Interview of Yours Truly

I was recently interviewed (a month ago, heh) on SOE Podcast #58. The interview starts at about 1:19:44. Whew, long podcast!

SOE does a podcast about every two weeks and feature interviews, goofy ads and exciting news about current and upcoming SOE games. You can also follow SOE_Podcast on Twitter for news and notification.

Lost in Translation

EverQuest II currently runs in five languages: English, German, French, Japanese and Russian. However, all of the programmers and designers actually build the game in English. To accomplish the translation, we use a proprietary SOE library: the Text Translation and Templating Tool, or T4 for short. T4 is a very powerful tool that allows us to do translation through anything from dictionary lookups to macro expansion. Our Internationalization department (i18n for short) is responsible for maintaining the T4 library and the various language modules for it.

Unfortunately, sometimes we write things in a way that isn't easily language-agnostic. Take the following example for instance:

"Rothgar's Touch of Pestilence critically double attacks Autenil for 38 disease damage."

It's a common bit of text that appears in the combat chat when you're fighting in EverQuest II.

Let's break it down a bit.

First of all, there's the actor performing the action. This can be you or someone else; Rothgar in this example. There's also the target which can be you or someone else; Autenil in this example. There's an optional spell name (Touch of Pestilence) and how much of which kind of damage. Oh, and the action -- double attack in this case -- and actions may or may not be critical.

With the way T4 works with insertion macros, we use a base string like this:
"^1 $2 critically $3 $4 for +5 $6 damage"

But this really doesn't work, at least not for anything but English. That pesky verb needs context in other languages to be conjugated properly. We currently put in either "double attack" or "double attacks" based on who the source and target actors are. It works fine in English but comes out in other languages like gibberish.

The way to fix this is to build base strings that include the verbs, but this can explode quickly. Say there are five different verbs that could be used in that case. To make base strings that include the verbs with all of the other possibilities you end up with about 640 strings, and that's assuming that there is only one damage type (EQII allows multiple per attack).

In the end, I went with using a generic verb for non-English languages ("hit") and put special attacks or critical status parenthetically on the end:
Rothgar's Touch of Pestilence hits Autenil for 38 disease damage. (critical double attack)

This will be much easier on our translators and will make sense for our players. It's been a long time coming.

LOGIN 2009

I'm going to be speaking at the LOGIN 2009 conference in Seattle this year:

Unfortunately, client crashes are bound to occur during the course of a live game. While prevention is definitely preferable, how quickly they are detected and resolved helps to form a positive opinion of the development team in the players’ minds. This session is a technical discussion surrounding generation, retrieval and processing of client crash logging. Though many concepts presented are fairly generic and may apply to other platforms and languages, examples will be given in C++ on the Windows platform.

Additionally, one of my programmers is also speaking:

This lecture will be a technical discussion about the Bayesian spam filtering solution used by various SOE MMOs to block over half a million spams per day per game. The lecture will discuss SOE spam filter implementation including what can be done beyond pure Bayesian filtering to help MMOs increase their filters accuracy and reduce feedback to the spammers. We will cover the general theory behind the filter, as well as the mathematical theory behind it and real-world examples of how it is working today.

Be sure to stop by and visit our lectures if you're going to LOGIN 2009 this year!

Meme'd

Several people have tagged me with the "25 things" meme, so I figured I'd satisfy the adoring masses:

