Gears of War is a hot game. One morning I read about it.. the title of the game and the screenshot, and I said to myself: What The Fuck ?!
Tough war-scared marines, killing monsters. That’s the latest video gaming experience ? Wow..
I suppose I would like the game if I played it, but it’s sort of stupid, do we really need to constantly simulate killings ?

Technically it supposed to be great. The graphics, it’s great alright, great ugly monster rendering !
In my career as a graphics programmer I often got my monitor to display ugly things. It doesn’t take much skills, a bug, lower resolution, and you’re set for for your ugly experience !

I’m definitely not a Wii person. But isn’t it a bit stupid that so many top selling titles are about simulating war ? Craving for war, when we could instead go join real ones.

Next time you go buy Gears of War, or Deference, Defance (what’s the name of the PS3 war title ? Ahh Resistance !), Rainbow Six, Spersmackfackkill.. I don’t really know the titles. What’s that, Counter Strike.
Next time you go about buying one of those games, try to feel a little bit stupid, because one it’s got to be a bit stupid craving so much for realistic killing experiences.
And if you don’t feel stupid, try enroll in the military and ask to get sent to Iraq. Don’t worry, there is still time left to get training and be shipped over. I’m sure there are a plenty of disillusioned marines over there willing to exchange with you.. you killing machine you !!

Fuck those games already !!!

P.S. I’m not linking the official Gears of War site because it’s a Flash, browser-facking kind experience.

Posted by Davide Pasca as Society, Videogames at 6:04 PM EST

13 Comments »

I see more and more foreigners around Tokyo, in the clubs trying to pick up girls, but not necessarily all of them realize what are customs and expectations of Japanese girls.
I don’t pretend to know any ultimate solution to “score”, but with the years I learned a few things about Japanese girl’s taste.
First a division need to be made from those that are looking forward to meet a foreigner and those that don’t. There isn’t much help for the latter, but luckily there isn’t many of them. Of course not all foreign countries are equal, and some nationalities have more appeal than others..
All foreigners are expected to magically speak English. Girls want to practice English.. so, not knowing Japanese is not a problem. However, in a situation in which there is someone speaking Japanese fluently, the fluent speaker is likely to make the others feel dumb (it happens to me all the time 8).
Age matters in Japan more than in the west. It’s not so easy to guess the age of a Japanese girl, but it’s important to find out what are their expectations: Girls before 25 are in the playing & thinking about marriage phase. Twenty five and over are instead in the hunting & ready to marry phase. ..clearly, ultimately it’s all about marriage. Now you know that !
So, the great majority of Japanese girls is looking for a serious individual. Someone that is willing to embark in a long term relationship.
Then comes looks. Not looking like an otaku (a nerd) helps a lot. Talking about anime and video games straight away on a first encounter isn’t generally the best thing. If you introduce yourself as a game developer instead, things are quite different (^.^)y~~~.
Facial and body hair is generally not a good thing. The more travelled girls can tolerate it, but the younger ones generally hate it. Shaving everyday is definitely going to help !
With looks comes odor. Japanese men are definitely not odorless, but still, girls are absolutely terrified by bad smell ! American guys are generally pretty clean, but us European aren’t known for being overly zealous with hygiene. Sometimes foreign guys, even those that already live in Japan, walk in an apartment, take off their shoes and reveal 2-3 days old rotten socks !
That’s a big no-no, socks are to be changed every day. Also daily showers are required. In summer possibly twice per day.
Admittedly, I’m sometimes extreme about showers, but my opinion is that it’s always better to err on the safe side.
As clean as I am, I had my struggle with shampooing. At some point I had to change shampoos and I just realized that my daily shampoos weren’t enough. I tried a few things and I finally came one very simple conclusion: just wash better ! I used to have dandruff and I blamed it on shampoos for not being anti-dandruff or not being good enough. While in fact all I had to do was to put more vigour in the shampooing.. and I also use a conditioner after.
Some are afraid to take frequent shampoos because they think that soap is going to drive them bald. That’s actually a misconception, because greasy scalps turn into hell when not properly cleaned and hair follicles have nothing to gain and everything to lose from an irritated scalp.

So in the end it’s not so difficult:

• Be kind and honest.
• Don’t be a nerd: try to refrain a bit.
• Don’t smell bad: showers !
• Don’t be hairy: shave !

