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| 2007/6/16 [Uncategorized] UID:46977 Activity:nil |
6/15 Dear old men. Why do you enjoy banging 17 year olds? |
| 2007/6/16-18 [Politics/Domestic/Abortion, Politics/Domestic/Election] UID:46978 Activity:nil 76%like:46895 |
6/16 Romney is not a flip-flopper, he was just "won over"
http://www.csua.org/u/ixt |
| 2007/6/16-18 [Transportation/Car] UID:46979 Activity:low |
6/16 http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070615/ap_on_re_us/buried_belvedere ".. and the contents of a typical woman's handbag placed in the glove compartment: 14 bobby pins, a bottle of tranquilizers, a ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ \_ Maybe it was the equivalent of today's antidepressant drugs. lipstick, a pack of gum, tissues, a pack of cigarettes, matches and $2.43." Maybe feminism was a good idea after all. \_ Hmmm...my dad's got the exact same car. They don't make them like that any more. -scottyg |
| 2007/6/16 [Recreation/Dating] UID:46980 Activity:nil |
6/16 Why I only date Asian women: it's popular and it makes you more
ethnically conscious and more socially sophisticated. In fact
we only hang out with other Caucasian/Asian couples because
they're more intellectually stimulating to be with. In the Bay
Area, dating Asian allows you to be accepted in the society more
easily. It is almost a necessity. -Asian fetish guy |
| 2007/6/16-19 [Reference/History/WW2/Germany] UID:46981 Activity:high |
6/16 It's been over 50 years. Why the hell are we still fascinated
by Hitler? 1/2 of History Channel's programs are on Hitler.
\_ We won WW2. Mission Accomplished! Happy ending.
\_ It's also known as "The Hitler Channel"
The most despised man in the entire history history of mankind,
is also one of the most popular persons to talk about today.
Ironic isn't it?
\_ Apparently THC has a preference for WWII footage because it's out
of copyright, so they don't have to pay royalties for news tapes
and such. Footage from newer wars is more expensive, and there's no
video from older wars, so war shows focus on what they've got. If
you're asking why THC shows so many war shows, that's a different
matter.
\_ Defeating Hitler was America's biggest rah-rah moment. Everything
else is ambiguous. World War I did not have a clear reason or
moral basis, and the ending was unsatisfying. Japan had the moral
question of the use of nuclear weapons. Vietnam was the darkest
era in American history since the Civil War. (Possibly now
eclipsed by the Dubya era). Bottom line; no one wants to be
depressed by their TV. -tom
\_ may be they should run a special on Operation Desert Storm.
We totally kicked ass on that one! :D
\_ I think it's the old man market. also they show
MAIL CALL.
\_ MAIL CALL. HOO-RAH.
\_ Except most of the actual work, from breaking Wehrmacht's back
in the East, to actually storming Berlin was done by Russia.
\_ GOOOOOO JOE!
\_ I don't watch the history channel much, but I'm pretty sure
they don't emphasize Russia's role. -tom
\_ "I don't watch much but ...". Yes they do. Sheesh.
\_ they mentioned it, but I think it's not to the
proportion which USSR deserves.
\_ On what? One show? I've seen entire programs
devoted to single battles between the Germans and
Russians in WWII. Oh no, boo hoo, the poor Russians
don't get enough credit for WWII on THC! Anyone
watching THC knows what the Russians did, even if
THC is their only source of WWII information.
\_ I talked to some tv people. it's about 50 percent
lack of royalties needed for ww2 footage, 40 percent
old man market, maybe 10 percent war is depressing.
\_ Because it isn't every day that there's a world war which includes
huge troop movements, fighting on land/sea/air, the destruction of
entire countries, genocide on an industrial scale, and enough
quality film to make a worth while documentary on it. As far as
THC goes, I've had THC on all day/evening for the last few days
and haven't seen a single word about Hitler or WWII. So what are
you talking about? But if you want to know about Ice Road Truckers,
(in HIGH DEF!) I'm with you, Brother!
\_ Personally, I prefer Strawberry Cough to Diesel for my THC.
\_ I prefer Dogfights. Cool animation.
\_ E_TOOSHORT
\_ Care to elaborate?
