James

[color=#737373]Hah, don't even try to make sense of what the Catholic church says or does, lol. ~_^ I can only think of one thing that I never understood: the massive popularity of Friends. I've seen a few episodes and, my god...this show is compared to the likes of Seinfeld? Wow. The jokes are usually horribly inane and air-headed. "Ow, I got ice in my eye." ..."You want me to put ice on that?" *massive audience laugh* [i]C'mon![/i] That's just so awful and lame, lol. I saw a Barbara Walters interview with Matt LeBlanc (however you spell his last name) and she was like "say your line!" And it was "How you doin'?" or something. My. God. She actually giggled at that? That's like when Bart says "I didn't do it". Just...euh...no. It's got to be a glitch in the Matrix. ~_^[/color]

[color=#737373]I just saw the film tonight so I thought I'd share my thoughts. Mind you, I have an inner-ear infection right now...so I'm not quite sure how coherent I can be. I'll keep it pretty short I think. Basically, this film was as cheesy and silly as all the other Star Wars films. Although I do tend to prefer the original trilogy (primarily for the actors I think), I don't think anyone should expect these newer films to somehow be serious masterpieces. Star Wars was originally fairly plot-light and was really a showcase for then-advanced special effects. The new films are no different. I think there are two key differences that I've noted. One is the fact that the actors often don't deliver the dialogue well. The original trilogy had equally fruity dialogue, but the actors at least often delivered it in the appropriate way. The "seriousness" of Luke Skywalker was often so over the top that it was kind of endearing and funny. It gave the movie some heart, I think. The new films seem to try too hard to be truly serious at some times...it's almost like being camp by accident. If it's accidentally camp, it comes off as jarring and annoying. I felt that the new film was about on-par with Episode II (which was better than the first episode, I thought). That is to say, it was a little more engaging but still had some of the same issues - pacing, fairly poor performances and some jarring back-and-forth cutting (well, that relates to pacing I guess). I have no complaints about the story. It made sense, it tied into the original trilogy...that's all peachy. It expanded on the original stories and was somewhat more complex, though still obviously pretty simplistic. But I think the attempt to flesh things out a bit more was done well and that made it more enjoyable for me. As for the controversial stuff...I didn't really think the "You're beautiful" line was that bad. If it'd been in a Tarantino movie, it'd have stood out like a sore thumb. But in these films, it's pretty much on-par with all of the other dialogue. lol The "Nooo!" was kind of poorly done and horribly cliche, but again, what are we really comparing it with here? There's nothing spectacular, dialogue-wise, to compare it to. The bits that annoyed me most were probably some very small aspects, like when Vader [spoiler]stumbled off the operating table, ala-the robot from The World Stood Still)[/spoiler]. I just felt that looked pretty humorous. Also, certain mannerisms of Palpatine...some of them were a bit random and caused my brother and I to laugh to ourselves. Again, I think it's probably the campness. My overall view is that this film is pretty much what I expected. It wasn't as good as the original films, but it wasn't a whole lot worse. It's Star Wars...the campness, the humor and all of these things are part of the franchise. So, going in expecting that, I felt that it was relatively enjoyable. It didn't blow me away, but it made for some nice eye-candy and didn't have any glaring plot holes. So I came away satisfied.[/color]

