“Sicko” and a Conversation to Start Health Care Reform

“Who are we?”

Michael Moore asks this question in “Sicko” which premiered in 2007.

Two years later, the subject of the movie, the current health care system of the US is being discussed in Washington, D.C.

Moore’s pointed documentary highlights, through stories of people back in 2007, perceived problems with the insurance-based health care system.

The movie was attacked and defended by numerous critics.

Roger Ebert said in a movie review, “This one is likely to strike home with anyone, left or right, who has had serious illness in the family.”

Stephen Hunter of the Washington Post said, “Ladies and gentlemen, I think we can agree on two things: The American health-care system is busted and Michael Moore is not the guy to fix it.”

The movie told tearful stories of men, women and children that were unable to get proper medical treatment because of their insurance company. The reasons for the lack of treatment ranged from high deductibles, being moved from out-of-network hospitals and denials of coverage from the insurance companies.

The universal health care systems of other countries like Canada and France were also shown and explained in the movie. Members of those countries were genuinely surprised that America wouldn’t adopt a universal health care system, one were everyone pays for one persons health care. To them, it just didn’t make sense.

There was no fight-plan at the end of the film for a universal health care system in the vein of “An Inconvenient Truth.” Though, maybe that wasn’t the point. Perhaps the point was to finally get people to talk about the broke, sick and dying elephant in the room.

At least “Sicko” did seem to start that conversation. A conversation that many people could agree upon: Our health care system did not work.

If only things had changed since then.

Two years later, our health care system still does not work, but at least there is another conversation going on in Washington D.C.

The message of “Sicko” is still seen as an example of our current situation.

“Sicko” was screened for free to Lihu’e, Hawaii by Organizing for America, in an effort to support President Barack Obama’s health care proposal in Aug.

The sad truth of “Sicko” is the stories of those people back in 2007 are being replayed two years later. The cast has changed, but the tears are still real.

Our government has replaced the film critics, and while we as a country can’t seem to decide on how to fix our health care system, we at least fully realize that there is a problem.

But, the question remains.

“Who are we?”

Multiplayer Games: From the Computer to the Console

There are beautiful moments in life.

Like dodging around your buddy's hail of bullets, jumping up in the air and landing a killing shotgun blast to their face while still airborne.

Or sniping someone from across the board, knowing that the only way they'll know where you are is through the death cam.

And waiting on a ledge for some unobservant player to cross your path so you can drop down and snap their neck before they know you're even there.

Beautiful moments like these come from multiplayer video games.

Back in 1993, a game called "Doom" came out on the gaming market and changed the way people played competitively in video games. It took the visceral, adrenaline rush of a FPS and gave players a way to play against each other.

But, back in those days finding a match was hard to do. Players would set up computer networks at home or commandeer work networks to set up a LAN to be able to play multiplayer "Doom."

Since then, games like "Rise of the Triad: Dark War" (1995 and "Quake" (1996) pushed the FPS genre out into the mainstream.

In 1997, "GoldenEye 007" came out for the Nintendo 64 and became one of the most popular FPS's on a console.

Scott Thompson, a circuit design engineer who's played video games since he can remember spend hours playing "GoldenEye 007" with his friends.

The game featured a four player split-screen that allowed four players to go against each other on the same TV. Thompson remembers always knowing where his friend James was. James had a habit of throwing out tons of proximity bombs and waiting for people to step into his trap.

In 2001, "Halo: Combat Evolved" was released exclusively for the Xbox. It had a similar four player split-screen, but allowed up to four systems to be connected. with four systems, 16 players could face off in team matches or free-for-all deathmatches.

Six years later, "Halo 3" premiered in Sep. of 2007 and was huge even before its release. Almost two months before its release, "Halo 3" became the first game to have one million pre-ordered copies, according to a press release from Microsoft in Aug. of 2007.

At launch, it became the "biggest entertainment launch in history," according to a press release from developer Microsoft. The game made around $170 million within the first 24 hours of sales.

"Halo 3" offered players a quick, easy system for playing in multiplayer matches on Xbox Live.

Thompson remembers joining an unfair match in "Halo 3": 15 players on one team, Thompson on the other.

"I had to bring it," says Thompson, who ended up getting MVP at the end of the match.

"Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare" hit the shelves in Nov. of 2007 and allowed players to customize their multiplayer game with perks, player created classes and a player-ranking system according to a press release from developer Activision.

Dillon Campbell, a student who started playing video games at 8 years old, remembers going 18 kills and 0 deaths in "Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare."

These competitive, multiplayer games are also coming out in other genre's besides the FPS.

"Uncharted 2: Among Thieves" is a third-person action game that came out in Oct. and features 10 person multiplayer matches, according to a press release from developer Naughty Dog.

"I think it will get me online," says Coriano Ford, a student and more casual gamer.

During his first match of multiplayer in "Uncharted 2: Among Thieves," Ford and his teammate were decimated by their opponents. Ford Says, "I didn't care I died... I can't tell enough people how awesome this game is."

There are hundreds of other games that have a multiplayer aspect of the game that allows players to kill each other in crazy, adrenaline filled ways.

"It's just what's expected now," says Thompson.

"If it doesn't have a good, long story," says Campbell, "it better make-up with multiplayer content."

Come and play World of Warcraft

Randy Vowles sits cross-legged in a computer chair, a keyboard balanced in his lap and a flat screen monitor on the desk in front of him. He clicks the space bar, making his character in World of Warcraft, an Orc Death Knight named Rhime jump up and down.

“Played’s back,” says Daniel Abeyta, looking across the room to Vowles. She adjusts the mouthpiece of her headset back into place and taps the space bar of her own computer. Her Tauren Druid Olebessie jumps up and down along with Rhime.

All but one member of the 10-person team is huddled around the same corner of a stone island surrounded by lava. Across the stone waits Sartharion, a giant black dragon.

Played hops his way across the lava to join the group on the island and everyone casts protective magic and abilities to prepare for the battle.

Rhime looks above Sartharion to the cliffs and two blue dragons waiting above the lava.

Once Sartharion is attacked, Vowles knows he has about 90 seconds before the first of the two descends upon the group. It’s his job to tank, or to keep the blue dragons attacking him, while Olebessie tanks Sartharion.

This allows the rest of the group to center on damaging all three dragons and keep Rhime and Olebessie alive with healing spells.

Vowles leans over points at Abeyta’s computer screen, “You wanna be right there so Sartharion’s breath-weapon doesn’t hit the healers.”

WoW is a massive-multiplayer-online game that started in November of 2004. Since its release, it has become one of the most popular MMOs ever and has people of all ages and walks of life playing.

In WoW players can kill beasts, fight against other players, band together to take on a powerful foes or just chat with friends.

Vowles and Abeyta have banded together with ten other players in a raid called the Obsidian Sanctum and are ready to fight the final boss Sartharion.

The battle is difficult, even with 10 players, but Sartharion will drop more powerful items, or raid-quality items that can only be found by doing raids.

Olebessie shifts into bear-form giving her the extra armor needed to take the massive damage that Sartharion will be dealing out. The rest of the group prepares to do damage to Sartharion and heal Olebessie and Rhime.

A hunter casts “Misdirection” on Olebessie, transferring all the threat they would gain by damaging Sartharion for the next three arrow shots to Olebessie. The hunter shoots the dragon.

Sartharion charges across the stone to Olebessie while the rest of the group moves into position.

About 11.5 million people around the world log-on and play WoW as of Dec. 23rd, 2008 according to a press release by Blizzard Entertainment, its creators.

The players of WoW say they know why this game is fun to play, fulfilling, and time consuming.

At the start

“WoW was very popular at beta,” says Vowles, referring to the beta stage of game development.

Beta is usually where players are allowed to play-test the game in its last stage of development.

“A lot of people wanted to find the new game,” says Vowles, a 10-year veteran of MMOs.

Vowles, a pharmacy clerk, began playing the MMO Everquest in 1999 and played for five years.

He switched over to WoW to get away from the second job he felt Everquest had become.

“I can just jump in and achieve goals,” says Vowles about WoW.

A former player, Benjamin Priest says WoW was also presented in a manner that was easy to understand.

Priest, a pharmacy technician, began playing WoW at the games launch in 2004. He said he played because the game was new and streamlined.

New content, new time-sink

WoW has spawned two expansions: The Burning Crusade was released on Jan. 16, 2007, and Wrath of the Lich King was released on Nov. 13, 2008.

