BruceVC

Well Im glad I made the wrong assumption, it made no sense that you thought PoE2 is the same as PoE1 In future just remember people associate abbreviations with what they familiar with and because this is an Obsidian forum PoE is always going to be Pillars of Eternity

Yeah, its not up yet

Exploration is very different, its basically open world and the whole ship and island travel mechanics make it very different to PoE1 Im surprised you not enjoying it, its in my list of top 10 best RPG of all time

Why wouldn't you like Geralt, he saves people terrorized by monsters, he has a deep kindness and empathy for those that suffer and that includes certain monsters , he rejects elitism and privilege, he has a belief in real justice, he is authentic, he builds real friendships and helps those friends and he demonstrates love for people in his life like Ciri, Trish and Yennefer despite everything he has gone through around being a Witcher He has more humanity than those he often works for What wouldnt you like about him that in anyway is worse than his positive qualities?

Also another criticism towards Ciri is she has taken the Witcher mutation process and now she is a Witcher And she is too old to survive because only children take the Trial of the Grasses? I dont know enough about Witcher lore to know if this is accurate?

Im fine with that, as long as its accurate to the Witcher lore Isabella from DA was bisexual and she was my favourite Romance arc

Yes this is part of it but its also understandable because Geralt is such an iconic and famous character But Ciri is also part of the narrative like I mentioned so its not a problem Im just going to miss my threesomes with Vampiresses

It shouldn't be a problem if there is a choice around gender or if the characters gender\race is accurate around lore or history But an example of where woke becomes a problem is where suddenly " inclusivity " actually excludes straight men in different ways like in Romance arcs in Bioware games. So if you take KC:D 2 and they changed the historical reality of a King to a Queen that would be a problem and deserve criticism It doesnt make you incel if you have these issues with these things but incel groups do get involved and they can negatively influence the reason for the criticism of woke. And thats an unfortunate and inaccurate association for me because I reject incel ideology Another example of this is Cleopatra the Netflix series and Prey. The former was an obvious example of revisionist history and wokeness but Prey wasnt

No, woke influence is real in games but W4 isnt an example that Ciri was always an established character and part of the broader narrative I generally prefer to play a male character in any RPG because its what I identify with but Im happy with the themes in this latest trailer and playing Ciri is not a big deal

Apartheid ended at the same time the Cold War ended and all the people, both white and black, involved in the negotiations from 1988-1994 fundamentally believed that the only sustainable future for South Africa was a Constitutional Democracy that included important structures like the judiciary being independent from state influence and the Constitution had to be sacrosanct People like Nelson Mandela also believed in this and he represented the political objectives of the largest black political party, the ANC. We did have smaller black groups that believed in a more Communist " revolution " and system of government but they were the minority But to answer your question, its hard to say because its the belief in the institutions and the Constitution that matter and white people only represent 7% of the total population and they dont really matter when it comes free and fair elections or the respect for the Constitution because government maintains this What does matter is the important technical positions in our government like the Finance Minster, Chief Judge, Tax commissioner and Central Bank governor are highly qualified and reliable people who wont implement populist policies that would destroy the economy like we saw in Zimbabwe. And thats a big part of ensuring overall stability, you dont want to see decisions like nationalization from the state. And these people are all black people So the difference with SA and other African countries for me is not about race because black people in SA run the country and make the decisions even though white people have influence its ultimately negligible around government decisions In several African countries that have now collapsed you often find former liberation parties simply not wanting to accept election loss or change. Add to that you have weak, corrupt or ineffective government institutions and that creates a reality where the countries dont get the necessary investment and the country is not able to transform or sustain its economy effectively The ANC has never questioned election losses and respects the decisions of the Constitution when they lose court cases. We have problems in SA but not around the legitimacy of elections or the belief in the significance of the Constitution And the good news for other African countries from the link I posted is we seeing free and fair elections or a transfer of power without issues. That matters around the overall trust that citizens and investors have in any country and I would argue its critical to ensure progress and a successful state

Interesting, where you going to be living in EU ? I assume you working for a different company in the EU than the company in Oz? You really are global citizen, I dont know anyone who has lived and worked in so many countries and is comfortable doing it That type of freedom must be great

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/12/11/ghana-to-botswana-why-african-voters-are-throwing-out-ruling-parties There is an understandable tendency to focus on the negative stories in Africa but as I often maintain the reality of Africa is a mixed bag of progress and erosion, success and failure And lately there have been several really positive election outcomes where elections were free and fair or the incumbent party accepted the loss and there was a peaceful transfer of power and this includes Namibia, Ghana and Botswana Its not so much about leadership change but rather free and fair elections that are accepted as credible and legitimate for citizens and for investors We have seen a disappointing reality of military coups in places like Mali and Niger and this type of authoritarian leadership just ensures less accountability and very little changes for citizens who grapple with massive economic and societal problems within these countries So even though it may seem arbitrary free and fair elections matter in the context of Africa and its transformation projects As I always say Democracy may not be perfect but its still the most effective and most sustainable system of government compared to others. And this applies to most countries with the exception of China or several ME countries which dont have a historical resonance around Democracy so its not as important or required to have a well run country

It never ceases to amaze me how selective people throughput the world become when it comes to revisionist history when it suits there ideological or political views

About 60 hours into Underrail and its still going exceptionally well I havent been to Core City yet and Im on level 15, I just completed the Beast quest in the Foundry. Great quest and I have now completed most of the side quests and I will going to Core City when I hit level 16 What I do is explore side tunnels and lower tunnels and get XP like that and you often come across Easter Eggs through exploring like the Hanging Rat pub I was looking up how many people work at Stygian software and its looks like a tiny number, 2 developers https://rocketreach.co/stygian-software-management_b72b3e40c44c5428 And then 5 if you count the artists https://stygiansoftware.com/about.html I would never have believed such an entertaining and brilliantly mechanically designed game would have only 5 staff members? Does anyone know confirmed staff numbers, is this accurate?

