Leferd

I was in an Indonesian beach when I was a kid and the sand crabs freaked the bejeezus out of me. I was scared of beaches in general and the ocean in particular for a chunk of my childhood.

Yep. Well I sincerely hope now that they are receiving better weaponry and supplies, as well as assistance from USAF and US Navy sorties -they'll be in a better position to overcome ISIS. It'll definitely help now that they are getting cooperation from the Iraqi military as well. It didn't help that the Peshmerga were literally on their own for the last two months and stretched too thin. ISIS is definitely well coordinated and they have respectable resources, but they'll have trouble moving en masse now that Air Superiority is back with the good guys.

That and the insistence that the US Constitution is some sort of a holy relic that must be worshipped and obeyed to the strictest, and narrowest interpretation. Just like the Bible/Koran/Torah -it's a piece of paper. Fundamentalism is alive and well in disparate quarters of America. On the far left, you have those who hate America so much that they want to tear down our perceived fascist government. On the far right, you have those who love America so much that they'd rather hold on to their good ol' days thinking and worship pieces of paper that was written hundreds of years ago to the exclusion of everything else. While both sides argue til they're blue, the reality is that they still live in a pretty friggin kick ass country that is the world's most dominant and that we have a right to be as arrogant and full of hubris as the rest of the world think we are, because we are that awesome, and people absolutely want to come here. So...Go 'murica!

From the wiki: http://pillarsofeternity.gamepedia.com/Deity People worship many gods, but usually the ones who are most associated with their way of life; farmers may worship gods of light, growth or storms, while warriors might worship gods of battle or fortune. For some, this worship a matter of respect and tradition; they consider their deities to be their creators and they follow these gods because they believe that disrespecting these gods could bring dire consequences. For others, religious worship is a matter of karmic self-interest. Such individuals hope that their deity will favor them and place their soul in th body of someone who will live a good life. For such people, choosing not to worship is to risk spiritual confusion, aimlessness in the afterlife or ending up in the "lottery of souls" which will probably leave the individual's soul in a much worse state that it was before death. Beyond their primary deities, most people will say a prayer to the appropriate god when the circumstances are right; farmers will pray to a god of battle when their lands are invaded and warriors will pray to a god of growth when they're starving in the wilderness. Sometimes the same god – or gods – may have a different identity in a different part of the world. The most notable example of this is the god of life and death, called Berath in Aedyran and Cirono in Vailian. Known deities Berath – god of cycles, doors and death Eothas – god of light and redemption Galawain – god of the hunt in all its forms. Hylea – goddess of birds and the sky. Magran – goddess of fire and war Ondra – goddes of water and the moon. Woedica – goddess of law, memory, rightful rulership and vengeance

Good Morning Vietnam was my first "grown up" movie as a kid. I didn't understand the themes or even all the jokes back then, but my 8 year old self immediately recognized that he was amazing. That's when I started watching Mork and Mindy reruns on Nick At Night.

That certainly was the conventional wisdom, but the reason for the intervention now is that that has not proved to actually be the case. The whole reason for the Yazidis being on Mt Sinjar and ISIS having control of a major dam is because the peshmerga folded- maybe not as spectacularly as the main Iraqi army, but they lost badly enough that Irbil was within artillery range and they lost half a dozen decent sized towns/ cities within a few days. Both the Iraqi and Syrian armies have largely- but not in Syria's case entirely- stopped ISIS advancing further and in Syria's case they've even retaken quite significant areas. Plus, the Kurds had the somewhat odious approach of seizing Kirkuk where they did perform limited ethnically cleansing of minorities last time they held it (plus targeted abductions etc throughout the US occupation) under the guise of it being a historically Kurd city resettled by Saddam; and then announcing they'd declare independence. Which will be interesting, given the west's attitude to other independence movements, plus Turkey and the central Iraqi authorities' reaction. It's not that the Kurds have an easy job of course, they've got a massive front to defend, but the same is true- even more so- for the Iraqi and Syria armies. Truth is that ISIS is probably the best led armed force in the area, including peshmerga and the regular armies of both Syria and Iraq and has the advantage of choosing where to attack. They've gone from basically nothing to an area the size of a decent sized country in a few years, after all. Kurds suffered from a bit of hubris, having not been routed from battle in a long time but let's not kid ourselves. Kurds lost territory to ISIS because they were simply outgunned and ran out of ammo. The Peshmerga are essentially a light infantry force in Toyotas going up against heavy artillery and armored humvees. They were promised US weapons that was to be distributed by the Iraq government that never got to them. Surprise, surprise... And if you are Turkey, you gotta remember that the Kurds are all that stands in the way between ISIS and your border.

Sheriff's report: http://www.sfgate.com/file/877/877-Marin%20Sheriff%20investigation%20into%20death%20of%20Robin%20Williams.pdf ...

Damn. Robin Williams is dead.

