zolkowski

@EdIsCool said:

@Zolkowski: I agree with the sentiment kinda, but treating a position that is based on mountains and mountains of evidence (albeit which do not give a complete picture of Life, The Universe and Everything) the same as a position which is based on no evidence at all is silly.

Being the time that it is : "That which can be asserted without evidence, can be dismissed without evidence"

I'm not implying that you should treat them on the same level, but that you should understand the other position (as well as your own) if you are going to take some sort of stance opposed to it.

Edit: Missed your ninja edit there - That's a favorite quote of mine, and I agree. For you to realize the other side has no evidence, however, still requires you to look at it and evaluate if there is any basis in such point/belief.

@TheDudeOfGaming

My first follower! I am really thankful for the notion sir! Now I have a blog to keep at, don't I?

@Dagbiker

That is pure genius. Going to have to save that quote for later :)

@pixieface

Thanks a lot for your time to read and respond! Where you are coming from with young atheists is completely understood. A lot of these 'uninformed' atheists are just as susceptible to blind faith of their own. As opposed to coming to these conclusions through research and evaluation, some atheists will go to a community and get almost all of their ideals from that one source. Breeding someone just as uninformed as most of us and absolutely convinced they have truth. While they may actually have the answers (or lack there of) is irrelevant because they drew their conclusions in the wrong way. They jumped on a bandwagon and never once questioned what they were doing. Not once were outside sources reference other than for a tool of mockery and ridicule.

I am not referring to all atheists here, so before everyone gets their jimmies in a rustle please beware.

I agree that humility is needed, especially when so young and knowing so little. I'd disagree that perfect humility is something to always go with though. At times, a stance is needed, just make sure your stance is something very well thought out and supported.

@JasonR86

Changed. You were right, not my intention :)

And as that would be nice, we know very well it won't be true. Hell, even those who are aware of the fact will forget sometimes!

@Captain_Felafel said:

Absolutely. Times where I go "Okay, well the game is trying to convey to me that I don't know if I made the right decision here, but since there is all this voice acting in this scene, the decision I chose must be the right one because they wouldn't have put this much work into a false scene." always bum me out, but I'm pretty used to it at this point, to be honest. Just how I'm sure film experts are used to knowing where scenes are going before they go there based on trends and foreshadowing.

That raises a good point. In games where it is advertised that you have choice, you just 'know' certain things are impossible as an outcome. Not because it would be impossible story wise, but because the amount of work it would require to enable all of these options. I'll use Fallout New Vegas as an example here. The ending - If it were to actually have the proper outcome there would be entirely new dialogue options and missions as a result of the shift in power to whoever has taken over. That was just the best example I could think of that most people would know, though I am sure there are plenty more.

@Little_Socrates said:

I really like your examples, and I nearly forgotten how much I enjoyed limbo. These strict story-line games are a pretty good break. What is unfortunate though is most of them only last a few hours at most. And ones that get extremely long (see final fantasy) are just tiresome. I've said it somewhere else that I am still able to appreciate games for the effort put behind them - and I believe it's why I still buy so many. The downside is I feel like I am playing the game for the wrong reason, and once I've explored the majority of design and concept of a game it gets boring to me.

As you might suggest though, and will likely remedy the problem, is how well they are able to implement new mechanics and how well they can hide these from plain sight.

@Yagami said:

@BigChickenDinner said:

It sickens me that people think there is anything close to honor in killing and warfare. There is nothing honorable about the American military killing people. The only ones who are honorable in war are those who chose not to fight. Violence solves nothing unless you murder all those who appose you. Where is the honor in that? Those who receive the Medal of Honor have courage, they have the ability to look fear in the face and not let fear consume them. Nothing more.

Finally someone who thinks like me. :D - You totally get the point. ^.^ - I was starting to lose hope in finding sane people here.

And this right here is where you've lost me completely. We are both young, but you and I need to realize we still know jack shit about the world. There's more to understanding it than regular visits to the Reddit front page (which seems to be almost a copy + paste of your ideals). Listen to lectures counter to your ideas, watch a debate, and a read a book to challenge who you are.

If you're into reading at all, one book I'd like to suggest is "You Are Not So Smart". It's a book based upon psychological studies of common misconceptions as well as delusions we like to place ourselves in. Things like only acknowledging view points that agree to yours (as your very post here suggests). http://www.amazon.com/dp/1592406599/ref=cm_sw_su_dp

I'm a proud atheist such as yourself, and I would like to think because of this you are a little more open to evidence and observation. If this is the case please reevaluate yourself and don't be so set-in-stone on such controversial view points like this. I'm not saying don't take a stand, but consider other ideas that have sound support.

@Little_Socrates said:

With Skyrim specifically, though, I don't so much have that problem. Maybe it's because of the amount of Fallout 3 I played, but that game definitely has an ability to sucker me right in, despite it having really easy stealth mechanics and poor responsive stealth AI. However, now that I've gotten really good at exploiting that AI, I'm starting to feel it more.

Doesn't that somehow carry over with you when you play other games? It was gradual for me and it eventually just all came together where I'm getting less and less entertained.

@Supermike6

I can understand this. Though I'm not overly enthralled by competitive gaming scene. I'll watch MLG tournaments out of sheer boredom - but I can't play a game so much. It starts to feel like work rather than enjoyment.

I'll definitely pitch in, but you might want to try your luck on reddit and the subreddits there. Check /r/games /r/gaming and /r/indiegaming. It's looking superb so far.

Here's to your success!

Wow, I don't think I could have hoped for a better response from you guys. Wishing there was more time to reply to all of you. I think that maybe the problem is that as opposed to video games trying to be a graphical representation, they are actually trying to be the actual world itself. I really do find it easier to play games, aside from my previous example of sims (I feel these as graphical 'illusions'/representations due to the fact they are taking snippets of the real world), that don't try to be like it's the fictional world itself. Games like Alpha Centauri or Frozen Synapse are a little easier to get into. That feeling is still in the back of my head though, wondering what specific triggers makes the AI do certain things and the like.

This is where I think it's the limitations of gaming of past and present that is starting to wear dry to me. Coming out with world-life simulators, where a city will still be active adaptive-ly even when you are not there. And speaking of adaptive, making AI adaptive in it's own way to make it feel like life on it's own. These will become more and more possible as hardware power increases.

As far as movies/books are concerned it's the fact that I am not taking an active role in these that it's still possible for me to let me imagination run a little better. These people in movies and books do not run into limitations ever because they aren't suppose do. You'll never see someone in a movie go, "Shit, this is the end of the map." Or in a book it mentions how Drizzt Do'Urden encounters an entanglement of collapsed trees and, upon walking over them, is flung below the map into nothingness.

@bwcmaste

That could very well be possible that maybe I'm just not liking games anymore, but as I've just said in this post I think it's the limitations of gaming today that are running stale for me.

@Mordi said:

Yes, this was a thing that became clear a while after I started to learn how games are made. I can't play a game without thinking "I wonder how they programmed this", or "the artist who made this did a great job".

Exactly. I'll analyze the game more than enjoy it. Like I'm playing an art gallery more than an experience.