Staircase AI is pioneering Customer Analytics platform helping Revenue leaders generate higher NRR. Our AI merges human and product signals to automatically predict churn & uncover hidden growth opportunities. We analyze millions of customer communications (emails, tickets, chats, calls, and more) as well as product usage, to provide CS & Sales teams a powerful 360° clarity into their customers’ health.

Staircase AI

Not a day goes by that we don’t hear about generative AI. Will it take your job? Will it keep children from learning in school? Amidst many of the questions about this newly popular technology, are the startups that have been championing large language models pre-mainstream popularity. There are many companies that are not simply overlaying with Chat GPT or Open AI, but creating original AI that focuses on innovating (or disrupting) specific areas of business. If you’ve ever interacted with a chatbot in the pre-sales or customer service arena, you’ve had a touch with what is possible. In fact, has been around for years using early generative AI solutions to personalize Shopify customer service. Octane AI Every business, every department, and every stage of the customer experience has the ability to be impacted by generative AI. This includes a new focus on B2B post-sales. It is a space ripe for disruption as that 62% of post-sales execs said their CS playbooks are inaccurate or irrelevant, wasting CS teams’ time. a new survey found There is a reason  “only one-third of CS teams choose to use CS platforms.” Herein lies an opportunity for AI and Generative AI in particular to flip this outdated system. “Tools like ChatGPT often generate answers or responses that are inconsistent or wrong because they lack knowledge or context relating to the topic in question. This raises some valid doubts over Generative AI’s capabilities as a stand-alone solution that can replace human intuition. So how can Generative AI help post-sales teams achieve success in an efficient and scalable way?,” said Ori Estis, co-founder and CEO of Staircase AI. His company is the first to break into new areas of using customer analytics to train its AI Responder. This is a far cry from the traditional way of using rule-based automation and templates for post-sales. The ability to tailor responses based on customer feedback or context derived from historical interactions. Other findings from the report include: Despite the availability of multiple CS platforms, CS leaders are still looking for better solutions for managing their customer accounts. Almost half of the B2B businesses today are still using project management tools to implement their CS playbooks. More and more CS leaders and teams are finding their playbooks to be partially or totally inaccurate when constantly used. Through the evolution of Customer Success 2.0, AI can help companies trigger playbooks that are far more accurate and far less dependent on manual processes and CRM data. CS teams need to be efficient, proactive, and productive. The power of AI is helping achieve just that. With over half of CS leaders (53%) finding CS platforms lacking, it only makes sense to find a better way, fueled by original technology.

Generative AI Can Disrupt the B2B Post Sales Space - New Staircase AI Report Shows

About 9 months ago I set out to leave my teaching career of six years to pursue a career as a Software Engineer. I attended a 3 month Programming Bootcamp called during which I not only learned the fundamentals of programming, but more importantly, the fundamentals of what type of work excites me. I realized that I loved design. I loved data-model design, user experience design, architectural design, system design… The list goes on, I love design. Because of this, I thought the best place for me would be as a Front End Engineer, boy was I wrong. Hackbright Academy Dropbox Office Library in San Francisco, 2017 At Hackbright, we spent four weeks working on one . One might imagine, with such a small scale project, I didn’t think a ton about reliability and scalability. singular project It was not until I began speaking to industry professionals, specifically several SREs, that I realized I had an interest in thinking about large scale systems and making them scalable and reliable. I now work as a (SRE) on the Monitoring Team at Dropbox and I absolutely love the work that I am doing. I get to work with my teammates to design large scale systems as well as the internal tools that monitor them! Site Reliability Engineer Since I started at Dropbox, I have had the opportunity to speak with many career changers like me and share what I have learned over the past few months. The question that I am constantly asked is: What is an SRE, and how do I become one? This post is designed for those who are interested in learning more about SRE. I give a general explanation about the position, offer key questions to ask yourself before committing to applying to SRE roles and point to several resources to jumpstart your journey. What is an SRE anyway? To understand the answer to this question, it’s important that you learn a bit of history. Lets talk about the traditional approach to system management. Prior to Google’s creation of the SRE position, ran company operations. System Administrators What is a system administrator? A system administrator or ‘sysadmin’ is someone who is responsible for the configuration, upkeep and reliability of complex computing systems. They assemble software components (that are written by developers) and deploy them to produce a service. They monitor these services and respond if there are any events that occur with the service. System Administrators worked on the “operations” side of things, whereas engineers worked on the “development” side of things. What’s so bad about this approach? According to the , this approach caused division and conflict between developers and sysadmins. Because the two had different backgrounds, skills, and incentives, it meant that they had different vocabulary and thought about reliability very differently. Developers wanted new features to get out to users as quickly as possible whereas the operations team members (sysadmins) wanted to avoid breaking anything. Google saw the concerns with this approach and created the idea of “Site Reliability Engineering.” SRE Book So again, WHAT IS AN SRE? According to the creator of the position at Google, Ben Treynor defines SRE in as: this interview “Fundamentally, it’s what happens when you ask a software engineer to design an operations function…So SRE is fundamentally doing work that has historically been done by an operations team, but using engineers with software expertise, and banking on the fact that these engineers are inherently both predisposed to, and have the ability to, substitute automation for human labor.” Example of a data center Let me offer a concrete example on how SRE makes the “new way” even better. A few months ago, I had the opportunity to visit a data center just like the one you see pictured here. I toured several large warehouse sized rooms filled with thousands of machines. The magnitude of this space is remarkable. Now let’s say that one of the servers in the data center went down and needed to be replaced. With the “old way,” a new server would be configured manually by a system administrator. What this means is that the sysadmin would make sure the new machine has the proper operating system, software, tags, etc. Now imagine that 1,000 servers need to be replaced. See where I am going with this? It would take forever, or the company would need a lot of sysadmins to do the labor. manually Now consider the “new way” as described in this bullet point that I took from Dropbox’s Site Reliability Engineer Job posting: “You will automate the server provisioning process to reduce the labor of our networking engineering and datacenter operations teams. Once we