BruceVC

I have to say this is very clever and very funny I don't want to seem to be also putting the knife into Volo but just the fact that someone took the time to create such a flowchart that most of us recognise certain characteristics of Volos debating style is impressive. If I was Volo I would see this as a positive post because obviously his personality resonates with many of us. In other words "no such thing as bad publicity " @ Hiro I would love to see a similar flowchart but around how you see my debating thought process when it comes to Romance, I expect it to be quite funny as well

What !!! You mean you don't speak Russian or Ukrainian...wow Dude you really need to embrace these global and important languages, don't you realize you can't function in a global world without these linguistics skills !!!

And yet you can still join the Stormcloaks as any non nord race. Really, altmer being able to disguise as thamor in that one quest is only case where race gives you extra stuff in entire game. And dawnguard storyline is pretty much same on each path. And you end up killing Harkon anyway on both of those paths so thats kinda... Yeaaaah. And even then, how many major choices there are from base game or other dlc? Hmm, and how many times in game when you state your opinion, people actually care about what you say? Heck, there are really few option where you are allowed to roleplaying things in dialog tree that states a thing about your character, like only one I remember anymore is conversations with Serana, they really attempted to give you lots of conversations with her that allow for roleplaying. Okay, how do people react to your race besides one line of "Hi [race]" greetings? Even argonians don't do much besides "Hi [forgot term that argonians use to refer other argonians]" Also, if you are supposed to use imagination for roleplaying, it'd help if game was less immersion breaking. And you didn't really address the point where I can't do what I want because bethesda didn't program that in the game despite of how glaring it is. You can criticize Bethesda for many things but to say "there games don't offer a RP experience" is just fatuous and fundamentally untrue Of course the definition of RP is subjective, so maybe we need to focus on that first in order to get common agreement, For me RP is not necessarily about the dialogue options or even the responses because obviously these will always be limited and offer certain predefined outcomes, that's the nature of all RPG But can you choose to play a mage thief who decides to attack villagers and live in the forest? Can you do this? Can you decide to ignore the main quest and just aimlessly explore if that's what you want? What about someone who decides to only craft? Bethesda excels in all these things. I know a story about a gaming journalist who decided to play Skyrim and not complete a single quest, all he did was live in a village and only progress his crafting ability. Would I do this, absolutely not. But the point is this was the way he wanted to RP his Skyrim journey So in summary Bethesda games offer a real RP experience if you agree with my definition of RP

That's a good start. Israel, finish the job. Very unhelpful comment considering the situation

I'm reading some non-fiction books at the moment, "The State of Africa" by Martin Meredith. Informative, objective and well written account of the political and social reality of Africa since colonialism ended. Its not a " Africa is a bad place m'kay" but rather explains why African countries are at the level of governance they are at. Its discusses the good and bad, I recommend it to all who want to know why Africa is how it is But I have another question, several posts mention reading 2 books at once. How do you do this, do you read one chapter one night and then go to another book the next day? Doesn't this dilute the immersion and break the mental synergy of a story you get when you read, especially when it comes to fiction?

BG1 is their worst game for role-playing? What drugs are you on? There was plenty of room for role-play. Now, let's compare the role playing options of a recent Bioware game like, DA2 vs Skyrim. Races: DA2-Must be a human. Skyrim-Plenty of races. Dialog: DA2-Stupid dialog wheel doesn't even let you know what you are going to say. Skyrim-Text responses; much better for role-playing. Game Pace: DA2-Stuck in a town and can only talk to highlighted npcs. Skyrim- Big open world, can go anywhere you want, and can talk to whomever you want. Seems like Skyrim decimates DA2 on the role-playing front. Heck, DA2 doesn't even let you decide how you look! That's a good analytical assessment from a high level perspective, you make simple points but they are very hard to refute. That's the secret to a good debate, easily understood points but true

Bioware themselves have acknowledged the successful RPG designs and elements in Bethesda games, and have promised to implement them in DA:I. Of course, they're probably just driven by Skyrim's unbelievable financial success, and seek to copy it, rather than any 'artistic vision'. But hey, even a financial motivation is bound to produce something better than DA2. I can completely believe that, both studios offer very entertaining and admired components in there various games. And I know Volo knows this, he is just exaggerating and making generalisations

Its true Volo they did? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morrowind Bethesda did develop Morrowind, I could mention other games that did very well from Bethesda like Dishonored but they weren't the developers only the publishers

