SteveThaiBinh

Yet someone who calls for the deaths of American soldiers can hardly be a pacifist, can she? Any more than a self-professed 'Muslim' who calls for the killing of innocents can be a Muslim. Too often we compare the best of our own side with the worst of the other, and inevitably find the other wanting. Democracy fails unless we can see the honour in our opponents.

Chilling, and not just the spelling. :ph34r: @The Guildmaster: This anniversary is no reason to start making exciting and innovative changes. The layout and colour scheme are fine and the forums do not need touching up in any sense. Let's not tinker with perfection.

Plenty of ordinary Muslims and community leaders spoke out against these attacks. As to why they didn't organise big public demonstrations, I would speculate: 1. Fear of attracting racist violence from non-Muslims. I sympathise with the instinct to keep your head down in situations like that. 2. Fear of a moderate protest being hijacked by extremists, just as we saw last week. The peaceful demonstrators didn't incite or support the violence, and the extremists don't want to prove Islam isn't violent. The extremists want Islam to be violent, to fight and destroy the non-Islamic world. Islam preaches great loyalty to and solidarity with the umma, the worldwide community of Muslims. I guess it's initially uncomfortable for moderate Muslims to side with the secular/Christian against fellow Muslims, or at least people who profess to be Muslims. Yet this has to happen, if the 'Class of Civilisations' is to be averted. I don't think these cartoons have made that easier for Muslims who are predisposed to side against extremism. The UK's incitement to religious hatred laws would, in their initial form, probably have made publishing these cartoons illegal. Thankfully, that draft appears to be in the bin now.

Rumours at Gamespot that Lego Star Wars 2 is in production make Kotor 3 somewhat less likely, I think. Still, they're only rumours, of course.

Silver is winning again. I never really liked the look of a silver lightsaber, and I don't understand its appeal. Can someone enlighten me?

Welcome back to Metadigital and his rather scary sig.

Hey, this thread is exclusively for the purpose of mocking Battlecookiee! Burnt cookies?

I think it's just a very, very small man.

Off and on through the day, as I'm often at the computer doing other things.

Have you looked over at the Bioware tech support forum for Kotor 1? I'd be happy to help if I could, but I know there have been a lot of problems with graphics cards and Dantooine and they have some good threads with solutions. You have a much better chance of getting help there than here.

I followed two links. I would have seen more, but this is not the most stable computer and opening new windows is always risky.

I still have this idea of one NPC shoving another, it develops into a brawl, the guards get involved, pretty much the whole town joins in, they all kill each other, and the PC walks into town for the first time to find the bodies lying around and no explanation of what happened. My guess is that the QA people are finding the free will of the NPCs is throwing up odd situations, not as severe as above, but game-threatening or bug-like, and that as they continue making modifications to the AI the number of these oddities is not decreasing. I wouldn't be surprised to find the finished product with much less NPC freedom than was initially suggested. Who's bashing Bethesda? No-one around here, I'm sure.

It seems their government control of information is very good, confounding the hopes of internet pioneers. That's assuming we're getting an accurate impression of their technology, rather than the official government spin. In any case, if we're to justify trade with China it has to be on other grounds than that somehow this contact will promote democracy in China, because it might or might not, there's no way to tell. I accept trade with China because trade promotes economic development on both sides - it's good that China's economy continue to develop because Chinese economic growth has lifted millions of people out of poverty. If we believe in Making Poverty History, we should support trade with China. We don't need to be nice about their human rights record, though.

Useful BBC article, thanks. An important point, and one that suggests some of the protesters are being rather hypocritical. Another point that occurs is whether it would be acceptable, under freedom of speech, to reproduce these anti-Semitic cartoons in our newspapers. It would be grossly offensive, as most of us agree the caricatures of Mohammed are, but do papers have the same free speech right to publish them? I think they do, but I would also be disgusted to see such images proudly published in the name of free speech (I remember the Nazi cartoons from school history texts). It makes me understand a little better why the Muslim reaction to these cartoons has been so strong, though that's no excuse for death threats etc. I don't have figures to hand, but would not be surprised to learn that Denmark (by itself and through the EU) is a major aid donor to the Islamic world, and will (I hope) continue to be so when all this has died down. On a related note, it's been facinating to see the usually rather extreme British newspapers and TV being so restrained in not publishing the cartoons. It's hard to get any consistency in their approach to freedom of speech. We've seen Jerry Springer - The Opera broadcast on BBC TV despite content as offensive to Christians as its possible to be, I guess. Yet Popetown (watch the trailer for a general idea) was banned before it was even broadcast.

I'm taking a break from all things Civ at the moment. In a few months, I'll feel a civ urge once again, but will it be for Civ 3 or 4? I'd guess 4, but only time will tell which has the greater staying power.

Maybe Bethesda were worried that the promises of better stories and characters in Oblivion was scaring away people who only like combat: 'Please buy our game, it's just like Dungeon Siege 2, honest!'. I still have my doubts about Radiant AI - I'd guess their QA department is finding lots of unforeseen problems and forcing a last-minute scaling down.

You're right, it was the positive outcome to that meeting that was restored by the mod. So then I have no idea how he made it to the Star Forge on his own.

They're trying to persuade us that NWN2 was not created in a drunken haze, and we believe them, yes we do. Interesting that some of us look at that and see the cool TV first, and others the title screen of the game. I'd buy one of each. Where's the online shop, Obsidian?

Carth knew that his and Mission's only chance of survival was to get out of there. He's a soldier - he's hopelessly outmatched, so surely his duty is to survive to get the message out that Revan has turned again, not to die in a pointless last stand? I never felt happy that Mission didn't follow him. She liked Revan, but she wasn't a fool and it was obvious by this point what was happening. She was too smart to be that loyal - the experience with her brother taught her that. Of course, I appreciate the usefulness of the murder of Mission with regards to the narrative. Remember that this scene is not in the official game, but was restored by a mod.

It's not really about bugging them to satisfy anyone. They have a product that they're going to need to publicise, and screenshots might be a way of doing that. I'm sure they've given this all a lot more thought than I have, though. May the (marketing) Force be with them :D

Yes, but perhaps not until LucasArts has some trouble with its other titles and needs a solid performer. I think they have a two game per year policy now, and I'd guess their other franchises are more profitable. It's always fun to read the rumours, though.

Gabrielle consumes souls (which are low in calories).

Most people who play the game would probably agree with you. Star Wars is all about Jedi and lightsabers, however interesting some other aspects might be. I think Obsidian were trying to make you work harder than Kotor 1 to get your lightsaber, so that you would appreciate it. I think they should have made it harder without making it take so much longer - you get it about 1/3 into the game or so, right? Maybe if the ending had been more substantial, it wouldn't have felt so long. Everything always comes back to the weak ending.

Fair Trade chocolate - guaranteed guilt-free.

Advocates of free trade claim it is not a zero-sum game. When implemented fairly, it benefits all sides. Alas, Europe and the US haven't been willing to cut agricultural subsidies or allow African food producers to sell their goods for a fair price. The main problem with aid is not that it's damaging in itself, but that it can only ever be a drop in the ocean and a distraction from the real issue: getting African economies and the international trade system working.