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Contents As the sun is rising behind the mountains in the east, a man is slowly approaching the small town. His face lies in the shade of his old, worn out hat. It hasn't rained in weeks, the ground is dry. Dust is clouding the view. As the man passes the first houses, he suddenly stands still. Slowly, he takes out his harmonica and starts to play...***
Hey everybody,You will probably recognize some of the writers as they already wrote for previous issues of the Helios. However, there are also a few new guys - I'm not the only one! Major Darling, Nikos and Legio have reinforced our ranks and have written great articles for this issue. ***
The Great Rep War Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
The Great Rep War
There are times on our beloved TWC when the world seems to be turned upside down and all of our preconceived notions of "normalcy" on the site are thrown out the window. The latest case of this being the Reputation controversy. It all started innocently enough. Calls for new rep descriptions and ideas for how to solve the problems of users with maxed out rep and post size stretch from large amounts of rep were initially met by the community with mild interest or indifference. Many were tired of the old rep descriptions and graphics and wanted a change.
Then, it happened. On October 11th 2009, HEX implemented the changes to the Rep system which, up to that point, were only the stuff of rumor and hearsay. Little did HEX imagine however, the controversy and outright hostility this seemingly innocent change would cause.
Almost immediately, threads were started in every corner of TWC by noobs and veterans alike, asking "what happened to my rep!". The amount of spam these threads caused caused the moderation branch much grief. Criticism was not only directed at the new symbols themselves, but also at the questionable new rep descriptions which were also implemented. Many critics found the new descriptions to be lackluster in comparison to the old.
Eventually, the most vocal critics of the change converged on the Q&S and vented their frustrations over the disappearance of their beloved rep crowns and nostalgic descriptions. Here is only a small sample of their outrage.
Quote:
Originally Posted by gollum
nooooo!!! i finaly got 3 crowns, but now they turned into 2 silver crowns!!!! its not fair!!!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Monarchism
I
ing hate it. Where the hell did my crown go?
125 reps for a golden crown?
You better change this.
Quote:
Originally Posted by taxandrius
and what was the use of changing all this ?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Louis Lux
Tis is kind funny, a new rep system with a new rep icon was carefully devised and proposed to the Curia with the intent of reducing the space used by posts. The new icon would only affect people with high reputation and would work like a prestige icon, someone actually suggested a holy grail icon, but the bill was rejected. Why, if this was a concern of the Hex, didn't they express their support or at least take a careful look at the discussion thread of the bill to apply a solution that would satisfy a greater number of people instead of forcing down these controversial changes down the users throats?
A
poll was created which clearly showed the majority of TWCites were opposed to the change. However, the change wasn't without its supporters.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Kabudhan
I like it a lot. Makes rep more meaningful as it takes longer to get to that next crown.
Quote:
Originally Posted by molls
If your posting is so sensible and intelligent, you should aim for the Phalera Award instead. This one really represents your posting deeds whereas +rep isn't really representative when it comes to TWC contributions.
Quote:
Originally Posted by C.M.
A welcome reduction in clutter, I give it 2 thumbs up.
Everything possible was tried by the supporters of the old system to have it reinstated. Disabling rep as protest, having protest Avatars and signatures, and even creating social groups dedicated to the restoration of the old system. The debate raged over the new system for days in the Q&S and elsewhere on the forums. The debates sometimes became so heated that they became personal and many a hapless thread was closed or cleaned up by moderation staff. In the end however, all their efforts had come to naught. The rep system was not changed back, nor were the descriptions. The critics would now have to accept the new reputation system, a fact many of them were loath to do.
Now, for the most part, the great rep war is over. Every now and then a spark will kindle a short lived discussion, but the main outrage has subsided. With even some of the most vocal critics embracing the new reputation system by displaying it. But the question remains, is the site truly better off with the new system? For that this writer has no answer. But maybe with a little and understanding, perhaps all of TWC will come to embrace the new system with the same fervor and enthusiasm as the old.
Members are not honored or remembered on TWC for the amount of rep they have obtained. What it all boils down to is this, the amount of rep a member has tells us very little about the quality of their posts and their character. In the end, a members worth to the site and the community is measured in their posts and contributions, not by how many reps they have managed to gather for a LOLcat picture.
Nikos
Personal Help and Advice Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
Today I will be writing to you about the personal help and advice forum and girls in particular. The first thing a person notices when they look at a forum is the type or person that posts there. Some people don’t care about posting their most intimate problems. Now this can be a good or a bad thing. One guy will post about his, um, weewee issues while another will merely give away a lot of information in order to be more helpful. People show some initiative in not only posting their problems but also helping others if they have been through the same thing. Crazy as it may sound, but some people care on the internet! However, some people care a tiny bit too much.
Let’s say that one person (User A) posts about a drinking problem. He makes a thread about it. He has not noticed that there is another drinking problem thread by User B. User B, even though he cannot control his own thirst, wanders over to user A’s thread and tells him to shut the
up, man up, stop drinking, and stop being a pussy. Not very helpful, a certain saying about the pot and the kettle comes to mind.
