TrashMan

If you suffer a gun accident during gun cleaning you have to be pretty incompetent, because that means you left a bullet in the chamber. It's like crossing the street without looking left or right. People cross the street all the time because they know it's safe if they pay attention and cross when there are no cars (or they are far away).

That's company greed at work. They figured out they'll sell more if it doesn't last long so it has to be replaced. I have a black-and-white portable TV that's at least 40 years old, and I must have dropped it a few times. Still works like a charm. The new stuff isn't made to last. Deliberately.

Well, I haven't looked at it closely since I didn't have the time, but the plot (guy can magicly turn into a giant out of nowhere, those giants caused te downfall of humanity (seriously???)) and character design don't appeal to me honestly.

I'm more interested in "good" rather than "hot".. and Attack on Titan fails to impress me so far.

Paprika is another classic. Here's mhoar http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t1CEQ2qrUOs

It's a matter of value of human life, life in general and the WHY behind it. In the cosmic scale of thing, the universe doens't care. Life of person A or person B...the universe don't care. In which case, if all life is equal, then it DOESN'T MATTER who dies and who lives really. We do assign some value there. When it comes to the sentance itself. Execution cannot be reversed, true - which is why guilt has to be decisevly proven. But years lost cannot be given back either. Even worse if the person has spent decades in prison. He's old, frail, and cannot adjust to the outside world anymore. Of course, the question is - is the person objectively better off dead? Is death really that horrible? Can we even objectively answer that question, given how emotional attachment to death? Is 100000% certanty really necessary? You can never be 100% sure of anything really. One could write entire tomes on the subject matter and not move 1 inch closer to an answer.

@Lephys: I understand where you're going, and ultimatively, a quest executed like that can feel quite deep. But at the same time a more organic approach feels more rewarding...more "free". In liue of your earlier assesment that the player is the party, then the party should already now what he is planning to do, ergo deciding on a course of action trough dialogue is not necessary. Off course, it comes at a tradeoff or reduced NPC interaction, as NPC can only react to what you do in that case. Let's say you and the party discuss possible plans. A convo triggering quest solution already sets you on the path. But let's say you make a conversation and don't actually get to agree to any plan - you just listen to them. Then if you cast protection from missiels on yourself and walk out of the courtyard, the NPC could still react to that. You could change course as long as you didn't get too far. Heck, you can COMBINE solution. Don a brestplate under your cloth, cast magic shield, have your own archer on the second floor waiting with bow and arrow, hiding in shadow (or invisible) for counter-sniping. Notify the guard, but tell them to feign ignorance and prepare. The possibilities are many.

Freddie is the biggest badass in that show. Here's another classic scene:

Or this: For an anime with odler protagonist - there are those around too Try the Monster

I've watched a lot of anime but it's bloody hard to avoid the high school thing in the last ten years, the only one I've liked recently was The Melancholy of Harui Suzumia, mostly because it's bat**** crazy and they often use the tropes knowingly. Try this:

Depends on the anime. Some anime are pure parody, so nothing stands out. Some anime are dead serious and there's no such thing over-the-top overreacting. Most anime are a mix of comedy, drama and action (and fanservice) - and the comedy is often of the slapstick or visual variety. It's one of the things that fasciantes me about anime - how can you mix drama and comedx and action and everytihng else and STILL somehow pull it off without massive mood whiplash? How can you do that and STILL push a stronger message and have a deepr impact than 99% of holywood movies? This is coming from someone who adores Gattaca, Rain Man, A Few Good Men, Dead Poets society, etc... I love deep and complex movies. But also loves Spaceballs and Hot Shots and other comedy titles. It's downright redicolous when you think about it. the anime I just finished watching a few days ago - Bakemonogatari is just.... confounding. I can't get it out of my head. It has comedy and drama and friggin everything. I should hate it for the fanservice. The toothbrush scene was a WTF moment of epic proportions. I should hate it for those loli moments....But I don't. I can honestly say that so far the anime I watched has had a deeper emotional impact on me than most movies. But maybe I'm just good at picking good anime?

Interestingly enough...why is X civilized and Y is not? I've never seen a goo enough definition or explanation, and historicly, it basicly boiled down to "Y is how people used to do it before, but we re far better because we arne't doing it". Ya know..the same traing of thought hte white men used when subjugating and destroying other cultures.

Meh. I had no problem with BG2 combat. I hated DA2 combat.

Really? Doesn't any soldier who willingly goes to war KNOW he will shoot other human beings? Doesn't that make him guilty? Following orders is IMHO not an excuse. I'm sure both sides of the conflict justify shooting at eachother, but you just KNOW they can't both be right. Most of the time is the "if I don't shoot him he will shoot me first" way of thinking, however it realies on what you've been told/think the other guy will do, nto what he's actually done yet. In some way isn't not that much different from shootign a burglar - after all you thought he would kill you. This was going a bit off a tanget, but humans beings can justfy ANYTHING. With enough mental gymnastics it's farely easy actually. Every single thing that was done or wasn't done in human history has been justified. Which is kinda funny when you think about it....or not.

