Durakken

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  1. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Arcanaville View Post
    Anonymous and groups like them don't want the internet to be policed, and to promote that agenda they become the most dangerous internet criminals in need of policing.
    I thought about this a bit and I think the internet needs a police and an army and laws, but they must be in the spirit of freedom and decided upon through a new government body. Any other way only results in tyranny and misplaced and wasted efforts. The web is a new space, one which should be controlled by it's colonists and those that live there. Those that try to extend their reach into it's territory should be smacked down for violating it's sovereignty.

    Obviously this would be quite an undertaking to set something like that up properly, but it can be done via 2 ways. The Governments of the world recognize this and manifest it or we, the people, do it.

    A cyber police is needed because the police's mission is not just to apprehend criminals and to investigate, but also to maintain order and protect. Applying this approach to the internet would make things a lot better, though elaboration would probably be necessary...

    edit: on a side note here is the view of someone yo might know as the distressed watcher about the whole SOPA thing and MegaUpload thing... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jvsC2...b0FUAAAAAAAEAA

    Quote:
    Originally Posted by TrueGentleman View Post
    I'd like to think Penny Arcade had a tiny amount to do with shaming this "hatesink" business organization into backing off.

    Actually that seems to be the case with just about every group that has a reason to validly support or oppose these bills...

    Every artist, writer, musician, actor, editor, actual worker thinks this is an incredibly bad thing and in no way thinks it is legitimate that I've heard from.

    Groups like the MPAA, ESA, RIAA, and other such scum of the earth that get tons of money from being litigious f**k-wits and actually serve no one but their own interests support the bills.

    Companies like CBS, ABC, Fox, whatever support it and want to legitimately destroy a lot of the progress that has been made in the last half century. I can understand their position in a way... I mean when you are the king it's hard to go "show your a better ruler than I and I'll step down"

    Any group that isn't a media conglomerate... like
    Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) ... seriously wtf? are just dumb and don't have a clue about what they are supporting or do and have other more sinister motives which I'll refrain from getting into, but it has to do with actually wanting the free speech thing done away with where as the other just want the moneys.
  2. Quote:
    Originally Posted by TrueGentleman View Post
    And this is the infographic of what democracy in action looks like:



    (My district's Representative opposition to SOPA/PIPA was confirmed by his office when I called on Tuesday. As for my senators, well, the one who was undecided had clearly instructed his staff to stall, and the other (a co-sponsor of PIPA) just had his office's telephone lines going directly to voice mail.)
    >.> You mean a Democratic Republic...Democracy actually looks like a riot.

    Also the only reason for the change has nothing to do with education of what the bill does or anything like that. It has to do with public awareness of the bills and who the supporter/opposers are. Most of those "opposers" will be back trying to pass this crap again within the year, if not within the month, under a different name or once the public has lost interest... largely because a majority of them don't care and/or want the lobbyist bribe money...

    The only way to keep this stuff from happening permanently is Vigilance and Education... Unfortunately, people have gotten the idea that lively discussion about Politics and Religion is a bad thing so Vigilance and Education is slowly being worn down because people can't learn about what is going on, formulate an informed opinion, or communicate that opinion with others.
  3. Or you could have the media not controlled by the people who are in favor of the bill being protested... Of course they are always going to take any negative thing they can to make those protesting look bad.
  4. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Rikis View Post
    Having cleaned them, I can attest to this. I have no idea how the myth that the men's room is dirtier than the women's started. But I can assure you, it's a myth.
    It's because women are evil...They know this and thus out of evilness and out of goodness they mess with other women... Thus the mess in the women's bathroom.

    On the other hand women also want to mess with the head of men and make themselves look good thus act neurotic about bathrooms that aren't women only.