[color=#737373]Matt's response isn't really hitting the mark, I agree. People were making the profitability argument in the N64 days and they still are now - nothing has changed in that sense. Perhaps Matt doesn't understand what makes Nintendo profitable right now, I don't know. Their decline in the home console market isn't good, but that decline is matched by an increase in size of the overall market. So I would say that they've remained pretty stable in general. Their profit margins did used to be higher, but this was because of the highly restrictive licensing model that they had applied...which obviously can't be used now. What Matt seems to forget is the Nintendo DS. That's a new system and like Game Boy, it has lots of life potentially. I can imagine Nintendo updating DS periodically as they do with Game Boy to help keep it fresh. Given its success and high tie-in ratio right now and given its newness, I don't know how he can say that Nintendo isn't planning for the future. Even if you consider the decline in GBA sales growth (which is natural with a console that has sold more than any other in this generation), you still have DS as a new system that is doing remarkably well despite not having a large amount of hit games. When the big hits start rolling later in the year, we will probably see even better performance. So even if GBA died off completely, it's not as though Nintendo aren't planning ahead. GBA Micro will no doubt help to keep GBA sales stable for the next year or so and DS will continue to pick up steam and become and increasingly large part of Nintendo's revenue. And the DS business is [i]profitable[/i], like the GameCube business. It's more profitable than the incredibly shaky PSP business. If Revolution is similar to DS in terms of cost versus revenue and so on, and if it captures a similar market percentage as GameCube...then Nintendo will continue to be a profitable business. It will survive the next generation better than most as a result. Matt just keeps making these arguments, but they are no better than what I see in forums occasionally. They disregard so many obvious things and they incorporate elements that are really unrelated. It's annoying because I think that IGNcube visitors probably get the wrong impression as a result. Unfortunately though, it's tough to find truly good coverage on this type of issue. I've seen good stuff at CNN Money and a few other places, but it's rare.[/color]

[color=#737373]I think you have to realize that most of his family have actually disowned him anyway. One of his relatives even wrote an entire book about how she totally disapproved of what he does and how it's brought shame to their family. So yeah, if I liked her music I'd buy her CD. I don't have any concern that I'd be funding terrorists or something, lol. I'm not a big fan of automatic guilt by association.[/color]

