Story of Suspense: Adapting Witness for Prosecution in an interactive medium

Group Eight

We all love Agatha Christie’s Witness for Prosecution. While it has any graphic scenes of violence, the chill down the spine after exploring the twisty, well-conceived plot will not likely be cast away shortly in our memories. Thus, we are interested in improving the story’s plots, especially in making them more interactive.

Considering all the alternatives, we decided to remediate the story into a text-based video game using Twine. As a story belonging to the detective genre, Witness for Prosecution places greater emphasis on a persistent plot rather than “slowing down” to provide the readers a close-up of specific scenes. In other words, progression plays a great part in the detective story. A text-based game is thus most suitable since it has greater focus on the procedural aspects of the gaming experience. Furthermore, it retains some level of fidelity, and even achieves some sort of homage, to the original work, since its main medium is still textual.

While the original story can be roughly divided into three scenes, we decide to focus on the scene where the lawyer meets the “old woman”, which is the climax of the story. Many aspects of the scene provide an atmosphere of suspense. Taking place in a poor neighborhood where the lawyer would generally not frequent, it gives an unusual setting, conveying the unsettledness the lawyer would feel in an unfamiliar atmosphere. The woman’s peculiar language and erratic behaviors also add to the suspense, as we are made to wonder why she would do such things. Since we do not have a lot of time, we focus on it to yield a quality we would be most satisfied with. We also set the lawyer to be the playable character. In an ideal condition, we would like to remediate all three scenes of the story and have both the lawyer and the woman as playable characters.

First, we identify the main “conflict” in the story to be between the lawyer and the woman. The woman, marking herself in disguise as a much older woman, tries to make the lawyer accept the forged evidence she provides. The lawyer, on the other hand, is obsessed with finding the “truth” behind his client (the suspect), so that he can rest the case well. We remediate such conflicts in our rules. Clues possible to debunk the woman’s lies are hidden in the game, and the player should try the best in discovering as many of them as possible. When the player discovers a clue, a message—starting with “Evidence Received”—would notify such a partial success. With enough evidence, the player can unlock either a good end (clues gathered to show the woman is lying) or a bad end (fooled by the woman’s plots).

Our original draft sticks mostly to the original plot of the story. However, the original story does not give much “clues” to imply how the woman is lying, so we have to take a bit of creative license. A specific clue we considered was in the style of handwriting. We looked into how, according to the writer’s personal preferences, some letters could still look similar despite attempts of forgery. In general, we expand the number of clues by creating more small details the player can pick up. The player can choose to examine the bed, table, and some of the woman’s personal belongings.

Besides focusing on diversifying the clues, we have also enriched the plots to provide much more options than the story’s linear narrative. Freedom of choice is something we try to strengthen in the gameplay’s rules. Particularly, we give the player the possibilities of saying different things. For example, when inquiring from the housekeeper where the old woman lives, the player could choose to be either nice or rude to the housekeeper (the former earns the player one of the clues). The ending is also no longer a binary opposition of finding or not finding enough evidence, but more complex scenarios besides whether the lawyer succeeds/fails in his job. For example, the lawyer could gather enough clues but still receive a “bad ending” if he chooses to ignore them with a guilty conscience or his sympathy for the woman. In such ways, we used creative means to expand the linear narratives of the original story with many branches of possibilities.

Our work goes beyond the textual form. A lot of descriptions covering the lawyer’s thoughts were given in our original plan, but they—being words in large stanzas—lack the nervous immediacy the lawyer would likely feel. To make the player feel more immersed in the game, we look into adapting hypermediacy, finding many pictures to complement the story’s background. While words require the intensive workings of your own imaginations, images give the player a much more direct sense of the surroundings. For us modern people, it might be a bit difficult to imagine the decrepit neighborhoods in a 19th Century London, but the pictures convey such historical scenes in a clear fashion. Furthermore, we apply filters to some of the photos, making their overall tones suitable for conveying a variety of emotions. We have also looked into giving the game background music for different scenes, so that they subtly convey what the lawyer feels in such situations.

We learned the process of remediating a literary artwork to the platform of a computer form in this project. We not only familiarized ourselves with software available to make a game (Trello), but also paid a lot of attention to the process of remediation between artistic platforms. Most importantly, we enjoy the possibility of expanding and adapting the story’s thrilling plots to a new media. If we were to continue on and create a full game, we would not only remediate the whole story, but also allow players to play from multiple perspectives. For example, once you complete Mr. Mayherne’s storyline and unlock the right ending, you can play as Leonard Vole and try to get away with murder. Additionally, you could play as Romaine and try to pull off the disguise. Other than more endings and choices, we also would create more detailed evidence, such as designing handwriting for each character. However, overall we are proud of how we were able to turn “Witness for the Prosecution” into an interactive game and enjoyed the process.

Finally, this is a link to the html file which houses Group 8’s game. To view the game, just copy and paste this link into your browser:

The link to the Trailer:

Programming and digital work: Elizabeth

Story script: Avery, Jack, Qingyang, Zhixian

Finding Photos/Music: Avery, Jack, Qingyang, Richard

Document: Avery , Zhixian

Trailer: Richard

Ozymandias Remediated

Game Design Document: Ozymandias

         Creating something new is one of the great abilities of mankind. Stories of creation are some of the oldest known to man, as they can even be traced back to the Old Testament. These stories of creation have long captured our imagination, and authors have realized this for generations. From Pygmalion, in Ovid’s Metamorphoses, to Shelly’s Frankenstein, people have always been enthralled by the idea of something new being made, and the consequences of such creation. However, with creation comes the consequential and often disappointing understanding that nothing built by man can last forever. The great human desire to create magnificent things, coupled with the knowledge that those inspiring creations will ultimately crumble caught the attention of our group. Thus, we turned to the poem Ozymandias by Percy Shelly. This poem highlights the finite window of human creation and importance, and our group knew that it was the piece we wanted to recreate.

         The goal of our project was to remediate the poem into a first-person controlled video game environment. The first question we had to ask ourselves was what we wanted our project to encompass. We decided that we wanted to create a desert landscape with the ruins of Ozymandias laying strewn across the overworld. The other aspect that we decided on very quickly was that the centerpiece of our game was going to be a puzzle. Just as poems need to be taken apart and solved in a sense, so does a puzzle. Only when all of the pieces are seen together as a whole does one fully understand the purpose of either the poem or the puzzle.

Once these preliminary decisions were made, the tasks had to be split up between group members. Luckily for our group, we had a variety of skill sets. This allowed us to divvy up the tasks to those who would do them best and most efficiently. Creating and coding the game, writing the game design document, and making the trailer/review video became our main tasks. So we started working, and here is what became of it.

Choosing what we would create

When starting to create the game itself we needed to decide as a group what we wanted the end project to look like. The basic idea was to create a desert landscape with ruins of a great statue and other structures strewn across the visual plain. This sort of grand setting filled with the remains of an older world was the type of aesthetic our group was looking for. Once this was decided we realized that there were two different scenes we needed to create: the desert landscape and the puzzle itself.

The desert was easy to decide on because it is laid out plainly in the poem, “the lone and level sands stretch far away.” Having exact imagery to base our project off of made things a bit easier in terms of decision making. This wording allowed for us to decide on a simple flat landscape for our project. The textures would be made to look like sand so as to imitate our desired desert landscape. In the far background the sand appears to slope upwards to give the feeling of being in a real desert, with the end of your field of view blending into the sky to create a realistic feeling horizon. This expansive and empty feeling is taken from the line “boundless and bare” as it should feel like there may be no end to the desolate land around them. You are alone in this destroyed and empty land which should help elicit a similar feeling to the one you gain from reading the original piece.

After deciding on our setting, the first object was chosen. “Two vast and trunkless legs of stone/Stand in the desert” is the first mention of physical structures in the poem. As it is the first thing the traveller talks about in the poem, we knew that the scale of these legs needed to be very large compared to everything else in our scene so that they stood out immediately to the player when they entered the game. In the poem itself Ozymandias says he is “King of Kings”. This is quite a bold statement, and signifies that the setting that we were going to create needed to be grand and on a very large scale. For this reason, our group decided to use a model of the statue of King Ramses II to depict what a statue of Ozymandias might have looked like for real. King Ramses II, along with many past leaders of great empires, loved grandiose creations, especially those created for him and in his image.

Along with these “trunks” of King Ramses, we felt that the player would gain more from seeing what happened to the top half of the destroyed statue so that the true scale and size of the sculpture could be seen and experienced by the player of the game. In order for the size and scale to really make an impact on the player, other pieces were needed in the landscape of a size more similar to that of the player. For these objects our group chose what looked like the remains found in an archaeological site of an old egyptian/mediterranean civilization. The ruins strewn across the landscape near the statue highlights the eventual collapse of previous grandeur. In the poem, the pedestal of the statue reads, “…Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!” However, now, “Nothing beside remains.” The player can see that everything here was once grand and beautiful, and yet sadly nothing beside remains are left.

The second part of our game was the puzzle aspect. This was created originally in a separate unity scene that we would incorporate into the larger desert scene later. This puzzle is a six piece 3D puzzle that when put together depicts an old illustration of what life may have looked like back in the time of the great King Ozymandias. This part of our game is in first person also, and was initially coded with a Virtual Reality control scheme so it should feel even more like a hands on exercise in a lost and forgotten world. Once the puzzle is successfully completed, a pyramid rises out of the ground as a “reward” for the player and acts as a testament to the rise and fall of different empires and civilizations, and a dramatic reading of the poem begins. As we learn from our past, we should be so lucky as to create more grand structures and creations for mankind to marvel at. It is a (hopefully) never ending cycle of creation followed by destruction. The knowledge that nothing will ever last forever should never impede our ability to create beauty. Ozymandias and our game stand as reminders to the importance of having history to look back on in the first place.

