alanschu

Indeed! I picked this up yesterday. Expect good fun ^_^

Wouldn't the right be wanting to take your guns too, then? Or are the right-wing politicians exempt? It's fun to be a cynic, but just as there are those that feel having firearms is a good thing and beneficial to society, there are those that think that ultimately removing them would be beneficial to society as well. I have little love for most politicians as well, but to say that they don't give a damn about crime, safety, or school shootings is a bit too fear mongering for my case. I think it's fair that they DO care about those things, want them to stop, and feel this is an avenue to do so. Whether or not it's actually a valid way of doing so is another question altogether. Further, there's plenty of people that aren't politicians that the politicians echo. A quick read through of this thread reminded me of this article a friend linked (especially the last point regarding cynicism) http://www.cracked.com/blog/7-reasons-news-looks-worse-than-it-really-is/ Although the thesis has issues since you can apply the idea of the last point to the detractors as being cynical in order to avoid cognitive dissonance. I more find it interesting because I have caught myself in that boat (much like the author) as well. Then, I'm also learning that much of even our conscious thought appears to be somewhat uncontrolled.

Yeah, I think I picked "historical lucky" as well. Fortunately my decision to really, really, REALLY focus discipline has helped a lot.

I recently saw a poster at Oxford University which had something like gay, and homosexual and lesbian listed. I was very confused. Has gay become something else? Frankly, I'm wondering if straight/gay/etc is a bit noddy. I noticed this too because I historically associate "gay" with "homosexual" and it being sex/gender neutral. Though I think because (for some reason) the term lesbian exists and applies only to women, that somehow gay became more associated with a man. Although you still hear the term "gay man" and I'm not familiar with any sort of "lesbian woman" type of expression, on some level it still seems to have a dual meaning.

He's now charged with second degree murder. http://news.nationalpost.com/2013/08/19/toronto-police-officer-charged-with-second-degree-murder-in-streetcar-shooting-death-of-sammy-yatim/

I had just heard of it today as well. Though I'm guessing the reason for sharing is to point and laugh, as opposed to actually spread awareness of said product?

Obviously you have no idea what you are talking about.. The jerks kept embargoing me in Lubeck! So I often sue for peace with the option "Give me half your trade power" and embargo them as well, just to spite! ^_^ They keep allying with Great Britain, however, which reduces the effectiveness of my fleet >.> But I did start a lone little colony along the St. Lawrence and in Sierra Leone! Game is absurd fun (EU4). I formed Prussia, although ended up becoming the Holy Roman Emperor (which is hilarious, actually, as Prussia was formed as the Protestant grouping against the HRE) because of my spreading of Protestantism among the elector states and my vassalizing of a lot of them. But then I had an event where the Bureaucracy had effectively plotted to turn my nation into a Republic, to which I ran with it just because I don't usually do stuff like that. So I was the Administrative Republic of Prussia for a little bit! Until I decided to form Germany outright! Spain inherited Portugal as a a part of a personal union, which basically means Spain owns most of the New World, although Great Britain has the southern Caribbean, France (who's been crushed thoroughly this game) has Newfoundland, and Norway has most of the Maritimes and New England area. Burgundy has also taken to some colonizing of Africa, along with Spain. I haven't looked too much out East, though I did notice that Japan was unified and appears to be in Korea as well. Manchu holds most of China. Aside from conquering the German states, I am planning on focusing more on my colonial holdings now that I am becoming able to do so. Sofa king fun.

I believe the rivalry path does free Anders from Justice. Yes.

Yes, I am aware of the spell combos from DAO. I guess I wasn't clear, but I was equating them somewhat, since it shifted from being something only mages could do, to something all classes could do as a type of synergy, since the spell combos existed in DAO but the cross class skills existed in DA2. The closest thing to a cross class is the shatter effect, which can occur on a critical hit. And I also realize that the spells didn't need to come from the same spell caster....

Being married needn't discount you from being gay, even. (and yes, I'm talking about a heterosexual marriage)

Helped keep the Ottoman's at bay, and liberating the Hannoverians from oppressive Danish Rule! And about to eff up Hansa since they are jerks and deserve it. Then consolidation time.

They did, it just wasn't typically from the same person (typically they were cross-class combos). I remember setting up Merrill to use chain lightning on any target that suffered from a particular condition, since I specc'd her ability to do bonus damage against people suffering from that ailment. One of my friends said he liked the wave combat from the standpoint of making sure he didn't blow all his powerful abilities at the start of the fight. In general though it wasn't very well received in my opinion. Though I think the bigger issue was more HOW it came (and how frequently). When guys start dropping from rooftops all the time, it grated on people.

We need a popcorn emoticon!

Fair enough. I still encourage you to watch the video, however, since it actually details the child specifically rather than just the school's policies.

No, he's just saying watch the video. It goes WAY more into detail than the article, as it talks about the girl herself. He's also commenting that the presumption of drug use that you made was incorrect.

That a game isn't designed for you doesn't make the target audience primates. Time to move on people.

Well, given that it was supposed to just be an additional area as a part of the base game, presumably it wasn't as large as the stuff that DID make it into the game.

IMO the rivalry exists more in the minds of the players (and maybe marketers?) than in the companies themselves. On the BSN I had a thread discussing my progress through the first two games, and after the second one specifically called out some quality work on some of the scenes and especially the nuances for how Geralt responded. Turns out someone that worked on the game saw it, and said he/she was super flattered because they were picked the fidelity they saw in Mass Effect 2 as their goal, and simply having someone from BioWare acknowledge that it was pretty quality totally made that person's day.

Kingdom of Prussia formed!

I agree. I enjoyed The Witcher 2 (though I found the combat cumbersome). I didn't care so much for the first one, however.

Just to make it clear, since I've seen a good chunk of articles pop up stating that this is the case: Hepler didn't quit because of harassment. Her and her family had to make a choice because her husband had different job opportunities and it was a chance to move on to something else.

Just to make it clear, I "wholly" support the idea of "bringing in new characters." I have no major reservations with some characters like Morrigan or Varric being reintroduced for DAI as, in general, I do think that they are interesting characters and on some level it does work for ramping up enthusiasm. I have seen a healthy amount of posts that are clamouring for their Warden (especially) and Hawke to return, complete with details of it can be "easily done" and so forth. It's funny that I said, in a different post, that having high expectations/enthusiasm for including Hawke/Warden content is probably putting oneself on the road to disappointment, as the main person in this game is the Inquisitor. I like that we don't just use the same protagonist throughout each game and it lets us try different things with new characters. Cassandra's character is lightweight enough that she was essentially a "faceless mook" in DA2, so in that regards we don't know much about her. Romance stuff, of course, does come up a bit on BSN and there were people expressing one side of enthusiasm / concern about potentially romancing characters like Leliana/Morrigan, though David (and I think some of the other writers) did comment that stuff like that wouldn't happen since there's really nothing new and interesting that can be done with a previous character that has been romanced.

You mean like playing the scarred amnesiac the Nameless One in Planescape: Torment? There are people that dislike PST for that reason though.

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This, however, seems much more like Poe's Law!