BruceVC

Don't worry Squeakymeister I'm also completely dysfunctional in this type of creativity but its good fun to read all the posts

Someone who discriminates against facial charecteristics.

I don't know about you, but I enjoy the XP and loot from romance sidequests. Cut that out and I won't be able to mash spacebar fast enough. Seriously though, I mostly agree with you. The bluntness and lack of narrative coherence, to put it that way, is a necessary side effect of the format the romances are presented in. "Fast forward to the important moments" and skip the rest, but the result is going to feel half-assed, rushed and disconnected. But it's either that, a full-fledged relationship sim, or nothing. What I'm not so convinced is that the protagonist's ability to trigger a catharsis on teammates is silly or unrealistic. After all, in Bio games you are routinely beating impossible odds, so it's not so out there. Taking out a race of sentient machines possibly older than life on Earth and fixing the secret insecurities of the genetically perfect Princess Bitchface with a few clichéd phrases? About on the same level. a relationship sim is, we believe, unnecessary. no, there is a simple solution, albeit an unpalatable one-- make romance integral. romance that is actual part o' the main plot would diminish the ridiculousness o' achieving emotional breakthrough in a handful o' tangential romance encounters. developers coulds Potentially create a mature and meaningful romance if they would use the entire length and breath o' game... but again, while making integral and expanding romance would solve many problems, it is not something for which Gromnir would lobby. more bio romance? *shudder* forebear. as we noted earlier, the thing that makes bio romances endurable is the thing that most impedes any sorta meaningful improvement. bio romances is, thankfully, tangential and optional. makes romances integral only makes improvement possible, not likely. HA! Good Fun! "make romance integral. romance that is actual part o' the main plot" Gromnir I can honestly say that is one of the most unquestionably insightful and wise things I've heard on the Internet in ages. Brilliant suggestion

Wowzers Monte you're in a mood, but I can tell when I'm not wanted so I'll leave this thread alone and not give any MMO idea's

sociopaths "sociopaths"...Monte you should fit in perfectly there

Those are excellent points raised, its amazing that people still think the most relevant point about the crisis is "was Yanukovich illegally removed ". What he did during his reign of Ukraine seems irrelevant to them

I always find your opinion so interesting so thanks for the response but this looks like a classic BruceVC "we will have to agree to disagree" Do you still love me

Why the allergy to debate? This sort of "I'm entrenched in my views, you are entrenched in yours, let's be happy together in our pigheadedness" is fundamentally irrational and useless. It's a sad state of affairs when people have lost the ability to revise their views in light of evidence. Is your ego so inflated that you cannot even entertain the idea of "losing face" to a bunch of internets strangers? I don't know which is worse: that or the very notion that admitting that one's original pov may have been wrong is equated with "losing face". Heh. Oh 2133 your post made me laugh, I loved the pseudo psychoanalysis of my rationale..well said But you'll have to try much, much harder than that to get a negative response from me But you also misunderstand my motives. You and Zora are completely intransigent on certain topics to the point where I think you feel admitting you wrong somehow diminishes you, you've both proved that regularly. Its a waste of my time trying to convince you. There are other topics where people are more receptive to a different view. So I'll focus on those when I can

Are you aware of Survarium? After GSC folded, some of the devs went on to found Vostok Games... and that's what they are working on. Thanks for the link, I'll need to do some serious reading up on (and keeping track of) this game! I was aware GSC folded in rather odd circumstances, wasn't aware the devs went on to create a sequel though (also: istr GSC were talking about taking Stalker 2 to consoles before they folded, which seriously worried me). No, the main game plays very similarly to 2033. Some mechanics have been more streamlined (like stealth), but if you disliked 2033 you'll more than likely dislike LL. But one of the DLC has you actually go out from a fixed spot and collect artifacts. You have limited filters (for your gas mask)/ammo and you can't just stock up indefinitely because price goes up with every filter you already have on you (which is a bit dodgy from a purely logical point of view but it balances things nicely) and you get sent out to find entrances to the Great Library and collect artifacts on the way to be able to buy more filters/better gear (carry capacity is limited to 5 artifacts). You can also only save in the "base", so returning is both a necessary as well as a tactical consideration. There really isn't much loot to be found (outside of the artifacts), so new gear an weapons need to be bought (except for two exceptions that make sense from the story). Mutants do tend to drop ammo (which is a bit annoying), but is explained by them eating their victims whole (while they don't really drop a lot of ammo I didn't really have shortages either on normal difficulty, but it didn't take long for me to have enough cash that just buying the ammo wouldn't have been a real issue either). I thought they did a rather good job on making you actually feel like a vulnerable human in a pretty messed up environment (that said, aside from a few run-ins with Librarians I never died). I don't remember how long the DLC took me to finish (an hour or two I think), but a full game based on these mechanics would be pretty damn awesome in my book. I loved LL, I thought the game was spectacular. So I should enjoy the DLC as well

