As a lot of people have mentioned, I think the crucial thing here is, are you trying convince them that communism is actually better than capitalism?

Your initial post stated that you were trying to convince them that communism isn't inherently evil. My reply on the last page pretty much summarised my thoughts on that. If the reply from your friends when you try to explain how communism isn't inherently evil is "lol, you must hate America," then in my book, they would be far too immature for me to want to be friends with them.

However, if you're actually trying to argue which is superior, than to a certain extent, you should really expect that, and like others have mentioned, it really is a matter of respecting the beliefs and ideologies of others.

The fact of the matter is, your society currently works around Capitalism. This is what the average member of society believes in, and a lot of these members of society will believe that it has done their society well. (Not to say they're wrong, I'm keeping my beliefs on the matter neutral for the sake of this thread.)

If you're arguing which ideology is better, since Capitalism is currently considered the norm, it's going to be a relatively natural reaction (Not necessarily the right one) for them to consider it something of an attack against their own ideologies.

Anyway, in summary, if it is an argument about communism not being inherently evil and that is all, then from what we've been told, it seems to be a lack of maturity on their part, and you'd be best off leaving those friends to their own antics. If you do get along with those friends perfectly well when you're not discussing this though, seriously, use some common sense, realise they're not going to change their ideologies and stop having the conversation.

If you're arguing which ideology is better, then that conversation is going to go the same way every time, too. They're not going to change they're mind, and you're all going to need to learn how to just respect each other's idelogies. Again, it's just a conversation that is going to go the same way every time and isn't really worth having.

As everyone else said, for a pre-built and for the price, it's really not a bad system, and you should be able to run a lot of newer games at acceptable settings, but don't be surprised if you find yourself needing to upgrade a few parts in the near future.

I really do see what you mean, and I definitely don't disagree that such a society would be a wonderful thing.

However, what would be done about those who have an innate and inexplicable need to simply have more than everyone else does?
And also surely there would be seperate issues with a resource based economy, when it comes to working to generate the resources required?
Very few are going to want to take the workload simply for the sake of bettering society, and I feel like it'd be hard to put a fair and effective system into place to deal with this.

Also, when it comes to developement in many fields, I really think that competition breeds innovation, and you could very much argue that capitalism breeds competition.

Would it really be such a good thing for everyone to say 'we should be happy with what we've got?'

Yeah, of course.
The weapon skill of the characters will essentially be just slightly above average, it's mostly about good weapon familiarity, in the sense he'd be able to pick up most handguns and some rifles and quickly be familiar with how to use it and the feel of the weapon.
By no means will he have military level aim and reflexes.

The behavioural instincts will of course be within reason and event specific, and mostly just above that of which you'd expect from an average citizen. Again, nothing particularly unbelievable, just perhaps certain reactions you wouldn't quite expect from an 'average citizen.'

The organisational and leadership skills of the characters also won't be beyond what you'd expect from them from their background.
It's essentially just to show that should a certain situation require it, the characters would be entirely capable of leading small, gang-sized groups and organising operations similar to what they'd have previously experienced. By no means will these characters have the leadership skills to start and effectively run a full organisation without some serious preparation, for example.

From what I've read from you so far, your friends seem to be pretty immature.

Now, of course people have differing opinions, but differing opinions coupled with immaturity when it comes to the opinions you have of the opinions that others have, doesn't go well.

It might be one of those times when it's really not worth talking to a brick wall.

It's worked pretty well for me over the years, with various upgrades at least.

Player Section

Steam Name: [SNG] StingsVolgin
Age: Fourteen.
How long have you been Roleplaying? (can be any game): Approximately 3 years.
How long have you been playing Serious GMod RP?: Approximately a year.

Character Section

Authorization(s):
- Weapons skill.
- Combat awareness.
- Familiarity with Combine.
- Innate ability to hold himself together under stressful situations.
- Illogical sense of bravado, particularly when it comes to helping allies in danger.
- Great organisational skills and leadership.

Name: Sam Volgin [Outlands] and John Volgin [City]
Age: 24 and 23, respectively.
Gender: Male
Affiliation: None

Write a detailed in-canon back-story how your character obtained these authorizations.
Both of the brothers were born and bred in London, into an English family with Russian descent.

The brothers were incredibly close, and John had a tendency to follow the lead of Sam.

They lived in a very poor family through the younger years of their lives, and Sam and John bother realised that they wanted something better for their family.

As such, they realised that together they were suited for a life of crime.

