Chocolate Milk

This is going to be a much different blog entry then what I normally write about. TL;DR: my friend Morgan wanted to make a post on their blog, but didn't know what to write about. I suggested they write 500 words on Hot Pockets, which Morgan then proceeded to do. So to return the favor, I shall now write 500 words about chocolate milk (which is inspired by a true story):

It was another day in the graduate student lounge. I was passing the time surfing Facebook, a shameful practice I know. As I parsed through the waves of new information, one status post caught my eye. It was the Informatics department’s black market vending machine. It was on the black market because it was stocked by the faculty itself. As a result, it contained a treasure trove of goodies you could not buy anywhere else on campus. Like Coca-Cola products. Or Arnold Palmer. Or LEDs complete with battery (refrigerated of course).

Judging by today’s status update though, today was special. My eyes widen as I reread the post for the third time. There, as plain as day, were the operatic words:

“Chocolate Milk! No you didn't.....”

Now, when receiving status updates from a vending machine, there are a number of salient thoughts that should run through a person’s head. This includes:

“Since when did vending machines become sentient?”

“Why is it talking to me like it knows me?”

And my personal favorite: “Why am I Facebook friends with a talking vending machine!?”

None of these thoughts crossed my mind, for at that moment all I could think was, “OH.SHIT.CHOCOLATE.FUCKING.MILK.”

I jumped out of my seat, nearly knocking my chair over. My behavior attracted the confused stares of my colleagues who were also in the lounge with me. I replied with a glare of my own as my mind frantically tried to piece together an exit strategy. “They must never know!” I thought as I stood there for what seemed like hours if not minutes (you heard me!).

Finally, I slowly closed the lid of my laptop, gave a faint cough so as to misdirect my competition, then nonchalantly walked out of the lounge. Really it was the cough that made the entire performance.

As soon as I was out of sight, I rushed over to the vending machine. Facebook had not lied to me. There, sitting quietly and neatly in its little spindle, were eight little bottles of Nesquik brand chocolate milk. The yellow plastic bottles glistened in the backlight of the vending machines fluorescent lighting. And then there was the bunny. That brown, delightful bunny holding his caricature glass of chocolate ecstasy. His eyes were sparkling, his face beaming, as if to say, “Fear not child. For I hold the elixir of paradise. I implore you, please sample, for you shall know no finer love than this.”

How could I resist? I dove for my wallet. It seemed fate had been kind to me today. For there in my leather pouch stood exactly eight crisp dollar bills. “Truly, this night was to be a victorious night,” I said as each bill was eagerly masticated by the machine, its whirring and clicking harmonizing in all the right ways. There was nothing else in the world. There was simply me, and the chocolate milk.

And that is the story of how I drank eight bottles of chocolate milk in one day.

There you go! 500 words on Chocolate Milk. Hope you enjoyed that Morgan!

Virtual Legos

I never really did like Legos much as a kid. I would always get frustrated by how easily those rainbow colored blocks came apart and dismantled whatever I was building at the time. Plus I hated it when this happened:

Really, the one thing I enjoyed doing with Legos was following the instructions to build the in-box stage piece, which I then used to make up stories with the included Lego people.

The reason I bring this story up is because the latest indie game to set the world on fire, Minecraft, is essentially a virtual Lego simulation. You gather materials from the randomly generated environment and you build stuff with them. There's a game mechanic where you're supposed to be building a fort to defend yourself against monsters during the night cycle, but most people tend to ignore that mechanic in favor of just building things. By all accounts, I should not like this game. I don't have the patience to build a 1:1 replica of the Starship Enterprise. Nor do I have the creativity needed to build a 16-bit processor within the game. There's also the fact that anyone can mess with what you create if you're playing on a multiplayer server, which means griefing has never been easier. If I didn't like playing with real Legos, then I shouldn't like playing with virtual ones right?

Well, the strange thing is, I actually like Minecraft. And I'm still not truly sure why.

Despite everything Minecraft has going against it, the game has become oddly endearing to me for some reason. I find the more time I spend with the game, the more I appreciate its nuanced design.

You see, there's a rhythm to the way a game of Minecraft unfolds that seems to keep me excited about playing. It starts with the aesthetic style of the game. I'm going to try to explain it, but first, let me simply show you what the game looks like before it gets touched by human hands.

This is the style of Minecraft: cubes and incredibly low resolution textures. This art style adds a lot of charm to the game. It might be the nostalgia factor or it might be the fact that I like Cubism, but the game's aesthetic design is very warm and inviting. It encourages me to explore the rest of this world and see what it has to offer.

Which leads me to the second part of Minecraft's "rhythm" of gameplay: exploration. At the start of every single player game, a new world is created at run time. This means that every new game is a chance to explore something new. And since I consider myself to be part spade gamer, this is perhaps my favorite part of the game. Exploring the world, and getting lost only to find something completely new and unexpected is a great experience. During many play sessions, I'll find myself aimlessly walking around and taking in the environment before I even realize I need to build something to protect myself at night.

The final piece of Minecraft's gameplay is the way in which you manipulate the environment. As I stated before, you destroy blocks to gain materials, which you then use to build other tools and items for your impenetrable fortress. It's a simple and enjoyable mechanic on its own, but it's the previous two parts of the game that really help the building portion stand out. Here is how I think the structure of Minecraft works:

The aesthetic style and the unfamiliarity of the world encourages the player to explore their surroundings. This allows players to find new and essential materials throughout the world. The player can then use these new materials to build the things they need to survive the night cycles. The possibility of finding stronger and rarer materials for building new items keeps the player exploring the world.

It's this structure of gameplay that makes Minecraft an entertaining game. Very few of the ideas in Minecraft are that unique. Randomly generated levels are nothing new in game design, and many of my friends have described Minecraft as "Dwarf Fortress Lite." But the fact that each portion of the game is influenced and built upon the previous gameplay "beat" is a key element to keeping the game fun. Because I was intrigued by the design of the world, I decided to explore it. And through exploring the world, I feel there's more of a purpose to gathering and building in Minecraft that I never really got by playing with Legos. So maybe this is why I like Minecraft; it offers a purpose to building blocks.

Or maybe it's just because I don't have to search for that one piece for twenty minutes.

Aside: I would like to take this moment to apologize to Garrett for accidentally blowing up his replica of the Parthenon the last time I was on the server. I totally wouldn't have used dynamite if I had any other materials. :p