Arcadiast

I knew this was coming. The "Lottery" and "a sucker born every minute" Mentalities combined inevitably lead to monetizing everything. I dont blame a Modder who has created a Mod with Millions of Downloads thinking "I could get rich with this". I dont even blame any "Businessman" thinking "there is money to be made with this". These are logical conclusions. I would have, however, blamed anyone who loves mods and modding if they had not defended their hobby. It seems they were smart enough to do so and for that I am very VERY Proud of the modding community. I dont mind the "idea" of monetizing User created Content but dont call it Modding. Call it "UDLC" (User created DLC) or "UCC" (User Created Content) or something else. Just draw a line. Make it clear to people what is what. By calling it Modding you are "raping" the good reputation of a Hobby People got used to. Its the same thing a Drug Dealer does, the first sample is free and once he got you hooked he starts asking more and more. I made some small mods long ago. Nothing too fancy, It was some Menu or Background for a fighting game. I did it first and foremost for my own pleasure and after I realised that other people might like my changes, I put it in the net to SHARE the Pleasure with others. Never did I think about making money with it because it never was business it was always fun. I did not even mind if people used my mod as a base for their works. The only rule for me was "dont make money with it". Did they even think this through? Mods enjoy much more freedom then DLCs even can for example. If you make a Mod and it is not fully compatible with the game, well you might "fix" it or you might not...its free after all right? but if ppl have paid for it they WILL DEMAND Compatibility...its their right. If there is a Bug in your Mod and you dont want or have the time to fix it, there might be rage in the comments and "shitstorm" but no legal obligation. Will that still be the case once you start charging for it? Nobody in his right mind would sue you over a mod you created in your spare time and sharing for free with others...put paid content? entirely a different thing. Same issue with content. With mods there is great liberty in putting nearly whatever you like in them but once its a paid product you will find yourself in a great conflict with copyrights, moral borders, law, political correctness etc. You will have to check your mod for possibly offensive, sexually abusive, politically hazardous or generally "unacceptable" content. You will lose a good portion of creativity just by monetizing your hobby. If everything in Life becomes about Money then everything in Life will have a Price Tag, including you. Then everything will have a Number and that Number will be its worth...not a penny more. If that is what you wish then just do nothing and let things happen. P.S. Sorry I am a little late for the "Show". I belong to the "older" Generation of gamers and age does set other priorities. Thats why I am happy to see a new Generation of Gamers fighting for their cause. I hope and wish to see that coming generations can enjoy Modding like we did with no strings attached, no limits to their creativity and none of the worries they will inevitably have in other parts of their lives. Keep your Hobby clean and invaluable, it is what makes life worth living. No Price Tag means its worth more then money can buy. Thanks!

The Big Bang Theory is debunked? holy....well I never understood why People took the BBG for fact, i mean it was called the Big Bang THEORY for a Reason. Scientist constantly look for knowledge, its their "tool" for working. However, there is just to much we CANNOT know either because we havent have the possibilities or our minds are just not "attuned" to it yet (and some more reasons). Thats one of the main Reasons why Scientists develop Theories. They help working on a "assumed" basis, which may be wrong but it allows them to keep working instead of saying..."well thats it, we reached a barrier, now we will take a break until one of the further generations invents warp drive....out of thin air". I am sure that there will be great discussions again if and if not the BBG is still valid. This thing is far from through but I would not be surprised if it would be "scrapped". This happens all the time in Science. Its not that long (well, compared to the History of mankind or even Science) that Astronomy found Planets in other Star Systems. Before that, it was only a Theory (an extremely likely one but nonetheless, since we could not know for sure it had to be called a theory...we could have just "believed" but thats another department :) ). In Science everything should be in doubt unless it can be safely proven. The search for Knowledge has no place for the luxury of "certaincy" before it has been aquired. The future of Space (I hope) is similar to the future we had with the first Ocean going Vessels. We will fly out, we will explore, we will colonize and we will learn new and surely exciting things about us and the universe. If you think now "there will be wars, new types of Sickness and other unknown dangers" you will be absolutely right but those things have accompanied us since the beginnings of Civilization and they did not stop us thus far and they will not stop us in the future. The only thing that makes me sad when it comes to this is, that I wont be there at the "Golden Age" of Space Exploration. It makes me very sad indeed. P.S. In a 100 Years we will be "laughing" at some of the things that we take for "facts" today.

