This blog is a fusion of personal, work, and professional subjects taking the form of conversations that we might have had -- hence the name -- on so wide a variety of topics that it defies description.
When the whole question of subscribing to Xbox Live (paying in other words) came up years ago, the issue that decided it for me was that some games basically required you to be a Gold Level Member just to access the online features for those games - and since I wanted to do that and assumed that other games would follow suit, I subscribed.
Just to be clear here, I am not being paid for this glowing endorsement... And I also subscribe to the PlayStation Network's Social Community too.
But then what I assumed to be true turned out not to be. Basically it was mostly the free or reduced price games that had that requirement - the vast majority of AA and AAA titles didn't do that. But by the time I figured that out, I was already hooked on the features of Xbox Live - and this was before they did the whole Gaming with Gold program mind you.
Arya Stark is TOTALLY a Young Lara Croft
Among the Gold features that I discovered I liked a lot was equally split between the social aspects that help you find other gamers to play online with, and the Achievements Scheme with its Gamerscores and bragging rights.
That kept me hooked until the whole membership thing exploded with the release of the Xbox One and a massive expansion to Live which included a selection of free games every month. Speaking of that - this month the selections you can download and play for free are:
Gone Home: Console Edition for X1
Oxenfree for X1
Rayman 3D for X260
And later in the month will be added:
The Turing Test (for X1 from 10/16 thru 11/15)
Medal of Honor: Airborne (for X1 from 10/16 thru 10/31)
All of the 360 titles can be played on X1 so really if you think about it they are all X1 games, you can just play some on your old X360. You don't even have to download the games immediately either. As long as you click on the get game button and thus have the game license added to your console and Gamertag before the offers expire, you can download the games whenever you like. Just saying.
Add to that the other Gold-related features of membership that include discounts for purchasing the digital versions of games via the "Deals with Gold" in the online Xbox Store, which range from 50% to 70% off selected titles.
Regular "Free Play Days" offers (currently that includes the game Paladins) and an Xbox Live Quests Contest that's giving away a 55" Samsung 4K TV...
I'm telling you all this because if you own an X360 or an X1 and you're
not a member you should join. When you factor in just the free monthly
games that more than offsets the cost of membership, and the 50% to 75%
off on game buys from the Xbox Store is like gravy on top of that
considering it only costs $4.99 a month!?
The primary benefits of Gold Membership:
12-Player Racing (in games like Forza: Horizon);
Contests with great prizes;
Discounts of 50% to 75% off games and game add-ons / Expansions / DLC;
Free Games every Month (worth more than $700 a year);
If you have not heard it yet, prepare yourself for some exciting news indeed! You see games from the original Xbox? Yeah, they're getting backwards compatibility added so you'll be able to play THREE generations of games on ONE Xbox - your Xbox One (of course). Heh.
The wizards at Live have not yet released the list of the first batch of backwards compatible Original Xbox titles - but we expect them to do so any day now. We'll keep you informed.
Earlier this year, Microsoft announced a new subscription-based service called Xbox Game Pass -- describing it as a new digital gaming subscription service for the Xbox One community offering incredible value for the relatively low monthly fee of $9.99 per month.
Basically the subscription would grant access to a library of game titles - with new titles being added each month, which potentially could serve as a go-to for retro and classic gaming as well as provide the means for gamers to download and play titles from the past few years that, for whatever reason, they've missed.
Similar to the services already offered by Electronic Arts on the Xbox One -- EA Access and on Sony's PlayStation 4 streaming service PlayStation Now, both of which are video game subscription services that, in exchange for a monthly subscription fee, gamers can download and play games from the library offered by each service.
For Xbox Game Pass gamers who subscribe choose the games they want to play and digital copies are then downloaded directly to their Xbox One, with a license and, as long as they remain a Game Pass Subscriber, they can play the games from the library as much as they like.
Xbox Game Pass offers unlimited access to over 100 Xbox One and Backward Compatible Xbox 360 games for $9.99 USD per month.
In the category of AA and AAA games the library boasts all three titles in the BioShock series, both games in the Viva Piñata series, and most of the Gears of War series as well.
The service was tested extensively by the volunteer members of the Xbox Insider Program, then was fine-tuned via their feedback before being launched system-wide on 1 June across 31 markets (see below).
The LIVE service is offering gamers a 14-day free trial -- anyone with an Xbox Live account and not just Xbox LIVE Gold level members -- can start their 14-day free trial and play as many of the more than 100 games currently in the game library as much as they like. Subscriptions are be available for purchase online at xbox.com/game-pass, with a retail offering expected later this year.
Online gaming subscription services are only as good as their catalog of titles, which may be why Microsoft opted to cherry-pick from its Xbox One and Backward Compatible Xbox 360 games to offer some of the most popular games of the past few years to gamers.
The current Xbox Game Pass Library consists of :
#IDARB
A Kingdom for Keflings
A World of Keflings
Age of Booty
Banjo-Kazooie
Banjo-Kazooie N n B
Banjo Tooie
BC Rearmed 2
BioShock 1
BioShock 2
BioShock Infinite
Blood Bowl 2
The Book of Unwritten Tales 2
Borderlands
Bound by Flame
Braid
Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons
CAPCOM Arcade Cabinet
CastleStorm
Comic Jumper
Comix Zone
D4: Dark Dreams Don't Die
Dark Void
de Blob 2
Defense Grid
Defense Grid 2
Dig Dug
DmC Devil May Cry: Definitive Edition
Double Dragon Neon
Dungeons & Dragons: Chronicles of Mystara
Electronic Super Joy
Fable III
Farming Simulator 15
Final Fight: DblImpact
Flock!
Galaga Legions DX
Gears of War
Gears of War 2
Gears of War 3
Gears of War: Judgement
Gears Ultimate Edition
The Golf Club
GRID 2
Halo 5: Guardians
Halo: Spartan Assault
Hexic 2
Iron Brigade
Jetpac Refueled
Joe Danger 2: The Movie
Joe Danger: Special Edition
Joy Ride Turbo
JumpJet Rex
Kameo
Knight Squad
KOF98UM
KYUB
Layers of Fear
LEGO Batman
Lumo
Mad Max
Massive Chalice
The Maw
Max: Curse of the Brotherhood
Mega Coin Squad
Mega Man Legacy Collection
Metal Slug 3
Monday Night Combat
Ms. Splosion Man
MX vs ATV Reflex
N+
NBA 2K16
NEOGEO Battle Coliseum
OlliOlli
OF: Dragon Rising
Pac-Man Championship Edition DX+
Pac-Man Museum
Payday 2: Cromewave
Perfect Dark Zero
Pumped BMX +
Resident Evil 0
Roundabout
Sacred 3
Saints Row IV: Re-Elected
Sam&Max Beyond Time
Sam&Max Save the World
Samurai Showdown II
ScreamRide
Sega Vintage Collection: Alex Kidd & Co.
Sega Vintage Collection: Golden Axe
Sega Vintage Collection: Monster World
Sega Vintage Collection: Streets of Rage
Shantae and the Pirate's Curse
SOULCALIBUR
SOULCALIBER II HD
Splunky
Splosion Man
Stacking
Sterndenn
Streets of Rage
Strider
Sunset Overdrive
Super Mega Baseball: Extra Innings
Super Time Force
The Swapper
TEKKEN Tag Tournement 2
Terraria
Toy Soldiers
Toy Soldiers: Cold War
Virtual Fighter 5: Final Showdown
Viva Pinata
Viva Pinata: TIP
WWE 2K16
XCOM: Enemy Within
Each month the Xbox Game Pass service will add a new set of games to the library catalog - and as an added benefit, Xbox Game Pass members can purchase all Xbox One games in the catalog - and related add-ons - at an exclusive discount if they like. It's our understanding that the LIVE Marketplace will detect your Access Membership and adjust the title prices on the Marketplace to reflect that status and discount.