    This causes the impression in men that women are clean freaks, but really they are just being evil... or doing something men don't care about >.>
  5. Lucky kid... Another animal might have ate him when he tried that >.>
  6. Watch that TEDtalk video I posted...

    also if you look at the numbers about the movie industry they've held at the same profit margins for the last 10 years soooo the basis of it is BS to begin with.
  7. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow View Post
    I'm not sure if "strong morality" is such a good idea. I know it's a turnoff for me, at least, as such characters tend to feel more like icons than real people. Remember when Sonic the Hedgehog was an icon of his times and the hallmark of a whole generation? He did that not by being the paragon of honour, justice and truthfulness but by being a cheeky smarmy wiseass who thumbed his nose at the world's villains (often literally) and simply proved too fast to catch and too strong to beat.

    Personally, if I had my vote for who would be our next "icon," it would be someone like that.
    I'm not sure I should do this, but one could point out that with what has been going on in the world that the death of Statesman is symbolic of those events and that the leaving that "leadership" position vacant and in it's place the masses is also symbolic of world events... but i could also just be reading into things ^.^
  8. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Arnabas View Post
    So with States gone, who is a shining example of all that's good? Sure we have people who we can hope to emulate in terms of power and ability, but who is the moral centre now? Who is the heart of Paragon?

    States was our Superman, the guiding force, the one that, no matter how bad things got, if you as a civilian saw him arrive on the scene, you knew you were going to be saved and everything would be ok. Now, of course, there are plenty of heroes who can save the day, but there is no one person to exemplify the ideals of the heroic side.

    I understand the desire to kill him off. I do. I know that with the introduction of Incarnates, we are intended to really become the pre-eminent heroes of the CoH universe. But, frankly, the game still doesn't allow it the way it would for an NPC. No matter how many pedestrians walk by and say "Character X fought the Tsoo and saved that news reporter!", we will never have our characters go accept medals from the president, or even the mayor. We'll never hold press conferences. We'll never give speeches before dozens of the next generation of heroes. We'll never stand on a dais, sharing our wisdom to help someone level up.

    No matter how you might feel about Statesman as a player, the everyday people of Paragon should sleep a little (or a lot) less comfortably now.

    So given that we are supposed to become the biggest and the best of all heroes, who amoung us will stand up to be a Paragon of Virtue? And will the game really allow anyone to notice, beyond a few random pedestrian remarks?
    #1 You shouldn't look up to people. You should hold people as rivals to rise above. Looking to be like someone is like wanting stand still in a race...

    #2. There are ways the devs could facilitate players becoming icoic... like having a get together, say for a memorial, where the players must speak as their character and become a part of the canon...
  9. You don't retire from things you like to do and you don't let people complaining stop you either. Grow some balls and rise above the hate ^.^
  10. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Tenzhi View Post
    It may not be of any consolation, but I find that you've gotten much more coherent.
    I could fix it all, but by the time I realize there is a missing word or read it again and realize that it might need more explanation in one area or another people have already read it and sometime I just don't care to fix it.

    My flow of thought is usually linguistically hard to understand even if it is 100% grammatically correct, because I'm usually dealing with things on on a level which defies coherent non-abstract thought with many levels of "if x means y then z." That along with having to deal with people that don't understand that just because someone doesn't say "in my opinion..." all the time that person means that it's an absolute statement so I find myself saying "to a degree" a lot or "in my opinion" or some other indicator that there is much more going on.

    Fun fact: when you see "...", it is where my brain usually went on a tangent about something and either I couldn't express it or it was something that wouldn't be allowed on the forums or it is neither, but it delves into something that is completely tangential and/or crazy (for normal people) or is full of rage and insults in the off chance someone has ticked me off. Or I use it as a break to indicate a tangent or a "I should probably mention this or someone will think I don't know about it and I'll spend the next several days trying to argue that I do know that or someone won't know to include this bit"

    Not that any of this matters or anyone cares, just, I'm awake and my brain said to reply. You could have not read any of this at all and had a perfectly fulfilling life... probably the same as you are going to after reading it... I wasted your time on Earth so you should hate me ^.^ though, thinking about I should probably write a guide to reading my posts one day. That would be incredibly meta lol.
  11. Captain-Electric
    I want to punch myself sometimes for the way I write on forums. Missing words, run on sentences, jumping around, and a lot missing because it is moderated free flow thought and often i'm not in the best typing environment or I'm half asleep or in pain or doing something else. I guess it's interesting as a look into how my brain works though...

