Look and play better? That's a stretch. Quake 4 looks much worse in Linux than windows. Not that it much matters, as virtually every game you listed is utter shit. With the exception of NWN, but I can't replay that game one more time or my eyes will explode.
I realize you think you just made an awesome point, but until you can run every major game that comes out for windows, Linux is just not a viable alternative for me. Maybe for someone who games every couple of days or weeks for an hour or two, and doesn't much care what game they're playing, but for a hardcore gamer, it just isn't going to work. Keep up the good work, though. You've come a long way since Tux racer.
And incredibly freaking awesome, even if it would be an extinction level event. I don't want to die or anything, but if I'm going to, a: I want it to be in a really huge explosion, and b: I want all of New Jersey to go first.
Pfft. They send Naquadah asteroids our way, they get Jack Thompson. I agree, it's a devastating response completely outside the bounds of acceptable proportion, but I've about had it with their shenanigans and chicanery.
You make the assumption that, just because science doesn't have all the answers, we have faith that those answers will definitely be revealed to us in time. There's a certain amount of arrogance required to believe that we ever will know anything. I guess it's easy for one to assume that we, as scientists, believe that, when one has the arrogance to believe that in a universe of such epic proportions, a supernatural deity would deign to give even the most fleeting thought about any of our cosmically trivial lives.
Ah, then you must utterly misunderstand.
I do enjoy challenging games. I especially enjoy challenging games, actually. I try each new game, hoping - praying - that it will be challenging and enjoyable, thus deserving to be purchased and played time and time again. The problem is, usually within the first 30 minutes, I realize the game is utter garbage. However, I force myself to give the game a chance. I think playing a game 50% of the way through will give me a fairly accurate understanding of the game, enough so that I can truly make the decision "delete or buy". And I do buy. Example: Oblivion. I already pirated the game. I had absolutely no reason to go out and spend 50$ on it, especially as it is only single player. Yet I did anyway, because I was going to continue playing the game. The others, where I routinely type `, god, and give all? I merely do that for some extremely simplistic carnage. That's more fun than the tedium of playing any more normally, and for a few short minutes, more fun than reading a book (I routinely spend in excess of 100$ per pay period (2 weeks) at amazon.com for books.) But then the repetitive nature hits home and I again end up typing `, followed by exit. I then uninstall, delete the ISO images, and never play the game again.
The whole point to this exercise is to truly give the game a chance. There were a few games in my past - Myth 1, for example, where I really did NOT like the first half an hour. Rather than ditch the game, I forced myself through it, and became a huge Myth and Myth 2 fanatic. Thus, I push myself to play enough that I feel I have truly uncovered most of what the game has to offer. After that, using God mode or weapon cheats is purely because I know the game has no redeeming qualities, and thus can't be "ruined" by making it easier. In fact, I'm eliciting the only sort of enjoyment possible from that game; mindless blood and gore. But that's only interesting for a few moments. Then it's off to the recycling bin.
Uh, no. Because, you see, I play halfway through. So either I put on God mode and play a few more levels before deleting it, or I go straight to deleting it. So take your pick, Martin. Cheats or no cheats. Either way, the game is mindnumbingly boring and going to get deleted.
I almost put that in there, because I, too, still play it. Fast paced, still a pleasure to play after a few years, fantastic net code/collision detection... it's pretty pathetic that I have it internally ranked as THE best MP game, and companies like ID are still spending millions on trying to get the latest and greatest graphics and physics.
Again, Dev Studios and Publishers, I don't need the absolute best graphics. With some competent artists, you can have a very nice looking game without killing yourselves over volumetric clouds or <insert latest eye candy term here> . I'm a fan of nice and good looking. And if you can pull off a game like Crysis, with all the eyecandy, and make it as fun to play as Tribes 2, then I'll buy the game and every expansion you come out with. I'll probably even buy the matching hat and tote bag, just to show my appreciation. Hell, you could even put up a tip jar, and I would donate extensively.