In terms of its offerings, Access at the present time includes some of the most popular Xbox LIVE Arcade category games in the history of the LIVE Service - with examples including the two games in the hugely popular Keflings Series (A Kingdom for Keflings and A World for Keflings) the two most popular titles in the Toy Soldiers Series (Toy Soldiers, and Toy Soldiers: Cold War), and the cult classic Perfect Dark Zero.
In the category of AA and AAA games the library boasts all three titles in the BioShock series, both games in the Viva Piñata series, and most of the Gears of War series as well.
Gamers interested in classic arcade and retro games will be very pleased to discover that among the offerings in the library can be found CAPCOM Arcade Cabinet, and the full suite available in the Sega Vintage Collections - including Alex Kidd & Co., Golden Axe, Monster World, and Streets of Rage.
Assuming that the wizards behind the service are active in selecting prime titles for the coming monthly updates, Microsoft's Xbox Game Pass appears to be a genuine bargain in entertainment.
What's our conclusion? After evaluating the service via the free 14-day trial our judgement is very positive - this is certainly a value for the cost, and is loaded with entertainment. The only drawbacks that we can see are down to the actual games, which have to be downloaded to your local storage - which means you will need to have adequate space available which is typically between 3GB and 6GB per game (more for the larger titles like BioShock Infinite.
If storage is an issue for you - check out our feature piece on console storage -- Storage Problems Solved! -- (Speaking of 24 April '17) as that may be your fix straight away!
Xbox Game Pass is available in 31 Xbox markets at launch: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Hungary, India, Ireland, Italy, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, UK, and the United States.
Recently I discovered I was in a little trouble - my Xbox One started acting really funny and at times would slow down to a crawl. That got my attention - and I took a look via System and discovered to my horror that the internal drive was down to 7% capacity - while my 2TB external (a Western Digital My Book) was down to 11% available capacity!?
I don't know how I let it get this bad - honestly. I am usually pretty good about keeping an eye on that sort of thing - and yet it happened.
I moved what I could from the Internal drive to the External - it was not much - and then made the hard choice of deleting some of the games.
Deleting Games...
This is almost always the choice of last resort - because even if you pick smaller games you are usually going to take a hit in terms of re-installing and then patching them.
Who could predict how nasty this situation could get? The Xbox One came with 1TB of Internal storage (when my original X1 died I ended up replacing it with the 1TB Forza Edition X1) and as I had the 2TB external storage I was thinking - great! I have 3TB of available storage - I will be just fine for-ever! Cha!
So yeah, here I was with no more room and the lack of swap space on the Internal is slowing everything down. There was really no choice to it - okay that isn't true - there were choices to make. Should I just buy another My Book and plug it in? That'll give me however much the second device has as more storage. Right. OR should I outright replace the My Book with something bigger?
On the plus side, Peter needs a drive and, if I replaced the current one I could then pass it on to him. But if I replaced the current one, how big should I go??
How Big to Go?
If someone else asked me for advice on what to do here, I would always say "get the most you can afford - bigger is better!" but, do I follow my own advice? Huh.
Instead of just making a decision based on desires I ended up doing the educated thing, and looking up the stats and cost of a wide array of units - the idea being to find the fastest ones and then compare their prices and the cost per TB of these units.
Fast in terms of external storage is 7200RPM. Cost per TB though - that varies and especially if you are getting the unit on sale. But overall and narrowing it all down I decided that there were basically two choices: Seagate or Western Digital.
Doing my due-diligence, and discovering that my local big-box had sent me a 20% off computer purchases - I ended up going with the 6TB Seagate unit. It's fast, it's small, and with the coupon the per-TB price was not even close to being painful! Just so you know, $28 per TB is the average cost.
The Verdict?
The Segate is installed - and it took a LOT less time than I thought it would to transfer the contents of the old drive to the new. I am wicked pleased with the performance and the ease of installation for this device.
If you are looking for an external drive / storage for your Xbox One, I am happy to recommend Seagate's 6TB Backup Blus Hub. Good times were had. Good times.
Updated Notes
In the process of moving the contents from the Western Digital My Book to the new Seagate drive I have noticed an odd event - for games with less than say 20GB the transfer is wicked fast. For games that were more than 21GB they were noticeably slower.
When I started looking around I discovered that the Internal Storage was actually down to just 6% available space. I didn't think that could be it - after all it should be copying external drive to external drive, right?
Except when I freed up some space on the Internal Drive (I took it to 20% free by moving some of the games to the new Seagate Drive) that slowing down problem? It went away. So if you are in the same boat I am in I suggest you make a chunk of room available on your Internal Drive just in case.
Well unless Angry Birds happens to be
in his Game Play Rotation List that is!
The Most Dangerous Gamer (Comic)
by Nicole Wakelin on December 10, 2012
PREFACE
There has never been a better time to recover from lazy gamer syndrome or its counterpart - no-time-to-play-itus - than today. Now. Bear with me, all will become clear. But first we begin the lesson...
The Importance of Context
Contexts is wicked important. So are ideas like “logic” or
“expression” or even “thought” and “emotion” just to name
a few. One position on these matters can be found in the school of
Epistemology -- which is the philosophical science and discipline
under which we study and define how we know what we know - and the best
was to both communicate and illustrate those points.
At its most basic of definitions “Epistemology” is defined as the study of the nature and
scope of knowledge, as well as its justified belief and related
systems that extend from there. Epistemology analyzes the nature
of knowledge -- and how it relates to similar notions such as truth,
belief and justification -- and then defines those words and terms
and their meaning in useful ways, so that we can thus carry on
dialogue together.
The discipline also addresses our means
of production of knowledge, and skepticism about different claims
therein. I find this immensely appropriate and even poetic when I
consider the alternate worlds that I have most recently existed in,
and in particular that of the Japan and its northern-most island,
Hokkaido, in the world of Hitman (2016), and the world that exists
within the construct of the game “Thief” which was for all
practical intentions, created in the late 1990s and refined in 2014
but depicts an industrial-age society on some alien world.
Sure, those are fictional worlds - or
are they? I can tell you that at times they felt very real to me -
and in particular the moral codes that appear to have usurped that of
the courts and Common Law in them.
And the Darwinian approach to moral
justification - something akin to Python Law rather than Common Law -
when it comes to the significance of and importance for “getting
even” or revenge - two themes that play significant roles in both
of those manufactured worlds.
Despite the fact that humanity - let
alone an individual citizen from one of the many different tribes
that human call “nation-states” under which the species has been
divided -- often and under conditions of grave danger seek that sort
of satisfaction. I'm just saying.
To have meaningful exchanges about
these - and other - topics we all need to agree on the basic
foundation points like the actual meaning of phrases like “Retro
Games,” or “Game Play Rotation List(s)” and even “Modern
Gamer(s),” and what about “Preface?” That being so, for the
record as I write this I am working from the following foundation
points:
Retro Games =Any game that is
older than the current season - but can be a very old game too.
Game Play Rotation List(s) =Any
game title you play regularly but especially one you have yet to
complete to your satisfaction.
Modern Gamer(s) =Me. You. Any
gamer currently gaming even if they began their gaming career in the
1970s. As long as they are still gaming and doing it on modern
hardware, they are a Modern Gamer.
Preface =The bits that come
before the meat of the story.
See? That wasn't so difficult, now was
it?
The Meat Part
Moore's law is an observation made by
Gordon Moore back in the day that the number of transistors in a
dense integrated circuit doubles approximately every two years. His
observation turned out to be spot-on accurate, which is why they
named it after him. It probably didn't hurt that Gordon Moore was
also a co-founder of Fairchild Semiconductor and a little tech
company called Intel.
The paper that Moore wrote and
published in 1965 described the doubling - every year - in the number
of components per integrated circuit, and projected that the rate of
growth would continue for at least another decade - which turned out
to be a very conservative time estimate, hindsight being 20/20 and
all.