    But, anyways, I just wanted to point out that a famous author or philosopher... i forget who once said that the only way you know what you think is to write it down and see. I tend to like that idea, because writing to express an idea usually allows one to work through the problem and then be able to read it back to see where their thoughts lead and how... also a tactic for getting closure or over something... write a letter then just delete it... so my opinion is that if you have something to say, say it... people are going to be who they are regardless and whoever you are will eventually shine through so there is no sense in hiding it because people will hate or love you fanatically either way I find.
  12. for those of you that aren't subbed to TEDtalks for some reason still

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9h2dF...d4FUAAAAAAAJAA

    this is a talk on where SOPA and PIPA came from and why, it's impact, and their history...
  13. What side do you pick more than others?
    I play as hero mainly. I find the villain side boring and can't get past level 20. Further I don't feel that it is very "villainous" but rather more akin to an errand boy...

    What play style do you prefer?
    I generally play scrapper, brute, or blaster... but i play whatever concept i come up with so...

    What power set(s) do you favor?
    I have a few dual blades, but really i like to play whatever works for the concept.

    What zones do you like the most?
    Unfortunately it's all the same for me... a city is a city. There are parts i don't like, but for the most part i like most of the city.

    Do you usually play as a male or female (word of hatred) ''toon''?
    Again, i play whatever the concept calls for...

    Views on Role Playing?
    I used to RP a lot in the past, but i find that most people are bad so while my characters do have backstories and personalities and such i generally don't RP because it's not worth it for me.

    Servers?
    Currently exalted, but i move servers from time to time...
  14. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Arcanaville View Post

    You love me, so you have to criticize me? But... why? I don't understand.
    Those who love something want to make it be the best it can be. The first step in doing that is pointing out flaws. Those who don't tell you that you look ugly in that dress are allowing you to walk around in a dress that you look ugly in. If they loved you they wouldn't allow that.

    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Lulipop View Post
    Can I be added to your ignore list?
    Act like me. I'm pretty sure I've been on it a while.

    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Captain-Electric View Post
    The problem is, many of the most vocal critics around here can't differentiate between these two things. I have often relied on criticism in my work and hobbies. Cynics are of less use, because if you take their words to heart every time, they/you will inevitably sabotage your work. If you manage to give them exactly what they want, you may then realize that you could have pleased a sizable and more reasonable audience much sooner anyway. Cynics are often confused for trolls because they put everyone around them in a mostly losing position. Trolls do this on purpose, while cynics genuinely put their hearts into it. Feeding either is bad for you.
    Cynicism is believing that the motives behind things are not what they appear and more often than not negative.
    Criticism is pointing out errors.

    They are not even in the same ball park, but are lumped together because Critics are or feign cynicism because that what is expected or what happens when you critique a lot of things because of experiences... Another thing is that it is a lot easier to say something is wrong and how to fix it than it is to say something is good and... that's it. There isn't much to say when things are good because it is good and when you do that you begin to gush often because critics (legitimate critics) often are so hard to please because of the breadth of their experience that when something does it's something consider incredible.

    I mean most people in their life time have picked up and read...maybe 2-5 comics a month over 30 years...that's 720-1800 issues over 30 years. That person is going to have a lot different understanding and breadth of scale and experience to someone like me who has read somewhere in the range of 25,000 issues from Japan, Korea, America, etc... over roughly the same amount of time. The sense of what one likes and one doesn't... why this or that is good or bad becomes more understood with that understanding.

