Walsingham

Something's coalesced for me, which is what you might call 'reasonable use' defence. That is, there are things, from computer games, to Ben & Jerry's ice-cream, to jogging, which are dangerous if used beyond reasonable levels; but which are neutral and even beneficial within reasonable use levels. Society at present seems to be struggling to cope with many of these things. Fast food, alcohol, sex, among them. Does that sound true?

*wince* Knowing some of the guys who worked on Football Factory I'd say it was still there though. Buyt whatever you say about our hooligans they're not as heavily armed as Croatia's. Anyway, that aside I wonder whether anyone's going to kick the FA's butt now that it's been established this isn't just a smackdown for national pride. Being knocked out is estimated to have dented the Uk economy to the tune of 2 BILLION pounds (that's about 14 BILLION USD ). As the popular refrain goes "something must be done".

I would argue that isolationism is history repeating itself. If intervention in Vietnam put off or prevented full-on war with Soviet Russia then surely it was worth it?

Who was JP Morgan?

*cheerfully* ...Because clearly an aggressively expanding communist bloc could have been expected to stop at Vietnam, and not go on to take over Laos and Cambodia, followed by Thailand, Burma, Malaysia, Indonesia... Australia... India... that would have been just fine. Isn't that right, my unfeasibly 1920s friend?

You're kidding right? Obama was the one who consistently stood against the US' involvement in Iraq, while Hillary initially 'approved' Bush's decision only to turncoat after polls showed that most of the US citizen were against going to Iraq. I gotta admit though, Hillary has a nice smile. She has a crazy smile. But the joker's smile isn't as crazy as judging the politics, perspective, and intelligence of a person by how their face moves. Or are you simply saying you only want professional actors?

You should give me a heads up on this kind of thing. I quite enjoy acting snooty! Quick, put on this labcoat and monocle. Now then... Deadlynightshade, I get your point. I'm a bit leery of making it an objective of the game. After all, acting out things we wouldn't want to do is part of gaming. Or... I'm far too tired to discuss this now, but it occurs to me that in animals and in simpler cultures games are there to train you to do stuff. Hell, the military use games to train soldiers. Now if those things are true then why presume there is no training element in recreational games?

Love it.

I'm a wee bit confused. The candidate actually understands a perspective point of 'muslim culture'. The Army are working flat out to recruit as many Islam-aware people as possible in the war on terror; but for some reason it's bad in the CinC?

Tactics was a whole lot of quite interesting fights, joined by a linear story. It was relatively interesting. But I always felt it could have been much better with only a little more effort. Just a few more tangents. But then in the dev forum here they've said content is the biggest time-eater.

Sorry, Tale. I sounded more snotty than I meant. I was aiming for a snooty 'check out us psychologists' thing. The most compelling studies I've seen suggest that violence in art don't make us more aggressive, but they can change the way we choose to express aggression. We've moved from thumping someone to murdering their entire family and eating their pets.

When I was younger and a lot more nimble I used to enjoy getting locked out. My crowning achievement was using garden twine to lassoo tools through the catflap and unscrewing/jacking up the extension roof. I also used to simply shin up the front of the building. *sigh* funny how when you look back you realise you were awesome. And drunk.

Then we'll have to agree to disagree Fair enough.

You and I both know that there's a difference between passive movie watching and operant behaviour.

Sorrry about being absent. i am following, but I'm a bit overloaded.

No I'm not gonna turn down the heat, I'll express myself how I feel and what I think and if you have a problem with it, since you're the moderator, ban me. I'm not going to ban you. I am going to express myself with the same rights you have. I don't think it's cool to get quite so aggressive over sports. Simple.

Happy Birthday! (This IS a thread for random birthdayness)

I disagree. If violent games were truly realistic you'd spend the next five years in freaking therapy.

Ouch.

Hey, man. Turn down the heat a little. It's not cool to dance like that. And certainly not when you aren't wearing pants.

Now I'm confused. I'm not talking about a computer black box which magically creates cool stories. 1) I'm talking about a set of creative mind tools for making creativity more efficient. Something like the Standard Solutions in TRIZ. 2) A black box would be neat for handling the less than genius bits of an RPG, like the maps, and bad guy fights.

I hope, btw, that I'm not giving the impression Croatia didn't do a top job to beat us. in fact it really proves my point. You can have al the sports physicians and money in the World. But if your heart's not in it, and if you're being undermined (see Tigranes) then you're asking to get beaten.

I wonder what would happen if you said that in a pub full of fellow Pommy football fans. I'd have to explain fast. As I say I'm sick of us just bimbling along without really doing well, hanging on by our fingernails. I'm hoping that this will spur a complete reqork of our approach to football. If I were in teh pub I'd bang on about patriotism, a-holes at the FA, and how the fans are always getting shafted for profit. hopefully insteda of me getting beaten up we'd go straight out and burn down FA headquarters.

Woah! Jeebus! Willya calm down? I don't think I've seen such an impassioned rant. Did we really refuse to shake hands? That sounds rather odd to say the least. Anyway, I guess we lost tonight, so I got my 'wish'.