Suriel

And then imagine the wealthy one is a beautiful girl you fall in love with, you'd like to marry her, except you know she'll pass away before even turning fifty... What is 30 years of happiness in an potentially immortal life? Not even 30, the last ones will be all pain and suffering after all.

Even worse: Her genes could "flaw" your own offspring!

I don't know "Holy Fire", but read his Schismatrix (sp? hmm...), where two ways of pro-longing life exspectancy clash with each other. Quite a good book.

Well, immortal people, alright... Imagine you are born and you have a friend who's born on the same day then. Your life exspectancy is about 70 years, his is indefinite. You grow up together, he never suffers from any illness. You constantly suffer from the flu, whatever...

Your parents are working in a factory... His parents own the factory... (Pretty much a today constellation with one more element then: Life time. Actually not even that: I tend to forget that people in some regions of Africa would be considered old at my age...)

I think the reaction of both childs once they find out the truth would be interesting to ponder:

Would he petty you, cause he knows you're "only" going to last for 70 (or 90 or 200 years?).

And later, would you petty him? Or envy him his immortality?

I don't know. I always think I could last a very long time without ever getting bored. So I'd probably envy him his immortality.

They don't like Harry Potter... They can't be completely evil then.

There's an email addy on the site. Did anyone see the Exorcist movies? We could probably have a nice fake exchange with them, as Knighthawk did with the scammer.

Any concerned "mothers" and "fathers" ready for the task?

I guess many of us have seen Gattaca, which I consider one of the most fascinating CP movies ever. (No --- don't move it just yet, CJ, it's not a movie thread...)

Now there's a million good things you can do with your money, but extending life and raising healthy offspring would certainly be a worthwhile thing to consider, too.

There is already many ways to recognize certain defects of an unborn child in advance and even some rare methods to prevent some of them.

Now speaking of the far future (as in the music thread: Not 2020, but really an imaginative far-off future, as 2020 had been to certain game designers in the past of the eighties...).

There can be certain methods to prevent your child to suffer from genetic defects or perhaps to even improve your child. This would most certainly be an option for the rich. Or more of an option to them.

Wouldn't that provide a wonderful gap, even more so than today, between the rich, the middle class and the poor. If technology would get advanced enough to actually measure the difference in years or even decades?

What do you think?

That you are a pantheist and like Monty Python? Both commendable.   I don't think god would hide in some book either. There's such a grand work surrounding us, if it's the work of God and we appreciate it, he has already taught us by example. If we can't appreciate it, because we humans made it an ugly world with an ugly system, it's entirely our fault.

There's one more thing that really gets me going about these fundamentalist sites:

There are so many homepages and entire services being banned because they express doubtful political or religious views. Just imagine an islamic site would go against certain topics with the same sharpness and would argue with suras from the Quoran... But nonono, we westerners are so much better. We allow sects that would rather have their members die of blood loss than be saved to sing praises another day!

/me hopes the creators of that site go to a very special D&D hell... Red Dragon is watching you!

Yeah, well, there he is again: The devil of roleplaying and his pagan worshippers. Frustrating enough, you’re sitting in the pit anyway and no matter what you plead for, they will have made up their mind before the game starts. They either release the lions or forgive you.

Seriously: Watching gamers must be strange for those who don’t know roleplaying games. My family doesn’t understand (“You still play those? You’re almost thirty!”), of course.

Because games are for children. Children may play freely. Adults mustn’t. Of course they don’t worry about me because I play RPGs. But they could never understand.

Girl friends: The same. My current girl friend finds the concept ‘interesting’. But she herself couldn’t do it. Not enough imagination/feels uncomfortable with getting “in character”… Though of course there are occasions not labelled a RPG...

Now, take a group vehemently opposed to the concept or at least sceptic to begin with…

And, if we stop a moment to be honest: They are right about the violence, especially with many teenager groups. Hell, we hacked and slayed and depopulated whole landscapes, climbed into the Abyss, etc... (Luckily Planescape wasn’t out back then…)

You can’t involve them in the game, because they won’t be able to play, (they will feel embarassed…) and you can’t just have them watch. Because then they will learn nothing either. The only thing you can do is to actually tell them, what happens in a game. But the best thing you could actually find as an argument is someone who is both a roleplayer and an undeniably virtuous person, best a list of them. And mention things like "roleplaying games are actually also used in psychology."