[quote]I'm looking at DS vs. PSP right now, most would agree that with the PSP you get the most bang for your buck, right? I truly think that at least right now, the DS is just a gimmick. It's just an extra touch screen that is keeping it alive, as there are very few decent games for it. Most of them are glorified tech demos, it'd be unfair to name them because most of them are things like Pokemon Dash, or the Super Mario game, which is basically Mario 64 with a bunch of mini games thrown in. My friend has a DS and I played the game, I hated the actual Mario game and found myself just playing the mini games, which eventually got boring as well. In fact, if I got a DS right now the only game I'd buy is Metroid Hunters, and probably that Kirby game that's coming out this year. The competition? Metal Gear Acid, MGA Squared (coming soon), Lumines (the best Tetris-esque game since Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo), Grand Theft Auto (which is being promised for this year), and many other at least half decent games. They're not games based off of repetitive rubbing of a pen or compilations of re-tooled games the execs play at the office. This is just in my opinion, of course. [/quote] [color=#737373]DS may not be for you, but I think you have to look at the sell-through. Not only are DS sales currently double those of PSP, but market data suggests that DS is appealing to new audiences - including non-gamers. I enjoy the DS because it provides me with a fresh experience; something I can't physically have on PSP or any other system. The actual experience of using the touch screen and microphone for interaction goes beyond gimmicky, particularly with many of the newer games (Pac-Pix and Electroplankton being two prominent examples in my mind). So, even with relatively few AAA games, I think anyone would have to conclude that DS has so far been a runaway success. Its sales acceleration in Japan is even higher than GBA SP - and GBA SP had a faster pick-up rate than PlayStation 2, despite only being a revision on existing hardware, as opposed to being a totally new product.[/color] [quote]So what does Nintendo do to get out of its rut? It shrugs off E3 by showing us a little black box that reminds me of the early PS2 sketches, and no controller, no games, and no information. At least they're humble and don't really lie like Sony and Microsoft did. eZines have interviewed some of the people behind the demos and they were hush-hush, but they eventually started saying things that contradicted the other, the end result? Everyone with half a brain should know that Unreal 3 and Killzone 2 are a lie, those are pre-rendered screens, with little or nothing done in real time, there was an interview done by Eurogamer.com, but I lost the actual link to it.[/quote] [color=#737373]Well, as mentioned, the DS is a pretty big success right now. The results speak for themselves. I wouldn't call that a "rut". In addition, the subject of Revolution's appearance at E3 has come up before. What you mentioned about Sony and Microsoft is true, but I think you have to remember two things. Firstly, when Nintendo talks about Revolution's specs at some point, they won't be talking about estimated numbers or inflated figures. They'll be talking about expected in-game performance. This also happened with GameCube, which ended up boasting higher performance than PlayStation 2. I do not think that Nintendo's relative quietness on Revolution should at all be considered an embarassment or anything like that - it's not that they have nothing to say and it doesn't suggest that Revolution is underpowered. It's a particular strategy. Revolution launches late next year, so we are more than a year away from release. There isn't any need to go into great depth on the product right now, especially when they have nothing playable to show. For all Sony told us, we got very little out of it. Their technical demos were interesting, certainly, but none of that really resembled the experience of playing games. That likely won't be looked at 'till later this year at the earliest.[/color] [quote]That was getting off subject... The NR is basically GameCube all over again. It's the little system with the little price. I thought it was really sad that they didn't show a controller design or even games at E3. It was a running joke at my school that Nintendo would use its DS slogan, "Touching is good," change it to "Thinking is good," and instead of controllers, use helmets that that have vurtual reality and control by reading your mind. That would be a wonky controller, for some people, quite unresponsive (where you press a button and the character doesn't jump for like two seconds). So how does Nintendo "wow" us? Saying that almost any game from almost any of their systems can be played on it. That's astounding... You have to purchase the games online and download them, which is a cool use of the online capability, but it's still pretty stupid compared to XBOX Live. So now it's rumored that Nintendo will release their system by Christmas 2006 and show all their stuff at E3 after the PS3 has been launched. [/quote] [color=#737373]That's true, it's a small system for a small price (probably a small price, anyway). But there's just so much of an assumption here, don't you think? Especially when so little is known about the platform. There's no question in my mind that Revolution will be different to PS3 and Xbox 360. But different isn't necessarily bad. Given the tremendous success of Nintendo DS in the market, I can't say that applying a similar philosophy to Revolution worries me. And as mentioned, it's just too early to be showing much for the system. What was Nintendo really going to show? They weren't going to show glorified tech demos that don't really represent what the final games will be like. Even with GameCube, their demos were largely things that morphed into retail products. And those demos were pretty indicative of what the system could handle. As for the controller, I agree that it was disappointing not to see it at this E3. But once again, Nintendo regards E3 as a show for the coming fiscal year. Considering their stance on other companies mimmicking their designs, I can imagine that they'd rather wait until later in the year to unveil the thing. This is especially true if it's using a particularly unique application of technology. Don't forget that Sony and Microsoft are not even running on final hardware right now. They have time to make changes. It would be easy for them to incorporate new features to beat Nintendo to the bunch (as Sony attempted to do with Dual Shock).[/color] [quote]So my predictions in a nutshell? PS3 and XBOX 360 stalemate for their lifetime while Nintendo goes the way of Sega... Maybe not this generation, maybe not even ever, but they are going to fade away... DS got pwned... The Revolution is a black box with nothing in it right now, but it could end up being amazing. I think that this generation is going to be the worst. The companies are all concerned with amazing graphics to the point where it takes five years to make a game. Liscences and lawsuits are forming (EA & NFL), and the gaming community is going to suffer. Meanwhile, I'll be sitting here, chilling, playing my PSP and playing Half Life 2 on my computer... [/quote] [color=#737373]I think that you have some valid criticisms overall, but your friends really don't know what they're talking about. DS didn't get pwned. It's sold through twice the number that PSP has. Again, the results speak for themselves. And that's only if you want to compare DS to PSP, which I think is a bit erronous to begin with, considering the very different goals they both have. Secondly, I don't think you should worry about what the Revolution has in its box. You have just said that you are concerned about the focus on graphics and stale software...even though this is what PSP, PS3 and Xbox 360 are essentially pushing for the most part. That's not to say that they aren't playing host to good games, but Sony and Microsoft are definitely pushing the idea of taking what we have and making it bigger and louder, without offering anything fundamentally new. I guarantee, Nintendo won't go the way of Sega. Their business is nothing like Sega's. The GameCube was the most profitable of the current generation consoles, in terms of the actual profit margin for Nintendo. I think that a lot of people have this idea that if they don't own a system or if their friends don't, that it's somehow failing. But there are a lot of gamers out there, and each company has a different business model. Nintendo has always run its business profitably; it's only made one significant loss in more than 100 years of operation. It isn't a company to dive in with new products on a whim. Although I do tend to want to defend each company (I've done a lot of defending for Xbox 360 in this very forum), I do think Nintendo is still vastly misunderstood by gamers at large. That sucks, because I think it means that people tend to dismiss their products without really giving them a fair go.[/color]

