DiabloFans

Quote from Mephisto"s Despair

Caution is advised, extreme sexiness to follow.

You sexy beast, you.

This is utterly despicable. They can go on all night telling me they're trying to eliminate 3rd parties, giving players more options, bla bla bla, but it's absolute nonsense. I buy a game to have fun. I play the game to have fun. I work to get payed. I'm not nearly poor enough to be all excited about the thought of playing and getting payed to play. I want to play to have some fun and let go, I don't want to be thinking about shit like selling, buying, money, and economics while playing a video game. This is also terrible because people with loads of daddy's cash can outbid anyone and get whatever they want and remain unscathed in every aspect. Instead of fighting 3rd parties, Blizzard simply gave in and opted for the option that will fill their pockets with cash (surprise surprise, eh?). I don't want to go into a maze of setting up an account, see which company Blizzard is dealing with, calculating how much I should put this item up for, how much my net gain will be. I don't want to go through the trouble of proper financial management for a frikkin' video game. I know I can simply not go that way, but other people will, and agree or not, they will hold an advantage. It's utter bullshit, completely unprofessional, and absolutely and without a shadow of doubt NOT the Diablo I wanted, NOT the Diablo I was thinking about, and NOT the Diablo that I will pay 70$ or whatever to get. They're making all these decisions on behalf of the people that are actually going to play the game to the point where it's getting frustrating. Who are you to tell me that allocating stat points is not a good idea? Who are you to tell me that I shouldn't dump all my skills points into 2 skills? What the fuck is going on here?

The system tried to fuck with America. They got Jason Bourne.

America...fuck yeah.

Quote from CritterCutter

Yeah so Muslims outside of Iran treat women with equality these days? Nobody is saying all Muslims or Christians are extremists, but I'm using Iran as an example of where Islam has a shitty reputation.

Yes they do. I don't know why everyone associates Islam with Arabs and Iran. Why don't you like at Asian countries, which happen to have the VAST majority of Muslims, where their women are treated as equals? Every single woman in Lebanon is treated properly and without limitations like those imposed by Iran and Saudi Arabia (which are the only two Muslim countries to do so, and they account for a tiny percentage of the world's Muslims). Only 20% of the world's Muslim population is Middle Eastern or North African, yet all I hear all the time is that Arabs do that, Iranians to that, their women are treated as such, and all that jibber-jabber, all the while equating the word Arab with Islam. And please stop this "Muslims mistreat their women" nonsense. Out of the 5 most populated Muslim countries, 4 have female heads of state. Sure, you have places where women can't drive, where men kill their women for petty reasons, or where women are persecuted for doing the tiniest of things, but those aren't Islamic rules written in the Quran, nor are they custom in more than 2, maybe 3 countries. Stop judging us all based on what Iran or Saudi Arabia does.

Quote from Baracuda

Quote from -Mephisto

Quote from CritterCutter

@ Mephisto

Not sure if you're serious, but no they wouldn't. People would react differently that's for sure, but Muslims worked hard for that stereotype. IMO Christianity is a bad religion, but Islam is fucked up. Just about everyone I've met from Iran are arrogant. I don't like to stereotype but there's something in their culture that contributes to this.

The United States isn't great either, there's too many religious types in the government.

Since when did Iran speak for all Muslims? They're extremists..even Muslims outside Iran hate Iran. Most people IN Iran hate Iran. Your view is skewed and uneducated. I'll leave it at that so as not to completely derail this thread.

I've had muslims neighbours from Iran for 10+ years so I'm going to assume I've got more knowledge in the field than you. They love their country and take vacation there from time to time, and I hate them. Not because they're muslims but the way they act. Their kids scream at each other when they're standing next to each other, for 30 minutes at least, like "PASS THE BALL!!" in Swedish or Persian.
Then when their relatives from Iran came they were singing and screaming at 2.00 in the morning...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pC-yqGhlpQM That's one of their kids, a few years ago.

On topic: They're interrogating him at the moment and he has answered every question without trouble, tomorrow in court he will quote his manifesto or something I believe.

Yeah, because your neighbors from Iran resemble the entire population of that country. That's like me saying "All of America are dumb and dirty because my neighbor of 10 years is illiterate and showers once a week". Are you kidding me?

