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Why I Love PC Gaming

Filed under: Gaming — Leave a comment
May 10, 2011

pc gamingI am a huge fan of PC Gamer magazine and regularly listen to their podcast. Every week they get down into the nerdy abyss of PC gaming. On the most recent episode, they discussed why they love the PC as a gaming platform and encouraged us to share our own love of it.

Growing up, my parents never bought me a video game console out of fear that it would consume my life. I believe it had something to do with the fact that I turned into Gollum whenever in the presence of a console, so I can’t really fault them for being my own, personal Bilbo Baggins. However, when we got our first computer (a Packard-Bell with Pentium 133 mhz, Win95, 16mb RAM, and 1GB hard drive), I discovered a wonderful loophole in my parents’ console moratorium: computer games didn’t count as real video games.

From that point forward, I was a dedicated PC gamer. While my friends were playing classics like Super Mario 64, FFVII, and Twisted Metal; I was discovering Total Annhilation, Descent, and Heroes of Might & Magic II. Once able to taste the greatness and variety of PC gaming, I never looked back. 

Through my formative gaming years, the main reason I have come to love PC gaming is freedom. The PC is an open platform that welcomes innovation from gamers, software developers, and hardware engineers alike. Everyone has an equal opportunity to contribute to the worldwide PC gaming community.

Niche groups of PC gamers keep growing the platform through LAN parties and online communities. Only on the PC will you find dedicated gamers that will invest hours of their lives just to keep games alive and thriving. In fact, games like Descent and Mech Warrior are more than a decade old but still have active communities. Why do gamers ban together like this? Because they can. Freedom is the right of all sentient gamers and the PC knows this.

From the business side of the equation, many different companies are fervently engineering more ways to enjoy PC games and push the experience to new limits. The end result is a cornucopia of hardware configurations coupled with every game genre under the sun. We, the gamers, always win in this scenario. You want to run three 40-inch LCDs with 3D enabled on Crysis 2? You got it, but only with PC gaming.

Freedom and choice go hand-in-hand. PC gaming offers the freedom to choose what you play, how you play it, and how you take it to the next level in the community. Some may say that the PC has too much freedom, too many choices. Well, to these short-sighted naysayers, I say, “NO”. As one of the forefathers of PC gaming once said: Give me liberty, or give me death! 

We need freedom to experience games the way we want to, not the way some corporate shill had decided for us! We need freedom to play late into the night with reckless abandon, uncaring about the light of morning! We need freedom to continue the gaming traditions of our forebearers! We need PC Gaming!

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MLG + Blizzard Fail

Filed under: Gaming — 1 Comment
April 4, 2011

Major League Gaming Only a few short years ago, video games were seen as toys adolescents wasted thier summers on, but as an entire generation has grown up, so have their video game tastes. Now, gaming is ready for prime-time and has warranted the creation of Major League Gaming to represent the popularity of the professional gaming circuit here in the States.

I gathered a group of my friends and fellow StarCraft II fans and we attended the MLG season opening in Dallas this past weekend. We headed out expecting to see a full-throttle, professional StarCraft experience, but instead ran into a poorly organized event that left us all wishing the MLG and Activision-Blizzard took professional gaming more seriously. ​

When we arrived on Friday, everything ran as smoothly as expected. We saw some intense SCII action as the pros battled it out against each other to determine seating order in the tournament brackets. The commentators, DJ Wheat and Day9 were in rare form as they both entertained and brought excitement to the matches on the main stage.

We got up on Saturday talking over breakfast about the matches from the previous night and how we were going to attempt to emulate the strategies we saw into our own games. We whipped ourselves up into a mad whirlwind of pure StarCraft hype and could not wait to return. After spending lunch playing arcade games at Dave and Busters, we headed back to the Dallas Convention Center with just enough time to nab some good seating for the main stage.

At 5pm, when the professional tournament was scheduled to resume nothing happend. After 6pm rolled around with absolutely no word about what was going on, we were left to wonder and speculate with the other fans as to the problem. We contained ourselves for a few more hours as the commentators livecasted some replays until when at around 9pm, they finally brought up a live match on the main stage. We were pretty ravenous for some StarCraft II at this point and instantly forgave the MLG for leaving us out to dry for so long.

