Tale

I haven't read the study, either. If I had the ability to search for it now I would. But to make a quick speculation on what it could mean, it's possible that a tool whose common connotation is violence, can possibly inspire violence. I'm not clear on the point you're trying to make here. The only thing those stats imply is the notion that gun control won't have overly significant impact on preventing gun crime. Which is not "the premise of the study" nor does it contest the notion that access encourages use. Illegal access is still access. Or are you stating that since most gun possessors do not commit gun that guns don't contribute to crime. The idea that most gun owners don't engage in crime does not mean that the presence of a gun does not contribute to crime. A majority is not required for statistical significance to demonstrate the existence of an effect.

I think we're missing the real point of this thread. Do you, or do you not, have Battletoads 7? This is crucial.

I agree. Swift would have loved you.

I wasn't complaining about the generic-ness of guns in FPS. I was complaining about the generic-ness of guns in a particular FPS. It's like the difference between an archetype and a cliche. If I pick up a weird ass looking weapon, think to myself "wow, this looks cool, I wonder what it does" and all it does it fire a spread of pellets whose only differentiation from your standard shotgun is that they're yellow, it's a bit underwhelming. This is what is experienced in Prey. Contrast this with Half-Life's "Sniper Rifle," the cross bow. It's different because of drop off and travel time. It fits the archetype and the role, but it doesn't fit the cliche. The Tau cannon, another fan favorite, also behaves differently from what one expects of a sniper rifle. But, it still can be considered to fit the same role. There was also a weapon I recall from Unreal Tournament 2003 that behaved much like a shotgun. It's pellet spread was a bit more diverse. And it included a secondary fire that was inventive. Some sort of cluster attack that when it hit something, THEN fired the pellets. It's not roles, it's behavior. You define roles, my complaint with Prey was behavior.

I'm not one for gun control, but I am aware of psychological studies on the subject of access encouraging violence. Empowerment isn't just about being able to kill someone, if you know you can, you're more likely to try. To completely ignore and discount the existence of guns in contributing towards violence is about shifting blame as much as people who shift it onto guns. To claim that people who argue that guns contribute to violence are arguing that guns themselves cause the violence is to make a strawman. As I said, I'm not one for gun control, but making ignorant attributions to and assumptions of the arguments for it doesn't help.

I wanted to like Prey. But, I played the demo and it just felt so generic to me. The characters annoyed the crap out of me. Tommy was just a whiney ****. You just got kidnapped by aliens, watched humans mutilated, tortured, and murdered. Were killed, ended up in the desert with your dead pet. When your dead grandfather talks to you about the spirits, THIS IS NOT THE TIME TO BE A ****ING SKEPTIC! You do not argue with dead people on spiritual matters. They, by definition, know more than you do. It made me realize why so many first person games make their characters silent. If I'm off looking around and jumping on top of stuff, it's awkward for my character to be holding a conversation with someone in a completely other room. Then I tried out the multiplayer portion. NEAT ALIEN GUNS! Oh wait, this is a shotgun. This is a sniper rifle. But, apparently it's an organic alien shotgun and sniper rifle.

I never count my hours, but I thought Half-Life 2, Quake 4, and Unreal 2 all ended up being 8-12. Doom 3 was probably longer and it caused me to just put the down because I was tired of it. You could be right. As I said, I never count my hours.

What? You think that could be too long? I thought that was standard length for a decade.

Since that wasn't ultimately presented in the game, Nihilus being the Exile's dark half that took the more self-destructive path, it's not canon. Avellone even mentions that in the interview where he reveals his intention for Nihilus. I think it's fascinating, but if someone else writing for Lucasarts wants to turn around and present it as something else, it'll be something else. He's an open character to do that with since his origin was never really presented.

Any site that reviewed Farcry (an absolutely terrible game, in my opinion) above 9.0 gets a similarly high-scoring review for Crysis ignored. http://www.gamerankings.com/htmlpages2/371314.asp?q=farcry Which means, with only few exceptions, I have to ignore everyone.

