An additional thought....

The idea that gamers are anti-social derives from a similar non-gamer psychological need.  Gaming is uber-social.  It is, however, elitist in its own way.

Mark  

The guy re-enacting the head butt has his head down and is gonna hurt his neck if he does that again.  

American football quaterback Gus Ferrote got hurt banging his head like that....albeit, it was against a concrete wall.  

Mark

Juventus almost got bounced to Serie C... instead getting stripped of their last two titles, fined £50,000, and given a hefty 30-point deduction.

But Milan's VP Galliani has been banned for 12 months, and Berlusconi is clear???

Would it be kind of the equivalent of an American baseball team being sent down to the minor leagues?

Are soccer stars on contract only if their team stays in the top division?  Does the reduction in grade mean that all the stars can automatically leave?

I wonder if NFL players would still be bound by their contracts if the team were bounced to the Canadian Football League?

Mark  

Mars wrote:I don't have a good sense of what this means either.

Probably because there's no North American equivalent to the European concept of demotion and promotion. We've always drawn sharp lines between our "major" leagues — NFL, NBA, NHL, Major League Baseball, etc. — and all other leagues. We don't ever mix the two concepts; European leagues have been doing it for many, many years.

Mars wrote:With the team being demoted to a lower level, is there a salary cap that would force star players off the team or would the teams lose advertising contracts or fan attendence because they are not against top competition and would therefore not be able to pay the top salaries?

A salary cap is another North American concept; European teams are generally free to buy and sell players as their boards of directors see fit.

For the demoted teams, attendance will surely be down at home games (for obvious reasons), but should be way up for away games — fans in Tiny Little Village, Italy, for example, will be falling all over themselves for a chance to see Juventus play at their local stadium.

MShipley88 wrote:Would it be kind of the equivalent of an American baseball team being sent down to the minor leagues?

The baseball example doesn't really work. Our minor-league system is all about player development (I'm not even sure why they keep score), while the lower levels of European soccer leagues are competitive enterprises where winning is still much better than losing. No one in the history of baseball has ever honestly cared about who actually won a minor-league game — it's all about getting the players ready for the majors.

Mars wrote:I don't even know what one level down in the NHL or NBA would be.

There's really no such thing, since demotion does not exist for either league. But the top minor leagues are generally considered to be the American Hockey League and East Coast Hockey League for hockey, and the Continental Basketball Association for hoops.

And, no, I never thought I'd see a day where the East Coast Hockey League was mentioned on a D&D collecting site.

killjoy32 wrote:yeah but being docked 30 points man! thats like 10 wins they have to get more than everyone else just to be level with the leader, which just aint gonna happen

I thought that was interesting, too. It's like a disguised two-year penalty: barring something just short of an honest-to-God miracle, the 30-point deficit ensures that they will be in Serie B through 2008.

Wasn't there recently some discusstion about this individual?:

Quincy Koziol

I know he was a game seller and is now some kind of rocket scientist.

What was the recent news about him.?

Mark  

Yes...the sale of his private collection.  An internet search on his name reveals that he's some sort of rocket scientist.....?

Just out of curiousity ... if Quincey has some affiliation with Dragon's Trove, does anyone know why he didn't sell his collection there?

Also, has anyone picked up any nice items from this collection through Noble Knight?