JFSOCC

I certainly believe China can do more, and regulation is the key. Right now their business are destroying their environment at a faster rate than any other place on earth. Strip mining, mercury binding, no regulation on dumping chemical waste in their major rivers, no regulation on the **** coming out of their chimneys. And as a result: Desertification, soil toxicity, undrinkable water, smog. they've got a full house of bad **** going on. Their three gorges dam, while a fantastically impressive feat of engineering, truly a marvel, has ended fish-runs, stagnated fierce rivers into seasonably dry rivers, and flooded some of the most fertile land on earth. It's a contributor to desertification. That's the problem of making decisions before you did the research. China, however, has an impressively powerful government (for good or evil) and if any country has the power to enact change, it's China. TENS OF TRILLIONS! This has to do with tipping points. The Ocean can take up, and does take up a large aount of carbon from the atmosphere, this increases the temperature and volume of the water however, and also increases the acidity levels of the water. The ocean can not take up co2 forever though, and once it's saturated, any carbon in the atmosphere will need to find different sinks.

I think the keywords for a what makes an RPG are agency and reactivity. I get to choose what I do, and the world is geared to take my actions into account and respond to them.

If there are differences in opinion over what is evil and good, then you can't use them as effective labels to describe characters. The discussion could end there.

Counterpoint: Inquisitor is an "Action RPG" by any reasonable definition. You can find a long essay where I gush about how wonderful it is as a roleplaying game here. Don't confuse the mechanics the used to deliver the content with the content itself. That's like saying you can't be roleplaying if you're playing D&D with pregens. Planescape: Torment isn't an RPG by this definition. Roleplaying is a state of mind that needs to be cultivated very carefully, it's not some mechanical thing you can pin down and cut and paste into other games. If you roleplay with pregens you can still determine your character's responses, motivations and objectives. Planescape Torment discusses the tabula rasa concept and challenges it, but ultimately you can decide who the protagonist is and how he deals with things. I agree, it's a lot more nuanced than I put it. I haven't played Inquisitor, so I can't comment on it but your point is valid.

The Forbidden Philosophers "You may disagree with what we do, but... there are other schools of thought" The Forbidden Philosophers started out as a group of men seeking wisdom in old Readceras, but after they questioned the theocratic dictatorship there, found themselves persecuted, their libraries burned, and their lands taken from them. Like many other set upon groups, they came to the new world to retry in peace. Many of their thoughts are considered radical by many, and they have taken a careful approach to their new organisation. Recruiting members only by invitation. They're slowly rebuilding their knowledge, although much of it seems lost forever. The Forbidden Philosophers seek out thought. Curious thought, different thought. Old thought, new thought. Forbidden thought. Whether it's enlightenment, fascism, or communism, categorical thinking or relativist thinking. If it's well argued and has a view on life, the Forbidden Philosophers are interested in it. Their goals vary by member, but each believes that to ignore other views is the pinnacle of folly. They are wise men who believe that no wisdom can come from accepting any cultural opinion as absolute truth. A large majority of the Forbidden Philosophers disagree with the age old hereditary rule, which is why the organisation has been forbidden in many nations. But in the Colonies they've found they are not alone. Because they're an illegal organisation, to the public they're known as the "Librarians" an organisation with a Headquarters in Big Big City 2, where, indeed, they maintain a large library of collected philosophical works, mostly open to the public, although few make use of the opportunity. The Building itself is a thing of beauty: A large domed building, with a high ceiling and detailed patterned arches, well lit by high windows of coloured patterned glass. The floor is an inlay of coloured stone. and after 'business' hours, the members gather there to discuss philosophy. Its members always seek to increase their knowledge, and either contract others to find works in ancient ruins, from distant lands, or even support local thinkers, or go out and search for these themselves. Because it is an expensive practice, the Forbidden Philosophers are always on the lookout for patrons, even as they patronize artists themselves. A player may encounter the organisation browsing through its library to find information; hiding in the building till after closing hours and observing their traitorous behaviour for the local ruler; stealing some of their rarer books and selling them to the highest bidder; being asked to find a book or man; or tentatively being asked to join them after hours should you have evidenced some interesting views. Because of their history, the Forbidden Philosophers are careful which works are accessible to the public, and they meticulously copy any work and spread them as far and wide to various secret libraries, should this one be burned down, they'll have back-ups. Without technology like a printing press this is slow work, however, and many works are still uncopied and unique. It doesn't help that literacy is at an all time low. Some members quietly work to encourage the clergy of Ladamo to teach literacy, and others beseech Hocard to find that which has been lost before the move. On occasion a member of the former organisation finds its way to the colonial city, this is met with equal joy and suspicion. Every member who shows up may be an agent working against them, as the ones who betrayed them before were never found. Alternatively they could be a lucky rescuer of knowledge and thought. Some in the organisation believe it's safer to kill those of the old guard who arrived late, others believe that spreading their knowledge as far and wide as possible is the only effective safeguard against destruction.