Quote from CritterCutter

@ Mephisto

Not sure if you're serious, but no they wouldn't. People would react differently that's for sure, but Muslims worked hard for that stereotype. IMO Christianity is a bad religion, but Islam is fucked up. Just about everyone I've met from Iran are arrogant. I don't like to stereotype but there's something in their culture that contributes to this.

The United States isn't great either, there's too many religious types in the government.

Since when did Iran speak for all Muslims? They're extremists..even Muslims outside Iran hate Iran. Most people IN Iran hate Iran. Your view is skewed and uneducated. I'll leave it at that so as not to completely derail this thread.

If a Muslim did the same thing anywhere else in the world, America would be calling in the M1 tanks to invade that country to bring peace. I don't know about you guys, but I've been desensitized to this kind of news.

I wouldn't go as far as to say that she deserved it, because we don't even know what she died of. I can say, however, that I don't give two shits about her death. Plenty of people die everyday. Unsung heroes of war, cancer patients, accidental deaths, and nobody gives two shits. I'm not gonna sob over a junky untalented celebrity just because she's a celebrity. She's done nothing good to her community. She has given nothing to this world. She has bettered nothing through nothing. She has spent her money on self destruction, which eventually led to her self destruction, and probably her eventual death. Does she deserve it? I don't particularly think so. Should I care or feel sorry for her? Absolutely not.

Aregile_Cruiser causes a delay in Diablo 3 development due to pissing off 28 developers and giving 14 others epileptic seizures with his incredibly annoying and distracting avatar.

Your avatar is too distracting and annoying for me to actually focus on the topic at hand.

So I started my practical training about 8 days ago, and my experience can't really be summed up in a thread. It's be absolutely great and fun thus far, but as usual, many things annoy me wherever I go. Let's see if the usual folks miss the humor and rant on ruining my thread.

Doctors With a Useless Specialty

These include, but are not limited to, pediatricians, dermatologists, pathologists, and proctologists. Who spends 7 years in med school, then another 4,5,6, or whatever, studying little children, nasty skin conditions, boring and repetitive lab procedures and microscopic features, and asses? I mean, seriously, my job is fun, but I doubt looking at 20 chopped off saggy tits, runny noses, skin infections, and stinking butt cracks makes for a good day at the office. Fuck their lives.

Medical Students

These are literally the scum of the hospital, as far as I'm concerned. They're egomaniacal showoffs who think they're better than everyone around them, even the people who make heir measly jobs possible, like nurses, lab scientists, and sometimes even their attending. They go to the bathroom wearing their labcoats, and take a 1 mile walk to a restaurant all the while wearing the labcoat. I get it, you've spent 6 or 7 years making sweet love to your books, but that doesn't mean you can go eat with your labcoat on, since that defies the very purpose of wearing one. Anyone seen wearing a labcoat in the hospital cafeteria gets an automatic warning. You wear a labcoat to keep hospital pathogens in the hospital, and to avoid bringing outside contamination onto whatever shit you're doing. Yet you see them prancing around like peacocks bedazzled by their own feathers and beaks. Give me a break, brah, even the janitors in the hospital deserve recognition, get off your own personal pedestal.

Female Lab Scientists

Don't get me wrong, they're all hardworkers, and the job isn't as easy as everyone seems to think. It takes hundreds and thousands of hours to master the field they're in (as opposed to what most people think, the "lab" isn't just one lab where everything gets done at. There are over 10 labs, each with its own complex procedures and diagnostics). But, female lab scientists spend more time talking about politics, gossip, and personal problems than they do looking and finishing up patient samples. It's distracting, annoying, and completely unprofessional. I hate you, daughters of eve, for you fornicate with your mouths and violate my ears.


Poor Patients

I have nothing against the poor. I honestly don't. I don't discriminate, I don't judge, and I don't hate or dislike them. But seriously, they can be so annoying, it borders on the psychopathic. See, when I'm on my smoke break, all these douchebags standing outside waiting for God knows what, see my lab coat, and run to ask the most idiotic and annoying questions. I'm not paying my tuition with IOUs and Burger King coupons. I'm not having a smoke break to help you figure out your medical issues or score you some free meds from a physician that I might know. Please leave me alone. There are plenty of cheap/free hospitals around, go see a doctor over there.


