Aristes

You know, the funny thing is I don't have anything against pagan holidays. I would never dream of jumping into someone's thread expressing good will during a pagan or even secular holdiay with anything other than goodwill of my own. Hell, that includes Festivus. I mean, I guess if folks wanted to celebrate concentration camp day or Hiroshima day, I wouldn't want anything to do with it, but otherwise I'm all about celebrating and enjoying myself. Pagans, Christians, Buddhists, Muslims, Atheists, and all the rest have done a lot of bad things. It's human nature. Good and kind acts are also in our nature. However, we don't generally celebrate the bad stuff we do. Yeah, Europeans came over to the United States and mistreated the native population, decimated it throughout the continent and often exploited the survivors. Do we really want to celebrate 'bringing smallpox to the native population' day? Not me. I'd rather celebrate those times we lived in harmony with each other. ...And even though I was certain some folks would be asinine about my thread, I certainly wouldn't let that stop me from expressing goodwill to other folks. I was even careful to be inclusive, not to be politically correct but because I think the idea behind the holiday is universally human. All in all, though, I'm not angry with the responses. I want to celebrate Thanksgiving, but it doesn't do us much good to remember our successes and good times if we refuse to accept our failures, either as any religion or as a species.

It's not necessarily a religious holiday, although it can be one and for many it is. The good thing about Thanksgiving is that folks can think of it as "turkey day" and have fun feasting. They can think of it as a time to give thanks to one another for boons and bounties and friendship. They can even think of it as a time to be generally thankful and contemplative for the good things in life. Some of us think of it as a religious holiday where we thank the Lord for his blessings. ...But I specifically meant my happy thanksgiving to fit each and every celebrant in whatever way they enjoy celebrating. Thanksgiving is pretty much over, but it was a good one here, smaller than most years, warmer than many, and quite worth the effort to come to Nevada. I've been lurking here for a while and I know how Killian can be a curmodgeon. I hope he had a good feast also. Happy thanksgiving, KK!

Happy belated Thanksgiving to you north of the border folks. Anyhow, about the food. I like Turkey, but we have tons of different dishes on Thanksgiving. Stuffing is probably my favorite, but I also like the ham, potatoes, and candied yams. On Christmas Eve, I have either steak or filet mignon. This tasty tradition started when I was younger and we were poor (as in food stamp poor) and we splurged every Christmas and had steak. Later, of course, we worked out of our monetary misfortunes, and so things like steak and lobster weren't quite so impressive anymore. I'm not really a huge steak fan. I mean, I like the stuff, but it's not like it's something special anymore, but I still have it every year because I remember scraping the bottom of the peanut jar because it was the only food in the house for three or four days. I also have it because I want to remember that there are folks in this world who would see that jar of peanut butter that was all I had a couple of times as a kid and see it the same way I did that steak.

Happy Thanksgiving to all of you fellow Americans out there! ...And a happy day to folks from other countries. We'll try to enjoy a good meal and toast you also for the hell of it!

QFT

People attack your posts, teh kotor, because you aren't in lockstep with prevalent views. Plus they are a little excessive sometimes, but most of them are here. I have no beef with Aram. I don't think he's talking like an ass at all. No, there's nothing ass-like about him. Nevertheless, his underlying point mistakes the salient fact that we live in a world of limitations and every advancement we've achieved as a species has only served to highlight our limitations in new ways. Yeah, we have the technology to build a fleet of colony ships that would, with almost preordained certainty, transport enough humans to another planet to ensure the survival of the species. ...But, since we're not using this technology that we almost certainly have right this very second, we have to face things as they exist on earth. It's true that heroes are the object of exploitation in almost every way. However, cheering cowardice because bravery provides fuel for exploitation is not only stupid, it's dangerously stupid. There is no 'better way' if the idea behind it expects humanity to be something other than human. We are limited by our humanity, which means that some people are brave and some are cowards. Some exploit the brave while some fools celebrate the cowards. That's not going to change anytime soon. We might want to believe in some advanced state of mankind that we'll achieve by evolving into something else. While we remain human, though, we're pretty much trapped. I don't tend to be effusive about heroes. I tend to think that the terms is often applied where it is not warranted. ...But I do believe that true heroism deserves praise.

I'm more or less what you get if you average out you, gromnir, and hurlshot. And you lose the best thing of each. Not as funny as Walsh. Not as smart as Gromnir. Not as wholesome as Hurlie. haha I kid! I kid! Hey, speaking of jokes, has anyone nominated Krezak? I think ol' bucket head deserves a shot at the title. Unfortunately, I've used my vote for Gromnir already. This poll thing is is a silly idea, but it's fun to talk about it.

Ummm, Rost, you missed Gromnir, and he has three votes so far.

I'm Gorth's alt account. He doesn't always feel like being a nice guy.

taks, of course. hehe You and taks seem to go at it a lot, at least. I wish I had an alt, but I'm just boring ol' Aristes.

I have it on the best authority that there are alts here.

Finally getting around to doing the laundry from my Texas trip. I thought this year would be the year of less travel. Turns out most of it ended up crammed into the last half. Still, nice to leave and come back to the same ol' Obsidian forum. It's the stunted evolution of the forums here that provides continuity in my life.

