alanschu

I will contribute nothing, and say that I don't particularly care about AI vs postponement. It is just a game, so if I had to choose, I'd say choose what makes most people happy...which is playing the game. Just make sure that the AI is set to Diety for them Depending on how many people can't make it of course (and how many are playing).

Not sure how that really addresses my question however. I wasn't talking about whether or not d20 was a good rule system or not. I'm curious why you need Epic rules for it to be balanced, and all I really got is "Yoda is only level 19."

The reason why we don't have a deficit is because the Liberals, as they stand now, are most definitely not a left-of-center government. They're pragmatic, and at the current moment, are right of center. Particularly on the fiscal end. The only reason why they appear to be left-of-center is because they were in a minority situation. They could either make concessions to the NDP, the Conservatives (not going to happen), or do nothing. I'm not a fan of private health care either, but all of your girlfriend's woes could probably have been covered by insurance (at least according to my relatives living in the US). With premiums that aren't unlike the premiums I currently pay for the government health care system I have now. British Columbia, Alberta, and Ontario all charge premiums for health care. Having said that, clinics are already for profit. Doctors are not employees of the government. They run their own clinics, and all they do is bill the provincial government instead of you. And regardless of what the Canada Health Act says, private clinics already provide services covered by the Act. The "two-tier" health care system that everyone is afraid the Conservatives will implement already exists (which would be difficult, as a decision like this is made at the provinical level. Federal involvement in Healthcare is restricted to money and modifying the Canada Health Act). There's also issues with brain drain, facility efficiency, and other fun stuff like that. It was funny listening to my roommate get rejected from some of our local practitioners though, because they weren't accepting new patients. But there's no sense worrying about the Conservatives allowing something that the Liberal party has already allowed. I was thinking on arguing this point, but it's pretty subjective, and not something that I necessarily disagree with. I can see the advantages of both systems. Though looking at it as "8 bucks a paycheque" is no different than thinking "wow it's only $1 per day, what a deal" when buying something. $200/year is $200/year. Though if you have no problems with it, then you don't have any problems with it. Fair enough. I'm relatively indifferent to the issue. I do think that I can handle my money more efficiently than the government (since there isn't a gigantic bureaucracy involved), but I can see the advantages that it can provide. At the same time, that $200/year is food on the table for a poorer family (and I can speak from experience, as my roommate and I - as students - have been able to stretch $200 to cover 1.5-2 months worth of food). As for whether or not lowering taxes is a good thing, I guess you can always consider the Laffer curve when thinking of that. You should try to get some TV time in. It's pretty entertaining. Liberals accuse Harper of being un-Canadian, and the Conservatives accuse Martin of using private health clinics, and moving his personal business outside of Canada to get cheaper taxes. And interesting observation though, is that the US spends a larger percentage of its GDP on healthcare than Canada does (14% vs 9.5%) Though per capita Canadians probably still get more. As for other issues, I hate the fact that Paul Martin has "assured us" that if re-elected he'd remove the ability for the federal government to invoke the not-withstanding clause. His concern is definitely with respect to his same sex marriage bill (which I've heard required a hardcore invoking of the party whip to pass). But at the same time, I'd rather we not have to go through our ridiculous amendment process to change the Charter, should a non-elected panel such as the supreme court invoke their power to set a precedent for a law that the majority of Canadians might not agree with. I also hate our House, and would love it if free votes were much, much more common. And I would also love an elected senate.

That would explain why he got his but handed to him by a Padawan. Wait....no it doesn't.

Errr, I thought that his preference for the "slam-dunk" was more with IWD2, in that he was trying his best to keep his co-workers (and friends) employed, so that they can acquire capital to make a better game.

Ah. No more obvious assumptions just by looking at the Vampire? Though that's a bit too bad.....I would hope the Nosferatu are still deformed....if they still exist.

What's the new WoD like?

