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      <h5><b><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">//<a href="../../../index.html"><font color="#7C420E">loonygames</font></a>://<a href="../index.html"><font color="#7C420E">issue 
        2.2</font></a>://<a href="index.html"><font color="#7C420E">down the pipe</font></a>://<a href="index.php"><font color="#7C420E">1</font></a>, 
        2</font></b></h5>
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              <p align="left"><font size="-1"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2" color="#0022A8"><b><font color="#00025E">Random 
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                      <p><b><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" color="#0000FF"><i><font color="#904C10" size="2">Down 
                        the Pipe:</font><font color="#904C10" size="4"><br>
                        Birth of a Gamer</font></i></font></b><br>
                      
                      <div align="right"> <font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-1">By 

                        Russell &quot;<a href="mailto:radpipe@loonygames.com">RadPipe</a>&quot; 
                        Lauzon </font></div>
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                  <td width="45%" align="right" valign="top"> 
                    <h5 align="right"><b><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" color="#00025E">Vol. 
                      2, Issue 2&nbsp; <br>
                      November 19, 1999&nbsp; </font></b></h5>
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              <h5 align="right">&nbsp; </h5>
              <p align="left"><font face="Arial"><loonystart><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Kids 
                that age don&#146;t know how to be egotistical. Zach plays for 
                love of the game. I see traits in him that I see in great gamers. 
                He tries things just for the heck of it. He sees straight through 
                problems to simple solutions. I remember once in Q2CTF, he had 
                grabbed the flag and was heading back to base. I stood behind 
                him saying, &#147;Run! Back to your base! Run!&#148; He stopped 
                right in the middle of the map, despite my urging, and started 
                flipping through his weapons. &#147;What are you doing?&#148; 
                I cried. He switched to grenade launcher, resumed running, and 
                started laying a path of grenades to catch the enemies in his 
                wake. Shut me up pretty good.</font></font></p>
              <p align="left"></p>
              <p align="left"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">I often 
                come across Zach playing a game, completely oblivious to what 
                is going on in the game around him. He&#146;s played for hours 
                upon hours with the grappling hook, seeing where this odd device 
                will take him. I&#146;ve found him sitting on wall lights, on 
                other players, on small outcroppings that can&#146;t be seen unless 
                you&#146;re standing on them. I once watched him play for over 
                an hour using nothing but the railgun. He was missing almost every 
                shot but it didn&#146;t bother him at all. He just kept shooting. 
                I&#146;ve only see dedication like that in hardcore gamers. Me, 
                I&#146;ll use the railgun for all of 5 minutes before giving up 
                in frustration and returning to a weapon I can actually use.</font></p>
              <p align="left"></p>
              <p align="left"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">I loaded 
                up the <b>Unreal Tournament </b>demo and was very pleased it had 
                a system for loading bots much like the Eraser. Zach loves it. 
                And it kills me the stuff he comes up with. He can show me something 
                I didn&#146;t know almost every day. For example, when you use 
                the Shock Rifle and secondary fire, it shoots an exploding ball 
                of, um, something that looks like electricity or plasma. Bud did 
                you know, if you quickly switch to primary fire (which shoots 
                kind of like a railgun) and shoot, you can use it to detonate 
                the ball before it hits? I came across Zach using this technique 
                just other day. There was an enemy shooting out of his line of 
                sight, so, he shot the ball, then exploded it after it passed 
                a corner. It makes me want to shout, &#147;Kid, you&#146;re only 
                3 years old! Who do you think you are? Stop it already!&#148;</font></p>
              <p align="left"></p>
              <p align="left"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">There&#146;s 
                no fanfare. No bravado. He doesn&#146;t jump and shout, &#147;Look 
                what I can do Daddy!&#148; He doesn&#146;t gather his friends 
                around so he can gloat on some technique he has learned. He does 
                it because it works. He does it for love of the game. And he moves 
                on.</font></p>
              <p align="left"></p>
              <p align="left"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Where 
                does it end? I came home the other day and found Zach checking 
                my e-mail. He can&#146;t read, and can&#146;t make heads or tails 
                of what&#146;s coming in, but that doesn&#146;t matter. He dials 
                the ISP, loads e-mail, clicks &#147;Send and Receive&#148;, and 
                watches it come in. I have to be careful and stop him before he 
                starts trying things, though. </font></p>
              <p align="left"></p>
              <p align="left"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">I know 
                what you&#146;re thinking. Can he whup me? No. The reflexes of 
                young children are nowhere near as refined as adults or teenagers 
                at such an early stage. My 8 year old can show some resistance, 
                but he&#146;s got a ways to go too. I own them every time.</font></p>
              <p align="left"></p>
              <p align="left"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">How special 
                is Zach? As I said before, I&#146;m a parent and so I&#146;m proud 
                as all heck of my little boy, as I&#146;m sure all parents are. 
                So I&#146;ll give the masses the benefit of the doubt, and it&#146;s 
                why I talk about the next generation of gamers. If our kids are 
                all like Zach, what&#146;s in store for us? Will we one day fall 
                prey to our little tykes, as they jump online and &#147;own&#148; 
                us in droves? Will we one day start all our stories with, &#147;in 
                my day...&#148; while we watch the next generation inherit the 
                online community? I dunno. I bet this is how it starts.</font></p>
              <p align="right"><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><i>- 
                Russell &quot;RadPipe&quot; Lauzon is currently exhausting all 
                his free time researching Beer Goggles.</i></loonystart></font></p>
              <p align="right">&nbsp;</p>
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<p><i><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-2">Credits: Illustration 
  &copy; 1999 Dan Zalkus. Down the Pipe is &copy; 1999 Russell Lauzon. All other 
  content is &copy; 1999 loonyboi productions. Unauthorized reproduction is prohibited, 
  biznitch.</font></i></p>
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