I'd probably choose Gromnir. He's a cussedly mean and onery forumite, but no one here makes me laugh so hard. Plus, Gromnir doesn't feel guilty after baits the other members.

I especially admire Blank's determination to cross the finish line.

Welcome to Russia circa. 1965. Those tractor production figures are looking great this quarter, Sergei. I'm glad you quoted Kaftan because I'm too damned lazy to read the first few pages again. Someone alluded to this arrangement working both ways earlier. Let's bring that full circle. Companies can't fire employees for economic reasons as long as the company is running a profit. Employees can't leave companies because they can make more money elsewhere as long as their inflation adjusted pay remains the same. See, that's reciprocity. Sound like fun? I'd rather have our model, but then again I've bought into the propaganda. M.War, you kill me sometimes, but I do enjoy your posts. Good times, man!

You know, I almost gave this exact response yesterday. I curious to hear what you think of the question of EA cutting 1500 jobs, though. For my part, I feel sorry for the poor bastards losing their jobs, but I don't think it's evil of EA to restructure their line-up. They're a company and their first obligation is to the investor. More to the point, they wouldn't focus on making more sequels if sequels didn't sell. It's what folks want and no company is going to stay in business making what people won't buy. I'm looking for reasons to be outraged, but it seems like a business decision to me. Now, if the business goes belly up because of these decisions, then folks can start pointing fingers in earnest.

Fascist! Seriously, okay, I restarted my run recently on hard. I had not really gotten that far in my first run and I found out right away that it is harder than NWN but I wouldn't mind playing it on hard. Mostly, I just wanted to test some thing between games. For example, the difference in experience between normal and hard when facing the ogre, ect. I got out into the wilds and, lo and behold, I had accidently decided to make it just a leeetle bit harder by not equiping my mage staff. I'm like, "why the hell does my pc keep running at things and beating on them with her fist?" Yep, no staff. Now, the staff bolts aren't exactly the battle ending beat sticks that some mages might think them to be, but they sure as hell work better than my mage's butter first smackdown of comedy. I'm going to finish the wilds and go buy back my staff before I do anything else. I've had two injuries so far and I'm over halfway done with the wilds. Not much worse so far, but I think the part after the battle will be much worse. We'll see.

It looks like they're talking two different items there, dude.

Daaave, you doofus, 2 of us aren't a majority of even the people posting in this thread.

I don't have a problem with the default theme either. I guess I could live with Daaave's Hello Kitty theme, but only if "Kitty" is a well built harlot in French lingerie.

Okay, as long as I don't get stuck with... what was that half elve's name in BG 1/2? The druid? I despised her and her husband so thoroughly that by the end I was stipping her buck naked and marching her towards her death at the first opportunity every playthrough. She's the prime example of Kaftan's "snotty, stuck-up jerk." Morrigan isn't nearly so bad, though. A little full of herself and bit of a diva, but I love how she interacts with the dog. I might actually take more members of my party in Dragon Age and actually listen to the dialogue between characters. Beats NWN where I only allowed the NPCs to enter my party long enough to finish their side quests and sent them packing.

Yeah, but why would they care if someone did? I mean, if Gfted wants to wander around his old digs, why shouldn't he be able to? Hell, let him decorate the damned place. I'm joking, but some folks would probably pay for a decoration pack as DLC for crying out loud. It doesn't matter. What was the reasoning behind locking folks out of their own keep. ...And, to be clear, I would also want to have access to my fortress. It's not a big deal for me, but that works both ways. Any little thing to encourage me to buy the DLC is good for business, so why not let me buy it? As it stands, I haven't purchased anything extra for the game, although I might at some point. Not worth hitting the mattresses, but certainly weird.

To be fair, though, I think the game is fairly clear that cunning is the 'rogue stat.' Damn, I wish I weren't invested in my elvish mage. I'd start a rogue right now just 'cause I'm intrigued. Oh, and I found my first bad vo. It's an elf in the mage tower. I missed him the first run, but my new character talked to him. I wish I'd missed him the second time. ...And he's one of the few American accents. lol

My impression is that I'll try a rogue after I've played my mage. I agree that they require a large amount of micromanagement, but I think it's a great way to make the game more challenging. I disagree with folks who think that Bioware made a mistake in designing the class. Sure, maybe they could have made them more powerful, at least that's my impression based on limited use of the rogue class, but I don't think every class needs to be as powerful as the others. Complete balance between classes tends to render them boring and I like the idea that you play the role you enjoy. Frankly, a lot of folks who think the rogue class sounds cool will probably simply start one and play the game. Unless they frequent the boards to hear all the bitching, they'll simply figure that's what the rogue class does. Now, if I try to play the rogue class and cannot even finish the game on hard, let alone nightmare, I'll rethink the situation. As it stands now, I just figure I'll have to be trickier.

I've restarted my game on hard. It's not that it was too easy so much as I thought it might be interesting to see the difference in the early part. My character is by and large the same. I switched out lightning for ice. I just think the winter's grasp is a better spell than lightning bolt. I plan on taking some healing spells. I toyed with the idea of being a straight healer, but went the dps route instead. I mostly went for the same look, but I changed the hair a bit. I usually make one or two characters before I finish any game.