BruceVC

Interesting post, I do several things around phone etiquette I'll be honest I have a wide range of people that tend to phone me from good lifelong friends to people that I met on some all weekend party the previous week and I react differently to them depending on the nature of the phone call and how I feel at the time I always phone my good friends and family back, sometimes it may be a few hours later. I generally ignore any missed call I see if I don't know the number and they don't leave a message If I know a number but I really don't want to speak to the person and they leave a message I'll phone them back the next day I don't respond to unwanted SMS until I feel the need to, this can be 24 hours later. The most serious calls are generally when someone tries to phone you and then sends an SMS explaining why they are trying to reach you This doesn't apply to work hours where I answer all calls if I can

That book does look good, I have 2 types of favourite personal reading books. Fantasy books and anecdotal historical accounts of people in military conflicts. I've mentioned this before but World War One is the conflict that I am most fascinated with and I collect as many books around that war as I can, the problem is I have many excellent autobiographies written by the likes of Robert Graves and Sigfried Sassoon but very few books that represent the German side of the war and life in the trenches. Almost all the German perspectives of the war are written in German so purchasing them wouldn't help as I can't read or speak German

As an agonistic, I do not believe that science and divine work need to be exclusive. Without wishing to specify your beliefs, I think you mean 'agnostic'. Gigantic keyboard failure. Although antagonistic works too Hurlshot! Yaaaay good to see you and Hurlshot back on good and normal terms again. Its weird to see you guys having the odd word like you did over that lady gaming journalist with the tattoo's

Okay that gets the much desired and sought after BruceVC "most humorous post of the week award " Good one

I don't know about Alan, but I'd close my curtains and tear out my webcam from the computer. Funny

I do not, and I would definitely need more than your word alone to convince me otherwise. Okay let me position this differently with you, I consider you an intelligent person who has a good understanding of the world you live in and an excellent ability to rationalize the things around you. But what would happen to your perspective of the world if I could tell you right now on these forums what you had for breakfast and what shirt you are wearing. Is this something you would want to know as surely this would turn on its head many preconceived ideas you have as a person and ultimately our views on life are what define us. Is this something you could mentally deal with? It would be like going down the rabbit hole.....

Alan do you believe in psychic abilities? Lets say I told you I was psychic would you believe me?

Fair enough but haven't I researched the issue enough to say you are correct. For example what about Uri Geller and his abilities? EDIT: Actually I just did some research on Geller and it appears most of his "psychic" abilities were cons or sleight of hand tricks, so you it looks like you may be right about authentic psychics

I feel I need to update my previous comment, this lady isn't someone who decided to make her first career choice in the gaming industry. She is an ex-porn star who decided to change her career. My previous more critical post should be ignored. I respect her decision and wish her good luck as she will have more than enough criticism from people just from her past. I admire people who want to change there lives if they feel there jobs aren't fulfilling, I actually feel guilty about my previous view on her

Personally I can accept the possibility of someone having enhanced perception or some sort of psychic ability. I don't know enough about it to factually debate it but there are numerous cases of people doing extraordinary things with there minds so why not being able to find a hidden body?

Yep, porn actress. Her filmography is as long as my forearm. Sad, really. Okay so she was in the Porn industry, that's not a bad thing in my opinion. In fact now I would now say her tattoo's make more sense. I like to watch the odd adult entertainment. Do you know her stage name ?

