Ben

I'm attempting to write an article on how games have incorporated intellectual and philosophical concepts, but I'm struggling to recall games beyond the likes of the Bioshock series.

- GTA 4 (The modern state of America such as the American Dream, crime and society)

- Deus Ex: Human Revolution (Trans-humanism and the human condition in a world where people can upgrade their bodies)

- The Walking Dead (What society loses in the face of an apocalypse)

And so on. Which games make you think about issues other than the gameplay?

Please take your time to think - _DON'T just_ list games - and include a brief sentence saying why.

Thanks for your help!

My main email address at talk21.com is one I've used for ten years and has every online account of mine linked to it. After my original joymail account went, I decided to go with BT - they're not going anywhere, right?

Except that apparently next month BT are closing email accounts, unless I sign up for BT broadband (I just moved into a house which is on Talk Talk) or pay £1.60 a month. I'm paranoid the email is fake but it appears to be legit (http://bt.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/452...

This may seem trivial, but I use this account for virtually EVERYTHING, 95% of all of my online accounts (Bills, services, games, etc.) and transactions are on it. Just moving everything over to Google mail will be a huge pain.

A friend mentioned that apparently it can be legally questionable. I imagine BT are covered by the terms of service, but I'm still curious - is there any legal framework against this in the UK?

I have answered dozens of this type of question before but now I'm curious about two that I'm trying to remember based on their music. It's a long shot but here goes.

Both are from the mid to late 80s, likely the Commodore 64 or Amstrad, or possibly the Amiga.

1. It was a platform game based around an old mansion? I think there was a slight horror theme. All I can remember is that the music was the "Dance of the Knights by Dru Masters" (It's used in the Apprentice - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TTufAS4eVp8). You started outside at the top of the house and made your way down, landing on some spiked railings would kill you. It was in colour rather than monochrome (I remember playing the Rocky Horror Show around the same time).

2. I can barely remember the game, only that the music was "The Entertainer", by Joplin (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fPmruHc4S9Q). I remember an alley for some reason, though I'm fairly sure it's not Alley Cat. It was either a target shooting game or the player was an actual cat.

So I was at lunch today, sat on a bench next to the river having a sandwich. It's a sunny day in the city.

I see a girl turn around from a car parked next to the road. I assume she's just left it and is waiting for someone to get out of the other side. Nope, as it turns out, she's on her own. She starts walking past and as she goes by she blatantly looks out of the corner of her eye to see if I'm looking (I am). She stops about 15 metres to my right, leaning against the railings, her back turned to me. She's then either looking out across the river or checking her phone.

I decided to see if she looks up at me over the next 5 minutes and use that as a signal. She doesn't.

I can't help but wonder if she was waiting for my move or not, or if she was just curious if a guy was checking her out.

I know that I'll never know and there was only one way to know for certain, but still - what do you think? Unfortunately I've been embarassed a few times when I act on suspicions like that, while I also know some girls just enjoy attention to stroke their ego and nothing more.

How much do you think this PC is worth?

Win XP, SP3

4GB CPU - AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 4000+

4GB RAM

Geforce GTS 450 (2 and 1/2 years old, paid £90 for it)

Creative Soundblaster Audigy

500GB HDD

£150? £200?

I've bought Sleeping Dogs during the Steam sale but avoided any of the DLC since I don't like buying huge amounts for a game I haven't played.

Now that it's still on sale, however, I'm curious - is there any DLC that's worthwhile?

I've had a few times where I've been with a fairly shy, geekish girl (I love geeks) but I can never read if they're interested in being more than friends with me because, well, they're shy and geeky.

I've chatted to them, shown an interest in meeting up, complimented them and lightly flirted but I find it's hard to tell. None of them have been extremely withdrawn introverts, but they don't seem to show what they think either when I show an interest.

That's due to their nature, of course, but is there any real way of knowing? Wouldn't anyone react reciprocally? Would they show subtle signs, or is no indication just that and they're not interested?

I find that if there's no sign at all then I'll leave it at that, I don't see the point in chasing after someone otherwise and I may as well look elsewhere, yet I'm curious if I'm missing something just in case.

I don't have any consoles or PC peripherals that allow me to shoot with a light gun or gun controller, so what could I get? I have a LG Electronics M2294D-PZ monitor-TV for my PC rig so I presume I can use that without issue.

I'd prefer:

- Games which are less of an arcade-style shooter; more about accuracy than non-stop blasting.

- Not to to have to buy a whole console, though I appreciate it's likely.

- Something from the mid 1990s onwards (i.e. not Duck Hunt).

- A pistol-based lightgun game, though other types (Shotgun, sniper rifle) would be fine.

So what are my options? The Wii? The PS3's Move? Or something else?

I understand the modesty behind hijabs, that it's for a woman to prevent unnecessary attention by not showing her hair, but what's the point with decorated hijabs rather than plain ones? Doesn't that have the opposite effect?

I'm not religious but I think Romans 12:21 is a wise part of the Bible: "Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good." or it seems to come about by the phrase "Overcome your enemies with kindness."

