[Disillusionist]

Sometimes, a post is so unintentionally hilarious, you just have to let it stand.

So, the armed elderly are holding America together, since the baby boomers have never been involved in one.....or three...wars...and don't care.

And no, I've never heard of Senator Joe McCarthy, McCarthyism, the Red Scare, or the House Committe on Unamerican Activities.... so tell me, what exactly -happened- to him...in the end?

The history books are all wrong...so, presumably, this information comes from....?

Uhm, and people LOVED Hitler, even those who traveled across an ocean and stomped a path to Berlin...for his autograph? Thoughtless of him to kill himself when so many fans were on his doorstep....

What a treasure trove! I need to read and re-read this post!
From the 'ban' on Ninja Turtles, right down to the governmental-capitalist conspiracy to turn our children into corn-people.

The UK is a censorship mecca, and the former Soviet Union was a glorious nation, at least, until Putin and the drug craze...Stalinism was a real picnic of glory.

And the mass migration of Americans to China...I bet that got censored from CNN. And here I thought my neighbors were just moving to Cedar Rapids.



I absolutely understand now why background checks are performed before gun sales.
Sorry, couldn't resist.

[Xerihae]

Originally Posted by Disillusionist From the 'ban' on Ninja Turtles

He's right. Davairus and I are around the same age, and I remember Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles coming out here. I hadn't a clue who Ninja Turtles were. Back then, anything to do with Ninjas was frowned on here, as this excerpt from the Ninja Turtles Wikipedia article shows:

Originally Posted by Wikipedia Upon TMNT's first arrival in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Sweden, Norway, Finland, The Netherlands, Austria and Germany, the name was changed to "Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles" (or TMHT, for short), since local censorship policies deemed the word ninja to have excessively violent connotations for a children's program. Consequently, everything related to the Turtles had to be renamed before being released in these nations. The lyrics were also changed, such as changing "Splinter taught them to be ninja teens" to the "Splinter taught them to be fighting teens." The policies also had other effects, such as removing use of Michaelangelo's nunchaku (which were at the time banned from appearing in even 18-rated movies) and generally toning down the usage of all the turtles' weapons. After many seasons of never using his nunchaku, they eventually disappeared entirely, replaced by a turtle shell shaped grappling hook called the "Turtle Line". However, when the live-action movie came out in 1990, the "Ninja" of the title was kept even in the UK. In time, nunchaku scenes were retained in previously-censored movies such as those of Bruce Lee. By the time of the 2003 TV series, these censorship policies had been abolished, and no changes have occurred in the content of the show.

[Disillusionist]

I guess it didn't sound like so much of a ban to me as an editing for children's content.
It still tickles me that TMNT are mentioned in the same breath as a love of Hitler.

The part I missed in the very long post was where the censorship was abolished...like five years ago.

Thank you for clearing that up.

Originally Posted by Disillusionist Stalinism was a real picnic of glory.

Ahh, those were the golden days! Dirty, evil sex was outlawed back then. And you could buy a goldfish for 5 копеек.

Anyway, does no one else find the current model of MMO's, unsettling? It reeks of immature players, ugly chatspeak, inflated egos through means of better equipment, better skills, and higher levels. Guilds get together to "raid"... and these raids are such an insult to intelligence. It's just many avatars moving in repetitive motions and doing as many things as they can to show off.

And the concept of pay-for-perks MMOs is in essence, "become outwardly better", until you are the greatest. It seems so superficial, and it wouldn't be disturbing if the kids that play these games didn't treat it like a religion. But they do.

I saw an episode on G4TV once, where there was an award for the best WoW player, or something like that. Out comes this spoiled, chubby kid with a glass of chocolate milk. He drinks some and spits it out right on the stage. And he didn't look at least humbled to be in the spotlight, or excited, plus there was zero interesting or worthwhile conversation.

Anyway, just another rant.

[Valg]

Here is a fact for you - American didnt get its independence on 1776 like the books say. This is the day they "declared" it. But thats facetious. They didnt actually get independence until after the war of 1812 where the british finally gave up and left. All those history books are wrong. Can it be?

Well, over that time period, Americans enacted their own laws, chose their own leaders, conducted diplomacy with foreign powers, performed military actions, etc., all without any authority given by the Kings of the day.

Regardless of what the paperwork said on either side of the Atlantic, America was an independent nation, by the virtue of it being able to act independently.

