Game Review: Rise of the Triad (PC, 2013)

I'm not feeling it. Confused design goals. Identity crisis. Here are my thoughts and what I might have done differently if I could have been involved as a designer.

I get that Rise of the Triad is a game that doesn't want to take itself too seriously, but it really just seems like serious stuff undermined by gimmicky, way too non-serious elements. Giant floating coins and weird little alien platforms in the middle of a blood-splattered rocket scorched WW2-ish dungeon. The logo looks really serious, like this is going to be a gritty action experience, and so does the UI of the first menu--I'm really getting into a dark mood. But as soon as I click on a menu item, the sound of the click is a very cartoony "pop". The mood was just ruined, and now I'm not really sure what to feel. In that context it's not funny or non-serious--it's just out of place.

I also understand that it's trying to carry that philosophy from the wolfenstein age of video games into today. But instead of using the same philosophy that conceived the first ROTT (or at least made it great) to conceive a NEW ROTT, it seems like they just made the old ROTT prettier. I don't think they understood that since the medium has changed and the cultural context is different, it will have to be different from the original to provide the same experience and be appreciated by this generation.

Ex: Old ROTT, you collect pixellated cartoony coins floating in midair in an pixellated cartoony world of guns, henchmen, and crazy enviros. New ROTT, you collect perfectly rendered coins floating in midair in a perfectly rendered world of guns, henchmen, and crazy enviros. It's like, are we still playing Mario? Before, with the old graphics, the floating coins and coin-collecting didn't seriously conflict with anything. But now it does. Now it looks weird against a backdrop of realistic gore and henchmen. Ideas about what should have been done to carry this theme through: Just put the coins in nazi war chests on the sides of your paths, or scatter realistically-sized coins around the ground. Now you have your coin element, but it doesn't interfere with the tone and experience of the rest of the gameplay.

Now that's just a band-aid fix to use as an example. The real design problem is more over-arching. Because I don't think that band-aid fix I just suggested would necessarily serve this game if it's high concept were more fleshed out and went in a more contextually conscious direction. The game doesn't have a unified identity or gameplay experience. So let's make one as an example. I'm literally thinking of this as I write it.

What drove our decision to make the old ROTT the way it was? It was intended to be a Wolfenstein sequel, but was cancelled in the middle of development. So we took the pieces we had and tried to just make a fun shooter that didn't take itself to seriously, had fun, and just explored the space of what 3d video games can be.

What did people love about the old ROTT? Didn't take itself too seriously. Just about the action and mayhem. Crazy FPS obstacle course.

Since we didn't really design the original game from scratch to be the game it became, let's go with what the people like and make a game for the modern era that doesn't take itself too seriously, lets you have fun with the mayhem with gratuitous violence and action, and some crazy fps obstacles.

The problem is, that game I described has been created a million times since the first ROTT, and many probably got some inspiration from it. So the landscape is different. You can't just make another one. Serious Sam is the first game that comes to mind. Goofy, gratuitous action that's not trying to be any more than a video game. Duke Nukem, same thing. But what happened when they released the new Duke Nukem for the modern age, in the same style? It bombed. They didn't adjust for context. So the question is, what are we going to do differently to establish ROTT again as an inspiration for further video games of this style in this era? What are video games NOT doing? What are they afraid to do? What's really popular and why?

