Dude, Kinder Surprise is damn awesome, fo' sho'. I didn't know the US didnt' have them, it's a shame.

I dropped out of a UT clan I co-founded because it stopped being fun and it turned into a bootcamp for 13-year-olds who have nothing better to do than practice walljumping and shortest paths to the flag. Coincidentally when I stopped having fun with the game and started playing to win, my skill dropped dramatically. I could no longer fly like a butterfly, for my mind was too fixed on an end goal, and thus I couldn't sting like a bee, either.

I don't think Larry is anything to be ashamed of, at least not if we're talking about the subject matter. They're not really misogynist (at least not Al Lowe's games. Magna Cum Laude on the other hand...), they spoof Larry's behaviour and make fun of him every step of the way. Shockingly often he's even out to find true love, not just have shallow, meaningless sex.

Of course, the early ones are replete with horrible puzzle design, but that sort of thing infested most Sierra adventures, so it's entirely warranted to be ashamed of enjoying them on that account, but then the same should go for 99% of non-LucasArts adventures of that era.

I've not played Mass Effect so maybe I'm missing something here...if the party makeup is bad, couldn't you just go back on the ship and switch around party members then give the mission another try? Coz if you can't that sounds very frustrating!

Regarding MMO's where the social aspect is part of the game, you guys missed out A Tale in the Desert (unsurprisingly, very few people play it). That game plays havoc with all sorts of social aspects, I mainly played it because I was fascinated by those aspects, which is good because the actual game was pretty tedious

I feel I would have more to contribute to the Gamers with Real Jobs site with the little gaming I do at the moment....if other people feel like this too, it may lead to a mass migration....I sense treachery is afoot On the plus side, in 9 weeks my degree is over then then I can go back to being a gamer with just a job! HOORAY!!

On the up side, gaming I feel is never meant to be taken seriously, once you start taking anything seriously it appears, it ceases to be fun. And in WOW i never really witnessed anyone ordering about except for a silly 12 year old wanting us to kill everything for him. Perhaps the european servers have a different kind of people than on the American servers, as in all honesty you tend to find more obessed people there. Gross generalisation but hey ho, I'm allowed to alienate myself.

Perhaps this debate extends beyond the gaming aspect and more into human beings in general.

Wait that sounds serious, run away!!!

The TF2 tournament was supposed to go up against Octopus Overlords, but their teams kind-of never materialized, and we had SO many TF2 volunteers that we could make 4 teams. When OO dropped out, people didn't want to let all of the work go to waste, so we tried to make a round-robin tourney between the four teams, but it ended up falling through, and everyone pretty much just forgot about the teams.

Oh, and my secret gaming shame? Having played the Commodore 64 Strip Poker game since the inception of the internet.

Was it called "Samantha Fox" ? Cause I had that one on my ZX Spectrum.

The thing about Mass Effect's romance system is that it's a lot less obvious to tell how you're doing* and how often you should be talking with your potential partners. I had a similar experience as Elysium in my last play-through and even though I did score with Liara, I must have done something wrong. Supposedly if you try to woo both partners at equal levels, it makes them jealous of each other and they'll eventually corner you and ask you to pick (one of Shepard's possible responses is labeled "Cat fight!"). You can even suggest a three-way, which doesn't fly with them, but it's a funny option. Somehow, this didn't happen; Ashley never raised a ruckus.

* = Well, I'm partially wrong:

Yep. That happened to me.

I think another key to survival is to have a strong philosophy identified with the guild from the start. That way you seem to end up with a lot of like minded people.

My retired parents are members of a local lawn green bowling club. On the surface it's all cups of tea, biscuits and wrinkly smiles but they have their fair share of political intrigue and back biting. Their recipe for survival is to not get involved in the fights.

Interesting discussion about the clan-mentality. I thought the clan thing was something everybody has done at some point in their life because it feels good to be in such a structure but then leaves it behind because it becomes to much of an effort.

I agree with (Shawn?) though, being a grunt is the best part of the game because it's easy. Boss figure tells you what to shoot at, you shoot it. It's the social interaction and the feeling that the you are doing something for a real purpose puts it a good seven notches above single player against the computer.

Thank you for reading my email. FYI it's the newer version of Pirates that I have or semi-have, not the original. Pirates was developed by Firaxis, and then published by Atari. After listening to your response I'm going to try writing to Firaxis about getting a replacement disc2. I figure my chances (however slim) will be better with them then with Atari.

In the mean time however, pirating Pirates has a nice ironic ring...

Ok, its the second time I hear something about friends and Diplomacy, so I have to show the t-shirt from gamink

* Bug Alert - If I press Shift + I the [ i ] UBB code shows? (Also with shift + [b]B[/b) (Gentoo linux - Mozilla Firefox )

It happens with all the keys, inestead of CTRl it uses Shift..

I would be down.
Diplomacy fits my bitter jaded world view.

I heard there are no heterosexual pillows allowed at GenCon.