alanschu

Sophmore slump doesn't seem to apply to all-world generational talent. I took a look at players like Orr, Gretzky, and Lemieux, and they all did better their next year as well. As a funny aside, Gretzky scored 51 and 55 goals his first two years. The third year, he scored 92, including 50 goals in 39 games. I guess that record is one he cherishes the most, because at the time, for some messed up reason, Gretzky was criticized for not being a particularly good goal scorer. 51 goals, and 55 goals, both times in the top 10 in the league in goals, but wasn't a good goal scorer. His third season he decided to be a bit more selfish to shut the critics up.

I'm assuming Darque was implying a toggle at the beginning of the adventure.

I think he's just bitter because he's not over there himself ^_^

Then you get what I'll call a Gabe Newell situation. If you design something that works as awesome as we'd like it to, you don't want people to not experience it. On the opposite end, if they developers don't feel many will find it fun, then there's no sense spending a large chunk of time refining something that only caters to a small group of people. It also assumes that it's possible to just turn off parts of the AI routines with just the flip of a switch, and if so, hope it doesn't accidentally break something else. If the decision to make it optional wasn't part of the design prior to implementation, making it an option might not be an easy thing. You'll also have balancing issues that may arise.

Perhaps Hussien was not as wild and reckless when it comes to dispensing some weapons as some may believe. OR, he felt it more prudent to save them for a different purpose.

Rubber is abstracted into the generic "resources." As a result, those places are also high in resources. Japan MUST capture those places in order to fuel the industry of Japan, Siam, Indochina, China, and to a lesser extent Malaya.

The Malaysian Peninsula does have a large amount of resources. Borneo is overflowing with Oil, as is Java and Palemburg.

The same reason why the US would probably be hesitant to start firing chemical weapons and nuclear bombs on American soil?

It's funny, because that's the first thing I thought of when you brought up places that were merely "close" to big conflicts (and therefore not actually a part of your criteria). Furthermore, you talk about how Canadians and Australians would have shared in the conflcts of the British, because at one time they were considered British. If that is the case, then you could argue that the American Civil War was not necessary, since they would have shared in these same conflicts. Except that it goes against the concept of a Nation, and how when Canada and Australia were formed, the people lost the trait of being British, and obtained the identiy of being Canadian and Australian, respectfully. Hence, the nations of Canada and Australia were born. (As an aside, some would argue that Canada isn't technically a Nation-State, since there is a distinct nation within Canada, known as Quebec. THe situation becomes muddied when people residing in the area of Quebec, still consider themselves to be Canadians). Explaining how Iraq's situation is different is nice, but the examples of Australia and Canada were posed in response to the assertion that "successful" nations required civil war, revolution, or devastating conflict. Fair enough. I was thinking that the conflict might not just entail the recent occupation, but rather the conflicts extending into perhaps the Iran-Iraq War, as well as the whole situation from The Gulf War, including the embargoes, up until current occupation. Your comments weren't completely irrelevant, they just weren't as relevant as they could be. You expanded the discussion into something greater than the question I posed to Hades. In essence, you didn't just answer my question. My question pertained specifically to civil wars. Your answer expanded on it. For clarity, here's my original post: I'm sorry if you weren't following the discussion from Hades' side as well, but there's little I can do about that.

I was confused because his first sentence made it sound like his dislike of the Wii was a thing of the past. It set the tone for the rest of the message, which ended up being rather confusing.

It seems more HOI2ish, but set in more modern times (I wouldn't say futuristic necessarily). Though the level of detail is a bit more in depth when it comes to unit movements compared to HOI2. When you move your units across the border, you see them expand the border and whatnot. I mention it because some guys at the WitP forum suggested it when I asked about coop MP strategy games. http://www.battlegoat.com/supreme.php

And Llyranor, are you familiar with a game called Supreme Ruler 2010?

It was just an observation. It's not necessarily irrelevant either, because if people that don't own it, but enjoyed playing it, it wouldn't rule out them buying the system in the future.

Couldn't you just hook up the MP3 player to your stereo, and the higher ups would be none the wiser?

It looks like AI because it still is AI.

That seems like a rather arbitrary restriction. Why no MP3 player, but CDs are A-OK?

What do you mean? When talking sales, you're talking how many units are sold. The low price is an advantage of the Wii, and according to the numbers, it seems like it has quite an advantage over the PS3 sales wise. It might be closer revenue wise, but even revenue is a moot point. We'd really have to look at things from a profit perspective. Though the PS3 is likely designed to be a loss leader anyways.

Just because they are playing it doesn't mean they are out buying their own. The instances I have heard about have been at family gatherings, which require only 1 Wii to be present.

I don't know if it's actually the case, or just my confirmation bias, but my submarines seem to be wreaking more havoc along the Japanese shipping lanes. Another huge shipment of troops heading to Brisbane from San Francisco. Time to retake those Dutch East Indies. I did some experimenting with the Japanese, and it looks like the logistics side of things will be a lot of fun. Have to keep the factories in Japan fed with Oil and Resources, and then take the fuel and supplies they make back out to the colonies!

I brought it up because your stance was that, "successful" nations have had either civil wars, revolutions, or devastating conflicts. I figured for sure you'd have mentioned the natives, since I thought it was pretty obvious. The thing is, your statement didn't mention nations that were at one point considered colonies of other nations, nor countries that were "close" to other nations that had civil wars. I'm sure there's a point in being purposefully limited in your scope, but I can't see what it would be. Trying to understand how modern society came to be without taking into consideration the weight revolutions and other conflicts have had is like reading only a book's even pages. The thing is that western culture and history have been written in blood. We have peace now because our forebears paid dearly for it. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Because your situation included civil wars, revolutions, and devastating conflicts. I don't know, but wouldn't "devastating conflict" already be something in Iraq that has been satisfied? Furthermore, had you followed the dialogue I had made with Hades, you'd see that he was talking about how Hades was basing his opinions on the fact that the US had a civil war, and that "it was a necessary event that made the US stronger in the long run." Had Hades been talking about revolutions, as well as devastating conflicts, your comments that included them would be more relevant.

I don't think it's a stretch that the average education, even for the much vilified American education system, of western countries probably exceed the average education of say, Chad.

I enjoy my emotions and my emotional connections. It's what makes me feel alive (and in a twisted sort of way, why I feel sorry for psychopaths). If it were to come to a point where I'm so focused on "bigger" things that I no longer felt emotional pain, then I might as well be dead.

Well, the first of January has come and gone, which means that the Americans have finally made some improvements on their torpedoes. Any torpedoes with a dud rate of 50% or greater (i.e. American Torpedoes), improved their dud rate by 20%. And that means that the craptacular torpedoes that the submarines had, have gone from 80% duds to 60% duds! Most have gone from 50% to 30%. Later this year, the improvements will put all of my torpedoes above 20% dude rate (i.e. American torpedoes) to a dud rate of 10%(!!!!) which should significantly help both my sub operations, as well as carrier operations. EDIT: Word on the street at Matrix games is that WitP is actually quite playable COOP! Hmmm, vewy vewy intewesting.

It certainly was! :D

Who's to say they don't still do that? Is James Earl Jones' voice bad because it was dubbed in over the dude with the heavy British accent when he did Darth Vader?