BruceVC

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

Thanks for the correction, I also meant to say wireless xbox one controller

Do they make wired versions? I don't like wireless controllers. I may scoop up a wired Xbone controller in the future if they make wired ones, once they work on PC and once the Linux folks reverse engineer a driver. I use a PC wired Xbox controller for certain games ( like Sleeping Dogs), it works great

They share 'American' identity today mostly thanks to civil war and subsequent rise of mass media. For EU to realize it's imperial ambition it would have to undergo a similar experience. You could be right about the EU and what they need for greater or rather more meaningful cohesion. Also the reality is it doesn't matter how or why the USA shares a common identity. All that matters is that they do as this makes them stronger in time of crisis and unites them like after 9/11

Please don't. Don't worry, personally I am only going to create a thread about a particular social justice issue when there is something that I feel really needs to be discussed. But that doesn't stop other people

Dude you are very funny

I have to be honest and admit if you think that the reason I raise issues of social justice is to make anyone feel guilty then I have utterly failed to explain my various points properly I need to obviously try harder, discussions about social justice are only about awareness and you then decide if you want to do something about a particular issue, they are not about guilt at all

That's both an interesting and concerning story Nonek. Are you prepared to share more details like where did this happen and under what circumstances, what ethnic group attacked you and what do you mean by "few individuals comments".. is this something the BNP said? It was SusurrusParadox on the SJW thread (wonder what happened to that?) Bruce, but as I said I found the gentleman laughable and nothing to be concerned about. I've been called a white (excuse my language) bastard before on the street, and still felt nothing but mild amusement, if I felt anything more i'd be allowing the abusers undue importance. Or i'm just an emotionless shell of a man? Sadly that thread was closed down, but it offered some of the most interesting debates we have had in ages. Maybe you and I should start a another one dedicated purely to SJ issues? I thought Paradox shook up the forums nicely with his perspective and I'm not referring to his suggestion that you and other members were knuckle dragging caveman. It was his opinion on matters like how lady gamers feel they are victims of abuse that was interesting and why they are justified in wanting there own space Also I was about to engage in a very important discussion with you at the time around the point " white, heterosexual males are not typically or historically victims of discrimination" I was going to ask you several pertinent questions around this topic but then the thread was closed

Chaos, tell them you'll trade them some of that nice Wisconsin mature cheddar for free access to E3?

That's both an interesting and concerning story Nonek. Are you prepared to share more details like where did this happen and under what circumstances, what ethnic group attacked you and what do you mean by "few individuals comments".. is this something the BNP said?

Meshugger, I think you better sit down for a bit. I have something I need to tell you, and it's not good news. It's about Voltaire...

No I haven't ?