Lurker > red sox 777

Or, to express this in terms of Smash tier lists: if, hypothetically, Fox and Marth are far and away the best 2 characters, but there are 3 low tier characters that counter Fox, while Fox counters Marth, who should be ranked #1? If it's about winning in tournaments, Fox should, because you're going to encounter other Fox/Marth players a lot more than those low tier characters.

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90s games > 00s games

I'd put the line there at RBY (-1) vs. RE4. Even if I were to switch that around, and I guess I might after this match, I'd definitely not put RE4 (-3) vs. RBY.

This poses an interesting philosophical question on voting also. PW now has the 2nd most impressive collection of wins in the contest behind CT (and PW has even higher caliber opponents than CT, it just doesn't have the big margins of victory). Going by losses, however, PW is borderline top 25.

The question is: are we ranking based on win expectations against all other games, weighted the same, or do we weight strong opponents more? If we are ranking based on championships expectations, then we should definitely weight strong opponents more as those are the games any champion will have to defeat in the postseason.

In pro sports, we generally rank based on championship expectations because the only thing that matters is winning the championship. 2nd place is worthless. But should we do so here? Not sure about that.

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90s games > 00s games

Hmm.....my previous rank for PW was 14. This result against RBY implies a rank of 2 (not quite 1 since CT has crushed everything so far by big margins). (2 + 14*4)/5 = 11.6. That seems fair.

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90s games > 00s games

Now, the question is where to put PW: it has wins over 2 top 5 games, and losses to 2 top 10 games. Normally I'd just average it out and put it around #5 or 6, but it does have that other loss floating around. Hmm.....

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90s games > 00s games

Awesome win by PW. I thought it would win right after seeing the matchup, and it's nice to see that it held on to do so. 'Twas foolish of me to demote Melee from #2 to #3 this week; should have stuck to my guns completely!

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90s games > 00s games

And why don't we have lifetime welfare for everyone? Because the middle class doesn't want it. The middle class wants to believe they are better than poor unemployed people because they work, and are productive. They don't want to listen to the cold reality of the invisible hand of the free market, which tells them that they are far closer to lazy bums than to rich heiresses who have never and will never work a day of their lives. So the lie: Get a job, you lazy bum.

But what is reality? All your hard work will never amount to anything significant, unless you use it to get into owning things for a profit. Get a job? Compared to capital, a job is almost worthless. But the middle class can't admit that to themselves, so they refuse to pass legislation to help the poor. Then they blame the rich, all the while thinking of themselves as somehow closer to the rich than the poor in deservingness, and closer to the poor in righteousness.

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90s games > 00s games

More seriously, I don't know about that. It doesn't take much wealth to move all poor people to a stable, even "middle class" existence. The real class divide is between capitalists and workers, i.e. between the top 1% and the bottom 99%. You can't bridge that divide without making everyone poor, but stuff like welfare, even lifetime welfare? Not a big deal.

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90s games > 00s games

We're moving towards a full capitalist society in which there will be no workers at all. Only capitalists! All work will be outsourced overseas; here in the homeland everyone will have to practice capitalism as their profession!

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90s games > 00s games

United forever in friendship and freedom
Our mighty republics will ever endure
The great United States will live through the ages
The dream of a people their fortress secure

Chorus:

Long live great Capitalism, built by the people's mighty hand
Long live our people, united and free
Strong in our freedom tried by fire. Long may our tricolor inspire
Shining in glory for all men to see.

Through days dark and stormy did great Coolidge lead us
Our eyes saw the bright sun of freedom above
And Reagan the leader with faith in the people
Inspired us to build up the land that we love

We fought for the future, destroyed the Communists
And brought to our homeland the laurels of fame
Our glory will live in the memory of nations
And all generations will honor our name

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90s games > 00s games

If Crono doesn't make this contest, I'm giving it an automatic F.

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90s games > 00s games

The middle class won't do that. It's rejected that approach in America time and time again.

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90s games > 00s games

Meh, i know im in the minority on this board, but i think having no (or very close to no) regulations on the economy would be just as bad as having complete government control over the economy.

Nah, you're in the majority. Libertarians are just vocal here.

This "i did it on my own, stop *****ing and do it yourself" mentality has to stop. If you were part of the "roaring 20s", would you tell somebody who is trying to find a job during the great depression to stop being a lazy bum and get a job?

No, if you made your fortune in the Roaring 20s, you would recognize the truth that you can never become truly rich by working. You make big money by owning things and risking them. If you made your fortune in the Roaring 20s however, there's a good chance that you would be broke in the 1930s.

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90s games > 00s games

Kingergartens do a bad job teaching kids. They tell them to share, but they force them to share. The real lesson is that it's okay to steal. And that it's not just okay but good to steal by getting authority to forcibly take others' property and give it to you.

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90s games > 00s games

Communism is the idea that property should be shared among all members of a society.