Wrath of the Lich King broke the all-time sales record for a single day, selling over 2.8 million copies in November of 2008, according to a Blizzard Entertainment press release. The record was previously held by The Burning Crusade.

With each new expansion and some updates, Blizzard Entertainment has released more content to keep its current players interested and pull new players into the expanding world.

Paul Dauffenbach, a security guard, says there is great variety in WoW. “There’s solo, playing with a group of friends, player versus player, and 10-or-25 man raids,” says Dauffenbach, who also started playing WoW in 2004.

Though Dauffenbach, who plays a Blood-Elf Warlock, says he prefers solo play or playing with a friend.

According to research on MMOs done by Nick Yee, a Stanford Graduate, Dauffenbach falls in with many other players.

Yee’s research, called the Daedalus Project, gathered data for over ten years on people who played MMOs. Solo content, completing quests and killing computer controlled enemies, received the highest average score in a survey.

“I like raiding,” says Vowles, talking about large 10-or-25 person raids, “it offers the highest potential [for reward] for the biggest amount of people.”

Abeyta feels the same way, saying that raiding allows the accomplishment of “big goals” and also gives the best equipment.

WoW has a total of 22 unique raids, ten from The Burning Crusade, and five from Wrath of the Lich King.

Why World of Warcraft

According to MMOGCHART.com a website that tracks the populations of MMO games; Everquest, which came out in 1999 and is the oldest MMO peaked with 550,000 players in 2004. The second highest MMO population, according to MMOGCHART.com, was Lineage, which rose to over 3 million players in 2004.

The reasons people play WoW come down to the specific niche that draws the player to the game.

“WoW is easy to pick up, difficult to master,” says Priest.

“It’s the goal finishing,” says Abeyta, who also enjoys the new achievement system.

“Final Fantasy XI you can’t really solo,” says Dauffenbach, “WoW you can play solo whenever.”

Playing a Death Knight, a new heroic class in WoW, is like playing a hero, says Vowles.

“I want the pets!” says Abeyta, speaking of the collectible pets that WoW has in the game.

And the maxim that many WoW players say, “Can 11 million people be wrong?”

The Cost of Children Times Eight

Katherine Whitehorn said, “The easiest way for your children to learn about money is for you not to have any.”
A modern example is Nadya Suleman, mother of the octuplets born in Bellflower, Cal.
The costs of raising children are high in the U.S. especially in Mich.
To achieve giving birth to eight children at once, a mother must go through in vitro fertilization (IVF). According to the Women’s Health Center of Grand Rapids website, the cost of basic IVF is $7,255.
This fee only covers the transplant of one egg without the cost of medication.
Nadya Suleman said on the “Today” show that she had six embryos implanted.
Adding a typical regimen of fertility medication can raise the total for IVF up to $10,255, which is due on the day of the first ultra-sound.
The Women’s Health Center of Grand Rapids takes cash, credit and money orders according to their website.
Once the children are born, the costs continue.
Karen Papin at the Childtime Learning Center in Westland says that their prices are modest compared to others in the area. The cost of caring for a child is $202 per week.
Eight children would cost $21,632 a year.
Just the cost of daycare would be almost one half of a parent’s annual income if they made an average of $50,000 a year.
That would leave about $25,000 for a years worth of food, clothing and toys for the children; and gas, insurance and rent of mortgages for the parents.
To offset these costs, the parent’s would get money back in taxes.
Shannon David a certified CPA and staff accountant estimates a Mich. tax refund of $28,000 a year for eight children. But this money is not guaranteed.
The parents would have to make an adjusted gross income of more then $28,000 to get this back in their taxes says David.
The costs of children are incredible, especially when there are eight children to take care of at the same time.
Though, according to Whitehorn, those eight children would learn a lot about money.

Pandemonium: A Gamers Heaven

Two armies of miniature figures are hidden behind plastic structures serving as buildings, giving them the needed cover from each other. The game being played is called Infinity, a new game from Spanish developers Corvus Belli, and hit the U.S. about six months ago. The game is like a more involved game of chess where players move their miniatures across a battlefield using rulers and try to kill their opponents’ miniatures to get kill points and V.P kills. Whoever has the most V.P. kills wins the round.