plug a new server in, it walks itself through all aspects of provisioning to join the fleet without any human involvement.” Without any human involvement. In this example, an SRE would be responsible that automates the server configuration process. Cool right? This example really helped me to understand what an SRE truly is: for writing the software Site Reliability Engineer = Software Engineer + Systems Enthusiast According to , SRE Manager at Dropbox, Tammy Butow “SREs are Software Engineers who specialize in reliability. SREs apply the principles of computer science and engineering to the design and development of computer systems: generally, large distributed ones.” By eliminating human interaction through automation, SREs make systems more reliable. So essentially, an SRE’s job is to automate themselves out of a job. But Krishelle, why do you think this is cool? The reason I found this to be really cool is the same reason I decided to study math. Math allows you to utilize functions and rules to compute large scale problems. One of my favorite lessons from when I was teaching is based on this problem: The Staircase Problem Visual Aid “You own a landscaping business and one of your specialties is outdoor brick staircase. How many bricks would you need to bring if a customer ordered a 10-high stairwell? How many bricks would a customer need for a 20-high stairwell? How many bricks would a customer need for a 38-high stairwell?” Gauss’ Trick for summing the numbers from 1 to n My students quickly realized that counting the bricks was an okay strategy for the smaller staircases. But as I increased the height all the way to a 100-high stairwell, they were forced to find another way. They realized that math can be used as a tool to calculate large scale problems, avoiding a brute force approach (In my Algebra 1 courses, I would get students to discover they could use the equation n(n+1)/2 for the staircase problem.) Just as math is a tool for solving large scale problems, in the world of computers, code is a tool for managing large scale systems. It is a tool that allows for automating tasks through software and eliminating the need for manual human labor. Site Reliability Engineers are behind this work, they manage and automate these systems using their systems knowledge and their code, making the system more reliable with every bit. How do I know if SRE is right for me? This is a big question that comes up when I speak to job seekers considering pursuing SRE roles. I put together some important questions to ask yourself before you commit completely. SRE Compatibility Quiz Do you like thinking about large scale problems that have a lot of moving parts? Do you like thinking about how to make large systems more reliable? Are you okay with working on software that will likely never be overtly seen by an external user? Do you enjoy looking at a terminal for large amounts of time? Do you enjoy the process of diagnosing and fixing a problem? If yes, what if the diagnosis involves system level problems that you cannot always see? Do you enjoy thinking about system information (e.g. disk space, cpu, os, kernel, etc.) and system level functionality (e.g. ssh, proc, cron, swaps, etc.)? Are you comfortable with the idea of being “on-call” in which you are likely to be in high-stakes scenario where something needs to be fixed? Are you able to stay calm under pressure? Do you approach problems in a logical, process-oriented way? Are you comfortable attempting a problem that has never been solved before? Are you someone who thinks about how you can make things better? If you answered yes to at least 8 of these questions, SRE could be a good position for you. Read on to find more resources on SRE and a list of companies that offer SRE roles. So I really want to be an SRE, now what? There are many resources out there that are useful to start learning more about SRE, as well as gain the skills needed to obtain a role. Here are a few that I recommend starting with. Understanding SRE Role and Responsibilities Still trying to wrap your mind around what SRE means? Check out these resources: 🌐 — A website that contains Google’s definition of SRE, the transcript of an interview with the creator of the position, as well as other resources (including the ). Google’s SRE Resources online version of the SRE Book 🌐 — Realizing you may not be ready to go out and spend $40-$50 on the SRE book, this is an awesome set of notes on each chapter of the book by . SRE Book Notes Dan Luu 🎥 — A talk given by the creator of the SRE role Ben Treynor of Google. Keys to SRE 🎥 — A Webinar with Google SREs. Site Reliability Engineers — Keeping Google up and running 24/7 🎥 — A talk given by Tammy Butow, SRE Manager at Dropbox. Site Reliability Engineering at Dropbox 🎥 — A talk by Jonah Horowitz, SRE at Netflix. Site Reliability Engineering at Netflix 🎥 — A panel of SREs at SRECon16. Who/What is SRE? 📰 — An interview with Andrew Fong, an SRE manager at Dropbox. Andrew Fong on Tackling the Full Stack 📰 — An article about SRE at Google. Site Reliability Engineers: “We Solve Cooler Problems” 📰 — An article about SRE at Atlassian. Love DevOps? Wait until you meet SRE Companies that Hire SREs Curious which companies out there hire SREs? Here are just a few: Dropbox Google Netflix GitHub Atlassian Stripe Pinterest (called Production Engineer) Facebook (called DevOps Software Engineer) Reddit …and many ! I have linked to sample job posts so that you can get a feel for what SRE means at the different companies. more Resources for an Aspiring SRE Once you feel you have a handle on the definition of SRE, check out these resources to start expanding your skill set. General Resources 📰 — A comprehensive resource list that and I put together for Bootcamp Grads interested in SRE roles. Graduating from Bootcamp and interested in becoming a Site Reliability Engineer? Tammy Butow 📰 — A list of skills and mindsets of an SRE. The Must Know Checklist For DevOps & Site Reliability Engineers 🌐 — A Google Code University Course. Introduction to Distributed System Design 🌐 — An amazing curated list of SRE and Production Engineering resources by Pavlos Ratis. Definitely bookmark worthy if you become an SRE. Awesome Site Reliability Engineering Linux Resources Since I did not have a lot of Linux experience when I started my Junior-level SRE role, I have included a separate section for the tutorials and tools that I have found useful for learning Linux fundamentals. 🎥 — A series of awesome videos that breaks down key Linux concepts. Eli the Computer Guy’s Linux Video Series 🌐 — A step by step tutorial Unix/Linux Tutorial for Beginners 🌐 — A step by step tutorial. LinuxCommand.org 📋 Cheatography Linux Cheatsheet 📋 FossWire Linux Cheatsheet Twitter Accounts and Blogs to Follow Julia Evans on and Twitter Blog Brandan Gregg Eli Bendersky Several Nines Philip Fisher-Ogden Tammy Butow Nora Jones — Pavlos offers too! Pavlos Ratis follow recommendations SRE Weekly SREcon Dropbox Infrastructure Resources Dropbox’s Magic Pocket In addition to the Dropbox specific resources covered in , here are some others that made me super interested in working as an SRE at Dropbox: Tammy’s blog post 🎥 Magic Pocket 📰 Scaling to exabytes and beyond 📰 Inside the Magic Pocket 🌐 Dropbox Infrastructure Blog Found this post useful? Kindly tap the ❤ button below and share with friends considering SRE roles! About the author Krishelle is a former High School Math and Spanish Teacher turned Site Reliability Engineer at . about her journey from education to tech and connect with her on and . Dropbox Read Twitter LinkedIn Looking to make a Career Change but not sure where to start? Job Searching and not sure how to get organized? Check out these articles by Krishelle: Designing your Career Change ) How I Transitioned From Teaching to Engineering (Webinar Tools for Organizing Your Job Search

So you want to be an SRE?