Borrowing from his experience I would
like to introduce to you:
Boots-Faubert's Law
So yeah, this is the paper I am writing
and publishing (well, article not so much as paper but still) that
history will draw upon to phrase what will become known as
Boots-Faubert's Law of Game Play Rotation - a simple law in gaming
that dictates that the typical Game Play Rotation List for a gamer
will double in size every 12 months as more games are added to the
list thanks to two basic principles:
(1) The wizards at game studios
continue to pump out games at a staggering rate, many of which are
classified as “must-play” titles; and
(2) The average gamer will not have
sufficient time in any given year to spend on completing these games,
which will cause a backlog of incomplete games (and games they never
got a chance to start playing in the first place) due to the lack of
sufficient time to play them all.
The reasoning for this has to do with
how big the video game industry has grown, and the fact that it
continues to grow, with new studios appearing practically every day.
2014
A good example of this trend and its
effect can be found in the year 2014. Bear in mind that a decade ago
the typical gaming season - which runs from September through May -
generally produced around six AAA titles in the “must-play”
category, and so was certainly within reach of the typical gamer.
Which was why we didn't really have Game Play Rotation Lists of the
sort we have now back then.
Fast forward to 2014 however, and the
situation has changed. Peruse this sampling of just the primary
“must-play” titles for that year:
2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil
Alien: Isolation
Assassin's Creed Rogue
Assassin's Creed Unity
Batman: Arkham Origins Blackgate
Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel!
Bound by Flame
Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare
CastleStorm: Definitive Edition
Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2
Chariot
Child of Light
Dark Souls II
Defense Grid 2
Destiny
Diablo III: Ultimate Evil Edition
Dragon Age: Inquisition
Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Z
EA Sports UFC
The Elder Scrolls Online
Elite: Dangerous
Escape Dead Island
The Evil Within
Fable Anniversary
Far Cry
Fez
FIFA 15
Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn
Forza Horizon 2
Goat Simulator
Grand Theft Auto Online
Grand Theft Auto V
Guacamelee! Super Turbo Championship
Edition
Halo: The Master Chief Collection
Halo: Spartan Assault
Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft
How to Survive
Infamous: First Light
Infamous: Second Son
The Last of Us: Left Behind
LEGO Batman 3: Beyond Gotham
LEGO: The Hobbit
The LEGO Movie Videogame
Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII
LittleBigPlanet 3
Madden NFL 15
Mario Kart 8
Mario Golf: World Tour
Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes
Metro Redux
Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor
Minecraft for X1 / PS4
MLB 14: The Show
NASCAR '14
NBA 2K15
Need for Speed Rivals: Complete Edition
Persona 4 Arena Ultimax
Pinball FX 2
Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare
Pokémon Battle Trozei
Pokémon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire
Risen 3: Titan Lords
The Sims 4
Skylanders: Trap Team
Sleeping Dogs: Definitive Edition
Sniper Elite III
South Park: The Stick of Truth
Sunset Overdrive
Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS
Terraria
Thief
Titanfall
Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition
Transformers: Rise of the Dark Spark
Tropico 5
Valiant Hearts: The Great War
The Walking Dead
Warriors Orochi 3 Ultimate
Watch_Dogs
The Wolf Among Us
Wolfenstein: The New Order
World of Tanks: Xbox 360 Edition
World of Warcraft: Warlords of Draenor
Worms Battlegrounds
WWE 2K15
While not every gamer is going to like
every genre - so there will be some selective removals depending on
personal choice, the list above contains 85 games! And it does not
help matters that some of those titles don't really include official
endings - particularly the MMOs.
Sure I could have summarized that list
- but then it would not have contained the gut-punching impact that
the full list contains. And if you think that is a lot of games to
be released in one year, consider the fact that that list only
presents the AAA games - there are three times that number of lesser
and niche titles released in 2014 as well.
This is why the average gamer's Game
Play Rotation List is going to continue to grow with each passing
season.
Another Problem
If you think that the paractical limits
that usually apply - like only being able to afford X number of games
in any given year - is helpful, consider this new problem: Microsoft
has started GIVING games away for FREE to members of Xbox LIVE Gold.
Consider it - today when I checked the
list of free Gold games - under the Game With Gold Program - I found
the following titles:
Ryse: Son of Rome
Evolve Ultimate Edition
Darksiders
So there you have three more titles I
want to play. I WANT to play mind you. But I guarantee you that I
won't have the time to fully play them to my satisfaction, so as sure
as Bob's Your Uncle those three titles will end up being added to my
Game Play Rotation List.
What's the Solution, Kenneth?
I don't know about you lot, but the
idea of my GPRL simply ballooning forever bothers me. There are
loads of entertainment withering there just waiting for me to play!
Fortunately I have a solution. I say
we set aside Sunday afternoon through early evening for ME time.
Game Time. We dedicate ourselves to removing titles from our GPRLs
by really digging into a game every Sunday. Set Sunday aside for
gaming! Free the Games! YEAH!
I have good news and I have bad news.
The good news is that I am not dead. The bad news is that at various
points over the past 8 weeks or so I found myself almost wishing I
was.
You lot have sent me piles of email
asking after me and why I suddenly went silent and why my progress on
current active projects was so sporadic and almost random. I did
have some health issues - but that is largely at this point in the
past. Which is to say that I am on the mend and feeling a LOT
better.
I sincerely apologise to those of you
who have been waiting very patiently for the final expansion section
for Hitman (2016) - which is long over-due as a result of my illness
- but is (I swear) very very imminent in arriving - as I am in the
last few hours of wrapping up the video edits and insertion of the
video illustrations for the main active project (Watch_Dogs 2) as I
write this.
Once the WD2 WTG project is completed I
will immediately segue into completing Hitman - which only has the
Japan-expansion left to it.
I am not going to go too in-depth on
the health issues other than to reveal that I experienced a
combination of a cold that turned into an URI and a bad reaction to
some new meds -- simple as that.
So thank you all kindly for the emails
and your concern - it is very much appreciated. Please be relieved
to know that I am better and I have resumed work.
The realm of computers and network tech
today is so far advanced and so well integrated into the modern home
that the vocabulary of the average person includes words like
firewall, gateway, router, and phrases like cloud computing, content
curation, MAC Address, and virtual private network.
Shorthand like DNS, HTTP, ICMP, IP,
IPv4, IPv6, ISP, LAN, NAT, TCP, UDP, URL, WAN and WiFi won't present
the tech-savvy engineer a challenge, but today they are well-embedded
into the vocabulary of waitresses, auto mechanics, and even the local
parish priest but especially youngsters and college-aged students.
Which is why when Uncle Ralph and Aunt Molly have a problem with
their home network they tend to turn to a nephew or grandchild first
before seeking professional help.
These words, phrases, and shorthand
have basically crept into the everyday vocabulary of non-technical
people, this is true, but unlike said engineer, their interests in
the underlying meanings pretty much terminates at the point where
they cease to be useful in their life.
So while they know what the words,
phrases, and shorthand mean, often the relationships that exist
between them are simply beyond their need to know, so they don't know
them.
There are logical reasons behind that
expansion in vocabulary, and the broader technical understanding of
the average person - reasons that can easily be traced to the
evolution of technology, and specifically computer and network
technology - in the modern home.
Consider this: the presence of a
wireless computer network in the average home today is so expected
and unremarkable that the lack of such a service is more remarkable
than its presence.
When your daughter has her friends over
on the weekend for a slumber party -- which by-the-way they don't
actually call a slumber party anymore - they call it a LAN Party --
and the first question that the gaggle of tween guests in your home
are likely to ask is “what's the WiFi password?” as they pull out
their iPads, laptops, and smartphones.
That circumstances that create this
scenario - a scenario that unfolds in the world a lot these days -
did not happen overnight. Or in a vacuum. In fact we can easily
track the various circumstances and events that lead up to it.
