alanschu

What instant change? She's kidnapped by Malak and "persuaded" to flip. Her existing character flaws, mainly pride, make it possible. The persuasion takes a day. She probably holds the record for the most easily corruptible paladin ever. The entire setup is absurd. The persuasion takes a day just like how romances in BG2 happened "quickly." Players seem to forget the idle time of the game that is abstracted out so we don't get bored having to deal with it. It just says "You traveled for 18 hours."

I'm still confident that the Manson and other stuff in the trailers are there just to get avarage gamers make somersaults. I'm not expecting Torment 2, but I would be glad if DA is atleast taking a step towards it. I'm not seeing anyone making somersaults after that trailer. Even the hardcore console-focused NeoGAF didn't really care for much for the trailer. It's just the marketing people having a huge disconnect not only from the game, but from the average gamers as well. There were parts of the E3 marketing that were less effective, and parts of it that were very effective.

You guys can convince yourselves that somehow SWTOR is becoming less popular, but you're just kidding yourselves. SWTOR hasn't had any big updates lately, so people aren't clicking on the IGN links for the game. Other games are coming out sooner, so they'll garner more web traffic.

I sit no where near my 360 that I couldn't possible hear it over the television!

That only works if you didn't do a save right before you're about to go end turn.

IIRC Jagged Alliance saves the random number generator's seed when you save your game. I believe this is working as designed to prevent people from trying to shoot someone, seeing the results, and saving/loading until you get a result that you want. At first glance, it seems like Oner doesn't like the game because it doesn't let him game/cheat the system Well, he does say "apart from that" so probably not.

Haha I know. I was just being difficult.

Never played anything like Halo, or a sports game with friends though?

Both XBOX and PS3 are jointly developed with another company working with BioWare.

Meh, I used to make the same posts that Krezack did about LoF. Until someone pointed out to me just how entertaining he really can be.

I'll give Zoraptor some mad props for at least taking the time to cite sources. I'll admit I have gotten lazy in that regard.

LoF has yet to do this very well. You may have missed the thread where he defended and praised the DPK for their creative and innovative solution of running wire through the shoulders of defectors being returned from China. I'd call Moldova's factors aggravating factors But I guess that just depends on what perspective you're looking at it from hehe /nitpick

I'm going to have to reload Bloodlines again sometime haha. I could've sworn the only thing that weapon skills affected were your accuracy and weapon damage.

Going with the Marxist/Leninist roots, communism requires armed revolution. While Marx believed that eventually the concept of state would disappear, Lenin's viewpoint was a bit nebulous, as he sought to create the Soviets, which were small regions of direct democracy, though also felt the need for the vanguard party....the elite group of individuals that would educate and convince the proletariat that revolution was necessary, though under the idealistic notion that this elite group wouldn't eventually become the leaders and power brokers of the proletariat. It's okay though Guard Dog. The propaganda that Stalin is arguably the most notorious mass murderer in history is justified by the fact that he built up a strong industrial sector! The ironic thing of course, is that our good friend LoF is able to safely express his opinion without fear of retribution, on a message board run and maintained by people living in a democratic, capitalist state.

Yes, Cuba is a great example. As are your other ones. Lukashenko describes himself as having an authoritarian ruling style. Moldova has seen the rest of the democratic parties form a coalition government against it, and depending on who you ask, some feel it is communist only in name. They're also examples of the high standards of living as well. Of course, Cuba has no problem relying on the tourism money from those capitalist pigdogs in those corrupt, hard troden, exploited capitalist countries. While they hide the dirty, overpopulated shanty towns their citizens live in. Roll your eyes all you want, but you know it's true. If you honestly believe that the leaders of state with the power to tell other people what to build and develop don't have a vested interest in ****ing you in the ass for their own personal gain, then you're living in an idealistic fantasy world. Stop consuming the propaganda. It'd at least make more sense for you to rationalize that the Soviet Union wasn't communist, but rather state capitalist like other communists believe. But this is also coming from the guy that openly stated he supported running razor wire through its citizens. In fact, you referred to it as an ingenious way to deal with a situation that rarely occurs. So you've already demonstrated that you have no grasp on reality. You're also the same dumbass that tried to convince himself that buying used computer equipment doesn't contribute to the capitalist machine.

GOLD!

