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[alway]

The previous highest was about $2.3 million; so yes. And this one just topped $4 million.

[MorleyDev]

Shame Braid, Super Meat Boy and Lone Survivor were combined for the Steam key, can't gift the ones I already had to someone else...oh well xD

Sordid: Well that doesn't take empathy, which is when mirror neurons fire and your body triggers the same emotional response as another person. Practicality and Reciprocal Altruism are other reasons you may help.

We only have reason to have such feelings for people in our "tribe" though, people whom helping actually does help ourselves and/or our genes. Heck, you could make a perfectly sound argument that a desire to help people without a direct link to us through our tribe (members of our society and/or subsection of such) is a faulty response, the result of a hunter-gatherer brain in an environment that too rapidly became ill-suited for it.

People tend to get a little testy when I point this out though, as if I'm stepping on something sacred, committing some kind of blasphemy by pointing out the obvious.

[IronyOwl]

So charities only have merit if there's not a better charity than them, but only in the same field? In other words, an anti-dysentery charity would be feel-good bullshit because fewer people die of that than AIDS, but an anti-ugly wallpaper charity would be alright because there's really nothing competing with it?

You're twisting what I said again.

How so?

Well yes. Your point being?

That I don't think you seriously believe this.

So you're arguing exclusively against ignorant, accidental adherence to the statements you've made, rather than actual lines of thinking?

I have no idea what that even means.

You're saying things like "people giving to Child's Play just see the word 'charity' and stop thinking" and "people giving to Child's Play are saying African children can rot while middle-class white children play games" and then claiming an accusation of Straw Men doesn't make any sense. This strongly implies that either you're talking about what their actions seem to imply and not what their line of thought is, that you don't actually know what a Straw Man is, or that you're fairly delusional or at least hideously misinformed on that topic.

Hence the existence of Child's Play. Children not having videogames is perceived as more worthy of attention than children dying simply because the children in question are nearer.

Like this. There are other reasons to provide money to an organization offering hospitalized children video games rather than one offering starving children food other than simply "of these two groups, these ones are closer and therefore more deserving." Case in point, those aren't the only two options, and neither probably qualifies for being closest.

[Osmosis Jones]

Guys, seriously chill about the charity drama. This is a thread about some awesome games, does it really need heavy morality?

Spoiler: Because I'm just a little bit of a hypocrite however, here's some rambling on Reciprocal Altruism (click to show/hide)

We only have reason to have such feelings for people in our "tribe" though, people whom helping actually does help ourselves and/or our genes. Heck, you could make a perfectly sound argument that a desire to help people without a direct link to us through our tribe (members of our society and/or subsection of such) is a faulty response, the result of a hunter-gatherer brain in an environment that too rapidly became ill-suited for it.

Actually, reciprocal altruism is a distinct idea from kin selection, though they do share many similarities. The main difference is the way in which it ensures an advantage for your genes.

In kin selection, whether you help yourself or your brother, whoever survives will pass on your genes. Hence there is no real cost for the gene if it is one or the other who survives, so long as at least one does.

Reciprocal altruism has you help another in the expectation that they will help you back at some stage in the future. It's effectively a gamble that a small cost when you're better off can lead to a reward when you're worse off (and need it). One common example brought up* in this regards is vampire bats, who need to feed nightly to avoid starvation; a bat that's sucessfully fed will often regurgitate blood to one that has not, under the expectation that the same will happen if the roles are reversed.


*There is some debate as to whether this is pure RA however.

[MorleyDev]

Yeah Kin Selection is the genes side of things, I just couldn't be bothered to list all possible "selfish reasons to be selfless" and went on with my rambles =P Although since we evolved to help/protect ourselves to protect our genes, I could argue that technically reciprocal altruism still achieves that by helping us

All this psychology stuff reminds me, I still need to download and install Psychonaughts. Can't believe I haven't played that game yet xD

[Osmosis Jones]

All this psychology stuff reminds me, I still need to download and install Psychonaughts. Can't believe I haven't played that game yet xD

You should. It's awesome. Just finished it last night, got a good solid 23 or so hours playtime out of it

[Scaraban]

Beat it now that the ending is easier? No sport to it.

[Catastrophic lolcats]

The ending was changed? When, why and how? I never knew it was changed in anyway.

[Scaraban]

The final level, which was notorious for being super crazy difficult due to a near omni-present glitch, was patched just a few months to be made much easier.

