Still Rising

It’s finally here! The fabled $1 million mark! News broke that a Housing and Development Board (HDB) executive maisonette in Bishan had been sold for $980,000. This sale is another example of the failure of the government’s cooling measures.

Already, the Singapore government is in damaged control mode with National Development Minister Khaw Boon Wan coming out to say “more important is the larger picture” and ask that Singaporeans “not to be traumatized”. Alas, the problem is that the larger picture for the Singapore government is not good.

Simply put, despite their best efforts to talk the price down, concrete actions by the government have been slow in coming and housing prices in Singapore have gone up because of it. Data from the Singapore Real Estate Exchange shown that HBD housing prices have gone up 1.8% in the past 2 months. And that’s in the midst of the Singapore government’s so-called cooling measures!

When faced with these figures, Minister Khaw could only say that he’s not too worried about the month-to-month fluctuation and that’s things are better now than a year ago. Well, that may be true but a 1.8% increase is still a 1.8% increase!

When the cooling measures were first announced, Singaporeans were expecting the prices to go down. Singaporeans want the prices to go down. Right now it’s going the direct opposite direction! If that’s not failure, I don’t know what is.

Comics this week

Bloodshot #3- After the blood and guts of the first 2 issues, the story takes a detour as writer Duane Swierczynski has Bloodshot running around trying to figure out his fractured psyche. In the midst of making sense of his mind, we see the extent of the methods his former handlers are willing to go to cover up their mess. The issue was strange in that though it’s not bad, it’s also not that good. Bloodshot just seem out of character here (though to be fair, that might be deliberate by Swierczynski) and having a killer like Bloodshot taken out by a housewife and a nurse was laughable. Maybe it’s just a case of how good the first 2 issues were. The writing here was good. The art by Manuel Garcia & Arturo Lozzi were solid but #3 just didn't reach the level of #1 or #2.

Earth 2 #0- Timing is everything. With the regular series just getting into its stride, this #0 issue comes at a bad time. Not to say it’s a bad issue, the motivations and actions of Terry Sloan were interesting and although it’s hinted that his actions were more due to envy than anything else, writer James Robinson also makes a point that ultimately his actions, murderous as they were, helped the world. A villain that’s a “necessary evil” in a superhero world is not something that happened a lot so this character (and this issue) was more interesting because of it. However I can’t help but think that this issue would work better later in the series as a flashback, after Green Lantern, Flash and Hawkgirl were more settled in the series. The regular story is showing new heroes which have almost nothing to do with Sloan and this stick out sorely as the whole issue showcased Sloan, Wonder Woman, Batman, and Superman fighting the hordes of Apokolips. Timing is everything.

Green Lantern #0- A zero issue is as good as any I guess for writer Geoff Johns to introduce the latest Green Lantern. With the “death” of Hal Jordon in the GL annual, Simon Baz is now the latest human GL of Sector 2814. Now why does the ring keep on choosing Earthlings as GL is something that’s never explained (Hal was only the third human ever to be selected to be a GL and now there are 5 human GL alive?) but I have to give Johns credit for trying to do things differently. Baz is not only a criminal but also a suspected terrorist. In fact, he was under interrogation when the ring flew in and literally blew him out. Johns also did a good job hinting at the reactions of other heroes on the arrival of the latest GL. Good issue to set things up nicely for the immediate future; can’t ask for more in a zero issue.

A Flawed Argument

Since getting into the Singapore government, Deputy Prime Minister (DPM) and Finance Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam has managed to put his foot in his mouth a few times. In a way it is understandable. The man is basically a technocrat turned politician.

In another example of why some technocrats should not be politicians, the DPM has managed to do so again. Speaking at a forum at Nanyang Technological University in front of 750 university students and lecturers, the DPM argued that the Singapore government need to be involved in the running of the economy as it is needed to ensure the economic benefits goes down to all sectors of the Singapore population.

There’s only one problem with that excellent theory; Reality! 

No one can argue that the Singapore government is currently highly “involved” in the Singapore government. Government-linked companies dominate the economical landscape of the country, but does the benefits of Singapore’s growth goes to the Singapore people?

For the past few years, the answer has been a flat “NO”.

