Travel Fanz Now A Free PC Game

I decided to make Travel Fanz a free game.  To do this I had to contact the Steam support team and explain my reasoning before they set it up as free.

Travel Fanz offers casual gameplay.  It's not like a typical hardcore fighting strategy game. And it provides an educational element to the gameplay.

So I want as wide an audience as possible.  I want players from Iceland to South Africa, Dubai to Hawaii.  I'll take them all.  With this game audience I intend to cross sell other travel products and services.  This is however a permanent switch to being a free game so I am now fully committed to this strategy.

The game is available here on Steam:  Travel Fanz

Developing The Disunited States Of America PC Game

I designed and developed DUSA during 2019.  It is a fairly simple card game played on a map of the USA.  The aim of the game is to win control of the most States.  I had watched the 2016 Presidential election that Trump won and thought it would be a great subject for a game.  The development budget for the game was about $150 and it took 5 months to write and test the first version.

A couple of years earlier I had written a small test game based upon a general election in the UK.  Obviously, I thought a presidential election in the USA would have a wider audience.  It's a colourful affair and even though I'm a Brit, I find watching the presidential battle very entertaining.

But I didn't want to limit the game to a bi-partisan competition between the Democrats and the GOP.   I thought I might hit some legal issues referencing the two political parties.  I also wanted the game to be light hearted.

Instead, I decided to focus on the influencers and interest groups that can shift the result of the election. So I created players and Card Decks for the following Factions:

Celebrities:  I've heard on the news that Taylor Swift is going to be a major influence on the upcoming election.  It isn't new for celebrities to attempt to steer election results.  I remember watching actors Clint Eastwood and Robert de Niro support their political affiliations.  

Criminals: Crime is a big issue in many US states.  From shoplifting to Colombian drug gangs and the Mafia.  Since it is so widespread I thought their activities were a major influence on the electorate.

Corporations: I remember actor Brad Pitt in a movie saying that "America is a business."  The influence of Wall Street on the election results is huge.  They are major funders of both political parties.  

Ecologists: Climate Change and environmental issues have become a growing concern for many people.  This Faction represent people who would vote for a Green Party in other countries.

Government: I gave the Federal Government it's own player Faction and Card Deck.  They represent the many people who work in public administration and the military.  Although they are meant to be non-political, I believe they have a desire to keep country in order and maintain the status quo.

Liberals:  I associate this Faction with the many minorities in the country.  This would include the hippies of the 1960's, LGBT rainbow genders, minimalists and those living off grid.  They are a substantial voting block in many cities.

Nationalists:  These represent determined patriots, many of whom believe the 2nd Amendment can solve most of the country's problems.  I suppose you would think of them as hardcore MAGA supporters.

Religious: America is famous for it's Bible Belt.  Moral subjects such as abortion are major political issues, so religious believers who have faith in a deity deserved their own deck.  Praise the Lord!!

Socialists: Although the USA is the home of modern capitalism, there is a large minority of Socialists and Marxists in the country.  As the cost of living rises and many millions fall into debt, some form of socialism is a popular political policy.

The map of the USA in the game is divided into the 50 states.  Researching the political affiliations within each state would have been tricky.  And some states are so firmly aligned with political beliefs they would not have been playable.

So, instead I researched the resources available in each state.  This included the population. land area, industry and natural resources.  It was much easier to get the correct size of these allocations.  The cards in the each deck would then be used to secure these resources to win control of each state.

It was fun making the game, particularly designing the card decks.  They touch on some sensitive subjects such as drug selling and immigration, but that's ok because these are genuine political issues.  

One unique feature I added to the game were voiceovers for each Faction when a card was played.  To get these I visited the website Fiverr and hired some Americans with genuine American accents to record the voiceovers.  Many thanks to Jack McGrath, Jamie B. and Mysti Jordan for creating the sound files.  They all did a great job on a limited budget.

DUSA also became the template for my next game Vilundia, my fantasy card game.

