alanschu

I'd be surprised if players like Bertuzzi and Naslund are still on the team next September.

Fair enough, but even then it's difficult to say because we aren't in their shoes. I agree with astr0creep that it is relative. Of course, it's probably a fair conclusion that places that are war torn or suffer from some other sort of disaster would feel less lucky than someone that doesn't. Though I don't think this has any place in a discussion with respect to a third world country either. I doubt France was a happy place when it was under German occupation. Same goes for the Japanese living in Hiroshima. Both countries certainly would not be considered 3rd world (though to be honest I'm not sure what classification Japan would have, as they don't conform to the often misunderstood definitions of 1st, 2nd, and 3rd world nations....I guess technically it would be 3rd world....though Germany probably would be as well). Studies published in the peer-reviewed Journal of Happiness Studies have found that failure to meet basic needs does cause unhappiness, but excess material wealth beyond that does not result in an increase in happiness. Which does make sense. I would suspect that there may be an increased feeling of being "unlucky" in a place like Afghanistan because it is war torn. But at the same time it might not be that unreasonable that many people, such as the men that were now allowed to shave, or the athletes that competed in the summer Olympics, it was a bit more "lucky" than previously. But this would not have anything to do with the "3rd world" status of the country.

Sounds like you could conclude good luck from your experience. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> No, the bad luck is more long term. Now there's no way I'll ever be able to sell it so it's gonna be that much harder to buy a new more fuel efficient car. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Or.... The fact that you came away from incident unscathed, with no permanent (and perhaps crippling) injuries. Furthermore, your mode of transportation suffered no intrinisc capability to perform the function you require of it. It seems perspective plays an important part in determining good and bad luck. Which actually makes a bit of sense. Not entirely related, but research has shown that people tend to view their personal success as coming from within (Having strong motivation, good work habits, etc), while their personal failures has being external (lost job because of failing economy, or....just "bad luck"). However, people tend to view someone else's personal success as being external (good luck, right place at right time, look at many of the Bioware bashers and why they feel Bioware is successful), while their failures are internal (A perfect example is the common capitalist perspective that someone is poor and unemployed because they are not committing themselves enough to bettering themselves). I also think that people tend to be more pessimistic when dealing with personal setbacks rather than someone else's misfortune. My supporting evidence naturally being our discussion here "

I enjoyed X-Wing: Alliance

Regardless of character skill? <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Yes.

I'm unaware of the level of plight, nor the level of moping, of either of the countries, so I concede nothing. Wow, you guarantee that people that have been displaced and are war refugees for a significantly longer period of time than the small scale time frame suffered my hurricane victims. Which is all moot, because astr0creep was not talking about disaster situations: And you said yes. Based on what? All you have stated is that people that suffer tragedy for an extended period of time will mope about their bad luck more than people that suffer tragedy less. Which is still a bull**** statement to make because you're doing nothing but making an assumption based on commonsense, which is a very bad thing to do.

Were the people in Pakistan moping more about their bad luck (which is significantly worse than people that didn't get help for a few days) than the Katrina victims?

Sounds like you could conclude good luck from your experience.

The "Are You Dumb" was great.

Me neither, though I almost got the last question wrong, but I thought about what he said for a moment.

They were bested by zee Germans, so that must "count" for something.

shhh! http://www.i-am-bored.com/bored_link.cfm?link_id=6798

Somewhere up the family tree, the pronunciation of my last name changed from the standard German Schumacher (Shoo-mach-er) to Shoemaker. I never really looked into it, but I imagine it's because of the trends many German immigrants followed of changing the spelling/pronunciation of their last name to mask their German ancestry in and around the World Wars.

A bit of me doesn't mind being really strong at situations. I play more for the adventure anyways. As for lockpicking, I guess I'm one of the few that finds it particularly easy. If I'm patient, I don't break any picks. I just wait for the one really slow tumbler animation, and I always get it. As my lock picking has increased, I now attempt the second slowest one a bit more, but still have the odd break then. There's no lock that can keep me out, save for the ones that require a key/plot item.

Welcome to the indie game developer scene.

I wouldn't rule out a sequel as it seems to be attaining that "cult classic" attribute quite convincingly. I saw it not too long ago, and was sold.

We'll see how well you stand to this conviction

Domestically, people in the US might not care a whole lot if the value of their dollar goes up because China buys tons of US dollars. Though I suppose it would hurt exports. As for a trade embargo on China.....it worked so well with Japan "

I suspect Gothic III is what he's looking for.

Or he's leary to pass it because he'll be joining a club that has only one other member.

As I said, based on what? You said: What are you basing this comment on? Because the Soviet Union as a Communist state didn't work? You're talking about Communism for game-designers, and how it doesn't work. Based on the Sovchoz and Kovchoz. And you referred me to Metadigitals post, which certainly did not have any indications as to why it is flawed when executed.

Not at all. It's not at all uncommon for business contracts to be structured in such a way that it could be interpreted as a favor. Granting a contract at a significantly reduced price compared to the competition based on previous working relationships (or perhaps reciprocating a similiar gesture) would be a favor as far as I'm concerned. For the record this is not a comment about whether or not Bioware did do Obsidian a favor. As for "official connections," I agree with those posters that do not see licensing an engine as being an official connection. Pandemic and Bioware are what I would consider an official connection, as they are for all intents and purposes now working together under the same parent company.

I was kind of surprised too. Everyone wants their own YT-1300 to cruise around (and mod the heck out of).

No luck for me! There was an amazing hot dancer in the Dominican Republic named Tamica that performed in the theater shows. She was far too talented and hot that even the guys in drunken stupors wouldn't ask her to dance. I had finally worked up the nerve, but I really had to go to the bathroom. So I quickly ducked out to go to the bathroom, and when I returned, I saw her leaving out the door. Opportunity missed! Argh! EDIT: AstroCreep, an interesting observation while in the Dominican Republic is that the people seemed to be, on the whole, much happier and friendlier than back home. And they are certainly not a rich country.

Everyone else naturally.