User information for Alex

Real Name
Alex
Nickname
Mezzanine
Email
Concealed by request - Send Mail
Description
Two rules for happy living:
1) Everything is shades of grey. There are no absolutes. This means that it's very unlikely you'll find a problem with no solution.
2) There is no such thing as "free will". Everything you d
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Signed On
October 15, 2003
Total Posts
23 (Suspect)
User ID
19033
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23 Comments. 2 pages. Viewing page 1.
Newer [  1  2  ] Older
11.
 
Japanese boy writes apology in blood.
Jun 21, 2004, 11:51
11.
Japanese boy writes apology in blood. Jun 21, 2004, 11:51
Jun 21, 2004, 11:51
 
I saw this on the news over here in Japan as it broke... they mentioned that the teacher was not serious and was actually surprised that the student obeyed him. This was repeated by the principal at the school as well.

Having worked in several Japanese elementary and middle schools, I've seen some students be disciplined, but's not even on par with Catholic schools, so coporeal punishment is quite rare. One difference from school back in the states is that students handle the cleaning after class, so it's very easy for a teacher to simply threaten a misbehaver with double or triple cleaning duties, and that seems to work very well. I get the feeling that this was just your standard wacko that went unnoticed for a little too long. Plus, this gets a bit more press with that classmate murder that happened recently, which just NOW stopped getting picked over.
-- Nothing is black, nor is it white. If you think you've found something that isn't shades of grey, I can recommend a good optometrist. --
7.
 
Violence Article
May 24, 2004, 13:02
7.
Violence Article May 24, 2004, 13:02
May 24, 2004, 13:02
 
Raise your OWN children. We have a system to accomodate this. It prevents the sale of violent or explicit games to minors. YOU buy the game, YOU let your kid play the game, YOU take responsibility. No excuses.

This is not a free speech issue. If a parent doesn't pay attention, their teenager can take their parent's car and drive it into a tree. This is NOT the fault of the car manufacturer. If you buy laundry detergent that has a brightly colored label and you ignorantly leave it in the child's reach, YOU are responsible. If you want to cling to the fact that video game violence affects children's behavior in an unacceptable, even dangerous way, treat like anything else that's dangerous.

The game companies have done their part. They restrict sales of their products from those who have been universally deemed unprepared to experience them. THEY put the warning labels there, YOU have to read them. End of story.


This comment was edited on May 24, 13:13.
-- Nothing is black, nor is it white. If you think you've found something that isn't shades of grey, I can recommend a good optometrist. --
4.
 
Re: Florida Cops Arrest Man For Beating
May 10, 2004, 09:15
4.
Re: Florida Cops Arrest Man For Beating May 10, 2004, 09:15
May 10, 2004, 09:15
 
Isn't anyone else tired of these dumb news stories that get pushed out JUST because they involve a game system or a game? If this yahoo had beaten the kid for breaking, oh let's say, his STEREO, this story would've never made it to the headlines.
-- Nothing is black, nor is it white. If you think you've found something that isn't shades of grey, I can recommend a good optometrist. --
164.
 
Re: Facts about 9/11 and the Patriot Act
Apr 24, 2004, 01:08
Re: Facts about 9/11 and the Patriot Act Apr 24, 2004, 01:08
Apr 24, 2004, 01:08
 
I find it amazing that you believe you're entitled to ANYTHING you don't have the money to pay for.

I find it amazing that you believe you're entitled to anything at all.

...

Wow... you stumped me on this one... did your girlfriend just dump you or something? I mean, to come up with a retort like that, you'd have to be, what, 11? Or else somebody has got your panties in a bunch over SOMETHING.

(reads some more of your later posts)

Ahhh... supporting Bush, praising Vlad Tsepish and Stalin... not sure if you're worse for praising our ruinous president or somehow believing death is the solution for any problem... I see now.

You don't belong here.


This comment was edited on Apr 24, 01:08.
-- Nothing is black, nor is it white. If you think you've found something that isn't shades of grey, I can recommend a good optometrist. --
116.
 
