Greetings Guild members, yes you my students, players of the Sanya College Wiz War group.

In a private session Monday, a grudge match between Tony and Rick settled a week’s dispute of who would be our first Grand Wizard.  They’d battled for the position earlier in the week with a draw, each scoring by winning a game.

Due to school responsibilities they were unable to finish the fight Thursday.  So in secret, on Monday, they once again entered the stone dungeon and fought it out.

I wasn’t able to watch the entire match–I had a grudge of my own to settle.  June came along and played a warm-up game with all four of us.  As I was making my way toward a win when June rearranged the dungeon with a powerful spell.  The new layout led to her quick and decisive victory.  She was able to win even with Rick and Tony hot on her heals, seeking to destroy her.  Here are a few pics from her winning position.

As Dungeon Master and June’s teacher, I have to admit I was proud of her wizardly use of the cards and strategy.  But then again, when a student believes she can defeat the teacher that’s when the hardest lessons of all must be taught.  As June’s teacher I decided I had to take her to school, which I did… twice.  But even still, she played so well that I wasn’t able to watch the grudge matches between Rick and Tony.  As time permitted, they had decided on a 2 out of 3 series of games.  Rick took the first game.

I finished up schooling June in time to catch the end of Rick and Tony’s second game.  They’d clearly left off trying to win by absconding with each other’s treasures and went for the kill.  Rick had 9 life points left, and Tony was surviving with just 6.  Rick had a skeleton on the board that he was using to haunt and taunt Tony.  Tony’s hand was woefully lacking in useful attack spells or counteractions.  And that’s when Rick decided it was time to cash in on a Daylight Savings Time card that had stripped him of a turn earlier in the game but allowed him to take two turns in a row.  So he put his cards face down on the table, moved his skeleton to a square adjacent to Tony’s Wizard, moved his own wizard to the same square.  For two turns, he punched, and the skeleton clawed.  It was a beat down–dungeon style–something like a gang initiation.  I hadn’t seen anything like that since the “printer beat down” scene from Office Space.

After that, Rick won the Grand Wizard title, the Trophy, and the right to be called “Mr. Wizard” by all the Wiz War players. That is until Thursday, when he has to defend his title against anyone who wins this Wednesday…  that means you.

Here’s a picture of our first Grand Wizard, Rick, proudly displaying his hard won trophy known as Mr. Bill.

Congratulations Mr. Wizard.  Magical Luck to you on Thursday.

My “American Cultural Studies” class has become an overnight success.  I had students calling me asking where and when we can play.  Maybe it’s because most teachers don’t bust out a game as a tool for learning, or maybe it’s because it’s a foreign game that these students never dreamed could exist, or maybe it’s because Wiz War is absurdly cool and they love the idea of blasting their classmates with fireballs and lightning bolts or stealing treasure, destroying walls, and creating giant bats.  Could be any or all of these things.  Here are two reports from students… and a few pictures.

I played the Wiz War this afternoon the first time, and I want to say, “I love this game!”

Wiz War is a big game, not only does it have many play cards, but it’s full of many kinds of imaginary magic spells. So it will never be boring. I made a strategic mistake at the beginning of Wiz War. I tried to get June’s treasures hastily, and I got one. The cost was I got in furious combat with June and Tony.

I lost around 6 life points. I became their chief target. Jeremy got a treasure easily during the combat time, losing almost nothing. I think it gave him a base to win the final victory. Later, we got another 8 players.

One guy impressed me because he tried every card in his hand to hurt the wizard next to his, but failed at last. It is hard to win the game, that is true, but it is also hard to do anything against the wizard next to yours—–you have 7 chances.

And Tony returned to the stone dungeon this week for another wizardly war.  He doesn’t want to talk about it, but a meteorite crashed through the dungeon ceiling and he fell in the crater.  It caused 4 points of damage and mutated his hand… luckily he could hold 8 cards with his big green paw.  I felt sorry for him, but it didn’t keep Stefanie from smashing a wall on top of him after he stole one of her treasures.

Here’s what Tony had to say.

