alanschu

I just don't dig those three screen panoramas. If I have to start turning my head, I think I'm probably going to prefer something more like the Oculus Rift or some other type of VR headset. Might be different if monitors had minimal borders around their screens.

And for that, I give your props.

This is sort of somewhat related (especially since Geekdom led to this happening), but I actually approve (at least on initial grounds, since I'm still reading this article) of what happened to this guy! http://gawker.com/internet-gets-man-banned-from-gym-chain-for-mocking-mem-912931879

Interesting. I didn't realize that. Thanks!

Can you be Jewish, but not practice Judaism? Can you practice Judasim, but not be Jewish? When someone is described as "Danish" I expect them to be from Denmark. So I find the comparison to be pretty apt. When I hear someone described as Jewish, I expect them to be a practitioner of Judaism. Am I incorrect in this assumption? I have always had the term "Jewish" to Judaism as "Christian" is to Christianity.

I have to ask why you bothered pointing it out then. Since you certainly seemed to be stressing the issue that a black man was shot by a white person. No, they most likely were guilty. Evidently you don't actually understand the actual issue with the over representation. As a white person, I have absolutely no doubts that I would be more likely considered to *get away* with a crime simply based on the color of my skin. ****, I literally saw a situation where 3 white people and a Filipino applied for work Visas in Canada, and the 3 white people were literally given theirs that day, while the Filipino was told it would come in the mail. So sometimes you just straight up get discrimination, whether conscious or subconscious. (To the credit of the 3 white people, when they found out they actually spoke up and said it was bull****. Though it was the first time that my Filipino friend ever had a situation where she said "this is something that... actually feels wrong...." Before that she couldn't identify any situations that would make her think the color of her skin had any effect on her interactions... but that one was one that she struggled rationalizing away as something else. Fortunately after the colleagues spoke up, she was given her Visa just like the other Canadian citizens). But enough about anecdotes. I don't believe that Innocent people aren't tossed in prisons because they are a minority, though I find your assumption that that must be how I feel particularly telling. To use your own words, you know better than that. I bet when I tell you that New York's stop and frisk finds a larger percentage of white people with drugs and weapons you assume that I'm concluding that white people are a larger threat (as opposed to the more likely situation, which is that this particular policy could very well be targeting black people more than is actually necessary, whereas the white people that ARE checked more likely fit a more generalized description and activities of someone that is doing something shady). I'm sure that Guard Dog, however, would have no issues with a bunch of police officers coming up and asking to frisk him because they have reasonable grounds that you're engaging in illegal activity. Now imagine that you're getting frisked more frequently simply because some statistics state that the color of your skin is more highly correlated with doing sketchy things. Sounds like real awesomesauce doesn't it? I'm sure it won't help fuel any sort of vindictiveness, or even motivate people to call out crusades simply because a black person was killed by a white person and that's so much more worthy of attention than a white guy being killed by a white guy, or any other permutation you wish to create. A man killed a man, but that wasn't what you said. (Note: certain *types* of crime go hand in hand with poverty.) You want to know what else is highly correlated with wealth? Quality of legal representation. This is what people refer to a "institutional racism." It's not that people are explicitly racist. But when you get people that are less capable of obtaining quality legal counsel, you're going to find yourself with people that are less capable of obtaining an equivalent level of legal representation that has an equivalent stake in helping his or her client to the best of his or her ability. Try me. There's plenty of people that are lazy bastards that want handouts and feel that it's a convenient excuse for "the man" to hold them down. There's plenty of people that DO come up from downtrodden, poor families that end up being successful as well. As with all things in life, a bit of luck helps, and the people that do work hard tend to afford themselves greater opportunities for some good luck to happen. And as any successful businessman says, it takes money to make money. Which, we can of course, interpret as "it takes capital" by which I'm sure you and I will