During my new employee orientation many, many years ago, we were required to attend a presentation on diversity. This was when all this 'valuing diversity' stuff was really just taking off (yes, I'm that old). It was all about tolerance and accepting people for their differences, which I am totally cool with.
During the presentation, we were informed that acting intolerant (i.e. racial slurs and such) could get us fired. I asked if other people could get in trouble for not tolerating my intolerance, and got in some trouble for it. Seems like they tolerate everyone but smartasses.
For whatever reason, they decided that the "walk back to homepoint in a non-aggressive fashion" was not the route they wanted to go. Thus, the vanishing monsters. Honestly, even if I wasn't a BST, I'd rather have them walk back instead of vanishing. It just feels more real.
As far as leveling BST goes, it can still be done. I know, I hit 75 finally, after the patch, all solo. Some levels are just a lot more tricky to solo, and some camps are no longer as good. Grab a duo or trio of Beastmasters, though, and you can totally whomp on anything in the appropriate zones.
Not to mention, food vendors don't have to disclose the nutritional contents of the packaging of the food they sell because it's not intended for consumption... sort of like the Hot Coffee scenes were not intended for consumption. If someone eats the plastic wrapper on a sandwich, they shouldn't sue the company for not saying, "Hey, don't eat the plastic wrapper"
It's funny how the media and certain high-profile figures make this seem like such a huge deal, as if Rockstar/Take-two was giving away free GTA:SA disks at Elementary schools across America. We all know that the Hot Coffee scenes took some time and skill to uncover, and though the patch itself was easy enough to apply, it still took some effort to go out and find it. It's not like the sex scenes were sitting there waiting for a cheat code to be entered or anything.
And the "sex scenes" themselves were comical, to say the least. First of all, CJ was fully clothed. No penetration or genitalia were shown. At worst, it was full frontal nudity with sexual situations, which would have earned a movie an R rating. The original "M for Mature" was still consistent with the content, in my opinion.
I'm not defending these guys... That content should have been removed prior to the game's release. They really were stupid about it. But it's not like "the children" were exposed to some horrific pornography in an "E for Everyone" game or anything like that.
The game has nothing to do with it. This was caused by a couple of people acting like idiots. Illegal street racing has been around since... well, since cars were invented. That won't stop people from holding this up as more evidence that games are evil, though. I should take bets on how long it takes Jack Thompson to chime in.
It's not the computers themselves I mistrust, it's those that operate them without public oversight.
The people who program and operate the air-traffic control computers and the missile command computers have a vested interest in avoiding collisions/missile launches. Besides the fact that most people would feel horrible about the innocent lives lost through an error, if a nuke or an airplane suddenly landed in someone's backyard, it would be pretty hard to cover up. People may ask awkward questions.
Electoral votes however... well, if you own the data collection process and the database itself, who would ever know if you skew the results? And, after all, it's not as if anyone actually gets hurt or anything.
"Art" is any creative work that causes an emotional reaction, in my opinion. In other words, a beatiful sunset is not art, but a photograph or a painting of that sunset may be.
FFXI is still going very strong. I haven't seen much of a decline in population. In fact, I think the population is still growing, albeit much more slowly then before. As far as the PS2 version goes, the US and EU launches were poor, but that was due to a lack of support of the needed hardware from Sony, and not due to the game. Quite a few players in Japan are on the PS2 version, and I know several in the US who are as well.
I went to the firing range last night, too. I brought my controller along with me. For some reason, whenever I pushed the fire button, nothing seemed to happen. No noise of gunshots, and no holes appeared in my target. Also, pushing the shoulder button didn't activate my grenade launcher. I'm seriously considering getting that controller replaced, as it only seems to fire bullets when hooked up to my computer at home.
"Anywho, being a well-informed and adept engineer of the internet age, I still do all my investing in person because I'm paranoid as heck =]."
Sadly, if one of these fraudsters gets enough info on you, you may find that "you" are doing business with a bank you've never heard of with a line of credit you've never asked for;)
I think its more like holding a landlord responsible for not having a building up to code (shoddy wiring, faulty fire alarms, blocked fire escapes, etc.) if there is any loss of life or property when a fire happens. Banks make it incredibly easy to get credit. If they changed their procedures, it could cut down considerably on the amount of fraud.
