Conservapedia - User contributions [en]

Bullying

2015-10-18T01:17:25Z

JustMyTwoCents:

'''Bullying''' can be accurately defined as either the use of force to get one's own way, typically for a selfish purpose at at the expense of others, or [[Sadism|sadistic]] harassment of individuals for the express purpose of inflicting suffering for fun. A person who perpetrates bullying is known as a [[bully]].

== Bullying by Children and in Schools==
[[Children]] in [[public school]]s are not encouraged to bully other, weaker children, and many schools have strict rules preventing bullying. Those who do choose to break the rules can take the form of teasing, hitting, extortion ("Give me your lunch money"), and so on. Children who engage in this type of bullying tend to do so as means of acting out due to problems in their home lives, such as parental abuse or being in poverty.

Educators have been known to countenance the practice by saying that as kids grow up, they simply must learn to deal with bullies.<ref>[http://www.crimeprevention.gov.au/agd/WWW/rwpattach.nsf/VAP/(1E76C1D5D1A37992F0B0C1C4DB87942E)~Bullying+Parents.pdf/$file/Bullying+Parents.pdf] </ref> The implication is that they can learn this on their own, while academic subjects such as arithmetic and English must be learned from books and teachers.
It is also commonly said that bullying is "simply part of growing up" or part of "the rough and tumble of childhood."<ref>[http://www.police.govt.nz/service/yes/nobully/bully_info.html]</ref>

Most students who are bullied either do not report the bullying to adults, or they wait a very long time before doing so. The reasons include feelings of shame, fear of retaliation for reporting, and fear that adults cannot or will not protect the victim in the settings where bullying usually takes place. Many teachers and parents tell children not to "tattle," and to resolve their problems themselves.<ref name="lfcc">[http://www.lfcc.on.ca/bully.htm]</ref>

Many academic approaches go out of their way not to mention using any kind of adult force (let alone [[punishment]]) to stop bullies. One [[Canadian]] program is an exception:

:If the bullies will not change their behavior, despite concerted efforts by school personnel, the bullies, and not the victims, should be the ones who are removed from the class or school, or transferred to another program. Consequences for the perpetrators will be of considerable interest to all students, and will set the tone for future situations.<ref name="lfcc" />

Bullying in schools, can also be used, potentially even by adult authorities, to punish students in or outside of class for doing or saying something that is [[politically incorrect]]. An example of classroom bullying is for students to ostracize a fellow student based on a viewpoint expressed by that student.

==Bullying by Adults==
Immoral acts committed by adults are generally far more inexcusable than equivalent acts by minors on account of adults having no excuse not to know better, and nowhere is this more true than with bullying. Adult bullying on a personal level tends to be far more expressly sadistic and aggressive than child bullying at school. One major form of extreme bullying of this nature is known as [[Cyber-bullying]].

==Political Bullying==
Bullying can take the form of "anti-bullying" laws that [[censor]] speech and activities claimed by proponents of such laws to be bullying or otherwise illegal, but constitute in themselves forceful suppression of speech and can be used as a way to increase government control to excessive levels. An example is [[liberal]] suppression of criticism of [[homosexuality]].

In college and at many [[public school]]s, bullying takes the form of intimidating students to prevent them from expressing or defending certain views; see [[professor values]].

Even the [[Office of the President]] has notably been misused to bully and collectively impugn the major opposition party in the United States when President Barack Hussein Obama openly accused the Republican Party of seditious acts by "encouraging our enemies".<ref>[http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory/senate-votes-avoid-default-open-government-20593201 Obama Lashes Republicans as Government Reopens], October 17, 2013, By DAVID ESPO AP. abcnews.</ref>

==Response and Prevention of Bullying==
Besides telling an adult, there are other things kids can do to stop themselves from being bullied or prevent bullying in the first place. They include but are not limited to
# Learning self defense and not being afraid to fight back if provoked.
# Gathering up a large posse of friends to help defend yourself.
# Lifting weights and taking protein supplements to get bigger (this is only appropriate for high school students, before the age of 14 or 15, kids usually don't have enough testosterone to build muscle and weight training before 14 can be dangerous).
# Sticking up for smaller, younger, and weaker kids. This sends a message that bullying will not be tolerated.
# Tolerance of those who are different.
# Teachers taking a more proactive role and nipping bullying in the bud when it crops up.
# Ridiculing and shunning those who repeatedly engage in bullying.
# Longer suspensions and expulsions, or in extreme cases, criminal charges for the worst offenders.
# Return of classroom prayer and teaching of proper morals and why bullying is inherently evil and wrong.
# Parents punishing children who bully others.
# Staying active and participating in sports (team or individual) and/or martial arts. Athletic and strong children are much less likely to be bullied.
# Parents teaching kids proper social skills so they are less likely to be bullied.
# The best tactic for quelling [[Cyber-bullying|online bullying]] is generally to ignore (not respond to) hateful content under any circumstances, and to report it to site authorities for removal wherever possible.

==See Also==
* [[List of military strategies and concepts]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

[[Category:Sociology]]
[[Category:Bullying|!]]
[[Category:Military Strategies and Concepts]]
[[Category:Crimes]]

Category:Wikis

2015-10-18T01:15:35Z

JustMyTwoCents:

Websites of the [[Wiki]] design format.

