Minecraft vs. Terraria: A Comparison/Review

It’s always fun for me to watch fanboys/girls start arguing whenever two games that are somewhat similar are released. It’s even more entertaining watching the ever-growing debate between Minecraft and Terraria fans. The chart I just whipped up at the bottom of this post sums the basics of the two games in a nutshell, but I personally think the debate over which one is better is pretty stupid.

One sentence I always hear/read: “Terraria is just a 2D sidescrolling version of Minecraft.” I honestly wonder if the people who believe this have played Terraria. Sure, Terraria borrowed/was inspired by the idea of mining. But guess what? Notch borrowed/was inspired by mining in another game, and readily admits it. That’s sort of how art works, folks. Nothing is ever that original -  ideas are taken and evolved and most people don’t even recognize that there was something before the evolved product. My point is, DEAL WITH IT.

That said, writing Terraria off as a Minecraft rip-off is insulting to the crazy crap that it has going for it. I mean, it has ridiculous boss battles, more enemies, NPCs, a currency system, a more advanced multiplayer system, more types of armor, magic, and probably more stuff that I can’t think of at the moment. Just because the basic principles of the games are similar doesn’t mean one is copying off another. Hell, millions of us – myself included — buy the annual Call of Duty games year after year and they’re (mechanically speaking) the same game over and over again. BY THE SAME COMPANY.

Secondly, Terraria is not “the Minecraft killer.” Besides the rabid fanboys/girls who will steadfastly refuse to even consider Terraria, there are people like me who enjoy Minecraft’s mods, first person POV, and giant green exploding phalluses. Okay, maybe not that last one. For me, at least, Minecraft is more exploration and building based, while Terraria is more geared toward combat. I mean, look at how many more enemies Terraria has. Sometimes I want to kill a lot of stuff, so I play Terraria. Sometimes I want to build a lot of stuff, so I play Minecraft.

We can also discuss the crazy huge modding community Minecraft has. I mean, when/if Notch ever gets that modding API going so that mods don’t break every update, that will be huge. I know I’m far from being the only person who rarely plays Minecraft without any sort of mod on. The Minecraft community also provides texture packs (which can radically change the look of the game) and challenge maps to keep things fresh. With a game as open as Minecraft, you seriously can do almost anything you want with it. Terraria, although it’s pretty open-ended as well, puts some limits on modding due to bosses and NPCs. It will be interesting to see what type of mods are created for it.

My point to all of this crap is, as with almost everything else in the world, it comes down to personal preference.  I recommend trying each one out, so that if you do want to get into your little fan wars you will at least know what you’re talking about when you voice your opinion.

Current Version (as of writing)	Minecraft Beta 1.6.6	Terraria 1.0.3
Programming Language	Java	C#
Graphics	3D first-person	2D sidescroller
Cost	€14.95 while in Beta, €20 when finished (with discounts for those who purchased in Beta)	$9.99 on Steam
Goals	Mine for resources, survive, kill enemies, build	Mine for resources, survive, kill enemies, build
Character Customization	Can create and/or upload skins, otherwise stuck with “Steve” (unless mods are used)	Can choose male or female and color of clothing, eyes, hair, and skin
Ores/Valuable Resources	Coal, Redstone, Diamond, Gold, Iron, Obsidian	Copper, Iron, Silver, Gold, Meteorite, Demonite, Hellstone, Obsidian
NPCs/Mobs/Monsters	Non-hostile: Pigs, Sheep, Cows Neutral: Wolves Hostile: Zombies, Skeletons, Spiders, Creepers, Slimes	NPCs: Guide, Demolitionist, Merchant, Dryad, Old Man, Arms Dealer, Nurse Monsters: Zombies, Slimes, Goblins, Demon Eyes, Skeletons, Eater of Souls, Giant Worms, etc. Bosses: Eye of Cthulhu, Devourer of Worlds, Skeletron
Game Modifications	Not officially supported, but there are many, many mods out there	Not officially supported, few if any mods out there (it also just came out, so there’s that)
Multiplayer	Have to host your own server, basically the same as single player	Dedicated servers (as of version 1.0.3), PVP

Ark Music Factory–A Bunch of Chuckleheads

In what appears to be an attempt to make themselves look like a legit record label after the Rebecca Black chaos, Ark Music Factory posted this laughably bad, fake interview to try to explain themselves. The guy being interviewed is its founder and president, Patrice Wilson, aka PedoUsher who raps in every song produced by this company. So let’s watch and learn, shall we?

