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Okay people, da Raggit wants in on da IRC, but da Raggit can't find where da AGS IRC channel went.

I went to the official AGS webpage and clicked on "Chat" but the pictures that show you what to enter are missing...

so what do I have to enter in the server info to find AGS? 

Hey Americans,

remember that our general elections are on November 7th, and that your vote counts.  For those of you too lazy to hover your mouse over the computer clock, that's tomorrow!

I don't care who you vote for (though I certainly have a preference  ), just so long as you vote.

Remember, you don't have a right to complain about how much things suck in America if you don't vote! 

It's rather old, but I see it around all the time:Ã, 

(FOR CLARITY, THIS IS A NEWS SEGMENT ABOUT THE EVENT, AND DOES NOT SHOW THE EVENT ITSELF.)

http://www.ebaumsworld.com/2006/04/liferuinedbyteabagging.html

(If the video won't play for you: it's a news segment about a teenager who was forced to the ground by some other kids who proceeded to teabag him, and then attempted to insert a banana into his rectum.)Ã, 

I don't really have a comment one way or the other about the video, but it is the way this video is PRESENTED on the net that is rather interesting.Ã,  It is always presented in a mocking manner, as if to say, "OMFG!!! THIS KID WAS SEXUALLY ASSUALTED AND THAT'S SO F*CKING HILARIOUS!!!11!1!!"

Of course I don't expect any other attitude from websites that proudly feature all kinds of videos of people getting hurt, beatup, and in some instances, killed.Ã, 

I am, however, wondering what your attitude to the above clip is.Ã,  Do you think it's upsetting?Ã,  Hilarious?Ã,  Don't care?Ã,  What if the victim had been a little kid, or a girl?

(THIS IS WHERE THE ARGUMENT SEPARATES INTO A BROADER ISSUE)

What about the myriad of other videos circulating the entertainment sites?Ã,  People breaking bones in stupid stunts, tearing each other up, lighting themselves on fire, and just generally behaving badly.

This is become a potential issue in society, as certain news channels and news sites have written articles about these kinds of videos, and how they might be influencing other kids to do the same, thus ushering in discussion of legislation and regulation.Ã,  (It was awhile back, but I'll see if I can dig up a URL.Ã,  I'm thinking of one news story in particular about some kids who mounted a motorcycle on a playground merry-go-round and got flung off of it.)

So what do you think?Ã,  Should these extreme videos be banned?Ã,  Does the public have a right to access them?Ã,  Still don't care?

This is a tremendous story, but I gotta tell it because my head is spinning.Ã,  However, I have some certainty that I'm not the only one who's been through something like this.

Ooookay,

So there's this girl in my class.Ã,  She's twenty years old and has had two kids.Ã, 

We got to making small talk the other day, just casual.Ã,  She tells me about her kid that she just had with her boyfriend who is really controlling and psychopathic.

The weekend goes by, and I see here again on Monday.Ã,  We talk some more, and start to get a little more friendly.Ã,  She's really warming up to me, because nobody has ever really treated her very kindly, and she doesn't know what it means when a guy is just nice to her.Ã, 

Then she's like wanting to come see my house and bring her kid over so he can see my pets, so I'm like, okay whatever, and she does.Ã,  Before coming she makes this weird comment, "I gotta get permission first."Ã,  Okay, that was kind of weird since she lives independently.Ã,  As it turns out, her boyfriend makes her check in and out with him before she goes anywhere, and has to know how long she'll be gone, etc.

She comes over, stays awhile, and we start talking about her relationship to her boyfriend, and that she really should get out of it, and that she knows she should and stuff like that.Ã,  I was just trying to be understanding here, and listen.

Then she realizes she doesn't have a whole lot of gas in her car.Ã,  So I'm like, okay, I'll follow you a little ways back to your house and make sure you don't run out.Ã,  It was dark and she was in an area she didn't really know.Ã, 

I see her the next day, and she's like, "I couldn't sleep last night.Ã,  I kept thinking about you."

I couldn't really sleep either, but it was more out of concern that her boyfriend would beat the crap out of her for being out past her "curfew."

Turns out she was up at 5:00 in the morning writing me some poems.Ã,  And then after that, she starts giving me poem after poem, and we're like passing notes, and I'm really confused, but for some reason I'm sort of liking this.

Over the next couple of days, we spend time after school together, talking and stuff.Ã,  I'm still liking it, and she is REALLY liking it, and by this time she's convinced that we're soulmates and that we're destined to be together.Ã,  Okay, I'm not that sure at this point.Ã,  After discussing this with a close friend of mine who's been through this kind of situation before, he says to end it immediately before it gets too far.