indeed there can be actually a "benefit" depending on situation and person. For example, Corporations are now fully aware of how some opinions on some major Communication Portals can effect their business. Normally they would try to "fight" against those who bash their products either deliberately or based on misinformation (one example: Game X is going to change function Y. Burn Company Z). However, this can work the other way around, where paid agents are employed to disturb or even destroy some unwanted Channels sometime especially because they are offering deserved critic. So its not completely unlikely that somebody may benefit from such behaviour. The majority I think does not belong to such "conspirative" actions. They are as I said, either still immature or just plain "uninformed" people. They have no benefit from their actions whatsoever quite the opposite in fact. By derailing any topic that could actually turn into a informative or even educating channel they strip others but also themselves from gaining more knowledge. In the Information Age, knowledge means money means a wealthy life. That may sound a little over the top but small losses can accumulate to a big personal catastrophe. There is also a impact on the emotional state of that person. Sooner or later, someone who tends to offend people will always get some form of harsch critic back. Hearing this over and over will leave their marks on the pyschology of the person. This will reflect to their real lives at some point and maybe cost money, friends, job and other opportunities that could bring them more happiness in life. So the answer is no, unless you follow a specific "James Bondesque" Task, you will have no benefit from offending people. One should at least try to maintain the most basic form of respect against other people. If its true that "what goes around comes around" than i rather have respect come around then hate or ignorance, wouldnt you agree? This ones simple. I dont know! :smile:. Well, this is going into the depths of Human Psychology which is a profession I have only a friction of knowledge of the most basics of. If I had to guess however, I would say that most people will mature with age and experience (like me for example...I had my fair share of "idiocy" when I was young. Still no genius but reflecting on some of my past the difference is "galactic"). Some may miss that somehow (its not guarenteed unfortunately), then life gets really nasty. Coping with missed things later in life is most difficult indeed. Its like learning a new language, as a kid you barely remember how you learned your mother language and as an adult most find it immensely diffucult to learn even the basics of a new language. Of course there are people who are just "evil". To cite Joker from the Batman Movie "some People just want to see the world burn". So all I said I say under the premise that we are talking about "normal" people. I have no doubt whatsoever that there are some people in the nets that exactly know that they are offending people, are exactly aware that they are doing this with full knowledge that they are wrong (but they dont care) and are doing it because they perversly enjoy the misery of other people. I had the "pleasure" to call one such person my "friend" for a long time (until I realized what he was and that he was not gonna change). I have been humbled once to many times to even assume anything like that. There is no way for me to know somebody just based on a few internet comments he wrote. So it may be a sad Person in need of help but it may also be the person I mentioned who just wants to make you suffer for his own pleasure. Just my humble advice, dont put to much thinking into it unless you plan to actually study psychology and make it a professional goal of your life. You wlil only waste your time. Never forget, I am just as much a "random internet person" to you as you are to me. The chances that some great Doctor or Psychologist will come to this forum and enlight us is quite slim indeed. I was lonely once in my life (for two years I was in a different City for Work where I had no friends and only one Collegue with whom I got along...who was just as miserable as I was). My salvation came with Bicycling. I started driving 50 to 100 km a day (the alternative was sitting around in my one room apartment and be miserable). I stayed lonely for a while but my mood changed dramatically. I was not whining as much as usual (which is a good way to keep people away actually...if one would want that) and soon enough I was getting along better with other collegues and also started making Bicycle tours after work. So if anybody who reads this thinks he is lonely, pick your favorite sport that is within your potential and start enjoying. That may help. (No guarentees though :smile: )

There are several factors to consider in this topic Some are: - Age - Education - Upbringing - cultural Background - "Character" (which usually is a result of a combination of the other factors) - emotional state etc. 7 Billion People on this Planet and every day new people get access to the internet. There is no "Bouncer" in the internets (may that never change) so you never know who comes in. It may be a genius, intellectual, artist, doctor, philosopher but it may also be a low-life, bum, ignorant and imbecile fool or something in between. All Sizes all Shapes. So as you can see, its more than likely that you will meet someone who just flatout goes ahead and insults you. Youtube comments are famous examples of what kind of audience is around in the net. Reasons? there are many here are some: - "over-sensitivity" to certain topics (Person X feels himself offended by something Person Y wrote even if it was not directed at him. Very common with Religious topics. Example: god/prophet/deity X does not exist because.....). Thats why the Nexus does not allow Religious Debates. They are practically impossible to moderate. - immaturity leading to a different view of situation (common among mostly but not only with teenagers. Some find it "cool" to use strong words or just offend someone. Thats a type of "fun" for them) - plain ignorance (some people are just too "uninformed" to realize they are actually attacking somebody). The saddest thing about ignorance is, at some level of ignorance, some people are just to ignorant to realize their ignorance so trying to tell it to them (you are wrong/misinformed etc.) is practically futile. etc. The real question is, what to do if someone like that comes across? (which is sure to happen at some point). Well, what would you do when you were on a social meeting with friends and their friends friends and somebody you just meet is a total "jackass" (at least from your point of view). I dont know what you would do but if I were there I would exchange the minimum of social interaction and otherwise concentrate on people who I am more comfortable with. I use the same tecnique in the net. If somebody "derails" from the point or gets overly sensitive etc. then I try and stay calm either exchanging one last polite goodbye or ignore him alltogether. I think thats something people tend to forget. You are free to ignore people in forums or the net. If people would use this freedom instead of trying to "wrestle down the pig" (which is pointless by the way) many of those "aggressors" would lose their incentive (whats the point of insulting someone if nobody hears you?).

I taught myself english. Mainly because it was the first language of computer software and I had not the patience to wait for localizations (things took much longer at the early days of internet). The most important thing is to have a "drive" that will make sure you dont lose interest to soon. A friend of mine learned chinese in one year because he had a chinese girlfriend (women can be that "drive"). Other than that, I learned english by reading english comics, watching english movies etc. everything that i would like normally I started seeing or enjoying in english. It was gibberish at first but made more and more sense. If I would read a comic in english where one of the characters were giving another character an apple saying "here is a apple" than I would combine the pictures in my mind and remember those words. Many of these little things would in the end give a larger picture. Of course thats only to take the first hard steps. If you want to "master" a language then I am afraid you need to visit a country where this language is spoken and use it as much as possible along with studying its rules.