[[Category:Internet]]
[[Category:Websites]]

DeviantART

2015-10-18T01:14:46Z

JustMyTwoCents:

'''deviantART''' is an online [[artist]] community. It allows users to register for free and present their art in individual galleries. Recently, deviantART has allowed users to organize their galleries into folders, whereas before there was simply the main gallery and scraps. Works of all media and literature are accepted, though there is some limitation on content. The most popular artwork tend to be of the [[anime]] style, while they offer place for all types of art. Digital art is among the most popular but there is still a large quantity of photography and writing.

DeviantArt has very loose content guidelines, and prohibits what it defines as [[pornography]] while allowing sexually explicit themes so long as the specific criteria for constituting "porn" are technically avoided. Depraved fetish art including sexualization of death and murder are disturbingly common.

Liberalism tends to be the dominant political mindset of users on DA, though again the site itself has no official stance on the topic, and all viewpoints (as well as arguments over them) are allowed to be posted.

== External links ==
* [http://www.deviantart.com/ deviantART]

[[Category:Websites]]
[[Category:Art]]

Cyberbullying

2015-10-18T01:09:04Z

JustMyTwoCents: Created page with "'''Cyberbullying''' is bullying committed using the internet, specifically defined as repeated and deliberate acts of harm and harassment against specific individuals..."

'''Cyberbullying''' is [[bullying]] committed using the [[internet]], specifically defined as repeated and deliberate acts of harm and harassment against specific individuals carried out via information technology networks. It is the single biggest abhorrence plaguing the internet to this day. As committed by adults, cyberbullying is more severe than [[trolling]], which is by its definition short-term and/or indiscriminate, and is by definition systematic, long-term and personalized; one-off hostile remarks do not count.

Cyberbullying may include false accusations, [[stalking]], impersonation and identity theft, threats, and hate "art", richly-designed media targeting specific individuals. Cyberbullies often use illegal means to hide their identities, making it difficult to punish them, by legal processes or otherwise.

[[Category:Bullying]]
[[Category:Internet]]
[[Category:Crimes]]

==External links==
* [[Wikipedia]] has [https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=12&ved=0CFUQFjALahUKEwi7iY666srIAhVVLIgKHRsrDXY&url=https%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FCyberbullying&usg=AFQjCNH_0gYJBwBJ47bV1v4527XEeiap1w&sig2=UC7zEpsXpwHfDufnStF-4Q a fairly comprehensive and accurate page] as of now.

Bullying

2015-10-18T00:44:12Z

JustMyTwoCents:

Mass Effect

2015-10-16T21:30:49Z

JustMyTwoCents: Created page with "'''Mass Effect''' is a trilogy of science fiction video games created by Canadian developer BioWare and released between 2007 and 2012. The player controls..."

'''Mass Effect''' is a trilogy of [[science fiction]] [[video games]] created by [[Canada|Canadian]] developer BioWare and released between 2007 and 2012. The player controls Commander Shepard, an exceptional human being whose identity including race, gender and fictional personal background (chosen from a number of pre-designed options) are generated by the player, as is his or her personality as established through numerous in-game choices ranging from polite vs. rude dialogue to monumental decisions affecting the fates of millions. Save data is imported between games to give long-term continuity to each player's specific version of Shepard. Mass Effect has commonly been called one of the greatest video game trilogies/storylines of all time. The ending(s) of the third and final game, however, was/were criticized heavily, mainly for being too vague and the variations too similar to each other despite the supposed importance of [[choice]] in the series, and a patch was eventually released that expanded upon the end sequences and tied up several loose ends.

==Topical content of interest==
The trilogy's overarching plot ultimately relies on the full acceptance of [[macroevolution]] as the sole factor responsible for biodiversity and what organisms are like. The main antagonists are the Reapers, a group of malevolent super-machines who visit the [[Milky Way]] galaxy every 50,000 years to commit mass-[[genocide]] against all sufficiently advanced creatures, leaving only animals and primitive peoples populating the galaxy. The next time the Reapers return in 50,000 more years, those animals/primitives will have become advanced civilizations who are thusly wiped out. This has been happening for many millions of years in the games' backstory.

[[Atheism]] is the all-but-explicitly-stated reality of the Mass Effect universe. Commander Shepard is killed at the start of the second game and then revived through super-science; a deleted scene has been discovered in the third game's files where Shepard is asked what they experienced while dead by Ashley, the series only [[Christian]] character of note, and Shepard admits that he or she did not experience anything at all, basically confirming the nonexistence of any [[afterlife]], and also suspects the possibility that they might not truly be the same person as they were before dying. Multiple fictional religious systems practiced by alien races in the games are also given very definite explanations.

Unlike most other action games where violence is the only option in dealing with enemies, there are numerous moments in the Mass Effect trilogy where Shepard can reason or negotiate with certain villains. These include multiple instances where antagonists are presented with [[suicide]] as the only possible means of "redeeming" themselves in any way.

The games contain mature, and entirely optional, sexual sequences with any of several romantic candidates, including [[homosexual]] and [[bisexual]] options. Of particular interest are the Asari, an all-female, all-bisexual alien species. The original game's supposedly explicit content caused some controversy/hysteria upon its release, including coverage on [[Fox News]], but [[Jack Thompson]], notorious for his attacks on many other games, actually defended Mass Effect's sexual scenes, on the grounds of them being presented in a mature, non-gratuitous manner and only occurring if the player takes very specific steps to trigger them.