Depending on what class you are teaching! There is no room for anything but hard cold facts in a history class. Exactly, and there is no point not recognizing the facts around the role women have played historically in our societies

What was the issue with Lionheart? I have it on GOG but I haven't played it yet and there seem to be numerous complaints

Jill's point was that the women ARE documented, and that our failure to educate on them is a problem with us now, now recording them back then. So this statement is actually in agreement with her, though your hostile tone seems to indicate that you think you're refuting her statement.... My ire is aimed at hang-wringing professors who would rather meta-game history and feminism than actually teach. Did it ever occur to you that maybe accurate representation of gender equality is part of the teaching process?

Very impressed with your poetic eloquence

Well, clearly. Crimea had voted to be independent at least twice previous, but not within the past 19 years up until their democratically elected President was illegally deposed, by those who'd lost the previous election, in a long planned operation, with outside help, after abrogating international agreements. They have zero reason to trust at all. Inviting the Russians in to protect them from oppression from Kiev- which had twice (now three times) disregarded their independence votes and has labelled their constitutionally valid parliament, the single concession made to the independence sentiment, as illegal- is an eminently sensible step. That they may now feel that instead of independence they need to be protected as an integral part of Russia is a consequence of Kiev's repeated actions, I'm afraid. Okay thanks for responding, you and I have fundamental different views on why Russia is involved in Crimea and we are never going to agree with each other. And thats fine as we are all entitled to our opinions , no point debating this particular issue further

Jill's point was that the women ARE documented, and that our failure to educate on them is a problem with us now, now recording them back then. So this statement is actually in agreement with her, though your hostile tone seems to indicate that you think you're refuting her statement.... Of course he is refuting what she is saying, in Monte's world there is no need for discssions around equality because women already have equal rights and recognition....thats as long as they don't disagree with him on any level ....

What do you mean, we South Africans don't have an accent..its all the other English nations that speak strangely

You really make me laugh, you must be one of the funniest people on these forums. But your posting motives are an enigma to me. What country do you live in if you don't mind me asking?

oh, we suspect that he/she understood us. is easier to claim we in unintelligible than it is to refute. ... we will say that he/she woulda' been better off avoiding use "o "sunshine." is clear we struck a nerve. is better off not to admit such when trying to claim that Gromnir postings is indecipherable. one o' the more inept attempts to marginalize our posts that we has seen, but not unique. HA! Good Fun! Gromnir I can understand your posts but it takes time to focus on the structure of what you are saying, but for someone where UK English isn't there first language I can imagine it will be difficult. So don't think people are being facetious when they say " they don't understand your posts" ...there may be truth to that oh come now. truth to tell, our grammar as Gromnir is better than 90% of posters on this board-- our adversarial relations with pronouns notwithstanding. speaking as one who has learned a couple different languages, we suspect that our idiosyncratic speaking is more grating on a native ear. that being said, we s'pose it is possible that our posting were too... complex. we will concede that the danish in question simply could not grasp the concepts contained in our response. in the future, we will try to post slow and low for the children, foreigners and/or poorly educated members o' the community. happy? to stay on-topic we will add once more that the romances do more harm than good to the character development of the bioware companions. for companions to achieve Revelation 'cause of discourse + intercourse with the player following a half-dozen romance dialogue encounters and a tasteless pg-13 rated cut-scene is, at the very least, vulgar. HA! Good Fun! ps that a danish is a pastry and not a person is known to us. The problem I have with your post now is that even though it is funny it is also patronizing. You are basically implying that people don't understand you because they aren't on the relevant intellectual level. I'm not sure if that was your intention but the reality is that your response isn't helpful to the constructive criticism you received.

