Powered by glolg
Display Preferences Most Recent Entries Chatterbox Blog Links Site Statistics Category Tags About Me, Myself and Gilbert XML RSS Feed
Monday, May 21, 2012 - 01:10 SGT
Posted By: Gilbert

Meaningful Hiatus


Salvation of Sanctuary

The progress on CAPTCHAs has been deferred for good reason, with Team Ham having a world to save; Yes, Diablo 3 has been released, and I along with my cousin and two of his friends availed ourselves of the S$65.90 preorder offer from qisahn (MSRP S$89.90). It came as a boxed DVD, with a brief manual and several guest pass keys.

We didn't get off to a particularly good start as Mr. Ham discovered that the Barbarian did not include a hamster commander ( I had to explain to him that that was a different series), and Mr. Robo was aghast at the Witch Doctor not being an actual certified doctor either. After they got over their disappointment, it was decided to pool our efforts with a single Monk character - Oboham.


Lai, lai, mai shy
(Click for full screenshot)


It all began with a Vampiric Short Sword of Winter (8.4 dmg/s, 4-8 dmg, 1.40 attacks/s, +2-4 cold dmg, 1.20% of damage dealt is converted to life), and Oboham slowly made his way through the four Acts, cutting through the Butcher, Belial and Azmodan in turn (perishing a few times along the way), before facing the Big Bad Diablo himself.


It was kind of anticlimatic


The journey took about fifteen hours solo over several nights, which doesn't hold a candle to the Koreans (6 hours as a team), but does include some sidequests. Oboham was Level 31 at the conclusion, which should be about par.

A few comments on the game - it sure went by much faster than I recall Diablo 2 being - I don't remember if I ever completed that, having tried it only long after its release. A Monk-specific tip that some may find useful: it is possible to put both Seven-Sided Strike (which has the monk dashing rapidly between enemies hitting them, the same as Dota's Blademaster's Omnislash) and Mystic Ally both as hotkeys despite them being in the same skill category.

As far as I can see, there's not too much skill involved, at least for Normal difficulty, with most foes falling to basic attacks combined with Lashing Tail Kick and Seven-Sided Strike to get out of dicey situations, and Breath of Heaven for additional healing wherever required. To make it even more idiot proof, the Transcendence passive turns most techniques into a secondary heal, with Mantra of Healing providing permanent regeneration above all that. All this is extremely welcome with potion use severely curtailed by design.

On the plus side, Diablo 3 certainly fulfils the old hunter-gatherer drive of bashing things with clubs and taking their loot, the map levels and cutscene video quality is impressive (if only to be expected from Blizzard), and some of the NPC quips deserve a smile. However, things do get repetitive soon enough (Tristram again, then a Desert City? Okay), and the plot's kind of bland, but who cares about that?

I'm not too sure about some of the changes, such as player attributes being automatically assigned (with attribute requirements for items also removed), and characters being able to swop between all available skills as desired, instead of having them chosen permanently in Diablo 2, such that if a different build is wanted, the player has to create and train a new character from scratch, or slowly respec the old character. While attributes can be modified by items, this seems to be in line with a general trend of dumbing games down to cater to the lowest common denominator (i.e. mass market, or auction house as it stands)


Thoughts on Dialogue

I lost most of Saturday on various errands (where I found out that Hougang may not be a slum, but certainly has a paucity of cabs; I had to resort to placing a phone booking, after which the driver explained that cabbies tend to come out more in the evenings) before rushing down to NUS for the Policy Studies Seminar and Debate Series dialogue session organized by the NUS Students' Political Association, which billed the Acting Minister for Community Development, Youth and Sports, Mr. Chan Chun Sing and MP Dr. Amy Khor as guests of honour.

The opening part consisted of a presentation of ideas and concerns from the associated workshop, discussions and debates. I shall first list the complaints and suggestions from the student participants by category, as I recorded them:

Transport
  • Too many cars
  • Public transport system capable?
  • MRT breakdowns
  • Public transport fare increases
  • Provide express buses
  • Flexi-hours, work from home
  • Intertemporal pricing
  • Car/taxi pool
  • Limit households to two vehicles
  • Improve signalling system
  • Foldable seats on MRTs/buses to create standing space
  • Increase maintenance
  • Increase training for transport staff
  • Increase transparency of LTA
  • Nationalize public transport system


Population Dynamics
  • Will max out at ~3.5M citizens at 2025 at current trends (TFR of 1.2) without immigration
  • Currently more entering than leaving workforce (~250k from 15-19 years old vs. ~100k), but this will reverse in 2030
  • 3.25M residents (including 0.53M PRs), 1.39M non-residents (46% work permit holders, 14% foreign domestic workers)
  • Financial, childcare support etc to create pro-family environment
  • Go beyond monetary incentives
  • Definition of sustainable population
  • Context of population, low acceptance rate of polytechnic students to universities, high fees for locals vs. scholarships for foreigners who fail to integrate, form enclaves, provide competition and stagnate wages
  • Suggest greater penalties for bond breaking, down payment for scholarship, foreign students to tutor locals, all scholarships to have bonds, buddy program with more discerning immigration policies, quotas on student accomodation, more Singapore studies and National Integration Council support, experiential learning by visiting Chinatown etc


Housing
  • Too expensive to own flats
  • Transparency in pricing model
  • Any need to move to high-end HDBs (with frills)?
  • Social integration (curry issue)
  • Formation of foreign national enclaves
  • Annual review of income ceiling
  • Minimum occupation requirement for PRs before being able to purchase flats
  • Capital gains taxes
  • Use lifetime income index
  • Reduce profits of private developers
  • HDB regulatory agency powers (no open market)
  • Return to lineup system from BTO
  • Distribute pamplets on integration to foreigners
  • More grassroots leaders visits
  • Set up self-help groups


