Ineth

Why is it a problem?

There are one or two merchants near Iswld. Maybe they sell it?

No, I'm not declaring the current statistical outcome as the 'correct' one. I'm saying the categories of 'right' or 'wrong' don't apply at all to such statistical outcomes. I called the worldview/ideology itself evil, not the people following it. Non-evil people often follow evil ideas out of intellectual laziness, groupthink, tradition, or stupidity.

I agree with the rest of your post, but this strikes me as a strange thing to deny. Yes, when all the people whom you trust and depend on the most conspire to murder you for your "crime" of being a rape victim, that is definitely more abhorrent than most other common scenarios of someone being killed. There are good reasons why the justice system recognizes many degrees of malice (from involuntary manslaughter to first-degree murder) and considers extenuating and aggravating circumstances on top of that. Killing is bad, but there are many shades of bad.

A worldview that imposes a "correct" outcome on a statistic which aggregates people's private choices, is totalitarian and evil. Any liberal-minded person would be content with securing equal rights and fairness on the level of the individual, and accept any statistical distribution which the population as a whole causes to arise via their individual choices.

You would force families to break up? That doesn't exactly comply with any humanitarian and moral principles that we (as Western society in our liberal democracies) claim to uphold. Not to mention that the article which Meshugger linked, claims that this honour killing was the mother's idea. So probably would have happened even without the father.

Well the pic shows Captain Picard, not Patrick Stewart as Patrick Stewart... It is well documented that there are statistical differences between the average employment situations of men and women, including the fact that the average income of all working men taken together, is higher than the average income of all working women taken together. It is a myth that this difference arises based on gender and between equally qualified & experienced people who have made the same career choices. It is merely a statistical artifact that arises due to statistical differences in career and life choices favored by men and women. Because "all working men" and "all working women" simply are not two statistically identical groups. Feminists intentionally ignore and obscure those differences in life choices and career situations that are being compared by the statistics they quote, and irrationally and dishonestly pretend that there is a wage gap based on gender (rather than life choices) - because that fits in with their ideological dogma. Some of them (like President Obama) are smart enough to phrase their "wage gap" claims carefully, so as to be grossly misleading in context, but not technically false when fact-checked literally. Others (like Hillary Clinton and most feminist bloggers and columnists), shamelessly and aggressively push the "for the same work" lie in the open. The "77 cents an hour" meme and "equal pay day" ("the day in the year after which women work for free", they claim) are also thinly veiled variations of the "for the same work" lie.

I had expected this thread to become more about discussing Firedorn's reappearance in The White March and funny theories on what Obsidian wants to tell us with that, rather than repeating the original Firedorn debate and the merits of social justice and feminism in general. But fine, let's get to it: > Still believing in the wage gap myth in 2015 How many people in the most filthy, unhealthy, uncomfortable and dangerous jobs (coal miner, garbage collector, roofer etc.) do you see are men and how many are women? Spoiler: The split is about 99% - 1%. Could it be that that is irrelevant, when the position you're trying to prove is the existence of a gender wage gap (rather than a different-life-choices wage gap)? Yes society has traditions, but people are free to choose a traditional life or a more 'modern' one. Many women choose (and thrive at) a modern career lifestyle, proving that there is nothing preventing it. Just because many other women choose a traditional family arrangement instead, does not make you a victim of discrimination, nor does the statistically lower income earned by those who prioritise family over career, mean that women per se "get paid less", so stop perpetuating that myth.

Enemy druids are always a pain in the ass. Try the Devŵen bounty mission, it has even more of them.

No it was the other way around, the people who were offended by the poem and demanded its removal were 'progressive' activists who considered the poem 'transphobic'. You can see both the original and the replacement poem on the wiki page, and judge for yourself.

I didn't find Conci difficult to beat at level 14 on hard. Some of the minion fights in the same area were more difficult imo. I kept my party to the right outside of his chamber. Sent in a tank to go through the conversation and start the fight, then run back out immediately. It worked beautifully: All enemies including Conci huddled together in or behind the doorway, ready to receive non-stop AoE bombardment by my druid and (hasted) mage.

Remember the controversy after PoE's release, when some thin-skinned people went crazy over an "offensive" backer poem involving a character named Firedorn Lightbringer, and then another group of thin-skinned people went crazy over the fact that it was "censored" and replaced with a different poem? Good times. Anyways, after the controversy died down I would have expected that to be the last of Firedorn. But apparently Obsidian decided to give him an appearance in the White March Part 1 expansion, as one of the new bounty missions: What do you all make of this?

This would end up in a *huge* patch. It would work on any version, and could patch it to any other version, but in the end the patch itself would be bigger than the whole game. Not necessarily and honestly unlikely. I agree. If they used proper incremental patching, then all patches combined could be smaller than one of the current ones.

