Sleeeepy

I understand Clannad now~ Isn't it strange when you are thinking when asleep, and come across something so startling that you wake up but can't remember exactly where in your dreams those thoughts came from.

the greatest adventure

From earlier in this blog: "A lie is justified if it does not benefit you." Of course, most of the time the lies that people tell end up benefiting them because of the actions or prejudices of other people, even if the lie could not reasonably be expected to be believed. Due to the indirect influence of people and situations that surround those that encounter these lies, it becomes more efficient both on an individual level and on the level of the society to believe them. This, of course, is why crime exists, since it will always compete with the administrative and social effort needed to control it.

In some cases, however, whether something is a lie at all depends on other people, and this may mean it is the responsibility of someone else to ensure the above situation with regards to purity, even when the implications of this are an unwanted result.

Zones of Thought

The fifth book is Void. It's been so long...

관심 개발자 – Problems with solo PvP and PvE in Western Market

Things that were not mentioned:
- scaling of abilities based on gear and stats
- rank distribution as absolute vs relative values and effects on PvP and reward system
- item budgets and manastone socket cost, variable stat costs
- implications for instanced PvP or PvE raiding, and any current design factors that hinder this
- exploration and story elements that do not involve PvP

Mostly due to lack of knowledge of the above mechanics, or the following changes making it difficult to predict the value of further iterations to a design.

Any change to Aion should be carefully considered. But there are certain factors that cause the game to feel like a grind with the only objective being to reach level 50, and this decreases the number of people willing to play. For players in the Western culture it is not enough to feel pretty or to be part of a Legion, it is also necessary to be able to express ourselves in a unique way and to be able to compete against other players in PvP regardless of whether we have reached the level cap. In addition, when the game is not enjoyable to play, a bad community forms and the social environment becomes hostile to those new to the game as more experienced players are too busy leveling to be helpful. It is vital that these issues be fixed before people lose faith and I ask NCSoft to consider the value of these suggestions and implement them.


Contents
1. Abyss Points and Rank
1.1 Losing Rank from Buying Contribution Rewards
1.2 Combat with Unequal Numbers of Combatants
1.3 Fighting an Opponent of Higher Level
2. Character Statistics and Equipment
2.1 Item Rarity and Crafting
2.2 Offensive and Defensive Stats
3. Other Issues with Leveling, Combat, and XP
3.1 Difficult NPCs that Drop Powerful Equipment
3.2 Social Emotes and Combat Animations
3.3 Soul Healing Costs and XP in Groups
3.4 Preventing Botting and RMT


Abyss Points and Rank

PvP at level 50 is very different from PvP at lower levels. But most people who might consider leaving Aion are doing so without reaching level 50, and many who might do so would make that decision because they are not enjoying lower level PvP. The experience must be improved for Aion to reach its full potential in these markets.

Losing Rank from Buying Contribution Rewards

Higher PvP ranks lose more Abyss Points on death. This is fair when they are fighting opponents of equal rank and equal quality of equipment. It is not fair when fighting opponents of inferior rank that have better equipment, or when outnumbered. To avoid losing Abyss Points, many players spend their points on items and are reduced to a low rank. This results in the situation where Abyss Rank often does not relate to the quality of equipment of the character.

To fix this, spending Abyss Points should not reduce the PvP rank. These spent points go into debt and are shown in the Abyss points display and continue to determine PvP rank. When the player earns Abyss Points, a portion of the earned points are used to pay off the debt. For example, if a player has 25,000 Abyss Points (Rank 5) and spends 15,000 of them on an item, their rank remains the same at Rank 5. If they kill an opposing player and earn 700 Abyss Points, 200 points are used to reduce the debt and the result is 25,500 Abyss points with 14,800 of that being debt. If they are then killed in turn, they will lose the Abyss Points that a Rank 5 soldier loses and award the appropriate amount of Abyss Points to their opponent.

Combat with Unequal Numbers of Combatants

When you are killed by many opponents, currently you lose the full amount of Abyss Points for your rank. See http://na.aiononline.com/forums/suggestion/view?articleID=3271 for data. To increase confidence in the skill of a player with a certain rank and to encourage players to reach the higher ranks and continue to PvP normally at those ranks without restricting themselves to PvPing only in groups, Abyss Points must take into account the size of the groups participating in a battle. If one player is solo and fighting many opponents, the amount of Abyss Points lost for a death must reflect that. This becomes especially important at higher ranks in solo PvP.

The easiest way I can think of without putting too much burden on the server is to use what is already done of tracking damage dealt by different sources, but adding an additional metric of how much attention was paid to the player when that damage was being dealt. With this method the calculations are done over the course of a PvP encounter, instead of being done at the end when a death occurs. The amount of attention involved in inflicting a certain amount of damage is determined by comparing the number and difficulty of opponents who are engaged in combat with the one who is inflicting damage to the number and difficulty of opponents who are engaged in combat with the one who is receiving it. At the moment of inflicting damage, this is simply by counting the number and difficulty of these opponents in the right way without regard to the effectiveness of these other simultaneous combat relationships.

To make the following example more clear, I will describe some of the details for implementation. Each character has several variables or lists:
List 1 (Opponents you are attacking): opponents that you have damaged recently, or that someone you buffed or healed has damaged recently. Each opponent in this list is receiving 'attention' from you according to their difficulty of level and rank, with a total of 100% before being modified by a comparison of their level and rank with yours.
List 2 (Opponents that attack you): opponents that have damaged you recently, or that have healed someone that damaged you recently. 'Recently' might mean the same length of time as other things that do not allow you to be in combat, such as being prevented from changing zone channels. If someone who damages you drops off this list, anyone who healed them also drops off the list and you drop off of their List 1 as described above. Each opponent in this list is giving you 'attention' according to the elements of their List 1 and their own difficulty of level and rank. The amount of attention you are receiving changes only when someone drops off this list because they are no longer attacking you or healing someone who is, or the size of List 1 changes for someone who is attacking you because they stopped attacking someone else.
List 3 (Record of damage dealt to you): Aion already tracks the list of the amount of damage done to you, but in addition this would track the level of danger this damage posed according to the amount of attention they were receiving (their List 2), the amount of attention you were receiving (your List 2), and the inherent difference in difficulty between you and your opponents according to your level and rank, and their level and rank. We do not know what the mechanics are for NPCs attacking a player during PvP, we only know that it decreases Abyss Points earned or lost. So this PvE damage might include its own level of danger according to the attention the NPC paid to you in List 2, or it might only factor into the level of danger that PvP opponents represent by increasing the size of your List 2 and decreasing the attention you are able to give to your PvP opponents when they damage you.

Example:
Player A – Asmodian (cleric)
Player B – Asmodian (gladiator)
Player C – Elyos (templar)
Player D – Asmodian (sorcerer)
Player E – Asmodian (chanter)
Player F – Elyos (spiritmaster)
Player G – Elyos (cleric)


In this example, the characters all have the same level and the same Abyss Rank to simplify the calculations. Sequence of events:

1) Player D casts a spell that damages Players C, F, G. Player D is now seen to be attacking these three players, with 33% of her attention on each of them until they stop taking damage from her. (Player D has 3 opponents on her List 1.)
2) Player E heals player D, and is now seen to be attacking Players C, F, G with 33% attention until she stops healing. (Player E has 3 opponents on her List 1.)
3) Player C attacks player B. For the damaging attack we can assume Player B is paying attention to Player C at the moment of attack (Player B is added to Player C's List 2 for the moment of the attack), and since Player B is not paying attention to anyone else (Player B's List 1 includes only Player C at the moment of attack) Player C is receiving (33% + 33% + 100%) = 166% of normal attention. The weighted amount of attention Player B is receiving for the purpose of calculating danger level for the damage of the attack is [(full attention of attacker according to their level and rank in comparison with target, usually around 100%)/(incoming attention of attacker according to List 2)] = (1/1.66) = 60% of normal attention for this attack. Player B is not paying attention to anyone else (Player B's List 2) so the end result, which calculates the total danger level according to the reciprocal amount of attention Player B is giving Player C at the time of attack, is [(weighted attention of attacker)/(attention of target towards attacker according to the total amount of attention they are receiving in List 2)] = (60% / 100%) = 60% modifier for attention recorded for the damage of this attack.
4) Player A heals Player B. However, since Player B has not yet attacked Player C, Player C is still only receiving (33% + 33%) = 66% of normal attention (Player C's List 2) before determining the calculation of a new attack.
5) Player B attacks Player C. At the moment of attack Player B is seen to be receiving 100% of offensive attention from Player C (Player C's List 1) as Player C has not inflicted damage on anyone else or healed someone who is inflicting damage, and Player C is seen to be receiving 166% of normal attention (Player C's List 2 as Player B has now been added on to this list and Player B has only a single opponent on her List 1), so the weighted amount of attention Player C is receiving for the purpose of calculating danger level for the damage of the attack is [(full attention of attacker according to their level and rank in comparison with target, usually around 100%)/(incoming attention of attacker according to List 2)] = (1/1) = 100% of normal attention for this attack, and the end result for the total danger level according to the reciprocal amount of attention Player B is giving Player C at the time of attack is [(weighted attention of attacker)/(attention of target towards attacker according to List 2)] = [100% / (1/1.66)] = 166% modifier for attention recorded for the damage of this attack.

A large amount of attention corresponds to a high danger level for the damage recorded on List 3 and means you were heavily outnumbered during an encounter, while a small amount of attention means you were taking damage from someone who was fighting multiple opponents. A large amount of attention should result in a decrease in the Abyss Points earned or lost, while a small amount of attention does not need to result in a change. Player level and Abyss Rank may be added during the damage calculations to change the amount of attention received, or it may be included at the time of death depending on the sources of damage on List 3 to decrease or increase Abyss Points earned or lost without influencing the attention received from other attacks.

Calculating the number of opponents you face in a PvP battle like this, compared to the number of your allies that they face, allows a fair assessment of solo PvP proficiency and allows more enjoyment of the game.

Fighting an Opponent of Higher Level

There is no additional damage penalty for physical attacks against opponents of higher level, beyond the reduction from Physical Defense. There is also no reduction in the amount of damage of a successful magical attack, the way we incur in PvE (see source thread for formulas for PvE: http://www.aionsource.com/forum/mechanic-analysis/42597-character-stats-xp-dp-origin-gerbator-team-july-2009-a.html). However, physical attacks will eventually be reduced to dealing 1 damage per attack against opponents of higher level, and spells will suffer a 99% resist rate against someone 10 levels higher even without Magic Resist. To compensate for this, higher level opponents will earn very low Abyss Points when killing you and you will lose very few Abyss Points on death.

It is imperative that these obstacles to PvP be removed. There is a wide spread of level of opponents in a zone such as Morheim and Eltnen, and currently very few of these opponents will give both of you a fair chance to win. The unfair barriers to PvP must be removed and the Abyss Point penalty decreased to compensate to allow more equal PvP at all levels. Higher level players will still have more health, more damage, more armor, more abilities, larger heals, higher defensive stats, and more magic resist, but will not benefit from extra spell resist based on level and damage mitigation mechanics which unbalance PvP.

- The extra resist based on level must be removed, and chance to resist based solely on comparing Magic Accuracy against Magic Resist and other resist attributes such as Stun Resist that certain classes get.

- Magic Resist must be capped at 400 above the opponent's Magic Accuracy, giving a maximum chance to resist of 40%.

- The reduction from physical defense must be capped for players at a certain proportion of damage of the incoming attack, such as 60-70% reduced damage. Attacks should never deal less damage than this amount. This applies to NPCs attack players and also PvP. The amount of reduction is greater than the allowed resist chance for spells, because a certain proportion of physical damage is already intended to be absorbed by physical defense. For example, at level 30 a player may have 200 Attack and be fighting opponents with 700 Physical Defense, so 35% of the attack is already being absorbed by physical defense.

Character Statistics and Equipment

Aion's stat system causes problems. Certain stats are too powerful, while other stats are not powerful enough and there are many situations where they are not useful at all. This causes damage to increase in PvP by a large amount, reduces the choices we have to create an effective build for our characters, and means that much of the advice experienced players have to give to new players is about what to avoid because it is broken, not about how to have more fun playing the game. Seeing options appear and then disappear is one of the things that makes people quit a game.

Item Rarity and Crafting

Manastones are very powerful, and higher quality items of the same level have both higher stats and more manastone sockets than lower quality items. Most Common-quality items have only one manasocket, with the occasional item having two. It is not uncommon for characters to have several Heroic-quality (blue) items by the time they are in their mid-20's, and with three manastone sockets it is difficult to justify upgrading to a Common-quality item with one socket even if the Common-quality item is many levels higher and has better base stats. With Abyss gear from level 30 onwards having between 4 and 6 sockets, Common (white) and Superior (green) items have even less use. However, PvE still provides many Common-quality items and many crafting recipes also produce a Common item, a Noble result of which is then used to craft the higher levels of gear. With the low demand for Common items, most of the usual results of crafting are sold to vendor or extracted for Enchantment stones. As a result, crafting becomes difficult and expensive to use unless selling the high-end results for large amounts that the average player cannot afford, which encourages third-party RMT, gold buying, gold advertisements, spamming, and botting.

To increase the usefulness of items that are not of Fabled quality (orange), the lower quality items should increase in the amount of manastone sockets they have as the level of the item increases. A Common item of level 5 would continue to have just 1 manastone socket. But a Common item of level 25 for example might usually have 2 sockets, and only rarely have one socket. At level 35, Common items might usually have 2 sockets and very rarely have 3 sockets, while Superior (green) items might usually have 3 sockets and very rarely 2 sockets, and Heroic (blue) items might usually have 4 and occasionally 3 sockets. By level 50, Common items would normally have 2 but often have 3 sockets, Superior items would normally have 3 but often have 4 sockets, and Heroic items would normally have 4 but often have 5 sockets.