I WANT to give you my money. I'm pleading with you; please, please give me a reason to give you wads of cash. I want to make your game and company a success! I want more games where fun is almost literally oozing out my damn ears! But until you stop focusing on puzzle-levels that flip upside down and leftside right and inside up, ala Prey, which held my attention for a good 45 minutes before I deleted it and asked myself "now, why the fuck did I waste my time and bandwidth again?", then you're probably not going to see any cash from me.
You have to admit, there's something seriously wrong with the game industry if "pirates" like me can download a game for free and still think we paid too much for it, if only because it cost us money in terms of bandwidth and time. Did you ever think of that, Kevin from Id? Your games are sucking so bad, I don't even want to spend the effort of downloading them! So don't blame piracy for this one, bucko. Until you start making games that I want to play, you're going to be stuck catering to jackasses with consoles who wouldn't know a good game if it knocked them on the ground and teabagged them for an hour straight.
Unlike most people, I generally do buy the games I enjoy.
I haven't bought any games lately.
Why? Because, every time I try them out, whether downloading it 'yo ho ho and a bottle of rum'-style, or at a friend's, I end up hating it. I'll play it halfway through, put on god mode, type 'give all' or equivalent, play a few more levels, then type exit in console, uninstall, and delete.
I guess you can honestly say piracy IS hurting the game industry, but not in the "I'll download it and never pay for it ever and play it every day" sort of way you seem to be implying. It's more along the lines of going to buy an Impreza WRX, test driving a friend's for a few days, deciding that you love the acceleration and handling, but the interior is just too basic and plain for you to want to drive it every single day, so you buy an Audi A4 Quatro instead. To the Subaru dealership, they just lost out on a lot of money. But from my perspective, I did my research and was lucky enough to stop myself from buying something I wouldn't actually want. So, Dude-From-ID; if this is the sort of piracy hurting the industry that you speak of, then you don't have a single bit of compassion from me.
You want to get my money, developing studios and publishers? I have lots of it, and it's burning a hole in my wallet. I'll be thrilled to give it to you, actually. Only meet these simple guide lines.
1: Figure out some engaging multiplayer gameplay. I want to be able to play your for years. Not hours. I don't give a shit about your story. Your Single Player game is a complete afterthought to me. Something I do when I'm bored and the internet is out and it's raining outside, so I can't go play street hockey.
2: Make sure you have object collision, net code, and hit boxes down pat. Nothing is more irritating than getting killed by Tanks/Humvees that aren't even remotely close to your vicinity, but, through some fucked up net code, manage to kill you from 5 meters away.
3: Don't dumb the game down so fucking much. Noobs will always be noobs. The less complex you make the game, the more apt I am to get bored with it in days, rather than weeks, months, or years. Or at least find a way to make the game complex, challenging, and engaging, even after having played it for many hours. Even Counter-Strike can be fun after playing it for years, whereas Doom 3 Death Match is about as fun as gouging your eyeballs out with a spoon. And don't just add capture the flag and think that's the most you have to do. CTF is mind numbingly boring after a while. At least add some quirks to it that add some depth.
You say they'd have to specify minimum system requirements like it's a bad thing. Sure, some people are going to whine that they can't run it on their 1ghz Celeron, just like they complain about XP, or, god forbid, Vista. Big fucking deal. There's still a huge number of people out there who would be just fine with it. Plus, with a minimum spec defined, you'd probably find Dell and other companies extremely likely to start shipping computers that were OS X compatible, just like they made a point of doing as soon as XP was released.
You make the relatively large assumption that every person using OSS software is using Linux or *BSD. I try to use OSS in almost every aspect of my life except the OS. (Just to head off any questions as to why: I'm a gamer. I play games that *I* enjoy. These games are *only* found on Windows. I'm not going to not play these games just because someone else thinks they have better alternatives. If I thought as they did, I wouldn't be using Windows. But I don't. So I do. Okay? Good.)
