Heliocentrical

Dibs on Scholar.

Alright I'm gonna get my questions for Ross in if that's alright. 1. Do you think that there will eventually be a revolt against Valve due to negative press and lack of communication from them? Recently I ran across quite a lot people who fucking hate Valve right now. 2. What are your thoughts on concept of video game academia? I find the idea of writing about certain aspects of video games in academic setting to be fascinating. Sadly video game academia doesn't really exist as much as I would like it to. This won't stop me from writing about video game on academic level however. 3. Do you have any more great stories that you plan to save for a Game Dungeon? I really liked the Go To Hell RGD episode where you talked about how you and metal dave bought souls of high schoolers with candy. That was amazing btw. I wished I had thought of that.

Uh, dude? I could've sworn Ross said EA employees ignore/delete emails everyday. I double checked his the Darkspore RGD episode and he doesn't say anything like that. I guess I must have confused it with ignoring Reddit posts which he does mentioned in the Darkspore RGD episode. So do business emails give us another avenue of contacting EA? Can people send emails to these business emails if they can't afford to send a letter? I think I might do both for efficiency sake.

Ross said that EA employees ignore/delete emails everyday so emailing them to stop killing games would be futile. While email addresses are better then nothing what we're looking for are business addresses so we can send letters to EA's offices.

Salt

That reminds me of this one Youtuber who would do nothing but go on and on about how fat Jim Sterling is. That's literally it. It as if he was trying to come off as being smart or something. I'm mean come on, you couldn't be bothered to come up with one actual legitimate criticism against Jim Sterling so you instead resort to fat-shaming him because apparently thinking for more than 5 seconds is too hard for you? Needless to say the dude's a talentless hack who's simply jealous of other people's success. But he can't improve his content himself oh no, that would require too much work. It's much easier for him to regurgitate his passing thoughts without any consideration for quality. so he just sits around with his channel as if it's his own little hugbox where no amount of criticism can "hurt" him. I'm deliberately not mentioning him by name as I don't want to give his channel any direct attention. If anyone figures out who he is then I would highly recommend that you refrain from mentioning him directly as I did. He doesn't deserve it. The only thing people like him deserve to have is to have their channels be burned to the ground.

Pig squirrels don't fly, pig squirrels don't fly(they don't fly), pig squirrels don't fly, pig squirrels don't fly(who said they don't fly?)

The fact that regressive neckbeardy hipsters have reduced Linux to a simple status for them to use to make themselves feel important is insulting. Because posting that you installed Arch Linux on your first try on Twitter is what Linux is there for right? Hipsters seem like a prime target for cultural cleansing. Just call me hipsteritler, instigator of the mass genocide against the hipsters . But seriously Linux has so much potential available for it . But Linux won't get anywhere if no one willing to support those new ideas. Linux deserves so much more than these assholes. I realize that this is just me repeating myself at this point. I just thought this post was a lot better than my previous one.

I definitely agree that Linux is severely lacking when comes to GUIs. I often thought of it as just a different kind of thinking as I like using the command line considerably more than I do using a GUI. But then I took sometime to think about it and clearly one mode of thinking is valued more than the other. At the end of the day all I want to do is support Linux as much as I physically can and one means of getting effective support would be to increase it's accessibility. So why would you discriminate against GUIs? I will say that even though I don't find Linux in general to be very toxic there's this one particularly frustrating quirk that seems to be pretty universal with all of them. There seems to be this unwillingness to open up to every opportunity with the Linux community to gain them traction. It's almost like their doing this deliberately out of spite or something. With Linux being Open-source there are countless possibilities that Linux could pursue and technically they have although not the realm of actual OSes. So while Linux has improved significantly over the past couple of years I would still say that the opportunities for them still lie in the dark due to them being not willing to pursue those opportunities and quite frankly that's a shame. I can only imagine the things Linux could've accomplished if the community was more open.

I thought this might make for an interesting discussion. Out of all of the RGD Episodes which one would you say is your favorite? My favorite thus far is the RGD for Bozo's Night Out. I really liked how creative and dark it was.

GNOME is pretty bad too. I don't know why devs feel the need to "innovate". GNOME and Unity are nothing but layers upon layers of really unhelpful features. All the other desktops like XFCE and LXDE are relatively normal in comparison. I keep hearing from a lot of people that Linux in general is really toxic. I honestly don't think that's the case though. It really comes down to who you're talking to. Like the Arch Linux Forums are complete assholes. The Debian and Ubuntu forums seem much more willing to help newcomers.

