Messages

151

Completely Unrelated / Re: Chess

« on: 2006-10-06 05:25:10 »

I am not a subscriber now so I can only play 6 games at once, which is where I currently am, so I can not accept challenges yet, however, I already spoke to my boss about buying me a subscription (he has a credit card and I will pay him back).

So soon I should be able to play infinite at once.


L. Spiro

152

Completely Unrelated / Chess

« on: 2006-10-05 06:46:14 »

Well from a previous tournament I know that a lot of people here enjoy chess.

I also enjoy chess, but I wasn’t hanging around at the time of the tournament so I completely missed out.

If you are like me, you don’t have a lot of time anymore, and this is one major reason I stopped playing chess long ago, and probably why fewer people here show interest in it as much.
One alternative has been to play quick games (10 minute games or such) but quite frankly I hate those.
If I am to play chess, I will play a thinking game or none at all.  Hence why lack of time has forced me to play none at all.


Someone on another forum kept pushing me to play to which I kept replying that I had no time.
Finally he linked me to http://www.chessatwork.com/.

Honestly, I have to admit I am impressed with the detail they have put into this site.
They put a lot of time into it, added tons of little useful features over a long period of time, and the entire site is really huge, complete with forums where chess players chat it out (I do not participate but they have it).

The best part is that the time per move is noted in days, giving us working men and women the ability to play thinking games again without interfering with our lives.
You can play multiple games at once as well and keep the opponents fresh.



It also has full league support.
It natively supports the creation of chess clans and allows clan battles as well.

My interest in chess really died long ago, but recently I have been getting back into it and I am considering even subscribing to the site ($30 for a year, no problem).
Note that you do not have to subscribe, and you can still have fun without doing so.



If anyone would like to play, my ID is “LSpiro”.
It is more fun to play people you know than a bunch of strangers.


I heard Nori ripped it up at the last tournament.
Too bad I will never get to play her now that she left.

Maybe we can have another Qhimm tournament on Chess at Work, especially since it seems both of the winners from the previous one are gone.


L. Spiro

153

Completely Unrelated / Re: Art

« on: 2006-09-25 15:01:07 »

Thank you.


I mostly used 4F, 2F, H, 3B, and 6B.

Charcoal is a bit dark, and I avoid it even when I need dark because it smears far too easily.

Speaking of which, you can preserve your art longer by spraying it with hairspray.
Just a light coating of hairspray, certainly not enough to wet the paper, but just a drizzle.

Can i get her phone number? :p

Do you speak Thai?


By the way, she has finally seen it and she said she loves it.
Then we spoke for about an hour on the phone and she called me “sweetie”.
So I might do another.


L. Spiro

154

Completely Unrelated / Re: I am under martial law.

« on: 2006-09-20 09:06:15 »

A few weeks ago my bike taxi pulled up to the red light in front of all the other vehicles, giving me a front-row seat to a street fight between 4 teens.

In the middle of a busy intersection, they had put their motorcycles flat on the ground without bothering with kickstands, and 3 of them were beating the 1.

The 1 was crying for help as his blood covered the intersection.

Meanwhile the police in the station at the intersection did nothing.
After being forced into action by people honking and yelling at them, one guy finally began walking over.
Yes.  Walking.  100 feet to cover, and he made damn sure everyone knew he could waste time.

He slowly strolled over with his hands on his hips as the other 3 were trying to break the kid’s neck.


When he finally got there the kid was just a puddle on the ground, and the officer still did nothing.
He just spoke for a bit and sent the 3 on their ways.

F***ing faggot.



That same night, I was on my way home alone.
Two police officers drove up on a motorcycle and tried to assault me, attempting to steal my money.
They count on all foreigners being drunken idiots with absolutely no wits about them.
Too bad for them, I stalled until some people finally came around.
I called them over to be witnesses.  They came and the policemen left.
Coincidence?  I think not.

F***ing faggots.





The police are nothing but corrupted scum.
The military is supposedly against the police and Thaksin, and against corruption.


My building is the Thai Ministry of Justice and has already been bombed while I was in it as a message to Thaksin.
It is surrounded by military and police now, and they don’t get along.

They even set up a camouflage tent outside and military vehicles roam around.


L. Spiro

155

Completely Unrelated / Re: I am under martial law.