So the day after that I go to school with every intention of breaking this thing off immediately, but don't.Ã,  Instead I get drawn into it a little further.Ã,  I mean, we seemed to click together well, and we spent that evening together talking.Ã, 

That night, the reality comes into focus:Ã,  She's 20, has two kids, we come from completely different backgrounds, and I'm not ready to get involved with somebody who has two kids and an insanely controlling boyfriend.Ã,  There is no sane reason to pursue this "romance" that has sprung up over a period of about a week and is based on nothing but emotion and no concrete understanding, with her still under the control of her crazy boyfriend who she wants to get away from soon.

The next day (today) I end it.Ã,  She gets upset, but isn't really crying.Ã,  She doesn't say a whole lot.Ã,  Then she asks to leave early and takes off.Ã,  I feel bad, but know that I did the right thing.

Now, she just called me up a minute ago and wanted to know if she could come over to "hang out."Ã,  She also wanted to bring a friend of hers over that I just barely met.Ã,  That'd be pretty akward, and I suggested that we wait a few days and level ourselves out before getting together again.Ã,  I said, okay, I'll see you at school.Ã,  Then she's like, "I don't know if I'll be there."

Now she's probably thinking that it'd be too painful to sit in the same classroom with me.Ã,  Hopefully she's not going to drop her education because of an infatuation.

Anyway, so that's what has happened to me the past week.Ã,  Now I'm wondering whether or not I should try to be a friend to her, or if I should try to distance myself from her, or what.Ã,  Is she going to become obsessive and call me constantly, and come over to my house all the time?Ã, 

Will her jealous boyfriend beat her up for this?Ã,  Will he beat me up?Ã,  Will he come to my house drunk and stoned and tear up my car, property, and ME?

This whole thing is crazy, and all I can say is I'm glad it's come to a halt now, and not later.Ã,  I just hope it goes away quickly and quietly.Ã, 

Do you?  DO YOU?!

I'm fashionably late on the blogging scene, and because I'm always full of political opinions, I thought, "Hey, why not tell the internet?"  (And I DIDN'T come to these forums?!)

Anyway, post your blog here, if you have one.  As soon as I get mine rolling, I'll post it, too.

Anybody remember Duke Nukem?  Those games were awesome.  I remember playing the shareware versions of the first and second one many, many years ago. 

I recently got back into the game, and now own the full versions of Duke 1, 2, and Duke3D, which by the way, is a spectacular FPS, for its time.

Duke's over-the-top, egocentric character is totally hilarious, and makes the games fun to play, even in the most frustrating parts.

The cool thing is, you can actually buy a lot of these old games from 3DRealms.  Nice to see some companies haven't forgotten their classics.

Just wanted to see if anybody else ever played these games, and if they still do.  Hope this thread doesn't get locked by our lockaholic moderators.

Do you worry constantly?Ã,  Is your mind filled with "what if" questions?Ã,  What are your fears?

Share your anxiety here, what you've dealt with, how you got over it, etc.Ã,  Nothing is too trivial to post about.Ã, 

I'll start:

I know I worry and obsess about things too much.Ã,  For instance, I recently came down with a tonsil infection.Ã,  As soon as my throat started to hurt, the first thing in my mind was, "Oh no, it's cancer!"Ã, 

Once I got the fever, I knew it wasn't cancer, but then I started worrying about my tonsils swelling up so bad as to block my airway.Ã,  (Yes, I realize how uncommon that is.)

I went to the doctor, who prescribed antibiotics.Ã,  I got home, and started reading about it on the internet, and became afraid to take the medication, due to fears of having some rare allergic reaction.Ã, 

That's the sort of pattern I get into.Ã,  I start worrying about one thing, and then it just leads to another and another.Ã,  The worst part is that often my anxiety will create certain symptoms, such as upset stomach, fast heartrate, and shakiness, causing me to believe that something really IS going wrong.Ã,  A vicious cycle. 
(Then I start to worry that I worry too much.)

So, what's bothering you?

Interesting talk going around about the privatization of the internet by the communications companies, and the end of what they call Network Neutrality (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network_neutrality), which disallows ISPs from deciding FOR you what you can view and what you cannot.Ã, 

From what I understand, this wouldn't be based on morals, politics, or anything like that, but more on which sites PAY the most money to those service companies.

http://www.savetheinternet.com

The above site has a lot of informative and interesting stuff to read.Ã,  You might want to swing by and sign their petition, which will also send a letter to your state representatives, urging them to vote in favor of Network Neutrality.

