All money is virtual. To the degree that money represents an abstraction of time exchanged for goods, what is the fundamental difference between American dollars and gold pieces on a Lineage server? Other than the dollars are accepted in more stores?
Copyright doesn't bestow ownership on ideas, because you can't own something that's in a person's head. The public "owns" all ideas.
Copyright just gives you a limited-time exclusive license to make money off an idea you copyrighted first. The movie buisness argues that if I'm bootlegging Spiderman 3, I'm robbing them of the sale they would have had if I had been forced to buy/rent it instead. I find that logic specious.
Or is it only OK when you download Mp3s and movies?
The next time I make millions of dollars from that Dave Matthew's Band mp3 and those bootleg Battlestar Galactica episodes, I'll be sure to cut them a check.
No transcript was made because the conference was designed to be off-the-record
But I did read the article:
In citing a second factor, Dr. Summers cited research showing that more high school boys than girls tend to score at very high and very low levels on standardized math tests, and that it was important to consider the possibility that such differences may stem from biological differences between the sexes.
Dr. Summers said, "I was trying to provoke discussion, and I certainly believe that there's been some move in the research away from believing that all these things are shaped only by socialization."
That's all I've been responding to. If his own account of his words isn't enough to discuss I don't know what is. Like I said, huh?
I wasn't talking about the chance of error. Go back and read again. I was talking about the degree of difference between populations compared to the ranges of variation within the populations themselves.
He was advocating research to address this deficiency in our knowledge, and he's been pilloried.
As rightly he should be, since he's jumping the gun. Until we understand how math works in the brain, there's no way to separate a potential biological cause from the cultural causes that are much more likely. Research on "who's smarter, men or women" would be pointless right now because we don't have a basis on which to proceed.
So again the question remains: who is biologically "smarter" when it comes to math and science? And even if it is a small difference, the difference is there.
If the difference between populations is smaller than the variation within each population, does it matter?
It makes sense to compare the ability of two individuals; a given man may be "smarter" than a given woman, or vice-versa. But is it meaningful to compare two populations who vary so greatly? I don't see how it is. It wouldn't be in the least predictive; it wouldn't be in the least explanitory.
Why is it so hard to believe that one gender is better at something then another gender?
Because before we jump to that conclusion, we need to understand how the biology of the brain affects ability in these higher-reasoning tasks, and we simply don't.
So until we do it's jumping to conclusions to label these differences gender-based. The brains of men and women are different, yes. But until we know more about the brain it's overreaching to speculate on what those differences actually mean.
I bet we find that the so-called "difference" between men and women's math ability is a lot, lot smaller than the individual variation in ability among men and among women; in other words, that it's statistically insignificant.
Distribute the rally point in sealed envelopes (yes, on paper).
Better, but advanced robot sensory techniques could easily penetrate the envelopes at range. Moreover there's no guarantee your navigator isn't the Cylon spy.
The problem is essentially one of organization. Better to arrange the fleet into cells, so that the loss of one doesn't comromise all. It's harder to coordinate attacks but not insurmountable, and it reduces the effectiveness of enemy intelligence gathering.
In other words, scramble the fleet, and never rendezvous anywhere.
What's your plan for getting the fleet back together at the end? Maybe, meeting at an arranged point? Wonder who they might find waiting for them there?
I mean, it's a brilliant plan, except for the fact that the Cylons have intelligence, and could easily react to it.
It is not clear to me what the sticker has to do with separation of church and state.
Let me ask you this - what does the sticker say about evolution that wouldn't apply to any other scientific theory?
Nobody would have had an issue if the sticker had been applied to the entire textbook; instead, however, it singles out one single theory that not-so-conincidentally contradicts the dogma of one religion; anyone who reads the sticker knows that it was motivated not by concerns about scientific tentativity but because the material contradicts a literal reading of Genesis.
That's the church/state issue. Religious belief doesn't get to influence what we teach in a public school's science classroom.
That doesn't mean that you should only target your largest audience.
