RPG Classics Mailbag

Okay, so here we are. Probably the most serious mailbag RPGC has ever seen. But I hope this'll at least let people get stuff off their chests and focus back on reality. I'll also not be making as many stupid comments (although if you set me up, of course, I'll grab it like a kosher Ruffles bag). As you notice, Ozzie isn't hosting this one, because I don't think he could handle the actual thinking involved.

HEY!

Ahem. Anyway, our first writer-in is Megaman984.

Cid, good topic. You will see a side of me that I almost never show.

What happened was terrible. Just plain terrible. I still think it can only be a dream, but alas, it is not. For this tragedy, we, the US, must get revenge. I care not about the countries holding them. We must use all force possible to wipe them out. If that means we go after _every_ single terrorist group, so be it. We have lived with terrorists for far too long. If it is bin Laden, we must attack Afghanistan. I probably sound a bit harsh, but hey, this is the first time anything like this has happened in my lifetime. I demand revenge. I always thought myself a pacifist. I am mistaken. In times of war, I am apparently quite the hawk.

I guess I now have a better understanding of what Israel goes through on pretty much a daily basis. I don't see how they can stand living in fear on a daily basis.

Basically the attitude is "if we die, we die... we can't do anything about it, so there's no point thinking about it, let's get on with our lives". Hiding in your house isn't any way to live. If God wants you to be killed you will, and if he doesn't you won't. Sort of ostrich-like, yes, but it's one of the only ways to get over this kind of thing.

I feel a declaration of war must be issued. We must bring those responsible to justice. Also, I hate to say it, we must also make this the bloodiest war ever. If we do not act, it gives terrorists the idea that they can get away with this. That was the problem with Clinton's half assed retaliations. We didn't show the seriousness of being attacked. We have been a sleeping giant so far, but now the giant must awaken and destroy its enemies. We must not stop with just defeating those that attacked us. We must stop all terrorists. This should not be a war just against bin Laden or whoever is responsible. It must be a war against terrorism, a war against all groups that inspire fear whether they be Arabic, domestic, Irish, or whatever in origin.

I also feel that to automatically blame all Arabs for this and say that all Arabs are terrorists is wrong. Equating Islam or Arabic with terrorism is no better than equating Zionism with racism. I have known some Muslims that are good people and feel no hatred towards the US. It will probably happen, but I fear that some of us will stoop to beating any and all Arabs and or Muslims.

You're too damn right there... I completely agree with you. Even my own family members are saying things like "I'm never going to an Arab-run convenience store again". They're not going to lynch them, because my family isn't violent. The problem according to them is the fact that you can't tell the terrorists from the "nice" Arabs - the hijackers were everyday run-of-the-mill Americans. But agreed, it's not our business to take the law into our own hands, no matter what the ideal behind it. That's what the people who did this thing thought, and we're better than them.

If the terrorists are domestic, then I fear for my rights. If it was a domestic militia, the government will probably try to take away the 2nd Amendment. That will in turn probably cause a civil war, and I know which side I shall fight on.

Now, I know my views probably enrage some of you reading this or cause you to think I am a nut. Well, I'm not. I do value human life, but I value it to an extent that those who deny innocents the right to live should be punished. I don't want civilians to die, but in times of war, all civilians are pretty much, and I hate this phrase, collateral damage. We should not go out of our way to kill civilians, but if we happen to while bombing the terrorists, so be it. In times of war, civilian casualties are to be expected. That doesn't mean we should go after them though.

All in all, I feel sorry for those that were affected the most by this attack. I hope their loved ones are okay, and if they be dead, I hope they rest in peace. They shall be avenged. Here and now, I am declaring that if war does break out, I will enlist when old enough or join an ROTC program. America should not let those responsible go free, for if we do, the worst attacks are yet to come. The alarm has gone off. It is time for the sleeping giant to take action.

Bravo. Personally, I'd wet my pants if I got within ten miles of a military base, so I'll stay here and keep people's spirits up by entertaining them. 8p Of course, the fact that Canada has no military to speak of helps as well. ^^; Epicgamer honors us with a rare mailbag reply, so take it away!

A big hello to Cid and everyone else,

First off I would like to send my greatest condolences to any and all people that lost friends or family, and to anyone else that feels affected.

I really want to talk about the actions the U.S. is going to take against the terrorists, and not so much about the crashes themselves.

Right now most people in the country are probably saying:
"Hell yea, we should bomb the living sh*t out of whoever is responsible", but I feel a little differently. The problem with this approach is that while we destroy the enemy, we take many innocent lives as well. I do feel that whoever is responsible should be punished, but without the massive loss of life. Just because they killed thousands innocent people in our country, doesn't make it right to do the same to them.