Creating the individual Objects and Puzzle

The first things that needed to be created were the puzzle pieces and sand terrain. To create these objects we needed to start with basic cube shapes. These cubes heights were decreased and textures were imported in order to give them their appearance. In this case we imported sand textures from an asset pack for Egyptian style topography. In order to make a large desert landscape, copying the same object over and over and repeatedly adding it next to each other was necessitated. The difficult part of this process was determining the correct height for each of the objects relative to one another in the game. Not only did the objects need to physically make sense next to each other, the textures needed to be applied to each of these objects in order for them to look appropriate and uniform in reference to one another.

The next set of objects that needed to be created and configured were the pyramid and sand dunes. The pyramid was a little bit more simple to create as the model is entirely made out of cubes. This set of cubes was turned into a prefab which is a function of unity that allows you to create and store properties on a multi-part object with all of its components, property values, and so on. The sand dunes were more difficult to construct because they had to be rounded into trapezoidal-esque shapes in order to resemble their real life counterparts. The modification of the initial cube shapes into these more rounded ones was done in blender by modifying the vertices on the object. Once it was put into the desired trapezoid shape,the appropriate textures were applied to the pyramid and sand dunes in a similar manner to how we did it with the puzzle pieces and original sand terrain.

The next task that needed to be accomplished was scripting the gameplay. This meant that every scene that we were going to make had to flow into one another seamlessly. The script that needed to be written was such that when the puzzle was completed the pyramid would emerge from the ground and the reading of the ozymandias poem would play out of the game’s audio. A puzzle panel script was developed that ensured if the pieces were placed in the correct position on the panel, the pyramid would appear. It is important to note that the script was added to the pyramid and not the puzzle because the pyramid is the object that was being affected by the completion of the puzzle. This script included trigger events that would cause certain actions to unfold on screen. In this case, the pyramid was raised out of the ground a certain magnitude in the y direction as soon as the puzzle was completed.

There is also a first person controller on the game which allows for the gameplay to feel like you are walking through the game yourself. The first person aspect allowed for a more immersive experience when exploring the ruins and desert landscape. In the puzzle portion of the game a VR system was incorporated to allow users to have a “tangible” experience with the canvas user-interface (the puzzle). Several scripts were made to allow the player to face the canvas from where the VR camera was positioned and move the camera accordingly based on the position of their gaze.

The one real issue our group ran into was the fact that we had two separate games created that had to be integrated into each other. In the end we could not get the puzzle to work in the larger first person controlled environment so we had to keep them as separate programs.

What we took away from the project

The best thing our group did was split up the workload. We realized quickly that the skills of our group members varied, and thus making each of us do equal amounts of the same work did not make sense. Naturally, we decided that giving each person individual tasks would make the process of making our game, and subsequent parts of the project, much smoother. There were three main tasks our group had to complete: the coding and creation of the game, the trailer/review video, and the creation of this game design document. Once we had this organized, the creation of the game became much easier. With two of our group members working on the hands-on coding and object creation, the rest of us were able to give outside ideas and suggestions on what we wanted in the gameplay. Also of note is that our video creation was more difficult than expected as our group did not have access to the iMovie video editing software. This, then, resulted in a manual creation of composite shots, transitions, and title cards, which is much more intensive and difficult than using the premade iMovie templates.

Throughout the semester, we have played a wide variety of games, with each game teaching us something new about the world (and worlds) of video games. Lord of the Rings Online introduced us to MMORPGs, while simultaneously offering an incredible remediation of arguably the greatest fantasy epic in recent history. Braid shows us the potential for video games to serve as symbols and metaphors for our humanity and our flaws therin. Papers, Please exemplifies the concept of procedural rhetoric by plunging the player into a world where morality is defined by laws of authority. Gone Home illustrates the lush storytelling power and potential of video games, and Portal combines many of these elements in an argument against the growth of human dependence on technology. However, despite the vast differences found in these games, they all have one thing in common that was impossible for us to ignore: they were all made by someone else.Creating Ozymandias gave us the unique opportunity to create something of our own. Although none of us thought it would be easy to create a video game, we naturally feel a newfound sense of respect towards professional game creators and of pride in our creation. This assignment gave each of us invaluable insight into the challenges and (sometimes) consequent triumphs of game making. Whether we were on the creative side of development or the programming side, we each now have a much greater understanding of and appreciation for game design, and we are excited about our future endeavors in the exciting and ever-changing world of video games.

Game Trailer:

Game Development: Max Beck, Justin Yu

Game Design Document: Joseph Finkelstein, Peter Taylor (additional)

Trailer/Review Video: Alex Leroux, Pat Demarco

Audiovisual recording: Peter Taylor

Trello Board Operation: Peter Taylor

Video Games: Making Fools of Us All

A video game’s first job is to fool its players. We have talked at length about how games have their rules and procedures for players to follow. What we have not discussed is how these rules can differ completely from our reality, yet we are made to believe these rules are real and important. In my fiction writing class we learned the same thing, just in a different medium: the more a fiction deviates from reality, the more novel truths the creator must convince their audience to accept. A world unique from ours still needs to be a sensible one. If the creators fail to make us believe in their world, the game fails, but if it succeeds…well, we as players get to enjoy a whole new reality.

Few games have been as exemplary of this as Thomas Was Alone. Upon starting, the rules of this world are simple: you are a red rectangle by the name of Thomas, moving up and to the right to reach the next level. That is the core game structure; you take control of various rectangles and get them from one side of the screen to the other, dodging obstacles along the way. This world is easy enough to accept, but the creator, Mike Bithell, throws in an extra rule: these rectangles are self-aware with their own personalities.

Thomas Was Alone Trailer

On the surface, these rectangles differ by no more than their color, shape, and jumping ability, but through these differences the creator spins a story in which these attributes shape how the characters interact with the world and each other. In this long journey from one side of the screen to the other, they learn what makes them unique, what their life purpose is, and even how to love one another. Yes, that’s right. One of Bithell’s rules is that these rectangles can fall in love, thus we see a short, cynical square named Chris fall deeply in love with the thin, horizontal Laura who lets him jump higher than ever.

Chris (bottom left) and Laura (upper right) getting ever closer

The craziest thing about this? It works! Bithell convinces us that rectangles are ready and willing to take on these human attributes through brilliant storytelling and character development. Of course, this could have all been much easier with humans, or maybe even some talking animals, anthropomorphizing familiar objects to bring the rules that much closer to reality, but no. In this world we are taught to invest in and empathize with shapes.

Claire (bottom) saving John (left) and Thomas (right) in proper superhero fashion

Now why does it matter that we believe in rectangles that eventually sacrifice themselves to offer others their freedom? Bithell had a perfectly fine game full of problem-solving and coordination, so why don’t the rules stop there? To answer my own question with another, what’s the point of moving a rectangle across a screen? This is not Tetris or Mahjong, other rectangle-based games with high scores as the goal. In fact, there is no quantitative value for actions beyond making it to the next level (and collecting the occasional floating square for an achievement). The value lies within the story. With each level, you learn a little more about the world you are jumping around in, and the partners you are jumping around with. If Bithell failed to make you believe there is value in this, you likely would not be playing.

By tricking us into believing that this two-dimensional world is one with a rich history and dynamic characters, Bithell leaves you with values to bring back into this mundane world. He teaches you what it means to be a friend. He teaches you the value in serving a higher purpose. And more relevant than ever, he teaches you that we are never truly alone. With lessons like these, who cares that you had to be tricked to learn them?

The Last of Us: Pushing the boundary between cinema and video games

WARNING!!! This post contains heavy spoilers for Last of Us part 1 and 2…

I recommend watching all of the clips in this blog post to get a better sense of what I am discussing, but they do include a heavy use of language and violence which might disturb some people.

WOW! The Last of Us has to be one of the most remarkable game series I have ever played. With the release of The Last of Us Part II this year, my mind was absolutely blown. This series redefined the line that separates a game from a movie. Now I know that’s a very bold statement to make, so here is some background for those of you who don’t know the game:

The Last of Us was released in 2013 by the video game developers Naughty Dog who were previously known for their games Uncharted and Jax, which told these grandiose stories of adventure. The Last of Us follows Joel, a father from Texas who is impacted along with the rest of the world by an outbreak of a virus that turns people into these zombie-like creatures called “infected.” The opening is this devastating scene where we see Joel trying to escape with his daughter, who is fatally shot by a soldier who is given orders to shoot them since they might be infected. This heartbreaking scene ends, and the title card cues just like a movie. Already with this 20-minute long opening scene, the player is shown something that was so unique and never seen before in a video game. The graphics are beautiful, the music is powerful, and the emotions and despair in these characters can be felt by the player.

A screenshot taken in a cutscene from the first game

The whole game plays like a movie, and throughout, the player witnesses more moving moments as the characters develop and change along the seasons (separates the four acts of the story). There is a lot to the plot, so I obviously can’t talk about all of it, but the main idea is that Joel is sent to deliver this girl (Ellie), who might be a possible cure to the virus to the fireflies (a group trying to find a cure) who are stationed across the country in Salt Lake City. Joel and Ellie begin to bond as the seasons change, and Joel begins to see Ellie as the daughter he lost. Then after many heartbreaking and heartwarming events, the game reaches its final scene.

