Hurlshort

Foreign - This was Bush's biggest weakness during his term. Obama has improved foreign policy by virtue of not coming across as arrogant, but his actual policy implementation has been painfully slow. He is very cautious in every respect, from the very slow troop pullout plan to his comments about other countries. Romney has already had a few big missteps, and he's barely even started to address foreign policy. I would have to call Romney a step backward. Domestic/Economic - Obama has failed on this front to make any major headway. The big problem is we need a president that, as WoD already mentioned, can work with the opposing party for the betterment of the country. I've been unhappy with Obama here, but I'm not convinced Romney can do better. I'd jump in front of a bullet for a bipartisan candidate. They don't seem to exist anymore. I'm really not happy with either choice on this issue. Security - I'm calling it a draw because both candidates will be forced to trim expenses here, but I believe both will heed the Department of Defense as much as possible. Social - The real reason I will vote for Obama in 2012 is because he came out against discrimination when he dropped his support of the Defense of Marriage Act. Sure, his VP kind of pushed him into it, but he did the right thing. If Romney wants my vote, he needs to stand up against discrimination as well. I can't get over these civil rights issues, the Republican party needs to get on the right side of history here.

Critical reception is how it is received by published critics, and ME3 fantastic (it scored even higher on consoles.) http://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/mass-effect-3 TOR has a more mixed reaction from fans, but again it still has a high critical score. http://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/star-wars-the-old-republic I know many of you don't place much importance on things like the metacritic scores, but the publishers and investors do. They don't hang out on message boards reading user reviews, this is what they have to go on. They also go on sales figures, which all have good numbers there. Dragon Age 2 had a significant drop off compared to the original, by the way, so that is closer to a failure. DA2 was also developed quickly and more cheaply than the original, so if investors and publishers think that score trade off is worth it, then they will turn out another one like it. This is a business. Also TOR as a WoW killer was always a ridiculous idea, no one from EA or Bioware ever said it was supposed to compete at that level. The expectation was probably at least a million subscribers in the long run. They initially exceeded that, then they dipped below it. Now they are attempting a new business model in order to right the ship. Read the TOR threads here if you want to see some positive feedback. There are plenty of us enjoying the game.

It's funny that you mention Guild Wars 2 when talking about TOR, it is a free to play MMO. TOR is struggling to establish itself, but it is an extremely good game. Like many MMO's, it needs to figure out how to be successful within the confines of a certain budget. For example, they had to cut a chunk of their staff a few months ago, but they were also operating with a much larger staff than many other MMO's. Mass Effect 3 was a critical and commercial success story. To a lesser extent so was Dragon Age 2 (which I hated.) Bioware is clearly targeting a broader audience today, which sucks for many of us, but doesn't actually mean they are failing.

Welcome aboard! Ron Paul would be a better candidate because he would raise important questions and hopefully push the Obama administration to be better. But his chances of winning would be incredibly small, he'd struggle just to keep the Republican base and the independents he brings to the party are not enough to offset the losses. It's a similar reason I wanted Gingrich to win. He'd never win the general election, but he is the only politician in the mix that has a history of balancing a budget and working effectively with the other party. He would challenge the Democrats on those issues, hopefully making our current President a better one. This Romney campaign hasn't really done anything except trip on itself.

You have an odd definition of multiculturalism. That is not how it works at all in the diverse regions of the US. Honestly listening to some of you makes me feel like I live in a Utopian society or something. People in the Bay Area are immensely proud of being Americans AND proud of their diverse native cultures. I'm a 30-minute drive from any type of community I am looking for. If I want authentic Japanese, Indian, Persian, Russian, Vietnamese, Greek, or French food I can find it. I get to celebrate Cinco de Mayo, Chinese New Year, Ramadan, and the 4th of July every year. I can go to a Buddhist temple, a mosque, or any Christian denominational church and feel welcome.