Our journey continued with another two episodes of our Wiz War, as usual, after lunch at the office on Wednesday and Thursday. But this time was sort of distinct, as we were joined by some more participants to play the game together and JT guided us as our mentor in the game without participating in the game. And here I wanna describe a little bit more about the one on Thursday.

This time, we used six sectors instead of four. I felt pretty optimistic at the beginning of the game because I got some good cards and props in hand that enabled me to set obstacles and barriers to the other players. What baffled me was we drew very few number cards, which I considered fairly useful. If I had been able to draw some number cards, I might have been able to use them to walk more steps or do more damage or create longer lasting spells.

Actually we were about to take part in another activity later that day, so we had to finish the game before three o’clock in the afternoon. Since we each got our own items, magic stones as well as tons of props which enabled us to set barriers to the rest players, I perceived it would be a little bit tough to generate a winner. Later, Amelia was regarded as a prospective winner, because she had one treasure in her sector and the only thing she needed to do was carry the second treasure to her home base. Amelia was just three spaces away from winning when a card she drew that teleported the treasure out of her hand. The situation had been dramatically changed. Nobody was considered to win the game because of the limited time, but we did have a lot of fun in the exciting course. I guess everybody felt the same way.

Looking forward to our new journey.

And from our Amelia who nearly won…

I have to say that the game is really fantastic. I enjoyed it this afternoon. I almost won. What a pity!

Okay, I want to describe the layout of today’s game.  There are six sections in total. Each person gets one color Wizard. I didn’t want the yellow wizard because it had bad luck yesterday, so I chose the pink one even if she is ugly. But it turned out to be the right choice.

The game begins. At first, I am not able to figure it out. But I am eager to learn it. After six turns, I got so many objects, like SMELLY SOCK, A BLACK BAT, SKELETON, LARGE ROCK, DOOR-A & DOOR-B, and ROSE BUSH. I really liked my little boy—a black bat. He was so cute, especially his head. Unfortunately, my little boy died by a cursed card. It broke my heart.

On the other hand, when I got a smelly sock, I had to put it where my wizard was because that sock belonged to me?! I don’t like smelly socks! Smelly socks make me sick. But in the game, it’s okay.

Then, in order to protect my treasure, I use the large rock as a barrier, which I placed on the one side of my treasure. My wizard went to grab someone else’s treasure. And under the help of the door A-B, I took the treasure home successfully.

But when I intended to get back again with another treasure, I suddenly got a trap card, which made me drop my new treasure. I felt depressed. I almost won.

During the first week of classes June asked me to come up with an “activity” to help my office hour students study English.  I gathered from her suggestion that she wanted to try something new and exciting.  About this same time, I was working on building styrofoam castles for my son’s Lego’s guys.  And I stumbled upon Hirstarts.com which led me to the discovery of Wiz War.

I was captivated and wanted to try the game out… so I decided to try it out on my students.  Hey, they could learn in the course of having fun.  How American is that?!

I started right away to build the game.  The game is out of print so people who want to play it have to build their own set.  There are a few people who’ve posted the essentials online, and that was a great help in getting started.

I also wanted to try my hand at customizing some of the pieces as an example to my students about the uniqueness of this micro-culture… that’s my excuse for playing… and my kid thought it was awesome.

So game day finally came, and we played.  As a dutiful teacher, I assigned the students to write a short informal journal entry about the experience.  This is going to be a weekly thing, so they can see how the game play as well as their journal writing progresses.

*There’ll be more action pictures next time… we couldn’t get the session pictures off the phone this time.

This is what Tony had to say.

A few days ago Jeremy, June, a new friend Johnny and I played a fantastic game introduced by JT, called Wiz War.

The game began on a Wednesday afternoon after lunch at the lovely office with a pretty good air conditioner. Firstly, here I gotta thank JT for preparing all the materials needed in the game on his own, otherwise it would have been tough for us to deal with that elaborate stuff.

Actually, I never had an opportunity to know this brand new game before, even though it’s been actually launched for a long time. So I feel pretty excited about the game that is sort of uncommon here in China .

