The fate of the faction does not hinge upon one player, and by the time the game requires you to just sit in your capital city in case anyone tries to attack, what is the point of even playing? Might as well become a security guard and get paid to guard something.
Your Kara example doesn't apply because we're talking about a player-driven interruption that prevents you from doing that are normally possible.
And what happens to players who have no interest in taking part in all that? They just want to do some quest or visit a weapons trainer, but they can't because their capital city has been taken over. It's already annoying enough when enemy players kill critical NPCs and force you to just sit around wasting your time. On a PvE realm no less.
I argue that it is impossible to post anything on Slashdot that cannot be turned into a feverish, incoherent rant about US foreign policy by another Slashdotter.
Do you have any idea that instead of making a real argument you're just arbitrarily latching onto the words he used, which were completely appropriate and probably bothered nobody else in the world except you?
Games are based on repetition (that is cycling), almost every action you do in the real world is cyclical (thinking, moving, navigating, etc).
Except the real world is the real world and we usually play games to not be in the real world. Also, not all games are based on repetition. Singleplayer games don't usually have repetition in the MMORPG sense.
As far as WoW goes, the content doesn't suck but going through it multiple times is undoubtedly boring. Some measures have been taken to correct the situation, but they can't make it too easy for the players.
The only thing that really needs to go away is reputation grinding. WoW is a grinding game but there's a difference between running instances, leveling up and grinding one spot for a week straight (or longer) for reputation points.
And to add something more, gold farmers have major marketing campaigns in WoW. An endless stream of seemingly different services are endlessly spamming capital cities, sending whispers and even in-game mail. Some spammers will first whisper something like "hello:)" and when you reply they ask if you want gold. I don't know if they're bots. Also, on one realm I encountered something way more irritating than that: group invites. Like, all the fucking time. It got so bad I simply had to get an addon that blocks unsolicited invites, but on a few occasions it caused problems with legit players who I wanted to group with. If you wanted to you could get addons to block all gold spamming messages but I prefer to report them instead (only takes a few clicks).
Flamebait? No, fuck you. I'm expressing my honest opinion, and if you can't deal with that or if you don't have a valid counter-argument then tough shit, there's the door. You clearly don't what it takes to be on the Internet.
Muslim separatists seem to be fucking everywhere these days. You'd think they would all bugger off somewhere to the Middle-East, where there are plenty of different Islamic countries to choose from. But I guess they just can't rest knowing that there are still infidels out there. They must be conquered.
Finally a note to fellow Slashdotters. Muslims are actually encouraged to interpret the Islamic laws by themselves provided they have good background knowledge.
Muslims who question Islam are routinely persecuted, with or without violence, whether they live in the West or in an Islamic country. Encouraged to interpret Islamic laws? I don't think so.
This is why there are actually many "Schools of Jurispudence" or "Mazhab" where there are differences in interpretation of the Quran and Hadith.
All major Islamic schools of jurisprudence agree that apostates must be executed, so it doesn't look like they have any radical disagreements (at least as far as infidels, apostates etc. are concerned).
While there are congresses of learned clerics (ulama) you can (personally at least) choose to ignore their interpretation. Therefore, it is wrong to lump all Muslims as a monolithic group.
From an infidel's perspective, they are pretty much a monolithic group. They do the same shit everywhere, and I really don't care if some Joe Muslim the Random is different from them. It just doesn't make any practical difference out there in the real world.
I'm willing to bet he's DEA. Blackwater probably wouldn't hire someone who looked that scuzzy, but DEA agents frequently look like dirtbags. Would YOU sell dope to someone who looked like a federal agent?
This is probably true. Would it make sense for DEA agents to wear suits? Also, why wouldn't the DEA let you wear a Blackwater shirt? What's your reason for that?
Anyway, I still don't understand why the DEA would contract Blackwater for this type of work. I doubt drug busts are their area of expertise.
Also it would be cheaper if we just eliminated world hunger, brought every country up to 1st world standards and discovered an eternal energy source. Then later on we could all have some tea together and admire the rainbow.
Nope. Saying "well, all civilians could be armed, so they'll all be treated as such" is not OK, no matter how you define what OK is, as it means innocent civilians, who never even thought of picking up arms, are being punished for the actions of others, by being endangered. Collective punishment, which this is eerily similar to, is illegal under the geneva conventions. Easy != OK.
But the more civilians participate in combat, the more difficult it becomes for soldiers to distinguish between real civilians and civilians in disguise.
What to the west might be a "minor peacekeeping mission" is "life or death, protect my country, my people, my family, at all costs" to others.
They're not protecting their country, people or family. They're waging religious warfare against infidels and tribal warfare against the other guys. There is nothing noble about any of it.
There is no fairness in a war. Every side will use whatever advantage it has to gain or retain the upper hand, of if this is impossible, inflict as much damage as entirely possible. Period.
