BellaStrega

I do not even know what "loneliness" feels like because I have very little need for social interaction and acceptance. And yet, rejection still hurts. Why is this? I have come across research that explains the neurological basis of how people react to rejection. It's a matter of neurology, not choice. None of us choose how our brains work, we deal with what we have.

Yes, but this sort of coping is not something that someone can usually come up with on their own - or if they do, it can take years. Helping people learn to cope is something that isn't really taught, and really should be. Still, I think more focus should be on preventative measures against bullying in general.

You seem to be phrasing her actions as conscious choices she made, without accounting for the fact that her perception and cognition were altered by her experiences. Altered in a manner that made irrational actions and decisions seem rational or necessary.

For example, you seem to view her self injury as something she chose to do in a rational state of mind. Self injury is not something people do because they consciously weigh their options and decide to try. It's something that happens in a fairly distressed state of mind, whatever caused the distress in the first place.

You are not taking all of the facts into account. For example, she says she thought the boyfriend really loved her, and she didn't want to get him in trouble or cause trouble for him.

No, I am not arguing semantics. If you cannot perceive the difference between "doesn't like her" and "actively stalks, blackmails, and harasses her," as anything but semantic, I seriously question if we have any common ground for this discussion. "Doesn't like her" is a trivializing and misleading description of events.

I don't find it stupid because I know what it's like to have major depression, anxiety, and panic disorder. I simply find her suicide tragic, and I do not blame her for where she ended up. I consider what was done to her to be malicious and vicious, and not necessarily stupid. Her stalker, unfortunately, knew exactly what he was doing.

I find this interesting, because Amanda wasn't self-mutilating or attempting (and ultimately committing) suicide because "other people didn't like her," but rather to people harassing her, blackmailing her, physically attacking her, lying to her, tricking her into sex, and so on.

I explained this in greater detail upthread. I hoped it would have an impact, but perhaps I am too optimistic.

You have my attention.

I did not know about it, but now I must have it.

That's not what causes suicide. Suicidal ideation, obsession, and actual suicide is typically a consequence of severe mental illness. Mental illness is a perfectly normal and natural consequence of traumatic experiences.

Also, social rejection causes the part of the brain that processes physical pain to light up in the same way it lights up when you experience physical pain. Which is to say that being rejected or ostracized is a fairly excruciating experience, at least psychologically and neurologically. Even if one does not crave the acceptance of others or seek self affirmation through them, one can still be impacted by outright rejection like this.

I would not view this as curbing perfectly normal behaviors, though, but rather helping children and teens develop coping mechanisms for dealing with these situations with the understanding that humans are social animals and that for many this is not a switch that can be turned on and off at will.

You do not seem to have a very firm grasp on the concept of mental illness. She said in her video that she was diagnosed with major depression, anxiety, and panic disorder. Mental illness means that irrational actions and beliefs will seem rational, and developing mental illness is (unfortunately) a normal response to certain kinds of experiences. When you experience panic attacks (panic disorder) anything can set off a chain reaction that leaves you feeling like death may be imminent. It's an experience of terror for your life, and it can take years to learn how to understand and manage them. Major depression is also known as clinical depression and is a severely impairing and disabling disorder, and suicide attempts are common among those diagnosed with it. When you are suicidal, the decision to kill yourself actually seems rational and sometimes seems like the only possible option. "Tomorrow" or "the future" in general becomes meaningless. Another feature is "anhedonia," an inability to take pleasure in anything, which makes distraction from the depression itself very difficult. Anxiety disorder means that any kind of situation or potential situation can prompt crisis-directed thinking. Everything that might but probably won't go wrong becomes will probably go wrong in the worst possible way, which curtails one's ability to even leave their own home.

You seem to communicate this idea that she chose to take up these behaviors and attitudes in response to the situation, but that is not the way this sort of thing works. What happened to her was that her sense of personal safety was severely damaged by her stalker's actions. It took away her personal security, and probably to some extent harmed her sense of self. It completely redefined her life for the worse. It is very difficult to not have a strong reaction to this, even if one does not develop mental illness in response.

Also, some people are more prone to particular mental illnesses (such as depression, PTSD, anxiety, etc.) than others, and this could easily have been the case for her. The illnesses she had are extremely common, as far as mental illness goes.

Also, they did try to take legal action:

When people are targeted by predators, it is not always possible to engineer the best possible outcome. I find it perplexing that you would judge Amanda's behavior and the outcomes of her actions when these were not within her control.