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90s games > 00s games

And yes, I do believe socialism would do you good, at least way better than what you currently have and I'm not ashamed of that opinion in any way*. But you still haven't explained what would be so wrong if people did want communism.

Simple*. Communism = Evil. Evil = Communism. Even if it made everyone better off, it's still morally wrong in itself.

*Weak answer: Communism makes everyone worse off.

P.S. Freedom is vastly more important than equality.

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90s games > 00s games

I made 2 noms total, Crono/Magus and the Guru pick.

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90s games > 00s games

It's kind of hard for me to argue against Smuffin here because I have very little sympathy for these protestors. Long live the silent majority!

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90s games > 00s games

I don't like it. Permits are supposed to keep things running in an orderly way, not to suppress speech. If these people are being disorderly and breaking the law, then they are doing so whether or not they have a permit.

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90s games > 00s games

Then they can apply for a permit, and keep their behavior within the confines of the law. Like Tea Party protestors do. Nobody ever gets arrested at tea party rallies. EVER. Why do you suppose that is?

When Glenn Beck wanted to hold his 8/28 rally, he applied for a permit a year in advance. He obeyed every last direction of the parks service. His crowd showed up. Nobody advocated violence. Nobody advocated the overthrow of the united states government. They didn't disrupt traffic. They didn't threaten innocent citizens. Nobody got arrested. Then everyone picked up their trash, and left.

And if President Obama started directing all federal agencies to deny any permits for Tea Party rallies, then what?

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90s games > 00s games

Those situations are different. What does it matter if racists are present at your rally about government spending? Does racism have anything to do with government spending? No.

Does Communism have anything to do with a rally to do - well, it's not exactly clear what they want - to Wall Street? Yes. Yes it does.

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90s games > 00s games

It's absolutely true that Communists are present at and supporting this rally.

No, that does not mean that EVERY protestor is a Communist. But if you stand with them, what does that say about you exactly?

Oh I agree that there are definitely Communists at this rally. I would not be surprised to find out there are more Communists (as in, people who claim themselves to be Communists) than Republicans in Manhattan over the weekend once the Wall Street people have left for their homes in the suburbs.

And it says shameful things about you if you stand with Communists at a rally.

But that doesn't mean they should have any less rights to free speech and freedom of assembly. Remember, the entire point of free speech is to protect speech that is offensive to some people.

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90s games > 00s games

To illustrate this point with completely made up numbers, suppose Gamefaqs brings in 1 million in profit a year and declines at 10% a year vs. grows at 10% a year:

Year | Growing | Shrinking

1 | 1100k | 900k
2 | 1210k | 810k
3 | 1331k | 729k
4 | 1464k | 656k

In just 4 years, profit under 10% annual decline is less than half what it is under 10% growth. The market value of the site will be far less than that, since it is forward-looking.

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90s games > 00s games

No, Yoblazer is right. Traditionally, most of the value of internet companies has come from their growth rates (and expected growth rates). And even with non-internet companies, growth rate is very important towards that company's valuation. Negative growth is really bad.

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90s games > 00s games

That's horrible on the part of anonymous. And it would be even if it were true that these people are Communists.

Regarding student walk-out day: this won't have any effect as long as students aren't willing to walk out for real, not just for a day. Tuition is responsive to the free market, and what students are voting for with their dollars is more prestige, which requires more research money, which requires more tuition.

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90s games > 00s games

Excellent results so far tonight!

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90s games > 00s games

Shadow Hearts (Cult RPG Galaxy Conference)
Pokemon Black/White (Cult RPG Galaxy Conference)
Gunstar Heroes (Cult RPG Galaxy Conference)
World of Goo (Cult RPG Galaxy Conference)
Super Metroid (Nintendo Objections Conference)
#8 Super Mario 64 (Nintendo Objections Conference)
Suikoden II (Nintendo Objections Conference)
Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards (Nintendo Objections Conference)
#18 Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney (Nintendo Objections Conference)
Uncharted 2: Among Thieves (Nintendo Objections Conference)
Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow (Thousand-Year World of Sunshine Conference)
Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds (Thousand-Year World of Sunshine Conference)
Fallout 3 (Thousand-Year World of Sunshine Conference)
Lufia II: Rise of the Sinistrals (Thousand-Year World of Sunshine Conference)

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90s games > 00s games

i think for every single time any fan, be they mets, phillies, whomever says the yanks buy a WS...

look at the phillies this year. It's so 100% evident they're gonna win it. And ti was bought really. The dump of nearly their whole farm for halladay. their splurge on lee. another send off for oswalt. Hamels is the only home grown talent that's gonna win the post season for them, the other guys aren't factors yet.

So yeah, baseball is changing fast.

I think history shows that you can't really buy the WS, though it helps. The 1996-2000 Yankees teams were more homegrown than bought, and the salary only reached ridiculous levels when they stopped winning the WS past 2001. And the Yankees have 1 WS to show for almost a decade of 200M+ salaries since then.

