digital simulation

Maybe it’s the dopamine chase, maybe it’s the limitless amount of information out there. From food tutorials to skits, Tik Tok has a seemingly endless amount of content for their users to consume. Despite the warnings they implement into the feed, suggesting users quit scrolling, I find myself scrolling anyway. To me, there is simply an abundance of content out there, waiting to be unearthed.

Since the TikTok algorithm learns what your interests on, learns what you like and would like to see more of, it is almost impossible not to keep scrolling. Whether you’d like to learn more about your favorite sport, or perhaps would like to get better gym advice, there’s a video for the topic. I have found tips for almost all of the games I play, life advice relevant to my age group, and even restaurant suggestions for the area I live in. It seems as though TikTok has a clear grasp of who I am as a consumer, and continues to pander to my tastes. For some, the amount of information made available to TikTok is alarming, almost, to the point of an invasion of privacy. To me, I see it as a pathway to the future.

There are no doubts in my mind that this data could be used maliciously, if a company so desired. However, that makes the contrary just as true. If companies were to use this data in a manner befitting the betterment of society, or even in a manner which allowed for a more custom tailored experience, then I would hold no qualms to that approach. If we are ever to make technology more adaptable to individuals, then it follows that we would require data in order to provide a better service. Imagine, if we were able to custom tailor user interfaces for different age groups, as opposed to tailoring to the general public. As software engineers, we are always in search of solutions that not only work, but solutions that operate as intuitively as can be.

As we progress into the digital age, it will be increasingly easy to gather data on consumers and companies alike. Most likely, for security reasons and otherwise, the veil of anonymity that has long been known to the internet will be a relic of the past. In east asian countries such as China and Korea, the usage of social security numbers to access certain games is already a commonplace cornerstone of society. It will not be long before the west follow suit. In exchange, it is my hope and belief that we will be able to utilize the tools at our disposal to create a future that is not only safe, but is also robust and rich with possibility. With possibility comes innovation and with innovation comes the improvement of quality of life, for anyone and everyone.

As the end of this program nears and as graduation approaches after my next and last quarter here at Oregon State University, so does my old friend, imposter syndrome. Having reared its ugly head every night as I try to fall asleep, I find myself asking – am I good enough? Am I the programmer I believe myself to be, that my colleagues find myself to be, that my friends and family believe myself to be? Even after two years of classes, endless exams, projects, and searching through the depths of StackOverflow, am I really ready to be a “real” programmer?

These thoughts began circling about ever since the job hunt began. In my social circle, a few of my friends are on similar paths in that they are pursuing a post-baccalaureate, while others have opted to undergo the hell of bootcamps. Admittedly, watching friends transition careers while I am still taking classes has been frightening, to say the least. Three months ago, I was taking summer break off because my quarter life crisis was in maximum overdrive; in those same three months, a friend of mine had completed his bootcamp. He is now in the process of applying for software engineering jobs which has made reality set in for the rest of us.

Although we are all at different parts of the same marathon, the same fear lingers within all of us. Despite all of our training and education, we are all unsure of whether we will even make it into industry. No amount of leetcode, interview prep, and personal projects seems to make the difference. To those of us who are unfamiliar with industry standards and practice, coding interviews are nightmare fuel. What if I am unable to provide an answer in the technical interview? What if I am right in that by failing to land a job, I prove to myself that these past two years and degree have been for naught?

I was watching Dune last night with some friends, and a line from the movie really struck a chord with me and with the plight I had been facing and continue to face; “I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will nothing. Only I will remain.” Upon hearing this quote, I understood that while life is full of seemingly impossible decisions, full of utterly frightening decisions to make, the onus is on us to remain infallible; to take the experiences for what they are, for what they provide, and to continue to grow as we have before, time and time again.

