BruceVC

You make a good overall point here but would you agree governments do have a right to determine if a citizen is suffering from some sort of disfunction, like bipolar or dementia that isn't being treated , and then its understandable you would deny them something like gun ownership or being able to work in certain jobs....like a police man So thats one of the few exceptions to your prudent " You dont need to own x " axiom

Tonight for dinner I had couscous, flavored with Beef stock because couscous is amazing to absorb liquids and there taste, and oven baked fish Very healthy

Deporting people definitely is a reasonable outcome for some people and should be considered in certain crimes and circumstances, like all those anti-Western, hate preaching Islamic extremist clerics we use to see in the UK. They have all been arrested, deported or extradited to the USA which people dread for some reason ? But I dont think you can deport Cheong as he is a US citizen by birth?

She is also known as a stalwart supporter of womens rights and she helped improve the reality of women in the USA and that helped with gender equality globally, so no need for too much acrimony as these things matter https://heavy.com/news/2020/09/ruth-bader-ginsburg-rbg-womens-rights/

I have Grim Dawn on Steam and I have yet to play it, this may be the right time as feedback is generally good ?

Now I am confused, are you suggesting Cheong is saying that these brazen, criminal acts were committed by people who have resources and wealth but they doing it because they want to " cow people because of there race " What exactly does that mean when you say " cow people xxxx race" . Im not seeing the corollary between theft and the statement?

I just finished Mass Effect Andromeda and it was indeed a very entertaining gaming experience and scores a solid 65/100 on the globally respected " BruceVC gaming score " system I generally play non-fantasy RPG the same way, I start the main quest and then deviate to complete secondary quests and companion quests until I get restless and then I focus primarily on the main objectives. So I spent 74 hours on ME:A and probably completed overall about 60 % of the total quests Firstly there were no bugs, seriously none. I did use a Mod that addressed unresolved Bioware bugs and I am sure Bioware has worked hard to make the game stable so that was a pleasant experience I thoroughly enjoyed the narrative and the way you explore various planets and make them habitable for civilizations I didnt Romance anyone which was a slight disappointment but I also didnt complete the potential companion Romance arcs for companions like Peebee and Cora but to be honest I wasn't that keen for Romance with either of them so its not a serious criticism And then Frostbite works well, the combat mechanics were exciting and frenetic and so was generally game play . I look forward to future games from Bioware using it

I find these stories both alarming and incredibly frustrating because basically as the articles suggests lawlessness and anarchy get ignored in the interests of political expediency or because police or security " dont want to be seen as racist " when they have a job to do and they should be doing it

Good post and your option 3, F:NV, for any true " sandbox, open-world " RPG is the only reasonable answer around game design and mechanics You take huge risk going into certain areas that have much harder enemies but they can be defeated albeit requiring a certain strategy and or items and your level cant be 8 or more below their level But there are real rewards like rare items and general loot which in all the Fallout games I have played from FO3 onwards has real benefits in the game economy

I think you making the right decision, absolutely. Sometimes spending too much time on beta testing and early release feedback can start unintentionally eroding your enjoyment and excitement factor ....and we forget why we game in the first place..." to have fun and be entertained " So bugs or certain game designs in beta that will get fixed or addressed you may become fixated on thinking that defines the final product yet there is always much more to most games than our initial impressions around beta testing I have never beta tested before which IMO is one of the reasons I have very few real gaming regrets, < 5%, because I always try to go into every RPG with expectations but no negative views ...no " subconscious bias " as my lady friends tell me about certain SJ issues and debates we have

No I havent defeated my argument because you are assuming I consider BG2 ToB an " open, sandbox " RPG like W3, I dont at all so I measure and rate BG2 in a different way than W3 but its still top of my list like W3 Risk and reward in a game like W3 can be seen in different ways, for example where only certain weapon smiths of a certain level can repair and sell certain weapons. You gain more experience and that allows you to travel to more advanced cities that have a larger and better pool of resources and skills you can use and yes that logically means a " Sword +4 " is something you can sell to any weapon enthusiasts in a large city but its unlikely a rural blacksmith will have the money for this Its about economic realism

Im surprised you dont like the W3 for the reasons you mention, most of those are the exact reason I play RPG like the W3 For example I love the random quests and " easter egg " encounters that were designed to reward exploration and the real sandbox element of games like this....you cant call it an open-world, sandbox RPG if you dont have the 25th level Chimera as a possible foe in the 5 th level quest. In these encounters you come later and defeat that particular monster. And you need a balanced economy like merchants with limited money so you dont undermine core " risk and reward " game mechanics and basically realistic free market economics. In other words " its unrealistic that a blacksmith in some rural, indigent village will have money to buy my Sword + 4 " Its like normal banking in RL and we need to support that Its an amazing and brilliant RPG, my favorite next to BG2 ToB. I spent 300 hours on W3, you must play it

