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4,000,000+ Downloads On this popular platforms
Website translation grows sales
If you live in an English-speaking country, you may not have considered translating your website content. However, webmasters are increasingly recognising the importance of including content that appeals to a global audience, and which addresses them in their mother-tongue languages. After all, just 27% of Internet users are English speaking according to the World Internet Statistics. Moreover, a study carried out by the Common Sense Advisory found that a massive 85% of online shoppers would only purchase from websites that discussed the products in their own language even if they were able to understand other languages used on the site.
Try GTranslate with a free 15 day trial
- 0+ Billion Translated Pages Served
- 0+ Million Free Plugin Downloads
- 0+ Terabytes Translation Traffic Past Month
- 0 Active Customers
Search engine indexing
Search engines will index your translated pages. People will be able to find a product you sell by searching in their native language.
Search engine friendly
You will have a separate URL for each language. For example http://fr.domain.com. This will allow you to have a better multilingual SEO strategy.
Machine translation
You will have your website translated instantly upon installation. Google and Bing provide automatic translations for free.
Translation editing
You will be able to edit the translations manually with our inline editor directly from the context.
Usage statistics
You can see your translation traffic and number of translations on your dashboard.
Language hosting
You can have a separate domain for each language. For example domain.fr will rank higher on search engines results in France.
URL Translation
The URLs of your website will also be translated which is very important for multilingual SEO. You will be able to modify the translated URLs.
Seamless updates
There is no need to check for software updates and install them. We care about further updates. You just enjoy the up to date service every day.
- Language selector widget
- Download
- All languages
- Machine translation
- Unlimited words and pageviews
- Search engine indexing
- Edit translations
- URL translation
- Language hosting
- Learn more
- Translation Delivery Network
- All languages
- Neural translation
- Unlimited words and pageviews
- Search engine indexing
- Edit translations
- URL translation
- Language hosting
- Translation Delivery Network
- All languages
- Neural translation
- Unlimited words and pageviews
- Search engine indexing
- Edit translations
- URL translation
- Language hosting
- Translation Delivery Network
- All languages
- Neural translation
- Unlimited words and pageviews
- Search engine indexing
- Edit translations
- URL translation
- Language hosting
Which languages are supported?
Here is the list: Afrikaans, Albanian, Amharic, Arabic, Armenian, Azerbaijani, Basque, Belarusian, Bengali, Bosnian, Bulgarian, Catalan, Cebuano, Chichewa, Chinese (Simplified), Chinese (Traditional), Corsican, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Esperanto, Estonian, Filipino, Finnish, French, Frisian, Galician, Georgian, German, Greek, Gujarati, Haitian Creole, Hausa, Hawaiian, Hebrew, Hindi, Hmong, Hungarian, Icelandic, Igbo, Indonesian, Irish, Italian, Japanese, Javanese, Kannada, Kazakh, Khmer, Korean, Kurdish (Kurmanji), Kyrgyz, Lao, Latin, Latvian, Lithuanian, Luxembourgish, Macedonian, Malagasy, Malay, Malayalam, Maltese, Maori, Marathi, Mongolian, Myanmar (Burmese), Nepali, Norwegian, Pashto, Persian, Polish, Portuguese, Punjabi, Romanian, Russian, Samoan, Scottish Gaelic, Serbian, Sesotho, Shona, Sindhi, Sinhala, Slovak, Slovenian, Somali, Spanish, Sudanese, Swahili, Swedish, Tajik, Tamil, Telugu, Thai, Turkish, Ukrainian, Urdu, Uzbek, Vietnamese, Welsh, Xhosa, Yiddish, Yoruba, Zulu
Which websites are supported?
All the HTML websites are supported.
What is the quality of translation?
Free version uses statistical machine translations. In paid versions we use Google neural machine translations which are very accurate for popular language pairs. For example statistical translation quality for Spanish to English ranked at 6 out of 10, with 10 being a perfect translation. Human translators generally rank at 8.5 and new neural machine translations hit 8.3.
In our paid versions you can refine the translations manually.
Popular language pairs are:
- Afrikaans <-> English
- Albanian <-> English
- Amharic <-> English
- Arabic <-> English
- Armenian <-> English
- Azeerbaijani <-> English
- Basque <-> English
- Bengali <-> English
- Bosnian <-> English
- Bulgarian <-> English
- Catalan <-> English
- Cebuano <-> English
- Chinese (Simplified) <-> English
- Chinese (Traditional) <-> English
- Corsican <-> English
- Croatian <-> English
- Czech <-> English
- Danish <-> English
- Dutch <-> English
- Estonian <-> English
- Finnish <-> English
- French <-> English
- Galician <-> English
- Georgian <-> English
- German <-> English
- Greek <-> English
- Gujarati <-> English
- Hebrew <-> English
- Hindi <-> English
- Hungarian <-> English
- Icelandic <-> English
- Indonesian <-> English
- Italian <-> English
- Japanese <-> English
- Javanese <-> English
- Kannada <-> English
- Kazakh <-> English
- Khmer <-> English
- Korean <-> English
- Kurdish <-> English
- Latvian <-> English
- Lithuanian <-> English
- Macedonian <-> English
- Malay <-> English
- Malayalam <-> English
- Marathi <-> English
- Mongolian <-> English
- Norwegian <-> English
- Nyanja (Chichewa) <-> English
- Pashto <-> English
- Persian <-> English
- Polish <-> English
- Portuguese <-> English
- Punjabi <-> English
- Romanian <-> English
- Russian <-> English
- Serbian <-> English
- Sesotho <-> English
- Shona <-> English
- Sindhi <-> English
- Sinhala (Sinhalese) <-> English
- Slovak <-> English
- Slovenian <-> English
- Spanish <-> English
- Swahili <-> English
- Swedish <-> English
- Tagalog (Filipino) <-> English
- Tamil <-> English
- Telugu <-> English
- Thai <-> English
- Turkish <-> English
- Ukrainian <-> English
- Urdu <-> English
- Uzbek <-> English
- Vietnamese <-> English
- Xhosa <-> English
- Zulu <-> English
What are the server requirements?
There are no server requirements! Your website can be written in any programming language and hosted on any web server.
Which URL structures are available?
The following table outlines your options:
|URL structure
|URL parameters
|Not available
|Cookies or Sessions
|GTranslate Free
How the free version differs from the paid versions?
Free version is a nice looking language selector you can place on your website. It has a built in Javascript engine which allows to translate your website automatically to multiple languages. With free version your website URL doesn't change and the translations are not stored. While paid versions are a translation proxy also known as Translation Delivery Network. We host the translated versions of your website on our cloud network under a language specific domain. In that case every language will have a separate domain and be indexed in search engines, which will help you to increase international traffic and sales.
What is a Translation Delivery Network?
Translation Delivery Network is a translation proxy which mirrors your website in different languages.
GTranslate TDN technology is a cloud-based approach to the website translation task. There is no need to alter your environment and install software to localize your website. You can have your multilingual website up and running in less than 5 minutes.
We will translate your content and host your translations in our cloud network. All the visits to your translated versions will be proxied through our network to your original website, so you will have a translated mirror of your website.
How it works?
You just need to change your DNS records to add sub-domains or domains dedicated to your languages to our Translation Delivery Network. So when someone visits the new added sub-domain it will show the translated clone of your website. After that you can just configure and place the GTranslate Free widget on your site to enable language selection.
What is a centralized translation cache?
When we discover new content we translate it and store it in our translation cache. It allows the translated pages to load faster. The quality of the translations cache will improve over time by using crowd sourced and professional translations.
What is URL Translation?
GTranslate can translate website URL, which is an essential part of multilingual SEO. Here is an example
Do I need to pay for Google Translate API key usage?
No, we provide the automatic translations for free.
How does the 15 day free trial work?
Trial is available for new customers only. If you do not wish to continue you may cancel any time during the trial period and you will not be charged anything. If you do not cancel during the trial period, we will start charging your account.
How to cancel my subscription?
You can cancel your subscription from your user dashboard's billing page: https://my.gtranslate.io/billing
If you have any issues with it, please contact us and we will help you.
How to change my plan?
You can change your plan from billing section of your dashboard.
What types of payment do you accept?
We accept PayPal and credit card payments. You can also use Apple Pay, Google Pay and Microsoft Pay.


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By Brian Zahn
After what she believes was a successful test run in 2012, organizer Brandi Sabato is eagerly anticipating the second annual Art in the Yard art showing and sale.
The event, which Sabato has coordinated through her "independent, grassroots organization" Arts Happenings, will take place June 23 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on 273 Canal Street in Plantsville.
The event came about last year because Sabato was in possession of the "unusually large" green space, and saw it as an opportunity to give freelance and independent artists a chance to show and sell their work.
"We pulled it together pretty quickly last year," she said. "We just wanted to test it out, and see if Southington would be supportive of the idea."
Although Sabato organized the event very quickly, it went better than she had expected.
"The people that came were absolutely excited about the idea of having another one," she said. "They were just walking or biking down the trail and they could see an art show. I think Southington is definitely a town where small business and independent business owners are supported."
Sabato did not want to impose a hard deadline for artists to register so the exact number of booths will remain uncertain until the event, but she has at least 20 confirmations.
Among the 20 artists displaying and selling work that have signed up, Sabato says there will be jewelry, pottery and metalwork.
"People can buy a one-of-a-kind painting, and it's a great way to support somebody who is just trying to come up in the art world," Sabato said.
Sabato herself says she has "dabbled" with fine art, but her Arts Happenings co-founder Lynn Flaherty is the one that "embraces art every day."
