Mobile games: MapleStory M and Subway Train Simulator 2D

MapleStory M

I was at the Jurong East interchange station recently and saw, on the way to Westgate mall, a huge advertisement plastered across an entire wall announcing the global release of MapleStory M.

MapleStory is a classic multiplayer online role-playing game from the 2000s. Asian kids who were born in the 1990s, like me, would probably remember its heyday when every primary school student seemed to play it. It was the RuneScape of the Orient because it was developed by a Korean company and made it biggest in this part of the world.

Now, MapleStory is going mobile. As developers discover that their fans are ageing and need to be out and about more often due to work or college, they have to adapt by allowing the players to play anywhere. This means porting these venerable games to the ultimate modern platform: smartphones.

On 17 July 2017, RuneScape promised a mobile version of the game. This has yet to materialise, sadly.

But MapleStory M is set for launch on 25 July 2018. Preregistration is now open through Google Play.

I never played MapleStory as a kid. RuneScape was my first love and I could never find space in my life for another game that is so similar in concept.

But I will be trying out MapleStory M when it comes out. I have already preregistered. The advertisements bombarding me at the subway stations, on television, and all over my social media feeds are hard to ignore. My peers are excited that one of our fondest childhood memories is getting a reboot, and their enthusiasm is infectious, making me want to find out what the hype surrounding MapleStory is all about.

And what of RuneScape? I might go AFK ("away from keyboard", implying a temporary suspension of a certain activity) for a while. They asked for it, with all the broken promises about their mobile version and increasingly predatory business practices.

MapleStory M on Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.nexon.maplem.global&hl=en_SG

Subway Train Simulator 2D

Speaking of subways, my rediscovery of the fun of taking the Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) to get around Singapore has rekindled another little-boy obsession within me: driving trains.

As a child, I could only rely on my imagination to make believe that I was a train driver. But now, there are apps for it!

My favourite one right now is Subway Train Simulator 2D. To call this game simplistic would be like calling the sun warm. Speeding up, slowing down, and opening and closing the doors are literally all that this game offers in terms of mechanics. The graphics look like something produced by a polytechnic student, and the scenery is flat and only scrolls sideways like the Mario-esque platform games of yesteryear.

But this is also its strength. It uses very little of your phone's resources so it runs smoothly no matter how overworked your phone may be by other background processes. And it is easy to learn due to its rudimentary controls, but you will find it difficult to master as you go too fast and overshoot the stations time and time again, eliciting groans from your disappointed passengers.

In addition to groans, this game also has some fantastic sound effects such as the hiss of the engine, the clicking of the doors, and the squealing of the brakes. The tones that play when you are pulling into a station, and closing the doors, will remind you so much of MRT rides.

It does get repetitive and monotonous after a while, but then again this is not a game that lends itself to hours of uninterrupted play. I use it as a relaxation agent, to prepare myself to go to sleep... a useful and important job.

Subway Train Simulator 2D on Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ecocitygames.subwayz

A new look for Jonathan's Junkyard

I have added some new features to this blog. Below is a summary of what's changed.

1. I have added two new pages to the top menu. "How to subscribe" gives step-by-step instructions with accompanying screenshots for people who want to subscribe to my blog's automated email update service to follow. "Contact" contains details about my other social media channels where people can message me directly if they wish.
2. I redesigned the visual elements of the site, including tweaks to the colours, fonts, and backgrounds of almost everything. The site should look more attention-grabbing and eye-catching now. Readability should also be improved.
3. The reading area is now much wider than before and the right margin has been compressed slightly. Better legibility of the main post content should be the result.
4. There is now a Pac-Man game embedded at the bottom of the site. It runs on Flash and is taken from https://www.freeonlinegames.com/. If your browser blocks Flash by default or if you are using mobile, the game will not work. I put the game there just to liven my blog up a bit with some interactivity. Besides, I wanted to play around with HTML code. I had a few problems but I managed to get the game to appear and run properly in the end. I'm so proud of myself.

I hope you enjoy the new user experience!

A eulogy to CORS

The queen CORS is dead. Long live the queen CORS.

If you haven't seen the news, here's the Straits Times article (well, okay, this is a Reddit comment which copies and pastes the entire article, because the actual article is stuck behind a Premium paywall) announcing the death of CORS, the Centralised Online Registration System which National University of Singapore (NUS) students use to bid for the modules they want to study.

