[Community Organised!] February 2014: - Ferdielance

The MotM is an interview that the team does at the end of each month. It's a fun way of finding out about respected members of the community.

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[Community Organised!] February 2014: - Ferdielance

Post by enigma »

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February 2014
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We're dealing with a really fungi over here.

Ferdielance

Welcome to the first member-run Member of the Month. As everyone is probably aware, MotM is a monthly interview based around prominent members of the community! And today we'll interview Ferdielance, a rather fun, yet pigeon-y member. (No that is not a way to describe people.)

... Anyway.

Let's get started!
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Dave: So, Ferdie! How are YOOOOOU today?

Ferdie: I'm fine, thanks! The case comp collaboration I'm working on with Enthalpy is progressing slowly but steadily, and the new term of teaching is… proceeding. Small details ("Will I get paid?" "Do I get keys to my own classroom this term?") remain up in the air.

Dave: Teaching? I remember hearing you were a teacher, and this seems like a fun question to ask.... sooooooOOOOO! What kind of classes do you teach?

Ferdie: I teach biology, generally speaking! Lab/lectures for majors and non-majors, anatomy, and so on. This term, it's a nutrition class and Developmental Biology. Aside from that, I also tutor regularly.


Dave: Always have liked Biology, but enough about that. What would be your favorite part about teaching?

Ferdie: That's a tough one! Helping people who have little prior interest in science engage with real-world discoveries is a huge thrill, and so’s coaching them to confidently evaluate claims and rethink their misconceptions. Delivering lectures is also fun, in an intense way. I try to involve students in them as much as I can - I throw questions up on the board, often of the sort you don't see in textbooks. Sometimes I create puzzle-like questions, too.

Ferdie: In many ways, good design practices for lectures, labs, tests, and computer games are similar! You can't assume your audience will understand what you're doing just by watching passively. You have to pull them in and convince them to think. Likewise, simply because YOU perceive some fact as obvious (a solution, a central idea) doesn't mean it's equally evident to someone who comes in without prior expertise. And the further behind the audience falls, the harder it is for them to catch up - in lecture, in lab, or in your elaborate mystery game.

Ferdie: Example: a bad lecture or exam question is, in many ways, like a bad Supra-Objection. There's one correct answer in a slew of who-knows-how-many possibilities, and which one is "the obviously correct one" is only obvious to the author.


Dave: You have always been very creative, haven't you? That's a fun quality to have! You seem to like mentioning things that seem common on AAO, like supra-objections and the like.

Dave: So that leads me to this question: What would be your favorite fangame on AAO? What exactly do you like about said game?

Ferdie: Well, in an ideal world, I'd point to some fangame that perfectly nailed character development AND puzzle design AND pacing, but nobody's done that yet. Turnabout Revolution had a memorable antagonist and a few great puzzles (and a few weak ones), but is incomplete and has serious pacing issues. Turnabout of Courage has some fantastic mystery elements and a cool reveal, but the puzzles break the player's trust enough to practically force the consultation of a walkthrough.


*Due to some issues, Dave will not be finishing this interview and instead Enigma will be continuing from this point.*


Ferdie: Hi, Enigma! TESTING, TESTING.

Enigma: Ah! Yes! Hello, Ferdie. So, I’m going to be taking over from this point. Hopefully, we both get out of this alive and well.

Ferdie: Oh, neat, I can interfere with what you’re typing as you type it! This would be very handy for case design… as well as to incorporate into an actual case somehow. Hmm… maybe a case where people can write parts of the ending in an outside document. I’d have to be careful about vandalism, though. But yes. Interview.


Enigma: Ah, right. Judging from your response to the last question and what you said just now (as well as previous conversations I’ve had with you), experimentation and good puzzle design, as well as letting the player play around with things are very important to games in your opinion. Would you say that these more interactive types of games will be the next big thing on AAO, gameplay-wise, or do you think the community’s going to be sticking with the linear direction they’re heading?

Ferdie: I’m reluctant to answer this straight. Let’s try comparing AAO to the games industry in general, and see where that takes us.

It IS possible, though iffy, to say that large game studios are going to stick to cover-based shooters or binge on DLC. They go with the safest move for the market. But what’s “big” on AAO is often shaped by one or two influential case creators, which means that whoever manages to make the most recent Big Case is going to end up in the forefront of everyone’s mind. It’s not that authors in general play Follow-the-Leader, but...

1) In a year where a sharp case creator does something influential, the individual quirks of that creator will be magnified and seen as the “direction of the community.” Blackrune’s been obviously influential, as have the classical mysteries he’s written in homage to. DWaM is increasingly influential. Last year was heavily influenced by Turnabout Tomorrow, in my opinion!

2) You absolutely cannot predict which direction AAO will go in, because it depends strictly on what some author had for breakfast on the day that they were doing the case design. Could anybody have predicted all the Umineko stuff very far in advance? The Blackrune-influenced cases? It’s basically chaos, the healthy kind of chaos you get in an amateur community. The day we can predict what the next thing on AAO will be is the day that the community’s lost any kind of spark of originality.

