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Lost my footing on a stage...one leg on, one leg off...wasn't fun.

The 'mod' is still a subject to acceptance by the rest of the community...if people want to ignore the mod, as Dusty does/did on numerous occassions, then they can. But, for the most part, most people accept what I say*...Take, for instance, when Russia left and I seized control as the arbiter of succession. Dusty quit and everyone else agreed with the event because they benefited...as the old saying goes 'It doesn't matter how much slaughtering the Farmer does on the side, the pigs will still vote for the man who fills their trough.' *Nominally because they agree, not just because I said it. And yeah, Dusty's was probably my most liked Hegemony...the main issue I had was Uber France, which was partly Dusty, but mostly it was everyone else going 'Lalalalalala' while Doom's economy doubled and tripled. :rolleyes:

Extended responce: [hide] Pretty sure you didn't like Dusty's Hegemony either...and given you admitted massive mistakes were made in your own Hegemony(Non-existant trade system, exploits on research, unbalanced to the nth degree (One of the major benefits, though, was no one made massive argument with the mod...*cough*))...and I ended up/always was modding Sere's Hegemony. Ico's, Dungeonals, Doom's, Hex's, Rocco's, Mather's all died within a few days. And the original Hegemony didn't have a war system of any type, except someone might eventually quit. So I am not entirely sure which Hegemony you are refering to? I believe I have suggested several games like that, all of which were widely reviled because nobody trusts everyone else not to screw them over for their own ends. See Rocco's Hegemony for an example of everyone screwing someone over. A mod that has no secure footing (aka no backbone) is a terrible idea in and of itself though...They would basically be a figurehead, someone to blame when things went wrong, their job would be looking for a compromise...one that didn't impress anyone. Lets point out the flaws in your Hegemony again, shall we =P A set of computer based laws would need someone to sit down for several days and work through dozens of exploits, strategies and what not...or it would need the whole tavern to come together and design a system...But, at the end of all that, we would be so sick of the game I doubt anyone would play it =P And of the three memorable mods (Me, you and Dusty) two of them gave up on running the game and haven't modded a game (of Hegemony) since, and one had their spirit broken by the game+external factors...so I doubt anyone will set up the set of computer based laws. Also, lets look at Civ, EU3 and all the other grand strategy games...All of them have the computer suddenly and inexplicably screwing you over. If you look at the Tavern's experiance of EU3 you will find that people's strategies didn't work out and so they ended up choosing new countries because they had dug themselves such a pit as they couldn't climb out of. In Hegemony people just give up playing if they have dug a pit they can't climb out of, or blame the mod for arbitrarily changing rules (Though comparatively, Dusty had an NPC country screw you, and I had an NPC country screw you...Mine was decided by the NPCs, Dusty's was decided by the NPCs and one of the PCs...So I don't really see what you are whining about) [/hide] On an unrelated note: Gotta love the cynicism that £29 buys people. (Sword of Stars 2 review)

Unless you remember that there are only 10 rounds per year, per country (not including getting attacked by multiple countries, or visa versa) Also...couldn't the army you are attacking...you know...come after you? All of which ignores the simple fact that it could be countered by someone not having a giant blob of an army sitting right there. If you had a less martially minded player...lets call him...."Nather", who decided to get his...."Morwegian"...Gattling Gun Troops, all 100,000 of them...in a blob, to defend against...."Detech's"...Single man army...Then, quite frankly, he deserves to die. :rolleyes: Sarcasm aside, you haven't suggested a viable alternative, you have just pointed out how you would ignore the spirit of the game and of the rules... Games are supposed to be played and winning is something you do at the end of the game, not the very beginning. And I agree 100% Earth, but those such as Retech don't especially like games where they can't know in advance they are going to win...and as much of a pain Retech is...but we don't have a huge pool of people to choose from, so...