The players began their match only to be stopped a few minutes in due to lag. They tried to resume, but the lag still persisted, so they were forced to cancel the game on the main stage and move it to one of the other stations. We were outraged. It was only the second day of the tournament, we had been forced to wait for several agonizing hours, and there was still absolutely no communication from the MLG as to what was going on. Rumors circulated about how the ISP they were using was having problems, but no official word ever came out.

Activision-BlizzardThe real problem here is that StarCraft II has no LAN support. You are forced to keep an open internet connection so that the game can ping Battle.net every so often and if you should lose internet connectivity, the game will either lag or pause completely depending on how long you lose it. So, even though you own the game, Activision-Blizzard will not let you play it if you can’t constantly ask them for permission.

We had waited all of Saturday for the real tournament to begin only to be subjected to the technical difficulties of the MLG unable to comply with Activision-Blizzard’s absurd Battle.net policy. And this was not the first time. Last year, the championship match also experienced the very same problems. You would think the MLG capable of taking itself seriously enough to have these types of problems worked out, but apparently not.​

What promised to be a fun weekend excursion devolved into waiting for nothing. After spending a decent chunk of money on gas and hotel rooms getting to Dallas, this was unacceptable so we went to politely ask for a refund. All the MLG said to us was ‘sorry about that’ before they refused to refund us our ticket prices.

Lets trace the chain of events here, shall we?

Someone at Activision-Blizzard says, “Hey, we need to have complete oversight whenever someone plays StarCraft II. I know! Let’s forget taking the 15 minutes to create a LAN mode and make everyone connect to Battle.net! Plus, they will love having to connect to yet another social network!”

Then someone at MLG says, “We need to have StarCraft II at our events. We will need to have constant internet connection, so we will just trust our ISP and local network infrastructure to handle itself without really testing anything.”

Then when the event comes up and the MLG network traffic gets slammed so hard that SCII games start lagging, the MLG guy says, “It’s not our fault! It’s the ISP! Besides, its only a video game. No harm, no foul, right?”

I realize that there are a lot of factors here that stopped the MLG from broadcasting a game from the main stage, but seriously, they need to take their pro circuit more seriously. Video games are not just toys anymore. They require a tremendous level of skill that many of us will pay to watch those who have mastered it.

As it stands, the MLG and Activision-Blizzard need to work together to resolve these issues with StarCraft II. Both of their reputations will be hurt if they continue to let these kinds of failures circulate around. I know that I will not be going back to a live MLG event and if you were considering going, be aware that they may not treat you with the seriousness you deserve.

We are gamers and our professional events deserve all the attention and care other sporting events get!

 

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Here at the MLG

Filed under: Gaming — Leave a comment
April 1, 2011

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Finally decided to nerd up my weekend by spending  it  in Dallas watching some pro Starcraft II tournament play. The Dallas Convention Center is full of the nerdiest crowd you will face outside Comic Con. Players are lining up to slaughter each other in a bid to determine who is the alienate digital commander.

Unfortunately my favorite race, the Protoss, are not faring too Well among the pros right now. Here’s hoping Sockeh can dominate later on!

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Supremacy – Reformation Update

Filed under: Writing — Leave a comment
March 24, 2011

Supremacy: ReformationAfter finally getting Supremacy: Reformation out of editing limbo and under the watchful eyes of a few demo readers, I will have to again delay its release. I received some excellent feedback earlier this week from one of said readers, and his comments are forcing me to rethink my entire opening. I try not to be too perfectionist with my work, but in this case, it is completely justified.

I refuse to release anything half-baked. So, for all you readers out there eagerly waiting to see what kind of sci-fi I can write, you will just have to wait a bit longer. And for all you readers who have yet to discover me, you don’t really care right now, but as soon as you do get your hands on a reworked version of Supremacy: Reformation, you will be thanking me I took some extra time

Trust me, the wait will be worth it. The opening to a story is the most important part because if a reader is not hooked from the beginning, it will be an uphill climb for the rest of the journey. We have all read books like this and I will not do this too you. Supremacy: Reformation i s just too important to me.

Strap in to your reading chair and crawl through other authors’ imaginations while I take a little time to pour on the awesome sauce. Even with all the changes I am thinking of making, I still should be able to release toward the end of April, so you only have to wait a month at the most.