Enigma: Hold on! Am I to understand DWaM literally eats shadows and drinks tears for breakfast?! I normally just stick with toast...

Ferdie: You’d have to ask DWaM in an interview! I personally think it’s plausible, but I won’t venture to speculate.


Enigma: ...Good call. In that case, let me ask you about whether you think any other influences exist on AAO? Like, the big games that are released at the time, for example?

Ferdie: AAO cases are influenced by other works, just like everything else, but the range of sources seems a little narrower than I’d like. Danganronpa’s a recent influence. Umineko, too, but it’s dangerous to overstate that, as devices that are chalked up to Umineko influence could just as easily be credited to classic country house mysteries.

Ferdie:
And I’m ambivalent about all these references! We’ve created an internal culture where it’s to be expected that players will get Umineko jokes (or the One Umineko Joke, which is that you’re using colored text), or that you’re riffing on Dangan Ronpa. I’m doing this in my comp entry with Enthalpy, but I’m not sure I like it. It’s insular. Plus, there are plenty of other sources and inspirations out there!


Enigma:
Ah. Well, I can’t say that I’m not horribly guilty of that! Though, I try and hide them in optional dialogue so… I guess I’m not the worst. Anyway, I noticed you brought up you and Enth’s comp entry just now. Would you mind sharing a little bit of a teaser on what it’ll be about or what it is?

Ferdie: Everyone else seems to think it’ll be a crossover with Hatoful Boyfriend, the bird dating sim, and who am I to contradict them? There’s at least one pigeon involved, I’ll grant them that much. Also, despair! We promise more despair per frame than the leading competitor. And good people die! That’s what the kids are into these days, right? Cynicism and DEATH!

Enigma: Well, I’m more into the psychological torture and torment, aka. Higurashi, than the actual death (also Higurashi) but, hey, I can get behind some despair every now and again. Especially if the pigeon we’re talking about is Okosan, here. That would be a very interesting combination.

Ferdie: Okosan is a real pigeon belonging to Moa, the author of Hatoful Boyfriend. I can’t use his photo without getting permission, since that would compromise his privacy.

Enigma: Aw… I guess I’ll just go back to my secret project of Hatofulrashi. Higurashi with Lord Pudi instead of Oyashiro-sama.

Ferdie: …..We seem to have gotten a little off the subject, as much as I enjoy discussions of pigeons and the dating thereof.


Enigma: What?! No! We haven’t even begun to get off the subject. XD. Though, that does bring up a good question. What is it that appeals to you about such a bizarre game as Hatoful? Is it something that you think could be brought into AAO cases?

Ferdie: The appeal of Hatoful Boyfriend and Ace Attorney does overlap. Here are some of the things I like about Hatoful; they may sound familiar!

Ferdie: First thing: Hatoful Boyfriend does not, on some level, take itself too seriously. Moa takes her craft seriously, but doesn’t begin on the assumption that she has something new to say about Suffering and Hope, then tie you to a chair and shout those important ideas at you.

Second thing: The characters of Hatoful DO take the ridiculous universe they’re in seriously, protagonist excepted. It’s their world, and they’ve an emotional stake in it! And because the characters believe their absurd problems matter, the game slowly, gradually sinks its hooks into the player by sheer force of personality.

Third thing: There’s a persistent element of campy exaggeration, but it’s not a tasteless, ironically bad camp. The irony is gentle, a little teasing, and the game’s not afraid to have a joke on the player now and then.

Fourth: There’s a fun mystery plot!

So you see the overlap. Now, I hope I’ve said enough about pigeons!

Enigma: I definitely see the overlap. Clearly Hatoful is similar to Dangan Ronpa!

Ferdie: Dangan Ronpa never convinced me that its characters took their situation seriously, or that its world existed for anything other than immediate effect.

Enigma: Well, that’s why we have SDR2.

Ferdie: SDR2 had a quirkier setting, so I guess you could make a stronger Hato argument there. AAO interviews: Talking about every game except AAO!


Enigma: ...Well, I guess I better ask you something AA related, then. So, what about that DD? What’d you think of that?

Ferdie: The DLC case was absolutely fantastic, and if we saw even one AAO case that used the freedom of the casemaker to be that hilarious, it would be case of the year. As for the rest of the game, it had its ups and downs.

The decision to jettison puzzles was surprisingly well-received, though. Game critics often find AA puzzles too arbitrary, because they DO tend to require you to think in a certain fiddly way. I happen to like twisting my thinking around that way, but I can understand how the difficulty drop of DD would be seen as a big advantage for some.

The 3D models were great, though. UNAS, CAN YOU ADD A BLENDER IMPORT OPTION TO THE NEXT AAO VERSION? THAT’S TECHNICALLY FEASIBLE, RIGHT???????

Enigma: And while he’s at it, he should put in Mood Matrix, Percieve, Logic and Logic Chess! As well as free roaming abilities like in AAI.