Offensive and Defensive Stats

Magic Boost and Physical Critical Hit are the main stats most classes aim for because they are effective in all cases of doing damage. Defensive stats are only useful when the stat is higher than your opponent's accuracy. Accuracy is only useful when it is lower than your opponent's defensive stats. All defensive stats are also useful against only one damage type, physical attacks or magical spells. However, the base amounts of abilities that do not benefit from these mechanics are not increased at higher levels to compensate for the increase of these stats, such as the damage of spellbooks or orbs, the strength of healing spells, the amount absorbed by Stone Skin or Rage, or the damage of a Cleric's physical attacks and abilities. It becomes more difficult to use these abilities in PvE and PvP as the power of characters increases from getting better gear and acquiring more manastone sockets from gear quality.

If Aion is not going to increase the power of these other abilities by scaling, it is necessary to slow the rate of damage increase in PvP to reduce burst damage and sustained damage. The most effective way to do this is to transfer the optimal stats towards the ones that have counters: Magic Accuracy is countered by Magic Resist and Accuracy is countered by Evasion/Parry/Block. These stats are normally not used for three reasons. First, half of them are defensive stats and the objective of most classes in PvP and PvE is to deal damage without taking damage. Second, the amount of benefit from using in a manastone socket is usually less than the benefit from using Magic Boost or Physical Crit. Third, they are only useful when the relevant stat on the opponent is lower or higher than the stat on the attacker, and so they all have a lower cap and a higher cap. In the case of Evasion/Parry/Block this cap will often vary based on movement bonuses and buffs or debuffs, and in other situations vs a lower-level or higher-level opponent the cap is already reached without using manastones.

This is somewhat intentional to avoid increasing damage too much against lower-level opponents. However, it is possible to increase the effectiveness of the defensive stats and ensure they are appropriately capped at reasonable levels, while giving a non-damage benefit for exceeding the cap of the opposite stat.

All stats currently have a weight on items when used as a bonus stat, which is different from the relative amount on manastones. This weight should also be adjusted, but manastones are the primary means of directing the increase in power of a character and so I will use them to discuss examples.

- Change Parry and Block so that a difference of 6 parry or 6 block over the opponent's Accuracy results in 1% Parry or Block chance, while keeping the amount on manastones the same. This means that the effective cap is 240 Parry or 300 Block over the opponent's accuracy.
- Change Accuracy so that a level 50 Superior (green) manastone gives 20 Accuracy, down from 25.
- Change Evasion so that a level 50 Superior (green) manastone gives 20 Evasion, up from 15.
- Change Magic Resist so that a level 50 Superior (green) manastone gives 20 Magic Resist, up from 12. Change any lower-level manastones if they still exist to give higher amounts of resist, similar to low-level Block/Parry manastones. Change the cap on Magic Resist to 400 above the opponent's Magic Accuracy, as described in the section “Fighting an Opponent of Higher Level”, so that there is a maximum chance of 40% chance for a character to resist an attack. However an NPC can still get 99% resist chance to continue to discourage the hunting of higher level NPCs.
- Change Magic Accuracy so that a level 50 Superior (green) manastone gives 20 Magic Accuracy, up from 12. Change any lower-level manastones if they still exist to give higher amounts of Magic Accuracy, similar to low-level Accuracy manastones.
- Add additional effect to Magic Accuracy: when Magic Accuracy is greater than the opponent's Magic Resist, there is additional chance to interrupt the opponent's casts when spells do damage, regardless of the damage of the spell. This is a counter to Concentration however the base chance to interrupt based on damage, without the boost from Magic Accuracy, may need to be reduced slightly. Since high Magic Resist already gives more chance to resist interruption because spells are resisted, it might not be necessary to further decrease the chance of interruption when Magic Resist exceeds Magic Accuracy.
- Add an additional effect to Magic Accuracy: effects applied by magic which can be broken by damage have reduced chance to be broken when the Magic Accuracy of the character who applied the effect is higher. Effects which have a variable duration will have a longer duration when used by a character with higher Magic Accuracy than the opponent's Magic Resist. When Magic Resist is high compared to the Magic Accuracy of the opponent who applied a magic effect, damage will have increased chance to break the effect if it can be broken by damage, and if the effect has a variable duration it will have shorter duration.
- Add additional effect to Accuracy: after comparing Accuracy to the Parry, Evasion, and Block of the opponent, there may be additional chance to interrupt the opponent's casts when physical attacks that use Accuracy do damage, regardless of the damage of the attack. This is a counter to Concentration however the base chance to interrupt based on damage, without the boost from Accuracy, may need to be reduced slightly. An equipped shield should always decrease the chance for casts to be interrupted, regardless of how bad the shield is. However, if the shield is very bad (and Block is much lower than Accuracy) the decrease in chance to be interrupted should be small. If Accuracy is higher than some stats (such as Evasion and Block, or if there is no Block) but lower than another stat (such as Parry), whether the chance to interrupt casts is increased may depend on the formulas used. It may be possible to use Block in the formula, regardless of whether a shield is equipped, as everyone has block from their level. It may not be necessary to further decrease the chance of interruption when Accuracy is lower than all defensive stats, if a blocked or parried attack already decreases the chance of interruption.
- Add an additional effect to Accuracy: effects applied by a physical attack which can be broken by damage have reduced chance to be broken when the Accuracy of the character who applied the effect is higher. Effects which have a variable duration will have a longer duration when used by a character with higher Accuracy than the opponent's defensive stats (Evasion/Block/Parry). When the defensive stats are high compared to the Accuracy of the opponent who applied an effect using a physical attack, damage will have increased chance to break the effects if it can be broken by damage, and the effect has a variable duration it will have shorter duration.

It may be possible to increase the effectiveness of defensive manastones by less than described here, but the important points are capping magic resist to prevent it from reaching 80% or higher in PvP against equal level opponents and adding a non-damage benefit to Accuracy and Magic Accuracy to have them as a viable option to the damage stats of Magic Boost and Physical Critical Hit. Certain players will reach the Magic Resist cap whether it takes them 20 manastones or 28, but in every case the existence of a cap reduces the effectiveness of specially socketed gear and they are less effective against attacks their manastones do not protect against. No more Templars getting 1500+ Magic Resist in PvP, or Sorcerers with equally much Magic Boost without being experiencing resists.

Other Issues with Leveling, Combat, and XP

The leveling experience in Aion is mostly enjoyable, due to the wide variety of storytelling techniques used. However, new players will eventually encounter things that may detract from their enjoyment of the game.

Difficult NPCs that Drop Powerful Equipment

The relatively small apparent increase in the stats of items and the automatic increase in the power of abilities makes many who are new to Aion think that upgrading their equipment is less important than it is in other games. This is mostly true, until encountering higher gear qualities with more manastone sockets. However, in the elite areas in the second zone we encounter bosses whose only purpose is to be killed for the items they drop. They are not for any quest since it would be difficult to complete any quest with the competition for bosses, so currently they do not do much to progress the story. Many players will find themselves joining groups with the objective of killing these bosses for loot. To prevent new players from thinking they must do this to have fun, it is necessary to integrate these bosses into the overall story of the daeva's progression and the conflict between Elyos and Asmodian and Balaur, which is lost somewhat when killing these elites.

One way to do this might be to have an Asmodian or Elyos NPC in the main fortress, or at the forward camps, who will discuss the existence of these bosses and their background story. This way, the name “The Peltclaimer” will be known to Asmodians who encounter this Black Claw priestess when they venture to the area and she will integrate with the rest of the story the daeva has encountered. Otherwise, after completing the final Campaign quest which relates to the Balaur, it's too easy for a player to move on to farming bosses with no other objective. There are complaints that Aion feels too much like a grind around this level, and the lack of overall story connecting these bosses to the rest of the game is one reason why. It is also possible that the problems around this level are due to the lack of significant rewards from Campaign quests and disconnection between Campaign quests, especially in different zones. A storyline does not feel important if it is irrelevant to the other, important storylines, but fixing this would take significant development effort and might not be appropriate for Aion at this point.

Social Emotes and Combat Animations

It is frustrating not being able to communicate what you want to, whether it is to allies or enemies. In many cases movement and ability use is a form of expression and communication about what you are capable of, and the game should allow this expression as clearly as possible as long as it does not create imbalance. There are some cases where there is a reason for animations preventing certain actions, and other cases where actions are prevented but should not be prevented. For example, changing gear is not permitted while casting a spell or using an ability and this is how it should be. However, flying or gliding is a form of movement and should be treated as an extension of running or jumping, and in all cases where movement is allowed the start of gliding or flying should also be allowed. You should be able to use one instant ability, unfurl your wings immediately afterward, and then use the next ability in a chain without losing any time, or use an instant and then jump and immediately start gliding. To be realistic, the unfurling of wings animation could continue to prevent normal auto-attacking using the weapon.

There are several issues preventing use of Aion's emotes to express emotions to other players:
- Emotes cannot be used while moving, you will stop to perform the emote.
- There seems to be a bug where you will not use an emote if the server has recorded the wrong location for your position, but instead you will be moved slightly to the new position instead of using the emote. This also affects gathering and will cancel the gathering of a resource upon speaking.
- Emotes cannot be used while attacking, you must stop attacking to use the emote.
- Emotes cannot be used consecutively until the animation has finished.
- Emotes cannot be used while flying.
- Many emotes that we expect to use and attempt to use are not available in Aion.

These issues prevent us from expressing ourselves to other players and lower enjoyment of the game by causing frustration, especially when we are unable to complete an emotion in PvP or against a flying opponent due to circumstances and not being able to stand still.

Soul Healing Costs and XP in Groups

During solo questing it is common for many players not to die at all. When starting to join groups to fight elite NPCs and when beginning to PvP, death is more common but at the same time Soul Healing becomes more necessary to avoid holding up the group in PvE or to survive in PvP, even if PvP was not the source of XP loss that leads to a long duration for Soul Sickness. This is despite that when fighting elites in a group, often the reason for a death is a mistake by another player. It is imperative that we be allowed the choice in this situation to accept the death and pay the soul healer, or to accumulate a large amount of Soul Sickness and lose XP on every death without being required to pay the soul healer. PvP removes this choice when PvE mistakes by other players force you to spend money to avoid being penalized in PvP.

PvE deaths should not affect PvP in this way. Deaths in PvP should result in a small duration for Soul Sickness, no matter what the XP deficit is from prior deaths. It is also necessary to change the way XP reduction works in groups of characters of unequal level. Currently, the decrease in XP is based off the difference in level of the characters, without regard to the level of the NPCs they are fighting. (See same thread as before for XP formula: http://www.aionsource.com/forum/mechanic-analysis/42597-character-stats-xp-dp-origin-gerbator-team-july-2009-a.html) It must change to also take into account the level of the NPCs they are fighting, and whether it would be reasonable for the lower-level characters in the group to defeat these NPCs by themselves. For example, at level 27:

- I could kill a level 31 non-elite NPC by myself for 15,000 EXP.
- I could kill a level 25 elite in the Nashtana Training Camp by myself for 90,000 EXP.
- I could kill a level 26 elite in Taran's Cavern by myself for 40,000 EXP.
Or,

- I could join a group with lvl 28-29 players and kill lvl 30 elites in the Arkanis Sky Temple for 8,000 EXP.
- I could be in a group with just a lvl 35 Gladiator, a lvl 29 Ranger, and myself and kill the same lvl 30 elites for 1,700 EXP.

The existence of a player 8 levels higher than myself does not make the elites easy to kill. The XP reduction formula is balanced off the assumption of powerleveling and that the highest level player in the group is killing NPCs that award the most efficient XP, which is always roughly same-level or slightly higher level NPCs. In this case it would be lvl 35-37 NPCs which would probably give the same XP to a lvl 35 player as the lvl 30 elites, but would be much easier for a lvl 35 player to kill and would justify a lvl 27 player getting greatly reduced XP. But because there are often legitimate groups fighting NPCs that are lower level than the highest player in the group, the formula needs to be adjusted to be based off the level of the NPC that is defeated, not just off the level of the highest player.

Here is a quick, but very usable process that would result in fair XP for fighting NPCs that are lower level than the highest player in a group, copying the appropriate steps from the thread linked above:

Example chart copied from linked thread:

Level Difference Coefficient

0 2000
1 1860
2 1715
3 1429
4 1145
5 859
6 430
7 215
8 107
9 52
10 26
11 20
12 and more 0

1. Determine level difference compared to highest-level member in group.
2. Each member gets a coefficient according to the table of coefficients for groups copied from the linked thread.
3. Determine level difference compared to the NPC that was defeated.
4. Each member gets an NPC-based coefficient according to the table of coefficients for groups in the linked thread. Members of the group higher than the NPC get a coefficient equal to a player of equal level to the NPC (coefficient of 2000 using example chart).
5. Determine level difference between the NPC that was defeated and the highest player in the group, and find the ratio of coefficients for the highest player in the group and the NPC, according to the table in the linked thread. Using those coefficients as an example, fighting an NPC 3 levels higher than the highest player in the group the ratio would be 2000/1429, fighting an NPC 4 levels lower than the highest player in the group the ratio would be 1145/2000.
6. Multiply the ratio in step 5 by the coefficients in step 4 to get a weighted comparison with the level of the NPC.
7. Add the weighted coefficients in step 6 to the coefficients for the same member in step 2.
8. Calculate % proportion each member has compared to sum of all coefficients.
9. Also calculate "XP as for solo" for each member (as described in linked thread for increasing XP against higher level NPCs or decreasing XP against NPCs more than 2 levels lower).
10. Multiply number from step 8 with number from step 9
11. The XP undergoes limiting as in the linked thread for not being able to fill more than 20% of XP bar.