[[Category:Video Games]]
[[Category:Science Fiction]]

Fallout Series

2015-10-16T05:34:15Z

JustMyTwoCents:

The '''''Fallout'' Series''' is a series consisting of five [[role playing game]]s (named Fallout 1,2, and 3, 4 [upcoming] and New Vegas) and two more action-oriented spin offs named Tactics and Brotherhood of Steel; both of which are considered non-canon by developers and generally ignored by the players. The first two were developed by Black Isle Studios, released in 1997 and 1998, the third was developed by Bethesda Softworks of ''[[The Elder Scrolls]]'' fame and released in 2008; and New Vegas was developed by Obsidian Entertainment and produced by Bethesda in 2010. Fallout 4 is due for release in late 2015, again by Bethesda. All of the main games have been widely praised, and the franchise has a massive cult following.

All of the games revolve around player-generated protagonists in various venues of post-[[nuclear war]] [[United States]] in the years 2161 (Fallout 1), 2241 (Fallout 2), 2277 (Fallout 3, 4) and 2281 (New Vegas). The first two games take place in the [[California]] region, the third in the immediate area of [[Washington DC]], New Vegas in the area of the Mojave Desert around [[Las Vegas]] and 4 in and around [[Boston]], [[Massachusetts]].

==Background setting==
The setting of the Fallout series is in an [[alternate history]] that diverged from our own following [[World War II]] due to the rampant predictions of future technology, which were erroneous in reality, turned out to come true in this world. As a result, the dominating style of American culture stayed as it was in the 1950's, while developments in technology followed differents paths resulting in robots, laser weapons, and similar elements common in traditional [[science fiction]] while real-world developments such as portable computers never came to fruition. Also kept from the 50's was the extreme (and in some/many cases justified) [[paranoia]] of [[Communism]], particularly of a [[China|Chinese]] variety by the time of the eventual apocalypse. This world-state persisted up into the late 2040's, when oil supplies across the world began to run dry, and conflict broke out in the "Resource Wars", seeing the United Nations disband, fighting between the [[European]] Commonwealth and the [[Middle East]] until the oil fields ran out, and eventually, leaving America and China desperately competing for control of the [[Alaska]]n pipeline (which also caused the United States to [[annex]] [[Canada]]).

Fear of the imminent nuclear war would cause the United States to start the Vault program (see below), which was designed to build a number of underground fallout bunkers that could hold a thousand people until it was safe to recolonize the earth. However, through the machinations of the semi-shadow government Enclave, most became [[social experiment]]s that were never designed to actually save their inhabitants. At the same time the American culture was on rotten stands, soon to collapse as the strain of the world began to take its toll.

All of this would become pointless on October 21st, 2077, when the world slate was wiped clean in a two-hour-long nuclear bombardment that radically changed the world. It is not known who fired first, but as far as most people living in the wastes care, it doesn't matter. An undeveloped script for a Fallout movie that was never made would have revealed that the leader of Vault-Tec itself started the war in order to fulfill his own predictions of armageddon.

Immediately after the war, chaos ruled as people tried to find a place to survive the bombs. Many people either died of radiation sickness or turned into ghouls, besides the lucky few who were killed by normal methods of death. To compound onto the horrible situation, entire continents either sunk or rose, mountains were created and the entire world environment collapsed, with most of the planet turning into a barren wasteland; eventually radiation returned to the Earth in rainfall (literal "Fallout") caused even more catastrophic damage.

==Common elements of the series==
===Super Mutants===
Super mutants are Humans who have been subjected to a government-made virus called the'' Forced Evolutionary Virus'' (FEV), which was designed to create super soldiers. It worked to a degree, with the subjects becoming stronger and tougher, but at the cost of both intelligence (with some key exceptions) and becoming aggressive to a fault. An army of super mutants led by an extremely mutated biomass called "The Master" acts as the main antagonistic faction of the first game; notably, the Master can be convinced that his plan to phase out normal humans in favor of mutants is unworkable (Super mutants are sterile), causing him to commit [[suicide]], at the end in lieu of actually fighting him. A separate strain of Super mutants appear in Fallout 3, this group leaderless and far more innately hostile than their Western counterparts, with only two friendly individuals ever being encountered.

===Enclave===
''(See "Portrayal of America" below)''

===Brotherhood of Steel===
The descendants of a group of soldiers and their families who, shortly before the war, declared themselves in desertion from the U.S. Army as a result of scientists using unwilling soldiers for FEV virus testing. They more or less worship technology and seek to take all advanced technology from the hands of the wastelanders, although the reason varies from simple selfishness to wanting to "protect" them from it. They are very secretive and xenophobic, and besides a few members could care less about what happens to the world unless it threatens them. This caused another, benevolent version of the BoS, seen in Fallout 3, to break away from the main organization and move to the East Coast. By New Vegas, the West Coast Brotherhood have fought a costly war with the New California Republic and lost, and are slowly dying because of their refusal to change their ways, though the player's actions have a huge potential impact on their prospects ranging from making them learn to cooperate with the NCR to outright destroying their last bunker.

===Vaults===
The ''"Vaults''' are/were giant underground fallout shelters ostensibly designed to each hold a thousand people comfortably until they could recolonize the planet. The exact number is unknown, but at least 115. Saving people was not actually the main concern of the Vaults' makers, as they were in actuality: [[social experiment]]s of the Enclave to test various conditions on people (apparently to see how people would react during a trip across the void of space to a new home planet, a plan that never came to fruition). Some vaults were normal, some vaults had annoying but understandable test ideas while others were simply cruel.