Indeed, and I don't think they do. I mean, I don't find too many gender stereotypes in World of Warcraft, for instance. In fact my wife complains about how heavyset the human female characters seem to be.
So there's plenty of games with gender-neutral appeal. Has the industry evolved? Sure - it's evolved to the same place TV and movies have. Evolution doesn't mean leaving behind successful strategies, and sex appeal sells some kinds of games. But there's plenty of other games.
Griefers, as you call them, are players who bring a bit of reality to games.
You seem to think I can't distinguish between regular PvP and griefing. Or maybe you can't. The behaviors you describe are not griefing; they're legitimate PvP play.
I don't mind a little PvP; even when I'm the prey rather than the predator it adds a unique thrill to the game. That's why I play on PvP servers.
But I don't like uber-players who I don't stand a chance against camping my body, or stalking me all around the area. The battle itself can't be any fun for them, because there's no challenge. The only possible explanation for their behavior is that they derive a sick pleasure from making my play experience suck. What kind of wacko would think that was fun?
Anyone who prefers playing games all the damn time to actually spending time with a loving woman (or man, depending on your gender and/or orientation) doesn't deserve to be in a relationship.
I think games, like so much else, become a convinient excuse to explain relationships that fail for other reasons. And as the flip side to your remarks: if you're less interesting than a video game, you're simply too boring to be my girlfriend.
But lucky for me, I managed to marry a girl who games. Nothing's more fun than r0x0ring mobs with your sweetie!
Your death is a result of your own stupidity if you are an even match for your attacker, if not then you should have run as soon as you saw red.
Unfortunately for your argument, griefers aren't generally polite enough to refrain from using their stun attacks, snares, roots, holds, etc. Of course, game balance is often an issue as well; a class with front-loaded damage has an inherent advantage in griefing if he catches his victim off-guard.
There simply is no defense against the tactics employed by griefers, which is why they call them "griefers." It's an inherent problem when PvP merges with level-advancement-based video games.
It is not fixing the problem (death) to kill yourself, much like you can't end discrimination by discriminating. It just doesn't work.
Says you. Could you back that up?
I'm sorry, but if someone applies for a job and they are speaking ebonics, with their pants around their knees, and a comb stuck in their hair they are really not casting a good image.
Ah, right. And you can measure the quality of their speech, the size of their waistband, and the contents of their hairdo, all from the sound of their name? Wow, that's an impressive feat.
An impressive feat of racist stereotyping, that is.
What does that study show?
That the more African you look, the harsher your sentence tends to be. But if that's not enough for you (as though any evidence could convince you), how about:
Behav Sci Law. 2002;20(1-2):191-210. Death row inmate characteristics, adjustment, and confinement: a critical review of the literature.
"Our analysis shows that death row inmates are overwhelmingly male and disproportionately Southern. Racial representation remains controversial."
or
Law Hum Behav. 2000 Jun;24(3):337-58. Discrimination and instructional comprehension: guided discretion, racial bias, and the death penalty.
"Results indicated that instructional comprehension was poor overall and that, although Black defendants were treated only slightly more punitively than White defendants in general, discriminatory effects were concentrated among participants whose comprehension was poorest."
or
Am J Orthopsychiatry. 1975 Jul;45(4):658-68. Rape, race, and the death penalty in Georgia.
"Following the 1972 Supreme Court decision on capital punishment, the Georgia legislature enacted a death penalty statute that attempts to avoid constitutional objections by establishing discretionary death sentencing for 361 rape cases in Georgia, comparing legal and nonlegal variables. Results indicate that blacks convicted of raping whites were disproportionately sentenced to death."
My point was (and I'll be very specific now) that more blacks are sentenced than whites because more blacks live in poor areas.
Yes, thank you, I understood your point. And you don't think that that's discriminatory? You don't think that's indicative of inherent racial biases in how we distribute wealth in this country?
What, you think black people are just dumber or lazy or something?
A failure of economics is not a failure of the judicial system.