Ferdie: The Mood Matrix is implementable in an Examine screen. v6 will make it easier to do Logic without going insane when drawing the possible selections. Logic Chess is probably workable, but I haven’t played GK2. Perceive is… a nightmare, and not just for programming. Making those gigantic, detailed sprites look good would be a job for a professional.

Free-roaming… hmm. There are some games on the Spanish AAO site that have imitated that, I think. See, you only need to look at a few objects, so the author just pre-animated Edgeworth walking to specific places, and let you choose where to walk him from a menu.

Enigma: Wow! I didn’t know that even any of those were feasible, let alone actually being immitated. Ah, but then again anything’s possible if you’re willing to compromise. Heck, even Ghost Trick puzzles are possible if you have enough patience and animations.

Ferdie: The nightmarish part is the most mundane: making the animations sync when there’s no way for the AAO engine to know when they’ve started or stopped playing.

Enigma: Oh, right. Flickering hell. And the other nightmares of sprites. I forgot.

Ferdie: If you don’t care about using the entire screen efficiently (which AAO does well), having an instant pick-up-and-play experience (if you have Firefox, at least), and doing quick prototyping, you’re better off using PyWright for crazy programming tricks. I’ve barely scratched the surface of what PyWright can do. Or you could write your own engine, but that is insane and let’s pretend I never even started on that.


Enigma:
Well, I wasn’t even aware you did. So I should be able to pretend easily enough. Now, I have to ask… What do you think was probably the, hm, most negatively impacting influence on AAO cases?

Ferdie:
That depends! Do you want to start a flame war? I’m all up for one!!! But it’d be a bad way to kick off the new Member of the Month reboot.

Enigma: Can’t deny it’ll get us views, though. And that’s all everyone cares about, right?

Ferdie: Okay. I’ll bite. The following things are all bad influences on AAO cases:

1) Games where women are badly written, regardless of genre - VN, RPG, other. Now there seems to be an expectation that female original characters don’t have to be CHARACTERS. “Sarcastic, flirtatious, insecure, evil, CHOOSE A COMBINATION OF TRAITS.” There, you’ve got a female original character! This is bad writing.

2) Pop nihilism. Empty darkness. Flirting with issues that the game just doesn’t have the weight to handle. Could a case set in a world where people have goofy pun names tackle abuse? Is it a good idea to do that? What about clinical depression treated realistically? Clinical depression treated unrealistically? I respect well-researched, empathetic treatments of serious subjects. But AAO murder mysteries do not start off on a good footing for that.

3) Effort-free comedy cases. With the exception of RtaosGrimm’s satire (which, like it or not, at least shows real effort), sloppy joke cases are the norm for comedy trials. Where are all the funny cases? I want an orca case! But with something other than orcas, obviously.

Enigma: And by “other than Orcas” you mean pigeons, right?

Ferdie: I neither confirm nor deny. But comedy is hard, whether it’s about pigeons or whales or actual breathing people. It’s easier to write an in-joke or an Umineko reference than it is to be genuinely funny. So maybe people are scared that they’ll crack a joke and hear only the chirp of crickets in reply? I know I worry about that, but fortunately I have a friend who laughs at everything I write. So I can make at least one person happy.

Enigma: I see, I see. Actually, tell it to me straight, are any of my cases (if you’ve played any) seriously guilty of any of those three things?

Ferdie: Hmm… 2. Based on second-hand testimony! That signature with the bloody Trucy hat isn’t looking very promising either.

Enigma:
I don’t recall writing a trial called 2. Was I drunk when I did that? :/ As for the Trucy hat, ehehehehe… Uh. You’ll PROBABLY want to stay away from “When Enth Cries”.

Ferdie: That’s #2. That is, pop nihilism. But then, again, second-hand testimony here! Unless you’d care to recommend that I open up a case of yours right now and play it.

Enigma: Well, I don’t think any of my cases are pop nihilism. I mean, Yamase is more of a thriller deal and IP isn’t like, aiming to be depressing. Rapidfire… Is a thing. Though, I’m curious. What are those two cases?

Ferdie: No, no, I mean point #2, not 2 cases of yours.


Enigma: Ah! I see… Well, I guess it’s a very hard thing to avoid ending up writing. At least for me, since I wasn’t even aware I was guilty of it. In any case, I think I’ve milked this question for all it’s worth right now. So… Besides AA and Hatoful, do you have any particular favorite games? Any, like, games that you really hate?

Ferdie: Favorite game of all time is Trinity, by Infocom. It’s a text adventure about the history of the atom bomb and deals with hefty topics very well, all things considered. A lot of my favorites are text games. Make It Good is fantastic, if crushingly difficult. Spider and Web is wonderful. Outside of text adventures, my genre tastes are pretty broad! My main requirement for a game is that it respect my time and not force me to waste time for no good reason.

In terms of games I hate: if The Legend of Kyrandia: Book One shows up for sale on GOG.com, never, ever buy it. Only play that game if someone pays you to play it. It contains the worst puzzles ever conceived in a bland, flavorless story. Pretty graphics for its time, though.

Wait, correction: Don’t play The Legend of Kyrandia even if someone pays you to play it.