But drinking is not the only thing you will find in the personal help and advice forum. You’ll find anything from ingrown toenails (despite the Curial bill to ban all medical help threads so that users are forced to see a physician) to (God forbid) suicide threads. The most common type of thread, which I will get to now, is the GIRL THREAD.
There are many types of girl threads, there have got to be dozens. There will always be girl threads popping up, no matter how much LoZz (<3) tries his best to merge them with the sticky. One will be like “Oh, I want a girl because I’m lonely and spend too much time on the internet.”
“Help me become a playah!”
“I wanna have a girlfriend because I really like pussy, not that I watch too much porn or anything like that but yeah help me find a girl!!”
The one that annoys others the most (and yes, I am speaking for myself as well) is-
“She said she likes me and she also said yes to going to the movies with me and we’re going to this party together, BUT DOES SHE LIKE ME?????”
I mean. if she said she likes you…….she likes you.
Of course, some of the advice you are given is just as bad, if not worse. There will be the user who advocates rohypnol (granted it’s a marvelous troll but nevertheless, you never know what kind of person the other user is, and they just might take your advice to heart. There have been tales of people cutting off their fingers because an e-buddy told them to, etc.) and the one who says “Bag dat son.”
Finally, after all these threads you get a thread by Thanatos. It’s called “I’ve been looking at all these threads in the PH&A”.
http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=283052
In this thread you will find many, many interesting points.
Quote:
In other words, do you genuinely feel lonely, or do you feel like you just need to do what society and culture tell you to in order to feel "normal"?
I’ll tell you from experience that sometimes when you walk into a party, you know there’s girls, you know there’s alcohol, you know there’s gonna be at least three different narcotics, you feel some serious pressure to DO SOMETHING. And some of these comments show that I am probably not the only one. Here are a few of them:
Quote:
Both at me actually, I am lonely but the "OMG you're still a virgin!????" responses out here sometimes want to make me to do it quick and easy.
By “do it” this member means sex. I won’t pretend to lie to you, there is a lot of pressure to have sex at our age, and especially in this day and age. It doesn’t matter if you’re a guy or a girl. I’m sixteen. There is a
ing LOT of pressure out there, and not just in the private regions. Here’s another response:
Quote:
It's not society, nor loneliness, I just wanna have sex!
That’s the spirit! Get yo ass laid mofo! This school of thought is prevalent among teenagers, including myself. I mean, I know a girl who has had two abortions already. I myself got a girl pregnant and we aborted it a few weeks ago. And why did we have to abort? No, it wasn’t the Baby Jesus. We had (hush, that word!) sex. I’m not saying it’s right or wrong, I’m saying that it happens, and that it happens a lot. Sometimes you can get into really deep trouble because you are thinking with the wrong head, guys. It’s all up to you.
Here’s another point of view:
Quote:
If you're more of an introvert, the trick is to make everyone think that you frequently have girlfriends, but in reality enjoy your personal time by yourself!
That’s right, become the player of the Total War Center Forums. Lying is easy on the internet. Even with the mantra of “Pics or it didn’t happen.” But hey, the responses in this thread are getting better and better!
Quote:
Society wants you to have a girlfriend..
Fight the power. Be the sensitive rebel, you don’t need girls anyway. Imma catch up to you later man, gotta take the woman shopping now.
Quote:
Definitely not because of society. It's all for the poon.
Here we have words of wisdom. This is the true, and no matter how hard you try you can’t delete it from your conscience. Most of the time when a teenage boy says “I love you.” to a girl, he does not mean it. And this user isn’t the only one who thinks so.
Quote:
Neither... my phallus beckons me to find women.. like a lot of other posters, I see.
But then, we have a refreshing comment that sticks out from the rest.
Quote:
I never wanted one. I was against it. She came to me. Anyone below the age of 22 who is actively searching for a gf needs to get their priorities and self esteem straight.
That’s a damn good point. Sometimes the boy just wants a girl for the sake of it, and sometimes there is a girl at school who throws herself at everybody. And I’m not saying that the relationship is completely devoid of any emotion. Oh, there’s lots of emotion. But is it the right emotion in the right place? When a girl has a fight with her man, or vice versa, one of them has a good chance of doing something drastic. Cut your lover’s name into your arm? It’s been done before. This isn’t the old fashioned weeping in front of an old Carey Grant film with a box of tissues and a bigger box of chocolates.
After this, the thread went a little off-topic about how girls cost a lot of money and you won’t be able to finance your scholarship or go to college. That’s
, you can easily get money. Won’t tell you how, but just think a little. However, we get a bombshell from another user after the scholarship buzz dies down.
Quote:
I think a lot of younger people get gfs / bfs for social reasons, peer pressure etc.
Don’t pretend that you don’t see this as well. Even if you are a nerd and have never been in this situation, I know that you have seen it before. It’s up to you to decide what you think of it, I’m just here to give it to you.
There’s lots more in this thread.
Quote:
Those are exactly the questions I asked myself and I did realize I was just going through the motions and that I wondered what exactly a girlfriend would truly add to the richness of my life? Nothing that my friends already don't add. Good thread thanatos.