The Evolution of the Home Network
In 1990 two events occurred that helped
to set in motion a movement that would eventually lead to the
Internet in its modern form. The first was the death of ARPANET,
which died not because it needed to, but because in 1985 the
directors of the National Science Foundation arrived at the
conclusion that, if they were going to obtain the level of network
and data services that they required, they would have to create it
themselves.
After years of argument, the board of
directors of the National Science Foundati on proceeded to do just
that, authorizing the establishment of a new network in 1986 first by
linking creating a very large telecommunications network (called “The
Backbone”) through which they connected six strategic member
networks - five of which happened to host Supercomputer Centers.
These were - starting from East and
heading West - (1) The John von Neumann Supercomputer Center at
Princeton University, (2) The Cornell Theory Center at Cornell
University, (3) The Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center (PSC) of
Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Pittsburgh, and
Westinghouse Corporation, (4) The National Center for Supercomputing
Applications (NCSA) at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign,
(5) National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), and (2) The San
Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC) at the University of California,
San Diego (UCSD).
The establishment of this new network -
which they named NSFNet - resulted in the first high-speed national
network to be created without direct input from DARPA - using a
series of six backbone sites that were interconnected via leased
56kb/s dedicated always-connected lines.
That may not sound all that fast now,
but back in 1986 the best that the average user could hope for in
terms of connectivity was a 9600 baud modem connecting via a POT -
Plain Old Telephone - single pair of copper wires - or what is
otherwise known as a phone line.
Using the V.32 standard for full-duplex
connections that were capable of 9600 bit/s at 2400 baud, V.32 modems
theoretically allowed for connection and transfer speeds at up to 9.6
Kbps - a figure that probably means nothing to you. Yet.
Here are some numbers that will mean
something to you: that 9.6Kbps actually translates to 4.32 MB/hr - or
103 MB/day. Now compare that to the typical modern high-speed
Internet connection of around 9MBs -- which translates to around 72
Mbps, or 540 MB / min which totals 32.4 GB/hr or 777 GB per day.
So roughly translated, our ideal net
user in 1986 would require roughly five-and-a-half days to transfer 1
minute of modern data rates. If they were connected to that
seemingly snail's pace backbone of the original NSFNet, they'd only
need around three-hours-twenty-minutes or so which is way better -
WAY better - than five days! So yeah, it's not super fast but, at
the time, it was.
The new NSFNet rapidly attracted
partner networks, with the Canadian National Network connecting
almost immediately after its creation, and hundreds of other networks
of all sizes joining it over the course of the following two years,
at which point the original Backbone failed to maintain the required
speeds to service what had become a Global Network - or Internet.
After NSFNET began to accept foreign
networks for permanent connection membership, by 1990 the new Global
Internet was official the decision was made to upgrade the Backbone -
which they did to the tune of a T-1 Connection between each of the
Primary Nodes (A T-1 Connection is 1.5 Mbps). To help reduce stress
on the Backbone NSFNet was divided into Regional Networks so that,
for example, a user in London who requested a page or program that
was stored on a UK system, their request would not travel across the
main Backbone but used only the Regional Net.
Eventually the Backbone was again
upgraded - this time to a T-3 Connection (45 Mb/s) shortly after
issuing the license for paid (ISP-based) access to the network - but
now we are getting ahead of the story here.
The World is On Fire
The
second major event in The Year That Changed Everything
(1990) was a small company in Massachusetts called Software Tool &
Die (AKA The World) connecting THEIR network to NSFNET.
The World was the first Commercial
Internet Service Provider (ISP) and provided anyone willing to pay
for an account access to the Internet. The shitstorm that followed
from government agencies and universities eventually forced the NSF
to grant provisional permission and license to The World to offer ISP
services, and within a year that license was extended to ISPs all
over the country and, eventually, the world itself. The modern
Commercial Internet was born.
As regular people began to use the
Internet, larger Value-Added networks like CompuServe and AOL also
turned their attention to it, and Internet Access very quickly became
a thing that forward-looking real estate companies added to their
buildings in places like New York, Boston, and Los Angeles to attract
what they thought of as upwardly mobile and thus desirable tenants.
The typical apartment lease form
featured a comprehensive Utilities Section, which in 1990 and before,
included specifications on who was responsible for electricity,
water, and gas services, and reasonable limitations when the landlord
or building owner provided some or all of those services.
In 1995 those forms began to include
something called an Internet Access Lease Addendum -- a clause that
spelled out both access terms for tenants and any use restrictions
placed upon the building's 'Net Connection -- like upload and
download limits, or using the residential connection for commercial
purposes.
These additions to the average lease
agreement spelled out the various technical details - whether the
building network included a proxy web server, what sort of firewall
was used, and what steps the residents needed to take to register
their device(s) with the Internet Service Coordinator for the
building.
By 2010 the Internet Access Lease
Addendum was fully integrated into the Utilities Section in most
markets, but thanks to the always-evolving computer threats the
average tenant often refused to rely upon whatever firewall
protections the building implemented, choosing instead to purchase
their own WiFi Firewall Router that they registered with the building
coordinator as the “computer” for their apartment.
In response to this new demand,
hardware manufacturers all over the world began to design and
manufacture a plethora of new devices that in addition to offering an
ever-evolving level of firewall protections, NAT services, and DHCP,
also included slots to install hard drives for their
Network-Accessible automatic backup software. They even started to
make Internet-Connected refrigerators - so yeah, you can easily lay
responsibility for The Internet of Things on the The Year That
Changed Everything.
To put this in
perspective for you, there is a high-rise building in New York City
that has fully integrated the Internet into their infrastructure. In
each of the flats is a dedicated screen by their entry doors that, in
addition to displaying an image of who is standing outside the door
in the hall, offers menus that display information on a variety of
building conditions.
At the tap of the
screen tenants can learn the current temperature at street-level, the
air and water temperature for the building pool and hot tubs, whether
the sauna is turned on and, if so, its current temp, and they can
call up a view of their assigned parking spot in case they want to
check on their car.
The interface
allows them to summon the concierge, send a text to the doorman or
the deskman, and even order groceries from a limited menu of
necessaries - milk, bread, bottled water, that sort of thing -
provided by a nearby store that offers delivered services to the
building.
Using the
building's wireless Ethernet service they also have access to a Wiki
Server that offers the current calendar of co-op events, as well as a
number of maintenance services.
Despite
all of that convenience at their fingertips, to maintain fair and
impartial network access and speeds, these internal networks often
limit residents to one or two Internet-connected devices, and also
had limits to data use and access to certain ports or services.
To
address those restrictions, the more tech-savvy residents either
created their own private networks or hire someone to do it for them.
These non-routed 10.10 or 192.168 private networks hid behind
the officially registered IP address of their NAT-capable
firewall-router, so that from the building network side - or LAN - it
appeared that there was only one device, while LAN and WAN access was
available to all of the devices on their private network.
Enter the Gamer
That sort of solution works great for
the average user whose needs were restricted to email, web surfing,
and streaming music or video via services like Netflix and Hulu, or
providing their kids with a connection for their iPads and
smartphones, it did not work very well for gamers who often found
that the network services provided by their building or co-op tended
to feature restrictions on large data transfers and the existence of
Open Network Address Translation.
The typical video game - whether a
console or PC game - often has an aggressive patching and updating
model, and most of the games that included online multi-player
required open-NAT in order to channel their services via specific
ports from their servers to specific ports on the client end.
In most commercial settings those
services were intentionally blocked for the protection of their
clients, and bandwidth limitations were often applied to any user who
exceeded the monthly allotment, which averages between 10 and 20 GB
per month.
Basically gamers found that access to
desirable services and games -- including a plethora of online
multi-player games as well as MMORPGs -- was severely restricted or
simply blocked. They also found that the typical game updates and
patches could easily eat up their bandwidth allotment with updates to
just four or five titles. For example the most recent patch to Tom
Clancy's The Division totaled 5.39 GB - so you do the math.