OSS projects don't exactly have to kill themselves giving this information, you know. Take squid, for example. It says what it is, it tells you what it supports. Straight up, in your face, nice and easy. The main page is not a simple HTML list of appended patch notes for the last 3 years. It's not too hard to make your main page be a very brief, but telling synopsis of what your software does, while still maintaining your precious bug fixes and other release notes on another page. If your goal is to make the 5 people already using your software happy, then sure, continue with what you've been doing. If you're trying to get another 5000 people to use your software, you're probably going about it all wrong.
Good point on prostitution, I hadn't considered that.
As far as the others go; true enough, but I'd rather pay a few hundred dollars a year in taxes than a few thousand dollars a year in higher insurance fees. It just seems like a better bargain to me. Of course, I did just pull those numbers out of my ass, so it could be the exact opposite. I'm a software developer, dammit, not an economist!
Actually, I think "the land of the free" is an intellectually dishonest catchphrase, in general.
We all would love to live in a Land of the Free. It implies we have absolute control over our own actions, and "there ain't nobody that can tell us what to do!" Reminds me a lot of that feeling you get when you turn 18 and start flipping the bird to all and sundry.
The problem is that our actions, when taken in public, can have an effect on an awful lot of people. Riding without a helmet? Great. When you wreck and live in a persistent vegetative state, the Insurance Company has to cover it. The problem is, I'm paying into the same insurance company you are, so my rates (may) go up, just because you were too stupid to put a hat on your noggin. Ditto with seatbelts, only now you may have 4 people in comas for the rest of their life, and the cost increases dramatically.
If there was no monetary pain to me, at all, because you didn't want to wear a seatbelt or a helmet, go for it. After all, it is your life. If you can ensure that I don't have to pay a cent more because you want to risk it, I'm all for you not wearing helmets or belts. Or, rather, I'm all for your freedom to do as you wish. It's not my fucking job to keep you alive. I may tell you you're stupid and to put a seatbelt on, but that's just freedom of speech. It's not like you have to do what I say.
Drugs and gambling are somewhat similar, but subtly different. The only downsides to these: people, due to their dependence upon either, breaking the law and stealing shit to fund their habit. The subtle difference is that, the act, itself, does not DIRECTLY (or as-closely-indirectly-as-seatbelts-do) cost me any money. I mean, the justification for outlawing drugs is a: social (we don't want drug use in our community), which is, in my opinion, the antithesis of a "free" community, or b: financial (we don't want drug users stealing our stuff), which, in my opinion, has some grounding. But the problem is that the habit, for all of its power over the person, is too indirect, in my opinion, to be banned. Example: if I'm a billionaire, and I want to sit in my mansion all day and do coke, who the fuck are YOU to say that's wrong? it's my life, it's my house, and I'm paying for it with my own money. Right there, whether you agree with drug use or not - doesn't matter. It's about freedom. Ditto with gambling. But when a crackhead steals my bike to pawn at a pawnshop to finance their need, I tend to get a wee bit pissed off. With that said, I'd probably be just as pissed off if it was just a bunch of punk kids on a dare. Or a hobo who thought he'd take up cycling for unspecified personal reasons. So really, in this instance, it's not the drug use, or gambling, that is bad, it's what people CAN do to finance it. Which is, in my opinion, a separate issue. They may be linked, but they're not one in the same. If you're Michael Jordan and you want to gamble away crazy moneys in Poker, go for it. You've got the money, and I'm not going to tell you what to do. But if you steal something of mine, then you're a thief, and you need a swift kick in the teeth.
Prostitution is way different. That's just the moral police acting like the world will end if they don't "protect the people". I'm old enough, thanks. I can think for myself. Are you going to protect me from credit card debt, too? No? Then shut the fuck up and sit the fuck down. Legalize prostitution. Tax it. Spend that tax money on setting up education programs for prostitutes. If they have a pimp who is abusing them, protect them. Mandate monthly checkups. STDs.