Hades has been my latest and favorite fixation. The game revolves around Hades’ son, Zagreus, whom, with aid from the gods of Olympus, attempts to escape the underworld in order to see his mother, Persephone, who resides on the surface. The catch, however, is that Zagreus must escape in a singular attempt – if he is killed by any of the monsters of the underworld, he is resurrected in the River Styx, and must thus rebegin his ascent to the surface.

What makes this game so captivating is that to a mythology nerd like myself, the lore of each god or goddess is sprinkled within the gameplay itself. One can notice the similarities in not only their voice lines and how they affect cutscenes, but one can also notice said similarities in how their buffs affect Zagreus. For example, Aphrodite, renown for her beauty and being the goddess of love, provides Zagreus with a buff that allows him to charm his enemies. This is one of many examples throughout the game that adds to the already seemingly limitless amount of depth the game has.

I say seemingly limitless because the underlying buff system is vast in it’s complexity. Zagreus himself is able to equip six weapons, each of which have four unique forms. Each form has its own buffs that are unlocked as the run goes on. Furthermore, each god or goddess has unique buffs that can only be unlocked under certain conditions (e.g. having another god or goddess’ buff). This skill system allows for the players to create fun and unique builds, which then allows for creative skill expression in terms of how the game is played. No build is ‘wrong’ per say, and every build has its merits.

With all of this in mind, Hades provides a very refreshing take on the roguelike genre, allowing for hours and hours to go by without the player noticing. There is a consistent desire to unlock different skill combinations and to see what playstyle befits the player most. I myself am no exception, and will continue to be spending hours and hours on this game until I have unlocked its true ending.

Most individuals start off their day with a shower, a coffee, or by heading to the gym. For me, my day starts off by logging into my favorite action role-playing game, Genshin Impact. Every day, I log in to receive my daily rewards and complete my daily quests. Doing so ensures that bit by bit, I progress in the game; because in the end, the small things really do add up. This progress is further supplemented with events and story quests available each patch. For instance, this past Tuesday, version 2.2 of the game was released, unlocking a new area on the world map with new story quests to boot.

“Tsurumi Island” was the latest island to be added to the “Inazuma” region, which takes heavy influence from its real world counterpart Japan. In typical Genshin Impact fashion, with each patch comes new puzzles, new game mechanics, and new bits of lore for the player to discover. As a die hard fan of The Legend of Zelda series as a whole, and with a particular love for its puzzles as well as its take on the open-world genre, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, I was more than happy to oblige and binge every aspect of this new area. I spent far more hours on exploring this new content than I would like to admit, but I would remiss to say I did not absolutely adore every minute of it. The feeling of completing a difficult puzzle, of defeating a difficult boss, of learning more about the in-game universe, is simply indescribable. It is almost as if the player is unraveling the secrets of the universe they are playing in alongside the main character. In fact, it is precisely this unique feeling and experience that enables a player to feel truly immersed in the Genshin Impact universe, and thusly, allows a player to spend countless hours getting lost in the game.

A similar experience had occurred to me earlier this week during my first clear of the roguelike action dungeon crawler, Hades. I was simply aiming to learn more about the game and its mechanics in order to one day clear it in one run, as intended. Somewhere, between learning about new mobs and their attack patterns, between learning about new abilities and when to use them, and between learning more about the characters and where their goals lie, over six hours had passed. Yet again, I had found myself absolutely immersed in a video game, which by the end of it had left myself wondering, where did the time go?

From an outside perspective, spending hours and hours playing video games may seem like a waste of time, but to those of us who choose to do so, often times that sentiment is farthest from the truth. Personally, I am of the belief that it is through these adventures and through these experiences that I am afforded the opportunity to expand my world view; by learning about characters, their goals, their hardships, and how the developers intended for them to overcome their hardships. Do these stories take inspiration from mythology? From the developers own experiences? Regardless of the source, it is these experiences crafted through countless hours of immersion which creates a sense of camaraderie within a game’s community. This camaraderie, which allows for individuals to come together to discuss the game, the game’s lore, create fan art, and protest when the game they love goes in a direction they don’t, is ultimately what I believe continues to fuel my love of video games, and is what will inevitably have me asking yet again, where did the time go?

