Zoraptor

The Heroes reboot had largely the same flaws the latter seasons had. Incoherent plot made more disjointed by lots of different groups with little to no reason to care about any of them- with the exception of Noah Bennett- which consequently made it very difficult to follow the plot or care about the characters. It even has the exact same super power problems (inflation/ deflation depending on plot requirement) and to an extent at least the same senseless heel/ face turns as the original series, albeit not to the contortionate extremes they went to with Sylar. I've actually still found it fairly enjoyable despite its flaws, but it should have been far far better than what we got and I cannot blame anyone for rolling their eyes at it.

They've definitely lost nett territory over that time, but they have also gained territory over that time- Ramadi (until recently, and it still isn't wholly retaken even now), Palmyra and Qaryatayn were all taken post intervention. The air strikes have actually done what they were supposed to do very well, it's just that what they were asked to do wasn't what most people thought it was up until recently- destroying ISIS wasn't the aim because that would benefit Assad especially, funnelling ISIS against regional enemies on the other hand was a great idea. Everyone knew that oil tankers were going from ISIS areas to Turkey, usually via intermediaries in the mainstream rebels and had been doing so for a long time benefiting Turkey/ rebels/ ISIS by millions per month, but nobody did anything about it until Russia got peeved and started doing it. (Makeshift) Oil refineries were regularly bombed though, for obvious reasons. About 60 abductees seems to be the real estimate. Not surprised that the Daily Fail went with the higher number, of course. Things in Deir ez Zor might get interesting though, there's a sandstorm at the moment and a major ISIS attack (really an extension of the one above) coinciding with it. There's supposedly about 200k civilians in the government controlled area.

I always thought Bush v3 had a far harder task than either previous iteration or than most pundits thought. 8 years wasn't anywhere near enough to forget Bush v2 and he never seemed to have the folksiness of his brother or the slickness of someone like Bill Clinton, basically he looked not very inspiring or likely to get people in general to want to vote for him. He's precisely the sort of candidate that pundits pick because he checks boxes and they themselves would vote for him. If anything I'd say that the chart makes the large donors look particularly silly, much like that pair of utter Kochs backing Scott Walker so early made them look a bit silly when he dropped out.

Obama is hamstrung on Syria because nearly all his regional allies are militantly anti Assad and they fund a lot of media and think tanks plus provide a lot of their regional intelligence capabilities, a situation he inherited and cannot change significantly even if he wanted to. I rather think he has let himself be convinced into a lot of international adventurism somewhat against his better judgement- Hillary plus Nick the Hungarian plus Gulf States were the main cheerleaders for Libya and the latter were so for Syria as well. Personally, I couldn't care less if a leader is 'weak' if being strong also means being a moron. Given the strength of the various rebel factions we'd probably have ISIS with a capital in Damascus now if he'd followed the 'strong' line espoused by sock puppet buffoons like post 2000 McCain whose answer to a blocked toilet would be advocating for it to be bombed back to the stone age (but at least that makes him look 'strong').

The circumstances are rather weird on the face of it, but neither party wants to make an issue of it and it's difficult to imagine what kind of covert action they might have been doing anyway.

Doublish post, but this is somewhat more specific than the previous one. Here at least most of the people doing so are trolling, and getting butthurt over it is exactly what is wanted. One user who posts inflammatory crap here has the lowest (semi) legit rep on the GOG forums, pretty much everyone lower than him has been dogpiled by scammer alts and another is basically doing a Let's Play the Obsidian Forums for the codex. The GOG one gets a far better and more numerous response here needless to say, and neither is particularly subtle about it. Back seat modding is obnoxious though (plus I genuinely like the mod policy, personally, gives people enough rope to hang themselves) and the problem is at least as much people's knee jerking reflexively in response as anything else. There's always been a lot of, uh, robust debate on serious issues and trolls have always got an enthusiastic response here, GG threads haven't changed that one way or another. ISIS, economics, the refugee crisis or ethics in game journalism I doubt there would be a huge difference in response between now and 2008 when I joined or 2004 (?) when I started reading these forums. Whether here or elsewhere people like stating their genuine opinions, mostly, some people like riling others up for a laugh and some people like feeling outrage at being rarked up. Ignore the bits you don't like, maximise the bits you do.