Nanny state, true. In some ways. However, sometimes your freedom to do something impinges on my rights. In that case, maybe a law is in order. Maybe it isn't. That's what public debate is *supposed* to be about. Instead, it's just a bunch of boiled down, trite sound bites strung together to rally the masses. Phooie.
Actually, it wouldn't be difficult. Depending on the item scanned at the register, it pops up a screen saying "is the customer over 17/18/21? Y/N" and won't let them continue with the sale until they hit the Y or N. this happens on tons of various items. for example, you can't even buy PB Blaster without breaking out the driver's license.
I think that, just from these few comments, it's pretty apparent that it all depends on the person. I didn't get scared in the slightest while playing Far Cry. I didn't even get overly anxious, and I never had that surge of adrenaline during a particularly tricky/difficult part. It was a lot like Quake 4 in that regard. Play through once, not so bad, toss it in the box of games, never play it again. Doom 3 and F.E.A.R. were different, for me. Different strokes for different folks and whatnot, I guess.:)
I'd disagree completely. Both Doom 3 and, to a lesser extent, F.E.A.R. scared me. Granted, in Doom 3, I was in a jet black room and had my sound up to extreme levels, but when demons jumped out all up ons at times, I would scream.
Really, it all depends on how much you allow yourself to be immersed in the game. Pick a scary movie - any scary movie - and I won't bat an eyelash (provided there are no spiders, of course). It just doesn't phase me. Doom 3 scared the absolute shit out of me at times - which made me love it all the more.
half your earnings?
what the hell?
i make about 50k a year (i'm only 23, so give me some time). with that said, my taxes aren't anywhere even remotely in the vicinity of 50%. they're not even 33%.
i think you have some extraordinarily serious issues if you're giving 50% of your income to federal, state, and local governments (combined). like a pretty hefty case of bullshit followed by some pretty intense cockmongering idiocy.
Re:The seller gave permission
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I don't think that it can be considered a serious mental issue. Mental issue by itself, sure, maybe. Why not? We all have mental issues. I find the legs and ass of a woman attractive. Some dudes are partial to the boobs. I bet some guys out there are huge on noses or ears. If they let it affect their day to day life in a negative way, then yeah, maybe I'll buy "serious". Until then it's just "your thang". Or his thang, really.
As for the horrible MS Paint art, that is a serious mental issue.
No, some SATA chipsets won't work natively. Some do. Otherwise, how in the hell do I install XP to my Raptor without even owning a floppy drive, genius?
People can't seem to understand that. It's not illegal to have a monopoly. It is, however, illegal to use this monopoly to unfair advantage in another market. Illegal, my friends.
I notice that in my version of Firefox the search box defaults to Google, and that the pulldown menu of pre-entered options doesn't even include MSN Search, but Google seems to have been oddly quiet on that front for the many years prior to IE7 that Firefox has made this feature available.
Completely irrelevant. It's not Google's place to be fighting Microsoft's battles for it. I'm not even touching the fact that Microsoft has been found to be a monopoly. I'm sure there are dozens of others who will make this point emminently clear.
In theory, you're absolutely correct. But have you seen what passes for "journalism" these days? The difference between a blogger and the overwhelming majority of journalists these days is the same difference between letting some dude with a kitchen knife circumcise your child on a kitchen table and letting some dude with a kitchen knife circumcise your child on a poker table. There's virtually no difference aside from the venue. There are exceptions to this rule, and I salute their efforts at being responsible, circumspect, and informative, but most of what passes for journalism these days is utter garbage. I've seen better reporting out of some bloggers than i have most journalists.
Sorry, but I don't buy the concept that working at a major news network automatically entitles you to be known as a journalism, nor do I buy the concept that blogging automatically precludes you from journalism. If you can't see that, blame your own utter stupidity.