Health
  • Non-discriminatory treatment (human rights)
  • Increase number of wards
  • Redesignate A & B wards for more beds
  • Impose bed occupancy tax
  • Higher CPF contributions from PRs
  • Increase intake of medical students
  • Reach out to foreign labour (ROFL) campaigns
  • Undercover bosses to better understand workers
  • Clearer assessment towards worth/adaptability


Immigration
  • Make knowledge of (spoken) English mandatory for long-term workers
  • Decrease employer tax if fluent in English
  • Increase length of stay of foreign workers to encourage them to pick up English
  • Expand REACH
  • Introduce modified NS (3 months)
  • Compulsory community service for females
  • Independent polling stations
  • Increase productivity, birth rates
  • More transparency in citizenship
  • Change employers' perception of older citizens

Without commenting on the above yet, let's move on the the questions from the floor:

  • How does the government view technology/robots (as an alternative to foreign labour)?
  • What is meant by "integration"
  • How can Singapore capitalize on the silver (aging) economy?
  • Hard policies vs. bondbreakers (e.g. fines?)
  • Why whould NS be compulsory for new citizens when not every Singaporean serves? (repeated later)
  • Consider offering priority/fast-track citizenship for military service like other countries (e.g. USA, French foreign legion)?
  • What is the Singapore narrative (formerly about four races coming together to build Singapore post-independence)? Will it be about the role of new citizens?
  • (Observation) It takes courage to be pro-immigration/foreigners now
  • Why should there be bonds for all scholarships?
  • Is the rumour that foreigners of a certain nationality were shipped back (work permit renewal denied) because they had poor command of English?
  • More trains and less reliance on expensive express bus services?

With all this said and done, it was time for our Minister to give his thoughts - but first, he asked how many in the audience had participated in the earlier workshops etc, by, wait for it, raising hands...


I suppose more politicians *could* do with signature entrance themes, like wrestlers


That formality done with, Mr. Chan then began with the observation that policy making is complicated, with often orthogonal and conflicting ends, unlike the private sector where the one KPI is profits. Therefore, governments have to be clear about policy objectives, and beware of the Law of Unintended Consequences (somehow, he hesitated to use the aphorism "the road to hell is paved with good intentions", believing it possibly offensive)

As an Economics major (too), he noted that it is wonderful to study economics, and that the basic problem is satisfying unlimited wants by finite means; he then asked for desired ends for Singapore (noting that the size of the population is a means and not an end), and got such responses as quality of life, a cohesive society, job opportunities and freedom of choice and expression, and noted that to achieve X objectives, one generally requires X instruments, easing into the Socratic method for the remainder of the dialogue.

It shouldn't take too much to guess that he basically toed the party line, along with having a great time shooting down the weaker (cute-cute) ideas (e.g. if one can afford a significant downpayment, one would probably not need a scholarship), making assertions (if foreign scholars are to be dealt with harshly for breaking bonds, so must local ones!) [N.B. Actually, why need to like that ah?] and expounding upon accepted wisdom - that Singapore as a city-state has to remain a Tier I megacity and compete against others like Shanghai, Seoul and Tokyo, and to do that it requires both quality and quantity (i.e. more people)

In particular, he says, as a small country Singapore has to be nimble and fast - companies will gravitate to China whatever its growth rate, but Singapore has to maintain a higher growth rate to stay competitive as a price-taker internationally. The last time we experienced slow grouth (2001-2005), a third of the people had negative real income growth, which was arrested only by the recent infusion of foreigners.

[N.B. While the correlation may exist, the question remains of how long this artificial boost can last for - ten years? twenty? And then back to square one? And if TFR among the newcomers is in the doldrums too, then what?]

He does make the good point that a higher Gini coefficient may be unavoidable for Singapore, since as a city-state there is no countryside for less-productive elements to retire to.

On housing, he states that Singapore does meet the international benchmark of paying 20% to 25% of income towards one's residence [N.B. Though it should be remembered that it is towards a lease and not actual title], while refuting claims that the percentage of income needed has increased over the years, using his mother's experience as an example (S$62k on a S$100 a month salary). Thanks to Mr. Chan, I can also now confirm that the HDB is running a half-billion dollar deficit annually [N.B. Though likely not due to actual construction costs, but whatever land is said to cost]

Indeed, Mr. Chan argues that we are actually more socialist than the socialists, pointing to higher relative subsidies for one and two-room flats, and a S$20k/year average subsidy for students, and cautioned over overreaction to housing prices, nothing that the financial crisis in 1997 created a huge surplus.

It might be more interesting to note what was not covered in detail - raising the fertility rate ("we'll try") [N.B. As noted many times before, I'll be surprised if they succeed; However, having said that, it's not all the government's fault - most of the actual causes are probably politically incorrect], locals who perform as well as (most of the) foreign scholars not getting the same reward ("we'll fix it") transparency and quality of immigrants, to give a few.

Dr. Khor gave an update on the hospital cluster system towards the end, before various prizes were given out for the students. I had originally planned to drop by the "That We May Dream Again" event after that to provide a counterpoint, but it has been postponed to 2 June due to the by-election; I shall therefore reserve a fuller treatment of the events until then. As it happens, Mr. Chan's parting shot was to "Never stop asking!" - maybe, he will not be disappointed.



comments (0) - email - share - print - direct link
trackbacks (0) - trackback url


Next: Roll Up Roll Up


Related Posts:
Open Bookame
The Issue Issue
Economics Thus Far
Continued
Mega Bonus Post
Back to top

Copyright © 2006-2025 GLYS. All Rights Reserved.