Hurlshort

Say wut? Of the universities I know, none were either founded nor funded by a church. My highchool was founded by a church in 1184 (AD) or so, but the universities? Not really. While there is some debate over the details, Medieval Universities were a continuation of Cathedral and Monastic schools of the early Middle Ages. You can look it up if you'd like, it's an interesting history. The Catholic Church owned a lot of land and had a lot of power in the Middle Ages. There wasn't much that went on that they didn't have a hand in.

I'm positive that the people that use drm to justify their piracy would just find another justification if drm didn't exist. It is a video game, if you don't like the drm, you don't need to still play it.

I'm referring strictly to the way I feel about the money I put down on the product. I understand that a large percentage of my money goes to the publisher. I'm probably not explaining it well, but what I'm really saying is $50-$60 is what I consider a fair price for the hours of work a development team puts in on a game, no matter how I receive the product.

Most people don't mind paying the same because they understand that the real cost of a game or a movie is in the production, not in the distribution. When I buy a game I don't look at the box and go 'gee, I'm really happy with the construction of this plastic case and the roundness of the DVD'.

Nightshape asked about culture and heritage, which science is only one aspect of. Look, we can cherry pick evidence for and against the church all day, like the fact that all Universities were built and funded primarily by the church. But there really isn't a point to it. Christianity is a major part of human history. It is folly to write it off as some absolute evil, it isn't any more evil than human nature itself.

If you want to look at what set us back 500 years (and by us, it is really just Europe, and it really was closer to 1000 years) then you have to look at the collapse of the Roman Empire. Europe lost a ton of knowledge when the Western Roman Empire collapsed, and the region was unstable for centuries afterwards. The Church played a large role in stabilizing Europe. In fact religion became the one connected strand among all the different ethnic groups and countries that settled in Europe after the collapse. I'm not trying to place the Catholic Church on a pedestal here, there is plenty of corruption and abuse of power in their history. But I consider dismissing the church altogether to be as great a folly as saying the church is infallible.

While the Black Death clearly helped in the decline of feudalism, and the Church was a major impediment to the Scientific Revolution, there are a lot of factors to take into account when looking at the Renaissance as a whole. As for the question of whether a Renaissance was needed, it was a rebirth of classical literature, art, and philosophy. The Church didn't cause the Dark Ages, if that is what you are getting at. Most of the written records we have from the Dark Ages comes from the Church, so it played a key part in preventing a total loss of history.

Like? Two separate developers, two separate publishers, two separate franchises. I don't see how this game failing could affect Risen 2 at all. For some reason I thought the developers were tied together.

I really hope this being a bomb won't affect Risen 2.

The Sistine Chapel, the preservation of Latin, Hagia Sophia, the Jesuit Order, Rome... I could really go on and on. Christianity is an intrinsic part of European History. For better or worse, the Church was involved in everything that happened in Europe after the Fall of the Roman Empire. Here is an interesting question: If the Crusades never happen, does Europe still have a Renaissance?

Apparently it is a work of genius.

If they get even close, I'll be happy. Having a new protagonist will be trickier though.

Cop Out - Pretty bad. I watched it, and then I noticed Kevin Smith directed it. I didn't see his signature on it at all. It was really not funny. Tracey Morgan and Bruce Willis have zero chemistry.

No, real men play City of heroes. I think real men play Vanguard. That's a hardcore MMO.

If it makes you two feel better, I played it for a couple years and really enjoyed it. But real men play LotRO.

I haven't got much sleep in the last week, so I took the day off and hid in my RV and slept for quite a few hours. I feel energized.

Your hemorrhoids are flaring up again, eh? The proper response is "How appropriate, you fight like a cow."

That's a fact, Jack.

Strange, because I was enjoying the movie for about an hour then it scurried, in my opinion, up it's own arse. The ending was awful to this callsign. I thought the car accident was pretty clever. The rest of the ending left me a bit meh, but I'm a sucker for a somewhat happy ending.

Oh wow, so am I. My main is Taranto, feel free to add me to your friend list. As I said, I'm on sporadically, but I do try and play a couple times a month.

We should do a SoDOFF raid/instance sometime! Are you playing? I'm pretty sure Setzer is on another server. One of the devs was a player too, if I remember correctly. I tried to get a few others to play but none of them stuck with it. It's weird, I find LotRO way more engaging than I did WoW, and I feel like it is easier to go back to after a month or two break, but a lot of people I game with lose interest in it rather quickly. To each their own, I guess. I picked up Civ5 yesterday. It is phenomenal. I don't know how they keep managing to improve what is already a fantastic game.

Played Lord of the Rings Online a bit. I absolutely love the new area, it is really nice looking and has some great new creatures and characters. I also bought an outfit that makes me look like Indiana Jones via the new Turbine in-game store. I have a ton of points since I have been playing forever, over 3,000 right now.

I'm sorry that happened to you Calax. I agree that the dad should not have gone over in his uniform. How about we meet there and call a truce.

This is why I'm having trouble with your posts. He didn't murder the kid. He didn't even rough him up. He used words and a pair of handcuffs. It crossed a line, but we are disagreeing with how far over that line he went. I say it deserves a reprimand, you seem to disagree with that vehemently. We can't fire people every time they mess up or lose their cool. If he has no history of abuse on his record, then I just don't see how he deserves to have his career taken away over this.

I get that kids disobey parents. I'm saying he should expect consequences when he gets caught. I think I've made it pretty clear what I think of the kid's point of view. He did something wrong and he got a lecture for it. He was scared, which seems about right. This is the main problem here, he didn't communicate well with the parents. It is a bit sad that they could not see this for what it was, an angry father with no real legal recourse. This is the main reason he deserves a reprimand. I don't get the relevance here. Does the officer have a history of losing his cool with people he pulls over? I'm pretty sure you are wrong. My wife and I, Di, and a few other folks I've talked to all understand why an angry dad would go off on the boy. Of course he could have handled it better. You keep saying I'm only looking at it from one viewpoint, but have you really taken the time to look at it from the father's viewpoint?