DiabloFans

I'll get more mileage out of D3. And Elder Scroll games are only fun in the beginning. You can't go on playing them for too long before recognizing just how stale everything is. But D3 will be a huge disappointment anyway because it's been so long since D2 that it can't possibly ever live up to its own expectations.

The media unfortunately has a way to do exactly what Stewart was pointing out there. But seriously, that he came in second in that poll, it's gonna count for something. He didn't even lose to Bachmann by a lot, but by not much.

For the record, Jon Huntsman was a great governor of Utah and did some really great things for my state. I think he knew he had no real chance to win the nomination. He's just doing what Romney is which is establishing loyalty to the Republicans, taking his blows, and then coming back around for a second run. I'm certain Hunstman will run again. I'm sure by then though he'll be so compromised I'll have lost much respect for him. But really he was a good governor.

Quote from proletaria

Quote from Daemaro

broad spectrum of government corruption.

And, imo, this begins with having nothing but lawyers and businessmen in office. Hence why I thought the Tyson video clip was on-topic.

No, it's not their professions. It's just people are corrupt and like someone else here said, it's never about getting rid of corruption completely. It's about recognizing the corruption and doing your best to manage it.

Quote from proletaria

Furthermore, I seriously doubt nobody in those professions has ever wanted to run for office. Very few people are influential enough to make that decision themselves. People are groomed for political careers by a political party.

Really disagree with this. First of all though, I certainly never meant that no engineer or scientist wants to run for office. I believe there are some that do. I was just stating that most engineers and scientists like engineering and science over politics.

And political careers are different than doing one or even a couple terms in office. The local level of politics, which is largely from where your day to day life is affected is often filled by office holders who come from a wide range of careers. Many politicians who go on to either being governor or senate began at some point on the most local level and built up their political careers from there. Are there other politicians who were groomed at an early age to become politicians? Of course. Is it difficult and expensive, however, to run for office especially beyond a municipal level? You bet! But at any rate, I still believe we don't see a lot of engineers and scientists running for office because they are choosing not to run.

I mean, I get what Tyson is saying. He's lamenting at the overall lack of intellectualism in Congress or any representative government. He's saying that idealism often overpowers empiricism and he is definitely right about that. Even a lot of you people here I find to be way too idealistic for your own good. It feels to me like pragmatism is dying in the U.S. Hardly anyone is flexible or compromising about their beliefs and ideals. Ideals are expensive. Too many people are running around saying this is how things should be instead of trying to acknowledge the way things are at least based on an empirical model of analysis and then adjusting policy based on numbers instead of ideals.

But people don't like the idea of public policy being about numbers. They don't like the idea that they are a statistic and that policy is decided on rates of acceptable losses and gains.

Social security is a good example of this. Mathematically, we have all sorts of methods that would fix the social security problem. The biggest one being to raise the retirement age by at least two years. Today's 65 year old is nothing like a 1950's 65 year old. We are healthier now and living longer. So if people now had to wait two more years to collect their retirement benefits, what's the big deal as of now? Lots of 65 year olds today choose to go working anyway. Or at least they're physically capable of doing so. So even just raising the age for retirement by two years would be merely adusting to the way things are today. And then more would suddenly be paid into the SS fun with much less being paid out. So why is this simple logic lost on the public?

Because I SHOULD get my retirement money at 65. That's the way it always has been and that's the way it always SHOULD be. That's people's attitudes. But unfortunately, no politician is brave enough to risk his career by raising the retirement age. Old people vote way more than you guys do. So politicians aren't gonna piss off old people by messing with social security. Politicians have elections to win. And winning elections is based more on what's popular. It's about appealing to idealism rather than pragmatism. Why? Lots of reasons I suppose. A big one is people are too stupid to understand the logic. We are all so eager to blame Congress and government for all of our problems. Let's take a little bit of responsibility ourselves shall we? Why can't the average voter recognize how healthy most 65 year olds are today and realize that adjusting social security's age requirement is not even about a radical change, but merely adjusting for the reality of the situation today. Recognizing that and accepting it would be the pragmatic thing to do. But idealism will have none of that.