I'm Dutch, I hope to play the English version.

Sure it's about protection, but if men have codpieces on their armour, to you know, show their manhood, why is it so strange to think women wouldn't want to show off their... womanhood? I mean, not all women would, just like not all men would want codpieces, but they did exist you know. so "why not both" have protection, while also having some feminine influences built in your armour. (again, not all armour, but some)

An action RPG, to my mind, is not actually an RPG, it's a dungeon crawler where you can level up and choose your skills and abilities, there is no playing of roles, little dialogue other than "this is your quest, accept or decline" Where as a real RPG choice in conversation and gameplay have a significant impact on the narrative and your experience. Diablo is NOT an RPG, it's a dungeon crawler JRPGs are not RPGs, there is no role-playing. (You get told who you are and what your motivations are) Edit: for question 2: I like role playing games which challenge my philosophical outlook on things, even if they don't change my mind. I see games as a medium of art, (by which I don't think that all games are art) and I believe that they can challenge your mind and preconceptions about things. When I heard P:E was going to be a more mature game, I was overjoyed.

The Linacs If you're shabby looking and on the streets after midnight, if you're homeless, you know that's asking for trouble. We don't really talk about it. Cat went missing from the orphanage a while back, she was always prone to trouble. The orphan-mother certainly has been having a smug look on her face ever since. And she's wearing a new gold necklace. Occasionally homeless men, women and children have go missing from the streets of BBC1 and 2, well, I say missing, but nobody really misses the homeless do they? Good riddance to bad rubbish, not my problem, maybe they've found a better existence, maybe they've found work in the whorehouses, maybe they went home, maybe they curled up and died. Besides, it's normal that on occasion someone drops of the face of the earth. It's certainly not unusual. The Linacs take some of them. They deliberately keep the numbers they take low, never drawing too much attention to themselves. They pick their targets, stalk them, and take them when no-one is looking. Or, they do business with some of the orphanages of lesser repute. In a harsh world, no-one asks too many questions. The Linacs pick those with certain talents, those who seem resilient or skilled. They mostly take the young, but on occasion someone older gets taken too. And when their victims wake up, they wake up in a camp in the Bael Marsh, where they are brainwashed, indoctrinated and trained. They're given a new name, and made to forget what name they had. By the time they reach adulthood, they are formidable rogues, monks and fighters. On occasion a talented member may be trained differently. Training is rigorous, but not brutal. To boost their numbers even further they're subjected to breeding programs on site. Any girl reaching the age of adulthood is likely to already have several children, although they don't raise their own children. Food is grown on site by the Polinac themselves. They serve loyally their master, whom they have been indoctrinated to worship. Sir Polinac the fair. A well respected Aedyr nobleman, not known for much other than being friendly and a poor but frequent contender in tournaments. Polinac is manoeuvring to set up a kingdom for himself, or his family. His elder son died in a street battle not much is known about, but of his two younger sons, one is a captain for a scout vessel in the pioneer fleet of Hezeng, an excellent position to scout out new and strategic lands, and the other has been bought a commission in the Knights of the Open Road, patrolling the area near the northern border of the Bael Marsh. Sir Polinac, considered an innocent powerless man with an average intellect, has been slowly growing his secret army. When it reaches sufficient size, he might even take the colonial city of Defiance Bay. When he feels ready, his soldiers will slowly trickle into the city, shed their clothes for rags, join the homeless. Every homeless they find will be promised a better life if they join in the struggle. But that time is not now. For now the Linacs are still boosting their numbers. And an occasional missing child has been the norm since BBC1 was founded. No-one is the wiser.

so your example of debate is an anti-warming website. oH and walsingham, I don't intend to ignore you but I'm taking a small break from this argument, it was taking up a lot of my time. I'll get back to you.