You’ve lived inside an algorithm since birth — the human body. Bodies handle high-dimensional data simulations in every moment of their existence. The brain takes inputs from our five senses and , then compares that prediction to what actually happened. It takes note of the errors and improves the algorithm continuously. This is a fantastic template for how to build robust AI systems. You and I are living in a simulation of reality, the one created by our brain. predicts what the world will be like 1. Don’t ignore pain. Brains do their best to prevent the body from being harmed. If your brain had an error in its prediction algorithm, that error might eventually result in damage to your body. For example, if you incorrectly modeled the width of a stair, you might fall down the staircase and bang up your knee. Pain exists to signal the brain that an update needs to be made to the algorithm. The brain holds onto the perceptual data of what happened immediately before and during the event in higher fidelity so that it can be used to update the model of the world. This is why time seems to slow down during a traumatic event such as a car wreck. Time doesn’t actually slow down, it’s just that we remember more of the data. If you failed to catch an error, it will show up in support requests from your clients. They will tell you when an algorithm is hurting them. In the human body, we have pain signals to tell us where the errors in the algorithm are. In business, we have customer support departments. If the execs in your company ignore those signals, injuries are bound to happen. We see the damage FaceGoog continue to inflict on the world as a result of the executives living in their bubble with their fingers in their ears singing la-la-la-la-la. Dreamlands imagined by Ricardo Cavolo 2. Get plenty of sleep. Like us, our algorithms must also sleep. Sleep for an algorithm is comes in the form of truing up the model. That is, after all, one of the important roles sleep provides to the human body. If you walked down the stairs today and nothing unusual happened, you’ll go to sleep tonight and no new updates will be made to your predictive model of stairs, because there was no new information gathered that day. If you fell down, however, your brain will retain a rich memory of all the relevant sensory data – the placement of your arms and legs in space during the fall, everything you saw, heard and touched. All that new data will be compressed while you sleep into the new predictive model which will be used the next time you walk down a staircase so that you’re less likely to damage the body again. Sleeping is the process of pruning off the memory of things that didn’t contain new information and updating the predictive models where there was new info. Healthy cyborgs will have a relationship with their algorithms where they audit and correct errors daily. Algorithms will never be 100% accurate. Even if they were, the world isn’t static and so neither can our algorithms be. There are no healthy algorithms without healthy processes for updating algorithms with the information brought to our attention by our pain signals. Always Be Updating. The world changes daily, and we as algorithm makers must keep up. Humans are still required for evaluating the outputs and reworking when the greater context shifts. The craft of an algorithm maker resembles a shepherd or gardener more than an analyst or programmer. 3. Trust your five senses. Taste, touch, smell, look and hear what’s happening in the real world around you a.k.a. test things with your real clients before you release it. You can avoid or reduce pain by trying out your tweaks to the algorithms by getting all… what’s the word — proactive. Avoid injury altogether by making sure your algorithm works well before you release it. Test in person, with real clients. Look at your their physical and emotional reactions to whatever you’re building. Listen to their emotional reaction more even than to their words. Always test your algorithms against real humans to see if the data tells the same story as what you, the human, see when you interact with your client 1:1. before you release it Stories are data with a soul.– Brene Brown, Braving the Wilderness We can’t ignore the rich data from direct interactions with other humans. We can’t let the convenience and neatness of numbers distract us from real conversations with the humans our algorithms impact. Stories are messy, contradictory and don’t come with any reassuring decimal points or significant digits. Our best hope is to become healthy cyborgs. is ’s elegant term for what we should be striving for, instead: Not the aspirational artificial intelligence that only exists in movie depictions, but AI that’s fully symbiotic with human intelligence. An AI that performs the heavy lifting of data processing — which the human corrects, adjusts, re-directs. A far more accurate model for how AI actually works (at least in the near to medium term), Participatory AI also undermines fanciful, apocalyptic visions of Skynet, or massive unemployment caused by automation — and instead, helps us imagine a better future**.–** Participatory AI Joy Buolamwini , How to Design a Better Internet Amber Case The next evolution of humanity relies on us creating good environments where our algorithms can grow up. Like a child that’s dependent on it’s parent, algorithms could do nothing without us. Our algorithms are really quite primitive today. Perhaps they will surpass us, but that’s for another Medium article on a day far, far distant from today. Right now, we have a huge opportunity to become healthy cyborgs that partner with algorithms to make us the biggest, boldest, kindest, most capable versions of ourselves. For more from me: clap, get on or check out my podcast, , about technology, love and creativity. We interview everyone from the astrophysicist and founder of GoogleX to the Yale-educated lawyer who founded a Buddhist order of nuns in China to the creator of VR games to induce trances. my list Embodied Reality ❤ cris _Believe your own eyes, not just the decimal points. I grew up in a cult. Since leaving 12 years ago, I've studied the…_hackernoon.com 3 Signs You're In the AI Cult of Data - Cris Beasley - Medium _The moment you perceive as NOW has already passed. Good new is — we can hack the simulation._hackernoon.com There’s Evidence We’re Living in a Simulation

The Body Is an Algorithm: 3 Lessons For Building Robust AI

At the Earth's Core by Edgar Rice Burroughs, is part of the HackerNoon Books Series. You can jump to any chapter in this book here . SLAVES SLAVES AS WE DESCENDED THE BROAD STAIRCASE WHICH led to the main avenue of Phutra I caught my first sight of the dominant race of the inner world. Involuntarily I shrank back as one of the creatures approached to inspect us. A more hideous thing it would be impossible to imagine. The all-powerful Mahars of Pellucidar are great reptiles, some six or eight feet in length, with long narrow heads and great round eyes. Their beak-like mouths are lined with sharp, white fangs, and the backs of their huge, lizard bodies are serrated into bony ridges from their necks to the end of their long tails. Their feet are equipped with three webbed toes, while from the fore feet membranous wings, which are attached to their bodies just in front of the hind legs, protrude at an angle of 45 degrees toward the rear, ending in sharp points several feet above their bodies. I glanced at Perry as the thing passed me to inspect him. The old man was gazing at the horrid creature with wide astonished eyes. When it passed on, he turned to me. "A rhamphorhynchus of the Middle Olitic, David," he said, "but, gad, how enormous! The largest remains we ever have discovered have never indicated a size greater than that attained by an ordinary crow." As we continued on through the main avenue of Phutra we saw many thousand of the creatures coming and going upon their daily duties. They paid but little attention to us. Phutra is laid out underground with a regularity that indicates remarkable engineering skill. It is hewn from solid limestone strata. The streets are broad and of a uniform height of twenty feet. At intervals tubes pierce the roof of this underground city, and by means of lenses and reflectors transmit the sunlight, softened and diffused, to dispel what would otherwise be Cimmerian darkness. In like manner air is introduced. Perry and I were taken, with Ghak, to a large public building, where one of the Sagoths who had formed our guard explained to a Maharan official the circumstances surrounding our capture. The method of communication between these two was remarkable in that no spoken words were exchanged. They employed a species of sign language. As I was to learn later, the Mahars have no ears, not any spoken language. Among themselves they communicate by means of what Perry says must be a sixth sense which is cognizant of a fourth dimension. I never did quite grasp him, though he endeavored to explain it to me