The nature of network services is such
that there really is no work-around in this case, which is why most
gamers who live in net-connected buildings still tend to contract
their own personal net connection from the local ISP - which in
recent years pretty much means either a Cable TV modem or high-speed
Internet services from the Telephone Company.
In some areas, if the network owner was
fortunate enough to obtain cellular Internet services when the
wireless phone companies were offering unlimited all-you-can-eat
contracts for a set price, you'll see gamers whose firewall router
terminates in a cellphone, but that's uncommon today.
The reason that this class of netzien
chooses to go their own way in terms of net access is down to their
need for open-NAT, the ability to assign specific ports to specific
IP Addresses inside their network, either directly or passing through
a virtual DMZ, and the need to download huge amounts of data in the
form of games, game patches, and updates.
Whether or not the gamer lives in a
Net-connected apartment or a house in the middle of the boondocks,
the basic needs for creating a network are the same - which is where
we begin in this article in our Network Tech Series.
Part
I - Planning Your Gamer-Oriented Computer Network
The sexy part of building a computer
network is when you sit down to pick your hardware. That's when the
typical gamer gets to shine a light on their tech-savvy chops, and
maybe brag a little on their choices for hardware infrastructure.
You may be interested to know that
despite the fact that it is sexy, the process of creating a new
computer network - whether it is a standard data or a gamer's network
- does not begin with picking hardware.
It properly starts with the actual
network design, which is a process that usually takes place on paper,
and covers a number of crucial elements including the three most
important decisions that must be made. Of course that presumes that
the gamer is following standards of network design.
We've seen more than a few networks
that we can only describe as Frankenstein Networks - examples where
the gamer started with a net connection in their living room that
consisted of a Cable Modem and Router with or without a firewall, to
which many things were added piecemeal over time until it turns into
a disaster.
A Sample Frankenstein Network
The results of that are what we
jokingly refer to as a Distributed Network. An example of this is
the network that belonged to a friend who asked us to help them fix
their Frankenstein Network. The problem with that is that fixing is
not really the best approach. The best approach is to throw it all
out and start by designing a proper network, making use of anything
that is already present that you can make use of.
To help you understand this let's take
a look at the network in question.
What we found when we came to survey it
was this: the WAN connection was (A) a cable modem in the master
bedroom, which was connected to (B) an older firewall router with
four ports and no WiFi. To get WiFi they ran a 60' Cat-5 cable to
the other side of the house, where they plugged that into (C) a
LinkSys WiFi Router.
There were four client systems in the
house - (D) a PC in the living room that was connected to the WiFi
router by Cat-5 cable, (E & F ) laptops in the two bedrooms
belonging to their kids which connect to the network via WiFi, and
(G) a PC in the master bedroom connecting to the firewall router by
Cat-5 cable.
There were also some game consoles -
three in the living room - but there were only three ports left open
on the WiFi Router, so they had purchased an (H) 8-port Ethernet Hub
and plugged that into the WiFi Router, plugging their (I) Xbox 360,
(J) PlayStation 3, and (K) Wii into the hub. Later they added an (L)
Xbox One and (M) PS4 to it.
When they got into playing a specific
game a few years ago they ended up building their own (N) game server
which, because there was no room elsewhere, they placed in their
garage, and connected it to the network by running another 60' Cat-5
cable through the attic to the master bedroom, which was plugged into
the firewall router.
At some point they had an almost
break-in at their house, so they bought an (O) IP Security Camera
System, which they ended up sticking in the garage, buying a surplus
(P) 10bT Ethernet Switch which they placed in the garage and plugged
the game server and IP Camera server into. They then placed the
(Q/R/S/T) four cameras that it came with at various locations outside
and inside their home, with one connected to the hub in the living
room, one connected to the last available port in the firewall and
the other two connected to (U) an Ethernet hub that they placed in
the attic, and connected to the living room hub.
It was a mess, but it got the job done
(sort of). It did have a number of problems, not the least being
lots of collisions and, due to one of the cables getting crushed,
some cross-talk on that link. They had no way to know that though,
because none of the hardware that they were using was managed
hardware so it was incapable of telling them a problem existed.
So let's begin with an inventory of the
network...
A Black Box Cable Modem provided by the
Cable Company (10bT)
Netgear RP 114 “Web Safe” Router
(10bT / 100bT)
Linksys WRT54G WiFi Router (10bT /
100bT)
3Com Unmanaged Switch (10bT)
Generic 16-Port Ethernet Hub (10bT /
100bT)
Game Server PC (10bT / 100bT / 1000bT)
Security Camera Appliance (10bT /
100bT)
Security Cameras (x4) (10bT / 100bT)
Network Clients
PC A (10bT / 100bT)
PC B (10bT)
Laptop A (10bT / 100bT / 1000bT)
Laptop B (10bT / 100bT / 1000bT)
Nintendo Wii (802.11 b/g WiFi)
PlayStation 3 (10bT / 100bT / 1000bT)
PlayStation 4 (10bT / 100bT / 1000bT)
Xbox 360 (10bT / 100bT)
Xbox One (10bT / 100bT / 1000bT)
The three major issues that we
identified beyond the mess that the physical network represented are:
(1) Divergent Ethernet Speeds
(2) Ancient Hardware
(3) Lack of reporting capability
Our Hardware Recommendations
This is a useful teaching experience
for you - because it demonstrates the decision making process as it
applies to network design.
The very first step in this process
after the inventory was creating a network plan. That meant drawing
a layout of the physical structure, and then determining the best
place to start the network from. In this case, and because of other
issues that the network owner had - and their desire to go in a
commercial direction in terms of its format (they had already
purchased a rack at the Flea), the direction the plan took was
dictated by some of those issues.
Considering that almost all of the
network hardware on their network was ancient, it shouldn't be a
surprise that we recommended replacing it all - including the
cabling. Fortunately for them, I have the tools and the know-how to
custom create Ethernet Cable and a box of Cat-6 cable in my basement,
so that eliminates what can be a significant expense.
We also live near Boston,
Massachusetts, which means that we have access to the MIT Flea Market
- an electronics, radio, computer, and networking flea market that
runs from April to October one Sunday each month. The deals that you
can get at the MIT Flea include relatively modern hardware for dirt
cheap dollars, so when you know what you are looking for, you can
find some awesome kit at rock-bottom prices!
Using the layout of their house we
created a network map for them, which first centralized the network
services in one manageable location (the garage) and offered the
capability of not only monitoring the network for problems, but also
made regular maintenance easier because instead of using the cable
modem provided by the cable service provider - which they did not
have access to - replacing it with their own model gave them
interface access, which is necessary if you need to troubleshoot a
problem.
The server rack that they had purchased
at the flea prior to consulting me turned out to be a heck of a deal.
They somehow bought an APC 42U Netshelter Rack for $100 - this is a
rack that sells new for ten times that amount. Unfortunately it was
just the primary rack, and lacked the back and front door/enclosures.
But we were able to track down some used at the very next flea.
The reason that we needed the
enclosures was because they wanted to go with a rack-mounted server
capable of supporting VPN and RAID, so that they could just have a
single-server solution to the needs on their network, which basically
was down to the game server, and the desire to have a media server
and a Wiki-style web server that they could use to organize their
business.
What we ended up recommending to them
was to replace their kit with the following:
x1 SB6183 SURFboard Cable Modem ($81.99
via eBay) 1000bT
x2 Netgear GS724T Smartswitch ($100 via
eBay) 1000bT
x1 Netgear Centria N900 Dual Band
Gigabit Wireless Router ($55 via eBay) 1000bT
x1 Dell PowerEdge 2950 II RM Server
with rails ($250 via techmikeny.com) 1000bT
x4 WD 2TB Drive w/2950 Caddies ($60 via
techmikeny.com)
Owning their own cable modem meant that
they could return the one that was costing them $10 a month in rental
fees, so basically that new cable modem paid for itself in less than
9 months. In addition to that though, the new cable modem offered
them full Gigabit Ethernet on the LAN side of their connection - the
ancient cable modem that they had been using since they first
obtained their Internet connection was a 10bT connection. Which
considering the speed of their Internet package was ludicrous.