    That person that has more experience in an area is going to be able to see what could be the reason behind things a bit more easier than someone who doesn't follow that stuff and the person who partakes in something to such an extent is more than likely going to love that thing so what that person sees via a filter of anger and expresses over the top often comes across as "why is this person destroying my love"

    Taking it to an analogy... if you're a parent and you see an adult around your kid and your kid is crying you assume that that parent has negative intent and you go in angry and doing whatever you can to protect your child. It's the same emotions at work in a different way.

    So cynicism is more a natural reaction to protect those things you love. When you are being critical then and need to write, that comes across. The problem is when it goes overboard, if the cynicism is all there is, or if the critical is focused on being destructive....


    side tangent back to defining things...

    Creative and Destructive Criticism...
    Creative is when you are trying to inform, help, and entertain (to a degree).
    Destructive is when you are simply trying to make a person look bad, not being fair, or bolster your own ego.

    This get confusing to a degree when someone says "X is trash" that can be either or, but it matters why that person is saying that and whether that person can and will expand or not.

    Another thing that appears destructive but isn't for some people is when a critic says "This is bad...get rid of it." I do this sometimes simply because i don't care to explain at that moment and/or i don't think someone is at the level to understand it or I don't know why i feel that way, but know it's right, which is the case a number of times. And in art there are a lot of things that there is no "reason" that we know of at the moment or that most artists won't know for why we like this or that way in general, but it's just something you "feel"...

    For example, there was a line in a comic I am/was producing and I questioned the writer about it where there were 2 words that in the sentence that one it just didn't "flow" right and the other it's an uncommon word... We sat and we discuss for an hour or so about those two words and decided to change the first and keep the second. We figured that the first wasn't expressing clearly what was meant because the word definition was slightly different and the word itself didn't flow so when you said the sentence you would break there. The second word it was decided to keep because even though it was uncommon the word flowed and fit exactly what we meant.

    Now when I talk about flow you have a general idea of what I'm talking about, but you don't know where that comes from more than likely or why it's like that. A lot of time people don't pick up on this flow consciously, but it's there subconsciously. We now know what causes this and roughly why, but I'm not going to explain synesthesia and then try to get someone to figure out how to figure how words work together as well as then teach music to a degree.

    Speaking of which... music is the key to all good creative works, if you wanted to know...this has nothing to do with the overall thing but whatever... I say music, but that's just the most commonly used thing. It's also creative work where the construction is visible. If you are trying to see if something works one of the easiest ways to make something work is to get a song that feels the way you want something to feel and then imagine that scene to the beats of the song. There's a reason why there are time compression and expansion ideas in every creative medium ^.^
  15. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Mr_Squid View Post
    So I've been playing this game on and off since June of 2004. Why? Because I enjoy it. If I didn't enjoy it, I wouldn't be here, and if the game didn't continue to evolve in ways I enjoyed, I wouldn't keep playing. But there's a disturbing trend I've noticed over the last couple of years, in which many long term players have violently turned on the game, picking out each and every flaw they can find, all while acting like they're acting in the game's best interests by acting hyper-critical towards it. I'm not saying that criticism of any kind is bad, and a real fan should never point out flaws, but I've begun to feel like the City of Heroes community has fallen into that paradigm of cynicism=intelligence that plagues so many other fandoms.

    But at the end of the day, I still find myself really enjoying this game! I like the community, I like the story, I like the design. Could they all be better? Yes, but I've never felt like ignoring the good parts of the game could improve my overall experience in any way. Granted, the increased criticism towards this game has caused me to notice some of the weaker parts of this game and become more critical, but I feel like I'm expected to play this game almost maliciously, looking for flaws at every turn.

    So what I guess I'm trying to ask here is, would I really be doing anyone a favor by hating this game? Because I can't really see any benefit of continuing to play a game I hate.
    #1. Criticism is not cynicism.
    #2. Criticism is not hate.
    #3. Those who do not criticize something do not love that thing.