upon numerous occasions. I suggested telepathy, but he said no, that it was not telepathy since they could only communicate when in each others' presence, nor could they talk with the Sagoths or the other inhabitants of Pellucidar by the same method they used to converse with one another. "What they do," said Perry, "is to project their thoughts into the fourth dimension, when they become appreciable to the sixth sense of their listener. Do I make myself quite clear?" "You do not, Perry," I replied. He shook his head in despair, and returned to his work. They had set us to carrying a great accumulation of Maharan literature from one apartment to another, and there arranging it upon shelves. I suggested to Perry that we were in the public library of Phutra, but later, as he commenced to discover the key to their written language, he assured me that we were handling the ancient archives of the race. During this period my thoughts were continually upon Dian the Beautiful. I was, of course, glad that she had escaped the Mahars, and the fate that had been suggested by the Sagoth who had threatened to purchase her upon our arrival at Phutra. I often wondered if the little party of fugitives had been overtaken by the guards who had returned to search for them. Sometimes I was not so sure but that I should have been more contented to know that Dian was here in Phutra, than to think of her at the mercy of Hooja the Sly One. Ghak, Perry, and I often talked together of possible escape, but the Sarian was so steeped in his lifelong belief that no one could escape from the Mahars except by a miracle, that he was not much aid to us—his attitude was of one who waits for the miracle to come to him. At my suggestion Perry and I fashioned some swords of scraps of iron which we discovered among some rubbish in the cells where we slept, for we were permitted almost unrestrained freedom of action within the limits of the building to which we had been assigned. So great were the number of slaves who waited upon the inhabitants of Phutra that none of us was apt to be overburdened with work, nor were our masters unkind to us. We hid our new weapons beneath the skins which formed our beds, and then Perry conceived the idea of making bows and arrows—weapons apparently unknown within Pellucidar. Next came shields; but these I found it easier to steal from the walls of the outer guardroom of the building. We had completed these arrangements for our protection after leaving Phutra when the Sagoths who had been sent to recapture the escaped prisoners returned with four of them, of whom Hooja was one. Dian and two others had eluded them. It so happened that Hooja was confined in the same building with us. He told Ghak that he had not seen Dian or the others after releasing them within the dark grotto. What had become of them he had not the faintest conception—they might be wandering yet, lost within the labyrinthine tunnel, if not dead from starvation. I was now still further apprehensive as to the fate of Dian, and at this time, I imagine, came the first realization that my affection for the girl might be prompted by more than friendship. During my waking hours she was constantly the subject of my thoughts, and when I slept her dear face haunted my dreams. More than ever was I determined to escape the Mahars. "Perry," I confided to the old man, "if I have to search every inch of this diminutive world I am going to find Dian the Beautiful and right the wrong I unintentionally did her." That was the excuse I made for Perry's benefit. "Diminutive world!" he scoffed. "You don't know what you are talking about, my boy," and then he showed me a map of Pellucidar which he had recently discovered among the manuscript he was arranging. "Look," he cried, pointing to it, "this is evidently water, and all this land. Do you notice the general configuration of the two areas? Where the oceans are upon the outer crust, is land here. These relatively small areas of ocean follow the general lines of the continents of the outer world. "We know that the crust of the globe is 500 miles in thickness; then the inside diameter of Pellucidar must be 7,000 miles, and the superficial area 165,480,000 square miles. Three-fourths of this is land. Think of it! A land area of 124,110,000 square miles! Our own world contains but 53,000,000 square miles of land, the balance of its surface being covered by water. Just as we often compare nations by their relative land areas, so if we compare these two worlds in the same way we have the strange anomaly of a larger world within a smaller one! "Where within vast Pellucidar would you search for your Dian? Without stars, or moon, or changing sun how could you find her even though you knew where she might be found?" The proposition was a corker. It quite took my breath away; but I found that it left me all the more determined to attempt it. "If Ghak will accompany us we may be able to do it," I suggested. Perry and I sought him out and put the question straight to him. "Ghak," I said, "we are determined to escape from this bondage. Will you accompany us?" "They will set the thipdars upon us," he said, "and then we shall be killed; but—" he hesitated—"I would take the chance if I thought that I might possibly escape and return to my own people." "Could you find your way back to your own land?" asked Perry. "And could you aid David in his search for Dian?" "Yes." "But how," persisted Perry, "could you travel to strange country without heavenly bodies or a compass to guide you?" Ghak didn't know what Perry meant by heavenly bodies or a compass, but he assured us that you might blindfold any man of Pellucidar and carry him to the farthermost corner of the world, yet he would be able to come directly to his own home again by the shortest route. He seemed surprised to think that we found anything wonderful in it. Perry said it must be some sort of homing instinct such as is possessed by certain breeds of earthly pigeons. I didn't know, of course, but it gave me an idea. "Then Dian could have found her way directly to her own people?" I asked. "Surely," replied Ghak, "unless some mighty beast of prey killed her." I was for making the attempted escape at once, but both Perry and Ghak counseled waiting for some propitious accident which would insure us some small degree of success. I didn't see what accident could befall a whole community in a land of perpetual daylight where the inhabitants had no fixed habits of sleep. Why, I am sure that some of the Mahars never sleep, while others may, at long intervals, crawl into the dark recesses beneath their dwellings and curl up in protracted slumber. Perry says that if a Mahar stays awake for three years he will make up all his lost sleep in a long year's snooze. That may be all true, but I never saw but three of them asleep, and it was the sight of these three that gave me a suggestion for our means of escape. I had been searching about far below the levels that we slaves were supposed to frequent—possibly fifty feet beneath the main floor of the building—among a network of corridors and apartments, when I came suddenly upon three Mahars curled up upon a bed of skins. At first I thought they were dead, but later their regular breathing convinced me of my error. Like a flash the thought came to me of the marvelous opportunity these sleeping reptiles offered as a means of eluding the watchfulness of our captors and the Sagoth guards. Hastening back to Perry where he pored over a musty pile of, to me, meaningless hieroglyphics, I explained my plan to him. To my surprise he was horrified. "It would be murder, David," he cried. "Murder to kill a reptilian monster?" I asked in astonishment. "Here they are not monsters, David," he replied. "Here they are the dominant race—we are the 'monsters'—the lower orders. In Pellucidar evolution has progressed along different lines than upon the outer earth. These terrible convulsions of nature time and time again wiped out the existing species—but for this fact some monster of the Saurozoic epoch might rule today upon our own world. We see here what might well have occurred in our own history had conditions been what they have been here. "Life within Pellucidar is far younger than upon the outer crust. Here man has but reached a stage analogous to the Stone Age of our own world's history, but for countless millions of years these reptiles have been progressing. Possibly it is the sixth sense which I am sure they possess that has given them an advantage over the other and more frightfully armed of their fellows; but this we may never know. They look upon us as we look upon the beasts of our fields, and I learn from their written records that other races of Mahars feed upon men—they keep them in great droves, as we keep cattle. They breed them most carefully, and when they are quite fat, they kill and eat them." I shuddered. "What is there horrible about it, David?" the old man asked. "They understand us no better than we understand the lower animals of our own