This game requires two to six people to play together. We can win the game by either getting treasure from our opponents while protecting our own treasures or just eliminating all the other players in wizardly battle. We got our own tiny little persons and treasure, and the cards we drew would tell us what’s next. So that’s exactly the very alluring part of the game, because we never know what actions we could take next turn. We got different types of cards, ranging from “attack” to “magic stone” (which I like very much). June was rather aggressive when it came to the game. She was keen on attacking. Moreover, Johnny had tons of “magic stone” cards in hand, which gave him lots of benefits. Not surprisingly, Johnny won the game at last. We were all happy for him, meanwhile, we were happy for ourselves, as we finally got started to get to know the new game that definitely adds more interesting elements to our life.

And from our “aggressive” girl… June.

Another big Wednesday for me. Last Wednesday I decided to begin writing.

This Wednesday, Jeremy, Tony, Johnny, and I began our “wiz war” journey.  I never dreamed that Jeremy could find such a game, or that we could communicate with each other in such a way. It was the most extraordinary afternoon I’ve spent since I have been in Sanya.

When we got into the room, Jeremy took out a big box. Wow, he prepared so many particular things, tokens and little cute toys.

We began to play, meanwhile Jeremy kept explaining the rules of the game. It sounded like he was a skillful player, however, he lost his all treasure. It was I, a newbie, who stole his Treasure Chest! Ha Ha Ha! But before I got back to my hideout, Johnny won the game by stealing both of Tony’s treasures.

I was so happy.

I thought Jeremy was shocked by my first spell because he said, “June was aggressive!” And he was a little bit confused during his turns. I am the only girl among four of us, but I was not kind in the game. O(∩_∩)O

We spent a special afternoon together that forced us to utilize our intelligence. And I know these two hours means we will have a new method to study English this semester.

And from Johnny, the Big Winner of the first match.  Johnny is a high school student who is going to study in the States in the fall, so he’s been hanging around with me, trying to pick up some extra English.  I thought I teach him a lesson in the wizard’s dungeon… but things didn’t go like I planned.

Today we played a very funny fame called “Wiz War” after lunch.  I played it with Tony, Jeremy, and June.  First, Jeremy told us the rules.  I was very difficult to understand!  Then we began.  I used a lot of number cards which allowed me to move further.  And I grabed the first treasure from Tony.  Then I drew a magic stone card.  It gave me the ability to draw an extra card from the deck each turn.  How lucky am I?!

Tony’s turn started, but he only moved.  Then June used her attack card to attack Jeremy.  But Jeremy had a card to repel it, so poor June got teleported to another part of the dungeon.  Jeremy only moved during his turn.  I thought he had something planned.

My turned came next.  I took Tony’s treasure back to my “home” and used a card for attack.  This card created a monster called “wraith” who I could move 3 spaces each turn.  It had 4 life points and could do 2 points of damage on the other player’s wizards.  It was a really good monster.

After a few turns, I snatched Tony’s second treasure.  He tried to use a spell on my to stop me, but instead he teleported me closer to home.  So I won!

Okay, that’s enough for our Wiz War blog this week.  Next week, I promise there will be more pictures.

“Work smart, not hard.”  I heard those words over and over again in my childhood from none other than my father… Dr. Scott Trylch.  I’ve repeated them many times (mostly to myself).  But with my recent teaching experience in China the words are taking on a new significance.  And perhaps for my students I’d add a slight twist–Study smart, so you don’t have to study so hard.

Americans are not really known for being overly disciplined students.  Yet we produce a number of the world’s best universities and the lion’s share of the world’s best university students.

Currently it seems that we’re afraid of the Asian student’s ability to study endlessly, tirelessly.  But my recent experience tells me that the Asian student, for all their hard work, are not achieving the same results as their more relaxed Western counterparts.  The reason, in my mind is simple, the Asian student isn’t studying smart.  They’re studying hard, and getting mixed results.  At some point you reach a point of diminishing returns, a point where you’ve worked so much that you cannot achieve anymore.