Patrice Wilson is obviously so cool that he must wear his sunglasses indoors so he can, so he can questionably hang out with a bunch of underage girls. /CoreyHartB-side

0:07 Look at this “reporter.” This is clearly someone who already works for Ark and is reading a script, and doing so badly. Ark may want to consider expanding into acting lessons.

0:29 “I’m an artist myself…I used to sing back in Eastern Europe and I used to be pretty big…” LOL sure, brah. I’m totally going to Google this in a little bit, though.

0:44 “The whole goal is to bring people together…” Well that’s somewhat true. I think most people can come together to denounce Ark Music Factory in one voice. It is rather powerful. Oh, that wasn’t exactly what you were going for, was it?

0:50 “We can make great music and keep it clean…” Well, most people can. Ark Music Factory on the other hand, is kind of failing in that endeavor.

1:15 Geez, even the fake reporter looks unconvinced. I think we’d all be more convinced of the “reaching out to all unknown artists” part if, a) these kids were actually artists (writing their own music – from what I understand Ark is writing songs then giving them to the kids), and b) if they were helping people other than solo teen pop singers.

2:14 “We don’t charge our artists.” Of course not. None of them are old enough to have a job yet. You’re technically charging their parents.

2:18 “If we are to charge an artist, it can range from $2,000 to $4,000. Is that a bad deal?” But you just said you don’t charge…oh, dear. At any rate, the idea of charging young talent to “learn skills necessary for the business” isn’t really new. Modeling agencies do it. I know because I was in one once. They wanted my parents to pay $1000 so I could learn how to walk down a runway.

2:33 On Rebecca Black: “That’s a success right there.” Sure, I guess you can look at that as success. However, he does realize that her “success” is due to the fact that most people think her song is awful and personifies everything that’s wrong in the music industry today, right? Notoriety isn’t usually the type of success people aim for.

3:10 “It’s catchy, and that’s the goal in creating tunes like that.” (I paraphrased.) So what you’re saying is that a pop song should basically be nothing but a catchy ditty that does not connect to people emotionally or tell stories, like music was originally intended to do. Great. You just answered the interviewer’s question perfectly. Your answer was “Yes, our company embodies everything wrong with pop music.”

3:25 “There’s no difference whatsoever to the songs you hear on the radio and the songs we make.” I actually agree with that. I further agree with his statement on autotune. People complain about Rebecca Black sounding like a robot, but that’s no worse than the countless singers who sound good with autotune but sound like a cat with laryngitis without it. And their records still sell, right?

4:33 “We’re going to be looking for the next viral star.” Again, I don’t think most of these people are looking for notoriety, Patrice. This also solidifies the fact that he doesn’t quite understand that Rebecca Black is only popular because “Friday” is so bad. He should go hang out with Tommy Wiseau and they can enjoy their egotistical delusions together. Further, being a “viral star” is fleeting and probably isn’t what most people are looking for if they actually are looking to be an “artist.”

4:44 “Ark just sprung out mah box.” WHAT? Or did he say “sprung out the box?” I mean, I can believe that someone will spring out of the “Dear God, what is this?” box, whether it’s Ark Music Factory or someone else.

5:56 That’s a nice little message at the end about believing in yourself and not giving up on your goals, but coming from him it takes on a slightly different meaning. “You can accomplish your dreams, but there’s a chance that you will invoke the ire of millions on the Internet.”

Why are we acting like Rebecca Black is the anti-Christ?

I hate to defend bad music, being an elitist musical jerk, but I feel like I sort of have to. Rebecca Black’s “Friday” has gotten so many vile comments toward it that I have to laugh at the hypocrisy. (I would also like to point out that this girl is 13 – it’s not like she has a ton of life experience that she can use to impart valuable knowledge on the world.) To show you what I mean, here are some of the lyrics for “I Gotta Feeling” by the Black Eyed Peas.