Example calculation:
Group of 27 Cleric, 29 Ranger, 35 Gladiator kills lvl 30 elite

Old formula:
Cleric coefficient of 107
Ranger coefficient of 430
Gladiator coefficient of 2000

Sum of coefficients is 2537, if Cleric is getting 1700 XP per kill with bonus from "XP as for solo" step (15% bonus) then normal XP for NPC is (2537/107 * 1700 / 1.15) = 35000 XP per kill according to the formula. After XP as for solo penalty of 50% for gladiator (described in linked thread), gladiator should be getting 15,500 XP per kill and ranger with 5% XP for solo bonus should be getting 6200 per kill. Data for XP on these 1-dot elites is confirmed by getting around 8000 XP per kill with a total of four players lvl 27-29 in the group.

New formula:
Step 2:
Cleric coefficient of 107
Ranger coefficient of 430
Gladiator coefficient of 2000

Step 4:
Cleric coefficent of 1429
Ranger coefficient of 1860
Gladiator coefficient of 2000

Step 5:
Coefficient of highest player to NPC level: 859/2000 = 0.4295

Step 6, weighted coefficients compared to NPC:
Cleric, weighted of 613.8
Ranger, weighted of 798.9
Gladiator, weighted of 859

Step 7, total coefficients:
Cleric, total of 720.8
Ranger, total of 1228.9
Gladiator, total of 2859

Step 10, XP after calculating solo bonus or penalty:
lvl 27 Cleric gets 6034 EXP after 15% bonus from level
lvl 29 Ranger gets 9391 EXP after 5% bonus from level
lvl 35 Gladiator gets 10403 EXP after 50% penalty from level

This is a much more fair XP distribution. According to the described formula, powerleveling would still be impossible since the coefficient compared to the NPC is reduced when the highest level player is of higher level than the NPC, with this coefficient eventually being multiplied by 0 when the highest level player is more than 12 levels higher than the NPC.

Preventing Botting and RMT

Botting is much more of a problem on our servers because Game Guard is disabled, and this increases the supply for Real-Money Transactions or 'RMT'. However, the primary reason that people choose to become clients of RMT is that they feel there is a problem with the game or its community that will not allow them to enjoy playing without RMT. Therefore, the above solutions are all important to reducing botting and RMT as they increase the PvP and gear customization options available at all levels of the game, without having to resort to RMT or use a botting program to reach a high level. Once they are done, long-term solutions to botting can be implemented to restore balance to the economy.

Reducing botting should focus on attacking the network of bots, distributors, and clients of RMT, instead of trying to identify them with just their own actions. Similar to Google's link weight algorithms and real-world identification of networks, characters that are identified as being bots or gold sellers should also raise flags for the game accounts that they are associated with financially. Many actions could lead to being identified as high chance or high risk for botting or gold selling, but this should only be used as the first step in verifying this prohibited activity. Examples of high-risk behavior:

- associating with any high-risk character by guild, in-game mail, or direct trade of kinah or goods.
- a low-level character sending large amounts of money or trading large amounts of money, as gold sellers are likely to try to use temporary characters to decrease the risk of their main accounts being banned. There are reasons that a high-level player might send their friends money, such as if they are quitting the game, but there is almost no reason for this exchange to be done indirectly through an intermediate, low-level character.
- being the target of many Auto Hunting Reports.
- engaging in certain activities after being the target of Auto Hunting Reports, such as continuing to kill the same type of NPC for a long period of time, or gathering the same resource for a long period of time, or killing the same type of NPC when it's much lower level and gives very little experience.
- completing very few, or no quests. This is a very strong indication of botting, as is not having a standard title.
- broker purchases or private store purchases that are much higher or much lower than a normal range of prices for that item, as this is likely one technique used to transfer kinah between characters to prepare for RMT.

If word verification is added for gathering, it may be less annoying to normal players if word verification is only triggered by Auto Hunting Reports along with high-risk activities such as gathering the same resources or killing the same NPCs, and the chance to ask for word verification should be related to the number of Auto Hunting Reports and historical record of likely botting activity. One very easy, and likely very effective short-term way to reduce the effectiveness of bots operating on Aion's Western servers would be to prevent the '/select' command from being used to select resources. In the current client, you can type '/select Adamantium' and it will select the node as shown with a yellow circle, and then you can Gather or use the Attack hotkey and automatically move to and gather the node, or you can type '/select Big Vortex' while flying and use a hotkey to automatically fly to and gather from the node. The '/select' command has a range which is less than the limit of visibility but there is no reason to allow the automatic selection of a node at all.


I ask NCSoft to consider the issues in the Western market and the solutions described in this post. Allowing players of all levels to contribute to the PvP battles between the factions and giving more freedom of expression in itemization and social interactions is critical to the growth of the game.

Hashi

With the default touchpad driver in Ubuntu, top-right is middle click and bottom-right is secondary click (right-click for most people).

This isn't mentioned in Gnome because it's supposed to be simple, but I think the package description mentioned this. I've found it quite useful because I couldn't find any way to initiate standard right-click using the keyboard (different sometimes than the 'context menu' key), and you don't need to do the complicated gsynaptics configuration stuff with touchpad memory to get it working, either. :P

"World of Warcraft"

(very lazy)

lvl 85
specialization, 'talent' variations (circular layout!)
downleveling to play with friends, heirloom items (and updated Onyxia >_> content obsoletion in general including entire zones/expansions)
Story specialization instead of power
ganking and PvP. Biggest option for new competitors, having options while leveling


more on item model
character is 60. Item is 1, but counts as 40 or 45
Effective level increased for low-level items if more proficient in that clothing style from use
Being able to use any item, not the same as being highly effective with any item immediately upon picking it up
Economic quality differ upon 'deterioration' events, avoidable vs unavoidable damage. Optimum differs for each case
Downleveling in instances good for story and social, regardless of power scaling


a friend is having relationship problems

tears

Haha, found it. What everyone who has a blog should keep in mind . . .

Restless thoughts

Some days I just can't concentrate . . .

This is going back to the idea of three separate views in an MMO, each of which presents different information and functions. The social view presents conversations and normal user interface information, as well as abilities setup and all other options available. It emphasizes the display of this information thru the 'UI layer', and presents reduced information in the dynamic game world environment such as not displaying player names floating above their heads in most cases.

The second is the battle view, which also presents a subset of information but in this case selects information that helps a single player make quick decisions in combat. This eliminates chat information from the display and even UI elements such as abilities; a player fighting in this mode would have all abilities keybound and memorized. However, unlike the social view, the battle view shows all friendly and unfriendly names in the gameworld. It might or might not include the status of group members as part of the essential information to display. This view is designed to complement, and not replace the social view in both combat and other situations; however, its other use is for those who are 'following' the viewpoint of a player to be able to understand what they are doing, without distractions such as chat and the placement of buttons that do not influence the instantaneous decisions of the followed character. This would include being able to show the dynamics of any staged battles viewed by a mass audience, in-game or out.

The third is camera, or director, or film-making view. As well as setting up graphical and camera settings for screenshots, it would also give video capture options. More settings are being able to move the camera position independent of the character, prerecorded camera movements in all dimensions and variable speeds (think graphs that show position in a dimension over time, and being able to recall relative or absolute locations), letting the camera stay in one place tracking a moving character or freely moving, as well as other previously mentioned things like camera viewing angle and display of names or the interface. It may be possible to change other settings in this interface, or maybe they would just fall under graphical settings for the game as a whole, such as the amount of 'glare' produced by a simulated light source. All this should be designed not to be exploitable in combat for line-of-sight information etc. Probably by removing saved points when switching to a different view, or at the very least by restricting the camera movement speed at initial switch and in certain situations. If it is still used to view nearby, otherwise unviewable, areas as by thinking of the character going into a 'trance', that may not be a bad use of the system.


Anyway the important one in this discussion is social view. It would be nice to do as previously mentioned and display 'important' names without selecting those entities; however some analysis says that this may not be possible. Battle view would fulfill the most necessary situations, as going into a single-minded state of concentrating on awareness and combat instead of other details; there may be too many contradictions by expanding this into social view, as follows . . .

There are different options. Displaying transparent names with a fuzzy glow, to distinguish from the bright main selection; showing on near-mouseover, and then fading again; doing this with certain subsets of all entities. As regards to hostile targets, this would detract from the single selection that is made by the player. Situations are most interesting when they allow for friendly or unfriendly actions to be reciprocated or to deny that reciprocation, which drives emphasis towards the status of individuals when time and the display allow for this. Even this fuzzy-glow display would also cause overreliance on combat mechanisms that cause names to appear which may speed the decision-making process, leading to cases where 'aggro is good' and so on, where actions are chosen solely for names and not for information; this is what really reduces the chance of being able to do this. But I guess names on near-mouseover is still possible in all cases . . .

For friendly entities, the main problem is which subset to make names appear for. Should group members have their names always displayed, or should friends..? How to differentiate between these two? If similar patterns are used, which is better, a friend or a group member? This last question inevitably arises when both group and friend are supposed to be 'better' than average. Is everyone who does not have their name displayed unimportant, since you have to go to extra effort to recognize them? It's easier to ignore everyone you don't know know or aren't working with. Why bother to memorize the physical appearance of those around you, when the important ones already have their names displayed and you can just memorize those..? These last ones are most troublesome, and since passive name display already creates the discomfort of an easy and unrealistic simulation of the real, it may be better not to have passive name display at all, and maybe not even on near-mouseover as these recent questions could mean that making it more difficult to obtain this information makes the game better.


Anyway, back to friends vs group, "display and value conflict". This is where I start copying notes verbatim. Different display mechanisms for each, but if group display is preserved then preferential and denigrate friends. But group display necessary for awareness when joining a group, etc. for social context and guidance/direction. "Follow the mob'.

Since for separation of known friendly [entities] and social dependencies and hard obligations, only important when non-grouped friendlies are present.

• not in raids
• Not in instanced PvP with controlled sides

"Raid group" besides very evocative does not have to be the same as normal group for other tasks. Goal can be different, obligations different, and display different. Possible: raid group is spears + feathers or banners. [Note: more lengthy setup of raid group, need to design banner and so on, or must derive from a guild. Less trivial for raid group to exist, possibly longer existence too..? Task-based, different purpose than a guild, may not be able to exist for long regardless of setup requirements.] Physical tokens within context of game reality are not comparable to game or player-designated relationships and potentials as displayed by name colour, etc. Group could be different but less obvious; "only feathers". Multi-group could include both of these.

Groups in raid vs party buffs, universal benefit?


. . . and that's as far as I got before I ran out of space and had to start thinking again, lol. The traditional 'raid groups' of current PvE MMOs would not correspond to the raid groups in this thinking. That raiding role in a system like this would fall upon groups of various sizes, with more internal organization to encourage modularity and dynamic social groupings to accomplish a task. This third type of group would be the 'multi-group' as mentioned above and also described in previous writings not present in this space, since 'super-group' sounds too much like American comic books and you can't create a more unique and descriptive term unless you have a place for it in the functional language. Would it help to be able to have raids, and not just the normal small group, join into this 'multi-group'? It might depend on how obvious the raid-group physical token designator is . . . otherwise it might be fine. Raid groups might just work as multiple small groups for combat purposes anyway, similar to existing games.

So another open question, besides 'preventing party buffs from breaking raid modularity' and 'whether raid groups can join raids', might be 'whether to design or alter combat mechanics around large groups with no internal structure or organization'.

Maybe PvP raid group vs PvE raid group might be better short-term descriptions. o_O Anyway that's all I can think of for now, and hopefully soon . . . as in today >_< . . . I can go back to studying.


UPDATE: 23 July, 12:13 a.m.

It may be very sad, but I have lots of pictures and movies from an old game on my hard drive. Due to issues, I know I can't concentrate so I escape to the unseen world. Things I noticed regarding names:
- raid instances look great with no names, at least for someone not actively playing and making decisions. Note: glowy armor looks stupid, properly done non-glowy armor can look totally awesome especially when the scene is properly presented.
- the one named Mantrid had friendly names off at least for one point in his (first?) PvP video
- generally, having names off means that the name display for the selected entity is the concession to gameplay, and no names is actually the 'reality'
- camera angle and height is still essential to taking characters seriously, instead of having them trivialized by distance and smallness

Screenshots, of course, look much better with no names. However in order for the meme 'identity is somewhat hidden' be successful, it must also apply to Player-vs-Environment scenarios, aka aggro and other artificial intelligence concepts. Take a screenshot of an underground university turned into a house of death and horror by undead perversions: the players have been turned into diseased gnomes and skeletons by various potions, and off in the distance are several groups of necromancers chatting. The only name appearing in the screenshot is that of one of the necromancers who was selected at the time. Not displaying friendly names can cause confusion about who is and who is not, but under current systems an artificial opponent would have no such confusion. Extending the assumptions of this scenario, the diseased gnomes and skeletons in this screenshot should be able to walk past the necromancers in a casual way, and not attract their attention.

Approaching too close or otherwise acting unusually might of course trigger a question or other challenge, which may or may not have a suitable response to avoid conflict. This actually is another example of 'group dynamics instead of solo', since a large group of players would not only be more suspicious but would also require uniform behavior from all group members to prevent an escalation.

Other pictures... hum...

Ninjaing a chest with pirates standing scant yards away... taunting guards of a fanatical and militant religious order while disguised as a paladin of said order, in turn disguised as a pirate of the wrong gender too... also one of the opening of a keystone in an archaeological site which is interesting because it's one of the situations I thought you WOULD need names, but it actually works out quite well from the screenshot... one of the movies which I shamefully watched had the character's own name displayed, which mostly works because their identity is relevant so it isn't a distraction. For presentation of situation however, identity is not important and name colour as action-potentials is distracting as usually involves losses and gains that do not concern the viewer. Identity information can be provided in metadata or descriptions accompanying the screenshot, and there would always be the option of selecting oneself as the named entity being emphasized in a screenshot.