That’s a valid point. But there is also a counter-argument. You can’t really do the same things with your friends that you can do with your girlfriend. No, not just sex (well, you can but I’m not here to judge you). Silly little things, a meaningful stare into each other’s eyes, doing some chores together, etc. Won’t lie to you, I cooked once.
Now, we go back to the first page of the thread.
Quote:
Oho! The help and advice forum is a nice thing, people can care about you and try to help you. But it will not be a floating avatar that helps you get the girl, that helps you quit the alcohol, that takes you to see a physician about that toenail. It’s all on you. You have to believe in yourself, and you have to take the steps to help yourself.
Thank you for reading this, have a nice day, and most of all, <3 to LoZz for keeping the PH&A forum clean.
Legio
Myths of Moderation Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
Myths of Moderation
Hey everybody, I'm a new writer for the Helios and this edition features my very first article for this publication. Luckily for you I chose a good topic and I hope you learn from it.
As you know, Moderators are present in all forums of TWC but how much do we really know about them? That's something I have always been wondering. Therefore, I decided to interview the recently retired Senior Moderator Pontifex (who has returned now - Editor's note) in order to find out more about them and the 'Myths of Moderation'!
________________________________________________________________
So when did you join TWC and then how long did it take you to become a Moderator?
I joined TWC in December of 2007. Over the course of that remaining winter and spring I made adequate contributions to the site and in June of 2008 I was made a citizen after many failed attempts under numerous patrons. I still stand in awe of their patience in the face of my pushy nature at the time. I made a clown of myself on more than one occasion.
In July of that same year imb39 posted an announcement calling for moderator applications. Since I met the basic criteria, I applied. I had little hope of being accepted. Many superior applicants seemed interested and I thought I hadn't a snowball's chance in hell.
Somehow I passed the test and was given the mudpit and academy to moderate in July of 2008 alongside my friend and better Noble Savage.
Do you remember your first act?
I owe my early formation and instruction to the god-like pannonian, my mentor. He both terrified and fascinated me. My first moderator action was a poorly concocted and humble effort to correct some mischief in some Balkan related thread. As with most first acts, it was quite insufficient. If I remember correctly, pannonian reversed the action and then sent me a kindly worded PM of guidance. Harry Lime, imb39, pann, and Empress Meg were invaluable in my first few weeks. The advice they offered helped me to behave more justly in rule enforcement.
How long did it take for someone to complain about you?
Not long. Some complaints were founded, of course. I reversed many of my earliest infractions in private and by one on one member contact. In most cases I was treated civilly by the members, to their merit. I did remain 'undefeated' in the tribunal for my first three months, however.
Is it true you have been called a Nazi more than 15 times?
Probably in 15 different languages too. There will always be individuals unsatisfied by the way the moderation team works, but I am confident in the system which has proven to work.
What's the biggest 'Myth of Moderation' you have heard?
That certain members are targeted and treated harshly because staff doesn't like them. In reality many members are given multiple chances to post within the rules.
I can remember when your User Title was 'Internet Cop', what happened to that?
It became more trouble than it was worth.
What do you think is the average life expectancy of a Senior Mod?
Well, an active senior moderator seems to last about a year on average, but this varies person to person. Real life will always take precedence over the internet and there are a lot of other factors to be considered. The stress of office also bubbles over at times. The biggest sacrifice moderators make to the site is forfeiting their ability to be seen as 'normal members' in the eyes of the site populace. In my experience there are extreme disadvantages in this.
How long till they make you Admin?
Hopefully with the current stock I doubt the need will arise! TWC is blessed with many intelligent individuals at the helm and I have utmost confidence in the lot. I don't consider moderation to be my personal stepping stone into the Ivory Tower, but then again, I don't particularly have any ambition to be counted among the gods!
Thanks Pontifex, but one more thing, who is your biggest critic in the TWC membership?
You know who you are!
________________________________________________________________
So as you can see, Senior Mods do make mistakes but they are not Nazis. Or at least I hope so!
What we have to understand is that although some decisions are wrong, Mods are happy to discuss them and will try to fix mistakes they make. They are not cold and lonely people who hide in corners. Moderators are normal people, no different from the vast majority of other members.
Although some of them might be aliens (not mentioning any names
So from Darling's Desk, Major Darling signing off.
An Assassin that you don’t want to see coming your way ... Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
An Assassin that you don’t want to see coming your way ...
Hi there fellow readers, today I'll exploit the fact that there is a great game coming out in mid November. I will try to inform you about its aspects and features and will also give you some background information.
I’m 32 years old and I’ve been playing games since I can remember. I played games on oldies like the Commodore 64 (PC), the great 8-bit Nintendo and the original Sega console. Therefore, I have lots of experience as a gamer and will do my best to write accurate previews and reviews of games for the Helios.
Today I will be talking about Assassins Creed 2. But before I begin I would like to give a short overview of the first Assassin's Creed game for those who are new to this franchise.