If you like to surf the internet freely, this is definately something to keep an eye on.Ã,  I don't have to tell you what will happen if a handful of companies are allowed to take full control of your internet access.Ã,  *GASP* This could even mean the end of the AGS network!Ã,  Ã, 

I've been thinking a lot.  (Yes, this is going to be one of those threads.)

Tonight has been very interesting for me.  I really need to vent about some things.  But I suddenly realize that there is nobody I can vent to, and there's a reason behind that.  Try to stay with me on this.   

Okay, so a lot of you probably know that I profess(ed) to be a Christian, and some of you may have actually had me preach at you about something one time or another.  (Sorry about that.)

Well, anyway, in recent times I've found myself on the other side of the Christian faith, no longer believing or caring about religion, doctrine or anything else like that.  So obviously, I've got a lot of stuff to work out now.  But I realize now, I really don't have anybody to talk to, because everybody I've ever known closely is a Christian!!  If I talk to them, their solution will of course be, "Talk to Jesus." 
I'd rather not go there now.  I need to try to speak to people who won't try to steer everything back to salvation, doctrine, etc.

So, for clarification, I'm no longer a Christian.  I'm kinda just sitting on the fence, I guess.

Now, what happened tonight: I was invited to go to my old school for a get together.  That school, which I attended last year, is a Christian high school.  Well, some of my old school friends and I got to talking politics, and they've never quite cared for my anti-Bush views.  After it was all said and done, we had wandered back and fourth from politics to religion, from religion to politics.
There were some heated moments, but no hard feelings.

What stood out to me was, at the end of our discussion, I elaborated that I was glad they had a religion that made them happy and that gave them a purpose.  But I said, "Please don't try to influence this country and its politics and laws based on your Bible."

That didn't go over well, because evidently, this country belongs to God and we've gotta give it back to him, etc. 
Despite the fact that the world is full of folks who think their ideology should be made law, it was still kind of a disturbing display of, quite frankly, obsessed fundamentalism. 

These radical Christians who believe that we've got to reshape this country to fall in line with the Bible don't seem to perceive that their desire to legislate people into being Christians is blatantly unAmerican.  I said, "Well, how would you feel if I wanted to pass laws BANNING Christianity?"  And the reply was, "You'd be wrong, because this country was founded on God!"
These types seem to have a very direct and simple goal:  Sweep the entire country clean of liberals/democrats/homosexuals/non-Christians, and anybody else who they think that, because they are a political "enemy," they are also a religious enemy that must not be tolerated by any means, lest God destroy our nation.

So, part of what I want to do is measure the general opinion of these things here, so if you would, please provide a quick and simple answer to the four following questions in your post:

1.  Do the Christians (a majority) stand a chance of getting Bible-based legislation passed?

2.  Do you believe that Bible-based legislation SHOULD be passed?

3.  Do you feel that religion and politics intertwine naturally and that an American Theocracy in favor of the majority is inevitable?

4.  If a Christian juggernaut formed and began moving towards a Theocracy, what would you do? (Either to help it or stop it.)

All these things are spinning my mind around and around.  I just wanna start talking and see how you feel about these things, I'm not particularly interested in drawing sides and turning this into a debate.  That usually happens anyway, but let's just keep it calm as long as possible.

I'm playing the DOS version of Gabriel Knight 1 on Windows XP.  It's been running fine, but I've finally hit a problem.

On the opening cutscene to day five, Gabriel enters the shop and the phone rings.  Right after Gabe makes the comment, "I got it!"
the game locks up, and I don't get anything but the wait icon.

I've looked for patches, but I can only find them for the CD-ROM version.  Does anybody know where I could get a patch for the DOS version, or at least download a saved game AFTER the phone rings?

Hello all.  I've got a discussion to open up here.

I'm sure you've all heard about Bush's new nomination to the Supreme Court, Samuel Alito: http://www.cnn.com/2005/POLITICS/10/31/scotus.bush/index.html

I've done some reading about him, and one of the issues that seem to come up again and again, is that Alito once ruled in favor of a state requirement that wives notify their husbands if they were going to get an abortion. 
A lot of people, particularly those of more liberal stance, seem to think that this is a very bad thing.  I consider myself a liberal, but for some reason, I'm not seeing this issue the same way.  Why shouldn't a husband have a right to know if his wife wants to abort the baby?

So, I'm asking your opinion:
Should a wife be required to tell her husband that she wants or is going to get an abortion? 
Why or why not?