But we're talking about racism, and racism is racism, no matter where it occurs. And unfortunately racism over here, in this situation, means that we have to counter it with racism over there, in a derivative situation. Because of a racist economy, or a racist public school, we have to balance that with a reverse-racist policy about who gets into college. Makes perfect sense to me, but then, I'm not suffused with anger about them damn mey-norities takin' my juuub!
As far as the specialized white categories, I think "because they already exist" is a pretty uninformed response.
What's uninformed is the question. But I guess I have to spell it out for you. The reason BET exists is because all the other channels, historically, have been for white people. Of course, you watch them, and think "this isn't white tv, it's mainstream tv." But it only looks that way to you because you're white, and that's getting back to my point about white priviledge - the reason you can't detect these biases is because they're transparent to you.
Now much of that is changing. And I don't think it'll be too long before there isn't a need for BET, or for the NAACP, because the mainstream insititutions will have successfully eliminated their racist biases.
But until then these black-centric organizations have a legitimate purpose. You confuse corellation with causality, and blame the victims, when you accuse the NAACP of fostering racism, when it's racism that they were formed in response to.
Funny, I've worked in places where that has happened, and I've never seen the instantaneous blame game you describe.
So, naturally, it doesn't happen anywhere?
I'm glad your work experience has been so postive. Plenty of other people's experiences have not been.
The stupid affirmative action legislation is what fosters this feeling, this doubt.
Unfortunately getting rid of affirmative action is like deciding that you hate cancer so much you're going to stop taking chemotherapy. The solution here is to eliminate discrimination against minorities, not eliminate the only method we've devised so far to counteract it. It's still the case that, in studies, the majority of employers are more interested in resumes with "normal"-sounding (i.e. white-sounding) names than those with ethnic names, even if everything else about the resumes is identical. Discrimination is still very real, and we're not going to eliminate it by declaring it no longer exists.
Bullcrap, I call it correlation, not causation.
Really? I call it simple deduction from the fact that most drug offenders are white while most convictions for drugs are against black people.
Instances of crime from ALL races goes up in poor areas, but wealth is not distributed evenly so some people will be overrepresented in those areas.
In particular, the wealth is not as evenly distributed to black people. Congratulations. You've successfully refuted racism in the criminal justice system by recourse to racism in the workplace. Not sure what you expected to accomplish with that.
THOSE would be more meaningful- but you never see them bantered about.
Do your own homework. But if you're too lazy to do you you might try Psychol Sci. 2004 Oct;15(10):674-9. The influence of Afrocentric facial features in criminal sentencing.
Not to repeat what you've already heard, but where is Mrs. White USA?
The panopoly of attractive white leading ladies in film and tv. Only very recently can you have a black leading female without it being a movie about black females.
The United White College Fund?
It's called "almost every other scholarship opportunity."
White Coaches Association?
Your local school board.
White Entertainment Network?
All the other channels.
Funny, I don't think they exist.
You're like those college freshmen that ask "well, where are all the men's studies classes?"
Well I must have missed something, because I thought the entire purpose of the article was alternatives to traditional reviewing style.
No, it was to point out that the term "video game journalism" has other meanings besides "holiday shopping guide." Which apparently still hasn't occured to you.
For instance, at work, if some money goes missing from the drawer, I'm not the first person they suspect.
People don't lock their car doors when I walk down the sidewalk. When I drive a nice car, I don't get pulled over on suspicion of having stolen it, or on suspicion of nothing at all.
When I do get hired for a job, there's no sneaking suspcion on my or anyone else's part that the color of my skin, and not the legitimacy or quality of my experience, was the deciding factor.
Not to mention the amazing perks I'm likely to get should I find myself in the criminal justice system; for instance, a considerably lesser likelyhood of getting the death penalty, or of serving any time at all, especially for drugs.
