Aristes

Well, then I'm glad that Darth Raven let everyone know before anxiety set in. As for your avatar mocking comments, you Brit bastard, I refuse to let you see me cry!

I've never understood folks creating "I'm leaving you" threads on message boards. Aw, don't be offended. I don't care. Hope you get better, have more money, and return and all that. I guess in that order.

I've been playing fear like a madman. The two things I've noticed so far that strike me is that I'm having a lot of fun. The whole backstory thing with Alma is not as prevalent as it was in the first game. I played the second one, the one that ends with The third one is more fun than I thought it would be, although I'm not having as much fun as the first one. The second thing I noticed is that I don't hate using the big combat mech robot suit. The controls don't seem great, but they're not that bad. The variety of bad guys is much better than the first one. Naked Alma looks a lot like the witches in Left4Dead, which is not appealing at all. yech. If we're forced to look upon a nude female form, I wish it were one that didn't give me the willies. The locations, at least up to where I am now, have included an apartment building, a hospital, an underground complex, and now ruins. Not bad stuff so far.

Yeah, that's a pretty common complaint. I think that's partly because it's just more interesting to read about folks being punished. It's also partly because of the structure of the work. Can't get away from the last partly, which is that the inferno is simply more inspired. The whole thing is great at what it does, which shows man's complete and abject reliance on divine providence. Now, before we get into a stupid and asinine argument regarding religion, the complexity of the argument (the nuance, if you'll forgive me) evolves over the course of the work. ...And that is something that won't translate well into a video game. As far as the inferno, however, it's probably not a bad setting, especially because of those popular culture references that Maria... um... references. I wasn't making fun of you, Maria. More myself. :more grin:

I've thought about recruiting a couple of folks from the Obsidz thing and doing an expert campaign. I just don't want to get one started and have to leave, since that's what normally happens. Calax mentioned that the levels are cumulative, but I don't think so. I've finished every level of Blood Harvest on expert but not in the same run. I still don't have the expert acheivement although I've finished many maps on expert by joining games in progress with PuGs. I think I've finished every map of No Mercy on expert also, but same deal. I have a lot of folks who've put me on friends, but I don't really play much multiplayer on Steam and I hate the idea that I'll start a game and leave the rest of the group hanging because I have to leave to do something after about an hour or so of play. Happens pretty frequently. One of these days, I'll just earmark the day for going through the expert maps and call on Calax to come give me a hand or something. lol

Yeah, but it's not like Enoch is desperate for the cash. For my part, carrying out the old commode is the easiest part of the job. The pain is just making sure you aren't leaking water like Niagra Falls. I've replaced all of the toilets in my Mom and dad's house, my grandmothers house, and one in my own. Hell, in mom and dad's and Grandma's, they got the full treatment. New commodes and safety bars.

I had a friend named Dante. Does that count for anything? What do you mean, 'no?' Rat bastards. Anyhow, I laughed when Purkake cited the DnD reference. It's so true, but I hadn't thought of it at all. Right in front of my face all these years.

Enoch, bro, if it won't break your bank to have someone do the plumbing, call 'em in. I suspect you just don't like having to have someone do the work rather than having anything resembling financial duress over paying for it. I've done a lot of repair work on my/my parents/my friends houses and I know that it can be frustrating. Some stuff is just a lot of work altogether, even if things go smoothly. I could offer advice on the work, but my advice would be to have someone come in and look at it if the job is getting you down. As for you, Calax, just be careful, dude. Don't get caught up in anything dangerous, and you never know what some crazy bastard will do. That goes for both the girl and the husband. It's great to be the knight on the white charger riding in to save the day, but take care of yourself, man.

