http://www.theoldergamers.com/forum/blogs/rage/ Online Gaming for Mature PC and Console Gamers en Wed, 22 May 2013 12:22:24 GMT vBulletin 60 http://www.theoldergamers.com/forum/images/misc/rss.jpg http://www.theoldergamers.com/forum/blogs/rage/ http://www.theoldergamers.com/forum/blogs/rage/162-sportsmanship-rules.html Wed, 18 Jan 2012 01:20:19 GMT A lot of things in TOG, as with life, are very black and white. We do not tolerate cheating, hacking or glitching games. We frown upon disrespect... A lot of things in TOG, as with life, are very black and white. We do not tolerate cheating, hacking or glitching games. We frown upon disrespect towards other players, whether they are TOG members or not. There are also rules to abide by when posting in our forums. And we have an AUP and TOG guidelines to ensure that these rules are understood and followed. But I've come to realise that there are also area's of grey at times, that we can't just sweep into one category or another. As a DC, this is something that I've become more aware of.

Point in case; Last night I played a couple of rounds of MW3 and encountered a fellow TOG member unrelentingly using a grenade launcher. For those of you with no background in the Call of Duty series, the grenade launcher is a bit of a gaming fopar. It is a weapon that can be shot from a great distance, easily killing 3 or 4 players with a single explosion. With a team of 8, that can easily reduce your team by 1/4 or more and this regularly happens. Now when playing Search and Destroy (which we were playing at the time) it means there is no respawn until the next round, so losing 1/4 of your team for an entire round due to a weapon that can be shot from the other side of the map, becomes very frustrating.

Now there is no rule that says a player can't use this weapon, but needless to say, they weren't winning any friends last night. They were asked several times to choose a different weapon, but refused and ultimately, the game finished up with many players rage quitting as a result.

So here's my point; Eventhough I'm DC, I'm not about to go setting rules in place to say which weapons the division can and can't use. The guns were put in there and can be used at the players discretion. However, I do believe in respect for other players and fairness of play. I'm continually surprised by the number of people that have no regard for others, by putting their level of enjoyment in front of everyone else's. Use the grenade launcher if you like. But if you're asked by others to put it away, then there are a couple of options and all of these result in respect;

1. Go play on another server.
2. Put the launcher away, just like you were asked.
3. Use it more sparingly. Even this will help your cause.

Respect that everyone else's level of enjoyment is just as important as yours. ESPECIALLY if it's fellow TOG members asking it of you.

Rage quit. ]]> Rage http://www.theoldergamers.com/forum/blogs/rage/162-sportsmanship-rules.html http://www.theoldergamers.com/forum/blogs/rage/137-beliefs-opinions-respect.html Thu, 28 Apr 2011 03:53:13 GMT It's been a while since I've posted to my blog but I'm feeling like I need to just get something off my chest so I'm going to take this opportunity to have a huge vent/whinge. Just post up some thoughts and feelings into the world wide intraweb for all my fellow older gamers to read and perhaps comment on :)

Five weeks ago, we were blessed with our 3rd child. A little (well not so little) baby girl. Something that I've not told everyone is that it was a VERY difficult birth for my wife, to the point where I feared for her life. She spent a night in ICU after losing 3 litres of blood.

The damage was done by what they call a "shoulder distocia" but I digress somewhat. I've never been a firm believer in "chiropractors" but after my first child was breach and after trying almost everything to get her to settle and stop crying, we took her to see a chiropractor. The whole trip there, my daughter cried and the whole trip home, she slept. It was an immediate positive response. We've not needed to go again.

So after such a traumatic birth with our third, we just today took her to see a chiropractor as well. My wife tells me it's another immediate positive response.

Now, I'm not suggesting either way, whether a chiropractor is ... as some might suggest, a "quack", but my experience has only ever been positive. Sharing this with a work colleague though, I was bombarded for about 15minutes about how they're quacks and basically how stupid, naive and gullible I am to see one. I immediately saw red :mad:

I don't care if you don't subscribe to my beliefs, but give me the respect to at least have them. I'm a man that believes in God, let me have that belief. I don't mind if you want to ask me questions of why or even debate it, but at least be open to the possibility that you could be wrong. I've found this colleague to be EXTREMELY narrow minded, that if someones opinions don't line up with his, then they're wrong.

