Calax

No, because the science and culture within Britain and the US were significantly ahead of that found in Russia. In Britain they were making books and discussing them as a pastime, while the extent of printing and reading in Russia was government controlled pamphlets. Russia couldn't even get the industry up to make shirts that wouldn't fall apart in the rain, until three years after they got into a war with Napoleon. At the same time Britian's empire made it into a continental power that was mastering the seas in the 17th century. Russia had almost no navy, while proxy wars were fought between the English and continental powers in their colonies. And these would spill over into Europe itself. Russia would just have their generals brutally put down any serf that became unruly. I would have to start digging through old notes for specifics, but in general the Russians were about 30 years behind advances in science and tech, and as much as you may sit there and attempt to giggle up your sleeve at slaves, ultimately it took America 200 years to get rid of the institution, while Russia stuck it out from the 11th century until a grand total of 10 years before... For the first groups. Basically it'd be like the northern states abolishing slavery in 2212 and it takes until 2312 for it to be fully abolished. As much as you may enjoy declaring that Russia is the worlds greatest country evar, they didn't effect the worlds path nearly as much as you may think. After all, it's not like Russian is one of the dominant languages spoken in the world, or the main second language in most developing countries. It's not even able to export it's own culture to the rest of the world.

My grade has finally changed so my cumulative GPA is no longer in D territory

Fun Fact: Vanilla Ice is a pro house flipper now.

True, but there is a significant difference between simply triking your mind into filling in the gaps in an illustration or illusion, and totally hijacking your senses in their entirety. As in, orders of magnitude. Part of the reason this would be so hard is because you couldn't just program a simple linear lifeline for people to follow. Instead you'd have to set it up to act as an open world, which requires SO much extra work and manipulation it's not even funny.

Spent four hours arguing with my cat about what legacy I would leave behind were I to end up dead in the near future. Didn't go well...

You mean other than the fact that they didn't become a local power until after Peter showed up? Or that they were still using serfs until the 1850's? Or that the royalty deliberately held back scientifica and cultural progress so that they didn't have to deal with a highly educated underclass that'd rise up and attempt to depose them? And they didn't form the empires of Spain, France, or England. They weren't even a military power to threaten the rest of the world until the later half of the 20th century. Hell they were primarily agrarian until Stalin forced the entire population to adjust for more industrial work. As to Rome 2: It's getting better but there needs to be something to make the mid/late game more fun.

There were several nods to the comic books. Mostly one off lines, but there were a few prop gags (like the car)

And then spent most of my afternoon holding my sandwich away from the cat. Didn't turn out so well At a different point he was standing with all four of his paws on my arm as I held it extended.

Well, my boss told me today that next week we should all be getting a dollar raise And that next weekend she's dragging me to a birthday party (I think) so I can be social and find myself a woman. Apparently not realizing that my "good" clothes are basically my work uniforms.

Truth sucks don't it?

I'm not saying that Europe was the only important thing going on, just that it is significantly more important to the world than what happened in Russia at the same time. And part of it is just generic ethno-centerism, with most of the world having been colonized by western Europe, they learn and understand that part of the world much more than they do any other part because they trace their cultural roots back to that Imperial power. But Russia didn't colonize, and was so far behind culturally and scientifically they couldn't afford to. Thus their cultural and political impact is minimal on the world at large. China is different because there were points where they were the most advanced civilization on the planet. But because they clung to the Emperor for so long they slowed progress and fell behind under the Qing dynasty. Same thing happened with Japan as the Tokugawa took power, they stopped social mobility and cultural development for almost 200 years, and got completely passed by. Do I want historical accuracy in games? Eh, not really. If every game was totally historically accurate, most of the armies you were fighting with would have 25% casualties automatically inflicted due to disease. And you'd spend months after each combat recuperating and praying that your body didn't become infected. And you'd have to deal with other things like your UI always giving you the best case scenario unless you dug into the nuts and bolts because of obstructive and/or corrupt bureaucracies, or having to ensure that your ruler had a constant stream of women to provide a heir to your throne.

