Gorth

Some people are really struggling with video game addiction... so GDP could become a real issue. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-58979895 Cam Adair finally realised that his addiction to video games was out of control when it made him consider ending his life. "I struggled with it for 10 years," he says. "I dropped out of high school, never went to college, and pretended to have jobs to deceive my family. "I eventually wrote a suicide note, and it was on that night that I realised I needed to get help. I'm now 3,860-day-free from my gaming addiction." ... "The pandemic led to me spending more time than usual watching Twitch [a live streaming service that focuses on people playing computer games], and YouTube," says Mr Adair. "Much of that [YouTube] content was game streamers and games too, both of which can be strong triggers to relapse and play. Thankfully I was able to stay away from a relapse, but I know many people in the Game Quitters community who did unfortunately relapse during Covid."

Following an old tradition, renewing threads.... Continued here (the last few hours of posts moved there) Thread close

Yeah, that's enough cute for one thread Copied GD's last post to start of new thread here....

Continuing where the old thread left off...

The blessing of Murdoch media... providing a shrine for human stupidity where they can congregate and sing hymns to their own ignorance. Blessed is the moron, for he shall not see it coming. I mentioned in a previous post, it's not a unique US trait. Murdoch media in Australia is the spitting image of Fox News (his Sky News network is same all over the world). People started looking for alternative news sources in Australia after NewsCorp got called out by police and fire departments for deliberately lying about the sources of the bushfires two years ago. It wasn't climate change, it was a combined army of thousands of arsonists roaming the country side, making it look like it was climate change that was to blame!!! I'm not even kidding, the truth is completely irrelevant to any Fox/Sky News reporting. And they both attract the same kind of people to the comments sections.

Moved a number of posts (that had little to do with gaming) to a new thread in WoT...

GD has a new girlfriend now... The universe no longer universally sucks

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-59018391 Apparently Alec Baldwin was handed a loaded gun with a real bullet in it. The guy who was injured was standing behind the woman who got killed and was hit in the shoulder as it passed through her. Meanwhile, the BBC has obtained a document showing which crew members were listed as scheduled to be on set that day. It names a head armourer, the crew member responsible for checking firearms. Hannah Gutierrez Reed is in her twenties and, according to the LA Times, had recently worked in this role for the first time. Looks like the head armourer messed up on her first day on the job...

And something that somehow missed the 80's bus and ended up in the 90's... Carter the Unstoppable Sex Machine

And a bit more... (sorry about the double post, I just have bad experiences putting too many videos in a single post)

Just feeling nostalgic... comes with age I suppose

Microsoft engineers are not without humour. An older version of their ERP software had something called Analysis Views. And a table to store the entries that made up the views. Of course they had to name that table AnalViewEntry… hard not to giggle immaturely when working with those objects (the provided functions being plays on AnalView)

They're fine. I can laugh at them I know this isn't the comics thread, but if you like this kind of humour, I wonder if you've ever read Vaughn Bodē? The Lizard of Oz, Lizard Zen or anything else lizard related. Slightly less explicit than the above and definitely more psychedelic (not sure how else to describe a colourful comic featuring nude women and lizards ending up in amusing situations)

But then, who gets to decide what is right and what is wrong? E.g. that (in)famous statue that got removed in a town in England. He was a prolific slave trader and the statue was there to commemorate how much his slave trade contributed to make the local community prosperous. Right or wrong to remove such a statue? Slavery has also existed in the western world since the Industrial Revolution. It took a century of hard (and sometimes bloody) fights by various socialist uprisings and trade unions to get out of something that in some parts of the world still is and in other parts was no different from the power landowners wielded over serfs in medieval times. Workers to be exploited (that's what I call 12-16 hour work shifts with symbolic pay, often not enough to feed or house anyone), killed (deliberately, shot by local militias/police forces if unruly or incidental by cost cutting measures), traded as part of the property they were contractually bound to work at when getting new owners etc. without anyone batting an eyelid. Yet, I'm sure you'll find the odd statue of those "great" industrialists in parts of the world. They aren't really any different from that slave traders statue that got removed in England. Why should they stay again?