Re: i pirate the shit out of games
Apr 23, 2004, 14:18
Re: i pirate the shit out of games Apr 23, 2004, 14:18
Apr 23, 2004, 14:18
 
Immoral, perhaps, but it would be absurd to stop playing games because of my financial limitations.

You're absolutely right, that would be absurd.


So... clean your harddrive of every single program you haven't paid for, and knock yourself out! You can play games as long as you want. Your financial limitations means you can't buy games, or else you can buy cheap ones, or used ones online. I find it amazing that you believe you're entitled to ANYTHING you don't have the money to pay for.
-- Nothing is black, nor is it white. If you think you've found something that isn't shades of grey, I can recommend a good optometrist. --
101.
 
Re: this is bluesnews
Apr 23, 2004, 10:11
Re: this is bluesnews Apr 23, 2004, 10:11
Apr 23, 2004, 10:11
 
Please do not group along with those who actually pirate games for which they haven't paid, and therefore have no right to use. Included in any EULA is the provision for backing up software and media you've paid for, which I do now that I have a CD burner. I have warezed copies of games and musics that I've already paid for, but lost. If I want to try out a game to see if it's worth my money, I get the demo, or I wait for someone else to buy it and give the details (HERE on Bluesnews, for example). If I want to listen to new music before I buy, there are plenty of LEGITIMATE resources online for this purpose.

Also, someone just drew the conclusion that Ashcroft and his kind are out busting perps in the name of big business. They may think they are, but the point has been made that pirating hurts small, independant game companies just as much as the giants, and in the end, the programmers (or artists) are the ones who get shafted. Music artists are a little different, as their industry is already raping their charges as it is, so the musicians who are in-the-know aren't losing any sleep over their contracted owners losing a little record sales.

But in the end, I really hope the ones with the will to change things out there are listening to what's happening. I hope they realize that they have a better chance at fixing this for good than any two-bit government out there.
-- Nothing is black, nor is it white. If you think you've found something that isn't shades of grey, I can recommend a good optometrist. --
82.
 
Sigh
Apr 23, 2004, 01:13
82.
Sigh Apr 23, 2004, 01:13
Apr 23, 2004, 01:13
 
Now I don't particularly agree with LustyGoat's attitude, he does make a point. Outright piracy hurts real live people, and not just any people - the lives of the people who make the game you love so much. I'll admit right now, I have SOME warezed copies of games on my computer. The ONLY warezed anything that I have, though, are copies of either software or music that at one time, I have paid for (I move around alot, and I've had most of my posessions taken from me before), and never anything that I had the chance to pay for the first time. So yes, I can sleep well at night knowing that the copy of Game X I downloaded today WAS paid for in full, so Company Y does have my money and support.

We don't need taxpayers money used on this kind of futile hunt ATM though, since we do have much larger responsibilities for now. The answer is simple: who knows how better to take care of the problem better than gamers and game companies? Game companies should be protecting their own property in the first place. By the same token, gamers can help with this also, seeing as some of the most brilliant people in the world are online, and can share ideas on how to create a legitimate piracy-free system.

You want an example of the gaming community taking care of itself? PunkBuster. Not paid for by tax dollars, but designed by the very people it would help. People wanted cheating morons off their servers and out of their games, so they DID something about it. Now how about a way to sell games and software that allows for legal backups, but not rampant sharing? Maybe it'll require software and hardware as well... maybe you can make legal backups from the original media, but it's tailored at creation to run only on a system with your specs (a dongle, etc), so it can't be shared.

You "Piracy is taking jobs" guys are in the right here... the ones for piracy are the lazy ones who accept things as is, so make something out of it! Don't cheer for people getting arrested (something you'll be paying for by taxes for, hmm, 5 years per count, was it? Times the cost to keep a prisoner in jail?)... we KNOW we have the ability, right?
-- Nothing is black, nor is it white. If you think you've found something that isn't shades of grey, I can recommend a good optometrist. --
7.
 