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Speaking of delays, at least I am not the one who had to delay a project that had already been delayed for 14 years:

 

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How to Pick Up Chicks (According to Paranormal Romance)

Filed under: Random — 1 Comment
February 14, 2011

Well, today is the big V-Day and like any lonely, self-absorbed blogger, I have to crank out some sort of article about the subject of love to get caught up in the whirlwind of search activity and feel better about myself. Love is a tricky and elusive beast that you have to sneak up on and tranquilize properly to get it to do your bidding. Fortunately, there are a plethora of sources out there to help you on your quest. One of which is the trendy, Paranormal Romance genre of fiction and movies.

Last year, I decided to go out on a crazy limb and actually read some of this exploding genre to see what it was all about. I ended up reading almost 100,000 words from the indie PR author, Zoe Winters. Wow, did my eyes get opened. I soon found a perfect girl-attracting formula contained within those words that can help all of us single guys out there.

Zombie Valentine

All girls dream about being swept away by a hero, preferably a sparkly, pasty one. In case you don’t fit that bill, here are three simple steps to securing your very own chick, PR style:

1. Lock Her Away

The first thing you have to do is get her alone . You may want to stage a near death situation where you can jump in and rescue her at the last minute. For instance, a van (driven by your friend) careening through a parking lot that you use your ‘supernatural’ strength to push it out of the way just as it is about to hit her. Get on YouTube and search out car stunts to get more ideas of this nature.

After this, she should be pretty well shaken up, which is the perfect opportunity to take her to your ‘secret lair’ where you will eternally guard her from the entire paranormal world. She may resist at first as she will not immediately understand your manufactured delusions reasoning as to why she needs protection.

Which is exactly why you should…

2. Tell Her You Have Powers

No chick wants to date some boring guy who leads a boring life. Spice it up with an awesome back story about how you have been around for a few generations locked in a bitter struggle with your mortal enemies. Just let your imagination go wild. This is your chance to become what you have always dreamed of: vampire, high functioning zombie, werewolf, Mel Gibson (if you really want to terrify her, not recommended) etc…

You might also have to convince her that since you are much older (but appear to be the same age), that it isn’t creepy for you to be dating her. Just use whatever justification Hugh Helner uses and you will be good.

After you have this in place, it is time to…

3. Convince Her of an Assassination Plot

As with all healthy relationships, everything has to be about her, so make sure to let her know that there are terrible creatures roaming the night looking to dine on her blood and you are the only one who can stop them. This way, she will lean on you whenever trouble comes around the corner. She may give you crazy looks to begin with, but when she realizes that you love her enough to put yourself into immortal (make sure your back story has this word sprinkled throughout it) danger, she will never leave your side.

 

So there you have it, three simple steps to finding a date for all you single guys on this Singles’ Awareness Day. I think I am going to go cry in a corner now…

 

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Supremacy – Reformation: The Origin

Filed under: Literature, Writing — 2 Comments
January 18, 2011

While I do not have any firm release dates yet for Supremacy: Reformation, I do have something to whet your appetite. To appreciate the full breadth of the story you need to start at the absolute beginning anyway.

Behold! The mythos that fuels the Reformation series inside the Supremacy universe:


The Origin

Supremacy - Reformation: Series 1 Cover Art

Cover Art for Supremacy - Reformation: Series 1

At the Origin, the two supreme entities of Light and Dark filled everything with their power. Light was an open expanse anchored at its center by a sphere of formless mass. Dark was a brooding void fueled by logic and reason. They both distanced themselves from each other, content to exist independently. Eventually, Dark desired ultimate control and reached out to steal Light’s mass. Light resisted, and thus began their eternal struggle.

They each pulled on the sphere unwilling to relent. The strain escalated until the mass exploded, leaving a ring that marked the line at which both entities had gripped it. The rest of the mass traveled outward, escaping both entities.

In anger, Dark swallowed Light with its void, dispersing it into pockets of small remnants that became the stars. Light reached out through the stars, grabbing at the exploded mass until it swirled around, forming the galaxies. As the universe began to take shape, the energy from the two supreme entities that at one time filled everything, faded into mere background noise.

The ring of mass broke apart into forty shards. The power of both Light and Dark mixed within, birthing a consciousness. The shards transformed into bipedal creatures of immense power, able to control space and time. They were the Gods.

The Gods saw the beautiful universe congealing around them, but felt it lacked meaning. Focusing on a single galaxy, they cultivated numerous planets and populated them with creatures of all sorts, but they were not satisfied. They held a council and decided they should create a new being closer to themselves—one they could commune with. So, they created humanity.