Culturally, I think this study habit may be linked to the language.  Asian students have to memorize the characters of their written language.  There isn’t a system for figuring things out for yourself–well there is, but it’s pretty complicated and involves a lot of guessing and basic character knowledge.  My five year old, just learning to read both languages, English and Chinese, is a perfect example of this principle.  He knows the meaning of the spoken word “no” in both languages.  In written Chinese he has to be told that the character representing no, or bu, 不, means no.  There’s no way for him to figure that out.  In English, however, he knows the spoken word no, and he knows the phonic sounds of “n” and “o” and so when he sees it on the page he can figure it out for himself.  He doesn’t need me to tell him the meaning of “n. o.” and he doesn’t need to memorize it.  If he doesn’t recognize it the next time he comes across it, he simply figures it out for himself again.

Advancing this to the college level.  Asian students still work on a system of the teacher tells you and you memorize it for the test.  In the west, yes we sit through lectures where information is poured out, but how the western student ingests the information is completely different.

Here is the best system for note-taking and studying I’ve discovered so far.  It’s famous.  It’s called the Cornell Note-taking system, named after the prestigious Cornell University.  It’s simple and brilliant, but it does require you to think for yourself.  Study it and share.

And just because I love graph paper.

Study smart so you don’t have to study so hard.

By Sean Noonan

A recent batch of WikiLeaks cables led Der Spiegel and The New York Times to print front-page stories on China’s cyber-espionage capabilities Dec. 4 and 5. While China’s offensive capabilities on the Internet are widely recognized, the country is discovering the other edge of the sword.

China is no doubt facing a paradox as it tries to manipulate and confront the growing capabilities of Internet users. Recent arrests of Chinese hackers and People’s Liberation Army (PLA) pronouncements suggest that China fears that its own computer experts, nationalist hackers and social media could turn against the government. While the exact cause of Beijing’s new focus on network security is unclear, it comes at a time when other countries are developing their own defenses against cyber attacks and hot topics like Stuxnet and WikiLeaks are generating new concerns about Internet security.

One of the U.S. State Department cables released by WikiLeaks focuses on the Chinese-basedcyber attack on Google’s servers that became public in January 2010. According to a State Department source mentioned in one of the cables, Li Changchun, the fifth highest-ranking member of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and head of the Party’s Propaganda Department, was concerned about the information he could find on himself through Google’s search engine. He also reportedly ordered the attack on Google. This is single-source information, and since the cables WikiLeaks released do not include the U.S. intelligence community’s actual analysis of the source, we cannot vouch for its accuracy. What it does appear to verify, however, is that Beijing is regularly debating the opportunities and threats presented by the Internet.

A Shift from Offensive Capabilities

On Nov. 2, the People’s Liberation Army Daily, the official paper for the PLA and the primary medium for announcing top-down policy, recommended the PLA better prepare itself for cyber threats, calling for new strategies to reduce Internet threats that are developing “at an unprecedented rate.” While the report did not detail any strategies, it quoted a PLA order issued for computer experts to focus on the issue.

The Nov. 2 PLA announcement is part of a long trend of growing network-security concerns in China. In 2009, Minister of Public Security Meng Jianzhu emphasized that the development of the Internet in China created “unprecedented challenges” in “social control and stability maintenance.” In June 2010, the State Council Information Office published a white paper on the growing threat of cyber crime and how to combat it. Clearly, these challenges have been addressed this year. The Ministry of Public Security (MPS) announced Nov. 30 that it had arrested 460 suspected hackers thought to have been involved in 180 cases so far in 2010. This is part of the MPS’ usual end-of-year announcement of statistics to promote its success. But the MPS announcement also said that cyber crime had increased 80 percent this year and seemed to blame the attacks only on hackers inside China.

These were cases mainly of producing and selling “Trojan” programs (malware that looks legitimate), organizing botnets, assisting others in carrying out denial-of-service attacks and invading government websites. The MPS also closed more than 100 websites that provided hackers with attack programs and taught them various tactics.

The PLA already has two notoriously large and capable network security units: the Seventh Bureau of the Military Intelligence Department (MID) and the Third Department of the PLA. In simple terms, the MID’s Seventh Bureau is an offensive unit, responsible for managing research institutes that develop new hacking methods, train hackers and produce new hardware and software. The PLA Third Department, defensive in nature, is the third largest signals intelligence-monitoring organization in the world. STRATFOR sources with expertise in network security believe that China’s government-sponsored hacking capabilities are the best in the world. But this perception is based in part on the fact that China demonstrates these capabilities quite often. The United States, on the other hand, is much more restrained in exercising its offensive cyber capabilities and is not inclined to do so until there is a dire and immediate need, such as war.