1. I’m a science fiction geek. My favorite Star Trek series is The Next Generation and I’ve seen every episode at least twice. I also like Star Wars and Return of the Jedi is finishing up on my TV as I write this. I’ve even gone as far as to draw up deck plans for starships… Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson is one of my favorite books.
2. My favorite genre of music is Country, much to the chagrin of my family and my co-workers. I do also like Classic Rock and some Oldies, so I can usually find something mutually pleasing to the people around me.
3. Tests show that I’m allergic to peanuts, but I’ve never had a problem eating them. My kids, however...
4. My family is very involved politically, and I have some strong political convictions, though I’m not very vocal about them... usually.
5. I would play Rock Band until my arms fell off if I was ever uninterrupted for a long enough period. I never am though (darnit).
6. I used to play first-chair alto saxophone in the high school band… while in elementary school. I’ve done solos and performances. I still have my sax and could probably play it, but not very well anymore.
7. I’ve driven 157mph. In a car. On the road. In real life.
8. I’ve lived completely on my own since I was 19, except for a few months living with an aunt and uncle while looking for a place after moving to CO.
9. I’ve slept in the bottom of the Grand Canyon and on 14,000 ft mountain peaks in Colorado.
10. I almost never dream while sleeping.
11. Unlike my dad, mom and brother, I don't wear glasses or contacts. My vision is 20/15.
12. I started programming computers in BASIC in the third or fourth grade. I got my first C compiler before graduating elementary school. I would design simple games with my brother and then write them. One early Christmas I painstakingly programmed several Christmas carols to play over the 3-voice music synthesizer on a TI-99/4a. My whole extended family was present for the concert.
13. I love cycling and enjoy commuting to work by bicycle when I have the time.
14. A friend and I nearly died climbing down cliffs while lost in the Gila Wilderness of New Mexico. My Ham Radio was useless in the mountains. We had to abandon our equipment and wade through a torrent of snow melt runoff. After finding our way to a highway, we had to hitchhike for 17 miles to get back to my car, which had a flat tire.
15. I’ve worked at McDonalds, CompUSA, an indoor minigolf place, and as a self-employed consultant.
16. My dad, mom, sister and brother all have a college or trade degree. I don’t, though not for lack of trying. I just kept getting hired away from school...
17. I’ve been to Mexico several times and Canada, but I’d really love to see parts of every other continent.
18. I’ve been skydiving and loved it. If I were independently wealthy and didn’t have kids, I’d make a hobby out of it.
19. My love of electronics goes hand-in-hand with my love of computers. In elementary school, I walked around with a 40-pin IC in my pocket. I etched my own circuit boards and built an adjustable power supply in junior high. I built a turbo timer and air/fuel ratio indicator for my Supra. I was the only kid I knew with an o-scope.
20. I’ve logged a few hours towards my private pilot’s license. I’d love to complete it despite the impracticality.
21. My faith in Jesus Christ has affected nearly every part of my life in some way.
22. When I proposed to my (now) wife, I arrived 3 hours before I was supposed to, snuck up behind her and surprised her while holding the open ring box. When she whirled around she knocked the ring out of my hand. I had to crawl around on the floor for a few minutes to find it. We’ve been married eight years as I write this.
23. I had lunch with Curt Schilling of the Boston Red Sox when he was interested in having me join the team at his game studio, 38 Studios. Good guy, but I respectfully declined.
    
24. I have a pencil stab wound in my hand that is still visible after 15 years.
    
25. I collect Ultimate Collector Series LEGOs. The models in my office at work total over 15,000 bricks alone.

UOForums Interview

UOForums asked me for an interview a while back. I finally obliged:

What has been your most memorable accomplishment in your career?

Making Technical Director before 30? :) Getting hired by Origin is probably the most memorable accomplishment as it was my first gig in the game industry. It was an amazing experience: I got to meet and work with the people behind the names on the forum that I idolized. The whole experience was surreal.

Tsk, tsk, Microsoft

This is awesome.

Thousands of Zune portable media players made by Microsoft Corp. suddenly froze up early Wednesday, Dec. 31, labeling Internet wits to label the phenomenon "Z2K."

It goes without saying that I'm quite happy with my iPod Touch and iPhone, neither of which locked up at 12:01am yesterday.

Good-Bye T-Mobile (and Good Riddance)

I just received a $446 bill from T-Mobile. To say that I'm disenchanted with T-Mobile would be an understatement.

I suppose I should rewind a little bit. I was a T-Mobile customer for over five years. Back in 2003 I signed up with T-Mobile because I was moving to Austin, TX to work for the now-defunct Origin Systems and they had the best plan for me at the time. My wife and I mostly use our cell phones to call each other, so the cheapest no-frills family plan usually suffices for me.