NUS will be replacing the venerable portal, which has been in existence since 2003, with a new system that doesn't rely on bidding or points in the middle of next year.

The news saddens me. CORS is a good system, I believe. In a perfect world, everyone will get all the modules they want 100% of the time. But that's not possible in reality because of resource constraints, so there has to be a way to control for modules which everybody wants but not everybody can have.

CORS achieves this by giving students virtual currency and telling them to buy their modules for a particular semester using it. The "prices" of modules are driven by the students themselves in a similar vein to a market economy. If a module is popular, more students will put in large bids to increase the likelihood that they will get it, and its cost will go up. On the other hand, modules that fewer people want typically cost a nominal one point.

Students have to prioritise how they use their points. Do they spend thousands on that one very expensive module, and end up only being able to afford four other modules that cost one point because nobody wants them?

All this means that students have partial responsibility for the bidding outcomes. Only they can decide how much they want to spend on each module. If they get the balance wrong and fail to get a module that they want, perhaps because they overspent on another, it's partly their fault.

Contrast this to the new system. Details are sketchy at the moment, but it looks like it is essentially an extension of the current tutorial balloting system in which students rank the available tutorial timeslots for a particular module in order of preference, and the computer allocates the tutorial classes, using randomisation if necessary to determine who gets into an oversubscribed slot. According to the news article, under the new system, students will rank the modules they are keen on, and the computer will do something, and bam! Here are your modules for next semester.

It seems like the element of luck is greater, and the control that students have is diminished.

Another advantage that CORS has is that it imparts real-world life lessons. Besides learning how to make the best use of limited resources, module bidding is also an exercise in diligence. It won't do you any good to spray points left and right at random and hope you get all your modules. To maximise your chances of success, you have to look up the archived data tables showing the trends in the "price" of each of your modules of interest, so that you can plan how much to spend on each one. Doing such research in advance is good training and discipline for anything in life. You wouldn't buy a house without first understanding what you're about to pay, would you?

CORS is also a useful introduction to "adult" concepts. Not sex and violence, but more wholesome things like extremely basic economics and personal financial matters. For example, the theory of demand and supply can be observed in how modules end up being priced. Modules that many students want, meaning high demand, cost more. Modules with small intakes, meaning low supply, cost more. The converse is also true for both statements.

Using CORS also lays the foundation for participating in actual auctions with cash instead of fake computer money. For instance, the purchasing of a Certificate of Entitlement (COE), which is a piece of paper you need if you want to own a car in Singapore, works on the same fundamental principle as CORS. A small number of COEs are made available by the transport authority in a certain bidding cycle, and people who want one have to bid for them. If the number of bidders is greater than the number of COEs, then the bidders are ranked according to their bid amounts and a COE is awarded to each person starting from the highest bidder until all the COEs are given out. The last person to be awarded the COE is the lowest successful bidder, and everybody who got a COE in that round only needs to pay the amount that he bid. When the latest COE prices come out in the news, this is also the amount that gets reported.

Will the new system do all these wonderful things? I doubt it. What's so mentally stimulating about putting your choice of modules in order from most to least desired?

It seems that CORS is a victim of this sudden push that NUS is on right now, to upgrade all its online systems by replacing the existing ones with totally new versions. Other than CORS, the longstanding university-wide Integrated Virtual Learning Environment (IVLE) will also soon fall prey to its successor, LumiNUS. They should really find a better name, for this one is a contrived and pretentious piece of garbage. And even the Graduation Academic Planning System (GAPS) that is used by the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (FASS) to help its students keep track of their graduation requirements, is set to give way to a new Academic Advisement system at the end of this year.

Whether these efforts result in any real improvements in user experience and reliability remains to be seen. I choose to stay optimistic, but am nonetheless a bit peeved at having to deal with so many changes in such a short time.

Especially the loss of poor little CORS.

Rest in peace.

Majors, unrestricted electives, and everything in between: How the FASS curriculum works

The original version of this post appeared on 17 July 2018. It was last updated on 19 July 2019. It will continue to be revised with updated information as such information becomes available.

Changelog
20 July 2018:

• Replaced several screenshots with new ones which have my student number blanked out
• Updated information about GAPS and CORS module bidding
• Updated information based on the 2018 modular paper

2 December 2018:

• Added a section on the S/U system.

11 January 2019:

•  Added link to https://jonathansjunkyard.blogspot.com/2019/01/new-nus-edurec-academic-advisement.html explaining new Academic Advisement system.