« on: 2006-09-20 02:24:42 »

living in thai would be a joke anyway. although you can get some really good ganja

Okay, maybe living in Thailand would be a joke for you.
Somehow I suspect a lot of things are a joke to you.


L. Spiro

156

Completely Unrelated / I am under martial law.

« on: 2006-09-19 18:58:07 »

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/5361512.stm

http://bangkok.usembassy.gov/


This is particularly bad for me as I work/stay in the Thai Ministry of Justice which has already been bombed while I was in it.
There are tanks and military units all over Bangkok.


L. Spiro

157

Completely Unrelated / Re: Art

« on: 2006-09-18 05:14:42 »

Aya Brea is good.
Defined lines.

And the unfinished woman has a nice style to it.


L. Spiro

158

Completely Unrelated / Re: Steve Irwin rememberance.

« on: 2006-09-15 04:07:21 »

But if they were avid fans, they would've fully understood his ideals.

Am I making sense?

Some people can be heart-felt fans of another person while still maintaining anger-management issues.

Being a fan of someone doesn’t suddenly make all your personal issues (or non-issues) go away.


L. Spiro

159

Completely Unrelated / Re: Art

« on: 2006-09-15 04:01:41 »

You are very good.

Thank you.

L. Spiro: nice drawing skillz !

Thank you.

L.Spiro: Whoa, that's an awesome portrait!

Thank you.

Forté a.k.a. Bass

Thank you.

Did you sit her down for the duration of drawing the picture?
Or did you do it from a photo?

From a picture.
She still has not seen the drawing yet; it’s actually a bit of a surprise.
Well, she didn’t directly ask me to draw her.
She asked me to draw a panda, and her name is Panda, so I thought it would be a nice surprise, especially since she didn’t actually expect me to draw anything really.

Her computer borked so she can’t go online much, but next time she gets online she will see it.

I used to draw a lot when I was younger, but in the last times I haven't drawn at all and my skills are rusted.

Did you actually draw something to find your skills rusted?
Or do you just feel it without actually trying?
Because I think a lot of parts of art really never go away, especially the ones from your childhood.
Things such as styles may deteriorate—maybe you get worse at drawing Disney styles or anime, but in general art shouldn’t really go away.
I think you should be able to get anything back if you just draw a few pictures.

I think I have that drawing lying around somewhere at my parent's house, I'll take a look this weekend (if I don't forget about it), and scan and upload it next week.

Sure, that would be great.

Forté a.k.a. Bass

This one looks good.

160

Completely Unrelated / Art

« on: 2006-09-13 08:04:11 »

Well the fact is, I really don’t like drawing.
Just boring for me.

But a girl I know asked me to draw her.

This is the first portrait I have done in years, and since there probably won’t be another for years, I thought I would share it.
http://www.memoryhacking.com/Pictures/Panda1.jpg


She hasn’t seen it yet, but I hope she will like it.
What do you think?



I had these other ones laying aound here.
Maybe some might be interested.
http://www.memoryhacking.com/Pictures/Eye%203Square.JPG
http://www.memoryhacking.com/Pictures/Eyes.JPG

Some Neon Genesis Evangelion to go with the other thread:
http://www.memoryhacking.com/Pictures/Above%20Rei%20and%20Asuka.jpg
http://www.memoryhacking.com/Pictures/Above%20Rei.jpg
(Yes, I drew these from looking at posters, not from my mind.)

Some computer ones:
http://www.memoryhacking.com/Pictures/Cape%20Woman.png
http://www.memoryhacking.com/Pictures/GreenGirl.png (I guess you’ve seen this huh?)




If you have any art to share with the world, post it here.   


L. Spiro

161

General Discussion / Re: Remake Petition

« on: 2006-09-06 04:53:56 »

[EDIT]
Oh, there is a second page in this topic and people are no longer talking about Sierra’s roots.
Oh well, I wrote all of this and I am not erasing it.
[/EDIT]



I happened upon a great deal of knowledge regarding Sierra in my closet.
It turned out that I had originally gotten this knowledge as a result of being a fan of Starsiege: Tribes for many years, and lived the history as it was happening.

What I know is more related to Dynamix, however.