I gotta feeling that tonight’s gonna be a good night
That tonight’s gonna be a good night
That tonight’s gonna be a good good night
Tonight’s the night night
Let’s live it up
I got my money
Let’s spend it up
Go out and smash it
Like Oh My God
Jump off that sofa
Let’s get get OFF
I know that we’ll have a ball
If we get down
And go out
And just loose it all
I feel stressed out
I wanna let it go
Lets go way out spaced out
And loosing all control
Fill up my cup
Mozoltov
Look at her dancing
Just take it off
Lets paint the town
We’ll shut it down
Let’s burn the roof
And then we’ll do it again

Someone please tell me how that’s any better than “It’s Friday, Friday, gotta get down on Friday.” What, because BEP are more established? Because “it’s fun and catchy and you can dance to it?” So, the second anyone puts out something slightly more mediocre than what already exists, everyone acts like they have committed a mortal sin. If anything, it underscores how one can simply shit out a song and it will be a big hit, so long as it’s “catchy.”

Are we just angry that “Friday” more or less points out exactly how insipid music has gotten? Hell, I’ve been bitching about it for years and everyone thought I was being “mean” or “bitter.” (Yes, I’m bitter because bands that are ridiculously talented and mean something emotionally to people will never get as much recognition as the semi-attractive “fad of the week” band.) How can you blame Ark Music Factory for wanting to cash in on the mindless dreck that already exists? If you want music that has more substance, go find it and buy it. Go to their shows, buy their merch, request their music on the radio. The music industry responds to your demands, people. If you keep requesting songs simply due to their “catchiness” or their dance beat, that’s all the industry will pump out.

At any rate, Rebecca Black is getting a nice chunk of money in her college fund, so I doubt she really cares how people feel about her song.

Unemployment = (not) Good Times

Seriously, what the hell, employers.

My main gripe with the way things are isn’t that there aren’t jobs (though that’s sort of true, too), but the fact that so many of these jobs want 5 or more years of experience. How am I supposed to get experience if no one wants to hire someone they have to train? Recent graduates like myself who majored in something that isn’t technology or business related are basically screwed and forced to work in retail. It’s honestly degrading and pretty much makes me feel like the $60,000+ and 4 years I just spent was nothing but a complete waste.

And not only recent graduates are screwed, but what about people who were laid off by industries? They are skilled workers, but they may have skills that aren’t useful to, let’s say, an office setting.

Basically what I’m trying to say is, these companies need to lower their standards, especially in today’s economy. If you don’t want to hire untrained people, those untrained people won’t have the money to spend on your products, which hurts the economy, which means you’d probably have to lay off more people who then won’t have money to spend…you get the idea.

Honestly I’m livid, and I know I’m not the only one.

It’s been about 10 months since I’ve graduated, and I can’t even begin to tell you how many jobs I’ve applied to and heard nothing back from. One employer (this is my favorite story) back in July gave me the impression that I had actually landed a job. A week later, I called them to see what was up and heard, “Oh, you’re not on my list.” Needless to say, since then I have lost a lot of the drive to go job hunting.

If I didn’t already have depression, I certainly would by now.

Didn’t all those Republicans get into the House of Representatives talking about “jobs are our first priority?” It looks like they keep screwing around with Obama’s health care bill instead. Way to not follow through, bros.

I give up.

You Guys Search for the Darndest Stuff…

A collection of hilarious search terms that have led people to this blog. I am always amused and somewhat impressed.

What is wrong with Tommy Wiseau? Excellent question that I wish I knew the answer to.  If I had to guess, my answer would be, “A lot.”

What is the difference between Adam Lambert and Justin Bieber fans? Adam Lambert fans are generally older, from what I’ve experienced in real life. Both sets of fans scare the hell out of me. Seriously, one Adam Lambert fan almost ripped my head off because I said, “I can’t say I’m a fan.” She was all, “HOW CAN YOU SAY YOU LIKE ROCK MUSIC IF YOU DON’T LIKE ADAM” and I was all “ROCK IS A RATHER BROAD TERM AND NO I DON’T LIKE EVERY SUBSET OF THAT STYLE OF MUSIC. IT’S AN OPINION. PLEASE BREATHE AND LET’S HUG IT OUT.” So we did.

