I'd point out that just because you can't write in cursive, doesn't mean you can't read it. I can't really write in cursive (aside from my name), but I can read it when required to; I guess I'm one of those "Gen Y" guys the article refers to, I simply don't see a need for me to write things down on paper.

You're splitting hairs, Genoa is part of modern Italy.

Besides, you can make poisonous gas with household cleaners; they certainly aren't that big of a deal. The real secret to them is the most efficient way to disperse them...and that is harder to find.

I do agree that the author seems entirely too focused on Western RPGs; I love both genres but he simply seems entirely biased against JRPGs, he also seems to have a bias against modern WRPGs. Don't get me wrong, the older WRPGs are great and worth mentioning, but he fails to mention anything more modern from WRPGs than Baldur's Gate aside from WoW. What about Neverwinter Nights which revolutionized how we look at the modern WRPG? Diablo? Mass Effect? The Witcher? All of these could easily be mentioned as excellent examples of how WRPGs continue to push the boundaries of good design.

I do however disagree with you that it's a "a real struggle" to find a decent WRPG lately and that good JRPGs are everywhere and that they contain more content. Recent, excellent WRPGs that I would point to are Mass Effect, Fallout 3 and The Witcher, all of which are pushing combat for the modern WRPG into something more real-time. The only two excellent JRPGs that I can think of are Valkyria Chronicles and Persona 4 (and I'm not a fan of the Persona series, though I do love the Shin Megami Tensei series); to be certain there are more JRPGs out there, but I find many of them to be somewhere in the middle, I enjoyed them, but they weren't incredible. Modern WRPGs tend to be less common now, but higher in overall quality when released. As far as content, JRPGs tend to have a lot of content for 1-2 playthroughs (usually 1, realistically), you play through once and find all the nooks and crannies, "finish" the game and maybe playthrough every great while to experience the story again. WRPGs tend to focus on multiple playthroughs, it's impossible in most for you to experience everything the game has to offer in one playthrough as one type of character, you have to go through multiple times and that's where the content really shines.

Overall, I love both genres, but this guy doesn't really seem to know either one that well; he's stuck in the past, which is fine for him, but I'd hardly consider his list as authoritative.

Maybe not everyone wants to spend two hours getting past one level, or having to restart the entire game if you die once; or dying, not because you made some sort of tactical mistake or miscalculation, but because the game randomly threw an impossible task at you. It's also worth mentioning at the same time that game controls have gotten more responsive and agile comapred to the old days; so maybe part of it (at least with reflex-based games) is that we are working with better equipment. I know that I played through various old-school Sega games on my PS2 when a collection of them came out and found (most of them) much easier. I like to be challenged, but I don't want to lose multiple hours of gameplay because I didn't do everything exactly perfect.

And Madoff isn't a danger to society? He's a con man that has ruined thousands if not millions of lives and stolen billions of dollars; he may not be a violent criminal, but he's a danger to society nonetheless. He is brilliant and charming enough to have pulled this off for YEARS, possibly even decades and if given the chance he might very well find a way to do it again. He deserves to be locked up, no matter how you look at it.

No, it's simply not worth it to open news links that may be fraudulent; you see Fox News recently won this ruling: http://www.ceasespin.org/ceasespin_blog/ceasespin_blogger_files/fox_news_gets_okay_to_misinform_public.html

Mounts still take time to get you to where you're going; and he is right in a big way; they may not charge you by the "mile" but they certainly do charge you by the minute. You pay your $15 for a month's worth of play, minus server maintenance; you could break that down to time in minutes or further into paying for time in terms of the time you have to play it. Every minute spent traveling is time, and money wasted.

An RPG set in the Aliens universe doesn't really work, did anyone think this was a good idea? There's not a lot choices other than "die or don't die" in the Aliens movies and games so far...how deep could it really get? Good riddance, let developers work on something with more potential (from an RPG side of things).

As an example, in Washington State people in certain portions of the Olympia area will not be able to receive their TV signals over the air due to the mountains blocking the signal; a problem that didn't occur with analog TV.

...the Eyetoy? Remember the Eyetoy? A little camera-based system that let you use body movements to do things? How well did that sell? Oh yeah...huh.

...huh?

People always say that bipedal robots are impractical, but if you look at the majority of animals on earth, they get around by 2, 4, 6 or more legs, there's good reason for that; maybe in the modern day a bipedal robot is impractical but if your technology was advanced enough to make robots that were bipedal or quadrupedal it would make good sense. Treads and wheels are great for getting around on level ground, or nearly level ground; but going up 90 degree slopes as large as you are are more or less impossible. Bipeds or quadrupeds can climb if there are handholds or if they can reach the top of their target while standing; basically getting about with hands and/or feet is fairly ideal if you want your machines to go just about anywhere they want to, the only better option is flight really. The only thing that makes bipedal or quadrupedal robots impractical is the state of modern technology, not that their method of moving about is flawed.

Look, you can't force people to listen to what you are saying, this individual apparently has already been told his way of doing things is a problem and has not listened. I love my friends and family, I really do, but I'm not going to enable bad behavior (that's exactly the wrong thing to do); I'll tell them I think it's a bad idea, a horrible idea, but unless it is directly harming me, there's not much I can do other than to tell them what a bad idea it is. If your friends won't listen, then there isn't anything else you can do for them, other than to help them once they are asking for help with the problem (and not the "help get me some more " sort of help).

The point is that he can't really do anything for his friend, other than tell him that he doesn't like him like this and he'll stop being his friend if he doesn't stop. You can't force people to do what you want, even if they are your friends.