Rich Patients

I hate them.


The Cleaning Staff

This cunt completely ruined my slide by wiping it. You're cleaning up a fucking hospital laboratory, which is normally full of stuff that you shouldn't even be touching if you don't know what the fuck you're doing, nevertheless wipe them with weapons-grade detergents. Some guy either got another needle stuck through his neck or was delayed an extra 2 hours because of your dumbass move, you ignorant whore. You can't even tell them WHAT THE FUCK, since they start to hate you, switch on bitch-mode, and turn into a creature similar to The Janitor in Scrubs, and I'm not even kidding.

Veteran Staff Members

See, just like veteran video gamers in an online games, they think they have the right to "own dem newbz". I was standing in line at the cafeteria, skipped an old staff guy to get a fucking cucumber to put it in my plate and move on since the fucking idiot was taking 20 minutes to figure out which tomato he should choose. He gave me that "I want to rape your entire family and pet cat, you smug bitch" look, and I honestly didn't know what to do or think of it. Eventually, I developed the urge to stab him in the jugular, but I figured he'd live since we're in the middle of the best hospital in the country, and I'd get fired and thrown in jail for doing it, so I took a breather.


Phlebotomists and Idiot Doctors

Certain blood tests require a specific anticoagulant to be used. Like, you can't run test A on a tube in which there's anticoagulant X..it needs to be Y. Some idiot doctors/phlebotomists somehow seem to have skipped the lecture on that shit, and use the wrong tube that has the inappropriate anticoag. or none at all, then ship it off to the slaves in the lab, because fuck labbies. That usually costs us anything from an strenuous extra step that shouldn't even be done, to a rejected sample that would force the patient to undergo further invasive procedures. I hate you, you ignorant shits.

Smoking Hot Doctors

I don't know, but I don't think bangin' hot women should choose medicine as a profession. I just don't.

Kinda dragging this thread off topic here but you should try the starter edition before you buy anything just so you can test out the lag and stuff.

Lol good to see you around here you lurking creep.

I could care less that Amy Butthouse died. Cause when Trish Keenan (an exponentially more talented singer) died this year it seemed few people really gave a shit. What's even more tragic is Lady Gaga will probably live another 50 years.

My meat cannot be tenderized.

Penis.

That is all.

Its like you just changed the background

Quote from deathMars

Lmao! I want to know what country you people are from. Like it or not, pissing off America in ANY subject is not a good idea. Soccer is one of them. And popularity of soccer is declining. It's a statistical fact and don't try to deny. If you live in some small ass town in Brazil, you might not know it, but it is.

And I also believe that even though there are equal representatives of every country in FIFA, USA has a slight bigger say than Ghana. Numbers don't mean anything. Logic dominates here.

I live in São Paulo, the largest city in Brazil, soccer ratings are getting bigger every year, and no, it's not just here. I also watch all the european leagues (it's commom sense, since the best team in South America will face the best European every year) and it's the same for then.


Just because major league soccer sucks balls and is declining doesn't mean its true for the rest of the world, i will say again, America is not special, you guys are not necessary for the sport to live on, stop being so fucking arrogant, this is not NFL or NBA, the rest of the world could care less of what the ''allmighty'' United States of America thinks what is good for soccer.


If CONCACAF were to be disbanded right now it wouldn't make a difference, life would go on, now go see if the same is true for UEFA and such.



But i do agree with something you said, logic dominates here, and it's just logic that the strongest associations have more power in this (UEFA and CONMEBOL), if anything, CONCACAF and AFC are tied in a very distant third place.



I don't even know why I'm talking about those, i highly doubt you have any knowledge about the soccer associations around the world. You probably think that USA is is daa bomb, and that the major league soccer finals are THE WORLD SERIES, and that the winner is king.



Oh, thats right... I'm still waiting for those numbers about soccer losing popularity, take your time. (worldwide, please)

I understand many of your sentiments, Godric. The fact of the matter is, this site used to be a small time operation ran by some shmoe who made a few extra bucks on the side with some relatively unobtrusive ads. And now it's a fully operational business that does whatever it can to maximize its profits. And there is nothing fundamentally wrong about this. It's just the way things work. Some transition well into it, others don't. For a long time after D3's announcement I was very pleased with a lot of the changes and improvements the site was undergoing. Even when Curse purchased the site, I still thought we were headed in the right direction for a long time.

