A new Christian-oriented religious site has come along to appeal to those who aren’t interested in the “lesser” forms of entertainment (”LEAVE BRITNEY ALONE”, Miss Teen South Carolina, Scantily-clad women dancing in some R&B music video) that are featured on YouTube. When I first saw this site, I thought it was a pretty good site for Christian people to view sermons, little kids saying psalms on camera, and other things that are carefully moderated so that the entire site is free of any inappropriate material.

On YouTube, there’s always the funny videos that we all enjoy, but there’s the sort of “dark side” to the site itself. There is hate-speech and racism that is tolerated on YouTube along with the scathing comments that are sometimes left on people’s videos. But what about sites like GodTube? Is there a dark side to them?

My answer is: sort of. There is a bit of a dark side. Granted, it’s nothing compared to Neo-Nazis rambling about Jews controlling everyone’s brains. It’s more of a recruitment campaign instead. Here you have a video that predicts the Rapture that shall come to claim the holy and destroy the evil. The film is very graphic, with clips of 9/11 melded into it to conjure up memories of that dark time. This film is basically telling you that you will experience that hell-on-earth situation if you do not give your heart to Jesus Christ. This is a very scary message to put out there. It’s the type of message that’s intended to intensify religious feelings in those already religious as well as to incite these feelings of fear into people who would otherwise not even think about it.

The campaign of religious recruitment isn’t something that is unique to only one religion: all religions do it. But it really makes you ask yourself “Do you want to persuade people to adopt your beliefs because of an advertising mechanism or do you want people to adopt them because it’s in their natural will to do so?” Religion is such a touchy subject (the reason I talk about it so often on here is that I find it mostly impolite to discuss it fully with my friends.), but how far do you think is too far when it comes to promoting a religion?

I was about to end this entry here, but I also wanted point out that there are campaigns for recruitment by anti-religious people as well. I think we all know about the “Blasphemy Challenge” (No offence, Atheists, but most of the video responses to that clip were made by 13 year olds or people who look like they still played Dungeons and Dragons in their mother’s basement). I want to know what BOTH sides of the issue think. Do you think it’s okay for sophisticated recruiting to take place? If so, why?

You see, RSBANDB has RuneWire and I knew that after making it..we’d have competition. I didn’t know it’d be like this.

Click here

YOU GUYS WILL NEVER WIN. NEVER.

PS: That’s not a fake.

I’ve been thinking about how the Fantasy genre, in general, is beginning to plateau. Even in literature, it is very hard to write a truly unique fantasy book. Everything nowadays seems to revolve around the Lord of the Rings model, a storyline where the main characters are on a quest for ____. This plot has found its way into nearly every single fantasy MMO ever made. In Runescape, we complete quests for rewards. It’s this simplistic storytelling device that was compelling a long time ago, but what about now? Sci-fi is a generally more flexible genre that can exceed the simple “let’s go on a mission to Mordor!” idea.

Will people gradually get disinterested or not? I think that it could go either way. We all grew up hearing fairy tales, and these fairy tales have changed over time to be more than just an imprisoned princess in a castle or an evil queen who must be defeated. Can this redundancy be solved by incorporating Fantasy into other genres like Sci-fi? I can see it now.. the knights of the Round Table must defeat the Klingon Empire from encroaching onto their vast kingdom.

I’m really not sure any more, but it just seems that Fantasy games are in dire need of a new storyline.

..someone who heavily enjoys unicorns and sunshine. There exists a short period of time in each day that my younger brother does not plant himself in front of the television with a controller in his hands. During this time, I managed to sneak in about an hour of Halo 3 time. So, what do I think of the game? Well, there are good things about it.In the beginning, there was absolutely enchanting looking forest with rays of sunlight..and serene rivers. I stopped to take it all in when, out of nowhere, some idiot moron blurts out “This is gonna take some doing, Chief!” I turn to see a SQUADRON of annoying people around me. I mean, tsh, where did they all come from? Sure, it didn’t help that I went to fix myself a sandwich during some boring intro cut scene, but come now.

Well now I feel like I have to toughen up and play by the rules. So I walk myself over across some river for an “EV somethingorother” and some weird alien things start firing at me. I’m sitting here wondering where on earth the deer and happy bunny rabbits are and here’s this weird looking army of crazy people shooting green lasers at me! People stood in line for this game?? After 15 minutes of walking around alongside some deep-voiced vulture-shaped guy, I realised that the entire game was going to be like this and I shut off the xbox.

Why can’t they just make Halo 2.7? A Halo where I can walk around and not be bothered by weird things?

Okay, XD I’ve not wrote a semi-mean post in a while. I don’t know if this is mean. I don’t think it is. I was on DeviantART a few minutes ago and I was looking at a really wonderful self-portrait that an Australian girl took of herself. Here it is. So, I figured I would look around in her gallery a little more and I notice a comment on her userpage that simply said “Link. :)”.

