alanschu

Do you think that attempting to understand the motivation is a meaningless endeavour, then? If the reason for rape to occur is to satisfy sexual desires, are there other alternatives that could provide the same level of satisfaction? If it's not just satisfying a sexual desire, is there more to why rape occurs? If rape is just a sexual act, why is it considered so horrible (at least where I am from), while other sexual acts in general, are not?

A degree of sexual motivation is probably necessary. Though there are other ways to satisfy one's arousal. Are there any other compounding factors?

I disagree. If you think it cannot be explained easily, perhaps you haven't given it as much thought and consideration? Ask yourself "Why is this difficult to explain?" Does that mean that it will ALWAYS be difficult to explain? The joy of attempting to make that explanation is when I have the epiphany that I was actually misunderstanding it on some level. Who said anything about proving anything to anyone? I said challenge them on it, because I find the discussions interesting and capable of facilitating my own growth as a person.

Given that I stepped right into the game in much the same way, I disagree. Yeah, they evolved it, but the evolution seemed pretty firmly rooted to me (and unfortunately for GTA3, not in a direction I wanted the game to go).

Shenmue's release in North America was only a year prior to GTA 3, so it's hard to say I think.

GTA 3 just took the same style of game from GTA 1 and 2 and made it 3D. So I'm not sure if Shenmue started it. Especially since GTA III would have been started before Shenmue started to make waves prerelease.

I have no problem with it. I didn't realize it happened so the first year it was superbly appreciated haha.

It's always interesting seeing older threads and then realizing it was one where I got snappy in... >.>

I'll take it! >.>

EA gives out bonuses that are affected by studio and project performance, coupled by employee performance. My largest one came the year DA2 was released, a slightly smaller one last year (ME3's release), and a smaller one (though still decent and certainly appreciated) this year (no major revenue streams for BWE aside from some DLC and MP). I'd be surprised if none of the success of GTA 5 didn't trickle back to the team in some capacity.

Because a series of observations (whether made by me or someone else) have, at this current time, led me to believe that. And I will ask them why, and attempt to challenge them on it. Ever think that the assumption that you must defend it to your last breath is one that you've concocted in your own head. You get pissy at people because CLEARLY they make too many assumptions and jump to conclusions. Why are you exempt? I ask why people think a certain way because it makes a conversation actually interesting. If you wish to declare a position, and then leave it at that, you leave the conversation with, well, rather little to go on. It's uninteresting. I prefer to have interesting conversations. I like to personally be challenged on my own beliefs, because I am a skeptic and recognize that my beliefs may in fact be incorrect. Stating that you have an opinion, but no interest in actually discussing said opinion, effectively comes across as a waste of time. At least with this tangent, you're engaging in an actual discussion by asking me questions, and making me think. Although a bit of it is a bit too faux philosophical (i.e. why is anything convinced of anything?).

Just one part this time. I suspect I need to fix that machine! http://youtu.be/g1u1KSvWEH8

It might do you some good to return to this stage rather than remaining in your current state of regression.... If contrary articles exist, then those can be debated and so forth as well. On the plus side, if they are very common, it should be trivial to find them! The question then becomes "why are you convinced you are right? - Stating that you're skeptical is fine. Though most people fail to realize that skeptic is open to the idea that he or she may be wrong, and hence misuse the word. - If stating your opinion is all you care to do, then that's fine. But it goes back to "why do you have that opinion?" If you can't be bothered to defend it, then rebuttals and refutations of your opinion wouldn't bother you, and you wouldn't feel compelled to speak up in the light of said challenges - If you don't care that your opinion is under attack, then see previous point - If you don't think that your position needs any defense, then you're certainly not a skeptic, you're possibly arrogant, and you're certainly misguided with an unwavering confidence that is proportional to the level of dispute that the topic has. It's one thing to decide that you don't need to substantiate Newton's Laws, but it's another if you simply conclude that, for example, capital punishment is the only acceptable response to capital crimes.

A lot of places offer asynchronous speeds (and for most people that's probably good enough). I mean, if I am uploading at 10Mbps that's roughly 1 MB/s which means it's taking me about 200-300 seconds to do my lets play videos. That's plenty fast XD

I think mine is 10Mbit or so. I do have caps (which I suspect I blew through with the Amnesia Let's Play... haha)

I have heard that Sweden is exceptionally well connected with high speed, compared to much of the world.

It's great because I expected something on the other side of the door, so I turned around to find a hiding spot.

The idea of discussing something that they don't like is likely enjoyable, even if the actions themselves were not. On some level it's equivalent to venting when frustrated, which is cathartic.

Part 11: http://youtu.be/gpFDre9MD0E Part 12: http://youtu.be/AwtZLUfiJsg Part 13: http://youtu.be/-0kTDiS9YNQ

Oh baby some gooders uploading right now!

My point was that there are still people that really like the game, despite of its shortcomings. I'm willing to concede that the scale of Alpha Protocol's support is probably not as good at Dragon Age 2's, but my intent was not to address popularity. Since you brought it up, however, a problem with DA2's sales figures, however, is that it can be difficult to disassociate those that bought the game but were ultimately not satisfied. This is true of all games, but Dragon Age 2 has an advantage over Alpha Protocol in that it's a sequel (of a pretty well received game). BioWare may also have a stronger reputation than Obsidian which could lead to greater sales. On a personal level I was saddened that Alpha Protocol was hit with such scathing reviews over some of its gameplay elements, when I felt it played similarly to games like ME1 and the first Deus Ex. But I also have a large bias towards Obsidian's games so any suppositions that I make regarding AP's success had it been done by BioWare are just that, suppositions.

I'm just curious how far along Dragon Age was when EA bought BioWare?

Thanks to everyone for chiming in. Prayer service happened today, which I was asked (and honored) to be a Paul Bearer for. Same goes for the full funeral service tomorrow. No real lasting rift between my Aunt and I, and once all this is over I will follow up with her to just let her know I didn't mean to come across as overly terse and understand that it was an emotional time for all involved.

Fair enough. DA2 was definitely more successful.

I actually think the analogy is pretty apt. A game that clearly has some issues, that is going to frustrate a non-trivial amount of gamers, but is still able to garner its dedicated following of fans.