Examples:
*'''Vault 101''': The door was never meant to be opened again, and the overseer was given omnipotent authority. This is the original home of ''Fallout 3'''s protagonist.
*'''Vault 12''': The door was designed to not close, testing the effects of radiation on people.
*'''Vault 11''': A social experiment where the group was to sacrifice one person every so often or they all died. When they finally did choose to say no more, there were 5 left, and it was revealed it was a test to see how long that would take and the door opened.
*'''Vault 43''': populated by twenty men, ten woman and a panther (only mentioned in a tie-in webcomic, more-or-less as a joke)
*'''Vault 55/56''': In the former there were no entertainment tapes at all; in the later, only tapes of a bad comedian. The latter was predicted to fail first.
*'''Vault 68/69''' In the former, 999 woman/1 man, in the latter: 999 men, one woman.
*'''Vault 92''': Populated largely by renowned musicians, this vault was a test bed for a white noise-based system for implanting combat-oriented posthypnotic suggestions.
*'''Vault 106''': Psychoactive drugs were released into the air filtration system 10 days after the door was sealed.
*'''Vault 112''': A vault populated by Vault-Tec executive Stanislaus Braun and a few others, where he tests a virtual reality program on the other residents that has degraded to him simply killing them over and over. The "good" option when encountering this scenario is to activate a failsafe that causes everyone except Braun to be permanently killed, leaving Braun trapped alone in his own personal [[Hell]].

By the times the games take place, most of the Vaults have become long-since abandoned or are now populated only with monsters, and many serve as in-game "dungeon" complexes.

==Topical material==
The ''Fallout'' series covers a wide variety of mature themes of interest.
===Portrayal of America===
The United States at the time of the apocalyptic war is portrayed as a [[dystopia]] whose destruction was probably necessary for any future American civilization to have a chance of prospering. The remnants/descendants of the elements of America's original government who contributed to causing the apocalypse, known as the Enclave, are the settings' number-one antagonistic group, though they are considered wiped out following the end of Fallout 3. At the climax of Fallout 2, the player confronts the Enclave [[President of the United States|president]], a man leading the plan to use a modified FEV Virus to infect the jet-stream and [[Genocide|"cleanse"]] North America of those "tainted" by radiation, which entails almost everyone outside the Enclave. In Fallout 3, the Enclave is led by "President" John Henry Eden, who is a super-computer programmed with elements of past (real) presidents' personalities and also intends to release a deadly "purifying" virus into the water supply. Notably, the highest-ranking human Enclave leader has no interest in the genocidal aspects of his president's plan, merely wanting to activate Project Purity so the Enclave could have the credit for saving Washington and begin reuniting America in its own image.

During the course of the series, a new, faithful (though far from without its flaws) attempt at recreating old American ideals rises in the form of the New California Republic, founded in-between the first two games and appearing as a relative "superpower" in New Vegas.

===Sexuality===
Fallout 2 was one of the first video games to include [[same-sex marriage]] attainable by the player, specifically resulting from a forced wedding that is a consequence of illicit seduction of either of two [[bisexual]] characters, both offspring of a local butcher. As spouses, both of these characters are a useless burden in-game and very hard to get rid of. This scenario is also the only instance of any [[marriage]] at all being attainable by the in-game player characters.

Fallout: New Vegas includes perks which establish the player character as homosexual and allow special dialogue options constituting gay flirting, seduction, etc. These perks, like their heterosexual counterparts, also increase combat effectiveness against enemies by gender; due to there being considerably more male opponents in the game than female, this technically means that playing as a homosexual male character is measurably advantageous compared to its alternatives (not that the player is required to engage in any sexual behavior at all, mind you).

===Discrimination===
[[Racism]] and [[sexism]] as we know them are almost nonexistent in this post-apocalyptic setting, but bigotry has lived on primarily in the form of discrimination against the physically zombie-like but behaviorally normal mutants known as ghouls. This is caused in large part by confusion between "normal" ghouls and their further-degraded counterparts known as "feral ghouls", who are legitimately mindless monsters, and the notion that all ghouls will eventually turn feral, even though the presence of ghouls who have been around since the apocalypse (ghouls are biologically [[immortal]]) suggests otherwise. One particular plotline in ''Fallout 3'' revolves around a group of ghouls trying to gain access to a bigoted community known as Tenpenny Tower; however, should the player help the ghouls, it will be revealed that their particular group is genuinely evil, and just as hostile to normal humans as the likes of Tenpenny are to their kind, and they will murder the other residents of the tower. There is no actual "good" resolution to this quest.

===Illicit substances===
All of the Fallout games feature drugs or "chems" as usable in-game items. These provide positive immediate effects while also carrying the risk of [[drug addiction|addiction]] with each use, which is very hard to get rid of once it has been acquired in-game. Myron, a character in ''Fallout 2'' who creates a particularly insidious new drug called "Jet", is portrayed as one of the most despicable characters in the entire series.

===Religion===
Most pre-established forms of [[religion]] including [[Christianity]] have become nigh-extinct in the Fallout world, with various [[cult]]s and tribal subcultures emerging to fill their gap.