The matched pair of GS724T switches
were set up at the two ends of the network, one in the Garage Rack,
and one in the Livingroom Entertainment Center that contained the
games consoles, and the Cablemodem. The two GS724Ts were configured
so that ports 22,23, and 24 created a 3GB Trunk Backbone to allow for
multiple streaming clients.
The WiFi Router was placed in the
Livingroom, as that offered the best overall coverage for its users.
All of the Ethernet Cable was custom
made Cat-6, with cable run management via the basement to reduce the
mess and clutter it originally presented.
The 2950 II was installed in the Garage
Rack, and configured as a VM Server. To the network it appeared to
be four different servers - the Game Server, Media Server, Wiki
Server, and a Loghost with direct email capability. The logs for all
of the network devices were sent to the Loghost, and any alarm
conditions generated an email to the owner's account.
We used mostly free utilities to make
the networked VMs easier to manage, including FreeNAS/Plex for the
Media Server, and Webmin to manage the other three servers. We also
used a free for the bulk of the VMs - Ubuntu Linux, though the Game
Server required Windows Server.
The network that we started with was
quirky, slow, and difficult to manage. The network we ended up with
was streamlined, incredibly fast in comparison, and very easy to
manage. In the end the total cost for upgrading and replacing the
network? $1,247.50 (though I did not charge anything for my help or
the Ethernet cables).
They were able to recover almost $200
of that from selling off the hardware we replaced via Craigslist.
Proper Network Design Elements
When you approach the design of a new
network, there are specific elements that need to be planned out.
Those are:
Cable Pathing and Management
Network Device Placement
Network Service Location
Before we progress any further we need
to define what those three important decisions mean.
Cable Pathing and Management:
Don't be confused by the term Cable Pathing and Management - it means
exactly what it sounds like it means, which is determining how you
will manage and place the physical network cables that will connect
your systems to the central device space.
If you were thinking that installing
and managing physical cable was only going to be necessary for the
actual physical cable that connects your firewall and router to the
WAN side of the connection, prepare to be disappointed. Because if
you are serious about building your own home network that meets
gamer-class efficiency and speeds, you are not going to be using WiFi
as your primary network connection. The latency will kill you.
When this article was written the
standard for Ethernet Cable used in home networks is called Category
6 - though there is a second generation of cable for that Category
called Category 6a (or Cat-6a) that is also available. This is the
standard for Gigabit Ethernet.
Previously when 100bT speeds were the
standard, Category 5 (Cat-5) was the prevailing standard, but with
the wider introduction of Gigabit Ethernet, Cat-6 has taken over as
the default standard. The reasons for that are simple enough.
Ethernet Cable Technical Differences
Since the original creation of and use
of cables for computer networking, a standards committee has
routinely specified the minimal technical requirements for these
cables because the performance characteristics for said cables
operates in a very narrow range.
While the differences in cable
specifications are not as easy to see as physical changes in a cable,
the specs for each are crucial to their proper function. Each
category of cable has the capability to perform at set ranges and it
is the very minimum -- not the maximum -- speeds that network
engineers are concerned with. Because the ability to at least reach
and maintain the minimal traffic load is critical to the success of a
network in terms of simple function.
In terms of cable standards, Ethernet
Cable is measured by specific requirements which include a standard
length for measurement, operating MHz, the aforementioned minimum
operational speeds, and finally the capability of offering
Power-Over-Ethernet (PoE) without that service negatively impacting
the data-side.
Here are the specs for the modern
cables that you will find in commercial and home networks right now:
Length
(in meters)
Speed
10Mb/s
Speed
100 Mb/s
Speed
1 Gb/s
Speed
10 Gb/s
PoE
Mhz
Cat-5
100
X
X
X
100
Cat-5e
100
X
X
X
X
100
Cat-6
100
55 for 10Gb/s
X
X
X
X
X
250
Cat-6a
100
X
X
X
X
X
500
It's no coincidence that category
number and Mhz of the wire gets higher as each category brings more
stringent testing requirements for eliminating crosstalk as well as
adding isolation between the wires.
That said, with Ethernet YMMV. We've
seen various cables used in ways that are not inline with the
specifications. Networks with runs longer than 100m, and networks
that used Cat-5 instead of Cat-5e for Gigabit Ethernet connections
and totally got away with it.
The reason for that is because the
Cat-5 wire that was being used just happened to be of a higher
quality than usually found. Cat-5e is not a different design mind
you - it's Cat-5 cable, it has just been given more stringent testing
standards for crosstalk than are generally applied to Cat-5.
You can often get away with longer runs
and using standard Cat-5 as long as it is high quality cable, but use
of that sort may not obtain expected results. It may work, but at a
lower efficiency.
Conversely just because you're using
Cat-6 cable doesn’t mean you are actually obtaining 1000bT network
speeds, because every connection on your network must support Gigabit
Ethernet to achieve that. Just like Cat-5 and Cat-5e, Cat-6 cable
was retested to achieve 500 Mhz communication (compared to Cat-6’s
250 Mhz). The point to certifying higher communication frequency was
to eliminated alien crosstalk - which allows for a longer range at 10
Gb/s sustained speeds.
If you are using older hardware and
especially if you are using dumb hubs the entire network will slow
down to the fastest speed of its slowest member. If a server on your
network only offers 100bT any of the 1000bT clients connecting have
to step down their speed to talk to it. That is something you need
to consider when planning out your network.
You also need to test all new cable
runs to verify that they are hitting the certified speeds. If you
have a bad run the network devices are not going to simply slow down
to say 900bT to talk on it, they will step down to the next standard
level - which is 100bT.
Network Device Placement: When
you plan out the placement of your network devices, at least part of
the decision process needs to include environmental requirements and
how they will be deployed. Whether or not the users will require
access, and whether the connection environment will change
frequently.
Network Service Location: When
you can't tailor your device placement to the service location,
special care must be taken to ensure that the cable runs from the
service location to the network placement is 100% correct and
functional as otherwise this will have a major negative impact on the
network.
WiFi is a Convenience: Another
issue that you need to come to terms with is that WiFi networking is
simply a convenience. The rapidity at which a WiFi router can be
over-saturated is laughable. If you have systems on your network
that need to move large amounts of data, or that depend on
maintaining the highest speeds possible, you want to be using cable,
not WiFi.
Adding
WiFi capability to a network is largely viewed as a courtesy to
unsophisticated users - like your kids who just want to jump online
with their iPad or Smartphones to check their email. It's really not
appropriator for gaming or streaming.
To Rack or Not to Rack?
We personally know more than a few
gamers who started this process by purchasing 19” Computer Racks of
varying heights as the foundation for their home network; the example
we gave in the Frankenstein Network is a case in point.
For the most part they don't do this
because they need to - they do it because they WANT to. It looks
cool. They like it. It makes them feel like they have a boss
network. So here is the thing - despite all that if you can afford
it, go ahead and do it!
I use racks for my own home network but
that is something of a special case. In addition to a pair of server
racks I have a relay rack for my network devices, which are ALL
basically rack-mounted kit. If you do decide to go that route,
understand that you do NOT have to replace the systems you want to
rack with rack-mounted systems. That would be wicked expensive.
You can either purchase standard
rack-mounted shelves to place the generic PC cases on, or for about
the same price, you can buy a rack-mounted PC case and swap the guts
of your PC into it. If you are curious go to eBay and do a search
for Rack-mounted PC Case. Prices range from $50 to $500 though the
lower-end cases will not come with a power supply. So yeah, it is
doable. And yeah, it does look cool.
