Jump to content

ralphwiggum

Member
  • Content Count

    12851
  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Medals

Community Reputation

6 Neutral

4 Followers

About ralphwiggum

  • Rank
    Brigadier General

Recent Profile Visitors

The recent visitors block is disabled and is not being shown to other users.

  1. ralphwiggum

    Whats happened to this community

    Steam maybe part of it, but there is always more than one reason. I'm an old guy who started with OFP in summer of 2001, and had chance to experience this forum community around December 2001. Started out as a member, became a mod, now a retired mod, and mostly just an old guy fondly remembering the good old days. :P Back then, OFP was the most revolutionary game. There were plenty of FPS games like Rainbow Six series(including Ghost Recon) and later Battlefield, but OFP's map editior, large map, as well as its more realistic game play, set it apart. That era probably was the Golden Era of FPS gaming, as well as PC gaming. Just about everyone who could play jumped in and OFP was no exception. There were many interesting characters, and plenty of people to make just about any community a bustling community. I was also somewhat familiar with an overseas OFP community, and even in that country, there were at least 4 clans at the time, despite mediocre distributor support. With so many people of various experience being in it, there were some serious work getting done. Kegetys made some very awesome mods, and some group managed to come up with decription file for missions and terrain designing program. A lot of innovations for OFP were driven by the community, thanks to talents and dedication of many members. There were even mods that tried to make OFP(or ARMA) as a bit of commading simulations(former moderator denoir was part of it, IIRC) Multiplayer over internet was a bit of difficult thing since you couldn't just join in the middle of missions. Then came then ARMA, with serious improvements over OFP. It was not easy for BIS to come up with ARMA due to the split from Codemasters and BIS growing bigger and bigger, as well as working on VBS, but the community kept up its work. However, the scenery was changing. More and more casual players were moving over to consoles, and it was a matter of time before PC gaming took a back seat to the whole thing. This is in part because people wanted something more convenient and easier to jump in. Gone were the days where planning and hard work was valued, and the main focus was on entertainment. This meant general population for PC gaming, for serious ones like OFP/ARMA was losing members. Add in the global recession, and people have to choose between real life work or game. Then the players of the OFP/ARMA era started to join work force, or had other real life obligations. All these combined to the community being smaller, and thus slightly less talents compared to its heydays. By the time ARMA2 demo was out, I was one of the poor guys busy with the real life. I still have OFP and ARMA on my PC, but I honestly don't play it as much due to my real life taking more of my time. I hardly have games on my iPhone now. The world has moved to types of games where it is easy to fire up and now convenient to access, like on our smartphones. ARMA is not a game that fits in to the category. Even back about 3 years ago, people were complaining that ARMA was a game where you had to walk 5 minutes only to get shot by some sniper several hundred meters away, thus getting little action. People want instant gratifications and ARMA is a bit away from that. DayZ mod was quite a hit. At the time, I was more into other things than games, and I saw posts about this mod even in that forum. I didn't have interest in games so have no opinion but just the fact that the mod was mentioned in some other community was the sign that it had wider appeal. Maybe that could have contributed to another change in the community. Let's not forget that the world we live in experienced one of the most prolonged armed conflict. During that time, interest in any thing related to military was high. As time went on, the interest was lost, and again, a serious games like ARMA takes the hit. I am glad I had chance to be part of this community(and still come back occasionally), and I hope those of you who joined after my departure so I didn't get to ban...err...interact :P keep on doing what you like. Sometimes you will be frustrated, sometimes your real life commands your attention, but as long as there is a community to come back to, you can still enjoy. Cheers to BIS, to the current members, and all the past members who probably left, but had great memories with. :) :803: :beeeers: :cheers: :cc: :biggrin_o:
  2. ralphwiggum

    Merry Xmas, BIS!

