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Originally posted by savoge

1. I am sick and tired of "red vs blue" or "left vs right" or "lib vs con" I think this may be one of our biggest problems. I am sick of hearing both sides bash each other and throwing around terms such as "traitor" or "un-American" There are good ideas on both sides, come together and figure this crap out because me and my  little high school education are counting on you.

2. Voting, I have lost all confidence in this. It seems I only have two choices (see above) It has became a choice between two lesser evils.

3. Money and politics, I'm afraid America now goes to the highest bidder. It scares me to death to continualy see "made in china" stickers. Or to hear that our government seeks adivice from those such as this bradly guy (owns a law firm that represents Saudi? Give me a break!)

4. I'm afraid that the majority of our leaders (not all) have thier own intrest at heart and not our country. You say vote for somebody else? Who? Their is a serious lack of quality leadership here in the states atm

5. I'm afraid we as Americans have become blind to what is going on in our own country. We are to busy in the here and now to see what may be coming down the road. The world around us, the world we can see and touch is all we are focused on, so focused that we honestly do not care what happends as long as we do not experience it ourselfs. And as my father used to say "its gonna bite ya in the a**"

The scary part is I think I could go on, but I don't have time. I feel guilty because I know this is a government of the people, by the people. I feel like there is something I should be doing to ease my fears or help our country, like I'm looking to somebody else to solve my problems, but what do I do? Theirs alot of folks pointing out whats wrong, but not to many offering up solutions.

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Totally agree with you there.  Especially with the second point.  I keep thinking that we're supposed to vote for the right person, and then when you go to look at your candidate choices, they are virtually the same exact person only with different labels and maybe ONE thing that seems reasonable.  And that ONE thing is what people now vote for becuase it makes that candidate "not as bad as that other guy."  It's incredibly frustrating.  That isn't to say our leaders are terrible, but after a while, everyone you get to vote for feels the same.

In your fifth point, I often wonder why that is.  Sometimes I wonder if it's because we're so isolated in our own country and in our own cities, towns, suburbs.  It's very much a concern for us.  Yet that kind of behaviour is not unlike the typical young man/woman.  The idea that we're invincible.  That nothing could ever happen to us.  And maybe it's because nothing HAS happened to us in a degree that our country isn't "safe."  We've never had our country totally blown to bits by someone else or had someone invade and take control (in the scales that other countries around the world have experienced). 

And I know someone within the first 6 pages of this thread also mentioned this idea that the US hasn't been repeatedly subjected to war.  I think that point was very apt, whoever that was.

I don't know if this has been said already.  And I'm still having trouble believing if it's true (as I've yet to research it).  But my brother who is studying World History and is in Model UN at school (one of the countries his school takes a position in is China), has told me that China has purchased all of the United States' debts to other countries and, consequently, the government owes them 100 billion (trillion?) dollars (approximately).  In other words, China could call us out on that debt and utterly decimate our economy and render the vaule of the dollar worthless.  If that isn't terrifying I don't know what is.  I don't know if they would ever do that or if it would be a benefit to do that, but it makes me think that China may be the new "world power" when it's time for us to fall.

If anyone knows anything more about this factoid, I'd really like to know.  I almost can't believe it to be true, so any clarification would be lovely. =)

Edit:  Questioning whether it's billions or trillions that we owe them.

1.  I play MMORPGs because I like to play with other people.  I could easily stick to playing single player RPGs and the gameplay is marginally different; however with an MMO, every player you encounter is another person sitting behind a PC.  And it's nice to be able to combine social interaction with a type of media that would otherwise involve no social interaction.

2.  I make characters that look or "feel" like my own self...or in some other way appeal to me.  As long as I have a personal connection to that character's design.  In a way, I guess do the kind of roleplaying in which I'm one with my character because the character is ME.  I don't have to put up a facade or act different...I just be myself.

Edit:  Of course I do realise that that isn't really roleplaying since there is no manufactured role to play.  I just don't know what to call it.

No, no I don't care about global warming.  I have a feeling that this is something that is a natural process of the earth.  The earth warms up, cools down, stabilises, then does it all over again.  I DO think that pollution is a big problem.  Mostly because I don't want to be 80 and breathing in air that is no better than sticking my face right in front of a tractor trailer's exhaust pipe and inhaling.  Nor do I want my kids, should I ever have any, breathing that kind of nasty air.  Or drinking water that's the same as drinking bleach.