A teenaged Justin Bieber fan got extremely offended because I told her she’d probably grow out of that fandom like I grew out of *NSYNC. “I WILL NEVER OUTGROW JUSTIN!” she wailed. I’m pretty sure I said the same thing about boy bands when I was 12 or 13. And look what happened. Face it, 97% of Bieber fans will look back on themselves 5 years from now and think, “WTF, I was kooky back then.”

iTunes Ping sucks/is shit. From the rather brief experience I had with it, I agree. Honestly, once I finished my review on it I never dealt with it again. And I have no reason or desire to try it again.

Torgo. I don’t think the Master would approve of this search term.

Idletard Sanjaya. Idletard has been gone for like…2 years? Well, it’s at least one year. If you don’t know what Idletard was, it was a website made by one of the Vote For The Worst members that made fun of really obsessed American Idol fans. It was pretty hilarious, and some people sustained massive amounts of butthurt over it. I’m not quite sure why it was shut down but I think she just got bored with it.

Sanjaya, on the other hand, is reportedly working in a pizza joint. Godspeed, young dough tosser. He’s also working on some music.

Stick figures sitting on a bed. I am so confused as to how this led someone here. I am also not sure I want to know why they needed such a thing.

What is the song that they scream "ooh ah ah ah ah awk awk" in the beginning? I laughed for about 10 minutes upon seeing this. Amazingly, I think I know what song they’re talking about because in 8th grade I thought it was freaking hilarious. The song I’m 80% sure this person is talking about is “Down With the Sickness” by Disturbed.

Fucking rats. There are laws against that sort of thing.

Fallout games are bad. YOU SHUT YOUR WHORE MOUTH. Okay, okay, I’m sorry I lashed out like that. But only New Vegas is bad because of the ten million glitches and bugs. If it were properly made it would be as superb as the others.

*NEW VEGAS SPOILER ALERT* Who felt bad about killing house "new vegas." PSHH I DIDN’T. Fuck that guy. Not to mention he’s a bunch of ones and zeroes.

why didn’t the greek city-states agree to help atehns (sic – this person obvious means Athens) fight the persians? I’m going to assume this person means during the Ionian revolts, the beginning of the Greco-Persian Wars, because during the main chunk of the Wars the other city-states were involved. It’s pretty simple, really: the other Greek city-states didn’t give a shit.

Athens was already at war with Persia when the revolts started. They had overthrown their tyrant, Hippias, and installed a democratic government, but Hippias was butthurt and decided to go bawl to the Persians about it. The Persians told the Athenians to stop being bitches and take Hippias back, which of course pissed Athens off. Thus, Athens decided to declare war against Persia. Further, the Ionian city-states were reportedly founded by Athenians, so they were probably more inclined to pitch in.

Another thing to mention: there actually was another city-state that helped in Ionia: Eretria. However, know one really knows why they got involved. Presumably, one of the rulers in Ionia, Aristagoras, convinced them to help, but given Eretria’s status as a economic/merchant city-state it’s a good chance money and/or trading was involved.

To answer the question of why most of the other city-states didn’t offer assistance: they didn’t want to fuck with Persia. Back in those days (those days meaning 500 BC) Persia was one of – if not the – largest and most powerful empires in the world known to the Greeks. If you could avoid getting on their bad side, you would. Further, the other city-states had no reason to get involved. Sure, fellow “Greeks” were involved, but that whole nationalism thing hadn’t quite formed yet. Seriously, for them there were two types of people in the world: Greeks and “barbaroi,” or people who didn’t speak Greek. At this point in the conflict, there was no impetus for most of the city-states to care much  about one other. This changed later, of course, but that’s another story.

More Knitting Adventures

I’ve been really failing at this postaweek2011 thing. So I’ll make some random posts over the next few days to make up for it.

I made this top a couple of weeks ago (yes, I had it on the floor):

The pattern can be found HERE. I really like it, and it fits well except that it’s stretched out around the neck for some reason. Maybe due to the way I washed it (also the reason why some strands of yarn are poking out of the sleeves). I’ll probably fix that with elastic or something at some point. But still, YAY.