Having bad teeth instead isn’t such a crime as far as I realize. But of course a nice smile can only help 8)
Last thing about smell. I’m told that one can actually get sick in the armpits (!). Unusually strong smell comes out and surgery seems to be the only solution (really ?!). Apparently this sick armpits thing came up in a big way as some Japanese personality shared his ordeal with bad smell and his armpit surgery ! …ho ho ho ho !!
I personally think that showers and deodorant-stick are all that most people need.. but who knows ? 8)

As far as the main topic goes, there is a lot more to it, but I just wanted to share a few important points.
Ultimately it’s all about individuals and girls just want someone they can trust. So, if you are a foreigner looking for some fun in Japan, try to be nice and honest upfront. I see a lot of foreigners getting lucky with gullible girls that end up heart broken.

Posted by Davide Pasca as Society, Japan, Japanese girls at 9:17 PM EST

19 Comments »

My favorite place in Tokyo is the Shibuya area. It’s filled with sexy young girls wearing miniskirts with over-knees stockings over high heels and superpadded bras.
Most of them also carry $1000+ Luis Vuitton bags and one has to wonder how would a 18 years old girl afford to spend so much on a bag.  ..but women are in high demand and those girls really make their best to look their best.
Miniskirts can do wonders. A cute girl waiting for a friend has a good chance to get hit by a youngster offering to go for a tea at a cafe or for a meal depending on the time of the day. That’s called nanpa. A practice that is relatively well tolerated.. in the sense that one doesn’t get sent to Hell but rather ignored most of the time.. and could possibly actually manage to get a phone number !

There are then those that approach girls for business. The so called scouts. They look for girls hungry for money and willing to work at various levels of the “entertainment business”.
Hostess bars (or Kyabakura) offer quite a bit of money depending on the qualities of the girl and on the level of work. Working there, a girl gets to meet wealthy customers that may ask them to meet outside work for social events, but not necessarily for sex. Sex would be bad business because some customers could stop going once they got too intimate with their favorite girl.

Sex is still big business however. Recently a friend of mine got offered 100,000 yen (about $850 or 650 Euro) per session of some sort of photographic business.
In those cases the scout will come ask what’s your wish for material goods and will tell you something like: OK, you can have it if you come work a couple of days for this business.
100,000 yen is a lot of money for a day of work !! This works also because porn acresses in Japan are not necessarily professionals. You don’t need a boobs job. Acting shy and passive has its appeal and surely comes easier than the aggressive exaggerated acting that is seen in porn from western countries.

In all this, I sometimes try to think what it means to be a young girl.. to be in a situation where you have to decide what to do with life and be courted by countless guys offering you drinks, food, presents just for spending your time with them. And easy money for being promiscuous.

..it’s easy if you are easy 8)

Posted by Davide Pasca as Society, Japan, work at 2:47 AM EST

1 Comment »

On the web I can only read bad critics about PlayStation 3. Everyone seems to hate it. Hate the price, hate the fact that it doesn’t come out with many games. Everyone loves the Wii though.
Clearly preconceptions are just that. Wii is not out and very few people will have a PS3 for a while, so it’s not possible to have an objective opinion. Is this Wii really that much fun ?

As I mentioned before. As a programmer that likes 3D graphics, I hate the fact that Wii’s hardware is so underpowered. But this affects me also as someone that has passion for great visuals in games. I like realism, I like special effects. People love great graphics, otherwise they wouldn’t go watch so many CG movies or so many movies with special effects in them.

To me the price is not an issue, but perhaps I’m privileged. I suspect that most people that criticize the PS3 are just going with the flow. Echoing strong wise opinions about value of the money and playability over graphics. So much wisdom, but how many of those that hate this whole PS3 deal aren’t really secretly hoping to get one ?

I think that Americans basically culturally love Nintendo, dislike Sony as a corporate and are pretty happy with the XBox 360.

Personally I don’t have that much time to play. I also don’t like to stand in line just to get a toy.
If I get a Wii, it will be to used for social events.. for casual gaming when there are women around.
The PS3 would be for serious gaming. That is if I will be able to buy one easily and if there is a game for it that I must buy (most people actually decide based on the game).

The killer application for me is probably Armored Core 4 . Provided that the controls are improved since the last version I bought for PS2. Also, I’ll have to see how it compares graphically between the XBox 360 and the PS3. I’m definitely not buying two versions of the same game !