The thing that always makes me furious is the self-righteousness and damnable arrogance of christian (or any other) fundamentalists.

They looked up THAT website to get info on roleplaying games?

So the site's own position is based on the bible? Did they stop for a second and think?

1.) According to the Bible, you serve God, no matter if you want to or not.

2.) Don’t get me started about sex or violence! The High Song of Love is one of the most openly sexual things ever written and “An eye for an eye!” doesn’t sound like so peaceful either. Good our Lord Jesus was born and told us to forgive each other, love each other… What went wrong? Oh, perhaps the Apocalypse and John, who told us to better ####### comply or our asses will be roasted in hell.

3.) Becoming Godlike: Though not even in any way mentioned in God’s holy book, the catholic church lifted people into the ranks of super-humans (Saints). Of course the first founding fathers wanted to get rid of this superstition, that’s why there’s so few mentions of angels or the devil or anything supernatural, considering the size of the book. Which is a canon, an assembly of texts. The more outrageous texts weren’t allowed in, but then the christians realized that saints and angels are quite useful, as the simple peasant needs someone to talk to. Preferably someone who understands his worries.

4.) Witchcraft... Ah, sorry… Just WHOSE teachings are our today’s views of the classical witch based on? They even made the devil what he is today… Mistranslating hebrew on purpose.

5.) Death: Ah, I’d rather die the victim of some quick assassination than be a fundamentalist and believe in some childish form of hell and deny myself any fun in this world.

6.) Suicide: I think more people committed suicide (and murder), because they mis-interpreted the teachings of the church.

And so on and so on… Also: All the killings they mentioned as a result of roleplaying games happened using guns. Just who taught them using a gun? Who made it available to them or didn’t put it in a secure place? And what exactly makes someone feel more powerful? Playing a demi-god or having a very real and deadly peacemaker at the ready? Why didn’t they kill them with swords instead, like their characters do?

Basically, I now did the same they do. Emitting information and picking out certain facts neglecting the greater truth behind those facts. The christian religion and it’s teachings are a very good moral guideline for a civilization that has reached a certain amount of populace. The ten commandmends, for example.

But to take everything from the bible as God's own words is stupid.

Happy B-day you ole wanker!  

Told you on the Chromechilds OOC boards: There's a new version of Trillian out now. "New" s in new yahoo and msn dll-

De-install Trillian, then use the new version or use another combined messenger from www.sourceforge.net..

(Is there anyone left using ORIGINAL ICQ?)

Don't know how many of you like to read screenplays as much as I do, but if you do http://sfy.iv.ru is the URL to go before you start some complicated net search. Just found it by coincidence today.

Good thing about it: They include scenes cut from the final scripts. Enjoy as long as russian internet copyright laws are as lax as any such laws should be...

Guess the stuff I store is countless. Can't wait to move again and get rid of it. At least three computers in working order (AMD 350, 5.6 Gigs/two early pentium II and enough parts to build at least three more..). RAM of various eras, a wrecked 486 Laptop.

Several walkmen, a discman, recorders, microphones, monitors... Damn, must get rid of some stuff. EBAY!!! Help!

As far as linguistics are concerned, there is also the theory that many words introduced into one's own language (mainly anglicisms these days) are actually a kind of neologism. The same word might be used, but the base meaning is warped.

Languages: Take germany as an example. Until 1750 sächsisch, the most hated of today's dialects, was considered the german language. Then country to city movement set in and suddenly saechsisch expressions weren't in tune with daily life anymore. (Being a dialect incorporating mostly agricultural metaphors, proverbs and expressions...). It lost it's no 1 place to the dialect of the Hannover region, today considered the "purest" german. Hochdeutsch.

The dialect itself didn't die, of course. It couldn't, for dialects don't have borders. They change barely noticably from village to village. I was one of the students who helped with a test to ascertain this and I at least am not easily bored by language discussions.