Really, Greek Mythology has been fluid since the very beginning. It borrowed from neighbors, interpolated material from different times and different traditions, and continued to change with new tellings over time. It is not the equivalent of Dante's Inferno. However, I don't really get too terribly upset about these games using old works of fiction. The fact is, many will not learn anything more about the books because of interest in the game, but many will. As far as American education goes, I think it's a shallow sort of statement to pronounce blanket condemnation of an entire group, especially since it's become quite en vogue to attack Americans in general and American education specifically. It's cliched. Of course, when all else fails, you can simply cut one or two sentences out of the body of my post in order to respond. haha Seriously, I'm not angry and I don't want to feud with you over this issue, Crash. I just think that most high school age kids will have some exposure to La Divine Comedia. I'm really not all that educated on this issue. I've never, for example, translated any of it. I've always read it in translation, so it's not like I'm claiming to be a hard core academe on this issue. Really, I can see why it offends your sensibilities, and Purkake's and others. I just don't think it's all that dire. I think there is an area between the two scenarios Monte proposes. Sure, we can't rely on games like this to educate anyone, children or adults, but some of the ideas will come through and some folks will be interested. I simply can't discard the notion out of hand. However, the way they pitch the game sounds stupid. I just don't think it'll be that good. Maybe they'll make it a decent FPS. Fair enough. I might like it. Like Amentep, I question any adaptation of the Inferno where the protagonist, Dante or not, defeats the forces of evil alone. It is, after all a religious work. That might offend some folks, but if folks are irritated by the overt religious nature of the work, they can't then complain about the way the game bastardizes the point of the story. So, I like giving you guys hell, but I'm not really invested in the debate. Even games based on Greek mythology, on which I have invested considerably more time and effort, don't offend me. The game is the game. If it's good, then I'll enjoy it and maybe even learn something. I'm more concerned about how it sounds like it might mangle gameplay than the story. Who was it that suggested an adventure/puzzle game? Good idea! I like that one a lot.

In the US, at least, due to the overwhelming brilliance of our educational system (sarcasm), the brand recogniton of Dante, The Inferno, or any book that isn't about either a) celebrities or b) making huge amounts of money with no work, is exactly 0. What, are you the magical exception to this rule? ...Or were you educated abroad and so have broken away from the trend? I don't know about others, but I was first introduced to the work in high school and then read it extensively at university. Dante's Divine Comedy is freshman level reading at virtually any university that springs to mind, unless of course the university in question only admits first year applicants who attended a high school where it was required reading. Maybe you just haven't attended university yet. As far as the game goes, it sounds uninspired right now, the fact that it's inspired by the literary work notwithstanding. I don't mind folks getting some sort of exposure to classical works through computer games, although sometimes the games themselves make me cringe. EDIT: And I would love to see a good game based on Paradise Lost. The problem is making the game good.

I'm not playing it now, but I've purchased FEAR 2. I will be playing it one Monday.

It's kind of funny. I was on a coed softball league about ten years ago. Some folks were super competitive and I got up to bat once and *gasp* swung at a ball and a bunch of the guys started yelling at me. I threw down my bat and rushed into our dugout and managed to get a piece of someone before the whole crew ran out of it. I'm fairly big, 6'2", and (in my younger days) meaner than hell. I think that's one of the few times a player rushed his own dugout. lol Anyhow, the upshot is that I handled it wrong, no matter how funny the story is later. I've since become more religious, being one o' them born 'gain Chrishtuns, and so I would never react the same way. However, the point is to react while you are still in control of your emotions. Yelling is a sign of weakness and impotence. When someone yells, it's because he cannot achieve his goals without raising his voice. So, with that in mind, I would respond by talking rationally. ...But that doesn't mean being timid. In recent years, as I am confronted with similar situations, I look the other person squarely in the eye, voice my line of reasoning, and then keep facing them as they answer me. I don't try to mad dog them or stare them down, but I don't want to give them the erroneous imression I'm cowed. Don't be cowed, and don't let folks think you are. If you're not but they think they've got you bullied, then you're actually encouraging confrontation because they'll assume you won't stand up for yourself. It's best not to be in a position where you have to "stand up for yourself." Much better is to have real dialgoue. If folks know you're not going to take things lying down, they're far less likely to try to walk all over you. I agree with you entirely, alan. Don't ignore things. Air them out, but in a good way. On the other hand, make sure you have a real grievance before you jump in. Talk it over in your mind. There's nothing worse than demanding your say, then having it sound lame to your own ears when you say it.