Arts Happenings was founded because of Sabato and Flaherty's mutual interest in the dramatic arts. Sabato said she hopes to one day have the time and resources to turn it into a non-profit that would sustain arts programs in the community, whether it's in school or after school.
Art in the Yard show to return this Sunday
By Brian Zahn

subset: commoncrawl


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4364.0.55.006 - Australian Health Survey: Biomedical Results for Nutrients, 2011-12
Latest ISSUE Released at 11:30 AM (CANBERRA TIME) 11/12/2013 First Issue
|Page tools: Print Page Print All RSS Search this Product
Dr Paul Jelfs, head of the Social, Health and Labour Division at the ABS, said the second release of results from the groundbreaking biomedical collection in the Australian Health Survey revealed that many Australian women are not getting some of the key nutrients they need in order to best prepare for pregnancy.
"We know that iodine, for example, is an essential nutrient required for a baby's brain development. Our test results showed that around one in every five (18 per cent) women of childbearing age had an iodine deficiency (defined as less 50 µg/L) and nearly two thirds (62 per cent) had an iodine level less than 150 µg/L, which is the recommended level for all women who are pregnant, breastfeeding or considering pregnancy." said Dr Jelfs.
The survey did show that women of childbearing years were receiving enough folate, which is important for preventing neural tube defects (NTDs) in babies, most notably spina bifida.
"The good news is that the vast majority of women of childbearing age had sufficient folate levels in 2011–12, with less than one per cent having folate levels in the at risk range of NTDs," said Dr Jelfs.
In other news, the survey also showed that for all Australians, there was considerable variation in iodine levels across the States and Territories.
"Historically, iodine levels have been highest in Western Australia, where the soil is rich in nutrients. Our test results showed that this was still clearly the case, with West Australian adults having the highest median iodine concentration of all the States and Territories at 157.4 ug/L. This was also was considerably higher than the national average (124.0 ug/L).
"Tasmania, on the other hand, had the lowest median iodine concentration at 108.0 ug/L. They also had the highest rate of iodine deficiency at 15 per cent. This places them at higher risk of a range of health conditions, including goiter and an underactive thyroid," said Dr Jelfs.
Further information is available in Australian Health Survey: Biomedical Results for Nutrients, 2011–12 (cat. no. 4364.0.55.006) available for free download from the ABS website.
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Viking Pest Control. Additional Services
Viking's Professional Gutter Cleaning
Clogged gutters can cause damage to homes. They hold water that can backup into the house and cause severe water damage, electrical fires, ruin insulation, attract insects and other pests, etc. All of these can lead to structural damage. Clogged gutters of leaves and twigs will cause the gutter to become overweighed with standing water. The water filled gutters eventually force water to run over them and onto the ground below, causing surface erosion around the house and possible water problems in the basement. In the winter, the standing water in the gutter turns to ice that may backup under the roof. Eventually, gutters may begin to fall off. Viking can help. Our home improvement division will clean all gutters and downspouts by physical removal of all leaves, twigs, and other debris.
Professional Air Duct and Dryer Vent Cleaning
Provided by MasterCare, a division of Viking Termite & Pest Control, Inc.
Clean maintained air ducts may relieve symptoms of allergies, asthma, respiratory discomfort or other illnesses related to poor air quality. Our vacuuming and scrubbing system is specifically designed to go deep into your duct work and clean dust, dirt and allergens lurking inside of your home's heating and cooling system. All ducts, including the main duct, are vacuumed with industrial grade equipment. We use highly effective HEPA filters that are designed to trap particles as thin as 1/300th of a human hair and to filter out 99.97% of dust and other irritants. In addition, we can offer you complete deodorizing of your system and electrostatic air filters that will protect your newly cleaned system.
Before and After
Electrostatic Air Filter
Clogged drier vents may cause fires and allow for dangerous levels of carbon monoxide buildup in your home. Our professionals will clean your dryer vent at your request, and if performed along with air duct cleaning, at a discounted price.
Chimney Cap Installation
Chimney Caps do more than just exclude wildlife, such as raccoons, squirrels and birds from entering you chimney. These caps also protect the chimney from damaging rain and leaves, which mix with creosote in the chimney and turn into a highly corrosive acid. It seeps down and attacks the mortar joints that hold the chimney together.
Insect Light Traps
Insect light traps provide control for many types of flying insects attracted to certain UV light rays. They are particularly effective in controlling different species of flies. Many species of flies are the cause of many health related illnesses and disease.
Viking can provide you with a range of systems for use in the home, restaurant, commercial or industrial settings. If needed, careful consideration to placement and recommended application is provided by Viking's expert inspectors. From flying insect electricutors to specially designed light attracted glue traps – Viking has the solution to your flying insect problem.
"Filth" Fly Control
From the common house fly to the annoying fruit fly – Viking Termite & Pest Control, Inc. offers free inspections to provide valuable information on how to control infestations of all types of filth flies. Infestations of these types of flies are usually a result of sanitation and/or structural deficiencies. In addition to providing you with valuable information on how you may improve the sanitation in your home or facility, Viking has various services and solutions that can help in drastically reducing, or eliminating, fly populations. These services include drain cleaning maintenance programs, degreasing foam applications, flying insect traps or other services designed to control flies.
Nuisance Animal Control
Different types of nuisance animals can enter or damage your home and property. Unless they are paying you rent you need to consider the professionals at Viking to develop a program to exclude entry of unwanted animals. Viking also provides trapping programs for some types of larger mammals, such as squirrels and raccoons, prior to structural exclusion alterations.
Bats, although quite beneficial in reducing unwanted flying insects such as mosquitoes, are not always welcome guests within the home. There are certain times of the year when bats can safely be excluded without secondary pest related problems. Entry and exit areas are carefully fitted with materials that will allow the bats to exit your home, but not able to return to the same area. After it is determined that they are gone for good, the entry areas can be permanently closed.
Viking's professionals will provide you with a free estimate to keep those unwanted critters out of your home.


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Last week's themes: Money and Power
Last week's themes were money and power.
AJC PolitiFact Georgia used the Truth-O-Meter on General Assembly Republicans, who stripped power from Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle and cheerily called it a "power-sharing agreement."
We tested former President George W. Bush on his record on the national debt.
And to mark the start of Atlanta's fledgling bid to bring back the Super Bowl, we looked at the last time the game came to town. The Atlanta Sports Council said its economic impact was $292 million. Was it really that much?
Join us on Twitter and Facebook for our latest updates.


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Build a technology plan for interoperability
Any police officer or first responder can attest to the importance of clear and reliable communications with other public safety professionals in an emergency, whether it's a response to a single call or a mass casualty event. However, because of a lack of regulation in the industry, many agencies are ultimately responsible — logistically and financially — for building and maintaining their own communications systems. Before running out to buy the latest and greatest gadgets, it's essential to slow down and build a proper technology plan.
To get started, here are some steps you can take.
1. Assess your needs, strengths, and weaknesses. Where is your agency lacking? What do you absolutely need, and what could you do without for a little while longer? How are the technical capabilities of law enforcement, fire, and other EMS agencies with which you will be communicating? Be honest in separating the needs from the wants.
2. Alleviate financial aggravations. Make sure you account for all costs of a given service or upgrade — however marginal they may seem — before signing up for it. That new radio system may be tempting, but once you figure in training costs, maintenance, and accessories (such as batteries and software), the option may not look so appealing. While you are used to responding to medical emergencies, you don't want to have to deal with financial ones as well.
3. Do your homework. While management is ultimately responsible for operational decisions, it gets valuable input from those in the field. No one has a better idea of which equipment works and which doesn't than the people using it everyday. You don't want to invest in something that proves to be a hassle, is unintuitive, or simply breaks easily. It's tempting, but don't automatically be susceptible to the sales people. Seek the opinions of other professionals, read reviews, and if possible, ask a company if you can test a piece of its equipment for a short period of time.
After investigating these questions, you should have a good start on your plan. It is always important that dollars are spent wisely and efficiently, particularly when investing in police communications technology.
Request product info from top Police Communications Interoperability companies
Thank You!
- Tags
- Communications


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jjentertain needed a new logo design and created a contest on 99designs.
A winner was selected from 87 designs submitted by 30 freelance designers.
Looking for a creative yet simple new logo that captures the essence of the concept below (described in brief).
Desired Color Scheme:
Simple colors - must match current scheme
Desired Style:
professional, clean, hip, sexy, chic (professional is key – but distinguish from 'corporate' – this is not a paper clip company!)
Accepted File Formats:
Vector Formats (.eps, .pdf or .ai); Layered Formats (.psd or .tiff)
We are looking for a logo for our new site which will combine the photo rating elements of our old site, with a more robust dating and social networking elements. Think MySpace meets HotorNot for hot people. Now, one notion of 'hotness' in our model really is looks, but we are planning to to be broader than that in defining who is 'hot' and can join our site.
So we need a logo that says "welcome hot people, come on in"...but one that also suggests to everyone else - hey, maybe you're hot too and should join!!
The main theme that should be preserved is simplicity!
Secondary Contest Winners Possible
- one primary winner will get the main prize of $150 (follow on work possible as well)
- if deemed, secondary winners will be selected who have an option of trading his/her work for $50.
Design fulfillment
- the winning designer must provide the winning logo/design as a .psd/.ai file to the contest holder
Find out how a design contest works or learn more about our logo design services.


