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Educational Segregation in General
SNM
Shock Trooper
Member # 4239
 written Sunday, August 26 2007 16:15 Profile #1
*shrug*
I'm a bright student, and I never felt particularly neglected, but that was mostly because I:
1) Wasted huge portions of my middle school time on my teachers' computers (largely playing Avernum demos, in fact),
2) Worked independently in math during 6th and 7th grade,
3) went to a separate school for half the day during high school for my math and science.

Personally, I think that separating students into different schools is a bad idea because there's a strong correlation between student aptitude and parent involvement that's a bit of a circle, so separate schools means that, well, all the dumb kids get dumber. But within the school there absolutely should be separation, because let's face it, people learn at different speeds, in different ways, in different subjects. I only survived my English classes because sophomore year on I was in Advanced/AP classes.
In any case, it may well be that at your school the blend is appropriate enough that for you it doesn't seem necessary to segregate classes, but it's moronic in the extreme to put genius students in a classroom with those who just don't care about learning or are mentally retarded. It just makes things painful for all those involves and impedes their learning.

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There are two kinds of game players...those who are newbies, and those who were.
Posts: 322 | Registered: Monday, April 12 2004 07:00
Geneforge 3/4 mentioned in Top 100 Independent Games List in Geneforge Series
SNM
Shock Trooper
Member # 4239
 written Sunday, August 26 2007 07:31 Profile #12
That list doesn't look to be worth much. It's the top 100 of 368 games reviewed in the last three years, most of the games at the top look fairly dumb, and the aclaimed Darwinia is ranked 60th.
And just looking through the authors, who you're rated by and the kind of games they like seems to have a profound impact on your placement in the list.

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There are two kinds of game players...those who are newbies, and those who were.
Posts: 322 | Registered: Monday, April 12 2004 07:00
N:R is not changing screen resolutions in Tech Support
SNM
Shock Trooper
Member # 4239
 written Wednesday, August 15 2007 14:47 Profile #8
quote:
Originally written by Thuryl:

quote:
Originally written by Tyranicus:

A healthy number of PCs are 16:10 now too.
Why's it called 16:10 and not 8:5, anyway?
My assumption is that it's easier to compare to 16:9 and people like tens.

gis, can you give us a better description of what's going on? Which way is the picture stretched? Have you ever run the game successfully before?

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There are two kinds of game players...those who are newbies, and those who were.
Posts: 322 | Registered: Monday, April 12 2004 07:00
Avernum 5, July Update in Avernum 4
SNM
Shock Trooper
Member # 4239
 written Monday, August 6 2007 19:48 Profile #31
<---Appreciates elevation and "Averforge"-style graphics

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There are two kinds of game players...those who are newbies, and those who were.
Posts: 322 | Registered: Monday, April 12 2004 07:00
Harry Potter *WITH SPOILERS* in General
SNM
Shock Trooper
Member # 4239
 written Sunday, July 22 2007 06:26 Profile #11
quote:
Originally written by Actaeon:

I suppose Rowling was still trying to strip Harry of everything from his former life, making it more believable that he would, in the end, go quietly. Most of the things he had attachments to (the big exception being Ginny) no longer existed by the time he had to make the choice.
I'd have to disagree with your assessment
Things Harry Lost:
Firebolt
Hedwig
Lupin
Fred, Dumbledore, Sirius
Things Harry Still Had:
Ron
Hermione
Ginny
Other Weasleys, remaining Order, DA, etc.

I don't think Rowling handled the deaths well at all, though -- I actually didn't think Hedwig got killed when she does, and had to re-read that section several times before I was sure (I actually thought she died when Harry blew up the sidecar for a while and was confused about it for a while). None of the deaths made me cry on my first reading, although I'm going through it again and taking it more slowly, so we'll see.
My main irritation with the book was the gigantic amount of time spent hiding in the forests -- that seemed worthless to me. Either that should've been gotten rid of or else Harry and Hermione should have actually learned stuff in Godric's Hollow, moving some of dead-Dumbledore's exposition from the end of the book to the middle, etc.

I've also fallen to wondering how to present these books to my children when I'm older -- do I give them one book each year starting when they're 9 or 10? Do I give them all the books at once when they're 13 or so? Do I (shudder) give them all the books as soon as their friends start reading them? Because really, I don't want a 9 year-old reading any of the last three -- heck, there are a few parts in Azkaban I wouldn't like them to read without some conversation taking place. And even if I wasn't worried about the violence, the romantic subplots are pretty important and don't make sense until you're old enough...

