasible, and the inaccuracy of weather forecasts is a good example of how difficult it is to give even a rough estimate of the behaviour of weather systems.



Well. It seems cheating Random.ORG at least is largely impossible. Unless you can control the weather.

But the question remains, why do some people perceive their dice to be unrealistic or unfair? Is it just a matter of perspective? Do these players play in the wrong weather?

I started digging around in the old dice threads. Some of the stuff you find is kinda funny... look at this for example:

lackattack in an old dice thread at 2006 wrote:There was a problem for 2 hours between 16-Feb-2006 19:46:30 and 16-Feb-2006 21:48:29 (Montreal time) where the dice ran out and everyone rolled zeroes, which really sucked. I fixed that problem and I apologize for it.



Wow, that must have been a sight. I wish I had been around to see it... but not the shitstorm that undoubtedly resulted from it.

But apart from funny anecdotes, the complaints seemed to be the same in the past as they are in the present.

a dice complainer, 2006 wrote:I just lost a 13 to 2.



a dice complainer, 2010 wrote:I just lost a 9 to 1.



Personally, I do understand where the dice complainers are coming from. I have often posted vulgarities in game chat myself, after losing an assault that should have been a walk-through (and sometimes losing the game as a result). It may get frustrating, but the opposite side has a point as well: it is largely a matter of perception. Some people expect the dice to behave in a certain way, and when they do not behave as they expect they conclude that the dice are flawed in some way. But then, that fits the definition of random too: unpredictability.

This reminds me of an Arab proverb: "The dogs bark but the caravan moves on." Despite all the dice complaints, Conquer Club seems to be alive and well. Like they say, there have always been dice complaints, and there always will be. Maybe some people quit because of perceived "unfairness" of dice, but the member base of CC still seems to be in a steady growth.

I think we should all just loosen up a bit. Let's all spend the day losing points to our unfair dice, and laugh while we do. Let us learn how to enjoy losing as much as we enjoy winning. Hey, if the dice are raping your mind, take two steps back from the computer, go make sweet love to your special someone, and come back on a better weather...
mookiemcgee wrote:My Critical Review

CC Dispatch [Issue 115] Easter Eggstravaganza


I joined CC a little over a year ago, for the first 4-5 months of playing I wasn't really interacting with anyone outside of game chat. One day a guy I now know of by two names; TheCrown and Randall, invited me to play a few games with him. He asked me if I wanted to tryout playing in a Clan... I thought oh heck why not and so I was introduced to the Forum. I started to play CC more often and consistently, and then TheCrown said he was making a run at the Easter challenge and if I wanted to play a bunch of games with him it could be fun. This was one of my most positive experiences on CC to date and really got me interested in the Newsletter and made me aware of the Monthly challenges of which I have played in almost all of them since.

Thanks for another great challenge CC leadership! Sorry this wasn't for of a review of the writing, just my most relevant experience to write about.

Please Stamp my A**!
agentcom wrote:I can't believe no one has done this one yet :)

show


In order to get my passport stamp, I decided to write one sentence on Dukasaur's "The Dispatch Critics Contest" in this edition, #128, of the Dispatch. I chose this article because I'm feeling a bit meta today and thought it would be amusing to write a review of the article explaining how and why to write a review of an article. Now that I've got title, author and issue number out of the way, the biggest question that I have is whether I will be able to write one sentence explaining why I "find that article interestings." There are several hurdles that I will have to overcome in order to do that.

First off, I'm not sure what it means to find something "interestings." It could by a typo, but then again I see that there is a book by Meg Wolitzer with that title, so I guess I have to start there. Since I don't have time to read the whole book right now, I will be depending on reviews. But hey, that seems like a pretty meta way of analyzing things to me.

The novel seems to be a comparative retrospective about a generation's "coming of age." According to the NY Times, the book describes the baby boomers' quest for exceptionalism as largely futile:

“Specialness — everyone wants it,” he tells her in frustration, fed up with her invidious comparisons to her childhood pals. “Most people aren’t talented. So what are they supposed to do — kill themselves?”