Enigma:
I guess I’ll make sure to avoid that one, then. Though, speaking of text adventures I have to say I really loved that one where you’re a Poirot expy who is trying to give a deduction on who the killer is without knowing anything...

Ferdie: “Expy?” Do you mean “stock parody?” I don’t speak Troper, sorry… (Or I do, but I view tropespeak in the same way a super-conservative French dude views tourist French. I DO NOT COMPREHEND ZEES LANGUAGE)


Enigma:
……..Okay, stock parody. Sheesh. Anyway, I was basically going to lead into the question on what type of normal books you find the best? Any favorites? Particular authors?

Ferdie: I would apologize for being difficult to interview, but you knew exactly what you were getting into.

Favorite book: Mushrooms Demystified by David Arora. Yes, it’s a field guide. But it’s more than a field guide! It’s a field guide, toxicology intro, gentle primer on Latin names, and a big book of mushroom jokes - all in one! Many mushroom hobbyists started with this amazing book, and my first copy is completely worn out, pages falling off the back.

In terms of fiction, my tastes are diverse! My favorite books tend to be nonfiction, but I really liked The Master and Margarita, the one where the Devil comes to Moscow. Gaudy Night by Dorothy Sayers is another that I loved. It’s got issues from plotting to mystery to over-idealization of the ivory tower, but its academic mystery and atmosphere and Oxford romance just worked for me. And I grew up on a ton of Terry Pratchett! I never claimed not to be totally middlebrow, okay?

Enigma:
Huh. And here I thought you’d answer with either Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka or A Void by Georges Perec, for some reason. But your answers were even more… You, then I could imagine. XD

Ferdie: Oh, if we were talking favorite SHORT STORIES, sure, “The Metamorphosis” would be on there somewhere. So would Asimov’s “Nightfall,” because nostalgia. And for novellas, James Joyce’s “The Dead”.

Enigma: I see. I’m almost a little sad that you didn’t mention Exhalation or Understand since those were amazing.

Ferdie: Ted Chiang’s “Exhalation” is on the list somewhere, too! As stories about ideas go, it’s fantastic, and aside from being a lovely piece in its own right, it’s a great way to start talking to someone about entropy. (Talk to your loved ones about entropy today.) “Understand” handles its dueling super-geniuses well, when other stories do it abysmally, but it’s not my favorite by a stretch.


Enigma: Ah. Speaking of Understand, I remember that you once gave Death Note as an example of how what Understand did well could be done wrong. So, that begs the question, do you read Manga or Visual Novels? Or did you just hear about Death Note and looked at that or such?

Ferdie: A friend introduced me to Death Note in the Before Times when it hadn’t been translated officially yet, and I read to the ending. I didn’t read past the ending.

Let me explain. One author noted a big problem with surprise endings. An ending is never truly a surprise in a novel, because you can see you’re getting near the end of the book! You KNOW when it will end.

So, how could you surprise a reader with a book’s ending? You could write a book and add a ton of blank pages near the end, but that’d be too obvious. The reader would spot the blank pages and still know it’d end earlier. The only way to make the ending a real surprise, so the reader didn’t even know when it was going to happen, would be to write the ending in the middle of the book… and then fill the rest of the book with meaningless narration nobody cared about. So anyone who flipped to later pages would see what looked like a plot, but actually, the book ended way earlier.

That’s Death Note. If you’ve seen it, you know when it ends, and how long the writer kept going after. I read to the ending, but only watched the anime for the giant epilogue, since the anime condensed that part.

Enigma:
Well, actually, that’s just because Death Note’s published in Shonen Jump where every single story in it seems to go on forever even though it should have finished YEARS ago. Except Dragon Ball if you don’t count Dragon Ball Z, I guess. But that’s a comedy manga, so… Anyway, I’m getting off topic. Back onto Death Note, for a second, I liked to read it in a way definitely not intended (aka. Umineko with Shinigami’s instead of witches) and I found that boosted the enjoyment of it for me considerably. So, would you say that there are ever any books you should “read” in an alternate way? Or should that just never be done?

Ferdie: Everyone reads every book in an alternative way. That’s how reading works! If I read a book set in an English oak forest, I’m going to mentally fill in a picture of a forest that looks a lot like a Californian oak forest, since I’ve never been to an English oak forest. If a character is described as “unpleasant,” my brain will fill in whatever I subjectively think to be unpleasant.

Think of a character from a Disney movie. I’ll give you a second. That goes for you, too, whoever is reading this.

Enigma: Got one.

Ferdie:
Okay. Don’t name them. From now on, assume that’s my voice. There. Now every cooperative reader of this interview, all three of them if we’re lucky, will have a different personal reading. I’ll sound like different characters to different people.

Enigma: And to me, you’ve just completely broken my mind. Stitch’s voice should never go with your writing, Ferdie.

Ferdie: EHHHH CHOMP


Enigma: ...Okay, that worked. Now then, let’s see… Ah! I have a question. Let’s say you were some kind of alien far above Earth observing you, Ferdielance. What kind of conclusion would they come to about your character? How would they describe you?