I am sure Doctors, Scientists or similar experts working this field could give you a much better answer but I will still share my humble opinion on this matter. I believe its a mix of both but if I had to choose one as the "primary" then it would be the environment. I chose it because we have seen live adapting to its environment and even the theory of evolution states that its main drive is adaptation to your surroundings. From what I know of Human History, agriculture was the first giant step into civilization. Mainly because people who were always in struggle to get enough food, suddenly not only had enough for themselves but even enough for their families and others. Furthermore, they did not needed to change locations to seek new hunting grounds which made it possible for them to settle down giving them a lot of time to invest in other things. In this case it was not their genes or other biological parts that changed, at least not first, but their environment. An example specificaly to this, a kid who was born before agriculture had to learn to hunt and would be constantly travelling with his tribe so it would be hard for him to develop personalities other than that of a Tribesman Hunter. Surely he would have slight variations, as we all are unique in some ways but overall, to survive in his environment he would have not that much of a choice. It would be like trying to be a fisherman on the desert. Problems arise to this theory if we put it to hypothetical tests. Would Einstein still be a genius in a different Environment? Would Mohammed Ali still become "the greatest" if he were born a russian in Siberia? Would Caeser have failed if he were in Vercingetorix place? This question is really very complicated and as stated earlier, I would not dream off thinking that I can give you a definitive answer but know this, you are certainly not the only one thinking about it. also a way to answer that question i guess :)

Crysis was indeed one of the last games that pushed even High End Systems but as Thor mentioned, that was roughly 7 Years ago. 7 Years are a very long time in Computer "Timeline". Crysis still looks very good compared to actual Triple AAA Titles, that says a lot. However, you make a very good point. The decision to develop Games for a majority of Systems can even be considered Gamer friendly because especially with Multiplayer Titles, its a good thing that I dont need a several Thousand Dollar Rig to compete with my friends. The problem is, thats why Game Developers included the Graphics Options in their games. If you had a PC that was not High End then you could tone down the Settings to a degree that allowed you to play it with good framerates, ideally at the cost of some minor details like Shadows or Lighting. Just for example, they could make a Triple AAA Title that in its max Settings would push the best and most expensive Systems to their absolute Limits but would look better than todays Games even on low, playable Settings. People would not accept that today. They would not say, "alright, right now with my rig I have to play this game on low or medium settings, game still looks good...no problem" but they would say "I paid full price, I want the game to run its best on my machine". Its a question of mindset really. Would you be ready and willing to wait a couple years until you can get a system that can play that particular Game in full details? Most will not. There are some Game Creators working with big Publishers who would LOVE to create the best looking games possible but since that would demand to much and they need to make money he will always get the order to tone it down as much as possible. Especially when they plan to release the game on multiple Platforms with varying Hardware Capabilities. Actually, I think I have to say that this is nobodys fault. Its just how Gaming has evolved and perhaps I am just to old and to much "stuck" on the "glorious old days". One thing would make me very happy however, if people would learn to communicate in forums like civilized human beings. That alone would help enormously.

I have the feeling that this is because some people consider it an offense when Games are released that need Powerful Hardware. How so? thats part of a twisted "class warfare" mindset. Those games are considered "Elitist" because obviously not everybody can afford a Multiprocessor, Multi Graphics Gaming System for Thousands of Dollars. The industry "bends" to those tendencies for quite simple reasons. They want to make as much revenue as possible and for that they need to reach as many people as possible. So they accomodate "down" and make games that are so restricted that they run on 5 year old Hardware. The funny thing is, here we have a merging of socialistic and capitalistic traits. Socialistic because as many people as possible get the same experience and capitalistic because game companies make as much money as possible. What a great achievement ey? There was a time in pc gaming where games came out that could not be played on max settings on actual hardware (even with a high end system). That did not bother the gamers because at that time gaming was mainly something for the enthusiasts, who had no problems whatsoever to play on lesser settings until new generation hardware came out at which point they enjoyed the game again with better graphics. Game companies back then were even endorsed to make the best looking game possible. Today, if a game company releases a game that does not run well on ancient stone age Hardware, a shitstorm the size of a hurricane surely follows. Even if a Game Company would decide to pass on more money by making a really Hardware demanding game, the negative PR from that would certainly hurt or even ruin them. Why take such risks? Gamers demand that their Games on their 5 Year Old Consoles look the same as Games on a Multi-CPU-Graphics High End PC. They demand that. If they dont get it its "Elitist Garbage" and the company "sucks" and so on. Unfortunately those people are so loud and so persistent that they absolutely affect the development of Games. Someone at some point realized that Gameplay is more important then Graphics which I also think is true but then Game Companies started using this argument to excuse crappy Graphics in Games that were still Fully Priced and whenever somebody would criticize them for it, some "Trolls" would "choke" his critic before he could even reach the Game Publisher while the Publisher sat back and enjoyed the show, making same or more money for less work. You have to understand the implications here, a gamer trolls another gamer who tries to speak on his behalf. Thats a very "interesting" form of lunacy. This is not only with Graphics, people defended Game Companies for using DRM, Pay to Win models, extra Software that even states in its Licensing texts that it will practically take control over your PC etc. All of which are AGAINST a Gamers interests. Sometimes I think the whole thing is a lost cause.

