So it occurred to me just how many different countries are represented here on GOG. Its easy enough to see, its posted just under our user names over there on the left...

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...so I got to thinking, wouldn't it be nice to get real answers to real questions about foreign countries & customs from fellow GOGers? C'mon, seriously, tell me you haven't wondered a thing or two about a thing or two in another country you've seen listed here on GOG? Or even about a country you haven't seen listed? You never know, there might be a lurking GOGer from a country you're curious about. So here's my first question.

This is for anyone in the UK. How do your history books portray Benedict Arnold? In America, he is depicted as an American traitor, for betraying the US during its fight for freedom from England during the Revolutionary War. But I suspect he would instead be viewed in the UK as an English patriot, for remaining loyal to the motherland. So is he mentioned in English history books? And if so, how is he depicted?

There, y'see? Real question, respectfully asked of a foreign GOGer! :-)

I have a UK question too. Is the U.S. show Friends really popular over there right now, like it's a new show?

I ask because I went through that, and it was horrible, so if anyone else is feeling that pain, I understand how it feels having everyone around you like a really obnoxious show that will now be on in the background of every house you ever visit.

An insightful question. It's always interesting to see how history, as seen from different viewpoints, depicts certain people and events.

Many people have a tendency to view history as "fact", but in reality, it's rarely completely objective.

They do say that, but it's not actually true. The losers write their own version, and uninvolved bystanders with an interest in the outcome of the conflict may write yet another. Which version you get is largely dependent on where you happen to live, unless you go out of your way to look up some of the other versions.

I'm not from UK, but right next door (Norway).

Friends was such a HUGE show that most European countries picked up on it pretty fast. We where only 1 week or so behind your TV episodes. So no, it's not a new show over here.

I enjoyed the first 2-3 seasons, but then it just got annoying and repetitive. It quickly became a "chick show" due to the sickening love triangle in that apartment.


If anyone has any Norway questions, I would be happy to answer to my best ability.

ChaunceyK : Re Benedict Arnold - for me, being mid-30s, that subject wasn't really covered in history. They tended to lean heavily towards 1066, some WW2, and when Empire ever came up, it was geared towards the wars in the Pacific against France, Netherlands and Portugal/Spain, rather than the secession of the American Colonies.

PhoenixWright : It's not new. It's not even repeats of new. It's repeats of repeats of repeats of repeats on Ch4/E4 of it. I've watched maybe 3 episodes over the 15 years or so, and my gods, it was shit. Women loved it though. Go figure. Luckily, with more than 4 channels now, there's always something on one of the others that's much better, despite being repeated to death ad nauseam. All 3 CSIs and NCIS on Ch5/FiveUS for one. Well, apart from that ginger-minger in Miami, that is.

British papers referred to him as, "a mean mercenary, who, having adopted a cause for the sake of plunder, quits it when convicted of that charge."

Interesting. So one could basically play opposite day and get another version of what happened? I like that idea. My history teachers were all tools for the most part then.

Well for quite a long time the vietnam war was allegedly a draw. Not that I've seen too many draws where team a runs away crying whilst team b takes over all the territory that team a was defending

According to Rimmer on Red Dwarf it was a no score draw due to the fact both sides had crew-cut haircuts.

Rimmer: "Would it harm you to have hair like mine?"
Cat: "I have got hair like yours. Just not on my head."
Rimmer: "Well, I'm no stranger to the land of scoff. Perhaps you'd like to explain why it is that every major battle in history has been won by the side with the shortest hair cut. "
Kryten: "Oh, surely not sir. "
Rimmer: "Think about it, why did the US Cavalry beat the Indian nation? Short back and sides verses girlie Hippy locks. The Cavaliers and the Roundheads? One-nil to the Pudding basins. Vietnam, crew cuts both sides, no score draw."

Honestly, I don't think the American Revolution ever really impacted much on Britain at all. This may surprise some people, but at the time Britain kinda viewed the Americas as an unprofitable mudhole, while the true profit was in India. You have to realise that while we ended up owning a third of the world it was motivated by profit, with the empire pretty much a side effect of business. The fact that America would then rise to become what it is now is just yet another in a long line of fuck ups the British government has made over centuries of misrule that has led the country to the predicament it is in now.

But officially and in the general British mindset the American revolution is not something that was ever really thought about. We don't know who fought on what side, hell I don't even know who this traitor was, though considering how bad History education here has become it's not surprising. All we get taught about is the Second World War, the women's suffragette movement and the rise of the Labour party. Aside from the second world war it's like they picked the absolute least interesting parts of history to focus on as if they intend to make people hate learning about it, and hell they even managed to make the second world war less interesting than it could have been, focusing on women's move into industry instead of anything to do with the war itself.

Still I do agree with that different countries view the same historical figures very differently. Sir Francis Drake is considered a national hero here, having fought off the evil and fascist Spanish Armada along with other national heroes, etc. but if you were to go to Spain he is portrayed as a filthy pirate that raped and pillaged innocent spaniards and was called Draco, spanish for Dragon.

Oh, and one final point: I think you'll find that Americans are just as 'foreign' here as everyone else since it's not an American site but international. In fact, everyone here is 'foreign' unless you're from Poland. :P

What predicament is that?

Friends was pretty big. But that was back around the turn of the century. As a defector. Typically we leave massive bias to our tabloid newspapers.