Low barriers of entry on the internet makes it easier to find 'media' that support your position, whatever that position may be and easier to establish said media, economics dictate that either clicks or zeal maintain that media. (Near) Instant response time allows plenty of posting while angry/ drunk/ (permanently or not) afflicted by teh dums/ getting stuck in escalating arguments, and the instant response massive broadcast of social media (theoretically) allows everyone to be heard; there are additional factors like the 140 character limit of twitter that makes any nuance difficult but leaves plenty of room for stupidity or nastiness. Twenty years ago your options were phone someone, write a letter to the editor, newsgroups if you happened to be one of the few on the internet or what the vast majority did- doing nothing. It's all a bit self reinforcing and self perpetuating but for 95% of those involved it's more of a mildly unpleasant circle than a vicious one. If you're a chemtrailer you're probably predisposed towards interesting takes on things in real life and if you get upset about criticism or people disagreeing with you on the internet you're probably a delicate snowflake in real life too; or you're trolling and don't actually care. In any case the idea of 'containment' on the internet is unworkable for anything opinion based, since usenet it's been the town square where everyone can drag in a soapbox to shout from. Most people ignore chemtrailers because their theories have certain eminent flaws, not because they're 'contained'.

Like the containment forum strategy worked with gamergaters? (Ie. it emboldened them to spew their bull**** all over everything else as well.) 'Containment strategy' showed a fundamental misjudgement of the issue when applied to GG, the situations really aren't comparable at all. Perhaps the biggest differential is that there's a significant grouping who aren't really pro GG at all but are anti anti GG (or anti SJW)- not a phenomenon you get with chemtrails etc.

Presumably it's his opinion rather than knowledge garnered from careful perusal of peer reviewed articles in the Proceedings of the Royal Society of Gaming. There's next to no credible research about gaming at all. It doesn't even sound much like an authoritative statement, generally there's no need to write IMO at the end of every post, it's implied. While I agree with the statement that stopping piracy doesn't translate into sales, I'm not convinced the above statement is correct. I look at digital piracy as magpie-like hording that has nothing to do with whether or not the persons involved are without financial means of purchasing games. Most of those who pirate don't do so exclusively, so they can afford some games. There are two groups doing the pirating, those who have a limited budget and those who just don't want to pay but could if pushed. You might get some extra sales from the latter- not all that many, I suspect, $60 a pop for something that used to be 'free' and hence disposable is a big difference- but from the former you're just more likely to have them spread the limited cash they have around more thinly. So instead of buying, say, Fallout 4 and TWitcher 3 for $120 and pirating otherwise they'll buy a dozen older games at $10 a pop to spend the same amount and play the same number of games; even some of the people with decent money will do this too. It's already what many people who don't pirate do. Most of the sales gained are likely to be at low price points, not high, and hence well after the success of a game has been determined1. 1 Oraptor Z, Bruce V & O'Flies L 2016; PRSoG 7(1): 42-5 (Inspiration has deserted me on article titles, couldn't even come up with a decent acronym for the journal)

Who owns the rights to Wizardry right now? A Japanese firm called Gamepot. They have been doing some stuff with the Wizardry IP since Wiz8 though I believe it's all been exclusive to Japan.

Truth of the matter is that dictatorship and democracy both have weaknesses. Democracies tend to be smug and absorbed with a sense of their own superiority to the extent that they don't look critically at themselves and believe that the mere act of voting perpetuates their superiority, their leaders are easily manipulated and controlled plus short sightedly populist because of the electoral cycle; dictators are, well, dictators so they have little to no control exerted over them- potentially a great thing if the dictator is a great leader but if the leader is stupid, mad, paranoid or whatever else then it's not a great situation for the country. "When you have a hammer, every problem starts looking like a nail"

It's an MTV show, immaculately pretty girls were inevitable. So long as they can act decently enough (jury is out for that) I can't say that I mind. Raithe's comparison to a typical CW show is pretty apt really. Maybe Arrow would be more appropriate than a high school drama though, given two of the cast have been on that.