19 July 2019:

• Updated information to reflect integration of all online services into MyEduRec
• Updated references to GET1031A to account for its replacement with GET1050

22 February 2020:

• Updated a reference to GET1031A that was missed out in the 19 July 2019 update

Confusing. Complicated. These are what you might use to describe the curriculum of the National University of Singapore (NUS) Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (FASS) when you first encounter it. But it doesn't have to be so. In this post, I'll explain everything you need to know about the FASS curriculum clearly and simply with the aid of never-before-seen screenshots from restricted-access online student services. This is intended to help those who are considering an undergraduate degree at FASS make an informed decision. It is not meant to be academic advice for students designing their degree programme, especially double degrees or exchange programmes, as it is nowhere near comprehensive enough for that. Please email the Dean's Office for official academic advising. This post also refers to FASS exclusively, as other faculties in NUS have different graduation requirements. If you are looking for information on other faculties, proceed with caution as not everything in this post will be applicable. Finally, this post takes reference from the 2017 modular paper, but the 2018 and 2019 modular papers make no major changes so the information in this post can be considered current and up-to-date. Minor tweaks may be made to the system in subsequent academic years. Refer to the FASS website for the most updated version. That's all the covering-my-backside stuff out of the way. Now on to the post proper.

Modular system

The FASS curriculum is designed to be broad as well as deep. You will study a bit about many things, and a lot about one thing.

The one thing you will study a lot about is called your major. A major is an area you have chosen to specialise in. Examples of FASS majors are: economics, political science, literature, Southeast Asian studies.

You will take 12 modules related to your major. A module is a series of lessons on a certain topic, like quantitative research methods or the thoughts of the philosopher Descartes. It lasts for one semester, which is 13 weeks long. Usually each module will be worth 4 modular credits (MCs).

Besides the 12 modules you will take to form your major, you will need to take more modules that are not related to your major. Remember "you will study a bit about many things"?

There are two modules that all FASS students must take, FAS1101 Writing Academically and FAS1102 Public Writing and Communication. You will do these in your first year.

You might be wondering what the letters and numbers mean. All modules have unique codes. The letters in front give a clue as to what the module is about. For example, all economics modules start with EC, and EC stands for EConomics. The first digit of the number is the level of the module. Introductory modules start with the number '1', and Honours modules start with '4'. Sometimes you will need to take a '1' module before you are allowed to take a '2' or '3' module in a related field, as the knowledge you get from the '1' module is important background for the more difficult ones.

In FASS, a few modules end with the letter 'E'. The 'E' means that that module is an Exposure module. It is a window into the major it represents. For example, PL1101E Introduction to Psychology is the exposure module of the psychology major. You can take it to get an idea of what psychology is about, and see if psychology is the major for you.

You must take three of these exposure modules, one from each "basket": Asian Studies, Humanities, and Social Sciences. One of these exposure modules will be in the discipline that you eventually adopt as your major. That's normal and you don't have to take another exposure module in the same basket to replace it.

The "baskets" are listed in the leftmost column and the contents are in the rightmost column. These are also the names of the majors on offer at FASS.

You also need to take at least nine other modules called unrestricted electives (UEs). As the name suggests, you can do whatever you want with these modules as long as they are not related to your major. You can learn a new language from the Centre for Language Studies, go out of FASS to learn computer coding or biology, or even go overseas on an exchange programme to another university. You might have heard of a double major or a minor. If you take a group of modules that are interrelated, you can turn them into a second major alongside your first one, or a minor if you didn't take so many. All this is done using your UE credit space. The UE credit space is expandable, so you can take more than nine modules if necessary. For example, a double major would require you to take at least two extra modules on top of the nine. You can still graduate in the normal time but you'll have to work harder.

Finally, there are five General Education Modules (GEMs) you need to take. Three are predetermined: GER1000 Quantitative Reasoning, GEQ1000 Asking Questions, and GET1050 Computational Reasoning (if you're from the AY2018/19 intake or earlier, this requirement is fulfilled by GET1031A Computational Thinking; if you haven't taken GET1031A, you will be pre-allocated GET1050 instead because GET1031A is no longer available). You are free to choose the other two from a list of available options. One is about Singapore Studies and must have a module code starting with GES, and the other is about Human Cultures and must have a module code starting with GEH.

Let's summarise this part before moving on.