I always buy my own fragrances but I base my choice on the feedback I get from my lady friends and g-friends. I have found certain smells compliment me and others just produce a neutral odour, its got to do with the chemicals in your skin I normally use A-Men, Polo and John-Paul Gaultier. Also Issey Miyake works on me and the weird thing is I have also tried Bleu de Chanel because its recommended and popular but unfortunately the smell didn't suit me

Maybe the monsters were under some sort of invisibility spell that wore off the moment the party came close? But on a more serious note, I am very confident that Bioware has learnt its lessons from the outpouring of criticism around DA2. This is another reason I am sure DA:I will be a huge improvement

No Volo, now you are exaggerating. You do realize that Bethesda did games like Morrowind, arguably one of the greatest fantasy RPG of all time?

Yeah, none of that is what I was thinking of. I'm glad you hate it all, though. That's good, I suppose. Most of those aren't even functionality changes. Maybe functionality is the wrong word, here? That could very well be it. I'm just talking about the technical functioning of stuff. The attacks, for example. I actually liked that the auto-attack was varied. And moving and attacking/using abilities was a lot less clunky. And I like how the ability tree worked (though not everything that was on it, etc.) There were a lot of technical improvements, alongside an awful lot of... er... un-provements? If they had just applied the GOOD changes from DA2 straight to DA:O, that would've been pretty great, really. But they changed some of the bad things, and most of the good ones, from the original. I enjoyed DA 2, but it was my less favourite of all Bioware fantasy games. I enjoyed the narrative and of course it had Isabella But I didn't like the reused dungeons and monsters just appearing out of thin air. Parts of it just seemed lazily done Saying all that I think I still gave it a 65/100 on the much respected, listened to and global " BruceVC gaming rating barometer"

IMO if your definition is accurate they would not be granted asylum as gang violence is not persecution or a form of genocide that does allow the USA citizenship. The UN is wrong to say they are refugees?

Have to do a South African punt here, the developer is the only South African I know who lives in South Africa who develops games. I pledged towards this KS and then contacted him. He responded and invited me to come meet him at developers conference. He is a really nice guy but I only want to meet him once I have played the game and I have enjoyed it, but that shouldn't be a problem as I like most games and generally always find some reason to be entertained

Yeah I know its a bit cynical of me to say this but I wont play this game as its utterly unrealistic with the current situation in the region. I'll stick to my games about dragons and magic, they are more believable But good update Ros

Yes they can. And yes they have. Trought history. Learn a bit, you'd be surprised. It's populat to use stereotypes and special/singular events and inflate them to over 9000, but that's not how the world works. Irocnically, often in the past people have been more tolerant than today. There are several Muslim countries where there are no conflicts. Like Malaysia, Indonesia and Philippines But at the moment the Middle East is a particularly violent place, like New conflict in southern Lebanon Civil war in Syria ISIS fighting the Kurds, the Syrians and the currently elected Iraq government Ongoing extremist violence in Yemen Gaza conflict And this excludes the sectarian violence in Libya and Egypt In fact we don't often see this but Africa has less conflicts than the Middle East at the moment philipines is overwhelming catholic. malaysia... is maybe not as great an example as you think, even though it is probable the best example. http://www.malaysianbar.org.my/selected_judgements/lina_joy_v_majlis_agama_islam_wilayah_persekutuan_2_ors_2005_ca.html http://www.themalaymailonline.com/malaysia/article/ft-disaster-looms-amid-rising-religious-intolerance-in-malaysia-neighbours http://www.frontpagemag.com/2010/rich-trzupek/malaysia-and-the-myth-of-islamic-tolerance/ am admitting we know very little about indonesia. HA! Good Fun! You right Gromnir, I don't know why I thought the Philippines was predominantly Muslim. I must have been getting it confused with Indonesia ?