I haven’t really been knitting too much recently because of my online classes. Learning to be a video game designer isn’t too hard though, especially when you’re already somewhat familiar with programming like I am (2 classes in high school, 2 in college). I recommend it.

That’s all for now!

This Guy Has Issues

If you’ve been on Twitter the past couple of days, you’ve probably seen the shitstorm that has errupted over a guy who is trying to promote anorexia. Yes, the eating disorder/illness. Understandably, people are upset. However, this guy (whose name I’m not going to mention because he’s an attention whore) is clearly just trying to extend the 15 minutes of fame he experienced by being on a reality show.

He might actually believe some of the bullshit he spews, though. He claims to have a pill that will make anyone a size zero (I’ll get into why that’s pants-on-head stupid in a bit) and advocates “managed anorexia” which sounds about as realistic as “managed diabetes.”  It’s pretty obvious this guy knows very little about basic psychology and human health. What makes this even sadder is that this guy is only one out of a disturbing amount of people who are or claim to be “pro-anorexia.”

So he thinks everyone is supposed to be a size zero. Ignoring the fact that he is clearly not a size zero himself, this is the dumbest belief ever. For example, one of my roommates is a size zero, and looks completely healthy. I, on the other hand, lost a ton of weight due to medication side effects and went from a size eight to a size four in less than a year. I looked sickly and my doctor more or less told me to stuff my face as much as possible. Ideal size is going to be different for every person depending on your height and body structure. The vast majority of people are not built in such a way that a size zero is healthy or attractive in any way.

Secondly, the idea of a “managed” illness is so beyond moronic that I can’t even think of appropriate adjectives to describe it. That’s like going up to Kanye West and doing a whole bunch of crap to wreck his life and force him into a state of depression, then saying, “Oh look! Your ego is gone. Haha I was just joking about all that other stuff, you’re the world’s greatest rapper. BYE!!!” Though Kanye might actually be able to handle something like that because of his bottomless ego, most people are going to be depressed until they go on medication and/or go through therapy.

The idea of forcing someone not to eat and berating them until they lose a ton of weight, then telling them that they’re skinny enough and can stop eating is absolutely idiotic. If you’ve ever been around someone who is anorexic, you’ve probably seen that they often keep pushing themselves to become skinnier because they continuously see themselves as “too fat.” That won’t stop until they get professional help, and even then it’s going to be an uphill battle for a long time. If they don’t get the help they need, their bodies will eventually begin shutting down and they will die. According to the National Alliance of Mental Illness, anorexia has the highest mortality rate out of all psychiatric illnesses.

I actually considered for a bit that this guy was simply a troll. I mean, simply looking at his tweets and the pictures he posts demonstrates a shit load of hypocrisy. Two of the funniest pictures he posted were of him with Gordon Ramsey (the chef from Hell’s Kitchen/Kitchen Nightmare/probably a load of other shows) and the singer Mika. The hilarity behind him trying to get Gordon Ramsey to join him in his campaign is magnificent. Why would a famous chef who makes money off of people eating want people to stop eating? Gordon also later tweeted to confirm that he wants nothing to do with this clown’s campaign. Secondly, Mika has a song that contains the line, “Big girls, you are beautiful.” Seriously, you can’t make this shit up.

He also had the gall to suggest that Rihanna is fat. Not only is this completely laughable, but he was further proven wrong when MSN posted this article that says skinny is out and Rihanna’s “Warrior Woman” body type is in. Even then, I would say that women should be whatever body type they fucking want to be. I think being at a weight that makes you happy is best. Hell, if you want want to eat an entire cake by yourself, I will cheer you on and probably get myself a cake and start scarfing it down beside you. Seriously, no man wants to have sex with a woman built like King Tut in his present state. If he does, he’s either a virgin or he gets off on two-by-fours and you should walk away from him immediately. Eat, girl.

In conclusion, the only affect this guy had on me was inspiring me to write this and to eat an entire plate of bacon and a gigantic bowl of Cinnamon Toast Crunch. And it was delicious.