Another one of the same corrupted school... this one with interface on, but names still off and it looks great. But I don't think I did the fight that way >_<.. if someone is in trouble, it's hard to tell where they are without being able to examine a situation for friendly entities, and verify that someone who seems to be in trouble is the one that actually is by looking at their name display in the gameworld. On the other hand it's somewhat difficult to tell who may be in trouble even with names on unless you are paying attention.

However, this can can be countered by having predictable damage. The 'assist' hotkey, to find target of target is an essential tool in dynamic situations, and in the confusion of many opponents, 1-vs-many damage mechanics and aggro mechanics will contribute to this relative predictability. Just as essential tho is communication. Even if it's not an important subject, when someone says something in chat and you can't associate their name with a specific nearby entity in the gameworld, this is confusing and distracting, because there are social considerations too and remembering who said what, not just the immediate impact of this communication on the game world.

What about this..? Complicated because not all communication takes place with range of voice, so the analogy is not perfect. If someone speaks in any communication channel and within 'voice range' (which might not be same as visible range), they give physical indications of speaking and a voice bubble shows up that gives an abbreviation of the communication channel and the beginning of what they say. The purpose of this is not to be able to follow a conversation by just looking at the game world, but to allow quick identification of who is saying what. However, 'mousing over' any chat bubble could easily show the full text. Their name could be included, but leaving it out as well as abbreviating the communication channel is to avoid repetition of information and screen clutter. The chat bubble doesn't have to be always over their head; it would be better if it were dynamic and tried to fill screen space that was not already occupied by something interesting like a character.

For example of this, suppose the following dialogue:
[Group][Holymackerel]: pally power!
[Group][Lavicus]: im nervous :P lol
[Group][Jerdren]: lol
[Group][Taemojitsu]: ought to have gone x5 pallies XD
[Group][Holymackerel]: is this a long fight?
...

might show up as something like,
"[G] pally power!"
"[G] im nervous ..."
"[G] lol"
"[G] ought to ..."
"[G] is this ..."

in speech bubbles in the game world.


More screenshots: siiigh, lots of totally iconic imagery of a free-for-all arena in a jungle. For example one partial shot has at least 72 bodies on the floor and entrance to the arena of players who have died and not resurrected; another shows at least 64. Neither of these count all the skeletons that remain after a player has resurrected, nor do they count ongoing player-vs-player engagements with flashy explosions and healing and moonlasers coming down from the sky. If I included images in this blog this post would have too many. Other images include groups from classic opposing factions mustering their courage at the entrance and making preparations to enter the arena floor, with lighting from time of day highlighting the differences between them... interspersed in each case with several players of the wrong faction. A lineup of trolls on raptors with a hulking tauren on same walking down the line, faced by a lone female and the occasional dead body or skeleton on the floor. Four identically-dressed assassins attempting to molest a player by intrusion on their personal space as she sits near a wall. Another screenshot demonstrating the hilarity and social reactions when a many-vs-1 gank fails. None of these with names displayed, the interface displayed only if conversation or health/debuffs are relevant; and it all looks great! siiiigh. ^_^ the memories... sorry!

...

As regards to free-for-all PvP, this highlights how useful the 'physical token' approach to marking groups would be, as this makes groups visible to players who are not in one.

(healers PvP, making it interesting/dynamic and using group heals)

Open questions

In the course of things, I am distracted by various thoughts. They start from anywhere. As they progress, I wonder about power inflation. Do things scale properly? How does this affect player options? Perhaps inspired by a depiction of a lone caster facing the lord of the molten depths in all his anger and power, I wonder about past stories and a player attempting to solo Maws, the tiny minnow who held part of the key to an ancient mystery. Any game should allow at least as dramatic a depiction as the one by Betrayal, a player, of the battles against Maws and Eranikus. But how is it really, to experience such a thing? How much of it is just presentation and editing? For a single player to attempt the same thing would be unrealistic as seen in a game. Is there any way to show any amount of drama when the minnow is faced by a single opponent? How much of this can be done with the game, and how much would need to be done by camera and editing?

Removing the traditional form of power inflation would make this impossible. Is there any downside to the situation of not being able to do this? Scaling problems are a core issue in a game based around progression of power, and bad mechanics will throw off balance. It is apparent from the design of some games that certain classes were more 'dependent' on their gear than others, especially for damage. Is it possible to have balance... or you might say, "balance-preserving transformations"... when the size of resource pools, and thus the length of fights change?

Obviously, one way of avoiding this is by not having classes for whom upgrades are a necessity, and specifically weapon upgrades. How is the situation tho when classes are dependent in this way, or in some cases as they have become this way? For which classes are options present, and for which do scaling mechanics restrict what they are able to do? Under which scenarios -- such as character level or gear depth -- do these restrictions exist, and how would you create a character to preserve as many options as possible so you could have fun...? But at some point there is a limit to these questions and their relevance.

This somehow, led me to wonder why I consider the possibility of group combat more exciting than solo combat, and why I would choose options that emphasize group support in addition to solo viability in most cases. Why would I not speculate about group offensive viability as well. One way or another this led me back to names; after spending much time thinking about the very simple situation, 'Use an offensive ability that blows up multiple enemies next to you, and everyone's name pops up briefly to let you know whom you damaged', I think it isn't possible. There's too much about ranged aoe attacks, and periodic aoe damage, and single-target aoe damage, and names as letting you know who you have damaged compared to names letting you know what creatures you have accidentally damaged that will now try to attack you, and showing friendly names when you are healed by one out of a large number of playeres compared to showing friendly names when you are healed by a dedicated healer in a small number of players you are working closely with at a certain time. Too difficult to separate times when names would be appropriate vs when they would not.

This asks, when is showing multiple names needed? It would be when you have just caused a significant change, either in their own health or in their perception of you, in several entities and don't have time to select each individually to see their names; but also when you are faced with multiple entities and need to target one of many of them, and your decision is dependent on the identities involved. In this second case, names-on-damage would not help, and not all characters would have access to area-of-effect abilities anyway. These other flaws in implementing make it less likely that this function would work smoothly.

However, many target selection difficulties would be somewhat alleviated by more area-of-effect possibilities by abilities, as well as other ninja law mechanics to help a player attacked by multiple opponents. Knowledge stress is based on the penalty for not using that information, and by lowering the immediate intensity of a conflict where information is hard to quickly obtain the knowledge stress is reduced.

It is important not to forget the stylistic approach, where less information is more helpful when taking all factors into account.

Also, 'tab select' shouldn't go thru walls. And there's lots of stuff you could say about using story ('quests') as incentive instead of power-based items, with story also actually including character expression and differentiation. A 'quest' would change your character's expression, as it is only done once. Defeating a known figure in a story tableau would only change your status within a certain context, those in the world who care about the story as portrayed within the larger story of the game and maybe other players who care about for this specific aspect of your character. However the gear questions that lead to this diversion are not new.

drifting

Rise of Western civilization, world empires in last few centuries

metalworking, energy, weapons

technology combined with language enabling cheap knowledge transfer. (movable type works well with the Latin alphabet)

In 20th century technology allows knowledge transfer in all languages and cultures.


See also, Pierre Bourdieu. Note reflexivity and link to the 'financial terrorist' Mr Soros, and different kinds of social and cultural capital, I haven't read most of this stuff except maybe the end. This gives an interesting viewpoint: something which can appeal to everyone of the right temperament can act as this bridging social capital to link bonded groups. If communities tend towards isolation (and this is true in leisure as in everything else), elements of culture that bridge these communities have value.

Tatja Grimm

Machiavelli, Discorsi sopra la prima deca di Tito Livio:

It was the verdict of ancient writers that men afflict themselves in evil and weary themselves in the good, and that the same effects result from both of these passions. For whenever men are not obliged to fight from necessity, they fight from ambition; which is so powerful in human breasts, that it never leaves them no matter to what rank they rise. The reason is that nature has so created men that they are able to desire everything but are not able to attain everything: so that the desire being always greater than the acquisition, there results discontent with the possession and little satisfaction to themselves from it. From this arises the changes in their fortunes; for as men desire, some to have more, some in fear of losing their acquisition, there ensues enmity and war, from which results the ruin of that province and the elevation of another.

It is possible this is no longer the case. I have mentioned before that Unrestricted Warfare by
Qiao Liang and Wang Xiangsui is an excellent book which I have never finished reading. It argues, or mentions, that the 1991 Iraq war was the first and last of its kind, and that the world is fundamentally different than it was before regarding people's support for wars. Maybe this is because of nuclear weapons.

It brings to mind many things. Is conflict really so unavoidable? If it is, then it is because of selfishness or ambitiousness of those around you. What you allow them to do, or what you seek to achieve is largely defined by the social environment of what you see as possible and what you see as reasonable to have as a goal, whether this is because other people have the same or whether they have a different attitude towards what you or they should be able to achieve. Our reactions toward what other people attempt to do is only because of what we have decided or what other people have decided for us. Conflict is not unavoidable, but occurs because we feel it should. This may be a morally acceptable decision as it relates to the benefit of others around us and even our own benefit; but this may not prevent it from becoming a selfish decision. The only way it is not, to keep being good even as you grow weary with it, is to be the warrior.

Most are not. Some cultures are aware of this requirement more than others. Some cultures present death as hypothetically being a positive thing, and in that way are able to embrace conflict while not denying its nature. This is more of a social stance as this presentation of strength is mostly of a rhetorical nature; whereas viewing the accepting attitude towards death as... what it is... derives from a more individual stance that does not depend, or thrive on the benefit of other people to be expressed.

The second thing it brings to mind is that if nuclear weapons really have softened the aggressive characteristics of society, then the aggressive mindset that is attracted to war might only exist in simpler and less deadly environments. Comparing the warring factions of ages past, they are very different from the current one of global trade and media saturation. A game, then can derive its legitimacy and its reality from the fact that it does not take place in the present.

Signs of the Times

Background noise is annoying >_< I used to be able to read so well, totally ignoring everything going on around me. Now the exact opposite is usually true. Why?

Release info on a central site days before it is available by any other means. Data-mining and model rendering means that public testing is equivalent to a full release. It is harmful in itself itself to show things in a way which suggests that knowledge of new abilities or mechanics is worth displaying or talking about them in a poor way. Even if this attitude did not exist before, it will create it, and the attitude will be self-reinforcing despite being contrary to the state of a game. So even when dampening the competition-based factors which encourage this knowledge . . . primacy, the improper release and approach to new information can such habits to exist in those interested.

Accumulating information and releasing at the right times means less information at other times. Inconsistency will kill a habit. When a game relies on, tolerates, or even encourages an obsession with new details and the edge of change, it will not reduce the alteration of the spirit of the game by third-party sites and will not benefit those who are trying to enjoy the game in its present form, neither in the social environment it creates nor in the choices it will cause the game's designers to make, consciously or unconsciously, in response to the most insistent of players who do concern themselves with the flux and newness of a game. This mutual or self-delusion by avid fans and the creators of a game can lead to the game's . . . dullness, I suppose for those who are not interested in the grind.

Specific practices.
Model-viewing screenshots tagged with the name of a site. Depends on having the object model in game files released to players.

Describing upcoming changes or newly released information in specific terms, or even copying all official information releases on formal or informal channels to encourage players to use a certain site as their primary source of information.


For example, a new boss is released on a public test realm. A third-party site uses a model viewer to create a screenshot of the boss and tags it with the site name. They data-mine the game files describing the boss's abilities and post all data on their site.

The following would make less people interested in that presentation by the third-party site, for a game developer interested in avoiding the knowledge-obsessive approach to their game. Days before the test patch is released, create a story about the boss with a 'role-playing' attitude, that defines who this boss is, why they do what they do and why they are important. This is accompanied by proper screenshots of the boss in certain points in the story, from someone who is actually good at photography and doing angles and background and so on (in other words not cr*p). In this way, the 'lore' of the game is created as the game is developed, and becomes important because of its realism and the emphasis on story from being the first information released on this boss, and allows the interpretation of a situation in terms beyond the format of an encounter or its rewards, prior to seeing any 'numbers' or encounter specifics. Especially when the story of an instance allows not fighting this boss, this makes knowing these specific numbers in advance unimportant because the player can have already decided that killing the boss is not what they want to do.

Mmm there's other things I thought about, such as being able to make all or at least many factions like you or to make them all hate you, and a 'long-term' reputation contrasting with a 'short-term' one that leads the long-term one such as when you betray a faction and they wait disapprovely for you to redeem yourself, and players being treated as a group with trusted players grudgingly making up for the untrusted players as if vouching for them (group effects or reactions is a theme as mentioned previously) . . . but don't know too much to say. Was something I wanted to talk about a few days ago but I forget. o_o Also was thinking recently about 'how to keep the boss from just killing the healers' as well as well as how to make sure someone CAN be killed by reducing the effects of healing when it is done repeatedly . . . this is not paradoxical if a boss's optimum 'strategy' is to kill someone in less time than it takes for diminishing returns on healing to take effect on a soft, healy target. 0.o

The Trickster God

Mythology is one source of inspiration for games, and can lead to spirited discussion about these lore elements. What can go wrong, and how to avoid these problems?

No matter how interesting a mythology is, there are several problems with it being used in a game. The game will be benefiting from copying the mythology with no real adherence to it; and the game has certain other goals that dictate how a scenario will play out and what the players' options in it are. Someone you are determined to kill will interest you only so much, and may interest other players even less. No matter how skillfully the story and graphics are presented, the game may contain elements that cause the average person to reject this presentation due to the implicit support of these motives or values. A similar situation may also arise for lore that the game creates itself, as people often believe in a thing only because they feel its base elements benefits themselves or others and no story is real enough to stand without belief.

Things like PvP ranks, and changing power scaling to reduce competitiveness would help. Just a reminder, the Ninja Law of 1 vs many helps to balance lack of power scaling, so the significance of a single low-level opponent does not translate into being destroyed when fighting multiple of them.