In Assassin's Creed, Desmond, the protagonist, is kidnapped by a company named Abstergo Industries (which we think that are the modern day Templars). Abstergo wants him to enter a machine called the Animus v1.0 which will enable Desmond to go back in time. The company wants him to try and find the Piece of Eden for them. By entering the Animus Desmond - and thereby the player - plays as Altair, the assassin I was talking about earlier. Desmond is the descendant of Altair’s family which is why the Abstergo Industries put Desmond into the machine. The Animus is a high-end machine that uses the genetic genes of and opens the past of his ancestors. Desmond can see and feel what happened to them.
The majority of the actual game takes place in the middle of the Third Crusade, anno domini 1191. In those hard times some of the Crusaders were looking for the Piece of Eden because the legend states that the one who owns this relic could rule and change the world as he wishes.
But the Crusaders had another enemy, namely the Assassins Guild, lead by Al Mualim. The Guild was neutral and tried to bring peace and to put an end to the war. In this guild there was an assassin named Altair who played a big role in this conflict for he tried to prevent the Crusaders from capturing the Piece of Eden.
In-game features:
Ubisoft Montreal brought to the gaming industry a breath of fresh air when they released AC. They brought a new game with never seen stunning graphics, a mysterious storyline and new kind of game play. They introduced a new character who had great agility, cool moves, and looked great on top of that. To complete this they have given this character a hidden blade in his hand. Players have the ability to climb almost anywhere and what can I say about the Leap of Faith, Altair drops from very high point right in a stack of hay, very cool feeling while doing it.
The Leap of Faith Assassin's Creed, it also had its downsides:
Cons: The game was too repetitive: for each mission the player needed to complete little side missions like interrogations, eavesdropping, pickpocketing, beating someone for information and more. The problem was that for each mission, the player needed to repeat those same 5 investigation techniques
The second main complaint was the fact that the game had a lot of glitches, bugs, like being stuck in a rock while ridding your horse, the floating horse dying if Altair went in the water, the game freezing a lot while playing.
Pros: AC 1 received more Pros than Cons comments from reviews and players I won’t get in too in depth but the main ones were: great story, great graphics, new genre, new game play, great setting….
With that in mind we will now have a look at the upcoming Assassin's Creed 2. Will the problems of the first installment in the series be fixed in the new game? What's are the differences and what's new? Stay tuned and keep on reading!
____________________________________________________________________
Ezio showing his two hidden blades This is the second installment of a trilogy produced by Ubisoft Montreal. The game is set in the Italian Renaissance, starts in 1476 and ends in 1503. Desmond, the character from the present who his in the first game will still play a role by again entering the Animus, but this time the Animus will be version 2.0. As you probably already know Altair, the assassin from AC 1, won't be in this game. The character who'll replace Altair is called Ezio. He's seeking revenge for the death of his family members, his father and two brothers; they were executed the old fashion way, by being hung right in front of everyone on the market place.
The following cities are currently known to appear in the game: Venice, Florence, Rome, Tuscan (countryside), Forli and San Gimignano. There will also be special landmarks to find like Santa Maria Novella, St-Mark’s Basilica and more. Furthermore, the famous Italian scientist, mathematician and artist Leonardo da Vinci will appear in the game. He'll help Ezio in his quest for vengeance.
____________________________________________________________________
Those who are interested can find a lot of good SD or HD videos, featuring developers diaries, game play footage or special features. An interesting preview video can be found
here (but be advised that the game is rated M so the video might contain material that is not appropriate for your age).
The game comes out on November 17th on the PS3 and XBox but the PC version will unfortunately not be released before next year. Unsurprisingly, the members of TWC also expressed discontent about that:
Quote:
Originally Posted by
eXistenZ
I Hate Ubisoft for delaying the pc-game.
But i'm gonna love them when i play it
However, the late release date of the PC version doesn't really come off as a surprise since the same happened with the original Assassin's Creed.
Finally, I’ve also found a nice hands on preview on IGN:
link .
____________________________________________________________________
The first Assassin's Creed was already quite popular so it's no surprise that gamers all around the net are discussing the upcoming second game of the series. On TWC
a thread about Assassin's Creed 2 has several hundred replies already and you can find screenshots, videos and comments about every aspect of the game there.
Here are a couple of quotes from the topic:
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Stalins Ghost
Should make for a brilliant setting. It'll be interesting to see whether they'll focus entirely on Venice, or expand out a bit. For a start I'd love to see the Italian countryside feature, and missing out on cities like Florence or Bologna would be a minor crime as well
Quote:
Originally Posted by
TB666
Altair is also dead.
The next quote voices concerns which were repeated by several other members as well:
Quote:
Originally Posted by
PorknBeans
I really hope the side missions aren't as mind numbingly repetitive as AC 1. The only thing that kept me through the game till the end was the refreshing assassinations.
All I can say is that from what I’ve seen and read on a lot of game sites, it looks like Ubisoft is listening to the community. However, it's still a wait and see for when the game comes out (although I have to admit that I already pre-ordered it anyway).
