Heh, it plays into our natural impulse not to leave things unfinished. Let's face it, who wants to quit when the next level is "just" a few more kills away? And well, now that we've been killing those things, we've wound up awfully close to the end of this quest chain. Oh heck, is that Steve logging in? Well, Really should say Hi, maybe get a six-man instance going, it'll just be a second.

You get the picture. I'm not too keen on WoW, the IP never really drew me in to the game, and the cartoony graphics annoyed me all to hell, but I loved WAR for the brief time I was able to keep a subscription, and the underlying mechanic is the same. We want to complete the next part, to be just that little bit better. Heck, I can't stop grinding untill I hit an even numbered level, or at least get close.

It's easy to get addicted, because it can swoop in an latch onto the subconscious if one isn't careful. It's about being responsible. On that same note though, if they aren't letting it destroy their lives, let them do what they enjoy.

"Addiction" and "Enjoyment" have become too fine a line these days. Ooph.

The Church I attend, as a non-believer (they're very patient with my nitpicking) is called by my family the "Church of Rock and Roll", not to say that it's a 'hippy' church, though I suppose Vermont would be a good place to get back to the woods, but that it is a church that promotes a joyous celebration of God, with a great deal of music and so on.

Let me tell you, that took some getting used to. A quiet fellow like me was a lot more at home trying to reconcile his personal morals with an idea of God in a traditional sermon, but it's grown on me somewhat. Sure, I still don't sing, but at least I've refrained from being a complete downer on the proceedings.

In any case, enough about me. I'd like to hear what sort of Church you all attend, how the service goes on, etc., even if that be the "Church of a few mid-morning prayers in my sweats". Forget the Theological debates of the other threads and so on, and let's hear how you enjoy your personal worship, Christian or otherwise!

I'd heard a phrase once, from a pseudo-friend who had a very dim view of religion.

"I'm a non-practicing Atheist."

I suppose that sums up a lot of my feeling as well, in the general absurdity. What I would also note, is that while it has been said that God should/would not make the world a perfect place, the atheist argument that that isn't logical for a God to do would naturally flow from a common enough statement, that being "God is good."

The process is fairly simple.
If God is good, why does He allow suffering?

If a man allowed suffering when he had the power to stop it, would we call him good?

If man is created in God's image, and God allows suffering, how can we call Him good?

It's fairly simple when you get down to it. Ultimately, I find the idea of worshipping any entity which allows its Creation to mercilessly eliminate others of its own kind to be a bad idea. Free Will and Oniscience, while compatable with a sort of "Chaos Theory" fiat, that being that Free Will allows for infinite variatyion, and God can simply see all possible variations and still account for them in His plan, are still unsatisfactorily addressed.

Not to mention, why is Old Testament God prone to overt acts of World-Destruction and Personal Appearance (The Flood, The Bush, Etc.), whereas New Testament God is lovey-dovey, and doesn't make any more appearances, at least not overt ones?

When I get to thinking about it, if God is truly All Powerful, then Man has no chance to Understand Him, and what we cannot understand, we cannot call Good. By that same token, I would also argue that we could not call Him Evil. To follow furthur still, if He is All Powerful, than He would not require, or perhaps even particularily care for our worship, and it's certainly a touch of human pride that puts us in His image.

Not to mention, the existence of Hell goes directly against the idea of a Loving God. Accept me into your heart and do good things for roughly 90 years of mortal life, or burn in a cesspool of torment for eternity, all based on faith, a faith I refuse to back up with personal appearances or benign acts? It doesn't seem sensible.

Science and Religion may be compatible and everything, but the Judeo-Christian God doesn't appear to make much sense to me as an Entity to focus my devotion upon.

Of course, these are my two cents, and I'd love to hear a well thought out rebuttal.

Having played all three, I gotta say I think Starcraft wins out.
Warcraft 1 was nice and everything, despite the annoying swipe of GW's foolishly discarded IP. It's worked well for them, but the game itself was nothing special. It had good moments, but was overall kinda "meh" for me.

C & C had some nice parts as well, but the storyline wasn't memorable. For instance, I can't remember it. XD
Seriously though, good game and all, but I had more fun with the later versions.

Perhaps Starcraft lucks out, being the latest, and so benefiting from the advanced technologies, but then again, it was the only game I ever played where I could read the instruction manual for fun. I mean, seriously, those creature entries were inspired. It had a good storyline, well integrated in the campaigns, and playing as each race was fun and exciting, since each played entirely differently, unlike in WC, where the Orcs/Humans were just different sprites for essentially identical units.

