I just got a phone call from the FBI...

[gggmork]

Technician said:

So what exactly are the FBI gonna do? Trace his ip and visit his house?

I think the FBI guy will lick the doughnut chocolate off the fingers of one of his hands, pick up the phone and call the "terrorist screening center":

and say "uh, I think we have CAtt3GoRY THRee3!!1 terrorism on the interwebz here guyz. Yeah, I saw one of his facebook pictures and he was wearing terrorist jeans, and he uses the terrorist letter 'b' when he types sometimes, plus he's a human so yeah almost definitely a category 3 terrorist here. Uh huh, uh huh, ok thanks *click*"
Then he'll unpause the movie he was "investigating" (watching with popcorn):
http://what-grinds-my-gears.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/fbi-warning.jpg

[sonic_13]

It's one thing to be a rat, but there are small instances where strange, isolated, geeky kids do go and commit such atrocities. Even more so, I find it must be terrible for the people who knew that there was some thing they could have done to prevent it. I know it's cliche to say this, but the columbine guys left all kinds of trails that they were leading up to doing what they did.

I know it's kind of lame to say, but I have a pretty twisted sense of humor and I really don't think that shooting up a school is something to even joke about, and the people who do joke about it need a serious talking to.

[Technician]

sonic_13 said:

I know it's kind of lame to say, but I have a pretty twisted sense of humor and I really don't think that shooting up a school is something to even joke about, and the people who do joke about it need a serious talking to.

I hope you give me a good, firm talking to.

gggmork said:

I think the FBI guy will lick the doughnut chocolate off the fingers of one of his hands, pick up the phone and call the "terrorist screening center"

Yeah, then what?

[sonic_13]

Technician said:

I hope you give me a good, firm talking to.

All right. But you asked for it, get ready for this.


Don't DOOOO that.

[Radon]

Right when I thought the subtle sexual innuendo was going to transpire into something better... Bummer

[Technician]

Radon said:

Right when I thought the subtle sexual innuendo was going to transpire into something better... Bummer

Doomworld is all about the blue-balls.

[GreyGhost]

samusaran253 said:

Don't even start with your liberal bullshit. You and your damn communist friends, trying to ruin America and ban guns.

"WHO'S THE MAN? I'M THE MAN! I'M A BAD MAN! HOW BAD? REAL BAD! I'M A 12 ON THE 10 SCALE OF BADNESS! DON'T NEED A GUN... GUNS ARE FOR WUSSES!"

The Doom Comic has an answer for all of life's questions.

[geekmarine]

I never got the whole, "I'm a teenager, I'm angry at the world," business. The whole angsty teenager thing just never made sense to me - then again, my teen years were basically devoted to Doom mapping, so maybe I just missed the whole point of being a teenager.

[Maes]

GreyGhost said:

"WHO'S THE MAN? I'M THE MAN! I'M A BAD MAN! HOW BAD? REAL BAD! I'M A 12 ON THE 10 SCALE OF BADNESS! DON'T NEED A GUN... GUNS ARE FOR WUSSES!"

The Doom Comic has an answer for all of life's questions.

Yeah, but later he turns this badass statement into "Berserker pack...gone... Feelings of invincibility... over. I do need a gun. I need a big gun. I need a really big gun..." ;-)

And then, as you know, he uses the chainsaw as a communicator, he respects a shotgun (until he finds a chaingun to pack with heavenly joy) and then he plays in the big leagues with plasma, until he find The Big Gun.

Personally I can't understand how self-appointed gun haters could even be attracted to a game like Doom, but heh, coherency has taken a hike a loooooong time ago in this day and age.

[fraggle]

Maes said:

Personally I can't understand how self-appointed gun haters could even be attracted to a game like Doom, but heh, coherency has taken a hike a loooooong time ago in this day and age.

It's because of the psychology of guns, of which Doom is the perfect example. A long, tube shaped device that the user can hold in their hand, that shoots from the end, that gives the user a power over anyone else it is pointed at. Guns are pretty much the perfect psychological penis extension that anyone could come up with.

Doom is a classic in the FPS genre probably because it embodies this so perfectly. Have you ever noticed how all the weapons are centered? Go over to the Freedoom forum and you'll find loads of past threads with people talking about the importance of having centered weapons. It doesn't give the same subconscious sense of satisfaction when the penis substitute isn't in its expected position.

The Doom comic is often mocked, but only because, if we're honest, it accurately reflects the process of playing Doom. As a caricature of the gameplay it shows the inherent childish nature of the game and like a funfair distorted mirror, we dont like what we see. The plot is essentially one long analogy for the process of adolescence as described by Freud. At first the protagonist does not understand the appeal of guns (innocence of childhood). He has just used the berserk pack and is experiencing the sense of power that it gives him (first erection). As the story progresses he learns the power of guns, but he is always searching for a bigger gun (penis envy). Note the emotional attachment he shows towards his gun, and compare with the importance of the penis in male psychology. Finally when his gun is large enough he can confront the Cyberdemon (in Freudian psychology, male children seek to kill their father).