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Look and play better? That's a stretch. Quake 4 looks much worse in Linux than windows. Not that it much matters, as virtually every game you listed is utter shit. With the exception of NWN, but I can't replay that game one more time or my eyes will explode.
I realize you think you just made an awesome point, but until you can run every major game that comes out for windows, Linux is just not a viable alternative for me. Maybe for someone who games every couple of days or weeks for an hour or two, and doesn't much care what game they're playing, but for a hardcore gamer, it just isn't going to work. Keep up the good work, though. You've come a long way since Tux racer.
And incredibly freaking awesome, even if it would be an extinction level event. I don't want to die or anything, but if I'm going to, a: I want it to be in a really huge explosion, and b: I want all of New Jersey to go first.
Pfft. They send Naquadah asteroids our way, they get Jack Thompson. I agree, it's a devastating response completely outside the bounds of acceptable proportion, but I've about had it with their shenanigans and chicanery.
You make the assumption that, just because science doesn't have all the answers, we have faith that those answers will definitely be revealed to us in time. There's a certain amount of arrogance required to believe that we ever will know anything. I guess it's easy for one to assume that we, as scientists, believe that, when one has the arrogance to believe that in a universe of such epic proportions, a supernatural deity would deign to give even the most fleeting thought about any of our cosmically trivial lives.
Ah, then you must utterly misunderstand. I do enjoy challenging games. I especially enjoy challenging games, actually. I try each new game, hoping - praying - that it will be challenging and enjoyable, thus deserving to be purchased and played time and time again. The problem is, usually within the first 30 minutes, I realize the game is utter garbage. However, I force myself to give the game a chance. I think playing a game 50% of the way through will give me a fairly accurate understanding of the game, enough so that I can truly make the decision "delete or buy". And I do buy. Example: Oblivion. I already pirated the game. I had absolutely no reason to go out and spend 50$ on it, especially as it is only single player. Yet I did anyway, because I was going to continue playing the game. The others, where I routinely type `, god, and give all? I merely do that for some extremely simplistic carnage. That's more fun than the tedium of playing any more normally, and for a few short minutes, more fun than reading a book (I routinely spend in excess of 100$ per pay period (2 weeks) at amazon.com for books.) But then the repetitive nature hits home and I again end up typing `, followed by exit. I then uninstall, delete the ISO images, and never play the game again.
The whole point to this exercise is to truly give the game a chance. There were a few games in my past - Myth 1, for example, where I really did NOT like the first half an hour. Rather than ditch the game, I forced myself through it, and became a huge Myth and Myth 2 fanatic. Thus, I push myself to play enough that I feel I have truly uncovered most of what the game has to offer. After that, using God mode or weapon cheats is purely because I know the game has no redeeming qualities, and thus can't be "ruined" by making it easier. In fact, I'm eliciting the only sort of enjoyment possible from that game; mindless blood and gore. But that's only interesting for a few moments. Then it's off to the recycling bin.
Hopefully that clears a few things up.
Uh, no. Because, you see, I play halfway through. So either I put on God mode and play a few more levels before deleting it, or I go straight to deleting it. So take your pick, Martin. Cheats or no cheats. Either way, the game is mindnumbingly boring and going to get deleted.
I almost put that in there, because I, too, still play it. Fast paced, still a pleasure to play after a few years, fantastic net code/collision detection... it's pretty pathetic that I have it internally ranked as THE best MP game, and companies like ID are still spending millions on trying to get the latest and greatest graphics and physics.
Again, Dev Studios and Publishers, I don't need the absolute best graphics. With some competent artists, you can have a very nice looking game without killing yourselves over volumetric clouds or <insert latest eye candy term here> . I'm a fan of nice and good looking. And if you can pull off a game like Crysis, with all the eyecandy, and make it as fun to play as Tribes 2, then I'll buy the game and every expansion you come out with. I'll probably even buy the matching hat and tote bag, just to show my appreciation. Hell, you could even put up a tip jar, and I would donate extensively.