As expensive as ideals are though, for politicians, pragmatism is even more expensive sadly. Any time anyone makes compromises to another political party, they are labeled as traitors to their party. Any time a politician tries to make policy based on what is the smart thing to do as opposed to what is the most popular thing to do they get voted out of office next election. What would make a huge difference I think would be term limits for senators and house members. Then those guys would really be free to vote based on prudence if they're less concerned about that upcoming election. We have term limits for president. Why not for Congress?

Lean Pockets.

Yet still no game is willing to go all the way and just have the heroine be completely nude.

Quote from Daemaro

I'm not opposed to a government, I just don't like how we've turned away from the constitution

The Constitution is too ideal for its own good. Even when it was created no one was taking its meaning literally and today so much of its wording is so out of modern context that entire schools of thought are devoted solely to the interpretation of it. Don't get me wrong, the Constitution is important because you can invoke all your rights stated within it and it's done a good job at protecting people. But I also think we cannot rely on it forever as the destination of where all roads lead to in this country. It's just not that good of a document to keep aging like it is.

Quote from Daemaro

sure you get free school, that's good, but now you CAN'T teach your own child without intervention.

Really depends on the situation. Some people have fought against state intervention in home schooling and have won. Others weren't as lucky. But being a part of a society and enjoying its benefits means you also have to pay a price and sometimes that price is the state interfering with your life. You fight that intervention when you can. Other times you have to accept defeat. Any civilized society comes with such a catch.

Quote from Daemaro

Sure you can drink the water, but its contaminated with needless and toxic substances like sodium flouride.

The government's response to this would be, "If you don't like the water we're providing for you, get it from somewhere else." And decisions to put additives into public drinking water such as sodium flouride always comes down to a vote. At least in my district it has a few times. People have successfully voted against it. If your local government did it without anyone voting on it, then I would agree that's unfortunate. To me it would be an example of where goverment failed and your representatives did not adequately represent you.

Quote from Daemaro

I understand that some people are morons and their children would probably end up suffocating with a paper bag over their head before they reached maturity but I don't think we should ALL have to suffer and give up rights because of those handful of people. Same with the new healthcare system they're trying to pass. It would require everyone to pay for it. Even if you didn't want it, it'd be illegal to not have it, much like car insurance, that affects others though so its a bit different. I just don't like how this has become the nanny state.

I have mixed feelings about paternalism. For example, with all the smoking laws now in effect everywhere you go. Seems like no one can smoke anywhere anymore. I am for and against this. I'm against it because I don't care if people smoke and their smoking has never bothered me and I don't feel it's affecting many people. I'm for it however because statistically each year, Americans are smoking less and I think it's a good thing. Are they smoking less because of public policy? Well, that's debatable, but I believe the government has something to do with them smoking less. If not because of the new anti-smoking laws then at least because of the nonstop public health campaigns against smoking. I'm also for it because if people are smoking less because of the government, then this saves the government lots of money on medical expenses incurred from smoking related illnesses; on large amount of unpaid medical bills that the government eventually has to pay for. Then I can be against it too because arguably, paternalism can stretch into other areas that I think should be totally up to the consumer. Like regulating junk food and fast food industries. If people wanna eat that shit, so be it. Even though the medical bills they will also incur throughout their lifetime will somewhere along the line cost the government a lot of money.

It wouldn't bother me too much if the government started regulating food industries more, but I'd be worried about the precedent it sets for further regulation down the road. But regulation can eventually offset costs to the government in other ways. The economy still needs to thrive and there still needs to be competition and freedom of choice among consumers. So it really is just a money issue for the government. State governments are tired of paying for medical expenses caused by long term smokers. The state will pretend they're doing it for your own good, but in reality they're just tired of paying the bills on all that shit. They're trying to save money. This is one of the biggest functions of government. Being accountants. Publicly they're doing it for this reason or that reason, but it is all about saving money because this whole government thing is fucking expensive.

Quote from Daemaro

Please save us from ourselves, pass laws that infringe on our freedoms. It's the same thing as the patriot act. They tell us there are terrorists everywhere, work people into a panic, fear monger, and then people are so worried they practically beg the government to take our rights.I just don't like it. I don't trust any entity with that much control over me.