What if different foods all gave different and very slight passive bonuses which last for a day. Trail rations give no bonuses varying food give either random or specific passive bonuses protein shake +1% critical chance, spicy food could give +1% cold protection, +3%experience gain etc etc. slight enough not to really matter, but big enough to not be completely worthless. this would tie in nicely with resting mechanics, resting resets the passive bonuses to zero, so it might be worthwhile to continue onwards to not lose a +4%cold resistance in a wintery dungeon. But that would only work if food is suitably expensive and rare. I mean, I don't care about food much (in games, at least) but if it were to be implemented this would be the way I'd think about it.

Trashman and Aluminiumtrioxid, could you both stop your childish attacks on eachother and get back to actually arguing your points. Trashman, I'm no native speaker either, but I have a great ally, it's the Firefox English dictionary plug-in, turn it on in any field you can type text in, and voilá. I do think you guys demonstrate well that you do not need cultural bias, racism, sexism, or bigotry to have conflict and be **** to another.

The Deregulators The Deregulators are all about ensuring individual freedoms, especially those which affects themselves. They are against any type of modesty laws or moralising in law. The Deregulators are a group largely comprising of Vallian nobility, colloquially known as the cigar club. One of their members has his own brand of cigars and only members of this club have them. This is how they know each other, but mostly it's to be exclusive. The Deregulators are without exception men of influence and power, by far most have come into that power through inheritance, and old nobility comprises a large part of the membership. Membership is invitation only, but generally open to anyone who "shows promise". IE anyone with influence willing to work with the Deregulators to further their goal of a liberal Utopia. If there is something illegal, which might profit them or which they would like to have, be it hallucinogenic mushrooms, the right to own slaves, the ability to sell weapons to children, nearly extinct animals for their menagerie, the deregulators all put it on the onus of "freedom of choice" and "personal responsibility" While some are selfish children, some are idealistic men and women who truly believe that deregulation leads to more and better chances for self-determination, something which is well respected in the cigar club. You can dress how you want, you can walk around naked if you care to, you are free to decide who you choose to associate with, all these are also enshrined rights for the deregulators. Because of their opposition to moralising law, they are generally not seen as friends of religion, although some religions are better tolerated than others. Their colonial Headquarters is in a side building of the Horticulturists HQ, where some of them can usually be found enjoying their exclusive brand of cigars. Some of their members might have work for those who have a reputation for discretion, the player might be asked to threaten lawmakers, destroy a temple and kill all clergy, save someone from prison or even the gallows who was to be executed for a moralist reason, or help smuggle illegal goods through customs, bribe customs officials. Players with a different reputation might be asked to help in a different way, but will never be considered for membership. Membership benefits include access to illegal materials, a big "old boy" network, investment in any business venture the player might wish to construct, and powerful allies. Not to mention some fine cigars. While unknown to the deregulators, crime syndicates are taking notice, and considering aligning themselves with the derulators, as are trade organisations dealing with more questionable goods.

I think think it's difficult to implement at all, if you can have obstacles programmed (like walls) you can make PC's act like movable walls for gameplay purposes. I don't see that being too difficult to implement

I'm on the fence, I like the problems I face to be different from every day drudgery. I like multi-culturalism and equal opportunity. That doesn't mean the world has to be a fair and equal utopia. just, if you have bigotry,, have it be slightly different. maybe some people hate godlike perhaps those who have strong souls have those who hate them too. Mostly I think it would be fantastic to see religious conflict.

I imagine there are points in a person's life where he or she is confronted with their views or other views, a low point in which they might question their beliefs. these are moments when you could influence a characters growth, outside that, not so much.

