Thank you for the suggestions.

M4g1cW4rr10r : Thanks for the suggestions. I was intentionally vague in hopes of hearing all suggestions and not only ones based on games I have played. Even I would not know what I would like if I only used past games a guide.

I had hoped more people would respond here, though.

I am in the mood to play some stealth games. The problem is that I was never good at them because my introduction to them were (presumably) more difficult games like Splinter Cell and Metal Gear Solid 3.

So, are there any good PlayStation 2 (preferred over PlayStation 1, if possible) stealth games aimed more at beginners so that I can work my way into the genre before moving on?


(I haven't posted here in such a long time!)

The pay is lousy, the hours are long, and I've heard that the boss is a bit of a hardass. So.... congratulations? I guess?

*cracks whip* Now GET TO WORK! 


But seriously, best of luck. Modding can be hard at times, especially on days when you think that you are doing the right thing but members do not agree. It is a lose-lose situation. Hopefully those will be few and far between, though!

You can only spread yourself so thin before you snap. Everyone knows that, and it sounds to me like you spread yourself thinner than most people between your many responsibilities both online and offline. Anyone who has dedicated a massive amount of time to something understands where you are coming from, and I dare say there are less than a handful of people around the site who have felt neglected. I believe that some issues running through your mind as self blame concerning the community are not at all your doing. Changes always need to be made over time, that is just the order of things.

No one sees you as you see yourself, so I hope that you will stop beating yourself up, put your best foot forward, and take everything one step at a time. Many great sites with even a large group of highly-skilled staff have struggled or fallen off of the map while this site still stands.

This sure has been a transient database over the past decade! Has it ever considered... you know... settling down... having a few kids maybe?

I hope it all goes smoothly.

I just read an article on PCWorld (source) posted earlier today that says Microsoft has re-confirmed earlier announcements that the free Windows 10 upgrade promotion will end at 11:59 p.m. (UTC-10) on July 29, 2016.

Four hours from now, the Get Windows 10 nagware will cease its nagging! (though you may still have to delete the GWX folder/files yourself... there is no word yet on whether a future Windows update will do it for you.)

It's about time!

Thankfully, I never had to deal with it because I took action before it had the chance. I have since helped others remove the nag screen and Windows 10 icon that looms in the taskbar/notification box on Windows 7 so that they can live peacefully.

One of the steps in doing so is a little complicated/confusing to novice users (changing permissions and deleting previously undeletable files) which removes the taskbar icon. I will not describe that here just in case someone too inexperienced but careless is reading (you can look it up elsewhere, but I do not want ot be responsible for your mistakes.)

The other major step is to uninstall a specific list of Windows updates related to Window 10 upgrading as well as a few telemetry updates just for good measure. But an additional step I have found gets overlooked is that many people have Windows Update set to automatic, and the updates eventually get reinstalled. You have to turn off automatic updates, keep track of the list, and hide the particular list of updates when they eventually reappear so that they never appear or try to install again.

Here is the list of updates for Windows 7 in case anyone is still interested at this point:

2902907 -- Microsoft Security Essentials
2952664 -- Get Windows 10 assistant
2976987
2977759 -- System32CompatTelRunner.exe
2990214 -- Get Windows 10 (for Win7)
3021917 -- telemetry
3022345 -- telemetry
3035583 -- Get Windows 10 (for Win7 and Win8.1)
3050265 -- update for "Windows Update"
3068708 -- telemetry
3075249 -- telemetry
3080149 -- telemetry

... and a few additional for Windows 8/8.1

KB3044374 -- Get Windows 10 for Win8.1
KB3065987
KB3075853 -- update for "Windows Update" on Win8.1/Server 2012R2

use "wusa /uninstall /kb:####### /quiet /norestart" without quotes, replacing ####### with the update number.

zanderlex : No, I haven't. Actually, I don't like that game at all.

When it comes to multiplayer, I have never been a fan of any kinds of "shooters" be it top down or first person. Agar.io only barely feels like a shooter because you become a projectile for a moment, but you have to get close and cannot attack with a wall of bullets that are impossible to escape from.

Also, it feels even slower than Agar.io which makes it less fun.

Another full supporter of this feature being far overdue on this site. The ads here are by no means nagging or otherwise intrusive. There are no porn ads, seizure causing blinking ads, pop-ups or pop-unders. I can understand the "need" to use blockers on some sites that scream at you or use browser lock-up and virus scams, but not here.

The old days of the Internet with almost no ads were great, but everything costs a lot more now, and it is sites like this one that need ads the most. While it is true that ads have gotten out of hand (in some cases by necessity), ad blockers have spoiled people. It is easy for people to complain about ads when they are just visitors who do not have to invest anything and instead only take, take, take.

The only change that I think I would want so far in the game is an easier way to identify which characters are bots.

I have had this weird feeling for the past two days that I am playing against almost nothing but bots given their behavior to move so accurately in tight spaces and react more quickly than I would suspect from another player who does not know what move I am about to make.

zanderlex : Well, apparently you and I make up the entire 100,000 player population on the site! lol

The more that I play, the more addictive it becomes, and there are many things about this game that I feel they did right that could have gone otherwise. For instance, the wall is circular and kills you, meaning a huge player cannot just go hide his head in the corner to take a break (although a continuous tight circle is sometimes effective.) I like the fact that a bots take control of players who go offline rather than have them just vanish or freeze, and they are decently programmed, taking action rather than only mindlessly wandering. I like how, unlike agar.io, you do not shrink over time when taking minimal action (i.e. running a circle), and that when you speed boost, you leave a small trail of your mass behind.

While most of the time a leader between 30,000 and 50,000, a couple of days ago I entered a room where the leader was 150,000 and was so for quote a while! I searched but never could find him. I wanted to see what that character looked like.