However, there are deficiencies in the story-based progression incentives too. When a discussion is oriented around 'strategies' to defeat a character who is significant in lore, it detracts from the story and disrespects the character who may come to be important only because they drop items upon their death. What if you did not feel you had to kill everyone you encountered?

This is a three-part balancing act: if you kill everything, then everything is only for killing. If you have too much choice in not killing, then the world becomes peaceful and the complementary option is still removed. There must be just enough choice to raise this option as a possibility and maintain it, without letting things become too predictable either way.

Stopping ongoing combat could be bad.

Discussion leading to combat may work, if it may also lead to dialogue.

The 'rewards' of a situation must not force either option. Needs of people in a group dictate the group actions, and if someone needs certain 'drops' this could force a situation. Diversity in rewards helps, so both conflict and dialogue can be acceptable options.

Short-term gain and long-term gain must be balanced with inconvenience, for determining these choices. Sneaking past a watcher. . .

Combat may lead to other results other than death, if these results are also beneficial and do not make the situation seem contrived or force themselves on the players unwanted. Specifically thinking of a certain underhanded individual at a tavern near a marsh . . .

Many scenarios become possible when a story has time to evolve. An instanced area in a game centered around story, instead of progression, can provide this time for a group to explore a story, with variations of instance binding providing the continuity. A key concept, and an expansion of the 'instance as fortress' perspective, is multiple factions within an instance. A group that makes the proper decisions may be able to actually ally themselves with one faction, allowing them to complete goals that involve conflict with another faction. When the story is done a different time, the group may come to ally with a different faction, or even go to war with both. The accumulated 'reputations' with factions of individual players may have an effect even if the reputation of a single player does not enable or deny certain options by itself, making it easier or more difficult to accomplish coercive goals. This brings into question the idea of conflict with any specific character, when this conflict may be avoided by the correct actions earlier in this enactment of the story. The right contributions to a leader who is suspicious of you could alleviate their concerns and gain a powerful ally in your fight with your opponents in obtaining your true goal . . .

There are other details in accomplishing this set of options in a game. When there is only a single standard of success and a single linear goal, everything else becomes subordinate to this goal. This is seen in current games. When multiple diverse goals offer many and sometimes conflicting standards of success, the options are not so simple. This is part of having story, and quests, be a way to differentiate and express instead of just a progression in power. Complexity of accomplishing a given task is entirely different from being able to ask whether to accomplish this task at all, while still satisfying other in-game requirements and the player's own standards of achievement and consistency of purpose. Complicated fights do not make up for lack of choice.

This means that, due to the quests they choose to accept (or other methods of differentiating character and their goals), some people may want to ally with one faction, while others will want to ally with another. It is imperative that this does not cause groups that agree ahead of time to choose only one or another path!! There should not be 'LFM ' groups . . . -_-' This type of design gains value, and real-world relevance, only if there is conflict within the group and a choice of which decision to make, that benefits all parties involved ambiguously and must be able to withstand uncertainty prior to the action as well as the addition of uncontrolled elements during the course of the story; this means that quests cannot have linear requirements or results! Either quests should tend to be relatively faction-neutral regarding their completion, or there must sometimes be hidden, unexpected ways to accomplish a goal even when the story is not as expected. This is the result of a design where quests are seen as changing the world for the player after they are accepted, instead of just after they are complete. It may mean a possible to defect in favor of or betray the other side in a conflict, for example. It may also mean that a player with a Wanted poster for a certain leader may get squashed against the wall when encountering that leader in a supposedly friendly format. ^_^ This would then become a thing to avoid in future instances.

It may also be possible to incorporate the 'immunization-type' raid progression enhancements into the faction format . . . but I don't know, it's a separate idea whether or not it might be required for them to work together. For example, maybe you could only win over a certain ally if the player negotiating with them had consistently shown their rapport with them during past gameplay for several weeks . . . somewhat modified version of the faction-insensitive and combat-oriented 'immunization' system for raid progress. Exploring the complexity of story paths could take as long as actually implementing a known plan; for example, you could be required to work to befriend a faction at one point of time, but then later on need to find separate allies to betray your first ones later on in the same instance . . .

In all cases, relations should be sensitive to specific actions. Destroying a random patrol and killing all its constituent entities does not make you look good to the command that sent them out, and the attitudes of different parties in dialogue should reflect that.

Omg, two ideas down ("factions", "gain, split") and only two more to go!!1 ("death", "simple")

When a player dies, it is a very negative thing. Sometimes this is good, such as when that death could have been avoided. Sometimes this is bad, such as when the player came up against a stupidly powerful enemy and their death had no purpose, or when they died due to random uncontrollable factors in an otherwise necessary situation, or when those who were supposed to be helping them ended up being stupid or incompetent or both and there's no way to accomplish their goal and no point in being there at all, or when any of these situations leads to any other like when a stupid decision leads to an uncontrollable death which leads to a wipe due to game mechanics not allowing otherwise. Part of this is bad design that causes slight but critical mistakes to overcome the skill delta that is restrained by the gear/progress delta, but part of it is also just stupid teammates who didn't help you and didn't heal. The critical aspect is that difficulty is enjoyable when it allows you to enjoy a situation and succeed; but it is not enjoyable when deficiencies in those around you cause you to fail again and again with no benefit.

Therefore, it may help to give a slight gain for dying in the right situation.

But not enough to make you do it on purpose.

How does this relate to the other stuffs talked about above? What would be the right consequences for dying? :P I haven't thought up any details.

And finally, 'simple'!! If being with other people is fun and you are able to roleplay and enjoy a story, it does not matter if a fight has new and complicated mechanics that require specific strategies. More complex means more challenge to adapt to and memorize and overcome, but this is bad as well as good because these challenges will usually have no relevance to the real world, and it just becomes a needless complication. The original game that has become so important in this genre never had complicated fights when it started out and did better than ok . . . people look for things they can't always find. That's from a PvP movie by the way, sort of.

Awareness

The primary reason for a form of entertainment to be insufficient for someone, other than being bad, is when it presents a sphere of interests that does not harmonize with other things in this world that one may encounter. Failure to adjust to, or account for these other attitudes means loss of relevance. As mentioned before, other countries have significantly different priorities than the United States or other developed Western countries. Not accounting this means losing those audiences and anyone connected to them. The Grind is just one example of an unacceptable mechanism that may seem acceptable to a country used in leisure; when in reality most people in this world have economic progress or skills specialization to make in real life. Just to remind that the chance of death on an everyday basis is another significant reality and attitude difference; it is important not to forget these things when thinking of the world.


There must be many ways to increase framerate when many players must be rendered. One of them may be to transition to display of standardized textures for different styles and converging on certain hues when there are large numbers of players in one area; but I don't know if this would really be a computation issue, or just a memory one. However it has the additional benefit of reducing extraneous flashy characteristics and presenting an opposing army as more homogeneous and cohesive, especially if names are not displayed resulting in no 'large red cloud of names' effect so graphics must be simplified when in large numbers so someone can understand a situation faster without being confused or annoyed by distracting details. If polygons is the big issue, then it might be simple to also just have alternate low-polygon models that use the same or the simplified textures, and these models are swapped out when there are large numbers of people, with preference on swapping out those further from the camera.

It may also be possible to use filters, or even weather/lighting effects on the scene as a whole, with the player themself possibly staying unfiltered in this case and maybe nearby friends too, so only 'interesting' people take up normal computer resources. Mostly, large numbers of people nearby whether friendly or enemy should have a graphical effect to promote and reinforce the psychological effect of this environment. This is in line with treating numbers of people differently in other parts of the game too, such as aggro radius and 'sneaking past' something, and it also leads to another function as follows.

Having a conflict extend its effects past line of sight. At a distance, of course the distant sound of arms would be audible, if the game is tracking that large numbers of people are engaged in combat in a vicinity. Also a visual component would be nice (can't help thinking of whenever it must look like in PvP video) such as a flashing red border, or hopefully not something so lame/obvious. Weather effects may change as far out as this too, or anything to give a sense of tension and anticipation. This may manifest in a different way when the outcome of a battle has been decided; for example, someone 200m away may hear or receive some alert only when someone has died, and may not hear the preceding struggle. It might be very faint and only by investigating can they know what happened.

This 'beyond line of sight' idea would enhance the perceived significance especially of conflicts in an instanced area, which otherwise do not individually seem important.

Phase

It is justified to lie when you do not benefit. It is justified to become evil when you do not benefit. In retrospect, my path during this time was due to a lack of trust in those around me, or rather, a lack of trust in their trust in me. However, mistakes are how we become closer to people, after all . . .

The alternate explanation is that situations may require being in two states at the same time. This is fine as long as outside observations do not cause you to collapse into an unworkable state, which is either of them . . . under this explanation, when you cannot advance to where you need to be because of where you are - such as when the possibility of happiness, causes the opposite - you may be able to continue on. Both explanations seem fine. In the case of the second, I am no longer in this superimposed state.

I really need to separate 'random drivels' from stuff that I think other people would actually be interested in reading. This blog has deviated from its intended purpose.

"Have you seen?"

Another long entry. This is a copyrighted work and may not be reproduced without permission. I would like to say something first about methods.

A way of thinking about things cannot support itself on its own. As a generalization it is always open to attack and so it weakens things that depend on it. The correct way to use different methods of thought is as a sort of base structure, that lets you predict where things should fit and how they should relate. Once you find the congruence to a situation, those things must be connected in your mind directly, without the benefit of any theories or predictions of how certain connections will allow you to think a certain way.


Tehran -- Islamic Republic of Iran News Network Television (IRINN) in Persian 1058 GMT 14 Jun 09

[News conference given by Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinezhad after presidential elections -- live]

In the name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful. I thank God for once again demonstrating Iran's dignity and might before the eyes of the world. In Iran, elections carry a lot of meaning. First, elections are a genuine process and to be honest, the people rule Iran. The people's choice is a free and genuine selection. The people's vote governs Iran. The most overwhelming election of the contemporary era was held on Friday [12 June] in Iran. In Iran the people decide who to vote for. No one can make the people their followers. The people's vote does not follow a specific current or political leaning. On the contrary, it reflects the determination and will of the nation.

During recent months, the whole of Iran was filled with excitement, enthusiasm and awareness. Every individual not only felt that they owned the vote, but also they viewed participation in the election as a national and social duty. Two issues were of significance to our people. First, an enthusiastic presence on the election scene, the strengthening of the pillars of national power, and more hope in the future, Second, the election of a person who can pursue their wishes and ideals more efficiently.

From another angle, the Iranian election is a new model of democracy based on moral ethics and human and divine values. Liberal democracy is a democracy which has put aside ethics, and deprives society of two essential factors. The first factor is the people and their role. As you can see in countries which follow liberal democracy, a few parties with a specific number of members rule the people. The people have no choice but to vote for them. In fact, it is the people who are placed on the sidelines, and politics becomes a profession and exclusive to a few people.

The second factor which is put aside, are values and morals. Humanity and mankind will die in a place where there are no moral ethics and values and oppression, discrimination, class differences, wars, and aggression will take shape. Global problems are rooted in the fact that moral ethics are omitted from political relations between various liberal democratic systems. In Iran, democracy is based on and promotes ethics. This is why we are witnessing that after 30 years since the establishment of the Islamic Republic, the people's influence is much deeper and prevalent than what it was at the beginning. In comparison to 30 years ago, ethics have flourished and spread further into our society.
You can see that the Iranian nation is a nation with grand ideals and goals. The Iranian nation is committed to and has faith in divine and humane values. The Iranian nation is a noble, independent and knowledgeable nation. The Iranian nation supports righteousness, truth and justice. The Iranian nation despises deceptions, lies, oppression and injustice. Our nation is modest and is content with its right. It has never attacked other countries or yearned for others' rights. At the same time, it has resisted bullying and arrogance powerfully. The Iranian nation is a brave nation. It has never been and will not be intimidated by threats. Our nation is a nation with morals and distances itself from political and economic callousness.

Our nation is a dear and powerful nation. It will not trade its dignity with anything. The Iranian nation wishes progress for itself and for all world nations. Of course, it will resist those who try to block its progress. The Iranian nation believes that the systems which have arisen from the Second World War are worn-out systems which are anti-human rights. They have to go to the archive of history. Today, the world is in need of new systems which are based on human values, justice, friendship, equal rights and respect for the rights of all nations and people. Today, everyone must join hands to set up a humane system in the world. The era in which a few countries could determine the fate of other nations has come to an end. The era in which a few governments could impose their demands and illegitimate interests on a huge part of the world has come to an end. Today, everyone must have an equal and fair share in managing world affairs. It is impossible to run world affairs without the involvement of all world countries. The doors have to be opened so that every country will be able to make a constructive contribution to managing the world affairs. Today, the Iranian nation's method of managing a country is a role model. It is a model of religious democracy based on human values and ethics. This model can be presented to the whole world.