It's good as advice in general - to not give in to hate and cause suffering to people who wrong you, to control your emotions and make people see your positive side ... but is it actually practical in the world today? Has it ever worked for you?

I'm not referring so much as to people who I get off to a bad start with then make up by being friendly (I'm sure we've all had people like that at places like school), but situations where someone goes from being considered unliked or is seen a rival but to fully hated.

I've had situations where people take advantage of me, so why would I let them continue to do so?

Or one of the most bitter times was being harassed at a work place through some petty HR procedures. I resisted getting really angry and ranting in person or by email, eventually choosing to resign and move on with my life as the job was going nowhere anyway (though I did compile a lengthy HR report for senior management ;-).

I could have done so much petty stuff but I resisted, nor did I do anything nice to try and win them over - after all, why would I after being treated like that? What would be the point?

I think a balanced view of trying to understand why people act in a certain way, to try and overcome the problems and help them if they're receptive, but not to let them walk all over you, is the best course of action. What do you think?

I love my brother, but his depression is really difficult to deal with.

I'm 29, he's 32 and developed a severely bad back following several years in the navy (his officers made him go to the gym despite the pain) and has a displaced disc, so now lives at home with my dad (Not that living at home is a problem, as I did the same last year after I had to leave a job elsewhere in the country and my money was running low. I'm now back on my feet financially at least).

So he's on a lot of pain relief medication and suffers depression. Technically he's disabled and he can't work, but he's still not helping himself - I know it's hard but he stays in at home most of the time. The biggest problem is his temper and he is very touchy, sometimes he'll explode with verbal anger. He's really into raging against right-wing politics in America, (FOX, Republicans, etc) even though we're in England. I can't remember the last time we had a civil conversation that didn't end in him getting mad, making an outrageous claim and storming off, whether about politics or movies.

Other opinions are not seen as valid by him, they're just wrong. He's always been opinionated but seems more absolute than ever - e.g. to him religion is for idiots, whereas I find that it may be false but there's a reason that people are into it so it can't just be disregarded like that. He's also got low self-esteem elsewhere in life.

Myself and my father do our best, but it's a struggle. Obviously we're there for him and show a great deal of patience (especially my dad, who is retired and keeps the house running all by himself). What more can we do? What can you do to help someone like my brother?

In the last year or two I've developed a problem with sleeping after I've had a drink of alcohol. It doesn't matter if it's two small bottles of lager, a bottle of wine or a few glasses of vodka and coke and whether I've drank hours before I go to bed or shortly before, but I'll wake up several hours after falling asleep, ranging from 3 to 5AM. My heart beat will be going frantic and I'll remain awake for one hour. I'll feel physically and mentally tired but can not return to sleep.

My theories have ranged from lack of water (I drink plenty and have tried drinking a lot before bed) to stress on a subconscious level (My life isn't perfect but there's still a lot for me to be happy about) to trying different types of alcohol (Lager, wine, cider, vodka) to taking herbal sleeping remedies (They make no difference if I've had a drink).

While my mother had pulmonary hypertension and my father has angina, I have had several blood and blood pressure tests done after which two doctors have concluded that I'm fine and healthy. My dad has now suggested it could be sleep apnea which is related to breathing problems during sleep. Naturally I'm cautious about jumping to conclusions, but on reading about it on wikipedia a lot of the symptoms (i.e. alcohol) makes sense.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleep_apnea

What do you think? And how can I go about getting it examined in the UK?

Just over ten years ago when I was 17 I met a girl through a friend of my dad's friend. It wasn't really a relationship, more of a prolonged series of chats over the internet and the occasional meet up. She had issues with her mother who, she said, had a disease and only a few years to live or such. This meant that her mother was dragging her out all of the time which prevented her from meeting up with me, though we met up a few times (about 4 times in 2 years). I felt sorry for the girl too as apparently she had sex when she was 10 and then the guy went and told the whole school, so I thought she didn't trust men.

When we did meet, she seemed a little socially awkward, not shy but withdrawn. We'd hold hands, but when I'd give her an innocent kiss goodbye (a peck on the cheek) she'd freeze up. I think there was definitely an attraction, but the lack of meeting up over the two years grew into a bigger issue, I felt like she was just using me for attention and I was really pushed to the limits of my patience (And I'm a very patient guy). Two of my friends ridiculed me. The worst was one time when the three of us were meeting up with our girls (like a triple date in a way) but of course this girl didn't show up, saying her mum had taken her out shopping.

I eventually got really angry and fed up, I pulled the plug. I was going to university soon anyway so I moved on. I have to confess that I kept hope she'd return (I had my 18th birthday around the time we last spoke and I think I had invited her). As I've done with several attempts at a relationship, however, I built up a lot of anger and doubt, either at myself or the girl involved and wondered what, if anything, I had done wrong.

Then this morning I have a message on a dating site that she's recognised me when looking at my profile. I've actually wondered over the years how I'd treat her if I saw her again, I felt like I'd almost explode with anger at how she had mentally tormented me.