A basic FASS undergraduate degree programme consists of:

General Education
GER1000 Quantitative Reasoning
GEQ1000 Asking Questions
GET1050 Computational Reasoning
One module with code starting with GEH
One module with code starting with GES

Faculty Core
FAS1101 Writing Academically
FAS1102 Public Writing and Communication
One exposure module from the Asian Studies division
One exposure module from the Humanities division
One exposure module from the Social Sciences division
11 modules from your major (your major may have some compulsory modules within this 11, so check carefully)

Unrestricted Electives
9 modules which are not used to fulfill any of the above requirements

A detailed breakdown of more complex types of degree like double major programmes and double degree programmes is beyond the scope of this post.

A quick word about Honours: it consists of 8 modules with the first digit of their codes being '4'. It is not compulsory to write a thesis. All modules will be about your major, and there shouldn't be a need for you to take GEMs or UEs during your Honours year unless you got your planning wrong during your earlier years.

Graduation Academic Planning System (GAPS)

It can be tricky to keep track of all the graduation requirements. Fortunately, FASS is a helpful school and provides the GAPS online service which helps you get a handle on everything. It lists out all the graduation requirements you need to fulfill, and the modules you have taken that can fulfill each one, all in a friendly table format.

A look inside GAPS. This is my degree progress as of July 2018. Don't worry if you don't understand everything in this screenshot. Just get the gist of it.

Note: From the start of 2019, GAPS was replaced with a new Academic Advisement system. This post shows screenshots of the new system. Screenshots of GAPS are no longer relevant but will be retained here for posterity.

More about majors

I've heard a lot of misconceptions about how majors work in FASS. Some people think that we have to bid for them, while others aren't sure when we declare them. Let me clear it up for you.

For the vast majority of FASS majors, declaring them is as simple as passing the relevant exposure module and then clicking a few buttons in an online system. It's that simple.

For example, to become a Communications and New Media major, you must:

1. Pass NM1101E Communications, New Media and Society
2. Go online and make it official when the Academic Plan Declaration exercise is held between semesters

Point 1 means that you can declare your major after spending at least one semester at FASS, during which you take the exposure module and pass it. As for when you must declare a major by, you are given until your fifth semester to do so. But please try to decide quickly as you might otherwise be forced to delay your graduation. Besides, there are advantages to having a major when it comes to securing your desired modules, which I will expand on below.

What the interface looks like when declaring your major. Note: The interface shown is from the old major declaration system. Academic plan declaration is now conducted through MyEduRec, so the interface is different. See below for a screenshot of the academic plan declaration section of MyEduRec. This screenshot is retained for posterity.

When the Academic Plan Declaration exercise is being held, the academic plan declaration section of MyEduRec becomes accessible. To declare your major, click on the magnifying glass symbol under "Academic Plan", then select your major from the list that appears. You can declare second majors and minors the same way. Specialisations and tracks are generally not applicable to FASS majors so don't panic about leaving them empty. The "Others" section is filled by the system automatically. In my case, it shows that I'm on the undergraduate polytechnic requirements track, "Polytechnic Req Track-UGRD".

There's no quota that restricts how many people can major in something, and admission to the majors is not on a competitive basis.

The major that is in high demand from students and is more stringent in terms of its entry requirements is psychology. To become a psychology major you must get at least B- in PL1101E Introduction to Psychology as well as PL2131 Research and Statistical Methods I. But once you've done that, the rest remains the same. Still no bidding involved.

Bidding

IMPORTANT NOTE: EFFECTIVE AY2019/20, THERE IS NO MORE BIDDING. THE MODULE PREFERENCE EXERCISE HAS ALSO BEEN ABOLISHED. MODULES ARE NOW ALLOCATED BY ModReg@EduRec, A FUNCTION OF THE UPGRADED STUDENT SERVICES PORTAL MyEduRec. THIS SECTION IS RETAINED FOR POSTERITY.

Of course there's such a thing as bidding. We may not bid for majors, but we do bid for modules.

There exists a very comprehensive and user-friendly tutorial video teaching you how the bidding system on the Centralised Online Registration System (CORS) works. It's made by the Registrar's Office and they are the people who administer the whole system so there's really nothing more I can say about this that can add to the discussion. You can view the video here. It is about two hours long but once you've watched it you'll never have any questions about the bidding ever again. Note: In mid-2019, CORS will be abolished in favour of a new module allocation system that does not rely on bidding or points. See this post for more details.