Here's what I would have gone with and built off of: over-the-top violence and action. GTA mayhem is so much of a thing, youtube is littered with "let's play" videos of it daily. Get some really good physics, particle physics, explosions, bullet and gun effects, etc, and record replays of every match so people can edit and post up videos. Make it so you can throw your tons of guns AT enemies when you're out of bullets, and use everything in the environment as a weapon, even punching through or taking chunks out of walls if you get enough power-ups or hit bonuses. Or, if you're going the infinite ammo route, make the player invincible, and make it all about creating as much destruction, death and chaos to the enemies and critical components within a certain time frame, like Crash Mode in the earlier Burnout racing games. Maybe if you shoot rockets in certan places, it can undermine a building's foundation, collapse the building, and kill everyone inside. Like Battlefield Bad Company. Take the best of all these games, and take it all to a new level. Beseige has also recently taken the world by storm for it's entertaining violence and ease of sharing replays. (I think it came out after the new ROTT, but it's an example about the success available to those kinds of games). Maybe if you use one of your sniper rifles, you can shoot a button on a panel or an explosive barrel from across the map that creates an awesome chain reaction. Just build your levels and environments in a way that caters to this gametype. Have some Agent Smith style situations where there are tons of guys in one place and a few grenades send them flying all over the place. Make heads explode like watermelons and arms fly off and impale other NPC's. Get nuts with it. I wanna fly through a replay of a level I cleared and find eyeballs splattered on the walls and badges stuck in the sides of crates like throwing stars. You could even do this with the player model, showing the aftermath of the fight on his body--a piece of shrapnel shoved in his eye, hair missing, his hand in a container on ice, brain or skull matter clinging to the barrel of his gun.

The best thing about it: NOBODY IS DOING THIS. It could've been all yours.

And debug the game. It doesn't matter how great the design is if the game doesn't function. I can't help you with that. All I can say is, the bar has been set, and you absolutely have to clear it if you want to make a great game. The screen flickers in the menu, it won't save any of my video or controller settings, and it's easy to get physically stuck in nooks of the environments.

But the most important thing was the high concept design. There's little to no tension in this game, and where it does exist, it seems out of place. I have infinite ammo, I run super fast, and there's all this wacky stuff, but I still have a pretty standard health situation to mind, but I'm not supposed to take cover? It just seems confused. It's not giving me a clear reason to continue playing.

The community involved in this game is great, but I think they could've done a lot better.

I hope this review was enlightening and inspiring to you. I am available for design consulting.

Why It's So Much Better When Kirk Is Not Here

I really don't like the fact that this is the thesis statement to this situation right now. I would rather Kirk get better or me get better (or both) than for Kirk to just disappear. Below I chose to work out my annoyance, in the moment, with words. Kirk is the husband of my mother and the father to one of my brothers.
-----

Why it's so much better when Kirk is not here.

Noise Distraction
The TV is not on all the time. In fact, it's rarely on.
All of kirk's loud beeps and email alert sounds and mobile games noises are gone.
Nobody is constantly walking in and out of the front door, totally distracting and fucking up the energy. I started writing this noise section when he walked out the door, and he just walked back in.
No noise from the ice machine in the fridge.
No beeps from the fridge.
Nobody downstairs constantly talking to the goddamn cats.
He just walked out the door again. All of the above happened since he walked in.
Nobody on long conference calls on speakerphone with no regard for the rest of the house (won't keep the conversation inside his downstairs office).
Nobody bringing their work into the living room, where the whole house can hear it.
Nobody drunk grumbling under their voice about how stupid everyone in the house is.


No tension
Nobody whose natural state is "asshole".


No Bad energy
No addicts --a beep on his goddamn phone just now-- in the house. Alcohol, cigarettes, television, distractions.


Nobody who's going to tell you you're wrong, even though they've already tried a million times. And some of those issues, you actually agree with, but they still wanna shove their opinion about it down your throat anyways. No escape. And it's about the same 6 topics every time.


I can't get any work done in this house because of Kirk. He just came back from a three day work trip, and it was the most productive, peaceful time my mother, my brother, and I have had while I've been living here. I had no idea just how much this one boorish alpha male douchebag was destroying my productivity and the progress I'm trying to make in my life. It's no wonder I never feel like I'm getting anything done. My desk and bed are in a large landing area upstairs where I can hear everything going on downstairs unless it's in the downstairs bedroom. And when I say everything, I mean whispers, too.
--he just walked in again--

Honestly, what the fuck?

Why do people live their lives this way?
--beep, crack-crack-crack (fridge and ice)--

--door, he just walked out again--

Every night I am tempted to just go downstairs and lock the door behind him. But even then, if I wasn't distracted by the pressure and guilt, I'm sure there would be plenty of loud noise on the other side of that door, phones ringing, and fights to be hashed.

