Duckman

Clearly it would have to be Groundhog Day, Raze... Over and over and over (until maybe you got it right).

I agree with you about wanting other human beings to play with, at least in some situations. I find that a decent microphone and any of a number of VoIP programs make it easy to communicate well enough to joke, talk smack and share experiences with folks. The other thing I find about computer games is that I am exposed to wildly varied groups of people, many of whom I would never know if I were just going down to the LGS with the selection bias that implies. As a matter of fact, this weekend I am hanging out with friends from around the US who are in Seattle for PAX and could not get full weekend passes and planning to do things I would never have thought to do myself simply because these friends from online are not at all like the people I normally hang out with. I *do* find that I prefer coop environments when playing online... Things like raiding in MMOs or playing turn-based strategy games... Like you I avoid the FPS games for the most part.

I was thinking about it and this was my initial opinion but then I stopped and thought about it some more... I know I am a competitive person and I tend to seek out other players who are competitive. I want to play games well and have opponents who make me work to improve my play. But that's me and even then that does not cover how I play all games. I strongly suspect that there are a large number of *men* who quit gaming because they don't want to participate in the competitive environment and are not considered manly if they want to play but not be competitive. Looking at my own gaming group I know people who play games because they are gamers and they are supposed to enjoy boardgames but every time we play they wind up miserable... Why? Because they are more dedicated to some ideal or compulsion than they are to actually improving their game play (the most common examples are a pair of brothers, one of whom has a fear of going broke and will therefore latch onto every resource he can whether he can use them or not and the other who fears random elements and simply avoids every random element he can). I find that when playing with them a coop game is always a better option just so *I* can enjoy the evening. As such, I am lead to believe that most of the stereotypes *I* think of for gamers have to do with selection bias in the folks that I choose to game with.

I'd say it depends on what you are hoping to accomplish. It's easy to pretend that women don't get the hobby or gaming in general but it's time to get over that. Women are now the most relevant electronic gaming demographic if you look at the statistics. The Entertainment Software Association (the group that owns and runs E3) releases statistics about gaming every year. In 2012 their report (http://www.theesa.com/facts/pdfs/esa_ef_2012.pdf) showed women as 47-48% of the gaming market. This year's report is just out (http://www.theesa.com/facts/pdfs/ESA_EF_2014.pdf) and it shows that women over the age of 18 have now replaced boys under 18 as the dominant game purchasers in terms of revenue (p3) and that purchases are evenly split 50/50 in general (p4). Think about the cartoons you've seen (and possibly poopoo'd or ignored) like DorkTower - http://www.dorktower.com/2014/08/21/games-for-girls-dork-tower-21-08-14/. There's a reason for this and along with the number of well-known women coming out of the closet and admitting that they are gamers it's going to cause some major changes in the gaming landscape. Try googling "female friendly gaming" and see how many *pages* of sites come up. Check out some of the information about how women are treated in game and hobby stores. What is my point? Shutting out people who *might* be the uninitiated because you don't want to deal with their reaction is a sure way to make sure that the hobby dies. Even a polite conversation at a high level with someone feigning interest will do more for the hobby and the perception of gamers by the uninformed than a defensive brush-off. It's also possible that you will find someone who is as into gaming as you are and is honestly interested in the hobby. (Many posts while I was composing... Fluger's article is based on the 2014 ESA report.) TL;DR - Shutting out the uninformed is a sure way to guarantee that they remain uninformed and stifle the growth or survival of the hobby, not to mention perpetuating the negative stereotypes of antisocial gamers.

Wauw... More backers than he wanted dollars in his initial goal. 21369% funded (and still climbing)... Dayum. Updated 22 hours later. He's now up to 22490% funded. That means over $500,000 in the last 22 hours.

Is this related to the work by Vic Mignogna? http://thescene.com/watch/wired/obsessed-catch-vic-mignogna-behind-the-scenes-in-the-series-star-trek-continues?mbid=marketing_paid_tp_cne_oo_outbrain_scene_wired&utm_source=outbrain&utm_medium=paid&utm_content=scene&utm_campaign=wired

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/752412507/mark-of-war Because it's Gav Thorpe and because it's hard to write errata for a computer program and thereby change entirely how the computer program works.

