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alanschu

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Posts posted by alanschu

  1.  

     

    Why do you think the left wants gun control so badly? Do you really think they give a damn about crime or school shootings or yours or my safety? Gun control is not about any of those things. Politicians care about one thing; themselves.

    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.

  2.  

    It's LGBTQ now or something like that.

     

    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.

  3.  

    oppressive Danish Rule!

     

    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.

    • Like 2
  4. I really liked Anders in Awakening, and kept hoping his quest line in DA2 would be to help him be free of Justice so he could go back to being likable again. Unfortunately he went beyond salvation and there was no way to keep him alive without me feeling dirty.

     

     

    I believe the rivalry path does free Anders from Justice.

     

     

     

     

    That combat video threw me off a bit. Is it still a work in progress?

     

    Yes.

  5. Those were cross-class combos, differently named than spell combos which involved combining 2 or 3 spells into another one and could only be done with mages on DA:O. Example: Freezing an enemy and using a smash type of attack with a warrior will result in massive damage or death unless the enemy passes a check that's a cross class, using Grease and a Fire type spell (not necessarily from the same person)that resulted in a Grease Fire was a a spell combo. Which meant that with prior knowledge you could build your mages abilites  so that they complimented each other with combos. 

     

     

    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....

  6. Edit: Worth pointing out that DA2 didn't have spell combos.

     

    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.

     

     

     

     

    I'm unique in liking the wave combat of DA2. It forced you to adjust your tactics in a battle, even if it was something as simple as repositioning your mages.

     

    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.

  7. 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.

    • Like 2
  8. 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.

    • Like 1
  9. That is, no sarcasm, a definitive argument against my saying that it made it clear. So I do need to change it. I won't pick over what I meant and how you interpreted it was wrong. If it's distracting to see, then that still drags the message down.

    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.

     

     

    Bring back old characters is a risk on all of those. Cassandra is an interesting exception. She seems designed to cross games. She has no epilogue, no actions or choices involving her, and she was barely seen or characterized. Isabella and Merril for DA2 are similar, but seem to have achieved those things incidentally, not by intent.

    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.

    • Like 1
  10. The Gaider pic is a fake? Damn, got straight through my bs detector. Now I have to think before opening my mouth every time some dev says something stupid. don't I? I hope the the guy who made the pic gets testicular cancer for forcing me to do that.

     

    And Gaider is gay? Well. that sure explains the gay crusade.

     

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

    • Like 1
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