Ezio fighting with guards on a carriage
____________________________________________________________________
I will finish up this little preview by listing and commenting on the new features which weren't already in the first game:
The player will be able to swim. (It was quite dumb in AC 1, Altair died when he fell into water)
The game will have a new money system to buy armour, poison, smoke bombs and more. The money will be gained by pick pocketing from people on the streets or your victims, by finding hidden stashes or by building up your villa and making money with it. (In my opinion this will definitely bring another aspect to the game where you will have to win your money to be able to buy Ezio better armours, special potions and more, this feature adds depth compared to AC)
Lots of new weapons, including halberds and axes. Also, this time the player has two blades instead of only one.
A great amount of new combos due to the fact their will be new weapons.
New ways to kill without being seen - e.g. from a stack of hay.
Ezio will have the privilege to interact with 3 new guilds to help in out during his missions.
There will be missions for the main quest but also secondary quests.
There will be secret areas (such as caves and catacombs) to be found that will give the player a different feeling on how Ezio is agile (Prince of Persia Style game play). Rewards will be granted and if all rewards are found in each secret area there will be a bigger reward.
There will also be a Villa that belonged to the Grand-Father of Ezio. This Villa at the beginning of the game will be in ruins and the player will have the choice to take some of his money to rebuild it or not, but if you don’t you will pass beside something I can assure you. Seems like the more the player invests in his villa the more money the villa will bring to him from the taxes paid by the residents of this one. (HINT: I’ve heard that in the villa, the players will be able to see statues of predecessor assassins, different weapons, victims and also a big statue of Altair.)
New ways to kill and evade from your enemies, for example by use of smoke bombs.
The Eagle Vision will be back in AC 2 - but with a little improvement: in AC 1 the player (Altair) could not move while using the Eagle Vision. Now, in AC 2, the player (Ezio) will be able to move while having the Eagle Vision on.
There are around 200 missions in the game, 100 of them being part of the main narrative, whereas the other 100 are side quests. There is around 14-16 different mission types. It has been said that the game length should be around 25 hours, AC 1 had around 15 hours but players didn’t do all investigations exactly because it was repetitive and boring.
This time around the player will have to find feathers instead of flags and the feathers won’t be spawned anywhere and everywhere but really in the cities itself.
There will be a day and night cycle in AC 2 , wasn’t in the first game. (In my humble opinion that is just eye candy, but I’m sure that everyone will like the fact that this feature will make the game look even more real.)
There will be a notoriety system that will oblige Ezio to bribe or to take off Posters from walls, assassinate witnesses or simply try to kill your targets in a stealthiest way possible. (The idea was taken from Hitman Blood Money but it will still certainly add a little something to this already great game. )
The Health bar system as also been changed, in AC 1 the health bar would regenerate with time. But in AC 2 it’s completely redone, minor injuries will regenerate when the player make a “memory sync” but for major injuries the player will have to buy healing potions or pay a doctor to treat him. (Now that is something that I like as a feature as it will force the players to actually gather money to buy potions or see a doctor to treat him. But it will also add a certain amount of difficulty to the players as their full health won’t regenerate as it was in AC 1.)
Some of the many news weapons in the upcoming game
Thinking ahead
After this summary of the new features in AC 2 I've decided to include a discussion about the third last installment of this great trilogy. Discussion on this can be found here (
http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=247205&page=34 )
Here are a few quotes about this issue:
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
Quote:
Originally Posted by
VOP2288
@Those against a modern AC3
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Rebel6666
I agree that the game story goes for that but my main concern is that will this be Hitman 5.... My point is that I love games with no guns and swords, which gives me a better feeling when I kill someone with my skills compared to kill someone with a gun like a coward, do you feel my concerns?? I loved Hitman Blood Money and Splinter Cell but I enjoyed more Thief and AC 1 and in the futur AC 2, I just hope the third game won't be screwed because will be going into either present time where Desmond is or in the futur.
Quote:
Originally Posted by
eddy_purpus
Next game is gonna be set on the civil war of France, Grand Duke...
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Rebel6666
This could be a possibility but what scares me is that in the IGN hands on they said that Desmond will learn Ezio's moves, Desmond already as the Eagle Vision ability so I'm not confident in your hypothesis. This is going to be a "WAIT AND SEE THING" either at the end of AC 2 or when the third game of this fabulous trilogy.
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Confederate Jeb
Guys, why can't it be both? Desmond doing some fighting with knives and guns, but still has to spend most of the time in the animus in another time period. Or at least have the game finish with him defeating the Templars. That would be a climax.
Quote:
Originally Posted by
lolgast
I agree,
And yes it would be a cool idea to fight with both desmond and an ancestor in the animus at the same time
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Hounf of Culan
Thats what I mean, they could make a game that has both present/future and the past and is awesome, it just needs both.
____________________________________________________________________ Closing comments
Well all the new features and bugs dealt with by Ubisoft, this second game will surely rock the house and probably be a contender for Game of the Year. So keep an eye open for this game, really a must buy in my opinion.
Regards
Rebel6666
Interview with Яome kb8 Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
The Helios: Hey Rome, while I'm sure that most readers already know you, it'd still be great if you could give us a short introduction and tell us something about yourself!