[Jazuela]

Originally Posted by Violette Anyway, does no one else find the current model of MMO's, unsettling? It reeks of immature players, ugly chatspeak, inflated egos through means of better equipment, better skills, and higher levels. Guilds get together to "raid"... and these raids are such an insult to intelligence. It's just many avatars moving in repetitive motions and doing as many things as they can to show off. And the concept of pay-for-perks MMOs is in essence, "become outwardly better", until you are the greatest. It seems so superficial, and it wouldn't be disturbing if the kids that play these games didn't treat it like a religion. But they do. I saw an episode on G4TV once, where there was an award for the best WoW player, or something like that. Out comes this spoiled, chubby kid with a glass of chocolate milk. He drinks some and spits it out right on the stage. And he didn't look at least humbled to be in the spotlight, or excited, plus there was zero interesting or worthwhile conversation. Anyway, just another rant.

I don't play graphics games, but I do find all the things you claim are so horrible in them, when I poke around in most muds these days. Chatspeak, immature players, inflated egos through means of better equipment, better skills, higher levels. Groups getting together to raid, with the raids being an insult to intelligence. Avatars moving in repetitive motions and showing off just "cause they can." The WoW kid could just as easily have been a Dragonballz MUD kid, or a "pick stock diku of the week" kid, or "LP freak of the month" kid, or even a "furry netsex with atmosphere" kid. Take a look around some of the muds - forget about graphics games (MMO means massively multiplaying on, which makes no sense, since it should be MMORPG, which doesn't mean exclusively graphics, because there are several non-graphical muds out there that are massively multiplayer online roleplaying games and I REALLY hate the use of that acronym to describe graphics games)...

Just take a look at some of the muds bopping around these days and you'll find the exact same attitudes, the exact same juvenile behavior, the exact same chatspeak, as you say exists in WoW.

[Milawe]

Originally Posted by Violette Anyway, does no one else find the current model of MMO's, unsettling? It reeks of immature players, ugly chatspeak, inflated egos through means of better equipment, better skills, and higher levels. Guilds get together to "raid"... and these raids are such an insult to intelligence. It's just many avatars moving in repetitive motions and doing as many things as they can to show off.

It depends on the people you meet, and the people you end up gaming with. To say that all MMO players are immature, speak in ugly chatspeak, and have inflated egos would be like saying that all MUDs have intelligent, well-versed, and creative people. Both statements are laughably untrue. The crux of the problem probably has very little to do with the game and much more to do with parenting styles (or lack of parenting at all). I know what goes into raiding. For a 12-13 year old to be doing it requires extremely lack of parenting.

Now, college kids do that a lot, too, but honestly, I feel that college kids are better off raiding than boozing it up, banging everything in sight, or inhaling any drug they can get their hands on. Granted, you can be doing that WHILE raiding, but you're not going to have a good raid for long.

Originally Posted by Violette And the concept of pay-for-perks MMOs is in essence, "become outwardly better", until you are the greatest. It seems so superficial, and it wouldn't be disturbing if the kids that play these games didn't treat it like a religion. But they do.

Do you ever remember a time when you got really into something? My Little Ponies. Smurfs. TMNT. Transformers. Comic books. DnD. Unicorns. Toy guns. Swimming. Kids have pretty simple lives, and if they're left to their own devices, they'll just latch onto something and really get into it. It gives them a sense of control in the world where they can memorize all the things in a collection, or name every single toy they own. Treating this like some "disease" is deflecting from the real problem, in my opinion, which would be their own parents not exposing them to other things. WoW makes a really good babysitter for a 13 year old kid. Demonizing the games shifts the responsibility from the parents to the game companies, and I think that once you crush the gaming companies, you'll find those same kids doing other really bad things because their parents will still be looking for something else to babysit their kids.

Originally Posted by Violette I saw an episode on G4TV once, where there was an award for the best WoW player, or something like that. Out comes this spoiled, chubby kid with a glass of chocolate milk. He drinks some and spits it out right on the stage. And he didn't look at least humbled to be in the spotlight, or excited, plus there was zero interesting or worthwhile conversation. Anyway, just another rant.

Again, a kid doesn't get fat from playing video games. He gets fat from his diet and lack of exercise. Again, whose responsibility is that? Not the video game designers.