Probably The Biggest "Unplanned" Risk For Our Retirement

From Internet

Dear Readers,

Thank you for coming here!

I published this post last week and only got 27 views for this post, which is extremely low. I think the bad title "Another Gaming Episode" ruined everything.

When I started writing this post, I really just wanted to share my first ever experience to finish "Credits" of a game and the observation on the very high development cost vs the very low retail price.

And then scale came in and then decreasing world population and the corresponding risks to retirement.

While population posts risks to all fronts, from as big as who rule the future world to what happens to our property value to as little as what happens to retail prices for games, I think the risk to retirement is probably the most relevant for us commoners.

Unlike the ruling of the world or the worthless properties or the expensive games, quality of our retirement is probably the one thing that we would care most in our last stage of life.

I think it is important that people like you and me are aware of the risk to retirement planning posted by decreasing population, even though we may not be able to really do anything here and now.

Since only 27 people viewed it, I would like to repost it with a more "scary" title and some minor adjustment to the content, just to broadcast the awareness.

I completed the game "Cyberpunk"! Yay!

Well, only the main storyline and only reached one of the endings…There are still tons of side quests left, even though I have completed so many.

I did not count, but I must have thrown in more than 100 hours easily.

Such a good way to kill time!

Overall, it is a great game and CDPR is still releasing patches and DLCs to make it better. 

Better here really means closer to what they had promised before the release.

I probably wont play the 1.3 patch any time soon. I will try something different for now.

Maybe when patch 1.7 is out, I will replay it as a female character with a female voice.

Apparently, that affects the gameplay significantly.

I tried so hard to romance Judy…

As a man, the game forbids me to do it…

From Internet

One thing I would like to share with you here is that this is my first time ever to have watched the complete Credits of a game after completing it.

As far as I can recall, the last time I watched the Credits of a game was when I completed Call of Duty 2 for the first time. 

There was an animation immediately after the game was completed, to draw players’ attention. 

It was easy for players to just watch it. It was fun also.

But once I saw the “text” coming out, I immediately pressed “ESC”.

Cyberpunk was different.

It shows the “text” and on the side, a small window appears that plays the video messages your friends in Night City send to you.

I have to say I felt quite personal and “warm”. 

And it flows extremely well with the storyline, where, in my ending, the player leaves Night City and lives “freely” for whatever time he has left.

That was more than enough to draw me in. 

But the messages only last a short while, after which the Credits go on for a much longer duration.

And a “Fast Forward” option is provided.

Such a nice touch!

I understand the names etc mean a lot to the developers, but for players to spend like half an hour to go through it would be hard.

From Internet

As I went down the list, the first thing I noticed was that so many people were involved in making the game.

The efforts and costs put in developing this still buggy game must be tremendous.

A quick google search showed USD 313 Million development cost for the game and that was until end of 2020. They have released a few patches in 2021 too. So the cost can only be significantly higher.

And the game retails for ~SGD 50. You can get cheaper on Lazada.

Such an affordable price is only possible due to scale and almost zero marginal cost.

From Internet

Scale is key and that means user base, which is a fraction of world population.

And apparently, decreasing birth rate is a big problem now.

It has been a big problem in most developed countries, Singapore included.

It is now also a big problem for developing countries, like China.

China has been worrying about the opposite for so many years with the “Birth Control” policy. The fine put my family in debt for most of my childhood.

Now they are completely turning the tide. Making babies for Money is a real possibility.

And the cities in China are “fighting” for the young generation, by rolling out all sorts of policies, from houses to “Hukou” to subsidies.

It is not exaggerating to say that the power of a nation or a city ultimately resides in its population.

From Internet

And declining and aging population could give rise to many problems.

Retail costs for games would be a relatively minor one.

Just imagine when we are all old, there is only a very limited supply of care-taking workers because there are a very limited number of people young enough to perform those duties.

The services will become so expensive that majority of old people wont be able to afford it. 

It is possible to have no one taking care of us, no medication, no counseling, no peace of mind, even no food.