Piracy Vulnerability

The details of China’s escalating effort to improve network security are still murky, but one recently announced campaign against software piracy is notable. On Nov. 30, Deputy Commerce Minister Jiang Zengwei announced a new six-month crackdown on illegally copied products in China. He said the focus was on pirated software, counterfeit pharmaceuticals and mislabeled agricultural products. The Chinese public has pushed for more regulation of pharmaceuticals and food due to a rising number of cases in which people have become sick or even died because of falsely labeled or tainted products, such as melamine-contaminated milk. But Beijing seems to be even more concerned about the vulnerabilities created by running unlicensed and non-updated software, and publicizing the crackdown is clearly an attempt by Beijing to appease Western governments and businesses that are placing growing pressure on China.

Indeed, China has a sizable counterfeit economy, much to the ire of Western businesses. While Beijing may placate Westerners by announcing crackdowns for the benefit of international audiences, it takes more forceful measures when it sees a larger threat to itself, and the security emphasis now seems to be on the threat of running insecure software on government computers. The problem with unlicensed software is that it does not receive automatic updates from the manufacturer, which usually are sent out to fix vulnerabilities to malware. Unlicensed software is thus left open to viral infiltration. It is also cheap and easy to get, which makes it pervasive throughout both government and private computer networks.

One of the measures Beijing has started to implement is requiring licensed software to be installed on new computers before they are sold, which also gives the government an opportunity to install censorship measures like Green Dam. One persistent problem is that much of the pre-installed software still consists of pirated copies. While China has released statistics showing that the use of legitimate software in China has increased dramatically, the Business Software Alliance, an international software industry group, estimates that 79 percent of the software sold in China in 2009 was illegally copied, creating a loss to the industry of $7.6 billion in revenue. Even more important to Beijing, these statistics mean the vast majority of Chinese computer systems — government and private alike — remain vulnerable to malware.

At the same Nov. 30 news conference at which Jiang announced the new anti-piracy initiative, Yan Xiaohong, deputy head of the General Administration of Press and Publication and vice director of the National Copyright Administration, announced a nationwide inspection of local and central government computers to make sure they were running licensed software. While this suggests Beijing’s major concern is the security of government computers, it also emphasizes how widespread the unlicensed software problem is.

This new focus on using legitimate software, however, will not be a complete solution to China’s Internet vulnerabilities. There has been little effort to stop the selling of copied software, and it is still very easy to download other programs, licensed and unlicensed, and malware along with them (such as QQ). Moreover, the new security measures are dealing only with the symptoms, not the underlying problem, of a counterfeit-heavy economy. A six-month crackdown will not undermine or eliminate software piracy in China; to do so would require an immense and sustained investment of time, money and manpower. Indeed, China has been a hub for pirating software, films and other copyrighted material for so long that the enormous domestic economic base that has grown up around it would be virtually impossible to dismantle. In any case, vulnerabilities still exist in legitimate software, even if it is better protected against novice hackers. New vulnerabilities are constantly being found and exploited until software companies come up with the appropriate patches.

From Nationalist Hackers to Dissident Threats

China’s highly developed hacking capabilities, more offensive than defensive, include Internet censorship measures like the infamous Great Firewall, and the official police force run by the MPS specifically to monitor Chinese Internet traffic and censor websites is 40,000 strong. China also has developed two unofficial methods of censorship. First, operators of private websites and forums must follow certain government regulations to prevent statements critical of the government from being disseminated, which encourages private operators to be their own censors. Second, there is a veritable army of nationalistic computer users in China that include “hacktivist” groups such as the Red Hacker Alliance, China Union Eagle and the Honker Union, with thousands of members each. They became famous after the 1999 “accidental” bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade, which prompted China-based hackers to attack and deface U.S. government websites. The Chinese government, state-owned enterprises and private companies also engage public relations firms to hire, deploy and manage what have become colloquially known as “Party of Five Maoists.” These are individuals who get paid half a yuan (5 mao) for every positive Internet post they write regarding government policy, product reviews and other issues.

