Wrath of Dagon

I wouldn't say immersion is the same as flow, as you can be completely immersed in a movie or a book, but you have no control there. So flow is something unique to an interactive activity like games, and probably has a lot to do with dopamine release as you accomplish things and get rewarded.

I'm trying to play BG2 for the first time now. I got through the first dungeon, OK but didn't seem anything special. Now I'm in the city and kind of bored walking around, so not feeling it so far. Agree with you about RTS, although mine are a bit different. When you get into an exciting battle, you definitely get immersed and get that feeling, but I really wish more action oriented games or an RPG to be like that.

Ironically I got really frustrated trying to do all the available Skyrim side quests from the start, especially as most of them just sent you to yet another linear dungeon. I think Oblivion was actually much better in that respect. And when you say "unpronounceable" is well known, I assume you mean among psychology types, I've never heard of him before.

It is indeed outrageous that a Christian would go speak to a Christian organization, especially as converting non-Christians is a basic tenet of the Christian faith. I also didn't see where the article said the fund raiser was specifically for converting Jews. However, if you're going to call yourself Jews, at least try to keep Kosher, Jesus did after all.

From a link on RPS I came across this concept of flow http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/elements/2013/11/the-psychology-of-first-person-shooter-games.html I think I've seen this concept before, but now it struck me a being particularly important, since I don't seem to get that much from modern games. For me I got that state the most from KOTORs, so much so I that those are the only games I could play all day long without stopping, and replay several times, which I never do otherwise. There were also about 20 games of that caliber on the original Xbox, and all of the Obsidian games I played I got into that state to some extent, with New Vegas and expansions and Dungeon Siege being the most notable in that respect, but nothing else lately except a few strategy games.

Keep in mind this is still Beta and hasn't been balanced well at this point. I think most of your issues are being addressed as the developers are getting a lot of feedback similar to yours. Also just having the right combat skills isn't enough, combat is meant to be very hard and in most battles you have to figure out a good strategy first to have a chance of winning (battles that have been properly balanced that is).

That's no Floridian, that's Chris Christie without his makeup!

Good for Texas anyway.

Bernadotte. Not one of the better marshalls and he actively hated Napoleon despite, iirc, being his brother in law. Napoleon had said "I've made him a king but couldn't make him a general."

I purged my disloyal doctor.

The new stories in Maadoran are pretty much self-contained, as was the Teron demo. And the game is meant to be replayed many times anyway, to see all the different paths and events from all different points of view.

5/9 I finally figured out you're supposed to pick the most optimistic answer.

The extended demo (R4) is now available for those who preordered. This is about 60% of the game (2 hubs). http://www.irontowerstudio.com/forum/index.php/topic,3493.0.html

I've been reading 19th century authors on Project Gutenberg. Not too long ago discovered Stanley J Weyman : http://www.gutenberg.org/browse/authors/w#a742 Pretty good if you like romances

20th century headlines re-written to get more clicks : http://xkcd.com/1283/

I'm sure Baruch Goldstein didn't actually kill those people he gunned down while they were worshiping then. Goldstein was a member of the Kach party. I'm not aware that the Kach party was itself involved in the attack. JDL is a US organization, this happened in Israel, not US. It's worth noting that there were thousands, may be tens of thousands of attacks from the other side. Let's look at the "number of attacks" statement. "Thousands"? "Tens of thousands"? That is perhaps the most deranged stuff I have read here on this this week, and that is with competition from certain trolls. I know we have differing opinions on some matters, but here you've really got to get a grip on reality. Here are casualty statistics from the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Note how ten times as many children have been killed on the Palestinian side. Here's a list of Palestinian suicide attacks for you to peruse. Now I'm not counting attacks such as rock throwing, destruction of property, and so on. In that case, I'm sure it's quite possible we would actually reach over 1000 attacks in one year, from both sides. However the attacks from Israelis would likely be even higher (I can say that with certainty about the last few years at least), so in a blame game where it's "worth noting" which side commits the worst atrocities it's of no use to you. Note that this kind of violence almost exclusively occurs in the West Bank, and not inside Israel. So you have a list of successful suicide attacks only, for a limited period of time. If you count every attack which was thwarted at the last moment, every stabbing, every shooting, every bombing, not just suicide ones, and depending which time period you use (Palestinian cross border attacks occurred from the very founding of Israel), it easily runs into thousands. Not to mention technically every missile and mortar shell launched from Gaza counts as an attack, although I didn't mean to include them individually into the count. Hm, I wrote a response to this but I accidentally closed my browser... Did you edit away something from your post? No, I don't think so. Normally I only edit for spelling else I note editing. You mean Obama. You mischaracterize the entire situation. Arab-Israelis have equal rights, and even privileges, like not having to serve in the armed forces. The reason there are walls between Israel and West Bank and Gaza is because Palestinians kept sending suicide bombers into Israel, before that they were able to work freely in Israel with much benefit to themselves, but they chose to screw it up. The Caliphate wouldn't screw around if opposed, they would simply exterminate all opposition. They might do that in any case, look at what's happening to Christians right now in Muslim countries. Thanks to immigrant vote Demorcrats and cheap illegal labor Republicans I'm losing my homeland right now. I really don't know what to do, I guess I'm going to have to move once Texas becomes another third world **** hole.

