Re: assassination spells and stealty commanders/ar
 

A few days ago, I went to the casino with some friends. I just watched the other guys play and I didn't gamble because I know very well that the games are set up to take your money. Strangely, though, all three of the guys that gambled at the blackjack tables made money, making between $25 and $160 within an hour or so. They made it look very easy.

...But I later found out that they just happened to be lucky that day, and they had lost hundreds, or even thousands of dollars during previous visits to the casino. I have no idea how these guys can afford to lose so much money and keep playing. As far as I know, they're just average guys and they're not rich or anything. But they don't hesitate to bring a few hundred dollars each time they visit the casino and blow it all. That just doesn't make sense; it's kind of an expensive form of entertainment. For me, every dollar is precious and I'd hate to lose my hard-earned money gambling when I could use it to buy groceries.

How random is \"random\"?
 

Yep. It's also a psychologically addictive form of entertainment, and the casinos usually set the expected return at about .99 for the player; that is, you bet 1 penny 100 times, and on average, the number of times you win and the number of times you lose will leave you with 99 pennies. $20 will go a long ways on the nickel machines. A lot of the times, a "good" gambler isn't actually spending any more money on gambling in a given month than a smoker does on cigaretts in the same timeframe. Both will often make ends meet by skimping a might on meals - hamburger rather than pork chops, and the like.

People who don't know when to stop, though... they tend not to have houses, cars, or friends after a while.

Re: How random is \"random\"?
 

Actually, for blackjack, it is possible with a certain style of playing to actually beat the house, by about 0.01%. It's a small advantage, but it means you're actually gaining money.

And if you're not that good, you can just try to have fun, instead of winning money.

Re: How random is \"random\"?
 

Or, you could simply go about twenty or thirty feet from your garbage can, and start playing hoops with coins.

sroxxus gnilbmag
 

I have several friends and plenty more extended family members that enjoy casino gambling quite a bit. The only way I could justify it to myself would be in the "winning big" stories and the illusion that you are getting free drinks. But maybe that's because I play other games that suck away only your free time... but still, stories of how you won thousands at a casino are generally more popular than ones of how you crushed United Flora after a brutal campaign.

Re: sroxxus gnilbmag
 

Yeah, but after you crush United Flora, you'd have at least several hundred worls, after which winning the lottery is kinda redundant.

Re: sroxxus gnilbmag
 

Yeah, but those several hundred worlds are just easily erased electrons and magnetic data on a disk, which a single person can destroy with only one hand.

Re: sroxxus gnilbmag
 

...*Sniffle*...

Re: Soronus Sounds
 

Hey now, it's HARD to open up a computer case with just one hand!

Re: Soronus Sounds
 

Uh... Close SE4, delete the savegame file, overwrite the data a few dozen times.