(3 min of no typing, no distractions, just thinking)

The same situation happened to me when I was living with my father in New Braunfels. The sort of "last straw" where I felt like it was absolutely essential that I get my own place asap, by any means, was the fact that my environment there was so distracting that I couldn't get anything done. My father has a similar ailment, but I think the reasons for my distraction were different. He was distracting, but not nearly as often as Kirk. The quarters were smaller and I was sharing a bedroom/office with my father AND high school brother (from another mother). I could've easily judged that book by it's cover, but I didn't.

Which brings me to my point. Somehow I feel like both situations have been my responsibility. --beep from a phone, how poetic-- Most of the time the godforsaken devices beep when he's not even in the house! I don't even want to know when he's in the house or not! I don't want to keep track of that! But I feel like I have no choice.

Anyways, my responsibility. It's my reality, I'm the one getting distracted, I'm the one with the ambition in this house. I've never been great at tuning things out, but there's gotta be a way to focus in spite of these distractions. I know within me that I have the ability to pursue my dreams no matter what is going on around me. Because everything I need is in me. Honestly, how could I let a few sounds throw me off so much? It seems like they shouldn't have that much power.

Sure, I've been developing my second chakra and it's making me very empathetic, but I should be able to control that, too. I believe I can. I've got to be able to --BLEEP (another device)-- not let someone else's prison imprison me. It honestly doesn't seem like it would be that hard when I think about it. It's kinda ridiculous. I mean how would I ever work in a group or office with other people if I'm so easily distracted. I think I'm more distracted by egotistically clueless people because I'm so opposite of that, and I have such hatred for that level of dishonesty. I just wanna destroy that ego so bad! It's like I pimple, I just wanna pop it. But you can't go around jamming your fingers into self-conscious people's faces screaming, "Jailbreak!"

So I forgive myself for being so fixated on some egos and distracted perhaps energetically by someone's personal prison. I love me for being so about truth and honesty that dishonest egos stick out like a faded pink Mitsubishi.

--just walked back in, fridge, crack, and lets bang the fuck out of everything while we make a snack for ourselves--

(Wrote some stuff on facebook celebrating my acceptance into an art show (https://www.facebook.com/events/1435820823392739/))

--Kirk has walked in and out 3 times, is now inside, now garage door is closing, can't take off his flipflops at the door so now I have to hear his every footstep, whispers to cats, bangs shit around, I assume he's going to bed--

(more fb)

--beep-le-beep--

OK, finishing this up. I am in control of this. I am balanced--well, capable of balancing--against a storm of opposition so long as I pursue truth and life in full faith and love. I will endure. I will be alive. I will succeed no matter what.

And I will own a 1967 Ferrari 250 GTO someday.

My Favorite Quotes, 150401

Questions are more enlightening than statements.
- Me

Freedom from ideology is painful.
- Zizek

Every violent acting out is a symbol of something you cannot put into words. Something words cannot properly express.
- Zizek

Fantasy is not where I get what I desire, but where I imagine I am desired.
- Zizek 

Ideas without actions aren't ideas. They're regrets.

...you know what it is? No, it's not dark and light, it's that people get confused. Companies get confused. When they start getting bigger, they wanna replicate their initial success. And, a lot of em think, 'well, somehow there's some magic in the process of how that success was created'. So they start to try to institutionalize process across the company. And, before very long, people get very confused that the process is the content. ... And, in my career, I've found, that the best people are the ones that really understand the content, and they're a PAIN in the butt to manage. You know? But you put up with it because they're so great at the content. And that's what makes great products.
- Steve Jobs, 1995

None can outrun the pursuit of the truth.
- Me

I wish God was real so that I could hate him.
- Me

You have to stay out of your head.
- stay in the spirit?
- ? dont be fixated on any one part of you, lest you forget who you are as
    a whole? Lest you forget your whole self. Lest you form an ego around you.
    Is that what this life is? Asleep in one part of our reality, trapped by
    one big overarching foundational ego?

