Sinophile

Hai Guyz. I am having a minor issue with 7, whenever I maximize Firefox, Second Life, or any other program that runs in a window, thw window is so large that the taskbar overlaps the window of whatever program I am running. Is there any way so that the program will only take up the area no occupied by the task bar? Edit: Yes, I have tried ticking the auto-hide taskbar box under properties, but still have the same issue.

I have just finished my first playthrough of New Vegas. I got to level 25 in about 45 hours on hardcore mode. I played most of the game as a "good" character. WHat My main gripe about New Vegas is that I paid $60 for what was essentially an expansion pack to Fallout 3. They are not the first company to make sequels out of recycled content, but at least most other developers didn't try to bull**** their fans. For example, Rockstar made spin-offs of Vice City and Liberty City. They named the games accordingly, so that you expected many things to be identical to the original games(GTAIII and Vice City). Moreover, they only charged $30 for these titles. My Second Gripe would be the user interface, if they are going to make this big-ass world to explore, couldn't they take some time to make a decent UI? The fact Even The first Neverwinter Nights game had a better inventory management than FO3/NV. You couldn't sort by weight, or search by name, and the categories were way too general(there were 4 general categories, each of which could've used subcategories, such as food/drugs for the aid tab, or hats/suits for the apparel tab.). My last gripe is the crafting system. It seems as though the weapon mods were few and far between, and even when I devoted a good chunk of time and effort collecting items, I hardly ever had the ingredients to craft anything worthwhile. IN F03, I had several homemade weapons, and the warlord feat(saving me the time it'd take to collect all the schematics). In New Vegas, All I really crafted was party time mentats and hand-loaded ammo. My last gripe is the lack of dual-wield weapons. I mean come on, you make a Southwestern themed game, and you can't wield a knife and a pistol(or two pistols) at the same time? Here are the things I did like about New Vegas: -The world is huge, and gives a feeling of freedom. The player is never pulled by the nose. There are always quests to do, and sites to see. -Strength has become more useful, and allow the player to use larger guns. Likewise, the "heavy" weapons from FO3(rocket launcher, flamer, mini-gun), have been re-assigned categories. - The player can have two good characters or two evil characters and still have two very different games. Most other rpgs require you to play through the game with both an evil character and a good character in order to see all the quests(E.G. Tenpenny Tower and Megaton from FO3). -There is a wider selection of weapons to choose from. I believe that the OP may be used to more linear games such as Neverwinter NIghts and Final Fantasy(Franchises I myself enjoy, although they are still very different from the Bethesda games). In most other rpg titles, there is essentially two paths, good and evil.

I think you are allowed one humanoid(I.E. Cass, Boone) and one non-humanoid(Rex, Ed-ee) companion in your party, just something I am guessing from personal experience(I could have either Boone or Cass with Rex, but not both Cass or Boone at the same time).

I had to use a No-Cd crack just to get a legally purchased version of Spore to work. While I understand that piracy is a very real problem for game companies, you would've thought it'd be incentive not to annoy people who actually pay for the game. To me, using a disk drive simply feels archaic now. As for an answer to the OPs question, from an ethical( as opposed to legal) standpoint, there should not be any problem unless you give the orginal CD to a friend.

After Skimming through 20+ pages, I have the following obervations: 1.) What exactly makes a game a "worst game" to begin with? Is it simply poor gameplay, poor storyline, or simply raising your expectations? It is easy to release a half-complete game onto the market, there is no law that says you need to make said game fully functional. E.T.: Given that this game is credited with nearly destroying the industry, and that many copies of this game were buried in the desert, shouldn't most consumers know by now not to buy a game based off a movie? Seriously, when was there ever a decent game based on a movie tie-in, or a good movie based on a game? Truckers: Truckers wasn't something meant to have mass appeal. Should it be considered bad just because it only appeals to a handful of people? Superman64: Worst N64 game ever, possibly the reason there hasn't been a Superman game released since. Wow: Blizzard made a game that appealed to the ever growing "casual" segment of the market. This game alone makes up half of their revenue. Should we really fault Blizzard on an idea that has not only appealed to their 10 million subscribers, but has also become profitable? IMO, the worst games are ones that are either highly publicized, or come from a long franchise of successful games. Another factor would be the subject matter or premise of the game. Here are a few I didn't see mentioned: Worst Hentai Game:Water Closet Worst PS3 Game: Final Fantasy XIII(The game practically played itself, and the storyline was just retarded and annoying). Worst multi-player game: Warcraft 3(The single player campaign was fun, but leveling up a hero each game became quite annoying.) Worst 80s PC Game: General Custer's Revenge

