Calax

The game isn't specifically scare as much as it can be an adrenaline pumper because of the tenseness of doing the special infected as a group. Tanks in particular are freaky because on higher difficulty it's a 1shot down and when you're playing vs your friends can get VERY good with the tanks.

"I do think a preliminary stoning would be warranted, just to get them to the repentant stage." I got scared at the point where they said they'd gather up animals and toss em in a well to practice baptisms... That said, the church also recently changed it's stance on condom use mainly over the Aids epidemic.

yay! I have something in common with Wil! That said, I think the thing with the NCR is that you're shown a fairly sympathetic face of the lower rungs of the organization just wanting to do good, but feel hamstrung by the higher groups. Almost any other faction you meet is either obviously not going to matter (powdergangers) or shown as horrible (CL). When you get to NV all of a sudden it's like they all looked up and went "CRAP! He's actually important! WORK FOR MEE COURIER!" And the only time the 38 will be that important to players is when they're doing the New Vegas quests on the strip, anywhere else and they're just gonna go into whatever bed they can find for the naps that they need.

Assuming the NCR take the area, it's doubtful that Vegas would stay as an independant location for more than a generation. Independent states like that need to have an outside friend or something to balance the powers around them to make it more important that they stay open and independent. The legion tho is just potrayed as so downright... evil for a majority of the game that the only way you can play as anything but a sociopath is to have either NCR or House/Yesman win.

This may have an interesting ripple given that the aussie government is saying that studies are finding no strong link between Violent videogames and homicide rates. TAKE THAT JACK THOMPSON!

I think they never show up because they might engage in fights with any NCR they'd encounter otherwise, and wipe the NCR out (regardless of the Helios One shoehorn, the Brotherhood can't possibly lose a fight against the NCR in the actual game, save maybe several veteran rangers) which might break some quests. It still would be great to see the BoS lay some smackdown on the NCR arseclowns. But that's a valid point. Having scattered fights of NCR and BoS troops could frag up some quests or at the very least make things overly difficult in some situations. Either case still a let down he mentions sending patrols out but none are ever seen I did flip out earlier tonight when I saw what I thought was a BoS power armor set at an NCR camp (It was an NCR heavy trooper). He looked like he could go toe to toe with a BoS soldier and give the guy a good fight. Along these lines one thing that's been bugging me is that you hear all about how this faction hates that faction etc etc, but you only ever really see the one military action between the NCR and Legion. The Kahns are practically invisible, and almost everyone else is just a tiny part of the wasteland with only the NCR being the shown throughout the wastelands. Also, I wish there was more interaction with the Legion. As it is you only really interact with them negatively until you get to the strip and then you can work for them, but the way that the NCR talks, it feels like they should have an entire section of the map that is technically their territory, which shows the benefits and drawbacks to the Legions way rather than the NCR way.

Maybe it won't be a total removal of the two party system. I was thinking more like there are parties within parties that argue with each other over stuff, but still consider the other major party to be the biggest problem. You're already kinda seeing it with the Tea Party schtick where they consider themselves non-party, but 96% of them are republican.

The system will become too complicated for the general public and people will instead vote for their favorite drink/food. The downfall of the Tea Party. So... The Mocha and Latte parties are gonna be the most powerful... Or the beer party

Well, more standard missiles can be eliminated before they hit fairly easily as their trajectory keeps them in atmosphere and thus targetable. ICBM's are only really hittable right near launch and almost on top of their target, nowhere in between.

I personally would prefer that fluff text be just that, text. But when you're getting quests from guys who have the same voice 8 billion times it's annoying. It's like they have 1 guy who does 90% of the voices for the quest guys, and the other 10% are all individuals. I'd be ok if there was one voice for the random "NCR Trooper" characters, but when the NCR trooper has the same voice as his brothers in arms, commander, commanders commander, and then the Commander of his enemy and the seditious alien from another planet.

Stargate as an RPG would be best if it just cloned Alpha Protocol... just change the terrorists to Jaffa.

Except when he's wrong.

Well, if these groups start going, the two party system as we know it will be dead.

Long range doesn't necessairly mean ICBM. The biggest one the NK military has (From my understanding) is the Taepodong-2 which they tested in 06 and has an operational range that'll let it hit alaska at the very very edge.