The rational people among us can understand the psychological appeal of guns and play games like Doom, but retain a sense of perspective about the issue. While they might give some gratification, it is inherently a childish, immature act that ought to be carefully controlled. Playing a game like Doom is ultimately harmless, but the same appeal applied to real guns has the capacity to be dangerous.

[DoomUK]

Lol @ the Fruedian explanation.

[Maes]

fraggle said:

gives the user a power over anyone else it is pointed at.

Well, in Doom terms it gives the user more of a "fair change" not to be ripped to shreds in a matter of seconds, and let's not forget that maps like HR pit the player against overwhelming, 100% hostile hordes.

fraggle said:

Doom is a classic in the FPS genre probably because it embodies this so perfectly. Have you ever noticed how all the weapons are centered? Go over to the Freedoom forum and you'll find loads of past threads with people talking about the importance of having centered weapons. It doesn't give the same subconscious sense of satisfaction when the penis substitute isn't in its expected position.

I heard this explanation before, but IMO Doom's having centered weapons is:

• A relic of old FPS design. It was also common in Wolfenstein, Blake Stone, Corridor 7, even Ultima Underworld. At some point (startting with Duke 3D?) the "weapon on the side" style became prevalent, which is related to the next point
  
• Implicit center aim without need for crosshairs plus autoaim: it makes the player much more accurate (in the sense that he'll hit something) than when using fully free, dead-on aiming. This is also part of what makes Doom so fast paced, among other things. Personally I never liked off-center weapons because they render aiming unnatural.
  

fraggle said:

Playing a game like Doom is ultimately harmless, but that isn't true of real guns.

Certainly, however self-defense is one of the few fields where an almost exclusively result-oriented mentality is required. Whether you achieve the desired result by fasttalking, intimidation, mad kung-fu skills or -as a last resort- pulling a trigger, in the end it's you vs them, and you want the last man standing to be you. However, the principle of applying the least amount of effort for the maximum result also applies. This may be just fasttalking/bullshitting your way out of a mugging, or showing a gun with a slightly psychotic grin on your face ;-)

[gggmork]

I put little stock in unsophisticated freudian explanations of things; ramachandran showed that the freudian explanation of Capgras delusion as trying to suppress surfaced sexual attraction toward one's mother is a shitload of fuck, to use an angry video game nerd term, since some patients had the same delusion toward their poodle.
If the guns are penises then lots of people like to fuck ugly fat mancubuses (pluralization rules seem random.. I once had a long argument about the proper pluralization of snuffle-upagus. Someone argued that it already is pluralized, like "elk" or something.) Of course authorities use 'Statutory Rape' evil for profit prison systems and megans law to scare young people from ever having real sex, so I guess having sex with monsters could be the next best thing. I suppose a game where you go around shooting hot women would have been too controversial.

[DoomUK]

gggmork said:

If the guns are penises then lots of people like to fuck ugly fat mancubuses (pluralization rules seem random.. I once had a long argument about the proper pluralization of snuffle-upagus. Someone argued that it already is pluralized, like "elk" or something.)

Isn't it "Mancubi"?

[Technician]

DoomUK said:

Isn't it "Mancubi"?

We're all a little "bi".

[DoomUK]

Technician said:

We're all a little "bi".

According to that crazy Austrian, yes

[Gez]

DoomUK said:

Isn't it "Mancubi"?

It's an invented word, so you'd have to ask the id guy who came up with it.

For reference, here are the most correct and most pedantic plurals for several English words in -us:
- bus -> buses
- corpus -> corpora
- virus -> virus
- octopus -> octopodes
- alumnus -> alumni

Note that while sometimes seen, plurals such as viri, virii or octopi are incorrect and shouldn't be used, unless you want to seem a pretentious snob to the vulgum pecus yet an ignoramus to the intelligentsia. On the other hand, viruses and octopuses are both perfectly acceptable. And if you want to liken mancubus to succubus and therefore argue that the plural form should be mancubi like succubi, remember that succubuses is also an accepted plural.

So the standard English plural of adding -s or -es seems the safest bet and gives you mancubuses. At least nobody can argue that it's wrong; at worst one can only argue that it's not the most pedantic form available.

(PS: I still say the plural form is flubalapo. It's as valid as anything else.)

[Maes]

gggmork said:

If the guns are penises then lots of people like to fuck ugly fat mancubuses

BBW

And don't forget the muscular Barons, Knights, and Cybie asses ;-)

[Grazza]

Gez said:

It's an invented word, so you'd have to ask the id guy who came up with it.

I don't think it follows that if you invent a word, you necessarily get to decide what the plural form should be. After all, pluralization follows rules (to at least some degree), rather than being a purely arbitrary matter.