I am excluding a few details in order to keep the post from becoming TL;DR. Anyway, I had purchased an extended warranty from Best buy on my Asus laptop. My Asus had worked just fine for about 18 months, when suddenly the power supply produced a burning smell, and stopped detecting AC power. I had then decided to bring the laptop into Geeksquad. I come back three weeks later, and they told me that they had "junked" my laptop, because the repair center had determined that, 1.) multiple components had been damaged by spills, and 2.) the cost to fix the laptop would be $750, which was the cost of the laptop when I purchased it in January 2009. I had denied spilling anything on any part of the laptop, by which the smug Geeksquad agent said that,"it was possible that condensation may have occurred". After a visit to customer service, him and another employee took me back to the laptop section, and offered me a machine that had a smaller screen, less RAM, and a crappy Intel video card(my original Asus X83VB-X1 had an Nvidia 9300M). When I pointed all of these out, he said that since my laptop was no longer under manufacturer warranty, that he could only offer me a laptop with similar specs, as opposed to one with similar costs( A $750 laptop purchased in Jan 09' would be about 25% more powerful than one purchased in September 10'), and that this laptop had a larger hard drive( 320GB vs. 250GB). I found this especially frustrating since a 500GB laptop hard drive can be purchased for about $70, even at Best Buy. I had asked if I could come back another time, as I was feeling frustrated, and on the verge of tears. The Geeksquad person simply replied ,"I don't know". I had then informed him that I was going home, to which he said nothing. My question for other posters is, do I have any other recourse for recovering my laptop, or the cost of it? Working with management does not seem to be an option for me.

Greetings, I have been using my uncle's computer since my laptop is in for repairs. I've noticed that along the bottom of the monitor two rings of dead pixels have been slowly getting bigger. Currently, one is about an inch in diameter, and the other about one third that size. A couple days ago, each circle was only half as big. On a related note, it is a 4 year old monitor that was purchased along with a very low end Hewlett Packard Computer system( 256Mb RAM, Pentium 4 Processor). Is there any way to stop or at least slow the rate at which the pixels appear to be dying?

I used to play this on my Grandfather's old 27mhz Macintosh. It was on a single 3.5inch floppy disk, but had a 90+ page ringbound manual. I later found out that there was a Windows version still being sold online. The funny thing is, the object of the game was to essentially commit genocide among all other "races" in the game, yet would probably get an "E" rating if released today. To this day, I have enjoyed it much more than any of the Master Of Orion games.

That is why it is called Capitalism, because you are Capitalising off of something or someone. As stated in other capitalism vs. socialism topics, a socialist/communist revolution would require bloodshed; The members of congress all own large amounts of private property. For Socialism to work, private property would have to be taken away from those who have the most of it(I.E. all lobbyists and members of congress). If someone wanted to take away 99% of what you own, would you let them take it without a fight? Likewise, there is no such thing as a peaceful revolution, just ask Oliver Cromwell. Yes it has, regardless of whether or not you agree with Che or his ideological beliefs, does he really deserve to be on a tshirt? What would Che think of the people Capitalising off his image? Would you buy a t-shirt with an image of George Washington, Pericles, Stalin or Hitler on it? Why Che? I believe Castro had something to do with it. He convinced Che to leave the country, supposedly to spread Communism elsewhere. Once Che was out of the picture, he became more of a Tyrant. Castro had issues giving up power. George Washington gave up power not once but twice. What if Castro gave up power after a few years?

Know what is funny? I played an evil wood elf less than a year ago, and I vaguely remember the Dark Brotherhood. I just remember how awesome it was to ride Shadowmere.

I was inspired to create this topic after looking at one of the many "beautiful Morrigan" modifications here on the Nexus. Unlike my other debate topics, I shall try to keep a more neutral tone, at least until the topic begins to die down a bit. The first identifiably female character in a video game was Pauline, Mario's kidnapped girlfriend in Donkey Kong. For much of the 80s and 90s, women rarely served more than princesses to be kidnapped. Notable exceptions to this rule are Samus Aran(Whose gender does not become apparent until the end credits), and Chun-Li from Street Fighter. As graphics improved, the role of women in gaming had shifted from damsel in distress to both action hero and sex symbol( E.G. Lara Croft). How women are portrayed in the media in general has always been hotly debated . However, for the scope of this topic, I would like to focus mainly on women in video games. Anyway, does playing video games affect your perception of women in real life? If yes, to what extent does it affect your perceptions? How do they change your perceptions?