Of course, that would also cost them new (legitimate) customers. That's the problem right there.
No need to tell me to STFU just because you disagree with me, I'm just voicing my opinion. And restriction of information is censorship... According to my handy Webster's dictionary: Censor, (v): To examine in order to suppress, or delete anything considered objectionable. As a side note, I consider the Miller test far too vague to be a useful metric.
I oppose laws in this case simply because I think they are unneccesary, and too harsh... should someone be fined a thousand dollars or more or do jail time because they sold Doom3 to a 16 year old? Its out of proportion to the "crime", especially when you consider that there is no actual proof of damage done to the minor. Like I said, parental and community groups need to work with retailers and software developers if they want these standards in place.
As far as giving pornography to minors, I do have a problem with the law. Not with the restriction, but with the law. I don't believe that the federal (or even the state) government should try to legislate morality. They're too far removed from the communities the laws will affect, and the laws that they pass tend to stay on the books long after whatever "immoral" things they were meant to suppress are not considered immoral anymore. Not too many people get arrested for oral sex anymore, but it's still illegal in a lot of places.
This doesn't need to be legislated. Community groups of concerned parents should work with the retailers to make sure that it is company policy to not sell M or AO rated games to minors. When you have a law to do this instead, it's censorship.
Movie theaters voluntarily keep minors out of R-rated movies, sort of an unofficial social contract. It work pretty well, for the most part.. most kids can't see R-rated movies without a parent, and if one does, then maybe someone gets fired but nobody goes to jail or is fined. That's what we need for game stores. Not censorship. The rating system already in place is sufficient, in my opinion.
You were drinking alchohol, but who knows what this guy was eating/drinking? One of the articles linked above says he barely ate, but he may have been slamming coffees and Jolt colas for a good chunk of that time, maybe even popping stimulants. Also, if your game of choice is Ultimate Frisbee and not Starcraft, then you are probably in much better shape then this guy was before he started his marathon.
I guess I'm lucky... I used to play marathon sessions when I was a kid (2-3 days, sometimes), but now that I'm older I just pass out on my keyboard if I'm up past my bedtime. No risk of exhaustion-induced death there!
Yeah, according to the article, she bought the game for her grandson, gave it to him, and then found out it was rated M and had it taken awy from him. Since she obviously didn't look at the packaging in order to realise that it was rated M, then she wouldn't have looked at the packaging to see that it was rated AO. The only thing I can say is that if it had been rated AO, she wouldn't have been able to buy it at her local Wal-Mart.
Considering the complete lack of genitalia in the hidden scenes, and the fact that CJ is completely clothed the whole time, it's debatable whether it even contains "graphic sexual content and nudity". As far as that goes, it may not even deserve an AO rating (at least for the sexual situations). If this were the movie equivelent, it would be an "R" rating.
Not that it matters, really, since I personally think the "AO" was punitive, and intended to show that the ESRB was taking this seriously
When my nephew was six, he kicked me. I mean, seriously kicked me. He jumped off the couch, and with a karate-movie style scream ("HiiiiYA!") kicked me in the small of the back. Why did he do this? Because he wanted to be one of the Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers, and they did that kind of crap all the time. OK, so now I have a choice... what do I do?
A: Immediately write an angry letter to the television station and the maker of the show, blaming them for my nephew's actions
B: Sit my nephew down and explain to him that kicking people hurts them, and that it's not acceptable to hurt other people. And, incidently, if you kick people they may get mad and kick you back.
I chose option B (after yelling at him more then a little bit, I have to confess... it fricken' hurt, after all), and my nephew never kicked me again. Also, I had a talk with my brother about what happened, and we agreed that, if he can't make the distinction between fantasy violence and real violence, then maybe he shouldn't be watching Power Rangers (which is for the best, really... that show was/is complete crap).
So, yeah. It's a parent's responsibility to make his/her kid safe for society, not the government's job to make society safe for kids. You'll never be able to clear away all the jagged edges in life, so its better to teach kids to avoid them.