In addition to looking cool, a
fully-enclosed rack will also provide noise management - which means
you can use them to reduce the noise of servers and network
appliances to levels that make placement acceptable in your house,
rather than needing to stick them in a garage or basement.
That said though, racks exist to be
home to rack-mounted components, like Ethernet Switches, Routers,
Load Balancers, and Servers, not your Xbox 360. Just saying.
Figuring out your needs means knowing
how many rack units you will require. A rack unit is a unit of
measure used to describe the height of a server, network switch or
other similar device mounted in a 19-inch or 23-inch rack (though
19-inch is the most common width).
One rack unit is 44.45 mm (1.75 in)
high. One rack unit is commonly designated as "1U";
similarly, 2 rack units are "2U" and so on. The size of a
piece of rack mounted equipment is usually described as a number in
"U" - so counting up the U for the kit you have will tell
you how tall of a rack you might want or need.
If you are going to go with a rack for
in-house use, and you plan to use it for noise management, I
recommend you choose a half-rack as that is a LOT easier to find
space for or camoflage.
Completing Your Network Plan
Now that you know the basics of
planning, it's time to complete your network plan. Start by
sketching a schematic of your house or apartment, then noting where
each piece of hardware will go.
Make a list of all the hardware and
network-connected devices you will need to accommodate, and then work
out where they will best fit into the new network plan.
One of the most important decisions you
will need to make is whether or not you require a backbone. If your
home is large and a significant amount of client hardware is located
somewhere distant from the Internet Connection where it enters the
home, then you will need a backbone.
Planning, Designing, and implementing a
Network Backbone is the subject of the next chapter in this series.
Hopefully the contents of this chapter have offered you sufficient
information to begin the planning of your new network. While you are
doing that, as a gamer, remember - this is supposed to be fun.
One of my favorite techniques as a
writer - and a human - is dropping into the middle of conversations
that are ongoing; the simple act of doing so leaves the new arrival
(me) -- or the reader (you in the case where I have been writing and
that's the mechanism by which we begin our narrative) almost
entirely at the mercy of the conversation -- because that's real
life.
Relations among humans are often messy,
but are usually worth the effort -- especially transactions that take
place under the umbrella of words that - whether in our real or in
our digital lives - include willing sacrifices and commitment of
emotions.
Of course these gestures are never as
cut-and-dried or as seemingly bloodless as the reasonable facsimile
thereof that we use to represent the often emotional set of
attachments we seek to transplant (or at the least mimic) in the
online worlds of social media. Yeah.
To be clear here, and in spite of what
is implied above, I am not speaking of any type of the use of
the word “Love” as it is bandied about all willy-nilly whenever
the R-Word (Relationship) is raised - even as I use the words
Friendship or Mateship - which as any human can quickly explain is
the seed of the root of the plant that must eventually become Love,
if it is properly nurtured and allowed to expre4ss itself as the
guiding emotional principles around which all relationships form.
One does not spring fully formed as a
lover without first starting out as a mare or friend, as from the
collective friend or mate the dynamics of partner is formed. That
potential is there - always - whether one is prepared to accept it or
not. But I do not speak of those words or relations with the same
breath as the other.
Neither am I referring to any of the
four basic words in Ancient Greek that can be translated into the
English word “Love” and through which most writers rely (even
when they are not aware that they in fact are relying upon them) --
those being the érōs (directly translated for and from
"love" or "desire") or, for that
matter, storge, philia, and especially agape,
all of which lend their own special (and often times obscene in the
end) shades to the words.
I do understand and acknowledge that
among the formative influences that combined and conspire to form my
own understanding and projection of those twin concepts
subconsciously include Heinlein, Lawrence, Bacon, Chaucer, and even
O'Brian.
I am therefore specifically NOT
speaking of the sort of positioning or the use of that word or any of
its many and varied associated cousins that, upon examination, either
lend to the projection the twin concepts of emotional and physical
connections. Love. Not!
What I am referencing here is the much
more pure and universal relationship that in Canada and the United
States goes by the word “Friendship” and in places like Australia
and New Zealand over-utilize the phrase mateship.
Where Love of the Eros sort generally
refers to "passionate love" or “romantic love” that we
all of us are quick to understand -- as after all how could the
entire genre of Love Story and its plethora of sub-genres that I like
to refer to as the bodice-ripping rape-me-to-show-you-love-me sort of
stories of Danielle Steel, Nora Roberts and the likes of Judith
McNaught that I strongly suspect are responsible in no small way for
the confusion that many men (and women for that matter) feel towards
the non-committal use of the word “No” -- but that's an entirely
different story and verbal proposition! For the record I believe
that “No!” means “No!”
So all of that qualified, let it be
known that I strongly believe that the beginning of THIS story - this
article - and this question - is best summarized as the proposition
of the Friend. Friends? Friended? Friend Me? Like? Unlike?
It is a long and complicated path we
have embarked upon when that measure of complication is our topic.
In fact we are better served by declaring what we DO NOT mean when we
use the words Friend or Mate than we are in trying to
complete the impossible task of finding a way to define what we DO
mean by those words and especially when the objective is their
definition in a single neat paragraph.
MATE /
FRIEND ships
Eros love is the physical, sensual
intimacy hoped to exist between the husband and the wife - the set of
noteworthy and powerful forces conjured into being through the
largely speculative spiritual transformation of two physically
opposite human forms that, despite the usual physical compatibility
are nevertheless largely a combination of desires and necessity.
That's one end of the palpable spectrum
that is part of Friendship IRL. The other end can be found in a
space that begins with casual friendships and progresses from there.
So let's close that first chapter with an understanding, and open a
new chapter in which we contrast and compare two very basic realities
whose nature comes full-circle and back to the original thoughts,
which are marked by two very different highs and lows: that being the
loss of friendship / mateship that occurs in both real-world and
real-life compared to that which occurs online.
The fascinating part though is that
while it may seem like it naturally would amount to mostly the same
thing, as it turns out how deep or damaging unfriending someone
online can be has almost everything to do with the site and its
ranking in the hierarchy of social networks, with a spectrum that
starts at the far left with trivial and meaningless, and concludes,
at the far right, with the unfriended feeling a measure of hurt and
betrayal many are shocked and surprised to feel when it happens to
them!
MATEship
/ FRIENDship
Recently - and with something of an
“in-your-face” and unapologetic attitude - I sat with one of my
real-world friends in the dining room at the Wareham Red Robin (which
is as close as you are going to get to a gourmet burger on Cape Cod -
though technically Wareham is NOT on the Cape) and we talked about
the feelings that were provoked when you logged into your regular
social networks only to discover that you had been unfriended by
someone.
I should point out that a trip to RR is
a rather special event. You see, heaven in a Red Robin begins with a
“bottomless” Very Berry Raspberry Limeade (if you're from New
England then you can think of this as a Raspberry/Lime Ricky but
yeah), and some shared Baja Dip 'N' Chips -- crispy sea salt tortilla
chips served with Red's zesty Baja Ranch dressing for to dip them in.
Spreading out from there is a Red Robin
Gourmet Cheeseburger -- built with Red's pickle relish, tomatoes,
onions, lettuce, pickles, mayo and extra cheese, accompanied by a
heaping dish of `golden brown O-Rings dipped into more of Red's
zesty Baja Ranch dressing.
See the thing is, if you have lived on
Cape Cod for very long you already know that with the exception of
Surf N' Turf, the options for good restaurant food in the armpit of
the Cape is down to either ethnic or fast.
We consider RR to be what you'd call
medium-fast with an emphasis upon gourmet burgers and, well, they
aren't kidding about the fact that their offerings fall neatly into
the category of gourmet burgers! The point being that in this case
it actually is worth going slightly off-Cape to get 'em because Red
Robin falls well above Johnny Rockets or Wahlburgers.