They gave humanity a consciousness and form similar to their own, but did not give it any power above imagination. The Gods foresaw that human imagination was the only tool it needed to thrive, and thrive it did. Soon, the entire galaxy was inhabited with the Gods’ paramount creation.

Humanity was grateful for its existence and lived to serve the will of the Gods. The Gods rewarded humanity with technology forged by their own divine hands and beyond human comprehension. Humanity used this technology to further enrich its society, ushering in an era of complete peace.

The Gods divided humanity into five Orders across the galaxy to better rule its creation. Each Order had its own collection of denizens that used their specialized talents to serve the galactic community. Every person born fit perfectly within his or her Order and fulfilled a necessary role. Everyone’s needs were met by their own hard work.

The Gods were pleased with their creation.

Discontent sparked inside one of the humans by the name of Xylus. Dreams of usurping the Gods and ruling the galaxy himself played through his mind. A mysterious longing within his soul drew him to a forgotten portion of the galaxy where the powers of Dark remained strong. He called out to the supreme entity, offering himself over to it. Dark answered his malice with a horde of demons from the depths of space that followed his every command.

With his newly found power, Xylus brought war upon the unsuspecting Gods and began the Fall. The entire galaxy burned in an unprecedented era of violence and darkness. War raged on for centuries as both sides vied for humanity’s ultimate destiny.

The Fall ravaged the galaxy and nearly destroyed the ancient Orders, but in the end, Xylus stood victorious. He imprisoned the Gods on a planet far from the galactic core, called Earth. He purged all memory of the planet from the official records and ensured no one would ever come near it again. Xylus even covertly spread misinformation about its location to keep it hidden and forgotten. With the Gods cast down, he ascended to godhood.

Xylus began reshaping the galaxy as he wanted, but he never suspected that the Gods had been the only force suppressing Dark. Now uncontested, Dark rose up through the unwilling vessel of Xylus and consumed most of the galaxy, shrouding it in its black void. Given enough time, Dark would regain its full strength and pull all the mass of the universe back to itself. Humanity was doomed, unless the Gods could be resurrected.

In this ensuing aftermath, the Second Order went unnoticed as the Fall had barely touched its borders. Its citizens carried the hope of the Gods in their hearts and waited in faith to hear from them. They now lived in devotion to their divine emperor who carried on the mantle bequeathed him.

In their last days before imprisonment, the Gods dispatched a messenger that prophesied over this unscathed oasis. The Second Order was commanded to wait until the appropriate time when the Gods would draw them to Earth by the light of a fallen star. Then they would release the Gods and be shielded against the forthcoming judgment cast on the galaxy.

It has been nearly 400 years since the prophecy and many believe the time of the fallen star has come…

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Book Review: In Hero Years Im Dead by Michael Stackpole

Filed under: Literature — 1 Comment
January 11, 2011

Superheros are all the rage these days. Everyone dreams of being spared the monotony of everyday life by some psycho superhuman with an insane fashion sense. ​Thankfully, Marvel and DC have obliged us with enough comics, movies, and video games to spork our eyeballs out with superhero goodness for the rest of our lives. My only question is, who will save us from this onslaught of superhero visual media?

Well friends, our savior is none other than Michael Stackpole . Sure, he may appear to be a mild mannered guy, but when behind the keyboard, he transforms into The Authornator-bringer of originality to superhero stories!

His latest creation, In Hero Years…I’m Dead, is a must read for all fans of the traditional comic book story.


in hero yearsSynopsis

The story centers around an old hero returning to Capital City after twenty years of imprisonment. All that he knew has changed. The great heroes of his time have all retired, content to allow a new group of young upstarts to run things. As he stumbles around trying to regain his old footing, he learns the new rules have cultivated a dangerous societal mix that could destroy him if he continues to play a hero.

Review

It is incredibly hard to tell an inventive superhero story, but In Hero Years…I’m Dead genuinely spins an original tale. Stackpole mixes the traditional comic book feel with quirky humor and a noir-detective backdrop that makes for truly compelling reading. Capital City is full of surprises around every turn as caricatures of all the classic heroes propel you further down its alleys.

The characters feel very real and leap off the screen. The protagonist keeps you engaged as he explores the new world Capitol City has become in his absence. Everyone can connect to the range of emotions he experiences throughout the story.