For the past two days, unfortunately, reaction time seems a tiny bit sluggish, and when millimeters count, that is not something that you want.

http://slither.io/

Slither.io is a browser/phone/tablet game in which you play a variation of the classic "Snake" game against other players: players eat dots to make their snakes longer/larger; if you bump into another snake's body, you die (one-touch kill); when a snake dies, it turns into dots; players eat the dots to make their snakes longer/larger.

While agar.io (see my other topic) starts out slow, wasting a lot of time eating dots to make your cell large before even trying to attack other players, in slither.io you can defeat even the largest snakes (with a little luck) no matter how small you are. The trade-off (or another benefit depending on your point of view) is that rounds can go by very quickly. There are no viruses and a group teaming up against another player is virtually impossible.

I have only been playing for two days and have already reached #1 on the leader board once. In the long run, I think that I will not get as many hours of enjoyment out of this game as agar.io, but it is nice to have a game where everyone is on a level playing field and being huge does not make you invincible for hours at a time.

So... who plays?

LOL at the "New Thread" and "New Reply" buttons!


OK, I admit it. You finally got me this year. I was so caught off guard by the weird new skin ("Why is the layout the only part that shows this new color and not the text and images in the top bar?") that for a moment I forgot what day it is. Reading the topic title, I assumed the color change was a rushed job. I have only seen one other prank today, and it was too obvious.

So, thanks for the jolt!

The unified support of this community is always a blessing to see.

I am glad to see that it was resolved s quickly rather than being dragged on for weeks. Two other sites that I visit in no way related to this site or each to the other were flagged as WF on the same day, oddly enough. Neither has a forum/community. Two weeks later, they are still marked (although one might be rightly so due to some of its popups.)

In other words, this situation could have been much worse.

Wow. That is LOW! (Not to name names, but only one comes to mind who probably did this given the timing.)

Rarely do sites I visit get reported for such a thing, yet in the past two weeks, four sites (including this one) have been branded. The sites have little in common with each other, so I doubt it is the same person or group all around, but that is just ridiculous.

I hope this passes soon. Go Team Vizzed! o/

My only real complaint about the game is that you move too slowly too early in size. The size to speed ratio is fine (slower the larger that you are) but it would be nice to move more quickly overall... even 20% faster would be fine.

Agarioplay.org added a new game recently: SPEEDY with two servers. In this game, the "food" is much larger and you move faster. Assuming you can avoid being eaten, you can grow to ten times the size for a virus in only a minute by eating food alone and no cells. Because you are moving so much faster, it is very difficult to eject mass. You catch up with it before it has time to get away. This means not being able to shoot viruses at other players, and besides, you can get so large now that when you hit a virus, it barely matters. Everything being faster means that split cells also rejoin faster.

I can get my fill of a round after only three minutes instead of the necessary thirty or more.

I go to both http://agar.io/ and http://agarioplay.org/

The basics are a bit different, so it makes for a slightly different game. I prefer agarioplay.org except that they do not have team play. I also use a script on http://agar.io/ that does not run on the other site which lets you use the mouse instead of keyboard keys to split and feed. That makes a lot more sense.

Of course, with my enjoyment of the game comes the continued frustration. There is a growing trend in the Team game (which, as I have said, is what I prefer to play) who join as a pair but as different colors, regularly feeding each other to take over cells of the other colors just to make themselves larger than anyone else.

Why do some people have to ruin the game for everyone else?

I forgot to mention another annoyance (though not nearly as bad) once you finally get larger. Suddenly little cells crowd around you for protection. Next thing that you know, a guy too big for you splits into them, eating them all and growing large enough to take you out.

I am all for the protecting to an extent, but I have had many many times been two balls of 300 mass each, and here comes a 60 mass guy hiding in the center (which no one else nearby.) I know that some of them are hoping to be fed, but what is the point of playing if you are going to hide where you have no way of eating. I am constantly moving all over the grid. Trying to stay between two much larger cells only traps you.

mariowin13 :
I could try training you to get better, but I would probably fail! LOL What I finally learned is to expect to die a lot, and when you finally are not tiny anymore, still do not split into more than two pieces when you are not very large unless you are trying to escape inevitable capture. Split as soon as you can at the beginning. You are neither more nor less likely to get eaten at this stage, yet you are faster, take up more width, and can feed almost twice as quickly.

I am suddenly doing a lot better over the past three days playing Teams (I still struggle with Free For All because there are too many really good players keeping me from reaching a decent enough size to fight back.)

I enjoy the game fine as long as I can capture, split-escape, aid, be aided, and not die due to a mistake on mine or a stupid move on another player's part. Is that so much to ask?

But now, in the world of larger cells, I have discovered people who intentionally sabotage the game for others. I have been playing for about 20-25 minutes. I am nose to nose with another cell, both of us are a significant size. I am green; he is blue. I have to ignore plenty of targets because I can't split else he will be able to kill me. The same is true for him. This stalemate will only be broken when one of us reaches a virus or a teammate comes along to feed one of us. Almost two minutes of chasing and it appears that I am in luck! Here comes one of my green guys who is about 1/3rd of our size... who proceeds to intentionally feed almost his entire payload to the blue guy who over-masses me and then feeds the guy back.




geeogree :
I disagree. Solely being an online game always playing against new people is enough for it to run for many years until it gets too crowded and no one wants to pay for new servers.

I used to play Armagetron Advanced, which is a Tron Light Bike game in 3D. The game has been around for 14 years, the gameplay has not changed in all of that time except for running more smoothly.. yet the servers are still running, filled with ultra-expert players who have also mastered exploitation of a few bugs making it impossible for the average player to last more than a few seconds.