What I can tell you is how FASS makes life easier for you. One of the reactions I've seen from people who hear about the bidding system is anxiety. It sounds intimidating at first, but really there's nothing to fear.

First of all, many of your modules are pre-allocated. For example, GER1000 Quantitative Reasoning, GEQ1000 Asking Questions, GET1031A Computational Thinking, FAS1101 Writing Academically, and FAS1102 Public Writing and Communication are all pre-allocated to you within your first two years. This means that the school gives them to you straightaway and you will only be charged one bid point for each one. No bidding takes place for those modules so they don't have the opportunity to inflate in bid price. This means that you can save your bid points for other modules that you do need to bid for.

Secondly, once you've declared your major, you can take part in the Module Preference Exercise (MPE) which happens a couple of weeks before the bidding exercise. Administered by the Dean's Office, the MPE allows you to indicate the modules you want to take in the coming semester for your major requirements. Those modules will then be pre-allocated to you once the bidding exercise begins, once again costing you just one bid point each. With the MPE, you don't have to worry about not getting the modules you want for your major. It also saves your bid points so you can spend them on other modules.

As a Communications and New Media major, I will be pre-allocated NM3217 and NM2101. Although I won't be pre-allocated EL2102 as I'm not an English major, indicating my intention to take it will allow the Dean's Office to plan the cohort size of the module accordingly by taking into account the number of students who show interest in it.

The second page of the MPE. The normal workload for FASS students is five modules in a semester, which is equivalent to 20 MCs.

Confirmation screen of the MPE.

Finally, many modules are actually undersubscribed, meaning that the number of students who bid for them is smaller than the number of students that they can actually take in. In such cases, everybody who placed a bid gets the module for one bid point. There are lots of such modules around, and even popular ones like NM1101E Communications, New Media and Society, which is the exposure module of the third-most popular major in FASS, sometimes go for one bid point.

So when you think of the module bidding exercise, have no fear. Once you have understood how it works, the rest is easy.

The S/U system

Note: To fully understand this section, please review the first section of this post, "Modular system", as this section contains many of the concepts I explained there such as modular credits, module codes and levels.

Coming to university is a big deal. You will feel afraid and stressed as you transition from the relatively structured environment of your previous school to the brave new world where, for all intents and purposes, everyone is treated as adults and every decision you make with regard to your academics will have lasting consequences.

To help you cope and, to a certain extent, mitigate the impact of any poor choices you may make as you struggle to find your footing in NUS, all students who have no prior experience with university education will get access to the S/U system.

For most modules, you will get a letter grade at the end of the semester reflecting your performance in the module. Letter grades range from A+ to F. Each letter grade corresponds to a value called a grade point. The highest grade point is 5 and corresponds to the letter grades A+ and A. On the opposite end of the scale, F is worth a grade point of 0.

Your Cumulative Average Point (CAP) is an aggregate score representing your overall performance across all the modules you take. To calculate it:

1. Take the grade point you get for a module and multiply it by the number of modular credits that module carried. For example, if you get B+ for NM1101E, take the grade point equivalent of B+, which is 4, and multiply it by 4 because NM1101E carries 4MC, to get 16.
2. Repeat for all your modules.
3. Add up all the numbers you get from step 2. This is your numerator.
4. The total number of modular credits you have accumulated is your denominator.
5. Numerator divided by denominator = your CAP! CAP is represented to 2 decimal places, such as 4.88.

Where does the S/U system come in? S stands for Satisfactory and U stands for Unsatisfactory. Letter grades containing A, B, and C can be exchanged for S, while letter grades containing anything else can be exchanged for U.

After the results for a particular semester are released, you will have three days to log into the student information system and make this trade. By exchanging your letter grade on a particular module for an S or a U, you are removing it from the calculation of your CAP. To the system that calculates your CAP, it will be as if that module never existed.

The crucial difference between S and U is that an S allows you to count the modular credits you got from that module towards your graduation requirements, but a U does not. If the module was compulsory, you will have to retake the module in a subsequent semester and do better. If it was a regular module, you can try it again in a subsequent semester or choose a different module to make up the lost modular credits. The advantage of having a U instead of a D or F is that your CAP will be protected. D, being worth 1 grade point, and F, being worth 0 grade points, can really wreck your CAP if they are included in the calculation.