I have no choice but to agree. You make very valid points but since it would be a pointless debate if I just nod and leave it at that, I will try to add to or discuss your points. It is well common and often useful to use well known phrases from History to describe current and somewhat similar events. Waterloo was often used to describe a defeat of a formerly strong person or group (not only regarding to war). You could use that in the gaming world if for example a well known and successfull Gaming Publisher, launches a new expensive game that does poorly on the market and "ruins" the Publisher, you could then say "Game X was Publisher Y's Waterloo". So I have no problems with the underlying "mechanics" of the term "PC Master Race". I also know that the term describes those "PC Enthusiasts" who regard everything else (Consoles, Smartphones, Tablets etc.) as inferior. So there is some sense to it. What I dont like however is how easily this term is tossed around and how much it hinders serious and reasonable development. The Consumer is to blame yes but who is the Consumer? Billions of People in different Countries, speaking different Languages, having different Cultures, different "Lifestyles", different levels of education, different financial resources and so on. So we are not talking about a single being who could centraly organize a response to the different challenges of the market but quite a many individuals that may or may not even know that they are spending money for a bad product. That is a great "rift" from which many Marketing departments get through. Especially well organized Corporations have often highly motivated and effectively organized people, trained to especially target such "weaknesses". You can try to manufacture a Product for the Customer or you can try to manipulate Customers for your Product. It has been proven over and over that weaknesses can be exploited to great financial results. Which makes it hard to blame the Corporations exclusively for this moraly very questionable Method. If your Numbers are deep Red while your Rivals flourish, then it must be extremely hard to withstand the temptation. So we are in a very "sticky" Situation here. Neither the Customers nor the Corporations/Publishers can be blamed exclusively. The Reason why Preorders are working is (at least its what I believe) that many enthusiastic Gamers cant wait for a certain game to come out. When they preorder the game its like having at least a little part of that game allready which, they hope, will shorten the (subjektively) eternal wait until the game comes out. This has been realized by the sales experts and so some Publishers do their utmost possible to further this feeling. There are several Methods to "heat up" potential buyers for a Product. Some examples: Teasers that e.g. show only the outlines of a new Hardware, "Blockbusteresque" prepared Trailers, Conventions held like Rock Concerts, promise of groundbreaking Gameplay/Design etc. There is nothing wrong with it per se. Especially if your Product is targeted for great "Audiences" you want people to know what you soon have to offer. This is good for the Customer as well by the way, because if you know that a Product is coming out that might interest you, you are able to plan accordingly like saving money for it. Again the problem lies with the "misuse" of something that could otherwise be a good way of communication between Vendor and Customer. Some Publishers deliberately choose to misinform people. One example to this, a game that looks great on Trailers but less so when it hits the shelves. There is nothing a "normal" Gamer can do about this because its bordering on criminal intend, executed with resources that far surpass the capabilities of unorganized individuals. This is similar to other real life events, we need organized, independent press sources that investigate such behaviours and warn us of the impending "danger". Sadly Gaming Journalism now mostly lies in ruins. Fanboys are the accidental creations of all these methods. I was a Fanboy once and it took quite some "life experience" to realize let alone admit it. What was the reason for my "fanboyism"? Well, when I bought a Graphics Card X from Manufacturer Y and my friend bought a Graphics Card A from Manufacturer B then of course, like every Teen, we immediately began to compete among ourselves (mines longer, mines harder :smile: ), every review that said that Graphics Card X (the one that I have) is even slightly bad in anyway was like a personal offense to me. Especially if they were right about the product that I aquired and it was really bad then my "self preservation" instincts kicked in and I started also verbally kicking in all directions. The reasonable thing to do in such situation is to acknowledge that I made a bad deal, learn from it and leave it be but at my emotional state back in the days, this did not even occur to me. It was difficult back then, its nigh impossible today. The internets is full with "competing Teenagers" who are downright afraid to admit they made a bad deal. It would not surprise me at all if some Organisations are actively endorsing Fanboyism. Fanboys are victims of their emotions or the lack of control of emotions. They are the ones suffering most from their "mindstates". A reasonable Customer can save a lot of money by comparing similar products from different Vendors/Brands. Fanboys are usually so much "shackled" by their decision for one Brand, that they often spend to much money for equal or even less value. You can guess who is the first person to "suffer" from that.

@standalone09 since you are the starter of this thread and made it pretty obvious that you are not interested, at least, in my opinion about the topic, i will withdraw from the debate. I just want to clearify that whatever personal offense you have taken from my postings was completely unintended and accidentaly and should therefore be disregarded. Thank you for the discussion so far. Have a nice day.

excuse me but I do mind. One must be infantile to not to be able to differentia between a man and a cat. I certainly hope I have at least that "common sense". Now I could have chosen a different reply to that if I wanted to escalate a reply like this for example "and you seem to have problems with separating a debate from unsubstantial sarcastic comments" but how would that help? I came up with the argument in the firm belief that it would help prove a point and I did definitely not plan to follow up with anything related to god, not only because it would make no sense but also because the forum very clearly states that religious debates are not allowed. I agree to this rule so you can be certain that in the course of this debate, I will not make any argument like that. again, I do believe that I am a "normal" human being who wants to be an animal just as much as "the next guy". Besides, on what do you base this conclusion? By the way, I could have replied like this "and you seem to be desperate to prove that you are not an animal" but like the first time, neither would this help to further any constructive debate nor would it help me in any way. Well I hoped this would be a debate about Social Darwinism which involves Evolution, Charles Darwin and Adolf Hitler but if I am mistaken please feel free to correct me. I did not "plagiarized" from Wikipedia, I quoted from Wikipedia and there is a substantial difference between those two i hope. I fail to see a note stating "Darwin=Hitler" perhaps you might wanna specify? Well, you just managed to offend me, the people in this forum, this website and Morrowind in one sentence. I neither had the intention nor the desire to start any flamewar whatsoever. Besides, a flamewar is much easier to start with. It does not take any effort at all. I dont know what you expect me to answer to something like this without escalating any further so I will say no more.

