On 30/08/2011 04:23 PM, Warp wrote:
> Invisible<voi### [at] devnull>  wrote:
>> Apparently I don't play that particular sort of game very much. Why, is
>> there a law against that? :-P
>
>    You lose nerd points for not knowing such basics.

You see this face? This is my "I'm really not worried" face.

Liberating, isn't it? :-D

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Invisible <voi### [at] devnull> wrote:
> On 30/08/2011 04:23 PM, Warp wrote:
> > Invisible<voi### [at] devnull>  wrote:
> >> Apparently I don't play that particular sort of game very much. Why, is
> >> there a law against that? :-P
> >
> >    You lose nerd points for not knowing such basics.

> You see this face? This is my "I'm really not worried" face.

> Liberating, isn't it? :-D

  But you see. Being a nerd but not being *enough* of a nerd puts you in
the uncomfortable zone of not being either hipster enough to be cool, nor
nerdy enough to be cool. It's that middle ground where both hipsters and
nerds mock you.

-- 
                                                          - Warp

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>>>     You lose nerd points for not knowing such basics.
>
>> You see this face? This is my "I'm really not worried" face.
>
>> Liberating, isn't it? :-D
>
>    But you see. Being a nerd but not being *enough* of a nerd puts you in
> the uncomfortable zone of not being either hipster enough to be cool, nor
> nerdy enough to be cool. It's that middle ground where both hipsters and
> nerds mock you.

You may be right about that. But you know what? I'm still not worried. 
Because right now, I'm the happiest I've ever been in my life. :-D

OK, granted, until now my life has been pretty miserable, so I guess 
that's not much of a record. But hey, if I'm happy, why worry?

You know what I posted here exactly one year ago today? The announcement 
that I finally hooked up with a girl. So, yeah, I can live with not 
being the biggest nerd, or not being hip enough for the crowd. People 
like me, and that's fine with me. :-)

-- 
http://blog.orphi.me.uk/
http://www.zazzle.com/MathematicalOrchid*

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Am 30.08.2011 19:58, schrieb Orchid XP v8:

> You know what I posted here exactly one year ago today? The announcement
> that I finally hooked up with a girl. So, yeah, I can live with not
> being the biggest nerd, or not being hip enough for the crowd. People
> like me, and that's fine with me. :-)

Gee, time flies!

Enjoy!

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On 8/30/2011 7:02 AM, Invisible wrote:
>> I have hard time believing that you have never heard of the concept of
>> exp in computer role-playing games.
>
> Apparently I don't play that particular sort of game very much. Why, is
> there a law against that? :-P
Uh.. Unless your main sort of game is puzzles and/or Go, its pretty hard 
to never run across XP, of some sort, or FPS which *do not* let you 
improve skills. Hell, even Deus Ex: Human Revolution, which I have just 
been playing, has it (though I am wishing I had upgraded my armor for 
electrical shock supressing, instead of putting all of it into 
stealth/hacking, given the current boss I am fighting... lol).

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> On 30/08/2011 01:25 PM, Francois Labreque wrote:

>>> earn "XP" (whatever that is)
>>
>> eXperience Points. In most fantasy role playing games, a certain amount
>> of XP will allow you to improve your skill level. Allowing you to learn
>> new fighting techniques, or fancier spells, depending on your character
>> class.
>
> Riiiight. So that's why they named it "Windows XP"...
>
> Incidentally, I have no idea what "fantasy role playing game" actually
> means.

You see, back in the days before the advent of computers, people used to 
sit around tables and play games.  Some were board games (chess, 
checkers, Monopoly, etc...), some were card games (poker, bridge, 
etc...)  Then, in the late 1970s, a new type of game came out, it was 
called "role playing games" (RPG for short, not to be confused with the 
RPGs you hear about on the evening news, which stands for 
"rocket-propelled grenade").  Each player played the part of a character 
and would interact with a story told by another player who also acted as 
a referee.  Some of these role-playing were set in a futuristic world 
and were called "sci-fi RPGs", while others were set in medieval, 
fantasy settings, filled with elves, dragons, and wizards; these were 
the "fanstasy RPGs", the most popular of which was called "Dungeons and 
Dragons".  There were also "Horror" RPGs, based on the works of H.P. 
Lovecraft, Bram Stoker, et al.  And various quirky ones that were 
difficult to categorize, such as Paranoia, Car Wars, War Hammer, etc...

If you've never heard of D&D, I'm going to have to side with Warp and 
ask that you hand in your nerd card.

