New efforts!

[Codewalker]

I still don't understand why they put in PvP badges that you needed for base equipment. As a PvE player, I wouldn't get those badges.

The whole base system was originally designed for PVP. The intent was that the primary use of SG bases would be for supergroups to raid villain groups and vice versa trying to claim their items of power (which provided SG-wide buffs). The only item that was gated behind a PVP badge was the top power generation tier, which would have been needed to maintain a high-end raid base with tons of defense items.

Obviously that isn't how things worked out.

[rkcdan]

Question for the group. My memory not what it use to be so correct me if I'm wrong.  I thought NCSoft shut down there western office and said they were moving out of the west market. Am I remembering this correctly? The reason I am asking is I did a search for NCsoft and to my surprise this is what popped up  us.ncsoft.com. It states on this website the following, "NCSOFT West is the organization responsible for all of NCSOFT's initiatives across the Americas, Europe, Australia and New Zealand. Comprised of incredible talent throughout the company including our world class Development Studios, best in class support infrastructure, and industry leading Publishing Organization, NCSOFT West is committed to bringing extraordinary games to passionate gamers in markets across the world." NCsoft west is located in Calf.
So is this a turn around for the company or is my memory completely bonkers?

[Brigadine]

Question for the group. My memory not what it use to be so correct me if I'm wrong.  I thought NCSoft shut down there western office and said they were moving out of the west market. Am I remembering this correctly? The reason I am asking is I did a search for NCsoft and to my surprise this is what popped up  us.ncsoft.com. It states on this website the following, "NCSOFT West is the organization responsible for all of NCSOFT's initiatives across the Americas, Europe, Australia and New Zealand. Comprised of incredible talent throughout the company including our world class Development Studios, best in class support infrastructure, and industry leading Publishing Organization, NCSOFT West is committed to bringing extraordinary games to passionate gamers in markets across the world." NCsoft west is located in Calf.
So is this a turn around for the company or is my memory completely bonkers?

They still have west offices. They have a NA Lineage 2 team and Aion does too I believe.

[Arcana]

lol, I'm right there with ya. I, at one point in my life, thought I understood physics, and kind of still do. That is, non-quantum physics. I still to this day, even after wiping the gloss off my eyes that tends to accumulate once quantum physics works its way into the discussion, have a very hard time coming to grips with how extremely different the world of the very large and the very small seem to have completely different behaviors, but yet you couldn't have the one without the other. While admittedly only possessing a very rudimentary understanding of the one, and a vague idea of the other, I just can't seem to wrap my mind around the two separate fields and reconcile what they're saying on the whole.

Relativistic physics has just as much weirdness as quantum mechanics does, but that weirdness gets less press.  Consider black holes.  Just about everything the general public thinks they know about black holes is wrong, because it is probably a radical oversimplification of some really strange physics.  For example, consider what happens inside of a black hole.  There's a notion that the inside of a black hole must be an incredibly strange place, but that's not automatically true.  For very large black holes the event horizon isn't a particularly weird place *locally*.  Meaning, if you were to fall into, say, the galactic black hole at the center of the Andromeda galaxy, you yourself would probably not notice very much happening.  From your frame of reference, you pass right through that point in spacetime and just keep going.  You, your spaceship (I'm assuming), and everything around you would continue to exist from your point of view, and local physics continues to happen.  However, relative to an outside observer you basically disappear from the universe.  None of those events can ever be observed (that's why it is called an "event horizon") and therefore nothing that happens can ever affect the rest of the universe.  As far as the rest of the universe is concerned, those events don't even happen.

Actually, it is even stranger than that.  We talk about things falling into black holes but it is actually impossible to observe anything falling into a black hole.  As an object approaches the event horizon general relativistic effects cause distant observers to see time pass increasingly slowly for objects nearing the event horizon.  That time dilation includes the apparent rate of approach of the object to the event horizon itself.  The object appears to slow down.  At the limit, apparent time decelerates to zero, and the object slows to infinitesimal velocity.  The object appears to "freeze" just outside the horizon.  Relative to us, the event horizon is a weird cosmic graveyard of everything that ever "fell" into it, trapped like Flying Dutchmen in a time warp of existence just outside the black hole.  Relative to us.  Relative to themselves, they just fly right through the event horizon and just keep going.  Gravitational tidal effects eventually destroy objects that get close enough to the center of the black hole, but local time continues to run normally relative to such objects.