A notable exception is the character of the once-villainous Joshua Graham, who converted to [[Mormonism]] following a [[near-death experience]] wherein he survived being lit on fire and thrown into the Grand Canyon after failing as military leader of the cruel organization Caesar's Legion, and has since been a heroic protector and preacher for the peaceful tribe known as the Dead Horses.

===Dangerous sciences===
[[Genetic experimentation]] is portrayed very negatively in the series and is the practice responsible for creating the monsters known as Deathclaws, creatures derived from chameleons who are some of the most vicious enemies in the series. ''New Vegas'' introduced the equally-dangerous Cazadores, derived from the tarantula hawk, and the somewhat less-severe Nightstalkers, hybrids between coyotes and rattlesnakes.

The evils of [[Transhumanism]] are explored in New Vegas' ''Old World Blues'' expansion, which features a group of scientists that have reduced their bodies to brains inside robotic apparatuses to achieve immortality, and are responsible for the aforementioned Cazadores and Nightstalkers, among other aberrations.

==External links==
[http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Fallout_Wiki The Vault, a wiki designed around the series containing numerous guides and information]

[[Category:Video Games]]
[[Category:Science Fiction]]
[[Category:Dystopian Fiction]]

Fallout Series

2015-10-16T05:33:04Z

JustMyTwoCents:

The '''''Fallout'' Series''' is a series consisting of five [[role playing game]]s (named Fallout 1,2, and 3, 4 [upcoming] and New Vegas) and two more action-oriented spin offs named Tactics and Brotherhood of Steel; both of which are considered non-canon by developers and generally ignored by the players. The first two were developed by Black Isle Studios, released in 1997 and 1998, the third was developed by Bethesda Softworks of ''[[The Elder Scrolls]]'' fame and released in 2008; and New Vegas was developed by Obsidian Entertainment and produced by Bethesda in 2010. Fallout 4 is due for release in late 2015, again by Bethesda. All of the main games have been widely praised, and the franchise has a massive cult following.

All of the games revolve around player-generated protagonists in various venues of post-[[nuclear war]] [[United States]] in the years 2161 (Fallout 1), 2241 (Fallout 2), 2277 (Fallout 3, 4) and 2281 (New Vegas). The first two games take place in the [[California]] region, the third in the immediate area of [[Washington DC]], New Vegas in the area of the Mojave Desert around [[Las Vegas]] and 4 in and around [[Boston]], [[Massachusetts]].

==Background setting==
The setting of the Fallout series is in an [[alternate history]] that diverged from our own following [[World War II]] due to the rampant predictions of future technology, which were erroneous in reality, turned out to come true in this world. As a result, the dominating style of American culture stayed as it was in the 1950's, while developments in technology followed differents paths resulting in robots, laser weapons, and similar elements common in traditional [[science fiction]] while real-world developments such as portable computers never came to fruition. Also kept from the 50's was the extreme (and in some/many cases justified) [[paranoia]] of [[Communism]], particularly of a [[China|Chinese]] variety by the time of the eventual apocalypse. This world-state persisted up into the late 2040's, when oil supplies across the world began to run dry, and conflict broke out in the "Resource Wars", seeing the United Nations disband, fighting between the [[European]] Commonwealth and the [[Middle East]] until the oil fields ran out, and eventually, leaving America and China desperately competing for control of the [[Alaska]]n pipeline (which also caused the United States to [[annex]] [[Canada]]).

Fear of the imminent nuclear war would cause the United States to start the Vault program (see below), which was designed to build a number of underground fallout bunkers that could hold a thousand people until it was safe to recolonize the earth. However, through the machinations of the semi-shadow government Enclave, most became [[social experiment]]s that were never designed to actually save their inhabitants. At the same time the American culture was on rotten stands, soon to collapse as the strain of the world began to take its toll.

All of this would become pointless on October 21st, 2077, when the world slate was wiped clean in a two-hour-long nuclear bombardment that radically changed the world. It is not known who fired first, but as far as most people living in the wastes care, it doesn't matter. An undeveloped script for a Fallout movie that was never made would have revealed that the leader of Vault-Tec itself started the war in order to fulfill his own predictions of armageddon.

Immediately after the war, chaos ruled as people tried to find a place to survive the bombs. Many people either died of radiation sickness or turned into ghouls, besides the lucky few who were killed by normal methods of death. To compound onto the horrible situation, entire continents either sunk or rose, mountains were created and the entire world environment collapsed, with most of the planet turning into a barren wasteland; eventually radiation returned to the Earth in rainfall (literal "Fallout") caused even more catastrophic damage.

==Common elements of the series==
===Super Mutants===
Super mutants are Humans who have been subjected to a government-made virus called the'' Forced Evolutionary Virus'' (FEV), which was designed to create super soldiers. It worked to a degree, with the subjects becoming stronger and tougher, but at the cost of both intelligence (with some key exceptions) and becoming aggressive to a fault. An army of super mutants led by an extremely mutated biomass called "The Master" acts as the main antagonistic faction of the first game; notably, the Master can be convinced that his plan to phase out normal humans in favor of mutants is unworkable (Super mutants are sterile), causing him to commit [[suicide]], at the end in lieu of actually fighting him. A separate strain of Super mutants appear in Fallout 3, this group leaderless and far more innately hostile than their Western counterparts, with only two friendly individuals ever being encountered.

