BruceVC

I really glad someone else, Kotaku, raised this. I thought that someone making a video of his exploits in the game killing minority groups with the title "making the world a better place" as utterly tasteless and not funny at all . I actually deleted a post I made earlier on these forums when the video was first posted because I thought I was over-analysing this development so I'm glad Kotaku shares my sentiment I found it was pretty funny and really did give me an incentive to play the game, kind of like a 40K inquisitor set loose in the world. If you go on some rampage in the game and kill everyone that would be fine but if for example you go into the game and only profile gay NPC and then make a video with the title " how to deal with the issue of homosexuality" and post it then that would be very concerning. Surly you can see the difference?

I really glad someone else, Kotaku, raised this. I thought that someone making a video of his exploits in the game killing minority groups with the title "making the world a better place" as utterly tasteless and not funny at all . I actually deleted a post I made earlier on these forums when the video was first posted because I thought I was over-analysing this development so I'm glad Kotaku shares my sentiment

Did the Dihydrocodeine make you feel gooooooooooood? I recommend Pethidine for migraines, that really makes you feel goooooooooood

Well yes from outsiders perspective it may be appear we are over sensitive around certain topics. But due to our history that is understandable, I do think we get certain things right that most of you wouldn't agree with but end of the day there is always the risk of misplaced and unnecessary criticism. This cartoon is a good example of that

Very keen to get some feedback on this game

I work as a software consultant for corporations and I would argue in the case of a development studio Prime is correct. Its more important in the case of Obsidian to have a good team that works well and cohesively together than building an infrastructure. Of course both are important and relevant but an effective team is more important to achieve the final product

Morrigan....oh Morrigan..she is pretty

Well there was a lot of dead and skinned human carcases. Oh and they did have a BBQ going as well. Good point, there was that pile of bones.....you may be right there. Hiro do you watch Mad Men? If not watch season 1 and see if you like it

You make some good points Gorthfucius, ancient civilisations were correct to seek your wisdom This incident has basically gone away, the media house removed the cartoon and unequivocally apologized. I listened to the interview with the editor and she made comments like " sorry for any hurt caused and we need to try harder to not offend people and understand our differences " I think the outrage was motivated from a political perspective as the ANC is tired of being the " victim " of the media due to there own lack of good governance and accountability. Also remember the ANC didn't challenge this cartoon legally because we do have free speech but the media house received so much criticism through social media and other mediums that they removed them and apologized

Bioware did that and you know how it ended. I know exactly how it ended, one of the worlds most highly regarded and successful development studios with millions of fans who absolute support them and there products financially. Yes this is exactly the success I imagine Obsidian would want to achieve, what business wouldn't?

I watched the last 7 episodes of the latest season of Walking Dead. Very entertaining, I was getting a little fatigued of the series but I have to say my interest has been picked up again and I'm looking forward to season 5. I wonder what the people of Terminus want? Oh I've just started watching season 7 of Mad Men and as usual it is excellent. The writers of that series deserve good bonuses for work well done

Yes I'm sure that is what he means but Orog's guess was funnier

I do, sadly. I hope this Orlesian ball will be a good opportunity for my rogue to use some stealth and pick-pocketing ...oh wait, I'm going to be the head of a major organization, stealing stuff wouldn't make much sense. Meh. That's what I always hated about RPGs. That they are trying to appeal to the kleptomaniac crowd?

You are very wise my friend. I also wouldn't take that bet and the reason is as follows Once PoE is released I am confident it will be a success. It will also attract many new fans and people who aren't active on these forums and that will include many fellow promancers. Comments will be similar to " wow that game was amazing but its pity that there wasn't deeper party interaction through Romance options" Obsidian will now know they have a winning IP and exciting new game world with a loyal fan base. But you always want to grow a business and attract new fans to increase the revenue stream So they will take what fans want under consideration and ask questions like " how can we make PoE 2 even better, what was missing from PoE that can be improved on" And one of the most obvious answers will be.....Romance

I'll bet you that there won't be Romance in this version of PoE but there will be in the next one? And yes lets bet a Steam game of our choosing but no more than $50. That's how confident I am that Obsidian will realize there mistake and include Romance options in the sequel. Come on Prime...don't be scared