I seriously doubt that Blizzard has to worry about folks quitting because millions of folks who think the game is too damned easy. Yes, WotLK is easier than BC. On the other hand, it's a hell of a lot less tedious, too. I haven't done any raiding in WotLK, but I can tell you that it was tough to get a raid going with my current guild in BC. If WotLK is more accesible, I'm fine with that. That's not necessarily because it's easier on my guildies, but because I think the game should hearken to its casual gamer roots. The fact that crafting is so much easier and the mats are considerably more abundant is another thing that strikes me about the xpac. Hell, I would probably be evern more irritated about the Death Knight craze, although I don't much care about that either. Don't get me wrong, I'm sure some folks will find it pathetically easy and stop playing, but probably more will keep playing and many who would otherwise not be able to raid will now have the chance. ...And, if it really is so terribly easy, I expect to see some of the big patches introduce harder raids. I never did anything more than off trash mobs in the Sunwell Plateau, but I hear the raid was tough. The point is, there have always been harder MMORPGs out there if you're looking for greater challenges or bragging rights.

In the hopes that the bot post and mine are deleted, I'm posting here. In the event they are, the mods may feel free to edit this part out of my current post as well. Anyhow, I like the way they've included PvP into WotLK. It really has the fun of PvP without the old structure. ...and I think Calax is right about the fun of doing the Wrathgate story line. You've hit it dead on, Darth: "...maybe WoW will return to its roots of being a PvE game first, with PvP mini-games acting as both a different aspect for players to explore and experience and as an alternative form of end-game. Get away from this e-sport crap."

He actually got me with that one. Bastard. Teaches me not to read the names on the links.

Well, Moat started with a rant about folks opinions about servers and whatnot. I guess that references the earlier conversation, but when someone asks a question that lends itself to a wide variety of answers, a wide variety of answers is what you'll get. I mean, I didn't take it personally since his comments didn't seem aimed at me, but it didn't strike me as illegitimate for someone to say that he thought that Alliance players were more immature any more than I thought the heated but civil response defending alliance players was out of line. We're telling folks about our experience. ...and since the question explicitly asked what server Crashgirl should join, answers based on servers folks had played was... well... what the hell else would people cite? The servers they hadn't used? The PvP versus PvE thing is a different story. PvP adds a dimension to WoW, but PvP in WoW has always struck me as lackluster anyhow. That's why so many folks in these threads have pointed serious Pvp players to W:AR and other PvP centered MMORPGs. I must not be the only one who feels this way, although I don't know that it really matters what I think of WoW's PvP. Like I said earlier, I'm just giving my opinion based on my experiences. Sure, I try to back up my observations, but I don't present them as gospel and I don't expect anyone to take them as such. I will say that most folks should start on a PvE server and then, when they have had a chance to learn how to play, they can switch to a PvP server with the understanding that level 80s will often rampage through a level 17-22 town and kill everything in sight. Hey, it's a MMORPG. Someone, somewhere, will grief you. If you can't accept that, you probably shouldn't even play multiplayer FPSes. Hell, you find player killers in Left4Dead for crying out loud. On the other hand, I agree with Moat wholeheartedly in regards to his central point, which is to find the place you want to inhabit and have some fun there. ...And the game is big and a lot of folks find that they start playing out of curiosity, enjoy the game for one reason, and then find other reasons to enjoy the game later. I have done a lot of PvP over time, just not at the same times. I've got a rogue named Perikles on a PvP server, and the reason I chose the PvP server was because I thought it would be interesting and add that extra dimension Moat cites. I chose a rogue because I figured it would be nice to be able to avoid conflict when it was not to my advantage. I don't play the character any more largely because I don't play with anyone outside my guild nowadays, but I could always go back and I'm sure I would enjoy it. The point is, you never know where your interests will take you. I think approaching the game as a casual gamer makes a lot of sense. Like a lot of folks here on this message board, I've played a lot of different races and classes. I think I've played every race and every class up to at least level 20. I think that the horde races used to have an advantage on their racial abilities, although I'm not sure that's the case with some of the major changes in WotLK. I think the alliance has a numbers advantage. That was generally true when I last saw anything I judged as a reliable source for Alliance/Horde populations. It is still specifically true for Gilneas where the horde side is like a ghost town half the time and the alliance has had a rather big numerical advantage. Once again, I don't think that's a reason to choose Gilneas, but Crashgirl asked a wide open question about the narrow topic of servers. As Moat said, choose the race/class you want! Huzzah! However, you asked a question, CG. You solicited advice. Weird that folks would actually answer with advice. Yes! You should play the race/class you like. However, not all race/class combos are equal in terms of the game. The real question is, what do you want? Calax' post above is a pretty good indication of the classes, as is Darth's. The thing is, you might not really understand exactly what your role will be. What I would suggest, casual gamer style, is read the descriptions in game. Click on the gnome race. Select warlock. Read what the game tells you. Play for a while. I'm almost certain that, unless you 'always play class x,' you will end up making at least a few characters and the one you like best at level 10 might not be the one you like best at level 40. The dynamic changes a lot as you advance in levels. I thought my protection warrior was dreadfully dull and boring at level 40. At level 80? I love him. My mage is too squishy and I thought she was a pain. Get a new spell (iceblock) and Blizz changes the effects and cooldown on a spell (invisibility) and I love how I can let fly and still live if my threat goes a little too high. So, by all means play what sounds best, but you asked a question and folks are answering. Surprise! They're answering based on personal experience! EDIT: I think WotLK went a long way back to PvE. So much so that a lot of folks complain about it. I've done some arenas, but I rather don't enjoy them. That means, even winning, I hate arenas. I want to go and do questing, so time spent standing around the city is not fun for me. I don't have anything against arena, per se, and I think good arena players are probably the best in the game altogether, but WotLK has really shifted back to good ol' PvE fun. At least from my perspective.