\_ Snazzy dresser, liked dogs & children, sexy mustache. -John
\_ I think ther Germans today are more obsessed with Hitler's sins
than us.
than we are.
\_ Rightly so. Why do you think that might be, hmmm?
\_ "The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars,
But in ourselves, that we are underlings." -- ilyas |
| 2007/6/16 [Reference/Religion, Politics/Foreign/MiddleEast/Israel] UID:46982 Activity:nil |
6/16 Jew victim of racism
http://www.csua.org/u/ixx |
| 2007/6/16-19 [Uncategorized] UID:46983 Activity:nil |
6/16 It's Bloomsday. Drink something.
\- E_HELYS |
| 2007/6/16-20 [Recreation/Computer/Games] UID:46984 Activity:high |
6/16 article on chinese (gold) farmers --psb
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/17/magazine/17lootfarmers-t.html
\_ I never really understood why people pay real cash for loot in
these games. They don't take that long to hit the level cap and
long before you're there you should have more cash than you know
what to do with. And really, isn't getting loot and leveling the
whole point of these games?
\_ Becuase some loot is mind numbingly boring to get, and the only
'challenge' is putting in the time to acquire it. Take the
worst case -- epic flying mount, which once you have the level,
the only requirement is 5000g. You can 'farm' -- repeatedly
killing stuff for gold, netting, say 50g an hour -- thats a
100 hour investment. Or you can just go buy the gold for real
cash from one of these operations. But many of the 'best
stuff' is not buyable, you have to 'earn it' yourself in big
raids. But much of the raid design requiers you to get potions
and enchants to prepare for the raid, and THIS is stuff you can
buy from others (including farming operations). There are many
who would prefer to raid rather than farm for materials to
support their raiding. The guild Nihilum, who were the first to
complete some end-game boss raids, admitted to doing this, at
one point.
\_ Ok, I can see how that goes. But it seems to me that rather
than pay someone to do the 'boring' parts of the game it
would be better to play a different game. If all games have
parts that are (semi)mandatory but boring then maybe it would
be better if everyone just stopped playing these sorts of
games until developers respond.
\_ OK, you get on that WoW boycott and let us know how it
works for you.
\_ I bought my copy a month after it started. I played for
about 5 nights and just stopped. It was totally boring
and I didn't even get to the point of grinding anything.
\_ 5 days isn't far enough into the game to see any
of this.
\_ 5 days into the game was more than enough to see
that it was a boring waste of time and effort. As
I said I didn't get the "opportunity" to grind
the game because it sucked too much to bother to
get that far.
\_ I don't know about pp, but my Wow boycott has been great
for me. I save money, have more time, AND don't have to
grind. I recommend it.
\_ Me too. I play other games still, so I'm not saving
that much time, but I get a much greater variety of
experiences. I can play Angband if I want to grind.
The social aspect of WoW isn't very interesting
and requires large chunks of time to maintain.
An MMO with more focus on player-driven world
economy and power would be more interesting for me.
Still hard to avoid the time sink effect in a
realtime game world.
\_ EVE onlnie has much of this. The problem is it
is hard to find direction in their world. There
is no clear path of quests and levelling to follow
and puts of a lot of people. the "now, what do I
do ??" effect.
\_ Sounds like you are not tall enough for EVE.
\_ I have read about EVE and yeah it's the one
that seems closest however it is still based
on grinding for resources at heart. At least
your group can struggle for the most lucrative
places and stuff. Still too much work stuff.
In a single player game you can play someone
who is really special, as opposed to superhero
class 14881 instance 74941781, wait in line
to kill evil overlord #4281 for the 654819th
time.
\_ "The Grind" is a design feature of MMOs. People enjoy
MMOs for the same reason they enjoy exercise -- there is
an endorphin release involved with delayed gratification.
People who bypass 'the grind' perhaps crave adrenaline
release instead. http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/exercise.png
-- ilyas
\_ The Grind is an example of poor story design. A better
idea would be more single-player quests. Hard to tell if
this is a limitation of the system or the designers.
\_ 'The grind' has nothing to do with 'the story.'
