Free to Play is one category of games that I stay away from. No matter what, I like my games the classic way:

1. I should be able to play them offline.
2. They should not stop me from playing unnecessarily.
3. I should be able to play without an online account requirement.
4. I should not be banned from a significant portion of game just because I am not paying.

And if you take a look at the games I play, there is no free to play title in there, except one: Injustice: Gods Among Us. It is an iOS game that I downloaded because Batman was in there. And to my surprise, I like it(unlike that Zyanga crap!).

It does break Rule #2 but since it is a mobile title that I play on and off, that is tolerable.

Why I Hate Free To Play:

I am sure every gamer on the planet has already written this or will in future, but if you don’t play regular games, you need to learn why I hate Free to Play. Here are the reasons:

1. They Treat Me Like A Cash Cow: And I don’t like being treated like a cow. With traditional games, this is what happens: You pay once, then you (and your children and your children’s children) can play them anytime. I own them. But with free to play, I either have to wait or pay to play consistently. Had this been the case with Assassin’s Creed, I would have been bankrupt. Game Developers, I am not this:

   

2. They Make Me Play On Their Schedule: When I am playing a Free to Play game, I can’t play on my own schedule. There is a limit on energy or something else that stops me from playing. Solution: Stop playing and wait for energy recharge or pay to get instant recharge! This is irritating.
3. They Overvalue Themselves: What is affordable in US is not affordable in most other countries. This is one thing that many developers need to understand. Apple did the right thing by making songs Rs. 12 (still a bit much, I think Rs. 5-7 is sweet spot) but they haven’t done it for apps. Just think what Rs. 10 apps can do in India (not that they will eradicate piracy, there are still lazy bums with excuses who will pirate no matter what. More on piracy some other day)!

These are the reasons that make me stay at least 100 meters away from Free to Play titles.

However, Injustice got some of the things right and this is why I have been playing it regularly for last 2 days.

What Injustice Did Right

1. Offline Play: No social shit. A big relief.
2. No Account Requirement: While I can make an account to carry my bonus to PS3 and xBox (both of which I do not own), it is not necessary to make one.
3. Good Energy Limits: The energy limit is quite good and I can have 4-5 fights per sitting. This makes for a good break entertainment. Also, since game is played in 3 vs 3 matches, you can keep on playing with other characters.
4. Nothing Blocked: Nothing is blocked in the game for players who are not paying. Sure, I will take more time to earn in game currency but I can play it freely.

There are still some annoyances but this game is not doubt the best Free to Play game that I’ve played.

I’m going to play it more now. Enjoy your day, play games!

Yes, you read it right. It is Microsoft Word, that document editor from Microsoft.

Seems like Microsoft is going in right direction in at least one department. I guess now I know why Microsoft is not updating Windows Live Writer, because they have a better (though paid) alternative that is much better.

I have used Word a lot like any student and grammar checking is unmatched. Apart from that, it offers many good features.

However, this is my first time using it and I am not sure about bad HTML that it may add to my posts. I have seen that before and for one client, it even broke the theme.

If it works out well, I am surely going to make it my regular blogging tool. Let’s see how this goes.

Heard this from Col. Aman today:

I was there when we exchanged bodies with Pakistan. Indian bodies were mutilated and in very bad condition. We returned Pakistani bodies wrapped with their flags and with their national anthem playing. Pakistani soldiers couldn’t look into our eyes. India won the war that day.

This is what defines us, this is what makes us Indians.

This makes me proud to be an Indian.

Image Credit: harmonica pete via flickr

I am a student of Sharda University. It is in growing phase and there are still several things out of place here. But there have been several decisions that make me think that things are being put out of place intentionally.

For last 3-4 days, we have been experiencing some pretty nasty censorship. Facebook was blocked last year by IT department.

Students found a way to bypass that.

Then, they decided to add a password to Wi-Fi. No problems with that, but what was puzzling was their decision to NOT tell password to students and instead make officials enter them on our laptops.

