alanschu

Lately I have taken a decidedly more proactive approach to speaking up when people piss me off, because I was notoriously bad for just taking it in the past. I find it funny though because of zee facebook dramas. Friend cancelations and everything. That's serious ****! I'm actually kinda looking forward to the holidays now EDIT: Numbers I knew you wouldn't let me down

I have decided to NOT let this become a drama situation for me. And quite frankly your assessment is spot on IMO, so no offense taken. The thing that got me was the hypocrisy and dramatization. She's pissed at me, fine whatever. Her aunt (whom I never cared for) is obviously going to take her side, so whatever. I told my parents that I'd abstain from family get togethers simply to keep things simple (I'll still chill with them. THey're my parents and I like them haha). I told my Mom to not stoop to their level and to remember that there's two sides of the story. I might consider letting my other cousins (whom I really like) know that she and I had a spat, and not say much more aside from saying that there's two sides to a story and I have nothing against them. Like I said, I find the aftermath the most surprising thing, and it makes me feel rather vindicated about the whole ordeal.

Soooooooooooooo, As some of you may have known, I was messing around with YouTube the other day, and uploaded some COD 4 videos of me playing for fun. I also posted this on my Facebook for any of my friends there to see. Turns out because there was still some sort of processing being done, Facebook didn't properly import the picture/description from YouTube. As a result, it was basically a blind link with me saying "Hey this is cool." Afterwards I realized that maybe people wouldn't enjoy that, so I added a comment stating it was the last level from Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. One cousin commented on it, joking about how it was just like real life for him. Then...his sister posted...... She said "Kind of violent...this is entertainment?" At first I was like Then I figured I'd be nice, and assume she was just surprised that something violent could be entertaining (she's a medical doctor btw...recently graduated). So said yeah, and then made references to other media that is violent. I pointed out Macbeth (one of my favourite pieces of literature), as well as Platoon as an excellent movie that has a more realistic and gritty depiction of war. I then apologized for the link being a blind link, and mentioned I'd make sure to clarify things in the future. She replied with: At this point, coupled with my initial impressions of her first email, I felt offended and judged. I removed the link altogether, and sent a private message to her stating that I felt judged and insulted by her commentary. It's hard for me to just accept that apparently she does not "care for violence in any form" while I work on creating a violent video game. Or actively play, and SHARE, my experiences playing violent video games. I started off my message by apologizing to her for having a blind link to something she might not appreciate, and then commented that the comments section of my facebook link is not the place to criticize violence in the media, while bringing up her anecdotal evidence for its desensitizing effects. Given her rather specific and absolute expressions such as "I don't care for violence in any form" or "Violence is never right -not on video, in books or in real life" I had a hard time interpreting her comments as anything but passing judgment and making inferences of the negative effects it has on people. And I let her know that. Privately because I'm not an ass. But given how much she loved The Two Towers (saw it 9 times in the theaters), I started to simply believe she was a hypocrite. And I ****ing hate hypocrites. So she has since replied to me (I haven't read it), but my Mom phoned me shortly afterward (I let her and my Dad know the situation, to let them know I'd be avoiding family get togethers), mentioning that my cousin was posting on her facebook status updates stuff like "The wedding list keeps on getting smaller and smaller. And so does my family as I thought one was my friend." as well as "I guess a debate is a hate comment" or some other nonsense (I didn't go onto facebook to verify at the time since i knew I'd be pissed). Though when I did log back into Facebook, I laughed when I realized that both her and her mom have removed me from their Facebook friend's list. I told my Mom to NOT stoop to this pettiness, and while she has my back, I let her know that there are two sides to each story. So while I was angry at the time of reading her message, and I let her know, the aftermath only makes me feel vindicated. Airing dirty laundry as facebook status updates, and out and out removing me as a Facebook friend, WHILE crying to her Mom (my cousin is 34 years old) about it..... When I was younger I used to think that this cousin was a spoiled princess that never did anything wrong, with people always picking on her. When we both grew up a bit (she's 7 years older than me), we got along better, and felt she was less whiny. Though given her reaction, I think perhaps those traits still exist in some capacity. Anyways, judge me! At least I'm giving you permission

Hahaha awesome.