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There are two kinds of game players...those who are newbies, and those who were.
Posts: 322 | Registered: Monday, April 12 2004 07:00
Harry Potter in General
SNM
Shock Trooper
Member # 4239
 written Saturday, July 21 2007 11:20 Profile #44
quote:
Originally written by Garrison:

I never appreciated Rowling's writing very much. I thought the Harry Potter books were slightly better than mediocre, and I think it is very commendable and admirable for a person like her to follow through with her dreams and succeed. However, in my opinion, there are hundreds of better fantasy writers out there whose characters are better developed and whose writing style is more literarily cultivated and advanced.
Something's wrong with you. Her writing is easy to read, clever, and fun. It's not high fantasy like Lord of the Rings, perhaps, but then again no attempt at high fantasy I've read besides Lord of the Rings really pulls it off too well.

I finished the book at ~7AM EST, but I'll give you my two predictions from beforehand. I was pretty sure that during Harry and Voldemort's final duel Snape was going to sacrifice himself as a distraction of some kind, allowing Harry to kill Voldemort.
I was somewhat less sure that we would find out two new reasons why Snape hated James Potter (and apparently Harry) and Harry calling him coward so much:
1) That Snape had had a crush on (or been in love with) Lily at school, and
2) Snape had had to swear an Unbreakable Oath to work for the Order, with James Potter either being sworn to or being the bonder.

I leave it as an exercise to the reader to find out how correct or incorrect I was. ;)

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There are two kinds of game players...those who are newbies, and those who were.
Posts: 322 | Registered: Monday, April 12 2004 07:00
Elitist? in General
SNM
Shock Trooper
Member # 4239
 written Wednesday, June 13 2007 10:04 Profile #43
I'm speaking as somebody who as at various times posted semi-regularly, sometimes lurked, and sometimes ignored you for months, and as a 20-year-old double-majoring in computer science at one of the country's best engineering schools and government at one of the nation's best government schools (just so you know I have nothing against liberals or smart people ;) ):
This forum is elitist and a closed community. The number of in-jokes required to understand most off-topic conversations is astounding, and people are called out on minor errors of punctuation or diction as if they were going to blow up a nuclear facility. This place is a giant wankfest.
That said, it's not particularly surprising. You're a small community most of whom spend large amounts of time here, and giant wankfests are fun. But you should at least know it's happening, and for a lot of people who aren't in the community it's no fun at all.

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There are two kinds of game players...those who are newbies, and those who were.
Posts: 322 | Registered: Monday, April 12 2004 07:00
Main Menu idiosyncracy in Nethergate
SNM
Shock Trooper
Member # 4239
 written Saturday, May 26 2007 06:15 Profile #0
I just now noticed, but the only way to access the preferences from the main menu is to press cmd-p. Unless you're in a window, in which case you can get them through the file menu (which is the wrong menu :P ), but the only way to window the game is to use the preferences box!
Now of course if you start a game and press escape you can get the prefs, but it's still a little odd.

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There are two kinds of game players...those who are newbies, and those who were.
Posts: 322 | Registered: Monday, April 12 2004 07:00
Need help archiving a site in General
SNM
Shock Trooper
Member # 4239
 written Sunday, April 15 2007 14:11 Profile #8
You can also get Firefox extensions that do this pretty effectively. I think I used a scrapbooking one to archive the website for one of my math classes.

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There are two kinds of game players...those who are newbies, and those who were.
Posts: 322 | Registered: Monday, April 12 2004 07:00
What's your favorite board game? in General
SNM
Shock Trooper
Member # 4239
 written Thursday, April 12 2007 19:02 Profile #19
Doesn't anybody here actually play real board games? *cry*

Settlers was fun for a while, but the robber started driving everybody I played with insane after a while, and the expansions weren't too much better.
Carcassone is a fun over-lunch game.

At the moment my favorite game in the "decently-heavy-but-not-too-much-so" set is definitely Puerto Rico, which kicks both of those out of the park. But I like too many games to have a favorite...Modern Art, Adel Verpflichtet (sp?), Through the Desert, Elfenland, the one I can't remember the name of where you play as a dynasty leader in the fertile crescent...

Oh, and I forgot Power Grid! Actually that might be my favorite right now. And Scotland Yard will always hold a special place in my heart because I beat my dad and his college friends at it when I was ~6 years old, and it's a real game.