DUSA is available here on Steam: Dis-United States Of America

No POST Screen On Old PC

I'm rebuilding an old desktop pc.  It's comprised of a variety of components, old and new.  The motherboard is an ASRock P45DE, about 15 years old.  The GPU is a GeForce GTX760Ti that I bought at the same time as the motherboard.  It's inserted into a PCI express 2.0 slot and had worked fine on this motherboard for many years.  There's 8Gb of DRAM 2 in 4 sticks.  The power supply is a brand new Corsair CX500.  I have two hard disks, one blank, the other with Ubuntu Linux installed.  But neither are connected for the tests I am performing.  A post screen should display without them. I also bought a new internal 4 pin audio speaker.  The monitor for testing is an older flat screen monitor with only a VGA connector.  The GeForce GTX760 GPU has no HDMI output connector and the motherboard has no inbuilt video output.

So far so good.  I connected all of the power cables and powered up.  All of the fans were whirring away.  The power green light was displayed on the GPU.   But on the monitor there was no POST or BIOS screen.  The screen was completely blank.  This is where the investigation began.

I had two older desktop PCs so I was able to test some components on the other computer.  I fitted the GeForce GPU into the spare desktop on the left and confirmed it work.  It also confirmed that the monitor and cables were ok.  I couldn't test the DRAM in the left computer because it only accepted DRAM 3.  

I tried every combination of DRAM 2 sticks to check if there was a memory issue.  I tried a single stick, a combination of two sticks and all four sticks.  It made no difference.

I then reset the BIOS by resetting the jumper.  And I replaced the CMOS battery for a brand new one. Still no POST screen.

I then re-seated the CPU and applied some fresh thermal paste between it and the CPU fan assembly.  Still no POST screen on boot up.

So, I reached the point where there was nothing else I could experiment with.  I re-seated the GeForce GPU several times but it made no difference.  It is another case to the original case I threw away but that shouldn't make any difference.

I stripped everything out of the case and fitted everything back in.  Still no POST screen.  So, I am left in a frustrated state of failure.  I'm doing this to build an old machine to run old programs running on Windows XP.  It will be isolated form the internet.

I've researched on the internet for a solution but came up blank so far.  I've also sent a support request to ASRock though I'm not confident I'll get a reply on such old motherboard.  So, for now, I'm stuck.

Is Wealth Inequality Getting Worse?

There's been a popular discussion that wealth inequality has been getting worse.  So, I want to explore this claim using data.  I will use UK data since the Equality Trust, a UK charity, provide some very nice graphs on wealth equality measurements since 1990.  However, their charts also show a comparison with other OECD countries and reveal some surprising results.  

First, a little explanation about wealth structures in the UK.  The UK can have miserable weather at times but it also has some bright financial investment structures that other countries don't enjoy.  For example, pension contributions are not taxed.  And ISA's (Individual Personal Savings) are not taxed on dividends or capital gains.  But we do have inheritance tax in the UK.

Below are my conclusions from each chart.

Source: https://equalitytrust.org.uk/scale-economic-inequality-uk

Wealth Distribution Chart

1. Wealth inequality was far worse in the aristocratic past.  This was termed "Old Money".  In 1900, 93% of the wealth was owned by the top 10% and only 0.5% by the bottom 50%.  Even by the beginning of WW2 it was still 84% vs 2%.

2. Since 2000, the wealth proportion of the top 10% has largely flatlined.  That's not the story we are told by the media.

3. The highest rate of equality, 46% vs 6.2%, was surprisingly in the last year of Margaret Thatcher's premiership.  Inequality got a little worse under John Major, and Tony Blair's Labour government didn't improve it.  The post GFC years of Tory austerity didn't make much difference either.

4. The drop in the wealth proportion of the top 10% went to the middle class, the next 40%, rather than the bottom 50%.  The middle class essentially became wealthier rather than the top 10% getting poorer.