I guess I pretty much don’t give a shit about cute games. I like my giant robot and racing games. Variety is good, but giant robots are better 8)

Posted by Davide Pasca as Society, Diary, USA, Videogames at 5:10 AM EST

9 Comments »

This is so dumb…
The majority of USA citizens managed to approve a war that was obviously filled with lies from the start.
Most opposition approved it as well just because they feared that they would sound too clueless if by any chance Bush was right about WMD, and generally wanted to share the merit of a possible splendid outcome.
The people were with their Master in Chief.

Democrats then, slowly started opposing war as things obviously weren’t going as planned and WMD were nowhere to be found.
This wasn’t enough because Americans, once again, managed to vote for Bush !!!

Now Americans don’t like the war in Iraq ! They say they don’t like their mostly brainwashed either gun-loving or “too poor to get an education” youngsters to die …albeit at a much slower rate than Iraqi..
They voted Democrat because they wanted to punish Bush. But who is going to punish their dumbness ? They voted Bush once (give or take some stolen vote) and then once again well into the Iraq mess.

I understand that people are easily manipulated by the media, and various advertisements.. but ignorance generally isn’t a good excuse.

I vote against the clueless voters of the US of A.

Posted by Davide Pasca as Society, USA, Politics at 9:25 AM EST

28 Comments »

Yesterday I watched Equilibrium again. I like science fiction, but mostly I like the idea of a simplified world. I have so many different t-shirts. To me a t-shirt is something wear under the shirt. I want them to be interchangeable.
Recently I’ve been buying packs of 3, v-neck t-shirts from Uniqlo (it’s a relatively cheap clothes brand in Japan, I don’t link the site because it’s full of Flash crap that uses 100% of CPU time !). Plain t-shirts that come in black, gray and dark-gray. With those I can pick any of them cause color doesn’t matter and they all have the same size and consistency.
I like the idea of being able to dress without worrying if I’m going to feel comfortable or not. But then there are the sensitive people: my mother gives me loads of t-shits, many of which end up being sleepwear because of their large sizes or very colorful design.
I suppose that if I wore nothing but plain t-shirts I wouldn’t think so much about other people ! ..ummm
However I like to have my mind free to think. My apartment is full of crap that has mostly no use. Recently I’ve been hunting for useless unmarked CDs. Many went right into the trash bin, some of them I reversed on my Terastation (I’ll soon need to upgrade to the 1.6TB model ..forget the 2TB one, it uses ultra-expensive 500GB hard-disks).

I often feel like the urge to trash things I see laying around the apartment.
I’d like to optimize things. For example I wish I could have all my books in digital form.. I can’t wait for all books to come out in digital format ! I’d probably be willing to pay more for that !

I have some DVDs.. I buy them very rarely. They take up space !!
I have a lot of electronic gadgets and they all come with one or more cables, power bricks.. arghhhhh !!!

I hate all this, I want to live in a very simplified environment, but I’m also attached to physical things, things that remind of people, things that if I trash I feel like I’m letting someone down.

Trashing things in Tokyo is not so easy. One needs to pay a special feel for large items. I think one needs to phone somewhere to describe size and weight and then be told to buy some sort of sticker at the convenience store.
A year ago there was a red sofa lingering by the trash area of my apt building for the longest time. The trash area is very small, so this sofa was basically there by the street with no one picking it up..  that’s facked up !

Trash trash trash.. for small things I have to overcome whatever mental block I have and for large things I have to overcome the pain in the ass of getting into some procedure.

Material things suck !!!

Posted by Davide Pasca as Society, Diary, Japan at 4:48 AM EDT

3 Comments »

Up until the start of Iraq war I’ve written a lot against Bush, etc etc. I then stopped doing that because it became obvious how things were, plus there were a lot other people infinitely more influential that shared my opinions.
As it turned out, nothing really changed. When I was living in USA I realized how detached from the rest of the world one can be. Simplified thinking is pushed to the extreme. Money is the key value there, and people are easily convinced by simple repetition (not an American exclusive for sure 8).
Politicians will overwhelm the media with a key message until people are convinced. The process of sending a simple message then becomes more like brainwashing. Things are simplified and dramatized. An evil dictator can be an ally one day and the next day a mean mean person that needs to be brought to justice.
A politician will talk about mass murder and rape (that always strikes a chord) while he actually means that something has to be done before all countries start selling oil for Euro rather than Dollars. People that like the rhetoric (the majority) will go for the idea of killing a rapist, and if they ever find out about the economy issue, at least they will settle with the idea that it’s for the economy 8)

But at the end of the day this doesn’t really matter much. We live in a sugar coated reality where dead people far away are numbers. I hear news of dozens of people blown up everyday and I don’t think much about it anymore. Torture, dismembering, suicide bombers.. we hear about it, but hardly ever feel anything anymore. People don’t have time to worry about others, especially other nations !

