Tag: video-games

Empire Earth: The Nano Age and the Architecture of an Epoch

Starting in the Digital Age in Empire Earth, the architecture suddenly shifts to a futuristic style. The Capitol for instance, isn’t trying to replicate the St. Basil’s Cathedral in London now, but some theoretical capital in the future. Its architecture is rounded, like it belongs on some distant planet and not on Earth. The culture that it represents is one that worships efficiency over the idea of human culture. Compare that to the Colosseum wonder being built next to it.

The Colosseum was an expression of Roman culture using the technology they had in order to construct it. It also represented their many abstract ideas of how to organize their society. The Digital Age capital in Empire Earth is a representation of the technology overtaking the expression of human culture. What we see in the buildings in the future epochs is really a continuation of what saw beginning with the Modern Epochs; architecture is now functional. Now architecture is basically just housing technology within those structures.

Here is the great idea behind Cyber Labatory which is right behind the Colosseum; it isn’t about the structure which is mattering in here, its the technology which matters here. Gameplay wise, the Cyber Labatory is representing something new in military affairs in the game. These Cybers are made specifically to counter other Cybers not the remaining human units. This is Cyber on Cyber conflict not human.

This is the essence of the Nano Age.

Tech is more important than when we use it to make culture.

It is not surprising that the houses in the Nano Age do not have any distinctive cultural aspects to it. Art and Culture is subordinate to the interests of efficiency, or more specifically, how we use technology to interact with our epoch.

That is the essence of the Digital and more importantly, the Nano Ages in Empire Earth.

The Original Oblivion still looks beautiful in 2025

The Imperial City in The Elder Scrolls IV Oblivion
The Original Oblivion still looks incredible.

The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion got a remastered version in April of this year. It was quite a treat as the game has given what I consider to be my favorite version of the Elder Scrolls a boost in visibility. A game that was in the shadows of the massive titan of Skyrim, was now getting in its place in the sun

After I played the Oblivion Remastered, I went back to original Oblivion and I was impressed still with the graphics. They have aged in some areas but I think what is most important is that the game has is the style of the graphics. This is an area that many groundbreaking games tend to have issues with having a timeless style as they are so focused on impressing people who want to benchmark their computers not think about the artistic style.

The Imperial City vantage point is from Bleaker's Way.
The Imperial City vantage point is from Bleaker’s Way.

The village of Bleaker’s Way is larger than most of the equivalent villages in Skyrim. Its location is quite angelic in a sense. It is nestled in the hills, hidden away from any major buildings. However, you get great views of the imperial City from these screenshots that I have taken. This is just a great place to take screenshots. This is what the game is great at here. Skyrim seems to have improved upon it but I love Oblivion’s vistas more. I think it’s because Skyrim is more in line with browns and its greenery is closer to Riften which is much further to the South. Skyrim does not have a great variety of greenery within its snowy and cold climate. However, it’s just too earthy for me, probably because it just doesn’t look as good in a game.

Oblivion has the right style to me.

The Heartlands were always the best looking part of the game in my opinion. While all the other regions have their charm, it is in the center of Cyrodil where the game really shines here. It makes sense as this where the player would first see the incredible environments of Oblivion after leaving the dark areas of the sewers. This is what makes Oblivion so unique in the sense of games at this time. Many games were becoming brownish in the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 generation era. Oblivion stood as a symbol of Arthurian color in a sea of browns and grays.

The village of Bleaker’s Way, even in the original version is so beautiful to glance at. You want to take time just to glance the rustic beauty of the houses and colors of the flowers. It is truly a place that one can touch grass and enjoy the roses.

Even closer up, the Imperial City and water gives off such majesty.

Even with its rustic simplicity in some of the villages, Oblivion has a style that is timeless and makes cherish it every time I keep playing the game even if Skyrim is technically more sophisticated than it.

There is just something about the style that keeps it interesting to players in our age.

The UberEats Driver Experience in Northern Virginia

Northern Virginia, especially Western Prince William County is a wealthy area. Many people are ordering online here as there is ample warehouse space and Amazon has its 2nd HQ here. Such infrastructure allows for quick and speedy deliveries.

The market for couriers is very big in America, especially after the pandemic. While it was big before for people carrying passengers, food delivery services were still mostly in the domain of the traditional Chinese and Pizza places. There were changes occurring here but it took the pandemic for food delivery to become important beyond the traditional areas.

I have begun driving for Uber, delivering orders and meals to customers. Being a future-centric person and not obsessed with the past, this app was just right for me.

However, as with all endeavors, you learn more about it rather than viewing it in an abstract way here.

This means that there are hidden aspects to the job that you really didn’t think about at the time.

One of those issues is delivering to rural areas or exclusive communities. Such locations are a pain to travel through. I have begun to learn to choose orders that within a reasonable area.

However, it is not that easy. Sometimes even if you look at the address, you often get orders that very strange. Today, I helped deliver laundry for a man in Manassas. Such tasks on the app are simply running errands not delivering meals which is what I thought the app was going to be about.

Considering that I joined the app in its mature phase, it is not surprising to me. Uber has become embedded and has encouraged the growth of many other apps similar to it. With such success, the company was bound to expand beyond the usual areas.

Uber’s business model of outsourcing much of the work to contractors is similar to eBay’s when it began some 30 years ago. Ebay outsourced the logistics to the people opening their own stores. Auctions, the main focus of the early site were held among users to other customers not from a business to customers, which had been the official standard in that age.

This business model has served Uber quite well. Instead of building cars that have official drivers moving around, you use America’s cars to basically build a fleet of cars which saves you tons of capital. Silicon Valley builds the software while the older hardware is provided by users.

The money is variable, however, for users. I have some people who do not tip. Sometimes the trip is long and in strange places that I have not even thought about.

However, such a job is helpful for many people. It is a great way to increase cash flow and give people to patch up any areas where they having some issues. In an age such as ours where having a job is not safe as it once was, Uber and other apps in the Gig Economy are not prefect but provide opportunities.

This is a great platform and I recommend that people use it.