Dynamix was its own company in Oregon at the start.
Sierra purchased Dynamix in 1990, and was its own company at the time.
After an internal scandal in Sierra, the company took a major shift and was acquired by Vivendi Universal in 1998.
The studio was broken into branches, with the original Dynamix being one of them.
Dynamix developed Starsiege: Tribes, which is considered by all living objects to be the best game in the history of history.
Sierra produced the game and was happy with the results, but internal troubles still existed.

Soon after, they were letting go of their subsidiary companies, but kept the Starsiege: Tribes team around to create its sequel, Tribes 2.

Tribes 2 was such a flop you had to download megs of patches just to play it for the first time out of the box.

Sierra On-line closed Dynamix in 2001 and headed for nothing but a downward spiral from there.

They changed their name to Sierra Entertainment afterwards.

Vivendi Universal kept Sierra Entertainment, but laid off all of its staff and hired a completely new group.  Literally, it was a new company that just held the same name, as they hoped to play off the success of Sierra Entertainment’s previous titles.

This did not go over well with fans, many of whom simply stopped buying Vivendi Universal games.


The old Dynamix team remained in Oregon and created what we know today as GarageGames.
Starsiege: Tribes sported a subset of what is known today as the Torque engine.


L. Spiro

162

Scripting and Reverse Engineering / Re: Where's the data for command, support and independent materia?

« on: 2006-07-31 08:37:12 »

Those are not data sets for Materia.
Those are just attacks and nothing more.


Materia is in the same place as everything else: Kernel.bin.


L. Spiro

163

Completely Unrelated / Re: So then, TV-Series.

« on: 2006-07-31 02:29:43 »

Mystery Science Theater 3000.


L. Spiro

164

Completely Unrelated / Re: Only Qhimmsters can Understand (Rated R for Foul Language)

« on: 2006-07-30 09:06:21 »

I already explained my view on suicide when explaining my nephew’s.

People who consider suicide an option don’t have a clue.
They think their lives are so full of stress, yet they don’t even understand what stress is.
Stress means not having the option of committing suicide, but being forced to deal with your problems.

My situation was impossible because there simply were no options.
There was no way to get what I wanted/needed, yet no way to run from the situation either.


I used a different number to call the whore who left on our date and told her to fuck off (actually I had to tell the guy who was with her at the time to relay my message to her).
Then I finally told that other girl who met that other guy to fuck off.  She did nothing but lie about everything the whole time I knew her, as if trying to cause me problems was a game to her.  Nothing but treat me life shit, then blame it on me.  If she got hit by a bus in front of me I’d laugh.  Then call another girl to finish the date.

I mentioned an ex-friend who used to play video games with me here.
For some reason, they day after I wrote this rant, he decided it was life-threateningly important to MSN me, so he told my coworker to have me unblock him so we could talk.
After 2 months of not speaking, it was very important for him to come back into my life and tell me that he stills hates me.
Too bad for him this was the day after I posted this topic, by which time I had already snap-overflowed.
Just as there is integer overflow, there is snap-overflow.
I was (and still am to a point) beyond frustrated all the way back up to the point of blissful happiness, so much so that nothing could change that.
So when he came back trying to give me more stress I just laughed at him.
He explained he hates me, I replied, “Well then it seems you have some personal issues you need to resolve yourself.”
He didn’t like the fact that he was insignificant to me, so he continued.
He told me how everyone hates me at work, and I am all alone.  I replied, “That’s their problem, and I have always been alone.”
He couldn’t get a reaction so he tried to tell me why he hates me.  It was a bullshit reason, like when people make up rules for games.  He laid out these guidelines for what I have to do to be his friend.  “My real friends won’t do this and this and that, etc.”

By now he is just annoying, and very much more childish than I could have imagined.
Still unable to get a reaction from me, he then finally admitted something.

He admitted that he lied to my coworkers to get them to hate me.
I explained in my first post that there was some trouble at work, but didn’t get into the details.
Basically, before he left, he secretly went around to everyone and told them that I had made fun of/insulted the King of Thailand, which is essentially the single most offensive thing you could possibly do in Thailand.

So there really was even more shit happening than what I mentioned in the first post, but explaining it all was too long.
All in the middle of these girl troubles, my nephew, etc., everyone at work just suddenly turned on me.
All the girls turned into total bitches when they were nice before.
All the guys just give me this attitude of, “Get lost,” when they laughed at my jokes the day before.