This is the last act of the first game in the series

This last scene left players with so many emotions and wanting MORE. The Last of Us instantly became critically acclaimed, won multiple Game of the Year awards, became one of the best-selling video games of all time, AND is often referred to as one of the greatest video games ever made… Now that’s a lot…

I mainly have not talked about gameplay so far in this post, and that’s because this game is unique in that I don’t think the gameplay is as essential or revolutionary (still an exceptional achievement in the game) in the effect that the game leaves on the player. This leads me to the primary point of this blog.

The Last of Us plays like a movie, which is what makes the game so powerful to watch and play. This game redefined what it means to be a video game and moved past the importance of gameplay and focuses primarily on the artwork, cinematography, voice acting, and everything else, which makes a movie come together. This game alone introduced a whole new genre of games that goes beyond the typical gameplay formats and focuses mainly on the story and cinematic experiences. Since the release of The Last of Us, many games have followed this design and you even have games like God of War (2018) which changed genres and follows The Last of Us’ storytelling format. All of this has further pushed the question of when does a video game become analogous to a movie.

Then along came The Last of Us Part II…

With a least six years in the making and a budget of around 100 million dollars, The Last of Us Part II pushes this boundary to the next level.

To get an idea of this budget and the team that went into making this game a reality, it cost as much to make movies like 1917, The Wolf of Wall Street, and Deadpool 2. Like 1918 and The Wolf of Wall Street, which grossed over 300 million dollars in their box office runs, The Last of Us Part II broke records of being the fasting selling PS4 exclusive by selling over 4 million copies in its first week. Assuming that every copy was a standard edition game valued at 60 dollars (which is inaccurate since there are limited editions ranging up to 300 dollars), the game made over 240,000,000 million dollars in its first week of launch.

Aside from the numbers, every scene in this game is beautifully crafted and brought to life with the intricate level of detail in the artwork, character expression, and the soundtrack. The landscapes and cinematography displayed in this game rival films and even surpass them knowing that it is all digitally created through lines of code. On top of that, the story is this harrowing and captivating tale of revenge and retribution where, as the player, you question every decision you are forced to make as your character until, at the end, you are left with nothing. These dark and gritty moments are contrasted with relaxing scenes that give you a sense of ease until being thrown back into a ruthless, unforgiving world.

A scene in the game where Ellie plays an acoustic rendition of “Take on Me”

Unfortunately, I can’t write out the entire plot the the game since it is over 20 hours of content, but here is the last scene to get a better understanding of the story and meaning that this game paints for the audience.

Gameplay and cutscenes from the last act in the second game

Even without any context of the game, this final scene alone shows the emotions and struggles that the characters face. It also demonstrates the game’s wide range of locations and scenery, just like a movie. With all of these components that have now been laid out, what makes this game different than a movie? In my opinion, nothing. Of course, it is a little different since the story is over 20 hours long and still follows most game designs in that you interact and move the character outside of cutscenes. Other than this, The Last of Us Part I and Part II are no different than a movie you would see in theaters. Both forms of media lay out masterfully crafted stories with real life applications, character development that allows the audience to empathize for the fate of these characters, and cinematography that paints these magnificent portraits that place us in the world that the story revolves around.

Just as The Last of Us Part I was a perfect ending to the PS3, The Last of Us Part II is the perfect end to the generation of the PS4. These games have opened up the doors for future games to choose to transcend the traditional format of quests/missions and instead become a complement to the art of films.

The Effects of Going Free to Play: A Case Study

Free to play; it’s a fairly simple concept. Take your phone, PC, or console, load up its respective game/app store, download, and play! Hundreds of millions of people play free games, as no direct payment is required to play (other than the expensive device, of course).

But what about pay to play games?

The number of people playing these kinds of games are lower since a direct payment is required (on top of that expensive device…yikes!) Many people can’t afford or aren’t willing to shell out that extra cash for a game, which could amount to $70-$80, leaving Ashley Hemenway’s “casual gamer” behind.

My Credit Card Balance After Steam Sales

Clearly, there are two distinct communities that make up most of the free/pay to play games. The dedicated gamers might be found in both communities, but not vice versa. This split creates two different ways games are marketed and consumed, which should mean that these communities won’t interact with each other.

At this thought I came to multiple questions that have even more answers: What happens when a pay to play game goes free to play? How is the community affected? How is monetization affected? WHAT HAPPENS?!?!?

Surprise! I can tell you, as I have been a part of this community and monetary shift… twice now. Combined, I have over 1300 hours spent on these games, and I still play both to this day. Destiny 2 and Rocket League are two of my favorite video games, period. The former is a lore-filled, immersive experience and the latter is a thrilling twist on the classic sport of soccer (or football, however you say it.)

Before I dive into the effects of going free to play on these games, I want to give a clearer definition of free to play and pay to play. All free to play games are either games that have advertisements littered throughout or are “freemium” games: a free download, but progress can be made by paying for in-game currency. Some games are truly free to play, but they offer premium cosmetics, i.e. Fortnite. Pay to play games have an asking price, but many also offer premium cosmetics as well.

Alright, let’s start with Destiny 2.

Taken from GameSpot

Destiny 2 released at $60, a standard price for a AAA title, and was developed by Bungie and Activision. In-game currency could be purchased to buy cosmetic items, and expansion packs were released at premium prices for fresh and novel in-game content. Riding the wave of popularity that its predecessor had, Destiny 2 sales were off the charts. Bungie and Activision never gave specific numbers, but more units of Destiny 2 were sold in its first year compared to its predecessor (sold from 2014-2017). In 2018, a third-party site, DestinyTracker, logged roughly 8 million users on Destiny 2, and roughly 600K played daily. In short, it was one of the biggest games in the gaming industry, competing with the likes of Call of Duty.

On October 1st, 2019, Destiny 2 became free to play. What happened to the numbers? The culture? Were casual gamers introduced into the fiercer side of gaming?

On October 4th of this year, a little over 1 year after becoming free to play, DestinyTracker logged roughly over 20.6 million players with 1.4 million active players online. That’s around 2.4 New York Cities registered as a player, and 1/8 of New York City actively playing. Holy smokes. Unfortunately for Bungie, they made no money directly from adding millions of players, but they exposed the new players to the cosmetics and the expansion packs. In 2019, these same cosmetics and expansion packs earned Bungie a whopping $300 million, with only a ¼ of the year including the “free to play version” of Destiny 2. The numbers for 2020 haven’t been released yet, but with the release of 2 expansion packs and an overhaul of the microtransaction shop, we can expect to see that number go up.

There’s something else besides numbers that are extremely important: the community. The Destiny community has been around since 2014, and it’s even stronger now. Of course, adding players will directly increase the number of avid community members. We can even assume that some casual gamers were exposed to Destiny 2 and became a part of the Destiny and gaming community. Content creators became more popular, as twitch streamers and YouTubers alike saw their view and subscriber counts soar. Hackers in the PvP mode became more prevalent. Puzzles and mysteries in the game that rewarded rare items became a team effort of millions. Overall, going free to play created a buzz around the game that hadn’t been felt before, and the sheer exposure Destiny 2 garnered will ingrain itself in popular and gaming culture alike.

Picture of a Number Puzzle that Took Multiple Days to Solve by Hundreds of People

Now, to Rocket League.

Courtesy of Epic Games

This game is the most sports-like game I know. It’s a riveting 3-on-3 soccer match with cars, lasting 5 minutes with overtime (if necessary). Rocket League was released in July of 2015, sold for the small price of $20. Like Destiny 2, this game offered cosmetics for a premium price. Rocket League did incredibly well for its small developing team Psyonix; it made over $110 million from sales and microtransactions in its first year and accrued over 5 million active players. These numbers would steadily increase year after year, making Rocket League a smash hit in the gaming community.

The numbers certainly are impressive, but I believe what truly drives Rocket League (pun intended) is its involvement in e-sports. As of now, Rocket League is one of the most popular e-sports in the world, competing for viewership with League of Legends and CS:GO.  In the Rocket League community, organizations like NRG, Renault Vitality, and G2 are household names, and superstars like Squishy, jstn, rizzo, turbopolsa, and fairy peak are the most known players around. They play for the world championship title in the Rocket League Championship Series (RLCS), which averages around 100K views each year. Each season includes its own storyline, clutch moment, and heartbreak.

The Greatest Moment in RLCS

Rocket League went free to play just short of two weeks ago on September 23rd, 2020. How will this affect its revenue and community?

I want to use Destiny 2 as a model here. Destiny 2 microtransaction sales are on the rise, and I believe Rocket League will experience the same effect, but on a lesser magnitude. However, Rocket League will certainly make up for it. There’s no doubt in my mind that most of the money will be coming from e-sports. Increased popularity will boost viewership, which will boost ticket sales for LAN events. Already, the average viewership on Twitch alone has gone up from around 30K to 60-80K. New organizations will flock to pick up the increased high-skill player base to compete in RLCS, leading to more sponsorship deals and funding. Prize pools for tournaments will become much larger. I believe that the already large e-sports scene of Rocket League will grow exponentially and surpass games like CS:GO and Rainbow Six Siege.

I haven’t even mentioned the player base. As an active player for a couple years, I normally see around 100K-200K online each day. I logged on come September 24th, a day after free to play launched, and nearly 1.1 million people were playing. That’s almost a million new players AT ONCE. Not only that, but that daily average competes with the likes of Destiny 2.  Given time, a portion of that million could become the next jstn, the next squishy, the next turbopolsa. A casual gamer now could become RLCS world champion in a couple years. Where Destiny 2 won in microtransaction/DLC sales, Rocket League will win big in the e-sports scene.