Look at angband -- it's all grind, no story, and
people play it. 'The story' caters to people who view
video games like a book, 'the grind' caters to
people play it. 'The story' caters to people who
view video games like a book, 'the grind' caters to
people who view video games like exercise. The grind
isn't really a flawed concept -- it fulfills a
need in certain sorts of players. Are 'one-armed
bandits' in Vegas flawed? You need to get away from
this "I don't like it -> it must be bad design" thing.
Actually angband reminded me of another
this "I don't like it -> it must be bad design"
thing. Actually angband reminded me of another
psychologically powerful feature of 'the grind' --
it relies on uncertain rewards, and so results in
gambling behavior where you gamble with your time
instead of your money. Delayed gratification coupled
with uncertain rewards is powerfully addictive stuff.
-- ilyas
\_ If I understand you correctly, you're saying that
the Grind is like Minesweeper. That's cool, but
minesweeper is an opt-in activity, not one you
have to play N times before you're allowed to
play Freecell. If the Grind were option, if you
could level w/o Grinding, I'd buy your argument.
Since you generally cannot, I suggest to you that
the Grind is used in place of good story dev.
\_ There is no freecell, though. The grind never
stops, you never get past it to get at some
other phase of the game. If you don't like
the grind you shouldn't play games with grind
in it. Perhaps what confuses you is that
leveling has two purposes in games -- it's
a tool to pace content consumption, and it's
(one of the) tools for grinding. Sounds like
you are interested in content consumption,
and that's fine -- there are plenty of games
built on that. But that doesn't imply there
is something wrong with the grind as a gameplay
feature. A pure 'content consumption' game
would be something like Myst. A pure 'grind'
game would be something like angband (or diablo
its derivative). Both are fine games, they
just appeal to very different players. -- ilyas
\_ Well, those grind games do have some sort of
content: new monsters, areas, and abilities.
So the gameplay does change a bit over time.
This stuff is fairly minor of course, but
it keeps the grind feeling fresh over time.
Diablo also has a few high quality movies
to reward you. In the long run it is simple
gambling for random items as you say.
\_ The new monsters are just like the old
monsters with more hit points and they
hit back harder. The new areas is just
a bigger place to walk through, killing
more play time. New abilities can change
game play but not if it is just "spell
damage++". I played several MMOs for
years and just don't see the point
anymore.
\_ I don't see the point either, although
I did enjoy Diablo where you could
beat it in reasonable time. I was just
pointing out that the different quests
and such is content and takes writers
and artists and such. I wasn't
commenting on the value of it.
\_ Most of this thread can be summed
up by an exchange that occurred
between me and a friend who really
wanted me to get into Diablo:
Me: "Liked D, but thought it repetitive."
Him: (Ironically) "Ya think?"
\_ The 'grind' in general is a means of keeping players *in*
the game, in that they have limited developer time to design
the 'end game stuff' and once players have it, then what?
in a few days they get bored and quit. These games are
subscription based, keeping them in the same game is how
the publisher gets money. Unlike a pay to buy the game model
where you want the players to burn through the game and get
a new one. I don't really agree with the model here, but
its what they do.
\_ I suspect there will come a point where either someone
designs a game that isn't like that and kills the entire
current crop or enough people just give up on the MMORPG
thing that the genre slowly fades away. I hope for the
former.
\_ I am taking bets that neither the former nor the
latter will ever happen. -- ilyas |
| 2007/6/16-19 [Reference/History/WW2/Germany] UID:46985 Activity:kinda low 61%like:46987 |
6/16 Heil German John! Even the 72 year olds are mighty!
http://www.csua.org/u/ixy
\_ You got it all wrong. It's "Heil Almightly German Nazi Squirell!"
\_ You may refer to me as SS Poster Boy. -John
\_ You may refer to me as SS GBIB. -John |
| 2007/6/16-19 [Politics/Domestic/President/Bush] UID:46986 Activity:nil |
6/16 Thank God Bush's stormtroopers are protecting America from
toddlers with sippy cups:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070616/ap_on_re_us/airport_sippy_cup |
| 2007/6/16 [Uncategorized] UID:46987 Activity:nil 61%like:46985 |
6/16 Heil German John! Did your father kill this squirrel?
http://www.csua.org/u/ixy |
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