world. Why, I have come across here very learned discussions of the question as to whether gilaks, that is men, have any means of communication. One writer claims that we do not even reason—that our every act is mechanical, or instinctive. The dominant race of Pellucidar, David, have not yet learned that men converse among themselves, or reason. Because we do not converse as they do it is beyond them to imagine that we converse at all. It is thus that we reason in relation to the brutes of our own world. They know that the Sagoths have a spoken language, but they cannot comprehend it, or how it manifests itself, since they have no auditory apparatus. They believe that the motions of the lips alone convey the meaning. That the Sagoths can communicate with us is incomprehensible to them. "Yes, David," he concluded, "it would entail murder to carry out your plan." "Very well then, Perry." I replied. "I shall become a murderer." He got me to go over the plan again most carefully, and for some reason which was not at the time clear to me insisted upon a very careful description of the apartments and corridors I had just explored. "I wonder, David," he said at length, "as you are determined to carry out your wild scheme, if we could not accomplish something of very real and lasting benefit for the human race of Pellucidar at the same time. Listen, I have learned much of a most surprising nature from these archives of the Mahars. That you may appreciate my plan I shall briefly outline the history of the race. "Once the males were all-powerful, but ages ago the females, little by little, assumed the mastery. For other ages no noticeable change took place in the race of Mahars. It continued to progress under the intelligent and beneficent rule of the ladies. Science took vast strides. This was especially true of the sciences which we know as biology and eugenics. Finally a certain female scientist announced the fact that she had discovered a method whereby eggs might be fertilized by chemical means after they were laid—all true reptiles, you know, are hatched from eggs. "What happened? Immediately the necessity for males ceased to exist—the race was no longer dependent upon them. More ages elapsed until at the present time we find a race consisting exclusively of females. But here is the point. The secret of this chemical formula is kept by a single race of Mahars. It is in the city of Phutra, and unless I am greatly in error I judge from your description of the vaults through which you passed today that it lies hidden in the cellar of this building. "For two reasons they hide it away and guard it jealously. First, because upon it depends the very life of the race of Mahars, and second, owing to the fact that when it was public property as at first so many were experimenting with it that the danger of over-population became very grave. "David, if we can escape, and at the same time take with us this great secret what will we not have accomplished for the human race within Pellucidar!" The very thought of it fairly overpowered me. Why, we two would be the means of placing the men of the inner world in their rightful place among created things. Only the Sagoths would then stand between them and absolute supremacy, and I was not quite sure but that the Sagoths owed all their power to the greater intelligence of the Mahars—I could not believe that these gorilla-like beasts were the mental superiors of the human race of Pellucidar. "Why, Perry," I exclaimed, "you and I may reclaim a whole world! Together we can lead the races of men out of the darkness of ignorance into the light of advancement and civilization. At one step we may carry them from the Age of Stone to the twentieth century. It's marvelous—absolutely marvelous just to think about it." "David," said the old man, "I believe that God sent us here for just that purpose—it shall be my life work to teach them His word—to lead them into the light of His mercy while we are training their hearts and hands in the ways of culture and civilization." "You are right, Perry," I said, "and while you are teaching them to pray I'll be teaching them to fight, and between us we'll make a race of men that will be an honor to us both." Ghak had entered the apartment some time before we concluded our conversation, and now he wanted to know what we were so excited about. Perry thought we had best not tell him too much, and so I only explained that I had a plan for escape. When I had outlined it to him, he seemed about as horror-struck as Perry had been; but for a different reason. The Hairy One only considered the horrible fate that would be ours were we discovered; but at last I prevailed upon him to accept my plan as the only feasible one, and when I had assured him that I would take all the responsibility for it were we captured, he accorded a reluctant assent. About HackerNoon Book Series: We bring you the most important technical, scientific, and insightful public domain books. This book is part of the public domain. Edgar Rice Burroughs (1994). At the Earth's Core. Urbana, Illinois: Project Gutenberg. Retrieved October 2022 https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/123/pg123-images.html This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org , located at https://www.gutenberg.org/policy/license.html.

WE DESCENDED THE BROAD STAIRCASE

Star Born by Andre Alice Norton, is part of the HackerNoon Books Series. You can jump to any chapter in this book here . AIRLIFT AIRLIFT They were air-borne once more, but Raf was not pleased. In the seat beside him, which Captain Hobart should be occupying, there now squirmed an alien warrior who apparently was uncomfortable in the chair-like depression so different from the low stools he was accustomed to. Soriki was still in the second passenger place, but he, too, shared that with another of the men from the city who rested across bony knees a strange weapon rather like a Terran rifle. No, the spacemen were not prisoners. According to the official statement they were allies. But, Raf wondered, as against his will he followed the globe in a northeastern course, how long would that fiction last if they refused to fall in with any suggestions the aliens might make? He did not doubt that there was on board the globe some surprise which could shoot the flitter out of the air, if, for example, he adjusted the controls before him and bore west toward the mountains and the safety of the space ship. Either of the aliens he now transported could bring him under control by using those weapons, which might do anything from boiling a man in some unknown ray to smothering him in gas. He had not seen the arms in action, and he did not want to. Yet Hobart and Lablet did not, as far as he could tell, share his suspicions. Lablet was eager to see the mysterious storehouse, and the captain was either moved by the same desire or else had long since deduced the folly of trying to make a break for it Thus they were now heading seaward with the captain and Lablet sharing quarters with the leaders of the expedition on board the globe, and Raf and the com-tech, with companions—or guards—bringing up the rear. The aliens had even insisted on stripping the flitter of much of its Terran equipment before they left the city, pointing out that the cleared storage space would be filled with salvage when they made the return voyage. The globe had been trailing along the coastline, and now it angled out to glide over a long finger of cape, rocky and waterworn, which pointed at almost a right angle into the sea. This dwindled into a reef of rock, like the nail on a finger. The sea ahead was no unbroken expanse. Instead there was a series of islands, some merely tops of reefs over which the waves broke, others more substantial, rising well above the threatening water, and one or two showing the green of vegetation. The chain of islets extended so far out that when the flitter passed over the last one the main continent was out of sight. Now only water stretched beneath them. The globe skidded on as if its pilot had given it an extra burst of power, and Raf accelerated in turn, having no desire to lose his guide. But they were not to make the ocean-wide trip in one jump. At midday he saw again a break in the smooth carpet of waves, another island, or perhaps the southern tip of a northern continent for the land swept in that direction as far as he could see. The globe spiraled down to make a neat landing on a flat plateau, and Raf prepared to join it. When the undercarriage of the flitter jarred lightly on the rock, he saw signs that this was a man-or alien-fashioned place which must have had much use in the dim past when his new companions ruled all their native world. The rock had been smoothed off to a flat surface, and at its perimeter were several small domed buildings. Yet, as there had been in the countryside and in the city, except at its very heart, there was an aura of desertion at the site. Both his alien passengers jumped out of the flitter, as if only