There are rules for regular English plurals, and there are some established exceptions to this for certain words borrowed from other languages.

Suppose an id guy used the word "mancubi" out of pure ignorance (thinking, as some do, that any word ending in -us has the plural form -i). That surely doesn't make this word correct?

[Maes]

Gez said:

It's an invented word, so you'd have to ask the id guy who came up with it.

I recall more than one (pseudo-)occultist books defined them as the offspring of Incubi and Succubi. The pluralization in -i comes from Latin grammar in either case.

E.g. Lupus -> Lupi (Wolf-> Wolves)
Hommunculus -> Hommununculi
Demonius -> Demoni

etc.

[Gez]

Maes said:

The pluralization in -i comes from Latin grammar in either case.

E.g. Lupus -> Lupi (Wolf-> Wolves)
Hommunculus -> Hommununculi
Demonius -> Demoni

etc.

Corpus and virus are also Latin words, if you look back at my list of examples.

[Mithran Denizen]

My knowledge of Latin is pretty weak, but I believe 'virus' is a mass noun in Latin and thus can't really be pluralized with an -i suffix, while corpus is a 3rd(?) declension neuter noun, and therefore is somewhat of an exception. I think the most standard way to pluralize a (pseudo) latin term like 'mancubus' would be with an -i.

Of course, in English, the standard -s/-es is probably a lot better, overall.

[Again, these are just memory remnants from an introductory Latin class I took years ago, so I'm not sure if it's completely wrong or not.]

[fraggle]

"Mancubuses" is the correct plural under normal English rules. The only reason that it's "Mancubi" is that someone once asked John Romero what the plural should be, and he replied "Mancubi".

It's a common mistake to assume that words ending in -us should be pluralized as -i. It happens because there are a few words taken from Latin that are pluralized that way (alumnus, radius, etc), and people hypercorrect and assume it's a rule.

[Grazza]

Mithran Denizen said:

My knowledge of Latin is pretty weak, but I believe 'virus' is a mass noun in Latin and thus can't really be pluralized with an -i suffix, while corpus is a 3rd(?) declension neuter noun, and therefore is somewhat of an exception. I think the most standard way to pluralize a (pseudo) latin term like 'mancubus' would be with an -i.

The correct way to pluralize a pseudo-latin word is to use the standard English plural form. Example: conundrum (plural: conundrums, not conundra).

It's wrong to regard third, fourth and fifth declension as some sort of weird exception, and first and second as regular. (If you learn Latin, it might seem that way, because you are taught the simplest ones first - the same with verbs, which is why in school Latin books, everyone "hastens" rather than "goes".) There is no such thing as the "standard" plural form of a latin word ending in -us - there are several possibilities.

[Mithran Denizen]

Thank you for enlightening me, Grazza.

[Xeros612]

fraggle said:

Playing a game like Doom is ultimately harmless, but the same appeal applied to real guns has the capacity to be dangerous.

A responsible shooter would know enough to avoid such dangerous situations when not necessary. Responsibility comes with education, something people just aren't willing to provide on guns these days because everyone's too set in paranoid anti-gun nonsense and relying on nanny government to take care of everything.

[DoomUK]

Mithran Denizen said:

I think the most standard way to pluralize a (pseudo) latin term like 'mancubus' would be with an -i.

That's what I always thought. But apparently I'm a dunce when it comes to spelling things properly :p

"Macubuses" it is.

[Devalaous]

Maes said:

Yeah, but later he turns this badass statement into "Berserker pack...gone... Feelings of invincibility... over. I do need a gun. I need a big gun. I need a really big gun..." ;-)

And then, as you know, he uses the chainsaw as a communicator, he respects a shotgun (until he finds a chaingun to pack with heavenly joy) and then he plays in the big leagues with plasma, until he find The Big Gun.

Personally I can't understand how self-appointed gun haters could even be attracted to a game like Doom, but heh, coherency has taken a hike a loooooong time ago in this day and age.

You never dissapoint.

[GreyGhost]

Xeros612 said:

A responsible shooter would know enough to avoid such dangerous situations when not necessary. Responsibility comes with education, something people just aren't willing to provide on guns these days because everyone's too set in paranoid anti-gun nonsense and relying on nanny government to take care of everything.

The safe handling of firearms is something most people should be able to learn in an afternoon - much of it is plain common sense - responsible handling is another matter, since learning to act responsibly is more about having the right attitude than receiving the right education.

[Xeros612]

The same could be said about a whole range of other activities: drinking, drug use, driving, etc. There's plenty of education on such subjects, but people go out and do stupid shit regardless, and each of them has the capability to kill or create situations that can lead to death(s). Aside from drug use, none of these face illegality or ridiculous potential restrictions, or continuous scrutiny from the more left-leaning politicians and people of the world.

The irresponsible morons shouldn't ruin it for the rest of us.