You cannot be attached to your destiny.
- Me

My patience is as stubborn as the Earth itself.
- Me

Sitting is for assholes
- me

"And how will this be accomplished? for I have neither the knowledge nor the experience to achieve greatness and already I have stumbled in ignorance and fallen into pools of self-pity. The answer is simple. I will commence my journey unencumbered with either the weight of unnecessary knowledge or the handicap of meaningless experience. Nature already has supplied me with knowledge and instinct far greater than any beast in the forest and the value of experience is overrated,usually by old men who nod wisely and speak stupidly.
In truth experience teaches thoroughly yet her course of instruction devours men's years so the value of her lessons diminishes with the time necessary to acquire her special wisdom. The end finds it wasted on dead men. Furthermore, experience is comparable to fashion; an action that proved successful today will be unworkable and           impractical tomorrow.
Only principles endure..."
"Time teaches all things to he who lives forever but I have not the luxury of eternity."
- Og Mandino, from "The Greatest Secret in the World"

Art is to culture what science is to technology.
- me

Art is to culture what technology is to science.
- me

Seek to understand before you are understood.

Home is where the art is.
- me

Home is where I am.
- me

"Cell phones are the new cigarettes"
- from a linkedin article

You can get past something, or you can get behind it.
- arturo?

"Truth is best served with a chaser of humor."
- Jaquai and I at DFW Art Awards 2014

"The two most important days in your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why." Mark Twain

How should one feel love if they don't feel wanted? What is love without desire? What is friendship without desire?
- me

Why I don't watch the news? Because no news is good news.
- reddit is better
- me

What is anything good for if not for doing good?
- from: "What is money good for if not for doing good?", whose source I don't remember
- me
Sometimes truth isn't good enough. Sometimes people deserve to be rewarded for their faith.
- Batman, in The Dark Knight
- dunno if I agree w this

Peace is an inside job.

You don't always get what you wish for, you get what you work for.
If you're dreams don't scare you, they're not big enough.

"If you're not angry, you're either a stone, or you're too sick to be angry. You should be angry. Now mind you, there's a difference, you must not be bitter. Bitterness is like cancer. It eats upon the host, it doesn't do anything of the object of it's discussion. Anger, yes, you write it, you paint it, you dance it, you march it, you vote it, you do everything about it. You talk it. You never stop talking it."
- Maya Angelou

"There is danger for him who taketh the tiger cub, and danger also for whoso snatches a delusion from a woman."
- Sherlock Holmes (Arthur Conan Doyle), quoting an old Persian saying

"There is nothing so unnatural as the commonplace."
- Sherlock Holmes, Arthur Conan Doyle

GUMC is not a hospital, it's a hideout. And it's turning into a morgue. A fire has started and the building is burning. I'm not a doctor, I'm a fireman--a paramedic, an emergency specialist. God called 911 and here I am. I am not the only one. I have wanted to leave; my job is not easy, but I have a responsibility. People are suffering. They may die if I do nothing. I have an axe and a fire hose. Two violent weapons used for good. Sometimes I can barely breathe in that building. I have to water the church, and cut off dry branches that do not bear fruit. But in doing so, the edges of seeds will crack, come completely undone, and everything will change. To someone who doesn't understand growth, it will all look like complete destruction.
- Me, w below quote hijacked

"For a seed to achieve it's greatest expression, it must come completely undone. The shell cracks, it's insides come out and everything changes. To someone who doesn't understand growth, it would look like complete destruction."
- Cynthia Occelli

"The only hindrance to healing is your idea that there are hindrances to healing."
- Christian speaker; Curry Blake?

"Sometimes you can do something and that's a gift, but when you can teach other people to do it, then it's no longer a gift, it's truth."
- Curry Blake
- sounds like cult thinking

"Since when was insecurity a virtue?"
- chris vallaton?

"I've been gettin in a lotta truth lately."
- me

“My center is giving way, my right is retreating. Situation excellent. I am attacking.”
- French lieutenant general Ferdinand Foch at the First Battle of the Marne during World War I

"The optimist fell ten stories.
At each window bar
he shouted to his friends:
'All right so far.'"

