HeyYou

Yeah all my kids (on this issue at least) and their friends think I am the "cool Mom" because I can play and talk to them about games. lol Maybe that's the answer..... Gamers just need to wait a generation or two, to become accepted as part of society, and not just from the bottom dwellers that actually DO live in mama's basement, and spend 24/7 in front of a selection of monitors. :D

I know a fair few gamers, and oddly enough, not one of them falls into either category. Of course, I am in my mid-50's, as are most of my friends, so, jobs, family, etc, are also in there. Gaming is just a hobby, and they do it for enjoyment. I actually CAN talk about games with them, and while some of them don't play the same style of games as I do, they don't call me a 'basement dweller' for it. :) I DO know folks that do indeed live in their Mom's basement.... but, they do that because their job, (truck driver) doesn't really lend itself to paying for a house/apartment, that you might see one or two days a MONTH. And of course, it's a hell of a lot cheaper too. (more money to spend on their gaming rig, plus, the neat/cool/nifty gaming laptop, so, on their downtime while out on the road, they can play too....)

Actually, it's a hell of a lot easier simply NOT dealing with it at all.... But, does tend to be lonely that way......

I think when the 'average' person hears the word "gamer", they think of someone that doesn't shower for months at a time, lives in their moms basement, and sits in front of a computer screen 24/7, eating junk food, if they eat at all......

I wouldn't use a "restore partition" either - no way of guaranteeing it hasn't been compromised at some point. External, static media, is severely underrated these days. As far as Windows 10 in general - I wouldn't bother. Too much vaguery when it comes to Microsoft's collection of data and telemetry, and the forced driver updates and forced application uninstalls and re-configurations are a compatibility nightmare in action. Windows 7 has been largely acceptable, but that train will eventually end, and barring a new round of anti-trust litigation I don't see Windows being "good" into the future (based on the direction that 10 has taken the platform). Wholeheartedly concur. MS is going in a direction that I REALLY don't care for. The data collection without your knowledge/consent SHOULD be illegal.... (though I wouldn't be surprised to learn that there isn't something in the "Terms of Use" agreement to make it 'ok'....) Still and all, even after MS ends support for Win 7, which isn't supposed to happen for several years yet..... it will still be useable, just won't get updates. Hopefully, before that time comes, someone else will come up with a Directx compatible O/S to replace windows entirely.

In my experience, the act of 'upgrading' to Win10, also destroys any "restore" partition on the machine...... so, you would need to have physical media to reinstall. The Win10 upgrade *seems* to go pretty smooth though. Although, being a "new" O/S from Microsoft, I prefer to let them "mature" for a while before actually using them myself. I only recently upgraded my home machine from win XP, to Win7 Pro. :D

Trouble is, the 'downgrade' doesn't actually work. (short of a reinstall......) Too many things break when rolling Win 10 back to whatever it was you had before. (like task scheduler... every single task becomes corrupt.)

What you are describing IS "dumbing down", to appeal to the more 'casual gamers'. There is no compensation for lost skills/abilities/etc, some skills have simply disappeared, along with some abilities, not to mention things like custom spells, enchanting weapons, etc. Things change, but, that does not always equal "better", in my opinion, most of the changes are NOT for the better. The RPG elements are getting cut. Beth is now making action/adventure games. Not "real" RPGs.

Thing is, we supposedly elect those folks to do what is in the best interests of the NATION, not the best interests of themselves..... even those that profess they will do the former, end up doing the latter, because "that's just the way things work in Washington". We have the best government money an buy. Provided you have enough money.... If you don't, then, you simply don't matter.

Nice idea, but, it'll never happen. The people in power, you know, the ones that make the laws...... aren't about to do something to cut their own throats. That's the main reason it's impossible to get any kind of meaningful campaign finance laws passed.

How much money you have, and how much influence you have, determines how justice is applied. If you have enough money, or enough influence, you can get away with murder. Politicians have been corrupt, and self-serving since they first came on the scene. Nothing has really changed there. It has just become more apparent.

There is no such thing as a free lunch. Air will not work as a fuel. There simply isn't enough energy in it.