Don’t get me wrong, the growth of Destiny 2 after it went free to play was fun to watch. The community came together like never before, and, most importantly to Bungie, they made a lot of money. The Destiny franchise will go down as one of the all-time greats, facilitated by the free to play move. However, I’m even more excited to watch the growth of Rocket League. This game has the potential to amass the same player base Destiny 2 has and to grow one of the most exciting e-sports to watch. Do I know exactly what will happen with Rocket League moving forward? No, I’m speculating based on the rise of Destiny 2. But I believe that Rocket League will become a cornerstone for all gamers, casual or avid, and it will become the poster child for the e-sports scene.

After all, “This is Rocket League!”

-Alex LeRoux

Discovery and Control: How Video Games and Tabletop Games are Learning from One Another

This week, I once again found myself listening to one of Geoff Englestein’s excellent “GameTek” segments on the podcast Ludology. Geoff’s short segments cover scientific and psychological topics related to gaming, and the topic from this installment – episode 230.5 – was “Implicit vs Explicit”. Geoff’s analysis underpins a foundational struggle underlying game design, one which I feel explains many of the recent trends in the game mechanics found across both video and tabletop gaming. In case you have six minutes to spare, do go listen to Geoff’s eloquent and insightful analysis for yourself:

Listen to Geoff’s Episode

In this brief segment, Geoff uses a case study from his historical game Versailles 1919 to describe a common tension in game design: when should designers make the systems of a game explicit for player’s to understand from the outset of play, and when should they leave parts of the system hidden such that players must learn by discovery? In his own design, Geoff wrestled with whether or not he should make the political stability of regions explicitly stated on the game board, or if he should make differences in stability expressed varying ratios of each region’s cards in the deck, the latter being an implicit way to show region’s individualities that requires repeated play to learn for oneself.

There is evidence that player’s engage in implicit learning before they can even articulate what they have learned. Geoff cites the Iowa Gambling Task, an experiment in which individuals could draw from any of four decks (each with different ratios of cards) and gained or lost money based on what they drew. Although it took forty draws before most players could articulate which decks they felt were better or worse, after only ten draws players showed stress reactions when they decided to draw from one of the bad decks.

Geoff concludes that designers can leverage implicit information in games to reduce the cognitive load on players. He also notes how video games tend to do this well – hiding lots of information about the strengths and weaknesses of various options so that players must discover the system through play. Implicitly learned systems can likewise create a more immersive experience within the fiction of the game world by not plainly explaining their rules.

Tabletop games typically feature explicit rulebooks outlining their systems.

Nevertheless, there is a degree of control gamers can gravitate towards when rules are explicitly stated. Many board games are easier to approach competetively as a first time player than many video games, as it’s far more difficult to shortcut the learning curve of discovery than it is to efficinetly digest a rules explanation.

As I read this part of Geoff’s analysis, I realized I saw a trend in popular gaming over the last two decades. Video games often seem to be utlilizing smaller rules systems and online communities that work to provide explicit conslidation of those systems, while new tabletop games are striving for the open-ended allure of video games, wherein systems are largely implicit and left to be discovered.

For example, the most high-profile Kickstarter successes by board game designers in the last decade have been games like The Seventh Continent and Gloomhaven, games with massively expansive worlds and stories to be explored over repeated plays. New types of cards and challenges are unearthed as the game progresses, effectively melding the immersive discovery of video games with the tactile nature and social allure of tabletop gaming. On a personal level, I was intrigued by both of these designs when droves of reviewers called them innovative, and after trying them found myself impressed with the way in which both games put players on a constant brink of discovery, both in terms of the fictional world and gameplay mechanics.

Gloomhaven” is a massive fantasy board game, weighing almost 22 pounds and containing hundreds of hours of gameplay across branching scenarios and divergent storylines.

Conversely, one of the major genres of games to succeed in the last five years are battle royal and arcade games such as Fortnite and Call of Duty: Zombies. These games see players repeatedly playing in the same gameplay space, one which is very small by video gaming standards, and striving to improve their performance in game after gme with relatively little randomness to obstruct the player’s agency. Sound a lot like a digital implementation of a tabletop game? I think so too. Moreover, the increasing popularity of forums and write ups in video gaming communities has led to more sharing of explicit information than ever, and increasing numbers of players are flocking to these articles to find out the exact mechanisms at play behind their favorite game’s flashy graphics. In essence, video game communities are writing and sharing the rulebooks to their games, even though rulebooks are an often maligned attribute of tabletop gaming.

The original map for the hit game “Fortnite”.

I don’t foresee these trends continuing forever, but I do think they represent much needed growth from designers in both digital and analog games. Implicit and explicit systems have their place in all kinds of games, and judicious employment of each is crucial to design. As a game designer, I’m keen on identifying the strengths of various mediums, but I also love to identify where design has restricted itself based on unfounded assumptions. Why should a Skyrim fan limit their gaming to digital worlds when analog games like Gloomhaven might satisfy the same itch? Mediums should indeed play to their strengths, but all games can bring in new audiences and innovate in their respective fields by studying other game forms and rethinking hitoric assumptions.

– Dylan Kistler

The Legend of Zelda and the Silent Protagonist

Nintendo has a history with silent protagonist: Mario rarely, if ever, speaks in his games, Samus in the original Metroid games, and all the avatar characters in Fire Emblem. However, probably the most famous example of Nintendo’s love of silent protagonist is Link, the main playable character in the Legend of Zelda series.

Link as seen from Ocarina of Time promotional art

When video games were first coming into vogue, it made sense to have a main character of few words. The sound cards were only capable of making chips and chirps, and its not like the stories were so involved as to require an in-game exposition. But, as it stands now, it is increasingly more strange how Nintendo refuses to upgrade Link from a silent protagonist. The ways they have gotten around giving Link speaking roles in some of the more recent Zelda games are honestly kind of hilarious in how far they reach. In 2014’s Hyrule Warriors, all of Link’s spoken dialogue and in-battle quotes are done through a fairy named Proxi, and in 2017’s Breath of the Wild, Link is the only major character not to have voice acted lines in cutscenes.

The introduction of Proxi in Hyrule Warriors

This refusal to give Link a voice, and by extension a personality, is extremely frustrating to Legend of Zelda fans as the games gradually become more about the story and relatonships between characters. With the new Hyrule Warriors games and Breath of the Wild prequel coming out on November 20, I am curious to see how Nintendo will once again skirt around Link’s silence, especially scenes between just him and one other character.

Promotional image for the upcoming game Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity

Death, Taxes, and Video Games

For being one of the few things guaranteed at birth, death is a fickle thing. I am not promised how I’ll die, when I’ll die, or where I’ll die, but death is promised nonetheless. Maybe I can chalk up death’s inevitability to life being unfair, or it could be the only thing that’s fair when the credits roll on my game of life. But no matter how much I prepare for this inescapable ending, death is often unexpected.

It took me a whole year to realize Pokemon evolution was a thing…

This (among other things) is where reality and video games differ. Yes, death is assured in video games, but it is expected at some point in my journey. Whether that is my Chewbacca crumbling into a pile of Lego limbs after losing four hearts or my Charmander fainting in battle against yet another wild Pokemon, death is a part of the contract you sign as soon as you boot up your system.

For being one of the few things guaranteed at birth, death is an unfamiliar thing… until it’s not. I knew what death was from an early age because of how innately straightforward it is; it’s the state of not living, of not being, anymore. That is obviously an oversimplification of an incredibly complex idea. But, we aren’t born with the mental capacity to understand its intricacies, and until we do, we are forced to live with this elementary concept of death.

This is where reality and video games are similar. My mortality has and always will be easier to understand than others’. My life is finite and full of “Game Over” screens. I made tentative peace with that a while ago, whether that came in the form of turning to religion or throwing a few controllers across the room. Still, despite my internal preparation, I couldn’t wrap my head around a friend or loved one passing away.

Video games taught me to expect death, but Mass Effect broke those seemingly sacred rules. For the uninitiated, Mass Effect is the ultimate mix of a third-person, sci-fi shooter and a soap opera. In between your firefights with invading alien hordes and saving the universe from genocidal annihilation, you spend your most meaningful time convincing NPCs to join your crew aboard your equivalent of the Millenium Falcon. Over the span of three games and 200 hours, these crewmembers feel more like friends as opposed to a few megabytes in the game’s bedrock of code.

Nose goes on filling up the tank!

My favorite crewmember was Legion, an enemy robot, or Geth, that inexplicably joins your quest. Legion is a conglomerate of every Geth personality and, therefore, struggles with the concept of free will, referring to itself as “we.” Despite its steely exterior, Legion has a lovable personality, a hilariously dry sense of humor, and is always eager to help his commander.

Throughout the trilogy, I died countless times while Legion charged through levels like a bulletproof battering ram. I was conditioned to believe Legion was invincible in the face of my own helpless mortality.

Great soldier, terrible cuddler.

Towards the end of the third game, Legion and the Geth have a chance to be freed from the chains of their code… with one catch: Legion must sacrifice itself for its race to achieve true free will. His final words before shutting down one last time are “I’m sorry. I must go.” After three games of referring to himself as “we,” Legion finally recognizes his individuality. Through tears, I reloaded the level and tried again and again and again to save Legion to no avail. Death is inevitable, no matter how many times I tried to help my friend escape it.