For the past few years, Singapore has a high growth rate but if you ask ordinary Singaporeans, most would say life has not gotten better. In fact, some would say it has gotten worse and they would blame the Singapore government for it.

The Singapore government’s economic and immigration policies has caused wages to be kept low, housing prices to spike and widen the rich-poor divide in the country. If the DPM want to argue that the Singapore government has to be involved in the economy for the good of the people; then quite frankly he need to make sure his government is doing a better job of it.

No Tears Expected

Housing prices in Singapore are still high. “Cooling measures” by the Singapore government has failed. And now the Singapore government is announcing that it will restrict the growth of "shoebox" private apartments in the country.

Despite conventional wisdom, most people I spoke to seem to think this is a good idea. You could think otherwise as the population in Singapore has shot up in recent years due to the government's liberal immigration policies and this has caused housing prices in land-scarce Singapore to go through the roof.

Yet despite this, Singaporeans generally has no love for “shoebox” apartments. In fact, most Singaporeans will be happy to see the back of it. A shoebox unit in Singapore is typically only about half the size of an average HDB flat and they were first built in responses to the lack of housing options in Singapore. Some Singaporeans don’t even consider them “real” flats.

So high housing prices notwithstanding, there will be no tears for the demise of “shoebox” apartments. Now maybe, property companies can get back to building “real” flats for Singaporeans!

With Great Freedom Comes…

It must have seen like such a great idea to them at the time. Steam recently put up a service caller “Greenlight”. Basically this service allows anyone (and I do mean anyone) to upload their game idea for on Steam for community vetting.

No matter how ridiculous the idea is, Steam’s Greenlight service allows you to put it up there. It sounds like such a good idea and I admit, I had gone on Greenlight already to check on the ideas on show. However, with great freedom comes such stupidity! 

People have began to upload game ideas that are offensive. Valve (the company that runs Steam) has already announced “actions” to be taken against these game ideas but frankly I think it’s a losing battle for them.

Since Greenlight allows anyone to put up an idea, I just can’t see how Valve can take off the offensive games faster than people can put them up. There is just no way. Valve is just one company, and it is up against hundreds of thousands of people who use Steam everyday.

So unless they changed the way Greenlight is run, this is losing proposition for Valve. Of course, if they do change the way Greenlight is run, they will be admitting they got it wrong the first time! No matter how I see it, this is a no-win situation for Valve.

Bye-Bye Capes

In 2004, City of Heroes was launched and became the world's first superhero MMORPG. Since then, the game has been cruising along nicely with 2 expansions as well as going free-to-play (F2P).

So it’s with some surprise to gamers when NCsoft announced that they are closing Paragon Studios due to a "realignment of company focus and publishing support". Since Paragon Studios is the company running City of Heroes, this effectively means the City of Heroes game is going to way of the dodo.

Sadly, I sort of expected this. Although the game has positive cash flow (they are still making money), it is already 8years old and problems between NCsoft and Paragon Studios have been reported for years. A few years ago, some founding members of Paragon even left the company to form their own company due to lack of support from NCsoft. Also the MMORPG industry is currently in trouble due to the lack of success of Star Wars: The Old Republic and The Secret World. Add to that, the big releases of Guild Wars 2 and the new expansion of World of Warcraft, and I can understand why NCsoft is pulling the plug on City of Heroes.

Still, it’s sad that a stable money-making game has been given the axe. So for all former players of City of Heroes; this is your last call to Paragon City!

Happy 25th Birthday!

Man, I am old! As in OLD!

I have no choice but to admit it because I can still remember the time when Street Fighter II first came to the arcade and I was looking at it wondering what the fuss was about. Well, the most famous fighting game in history just turned 25, so I am officially OLD!

It’s hard to believe but Street Fighter first came out in 1987. Of course, the franchise didn’t become a mega-hit till Street Fighter II came out but the original Street Fighter was the one that started the ball rolling. It’s amazing but till now, Street Fighter II’s controls (6 buttons, joystick movement) and gameplay (special moves, big cast of characters) are the base of almost all fighting games. That tells you how influential the game is.

Even right now when you go into an arcade, you can see people playing Street Fighter IV. So happy birthday Street Fighter!