Recently we saw The latest Mummy film and Journey to the Center of the Earth, both staring Brendon Frazier. (or however he spells his name.) Wasn't all that bad. The last Mummy film made fun of itself in a number of areas, and I think the writers were phoning in their performance, but it was a fair enough action film I guess. The better one, surprisingly, was the Jules Verne movie. That's because it was really a young adult flick and I could take it that way and enjoy it.

My druid is a healer, so she's got a tree form and of course there's also dire bear. I've never lost a battle defending Wintergrasp, and I've been on the defensive several times. Mostly because I'm mining in the area when a battle begins and I join it for the hell of it. Since I've never been mining in the area when the horde controlled Wintergrasp, I don't know how easy it would be to take it on offense. Most servers, las time I checked, had a higher alliance population. If you're talking battlegrounds, then that's a different beast. On a straight server, if you were to go by the luck of the draw, you're more likely to find other folks trying to team for the same quests as alliance rather than horde. It's a numbers game. That's why Wintergrasp and Bones Waste, both of which I have fought to keep many many times, are more often in control of alliance. Not because Alliance is better, but because there are more alliance. Calax' info on the classes is pretty solid. Especially his take on rogues, which irritates me, but with Blizzard, not with Calax. Don't want to shoot the messenger.

No, HEALERS are in demand. So, yes, priests are, but the reason behind priests being in demand is the same as a resto druid or shammy and a healadin. I would probably make a DPS class first and then play it for a while. That way you don't have to worry too terribly much about any character but your own. Healers and tanks are generally not necessary unless you go into dungeons. Sure, they might help with group quests, but one of the easiest classes to play is a hunter. Yes, folks call them huntards, but that's because it's easier to do stuff with your own pet you can heal and have tank for you. My main is a rogue. He's not my highest right now since I had to max out my gatherer (hunter) and my tank (warrior). Warlocks and hunters are strong classes for soloing stuff. I also like my mage a lot. Paladins are strong solo classes. Really, the only thing I think would be tougher is going straight holy or resto specced. Don't worry about a healer right away. Get a feel for the game dps wise before you specialize.