My answer depends entirely on what kind of game I am playing. Essentially it boils down to competitive nature. We all think we're literate people and we know what the rules say. We make choices in the game based on our understanding of those rules. In the case that your opponent doesn't agree with your rule interpretation, especially in a miniatures game, it's too late to say "well, I would not have done that" and undo the turn you have just taken. This is particularly egregious in the case of a game that is 2-3 hours long when adopting your opponent's point of view means you just threw the game away. I cannot excuse GW's behavior. In short it means that any time I don't like what just happened all I have to do is say I don't agree with the rule and stick with it until my opponent gives in and concedes a coin flip or just concedes the match. (I don't think I would ever do that but I have been in situations where I felt that was being done and it's one reason I quit playing the current edition.) I'm unhappy with the way PP handles things but at least they try to resolve their rules. I'm willing to accept that an answer might be slow because if you are trying to write good rules you don't want to throw out a hasty answer that opens up a can of worms somewhere else. It doesn't solve the problem now or even for the next game but (generally) it means a more stable, coherent ruleset. I should also add that I have not played Warmachine in two years either so I don't know if they have become less consistent since then.

It's *really* crowded. There's the bar and about 5 narrow tables. There are no pictures but you can get an idea what they are about from the menu (6 pages with art) and the captain's list (117 pages in a cramped font double spaced)... http://www.canonseattle.com/ Google turns up a number of photos though. https://www.google.com/search?q=canon+seattle+pictures&espv=2&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=vdPPU5S1L-7aigL3soDgCg&ved=0CDAQ7Ak&biw=1452&bih=918

The last album of a 32 year contract with his label if I read that correctly...

I dunno. You have to ask if Germany is that good or if Brazil was just that bad. To be honest, I agree with the commentary that was going in the Germany match. Brazil lazed about the pitch the whole match. Germany would cross the ball and nobody would move to the other side of the pitch. Germany would break and nobody would bother to get back for Brazil. Germany would line up on the 18 yard box and nobody would bother to actually man up and defend. I get that Brazil lost Neymar and that it shook them and maybe that explains some of what happened but, taking nothing away from Neymar, no way would he have been able to cover all the open bodies in that game either. That said, I dunno if Argentina have what it takes to beat Germany either but I am at least hoping that Brazil takes a step back and thinks about what happened to them and that the game on Saturday is not as lackadaisical.

I will continue to root for the Dutch side but after today... Wow. You gotta wonder what was going through minds of the Dutch and Argentine players watching. From Facebook after the match:

If you are not already watching it, avoid the spoilers and watch the first half of the Germany/Brazil match. The highlight reel is not going to do it justice.

Bacon-wrapped dates stuffed with goat cheese. I'm up for Sriracha but the wife is not...

Yeah, not sure if they put it up late or if I checked the wrong list (live/future) and just overlooked it. I caught about 15 minutes of the first half.

Schisse! ESPN is not running the US game on WatchESPN. I'm scrod! Sigh... Only gonna get the second half during "lunch" I guess.... :(

My desk at work (yay espn.go.com) or the bar across the street from work.

Interesting matches in the afternoon. Not sure how I feel about the Algeria match. Laser pointers aimed at the GK, lots and lots of arm-tackling and pulling and even a yellow card issued to a player on the bench? Pretty low-class imo.

As one of the Seattlites I am going to assume that AgentP is the friend of the court and not one of the people who showers with a cell phone?

ftfy

So I went looking during downtime today... Turns out that group G does not play anyone from group A until the Semis. Not sure who told me that Winner group A drew second group G. Not critical except that it means that if we make it out of group we're playing someone from group H (Belgium, Russia, S. Korea, Algeria).

I was not able to watch some of the first half because of meetings but the pace of the game was totally bizarre until about the 65th minute. I believe that is a statement that the Mexican's managed to come out and keep Brazil on their back foot for most of the game. Ochoa came out and played an amazing game (and had some luck with placement of a few of the late Brazilian shots). The most interesting part is that it is possible at this point depending on scoring in the last match that Mexico could come out of the pool in first place meaning that second place in the Group of Death might not mean facing Brazil.

Personally I have always preferred the style of soccer that the Dutch play over that boring (albeit effective) Spanish drivel. I spent the weekend rioting like a Feyenoord fan.

It'd probably help if I knew any of the faces that had been inserted, but that's just a guess. I know the original scene but I got nothing on this edit.