Yes they can. And yes they have. Trought history. Learn a bit, you'd be surprised. It's populat to use stereotypes and special/singular events and inflate them to over 9000, but that's not how the world works. Irocnically, often in the past people have been more tolerant than today. There are several Muslim countries where there are no conflicts. Like Malaysia, Indonesia and Philippines But at the moment the Middle East is a particularly violent place, like New conflict in southern Lebanon Civil war in Syria ISIS fighting the Kurds, the Syrians and the currently elected Iraq government Ongoing extremist violence in Yemen Gaza conflict And this excludes the sectarian violence in Libya and Egypt In fact we don't often see this but Africa has less conflicts than the Middle East at the moment

we like london very much, but your suggestion reminded us o' one o' our most vivid memories o' our time in london during the early 90s. rats. we has lived in cities such as chicago, so we got some familiarity with urban rodents, but the locals in london at that time had developed a kinda preternatural rat blindness that surprised us a bit. am recalling pointing out to our companion a tangle o' a dozen or more wet rats clinging to some girders under a bridge and it were as if we were pointing out the sun or sky. the thames seemed to belong to the rats as much as to the people o' london, but folks didn't even seem to notice all the rodents perched along concrete walls and piers and bridges. we don't have a rat phobia, but they creep us out more than does snakes or spiders or other critters. the thames were a bit o' a magnet for rats back then, so encouraging us to do a thames tour gives us a bit o' a spine shiver. rats. why did it have to be rats? HA! Good Fun! In South Africa I know people that keep rats as pets, apparently they are loyal and loving? When I first moved to Johannesburg 14 years ago the lady I shared an apartment with had 2 rats. She use to let the little critters run around the apartment...it freaked me out a bit. I would come back from work and the rats would be snoozing on the couch, stretched out like cats

Some people always bring those up, but usually they are also those people that don't actually care what other side's arguments are as they have already decided that they are right. But as idea behind modern marriage is union between partners that have equal rights, which means that marriage with inanimate objects or animals (other than human) would need many aspects from marriage (economical, inheritance, medical emergency, divorce, etc.) that it could work from point of law. Necrophilia also is problematic thing as people have bodily autonomy even after death (like for example they can forbid using their organs as transplants or their body in scientific studies), so allowance of necrophilia would also in most cases need removing bodily autonomy from bodies of death person and family's right what happens to bodies of their loved ones and probably some other factors. Incest is always problematic thing, even if you leave out genetic impoverishment, because of power dynamics and family structure that usually make such relationships so one sided that it often can undermine constitutional rights of other person. Age of consent is always hardest thing, as it is very society depending thing, especially when you take in consideration that there is lot things that society seen appropriate to limit with age restrictions. So questioning age of consent also put all those other age limits under question, as if person is mature enough handle one thing that was previously restricted, then why they aren't mature enough handle this another thing. Which means that age of consent discussion should be one of general development of maturity. I don't think anyone expected such a reasonable and informative answer, well played sir

Sure Nonek, you saying you won't comment on a Romance thread has the same likelihood as me saying " I'm done raising SJ issues " And this is not a criticism of your posts, I like your perspective even if I don't agree with it

I'm also fatigued with the lack of objectiveness and reasonableness from certain groups on both sides

You should come to the Romance thread and support me in my endeavours there Gfted1? That always seems to make you laugh.....

I wish I could give you advice because your insomnia sounds intolerable, I honestly don't know how I would survive on such little sleep. What is the reason you can't sleep, have you been to a doctor? What always helps me to sleep is cardio training in the evening but of course if you have no energy you will probably battle to train effectively..so that's probably pointless? Something else which may help, and I know you said you don't do it, but smoke some weed about 2-3 hours before you want to sleep. See if it makes any difference then you can decide how to proceed?

Yesterday we went for a 4 hour walk and probably did between 12-14 km, its really a great feeling to be able to walk through a city like London with all these interesting sites and landmarks and feel completely safe. Its not that I feel unsafe in South Africa but we are always aware of what we are doing From Chelsea we went through South Kensingston and saw the sights of Exhibition road, we then crossed into Kensington Gardens and went east through Hyde Park and onto Buckingham Palace. From there we headed up to Trafalgar Square and north-west up Regent Street through Piccadilly Circus to Oxford Street. We then headed west back through Hyde Park and back home down Exhibition Road to get home Something interesting, at Exhibition street I battled to find a traditional English breakfast, only the fourth restaurant we went to served it. There seems something wrong when you cant find an English breakfast in London and I suppose a sign of the changing demographics? Last night we went to an amazing restaurant called PJ's in Chelsea, I had a delicious Steak Tartare and then we went to several pubs for some drinks So a really good day overall

Was he? You sure he wasn't suggesting the implementations of emails ? I was just using a bit of humour to liven up the mood which can get serious at times Yeah I know what he meant and yes there is definitely a case for that type of interaction and how it may enhance or influence a Romance situation. This probably applies more to a NPC that is outside the party?