It's better to be hated for what you are than loved for what you are not.

It takes more courage to fight than it does to die.
- Gen S Patton?

It's okay, I'm an artist.
- Me

"We're all puppets. I'm just the one that can see the strings."
- Dr. Manhattan

If you don't look facts in the face, they'll only stab you in the back.
- Winston Churchill (purportedly)

The absence of color is not the color of absence.
- Me

keepin in classy spring valley. from my window im watching two bitches brawl on the front lawn of a middle school. its nice to know that the chick your fighting with just fucked your dad and your boyfriend and you have two kids and got locked up on tweak charges. way to go winners. could you pick a better place to try and stab each other and make it everyone's business? seriously what the fuck is wrong with people.
 i swear i'm not even in the hood. California just sucks dick. no one has any class anymore, aside from some of you lovely people.
-RB

Why are those afraid of death so in love with death culture?

"Nothing is more dangerous to the adventurous spirit within a man than a secure future."

Easy as playing Jenga with Michael J Fox. - Christopher Walkenthrough

No good deed goes unpunished.
- African proverb

Freedom is only known by those who don't have it.
- Jacques Cousteau?
- related: "It's not having what you want, it's wanting what you've got" -Sheryl Crow

Proverbs 25:11-12
A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in a setting of silver. Like a gold ring or an ornament of gold is a wise reprover to a listening ear.

Proverbs 25:14
Like clouds and wind without rain is a man who boasts of a gift he does not give.

"That was about as funny as a kid with MS trying to open a door"
- Christopher Walkenthrough

"A woman behind the wheel is like a chipmunk filing your taxes. It's inadequate." -Christopher Walkenthrough
- I'm not sexist, it's just funny

"It's the truth. Strong? Don't take it personally. Just take it seriously." -Gordon Ramsey

“Lead me, follow me, or get out of my way.”
- General George S. Patton

Live so that when people get to know you, they will want to get to know Christ.
- or, so that they'll get to know that truth is not scary

They have us surrounded? Those poor bastards!
- overly masculine man (meme)

Even a stopped clock is right twice a day.

Do you have a soul or are you just waiting for a man to come and give your life a purpose?
- me

When you're getting a lot of flack, you know you're right over the target.
- air force pilot

Be a voice, not an echo.
-Me, being an echo (not my quote)

Leadership is not about being appreciated. It is about responsibility. It doesn't matter that the burden is heavy. It matters that you carry it.
- Splinter from Ninja Turtles

The absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. - science
Instead, it is only evidence of the absence of evidence. - me

What's bred in the bone cannot be undone in the flesh.

Some of it is good. Other parts of it make you think, "If I ever meet this guy, I'm gonna slap him around like a whore on my birthday."

If it doesn't challenge you, it doesn't change you.

Look up and get lost.
- me

"Man cannot give wild animals freedom, man can only take it away." -Jacques Cousteau

Religion is for people who want to stay out of hell. Spirituality is for those who've been through it.

If you can't make yourself happy, then screw you--make someone else happy. -me
- related: "I know you don't care what other people think about you, but maybe you should stop caring what you think about you."
-Arturo

I'd rather be failing at a job I love than succeeding at a job I hate.

Server quotes:
Whatever doesn't kill me... better start running.
If at first you don't succeed, die and die again.
Make like a tree and die.

Never waste your time trying to explain who you are to people who are committed to misunderstanding you.

If someone will discuss others with you, they will certainly discuss you with others.

Let your light shine—whether you’re a candle in a corner or a lighthouse on a hill.

