"Putin ordered an influence campaign in 2016 aimed at the U.S. presidential election. Russia's goals were to undermine public faith in the U.S. democratic process, denigrate Secretary Clinton, and harm her electability and potential presidency. We further assess Putin and the Russian Government developed a clear preference for President-elect Trump. We have high confidence in these judgments."
— A joint assessment by the FBI, CIA, and NSA
It shouldn't be necessary to say this, but the Confederacy was led by traitors who made war on their own country because they wanted to practice slavery. They accomplished nothing else, they are famous for nothing else. These racists committed the greatest act of treason in U.S. history, yet Republicans think they should be celebrated. That tells you everything there is to know about the hypocrisy of modern conservatism, and its sickening indifference to racism.
Play Time
Analysis of MMORPG play as economic activity
Play Time is an economic analysis of play in massively-multiplayer online roleplaying games (MMORPG). It began as an undergraduate 'honors thesis', but, like most of my projects, it grew to a monstrous size and carried me away with it.
Contents
Play Time was originally written as one long and rather heterogeneous paper, but I have since revised and reorganized it. The work now comprises a general introduction and three separate monographs, of which 'The Problem of Abundance in MMORPG' is the most interesting. It should be accessible to anyone who has taken a few college-level economics courses. PDF and web texts are available:
- An Introduction [PDF]
- An overview of the topics to be discussed, along with definitions used throughout the work.
- An Overview of the MMORPG Genre [PDF]
- A broad description of the genre, as it stood in early 2004, written in a scholarly style. Most players and designers will not find this interesting.
- The Problem of Abundance in MMORPG [PDF]
- This is the paper to read. Identifies the wants and constraints that motivate players and developers, and shows that many definitive aspects of MMORPG design serve economic functions.
- Principles of MMORPG Asymmetric Trade
- A fairly detailed undergraduate-level analysis of the microeconomics of 'eBaying'. I haven't finished revising this one yet.
- References
- A bibliography for the foregoing works.