Fast forward to 11/27/2006. I was sick of using the bottom-of-the-barrel free no-camera monochrome Nokia phone that I got for free when signing up in 2003. My original two-year contract had long since expired. Verizon was offering the inexplicably popular RAZR phone for some ridiculously low price. However, having been a loyal T-Mobile customer for over three years, I decided that I'd give them the chance to beat Verizon's deal and compete for my business. The "Customer Loyalty" representative that I talked to jumped at the opportunity. Not only did they give me better RAZRs than Verizon was offering at the same price (and the same two-year committment), he also changed my phone numbers and gave me some text messages for free, waived all of the upgrade fees AND put me on an "unlisted" family plan that was slightly cheaper. Wow! That's customer service!

And then followed four months of hell.

They sent me the wrong phones. They charged me full price. They wouldn't reimburse me to ship them back. Every representative that I talked to showed a new previously-unheard-of level of incompetence and screwed something else up, making it all the more difficult to explain my plight to the next representative. Untold hours on the phone forever lost arguing with people, explaining my situation and fighting to get my bill fixed and figured out. Pages and pages of notes with a myriad of representatives' and supervisors' names weaving a trail of regret and resentment. For four months.

Had it not been for that damned two-year contract I would've flushed them right then and there, but eventually the dust settled and things were worked out.

Two years later, my contract was nearing its end, though I didn't know the exact date it was up. I once again figured that I'd give T-Mobile every opportunity to keep my business. I went into their stores looking at various Blackberrys and the G1. I was interested in a phone that would give me access to my corporate email and the Internet. I was asking for a little bit better price on the phone and the plan. They wouldn't budge. I called "Customer Loyalty" again and they were resilient against my requests. I told them that I really wanted the iPhone and was willing to go to AT&T unless T-Mobile would give me a better deal but instead got stuck talking to some blatherskite who insisted on hammering me on the irrelevant topic that the iPhone was available through T-Mobile--in Germany. I feel that I gave T-Mobile every opportunity to keep my business. Suffice to say, now I'm with AT&T and proud to walk around with my Apple iPhone (I have an iPod Touch too, but adding a phone to it is just brilliant).

Now, about this $446 bill. You'll notice that I upgraded (and started a new two-year contract) on 11/27/2006. I switched to AT&T on 11/23/2008. Four days away from two years and T-Mobile slaps me with two $200 early terminations fees--one for each of my two lines. Four days! At the very least paying the whole amount for my last month would fulfill my obligation to the two-year contract.

Needless to say, I immediately got T-Mobile customer service on the phone. Despite the lividity coursing through my veins I managed to remain level-headed. The "Customer Loyalty" representative offered to cut the $200 per-line fee down to $50 per-line. "That is unacceptable," was my reply. Her next response was cut short as I quipped, "I'll need to speak to your supervisor." The merry Christmas tunes that filled my ear while I was waiting filled me with a sense of irony. Finally the woman came back and told me that her supervisor was busy on another call but she could finagle it so that I'd just finish paying for the full final month, dropping $384 from my bill and returning sanity to the evening. Another 30 minutes of my life wasted on the phone with T-Mobile to combat utter, inane stupidity.

To T-Mobile, if you happen to be listening:

1. Either allow "customer loyalty" more authority to please customers (especially on plan prices) or lose them.
   
2. Pro-rate the early termination fee or at the very least, change your system so customers who are within the billing cycle of their end-of-contract just pay out the rest of their month to fulfill their obligations.
3. Recognize the Charlie Foxtrot cases and assign a single person be your customer's advocate and to sort the problem out. Dealing with one competent person who understood my problem after upgrading in 2006 would've been very nice, but alas, it was not so.
   
4. You can do better than the G1. It doesn't even natively support Microsoft Exchange email.
   

To everyone else, I'd have to recommend against T-Mobile. By all means, use a different cell phone provider. If you're with T-Mobile now, get out as soon as you can. If you're not big on data, you can probably save a bundle by buying individual minutes and not having a plan.