@sirrian Keep politics out of this game and forum!

Feature Requests and Game feedback
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True, but there’s some universal things that are going to cause strife when they happen, and I wish we’d go after the right instigator. In this case we had the seed of strife:

A) “I actually have a heartfelt problem with the celebration of this holiday and would like to make my case. By celebrating it in-game you’ve invited this discussion.”
B) “I don’t like that you can state an opinion about hurt feelings, I think you should shut up because I’d rather celebrate the holiday without thinking about what it means.”

(A) didn’t instigate. Some might argue (B) didn’t, but I think it’s also a fair point that if (B) chose to ignore (A) the fires would’ve been smaller. I’m more angry about the defense of (B) than the holiday itself. The pattern goes something like this:

  • A thing gets established when the people it offends have no power to protest without facing strong retaliation.
  • Over time, the bad ideas that led to that soften, and the people gain the power to protest.
  • But if they do, they’re ridiculed and face retaliation because “they were fine with it for so long and NOW it’s offensive”.

So that’s the thing I’m frustrated about. There are so many ways to harass people on these forums and get away with it. There shouldn’t be any. Especially when you’re harassing them about something they’ve openly stated they find offensive.

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The thing I found most interesting in that other thread was that people spent all their energy trying to shout Evelyn down for daring to give the devs feedback on something she found concerning. Yet, I didn’t see a single comment addressing her actual argument.

Even more worrisome, someone actually decided to abuse the flagging system in an attempt to censor her speech.

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They might have flagged it because it was in an official news topic about the game. But she was still allowed to share her thoughts there. People just love to try to be Gods nowadays by flagging posts. However abusing the flagging system have consequences I do believe.

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I really have no clue what the issue is. I think some like to come here and discuss stuff which is ok. Some say they want to come here to escape real life but if they want to do that it might be better to escape by playing the game instead of coming here where people like to discuss stuff. JS

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It’s the War on Christmas discussion.

You can see a person say a holiday is problematic and make a few choices:

  • Listen, agree, and join the fight.
  • Listen, agree, and go back to having a holiday, trying to be a little more conscious of the people who are hurt.
  • Listen, disagree, and go back to having a holiday.
  • Refuse to listen and join the fight on the opposite side.
  • Refuse to listen and go back to having a holiday.

Not many of those options end in fights! They are decisions you have to personally make.

Generally the people who have a problem with a holiday don’t want the holiday completely removed. They usually just want the narrative to shift from “Hooray, these people were 100% perfect and should be emulated!” to “These people did great things and also made some mistakes we consider atrocious. Let us celebrate their good things and try our best to avoid the mistakes they made by coming together and eating food and drinking beverages and telling stories to each other to realize we’re all not as comfy as we look.”

Nobody’s trying to take away your dang holidays except your boss. If you want to rail against your boss feel free, fighting The Man is a good cause. Next time you see someone point out a holiday is rooted in some badfeels, treat it like a History channel special and either tune in or keep trying to figure out what else is happening. They showed up with an opinion they knew was going to lead to intimidation and harassment. So your attempts to suppress them with intimidation and harassment will fail. The best-case-scenario is it ruins your holiday to join the fray, but it’s your fault if you choose to enter a political arena on a day you don’t want to discuss politics.

Seriously. You can nope out of a thread. I firmly believe most people who joined the argument don’t actually feel strongly about the issue, they just couldn’t control the impulse to join some ongoing drama. Once you jump in the pool you lose your right to complain about being wet.

I also firmly believe the thread could’ve ignored Evelyn and there would’ve been no drama. They weren’t there to hammer in the point, just to put some brochures on the table in case anyone wanted to read. The agitators were the people who started “just politely stating” opinions like, “I mean this respectfully, but I think you’re a thin-skinned jerk who’s just here to ruin my fun.”

So it’s just like Sister Jackie told me at the school I hated: when you point at someone else, four fingers are pointing backwards at you. (She was wrong, three fingers point back. Life lesson: don’t correct the nun who is yelling at you. Sometimes it just ain’t worth being right.)

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I was born with a 6th digit on my right hand, and did not have it removed until I was 22. Sister Jackie might have been wrong sometimes, but not always.

