SteveThaiBinh

Regardless of how the UN's authority was weakened and who is to blame (a debate for another thread, and no, I don't agree with you), it has been weakened. You can't be surprised that Iran won't rely on the UN and international law for its security. The leadership of Iran has said that it wants to wipe Israel off the face of the map. For that reason, the regime in Iran is unacceptable, because any military capability they acquire, nuclear or otherwise, is likely to be turned on Israel. The only options are to destroy the capability and thus contain the threat, or to change the regime. Containing the threat is what was tried in Iraq, and it proved ultimately not to work. Even if you bomb a few nuclear power stations from the air, there will always be doubt about the situation on the ground. 'Intelligence sources' will, accurately or not, report secret development facilities, mobile chemical factories, and so on. So long as the regime remains committed to the goal of acquiring nuclear weapons, ultimately the pressure will build, as it did with Iraq, for an invasion. This is, therefore, is only a way of delaying option 2 which is: Invasion! Send in the US (and perhaps European?) armies to occupy Iran and effect regime change. Casualties will be heavy and ongoing, as resistance by Iranians is likely to be more serious than in Iraq - Iranians don't hate their regime the way Iraqis hated Saddam Hussein. The invasion will prove conclusively to the Muslim world that the West is involved in an anti-Islamic crusade. Recruitment to islamic terrorist organisations will jump, as will terrorist attacks against, amongst others, Israel. The US army will be bogged down, no more able to keep order in Iran than in Iraq, and certainly unable to fight a war elsewhere in the world. North Korea will become more aggressive as it sees the US occupied elsewhere. China may even invade Taiwan. These are the nightmare scenarios that come into my mind when people start talking about how diplomatic efforts in Iran are doomed to failure. If you want to persuade me to your point of view, you need to pick apart what I've written above. I don't pretend to be an expert on Iran or foreign affairs, so it shouldn't be too hard for you guys.

The first Gulf War was supposed to herald a new age of international law and security, as it was approved by the UN security council and supported by most of the world. In the 'New World Order', no country need have fear of external attack, because the US and UN would stand up and repel any illegal invasion, just like they got Iraq out of Kuwait. It was only a first step, but a lot of people had genuine hopes for a more orderly world. Alas, the US and UK threw all of that out of the window by launching an illegal external attack on Iraq to protect us all from WMDs that didn't exist. The 'coalition' showed itself willing to ignore the UN and do whatever it thought best. International law and the authority of the UN were weakened. So now, if another country were to invade Iran, George Bush is more likely to applaud the invaders than stand up for Iranian sovereignty. Why then should the Iranians trust in the UN? Why not do everything in their power to get the best defence available? They are responding to an unstable insecure and lawless environment that we exacerbated. I don't want to see Iran have nuclear weapons, or Pakistan, India or Israel for that matter. But what kind of security structure can we put in place so that these countries don't feel the need for nuclear weapons? Perhaps the US should include the whole Middle East in its Missile Defense system? What else would work?

Indigo Prophecy (Fahrenheit) is very good. Except for the arcade bits, of course. Fable is fun for a while yet ultimately unsatisfying, and remarkably little replay value for an RPG. I enjoyed it for 30+ hours, which is still pretty good.

There was a game called Vampire: The Masquerade - Redemption. I liked VtM:B a lot, so I looked into this, but the reviews were mostly poor and I didn't fancy it. I'd play a VtM sequel, but I wonder how commercially successful it would be since the first game is associated with Troika's collapse. With the fantasy film genre experiencing a revival, maybe there are some promising movie tie-ins for Obs. to look at?

Remember, we are made in His image. Is there much conflict in the US between supporters of Intelligent Design and those who believe the Book of Genesis is literally true?

Or Carla Valenti? Female. Trapeze Artist. Irma.

"As long as" means "if" in this case, I'm afraid. If Bioware had made such an announcement we would have heard about it. At length.

Kotor 2 would have been a commercial disaster if it had only been on PC. Fable would never have been created if Microsoft hadn't wanted an RPG for its console. Consoles benefit us all, even those who prefer not to own them.

That would be wise from the point of view of design, because it would force a very small role for both Revan and the Exile, probably with no speaking. That would help K3 to work as a game in its own right, rather than trying to tie up too many loose ends.

Nah, you'd get bored in five minutes and be pestering us for a Death Star.

Huntsmen and animal rights activists in perfect symbiosis. It warms my heart. :D Or, more accurately, it doesn't. It's disgusting (though unsurprising) that protesters have so little regard for the lives of animals or people. Interestingly, requiring companies to get their livestock from overseas is one way of improving animal welfare standards in developing countries, as Western supermarkets can insist on humane treatment of animals from their suppliers. Whether this is progress on animal welfare or an insult to countries where many people live in inhumane conditions is another matter.

I thought it was giving them away with fridge-freezers. And if even 10% of the things on the PNJ forum were true, I'd buy a 360 for that.

I suppose I would buy a console so I could play one game, if that game were good enough (I bought a 386 to play Ultima VII). I don't think any of the forthcoming XBox360 games would qualify, except maybe Dreamfall, and that's on PC anyway. PNJ? We'll have to see.

I think the lesson so far is to choose the answer where we pick up or ready a gun, though not necessarily the one where we start firing it indiscriminately and kill the love interest.

We can't take his word - he's a self-confessed fraudster!

I don't know much about US shareholder law, but I guess being a shareholder, even with a handful of shares, gives him certain rights at annual shareholder meetings, enough to attract press attention, disrupt 'business-as-usual', and alarm the major corporate investors. This is supposed to be one of the major trends of our times: growing shareholder power in response to corrupt management at Enron and the like. An important source of revenue for the Yakuza (Japanese Mafia) is, or used to be, buying a small number of shares in a company and then threatening the bosses that they would disrupt shareholders meetings and damage the company's public image. In order to avoid this, the bosses would pay money for the Yakuza to stay away.

In the manner of Fable: The Lost Chapters, I hope many good RPGs are released on the XBox 360, followed by improved and expanded versions released on the PC some months later.

Not at all. Production of opium and power of warlords have increased: thus, descent.

Thanks for the heads up. I'm just downloading it now, and I'll post if anything dramatic happens.

After the descent of Afghanistan into warlordism and opium-production, and Iraq into civil war, I look forward with horror to Mr. Bush's military plans for Iran.

I'd like to say how impressed I was that Obsidian Entertainment attended the Asian Game Developers Summit. It shows greater international awareness and understanding of the growing importance of southeast Asia than most. I wonder if there's someone in the company who has a personal SE Asia connection.

He may technically win, but in the end, he will have lost. That's a very nice poll, and I would have voted had it not been closed by Battlewookiee to placate the GOTO-loving devs, no doubt.

How to waste time? Calling EA technical support springs to mind. In fact, any form of queueing: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/dorset/4574410.stm Four days for a waterless, powerless beach hut, though at least they did get the hut at the end. Call EA technical support and all you get is the phone bill.

No matter how many times this poll is posted, GO-TO will always lose. Hanharr was better, because your conversations with him were one of the most interesting opportunities to do something evil.

I don't care. When's the next Star Trek movie out?