Doesn't matter how mature a man is, if he's both sterile and immune to disease, nothing will stop him having consensual relations with as many women as he can. Hell, he doesn't even make up lies about calling them the next day.

My money would be on 4chan for this fight.

If I was an accomplished or experienced writer I would definitely try out for it. I do live in Texas and would love the gaming industry. However, I write like a schizophrenic half the time. And I have severe trouble with dialog.

There's a few journal entries that you can get stuck with, it would seem.

I absolutely loved Morrowind for what the Tribunal offered and the revelations about it. Oblivion didn't have as much depth in that regard. 5 people gain phenomenal cosmic power!

Is this something you're experiencing or just theorycrafting? All of this should be more a testament to the viability of your GM over anything. A don't see how a Rogue is any more viable in this theorycrafting. The Wizard won't even need to dispel a Rogue's magical defenses before it's finger o' death time. And a Warrior shouldn't have problems with the Rogue once the Rogue is his target.

Resolution with regards to what you're speaking is not improved. That's limited by the actual content. The features vary, really. It all depends on what source port you're using. Some keep it basic to just let a game be playable on a new OS. Others implement new controls, particle effects, multiplayer.

Is that a joke on how I wasn't around last year?

Source ports don't refer to VALVe's Source engine, but rather new engines made by hobbyists using id's released source code. You're running these games with new engines based off the old engins that have more features and better compatability. Doom and Wolfenstein with mouselook is great. The game's not designed that way, so you just breeze right through it. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Source_port

At a reasonably price for a trustworthy seller? I just checked ebay for your claim and I've seen everything from what looks to be ripoff machines that look nothing like an NES to $300 for a console. Finding old hardware that works is harder than being able to make old software work with new hardware. What they heck does that have to do with anything? Buying a select few old games equates in some weird way to preserving all your already owned old games? It's nice that they have some, but that doesn't really factor into it, unless your library consists of only those. It's too limited. The PC has compatability issues you can resolve. Consoles have not being able to play issues you can't even touch. There's nothing you can say that downplays the fact that PC games are more reliable to preserve than console games. In fact, console games are easier to preserve with a PC than with a newer console. Which one? I have the first and third, I think that's correct, in a backup CD at the moment... All of them except the last one. There an id super pack on Steam I had to snatch up. Source ports of Wolfenstein 3D and Quake are fun.

If this was in response to me, I didn't say it was impossible. I acknowledge that. I just am incapable of seeing how it could be done reasonably. If it can be, I dare it to happen. A well written history created more for the story than to justify rules could be better than Forgotten Realms quite easily. The problem is keeping it well written for such a scope.

I can get a copy of Windows 95. It may not be legal, but I can get it. Further, there's always emulation (hell, we've got Dosbox for Win 3.1 and older games) and fan patches. I have a working copy of Commander bleeping Keen on my XP box. A game older than some of our forum posters. Hell, I've got Zork on that machine. That game is older than I am.

The main thing I like about the PC is I can still play Baldur's Gate and Half-Life on it. Suck that down, Xbox 360! I hate the idea of my games being "lost." My NES cartridges are useless to me since my NES is dead. I'll hate the day when I lose my SNES games and my Dreamcast games to those systems dying. My PS1 and PS2 games are preserved for now because the PS2 slim is still available for purchase should my PS1 and PS2 both go out. My Gameboy games are preserved because I can get new Gameboy Advance SPs. It's part of what I fear from consoles. A lot are making a focus on backward compatability, which is definitely good. But, sometimes its not always feasible. The DS has no backwards compatilibity for pre-advance games.

The NWN2 module I'm working on, indefinitely on hiatus, got positive responses when I put together a description for feedback. This description included the phrase "traditional fantasy from a nihilist." That said, I think I'm liked.