It Lives!!!!

[Corel]

Heat map of number of kills on Halo 3 levels.

Now used for Rorschach?

[The Argent Lord]

Originally Posted by CelesJessa

http://improveverywhere.com/missions/

"Improv Everywhere causes scenes of chaos and joy in public places."

Not really pranks, but they cause some amazing scenes. I would love to catch them in action someday if I ever visit New York. My personal favorite is the "Look Up More" one.

It's kind of amusing how crazy people get when stuff starts going against their social norms. Like wearing blue polos and khakis in a Best Buy is some kind of crime.

Very awesome and sure to bring a smile to your face though.

Awesome indeed. I want to get a chapter together where I live.

[Mirai Gen]

Continuing Mauve's trend: Best MST3K skit ever. "Hey, has anyone seen my Chicken Puppet?"

In case anyone missed it, RoboRoll'd, which is Robo's Theme and Never Gonna Give You Up synched up perfectly.

[Regulus Tera]

Jean-Claude Van Damme's greatest moment.

[PyrosNine]

Not sure if this would go great here, or if it's own threadworthy, but lately I've been wrangling a bit in the world of English Major enrollment, and due to some credit transfer issues, I found myself dropping a class and in quick need to find another one with only 3 days left before enrollment ends.

So, in between emails with my english advisor, an English Doctorate, and an English Professor (also doctorate) I began to notice a pattern emerging, one that considering my delicate situation, I cannot ask them about.

This email brought this point to a head. (A few names have been changed to protect identities. ONLY a few.)

Originally Posted by Dr.Fosque

Jeremy,

Good news! Dr Joffee has written to me that she will accept you into her class. You will need to get that form from the English Dept office T--- and bring it to class on Wednesday. Dr Joffee has sent me some directions for the class so you can catch up and also attached a set of readings for you to get you started. Here are her directions, the readings are attached to this mail; let me know if you don't get them. Here is her email: sljoffe@(removed)

This is only the most recent one. All other emails I have received from betwixt these two share the same problems...this one only proves that both of them have the same problem.

I partially wonder if this is a joke at my expense.

[Bells]

Originally Posted by Meister

The captions are unfunny and ruin it.

[Bells]

Originally Posted by Kotaku

Law enforcement near Orlando, Fla., have in custody a 19-year-old who refused to stop playing games to join his family for dinner and threw a taco at his mother after she unplugged his Xbox.

Intrepid and indispensible local news resource WOFL-TV of Orlando reports that alleged Xbox Taco Assailant Zachary Moir is in the Volusia County Jail after a domestic disturbance on Wednesday night. Seems his moms went upstairs and demanded he stop playing that Sega or Atari or whatever you call it and come down and be a contributing member of the family, and he was all, "whatever, bitch," and she was all "WHAT did you just call me," and punched off the power to his console. Oh it's on now!

"A few minutes later Dena says she was in the kitchen cleaning and cooking tacos for dinner when Zachary showed up. That's when she says he slapped her arm and threw a taco in her face. �He went ahead and hit me with the taco and I got taco all over my shirt and kitchen. I�ve threatened to call police before. But anyway this time, I thought he went too far so I called police and he's in jail now.�

On top of that, Mom won't take jailhouse phone calls from her alleged Xbox taco assailant son. That'll show your ass, tough guy! "She says she's going to let him sit in his jail cell in Volusia County for a few days to teach him a lesson," according to crusading truth avenger WOFL-TV.

Sounds like they have a history, Ms. Moir and her alleged Xbox Taco Assailant offspring, and it goes back about, oh, 19 years. "I've been having trouble with him for a while � won't work, won't go to school," she says "He's being rude and disrespectful. Pushing things to the limit as far as the violence.�

This reminds me of The Untouchables: "You wanna know how to get Zachary? He pulls a taco, you get a chalupa; He throws a mexi-melt, you grab a seven-layer burrito. That's the Orlando way!"

No word on what charges the alleged Xbox Taco Assailant is actually facing while he rots in jail and thinks good and hard about this. But Volusia County taxpayers, you're footing the bill for his three squares, at least until these aspiring Maury Povich guests can figure out how to convene a home-cooked meal without the entree being thrown in anger.

And on other news

Originally Posted by Kotaku, Again!

Study Determines Violence Has No Effect on Games' Appeal

Researchers modified Half-Life 2 to study whether violence makes a game more enjoyable for players. The short answer: It does not.

In the study, published Friday in the Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, researchers surveyed more than 2,500 "frequent game players" and conducted four experiments on more than 300 college undergraduates. "We found that, on average, violent content didn't add to motivation for play," said lead author Andrew Przybylski of the University of Rochester, which cooperated with Orlando-based think tank Immersyve on the project.

"The reason why children gravitate to something like 'Halo,' 'Halo 3' or 'World of Warcraft' or 'Team Fortress' isn't necessarily because they want to get at the blood or the acts of violence," he said.

Here's how they determined it. Using Half-Life 2, players were given either a shotgun weapon or a psychic power. Players with a shotgun were told they were in a kill-or-be-killed scenario, and deaths were rendered in a very bloody and violent way. The psychic power gamers "were essentially playing a game of tag," and when they were able to hit an opponent with the ability, "the person just floated up very serenely into the air before evaporating."

After playing, the study subjects were asked how fun the game was and if they'd like to play it again. There was not enough of a difference in the two groups' responses to determine that violence had any affect on its perceived fun.

Craig Anderson, the director of the Center for the Study of Violence at Iowa State University, lauded the studies' methodology and said they made a strong contribution to understanding video games, how they're designed, who plays them, and why.

Przybylski said the findings should encourage designers to make games that make players feel like they're competent, can act autonomously, and stay connected with other players

"That's probably a better place for them to put their efforts than being able to very realistically depict someone's arm falling off," he said.

So violence dosent make games more appealing..... so... what the fuck is going on with these kids?!

Seriously.. im all for the "Games dont make people violent, violent people with games get an excuse to be violent" front. People blame the easy target, somthing that cant fight back... like a video game, but i mean, c'mon! This is beyond stupid... what the hell is wrong with all those kids? That's like the 3rd game-related crime already between december and januray!

PS1 - Yes, it's a double thread with 2 linked news that relate bur arent related.... im bending the shit out of logic here folks!

[Victus]

I would have to say that let's put the games aside for one second. Now, on average, there are x number of violent people, and y number of non-violent people. Put the video games back in. Some people are violent and just pick games up, some aren't violent, and still play. Sadly, this guy was one of the violent ones.

I mean, I know I've played games my whole life, and the only time I've ever been violent (With the exception of self-defense when I got jumped at school every few months) was once in basic training. And tempers and stress run high in that kind of environment.

In my opinion, the guy was just a dick who wasn't raised properly.

[Toast]

Well, for starters it's impossible to say what's going on with these kids because we never (or very rarely) hear anything about what they're like, what their parents are like, what their relationships are like, etc.. And we never will because as soon as it's established that they played a video game at some point in their life there's no need to go deeper and look at possible contributing factors.

[Victus]

How sadly true. Every time a video game is within 10 meters of the crime, it's usually mentioned in the title of the news article, and immediately comes up as a contributing factor (Then a counter article, pro-games comes out a few days later)