AND they had this policy of not entering the password on mobile devices at all. I have no idea why someone would come up with anything like this.

Anyway, the funny thing was this:

They were putting password on every student’s laptop out there and expecting it to still be a secret.

Now I do not want to disrespect anyone but anyone who thinks that this is possible should be fired right now. Because any (with due respect) idiot passed this policy forgot this:

Every Curious Kid Who Has Ever Used Wi-Fi Knows About This

So hard to find the password, right?

However, this was not the limit.

Enter Keyword Based Blocking

Now, in their infinite wisdom, Sharda University IT department has decided to implement a keyword based filter to block several websites.

This causes weird things to happen. Since Facebook and sex are among the blocked words, you can not access facebook.com or any porn sites. The real problem occurs when you try to access something like these:

• http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-01-20/best-facebook-analyst-jobless-as-kazakhs-cull-brokerages.html
• http://www.moneylife.in/article/bse-sensex-nifty-headed-lower-tuesday-closing-report/30903.html

I do not want to disrespect anyone again, but:

Whoever thought of blocking without testing is an idiot!

I have no idea why this blocking is happening. Maybe university is after saving money or bandwidth.

And based on current situation, university really needs some more bandwidth. Because from 6 PM to 1 AM, the speeds are pathetic. Absolutely pathetic.

And this is the case when technology page( cached version )of our university makes following claim:

I have no idea where all this speed goes. Either the university needs a better set of connections or cut everything down.

Leaving all tech things aside now, I just want to ask our university one simple question:

Why This Censorship?

What is the purpose of blocking Facebook? Is it hurting anyone?

There are two reasons possible here:

1. Employees waste too much time on Facebook.
2. Students waste too much time on Facebook.

Employees

If employees are spending too much time on FB, then why block it all over the campus. Is there no better solution? How about keeping it off during the day only. Students need to access FB. Not to chat and waste time but for studies also. Most of the classes in university have a Facebook group where notes etc. are shared (Technology page mentions LMS but it never worked, so we had to resort to using other methods!)

Students

Why should students be blocked from Facebook?

I have no idea but since our higher officials changed last year, we have been treated like a cattle heard. Everything is being enforced. Students were not attending classes.

Solution?

Make 75% attendance compulsory and give marks for attendance.

Expected Result: More students attending classes = more studies.

Real Result(at least in my class): More students attending class = more notorious students attending class = less discipline = less studies.

Now, the best I can guess about current Facebook ban is this:

Expected Result: No Facebook = More students studying.

My Predicted Result: No Facebook = students finding another way out (FB is not the only social networking site anyway).

Dear University, If You Want Money…

Ask from us.

No, seriously. Just keep a donation box on front gate and I am sure that you will get much more money. It’s not like that I am assuming monitory reasons out of thin air.

Just last month, some 300 students were fined just because some of the hostel students were creating indiscipline. Instead of putting more security guards, the solution was this:

Click To Enlarge

Basically, the notice just assumes that all students were involved and forces a fine on students. This is nothing short of extortion.

This is why I am assuming that there is money(cost savings from bandwidth) are in play here.

Students and Innovation Suffer Because Of This

This whole situation is not the fault of university and management only. But draconian measures like these will only hurt students and innovation.

I know at least 3 other students who are involved in web design and we are having real problems now.

I tried updating Sexy Bookmarks plugin on some client sites but could not.

Why?

Sexy word was involved!

I could not read a Facebook related news on Forbes.

Again, Facebook word was involved.

While I am all in for some balancing, such measures are unacceptable and I am going to take this matter to higher authorities(hoping that they were not ones to suggest this).

Because we are grown up college students, not nursery kids who need this sort of censorship.

If you are a student of Sharda University, can you help a bit by signing this petition? Our higher authorities seek numbers, I will need some to show to them.

This is the best game I’ve played on iPad and iPhone.

It is simple, addictive and hard like anything. Even the easiest game mode is “Hard” followed by harder and hardest. And if you complete those, hardester and hardestest are in line.

