Disclaimer: The opinions expressed within this column are those of the participants and the moderator, and do not neccessarily reflect those of the GIA. There is coarse language and potentially offensive material afoot. The GIA takes no responsibility for the public beatings these stickers will undoubtedly result in. Don't say we didn't warn you.

Okay, long story short, the mail servers where I attend school have gotten hosed by some new virus that apparently makes a point of mailing every person alive and then warping itself to various other time periods to mail those people, too. As it stands, nobody on campus is getting mail, so unless I wanted to try getting artsy by making a column with responses but no letters, today's column was going to be pretty barren.

But that doesn't mean I'm going to leave you readers high and dry. Nope, see, I have a partially completed feature that I decided wasn't good enough to constitute a full feature. Rather than promptly deleting all of the files out of personal embarrassment like I really ought to have done, I instead saved them so I could pawn the half-baked idea off on you here.

So here you go: GIA-inspired bumper stickers. Just print them out, blow them up, glue them on top of some form of adhesive, and attach them to your bumper. Sure, they'll turn to crap as soon as it rains unless you laminate them or something, but why should I have to think of everything? Enjoy!

Oh, and hey, to keep things interesting, here's a topic for tomorrow: what is the deal with RPG fans and game reviews? To understand what I mean, consider the whole imbroglio surrounding Legend of Dragoon and the horrid reviews it got from just about every site and magazine in existence. The simple fact was that it was a derivative, poorly-executed game that had managed to age in development before it even hit the shelves. Yet certain fans loved it.

And hey, why not? we all have one or two crappy games we liked. I actually bothered to go through Ys III twice, so I can't exactly blame people when the enjoy a flawed game. But rather than accepting the fact that they enjoyed a fundamentally poor game in spite of its flaws, certain LoD fans decided that flaming reviewers would somehow remedy the situation and justify their viewpoint. I bring it up, because it even led to features like this. Note to LoD fans: you're making all of us RPG fans look stupid.

So I ask you, why is it that RPG fans in particular have this burning desire to defend even the lousiest examples of the genre tooth and nail, so to speak? Even Mega Man fans will say, "Yeah, the gameplay is tired, but what the hell. I love the games anyway." So I ask you, good readers, what's the deal? Sure, I'm attacking my RPG brethren on a fundamental level, and sure, that's intended to piss people off. After all, it's what I'm good at.

Of course, don't get me wrong. I'm sure that rather than receiving mostly intelligent, critical assessments of RPG fan behavior, I'll instead get letters from ranting morons saying I'm obviously a cranial amputee if I can't appreciate how super-funtastic LoD was, further cementing my opinion that a good number of RPG fans are, in fact, ranting morons. But hey, it's worth a try, right?

So mail me, and do try to make me proud.