Pushing what issue? All the "catfight"gossip that has taken over the news. Please; people don't care, they know, they have always known and don't care. Nobody has their panties in a bunch, there isn't any juicy that's going to dramatically change domestic policy. As soon as this becomes old news we won't even remember that it happened. Interesting that you're saying "people don't care" and yet when the leaks hit it's the main thing on the news and being discussed by people. Not just the leaks but what is contained within. Look at this thread for example. Also, at what point does a leak go from a bad leak that threatens national security and should never have been released, to a good leak, where the publics interests are protected in the face of what we are told is "issues of national security" and "People will die because of this leak"? I admit, a lot of what was released recently is relatively inane crap, but one thing I think many people are failing to realize is that without the news networks shoveling them information, people don't learn this sort of thing. Sure there are people who know about the nuke stuff and the fact that we basically fund our own opponents through sheer stupidity, but many people probably didn't because they didn't care to look up the information, but when something like wikileaks forces the information onto front page and fox news, people actually learn about it.

Ok, so earlier this year we had a thread where somebody asked about the Tea Party itself. I ended up stumbling across a site that seems to be somebody basically collating everything they can on the movement and tossing it into one specific point http://teapartynationalism.com/index.php Ended up finding some... interesting ideas on that site. Like the Leader of one of the national groups saying that only property owners should vote again because they "have a vested interest in the community".

My point nep, is that without wikileaks pushing the issue, it would generally be ignored by the government. Sure they could look it up but unless something has people's panties in a bunch it's not gonna happen, leaking stuff like this forces the government to actually take action, or at least start discussing the issue, rather than just kinda letting it sit while they argue about 500k towards somebodies personal pet project that got stuck in a bill.

Again: Would people be discussing these issues without Wikileaks forcing the issue?

Well, part of the voice acting for me is realizing that 90% of the NCR quest characters share their voices and the voices of half the male settlers in the area.

I think if you sent an email to customer support you might be able to get that changed, but *shrugs*

I saw their rationale, but the thing is that due to sociological programming, something on that scale instantly screams "BAD BAD BAD EVIL EVIL EVIL!" in 90% of peoples heads (including your characters given that 2/3 lines of dialogue are "dude, you suck!") I'm not asking for the quests you mentioned, but maybe have us go to a CL town that prospered only after CL came in and rebuilt it with people actually WANTING to work/live with the CL would have done a lot to de-villify the CL. Show what they're doing can work, and while extreme, they are fair about things. Sort of like the Clans in Battletech fluff.

I was thinking more the ones who consider themselves robin hoods. The ones for the indie bundle are just the ones who crack because they can.

If the Koreas go to war, the only way the NK's win is if they hit hard and fast enough to basically take control of the entire peninsula before anyone can react (which in this day and age is going to be a matter of hours). Otherwise it'll either be a quick invasion, reversal, victory for the south, or a long bogged down conflict as everyone and their pet goat in NK gets a rifle and starts shooting at anything approaching (said the experianceless armchair general)

We should do things that eliminate the causes of murder obviously - increased education, increased prosperity of the populace. Increased law enforcement only works up to a point and the long-term gains are not as large. It's a fitting example you chose Volourn, because it demonstrates why eliminating the source of a problem - changing one's business model in this case - has superior efficacy in the medium to long-term to treating people harshly. This was exactly my point, no matter what you're gonna have to deal with piracy, theft, damaged good, and other losses when operating a commercial enterprise. Part of that operation includes minimizing those losses, both through legal (prosecuting those who steal) and business changes (like not leaving 500 bucks worth of product at the door without a camera). Currently most publishing houses are going overboard on the DRM and ending up driving people to think that as pirates they're being robin hood (and HellKitty, they're robbing from the rich and cracking the game so the poor can get it) because they're fighting draconian business practices. Are they right? I'm... on the fence. On one hand I can see where they're coming from. They feel they have no real way to "fight the power" because of how the entertainment industry works. People dislike Ubisoft's draconian DRM, but still buy the game because they want to be able to keep up with Assassins Creed and not have everyone around them telling stories about it and feel left out. So, they decide to do a hybrid, still get the game and feel like they're doing something to "fight the power. On the other hand, they are in fact stealing, but it's more akin to petty theft rather than anything really prosecutable. Which is why we end up with people being charged with a zillion counts of theft to actually get the dollar amount into a position where it's prosecutable. I have a question for those of you in this thread who are opposing software piracy so vehamently: Is it ok for there to be second hand retail of those same games by gamestop and other outlets? I ask this because one of your major points is that the developers and publisher get no money for pirated copies beyond the original one store bought by the first pirate. And yet, in the case of the second hand sales, it's the exact same thing, the same disk can be bought and sold a thousand times and earn gamestop 10,000 times the amount of money as was originally worth, and the publisher would only see the one sale. So if there is a difference that makes the second hand sales not receive your holy wrath, what is it?