But as China’s Internet-using population nears 400 million, with nearly 160 million using social networking, Beijing recognizes the risk of all this spiraling out of control. Censors have not been able to keep up on the social-networking front. Even with limited or banned access to sites like Twitter and Facebook, their Chinese versions, Weibo and Kaixin, for example, are expanding exponentially. While the government may exercise more control over the Chinese-based sites, it cannot keep up with the huge number of posts on topics the CPC considers disharmonious. The recent announcement of Liu Xiaobo’s Nobel Peace Prize is an example of news that was not reported at first in Chinese media but through social networking sites, spreading like wildfire. And the censorship is not exclusive; even non-dissidents can be censored, such as Prime Minister Wen Jiabao when he recently called for limited political reform.

China’s large Internet population will not all be nationalists. And if those who learn skills from informal hackers turn into dissidents, Beijing would consider them a serious threat. The Internet presents exactly the type of tool that could pose a major threat to the CPC because it spans regions, classes and ethnicities. Most social grievances are local and economic or ethnic-based. The potential for one opposition group to be united nationwide over the Internet is one of Beijing’s gravest concerns. It has realized that a weapon it once wielded so deftly against foreign powers and business entities can now be used against Beijing.

Outside Issues

At the same time Beijing reached this realization, WikiLeaks demonstrated the possibility for sensitive government information to be spread globally through the Internet. Beijing saw that if the United States, with its expertise in signals intelligence and security, could be vulnerable to such a threat, so could China. Stuxnet demonstrated the vulnerability of important infrastructure to cyber attack, one reason for China’s new emphasis on licensed software (Iran is known to run unlicensed Siemens software). China’s recent emphasis on network security is likely linked to all of these factors, or it may be due to a threat seen but as yet unpublicized, such as a cyber attack or leak inside China that the government has been able to keep quiet.

Other countries have also been implementing new network security measures, most notably the United States. On Oct. 31, the Maryland-based U.S. Cyber Command became fully operational, and its commander is also the head of the National Security Agency, the premier U.S. government entity for signals intelligence. (Thus, China’s giving Internet security responsibility to the PLA should come as no surprise to the United States.) And as China realizes the difficulties of defending against attacks in cyberspace, which tend to favor the offense, the United States is wrestling with the same problems and complexities as it tries to shield government, civilian and commercial computer systems, all of which require different degrees of control and operate under different laws. As cyber espionage and cyber sabotage become even greater concerns, China will be forced to face the far more difficult task of not only pecking away at the Pentagon’s firewalls but also providing for its own internal system security.

These new efforts all contradict China’s long-standing policy of cultivating a population of nationalistic computer users. This effort has been useful to Beijing when it sees a need to cause disruption, whether by attacking U.S. sites after perceived affronts like the Chinese Embassy bombing in Belgrade or preventing access from powerful foreign entities like Google. But China has also recognized that developing these public capabilities can be dangerous. Nationalist Chinese hackers, if motivated by the right cause and united through the pervasive Internet, can always turn on the government. And the situation seems to have more and more governments on edge, where simple mistakes can raise suspicions. China’s redirection of a large amount of Internet traffic in April caused an outcry from the United States and other countries, though it may well have been an accident.

It is hard to tell what Beijing sees, specifically, as a first-tier cyber threat, but its decision to develop an effective response to all manner of threats is evident.

“China and its Double-edged Cyber-sword is republished with permission of STRATFOR.”

North Korean Artillery Attack on a Southern Island | STRATFOR.

Click the link above to read the article.  This is just a starting point for our Wednesday office hour conversation.  I also suggest all my students sign up for the free weekly newsletter from Stratfor.

This is the Journey Circle, which is a key to understanding the path a hero takes through a story.  The key helps understanding movies, novels, mythic tales, and our own path in life.

I borrowed this key from The Writer Journey by Chris Vogler.  Mr. Vogler was a story consultant for Walt Disney Corporation and contributed to the films The Lion King and Beauty and the Beast.

The principles outlined in this book are based on the work of great American mythological scholar Joseph Campbell and his ground breaking book The Hero with a Thousand Faces.