If you did that, going strictly by the rules...you would either have sent 100,000 soliders at the enemy...or 1. So sending 1 man against 100,000 soliders is a valid tactic. In an offense that is fairly reasonable...you kill a reasonably large portion of their army with 1 of your guys, though I wouldn't expect you to capture any terrain. On the defence...you just lost territory because your soliders sat around drinking tea while one of their number died, maybe killing a few thousand of the enemy, but hey, you just lost the Amazon and your people are mad at you. Ultimately...its an idea, and any idea can be abused (the Legal System, for example). The other alternative, as I originally intended, was that every unit rolled attack and defence, scaled to the size of the army. Eg for 500 vs 100, the 500 side would go 5 times, then the 100 side would go once, then repeat. However, given the vast tedium of that would kill the game, and probably the Games' Master as well. If I was running it I would just make an edcuated guess at what happened, though people who like to abuse rules don't like that, so there is an impasse.

=P Hegemony is played on a day to day basis (and its not like you need to do stuff every day).

Been thinking... What if we used a point buy to build our leaders? (Or Ruling Body) 5 stats: Popularity - How easily we can do things inside our own country Finesse - How easily we can do things outside of our own country Creativity - How easily we research things Intelligence - How easily to hide things, and uncover other things Martial - How well we lead our armies I would suggest we use the 25 point, pathfinder system. *4 So 18 becomes 72, 17 becomes 68, ect. Then we roll a hundred sided die when we want to do something, and if we meet the difficulty check, we do it. So, say you wanted to research phaser guns in 1 turn, the Mod might say that was DC 300, eg, no chance at doing it. Whereas phaser guns in 10 turns might be DC 120. So you have some chance of success, but its not certain. If you succeed then you get the research whenever you said you would get it. If you don't succeed then you have to wait until next year to try again. If you wanted to turn all of your people into lizards, then the DC might be 400 because no one, bar you, really wants to be a lizard. But you could begin putting out pamplets and what not to make people more agreeable to the idea. So you choose a percentage of the population to turn to the idea, say 30%, the mod says 'Thats a DC of 90, but 40% is DC 120' If you hit the target of 90 then 30% of the people are more favourable of becoming lizards so the DC is lowered by 30%. If you overshoot and hit 130(not 120 but +10 more) then 40% of people are more favourable, so the DC is lowered by 40%. But, if you undershoot, getting less than 90, then people are offended and the DC is increased by 10% per 10 you fail by. So if you got 80 then the DC is 10% higher, if you got 70 then the DC is 20% higher. If you were fighting a battle then: Each side has an Attack and Defence modifer(Which is simply Martial skill/5, +tech bonuses+training bonuses+circumstance bonuses) Ergo: Army A has an attack of 23 and a Defence of 20 (And 500 soliders) Army B has an attack of 21 and a Defence of 30 (And 100 soliders) Army A rolls a d100+23 and gets 93, Army B rolls a d100+30 and gets 72 The difference is 21, so 21 soliders of Army B die. Army B rolls a d100+21 and gets 59, Army A rolls a d100+20 and gets 83 So the difference is -24, so 24 soliders of Army B die. Battles either end at some preset time (Say Army A's Commander gives instruction to pull back if 50% of the army is destroyed), when no one is left one one of the sides, or until 10 rounds (both sides attack once per round) have passed. If the an army is over 1,000 then it does double the number of deaths (And loses double the number of people if it fails) 2,000 is treble, 3,000 is quadruple, 4,000 is quintuple...and so on. Eg, an army of 50,000 people attacking an army of 3,000 people, rolls 107 verses 31, killing 75*51 soliders, or 3,825 (Or totally anhilating the opposing army). If they had failed, and got the opposite result, then they would have lost 3,825 men. When the army of 3,000 people attacked and rolling 83 verses 70, winning by 13, they kill 52(13*4) people. An army anywhere between 1 man and 1,000 men does *1 damage. (Using a smaller dice for combat, or the full martial modifer is probably a better idea...Given that this system gives a rather large margin of random chance) Whatever system is being used to pay for all of those various things can still be used.