Most hero stories focus on the heroes themselves and their personal struggles. While Stackpole certainly captures this, he also explores the pressure of society as it works against the traditional hero versus villain mechanic. He creates a truly modern city that brilliantly figures out how to cope with its super inhabitants that is so believable, it is almost scary .​ The social commentary he weaves into the main storyline adds that bit of depth that some hero stories skim over to appease the masses.

You won’t find the same old ‘have to beat the bad guy’ plot here. Stackpole dishes up a fresh take on caped crusaders and their reason for protecting their city.

 

 

In Hero Years…I’m Dead is currently available digitally for most ereader platforms. Sadly, this is not in print yet, but there is a very good story as to the reason. It comes in two edition, normal and deluxe. The deluxe edition is only a dollar more and includes a sweet essay detailing Stackpole’s own personal journey writing the novel.

 

Get it Here (Deluxe edition):

Direct from the author

On the Nook

On the Kindle

 

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Announcing – Supremacy: Reformation

Filed under: Writing — 1 Comment
January 6, 2011

Gather ’round one and all for I have a story to tell! It begins with a little fifth-grade boy who dreamed of becoming a writer. He spent his childhood day-dreaming of the surreal, collecting whatever flew through his head as doodles across his notebooks underpinned by scraps of writings. Eventually these seeds grew into fantastic tales that he bottled up inside his head waiting until the right time to release them.

Well, today is that day! My fifth-grade self has waited patiently until this very moment to unveil his first foray into the world of independent publishing! May I present,

Supremacy: Reformation Series 1

Cover art by Robin Ludwig Design

Synopsis

With most of the galaxy shrouded in darkness, the Second Order stands as humanity’s final bastion of hope until the Gods return. Its citizens cling to their emperor as he rules with the divine mandate bequeathed him. Bladicos, the emperor’s own brother, sees through this guise of selflessness and plots to wrestle control of the Order away and give it to the people. Humanity must decide its own fate before the Gods are resurrected.

About

The Reformation series will be the first journey into the Supremacy universe. Series 1 is comprised of 10 episodes that focus on Bladicos and his plan for the Second Order. Each episode should take about 45-60 minutes to read and will be individually available for purchase on all e-reader platforms. An omnibus edition will also be available that will be updated with each of the 10 episodes as they are released.

I do not have any firm release dates quite yet, but expect this soon!

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Why it Sucks to be a StarCraft Space Marine

Filed under: Gaming — 1 Comment
December 28, 2010

Space Marine“I got your Zerg right here!”

Famous last words for a Space Marine. From that point on we were berated as some of the most lazy and incompetent soldiers in the galaxy. Millions of commanders sent us into battle as little more than cannon fodder for some crazy meat grinder campaign. We fight bravely and tenaciously to the death, but never fully receive the respect we deserve.

My name is Sergeant Duncan and I am one of the many Space Marines employed throughout the galaxy. I am here to set the record straight and earn your respect. As you can tell from my rank, I have survived many battles while seeing all my comrades fall by my side due to no fault of our own.

In short, we are driven to our stupidity from all the pressure we must endure. This is why it sucks to be a Space Marine:


Horrendous Engineering:

We are set up for failure from the very first time we put on our armor. We are told it is some of the most advanced technology the human race has ever seen, yet the ‘safety’ features that come standard are more like ‘quick death’ features.

I understand that you don’t really trust prisoners, but is that a good enough reason to install safety triggers on our weapons?

You see, as soon as we move, our weapons lock up and will not fire until we are completely stationary again. And I do mean completely stationary. ‘Rolling stops’ keep the weapon locked. They tell us this is to cut down on the ‘moving fire’ hazard and improve our accuracy, but really, it is just a way to ensure that our commanders have complete control over us.

Big Brother wants to micromanage us into our grave. You have no idea what it is like to come into a field of Zerg knowing you must remain completely still to kill them. It is a wall of death that you should easily be able to back away from while laying down suppressing fire, but can’t. And God help you if they try to flank.

The sad part is that our suits are excellent firing platforms. The internal gyros keep you nice and level when moving, so if they would just take these stupid ‘safety’ triggers off, everything would be fine. We would have pinpoint accuracy while on the move.

But what do I know? I am just an expendable resource.


Beaurocratic Unions:

As if our equipment wasn’t bad enough, we also have to deal with the blasted unions. Each unit type in our army has its own crazy union with its own insane rules. None of them work together, and they only work directly with the army commander.

Work permits control everything. You even have to obtain one to clean your weapon. You would think this only applies to non-combat situations, but you would be wrong. In battle, things get maddeningly stupid.