TBH I've changed my mind on the PoE level cap, and consider it a good thing now, all things considered. The problem is that in PoE, character stats like Accuracy scale linearly (and rather fast) with level: http://pillarsofeternity.gamepedia.com/Accuracy#Base Simply leveling up has a bigger effect on your character's power than most character build and equipment choices you can make. A level cap at least puts a lid on that.

Then I guess I'm the 0.1% who thinks you're all overreacting... The reason why everyone is appalled by it, is also the reason why it won't do much damage. Everyone knows that it's just a platform for making BS claims about people, and will disregard any information on it accordingly.

Ah yes, the classic Slicken + Fireball + Fireball + Fireball

Those videos seem to be factually accurate (the guy who did them certainly knows what he's talking about), and they do cover the current version of the game. However, they tend to suggest gimmicky power-gamer builds, sometimes built around very specific weapon/equipment choices and play styles. So they're not for everyone.

While I didn't follow Star Citizen development closely, I was hoping they'd pull it off. Ambition is not necessarily bad; The gaming industry could do with some more risk-takers and less by-the-numbers factory productions. But maybe you're right that this was too much. I also don't think it makes Roberts look too good that he felt the need to resort to personal attacks against the author of the article and drag out completely unrelated tweets of hers to try and discredit her. But maybe that was just his anger and frustration talking. OTOH, that the Escapist published the article with no evidence besides allegations from ex-employees also feels a little iffy. Even if there are multiple witnesses saying the same thing, a journalist should try to get hard evidence before going to print with a bomb shell. Didn't any of those ex-employees keep around an actual copy of some of the incriminating emails which they claim were sent by Roberts and his wife? Did they say why they never chose legal action? Ah I didn't realize there was a separate thread for it. I thought it fit in well here... what with the whole topic of ethics in game development, ethics in gaming journalism, and GG even being namedropped by Roberts in his reply...

Is anyone following the Star Citizen drama? Background: Derek Smart has been making various accusations against the Star Citizen team for months, including the claim that their project is failing (and was grossly irresponsible to begin with) and that they're hiding this truth from their backers, among other miscellaneous accusations of failure to adhere to ethical standards. But since Smart is a competitor (he's a game developer in the space sim genre himself), and has a reputation for digging himself into a hole in internet arguments, few people took him seriously on this. Current events: The Escapist featured an article by Lizzy Finnegan this Thursday, which levels rather serious accusations against the company behind Star Citizen (and its director Chris Roberts), based on the statements of numerous alleged ex-employees whose identity was not revealed: Star Citizen Employees Speak Out on Project Woes - Update In return, Roberts posted an impassioned Star Citizen backer update in which he calls The Escapist piece "slanderous" and "disgusting", derides them for taking Derek Smart seriously rather than considering him a troll, and accuses them of failing to adhere to ethical journalistic standards: Chairman's Response to The Escapist (PS: Interestingly, he also accuses both Smart and Finnegan of being too friendly with Gamer Gate) The Escapist stands by Finnegan and her article and claims that journalistic standards were properly followed, and publishes a clarification on the sources which were quoted (including the fact that none of them were Derek Smart): The Escapist's Position on Our Star Citizen Story ...So, what do 'ya think? It looks like most Star Citizen fans are standing behind Roberts and calling the Escapist article a "hit piece" that shouldn't be trusted, but I'm not so sure.

That's morbid. (Also, most of the concentration camps were built in occupied Eastern Europe, not Germany itself.)

This poster which was put up in Ireland makes some good points:

You should try the Tactics mod, it gives the demilich the ability to dispel your precious Protection from Undead. Good times!

My level 13 optimized pure tank Paladin, buffed with the 3rd level druid spell Beetle Shell, was able to keep the dragon and the Ice Blights busy while the rest of the party stood back and got rid of the spirits. Then Paladin + Barbarian + Monk circled the dragon in melee, while the Mage (self-buffed with Alacrity and Eldritch Aim) emptied all her Fireball spell slots on top of the dragon and the ice blights, and the Druid (without the buffs unfortunately) did the same with Calling the World's Maw. This got rid of the blights, and hurt the dragon too. After that, I just threw everything I got at him (drinking Major Endurance Potions as needed). The Barbarian and Monk got knocked out soon, but the Paladin was still at good health and revived the Barbarian (who did decent damage to the dragon with the Tall Grass spear) and after that it didn't take long for the dragon to die. (Btw, the dragon also tried to use his breath attack at the mage once or twice, but luckily its attack animation gave it away ahead of time and I could move the mage out of the way.) (This was on Hard difficulty btw. No idea if the same strategy would work on PotD.)

I'm still using 2.01 - was holding off 2.02 until IE mod gets upgraded UPDATE: Huh. After exiting and reloading the game, resting at the inn, and going to a different area, the counter now works. (Not retroactively, but I don't mind that.) UPDATE2: And now it doesn't again.