Torchlight. It's newer, shiny, made by the guys who made the original Diablo, and is decidedly age-appropriate (unless something happens in the latter half of the game I am unaware of, since I've never gotten more than ten hours in). You might also consider Eschalon I and II, both are a bit more involved and "adventure-ey" with detailed stories and such, but they might fit the bill, and I don't recall any age-inappropriate stuff, myself. But then, I don't honestly recall anything "inappropriate" in Diablo I or II either....so my sense of perspective on this may be skewed. And yes, as everyone is delightedly pointing out, these games are technically Rogue-likes or action RPGs, or hacknslashers but the adventure game appelation technically means "point and click and solve obscure puzzle" types.

By that logic, my claim that I will spontaneously start extruding gold nuggets from my nostrils today has exactly as much merit as a chemist who tries to explain why snot doesn't convert to gold. I have 4.5 billion years' worth of reasons to believe that the Rapture was not destined to happen, ever. I think that's a bit weightier than some old cook on TV having punishment and affirmation delusions with a date attached.

I figured it must have happened and worked out just fine because none of the usual riff-raff showed up at my door Saturday and Sunday morning asking me to convert to their faith. Sayonara!

So the question I would pose is: how many Kindle users.buyers were the sort of people to buy lots of print books before? It seems like it would be a relevant factor is the majority of kindle adoptees were people who were less likely to buy print editions in the first place, but find the convenience of the kindle sufficiently advantageous that they have embraced it whole-heartedly. As is traditional, I base my curiosity on anecdotal evidence, which boils down to: I know of three people who have bought a Kindle, and each of them relied heavily on libraries or simply abstained from reading due to perceived inconvenience in the print media. One of the Kindle owners I know takes advantage of being able to scale up the fonts (iirc) to make it easier to read, something print media can't do, obviously. One of them is a full time working mom who likes to read but can't find time to do so....and the Kindle is sufficiently portable that it frees up time for her she didn't previously know she had on when she can read. The third owner of Kindle is an avid user of the library, and she takes heavy advantage of the lower cost or free books available on Kindle now. Hmmm....I just realized I don't know fo any guys who've adopted the Kindle. Weird.

Okay, so first I think, "Okay, maybe I won't by a fourth XBox 360 after the last three RRODed, and maybe I won't get a PS3 since apparently playing online is for losers and people with access to a functional PSN, I'll hold out for a Project Cafe thingie instead. Then I'll find out that its going to involve a bunch of motion-sensor games aimed at the facebook casual crowd. Then I'll see the official software lineup and notice that it caters entirely to kids and adults who somehow think that innovation means Mario's mushrooms are in 3D. And then I'll go upgrade my PC and be done with it.

...for all those people on Pirate Bay downloading GOG games? I know there's a forum post somewhere at GOG where the new justification (once DRM is no longer an easy excuse) is that the games don't come with physical CDs and manuals, so they don't want to waste their money on a download. Good grief.

In another field of software testing these guys might be considered beta testers....

Substitute "PvP player" for MMO Player and I would agree; most MMO players are not so much loathesome as simply self-absorbed and lacking in social graces. Most PvP players, however, are vitriolic racists asshats to the finest degree. I'd like to say that the worst of the MMO and PvP players I've all met are 13 year olds with personality disorders....but alas such is not the case....too many of them are adults who act like such, giving the 13 year olds a bad rep.

Of course, the sad thing about this is that most actual shootings related to home defense or personal protection end up being accidental. Gun ownership is a big deal in the US, overall, but only for specific regions, and especially in rural regions, despite the fact that it often sounds like urban hotbeds of crime are where gun ownership is most common (to read threads like this). Anyway, the OP regarding Google really should emphasize that these are vandals, not hunters. And if they were, technically, out hunting...which I doubt, as these are probably mostly bored teenagers with guns in rural areas...they became vandals the moment they got bored and started shooting at someone else's property. Living in New Mexico, I can state that most professional hunters (all that I know of, having married in to a family of such) wouldn't stoop to such a thing, and are very conservative about their use of ammo, which costs an arm and a leg these days. It's irresponsible kids from low-income poor-parenting families in the boonies that are bored that do stuff like this. Which is in itself another issue entirely...how the hell does any kid get bored in this day and age?!?!

Did it? Wow, never noticed. Wonder how many people did notice...and still decided it wasn't worth the $50 plus hourly subscription fee for a pvp title that's in direct competition with MW2 and other AAA titles...

Fallen Earth does have a two week trial...I tried it and it was quite fun, worth subbing to for a few months (imo). I agree, if APB had offered some sort of trial or free play I might have given it a shot....as it was, not worth the risk.

Well, that sounds good unless you are a regular player of 4E (or DM, in my case) who finds the system to be an elegant, tight refinement of the previous editions, one which fits well with my busy lifestyle, and which allows for exactly the same level of role playing as well as combat, despite assertions to the contrary by elitist old farts. And yes I am an old schooler, though I refuse to be called a grognard, having started with 1st edition AD&D in 1980 and not the original edition zero from 1974. And you can run 4E just fine with just the three core books....though yeah, I do own them all.

On the plus side, maybe they'll fix the horrendous camera system from NWN 1/2....2 being a worse offender arguably than 1. I figure this is a given, since they will in all likelihood be using the Champions/STO system reskinned, and the camera for Champions was about the least offensive component of the game.

This is the real issue here; not whether old grognards can suffer through a 4th edition rendering on PC, but the fact that Cryptic will be doing it. I eagerly await seeing how they shoehorn the Champions system in to a reskin of something that looks vaguely D&D-ish, in the same way that I stare in amazement at a rescue attempt on a bus full of orphans that jumped the rails and fell in to a deep ravine...and then caught fire...as packs of rabid starving coyotes descend on the remains.

LOL! Yesssss. All very true, although as pointed out below, 2E predated Diablo by quite a bit. Also, I wouldn't equate 3rd edition to Ultima Online....but the part about your 40 hour timesink lich that was too complicated almost made me spit my coffee!