Modding is very limited which is a dealbreaker for me I like the idea of gamepass but it has these types of understandable constraints

Moving to Europe? Are you leaving Oz, what about your citizenship Did I miss this update?

Is that price in dollars or Euros?

You dont go around referring to any women in public as a "biological women", in a social environment you not going to ask any women you meet " are you a biological women " Its a technical term because of this ongoing debate. And the definition should be clear, a biological women is capable of having children. Of course some women cant have children for the reasons you mentioned but that doesnt change the obvious physiological differences between men and women and the real differences is the ability to have children. Thats the basic genetic reason how most species exist, women can have children and men cant But thats not the same debate as respecting someone's view to be referred to as a women and treated as a women but that doesn't make them a biological women unless they can have children? You seem to be conflating the culture wars debate with this technical debate? Im not talking about the personal reference. Trans people have every right to want to be referred to as women, I have no issue with that as I explained And then Im confused with your sports point, if an intersex athlete has elevated testosterone compared to other women who compete in the same event do you support them taking HRT to reduce there levels of natural testosterone? Because you say " let women play sport with women " and that does mean they should take HRT if required so its fair?

What has surprised me is how many people seem to be fine with this killing? I can understand the frustration and anger towards the medical aid industry but killing people in the streets is not going to change anything in the industry Why stop there, lets go around killing politicians and bank CEO?

Why we beating the " Assad is bad " horse Gee I dont know, maybe because his entire regime collapsed in 5 days when his Russian and Iranian allies didnt support him and his own army had to defend him Its not that hard to define effective and popular leadership when an advancing army can achieve the results in such a short time ? Add to that the oppressive and brutal nature of his government and it shouldnt be that difficult to understand the "Assad is bad " for Syria

What you talking about, I always maintained that Assad lacked legitimacy as a leader and Syria became a failed state under his leadership since the Arab Spring 2011 and its outcome I have been very consistent with that view

I want to have this debate with you and I welcome others views because the debate about Transgender rights is not going away and it manifests in our societies in different ways and its motivated from a wide range of reasons that go from bigoty to genuine concern around fairness in women sports events I will summarize my views on this and then if you can comment and agree\disagree that would be appreciated Firstly there are 2 main talking points around this and both these points sometimes get hijacked from people on the left and right to suit there own agendas but that doesnt change the legitimacy of both these 2 talking points First point is the whole US culture war debate that includes things like the pronouns debate. Do you believe that there is a valid definition as a biological female ? Its a loaded question because its easy to say "what do you mean by a biological female " ? And to me thats obvious, a biological women is capable of having children But thats not the same as someone wanting to be defined as a women because thats a gender reference based on what a person believes or they identify with and I support that. If I met you in RL and I know you a man but you explained to me you want me to refer to you as a female I would have no issue with that But that doesn't make you biological female. 2% of the world population are born with intersex traits and then gender dysphoria is a reality and I will always support how people want me to personally identify with them But for me the term " biological female " is not a dog-whistle in any of our Democratic societies , it should be an absolute agreed on definition for everyone. But that doesnt mean you cant recognize and respect someone's personal reference around gender if they want to be called a women And then sports is the second talking point and this is a different debate because its about fairness for women and everyone competing fairly If Trans athletes are taking HRT I assume that lowers the levels of elevated testosterone that many Trans athletes would have? If so then there is no reason they cant compete in womens events Because thats my only concern, the elevated testosterone I made a post in 2019 about Caster Semenya but back in those days she didnt want to take HRT and there was legitimate criticism about how she had an advantage compared to other women in the events she competed in I have included the original post I made below, if you can through it that would be great so you can understand my view in this specific South African story But to summarize from the link below "Her intersex trait means she has elevated, natural testosterone compared to other women. this is not her fault as she was born like this. We measure natural testosterone in the human body on nanomoles/liter. Women have between 0.12-1.79 nanomoles/liter and men after puberty have 7.7-29.4 nanomoles/liter Caster has over 5 nanomoles/liter and this means elevated testosterone so the IAAF ruling wants her take medication to reduce her nanomoles/liter to below 5 " But the main point Im making around sports is there is no reason that any Trans athlete should not be able to compete in female events if there testosterone levels are in the same range as other women but in Casters case it was more than double than any level a women could have and thats not fair or right

I never noticed you raise the obvious failed state of Syria under Assad when it was a staunch Russian and Iranian ally? And these government failures were a contributing factor around the predicted overthrow of Assad But now you dont have much faith in the future of the country? Interesting what motivates you to be "concerned "

Hows your maps doing Comrade, is Aleppo still resisting

Lets wait and see, based on everything I have seen on Al-Jazeera from numerous Syrians and commentators there was complete frustration and lack of belief that Assad had any legitimacy especially since the last 5-6 years and how things in Syria have just got worse This is evident not just around the collapse of his army, it is about what the citizens of the country and in exile think If you have access to Al-Jazeera watch it for an hour or so to see what I mean I think you underestimating just how unpopular Assad had become But you right, Syria could become Afghanistan v.2 I am hoping it doesn't and the new government delivers on a better Syria for its citizens Outside of that objective this leadership change is a massive blow mostly to Iran and weakens Russias influence in the ME but thats not my main concern or interest Millions of Syrians are living in refugee camps, I would like them to return home and the country to start being functional again Lots of work to be done