This is the Read category

A collection of text posts, including Poll Questions, Text Interviews with moddersand Phillip’s Blog. All posts are written to encourage friendly debate and discussion.

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Site Features: Different Views Available

This video describes the different views available on the site and mentions the advantages and disadvantages of each one.

As always, if you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to ask.

29th August 2015 No Comments

Half-Life / Valve Memorabilia

It’s been a long time since I posted soemthing in the Reader-to-Reader section of my blog. I have been meaning to post this for a few months, but finally made the time today.

I present to you my collection of Half-Life memorabilia. I don’t own that much, partly becasue I can’t afford to and partly becasue I don’t want too many things like that.

Under each photo is a brief description, and if you have any questions just ask.

I may have a look for some other boxes of the games, might be nice to have the full collections, inclduing all the versions of HL2. I’m pretty sure I have the Half-Life Generations packaging somewhere.

If youa re wondering about the blue back in some of the photos, I keep all the stuff in that, which is a waterproof bag. I am terrified of them getting soaked in a flood (it does happen in my town but it’s highly unlikely – I’m just over-protective).

Okay, here are my photos….

29th August 2015 5 Comments

New Categories Page

I am pleased to annoucne a new page on the site: Categories.

This page allows readers to view the posts (but not any pages as they don’t have categories) in the standard “frontpage” view.

The new theme lost the automatically generated list, so I had to build this manually.

Full details about categories can be found on the page itself.

The views displayed differ from the PLAY archives, which are tables and also the LISTEN and READ archives (all found on the main orange menu), which are lists.

The page is linked to via the EXPLORE menu item.

I hope to make a video this weekend, showing the different views and their advantages and disadvantages.

As always, if you have any questions, comments or suggestions, please don’t hesitate to ask, post or share.

28th August 2015 No Comments

The Beta Testers Collective is on a break

The Beta Testers Collective is on an extended break.

The simple fact is that there are not enough new maps and mods to test on a regular basis.

Therefore it has been decided that the project will take a break until you know what is released.

Ade and Erik-Silver are both still available for private testing.

They can both be contacted via the site: BetaTestersCollective.com.

I am sure you will join me in wishing them a well-deserved rest.

28th August 2015 3 Comments

Poll Question 318 – Have You Ever Fired a Real Gun?

Last week’s poll question was related to violence and video games and this week’s question is an extension of that.

Have you ever fired a real gun?

It’s another emotive subject and I suspect that it might turn into a debate about whether guns should be legal etc but let’s try and keep on-topic.

I’ll tell you now that I haven’t fired a real gun but I have to admit I am curious as to how it would feel.

27th August 2015 28 Comments

Classic of the Month: Don’s Lost Stream

A few weeks ago, Don AKA Unq, tried to stream Hour Glass for his Classic of the Month event but the stream was intermittent and Don had to stop.

Well after getting the Web monkeys hard at work he is going to try again.

The stream will start at 9am Eastern, 1pm GMT on Sunday.

Hope you can find the time to watch his fun and informative streams.

Tune into the RTSL TWitch Channle or watch directly on the Classic of the Month page.

27th August 2015 No Comments

Poll Question 317 – Does playing violent video games make players violent?

To be honest, I am surprised we haven’t dsicussed this exact question before.

The only previous poll I can find close to it is from August 2007: Poll Question 043 – Are Single Player FPS games too violent? (for some reason the actual resulst are not visible and I have decided to find a plugin that will keep the poll data on the site, instead of outsourcing them).

I got the idea from a BBC article entitled Do video games make people violent?. Its headline is: More than 200 academics have signed an open letter criticising controversial new research suggesting a link between violent video games and aggression.

20th August 2015 17 Comments

Poll Question 316 – How do you feel when a mod limits access to the console?

Does anybody else remember how in The Citizen 2 when you tried to noclip around, almost immediately you ere taken to a jail within the mod?

It was kinda cool and pretty clever too. At least at first. But then later on I remember feeling that I needed it. I’m not sure if there was a bug or a script didn’t start or something, but then I became a little frustrated. I don’t remember what happened but I must have alsoved the problem because I definitely remember finishing the mod.

13th August 2015 33 Comments

Classic of the Month: This Saturday: Hour Glass

This Saturday 9am EDT / 1pm GMT Don aka Unq will be livestreaming Hour Glass on the RTSL Twitch Channel as part of the Classic of the Month event.

Viewing is open to everybody and you don’t need an account with Twitch to watch. Although, you’ll need an account to join the chat (Sorry, not our choosing) but you can follow it without an account.

Don has mentioned he will try to remove any inappropriate content so as not to shock your sensitive minds.

12th August 2015 2 Comments