My great grandma passed away later that year, and I thought I was ready. I thought I knew what death was. I tried reminding myself of my oversimplification, and that made me sick. I told myself that “she was in a better place,” but I knew I was lying to myself. I wanted to hug her once last time, or eat her homemade pie, or just hear her soft voice again. But, all I could do was cry. You can do everything right, but sometimes that’s still not enough. No matter how prepared for or familiar you are with death, the inevitable is labeled so for a reason. The most important lesson I’ve learned from gaming and life is that, after the necessary tears and mourning, I have a mission to pursue every day, whether that is saving the virtual universe or just spending time with my friends and family I am fortunate enough to still have with me today.

Pokemon Showdown: The Underground Community of Smogon University

We’ve all played a Pokemon video game before. The iconic franchise started with Pokemon Red and Green in 1996 and has since spawned eight generations of video games, a theme park in Japan, and countless Pokemon cards cherished by 8-year-olds around the globe.

Pokemon Red and Green were originally released in Japan in 1996 for the Game Boy console.

For the past 25 years, Pokemon video games have all followed the same formula:

  1. Receive a starter Pokemon.
  2. Battle other Pokemon trainers to increase the level of your Pokemon, including bosses called “Gym Leaders” along the way.
  3. Defeat the final boss, the “Champion” of the region.
  4. The End…?
Classically, every Pokemon video game starts with a battle between the player’s starter Pokemon and his or her rival’s (the in-game archnememy) level 5 starter Pokemon.

For me personally, the model has gotten stale for a couple of reasons. Firstly, Pokemon games are non-competitive; players are mostly self-contained within their own environment and the infrastructure within the game to battle other humans is mediocre at best. Secondly, the “leveling grind” to level your Pokemon to the maximum level of 100 is mind-numbingly boring. Here’s some context: a Pokemon requires approximately 1 million experience points to reach level 100. Defeating the average wild Pokemon, which takes 30 sec-1 min, will grant approximately 500 experience points…yeah. You can do the math. To many of us, these games just start to feel a little old.

I don’t know how long it took this person to get Rhydon to level 100, but it was probably too long.

Enter: Pokemon Showdown.

The days of leveling up Pokemon and defeating pre-programmed NPC’s are no more. In the span of 5 minutes, you can visit, customize a team of Pokemon by level, move set, and other traits, and then engage in battle with another user who has done the same. The Internet is truly amazing.

Gameplay of a battle with another user on Pokemon Showdown.

What impresses me so much about the Pokemon Showdown community is how creative it is. TPCI (The Pokemon Company International) created a competition circuit revolving around the official Pokemon games, but Pokemon Showdown has them beat by a landslide in popularity. Members of the Pokemon Showdown community have converged to an online forum dubbed, “Smogon University” to create their own rulesets, ban lists, and tournaments completely separate from the official Pokemon ones.

Smogon University forums: a repository of advice, competitive Pokemon battling resources, and friends.

Pokemon Showdown appeals to even casual Pokemon fans. There is a game mode named, “Random battle” where a team of Pokemon will be automatically generated for you to play against another player with a similarly random generated team. My roommate and I often take advantage of this mode during late nights, or particularly boring Zoom lectures. Further, many more artistically talented members of the community have resorted to creating their own Pokemon, complete with art, move sets, and other data given to real Pokemon. Pokemon Showdown even has a game mode called “CAP” (“Create-A-Pokemon”), made specifically for competitive battling using both real Pokemon and these fake Pokemon, something I think is really beautiful and indicative of both the community’s creative spirit and competitive drive.

“Necturna” and “Syclant” are just two examples of Pokemon that were 100% designed, balanced, and created for Pokemon Showdown. Made by the community, made for the community.

So next time you are about to switch on your Nintendo console to level another Pokemon to level 100, think again. An underground, community-generated world is available to you within just a few quick clicks of a mouse. See you on Pokemon Showdown!

Oh, and here’s a quick guide to Pokemon Showdown if you are interested:

A guide to Pokemon Showdown by a popular youtuber, “PokeaimMD”.

Rated E – Not Quite For Everyone

controllerPractice makes perfect, but do you ever wonder why some people need less practice than others? Have you ever been awful at a video game and figured, “oh well I just need to get used to it” but then you never caught on? If you never have been in this position, you can take it from me. It is very upsetting to try and try and still not be able to pick up simple moves in Super Smash Bros, or most games truthfully. For years, I have made excuses as to why I am no good at video games and now I have finally found a possible scientific reason. My brain structure may be my flaw.

The Cerebral Cortex journal posted neurological research that studies the correlation between learning ability and the size of three specific parts of the brain. The researchers took 39 healthy adults aged 18-28 years who has reported playing less than 3 hours of video games a week for the past two years. The research was to be based on their learning ability on a game called Space Fortress, developed at the University of Illinois, over a 20-hour period. These subjects were randomly split into two groups: a fixed priority group and a variable priority group.

Fixed Priority – aim to get the highest score possible

Variable Priority  – series of tasks that forces the player to improve their skills in different areas

Space Fortress
Screenshot of Space fortress from

Each subject was given an MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) scan to determine the size of three specific structures: the dorsal striatum (putamen and caudate nucleus), the ventral striatum (nucleus accumbens), and the hippocampus. The size of each structure was recorded in comparison to the total volume of the subjects brain.

brain structures.jpeg

chart 1

The chart on the right shows that the learning curve is similar between the groups; however, the variable priority group scored 29% higher by the end of the training. This suggests that we learn better when we allow ourselves to focus on one task at a time. So maybe instead of button smashing on Super Smash Bros., I should be trying to focus on learning the moves of a specific character (but where’s the fun in that?).

When examining the correlation between brain structure and learning ability, the hippocampus was found to not be predictive of performance of improvement. This puts the focus on the striatum. The volumes of the dorsal striatum has a positive correlation with training induced performance improvements for those in the variable priority group. However, the fixed priority group has no relationship with the volumes of the dorsal striatum.

learning curveIn early training sessions, the ventral striatum (nucleus accumbens) was positively correlated with improvements in performance, but the same relationship was not seen in later sessions.

The research was concluded by arguing that “preexisting variations in striatal volume can affect the rate of learning in a complex task that involves the coordination and integration of many cognitive, motor, and perceptual parameters and rules, at least when conditions of learning capitalize on flexible learning strategies.”

That was a lot of science, but basically there are two things to get out of this study (for me, the non-scientific non-gamer).

  1. The way you try to learn a game is important
  2. Some of it may be your brain structures fault

While these discoveries may give me comfort, it is obvious that while these effects may slow down the learning process, it is still possible to become skilled at a game with enough effort.

For now though, I’ll just blame my brain structure for getting kicked out of a Rainbow Six Siege round for not being able to kill a single person.


Check out this interview from one of our sharpest leaders working from home, Cindy Ramirez. Cindy is a passionate project manager, wife and mom of a 1-year-old and most recently a newborn. She shares her story along with some strategies that have made her experience easier.

Tell me about your experience balancing mom-life and work-life.

“At the beginning, it was a challenge to adjust to being pregnant, taking care of a 15 month-year-old and not falling behind during our busy season. Meetings and client phone calls were a huge challenge with my kid screaming in the background. But, eventually I found balance when I moved half my workday to the evenings and now I feel I’m even more productive than being in the office.”

Cindy Ramirez

What have been the biggest challenges working from home?

“Definitely trying to multitask constantly and missing team collaboration. Being in the office made working together a lot easier and now it’s more of a challenge to get in contact with everyone and coordinate schedules.”

Cindy Ramirez

Have you found any strategies that make working from home easier?

“Yes! Sticking to a prioritized task list and keeping a daily track of percentage completed on my projects has helped. Also, just being able to answer emails on my phone or texts from our field team without being in front of the computer makes the balance easier. I feel like the best thing we can do is just continue to check in on each other during this time and give support where it’s needed.”

Cindy Ramirez

How has working at 3Sixty Integrated changed?

“From the beginning of this pandemic, the leadership at 3Sixty Integrated really stepped up. They supported all of our team members in different ways, and I think everyone can attest to this. For me in my situation, with being pregnant and having an infant at home, I was able to bring home all my office equipment early on to make working from home more effective. Also, my associates are lenient with meeting hours that work around my schedule. It’s really awesome being a part of a team like this.”

Cindy Ramirez


Marsupials Biology and Management

The majority of the world’s known mammals are placental mammals.  Placental mammals are specified by the presence of a placenta that enables the advanced development of the young before birth, a more developed brain, and some other skeletal features. Examples of placental mammals are humans, primates, bats, cats, dogs, ruminants, and rodents. Placental mammals comprise around 95% of the 5,220 species of known mammals. In contrast, marsupials are born at an embryonic stage of development. They then develop to independence by attaching firmly to the teat of the mothers. Teat may be external or throughout most marsupials covered by pouches of varying degrees of development until full pouches found in species like kangaroos.