There won't be many people working on this, the number thrown out was a team of 20. You can bet that quite a few of those will be splitting time with other projects, so 150k a month should be enough to cover labor and overhead. Marketing is also a huge cost, as is voice work, so cutting those out helps a lot.

Here is an article Chris Avellone did about publisher's and Kickstarter on Time's Techland: http://techland.time.com/2012/09/21/project-eternity-chris-avellone-interview/

I've yet to beat the boss in FTL though. That fight is not fun.

As uneducated as the unemployed welfare recipients who leach off of taxpayer money? Typically, yes. I feel bad for both groups. They are usually raised in an environment where education is not valued. It is difficult to rise above that.

You are conveniently ignoring the fact the Nazis were ultra-aggressive nationalists. You can be proud of your country AND accepting of others at the same time, btw. It isn't an either/or scenario. When you choose nationalism without multiculturalism, you are creating conflict.

I can't really think of any situations where multiculturalism led to a large group of multicultural people to rise up and subvert others. I can think of quite a few cases of nationalists doing this. This depends entirely on where you are in the US. It also depends on how the person is dressed and how they speak, how many tattoos they have, etc. But that doesn't make it right, and when you judge someone based on such superficiality you stand a good chance of making yourself a social pariah. Which is as it should be.

Her qualifications are very solid, so if she possesses the necessary skillset, I'm not sure why age would be an issue. She is also Norwegian, so I'm not sure why you would question her knowledge of her own culture. Cultural diversity SHOULD be a part of every country's everyday life. That is how you create tolerance.

Ok, I figured out a decent title for myself: Hurlshot, Obsidian Order Hockey Puck

Fundie Christians have a very loud voice, but they are still a very small, uneducated, and ridiculous group.

I just don't think that is the main reason they stormed a militia base. That's like running into a burning building because you are afraid the fire trucks will get you wet.

This has really picked up some steam, awesome to see Fio helping with it as well. I went ahead and pitched in $8 extra on top of my Collector's Edition pledge. I really have no idea what my title should be. I've been an Arch-mage forever. I'll have to think on that.

That's a pretty lousy way to look at it. I doubt they overran and extremist militia base because they were concerned about trade sanctions. Now if you are implying they are worried about the US invading, then that is a pretty big stretch, but if that gets the people to seize control of their country away from the small extremist groups, then we might as well let them believe it.

It is good to see. I've been waiting for real Muslims to stand up and defend themselves against these extremists, and this is a big first step. Of course it would be better if there was a way to do it without violence. That link didn't work for me, btw.

I'm not sure you guys really understand what Imperialism is. Because the US would be the worst Imperialist ever if that was really their goal. Have you seen how much money the US has lost in Afghanistan and Iraq? Seriously, throwing the Imperialism tag around makes zero sense. The US does try and be the world's policeman. That is a more fitting title here.

You are paying twice for something because you want two different versions. That's life.

Yep, Romney is a lot like Kerry, minus the 3 purple hearts.

Did I mention FTL? It's pretty awesome. I read that it was the Oregon Trail in space, and that fits quite well. I made it to the end last night, but failed to figure out how to beat the boss.

The problems with both parties stem more from ignorance than maliciousness. Solyndra and the 47% comments are excellent examples of this. Also Oby, have you ever lived in the US, or spent a significant amount of time there? Because it would be pretty naive to speak on the domestic policies of a country that you have no real world experience with.

You guys are throwing out a lot of numbers, but 5 years is not actually a long time when it comes to an investment. Bioware was a major investment for EA, and I doubt they expected to make everything back within 5 years. The main goal is to extend market share, which they've done. If it takes 10 years to recoup the costs of the merger, that is totally reasonable for a business like this. This is all pretty baseless speculation. edit: Until you actually see a CEO or someone stepping down in disgrace, there is very little to all these claims. The doctors are simply retiring. They are filthy rich.

I noticed my performance, particularly in bad spots like on my ships, seemed to be a lot better when I logged in last night. They did something right.