If anything, languages are utilitaristic. They take useful expressions, easing up the language. Fashion terms quickly die and are replaced by new ones. (One should open up a new thread for "Future speech...")

The artifical boundaries between different forms of art will dissolve more and more, I guess.

Today a good song needs a good video and a CD needs extra features for your computer to be a commercial success. (Admited, not all of them, but it's becoming standard...).

Theatre employs techniques from the movies and even holographics these days. Perhaps you can download your official music albums with codes for some virtual reality room or other to use with the music, if you want...

American and European music is based on all kinds of different international music. It's really a mixture, that could find nourishment in these melting pots of different cultures. "Traditional" american or european nation's music ain't very popular these days. (Portugese Faro outside of Portugal? German folk? Admitted, country music is popular. It's also a mix of different styles and themes though.)

Heavy Metal is nothing but the sibling of Jazz --> Blues and Bebop --> Rock. Even Techno can be put in a line of heritage, beginning with tribal music.

And even though these then new music streams are dominant today, the older ones never vanished. Guess that will remain so in the future.

I think that the information on your website ain't sufficient to decide if I can or cannot add to your game. It's a matter of common or at least similar vision.

But from what I saw, I think (and I'm not the only one who thinks so), that you should think about a new name for the game. It struck me as a H.G. Wells "Time Machine"/"Roadwar 2000" crossover, not Metropolis... And yes, I know the original meaning of Metro-Polis and it's still misleading in a modern context.

Don't want to say your work is bad (I don't know it). I'm just a straight forward critic.  

I think I still have the scan of Neuromancer comic. I turned it into a Dia Show... Must be around.

I bought the original on a flea market for ten euro later...

Not speaking all-too-close 2020 here. Think international and think future, shoot...

Stringless guitars, certainly...

How about stringless E-Zitars?

Well, what do instruments and bands look like in your campaigns? What's on when you access musicnet? What is hot, what is not...

I know exactly how you feel. Every time I check my domain logs, I can see that almost no-one reads the parts of Chromechilds I put work into or those I announced in the OOC part. And then sometimes I think: "Why do I do that? Why do I invest that much time and work?"

My own answer would be: I do it for myself, because I enjoy doing it. And I do it for the few but great occasions when I get an email and someone praises said work, or when someone not even searching for a CP online game joins because he likes the story/part of the story and wants to add to it.

So, for all it's worth (probably nothing) I hope you'll continue. Cyber City isn't my style of CP, but it's a worthy archive and many GMs and players can find inspiration there.

Your soul is worth £7382. For your peace of mind, 87% of people have a purer soul than you.

Totally agree!  

High Intelligence=Learn fast, not know all.

You quickly excel in things you learn. I think general education is an often underestimated skill...

Want another one, Knighthawk? Just hit our Chromechilds account... I don't have the time for the exchange...

Fun Options: To pretend to be a colleague. To pretend the email he used is a de-referer to an international merc group and asking about current activities or if he would be ready to scout out targets in Zimbabwe... etc.

You may be surprised to receive this letter from me since you do not

know me personally. The purpose of my introduction is that I am Alexander

Hondo the son of Steve Hondo, a farmer in Zimbabwe who was  murdered in

the land dispute in my country. I got your contact through network

online hence decided to write you.Before the death of my father, he had

taken me to Johannesburg to deposit the sum of US8.5 million (Eight

million, Five

Hundred thousand United States dollars), in one of the private security

company, as he foresaw the looming danger in Zimbabwe this money was

deposited in a box as gem stones to avoid much demurrage from security

company. This amount was meant for the purchase of new machines and

chemicals for the Farms and establishment of new farms in Swaziland.

This land problem came when Zimbabwean President Mr.Robert Mugabe

introduced a new Land Act Reform wholly affecting the rich white farmers and

some few black farmers, and this resulted to the killing and mob action

by Zimbabwean war veterans and some lunatics in the

society. In fact a lot of people were killed because of this Land

reform Act for which my father was one of the victims.It is against this

background that, I and my family fled Zimbabwe for fear of our lives and

are currently staying in the Netherlands where we are seeking political

asylum and moreso have decided  to transfer my father's money to a more

reliable foreign account. since the law of Netherlands prohibits a

refugee (asylum seeker) to open any bank account or to be involved in any

financial transaction throughout the territorial zone of Netherlands, As

the eldest son of my father, I am saddled with the responsibility of

seeking a genuine  partner that could assist me without the knowledge of

my government who are bent on taking everything we have got. The South

African government seems to be playing along with them.