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Contact Us
Contact Form
Contact Us
Mon-Fri 9am-5pm Pacific
(877) 762-6357
SolarTech Direct
1617 Boylston Ave
Seattle, WA 98122
Got a Question? Call Us Toll-Free
M-F 9am-5pm PST
Mon-Fri 9am-5pm Pacific
(877) 762-6357
SolarTech Direct
1617 Boylston Ave
Seattle, WA 98122
We have a small 17 foot camper trailer and wanted to be able to camp without plugging in. We are now able to use our water heater, refrigerator, water pump, radio, and cabin lights while the solar panel recharges our battery during the day. The unit is easy to use and seems to be well made.
James L.
I ordered the Zamp Solar "suitcase" by phone. The process was efficient and easy. Tracking updates were provided and the shipment arrived on time and in perfect condition. I would definitely order from Solartech Direct again!
John P.
It shipped as promised. Arrived in perfect condition. All my questions were quickly responded to. Now I just have to get my wife to stop working so much so I can use this boon docking with our Airstream!
Michael K.
I purchased 2 [solar attic fans], just had them installed. Seems to be pretty good so far! I used one for the garage, even though this is classified for the attic and the garage seems to be cooler than with nothing on the roof other than the. Eating hot sun!
Renzo F.
Good kit [13" ELITE SOLAR TUBULAR SKYLIGHT KIT], very bright and has changed the whole character of the living space.
Graham P.


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Fascism is the union of government with private business against the People.
"To The States, or any one of them, or to any city of The States: Resist much, Obey little; Once unquestioning obedience, at once fully enslaved; Once fully enslaved, no nation, state, city, ever afterward resumes its liberty." from "Caution" by Walt Whitman
"To The States, or any one of them, or to any city of The States: Resist much, Obey little; Once unquestioning obedience, at once fully enslaved; Once fully enslaved, no nation, state, city, ever afterward resumes its liberty." from "Caution" by Walt Whitman
Monday, February 25, 2013
New York City conducts war against mentally ill, sends them to concentration camps
2013-02-25 "Occupy Wall St." writes:
NEW YORK CITY, NY -- Police will be conducting a "roundup" of mentally ill people in the city. They seem to think that they can prevent crime by detaining people before they've actually done anything wrong. The police point to an unprovoked subway attack by an alleged mentally-ill person as the justification for this.
The city has even drawn up a "most-wanted list" and will make efforts to capture these people and force them into treatment.
2013-02-25 "NYC to Round Up Mentally Ill Before They Commit Crimes"
In its latest Big Brother endeavor, New York City has begun a program to round up the city's mentally ill and ensure they are taking their court-ordered medications. The New York Post reports that police will be armed with a list of the most-wanted mentally ill and a tracking system, and will force those deemed ill to go to a hospital.
The new policy comes as a result of two recent subway deaths in which the victims were pushed onto the train tracks by mentally ill suspects.
"After the Queens subway attack, the [city] decided to take a proactive approach to track down the most dangerous mental-health patients that currently have mental-hygiene warrants" out for them, one law enforcement official said in the Post report.
The first incident involved a homeless man named Naeem Davis, who cited different motives for his pushing a complete stranger onto the tracks, including voices in his head and being angry at the loss of his favorite boots.
The second case involved assailant Erika Menendez, who targeted an Iranian man based on her misguided political convictions. She told the police that she targeted Sunando Sen and pushed him in front of an oncoming 7 train in Queens because she "hated Hindus and Muslims since 2001 since they put down the Twin Towers." She added, "I have been beating them up since."
There are currently 25 names on the most-wanted list of mentally ill. The process involves the issuance of a specific type of warrant that permits the police to arrest individuals, even if they have not committed a crime, simply for not attending court-ordered therapy.
The Washington Times reports: The arrest warrants the police are pursuing do not mean the targets are wanted for crimes, but rather for avoiding court-ordered mental-health treatment, according to the Post. Police in the city's Real Time Crime Center are tasked with the roundup using advanced technology. Once tracked down, the suspects then will be forcibly taken by detectives to hospitals for treatment.
A handful of police officers are currently assigned to the new policy, which began a few weeks ago. The program is a variation of an older policy. The New York Post explains: In the past, the city Department of Health would ask cops for help finding mentally ill people who aren't taking their court-mandated meds so they could be taken to clinics. But that only applied to those who had known addresses — and patients who went off the grid were rarely pursued, the sources said.
The city is now concerned it could be liable if one of those people goes off the rails and hurts someone — or themselves, the sources said.
The Health Department fears that these mentally ill patients could be dangerous. Now, "you have a family member who goes to the Department of Health and gives them the information. Then they go to the Police Department, and together, the DOH person and the police go out and try to track down these people," said a city official. "They're just trying to get these people help."
"All of these patients are receiving treatment for mental-health conditions," said Department of Health spokesman Sam Miller. "If they do not receive sustained treatment … they could pose some risk to themselves, family members or others."
The policy has attracted criticism from civil libertarians who view it as unconstitutional government overreach.
According to Judge Andrew Napolitano, the policy is "clearly unconstitutional because the Constitution says the only way you can arrest someone is if you see them committing a crime or a probable cause to believe they have committed, not are going to commit, but have committed a crime."
Regarding the mentally ill, Napolitano contends that only very specific exceptions can be made to those criteria. "Only those who are mentally ill and are in imminent danger of harm to themselves and others can be in the category of candidates for arrest. Anything short of that, the person cannot be arrested without an order from a judge," he explained.
"That's why we have a Second Amendment. So we can protect ourselves," said Napolitano.
Napolitano sums up the constitutional dilemma created by the policy.
"We do not have a system of government that lets the government predict who's going to do the wrong thing and arrest them before they do it," Napolitano concludes. "The police should be there to keep us safe, the MTA should operate subways and subway platforms that are safe, but you can't arrest groups of people because of what some 1 or 2 amongst their number are likely to do. That's what they did in Eastern Europe and we overthrew those governments."
Additionally, some critics are concerned by the forced issuance of psychotropic drugs and assert that they do not necessarily correct mental illness but exacerbate it.
Throughout the last decade, a number of notorious school shooters have been found to be either on or withdrawing from antidepressants, known as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRI), including Columbine shooter Eric Harris, who was taking the powerful Luvox; Jeffrey Weise, who killed 10 students at Red Lake High School while on Prozac; and Kip Kinkel, who, during Prozac withdrawal, killed his parents and then went on a shooting spree at his high school.
"In virtually every mass school shooting during the past 15 years, the shooter has been on or in withdrawal from psychiatric drugs," writes Lawrence Hunter of the Social Security Institute. "Yet, federal and state governments continue to ignore the connection between psychiatric drugs and murderous violence, preferring instead to exploit these tragedies in an oppressive and unconstitutional power grab to snatch guns away from innocent, law-abiding people."
The connection between psychiatric drugs and violence is not limited to school shootings, but has also been seen in the high-profile cases of John Hinckley, Jr., who attempted to assassinate President Ronald Reagan, and Ted Kaczynski, the "Unabomber," who killed three and injured 23.
Meanwhile, those enforcing New York's new policy are concerned about the logistics of the scheme, most notably that it will be difficult to track down the homeless on the most-wanted list. "There's no rhyme or reason to their craziness," a law enforcement source told the Post.
Posted by Northbay Uprising Radio at 6:24 PM
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The Rev. Jesse Jackson was among 14 people arrested Wednesday during an attempt to meet with the manager of a northern Illinois plant in the process of moving nearly 200 jobs to China.
Workers at the Sensata Technologies plant in Freeport have been protesting the outsourcing of jobs and on Wednesday filed unfair labor practice charges against the company.
Sensata, a Massachusetts-based manufacturer of sensors and controls for automakers, is mostly owned and controlled by Bain Capital, the asset management and financial services firm founded by Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney and others. Romney still owns stock in the company, and his 2011 tax returns indicate he received a tax break by moving company stock to a charitable organization he controls.
The employees have been pleading with Romney to use his influence to save the jobs.
"Sometimes you have to take a stand for what you believe in," said Bonnie Borman, a 23-year employee of the company who was among those arrested.
Company officials say most of the plant's revenues are generated in Asia, making the move a logical decision.
Arrested along with Jackson were Bishop Tavis Grant, Rockford Ald. Victory Bell-Rockford, several community members and three company employees. United Auto Workers representatives Brandon Cambell, Ted Denver and George Welitchminsky were arrested, as were Mel Turner of the United Steelworkers and Keith Kelleher of SEIU Healthcare Illinois, according to a statement from the activists.
Nine others have been arrested for protest activity at the plant in recent weeks. Gov. Pat Quinn and U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin have previously visited the workers.
The Romney campaign says President Barack Obama "has been presiding over an economy that is creating too few jobs and sending more jobs overseas." The campaign points to funds Obama has in a state-owned pension fund that contains Sensata shares.
From MSNBC TV's "The Ed Show:" Sensata Workers Protest Bain, Its Corporate Values
Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy


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|View Poll Results: What Should I Do For A Paint Job?
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Here's something else that hit me hard the other day too.
My grandmother had a little bang-up in her 2002 Neon and she needs a new rear quarter,left rear door,etc.She let me look at the quote sheet from the body shop and I was startled at their prices.
Body Labor @ $35.00 per hour.
Paint Labor @ $30.00 per hour.
Those wages do not include materials.That's just what they pull in off of the job.The total bill was close to $2,000 and it was mostly the labor.I think that it was like $1,300 or so.I'll have to look again to be sure.
I think that if I get that guy that I was talking about to paint my truck,that would be a good deal,especially after seeing those prices.
$35.00 is a bargain. It's been 10 years since my shop was on $35.00.
If you don't make mistakes. your not doing anything.