God has no religion

“Man can believe the impossible, but can never believe the improbable.” 
- Oscar Wilde

"Tell people there's an invisible man in the sky who created the universe, and the vast majority will believe you. Tell them the paint is wet, and they have to touch it to be sure."
- George Carlin

When I was a young man, I wanted to change the world. 
I found it was difficult to change the world, so I tried to change my nation. 
When I found I couldn't change the nation, I began to focus on my town. I couldn't change the town and as an older man, I tried to change my family. 
Now, as an old man, I realize the only thing I can change is myself, and suddenly I realize that if long ago I had changed myself, I could have made an impact on my family. 
My family and I could have made an impact on our town. Their impact could have changed the nation and I could indeed have changed the world.
- Unknown Monk (1100AD)

"Creativity is intelligence having fun" - Einstein

"Trying to be happy by accumulating possessions is like trying to satisfy hunger by taping sandwiches all over your body." - George Carlin

The difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits. 
- Einstein

No amount of darkness can hide a spark of light.
- only denial

To get something you've never had, you have to do something you've never done.
- fallacial, tho, and against perseverance success theories

Be yourself. Everyone else is taken. 
- Oscar Wilde

"If you will not fight for the right when you can easily win without bloodshed; if you will not fight when your victory will be sure and not too costly; you may come to the moment when you will have to fight with all the odds against you and only a small chance of survival. There may even be a worse case: you may have to fight when there is no hope of victory, because it is better to perish than to live as slaves."
-  Winston Churchill

I've learned that people will forget what you said, forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.
- Maya Angelou

He who fights for nothing will fall for anything.

"The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes." - Marcel Proust

Smart people seem like crazy people to dumb people.

Some say the glass is half full, some say the glass is half empty. I say that the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.

An error doesn't become a mistake until you refuse to correct it.

If evolution is outlawed, only outlaws will evolve.

You can lead a human to knowledge, but you can't make it think.
- perhaps wit art?

You should not be ruining yourself in the flesh while others are suffering in the spirit.

Why my faith in Christ far surpasses my faith in science: I place more importance on my own experiences, observations, and thoughts than on what other people tell me. I do not trust the words of others above my own observations and thoughts. I do not PLACE the words of others above my own observations and thoughts.
- me

Truth is truth, even if no one believes it. A lie is a lie, even if everyone believes it.

When will you stop trusting the judgement of others above your own?
or
When will you stop trusting others' judgment above your own?

Real proof is a single word: Behold!

Character is how you treat those who can do nothing for you.

If you are not willing to learn,
No one can help you.
If you are determined to learn,
No one can stop you.

There are people so poor, the only thing they have is money.

150109: "Oh I'm sorry, I was about to start taking my pants off in the middle of the living room."
- me

"Secrecy serves those who are already in power."

"I work for ideas and I learn from people." -Aaron Swartz

Allison: Why are you being nice to me?
Clair: Because you're letting me.
- The Breakfast Club

"You deserve to be compensated for what you contribute to the community. Whatever comes naturally for you is often not the case for others. You can be an asshole or you can be an inspiration--your choice."
- me

"Some people feel the rain. Others just get wet." -Bob Marley

"God is big enough to care for the smallest needs."

"The only people mad at you for speaking the truth are those who are living a lie. Keep speaking it."
-Tony Gaskins Jr

"that shit is so esey i culd gets all thoes badgers in liek a minits. just using my ass. blind foldid. upsied downs. evin if i was on fiers. and attacked by bears and rapters. whiel i was sl33ping. undar watar. in spaes. lol" -The Chief, from Arby n the Chief

"Replace fear of the unknown with curiosity."

"Ninja parade slips through town unnoticed" -The Onion

"There is a difference between truth and fiction. Fiction has to make sense." -old guy from The International; also Oscar Wilde

"Taste bugs are for eating."
-little bro

"I have come here to reveal:
THE TRUTH!
They say that truth,
and honesty,
will be rewarded with trust and forgiveness.
I'm here to lay my cards on the table.
To trim the branches of deception from the tree of life. 
To shave away the unkempt sideburns,
from the face,
of truth."
-Spongebob Squarepants 

"2 lost in tragic marriage" -The Onion 

"Don't Be Blah" -The Pork Store

"I think therefore... er... I forgot." -Spongebob Squarepants

"You can't hide what's inside." -robot on Spongebob Squarepants

"You are the sexiest, dorkiest man I've ever met."
- a lady talking to me

"I'm looking at my reflection, but my reflection's not looking at me."
- Arturo

"Success is getting what you want. Happiness is wanting what you get."
- Dale Carnegie 