too pleased at their release from the Terran flyer. For the first time Raf was shaken out of his own preoccupation with his dislike for the aliens to wonder if they could be moved by a similar distaste for Terrans. Lablet might be interested in that as a scientific problem—the pilot only knew how he felt and that was not comfortable. Soriki got out and walked across the rock, stretching. But for a long moment Raf remained where he was, behind the controls of the flyer. He was as cramped and tired of travel as the com-tech, perhaps even more so since the responsibility of the flight had been his. And had they landed in open country he would have liked to have thrown himself down on the ground, taking off his helmet and unhooking his tunic collar to let the fresh wind blow through his hair and across his skin. Perhaps that would take away the arid dust of centuries, which, to his mind, had grimed him since their hours in the city. But here was no open country, only a landing space which reminded him too much of the roof of the building in the metropolis. A half-dozen of the breastplated warriors filed out of the globe and went to the nearest dome, returning with heavy boxes. Fuel—supplies—Raf shrugged off the problem. The pilot was secretly relieved when Captain Hobart dropped out of the hatch in the globe and made his way over to the flitter. "Everything running smoothly?" he asked with a glance at the two aliens who were Raf's passengers. "Yes, sir. Any idea how much farther—?" Raf questioned. Hobart shrugged. "Until we work out basic language difficulties," he muttered, "who knows anything? There is at least one more of these way stations. They don't run on atomics, need some kind of fuel, and they have to have new supplies every so often. Their head man can't understand why it isn't necessary for us to do the same." "Has he suggested that his techneers want a look at our motors, sir?" Hobart unbent a little. It was as if in that question he had read something which pleased him. "So far we've managed not to understand that. And if anyone tries it on his own, refer him to me—understand?" "Yes, sir!" Some of the relief in Raf's tone came through, and he saw that the captain was watching him narrowly. "You don't like these people, Kurbi?" The pilot replied with the truth. "I don't feel easy with them, sir. Not that they've shown any unfriendliness. Maybe it's because they're alien—" He had said the wrong thing and knew it immediately. "That sounds like prejudice, Kurbi!" Hobart's voice carried the snap of a reprimand. "Yes, sir," Raf said woodenly. That had done it as far as the captain was concerned. The fierce racial and economical prejudices which had been the keystones of the structure of Pax had left their shadow on Terra's thinking. Nowadays a man would better be condemned for murder than for prejudice against another—it was the unforgivable crime. And in that unconsidered answer Raf had rendered unreliable in the eyes of authority any future report on the aliens which he might be forced to make. Silently cursing his lack of judgment, Raf made a careful check of the flyer, which might not be necessary but going through the motions of doing his duty gave him some relief. Once the idea struck him of claiming some trouble that would take them back to the spacer for repairs. But Hobart was too good a mechanic himself not to see through that. They covered the second stage of their flight by evening, this time putting down on an island where, by some ancient and titanic feat of labor, the top had been sheared off a central mountain to make a base. A ring of reefs cut off the land from the action of the waves. At once a party of aliens left the main company and made their way down the mountain to prowl along the shore. They made a discovery of sorts, for Raf saw them ring in some object they had pulled up on the sand. What it was and what meaning it had for them they did not try to explain to the Terrans. The party spent the night there, the four spacemen wrapped in their sleeping rolls by the flitter, the aliens in their globe ship. The Terrans did not miss the fact that the others had unobtrusively posted guards at the only two places where the mountain could be climbed. And each of those guards cradled in the crook of his arm one of the rifle weapons. They were aroused shortly after dawn. As far as Raf could see the island was barren of life, or else any creature native to it kept prudently out of the way while the flyers were there. They took off, the globe rising like a balloon into the morning sky, the flitter waiting until it was air-borne before scaling after it. The mountainous island where they had based was the sea sentinel of an archipelago, which they saw spread out below them as if someone had flung a handful of pebbles into a shallow pool. Most of the islands were merely rocky crags. But there were two which showed the green of small open fields, and Raf thought he caught a glimpse of a dome house on the last. They were now over a region thick with islands, the first collection giving way to a second and then a third. Raf, expecting no sudden move on the part of the globe he trailed, was startled when the alien ship made a downward swoop. At the same time the warrior seated beside him tugged at the sleeve of his tunic and jabbed a finger toward the ground, clearly an order to follow. Raf cut speed and cautiously lost altitude, determined that he was not going to be rushed into any move for which he did not know the reason. The globe was hovering over a small island set a little apart from the others. A moment later Soriki's excited voice drew Raf's attention from his controls to what was going on below. "There's, people down there! Look at them run!" They were too far away to be sure of the nature of the brown-gray things so close to the color of the sea-washed rock that they could only be detected when they moved. But it was evident that they were alive, and as Raf brought the flitter closer, he was also certain that they ran on their two hind feet instead of on an animal's four pads. From the under part of the globe ship licked a tongue of fire. With the force of a whiplash it coursed across the rock and in its passing embrace, the creatures below writhed and withered to charred heaps. They had no chance under that methodical blasting. The alien beside Raf signaled again for a drop. He patted the weapon that he held and motioned for Raf to release the covering of the windshield. But the pilot shook his head firmly. This might be war. The aliens could have a very good reason for their deadly attack on the creatures surprised below. But he wanted no part of it, nor did he want to get any closer to the scene of slaughter. And he made an emphatic gesture that the windshield could not be opened while the flitter was air-borne. But as he did so they glided down, and he caught a single good look at what was going on on the rock—a look which remained to haunt his dreams for long years to come. For now he saw clearly the creatures who ran fruitlessly for safety. Some reached the edge of the cliff and leaped to what was an easier death in the sea. But too many others could not make it and died in flaming agony. And they were not all of one size! Children! There was no mistaking the infant in its mother's arms, the two small ones who fled hand in hand until one stumbled and the burning lash caught them both as the other strove to pull the fallen to its feet. Raf gagged. He triggered the controls and soared up and away, fighting the heaving in his middle, shaking off with one savage jerk the insistent pawing hand of the alien who wanted to join in the fun. "Did you see that?" he demanded of Soriki. For once the com-tech sounded subdued. "Yes," he replied shortly. "Those were children," Raf hammered home the point. "Young ones anyway," the com-tech conceded. "Maybe they aren't people. They had fur all over them—" Raf grinned mirthlessly. Should he now accuse Soriki of prejudice? What did it matter if a thinking creature was clothed in a space suit, silken bandages, or natural fur—it was still a thinking creature. And he was sure that those had been intelligent creatures he had just seen blasted without a chance to fight back. If these were the enemy the aliens feared, he could understand the vicious cruelty of the attack which had killed the man he had been shown back in the city. Fire against primitive spears was not equal, and when the spears got their chance they must make up for much to balance the scales of justice. He did not even wonder why his emotions were so wholeheartedly enlisted upon the side of the furred people. Nor did he try to analyze his feelings. He was only sure that more than ever he wanted to be free of the aliens and out of this whole venture. The warrior sharing his seat was sulking now, twisting about to look back at the island as Raf circled in ever-widening glides to get away from the site and yet not lose track of the globe when it would have finished its dirty business and take once