I WANT to give you my money. I'm pleading with you; please, please give me a reason to give you wads of cash. I want to make your game and company a success! I want more games where fun is almost literally oozing out my damn ears! But until you stop focusing on puzzle-levels that flip upside down and leftside right and inside up, ala Prey, which held my attention for a good 45 minutes before I deleted it and asked myself "now, why the fuck did I waste my time and bandwidth again?", then you're probably not going to see any cash from me.
You have to admit, there's something seriously wrong with the game industry if "pirates" like me can download a game for free and still think we paid too much for it, if only because it cost us money in terms of bandwidth and time. Did you ever think of that, Kevin from Id? Your games are sucking so bad, I don't even want to spend the effort of downloading them! So don't blame piracy for this one, bucko. Until you start making games that I want to play, you're going to be stuck catering to jackasses with consoles who wouldn't know a good game if it knocked them on the ground and teabagged them for an hour straight.
Unlike most people, I generally do buy the games I enjoy.
I haven't bought any games lately.
Why? Because, every time I try them out, whether downloading it 'yo ho ho and a bottle of rum'-style, or at a friend's, I end up hating it. I'll play it halfway through, put on god mode, type 'give all' or equivalent, play a few more levels, then type exit in console, uninstall, and delete.
I guess you can honestly say piracy IS hurting the game industry, but not in the "I'll download it and never pay for it ever and play it every day" sort of way you seem to be implying. It's more along the lines of going to buy an Impreza WRX, test driving a friend's for a few days, deciding that you love the acceleration and handling, but the interior is just too basic and plain for you to want to drive it every single day, so you buy an Audi A4 Quatro instead. To the Subaru dealership, they just lost out on a lot of money. But from my perspective, I did my research and was lucky enough to stop myself from buying something I wouldn't actually want. So, Dude-From-ID; if this is the sort of piracy hurting the industry that you speak of, then you don't have a single bit of compassion from me.
You want to get my money, developing studios and publishers? I have lots of it, and it's burning a hole in my wallet. I'll be thrilled to give it to you, actually. Only meet these simple guide lines.
1: Figure out some engaging multiplayer gameplay. I want to be able to play your for years. Not hours. I don't give a shit about your story. Your Single Player game is a complete afterthought to me. Something I do when I'm bored and the internet is out and it's raining outside, so I can't go play street hockey.
2: Make sure you have object collision, net code, and hit boxes down pat. Nothing is more irritating than getting killed by Tanks/Humvees that aren't even remotely close to your vicinity, but, through some fucked up net code, manage to kill you from 5 meters away.
3: Don't dumb the game down so fucking much. Noobs will always be noobs. The less complex you make the game, the more apt I am to get bored with it in days, rather than weeks, months, or years. Or at least find a way to make the game complex, challenging, and engaging, even after having played it for many hours. Even Counter-Strike can be fun after playing it for years, whereas Doom 3 Death Match is about as fun as gouging your eyeballs out with a spoon. And don't just add capture the flag and think that's the most you have to do. CTF is mind numbingly boring after a while. At least add some quirks to it that add some depth.
You say they'd have to specify minimum system requirements like it's a bad thing. Sure, some people are going to whine that they can't run it on their 1ghz Celeron, just like they complain about XP, or, god forbid, Vista. Big fucking deal. There's still a huge number of people out there who would be just fine with it. Plus, with a minimum spec defined, you'd probably find Dell and other companies extremely likely to start shipping computers that were OS X compatible, just like they made a point of doing as soon as XP was released.
You make the relatively large assumption that every person using OSS software is using Linux or *BSD. I try to use OSS in almost every aspect of my life except the OS. (Just to head off any questions as to why: I'm a gamer. I play games that *I* enjoy. These games are *only* found on Windows. I'm not going to not play these games just because someone else thinks they have better alternatives. If I thought as they did, I wouldn't be using Windows. But I don't. So I do. Okay? Good.)
