I think that the biggest difference between WWII and Vietnam games aren't the separation in time... or unresolved feelings... or the race of the peoples fighting. It was all about how black and white the situation was.
WWII. Very black and white. Has there ever been a more black and white war in the past few centuries? Can't feel bad about shooting Germans or Japanese. And I don't feel bad about playing them, either, because I'll get to play as the Allies next round, and the Allies need someone to shoot at.
Vietnam.... not so black and white. Pretty frickin' grey, actually. Do I feel good picking off some Vietnamese farmer with an AK-47? or even NVA regulars? Not nearly as good as I do picking off Nazis.
I do not think that a first-person Vietnam game is in good taste. I will not be playing any of them.
I am slightly hypocritical, because I LOVE WWII shooters, and Rainbow 6, and Operation Flashpoint. I do feel sometimes guilty, though, at enjoying levels where I storm the beaches of Normandy. I mean, these were real people after all. Not those fake real people that you'll never meet... but real people that are still alive and you might run into. People I'm related to.
It's a tough call for me. But I respect other people who want to play them. But if a game comes out tomorrow titled: "Operation Iraqi Freedom: The Hunt for Saddam", I won't be buying it. No matter how fun it is.
Re:ACLU Acts on Principles, Not Popular Perception
on
Joining the ACLU?
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· Score: 3, Interesting
hy am I not allowed to pray in schools, whether it be to God, Eloheim, or to Allah? Why am I forced to pay tribute to the pagan gods of Mother Earth, Environmentalism, or Atheism?
Actually, the ACLU has taken cases where school districts have prevented students from praying publicly. Rightly so, too, since the government has no place telling you when and how to pray.
I think the logic behind their NAMBLA argument isn't that pedophiles are okay... it's that writing about a crime is separate from actually comitting the crime. Like, they're getting legal shit beacuse they're writing HOWTOs on how to nail young boys.
Is it illegal to write HOWTOs on how to rob a bank, or crack DeCSS? No. But actually doing the deed is. The only thing that makes NAMBLA different is that they're pedophiles.
I mean, everyone hates pedophiles... but they haven't actually done anything besides write stuff.
George "The Fat Man" Sanger and Team Fat, legends in the computer game audio biz, have been making some really great music and audio for slot machines recently.
They've done the spectacular music for Wing Commander I/II, The 7th Guest, Loom, and loads more. And their slot machine audio has been getting really great reviews too!
Fortunately for us gamers, the Fat Man is still in the game business.
Yeah, the details are kind of really fuzzy. I forget which versions of events I've heard from FOXNEWS! and which from the gov't, and which were just wild speculation.
I can (as opposed to can't) wait till she writes her book, or whatever. That'll hopefully clear some things up.
Haha. The Iraqis wanting to return Lynch should probably have waited until they heard back from the U.S. before driving around in a war zone. I mean, they meant well and all but that was a pretty dumb thing to do.
The mainstream media isn't making her out to be a hero. It's been mostly a 'yay, she's okay!' kind of deal.
And the reason it's getting so much exposure is beacuse it's a pretty interetsing to people. I mean, christ, she's my age! And have you seen the pre-war photo of her, in cammies and against a US flag background? She's really cute! Talk about a recipe for stirring national interest.
Too bad for Shoshanna Johnson (i think that's her name anyways), and her fellow POWs. Her story seems a fair bit more interesting, but because she's black, and not as cute... we don't hear as much about it.
What a PR stunt for the Army. Jessica Lynch's rescue has been thoroughly discredited by now. (The hospital tryed to return her first, instead the Army ignored them and decided that exploding walls and using flash bangs was the best way to get into the hospital, the alternative being to call them up and ask for her).
Obviously the Gov't played up the Lynch rescue, you'd be a fool if you didn't.
But...
the Army shot at the vehicle carrying Lynch, because they didn't know she was in it, or what it was doing. It was a pretty stupid, though noble, thing to do.
Of course the rescue team used their cool toys to get into the hospital. Reasonable assumption that there were some bad guys guarding Lynch. Turned out to be not the case, but better safe than sorry hmmm?