I'm getting the impression that the life of a Marketing & PR Producer ain't so bad

I'll get it in time, but currently too broke I expect some coop action from you later Matthew!!!

Well, it can confuse the situation..... Because sometimes while they admit a connection with you, they're not sure who to go with. Not that I have experience in this sort of matter

Meh, I just figured it was a special edition for the game in general.

Ooo, a PC version? Interesting.

I usually have most of it conquered before then. America is a bit pesky but once I get a foothold it's not so bad. Lots of amphibious landings needed. And apparently Russia is huge.

Console? I usually have boat loads of CoD4 games running.

I don't think that that is that much of a concern in gaming in general. However, I think people have the idea that RPGs are supposed to be these tyte rules mechanics type of games, that are very tactical in their combat. They CAN be, but I don't think the need to be. Some of the best RPG experiences I have are games that are decidedly watered down and/or simplistic in its combat. Examples off the top of my head are Ultima VII, Planescape: Torment, Bloodlines, Fallout, and Final Fantasy 3/6. I have always considered story to be the most important thing in an RPG, and my favourite RPGs are the ones that have good stories. Some of them have decent combat, others have weak combat. I like the idea of combat being challenging in the respect of "Should I fight these slavers? There's a lot of them and they could kick my ass." However, when I am going through a dungeon grind part of an RPG, like Bloodlines, I don't particularly care if it is challenging or easy, but I'd prefer it to be too easy instead of too challenging, because too challenging means I get stuck and frustrated. It's a lot easier for me to tolerate some mild boredom of combat (which I rarely find even if it's easy. I'm usually roleplaying my character and not worrying about whether or not something is particularly challenging) and continue on with the story than get frustrated and stuck. I go for both. I definitely prefer to spend my time playing games than reading a book. I can appreciate the tactical combat of a Baldur's Gate, but Baldur's Gate 2 is my favourite of that series because I enjoyed that story the most.

Escape? Haha. I don't remember off the top of my head, but I don't remember it being that difficult haha. I could ask someone here...

I do enjoy the Dragunov too. I also like the M40A1 from Pripyat (and other missions).

Most sniper rifles I found dropped guys with a body shot too, but as you say it probably depends on the rifle. Though this is also only on Hardened difficulty. I've yet to try the entire game on Veteran.

Naturally haha.

This isn't about the player being stupid. It's about a specific result from the choices they make in the game. This is the player making a choice in the game, and then having the game be virtually impossible to complete if you wish to make that choice, simply because you decided you'd rather quest with some different party members. Unless you're saying that this player should be forced to reload the game, and make a different choice that he wants to make, simply because he was "stupid" and was playing with different party members that would get upset at the choices that he wanted to make at this particular point of the game. Especially in a game that is as long to complete as this one. Heck, even Baldur's Gate had NPCs scale their level close to yours the first time you encounter them. Party wipes. Which are actually quite common in my experience with the game. A lot of people do. Suddenly that character no longer exists and contributes to the overall story of the game. Skills and abilites that you allocated to that character are no longer available (unless you're the weird type and spec all of your builds exactly the same... but again you were off calling people stupid here). This isn't about people being stupid and deciding randomly to kill off their party members. The Urn thing does NOT have to happen late in the game.

Hmmm, I think that that would be "it depends."

Learned Light Mapping stuffs

Haha. Most of my money wasting endeavours are get rich quick schemes!

MOAR COOP GAMEZ! (need to fix interwebs at home too)

I concur. Playing video games with girlfriends is always awesome. Now to only find a cute girl that likes video games AND wants to be with me (and isn't already attached).

Souray is expected to be out for another 4-6 weeks too

If Meta was under an alt he's doing a killer job of changing his posting style.