alanschu

I'm just curious, what is stupid about the combat? I know you're really anxious for a KOTOR 3, so would it be safe that you prefer KOTOR's combat to WoW's combat? That would be fitting. Why?

I certainly think it'd be wise to temper your expectations for a true Single Player KOTOR 3. I'd love it too, but I'm okay if it never comes out. Life will go on.

I'm just curious, what is stupid about the combat? I know you're really anxious for a KOTOR 3, so would it be safe that you prefer KOTOR's combat to WoW's combat?

Is that the average level? I'm not aware of any average level information on zee interwebs.

I agree that there are issues with tyranny of the majority, and to be clear, I don't find the issue to be a clear one. Is there any other solution to a Weyco-like situation though, than agreeing to empower the government to dictate how Mr. Weyers runs his business?

Would you accept it (or even the fully socialized medicine) if the overwhelming majority of people wanted it?

yeah, odd. odd that i firmly believe in the government staying out of our lives, in the military or otherwise. no, not odd, just consistent. we have what we have, e.g., socialized medicine in the military, but that doesn't mean we should give up every other belief just because of this. taks So what do you think about the Weyco issue?

How so? By creating an artificial lower cap on wages, you drive the cost of doing business up. Businesses either lay people off, or pass the cost onto the consumer by raising the prices for their goods/services. The result is inflation, which means that the minimum wage increase is no longer apply because the marginal cost of living has increased. As an anecdote, I remember working for a small restaurant where I got paid minimum wage ($5/hour). The government was talking about raising minimum wage to $6/hour, and the owner was frustrated and asked "Is it better for me to employ 5 people at $6/hour, or 6 people at $5/hour?" Sure enough, when the minimum wage was raised, he could only afford to staff 5 people instead of 6. Sure I made more money, but I enjoyed my job less because I needed to work harder due the the fact that we were now short a person in the kitchen. There's also the times that the minimum wage is pretty cosmetic. For several years Alberta was running in a boom economy, and the government kept making themselves out like heroes by raising minimum wage several times. Except that the job market was so competitive that even the ****tiest jobs were already several dollars per hour above the minimum wage, so it had no real effect on anything. Although now that we've slid into a recession, we're seeing more and more people being laid off. I only have anecdotal evidence, but I know a lot of food service industry managers that have had to let people go and cut back hours because of minimum wage. So? That's all part of the value added by the company. People aren't entitled to the better hours/money or other benefits. But you'll still have companies competing for the labour market, and it's not like people that smoke is really all that niche of a crowd. Or the other things you mentioned. If someone feels that the better hours/money or other benefits are better than whatever rule the company wishes to enact, well then, that's their decision. As a fresh graduate I'm well aware of the job market. On the plus side, the people working at Weyco have the luxury of actually having a job while they look for other work that suits their lifestyle better. This has always been a concern, and quite frankly I feel it's because people have quite the sense of entitlement, and are certainly irresponsible with their money. If part of their benefit program involves managing your health, then I think the lines become much more blurry.

I'm not a fan of minimum wage though. I don't think it's effective. I think it's the government intervening in such a way that it's detrimental to the economy all across the board (rich and poor). The thing is, if it's that big of a deal, people will not enforce the same policies that Weyco seeks to enforce, because they'll take serious hits to their labour force. THe people that stop working for Weyco due to this policy is some other business' gain. What's stopping these people from working somewhere else? I don't feel that this is a slippery slope. I highly doubt that every business in the world is going to enact such policies, because market forces won't allow it. While Weyco's policy may result in some people losing their job at Weyco, other insurance companies will gobble up these talented and experienced workers to work for themselves.

i already offered a very simple solution to this, btw. taks So given that the government doesn't seem keen on doing your solution, you'd rather they continue to allow the soldiers to smoke, while you foot the bill for their health care later in life? Seems odd.

I'm not sure how the government is different than another employer in this sense though. I imagine the goal of this would be to save on your tax paying money.

Well, I just played Dragon Age, and it was a blast too. So Nyah!

Because the "employer" is also the "government". No, the company is Weyco.

If they feel that that is a concern to them, why shouldn't they? I find it odd that you want people to have their freedoms, yet don't seem to echo that sentiment when it comes to people having the freedom to run their businesses the way that they want to. If an employer doesn't want their employees to smoke, what's the issue?

Ah I see.

What server? I just started LOTRO.

DISCLAIMER: I have no idea what the heck the plans are for releasing content or the collectors edition, etc. What I will say, is that adding items in game to the collectors edition only to have them released for free online would seem, strange. I imagine there'd be a delay on it at the very least? Otherwise what's the point of including it in a collector's edition?

Fully set up on LOTRO. Johaladin is a level 16 Guardian Man. Fenthyr is a level 10 Champion Elf I'm waiting to make a Captain with you guys

That sounds like fun! Do you mind if I join you? I hadn't actually thought about that aspect of purchasing this game. Woo! Also, tin case? Are we talking official steelbook or one of the cheaper knock offs? If it's a real steelbook then I'm definitely picking up the CE. You hear that Obsidian! Steelbook = sale! Now where is my Alpha Protocol steelbook announcement huh? IT'S NOT MY FAULT!!!!! I reported it >.>

Hahahahaha that's silly.

The "interesting" thing about what BioWare has said is that they are hoping to make a story-driven MMO with a very strong narrative. That's what I meant when I said it "remains to be seen." You might say "But MMO people don't want that," but who knows? Maybe KOTOR people do. I have some impressions based on some footage I have seen (basically the behind closed doors E3 gameplay demo), but I doubt I can really talk about it. All I'll say is the project seems pretty ambitious. Will it succeed/fail? I don't know. I don't believe there's a release date publicly announced which means the game might not even remain the same as what I saw. But what I saw I really liked, and I pretty much put it up as the MMO I am most eager to try out, simply because I'm curious to see if it's as different as they are hoping it will be. I'm not really either, but every now and then you'll find a good group of people and then it's no different than playing with your friends IMO. I really enjoyed WoW a lot, and would typically only play with RL friends. But I ended up finding a good group of people to play some endgame content, and it was probably the most fun I had ever had in an MMO, which is pretty good. I've met a lot of douchebags too, but never enough to keep me from coming back. It's not that hard to be relatively insular in WoW, so I imagine it won't really be that hard in SWTOR either. In WoW I can remove myself from every public channel so that the only chats I ever see are from party, guild, or whispers. Ironically the only thing I see being "bad" for the community for SWTOR, is if the game IS ridiculously popular. One thing I've noticed about playing LOTRO is that the smaller user base seems to have lent itself to better ratio of smart people to retarded people.

They are actually dual wield only?

What have you seen so far? Some screenshots? An excellent assessment for whether or not the game adheres to the Star Wars universe.

WoD is the Bloodlines universe right?