Since Ross has brought up the topic of Linux I figured it would be a perfect time to talk about my experience with it. I've played around with various Linux OSes like Arch, Debian, Fedora etc. Out of all the Linux distros I like Arch the most because it is rolling release and this is a very minor nitpick but I just like Arch's command line syntax more than the others. Most of Arch's commands are very short making it very easy for you to rapidly execute a series of commands in one go. I also think that Arch's commands just look cleaner. I wish it was more stable but Manjaro Linux https://manjaro.github.io/ has got me covered in this regard and it's the one I use to get Arch's syntax and rolling release without the hassle of instability. I plan to expand my technical skillset with Linux as I'm smack dab in the middle when comes to experience. Not a master of Linux but definitely not a rookie either. Though I'm not really sure which direction I want to go in. System admining looks like fun but I don't like the fact that their function is stabilizing servers. Pen testing looks promising as I love the idea of using exploits to gain access into a system(legally of course) and just breaking things in general. People have told me I'll want to move onto playing with VMs of Arch Linux and Debian Sid so I can gain general technical knowledge while I'm deciding. I'd like to pick a career that works with unstable/bleeding edge Linux OSes. But I'm not sure if that exists or not. I've got Windows 7 on one HDD and I've also got another blank HDD for which I'm going to use for installing Manjaro and then installing VMs in the Manjaro HDD. So what is your experience with Linux?

I agree with what Forgot_My_Account said in regards with the NSF Airfield. There just isn't a whole lot to do at the NSF Airfield outside of stealth and as I mentioned previously Deus Ex is really lacking in terms of it's mechanics. I also think the NSF Airfield was way too long considering what little it had to offer me in terms of choice. But now that I'm past the NSF Airfields I can safely say that the levels have gotten a lot better and I'm gonna keep playing. BTW I'm playing a stealth/explosives build since that seems to be the easiest approach for me. I don't like using lockpicks and/or multitools so I avoid them whenever possible. I currently have about 20 lockpicks, multitools and biocells. I was caring 20 medkits but I lost them after my escape. I just couldn't find them. Also the Majestic 12 downgraded my mini-crossbow(Those bastards!!!!).

Well I've just arrived at Hong Kong. The levels after the NSF Airfield are much better. Also I did something hilarious.

In truth I did see your post. I wonder if writing will help me cope, however the only writing material that comes to mind is incredibly violent, and in any case I never really considered myself much of a writer. We can continue through PMs if you want. Sure that would be fine, I can think of couple methods that I've used for coping. Give me sometime to compose my thoughts and I'll send a PM your way.

@ThePest179 I was wondering did you happen to get my reply to you on this vent thread before it got buried? I was talking about how I went through a similar situation as you did and I refined my hatred into writing essays about the things I hate and why I hate them. It might not be your thing but it certainly helped me when it felt like I couldn't do anything. If you didn't and can't find it I could edit it in this post if you like.

I played through Human Revolution first and then I went over to Deus Ex 1. Looking back on it I liked Human Revolution a lot more. I haven't played invisible war since I heard it's the worst one out of the three. But honestly I don't know If invisible war is bad or not. So was Deus Ex 1 just a novelty for it's time and doesn't really hold up today? I really want to like Deus Ex 1. I thought it might be like the other old games that I've played like Morrowind, System Shock 2 or Thief where their mechanics have aged well. Whereas with Deus Ex 1 I'm finding that to not be the case.

So I've been having a hard time trying to play through Deus Ex 1. I currently at the NSF Airfield and it's really starting to lose me. I thought the very first bits of the game were quite interesting. When I was at the first level of the game in the Statue of Liberty I deliberately tossed a trashcan into the alarm lasers right next to where Gunther was being held captive. After the alarm went off I hid in a nearby vent and watched as all the NSF poured out of the room. Once the alarm was done sounding I carefully knocked out all the guards. Conveniently the trashcan partially blocked the lasers and created a gap which allowed me to pass through without setting the alarm again. Then I had to go rescue Gunther but there was a turret and a locked door in my way. So I tossed a LAM and blew up both the door and the turret. Gunther was thankfully unharmed and I was able to free him. Then as I kept progressing through the game I kept getting fewer and fewer opportunities to something unconventional. I don't know Maybe I just didn't see them and if they were there then they're pretty well hidden because I looked in every nook and cranny that I could find. I will say this all of the mechanics in Deus Ex are agonizingly boring. Neither the stealth nor the lethal takedowns are enjoyable to do. The lockpicking, multitooling and hacking are completely uninvolved as they're just timers that have you sit around for a certain amount of time. My biggest gripe are with the augmentations as any possible mechanical enjoyment are locked behind them. Seriously why couldn't the game just have been more accessible and enjoyable from the get go? You could take away all of these dull and uninteresting mechanics and reduced Deus Ex mechanically to a first person shooter and it would've lost nothing. In fact I think Deus Ex would've been much better for it if Ion Storm had exclusively focused on refining the emergent elements and the level design as that's where I think Deus Ex is at it's best. Also what sort of tone is Deus Ex's story aiming for? Is it supposed to be serious story about the side effects of advanced transhumanism or is it a satire about the US government and terrorists who cause nothing but harm to civilians due to their sheer ignorance on both sides, is it both I honestly don't know. What I do know is that currently I'm no longer enjoying the game and am wondering if I should continue to play it to see if Deus Ex gets any better storywise atleast if not mechanically. This is my second attempt to try and playthrough Deus Ex. I need something to warrant me to continue playing. Can someone who's beaten Deus Ex please tell me in the most objective way possible if it sounds like I just don't like Deus Ex and should move on to something else or is there something in Deus Ex that I haven't got to yet that makes playing Deus Ex in it's entirety worthwhile? You can be vague about it to avoid spoilers. But I need to know if that something exists or if Deus Ex has nothing left to offer me.