==Enclave==
''(See "Portrayal of America" below)''

===Brotherhood of Steel===
The descendants of a group of soldiers and their families who, shortly before the war, declared themselves in desertion from the U.S. Army as a result of scientists using unwilling soldiers for FEV virus testing. They more or less worship technology and seek to take all advanced technology from the hands of the wastelanders, although the reason varies from simple selfishness to wanting to "protect" them from it. They are very secretive and xenophobic, and besides a few members could care less about what happens to the world unless it threatens them. This caused another, benevolent version of the BoS, seen in Fallout 3, to break away from the main organization and move to the East Coast. By New Vegas, the West Coast Brotherhood have fought a costly war with the New California Republic and lost, and are slowly dying because of their refusal to change their ways, though the player's actions have a huge potential impact on their prospects ranging from making them learn to cooperate with the NCR to outright destroying their last bunker.

===Vaults===
The ''"Vaults''' are/were giant underground fallout shelters ostensibly designed to each hold a thousand people comfortably until they could recolonize the planet. The exact number is unknown, but at least 115. Saving people was not actually the main concern of the Vaults' makers, as they were in actuality: [[social experiment]]s of the Enclave to test various conditions on people (apparently to see how people would react during a trip across the void of space to a new home planet, a plan that never came to fruition). Some vaults were normal, some vaults had annoying but understandable test ideas while others were simply cruel.

Examples:
*'''Vault 101''': The door was never meant to be opened again, and the overseer was given omnipotent authority. This is the original home of ''Fallout 3'''s protagonist.
*'''Vault 12''': The door was designed to not close, testing the effects of radiation on people.
*'''Vault 11''': A social experiment where the group was to sacrifice one person every so often or they all died. When they finally did choose to say no more, there were 5 left, and it was revealed it was a test to see how long that would take and the door opened.
*'''Vault 43''': populated by twenty men, ten woman and a panther (only mentioned in a tie-in webcomic, more-or-less as a joke)
*'''Vault 55/56''': In the former there were no entertainment tapes at all; in the later, only tapes of a bad comedian. The latter was predicted to fail first.
*'''Vault 68/69''' In the former, 999 woman/1 man, in the latter: 999 men, one woman.
*'''Vault 92''': Populated largely by renowned musicians, this vault was a test bed for a white noise-based system for implanting combat-oriented posthypnotic suggestions.
*'''Vault 106''': Psychoactive drugs were released into the air filtration system 10 days after the door was sealed.
*'''Vault 112''': A vault populated by Vault-Tec executive Stanislaus Braun and a few others, where he tests a virtual reality program on the other residents that has degraded to him simply killing them over and over. The "good" option when encountering this scenario is to activate a failsafe that causes everyone except Braun to be permanently killed, leaving Braun trapped alone in his own personal [[Hell]].

By the times the games take place, most of the Vaults have become long-since abandoned or are now populated only with monsters, and many serve as in-game "dungeon" complexes.

==Topical material==
The ''Fallout'' series covers a wide variety of mature themes of interest.
===Portrayal of America===
The United States at the time of the apocalyptic war is portrayed as a [[dystopia]] whose destruction was probably necessary for any future American civilization to have a chance of prospering. The remnants/descendants of the elements of America's original government who contributed to causing the apocalypse, known as the Enclave, are the settings' number-one antagonistic group, though they are considered wiped out following the end of Fallout 3. At the climax of Fallout 2, the player confronts the Enclave [[President of the United States|president]], a man leading the plan to use a modified FEV Virus to infect the jet-stream and [[Genocide|"cleanse"]] North America of those "tainted" by radiation, which entails almost everyone outside the Enclave. In Fallout 3, the Enclave is led by "President" John Henry Eden, who is a super-computer programmed with elements of past (real) presidents' personalities and also intends to release a deadly "purifying" virus into the water supply. Notably, the highest-ranking human Enclave leader has no interest in the genocidal aspects of his president's plan, merely wanting to activate Project Purity so the Enclave could have the credit for saving Washington and begin reuniting America in its own image.

During the course of the series, a new, faithful (though far from without its flaws) attempt at recreating old American ideals rises in the form of the New California Republic, founded in-between the first two games and appearing as a relative "superpower" in New Vegas.

===Sexuality===
Fallout 2 was one of the first video games to include [[same-sex marriage]] attainable by the player, specifically resulting from a forced wedding that is a consequence of illicit seduction of either of two [[bisexual]] characters, both offspring of a local butcher. As spouses, both of these characters are a useless burden in-game and very hard to get rid of. This scenario is also the only instance of any [[marriage]] at all being attainable by the in-game player characters.

Fallout: New Vegas includes perks which establish the player character as homosexual and allow special dialogue options constituting gay flirting, seduction, etc. These perks, like their heterosexual counterparts, also increase combat effectiveness against enemies by gender; due to there being considerably more male opponents in the game than female, this technically means that playing as a homosexual male character is measurably advantageous compared to its alternatives (not that the player is required to engage in any sexual behavior at all, mind you).

===Discrimination===
[[Racism]] and [[sexism]] as we know them are almost nonexistent in this post-apocalyptic setting, but bigotry has lived on primarily in the form of discrimination against the physically zombie-like but behaviorally normal mutants known as ghouls. This is caused in large part by confusion between "normal" ghouls and their further-degraded counterparts known as "feral ghouls", who are legitimately mindless monsters, and the notion that all ghouls will eventually turn feral, even though the presence of ghouls who have been around since the apocalypse (ghouls are biologically [[immortal]]) suggests otherwise. One particular plotline in ''Fallout 3'' revolves around a group of ghouls trying to gain access to a bigoted community known as Tenpenny Tower; however, should the player help the ghouls, it will be revealed that their particular group is genuinely evil, and just as hostile to normal humans as the likes of Tenpenny are to their kind, and they will murder the other residents of the tower. There is no actual "good" resolution to this quest.

