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The full comic is better yet-

http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2007/08/22

These huge life killing fines are unjust for the crime that are caused forcing the person into jail (for people who are not a continued danger to society) or Paying huge sumes of money will only make the problem worse... Oh a person commited a Crime Put him in Jail for 1/3 of his life and make sure when he gets out he can't pay any bills... That'll make sure he won't comment a crime again... a $5000 fine will be enough for the person to feel it and not willing to try again, but yet will be able to live his life as a productive and law abiding citizen.

These huge life killing fines are unjust for the crime that are caused forcing the person into jail (for people who are not a continued danger to society) or Paying huge sumes of money will only make the problem worse... Oh a person commited a Crime Put him in Jail for 1/3 of his life and make sure when he gets out he can't pay any bills... That'll make sure he won't comment a crime again... a $5000 fine will be enough for the person to feel it and not willing to try again, but yet will be able to live his life as a productive and law abiding citizen.

There was an interesting post on Penny Arcade a few days ago about just exactly this sort of mentality. Now, I'm not going to be an asshole about it like Tycho was, but really you're missing the point. And I say this as an avid player of Guitar Hero who has had seven years of formal spanish classical guitar training. The two are similar exercises, and I feel sometimes when I'm playing Guitar Hero that I instinctively play like I play a real guitar, but it's not really the same and both are satisfying for different reasons to me (like, for instance, it's hard for me to rock out with my friends if they don't play proper guitar or can't sing; guitar hero takes down those boundaries).

The other thing you're forgetting about is that learning to play a real guitar, for adults especially, is hard. I suspect that learning in the classical style would be impossible for an adult, because so much of success as a classical guitar player is tied to how early you started. I started at six, and even though I haven't played in a couple of years I can still pick it back up any time. It's definitely not something you can just pick up, though, same as violin or piano.

From Tycho's post:

A sequel to a successful franchise? Shocking!

In other news: Who started this whole "Half-Life ends with Ep3" rumor anyway?

Oh god I thought only Penny Arcade could ruin my childhood memories of Teddy Ruxpin. Now Slashdot too?!?

Nothin' but the best.

http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/1999/12/20

Is this the comic you have in mind?

http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2006/11/13

2011: shitcock

It's the Devil running the show....

obligatory penny arcade reference then http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2007/01/25

The Most Recent Catastrophe
http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2007/02/09

I'm just gonna hold out for the Kenny Loggins Edition. http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2007/02/02

Game is the largest dedicated retailer in Europe by far. They no longer have any links back to US companies but US visitors will feel right at home. (as long as getting trade in prices at half of the going e-bay rate and then seeing them put up for sale at a price higher than you can buy new online makes you feel at home).
My local Game (Buxton for those that are interested) had several in stock but were all in the £300 bundle I mentioned. The bundle wasn't bad, had four games including Paper Mario, Raving Rabbids 2, can't remember what the other two were but it was a reasonable choice. I heard the manager talking to an obviously confused parent, she told him that Nintendo put the bundles together and so they are forced to sell them that way (a blatant lie).
I've heard that forcing bundles on people is actually illegal in the UK and people have managed to get the console unbundled if they're willing/capable of pressing the issue up to the head offices.

You forgot the jewel-encrusted chalice.

I didn't know Tycho posted here!

http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2005/12/16

Penny-Arcade brought up this issue up recently after Jeff Gerstmann was basically let go from Gamespot because he gave a less than favorable review of a game that they were heavily advertising on their site. That's the problem when sites that review games are also on said games advertising payroll.

Myth II was also a game that had 'issues' with uninstalling. Luckily, they found this issue before many 1.0 versions of the game were shipped so it didn't become wide spread. Now I was never effected by this, but the guys at penny arcade made a comic about it. http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/1999/01/06

Rumors?! If it appears in here, then it must be true!

From way back in 1999 with good ol' Myth II;

http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/1999/01/06

I remember when we used to use this strip in our training materials for new Testers to impress upon them how badly they did NOT want to have a comic like this made about a bug THEY missed.

The second reason they can behave wrongly is simply that the social infrastructure didn't adapt to the popularity yet. What I mean is that administrators are not distinct, named, accountable people.

I can resell them.

Given that they cost (new) around five times more than the same thing digitally, or than what I think it's worth, that's a small comfort.

I don't need to back them up, because the disks *are* the backup.

Please don't ever say that again. I know what you meant -- at least, I really hope I do -- but let's avoid this situation.

Why buy it as a download, when my very first act after downloading it would be to burn it onto a CD as a backup?

Because even if the download is flac, you can still probably fit about one and a half album per backup CD, and you absolutely can fit at least 10 or so to a single-layer DVD. If the download is mp3, that's more like ten albums per CD (and 150 or more to a DVD).

Also, because it's likely cheaper, and much easier to buy it directly from the band, or close enough -- Internet labels like Magnatune take only some 50%, which sounds like a lot until you consider that it's going to cost over 90% with the big CD labels.

I just downloaded Battleships Forever and I'm really looking forward to playing it tonight. I also just downloaded the inspiration for BF - Warning Forever. Both look to be entertaining freeware games that should work on my laptop - always nice to find.