agree, our hardwork and ambition is a type of capital that we can convert into wealth (hence how wealth is created). However, I've seen people (white, black, or whatever) that have busted their ass and still remain not particularly well off. Because it's not *just* hard work. Understanding where and how to apply one's effort is also important. I doubt I need to talk to you about the importance of networking, because no matter the color of your skin some level of nepotism will always come up. I've seen great employees come and go because they weren't good at selling themselves. I learned that, for the good of the company and to have quality coworkers, I need to make sure that I still speak up and call out those people, because frankly... and I'm sure this is no surprise to you, sometimes work that isn't outstandingly exceptional (but still of high quality) can get lost in the mix when things are busy. This is why, despite my conservative leanings, I do support things like education and health, because those are investments directly into the human capital of a country. Poor people are highly correlated with poorer education and poorer health. If you create a system that creates barriers, then you're going to start relying on hoping that the parents of many of these kids are the hard working, ambitious types, as their primary role models if they aren't able to get a quality education. I'd prefer to not take my chances in that regard, and frankly I don't care how hardworking and motivated a child is, they are going to be ostensibly impressionable and unable to get the same opportunities as adults, simply due to not being age of the majority. Pure hardwork is useful, but being purely someone that feels "if I work hard, I'll eventually get my due" is also a great way for someone to be exploited. People need to be cognizant of the best ways to apply their effort, and sometimes it's just not that obvious. Especially when you start getting in generational or even culture gaps. My Dad recently had to close down his business, and it was laughable how poor his resume and cover letter were. Fortunately I asked to see his resume and was able to provide some immediate feedback, but if I hadn't followed up on his job hunt he may have remained ignorant that the issue wasn't an over saturation of applicants, but just that he wasn't doing a good enough job of selling himself. Same with health. Yes, here in Canada we get people that "abuse the system" and go in and get every little thing checked. The cost billed to the provincial health care provider is often a $60-$100 payment or so, which some poorer people are certainly going to be unable to justify paying. However, when that person has an unchecked condition that, if caught earlier would have not only been treatable, but would have incurred significantly less cost than the stay in emergency ended up costing. Now unless I am mistaken, US hospitals are not allowed to prevent emergency care on the basis of whether or not the patient can afford treatment, when payment cannot be obtained, hospitals have to swallow the cost. They may have insurance or something to cover the upfront costs, but it's still a cost they have to bear, which as reasonably economically minded individuals like you and I realize, will often still be passed on to those that DO have insurance. I mean, how many of us know someone that got absolutely boned in a car insurance claim because the other party didn't have coverage, so you have no choice but to put that claim on you. It ****ing blows when that happens. I'd rather people "abuse the system" at a double digit cost, than be neglectful (and to be honest, in Canada people are still neglectful due to general fear of seeing a physician anyways) and see the costs be much more extreme than they actually are. Never mind that poor health of a population in general is just bad, because most people are employees that feed into our capitalist machine, and when they're sick they make other people sick, are more prone to mistakes, and in general can lead to all sorts of badness. It's why I also appreciate employers that offer compensation for sick days. Sure, I may be a pure sunk cost that day that I'm getting an eye infection checked out, but at least I didn't spread pink eye throughout and office of 400+ people. We actually WERE hit with norovirus outbreak one time, and basically the Dragon Age team was effectively told to put themselves under quarantine because ME3 was in finaling and the cost of any sort of delay due to an outbreak of illness would have been extreme. I guess game development is a bit like health care in that sense: finding serious issues at the end of development is exponentially more expensive than early in the cycle. Then just say that. Keep the colour of their skin out of it. Because I don't believe that you'd bother mentioning it unless you think that it's somehow relevant. Anyways, that's my rant. Feel free to unload on me.