See, that's what "white privledge" means - all those things that are so great, yet so transparent that you forget that not everyone benefits from them. These are things that you shouldn't have to be white to have, I agree. But to simply dismiss the leigions of minorities who lack these privledges every day, on the basis of some hypothetical reverse discrimination that I doubt has actually ever occured for you, isn't quite racist - it's just stupid.
Do you think it just might be possible that one could read or write about video games for a purpose beyond simple consumer awareness?
When your local university has classes on film criticism, do you mock them because they're considering greater questions than whether or not "Blade: Trinity" is worth seeing this week at the multiplex?
Get over yourself, for a minute. As surprising as it must be, it's possible to have thoughts about the video game experience beyond "should I buy this or not?"
EA has a formal policy of hiring young, naive people who are willing to work long hours for low pay.
I'm delivering sandwiches for 5.15 an hour. Long hours and low pay... in a technology field?
Where do I sign?
Oh, right. I'm the bad guy. My eagerness to have a job that doesn't totally suck is what drives down wages. I guess I'm supposed to keep delivering people's sandwiches so that some programmers can have Ferarri's.
I don't think World of Warcraft and Everquest 2 are going to seriously affect City of Heroes.
You might be right. On the other hand, I played CoH to pass the time waiting for WoW to come out; using CoH as a kind of gateway to a full-fledged MMO game. (Or maybe Neverwinter Nights was the gateway.)
Are there a lot of people like me? I don't know. WoW is definately more fun than CoH, and I don't know of anybody that likes superheros and hates fantasy to the extent that, given the choice, they'd pick CoH over WoW.
Maybe you're right, though. I definately think WoW is going to take subscribers from other fantasy MMO games.
Slashdot Mirror
VIRTUAL MONEY
All money is virtual. To the degree that money represents an abstraction of time exchanged for goods, what is the fundamental difference between American dollars and gold pieces on a Lineage server? Other than the dollars are accepted in more stores?
Amazingly, the law disagrees.
Then it disagrees with the US Constitution. And frankly, so do you.
You DO NOT own my ideas, no matter how much you insist you do.
How can you own something that's in my head?
The question is ownership, not compensation.
Copyright doesn't bestow ownership on ideas, because you can't own something that's in a person's head. The public "owns" all ideas.
Copyright just gives you a limited-time exclusive license to make money off an idea you copyrighted first. The movie buisness argues that if I'm bootlegging Spiderman 3, I'm robbing them of the sale they would have had if I had been forced to buy/rent it instead. I find that logic specious.
Or is it only OK when you download Mp3s and movies?
The next time I make millions of dollars from that Dave Matthew's Band mp3 and those bootleg Battlestar Galactica episodes, I'll be sure to cut them a check.
Do you have a transcript?
No transcript was
made because the conference was designed to be
off-the-record
But I did read the article:
In citing a second factor, Dr. Summers cited research
showing that more high school boys than girls tend to score
at very high and very low levels on standardized math
tests, and that it was important to consider the
possibility that such differences may stem from biological
differences between the sexes.
Dr. Summers said, "I was trying to provoke discussion, and
I certainly believe that there's been some move in the
research away from believing that all these things are
shaped only by socialization."
That's all I've been responding to. If his own account of his words isn't enough to discuss I don't know what is. Like I said, huh?
So if the chance of error
I wasn't talking about the chance of error. Go back and read again. I was talking about the degree of difference between populations compared to the ranges of variation within the populations themselves.
That's not the margin of error.
Neither you nor I know WHAT HE SAID.
Huh?
He was advocating research to address this deficiency in our knowledge, and he's been pilloried.
As rightly he should be, since he's jumping the gun. Until we understand how math works in the brain, there's no way to separate a potential biological cause from the cultural causes that are much more likely. Research on "who's smarter, men or women" would be pointless right now because we don't have a basis on which to proceed.
So again the question remains: who is biologically "smarter" when it comes to math and science? And even if it is a small difference, the difference is there.
If the difference between populations is smaller than the variation within each population, does it matter?