69 ss rs full custom camaro 98 ISCA grandchampion
69 ss rs bb camaro wifes driver
66 Elcamino 350/all dz parts,ac,windows,loaded,my driver
69 ss chevelle bb conv.fresh frame off
26 T sedan street rod
Last edited by troy-curt; 01-11-2004 at 04:52 PM.
A '92 and you say the truck looks good after a wash and wax? Does not sound to me like you need a paint job!
Go to www.autopia-carcare.com which is a detailing forum. They will tell you how and what to use on your car to make it look like new.
Another option is too just shoot another clear coat on top of the existing paint.
The guy is giving you a good deal. Find his favorite frosty beverage and pick up a case before going there (don't let him drink any till the car is painted though) maybe it will drop to $300. Shops charge $45.00/hr around here. What paint you go with depends on what you are expecting. If you want it to look good for 4 years or so, use the omni. If you want it to look better and last longer use the higher lines from ppg, dupont, r-m, sikkens, house of color. There are many good paint companys out there. From what I remember about the omni clear it looked decent but ran easy if you put it on a little heavy. This was when it first came out though. I haven't used it for years. You need as many coats of base as it takes to cover. Could be two, could be more depending on how it covers(spray till hiding). Sometimes you get a color that won't cover and you are spraying it forever. It usually takes me about a quart 1/2 of mixed paint to put a coat on an average sized vehicle. If he is using an hvlp gun it will go further, but being a retired guy, he is probably using a conventional gun. You have to look at the mixing ratio and find out how much paint you will have when the paint is mixed with the reducer. If you run out it is a pain going to get more mixed. If you buy a whole gallon of base you should have more then enough and have left over for anything you would have to touchup in the future, reds are the most expensive and if it has pearl in it gets even higher. I would get a gallon of clear and would put on three coats of clear for wetsanding and buffing. Evercoat makes good fillers, as well as many others. The best primer is a urethane primer that has a hardener with it. If you only have 2 small dents to fill I would buy a quart of plastic filler, you can always pick up more if needed. Go to autocolorlibrary.com to get an idea of prices and ppg's website is ppg.com. Click on auto refinish when you get there. You could also look into paintless dent repair if the two dents are small and having it detailed, but at the price the guy is giving you, i think I would go the painting route, but you could get an estimate and compare prices.
As for the body rate, it depends on the area you are in. The shops here are currently in the $34.00/$36.00 per hour range and due to increase soon. Not far from here they are around $40.00
Thanks again.I'll check out those links and start to get me a price list together.Keep the idears coming .
Here's the paint that I'm looking at right now.It's the Bright Red Solid.I see that it's $210 a gallon,but if it will last,it would be worth it.Is that a good line to go with?
Last edited by nightrain_rod; 01-11-2004 at 09:31 PM.
A coat of clear over the old paint would last about as long as the wax job, And then would look like a leopard.
If you don't make mistakes. your not doing anything.
69 ss rs full custom camaro 98 ISCA grandchampion
69 ss rs bb camaro wifes driver
66 Elcamino 350/all dz parts,ac,windows,loaded,my driver
69 ss chevelle bb conv.fresh frame off
26 T sedan street rod
Go to ppg's website and check out there paint, The more expensive are the higher lines. Omni mae is the lowest a single stage acrylic enamel, then just above that the omni base, clear. I would recomend a base clear for any metallic or pearl colors(for wetsanding, buffing purposes, and ease of application) and a clear will give you a deeper look and protection from fading. PPG does have factory colors, but not in the mae line I believe. Then higher is the deltron lines. I am not sure about the global line as I have never used it. The bodyshops I've worked in have used the dupont chromabase system or the ppg deltron system. $400 wont get you far for materials in the upper lines expecially with red. You should be fine with a gallon. If you run out on your base its not that big of a deal, just a hassle. You run out of clear you better find some quick, because you want a nice wet even coat, not a panel that has dryed. Remember when you are pricing the paint, get the hardener price and any reducer price too.
ohh, you won't need a gallon of primer if you only have two small dents to fill, you don't have to prime the whole thing if it is just faded and the paint on it is adhering well. If you go with the higher lines you could get three coats of base if there is a big price difference between buying three quarts compared to a gallon since your not doing any jambs thats would be your decision, but if you run out and have to buy more, it would have been cheaper to buy the gallon in the first place. Its really hard to say, depends on how the painter sprays it on and how well it covers. Sometimes in the omni line it is just as cheap to buy a whole gallon as it is to buy 3 quarts. I saw your link for the delstar. I would say that would be a good choice. Its been around longer then omni and its a polyurethane single stage, so It should be better then an acrylic enamel. It doesn't have a clear, but polyurethanes are tough paint. Imron was big years ago which is duponts line of polyurethane, Pierce used it on their firetrucks, we toured the plant back in tech school.
Last edited by kenseth17; 01-12-2004 at 04:20 PM.
paint on paint
Im new to painting and have only sprayed a few vehicles. all of which were outside and turned out great.
Some of the guys have suggested really good advice previously. the tape was a on point. use 3M and masking paper! thin paper bleeds, some tape is way too sticky... messes up custom paint work and is hard to clean off a "tape off and spray" basis.
if your using the same color over the old paint I dont see why you would need primer. I wouldnt even prime it myself , would just sand (320?) down into the color past the clear, spray it ,then clear it. It is probably recomended you use a sealer or adhesion promoter type primer. Im saying I would just spray it
if you ever hit metal use an etcher primer.
I have also bought paint from Napa for the last two vehicles. this turned out to be pretty good paint. easily accessible also.
Hope it turns out great, and you enjoy the experience.
Anyone else like/dislike Napa?
If I remember correctly - it's this car which has had clear applied over the original '57 paint. Looks good to me.
It is my understanding that the problem with the clear is "delaminization", where the clear is coming off of the color coat. Anything short of striping the paint and repainting, from what I have seen, will fail in a short time. The clear is coming off because of poor adhesion to the color coat. They stick together because of a chemical reaction. That is why the manufacturers have certain times specified between the coats. You cannot sand off the clear coat and not sand into the color coat to get a proper adhesion without sanding the color coat thin in spots, or leaving some of the "bad" clear on there to peel later.
Can you shoot clear over an old paint job that has no clear on it and get a good finish that will last? Possibly, if done right, with the right products. Can you shoot it over a bad finish of BC/CC, and expect to get a good finish that will last. NO!
Just my opinion, from experience. I only recommend what I have seen that works. Not what I have seen in pictures.
You can get clear acrylic enamel, it can be used like any other paint.
A few years ago, and they might still have it , Dupont had a system called 501, it consisted of a lacquer color and a acrylic enamel top coat of clear, it worked really good. I think it was in the early 90s, I used it for several years.
If you don't make mistakes. your not doing anything.
69 ss rs full custom camaro 98 ISCA grandchampion
69 ss rs bb camaro wifes driver
66 Elcamino 350/all dz parts,ac,windows,loaded,my driver
69 ss chevelle bb conv.fresh frame off
26 T sedan street rod
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Julie Hasson is the author of 9 cookbooks, including 125 Best Chocolate Chip Recipes, 125 Best Chocolate Recipes, 125 Best Cupcake Recipes and 300 Best Chocolate Recipes, Vegan Diner, Vegan Pizza and Vegan Casseroles. You can visit julie at www.juliehasson.comPrint
Chocolate Mocha Cakes
These chocolate cakes are a favorite around our house, and make a perfect special occasion dessert. Sometimes the centers of the cakes sink in a little bit, but you won't notice it if you use a specialty cake pan with the design on the bottom. This way the cakes are flipped right side up and look perfect every time.
- Category: Dessert
- 1 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
- 1/2 cup unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder
- 1 cup packed brown sugar
- 1/4 cup granulated sugar
- 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 2/3 cup hot strong brewed coffee
- 2/3 cup hemp, soy or almond milk
- 1/3 cup canola or vegetable oil
- 1 tbsp dark rum, optional
- 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
- *Preheat oven to 350°F
- *Mini heart or bundt pan, greased
- In a large bowl, whisk together flour, cocoa powder, brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Whisk until well mixed and there aren't big clumps of brown sugar.
- Add the hot coffee, milk, oil, rum and vanilla to the flour mixture, whisking mixture just until smooth. Scoop the batter into the prepared pan. Bake the cake in preheated oven for 30 minutes or until a tester inserted in center comes out clean.
- Let cakes cool 15 minutes and then remove from pan. Transfer cakes to a rack to finish cooling completely. If desired, frost cakes when cool.
- *Chocolate Ganache
- /4 cup semisweet chocolate chips
- /4 cup soy milk
- tbsp dark rum, optional
- In a microwave safe bowl, combine the chocolate chips, soy milk and rum. Microwave for 30 seconds. Remove from oven and stir mixture until smooth. If necessary, microwave mixture for another 10 seconds or so, but do not overheat (chocolate will burn).
- Spread or drizzle warm ganache over cupcakes.