From her own words, she tried hard to fight all of this. She was getting better before her suicide, and something caused everything to fall apart. Since it was apparent that her world was increasingly fragile with each iteration of this harassment, it would not have taken much.

Why not? Nothing she did earned that kind of treatment. The treatment is still wrong regardless of anything she did.

And she was 12 years old when she flashed someone on video. I mean, at 12 years old, children are impulsive and make mistakes easily. No one should be haunted, stalked, harassed, blackmailed, and bullied for two years across multiple schools for making a stupid mistake at 12 years old.

Yes, but allowing bullying to occur is not the way to teach this lesson. It is also one that is taught in rather asymmetrical ways.

I have no real point there, I just like linking that page.

This just makes you ignorable.

But Plato was a dick.

Zombies are really only the first area (Solomon Island). Later on you fight other monsters.

The only reason TSW might appear to have poor customization is if it's being compared to CoH.

Given that the only gear that affects appearance is weapons, and now you can customize that, this is one of the most customization-friendly MMOs in existence.

(not arguing with you, btw, just agreeing).

Well, I also agree with that. I don't think CO is really cel shaded in any way. That's the technique they employ to make the graphics look more "illustrated", however, and the rest of it is not so much.

I did. Cel shading is a kind of shading used to make graphics look illustrated. The only graphics that support that in CO are the outlines. The rest of it looks more like the not cel shading plastic shader in the picture on the wiki page here, which I referenced before I posted my response, and certainly before Mercykilling linked it.

The cel shading is the outline. That's it. It doesn't make anything look plastic, that's a different element altogether.


Speaking of outlines, I don't even think the developers like it. I've never seen an advertisement with the outlines on, or any piece of ingame footage with it on. So I'm not really sure why its default mode is on.[/QUOTE]

You can turn the outlines off.

The tutorial is not that great, but it's like maybe .1% of the entire game. Unfortunately, it's the part new players see first.

It does have increasing stakes - the stakes are higher than they were in the two previous games, and they start off about as high as they can get in ME3. Following the storyline missions they do increase, however, and things are clearly getting worse. The delivery missions are not a central part of the game and don't need to be completed. No one has to find medigel for Hanar or help clone the extinct kakliosaur to finish the game.

As I said, the ending is weak, but the extended cut provides more information and more resolution, which is an improvement. I don't have a problem with how things end for Shepard, though, and you apparently do.

I'm not trying to convince you to like the game, I just know I had a lot of fun playing it right up to the end.

My current melee character uses Ebon Void with Voracious Darkness. Most of the time, stacking it to ten isn't necessary, but it does help. It also damages attackers.

Also, telekinetic shield has an advantage for lingering effect.

Phalanx Defense System allows passive blocking while using ranged attacks.

Anyway, it's good - but not great - and Laser Knight or Phalanx Defense System cost three points each, whereas Force Sheath costs one point. The latter provides lingering end gain you'd get from blocking and can easily be sustained by tapping block every so often.

Also, Laser Knight causes a damage debuff and Phalanx Defense System is weaker than Laser Knight.

Also, looking at the straight numbers for blocks is misleading. Electricity has low numbers but also does damage while blocking. Also, any block will prevent a large portion of incoming damage.

If survivability is difficult, getting a passive is probably a fairly high priority - offensive, defensive, or support. Defensive are the easiest to deal with because they straightforwardly increase survivability. Offensive combined with active defenses (healing + click powers that temporarily boost defense) is also fairly powerful and kills stuff very fast. Support tends to help a lot - The Grimoire has one that boosts stats, for example - but is not a direct buff to damage and defense like the other passives.

I remember the clone mission being bugged in beta. I think I annoyed someone when I commented it was broken that way in beta. Broken missions frustrate me more than anything in CO.

Apologist is such a pejorative term. How about "people who enjoy CO?"

I've done several timed missions, but I didn't find them particularly annoying. I always check the objectives and see the timers.

Well, there was one in BM, where I had to hunt supernatural monsters. The first part - to go to the graveyard and kill zombies - was timed. I forget where the clock started, but I had fewer than 10 seconds left when I killed the last zombie.

Also, if you're getting into Scorched Desert, that's the first zone (I think) where they'll send you into a particularly hard area. The Last Legion is a mission that you might have to rebuild or gear up before doing.

In the next zone, the hard (as in nightmare mobs) mission is The Eye of Horus. The next zone after that (first Transylvania) there are at least two - one is The Girl Who Kicked the Vampire's Nest, and the other you get at a windmill. These missions are harder than other stuff in the zone, and they can be frustrating.