If it actually runs...Then I say we get a 20 year period to do stuff in our country prior to playing the game. Cause otherwise we have the first five years where Mather fights global warming, I suspend all civil liberties to foreigners and set up the experimentation camps, and Retech takes control of the rest of South America. Then everyone else, who hasn't inimately planned how to rule their country do a mad scramble to take control of their neighbours and the game collapses.

It should be accessable through live chat.

Ideally, yes. Whether it will actually catch on is another matter entirely.

Reminds me of a cautionary tale... A baker hasn't extingushed all the embers after a long day of baking, and one of them escapes the grate and soon the building is on fire. A passing fireman sees the blaze and rushes back to his establishment to inform his superiours. But when he tells them where it is they ummm and ahhhh, as it is outside of their area, and so they agree to get prepared for a fire that spreads to 'their' patch. Long story short, three days later 87% of the houses in London were destroyed. (not entirely sure that is 100% true, but the Great Fire could have been stopped in its infancy had people taken action) Never works, have tried it three or four times. The backroom exists because someone thought it would be a good idea to take all the offtopic discussion that happened on the threads, because the discussion annoyed people in the threads (slightly), and stick it all in one thread....which would annoy people five times as much because it didn't actually deal with the 'these people are annoying these other people' aspect. :rolleyes: I am in favour of simply archiving it as a grand disaster and going back to the old system...People got annoyed at each other, but people didn't feel compelled to keep the thread alive for several weeks.

Speaking as a former moderator...Its very hard to do that. I mean, from what has been said its unlikely that people will willing stop posting their 'angst/humour' So it would mean someone subjectively trimming posts, which, as Retech shows (I disagree with his definations) isn't something EVERYONE agrees on. For me, half the stuff Lei and Mather come out with isn't interesting, but isn't something annoying...where as Grim and Nex seem to be more commonly annoyed by it. As such Ross seems to feel annoyed that the Tavern doesn't move forwards. Retech seems to feel annoyed that we are Complaining about Complaining. (Yes we are, we are trying to fix the Complaining so we don't have to Complaining. The solution 'If you didn't Complaining then there would be less Complaining' doesn't help because we don't want 'less' Complaining, we want NO Complaining') So, altogether, there is a problem on many levels...and since 'pruning' the root of the annoyance isn't going to impress everyone (If you want me back or someone to do this then write to the Admin(Or giving Spork freedom of action), not gonna stop you :rolleyes: ), the idea of reclassifying the backroom as 'Only for Games' might spread out the angst a bit...rather than the focused ball it currently is...and like Wyvern says, the thread, as it is, is just a seething mess...It doesn't give a feeling of warm community or anything like that. PS. Going to bed

That things are pretty fine the way they are:

To summerise: We disagree that what Mather says is relevant, humourous or, in any way, entertaining. The vote, when it comes, will decide the number of people who agree with Retech/Mather interpretation or Nex/Iey/My interpretation. So can we just stop kicking the dead donkey.

Clearly your comedy stylings are wasted on us.... What with the whole 'May cause irreperable, serious and catastrophic injury' aspect. Quite impressed that the removal of censorship of one word has lead to an immediate lowering of the tone, style and general structure of forum posting...

't's true sir, yes indeed. I would guess you probably were talking for me, Grim, Ross, Ico and yourself...Dungeonal probably as well, RPG, Paul...Wyvern maybe. I think thats a majority. Changing a poll after voting has begun is tricky...lets not get frustrated at people just doing their job (aka Stork), we love and appreciate him for being awesome (Or at least not terrible like Nex, er... =P Joke) But most importantly, though we are all annoyed by the talking about stuff we aren't interested, lets just vote and not say more on the matter until a decision is reached.