And any of our existing plans for retirement, the money we save, the property we keep, the insurance we buy, could prove a joke, in front of a miserable retirement.

From Internet

Woooo….

Not sure how a gaming episode turns into the hopeless reflection of retirement lives…

But there is no need to feel so pessimistic. 

I believe problems will solve themselves.

Maybe we will detach from our bodies and live in cyber space.

That way, we are forever young.

See you outside of the Black Wall.

Till next time!

Another Gaming Episode

From Internet

Dear Readers,

Thank you for coming here!

I completed it! Yay!

Well, only the main storyline and only reached one of the endings…There are still tons of side quests left, even though I have completed so many.

I did not count, but I must have thrown in more than 100 hours easily.

Such a good way to kill time!

Overall, it is a great game and CDPR is still releasing patches and DLCs to make it better. 

Better here really means closer to what they had promised before the release.

I probably wont play the 1.3 patch any time soon. I will try something different for now.

Maybe when patch 1.7 is out, I will replay it as a female character with a female voice.

Apparently, that affects the gameplay significantly.

I tried so hard to romance Judy…

As a man, the game forbids me to do it…

From Internet

One thing I would like to share with you here is that this is my first time ever to have watched the complete Credits of a game after completing it.

As far as I can recall, the last time I watched the Credits of a game was when I completed Call of Duty 2 for the first time. 

There was an animation immediately after the game was completed, to draw players’ attention. 

It was easy for players to just watch it. It was fun also.

But once I saw the “text” coming out, I immediately pressed “ESC”.

Cyberpunk was different.

It shows the “text” and on the side, a small window appears that plays the video messages your friends in Night City send to you.

I have to say I felt quite personal and “warm”. 

And it flows extremely well with the storyline, where, in my ending, the player leaves Night City and lives “freely” for whatever time he has left.

That was more than enough to draw me in. 

But the messages only last a short while, after which the Credits go on for a much longer duration.

And a “Fast Forward” option is provided.

Such a nice touch!

I understand the names etc mean a lot to the developers, but for players to spend like half an hour to go through it would be hard.

From Internet

As I went down the list, the first thing I noticed was that so many people were involved in making the game.

The efforts and costs put in developing this still buggy game must be tremendous.

A quick google search showed USD 313 Million development cost for the game and that was until end of 2020. They have released a few patches in 2021 too. So the cost can only be significantly higher.

And the game retails for ~SGD 50. You can get cheaper on Lazada.

Such an affordable price is only possible due to scale and almost zero marginal cost.

From Internet

Scale is key and that means user base, which is a fraction of world population.

And apparently, decreasing birth rate is a big problem now.

It has been a big problem in most developed countries, Singapore included.

It is now also a big problem for developing countries, like China.

China has been worrying about the opposite for so many years with the “Birth Control” policy. The fine put my family in debt for most of my childhood.

Now they are completely turning the tide. Making babies for Money is a real possibility.

And the cities in China are “fighting” for the young generation, by rolling out all sorts of policies, from houses to “Hukou” to subsidies.

It is not exaggerating to say that the power of a nation or a city ultimately resides in its population.

From Internet

And declining and aging population could give rise to many problems.

Retail costs for games might be a relatively minor one.

Just imagine when we are all old, there is only a very limited supply of care-taking workers.

The services will become so expensive that majority of old people wont be able to afford it. 

And any of our existing plans for retirement, the money we save, the property we keep, the insurance we buy, could prove a joke. 

From Internet

Woooo….

Not sure how a gaming episode turns into the hopeless reflection of retirement lives…

But there is no need to feel so pessimistic. 

I believe problems will solve themselves.

Maybe we will detach from our bodies and live in cyber space.

That way, we are forever young.

See you outside of the Black Wall.

Till next time!

Sometimes, we just need a change of perspective…

From Internet

Dear Readers,

Thank you for coming here!

Hope everyone had a good long weekend and a nice break.