Luckily for me I had already snapped.
I just didn’t (and don’t) give a shit.
I told him, “Seems to me you’ve made an error in judgment and have several severe character flaws that will most likely hamper your future development a substantial amount.     However, none of this is my problem, and this conversation has been a waste of my time.  I’m off for badminton.   :-P”


It is unfortunate that I must now be a cold-hearted careless bastard at work these days, but it is necessary.
I’m not going to deal with people’s close-minded and ignorant ways any longer, and if they want to treat me like shit, they get it back ten-fold.
When they want to try to get along again, I won’t make it difficult for them, but when they want to be assholes, well, let’s just say it will be harder on them than it will be on me.




These days are a lot better.
I go out, meet new women, and smile constantly.
I met two new women last night and I wrote an e-mail to the Japanese-loving girl explaining the situation, to which she replied she was sorry and would still like to be friends/try again.


L. Spiro

165

Completely Unrelated / Only Qhimmsters can Understand (Rated R for Foul Language)

« on: 2006-07-17 13:08:51 »

What a shitty week, and it’s just dropping more and more.


Over a long period of time I have been going deeper and deeper into a slum.
This dates back to before the Sony offensive-ad crap, which in itself didn’t help (and has kept me from coming here at all over the last few weeks).

During my time in Thailand I’ve managed to accumulate one actual friend, who actually played games and all that with me.
Somehow we managed to have a fight, and he decided never to speak to me again.  Then he quit his job here, so I never get to see him again to set things straight.
So I’ve lost my only friend, basically, but try to ignore it and move on (especially given how much of an asshole he was at the end), so as not to fall into the dark.

Over a long period of time I had gotten by without companionship aside from him, and even though I had needed female companionship for a while, losing my only friend just made it worse.
A discussion with my boss led me on a search to find a girlfriend, literally for my own health.
To have a nice caring woman waiting for me at home would really help make all the other troubles go away.

So I start meeting women.

Finally it’s 3 that I like, though I had only met two of them in person.
While getting to know these three, I thought there was hope.  My attitude was finally improving.

As for the other two, I met them in person, and we had MSN.  I could talk to them often online and things were going great.
I had confidence.  I could smile.

This is just the calm before the storm.


So this week, first thing, the best way to start off my week is to get an e-mail from my mother explaining that my nephew has hanged himself because he had a fight with his mother.
He was 15.
How fucking stupid.
Jesus Christ how fucking stupid.  I can’t believe this kid would do that.  How could he think his world is the only world??  How selfish can you be??
Take your own fucking life to prove a point that doesn’t even matter in the first place?
How do you not realize that at the age of 15, your world is insignificant?
How do you not realize that when you grow up, you look back and think about how stupid you were?
You can do a lot of stupid shit and then grow up and look back and think about how stupid it was.  The only difference is with suicide, you don’t get the chance to look back.
Don’t get me wrong.
He was my favorite nephew.  But that’s just bullshit.  I can sound harsh because I already know how it was.
I have the scars from my own suicide attempts, and I know what the hell he was thinking.  He wasn’t depressed.  He was pissed and wanted to make a point.
And that’s the third funeral I’ve missed in 2 years since I have been here.
And now all I see are images of him hanging there.  Wonderful.


So I guess somewhere along the line I got a bit stressed out and somehow became inflicted with acid reflux disease.
Now I have to swallow constantly and take tons of pills, etc.
Lovely.  I love it when life gets harder for no reason.


So now I’m trying to talk less to these girls because with my mood I know I wouldn’t be able to have a “happy” conversation, and I don’t want to bum them out.
So I try to reduce the conversations a bit but not so much they think I don’t like them.


Some shit at work happens, followed by some more shit before the weekend.

Finally I wanted to meet that last girl I hadn’t met yet, thinking this might be a good way to cheer up.


So we go to a big mall here.  She is 10 minutes late.  Okay, fine.  I am happy she is here.
We walk for 5 minutes and discuss our eating plans.
Dairy Queen and Chester’s Grill are next to each other, so I would get a snack at Dairy queen and she would get a seat at Chester’s Grill, then I would catch up and eat with her.
So I get my food and go.
She wasn’t there.
I walked around the area, then went back to Dairy Queen knowing she would go there to look for me.
I waited 1.5 hours and called her 23 times.
She didn’t come and didn’t answer her fucking phone.
Yes, that’s right.
She just fucking left.
Waste my time and money.  I had to throw away my ice cream because it melted and got too cold for my hands.
Thanks a lot, fucking asshole.