Re: X-box 2 halted
Apr 1, 2004, 11:46
7.
Re: X-box 2 halted Apr 1, 2004, 11:46
Apr 1, 2004, 11:46
 
Their 'anonymous' source sounds like he's full of crap. MS should be able to shrug off that EU fine easily and not affect the X-box2

of course thats just my opinoin, I could be wrong.


BWAAAAAAAAAAAHAHAHAHAAHAHAAAAHHOOOOOO!

whoa, man! warn me next time you do that! whew!

*snicker*

GYAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHA!
-- Nothing is black, nor is it white. If you think you've found something that isn't shades of grey, I can recommend a good optometrist. --
34.
 
Re: No-CD
Mar 21, 2004, 00:20
34.
Re: No-CD Mar 21, 2004, 00:20
Mar 21, 2004, 00:20
 
Just curious about what everyone would think about this...

Clean exchange: instead of having to put in a CD to verify, require all customers of game X to register online (y'know, the option most games, even non-net games give you), and during the setup, the server patches the game to make it work correctly (instead of an auth code or something that can easily be forged). As an alternative, mind you. Just wanted to hear the reaction from those who vehemently oppose simple CD protection. Please note I don't necessarily oppose or support either, just an idea I had.


This comment was edited on Mar 21, 00:21.
-- Nothing is black, nor is it white. If you think you've found something that isn't shades of grey, I can recommend a good optometrist. --
42.
 
Re: No subject
Mar 19, 2004, 07:49
42.
Re: No subject Mar 19, 2004, 07:49
Mar 19, 2004, 07:49
 
I can see a problem with that. The server opens and 1000 people join the game for the first time. After a couple of days the relative worth of those players has been established and no amount of training is going to change that. If your reactions suck because of age or disability then you'll always suck. Ditto brainpower. A year later there are new people but all the original 1000 players who've stayed on are still in roughly the same relative places. No progression, no goals, no incentive to stay. A bit like life really, once you leave college.

Actually, it'd be a bit like other kind of online games (FPS, RTS, etc), where people can practice and get skilled at the game. Keep in mind, with most RPG games, generally speaking there's not very much skill involved in combat beyond point n' click, so my point is that in order to make this kind of a skill-based system, combat has to be radically changed, perhaps into a hybrid fighting game of some such. I know it's rather complicated, but I think most people would prefer not getting beat down by a smack-talking teenager because he's 10 levels higher than you.

As for goals and incentives, how is that different from the current MMORPGs? You level up to the max level, spending a few months finding the quickest way up the ladder, then hit the social circuit, participate in mass PvP, explore, do ACTUAL RP (there's a thought:) ), etc... nothing says that can't be done in a skill based system. The only difference would be instead of increasing the numbers in a spreadsheet, you're practicing and increasing YOUR OWN skills.
-- Nothing is black, nor is it white. If you think you've found something that isn't shades of grey, I can recommend a good optometrist. --
28.
 
Re: No subject
Mar 17, 2004, 13:41
28.
Re: No subject Mar 17, 2004, 13:41
Mar 17, 2004, 13:41
 
Point well taken. Someone will need to think outside the box on this one and realize that D&D is D&D... if people wanted to play D&D so badly, they wouldn't pay $15 per month for it, they'd go down to the local comic dungeon and play it for real.

Hear this, MMORPG makers! It's time for MMORPGs to leave their roots behind and make a name for themselves as places where the quick and smart rule, not the ones with all free time and no job!
-- Nothing is black, nor is it white. If you think you've found something that isn't shades of grey, I can recommend a good optometrist. --
26.
 
No subject
Mar 17, 2004, 13:08
26.
No subject Mar 17, 2004, 13:08
Mar 17, 2004, 13:08
 
There's a fundamental reason why people get bored with these games. The people who don't get bored, DON'T because they use it as a social gathering place, which is all well and good. If you want to make a fun, exciting massively online game, #9 hit it on the head: pure level-based conflict is boring and wrong. Someone who started playing the game earlier (thus a higher level) will always beat someone with a lower level, regardless of ability.