===Illicit substances===
All of the Fallout games feature drugs or "chems" as usable in-game items. These provide positive immediate effects while also carrying the risk of [[drug addiction|addiction]] with each use, which is very hard to get rid of once it has been acquired in-game. Myron, a character in ''Fallout 2'' who creates a particularly insidious new drug called "Jet", is portrayed as one of the most despicable characters in the entire series.

===Religion===
Most pre-established forms of [[religion]] including [[Christianity]] have become nigh-extinct in the Fallout world, with various [[cult]]s and tribal subcultures emerging to fill their gap.

A notable exception is the character of the once-villainous Joshua Graham, who converted to [[Mormonism]] following a [[near-death experience]] wherein he survived being lit on fire and thrown into the Grand Canyon after failing as military leader of the cruel organization Caesar's Legion, and has since been a heroic protector and preacher for the peaceful tribe known as the Dead Horses.

===Dangerous sciences===
[[Genetic experimentation]] is portrayed very negatively in the series and is the practice responsible for creating the monsters known as Deathclaws, creatures derived from chameleons who are some of the most vicious enemies in the series. ''New Vegas'' introduced the equally-dangerous Cazadores, derived from the tarantula hawk, and the somewhat less-severe Nightstalkers, hybrids between coyotes and rattlesnakes.

The evils of [[Transhumanism]] are explored in New Vegas' ''Old World Blues'' expansion, which features a group of scientists that have reduced their bodies to brains inside robotic apparatuses to achieve immortality, and are responsible for the aforementioned Cazadores and Nightstalkers, among other aberrations.

==External links==
[http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Fallout_Wiki The Vault, a wiki designed around the series containing numerous guides and information]

[[Category:Video Games]]
[[Category:Science Fiction]]
[[Category:Dystopian Fiction]]

EarthBound

2015-10-16T04:02:56Z

JustMyTwoCents:

'''EarthBound''' ''(known as Mother 2 in Japan)'' is a 1994 [[role playing game]] for the [[Super Nintendo]]. It was created by copywriter Shigesato Itoi and is known for its quirky humor and extensive fan base.

== Plot Synopsis ==
The story begins when a meteorite falls on a hillside in Onett, a small town in Eagleland. The main character, a boy named Ness goes to investigate the crash. There, he meets Buzz Buzz, an insectlike alien from the future, and learns that a cosmic destroyer named Giygas has set his sights on Earth and that according to an old prophecy, only Ness and three other chosen children can stop him.

The game then follows Ness as he travels from location to location, battling an unusual array of foes by traditional role-playing standards. Such foes include aliens, robots, walking mushrooms, personified objects like guitars and coffee cups, and hippies.
Along the way, Ness meets friends like Paula, a girl with psychic powers, Jeff, a young scientist, and Poo, a mysterious Asian prince.

== Characters ==
* Ness: A seemingly average boy from the town of Onett and the game's protagonist. Ness's primary weapon is a baseball bat but he can also use PSI for healing and attacking.

* Paula: A girl from Twoson, who has a variety of PSI powers used for battle.

* Jeff: A boy genius from Winters who can make useful machines from junk. He is the son of Dr. Andonuts.

* Poo: Prince of the eastern kingdom of Dalaam, who has trained in PSI and martial arts for the battle against Giygas.

* Porky Minch'' (Pokey in the English localization)'': Ness's self-centered next-door neighbor and recurring antagonist of the game.

* Dr. Andonuts- A scientific genius and Jeff's father. His invention, the Sky Runner proves useful to Ness and co.

* Mr. Saturn- A friendly race of strange creatures residing in Saturn Valley. Mr. Saturns have a small body with two eyes, a large nose, two tiny feet, catlike whiskers, and a single hair on which is tied a red ribbon. They help Ness and co. on multiple occasions.

* Apple Kid and Orange Kid- Two rival inventors living in Twoson.

* Buzz Buzz- An insectlike alien who comes to Earth to warn Ness about Giygas's invasion.

* Giygas- The principal antagonist of EarthBound, Giygas seeks to destroy Ness so he can spread his terror throughout the universe.

==Political, religious and other topical elements==
The game's main fictional national setting, "Eagleland", is a generally affectionate parody of the [[United States]] and its popularly-perceived stereotypical characteristics and customs.

A [[cult]] known as "Happy Happyism", whose members resemble the [[Ku Klux Klan]], appear as antagonists in the game.

The battle against the final boss, Giygas, which takes place in the past where he must be killed before becoming too powerful as he is in the present, is often theorized as a metaphor for [[abortion]]. Per this interpretation, the onscreen patterns of his distorted face supposedly form the outline of a fetus.

== References ==
<references/>

[[Category:Video Games]]

EarthBound Beginnings

2015-10-16T04:02:13Z

JustMyTwoCents:

{{Delete|Zero content relevant to analysis}}

'''EarthBound Beginnings''', or ''Mother'', as it’s known in Japan is a role-playing game for the [[Nintendo]] Entertainment System ([[NES]]). Created by copywriter Shigesato Itoi, it is the first entry of the ''Mother'' series, followed by ''[[EarthBound]]'' (''Mother 2'') for the [[Super NES]] and ''Mother 3'' for the Game Boy Advance. ''EarthBound Beginnings'', much like its sequels, is known for deviating from the traditional sword and sorcery motif typical of the role-playing genre, by taking place in a modern American setting.

