Nerding Out- Super Soakers

a 2010 remake of the original SS-50 super soaker, released in 1991.

Back in 1997, the game boy was a massive hit, and Pokemon began to arrive on the shores of the US, catching the nation's children by storm. Of course, I was all caught up in the middle of it with my friends. During the summer, there was no school, and a lot of things could be done. The N64 was out and the Playstation 1 was insanely popular. Among these childhood favorites was the famous Super Soaker.

Invented in the early 1990s by Lohnny Johnson, the earliest water gun, the SS50, was made out of crude PVC and water bottles. Today, 20 years later, the world is NOT sharing the same innovation and wow factor that water guns had. In fact, the market has a level start, a major increase, a peak from 1997 to 2002, and then it dropped off... suddenly, and without reason.

I am not talking about dinky squirt pistols for kids; I am talking about the massive water cannons and water assault rifles that came out in the golden age known as 1996-1998. In these three years, monster water cannons (no pun intended) were released, releasing at maximum 849 mL/sec at a target. To give you an idea, thats half a 2L soda in a SECOND released from the firing chamber. Later models sported backpacks for extended fights. Not only were water wars fun, they cooled you off AND offered kids incentives to go outside and play.

When 2003 hit, Hasbro discontinued the line of semi to powerful water cannons for a few rumored reasons. No official reasons were given. The unofficial explanations are:

1) Hasbro received complaints about large water cannons taking up shelf space.
2) Hasbro received complaints about large water guns/expensive guns ($20-$30? really? that's not bad at all).
3) Hasbro received complaints about unsafe volumes of water being released from water cannons.
4) As a result, Hasbro shifted their marketing tactics towards an audience under the age of 8.

From a marketing standpoint, it made sense, but Hasbro also killed all the fun along with this process. After complaints about "cheap" water blasters, the engineering team behind the toys stepped up their game and made decent sidearms and light rifles, but after 2002, we never saw an assault rifle again. Maybe if you fit more smaller blasters on a shelf for a cheaper price, they would sell better.

Now that I am in college, I can't really do this stuff anymore- mainly because I have other, more important things to take care of. Water warfare is a lost art that will always have a place in my heart- and from time to time I have always tried to sneak into parties with one, where people were always asking "where did you get that".

Today, these relics of the past sell for anywhere between $50 USD to $400 USD on sites such as Ebay. Stick to yard sales if you really want a taste, but this is one of those hobbies that was doomed ever since Hasbro changed their marketing strategies. Good fun, if you aren't dinky.

The following is a list of super soakers, ranked highest to lowest by rate of fire in (mL/sec).

Class             Blaster               RoF (mL/sec)              Tank Size         Year

Cannon	CPS 2000	849	3100	1996
Cannon	CPS 2500	459	3100	1998
Cannon	CPS 3000	383	8000	1998
Cannon	Monster XL	379	3500	2000
Cannon	CPS 3200	364	8000	2000
Cannon	Monster X	316	3100	2000
Assault Rifle	CPS 1500	275	3000	1998
Assault Rifle	CPS 1700	275	3000	2000
Assault Rifle	Power Pak	271	3400	1999
Assault Rifle	CPS 2100	212	2000	2002
Assault Rifle	CPS 2700	205	4000	2000
Assault Rifle	CPS 4100	199	2180	2002
Assault Rifle	CPS 1000	195	2300	1998
Assault Rifle	SS 300	190	6500	1993
Light Rifle	CPS 1200	141	2350	2000
Light Rifle	Hydroblitz	116	3050	2007
Light Rifle	WW Scorpion	105	1380	2006
Light Rifle	WW Vindicator	97	3030	2009
Light Rifle	WW Orca	96	2500	2007
Light Rifle	Aquapack Dev	90	2950	2005
Light Rifle	MI Overload	82	3780	2006
Light Rifle	WW Vanquisher	75	3200	2010
Light Rifle	EES Tempest	72	800	2003
Light Rifle	Splashzooka	69	2200	2001
Light Rifle	XP 110	66	1200	1998
Light Rifle	MAXD-5000	65	1200	2002
Light Rifle	Secret Strike	63	775	2003
Sidearm	MAXD-3000	56	400	2002
Sidearm	Aquashock	55	1230	2007
Sidearm	Triple Aggressor	54	2000	2004
Sidearm	XP 150	52	1500	1998
Sidearm	XP 150	52	1500	1994
Sidearm	MAXD-6000	49	1600	2002
Sidearm	WW Lightning	48	1100	2003
Pistol	Oozinator	47	900	2006
Pistol	Flash Flood	45	1170	2005
Pistol	Arctic Shock	44	1350	2005
Pistol	SS 100	41	1350	1997
Pistol	XP 270	37	1220	2000
Pistol	XP Triple Play	37	300	2001
Pistol	MI Defender	35	950	2006
Pistol	SS 200	27	2050	1992
Pistol	EES Turbine	25	1310	2003
Pistol	XP 20	13	n/a	1998
Pistol	SS 50	10	730	1991

Patch 1.4.1 Delayed Until Early November

Well there we go- the patch has been pushed back again till early November. I won't criticize Gearbox here- but man... I REALLY want to play that patch!! I've got other things to attend to in the meantime, anyways. Of note- I am still disappointed. According to Adam's post, it will be "a couple of weeks".

http://gbxforums.gearboxsoftware.com/showthread.php?t=113350

Leading by Example

I really didn't know how I wanted to approach this topic. People get excited about their video games, and this is always a great thing. One thing that is a detriment to the gaming community, however- are those that take their games and tournaments way too seriously- i.e, fanboys and competitive jerks. As a club, we really have not dealt with this problem this year, but it has been a problem in the past; and it was a huge turnoff to casual gamers AND other hardcore gamers.

