BruceVC

React, but in moderation and with the proper research. Shrieking and flailing is hardly the best answer. I'm a proud EU citizen and I see that Chancellor Merkel and other European leaders are reacting, so I'm not sure why I should flail about and shriek. I'm also willing to give the intelligence directors benefit of the doubt. But maybe that's just the lawyer in me speaking, you know, presuming people to be innocent until they're proven guilty and all the other outmoded foundations of the modern world. You do realize that with exabytes of data exchanged each day on the Internet storing all of it would be impractical, right? You claim that ECHELON was intrinsically limited, but ignore the fact that PRISM is intrinsically limited in the exact same way. You need to have criteria and a granularity policy to effectively wade through the millions of gigabytes exchanged on the Internet every single day. That's what amuses me the most about the claims that all of this data is analysed and stored. I'm not sure, but I doubt the NSA is employing a million employees who are going through 2.5 GBs of intercepted data each day just to seek out DISSIDENT THOUGHT to INTERN people in FEMA CAMPS. To be specific Prism allows the monitoring of data, I doubt it stores everything. Logically it would be able to check log files and confirm patterns of internet interest in respect to websites you visit. It would only be able to actively monitor social media conversations once someone is added as a person of interest. But no Social Media provider keeps the conversations of people as there would be too much data. You do get software that can do this but this is only used by certain financial institutions who use tools like Bloomberg chat to make deals. As I mentioned its very feasible once Prism is used to monitor you then your live chats, emails and most other forms of communication can be monitored and analysed

I'm more of a Viconia kind of guy when it comes to evil bitches, but the point was that anything that is over 9 months away is always subject to potential huge changes, on both sides of the screen. Viconia Who isn't a Viconia fan?

Looking forward to "Hurlshot's annual RV trip" thread Yeah, keep us updated Hurlshot. I am also interested in your journey and the events that occur

I am watching the anti-capitalist protesters in London. They are very militant and truculent, I'm glad they don't have any real say in the economic policy decisions of countries.

I agree, an amazing photo

Can I ask a stupid question? I don't own a console so I would appreciate some perspective on this matter. I was watching a review of the new Xbox console and one of the things that have got fans in an uproar is that Microsoft has stated that you can only share games with one friend. While PS4 will allow you to share games with many people. Why is Microsoft being unreasonable? Surly if I buy an Xbox game and play it and someone else wants play the game they need to also purchase it? This is the way it works with PC. I can't give my PC game with the same registration code to a friend as the DRM features will reject it. Microsoft wants to generate revenue and they need to sell multiple copies of games so whats the issue with expecting people to have there own copy of a game? Or am I missing something?

Hi Volo So basically you are saying that CDP is a better company than Bioware? Do you really believe that...why do you think that? Are you sure you mean that. I suppose it may be true but are you sure that's what you mean. Think about it for while? Bioware has released more games so I would say they are more experienced at delivering RPG?

