Pop

Right right. It's kind of nerdularly humorous that Thomas Hobbes equated morality with survival. So can I choose both?

Hold 'Em. None of that electronic ****e for me! I kick variable amounts of ass, too.

I don't think that's the case. You know how they now have "hunting tours" where they gaurantee a kill for a certain amount? You pay, and then they release the bird near you and you get to shoot it. Comparing prostitution to going out to a bar and picking up someone is akin to comparing traditional hunting, where you might just sit in a blind all day and come home with nothing, to pay-by-kill hunting. Kind of a crude analogy, but it works. As for prostitution, I'm not one usually one to advocate the prohibition of vices, but prostitution in some ways is like child pornography: It's perverse, but moreover, the people involved are exploited. We prohibit child porn in the interests of reducing abuse and exploitation of children (and we allow "simulated" child porn), and we prohibit prostitution in the interests of reducing the abuse and exploitation of women. Same general principle. I wouldn't call someone who frequents brothels a sick **** in the same way, however. The easiest solution to call for is regulation of the industry, because we can't very well get rid of it. Set up brothels and make it incumbent upon the law to protect the women, instead of a pimp or madam. However, as in so many cases, government involvement might not do a goddamn thing for anyone.

I would say that we shouldn't excercise capital punishment, but I wouldn't say that capital punishment is ethically bankrupt. Innocent people are killed by the state, but that it is unjust to kill an innocent person does not make killing a guilty person unjust by extension. So Mortis Nai would be justified in supporting killing mass murderers, or child rapists. That doesn't mean he's supporting killing innocent people. We can say that the former deserve to die and the latter doesn't. But let's take a look at your argument. (1)If Mortis Nai was convicted of a capital crime he didn't commit, he would not support the death penalty. (2)Therefore, Mortis Nai cannot reasonably support the death penalty now, when he has not been convicted of a capital crime. It's a **** argument in those terms. The conclusion does not follow from the premise. You should have just stuck with (1)Capital punishment kills innocent people (2)Killing innocent people is unjust (3)We should not do that which is unjust (4)Therefore we should not enact capital punishment. Which is a sound argument. We have to recognize that there is a dichotomy between the application of capital punishment and the ethical legitimacy of it. We can refrain from killing people and still reasonably accept that some people just need killing, if we stay away from "sanctity of life" arguments. I'm pretty sure I've gone over this before on this forum. But as someone who holds more to the Kantian / Hobbesian view of crime & punishment, I'm less inclined than most to consider the rights and well-being of those who harm others. As for whether this particular guy deserves to die, sounds like second-degree murder or manslaughter. So the death penalty's off the table. But he should be held responsible for his actions, and punished severely. If he feels remorse for what he did, that should be taken into account in regard to the punishment, but not by much.

Also because he's a paladin, and paladins usually lack those negative personality traits that spice up interesting characters. Some people didn't like Keldorn for that reason. You've got, what, zealotry, or arrogance, or pride. Anomen had all three of those, and nobody liked him. I guess Casavir had some doubt in him, but I was never able to explore that in my games. Probably because of the cut content, but it might be because I wasn't dogged enough in my pursuit. And I think Josh mentioned parts of Casavir's plotline having been cut. I wonder if some prospective Unfinished Business mod could put some of that back in, somwhere down the line.

warhammer.

Oh man, I've never won anything before. This is awesome. Since 2001, they've been slacking. The article reads like something out of the Onion, and it's not even as funny as the Onion article they already did. It's not as if this is really an award, anyway. It's an empty gesture. *edit - btw: God, that takes me back. *edit 2 - I am a Lebowski Achiever.

Cursive - Dorothy at Forty Mew - Fox Cub / Apocalypso

Ooh, and it looks like he's updating it too thanks a lot Josh, I'll strongarm my players into using the system next time we play. I've been meaning to get away from that hulking CRPG style anyway. Muy bien!

I don't know if this counts, but Josh made this Fallout PnP adaptation which I use when I can, and it's amazing. *edit - Well, I should say that it showcases Josh's skill with rule systems. These are all DM's tools.

You don't have the True Name scroll? Is it because you don't have Zhaeve / Ammon Jerro in the fight or that they don't have a scroll? All Shadow Reavers throughout the entire game require a scroll being used against them. As for the game crashing during the fight... I don't know what to tell you. You might try going over to the bioware boards.

I had Qara buff up my PC before the battle and then used Word of Changing right after talking to LoH. Her Knockdowns simply bounced of my Horned Devil's 32 STR and the 5hp/round regeneration pretty much negated any damage she managed to do. Still, it took me a long time time to defeat her because she seemed to have several uses of Lay on Hands for some reason and thus kept healing herself to full health over and over again. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> So the horned devil deal works? When I tried that spell with Ammon Jerro, it didn't work terribly well for him. I was thinking of investing in the negative energy eldritch blast that drains levels, but it wouldn't work against undead, and LoH might have immunity.

I thought he was saying that NWN2 crashes during the Reaver fight "the program of Nwn2 is shutdown by force." But... yeah. I think you might have the answer there.

