#1 yeap, that sounds like altruism; unless the bloke being eviscerated is tagging Leah Remini from behind on a nightly basis, you are doing him a favor.

#2 Fuck Ayn Rand, but no penetration please. No telling what undead abomination could come from that carcus's womb. 

... how after 50 years, Ayn Rand's criticisms of societal thought are as true as ever. Not that many understand what she actually meant -- although is a certain disdain for people evident in her work.

Rand's view of selfishness does not revolve around taking, it relates to being the best person you can be, proudly, with no apologies. Helping someone *deserving* with no immediate reward is in no way contrary to that, though optional. (Defining "best person" possibly requires reference to more traditional values, which could be seen as circular logic however.)

Rand most favored creative individualists, what could better describe the mapper?... or does it? Of course, Rand had plenty of biases and probably wouldn't have one good thing to say for us, but that's beside the point.

Well crap, now I've brought up the R word. Now I must bring up something that's been on my mind at times.

In The Fountainhead, architect Roark hated imitative styles. Copying designs based on stone for a building made of steel makes no sense. Well, except that there may be a universal interpretation of certain designs no matter what the material or the observer's knowledge of the history of the design.

Well, here our building material is pixels. And yet almost all of it is imitative of building with other materials. 

I've thought of that issue as well with the idea in mind, 'How would Roark approach level creation with his disdain for boroque or superfulous design and his belief that the building must naturally arise from the sorroundings?' With this approach, I guess you would have to randomly generate a landscape and build from whatever contours the process created. It would be an interesting experiment certainly, and perhaps a good contest concept.

However, my objections to Rand arise from being from an opposing school of Libertarian thought. I've derived my Political Philosophy mainly from studying the works of Murray Rothbard, and the Austrian economist, Hayek and Von Mises.

Rand did not seem to understand that a Captitalist economy is every bit as dependent upon the actions of non creative individuals in their daily lives as it in is on creative individuals. I may be of the later camp, but I don't bake my own bread, nor would I as an Anarchist force anyone to do it for me. 

i'd contribute, but once again i cant be bothered to type out a proper response 

The level design implications are almost too much. Really, why would we even assume a building or landscape? But then you're almost being defined by what you avoid. Familiarity is useful. And FPS typically uses the real world metaphor. But some arguments for realism are hollow: why am I using suspension of disbelief that I'm not really in a pixel world, while that in itself is extraordinary (for now).

I'm probably not as well read as you .. anyway Rand was refreshing and illuminating and crafted (and repetitive of course). Actually I recommend her pamplet/book Anthem as her simplest and therefore most beautiful statement.

As to the last paragraph, I disagree, for example Roark's friendship with the electrician, and him supposedly having real building experience. Any productive worker is important, however without the creative vision from somewhere they are of no use. 

Looks like someone had sex with their philosophy professor. 

Actually, my professors varied from Trotskyite Social Democrats (essentially CIA recruiters) to out and out Maoist. With the exception of a true revolutionary who fought in Rhodesia (and thus against the Great Ian Smith), they all hated me with a passion. In his case, we both possessed the same combative spirit.

Also, the Objectivist shouted down Rothbard when he gave a speach at the Libertarian National Convention in 1988, so I have a personal grudge against them. You expect that thuggish behavior from the Demopublicans, but it is contrary to the Libertarian spirit in regard to the excercise of free speach. 

Roark's philosophy of architecture seemed to be simply that new materials called for new forms. Meanwhile, his contemporaries were building hideous mish-mashes out of past eras' architectural styles.

I think if he were a level designer, he'd make something that looked like a cross between CPMA maps and geocomp entries. He'd take full advantage of the engine's capabilities, but he'd probably never build something representational (castle, base, haunted house, etc,) becuase he would scoff at the idea of a virtual world that exists only to make reference to the real world. 

That brings up an interesting question. If Rourk disdained representation for representation sake, how would he deal with other aspects of level design that are there to sustain the illusion of a real world, like textures. Would he disregard textures that represented, say, brick, metal, wood, and deal in only color or gray scale variants? At what point does this clash with the underlying aesthetic value that he is attempting to capture in the first place? 

People talking about people who I didn't even know existed. And it's interesting.

Keep it up. 

Built buildings that people hated -- so maybe Ayn Rand's philosophy is to shun traditional ideas in your area of design -- QMD is the Roark of Quake. 

BTW, I agree with your most essential point. Whatever I may feel about aspects of Rand's personal philosphy, her books were always interesting to read. 

So Rourk is Sandy Peterson? Hmm, interesting. Episode 4 was my personal favorite, except for the level dominated by those damn spawn, but I'm in a minority in that opinion. 

Wait, I may have misinterperted your posting, who is QMD? 

all i have to say is that headthump lives up to his name. :P 

QMD = "quake map designer". [actually a real person!]

he was a mapper from a few years back, i think most of the regulars here used to make fun of him almost constantly. hehe.

as far as i know he made a couple of semi"realistic" Q1SP maps, which i have played and werent bad [but then again not that good].

Yes, i know a lot about the history of custom Q1SP maps :D

No, i dont know a lot about other games custom mappers. :p 

Primal Hunt blows. Peiod. Nothing else to say.

I got that advice but I tried it anyway, if you want to do the same, be very wary. It's really very bad. 

for catching me up to speed there Underworldfan. </;-) 

as far as i know he made a couple of semi"realistic" Q1SP maps, which i have played and werent bad [but then again not that good].

Yes, i know a lot about the history of custom Q1SP maps :D

Evidently not enough to know QMD only ever made deathmatch maps :-p 

I am sotrashed. its so good
too be tasehd. You now whats bad, I don;t even try to type this bad and the typeing is this bafdd. ? Yes? I'm postin gthis


and you don't wajt me too
but i willll

and yo cant stop me

ever. 

Evidently not enough to know QMD only ever made deathmatch maps :-p

im sure i played a [pretty bad] q1sp map by QMD once, it had lots of lightish textures and was kind of an office or maybe a hospital.

anyone else? 

That was deathmatch, you silly Maen 

must be getting confused i guess. 

i don't think QMD's maps are classible. Not really deathmatch maps... not really singleplayer maps. Somewhere in between where angels and demons tread and females having blood bash parties while wearing hotpants makes sense. 

that place exists, and its name is France.

btw, Nitin i think you have confused me with Scragbait.