I like Mongolian throat singing...

Saints beetle Saints beetles are friendly creatures as long as you avoid them. Although they might just be where you need to be. Orange striped with blue dots, the saints beetle is a small creature, about the size of two thumbs side by side. Easily missed and easily crushed underfoot. It has no real defence and few HP. They live in groups of about 5-25 beetles. Found in forests and open caves, the problem about the saints beetle is revenge Saints beetles are fairly harmless creatures, peaceable, but they have the Protection of one of the gods with a sense of humour. If you aggro a saints beetle group (staying within range for more than 2 minutes or damage any one of them) they will eventually sting you. this does hardly any damage, but ignores armour completely. Eventually the 1hp hits will make you want to swat them. bad idea. Killing a Saints beetle will not only release their poisonous blood, which will drain 1hp per second for 5 minutes straight (roll a save to ignore damage) but, for every Saints beetle killed there is a % chance you will summon a "Beetle saint" A shadow beetle the size of a man, takes no physical damage, and deals armour ignoring piercing damage. Its first attack is always a successful critical hit (sneak attack) and has a life draining aura. (-1hp per second) And every 30 seconds, it spawns a saints beetle. Once killed it will evaporate with a sound like gas being sucked out of an airlock, it will spawn 10-20 (peaceable) saints beetles. It drops no loot. (else you could farm it)

The Shawshank Redemption introduced me to Figaro's Wedding, which is an awesome opera

That's a shame, this man talks about a low-tech low cost and effective solution. If you want to have laser eye surgery these days, it will cost you about 500 bucks per eye If you wanted to have laser eye surgery 15 years ago, it would have cost you about 20.000 bucks. But the only reason the cost went down is because we invested in it. if you're anti idiot, then you should be anti-short term thinking, which is what you're doing by dismissing these technologies. Of course it will be expensive at first. Prototyping costs money. then you're understanding is flawed, we got the means to address the issue now. THAT's the tragedy.

too late to edit now, but point taken. Yet. that's because like all new technology it needs investment and development. I have no doubt that green power will be cheap power in the future, but only if we invest. which brings me to: The Hoover Damn, and Hoover jobs were during economic crisis, the second world war, was during economic crisis. Only by investing (and yes, inflation) despite the economic woes, did the US break out of the depression into economic boom. Now is an excellent time to fix some problems which have been sapping that nation's strength for a while now. Actually that's what I am saying. It's not going to happen at that level, it needs to happen at government level. Still, society changes one person at a time. (or rather, one generation at a time.) And it doesn't harm to help bring that about. I think the biggest problem right now is that most people do not have a fair choice between being environmentally friendly or not, because it's something you can only do if you are a dedicated hippy, or rich. I believe that when people do have that choice, (and that means the choice has to be fair) they will choose for the "green" option. But in order to make that choice viable, yes, you need... investment. I wonder, did you check out that video? just curious.