I'm not too worried about Canada turning into a midget version of the US. If Harper takes the country in that direction, I suspect he'll just find himself back in the Official Opposition next election. I'm not voting Liberal because, one we need change, and two I don't like their current track record. Voting them back in basically tells them "we don't care WTF you did with our money...do whatever you want." I'm not voting NDP because I do not think that their platform is fiscally sound. I'm leery about an obviously left wing party that simply says to "trust them" when asked about how certain policies they propose will be funded. I do tend to be right of center, especially economically. I am more left socially though. I think any time spent by a Conservative government "debating" abortion and whatnot is a waste of time, and I'll make sure to let my MP know that (who stands a good chance of being Conservative this time around). At the very least, I'm hoping for a bit more accountability. I did laugh my ass off when the Marxist-Leninist went on TV to talk about his stuff. I'm not sure where you get the idea that the Liberals are a left-wing party though. They're very pragmatic. Though what is it exactly about mimcing the US that you wouldn't like? At first glance it just sounds like you've bought into the Liberal ad campaign a bit too heavily.

Aren't they known for their RTS games? Why would a developer who specializes in one genre of games move to another? <{POST_SNAPBACK}> I think he just really, really, really wants KOTOR 3 to come out and doesn't really care about much else.

But why does it need a specific Epic ruleset? How does that ensure balance?

I agree. I always hope for the best for all games, since it means more good games for me

It's just rather irritating that apparently my enjoyment of dialogue means I'd rather "have a six hour story spoon fed to them." I definitely get negative connotations from it, and as a result see it as derogatory or perhaps inferior.

I preferred the knife (or probably my fists actually) over the arm. Though it wasn't much longer until I got the fireaxe, which was a great stealth kill.

I don't find his response to be particularly rude, especially when Rhomal's post didn't give any indication that he did know what he was talking about. It's probably also annoying to see you chime in everytime someone says they think The Witcher looks impressive, and if NWN2 looks as good as it they'll be happy. What interest do you have in the game besides being a fan?

I think you have an incomplete sentence in there. What about no matter how good NWN2 is...

That's blowing things a bit out of proportion, I think. Now when somebody finds a few bugs here and there, everyone is like "OMFG BETA!!1" or "FFS SUPORT UR PRODUCT!!1", or some other catchphrase equally popular on dev message boards these days. Battlecruiser 3000 was a beta. Starfleet Command 2 was buggy as hell, but still playable. People who have played them can tell you how smoothly K2 and BL actually run. I didn't really mean it as a derogatory statement though. It seems wierd though, to not finance a company at all during the last stages of development and have them sit on their hands (for whatever reason), and then once release has come, keep the company around to make a patch. However, it would be cheaper for Activision to do this, as it would mean that they would not have to pay for the final bug tests and fixes, but would let us find the problems then fix them in a patch. I wasn't saying that Bloodlines was a beta when released. Though I did get stuck in the Kuei-Jin final part. As for Ultima 9, it was nice though that they shipped out a free CD with the fully patched game to everyone that registered their game.

Exactly Not sure how the mod community would affect things though. I'm going to release mine and don't really care what they have to say :D

Ok. Weekend meetings work well for me. I'm also a pretty understanding chap, and can find something else to do in the event that RL stuff pops up on short term

Well, it'd be the first time that I can think of where it was quite explicit that that was the case.

When?

No no no. Neither is interactive. To be honest, I don't think text should exist in games at all. Yes, even to the point where I should just be able to tell it's a Daedric Diakatana by looking at it.

I'll admit I am secretly hoping that DNF comes out and completely blows us off our feet, with the most outstanding gameplay experience EVER seen, to which point it completely redefines how we look at computer gaming in general.

I suppose. Though there'd be good PR in releasing a stable product as well. Unless there was a cost thing, and they basically used us as the beta testers.

Why do you need proper Epic rules?

Bloodlines and Half-Life 2 were released on the exact same day (November 16). The funny thing is, if Activision refused to put more money into Bloodlines, then why did they keep Troika active until the patch for Bloodlines came out?