My two cents, heh.

A MUD with permadeath? Yes please.

Permadeath is something I wish MMOs in general had. It would certainly make the higher levels mean something more than "Oh, yeah, I could grind for obscene amounts of time, so there you are."

As for Achaea, while I gave that one a try, for me, it lacked the sort of roleplay atmosphere I enjoyed. Seemed a bit...oh, what's the word. Unfocused. I wasn't compelled by the underlying story of the world the way I was with Aetolia, which was decidedly strange, given that the latter started as a clone of the former, of all things.

I love MUDs because the roleplay is much, much stronger, and unlike Forum RP there is not quite as much propensity to "God-Mode", as it were, and never have anything bad happen to you.

On the flipside, I feel overly complex battle systems, rather than improving gameplay, only take away from the suspension of disbelief, and in general hinder the atmosphere.

Always a gamble, eh?

I've heard lovely things about Aardwolf, anyone got any news on that one?

www.mudconnector.com has some very keen things on it as well, and I reccomend a newbie to the genre to give the site a go, and find something they enjoy.

Text based games, eh?

What's the best you've seen, most excited to play in the future?

For those of you who aren't quite aware what an MUD is (shame on you), give my personal favorite,

www.aetolia.com

a try.

So let's hear it, best MUD, for roleplay, gameplay, or whathaveyou!

Meh, untill someone comes up with an MMO that breaks the "WOW" formula (they didn't do it first, but they made it simple enough to get the most subscribers) of grinding and more grinding, RPGs will be way ahead of MMO's.

Ultimately most RPGs at the moment are MMO's with plot, using the same leveling structure. Only you don't need to pay a subscription fee, and the game has an overarching plot and emotional highs and lows. MMO's on the other hand have a fairly static playthrough, with perhaps a few highs in large PVP raids, etc. WAR online was fairly good about spreading those throughout the world, making it seem a bit more exciting, but subscription fees for plotless grinding just doesn't appeal.

That seems to be the thing about FF bosses, eh? Really, really hard, unless you've leveled a little bit higher than you're "supposed" to be, in which case super easy.

Flux is definitely the toughest in X though. If Seymour has more than one or two actions back to back, you're effectively dead. And keeping everyone properly healed of the status effects, etc, can be a huge pain.

Learning that he was affected by Poison helped loads though. I've always just acted on the assumption that I shouldn't bother with status effects on bosses, since they're always immune to virtually everything. Made me feel stupid after fighting Zombie-Evrae instead of Phoenix Downing 'em, that's for sure.

Seven has certainly gotten a lot of hype over the years, and yes, it's sort of brought the others down as a result.

My personal favorite has got to be X though, hands down. Even going back to it a few years later, I still think that storyline is masterfully done.

Also, I still laugh a little bit that they added sooo much awkwardness to cutscenes by never saying Tidus' name. I understand customising the names was something of a tradition, and that they didn't want to get rid of that, but I vastly prefferred XII's approach. You're playing a story, so the names are set.

In any case, yes, a teensy bit overrated, but only because the only series I can even think of to have such longevity as an out and out RPG is Dragon Warrior, and that isn't nearly as popular out west as it is in Japan. Final Fantasy deserves top slots for now, if only because it has managed to consistantly create compelling stories.

The switch to 3-D, while some see it as the downfall, was a needed step. Isometric games have been hanging on, like Disgaea, FF Tactics (though that hardly counts), and the like, but true 2-D games just don't cut it these days, and FF did what it had to do. I'm not keen on getting a PS3/Xbox360 to play 13, but I still look forward to seeing how it does.

Last series I saw were Azumanga Daioh and Gunslinger Girl. Both deal with roughly teenage girls...in very different ways. XD

Azumanga is a very silly (and somewhat surreal) comedy series about girls going through high-school, and while there is a little fan-service present, it's not the focal point of the show, even in those episodes specifically pointed out as being fan-servicey (anything with swimsuits, really). Very charming, and reading up on the translation notes for the jokes that couldn't be changed properly was a treat in and of itself. I highly reccomend it.

Gunslinger Girl is just...awesome. Orphans being genetically enhanced into undercover soldiers, at the cost of mental deficiencies, this series is very powerful, and very compelling. Right to the end, it's an emotional and vivid work. For those looking for fan-service, look elsewhere, though gun fans might enjoy the copious firearms. All in all, an excellent story. WATCH IT.