Yeah, in Britain a century ago it would be the Irish getting the same response and in the US it would be 'negroes'. Lay the smack down on the people doing the crimes irrespective of race and creed, and don't lump the majority who don't do anything wrong in with them. I think the ad hoc stupidity that is the european refugee/ immigrant policy is utterly moronic, but it isn't so because the refugees are muslim. lolwut, The Torygraph is neither liberal nor left leaning, it's about as conservative (and Conservative, hence Torygraph) as they come. It's also pretty crap nowadays.

Watched the first couple of Shannara episodes, pretty good overall. Can't comment on how well the books are followed as I've never read them but it was enjoyable, not atrociously acted (well, mostly) and the CGI was... better than you'd see on some full network shows.

Gamersgate is about ethics in selling you steam keys when they have their millionth compound pricing error and want 5c for Skyrim. Gamergate is the one about ethics in games journalism, people with coloured hair and flamboyant gay Breitbart writers. Maybe, but if SYRIZA had been more honest/ brave (or perhaps if the Greeks weren't so wedded to having to be in the Euro) the main 'risk' would be... some sort of anarcho marxism or similar rather than fascism. Too many people hate the nazis still, the main right wing party is relatively intact and the main left wing one is, theoretically, already radical left. SYRIZA probably has shot themselves in the foot over that though as Greek default and leaving the Eurozone is still pretty much inevitable, it's just been delayed until they've had every ounce of Germany's pound of flesh extracted and there's nothing left to take.

Atheism is more ideology, the ideology that spirituality is ultimately meaningless. Otherwise ideology and religion are pretty much the same in that they encourage people to support unreasonable stuff and blind to the obvious. I don't think atheism holds spirituality to be ultimately meaningless, though many atheists probably do it isn't an inherent tenet of atheism- an active unbelief in god is all that is required for that. Lack of spirituality or the belief that it is meaningless probably fits nihilism best, nihilists are by their nature almost always atheist but not the reverse.

I doubt anyone high enough up to comment is available. It is Christmas day. By the same measure who rolls out a new caching routine- supposedly what went wrong since they have now made a statement- on Christmas Day? OK, so it isn't like xbox/playstation where kids get given one for christmas and it's the busiest day of the year for their internet infrastructure as everyone sets them up but it still seems a very odd time to be tinkering with such stuff even so. You've got both people working on 'improvements' on Christmas Day and rolling out changes, surely there would be better days for it let alone a quick way to roll back any stuff ups. Amateur hour, and not just the PR aspects.

Zahran Alloush, head of Jaish al Islam killed in an airstrike (while everyone is saying it was Russian it may well have been one of the few Syrian precision strikes). Probably the number two/ three Islamist leader in Syria behind Jolani (Nusra/ Al Qaeda) and Baghdadi/ Ibrahim, JaI is a large factions with ten of thousands of troops. Very big development considering that the Ghouta pocket he ruled was already under more pressure than any time since its inception and he was Saudi's main proxy. He was also decidedly and unreservedly sectarian calling for the 'cleansing' of minorities, not something that you'll find on most media sites who seem to be trying hard to market him as a 'moderate' and anti ISIS hero, when even a cursory glance at the name of his faction (Army of Islam) suggests he was a card carrying Salafi dingbat let alone his own words that confirm it.