    That being said most don't know what they are talking about, don't think their criticism out, and aren't criticizing. They are complaining. Or ********. Or ranting. There are vast differences in what it means to do each of those 4 but in today's culture or of generalization fools have lumped them together and don't listen to what is said regardless of how or why it's said if it's something negative about something they "faux love"
  16. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Eva Destruction View Post
    Don't forget the hordes of barbarians who swept in from the north and sacked Rome, eh?
    Actually, those "barbarians" were loyal to Rome until Rome turned their back on them. It was a General that was screwed over by Rome because the government decided it didn't need to honor it's debt or those men who were loyal and fought for Rome. None the people really knew that the "barbarians" were betrayed and didn't really care because they were in economic crisis created by splitting the nation in half and because Rome was Rome, the center of the world and if it wasn't happening there then it didn't matter. If it wasn't happening to them it didn't matter. And you know those barbarians were, after all, barbarians... or as we would call them today, foreigners, so who cares about them.

    They stopped caring which resulted in their infrastructure breaking down, their government not working, their economy not working, and really them becoming uneducated people in the center of the world of culture... It was all one big cluster that created a series of events that lead to Rome (part of it) to be sacked by Barbarians, but really eastern Rome really didn't have much longer to go when it was sacked... it was just the straw that broke the camel's back.
  17. For those saying this issue is closed... i just got around to watching yesterday's AOTS and they had Reddit's co-founder on who brought up that there is yet another bill that is being brought up called OPEN

    MovieBob has a video talking about why this will continue on after SOPA and PIPA as does AngryJoe.

    This may actually be a good thing and save the US in the long run if we take and compare to Rome and why it fell, that being that it stopped caring... Maybe if the government keeps going more and more insane this quickly people will once again realize that they need to be active and involved and we'll start getting things done again... and things fixed up.
  18. Quote:
    Originally Posted by treboreleets View Post
    If anybody wants a little laugh about this isssue, read this: http://gawker.com/5877192/stupid-hig...pedia-blackout

    Be warned that it does include some foul language and may make you laugh out loud, so it may not be wise to read at work.
    I feel that we are doomed from those responses v.v
  19. Quote:
    Originally Posted by LISAR View Post
    Yeah I was pretty forgiving of him up tot he whole "I won't sign this bill...oops I signed it" thing with NDAA. Will not reelect.
    Personally I don't vote because it's pointless to. Could go into Politcal philosophy as to why but someone would say something, but I can't really see why anyone would vote this year as it is a vote between Obama or Romney more or less and both are probably near the bottom of the barrel... only shining because the lunatics around them... Really wish that whole 2 term thing was removed so we could go back to Clinton...
  20. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Bosstone View Post
    Given that the Obama administration has recently come out against the bill as it currently stands, if that were true before it probably isn't now.
    >.> I don't want to be political, but anyone that buys that hasn't been paying attention... Obama hasn't got a good track record of following through on what he says. For example he said the Guantanamo Bay would be shut down as it is a travesty and unconstitutional and he said that the NDAA which pretty much allows the government to bring soldiers on US soil and incarcerate people for life without trial would not be signed by him...well... Guantanamo Bay is still open and the NDAA was signed by him. So him saying something has no meaning to me.
  21. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Rabid_M View Post
    In the threads about Super Packs, I've seen a few people point out that it's the Dev's job to make money for the company, and that that's the reason the game exists. It is NOT their job to make us happy, unless that makes more money than making us unhappy.

    True enough, I guess.

    It got me to thinking, though. If the Devs of any MMO (and game itself) have no moral obligations to the players, then what moral obligations do the players have to those Devs and their game?

    This isn't a question of right and wrong, that's another issue. What I'm asking is what people like us should consider ourselves obligated to do FOR the MMOs and Devs of said games we play?

    If we know of an exploit but we're not using it, do we still have a duty to report it? If we're on a test server, do we have a responsibility to actually test instead of just mess around and have fun? If we find a bug in-game, do we need to report it?

    The Devs are there to make money, but the players are paying that money to enjoy themselves. At what point should a player feel that they need to stop having fun and help the Devs with the game in some way?