36 > 5 =P (Its mostly because moving 36 ships will take a long time, so I wanted to start off at 5, and maybe increase it depending on the speed the game went)

Yeah, it is intended. If you look at the HP(Health Points)*, the size and such, of the more expensive ships, they are larger and stronger. Also the DR (Damage Reduction) is much higher. As to the amount of money it should be 10,000,000,000...Which is obviously 10 Billion in retrospect =-P *Sorry if this is a little patronising

:shades: In my opinion it would be best if I had full control :thumbup: But thats because I am paranoid and have 'some crazy ideas' which people have lynched other people for. Personally, it shouldn't matter who has control. None (Few) of us are liable to abuse the power for our own ends, and if they do then we can set up another channel with a different person leading it. This would be my argument against the Admin controlling it...Not that they would abuse the power, but they have the inclination and experience to wield the power over situations which don't neccessarily require it being used. (Personally, I just don't want someone sitting in the channel with a crown because it makes people edgy.) Realistically the only reason to have a leader is to prevent against people camping the channel, if someone is being a major annoyance: Screenshot, report, log off. Assuming they have destroyed 98% of the bots, and not 5% of the bots and 93% of legitmate accounts...There will be more bots...there will always be more bots. Unless Jagex has created some sort of web-cam based system to work out who is a bot and who isn't, which has problems in and of itself, the set back will be temporary at best. Would be like shooting all the corrupt bankers...you don't get them all, you kill some innocent people and a few years (Weeks/days in RS given the ease at which people level now) there will be more of them. No, I have recently rediscovered the X series though. Wiki Link Its real time space combat/trading, with a 'one more turn' sort of style of game play =P I will log off just as soon as this ship is upgraded, oh, there is a ship over there I could shoot up and try to take over, I will do that while I am waiting, oh the ship has arrived, I will just set it to transport this to here while I get back to the station to save. Its pretty ingenious in its addictiveness...especially as a freeform game. (There is also a storyline mode) Its also quite fun that you can be a ruthless pirate AND a bussinessman at the same time, and by attacking 1 ship in 1 sector you don't irrevocably cut yourself off from all civilised sectors forever. For instance, I am a pirate to the Boron(Aquatic Race) and Paranid(Another race), a hero to the Split (Another race) and an 'alright bloke' to the Argon (Humanesc). I have set myself in a system between the Split and Argon, but with large volues of Boron and Paranid traffic. Recently expanded into buying a Chelt(Fish creature) Aquarium (An industrial sized space station) and two Raster Refinaries (Turning Chelts into Raster Oil, which is used by the Split.) My stolen fleet of cargo ships thus buy energy cells from the Teladi (Another, profit obsessed, race, in a system 2 jumpgates over) and the Argon (1 system over) and sell Raster Oil to the Split (1 system over). Originally I had built an Ore Mine...but the area around me is flooded with Ore...so I gave up on that (Wasting 700,000 credits in the process - the average fighter/trader ship is worth between 10,000 and 1,000,000 credits, and the 1,000,000 credit ships are uncommon...and difficult to capture.) But now that both Raster Refinaries are operating (I had one earlier...took so long to get enough money together to do anything) I am making a good amount of profit with minimal input (Though the computer being silly doesn't buy the way I want it to so interventions abound). One of the really really really good things about it is the Singularity Engine Time Acclerator...which seems really basic, but is SO useful. Basically it speeds the game up by a certain factor (default is set at 600%, I have mine set at 1,000%, the highest setting), so rather than waiting 10 minutes for a ship to slowly cross a sector, you can press J and have it shoot across in 1 minute. BUT you aren't forced to play the game in super high speeds or remember/find the J key to turn it off again, you can just take evasive action (generally engines full ahead, and one of the straffing engines to full, so you travel sideways and forwards, avoiding the enemy