Just pisses me off :mad:

Rage quit ]]> Rage http://www.theoldergamers.com/forum/blogs/rage/137-beliefs-opinions-respect.html http://www.theoldergamers.com/forum/blogs/rage/124-some-background.html Mon, 14 Feb 2011 23:46:32 GMT I got to thinking yesterday, if money was no object, what sort of pc would I buy? What a fun thought to conjure up and to start contemplating :D... I got to thinking yesterday, if money was no object, what sort of pc would I buy?

What a fun thought to conjure up and to start contemplating :D So that's what a friend of mine and I did. For the next couple of hours, we tossed around ideas and came up with what we believed to be a machine of very high standards. The only rule being, it had to fit in a desktop case. The system was made up of the following;

ASUS Z8PE-D18 Motherboard - Dual Xeon, 4 PCIe x16, 18x DDR3,
2x Xeon X5660, 2.8GHz, 6-core
2x Thermalright MUX-120
3x ASUS 1536 GTX580 (The mobo won't let me utilise 4 :( )
3x Liquid Coolers + Blocks
18x 4G Corsair ECC Registered DDR3
16x 40G Corsair SSD 280/270MB/sec
HighPoint Rocket RAID controller
Silverstone Raven RV01
1x 1500W SilverStone PSU
1x 1200W Corsair PSU

Total Price: $14,126

Damn! And I was all geared up to go out and purchase it :p

But on a serious note, I started to thinking, even if I had the money, I wouldn't spend it on a computer, but I'd love to build the best machine I could, over a period of time. And so was born what I'm dubbing;

The Rage Quit Challenge

The Challenge

Each week I will put aside $25 for computer parts. (This basically means forgoing "bought lunch" for the period of the challenge :rolleyes:) At the start of each month, with $100 in hand (4 weeks x $25) I will endeavour to purchase a computer part to improve my gaming machine. (I realise $100 a month is not much, but it's part of the challenge without getting myself in trouble with SWMBO)

Rules

1. I must have something new to install each month.
2. I must install the new component/s at the start of each month.
3. My computer must still be running at the start of each month after the install of new components.
4. I AM allowed to further my spending by selling things (anything) on ebay. (I'm a hoarder, so this will work to my advantage :D)
5. If I don't spend all the money from the previous month, I can add it on to the next month.

In my next post, I will give you the run down of where my machine currently sits. hmmm .... maybe I should give it a name :rolleyes: I'll also give you some yard sticks I'll be using to show performance improvements. Let's see how long I can keep up my challenge :p Stayed tuned.

So tell me;

• What do you think of our dream machine?
• What would you change?

--
Rage Quit ]]> Rage http://www.theoldergamers.com/forum/blogs/rage/124-some-background.html http://www.theoldergamers.com/forum/blogs/rage/122-true-freedom-tog.html Fri, 04 Feb 2011 00:05:23 GMT In our western society, freedom is something we often take for granted. Something that was paid a high price for, by our grandparents and... In our western society, freedom is something we often take for granted. Something that was paid a high price for, by our grandparents and great-grandparents. A freedom that (ironically) when you think about it, was taken from them as they were conscripted, in order for it to be given to us :confused: :eek: A freedom that allows us to work wherever we want to work and even not work if we're unable. A freedom that allows us to believe what we want and speak out against things we disagree with.

But in it's FULL sense, freedom is an odd thing. I would challenge you, that to have (what I'm going to call) FULL freedom, one would not have freedom at all. Now before I start getting all the name calling in my comments section about how I'm a socialist, communist pig or any the political jargon that I don't even understand :p, let me explain. As an example, if we had "full freedom", we'd be free to commit any crime without repercussion, under the banner of "it's my right and my freedom". But what happens in this situation, is the rights and freedoms of one, is negated by the rights and freedoms of the other. The victim has the right and the freedom to expect that their car won't be stolen. But in the scenario of "full freedom", the perpetrator has the right and freedom to steal their car without repercussion.