Ferdie: “Similar to other humans, as far as we can tell!” It depends, really! Suppose the alien comes from a culture that believes it’s very important NEVER to kill the dust mites living on your skin. Their conclusion would be “FERDIELANCE MURDERS HIS DUST MITES.”

Aliens are, by definition, alien. If this were a TV alien (i.e., a human with forehead wrinkles), they’d change the channel. If they had to judge humanity based on my sole example (for dumb alien reasons), they’d probably decide our species was placid and usually not a threat, but that we could be riled up to remarkable emotional peaks - joy, rage, happiness, grief, despair - by totally idiosyncratic stimuli.

Such as pigeons.

Enigma: Hey, everyone has some form of idiosyncratic stimuli that sets them off. For me, it would probably be...

Ferdie: DO NOT SAY RENA FROM HIGURASHI.


Enigma: ……………………………………………………………………...uh. Akemi Homura from Madoka?

Ferdie:
………….

Enigma: You really limited my options there, Ferdie. Like, all 1 of them.

Ferdie: Excellent. With that last in-joke, we’ve reduced the remaining possible audience for this interview to “2, both of whom participated in it.” The argument that AAO Member of the Month choices are about cliques, favoritism, and the xat is definitely not gonna get traction now, no sir.


Enigma: Clearly, we just need to set up a MotM H&H in the thread and we’ll still make our view quota. No need to worry. Anyway, to further that TOTALLY NOT TRUE notion above, there’s a story you mentioned on xat before that stuck with me about how when you first came onto the internet, you succesfully pretended to be a… english major, was it? How did the story go? Am I in the ball park?

Ferdie: Yes. When I was 12 or 13, I was extra-cautious about protecting my personal identity, and felt nervous about admitting I was so young! For a while, I told people I was an 18-year-old English major in college. In hindsight, this was foolish. If I’d any reason to feel unsafe on a website, changing my cover identity wasn’t going to resolve the underlying problem of hanging with a bad crowd. And if I WAS feeling relatively safe, I just had to hide details, not fabricate them. Just as well that I dropped the pretense after a year or so.

Enigma:
Well, great. You just shut down my next question before I could ask it. *Grumble*

Ferdie: And no, nobody hit on me.

Enigma: I wasn’t going to ask you. Besides, I know that only professor Ferdie gets all the ladies. ;3

Ferdie: I can neither confirm nor deny.


Enigma: Well, I seem to be running out of questions now. I guess that happens when you go on for ten pages.

Ferdie: When you started, did you have a list prepared in advance?

Enigma:
I could lie and say I wanted to make the interview feel natural, but I’ll just be honest and say that I am a terrible slacker and didn’t prepare anything.

Ferdie:
That’s fine! It’s nice to improvise. But what, exactly, were you planning on getting out of the interview? Any goals?

Enigma:
Well, I certainly didn’t expect you to start interviewing me! But, let’s see… I mainly wanted to ask about Ferdielance the person(/pigeon) and his views. Though, that does actually bring a question to mind.

Ferdie: And what would that question be?


Enigma: Tell me, Ferdie. What is your overall view and philosophy on life and everything?

Ferdie:
That’s a broad question. What do you mean by “life?” As in, personal goals? What would you consider to count as a philosophy? Maxims? A way of living? A set of principles?

Enigma: Well, more like how you look at life. Like, what are your personal goals? What should people do to reach happiness, if it can be reached?

Ferdie: Let me put it this way. Suppose you found out that, tomorrow, the entire world would be obliterated, and not a single person would remain. Would that mean that everything that came before was meaningless? That is to say, would it matter that people had been happy or unhappy in the past?

Enigma: Well, it would shape the actions they took in their final moments, wouldn’t it? So the answer is yes, right?

Ferdie:
But let’s suppose we jump to a point in time AFTER they’re gone. So any future consequences of those actions are nil, assuming you don’t believe in an afterlife. In that case, would it matter that they had been happy or unhappy?

Enigma: Well, I’d say it did matter. Because, I mean, sure it wouldn’t matter then but it did matter at some point in time. Somewhere in history, right? So, somewhere in time it mattered and that means that it was important.

Ferdie:
So you’d agree with the statement that the past is real, even if it isn’t currently something that exists?

Enigma:
Absolutely!

Ferdie: So we’re on the same page so far. Now, let’s extend this idea. If the past is real, what about abstract descriptions of the world? Things like mathematical descriptions, or attempts to describe what is good or bad? Moral judgments? Would you say that those are real in a certain sense?

Enigma:
I guess so. I mean, if they can have some impact on a person at some point in time in some way… I guess they’re real on some level.

Ferdie: Okay. Do you think math is just a description we use to explain the world… or does it have meaning independent of people? That is to say, do you think math is just a set of symbols and rules used to describe the world? Or is it the representation of some deeper order or “mathiness” in the universe?

Enigma: Oh, man. Math. Uh… I’m more into “applied mathematics” and physics and such, so I guess you can more think of them like words? They describe something and how that thing works. Though I’m unsure of a deeper “mathiness” in the universe. So, I’ll lock in the former answer there.