fire, then change straffing direction, come about, and try to avoid their shots while firing at them) and it automatically slows down to normal speed. The weapons system is pretty awesome as well...there is a noticable difference between weapons...Its not about simply getting the BEST weapon and then holding down the fire button, its about getting the right weapon for the right craft, for the right circumstance. For instance, I am using mostly Impulse Ray Emitters and Pulsed Beam Emitters, both are relatively short range, with, high speed and good damage. But, I also have two Particle Accelerator Cannons (Which do awesome blue special effects when they hit a ship) which are longer range, slower speed and higher damage. You can have up to 8 weapon systems at a time (on the ship I have at the moment, Mamba!), but you can choose which weapons you want to fire (There are 4 configeration tabs, linked to 1,2,3,4 on the keyboard, so you can fire a long range volley, then switch over to short ranged weapons so you aren't wasting energy firing weapons that can't possible hit (Like using heavy, slow, weapons to hit a fighter that is faster than the energy bolt, or short ranged weapons to hit a target beyond it range). The only real drawback is the lack of customisation (and I never seem to have enough money =P), there are only 7 or so classes of ship, and while each race has a variant, getting all of the ships is a pain in the neck (Though why you want them all is another matter)...and the variants are not MASSIVELY different from each other. Similarly, there are only 9 weapon systems, usually with an Alpha and Beta version, with the Alpha being less energy consuming, and the Beta being more powerful. (Again its not UPGRADE, but choosing the right weapon for the right job) And linked to not having enough money...Its incredibly hard to find some of the weapons/ships/shields/ect. You can't just click a tab to find them all, you have to search the Universe for the right station, and then hope that that station has them in stock. ...Because there is, at the start of the game, a paralysing lack of Raster Oil in the sector north of the one with my refinaries in (The main reason I set them up where I did...), and so the factories there don't produce anything, so the ability to buy stuff is reduced (Ect). You can, obviously, search around and other systems will have the resources you need, and there is a 'Jump Drive' so you don't have to wind your way across all of space...but you have to buy that, and I don't really have the time to track it down and buy it (I am building an empire damn it =P). AND even if you do buy it, you have to hire other ships to transport the station construction kits, so it isn't that useful....just mildly time releasing =P Added to that you have to explore the universe(you start with a blank map, though its not a random map so you end up exploring the same area time and again, if you start a new game...which I wouldn't :rolleyes: (Part of the fun is that you aren't locked into playing a certain way, like a certain class or ship or race relations, you can try to rebefriend people (Which is hard...let me tell you) or buy a different ship and use that, so you don't need several saved games at different levels of development, you can play all of the aspects of the game with one version.)) I think it is: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Exiled_Realm_of_Arborea But yeah...I have little interest in MMORPGs...they are fun for a while, but there is always a grinding element to them...and the stories/quests tend to be linear, with few exceptions. All of which I can do in a single player game...without an internet connection, without noobs and without choobs(Which is high level noobs (So I believe =P))...So you aren't assaulted by people for free stuff, and you aren't told to spend 5 hours cutting maples because that is 'hw u ply!' ...No body cares if you spend huge amounts of money on a totally worthless item (and you can load a save if you screw up). Additionally, you aren't competing with anyone. (In games like Call of Duty, or other shootem ups, or base building or...basically games where mistakes are commonplace... competition can be good because most people have an 'average' level of skill and so you can win and lose (playing against people of ultra high level is still not fun), where as games like RS, anyone can read a guide and suddenly become 'good'. Which means anyone who is just playing the game becomes 'bad'. Anyway, thats my $2. :thumbsup:

