BruceVC

Hm. Everyone seems to assume that the Republican Party is bought and paid for - yet there seem to be many that don't realize the same about the Democrats. I would warrant that that makes them the superior propagandist of the two...but maybe that's just me. You should read this book Barti, it doesn't discuss who controls the various political parties in the USA but rather how FOX news has been able to influence the news and a certain ideology through an orchestrated campaign. You will know some of it but its worth reading

Same here, the common argument on these forums seems to be "you don't need to force these changes in games to make a difference" I reject this as by including minorities and groups of people that have been traditionally discriminated against you help to change the perception *My* argument "against" explicitly including social issues is that they're very much linked to the time and place where they occur. For example: being gay is pretty much no big deal for the majority of the population here (I'm Belgian, our prime minister is gay. Seriously: pretty much nobody cared, it wasn't even mentioned in the news, I had to read on some international site that apparently he was the first homosexual country leader ever in the world. The fact that he was Orlesian, err, French speaking, now that was an issue worth writing about!). So any game about a squad of straight guys with one gay person in it is likely just not going to "click" here, just like a game that talks about the French-Dutch language issues in this country is likely not going to work too well abroad (while here it can be argued to be a much bigger issue than gay rights or gay perception). The other one is if you want your game to still be played in 10years the issue you might be advocating about now might have gone away entirely, or the perception changed radically making the story elements awkward or alien (one of the reasons old books are often really weird to read, our entire "cadre" has changed in such a way that we can't properly frame the things they're talking about anymore). Does that mean you shouldn't include lesbians, gypsies, gays and what-have-you in your games? Of course not, but making them into an explicit social commentary is risky and I'm not all that sure it's such a good thing to do. I mean, the gay romances in BioWare games, while oft mentioned are pretty well done in the sense that they're not bound to any local issues, the characters don't make a big deal out if it themselves. The fact that they're there is already promoting acceptance, I don't feel turning them into an explicit social commentary would help anything, rather the contrary. In the context of what Manveer Heir said how is this type social commentary risky or in any way a bad thing around changes to stereotypes in games and in the way that games become more inclusive of minority groups? I don't understand your objection to what he said ?

What did I say about that strawman? Apology please. You need to understand that tolerance works in different ways. Your Khmer Rouge education camp variety (doomed to failure) and a more easy-going version like mine (coming from what I like to call 'The Reality-Based Community). I don't understand your point, you seem to contridict yourself around issues of social justice. Lets keep this simple, the relevant and reasonable speech by Manveer Heir basically challanged Developers to start to looking at ways to make games more inclusive of minority groups. He also wants to break stereotypes when these minority grous are represented in games. He believes "There are numerous studies to suggest that repeated exposure to stereotypes through media can change an individual's perception of their identity, Heir argued. By perpetuating stereotypes, designers play a small part in sustaining damaging ideas. Heir admits that games are but one aspect of this hugely complex social problem, but said the problem should be tackled wherever possible. We can change this today." I agree 100 % with him, what do you not agree with based on his opinion and what he said?

Yeah, I'm sure you are an active participant in the glory of the American economy, the head of a S&P 500 company, and not a burger flipper on minimum wage or something like that, not at all. 0/10 would not read again. And for someone not interested in the thread, your repeated attention grabs are pretty funny. What, the in-laws are visiting and pissed in your corn flakes again? Or maybe you are just not getting enough likes for your lame jokes in other threads? Poor dear. (that lighthearted enough for you?) I must say that was quite funny

Same here, the common argument on these forums seems to be "you don't need to force these changes in games to make a difference" I reject this as by including minorities and groups of people that have been traditionally discriminated against you help to change the perception