So far I've responded saying I barely remember her, though in truth I remember a lot. I feel like being midlly insultive or angry, to finally let her know how the experience messed up my head and confidence, to resolve things ... but I feel like I shouldn't. It's been 10 years, however it's really agitated me now which is why I'm posting this.

What should I do?

Pop quiz. Name games with female protagonists!

I'm trying to get a website going, but:

On my main site page, I've been able to do a simple registration option where users have to answer a question of whether they are a spam bot or not and this is somewhat effective.

However, on the phpBB forum, I'm unable to stop spam accounts being created. It's up to 5000 in a few months. I've enabled the spam bot counter-measures with a 3D image verification but this isn't effective. Can someone give me instructions (e.g. a site) on how to best stop this? I'm inexperienced with phpBB and I'm struggling to find a way of setting up an add-in for this.

Secondly, how can I get rid of all the spam bots? I'm only able to delete users page by page which is not efficient. I can't delete the user groups as they're the default ones. Again, clear instructions would be helpful.

First, I have to say that I'm _not_ some teenager who's just experiencing difficult relationships and groups for the first time.

I'm actually a guy in my late 20s and partly a geek - I love computer games, reading, history, martial arts and archery. I'm certainly not shy, in fact I'm often outspoken and direct in how I communicate. I've never been massively perceptive of certain social behaviour, I prefer to do my own thing, but I consider myself friendly and generally well-liked by the people I meet.

Yet after recent experiences I feel that I'm struggling to understand how friendship works and how it 'officially' begins. And I know that seems crazy considering I have nearly three decades of experience, yet there seem to be so many unwritten rules and secret nuances, no one ever comes out and says "We're friends now" so how are you supposed to know?

How do you know when someone is more than an acquaintance or colleague or person you just occasionally hang out with or a mutual friend?

Over the years I've met people through college, university and different jobs. I give each of those people I meet one chance no matter how they look or how first impressions go, then instinctively I treat them as a friend. Yet the vast majority of those people don't really seem to make an effort in socialising or staying in touch after we split and go our separate ways.

People at one of the last places I worked (a large computer games developer) felt especially ridiculous. People in one group barely spoke to me after I got a position in another department in the company, including at least two people who I socialised several times with outside of work.

Then in the other department I was a 'go to guy' for a lot of people so I got to talk to and (so I thought) befriend all sorts but few wanted to hang out. Then there was one group of people I was with who would always meet up on a Friday down the pub, yet once a certain guy left (the one who would always organise getting people out) I found the others split into other groups and didn't invite me for anything. I felt offended when I heard or discovered them doing stuff without me, yet maybe that was fine for them to do so since we weren't (I realised) actual friends.

So how does that work?

Did my opinion on certain things offend them? How could it not be accepted? (And for the record I don’t consider myself an extremist in any field) Or if I made a mistake then how could I possibly make amends if I wasn’t told about it? Or were these people cowards, afraid to speak to me about a problem? I can’t do anything about it otherwise. Letting someone blunder through life instead of pointing out a problem, fearful that they will take offense, is surely much more atrocious in terms of behaviour.

Now it's been just over a year since I left and hardly anyone stays in touch bar two guys who I was definitely friends with. I have plenty of people on Facebook but, hey, that's just Facebook and not everyone on there is necessarily your friend.

So I'm left thinking: is friendship meaningless? For most people is it just 'mutual convenience' for a set amount of time?

I try to think that I shouldn't be ashamed of who I am, that I act rationally but I can't get over it. Am I blind?

Humans are weird.

I was annoyed at a rock radio station I listen to and how they have far too much talking and adverts rather than music. When I was making breakfast once, I flicked between two stations and the rock one didn't have music during a twenty minute period!

So I decided to complain and actually got a response from the DJ, who said:

"Our commitment to OFFCOM is 45% speech on the breakfast programme and that’s carved in stone !! It includes : news, competitions, weather, regular traffic reports and general chit chat, but doesn’t count adverts !!"

So does this mean they are required by OFFCOM to only have 55% music on outside of adverts? Or is it their interpretation of the rules? I'm sure I've listened to other stations that have it differently.

I've been a drinker for about ten years now (About to hit 29) but in the last 2-3 years I've had a problem where after drinking many units of alcohol, like a bottle of red wine or several bottles of dark ale or vodka and diet coke, and falling asleep then I'll wake up between 4, 5 or 6 AM. My heartbeat is quite fast and sometimes I'll remain awake for about one hour before I can fall asleep again, other times I can't.

What exactly is happening? Is it the intoxication wearing off? Or is it a sugar rush after my body has processed the alcohol in my stomach? I don't think it's dream related because I can never quite remember any.

Needless to say, I'm very much sick of it and though I found that drinking lager helped to avoid the problem - after feeling fed up with hangovers in general and their effect on my productivity - I've cut down on my drinking, as sleep is much more important, but I'm curious what was happening.