which is one of the greatests qualities of english and english people. I fully understand and even encourage making light of especially the terrible things. Otherwise coping with things and living on would be Hell on Earth. The english are also known for their great and creative sense of Humor. However, in this particular case I think especially the creative part is missing and as you stated... ..this may be the reason for it. An intelligent and creative mind can make fun of most of things without sounding offensive or belittling. Take George Carlin for example. He was a great comedian but factually he critized us all. He called upon our weaknesses and really pushed the boundaries of "political correctness" to new levels. Nonetheless we laughed, albeit with some concern but he was extremely entertaining and you could feel that he put a lot of thought into his arguments. A statement that goes like "Shooters on Consoles are garbage #PCMasterRace" has none of those qualities whatsoever. There is no thought put into it and mostly its just something somebody said and quite a few "parrots" repeating it to look, i dont know, "cool". So far you are absolutely right. These are "fanboys" or teenagers with not that much experience who are mostly controlled by their emotions. What really bothers me though is that people who should know better are either doing nothing to deescalate the situation or even worse are actively endorsing it. It is no secret that some major companies employ "spin doctors" to further extend discontent among customers. I have the feeling that many companies do not even regard to their customers as human beings anymore but a form of "cattle" which they try to "milk" as much as possible with the least effort. Great Civilizations perished over History not only by war but because the mass of their people degraded so much that the societies could not work efficiently anymore. As the americans say "a sucker born every minute" every one of us has weaknesses. We cannot be all knowing, even if we want to, we neither have the time nor the resources to make sure that we always do the right thing. Nowadays people seem to be proud getting rich by exploiting human weaknesses. What a shame. We all stand on each others shoulders and the misfortune of our fellow people, while it may have no immediate effects, will affect the world we live in. As like a Boomerang, it will at some point come around to hit us. This may be soon or in a couple of generations. Thousands and Thousands of People may pay for the shortsightedness of one Person. I hate to see gamers acting AGAINST their own interests without knowing and without a good reason. Its very hard for me to ignore this. P.S. thanks for staying on topic and not talking about small screens. No offense to other commenters but if I wanted a debate about Screen Size I would have called the topic "Debate about Screen Size".

@standalone09 and Stronglav thanks for proving my point I guess. See thats the kind of "pride" that makes us so vulnerable to people like Hitler. "Animal" is a term that a human finds offensive if directed at him. Why? because we regard those creatures we call animals as inferiour. They are beneath us. Look at your reaction "I am not an animal, I dont know about you", both of you said that. This shows how much you get offended by even the most generalistic coining of the term. This can be used against you. What if I am an animal but you two are not? Since most Humans value being Human a lot more than being an Animal, this would mean that you feel superior to me. This means with the right form of propaganda and "marketing" you could be manipulated to exert violence against me. After all, since I am not Human but an Animal, its totally OK to treat me like one right? even your conscience would not be as much troubled as would be the case with another Human being. Its by the way one of the most used war tactics. Make sure your enemy is different, preferably less, than you. Call them devils, demons, witches or animals, beasts, worms etc. Make sure that your people dont regard them as humans, it makes killing them so much easier. Remember, killing Nazis was a good thing. However, lets have a look what Wikipedia says about the term "Animal"; From a biological point, the charakteristics of animals fully apply to humans (multicellular, eukaryotic, fixed body plan, motile, ingest other organisms). So humans may well be called animals but you are lucky. Since we humans have the control over what we call what, we decided to seperate us from the rest without a natural base to do so. Its called political correctness and as mentioned, serves to "calm" people down and make them feel "special". So dont worry, you are not animals. Only I am!

nobody knows for certain what causes cancer. Here in Germany every once in a while another "definitive" cause of cancer is found. Last I remember was Potato Chips. I have given up believing them anything to be honest. I am using a logical technique to determine if something is good or bad. For example, my Uncle died at 87 and he loved Steaks. He did eat a lot of them. If my uncle eats so much meat and still reaches a healtly 87 (apart from the stresses old age brings) thats ok for me. He is not the only one by the way (former Generations of people really loved eating meat). So you may excuse if I dont give a Salad about acidic this and that. Life is complicated enough as it is.

