Matt Nolan

Review: Mass Effect 2

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Taking a brief break from discussing economics I thought I should mention a new Xbox game called Mass Effect 2 (reviews).

Why am I mentioning this.  Two reasons:  I don’t have time to put any thought into a post as I am extremely busy (which rules out most economics 😉 ), and it is the best game I’ve every played.  It is like a good movie, with entertaining action and a strong story.  I figure this is a blog, so I can really write about anything anyway as long as I’m not breaking the law 😉

Experiences during the game are strongly based on what you did in the prior game – quite a breakthrough for games.

I haven’t wanted to replay a game this much since Knights of the Old Republic 2, and I haven’t appreciated the story and the tie in of characters this much in a game since Ultima 7.  As a result, I’ve immediately lent my copy of the game to a friend so I can’t play it anymore and can get some work done.

My one qualm is that Bioware seems to find a way of making the sex scenes in their games more and more uncomfortable with each game they release.  I don’t know what it is, it just feels like other emotions/interactions in the game are treated with such depth (and awesome amounts of moral ambiguity), whereas the “love/sex” chains feel more contrived.

Note:  I seriously recommend playing through Mass Effect 1 and then importing your save game for Mass Effect 2, it just adds that little bit to the experience.

Matt Nolan

Economists and opportunity cost

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The Wall Street Journal has an article that discusses how economists are “cheapskates”. I probably wouldn’t use that term, I would say that economists understand the opportunity cost of different choices and so can pick more objectively between alternatives.

Anyway, what struck me was this passage:

Economist Robert Gordon, of Northwestern University, says he drives out of his way to go to a grocery store where prices are cheaper than at the nearby Whole Foods, even though it takes him an extra half hour to save no more than $5.

So an economics professor only values his time at $10 an hour?  Seriously, what the hell.  This seems like a terrible choice to me.  The only ways I can rationalise this are:

  1. He is exaggerating because he gets some pleasure from that,
  2. He gets some consumption value from driving out to the other supermarket and saving a bit of money.
Matt Nolan

Karl du Fresne’s review of Avatar

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Is spot on (ht Offsetting Behaviour).  I can’t remember the last time I got as genuinely bored in a movie as I did with Avatar.  The scenery and graphics were beautiful, but the acting and story were both atrocious.

I tried to enjoy it, hell I even did enjoy it for the first 30 mins.  But over time the lack of story combined with the fact that how “beautiful the animation is” was being rammed repeated and unnecessarily down my throat made me both bored and a little bit irritated.

However, to be fair almost no-one seems to agree with this negative view.  IMDB is currently giving it 8.7/10.  The Dim Post also reviews.

Matt Nolan

Evolving blog focus

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I was recently accused (by co-author Goonix) of becoming more libertarian over the past 2 1/2 years.  Now I don’t agree, I think I am where I was in July 2007.  However, it is evident that the particular focus of the blog has evolved since then.

Read more

Matt Nolan

Go the All Whites

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New Zealand’s football (soccer if you are from the US) team is playing in their final World Cup qualifier tonight.  If they beat Bahrain they reach the World Cup finals for the first time since 1982.

Most of the members of TVHE will be going to the game tonight, and all of them will be watching in some form.  So we are thinking that everyone else should really cheer the All Whites on as well 😉

Go the All Whites!

Matt Nolan

The best reason for blogging

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A short post by Tyler Cowen at Marginal Revolution lays down what I think is the most important element of economics blogging.

People who learn economics through the blogosphere also receive feedback, especially if they sample dialogue across a number of blogs of differing perspectives.  The feedback comes from which arguments other people found convincing.  Do the points you wanted to hold firm on, or cede, correspond to the evolution of the dialogue?  This feedback is not as accurate as Rybka but it’s an ongoing test of your fluid intelligence and your ability to revise your opinion.Not many outsiders understand what a powerful learning mechanism the blogosphere has set in place.

For both the author, readers, and people that comment that blogging experience adds value, not just from the initial post, but from the conversation that takes place following the post.

I know my reasons for blogging are purely selfish.  I want people to tell me why I’m wrong about things, and how I can improve my understanding of issues.  Furthermore, I like the idea of having a historical record of my opinions – so if similar events happen in the future I can quickly jog my own memory.