Then some rich person goes to Africa and sees the bottom of human life, survival to the extreme, and decides to be vocal about that. “We need to help Africa ! People are dying today !!!”
Yes, I agree, but honestly, I don’t think most people really care. It’s hard enough to feel for the loss of someone you met once, imagine for the loss of a millions of strangers that have an incredibly low life expectancy.
Aren’t we trained to be insensitive anyway ? When we see a homeless person we are told that he/she is just a good-for-nothing bum that doesn’t like to work like “the good people” do.

Moving into a nation with massive amount of logistics isn’t an incredible feat.. it’s easily done when it’s needed to make war 8)
I honestly don’t see how the poorest parts of the world are going to pick up any speed. One needs a drastic change, a miracle. One needs to go in the middle of some desert and start building some sort of Las Vegas or a Dubai. Only an overwhelming investment is going to bring any change.

Anyhow, if you really want to read about USA and middle east, you are better off at the The Dilbert Blog. If you want to know why things suck in Italy, you can instead read Beppe Grillo’s Blog, a famous Italian comedian very critical of Italy’s politics. About 3 years ago he gained a lot of respect for foreseeing the collapse of Parlamat.

..over there there is a lot to read. And if the articles aren’t enough, you can try find some decent comment, or even post your own opinion. Which to me it really equates at wasting exponential amounts of time.
This stuff is addictive ! Better do some coding !!!

woooooo

Posted by Davide Pasca as Society at 3:24 PM EDT

11 Comments »

At the news that I resigned from my job without first having found a new one, everyone was more or less worried (me included !). That ranged from “it’s usually advisable to..” to “are you nutsss ?!!!”.
I can’t help but thinking that those that were worried the most are also those that underestimate me the most. I’ve been told that I had balls/guts.. so I receive appreciation for being adventurous. That’s certainly a compliment, but it also sounds as if I’m not that good of a programmer, and that I could end up jobless.
That was never an issue, also because I have experience doing web development and everyone needs a web developer 8)

In any case, today I received an offer, I think.
I’m flattered and I really appreciate no-nonsense companies that get to the point. No need to keep one hanging for weeks.
There was some money talk and then an offer and it was all in Japanese. When it comes to talk about money I can’t find my way around in Italian.. much less so in Japanese.
I’m waiting for the details to be put in writing. But in general the feeling I got is that I won’t become rich as a game programmer anytime soon. This can be also related to the fact that for the past 5 years I couldn’t release any major product. Nothing that would resound on my resume, nothing that showcased any particular technology.

Basically, I’m good but not excellent..

And if I were considered excellent ? I’d get paid like anyone with a good experience programming Visual Basic, Excel and Oracle.

Polyphony Digital, the creator of Gran Turismo on the PlayStation, was offering (until the end of August) a maximum of 1 million yen/month. Being a hot programmer on the best selling racing game will give you more or less what any programmer will get in the finance business.
Stock traders instead make a lot more money. I hear that to become a trader one has to have balls, build experience in some place and and suck it up to his boss until he’s given the chance to become a trader.

I feel a bit cheated. I’m told that the gaming business is worth more than the movie business. As a programmer I’m supposedly at the heart of this business, and yet, if I want to be able to step up the social ladder, if I want to be able to enjoy more refined things in life.. I need to become somewhat of a merchant.

Anyhow, I’m fairly happy 8)
One of the very few companies I was really aiming for wants to give me a chance. It’s about developing rather popoular games, flexible work schedule with supposedly not so much overwork. I think that the company is cool, and it offers free (”call now the operators are standing by !!!”) Japanese courses on site, which is also convenient.

I’ll give it some time to see what others have to offer and then I’ll make a decision.

cool cool !

