Government in virtual reality — Victory! The capital city rejoiced at the news. The Elven Union had accepted the formal surrender of the Smash Republic, with its government dissolved and territory now under occupation. The triumphant army was welcomed with a lavish parade through the streets of town, with the Chief of State, Arronder Noldor…

Applying real principles to fictional environments — Minecraft is a game about building. More than that, it’s a game to see what is possible to build. There’s the stuff that’s directly craftable, and the challenge to make the stuff with the rarest components, to travel and win the necessary treasure. Then there’s the other kind of building…

What “A New Hope” — aka the original film — got right — The first entry in the Star Wars franchise, Episode IV: A New Hope, broke ground in 1977 on several levels and is generally accepted as one of the greatest cinematic achievements of all time. While most of the attention goes to the narrative, the special effects, and the characters, there…

How Akira the Don created a powerful, new genre — One of the latest, musical genres is Meaningwave, a branch of the wider Lofi style of music. By taking metered speech and mixing it with background hip hop, often of an original composition, we suddenly find that even lectures and famous speeches can become engrossing songs. …

You’re no Malcom Reynolds — This is the conclusion to ‘For a Taste of Hazel Juice.’ Read part one here: For a Taste of Hazel Juice: Part One An original sci-fi mini-sagacosgrrrl.com Slipshade returned to his room, where he lit a candle, grabbed some parchment, a quill pen, and a vial of ink. He sat at his round table, and started writing his report, detailing what had…

An original sci-fi mini-saga — The best part about being a publisher is when writers drop gems like this story into your net. Having previously focused on investigative political analysis of nerd culture, this piece is Joseph Parrish’s fictional debut— and a damn fine one. Enjoy. — Marjorie “Twenty gold coins,” rasped one man to…

What does your House indicate about your beliefs? — On the heels of my study about the relationship between political beliefs and one’s side in the Skyrim Civil War, I began a similar effort to find links between one’s Hogwarts House and one’s political beliefs. After over a week of gathering data and analyzing the results, I am ready…

Mathematically, human intelligence trumps AI — in the end — I am currently playing my largest game of Civilization V ever. I decided to do the One-City Challenge as the Shoshone on a Huge Continents map, Deity. I have played over 2000 turns and am currently in the middle of an endless war against a Franco-Aztec alliance. …

Which side you take says a lot about your political alignment — Last week, I announced that I was doing a survey about the Skyrim Civil War and the correlation between the side one chose in the war and their political ideology. The results of that survey are in, and the data have been thoroughly analyzed, so let us see what the…