This really took me by surprise. Just bought a new Naga 2012 mouse, installed the software and get greeted by a login screen right after. No option to bypass it to use the software to configure the mouse, set the options, sensitivity, shortcuts, macros etc.
So I go ahead and create an account and try to login. Nothing. Try several more times, and nothing. Try to make new accounts with different emails addresses and it still wont work. Finally call Razer who tells me the activation server is down, and I wont be able to use the mouse until it goes back up and will only be able to use it as a standard mouse til then. I ask about a workaround to use the mouse offline and they say there is none. Supposedly once its activated on the computer offline mode will work, but it needs to upload my profile first and since their server is down its not going to happen. I ask for a supervisor to confirm this is the case and ask again for a workaround to use it offline. He said sorry theres nothing they can do, tells me the call center is closing and hangs up on me.
Im pretty shocked Razer thought it was a good idea to do this to customers. Nowhere on the box does it say anything about needing an internet connection to "activate" a mouse. If the servers go down in the future, anyone who buys this mouse is out of luck.
Honestly the last time I buy a Razer product. Absolutely ridiculous.
Wait, what.
What!
What...
It annoys me that nowadays, such and such's fantasy world HAS to include real world minorities. Really defeats the purpose of having an exotic, unknown world that stimulates the curiosity in your mind, which is the point of fantasy in the first place.
Then again Dragon Age has been called out a bunch of times for misunderstanding the concept of 'fantasy.'
Funny how those exotic, unknown worlds that are designed to stimulate the curiosity in your might almost invariably involve exclusively white people.
Mind you, I don't really care, I just find your line of reasoning funny.
Actually, it's completely correct.
You shouldn't be expected to have to include token minority into your fiction for its own sake.
If your fantasy conworld, or at least it's relevant part is some sort of frozen, polar region, and there are humans in it, there shouldn't be any black dudes there, unless they have a damn good reason to be there.
Black people are physiologically adapted to filtering out a lot of UV striking their skin, have lean build, don't retain much heat, and breathe efficiently at the expense of being able to heat inhaled air properly - they are well suited to warm climate, but poorly suited to polar regions.
They don't just appear in polar regions and in fantasy world you usually can't just book a flight there.
If you make such a world inhabited in significant proportion by black people, I expect them being there to be an actual plot point if I'm not to dismiss your writing as garbage.
Actually that's one thing I liked about Skyrim - Bethesda put some effort explaining substatinal proportion of non-Nords in Nords' home province. Most of the minorities have explicit reasons to be where they are and do what they do.
Of course, making fantasy you don't have to adhere to any particular historical setting, especially Occident. You can do all kinds of stuff, inversions and whatnot, as long as you stay convincing.
I wasn't in the least bit butthurt about Le Guin marginalizing white dudes as mostly culturally backwards barbarians in her Earthsea. I quite enjoyed it in fact.
At the very least far more than Tolkien. I probably wouldn't enjoy it at all if the author had to fill some white and yellow people quota, or ensure that all races and cultures are treated fairly on the pages of her novels.
Hell, it's fantasy, you can go all crazy and include species that aren't even humanoid. But you'd better make sure your setting makes sense.
P.S.
The same applies to cultural norms.
Man, do I hate politcorrectardry invading my fantasy.
/.thumbs/lr_08.jpg)