I challenge you, that true freedom can only be found within the confides of boundaries and rules. The rules and boundaries are set up to protect the freedoms of the members of every community. They're set up by the people we place in positions of power above us and to become members of a particular community, we agree to abide by these rules that protect our freedoms.

Almost 4 years ago and around 1100 posts earlier (yeah, I'm a slow poster ;) ), I decided to become a member of TOG. This gaming community was introduced to me by a couple of mates who were already part of it and suggested I joined. This is actually the first forum that I joined and the one I've posted on the most. I've spent many hours trolling the forums, reading and replying and I've made many friends that I've not even met.

But I was reminded yesterday that it was not always smooth sailing for me here. I read a post yesterday about a member who had been asked to leave TOG and I have to tell you, this is one of the reasons I LOVE being a member of such a fine community :D (you thought I was going to say something else, didn't you? ;) lol!) I remember very early on, having issues with a particular member and I was supported immensely by the leaders of TOG as they protected my freedoms and rights.

It's interesting to think that although we are a community of people drawn together by one thing in common, we still hold and bring with us, so many differences and diversities. I read threads debating the existence of God which shows we're a group of believing and non-believing OLDER GAMERS. There are threads about the non-censored versions of LFD2, which means there are Australian and non-Australian OLDER GAMERS. Some of us are male, some of us female .... OLDER GAMERS. And even when it comes to games, we have different ideas on what should and shouldn't be allowed. What is and isn't frowned upon. What game types are the best and what just should be avoided :p

As a member of the BF2142 division, I remember constant debates over whether it should be allowed to camp spawn beacons or "jihad" (a term used to describe placing RDX on an FAV and using it as a mobile bomb to destroy enemy assets). There were things that I didn't necessarily agree with, but once rules were set in place, we all abide by them because that's how we protect our freedoms, rights and good name that is TOG.

I don't want to make this too much of a "I have a dream." - Martin Luther King speech, I guess I just wanted to blog my thoughts and observations about communities and TOG. It's important to remember that we are all different and the best way to manage those differences is to respect the rights of those we're part of a community with.

End rant :D *hops off his soap box*

Finally, some special shout outs of appreciation to some leaders here who do such an awesome job and have had a direct impact on my stay here.

• King_Rocket - Started the very first welcome thread here for me. Cheers for all your work.
• Battlescoob - Spent the time to sort out my issue here with a certain person :p
• 303 - It's like you lurk around the forums, posting up just in time to put out fires. Great work.
• Quickie (aka Subgalaxy) - One of the leaders in the BF2142 division when I started. Thanks for your time and efforts.
• Omen, Maddog, Redgum - You guys get named together cos it felt like we went through a few DC's quickly in that division :p Thanks for your work and all the awesome games we had. Whether I was gunner in MD's gunnship or Omen's tank or in a stabbing fight with Redgum, it's always fun and full of laughs.
• Ch!ll, recon - Thanks for all the work you're doing in my new division of misfits, COD-BO :D
• Basie - Where would any of us be without you mate? Cheers.
• Father - For the insight to start up such a great community. I've had a lot of great times with TOG. Thanks.

Thanks a lot guys. For a job that is voluntary, you do a great job with just not enough thanks. Keep up the awesome work! :bigthumbsup:

Rage quit
(I think I'll make this my new signature at the end of my blogs. Post up and tell me what you think :D)

p.s. Just so you know, I'm not going anywhere :p ]]> Rage http://www.theoldergamers.com/forum/blogs/rage/122-true-freedom-tog.html http://www.theoldergamers.com/forum/blogs/rage/118-randomness-gaming-fun.html Fri, 14 Jan 2011 00:35:59 GMT It's surprising how "closed doors" provide reasons for us to explore other avenues or even reignite past passion. This proved to also be the case in the gaming world for me recently. I have recently discovered the joys of the Call of Duty series, in particular, COD4 - Modern Warfare and with the recent release of Black Ops, I've been chomping at the bit to get my hands on it and start "ranking up". Unfortunately though, my hopes were dashed when I loaded it up and found it to be unplayable on my dual core. Even with all the video settings turned down, my frame rate was just terrible and I could not play it.