I went up to the mountains a week ago and was amazed at how awake I suddenly felt from breathing almost completely clean air.  Not only that, but there was NO sound at all if you stopped walking.  And it's amazing how wonderful that is when you're incessantly exposed to some kind of noise every moment of your day.  It would be nice to see that happen more often in the "regular" world in the future.

May I ask you all something?

Why does anyone even care about this issue?  Really.  Is it even neccessary to point fingers and call others such utterly useless names?  As far as I know, no one is a "carebear" OR a "hardcore" PvPer (whatever those terms describe...all I can imagine is a cartoon bear from the 80's and someone who likes really rough nookie).  They're all the same people with different styles of playing.  Just because you don't like it gives you no right to suddenly slap a label in their face.  And this for everyone, not just one side or the other, though in reality there are no "black and white" sides everyone is pretty much on the same side complaining about one thing or another in the end.

On a lighter note, wouldn't it be hilarious to have a perma death, high penalty PvP game in which every character is forced into the form of the actual cartoon characters from the Carebear series?  And when you get hit your character squeaks things like "I love you!" "Hug me!" "I think I just had an aneurism!" "You hit my lovey spot!"

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Originally posted by mithrandir72 

 The game is a bit simpler, and isn't as brutal.

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I dunno about that one. :P  I've heard it can get pretty nasty when there aren't as many tight regulations on penalties.  (And of course if the players haven't decided to be pansies and fake injuries.  Which is the MOST annoying thing to watch.)  In a way, that's more brutal since you aren't covered in padding...rather the only thing you're wearing that is anything like padding is maybe a shin guard that complements your socks.

Seems to me, most American football injuries stem from torn tendons that are a result from trying to sprint in all that padding.  Getting slammed by another guy as big as you may look brutal, but I don't think there's as much pain involved as one would think.

I think if anything, this whole situation just proves how hopelessly addicted some people can be.  It's useless to sit here in this forum and point fingers at whose fault it is.  Here, especially, is perhaps not the right audience for trying to get some real action going about the issue.

If hearing and seeing people physically fight over a PS3 bothers you THAT MUCH, then maybe you should go to your local stores, go up to the people in these lines, and tell them to "get a life!" or whatever you feel you need to tell them.  Or on the other hand, write to Sony, write them every damn day/week/hour/whatever about how you feel about their actions. 

(And when I say "you" I mean anyone reading this thread who is terribly disturbed by the topic and feels there needs to be some action taken.)

What you say Gameloading, is only your opinion (as the word "best" is clearly subjective).  Which you obviously intend to impose upon everyone by "fixing" their posts.  Everyone is entitled to their own opinion and it might be a wise idea to respect that and not troll people's posts and putting words in their mouths (so to speak).  At any rate, the fact that the game is addictive is probably why it's so popular.  As much as I don't like WoW, I would hope Blizzard wouldn't shut down their servers as we'd find a lot of our beloved games with mature communities overwhelmed by whiny teenagers (this is not to say all of the WoW subscribers are whiny OR teenagers, but you can't ignore that they make up the majority).  It's important we have easy and addictive games out there to keep such people busy and out of the games with steeper learning curves and older communities; however this doesn't mean that young people/whiny people can't play these other games, it just means that there needs to be a certain amount of patience and overall respect (or just good manners) for their fellow players.

Edit: Spelling mistakes and grammar.

There are arenas for PvP, which are clearly defined and you'll know when you enter one.  You also, thankfully, have a little icon next to your name on the UI that you just click to turn PvP mode on/off.  The only catch is you have to be alligned to a faction to PvP (at least 30 points in faction for either side) to activate the flag, but the arenas are ffa.

Also to the OP:

If you're having graphical issues, I suggest you either ask about it on Universe chat or download the chatprogram called Klients.  In Klients they almost always have at least 3 game guides, game masters, or technical support employees hanging out in there ready to answer your questions about game issues.  =)  They are very helpful and knowledgable.  Hell, they even helped me sort out a technical issue with ANOTHER game--one that would be considered one of their competitors.  Which of course was ingenious as it makes you want to play SoR more since the people running the game are so generous.

That option isn't available legallly.  There's always a black market that is created by the fabled Chinese phatz and game currency farmers though.  I wouldn't encourage it however.