If you like simple games and want a challenge, get this game.

[Super Hexagon](http://superhexagon.com).

It is plainly the second best game I’ve ever played.

Well, I am a bit biased towards Assassin’s Creed 2 because of its medieval setting (I love swords and blades) and a somewhere better character, Ezio.

But Batman is not far behind. I love the approach. All the survey and analysis that Batman does while sitting comfortably on a Gargoyle is just great. It gives you a sense of being a predator.

And that feels great.

It is not often in games that you are sitting on a vantage point scanning the room for enemies and then making plans about how to take them down. Only Batman can do that.

To add to the situation, you are just a normal person in armour.

Batman is very delicate for a game. 5 bullets and he’s gone! (Even a wounded soldier in Call of Duty can survive better than him!)

But still, Arkham City is one great game. I did not like Cat Woman at all, but Batman more than makes it up!

The controls are mostly fluid and combat feels good. Towards the end though, combat becomes bit of a chore with multiple types of enemies. They all have specific strategies to defeat them and its hard to concentrate on single one when you’ve got more than 6 of them. But this is just a minor quirk.

Overall, this is one great game. You have got to play this!

**P.S.** I’m fully aware that the image used at top is Batman logo from movies, it is just a better logo than game!

I do not get philosophical often. But this evening, I was thinking a lot in free time.

What are we? We are so small in this universe. Our earth is a small planet, and we are too small in comparison to earth. We would need some 60,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 humans to have mass equal to earth. Does that give you an idea of smallness?

And then not to forget that our big planet is itself like a grain of sand on a beach in the galaxy. And galaxy is again a grain of sand in the universe. This all is a big recursion.

We are like a grain of sand on a planet which is like a grain of sand in a galaxy which is like a grain of sand in the universe!

And we are nothing, literally nothing. We feel like we are important and what not. But have you ever thought what will happen 4 or more branches below in your family tree?

You will be a long forgotten memory. Your grandchildren may remember you, and if you are lucky, your great grandchildren may. But what after that?

You would not matter at all.

Only thing you will be remembered for is your legacy. What will you do in your lifetime that will make your family, or world remember you?

Will you keep wasting your time or do something worth remembering?

Instrumental music just grows on you slowly.

And you tend to line it only when it reminds of something. I liked Assassin’s Creed 2 and 3 mostly because of the greatness of games.

Ridiculous things happen.

I just spent an hour troubleshooting my blog. TinyMCE was not working and I was really worried. I was about to switch this blog to Tumblr when I noticed something, many menus on Tumblr were not working as well.

And a small bell in my head rang, “I am behind a proxy that is managed by idiots (my college staff, yes Sharda University, your IT staff is highly unqualified!)”

And I switched to 3G on my phone which I have to use regularly.

And guess what, everything is working smoothly!

Now, I have no idea why some javascript is being blocked here. OK, I get downloads and torrents. Wait, downloads? Even they are not safe with stunts like last week where our maximum download size for a single file was limited to 50 MB!

And then before that, when they decided to password protect Wi-Fi. Though the geniuses implemented this in most idiotic way possible, by adding the password directly in network settings on our laptops. They were seriously hoping that they would add a password that will stay on our hard disk without us finding it out. (Every student knew the password within 2 minutes of them putting it on first laptop!) Even then, they had a more idiotic policy of “no Wi-Fi for phones!”

Just in case you are a student and considering Sharda University, never come here! Most of the things are fine but if you are interested in anything remotely interested in internet, the speeds here are pathetic. Speeds are unusable between 6 PM to 2 AM and are at dial up levels between 11 AM to 6 PM.

Ferrari Sucks. They make so expensive cars. I mean, seriously! A Tata Nano costs much less, still moves and gives better mileage than Ferrari. What’s the problem with all the people using Ferrari. They all are idiots, rich people who are fools.

Now replace Ferrari with Apple and Tata Nano with Android and you have a comment from an Android fan.