Walsingham

Your point would be worth considering were the war justifiable or not. Indeed, one could argue that if it WERE justifiable that would make it even more effective as an advertisement for shooting people you didn't like. My objection to this idea is the notion that people take their moral cues from government. If they did I doubt we should ever have experieenced anything except the most grotesque offences against each other.

I went paintballing yesterday and am now all bruises. Not from the paintballs, but from crashing into the ground, and trees. It's amazing how one doesn't realise how badly hurt one is at the time. Got chatted up in the pub yesterday by a rather gorgeous brunette, and fixed a date for Tuesday. I deduce from this that I am most sexy when I have mud in my hair and am limping.

Firstly I like to complain about the lack of judgemental arrogance. Could we please have more? More judgemental arrogance I say! I agree with ~Di that parenting is not an exact science. I don't think it makes any sense based on the scanty 'evidence' available that the kid's parents were over-protective. It sounds to me like with regard to the internet they took sensible protections. We have no idea how they treated their kids outside the internet. They could have sent her out to sweep chimneys. In any case, as I say, the point is that they behaved responsibly. This is not to say that some parents appear to cause problems by being too protective. But who can say for sure? I mean, my parents were pretty good, took me into bloody warzones and made sure I brushed my teeth etc etc, and look at me!

@ Gothic 3, which I found aggressively tedious. I figured that the content would liely be the biggest issue, and (fanboy alert) this is also what makes Obs games absolute class for me. I love the content. I suppose in general one would only have two options to get ahead in this area. The first would be to acquire content in a cheaper way taht ran in parrallel to mainstream plot, perhaps by way of fan based subsidiary quests, characters and dialogue. Unfortunately this might compromise quality. The second option which might be interesting is to use a mental toolkit to be creative and efficient about content. Something like what TRIZ does for creative engineering. Basically ways to accelerate the process of having a cool idea, and expand it to take in further notions and ideas. I'd been thinking about this for a while and was thinking that basic quests tend to adhere to some simple rules of architecture. However, I'm hardly a world class dev, so I wonder how this sounds to you guys.

Fair point. Maybe it's just cause I'm tired, but it does make a difference if guns are REALLY easy to get hold of. I just don't see the solution as being about total banning of guns. Such a soluution punishes people who wouldnever harm someone with a firearm, and fails to tackle the heart of the matter with connection to crimes of passion and insanity. The former should be dealt with by better spiritual training, and the latter by more effective psychiatiric care.; both in society as a whole, not just gun owners. With regard to spiritual training, I'm going to be really unpopular and ask what effect a spiritual diet of nothing but NWN2 would have on a kid.

Interesting piece, covering something I was already tracking. My view (which is also in the article) is that a surge in violence is pretty predictable. 1. Sadr was a real second stringer, who capitalised on his father's (seemingly justified) reputation, and then capitalised on the dissatisfaction of young shiite men to from a party with a militant agenda using the gun. 2. Sadr wants to be taken seriously as a politician, and is now bargaining for a senior place at table by promising an end to violence. The trouble is the young men are even angirer now, because y'know, they just spent the last three years blowing up their own country and scaring away jobs. 3. Sadr seems to be clearing house, and may be using this time to remove people strong enough to claim his role as leader on a 'kill everyone' ticket. 4. If the above is correct then we have to look for Sadr to win his murderous purge. Isn't politics fun? EDIT: A similar dynamic is at play in Nigeria with the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta. A brokered ceasefire has provoked a splinter group to hive off and commence bombing again. POST-EDIT: And before that we saw something similar with the Real IRA, or as I like to call them: I Can't Believe It's Not Murder. ~~ I would also like to retract my use of the word 'jackass' to describe Sand. Simply because a man does not accept second order dynamics, and doesn't listen to a word I've said does not give me the right to be insulting. I apologise for my tone, but stand by my objection. 'Truth' does not excuse hammering on a family's heartache.