Levels should not equal ability, it should be the other way around. Levels should be a status symbol: if this magician practiced magic hard enough that he can flawlessly pull off a "ThunderboltOfDoom" spell under pressure, he deserves to be called a Mage of the 5th Degree. Instead, with the current system, the mage finds a scroll of "Level 5 Fireball", but he can't read it for simple fact that he's not level 5. So the mage goes out back and bashes a troll in the head with a stick for a few hours, and voila! Level up!
Other games have taken a small step in the right direction and tied skills improvement to usage. Oddly enough, SWG does this, though the implementation rather lacking. And still, it doesn't address the (IMO) insurrmountable barrier to correct system.

Experience and skill should be based on the player, not the avatar. If the player manages to take down a challenging foe, he should receive noteriety. If he beats 100 rats to death with a club, he should be sent to seek psychological help. This is the key to MMORPGs and PvP: it should be about skill. A level 5 swordsman should have no programmed restrictions or handicaps when fighting a level 6 swordsman. However, the fact that the second swordsman has reached that level should MEAN something, that the first swordsman is facing a skilled player, not someone who spent 4 hours online the night before hacking slimes to grab xp. Right now, levels mean nothing other than an abundance of free time. There are plent other problems with the current state of MMORPGS, but without finding a way to make level 9 MEAN level 9, they won't get any better.
-- Nothing is black, nor is it white. If you think you've found something that isn't shades of grey, I can recommend a good optometrist. --
6.
 
The Flybar
Feb 25, 2004, 11:36
6.
The Flybar Feb 25, 2004, 11:36
Feb 25, 2004, 11:36
 
I mean, the thing... it... just look at the... you can...

GYAAAA!!!!!

*explodes*


(translation: I WANT ONE OF THESE)
-- Nothing is black, nor is it white. If you think you've found something that isn't shades of grey, I can recommend a good optometrist. --
10.
 
Re: Webcasting
Feb 15, 2004, 08:52
10.
Re: Webcasting Feb 15, 2004, 08:52
Feb 15, 2004, 08:52
 
I'll second that about Japan... especially stuff like Johnny's groups (pure manufactured bands) or Morning Musume... wasn't to hard to swear off most mainstream J-POP since it feels the same as pop in the US, both not worth the listen.

Good exception is SMAP, who got started from Johnny's, but became good TV talent, with some interesting comedy shows, etc... can't sing worth a damn though, so maybe it's good they got SMAP started? Again, REALLY rare case
-- Nothing is black, nor is it white. If you think you've found something that isn't shades of grey, I can recommend a good optometrist. --
17.
 
Re: No subject
Feb 12, 2004, 23:11
17.
Re: No subject Feb 12, 2004, 23:11
Feb 12, 2004, 23:11
 
I was an AO player since the launch, so I've been through ALL the big nerfs and such, and through all the big fixes. They've come a long way, no doubts there. When Shadowlands launched, they ran into a bunch of the same problems from the original launch, mostly because the size of the expansion in compared to other MMORPGS was HUGE, and had a ton of wide-reaching effects on things they'd worked to balance before.

They're just now starting to get Shadowlands back in order, and the most recent major patch is making me think it's time to log back in again. Thing is there's still some major issues that aren't obvious till you've been in for a while (some professions have become rather useless since SL, while others have become exploited for a single purpose; also, high-end leveling involves killing one type of mob in one playfield) so my hope is that they clean up some more of these issues before they launch another expansion.

That said... what the hell?!? Whatever happened to "Towns of Rubi-ka"?!?!?
-- Nothing is black, nor is it white. If you think you've found something that isn't shades of grey, I can recommend a good optometrist. --
77.
 
Re: An official statement
Feb 9, 2004, 06:50
77.
Re: An official statement Feb 9, 2004, 06:50
Feb 9, 2004, 06:50
 
"and the erscheinungstermin is on 25 March is maintained."

Well thank heavens for that...


-- Nothing is black, nor is it white. If you think you've found something that isn't shades of grey, I can recommend a good optometrist. --
21.
 
