random n00b

Where are you from? US? It wouldn't surprise me at all. Oh, the irony. I'm curious about this. History is possibly the most expansive academic subject there is. This wasn't a lesson I took during my student years, and I'm wondering which education systems deal with international 20th century History extensively? And is the scope restricted to contemporary History, or does it encompass all History that's taught? If so, that can only lead to other subjects being neglected. Even History majors are fairly specialized...

You tell them.

It appears the "old" (new?) Sith Emperor is none other than Naga Sadow. Brace for mass retcons! That's the only good thing they ever did for the MMO; but, sadly, they caved into the whining Jedi fanbois. Yeah, they made the game suck on purpose. This gives you anti-MMO arguments, so it must obviously be a sound decision. Sharp.

Hahaha. I think you need to replay, well, just about any "RPG" out there, and that considering they are the games that supposedly offer you the most freedom of action and intent. And then tell me how those games provide any sort of chance to affect the story in a way the player wants, as opposed to what's supposed to happen. Wow, just like in any other medium with a predefined plot! The player is ALWAYS caught in the narrative, and it's simply not possible to escape it. Unless it's a sandbox game, but then there's no narrative to speak of. The only difference between the media I spoke of and video games is the perspective from which the spectator (player, in this case) experiences the narrative. Everything else is just fluff and fake and/or trivial choices thrown in to give a false sense of immersion. So, yeah.

And we have a winner. The whole cloak and dagger deal with a few grand climax moments thrown in here and there worked pretty well in K2. And, in the grand scheme of things, the plot of K2 only very vaguely sketched the future of the Republic and the Jedi, leaving a lot of room for a game to bridge the gap between the end of that game and the established setting of TOR. That said, I doubt OE will be given the chance to make it, when they were even denied permission to create a content patch to give a very much needed finishing touch to K2. Sad, really.

Or Yuusha, or Nur Ab Sal, or any number of other members which are guaranteed to cause controversy when airing their views on political issues. Nah, I even got as far as using a 3rd Reich swastika for avatar, just to see how far I could push my luck. Fio simply removed it, and asked me rather politely to choose my avatars more wisely. Even mean personal attacks will at most result in a user simply being put in probation. The only thing that will get you banned (guaranteed) is being a spambot, and perhaps trolling against OE, BIO, or other companies. That's a no-no as well.

Yeah, it works for movies, it works for books and it works for comics. But, for some reason, it can't be made to work for games. Eh, OK.

Er, there's at least two SP RPGs being developed right under our noses. And that's just here. I don't think that just because BIO is trying their hand at MMOs, the whole genre is "shifting" towards that model. That's not exactly what they said. They said the MMO is expected to have enough content to cover the next six games down the line. That looks to me more like a statement on the planned scope than a factual declaration of future plans for the franchise. I don't believe a KotOR 3 will be made, but they could squeeze it in if they wanted to.

No, I've impersonated him before, but I'm not he. Better luck next time.

That isn't exclusive to Islam - and it's probably one of the reasons why the various religious hierarchies have tried to control who and how disseminated their doctrine, with varying degrees of success, until the printing press was invented. Which makes this whole business even more retarded, since the root of the problem lies with an ancient precept which has no meaning anymore.

Wait, what? The game is set hundreds of years after the events of K2. How does this affect Avellone's work, again? Except for the detail that it most likely kills off the possibility of learning in a SP game whatever happened to Revan & co. and what is all the fuss about the Truly Evil Sith Masterminds of Evil that sit at the edge of space etc. And quite frankly, those were the most lame themes in the plot of K2 by far - not to mention they were completely unnecessary additions. What is typical, again? That they don't do exactly what you want? Boo ****ing hoo.

Argentina to nationalize private pension funds Hahaha, go go socialism for the people!

It's probably too soon to tell, but I doubt that's the case. K2's plot runs much more behind the scenes than K1's, save for a few key moments, and even in those, the exile's part isn't really known to the general public. At the end of K2, the Jedi Order is pretty much finished, and Kreia hints that it's the exile's jedified companions that are the seed from which it's to be reborn in time. The exile just went off to join Revan and got gutted real good or whatever. None of that is incompatible with what's been made public about TOR's storyline.

This. Haha, yeah, that's what it's looking like. Brace for Revan fanboy nerdrage. I'm looking forward to see what the BIO crew can turn this into. This game may actually be worth getting a job for. But if I do that, I won't be able to grind 24/7. Decisions, decisions...

I didn't say it looks better... but it certainly doesn't look worse. Anyway, It's kinda funny that the OE crowd, with the unwritten motto "graphics aren't everything", would choose that to pick on. Oh wait, that's all we've got...

Odd. They've added "a-we-so-me" to the censored words list, now? How does it look awesome? It looks like WoW. Heck, it looks worse than WoW. Hmm? You might want to take your beer goggles off. EDIT: also, let the hatefest begin. It's EA, after all!

Odd. They've added "a-we-so-me" to the censored words list, now?

I'm playing through TSLRP + DStoney's M4-78 (plus a crapload of other minor mods) just fine... the only showstopper I found I worked around by means of a warp armband. Not saying it'll be seamless, but mods rarely are. I don't think it's reasonable to expect modders to serve everything on a silver platter, but that's just me.

Taks is going on a rampage! Run!

But you're mind-policing them getting pissed off! You nutloop. Okay, I confess I'm not certain if that comment was made in a completely tongue-in-cheek manner, but I'll bite. I should make it clear that I'm not trying to take away their righteous wrath. They are completely free to throw all the fits they see fit (ahem). That was never the point and if it were, I doubt SCEE would have enacted this abominable self-censorship - hence my comment about the irrelevance of my being offended. The problem comes when they act upon those pet peeves of theirs, or threaten to do so. Then it's no longer a question of mind-policing, but a question of them enforcing (or at least attempting to) said mind-policing by means of terror and death. As I said, not even the idea of universal free thought should be exempt from scrutiny, accepted as it may be. Problem is, a bunch of clowns take the opposite for granted and have no problem with marking for death those who would dare to defile the God-given certainty of their beliefs.

Oh, most definitely. Specifically, I'm offended by their (oh, how I love making purposefully vague and generalising statements) disrespect of people's right* to think freely. I will always be a fundamentalist of that idea - despite my willingness to discuss its pros and cons. And I'll always be a nutjob when it comes to any degree of mind control, under any guises. Sorry, but I don't think this is a debate you can win (or even not-lose, which is the best that stance can aspire to in the most favorable of circumstances) by clinging to moral relativism, as it doesn't really pertain to morality. *I'm using "right" as I lack a better word to express something that comes as naturally to human beings as breathing, but I'm just not too sure if it could be categorised as a physiological function. Interestingly, it's unenforceable one way or the other, so it's not formally recognised as a "right", either. Heh.

As you said, it's public domain. The issue is their sense of entitlement over something that's supposed to belong to mankind as a whole and the idea they have somehow a right to dictate what is and what is not legitimate to do with the material just because they happen to belong to a religious sect that follows the principles of said work. Mindboggling really, and rather offensive. But nobody seems to care whether I'm offended, because I'm a non-fundamentalist. The way of the bully.

Oh, right. I failed to take that into consideration. To be fair, I agree with the sentiment that giving in to the creative insights from the marketing folks is a sure-fire recipe for disaster. But isn't that what happened to SWG? You'd think they have learned their lesson...

And some damn fine blasters they were. I remember being more concerned about the level cap being raised above 20, myself...