Daily Archives: January 28, 2015

After listening to PresidentObamas mostrecent State of the (Dis)Union speech last Tuesdaynight, I couldnt help thinking,Id sure like to be Scott Kelly.

Just to remind you (sincenone of the TV commentatorsbothered to point thisout), Kelly has been picked tobecome the first U.S. astronautfrom NASA to spend a year inspace possibly a prep for afuture voyage to Mars.

Remember NASA? Thatsthe National AeronauticsSpace Administration, althoughyou wouldnt knowthat from a quick perusal ofthe NASA website. But I dontblame them. Our space agencyhas lost much of its hype sinceour government forced it toreinvent itself after discontinuingfunding of humanflights beyond our atmosphere,although that could changesoon.

But I digress.

Kelly will be blasting off inMarch, appropriately enough,the month we celebrate St.Patricks Day, and for our manin space, it will be the very tiptop of the morning when hegoes on his way.

Ironically, as noted by thewebsite space.com, Kelly isscheduled to launch on a RussianSoyuz spacecraft to theInternational Space Stationwhere he and cosmonautMikhail Kornienko will liveand work on the orbiting outpostfor one year.

I wonder what ComradePutin has to say about this. Icertainly hope the leader of allthe Russias (including Crimea)was at least consulted. Giventhe Kremlins expansionistpolicy, lets hope that Putindoesnt extend the Russianempires grasp to holding theSpace Station and the Americanwithin hostage. Remember,the U.S. governmentspolicy is no ransom payments.

Despite the potential risk,Id still trade places with Kellybecause hes in the forefront ofwhat the President characterizedin his address as being ina race for the kind of discoveriesthat unleash new jobs pushing out into the SolarSystem not just to visit, but tostay (my emphasis).

This means colonization,folks. No question about it.

Obama and his advisers arefirm believers in global climatechange and they know thatthe timeline for Planet Earth israpidly winding down, thanksto out-of-control development,coupled with overpopulationand the widening of incomeinequality.

Read more:
Thoughts & Views: Mars? Tempting but focus on Earth first

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It's not hard to see that the future of space exploration and colonization belongs to the corporations. Even now, private companies are already setting their sights on the sky and beyond, looking toward the next lucrative industry. Suffice it to say, space is going to be big business.

It's this premise that drives Offworld Trading Company, the upcoming real-time strategy game from Mohawk Games and Stardock Entertainment, headed to Steam's Early Access program on February 12.

Offworld Trading Company places you in the role of one such upstart company, where the resource-rich surface of Mars is waiting to be harvested in a bid to become the biggest business on the red planet.

But Offworld Trading Company isn't your typical sci-fi strategy game. Lead by Civillization 4 designer Soren Johnson, Mohawk Games has ditched the traditional well-worn path of expansion and conquest through superior firepower in favor of victory through business savvy and cold, hard cash.

Of course, Offworld Trading Company will feature 8-player online competition, free-form skirmishes against the AI, and a dynamic single-player campaign thatstrings missions together with persistent upgrades between them. However, that's where the similarities to traditional military RTS games begin to fade. You'll never fire a shot in Offworld Trading Company. As the saying goes, it's just business.

If Offworld Trading Company is beginning to sound like something decidedly different in the strategy space, it's because that's the point. Speaking with IGN, Soren Johnson revealed that Mohawk's strategy was to take what they loved about real-time strategy games and flesh it out with new mechanics.

We wanted a game that fit [the RTS] format but used an entirely different mechanic.

"RTS games have hit a very set pattern. They may have a different setting, but in many ways, they're kind of the same game," Johnson said. "This is coming from a team that really likes RTS Games. We like Company of Heroes, StarCraft, Age of Empires. We love that format. We think that's a great way to play games.

Read more:
Check Out Civilization 4 Designer's New Strategy Game Offworld Trading Company