[Catastrophic lolcats]

Ahh okay, thanks.

[Tyler6498]

These Choco-mesias, These Choco-mesias guys Oh my god, these Choco-mesias are fun so late with all the lights turned off. To make it more ironic is that I live in a house suspected haunted and it's next to an abandoned graveyard. I've played this game while at a friends house and it does nothing for me, but when I'm home playing it I get scared shitless.

[LASD]

Yeah Lone Survivor is pretty good. It's got a Silent Hill 2D vibe to it. Doesn't exactly scare me, but Amnesia didn't scare me so apparently I have testicles of steel and spiking with menacing towers of notafraidium But it's an interesting game none-the-less.

It wasn't scary to me either, one of the reasons being that when I was dying I didn't even notice I was taking damage. I thought the monstery thing was just screaming for the hell of it.

Amnesia is a horribly scary game and I'm afraid to play it.

[Sordid]

We only have reason to have such feelings for people in our "tribe" though, people whom helping actually does help ourselves and/or our genes. Heck, you could make a perfectly sound argument that a desire to help people without a direct link to us through our tribe (members of our society and/or subsection of such) is a faulty response, the result of a hunter-gatherer brain in an environment that too rapidly became ill-suited for it.

Well yeah, but we've managed to overcome quite a lot of what our hunter-gatherer brains are programmed to do. But you're right, I think the major problems of the world won't be solved until people realize that there's only one tribe, humanity. We're on the way to that, I think, but not quite there yet.

People tend to get a little testy when I point this out though, as if I'm stepping on something sacred, committing some kind of blasphemy by pointing out the obvious.

That's because most people are idiots. Which isn't meant to be an insult to anyone, just a statement of fact. 90% of everything is crap and all that.

How so?

I think that's fairly obvious.

That I don't think you seriously believe this.

There's not really anything I can say to that. You're free to think whatever you want, of course.

You're saying things like "people giving to Child's Play just see the word 'charity' and stop thinking" and "people giving to Child's Play are saying African children can rot while middle-class white children play games" and then claiming an accusation of Straw Men doesn't make any sense. This strongly implies that either you're talking about what their actions seem to imply and not what their line of thought is, that you don't actually know what a Straw Man is, or that you're fairly delusional or at least hideously misinformed on that topic.

Wow, so your retort to my "you don't know what a straw man is" is "you don't know what a straw man is"? Classy, that.
And yes, of course I'm talking about what their actions imply. I can't see into people's heads, I can only guess their motivations based on what they do. I thought that goes without saying, but apparently not.

Hence the existence of Child's Play. Children not having videogames is perceived as more worthy of attention than children dying simply because the children in question are nearer.

Like this. There are other reasons to provide money to an organization offering hospitalized children video games rather than one offering starving children food other than simply "of these two groups, these ones are closer and therefore more deserving."

Okay, what other reasons are there? Name some.

Case in point, those aren't the only two options, and neither probably qualifies for being closest.

Of course not, I only picked sick children in Africa as an alternative in order to illustrate the point I was making.

[webadict]

Stuff no one cares about

Shut your stupid mouth. Or, in this case, cease your moronic typings. I don't care. If you don't like the charity, there's this little bar down by where it says "How would you like to split your purchase" and, get this, it lets you choose not to give it to them! *gasp* omg. I know. This is an entirely foreign concept, as most businesses tend to have no scaling bars at all.

Anyhow, the whole point is that you should simply stop talking because I'm not in the mood to scroll past your ramblings about sick children in Africa that clearly deserve money more than anyone else does. I could say various things about it, but I feel like you're the type of person that never shuts up, so I won't.

Go outside. Breath in some air. Go start your own charity. There we go. Now you KNOW your charity will help starving, diseased, orphaned puppies in war-torn African burning villages. That are also flooded. Or whatever you want. That's the beauty of it. It's your choice. And, if someone decides not to donate to you because they don't agree with you that is also their choice.

So, that's how it is. Shut up. Go type out your stuff in a different thread if you REALLY need to type out your foaming hate for this charity. Then I won't care. But, if you think that you're unifying humanity in a forum thread on the internet, you're gonna be sadly mistaken. I also won't say anything about the concept either because I don't want to scream at you or punch you in the face.

[Sordid]

Shut your stupid mouth. Or, in this case, cease your moronic typings.

Request denied.

I don't care.

It's a good thing nobody's forcing you to read my posts, then, isn't it? Just like I didn't read the rest of yours.