Roadmap? Well, I don't know. I can give you the points of attention which I think are check-boxes on the list to improvement. I don't exactly know how we'd get there. To start; Unlike many, I believe there is some power in the United Nations. International legislation concerning fishing, farming and womens rights would be important. But these are worth nothing without enforcement. But I think the biggest change should be how much we invest in renewable energy technology. The amount the US government (and sadly, governments around the world) spend on this is but a FRACTION (and I'm not even kidding) of the amount paid for energy subsidies for oil companies. Mind you, many renewable technologies are fairly low-tech (solar panels excluded) like gas and heat from fecal fermentation. (septic tanks!) wave power, water wheels, (although that would be DC, not AC) in Rio de Janeiro there's a power plant which extracts heat from buried garbage dumps which are slowly fermenting; and Dams. (although those have other environmental issues) Some geological sites have potential for exploitation, hot springs, geisers, volcanoes, but we would need to further develop technology to utilize this. I actually don't like wind power, it's inefficient, ugly, and kills birds, but even there, there are places where they can be used. Biofuel is NOT a solution, it takes more energy to make than it delivers, and in order to make it you have to set aside vast tracts of land for monoculture which you won't be able to use for anything else, like food production. We can't quickly stop using oil, even I am not that naive, but we can reduce our use, use it more efficiently. Cars in the US are tragically wasteful. European cars have much better fuel economy. This happened because fuel prices in Europe are much higher. The US has lived on an OIL glut and never had to develop energy efficient architecture. Developed countries should invest in infrastructure: Public transportation is a joke in the US. (which is not strange when you let car companies buy up city transportation companies and then deliberately ruin them to end competition) So Buses, trams, trains, mag-lev (seriously, why doesn't the US have this! even CHINA has mag-lev rail) Not only is investing in infrastructure more energy efficient, it is good for the economy. Now, in the economic crisis, is an excellent time to do this, since such a project would create a lot of work. No matter how much more environmentally friendly we'd live, we need less people on the planet. Now I'm not a genocidal maniac (outside of computer games) so I won't argue for war, disease and the like. (it would be a drop in the bucket anyway) International pressure to improve womens rights, sex-ed, condoms, legalised abortion, cheap contraceptives etc are a start. But yes, for a while we'll have a legacy problem with overpopulation. I also think there is a role for government in this, children should be learning about these things and their options around their 12th. Mind you that having less people also increases democratic power. (if one representative represents 100.000 people that is less democratic than if he represents 10.000 people.) Often children in large families have less chances in life to thrive. So less people will most likely increase wealth, and health per person. It'd be a more pleasant world to live in for everyone. And you'll have to kill no-one to get there. Another thing we can do is store carbon. Nature is the biggest carbon storage site on the planet. Every tree is a big carbon dump. Since about 40% of our planet's land surface is desert, we have a lot we can win there. Not only will this benefit the productivity of the land, create liveable space, equalise temperatures (deserts have greater extremes), provide a habitat for species under pressure, it will also help create fresh water (and millions have to do without, worldwide) and it will, most importantly, store carbon from the atmosphere. not to mention it provides us with oxygen rich environments. Reclaiming desert is an expensive and difficult process, not to mention fairly energy intensive. The benefits are great, but the investment is also great. Luckily I've heard about some successes with fairly low tech solutions like cattle fertilisation to create grasslands ---- Because we don't have international unity in this, it falls to individual governments to do this. This is why Kyoto failed, why Copenhagen did nothing, and why Rio failed. I put no trust in these, much to my dismay. However, when governments take this on, and show their moderate successes, they will inspire other nations to do the same. Germany is on the right track, Japan is on the right track. Brazil is fast going the wrong way, but is experiencing economic boom at the cost of their environment. Same goes for China. I think India is experiencing an enlightenment period and I see a lot of good coming from there. I do think the US COULD take up an exemplary role, but not as long as the nation stays as politically divided as it is. I do think the major steps are going to be at government level. At individual level all you can do is choose from what's available, and I certainly begrudge no man or woman the freedom to live a comfortable life. Of course we're going to leave the TV on sometimes, of course we're not going to put on another sweater rather than change the thermostat. I think it's naive to be moralistic about these things because it is pointless. You CAN however, choose. But choice is only useful if you're well enough informed, and if options are available. You can rage all you want against oil companies, or coal plants, but if they are the only ones on the market, you don't really have a choice. You can rage all against fuel inefficient cars, but if the Import tax on more efficient cars is so high, of course you're going to "Buy American" There are things you can do at a personal level though. You can choose not to have many children, to wait until you're a bit older with them. You can choose to buy energy efficient cars, use public transportation or carpool. You can choose not to eat fruit out of season, you can vote with your wallet. On your own you're not going to change the environment, but that's not the point, society changes by the person, it has to start somewhere. I hope that makes sense. tl;dr: international legislation and enforcement; invest in renewables; invest in infrastructure; deal with overpopulation; education; reclaim deserts; make examples out of successes; fair choice. I believe that's a largely non-coercive list of steps we can take. Edit: And EVEN IF there'd be a global leftist 'warmist' climate conspiracy, these would be things which would improve the world for everyone, regardless.

no no and yes respectively

me turning down a quest? You bet it is hard.

You tell that to my Ex girlfriend, who works with experimental quantum computers.