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[slink]

Bastard! I'm not even off the first island. But then again, I'm trying my damndest not to play it much when my wife is home, because I could just be in the room for 18 hours a day if I let myself. I think I'm about two missions from island number two.

Yea. My brother is still on Los Santos, but then he's doing all the gang warfare missions and such as he goes. I figured I'll go back and do those afterwards when it reopens them up to me. I wonder if I'll manage 100% in this one... I got to about 98 or 99% on Vice City but couldn't find one each of the packages and unique jumps.

[Nabubrush]

Bastard! I'm not even off the first island. But then again, I'm trying my damndest not to play it much when my wife is home, because I could just be in the room for 18 hours a day if I let myself. I think I'm about two missions from island number two.

Yea. My brother is still on Los Santos, but then he's doing all the gang warfare missions and such as he goes. I figured I'll go back and do those afterwards when it reopens them up to me. I wonder if I'll manage 100% in this one... I got to about 98 or 99% on Vice City but couldn't find one each of the packages and unique jumps.

The fire engine mission on VC kind of made it not interesting for me anymore. I finished everything else, pretty much, but that chasing burning bodies just was too aggravating. And it only made you flame-proof, so I figured the hell with it. I have it saved, so if the mood strikes I guess I could go back.

[arkabee]

But if I'm paying $50/month (which is itemized on the housing bill) for the school as an ISP then I should get the same service that $50/month would get me through Comcast.

Now I'm all for locking down library and computer lab machines because those are school-owned and intended for academic purposes, but in a dorm room on a student owned computer there's nothing wrong with gaming. Schools need to either accept non-academic network use or charge less so they can say that the reduced fee brings reduced service. And in doing so, open up their cable/phone systems for competition from private ISPs.

Luckily I went to a school that believed in absolute free speech and never hindered network traffic but I heard a lot of stories from friends at schools that were less permissive.

1- i have no idea why any uni or college or any business or rental property would offer internet access and claim that they are an ISP.  it's a ridiculous idea that opens themselves up to so many problems.  offering an internet connection and a certain level of services to a building or campus (non educational use of the word) of buildings and offering access as a value added utility of the property is very different than being an ISP.

if i offer water as a utility to a building, and make a flat based fee for usage of the water as part of the contract, the renter is free not to use the water.

2- "there's nothing wrong with gaming" is a statement i disagree with, having known students who failed out of college due to too much mud'ing.  however, i don't feel that stopping the student mud'ing was the uni's responsibility, as it isn't its responsibility not to allow the student to drink himself into a coma.

3- competition in dorm rooms for alternative phone, teevee, and internet access?  i remember that being called "off campus housing".  the food was better too.

4- you seem to make a connection between "absolute free speech" and unrestricted internet access.  i do not see that connection in regards to allowing certain ports to be open and other ports to be closed on a gateway from a private network to a public network.  if they are filtering content based upon banned words, phrases, etc, then that is something altogether different.


5- my favorite part about GTA games is driving really, really fast and then flipping over and the car catching on fire.

[jough]

I find VC to be very relaxing to just drive around in, listening to Roxy Music or something on a sunny day (using the cheat "ALOVELYDAY" if the weather is poor).  I hope San Andreas is as much fun to just EXPLORE rather than PLAY.

[arkabee]

how is the eating dealio in SA working out for people?

[Ben-San]

I play GTA as a toy rather than a game by preference, myself, so SA is proving rather frustrating in that it seems to be a longer and more difficult process to open up ground to play around in. In VC you got access to the entire map fairly quickly. I don't really enjoy the benefits of the huge area map when most of it is artificially blocked off by the mechanism of an unshakeable 4-star wanted level. If there was an "unlock entire map" code I would enter it in a heartbeat, rumors about 100% completion be damned.

[slink]

how is the eating dealio in SA working out for people?

It's really not that big a deal. It's basically a health powerup more than anything else. You occasionally get told you are gonna waste away, so you go grab snack from a vending machine or a pizza, but not often.

In reply to Jough's wondering about exploring - even more so!
The weather effects are lovely - heat haze wobbling, lovely storm effects. All making the PS2 and the dodgy graphics not an issue too. But it is so vast that I have spent a great deal of time exploring. Having hills again is nice, and I mean, the mountain is just huge. But cruising through the countryside and coming across little towns and finding cool stuff is great fun.
There is an insane amount to do, and that aside, the story is possibly the best presented yet (having people around you who are cool - Woozi is the coolest!!!)

