And So Soaking These 2 Weeks In A Laid-back School Holiday Style

I remember what school holiday was like.  Or to describe my current sentiment more correctly: these two weeks of annual leave reminds me of what school holiday was like.  In UK, the school holiday is long, very long.  Six weeks of break in between terms (we call them Michaelmas, Hilary, and Trinity), more than three months of break in between the years.  Maybe school holiday is long, everywhere in the world.  Since staying in the college added extra strain to my student loan for my university education, I often opted to visit my relatives in Paris, just across the English Channel (note: today I learn that the same arm is called differently by the French and the Dutch … of course!).  Or to stay with my friends in London, which till today, I am still thankful of their hospitality whenever I think of the good-old-days.

In retrospect, I suppose I could have made my school holiday more productive.  Like doing an internship, finding an opportunity to help out the faculty or the graduates who may need an assistant, or even picking a voluntary work to do.  Holiday in Paris was often more productive, comparatively.  I would soak in the local culture familiarizing myself with every corner of the street, every significant piece of artwork inside a museum that caught my eyes.  Holiday in London was often more – for lack of a better word – laid-back.

What does laid-back mean?  Depending on which camp you are in, if you think that laid-back is a negative attribute, especially in the context of a work environment, the opposite of laid-back would be driven, motivated, all the wonderful descriptions that are likely to earn you a good bonus.  But if laid-back is to mean relax, the opposite would be tense, edgy, and uptight.  All the negative attributes you probably would not want to see in your partner, or your pet.  Having said it, it is about the context, isn’t it?

Progress and mass expectation is extrinsic.  It is always good to positively contribute to the community, even if it is in the expense of your internal happiness and well being.  Society does not reward you on how happy you are.  It does however have a multitude of goods and services that you can purchase to make you a happier person.  Feeling relax and happy is intrinsic.  Something you have to generate from within.  The best of it all is to find someone as laid-back as you, when you want to be.  Imagine the otherwise.

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This holiday, I have done something unconventional.  I am often someone who is loyal to brands and shops and spends a great deal of time researching on products and pricing before making a purchase.  Since Cynthia is not as insistence on an overseas holiday as she is used to be and since my sister’s baby may pop out any time soon, I am happy to laid-back at home, for the entire two weeks.

I know in certainty that Cynthia and I would spend much time playing an online computer game.  And I know for a long time that upgrading Cynthia’s computer would vastly enhance her gaming experience, visually speaking.  So I took something from my computer and planted it into hers.  That works great for that one computer game that Cynthia plays.  But what about me?  I got myself a pretty decent video card and an even larger wide screen monitor.  Decision was made on the spot.  It was a cash transaction so you could say that it was a premeditated move.

Funny if I think about how laid-back I had been in making that purchase decision and now in a laid-back holiday, I tacked the situation with motivation and drive, as oppose to the laid-back philosophy.  What’s going on here?

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I look forward to a day when economists write a book on the online game World of Warcraft.  Its success story is much to be learned by other corporations.  It is amazing to see how Blizzard – the producer of the game – is able to constantly evolve the game and motivate the millions of subscribers to keep playing a game that is now more than five years old.  Premium contents are continuously commodified, made accessible by the mass players who may not have as much time to invest as the hardcore players, as new premium contents are produced.  That way, there is always a chance for the laid-back players to catch up and at the same time, a strong motivation for the hardcore players to reach new heights.  On paper, that is an easy thing to say.  Blizzard executes this vision flawlessly by making changes on different aspects of the game simultaneously so as to bring forth a holistic experience that does not feel patchy.  Putting customers with different aspirations at the center.  So easy to say, so hard to do it right.

We know that we manage what we measure.  That is the foundation of the management tool called balanced scorecard: measuring performance by key indicators.  Cynthia and I are fortunate to have Mark – not sure if his wife would think the same – to immerse in this online game in this laid-back holiday of ours.  Last night, we have re-installed a gaming component that enables us to view our in-game performance in real time.  All of a sudden, I observed that Cynthia has turned insanely competitive.  Against me, in a cooperative mission, with a team of 5 against our adversities.

Huh?!  What’s going on here?

With real time meter, she has turned into a committed player dishing out insane amount of damage against our common targets.  I could not help but to peep onto her screen during our cooperative battle to see how I was doing in comparison.  Why?  Because she is tracking performance battle-by-battle while I am tracking how well we do by the sum of all battles.  Her hunter beat my mage in both counters – hers and mine.  And I conclude that tracking near-term targets yields a higher performance than tracking targets over a longer duration.  An analogy would be if you have to clock in 40 hours of learning a year in your work, more likely so, you would defer your learning till the end of the year, which you may or may not be able to spend all that 40 hours.  Setting a quarterly cumulative target would have yielded a better result.