Click the link and compare the two. XD The kid who drew that obviously isn’t a bad artist at all. He knows how to shade and he does have really neat art in his gallery. I just.. I don’t know how he finished that sketch and thought “Oh, this looks wonderful!” She looks like a scary version of James Spader. I just..yeah. If someone ever seriously sketched a picture of me that made me look like I was a different gender, I’d be a little freaked out.

Not to mention that people are supposed to get permission from the original artist (her) before releasing a sketch to the public. I just..yeah. Am I being overly picky? Is that sketch really a “diamond in the rough”?

I don’t often try to write about philosophy because things that sound great in my mind usually come out wrong when I write them down. I’m going to try to do my best with this entry because I feel that it’s an important thing to say, if it hasn’t already been said or thought before. I’m going to first assume that you’ve read the book 1984. If you haven’t, this won’t make any sense until read it.

I’ve been reading Descartes’ meditations for a class I’m taking and while reading his second meditation, “Of Nature of the Human Mind; and it is more Easily Known than the Body”, I had a short connection to Winston. Descartes’ says that nothing that is determinable by our senses is provable because our sensory systems (touch, smell, taste, hearing, sight) are inaccurate. Therefore, how can you prove that you actually exist if the only things that are tying you to acknowledging your existence are your senses? Descartes’ says that the ability to be doubtful of your existence is proof that you exist. Why? Because as long as you accept that you are being deceived by your senses and are doubtful of their truth, you exist. You’ve all heard the phrase “Cogito ergo sum” (”Dubito, ergo cogito, ergo sum”). I doubt, therefore I think, therefore I am.

Winston, when he is being held in Room 101 is told by O’Brien (his interrogator whom he thought was his friend) that he can be written out of existence. With the stroke of a pen, no one will ever know that he existed because of the implementation of doublethink. Winston believes this and he submits to the torture that leads to his assimilation into the acceptable behaviour of Oceanians. This is what is most tragic. Every person who reads 1984 wants Winston to stand up and fight against this totalitarian regime. We want him to succeed and it’s through his tragedy that we are forced to look within rather than be satisfied by a happy ending.

We think about how Winston would have triumphed if he knew that proof of his existence lies in Descartes. He made the mistake of being so reliant on his senses that he was unable to truly realise that there was no way to write someone out of existence. 1984 tells us that if we don’t doubt. if we don’t think, we will end up like Winston. We will be the ones who exercise doublethink, we will be the ones unable to doubt because the solid wall of falsities has clouded our brains. It goes beyond the simple assertion that we shouldn’t be “sheeps” because Winston was never a sheep. He fought, and his greatest tragedy was that he valued his senses over his mind.

Some of you may or may not know this, but Mein Kampf (”My Struggle”, a book of Hitler’s political ravings) is banned in Germany. The only people who are allowed access to it are teachers who are allotted a restricted time for review. When the second World War ended, the rights to the book were maintained by the state of Bavaria who expressed forbade any reprinting of the book in Germany. In 2015, the publishing rights to the book expire, making it eligible for reprinting.

The controversy lies in whether or not such a destructive and hateful book should be allowed back into Germany after the horror of the Holocaust. I don’t normally like to pull my personal faith into matters like this, but as a Jewish person I believe that Mein Kampf should be reprinted and distributed for all to read. Why? Firstly, banning a book does not stop people from finding it on Google, Youtube, or torrent networks. Because this book is a historical writing, it has value to more than just crazed Neo-Nazis. It has value to students, to everyday people so that they can personally read the book which led to the extermination of millions of people.

Secondly, banning the book from being published shows a lack of Germany’s ability to confront what happened during World War II. The German government has a responsibility to educate its own citizens about the consequences of racism and xenophobia. It wasn’t until university that I had an actual German history class which did not seek to water down and tip-toe around the issue.

This reprinting controversy somewhat ties into the banning of the public denial of the Holocaust. Meaning: I cannot go publicly deny that the Holocaust happened. I’m not for people saying denying something so evident and obvious as the Holocaust, but I believe in free speech. If someone wants to be stupid and say that, then they should have the right. Just like I have the right to say that the Holocaust-Hoax initiative is completely false.

It all comes down to the German government wanting to censor access to historical writings/films as well as free speech. It needs to come to a stop. How are we supposed to remember our country’s biggest mistake if we’re denied these things? They need to learn that the internet has opened the door to neo-Nazis. Rather than trying to prevent a problem that’s so easily circumvented, they should just release their stranglehold on our rights.

I’ve posted 79 posts (including this one) on this blog. 3 of which actually criticise any fan site. That means that 3.8% of what I actually post expresses any disapproval of a fan site. Now, weirdly, this pissed off so many people. It all started when a few ex-Draynor members decided to dig up a four day old topic in the sandbox of our site about Draynor closing. Talk about s— stirring? Well, let me show you what one of them posted:

HAH, THE RS B&BARBIE BITCHES THINK DRAYNOR STOLE THEIR MOTHER FUCKING UGLY ST00F. GO TO HELL NIGGERS, U COPIED OFF OF US.

LOLOWNED MOTHER FUCKING NOOBS.