Nice.
So let’s see how we can make this day worse.


That night, girl #1 of the remaining 2 came online.
She asked how my day was.  Without explaining the details, I summed it up as “Pure shit.  And you?”
To which she replied, “I had a great day!”.
She then proceeds to tell me all about some guy who came up to her on the street and asked her the time, then told her he didn’t really want to know the time but just wanted to talk to her.
Then told me all about how “special” he is and some more bullshit.
Fucking lovely.
Trying not to be a bummer for her, I just told her that was great and I was glad she had a good day.  But I was really about to explode.


Next day, girl #2 sends her friend to chat with me.
Her friend speaks more English and wanted to practice.
This girl is really the girl I like most, as she likes a lot of the things I like, including Japan.
Quite frankly, if this girl would like me, I could easily forget about all the other bullshit.

Later that day her friend comes online and asks me if I want to go out for the night.
I am quite happy at this point.
We arrange our meeting at McDonald’s.
Then, I got the stupidest piece-of-shit taxi driver on the planet.
He drove like a grandma on Xanax.  Everyone was passing us at 20 miles per hour.
Then we finally get there and he doesn’t have a single coin for change.
I had to waste more time going inside the mall to get change, twice.
How can you be a taxi driver without any money on you at all?


How fucking lovely.
By the time I walked to the meeting place, my date had left.
The one girl who mattered the most among them.


That’s just great.
Oh, and don’t think it ends there.
But I’m too busy exploding to continue.


L. Spiro

166

Completely Unrelated / Re: What is friendship?

« on: 2006-07-03 02:56:10 »

Back in the U-S of A I knew an ex-CIA “spook”.  A hitman.
He seemed quite proud of his lack of compassion (and love for killing) and every time he got drunk he took it as a chance to prove how heartless he could be.
In an attempt to prove how little he can care for others, he tried to throw me over the balcony of our apartment.

What he ended up proving is that he does indeed have some kind of heart, as he later (while sober) realized I am the nicest human alive and he felt bad for that day.
To normal people, it may not make sense, but to him it makes sense to offer a “hit” in return for forgiveness.

In other words, I give the word, and someone dies.  The first one is free and each person after costs money.
If you get my drift.  Wink wink.  Nudge nudge.


L. Spiro

167

Completely Unrelated / Re: What is friendship?

« on: 2006-06-26 18:40:24 »

I live near Croydon (Coulsdon area).

I have no confidence with these things any more, when I first met her I was 5'11 at 74 KG, I got glandular fever and now weigh 62. I think I look freakishly thin and can't see how anyone would be attracted to me the way I currently look.

Pfft.

I’m 6’1” and 57 kilograms and dating models.

Confidence really is the only difference.  Either do it or don’t.  Have it or not.  But you might want to start getting it once you see one-too-many ugly-ass men with hot-ass women.

I have to admit I laughed out loud at the story of rohypnol on your pizza.  I wish my girl would do that, assuming she uses protection.

There are plenty of girls out there.
Why don’t you try being single for a while and see how you enjoy that.
No, I don’t mean go off and have a bunch of sex.  Just meet women.
That’s all.  I guess you can go to bed too, but your goal here is to see what kinds of fish are in the pond.
You have time, and a whole life ahead of you.  No need to settle down in one place so soon.
See the world.  Live your dreams.

And remember, all women are the same until you make one to be more special than the others.

I know how hard it is to get over women—I cried (yes, tears) last night for my Laos girl, and I wasn’t even dating her.


L. Spiro

168

Completely Unrelated / Re: Funniest Thing In A Long Time

« on: 2006-06-23 02:49:08 »

It’s definitely illegal in America.
Legalities aside, all they would have to do is say, “I was cold and humiliated,” and they can sue, so no show/company/organization would ever even dare try to pull those pranks.

But look at those people.  They had fun.  They laughed about it.  That last guy clearly has a smile on his face as he leaves the building.

Japan is great.