- Copyright © 2008 Julie Hasson


text:
Slower than planned, the AutoHarvest Foundation is gaining traction in its goal of providing an online meeting place for automakers and auto suppliers, advanced manufacturers, universities and national labs to license or find intellectual property.When the TechTown-based 501(c)(3) nonprofit was announced in August 2011, co-founder and CEO Jayson Pankin, who previously spent seven years helping Delphi Corp. commercialize its intellectual property and spin off for-profit companies, hoped to go from an alpha version to beta version to final version of the technology clearinghouse's website by the end of 2012.The final version of the website is still several months away, but AutoHarvest has been adding important partners, including the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, and is up to 204 organizations that have put up information on their needs or capabilities at the site, autoharvest.org.AutoHarvest is an IP marketplace where researchers and companies can offer their technology and patents for possible licensing deals. If there's interest, the parties can make arrangements for further discussion. Pankin said it's designed to be an eBay for technology licensing. Approval is needed to use the site. At least one new spinoff company says it owes its existence, and its first federal research grant, to a successful search on the AutoHarvest website of available technologies. A match made online Song Young is CEO of Optimal Inc., a Plymouth-based provider of engineering services and staffing to the auto sector. He is negotiating a license agreement for two patents with the University of Michigan for his new company, Optimal Process Technologies LLC, which was founded in Plymouth in 2012.Young said he did a search on the AutoHarvest site for something called "dissimilar material joining," which, he said, "led to my discovery of the outstanding work done by Professor Jack Hu and his team at the University of Michigan." While negotiating the license, Young formed Optimal Process and began applying for federal research grants, the first of which began in January, a National Science Foundation phase-one Small Business Innovative Research grant of $149,226 to investigate "joining of dissimilar materials using rivet-weld technology."Despite taking nearly two years longer than planned to implement and the ongoing struggles with a fundraising structure, Pankin and others say the site fills a need and is living up to expectations, if not a timetable. "We have come up with a better mousetrap of open innovation," said Pankin. His co-founder and AutoHarvest chairman is David Cole, former chairman of the Ann Arbor-based Center for Automotive Research.It is hard for Pankin to track successful matchups between companies that have technology and those seeking it. "Members voluntarily report success. We've had some deals close. Not a lot, because we're still in beta," he said. "We're a matchmaker, not a filter. It's technology speed dating," he said. AutoHarvest offers a platform for parties to get together. After that, they negotiate on their own without AutoHarvest involvement. "We offer a collaboration room on the site where people can talk. But they do their formal deal-making off the website." "Early on, we weren't sure you'd get the level of engagement you'd need from an online site, but we felt that what they were doing in the ecosystem was important enough to fund," said Pam Lewis, senior program manager for the New Economy Initiative for Southeast Michigan, which granted AutoHarvest $475,000 in 2012 and $400,000 last year."We're pleased with their user interaction, with their number of users and members," she said, adding that AutoHarvest won't be a success as just a website. "An online tool is important, but it needs to ... accelerate in-person interactions."Profit or not AutoHarvest is limited in its ability to raise funds like a traditional startup, which would seek investors, but operating as a nonprofit is the only way to get the region's automotive industry to buy into the concept, Pankin said. Steven Crumb, executive director of automotive open-source software nonprofit Genivi Alliance, said operating as a nonprofit fuels cooperation for Genivi and others, like AutoHarvest. "(The auto industry) doesn't have a lot of trust between competitors," Crumb said. "We've created an atmosphere of competition; we'd have a hard time as a for-profit member organization." Pankin said the IP site requires a budget of less than $1 million a year to operate at full capacity. By comparison, operating Genivi requires a budget of at least $1 million to $2 million, Crumb said. AutoHarvest raised more than $450,000 from grants and member fees and had $247,000 in revenue in 2012, according to its 990 tax form. Members are asked to pay fees voluntarily, Pankin said, and the organization hasn't determined a tiered-fee structure. The Michigan Economic Development Corp. provided $50,000 to AutoHarvest in 2011 to develop the concept of online collaboration for advanced manufacturing. The New Economy Initiative for Southeast Michigan provided $875,000 in funding divided between two grants in 2012 and 2013.The foundation also received $300,000 from the Flint-based C.S. Mott Foundation to help launch operations and begin building a rudimentary alpha version of a website.Pledging support, and in some cases cash, at the time of launch were more than 60 organizations, including Ford; Chrysler Group LLC; General Motors; Ohio State University; Kettering University; Visteon Corp.; Delphi; 3M Corp.; TARDEC; Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, N.M.; Michigan State University; Wayne State University; NextEnergy; and Automation Alley.Despite a tight budget, the site is progressing and will culminate with the rollout of a fully functional website. The site would include an alert system, so someone looking for something specific doesn't have to keep checking but can be notified when data is added he or she might be interested in. "In terms of being globally live, which is the big event, we're getting close," Pankin said. "Summer would be nice. I don't think there will be snow on the ground." In addition to its small office in Detroit's TechTown, AutoHarvest, which employs five, also has an office in the North Campus Research Complex at the University of Michigan. Eric Stief, the former director of venture development in the technology commercialization office at Wayne State University, is AutoHarvest's senior vice president.AutoHarvest is entering a competitive landscape between IP marketplaces, but may carve out its own niche, said Jeff Sadowski, partner and IP attorney at Royal Oak-based law firm Howard and Howard Attorneys PLLC.Sadowski said patent brokerage firms, such as Los Altos, Calif.-based IP Venture Inc., have stomped out smaller IP deals by only looking for home runs. "In the beginning, firms like IP Venture covered the spectrum of all deals; now they are only looking at patent portfolios in the hundreds of millions of dollars," Sadowski said. "If AutoHarvest can carve a niche for smaller companies looking to sell two or three patents, they are definitely going to fill a need." One member of AutoHarvest's Innovation Hub is a competitor, Chicago-based Intellectual Property Exchange International Inc., or IPXI, which acts as a financial exchange for licensing and trading IP rights.The for-profit exchange performs due diligence, negotiates legal documents creates a public offering-like pricing for licensing mature technology. Ian McClure, director of IPXI, said AutoHarvest has created a niche for earlier-stage tech collaboration and will create a funnel to IPXI as the technology advances. "For every R&D stage, there's a need; companies are asking, 'Do I spend R&D on developing this technology or look for what's already out there?' " McClure said. IPXI launched its first licensing deal recently, involving 600 patents associated with organic light-emitting diode technologies for display screens from Koninklijke Philips N.V. The licenses are being sold as five square meters of OLED panels per license, which is enough for 700 smartphones, McClure said. Pankin said one advantage of being a nonprofit is that companies like IPXI aren't seen as the enemy. "It's collaborative. There are many ways to drive innovation," he said. "Because we're a nonprofit, we can be trusted. We don't have favorite clients. We can be an open tent for everybody. We're in the sweet spot of what innovation is supposed to mean." Tom Henderson: (313) 446-0337, [email protected]. Twitter: @tomhenderson2
Dustin Walsh: (313) 446-6042, [email protected]. Twitter: @dustinpwalsh


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Here are some open world "crime" games I've played and enjoyed:
Saint's Row 3 - http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/editorials/reviews/9221-Saints-Row-The-Third-Review (ignore the video, it was a failed experiment)
Point is: I like this genre. I play the crap out of it. And GTA V's story failed because it forced the player to commit despicable acts for no reason. Every other game above has a choice mechanic or a thread of nobility to make the characters empathetic, even if they commit terrible acts. GTA V ignores people who may be uncomfortable with the subject matter.
In my opinion, that's bad writing, but you are more than welcome to form your own opinions on the game. That's what will make this medium great, the discourse between players, gamemakers and critics, and I certainly accept and even applaud opposing viewpoints on GTA V.
Right. I made an account to post here, so I might as well start.
I got GTA V two days ago. I've played it a bit since then. And I can agree, it's sure as hell not a 10/10. 7/10 feels a little low, but I can very well see where the negative points have come from. He's right. The characters are despicable. I actively go out of my way to avoid playing as Trevor. This is from a guy who hasn't throughly played a GTA game since it was top-down. From the little bit of GTA IV I played, I got a feeling from Niko that, even though he was a mass-murdering psychopath, it didn't feel like you were playing a person you hated.
Also, I'm probably biased, having come directly from Saints Row IV, but this game freaking hurts. the driving, while good, still has a few flaws, as does some of the other stuff in the game.
The review given was good, but the score itself was probably a little too low, but I get the feeling that if most people were to give this game a score of their own, they wouldn't take into account the characters themselves, or most of the dialogue (Which I personally hated as well. There's only so many times you can use the N-Word before it becomes stupid), which it probably what accounts for most of the higher scores.
And it's nice to see something that isn't praising it like it shines out of God's ass. Kind of wish I'd seen this before I played it, because having seen nothing bad about it beforehand, I was kind of let down when I got it myself.
GTA 5 defense aside, i do feel there is a consistency issue here. Which is a pity because GTA5 is far from a perfect game. I guess this is a 'nobody wins' kind of thing...
Strange that some people just want to see this game get a bad review. LOL. But meh.................
All the previous GTA's from 3 on? How so? Tommy Vercetti committed murderous acts in his bid to take over Vice City. He didn't do it to avenge any friends or to appease the Forellis. He even treated Lance Vance, one of the few characters who sought revenge for personal reasons, like crap later on.
Over the course of the game, he: Initiates a riot for Avery at a delivery company (because Avery wanted the land), likely resulting in many deaths/injuries. Murders a man who refuses to sell land to Avery. Blows up a construction site full of workers for Avery. Starts a gang war for Avery. Murder's Candy's manager for refusing to allow her to work for him. Forces local businesses to pay him protection money. Blows up a store in the mall. Murders competing cab drivers to make his own cab business successful. Sells drugs from an Ice Cream truck.
BTW, these are all story missions. Forced on the player. You are also forced to engage in some of the asset missions in order to progress the story.
In the ending cut-scene, he even brags/jokes about his reputation as a psychotic killer and drug dealer.
How is he redeemable again? How is he "emphatic"? How is he different from the so called "psychos" in this game? I'm not seeing it.
Prior to his brother getting arrested, CJ murdered for his gang and even helped OG Loc by breaking into Madd Dogg's manor and killing his manager (an innocent civilian) and stealing his rhyme book. He also goes on a crime spree to help his brother, a gang-leader, get out of prison. He helped Tenpenny to protect his own neck.