Politics is just War by dishonest means. In my opinion, there are 2 types of politicians: Those who will say or do anything to obtain power, and those who will say or do anything to keep it. I’d rather have Josie Wales and Ten Bears negotiate on my behalf.

Anybody who saw the movie Commando knows what happens when you allow yourself to be persuaded into giving up an advantage: You end up venting steam.

A politician will spend hours trying to convince Elves that Puddlings are dangerous, while any warrior knows that a Puddling could sit on a table until the end of days and never harm a soul. What is a Puddling, compared to the hand that hurls it?

Only 7 days until Orc Hero class; 10 days to prepare GW defenses. Raiders incoming. For the Horde.

Edit: Upon reflection, I think my point is: I’ve never liked being told what to do. I like being told how to think even less. And if someone tells me how to feel…

My 7 year old niece was once complaing about all the things she hated about school. And then her 4 year old sister chimed in “and I’m mad because my bed is too small”. We all got problems. I feel guilty about things I’ve done. I don’t feel guilty about things I haven’t.

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Great thread. Let’s keep bashing out…the ideas.

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See this is just reinforcing a thing I’ve learned from being a software engineer:

The most dangerous words are “never” and “it’s just…”.

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In a broad sense you are correct. Games emulate real life, so it’s hard to completely avoid discussing about real life paralels.

In this case though:

  • There is hardly any kind of war going on. Races, classes and “nationalities” mix freely to beat the snot out of equally diverse abritrarily opposing teams. If it wasn’t that troops get “killed” or “devoured” each battle might as well have been a (fight) sport match.
  • Guilds compete pretty indirectly. You don’t get to chose your opponents. You can only try to do your best, but there is no way to specifically hurt your opponents. In this sense it is more alike to track running than hockey. (Ok, yes you can do some things like giving “allies” a weak defense to fight and you could in theory wage psychological war on an enemy guild, but nothing in the mechanics seriously promotes this).

Calling the mechanics of this game in particularly political seems pretty silly to me. Unless you feel like going down the road where chess and tic-tac-toe are political.

As for the forums, where people voice opinions about what they consider good or bad and people disagreeing, that’s (low level) politics, fair enough.

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Cool.

Making an entire thread declaring “politics on the forum are out of hand” because a single person made a single post about the history behind a holiday seems pretty silly to me.

Sort of like, “A topic can’t die if someone reliably revisits it and uses a specific mention to get someone to restart the argument.”

My tally so far with rough estimates is something like:

  • 1 post about the history of Australia day
  • 1 post making fun of people offended by the post about Australia day
  • 50 posts declaring nobody should be able to talk about Australia day because this is a safe space that shouldn’t include real-world issues like colonialism and subjugation of other races.

I think the response is dramatically disproportionate to the event.

I also think:

  • The thread wasn’t political just because somebody brought up uncomfortable facts.
  • The thread became political because somebody derailed it into a discussion about whether uncomfortable facts should be legal to discuss.

The best thing to do when you see someone make a statement you don’t like is not to call attention to it and try to make everyone else believe it’s false or “bad speech”. The best thing to do is ignore it and crack a joke that gets the thread back on topic.

Standing up and shouting “Nobody should talk about this” only makes people ask, “Who made you the arbiter of my speech?” or, “Wait, why can you only be happy if nobody states that subjugation is wrong?”

Setting the example, “I refuse to talk about this issue, instead I’m going to ignore it” tends to work much more effectively.

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I want a Brexit pet…called Boris. Got a weapon for a Boris troop too. Or a Nigel Farage. No doubt our antipodean brethren will not approve…again.

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I would like to point out that that is not my intent while I necro this old thread. I have not edited my old posts, they are as I wrote them Jan 2020. I am currently dealing with a lot of issues that have boiled over, and I need to vent.

I referenced this thread in another. Someone else might get curious as to what was said, and follow the link. I am not on Twitter, or other sites that might be more “appropriate” for particular discussions. (Who determines what is appropriate anyway?)