Also: Also, this anime? VISUAL ORGASM!!!!

Because the old one is gone... So here, in honor of an anime I just finished watcing:

I beg to differ my good man. Observe: Also for your information collecting purposes: CLICK AT YOUR OWN PERIL

But why is killing immoral and life imprisoment isn't? Because of sanctity of human life? Life and death in itself - what value do they have? Do not kill? No, the Bible actually sez "do not murder". Killing itself is actually justified in many cases - even legally. For example if you ship goes down and you and another man are stuggling in the water and showing eachother for that one life jacket - and he dies because you took it or showed him underwater during the stuggle. This isn't consider murder. Self defence? Again, not really. Is death really that horrible? Yes we fear it - everyone does - but one has to wonder. Ultimatively this comes down to morality, views of life and death and various values - and that isn't something that one can "prove" or "calcualte", hence why it becomes pointless to even try.

But you have ultranationalist everywhere. And ultra-apologists. And stupid people. I've seen levels of ignorance and stupidity that boggle the mind. Can you immagine a natzi war criminal sitting in the Israel parlament? Because that's basicly what's happening in my country. Democracy sucks because poeple are inherently lazy and stupid and uninformed.

Killing people is wrong in my mind because it crosses a line that I do not think should be crossed. Like I said, it is a principle thing. On the other hand, locking someone up is fine with me. Even if the criminal himself might prefer death. I see no contradiction. The contradiction comes in the form of hte question WHY? Why do you lock poeple up in jail? waht is hte purpose of jail and judicial system? Vengance? Punishmnet? In that case waht is correct would depend on what you consider a bigger punishment - death or imprisoment. Rehabiliation? People who are serving life won't rehabilitate. Why do you refrain from death penalty? Mercy? Or a matter of principle? If it's mercy, then it again depends on what you consider more mercifull - death or life in prison. If it's a matter of principle then again it's a question of why. Hypotheticly speaking - you see a man butcher children with your own eyes. He is remorsless and thinks nothing of it, in fact he's been doing it for a while and not just children. Looks forward to prison. His guilt is 100% factual. No possibility of error. You are judge and jury - what do you do?

Well, either the PC picks from a selecton of plans OR the party NPC's give the player "ideas" in a row and the PC selects one. Eitehr way, due to the limits of the conversation, if such things are handled trough conversations you are restricted. Not only is the a very clear limit on the numbe of solution the developers would provide/write, but you'll also see them all presented. You could of course have SOMe plans spelled out, other possible to enact "manually". The solution could be insted of detailed plans, more of a vauge directions: NPC a: we should find a way to negate his attack NPC b: I personally feel we should find him before he can find us..or avoid the courtyard completely NPC c: why avoid him? If they can manipulate and paly dirty, so can we! This kinda gives you possible general direction. Yeah, I wans't thinking about a QTE, more like something as simple as "cast protection from missiles before you walk into the courtyard". I take it the spell has a duration that's worth something. OR don a breastplate underneath your clothes. It gives away the plan itself as a solution. Or should I say planS. Your solution pretty much puts this plan as the single way and complicates it with many conversation choices (who will stand where) This makes that solution time-consuming to write/script, thus making multiple solutions less likely or less deep. If the entire quests is designed so there is only one solution - then it's fine. But if for example, I want to track down who hired the assasin or try to secretly bribe the assasin or something else, that is far harder to pull off in your system. You can't handle everything trough dialogue. It becomes far too clunky. Not to mention that if we follow the above train of thought, the player should really have minimal input on everything. Wouldn't the character in combat automaitcly pick the best weapon for the job and the best positons and targets? OR smart conversation options?

Not speakign against you, but in a more general matter: Movies have themes...more or less. But seeing something doesn't make it a theme. It's like looking at a picture of clouds and noticing that one cloud kinda looks like a dong, thus concluding the artists is making a statement about dongs. It's in may way projecting - like looking at an ink blob test. People notice things that may or may not even be there and make connection that were never planned by the author. Comepletey ignoring any movie analysis is wrong. Over-analyzing is even worse. At the end of the day, I'm not overly concerend with symbolism in movies. Never was. Most of the time it feels like a cheap way to add fake depth. What makes or breaks any movie or book for me is the story and characters.

Ok, so life in prison... I love the arguments saying "killing is wrong", followed by "life imprisoment is the wrost punishment we can adiminster". If that's the case, would it be MORE wrong than killing? I think we all agree that there are far worse things than death. There's a strange sea of conflicting thoughts here regarding the puspose/punction and modus operani of prisons and justice systems - both for and againt punishment and rehabiliation. Life in prison means the person will never be rehabilitated and will never become a productive member of society - because he'll never get out. That's kinda the point of life sentance.