*NOW* we know why cats run up trees.

Hey, we all want a little pussy... in this case, it doesn't seem like the little pussy was ... uhm ... willing.

I just wish there was another dog off to the side with a disturbed look on its face so that you could caption it something like:

Jeezus, Scout, you'll screw anything ....

I've thought for awhile that we need to discharge some of this bizarro-world animosity in a friendly way.  What we need is a CG vs. OO volleyball tournament.

Set a specific time length (i.e. 24 hours).

During that time each side tries to post as many unique pictures of balls as possible.

At the end of the time limit we add up the score and mock those silly octopussies until they run home to their mommies!

*shakes volleyball*

That's an admirable goal (one which we both share as you well know), and a tremendous suggestion.  Set it up and we'll run with it.

~Neal

I've got a better idea:

*shakes Meal*

Actually, instead of posting pictures of balls, can't it be of something more interesting ... like Elisha?

Man, great links!  I think my favorite quote from Smith in that article was this one:

apparently the path to the Dark Side isn't very quick. It starts with 'I hate my hair' and ends with wanting to destroy Alderaan.

I'm enjoying Matter+Form, but I found it to be a pretty big departure from VNV's older stuff.  Has way more of a house music vibe than anything else they have done, and the arrangements border on being conventional.  I would give it a 7/10, whereas I'd probably rate Empires as a 9/10.  This one just wasn't as EBMy as I would have liked.

I actually like A23 better than VNV (although I'd probably rate them as being a close 1-2 in this genre), and I enjoyed Storm quite a bit more than Matter+Form.  It's all good stuff though.

Jessica Alba..  

That looks to be about the only reason to go see it so far.  And we know how much that did for Elektra.

Dude, Jessica Alba is orders of magnitude hotter than Jennifer Garner.

Good god, that's like geek meets Martha Stewart.

Actually, that would be this:

Awesome!  A game like this looks *perfect* for my group of friends.  Thanks for the heads up!

Another proponent of South Beach.  Have been doing it for around 5 months now and have lost 46 pounds.  The key thing was giving up sugar, cutting out impulse eating (I have meals and fairly defined snack periods), and really trying to pay attention to when I'm full (I'm a compulsive plate cleaner).  I'm 5'9" and started at 248 (I still can't believe I weighed that much) and am currently at 202.  My goal is to be 165 by May, but I already look and feel much, much better.  A few small changes to my diet has made a tremendous difference.

...having lunch with the insanely cool R.R. Morton.

That lunch was indeed a good time, Jesse! When are you coming back to NYC?

I've just started on a case that may involve New York travel.  You can be sure I'll look you up if the Man sends me back to the Big Apple!  

[NEED]

R&P as a seperate forum is just something that some people find important. You can't just tell them "absolutely not" and expect them all to be just happy.

Heh, am I the only one that noticed that most of the people that NEED a seperate R&P forum are the ones that were up in arms about it when GG created one?  :shock:

Actually, it wasn't about a separate R&P forum (here at CG), so much as it was about being able to discuss whatever we wanted to without offending the forum gods.  I still wish a separate R&P Forum had never been created at GG.

I guess what I'm looking for is a hangout for grown-up gamers who are free to share their thoughts on any topic in a mature fashion.  That seems pretty simple to me, but there is an awful lot of anxiety about it here.  I'd just as soon not create stress for a pre-existing community that was already plenty happy with what they created.  We're the gypsies; if its not home, we should just keep moving until we find it.  There are other options out there.

Er, isn't that exactly what we have here? What else does KD have to do to make you happy? You don't have to have a seperate forum and he is allowing you to discuss R&P here (civilly). What else do you want? Why do you need to move elsewhere?

I'm troubled that KD feels like he has to make any concessions at all.  Contrary to tripwire's post above, its quite easy for me to understand why the powers that be here have traditionally been against R&P.  Further, as trip illustrates below, many of the people here do not want to see R&P style topics.  That's fine.  I can't imagine why the CG community would want to cater to anyone on the subject; you guys had a great place here before GG's demise and it will be great if a bunch of us move on.  But I'm looking for a GG experience, and its clear to me that there is a tremendous amount of angst here about providing that atmosphere.  That means that its not a perfect fit for me, but may be a perfect fit for 95% of the remaining GG refugees.  I begrudge nobody that preference.