Also most (not all) Americans are extremely hateful towards all Pakistanis, and most wouldn’t mind annihilating them off the face of this planet. The problem with this as I have realized is that many people in Pakistan are just innocent people who want nothing to do with all of this military crap. It’s incredibly wrong to think that all Pakistanis are evil terrorists and that they should be destroyed.

Er... I think you mean Afghans...

As we all know from common history, the last person that tried to destroy an entire race was the entire world’s enemy (you all know who I’m talking about). These kind of thoughts have to stop, as they will only lead our country onto it’s own destruction.

To put this in simple terms all may understand:
1. Punish those responsible, without taking the lives of innocent people.
2. Try not to be prejudice or racist.

Thanks for listening to my rant as it has made me fell much better. See ya in next week’s mailbag!

Hope so. 8-) It's really interesting to see people's true feelings come to light in the wake of this... as MM984 said, we're showing sides of ourselves we're not used to showing. No matter what we feel on it, we all agree to some extent. And we tend to wax eloquent when our feelings really come out. To elaborate, here's Captain Jackass.

In the past few days, the American people have faced a true test of almost every emotion available to human beings. We have felt sadness for those lost in this senseless attack, our rage and anger is directed towards the barbarians responsible, our love for those we consider dear has become stronger. But the emotion that the terrorists wanted us to use the mst is fear, and it is the one we have used the least. We are not afraid, and we should not be afraid.

Anger is mostly what I feel. My family and I were lucky enough to not know anybody who perished or is missing from these attacks. My sympathies go to those I do. I'm proud to consider myself a patriot.

There are two responses being shown by the American people, and those in the media, that truly upset me. The first is the constant comparison of this action to Pearl Harbor. I was not alive in 1941, but one of my favorite hobbies is military history. This is nothing like Pearl Harbor. At the very least, this is Pearl Harbor times ten. I mean no disrespect to the Pearl Harbor survivors and those who served bravely in World War 2, I am grateful for what they did for our country. 68 civilians and about 2500 military personnel died at Pearl Harbor. It was a military action undertaken by a state known to Americans, who did not hide or cower after taking their action. This is an act of terrorism, costing perhaps ten thousand lives, against civilian targets, by people who now hide from taking credit.

I believe the comparison is just that this is the act that will galvanize the US into waging war, just as Pearl Harbor did. Other than that, no, there isn't much similarity.

The other thing that pisses me off are these liberal apologists who continually blame this on the United States's continued support of Israel. This has nothing to do with Israel. Osama bin-Laden does not hate the United States because of Israel, but because we have Christian troops at air force bases in Saudi Arabia, which he views as invasion of Islamic culture.

That settled, now it's time to talk justice. For such a sickeningly well-executed plan, the sorry sons of bitches sure left an easy trail to follow. This will not be resolved with simple air strikes. We cannot bomb Afghanistan into the Stone Age, because they already live there. The ruling Taliban is not very popular there. The United States must go in there, bomb all military resistance away, send in the tanks and troops, find the bastards that did this, and hang them with their own intestines. They claim their actions are taken in the name of their false religion... we're more than willing to send them to God, so he can spit in their face and stomp them down to Hell where they belong. I do not care if innocent people there get hurt... they are not innocent if they empower those who take these actions or celebrate them after they are taken; polls show that most Americans share this sentiment.

False religion? I don't think Christians have a right to say that sort of thing (that's where the Spanish Inquisition came from, after all). I've got dozens of proofs nearby disproving the Christian bible if you're interested. 8-) From what I understand, the difference between Muslim extremists and regular Muslims is that most Muslims translate "jihad" into the necessity to fight your own evil spirit and conquer it. The extremists translate it into the necessity of blowing people up. I do think that Islam is a rich and great culture and religion. Lumping terrorists and innocents into it as one big lie is just wrong.

I do think we should rebuild the World Trade Center, as a tribute to the spirit of the American people. It'll take a lot of glass, but I know an easy way to get it, by fire-bombing the nations that are against us, turning their sand dunes and villages into glass parking lots. Glass is formed by super-heating sand. To paraphrase the great World War 2 Admiral William Halsey, "When we're through, their language will only be spoken in Hell."

Death to the enemies of America, Death to the enemies of Israel. We will triumph.

Upbeat, certainly. Heh... I have to admit that I've never been very patriotic... er, I still don't, since Canada didn't do much here. ^^; So it always intrigues me when I see it happening. I feel this urge to take notes and write essays on it. 8p We have a public announcement now, so please give him your full attention...