oh, talking about the "good" stuff! where to begin. Lets start with strenght. What is strenght? Lets take the literal approach where strenght means the power one could wield through his muscles or body. Compare a Boxer to a Wall Street Broker. Which of these two is stronger? we can agree that from a simple body strenght point of view the Boxer is a lot stronger than the Broker. Now in a Ring, I would bet all my money on the Boxer. However, things look very different when the game changes. In Wall Street my money is on the Broker. So from a strict Darwinistic view, in the ring the Boxer "survives" while the Broker "perish" and on the Wall Street its vice versa. So how can anybody determine a generalistic formula to eradicate the weak? who the hell is weak? What the hell is weak? Thats the first and biggest mistake Social Darwinists make. They think that they are capable of determining whats strong and whats weak. Darwinists love to refer to Nature and its laws at any given opportunity. Lets see what Nature does shall we? Nature does not exterminate actively the "weak". It sets up a playground and lets them all lose, giving every living thing some chances and some handicaps. Climate does not change with the goal to kill of organisms who can not adapt to it. Climate just changes. Vulkanic eruptions are not meant to eradicate defective genepools, vulkans just erupt because magma concentrates on some spots and the pressure cause an eruption and so on. Nature doesnt give a Dodo who lives and who dies. Enter Humans, a very specific kind of Monkeys. Self aware and compared to other animals highly intelligent and downright fascinating, which exactly is their weakest point. Humans are very much aware of their "special Status" in the known realm. Our technological, philosophical, scientific, psychologic etc. achievements are, again compared to anything else we know, marvelous indeed. That blinds us. We think we are able to determine what is right and what is wrong, what is good and what is bad, who is weak and who is strong. While we do have certain capabilities concerning this, let me remind you that for quite a while those same humans believed that we live on a disc and you can fall off the edge. If you say "thats long gone we are now at the peak of our intellectual strenght" then let me give you another reminder, a vice-presidential Candidate for possibly the strongest nation on the world today said that she believes that the world is 6000 Years old. Again, this was said by a Person who could have wielded Power that would influence the whole World. Besides, at some point in our lives, if we live long enough to experience it, nature shows us that we are all weak. So its not survival of the fittest, its survial of the weak. Just one more, not so serious, comparison: If you stand on rails and a train is coming at you you can do the following: - you can "adapt" and step of the rails = you strong! you live! - you can stay there and get run over by the train = you not adapted to situation, you weak, you dead Thats evolution in a nutshell!

Sorry that my first post had not that much to do with your initial question but I felt the urge to correct the statement of my fellow commenter. Back to your initial question; the mind is very powerfull indeed and also very complex and difficult to understand. Look at this Quote from Ian Stewart (Mathematician) “If our brains were simple enough for us to understand them, we'd be so simple that we couldn't.” So we may well assume that there are quite some things the mind can do but we do not know/understand yet. It is known however, that some religious cults for example have been able to train their brain not to feel pain. You may have seen people sticking needles through their tongues, cheeks and other regions. Indians (those in India) for example are known for a couple of normally pretty painful "ordeals" which they dont seem to mind that much. Self-flagellation is another example where some Indians flog their bodies with chains that may contain razor blades or knives. So is it possible that our mind can heal our body? honestly I dont know but if I had to take a bet I would bet that it is very well possible. I dont bet out of the blue usually, so this is based on what I know so far. Its not just the Indian examples its also some logical thinking. Science says that our Body is constructed from instructions out of our genes. So something in our Body knows the "Blueprints" of how everything should be to achive a working order. If something changes because of illness like a tumor in cancer, the Blueprints (extremely theoretically) could be used to "reset" the system back to how it was before right? This is of course highly speculative and bears no scientific fundament whatsoever but it does sound kinda logical. However so far nobody was able to find a way to even remotely prove that something like that is possible. That does not mean its impossible but it does mean it stays a theory for now. You asked us what we think so here is what I think. I think that we will not be able to find a way for the mind to heal the body in my lifetime. However, I think that in future Generations much more powerful minds will emerge and they will find a way that will at least go in a similar direction.

Thats exactly what I am trying to tell. The PC is no "Race" at all. Its a machine, a tool designed to fulfill certain tasks and so is a console. Where does this Console PC rivalry come from anyway? I am a "seasoned" gamer with experience back to the golden ages of Sega and Nintendo. At that time both Systems were acknowledged to be different for different purposes. Nobody who owned a PC would say "but I want Mario on PC" or on the other side nobody who owned a console would say "I want Civilization on my Console". People who could afford it had both anyway, the console mainly for the casual Jump ´n Run, Beat´em up or other platform games and the PC for Strategy, Simulation and other usually complex and time consuming games. If you did not have the resources for both, i know i did not, then you just assessed your priorities and get the system you knew you would play the most time on. Both systems perfectly coexisted. There was no "hate" among gamers but positive envy like "wow as soon as I have the money I like to buy a PC/Console too". All changed when Gaming started generating huge amounts of revenue. Some Publishers had the great idea to sell games to as many players on as many platforms as possible for which no one can blame them. The gaming community got a lot larger and unfortunately a lot more "undisciplined". People started to "Troll" each other to new extremes and some really smart Marketing "geniuses" started using that against them. Hype for example is a great Tool in the Belt of any Marketing/Sales Specialist. Combine it with Preorder and you have a potential method for generating Money for a Product that does NOT EXIST yet. Imagine this, you are paying money for the promise that sometime you will get something. Many well known Publishers have done this but again, can not blame them. The blame is with us. We can not control ourselves. its the same as gambling, we love to spend money for the promise of something without being really sure that if we get it we will like it. Take a normal shopping deal, shoes for example. You go to a Store, look at the shoes, find one that suits your tastes, try it on, look at the price and if all important criterias are to your liking, you buy it. You worked (usually) hard for your money and its absolutely normal that you want to know what you get for your hard earned money. Thats completely normal and logical. So how come that when it comes to video games so many people seem to "shut off" this logic? There is an upcoming Game that I believe launches today for consoles (I really dont wanna mention which game because it does not matter). It generated a lot of hype especially since a Trailer was shown in Youtube. The trailer was admittedly great but I was a little sceptical if the shown graphics are really the graphics of the retail game. However one could easily get the message from the trailer that the game was something very special that would be completely different and redifine her genre. After the beta Version came out, while the overall reviews were not bad many reviewers said that it was just more of the same. Now lets read a few comments of gamers in the comment section of a site that criticized the game: Comment example: - yeah another overhyped game. Looks like a disappointment. I preordered it but I think I wont be playing it for long - I think Game X is not as good as they made it look like. I will buy it for my XBOX One and PS4 but I dont expect much. <this comment hit me hard> another comment to an article that said the game was possibly overhyped: - Yea, I agree for the most part. I havent had a Big Triple AAA Game for a while, I'm entirely ready to be extremely disappointed. (just for consideration, I altered the comments a bit because you nowadays never know who might sue whom because of copyrights) This is mind blowing. Those Gamers are basically admitting that they will buy the game NO MATTER WHAT. Thats a dream come true for any Salesman. This is practically "suicide" from a Customer perspective. Its like closing your eyes, opening your wallet and hoping that whoever takes money out of it will give you something worthwhile in return...all in good hope. To quote a relatively famous Youtuber; "this is why we cant have nice things". It is our responsibility as consumers, especially in a free market, to say "look buddy, thats my hard earned money you want, so you better deliver what you promise" and not "here take my money and do you want me to also bend over?".