If black holes are surrounded with ghost images of everything that ever fell into them, why don't we see black holes as weird ghostly halos of all those things superimposed upon each other?  Because radiation from those things traveling "outward" from the black hole is red shifted to infinity, making them basically invisible.  Light loses all its energy as it tries to escape, so we can't see any light from any of those things.  Seen from far away, the area around the event horizon is a very strange place, full of invisible ghosts of everything the black hole consumed.  That includes a tiny sliver of the original star the black hole formed from.  Its still there, hovering just outside the black hole, time-shifted to essentially a freeze frame, exploding outward with invisible radiation we can never observe.  Hypothetically speaking, there's a place you can go to and see the original supernova that created that black hole, still in the process of detonating.  Its probably a spot where your eyeballs are destroyed by gravitational effects, but it is there nonetheless.

That's pretty funky when you think about it, and more than a match for the weirdness of quantum superposition.

[Kelltick]

Relativistic physics has just as much weirdness as quantum mechanics does, but that weirdness gets less press.  Consider black holes.  Just about everything the general public thinks they know about black holes is wrong, because it is probably a radical oversimplification of some really strange physics.  For example, consider what happens inside of a black hole.  There's a notion that the inside of a black hole must be an incredibly strange place, but that's not automatically true.  For very large black holes the event horizon isn't a particularly weird place *locally*.  Meaning, if you were to fall into, say, the galactic black hole at the center of the Andromeda galaxy, you yourself would probably not notice very much happening.  From your frame of reference, you pass right through that point in spacetime and just keep going.  You, your spaceship (I'm assuming), and everything around you would continue to exist from your point of view, and local physics continues to happen.  However, relative to an outside observer you basically disappear from the universe.  None of those events can ever be observed (that's why it is called an "event horizon") and therefore nothing that happens can ever affect the rest of the universe.  As far as the rest of the universe is concerned, those events don't even happen.

Actually, it is even stranger than that.  We talk about things falling into black holes but it is actually impossible to observe anything falling into a black hole.  As an object approaches the event horizon general relativistic effects cause distant observers to see time pass increasingly slowly for objects nearing the event horizon.  That time dilation includes the apparent rate of approach of the object to the event horizon itself.  The object appears to slow down.  At the limit, apparent time decelerates to zero, and the object slows to infinitesimal velocity.  The object appears to "freeze" just outside the horizon.  Relative to us, the event horizon is a weird cosmic graveyard of everything that ever "fell" into it, trapped like Flying Dutchmen in a time warp of existence just outside the black hole.  Relative to us.  Relative to themselves, they just fly right through the event horizon and just keep going.  Gravitational tidal effects eventually destroy objects that get close enough to the center of the black hole, but local time continues to run normally relative to such objects.

If black holes are surrounded with ghost images of everything that ever fell into them, why don't we see black holes as weird ghostly halos of all those things superimposed upon each other?  Because radiation from those things traveling "outward" from the black hole is red shifted to infinity, making them basically invisible.  Light loses all its energy as it tries to escape, so we can't see any light from any of those things.  Seen from far away, the area around the event horizon is a very strange place, full of invisible ghosts of everything the black hole consumed.  That includes a tiny sliver of the original star the black hole formed from.  Its still there, hovering just outside the black hole, time-shifted to essentially a freeze frame, exploding outward with invisible radiation we can never observe.  Hypothetically speaking, there's a place you can go to and see the original supernova that created that black hole, still in the process of detonating.  Its probably a spot where your eyeballs are destroyed by gravitational effects, but it is there nonetheless.

That's pretty funky when you think about it, and more than a match for the weirdness of quantum superposition.

Now, I get all that. Makes sense to me. But theories such as quantum entanglement, the cat in the box experiment (unknowable state until observed), and the "double-slit" electron experiment all make me go googly-eyed.

[Serena]

In other words, the probability that anyone at NCSoft was starting negotiations with anyone for some publicity purpose is basically zero.  It is just as likely that right now someone is trying to upgrade their ticket on the Titanic to first class "just in case."

Your theory has about as much proof as mine, which is zero. I can only point out what was happening here and on game sites, ncsoft facebook etc and all of that stopped when these "talks" began.

[Arcana]

Your theory has about as much proof as mine, which is zero.

And which theory is that?

[Paragon Avenger]

It's time once again for the Weakly Update,

Friends, big news.  This is a breakthrough!  This is the best news we have had in a long time!  We have been working for this day for weeks, no months, has it been years!!  Yes, we have passed a major milestone.  Oh, I almost forgot, sorry, there is a gag order in place so I can't tell you any more about this news.