[color=#737373]I definitely think that a crash is possible, if things don't change. The current path that hardware makers and developers are following is dangerous, because not enough is being done to diversify the product and the market. Sony and Microsoft in particular are still selling to the very same audiences and without overall market growth, it'll be difficult to sustain that for a long period as development costs rise. I think that Sony's PSP is a prime example of what's wrong with the industry - not the product itself, but the business model behind it. Heavy hardware losses, high development costs, low profitability, confused product focus and a lack of differentiation. It's just a bad business model and it isn't very stable for the future. There are two really big issues at the moment, I think. One is development cost. No question that this is going to rise. When the industry moved from 16 to 32/64 bit consoles, there were many developers who struggled to make the change, due to the increased cost of producing 3D games. There were quite a few developers who went out of business entirely, despite being quite successful with 2D games. The same thing has occurred in the current generation, with some developers being bought-out by larger publishers in order to survive. I doubt that Rare would have much chance of survival if they weren't owned by someone, be it Nintendo or Microsoft. Although they're an odd case, because they are a massively inefficient company with terrible staff morale. So, cost is a very big factor. Unless there are alternatives and unless XNA and other initiatives actually pan out properly...that will continue to strangle developers and further reduce the choice that people have on the shelves. While it doesn't necessarily mean that games will be a lot worse, it's almost like the reverse of what happened with Atari in the 80's. Atari was producing a ton of crap and people soon stopped buying games as a result of a flood of awful software on the market. Potentially, we could see the reverse; a very very limited selection of software that offers no new experiences. That's very important, because it could lead to a decline in sales. The second problem is the market itself. Right now this is only an issue in Japan. New hardware sales used to keep the market afloat; people would snap up new hardware products and this was enough to keep things fresh. But that rule has really been nonexistant within the last few years in Japan. New hardware releases are not stopping the decline of the industry there. The decline is largely a result of people losing interest in games in general - losing interest in the repetition that so many like-games are providing. All of this is partly why I'm supportive of Nintendo's approach with DS and Revolution. Although they will obviously do their best to run a profitable business regardless, I think they are the only hardware maker right now who is trying to expand the market and stop the decline in Japan. Sony and Microsoft are doing nothing to achieve that. The big question, I think, is whether or not other territories eventually start to experience a decline like that. If prices go up and if games in general become less experimental, it's certainly a possibility. But even if it doesn't happen at all, that doesn't eliminate the other problems that still exist. Sony and Microsoft understand that there are looming problems, which is why they are trying to find ways to make development easier and cheaper. I think they have the right idea with that. But I think Sony's model in particular is problematic and I think they've largely ignored the problems in the Japanese market (which is surprising, because it's still a very important market to them). Ultimately, they'll have to do [i]more[/i] than just make development easier - they'll have to make it even more affordable than they are now, and they'll have to try to cultivate different kinds of interactive products to stimulate the market. It certainly needs that stimulation right now, and it'll probably need it even more in the future.[/color]