On the upside, it had been a while since I had started up "ol faithful" (COD4) and the (although small) taste of COD again inspired me to reinstall it and start playing again. I had successfully ranked up all the way to level 55, but after reinstalling, discovered that my rank had been reset. It didn't concern me a whole lot because it's given me something to work on while I save up the pennies to invest in a quad core and get Black Ops running for me.

My prefered game style has always been Team Death Match (TDM). I'm not really sure why, perhaps it allowed me to spend more game time ALIVE while I learnt the maps. On Saturday though, I discovered Search And Destroy (S&D). My understanding is that this is very similar to Counter Strike, where one team must use a bomb to destroy the objective while the other, must defend it. You only have the one life each round and you must use it wisely. I don't know how many hours I spent playing on Saturday, but I LOVE it. It is now my new favourite game style.

Over my ninety-something hours spent playing TDM, I've discovered the best way to play the game is agressively. Choose a shotgun or something similar and run in and start firing. Hopefully you can kill enough people to build up a kill streak and call in an air strike. Once you have the air strike, you can call it in to get your helicopter. Call the helicopter in on your next respawn and all going well, you'll build up another air strike.

But I enjoy playing a little more, let's call it, "smartly". I want to sit back. Sneak around corners. Hide in the grass. Snap off one or 2 people with the sniper rifle or more often than not, the M16A4. And I found everything I love in S&D. I had a great day on Saturday with some totally random people.

But then came Sunday. And what a difference a day can make. I start up on an S&D server and spawn, only to have our entire team flash banged by one of our own members. Ok ... that can happen. Not too worried. Continue playing, get killed. Respawn to another flash bang by our same team member. Alright, this is getting a bit weird, but I'll let it slide. Move on to go and blow up the objective only to start getting shot at by the same team member. hmmmmm..... This is starting to suck. Respawn and you guessed it, flash banged AGAIN by the same *explitive* head. Well, that's it. Can't take it anymore. Move on to another server.

Let's go back to a TDM server for a while. But the stupidity continued there. In one example of the day, I was shot and killed by a single shot. When looking at it through the killcam, I noticed that my "killer" was running only to suddenly stop, look right, pull the sniper rifle up and shoot AT NOTHING (because I was amongst the smoke from a smoke grenade), fired a single shot to kill me outright. WTF? SERIOUSLY? grrrrr .....

Can't wait to get my quad core and start playing Black Ops on one of our own TOG servers. ]]> Rage http://www.theoldergamers.com/forum/blogs/rage/118-randomness-gaming-fun.html http://www.theoldergamers.com/forum/blogs/rage/102-computers-children.html Tue, 16 Nov 2010 23:28:13 GMT I remember when I was younger, watching a 2year old get on her dad's computer, start it up, go into windows, load the game she was after and start playing. I was pretty impressed with her computer skills at such a young age and I always thought that I'd like my children to be very computer literate. Both of my children have shown very little interest in the computer until recently and now, they can pilot it even in ways I've never shown them. They just learn things so quickly. But how young is too young to be teaching them?

A little over a year ago now, a friend of mine had to replace his PC after his precious daughter stood on it and broke it. Oh wait, I forgot to mention, while standing on it, she peed :D This added liquid to his system, fried the motherboard and I'm fairly certain, the dual 8800 video cards inside.

After telling my 4yr old boy to get off the computer yesterday afternoon because he had been on there long enough (and besides, I wanted a turn ;) ) I jumped on, pulled the microphone to my lips and felt the saturated foam cover around the mouth piece. After a small interrogation, I discovered my precious boy decided it would be fun to sit there and suck on my mic for the past hour. *

But apart from the obvious things that children do that simply makes them children and not eligible to be trusted with a computer, are there hidden or unknown side effects of allowing our kids on the computer at a young age? And I'm not talking about "predators" or adult sites or even gaming / computer addiction. I'm talking about the known benefits of teaching them to kick and catch a ball or run around in the park that the time spent on a computer is obviously taking away from them.