Wasn't Neverwinter an MMO back in 91 or something, and costed like 30 cents an hour to play? Between Dragon Age and WOW, I share Jim's statement.

While I agree with you that ME2 is simply a shooter with some rpg elements, I'd argue that story is in fact a very important aspect of the game. Much of what you do in ME1 has an effect in ME2. FO3 on the other hand, takes a more traditional approach to storytelling, as do other titles by Bethesda; They don't lambast you with cutscenes.Instead of somehow getting drafted into being a knight for the king or something, as is common in Bioware games, the player has much more involvement in which "role" that they play. There is just as much Dungeon crawling in the Witcher as there is in FO3. In The Witcher, combat is inevitable, and oftentimes needed to advance the storyline, Whereas in FO3, much of it is avoidable and is mainly used to defend one's self while performing other objectives. Secondly, in the Witcher, the player is stuck with one class, the Eponymous Witcher, and has little customization, especially towards the end of the game. The player cannot choose to be a mage, a rogue, or a fighter. In FO3, the player has a greater range of choices in not only skillsets, but who they choose to be in the story. Heck, in the beginning of the game, you can even choose whether or not to blow up a whole town.

Thank you Jim for posting that video. I will be sure to fix my Original post. To clarify, I myself do not like Glenn Beck at all. I have never agreed with anything he has said, and consider most of what he says hyperbole, or missing the point. Glenn also had his own Agenda when making this video, he mostly wanted to make a jab at the progressives. Regardless of my opinion of Glenn Beck, or the intentions of his video, I liked how he pointed out the hypocrisy in those who wear his image. Out of curiosity, how many posters here have read animal farm? If you answered no, then head out to a bookstore and buy it now, it takes only an afternoon to read. In hindsight, I probably should've made a less vague debate question. I suppose the question I should ask is,"Knowing the history of Che Guevara, should we be wearing his image?" How come no one wears a Mother Teresa Tshirt, or a George Washington Tshirt? What is the difference between a terrorist and a liberator? Wouldn't the British(at the time) consider Washington a terrorist? One can easily draw many similarities between British-occupied America and America-Occupied Iraq. Still, we wouldn't consider anyone gunning for American troops in Iraq a liberator, and We certainly would not compare Saddam Hussein or Osama Bin Laden to any of our founding fathers. Anyway, here are some unsourced facts of what I think I know about Che: 1.) Castro and Che bought a boat in Mexico, and headed to Cuba from there. They had about 50 soldiers. 2.) Castro and Che would steal cows from local ranchers, and give them to the poor. These actions inspired others to join Che's Army. 3.) Che was very paranoid. and often worried about Bautista spies. If he suspected someone was a spy. He(or one of his officers) would take the suspect out into the forest, and shoot them in the back of the head. 4.) He murdered many Bautista officials without a fair trial. 5.) Castro had wanted Che to leave the country, supposedly to spread Communism and fight imperialism. Castro's motives are unknown. 6.) The US had refused to sell oil to Cuba, refusing to sell oil to a country is how the US got into World War 2.

I admit that I do not play text adventures, as I lack the patience to think of all the difference combinations of words. The last text adventure I played was "A Night With Troi" about a decade ago, when I was Monkey's age. Likewise, games such as Monkey Island and Spacequest I also do not have the patience for. Final Fantasy is a prime example of the "dumbing down" of games. In FF1, you kinda had to figure out for yourself where to go. in FFXIII, the game literally played itself for you. As the gaming market continues to expand, game developers are ever more encouraged to make games with Mass Appeal. Take Wii for instance, they made a system on which you are able to play a game with your grandmother, and it outsold it's much more advanced competitors. Also, compare the card game of Uno to Chess. Chess is a much more complex game, but how many people are going to go over to your place to play Chess? While major gaming developers themselves continue to water down their games to appeal to less patient gamers, keep in mind t hat retro gaming fans have more platforms of which to develop and share games, albeit unprofitably, such as Flash and the Iphone. What bothers me the most though are musical games such as DDR and Guitar Hero. The premise of these games bothers me on a philosophical level, because all you do is memorize what the machine tells you to do. Meanwhile, you could be learning to play a real instrument.