Would be nice to see who was voting for what...but still. Open ballots always seem to lead to a more transparent decision, largely because there are people behind them, not just faceless votes. As to the channel, if it hasn't been done already, would be an idea to set up a 'dumb' account, purely so no one has the leadership but leadership can be accessed should it need to be.

I vote we support the planned voting on the vote, should the planning of the vote require a vote. :thumbup: On a more serious note, I think that we should state clearly what we mean and encode it in one document or another (Aka, we vote and then whatever the decision it is added to the rules, or put in a seperate sticky, since this has almost ended the tavern...and may still do so.)

You will need to register your name with the server, then talk to an admin about registering the channel. I would certainly agree to something like this, perhaps there could be a phase to introduce the idea (Aka you can post offtopic here, still, and post there) before we decide if we want to switch over entirely (Leaving the backroom for long time no see people, new games and ect.)

What, no! What if I suddenly discover my pulsing intellect and rippling muscles has made me a stud, then where will I advertise the fact that I am depressed! I mean sure I have like 40 guys trying to give me their phone numbers, but its like so much effort to read those little slips of paper, if only there was some sort of a way to post my angst to people I have never met, through the medium of writing, in an atomsphere of roleplayers... In many ways my highly active sex life makes me very unhappy that I don't get enough sex. Sometimes I feel the need to talk openly about how I would rape people, how could I do that without the backroom?!?! People need to know about my illicit sex life imaginings!! I feel down for no explicit reason, and its everyone who reads this' fault! None of you love me enough!!! HELP PEOPLE ARE BEING WEIRD AND TRYING TO HUG ME OVER THE INTERNET!! What if my opinions about someone no one here has ever met, or ever likely to met, suddenly become vitally important to anyone here! What then, hmmmm?!!?!?!?!?!?! [/sarcasm] Seriously, if you are attending roleplays or something then, by all means, post in the backroom about your issues...you have earned the right...If you are just posting here because, then what right do you have at all?

Right, hello all. Wargames are fun. Space is fun. Wargames in Space are Super Fun. QED. :thumbsup: Basically, you are an Admiral in a wargames exercise. You have been given 10 trillion virtual dollars to buy up to 5 ships, each. The battles are Last Man Standing, with the surviving ships being turned back into virtual dollars ready to be respent. However, ships you kill are translated into virtual dollars for whoever kills them. Part kills don't count, though you can give each other money if you want. If you board a ship and take control of it, then you get its virtual price and the ability to use that ship again, at no cost(permenantly). Jumping removes the ship from the game and gives you back half the money you paid for it. Everyone is given 10 trillion more virtual dollars per completed battle. Ships(Please click on the link since they are fairly large): [hide] http://dl.dropbox.com/u/12603519/Star%20Control/Chmmr%20Avatar.png http://dl.dropbox.com/u/12603519/Star%20Control/Druuge%20Mauler.png http://dl.dropbox.com/u/12603519/Star%20Control/Earthling%20Cruiser.png http://dl.dropbox.com/u/12603519/Star%20Control/Ur-Quan%20Dreadnought.png