Ferdie:
The problem is this. If math is just “symbols we use to describe patterns,” why is it so unbelievably effective at prediction and description, even for problems the people who came up with the symbols were never exposed to? Why is the universe so apparently consistent on so many levels? Do you think it’s at least tenable for a person to say, “I believe that math is real, and not just as symbolic representation?”

This is an old debate!

Enigma: Hrmm… I’m kind of reminded of that short story “Division by Zero” by Ted Chiang. I guess it is entirely feasible that it does have a more realistic existence than symbolic representation, but doesn’t that require it to be 100% consistent? Something that dividing by zero negates? Or am I getting too far ahead of myself in a completely wrong direction? I should mention, maths is my absolute worst subject. Heheh...

Ferdie:
We don’t have a great reason to think math is fundamentally inconsistent… though we can’t prove that. But in any case. It is at least possible to think that mathematical ideas have a real existence, in a kind of Platonic way. What about emotional states? Moral principles? Can you talk about “happiness” without talking about people?

Enigma: Well, happiness is a state of a person so you have to talk about people when talking about it, right?

Ferdie:
Can a dog be happy?

Enigma:
Oh, now I see. Well, a dog can be happy. But I think a dog recognises it as something else. Not...happiness? That’s a human concept, and I think dogs would follow their own canine concepts. Haha...

Ferdie:
Okay, let’s go in the other direction. I can be happy. You can be happy. Is my happiness the same as your happiness?

Enigma: Well, it’s the same feeling isn’t it? I mean, the same parts of our brains light up, don’t they?

Ferdie: Are you sure they’re connected the same way in both of us? My sensation of red and green isn’t the same as a colorblind’s sensation of red and green. Why should my “happiness” necessarily be the same exact feeling as yours?

Enigma: ...Well, I guess that their could be two perceptions of happiness. Though, wouldn’t one come from a difference in the wiring in the brain compared to another persons?

Ferdie:
That we are different people comes from differences in our brain wiring. That’s it. Anyway, that we both may have different perceptions of happiness doesn’t make it useless to use the word! Even though the word can’t be pinned down to one exact feeling shared with 100% certainty, we have a GENERAL idea of what it means, right?

Enigma:
Oh! I see! So, in a way a real feeling can be inconsistent. The same as with math, right?

Ferdie: That we perceive an inconsistency doesn’t mean that the underlying core idea is itself inconsistent. Our application might be inconsistent. We CAN talk about the dog’s happiness if we’re willing to allow leeway.

So… couldn’t you turn the problem around and see “human happiness” as just a particular facet of some more general ideal of happiness, one that doesn’t even have to concern people? It’s not at all empirical, I know. It’s the opposite of thinking empirically, because it involves putting a fuzzy intuitive idea first and the data and observations second! But… we could do it, right?

Enigma: Hm… Yes, I’d think so.

Ferdie: Now, for a long time, a lot of people (not ALL, but a lot), have argued that real value comes from God. After all, people are so inconsistent, even about what makes them happy! They disagree on what’s good and bad! Others have argued that good and bad comes from other sources, but the general current has been one of mysticism. Good and evil are matters of the Soul, and the Soul doesn’t show up very well on MRI scans. At the same time, it seems ridiculous NOT to believe in things just because they don’t show up on a scan...

“Welp, I can’t see how the movement of molecules would make right and wrong exist! Maybe it’s an evolved altruism based on repeated cooperation being beneficial to our relatives! OKAY, IT’S PHONY, LET’S ALL BE EVIL,” said nobody ever. These ideas are, pragmatically, real. But do we really want to come up with an omniscient, omnipotent, omnibenevolent being just to explain why hurting people is bad? That seems like killing a fly with a sledgehammer…

I’d rather slowly try to work out what we actually have some justification to believe in. My personal philosophy, if I have one, is to doubt, ask questions, and slowly grope my way forwards until I find something resembling enlightenment, maybe. But I do take stances that aren’t really defensible on the sole grounds of the statements “math is real, morality is real, hurting people is bad.”

“Math” and “morality” and “happiness” don’t seem like empty descriptors. They seem to be facets of bigger ideas - ideas that are bigger than us. And that is how I escape from absolute nihilism as an atheist - by diving headfirst into the madness of mathematical and moral realism.

Enigma:
Well, at least you’ve probably boosted our viewer numbers by 1 Enthalpy with the maths talk. (I am to assume that I should delete the words in parentheses before posting or…)

Ferdie:
Edit however you like, but I strongly recommend that you edit in SOME way, or this is going to be totally indigestible.


Enigma:
Ahaha… We’ll see. More than likely I’ll just make it look digestible enough to trick the readers in, and then boom! Halfway through they notice that this whole interview was not made to be read on the fly. And speaking of how things look, I’ve noticed that you have quite an interesting way of typing. For example, you use exclamation marks a lot more than most people, I find. Is there any particular reason for the way you type, or is it just part of who you are?