L. Spiro

169

Completely Unrelated / Funniest Thing In A Long Time

« on: 2006-06-22 05:11:06 »

This is the funniest thing I have seen in a long time.

http://www.breakdancingelite.com/worlds-funniest-japan-pranks.htm

I laughed so hard my chest really started hurting.


L. Spiro

170

Completely Unrelated / Re: Crysis Video

« on: 2006-06-21 07:23:18 »

He is German but in Brazil.


L. Spiro

171

Scripting and Reverse Engineering / Re: File 3 in Kernel.bin

« on: 2006-06-20 06:27:44 »

If he gives you his notes, pass them along to me, won’t you?   


L. Spiro

172

Completely Unrelated / Re: Funny Bathroom Art

« on: 2006-06-20 06:01:20 »

Actually, no, not in person yet.
Though I have a good idea where to go if I want to find them (I imagine those are at the Siam Center).

But they are popular desktops here in the office, so I had seen the pictures before.
At least of the girls standing and giggling over the urinals.


Maybe one of my coworkers knows where they are.
The text in the second picture is, “Please help keep our bathrooms clean.  Throw all toilet paper into the trash bin.”


L. Spiro

173

Completely Unrelated / Re: Blu-Ray Launches Next Week!

« on: 2006-06-20 05:19:24 »

They use my real name.  I’m just not comfortable using it so I put in L. Spiro.

And, no, you didn’t offend me.
No one here did.  I just wanted to express why I would be offended if I had ever seen those ads.
I talk as if I have actually been offended, but for me that just a means of giving perspective.
And in this case I feel it is fine, because I know I would have been offended if I did see the ads, so I didn’t feel a need to make a clarification there.


L. Spiro

174

Completely Unrelated / Re: Blu-Ray Launches Next Week!

« on: 2006-06-20 03:38:10 »

After reading your posts for few years, it would require an incredible leap of faith to think anything else.

As I said, I’m not so naive as to presume this idea just stemmed from this topic.
Actually this is one thing I find quite interesting, being extremely phsycho-analytical.  I am quite fascinated to see how different groups of people view the same individual.
My school: “L. Spiro?  Yeah, people say he’s smart, but all we’ve ever seen is a clown.  If he’s intelligent, it’s wasted.  All he does is play games and act like a moron.  I’d be surprised if he thought he was better than anyone at anything.”
My office: “He gets his work done on time, but he’s a little weird.  Professionally there is no problem—he helps around the office and makes everyone have fun.  But he is a weirdo, and most of the time he seems to be concentrating on how to fit in with others rather than trying to act better than anyone.  I think if he ever acts bigger than another person it’s really a matter of overcompensation from trying to fit in—everyone thinks he’s a clown, nothing but jokes, and sometimes he just wants to show them there’s something more there.”

Take a few examples from various online boards, insert them here, you get the idea.  The primary running theme in those is that people think I am a clown.
And yet, here, this board has no idea of all that.
Clown?  L. Spiro??  Pfft, that guy never tells a joke, types and acts like a robot, and has a superiority complex from here to high heaven.

So you want to know the truth?
I’m tired of going everywhere and leaving a trail of jokes and moronic behavior, leaving people with the perception of me being a clown—an idiot.
For once in my life it might feel good to actually be taken seriously.
It might blow your minds to know this, but almost everywhere else I go, in real-life and online, all I do is tell jokes, smile, laugh, have fun, and do whatever I can to make sure everyone else is having a good time.

* Rejoined channel #TribalWar
* Topic is 'Tribalwar.com: <L-Spiro> I had a dream where I was Vin Diesel and suddenly Yoda came and we had to navigate through a Mario level to get to Data from Star Trek. We let the princess die because it was “fate”. After we got to Data, I turned into a girl.'
* Set by PJ on Mon Jun 19 17:24:43

I told #TribalWar about my dream thinking some of them might get a little chuckle.  They posted it as the topic, so now everyone who joins the room is going to see that.
Well, somehow I don’t see myself getting a lot of respect from this, but that’s not the point.  Yeah, people are going to hold to the idea that I am an idiot, but all that matters to me is, “Did they at least get a little laugh?”.

So the truth is, I’m in my element when I’m acting like a clown, but here, where I tried to show—and get—a little respect, no, I’m not really in my element.  I’m not trying to sound smarter or tougher, but I’m also not sure about how to gain/keep the image of a normal respected intelligent individual.
Some things I say seem to go over the border, but quite frankly I just can’t help it because I’m not used to dancing on this border.  I’m struggling quite hard to find just that zone, where there’s respect but not ego.