That headline gives me a great idea for a new invention... the bungie hammer! Simply hold the hammer over the nail you want pounded in and let go. Gravity does all the work! This could be a fun and exciting way to do some of those household repairs that you've been putting off because a regular hammer is just too boring. Think of all the excitement that will come of never knowing where the hammer will bounce to next! Will it hit the nail, or will it simply crush your foot, crack your kneecap, and bruise up your shin? And (most importantly) will it miss the crotch on its way back up?!
This is quite possibly the worst idea I've ever had!
I was just trying to say that this is a new market, and completely unregulated. I think SOE may get a nasty shock if some governments suddenly decide that this needs to be regulated.
They're moving one giant step closer to assigning real-world value to virtual items/currency. Now, if someone makes their living buying/selling virtual goods, how does that make it all that different then the stock market? Except that SoE has complete control over this market. I just wonder how long it will be before the first lawsuit is filed, should Sony nerf someone's best-selling item. And I wonder if the SEC is going to get involved at some point:)
Also, if real value is assigned to a character, what happens if SoE attempts to ban them? They may say that they still own all "virtual" property, but if someone bought the character "officially", then that person may have a good basis for a lawsuit.
As annoying as these guys are, and as much as I want them gone, its hard to get too upset when I think that they may be doing this to feed their families.
I've made maybe a total of five million gil in FFXI, most of it is currently in equipment, spells, or in crafting skill. I don't have a whole lot of time to play these days, but I'd never buy gil. The five million I've made painstakingly over time feels so much more worthwhile then 5 million I could just buy for around a hundred bucks (or whatever it sells for these days). Buying your way to greatness is the fastest way to make your character feel completely worthless, in my opinion.
Slashdot Mirror
During the presentation, we were informed that acting intolerant (i.e. racial slurs and such) could get us fired. I asked if other people could get in trouble for not tolerating my intolerance, and got in some trouble for it. Seems like they tolerate everyone but smartasses.
As far as leveling BST goes, it can still be done. I know, I hit 75 finally, after the patch, all solo. Some levels are just a lot more tricky to solo, and some camps are no longer as good. Grab a duo or trio of Beastmasters, though, and you can totally whomp on anything in the appropriate zones.
Not to mention, food vendors don't have to disclose the nutritional contents of the packaging of the food they sell because it's not intended for consumption... sort of like the Hot Coffee scenes were not intended for consumption. If someone eats the plastic wrapper on a sandwich, they shouldn't sue the company for not saying, "Hey, don't eat the plastic wrapper"
And the "sex scenes" themselves were comical, to say the least. First of all, CJ was fully clothed. No penetration or genitalia were shown. At worst, it was full frontal nudity with sexual situations, which would have earned a movie an R rating. The original "M for Mature" was still consistent with the content, in my opinion.
I'm not defending these guys... That content should have been removed prior to the game's release. They really were stupid about it. But it's not like "the children" were exposed to some horrific pornography in an "E for Everyone" game or anything like that.
The game has nothing to do with it. This was caused by a couple of people acting like idiots. Illegal street racing has been around since... well, since cars were invented.
That won't stop people from holding this up as more evidence that games are evil, though. I should take bets on how long it takes Jack Thompson to chime in.
It's not the computers themselves I mistrust, it's those that operate them without public oversight.
The people who program and operate the air-traffic control computers and the missile command computers have a vested interest in avoiding collisions/missile launches. Besides the fact that most people would feel horrible about the innocent lives lost through an error, if a nuke or an airplane suddenly landed in someone's backyard, it would be pretty hard to cover up. People may ask awkward questions.
Electoral votes however... well, if you own the data collection process and the database itself, who would ever know if you skew the results? And, after all, it's not as if anyone actually gets hurt or anything.
No can do... last I heard they all went back into suspended animation after Earth Mark II was cancelled. Stupid bureaucratic mice...
"Art" is any creative work that causes an emotional reaction, in my opinion. In other words, a beatiful sunset is not art, but a photograph or a painting of that sunset may be.
FFXI is still going very strong. I haven't seen much of a decline in population. In fact, I think the population is still growing, albeit much more slowly then before.
As far as the PS2 version goes, the US and EU launches were poor, but that was due to a lack of support of the needed hardware from Sony, and not due to the game. Quite a few players in Japan are on the PS2 version, and I know several in the US who are as well.