I'll cheerfully defer if our legally trained members disagree, but I was always taught that the law HAS to be interpretive in order to deliver justice. Because laws cannot possibly be drafted to account for every circumstance in which they might apply. If WoD does in fact attempt to apply the law without conscience or referring to circumstance then I can only pray nightly that I never have to work with him or for him. Don't worry, you never will. Although I have nothing to do with any kind of law (thank heaven) so I'm not sure how that's even relevant. And I said law has to be interpreted and application could be ambiguous, so how is that different from what you're saying? Any of you still contemplating voting for Hillary, what the hell's wrong with you? So. Obvious warnings of an attack were ignored, requests to arm security personnel was denied, and once the attack was happening the CIA crew on the scene were denied to intervene. So do you attribute this to incompetence, or...? Incompetence, magical thinking, complete lack of understanding the world and threats in it (see intimidation of Muslims thread) and cover your ass before anything else mentality. The only good thing I can say about Carter is that he wasn't a shameless liar like you-know-who.

No, dance is interpretive. Law has to be interpreted, but you do have to apply every word, you can never say "don't take the law literally", you can say it's ambiguous how the law applies to a given situation. Edit: New 60 minutes report on Benghazi : http://legalinsurrection.com/2013/10/60-minutes-confirms-benghazi-is-a-real-scandal-and-youve-been-lied-to/ transcript here : http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-18560_162-57609479/60-minutes-benghazi/ Any of you still contemplating voting for Hillary, what the hell's wrong with you?

America runs on literality. Every word in the bible is literally true; every word of the Constitution is literally applicable; every dollar of national debt is a literal representation of incompetence; there is literally an invisible hand guiding capital markets; bills, laws, ideas and intent are all literally good for the nation if they have a simple, positive title. Context, nuance, and translation have literally no place in America. Well, yeah, every word in a law has to be literally applicable, else the law is meaningless, and you don't have rule of law (another thing Obama doesn't care for, I'm starting to think he really is a Marxist).

According to the article, it's the key to longevity in the current White House. I guess it's also the key to longevity in NK.

See, Obama isn't incompetent, he's just can't be arsed to worry about the trivial problems of mere mortals. http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/362203/obamas-valerie-jarrett-often-whispered-about-never-challenged-john-fund

In that case, insane gun owners are more likely to commit acts of terrorism than Muslims. Do you support a system to monitor gun owners, because a few individuals have committed heinous acts? Hassan carried out his attack for political reasons, which makes it terrorism. The other mass shootings were carried out by insane people. Certainly I favor monitoring the insane and making sure they don't get guns. I don't recall ever denying that Palestinians committed acts of terror. I did point out that Jewish extremists have historically been behind more acts of terror(1985-2005) in the US than Muslims, source? I'm implying no such thing, just objecting to your attempt to smear Israel. Still haven't seen any facts dear. Try adjusting the tin foil. I don't see why I should have to quote the article I already linked to, but here are a few selections anyway, I guess you claim someone made it all up? Also, here's the MB credo

I thought we were discussing terror plots, not mass shootings. If you want to talk about those as well, in 2012 there were 66 deaths from mass shootings, twice that of deaths from Islamic terrorism. Mass shooting doesn't count as terrorism, even when carried out for political/religious reasons? I thought that's what Goldstein did. So gunning those people down was OK? How in hell do you even make that leap of logic? You're the one who started counting who did more attacks. And then you give an example of a Jewish terror attack, and ignore the thousands of Palestinian ones. It's been my experience with liberals that they lack all sense of proportion. Facts you're obviously unable to dispute.

12 in the US. Sounds low, where is that number from? Just the Boston marathon bombing. Different group than the ones behind 9/11 as well. I guess you don't consider Nidal Hassan an Islamist. I'm sure Baruch Goldstein didn't actually kill those people he gunned down while they were worshiping then. Goldstein was a member of the Kach party. I'm not aware that the Kach party was itself involved in the attack. JDL is a US organization, this happened in Israel, not US. It's worth noting that there were thousands, may be tens of thousands of attacks from the other side. Are you implying a plot to blow something up is somehow much less vile because the lunatics were unable to carry it out? Not very good logic. Because you said there were more Jewish attacks, but these were minor incidents from a long time ago. The huge attack was Islamist, and the number of Islamist plots is far greater. Have fun with you head in the sand, since you got your mind made up, I won't confuse you with facts.