And if I were to go to Necro my Facebook, which I haven’t used since 2018 (allegedly), or YouTube (which is under a different email but using “chunky mono” as my name…Kirk Monkey was not allowed), who is to say that an Outsider (not a GoW player/member of our most excellent community) wouldn’t track me down to this thread and necro it themselves. (I’m not a hard Orc to track. I leave dead Elvses everywhere I go)

I figure, Better it be me.

Apologies. Read no further if you wish to ignore me.

Yeah, about Religion...Not about you AWRyan, sorry. I shouldn't have tagged you, apologies again

I don’t know when specifically my older brother “got saved”, but he has been the member of the same “church” since 1994, so, sometime before that.

Note: My older brother is not a Gems player. He prefers Minecraft and Saints Row 3. It is my younger brother who is the Gems player.

I took an Old Testament course at a liberal arts college in PA that I attended for 2 years but did not graduate from, and a New Testament course at a Baptist university while serving on active duty from which I received both an Associates degree and a BS degree (Psych major).

Requirements, not electives. “But I already took a course on religion.” “Yes, but we require both books of the Bible”.

I was having a discussion with my brother about the story of Dinah, Book of Genesis. I say story, some may say gospel, not here to debate, not here to discuss, just here to talk about my brother, who has been trying to “save” me since 1994.

Basically, for those unfamiliar with the “story”, the prince of a city forced himself upon a woman out of lust, but he wished to marry her. The brothers did not take kindly to this, and killed every man in the city.

I do not believe in suffering for the sins of my father; I have sinned a great many times, punish me for those, but not for those of my father. And certainly not for those of my “leader”.

So I asked my brother what he thought of that, and he said “Hold on, let me get my Bible so I can refresh my memory.”

And as he reads the “story”, he starts laughing when the men are being put to the sword…human beings, killed dead, for the sins of their prince. Women and children enslaved, allegedly. Maybe not laughing, but definitely a chuckle. Or giggle. Whatever, I interrupted him…woah, you think that is funny? "Well I just have a different sense of humor.

I don’t mean to call him out, but, c’mon man. How you gonna “save” me, if you think it’s funny to execute and/or enslave others thru the sins of their “leader”. “Well our time on Earth is brief, but up in Glory…”

I tuned him out, just like I have since 1994.

I agree with that 100%.

Escaping this world is impossible

I wish I could hop on my space ship, and travel the universe. Go on adventures, like Shepherd in the Mass Effect series. That kind of stuff. But I’m stuck here on Earth, with an XBox series S, and from what I hear, the game is buggy as hell if it’s not on Series X.

FORCED OBSOLESENCE

On Psychology...Warning: Sexual Desires/Deviant

I won’t go into details. I am not the dude from Silence of the Lambs, I am like Clarice, one generation removed from Poor White Trash. Except, I am still PWT. It’s still my fault, I should have learned to code, and not attend a college with Rich Elitist/Racist Assholes.

I am also like Vincent from Pulp Fiction, and a young lady taking a Psychology like that said Vincent and I were repressed homosexuals based upon our desires. It must be true, she read it in a book. She was wrong, I am not gay, not that there is anything wrong with that. It’s just not for me.

Nature vs Nuture. The debate was still alive back then. I don’t know how it is doing these days. “Trust the Science”, as long as the science backs what I believe. “That scientist doesn’t believe what I do, oh, don’t trust that science.” Bring back the honest debates, please.

I have some memories from my childhood where I don’t remember how old I was. I know specifically that I was 4 years old when I killed a red salamander, because our house had burned down, and another family allowed us to stay at their residence in the mountains that summer while ours was rebuilt.

I did not mean to: I had found it in the woods, I thought it was cute/cool, and I wanted a pet. We could not have a dog or cat, as my older sister was allergic to them. The salamander looked wet, so I put it in the sun to dry. I did not wish it to escape, so I put it on a inverted trash can lid with a lip, and left it there. The lid was metal. I was 4. When I returned, the poor creature, my “pet”, was dead. I cried, because it was alive, and I had killed it. What right did I have?

Elspeth is a grown adult. (And an Elf…I’ll let it go, moving on…) She wants this creature skinned, and this creature to pull her along. I did the quests, but I did not enjoy them.

I rarely reed/red (Mispelled because Read/Read looks redundent) Pet Threads, so I had not noticed the problems with that particular pet. Starting a new thread would have been an excellent idea.