Let me just, ah, make **** up here. Right, there we go. You've already been doing this. I'm an empirical man. Show me a communist country that hasn't been totalitarian. Oh right, you can't. In a communist system instead of choosing from a wide variety of oppressors, you have a single one that has a vested interest in ****ing you in the ass. And you accuse other people of buying too much into propaganda.

I agree. Unfortunately Marx was naive and genuinely believed that there'd be a withering of the state.

I will if you will. It's clear you're swallowing up just as much anti-capitalism propaganda as anyone else. Coupled with the poor rationalized excuses you make up to excuse your contributions to the capitalist system, it's comical. I actually know this, it's just fun to poke you. The 5 year plans did a great job of industrializing the state. It's just too bad that the people weren't the benefactors. The state was. Totalitarian regimes can be very efficient at improving industrial capacity in the short term (look at Germany too. They weren't communist, though they also saw the same rapid growth and rebuilding on the heels of the ridiculous Treaty of Versailles, and the total collapse of its economy by the Wiemar Republic). However, when collectivization comes at the cost of murdering and torturing your citizens, is it worth it? Oh wait, that's just propaganda too isn't it. Is it also just propaganda that Stalin forcibly took the land from the people, resulting in a famine in a world economy that was already being ravaged by The Great Depression? You don't need to remind me about anything, least of all World War II information. The silver lining of Stalin's methods is that it did provide his nation with the industrial capacity to fight off Germany. Though make no mistake, the result of the World War 2 was a joint effort. Soviet Union would not have succeeded without assistance from the West, and the West wouldn't have succeeded without the grit and determination of the Soviet military. It certainly didn't hurt that the Soviet Union was able to focus construction on war materiel, while receiving foodstuffs and logistics from the United States via Lend-Lease, just like it didn't hurt the United States that the war was no where close to home. It was also fantastic of the Soviet Union to literally shift the bulk of their industrial base east. The purges that you brought up though, extend far beyond the military though. It's too bad that Stalin figured that the people you champion from the 1917 revolution didn't need to live anymore. The second 5 year plan saw an increase in industrial output, but a decrease in standard of living. Isn't this what you dislike about those pesky capitalists?

Which was what was so ironic about taks going on about the definition of justice. Definitions can be interpreted transitively, in that something such as "the quality of being just; righteousness, equitableness, or moral rightness" (Dictionary.com) is vague without understanding what terms like "just," "equitableness," "moral rightness," and "righteousness" mean. I have little doubts that there are people in the "lesser civilized" nations that believe that the punishments issued by them are shining examples of justice. The reason why I had no issues with Rostere's "definition" of justice, is that I made the conclusion that Rostere feels that his 3 points in some way are conveyed by his perception of what it means to be just, equitable, righteous, and morally right. To get caught up on the specifics of what words are used in the actual definition was not expected. And yes Aristes, it is the human condition. Human beings go through a great deal of trouble to prevent cognitive dissonance.

Don't let the propagandists hear you say that! It's impressive what can happen when National Unity is brought together in response to an aggressor (such as Germany). No doubt the same national unity helped Japan rebuild (in addition to assistance from the US). Luckily for the Soviet Union, winter came.

It is a damn giant robot. And damn giant robots are cool!

Well, that is my definition of justice. That's fair. I'm not the only person in this thread that understands the subjective nature of justice.

No, I don't think that things are better off now. However, I'm less inclined to believe the propaganda that the reason why they're ****ed up now is based purely because they are no longer communist. With the Soviet Union no longer able (or willing) to exert their extreme influence in the region, it's no surprise that the nations that were pretty much no better than puppets of a different state didn't seamlessly transition out of it. Perhaps...you know....they're still reeling from the aftermath of being communist. I do believe that they'll recover in time though. Heck, Purkake has even indicated so. It's not like they have generations of living under a completely different socioeconomic climate to overcome or anything. EDIT: Purkake, just to be clear, my "crapping" of the Eastern European nations is more just commentary that they were communist because they pretty much had no choice in the matter. Ol' SU wouldn't have had it any other way.

Is it propaganda if it's true? It's obviously inferior if it's true. You may want to read up a bit on the history of the Spanish civil war. No doubt you will find it a glorious, knee-trembling account of heroic communist activity. Why do that, when you can just examine the utter failures of North Korea, China, and the Soviet Union, and pretty much all of Eastern Europe!