Яome kb8: I sincerely doubt that most readers know of me, so I will try and give a succinct, informative, but vague, self description. Basically I joined the forum in 2007, after years of skulking around, and first actually got involved in modding on an old mod for M2TW called ''Clouds across Europe''. From there I moved to the D&D section after being completely unable to stop myself responding to what I considered utter lunacy.
That last sentence pretty much sums up my existence on this forum since. I had a complete inability to remain quiet or let something go, and so inevitably I was doomed to a circular and tormenting stint in the D&D where I racked up an ungodly number of posts, and even more enemies. Oh yeah, I also spent a short time as a moderator, before ending terribly in embarrassment, and two terms on the CdeC before losing my seat.
_________________________________________________________________
You've been a prominent Mudpit poster for well over a year - would you mind telling us something about your 'career' in the D&D forums? Which topics are you particularly interested in? Did your interests and your focus change at all while debating here on TWC?
To elaborate on the above. My first experience in on-line debating was actually on the Gamespot forums (don't laugh) in the M2TW section prior to it's release. Some guy was going on a massive tirade about Muslims, and I simply felt the urgent need to respond. That pretty much, as I said above, sums up the next two years preceding it.
I started off in the Mudpit debating the things I was most interested in, mainly religious theology, and International relations, specifically the Israeli Palestinian conflict. To be honest, when I look back now at by first few threads, and my posts and opinions presented within them, I cringe.
[1] [2] I like to think I've matured a lot and developed my views and ideas and perspectives considerably, mainly positively, as I learnt more and more, both religiously, and politically.
As I learned more I got more interested in whatever I learned. The best example, is probably the Israeli Palestinian conflict. When I first arrived I knew very little, I only had an agenda, but no cold hard facts. But the more I debated it, and argued with everyone from Rush Limbaugh, to Icefresco, to Aziel and Rufats, I learnt more and more and was able to back up my side with better sources and information, which made me more interested, and made me enjoy it more. Similarly with the Conservative Party and British politics, the more I learnt about our constitution and Conservative Party history, the more I liked arguing about it.
It got to the point where I was arguing for the sake of arguing, playing Devil's advocate constantly, and simply opposing everyone's statements for little reason.
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What annoyed you most during your time in the Political Forums?
Three things mainly. 1. Stereotypes. 2. Consensus. 3. Repetition.
Stereotypes were pretty annoying. Intellectual laziness, and generalisation. Sometimes it's unavoidable I understand that, but more often than not it was merely a lazy way to debate, aimed not really at debate, but rather at point scoring. h yeah, the point scoring was pretty annoying too.
The ''Consensus''. Basically it proved the Hitler Theorem ''Say something, make it simple, make it big, and keep on repeating it, and eventually they will believe it" and the Churchillian declaration that a ''lie gets half way around the world, before the truth has a chance to get it's boots on'' absolutely correct, 100%.
The whole thing is made worse by the anonymity of the internet, and the relative speed by which it is done in. As a result, an ''Internet Consensus'' has emerged. An internet consensus, certainly a TWC D&D consensus, on certain definitions of certain words and concepts, and a certain perspective emerges as the ''right thing'' the ''correct thing''. No I'm not talking about ''political correctness'' and which no doubt some members will scream about leftie pinkoe censorship, but something else, more serious.
Having started University and having read at least 10 books already giving completely different definitions of liberal democracy is, and what democracy actually means, I grew tired of the consensus which was very difficult to challenge. It was not just the concept of democracy which got the consensus treatment, but also buzz words like ''terrorism'' ''freedom of speech'' ''socialism''. It created in my opinion, an inconvenient atmosphere to debate in where you spent more time arguing about the exact definition of a word, rather than the topic or event at hand. Unless of course the topic was about a certain definition.
Also repetition. Heinz Guderian said to me once "I can never understand where you get the energy to keep repeating the same things, in refutation to the exact same accusations, so many times for this long''. He had never been more right. I hated the fact that all my posts in the D&D were merely repetitions of previous posts, and answers to the previously made accusations and assertions.
By the way, I'm not pretending I was somehow perfect, and never participated in the above. I did. Actually I pretty much annoyed myself a lot of the time. I tend to get rash and heated pretty easily and end up saying things I would never have said with a calm head. There were hundreds of times when I looked back at a post I did a few days ago, and groaned in disappointment at the utter stupidity I posted.... but it was too late to edit, everyone had seen it already.
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Do you think that the Mudpit and the Academy have changed in the past year or so? And, if yes, have they changed for better or for worse?
Worse. Take this thread for example.
http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=96462&page=2
That died pretty quickly, with mainly common sense statements being ran out of. However if that was to happen today this thread would quickly devolve into a 5th columnist conspiracy thread about how Muslims are ready to rise through the floor of Europe and take over, or something similar. It seems a thread can't occur these days without the customary idiocy and LOUD NOISES. Due to that, the very atmosphere of threads quickly degenerates, and makes the whole thing ripe for heated outbursts, rants and insults.
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Considering your experience in that part of the site, do you have any ideas or suggestions for improving it?