more to the air. But the alien ship was in no hurry to leave. "They are making sure," Soriki reported. "Giving the whole island a fire bath. I wonder what that stuff is—" "I'd just as soon not know," Raf returned from between set teeth. "If that is one of their pieces of precious knowledge, we're as well off without it—" he stopped short. Perhaps he had said too much. But Terra had been racked by the torrid horror of atomic war, until all his kind had been so revolted that it was bred into them not to meddle again with such weapons. And war by fire aroused in them that old horror. Surely Soriki must feel it too, and when the com-tech did not comment, Raf was sure of that. He hoped that the slaughter had made some impression on the captain and on Lablet into the bargain. But when, as if sated with killing, the globe rose again from its position over the island, moving almost sluggishly into the fresh sky, he had to follow it on. More islands were below, and he feared that each one might show some sign of life and tempt the killers to a second hunting. Luckily that did not happen. The chains of islands became a cape as they had on the coast of the western continent. And now the globe swung to the south, trail ing the shore line. Forests made green splotches with bluish overtones running from the sea cliffs back to carpet the land. So far no signs of civilization were to be seen. This land was as untouched as that where the spacer had landed. Then they saw the bay, stretching out wide arms to engulf the sea. It could have harbored a whole fleet. And marching down to its waters were broad levels of buildings, a giant's staircase leading from sea to cliff tops. "They had it here—!" Raf saw what Soriki meant by that outburst. Destruction had struck. He had seen the atomic ruins of his own world, those which were free enough from radiation to explore. But he had never seen anything like these chilling scars. In long strips the very stone which provided foundation for the tiered city had been churned and boiled, had run in rivulets of lava down to the sea, enclosing narrow tongues of still untouched structures. The fire whip the globe had used, magnified to some infinitely greater extent—? It could be. The alien at his side pressed tightly against the windshield gazing down at the ruins. And now he mouthed a gabble of words which was echoed by his fellow sitting with Soriki. Their excitement must mean that this was their goal. Raf slacked speed, waiting for the globe to point a way to a landing. But to his surprise the alien ship shot forward inland. The long day was almost over as they came to a second city with a river knotting a ribbon through its middle. Here were no traces of the fury which had laded the seaport with havoc. This collection of buildings seemed whole and perfect. There was, oddly enough, no landing strip within the city. The globe coasted over the rough oval and came down in open fields to the west. It was a maneuver which Raf copied, though he first dropped a flare as a precaution and brought the flier down in its red glare, with the warrior expressing shrill disapproval. "I don't think they like fireworks," Soriki remarked. Raf snorted. "So they don't like fireworks! Well, I don't like crack-ups, and I'm the pilot!" But he didn't believe that the com-tech was really protesting. Soriki had been very quiet since they had witnessed the attack on the island. "Grim-looking place," was his second comment as they touched ground. Since Raf privately had held that opinion of all the alien settlements he had so far seen, he agreed. Their two alien passengers were out of the flitter as soon as he opened the bubble shield. And as they stood by the Terran flyer, they held their weapons ready, facing out into the dusk as if they half expected trouble. After the earlier episode that day, Raf did not wonder at their preparedness. Terror begets terror, and ruthlessness arouses retaliation in kind. "Kurbi! Soriki!" Hobart's voice sounded out of the shadows. "Stay where you are for the present." Soriki settled deeper in his seat. "He doesn't have to tell me to brake jets," he muttered. "I like it here—" Raf did not need to echo that. He had a strong surmise that had he been tempted to roam away from the flitter the move would not have been encouraged by the alien guardsmen. If this was their treasure city, they would not welcome any independent investigation by strangers. When the captain joined them, he was accompanied by the officer who had first shown Raf the globe. And the warrior was either disturbed or angry, for he was talking in a steady stream and his hands were whirling in explanatory gestures. "They didn't like that flare," Hobart remarked. But there was no reproof in his words. As a spacer pilot he knew that Raf had only done what duty demanded. "We're to remain here—for the night." "Where's Lablet?" Soriki wanted to know. "He's staying with Yussoz, the alien commander. He thinks he has the language problem about solved." "Good enough." Soriki pulled out his bed roll. "We're out of touch with the ship—" There was a second of silence, unduly prolonged it seemed to Raf. Then Hobart spoke: "We couldn't expect to keep in call forever. The best com has its range. When did you lose contact?" "Just before these wrapped-up heroes played with fire back there. I gave the boys all I knew up until then. They know we were headed west, and they had us beamed as long as they could." So it wasn't too bad, thought Raf. But he didn't like it, even with that mitigating factor. To all purposes the four Terrans were now surrounded by some twenty times their number, in an unknown country, out of all communication with the rest of their kind. It could add up to disaster. About HackerNoon Book Series: We bring you the most important technical, scientific, and insightful public domain books. This book is part of the public domain. Andre Alice Norton (2006). Star Born. Urbana, Illinois: Project Gutenberg. Retrieved October 2022 https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/18458/pg18458-images.html This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org , located at https://www.gutenberg.org/policy/license.html .

AIRLIFT

Mastering the Art of Software Development: From Developer to Craftsperson

Larian Studios is perhaps the only company with a vast RPG history that still produces genuinely old-school RPGs. Behind this name are fantastic worlds, hours-long gameplay experiences, classic game design, and, of course, humor. The company has distinct canons and rules that give its games a recognizable touch. But at the same time, these also create limitations. Today, we'll discuss Baldur's Gate 3, Larian Studios' most popular project. It introduced the general public to something new - something long known to genre enthusiasts. game The founder of the studio, Swen Vincke, loves board games and has always aimed to transform that passion into a computer game format. This became the foundation for every game design element in the studio's projects. The direction for realizing their ideas was set by a game called Ultima VII. A direction that, according to Vincke, was never continued by anyone else. We're talking about a huge open world, many interactive items and their combinations, various ways to approach a single situation, and thrilling world exploration. These are the very pillars on which Larian Studios' game design stands. From a , the development of every gameplay situation in their games is built on a "+1" model. This means that developers simulate every possible outcome for a gameplay situation and then add... one more on top. This is not only about the progression of the main plot but about interactions with the world. Every barrel in Baldur's Gate 3 can be broken, exploded, or moved. Barrels can block a building entrance or be stacked into a staircase or tower to elevate an archer. One can even put something or someone inside a barrel and carry it around. And that's just the barrel, only one of the many interactive objects in the game. game design perspective Due to this interactivity, players encounter countless unexpected events and twists in their gameplay. Some passage options are always hidden from the player. Access to them might depend, for instance, on a skill to talk to animals or the dead, a random encounter, completing a companion's quest, or performing a specific action. Every chat or minor in-game event can spawn many new scenarios based on the "+1" idea. This makes the game world grow immensely, making even small areas and starting quests feel incredibly expansive. The desire to make the entire environment interactive has been with the studio since its earliest projects. But for me, the Divinity Original Sin series remains the most exemplary and innovative. Its ideas are what Baldur's Gate 3 primarily continues. In Original Sin, players could perform some utterly insane actions. The idea of interaction with "unremarkable" objects was executed brilliantly there. This world here is divided into several