On the battlefield, you must obtain a fire permit to shoot at an enemy. The only exception is if you are being attacked, then you are free to defend yourself (something about media coverage and interference inspired this). Permits are transmitted digitally to our suits, but it is still a needless step in the heat of battle. Usually it is not the request time that takes so long, it is the response time.

Try to imagine standing watch on a platform while some of the rest of your company gets shot at down on the ground. You wish you could just help them out, but no you have to wait while you submit a permit request to your union lead, who then submits it to the army commander. Sometimes the army commander won’t even notice it and forces you to stand helplessly by as your fellow marines die off.

And don’t even get me started on the Fire Bat and Diamondback unions. They only work for Jim whats-his-face. I have never seen them deployed with any other commander.


Silly Deployments:

Common sense dictates that if you wish to take over a planet, you drop all your man power on the surface immediately. Well, apparently we can’t do that due to our incredibly inept engineers and the union they work for. They demand that we start out with a single command center and only call down the particular troops we need for our current situation. Plus, you have to build the construction facilities right there on the battlefield and employ the engineer union’s approved workers to even begin producing military hardware.

I mean, we can fly our huge space battlecrusiers a planet’s atmosphere, but we have to build them on the battlefied first? What is wrong with this picture? Everything. Enough said.

The only reason we have survived this long as a race is the fact that all of our enemies appear to be doing the same thing as well. I don’t know who decided this was how war should be waged, but it wasn’t a military commander. At least we are all on equal footing.

So, the next time you want to scream at us for our incompetence. Remember that we are people too and have a much worse job than you will ever know.

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Reason 1 People Do Not Read Scifi: Techno-babble

Filed under: Literature — 1 Comment
December 21, 2010

Deep-seated prejudices exist in all of us to solidify our fear of the unknown. They are the little voices in our heads that cry out when we try to embrace something different. By keeping us comfortable with the status quo, they have kept us alive as a species in ages past. Unfortunately, we don’t really need them anymore in our modern way of life, so now they only drag us down and keep us away from potentially rewarding experiences.

One of the rewarding experiences they may have kept you from is reading science fiction. What is the first thing that runs through your head when you think of scifi books? You probably imagine a lonely nerd surrounded by towers of thick novels trying to escape his pathetic non-life. By some strange magical grace, scifi movies get a pass from this stereotype as proven by box office numbers. Why does the scifi novel get passed up?

Movies are for everyone and books are for nerds, right? Wrong. See, your prejudices are already lying to you. Allow me to address a reason you may not like reading scifi and what you can do to enjoy the genre.

Reason #1: Too much techno-babble


What is ‘techno-babble’?

Turn on any episode from any season or movie of Star Trek and fast forward to the end when they stop speaking English and start making up random physics-sounding words and phrases. That is techno-babble. It is the result of a nerd behind the scenes hammering down on his keyboard and trying desperately to out-nerdify his fellow nerd friends.

Nothing is more satisfying to us nerds than coming up with a plausible sounding explanation for completely imaginary things. What nerds lack in social ability, we make up for a thousandfold in imagination and creativity. Unfortunately, this has resulted in overly complex descriptions about the world within many scifi stories that quickly turns people away. It can be hard to stand under the mind storm of a nerd’s keyboard.

What can you do about it?

Not all stories are riddled with this craziness. Many scifi authors are beginning to see the problem with too much of this running throughout the genre and are changing their ways. You have probably even heard the term ‘speculative fiction’ being thrown around to denote such stories. While I hate the idea of re-branding science fiction to achieve literary equality, I can understand why. But that is another blog entry.

Science fiction is such a vast genre you can be sure to find at least one corner of it to appreciate. Perhaps the best place to begin is with the seminal scifi novel of the 20th century, Dune. Frank Herbert pretty much invented how to tell a scifi story with less ‘sci’ and more ‘fi’. He never once strays off the story to describe in detail how the technology actually works in his world. He just takes you along and lets you discover the world for yourself, much like scifi movies.

So, do some digging around at your local bookstore in the scifi section. You should easily find something that interests you. An easy test for techno-babble is to read the back cover and if you can’t understand at least half of what it says, don’t get it.

Please, don’t judge an entire genre by this one stereotype, read up for yourself. And if all else fails, just skip the techno-babble like the rest of us, because even we nerds hate to be out-nerded.

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