For best results, wait until he gets past the noob levels, so he won't just wipe his character and start over with cmdrtaco again :)
I went to the firing range last night, too. I brought my controller along with me. For some reason, whenever I pushed the fire button, nothing seemed to happen. No noise of gunshots, and no holes appeared in my target. Also, pushing the shoulder button didn't activate my grenade launcher. I'm seriously considering getting that controller replaced, as it only seems to fire bullets when hooked up to my computer at home.
Sadly, if one of these fraudsters gets enough info on you, you may find that "you" are doing business with a bank you've never heard of with a line of credit you've never asked for ;)
Of course, that would also cost them new (legitimate) customers. That's the problem right there.
Censor, (v): To examine in order to suppress, or delete anything considered objectionable.
As a side note, I consider the Miller test far too vague to be a useful metric.
I oppose laws in this case simply because I think they are unneccesary, and too harsh... should someone be fined a thousand dollars or more or do jail time because they sold Doom3 to a 16 year old? Its out of proportion to the "crime", especially when you consider that there is no actual proof of damage done to the minor. Like I said, parental and community groups need to work with retailers and software developers if they want these standards in place.
As far as giving pornography to minors, I do have a problem with the law. Not with the restriction, but with the law. I don't believe that the federal (or even the state) government should try to legislate morality. They're too far removed from the communities the laws will affect, and the laws that they pass tend to stay on the books long after whatever "immoral" things they were meant to suppress are not considered immoral anymore. Not too many people get arrested for oral sex anymore, but it's still illegal in a lot of places.
Movie theaters voluntarily keep minors out of R-rated movies, sort of an unofficial social contract. It work pretty well, for the most part.. most kids can't see R-rated movies without a parent, and if one does, then maybe someone gets fired but nobody goes to jail or is fined. That's what we need for game stores. Not censorship. The rating system already in place is sufficient, in my opinion.
That was me, I got our mugs mixed up. My bad.
I guess I'm lucky... I used to play marathon sessions when I was a kid (2-3 days, sometimes), but now that I'm older I just pass out on my keyboard if I'm up past my bedtime. No risk of exhaustion-induced death there!
Yeah, according to the article, she bought the game for her grandson, gave it to him, and then found out it was rated M and had it taken awy from him. Since she obviously didn't look at the packaging in order to realise that it was rated M, then she wouldn't have looked at the packaging to see that it was rated AO. The only thing I can say is that if it had been rated AO, she wouldn't have been able to buy it at her local Wal-Mart.
Not that it matters, really, since I personally think the "AO" was punitive, and intended to show that the ESRB was taking this seriously
He's a pretty normal kid, actually. Lots of fun to hang out with.
OK, so now I have a choice... what do I do?
A: Immediately write an angry letter to the television station and the maker of the show, blaming them for my nephew's actions
B: Sit my nephew down and explain to him that kicking people hurts them, and that it's not acceptable to hurt other people. And, incidently, if you kick people they may get mad and kick you back.
I chose option B (after yelling at him more then a little bit, I have to confess... it fricken' hurt, after all), and my nephew never kicked me again. Also, I had a talk with my brother about what happened, and we agreed that, if he can't make the distinction between fantasy violence and real violence, then maybe he shouldn't be watching Power Rangers (which is for the best, really... that show was/is complete crap).
So, yeah. It's a parent's responsibility to make his/her kid safe for society, not the government's job to make society safe for kids. You'll never be able to clear away all the jagged edges in life, so its better to teach kids to avoid them.
This is quite possibly the worst idea I've ever had!
I was just trying to say that this is a new market, and completely unregulated. I think SOE may get a nasty shock if some governments suddenly decide that this needs to be regulated.
Also, if real value is assigned to a character, what happens if SoE attempts to ban them? They may say that they still own all "virtual" property, but if someone bought the character "officially", then that person may have a good basis for a lawsuit.
I've made maybe a total of five million gil in FFXI, most of it is currently in equipment, spells, or in crafting skill. I don't have a whole lot of time to play these days, but I'd never buy gil. The five million I've made painstakingly over time feels so much more worthwhile then 5 million I could just buy for around a hundred bucks (or whatever it sells for these days). Buying your way to greatness is the fastest way to make your character feel completely worthless, in my opinion.