Pidesco

Not for Europe. Besides, some culture would have to do it, eventually.

If the Roman Empire had not imploded when it did, the stability would have lead to increased stagnation, corruption and general backwardness in Europe. Europe would have become a bit like China, in terms of a tendency to have their backs turned towards the rest of the world. If it wasn't for the Middle Ages, Europe wouldn't have conquered the world. But of course, I'd say the fall of the Roman Empire was pretty inevitable by the time Marcus Aurelius kicked the bucket, and how are you going to stop something that far reaching?

It's a typo. Aptitude!

There's bagged milk here, too. You use a dedicated milk jug.

No.

Pavement are already booked for this year.

Perhaps he's one of those flat Earth nuts. Incidentally, how do the flat earth guys explain the seasons?

Winter, wot?

Finally a positive answer!

That was the bit that kinda sold it to me as being real.

Arcanum's combat is worse than Fallout 3's, and F3's combat is bad enough.

Hey, you took care of it! Thanks. Join up everyone, join up!

What never ceases to amaze me is that, apparently, no one cares that, starting with NWN, Bioware turned party NPCs into static, monologue pez dispensers. It was a huge step backwards from BG2.

I thought that had been established many years ago.

Obviously it isn't a situation of "here's a check" and leaving it at that. It should be carefully and thoughtfully planned and managed. Also, it doesn't have to be a gift of money. It could be organizing a party for someone who's depressed, for example. I don't recall what happened to you and your brother, though...

Use the money to aid the people in your life who are closest to you and need help or just moral support, instead of sending it to some impersonal organization.

BG2 has one huge advantage over other Bioware RPGs, which is that the plot isn't a by the numbers save the world/universe/whatever story. It may not be a very good plot, but at least it isn't the same tired and trite stuff Bioware has gotten used to churn out.

Weak. There are much better reasons to hate Final Fantasy.

The talk about legal drinking age is kind of hilarious to me. In Portugal, everyone drinks before it, and I'm not talking just a sip. Almost no one cares. But of course, you Americans have curfew and stuff, and that sounds like something out of 1984 to Portuguese we-party-until-7AM-regularly dudes.

I'm still trying to meet my 1991 resolutions.

It's a new year.

I'll be working on New Year's.

Democracy: rule by the people where the only ones defined as real people are really, really rich men with absolute power who otherwise have nothing to do because their economy is slave based. Sounds about right. It's also how they had time to go around philosophizing: because they were a very small elite who controlled everything and were served by everyone. Plato argued in The Republic that it was the only way to do human thought.

Classical Greece would disagree with that affirmation.

Christianity and its popularity are, in many ways a product of of the Middle Ages, not the other way around.