If they're bitching about it on the bioboards, they've made up their minds. Josh would only be stirring the pot. He might persuade a few people, but he'll piss off more. So what's the use? Just let him answer haters with his craft. Besides, you might as well keep him here, where he gets his internets

AT LEAST! Someone gives a logical answer on these boards! What's wrong with you guys? Just by reading your posts, I notice that most of you are pro-deathpenalty and such... You are no better than this guy, ya know... Tchh, I am happy to live in Europe <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Why should we give this guy the same consideration that we would give somebody who doesn't kill children?

I don't hate love in game stories; I just hate reducing love to shallow, masturbatory fantasy indulgence. Maybe that's all love is to some people, but I think that's a pretty narrow view. Ego-stroking is very popular in CRPGs, which is one reason I don't feel comfortable doing CRPG writing anymore. I appreciate that people wanted more romance options in NWN2, but sometimes I think that people want there to be romance "victory" conditions for all companions. I think that can diminish some characters. For instance, if Shandra and Qara had their own romance plots, I think some people would still want Neeshka to be "romance-able", regardless of how Neeshka's author felt about the character's place in the story. That bugs me. I don't like the idea that you can "win" everything or get everyone on your side. I'm also not fond of the idea that romance always has to resolve with a "fade out" to implied coitus, but that's another issue. I'll re-state what I wrote before: I want romance to receive either less or more attention in games. Anything worth doing is worth doing well, especially when it's something with so much emotional potential. But I certainly don't want to go the route of harem anime, which is total fantasy indulgence and gross pandering. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> I hope you realize I wasn't being serious and I agree with you. Romance quests have been pretty lackluster when it comes to recent RPGs. And romance would be the last thing I'd want or expect from an Alien game. It'd be a bad idea, especially with all the movie love interests dying. But if I had to choose, I'd put more of an emphasis on romances in RPGs. I realize how often it devolves into fan service, but that aspect of a game really helps deepen it, if it's done right. The easiest and best way to give depth to a character that spends 90% of his / her time getting into fights is to have him / her show affection for another character. It doesn't always work, but when it does, it does. *edit - I liked the part where you hit that blind guy with a wooden board :cool:

Yeah, I like video games too, and I don't want to see them censured out of this, but really, that's at the bottom of the list as far as concerns that arise out of this incident are.

Just patched up from the beta (finally) and I'm having some problems I didn't have before. For some reason, enchanting isn't working (it won't recognize the base weapon / armor to be enchanted when it's put on the bench) and the ore deposit found at the Sydney Natale encounter isn't registering as mined, even though I found it (got the xp for it, too) and sent the miners after it. Question: I'm playing a warlock, and I've liked it up to this point. But I'm getting my ass handed to me by Light of Heavens I don't know if I can take her on twice more. edit - added spoiler tag

I don't know. BG2 had 3 possible romance options with a male character, which seemed fine to me (never really dug Nalia as a character much anyhow) and the female options were sorely lacking in comparison not only in choice (a romance with Yoshimo or maybe Haer'dalis would have been nice, and maybe a romance with Keldorn could have had some Viconia-esque character consequences) but in the fact that the female option was Anomen, who was possibly the most annoying character in the game, even if you didn't like Aerie's naivete act. KOTOR2 continued that tradition, as I generally liked both the Handmaiden and Visas, but the less said about Disciple, the better. I'd chalk up NWN2's restrictive romance options just to a tight CNPC pool. As bland as Casavir is, he's pretty much the only viable female romance option out of any of the male characters, what with the warlock being geriatric and the ranger being a creepy **** and the dwarf being... a dwarf. As for Elanee, who else? Qara? Neeshka? A gith? No thank you. Please, please, no. It's my opinion that what's really required for a good romance is good writing, characters with some semblance of depth and enough gametime to flesh out the process of, uh, RPG courtship in a way that doesn't feel forced or contrite. BG2 had all those things. At least in its current incarnation NWN2 had those things, but didn't focus on the romance aspect much at all. For all we know, if an expansion is released that continues the shard-bearer's story, they might flesh out the romance a bit more, but it'll be hard.

I wonder if they'll go for a romance in the Alien game, if Josh Sawyer is such a -hating scrooge?

Oh yes. One of my favorite shooters of all time. That and the original Unreal. Have you played the expansion pack as well? I finished that a while ago and it's pretty good as well. Not quite as good (the story elements don't quite hold up, but the gameplay is just as fun) but still loads of fun. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Nope, no expansion yet. I've heard it reaaaaaaaally messes up the story.. I mean obliterates it... any truth to that? :ph34r: <{POST_SNAPBACK}> God, I hope so.

Yeah, we had some difficulty at first getting used to the cover system, but we got the game at 6 PM and my friend left at 11 PM, having completed the game. Now that I finally figured out how to install the BGtutu modifications, I'm starting a game as a sorcerer. I'm still psyched about BG1 and BG2+ToB becoming, in a sense, just one long BG.

Wow, it took I and my friend that amount of time to get through the whole game. What difficulty level are you playing on?

Turn that frown upside down.

As for eliminating text from games, I think it'd just be a better idea to have toggled subtitles, if not just to accomodate the deaf. That seems like a good enough reason to include subtitles with anything.