you should see my neighbour, if that guys not alien.... all joking aside, I think its too soon to ask this question really. What have we done so far? we havent really stood up from our Couch, just occasional glimpses out of a blurred window...how should we know if there are neighbours around the house we live in? The Moon Landing was 1969. Thats over 40 Years and what have we done in the meantime? debated whether it was real or not!...great first steps to find alien life. From what we know so far, the universe is a stupendously large place. We humans get lost in waaaaay smaller places. So just give it time. By the way, here is one crazy story for you that I just pulled out my a...hat! Maybe every planet has intelligent life forms on it. Only these life forms are explicitly attuned to those planets and therefore exist in a different dimension. So right now there are Jupiterians talking in forums about extrajupitarial lifeforms. They dont look at earth however because Earth is, and that is well known among Jupiter Scientists, the most Hostile place in the solar system.

politically Correct: Character politically incorrect: Male = Power, Female = Beauty Thats the kind of answer you get when you ask about the "Ultimate" something in something ;)

I have watched quite a lot wildlife documentaries and one thing strikes me most. Humans have all animal behaviours. What does that mean? well, let me give you a example. Ants live in colonies with strict class assignments, there are/were people who lived in societies that were very similar. Wolfs have hunting packs, humans have hunted in groups. Tigers live mostly solitary, so does some humans. The interesting thing about that is, you will not see great variation of behaviours in certain animal species while variation in Humans is absolutely common. I think Humans are the most "complicated" animals. They have many traits that many animals have but in a more "complex" fashion. As fascinating as some animals might be, none of them are as fascinating as Humans. Try to look at it not as a Human but as a alien species who comes to earth to make a documentary about live on it. Which species do you think would capture their fascination most? What I try to say is this. Humans are very, very complicated beings. Emotions are among the most complicated and least understood Human Behaviours. When it comes to emotions we sometimes speak of "emotionally balanced". That means that the particular Human being has some degree of control over his emotions. One example; Fear! lets say you have to go into a Forest in the Night (for whatever reason) and lets say this Forest is in a perfectly "civilized" location with no dangerous animals, robbers or whatever there might be. You would be surprised how many people would refuse to go in alone (yes we are talking with flashlights). Fear of dark forests is something that is deeply anchored in our brains. Mainly because dark woods were really dangerous places throughout the history. All normal Human beings have this fear yet some still manage to go in while some dont. The person that can go in has a certain degree of control over his fear while those that dont go in are controlled by fear. Thats basically it. A Woman who is getting beaten by her Husband might not be able to overcome her "love" for him. Still thinking that he will get better or all will be well. Even if logic or reason try to dictate otherwise. This Woman (in my specific example) fails to resist against the emotion that we use to call "love". It may also be fear mind you but i try to keep it simple. Animals on the other side, are simpler. They are practically completely controlled by their insticts which are very similar to emotions. When its mating season than no animal that is able will resist the call to fight off rivals to mate with the females. They dont have the "luxury" of logic or reason.

various "N-Words", coloured, black, african american or crackers, whitey, white people, caucasian etc ....does those people have names? Thats the problem why we will never be free of racism. We love, yes love, to put people in groups. Makes it easier to have an enemy does it not? Imagine the following situation. Your friend is white, really white...however he decides to take a long vacation in a very sunny place and comes back very much healty brown.....do you call him brownie? or do you call him by his name? Thats it...really there is no more to it. What is it to you what skin color someone has whose character and presence you might very well enjoy? Besides, neither are "Black" People really black nor "White" People really white. They have varying degrees of skin color. The human Skin can actually change its color given time and reason to do so. A person who has fair skin will get darker in sunny regions over time and generations while a person with dark skin will get more pale over time and generations. So what does skin color say about anybody?