The saddest part is jessica's claim of not remembering anything about the ordeal. I'm sure she was ordered to simply say that. This is a shame, and an insult to the doctors who so cared for her during her stay.
Oh... I don't know... I think it's pretty reasonable she's got some temporary involuntary mental blocks. A 19 year old girl, not trained as a front-line combatant being in a bad vehicle accident, having her unit massacred around her, suffering all sorts of nasty injuries, being held captive by a hostile nation that didn't follow the rules of war...
and MY memory starts to go blurry on me after a few drinks.
I'm all about games. I really like first person soldier games.
But this is kind of twisted. Its just not right to be playing games based on the life and death situations that our military is facing this very moment. I'm not going to have fun taking down an Iraqi insurgent with my simulated M-16, when a very real soldier or Marine is doing the exact same thing on the other side of the world.
Now, with games set in the past (like, at least ten years ago) or games set in a hypothetical future (like the Rainbow 6 games)... I'll have an absolute blast. Mostly because I'm not too busy empathizing with the guys who've got their lives on the line in the exact same situations that I'm playing, at that exact same moment.
I lived next to Interstate number 5 last year, and it was like a constant dull roar coming in through the windows. After living for years in the quiet peace of Alaska, it was quite a shock.
If all the noise is from the rubber hitting the road. We need magnetic cars!
"Would one dare do anything so risky as carouse, drive a car, hit the ski slopes, if three hundred years of life would be thereby imperiled?
Or better yet, would anyone wage war? Would anyone commit terrorist acts?
If you think about it, the people who take the most big risks are usually teenagers. The people with the most life ahead of them. This isn't a big deal, I don't think.
It pops up, partially covering part of the system tray and a bit of the desktop.
It has a fucking annoying 'pooaaAAHP!' sound.
It takes up an icon in the system tray. I hate icons in the system tray. Makes me look like a loser who has too many 'Banzai Buddy' programs installed.
And after getting hit by this worm, I am now going to turn it back on on my home XP install. : )
In my defense, I'm a user of Windows XP at home. I was fully patched (as of several months ago). I care about security. I know how to download and install a patch, and if I read about a vulnerability and there's a link to the patch, by God I'll install it.
But I seriously hadn't heard anything about this vulnerability. Granted, I don't go out looking to see if there are any new unpatched vulnerabilities every day... But this has NOT been something that non-security people have been hearing about. I read Slashdot religiously, but don't recall any stories on this vulnerability. I heard that there was one months ago... but perhaps I missed it.
But seriously. I wouldn't be so hard on the general home-user population for not keeping up on this because I am a geek, and this caught me completely by surprise.
What if SCO paid your company $2 for every $1 of license that you bought from them? Would you be wrong to do that?
SCO buys publicity, your company gets money.
Even though you know SCO is wrong... you couldn't feel bad about taking their money! They're going down in flames anyways, why not save some of their cash before it burns up?
(i guess wildly on the nature of the business deal)
More stealthy? Nothing is more stealthy than the SSNs and SSBNs.
There's like a couple smaller research subs and such... but the subs we use for espionage and stuff are full-sized atomic subs that have been retrofitted. And there aren't more than a few of those. Look up the USS Parchee for a good example.
NOT a privacy victory
on
RIAA Quashed
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· Score: 4, Insightful
The RIAA will just refile the subpoenas in the proper jurisdiction. This will just slow them down. This is a victory for the proper procedure of filing subpoenas, and NOT privacy!
Actually it is. It's not just ridiculous, it's downright absurd.
Mullah Mohammed Omar (i think that was his name) was all about supporting al Qaida. Would lead me to suspect he's not too interested in fair and proper justice for anyone.
Slashdot Mirror
I think that the biggest difference between WWII and Vietnam games aren't the separation in time... or unresolved feelings... or the race of the peoples fighting. It was all about how black and white the situation was.
WWII. Very black and white. Has there ever been a more black and white war in the past few centuries? Can't feel bad about shooting Germans or Japanese. And I don't feel bad about playing them, either, because I'll get to play as the Allies next round, and the Allies need someone to shoot at.