I did a lot of gaming. 

Well, if you have decided to “Lie Down Flat”, you got to do something to pass the time.

And I realized a change of perspective could matter a lot.

From Internet

1.The “Little Mule” was too bright

In “Cyberpunk 2077”, I immediately liked the “Little Mule” when I saw it. So I paid the hefty price to get it, only to find that it was not drivable.

When I got into the car, it became so bright that I could not see anything, apart from the strong light.

Clearly, this was one of the bugs that the game had not fixed yet.

After some attempts to fix it or just endure it, I was forced to switch to third person view.

Then, to my total surprise, I realized that was how it should should been.

2.A change of perspective changes a lot

I have always been a first-person view guy. 

I am crazy about it to a point that I would consciously avoid third-person view games, no matter how good they are, like Gears of War, GTA (before V) etc.

But after the “forced change”, I really liked it.

You can have a comparison on below two screenshot.

From internet

First person view is great. 

It is beautiful and sets players in the driver’s seat, which is in a way what the game is about, bringing virtual experience to players in a way that is as “real” as possible.

But it does come with restricted view and limits the ability for players to drive very fast without missing the turn, which is also “real” by the way.

From Internet

However, with the third-person view, the driving immediately becomes much more enjoyable.

Players have much more situational awareness while driving.

And they can enjoy the view.

Most importantly, it gives the feeling of “Freedom” and “hot blood”.

Players can completely ignore the “GPS” and drive freely in the desert, flying over the mountains and across the terrain.

What‘s more, the sound is more exciting too. Players can hear the sound of tires grinding the sands, instead of just the “Mmmmm…” in the cockpit.

Overall, I think third-person view is just better for players to experience the speed, control and excitement of driving.

At least, I do not think I will ever go back to first-person view for driving.

From Internet

In the end

We should not limit ourselves. 

Life is about experiences.

Keep an open mind and try different perspectives.

Then we are almost guaranteed of a more fulfilled life.

Till next time!

Half-Conscious Update

Photo by Cris Saur on Unsplash

Dear Readers,

Thank you for coming here!

This is going to be a quick one. 

After 6-hour interviews, my head is half dead to say the least. 

I have done 6/7 hours of face-to-face interviews in a day before. Never thought online interviews would be more tiring on the mind.

So this will be a quick update.

Photo by Steve Halama on Unsplash

1.All the interviews

I have done 10 interviews in the past two days. This has become the full-time job.

Luckily, work is not so full now.

And I am only half way through.

This is so far the largest hiring efforts for me.

The experiences did bring some additional learnings about interviews for both sides.

I will summarize those in a post after I have gone through the whole process.

Photo by Manny Moreno on Unsplash

2.All the games.

When Cyberpunk 2077 first came out in Dec, I was quite busy and did not play it. 

Afterwards, I was just scared off by all the ridiculous bugs, reported by players.

A friend tried Cyberpunk 2077 again recently and told me that the game was playable now after all the patches.

So I tried it also. 

And I am hooked.

I have always fancied a futuristic and chaotic world. I still remember the first movie of this kind where Humans can unlock the full potential of our brains and be God-like!

Even only a few hours in the game, I can see the complexity and connections of the storyline. If it is anywhere close to the Witcher 3, it is a more than great game. CDPR’s ability is not to be underestimated.

The gameplay is good too. The shooting is definitely not the best but it is good enough for a RPG. The progression and weapon systems are good too!

All in all, I think I am going to throw lots of hours into this game.

Photo by Nick Fewings on Unsplash

3.All the cases

The recent outbreak of Covid cases is literally in my neighborhood. We have been keeping our kids at home for a while. 

Luckily, my wife and I are both working from home.

Sometimes, I cannot help feeling lucky not being able to onboard my China job. If I did, we would probably be in different places in times like this.

Money is important for sure. But life is more than that.

Stay safe!!

Photo by Michael Longmire on Unsplash

4.All the losses

The stock market….arh…do not even get me started on this.

Till next time!