Re: punkbuster is a joke!
Feb 9, 2004, 06:29
21.
Re: punkbuster is a joke! Feb 9, 2004, 06:29
Feb 9, 2004, 06:29
 
Sigh....

This has nothing to do with something as vitally important as "running red lights". How about I help you with a little more applicable example?

If you go to a bar or a club and start a fight, or cause trouble with other paying customers, that bar can ban you from entering again. They don't want you upsetting their business, so it's completely within their rights to ban you. Of course, you can always go to the other bar down the road... y'know, the one with all the other unsavory folks that caused trouble at the good bars?


In other words:
1) PunkBuster is good
2) CD requirements are annoying and should have a workaround made.
3) Think PunkBuster's "too extreme"? Have fun on the non-PB servers, 'cause I certainly won't meet you there.
This comment was edited on Feb 9, 06:34.
-- Nothing is black, nor is it white. If you think you've found something that isn't shades of grey, I can recommend a good optometrist. --
12.
 
Re: No subject
Feb 7, 2004, 06:47
12.
Re: No subject Feb 7, 2004, 06:47
Feb 7, 2004, 06:47
 
Pretty soon, those thing will start dating me.

To be honest, I thought you were either being very stalwart, or joking

-- Nothing is black, nor is it white. If you think you've found something that isn't shades of grey, I can recommend a good optometrist. --
10.
 
No subject
Feb 7, 2004, 04:13
10.
No subject Feb 7, 2004, 04:13
Feb 7, 2004, 04:13
 
Point taken

Not sure what others above were getting at, but the examples I cited were not a nationality issue, more of a culture issue... otherwise, I wouldn't be finding myself more and more attracted to these cute lil' bouncy girls they've got everywhere the longer I live here

Just to comment, though, although recent strides have been made in the "inferiority" dept, mainly due to the general emulation of Western culture, the majority of marriages end up like America's 50's... wives never THINK of working, husband expects dinner ready as he walks in, usually relaxes with a drink afterwards, y'know...

There ARE plenty of women who have "housewife" as the LAST thing on their list of possible futures, and men who DESPISE the thought of being a clockpuncher. The way I see it though, is that there's a much wider range than in America, as in there are grey areas of course, but the way some of the older generation husbands treat their wives over here makes me wonder why they don't get sued or divorced into oblivion.

And, in closing.... merf


EDIT: After reading your bio, Ray... Rei's great, but I'd pay BIG to see Maya added to the "Don't you want to become one with me?" scene
This comment was edited on Feb 7, 04:16.
-- Nothing is black, nor is it white. If you think you've found something that isn't shades of grey, I can recommend a good optometrist. --
8.
 
Re: Sigh
Feb 7, 2004, 02:36
8.
Re: Sigh Feb 7, 2004, 02:36
Feb 7, 2004, 02:36
 
Yes, a lot of them ARE that desperate over here. Adult magazines, both photo and comic style, are in extreme abundance and readily available wherever you go... dating sites accessible through your cellphone are too numerous to count, and 90% of any mobile spam you get (yes, it happens, especially if you don't change your cell-mail address from the factory default) consists of the same. You can play the naked/strip mahjong games at ANY arcade you walk into. Etc, etc.

From what I've seen, the need for porn, specifically among the 20's - 30's bracket, stems from studying like mad at college, and having no time for a girlfriend. After that it splits into two groups... on one side, you've got your salarymen. Salarymen put company as a solid 1st Place priority, with wife, kids, hobbies, etc, at a WAY distant 2nd, 3rd, and so on. Sexless marriages abound, as it's usually "Go to the strip-club with the buddies from work" instead of going home, and working husbands are notorious for staying out drinking with co-workers. On the other side, you've got your habitual part-timers, who have plenty of time for a girlfriend, but no money, so their relationships tend to be shortlived, or filled with cheating and such.

But hey, not to paint a bad picture of Japan... ummm.... you can buy hot coffee in cans from vending machines anywhere!

-- Nothing is black, nor is it white. If you think you've found something that isn't shades of grey, I can recommend a good optometrist. --
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