When I started over at GG, the EBG forum was pretty much an anything goes place that ran the gamut from the serious to the absurd.  Further, because all we had really tying us together was games, I ended up conversing with people whose backgrounds and thought processes were wildly different from my own.  It was in essence an opportunity to discuss serious topics with people I wouldn't otherwise have a chance/make the effort to talk to.  What I'm sensing here is "we're not crazed about R&P stuff, we've traditionally hated it, but enough of you are clamoring for it that we'll give it a go, albeit the conversations will start off on double-secret probation."  As a former GGer, that just reminds me that this isn't my house.

I know everyone likes unity, and KD has certainly bent over backwards and more to try and make this place attractive to an evolving audience, but for some of us it doesn't seem like it will be the perfect marriage.  I think for those folks, its probably just better to move on (or, to the extent we don't, to think of this as a different place with different rules when we decide to stop by for a visit).

As I hope I've already conveyed, I think KD is trying to make the best decisions for his site and his community, and he has been courtious, fair, and accomodating to the newcomers.  I have no complaints about the treatment we've received here, and I'll just come out and say that I wish some of my fellow gone gold refugees had been slightly less strident in advancing their views, but that is what it is.  I've still been poking in here, even though I've been splitting time at popehat.com and brutesquad.net.  I think it remains to be seen where the best place to hang out will end up being, but I feel like we're stepping on fewer people's toes at those other forums than here.

Guido, I think the Great Console Gold experiment is still ongoing.  I see a few politically themed threads now.  I'd like to give this place a shot due to the generosity of the staff and their willingness to make such accomodations in such a short period of time.  It would be nice if enough people stick around to make a go at this site and make the changes work.

Everyone has to decide for themselves though where they want to end up.  I'd like to split my time and visit forums which have a large number of GGers.  Time will tell I guess.

I hope so, but I was one of those folks who was pretty unhappy with the R&P split over at GG, and I believe the audience here is more of the "no R&P type stuff is great" persuasion.  To which, I say: good for you; you know what you want and you should get it.  I think ThFool expressed it pretty elequently: the powers that be want this place to be about gaming and don't really want any heavy distractions from the core mission: providing great content about games.  I perceived GG (at least in the 2+ years I was there) to have been more about a gaming community, and that so long as you were a gamer there was really nothing you *could* do to detract from the core mission.

I guess what I'm looking for is a hangout for grown-up gamers who are free to share their thoughts on any topic in a mature fashion.  That seems pretty simple to me, but there is an awful lot of anxiety about it here.  I'd just as soon not create stress for a pre-existing community that was already plenty happy with what they created.  We're the gypsies; if its not home, we should just keep moving until we find it.  There are other options out there.

Ron, you've been a Prince to take in all of the refugees.  Sounds like you have a firm vision of what you would like CG to be and it is my strong feeling that this site will thrive so long as you stick to your vision.  If R&P isn't a part of that vision, then nixing it is the perfect idea.  More than anything, I really respect and appreciate the amount of communication and transparency you've offered in connection with these decisions here on the boards.  Nobody is left in the dark and everyone should know where they stand.  You can't ask for more than that.

Not sure where I will end up.  Would like to concentrate on only one board.  Maybe the new BS (or OO) board will do the trick.

[Quick, contingency plan BETA!]

Quick, contingency plan BETA!

Popehat has the people and the will but the interface is just too primitive.

We prefer "quaint." :wink:

Oh, I don't know, I'm somewhat down with "primative"  Have you ever seen Brian eat? ....

Dead or Alive 3

"Kate Botello, Hot Or Not" may have been the time I laughed the hardest at GG.  I've never really watched Tech TV, and had no idea who the heck she was, but the rapidfire responses of Morton (pro-hot) and Simon (con-hot) were amazingly funny.

I present to you, the archive of that thread

http://mywebpages.comcast.net/rcmerritt/GGarchive/kate/KateBotellolovers_page1.htm

(fyi except for the page numbers, nothing else works.)