I mentioned racism in South Africa as that's where you're from (I assume you're truthful with your location), and what I was attempting to do was point out the marked differences between our nations on the issue to say to you that it's not as bad here as you seem to think in regards to racism. It really isn't, not even remotely. I didn't do it to belittle you or your nation. I surmised that perhaps you might have a tough time believing that given the exceptional levels of racism in your backyard and how some U.S. media constantly manufactures stories to stoke the fires of racism. Race simply is the most minor of factors when it comes to Obama, just as sex is when it comes to a female like Hilary Clinton or Sarah Palin. So minor it's really not worthy of being discussed. 'Racism' and 'sexism' are terms far more often used as a weapon to marginalize by the lowest of the low of journalists and politicians than they are actually used as factors to determine someone's vote positively or negatively. And while there are no numbers on it and never likely will be (as how do you even measure such a thing?) I think anyone who's really paying attention to what goes on and talks to a lot of different people would say that Obama got far more votes because he was black than he lost votes because he was black, and the same goes for Hillary, Sarah, and others in regards to their sex and race. Genuine racism exists in the U.S., but the hypersensitivity to it, the false sense of guilt, and false sense of entitlement is far far far more common amongst the populace. As for us disagreeing a lot. Yes. You come across to me as someone who believes almost wholeheartedly in the official western state supported dialogue on almost every subject that ever comes up on these forums. (I am simplifying this critique.) I think I question things a lot more than you do, in essence because many years ago I realized I was being lied to, and a lot. I used to believe a lot of the same bull**** you do but upon realizing that some of it was bull**** I dug for truth, I found some, and it was anything but pretty. I don't think you realize how much of what you think is true is a bunch of lies (your latest thread on 'banbossy' is a good example), and I think you should question things more than you do before you jump on a bandwagon. As I've said on these forums before: Always ask yourself 'Why am I being shown this?' 'Why is this a news story?' and 'Cui Bono?' If we were sitting in a pub or on a dock by a lake on a regular basis over the course of time I think I could convince you of many a thing (I have success doing this with people; truth is a powerful convincing tool for all but the most delusional), but it's hard to debate on a forum, and not knowing where you come from (why you think as you do) on whatever issue it is we're discussing. But really, question things more. Have no heroes, always ask 'why?'. The answers are not what many seem to be on the surface. The world is often not as advertised on television and in the major print publications (both of which are largely owned by the same folks, worldwide at this point). Good post I do live in South Africa but I travel a lot overseas for work....well mostly Africa and the Middle East. We occasionally go to Europe for holiday and my family has an apartment in the UK because my stepmother is worried about the future of the country so she has made substantial investments in the UK. The reason I am mentioning all this is because I don't think my oopinion is insulated based only on a South African perspective. It would be great to meet someday and have a beer, or 2, and discuss our views in person because I agree a forum isn't always the best medium to make an effective point

No one is saying that - Although the response you provided to my statements came off as you trying to bait me. You weren't trying to actually engage in a discussion or offer a counter argument. You were simply stating something totally irrelevant to what I said. Romances are optional? So what? What does that have to do with me not liking them? Hope that clears things up a notch. This is exactly what Volo does, I'm not even sure he realizes it. Thats what I mean when I said " he doesn't respect debating etiquette" (intentionally or unintentionally )

oh, we suspect that he/she understood us. is easier to claim we in unintelligible than it is to refute. ... we will say that he/she woulda' been better off avoiding use "o "sunshine." is clear we struck a nerve. is better off not to admit such when trying to claim that Gromnir postings is indecipherable. one o' the more inept attempts to marginalize our posts that we has seen, but not unique. HA! Good Fun! Gromnir I can understand your posts but it takes time to focus on the structure of what you are saying, but for someone where UK English isn't there first language I can imagine it will be difficult. So don't think people are being facetious when they say " they don't understand your posts" ...there may be truth to that I think I should probably comment on this -- Allow me to clarify that I'm perfectly adept at the English language, probably better at it than my own at this point. The way he put he sentences together though and the grammatical structure made no sense to me. It's like someone trying to speak in old Shakespeare English to make themself seem more intellectual in some matter. So I responded with the usage of 'sunshine' which was meant as a snippy remark. Yes your English is excellent, but you aren't the first person to mention difficulty in understanding Gromnir. So my comment wasn't necessarily around your view