And it would help if I would use smilies.   
Don’t even try to deny how much of a difference that makes between arrogance and a joking stab.

So, why take offense when someone grouped you? Let the Stone cast the first innocent, or something.

You missed the point.
I group people, thus I don’t take offense when I am grouped.
But what do I do with my grouping?  Do I treat people differently because I have grouped them?  What if I grouped them incorrectly?
The point is, how do you act towards someone after you’ve grouped him or her?  Do you allow your preconceived image get in the way, or do you treat them as you would anyone else and let them show you if they are cool or not?
Grouping people doesn’t have an indication one way or the other as far as I am concerned—it’s when you think you know someone because of how you grouped him or her that bothers me.
For example, I didn’t look over my target audience, decide I know them based off how I grouped them, then spend thousands of dollars on a commercial that I was sure they would like, because, after all, they are in that group, aren’t they? So they must be porn-hungry sex addicts, of course!

You know, you are part of a group.

Read above.

How did they assume to know? I thought that the ads were aimed at certain demographic

Ads by game companies often include me within the target audience.  Why wouldn’t they?  Demographic or not, I am part of where they are aiming.
So, how did they assume to know me?
Did they spend a lot of money making a commercial for me or not?
Yes, yes they did.


This isn’t about a new Tony Hawk game that comes with an ad demonstrating “all the cool new move(s).”
I’m not a skater, so am I offended?  No.  Why not?
#1: Nothing particularly wrong with being a skater—quite a general range of people there.
#2: The game is about skating, and it is meant for people who like skating, which isn’t me.  So their ad really wasn’t meant for me—I’m not a potential customer for that product.

But a PlayStation Portable with an ad that demonstrates all the cool new porn I can get?
#1: Is there something wrong with being a porn-hungry freak?  Well, that’s so controversial, isn’t it best to leave this up to the person?  If a person thinks this is okay, fine, and if a person thinks this is offensive, fine.  Why are you questioning whether someone would get offended at this?
#2: A PlayStation Portable isn’t geared towards sports I don’t like.  It isn’t for people who cook or do construction work.  It’s for people who game, and that’s me.


But then again, I could be wrong.  Apparently the PlayStation Portable isn’t just for gamers in general, but specifically for gamers who like porn and sex.
And that isn’t me.
So I’m no longer a potential customer for Sony game products.

As far as I was concerned, that is where it ended.
I didn’t—and still don’t—want to have a long drawn-out discussion over this.
I posted a bit of my views on the subject, and I wanted it to end there.
I was a little misunderstood so I clarified.
Then I thought I was misunderstood more so I clarified more.

Really, there was never a problem here.  Their ads alienated me from their product, and as far as I was concerned that was the end of it.
What is the big deal??


L. Spiro

175

Completely Unrelated / Reply to Crysis Video

« on: 2006-06-19 15:29:37 »

I love Mythbusters.
Too bad my apartment decided to remove The Discovery Channel, which was incidentally the only channel I watched.

Also too bad I didn’t see that episode.
But I have no doubts there are circumstances where it could blow, specifically if the impact creates a substantial amount of heat.
And who knows, maybe those futuristic weapons in the movie have molten cores.


I really have to worry about something though from watching this video.
From the perspective of someone who actually has to make games, all I can say is, ugh.
God, just imagine the size of the team needed and how specialized many of the programmers need to be, on top of technically exceptionally skilled.
Looks like a lot of tedious work, and no matter how much you work, it’s only a tiny spec of the whole thing.
That doesn’t even account for debugging/bug-fixing.

I don’t really like where games are headed these days.
It takes a huge team and a big budget to make a game, and it’s not even yours.
I miss the old days when one guy could sit down and have his baby, and he could create it from the ground up.
Creating a good game was a simple task that didn’t need a lot of time or money, or manpower.  On top of having pride in the fact that it was yours, it would be done fast enough to keep you interested—your work actually felt it had meaning because you could see the game growing right before your eyes.

Now?
The same guy could spend the same time, and all he would have done is make the leaves shake when hit by bullets.
Spend the same amount of time again just to fix all the bugs.


L. Spiro