When I was a young lad, I had what some may call an unhealthy obsession with the massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) “Maplestory”. Every day, after biking home from school, I would log in, say hello to the friends, and continue about training and leveling up my characters. I vividly remember the messages the game system would broadcast after three or more hours of consecutive play were registered: “You have played MapleStory for X hour(s). We suggest you take a break from Mapling.” To me, those system notices were almost like badges to be worn on my chest, a testament to the dedication and love I had for the game. Unbeknownst to me, this childhood game of mine would serve as the stepping stone to my first real encounter with computer programming.

Fast forward a couple years from playing on the public Maplestory servers, a few of my online friends had made the jump to play on the latest craze, which took the form of a few dedicated private servers. On these servers, the EXP rate had been altered in a way that EXP received would be 500x, 1000x, and sometimes even 2000x what was normally obtainable. The appeal of being able to fast track our way through the game, through what was normally months and months of grinding away was simply too tempting for any of us to withstand. Being able to fully experience the game and all it had to offer which had previously been gated by time and money offered us an experience like none we had had before. Eventually, a friend had learned for himself how to make his own server, and our little group of friends had gone from players to game masters almost overnight.

Initially, I wanted to invite some of my school friends to join us in our little escapades. My online friends had guided me through the set up for our personal server, but setting up access to the server for others was something I had yet to try my hand at. In my middle school brain, I thought that simply dragging the MapleStory desktop icon to a USB would suffice. Imagine my surprise when the game failed to load. What my middle school self had failed to also copy over were the rest of the files that game required to launch. Without them, the desktop shortcut would not properly load the game. It wasn’t until later on when one of my online friend pointed this out that I had realized that there was more to the game than just the desktop icon.

Ironically, the same friend that explained the concept of game files, the same friend that had set up the server for us so quickly, had also taken it down just as fast. However, he was keen enough to teach me how to set up my own server for me and my school friends to play on. Logistics aside, creating the server and learning to modify the code within to my liking served as my first real programming experience, to which to this day stands firmly as a fond memory that I can be proud of, and that I look to as my first real introduction to the field of computer science.

Squid game this, squid game that – when is the internet going to s-quit spoiling the show for me?

The latest trending survival show, “Squid Game’, has absolutely blown up the internet – evidenced by its widespread presence on social media; from Twitter, to Instagram, and even to my own “For You Page” on TikTok. Seemingly no matter where I direct my focus to, “Squid Game” is there. This morning, I could help it no longer and caved to see for myself exactly what the hype was about. I had originally attributed this show to be similar to Netflix’s other survival show, “Alice in Borderland”, but no, the pacing of this show was an entirely different beast.

The premise of the show is essentially this: a survival of the fittest, fight to the death tournament with 456 individuals all competing for the grand prize of 45.6 billion won, or about 38.4 million USD. However, these contestants are not strictly fighting each other to the death “Battle Royale” or “Hunger Games” style; they are competing against each other in a series of children’s games. You heard me, children’s games; and no, we are not talking about something as trivial as Pokemon or YuGiOh, we’re talking old school games you would find on the playground during recess. Imagine playing freeze tag or handball for 40 million dollars against 455 other individuals. I’m sure most of you would think you could win easily, but this is life and death we are talking about. Win, and you move onto the next round; lose, and well – you die.

“Squid Game” does an amazing job of exploring both the mindsets of its characters and the overall situation at hand. How do individuals cope when faced with life or death? What motivates the characters to do what they do and go as far as they do? How much is too much? Watch the show for yourself and you will find that nine episodes is simply not enough. You will find yourself caught up in the story, eagerly anticipating what will happen next. You will also find yourself asking where the next season is, much like I did this afternoon after binging the show for nine consecutive hours. Simply put, the show deserves the hype and I would recommend it to a friend in a heartbeat. 9/10, avoid spoilers while you can!