A "fanboy" doesn't necessarily have to be a male gamer, but a larger percentage of them are. According to Wikipedia, a fanboy is a person highly devoted and BIASED in opinion towards a single hobby. Fanboys would be tolerable if they were highly devoted to one particular area of gaming, but what irks the rest of the community is a biased opinion. "Wii sucks, PS3 sucks, XBOX 360 owns!!!" would be a statement a blood pumped Xbox 360 fanboy would say. What irks me "squared (^2)" is when fanboys begin creating dissent among other gamers in any particular group. And you know what happens? typically they will become ostricized if a group if the majority of the group is tired of hearing about "x".

One can wonder, "have you actually tried the other consoles?" what did you not like about them?. In a hobby full of many devoted and passionate gamers, it's always a good thing to keep your mind open to new experiences and new games. After all, that is how I got attracted to games such as Metal Gear Solid and Puyo Puyo. Depending on what setting you are in, and how people's opinions are oriented, it may not be a good idea to boast recklessly about skill or absolute loyalty to any one thing. No respect can be formed that way as gamers, or as people.

Competitive jerks can derive from fanboys, but not necessarily. When a group of "elite" gamers gets together and ostricizes other gamers, whether on purpose or unintentionally, it creates a toxic atmosphere that ruins the fun for other people. The place where elitism belongs is in tournaments, and not necessarily at gatherings where fun is the main objective. Toxic environments breed discontent and animosity; while it is a good attitude to not be affected by another's opinion, the survival of the "group" depends on harmony, which can be defined as understanding and, to a degree, empathy. In plain english, let others have fun, and have fun with others- that is what the game is all about, right? There is always room for secret meetings among elite friends for practice. Ignoring other gamers entirely for the sole purpose of competition in a video game? sounds like a boring lifestyle to me.

As I have done with my club, I choose to lead by example. Games are all about fun and the time spent with other players. Video games are a good way to build relationships with new people and form fan groups. We have done this inside the club- thanks to social networking, ANYONE who is interested in joining a sub-group of our club can find people to play that are interested in the same game as they are. You can be good at video games, I just prefer to be humble about it; and that is leading by example.

The Arguement against Hacking and Modding

Introduction
Apparently this issue has a lot of people's panties in a bunch. Let's use the popular game Borderlands as an example (are you surprised I chose this game?). No one wants to play co-operative online because people are coming into the game at level 70 with hacked weapons and gear. They can practically one shot anything in the game, and can be annoying people.


The overall problem?
People have issues with other people that cheat. Perhaps this is a unfortunate mis-match of intentions: a player who does not cheat enters a game where they expect others to not cheat, and discuss/show creative strategies and weapons found in the game. When they enter the game, they may get someone who has gone to the trouble of hacking their gear. The problem stems to this:

1) Gearbox has not developed strong enough software that can detect and remove modded gear.
2) Gamespy is a fail.
3) Attitudes versus hackers and normal gamers


Differing Perspectives
At this point in life, if you are over the age of 15, you should be realizing that the majority of people you meet in life will either be annoying/rude, or not likeable. If you don't like someone online who is hacking, don't play with them. This one sentence extends to every repeated instance- sorry that, if, you join 10 independent co-op games that 10/10 of them contain a hacker. A good way to solve this problem is to find a group of players on the internet (try the gearbox forums) who don't cheat, or only cheat when agreed upon.

I have also heard the charges that "hacking takes the fun out of the game" or "hacking removes skill". While partially true, it won't stop hackers from using modded weapons. I may use illegitimate weapons from time to time, to explore that possibility. Believe me, it gets boring fast. If you want skill and a good time, choose not to play with hackers. Because Gearbox can't weed them out, you will have to. If you leave the game because you expect Gearbox to "clean up their act", then maybe you shouldn't be so picky with life in general.

Why Penn State gets an "F" for IT Services and Network Integrity

Penn State Berks gets an "F" in the following categories:

Network Stability
Network Performance
IT Services


Allow me to explain.

I am sitting in a computer lab right now, and I received the following two errors, the first one upon a slow startup, and the second one when trying to access the internet. Every other page I attempt to visit gives me the timed out message.

I cannot print to a printer because there is no option to do so. On top of that, the network is choppy and I can't get any work done. I am starting to get really irritated with this, and I am going to demand some of my tuition back that covers IT costs, because they haven't done JACK for students.

Comments to SGA were taken, but not followed up on. Same story with Berks Senate. When will the madness end? who knows, but this campus gets an "F" in the IT department. There isn't even a head of IT on the student government!

Borderlands Patch 1.5 In Final Stages of QA

According to Adam (from Gearbox Marketing), the new Borderlands re-leveling patch will be released for free sometime in October. In a recent news release, the patch is in the final QA (quality assurance) stages now, and I would expect it this Thursday or sometime next week. This patch will fix balancing issues and offer players a 3rd playthrough to reach a level cap of 69.