You don't care about development companies that create games that represent gay characters as there way of addressing this type of social injustice , you don't think there is a problem in society. So please stop pretending that you actually want a game that " has a gay soldier that the rest of the squad aren't bothered with". I know its good to have people to "like" your posts in these forums but its patronizing to see you feign an interest in something we both know doesn't concern you. In fact the whole discussion about the correct representation of minority groups in games irritates you. No one has ever said that people who believe in social justice, like me, think the world is full of bigots. But there is a problem around discrimination and bigotry that exists in many aspects of society and we address this through different mediums. And by including groups of people that do get discriminated against in RL in video games we hopefully get people to realize that "its okay to be gay ". This doesn't diminish you as a person to be gay. I get it you and others don't agree or understand why its relevant to have gay representation in games but that doesn't change its importance. And you can't seriously think that in intuitions like the USA army the question around your sexual orientation is still not an issue on some levels. The infamous " Don't ask, don't tell " was only officially ended 3 years ago http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don%27t_ask,_don%27t_tell

Fox News isn't evil, they just have an agenda; and that is to spread as much bull**** about whoever is against Republican views as possible. Fox News isn't evil, they just have an agenda; and that is to spread as much bull**** about whoever is against Republican views as possible. This is fundamentally true, GD I would really like you and any others to read the book below. You'll see exactly how Roger Ailes was able to manipulate millions of Americans along certain ideological lines. Yes the liberal news channels also do this but Fox were the first ones to do it and are arguably still the best at it http://www.amazon.com/The-Loudest-Voice-Room-News/dp/0812992857

Yeah I also thought it was funny the first time, okay I won't do it regularly in the interests of reasonable debate and debating etiquette

Shame he doesn't look impressed

Seeing as America is the country with the most economic and military power, every day is. Deal with it. Discussing this? R00fles! You people aren't having a discussion, you're sniping at each other with passive aggressive bitching and the occasional link. If I wanted to discuss this, I would do so in a place other than an American video game developer's forum with people called "213374U", "Volorun", "BruceVC", "TrashMan", or "Mor". Stop taking yourself so seriously, honeybun. Hey !!!! Whats wrong with the name "BruceVC" ,,,,thats a normal name, the rest of the names are questionable but not mine

Interesting theory. Do you have any evidence to back it up? Of course I do, obviously. Please go back and read both threads about Ukraine, you will find numerous links people posted that support what I said.

Passive-aggressive armchair warriorism, if you please. Whatever gets your rocks off. Consumption of vast amounts of alcohol or narcotics seems far more pleasurable than armchair combat though. If some of our members like 2133, Valsuelm and Zora were prepared to stop trying to paint Russia as some sort of victim in this wanton aggression and illegal annexing of Crimea this discussion would have ended ages ago. But until they are prepared to do this I have to continue trying to get them to see the truth...I feel it is my responsibility to help them

Its interesting that you have played DA:I and have so much insight into the gay character, thanks for giving us your opinion. Oh wait DA:I hasn't been released yet.....

Passive-aggressive armchair warriorism, if you please. "Passive-aggressive armchair warriorism".. I like that

Something tells me that if it were 2003, you would be arguing that the UK and US government officials wouldn't be lying about the 'WMDs' in Iraq and would buy the manufactured hogwash that Saddam was the antichrist of Arabia and the greatest enemy on earth of freedom and democracy who must be 'stopped'. And yes, if you forget, at the time, there were people, myself being one, saying they were lying and going to war under completely false pretenses. How many times do you need to be lied to before you stop believing the source? You right I did support the invasion of Iraq for the reasons given, I then changed my mind after it was clear the reasons weren't true. History will reveal if it was still the right strategic decision to invade Iraq. But I don't think it will be due to the political situation that now exists in the region. Of course the invasion of Afghanistan was and still is perfectly justified Were you really one of those that was opposed to the Iraq invasion? I don't suppose you have any proof..like an old forum discussion that you can link? I suppose even conspiracy theorists are right sometime

I do but I am an English South African so my understanding of Afrikaans is better than how I speak it I've always wondered, does this make you feel a little bit like a foreigner in your native country? A good question but no it doesn't. English is considered the most important official language, we have 11 "official languages" in South Africa, so people need to communicate in English. There are certain communities that only speak and understand English