Hi Cid.. Hi gang.. Boy am I in it now...
I've gone really over the limit this time.

...*silence of honor*...

I went and made jokes about the tower without realizing the evil was doing to other people. And now, I'd like to apologize everyone, including the people of America, whom I hurted in the RPGC chat room.

-Mabatsekker out
*Is shot by a BIG cannon...to RPGC chatroom*

And that just about says it all. Well, almost all. Justin Miller probably puts it more succinctly than anyone else here:

Stupid Terrorists!Stupid TerroriStupid TeStupid
Terrorists!rrorists!sts!Stupid TerrorStupid
Terrorists!ists!Stupid Terrorists!

Thank you. Rayman201 is up next.

I think the World Trade Center bombing was very sad! I hope they find Osama Bin Laden and make him pay! I couldn't watch Passions for 4 days!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! They played news stuff instead.

They killed thousands of people, and I don't really care... but they CANCELLED PASSIONS FOR FOUR DAYS! You're all gonna DIE! *runs after a terrorist and trips over his own feet*

Fans of "Frasier" will be saddened to learn that the executive producer of "Frasier" was killed in one of those planes that hit the building. One of the jobs of the executive producer is script writing. That means lots of changes on the show. A lot of actors and actresses live in NYC. I hope none of MY favorite actresses were killed. What they need to do is make elevators fire-proof so that you can use it even during a fire.

Sure, lots of materials can withstand 1000-degree Celsius temperatures caused by jet fuel igniting, of course! I'll get to work on one right away! Wish me luck!

...It'll never happen.

Hey! Wait for me, I'll help!*trip Ozzie on the way*

I'm sure people who were on the top 10-20 floors had no chance of survival. I'm glad that leaders all over the world gave their sympathy. It's nice to know we have other countries backing us up. It's sad though that Arab-Americans that are good hearted people have to suffer because the terrorists were from Afghanistan and other countries that hate America. This is the best country in the world. They'll have to kill each and every one of us Americans before they take away our freedom which is not going to happen because I hope that George Bush makes an example of Osama Bin Laden to other people that even think about doing this to our country again. What was dumb though is that the two planes that crashed into the World Trades Center had knives and box cutters and seeing as there were more passengers than there were hijackers, they could've just jumped them and maybe a few people would've died but at least it's better than 10,000+ people dying. I also have a feeling that they are going to make a movie about this in a few decades like they did with the Pearl Harbor incident. We will fight for our freedom!

Weaving back and forth between popular culture and sentiment, folks: Rayman201. Personally I hope they don't kill every American before taking their freedom. It'd take them years, for one. They don't have that many planes. O_o Ahem, sorry. Stus is up next.

I'm going to take a slightly contraversial view on this topic which may afend some of you. I myself am fully for retribution on this terrorist attack as after all 5,000 dead is 5,000 dead whatever way you look at it, but i cann't help but see many troubles with current predictions on who to attack and how to attack.

First off the culprit in this case is far from certain as no hard proof as of this point (may change) of who has done it has yeat been presented. Yet already the press have clearly put the blaim clearly with the Talaban and Osama Bin Laden (likely spelling error). But just think about this; these terrorists where diabolical Geniuses (Sorry for any offence caused), it would not have been hard for these people whop pulled off an almost perfect stunt to point evidence oin the wrong direction towards Islamic terrorists.

Lets assume that the press are right and that the targets are valid. Afganistan is an increadibly rugge country, its not like the resonably flat rolling dunes of Iraq and has such Gorrilla Warfare is increadibly effective as a fignhting technique. The Afkans have proved this against 2 former world superpowers Britain and the USSR. I'm not saying the US would suffer the same failure but they certainly would suffer huge casulties possibly to the extent of a second Vietnam. It would also likely mean the loss of more Americans (and her allies) than was lost in the attack anyway.

Also there is the case of the normal Afgan people who live in squalid conditions and have been opressed for years by their goverment (especially their women). These would be the true victems of any attack as you certainly would suffer civilian casulties and also their is a significant chance of the use of the average Joe (or Muhhamed in this case) of bieng used as a humen shield. A fate I'm sure not many of these people deserve. Also there is increasing evidence that these people are trying to resist the ruling Talaban like on the night of the plane crashes (GMT time) the resistance movement opened fire on Kabal airport, do these supporters of democracy deserve to be victimes , It think not!