==Plot Synopsis==
In the early 1900s in Rural America, a man named George and his wife Maria mysteriously vanish, only to have George turn up again a year later. George tells no one where he was or what he was doing during that time and immerses himself in the study of PSI, or psionics. Some 80 years later, George's great-grandson, Ninten, gets caught up in strange happenings, starting with a poltergeist attacking his house. After Ninten stops the attack, he calls his father, who sends Ninten on an adventure to investigate the cause of the strange event.<ref>http://kenisu.webs.com/motherencyclopedia.htm</ref>

With his great-grandfather's diary in hand, Ninten discovers a magical realm called Magicant and is asked by Queen Mary, the ruler of Magicant, to find the eight fragments of her melody so that she can sing it again. Along the journey, Ninten travels back and forth from Rural America and Magicant, battling zombies, aliens, and other unusual foes including hippies and floating eyeballs. In his search for the eight melodies, Ninten is joined by Ana, a psychic girl, Lloyd, a boy genius, and Teddy, a gang leader with a heart of gold.

==Gameplay==
''EarthBound Beginnings'' much like most role-playing games (RPGs), has the player control the characters in an overworld where one can walk, run, check objects, talk to non-player characters and so on. In certain areas of the overworld, the player can get drawn into battles at random.

During battles, The enemy character(s) appear on screen and the player is given a menu of different commands. These commands include Fight, which deals damage to a foe of the player's choosing ND PSI, which allows the player to pick a psychic ability to use. PSI powers include PK Beam, a damge dealing move, 4th-D Slip, which guarantees the player a 100% chance to successfully run away from battle, and LifeUp, which recovers HP.

HP stands for Hit Points and determines the characters' health. If the HP counter reaches zero, the character in question falls unconscious and cannot take any action until he or she is revived, either at a hospital or by means of PSI. Using PSI consumes Psychic Points, or PP. Once the PP counter reaches zero, no PSI can be used until PP is recovered by staying at a hotel or by other means.

For winning battles, the player is awarded Experience Points (EXP) and a varying amount of money, which must be withdrawn from an ATM before it can be spent. When a character gains enough EXP, he or she will level-up, which means stats will increase. Such stats include Fight, which determines attack power, Defense, which determines how much damage enemies can deal to the character, and maximum HP and PP, which increase by varying amounts per level-up.

Player characters can also equip certain items to boost their stats such as boomerangs, ray guns, and baseball bats to increase Fight and coins and pendants to increase Defense.

==Characters==

'''Ninten''' - A twelve-year-old boy living in Podunk with his mother and two younger sisters. Ninten is a strong attacker and in the course of the game, learns a variety of PSI powers for defense and healing. His favorite food is prime rib and he also likes to play baseball.<ref name=MyFirstRef>http://kenisu.webs.com/motherencyclopedia.htm</ref>

'''Ana''' - A girl who lives in the wintery town of Snowman with psychic powers. Unlike Ninten, she can learn offensive PSI powers such as PK Fire and PK Beam. She joins Ninten on his quest in search of her mother, who mysteriously vanished.

'''Lloyd''' - A timid boy with a genius IQ who get picked on in school. Lloyd joins Ninten to see Duncan's factory, which is constructing a large rocket. While Lloyd cannot use PSI, he makes up for it by being the only character who can use certain tools in battle, like bottle rockets and even a flamethrower. He is also good with machines.

'''Teddy''' - The leader of the Bla-Bla Gang (Black Blood in the original Japanese). Despite his appearance, Teddy is not as bad as he seems and joins Ninten to avenge his parents, who were killed by "mountain creatures." Teddy also possesses no PSI, but he's very strong and is the only character who can equip swords.

'''Ninten's father''' - Though he is always away from home, Ninten's father is always a phone call away. He deposits money into Ninten's bank account and can also save your progress.

'''Pippi''' - A little girl who gets captured by Zombies. Ninten rescues her early in the game and she temporarily joins him. Pippi can help fight in battle and can even level up. In addition, she gives Ninten the Franklin Badge, an important item required to progress through the game.

'''Queen Mary''' - The beloved ruler of Magicant, Queen Mary is known by her subjects for her beautiful singing. However, she forgot how her song goes, but knows that it was divided into eight parts and is scattered in various locations for Ninten to find.

'''Flying Men''' - Five brothers who resemble birds and can aid Ninten in battles in Magicant. They represent Ninten's courage.

==Release==
''Mother'' was released for the Nintendo Famicom in 1989. It was slated for a release in North America under the title ''Earth Bound'' (note the space) in 1991<ref>http://starmen.net/mother1/</ref>, but despite being fully translated into English, the release was cancelled. ''Mother'' was re-released in 2003 for the Game Boy Advance as part of the compilation game, ''Mother 1+2''. On June 14, 2015, ''Mother'' was finally relaeased in North America and Europe for the Wii U Virtual Console under the title ''EarthBound Beginnings''.<ref>https://www.nintendo.com/games/detail/PtRic7KxqW4Ah-HjYRLSR0GbQyzAKYJZ</ref>

==References==
{{reflist}}