I'm by no means naive, I understand we live in a world made up of computers. I work in the industry and realise the value of knowing how to use a computer competently. So I think teaching children how to use a computer is extremely important. But my question is;

Should we wait for our children to reach a certain age before introducing them to the world of computers?

* At last testing, the mic was still not working. I'm hoping that after drying out some more, it will be ok :(

Ty. (aka Rage) ]]> Rage http://www.theoldergamers.com/forum/blogs/rage/102-computers-children.html http://www.theoldergamers.com/forum/blogs/rage/98-you-live-where-game-tax.html Fri, 12 Nov 2010 00:11:31 GMT The hype surrounding the recent release of Call of Duty: Black Ops has definitely paid off for Treyarch and Activision with the sales figures... The hype surrounding the recent release of Call of Duty: Black Ops has definitely paid off for Treyarch and Activision with the sales figures eclipsing last year's launch of Modern Warfare 2. The first day of sales totaled 5.6 million copies with a total $360 million. And I must admit, the hype has had me drawn in as well. Although I'm yet to part with my hard earned cash until the initial bugs have been ironed out, I have been on the look out for the best price available.

As a recent "subscriber" to the "STEAM way", I've looked daily at the prices on their website. Not really believing they will drop the price for COD, I mean, let's face it, who would when people are still willing to pay it, but just looking at the prices and specials of all the games. Recent titles I've bought are both Left 4 Dead and Left 4 Dead 2 and Team Fortress 2. For those 3 titles, I parted with a grand total of $27.77US, which is now even less in our almighty Aussie dollar. But the asking price for COD:BO? Well, that will be $89.99.

Am I surprised by that? Not at all. Would I expect it for less on only it's 3rd day after release? Not by any means. In fact, I think $89.99US is not too bad a price for a new release game. I mean, that's what I've come to expect, right?

Well, this brings me to my issue. STEAM are currently selling COD:BO for $89.99US to me, because I'm here in Australia, but if I had a US IP address, I could get it for $59.99US. Now convert that again to our almighty Aussie dollar, and it is even less again (albeit, not by much). So I have a bit of a question in my mind here. If STEAM provide me with a digital copy of the game, which means NO SHIPPING, what am I paying the extra $30 for? Or to put it into perspective, MORE THAN the total cost of my most recent THREE game purchases? Or to put it another way, 50% more than if I was American?

As a programmer, I do have to purchase software on occasion, but as far as I can tell, I don't get routed through a filter that puts me into a parallel website with exorbitant "Australian" prices. I pay the same as everyone else in the world. When I recently bought the Atlassian pack, I paid the same as everyone else. Am I being discriminated against because I live in Australia? :eek:

Are STEAM not simply an online store? If this is the case, then surely they are only paying tax to the country they reside in, that being America. Surely our awesome Australian government doesn't apply some other secret "super" tax to the gaming community?

This is not the first time games have been sold on STEAM at higher prices to the "non American" market either. Bioshock 2 was $49.99US for American gamers and $79.99US for us Australians. So it would appear that things are not changing anytime soon.

But maybe I'm being a bit harsh on STEAM. Perhaps it is the publishers that are requiring STEAM to put this markup on the Australian gamers. I mean, if I go to Ebay to buy Call of Duty: Black Ops, I still have to pay ..... oh wait, no, I can get it there for $65AU, delivered to my door and that comes with the DVD and instruction manual and packaging. Well, I'm at a loss now.

So, my question remains; why am I being taxed an extra 50% on software, on a game, just because I live in Australia?

End Rant.
Ty (aka. Rage) ]]> Rage http://www.theoldergamers.com/forum/blogs/rage/98-you-live-where-game-tax.html