    Again, this isn't about right or wrong, nor is it about how we deal with other players. Being a jerk to players OR Devs is wrong. Abusing an exploit is wrong. I'm just wondering where people think we can draw the line that allows us to shrug our shoulders and say "Not my problem, I'm here to enjoy myself".

    ((PS: It's late and I'm tired. Sorry if I rambled a bit. It's hard to get the exact question into words when I'm about to faceplant onto my keyboard.))
    I could seriously go on an ethics tangent and point out that these types of answered, but some refuse to give up their delusions... but I'll just keep it short and simple...

    Companies make money by making their clients happy. The Happier they are the more likely they are to buy and/or continue buying from a company. When companies cease making someone happy they start losing customers because they try other companies' products that may make them happy...

    What you think of Brand loyalty is a twisted version of itself... Loyalty occurs because the product is good and makes one happy so there is no point to look elsewhere for the same or similar product. This has been twisted and now people look at it as even if the company is giving you crap to use to clean something you should stick with them even if you can see the other company's product is better.
  22. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Leandro View Post
    This is, by the way, why the DNS provisions in SOPA are a major problem for legit sites but at most a minor nuisance to pirates. There are already addons for Chrome and Firefox that redirect people trying to go to a bunch of pirate sites to the proper IP in the event of a DNS meltdown. Messing with DNS will not stop piracy.
    Thanks for that explanation ^.^

    So what we this reveals if you think it through is that the only thing that the DNS thing does if everyone has work arounds for them is that you are left with a system of easy look up and referral crippled...Not so much access.

    Basically all links would have to be re-structured so that they'd have the ip and domain in them to refer someone to a particular site. And that handles the access (though its a lot more hacker friendly).

    The problem comes from how do I find a website that I don't know exists or not... For example if I wanted to look up web comics or information on comics... right now I can just type in web comics... and i can get a whole list of web comics, but once the DNS thing happens someone could say "THAT'S COPYRIGHTED!!!!" and suddenly a site vanishes. So what if i want to look up Furry Web Comics? You're thinking well how does that correlate? The answer is in the abuse that can happen. I can make the claim that something is copyright infringing, whether it's true or not, because due process is not followed someone could in theory remove all the web comics that have furries in them if they wanted to from searches and then you'd never be able to find them and those sites would die.

    What's worse though is that I've heard some places that this process is started by paying for it, but I could be wrong, but if this is the case then it's not only just giving power to those with money it is literally creating a ruling class straight out (we can discuss whether there is one now or not but not here) and pretty much says "You can't have these laws enforced for you because you aren't wealthy enough" Think about that... Law paid for by money? That's just wrong.
  23. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Gangrel_EU View Post
    Care to list some that are happening on the 23rd? By all accounts that i can find (granted quick google search of "23rd January blackout") it appears that the date shifted for them!

    Current blackout participants of one form or another that I know of:
    Rock Paper Shotgun
    Google (logo only)
    Wikipedia
    XBMC.org
    Ars Technica (theme change, still covering)
    Destructoid
    Reddit
    Wordpress
    EFF
    Twitpic
    Imgur

    (list taken from http://sopastrike.com/ )
    The big names must have moved to the 18th to make it united rather than spread to 2 days... kinda lame imo that Reddit did that, but whatever.
  24. Oh yeah... btw...

    The blackouts today is the Reddit thing and they decided to stupidly do it on a different day that all the other big names...

    All the big name blackouts will be happening the 23rd
  25. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Gangrel_EU View Post
    Well, more jobs over here, but SOPA is (IIRC) worded so that no matter where the site is located, it can be taken down with no due process (ie going through the courts)
    Basically it gets removed from DNSs forcibly... however people have already taken to creating their own DNSs and such so it would be useless.

    What would happen is someone for example searches for...
    cityofheroes.com
    ...and would find nothing
    BUT
    If they were to type in something like...
    64.25.35.107
    ... They'd still get to the site.

    Though not CoH for some reason...
    Netflix works if you want to test it... 69.53.236.17