[color=#737373]The main thing is, none of these games are really running on final hardware anyway. The Xbox 360 mules that exist currently are using today's technology to emulate what the hardware can do. That Microsoft is still using emulators this late in the game is a little odd, but I think it'll be sorted out soon enough. Emulators are good, but they are never a completely true representation of what a system can handle. Do I believe that these systems can do Killzone-like graphics? Eventually, yes. But I also believe that making a game that looks like FMV will require double the investment. And that puts games like Killzone beyond the reach of many of today's game development studios. More developers doesn't mean more good games as such, but it does mean that there's more competition. In such an environment, game developers are really forced to produce stuff that will grab more attention from gamers. Unfortunately, even today, you have to sell about 600,000 units of a game to make any kind of profit - that is, based on the average cost of today's games. Even if the prices of games go up at retail (and they will, at least for Xbox 360 and PS3), you can still bet that games will take much longer to make and provide less returns for developers. There are only a few ways around this, but I regard them as stop-gap solutions. One way is to outsource things such as model production to companies in India or China, where labor is cheaper. If you had your 3D models done in China and sent back to you for animation and texturing, that would reduce cost (versus doing it all in-house). Some companies are already taking that route. The other solution is more on the hardware developer side; to create a batch of tools that make things easier. It may not reduce the cost of development, but it will make the transition smoother and easier for developers of various sizes. I really like Microsoft's XNA approach; from what I know of it, it's a very comprehensive solution that is continually evolving. I think Nintendo has the right idea too, with DS and Revolution. They can play host to smaller developers who can't afford to regularly produce games on PS3 and Xbox 360. And PS3...well, Epic Games says that it's easy to code for. But the whole nine processor thing is a bit iffy; only very talented developers will be able to share game code properly across the system's hardware. It's a complex design, like PS2. And it does contain some bottlenecks. So, I think it will probably be the most expensive system to develop for. That may make little difference for big companies, but it may be a deciding factor for small-and-medium developers.[/color]

[color=#737373]It's not good for small developers to die out. Less developers tends to equate to less great games. Why? Because competition is reduced. We don't want a world where EA is only competing with [i]itself[/i]. Then we'd get the same recycled crap each year...moreso. So it's good to have an abundance of developers who are under different ownership. As far as Xbox 360 goes, I think it, PS3 and Revolution will all probably have graphics that are fairly similar, at least initially. Most people won't be able to tell the difference if they don't look at the specs. Some games will look a little better than current gen games and some will probably look significantly better. But that's kinda no different to the current generation. We still get games on each system that either look like glorified PSX games, or that look truly "current generation".[/color]

[color=#737373]I think you can take this question in two ways. I mean...I guess my dreams of a perfect life involve a career that I love [i]and[/i] a relationship with someone who I am deeply in love with. Having both would obviously be totally ideal. But if I had to choose, say...a perfect career with all the best material posessions, or if I could just live normally but have the perfect partner for me? I'd probably have to choose the latter. Loves can come and go, [i]but[/i] presumably we're talking about a "true love" here. In that case, if I could just live as I do now but have a true love...that would probably be perfect. But having said that, I think that someone you love wouldn't restrict you from achieving things in your career and other areas anyway. So it's definitely hard to answer the question. If being in a perfect relationship stopped me from accomplishing my other dreams...I'd have to ask how perfect that relationship really is.[/color]

[color=#737373]We've had a couple of fan fiction sites in the past. I think you can expect another one in the future, with myOtaku compatibility.[/color]

[color=#737373]I wouldn't describe it as a long grind or anything though...I mean, each mission is pretty good fun. And there's a great deal of variety to the places you'll visit. It has some linear aspects, but it combines that with just the right amount of customization. I haven't even played PvP on the final release yet, because I've been spending so much time in the main game.[/color]

[color=#737373]At the moment, members have to make do with deletion. Presuming that your comments aren't being mass-spammed, that should be okay. However, I believe that we may have an ignore feature on the new myOtaku that we're working on. Or we'll have something in that vein. So that'll allow people to block specific members, or to set viewing options. I imagine we'll have some sort of basic feature for myO 3.0, with a more advanced version for Premium. But don't quote me on that; it really depends on what Justin feels he can include.[/color]