As far as Claude, I can't really speak on his motivations since he never talked. Form the perspective of the player, it's assumed he wants to kill Catalina....But he's a emotionless killer, so who knows what he wants; also, since he's ruthless and brutal; he's surely not sympathetic. He strikes me as someone who would kill his own mother if the price were right.
I have only ever played one GTA game - GTA III - and I didn't think much of it. I played Saint's Row 2 for a couple hours and got bored.
The heists in this game sound interesting, but I'm not sure if having a trillion things to do which aren't especially fun is actually a good thing - filler is bad.
I did find it interesting that the reviewer found the protagonists to be so reprehensible that it damaged their enjoyment of the game. This is certainly a possibility - there is crossing the line, and then there is crossing the line twice. And sometimes you can cross it three times. Whether it doesn't go far enough, or it manages to go so far that it goes beyond too far and into way too far, I don't know.
I dunno. The heists sound fun, but the rest of the game doesn't appeal to me at all. Beating prostitutes is hardly entertainment to me.
Thank you for giving an honest review. I'm so tired of cookie cutter its awesome or horrible reviews of games or movies. Whether or not I agree or not with your view (I do), I appreciate the fact that its honest well thought out and articulate. Thank you again and keep up the good work ---End of line---
Given that the OP article is a bit ambigious, and many of the response posts (as was predictable) are nothing more than fanboy rants based on fantasy land (my favorite one went like this: Rockstar have just removed any false justifications. Now you can be a bad guy, or you can choose to not be. It's a new dimension of "Player Choice (tm)"). Haha, since when does the player have ANY CHOICE WHATSOEVER in a GTA game, over the plot? The player never, even since the very first GTA (which most of you "hardcore fans" probably never played, and thus do not understand where most of current mainstay gamemechanics come from - like i.e. the outdated wanted stars system, and the fragile "throwaway"-cars)... the player never in any GTA game had a choice over how the plot develops. It's not even a tree-plot (meaning, subsequent missions changing significantly because of choices in past missions). Now does the player have ever had much choice in HOW to do a mission. Heck, for most GTA games, you couldn't even friggin decide with which VEHICLE to do a given mission - or in SA, sometimes couldn't even choose your weapon, but instead got the weapons you bought with hard cold cash, DELETED, replaced with what the mission designers wanted you to have at an arbitrary point in the game).
So yeah, *censored* *censored* *censored* please stop talking about player choice and freedom in GTA games already, mkay? As much as GTA is hyped as the king of sandbox game, it doesn't deserve most of the hype. That's because, even though GTA is VERY advanced technically, about streaming a massive environment that is gigabytes big, over slow ram-bus and video-pipeline.... while it is capable of streaming graphics and stuff of a giant world really fast, and yes, does have a - quantitatively - giant world.... none of this got anything to do with PLAYER FREEDOM. Well, okay, if you consider running around in a giant gameworld, shooting up stuff, with your actions someway having no longterm consequences at all freedom (did anyone ever figure out, where the cop-factory is and how it manages to produce cops so fast?), if you call that "player-freedom", then yes, GTA has it mastered.
But that's not what this article was about. This article was about the overly HARDCODED and RAILROADED LINEAR PLOT, that is part of GTA since it's third installment (GTA1 and GTA2 had those missions too, but there wasn't really any significant overarching plot - just a bunch of random missions to take in sequence. And the progagonist neither had a voice, nor words - he didn't talk at all, had no background, no nothing. There was no "character", just the "player"). Slightly drifting off, so getting back to the topic: What the article basically said was:
- GTAV makes me play characters i dont like
Being forced to do things one personally does not want to do, is about the worst thing you can do to a player.... or any person in a given situation.
Now, to be fair: Not any medium or game or whatever, can care to the taste of EVERY possible player on the planet. That's just ridiculous. You don't go into a shop and buy some consumer good, with the expectation that it will be "just right" for EVERYONE no matter what, unless you're beyond retarded (though, marketing departments certainly wish for you to become this retarded).
So where does that leave GTAV? Basically:
- If you like being a "bad sadistic cruel guy, with relatives and friends that betray you", so an all out no-holds "evil side" character, then GTAV will be just right for you, and you'll have a lot of fun.
- Everyone else will either ignore the game alltogether, complain about being forced to do things he/she hates to do (ZERO PLAYER FREEDOM HERE!), or admire it for the tech (then again, i DO have some embarassing things to say about the tech, if anyone wants to know. Yeah, the graphics are all nice - unfortunally, actual gameplay consequences (physics!) totally conflict with what you see, which is really irritating, and worse than GTASA)
So yeah, if you enjoy fancy graphics, or being a bad guy for no reason, buy this game. If not, you might want to rent it before buying, to help you decide if it's worth your money.
I mostly lurk on these boards and watch reviews without saying anything.
I understand this is the reviewers opinion and they are entitled to it.
But I have to disagree with the amount of points are deducted from the game because you disliked the characters. I could understand if the characters where written poorly to deduct points for that, but they are written well. And that torture scene you're forced to do, really is pretty tame. I don't see the controversy people are trying to make with it. It really didn't seem that bad when I did it in my play through, and I'm still confused at the counter point about killing people doesn't feel gamey enough. Felt pretty gamey to me, I've yet to do a mission where I felt bad/conflicted with what I was doing (aside from the torture scene, but it didn't make me hesitate). It felt at all times like I was playing a game. So as I said confused at what you mean with this point maybe list an example?
As for the dialogue complaints I also find this confusing. I felt it was authentic, yes people say the N-word that much. yes people curse a ton when they are frustrated and or doing illegal activities. Cliche? sure but Cliches come from truth.
Overall I felt you wrote a good review but I still feel you deducted way more points than you should've from the game, I'm not saying it's perfect but having played Saints row 4 compared to this, I'm enjoying this game WAY more. I've logged about 22 hours into Saints row 4 to get 100% completion, so far I'm at 16 hours in GTA 5 with 30% completion. But once again these are just our opinions and we're all free to have one.
Wow didn't think I'd find a review like this one on the internet .. This is basically what I've been thinking most of the time while playing it ! It's just so sinister . I mean GTA 4 wasn't very lighthearted either, but GTA 5 is different .. I guess soulless is the word I'm looking for . Noone really has any believable emotional bonds to anyone else . Come to think of it Max Payne 3 had a very bleak and depressing feel to it aswell . Almost makes me think Dan Houser might be going through some rough times and it influences his writing or something
If you focused on the context of his review, you would get it. Usually, characters can often reflect the feelings of a players about a certain subject, and usually, having a lot of alignment between the character and the player can forge a stronger immersion effect.
Its hard to feel immersed with a nonredeemable scumbag, if you don't align with their joys and sorrows, understand? In the situations that you can't exactly feel aligned, having a understandable motive for all plot points is helpful too. For example-If you are a good person, playing a man that does horrible deeds for the sake of his children. Some people can identify, or at least respect, family love and loyalty.
A generally good person watching evil things in plots happening due to "Just because" can wear on a person, particularly if the actions are a direct affront upon their moral code.
Why do characters need a set of principles or motives beyond money? This is a video game, an alternate reality, it shouldn't necessarily be an example of what people should do, we should have more games exploring characters who are simply evil by nature.
Um... isn't that the point of the game? Hell, hasn't that been the point of every GTA game? Throughout the series you play as guys who go around constantly killing people and performing terrible deeds. Really the characters here aren't any worse than the characters in the other games. If you're going into this game expecting the characters to be good people, then you seriously need to get your priorities straight. Not every protagonist has to necessarily be a good person, just like how not every antagonist has to be absolute evil. When it comes to storytelling there really isn't any boundaries on what can be told. I think characters like the ones in this game are worth exploring and looking into. I also found them all to be 3-dimensional, interesting characters.
Having played both the missions that Greg took offence to, I can't say that I agree. From my play through, it's obvious that Michael is bound by things other than greed for why he does things. Also the torture scene was very difficult to play through, and I think thats WHY it was included...it backs up Trevor's exposition on the evils of torture later on.
So far, I'm loving the writing, and the dialog is some of the best i've seen in GTA.
I don't really watch "video nasties" myself, but do have friends who are fans and also of horror movies. I have been to couple of screenings of the local horror society including Jaws 2 and Slumber Party Massacre 2, but they were more of an event.
Not that I would watch "torture porn" movies like Saw/Hostel/Wolf Creek or a Serbian Film myself either.
If they made the torture parts of GTA V skippable I would consider playing it. I did not play the assassin missions in Skyrim as I did not want to and the game left the choice open to you.
So you'd rather have anti-hero's that give the player some false justification for their horrible acts?
Maybe Rockstar is making their characters pure evil so there is some more weight to your decision. Maybe they made the story this way so you couldn't run away from your violent actions by saying "but he is doing it for a good reason!".
Because honestly, there is not a single GTA game where the protagonist has a good enough reason for the mindless violence that you are allowed to commit.
This critique of Grand Theft Auto does not make any sense.
Exactly! This is a false reality, a game. It is fiction. Sometimes stories are told about evil people that do bad things for bad reasons. If we don't allow stories to encapsulate both ends of the moral spectrum then we are doing a disservice to art and culture.
I don't mind the scoring at all. He has a point, and has thus illustrated it. I don't have to agree with him.
For those of you who remember back to 2010, the Escapist used to just do written/video reviews and did not give "scores". With no numeric score attached to this review I think some of the negative knee-jerk reactions wouldn't have been so bad, because Tito's main complaints are legitimate explanations of his perspective and experience and you can't tell him he's wrong about what his experience was like.