Vietnam.... not so black and white. Pretty frickin' grey, actually. Do I feel good picking off some Vietnamese farmer with an AK-47? or even NVA regulars? Not nearly as good as I do picking off Nazis.
I do not think that a first-person Vietnam game is in good taste. I will not be playing any of them.
I am slightly hypocritical, because I LOVE WWII shooters, and Rainbow 6, and Operation Flashpoint. I do feel sometimes guilty, though, at enjoying levels where I storm the beaches of Normandy. I mean, these were real people after all. Not those fake real people that you'll never meet... but real people that are still alive and you might run into. People I'm related to.
It's a tough call for me. But I respect other people who want to play them. But if a game comes out tomorrow titled: "Operation Iraqi Freedom: The Hunt for Saddam", I won't be buying it. No matter how fun it is.
hy am I not allowed to pray in schools, whether it be to God, Eloheim, or to Allah? Why am I forced to pay tribute to the pagan gods of Mother Earth, Environmentalism, or Atheism?
Actually, the ACLU has taken cases where school districts have prevented students from praying publicly. Rightly so, too, since the government has no place telling you when and how to pray.
yah, that's the subtle point i was trying to make.
I think the logic behind their NAMBLA argument isn't that pedophiles are okay... it's that writing about a crime is separate from actually comitting the crime. Like, they're getting legal shit beacuse they're writing HOWTOs on how to nail young boys.
Is it illegal to write HOWTOs on how to rob a bank, or crack DeCSS? No. But actually doing the deed is. The only thing that makes NAMBLA different is that they're pedophiles.
I mean, everyone hates pedophiles... but they haven't actually done anything besides write stuff.
George "The Fat Man" Sanger and Team Fat, legends in the computer game audio biz, have been making some really great music and audio for slot machines recently.
They've done the spectacular music for Wing Commander I/II, The 7th Guest, Loom, and loads more. And their slot machine audio has been getting really great reviews too!
Fortunately for us gamers, the Fat Man is still in the game business.
The Fat Man's website
Translation: "I can't articulate an intelligent response to the point you made, so I'll just call you a 'troll' and see if it sticks with the mods."
A classic troll response, if I've ever heard one! Ha!
Just kidding.
I think you're too hard on them.
FOX News is definately the 'Al-Jazeera' of the United States (props to Jon Stewart)...
but there's a lot worse out there. A LOT worse.
Yeah, the details are kind of really fuzzy. I forget which versions of events I've heard from FOXNEWS! and which from the gov't, and which were just wild speculation.
I can (as opposed to can't) wait till she writes her book, or whatever. That'll hopefully clear some things up.
The purple heart is awarded for being wounded in combat, which Lynch was.
I think you're confusing the Purple Heart for the Medal of Honor.
Haha. The Iraqis wanting to return Lynch should probably have waited until they heard back from the U.S. before driving around in a war zone. I mean, they meant well and all but that was a pretty dumb thing to do.
The mainstream media isn't making her out to be a hero. It's been mostly a 'yay, she's okay!' kind of deal.
And the reason it's getting so much exposure is beacuse it's a pretty interetsing to people. I mean, christ, she's my age! And have you seen the pre-war photo of her, in cammies and against a US flag background? She's really cute! Talk about a recipe for stirring national interest.
Too bad for Shoshanna Johnson (i think that's her name anyways), and her fellow POWs. Her story seems a fair bit more interesting, but because she's black, and not as cute... we don't hear as much about it.
What a PR stunt for the Army. Jessica Lynch's rescue has been thoroughly discredited by now. (The hospital tryed to return her first, instead the Army ignored them and decided that exploding walls and using flash bangs was the best way to get into the hospital, the alternative being to call them up and ask for her).
Obviously the Gov't played up the Lynch rescue, you'd be a fool if you didn't.
But...
the Army shot at the vehicle carrying Lynch, because they didn't know she was in it, or what it was doing. It was a pretty stupid, though noble, thing to do.
Of course the rescue team used their cool toys to get into the hospital. Reasonable assumption that there were some bad guys guarding Lynch. Turned out to be not the case, but better safe than sorry hmmm?