Geat Scott, man!! The idiots today can barely drive without killing themselves and everyone around them. Now you want them to fly? Have you no pity on the human race??!!! :laugh: Darwinian selection at it's finest. :D

I would posit that the continual advance of Direct X has been more of the motivator towards upgrading graphics hardware than a desire to stay current. Games began to require a DX version that older video cards were not capable of utilizing...so it was upgrade or take a pass..that's hardly elective buying ..more like blackmail. My rule of thumb for a hardware upgrades is simple..if there is something I'm dying to play that requires more than what I have under the hood..then I buy what is necessary to get the experience I desire. Direct X barely advances, Direct X 9 was being used for over a decade and some titles still use it. Players could just lower their settings, it's amazing how many don't and choose to upgrade instead. Depends on how much you have in your budget for hardware... It would be a simple matter to spend thousands every year on hardware upgrades......

The box still needs a fuel source. Air does not qualify. It is a fuel cell, that uses slightly different principles of operation, nothing more. It isn't going to topple oil any time in the foreseeable future. I suspect we will see fusion come in to widespread use first, and even that isn't going to be portable enough to be used in personal transportation.

An unlimited supply, apparently..... Yeah, I get seriously tired of kidnapping quests... I already have a mod that does away (for the most part) with the 'defend the settlement' quests. That one seems to be working. Can't find one for kidnapping though. May have to wait till the geck comes out.

The Bloom Box is NOT "free" energy. You need to feed it something for it to produce power. At this point, commercial power in this area is cheaper than what the bloom box would cost. What you are paying for there, is the convenience factor. It's a generator, it needs fuel.

Exactly. Now, all that said, Beth DOES make fun games to play. Consider: Sales numbers continue to go up with each new game... Is that because they are "Good RPGs"? Or, is it because they have 'simplified' the games to appeal to a wider audience? My guess is, the latter. Not to mention their advertising has gotten better......

See how you are. :D

That's quite true, I have seen the degression of Beth games, skills being first reduced, and then, eliminated altogether, attributes reduced to three, etc. It's depressing. I loved a good, involved, detailed RPG, what beth makes now, are Action/Adventure games, with some RPG elements.

Want to reduce mass-shootings? Ban gun-free zones. We have the second amendment for a REASON, designating areas where it does not apply is pretty much claiming them to be "Target Rich Environments"....... Ever notice that almost EVERY mass-shooting has happened in a gun free zone? Ever wonder why you don't see mass-shootings are gun ranges, or police stations? So-called "gun control" only controls the law-abiding. Banning specific types of weapons, or high-capacity magazines, or any of the other nonsense isn't going to make one whit of difference. The folks committing these crimes are ALREADY breaking many laws, a couple more aren't even going to register for them. Banning assault weapons to 'reduce mass shootings' is roughly akin to banning whiskey to prevent drunk driving....... and equally as useless.

Morrowind came out in 2001, Oblivion in 2006, Skyrim in 2011..... Looks like five years between games to me.

Agreed, Elmer gets my vote too. :)

He does have a website which states that he's transgender. And there's no reason not to believe him - I've seen what effects HRT can have for trans men. It's nearly the same as if they had undergone male puberty to begin with. Oh, stop hiding behind your children. Your bigotry is yours alone. And I am quite proud of my bigotry. If you want to pretend you are something you are not, and take drugs to look like something you are not, that's your business. Please do not inflict it on me, or my kids.

Not really? First, in most cases nobody, or just one person, cares or even knows that a transgender person is using the facilities with them. So this is often 1 vs. 0 or 1 vs. 1. But let's say it's 1 vs. 2, or even 1 vs. 10 -- so what? Different rights have different weights. The one person ought to be able to change, or use the bathroom, without being harassed or beaten. That right outweighs others' being uncomfortable. Remember, not too long ago those same people would've been discomforted by a black person being there, or a disabled person, or a lesbian or gay person. As a society, we've decided this before: bigots' comfort means nothing. Also consider the flip side: if you force trans women to use men's facilities, you're also forcing trans men to use women's. Consider how ridiculous this would be: http://i.imgur.com/OMdkxAG.jpg No. I do not agree. And posting a pic of a guy in the ladies room doesn't do anything for your argument. (show me some documentation that flatly states that person was born female.) And it isn't just little numbers either. Sure, there may only be one or two people in the john at the same time, but, as a parent, I don't want to be worried about some guy pretending to be a girl walking in on my daughter in the restroom. And I am not alone in that. Not to mention the girls themselves. The entire LGBT community makes up about 3% of the population, I am thinkin' that three percent demanding rights that the 97% aren't comfy with, is just WAY over the top. If you have the twig and berries, use the mens room. Don't care what your birth certificate says. If you don't have 'em, use the ladies room, again, regardless of what the birth certificate says.