tmek

" @RE_Player92:  No worries lol.  But yeah, I'm more against her coming back because of the shitstorm on the site rather than I don't think she has anything to contribute.  There are people making photoshop threads and shit of her.  It's embarrassing. "

As much as I was looking forward to tonight's broadcast I literally had to stop watching it because of her.   She completely ruined the bombcast.   
 
She dominated every conversation, derailed every subject and interrupted constantly never giving others time to speak.  Sure, there's room for goofing off and casual talking but there were ten or so people there and she was talking ****literally**** 60-70% of the broadcast.  At most she should have been talking 10% of the time.  I think someone should go so far as to go through the archive footage and find out exactly what that percentage was so the cast/crew of GiantBomb knows and sees how rediculous that was (God forbid if they ever have her on again).   Obviously she wasn't that popular with the viewers last year I don't get why you had her back.
 
I get that she's female and that being female in the video game world buys you tons of attention but this was way, way out of control.
 
I suffered through it as long as I could (two freaking hours of chaos and her just interrupting people adding no value to the conversation) hopping that this would turn into the typical GiantBomb broadcasts that we love but it became obvious that was not going to happen.
 
I love you GiantBomb.. Obviously the crew like this girl.   She must have redeeming qualities outside of this.  But straight up, she ruined tonights broadcast. 

so um when is this occuring?

Ok, I'll say it I do think GTA can have a negative impact on *impressionable* young teens that are *already* troubled and don't comprehend that you don't 'live large and get paid' or get away from the cops in that easily in real life.
 
BUT.. 

The opening paragraph which is the basis of his article is nonsense
 
 You and I began life as a being without a propensity to harm others. All of us, yes even the mass murderer on death row, began life as a child who would never think of harming another human being.
 
... uh.. what?
 
How many times have you seen a couple of toddlers who's parents sat them down to 'play' with each other.  They haven't even learned to speak yet but one will whack the other to take his shiny toy, bottle or food.  The hit baby left crying while the 'alpha' baby couldn't care less and enjoys his spoils.     Oh wait, they've must have been playing grand theft auto earlier.
 
Normally I agree that conditioning has a large impact on behavior, but you don't have to look far for examples of people that are just plain assholes despite having loving and caring environments.  
 
His bio mentions he's active in church.  Did he forget Adam and Eve sinned and as punishment God cast them out of the garden of eden? And that ever since then every child was born a sinner with a sinful nature.  I mean it's spelled out pretty clear.
 
It seems to me he really hasn't thought this through and he's just trying to push peoples buttons because it doesn't make sense from secular or religious point of view.

 

 I've wondered about this a lot myself.  Why are fantasy environments so popular for MMOs?

In a typical fantasy world most of it is natural or preindustrial.  Most objects aren't  complex or interactive.  For example a small thatched hut or log cabin, with lots of inanimate objects in it, crude wooden chairs and tables, bowls, pottery.  These things just sit there in real life and don't really have much complexity or interaction and that's easy to replicate in the game.  When I enter that little cottage if it's done well it can feel believable or at least I can allow my mind to pretend i'm in that world.  When the need for something complex does arrive they don't have to work very hard to make it work you just know it's 'magic' and your brain accepts that.

When i play in a modern or futuristic setting with things like machinery, televisions, computers, vehicles and all of the things we are familiar with and are complex and we expect complex interactions with them.  When I play Star Trek online everything feels like it's made of cardboard to look like advanced computers and technology but I can't really interact with it as you might see in a sci-fi tv show or movie and that's frustrating.  Grand Theft Auto IV comes close to succeeding in this area for me though it's pretty amazing how much modern interactivity they give in that game.

So yeah the basic answer is that it's a lot easier for the developers to just make up whatever and explain it with MAGIC!  It's much harder to simulate realitic modern environments in a believable and fun way.

But while i'm rambling here one of the things that really bugs me about MMORPGs after the original everquest is how they start you out insanely powerful (compared to a average mortal human being).  At launch in everquest one you basically start out as a normal man with a stick or a dagger some rags for a shirt and and had to go and make your way killing snakes and rats and bees for honey.  The whole adventure was then discovering spells and going from this normal human fighting rats into a powerful wizard with spells like ice comet!  As you progress and gain riches you might one day be able to buy a horse.

These days you start out with all kinds of armor (at least visually) and magic and often it's easy to get a mount, probably a *flying one*, very early in the game.  You basically start out as a super-powered human relative to a typical mortal man.

Anyway I know a lot of you are to young to remember (god i sound like the old grampa complaining about having to walk to school 10 miles in the snow uphill both ways) but to me nothing has ever come close to the experiences my friends and I had playing the original everquest in the first few years.  that game was BRUTAL up until the later years when it started getting soft and that's what made it also extremely fun and rewarding.

I agree with Jeff and found a way to sum it up why the iPad seems so impractical to me:
 
It's a large screen web device that doesn't support the 'large screen web'.
 
No Hulu.  No streaming Netflix.  No GameTrailers.com or crazy drunken GiantBomb crew using Ustream.com to create an internet wormhole during Star Trek Online LIVE?! 
 
 Worhtless!