[kirk]

Trying to divert this from the same fracking cycle as last week...

I would like to suggest a houserule: You can purchase speedloading devices (properly clips, which is why this digression fits) for magazine based weapons.

The best reason? They already exist. The worst reason? A couple of peculiar weapons with (m) could properly have them. Nonetheless, I think I'd like to suggest the device.

So you can purchase a tube for the Remington shotgun. You could purchase stripper clips for the Remington Roomsweeper. You could purchase whichever was necessary for the Remington 750 and 950.

Depending on design the tasers could get push blocks - strippers or reversed revolver type speedloaders.

The one that gives me pause is the grenade launchers with magazines. Yet I could swallow it if necessary to have the rest.

[Mason]

If you are a professional who is around weapons on a daily basis, you know they are dangerous, and that being ignorant around weapons gets people dead. Sadly, the dead guy is not always the same person as the ignorant guy.

Therefore, professionals tend to feel very strongly about the details. Saying "clip" when you meant "magazine" probably never killed anybody, but it implies a certain lack of awareness, attention, or knowledge...and any professional will quickly move to correct it, by reflex.

-Jn-
Ifriti Sophist

I must say I know 3 men who served 10+ years and have seen combat, and they assure me that people over there would ask for clips or mags, either one, and were understood just fine. I think the problem is becoming limited to Special Forces types and is otherwise a thing of the past. Probably happened around the same time as the relaxing of discipline in the ranks.

[kirk]

If you are a professional who is around weapons on a daily basis, you know they are dangerous, and that being ignorant around weapons gets people dead. Sadly, the dead guy is not always the same person as the ignorant guy.

Therefore, professionals tend to feel very strongly about the details. Saying "clip" when you meant "magazine" probably never killed anybody, but it implies a certain lack of awareness, attention, or knowledge...and any professional will quickly move to correct it, by reflex.

-Jn-
Ifriti Sophist

I must say I know 3 men who served 10+ years and have seen combat, and they assure me that people over there would ask for clips or mags, either one, and were understood just fine. I think the problem is becoming limited to Special Forces types and is otherwise a thing of the past. Probably happened around the same time as the relaxing of discipline in the ranks.

Which relaxing of discipline in the ranks? I can recall the complaints in the 1980s, and my father and uncles made mention of the complaints during the Korean war and WWII, respectively. (My father's almost 20 years younger than his oldest brother. He's got a nephew two years older.) Point is, that complaint is as old and hackneyed as "The children now love luxury; they have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place of exercise." (Socrates, according to Plato.)

[JoeNapalm]

If I buy a brand new American-made car, and start talking about the "carburetor" to someone who knows anything about cars, three things will happen:

1) The guy will figure out I am talking about the fuel injection.
2) The guy will say something along the lines of "Uh, you mean the fuel injection. Cars don't have carburetors, anymore."
3) The guy will figure out I don't know a whole heck of a lot about modern motor vehicles.

The only difference between this conversation and that one is...I wouldn't insist that "fuel injection" is just a fancy word used by gearheads and grease monkeys.


-Jn-
City of Brass Expatriate

[FastJack]

And I'm sure that there are threads on car forums bemoaning the lack of knowledge of the common car owner. But if that came up on a forum for Grand Theft Auto, the other posters would respond with "who cares/"

Yor points (all of them, that you have repeated ad nauseum) are valid in a world where that knowledge is the difference between life and death. But, as has been said (repeatedly, ad nauseum) before, it's a game. You may appreciate realism to that extent in your game and the others you play with probably do to. But, to many (myself included) it's not that big a deal.

Now, since we"ve reached that point (again) in the conversation, I'm going to give you all 30 minutes to make any last minute points/closing arguments/funny tangents before I lock the thread (again).

[Patrick Goodman]

Seriously, guys, can we just fuckin' let this die? You're never going to convince each other, and all you do with people like me is piss them off that it's happening again already.

EDIT: And, in the meantime, I'm ninjad by FastJack.

[CanRay]

Please, for the love of Ghost, just let this discussion die!

Or make it entertaining!  I want to see FastJack go nuts with the Ban Hammer.  (No, not that FastJack, he carries a Black Hammer!).

[Joush]

I don't think anyone is terribly passionate about this matter, it's just a minor pet peeve.

I'm still curious though, has this ever been covered in the books? Just a passage somewhere that defines/explains about "clips"?

[CanRay]

Hey, that's an idea, have Picador go nuts on the incorrect usage! 

[Mystic]

Hey, that's an idea, have Picador go nuts on the incorrect usage! 

*smacks some recruit in the dome with a magazine* "Clip? CLIP?!?! What is this, amateur hour? You think this is some Hollywood sim and you're the next incarnation of RAMBO? You think that just because you have a so-called 'battle rifle' that you're some kind of badass? What kind of solider calls a magazine a clip? A WANNABE OR AN IDIOT THAT'S WHO!!!!" SO which are YOU?!?!? Let me know now so I can make sure REAL soliders don't get killed by some waste of oxygen who can't even learn the PROPER names of his equipment!!!!"

This has been Mercenary Theater, join us next time when we premere Black Mamba's new one-woman show: Peace, Love, and Tranquility By Blowing Sh---*bleeep* Up.

[CanRay]

Oh, I'll have to watch the next episode!  Loves me my 'plosions!