ktchong

In 2012, when Syria shot down a Turkish jet that had entered Syrian airspace, Turkey's then-PM and current President Erdogan said, "A short-term border violation can never be a pretext for an attack." NATO condemned Syria for shooting down the Turkish jet, and said the shooting down of the plane was "unacceptable" and a "disregard for international norm," and they stood together with Turkey "in the spirit of strong solidarity". http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-18584872 Yet again, the double-standard hypocrisy of the West is laid bare for all to witness.

Unfortunately, the Paris attack may have helped Donald Trump to become the next US President.

European immigration policies are... foolish, inconsistent, insensible, and irrational. Among East Asians, (i.e., Chinese, Koreans and Japanese,) immigration to Europe is widely known as being extremely difficult. I know plenty of East Asians who are high-skilled scientists, engineers, university graduates, (and they are atheists and fairly Westernized,) have tried but were unable to immigrate to Europe. I have met and worked with plenty of them. The only Asians I know who have successfully immigrated to Europe (including my own sister) were Asian women who married into the countries. Yet the excessive immigration hurdles faced by East Asians in Europe are not uniformed across all different groups. Muslims, Arabs and Middle Easterners - who are also called "Asians" in Europe, IMO incorrectly and confusingly so - are welcomed into Europe without much immigration hurdles. So this is what East Asians think of Europe when the topic comes up in our discussions: Europe does not want high-skilled East Asians who are generally peacefully, do not make troubles, do not adhere to any teaching that encourages its followers to bombs or kills dozens or hundreds of people at a time, do not use sword - or guns and bombs - to spread a homicidal religion. Instead, Europe wants Muslims who have a religious agenda, want to immigrate but keep their own religious belief that does not mix well with European cultures, and want to convert Europe into Islamic when they have enough masses. I do not understand what Europe has been thinking, but I think their immigration policies are f---ed up.

Remotely relevant: I've just read Jennifer Lawrence's interview with Vogue, which came out earlier today and is hot in the news right now due to her shockingly honest criticisms of Donald Trump, Kim Davis, and the Republicans party in general. She is probably the most popular and well-like actress right now. In the past, her politics had always been a mystery - she kept her politics to herself so no one really knows what her political affiliation was. This interview is the first time I read anything about her political positions on a host of issues. I had thought she must be a Republican - because she came from Kentucky, from a wealthy middle-upper-class white family. Boy was I wrong. I expect the backlash and calls for boycotts from Fox News and conservative to follow anytime now. I have to say: I have always mildly liked her (mostly due to her roles in X-Men and The Hunger Games; don't care much for her boring feminist dramas.) After reading her spill her political opinions, my respect for her has gone up by a whole lot. Yesterday no one knew if she was a Republican or Democrat, conservative or liberal, because she had kept out of political discussions and interviews. Now everyone knows she stands.

Unless the publisher/developer pulls an EA/BioWare, i.e., refuses to put their games on Steam, and refuses to put together an all-inclusive Game of the Year or Deluxe edition of their games (Mass Effect, Dragon Age) to make sure customers would have to cough out every penny for every DLC, microtransaction and add-on. Which is why I have refused to buy anything from BioWare for years.

There is another unsavory trend in mobile gaming that will soon make inroad to the PC and console: Publishers/developers NOT telling people out-front that a game has microtransactions or IAP (in-app purchases), OR games that did not have micros/IAP at first but then added micros/IAP later AFTER people had already bought and paid for the apps, (i.e., Destiny.) Publishers/developers know a lot of people would not buy a game if they see that a game has microtransactions or IAP, so publishers/developers hide the fact. (For example: if I see or know a game has IAP or micros, I definitely won't buy it. Which is why publishers/developers try to hide IAP/micros from consumers. I've been extra careful and read through the user reviews/comments before I buy an app - nowadays I have to find find alerts and warnings about IAP/micros in user reviews/comments.) It's happening more and more in Google Play. We all know that kind of business behavior is unethical and most likely illegal. Unfortunately, I think a class action or FTC involvement will have to be the only way to stop them.

I have not played Mass Effect 3 so I have no idea what are in it, (I have stopped buying anything from BioWare for a few years now;) I've never play any Dead Space game so I wouldn't know anything about it. I supposed that's why I posted this same topic in BioWare, and they immediately removed it (literally within two minutes) and gave me a three-day ban, (i.e., "call for boycott of games is not allowed,") because EA/BioWare is among the biggest offenders of microtransactions.