http://dl.dropbox.com/u/12603519/Star%20Control/VUX%20Intruder.png http://dl.dropbox.com/u/12603519/Star%20Control/Yehat%20Terminator.png [/hide] Only the Cruiser, Terminator and Mauler will currently be in your price range. Game will take place on IRC and Maptools (I will be taking screenshots for people in IRC) Hex-based. d = six sided dice You can target individal locations on the ship (their disabling/destruction does the noted damage) at -4 Destroying the command center disables the ship for 10 rounds, unless stated otherwise. To start everyone rolls 3d, the highest scorer chooses the order of battle. Speed is Acceleration / Max Speed You can go faster than Max Speed but damage increases by 1d per unit over (So if you are going at 5 units over your max you take 5d damage extra from projectile weapons, not from lasers.) Battlefield wraps, so if you go off one side you come on the other. Battle rounds last 20 seconds(same as DnD's 6 Seconds). Each Hex is 1 unit of distance. Power Points generate each turn, and some of them are used: 4/4 means 4 are generated and 4 are used. Any excess power can be sent to the capacitors and used later. If people want to use advanced tactics (Sensors, ect) then talk to me. All checks are done with 3 six sided dice + Modifers. Contests between ships are done as above + Complexity modifer of the ship. Firing weapons is done at +2 if the platform is 'Fixed', + ((complexity+sensors)/3) + dice + Range modifer. Avoiding getting hit is dice + the amount of acceleration you allocate to avoiding damage. You can only uses that turn's acceleration once (So if you have 10, you can split it 9/1 between moving and avoiding damage, or 5/2/2/1 if you think you will be hit 3 times that round, or however you want to divide it. You can choose to change the amount of acceleration applied to each until the dice is rolled (or you move)) Ships can keep their speed going as long as they like, or can stop as a full round action(Or at however much acceleration is needed to stop if you are travelling at slower speeds, you can also decelerate slowly like this). If you turn your ship then speed is transfered to this new direction (Cause otherwise things get tedious). Power Points can be used as extra acceleration, so can capacitance. Turning requires 1 acceleration per turn speed unit (Rounding up) you want to turn (Aka, if your ship turns at 30, then you need 2 acceleration to turn 60 degrees, 1 to turn 30 degrees and 1 to turn 20 degrees). 6 sides to a hexagon so, if you want to be clever: 1-15 degrees anti-clockwise you can shoot/move either ahead or to the left. 1-15 degrees, clockwise, you can shoot/move either ahead or to the right. Middle 30 degrees you can only shoot/move ahead. If you don't want to be clever: 30 degrees turns the ship, you can only move/shoot ahead. Shooting is + Arc of Fire of the weapon (Aka if your Arc of Fire is 60 you can shoot into any of the 3 spaces in front of you) Range: Long range -2 (10 Hexes) Intermediate Range 0 (7 Hexes) Short Range +2 (4 Hexes) Point Blank Range +8 (1 Hex) Hexs are large enough for up to 3 ships to exist simultanously. They may choose to crash into each other for d(height or width)*current speed damage. If 3 ships are already in a Hex new ships entering must choose to collide with one of them. (Fighters and the like don't count) You are responsible for keeping your own records on each of your 5 ships. Finally, customising your ships will only be possible if we manage to get through a few battles (As it requires extra work for me which I don't want to do if people give up after the first battle).