During these elections, our nation was faced with a widespread psychological war and propaganda by some of mass media which have not learned from the past. I remember that four years ago, some Western media affiliated to the hegemonic system and the capitalist system which lacks culture, adopted a stance against our nation and used their false propaganda and psychological warfare to try and divert our nation from its shining and enlightened path. They even tried to undermine the great and historic action taken by our nation for some time after the elections. Today, I can see that in some places there are people who have not learned their lesson from the past. Of course, some governments are making other claims. We don't deny these claims. But these claims are not our only criteria. On the contrary, we have to see what has happened in practice. Some made a grave mistake. They expected our nation to surrender to the propaganda they were carrying out. Today, they are following the same line. They are making a mistake. I advise them to not only understand that the world is in need of change, but also understand the fact that the world cannot be managed in this way. They should also understand that the Iranian nation is vigilant and has realized what they are up to and is moving at a higher level than they are. The Iranian nation is trying to rebuild Iran. The Iranian nation is trying to elevate Iran to the level and position which befits it. The Iranian nation is trying to reform the world's political environment to one which is based on respect and justice. We are pursuing the setting up of sustainable peace and security based on respect, justice and righteousness. It is clear that under such circumstances the Iranian nation will not officially recognize any unilateral relations based on bullying. The Iranian nation's election showed that its idealistic, ideological, and civilization-building movement is very deep-rooted. This election was mainly directed by the third and fourth generations. This means that today the awakening, self-confidence, and self-belief which appeared in the first generation 30 years ago, is much more deep-rooted and widespread in the hearts, thoughts, will, and actions of the third generation. The Iranian nation is a turning point in contemporary history. It is a model of national rule and how people govern their own fate. It is a model of human relations which is based on friendship, love, respect and justice. Iran's election, which was met with the participation of more than 84 per cent of eligible voters, was a great epic and a firm blow to the oppressive foundations of the system which is ruling the world. The Iranian nation showed that today, it is more resolute in, and committed to, following the path outlined by the Imam [Khomeyni], the martyrs, and the grand ideals of the revolution. The Iranian nation has shown that it still interested in logic, constructive interaction, fair talks based on respect. Most definitely it will not allow others to determine its fate. I would like to thank you and I would like to hear your questions. [The correspondents applaud the president]

[Moderator] Thank you. I think it is essential to mention a few points before we start the process of asking the questions. This press conference is simultaneously being broadcast live by press TV, Al-Alam, State nationwide radio and the International News Network [IRINN]. The set deadline for ending our program today is 1700 [1230 GMT] and since the president has another engagement, we beg [each correspondent] to ask only one question because of our time limit. We try to observe the priorities that have been previously set. We ask the [correspondent from the] Islamic Republic News Agency [IRNA] to ask their question. The News Network [IRINN] correspondent should be ready to follow.

[IRNA correspondent]: In the name of God, my greetings and congratulations to you on gaining the second confidence vote of the Iranian nation. In your interview with IRINN, you said that the agenda of the tenth government will be in proportion with the vast participation of people [in the elections] and their votes to the president. If it is possible, please tell us what will be the probable differences between the plans of the tenth and ninth governments?

[Ahmadinezhad] Thank you very much. As I said then, today, we all believe that the potential of Iranians are huge and extensive. Iran's nation has the potential and ability to make big decisions and to take huge steps in a variety of domains. In the first term, [the emphasis was on] the development of infrastructure and it is very obvious that in the second term we move towards the development of various cultural, economic and political aspects. The people of Iran showed that they deserve to have a high status in the world. It is clear that a government derived from the nation has to quite seriously follow the fulfillment of the nation's wish. [We will follow] the construction of the whole of Iran on the basis of justice and the complete removal of obstacles on the way of the progress of the nation, especially those on the way of the young generations. [We will follow] the pursuit of justice in all domains and the unconditional implementation of justice for every individual of any ethnicity and social class. This is our obvious agenda for the future.

[IRNA correspondent] Thank you.

[Moderator] The International News Network. BBC Arabic correspondent, be ready to follow.

[IRINN correspondent] In the name of God. Greetings to you, Dr Ahmadinezhad. My congratulations to you. I ask for your permission to say hello to all the respectful viewers of IRINN, those who are inside the country and those who live abroad, all the viewers who are watching live interviews with the president conducted by the domestic and foreign correspondents. Mr President, foreign media have been watchfully pursuing the elections since months ago and at every juncture, by resorting to certain strategies of their own, they have tried to create an atmosphere of despair and to make people believe that the Islamic Republic system was incompetent. At the same time that the results of the election were released, once more [the foreign media] created an atmosphere against the Islamic Republic by casting doubts on the health of the elections. In your opinion what is the reason for this [negative propaganda] and what answer can be given to them.

[Ahmadinezhad] The answer is obvious. I mentioned before that they did the same thing in the previous election. Of course, they have acted similarly over the last 30 years. They believe in a democracy [democratic election] whose results are in their favor and if people make a decision which is against their wishes, they are naturally upset; and they have no way to express their anger but this [by creating adverse atmosphere.] What do they have to say? It is not known with what justification they cast doubt over the magnificent presence of the Iranian nation [in the election]. Around 40 million people participated in the election. The election system in Iran is very exact and precise. Since the election belongs to people, the process of holding and monitoring it are carried out by people themselves. The members of the polling stations across the whole country are the very members of the public. The observers are the local trustees whom people know and trust. And the hierarchy [of the officials] is the same. The Election HQ has been just in charge of providing the preparations. In other words, it supports the management of holding the election which is conducted by people. This is explicitly stated in the text of our election law. The executive and monitoring bodies consist of people. The election belongs to people. I am surprised to see that an election which belonged to people - was held by them and 40 million individuals participated in it - is questioned. Which part of it are they going to question? We have an election law. Let them come forward and tell us which article [of the law has been violated] and where? I have not yet seen anyone who can present any evidence. They just say that the results were contrary to their expectations. Well, you have to change your expectations. You do not know the Iranian nation. Revise your attitude. What you do in spreading false propaganda is like what [the satirical figure] Molla Nasreddin did: Nasreddin once wanted to get rid of a fellow. He told him people were handing out free soup at the other side of the market. The good news traveled fast and every one hurried to get free soup. While Nasreddin was standing and watching, he saw that people were all running to get free soup. He asked a passer-by: What is going on? The man answered: Haven't you heard that free soup is being handed out at the other side of the market? Nasreddin reflected a bit on the answer and wondered: Maybe it is true. Let's go and see for ourselves.

Now some of the Western media and countries act like Nasreddin. They say something on their own, then they repeat it and start to believe it and finally they act and make judgments on the basis of their belief. The path of our nation is very clear. These statements belong to three and four decades ago. The answer of our people to these statements is very clear. Those forty million who participated in the elections are present now. Those 25 million individuals who voted for me are present now. And at any juncture in the future, they repeat their heroic action. This is the nature of the Iranian nation. Of course I believe that all the forty million individuals who cast their votes, are against the intervention of foreign media in Iran's domestic issues. And all of them will say no to these [foreign media].

[IRINN correspondent] Thank you.

[Moderator] Mr Muhammad Nun from BBC Arabic; the next correspondent will be from Keyhan newspaper, Mr Moqaddm.

[Muhammad Nun] Hello. I express my greetings to you dear Mr President and all the dear participants. My question is about the foreign policy of the Islamic Republic of Iran in the second round of your presidency. You know that US President Barack Obama admits that Iran has a right to peaceful nuclear energy. You also announced recently that you are ready to have a debate with US President Barack Obama. My question is: May we expect talks between Iran and America in near future? What are the practical measures that you expect America to take to normalize the relations?

[Ahmadinezhad] We have already announced our position. We are however reviewing the positions taken by countries concerning the elections. We are reviewing their behavior towards our people. I announced a month ago that I am ready for a debate.

Concerning the nuclear issue, I think that the nuclear issues belongs to the past We call for a global consensus on nuclear disarmament. Based on our experience, we have announced our readiness to participate in managing this issue."

At the same time, I believe that there are many important issues in the world that need to be settled based on logic, justice and respect. Iran is a powerful country with great influence in world political affairs. We are ready to use all our power to address world challenges and bring about sustainable peace and security based on justice and respect.

[Moderator] Thank you. Mr Moqaddam from Keyhan newspaper, and then Fars News Agency correspondent.

[Moqaddam] I congratulate you on the occasion of the birth anniversary of Zahra [Prophet Muhammad's daughter], the anniversary of the late imam [Khomeyni] and your victory in the elections. We hope that we can carry on with implementing our sacred principle-ist goals in the upcoming four years.

Mr President, I wanted to ask two questions this time. Because whenever I ask my question and leave, I then realize that others have all asked two questions.

I am wearing Ahmadinezhad-type overcoat today, even though it does not have sleeves.

[Ahmadinezhad] So, it is a bit short of Ahmadinezhad's overcoat.

[Moqaddam] My question might be a bit disturbing. We should be happy at this epic moment created by 24.5m people.

Mr Hashemi-Rafsanjani's destructionist letter addressed to the supreme leader of the revolution once again reminded us of Mr Montazeri's insulting adventure and his disloyalty to the imam [Khomeyni]. In the same connection, we see that two of your rival candidates have not yet congratulated the winning candidate. At the same time, by issuing provocative, insulting and destructive statements, they are attempting to create another 18 Tir [9 July] incident [students rebellion at their dormitory]. The only difference is that because of their weak strategy, as well as your shrewdness, the major elements in this plot, who were in the shade until yesterday, are now exposed.

Since you are going to be the president for another term, I wanted to know what measures you are going to adopt to keep the situation under control. At present when I am talking to you, they [supporters of other candidates] are holding hidden meetings to continue the riots of these days.

[Ahmadinezhad] Thank you very much. I should announce that during the Friday [12 June] elections the nation was victorious, i.e. 70m people were victorious, and 40m people were even more victorious.

I am sure that if the rest of the 70m people had the chance to take part in the elections they would have done so. This is an Iranian characteristic. The Iranian nation is among the most sociable, political-minded and committed nations in the world.
It is not really important now that some are objecting and questioning the elections' result. This is natural. Some individuals had had a campaign with the hope of being elected. They may now become a bit disappointed. They may react by writing certain letters and saying certain things.

During the last round of the [presidential] elections, they [rival presidential candidates] were the organizers of the elections. At the same time, they were objecting to the result of the elections. We believe this [their objection] lacks legal basis and our nation believes the same. This time, there will not be much problem either.

This is like a football match. Some 50,000 to 70,000 spectators take part in a football match. They become excited and then they take certain measures. Here we had a competition in which 40m people participated. The people were in the field. I believe that such level of unrest is not important. The government will carry on with its work with tolerance.

The freedom in Iran is close to absolute. You see that people express themselves freely. They even question what they have already done themselves. This is not important.

What is important is that everything should be dealt with through its legal procedure. This is what the Iranian nation will respect. If someone has seen any problems or shortcomings, the law has envisaged how to deal with it. They can submit their objections of any shortcomings to the Guardian Council until to the end of business today. The Guardian Council is an independent body. Experience has also shown that the Guardian Council expresses its views without compromise, and it will not consider anything but the text of the law and justice.

They may refer to the Guardian Council. Otherwise, talking to some media, issuing statements, etc will not solve any problem. Elections in Iran were held with the participation of close to 40m people. The result is quite clear. The gap between the votes is so wide that no-one can question it.

The elections themselves are indicative of the health and legality of the elections.

[Moderator] Fars news agency correspondent now and then Tokyo Shimbun newspaper correspondent.

[Fars correspondent] Thank you Mr President. I congratulate you for the 85 per cent participation of the people. I would also like to congratulate you for getting 24.5m votes.

Continuing the discussion about which you explained, there are reports that indicate that extremists and rioters today have decided to, with the cooperation of the EU , to have certain sit-ins. I want you to explain your views in this respect as well. Could you also tell us what the reaction of the Iranian nation would be in this regard?

[Ahmadinezhad] I doubt it that there is anyone in Iran that would like to follow foreigners to prove anything, because it will be useless.

The Iranian nation has shown that whenever foreigners interfere, the 70m Iranians will stand up to them in a united manner.

There may be various reports anyway. During the elections, there was absolute freedom. You realized that three candidates were competing against one, and they benefited from the national media [TV and radio] three times more than me.

According to the election law, campaigns should be carried out for 20 days, but since three months ago all my rivals' campaign activities were reported by the national media, and even the normal activities of the government were not reported because there was a doubt that they could be regarded as the president's campaign.

During the debates, the time allocated to my rivals was three times that of mine. This led to the enthusiasm of the people. In such an atmosphere, some individuals spread false reports and untrue rumors, and even accused others. The election is now done and gone. It is time for friendship, cooperation and building the country. There is no problem if some people are now interested in continuing the discussion. Such political discussions are always held in Iran. This is what goes on in a free country.

We have had an election in Iran which is considered to be a very important development, so it is natural that there would be such discussions for some time. I do not think that this is really important, or at least it does not cause any concern.

It is clear that our Judiciary will deal legally with those who will try to take any action in Iran based on foreign support.

[Fars correspondent] Some people were even attacked and some public property has been damaged.

[Ahmadinezhad] This is what sometimes happens. Some people are emotional. Like football fans, some think that their team should always win; and when it does not win, they claw at someone or other. One should not be that concerned anyway.

[Moderator] Tokyo Shimbun Newspapar correspondent, and then the Central News Agency reporter.

[Tokyo Shimbun newspaper in English] Thank you very much president and congratulations. My name is Luchida [as heard] from the Japanese Tokyo Shimbun. I want to ask you about the nuclear issue. Some Western media reported that US and Israel keep their military option [open to hit] your nuclear sites.

Have you ever imagined that some countries may attack your country and now do you think that you may face an attack in the next four years of your presidency? Thank you.

[Ahmadinezhad] I would like to ask you, who dares to do such a thing today? Who dares to think about it? This is what some media says. No power can even threaten Iran. The world's situation has changed. It is the nations' era. It is the era of intellect and logic. It is the era of major changes and reforms. This is while the Iranian nation is a powerful one.

It is true that Iran loves peace, justice and brotherhood, but everyone knows that it defends its interests powerfully and it will make those who threaten it regret it.

We believe that there is no possibility for anyone to make such a stupid mistake. So, you should not be worried. The world is moving towards justice and dialogue.

[Moderator] Mr Qorbaninezhad, Central News Unit correspondent and then Al-Alam international TV network.

[Qorbaninezhad] Hello Mr President. I congratulate you on your victory in the election and also the great victory of the Iranian nation for such an outstanding turnout in the elections.

In view of the end of your first presidential term, could you say what, based on your conclusions, special situation will prevail in the second round as compared to the first round.

[Ahmadinezhad] Thank you very much. I think that I have already responded to this question. Four years ago 29m people took part in the elections and this year close to 40m people turned out at the elections. The enthusiasm and the will of our nation are totally different from the previous round of elections. The approach of our nation to regional and international affairs is completely different today.

