Monte Carlo

Wow Hollywood lionized the IRA. Oirish terrorists are obviously good terrorists.

My uber-geek detector just exploded, 'Tep.

Wise move. Although it seems strangely inevitable.

Don't know yet. I'm not familiar with Indonesian folklore so I have no idea what manner of beasties I'll be up against. I just hope it's not zombies. Er, I think he was getting at something else....

Gingerlicious Russian chicks, eh?

Hahahahahahahahaha * pauses* Hahahahahahahhahaha Yeah, like scrapping the combat engine, mechanics and ruleset and starting all over again, right?

I get my proteins from the graveyard. Have just had a few days in Austria. So I can see your point about the food.

^ You aren't interested in my opinion so I see little reason to share it with you. Besides, you will only disagree with slightly patronising homilies about why I'm so wrong.

Absolutely. This is why your kulturkampf is so bitter - in Europe we genuinely have WTF moments over the stuff Americans feel so bitter about. Guns and abortion. ORLY? Mind you, Centrist, stale government is becoming a feature of Western European politics, but that will change. The post WW2 global settlement is now completely dead, it's twitching corpse making ripples that will affect us all. I think, soon, arguing about guns and bibles might seem quaint compared to the more urgent challenges the West will face.

As an outsider it seems to me that the Democrats, like all left-leaning governments, are making hay with identity politics and importing more and more client voters. Your Southern, South Western and even Western states seem destined for cessation at this rate. I don't know how Republicans are meant to counter this, or even if there is a counter, but the traditional two Americas (the coastal fringes and the flyover states in the middle) seem to be diffusing into a variety of FUBAR zones under Obama's clusterphuck presidency. And, yeah, as long as the head-banging Ultra-Christian theocrat tendency has the whip hand in the GOP, it's doomed. I'd stock up on .22 LR, 5.56 and tinned goods, then head for the Ozarks. Europe is close behind, I ain't feeling smug.

So, when it boils down to it, the OP doesn't like a few bugs and really wants TB combat. Oh, and the area that was deliberately chosen not to be spoilerish isn't spoilerish enough. Dude, what you really want is ToEE with the Co8 mod. Problem solved. Kthxbye because you've made your point and now you're simply being a drama queen.

Campaigning against torture? Yup, I'm with them all the way. Sticking their noses in places like Missouri, when they could be campaigning on Syria, or Brazilian Favela death-squads? Don't make me laugh.

Amnesty are a sick joke. They won't get a penny of my money while they grandstand in places they've no business meddling in while ignoring urgent human rights abuses. Amnesty is a lifestylist's choice - full of poseurs and leftist gadflies.

The Orlan ports make me nostalgic for D&D gnomes. And I hate gnomes.

Torment - Potato Salad would rock. You could be followed around a cosmic larder by a wise-cracking, mayo-slathered potato.

I'm completely consistent. Companies are free to leverage profit to the point where customers refuse to pay. There are enough MOBAs to allow for competition. Simply pointing out that LOL's business model defies conventional business theory, and shouldn't be emulated, is hardly 'killing' gaming. I didn't see where the guy suggested P2W in a game like LOL or DOTA where competition is the whole point of the franchise. You could, however, easily introduce tiered subscription and 'games as a service' models, as well as cosmetic improvements that don't impact on fair competition (unless you are one of the vast horde of players who refuse to pay a penny for the hundreds of hours of entertainment they enjoy - and screw them, frankly). Gaming is in a pretty good place right now with multiple platforms, both from a technical and publishing POV. In fact, you could even see that article as a sign that the big players are flustered, struggling to understand philosophies like those behind LOL. I'm not a spokesman for big publishing or the AAA producers. What I don't mind, however, is companies attempting to turn a fair profit. You need to wake up and smell the coffee: content has to cost something. The games fairy doesn't drop stuff under your pillow indefinitely - there gets to a point where someone has to pay the rent. Compared to other media, games remain pretty good value for money if you are even slightly discerning - which is why coughing up slightly more money for a hobby is completely reasonable. The hysterical tone of your initial post needed calling out. Which is what I'm doing. You are simply wrong, on virtually every level.

Ha ha ha for all his SJ posturing Bruce is actually an ANC / police state shill. You couldn't make this stuff up.

In which case I think you've solved the problem!

1st Ed AD&D came out of the mess of home-brewed OD&D that clashed at cons. It's brilliant and frustrating at the same time, and Gary Gygax's prose sort of thunders through it, undermining the Rule Zero ethos that underpins D&D as a whole. My advice - use 1st Ed as a template. Everyone else I knew from those days did. Rule Zero what you don't like, write down your house rules and stick to them. For example, I remember playing in a completely alignment-free campaign. In another we jettisoned the race / level restrictions. But as a simple, elegant, back-to-the-dungeon system it's great. All the new-old-skool clones are really facsimiles of the 1st Ed game. Eventually I moved onto hardcore Gloranthan RuneQuest as I liked the bronze age vibe and tactical combat. But 1E AD&D will always be my first hot girlfriend of games, the one you always remember fondly.

I completely understand the P2W argument. I play RTS games with micro-transactions. The gist of the OPs argument wasn't just about P2W.

The guy is perfectly within his rights to comment on a business model that isn't even beginning to leverage the revenue it might be able to. OTOH, the people running LOL are free to flip him the bird and say, "we don't care, our business model suits us." Games are a business. Too many Generation Y entitlement junkies on forums like this think everything should be free and profit is somehow unethical. Even more hilariously, many of these kids are American.

Did you get that link I sent you for cheap Viagra, Dave?

Bruce, why are you so interested in this one, when in SA police arbitrarily machine-gun miners protesting at appalling conditions, then make up a ridiculous story that the miners had guns, then shamelessly cover it up? I mean, this is the Rainbow Nation, right? It makes what's happening in Missouri look like a Friday night skirmish.

I'm pretty down on the ports but will simply use customs like everyone else. And, yeah, where the hell are the Vallian / black characters? I want to play a dashing Italianate paladin who looks like Samuel L Jackson.