I suppose things really got sour for me when I felt like all the spam and forum games were becoming the main focus of so much attention. And it's not like I can blame anyone for that. People like what they like. And for most people, at least the most commonly active users I was observing, seemed more interested in just alleviating their boredom in the quickest and most satisfying way possible. And those people would spend lots of time on the site. I hated sometimes writing huge long replies to people's topics, only to return a couple days later and see no one had even viewed the thread since then, yet all the threads that I found to be most inane were just inundated several times over with shrift replies. But again, what can you do about that? That's just what people want and I can only begrudge them the right to do so for so long before even I realize how futile it all is.

And then what I think happens is sometimes some of those older, once more active users try to return after awhile and test the waters a bit to see how well they can still participate in the new environment. It doesn't take much before they conclude that it's not worth it to them anymore. If you look to see who most frequently is updating their status, these are the people who have transitioned best into the new format of this site. They are the most active users on the forum and seem to spend the most time either updating their status or blipin' it up in spam section. Come on, we all know that's what it still is despite its new euphemistic term.

When Curse bought this site, they brought about many changes. Many of them here were desperately needed. I personally don't like the new aesthetic of the site. I find it really cluttered and distracting. But there are some features that I think are really cool. These new emoticons to the right of me are a real turn off, though. But I understand that the majority of people like this kind of stuff and there's nothing anyone can do about that.

I don't think however that the lack of activity is due to lack of news and updates. Back when we were diablo3.com there was tons of conversation always going on. We'd have in-depth conversations about the first Diablo game. People were always discussing D2 builds and arranging new groups to play in on Battle.net. We even had more discussion on Starcraft than the actual Starcraft fan page. And the off topic section was great back then. Lots of great political and ethical debates. Granted, debating that stuff on the internet is pretty pointless, but I still found it pretty gratifying anyway. The last thread I even saw remotely like those old threads was Jetrall's misandry thread. There was a lot of good discussion going on in it. But for most people around here, those discussions aren't a fast enough way to treat their boredom. So yes, they would rather just go rate each other's eyelashes. LOL

But not even counting those huge debate threads, I even still just drop in on threads discussing other games. Yet people are hardly even discussing other games anymore. Or like, I remember when that Huck guy started a Cowboy Bebop thread. I was like, this is cool, I'm just starting to watch this show. I'll talk a lot about how I feel about it and I just know we'll get lots of pages of discussion outta that. But no....we didn't. Sometimes though I do see a pretty good thread and decide to post in it. But because I got to the thread kind of late as I do not frequent the site as much as I used to, my reply wouldn't really get noticed by anyone and the thread had already died on its own.

I do think that it is up to the users for the most part to make this site into what they want it to be. However I can also understand what it's like to actively try to jumpstart discussions only to wonder where the fuck everyone went and later find them in the spam section or just having conversations via the status updates. And heck, a lot of it is probably my own fault. I'm certain I've done several things to damage my own reputation and credibility here. So it's likely when I type up responses in threads people are like, "Oh, it's just Siaynoq." This kind of thing happens inevitably to others too. There are several users here that I just sort of tune out cause I'm so used to the kind of content they put out there and it...disagrees with me. And maybe similar things have happened to other users here too. Or maybe they just found they didn't fit in here anymore.

Change is inevitable, obviously. You could tell the moment Diablo 3 was announced that many changes would come. Some were great, some were really bad. But I've always tried my hardest not to sound like some stubborn dinosaur who just wanted his old precious forum back. Granted I sure did bitch a lot about spam, but my brain just doesn't have the capacity to care anymore. Things just are the way they are now. I like stopping by sometimes and seeing if there's any spark left around here. Then I might read poignant statements like, "supar dupar hamster" or "I don't even need a gun when I'm paintin' my balls." or "supar dupar hamster". And I realize, it's their site now, they can have it. The status updates may not mean much to some, but I find it quite indicative of most user content to be found here. I can't even browse inside the spam threads to find examples their because they're too depressing to read.