The saddest part is jessica's claim of not remembering anything about the ordeal. I'm sure she was ordered to simply say that. This is a shame, and an insult to the doctors who so cared for her during her stay.
Oh... I don't know... I think it's pretty reasonable she's got some temporary involuntary mental blocks. A 19 year old girl, not trained as a front-line combatant being in a bad vehicle accident, having her unit massacred around her, suffering all sorts of nasty injuries, being held captive by a hostile nation that didn't follow the rules of war...
and MY memory starts to go blurry on me after a few drinks.
I'm all about games. I really like first person soldier games.
But this is kind of twisted. Its just not right to be playing games based on the life and death situations that our military is facing this very moment. I'm not going to have fun taking down an Iraqi insurgent with my simulated M-16, when a very real soldier or Marine is doing the exact same thing on the other side of the world.
Now, with games set in the past (like, at least ten years ago) or games set in a hypothetical future (like the Rainbow 6 games)... I'll have an absolute blast. Mostly because I'm not too busy empathizing with the guys who've got their lives on the line in the exact same situations that I'm playing, at that exact same moment.
I lived next to Interstate number 5 last year, and it was like a constant dull roar coming in through the windows. After living for years in the quiet peace of Alaska, it was quite a shock.
If all the noise is from the rubber hitting the road. We need magnetic cars!
Soon we all might be able to walk to Russia during the summer!
You already can... just during the winter.
No, your dad is hearing about the worm AFTER it's hit the net.
I'm talking about hearing about it back before there was a worm. When it was still only a vulnerability.
Duh.
"Would one dare do anything so risky as carouse, drive a car, hit the ski slopes, if three hundred years of life would be thereby imperiled?
Or better yet, would anyone wage war? Would anyone commit terrorist acts?
If you think about it, the people who take the most big risks are usually teenagers. The people with the most life ahead of them. This isn't a big deal, I don't think.
Well, yeah. such an easy one though!
Actually, after being hit with this worm, I rebooted into Gentoo and discovered some new games (Ur-Quan Masters and Enemy Territory!!!).
I was happy until I read on Slashdot that Gentoo is going to get slammed by the DMCA! : (
It pops up, partially covering part of the system tray and a bit of the desktop.
It has a fucking annoying 'pooaaAAHP!' sound.
It takes up an icon in the system tray. I hate icons in the system tray. Makes me look like a loser who has too many 'Banzai Buddy' programs installed.
And after getting hit by this worm, I am now going to turn it back on on my home XP install. : )
In my defense, I'm a user of Windows XP at home. I was fully patched (as of several months ago). I care about security. I know how to download and install a patch, and if I read about a vulnerability and there's a link to the patch, by God I'll install it.
But I seriously hadn't heard anything about this vulnerability. Granted, I don't go out looking to see if there are any new unpatched vulnerabilities every day... But this has NOT been something that non-security people have been hearing about. I read Slashdot religiously, but don't recall any stories on this vulnerability. I heard that there was one months ago... but perhaps I missed it.
But seriously. I wouldn't be so hard on the general home-user population for not keeping up on this because I am a geek, and this caught me completely by surprise.
What if SCO paid your company $2 for every $1 of license that you bought from them? Would you be wrong to do that?
SCO buys publicity, your company gets money.
Even though you know SCO is wrong... you couldn't feel bad about taking their money! They're going down in flames anyways, why not save some of their cash before it burns up?
(i guess wildly on the nature of the business deal)
More stealthy? Nothing is more stealthy than the SSNs and SSBNs.
There's like a couple smaller research subs and such... but the subs we use for espionage and stuff are full-sized atomic subs that have been retrofitted. And there aren't more than a few of those. Look up the USS Parchee for a good example.
The RIAA will just refile the subpoenas in the proper jurisdiction. This will just slow them down. This is a victory for the proper procedure of filing subpoenas, and NOT privacy!
fp?
Actually it is. It's not just ridiculous, it's downright absurd.
Mullah Mohammed Omar (i think that was his name) was all about supporting al Qaida. Would lead me to suspect he's not too interested in fair and proper justice for anyone.
GOD creates weather