Nope, I'm afraid not, people are still disregarding their obvious wisdom. Thats an excellent article and summarizes exactly the situation in Crimea. Malc Russia won't change its direction around the Crimea despite the veracity of these words. This information just highlights the obvious contradictions in Putin's reason for the annexing of Crimea @ Zora Yes we know that some of the justification for the invasion of Iraq was false, but that has nothing to do with the majority of statements from the UK being accurate and valid. Like this article

When I say cardio I mean gym, I do an hour of cardio at the gym. Its interesting that at times you also lack energy for no obvious reasons

I have just finished AC3 and I enjoyed it. Its scores a well deserved 65/100 on the much respected " BruceVC gaming rating barometer" The game definitely grows on you, playing the first chapter as Nathan Kenway I thought "meh" but once that chapter ends and you realize who Kenway is the game starts developing into a very enjoyable gaming experience All AC games suffer from the same game design fault IMO, you can only do the same side missions for so long before they get boring. But then I just stick to the main mission and its fine. I also always appreciate the way Ubisoft designs there worlds, you always get the impression of this grand landscape that you can explore and adventure in And finally i enjoyed the Desmond story and how that narrative is unfolding

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DO5Kfst50v4 Guys I saw this on RPS, I have known about this game for a while. Its called Murdered: Soul Suspect, what do you think? I think it looks like its got huge potential and seems to have offer a truly unique story...its about a ghost trying to determine who killed him.

Sure, but then the argument could easily be for an evil character "I'll just let someone else fix this" ...there are other Grey Wardens and kingdoms that would more than likely join forces if there was a threat that really threatened the whole world?

Yes for me I think people want to play an overall evil character, not just the option to "slit the throats of bound qunari because they follow a different religion" ( some people would argue this isn't evil but rather following the doctrine of a religion) But I suppose this makes the game design difficult, because fundamentally an evil character wouldn't possibly care if a region is destroyed by some archdemon., so how would you motivate an evil character progressing on the main quest of an RPG....why would an evil character care what happens to some benevolent kingdom or village or group of peasants being bothered by orcs?

I just had an excellent cardio workout from an energy perspective, its weird as yesterday morning I did the exact same workout but during my training I lacked energy. What are the reasons I wonder that some days you just seem to go through your training regime easier than other days. Its not obvious to me because I did the exact same thing before the session, for example I didn't eat either day before my cardio I went to gym the same time ...7:30 am I had 2 cups of tea in the morning I had more or less the same amount of sleep the night before ...6 to 6.5 hours Any ideas?

That brings back some nostalgic memories for me. When I first played F:NV on the main quest I was down on ammunition and hunted by Deathclaws and trying to escape through the desert...desperate to find this haven called " New Vegas". I remember going over a hill, it was night, and there was the town in all its shimmering glory. I have never been so happy to see a friendly location in any game

Plus there's the fact that though the EU needs energy, energy is all Russia has to give, as attempts to diversify have largely fallen flat. Though the 30% of energy that usually comes from Russia lost will be quite a loss, (relatively) short term alternatives exist for the EU. Nice summary Ros. Here are links to the RTS, MICEX and the GDR (select the 1Y charts) http://www.bloomberg.com/quote/RTSI$:IND http://www.bloomberg.com/quote/INDEXCF:IND http://www.bloomberg.com/quote/RUS:IM Here's an interesting article about the Russian oil and gas industry. http://www.aei.org/outlook/foreign-and-defense-policy/regional/europe/the-political-economy-of-russian-oil-and-gas/ It does an excellent job of laying out exactly how dependent Russia's economy and budget are on sales to Europe. and just for grins: Caption: Your credit card has been blocked: to Putin holding packages labelled Crimea, Kharkiv and Donestsk (from Navalny web site) Informative links, I hope this puts to rest any further discussion that the Russian economy has been, and will continue to be, negatively impacted by the Crimean invasion. I don't want to mention any names (2133, Sarex, Oby and Valsuelm ) but the debate around the state of the Russian economy is not subjective. Its not like we need to discuss the reasons for Putin's drive for Russian hegemony. Living in a global and interconnected world the reality of any countries economy is easy to see and its irrefutable as we have facts through websites like Bloomberg who track movements of major stock indexes