I am faced with the dilemma of moving this amount of money out of South

Africa for fear of going through the same experience in future, both

countries have similar political history. As a businessman,I am seeking

for a partner who I have to entrust my future and that of my family in

his hands, I must let you know that this transaction is risk free. If

you accept to assist me and my family, all I want you to do for me, is to

make an arrangements with the security company to clear the

consignment(funds) from their afiliate office here in the Netherlands as i have

already given directives for the consignment to be brought to the

Netherlands from South Africa.But before then all modalities will have to be

put in place like change of ownership to the consignment and more

importantly this money I intend to use for investment.

I have two options for you. Firstly you can choose to have certain

percentage of the money for nominating your account for this transaction.

Or you can go into partnership with me for the proper profitable

investment of the money in your country. Whichever  option you want, feel free

to notify me. Please Note that every expenses you might incurred during

this transaction will be personally handled by me after the

transaction, If you do not prefer a partnership I am willing to give you 10% of

the money while the remaining 90% will be for my investment in your

country. Contact me with the above email address and telephone number, while

I implore you to maintain the absolute secrecy required in this

transaction.

Thanks, God bless you

Yours Faithfully,

Alexander Hondo.

As I said, depends on the situation at hand.

Some things anyone can do or at least try to do. Other things you can't know and thus can't do without proper training.

And some things are so special, even with possession of the skill, you will need the proper background.

I think one should always decide for each individual case.

Some things you might be able to accomplish or even be excellent in without much training. Some you cannot do, even as a genius, without at least some fundamental knowledge.

(This could even apply to persons who actually are in possession of a relevant skill.) Also, skilled and unskilled use should be described accordingly.

Example time:

Sally Superior enters an archaeological excavation site and finds some a piece of ceramic. Never had training in archaeology (or history) so she CAN'T identify this piece as a typical band-cermaic from the pre-historical garamant era, nor can she see that the surrounding findings are the work of roman potters. Her basic TV knowledge might tell her though, that the ruins of buildings are either greek or roman (if something very obvious, like a column plus capitel is present...) .

Gary Trasher (Bod 10 Ref 10) is feared for his brute strength. Although he actually works as a contruction worker and never had any military or martial arts training, he has been known to throw around seasoned veterans without much trouble. His fighting style lacks any elegance, but he can take and usually one hit of the giant is enough to fell most opponents, as the Karateka Takamura Hideyori had to learn the hard way...

Tom Tek (Tech 10 Nuclear Tech 7) had never encountered anything like this before. The new technology of the quarks reactor was breath-taking and he found himself in unfamiliar waters here. "Turn it off! Turn it off!", he heard his colleagues yell. "Shut up! Ya know, this is a bit different from Tschernobyl.."

Sorry for the bad last example, but I guess you get the idea.

Monk is right! Tell him you are worried the Gestapo-like secret service of his country is already hot on his heels and have probably taken over the security company or fooled him into believing they are representating a security company.

As in: " A friend of mine, who is into linguistics studies..."  

I think the short version would be:

***lotta mumbo jumbo***

- I can't transfer the 1200 bucks for you, since I'm a political refugee.

- Don't tell the security company there's money in the cash box.

***lotta mumbo jumbo***

How about you tell him you'll heed his advice and ask him if it wouldn't be better to be extra careful and hire a private detective to complete the deal with the security company?

Or a lawyer?

Just suggestions, you're doing great...

WIN98 on this laptop, Suse Linux and Windows XP on my main machine.

Why Linux? Thumper's reasons, plus I find it easier to program in PERL with Linux than with ActivePerl.

Also has a lot more to offer when it comes to non-game software.

Seriously, I like Linux. Mostly, when the system crashes it's my fault, not the OS's fault.

But as far as games are concerned, of course Windows is a must.