Iran is having a constructive and forward-looking approach that will add to its dignity. It is quite clear that the will of our nation in developing the country and removing the hurdles will quickly reach fruition.

Economic problems such as housing, employment, and marriage will be solved much faster and the creation of knowledge will gain speed. In four or five years we will not consider them problems in our country anymore. In the international arena, we will also play a constructive role in the interest of justice, peace and fraternity. These are the approaches of the upcoming government.

[Moderator] Thank you. Al-Alam TV channel correspondent and then Mr Robert Frisk from England.

[Al-Alam reporter] Thank you. I first of all congratulate you for your election. I believe that many people in the world are happy of your victory. My question is about your visit to Egypt. I was informed that you were supposed to take a trip to Egypt by the end of this month to take part in the non-aligned movement meeting. This would mean that you would be the first Iranian president visiting Egypt. Would this mean that you are taking a step to establish better relations with Egypt, as well as Arab countries?

[Ahmadinezhad] We have good relations with Arab countries. We have brotherly relations with them. There are however some ups and downs in our relations with some of them which are due to the interference of others. Otherwise, our nations are friends and brothers. Our major policy is to develop friendly and brotherly relations.

An Arab leader will be visiting Iran soon. I have also visited [Arab] countries. They have visited Iran several times. We exchange ministers as well.

I was interested in visiting Egypt. I made great efforts to set up relations with Egypt free from the domination of others. Some developments have now taken place, but we are not at the optimal situation.

I do not intend to take part in the non-aligned movement meeting, unless some new developments take place and I review my decision accordingly.

[Mediator] Mr Robert Fisk, The Independent newspaper, UK and then the Iran newspaper [correspondent] should be ready

[Robert Fisk] Mr Ahmadinezhad, Sir, Robert Fisk of The Independent. I want to ask you about the issue of justice, the issue that you've been talking about a lot. Some weeks ago, you know that a 22-year-old young woman was sentenced to execution in prison. She had allegedly killed someone, although there were doubts about this, and she was executed after two months. She was nevertheless dragged to the gallows screaming, pleading with her mother on the mobile phone to save her. And she was hanged. Can you give us a guarantee that such terrible events will be prevented by the Judiciary of the Iranian justice from ever happening again in the Islamic Republic of Iran?

[Ahmadinezhad] Basically we are against the execution of people. We are against killing people. We are even against killing an ant. But after all, the judiciary system of each country has its own regulations. In Britain, America and many other countries the penalty for execution has been predicted. We feel sad too when someone is executed. If you want the execution punishment to be removed, you have to do something so that no one will violate the law, and that they [people] would not commit crimes, the punishment of which is execution.

The judiciary system in Iran is an independent one, but of course since I am principally against human beings being killed, I try to create a social environment where no crime is committed and also urge the judiciary to act in a more sympathetic way. But as you know the judiciary system is completely independent, I think we should arrange a meeting among lawyers in order to discuss the philosophy of punishments. This can be a very good discussion at the international level. I think that our lawyers are ready to hold meetings with lawyers from the UK, Europe, Africa and Asia to discuss the matter and reach a logical result.

[Moderator] Thank you. Mr Javad Hojjati from Iran newspaper please. Reporter of Lavanguardia of Spain is next.

[Iran newspaper reporter] I congratulate you on the occasion of the birth of Zahra [daughter of Prophet Muhammad] and also the epic created by the nation on 22 Khordad [12 June presidential elections]. Mr Ahmadinezhad, some so-called experts claimed that a silent majority exists in the country which does not support the establishment [Islamic Republic]. However on the 22 Khordad we witnessed that this majority which was referred to as a "threat" entered the scene and voted for the person who was most committed to the establishment and its values. By casting their votes, in addition to sending a clear message to the foreign and domestic enemies of the establishment, people annulled allegations suggesting that the supporters of the establishment and the Principal-ists current had a specific quota for votes. I would like to have your analysis on this please. Thank you.

[Ahmadinezhad] Look, I think those people who sit down and analyze the Iranian nation based on their own understanding are making a mistake. They do not know the Iranian nation, this year we had 46 million people who were eligible to vote based on a report by the National Organization for Civil Registration, and the Statistics Organization. Well, nearly 40 million people participated. Does this mean that the six million and something people belong to the opposition? This is a very wrong thought. In no country in the world do we have 100 per cent participation. Some people are ill, some are working in fields, some are in airplanes, some are traveling, some cannot vote due to other reasons. In no place in the world does anyone invest in a non-existent entity and say that those who did not vote are my supporters. This is the most laughable claim that a politician can make. For example, imagine that in Germany 60 per cent participated in the elections, and a candidate say that the 40 per cent that have not participated are my supporters. Based on what logic? Compare this election with the previous one. In the previous election, about 29 million people participated and in these elections more than 39 million, meaning that we had an increase of about 11 million votes. The ratio of votes which were cast was the same as before. This means that 65-66 per cent of the new voters voted for the current government again. They do not know the nation. Some people, under certain circumstances, might not feel the urgency [to participate in elections] they might think well, elections are taking place, it is not important. But in other circumstances, they might think that it is necessary to participate, as they did this time. People felt the urgency to participate. I saw that some of the media think the 10 million people who usually do not participate will definitely vote for them [the opposition]. This is an over-expectation; I think that it is very spoilt and selfish attitude for people to think that the nation should come and vote for him or his supported candidate. The nation is very alert. The best statistic sample taken was 17.5 million and this time 24.5 million. The statistic sample could not be any higher. They conduct an opinion poll, they take samples from 70 million people, they choose 3,000 people as a sample and they guess what the opinion of the people is. Last time 17.5 million people voted. 17.5 million is a very large and decisive sample. Well, this time it has increased.

[Moderator] Lavanguardia Newspaper of Spain, and then the reporter of Resalat Newspaper please be ready.

[Reporter] Mr President, I know your country from 30 years ago; I know your country well and I was here during the Islamic Revolution. I was in Tehran when Imam Khomeyni returned to the country from abroad. I love your country. My first question for you is whether you are ready to give more freedom to the cinema and national culture? Everyone knows Iranian artists all over the world. Iran's cinema and Iranian films have many fans across the world. You should be proud of this. Do you think you would give more freedom to artists? Thank you Mr President.

[Ahmadinezhad] Thank you very much. Iranian arts and film industry are flourishing in Iran. I can assure you that in this government, in the next term of its work, this will be several fold. You will witness the presence of more Iranian artists on the international scene.

[Moderator] The respected reporter of Resalat Newspaper please.

[Ahmadinezhad] Please translate my response to the Spanish reporter again.

[Moderator] Please translate the response again.

[Ahmadinezhad] Yes, because he did not have his ear peace on before. Please repeat your translation for him.

[Moderator] The British Economist magazine, Mr John Marks [name as heard] and then Jam-e Jam Newspaper please.

[Economist reporter speaking in English, with voice over Farsi translation] Mr President. You spoke about freedom, but what we see is that many newspapers are closed, and many are censored. This morning you talked about ethical values but we can see how your police are behaving towards the protestors. You talk about foreign media and the allegation leveled by foreigners but we can see and hear that these things are happening and that millions of people who participated in the elections do not believe in the statistics you provided and the vote counts were never completely announced. Do you think this harms the legitimacy of the government and don't you think this is against the legitimacy of the Islamic Republic? Thank you very much.

[Ahmadinezhad] In a country where 85 per cent of people participated in the elections and more than 62 per cent vote for a single candidate, and in a country where the people are united in national interests, all the pillars of the country is selected on the vote of the people, talking about legitimacy of the establishment is nonsense. How do you know that the people do not believe in the [results of the] votes? Have you contacted 40 million people? You only see a few people that you like. This is your mistake. You report such news to your countries and governments and mislead them as well.

If you want to see the people of Tehran, come to Vali-Asr square in two hours. You should have come in front of Sharif University [of Technology] three days ago to see [the crowd of people]. These people who are in the streets [referring to the protestors] are not equal to even the number of people at one single polling station. Some 5,000 people have cast their votes in some ballot boxes in Tehran. Some 2,000 or 3,000 people come [to protests] just like audience of a football match. In my opinion you have to change your view. Don't repeat the previous mistakes. The Iranian nation is an aware nation. Forty million people participated [in casting their votes] and the same 40 people will defend the election [results]. If you can be a bit more patient, you can see [people supporting him] in 22 Bahman [11 February, anniversary of the Islamic Revolution]. Don't you worry about us. We have almost absolute freedom here. The reason is that, as you see, they can say whatever they want. And they don't worry about any prosecutions. Hundreds of newspapers are published in Iran. Now, two or three of them go every now and then and come back [referring to newspapers banned temporarily] which is natural in a nation's move. Don't worry.

[Moderator] Thank you very much. If the Jam-e Jam [correspondent] is not here, Radio Iran's correspondent Ms Soltani, please. I'd like to add that this program is broadcast live by Radio Iran as well.

[Radio Iran correspondent] In the name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful. Hello Mr President.

[Ahmadinezhad] Hello.

[Radio Iran correspondent] Hello to the dear listeners of Radio Iran who are listening to this press conference live and the dear audience who are with us watching it on TV. I would like to express my wishes on the occasion of the blessed birthday of Hazrat Zahra [Prophet Mohammad's wife] and the blessed birthday of the late Imam [Ayatollah Khomeyni], as well as your re-election with such a high and exceptional number of votes. Mr President, considering the 84 per cent participation of people in the 10th presidential elections, in your opinion what is the people's major expectation and demand from you and how do you evaluate people's specific priorities?

[Ahmadinezhad] Thank you very much. I have to congratulate the Iranian nation on this victory again, especially since this victory happened at the verge of the birthday anniversary of Hazrat Zahra [blessings upon her and her household], which added to the glory and beauty of this victory. I explained last night that the people have three to four demands: Firstly, to resolve problems and being at their service. After all we have economic problems, development problems, unemployment problems, housing, and the inflation issue, which the government has to follow up more seriously and in a wider spectrum and hopefully reach an ideal point. Secondly, to remove obstacles in the way of development, obstacles which usually prevent the people from making progress: selfishness, classifications and certain rules and regulations, and certain administration structures. And thirdly, to execute justice. People want justice to be practiced. They want selfishness and greedy demands and unlawful access to public properties to be confronted. They don't want there to be people who are seeking special advantages, even one person. And the nation demands honor and even-sided development of the country. Naturally, the government has to pursue the nation's demands in the framework of its agendas seriously and hopefully it will do so.

[Radio Iran correspondent] Hopefully! Thank you very much and I wish you and your administration success on behalf of myself and my colleagues in the national media.

[Moderator] Thank you. The correspondent of Jam-e Jam newspaper, Mr Nikpur and then Europe Radio of France, Mr Didier Eric Francois should be ready if he is present.

[Jam-e Jam correspondent] In the name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful. Hello.

[Ahmadinezhad] Hello

[Jam-e Jam correspondent] Mr Ahmadinezhad, some gaps are created during the election process that some of them are normal. Some disagreements happen. Some believe that through various potentials in different parties of the country, some of which were in other candidates' parties, these gaps can be amended quicker. In your opinion are these gaps important at all and do you have any plans with this regard in the 10th government or not?

[Ahmadinezhad] This is true, but such gaps are not among the people. Our people were free to vote for whoever they wanted to and they are all united and friends with each other. In a family, the father has voted for someone and the mother or the son for someone else but the family is united and continues life with love. But there are such issues among political claimers and groups. Last night, I invited everyone to cooperate. I said that the way is open, let's all develop the country hand in hand. At the previous time, immediately after the election, I met four of the candidates and I asked them to let me know if they know anyone or if they have any suggestions or plans. It was a meeting which went on for a few hours and I wrote down the minutes of that meeting. I have those [minutes of the meeting] and I have used some of them. This time as well, I invite everyone to discuss any plans, suggestions or capabilities that can help in the development of the country and progress of the goals and we will welcome them.

[Jam-e Jam correspondent] Thank you very much.

[Moderator] Europe Radio of France, Didier Francois and then the international Jam-e Jam TV

[French correspondent] Do you think that after the election you will be in a new position for international negotiations- sorry if my English is so bad?

[Ahmadinezhad] We have announced this before that we- give him a headphone. Change to the English translation channel. We were ready for discussions even before, based on logic and respect and justice. This is the characteristic of the Iranian nation. It is the same now. I announced this even before the election that if I am elected, I will invite Mr Obama to a debate at the United Nations because we think that points of views should be discussed. The root of international issues should be identified and suitable solutions should be chosen. It is very clear that holding talks is the best way of interacting. Of course, at certain times some people have tried to impose their own demands on our people. It is natural that our nation will not accept such a thing. It is natural that through clear performance, clear slogans, and clear plans this government was extensively welcomed by the people. It is very obvious that now the government is stronger than a month ago. Today, the government's capability is tens of times more than three months ago, an experienced government that was welcomed more extensively by the people after four years. Of course we have a steady logic in encountering international affairs but we will pursue that logic with more strength and capability.

[Moderator] Mr Sadeqi, international Jam-e Jam TV and the next person is Ms Amanpur from the CNN

[Jam-e Jam correspondent] Hello, I congratulate you on the occasion of [interrupted by Ahmadinezhad]

[Ahmadinezhad] He is the correspondent from where?

[Moderator] International Jam-e Jam TV

[Jam-e Jam correspondent] As per the name given to the fourth decade of the Islamic Revolution as the Decade of Progress and Justice, and an increase of more than 300 per cent and 3 times of participation in this election by our countrymen abroad, please tell me how the Iranians living abroad can help your government in fulfilling the slogans?