Students entering NUS from junior colleges with A Level or International Baccalaureate diploma certifications get 32MC of S/U to use, and those from polytechnics get 20MC because they get exemptions from some modules and do not need to take as many in order to graduate. With FASS modules mainly being worth 4MC each, this means that you can use the S/U option on 8 modules if you are from junior college and 5 if you are from polytechnic. You can't hoard them though. If you finish your first two semesters and have more than 12MC of unused S/U credits, the excess will be deleted. Everyone can only take 12MC of S/U credits out of their first full academic year.

One more detail about S/U is that you can't use it on all modules. Only certain modules are eligible. If the module is coded at level 1, you can use S/U on it. If the module is coded at level 2, you can use S/U on it provided it did not require you to take another module before taking it. For example, you can use S/U on NM2207 Computational Media Literacy because it is open to everyone, but not on EL2151 Social Variation in English because it needs EL1101E The Nature of Language as a prerequisite. And you can use S/U on all language modules where you learn a new language like Japanese, Korean, or Thai. All other modules are not eligible for S/U.

Wrapping up

Whether you're a teenager reading up before deciding if you want to apply to FASS, a parent doing research on the various university options for your child, a very confused freshman who's struggling to sort out what's going on, or an internet passerby with an interest in this topic, I hope this explanation has been helpful in clearing up some basic doubts and misconceptions. If any remain, the comments section below is open. Feel free to leave any questions there and I'll answer them to the best of my ability.

Reflections on France vs Croatia

"It wasn't pretty but they got the job done. That's what counts at the end of the day."

Former Liverpool player and now pundit Mark Lawrenson says this in football simulation game Pro Evolution Soccer 2010. It also perfectly sums up yesterday's French win.

The victory was built on a solid foundation of cynicism. Griezmann's dive to earn the free kick that led to the opener was obvious to the whole world except for the referee and his assistant, and debate continues to rage about the handball that caused the penalty and the second French goal (for what it's worth, I'd say it was a penalty, because Perisic seemed to pat the ball down).

But the French should be commended for taking the chances they were given, deserved or not. They're nothing if not clinical. Based on the statistics, they were outperformed by the Croatians. Indeed, they faced wave after wave of attacks from the red-and-white shirts. So the fact that they still managed not one, not two, not three, but four goals is testament to their ruthless finishing.

And it's not as if they didn't score nice goals. The shots by Pogba and the wunderkind Kylian Mbappe (who at 19 years of age has achieved more than I ever have at 20 and probably ever will) were right out of the top drawer.

Fair credit to Croatia too. They've done what Iceland did at Euro 2016, winning hearts all over the world as they shook up the traditional order of football powerhouses which have dominated the sport for years. Their run to the 2018 World Cup final is one that will live long in the memory.

They just couldn't squeeze out one last performance that would have written a happy ending to their fairytale.

World Cup 2018

I can't possibly let the whole World Cup go by without writing something. After all, it only happens once every four years!

This World Cup has been full of upset wins and underdog stories, from Korea beating Germany to Japan escaping the group stage. Not forgetting hosts Russia making it past the Spanish on their run to the quarters.

But arguably the most compelling is how Croatia, a war-torn country with a population smaller than Singapore, now stands on the brink of an unbelievable tournament victory.

Just one more win will see them lift the trophy and send millions of neutrals around the world into raptures, because who doesn't like a fairytale finish?

There's just one problem. On Sunday, their opponents will be the French.

With world-class names like Kylian Mbappe, Antoine Griezmann, Ngolo Kante and Benjamin Pavard in their squad, the French will prove to be a stern test for the Croatians. Sterner than even the English, which literally only had Harry Kane going for them.

Nobody honestly believed that "It's coming home" malarkey, surely?

Personally though, I was rooting for the English, whose last World Cup triumph took place when my mother was in diapers and my media writing professor wasn't even on this planet.

But now that they're out, I'm kind of on the fence. A Croatia win will have that feel-good factor, but the French have a number of players who deserve the win just as much.

People like the humble workhorse Kante, who goes about his business quietly but effectively, or the dark horse Benjamin Pavard, who I rate as the breakout star of the tournament. They are also rags-to-riches stories, and I'd be happy for them to record a World Cup title on their resumes.

This Sunday's final is sure to be filled with drama and emotion. Luckily, it will be screened live for free on Okto.

I'll be there in front of the television, Pepsi in hand.

Yeah, Coke is the sponsor of the World Cup, but I don't drink overpriced, underwhelming garbage.