Together they led a notorious underground crime gang, committing many successful, high profile, often armed crimes.
During this time they both gained great familiarity with small weapons such as handguns, and also relatively good familiarity with larger weapons such as submachine guns and certain rifles during some more 'adventurous' jobs, as well as great organisational and people skills which they needed to use to keep their gang working well as a unit.

Multiple jobs went horribly wrong, but both brothers managed to get out of these situations unscathed, physically at least.

During these jobs, the brothers found themselves needing to put their familiarity with their weapons to the test, ending up with the deaths of around 4 innocent people during this time, as well as the death of close family friend and gang member, Frank.

Despite how this mentally affected them, they managed to develop an innate ability to deal with stressful situations and concentrate on the job at hand when "shit hits the fan."

During the Seven Hour War, the brothers and their gang prepared themselves to fight back against the combine invasion as best they could, holed up in their large family house, willing to protect their family with their lives.
Despite all odds, they managed to hold out for almost 2 hours of the invasion, of which the brothers watched the combine carefully, as best they could, hoping to gain a certain amount of familiarity with the ways of the invaders should they survive.

Unfortunately however, the combine broke through, quickly and brutally murdered every member of their family, Sam's wife and child, their ageing mother and father, and their two sisters.
In a matter of moments, John forced Sam to leave, and despite hesitation John managed to convince Sam to run. Sam headed for the docks of South Hampton, where he managed to climb aboard a boat full of others trying to escape from the invaders.
The boat was destroyed but Sam managed to survive, somehow washing up on the shores of Bulgaria, where he trekked north, eventually ending up in the Outlands of Romania, where his new story begins.

John expected death, as he dropped his weapon and started shouting at the invaders, trying to grab their attention to give Sam a moment to escape.

Miraculously, he didn't find himself dead within a matter of seconds.
The Combine invaders captured him, and sent him to City 45, and this is where John's new story begins.

The deaths they witnessed during the Seven Hour War and the deaths they feel they caused during their past has caused them to have to deal with a lot of mental suffering, and has also caused them both to develop an illogical sense of fearlessness, ready to put themselves in harm's way to save others, and also ready to help allies in any way they possibly could, as a way to make up for the atrocities they feel they both caused.

What will these authorizations give your character in regards to perks or defects?
Perks
As former leaders of a high-profile underground crime gang, the brothers have developed a great ability to lead groups and work incredibly effectively under high stress situations, as shown by their many previous successes. Past instances where they've found themselves having to deal with a sudden death of an innocent person or close friend has added to their ability to keep a certain amount of level-headedness under great stress while still being able to successfully concentrate on the job at hand.
The brothers have experience with working with people, usually potential new gang members, often nervous or scared by the prospect of what they were about to get involved. The brothers have successfully taught a number of people totally unfamiliar with weapons how to handle a weapon to a more than acceptable level.
Due to the deaths they feel they have caused over the years, they have developed a sense of fearlessness which often means they put themselves in dangerous positions to help those who are in great danger, to try and make up for this.

In short:
- Innate familiarity with the skills required to work effectively in an active and defensive role as a member of any resistance group they may come across.
- Ability to help those who may be scared or unfamiliar with weapons.
- Innate ability to rise morale of allies under stressful situations and to provide helpful tactical information.
- A certain amount of illogical sense of fearlessness that can come to save those in trouble.
- Ability to lead under situations where it is required, and good general people skills.

Defects
Due to the deaths they feel they have caused over the years, they have developed a sense of fearlessness which often means they put themselves in dangerous positions to help those who are in great danger, however, due to the lack of time the brothers take to think about what they do, this fearlessness is likely to backfire.
The brothers tend to be quite over confident due to the experience they have with The Combine from during the war and the experience they have with weapons, as well as their experience with dealing with stressful situations. Such over confidence is likely not the best way to deal with CPA, and as such this too, could backfire.

In short:
- Likely to get themselves into trouble with The Combine.
- Likely to put themselves into unreasonable amounts of danger.
- A certain amount of over confidence under stressful and often dangerous situations.

What do you plan to do with these perks/defects?
This is mainly to build a solid background and build solid behavioural insincts for my characters.

Both characters are likely to seek allies in resistance groups, and put themselves in harm's way to help the lives of others, as a way to make up for what they both feel they have allowed to happen in the past, as well as the things they actively did themselves through their previous lives of crime.

Essentially, these authorisations will just be reasoning towards the sometimes odd, and brash behavioural instincts of the characters, as well as an above average ability to deal with fear and stress. (Not completely as to negate Fear RP, of course.)

Will anyone else need these auths? (If so, list OOC and IC name(s))
No.

Which server does this apply for?
Both

Extra Notes (optional):