I agree with this sentiment. I'm a little surprised that anyone would view this with what sounds like pseudo-Drawinian satisfaction. I've seen the strongest people being weak at one time or another. It happens. I don't think it's wise to push people when they're in that state. On the other hand, and linking to GD's observation, this sounds like another kid trying to shore up their own insecurities. With such a rapid transition from gleeful to zero they probably had no idea how seriously they were affecting her, rather than this being bullying in the classic sense. As for making a law for it, given I don't think there's any culpability that would seem nonsensical.

Matters personal.

Prank responses are better. Obvious salesperson caller (bored): "Hello, may I speak to Mr Soandso" Me (Deep Scots accent): Was that Colonel Sonandso?" Caller: "Mr Soandso, the head of the household." Me "Aye, ye might call him that. I'll put you through." *long pause on hold* Me (very posh English): "Yes? Colonel Soandso speaking" Caller: "Hello Mr Soandso..." Me: "That's colonel..." Caller: "I'd like to talk to you about double glazing." Me (cross): "Look, who is this? Where are you calling from?" Caller: I'm calling from Thisandthat glaziers, to discuss our winter deals. Me: And how did you get this number? Caller: Erm... we have a list we call through. Me: And you got MY number through this list? Caller: Yes Me: And you have no idea WHERE you've rung, do you? Caller: Not really Me: Look, I'm too busy to clean this up right now. I want you to go and speak your supervisor when this is over and have this number erased from your list PERMANENTLY. This facility should certainly not be on a bloody double glazing sales list. Apart from anything else we're underground. Is that clear? Caller (scared): Yes. Absolutely. I'm very sorry. Me: You came through directly or were you transferred? Caller: I was transferred. Me (with deep disgust): Huh. *I hang up.* *We receive no more calls from this company* The above works especially well if you can field it through several people. The best wheeze is to have each person transfer the caller curtly without really finding out what they want, and punting them through a sequence of seceretaries/ guard rooms first.

Points well taken. I know and accept that any government mandated system is likely to wind up being administered by cretins and thereby fail, but it has to be worth trying? I suggest we bring in Fionavar as Fio strikes me as someone who knows this kind of thing. There again, maybe the real point I'm driving at is the general principle of educating the population at large that violence isn't the way forward in most situations. Failing that, the notion that gun violence isn't the way. If you HAVE to hurt people don't kill the swine.

GD you make an interesting point. It does indeed suggest that there is a significant difference between legal and illegal gun owners. Would you happen to know how many offenders are repeat criminal offenders? I'm beginning to think that maybe the answer is legal ownership if done in conjunction with lessons in responsible use and anger management, possibly adding in non-firearms self-defence. Thoughts?

Thanks for taking the trouble to explain your views so clearly and logically, Azarkon. It's a pleasure to read. Unfortunately, you've given me a lot to chew over and I'm not ready to respond yet. I do, however, disagree that partition is the solution, after getting partway througha number of books I've been given by Alex de Waal. He talks about the history of conflict in the Sudan. He observes that although a north/south split is what everyone is pursuing, it really fails to account for the myriad east/west and patchy local conflicts. Divide to make peace and you'll end up with an unworkable mess. [assuming I've correctly understood him] To a certain extent I think he would argue in favour of 'growing up' a little. What is needed is a pinch of federalism, combined with a heck of a lot of tough the **** up. Sacrifices are needed to get through this, including the sacrifice of short term interests. An often universally repeated truth, viz British efforts to make peace in Northern Ireland. Sand, we've already taken apart your bizarre notion that only money spent within the geographic boundaries of the US benefits the US. The whole point about 9/11, and Pearl Harbour, and the sinking of the Lusitania before that, is that things outside the US affect the US. If Iraq goes down the tubes, and the entire region begins taking weekly nuclear jihad classes your domestic issues will seem pretty small beer. In any event, I still say it would kinder to at least mention the reasons why their sons may NOT have died in vain. It's called compassion.