[color=#737373]Revolution and PS3 aren't really even an issue in the next year. PS3 is apparently due to launch in the spring of 2006, but that's sketchy at best. And Revolution will probably launch later in 2006, which means it's far enough away that it's not worth worrying about quite yet. I think the biggest thing this year, in terms of "console wars" is going to be the whole situation surrounding PSP. Sony is having production issues and if they increase production as suggested, it's possible that PSP sales could further accelerate. PSP isn't meeting Sony's sales forecasts right now, so who knows how that'll go. I'm also interested to see how DS's Wi-Fi Connection service fares. DS is likely going to be the system to beat when it comes to online gameplay by year's end. Given that it's free and highly accessible (and supported by some very big games), I'm thinking it could really drive DS sales. Other than that, it's all pretty standard stuff...my answers won't be different to most people's. I'm looking forward to Zelda and Okami in particular, but there's a ton of other stuff I want, ranging from Age of Empires III to Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence.[/color]

[color=#737373]On this subject, I think things are okay right now but it's not ideal. In the future, you can expect us to hardwire ratings into OtakuBoards, specifically for RPGs. Instead of writing it in yourself, you should be able to access a simple pull-down menu to select a rating automatically. Hopefully we can make it so that the rating is changable at any time. This also means that every thread will have a rating, because presumably we can make it so that the thread can't physically be posted without one. I'm not entirely sure how that system will look when it's finished, but if we go ahead with it, it'll be very easy for everyone to use and it won't get in the way.[/color]

[color=#737373]Baron was pointing out that the forum's description already says that. ~_^ Anyway, have fun in there. It would be nice to see more book/magazine/comic discussions going on.[/color]

[color=#737373]I should reiterate - the ratings are not designed to [i]stop[/i] anyone from entering an RPG. It's not about restrictions. It's about giving people some idea - at a glance - of what the RPG's content will be. In terms of application, there's no way we can really change that. The only way would be to have someone independently rate threads. But that's obviously out of the question for sheer logistical reasons alone.[/color]

[color=#737373]We are all in the American region, so you may have to change to that if you want to play with us regularly. We are all able to visit the International Districts though. So that should be fine. Most of us have characters around where you are, so that should be okay as well.[/color]

[color=#737373]Ouch, yeah, those compressed shots don't show the cape in a good light. It looks a lot better in-game, thankfully. Suitably quirky. Anyway, now that the Guild is running most people have been invited. But I'm sure there are a few more to add as time goes on. It'd be cool if other OBers would post in this thread with their character names, so that we can join each other in-game. Perhaps we should post a list of our character names and their jobs or something? It may help prospective Guild members choose something that fits in with us (for instance, we don't yet have a primary monk or a primary warrior).[/color]

[color=#737373]Actually, people have been suggesting some sort of ratings system for a long time. There were a surprising number of people who really weren't explaining what their RPGs would contain, in terms of language and things like that. For example, people would sign up to a "PG" RPG and swear in it or something. Then Moderators or other staff would have to deal with that. Basically it's there to keep things clean and organized. Also, it's a good back up for parents. What members don't see are the messages I occasionally get - questions and concerns about certain things. For that reason, I felt it was necessary to offer ratings. One thing I don't want to do - and I'm sure you'll agree with this - is censor RPGs. I don't want to provide any censorship on people's creativity. Ratings are a good way to provide a buffer without actually censoring the content. It's the best way to go.[/color]

[color=#737373]The thing is, people of all ages are visiting OB. Usually I agree that RPG descriptions say enough, but you never know. I think it helps to provide some kind of ratings-at-a-glance, for people who are browsing the forum. At the very least, it does mean that people know what they're getting into well before they sign-up. And that in itself means that we won't run any risk of people being exposed to things that they don't want. The biggest problem with the ratings system is the way people apply it, frankly. But there is not a lot we can do about that.[/color]