Hmm, I would advise caution here. Some people will likely think "hmm thats a good idea, nuke em" ...slighlty joking of course but experience shows there are people who will believe that. However, lets take a hypothetical case where the israelis and palestinians "vanish" overnight. What do you think would happen? Do you think we would declare the region a "Cultural Heritage Site" open for Everyone? much more likely the surrounding nations will claim territorial rights which at present time may well lead to conflict. The other Powers of the world will see this as a very welcome "shuffle" of cards and they will begin to use their usual "Political Poker Game" actively contributing to any form of chaos, in the best interests of their nations of course. Lets say only one side "vanishes". If the Palestinians go, well you can bet that the arab world will blaze in uproar with conflict following. If the Israelis go, well America at the least would not want to lose its base in such an important strategic location and they would act...needless to say that conflict will follow. So no...even if there were a way, that would be no solution.

those of you who are historically informed may well think of Hitler and the Third Reich when the Words "Master Race" is mentioned. "Sadly" there is a new "Master Race" disease going around mainly in the Internets. I am talking about the "PC- Console Master Races". I first noticed this "phenomenon" after the launch of PS3 and XBOX 760. While browsing forums, Youtube Videos or other Sites with commentary functions, I encountered some wildy bewildering comments about "PC Elitists" and "PC Master Race". Then it got more and more ridiculous to a point where my head startet hurting from all the shaking. If you have made a comment about some "PC- or Console Master Race" consider the following: - First, Hitler used this argument to kill Millions of People. They were dragged into Concentration Camps and killed of in a fashion animals would not get killed. Fathers, Mothers, Sons and Daughters, Uncles, Friends and Lovers had to watch in agony as their loved ones got piled on mountains of corpses. Yet you use this word to describe what? somebody who has some other stuff than the stuff you got? Well done! - Second, I read in the comments that PC Owners are elitists because they can afford a PC while the Console Gamers are "poor". Do you have any idea what Class Warfare means? You dont "wage War" against your Neighbour who has a slightly more expensive Car, you "wage War" against People who have CONSIDERABLY more than you do. They dont have A Car they have a Car Factory. See the difference? So somebody who has paid 1000 $ for a PC has not considerably more than somebody who has paid up to 1000$ for a Console (yes the TV you stick your Console into did not fall from the Sky and so did not the different extras you know you will have). But what am I getting so upset about? its just some kids calling names right? Wrong! Your actions have a profound effect to your disadvantage. Ever wondered why Game Companies can charge Money for things that should be in the game in first place? like First Day DLCs? Ever wondered why Game Companies show you a prerendered "Console Exclusive Title" in a Hype Generating Trailer and you find out afterward that the retail game looks nothing like it? Yes, because they have expert analysts that have realised the "untapped ignorance reserves" that we all possess. I dont expect us all to be Einsteins but we sure could make it a little harder for them to screw us over. There is a Tactic in War, its called "Divide and Conquer". Thats what is happening here. Divide the gamers into PC and Console Groups and then let them beat on each other while you sell them inferior products for superior prices. A mission well done indeed!

Well, the following personal opinion might sound a bit offensive and therefore i would ask you to first read, think and then answer, hopefully without getting emotionally unbalanced. There is a scientific reason to believe that homosexuality, not only in humans, is a "disease". It all depends on what disease means. Lets look what Wikipedia has to say about what "disease" means: The sexual drive is inside our Brain, so much is acknowledged by Science. From what we know of Nature, the sexual drives first and foremost function, is to make sure that organisms can couple to produce offspring. Humans are biologically seperated into two genders, one has the egg and the other has the means to fertilize this egg. We know them as male and female. So strictly speaking, for the natural function to work, male and female must couple to produce offspring. So the Brain and especially the sexual Drive should, at least in this context, work like that: if you are male your drive will lead you to a female and vice versa. So from an (extremely) simplified point of view, one could consider a Brain that is leading a male to another male and a female to another female as a "particular abnormal condition of an organism". I hope you could follow so far without thinking of me as some sort of Hitler. As you may have noticed, this is all from a scientific point of view. The question here is do we need a "cure"? No! absolutely not. This so called "disease" is a byproduct of nature that we really dont understand. It may well be that it has even a purpose that we are simply not able to realize yet. If there were only a handful of humans left, we may be talking about some necessary actions to save our race but with 7 Billion People there is really no reason to even notice the homosexuality of a certain percentage. So no matter if it is considered a disease or not; its not fatal, its NOT and I repeat NOT infectious, its not a higher risk then heterosexuality if you are a responsible person, it has none of the usual disadventages we came to know from "known" diseases. So in a very "dry" scientific look it may be called a disease but I personally would rather like to call it a "flavor". Homosexuals have certain characteristics that Heterosexuals rarely have adding to the overall variety of a society. Nature LOVES variety and usually what Nature loves is here to stay. So if you are Homosexual, dont worry, Nature loves you ;). The biggest problem about homosexuality is the uninformed and ignorant public. People are disgusted about the thought of two males having sex with each other (with females it is a bit less) but lets be honest, sex between male and female is just as "disgusting". The main sexual organs are normaly used to dispense bodily fluids and excrements which we also find disgusting and yet everybody loves to watch people coupling in extremely close contacts with full indulgement into the already mentioned "fluid and excrement dispensing organs". In my opinion, as long as the sexual intercourse your having is consentuous and between adults, it should be of no concern to anybody who or what gender you are coupling with.

@standalone09 I have to correct you there. Humans are Omnivore, which means that they can eat meat as well as vegetables. There is no scientific proof that eating meat has anymore health hazard then eating anything else*. Thats a misconception that people whose "love" for animals have ...well "made up". Now dont get this as a try to get you to eat meat, you can perfectly well live as a vegetarian and I have no problems with this but you should refrain from spreading misinformation. *if all you eat is meat 24/7 you might get problems, however the fault does not lie with the meat but with an unbalanced diet.