Also has Israil has proved if you try to attack Muslim resistance fighters to much you often end up swealing their ranks with even more resistance fighters. So to take out Bin Ladden could very easily harden the Muslim worlds atitude against the West and create other war lords of terrorism. Terrorism has and always will exist so to make promises like, "declaring war on terrorism" is dangerous at the best of times as you are gearing up for a war you can never truely win.

So to some up I am in favour of Action but this will require a lot more thought than I think a lot of people realise at this time, so difficult days ahead for a new president who has already possibly over commited himself to a fight he may never be a able to truely win. I would also finally like to offer my condolances to anybody who has been affecvted by the recent attack and again apologise for any ofence I may have caused.

A writer for the National Post put it this way: Killing Osama bin Laden won't destroy terrorism. But it WILL destroy Osama bin Laden. Yes, radical terrorists love martyrism and will go nuts - but without a head the body just flails around for a while. It's extremely difficult to wage a war on terrorism, but we do have to take it one step at a time. RpgDragon manages to find time for a corny entrance, how DOES he do it...

4 crystals appear in the mailbag. Each one has a different colored core. One is red, one is blue, one is brown and one is yellow. The crystals start to float into the middle of the room. Then the crystals start to emit light. Suddenly the red crystal fires a beam of fire onto the other 3 crystals. The yellow one then fires a burst of electricity towards the other 3. The blue one then fires an ice-beam towards the crystals. And finally the brown one fires a stream of small stones towards the other 3 crystals. Then small creatures appear on the streams of power. On the fire beam a salamander appears. On the lightning bolt a small sylph appears. On the ice beam a miniature undine appears and on the rocks a tiny golem appears. The entities suddenly scream out loud. A explosion follows. When the dust is gone a glowwing pentagram is floating where the crystals once were. Then white light glows from the center of the pentagram. RpgDragon then steps into the mailbag through the white light. The pentagram dissapears behind him...

Hello everybody! This is RpgDragon.

I dint forgot about you!

What happened to the twin towers was horrible. Those bloody terrorists did not have enough guts to attack it themself so instead they hijacked airplanes and send thousands of people to their deads while they could just place a bomb near the towers wich would have saved countless lives.

And those ******* Palestinas (hope I said it right) were partying when they heard the news and dancing around with their fingers in the peace-symbol. That is even worse then what the terrorists did I believe.

I really hope that the people responsible get caught quickly or I will roast them with my InfernoFlares! I'm going now because i'm beginning to feel depressed. Bye!

*RpgDragon points his sword towards the clouds while staring blankly. Then the blade of his sword bursts into flames, but RpgDragon does not fear it. The flames envelop RpgDragon's body but he does not seem to feel any pain. Then he screams while he reverts to his dragon form. RpgDragon looks down at everybody before flying away*

Hmmm... I personally like the media turn against Palestinians at the moment, but SephirothKatana did point out the truth - that there are many Palestinians who DIDN'T celebrate after the event. And they probably don't have much to do with this particular attack other than a general agreement of principles. But I'll stop here for fear of SK or someone even more cynical to bash me. ^^; PsychicPsycho6 (there's a tongue twister) is a newbie, so !!!!!! (sorry, our other exclamation marks were lost in the plane crash).

I am deeply saddened and shocked by the horror of the World Trade Center catastrophe, as are we all. I would like to see the proper groups punished as next as the next person, but I can only hope we as Americans aren't so thirsty for revenge as to just find a good scapegoat. I would also like to mention I am quite sickened by the racist acts of people in this country against people of middle eastern descent.

Regarding this, a friend of mine told me everything turns out good in the end-- if things aren't good, then it's not the end. I hope he is correct in that belief.

Man... I like to think of myself as an optimist, but that friend of yours really takes the cake. O_o I'm sure the dinosaurs didn't agree with him. 8p Our next writer is RPGClassics' own Sinistral, who just HAD to write in, so let's see...

I told ya I'd write in to compensate for forgetting to write in to the complicated games question. I really wanted to do that too... Oh well. I think of all countries to piss off this badly, the US was the worst possible pick considering their military history. Vietnam was a flop, but I don't think we'll be having those kinds of problems again, if at least at home. I think its about damn time that the US and other world nations finally woke up to the fact that terrorism does indeed suck goats and that its unfortunate that something like this had to happen to get everyone's attention. Crap like this has been going on for decades in Israel and no one really seemed to give much of a damn. It just proves the psychological fact that the more ppl that could help someone in need, the less people actually end up doing so... until now. The arab countries could definetly get it up the ass more violently than a fresh piece of meat right off the street from a 250 lbs convict named Roger that's been itching for some fun since George got transfered to block B. With Pakistan allowing the US and most likely other countries to use its airspace and intelligence ressources, there's not much left between them and the Afghans. I hope I'm not the only to notice how ridiculous it is for the Afghans to vow revenge if they get attacked. Its their fault for not handing over known terrorists. They say Bin Laden's not responsible. It doesn't even matter anymore since a) the US gov't has figured out that all terrorism is bad (I wonder though, what'll happen with them and northern ireland) and b) he was responsible for other attacks against the US ANYWAY. We might have a war coming our way and even though its unfortunate that there is war, it is human nature. I just hope that Rast who's in the Navy now and my friend and my friend's friends who are also involved in the military get out of this ok.