"Being powerful is like being a lady. If you have to tell people you are, you aren't."
-Margaret Thatcher 

"Society exists only as a mental concept; in the real world there are only individuals."
-Oscar Wilde 

"The truth will set you free. But first, it will piss you off."
-Gloria Steinem

"Learning is finding out what you already know"
-Richard Bach

"If you ask a question you don't want an answer to, expect an answer you don't want to hear."
-From "The Quintessential Man"

"A true warrior is invincible because he or she contests with nothing. Defeat means to defeat the mind of contention that we harbor within."
-Morihei Ueshiba

"Victorious warriors win first and then go to war, while defeated warriors go to war first and then seek to win."
-Sun Tzu

"Wisdom begins in wonder."
-Socrates

"I know you don't care what OTHER people think, but you should stop caring what YOU think, too."
-Arturo

He said, "Don't take my word for anything. Truth is within yourself, and if you don't listen to those instincts, someone can always be one step ahead of you."
To which she replied, "Already one step ahead of ya, ;)". 



It is the responsibility of every citizen to question authority.
- Benjamin Franklin


The time is now near at hand which must probably determine whether Americans are to be freemen or slaves.
- George Washington


Freedom is only known by those who don't have it.


A government big enough to give you everything you want is a government big enough to take from you everything you have.
- Gerald Ford

“Lead me, follow me, or get out of my way.”
-- General George S. Patton

No man escapes when freedom fails,
the best men rot in filthy jails.
And those who cried,"appease appease"
are hung by those they tried to please.

Dissention is the greatest form of patriotism.
- Thomas Jefferson

If you won't use the pen today, you won't use the gun tomorrow.

Rich man's war, poor man's blood.

We tolerate the speech we hate because someday our speech might be hated.

"If you will not fight for the right when you can easily win without bloodshed; if you will not fight when your victory will be sure and not too costly; you may come to the moment when you will have to fight with all the odds against you and only a small chance of survival. There may even be a worse case: you may have to fight when there is no hope of victory, because it is better to perish than to live as slaves."
-  Winston Churchill

Propaganda works best when those who are being manipulated are confident that they are acting on their own free will.

No free country starts a war. A nation that is free to choose will always choose peace.

1984 was not supposed to be an instruction manual

1984 is not an instruction manual

If you support this war, send your own children.

How can you have a war on terrorism when war itself is terrorism?
-Howard Zann

The real terrorists are in the white house, congress, and wall street!

If you're not careful, the newspapers will have you hating the people who are being oppressed, and loving the people who are doing the oppressing.
- Malcom X

Truth is truth, even if no one believes it. A lie is a lie, even if everyone believes it.

Pacifism is objectively pro-fascist. This is elementary common sense.
- George Orwell

Diapers and Politicians should be changed often. Both for the same reason.

Give a man a gun and he can rob a bank. Give a man a bank and he can rob the world.

The issue today is the same as it has been throughout all history, whether man should be allowed to govern himself or be ruled by a small elite.
- Thomas Jefferson

The American public will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public's money.
- Alexis de Tocqueville

Once a marine, always a marine. Eat the apple, fuck the core.
- guy from that video

"You have to understand, most of these people are not ready to be unplugged. And many of them are so inured, so hopelessly dependent on the system, that they will fight to protect it."
- Morpheus in 'The Matrix'


More quotes from myself:
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I am the reset button to your paradigm.

Give me a box to think outside of.

If you're playing the game, you have something to prove. 

As soon as you have something to prove, you're already wrong.

As soon as you think you know anything, you're wrong.

Every challenge is only a challenge of the self.

You are what you think.

You're out of control because you're trying to gain control.

Your ability to commit is directly proportional to your lack of attachment.

Fall

Real control isn't about making things happen, it's about letting things happen.

Real truth does not require proof. 

I like your shirt; it sucks.

Self-consciousness is self-awareness without instinct.