To be honest, while I noticed the tattoos I didn't really give them much of a second thought until you (and others) decided to focus so incessantly on them. At some point, in my opinion, the problem becomes less and less hers. My question for you is "Why do you care?" followed by "Why does someone doing something like this bother you?" when it's effectively a stranger and someone that you have literally no obligation to do anything towards. What you are doing, although I don't suspect with any sort of overtly malevolent intent, is shifted the conversation away from what the author is saying and focusing more on what the author looks like. To draw an analogue, and I understand it's a bit different because tattoos are voluntary, but in my eyes it's not that far removed from focusing more on the colour of someone's skin than is really necessary. You find her decision to place tattoos on her a decision that makes her less attractive. Which is fine. They are probably at a point of having enough that I consider them less appealing as well. We're allowed to feel people are or are not attractive. What that has to do, however, with her topic is something that is somewhat lost on me. Coupling it with "Also I hope I don't die when my daughter is 15 because that might cause her to go get terrible tattoos that distract from her natural beauty" then comes across as something exceptionally antagonistic and downright disrespectful. If getting tattoos helps her deal with the loss of a parent in a reasonably healthy way (from a mental health standpoint). I lost my brother when I was 13, and effectively didn't really get over it until I was 20. If getting some tattoos had helped in some way, I'd be pissed at my parents for judging me for doing so. I agree with Hurlshot on this one but I am going to be even more critical. Firstly I don't dislike this lady( what is her name?) but let me comment on the perception that her tattoos create in this context We are not being petulant in our judging of her because she has put herself on the Internet for public scrutiny and obviously doesn't think her tattoos are an issue as he could easily hide them if she was concerned about them. Therefore if you ask for people to comment on what you say they are naturally going to also base that opinion on how you conduct yourself and what image you project. Its hard to separate the person from the message in most cases There are dozens of gaming bloggers, websites and people trying to offer an alternative opinion on games and break into the gaming discussion market. Its very competitive and I imagine doesn't offer much financial incentive until you are really well know. Like Jim Sterling ( who annoys me but he does have his fans). What is lacking is the type of reviews and opinions that we see on Forbes and Gamasutra around gaming. These target an older segment of gaming society but generally with more spending power. In other words business people who like to game get there updates from these websites. Now I would think the objective of gaming journalist is to progress in there careers and eventually get to work for websites like this? This lady is very good looking and is intelligent. She also wants to get opinions on the topic. She raised some interesting questions but here is the problem. She is only going to be able to work for certain companies because those tattoos really create an image of her that would be unacceptable for most corporations. I can't comment on the work conditions of Bioware but I know very few companies that would allow customer facing staff to look like that. Business people who want to discuss gaming don't want to see that type of person representing there hobbies. Now imagine if she looked like she did, asked though provoking questions but didn't have the tattoos. It would be a winning formula Now you can easily say " I am over analysing this whole thing, she doesn't care about representing companies that cater for business men or even earning decent money. She is doing something she enjoys and follows her own path irrespective of what people like me think". That may be well and true but someday she would more than likely have to answer certain questions about her career progression and at the moment she is actually doing herself a disservice for future prospects. We are going through tough economic times, people are unemployed or work in jobs where they are not earning what they should be earning and companies can and will fire as they see fit. Why would you not do everything in your power to ensure that you are as marketable as possible? Finally I have no issues with tattoos as I feel they are a personal choice and at times they could represent something sentimental for a person but in the case of this lady they are really overdone and unfortunately don't create an image of her that as time goes on she would really want? Of course I may be wrong but this is just my perception of her

You can't blame EA for the bad and shoddy products that EA Phenomic produced. This is a result primarily of EA Phenomic having bad development skills and releasing an unfinished product to the market. That's business and I know this is unpopular but we should be saying thanks to EA for closing a company that can't deliver a game that is worth paying for. I am starting to get a little tired of how we seem to be constantly make allowances for developers and how its always the publishers fault that the game is bad. When do the developers take responsibility for the actual product that ultimately they are the architects and creators of ?

Keep us updated, I'll send you a PM of someone on these forums who I'm sure can help you if you ask

Busty elven women in chain-mail bikinis? That's just part of it

Interesting idea but it wouldn't be my cup of tea

I wouldn't even say it was cool then. It really didn't feel right in the game imo. But it was much more tolerable and much much less annoying than the inyourface implementations in some other games (ie: Dragon Age or The oh yea my character is a male sloot Witcher). That some have come to expect 'romance' and want them so much in their CRPG that there's as many threads in this forum about this subject.... well, to them I say go out and get a "Romance, Marriage, Pregnancy and having Children." in the real world, and perhaps you might not be clamoring so much for such things in this or any other game. There are games such as The Sims that are much better suited for folks who wish to pursue eromances and efamilies than a CRPG game, especially one that is aiming to be a really good one. So by your logic if I have something in RL I wouldn't want that in an RPG? Okay so lets say in RL I read history books, I hunt recreationally and I enjoy visiting exotic and foreign cities then I shouldn't ask for lore, interesting monsters to fight or exciting dungeons and places to explore in PE? Yeah that makes loads of sense You do know what the definition of a "fantasy RPG " means right?

Er...while its fine and dandy to blame the Americans for duffing up the English language, Aluminum was coined by English chemist Humphrey Davis in his 1812 book CHEMICAL PHILOSOPHY. Later an anonymous writer, objecting to the "less classical sound" of aluminum (despite the fact that it followed the convention of several other elements) suggested that it be named aluminium in the same year's QUARTERLY REVIEW (not unlike an anonymous message board post; me thinks it was the "Walshingham of 1812" who wrote this letter to QUARTERLY REVIEW suggesting aluminium...) Correspondingly different people, companies and countries went with the different suggestions; the US originally used Aluminium exclusively, but this gave way to aluminum due to Charles Martin Hall using it on handbills and dominating the production in the US and Canada. So the aluminum-aluminium thing can't really be laid at the feet of the Americans, I'm afraid. The IUAPC didn't standardize to aluminimum until 1990 and still see aluminum as an acceptable variant. How did you know that piece of interesting trivia?

