Let's talk: Offensive Language

     Hey guys I want to talk about why some language is offensive and how it got to be that way. Ever notice that in certain words are really offensive in certain locations? Or in front of certain people? Ever wonder why? There are many reasons we could go over, but I believe the main one is that people take words as a personal attack. Whether it insults their beliefs, personal morals, or lifestyles.

     I'll start off with the phrase that has the most focus now a days. "That's gay." Chilling with your buddies, like it or not, it is generally accepted. Do you mean it is homosexual? No. you mean it is stupid, unintelligent, or ignorant. Dictionary.reference.com does not have any listings for this as a meaning. I would argue saying that how the word is most commonly used is the meaning. When I say afghan what do you think of? Someone from Afghanistan? Did you know it's a blanket? The word gay itself has changed it's meaning over time. Originally it simply meant happy and lighthearted. That's it. Somehow the meaning changed however to being homosexual. How does one meaning differ so much than the original?
    Tremendous. Means something good right? Wrong. Dictionary.reference.com defines tremendous as "being such as may excite trembling or arouse dread, awe, or terror." So basically tremendous means it scares the crap outta you. But that's not what it means today. So why is there so much controversy on this meaning change? Because we are in the middle of the transition and people are offended. Ricky Gervais said that "Just because you're offended doesn't make it right". Half of people use it as stupid or unintelligent, and the other half homosexual. Now I'm not saying either is right, just saying that it's out there.

     Now saying this sometimes people do have a legitimate right to be offended. No matter what your beliefs it is never ok to rag on or purposely offend someone because they don't agree with you. That is bullying and harassment. 
     Next example: the f bomb. Used regularly in school and small social gatherings but never ok in front of your mother, small children, or anyone else. Why? Because it's vulgar. Even the meaning has no real wholesome uses. It means sexual intercourse. So when you need to say it using the actual meaning, just say "sexual intercourse" and make people blush. I think it's pretty self explanatory. one interesting thing is that the f bomb has actually become more accepted. Even in movies it was never used in movies below R until the PG-13 rating was invented and even then it it only allotted one f bomb before being bumped up to an R rating for language.

     Some words just simply mean something that you would take offense to if someone called you anyway. If I call you an ass, I'm calling you a donkey. Maybe the most unintelligent and oafish animals on God's green earth. And bitch is a term regularly used by my mom who is a dog trainer that just means the dog is female. But either way I think any girl would be extremely offended by being called that. 
     Well, that's it. Agree or disagree leave a comment below if you don't mind and give me some feedback.

Let's talk: Guns 'N' Games

     Guns, awesome. Games, also awesome. When you put them together? Equally awesome. That is, unless you want realism. Ever since guns were featured in games there has been a lacking in the realism department and it kinda makes me angry. Call Of Duty, although extremely fun games, may be the worst offender. 

From Call Of Duty 4: Modern warfare

     Example one, in Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 adding a snub nose to your revolver makes it more accurate. In the real world, these physics simply do not work. If you shorten the time that the bullets direction is controlled it does not magically make it hit the target. Now I hate to bag on the Modern Warfare series because I think Infinity Ward has done the best job with realism in first person shooter games to date, but c'mon, you don't have to be an expert marksman to figure that one out.

      After stating that I think Infinity Ward is the best, we'll have to take a trip to the other side of Call Of Duty for the worst. Treyarch definitely is the worst. Not only are their guns horribly balanced (even to FPS standard) some of them don't even EXIST in the time period the game takes place in. Call Of Duty: Black Ops developed by Treyarch is currently the highest selling FPS game on the market. This does NOT make it a good game. In fact, it's maybe the worst game I've played in the Call Of Duty series (and that's including Call Of Duty 3, also developed by Treyarch). I'll start off this anti-Black Ops rant with how they portrayed the Famas used by the French military. First off, it wasn't in service during the time period Black Ops takes place. It was first put in service in 1978. Black ops takes place at it's latest in 1973 if it went straight through the Vietnam War. That's FIVE YEARS before the gun was even released. 

     How do they cover up such an error in history? By saying that since it's secret missions and black operations that they could have had it. Fine I can deal with a couple errors in a game. But then there are other guns with the same problem...THEY DON'T EXIST YET. This is including the        
SPAS-12 which isn't invented until 1979.
     But it wouldn't be enough for Treyarch to make it so their guns that didn't exist yet were in the game, the also had to get them wrong. See a difference?

The Famas in Black Ops

The REAL FAMAS design, as shown in MW2

      And yes, the FAMAS can be fully automatic, but it certainly cannot empty a clip faster than an SMG.

     This is not a post all about Call Of Duty however. Every single game I have encountered (and feel free to correct me if I'm wrong) does NOT cock the gun when a clip is empty and you reload. I can understand if you manually press the button and reload while still having a bullet in the chamber. If you cocked it then it would just be a waste of ammo, but why wouldn't you when the clip is empty? Since there is no cocking the first shot must be a dry fire because there is no bullet in the chamber. but no, a bullet comes out and somehow it's magically there.

     When are we going to have a realistic FPS? Is it in November this year when Modern Warfare 3 comes out? Doubtful since Activision completely took over and destroyed Infinity Ward and put a virgin developer (Sledgehammer Games) on one of the most anticipated games of all time. My friends, I think it's time to look to the Battlefield games for comfort.

From Battlefield 3

Battlefield 3 gameplay

     Battlefield 3 looks like an answer to all our problems. It has realism (even graphics-wise) and it even has destructible enviornments  that are destroyed in real time. Battlefield has consistently produced great games (mostly for pc) and already has a large following with past successes like Bad Company and Bad Company 2. Even their Vietnam add on was better than Black Ops. So while the rest eat up on the Call Of Duty gimmick, I'm going to find a better game, that doesn't cheat realism in order to "wow' fans