Man, Western education standards even worse than i imagine. I dont want write too much, just few examples of influence: Finnish–Novgorodian wars causing Swedish conquest of Finland, as result entire nation lost own self-determination (and own national state) and has been germanizied. Russian principalities destroy Golden Horde and Great Silk way move to south because this - this influence to international trade causing apogee of Ottoman Empire. Numerous Russian-Polish wars destroy Polish–Lithuanian East European hegemon and causing grown of German states (Austro-Hungarian Empire and Prussia). Numerous Russian-Swedish wars stop Sweden hegemony in North Europe and turn Sweden into minor nation. Russsian-French wars of XVIII-XIX centuries make Russian Empire hegemon of Europe until Crimean war, butthurt of Europeans you can read here http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/subject/russia/ Russian-Ottoman war's of XVIII-XIX centuries causing independence of Balcan states and fall of Ottoman Empire. Russian-British Great game - Cold war of XIX century for world hegemony, no comments. All history of XX century just mirrored events in Russia - Bolshevik Revolution, grown of European reaction - rise of Nazism, WW2, Warsaw Pact, fall of colonial empiries, Cold war, Marshall plan. Even dissolving of USSR causing numerous wars in Middle East, and East Europe, rejection of welfare state concept by First world and many other thing. And i even don't mentioning about cultural or scieniftic Russian influence to humanity. After all this rude hisoric errors in videogames don't looks unexpected and unusual. Developers just known only own national history (in better case), meanwhile consumers have same level of education and don't worry about historical accuracy. And? That was all about establishing the regional power to the east, At the same time as that was going on, the western powers (which were technologically more advanced and significantly more influential on the world at large) were quibbling amongst themselves. Peter only brought Russia to being the regional power at the end of the 1600's, by which point most of the rest of Europe were running off colonizing the entire rest of the world (For better or worse). Unless you're going to try to suggest that Russia had more influence over world events and other nations than being a consideration on the edge of their minds as they debated their next imperial target for colonization... Basically, Russia is equivalent to Carthage, while the rest of the Europe was Alexander the Great's Macedon.

Luckily there's a difference between thought and action. And at least it warns you about your state of mind, so you can act on it.So you have something of a support network in case depression takes over? Sometimes, it really depends on how much I feel i can open up to those around me, and how bad my mental state gets. I've noticed that as I get worse I become more reclusive which becomes a cycle of doom so I'm trying to sort it out.

Actually it's more that they're aiming for a wider more general audience. Educationally they don't exactly cover methods of warfare in highschool courses, and so the idea that the Spear is the dominant form of warfare for most of the Greek period and early Rome (before they were adjusted to the Cohort system with Hastatii etc) is ignored in favor of the social and cultural history built out of those empires and the overall effect they'd have on the world. It's the same reason they don't talk about Russia in any way in history courses before the Cold War era, because Russia didn't have a significant effect on the western world barring one instance (1812, where the prevailing wisdom is that the Brits won at Waterloo rather than the Russian front causing to many logistical issues). Unless you want to suggest that the Russian Tsars and Boyars had a wider ranging effect when they were culturally and scientifically behind the rest of Europe by at least 20 years (in the best of conditions under Peter the Great). And the point I made before, Historical accuracy and realism go out the window in favor of good, entertaining gameplay. This isn't limited to the Total War devs, or even western devs about other societies. After all, Capcom has a game series about their own history where a Sengoku period general is a cyborg. And I'm sure Russian devs would turn Catherine the Great from a ruthless Prussian ruler who (probably) had her husband murdered so she could take the throne, and had a constant stream of male lovers that she openly favored (and even placed on the throne of other nations), into a strong Russian woman who was only fighting for the common man (when many of her reforms favored the upper classes) and only took the throne grudgingly after others had killed her husband.

Realized both a depressing and good thing today. I probably won't commit suicide without at least finding a home for Octavian. Good because I won't do it, bad because I even thought about it...

That and your system, administration, mindset etc is just not geared to a European model.. No matter how much we wanna pimp it I'm imagining the stereotypical pimp outfit, worn by a white guy, driving a 1960's ambulance, while screaming french obsenities at a fat, bikini clad american woman.

Ya See skippy, That hannibal bust? Probably wasn't made by his contemporaries. The style is wrong for most roman busts. To much detail. As to historical inaccuracies? Sometimes history has to go under the bus in order to provide good gameplay. The Triarii weren't really the elites, they were just the oldest. And if things were historically accurate, we'd have significantly shorter fights, larger armies, and much longer amounts of time to move around the continent.

He's been in my lap gaming with me but I moved to much.

Ultimately for something to become totally seamlessly "real" in terms of perception, There'd be so much work put into it that it'd be either easier or cheaper to just get the real thing. Closest you could really get to this is the philosophy discussion on the imagination/wishing machine, where you're tossed in a machine for your entire life and can have whatever you want done... is that real and/or meaningful?

Watching Shield. You can tell it's Joss Wheatons baby. Although I think they made Colson into to much of the jokster. Most of his lines have been a mix of information/exposition with a quick joke at the end. Also, I'd swear that DL from Heroes is one of the characters with Micah as his kid again. Also, they really pushed out the "Geeks will watch this" bs (he said after watching Darth Vader having a lightsaber duel with a entry level office worker... fueled by pringles)

This is the little adoptee who likes to nibble on fingers, phones, and nipples.

I read this and can't help but think "So they're celebrating their heritage... by acting like Americans on the 4th of July."

I don't think you can call a Bust or coinage "IRL" given that those are historical items designed to make their subjects look their best. The Hannibal bust isn't even rock considered properly historical depending on the circle of historians you ask.

Wind?

And now I have a semi-traumatized kitteh (first vet visit... the vet asst. started calling him weird because he was smelling and licking anything he could)