Based on the Escapist's review score scale, a 3.5 is between average and outstanding. I think that it would be untrue for Tito to have given GTAV a 5, because that would mean it was not just a great game but that "the experience you'll have will be exceptionally enjoyable". His beef with the story and characters is one that would preclude a 5. Maybe you could argue that he went overboard with the 3.5 rating and that a 4 would be more deserved. But if you actually listen to what he said, he pointed out all the good parts, and was specific about what he didn't like. If you're OK with all that stuff then to YOU it may be a 5, but it's not to him.
For me I'm not sure what's so ground-breaking about GTAV. It looks like more of the same thing we've had since Vice City - it looks more like a new coat of paint than a new construct.
The only things i hated were:-
Would give the game a 4 out of 5. There are issues, but those dont stop it from being a brilliant game and a great experience. Maybe there will be DLC to add more heists. That in itself would make the game 5/5 for me.
You cited Godfather part 2 as a story in which the main character's actions are so far from the norm that they're unwatchable. Another example of this would be Breaking Bad.
I think you should consider the idea that as more and more anti-heroes have pushed the sociological boundaries of narratives, it's become less necessary for the audience to root for the character's, or to be able to root for them.
Just look at Pulp Fiction and Reservoir Dogs. How about Citizen Kane? Being confused as to who to root for adds moral complexity to a story.
Where Gta V has a lot of narrative novelties you're overlooking. It may not have nailed it, satirically, but the way it goes about satirizing is really interesting. :)
I had been hearing about this review of GTA V. This is my first time going through it just to see what the fuss is about. If the review is to be believed (I've never played any of the GTA series and have no inclination to start), it sounds like GTA V is a well-executed from the point of view of just being a compilation of coded software. However, from the point of view of being a coherent, sensible creative work, it's a complete dismal failure with no real purpose to its existence. That's the impression that I'm getting.
Although, as I said, I've never played any of the GTA games and have no inclination; so, take my opinion with some significant salt.
Seems like Rockstar were trying to address the dissonance people complained about in IV, how Nico would bemoan killing one minute then be laying waste to the city the next minute. By making the protagonists "scumbags," that issue evaporates. I think it was a smart choice on Rockstar's behalf. And yeah there's low brow humor, but that's always kind of been GTA's thing. I liken it to South Park, sharp satire of contemporary America interspersed with toilet humor.
I hated playing as Trevor and found Franklin to be a bit dull, but I loved playing as Michael and thought he was anything but just a generic scumbag. If Mr. Tito wants to always play a white knight, I suggest he stick to Skyrim (or the "perfect" Dragon Age 2).
No Mr.Tito, every other GTA game does not offer you a choice in every situation or some sense of nobility. In VC you kill cops (not dirty cops mind you) for no reason other than you need the uniforms.
GTA 5 "makes you do terrible things" but never for no reason. As I pointed out before, your "life invader" example was taken out of context and showed that your either choosing to misrepresent that scene or you skipped the cutscenes that explained why you are doing the hits.
If you don't like the game, fine, give it a bad review, but at least be professional. Don't make dishonest claims about the game and don't spend an entire review whining and then give it a high score. It shows that you care more about how people see your review than the quality or helpfulness of the review itself.
If your written review was truly your opinion on the game (even though many of your claims are demonstrably false) then give the game a low score. This "give it a high score but do nothing but complain during the actual review" is the kind of thing I expect from gamefaqs user reviews, not escapist reviews that people are payed to produce.
I know I may seem harsh, I have loved poking fun at you guys over this whole thing (and the Escapists staff childish reaction and constant use of the "people just mad because it didn't get a perfect score" strawman argument) but I honestly believe that when you are being payed to play video games and write short articles that should take you no longer than an hour to write, you should show some level of professionalism or at least quality.
This is kind of how your review seemed to me.
"Burnout Revenge
The game was repulsive and forced the player to drive dangerously to complete the game without offering a valid reason. On top of this, everything in the game is green and I'm so sick of green since I have a family and I found it hard to look at it. Literally everything in the game is green or some shade of green. I can't think of a single positive thing to say about this game, and I have barely gotten into the actual gameplay.
4 out of 5 stars"
No, people are not "mad because of the score" because as people keep saying, it's a high score. People are annoyed because of the complete misrepresentation of the game and how those falsities are now constantly quoted by people that have never played the game as a reason that it's a terrible game.
There are plenty of real reasons to dislike the game, why rely on problems that don't even exist in the game? You keep saying you were forced to do horrible things without an explanation, that's simply not true unless you chose to skip the cutscenes. I'm sorry, but it's not the game's fault that you skipped cutscenes. That's the kind of "review" I remember seeing on "judgement day" on G4 back in the day.
The "I have a family now, I don't enjoy this" stuff was really obnoxious. You are implying (almost explicitly stating) that the only people that would enjoy this game are kids or losers without a significant other in their life.
And this is what bugs me, people that never played the game taking this review on faith.
Fact is, it is his opinion and he is welcome to it but he states things that as I have said before are demonstrably false.
Every "horrible act" is given context and Tito completely ignores the fact that the torture scenes was quite obviously meant to be disturbing. That's what really gets me annoyed, people single this game out as "glorifying torture" because they had the reaction that was intended by the devs but not a single one of those people complained about torture in Splinter cell or COD because the game doesn't make it disturbing because those games are trying to present torture as a noble and necessary act of a hero.
It makes me genuinely sad that people like this admit to not playing the game but post their opinion of how much of a failure the story is based on nothing more than this review which completely misrepresents the game.
Calm down. First, at the very end of my post, I did say to take my opinion with a significant amount of salt, meaning one should not place a lot of weight on it, since I have never played the game. Second, I said it was my impression of the review, meaning I'm only stating what my interpretation of the review is, not whether I believe the review. In fact, I clearly state "If the review is to believed...", meaning if you do believe the review, not saying specifically whether I do or whether others should. Third, if someone has not played the game, what else are they going to have to go by except the opinions of others who have played the game (the reviewer counts as one having played the game, since he must do so to review the game)? Some such opinions are going to be positive and others are going to be negative. Regardless, I'm certainly not going to go out and drop $60 just to verify and validate the review. Sure, I could rent the game on Gamefly or elsewhere, but then I have to spend time going through it, time that could be spent on other games or other activities. If the game is not piquing my interest, regardless of the review (which, by the way, I clearly stated), why would I want to invest in it in any way just to verify a review?
You play the game and enjoy it. That's great; continue on with that, and don't give a flying wet-noodle what anyone else thinks on it. You should not let other's opinion of a game you enjoy take away from your ability to enjoy the game; otherwise, it means, deep down, you're not as comfortable with your game selection as you would like to believe and need external affirmation to justify yourself. You're not being comfortable in your own skin. Some people will like the game, and some people will hate the game; however, both sides will report their opinion based on such. Just because you like a game does not mean everyone else has to, as well.
As an example, I positively enjoyed Final Fantasy XIII, have played completely through it three times now (80+ hours worth each time). Yet, try to find a favorable opinion of the game on the Internet. You may find some, but you'll find a lot of negative. But, those negative opinions do not matter one iota to my enjoyment of the game.
If you feel the need to discuss this, can you at least be mature about it?
Did you read my post? You are asking questions that I already answered with my comments earlier. Yes if you have never played the game all you have to go on is the opinions of others, that's why it bugs me when people that are payed to play video games and give their opinions make claims about a game that are demonstrably false. It would be no different than reviewing Fable and claiming that it delivered on every single promise made in development. It's misleading and unprofessional.
You are asking why you would want to buy the game if you have no interest in it. I don't know, why would you? Why are you asking me that? I never suggested you buy the game if you have no interest. On that note, if you have absolutely no interest, why are you here sharing your opinion on the game you have not played?
Yes I enjoy the game, if you think this is me complaining about an opinion I don't agree with then maybe you just skimmed my comment. This is about a person being given money to review a game and then making claims that are demonstrably false. The things he claims are not matters of opinion, such as his claim that the Life invader mission is given no context and no reason and that you are not told what you are doing until it happens. Every one of those claims is false.
I could just as easily say that if you are not interested in the game you shouldn't care what my opinion of the review is. You are here presenting your opinion, accept that I am doing the same.
Yes, you did sound quite angry to me, especially with the opening line about how it bugs you so much and much of your follow-on text sounded like a response in irritation. You quite explicitly included me in a group that is a source of your current irritation, therefore, it seemed quite reasonable to me to presume you were angry in your post. It is not rude or presumptuous if the person responding has reason to believe that you may be a bit peeved over the issue. Trying to imply that I'm a troll doesn't help. Saying that someone is doing something is indicative of them being X but you're not calling them X is a bit cowardly, in my opinion. Either you believe I'm being a troll or not. If you believe I'm being a troll, then just say so, but if you don't actually believe I'm being a troll, then please don't use phrasing that sounds like an indirect accusation (and, yes, I'm actually a bit irritated by this). Further, just because someone doesn't have agreement with you or make counterpoints against your post doesn't mean that they are engaging in trollish behavior. It simply means they disagree.
Yes, I read your post, the one that quoted me and directly included me as one of a select group that is a source of irritation for you concerning this game.
Greg Tito is not the only one who has the opinion that the story is pointless and unmotivated. One poster in this forum who has also played the game echoes the same opinion as Greg Tito; this person right here:
So, the claims are not necessarily demonstrably false, and I suspect he is not the only person that holds such an opinion. Just because others don't agree with your opinion doesn't necessarily make them factually wrong.