components: the regular world inhabited by various humanoids, the world of animals, the world of objects, and the world of living objects. Here, you could mediate disputes between a dog and a cat, accept an intriguing quest from a chicken, argue with a chest, and wear buckets on your head. In this world, objects aren't insignificant, as in most games. Any unliving object in the game might be more important than an NPC. The animals possess a set of qualities, emotions, and motivations that rival those of humans. For instance, in Baldur's Gate 3, there's the story of the "dark urge," obsessed with a desire for blood, paralleled by an emotionally similar dramatic tale of the "Strange Ox." The popular scene from Baldur's Gate 3 trailer, where one has intercourse with a druid in bear form, might be shocking and innovative for the general audience but certainly not for the studio. Compare this with the possibility in Original Sin for elves to peek into the past by eating a corpse. This feature is also continued in Baldur's Gate 3, where players can activate brains and converse with their former owners by inserting them into a skull. The idea of high interactivity brings the element many of us love in games – randomness. In some places, the stakes of this randomness are high, and you wish to encounter it as rarely as possible, like in From Software games. When rolling, the planks beneath you break, and you plunge to death, losing souls. But these random moments are nice in other cases, such as in Baldur's Gate. Both types entertain the player and make their journey emotionally rich. In the discussion on randomness, I'd like to highlight another crucial mechanic in Baldur's Gate 3 – turn-based battles. I won't go into deep details; they're complex and worth a separate discussion. But I'll mention the role of surfaces and how they interact in battles, which makes combat amazing for me. You can set oil, explode barrels to create fire zones, electrify water with lightning, or use gravity to push enemies off the map. This is just a glimpse of the possible interactions. These can be advantageous or dangerous - you might harm teammates or face cunning enemies who use the same tactics. The game's AI is smart, often outthinking the player. So, if an enemy immediately pushes your top character off a ledge, it's intentional, not random. Surfaces play into the primary element of combat – strategic mechanics, but they often emerge from randomness and accompany it until the end. Each player's battle is a unique combination of characters and their builds, abilities, strategies, and the player's reactions to surprises. Developers craft confrontations such that every fight has a vexing element for the player. An archer perched atop a staircase, a necromancer summoning skeletons each turn, or an approaching massive troll. Players strategize to neutralize these threats by prioritizing them and assessing the situation. They are given many opportunities and allowed to combine them as they please. This is why the battles are turn-based. Players have time to ponder the situation, fantasize, and decide. In the first act, you always feel you're given a platform to shine, showcase your intellect, and find an intriguing solution. In the first act, you get to know the game's classes and characters, form your team, and discover how they work together. Every battle becomes an opportunity to try out new skills and strategies. This new game installment nails this aspect, making it feel like you're in . The magic amplifies when you play cooperatively. Imagine exploring a cave while your friend tackles city quests and then meeting to exchange stories at a tavern. Larian Studios has outdone itself, creating a cooperative experience that stands out among games. Their previous titles hinted at this brilliance. It's hard to put into words, but this is what top-notch multiplayer feels like a game where players can engage in rich dialogues, approach quests differently, and even follow their secret goals. a real DnD session A genuinely unique aspect of Baldur's Gate 3 is the DnD mechanic tied to dice rolls. In real life, DnD lets participants role-play any character and do almost anything, guided only by their moral compass and imagined character traits. Lifting restrictions on variability was the developers' most significant challenge when porting this mechanic into the game. They achieved this with minor plot influences from a plethora of small actions. The success of almost every action depends on a dice roll. If the result surpasses a certain value, the action succeeds, and vice versa. It's sometimes hard to resist reloading the game to achieve the desired roll. The most "correct" approach is to accept what happens, like in real DnD, and enjoy a unique storyline with successes and failures that shape your path. Thanks to thousands of these small checks, Baldur's Gate 3 allows each player a unique playthrough. If you play honestly, you can be certain that the likelihood of someone having a playthrough similar to yours has never been so low. Such a scale is impressive. However, it leads to an exponential increase in complexity. The more content and gameplay situations in the game, the more tangled the system becomes, making its realization harder. Hence, the peak number of bugs is concentrated in the third act. And here, I move to the critique. Firstly, all the mentioned mechanics were excellently implemented in Original Sin 2, the studio's previous game. While Baldur's Gate 3 handles them with care, it doesn't bring anything new to the table. Secondly, the vast world and its reliance on constant interactivity mean that after a perfect first act, there's always a second one with less variety. Items might be unique, but they function similarly to the first act's items; enemies become less surprising, and by this point, a character's abilities allow the player to establish a repetitive battle pattern. The game becomes duller. It still entertains with its narrative and nuances, but holistically, the player starts to feel burned out. Statistics show that most players drop off during the second act. Typically, only about 30% make it to its end. By the third act, the situation gets even gloomier. It's usually riddled with even more bugs. Characters, leveled up to god-like statuses, can easily make up to five attacks each turn and land critical hits every time. Gameplay variations start to narrow, and choices that appear different often lead to the same results. The game drags on as the story wraps up its loose ends, leaving the ending a bit diluted. Speaking of the narrative, it's always secondary in the studio's games. Baldur's Gate 3 is no exception. The spotlight is always on gameplay. And while this is good for gameplay, it's not cool for storytelling. The narrative is filled with funny jokes and cool side quests; the companions' stories and the dark urge's plot are enjoyable. But the main plot leans on clichés and templates from two decades ago, now feeling more like post-irony than a well-thought-out script. The mere 12 general endings don't intrigue and blatantly overlook most of the player’s choices. There's no satisfaction from the finale. The pleasure is hidden in the process. Only that process isn't all smooth, either. In Baldur's Gate 3 and all previous Larian games, I start to feel bored by the third act. I don't understand why they always structure the game using the same pattern every time, limiting themselves to the same path. Each new game so closely follows the template of its predecessor that it loses its uniqueness, feeling like an endless update. The glorious Act I, among other things, is conditioned by close interaction with the audience. It was in early access for years, and the developers received tons of feedback during that time. As a result, the game's beginning turned out to be as staggering as possible. Naturally, maintaining that initial benchmark becomes very challenging with such expansive world dimensions focusing on interactive interactions. There's always a shortage of time somewhere, and compromises must be made. My playthrough took 80 hours, but my overall impressions were mixed. I spent most of that time on the first half of the game, where, in my opinion, the most exciting discoveries and beautiful solutions are. I trudged through the second half forcibly, kept taking breaks, and finished two other games before I wrapped up Baldur's Gate. The six-year development of the franchise, born in the 90s, culminated in a significant and well-deserved success for the studio. The increased attention brought hordes of new fans to Larian Studios, discussing a genre they were unfamiliar with just yesterday as if it were a 21st-century revelation. Someone could tell that Baldur's Gate 3 is the best game in history. While the game is one of the year's standout releases and opens up a new genre for many players, an extra year or two in alpha development could have made it even better.

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