Thanks for allowing me to share.

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Why did u go back 1 year in time to add your opinion. I mean, feel free, but just curious.

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Because I fear someone could Necro this conversation if I had mentioned it somewhere else. Not that I have any desire to mention it somewhere else, but, Politics and Gaming have been brought up before, and I wish to keep Politics from restricting the rights of Gamers.

I also have other issues that I am dealing with, related to the Gaming Industrial Complex (Forced Obsolesce), and I wish to bring about change thru open, honest debate. I am sorry to involve you and/or others, including my family members, but it is time for change. A reconciliation, peacefully, on a global scale. I am but one Orc.

I am no longer the Guild Leader of Chunky’s Raiders. I am not fit to lead anything. But together, a Horde could achieve a great many things.

As Senator Schumer said: “First we take the Senate, and then we change the world.” Um, what was that? 2nd take: “First we take the Senate, and then we change America.” Who are the oppressors again?

Edit: I was telling my Gems brother I feel like the Michael Palin character from Monty Python’s The Holy Grail, in the field, being oppressed. I will try to find the clip on YouTube.

I found a few I videos I “Liked” on YouTube last night, under the name Chunky Mono. My Facebook name was Kirk Hrothsgar or something, as it did not allow Kirk Monkey back in 20xx when I set it up, and I did not wish to use Chunky Mono on Facebook for personal reasons. (I am not a conspiracy nut, I’m just saying: Someone once used my internet address to track me down.)

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Also, because whether 1 year ago or today, a lot of these issues are still relevant here in the US, and partisan politics are still dividing my country.

I like quoting movies, particularly Braveheart. As South Park once said, "Say what you want about Mel Gibson, but the man knows good-story telling. I liked Braveheart as well as Apocalypto. I did not see Passion. I had seen The Last Temptaion with Willem Dafoe and figured that was sufficient to meet that requirement for knowledge on that particular subject.

I also hear Passion had a lot of Gore. I do not like Gore movies. I do not like to see people suffer. I do not watch movies such as the Saw franchise, where I know people will be tortured or killed. I had a friend once whose MySpace page name was Your suffering gives me pleasure. That ain’t me. We ain’t friends no more, but at the time, I asked him why did he watch the Saw films. I also later saw an AMC series based on American Horror, and what the director of the film, IIRC said, was that films like that make the fans of those films feel more alive and appreciate more being alive. Fair enough, to each their own. Have your movies, please allow me to have mine. #FreeThePeople.

I used to watch CNN for my news. Now in Braveheart, the first major battle scene, the “Irishman” says this battle brings out all the finest people, mas o menos. I have a long memory, but it is not always 100% accurate. A few GW back, Oct 2020, I made comment attempting to imitate (emulate?) the Irishman, and I don’t know if you took it to mean I was trying to do it out of Trump’s “Fine People” comment from Charlottesville, but you posted a video of what appeared to me as Neo Nazis. Maybe they were, maybe they weren’t, I didn’t say anything, I let it go. (I also tried to paraphrase a line from the Princess Bride, I also loved that film…have fun storming the castle, as you wish, etc)

(under Cool Screen Shot Topics: search there for my original comment if you wish; click on either my profile pic, the forum thread, and type “all the finest”. When I click the link, it drops me down to Nov 2020 and I have to scroll up. I hate Technology)

Technology Issues preventing me from finding the right link again, I’m feeling that Rage again for not being able to communicate effectively. I mean, I tried to have a thread that consolidated all the greatest and successful pure faction Delve Team Strategies. Others do it better, but I tried to do it as well, and my links are all broken because a forced forum update was pushed upon us.

Conspiracy Time:

I love @Saltypatra, and the @Kafka, they are great and have helped me on many occasions. But perhaps nefarious forces were at work with 505 that did not want my links to work. Other forum members have suggested a work around by using older forum versions, but those hurt my eyes.

I remember when the 2017 version of gems came out, and I complained about how it hurt my eyes. One member said “some people just shouldn’t play video games.” That was helpful, thx. Another suggested changing the settings on my TV, from Games to Movie (I’m playing, Games, why would I want Movie?), but that helped and I am grateful that I could return to Gems.