I think all of it would be so much easier if I even still cared about Diablo 3 as much as I used to. But consider sexual abstinence. Many people believe that the longer one abstains from orgasm, the more their sexual energy will build up. And that it will build up so much that they're be constantly brimming with sexual energy like a pink flamingo with a boner. But this is only true for so long. What actually starts to happen to the body is it begins getting signals that perhaps it no longer has orgasms because it is finished trying to procreate. In males, the level of testosterone starts dropping after a time. And it can drop to the point where previous levels of virility are never achieved again. So with Diablo 3, I was excited for a very very long time. Then I started to feel that even for a game developer that is supposedly is obsessed with quality, 11 something years is just too long to produce a sequel to a game. But maybe I also felt like the time in between D3's announcement, and when I can actually start to expect the game was way too long. The climax just didn't come soon enough. And my metaphorical genitals are now just wilting away with apathy for a game that I feel has been long overhyped and teased on me. This anyway is possibly what happened for a lot of users who were anxious awaiting D3. It all just went on so long, they just sort of stopped caring. And the ones leftover on the site hardly had the needed caliber to keep them involved.

All these ideas though, there's no one unified theory to explain it all. But I can at least agree that it's kind of sad. I especially miss a lot of people that I used to get into lengthy discussions with. Maybe they were just wiser than me to walk away and never look back. I still feel drawn to this place no matter what's become of it. Aaaand *soapbox off*

I don't think a lack of news is ever what's wrong with this site. I think even though the news has been slow that a lot of good stuff still manages to be reported on consistently.

This past Friday I took my wife out to dinner for her Birthday. I made reservations at a place not too far from us called "Opus". It is somewhat unusual for a place like this to be outside of the Downtown Denver area, and even then most of what you find are chain restaurants like Chili's or Applebee's, which are killing and driving nicer smaller places out of business. It makes me sick to my stomach.

I had made the reservations online 2 weeks before the day, not knowing how busy the place was going to be, and even put in a note saying that it was for my wife's Birthday. I didn't know what to expect as we walked in, 15 minutes before our reservation, but was pleasantly surprised. They had a table for us by the window, and placed on the table was a card for her, which everyone who worked there had signed. It was a nice touch to an evening that was already going well.

The first thing I did notice was that there were no salt or pepper shakers on the table. Which told me that either the Chef was extremely confident in the flavor of his food, or I would have to ask for it when the meal came out. Our waiter, Armond, was very prompt, and rightfully so since it wasn't that busy when we first got there. He started off with wishing my wife a Happy Birthday, and then proceeded to go into his well memorized shpeel of the nights special entrée and wine selection, then opened and handed us our menus.

The very first thing he pointed out was the 6 course option, which would have kept us there for 2 hours, for 2 people. I wasn't about to sit there for 2 hours and neither was my wife. So we passed on that and he left us to make our decisions. The next page over was entitled "Act One". The appetizers. A wonderful selection of starter dishes that were all evenly priced. The next page was entitled, you guessed it, "Act Two". The entrée section. I was blown away by it. By the time Armond had come back, we had made our decisions. Shortly after a bite full of of a ceviche style Halibut over marinated red cabbage came out. One for each of us, as a pallet "preparer". It was good. The bread came with your typical whipped butter and a Kalamata olive tepinade that was superb.

My wife started out with the Sweetbreads. It came with a nice sauce, that at the moment slips my mind. Probably because I didn't try it. I had the Rabbit Rillettes. If you have never tried rabbit before, you should. It came with a few pieces of seared rabbit, a cooked/shredded/cooled and formed pate looking rabbit which had a smoky flavor to it, arctic char that was marinated and a green arctic char and Dijon mustard sauce drizzled on the plate. It was excellent. Our entree's consisted of Lamb with a rosemary mashed, which my wife had, and I had the special, which was the Rib-eye with a shittake/couscous and a Anise drizzle. It was really good. There was also some Arctic char with it, which made me wonder if the Chef had a thing for the stuff. But overall the flavor pairing was perfect.

The wine list was even quite extensive, at 10+ pages. I chose a '97 bottle of Pinot to go with the meal, which ended up going remarkably well with the entire meal. We did not have dessert there because by the time we were finished with our meals, we were stuffed. And the salt and pepper were never asked for, because the Chef's confidence in his own food was rightfully so. Overall it was a great experience for the price we paid, and we are definitely going back again soon.