Come now decado, you can't expect us to believe that you didn't try to get just a little luuuuving from Isabela or Morrigan ? Just a little, you can be honest ...there are no judgements here ? Actually this is a good point. I romanced Morrigan and Leiliana to get their state bonuses lol. I didn't give a flying crap about any of the cheesy romance plot they had written up to that point. Which says a lot about the whole romance system that they used in DA, I think. Okay so let me ask you another question. When you followed the Romance arc with Morrigan were you not at all interested in her history, her motives and as the relationship transpired what events would unfold? Or was this purely for the stats so you basically didn't read anything she said or do anything she asked you? I read it, but the writing behind it was so clumsy and hamfisted that I found most of it physically painful to engage with. Nobody ever says of a game, "I hope the devs include a friendship option!!" There are no friendship mini-games and no awful friendship dialog trees and no demands from Social Justice Warriors that there needs to be a wide variety of friendship options like friendships with trees and animals otherwise specieism!! The fact is, the quality of interaction with the NPCs is left entirely to good writing and game design. Romances should be done the exact same way. Stop thinking about them as a feature or a mini game -- make them part of the story, and that's it. That's how they are going to be the most effective. Also, they need to get someone other than frustrated neckbeards to write the characters. I swear to christ, every single gay/bi character in DA:O or DAII was a stereotype, a flightly hare-brained flirt or a sex fiend or some other dumb trope. NEWSFLASH: Gay people are just like you and me, they don't act all weird just because they happen to want to bang a certain section of the population. Crazy, I know! Thanks for the response, so if you felt the writing for Morrigan was lacking is it fair to say you felt the writing for all the characters and the interaction was poor? Or was it only the Morrigan writing that was bad? And I agree with you about the gay stereotyping, I have several gay friends and when we go out partying they are no more lecherous than a straight guy wanting to get laid so it would be nice to see a more balanced view of gay people. Its funny but if you ever go to a gay club you may see behaviour that as a straight person you may think " this is far too forward or direct" but this is exact same behaviour that a straight guy would do with a girl if she allowed him in a normal club

Come now decado, you can't expect us to believe that you didn't try to get just a little luuuuving from Isabela or Morrigan ? Just a little, you can be honest ...there are no judgements here ? Actually this is a good point. I romanced Morrigan and Leiliana to get their state bonuses lol. I didn't give a flying crap about any of the cheesy romance plot they had written up to that point. Which says a lot about the whole romance system that they used in DA, I think. Okay so let me ask you another question. When you followed the Romance arc with Morrigan were you not at all interested in her history, her motives and as the relationship transpired what events would unfold? Or was this purely for the stats so you basically didn't read anything she said or do anything she asked you?

Well we are talking about these DJs in this thread in Australia. Not sure why you're bringing up what you do in your own time and in your own country, different countries in general and the difference of those laws in other places. Try and keep it on topic and relevant. eg. the DJs in question. Hiro can we please stay on topic, what has the 2 DJ's got to do with the rise and fall of Babylon? You'll notice I tend to keep people focused on the topic at hand, that's a difficult skill to acquire but once you learn it you'll find people very easy to interact with when discussing politics and books on Anthropology

I disagree with your view. I think you are being overly critical. There are legitimate reasons to find funding outside the traditional business model of publishers owning the IP and determining the ultimate direction of the game. Sure Fargo maybe played this to his advantage but he had some valid points. There is no doubt in my mind that we wouldn't be seeing games similar to Wasteland 2 or PE if it wasn't for the likes of alternative funding schemes like KS. The real question needs to be " when the first of these new RPG is released will they offer us entertainment and be worth our funding"

What about in services like the military or police? Don't you have to do what you are told even if you feel the orders are dumb?

Sorry, I did'nt know that. I've learned English from my Canadian relatives, TCC, Ultima V and Test Drive - so it's a horrible mix of different sources of influence. When I started learning English at school the teachers ignored me, just because I had a basic grasp of the language, so I had to make do. Yeti? Well... My uncle does sometimes go skinny dipping. That's got to be close enough to a missing link. And far, far more terrifying... And there are hills around here. http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f220/Azdeus/DSC00115.jpg Some yankee bastard bought most of the forest on the other side and proceeded to clearcut it, you can see the beginnings of it in the image. He bought it, clearcut it, then sold it again. If I had a gun... I've not even seen a fox here otherwise, we've got moose though. Lots of them. And deer. Scary stuff! I think your English is excellent and I'm not just saying that to make you feel better. That photo looks amazing, very picturesque. I can imagine waking up and looking over that water as the sun rises

I admire you guys who can live in these remote mountain villages in places like Sweden. Life must be hard with all the dangerous animals like Timber wolves, bears and Yeti's I don't think I could handle the constant threat of been eaten by some carnivorous creature !!!!