Statues... what's the point. Build pyramids instead. If you want the world to wonder what the heck happened here...

In part what Amentep said, but mostly because I rarely enjoy "passive" entertainment. I like video games because I can participate actively in the entertainment and otherwise prefer watching cinema, concerts, theater, musicals etc. Sitting still and watching a screen for hours without interacting with it just doesn't sit well with me. For several years, I didn't have a TV either. If I *really* wanted to watch something, I would buy the DVD(s) and view it on my PC (that's how I binge watched all seasons of Game of Thrones, never saw an episode on TV). It's a bit about control maybe? I don't want to feel "compelled" to watch a channel because I'm paying a monthly subscription fee... Edit: I'll check out 'Sexy Losers'. I had a look at Crunchyroll, but the only show I could find of the ones I were looking for was Attack on Titan. I might still give that one a go.

Between fires, droughts and the San Andreas Fault, the east coast doesn't really look *that* bad

The world still needs to up their own chip production before they can sit idle by and watch China invade Taiwan... https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-world-relies-on-one-chip-maker-in-taiwan-leaving-everyone-vulnerable-11624075400 Even if Qualcomm "only" produces 12% of the worlds chips by now (down from 37%), its still something that currently sits in 60% of the words cars... Not that I'm a proponent of cars mind you. Best thing ever was the the total lockdown where the streets were empty and the air felt fresher. A memory of a world freed from cars that will stick with me

Hi Sarex... Does the cartridge games for Commodore 64 count as "console games"? If so, the first game I owned was Commodore's International Soccer (that's heathen speak for football). If not... then I've never owned a console or the games that comes with it. Racial purity indeed I was also a latecomer to PC gaming, hanging on to my Amiga 4000 until Fallout came out, which together with the original Tombraider made me switch platform (Neither ran properly on the PC emulator)

They might not have kept track of their spending But there are places for the top 1%, there you don't ask about the price. Luxury clothes, Jewelry, Furniture, Cars, fancy restaurants etc. How about a $80000 Cognac to take home for tonight's dessert? https://luxurylaunches.com/gastronomy/a-80000-cognac-remy-martin-opens-the-worlds-first-louis-xiii-boutique-2.php

Sorry guys, the original poster has left the building *cough* (Sarex just so happened to be the second poster in the thread, so now it looks like he created it, sorry...)

Big tech companies wants to turn us all into MMO players in a life simulator. The Matrix sends its regards... https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-58749529 "Apparently, it's the next big thing. What is the metaverse?" "The metaverse is a concept being talked about as the next big thing by tech companies, marketers, and analysts. It's attracting attention - and money - from some of of tech's biggest names, such as Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg and Epic Games' Tim Sweeney." ... "Unlike current VR, which is mostly used for gaming, this virtual world could be used for practically anything - work, play, concerts, cinema trips - or just hanging out." Just imagine a world governed by the Zuckerbergs and Sweeneys of this world as your overlords... (yes, the use of 'your' is used deliberately to distance myself from wanting to live in such a world)

Preferably leave me alone I think?

I do prefer original language with English subtitles And I do have a commercial VPN subscription and can pretend to be from anywhere in the world Edit: And thanks for the heads up, I'll check out Crunchyroll

Yes. The pacing is awful and the ending felt very rushed (in a bad kind of way). A shame, because the slow build up the first half of the series was actually nice (imho). Sadly the second half, things starts coming apart. Finished watching Elfen Lied. What a great story. Definitely worth the price of entry (this is the version I got https://www.amazon.com.au/gp/product/B00AF1H8G8/ref=ox_sc_act_image_1?smid=A3JCEYBC5L8UJ8&psc=1). Some of us don't have netflix, streaming shows etc. so have to get what we can buy at affordable prices Not exactly a happy story, but very engaging and dramatic at times. I'll at that to Made in Abyss as my two positive (recent) Anime experiences. Attack on Titan fell by the wayside because it was to expensive if I wanted all seasons and the various standalone stuff, so I'll have a look at that magical girl stuff next. Looks like it's a self contained 12 episode series (i.e. wont break the bank) (edit: affordable prices, in case anyone clicks the link, translates into me paying around $13 us dollars + shipping for the set)