Can't argue with that, heh. We've got one more before we leave... hmmm... who's this Cidolfas guy?

Yo. I'm not going to have any comments here because I'd be talking to myself, and everyone thinks I'm crazy enough already. O_o

First of all, I take offence (well, not offence exactly...) I *disagree* with the use of the word "tragedy" that everyone's spouting off here. What happened on Sept. 11 wasn't a tragedy. That implies something that couldn't be stopped, an act of nature perhaps. An earthquake that kills thousands of people is a tragedy. There are other words available that fit the bill in this case. Travesty. Horror. Mass murder, perhaps.

There are a lot of scary things happening in there. It's scary to work in a place all your life and see it come crashing down around you, of course. It's scary to know that someone who looks just like a normal next door neighbor could have a kind of evil fire that causes him to take his own life and thousands of others. It's scary to know that it's practically impossible to stop something like this. Most frightening of all, though, is the fact that he himself believed he was doing the utmost good for the world. So did Hitler.

It all comes down to morals, I suppose. Can you kill someone who's holding a gun to your head? Probably. A few jumps of logic, if you have the right mind and circumstances, leads you to being able to kill anyone who's in the way of your cause, because you're better than them. That's dangerous thinking, even more dangerous than military thinking. Military strategists want to achieve their goals with the smallest possible loss to their own sides as well as trying to preserve the goal they're trying to achieve, which is usually control over land or beating down an enemy. They risk lives, even lives of civilians, to do it. But the point is that life is precious to them. These killers not only don't care about others' lives, they don't even care about the lives of their own. Whoever's pulling the strings behind these suicide attacks (and believe me, they never believe enough in their own cause to die themselves, no?) must be stopped.

How to do it? That's not my problem. I doubt anyone would listen to me even if I had the most ingenious, foolproof way to go about doing it. What do I learn from what happened on September 11th, what do I take home to myself? That I should live in fear of maniacs? Certainly not. For starters, it wouldn't do any good. I never had any truck with worrying; it serves no purpose.

I think one of the lessons to come away with this is that all life is important. People aren't worse than you because they hold different values. You may not agree with those values, but that doesn't give you any right to treat them worse. Note that I don't say you should treat everyone the SAME. That's a melting pot. People's cultures are important to them, and there's no way you can treat an Orthodox Jew the same as an atheist and expect to get the same results. But if you begin to think of anyone else as lesser beings, you begin to swerve towards the train of thought that caused the events of this week.

One more thing, I guess, is that you never know. One day you're working like normal, next day you're dead. It's extremely morbid, I know; I'm not saying you have to think like this every day. But every so often, once every month or two, maybe, think to yourself: "If I wasn't around tomorrow... would I have made a difference in this world? Have I done things for others? Will I be remembered well?" If there's one thing I hate, it's finishing things before they've started, as many people had to have done this week.

Be strong. Mourn the dead, avenge their memory. Get on with your life. Enjoy yourself. Work hard, play hard. Smile at someone. If this consumes you, the terrorists have done their job. Be yourself, like no one else can. No one can ask any more of you.

Have a good week.

Damn... that was pretty good, if I say so yourself.

Hypocrite.

We'll see how well you do next week, bozo!

Oh yeah! Bring it on!

Sure. Anyway, probably only *part* of the lack of responses for last week's topic was due to the events of Tuesday, so I'll just expand the topic a bit more. What do you think constitutes an old-school RPG? Is FF9 old-school? Dragon Warrior 7? Wild Arms? How about Chrono Trigger or Tales of Phantasia? And while you're at it, do you think we'll see any of them again in the next generation of consoles? Ozzie has stolen my e-mail again at cidolfas@rpgclassics.com so go and flame him.

HEY!

Just get on with it.

...Uh, seeya! *grumblegrumble*

I have no bottom end somehow little not really hidden messages at the end of this mailbag.........Wait, I just did! DOH! Well, uh, you dint saw this!