If you have never heard of these games, you must play them.

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There are two kinds of game players...those who are newbies, and those who were.
Posts: 322 | Registered: Monday, April 12 2004 07:00
Nethergate: Resurrection in Nethergate
SNM
Shock Trooper
Member # 4239
 written Monday, April 2 2007 10:09 Profile #98
quote:
Originally written by Lord Sylak:

You realize that up until the Geneforge Series (not the first Geneforge game mind you) that Nethergate was the #1 selling Spidweb game, right?
Yeah, where on earth did you get that idea? It's completely wrong, and for obvious reasons. Nethergate was just awkward to use. It's the newest game of Jeff's that I haven't bought because the interface was just too painful and it lacked polish much more than his later efforts.

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There are two kinds of game players...those who are newbies, and those who were.
Posts: 322 | Registered: Monday, April 12 2004 07:00
Nethergate: Resurrection in Nethergate
SNM
Shock Trooper
Member # 4239
 written Saturday, March 31 2007 13:02 Profile #94
It's...it's in 800*600. :( That's going to be claustrophobic.

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There are two kinds of game players...those who are newbies, and those who were.
Posts: 322 | Registered: Monday, April 12 2004 07:00
Join the Club? in Geneforge 4: Rebellion
SNM
Shock Trooper
Member # 4239
 written Thursday, January 25 2007 08:21 Profile #15
quote:
Originally written by Student of Trinity:

I still find this a doubtful scenario, though, just because everyone you meet in the game, Rebel and Shaper, human and drakon, all speak about the rebel Geneforges as though they confer really significant powers. And it is evident that the Rebels have been producing Geneforged Lifecrafters for some time: the PC is not the first Lifecrafter, but the last. So even those Rebels and Shapers who have no direct knowledge of how the southern rebel 'forge worked would seem to have had direct experience of its products.
Hmmm. I always just figured the Southern Geneforge was considered so powerful because it could give serviles the power to craft and cast magic, and it could let humans do the same thing without the years of study otherwise required (remember, your characters in the past games are all old apprentices who have been learning magic and memorizing different formulas for years).

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There are two kinds of game players...those who are newbies, and those who were.
Posts: 322 | Registered: Monday, April 12 2004 07:00
A New Series in Geneforge 4: Rebellion
SNM
Shock Trooper
Member # 4239
 written Tuesday, January 23 2007 12:45 Profile #10
I'd like to see the comedy RPG.

I'd also like to see something with a new system, perhaps a cyberpunk style (one that doesn't just depend on technology to replace all the magic stuff we have).

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There are two kinds of game players...those who are newbies, and those who were.
Posts: 322 | Registered: Monday, April 12 2004 07:00
Cant read all text for items in Geneforge Series
SNM
Shock Trooper
Member # 4239
 written Monday, January 22 2007 13:26 Profile #5
I think I remember this happening in each of the games with a few random items, but none of them were important. It was just that the strings were too long to fit into the allotted space.

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There are two kinds of game players...those who are newbies, and those who were.
Posts: 322 | Registered: Monday, April 12 2004 07:00
Monarch Papers in Geneforge 4: Rebellion
SNM
Shock Trooper
Member # 4239
 written Saturday, January 13 2007 13:29 Profile #9
There's a chamber directly south of Monarch's bedchamber which you access through his throne room. The papers are in the cabinet in that chamber.

And a note: if you haven't yet completed Master Jared's quest for the missing items in the wrecked lab, make sure you do that before you tell Greta you've beaten Monarch. I've just finished that part of the game and got zinged. :(

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There are two kinds of game players...those who are newbies, and those who were.
Posts: 322 | Registered: Monday, April 12 2004 07:00
A question of Avernum Engines in General
SNM
Shock Trooper
Member # 4239
 written Saturday, January 13 2007 07:32 Profile #9
Even though I miss elevations and the outside map, I went with A4 for one simple reason: I now play all my Spidweb games on a Powerbook, without a keypad. Which means that any engine allowing me to effectively navigate with the mouse instead of the keyboard automatically wins on usability.

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There are two kinds of game players...those who are newbies, and those who were.
Posts: 322 | Registered: Monday, April 12 2004 07:00
Programming (Mac OS X) in General
SNM
Shock Trooper
Member # 4239
 written Thursday, January 11 2007 15:26 Profile #5
You've never done programming before?