Ferdie: I’ve always tried to type with standard grammar, though I’m aware that “good grammar” is tied into oppressive social signaling games. As for the exclamation points, whether or not I use them depends on what I’m writing. When I write an essay, I’m not going to go crazy with them. But in an interview, I want to get across the way I speak. When I talk science, when I give lectures, I bounce around and exclaim! So, yes, I’ll put in the exclamation marks! I’ll put them everywhere, because that’s how I talk when I’m in a certain mood!

Friends who’ve known me for years can tell my mood by the way I greet them on AIM. One surprised me by asking me what was wrong when I was feeling down in the dumps, and all I had said by way of conversation was, “Evening.” Turns out I usually say, “Evening!” With the exclamation mark!


Enigma:
I see. I see. As someone who has trouble reading others, I have to say it’s very helpful to know someone as easy to get the mood of as you. In fact, that brings up a good question, I think. How easy do you find it to read the typical person? Are there any kinds of people you find extremely hard to read?

Ferdie:
I find it much easier to read voices than faces. I was born blind, and the part of my brain that’s responsible for dealing with faces probably didn’t get much practice at a critical period. I’m terrible at recognizing people, and not that good at reading expressions. That’s why I ask.

Enigma: Ah, I see. Though, how about on AAO or the internet? Do you find the members here easier to read or harder by how they type and the words they use?

Ferdie: I hope that isn’t necessary! If I’ve offended someone, I hope they’ll say it, and I try not to say offensive things. Otherwise, the nice thing about text is that people generally understand that it’s hard to read them through it… so they just SAY what they want to say. Now, that’s not always true. But in the cases where it isn’t, I can make do well enough. I’m not as sensitive to little nuances of diction as some people, but I can pick up a lot of it.

Enigma:
Ah. I’m very similar. I have a lot of trouble with reading between the lines, even with voices. It’s much nicer when people are just honest and simple (you know without being rude) about things. So, I get what you mean.

Ferdie: I don’t think it’s so much about honesty as it is about being worried about what messages one is sending. Though I don’t think people usually imagine it in those terms, much of the reluctance to speak clearly comes from real social norms. Just saying what’s wrong might seem to lose a person some… social capital? When the other party is supposed to realize what they did wrong on their own? It’s confusing, but understandable.


Enigma: I guess so. Though, there are quite a few people who don’t do the social norms thing very well. XP In any case, I think that over 16 pages of interview should be enough, don’t you think? So, I should get to wrapping this up… Anything else you want to say before we wrap up?

Ferdie: It’s been great talking to you! Maybe when I’m done with the case comp game, I’ll do more work on All the Brooks and Soldiers, or do another Endless Nights, or another programming puzzle! See you around!

Enigma: Well, that’s all we have time for today. Thank you very much for doing this, Ferdie, and I hope our readers had a great time as well.

Ferdie: An audiobook version of this interview will be available on the AAO Store on three CDs or one 2 GB download. It’s suitable both as a gift for enemies and as a sleeping aid!

Enigma:
I’d buy it! Anyway, that’s all for now! See you all next month, when we’ll be interviewing-

Ferdie: PIGEONS

---MotM February 2014: Fin---


So, this has been the first installment of the "MotM reboot/season 3". I hope you enjoyed it. Maybe it confirmed your fears? Maybe it removed them? No matter the case, we're still grateful that you took the time to read this. Feel free to leave us feedback, and I hope you look forward to our future installments. You may now commence the questions, if you so wish. Thank you for your time, AAO.
~The New MotM Team
Last edited by enigma on Sun Feb 02, 2014 12:30 pm, edited 3 times in total.
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Re: MotM February 2013: Ferdielance

Post by DWaM »

Congrats, Ferdie!

As I said in the xat, I actually really like this new format - the fact that it's more of a conversation rather than "here are questions, give answers" kind of thing, it feels more lively and more entertaining to read, in my opinion. Gives the ability for a lot more topics to come about naturally rather than follow a strict pattern, hence every interview will probably be structured differently.
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Re: MotM February 2013: Ferdielance

Post by kwando1313 »

'Gratz Ferdie. I totally didn't have a hand in choosing you as the MoTM. Nope. Don't know what on earth you're talking about.

As for questions... Favourite food? Favourite cuisine of food? Also, favourite type of math? And favourite element?
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Re: MotM February 2013: Ferdielance

Post by Ferdielance »

You left in EVERY PHILOSOPHICAL DIGRESSION?

Well, I guess that's one way to get value for your time. SORRY, READERS!

Food: Yellowtail sushi.

Cuisine: Any. Indian, maybe.

Type of math: Hmm. Any elegant math that's not too geometrical.

Element: Carbon.
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Re: MotM February 2013: Ferdielance

Post by enigma »

The only thing I deleted, I think, was the [[[WHOOPS! EDIT!]]] thing. :3 I find that you get a lot more out of this with all the dogressions and such in. X3
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Re: MotM February 2013: Ferdielance

Post by SwagmaWampyr »

...I uh.... this didn't happen yet?