OSS projects don't exactly have to kill themselves giving this information, you know. Take squid, for example. It says what it is, it tells you what it supports. Straight up, in your face, nice and easy. The main page is not a simple HTML list of appended patch notes for the last 3 years. It's not too hard to make your main page be a very brief, but telling synopsis of what your software does, while still maintaining your precious bug fixes and other release notes on another page. If your goal is to make the 5 people already using your software happy, then sure, continue with what you've been doing. If you're trying to get another 5000 people to use your software, you're probably going about it all wrong.
Good point on prostitution, I hadn't considered that.
As far as the others go; true enough, but I'd rather pay a few hundred dollars a year in taxes than a few thousand dollars a year in higher insurance fees. It just seems like a better bargain to me. Of course, I did just pull those numbers out of my ass, so it could be the exact opposite. I'm a software developer, dammit, not an economist!
Actually, I think "the land of the free" is an intellectually dishonest catchphrase, in general.
We all would love to live in a Land of the Free. It implies we have absolute control over our own actions, and "there ain't nobody that can tell us what to do!" Reminds me a lot of that feeling you get when you turn 18 and start flipping the bird to all and sundry.
The problem is that our actions, when taken in public, can have an effect on an awful lot of people. Riding without a helmet? Great. When you wreck and live in a persistent vegetative state, the Insurance Company has to cover it. The problem is, I'm paying into the same insurance company you are, so my rates (may) go up, just because you were too stupid to put a hat on your noggin. Ditto with seatbelts, only now you may have 4 people in comas for the rest of their life, and the cost increases dramatically.
If there was no monetary pain to me, at all, because you didn't want to wear a seatbelt or a helmet, go for it. After all, it is your life. If you can ensure that I don't have to pay a cent more because you want to risk it, I'm all for you not wearing helmets or belts. Or, rather, I'm all for your freedom to do as you wish. It's not my fucking job to keep you alive. I may tell you you're stupid and to put a seatbelt on, but that's just freedom of speech. It's not like you have to do what I say.
Drugs and gambling are somewhat similar, but subtly different. The only downsides to these: people, due to their dependence upon either, breaking the law and stealing shit to fund their habit. The subtle difference is that, the act, itself, does not DIRECTLY (or as-closely-indirectly-as-seatbelts-do) cost me any money. I mean, the justification for outlawing drugs is a: social (we don't want drug use in our community), which is, in my opinion, the antithesis of a "free" community, or b: financial (we don't want drug users stealing our stuff), which, in my opinion, has some grounding. But the problem is that the habit, for all of its power over the person, is too indirect, in my opinion, to be banned. Example: if I'm a billionaire, and I want to sit in my mansion all day and do coke, who the fuck are YOU to say that's wrong? it's my life, it's my house, and I'm paying for it with my own money. Right there, whether you agree with drug use or not - doesn't matter. It's about freedom. Ditto with gambling. But when a crackhead steals my bike to pawn at a pawnshop to finance their need, I tend to get a wee bit pissed off. With that said, I'd probably be just as pissed off if it was just a bunch of punk kids on a dare. Or a hobo who thought he'd take up cycling for unspecified personal reasons. So really, in this instance, it's not the drug use, or gambling, that is bad, it's what people CAN do to finance it. Which is, in my opinion, a separate issue. They may be linked, but they're not one in the same. If you're Michael Jordan and you want to gamble away crazy moneys in Poker, go for it. You've got the money, and I'm not going to tell you what to do. But if you steal something of mine, then you're a thief, and you need a swift kick in the teeth.