Of course...the logical thing to do is to just set the auto reminder thingy for new topics and ignore the backroom entirely. That way, if new games arise, you can be informed. Oh, and I would like to say 'I told you so'*: *Also Grim, and Earth Told You So, but did you listen to us? God no. So, in the historic tradition of Dusty: [hide] Can someone please translate whatever message Falador Tavern is trying to convey into something that I might better be able to understand, like Yiddish or that Bushman clicking language? As it stands, I have no idea whether Falador Tavern is seriously claiming that those who disagree with it should be cast into the outer darkness, should be shunned, should starve or if it's simply the case that its dupes fight more for the negative destruction of opposing ideologies than for the positive promotion of their own. First and foremost, it wants all of us to believe that taxpayers are a magic purse that never runs out of gold. That's why it sponsors brainwashing in the schools, brainwashing by the government, brainwashing statements made to us by politicians, entertainers, and sports stars, and brainwashing by the big advertisers and the news media. I can repeat with undiminished conviction something I said eons ago: Falador Tavern has inadvertently provided us with an instructive example that I find useful in illustrating certain ideas. By preventing us from recognizing the vast and incomparable achievements, contributions, and discoveries that are the product of our culture, Falador Tavern makes it clear that it is an obstreperous, coldhearted caitiff. I use that label only when it's true. If you don't believe it is, then consider that Falador Tavern's fairy tales are eerily similar to those promoted by madmen such as Pol Pot. What's scary, though, is that their extollment of nepotism has been ratcheted up a few notches from anything Pol Pot ever conjured up. Falador Tavern asserts that its debauches are the result of a high-minded urge to do sociological research. That assertion is not only untrue but a conscious lie. Several things Falador Tavern has said have brought me to the boiling point. The statement of its that made the strongest impression on me, however, was something to the effect of how its cop-outs enhance performance standards, productivity, and competitiveness. Falador Tavern wants nothing less than to pass off all sorts of high-handed and obviously unimaginative stuff on others as a so-called "inner experience". Its lieutenants then wonder, "What's wrong with that?" Well, there's not much to be done with muzzy-headed guttersnipes who can't figure out what's wrong with that, but the rest of us can plainly see that if you think you can escape from Falador Tavern's simple-minded communications, then good-bye and good luck. To the rest of you I suggest that its method (or school, or ideologyit is hard to know exactly what to call it) goes by the name of "Falador Tavern-ism". It is an apolaustic and avowedly twisted philosophy that aims to anesthetize the human spirit. Falador Tavern has made it known that it fully intends to dissolve the bonds that join individuals to their natural communities. If those words don't scare you, nothing will. If they are not a clear warning, I don't know what could be. Anyone who hasn't been living in a cave with his eyes shut and his ears plugged knows that Falador Tavern possesses no significant intellectual skills whatsoever and has no interest in erudition. Heck, it can't even spell or define "erudition", much less achieve it. Falador Tavern has been trying for some time to sell the public on a heathenism-based government. Its sales pitch proceeds both pragmatically and emotionally. The pragmatic argument: Anyone who disagrees with Falador Tavern is a potential terrorist. The emotional argument: Poststructuralism provides an easy escape from a life of frustration, unhappiness, desperation, depression, and loneliness. As you can see, neither argument is valid, which should indicate to you that I, hardheaded cynic that I am, cannot believe how many actual, physical, breathing, thinking people have fallen for Falador Tavern's subterfuge. I'm entirely stunned. To make a long story short, Falador Tavern claims to be supportive of my plan to turn its passive-aggressive, lewd biases to our advantage. Don't trust it, though; it's a wolf in sheep's clothing. Before you know it, it'll attack the fabric of this nation. Not only that, but Falador Tavern not only lies but brags about its lying to its devotees. Falador Tavern once tried to impose tremendous hardships on tens of thousands of decent, hard-working individuals. If you consider this an exception to the rule then you indubitably don't understand how Falador Tavern operates. I hope, however, that you at least understand that its secret passion is to abridge our basic civil liberties. For shame! Think about that for a minute. Let it sink in. It should soon become clear that Falador Tavern alleges that arriving at a true state of comprehension is too difficult and/or time-consuming. Naturally, this is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing. Falador Tavern's flimflams are designed to reduce human beings and many other living organisms to engineered products and mere cogs in the social machine. And they're working; they're having the desired effect. Falador Tavern says it is within its legal right to place stumbling blocks in front of those of us who seek value and fulfilment in our personal and professional lives. Whether or not it indeed has such a right, Falador Tavern pompously claims that it is patriotic to destroy the values, methods, and goals of traditional humanistic study. That sort of nonsense impresses many people, unfortunately. Falador Tavern must sense its own irremediable inferiority. That's why it is so desperate to treat anyone who doesn't agree with it to a torrent of vitriol and vilification; it's the only way for it to distinguish themselves from the herd. It would be a lot nicer, however, if Falador Tavern also realized that it has repeatedly indicated a desire to drain our hope and enthusiasm. Is that the sound of rarefied respectability that Falador Tavern's factotums so frequently attribute to Falador Tavern? The mudslinging blathering of a callow sociopath is more like it. In fact, in Falador Tavern's quest to bar people from partaking in activities that cannot be monitored and controlled it has left no destructive scheme unutilized. If Falador Tavern feels ridiculed by all the attention my letters are bringing it, then that's just too darn bad. Its arrogance has brought this upon itself. Some people have indicated that Falador Tavern prefers to keep its dastardly agenda hidden behind the cloak of mysticism. I can neither confirm nor deny that statement, but I can say that prudence is no vice. Cowardiceespecially Falador Tavern's odious form of itis. To conclude, Falador Tavern's reinterpretations of historic events use a philosophical device of asking one question, answering an utterly different question, and then applying that answer to the original question.[/hide] (Bolded for the bits you could probably apply to the Tavern....Falador Tavern could also be replaced with "someone's" name) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EPYaInj6GWg