You can buy your way into the playoffs, but the marginal return on each dollar spent past that becomes very thin.

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90s games > 00s games

2 cents on a $1 item is 2%. Wal-Mart's revenue is $422 billion. If Wal-Mart systematically added 2% to everything, that would be $8 billion dollars. Wal-Mart's profit is $15 billion dollars. So if this were something all Wal-Mart stores did systematically, it would account for half of Wal-Mart's total profit.

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90s games > 00s games

So the Rays have the least innings pitched in relief this year? That seems pretty shocking considering they play in the same division as the Yankees and Red Sox, and those two teams' strategy is to make the pitcher work as much as possible.

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90s games > 00s games

Well, for one, Crono, Lucca, and Serge don't suck.

Whoa, those are my 3 favorite Chrono series characters too.

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90s games > 00s games

You could have still ranked Melee in the top 25 because you factor in the opponents and the margin of victory. But actual performance has to be weighed in there somewhere. Even the best team loses sometimes, but it would defeat the purpose of the voting if you said, "Well, they lost but they're still the best team so let's still rank them #1."

If you didn't consider outside information, you'd have no way of knowing that Melee's opponents in those first 4 weeks were anything special. Of course actual performance matters; this far into the season, it's by far the most important factor. And its actual performance is just as good as RE4's.

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90s games > 00s games

And no one is saying that Melee is where it was in 2006. If I thought that, I'd have it at #1.

When Melee was 2-2, if you ignored past board results, you probably wouldn't have ranked Melee at all. Why would you, where there were loads of 4-0 games? And you would have been wrong. Moreover, you would have known you were wrong. The rational thing to do was to weigh all evidence and rank Melee somewhere lower than #1 and higher than #25.

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90s games > 00s games

I don't think it's irrelevant. It's a weak factor, I agree. And my vote wouldn't really change this far into the season if it were excluded. Certainly at the beginning of the season, when Melee was 2-2, it made a big difference. And it should have.

And: would you rather I rank higher the game I expect would lose? Because that's the definition of a dishonest vote.

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90s games > 00s games

I'm not sure what this has to do with anything. We're not ranking based on potential. We're ranking based on performance. Could Melee win the whole thing again? Sure it could. I doubt it because I don't think the voters will allow it to repeat, but it could. Is Melee looking better than RE4 right now? Not really.

I'm not ranking on performance. I'm ranking based on which game I would expect to win a match, right now. That is strength, and you quite naturally should consider any information that impacts that evaluation.

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90s games > 00s games

As long as we're dealing with the small sample sizes we have in this contest (and they will be small until late in the postseason), board popularity is relevant. Would it be surprising if FFVII lost to Animal Crossing in the postseason in this contest? No, because it's happened before.

If Link goes out and has 5 consecutive bad matches while Cloud impresses 5 times in a row, who will be the favorite in the final? Possibly Cloud, but you bet all his supporters are going to be incredibly nervous about it. And no one will be truly surprised if Link defies all the contest buildup and wins 53/47 again.

That said, Melee's performance in this contest is sufficient to put it where I put it. Tying RE4 and crushing SM64 is plenty impressive.

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90s games > 00s games

RBY: Melee, FFVI
Melee: SM64, 31 wins last contest

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90s games > 00s games

Underwhelming performance by Melee, and I almost put RE4 in #2, as all the defeated top 10 games have had some embarrassing losses now, but I'm keeping RBY and Melee ahead of it for now thanks to their much more impressive wins.

1. Chrono Trigger
2. Pokemon Red/Blue/Yellow
3. Super Smash Bros. Melee
4. Resident Evil 4
5. The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past
6. Super Mario Galaxy
7. Super Mario 64
8. Super Mario Bros. 3
9. Super Mario World
10. Super Mario Galaxy 2
11. Final Fantasy VII
12. Final Fantasy VI
13. Metal Gear Solid
14. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney
15. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
16. The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask
17. Final Fantasy IX
18. Final Fantasy X
19. Portal
20. Castlevania: Symphony of the Night
21. Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater
22. Mario Kart 64
23. Paper Mario
24. Mega Man X
25. Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 4

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90s games > 00s games

Which are those?

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90s games > 00s games

Can I get a tax refund for being underweight? I'd oppose the tax on fat foods though; I love fat foods, but I can't seem to gain weight no matter what.

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90s games > 00s games

Distinctive ballparks are good. All stadiums should have something distinctive about them.

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90s games > 00s games

Link isn't the reason Smash is popular!

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90s games > 00s games

Huzzah for the Rays.

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90s games > 00s games

Ugh, posted in the wrong topic again! This is the second time in a month after zero in 8 years. I blame the edit button, for letting me know that I can correct this kind of mistake.

I doubt Meta-Knight being banned will have any impact on his strength.

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90s games > 00s games