It makes sense to compare the ability of two individuals; a given man may be "smarter" than a given woman, or vice-versa. But is it meaningful to compare two populations who vary so greatly? I don't see how it is. It wouldn't be in the least predictive; it wouldn't be in the least explanitory.
Why is it so hard to believe that one gender is better at something then another gender?
Because before we jump to that conclusion, we need to understand how the biology of the brain affects ability in these higher-reasoning tasks, and we simply don't.
So until we do it's jumping to conclusions to label these differences gender-based. The brains of men and women are different, yes. But until we know more about the brain it's overreaching to speculate on what those differences actually mean.
I bet we find that the so-called "difference" between men and women's math ability is a lot, lot smaller than the individual variation in ability among men and among women; in other words, that it's statistically insignificant.
Distribute the rally point in sealed envelopes (yes, on paper).
Better, but advanced robot sensory techniques could easily penetrate the envelopes at range. Moreover there's no guarantee your navigator isn't the Cylon spy.
The problem is essentially one of organization. Better to arrange the fleet into cells, so that the loss of one doesn't comromise all. It's harder to coordinate attacks but not insurmountable, and it reduces the effectiveness of enemy intelligence gathering.
In other words, scramble the fleet, and never rendezvous anywhere.
Oh, that's not an obvious ruse.
What's your plan for getting the fleet back together at the end? Maybe, meeting at an arranged point? Wonder who they might find waiting for them there?
I mean, it's a brilliant plan, except for the fact that the Cylons have intelligence, and could easily react to it.
It is not clear to me what the sticker has to do with separation of church and state.
Let me ask you this - what does the sticker say about evolution that wouldn't apply to any other scientific theory?
Nobody would have had an issue if the sticker had been applied to the entire textbook; instead, however, it singles out one single theory that not-so-conincidentally contradicts the dogma of one religion; anyone who reads the sticker knows that it was motivated not by concerns about scientific tentativity but because the material contradicts a literal reading of Genesis.
That's the church/state issue. Religious belief doesn't get to influence what we teach in a public school's science classroom.
That doesn't mean that you should only target your largest audience.
Indeed, and I don't think they do. I mean, I don't find too many gender stereotypes in World of Warcraft, for instance. In fact my wife complains about how heavyset the human female characters seem to be.
So there's plenty of games with gender-neutral appeal. Has the industry evolved? Sure - it's evolved to the same place TV and movies have. Evolution doesn't mean leaving behind successful strategies, and sex appeal sells some kinds of games. But there's plenty of other games.
They really need to change the business model with MMOGs.
Yeah, and cars, too. Why should I have to both buy the car and pay for the gas? It's bullshit!
Give me the entire game as a free download (or nominal charge to ship it), with a couple days of free access.
Find somebody who bought the collector's edition and get the free 10-day preview that came with it.
WoW would cost me what
50 for the game, 15 a month. (US $)
Griefers, as you call them, are players who bring a bit of reality to games.
You seem to think I can't distinguish between regular PvP and griefing. Or maybe you can't. The behaviors you describe are not griefing; they're legitimate PvP play.
I don't mind a little PvP; even when I'm the prey rather than the predator it adds a unique thrill to the game. That's why I play on PvP servers.
But I don't like uber-players who I don't stand a chance against camping my body, or stalking me all around the area. The battle itself can't be any fun for them, because there's no challenge. The only possible explanation for their behavior is that they derive a sick pleasure from making my play experience suck. What kind of wacko would think that was fun?
Anyone who prefers playing games all the damn time to actually spending time with a loving woman (or man, depending on your gender and/or orientation) doesn't deserve to be in a relationship.
I think games, like so much else, become a convinient excuse to explain relationships that fail for other reasons. And as the flip side to your remarks: if you're less interesting than a video game, you're simply too boring to be my girlfriend.
But lucky for me, I managed to marry a girl who games. Nothing's more fun than r0x0ring mobs with your sweetie!
Your death is a result of your own stupidity if you are an even match for your attacker, if not then you should have run as soon as you saw red.
