Walsingham

@Irrelevant: The 'lie' I'm referring to (not sure if I used that term) is the notion that the depiction of sex in games is wrong. I'm simply saying it's quintessentially male, and therefore perfectly valid. Certainly as valid as it would be if we shifted to a depiction of sex in games which was all meaningful glances, and romance.

That reminds me. Was anyone up for me and my mate making a bunch of Nuka Cola Quantum lamps?

I should have been more clear. My point is precisely yours. Applying samctions may simply weaken 'his' people further, and provide yet more excuses for the failures of his state. I simply got distracted by the professor's continued rambling about things he knows nothing about. He probably wasn't even out of short pants when apartheid ended.

Yeah, right. That's why apartheid ended. Er... much as I hate to contradict the learned professor, they had a massive impact. Because unlike most despotic regimes apartheid was sustained by a limited democracy. That democracy was wide enough that the people who made decisions got hurt by the buckshot of sanctions and eventually they decided they disliked the sanctions more than they disliked ending apartheid. Win for sanctions. The problem with sanctions in most cases is that the regime is not the people getting hurt by the sanctions. In fact hurting the regular people is what the regime is generally doing in the first place. As would be the case here. For this reason I suggest we appoint LoF as Obsidian ambassador to North Korea. I'm sure his world class understanding of marxism-leninism-maoism will be enough to convince them of the error of their ways.

If I may post a piece of doggerel, which I think is more descriptive:

WHAT THE HELL??!!! Now that's what I call a companion assisted intimidation effort.

Explain the male attitude to sex you are referring to, and what it is (you think) what women want us to think. Fair question. I'm not really sure, not being all men. But I would say it was multi-faceted. On the one hand it's very practical, very shallow. On the other we're fascinated to the point of incoherence by the simple biology of the opposite sex. Then there is the whole issue we have negotiating the occasion with women. Our various encultured hang-ups about women with the conflict between whore and madonna (as in virgin mary). Orogun mentioned maturity as an absence of extreme, but I couldn't disagree more. Sex for men is extreme. It is tied to our most volatile hormone - testosterone. It is bound up inextricably with power. It can make you feel powerful, it can make you feel powerless, to a large degree it even depends on power. Sex itself can become such a driving passion that it totally enslaves the individual! I think all the associations with sex in gaming tie into this. Contrast this with the supposedly 'mature' view of sex and all you find is that we are supposed to treat sex as nothing more than energetic cuddling. An extension of the relationship 'contract'. I accuse this view of being half-formed and terrified of the truth. Like saying the only kind of mature cuisine is baking.

I've found a copy of an old map I made for Heroes of Might and Magic 3. I must say it's pretty damn good - detailed, and containing lots of puzzles and dialogue/stories. There's a comedy overworld, with a bloody dark underworld concealing a terrible secret. I'd be really pleased if anyone wanted a copy to play, and thought I'd offer it up.

I think Pid should refer to his mammoth lovemaking as a 'bureau initiative'.

I fear it is obvious your machine's spirit is corrupted.

Unchained - Lacuna Coil

Who's the deacon? I'm the deacon, baby. I am.

Some people might have overlarge cheekbones, but by and large they are symmetrical, fresh faced, and often wearing makeup! This is particularly galling to a sniper like myself as about 1 in 10 female raiders looks really rather good. Have you seen the film The Road?

As of this tiem last year it is my opinion that orginal themes and original mechanics INEVITABLY end up with some bugs. Because hwen you are being original you hit original problems that by definition you didn't know to expect. You are also usually dealing with far more complex degrees of freedom. This is a pretty revolutionary angle, but I really am taking it: bugs aren't necessarily a sign of badness.

You've totally missed my point. Tell me what you think a 'mature' interpretation of sex is. because I will argue it is whatever mature people think it is. And frankly I am arguing that there is nothing immature about male attitudes to sex; there is simply a disjunction between those attitudes and what women want us to think. And that there is nothing intrinsically virtuouis about altering our games to reflect a lie.

Subject change: faces. Everyone in the wasteland looks far too attractive, especially given the high stress, poor nutrition, and radiation. I think that introducing irregularity, blemishes, cancers and so on would be beneficial to immersion and a useful aid to storymakers in terms of shaping player reactions to individual and group NPCs.

Would I be being frightfully rude if I suggested you might work for the EU? 5 thousand apiece sounds like a lot, except all government contracts are overblown. If it were 2 grand I wouldn't bat an eyelid. Throw in through life cost of support, disposal, peripherals, apps... I reckon we could finagle it upwards.

An unstable country certainly does breed terror. But if you think Saddam's Iraq was stable you're insane. It was finely poised instability. All these ethnic tensions, and bloody lunatics didn't drop out of a rainbow the day after we won the war. His stalinist regime was predicated on healthgiving doses of random ultraviolence and paranoiac corruption. As for your comment about crazy arab dictators, I put it to you again that this is mere racism. I refuse to believe there is something intrinsic beating in the heart of arabs which enjoys being oppressed and tortured*, and will never engage with freedom. A conviction that is underpinned rather than undermined by the high levels of peaceful political engagement in Iraq. *Although if there were it might helpfully be explained to the various mentalists in the US administration who insist on torturing suspects.

Anorexia already is a religion, with vanity as the God, and the bloody fashion industry as the priesthood.

Sounds like later edition rubbish to me. I'll check later.

Which I believe that you believe is not present / possible in computer games, at least in F:NV. No comment, then.

If it looked like that I'd have left the m*********r on!

I assume that's a Dungeons and Dragons god? Bah. Warhammer gods WORK for a living. EDIT: by 'work' I mean consume souls by having their dancing minions roast continents, and sweep the ashes into space.

I just had a large mole cut off. Doc spotted it when I was having my back looked at, and he said it should come off and be biopsy'd [not sure how to spell that]. It wasn't painful, actually. Had a good chat to the nurse while it was going on. No need for alarm.