Posted by Davide Pasca as Society, Diary at 4:38 AM EDT

6 Comments »

Yesterday (Monday) I started my round of job interviews.
On the same day I had a phone interview and a physical one. The phone interview was for a big foreign company, the other one was for a relatively small but rather active Japanese developer.
There are a lot of game developers in Tokyo, but I actually aimed first at those two companies. There are probably a lot of nice opportunities out there, but given what I know (I’m not really well informed nor connected), my gut feeling is with those two companies for now.

I was a bit scared of the first interview cause I was worried that I’d receive the personality profile sort treatment. Big companies are famous for employing dedicated personnel for screening potential employees with trick questions.
As it turned out, it was a rather short layd back chat with an actual potential boss. Big relief !

I went into the second interview prepared to have to do it in Japanese but the person interviewing actually made me choose between Japanese and English. I bravely picked Japanese knowing that I could easily throw an English word here and there.
The second interview was not so long but definitely a lot more indepth. I was told that, as is often the case with not very large dev studios, I would have to assume more than one role, not just 3D. I was also told that R&D was mostly about development and not so much about research (fair enough).
When it came to questions, I asked about work time and specifically on the more or less expected (unpaid) overwork. The answer (if I understood correctly) was that the company isn’t a sweatshop, but of course one has to be ready to work late hours around milestones (fair enough, again).
I asked about Internet security. Apparently security is pretty strict. I asked if I could chat with my mother on lunch break (!) and the answer was “yes, if it’s lunch break…”. Well frankly was a somewhat dumb question to ask to your potential CEO ! But I wanted to raise those issues.

In any case it seems that network security has been tightened more and more recently. I have a friend working in a large company that can’t chat anymore, can’t use GMail, and to move files on a company laptop needs go through some hops on some encryption server.
I understand that one is paid to work, but it’s also nice to stay in the office if one can use a distraction from time to time. It’s a bit as if with the advent of the Internet we’ve all given a cubicle next to a window, and now we are being forced to close the blinds. You can take a peek perhaps but you definitely aren’t supposed to enjoy the view.

The position at the large company is about helping other local developers, rather than doing direct development of a title. This could be potentially quite interesting, perhaps a chance to break the long term project work and to face a variety of problems, plus of course the recognition that comes from working for a large company.

ummmmmmmmmmmmm

Posted by Davide Pasca as Society, Diary at 4:16 PM EDT

4 Comments »

Today (Sunday) I finally sent out a few copies of my resume. It took me a long time to get the whole thing right.
Most people kept telling me I was taking too long to write a resume. One problem obviously is that a resume is a rather formal paper and my knowledge of Japanese is very limited.
I had to do a lot of research to find out how technical terms are written in Japanese. Literal translation is generally both wrong and funny. The average native Japanese speaker also will find himself/herself at loss when trying to come up with translations of technical terms or even to describe an technical task. Nevertheless I had native speakers helping me with the process !
I also sometimes tend to get stuck with details, but I think that potential Japanese employers will appreciate that. Form shows dedication. Japanese are sensitive to that and so am I.
With the resume also comes a CD with a couple of demos. Nothing too big, just old stuff that I picked left and right (including JavaKazRace !).. because bringing demos tends to make quite a difference.

I am concerned however… I see that all the job descriptions for R&D programmer in the game business in Japan require the candidate to be not older than 35. I’m 34 and I’m supposed to feel like I’m at the end of my career as a programmer ?!
What is going to happen if, two years from now, I want to go code for another company ? Am I too old for coding ?
It sounds very much like getting in the military. It’s easy to convince an 18 years old to go risk his/her life just to get some action and a decent pay. But later in life, when one has a family to think about, keeping alive and healthy becomes more important.

Game business also requires one to work his ass off, all in the name of fame… because certainly if you want to make money programming you are better off doing Visual Basic and Oracle.
So, I suppose most people by the age of 35, either become managers (difficult decisions but simple work) or they get into other businesses where they trade the fame of doing “cool games” with more money and a more humane schedule.

I just can’t believe that 2 years from now, people will look at my resume and trash it on the basis that I’ll be 36 !!

zzzzzzz melatonin is starting to make effect.. zzzzzzzz

Posted by Davide Pasca as Programming, Society, Diary at 1:58 AM EDT

11 Comments »