If your goal is for the populace of a nation to suffer and perhaps kill a great many innocents then sure, sanctions work. At their best sanctions are a bunch of hot air for the most part (which in regards to Russia they will be), at their worst (something they are all too often, ie: Iraq) they're downright evil. Okay interesting perspective but I don't agree that sanctions are ineffective. Both the change in Iran and South Africa's attitude towards international pressure about certain policies are testimony to that. But I will say this, if the government of a particular country doesn't care about the suffering of there citizens then the sanctions won't be as effective. If you take North Korea for example the leaders of that country still lived a life of luxury but there citizens suffered and starved to death in there hundreds of thousands ...but that mass loss of NK lives is irrelevant to the Jong-il family South Africa is an anomaly in regards to sanctions, and if they even worked there is questionable. It's very noteworthy that the sanctions that ultimately were imposed on South Africa came about due to a great deal of pressure on the U.S. government from it's citizens and grassroots movements in the U.S. Both the U.S. government and the U.K. government (Mr. and Mrs. Sanctiondecider-Giver on planet earth) were more than happy to allow South Africa their apartheid system before it became political suicide for U.S. representatives to not impose them. Without so much pressure from the U.S. citizenry those sanctions would never have happened. And this is the only instance of sanctions in history I can think of that came about this way. Normally, and in every other case I can think of 'sanctions' are an aggressive imperialistic tool initiated on levels in society that are anything but grassroots, whose goals tend to not what they are advertised to be to the world at large and are anything but noble. (see Sarex's earlier linked documentary for a good example) In regards to sanctions on Iran... I don't think they accomplished all that much really, at least insofar in what they were advertised to try and accomplish. It remains to be seen what the ultimate affect of sanctions will have though. And I think it's definitely debatable if they're even a good idea to begin with as the ultimate affect of them may blow up in the faces of those imposing them (possibly just about literally). Iran is one of the more interesting subjects in the world though, and one of the most mis-advertised in the western world. If you want to see a decent documentary on what sanctions can do to a nation watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GHn3kKySuVo You might just change your mind on the idea that sanctions are a good thing. There's another documentary out there on the subject that's even better but I can't recall the name of it right now (watched it years ago). Of course that the U.S. and U.K. even hold the power they do to impose sanctions on anyone is a troublesome issue in and of itself, and on many levels, many of which don't reach face value for your average person. But that's a world banking system thing, didn't ya know? I read that link about the effectiveness of the sanctions against South Africa and it makes an interesting read, so good points But it doesn't really change one of my earlier statements for exactly the reasons I mentioned. The sanctions against South Africa weren't effective because they weren't severe enough. There are numerous examples in that article of how certain South African exports weren't blocked so the economy was able to arguably sustain itself. But if you use sanctions to block all exports and don't allow a country's financial institutions to do business with other international banks, like they did in Iran, you will put massive economic pressure on any country as we live in a global world where exports and imports are critical to the health of country's economy Also as your link mentions there is the psychological pressures associated with sanctions that aren't very nice for a country on the receiving end. I remember during Apartheid going on holiday to Austria and meeting this Swedish girl in a bar. When I told her where I was from the first thing she said to me was " well I don't like racists". This brought home to me how people saw all South Africans despite the fact my family and I were liberals and didn't support Apartheid. Finally to be fair to the West the main reason IMO that Western powers didn't address Apartheid was because South Africa was also opposed to Communism and was involved in several proxy wars against the USSR and China throughout Africa. The Cold War was ongoing and Communism was the greater evil than Apartheid for many Western leaders. Your article also alludes to this

Last night after dinner I decided to treat myself to something delicious but decadent, I ate 150 grams of ripened Stilton Cheese with Melba biscuits ....it was yummy

I remember some of my university professors bringing up the point that, in a lot of cases, the problem isn't only that women's contributions weren't included in the historical record, and more that we today often overlook those parts of the historical record that involve women's experiences. In other words, in many cases, we today, and not historians in the past, are the ones making women's contributions invisible. Here is an interesting link that discusses exactly what you have mentioned, the fact that in many cases the historical contribution of women in society has been marginalized http://fozmeadows.wordpress.com/2012/12/08/psa-your-default-narrative-settings-are-not-apolitical/

Well welcome to the forums, I am enjoying your posts and input Oh and welcome to the forums as well Silvermoondragon Thanks for the welcome! I've actually been here for a couple years, posted a little teeny bit at the beginning and then went dark here until just recently...but anyway, thanks again! If you guys are interested in understanding the perspectives of many members aroound Romance in PoE i would suggest you read this thread. Its long and people joke around a bit but it does reveal different views around Romance and also why they won't be in PoE ( also it may seem the majority of people don't want Romance but thats not true, its just that the ant-romance crowd are very loud ) http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/65125-the-case-for-romance/