I was checking the forums at the Battleships Forever site and saw that a tournament has been hosted by some folks over at the Penny Arcade forums. (Tournament Rules and the Tournament Results) What is cool about that is, they have the results linked to videos on youtube showing the actual battles. Very smooth.

I just downloaded Battleships Forever and I'm really looking forward to playing it tonight. I also just downloaded the inspiration for BF - Warning Forever. Both look to be entertaining freeware games that should work on my laptop - always nice to find.

I was checking the forums at the Battleships Forever site and saw that a tournament has been hosted by some folks over at the Penny Arcade forums. (Tournament Rules and the Tournament Results) What is cool about that is, they have the results linked to videos on youtube showing the actual battles. Very smooth.

The story makes this Penny Arcade comic seem oddly prophetic.
http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2007/11/09

But what about if you punch babies?

Gamespot's reputation for independent reviews may be history now after a game publisher pulled their advertising and the reviewer got canned.

Allow me to refer you to John Gabriel's Greater Internet Fuckwad Theory. If someone TK'ing in a game of Counter-Strike is your criteria for 'psychopath', I would say you're the one with the mental issue, causing you to take computer games far too seriously.

Sure, it's annoying when some loser 'nades your spawn, blocks doors, etc, but it isn't indicative of being "very likely suffer from personality disorders, maybe even to the point of being psychopaths". Irritating? yes, childish? Extremely. Psychopathic? No. When they start kicking (real-life) babies, get back to me.

Why yes, IAAQPR (I Am A Qualified Psychological Researcher), but you don't have to be to realise that there is a huge gulf between being an ass in a FPS and being a psychopath.

It depends on their policy (see Gabe's post at the bottom) really.
Perhaps we'd all be better off if more sites only advertised products they genuinely liked. A site may get fewer adverts but those it did get would be far more valuable to the advertiser.

Penny-Arcade has a great comic about the whole situation.

Or you could only run ads for games you actually liked. I hear it works for http://www.penny-arcade.com/some peeople

Oops, meant to paste this after the first paragraph above:
http://www.penny-arcade.com/images/2006/20061113.jpg

While it can be hurtful to be removed from a friend list, usually there's a reason behind it. Two popular reasons are interaction has slowed to a halt for quite a time between you and someone else, or something has been done to offend one party. In the first case, I hope many will accept the fact that people sometimes move on. There are plenty of people I know from high school or college that I talked to routinely while in attendance, but we never shared a truly meaningful relationship. In the case that you have done something to offend another person, many times this is spawned from a misunderstanding the person who removes you as a friend without thinking it through is generally a more non-confrontational person. Sometimes you being removed as a friend may be the only way you have to know you've pissed them off so in that way it can be a tool.

Additionally and as for the top friends application seen on facebook, it is just that... an application. You can choose to add this if you want to which I have opted out of. In many ways it seems the target use for such an ap is either to add almost everyone to it, or to selectively use it to spawn jealousy. Because I choose to take part in neither of those activities, that component can be entirely avoided. On most social networking sites such a feature is also optional, and while some people opt-in, if jealousy is to be avoided - so should the application.

Oblig. Penny Arcade Link: http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2001/09/28

• Ubisoft is a big gaming company based in France
• Ubisoft sets up shop in big, modern Montreal because of the language and a favourable exchange
• Everybody else follows suit
• ???
• Profit!

• Ubisoft is a big gaming company based in France
• Ubisoft sets up shop in big, modern Montreal because of the language and a favourable exchange
• Everybody else follows suit
• ???
• Profit!

Whatever the hell made Lucas go back and remaster his most popular film, take the coolest character, and redefine him.

Whatever the hell is wrong with Lucas, that was the first symptom and probably the moment the franchise jumped the shark. You're right, everything that came after that is a symptom of the disease.

Oh yeah, and I have to add this. =)

Did you say elevator?

http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2007/11/16

I'm a fan of the Splinter Cell series.

However, I'm less surprised by a delay than I am the title: "Splinter Cell: Conviction".

What ever happened to Splinter Cell: Adjective Noun? :)

They found a Claw Shrimp! Big as a man!

Man sized sea scorpion? Must be a cousin of the infamous Claw Shrimp

http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2007/11/02

I think that sums up the whole thing rather well.

Having said that, the government needs to keep it's noses out of how parents raise their kids. Would I let a 5 year old play Manhunt 2? Hell no. But it isn't up to the government to make that decision for me.

Only morons claim Nintendo has a monopoly on gaming. The same applies to Apple and computers.

Where did I claim that? You're obviously having trouble understanding the difference between the set of all exemplars versus a sub-set. You know, there should be a Godwin for the first person to resort to personal abuse in a conversation as defence for lack of clue. Oh wait, there is.

These psychologists should just have read Penny Arcade.

Oblig: http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2004/03/19

And he didn't even need a PHD.

If MacDonalds punched every visitor in the face people would eventually stop craving french fries.

It's been done.

what
are
you
talking
about?

what
are
you
talking
about?