Footnotes:
- Some people still play RPGs.
- Some people even act them out in real life, this is called LARPing 
(Live Action Role Playing).  See for example, 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j_ekugPKqFw
- The D&D universe  was of course introduced to the computer gaming 
world, in the early 80s, but the most popular D&D-based games has to be 
the "Baldur's Gate" series, that I'm sure you're familiar with.

-- 
/*Francois Labreque*/#local a=x+y;#local b=x+a;#local c=a+b;#macro P(F//
/*    flabreque    */L)polygon{5,F,F+z,L+z,L,F pigment{rgb 9}}#end union
/*        @        */{P(0,a)P(a,b)P(b,c)P(2*a,2*b)P(2*b,b+c)P(b+c,<2,3>)
/*   gmail.com     */}camera{orthographic location<6,1.25,-6>look_at a }

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On 30/08/2011 11:31 PM, Patrick Elliott wrote:
> On 8/30/2011 7:02 AM, Invisible wrote:
>>> I have hard time believing that you have never heard of the concept of
>>> exp in computer role-playing games.
>>
>> Apparently I don't play that particular sort of game very much. Why, is
>> there a law against that? :-P
> Uh.. Unless your main sort of game is puzzles and/or Go, its pretty hard
> to never run across XP, of some sort, or FPS which *do not* let you
> improve skills. Hell, even Deus Ex: Human Revolution, which I have just
> been playing, has it (though I am wishing I had upgraded my armor for
> electrical shock supressing, instead of putting all of it into
> stealth/hacking, given the current boss I am fighting... lol).

OK, well let's see now...

Quake 2. No XP.

HalfLife. HalfLife: Opposing Force. Nope, no XP.

HalfLife 2, EP1, EP2... No XP.

Portal. No XP.

Team Fortress 2. No XP.

Call of Duty 4: No XP.

Modern Warfare 2: No XP.

OK, so that's a list of almost every computer game I've ever played. :-P

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> If you've never heard of D&D, I'm going to have to side with Warp and
> ask that you hand in your nerd card.

I've /heard of/ D&D. I just don't get why anybody would bother playing 
it. It sounds incredibly boring.

A bit like those text-adventure games [which I'm sure somebody somewhere 
still plays too].

PS. There used to be a TV series called D&D. I used to enjoy watching 
that. I doubt it has anything vaguely related to the game in it though.

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>> If you've never heard of D&D, I'm going to have to side with Warp and
>> ask that you hand in your nerd card.
>
> I've /heard of/ D&D. I just don't get why anybody would bother playing
> it. It sounds incredibly boring.
>
> A bit like those text-adventure games [which I'm sure somebody somewhere
> still plays too].
>
> PS. There used to be a TV series called D&D. I used to enjoy watching
> that. I doubt it has anything vaguely related to the game in it though.

No, IIRC, the storyline was that a bunch of teenagers playing D&D were 
sucked into the D&D world and were trying to go back home.  All the 
characters and monsters were mostly based on actual character classes 
found in the AD&D (Advanced Dungeons & Dragons) first edition books.

The only thing I remember finding very unlikely about that tv series was 
that there were girls playing AD&D.

-- 
/*Francois Labreque*/#local a=x+y;#local b=x+a;#local c=a+b;#macro P(F//
/*    flabreque    */L)polygon{5,F,F+z,L+z,L,F pigment{rgb 9}}#end union
/*        @        */{P(0,a)P(a,b)P(b,c)P(2*a,2*b)P(2*b,b+c)P(b+c,<2,3>)
/*   gmail.com     */}camera{orthographic location<6,1.25,-6>look_at a }

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>> PS. There used to be a TV series called D&D. I used to enjoy watching
>> that. I doubt it has anything vaguely related to the game in it though.
>
> No, IIRC, the storyline was that a bunch of teenagers playing D&D were
> sucked into the D&D world and were trying to go back home.

They were definitely trying to get back home. But as I recall, they took 
a ride on a magic rollercoaster. Hmm. I'll bet Wikipedia has a page 
about it...

...it does. And apparently I was right.

> All the
> characters and monsters were mostly based on actual character classes
> found in the AD&D (Advanced Dungeons & Dragons) first edition books.

I'll take your word for it.

> The only thing I remember finding very unlikely about that tv series was
> that there were girls playing AD&D.

LOL! Yeah, that does sound implausible... although I hear Gail Shaw is 
quite into D&D.

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