The real point to this though is that
it is not the usual meal, but one enjoyed among friends. And as
that's the theme for this, Red Robin is a great place to start -
because we had gathered there to chat about the whole online and
social networking friendships and the subject as it contrasts with
IRL friendships.
That’s a fair point. Especially when
you consider that, no matter what happens, once the topic of this
piece turns towards the online and digital realm, somebody's going to
get hurt.
Offline vs. Online
Generally speaking the initial (almost
instant) conclusion to the question of valuation was that the biggest
difference between befriending someone and unfriending someone both
IRL and OL is the lingering point that the event, when it happens
Online, is simply not the same thing at all.
When it happens IRL it is often
accompanied by those awkward silences and ugly confrontations that
hurt - and the fact that usually there are good reasons for the event
happening, on the face of it you might think that the two do not
compare at all.
IRL the usual causes range from
betrayals (both real and imagined), cheating, and often issues that
are created either by other mates or relatives that lead to the
decision by one party to undertake an action that ultimately causes
emotional (and often times physical) pain to the other.
For most blokes this sort of event is
relatively rare. Friends work through their issues, they don't burn
bridges without really good reasons to do it.
But that makes sense when you consider
that IRL Friends are rare animals indeed in the relationships
spectrum. That they often require and are made yup of the same sorts
of effort that relationships of a more personal and intimate nature
occupy - because created a friendship is generally viewed as worthy
of that level of effort.
That outlook may be related to the fact
that, according to recent research conducted at both Harvard and Yale
has revealed that the typical human actually has fewer mates/friends
than they think they do! Which is to say that many of the people
that they believe are their friends don't recipricate that level of
either familiarity or bond.
Online “Friends”
“In the world OL becoming Friends is
just a button click,” one of my mates pointed out. “That being
the case, it really doesn't have any meaning. You Friend someone
maybe to add them to your feed so you can see what they are doing or
what they are interested in because they belong to a group YOU belong
to, or are interested in some narrow hobby or subject YOU are
interested in, but that is as far as it goes. For you.
Oddly though, it seems that for a lot
of people -- and this is especially true on venues like Facebook --
your action of “Friending” a person can and often does have more
meaning for the person you friended than it does for you!
So experiencing a person who befriended
you suddenly and without comment or explanation unfriending you can
be a jarring and, some even claim, hurtful event.
One aspect that is very clear and that
lends focus to the phenomenon is where the action takes place. both
different and similar depending on WHERE the breakup is going to
happen.
A case can be made that a Facebook
breakup and a LinkedIn Breakup are pretty much at opposite ends of
the spectrum. Or so it might appear to you. It may be fair to
consider the middle zone to be pretty much everything from SnapChat
to Xbox LIVE and PSN or Steam Mates, but are you aware that the
social network side of platforms like YouTube have now reached the
point where creators on that platform feel like you befriending them
there and viewing their content is a declaration of friendship beyond
simply being a consumer of the product that they are creating?
Social Network Sites that have somehow
generated feelings by their users that they are in fact communities
and, by befriending a creator/user thereon you are in effect being
perceived as offering a sincere overture of real friendship to the
extent that withdrawing that button click - to them - would be
construed as anything starting with rejection and ranging up to a
hostile even attacking act?
According to recent surveys that were
conducted online the users and/or creators on the following social
network constructs have begun to view the “following” actions of
subscribing to their feed or channel in similar terms. In short,
withdrawing your “friendship” and/or subscribed status on the
following sites may be seen as a hostile act by most of the people
who use them - and the higher on the list below that the social
network site is, the stronger that feeling of rejection may actually
be!
According to the most recent (April
2016) surveys the Top 10 “clingy” SM sites include:
Facebook
LinkedIn
YouTube
Instagram
Pinterest
Twitter
Google+
Tumblr
Reddit
AboutMe
If Vine wasn't shutting down it would
have made the list - but lower down than the Top 10. The point being
that even losing a sub on a dying site could trigger the same
feelings of rejection and pain that is found on other sites - which
is rather odd when you pause to consider that technically for most of
the SN and SM sites whatever the actual relationship is that exists
between the subs and the creators really is simply one of content
consumer, not friend.
Despite this trending phenom most
netziens consuming content created by others don't consider or
imagine that any other relationship exists - when they consider the
idea of a relationship at all... So at least in this case, saying
It's YOU, not ME would be painfully accurate, but that's unlikely to
change the way that these creators actually feel.
It may be cliche, but the originally
amusing and meme-worthy contents of the video embedded above as well
as its own tongue-in-cheek humor takes on a much more sinister shadow
when the emotional over-attachment is suddenly found on the opposite
side of the camera so to speak.
When You Are Breaking Up With Them
Whether it is -- as many people prefer
to frame it - euphemistically little more than a combination of
Spring Cleaning / Removing Noise from the Signal /or just simply
Pruning Dead Wood - the point is that the people that are being
chucked into the bin are not usually people the chucker actually
knows IRL because hey, the words “Friend” and “Mate” have
entirely different meanings in the Online Realm. Right? Well yes,
except when they don't.
It really does not matter how you
phrase it -- Spring Cleaning; Weeding the Friend Space; Unfriending,
De-Friending -- I know some netziens who call it De-Cluttering -- at
this point the chances that removing a Subscribe or Friend Status on
any of the above sites will offend at least some users is a near
certainty.
What's the Deal?
I recently experienced this phenomenon
first hand and I found it to be very very disturbing.
I was playing the Freemium Game The
Simpsons: Tapped Out - and when I realized thanks to the need to
interact with the towns of “neighbors” (that is what passes for
“Friends” in that game) that a large chunk of the people who were
on my Neighborhoods list were not actively playing the game - many of
them had not logged in to play in over a year - so I started pruning
the ones that were not playing.
The reason that I did that was simple -
the players who WERE playing the game were as useful to me as I was
to them, but that was not true for the people no longer playing, so I
systematically de-friended any player who had not logged into the
game for more than 2 months.
Having found myself “servicing” the
social side in that game prompted me to look at other sites that I
was active on, and doing the same basic tasks there - weeding out the
people who eitther were not active or were not participants to the
process.
In the past I have had people do the
same with me - and I never took it personally. After all these sites
- and games - are not popularity contests. In many cases - and this
is especially true with free-to-play games - having a more active
friend base benefits the players - I completely understood how and
why other players opted to defriend ME on certain games. Totally
understood it.
Which is why I was flabbergasted when I
received email from several people asking me what it was that they
had done wrong to cause me to sever our friendships?
So how do you respond to the hurt
feelings of a “friend” you have never actually met or even talked
with outside of in-game interactions for games they are no longer
actively playing?! Facebook’s ripe with that sort of event it
seems. But it did not stop there.
I quit several groups I was no longer
active in on LinkedIn and received similar mail from their hosts
either asking what they did wrong or demanding to know what my
problem was with them?!
The biggest mind-blowing event though -
and what caused me to start looking into this - was the dogged and
persistent manner in which a particular YouTuber pursued me after I
unsubscribed from their channel...
Shortly after I unsubscribed they
messaged me to ask why I left? I replied that I was thinning out my
subs for the channels that I no longer regularly viewed. That was
the truth, though I thought it odd that they asked in the first
place.
But then the messaged me to point out
that I was still subscribed to a similar channel which belonged to a
different creator who covered the same subjects and they demanded to
know what it was that the other creator was doing that caused me to
stay subscribed to them?
Things got stranger and stranger after
that, and it soon became evident that they were hurt or maybe miffed
at my action, and the only thing I could do that they considered
proper and right was to re-sub to their channel. That, they
explained, was just fair.
Then they told me that I really didn't have the right to have an opinion on what channel on the subject was better than another because I was not a YouTube Creator, and told me that the only legitimate reply I could make had to be via a YouTube video... Really?
My reaction was to start looking into
this phenomenon because, well, I don't know abotu fair or right but
this? This is just freaking bizarre!