You specifically take exception to someone reciting the opinion of another, specifically a game reviewer, when the person reciting the review has not themselves played the game. In that sense, you are asking the person reciting the review to play the game first before they are allowed to weigh in on the game. I did not recite the review but offered my interpretation of the review. I predicated that interpretation with "If the review is to be believed..." in an attempt to show that I was not taking a stance one way or the other on the veracity of the review. I admit that this may not have been sufficient to impress that onto the reader; never the less, that was the intent.
No, I did not skim your post. It sounded quite clear that you did not agree with the review, and you do not agree with someone giving an interpretation of the review. In fact, the very statement from you that I have quoted above is a disagreement.
I don't care what your opinion of the review is. I care that you included me as belonging to a group that is causing you irritation. Further, you included me in that group on the basis of what I perceived as a misunderstanding of the nature and intent of my post. I responded to your opinion to clarify to you the nature and intent of my post so as not to be included in such group. Even further, the only reason I'm responding now is because in the very beginning of your last post you make what I perceive as a back-hand accusation to call me a troll.
Yet, you seem quite bothered by these "false claims", as you call them, concerning the game and seeing the need to defend the game from them.
There is no way I can argue with you on the veracity of any claims one way or the other, either yours or Greg Tito's, as I have not played the game myself. I did not take Greg Tito's review on faith because I know better than just go by the word of a single reviewer (goodness knows if I did that with Yahtzee's reviews, I'd probably never play a single game ever again). But, that is not the intent of what I was trying to do in my post. In my post, I was only trying to present my own interpretation and distillation of Greg's review in an effect to understand the conflict people were having, nothing more, nothing less. If you have a problem with his review, that's fine, but don't include me as one who is taking the review on faith that it is the gospel truth concerning the game and thus being one contributing to your irritation. Also, I don't like being called a troll, not even indirectly or with language that has partial implications to the effect. (BTW, if this all sounds angry to you, it's because I actually am, to a small degree.)
It didn't "sound angry" because there's no sound involved. The only thing you hear when reading this is the tone of your own internal voice reading it. If that was an angry tone, perhaps you are angry.
I started with "it bugs me" and if you had read through the post you would realize that the thing "bugging me" that I refer to is not you or anything you did but the fact that people rely on reviews like this to know what a game is like before wasting 60 bucks, yet the people being payed to produce these reviews don't feel the need to be professional about it.
You were not "the source of my irritation" and that would be obvious if you read the comment before replying. I did not imply that you were a troll, again if you had finished reading instead of skimming you would have read the "I don't think you are a troll" comment that I gave immediately after I said the "calm down" thing is a common troll tactic. I pointed it out because I thought maybe you would understand that those types of comments can make these conversations turn ugly, hence why people that feed off that stuff use those comments.
So again you do the "just because people disagree with you" thing as if I attacked you. I was presenting my opinion, you were presenting yours. There's no reason to play the victim here.
If you want to discuss this, I'm open to it, but there's no need to put yourself on the cross. You're not a victim here, I'm not attacking you. We are two people with a conflicting opinion on a review posted online. Let's not try to make more of this than there really is.
Several times in your post you discredit what I said with "just because people disagree with you" as if that has anything to do with what I am saying. Yes the things said in the review are demonstrably false. I gave you a good example, Tito claims the life invader mission doesn't tell you what you are going to do, Lester explicitly states before the mission that he will receive a call and that when he answers it the device will detonate. He says that no reason is ever given for the mission, Lester (before the mission) lists what he considers good reasons to kill the man (invasion of privacy and whatnot, funny coming from him) but of course after the mission you are also given the real reason (stock price manipulation) so yes, the claims Tito makes are not matters of opinion but demonstrably false.
If a person says that Samuel Jackson is a bad actor in the Man of Steel movie, that person is not stating an opinion, they are making a statement that is false because Samuel Jackson is not in the movie at all.
Do you understand what I'm trying to say? If you have nothing to defend this review other than personal attacks and strawman arguments, I really don't see this going anywhere. I would love to see an actual response other than "oh you just hate everyone that has a different opinion than you"
Okay, that little twisting of words that you're doing right there gives me good reason to end this conversation right here. You know precisely what I meant by "sounds". Don't try this silly brow-beating tactic to win an argument. I've seen it too many times, and I won't tolerate having discussion with someone who is going to do that. It's base and repulsive.
Let me quote your words here:
You said this using me as a specific example. You specifically included me in the group with which you had issues. My first response was an attempt to clarify that I specifically was not agreeing or disagreeing with the review. I was only interpreting it for my own understanding and then echoing that interpretation. But you seem to want to persist in ignoring that explicit statement to make claim that I'm defending the review when I am not nor have I ever been. As I explicitly stated in my second post, my first post was merely an interpretation in order to understand the conflict people are having with Greg Tito's review. Nowhere do I say that I agree or disagree with the review because I have no basis to do so.
In your subsequent posts to me, you have made the accusation that I am only skimming your posts. You have made the implication that I agree with the review. In your very first line of your second response to me, you say to me
You said this, as near as I can tell, in response to the "Calm down" that I had in my post. I'm not sure how you get someone saying "calm down" as a sign of not being sufficiently mature. Where in that post did I actually in any way speak in a tone and manner that was immature? I'd really like to know, because as far as I could tell, I was merely trying to explain the true nature of my post in an attempt to clear up any misinterpretation I perceived you may have been having. So, you have also accused me of being immature.
So we have three things of which you have directly accused me, two of which I explicitly stated were not the case. Yet, you persist to accuse me of them. Now we compound this with an accusation of immature, and, yet, you now have the gall to say I am not some how being targeted by you? These direct accusations are target, especially because they have persisted even when I explained to you these are not things I'm doing. I'm most especially hurt by the accusation that I'm only skimming your posts when you are clearly not reading mine, or only reading into it what you want to read.
What I posted was an interpretation of the review, not an agreement or disagreement with the review. I have stated this 2-3 times now. Yet, you keep persisting in this idea that I agree with the review. Get this through the concrete (I'm getting really annoyed with this insistence of yours in the face of me repeatedly explaining that such is not the case): I have no agreement or disagreement with the review. I merely stated an interpretation in an effort to understand the conflict people were having with the review. More clearly, I wanted to understand how badly the review was panning the game such to cause some people to rebel against it. But, I, myself, am not taking any particular side. If you want to keep insisting that I'm agreeing with the review, then we are done here, because you are clearly just not listening.
I gave you an example of another poster in this thread who actually has played the game and actually does agree with the review as an example of how two people can look at the some thing and still come to different conclusions regarding the matter. One person may have found it sufficiently motivated while another person did not. But these are simply two different opinions of the same thing.
I have been understanding quite well what you have been saying, and I have been reading through your posts quite thoroughly. However, I feel that you are not reading my posts with the same care, nor are you understanding what I'm saying. So, let me spell it out to you (for the third or fourth time): 1) I am not trying to defend this review as I have never taken a position to agree or disagree with it (how can I when I haven't played the game?). 2) My first post was not an agreement with the review; it was only an interpretation of the review in an attempt to understand the conflict people have been having with it.
I'm getting really annoyed with these accusations you're making of me that have no proper foundation. If anything, you're the one that is guilty of the very things you of which you are accusing me (with the exception of agreeing with the review, because you obviously disagree with it), and trying to twist words, as you do at the very beginning of your post, is one of my biggest peeves. Doing stuff like that, to me, sounds like someone just trying to win an argument. I'm going to tell you right now, you're very close to becoming the second person on these forums I have ever put on ignore. I don't like these accusations, and I don't like this continued insistence that I'm agreeing with the review when I explicitly state, multiple times now, that I have made no agreement or disagreement with it, only an interpretation in an effort to understand that conflict people are having with the review.
Even I hold little weight to my own statement in my original post, which is precisely why I said to take it with a significant amount of salt. It is an interpretation which I regard as having a significant amount of error and, hence, can not be wholly relied upon. I have tried to explain this, but I feel like I'm just not getting through. Instead, I'm getting these accusations and an insistent that I'm somehow defending the review. If there was any sense of defending made, it was only to say that there exist people who have played the game and do agree with the review, but I categorically exclude myself from any group that either agrees or disagrees with the review. This point was made only to emphasize that your own statements so far could be considered nothing more than just an opposing opinion.
Really? More misrepresentation of what I was saying.
It seems people that try to defend this review can rely on nothing but strawman arguments. I don't really see a point in carrying on a conversation with you if you're going to cherry pick the parts of my posts you choose to respond to while ignoring the overall point.
I have already explained that he says things that are demonstrably false. You have provided no argument to the contrary and instead want to argue that "I was mad" as if that's what's important.
If you haven't played and have no interest in the game, why are you spending so much time on it? Why share your opinion on the story while admitting that you know nothing about it?
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Outside The Box – First Full Draft
January 19, 2011 by mandytang
It took a bit longer than planned, but the set of cubes for Outside The Box have reached the first prototype stage! (Applauds) It took a lot of energy to meet the deadline but seeing the finished prototype makes all the hard work worthwhile, I am very pleased with the results and hope you all will grow fond of them too! Thank you Giles and Alice for your patience and advice in teaching me the palette decision making process and guiding me in polishing the sets to a finished prototype. Thanks to Radhika and Haz for taking time out to assist in assembling the cubes together and working on the story telling set!
What happens next? (grin) we play with them! The next stage will be to test them out, not just with the team but with our target audience – kids! We'll be thinking of additional ways to play with them, making observations to check that children understand the content on the cubes and hope they will enjoy playing with them. Our findings in this stage will be taken into consideration when making decisions on the final product.