NPR give's the plot a bit more room to breath in a lengthy interview with the author. The book follows a group of young summer campers from the summer of 1974 through adulthood. The title comes from the name that a group of young summer campers ironically gave themselves in the summer of 1974. Except that "The Interestings" are unironically and actually interesing to Jules Jacobson, the fifteen-year old protagonist. This emotion--a bundle of excitement, insecurity, envy, pride, expectation and disappointment--is one that follows Jules throughout her life.

The random page that I pulled up from Amazon's "Look Inside" feature lends support to these interpretations (p. 207):

The train came, and Jules Jacobsen stepped on and thought: I am the loneliest person in this subway car.

...

After a certain age, you felt a need not to be alone.... While Jules lay alone in the bedroom on Cindy Drive, her two good friends lay without clothes in Ash's bed on the sixth floor of the Labyrinth. Ethan Figman [a boy whose advances Jules had rejected as a youth] in his vulnerable nakedness was somehow maybe even beautiful. He was no different from anyone in the world. He wanted what he wanted, and he'd found it, and now he and Ash were dumbly happy in their shared bed.


Indeed, the moral of the story, as described by these reviews, is more Rolling Stones the band than rolling stones the adage. Or, as Liesl Schillinger of the Times concludes:

“You didn’t always need to be the dazzler, the firecracker, the one who cracked everyone up, or made everyone want to sleep with you, or be the one who wrote and starred in the play that got the standing ovation,” Jules tells herself. “You could cease to be obsessed with the idea of being interesting.” Now there’s an interesting idea.


So, what then does it mean to write a sentence about the interestings-ness of an article? Is it finding a bit of something special or satisfying in something that is unexceptional? In a sense, that is one way in which we use the term "interesting." "Hmm ... interesting," even when not uttered sarcastically, often is meant to convey something much more sober than surprise--something that is merely odd or, at best, unique. Some, like bartender Dave Arnold, even consider it a mild epithet. Arnold, whose contributions to the alcoholic science include extensive use of liquid nitrogen, advises fellow drink slingers to "Gauge success by whether your guest orders another, not by whether he or she thinks the drink is 'interesting.'"

But understanding Dukasaur's prompt in this fashion poses a set of unique problems, at least if I am willing to get a tad more meta and try to get into his head (perhaps for the reason of winning one of those prizes). I mean, in the more advanced version of his contest, he is clearly looking for the superlative: the "best," "well-written," "intelligent" and not "half-assed." Could this same author be posing a simpler challenge that involves explaining the uniquely mundane or the mundanely unique? Further, not to go all meta on you or anything, would Duka's ego bear my description of his article as such? Or is this definition of interesting, in fact, the solution to the riddle that is the "simpler" version of the contest?

At this point, I think I must give up this quest to write one sentence about what I found interestings/interesting. Or in the spirit of my quandry, perhaps, I should say that I will table this endeavor, in its current, unpacked form until I can dust (ibid.) the idea and cleave or garnish more oversight to the topic.

As such, I hereby submit this post as an entry into the second and "more challenging" contest of critiquing this article.

I think it's a strong contender. Or ... how shall I say this more meta-ly? ...

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Re: CC Dispatch [128] Do You Think He Envisions Scenarios?

Postby Dukasaur on Wed Jan 14, 2015 12:30 pm

First prize and the Special Citation both go to agentcom, the special citation being for the interestings. Incidentally, I read the whole Times review, and my favourite line was the same one that agentcom decided to quote.

Second prize to Stealth99. Beautiful review.

Third Prize goes to sempaispellcheck.

Honourable mention orange stars go to:
angola for great use of self-depracating humour,
mookiemcgee for that personal touch in his well-written anecdote,
and thelord for going deeeeeep into the archives.
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Re: CC Dispatch [128] Do You Think He Envisions Scenarios?

Postby agentcom on Thu Jan 22, 2015 8:03 am

What a pleasant surprise to check my inbox today and see a medal for this! Thanks Dukasaur! And congrats to all the other entrants.
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