I really don't know. A knee jerk reaction would be to say, establish no nonsense authoritarian moderation to punish everything. However, historically every time moderators get a little harsher, and no nonsense, it tends to drive away otherwise good natured and able debaters who run foul of the rules ever so slightly. Similarly, censorship is not a way forward, as it sets a horrible precedent. I genuinely can't think of a solution... actually I don't think there is one. We simply have to hope for the best. Hope that the old good debaters and role models return, or new ones emerge, and slowly slowly the established culture of the place changes.
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TWC Staff are introducing a new rule which will make it impossible for users with 5 or more warning points to view the Political Forums and the VV. What do you think about that? Do you believe that it will improve the level of debate?
Not really. I support the rule, don;t get me wrong, it will get rid of a bunch of troublesome factors, but most of the troublemakers or the worst apples in there are clever enough to stop after getting 3 points. But I honestly cannot say. We will simply have to wait and see. I certainly hope it does.
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Many people have noticed that you stopped posting in the Mudpit a while ago. Could you tell us what caused that sudden move?
To put it quite simply, I got sick and tired of the rampant racism, bigotry, and sheer disgusting superiority complexes. All these individuals, along with their tremendously narrow thinking, are found primarily on the internet. BBC ''Have your say''. Newspaper's comments sections. Blogs comments sections. Forums like this. Yahoo answers, and sadly TWC.
I'd rather focus on real life debate and discussion, which tends to exclude the individuals referenced above, since they are unable to keep up beyond the inevitable and exclusive repeating of ill thought out slogans and tremendously awfully obvious fallacies.
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Furthermore, there have been rumours that you've left the Conservative Party. Would you mind telling us why?
How would you know about that!? But no, I haven't left the Conservative Party per se, I'm still a fully paid up member (and I have a card to prove it) but I just realised I had been severely influenced by the theoretical rhetoric and proselytism of TWC's right wing, which when I thought about it carefully had no actual bearing upon the reality of right wing politics around me, down here in the real world, rather than the romanticised and fantasised dimension which others appear to be living in on the internet.
Besides, one can hardly passionately be something which he simply is not. I may be a small c conservative, but I certainly am not a Tory. At least I'm fairly certain that is the case.
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Do you ever plan on returning to the D&D side of the forums?
Not any time soon. I hold no such plans, as I don't see the point. I am quite busy in my day to day life, socialising, work, work work, and other hobbies which I had neglected for a long time.
I might participate when the UK General Election comes up, whenever Mr Brown decides to call one, if I am not too busy actually campaigning, which I have promised to do. Also, I could, I guess, have a change of heart if I find my studies too hard. TWC, despite it's faults in the D&D, did really teach me a considerable lot, and the members here had a big role to play there. I've undergone many transformations, for the better I think, in my time here, and I'll see what happens.
Besides, I don't think anyone even noticed I was gone.
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You have a lot of experience in the Political Forums here on TWC. Do you have any advice for new and inexperienced debaters? Is there anything that one should always keep in mind?
Well, my first bit of advice would be to NOT do anything I did. What they
should be doing is being absolutely respectful to everyone, remain calm and collected at all times, have an open mind, and concentrate on substance and argument rather than slogans and provocation. Read from more than one source, and analyse all events and theories from every angle in order to best be able to participate in a debate fully, instead of just posting a one liner once, than leaving.
Most of all, enjoy yourself. It's not a personal quest of righteousness, but just an opportunity to, with an open mind, explore certain topics and concepts and events to educate ourselves and each other.
Thank you for your time.
Hot Wire Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
Welcome to the first publication of Hot Wired the centre fold of all the latest breaking news in computer technology. For this first edition I will looking at the supply issues with AMD's new premium DirectX 11 GPUs, quarterly financial results form Intel, the launch of Windows 7 and the death of the once popular (like 9 years ago) Geocities.
Now anyone who isn’t aware of AMD’s new 5000 series video cards really needs to get there head out of the sand and checkout some hardware sites a bit more often. Right now these cards are the fastest single GPU cards money can buy but for a lot folk not even money is enough to purchase one of these as e-tailers across North America and Europe are frequently reporting this card out of stock due to high demand from consumers and the low yield rates from AMD’s new 40nm process which has plagued the company ever since the launch of the Radeon HD4770.
The cards were originally retailing for $399/£299 for the HD5870 (the fastest model) and $299/£199 for the HD5850 yet due to the laws of supply and demand these cards already command a premium of $20/$30 on e-bay and from some online stores from canny resellers looking to take advantage of early adopters. Despite the hike in prices AMD have pledged to increase stocks of both cards ‘over the coming weeks and months’ which will hopefully see prices return back to normal.
If you’re wondering what the big deal is about DirectX 11 you should see some of the promo videos for it on Youtube. DirectX 11 is not what you would call an evolutionary step from DirectX 10 but more of a revolutionary change whereby all the problems of the previous API have been addressed and fixed. DirectX 11 promises to bring not only better looking graphics such as real time tessellation which gives object a real look of depth it also promises to bring us faster games as well which can only be good for games like Crysis 2 which is notorious for it’s performance issues.