When you say "push people hard enough they'll take matters in their own hands" what do you mean? Who is pushing people and in what way are people being pushed and how are people taking matters into there own hands? Both artists as well as customers were being squeezed for every penny, before the advent of CD writers the channels you could get stuff from were extremely limited so they got away with it. As I see it piracy (or at least, the widespread kind in the early days of this millennium) was a consumer reaction against that abuse. On the other end you had the artists that were often being squeezed just as hard by the record companies as the consumers (I had the chance to talk to some members of a band that quit after a long time because of the abuse they received from their record company and their story wasn't exactly unique). Digital distribution made it possible for artists to keep the rights to their work and self-distribute. Okay thanks for clarifying, your post makes sense to me. There was a degree of consumers being overcharged and now big publishers are more price conscious

That's actually quite lengthy for a FPS, particularly modern day ones. Most modern day FPS single player campaigns clock in well below 10 hours. Okay, so I'm even worse than I thought at FPS

I had a delicious braai\barbeque on Saturday so I have leftover meat and potato bake which I'll have for supper night

I finished Spec Ops : The Line last night. Its not bad, 60/100 It fulfills the role as a FPS well enough, the battles are fun and there are interesting weapons to choose from. The game isn't long though, I took about 23 hours to complete it and I'm not that good at FPS so I imagine someone more skilled could complete it in 12-15 hours? I was disappointed that there weren't enough choices but I did enjoy the ones I had to make But I am not sure I understood the plot, I wasn't really paying that much attention. Here is my understanding of the story, maybe someone who played the game can comment on how accurate I was

You make raise some good points. Basically you are saying the danger isn't so much the EU dissolving itself but individual countries leaving due to Euro sceptic parties coming to power in local elections . But in the case of Greece this would surly be economic suicide for them. They probably would have to return to the Drachma which would be almost worthless, there banks systems would be under huge pressure and they would still have to pay the EU back for the bail-outs. But I can see other countries leaving the EU not being under the same pressure as they aren't in the same debt ?

Yes but its also easier to defend an entrenched, secure position than to attack it. I am referring to Normandy

Why is that strange? Statutory rape can apply to any age of the perpetrator ( well in my country that's how it works) Its the age of the victim that is relevant

I have this game on Steam and I am considering playing it next

Those are good examples of why anti-piracy campaigns works. Some people think its about stopping it, but there is no wining with crime, it is always about marginalizing the undesired activity. In these case it requires to understand that most are selfish pigs, who care mostly about their convenience/cost and if they can break the law and get away with it, they are far more likely to break it. The crime here was keeping an outdated business model alive in spite of the consumers. If you push people hard enough they'll take matters in their own hands, which is what lead to such widespread piracy. As far as I'm concerned there was no successful anti-piracy campaign but a successful piracy campaign that forced a stale industry to get its act together by hitting it where it hurts: their profits. The results seem a pretty obvious win for the consumer: fairer prices and more convenient access to the product. This is just typical for any industry really, sooner or later they find a business model that works and when they do they'll want to stick with it at all costs because change = risk and risk is the antithesis of big business. So they'll defend their business model tooth and nail until someone else demonstrates a working way to make money with a new business model, which they'll then gleefully copy (the Netflix/Spotify/Steam idea, though I'm unsure if either of them was the first to do what they do). I'm hoping that the Internet will be able to keep forcing businesses to reinvent themselves on a regular basis so we won't end up with some outdated business model hardcoded into the law again (after we finally get rid of this stuff that was added for book publishing before telecommunication was invented). After that I'd just like to point out that I'm a firm believer in providing fair reward for effort done as such I've never been much of a pirate, but being a software developer I am of course interested in the entire software patent debacle, an interest in the copyright system was a natural result (which isn't to say that I'm an expert, far from it, ianal etc). EDIT: typos When you say "push people hard enough they'll take matters in their own hands" what do you mean? Who is pushing people and in what way are people being pushed and how are people taking matters into there own hands?

Thanks for sharing Ros, that was a very detailed and interesting post And 13 % is not a seismically concerning number and if that represents the real Eurosceptic number then we don't have to worry about a breakup of the EU in the near future