...Well congrats Ferdie. It was way overdue.
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Re: MotM February 2013: Ferdielance

Post by Kroki »

That AAO analysis was very interesting, I should play a trial or two someday.
About that, I just want to add that I am generally fascinated in your gameplayish and graphical stuff, I'm kinda looking forward to your game !
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Re: MotM February 2014: Ferdielance

Post by Tap »

I have to say I'm particularly impressed at how the revolution has turned out! Although my one suggestion would be to make the interview more organised. At the moment, it's a big wall of text, and as they say, you eat with your eyes. Aesthetically appealing presentation is always a winner, and it shouldn't take too long to work with.

I'll be happy to sticky this, so it can officially go under the test run, but the presentation needs a bit of work first! :wink:

And congratulations, Ferdielance! I'm not sure how you managed to slip under my radar of 'members to interview'... *embarrassed*
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Re: MotM February 2014: Ferdielance

Post by hershel_layton »

Congratulations, Ferdie~! Soooo since this is a MotM...

1. Do you prefer sushi with wasabi and/or soy sauce?
2. Least favourite character out of all AA games?
3. Why?
4. Favourite colour?
5. Favourite AA case?
6. Least favourite AA case?
7. Least favourite colour?
8. Favourite character out of all AA games?
9. Faaaavourite type of mushroom?
10. Favourite bird in Hatoful?
11. Favourite or favorite? (HINT: Your personal preference doesn't matter. It's always the one with the u. True story.)
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Re: MotM February 2014: Ferdielance

Post by Gumpei »

Ferdie wrote:Yes. When I was 12 or 13, I was extra-cautious about protecting my personal identity, and felt nervous about admitting I was so young! For a while, I told people I was an 18-year-old English major in college. In hindsight, this was foolish. If I’d any reason to feel unsafe on a website, changing my cover identity wasn’t going to resolve the underlying problem of hanging with a bad crowd. And if I WAS feeling relatively safe, I just had to hide details, not fabricate them. Just as well that I dropped the pretense after a year or so.
I resonate with this heavily.

Anywho, it's terribly overdue. Congrats, Ferdie! Definitely digging the new format, as well. Maybe Ferdie's just too interesting of a person, but I made it through the whole thing still wanting to read more, so...
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Re: MotM February 2014: Ferdielance

Post by Blackrune »

Congratz Ferdie.

That was quite the interesting read. I'm liking this new format so far. It doesn't cover all the usual questions, like a planned interview would, but considering people have an entire month to ask additional questions, that's not really an issue.

So...
If somebody came to you for advice on how to plan their AAO trial, what would you tell them?
(assume they have a very rough idea, but don't really know how to go about planning the rest or simply just where to start.)
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Re: MotM February 2014: Ferdielance

Post by Wolf Speaker »

I loved this. I do think that asking the same questions all the same gets a bit dull. It's nice that not all interviews would have the same structure.

I'm glad someone pointed out how bad AAO is with original female characters in general. I mean, first of all, I can only think of a single original female main character of a case. There aren't even that many cases starring canon female characters. And female OCs usually give off the feel that they were created explicitly and solely for a very specific role in the trial. Actually, I suppose how 'fixed' and unnatural characters are treated bothers me in general. You usually always have some idea of what role a character will play in the he mystery, which isn't my favourite thing. But back to female characters... There doesn't seem to be many of them who are touted as geniuses or legends, in fan cases. I mean, that wouldn't usually be a big deal, but AA/AAO stories tend to introduce a 'zomgsuperskilledlegendaryprodigyprosecutor' or something similar pretty often. This might be influenced by AA canon, but... eh. I guess the main problem is just how female characters often aren't an integral part to the story the same way other characters are. I mean, even in Turnabout Tomorrow, which I loved, the female prosecutor (I forgot her name whoops) wasn't really part of the same crowd as the other characters, and she wasn't related to the plot. Now, that can be interesting, except her character wasn't really written to her full potential, and DWaM even admitted that he wasn't sure where to go or what to do with her. I seem to see a lot of female characters in the same situations and roles, too... I just think AAO needs to work on its female characters. (Although, personally I'd like to see the community work on its characters in general...)

Well, I have no doubt some will think of me as a silly sjw maniac due to what I just typed. :P But oh well. What you said just suddenly made me want to discuss it. On other topics... What is your favorite language, Ferdie? Why? And are there any languages that you'd like to learn in the future?
Last edited by Wolf Speaker on Sun Feb 02, 2014 7:18 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: MotM February 2014: Ferdielance

Post by Gumpei »

I just think that's a problem with fiction in general, not simply fancases.
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Re: MotM February 2014: Ferdielance

Post by lazyplague »

While I'm still a bit sad that I didn't make it to being able to finish the interview, I'm happy someone was able to finish it, AND keep me in it! I like me being there. <3

As always, congrats Ferdie! I already asked you questions! :p
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Re: MotM February 2014: Ferdielance

Post by Wolf Speaker »

Well, yes... But I'd trust the members of AAO to try to improve and care about things like this, whereas everyone already knows the massive problems popular fiction has. ^^'
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