If we're going by the games rules then sure. But I always found it to be incredibly unrealistic that you could be head of most of the factions except for the houses. Even then you could use a glitch that would allow you to join another house. I think it would've been brilliant if there were some sort of management mechanics that would make it so you would only want to be head of only a few of the factions instead of all of them. My dark elf character was a rogue/mage type. First he became grandmaster of the Morag Tong and the Thieves guild. Then he became the grandmaster of both house Telvanni and house Hlaalu by nefarious means. Then he took over the Mages guild for House Telvanni and took the necromancer's amulet for himself in his quest to become a lich. He went over to solstheim in search for the Mantle of Woe to further his quest for power. Once he got the mantle of woe he found that being all powerful was rather boring. So finally he became factor of the East Empire Company and ruled all of Vardenfell economically. He basically ended up as Donald Trump of Vardenfell. Though significantly smarter IMO. Although if he's elected as hortator he'll reinstate Ghostgate to keep those ash creatures from taking our jobs and brand all of House Dagoth as terrorists.

As far as I can tell the Telvanni just grow the mushrooms and live inside of them. I was always under the impression that the mushrooms had minds of their own and that the Telvanni were like parasites living inside of the mushrooms. Now that I thought about it I think would rather be a master of the Morag Tong then a master of house Telvanni. I find the idea of legal assassination fascinating. I get to murder people without being arrested on top of being paid for said murder? Sounds like a pretty good deal to me . The Morag Tong are also quite terrifying too. As far as I can tell they don't exactly care as to who their targets are as long as they have a writ for them so technically anyone is up for grabs. Not only that but they also work with the guards on a regular basis. So you're effectively screwed if there's a writ for you. I would much rather be with them rather then be a potential target. The Telvanni especially seem like high priority targets along with the rest of the houses. So long as I don't have ambitions of becoming grandmaster I should be fine.

I agree with the conclusion you've about the personal letters, I think I will wait and take my time to write the absolute best letters I can. I want my rhetoric to as sharp as a sword with which I will strike. After all they won't expect to find a vigorously sharpened Zweihander amongst a pile of dull butter knifes if you get my meaning.

I think it's in our best interest to make the letters as cost effective as possible. As cost will be a limiting factor for how many letters we'll be able to send. Printer ink would probably be the main culprit in this regard so we should write the letters ourselves. Something like smaller size envelopes will help too. If we're to overwhelm EA by sheer volume then we need to take cost into account and be as economical about this as possible. We should also have some sort of plan for how many letters we write per day. We don't want to do too many letters per day as this could possibly burn us out. But if we spread this out moderately between people then we'll get the volume we need in no time. Since a moderate amount varies from person to person keep trying to write letters and see how long it takes till you start to feel like you're going insane. That should give a nice gauge for how much a moderate amount is for you. Alright now let's put out a possible scenario for how many letters we can write in total. Let's say we write 5 letters a day for 10 days. That would amount to 50 letters per person. Then lets say there are 10 of us that do write 5 letters per day then that would be a total of 500 letters. Over the course of 1 month we would've sent out a total of 1500 letters. Now this just one possible scenario as there are definitely more then 10 of us here. I just thought it might be useful to have an idea for what could happen outlined to give us a sense of scale.

@Seattleite I said drop it, so just fucking drop it already.

@RandomGuy listen, I disagree with Seattleite as much as you do. But for the sake of keeping Ross's operation out of this let's move this discussion elsewhere. I mentioned that we could use the PM conversation system instead to explain our positions. We may have our disagreements but it's important that we remember conduct ourselves properly as well. I feel that it would be much more appropriate to make that call now as our discussion doesn't really have much to do with Ross's objective for the operation. Agreed?

I have a question, should I send all of my letters to one important person like or should I split the letters up? Which method would be more effective for the operation? For example Peter Moore would be overwhelmed if he got 300 letters in one day but on the other hand would giving 4 people 75 might give the operation more coverage. @Seattleite Again it's your own fault for taking personally whereas I never did. If you actually read through what I said I never directly insulted you whereas you directly insulted me by calling me a shill. If you don't want people to assume that you've taken something personally then stop calling people stupid shills. That the main point I wanted to get across. BTGbullseye, Vapymid and me never intended to insult by challenging your claim. A challenge is not an insult. An insult is calling someone a stupid shill. But this discussion has already overstayed it's welcome. If you want to explain your position further then by all means send me a PM and don't reply to me within this thread about this again.