Rostere

If anything, the stance on homosexuality they published is even more shameful than the education "oversight." What a pack of bigots. You don't say?

Oh, well, no problem then.

Oppose teaching of "critical thinking skills" because they, apparently, have the purpose of "challenging the student's fixed beliefs" - this could only possibly be on a mainstream political party's agenda in the US. Or wait, I forgot North Korea, China, Iran... Seriously. How the **** does this happen? I can't see those kind of opinions winning any votes in any half-civilized country.

I like the "Alien", the rest in the series are pretty meh. In other news, today I saw "Tropa de Elite". It's a pretty vivid tale about corruption in the Brazilian police. I'd give it 4/5 stars.

So, yesterday I saw "12 Angry Men" and "The Magus". There's a Swedish site where you can upload your ratings of movies and then get suggestions on new movies to see, see who likes the same movies as you, et.c.. A pity I don't know of any similar site for games... :/

That is a very interesting video. He makes very valid points. Although his own primary focus seems to be the lack of asking deeper questions ("Why?") about the Middle East military interventions, I find it interesting because of his inside information on the American foreign policy. A lot of people who are critical of these wars seem to view their inception as more of a conspiracy, and even Clark sees the lack of critical discussion in the political environment as the primary problem, which essentially is the same perspective, although more moderate. Especially the anecdote about "seven countries in five years" emphasizes the silly aspect of it all. So many of these "neo-con" foreign policy thoughts are really so mind-numbingly stupid. Hearing about Clark's inside experiences, I can see in front of myself Cheney, Wolfowitz and all the other good-for-nothing chicken hawks making up grand plans for invading every imaginable country on earth with all the glee (and responsibility) of five-year-olds playing with toy soldiers. Sometimes the reality is better than fiction, and in this case the internal Pentagon talk appears to be an exquisite cartoonish parody of the (already silly) outward image of the "neo-con" political groups. I do hope that these ideas get buried in the sands of time. From a realistic perspective though, there probably won't be forever until these "sandbox militarists" resurface and wish for a "new Pearl Harbor". (see page 51 (63 in the pdf) of the most important foreign policy document of the last decade) Oh wait, they probably won't call it "new Pearl Harbor". They will probably say "new 9/11". There are, however, different kinds of military intervention. Concerning Syria, I can possibly see the case for Syrian military artillery positions and tanks being destroyed from the air if possible (as a desperate NATO intervention), in order to prevent them from being used against civilians. Or rather, I could, if it wasn't for Libya and the fact that NATO's counterparts are more on their toes. Ideally, a strong UN presence would of course be in order (just like in Israel/Palestine - but that's another story). I'm sad to say I don't see that happening soon, though, as Syria is currently an indirect battlefield for the big actors There are larger disputes waiting to be solved, and in the end it's far more important to play the long game and spread ideas of open society, pacifism and cooperation throughout the world. That is the only way we can keep these conflicts from happening in the future.

I can confirm this.

If the market's unbalanced, there's lots of money to be made! Myself, I've made a lot of money by selling dyes on the AH (the HC AH that is - I'm not touching softcore Diablo 3)

It looks far better on my Barbarian. Thankfully mine has a Strength bonus over the Dex one. But yeah, it's kinda boring you can't dye legendaries... makes you look like a clown eventually. That's funny, I've dyed my armor specifically to look like a clown.

2 million units... Just a little bit less than Mirror's Edge or MoH:Airbourne. Also, the SP game for PS and N64 (released in 1998!) sold about 1,85 million. The number of 360s and PS3s in circulation is about the same as the total number of PS1s and N64s sold to this date. All info according to VGChartz. However, VGChartz' numbers are highly dubious, if not obviously erroneous, considering that they state that the total number of games sold from the NWN franchise is less than 0,1 million. So, adding things up, I wouldn't say it's an unreasonable objective.

Playing Deadly Premonition. That game is fantastic! Reason enough to buy a Xbox 360 if you don't already own one.

Well. We all know that games based directly on movies suck. Seeing the interest of the big money in backing the Prometheus franchise I consider it very likely we will see a game based on that IP not too soon. I think we can rule out action FPS or strategy game. Personally, I would love to see a new FPRPG/Adventure game with stealth and horror elements, combining aspects of Thief, Penumbra, Deus Ex and especially System Shock. That would be a perfect prototype for a Prometheus game. I think FP is absolutely neccesary for the "horror" aspect. Obsidian's cancelled Alien RPG might speak in their favour here - although if I recall correctly that was more inspired by "Aliens" :/

Here's hoping for a Prometheus game!