I think I'm going to weep I'm so happy.  I thought this thread had been lost forever.

Another Opera convert here.  I liked it so much, I PAID for it!  Very slick, punchy interface.  Really nailed everything a user is looking for in a Browser.

I e-mailed the good doctor (and his wife by proxy).

Heh.  Great, we're spamming them.  

For me, the big moments have been the get togethers.  I've had trips to New York and Washington D.C. made a hundred times better because of all of the super cool GGers I met in each location.  Painting the town with Dr. and Mz. Darm (if you miss a chance to do Manhattan with Todd and Janice, you're just dumb), having lunch with the insanely cool R.R. Morton, breaking bread and gaming with the likes of Siljanus, FreezerTPF, Eightball, Triggercut, and a few more cool guys who's log in names I'm spacing right now.  Not to mention the LA get togethers that I have attended.  Getting oragami lessons from Lyno was very kewl.

My insane trek to RunningMn9's cave is probably at the top of the list, just because it was such a pain to get out there from Manhattan, but it turned out to be totally worth it (including the near $100 cab ride to get back to the City, in the snow, operated by two old timers who should have been named Rosencratz and Guildenstern! ;-) )  I'm still bitter that Trent took Run's lunch money from me, though.  That was the experience that showed me that there simply isn't enough time and the world is too damn big, because I met a group of guys that I'm pretty sure I would be *very* good friends with if only we were in closer proximity to one another.  As it stands, I consider Brian, Laurence, and Mike to be very good friends I simply haven't had the opportunity to spend a lot of time with.

What I also loved about Gone Gold is how I could always amaze friends with what an amazing data point the site was.  For any topic.  Frequently when something comes up that I'm curious about, I'll tell my friends I need to consult the "Geek Counsel."  I've always been stunned by the amount of good information I could obtain just by throwing a question into the ether on the Gone Gold boards.  That is just amazingly cool.

I will always have fond memories of the GG Boards if they are, in fact, truly gone.  GG was an outlet for me at probably the lowest point in my life.  It kept me engaged with the universe in a way that I desperately needed.  Life has moved on and I feel like I'm pretty much "all better" now (or, at least, as good as *I* get), but GG was there for me at a time in my life when I needed it.  Very happy to see so many familiar faces here at CG and very grateful that the fine folks here have seen fit to accomodate so many refugees.

well, religious and political discussion flourished for years on the EBG board long before the seperate forum was made.  I don't see why that can't happen here

Heck, some of us even liked it that way ....  ;-)

I actually liked the black screen with lighter text.  Its easier on the eyes.

Exactly.  Its not so much about wanting this place to look like GG, so much as I do better with a dark background for contrast.  I really like the Console Gold logo!

I dunno about some of the old GG R&P'ers, but I'd love rto discuss the dabate and other things of consequence.

If you want, the folks over at PopeHat probably wouldn't mind you discussing whatever you like there.  I understand CG wanting to keep R&P out of here, that's cool.  But PopeHat can accomodate.  And you can read 800 posts a day from TheNatureBoy (ezra) on whatever flits through his mind on any given day.

Currently it's a blog site for Mr.Fed and TheNatureBoy - and ALLEGEDLY for GuidoTKP, Smoove_B and myself (although we haven't located the "Post" button in a while ).  But they're good people and could use some company.

Dude, I'm smoking you on post count at Popehat.  If posting volume were rated on a curve, I'd definitely have a C.  So don't lump me in with your deadbeat ass ....  :p

Ooh ooh ooh, a forum dedicated to mmorpg titles.

Aces!  I had a great idea for a porn-themed MMORPG.  Be the first on your server to craft a Journeyman Butt-Plug!  Level up enough to gain the coveted Facial! ability!  

The spawn camping can be awkward, though.

I'm in only if you promise it won't have a creepy hentai or japanese schoolgirl vibe to it.

Tentacles!!!!!!

RM9 - all we need is someone to get Smoove_B over here and then we can all kick back and relax.

My runners have already been dispatched to bring my gentler half to this pleasant island.

It won't be home until all parts of the unholy Triad have been reassembled ....  

Heh.  Figured I'd reserve my screen name ... just in case.  ;-)