In Gaming News

Over the 3-day weekend, I went out in search of a Player's Handbook 3.5. No such luck however, unless you're counting the leather bound collector's edition (uh, sorry, that's way out of my budget... might as well buy myself a Nintendo Wii at that point). The best I could come up with was a Player's Handbook 3.0.

Anyway, what I found interesting was that Neutral Grounds, "distributor" of all things Wizards of the Coast here in the Philippines, lowered their exchange rate for RPG products. Right now a $30.00 book costs P1,500.00 instead of their previous P1,800.00 cover price. It was also surprising to see Magic Item Compedium on the rack, but alas, I already have two of those.

Focusing more on the international scene, Wizards of the Coast suddenly unleased Gleemax. I don't think this is the Digital Initiative, and I sure hope not. Of course I don't know what to make of it. From its pitch, it sounds like a gaming MySpace. But obviously it isn't and in the end, links back to sites which I do visit (the forums of Wizards of the Coast, Flickr).

Their poll tickles me however:

An alien species plans to invade earth. They have the ability to eradicate all of earth's experts in one field of expertise. Eliminating which type of expert would make the alien invasion the easiest?

• Scientist
• Military/Strategist
• Farmer
• Pilot
• Physician
• Politician

I voted for Physician. If D&D taught me anything, it's to kill the Clerics first!

Seriously though, as there's no real right of wrong answer (unless you're the aliens), here's my line of thought:

The scientists might have the answers but no one will listen to them (i.e. Global Warming). That and I <3 Vern who's a chemist. =)

The military/strategist won't necessarily know how to react and will probably blame the catastrophe on another nation (i.e. the recent Iraq war).

The farmers are a long-term viable strategy but in the short term, people will still have food. And a percent of the population is on the Atkins diet, so they'll survive the lack of wheat/bread/rice. Also in history, it's also the farmers who are first affected by war, and yet that fact doesn't win every battle.

Why would I need to eliminate pilots? Germ warfare, nuclear missiles, etc. don't need pilots! Unless they're kamikaze pilots, in which case they're going to die anyway.

Keep the politicians! They'll bicker and blame someone else. Honestly, politicians are a great diversion for populace hate. A politician might be troublesome but throw several of 'em in a room and they'll slaughter themselves.