So by now, most of you know that there's a "mortgage crisis" in this country. Pretty much all it boils down to is this:

1. Companies give ridiculously low rates on loans, saying they may change in the future.
2. People who can't afford what they want see the ridiculously low rates and go "hey! I can buy whatever I want now and not have to pay back for a million years!"
3. People gets the loans.
4. Companies, completely within their loan contracts, decide to raise the rates.
5. People who can't afford to pay off their loans in full are hit with major monthly dues.
6. People who are now broke cry to the government for help.

Am I the only one who has absolutely no sympathy for these people? If you have to take out a loan to buy something, has it ever occurred to you that maybe you're not supposed to buy that thing yet? Need a new car? Do you really? Define new, here. Do you need a brand new car, or do you need a car? Nobody needs a brand new car. Get a used one, do some shopping. You don't have to take out a loan.

Some thing I can understand the need for a loan, like, for, say, a house. They're kind of expensive to pay for all at once. Solution? Just be smart. Don't be extravagant. Take out a loan you know you can handle. Plan ahead, don't spend money on things you don't need. It all boils down to this: Don't be careless with your money, or things like this happen.

But what really bugs me? They want the federal government and tax payers to fix it for them. Make everyone else make their own problems go away! I'm sorry, but you got yourself into this mess, and it's up to you to get yourself out of it. People whine all the time about how large our government has become, and how meddlesome it has become. But you know what? YOU PEOPLE WANT IT THAT WAY.

So even with a half-season, thanks to the evil publishers, Heroes still turned out rather well. I think it still carries the title of Best Primetime TV Show at the moment. Nothing else comes close. Like I said in my last post about it, LOST just lost most of its mystery and turned more into an action flick. We'll see if they ever decide to air this next season...

As much as I can't find fault with the Writers' Guild Strike, it's still very much of a pain. I can't help but think that maybe they could have at least finished the works in progress, but I guess this way, the impact is that much more... impactful. However, I don't blame them. I have a sneaking suspicion that the publishing companies are trying to hoard all the money for themselves, like every other publishing company that's ever existed. I honestly don't mind that fact that they try to make money, but I don't think I've ever seen a publishing company that exercises its power in a fair manner. Maybe Microsoft. (No, I'm serious.) They may buy developers up like they're gallons of milk before a winter storm, but they don't interfere with the development process, and they don't exactly go out of their way to axe a project in progress. (Hi, Ubisoft!) Just look at Bungie. I've seen people ask the employees of Bungie what it was like to be owned by Microsoft, and they didn't care or even preferred it. Granted, this was a while ago, so I don't have any articles, so if you're looking for proof before you'll believe even the slightest pro-Microsoft paragraph, you're out of luck, and, frankly, I don't care.

Anyway, speaking of games... It turns out that Vivendi owns Blizzard. I didn't know that. No wonder World of Warcraft is still being published by them. I thought it was the typical developer tagging along with a publisher, and since WoW makes Blizzard so many millions a month, I thought they should start publishing the thing themselves. Ah well. I don't like Vivendi, personally, but they don't interfere with Blizzard, so it's all good. (A miracle in this industry.)

But what really got my attention... Is some of the comments I've seen about this whole Activision/Blizzard merger. Nothing about the merger itself, but there's always some lunatic who will come along and say how evil World of Warcraft is. How they make a living of sucking the life out of their players or enslaving their soul or some such nonsensical crap...

I can't help but think how the MMOs these people do play are any different? I know for a fact that a lot more people obsess over Uru to the point of creepy insanity far more than I obsess over Warcraft. You guys treat a DRC appearance like the latest raid instance! You treat the storyline like experience points. You just can't miss any of it, and you're constantly talking about it, and when there's no quest (an episode release), you grind for your experience (you visit the same Ages day after day after day in an attempt to amuse yourself). How, honestly, is this any different than playing World of Warcraft or Everquest or Vanguard? There is none! You put massive amounts of hours into a virtual world. The only difference between WoW and Uru is that Uru's virtual world spills out into real life just a tiny bit more than WoW, because of the forums.

Uru is story driven, WoW is your typical role playing game driven by experience and gathering the latest equipment. In Uru, you get to track down all the latest pointless sparklies, and the latest armor... Er, I mean Relto Pages... to customize your island that nobody sees. You gain honor and reputation by being in the right place at the right time, sucking up to the right people, and getting seen with special people, and knowing the most about D'ni history. You build entire sites dedicated to your experiences in Uru, and some of you roleplay as if you are actually playing your character. How is this any different than World of Warcraft or Everquest or Vanguard?

You pay a monthly fee, yet you turn around and bite at the people who pay for Warcraft, saying that it's a pointless thing to pay for. How is it any more or less pointless than Uru? You can make friends in Uru? You can make friends anywhere. I've made friends in an application that shares text with everyone using it! (Chat rooms and IMs, get it?) How is Uru any more important to play than Warcraft is?

Maybe it's this... As my grandpa said when I was talking about how everyone hates Microsoft, "Nobody likes anyone who's successful." Maybe that's it. Microsoft did all the right things, and they're a company to be reckoned with. Blizzard did all the right things, and they're a company to be reckoned with. Cyan? Well, I won't blame them directly, because I still firmly believe that if it weren't for that awful Ubisoft, we'd be playing a far more successful game than we are now. But people have this mentality where the successful people are somehow not as great as the underdogs. I know this, because I've experienced it. Believe me, I was in your boat with World of Warcraft came out, and I refused to try it, but I eventually did, and it's been the best MMO I've ever played. I couldn't care less if there's 2 million people, 7 million people or 20 million people playing the thing. It's fun.

In short, there's no difference between you, a D'ni historian who plays Uru every waking hour, and that Azeroth historian who plays World of Warcraft every waking hour. There's no difference between the Uru Explorer experiencing a storyline, and that Night Elf Druid doing quests for experience points. There's no difference between becoming a status player in Uru who everyone goes to for questions, and that Human Warlock who's become the best fighter and everyone wants him on their team. There's no difference between that Uru Explorer waiting for episodes and wandering aimlessly around the city, and that Undead Rogue killing monsters to level up while there are no quests to be done. No difference between that Uru Explorer collecting sparkles and Relto pages, and that Gnome Mage collecting weapons and armor.

Next time someone ever tells me that Warcraft is like drugs... World of Warcrack, oh very funny. Next time someone starts acting all high and mighty because they've never touched the thing?

You know, there are two ways to look at this. One is that... They don't trust themselves. They're afraid that if they try to play it, they'll actually like it, and everything they've said up to this point will be held against them. Second is that they're hypocrites, plain and simple. Preach about the evils of Warcraft, while delving into the depths of their own little MMO that sucks their time away.

I'm sure that, by now, everyone has stopped reading because they're so enraged.

You know there's something wrong with one of your Republican candidates when the liberal left Democrats want you to vote for him... They can't vote for him, of course, because he's a Republican and they're not going to place their name beside one of them, but you can vote for them! Yeah! That way, they can have two good picks for themselves and they'll win either way.

I'm lookin' at you, Mister Ron Paul.