Some small updates about this blog

This is a short post. It's mainly a public service announcement about a couple of things I wanted to highlight about my blog site.

1. On the right margin, below the blog archive and labels, you can now see a feed from my Twitter. Twitter is sometimes referred to as a microblogging platform, and that's exactly how I use it. Check out the feed regularly to see the little quirky observations or interesting things that happen to me that aren't major enough to warrant a full post of their own on this blog. I'm very proud of myself for setting up that feed. Google helped by telling me what to do, but I still had to do the actual work of getting Twitter to generate the HTML code for my profile, then copy and paste the code into the right box in Blogger.
2. My module reviews continue to far outperform anything else on my blog. Other university-related posts also do quite well. I think people search for terms like "S/U", "major", and stuff like that, and my posts containing those keywords probably pop up in the results. Perhaps I should blatantly seed all my posts, including those that have nothing to do with university, with those keywords...

That's all folks!

Chinese

The share price of Shanghai Fukong Interactive Entertainment Co. Ltd. can only go up from here, right? It's so far in the doldrums now.

Don't take my word for it. I've only just ventured into looking superficially at stock charts, and have no idea what I'm talking about. So to keep things simple, when I see a line that goes almost straight down, I judge that that particular stock will probably increase in price again soon, i.e., rebound. Because that's the circle of life. Regression to the mean is a real thing, even in trading.

A couple of things happened recently that made me interested in Chinese stuff. First, I won the China Daily Prize for being a top performer in my university course. Hot on the heels of that came the MTX controversy surrounding the game I play, which many players blamed on the corporate greed of the holding company... Shanghai Fukong Interactive Entertainment Co. Ltd., which the RuneScape community refers to as "Chinese overlords".

Cue a series of comments, mainly on Reddit, sarcastically written in Chinese. Or rather, written by Westerners in English, then badly translated by Google into Chinese characters which were then pasted onto the comment threads. For example, here's one from u/ChineseOverlord, a satirical account, responding to a satirical suggestion that the company should lock all accounts and charge players a fee to be able to log into the game again. Yes, RuneScape players are sarcastic that way.

谢谢你的想法！

P. S请用中文发布您的投诉，以便霸王更容易理解。

Being a helpful person, and not wanting anyone to miss out on the joke, I manually translated the comment back into English using my considerable command of my mother tongue.

Thanks for your idea! Please use Chinese to give your suggestions so that it's easier for the overlords to understand.

- translated by human being who knows Chinese

I received 14 upvotes and 1 Reddit Silver for my troubles. A subsequent translation of another comment bagged me another 4 upvotes. These are nothing more than virtual currency for bragging rights but it was fun nonetheless!

The thing is, if not for the China Daily Prize, I probably wouldn't have bothered with the translations. I struggled with Chinese throughout my 10 years of compulsory education. The only subject I ever failed an exam in was Chinese in Primary 4, and I had tuition for no other subject except Chinese from upper primary all the way through to the O Levels.

It's safe to say I hated that language with a passion.

But that's not to say I'm completely inept at it. I can hold a normal conversation with another Singaporean using it, and my recognition of the characters is adequate for carrying out chats online in it. Sure, I stammer a lot because sometimes I don't know the words for certain things, and my pronunciation sounds like an American learning Chinese for the first time, but the problem was mainly psychological. Because I was forced to suffer through 10 years of Chinese hell, I didn't want anything to do with the language if I had a choice.

So I turned my back on it. For almost four years I took great pride in my inability to speak Chinese, and never used it unless someone used it on me first, and even then I would use it begrudgingly and purposely dumb down my standards.

At times I did feel slightly guilty. What kind of Chinese person can't speak Chinese? And was I hurting myself, given the growing influence of China on the world stage?

I never did anything about these misgivings though.

Winning the China Daily Prize changed that.

I can't really explain why. Maybe it's the feel-good factor. Suddenly the concept of "China" is associated with the positive feelings stirred up by my award, displacing the negative ones from my school days. In fact on the night I opened the letter announcing my win, I voluntarily spoke Chinese for the next hour, because I felt I ought to do so in honour of China Daily.

And the opportunity to practice my Chinese by helping those Westerners understand the sardonic comments reinforced the joy of using the language. Positive Reddit karma is always nice too.

I can't say for sure how long this rekindled interest in the Chinese language will last, but hey, a little bit is still better than nothing at all.