But, again, why force me to adjust my settings, 505, Infinity Plus 2 (or is it 3 now?). And the response was, of course, “We have done nothing to adjust the Forums.” Ok, so why are my links broke? Were they making things too easy for players to beat delves? Putting in Bullet Points won’t help that, eh?

See, I still the reed the forums. From time to time.

Whatever, I'm on to CNN

So I’m watching CNN, while I’m playing Gems, and a riot breaks out. Now, according to CNN, the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) said this was expected to be the largest gathering of Neo-Nazis yet. My father was a teacher at an all boys school. They paid for our housing and meals on campus, much like the military would, but his salary was such that we would have qualified for the free school meals at the public schools. He was also an alcoholic, we were a dysfunctional family. I did not know what that word meant until I was attending alcohol rehab at age 21. I scored 710 on the old math SAT, but only 590 on the verbal. I just didn’t want to study those vocabulary words. But I learned what the KKK was, because at the year that the Neo-Nazis marched in Skokie, I remember seeing a bunch of scary ghosts at the all-boys school at which my father taught.

Clowns, Mimes, Ghosts and Furries

I didn’t get too close, I already was and still am terrified of clowns. I will break a clowns arm if it gets too close. Or a mime. Furries are okay, as long as they don’t touch me in-apropes. Chip at Disney once touched my former wife on the shoulder. She asked me if I was okay with that, because she was uncomfortable. “He’s Chip, he’s Dale, they’re very glad to meet you.” I watched Disney growing up. “It’s only your shoulder, but if they touched you in-apropes, I’ll break their arms.”

Rodney King should have never been beaten like that. I had training with the PR-24, those officers used it incorrectly, and deserve to be punished. Maybe not jail time, but severely reprimanded, 30 days in the brig, heavily fined, I’m not judge jury and executioner. Whatever, I know how to defend myself now, even if I didn’t when I was in 4th grade. I also know pressure point techniques, the two finger come along, reverse goose neck, and line 1 and 2. So yeah, Eric Garner should have went down differently in my opinion, but I wasn’t in LA or NYC, so, who am I to judge.

I was there at Disney for my wife and her sister’s son’s 6th birthday, and Chips hand never did touch her breast, and 45 didn’t try to grab her, and 46 didn’t try to smell her hair, and 42 didn’t try to give her a cigar. I’ll defend myself and those I love if I can, or die trying.

All paper targets, I’ve never hurt a living creature since that salamander at age 4. I’m still sorry, little guy. Video game characters are not living creatures, so when I say I leave a trail of dead elves, I mean figuratively, not literally. Too many people take things literally these days.

But back to CNN, if the SPLC predicted this would be the largest gathering yet, than why weren’t precautions taken? Why didn’t the Mayor request the National Guard in advance? Or put restrictions in place that said if you stray off the path provided in your “right to demonstrate”, you will be arrested, and if you show up with rifles, they will be confiscated (Left, Right, Non-partisan, whatever, whomever) Why didn’t the governor issue an executive order? Those were the questions I had then, and now.

But CNN’s focus was “On many sides, on many sides”, what do you think 45 meant by that? Again, I was naive, I had to look up Antifa (I don’t watch Inaugerations, State of the Unions, I’m non-partisan. I Vote, but it’s a two party system, Giant Douche or Turd Sandwich, maybe we can change that. I would have voted for Ross Perot in 92, but I was late to register for absentee ballot. Last election I failed to vote).

All of CNN’s criticism was directed towards 45. What about the Mayor and Gov. Oh, Democrat, I see. Got it. “Well shouldn’t everybody be anti-fascist?” Absolutely. And anti-extremist. C’mon Portland. Get it together.

Let’s bring everyone together, hug it out. Like the South Park episode where Timmy and Jimmy and the Bloods and Crips hung out at the Rec Center. Find a way. I served for 8 years with the finest men and women my country has to offer.

My Experience with the Federal Government

I am a white male human, despite my claims to be an Orc. Orcs in WarCraft were honorable. Some. Not all Psychologists are right all the time, not all Orcs are right all the time.

