Rates Given

1

/dev/random / Beware COSTCO Scam

Funny

BE WARNED!

I don't know if you guys shop at Costco but this may be useful to know.
A `heads up' for you and any friends you have who may be regular CostCo
customers.

Over the last month I have become a victim of a clever scam while out
shopping. Simply going out to get the family's groceries has turned out
to be quite traumatic.

2

Quake / I miss playing Q2 with all of my friends...we need to get things poppin' again!

Flawless Logic

I can't tell you how long it's been since I played Quake 2, but I recently found my 30GB folder of every single Quake 2 mod, map, texture pack, and executable that I had to fire it up and play a few rounds just to remember the good ol' days...but it's incredibly hard to find Quake 2 servers out there besides everything that TS has to offer.  I miss you guys terribly and I'm hoping that there are still a bunch of you guys still around so that I can hone in on my skills again and spank some ass with you guys here very soon!

Quake 2 will always be the best FPS game for PC.  (P.S. I actually played through the entire game as well as the two addon packs on my PS Vita just because I was that desperate!)  Love you guys.

3

/dev/random / Re: why is better to live in Europe

Racist Ignoramus

beautiful medieval house in Belgium

I love Brussels..beautiful city..been there 2 times but I always want to visit again

4

Bot Drop / Re: Someone spoofing and being a general twat

Wins The Internet

Anyway... yeah, some no life fuckin' loser was spoofing both me and [A2W]H3mr0yd on DM, December 11, 2018, at around 3:15pm Eastern.

Seems to be someone from Canada whose primary alias has been "Sex Offender". (They first used the alias in 2010, disappeared for awhile, then showed up again about 200 days ago.)

I've added a WallFly name-ban to force the "Sex Offender" alias on their subnet, since it seems to be their main alias. (They've also used "child molester" and "MentalHealthIss", which perhaps prompts one to wonder whether these selections may be autobiographical, and not merely edgy trolling.)

5

Politics / Re: Current Politics & History Only Thread

Informative

This youtuber presents an interesting thesis.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bZWSoV6zE0M
<span data-s9e-mediaembed="youtube" style="display:inline-block;width:100%;max-width:640px"><span style="display:block;overflow:hidden;position:relative;padding-bottom:56.25%"><iframe allowfullscreen="" scrolling="no" style="background:url(https://i.ytimg.com/vi/bZWSoV6zE0M/hqdefault.jpg) 50% 50% / cover;border:0;height:100%;left:0;position:absolute;width:100%" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/bZWSoV6zE0M"></iframe></span></span><br /><a href="https://www.youtube.com/v/bZWSoV6zE0M" target="_blank" class="new_win">https://www.youtube.com/v/bZWSoV6zE0M</a>

I hadn't been aware of the degree to which game publishers (as well as, indirectly, large retailers like Wal-Mart) are structuring financial incentives in developer contracts based on Metacritic score thresholds. (For example: The developers of Fallout: New Vegas reportedly missed a million-dollar bonus by 1 "point" when the game garnered an overall score of 84 on Metacritic, instead of the 85 stipulated in their contract with Bethesda.)

And so: as a developer if you want to earn those bonuses, the smart strategy may be to inject politics into your game that aligns with that of the ideologues and activist 'journalists' writing most of the reviews.

Examples are given in the video of such activist bloggers—ahem!—"game journalists" knocking games' scores down for either having the 'wrong' politics; or, for being merely apolitical enough to lack sufficient 'correct' political messaging woven into the game's story.

It's bizarre to me that a game developer's financial well-being would be tied contractually to some arbitrary number on a review aggregation website. Particularly given the leaked emails a few years back that exposed a cabal of dozens of reviewers for high-profile gaming websites coordinating to tailor their game reviews along political lines.

6

Politics / Re: Current Politics & History Only Thread

Flawless Logic

It's nuts how close it was.

Speaking of nuts, how crazy is it that in many aspects the republican party is the MORE reasonable party these days? Keep in mind that's relative, I'm not saying they're reasonable.

When the tea party highjacked the republican party most of them were straight up loony!! How could it get any worse!?

Democrats: "Hold my beer"

 

7

Jokes / Re: Funny Pictures

Funny

8

Bot Drop / Re: Suspicious behavior

Informative

Johnny tried to flood the server (2)

The Q2Admin software is being a bit overdramatic here, as it turns out this particular error just means the client made too many changes to a userinfo variable, like "skin" or "hand" or "name" or "rate", etc.

9

Quake / Re: Thank you, quadz!

Wins The Internet

For a game nearly 21 years old at this point, it would be kinda cool to have just a small bit of info about this server (when it started, if it was thought it would still be around after all these years at that point, where it's located, something about the community, etc.)

Even now, I can still recall THE GREAT MERGER OF AUGHT FIVE, wherein the TDM/duel community first joined our insular group of FFA enthusiasts.

The ensuing 'cultural enrichment' was a sight to behold.

 

10

Jokes / Re: Funny Pictures

Rock On