[Nabubrush]

The eating thing - I was sort of not paying attention, and I started losing health because I was starving (I guess). Other than that, it is sort of a power-up. My favorite effect is just tearing along in a car, and having the background get kind of smeary. That's pretty cool. Yes to the whole just-driving-around-listening-to-music thing, as well. Lots of area to get lost in (not literal lost, but sort of lost in the moment).

[CortJstr]

1- i have no idea why any uni or college or any business or rental property would offer internet access and claim that they are an ISP.  it's a ridiculous idea that opens themselves up to so many problems.  offering an internet connection and a certain level of services to a building or campus (non educational use of the word) of buildings and offering access as a value added utility of the property is very different than being an ISP.

2- "there's nothing wrong with gaming" is a statement i disagree with, having known students who failed out of college due to too much mud'ing.  however, i don't feel that stopping the student mud'ing was the uni's responsibility, as it isn't its responsibility not to allow the student to drink himself into a coma.

3- competition in dorm rooms for alternative phone, teevee, and internet access?  i remember that being called "off campus housing".  the food was better too.

4- you seem to make a connection between "absolute free speech" and unrestricted internet access.  i do not see that connection in regards to allowing certain ports to be open and other ports to be closed on a gateway from a private network to a public network.  if they are filtering content based upon banned words, phrases, etc, then that is something altogether different.

1) My school (UVa, btw) didn't claim to be an ISP. And in libraries, comp. labs, etc net access is just like it is at a business which is to say a privelege and a service offered on their terms. However I feel that in the dorm where one has no choice but to pay $50 (whether you own a computer or not) and are using a machine that you yourself own then they are acting as an ISP since they are charging for that specific service on an itemized basis. Although if a school does classify itself as an ISP then it wouldn't be legally liable for for the traffic anyway.

2) The phrase "in moderation" was implied. Just like there's nothing wrong with a couple games of poker or Ultimate Frisbee to wind down.

3) Many schools require 1st years to live in dorms. And cable TV was an option.

4) It's the same argument that the ACLU &c have against censorware (net nanny, websense, and such). They don't think children should have access to h0t t33n interacial fisting but in blocking that content one can't help but block legitimate conent as well. Such as Va not being able to access jough.com

Basically I think schools should go for a "it's free so you can't bitch" system, keep charging and lift the blocks on net-gaming, or allow the local cable provider to offer service through the existing cable lines in the dorms and give students the choice of which they want.

[AlohaDawg]

2- "there's nothing wrong with gaming" is a statement i disagree with, having known students who failed out of college due to too much mud'ing.  however, i don't feel that stopping the student mud'ing was the uni's responsibility, as it isn't its responsibility not to allow the student to drink himself into a coma.

Different universities look at the "en loco parentis" responsibilities differently; however in terms of on-campus housing most universities can and do create and attempt to enforce a lot of policies that are definitely created to provide a learning and living environment.

When I worked for Ohio State, we were required to create and carry out programming using a framework for program development and evaluation that addressed specific wellness needs for students. And we were responsible for fostering "community" as well as enforcing policies.

Conscientous universities providing living space will work to develop a living and learning environment and community that best serves the students potential to succeed academically and maintain a level of emotional, spiritual, physical, intellectual, occupational and mental wellness.

This is hard stuff to do for a diverse student population and there is definitely a lot of disagreement on what to provide; what policies should be in place, et. cetera.

In short: it was absolutely my responsibility to do whatever I could to prevent students from failing due to their own bad behaviors or worse yet, dying because of them as long as they lived in my building. We did what we could and we lost people anyhow, but what kind of community lets people fail or die without lifting a finger?

[AugustWest]

In short: it was absolutely my responsibility to do whatever I could to prevent students from failing due to their own bad behaviors or worse yet, dying because of them as long as they lived in my building. We did what we could and we lost people anyhow, but what kind of community lets people fail or die without lifting a finger?

Hmm, sounds like the welfare state to me.  Nanny government.  They gonna drum you out of the Republican party, Dawg.

[AlohaDawg]

Well, Aug, like most people in their twenties, college did it's best to drag me leftward. It succeeded in mostly getting me to the center.

I figured for their $10,000 a year in tuition, room, and board, their parents deserved some kind of effort on the part of the beneficiaries of their largesse. So we did what we could to get the kids to live together and at least minimally succeed.

But don't worry, I rarely went too far above and beyond.