I applied 3 times to be a Foreign Service (FS) employee, 3 times I passed the written exam, 3 times I failed the oral interview. Chicago, they accepted 1/4 applicants. 3/5 in DC, 0/10 in Miami. The FS does not provide feedback, as they do not wish to groom prospective applicants; they wish to keep the opportunity free, fair, and open to all. Equal Opportunity, sounds ok to me.

Except 1 of the 3 applicants in DC was the daughter of an Admin officer posted overseas. She didn’t perform OpSec (Operational Security) in the lobby while we all waited for results. Nepotism, Incompetence, I’m sure she’s doing a fine job overseas. /s

I also applied for a position with the CIA. Nothing nefarious, a Support Officer to assist with getting funding for hotels and what-not. Failed that interview. The question that tripped me up was “We need to get an agent to your country, you go to the Ambassador to request funding, he says it’s not in the budget, what do you do?”

1st of all, wouldn’t I go to the admin officer first, or budget and procurement, but I guess the end result is the political appointee is denying the request. I saw the govt spend $5k on a ugly love seat that was also uncomfortable. (Did I mention I was a Marine Security Guard? I did in the interview)

I said I would tell him budgets fluctuate, if we go over this month, we can make it up next month; when is the govt ever within budget; I wanted to add a wtf like in The Usual Suspects when Fenster (Benecio del Toro) gets interviewed but didn’t.

Guy says I’m gonna say no, but what to check w/ my Supervisor, she may say yes. Same question, same result. Denied. “When the 300+ of all applicants were in the auditorium were introduced (for all positions, not just Support Officer), you said if you could hire us all you would. I have already shown I would get a security clearance, I’ve done similar work in the USMC, if I answered that question incorrectly, couldn’t the Agency provide training as to the correct answer?”

She felt I was too passive, that while I could do the job, that my supervisor would get me to do their work as well and that I would forever be in the one position and fail to advance. She needs people to advance.

“Well, isn’t that more a reflection of your organization than it is of me? Too passive?” Should I have used pressure point techniques on the Ambo? On her? I’ve been thru Sexual Harassment training. I know Marines have a certain stereo-type, I don’t wish to come off as overly aggressive. Seriously, wtf.

Well, I wish the Political Arm of the US Govt followed the same standards as the FS, CIA, and FBI (have to have a Law Degree or be fluent in Spanish to even be interviewed there). There should be Term Limits for all “elected” officials. Move up, not out.

“Well don’t you want the most qualified, experienced people running the country?” Don’t I want the most qualified, experienced people doing any job? But since there are restrictions in place at other places, shouldn’t the people running the country be held to the same standards, to avoid “Rot” setting in. Systemic Racism, why isn’t the Speaker of the House training someone of color to take over her position. She has enough money, she could step aside and still pull the strings as a “mentor”.

Don’t give me that. Don’t even give me that. CA, OR, WA, NY, NJ, MI, PA, VA. All White Governors. “PoC can be Mayors, or LtGov, but no higher. Know your place.” Systemic Racism. I learned it from watching you, okay?

Be the change you want to be. Help me, help you.

It is relevant to me. Perhaps not with respect to Gems of War, but with respect to Games in general. I am sorry to revive a dead thread; but I feel that if we do not have a discussion on Politics here, our rights as Gamers will continue to Erode.

If there is a more suitable forum to have this discussion, please direct me to that site and I will leave. I actually tried to leave, but my Safari browser often says “this site is no longer supported by this browser.” Great, so now I need to upgrade my browser as well. All I wanted to do since Friday is play games, and the only reason I can is because my Gems brother purchased a brand new router to help me out because my old router was from 2012.

I’ve asked in other posts for this community to help educate me. Not necessarily you, but if you can, or anyone can, direct me and I will go. I’m good at following orders, and I have a strong work ethic. Allegedly. Thank you for your time.

I’ll say again, Gamers should have a Political Action Committee to preserve our rights from government and corporate intrusions. All governments. All corporations. And if there is already one, they aren’t doing enough. I would like to help, in whatever capacity I can.

I will continue to do my own research, and will not post again to this thread. Lock it, mute it, block me. It’s all good. I love my fellow Gamers, however they self-identify.

Good luck, and always have fun.

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why are you reviving this thread again? does it become relevant again?

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