Unfortunately for your argument, griefers aren't generally polite enough to refrain from using their stun attacks, snares, roots, holds, etc. Of course, game balance is often an issue as well; a class with front-loaded damage has an inherent advantage in griefing if he catches his victim off-guard.
There simply is no defense against the tactics employed by griefers, which is why they call them "griefers." It's an inherent problem when PvP merges with level-advancement-based video games.
It is not fixing the problem (death) to kill yourself, much like you can't end discrimination by discriminating. It just doesn't work.
Says you. Could you back that up?
I'm sorry, but if someone applies for a job and they are speaking ebonics, with their pants around their knees, and a comb stuck in their hair they are really not casting a good image.
Ah, right. And you can measure the quality of their speech, the size of their waistband, and the contents of their hairdo, all from the sound of their name? Wow, that's an impressive feat.
An impressive feat of racist stereotyping, that is.
What does that study show?
That the more African you look, the harsher your sentence tends to be. But if that's not enough for you (as though any evidence could convince you), how about:
Behav Sci Law. 2002;20(1-2):191-210. Death row inmate characteristics, adjustment, and confinement: a critical review of the literature.
"Our analysis shows that death row inmates are overwhelmingly male and disproportionately Southern. Racial representation remains controversial."
or
Law Hum Behav. 2000 Jun;24(3):337-58. Discrimination and instructional comprehension: guided discretion, racial bias, and the death penalty.
"Results indicated that instructional comprehension was poor overall and that, although Black defendants were treated only slightly more punitively than White defendants in general, discriminatory effects were concentrated among participants whose comprehension was poorest."
or
Am J Orthopsychiatry. 1975 Jul;45(4):658-68. Rape, race, and the death penalty in Georgia.
"Following the 1972 Supreme Court decision on capital punishment, the Georgia legislature enacted a death penalty statute that attempts to avoid constitutional objections by establishing discretionary death sentencing for 361 rape cases in Georgia, comparing legal and nonlegal variables. Results indicate that blacks convicted of raping whites were disproportionately sentenced to death."
My point was (and I'll be very specific now) that more blacks are sentenced than whites because more blacks live in poor areas.
Yes, thank you, I understood your point. And you don't think that that's discriminatory? You don't think that's indicative of inherent racial biases in how we distribute wealth in this country?
What, you think black people are just dumber or lazy or something?
A failure of economics is not a failure of the judicial system.
But we're talking about racism, and racism is racism, no matter where it occurs. And unfortunately racism over here, in this situation, means that we have to counter it with racism over there, in a derivative situation. Because of a racist economy, or a racist public school, we have to balance that with a reverse-racist policy about who gets into college. Makes perfect sense to me, but then, I'm not suffused with anger about them damn mey-norities takin' my juuub!
As far as the specialized white categories, I think "because they already exist" is a pretty uninformed response.
What's uninformed is the question. But I guess I have to spell it out for you. The reason BET exists is because all the other channels, historically, have been for white people. Of course, you watch them, and think "this isn't white tv, it's mainstream tv." But it only looks that way to you because you're white, and that's getting back to my point about white priviledge - the reason you can't detect these biases is because they're transparent to you.
Now much of that is changing. And I don't think it'll be too long before there isn't a need for BET, or for the NAACP, because the mainstream insititutions will have successfully eliminated their racist biases.
But until then these black-centric organizations have a legitimate purpose. You confuse corellation with causality, and blame the victims, when you accuse the NAACP of fostering racism, when it's racism that they were formed in response to.
Funny, I've worked in places where that has happened, and I've never seen the instantaneous blame game you describe.
So, naturally, it doesn't happen anywhere?
I'm glad your work experience has been so postive. Plenty of other people's experiences have not been.
The stupid affirmative action legislation is what fosters this feeling, this doubt.