And one other good piece of news to report for you all PC gamers out there is that unlike DirectX 10 DirectX 11’s adoption rate by developers is a lot high and by the end of next year there should 20 to 30 games running on the new API from Microsoft. Now who said PC gaming was dead?
Some of you will have already had this installed before this was officially released in the way of the Beta or the release candidate but for the world at large Windows 7 was launched on the 22nd of October. From what I’ve experienced so far with the big M’s new OS it lives up to everything that it promised in the early Beta and RC1, the interface is super smooth, it loads and shuts down quickly, battery life which is important for those of you who have laptops has been improved since Vista.
Once the major criticisms levelled at Windows Vista was it’s annoying User Account Control system which although is still present in Windows 7 you can now adjust it so you don’t get as many prompts when something happens to your computer. Personally I’ve found the setting of 1 below default to be a happy medium between security and functionality.
Although I have used Vista on other people’s computers for most of the time I use Windows 2000 at work and Windows XP at home and the biggest difference I’ve noticed from jumping from XP to 7 is the new tool-bar. One of my biggest gripes with XP was you wasn’t able to move application tabs once they were on the tool bar, on Windows 7 you can have them anywhere you want. You even get preview windows when you hover over the shortcut with your mouse.
You also no longer get a ‘recent documents’ tab, in Windows 7 if you looking for a recently used word documents you can right click on the word shortcut and on it’s collapsible file list it will show all the recently used Word files. You can even pin common documents to the shortcuts so access if made super easy.
One last thing Microsoft are being very generous at the moment and in Europe you can pick a full retail version of Windows 7 for about half price which is less then OEM versions so now is a good as time as any to get a yourself Windows 7 otherwise come December you will pay a lot more. In the US if you a student you can get a student upgrade pack for only $30.
Despite a global recession and strong competition at the lower end of the CPU market Intel has reported strong earnings in quarter 3. They managed to generate $9.4 billion in sales from which they made a net profit of $1.9 billion, not bad when you consider all of it rivals have been making losses throughout 2009.
Growth has come largely in the mobile sector which has in no small part been as a result of Intel’s super small and cheap Atom processor which you can find on those little Netbooks you see people use in Starbucks and places of that ilk.
Should Intel have a bad 2010 they don’t worry to much as they currently sit on top of a cash pile of $4.1 billion.
Anybody who grow up during the .com boom (or at least old enough to know what it was all about) of the late 90’s will surely remember Geocities. It was a free web hosting service that allowed millions of budding web programmers to try there hand at basic Java script, HTML and other programming languages to create there own sites most of which were very badly programmed and had annoying banners going across them.
The growth of Geocities attracted the attention of Yahoo which back then was a major rival to Google and in Yahoo’s infinite wisdom they paid out $3.5 billion to purchase the company making David Bohnett and John Rezner overnight billionaires. This was the classic example of the stupidity of the .com booms there are many other cases like this where websites were setup which were latter sold on for millions (and in the case of Geocities billions) of dollars that had no business model and would never turn a profit.
1999 was certainly a hedonistic year when it came to technology stocks and now 10 years on Yahoo is now closing down Geocities and replacing it with a paid service that’s not even branded Geocities. The CEO of Yahoo has a lot of explaining to do when he has to tell his shareholders that their company has just flushed $3.5 billion down the toilet. Bye, bye Geocities you’re the classic .com over priced internet failure.
That's all from me, if you have any feedback please let me know.
Take Care
Freddie
Politics – From the right! Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
Politics – From the right!
Rahl's Rants: African > Gangsta Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
Rahl's Rants: African > Gangsta 1) Two women dressed as giant, and I do mean giant, bloody tampons, 2) A woman dressed as the pink "Yip Yip" from Sesame Street (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_trSIBCgF0 ), 3) The best costume of the night was a female dressed as an AT-ST from Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi . Her costume was HUGE. She had to carry the cockpit over her head the entire night and the legs of the AT-ST went from her shoulders to the ground. Insane! District 9 ]), was probably the nicest person I've met in awhile. I talked with him for about two hours and we had some interesting conversations. One subject, one that he brought up, was that of racism. When he brought up the subject I was at first uneasy and reluctant to stay on the subject, but the more he spoke about it, the more I was intrigued about his opinions. Valter told me about how African-Americans act much differently than him and other Africans he knows. What is this acting? It is the whole act of being, as the kids say these days, "gangsta". do like some rap, however. Like most music I listen to, even if I can't completely relate to it, some rap appeals to me because of the beat, musical talent, and message. With basically 99% of what is popular now in hip-hop/rap the beat is good, the musicality is atrocious, and the message is terrible. It's all about bling-bling, money, saying the N word, degrading women, etc. There isn't a good message anywhere. Why this appeals to a large part of the population, even young teenagers, is beyond me. I'll get back to Valter, though.
Page 3 ~Astaroth and the Helios Team
November 05, 2009, 04:30 PM
/ Helios 44 - Like a Phoenix from the Ashes
Land of the Free! Home of the 
!
The Rep War article was a cute read as well. Rahl's Rant - only in the Helios. 
: )