Worst excuse ever for not playing Arcanum. I'm really quite upset now. Chris, I thought you were first and foremost interested in setting and narrative, and not a powergaming dork.

I hope they manage to capture the right 80s " old skool cyberpunk" vibe! Ugh.

Ugh. I hate to say that things were better in the days of old, but things like this forces me to draw such conclusions...

Hmm, I think you've blown our differences out of proportion. The essence of the message in my first post is that the market is very fickle (phones sell with regards to hype and looks), and not so easily predicted by the kind of logic you seem to use. I also shared my personal preferences (I prefer WP over IPhone, open source OS is a good idea in the long run). Most people I talk to buy their phones for reasons such as "my friend has one", or something which boils down to "I like one of the default apps", "I like the look", "I recognize the logo" and so on. I tried to underline that in my second post, but I think you misinterpreted it all. As I see it, the positive thing with Android is that it's an open source OS. The market share of Android may be 0% or 100% or anything in between, my point being that most people - as you put it - are "technically uninformed". They bought it because they couldn't afford/ didn't want the latest IPhone, or for some other circumstantial reason (of course this applies to WP buyers as well). We can discuss pros and cons for all eternity, in the end smartphones will sell or not sell because of hype, pricing, "it's shiny, durr" and so on. You say that "people do not need a ****ty alternative to Android and iPhone" and "plastering Sydney with ads about how "great" the Lumias are won't change [anything]". In my personal opinion WP is just as good, if not better, for the casual user compared to the other two. Additionally, "plastering Sydney with ads" might be just the thing for pushing sales for the WP. There's such an insane amount of things being sold for no real reason other than the fact that it's been hyped and advertised properly, so why wouldn't it work for Windows Phone? I'm not saying that it necessarily will, just that you shouldn't dismiss the possibility just because you're immune to that kind of marketing yourself.

Oh come on, it's part of the charm. When your super-geared character suddenly and unexpectedly dies... I'd say it's one of the strongest experiences in any computer game. You pause and think about the fleeting nature of life. Also, party HC is great fun.

1.9% of smartphones sold these days are Windows phones 7% of smartphones sold these days are Blackberries 23% of smartphones sold these days are iPhones 56% of smartphones sold these days are Android phones I think Android does interest casual users. Just because something is open source doesn't mean it isn't good for casual users. Do you use Firefox or Chrome or Libre Office, for instance? I didn't say that it wasn't good, just that it wasn't necessarily BETTER. What I'm saying was that none of the inherent strengths of having an open source OS is of particular interest to the casual user. If Android did not have the backing of Google I doubt it would have emerged in the first place. Firefox or Chrome? Yes, but the other OSs also have web readers. I doubt the difference to casual users is larger than it is for the PC. If all people made "rational" choices from the perspective of computer geeks no single MAC would be sold (because you pay a lot for very little, and you can make a Hackintosh if you're after the OS for any reason). People would easily dual boot between different OSs when the need arose and write their own code when they encounter new problems. Everyone would build their PCs from components, and so on and so forth. You should reflect over where Google get their money from. Sooner or later, they will be the "new Microsoft", I swear.

I prefer WP over IPhone, if it weren't for the fact that there are more apps for IPhone I don't see why anyone would want one instead of a WP. It's a bit crazy when you think about a Windows product more "designed" than an Apple product (although that has nothing to do with why I prefer WP). Android is an open source OS, and as much as I'd like to say that it's a great advantage, most casual users probably won't have any use for that.

People say that InXile goes running back to the "big money". I see it the other way around. Origin is entirely optional. You can still get your DRM- free copy of the game. I think it's EA who's running back to the indie devs in order to create goodwill for their Origin service. InXile is probably going to end up with more money this way (which is a GOOD thing). Just read the official quote: "PLEASE NOTE the game is not Origin-exclusive, Origin is simply one of many options that will be available, including DRM-free. EA will be the distributor and will have zero say on design and production decisions. Of course, if it would be sold exclusively via Origin it would be an outrage. But now it isn't. So, simple as that.

Does anyone have a guest pass to spare? I decided not to buy D3 before the exams this term, however playing just a little bit can't hurt, can it? Does anyone around here fancy playing HC? On European servers? Also, my BattleTag is Rostere#2692.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israel

Yes, piracy- safe as I see it. Any money in excess of development costs is essentially just a bonus.

Did any of you think about the fact that Kickstarter is piracy-safe? I mean, in the sense that you pay for the product before it even exists.