What I'd really like to see, and am renting on Netflix at the moment, is Samurai 7. I'd heard good things about it. After that, probobly watching Pom Poko again, fantastic movie from Miyazaki.

Ha, original Star Wars wins. The earlier arguments against using the same era, ultimately, I think are somewhat bunk, since if they were actually the greatest they could stand the test of time.

Hope, Empire, and Jedi do that. If speak you do with unusual grammar, yes, know they will what small green muppet you reference, mm?

Even without the copious CGI of the other three options (including the Prequels) it manages to make a compelling cast of characters and create an interesting story, even managing to use the old hero-story formula, right down to the death of the mentors.

Pre-Star is weak, ultimately, because the story is more or less pre-ordained, and so the oomph is gone. Anakin -will- succumb to the Dark Side, we already know. The only character who develops in that trilogy is Anakin, and that's only because the entire prequel trilogy exists for that purpose.

Lord of The Rings, while very, very good, can't top the Original Star Wars in terms of movie storytelling. While the books are lovely, the movies themselves can seem at times somewhat...oh, I'm sure there's a word for it. Perhaps wordy? I'm not entirely certain. They are excellent, no doubt, but not a set of movies I would want to watch ad infinitum, ad nauseum, the way the original Star Wars trilogy makes me want to re-watch.

X-Men, ultimately, is one I feel was lack-lustre. Even not being a huge comics fan (more through lack of exposure than dislike) I wasn't particularily drawn in by the story told. A nice set of movies for the weekend, but, once again, not a trilogy I feel will stand the test of time.

Actually, speaking of time, can we get Back to The Future in on this? I mean, seriously, that's a good set of movies. I'm still waiting to turn out my pockets in 2015, I don't know about you guys! XD

Oh, chess without a doubt. Come on, there's nothing quite like a good ol' fashioned blitzkreig King-rush.

Checkers however, does have a place as a "step-up" game, so that the younger players may learn the nuances of board movement, rules, etc, before pushing on to the infinitely more complex (and thereby replayable) Chess.

Checkers usually plays out more or less the same each time, but chess is a different game no matter how many opponents, nor how many times each is played.

Hands down, the rooks win!

Incidentally, though I don't have the link, there is a flash game out there, multiplayer/yadayada called Kung-Fu Chess. Excellent game, ramps up the strategy and time by a thousand, since both players move all pieces at the same time, with a timer on each piece after it is moved. -VERY- quick thinking needed.

Shields and accessories are awesome and all, but I wanna play me some Ogre Battle 64! So many games I've lost hold of over the years, and all conveniently packaged for the re-playing.

Short term goal: figure out how to work the save mechanism for NES' Final Fantasy III. Seriously. I've seen that intro sooooo many times now.

Contra has also had me tearing my hair out in...rapturous joy. Or rather, finger-gnawing frustration and emphatic RAGE.

Huh, you know, that is awfully keen. I'm an advocate of humility myself, and I find that yes, it does help to accept the fact that you have/do immoral things from time to time. The point of humility isn't moral perfection, but a more placid sort of acceptance, and will to change with time.

Thanks for getting the ol' noggin goin'.

My Favorite Game falls in the other category...it's most deffinately Disgeae. It's just better than most of the new games out.

Who's turn is it now?

New here, lovin' it thusfar, and giving a shout-out to all my fellow Vizzers! Lookin' forward to posting with all of you.

Link to the Past, for sure. Both because it was my first, and because, lets face it, it was the best.

It had very inventive bosses and dungeons, particularily for a SNES game. Although, for the life of me, I haven't got the slightest idea why Link had pink hair.

The Dark World concept was brilliantly excecuted, and I can't be the only one who tried to take full advantage of the Mirror tricks. Not to mention, turning into a rabbit was simply awesome.

If anything, I only wish the other princesses had more definitive personalities and backgrounds, but even so, a spectacular game.

The open world map is the best of any of the Zeldas, with many secrets to find as you collected more of the items of the game, and excellent rewards for doing so. You may not have required the Medallions, but lets face it, who could pass those items up?

The puzzles were difficult in just the right way, not too hard, and not too easy, providing challenge instead of frustration.

While OOT, TP, MM, and WW all have places in my heart, LttP is by far the superior Zelda title.