I'm whole heartedly against the Patriot Act. I also think it curtails many of our freedoms. And it is another thing that makes me an advocate of state rights against the federal government. States have limited budgets with law enforcement and they are expected to enforce such edicts with what little they have. Speaking of which, many dickish things you see law enforcement doing against people are often a direct or indirect result of having an insufficient budget. And it's bullshit what cops do get away with, I agree. But somewhere along the line it comes from departments simply being underfunded and having to either settle or compensate on things that results in bad policing. You may see a cop totally violating someone's rights one day because he's thinking, "Fuck this shit. I don't get paid enough for this." And they don't. And they might get away with busting into your house and searching your home illegally cause there may be a superior of his that is also underpaid and trying to sweep the incident under the rug as soon as possible so he can get on with dealing with tons of other problems that all come from being underfunded. All this stuff is so interconnected, that's why you really gotta discuss it on a point by point basis. You know what I mean, string bean?

If by higher up you mean using more money at a bank, sure. If I was investing larger amounts of money with a bank I also would start getting a lot more careful about giving my money to them. It's just that there are tons of low risk low return ways of investing your money through a bank such as a CD account. And I prefer also to go with the smaller local banks who aren't getting bailed out by the federal government or whoever isn't sending me several credit card applications every week.

All I'm really trying to say is, when we have threads like these criticizing the government or banks or whatever, it helps to be as specific as possible because these sweeping generalizations about the evilness of one thing or another doesn't help when you're really trying to discuss it. I guess at least not for me anyway. Like when people complain about the government in general, that's my problem. Is they're complaining about it in general. People so underestimated how heavily layered and complex government is. And what I see government doing that is at least affecting my day to day life are very good things.

Yes I'm concerned about the bad things too that aren't affecting my day to day life. But at least I'm trying to work for government one day so that I may do more to improve how it works instead of some people who just complain about it all the time but do nothing to change it. And yes, I'll even further acknowledge how futile it is at times to change government. But in fairness the opposition must acknowledge that if not government, what's the alternative? It's an ongoing science. And people can complain about it, that's fine. But merely complaining about it isn't doing much to improve your own life, is it?

And then you got the federal government, the state government, local government and municipalities, small enclaves of civil government, it's just everywhere you look. Americans love government. They love it! They speak against it all they want, but in practice, in daily practice, our government is huge! And we pay so little for it compared to other countries in the world. The problem has become that we want just as much as ever from our government but we've become less willing to keep fronting the bill for it. But it's still there providing you and me with services from free healthcare to free education and to giving you clean water from your tap and picking up your trash every week. Have you ever been to another country? Do you know how annoying it was for me in Turkey and even in Czech Republic that I couldn't just drink the tap water? And I had to pay for water at restaurants there?

Even with budget cutbacks and higher education being more expensive than ever, the federal government just gave me a pell grant and they are paying for my education for the next two semesters. Do you know what I had to do to get it? I had to fill out some paperwork and then wait a few weeks. That's it. I'm just saying that maybe things aren't as bad as some of you think? That maybe you have the time and leisure to complain about the government because something about this country has made it possible for you to have like, you know, time and leisure.

Anyway, I'll stop now. I was ignoring this thread for days because I was afraid I'd eventually get into all this.

Quote from Daemaro

You did have some points and they were valid if I lived somewhere else. I'm just disappointed you made an assumption about me without knowing my banking choices. It's sort of hurtful from someone I've known so long.

Stop being so sensitive about it. What I didn't like was you saying a bank was merely a place that gambles away your money when all it's supposed to be is somewhere for you to safely put it. Come on. You know better.

And I guess if I had seriously known you have so few banks there then sure I would take that back too. But I also live in a small town and there are tons of banks and credit unions here so forgive that assumption of mine.

But that Akuma guy somehow concluding that I have blind faith and a lack of intellect for supposedly not knowing everything about my bank's practices was pretty stupid. Stupid because he doesn't even know how much I know about my own bank or assumes at least that I know nothing about my bank. Stupid because even I'm not saying anyone has to know everything about their bank's practices. And stupid because to defend minor things about a bank is far from completely trusting them.

