"THE HIVE" - Introduce Yourself In Here - & Random CHAT Thread

[AlexOfSpades]

http://www.tgdaily.com/mobility-feat...-gets-physical


Its official, we're living in the future

[xaduha]

Originally Posted by Stellazira

Why does it have to rain during the transit of Venus?

http://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a010000...996/index.html
3Gb 720p @60fps

[Stellazira]

Watched a live feed from NASA yesterday. It beat looking up and having rain fall on me.

Now to wait 100+ years for it to happen again.

[JCpie]

Originally Posted by AlexOfSpades

http://www.tgdaily.com/mobility-feat...-gets-physical


Its official, we're living in the future

It's official. We're living in the present.

[Zakka]

Originally Posted by AlexOfSpades

http://www.tgdaily.com/mobility-feat...-gets-physical


Its official, we're living in the future

That´s awesome!

[TrickyVein]

Yeah. I wasn't going to make one of those boxes to be able to view the transit-event. Someone, somewhere on the internet has gotten better footage of it than I ever would be able to, and the APOD had a live 15 min update which was neat to follow as well.

[Shralla]

Originally Posted by Stellazira

Watched a live feed from NASA yesterday. It beat looking up and having rain fall on me.

Now to wait 100+ years for it to happen again.

All the headlines were billing it as the last one to happen in our lifetimes.

I don't know about anybody else, but I plan on living forever.

[68_pie]

There's too much sport on (cricket, Euros, formula 1, golf), I have no time to play games.

[Vallux]

Took me a while but I finally managed to watch the last season of Angel. The series had slower seasons and better seasons, like the last fifth season. The last third especially.

There is something about the whole "Old Demon God of Destruction made human who at first has problems with the new world and then begins to fall for the tortured human -plotline" that gets me every time.

The whole relationship between Illyria and Wesley was really quite fun to watch.

I rarely cry watching TV/Movies, but the death of Wesley with Illyria "lying to him" made me well up

I mean, I'm a manly dude and all, but the last episode was quite emotional. Probably had something to do with getting to know the characters and experiencing the stuff with them. Had the same thing with Buffy.

[Pinky_Powers]

Originally Posted by Vallux

Took me a while but I finally managed to watch the last season of Angel. The series had slower seasons and better seasons, like the last fifth season. The last third especially.

There is something about the whole "Old Demon God of Destruction made human who at first has problems with the new world and then begins to fall for the tortured human -plotline" that gets me every time.

The whole relationship between Illyria and Wesley was really quite fun to watch.

I rarely cry watching TV/Movies, but the death of Wesley with Illyria "lying to him" made me well up

I mean, I'm a manly dude and all, but the last episode was quite emotional. Probably had something to do with getting to know the characters and experiencing the stuff with them. Had the same thing with Buffy.

Welcome to the fold, brother. I understand you completely.

[Shralla]

Originally Posted by 68_pie

There's too much sport on (cricket, Euros, formula 1, golf), I have no time to play games.

I'd much rather spend my time doing things myself instead of being fascinated with what other people are doing.

[68_pie]

Originally Posted by Shralla

I'd much rather spend my time doing things myself instead of being fascinated with what other people are doing.

Well that tends to cost money, plus I have an appreciation for people who are far more talented at something than I am. And it would be pretty pointless until my friends get back from Uni - typically sports are more fun to play when there's more than just one person around.

[JCpie]

Oh God, sports games.

The only sport game I like is Fifa Street.

[Stellazira]

I can't stand sports games.

[Vallux]

Currently "reading" Angel After the Fall. It has way more character than Buffy does. Though Buffy had some good stuff in there.

Mainly Buffy's brief lez-faux experience and Dawn going from giant to centaur to creepy doll. Also, Warren and Amy constantly bickering. Warren gives me the jeebies

The end of season 8 was odd, but spectacularly epic in true Buffy fashion.

After the Fall has been good throughout. Spike is still a total hunk

Gunn as a vampire is rather different from the other bad vamps. He seems to be fighting the "good fight", kinda like Spike when he was chipped.

Wesley is even more badass now, due to his "new position" at Wolfram and Hart.

One conversation pops up.

Gunn: Oh yeah?! What do you call the army in the alley?
Wesley: Comparatively? The company softball team - (referring to a certain event near the end of Angel season 5)


Is it just me or does the spoiler bars kinda break up the text. I'd be a little more comfortable with just "redacting" the spoiler bits, instead of these huge lines.

[sonicsidewinder]

Deos anybody remember seeing an android app which looked super similar to DX's hud system.

Like, when you look at an object/character, the box outline would appear.