There are ten lessons in this course:

1. Introduction
2. Anatomy and Physiology
3. Behaviour
4. Health & Disease
5. Marsupial Carnivores
6. The Diprotodontia -Kangaroos
7. Other Diprotodontia
8. Peramelemorphia
9. Other Marsupials
10. Marsupial Conservation and Management

Course Aims

  • Explain the likely origin of marsupials.
  • Explain classification of marsupials.
  • Identify common external anatomical features in marsupials
  • Explain common and diverging characteristics in the internal biology of marsupials.
  • Discuss and compare behavioural characteristics in a number of different marsupials.
  • Describe health issues that affect marsupials.
  • Identify and describe the biology, behaviour and care of marsupial carnivores.
  • Identify and describe the biology, behaviour, and care of Macropods from the Diprotodontia order.
  • Identify and describe the biology, behaviour and care of non-macropod marsupials in Diprotodontia.
  • Identify and describe the biology, behaviour and care of marsupials in order Peramelemorphia.
  • Identify and describe the biology, behaviour and care of other marsupials, specifically from the taxonomic orders Didelphimorphia, Microbiotheria, Notoryctemorphia and Paucituberculata.
  • Discuss issues related to the sustainable management of marsupials.

Enrol Now!

Fee Information (S2)
Prices in Australian Dollars

PlanAust. PriceOverseas Price
A 1 x $726.00  1 x $660.00
B 2 x $396.00  2 x $360.00

Note: Australian prices include GST.
More information about
Fees & Payment Plans.

Enrol Now 5% discount!
Select a payment plan:

Courses can be started anytime
from anywhere in the world!

All orders processed in Australian dollars.


Rig camera infrastructure

Carefully considered courses to give you the most essential skills to begin a successful career in Design and Media.
this is an core unit of
No items found.
this is an elective unit of
Unit outline

What to expect

This unit describes the skills and knowledge required to install camera infrastructure for television and other relatively complex multi-camera productions such as live sport or entertainment events.It applies to individuals who work under supervision to rig cabling and dolly tracks according to predetermined camera plans.

No items found.
Let's begin
Button Arrow


Students will be introduced to contract law through the study of case law and statutes, focusing on the elements of a valid and enforceable contract. They will learn to critically evaluate competing theories of contractual validity, synthesize the law and apply relevant principles to fact patterns designed to develop a practical understanding of the elements of an enforceable contact.

LAW 101, LAW 110 and LAW 210

Course Outlines

Effective Term
PDF Acrobat Adobe Reader Spring 2018 onwards


2021 Curriculum CFA Program Level II Quantitative Methods

Backtesting & Simulation

Download the full reading (PDF)

Available to members

This reading provides an overview of backtesting and simulation of investment strategies. Backtesting and related techniques enable investment practitioners to simulate the performance of investment strategies (especially quantitative strategies) using historical data or data derived from the distributions of historical data, to generate test results, and to analyze risk and return, without investing any real capital in the strategies.

The rise of big data and the increase in computing power have spurred the development and spread of quantitative investing. Almost every major data vendor has available tools that make systematic backtesting and simulation increasingly accessible. Off-the-shelf software allows backtesting and simulation of endless combinations of possible investment strategies, formulation of multifactor models, and construction of investable portfolios. Developing quantitative investment strategies may appear relatively straightforward, but in reality, it is not. However, understanding the steps and procedures, the implicit assumptions, the pitfalls, and the interpretation of results in backtesting and simulation is a prerequisite for proper utilization of these tools and successful development and implementation of investment strategies.

In a CFA Institute survey of nearly 250 analysts, portfolio managers, and private wealth managers on quantitative investment techniques, 50% of respondents reported that they had conducted backtesting of an investment strategy within the past 12 months of the survey date. This result underscores the importance of backtesting (and other simulation techniques) for investors in practice, and this reading is a starting point on the journey to building this core professional competency.

Learning Outcomes

The member should be able to:

  1. describe objectives in backtesting an investment strategy;

  2. describe and contrast steps and procedures in backtesting an investment strategy;

  3. interpret metrics and visuals reported in a backtest of an investment strategy;

  4. identify problems in a backtest of an investment strategy;

  5. describe different ways to construct multifactor models;

  6. compare methods of modeling randomness;

  7. evaluate and interpret a scenario analysis;

  8. contrast Monte Carlo and historical simulation;

  9. explain inputs and decisions in simulation and interpret a simulation; and

  10. demonstrate the use of sensitivity analysis.

In this reading, we have discussed how to perform rolling window backtesting—a widely used technique in the investment industry. Next, we described how to use scenario analysis and simulation along with sensitivity analysis to supplement backtesting, so investors can better account for the randomness in data that may not be fully captured by backtesting.

  • The main objective of backtesting is to understand the risk–return trade-off of an investment strategy, by approximating the real-life investment process.

  • The basic steps in a rolling window backtesting include specifying the investment hypothesis and goals, determining the rules and processes behind an investment strategy, forming an investment portfolio according to the rules, rebalancing the portfolio periodically, and computing the performance and risk profiles of the strategy.

  • In the rolling window backtesting methodology, researchers use a rolling window (or walk-forward) framework, fit/calibrate factors or trade signals based on the rolling window, rebalance the portfolio periodically, and then track the performance over time. Thus, rolling window backtesting is a proxy for actual investing.

  • There are two commonly used approaches in backtesting—long/short hedged portfolio and Spearman rank IC. The two approaches often give similar results, but results can be quite different at times. Choosing the right approach depends on the model building and portfolio construction process.

  • In assessing backtesting results, in addition to traditional performance measurements (e.g., Sharpe ratio, maximum drawdown), analysts need to take into account data coverage, return distribution, factor efficacy, factor turnover, and decay.

  • There are several behavioral issues in backtesting to which analysts need to pay particular attention, including survivorship bias and look-ahead bias.

  • Risk parity is a popular portfolio construction technique that takes into account the volatility of each factor (or asset) and the correlations of returns between all factors (or assets) to be combined in the portfolio. The objective is for each factor (or asset) to make an equal (hence “parity”) risk contribution to the overall or targeted risk of the portfolio.

  • Asset (and factor) returns are often negatively skewed and exhibit excess kurtosis (fat tails) and tail dependence compared with normal distribution. As a result, standard rolling window backtesting may not be able to fully account for the randomness in asset returns, particularly on downside risk.

  • Financial data often face structural breaks. Scenario analysis can help investors understand the performance of an investment strategy in different structural regimes.

  • Historical simulation is relatively straightforward to perform but shares pros and cons similar to those of rolling window backtesting. For example, a key assumption these methods share is that the distribution pattern from the historical data is sufficient to represent the uncertainty in the future. Bootstrapping (or random draws with replacement) is often used in historical simulation.

  • Monte Carlo simulation is a more sophisticated technique than historical simulation is. In Monte Carlo simulation, the most important decision is the choice of functional form of the statistical distribution of decision variables/return drivers. Multivariate normal distribution is often used in investment research, owing to its simplicity. However, a multivariate normal distribution cannot account for negative skewness and fat tails observed in factor and asset returns.

  • The Monte Carlo simulation technique makes use of the inverse transformation method—the process of converting a randomly generated uniformly distributed number into a simulated value of a random variable of a desired distribution.

  • Sensitivity analysis, a technique for exploring how a target variable and risk profiles are affected by changes in input variables, can further help investors understand the limitations of conventional Monte Carlo simulation (which typically assumes a multivariate normal distribution as a starting point). A multivariate skewed t-distribution takes into account skewness and kurtosis but requires estimation of more parameters and thus is more likely to suffer from larger estimation errors.


Problem: Give the formulas or names for the following compounds:sodium nitrate          ___________  CaSO 4    ___________________________sulfur hexaflouride   ___________  NH4NO3  ___________________________sodium chlorate       ___________  K2HPO4  ___________________________

FREE Expert Solution
90% (353 ratings)
Problem Details

Give the formulas or names for the following compounds:

sodium nitrate          ___________  CaSO    ___________________________
sulfur hexaflouride   ___________  NH4NO3  ___________________________
sodium chlorate       ___________  K2HPO4  ___________________________

Frequently Asked Questions

Our tutors have indicated that to solve this problem you will need to apply the Writing Ionic Compounds concept. You can view video lessons to learn Writing Ionic Compounds. Or if you need more Writing Ionic Compounds practice, you can also practice Writing Ionic Compounds practice problems.

What is the difficulty of this problem?

Our tutors rated the difficulty ofGive the formulas or names for the following low difficulty.

How long does this problem take to solve?

Our expert Chemistry tutor, Sabrina took 2 minutes and 55 seconds to solve this problem. You can follow their steps in the video explanation above.


Education and Awareness

Accessibility standards and their functional implementation can seem overwhelming and lead to inaction, particularly for those without a technical background.

While we want to continue to strive to eliminate all accessibility barriers, a focus on several core accessibility skills and knowledge will allow us to move towards a more inclusive and accessible digital environment.

Content Editor Big Ideas

You need to start somewhere on the accessibility journey, and the Big Ideas are just the place.  Learn key concepts in digital accessibility, how they impact people with disabilities, and what you can do to begin to reduce barriers on your website, in your classes, and beyond.

Web Developer Big Ideas

Developing an accessible website is a constant process that can sometimes require a great deal of expertise.  However, there are many concrete steps that most web developers can take to make their sites more accessible to all.

Education Opportunities

To assist staff, faculty, and students in meeting the responsibilities described in the EIT Accessibility Policy and Procedure, the university will make training and support readily available.

Universal Design

According to the Center for Excellence in Universal Design, “Universal Design is the design and composition of an environment so that it can be accessed, understood and used to the greatest extent possible by all people regardless of their age, size, ability or disability.”  Learn more about the principles behind Universal Design and how that can be applied in the digital realm.