    Merry Christmas!
  3. ralphwiggum

    Boston Marathon: 2 bombs blow up near finish line

    Adding "We see what comes" does not negate the fact that you were throwing somet thinly-veiled conspiracy thoughts in to the thread. This is case of "Just because you can doesn't mean you should." Your first article link was about increase in security as pointed out by a coach. Your question was about the security at this venue. Your second link was about how CCTV and numerous cameras assisting the investigation after explosion. Second link doesn't prove much in terms of what the first article was questioning. Maybe I'm a bit old, but I don't think I am senile enough to post who the perpetrator was. Care to show me MY post where I said it was a particular group/individual?
  4. ralphwiggum

    Boston Marathon: 2 bombs blow up near finish line

    Here's what you wrote after you linked that article You are essentially asking "Why didn't CCTVs and security catch the terrorist before the bombing?" i.e. someone let this happen. It doesn't have to be directly stated - just inferred, which is what conspiracy theorists tend to gravitate towards. Contrary to what some believe CCTV does not fully prevent crimes, but is useful as a tool to gather evidence after incidents. Yeah, sure.
  5. ralphwiggum

    Boston Marathon: 2 bombs blow up near finish line

    So you saw media asking this question. Did they have the answers? If they did why did you come here and ask again? There is difference between asking questions and throwing things around without basis. (Sadly) this is not a forum where you are going to get a straight answer on such matters. The people who work in related fields are probably busy doing their real job. And they will not comment on on-going investigations. That means whatever question asked about security at events like this probably will get very little correct information. That means more confucion, useless arguments, etc. It is one of the techniques of conspiracy theorists to provide a biased/partial fact and try to extrapolate a story out of it or try to fit their story. There is no proof to discount their theory because it is something that can not be shown to be false. Here's an example. Boston marathon attack was actually a British operation. Boston is famous for being center of US independence(Boston Tea party) and someone wanted to get back for US trying to gain independence 230 years ago. Prove I'm wrong. You can't. This is exactly what this type of postings end up. Countless stupid questions and then someone tries to come up with 'enlightening' answer about big conspiracy involving Rothschilds, Free Masons and aliens. There has been warnings about this type of posts in this thread already. I don't have to repeat myself.
  6. ralphwiggum

    Boston Marathon: 2 bombs blow up near finish line

    I'm leaving your post alone since it was posted before I posted my warnings and is not a conspiracy theory.
  7. ralphwiggum

    Boston Marathon: 2 bombs blow up near finish line

    Some of you really need to think about why some posts were deleted. Don't try to paint yourself a skeptic and try to pass off your conspiracy theory.
  8. ralphwiggum

    Boston Marathon: 2 bombs blow up near finish line

    I think speculation at this point is useless. Give it a rest guys
  9. ralphwiggum

    USA Politics Thread - *No gun debate*

    Or maybe take that attitude and stay away from the forum.
  10. ralphwiggum

    USA Politics Thread - *No gun debate*

    I've been here long enough and when I say something, it's because I know for sure that it will go nowhere. I am locking this thread for a few days so all sides can calm down. After that I do not wish to see gun debate.
  11. ralphwiggum

    USA Politics Thread - *No gun debate*

    ok, I'm going to chime in at this point. Usually, I clamp on these types of discussion early on because they more or less all end up going down the same way. I've been on this board for 10 years and have seen plenty of these types of situations I did have some hopes of this discussion, but I am seeing signs of problem in this exchange of arguments. Please do not end up taking the whole thing down or making the discussion turn in to a flamefest. We are really close to that point IMO
  12. ralphwiggum

    Syria - What should we do if anything?

    Guys, please don't respond to that post.
  13. ralphwiggum

    Syria - What should we do if anything?

    watch what you post
  14. ralphwiggum

    USA Politics Thread - *No gun debate*

    As I said earlier, Please do not discuss this topic. I've been here 10 years and I know how it is going to go and it always ends up the same way.
  15. ralphwiggum

    USA Politics Thread - *No gun debate*

    Actually, I did not sent Moderation warning because I tried to keep it easy, but if you want, I can start sending warnings to you. The topic has been dealt many times with SAME results. I see no reason to start one again. And you don't have much of sensible argument. I've seen you post here for years and it was only by sheer luck that you were not banned. If you haven't noticed, Brady Act expired nearly 8 years ago. Yet, here you are claiming that several states do not comply. States no longer comply to the law becaue it expired. This is an example of you not knowing much about the situation and running things off your mouth after reading some articles. This will stop right now. If you attempt to post another another statement or argument discussing gun law, you will face the consequence. I am talking as a moderator.
×