..was money very well spent. If there's one thing that practically guarantees that Pakistan will never have a genuinely Taleban like government it's their love for cricket and the knowledge that those killjoys would want to get rid of it due to it 'competing' with religion; getting the same sort of mania going in Afghanistan would work wonders and many of the refugees in Pakistan had already picked up their love of the game. The Afghans not only qualified for the Cricket World Cup but actually won a game there (sadly the numpties in charge of the game promptly changed the rules to exclude all the minnow nations, but that's besides the point). Better value than half an F-35 wing or an Osprey rotor or whatever 850k would be spent on otherwise. (lol 38 page pdf on a page with a borked script? thanks for the present Rand, you really shouldn't have)

It's always going to happen? Who says? Not that this whole scenario isn't a bit misleading as government welfare isn't the only or even best way to help those who could use assistance. People being "lazy" is hardly a major issue anyway. The biggest problem is by far people whom reach adulthood with no marketable skills. This is usually the fault of bad parenting and a broken education system; especially in high schools. Not necessarily, there's plenty of stuff that required real skill and qualifications that has been obsoleted by advancing technology or changing circumstance. If you were a car assembly guy in his mid fifties who got replaced by a robot in year 2000 there wasn't really much you could do- as a 20 year old in 1965- to know that the job you were getting and the skills you were learning would be obsolete a third of a century later, and not much you can do to upskill as a 55 year old in year 2000 either when employers are looking for younger people. That has been a big problem here since the 80s, we imported lots of cheap Pacific Island labour to do what would now be regarded as basic labour in factories and the like and when there was no more protectionism those people who had made honest choices based on the world they lived in at the time suddenly found that they had no desirable skills in the New Zealand of the late 80s and have never recovered from that. While it's nice to think that people who find their skills obsoleted could all start successful businesses or whatever current right wing theory believes such people should do it isn't even slightly practical for everyone which leaves being a Greeter at Walmart or other crap 'job'.

I suspect there's a schism between the two that predates Rumsfeld and that it is schism between the career military DoD and the whole civilian apparatus rather than just the CIA. I can only imagine the facepalming that went on amongst actual generals who understood what firing a quarter of a million+ trained soldiers would do when that moron Bremmer disbanded the Iraqi Army, for example, and the costs of that decision were not borne by Bremmer/ Rumsfeld/ Bush/ Cheney/ Blair but by the army. And people in the region as well, but certainly not be those who made the decision, indeed they've done everything they can to duck even the mere responsibility.

It's a bit of a balance certainly. You don't want to leave the big questions unanswered but at the same time the desire to actually ask additional questions or ponder the (answered) questions further is a critical component in a good/ compelling story- if you finish a PST type story not wanting to ask any questions about it and not thinking about it then the story has generally failed because it hasn't left you wanting more. If I were to use something from Kotor2 to illustrate a 'good' unanswered question I'd use the Kreia/ Handmaiden relationship. You're clearly intended, if you pay attention, to think that Kreia may be her mother but there's too little information to be sure either way. That isn't due to cut content (well, so far as anyone can tell) but is deliberately crafted to be almost easter egg like with consequences for how you view Atris and Kreia if you pick up on it. Certainly not a deep philosophical question nor one that has to be answered in order for the plot to make sense but one that adds to the world building and adds nuance to characters and situations.

It would explain the clusterasterisk that was the DoD run moderate rebel recruitment program though, if they were deliberately sandbagging the effort. There's been a massive disparity between the DoD efforts and the CIA ones when it comes to Syria.

Indeed. I've made the switch to quail and I've never looked back. (lol at the 'mere' 17% defence spending)

Indeed. PST leaves unanswered questions primarily because you want to ask them and seek them out, and because it elicits actual thought about the subject matter. It's not because of any cut content or such. KOTOR2 is normally a decent comparison to PST for obvious reasons, but it was utterly butchered when it came to cut content unlike PST. It's lazy and facile to compare unanswered questions generated by increased interest in the subject matter to questions posed by plot holes/ cut content. No story can- or should- answer every question unless it's utterly simplistic plus it's 'unrealistic' for you to learn everything; and it's far worse to end a game (with a story/ philosophical focus) with zero questions because that almost always means you simply don't care about that story which is meant to be a primary focus. That's not true for all games of course since many don't have a set narrative or it isn't the focus, but it's true for any game with pretensions towards philosophy especially, questions are kind of intrinsic to proper philosophy, or story depth.