I tend to agree with this sentiment and also the reality of most modern Democracies is we dont vote on the predictions of polls but rather on the policies and or ideological views of candidates and how they align to a specific party Political polls provide us with a degree of accuracy at understanding a " snapshot at that moment of peoples political views " but this can change and is mostly accurate....I now believe its undecided voters in the USA ,who make voting decisions at the last moment, that created the anomaly in the accuracy of the 2016 polling data

This pandemic has lead to much sacrifice my friend...no Nutella ice cream is yours

Im concerned that people have certain expectations for the game based on an understandable love of the previous games but maybe Larian is taking the BG franchise in a different way and what you expecting wont be in BG3 by design So I suppose the best question is "what are we expecting from this game and will it deliver ", I expect Immersive party based interaction and interesting party based quests to advance a party member story arc Memorable foes and some view of there motives, like in BG2 and NWN2 and the Host Tower of the Arcane It must align to Forgotten Realms lore Interesting dungeons to explore and basically the same for quests Complexity as much as reasonable around spells, items and races What are you guys expecting ?

I had a stomach bug last night which woke me up at 2 am and kept me awake so I watched most of the VP debate I found it to be generally insipid and uninspiring and both candidates just avoided questions they didnt want to answer which are relevant For example the whole" Biden\Trump are over 70, have you discussed with them what happens if they have to step down due to ill health "

So who is planning on watching the VP debate tonight, I wont be watching as its too late but I will catch all the highlights from 5:30-6:00 am

Mamie, stop being naughty again. You cannot call yourself " hardcore " AD&D if you not knowledgeable on the Gith race !!! Everyone knows about Gith lore, its like ....mmm....

It now appears the spread and potential risk to people who work in White House is much more widespread than it first appeared Most of the top people in the Pentagon have also been exposed and are in self-isolation https://news.yahoo.com/military-leaders-quarantined-official-tests-170601426.html

You have it almost right, the national oil company was purged and then international oil companies, who for some had been invested in Venezuela for over 100 years, were forced to hand over there investments, meaning control of the oil production within the country and all its revenue because Chavez sold directly to the global oil markets like all oil producers. So any government can do this with any company that has a physical presence within the country....its highly unethical, illegal and should lead to sanctions but you can still do it as any government controls the army and police and they can take any company over they want And even the examples about some oil companies becoming minority share holders is the same outcome because oil companies are listed companies outside of the Venezuela stock exchange so what Chavez did was not gain control of these companies " international listing "value but he stole full control of the revenue produced by the oil production in the local sense as the oil company had a massive oil production plant in the country

No they never nationalized there oil companies until 2006 onwards, the link discusses this

Im so glad you asked that question because I can finally share the important link below, by being asked and not when I post it as an example, which I bookmarked as it summarizes accurately what caused the real collapse of the Venezuela economy. And its hard to find a better link that highlights the actual real outcome of any nationalization that is done in a way that investors lose out. I mentioned this before but one of uncles works for a UK investment bank that personally lost about $10-15 billion due to how Chavez stole the assets of the international oil companies so I have real " lived " experience with this type of crime https://www.forbes.com/sites/rrapier/2017/05/07/how-venezuela-ruined-its-oil-industry/#6b1c08137399

Yes and the funding that has occurred between certain Socialist countries in the last 25-30 years is perfectly understandable if you support this type of socialism but when the funding comes from Venezuela, at the expense of the fact they stole the assets of international oil companies, it should be heavily criticized because its not legitimate tax payer money paying for the funding but the income primarily generated from the illegal theft of the assets of oil companies in the Venezuela example. I can site similar examples of failed socialist countries who did basically identical things like Chavez And this type of nationalization generally takes 3-5 years before the truly terrible impact and economic consequence is felt by the country and can also be directed influenced by the actual asset global price ( if its a type of commodity that has been stolen\nationalized ) and its internationally traded price but this can only delay the real and inevitable harm nationalization causes So in other words Chavez stole the assets of the main 6-7 oil companies in 2006/2007 when the oil price was about to reach almost record high levels in 2009/2010 but then due to several global factors the oil price started dropping and by 2015 the oil price was below $50, here is is a good link on the overall oil price globally https://inflationdata.com/articles/inflation-adjusted-prices/historical-crude-oil-prices-table/ Chavez was greedy, arrogant and ignorant and he assumed the oil price would always remain above $100 ( or whatever there acceptable cost for producing oil is ) so when the oil price correctly dropped from 2014 onwards Venezuela suddenly discovered that this primary source of income generation couldn't pay for there costs and socialist programs. And to make things worse the only groups who can help in a sustainable way in this economic scenario are generally foreign investors who understandably had no interest or appetite in investing even 1$ in Venezuela because 10 years before Chavez had stolen the investments of oil companies!! So it always will end the same way, if you cannot guarantee the assets of foreign investors are safe from nationalization you will ultimately undermine your entire economy and the outcome will be a slow but inevitable collapse because it will always be seen as breaking of international laws which has a direct impact on the health of all economies