And you think they're incapable of loving each without wanting to act out their sexual desire with each other? Maybe they're just not attracted to each other. Maybe one or both are gay. Maybe they're just not each other's type. Maybe one/both are already attracted to or in a relationship with someone else but still care very deeply enough about each other to feel love. You think men and women are physically and psychologically incapable of loving each other without also being sexually attracted to each other? It's not possible to care about a friend deeply enough to love them without being in love or in lust? Is that what you're saying? No, that's the exact opposite of what I'm saying. Please read for context. Love is love. Whether you feel romantic or sexual attraction on top of it determines whether it's romantic love, sexual love, or platonic love. My issue is you seem to believe that grown people are incapable of loving each other without wanting sex from each other, which I find fallacious. One fictional character is not the one all-encompassing example of what asexuality is. Please educate yourself on real asexual people. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VicXQ7ZAF84 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TOiPGqQUV2A Actually, 1 to 100 IS the estimated percentage of asexual people. 1% of the population. That may not seem like much, but add it up and it becomes a lot of people very quickly. Walk into a crowd of a few hundred people and odds are a few of them are asexual. Walk into a city of a few hundred thousand and a few hundred of them are asexual. There are over 300 million people in the United States, which means there are over 3 million estimated asexuals in the United States alone. However, even when you leave out asexuality, not everyone wants to jump the first person they get to know. There are people with naturally low sex drives. There are people who are afraid of love or sex (erotophobia), often due to traumatic experiences. There are people who are just not mentally or emotionally in a place where they want it. There may be people who acknowledge that another person is attractive intellectually but just not be interested in them physically. There are so many other factors besides "We're close + I have a sex drive = I want to have sex with you." Again, I never said that. In fact, I said the opposite of that. I said meaningful platonic relationships are harder to pull off than romantic relationships because there are so many stock romantic lines, situations and formulas that are easy to fall into. It's easy to depict two characters as being deeply attached when there's sexual attraction, love at first sight, etc. It's harder to create situations and conversations that make people believably close without resorting to "they were in love" or "sparks were flying in the air." Therefor, I can see why many people feel that more platonic relationships would benefit to the game, though I don't agree with the extreme belief that romance would hurt it. I believe that the belief that "platonic = deep, romantic = shallow" of other posters is just as incorrect as your belief that "two people who care about each other and have sex drives = they must want to have sex with each other." I find both reasoning to be equally incorrect. A romantic relationship can be deep, a platonic relationship can be shallow, and two characters can love or care about each other deeply without wanting to jump into bed with each other. @ Faerunner I appreciate your posts and the effort you are putting in to explain your point. As you probably gathered I am one of those that expects and wants Romance\Sex in PE. I have mentioned this before but in the interests of you understanding this perspective I am going to summarize my view again Of course we all know that you can have a meaningful relationship without sex but we are talking about a party of people involved in a heroic and epic quest to kill dragons, banish demons and save the world. If there is an attraction and an emotional connection between party members it is highly unlikely that during the many nights of people camping together and facing death on a daily basis people wouldn't have sex. I argue that this absolutely reflects realistic and immersive behaviour and in fact to not expect some sexual conduct is unrealistic People are quite happy and comfortable to have Obsidian implement features where the party members learn multiple spells, explore complex dungeons, travel to exotic lands, go on challenging quests but the thought of them including Romance\Sex is anathema? I don't get this as I question how difficult this would be considering all the other expectations on Obsidian Finally as usual the implementation of Romance\Sex is optional. So if you are opposed to it you don't need to follow this type of plot development. But I don't see why it should be blocked for those that enjoy it? That's my view in summary

What you dont like barbecue ? I love them hehe

Nonek do you consider me a trusted source? I'll happily review DA3 for you. I am confident that it will provide a worthwhile RPG experience

Youre entitled to your opinion and I respect that. To me its a meh because its something that's been going on since before my birth and Im totally unaffected by it. I also understand that its not for everybody. I actually support programs like this and have no problem with ECHELON, or the natural evolution (to include cellular, internet) PRISM. I don't have a problem with the whistleblower either (because I thought these programs were common knowledge anyway). Its good for people to keep their governments honest even if it involves falling on your own sword. That poor bastard is screwed. You have raised an interesting perspective around ECHELON but there are some fundamental differences I can see between it and Prism. These include ECHELON existence is not confirmed but I'm sure its real. We really don't know how much it is used nowadays ECHELON was created during the Cold War through an alliance of countries opposed to the USSR, Prism was created by the USA for there own purposes of monitoring information ECHELON was used primarily to monitor Satellite communication, its ability to monitor Internet traffic wouldn't be as effective as Prism and you would have to have actual surveillance equipment installed at the various nexus TCP/IP routing points throughout the world. Prism is much more powerful in its ability to monitor Internet traffic that uses Fibre Optic as a transport medium In summary even though ECHELON may appear to be the same as Prism its not as effective as Prism and was designed for a different type of data monitoring

Well, yeah, but that does not make her middle-ground. I mean, you can't compare Cadegund and Isabella, the former wears heavy armor that covers her whole body, the latter mainly protects her upper body with a leather vest, it's like comparing apples and oranges. Let's stay on Dragon Age 2 but instead look at Aveline : Cadegund's armor is definitely more stylised and curved than what Aveline wears. In that respect, Cadegund is a middle ground between the ridicule of the boob-plate and the look of Aveline in her heavy armor. I hear you but the issue with Cadegund is that she just doesn't look good, this may sound irrelevant but I don't think it is. I can't think of anything worse than all my female members looking like her. Of course this won't be case as it depends on the class. Also going back to Isabela, what was her class? Pirate..so was she combination of a rogue and fighter with her fighting style. Heavy armour wouldn't have been appropriate for her so I still think her attire was suitable. I really don't want to compromise aesthetics for reality as far as armour is concerned in PE. I feel that would be a huge mistake.

