Gerard

He's not saying tell everyone that he's dead. He's saying lead them to believe it, by saying he's depressed and suicidal. Then because he's away, nobody will know where he is and it'll be "omg I wonder if he killed himself". You'd only ring up someone and go "I'm sorry for your loss" if it was confirmed, if someone had told you that he HAD died. If you weren't told, it could be a million other things, but because of the depression you would assume it to be suicide or something bad.

1 Month doesn't count as a bump, certainly not in these parts of the forum where nothing much happens. Bumping is more of a problem in the active areas, but here we NEED people to continue discussions. Also, if the post is GOOD and useful (like that one) then it isn't a bump. A bump would be an unnecessary reply, or just repeating what other people have said. If it's adding decent new content and being helpful, then there's nothing wrong with that. FYI, it's better to continue an existing topic than make a new one. And yet again... DONT TELL US TO CLOSE TOPICS. We can figure it out ourselves, and most of the time the members are wrong when they tell moderators how to do their job.

Well obviously it wouldn't go on forever. You don't have a funeral on the same day. I think its funny, but you need to clean up your tracks if you do it, and make sure your family doesnt hear the rumours.

Warnings are not cumulative, and rep does not counteract/cancel/negate warnings. They are never removed, they are just historical lists for Staff information. Even if you have lots of warnings, your good rep will still show up. Positive rep is gained by being extremely/unusually helpful, it is not given out lightly. For example, writing a page of content for the main site, or making a detailed How-To topic.

Scared of what? No need to whine. The rep log is just a log, so staff can see what you've done before. So if you are warned twice for the same incident, the second staff member knows not to do it. If it is a repeat offence, the staff member can see that you have ignored staff the first time, and won't be as lenient the second.

I bought a 360 Elite yesterday

If you have rep (which is good) it shows up as green pips (squares) under your avatar. Warnings (which are bad) are NOT visible to anybody else. Also, just to clear something up, staff don't have to report posts to delete them, we just delete them if we need to. Reports are just messages that go to staff, informing them of a problem, so that they can take action. Glad to help.

Your Rep log is a history of warnings given by staff against you. However, you can also be given postive warnings (Rep), for good things you've done, which are also shown there. The rep log is visible only to yourself and staff. Only staff can give you rep or warnings, and they follow strict guidelines when they do. Rowie, your rep log is empty. The log is still there (everyones got one) but theres nothing in it until you get warned or repped.

You'll be able to enter the contest on the launch day, and not before. Yeah we've been chatting to MS about those consoles, but I won't say what prizes we do/don't have until the competition.

That is a privilege we only grant to members we can trust (the Elite group). It is something that can be abused, and can be used as an excuse to create more topics than necessary. If you find a topic that requires locking or deletion, simply press the Report button and fill in the form. Don't reply instructing moderators to "delete this now". On a separate note, if you have a question, it is usually better to ask it in the forums where a lot of people can answer, instead of PMing staff who are very busy and may not be able to help you. A lot of people have always done this, but the forums are there for questions to be asked in, so use it.

Yeah OK. I can't see any topics like that in the GTASA section, although there is a lot like "What is your favourite mission". It isn't a very big step up to ask people to add in their own thoughts, so I think it's a good idea. You could create a topic in the GTA IV section for people to write up their own missions, and if enough people like it then we'll pin it.

I'm not exactly sure what you are referring to. If you mean people writing about what they think should be a mission (or in a mission) in a GTA game, there are several topics like that around the forum. Perhaps for GTA IV there could be one big topic for people to post theirs in. I definitely think these creative If you're talking about modifications to create new missions for the games, there are many mods available for the older games (GTA III, VC) that do this, and even a few Total Conversions - check our Downloads area for them. I believe there are less for SA, since theres a lot more to modify, and Rockstar have made it harder to modify (with v2).

Yeah, Chris helped with content in the early stages but he 'concentrates' on tgtap now. There are going to be 3 tiers of prizes at the same time. I won't tell you how it works yet, but the 'best' people go into a draw for a Tier 1 prize, the 2nd best group of people go for Tier 2, and the third go for Tier 3. So we need 3 groups of prizes. I think we've decided against giving away a copy of the game - that's a bit pointless to do after the launch.

Can't disclose that information. We are trying to obtain most of it through sponsorship and donation, and also trying to get some exclusive stuff that you can't just go out and buy.

We're not saying we're the only competition around, of course there will be loads. We just want to make sure we're giving out the best prizes, and that the winners in the GTA community get what they want and deserve. As for people already owning the game, don't forget we're trying to give away consoles and stuff too. Anything else that you would want more than another copy of the game?

GTW is Grand Theft Wiki - the big GTA wiki me (and Chris) started a couple of years ago. In case you're wondering what I mean by "big" - well... Gamespot, GameFAQs and Joystiq will all be directly promoting this competition. You can also see us integrated into Gamespot and GameFAQs - we're the wiki tab in their GTA IV sections. Toxic - you're kinda right. A lot of people will already have the game, certainly those who really want it, and they are going to be the type of people active on the wiki. Perhaps if we're offering the Special Edition of GTA IV, then thats something most people won't have. I'll have a think about that one though.

GTW is Grand Theft Wiki - the big GTA wiki me (and Chris) started a couple of years ago. In case you're wondering what I mean by "big" - well... Gamespot, GameFAQs and Joystiq will all be directly promoting this competition. You can also see us integrated into Gamespot and GameFAQs - we're the wiki tab in their GTA IV sections.