Nice to see you doing your bit to help them with their grief, jackass. For a man who has claims a quasi-religious mission to keep his nose out of other people's affairs you don't seem to practice what you preach. If I can stick with the training I'm due to get posted in about year's time, and if I die I can tell you right now it won't be in vain unless people like you have their way. It is neither sane nor moral to write off the agony of a nation over a quibbling point of order. Or am I appealing to a Christian principle of assisting those who are weak and in pain, which you contend is evil?

And you wouldn't be alarmed iof you saw a live grenade on the sidewalk? I think Eddie Izzard summed it up nicely: "Guns don't kill people. People kill people. And so do monkeys, if they have guns."

You should have thought of that in college. Too late now. I wanted 'Horde of rampaging tarrasques! Krie! Krie!' as my appellation.

I'm furious because the real lesson which ought to be drawn from _this particular case_ is being missed. this was a young man who needed help. The system failed to pick up on it, and neither helped him nor imposed any kind of control over him. I guess it makes me extra angry because there is worldwide an almost total absence of mental health care which either cares for the individual or protects society. We've had cases in the UK where men have gone nuts with knives and killed/maimed more than a handful at a time. I'm in favour of gun control more generally not to prevent random fruitloops but to prevent crimes of passion, and a general vigilante mentality that weakens the processes and institutions of law enforcement.

http://forums.obsidianent.com/index.php?sh...15&start=15 Comment by Tale here, complaining about generic-ness of guns in FPS. I was wondering WHY guns are similar in the far distant galaxy of Booblyboo, and it occurred to me that this is because weapons are essentially the same. They deliver to an object in such a way that the object is incapable of absorbing/transmuting/reflecting the energy. Within those constraints you really have only a finite number of options. 1. A single maximised delivery, optimised for either range, or delivery (sniper or slugger) 2. A wide array attack, either rapidity of the above or a diffused delivery (mahine gun or shotgun) 3. An all round detonation, delivered by hand or secondary force 4. Various armour piercing versions of the above. You can have a wide array of mechanical means of exciting the energy, burt really it always boils down to the above. True or false?

Tigranes will kick butt on teh highest difficulty setting since, if memory serves, he IS Korean.

I just found time to finish Neverwinter Nights 2 original campaign. I have to say that I LIKED the influence system a lot more when I saw what it was leading up to. in retrospect it made a lot of sense throughout the game, and introduced some much needed thinking into my interactions with the other party members. Above all it made me think a lot harder about who my character really liked and believed in. Which is awesome. AWESOME. Other than that I don't think there's much point telling them to be better project managers. It's like telling me to eat more pies. However, kudos for the feedback.

I was curious to find out which creative tasks take the longest to do in making a crpg. I ask because Hellgate London seems to have opted for a 'random encounter generator' for much of the fighting/level design. My first thought was 'ooh how clever', but it seems to annoy a lot of people. Is there scope in a crpg for randomly generated filler, and if so how cunning would it need to be? How about all those random bits of dialogue with incidental characters? Surely there must be dialogue generators out there which coud handle trivial conversations.

Er, yeeees.

Guinness.

I stand corrected. you are right, of course to remind me that some folks have serious unavoidable problems manifesting as awkwardness. On a similar note, and keeping in mind I'm in favour of gun control I was furious to see this incident being used opportunistically as an excuse to beat the drum. I think it's pretty clear that in this instance the failure was in pastoral care and support, not gun control. The boy was clearly capable of committing vilence in other ways, since he had in his possession bomb making manuals.

Samm, you're making a good point when you say that isolation is a problem more than death metal or whatever. However, in my experience - and I'd be interested to hear if anyone agrees - many of those who are isolated are: 1. Pretty inept and selfish to begin with (for reasons beyond me). 2. Exagerrate their awkwardness by listening to music no-one else likes, and indulging in excessive displays of irritation and anger. I'm really just saying that while people around these people have to look to tehir own behaviour a bit, it's not like it's everyone's fault but the munta in the middle. I speak as someone who has had a fair amount to do with teenagers over the years, as a sports coach, employer, and latterly as an Army recruit. But as i say, I'd like to know if anyone agrees.