Prostitution is way different. That's just the moral police acting like the world will end if they don't "protect the people". I'm old enough, thanks. I can think for myself. Are you going to protect me from credit card debt, too? No? Then shut the fuck up and sit the fuck down. Legalize prostitution. Tax it. Spend that tax money on setting up education programs for prostitutes. If they have a pimp who is abusing them, protect them. Mandate monthly checkups. STDs.
Nanny state, true. In some ways. However, sometimes your freedom to do something impinges on my rights. In that case, maybe a law is in order. Maybe it isn't. That's what public debate is *supposed* to be about. Instead, it's just a bunch of boiled down, trite sound bites strung together to rally the masses. Phooie.
That's why the saying is "I'm no rocket scientist, but..." :)
They're teenagers. Their brains are already worthless paste.
Actually, it wouldn't be difficult. Depending on the item scanned at the register, it pops up a screen saying "is the customer over 17/18/21? Y/N" and won't let them continue with the sale until they hit the Y or N. this happens on tons of various items. for example, you can't even buy PB Blaster without breaking out the driver's license.
I think that, just from these few comments, it's pretty apparent that it all depends on the person. I didn't get scared in the slightest while playing Far Cry. I didn't even get overly anxious, and I never had that surge of adrenaline during a particularly tricky/difficult part. It was a lot like Quake 4 in that regard. Play through once, not so bad, toss it in the box of games, never play it again. Doom 3 and F.E.A.R. were different, for me. Different strokes for different folks and whatnot, I guess. :)
I'd disagree completely. Both Doom 3 and, to a lesser extent, F.E.A.R. scared me. Granted, in Doom 3, I was in a jet black room and had my sound up to extreme levels, but when demons jumped out all up ons at times, I would scream.
Really, it all depends on how much you allow yourself to be immersed in the game. Pick a scary movie - any scary movie - and I won't bat an eyelash (provided there are no spiders, of course). It just doesn't phase me. Doom 3 scared the absolute shit out of me at times - which made me love it all the more.
half your earnings? what the hell? i make about 50k a year (i'm only 23, so give me some time). with that said, my taxes aren't anywhere even remotely in the vicinity of 50%. they're not even 33%. i think you have some extraordinarily serious issues if you're giving 50% of your income to federal, state, and local governments (combined). like a pretty hefty case of bullshit followed by some pretty intense cockmongering idiocy.
I don't think that it can be considered a serious mental issue. Mental issue by itself, sure, maybe. Why not? We all have mental issues. I find the legs and ass of a woman attractive. Some dudes are partial to the boobs. I bet some guys out there are huge on noses or ears. If they let it affect their day to day life in a negative way, then yeah, maybe I'll buy "serious". Until then it's just "your thang". Or his thang, really.
As for the horrible MS Paint art, that is a serious mental issue.
Dave Chappelle already beat you to it...
No, some SATA chipsets won't work natively. Some do. Otherwise, how in the hell do I install XP to my Raptor without even owning a floppy drive, genius?
Beware blanket statements.
People can't seem to understand that. It's not illegal to have a monopoly. It is, however, illegal to use this monopoly to unfair advantage in another market. Illegal, my friends.
Illegal.
I'm pumped that your response will be swift and devestating.
The only thing I'm more pumped about is sending the red necks in first. The failed invasion of Canada may very well be the best war America ever lost.
In theory, you're absolutely correct. But have you seen what passes for "journalism" these days? The difference between a blogger and the overwhelming majority of journalists these days is the same difference between letting some dude with a kitchen knife circumcise your child on a kitchen table and letting some dude with a kitchen knife circumcise your child on a poker table. There's virtually no difference aside from the venue. There are exceptions to this rule, and I salute their efforts at being responsible, circumspect, and informative, but most of what passes for journalism these days is utter garbage. I've seen better reporting out of some bloggers than i have most journalists.
Sorry, but I don't buy the concept that working at a major news network automatically entitles you to be known as a journalism, nor do I buy the concept that blogging automatically precludes you from journalism. If you can't see that, blame your own utter stupidity.