[center][img]http://img31.exs.cx/img31/8404/wonkaheader5wa.jpg[/img][/center] Chapter One: The Golden TicketWelcome to Wonka Inc.! As I introduce each chapter, I will provide a brief description of what I'm looking for and I'll list the post order. This way, nobody will be confused. But also, you'll have plenty of opportunities to go your own way and come up with lots of your own unique ideas. Don't forget, you're free to explore things as much as you like. ~_^ [b]Chapter Description:[/b] In this chapter, we find out how each character came across their golden tickets. This chapter may or may not include their trip to Hollywood, for the [b]Kids & Candy Concert[/b]. Whether you include your character's trip there is entirely up to you. [b]Post Order:[/b] The post order is as follows: Bio Mimmi Annie Sean Aiyisha Corey If you have any questions, please use the [url="http://www.otakuboards.com/showthread.php?t=46505"]sign-up thread[/url]. I will not be creating an Underground thread for this RPG. [b]Other Notes:[/b] If you wish to use HTML for this RPG (and that's up to you), you can use any format you like. However, please stick to a minimum of [b]size 2 text[/b]. That is my only request.

[color=#737373]I think the ratings system itself is fine, but people apply it wrongly. I understand that people want to cover their bases by going with an M-rating, but if we are talking about a Pokemon RPG with mild swearing...then M is too much. PG is probably better for that sort of thing. Also, I think people forget that ratings other than M can have a strong appeal. I think it's easy to fall back on swearing and violence to attract people. Even though many of my RPGs have contained this, if you look at a list of my RPGs, I think you'll find that I've at least attempted to do something interesting each time. These RPGs are never [i]about[/i] the violence and the swearing, those things are just vehicles that help to drive things forward. So even without using an M-rating, there's plenty of variety to be had. I actually think we kind of need an R-rating for anything that goes beyond M...but I'm a bit worried that everyone would start using that and thus, it would become kind of meaningless. lol[/color]

[QUOTE=Baron Samedi][size=1] To tell the truth, the outcome didn't surprise me. They were never just going to let her leave, no matter what the evidence she had in her favour was. Admittedly, she [b]is[/b] a tad strange, and she [b]did[/b] act in a suspicious manner when they were opening her body-board bag. But when it comes down to it, I think that it was Australian baggage handlers who were responsible for the marijuana.[/SIZE][/QUOTE] [color=#737373]Yeah, there was a lot of stuff that really didn't seem to be taken into account. For example, why not compare the weight of her bag in America versus Bali? If it was heavier in Bali then bingo, something was added during the trip. Also, they didn't do any blood tests on her or anything, to see if she had taken any drugs. Drug dealers do tend to sample their own stuff and they often test positive when arrested, so I'm surprised that the Indonesians did nothing about that. It definitely seems like they are making an example of her, despite the questions about her guilt. I think there is plenty of "reasonable doubt" here...and that's really all you need not to be convicted.[/color]

[quote name='Kaise']I mean NO ONE familiar. Not one person. I had to actually go and LOOK for the people who were once my friends. I haven't seen a familiar face here since...ever.[/quote] [color=#737373]So? I don't know how many people you knew around here, but you are still listed as a New Member. So you must not have posted terribly often. I've been here for years, but I only barely recognize your username. Many of the people I knew here have now moved on. But you know what I did? I actually got to know the newer people. Some people at OtakuBoards who are now considered more popular members are people who have been here for a relatively short time. I mean, our Administrator has only been here a short while. And I still remember Shinmaru's old username like it was yesterday. ~_^ In some respects, even those members are "newbies" to me (relatively speaking). But I don't have any problem with that. We were all new once and without new members, the site would never grow or change. Besides, I like getting to know new people. If you want familiar faces on OB, you have to actually take the time to post and get to know people. That's all it comes down to.[/color]

[QUOTE=Kaise]I stopped coming here after a while. I visited in october last year last time. I hardly recognize anybody. N00bed it has been.[/QUOTE] [color=#737373]That makes no sense. You only recognize nobody because you last came in October of last year, several months ago. That's the reason why you don't recognize people - not because of new members. In any case, if we had no new members since October last year, I'd certainly be more worried about that. lol[/color]