It is a new trend for AAA games: put microtransactions into a game that already carries a $60-plus price tag. Recently, publishers and developers announced that Metal Gear Solid V, Halo 5 and The Rise of the Tomb Raider will all have microtransactions atop of their $60-plus price tags. In addition, they will have DLC and season passes - which may or may not include all the DLC; most likely they won't. I do not plan to play Metal Gear Solid V and Halo 5. So they are not my problem. However, I enjoyed the 2013 Tomb Raider reboot. I wanted to buy and play the Rise of the Tomb Raider when it comes out on the PC in late 2016. Just this week Crystal Dynamics announced that The Rise of the Tomb Raider will have 300 microtransactions for multiplayer. Many of those microtransactions are for "consumables", which means you will buy something, use it, and it will be gone - so you will have to buy it again. You will pay for microtransactions for items that can only be used once so you will have to pay over and over again. At the moment, all those microtransactions are for multiplayer segments of the games. Even though I never play multiplayer or any online game, (and thank goodness for that,) I am seriously thinking about skipping and boycotting Rise of the Tomb Raider. I do not want this microtransaction trend to become a problem. I know if we let those developers and publisher get away with adding microtransactions to the multiplayer segment of a game that will already carry a $60-plus price tag, it is just a matter of time before they will put microtransaction into single-player as well. Already on YouTube, the anger is brewing...

Not one of your has mentioned the real problem: birthright citizenship. Illegal immigrants are exploiting it. Chinese are exploiting it. It is the root of the problem.

Here are their demands at the union website: http://www.sagaftra.org/interactive/what-we-stand-for On the other hand, game studios and publishers have also been making very unreasonable demands: https://deadline.com/2015/10/sag-aftra-strike-video-game-industry-authorization-vote-1201568991/ After reading the articles, I'm more inclined to support the actors over the video game industry, which seems to be very exploitative.

Wow. How time has changed. http://money.cnn.com/2015/08/23/news/china-us-surrogacy/

It's in the news. Google it yourself.

Apparently some people have very strong feeling against this trailer - see here and here. They think the music is sacrilegious and unsuitable for a Warhammer 40K game. Personally, I love the trailer - especially the choice of the song. The rhythm tangos perfectly with the violence on screen. It feels so, Tarantino!

I demand Total War: Warhammer 40,000!

Actually, Syrians are not Arabs. Neither are Iranians/Persians, Lebanese, and other Levantines. Arabs and Levantines do not even look the same. IMO, Levantines (both men and women) are generally good looking people, (i.e., they look Mediterranean;) On the other hand, Arabs (both men and women) are generally very ugly people - they have very unappealing facial structures and features, so you are not missing much when their women completely cover up themselves. (No offense, but seriously, Arabs are just NOT a good looking people.) When people talk about how Arab women - or men - are "hot", they confuse Arabs with Levantines, and they are really talking about Levantine women and men - i.e., Lebanese, Syrian, etc. And, my understanding is, other than a shared religion, Arabs and Levantines have different cultures and generally do not get along with each other.

So... pointing out that the aggression and interventions of the US, EU and NATO in the Middle East are what have caused the refugee crisis is "anti-West"?

Oh yes, the US invaded Iraq because Amerians wanted to sprinkle fairy dust on Iraqis, bring Jesus to them, give them Christmas presents and Easter eggs and Disneyland, yadda yadda yadda. Talk about denial and the white savior/superiority complex.

I actually think the West, especally the United States, should accept refugees from the Middle East - beacuse it is the West, especially the United States, that has created the refugees crisis in the first place. The United States are especially responsible for the whole mess in Syria, Iraq, Libya and Afghanistan. Honestly, it is the US that is mostly responsible, but EU/NATO are also at fault for the destruction of the Middle East that's been going on in the past decade (if not longer.) On the other hand, there is little doubt in my mind that these Arab and Muslim refugees are the beginning fo the end of the European civilzations. By now we should know that Muslim immigrants in Europe are NOT going to assimilate. What they will do is they will overtake. It is not a secret Muslims desire to change Europe into Islamic. The hundreds of thousands - and likely millions - of Arab and Muslim refugees, who will most certainly have a much higher birthrate than the native European poplation, pretty much guarantees that the Islamization of Europe is inevitable, and it speeds up the process. If the Islamization of Europe was a myth, now it has certainly become not. Basically, we are witnessing a historical turning point: the beginning of the end of the Western civilization in Europe. The end will likely happen later in our lifetime. And, it's the West that sowed the seeds of their own downfall - by interfering in the Middle East. Now the West is facing the consequences. Karma rarely comes so swifly, but we are witnessing the full cycle of karma in our lifetime.

@Bruce: If the West had not interfered in Syria, and armed and provided assistance to the "Free Syrian Army" - who are mostly foreign Islamist extremist fighters - with the explicit purpose of ousting Assad (and replacing him with a pro-West dictator,) then the so-called "Arab Spring" and "resistance" would have been done and over with quickly. It's precisely the unsavory meddling of the US and EU into Syria's internal affair that has prolonged the war and compounded the misery, which has created this whole mess of refugees. As I said, the West sowed the seed of the civil war in Syria, and now the West is reaping the fruit in the form of hundres of thousands - and probably millions - of refugees. It's karma of your own doing.

When the "politically-correct diversity" of the far left and the "religious freedom" of the hard right converge....

I have never had a choice to be or not to be a certain race. I do not have a choice to change my race. However, most people do have a choice on whether they are fat or want to stay fat. The overwhelming majority of fat people are fat because they eat and eat and eat, and they are too lazy to get off their asses to do exercises and lose the calories. Now they are demanding special privileges and treatments for being fat and lazy.