Zeropoint

Re: Golden Age Resources: Superweapons of WW II The important thing is that "battlecruiser" is an awesome name for a ship class, right up there with "dreadnaught".

Re: Invisibility Stuff For Your High Tech Infantry? They've got no explanations of how it works, AND no pictures of it in action. As the palindromedary says, I'll believe it when I don't see it.

Re: "Neat" Pictures I should patent "the process of sending a vehicle between astronomical bodies using rocketry".

Re: Order of the Stick Sounds like Rich has the right idea. Trying to "be tough" when recovering from an injury just prolongs the healing process and may result in less than full healing. I applaud his decision to make recovery a higher priority than cranking out comics for us!

Re: Interesting article about Sexism in Geek Communities Celestia is best Civilization ruler!

Re: Interesting article about Sexism in Geek Communities The only reason that JRPG heroes don't "drip machismo" is that they're dripping with Japanese machismo. In Japan, the androgynous pretty boy is just as much the narrow ideal of manhood as the musclebound Rambo type is over here, and the musclebound types are viewed as compensating for something.

Re: Interesting article about Sexism in Geek Communities My response: I’m male and I agree with this article 100%. Well, in the interest of full disclosure, I’ll admit that I enjoy good-looking women in games. I hope that doesn’t invalidate my opinions. I absolutely agree that women are people and deserve to have their needs and desires addressed equally in games (and other forms of entertainment). You also hit an important point regarding how the depiction of women in media shapes people’s perceptions. There doesn’t seem to be much for me to say on that beyond, “yeah, what she said!” I’d also like to add that even as a male, I experience a bit–just a little–of what you’re experiencing. Games (and other media) seem to cater to one very narrow male ideal: the badass warrior. That be what a lot of guys want to see themselves as, but me? I’m a technician/engineer. My primary asset is my intelligence, not my muscle, reflexes, tactical skills, or any other badassery-related attribute. Games basically tell me that I don’t “really matter” as a person, that the best I can hope for is fixing the real hero’s gear as he goes by. Sure, some games have heroes who are said to be intelligent or technically competent . . . but those attributes aren’t what carries the game. Gordon Freeman has a PhD in theoretical physics . . . and all he does is fight stuff. Commander Shepherd can be an “engineer”, but the techiest thing he/she does is attack the enemy with a smartphone. Isaac Clarke is an engineer, but Dead Space is all about killing things in personal combat. So, I can agree that it sucks to have games tell you that you’ll never be anything but an NPC.

Re: Interesting article about Sexism in Geek Communities The principle of "freedom of speech" is specifically about speech you don't want to hear. Speech that no one minds doesn't NEED protection. I agree that Mr. Harris shouldn't have said what he did, but I prefer to err on the side of freedom.

Re: IFF Transponders If the IFF transmitters broadcast continuously and omnidirectionally, that makes the soldiers highly visible targets for radio-homing weaponry.

Re: Interesting article about Sexism in Geek Communities The ponies have shown me that there's no wrong way to be a girl . . . by extension, I assume that applies to all the other things a person can be. No wrong way to be a man, no wrong way to be a geek.

Re: Interesting article about Sexism in Geek Communities I am . . . OMEGA MALE! The last word in masculinity!

Re: Interesting article about Sexism in Geek Communities Being a political leader has got to be extremely stressful for anyone who actually cares about what they're doing.

Re: Interesting article about Sexism in Geek Communities In some games it gets bad enough that even the guys start to notice it . . . it kind of broke my suspension of disbelief in Mass Effect when men came in all kinds of body styles, but literally ALL of the women in the game have a slim and sexy build, no matter what type of character they're supposed to be or how old they are. I can buy it for the Asari, who are an entire species of Ms. Fanservice Blue Skinned Space Babes, but when every. single. woman. of the human species has the same build, it is quite noticeably wrong.

Re: Interesting article about Sexism in Geek Communities Same here. What gets me is that most of the time it sounds like the voice actress is working really hard at pitching her voice that low; it doesn't sound natural. All the NPC female Tauren voices sound fine, though . . .

Re: Interesting article about Sexism in Geek Communities Blizzard is apparently unaware that anyone could find a female Tauren attractive, because I don't seem to run into this problem with my main . . . or maybe the problem just doesn't crop up in warrior gear?

Re: Interesting article about Sexism in Geek Communities Stuff like this is one of the reasons my female Warrior in WoW is a Tauren--she's got curves, yeah, but she's also beefy enough to be believable as someone who kicks ass in a hundred pounds of armor. Still sexy, but not a waif with a boob job.

Re: In The Cards Special Agent Trent: Teleport next to Wannabe-Oh and politely inform him that if he doesn't dismiss the summoned creatures, he gets to eat a .40 hollowpoint. Ilyusha: Throw a crate at him.

Re: Interesting article about Sexism in Geek Communities Meh. I'm a man, and I always assume that women are NOT attracted to me.

Re: Talking Whales What if it turns out that they're colossal jerks?

Re: "Neat" Pictures It's not going to go well for either of them. Given Vader's respiratory problems, I'd expect him to asphyxiate during the implantation process, and I doubt that the alien embryo would survive in a dead host. Either that, or we'd get a Zombie Sith Alien.

Re: More space news! How long before DeBoers blockades it?

Re: Playing around with the rules... Seems to me that if you want a different probability curve, the easiest way to get it would be to use percentile dice and map the results onto the 3-18 range. By adjusting the upper and lower range of what went into each result, you could create whatever curve you wanted. If you wanted better resolution, you could add another d10.

Re: "Neat" Pictures Wow, looks like that nasty rumor about female mantises is true!

Re: More space news! Maybe it portends a flurry of campaign ads.

Re: "Neat" Pictures I like the cleavage light.