Walsingham

The 'plastic' one looks awful ...until you have to carry the wooden one 15 miles in addition all your other kit. Ditto .303 rounds versus 5.56. But every schoolboy knows this. And my niece.

OK. I see what you mean.

Be careful ordering a black and tan. Depends what kind of Irish bar you're in. Hobgoblin is a damned good ale, although it gives me a thick head after only one pint. Hangover juice is what it is. As an appetiser it depends how serious you want to get. Up North they eat pork pies, because the fatty short crust pastry soaks well. Down South they eat cheese and onion sandwiches, because the onion is sharp in contrast to the ale. In London they eat ciabatta with squid frittata, because they're wankers.

From that metal band on the barrel, and the smoothly rounded magazine I'm going to guess Short Magazine Lee-Enfield .303. Stock looks an odd shape, though.

Sorry. I let the side down there.

Wow. Hope it's sorted now.

Is there anything at all which would be safe with a ravenous wolf inside it? A satiated tiger? I can see it now. Me: "Ah, a friendly satiated tiger. I will rest against it's warm fuzzy belly." Tiger: "Oh god, the pain!" *wolf emerges and eats me*

Is there anything at all which would be safe with a ravenous wolf inside it?

Well, thanks for setting me straight.

Aha.

Fair. Although I think you over-estimate the problem with big capital/time investments.

Ros, I'm afraid I liked all of what you wrote except the solution. Education isn't he solution. Plenty of people I've been through education with are spend spend spend lefties. It takes a lot of training and a heap of courage, and a deal of luck to get to the stage where you even think about complex problems, let alone understand the solution and follow through. And even if you did, the majority of people - and hence the democratic government - aren't going to go the same way you do. I'm genuinely beginning to think that the only way to prosper in a democracy is to set up an enclave inside one.

Well, Raithe, now you're talking how to balance the creation with the resources. I do see your point, but if we abandon the resource constraint, what do you think?

I don't get it.

Don't get wrong. I quite like the notion of us all making our own energy. Just on the level of security and societal resilience, what's not to like? But I have a deep unease at the presupposition that the West is going to enjoy it's predominance and standards of living, and national security, if we refuse to act in economically sustainable ways. Cheap energy equals industrial strength. Industrial strength is part of the equation of national security. To the best of my understanding, nuclear is cheaper across the board than renewables. Particularly in terms of infrastructure.

I'm going to declare Running With Scissors and tag out of this one. If you're in a state where people are privately armed, and you go robbing properties* then you can feel aggrieved - but not unduly surprised - if you get shot. *I'm right in thinking he was, aren't I?

Solved.

I'd defer to the devs here instantly if they disagree. But I think good writing is a difficult business. It takes more than just good people. They have to be managed well, and dragooned where necessary. However, I'd agree with Double D's analysis that the writers on Skyrim were weakass. There's just a tremendous lack of conviction in everything. Like all the NPCs are phoning their words in. It's not there all the time. But it is a problem.

I need you to clarify, do you mean that the NPCs have interdynamics that only relate to each other but not the player? Or that their response be based on choices made by the player? Sorry for not being clearer. I knew at the time I wasn't. I mean that you have story archetypes which are generically engaging, like revenge, or a lost infant. However, the point made in the vlog was that each individual player responds to different personality types. So my question was whether you could have a fixed story line, but it was delivered by a number of different possible NPCs. So, in New Vegas I really enjoyed Boon's quest. Mistakes made in the heat of the moment, regret, redemption. All that good stuff. But could it have been delivered by another NPC? So have the same sequence of encounters, 'narrated' by (I don't know) Ed-E?

To my understanding the key point here is proving Zimmerman acted with intent or negligence to kill. Proving that beyond reasonable doubt strikes me as being just as hard as other posters have already said. Anecdotal aside: I once acted to try and stop an ongoing burglary. I was so excited that although I gave a perfect description of the suspect I couldn't remember my own name!

I'm not going to go there in case it's infected. Well done for flagging it.

Oh god. Nothing more worrying than that sort of thing happening to someone you love. Be strong.

Interesting angle, kalimeeri. I don't agree, completely. But interesting.

Since it's you, Amentep, I'll be even more straightforward. If I met Rolando Villazon I'd be very polite, and interested, because I've very much enjoyed operas he's been in. The artist and the audience share a connection, if you follow me. ~ I liked your second point. Yes, I think that investment by the player can be very powerful. In many ways perhaps - as I think you were already suggesting - the player investment should come first. Query: would it be acceptable to have common themes and subplots anchor on different NPCs, depending on which ones we identified with and took along with us? Like an ex lover or nemesis? So two different NPCs X and Y, can bring the baggage evil NPC Z into the story. Possibly in different ways, but still... I accept this would be mindblowingly difficult in terms of the way we build games currently. But I'm talking in the abstract.

If one of the female agents in Syndicate tried to seduce me I'd be bloody terrified. "Happiness is waking up, on a bright spring morning, next to a beautiful, passionate, multi-murderess."