Walk In Trays

Walk in shower trays are simply larger trays that are similar in size to a bath - so generally around 1700 x 700mm or 1700 x 800mm. Sometimes they have a draining area with integral grooves to allow the water to easily drain back to the waste area. You can pick your favourite glass shower screen panels and a walk in tray that matches your room sizes to create a bespoke walk in enclosure. Choose from a selection of walk in trays in acrylic, stone resin, slate and ceramic materials.


How does sleep duration affect the development of osteoporosis |
eMediNexus Coverage from:
How does sleep duration affect the development of osteoporosis
eMediNexus Editorial,  18 April 2020
Coronavirus Live Count Map India

remove_red_eye 1958 Views
COVID-19 Vaccine Updates

3 Read Comments

The American National Sleep Foundation recommends 7-9 hours of sleep per day for adults 18 years of age and older. There has been increasing amount of research into the association between osteoporosis and sleep.

Longer sleep duration has been tied to increased risk of osteoporosis. A study by Chen and colleagues assessed the relationship between sleep, daytime nap duration, and osteoporosis. It was also investigated if they varied by sex, menopause, and sleep quality. The study included 8688 participants aged 40 years or above. Investigators noted that among postmenopausal women, risks of osteoporosis for sleep durations of 7–8 h/d, 9–10 h/d, and >10 h/d were 1.531 (1.106, 2.121), 1.360 (1.035, 1.787), and 1.569 (1.146, 2.149), respectively. The risks of osteoporosis for daytime nap durations of 30–60 min/d and longer than 60 min/d were 1.553 (1.212–1.989) and 1.645 (1.250–2.165), respectively.

Sleep durations of 7–8 h/d, 9–10 h/d, and >10 h/d, and longer daytime naps were therefore linked with higher risks of having osteoporosis. Higher frequency and longer duration of daytime napping were reported to be associated with lower femoral bone mineral density (BMD) in elderly women in a study published in Scientific Reports.

Shorter sleep duration, on the other hand, has also been linked with osteoporosis in postmenopausal women. A study published in the Journal of Bone and Mineral Research included 11,084 postmenopausal women from the Womens Health Initiative. Women with a sleep duration of ≤5 hours per night had significantly BMD compared to women who reported sleeping 7 hours per night. Adjusted multinomial models revealed that women with <5 hours of sleep per night had higher odds of low bone mass and osteoporosis of hip. Women sleeping ≤5 hours per night also had an increased risk for osteoporosis at the spine.

Another study has linked poor sleep quality with osteoporosis. Increased sleep disturbances seem to be a key factor in the association between poor sleep quality and osteoporosis.

Wang et al noted that both short and long sleep duration were associated with a significantly increased risk of osteoporosis in the middle-aged and elderly adults. The investigators noted a U-shaped dose-response relationship between sleep duration and risk of osteoporosis. The lowest risk was observed at a sleep duration of 8-9 h/day. In comparison with 8-h sleep duration per day, the pooled odds ratio for osteoporosis were found to be 1.03 for each 1-h reduction in individuals with shorter sleep duration and 1.01 for each 1-h increase in individuals with longer sleep duration.

Therefore, appropriate sleep duration could play a role in delaying or preventing osteoporosis.

To comment on this article,
create a free account.
Create Account

Already registered?

Login Now


Software Developer- Buna

Hiring UAE
Job Position: Software Developer- Buna
Job Description: Arab Monetary Fund - Abu Dhabi - Introduction As the implementation phase of Buna, formerly known as the Arab Regional Payment System (ARPS), project picks up momentum, we are looking for a responsible Software Developer to join our founding team. Duties of the Software Developer include designing, developing, testing, implementing, and maintaining Buna’s software platform and solutions. The job holder is also responsible for preparing training manuals, developing quality assurance procedures and staying up-to-date with the latest development tools & programming techniques. This position will report to Chief Technology Officer. In this context, the following sections detail the main qualifications, skills and responsibilities related to this position: Job Responsibilities Software Design and Development 1. Design software solutions and platforms and produce detailed specifications by analyzing business, functional and technical requirements and specifications 2. Develop and implement Buna software platform... - Permanent - Full-time

Apply here:

Note: This advertisement for Software Developer- Buna maybe valid for limited time only from the date it was posted, so don't miss the chance and apply now!

Sarap king

Soimai King Franchise: Contact Us


East Lansing, MI

map preview
Please wait, loading your map...

East Lansing profile

Living in East Lansing

East Lansing is a medium-sized city located in the state of Michigan. With a population of 48,145 people and 21 constituent neighborhoods, East Lansing is the 31st largest community in Michigan.

East Lansing is a decidedly white-collar city, with fully 90.45% of the workforce employed in white-collar jobs, well above the national average. Overall, East Lansing is a city of professionals, sales and office workers, and service providers. There are especially a lot of people living in East Lansing who work in teaching (14.75%), office and administrative support (12.30%), and food service (11.38%).

Also of interest is that East Lansing has more people living here who work in computers and math than 95% of the places in the US.

In addition, East Lansing is a major college town that has a very high percentage of its residents over 18 years old who are college students. Naturally, collegiate life has a major influence on local East Lansing culture, lifestyle and entertainment options. East Lansing really pulses to the beat of the academic calendar. In East Lansing every fall, returning students reinvigorate the community, who you will notice are all over town, buying groceries, out with friends, and getting acquainted or re-acquainted with each other and East Lansing. One of the beneficial effects that colleges provide is that they tend to be lasting institutions that deliver direct economic benefits to the local economy in the form of such things as jobs for faculty and staff, and spending by students. East Lansing benefits directly from this.

Residents of the city have the good fortune of having one of the shortest daily commutes compared to the rest of the country. On average, they spend only 18.47 minutes getting to work every day.

Like elsewhere in America, most people in East Lansing use a private automobile to get to work. But notably, a substantial number of East Lansing‘s citizens do make use of public transit in their daily commute, primarily riding the bus. This helps more people get to work with less air pollution, and require fewer highways to get them there.

If knowledge is power, East Lansing is a pretty powerful place. 58.15% of the adults in East Lansing have earned a 4-year college degree, masters degree, MD, law degree, or even PhD. Compare that to the national average of 21.84% for all cities and towns.

The per capita income in East Lansing in 2018 was $26,362, which is middle income relative to Michigan and the nation. This equates to an annual income of $105,448 for a family of four. However, East Lansing contains both very wealthy and poor people as well.

East Lansing is a very ethnically-diverse city. The people who call East Lansing home describe themselves as belonging to a variety of racial and ethnic groups. The greatest number of East Lansing residents report their race to be White, followed by Asian. Important ancestries of people in East Lansing include German, Irish, English, Polish, and Italian.

The most common language spoken in East Lansing is English. Other important languages spoken here include Chinese and Spanish.


An overwhelming majority of affluent individual investors in the US, predominantly millennials, are now keen to embrace sustainable investing strategies.

The findings are from a study by Morgan Stanley, which surveyed 800 US individual investors with at least $100,000 in investable assets.

Eighty-five percent of these investors cited that they are interested in sustainable investing, while 52% said that they have already participated in one such activity.

The interest for such strategies was more pronounced in millennials, referred to as people aged between 18 and 37 years.

Among the millennials, 95% were found interested in sustainable investing while 67% said they already participated in one such activity.

Overall, 86% of the respondents believed that corporate ESG practices can boost profit margins and serve as better long-term investments.

Of the investors polled, 84% also expressed willingness to tailor their investments to their impact goals. The same was cited by 90% of the millennials.

Moreover, 84% of the investors wanted to track the impact return on their investments. This figure too was higher among millennials at 90%.

However, 65% of the investors found a lack of more financial product options as an impediment to adopting sustainable investing.

Morgan Stanley chief sustainability officer and chief marketing officer Audrey Choi said: “These findings reaffirm that sustainable investing has entered the mainstream and is here to stay.

“Increasingly, investors want to know what they own and want those holdings to reflect their values.”


Articles, Analysis,
and Commentary

How Are Damages Calculated In Personal Injury Cases In Maryland?

Compensation is based on monetary and non-monetary factors.

Maryland recognizes two classes of damage that are applicable to personal injury cases. On the one hand, you have economic damages and these are things like lost wages and the payment of medical expenses, perhaps some out of pocket expenses and those are frankly easily tabulated and calculated. What is more complicated is the concept of non-economic damages. Now, a jury is given an instruction of various factors they can consider when reaching their conclusions and in their deliberations about what proper compensation for non-economic damages should be. Included here are things like distress, anguish, physical pain, emotional pain. In short and what I've often argued to juries is the ways in which the injury sustained in an accident disrupts the normal flow and course of someone's life.

Eric T Kirk

After graduating with honors from Albany Law School in New York, Eric Kirk has spent most of his 25 year legal career battling insurance companies to secure fair and just compensation for his clients in Maryland, New York, and Florida.


The Goals of Criminal Justice: Doing justice, controlling crime, and preventing crime

Essay by arikun June 2007

download word file, 3 pages 4.2

Downloaded 163 times

Criminal justice is the branch of law that deals with disputes or actions involving criminal penalties. It regulates the conduct of individuals, defines crimes, and provides punishment for criminal acts. More so, it means activities relating to the detection, apprehension, detention, pretrial release, post trial release, prosecution, adjudication, correctional supervision or rehabilitation of accused persons or criminal offenders. Also, the administration of criminal justice includes criminal identification activities and the collection, storage and dissemination of criminal history records.

"The criminal justice system is purposive of delivering justice for all, by convicting and punishing the guilty and helping them to stop offending, while protecting the innocent. It is responsible for detecting crime and bringing it to justice; and carrying out the orders of court, such as collecting fines, and supervising community and custodial punishment" (Garland, 2002). The key goals for the criminal justice system are to help reduce crime by bringing more offences to justice, and to raise public confidence that the system is fair and will deliver for the law-abiding citizen.