Except this isn't true at all. US forces restrict themselves all the time, and they're not allowed to do anything they want to. If you want utterly immoral and completely unrestricted warfare then go to Africa or something.
Slashdot Mirror
Slashdot would greatly benefit from disabling anonymous commenting.
Again, it's totally different. Player-driven interruption prevents normal gameplay from happening.
Oh nice false dilemma you've got going on here.
Er, no, I don't think this has any connection to slavery. Penny Arcade was just joking about cutting out the middleman.
The fate of the faction does not hinge upon one player, and by the time the game requires you to just sit in your capital city in case anyone tries to attack, what is the point of even playing? Might as well become a security guard and get paid to guard something.
Your Kara example doesn't apply because we're talking about a player-driven interruption that prevents you from doing that are normally possible.
That's not an argument since the guy was talking about a situation where gold farming does not exist at all.
And what happens to players who have no interest in taking part in all that? They just want to do some quest or visit a weapons trainer, but they can't because their capital city has been taken over. It's already annoying enough when enemy players kill critical NPCs and force you to just sit around wasting your time. On a PvE realm no less.
I argue that it is impossible to post anything on Slashdot that cannot be turned into a feverish, incoherent rant about US foreign policy by another Slashdotter.
Do you have any idea that instead of making a real argument you're just arbitrarily latching onto the words he used, which were completely appropriate and probably bothered nobody else in the world except you?
Except the real world is the real world and we usually play games to not be in the real world. Also, not all games are based on repetition. Singleplayer games don't usually have repetition in the MMORPG sense.
As far as WoW goes, the content doesn't suck but going through it multiple times is undoubtedly boring. Some measures have been taken to correct the situation, but they can't make it too easy for the players.
The only thing that really needs to go away is reputation grinding. WoW is a grinding game but there's a difference between running instances, leveling up and grinding one spot for a week straight (or longer) for reputation points.
And to add something more, gold farmers have major marketing campaigns in WoW. An endless stream of seemingly different services are endlessly spamming capital cities, sending whispers and even in-game mail. Some spammers will first whisper something like "hello :)" and when you reply they ask if you want gold. I don't know if they're bots. Also, on one realm I encountered something way more irritating than that: group invites. Like, all the fucking time. It got so bad I simply had to get an addon that blocks unsolicited invites, but on a few occasions it caused problems with legit players who I wanted to group with. If you wanted to you could get addons to block all gold spamming messages but I prefer to report them instead (only takes a few clicks).
Might as well get it out of the way.
http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2005/02/16/
http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2006/4/14/
I've used Adblock for ages. Web advertising is just too obnoxious these days.
What does the scouter say about its power level?!
That's pretty much what this law professor/former defense attorney says at some point.
Flamebait? No, fuck you. I'm expressing my honest opinion, and if you can't deal with that or if you don't have a valid counter-argument then tough shit, there's the door. You clearly don't what it takes to be on the Internet.
Yeah. The NSA sends Sam Fisher.
Well shit! I would have gone with someone who's younger and in better shape!
I heard the company he buys the carbon offsets from is owned by him.
Muslim separatists seem to be fucking everywhere these days. You'd think they would all bugger off somewhere to the Middle-East, where there are plenty of different Islamic countries to choose from. But I guess they just can't rest knowing that there are still infidels out there. They must be conquered.
Muslims who question Islam are routinely persecuted, with or without violence, whether they live in the West or in an Islamic country. Encouraged to interpret Islamic laws? I don't think so.
All major Islamic schools of jurisprudence agree that apostates must be executed, so it doesn't look like they have any radical disagreements (at least as far as infidels, apostates etc. are concerned).
From an infidel's perspective, they are pretty much a monolithic group. They do the same shit everywhere, and I really don't care if some Joe Muslim the Random is different from them. It just doesn't make any practical difference out there in the real world.
A Boing Boing comment:
This is probably true. Would it make sense for DEA agents to wear suits? Also, why wouldn't the DEA let you wear a Blackwater shirt? What's your reason for that?
Anyway, I still don't understand why the DEA would contract Blackwater for this type of work. I doubt drug busts are their area of expertise.
Also it would be cheaper if we just eliminated world hunger, brought every country up to 1st world standards and discovered an eternal energy source. Then later on we could all have some tea together and admire the rainbow.
But the more civilians participate in combat, the more difficult it becomes for soldiers to distinguish between real civilians and civilians in disguise.
They're not protecting their country, people or family. They're waging religious warfare against infidels and tribal warfare against the other guys. There is nothing noble about any of it.
Except this isn't true at all. US forces restrict themselves all the time, and they're not allowed to do anything they want to. If you want utterly immoral and completely unrestricted warfare then go to Africa or something.