I've reported several people. But they were all by accident. Parts of the peril of using a tablet or smartphone- sometime you press the report button when trying to swipe at the screen. It's not all typos and bad auto-corrects.

I remember watching parts of the Project Eternity Countdown and the question was asked, "Will there be humor in the game?" Josh directly answered "No, there will not be humor in the game!" Granted, he was being sarcastic and he immediately amended it by saying there will be humor. Someone should rewatch the entire 5 hour recording to find it again.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/iraq/11024987/Mount-Sinjar-Iraqs-mountain-of-death.html Excellent reporting from the ground. Can't stress enough how dire the situation is on Mt. Sinjar. These people don't have too much time left before we may start to see mass deaths in the tens of thousand due it dehydration, exposure, and starvation, let alone extermination by force. Of course, this hits a little close to home as I have in-laws who have relatives in northern Iraq who are Assyrian Christians...

I don't think Agiel is seriously suggesting the USA should send ground troops to fight ISIS. He is just saying one of the reasons they don't is not because they are scared to face ISIS. An aerial bombardment just makes more strategic sense for a number of reasonsWelll oorah thumping aside they probably should confront them with troops. Best way of solving the problem. Well other than arming the Kurds and others and then hoping they don't take those guns on some other adventure.The Kurds are not the mujhadeen; connected with any ties to ideological extremism. They've essentially been an American quasi-protectorate and reliable allies for over 20 years. Since the first Gulf War, they've self-governed a stable and secure state for themselves while protecting other Iraqi minorities in the region including ethnic Assyrians, Yazidis, and Christians. They are also the only group in the region organized and willing enough to take in ISIS head on, as they themselves are under attack. The Iraqi government are too much in shambles to fight if the ISIS threat. This is simply not a standard case of the enemy of my enemy is my friend. The Kurds are legitimate US allies. *edit* New Iraqi government? Potential coup d'état? http://mobile.nytimes.com/2014/08/12/world/middleeast/iraq.html?smid=tw-bna&_r=0&referrer=

The almanac gives background on the campaign setting; including maps, lore, history etc.,... The collector's book gives background on the behind the scenes stuff of developing the game, e,g., concept art.

Making some headway in freeing the Yazidis from the mountain, but many thousands still under siege. http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/exodus-from-the-mountain-yazidis-flood-into-iraq-following-us-airstrikes/2014/08/10/f8349f2a-04da-4d60-98ef-85fe66c82002_story.html?tid=sm_fb

The next Gabriel Knight and Arcanum 2 (by Obsidian) please.

Because Sui Generis is not relevant to what Obsidian is trying to accomplish. Its combat system is essentially a twitchy rpg-lite action game and not a tactical, party based real time with pause system.

The beta will only include sections of the game that are tangential to the main storyline plot, and will not be the opening areas. As Josh stated, your party will begin at around level 5 with room to grow to level 8.

I already started playing the W2 demo and the Eternity demo releases next weak. Probably won't get to DAI until a few years, and not until it hits the bargain bin with all their DLC compiled together. Then again, I've barely started DA2 and ME3 -and by then there will probably be other games holding my interest.

Yep. There are. Welcome to the forums!

Cheech Marin is my hero.

Per Sawyer on his Tumblr: ... "theovf22stuff said: Hey Josh, just another question. The Backer Beta will give you a clear impression of how players approach the early game content, providing the team with information on what can be modified, removed or introduced. Without that kind of information for the later parts of the game, and only a small team working on PoE, how do you balance it? How do you approach it? Our Backer Beta actually targets mid/high levels (5th-8th). Due to testing our E3/press demo and a few hours past that, I think we have a pretty good idea of the strengths and weaknesses of various classes/attributes in the early game. As an example, I recently re-ordered the rogue’s starting abilities because Finishing Blow and Dirty Fighting, while nice, seemed much less fundamental than the combination of Crippling Strike and Sneak Attack at 1st level. We also know that there’s currently a bias against Resolve and Perception for characters who aren’t in the front line, so we’re thinking about ways to address that." http://jesawyer.tumblr.com/post/94343447161/hey-josh-just-another-question-the-backer-beta-will

Didn't initially catch the Ivanhoe parallelisms but certainly whiffs of Empress Matilda and Henry II. I'm curious to see if Avellone's prose can hold up in novella form.

I'm keen to know more about the game world. My understanding is that the setting will be detailed in the Campaign Almanac, which was included in some of the backer tiers and available as an add-on. So as we are about a week away from the backer beta and in the final few months stretch before the full release, I'm wondering when we'll get a heads up as to when this will be made available for download? This is certainly something that I'd like to devour before actually diving into the game and get immersed with all the lore and knowledge of what's going on in the world. I suppose the same question could be asked of MCA's novella as well.

You will have the option to pick Steam or GOG for your download version. The physical copy is just a physical copy and not tied to any particular download agent.

Is it too late to raise $5K and create our own adventuring band made up of a troupe of failed bards, fools, and minstrels who spout terrible puns?