[Ahmadinezhad] Last night, I invited all the Iranians inside and outside the country to participate in developing the country and achieving the goals of the Iranian nation. I repeat this today as well. The supreme council of the Iranians is a very suitable means of communication by all fellow countrymen with the administration structures of the country. This council has created a very good organization in at least 26 countries of the world, in countries where more Iranians live. And I hope that through this relation that will be wider, we will witness more participation by our dear countrymen living abroad in the development of the dear Iran.

[Moderator] Ms Christian Amanpur, the CNN correspondent, and then Mehr News Agency's correspondent should be ready

[Christian Amanpur] Good afternoon Mr Ahmadinezhad. Last night in your speech, you said that you were the president of all Iranians, no matter who they voted for. I would like to ask you what is the situation with your challenger, Mr Mirhoseyn Musavi and if you guaranty his safety and why have the opposition reform individuals, officials been arrested?

[Ahmadinezhad] The country is in a very good condition, thanks to God. Iran is the world's most stable country. Iran is a lawful country. And everyone is equal in front of the law. The election was a very enthusiastic one. As I said, even in a football match there might be some audience who would get angry and they would be confronted by the Law Enforcement Force. This is natural. When someone leaves a stadium and passes the red traffic light, whoever he would be, he will be given a fine by the police, whether he is be a minister or an ordinary person. These are no problems on the Iranian nation's path. Some 40 million people participated in the election. And these 40 million are the guards of the election.

[Political] Parties do not exist in the Iranian culture like the way they do in the West. People are friends and intimate with one another and will vote for whoever they want. Voting for different candidates does not cause hatred or grudges among people. Go out there in the streets and see that people are friends which each other.

In Iran no one asks you who you voted for. The situation is very good. Iran is about to take huge leaps and certainly, in the next four years, the position of Iran will be a lot higher. Economic, scientific and cultural advancements of Iran will be 10 fold [in the next four years]. Iran, in the coming four years, will turn into one of the world's economic powers in addition to the political power it already is.

[Amanpur in English with Farsi voice-over] Sorry, I may have missed the translation.

[Ahmadinezhad] Under the pretext of translation, you're asking your second question.

[Amanpur] No, this is the first question. Last night you said [interrupted by Ahmadinezhad]

[Ahmadinezhad] Yes, you asked if I am the president of every Iranian and I answered your question. I said that when a football match finishes, some people might be upset [with the result] and may cross the red light. And the police will fine them. That person is a member of the Iranian nation too, but is fined for crossing the red light. This may not have anything to do with your question, but I am the president of every Iranian, just as I was in the past four years.
Everyone is respected and people are equal in front of the law. And I like everyone too. I am not happy to see people crossing the red light and being fined, I wish they don't cross the red light.

[Moderator] From Mehr News Agency, Mr Kho'iniha.

[A journalist from among the crowd] Mr President, the turns are not respected again.

[Ahmadinezhad] Mr Mardukhi please be patient.

[Kho'iniha] Greetings. I would like to congratulate you on the occasion of Hazrat Zahra's birthday and your re-election as the president of Iran on behalf of my colleagues at Mehr News Agency. Mr President today is a festive day and as a gift I would like to be allowed to ask two short questions.

1. Will your economic priority in the next four years be the Economic Reform Plan?

2. Unlike Western media, American officials admitted to the massive turnout of the Iranian people in the 22 Khordad [12 June] election. In addition to that, we have heard that Mr Obama has announced that he is ready to hold direct talks with Iran and Syria, to the point that American ambassadors have invited their Iranian counterparts to take part in the American national day [4 July] celebrations. How do you assess these recent comments by American officials and what is your response to those comments?

[Ahmadinezhad] Look, Iran, its election or its nation are not the sort of things people can ignore easily or play down. They are all about grandeur, dignity and power. Iran is the main pillar of human civilization. In other words, Iran is one of the main pillars of mankind's civilization. Without Iran, civilization and culture are meaningless. Without Iran, running the world is meaningless. It is obvious that Iran's position is very important and without Iran, no one has an exit strategy from the current situation.

Iran's views, approaches and solutions are all cultural, humanitarian, civilized and based on love, justice and kindness. This is what mankind needs today. We have said repeatedly, and I said it too, we will hopefully go [to New York] for the UN General Assembly. I have announced that I am prepared to have a debate [with President Barack Obama]. The reason I am ready to have a debate is because we have no secrets. We should discuss international issues openly so that everyone will know about them and participate in them.

It will be so good if the UN could see a day when a topic is presented and discussed for three days, unlike now when the decisions are made somewhere in a separate room and hundreds of world leaders make a speech and go back home. This is not the United Nations, this is not a discussion. They [UN] should introduce a topic and discuss it as long as they understand what the best solution is and the whole world should listen to those discussions too. This was my suggestion and I will hopefully follow it up.

[Reporter] What about the other question?

[Ahmadinezhad] Allow me to continue with my one-question policy to avoid discrimination.

[Moderator] Mr Ali Akbar Dareyni from the Associated Press and after that the correspondent from the Javan newspaper.

[Dareyni] Hello Mr President, my name is Dareyni and I'm from the AP. Your suggestions have been limited to an offer to debate with Mr Obama at the UN. But is your government prepared to hold direct talks with the American government regarding bilateral issues or not?

[Ahmadinezhad] Thank you. Well, we review [all the] proposals after all. You are not offering a proposal, you are asking a question. If there's a proposal, then OK we will review it.

[Moderator] Mr Takbiri from Javan and then Ms Zabihpur from the Young Journalists Club.

[Takbiri] Hello Mr President, congratulations. Over the past four years and in your campaigns for this election, you insisted that you wanted to fight financial corruption. Last night, too, you insisted on this issue. I want to know what your practical measures will be in this new government to fight financial corruption.

[Ahmadinezhad] Many thanks. In the previous government, we tried to stop corruption through amending bylaws, regulations and processes. Thankfully we achieved numerous achievements. A great deal of the loopholes that could have been misused are now removed. Now we have to address the past and the cases that might be beyond the lawful structure [remit] of the executive power.

[Moderator] Correspondent from the Young Journalists Club, followed by Ms Mary Catherine from Sunday Times.

[Correspondent] Greetings Mr President. You were elected as the 10th president, with 24m votes, yesterday. I'd like to know if you will still use the ministers and the cabinet of the ninth government or will make changes.

[Ahmadinezhad] I set out my plans regarding the choosing my colleagues last night. It [his plan] is in accordance with what the people have asked me to do and it is compatible with our culture and belief. It is very clear that I will invite everyone who thinks they are capable enough; of course I will announce the necessary requirements for each position. I will give an opportunity to people to introduce themselves to me, and will review their performance. Naturally, our friends who served in the ninth government, too, will be re-assessed, although I have completed my assessments regarding them. What I want to say is that the management circle of the next government will not be limited to the current figures.

[Moderator] Mary Catherine from the Sunday Times, followed by Mr Mardukhi from Arman newspaper.

[Correspondent in English with Farsi voice-over] I've been speaking to a lot of women in the past week. Iranian women took part in the election and were very happy to do so. However, they think they do not have equal rights with men. For example, their word is half worth the word of a man in a court, etc. Will you introduce new laws or at least take a look at the current situation of women in Iran?

[Ahmadinezhad] Please pass the headphone to the lady to listen to my answer.

In Iran women have better rights than men do. Please pay attention that if a man dies, his blood money is given to his wife. Similarly, if a woman dies, her blood money is given to her spouse. That means the families of a dead man receive twice as much money as the families of a dead woman. If we want to say that there's discrimination, then the discrimination is against men because the blood money is not given to the dead person, it is given to their living family.

This means that our judicial system cares for the women who live after their dead husbands. They receive more. In any case, please note that legal debates have their own place. Legal systems are very complicated and their mechanisms should be examined in their own right. Despite that, we agreed in the government that insurance companies should pay equal blood money for men and women. We will continue to make similar decisions. Of course, that will be to the benefit of men, although it may look like to be in the interest of women.

Please note that we do not consider men and women as two opposing points, we think they complement each other and are friends.

[Moderator] Arman Newspaper, Mr Mardukhi, and then Mr Martin Rodriguez from the Spanish EFE News Agency.

[Ahmadinezhad] Well, we need to wrap up. Just ask your question please.

[Reporter of Arman Newspaper] In the name of God! [chants a slogan before posing questions] Thanks God that through our efforts and actions we were united with "the friend" [referring to Ahmadinezhad], well done for our manly determination.

As tonight there are celebrations taking place everywhere for the victory of the Iranian nation, I would also read this poem: Tonight is bright daylight for us, the celebrations for being united with "the friend" instead of "the enemy.”

[Ahmadinezhad] Well done.

[Reporter] Dr Ahmadinezhad, thanks God, the Iranian nation was successful in this great test and was victorious. People expect two things from the government: First: to provide the basic necessities of life, and secondly to provide security. Thanks to God, with clever management and the wisdom of the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamene'i, Iran is one of the safest countries in the Middle East. I mean there is no other country safer than Iran in the Middle East. Regarding the provision of the necessities of life, hopefully in the second round you will start your second term in office, we hope that you can curb the current high prices so that people will be more satisfied with you. Yesterday a group of rebels created mayhem and insecurity. People expect the government to punish the main perpetrators and other individuals with minor roles seriously. Also, in the previous press conference, I asked you when you will submit "Where did you bring it from" [presumably referring to officials gathering personal] law to the Majles, you said that you submitted it, but that a group of wealthy people created a hue and cry and did not allow the bill to be approved legally. You said that in your second term, you will immediately submit this bill to the Majles; I want to know whether you would do so or not?

[Ahmadinezhad] Thank you very much. I need to answer your second question. You added that part of your comments about the wealthy people [creating hue and cry] based on your own judgment. We submitted the bill, the Majles did not approve it, we will submit the bill in the new government after some amendments.

[Moderator] Thank you. The Spanish EFE News Agency and Mardom Newspaper next please.

[Ahmadinezhad] [Continues speaking about the previous question, addressing the report he says:] Yes, that bill was regarding the [the wealth accumulated by the] officials. Because people can work hard to accumulate wealth, we wish for all Iranians to be wealthy. The bill was regarding the officials to make sure no one, God forbid, misused his responsibilities.

[Moderator] The Spanish EFE News Agency please.

[EFE reporter speaking in English with aid-over Farsi translation] Mr President, before the elections you said that your government is preparing a new pack of proposals for the 5+1. When will this pack be ready? And when will you be submitting it to the 5+1? Have you made any changes in the draft of your proposal after you were elected president?

[Ahmadinezhad] It is natural that the government is going through change; the political situation is constantly changing. Our package of proposals is affected by the current situation in the world, but the principles of the package remain the same. It is based on justice, respect, logic and dialogue and it calls for everyone's effort to resolve the issues of the world. I hope that the package is prepared in the near future for submission.

[Moderator] Thank you. Mr Karim Abbasi from Rah-e Mardom Newspaper and then the Hayat Newpaper from the UK. We are aiming to finish the press conference by 1700 [1230 GMT] with your permission.

[Rah-e Mardom reporter] I would also like to congratulate you. My question is that the people expect you to employ a new team for providing services to the people. Are you planning to make changes in the middle management of the government or not? The people believe that the country should have 25,000 officials, like president Ahmadinezhad, to rule the government so that one can see works speeding up. My question is whether you will make these changes or not?

[Ahmadinezhad] Thanks very much. I think that the Iranian nation is a great nation. We have hundreds of thousands of efficient people, our problem is to find and identify these efficient individuals, otherwise I am a humble member of society and a humble servant. In line with our capabilities, commitments and honesty and the characteristics that I announced last night [in his televised speech 12 June] we hope to be able to employ more knowledgeable people to serve the nation.

[Moderator] Thank you. The UK's Al-Hayat Newspaper please.

[Al-Hayat reporter speaking in Arabic with Farsi voice-over translation] Greetings to you Mr President. [Translator speaking in progress] Regarding the Arab coalition, what are your plans for this and what is your plan regarding cooperation with the Arab world and especially regarding the common problems which exist?

[Ahmadinezhad] We seek brotherly relations with all countries, especially with Muslim and Arab and neighboring countries. We are brothers, we aim to expand relations with all countries and have done our best to meet this end. Of course, under the new circumstances, efforts will take a new form and I think that we will witness more speed in improving and deepening brotherly relations between Iran and other countries in the region.

[Same reporter speaking in Arabic] The ambiguity exists that Mr Ahmadinezhad will be much more moderate in the future, is this true?

[Ahmadinezhad] We are moderate dealing with friends and will be tougher against arrogant powers.

[Moderator] The press conference comes to an end.

[Ahmadinezhad] I can answer one more question.

[Moderator] Arya News Agency reporter please.

[Arya reporter] In the name of God. Greetings to you Mr President, I congratulate you on the birth of the daughter of Prophet Muhammad and your re-election as Iran's president. Regarding criticisms leveled against you and the ninth government by your rivals during the elections, my question is whether in the tenth government you have any plans to correct the criticisms by your rivals - those who you consider valid - and have a specific plan regarding this.

[Ahmadinezhad] In the four years, we did not object to insults and allegations so that people can express their views. We will use any comment which is useful and wise and is useful for the country. Some of the media people have written a lot of analytic reports about various departments, I relayed them and the government used them and even invited authors and I sat down and listened to their comments myself. Also the government's circle of consultants is very big. Despite the fact that the government is in touch with the social body of the people, it is constantly in touch with experts of various fields. I myself have numerous expert meetings with experts, in various fields. However the news are not broadcast, otherwise, nearly all the decisions of the government is based on a series of comprehensive expert work and discussions with the elites, exchanging views and opinions. It is clear that in the next round, these meetings will be expanded and with a new organization we will move forward, speedier than before. I thank you all and wish you success.

[Description of Source: Tehran Islamic Republic of Iran News Network Television (IRINN) in Persian -- State-run 24-hour news channel in Persian, Arabic and English; presenting up to the minute domestic and international news. It offers exclusive interviews on a variety of topics, as well as information on universities, labor, and economic developments from the capital and the provinces.]