That includes increasing the satisfaction of victims and witnesses with the treatment they receive. Together with other partners, the criminal justice system works to prevent crime from happening in the first place, to meet the wider needs of victims, and to help turn offenders away from crime.

The National Criminal Justice Board has agreed a vision for the criminal justice system, which describes what the system will look like in the following years. Firstly, this system envisions that the public develop confidence on its being effective in serving all communities fairly. Also, it envisions for the victims and witnesses to receive a consistent high standard of service from all criminal justice agencies. It also wants to bring more offences to justice through a more modern and efficient justice process...


Question: What Is The Best Temperature To Cook Fish In The Oven?

What is the healthiest way to cook a fish?

Healthiest Ways to Cook FishSteaming.

Steaming fish doesn’t dry it out or require added fat.

Poaching is most effective with firm fish fillets.

Salmon is a top choice for broiling.

Grill your fish on a wooden plank for more flavor.

The simplest method to cook fish is baking..

Is undercooked fish dangerous?

For most healthy people who choose to eat raw or undercooked seafood, it may only pose a small health risk but for others the risk can be severe. … Major types of food poisoning that can result from eating raw or undercooked fish and shellfish include Salmonella and Vibrio vulnificus.

Can you bake fish in an aluminum pan?

Larger pieces or whole fish can be set into a roasting pan or rimmed baking sheet that has been first lightly oiled, pan-sprayed or lined with aluminum foil. … Measure the thickness of the fish at its thickest point. Cook in a preheated 450-degree oven, about 12 minutes per inch of thickness for fillets and steaks.

How long does salmon take to cook at 180 degrees?

At what temp should Salmon be cooked?

How do you know when fish is done?

What temperature should fish?

Safe Minimum Cooking Temperatures ChartsFoodTypeInternal Temperature (°F)SeafoodFish with fins145 or cook until flesh is opaque and separates easily with a forkShrimp, lobster, crab, and scallopsCook until flesh is pearly or white, and opaqueClams, oysters, musselsCook until shells open during cooking9 more rows•Apr 12, 2019

Does cooking in foil take longer?

How long do I bake frozen fish?

How do you know when baked salmon is done?

How long does it take to bake fish at 450?

WHat is the 10 minute rule for cooking fish?

Can you overcook fish?

Is it better to bake or pan fry salmon?

Do you turn fish oven when baking?

The general rule with fish baking is to bake the fish for 10 minutes for every inch of its thickness. 450F is a suitable temperature for most baked fish recipes. Unless the fish is an inch or less thick, you should turn it half way through the cooking time.

What temperature should oil be to cook fish?

Is it better to bake fish covered or uncovered?


Tuesday, December 12, 2017

Seven charts that explain the plastic pollution problem

Dr Lucy Quinn from the British Antarctic Survey looks at plastic ingested by albatross.

From BBC by Alison Trowsdale, Tom Housden and Becca Meier.
Design by Sue Bridge and Joy Roxas.

Marine life is facing "irreparable damage" from the millions of tonnes of plastic waste which ends up in the oceans each year, the United Nations has warned.

But how does this happen, where is most at risk and what damage does this plastic actually do?

Why is plastic problematic?

In July a paper published in the journal Science Advances by industrial ecologist Dr Roland Geyer, from the University of California in Santa Barbara, and colleagues, calculated the total volume of all plastic ever produced at 8.3bn tonnes.
This vast amount of waste has been driven by modern life, where plastic is used for many throwaway or "single use" items, from drinks bottles and nappies to cutlery and cotton buds.

Four billion plastic bottles...

Drinks bottles are one the most common types of plastic waste. Some 480bn plastic bottles were sold globally in 2016 - that's a million bottles per minute.
Of these, 110bn were made by drinks giant Coca Cola.

Some countries are considering moves to reduce consumption.

Proposals in the UK include deposit-return schemes, and the improvement of free-drinking water supplies in major cities, including London.
So how much plastic waste ends up in the sea?

It's likely that about 10m tonnes of plastic currently ends up in the oceans each year.

China was top of the list of countries mismanaging plastic waste, but the US also featured in the top 20 and contributed a higher rate of waste per person.
Plastic waste accumulates in areas of the ocean where winds create swirling circular currents, known as gyres, which suck in any floating debris.
There are five gyres around the globe, but the best known is probably the North Pacific gyre.
It is estimated debris takes about six years to reach the centre of the North Pacific gyre from the coast of the US, and about a year from Japan.
All five gyres have higher concentrations of plastic rubbish than other parts of the oceans.
They are made up of tiny fragments of plastic, which appear to hang suspended below the surface - a phenomenon that has led it to being described as plastic soup.
And the hard-wearing qualities of most plastics means that some items can take hundreds of years to biodegrade.
However, there are moves to clean up the North Pacific gyre.
An operation led by a non-profit organisation Ocean Cleanup is due to begin in 2018.

How bad are things in the UK?

The Marine Conservation Society found 718 pieces of litter for every 100m stretch of beach surveyed during their recent Great British Beach Clean Up.
That was a 10% increase on last year.

Rubbish from food and drink constituted at least 20% of all litter collected, the MCS reported.
The origin of a lot of the litter is difficult to trace, but the public contributes about 30%.
"Sewage-related debris", or items flushed down toilets that should have been put in the bin, amounted to some 8.5%.

Why is plastic so harmful to marine life?
For sea birds and larger marine creatures like turtles, dolphins and seals, the danger comes from being entangled in plastic bags and other debris, or mistaking plastic for food.
Turtles cannot distinguish between plastic bags and jellyfish, which can be part of their diet.
Plastic bags, once consumed, cause internal blockages and usually result in death.
Larger pieces of plastic can also damage the digestive systems of sea birds and whales, and can be potentially fatal.
Over time, plastic waste slowly degrades and breaks down into tiny micro-fragments which are also causing scientists concern.

But in 2016 the European Food Safety Authority warned of an increased risk to human health and food safety "given the potential for micro-plastic pollution in edible tissues of commercial fish".

Links :


data scalar create command

data scalar create v <keyword> ...

Primary keywords:

extra    group    value

Create a scalar data entry. Scalars are an internal list of user-defined objects that have the position v and the value f (assigned via the value keyword) associated with them. Scalars may also have groups and extra variables assigned to them upon creation.

Scalar fields can be visualized with the user interface. Scalars can be used to track events in the model, or to compare model results against external data.

extra i a

Optionally assign the extra variable a to index i.

group s <slot s2 >

Optionally assign the group name s to slot s2. By default, s2 = Default. Use of the group logic is described in the topic Group.

value f

Assign f to be the value associated with the scalar.


Question: What Factors Contribute To Job Satisfaction Ielts?

How important is salary to job satisfaction?

Yes, good wages can lead to job satisfaction and earning enough to make a living is important, but they aren’t the only reason employees find satisfaction in their jobs.

It’s important to pursue a field that gives you personal happiness because if you can obtain a good pay, but you are not happy, then there’s no point..

What 3 things do you need in a job to be satisfied?

At the center of the flywheel, you’ll find the central values: purpose, worthwhile work and making a difference….3 Things Employees Need to Feel Satisfied:They want to believe the organization has the right purpose. … They want to know they are doing worthwhile work. … Employees want to make a difference.

How realistic is the expectation of job satisfaction for all employees?

There are several factors that contribute to job satisfaction. … However, every person has a different motivation for doing a job hence it is not realistic for everyone to feel satisfied with their jobs. This is because people’s expectations from their employers are usually much higher.

Is job satisfaction the most important part of an individual’s work life?

Job satisfaction is a very important part of an employee’s lifecycle and motivation to remain loyal to and employed with an organization. A number of activities or tasks of an HR team directly or indirectly influence employee satisfaction levels.

What are the five components of job satisfaction?

Types of Job Satisfaction Components Different surveys provide different categories for respondents to rate their job satisfaction such as the CNBC survey, which included five components of job satisfaction: pay, opportunities for advancement, recognition, autonomy and meaning.

What are types of job satisfaction?

There are three dimensions of overall job satisfaction which includes general satisfaction, internal work motivation and growth satisfaction, which are combined into a single measure. The facets which are measured on the survey include security, compensation, co-workers and supervision (Fields, 2002, p. 20).

What are the factors that contribute to job satisfaction?

The top 10 factors are:Appreciation for your work.Good relationships with colleagues.Good work-life balance.Good relationships with superiors.Company’s financial stability.Learning and career development.Job security.Attractive fixed salary.More items…•

Which is more important job satisfaction or good salary essay?

Some people choose high paying jobs. Others prefer jobs they find satisfying even if the salary is low. While I admit that it is important to earn enough to make a living, in my opinion, job satisfaction is more important than the size of the pay package. Job satisfaction increases productivity.

What are the five major factors involved in job satisfaction?

The study found that employees identified these five factors as most important:Job security.Benefits (especially health care) with the importance of retirement benefits rising with the age of the employee.Compensation.Opportunities to use skills and abilities.Feeling safe in the work environment.

How do you achieve job satisfaction?

13 Tips For Improving Job SatisfactionWork on The Culture. … Establish Trust with Senior Management. … Expand job benefits. … Offer competitive compensation. … Foster job security. … Strengthen employee relationships. … Focus on employee engagement. … Provide opportunities for career advancement.More items…•