Bane doesn't look any less stupid in the comics. I think he looks fine here. I hate Anne Hathaway like crazy though. It's gonna be hard to stomach her. Especially as Catwoman whom I never liked as a character anyway. I just think conceptually she's just too stupid. I mean...cats. She bases her identity and persona on freaking cats. Those disgusting animals that English majors like to have as pets.

The lore is interesting indeed for D3. For the first two games people were largely ignorant or in denial of the Prime Evils and what was really happening in the world. I'm interested to see how people are acting in this game now that it seems people can no longer ignore the reality of the situation.

no idea if this is the one, but:

http://www.geocities.com/guitarmageddon01/castmelissa.html

but I for one am glad I can focus on hitting left and right mouse button w/o tapping 1 2 3 4

I'm sorry, but are people's minds really that small these days? That they can only focus on hitting 2 buttons with one hand and not have enough concentration to use the other hand?...

Every day it seems more and more people are complaining about stuff not being 'realistic'. Maybe we need a new definition of the word? Just because its not realistic doesn't make it a bad thing. The more realistic video games get, the more boring they get. We dont need more realism, I got mine right outside my door.

Regarding health globes, i think that the Devs are too influenced by GoW. Diablo 3 =/= GoW. They need some more creativeness.

Fear the Moon Serpent.

Hey, on this note, is it possible to lock a thread at the same time that the poll verdict is reached (I.E. when timed polls are finished their preset time and stop receiving votes)? This would keep some poll threads that have been dead for a while from getting bumped back up.

Quote from "Siaynoq" »

Eh, I can't look at Wolfgang's face anymore. Please take it off the homepage.

My sentiments, precisely.

Ok. So now that there is a WWI and BlizzCon this year, the chances of Diablo 3 being announced is higher than ever before.

WWI #1: Year: ? Game announced if any: ?
WWI #2: Year: ? Game announced if any: ?
WWI #3: Year: 2007 Game: Starcraft 2
WWI #4: Year: 2008 Game: TBA

BlizzCon #1: Year: ? (I'm thinking 2005) Game: ? (I think it was WoW)
BlizzCon #2: Year: 2007 Game: WoW Lich King
BlizzCon #3: Year: 2008 Game: TBA

Thanks guys.

Quote from "Explorer" »

Well I thought there was a separate CD of just the songs for diablo. In that case, I guess I like tristram.

Well, there is an OST, but I'd imagine it's just ripped from the game. It's available for download, if you're into that kind of thing.

Diablo II can be found here.

Diablo II: Lord of Destruction can be found here.

The original Diablo and Diablo: Hellfire expansion are available there, too.

Quote from "fbim4" »

i dont know what my favorite song is


i like angel of death and raining blood by slayer and a bunch of other songs

I have a feeling I'll be using this image a lot.

Quote from name="Elfen Lied" »

We should encourage its use, maybe if we say things like I would give you a rep point for that, if I could due to its mechanics, damn spreadthe love rule. Or something to that effect

Definately, but before we do that, at least I want to know how it works.

"Hey members of diablo3, we want you to use this feature. I don't really know why and I can't answer any of your questions, but do it."

hey everyone, check it out:

iPwn

Haha...owned the lot of yas...and im fucking pvm all the way LOL. Nah i had so much fun, it was a rare time where i was on bnet and didnt say 'im bored lets do something'. Duels were so fun. I won the 6 man free for all! Haha. Im proud of everyone, they have managed to get together some alrite characters and items are slowly following. A HUGE thanks to tradingyo, who offered countless items yet again. Everyone, you know that we owe him now, so please help him before yourselves until he is on his feet. Also, be aware Carloseus may still need a hand here and there, and Thasador will be joining us very soon, so please give him all the help you can.

Ubers was very successful, ive finnally got my pally to an ubering standard, and i think most of you can vouch that he does a pretty gg job of it!

Also, contrats to siaynoq who seems to have built a damn GG hybrid sin using traps and martial arts. I swear he can Nihl run by himself, and he stacks up even in duels against us all, although he hasnt quite managed to kill me yet =P.

Its good times again in Diablo, and we should have some wealth put together within a few weeks.

Get out there and make your legions proud.

I have a referall! And I have no idea where I got it.