Hurlshort

You are just making stuff up. Here is a chart of MMO subscriptions, which has had a steady climb. Also, WoW has had a steady drop in the last couple years in subscription numbers, which means there is a void to be filled.

Even if you went on the White House board or whatever, you still wouldn't have the right to say anything you want. The government is providing the board, it is their property, just like you can't go to the White House and spout gibberish. You have freedom of speech if you create your own IP address, and the government cannot censor it. That is the entirety of the freedom of speech right.

That's like saying "make no more hack&slash 'cause there is Diablo II", "make no more RTS 'cause there is StarCraft 2", make no more RPG 'cause there is BioWare", "make no more freeform games 'cause there is Bethesda", "make no more FPS 'cause there is MW2" etc. etc. etc. And is UO (Ultima Online for those of you who are post-WoW) not still running as well? I know there are some free realms still around. I think it still is though. EA has proven to be pretty bad at managing MMO's, I'm sure they hope TOR will reverse their fortune.

I watched the Atlantic City documentary on HBO. It looks good, Buscemi is always entertaining.

He's just making stuff up, no worries.

Exactly. DDO wasn't doing good, but apparently the f2p model was super effective and rejuvenated that title. They also still run servers for Asheron's Call, believe it or not. LotRO has been very successful, they have stated time and again that they are happy with the subscription numbers. They have been successful enough to sign new deals for the content rights and they entered into a partnership with Warner Bros. Since DDO had success, they implemented a semi-f2p model. I've kept my subscription, as the high end stuff is only available that way.

Except Sony and Turbine have a stable of successful MMO's that continue to progress. It's like saying every movie needs to pull in Titanic money.

Pshaw, they all must have been paid off!

The whole WoW argument is tired, because there are plenty of successful MMO's on the market. I think it is safe to say that MMO's are one of the hardest genres to develop a title for, but it is far from impossible.

That's what I always tell my students, you should all just give up now because there are already successful people out there, and there just isn't enough room left for anyone else to succeed. A lot of my students want to work with computers, and I'm like "There is already Microsoft, Apple, and Google, there isn't any room left for more companies. There are start ups that fail all the time!"

I really like the new Jon Stewart rally cry "Take it down a notch!"

I'm pretty sure you have plenty of Jewish people who consider the US their country, and antisemitism is a pretty rare thing in most places. What I'm saying here is Jewish people are very much a part of mainstream US culture, and yet they still maintain a unique identity. And lo and behold, the nation has not collapsed.

Hey what about me?

I just think there is a middle ground, it doesn't have to be completely separate states and it doesn't have to be absolute Federal power. GD raises a lot of good points, but there are also some situations where the Federal government really does need to step in. The abolition of slavery is a famous one. The desegregation of the school systems is another. Gay marriage is likely next. If the state and its population are actively involved in discrimination, then I support the Federal government stepping in. As for health care, I'm not sure where I stand. The current system is super broken. The states have not shown an ability to fix it. If the Federal government can fix it, then I would probably support them, but I'm not sold on them being capable.

But they are still a minority, if counted apart from the white population. Minorities are the majority in the US. What does that have to do with being an outcast?

of course they are, somebody has finally shown them how it should be done. I bet F4 from Beth will be a fest of recycled Obsidian ideas. Well, that sounds like a good thing. But Bethesda will only love F:NV if it manages to sell well.

I think everyone has heard of the Myth series

There are a lot of different levels of assimilation. Also, I'm not sure if the Jewish population of the US really considers itself outcasts.

Uh.. I guess we've gone from "awesome/interesting" to "obscure/random name-dropping". Play it for yourself and see what I mean: http://www.gamershell.com/download_20322.shtml I bought it as well. It had some good turn-based combat and I found it enjoyable enough.

Other than the court issue, this is basically the Northern California Bay Area in a nutshell. The key is that each culture works as a community to help others in the culture, but they still take part in the politics and larger area development. Actually the larger the cultural presence, the less support there seems to be. For example, the hispanic community is so large that the support network is unable to keep up, as opposed to the smaller Russian community. So really, the larger communities face more erosion than the smaller ones.

I'm really quite tired all of the time lately. Having two kids is way tougher than just the one. They rotate waking up throughout the night, and my 3-year old requires numerous threats to get her to go to sleep.

Oh god, I'm only a day behind you. If I feel even worse tomorrow I'm gonna blame you! Starting to regret that tryst, I see.

Does this take into account which party controls congress during those times as well? I'm a moderate. Party lines are lame.

Big Bang had an entire episode on Age of Conan and MMORPG addiction. I still don't get how that is formulaic.

Do you mean there are too many shows about theoretical physicists?