Because we manage what we measure.

Back to last evening, I think I was the laid-back one.  4 in the morning and I was sleepy.

*     *     III     *     *

In a normal day, racing games are the least of my favorite.  Because I suck so badly in this genre.  Maybe I am simply not a good gamer.  Maybe I am simply a laid-back gamer.  I play games to experience something quite honestly speaking, if you seldom or have not played any computer game, you are missing an unique experience in life.  An analogy would be you as a regular user of the Internet (which I presume you are since you are reading this) wonders what those people who have little or no exposure to the Internet would have missed.  Cynthia’s mother from Indonesia was so amazed when she was with us in Singapore as she witnessed how McDonald’s breakfast can appear at our doorstep with a click of a button.  That, to her, was an experience.

The game DiRT 2 comes with the video card that I have recently purchased.  The delivery of the game is via STEAM – a service provider that streams games that you own into your computer via the Internet.  That alone is an experience worth mentioning.  Imagine no more game boxes that take up space (did I hear Cynthia cheering in the background?).  OK.  The download takes long.  But the good thing is that you can re-download games that you own any time in the future and all the patches can be applied via the one source.  Now, that is STEAM.  But what about “Games for Window”?

The Microsoft initiative “Games for Window” has been around for ages.  To be frank, I had no idea what difference does it make if I am to compare games that do not have “Games for Window” stickers to those that have.  DiRT 2 is the first “Games for Window” game I have that saves my game progress into Microsoft gaming server, online.  Combine that with STEAM, this is what the future of PC gaming should be like.  As and when I upgrade my computer, all I need to do is to install STEAM, re-download my games in their latest versions, and pick up from where I have left off.  No game boxes, no need to search for latest patches online, and no need to manually back up my game progress.  Life is not only good, but great.

DiRT 2 is not only good, but great.  One of the few games that utilizes the latest DirectX 11 graphics standard.  And I have one of the few video cards today that support this new standard.  Visually, the game is stunning.  The dust, the water splashes, the smoke, and the day and night scenes.  I suck at playing racing game.  But once in a while, I am able to put up a heroic performance that involves teeth grinding overtaking moments, beautiful drifting in spacious corners, picking up from my mistake and fight back to the top of the grid.  If only DiRT 2 allows us to upload our replay – which by the way, is very visually satisfying, realistically made – to YouTube for sharing, that would have been a dream comes true.  For now, below is a video clip featuring Ken Block.  And yes, it is that real.

*     *     IV     *     *

Computer gaming often delivers what we fantasize.  It would not be a good game if it involves reading and replying emails, organizing and attending conference calls, like my real job.  Space traveling is a different kind of fantasy.  Unlike dragons and trolls that we know they do not exist, cars that we know exist but highly unlikely that we would be behind those wheels any time soon, anything to do with a probable future that involves space traveling has a certain charm.  And that is the main reason why I enjoy playing Mass Effect.  Therefore, I have decided to start all the way from the beginning even though I have lost my previous game progress when my hard disk crashed.  Now, that would not be a problem had my game progress was saved online, would it?  And since its sequel is due to be released early next year, in my mode of ‘laid-back-ness’, I better finish the game fast.

When Cynthia peeped at my screen one fine day, she commented that the game is like a movie, with dialogs and story development.  Indeed, Mass Effect to me is like an interactive movie.  An experience that is hard to describe (imagine how difficult it is to describe what Internet is and can do to those who have little exposure to the technology).  Almost like directing your very own movie in your own home.

Back to the game, I have no clue how gamers can finish a game in 20 to 40 hours.  I have no clue how anyone can finish any game these days.  So many hours have been sunken into this game and I have yet to see the ending.  That shows how laid-back I am with my gaming career.

Want to know what I am playing for?  Below is the trailer of the sequel.  Mouth watering.  No less.

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I reckon I can be an ambassador for PC gaming.  And if you have the patience to read thus far, I have a message for you.  Have a great New Year Eve celebration.  Thank you for being with my site all these while and have a productive 2010, in a laid-back style.

PS. Of course, in this 2 weeks of laid-back holiday, beside computer gaming, we have also enjoyed watching the movies and dinning out.  Come to think of it, just like how I spent my school holiday in London.  Woot!  I made it.  This post has a word count of 2009!