I probably will as well.

With the importer to EU4, a lot of people have that goal now (To bring the true Roman Empire to glory).

I find I'm only a "fan" of downvoting when I see that posts I "feel are wrong" are the ones downvoted. Which pretty much confirms your perspective of it having pretty glaring failings.

I agree it has a desensitizing effect. Originally I took things a lot more personally, and I still have my triggers that make me move into immediate "dismissive" state towards a particular poster. Could just be you're a better person than I am (and a lot more seasoned on the whole process).

Just to add, there could very well be mitigating circumstances for the lack of dev contribution. I remember some people wondering if I had been let go after an extended break from the BSN, but it just turns out I was stupendously busy.

I will likely pick up CK2 again (I got a new computer which negatively affected my earlier lets play ).

Is Jewish really a "mix?" (I honestly don't know. In my experiences I thought "Jewish" was a lot like "Catholic" in that it was a religion that could be held by people of a variety of races.) Having said that, Scarlett is stunningly beautiful.

Planescape: Torment. Well nuanced with great motivations and just all around fantastic writing. I actually put Ultima as well, but more specifically because of U7 and Serpent Isle (and some of U6 too, I suppose).

I suspect what many will see as "superior" will in large part be influenced by their play styles and expectations/requirements for each party member to deliver.

Phil's reaction (and I do consider it an overreaction) has certainly been a catalyst. Though I had noticed the "calling out" becoming more and more common lately, and with the idea that "comments are not useful" and some places just outright disabling them now, I think there's been a snowball rolling down the hill regarding this issue for some time. It just hit the super sticky, really deep snow right now with Fish

I agree that it's a bit of a self-serving prophecy for a lot of forums. On some level the game forums are always for a fan that is going that extra step (and I'll agree that a lot of people simply don't have the interest in becoming a fan of that magnitude), when you get insular communities that ostracize differing opinions, you shut people out. The BSN is pretty jaded, in general, towards DA2 (which is fair). But with the DA3 announcement, there was actually an influx of people that actually enjoyed DA2, from some saying "They prefer it" to "It wasn't as good as DAO but I still enjoyed it." A *lot* of bickering arguments got started up in response to that, and it got pretty unpleasant, mostly because the entrenched statusquo had an opinion. It's also an interesting social experiment though, because you can see that the sides get heated and they start to argue "to win" because they want to convince people to support their position, because they have this idea that every contrary perspective that goes unchecked is effectively a vote for "making a game that they won't like as much." I have seen people behave very differently in a private message with me, compared to the things that they say when they have an audience.

I think, if anything, you have this reversed. It's not the same for the person making the insult. Hence why you're far more likely to see people threaten rape of other people on the internet, rather than in person. Now granted, I will concede that someone saying to another's face "I'm going to rape you" will convey a greater sense of concern, because the idea that the person may actually do that is heightened since they're actually in close proximity. I imagine the concern goes up with other aggravating circumstances, such as "are we alone" and whatnot. However, in my opinion the only reason why a receiver may take a "Shut up you ****" type of remark with less intensity via the internet, is because (and this is a bad thing) we've allowed our interactions on the internet to make comments like this commonplace. We become dismissive because "it's just some troll on the internet" and he can't really do anything to me (nor can I do anything to him... >.>). But these are actually all defense mechanisms, and while we may be conditioned to start applying them almost immediately, I question that it means, intrinsically, that the comments themselves don't affect us the same while in the moment. It's just that our only recourse is to find a way to not let it bother us, for our own mental health.

This is the problem. Maybe we should stop assuming this is the case, because we're all pretty brave with a keyboard a monitor in front of us. I see a whole heck of a lot of "Phil Fish brought it on himself" and "He needs to be the better man." Why does this not just reciprocate that see Phil Fish's comments as provocative and saber rattling? For all the "Phil Fish brought it on himself," why are the people that chastise him in virulent ways also not held up to the "be a better man?" Because, as you say "Phil Fish brought it on himself." And that evidently DOES make it okay, since you're focusing on the fact that Phil Fish brought it on himself, rather than looking at the whole situation and going "the vocal gaming community is pretty god damned ****ed up and it needs to stop on all ends." I've been straight up called lazy in person and on the internet. It pisses me off just the same. The difference with the internet portal is that we can defense mechanism and rationalize more easily, because your assailant is NOT within punching range most of the time. That we dismiss a "you suck" over the internet moreso than in person is the tragedy here, as far as I'm concerned.

As a human dagger rogue in WoW that topped out my damage charts consistently, it's fun smashing people's preconceptions. Depends on whether or not you want the setting to react differently. And even then, as I get told *A LOT* on the BSN, removing the choice altogether, even if it's just cosmetic, is a major bummer for some people.

I just use medkits (which tend to heal for about 30), or use a spell like Harlequin's if I can get it to counter a large damage ability.

I'm assuming your point is that it's somewhat shocking that an arrest happened, right? Seriously, playing up the race card, as if a black man shooting a white man would be the type of thing that historically was a non-issue in the United States? If your opinion is that there's extra pressure to arrest a white man that shoots a black man today, the most empathy you'll get from me is "I guess it sucks that the pendulum is swinging the other way now?" If this is reality now (the extreme over representation of black people in the prison system makes me skeptical, however), then I hope it self corrects relatively quickly, but at least now you have some perspective of what it was like being on the other side for a few centuries.

For some unintentional hilarity, you have to try "Wired Reflexes" and then watch yourself dodge... healing yourself... buffing yourself... or even reloading your own gun! XD

Maybe I'm the jaded cynic, but I expect him to pick the one he expects to get the most hits, because in a lot of cases that directly feeds into their bottom line (especially concerning the ones that are more bloggers.

I'm a pro then!