I have found a rather interesting video on Che Guevara the other day. His face is often seen on tshirts, and many other places. I find it ironic how he hated American Imperialism, yet his face has become so Ubiquitous on American Merchandise. edit: Ok, I tried to find the identical video on youtube, but apparently Beck made many other videos ranting about Che and socialism. I do not wish to comment on Glen Beck in general, or even the actions of Che, but whether or not we should wear Che on our tshirts. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=38mm4TimlLw

First of all let us look at the core meaning of the word, "role-playing". To play a role, as in "let's pretend". In most contexts it is simply make-believe for adults. In pretty much all video games, you are essentially playing pretend. In many ways, the concept of "RPG" is much more abstract than say, racing, fighting, first person shooter, etc. In the purest sense, something as simple as the Game "Battleship" can be considered an RPG, as you play the role of an Admiral. Final Fantasy IMO is no more an RPG than a killer whale is an actual whale(orcas are closer to dolphins than whales). Final Fantasy, and most Japanese console RPGs are more adventure games, because the player doesn't really have much in the way of choices. Gary Gygax is a genius in the sense that he made an child's pastime acceptable for adults simply by adding numbers and dice to it. By the same token, I would not consider titles such as Borderlands and Diablo RPGs, even though they systems of leveling up, classes, and other things. Would a game need to have all of these to be considered an RPG, or only some of these? Would simply having one of these characteristics(I.E. leveling up) make it an rpg?

Both the tea party and the coffee party seem to be very new parties. It seems the coffee party does not like some Obstructionist tactics that the tea party uses, or the ways they carry out their methods. However, it seems that the coffee party can easily become hypocritical in their own practices. Personally, I think we should all have single-issue parties, such as the marijuana party. A lot of issues seemed to be overtly polarized when they don't need to be. For example, I am against child pornography, does anyone wish to debate my standpoint? As far as I am concerned, Project Chanology was the best grassroots movement in modern history, they took one issue(Scientology), and ran with it, with nominal success. According to Conservapedia, that isn't necessarily a good thing. They made this neat little graph that claims Obama has less cabinet members in the private sector than anyone else in the past 108 years since the industrial revolution. http://conservapedia.com/images/thumb/a/a3/4135523219_e140763872_o.jpg/430px-4135523219_e140763872_o.jpg . All presidents since Kennedy have relied heavily on personality and charisma. I believe personality had become even more important with the advent of the internet. Bush had more of a "folksy" charm , He had an odd humility about him. He was somewhat of a Jess Foxworthy in the sense he didn't try to be snooty and sophisticated. Obama on the other hand seems to go for more of a Charlie Sheen approach(not a perfect analogy, but didn't know who else to compare him to).

Weight is important because I want a girl to be able to sit on my lap while I play games, but tall enough so I can kiss her without having to lean down.

This reminds me of a Pen and Paper Dungeons and Dragons RP I did once; One of my friends had an idea to do a D&D/Stargate crossover. At one point in the campaign, all the players got to choose a firearm to use. I opted for either an M4 or a an AK-47, I forget which. Anyway, I am a Cleric, so I had my +1 holy mace grafted onto my rifle as though it were a Bayonet. I had then got into an hour long argument with the DM over whether or not this was physically possible.

There don't seem to be any dating sites geared towards RPG fans, so I am making a post here instead. I have spent the last few years working on my career as a land baron in Second Life , and my social life has been neglected because of it. My qualifications for a girlfriend are rather lax,and I am wary of trolls, so I am therefore requiring a payment of $20 to my paypal account before giving away my contact information. I am looking for a girl who is: -Between the ages of 18 and 21. -Spends at least twenty hours a week playing Bioware or Bethesda games. I will also count modding as playing the game. -less than 120 pounds(about 50-60 kilograms). - at least 5'7" tall(170cm). -C cup size or larger

I see a lot of people bashing online downloads, especially D2D ; I personally strongly prefer D2D over physical purchases. The again, I always end up losing most of my discs. D2D is simply more convenient than going to a retail store. I find most retail stores annoying, as they are usually staffed with fat emo chicks and high school kids who don't know jack about anything except the release date of the next Final Fantasy. The last game I bought at a store was Sid Meier's Railroads, because the chick working the cashier was really hot.

Nintendo has always relied on superfluous peripherals rather than state-of-the-art graphics,This is especially true with the N64 and Gamecube.

I hope this turns out better than the Virtual Boy. Are Sony or Microsoft going to work on a competing handheld? Nintendo has much more competition in the handheld market than they did five or ten years ago, people can play games on their Iphone.

It seems all this new 3D stuff is hideously expensive. Any idea as to what the starting price will be?