GTW is going to be running a big GTA IV competition when the game is released, and there are going to be big prizes, although we haven't decided what they should be yet. What sorts of prizes do you think we should give away? There are going to be three levels of competition - each with bigger and better prizes than the one below it. For example: Tier 1 - a console, a copy of GTA IV, and some Rockstar Goodies Tier 2 - a copy of GTA IV and some Rockstar goodies Tier 3 - Rockstar goodies (clothing, stickers, posters etc) Is there anything else you think would make a good prize in a big GTA IV competition?

Again spooky... cos today I was researching the death of Lennon. Youre the first person here who's actually bothered to post about the 'real' world (if this was a simulation). And you're absolutely right. If this was a small-scale simulation (eg only 1 planet out of millions IRL; or a very cut-down version of IRL) then the real world would be immense. As for the people, well for a start they could make simulations like this (which is slightly impressive), although theyre still slightly cruel because they let all this suffering and death go on. If this is true (not saying it is), I hope they programmed an afterlife. Whoah... this is sounding very religious. We're basing theories of the origin of life and the existence of higher beings and an afterlife on pure speculation. Difference is we don't even have any myths or religious texts or disciples or anything. I think we should make some.

Gameplay & Help is just the general subforum for everything to do with the game. "Did you know you can do this" "How do you do this" to "This isnt working" to "Whats your favourite ___" all go in there. Whilst we could split it into two (one for about the game, one for troubleshooting), it isn't really necessary, and it may cause more confusion with people posting in the wrong area. Do you think it would be a good idea for us to do this with GTA IV? Are people likely to have problems that require troubleshooting with the 360 and PS3 versions?

The 'simulation' idea is that we're actually computer-controlled pre-programmed characters in a computer simulation of the universe we live in. Like a big video game (either for entertainment, education or experimentation) used by some very advanced race in the REAL universe which we have no access to. Imagine a large-scale version of the Sims. Bear in mind that the 'real' universe may be identical to ours (so this simulation is a copy), or it might be similar (this simulation is just a small-scale test of a part of the real world, like a big simcity) or it might be totally totally different and bigger and better than we could ever imagine (so this simulation is a custom-made small-scale test). The 'being tested' idea is that everyone else in the world (apart from you) is an actor or fake person, and you're being tested and always being watched. The 'its all a dream' idea is that you are the only real person in the universe and everyone else doesn't really exist. The 'religion' idea is that there's some super being (or beings) living in THIS universe that made everything and controls everything. If you die in the 'religion' idea, your soul goes to heaven (or hell) which is some locked away part of this universe. If you die in a simulation, you probably just end - BUT the simulation will probably run again, and you may or may not exist in that one (but you wouldnt remember it). There's probably no way to link the people in the simulation to the real universe, but that would be an interesting outcome. If you die in the 'its all a dream' or 'being tested' ideas, you might wake up in the real world.

Not really got any interesting ones... just poses

Spaz is back on form. As for tilly - Yeah I've had a few discussions to that effect too. Scary thought. And Truman Show FTW...

Stop taking this personally. To be frank, my non-belief in god is nothing to do with you, and it isn't going to be you that changes it. Just like your apparent belief in God is nothing to do with me, and I'm not trying to change it. I'm explaining why I don't believe, in the context of the possibility of this being a simulation. He hit my belief and the reasons for it on the head. I don't believe in god because the evidence is unscientific and unsupported, and because religious people tend to not care about science as much. I'm not saying that we are in a simulation - I'm simply discussing the possibility. I have come to the conclusion that there isn't a god, but we might be in a simulation. Feel free to disagree. Feel free to provide evidence to the contrary. I didn't say God or Jesus was a metaphor, just a lot of bible stories are. Think of all the parables and old testament stories - some people take the bible literally a think that there was a flood and a boat, there was 5 loaves and 5 fishes etc etc; whilst others take it less literally and say "its just a metaphor for the power of god" and stuff. On simpler terms, take scientific fact. The bible makes no reference to undiscovered parts of the world. It makes no mention of the earth being round and spinning. It makes no mention of the naturally occurring causes of rain It DOES make mention to the sun rising above the earth and all these sorts of So Jesus was an actual person? Did you meet him? Any photographs? Did you witness any miracles? Is there any scientific record of anything amazing he did? If he turned some mountains into the shape of his name that would have been cool, and proved something. I don't believe he was the son of God just because a pro-religious book says so, and pro-religious people say so. There is NO scientific FACT that says God DEFINITELY exists. Okay, that's why they call it faith, great, but I won't believe until I know. And just to make a point, what makes Christianity correct and all other religions wrong? "Because it really happened" isn't good enough. Back to scientific fact - there are loads of earthquakes every day. Check out these maps. So yes, coincidence. A natural event, totally unconnected to some dude in the middle east. A lot of religious explanation is trying to pass off natural events as made by God. This is MY experience and interpretation of religion (all of em) trying to claim everything as being done by their god/gods: Nobody should take offence by that, it's just how I see the world. All the replies are true, it is what various religious people do say. Rain isn't anything to do with god, it's just evaporation, condensation and gravity. Rivers get high after it rains a lot. Birds sometimes like going into gardens, for food n stuff. The parasitic twin is actually fairly obvious if you saw the girl. I should have cooked the pizza a bit more. Nothing to do with god. I don't see how I was ridiculing anyone for anything? I'm not going to use this topic to attempt to disprove the bible or persuade anyone that it isn't true - I'm merely explaining why I don't believe it, and why I think there's a higher chance of us being in a simulation than being overseen by an old man in the sky. Feel free to disagree with what I've said - disprove it, provide evidence to the contrary, or simply state that you think differently. Try not to swear at me though.