Clever

How the heck is Isabella a "middle-ground"? That lady doesn't even wear pants! She's firmly on the scantily-clad side, and proud of it! Well she doesn't look anything like the ladies of Dragon Crown. Isn't that an improvement?

I must say I wouldn't mind being in a dungeon and running into that lady chained up, she would probably be rather grateful to be freed

I disagree with most of what he says and as you mentioned it is 5 years old and we know for a fact many things he says about Obama have been proven incorrect.

Nice one Its a quite an emotional and evocative movie. What most people don't realize is that there were many white South Africans who also fought against Apartheid.

Its a question of whether you trust the system to act in a responsible way or not. If you don't trust it, why go through the proper channels? Snowden wasn't just in the system, he was the system and he had no faith that it was going to act in every one's best interest. He explicitly says so himself. That in itself is more damaging than anything he could possibly release. We could declare him stupid, uninformed or mad - but it would have been attempted at this point... if there were any grounds for it. Incorrect my friend, Snowden was a security analyst who worked for the NSA, he was just an employee. He was not the system at all. He felt Prism was too intrusive and he decided to break the very clear terms of his binding work contract. He will more than likely go to jail for 10-20 years. But I admire what he did as he knew what he was doing was illegal and he would be prosecuted but he seems to have felt that the principle of exposing Prism was more important. I do think the public discussion of Prism is necessary. I'm just glad I don't have to do the hard time in jail. Assange is a parasite, I don't see him and Snowden in the same light at all. I don't respect Assange at all

Wikileaks made public several very damaging and embarrassing opinions of USA diplomats that were based throughout the world in various countries. Its wasn't information that criminals could have used but it could, and did in some cases, cause damage to the integrity of the USA and its allies as this was information that was discussed in private. For example the king of Saudi Arabia said to the Americans " You need to cut the head off the snake" in relation to Iran and how America needs to deal with Iran enriching Uranium and there growing militancy. Despite the fact that most Sunni dominated countries in Middle East would love to have Iran subdued through a USA military attack this is not the type of thing you say publicly as it raises tension in the region between various countries. This is the type of confidential information that was exposed through Wikileaks

Interesting, would you consider yourself in the camp of "excited and positive about the status of recently released and upcoming RPG" ?

No Trashman you misunderstand, no one forces anyone to partake in debates over social issues. This is freedom of choice and clearly people want to discuss these topics. I see this as one of the great benefits of the Internet

Mmh, ditto. Lots of witcher fanboys seem of the type who think that boobs and grimdark make the games all mature... when it's kind of the opposite. It's still teen, just 17 instead of 13. You mean boobs and grimdark don't make an RPG mature!!! Surly you jest???? Okay yes you would also have to have full frontal male nudity, but then are we good to use the word "mature"?

You funny

I am with Keyrock, Tagaziel and Nixl on this one. TW2 was vastly superior in almost every respects. I have never had to stop and think so long on my choices in the game and the impact these choices would have.

Yeah my thoughts exactly. I feel that the Witcher 3 has more potential though, because BW doesn't experiment enough, or at all. Although I generally lost interest in the Witcher series after the first one. I loved it because it was rough around the edges, unabashedly rude and it managed to make me laugh - unlike the McDragon burger "build according to checklist" experience . The second Witcher already looked like a commercialized, Hollywood type experience, I remember rolling my eyes at the soppy romantic scenes in some pool or other. I never played it so the new one will have to go out of its way to convince me that its what I think a Witcher game should be and not trying to be Mass Effect. Drowsy just for record are there any games that have been released in the last 3 years that you have really enjoyed and would recommend?