[Arcana]

Now, I get all that. Makes sense to me. But theories such as quantum entanglement, the cat in the box experiment (unknowable state until observed), and the "double-slit" electron experiment all make me go googly-eyed.

We accept that particles are a thing because we see evidence of particle-like behavior.  We see classical things have definite position and momentum.  We see it, so we believe it.  Do you ever question that?  Why not?  Is seeing believing, so you don't question it?

Because the double-slit experiment isn't a theory, it is an observation.  Whenever you set this experiment up, particles behave this way.  You see it, so you should believe that that is reality.  It is difficult to accept, I think, because you aren't exposed to particle-wave duality during your formative years when you decide what reality is.  How do I know this?  Bugs Bunny.  Is he real, or is he not real?  Actually, he's both.  He's a real fictional character, so in that sense he's real.  But he's not a real rabbit or any other actual being, so he's not real.  How can something be real and not real?  We're comfortable with the notion that things can be real in a sense and not real in another sense, depending on the context.  We learn this at an extremely early age, and we become comfortable with the idea.  I play with my nieces and nephew, and they treat imaginary play as real for the purposes of play.  If I ask where's the money I'm supposed to spend on imaginary shopping, they tell me I'm supposed to pretend.  They easily shift between treating imaginary things as real, yet knowing they are not real.  They treat soft toys as real, and yet they know they are only proxies for the actual animals they resemble.

When we're taught contextual duality early enough we become comfortable with it.  We're not (typically) taught particle-wave duality, so the idea seems foreign and bizarre.  But I don't think it actually is bizarre.  It is just unfamiliar.

[Paragon Avenger]

Particles, waves, who cares?  What's the URL for City of Heroes?

[blacksly]

CoH.ParticlePhysics.wwwave

[LadyVamp]

It's time once again for the Weakly Update,

Friends, big news.  This is a breakthrough!  This is the best news we have had in a long time!  We have been working for this day for weeks, no months, has it been years!!  Yes, we have passed a major milestone.  Oh, I almost forgot, sorry, there is a gag order in place so I can't tell you any more about this news.

They have agreed to put CoH back online and pay the mice an undisclosed amount of cheese?   ;)

[Brigadine]

They have agreed to put CoH back online and pay the mice an undisclosed amount of cheese?   ;)

I wish

[ukaserex]

This is entirely off topic - but after reading the last couple of pages, it occurs to me that Arcana should attempt to teach on the college level as an adjunct. The explanation on particles was real to me - and the Looney Tunes tie-in would keep any college kids attention.

[Vee]

it occurs to me that Arcana should attempt to teach on the college level as an adjunct.

That might be the meanest thing I've ever heard.

[Sermon]

That might be the meanest thing I've ever heard.

QFT

source: am an adjunct.

[Goddangit]

Bugs Bunny.  Is he real, or is he not real?  Actually, he's both.  He's a real fictional character, so in that sense he's real.  But he's not a real rabbit or any other actual being, so he's not real.  How can something be real and not real? 

All I know is he's got to watch out for than darn pencil eraser.  Oh, wait...  That was Daffy Duck.  Nevermind.

https://images.weserv.nl/?url=2.bp.blogspot.com%2F-6O6lM1Exic0%2FTrHCZI2WnzI%2FAAAAAAAAAP4%2FCn2RDNsn6dE%2Fs1600%2FScreen%2Bshot%2B2011-11-02%2Bat%2B22.19.03.png

[blacksly]

All I know is he's got to watch out for than darn pencil eraser.  Oh, wait...  That was Daffy Duck.  Nevermind.

https://images.weserv.nl/?url=2.bp.blogspot.com%2F-6O6lM1Exic0%2FTrHCZI2WnzI%2FAAAAAAAAAP4%2FCn2RDNsn6dE%2Fs1600%2FScreen%2Bshot%2B2011-11-02%2Bat%2B22.19.03.png

There was an episode where Bugs is on the business end of the eraser. But I think it was Elmer who was holding the pencil, not Daffy.

[Sinistar]

You are correct.

The one with Daffy being tortured by the cartoonist had Bugs holding the pencils at the end.

The one with Bugs being tortured by the cartoonist had Elmer Fudd holding the pencils at the end and laughing how he finally got even with that screwy rabbit :)

[Sinistar]

This is entirely off topic - but after reading the last couple of pages, it occurs to me that Arcana should attempt to teach on the college level as an adjunct. The explanation on particles was real to me - and the Looney Tunes tie-in would keep any college kids attention.

Yes but can Arcana turn left at Albuquerque?  ;)