algroth

Maybe that's Tekëhu's spiritshift form, since he will be a druid. It also fits with his supposed godlike connection with Ondra. If that's the case, he won't be my least favourite new companion anymore.

I hope this thread continues to discuss anything but politics.

Does it exist in your politics universe?

A couple of recs that come to mind are the album Bilé Inferno by Czech artists Iva Bittová and Vladimír Václavec (Bittová's vocals can be an acquired taste though - picture Ravel Puzzlewell singing ): Nico's albums Desertshore and The Marble Index... And Hungarian folk group Muzsikás:

That recalls a scene of Watership Down to mind, where the rabbit protagonists come across a road and, naturally, the cars that travel it. I meant to mention this earlier but I am glad you stuck around on these forums, we don't seem to retain new members on Off Topic and there are no lady members. I raised this with the regular members as sometimes I feel new members may get the wrong impression if they don't know how some people post and communicate For example I support SJ in RL and someone like volo quite regularly refers to SJW as Nazis, he doesnt mean it in the way most of us would respond to that criticism. In my world a Nazi is a type of white supremacist with a flawed and reprehensible view of minorities so you don't call someone that unless you want to offend them Don't take volo seriously if you feel he is offending you, he is actually much brighter than he pretends to be. Anyway the majority of members are nice and no one would be intentionally malicious I hope you stick around because I like your sincerity, how are you finding your overall experience ? Feels a little bit out of the blue, but... I think you have me a bit mistaken about me because I'm not a SJW nor do I care much about the SJ cause... I have my criticisms against political correctness and the 'liberal' position but just because I think they are going about it the wrong way and actually causing harm in the way they press their issues, I don't think it's right to go exactly the opposite way and condone an even worse philosophy (which is what I feel is happening quite a bit nowadays). Anyhow, I don't mind the experience, I know Volo is being tongue-in-cheek with much of his SJW Nazi claims, I'm not an absolute sourpuss all the time, just sometimes.

That recalls a scene of Watership Down to mind, where the rabbit protagonists come across a road and, naturally, the cars that travel it.

I think the first film is great, but yeah, between the unnecessary and rather poor sequel, the many animated films and videogames it's not as if a reboot was going to damage the 'saga' any more than it already was. For the most part the reviews were on par with what you'd expect of a Paul Feig film, if perhaps a tad less enthusiastic, but the fanbase had by and large already decided months before the film's release that it would suck, no matter the end result. Personally I didn't watch it, I'm not particularly interested.

I dunno, I feel the press/critics care more about those things than the average moviegoer. I mean, just see the stuff about Iron Fist. It wasn't great by any means but it was mostly the critics calling it out for whitewashing Asian culture and the poor characterization of its female lead while Notcritic McAverageJoeson was just concerned if it was entertaining or not. Iron Fist was a train wreck, though, and it had little to do with it whitewashing Asian culture. Similarly Doctor Strange had some of those accusations but it stands at a 90% RT score in the site, so it wasn't much of a problem for that film. In my experience reading critics and reviews, though, the number who let these things dictate their score is pretty minimal lest the matter is so central to the film's success or failure that it has to be addressed. Similarly it is not something that affected the overall score for Ghostbusters a whole lot.

It has a 73% fresh rating on RT: https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/ghostbusters_2016

It all falls back to the vocalists, doesn't it? I can't place the blame on Amy Lee for my distaste of the band but personally I'm not a fan of her voice - it is not something I detest the way I do shrieking divas like Whitney Houston or Mariah Carey, but I've yet to hear a performance from her in which I've found anything remarkable. She feels very middle of the pack. That said, I did enjoy that In Extremo track you posted. Speaking of great vocalists... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rejizpNR20A

I'm a fan of gothic rock, but I can't say I like Evanescence or would consider them gothic rock for that matter (I think they're more alternative rock with some nu metal elements myself). Here's some great gothic tunes though:

Bowie's best album, in my opinion.

I enjoyed the read so thanks for posting it But I honestly didn't find it revealing or that it offered any new information. It may be that I have strong links to the ME and ISIS so I am constantly updating what is happening. Just to point out a few observations No one has ever seriously suggested this was a fight against Islam. We know Islamic extremism is a small percentage of total Muslims That's not what I'm reading here or elsewhere, though. Already in this thread people are quite seriously suggesting the deportation of Muslims as a means of combatting the issue - likewise the Muslim ban policies earlier this year by the American presidency were responding against Islam as a whole opposite to individuals of an extremist wing, so it has already moved past the point of suggestion and into practice. And I agree that it isn't saying much new, but all the same I thought it was written in an eloquent and level-headed fashion, enough that it conveys many of the issues present in the outrage against 'Islam' following the attack quite nicely. Anyways, glad you liked the piece!

Professor David Hirsh from Goldsmiths, UoL, posted this on his Facebook. I don't agree with all of it but I do think he brings up a number of good points about the event all the same.

Damn. R.I.P.

True, but even so I reckon a neutral regional voice would be more appealing than a stock character personality simply because by means of their dialect and accent you are already adding traits that feel more like they're the natural result of a personal history and background. For the voice actor it is also easier to picture a character and his personality/manner of being by picturing them in a specific setting and rolling with how they'd imagine that character would be, whereas stock character personalities lack that "Magic If" that is inherently present in thinking a voice set from a background or culture instead. Mostly I see this as a good idea with which to expand on the current choices which are based on personality instead, that way you have the choice of going for the region-neutral voices should any of the regional ones not fit the way you picture your character.

So I was just thinking about the voice sets for the original Pillars... It is a relatively minor complaint, but all the same I recall how on character creation I attempted to look for a voice set to match my character's appearance, only to have to settle for the next best thing which was about as neutral a voice set as I could find... And looking back at many other games and the kind of voice sets you're allowed to choose from, to my mind what I usually find to be the case is that they are grouped according to broad 'character types' (e.g. aggressive, stoic, sneaky, mystic) and each is played in a very broad, exaggerated fashion. Pillars is no exception for me in this matter. So I was thinking about this matter as to how to reach a parameter for voice sets that would add much more colour to a character than the stock character types, and one that immediately came to mind was regional differences. In Pillars, for example, wouldn't it be interesting to have the new voice sets correspond to the different regions of Eora, i.e. have a voice set for Aedyr, Deadfire, Ixamitl, Rauatai, the Vailian Republics and so on? These would be interesting inasmuch as they could help better define the PC's background, and also would give some space with which to play with regional slang and language in some of their lines thus integrating them better to the game's world. This is just a random thought that came to mind, but wouldn't it be an interesting idea as a more unique and immersive approach to the new voice sets than simply doing "aggressive 2", "stoic 2" and so on (especially since we also have the stock character sets from the first game to choose from should we want something more personality-specific)? Anyhow, let me know your thoughts.

Definitely agree that the blame for the bombing as such has to fall on the perpetrator, but a repeated failure in security can also be blamed of negligence (I don't know enough about this matter to argue in favour or against it myself, but I can see how it can be a valid claim to make). These are two different accusations even if they do relate to a shared event and one shouldn't shadow or replace the other.

Just watched episode 4 for American Gods, and now I can't help picture this song:

Same, pretty much, just last week. :D