To start off with, after listening to what you said on the subject, I uninstalled Adblock.

On the subject of refunds I don't think i could get a refund for an unbroken product of any king here in the UK. That they did that for him is very cool, but i fear may set a president? Hell if he wants to deny himself the opportunity to play this cool game who are we to tell him he can't?

Anyway, good podcast guys you help lighten my week.

Other than the Boston bombing, we are approaching Finals. Online conversations always get more toxic when the stress is on for spring semester.

I guarantee the internet will get more positive when summer break begins.

I was born and raised as Catholic and I still am, sort of. I actually disagree with a lot of what the vatican says but I follow the catholic philosophy of helping others and building a strong community. The baptism thing I thought was odd, I played through that part and didnt really blink an eye except through Bookers response which seemed childish to me. However I think what it comes down to for the guy is symbolism. I dont know what denomination of christianity he was so its impossible to talk about symbolism from his perspective. However from the catholic perspective baptism is about washing away Original sin which all people are born with and the sins you've commited up to that point in your life. In a few ways it's a step toward becoming a better human being. That said, its easy for people to look at such a thing and miss the symbolism or misinterpret it when they dont know the context behind it. The whole thing reminds me of that Knight-Paladin in Dawngaurd who says "Its symbolic. I dont expect you to understand." when he talks about the water carrying ceremony

If I interpreted Bookers reaction another way, with symbolic context in mind and assuming Booker knew that context, I might interpret it as him not caring about his sins being forgiven. It could also be interpreted as commiting to sin. I personally didnt interpret it that way but Im just saying thats how I think it could be interpreted

That all said, the outcry is pretty rediculous and it usually is when it comes to the majority of gamers and various religions. A lot of the anti-theist rhetoric has become so toxic that its forming a rift between some of the gaming subculture.

thunderbuck:
On the subject of refunds I don't think i could get a refund for an unbroken product of any king here in the UK.

You can. See here: http://europa.eu/youreurope/citizens/shopping/shopping-abroad/returning-unwanted-goods/index_en.htm

TLDR version: EU law guarantees you the right to cancel any online purchase within 7 days of arrival of the goods purchased, with no better reason required than "i changed my mind".
That this is guaranteed by law also means that any eula or other conditions the seller puts on the goods can't change squat about it. Of course, you may not have heard about it because sellers are hardly motivated to inform you about it.

The reason I use add-block on here is specifically because the escapist and extra credits have such intrusive adds.
Use non-intrusive adds and you won't see people blocking you.
I catch up on videos once a week and having to watch the same unskippable add a million times is obnoxious.

McKitten:

thunderbuck:
On the subject of refunds I don't think i could get a refund for an unbroken product of any king here in the UK.

You can. See here: http://europa.eu/youreurope/citizens/shopping/shopping-abroad/returning-unwanted-goods/index_en.htm

TLDR version: EU law guarantees you the right to cancel any online purchase within 7 days of arrival of the goods purchased, with no better reason required than "i changed my mind".
That this is guaranteed by law also means that any eula or other conditions the seller puts on the goods can't change squat about it. Of course, you may not have heard about it because sellers are hardly motivated to inform you about it.

Huh... Fair enough. ;)

there has never been genocide committed by a large group of organized gay or transgender people.
whenever people talk about how great their faith is all the terrible things done in service of their belief pops into my head. That also includes all the oppression of science and reason for hundreds of years.

I may not block the adds, but i will load all the videos i want to watch on separate tabs so the adds all play at the same time. This way i can pause the videos and watch the video when i want to, ignore the adds, and you still get money from the adds. Starcraft 2 actually got me to do this because i couldn't take any more Wilhelm Screams.

tkioz:
On the subject of adblock (I'm a pubclub member FYI) there are things you need to understand, I don't know the average age of your audience, but people in their early to mid 30s have been online for 10-20 years now, we saw the very very worst of the advertising industry online, we saw the growth of popups, popunders, flash, gifs, etc, etc, etc, etc. some of us we'll never tolerate advertisements again, the well has been poisoned, our goodwill is gone, blame the people who ruined it, don't blame the people who were pushed into avoiding all advertisement online, don't just complain about how we're selfish (as I said I give you money every year, three years running now), you need to woo us back, and complaining wont do that.

Absolutely. I feel like this isn't addressed enough. Over the last couple months I've been seeing an increasing amount of website representatives and content creators making appeals to their userbase about adblock. I honestly think angle gets WAY too much focus, and that the wrong people are being blamed... Perhaps it could be an idea for these sites to look into WHY adblock even needs to exist in the first place, before pointing fingers at their users and doing the whole guilt thing like "we're just trying to create quality content for you guys and you're totally stabbing us in the back, DIRECTLY and PERSONALLY harming us by using adblock"...

Ads on the internet have become increasingly intrusive and obnoxious, and it's more difficult than ever before to get rid of them, or just trying to avoid having them shoved down your throat every 5 seconds, without using such addons. It's been getting to the point where these ads are completely destroying your enjoyment and turning visits to certain websites into downright negative experiences.

The point I'm trying to make is, things aren't looking to improve, and pointing fingers at content consumers isn't gonna change that. Some responsibility definitely lies in the hands on the sites that sign up for this, and I think that it's about damn time that they start to speak up against the ad companies and their methods.

I get that it would be a risk to take, especially for sites that solely rely on ad revenue income, but you really shouldn't be putting up with this. They're the ones who want piece of YOUR site for their ads, and you'd be well within your rights to have certain requirements and conditions. I wish more content creators would take a stand against these companies and let them know that their advertising methods aren't acceptable as they can severely hurt a site by turning its own users against them. So yeah, I'd definitely like to see more objections and even protests/boycotts against these companies to send a message.