Regional Aggregate Household Wealth Chart

1. UK wealth is concentrated around London. I've read that outside of London, the UK is about as wealthy as the state of Mississippi in the USA.  The wealth in the North East on the shores of the North Sea is particularly low.  But on the opposite side of the North Sea are some very wealthy Norwegian and Danish cities.  The North East is probably poorer because of political policies, not because populations on the western edge of the North Sea lacks the ability to build wealth.

2. Roughly 80% of household wealth is stored in property and pensions.  The green financial wealth bar represents stocks, bonds, savings accounts and cash stored outside of pensions.  The yellow bar might represent physical assets such as cars, yachts, gold, watches, jewellery, artwork, livestock, crypto etc.

3. Despite many Tik Tok, Facebook and You Tube financial gurus promoting digital investment alternatives, the vast majority of wealth is still held in residential property and boring pension funds.

4. The aggregate household in the poorer North East is worth £350,000.  That's still a decent chunk of wealth by world standards. In the South East the aggregate household wealth is £2.4 million.  Holy cow!!

5. What's not clear is whether these numbers take debts into account.  If not, that would substantially change the picture.  I assume the term "aggregate" does take debt into account.

GINI Wealth Equality Chart

The GINI value is a measure of wealth inequality in a country.  The higher the value, the more inequality exists.

1.  This chart suggests that the UK is about in the middle for wealth inequality among developed countries. 

2. The USA is more unequal than the UK.  That doesn't surprise me.

3. What is surprising is that the Scandinavian countries including Norway, Denmark, Sweden and Finland are more unequal than the UK.  Sweden is at the top of the chart.  And Germany and Ireland are also significantly more unequal.  This surprises me since we are told so often how these countries have tax systems to make wealth more equal resulting in a higher happiness index.  So why does the media keep telling us that many EU countries are fairer societies?

UK Wealth Distribution Compared To The Rest Of The World

1. This chart really just shows that the UK is still a wealthy country compared to the rest of the world.  Yes, the cost of living is higher but wealth is still far easier to accumulate in the UK than most of the world.

2. 50% of people in the UK have $100k in wealth compared to only 11% in the rest of the world.  The  majority of people in the rest of the world have less than $10k.  No wonder so many want to settle in a country like the UK.

Final Conclusion

1. The vast majority of the wealth people hold is illiquid wealth.  It's held within pensions, property and physical assets that aren't easy to sell or use in daily transactions.  A retired person may be living in a mortgage free house worth £500k but they are still struggling to survive on only the State Pension.  It is possible to withdraw from pension pots, though any amounts above 25% of the pot are taxed as income.  Everyone needs a roof over their head so a primary residence is rarely converted to liquid cash.  Buy to let properties can be sold but are far less liquid than cash, bonds and stocks.

2. The bottom 50% are themselves widely divided in terms of wealth ownership.  50% of this 50% may have close to zero stored wealth.  That 25% of the population represents about 10 to 15 million people in the UK, depending upon whether you include under 16's.

3. It's likely most of the wealth is held by the older generations.   It can take a lifetime to amass wealth and the older generations are normally first in the queue to receive an inheritance.  But with everyone living longer that transfer of wealth is being delayed.  It is somewhat a return to "Old Money" just like it was in 1900.

4. People hark back to the idyllic days of the 1950's, 1960's and 1970's when life was more sensible and 20-somethings could afford to buy a house.  But the first chart shows otherwise.  Even by 1970, 65% of the wealth was still owned by the top 10%.  Prior to 1970, poor people back in the day, were much poorer than they are today. 

5. Most of the super wealthy have retained their wealth, though I doubt their lifestyles are much different to the super wealthy of 1900.  The financial aristocrats still ride their horses, shoot pheasants and grouse, drive around in expensive vehicles, wear fashion and expensive jewellery, own yachts and visit the Alps for a vacation.  Just like they did in 1900.  Their lives have actually changed the least over time.  And there will be some who have dropped out of the top 10% bracket.  Perhaps they were Lloyds members who got hit hard with an insurance claim.

I really liked the data and charts provided by the Equality Trust.  They made it very clear and easy to interpret.  I don't know if other countries have similar data providers.