Y DON’T U SUE DRAYNOR, U COULD LOSE A COUPLE HUNDRED BUCKS AND GET COUNTER-SUED 4 COPYING DRAYNOR.

I don’t think I need to say much more about the average IQ of Draynor members. Racial expletives, expletives in general, groundless accusations, poor knowledge of the legal system. It goes on. Look, Russel “Escablade” Bowen , I know you have no life..but using racial slurs on a family-friendly website is pretty low.

Also, Mr. Devlin Palmer (whois, is a b—-, isn’t it?), another esteemed member of Draynor was unable to put up decent arguments with me, so he called me a “bitch” and said that I was “very ugly”. Unable to substantiate his argument, he resorted to personal attacks. Pathetic? Extremely.

Disrespecting fan sites is actually against the rules on our forums. Our members are not allowed to flame other websites on the forum itself. As for the accusation that RSBANDB staff members have “spammed” Draynor in the past? Well, I did complain to a moderator there that a picture of a hairy nipple bothered me but I did that privately. Another member simply posted on the forums saying that the image was very disturbing and he was banned.

I regret having to ban some of the Draynor people who visit my blog, but I cannot tolerate losers who have my posts/comments on their RSS feed waiting to anxiously to jump at the sign of my presence. Oh, before I forget, this was posted on one of their blogs:

I also had a pathetic excuse for a interview over at RuneWeb, but the people had great disdain for Draynor, stooping so low as to make many offensive regards to the site. I hope all sites aren’t like them.

The folks over at RuneWeb don’t even like you guys? Wait a minute.. so RSBANDB doesn’t like you, Leetscape doesn’t like you, and RuneWeb? I’m going to venture out and say that maybe they have their reasons and it’s something more than Draynor’s “popularity” (popularity being in quotes since the site is now closed). Maybe no one likes you all because you go on people’s personal blogs and attack them, spam their forums with racial slurs, and tell them that Draynor was the first to make goal/stat sigs when RSBANDB has been doing it for three years. That could be the reason.
So go ahead an try to spam my blog. I appreciate the attention (considering I was only able to write this entry because of your blunders), but your comments will continue to be deleted. Do you see me posting on your blog and/or site? No? That might tell you that I’m not actually bothered enough to do so and it’s sad that you are.

The Zybez podcast (NSFW)! Before you scurry off to listen to it, please keep in mind that you get directed to an upload site that displays porno ads on it! But that’s okay, the voice of the Jay36miles is sooo dreamy that you won’t be able to help yourself. I hope you detected my sarcasm there, because if you’ve already heard the first episode you’ll know that this guy sounds ultra creepy.

Normally, I’d say “Well, it’s just their first podcast..give them a break”, but considering this has been in the works for MONTHS, I can’t spare them the benefit of the doubt. The podcast is terribly edited. Rather than inviting all of the guests for a live Skype episode, it seems like they told a bunch of random people to record themselves reading a pre-written message, then cut their audio file into the main podcast. Awful. Awful sound quality, awful content.

Let me separate this into categories of awfulness in hopes that someone from Zybez will read this and improve from my criticism.

• Content: The content is the defining factor on whether or not a podcast is going to be good. The Zybez podcast talked about a few things, “Should Children be Subjected to a Curfew to Prevent Against Crime?”, clans, a “monster competition”, and the IRC channel of Zybez events. See what I just did? I listed the contents of their podcast, aka Show Notes– something that they didn’t bother writing themselves. Firstly, most people who are active on RSC already know the clan news. RSC is the hub for clan activity and people don’t need to hear the results a week later. Secondly, what’s with this thing about children’s curfews? I like the idea of having a discussion prompt, but all they said was “check out our thread on it!” and they never listed where I could find it. Thirdly, there was almost no talk about clan chat. I’m thinking that this might be because the podcast was recorded weeks before then, possibly months. Zybez, you have a huge clan community, use your brains and host a discussion on the clan chat and spare everyone the boring crap about the IRC channel or monster competition.
• Quality: As I said, this podcast seriously lacks in quality. None of it is geared toward Runescape fans, just Zybez fans. Why would I want to listen to a podcast about the going-ons at their forum? I rather hear interesting discussion on Runescape-related things. The audio quality, again, was awful. I don’t know if native speakers of English had this problem, but I had an extremely hard time understanding them. Their words seemed really rushed and the volume was too low. It was difficult to pay attention to the disjointedness of the whole episode.
• Length: Thee minutes and thirty-five seconds may fly for the “Quick Grammar Tips!” podcast, but people want something that they can be entertained by for at least a half hour. You have to consider that many people play Runescape whilst listening to a Runescape-related podcast. Recording such a short episode is almost completely pointless.

Here are my suggestions, Zybez. Listen to an RSBANDB podcast. Notice the good sound quality, the lack of porno ads (or even ads for that matter) on our download page, the seamless flow of the episode (as it’s done in Skype), and the content. You guys have a lot to learn and, frankly, this episode was worthless.

Edit: Apparently, the second link is actually full-length (45 mins). I’ll leave it to Brad to pick up my slack and talk about it.