I think PvP servers are perfectly fine as long as you understand that you'll be dealing with folks bringing high level characters into low level zones for the purpose of griefing you. Blizzard doesn't just accept this, but, as Darth said, they encourage it. They think it's just fine. I've played on PvP servers, but WoW PvP isn't all that great. It's just a good excuse for players to grief one another. If you decide that PvP is your draw, then I would probably go with W:AR. ...Or try EvE, which is supposed to have a clever storyline and decent PvP mechanics. If you go PvP in WoW, then you'll have a choice between Horde and Alliance. In my opinion, both suck. Alliance does seem to have more casual players and, in my experience, a slightly younger crowd. However, the Alliance has the numbers game on its side. For that reason, you'll find the Alliance in control of things like Wintergrasp and the Bones Waste a lot on many servers. ...And the Alliance players don't tend to be quite as nasty about the Horde as the Horde are about the Alliance. The majority of my characters are Alliance, since, like Maria, I think the Horde races are ugly. I've spent enough time playing as both Horde and Alliance that I feel qualified to make observations about both. Finally, in regards to alliance v horde, you'll find decent folks on either side. However, you'll generally find more folks on the Alliance side on most servers, so I would go alliance just because you'll have more of a chance to temporarily hook up with folks to finish certain quests. As far as the server, you can look up Reafnai on Gilneas. She's my auctioneer. If you give me a shout out, I'll set you up with some halfway decent bags (probably four 16 slotters to begin with), show you around the bank, auction house, and some of the city of your choice, and get you started. If you enjoy the experience and get any expansions, I'll port you to Shattrath or Dalaran and show you around there. I'll even either run you through one or two of the early dungeons or find a group of like leveled folks to go through it at level if you prefer. On the other hand, Hurlshot is a good guy. I was going to start playing with him on LotRO when my wife informed me that I was not abandoning her character on WoW. You really might want to give LotRO a try. It's a great game. I think the graphics are better and the story is tighter than WoW. So many choices...

A lynch mob may, perhaps, serve justice, but a mob is never just. The very heart of a mob is caprice, and justice is never random. /fortune cookie

See, I'm proud of our political process. It showed all the folks who said that Bush would lead us into world war 3 and equated him with despotism that we are free and we still determine our own fate. In four or eight years, if you think that Obama is the root of all evil and his administration spells the end of our democracy, then you will have reason to take heart in the process. Our constitution has never been perfect. No constitution ever will be. ...But it has served us well. God bless the Iraqis. I fervently pray for their success as a free people.

Another public service announcement from Deadly Nightshade. Many thanks.

I've used Direct to Drive and Steam. On Steam, I have several titles. I downloaded FO3, it had a problem, I uninstalled it and downloaded it again. Turned out it wasn't the download. It was a DX10 problem, so I fixed that. It worked just fine thereafter. I did make a backup copy of my Hitman game that I purchased on Direct2Drive. I don't know if it would have worked as my original copy worked just fine the entire time. It's on my wife's computer now, I believe, so theoretically it will still work. I'll probably check later and report back to you. I've purchased several iterations of Norton Hantavirus online and the download is fine. The program is a steaming pile of feces, but the download works just great. I would recommend online purchases for most things. I guess there are probably exceptions. One that pops into my head right now is if the title had some sort of sentimental value for you. In other words, the collector's edition of some game you LURVE! Also, some games, like xpacs for WoW and whatnot, may serve as a hard copy backup just in case you need to reinstal and you only need one for the household. That's not sentimental, there's more chance you'll have to reinstall a game you plan on playing for years.

Joined a group in progress in L4D. Found out that, if I join a game on the last level, I don't get the expert achievement. That sucks, 'cause I was left in a pretty sucky way when I signed into the game. ...And with the disconnects and lack of time, it's hard for me to sit down for the entire time to finish a campaign. Anyhow, I was knocked down by a tank. We killed the tank and a smoker manages to snag one of my fellow players. I can't even see the smoker and I'm firing carefully to keep from hitting the other player. Lying on my back, using my pistols firing at the smoker with Zoey in between the smoker and me, I managed to take out the monster just as the other player ends up in the thing's clutches. She comes over to revive me. We open a door to let out our two resurrected companions. We continue to finish the last level. Blood Harvest. I tell you what, that was a damned rewarding experience. L4D multiplayer can be just plain stupid. So, we've got a good group. We've made it past the first two maps on No Mercy without a death. We're moving along and one of the people gets dced. So someone else joins. Then his two friends call for a vote to kick the new guy. Okay, I want to keep the group because we're pwning the mobs, right? Well, the guy can't rejoin our game. There is much wailing and gnashing of teeth. The one friend says, "We're going to start over again. If you want to join us, great." I don't have time to restart the campaign, so I get the shaft. And our stats were great and the mobs feared us and AHHHHHHHHHHHH! Damn it! Or the time when we're struggling along but making progress when some stupid ass comes in hopped up on weed or something and starts singing songs and screaming and acting like an idiot stick. He needed a swift boot to the backside. Jackass. So, L4D is fun, but frustrating.