Don't start in OS X. Start in a platform-independent language like Java and just write text-based code. GUI design, while it has gotten easier over the years, still takes a lot of mucking around even with a good automater, and it doesn't teach any programming skills anyway.
EDIT: Actually, simple C++ code and such is also platform-independent at the coding level. But I'd use Java because the syntax is slightly simpler. OS X also includes a compiler for this and a brief time Googling should find you plenty of help in doing so from the command line (get comfortable working in the command line).

[ Thursday, January 11, 2007 15:29: Message edited by: SNM ]

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There are two kinds of game players...those who are newbies, and those who were.
Posts: 322 | Registered: Monday, April 12 2004 07:00
questions I have not recently seen asked about Chapter 1 in Geneforge 4: Rebellion
SNM
Shock Trooper
Member # 4239
 written Thursday, January 11 2007 15:24 Profile #13
quote:
Originally written by Emperor Tullegolar:

For number 3, I've never had to go into fight mode to do this. The alphas walk fairly far away and they stay at that end of the bridge for a good amount of time. I have no problem just walking up, doing the deed, and walking away. Unless... does cheating and maxing your stats make you more stealthy?
I had no trouble doing it without going into combat on my not-cheated-up character.

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There are two kinds of game players...those who are newbies, and those who were.
Posts: 322 | Registered: Monday, April 12 2004 07:00
Home-written comics in General
SNM
Shock Trooper
Member # 4239
 written Sunday, January 7 2007 05:42 Profile #23
Oooo. I'm very impressed.
You should get a cheap little website and just upload them all in one go. :)

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There are two kinds of game players...those who are newbies, and those who were.
Posts: 322 | Registered: Monday, April 12 2004 07:00
5353: Pseudohistory Phatassathon in General
SNM
Shock Trooper
Member # 4239
 written Saturday, December 23 2006 10:57 Profile #14
quote:
Originally written by Kelandon:

I was under the impression that Japan doesn't have nearly the same distribution-of-wealth issues that, say, the U.S. does. Then again, neither does anybody else. But I thought that they weren't bad in that department. Anyone happen to have statistics handy (or the free time to find them)?
I've looked at a few dense and orthogonally-related articles and read some news reports, and it seems that in the eighties the Japanese wealth distribution was pretty even, but it's getting worse now -- though, yes, it's still far better than those in the USA. The best article I could find is this one; apparently the Japanese are starting to reduce the progressivism of their tax rates and cutting back on estate taxes. Sadly.

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There are two kinds of game players...those who are newbies, and those who were.
Posts: 322 | Registered: Monday, April 12 2004 07:00
Heusstes in Geneforge Series
SNM
Shock Trooper
Member # 4239
 written Saturday, December 23 2006 10:40 Profile #3
I, ummm, don't think it's a poem.
I don't remember Heustess at all, and I finished Geneforge less than a month ago. :/ All well; does he ever show up again?

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There are two kinds of game players...those who are newbies, and those who were.
Posts: 322 | Registered: Monday, April 12 2004 07:00
are there any hidden doors? in Avernum 4
SNM
Shock Trooper
Member # 4239
 written Friday, December 22 2006 09:51 Profile #1
There are a few that you discover by being told of their existence or (maybe, I'm not sure about this) by having high enough luck. There's no point trying to headbang, though.
Sadly.

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There are two kinds of game players...those who are newbies, and those who were.
Posts: 322 | Registered: Monday, April 12 2004 07:00
For those of you who care or want to know... in General
SNM
Shock Trooper
Member # 4239
 written Friday, December 22 2006 09:41 Profile #20
quote:
Originally written by Robinator is a Beefcake:

[i]I JUST GOT ACCEPTED INTO STANFORD!!!![/i] Hot dog!
I visited that school for a cross-country race. What a wimpy school. :P
Seriously though, congrats. :)

And happy belated birthday, Solberg!

[ Friday, December 22, 2006 11:04: Message edited by: SNM ]

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There are two kinds of game players...those who are newbies, and those who were.
Posts: 322 | Registered: Monday, April 12 2004 07:00
What do you want for X-Mas? in General
SNM
Shock Trooper
Member # 4239
 written Thursday, December 21 2006 13:49 Profile #36
quote:
Originally written by The_Nazgul:

World Peace!
And whirled peas!

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There are two kinds of game players...those who are newbies, and those who were.
Posts: 322 | Registered: Monday, April 12 2004 07:00

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