Things I Hate

You hate eating baked potatoes? I could see not enjoying them, or even harboring a mild dislike, but actively hating them? Dang. ;)

Can't stand em. I love other types of potatoes (mashed, jullien, etc). But baked are just plain nasty.

Awwww...you should have said something last time you were here to visit! I bought all the stuff to make baked potatoes...no wonder you never seemed hungry when I made them.

My deepest sympathies about the rap music :)

You should surrender now with the cat. Growing up with a cat I've found that they choose to allow you to share their home. :)

My girlfriend Alex shares your opinion on discussions which are name-calling and always-right people.

The rap thing really pissed me off the other day when I was at synagogue and some jerk drove past with the bass going during services. Like, thanks, you bastard. My boss always turns to his kids and says "Hey kids, listen! Free music!"

@Lis -- it's ok hon. :-)

@Chris -- my cat's usually well-behaved. And she used to be much better with not coming in the office. But lately... not so much.

@Daniel -- your boss should watch out. The RIAA might hear him and sue him. ;-)

Oooh, that's a good one I forgot to list. The RIAA and MPAA piss me off to no end. I'm waiting for that dead fish to stop flopping...

Poor state of videogames?

Bah, I think you're suffering from an acute case of nostalgia. Prince of Persia: Sands of Time is a better game than all but maybe 2 SNES games, and it just came out recently. Ditto that with Beyond Good and Evil, the new Ninja Gaiden, etc.

In addition, if you have a PC, you can play Return to Castle Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory or America's Army or Tribes 2 *for free!*

Take off those rose-colored glasses and you'll see that the gaming industry is doing better work now than they ever were during the SNES era.

I played Prince of Persia and wasn't that enamoured with it. I've heard Ninja Gaiden is a *very* difficult game, yet pretty. Nothing about G & E.

As for my rose-colored glasses... How do you answer for Madden 2035? Rehashing every movie the MPAA ever stole from a book (and poorly, I might add)? The Sims series? There's by far more crap than there is good stuff lately.

I long for the storyline development which used to be a key part of gaming back when the graphics sucked. Now a days it only matters how pretty the game is. I could give a shit if it's pretty but poorly laid out.

i used to hate shaving too, until i found this:
http://www.classicshaving.com

now shaving is a relaxing ritual that i actually enjoy.

i really am serious… you should check it out.

Let's take a look at these examples:

1) Football games were rehashed during the SNES era, also. There's always a demand for them, and the genre doesn't change often-- don't like it? Don't buy it. That's hardly an indicator of the quality of the industry, just as "The Island" is hardly an indicator of the quality if the motion picture industry, or "Garfield" isn't an indicator of the comics industry.

2) Movie tie-in games have also been around during the SNES era, in roughly the same numbers. But now some of them are quite good... Spiderman 2, for instance. King Kong also. And the best of all, The Chronicles of Riddick, is about 10 times better than that lame movie.

3) What's your beef with the Sims series?

Is there more crap than good stuff? Yes, definitely. Was there during the SNES era? Yes. Was there during the 2600 era? Yes. Does the classic saying "90% of everything is crap" apply to the gaming industry? Of course.

The reason you think things have gotten worse is that you don't remember the truly terrible SNES games because nobody talks about them anymore. And so when you think back to the SNES, you're likely to think only of the good titles. Now I never owned a SNES, but I had a Genesis and I can say without reservation that the vast majority of Genesis games were crap, just as the vast majority of PS2 games now are crap. That's the way of the world. (BTW, Jurassic Park on Genesis was a movie tie-in game of very high quality.)

Storyline development? Like Doom? Or perhaps Pac-Man? (I don't know what you consider "sucky" graphics.) Text adventures had quality storylines, but then things when really down-hill when games with graphics started to appear. What was the story in the original Prince of Persia compared to Sands of Time? It was "you're in a dungeon, escape before the princess has to marry the sorceress." Compared to the complexity of Sands of Time, that might as well be no story at all.

The only genre in which story seems to be losing importance is in RPGs. The long-standing series in RPGs, the Wizardrys, Ultimas, and Might and Magics have all disappeared and with them their creatively detailed universes. (Actually, Might and Magic didn't disappear, it turned into a turn-based strategy game.) And while there are still games like Dungeon Lords out there, I'd trade a dozen Dungeon Lords for another Wizardry, or Fallout.

Anyway, I'm sorry, but I seriously think you're mistaken about the game situation. You're welcome to disagree, of course, but at least come up with better arguments than "the Sims?"

I should mention that the original Prince of Persia, when it came out, was lauded for the quality of its story... a story that would be considered lame by today's standards.

I'm so glad right now that I live in Waite Park ;)

We should totally make a Kick Ass SNES game. Come on, you know you want to.

And baked potatoes are overrated

What do you mean "Bad food, worse movies"?

Well, I understand the "bad food" part, but not the "worse movies".

The water is good now. YAY.

And I love me some baked taters. I could eat them everyday. NUM!

And we need to make another group night. My friend Jon's band is playing at Dusty's on Saturday if you want to go.

People who blame the tool for their own ignorance of how to work it?Powerpoint presentations? Are you sure you just don't know how to use Powerpoint? :)

When a movie comes out based on a book, because we all know the book is always better? It's worse when a book comes out based on a movie!!

When the cat comes into the office; she knows she’s not allowed in here? You're lucky the cat lets you in _her_ office! When you're not around, she's on the internet, contacting Cat Central for instructions. We arranged our office furniture so our cats have a 2-story bed behind my wife's monitor, a play area above our bookcases, and a tower to climb up onto the bookcases. We know who's boss. One of my cats walks across my keyboard if I ignore him.

Rap music when I can’t escape it (such as driving in someone else’s car)? It's worse when it's three cars away from you in a traffic jam but it's loud enough to sound like it's in your own car.

Oh, by the way, I'm always right. Always. :) (Just don't ask my wife or my family for their opinion about this)

@Becky -- lucky! And I've worked on SNES code before (when I went to DigiPen). It's a PITA. I'd rather knock my teeth out and chew my arm off than write for the SNES again. :-P But we could make an awesome game for the computer!

Now I am not in the corporate world, but I have *yet* to see a decent powerpoint presentation. It seems like everyone wants to use EVERY SINGLE EFFECT just because it is there. It makes for very annoying presentations.

@Russ -- For whatever reason, I always managed to eat the nastiest food when watching the worst movies. Haven't decided whether one causes the other or not yet, but I find the usually when the food is bad, the movie is worse. ;-)

@Scott -- I can work powerpoint just fine, thank you! :-P I just happen to feel that sitting through powerpoint presentations tends to dull the mind. I would much prefer to see someone writing things as they go. If I had my druthers, I'd have whiteboard for my RW talks.

"Oooh, that’s a good one I forgot to list. The RIAA and MPAA piss me off to no end. I’m waiting for that dead fish to stop flopping…"

Oh boy, I could NOT agree with you more... I think they are having a contest to see who can self destruct their industry faster, first. ;)

Hey, at least you were called about the e coli contamination. I could have let you drink your dirty water and be happy about it :)

- Pointless “discussions” which are essentially nothing more than veiled name-calling.
- People who think they’re always right. Always.

And here I thought you stopped subscribing the RB NUG list...

Corey, he could have been reffering to the forums. (Hell, he could have been reffering to me!)

BTW, what's wrong with Baked potatoes? After what I just heard, I'm going to pig out on those things! I can just picture it now: the baked potato diet... J/K