Now I don't even know if this was real, or I saw it on the Gadget Show, or it's imagination. But the app functioned like so:

Using the camera, the app would outline everything of intrest, highlight them with DX's box reticule, and say what it was. Like, car, spoon, light.

I think. I hope it's real.

[68_pie]

Interview with Warren Spector: The ultraviolence has to stop

He talks a bit about Deus Ex.

[JCpie]

Violence should be used tastefully. Even better if you get a non-lethal or non-violent option like some games.

Considering my two favourite franchises both offer non-lethal and generally non-violent options, it can't be a bad thing.

[TrickyVein]

Odd that someone who makes a game for a company that underhandedly sells sex and distorted/unrealistic expectations of relationships to underage girls should criticize other content for being in bad taste when it comes to ultraviolence - if anything, I think these extremes represent the open-mindedness of a society that can handle controversy and challenge to its mores. (This is secondary to Spector's point, I think, that the spectacle of violence perhaps is superseding game-play or content.)

[Ilves]

We make fun of the moms watching Dead Space video, but at the end of the day their reactions to the imagery was the only healthy one, you know, on a biological level.

The issue of desensitizing the public to gore & sadism through entertainment is long overdue. The latest punching-nuns uproar, uneasiness re: the Tomb Raider reboot, and now Spector with these quotes at least offer some welcome input.

[-=fox=-]

Originally Posted by TrickyVein

Odd that someone who makes a game for a company that underhandedly sells sex and distorted/unrealistic expectations of relationships to underage girls should criticize other content for being in bad taste when it comes to ultraviolence - if anything, I think these extremes represent the open-mindedness of a society that can handle controversy and challenge to its mores. (This is secondary to Spector's point, I think, that the spectacle of violence perhaps is superseding game-play or content.)

I have to agree with you about Disney but I think Spector also has a point. It's a terribly difficult and complex matter with a lot of unknowns though. I feel unable to reach a definitive opinion so far but it sure is something that needs to be worked on.

[TrickyVein]

Originally Posted by Ilves

We make fun of the moms watching Dead Space video, but at the end of the day their reactions to the imagery was the only healthy one, you know, on a biological level.

Let us recognize that our perception of what is healthy is informed by culture - modern culture, for most game-playing individuals which is as far removed from any 'natural' or biological state of being (which I am assuming is what you mean when you say 'biological,' to mean something like 'in the natural sense' or without any societal influence). Thus, it is our reaction to the stuff which is unnatural. We should actually be comfortable with seeing blood and guts and being surrounded by violence and hardships of all kinds. I think it's actually unhealthy to be sheltered from these things, and not question why we should find them to be so offensive in the first place.

[-=fox=-]

It's important to recognize that there's a difference between glorifying or fetishizing violence (usually by not showing the more tragic aspects or guresome aspects or creating strange associations) and showing it in a neutral, realistic or moralizing way. And it is also questionable if violence should make up for such a huge part of entertainment in mass media.

[TrickyVein]

Agreed, but to an extent. Of course there is artistic license to stylize and exaggerate violence.

I don't think it's a given that we should have to treat violence and sex with special reverence in video-games when it comes to portraying the stuff realistically (why???). Spector probably disagrees.

[Ilves]

Originally Posted by TrickyVein

Let us recognize that our perception of what is healthy is informed by culture - modern culture, for most game-playing individuals which is as far removed from any 'natural' or biological state of being (which I am assuming is what you mean when you say 'biological,' to mean something like 'in the natural sense' or without any societal influence). Thus, it is our reaction to the stuff which is unnatural. We should actually be comfortable with seeing blood and guts and being surrounded by violence and hardships of all kinds. I think it's actually unhealthy to be sheltered from these things, and not question why we should find them to be so offensive in the first place.

I'm so done with relativism, Tricky! I consider all behaviors that are detrimental to a species survival at the core "unhealthy". They are fruitful grounds for art and philosophy, but dangerous when they permeate into common consciousness as accepted behavior. Which is what the entertainment industry have been doing with a vengeance in the last few decades.

On the other hand, that latter point you make regarding western man being unnaturally sheltered from real-life, true suffering, death and disease is very true. You'd think that if our exposure to these natural aspects of life was accurately proportioned there'd be less of an audience for ultra-violence, torture-porn etc to boot.

We should actually be comfortable with seeing blood and guts and being surrounded by violence and hardships of all kinds

No we shouldn't, the same way we shouldn't feel comfortable when staring down a hungry alligator on direct approach. It's "healthy" to be offended by displays of disease, danger, violence and suffering because that reflex insures survival. That's what I meant with "biologically healthy".

No depths of the human condition should be left unexplored in art & science, but to pimp them out to teens as acceptable entertainment is not as innocent as the $$$ makers would have it.