Unfortunately getting rid of affirmative action is like deciding that you hate cancer so much you're going to stop taking chemotherapy. The solution here is to eliminate discrimination against minorities, not eliminate the only method we've devised so far to counteract it. It's still the case that, in studies, the majority of employers are more interested in resumes with "normal"-sounding (i.e. white-sounding) names than those with ethnic names, even if everything else about the resumes is identical. Discrimination is still very real, and we're not going to eliminate it by declaring it no longer exists.
Bullcrap, I call it correlation, not causation.
Really? I call it simple deduction from the fact that most drug offenders are white while most convictions for drugs are against black people.
Instances of crime from ALL races goes up in poor areas, but wealth is not distributed evenly so some people will be overrepresented in those areas.
In particular, the wealth is not as evenly distributed to black people. Congratulations. You've successfully refuted racism in the criminal justice system by recourse to racism in the workplace. Not sure what you expected to accomplish with that.
THOSE would be more meaningful- but you never see them bantered about.
Do your own homework. But if you're too lazy to do you you might try Psychol Sci. 2004 Oct;15(10):674-9. The influence of Afrocentric facial features in criminal sentencing.
Not to repeat what you've already heard, but where is Mrs. White USA?
The panopoly of attractive white leading ladies in film and tv. Only very recently can you have a black leading female without it being a movie about black females.
The United White College Fund?
It's called "almost every other scholarship opportunity."
White Coaches Association?
Your local school board.
White Entertainment Network?
All the other channels.
Funny, I don't think they exist.
You're like those college freshmen that ask "well, where are all the men's studies classes?"
They're all the other courses. That's the point.
Well I must have missed something, because I thought the entire purpose of the article was alternatives to traditional reviewing style.
No, it was to point out that the term "video game journalism" has other meanings besides "holiday shopping guide." Which apparently still hasn't occured to you.
Yes, it does.
For instance, at work, if some money goes missing from the drawer, I'm not the first person they suspect.
People don't lock their car doors when I walk down the sidewalk. When I drive a nice car, I don't get pulled over on suspicion of having stolen it, or on suspicion of nothing at all.
When I do get hired for a job, there's no sneaking suspcion on my or anyone else's part that the color of my skin, and not the legitimacy or quality of my experience, was the deciding factor.
Not to mention the amazing perks I'm likely to get should I find myself in the criminal justice system; for instance, a considerably lesser likelyhood of getting the death penalty, or of serving any time at all, especially for drugs.
See, that's what "white privledge" means - all those things that are so great, yet so transparent that you forget that not everyone benefits from them. These are things that you shouldn't have to be white to have, I agree. But to simply dismiss the leigions of minorities who lack these privledges every day, on the basis of some hypothetical reverse discrimination that I doubt has actually ever occured for you, isn't quite racist - it's just stupid.
Do you think it just might be possible that one could read or write about video games for a purpose beyond simple consumer awareness?
When your local university has classes on film criticism, do you mock them because they're considering greater questions than whether or not "Blade: Trinity" is worth seeing this week at the multiplex?
Get over yourself, for a minute. As surprising as it must be, it's possible to have thoughts about the video game experience beyond "should I buy this or not?"
EA has a formal policy of hiring young, naive people who are willing to work long hours for low pay.
I'm delivering sandwiches for 5.15 an hour. Long hours and low pay... in a technology field?
Where do I sign?
Oh, right. I'm the bad guy. My eagerness to have a job that doesn't totally suck is what drives down wages. I guess I'm supposed to keep delivering people's sandwiches so that some programmers can have Ferarri's.
I don't think World of Warcraft and Everquest 2 are going to seriously affect City of Heroes.
You might be right. On the other hand, I played CoH to pass the time waiting for WoW to come out; using CoH as a kind of gateway to a full-fledged MMO game. (Or maybe Neverwinter Nights was the gateway.)
Are there a lot of people like me? I don't know. WoW is definately more fun than CoH, and I don't know of anybody that likes superheros and hates fantasy to the extent that, given the choice, they'd pick CoH over WoW.
Maybe you're right, though. I definately think WoW is going to take subscribers from other fantasy MMO games.