Now perhaps I should go read some investment analysis reports about Shanghai Fukong Interactive Entertainment Co. Ltd. that are published in Chinese...

When is enough enough?

A video game and Singapore politics. You wouldn't usually link the two, but right now there's a strong commonality between them.

The developers of medieval-fantasy massively multiplayer online role-playing game RuneScape and the government of the small city-state have both managed to thoroughly piss off their respective communities with thinly veiled cash grabs.

Here's a look at what each has done.

Milking whales

The company behind RuneScape, Jagex, introduced microtransactions (MTX) into the game in 2012. Since then, it has ramped up its MTX offerings, much to the annoyance of players.

MTX is a common practice in the gaming industry. If you've ever played a free mobile game, chances are you would have seen an in-app store where you can pay real-world money to get a boost in the virtual one. This is fine because game studios are, after all, businesses whose goal is to make profit.

But there's a right way to implement MTX and a wrong way, and unfortunately Jagex have got it absolutely horribly wrong. First of all, they have piled MTX on top of an existing subscription-based monetisation model in which players have to fork out $11 a month to even play the game in the first place. Other games which have MTX give access to the full game for free. By squeezing players for a recurring monthly payment, and then adding MTX, Jagex seem like they want to have their cake and eat it too.

Jagex have also pushed the boundaries of MTX too far. Players need to cough up money for essential features like bank presets, action bars, and the RuneMetrics activity tracking systems, all of which are integral to the game experience. That's a big no-no because players feel like they're being forced to spend money. Basically Jagex is saying: "If you want to continue enjoying our services, give us more money." What kind of business gets away with such blatant greed?

Responsible MTX should also never include elements of gambling. Sadly, Jagex's primary MTX is Treasure Hunter, which uses the lootbox mechanism, at its core a slot machine simulator. Players buy keys to open chests which contain randomly generated rewards. Most of the time you get complete garbage, but every now and then you get a rare and powerful item accompanied by a burst of animated fireworks and cheerful audio. This preys on exactly the kind of mental circuit that gets people addicted to gambling. So it's unethical that a supposedly above-board company shamelessly uses such tactics to increase its revenue.

It all came to a head recently when Jagex introduced another type of MTX called RunePass, and claimed that they were addressing the players' concerns over the prevalence of MTX. Not only were players angered by the fact that RunePass is a ripoff of the Battle Pass concept from another popular game Fortnite, they also failed to comprehend how putting in a new MTX is supposed to help solve the problem of there being too much MTX in the game.

Things got worse when the lead developer brazenly said in a video about the new MTX that players should "buy them". Ill-advised move certainly, and it only served to reinforce the notion that Jagex is only interested in lining its own pockets.

All the missteps accumulated over the past few years have led to lots of talk about the future of RuneScape. The playerbase is declining at an increasing rate, and there is a small but growing number of people who believe that this is the beginning of the end. With so many other more modern games to choose from, who will stay around to ride this bloated cash cow into the grave?

If Jagex doesn't do something drastic in the next two years to fix the MTX issue, I think we'll see a big exodus as the last few faithful fans finally say "enough is enough" and quit the game for good.

That will be the coup de grace for Jagex, and they will only have themselves to blame.

Paying more for things that fall out of the sky

The Singapore government is no stranger to upsetting the local populace with policies that inflict agonising pain on citizens' wallets.

It has a long history of raising existing taxes, creating new taxes, and jacking up the cost of everyday necessities willy-nilly.

The latest example of this is the 30% increase in water prices, which kicked in on 1 July.

It has had many devastating knock-on economic effects for the man-on-the-street consumer. Virtually everything we use needs water somewhere along the line, from something as simple as brewing a cup of coffee to as complex as the industrial processes involved in plastic manufacturing.

As a result, lots of things have become more expensive to produce, and the cost is often passed on to the consumer. Many drinks stalls have already raised the price of coffee and tea.

The woes of normal Singaporeans, already in a country with one of the highest cost of living in the world, continue.

I have seen plenty of rumblings of discontent online, and some are predicting that the people will soon reach a breaking point.

Perhaps the days of the incumbent government, which has been in power since our independence, are coming to an end, because their moneygrubbing practices have gone too far.

Just like Jagex.

The Malaysians recently kicked out their greedy and corrupt government which had also been in power for over 50 years.

We might be approaching that time when RuneScapers and Singaporeans put their foot down and follow suit, the former by jumping off that sinking ship of a game, and the latter by casting their ballots.