And I know just how important it was that everybody know that!Ã, 

The bad thing about this is, one more year and I gotta register for the draft.Ã,  Ã, 
And what a birthday suprise THAT is.

It seems that things have come a fair distance in the AGS community.  It seems that lots of people are forming teams to create bigger and better projects.

Already AGSers have offered to pay others money for their services, such as animators, composers and background artists.
In your opinion, is this a good thing or a bad thing? 

On one hand, people are more willing to do a great job on what it is they're doing if there is payment involved.  The end result is a higher quality game and better gaming experience.

On the other hand, does payment for services mean that soon there will be payment required to download AGS games?
Will this make AGS too commercialized and take game creation away from those who just want to make games for the pure enjoyment of it?

These questions are lofting through my mind as I am considering making myself fully available for just doing soundtracks for games here.  I would basically be opening a music and sound business for AGS games, and yes that would mean payment is required. 

But would it be the right thing to do?  Would I help or harm the community?  Who would pay cash for their game's soundtrack?  Teams creating full-length adventures?  Newbies plunging into the AGS world thinking they're making the greatest game of all time?  Or nobody?  No matter what, I want to get more seriously involved in the world of music.  But I don't want to use this community as a stepping stone if it will cause bad results.

Um.  This just seems too weird.  I've got an NPC moving to a new room.  The player character goes along with him.  Sure, it's easy to set the starting coordinates for the player in that new room, but isn't there a way to set them for the NPC?

I'm using an older Windows XP version of AGS.  But I can't imagine it not having this simple capability.

So what do you preach about?  What are your pet peves?  What area are you most persuasive in?  Politics? Religion?  Lawn fertilizers?
My big soap box usually deals with politics.  I have a lot of soap boxes, but I won't list them all now.

It has been a long time since I posted here, so I decided, insted of creating a "hi, how's it going" topic, I'd create something of moderate interest.  BTW, how IS it going?


 

Okay, I've got a tid bit of trouble.Ã,  I'm using dialog options in my game.Ã,  The player needs to be able to tell character2 about something, only if he's asked character1 a certain question.Ã,  I've got a fair grasp on scripting dialogs and so on, but I can't tackle this one.

Here is a simplified example of what I want, in case the above makes little or no sense:

TOPIC1:

So, the ego asks character1:

Ã,  1".How are you?"

character1("I'm fine but...")

then the ego has the option to ask

Ã,  2."But what?"

character1("Well, my goldfish died. And I'm sad.")

okay, the second option, "but what" should enable to inform character2 about character1's gold fish, but ONLY if he actually clicked option 2.

Now, later in topic 2:

Ã,  1."Hello, character2."

character2: "Hi.Ã,  Whats new?"

Ã,  2."Character1's goldfish died. He's sad."

So how do I get option 2 in topic 2 to show up, once ego has spoken with char1, and once char 2 has asked what's new?  I gather from the manual that I'll need to use dialog_request in the main script or something, but this isn't all making sense.  Any help would be greatly cherished and I might even kiss you.

Every once in a great while a technical quandry pops into my head and I just have to start a discussion about it.  So, is it possible to create a driving simulation with AGS?

A realistic simulation, that is.  Not just an animating road with various objects coming towards the screen to mimmick motion.

I'm sure alot of you all agree that the education system is a joke.Ã,  It kills our children's imaginations and toasts their brains.Ã,  Ã, Have a look at this link: http://www.thememoryhole.org/edu/school-mission.htm

It tells alot about this subject.Ã,  Also, be sure to look at this one too:Ã,  http://www.johntaylorgatto.com/

Whaddya think???

Yes, have an explosively happy 4th!!!    

But unfortunately for me, I've got a cold!!!  I think this must be the first time I've been sick on the 4th of July. 

Anyway, happy 4th the rest of you Americans!!

Man, we just went through a nasty thunderstorm tonight.  The sunshine was actually shining through the clouds making this aweseom golden glow, but then entrancement turned to terror when I realized that the clouds were beggining to rotate.

Yes, I mean ROTATE, they were curling around and making loops in the sky.  Some clouds were moving south and some were moving north, some were moving west and some were moving east.  It was REALLY freaky, but I was standing at the back door taking photos.  Some didn't turn out real well, but some are really nice.  Things are calming down now, but the threat for tornadoes isn't over.   

Oh yeah, and at one point I saw this little individual cloud moving straight UP in between these other churning clouds.   :o

Have you ever had any cool or scary storm experiences?