Jack Daniels, currently ranked 1st in the U.S. and 5th internationally in the Infinity Tournament finishes placing his figures and waits for his opponent, Timothy Cummings to make his first move. “That guy’s dying… first turn,” Jack says pointing at a figure across the miniature landscape. Timothy pulls his retracting ruler out only to let it slid back with a click, glances up at Jack and shrugs off the taunt with a chuckle. Luck has not been with Jack the first two rounds of this tournament. He is currently in 4th place, and this is the last battle of this tournament being held at Pandemonium.

Pandemonium is a hobby shop in Garden City, Mich. that specializes in two things: games and supplying a place to play them. Pandemonium opened on Middlebelt road in 1996 under the name Michigan Game Corp in an old post office. The location offered large amounts of space needed for tournaments for collectable card games and wargames like Magic: The Gathering, Warhammer 40,000, and Necromunda. In 2001, the store joined with the nationally known hobby shop and tournament center Neutral Ground and became Neutral Ground Detroit. After two years, the store was sold to store manager Brandon Petitpren who renamed the hobby shop Pandemonium. Inheriting a large amount of debt from the purchase, Brandon revaluated Pandemonium’s business model.

Brandon decided to stray from standard business models when he bought Pandemonium. Instead spending money in advertising to bring in new customers, he focused on the current customers and what they wanted. “We found ways to make the store more appealing for customers,” says Brandon with a nod. He allowed anyone to use the tournament space for non-tournament games at no charge. He also paid attention to what his customers were interested in.

According to Brandon, many hobby shops spread out their product base to include many games to draw new customers into the store. But, because of the big product base it becomes difficult to afford the later supplements that are released for those games. Customers interested in those games now have to go somewhere else.

Brandon’s business model is to find what his customers are interested in and carry everything for that game, “If we carry something, we carry the entire line,” says Brandon. This is evident because they still sell products for Warhammer 40,000 and Magic: the Gathering, over a decade after opening as Michigan Gaming Corp. Doing this keeps customers loyal, which is needed for hobby shops, says Brandon. “Most gamers always go to the same hobby shop,” says Jason Lucas, employee for Pandemonium since its opening as Michigan Gaming Corp in 1996. “[There is] No point in competing for customers who are all ready content,” added Jason.

This business model seems to be working for Pandemonium. “Every year has been better then the last,” says Jason Lucas, “even this last one.” The difficult economy of 2008 affected Pandemonium, but not as much as other businesses, says Brandon. By deciding to sell roleplaying games in 2000, Pandemonium became a prerelease location for the popular Dungeons and Dragons 4th edition. Though Jason says, “The 4th edition prerelease was not as big as 3rd edition [Dungeons and Dragons],” which Pandemonium also had for prerelease.

Both Brandon and Jason want to keep Pandemonium in the direction it is going. “I enjoy seeing how games evolve,” says Brandon, “but also enjoy watching those with similar lifestyles.” And Jason enjoys the interaction with the large pool of freethinking people that frequent Pandemonium.

Currently, Pandemonium sells collectable card games Magic the Gathering, Yu-Gi-Oh!, and World of Warcraft; roleplaying games like Dungeons and Dragons 4th edition, and Pathfinder; and wargames like Warhammer 40,000 and Infinity Miniatures. They also continue to hold tournaments, like the Infinity Tournament with Jack Daniels.

After his match with Timothy, the scores were calculated and Jack came in 4th place overall. The placing lowered his international ranking down to 8th place, and now he is tied for 1st place in the U.S. with Gierllmo Hernandez. “Oh well next time...but all in all a good fun torunie,” says Jack on the Infinity forum.

The 3rd person of me

He’s always been clumsy; you can tell he’s entered the room when you hear keys drop to the floor.

When you see a man walk in with a hoody with Mario on the front and ears on the hood imitating Marios suit, you know he loves video games.

Everyonce in a while he caught himself, a small sound escaped his lips, like a word that didn’t really want to come out. Eventually the sound would become a full word once he was sure he had people’s attention.

While thinking about a question, he unconsciously ran his finger through his goatee.

Opps

So here's that awkward time when I have to figure out something that's going to be the big start of this blog and I just can't figure out what to say. Well, I guess this is better then nothing. Man awkward looks weird, or well awkward...