Hurlshort

What investment?

I think that this is a myth. No, I think it sounds just right amount of stupid to actually be true. Nah, those people use DRM as an excuse to pirate, and if there was no DRM, they would just find another excuse. "I want to make sure it runs on my PC" "I'm just trying it out and the demo isn't available/isn't long enough" "It might be buggy"

I'm guessing the screenshots with be from Alpha Protocol, but I guess we will see! Are there fanfic categories? I wouldn't mind entering the haiku division.

I guess I'm going off that older thread. If I recall you were one of the people who got quite offended when I said homosexuality is a lifestyle choice. Granted, that might have been due to miscommunication. Perhaps I should have said "sexuality is shaped by many aspects including choice and lifestyle, not just genetics", but I got the feeling you guys disagreed with me even then. Well, the latter statement is a good deal different than the former. I can completely agree that there are many factors that go into sexuality. But I do think genetics play some role, and I see so many religious folks who refuse to consider that. I also think that choice and lifestyle are difficult to prove. If it was all lifestyle, then it would be reasonable to say that most children raised by gay parents would lean towards homosexuality. But studies have shown that isn't true. And again, I can see where someone might make the choice to experiment sexually, but "choosing" to go through life as a homosexual is a much bigger step, one that will create obstacles throughout your life. I'm not saying there aren't some people who make a conscious choice, I just don't think that 5% of the population does. You don't need to take my word on it, there are plenty of homosexuals who testify that the only choice was to be themselves or stifle it.

I just think that's a woefully simplistic view of the situation which doesn't consider varying degrees of sexual oppression/liberation across the globe, nor factors such as epigenetics or homosexuality-heterosexuality as a gradient or 'spectrum' rather than a binary dichotomy. E.g.: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heterosexual-...exual_continuum Also, homosexuality occurs at a rate of about 5% worldwide. According to Wikipedia, 12% of Norwegian's have had homosexual sex (not to be confused with actually being homosexual). I dunno how sexually liberated Norwegians are, but I'm guessing it's a fair bit, which bolsters my point. Maybe it's just my overly simplistic brain misunderstanding you, but how does what you said counter anything I've said? The percentage is a pretty heavily debated number. It can range from 1-10 percent depending on the source. I went with the low number because, even if it's only 1%, that's still a huge number of people!

Did you say 1600 gold? Crud, I remember how hard it was to save up 10 gold for a mount!

Congrats. I have a level 28 Paladin. Engineer/jewelcrafter. Fun stuff. How does one get a dragon mount. I considered going for the netherdrake mount in BC, but I thought the amount of rep grinding was ridiculous and didn't do it. I had a level 58 Paladin. While they were fairly slow at killing stuff, I always found they were nigh unkillable. The tricks you could pull out were just fantastic. Engineering was a great profession choice too, throwing grenades around really helped ease the lack of DPS.

I loved WoW, but I don't think I can ever go back. Lord of the Rings Online has taken over that void in my soul. In the end, the gear-centric stuff in WoW kind of lost me. I've heard the new expansion has a cool take on storytelling, but the epic questline on LotRO has really kept my attention throughout the levels. Still, I'll never regret my time on WoW or disparage the experience. Going into Stormwind the first time was unforgettable.

The Tick - I was trying to find a good movie to watch on my Netflix instant queu, but I settled on this little gem of a TV show. I forgot how awesome it was. I started watching a Bronson film called The Mechanic, but it was just way too slow and wierd.

I think the big question when trying to determine whether it is a choice or not is: Why would millions of people choose to be homosexual? To be homosexual means to face discrimination and bigotry on a fairly massive scale. There are places in this world where it is punishable by death. But you still have people being homosexual, despite the climate, and you have throughout human history. It's not a small group either. As I said, it's in the millions, estimates put it at 1-2% of the human population, and that might be a bit low given the fact that many people hide their sexuality to prevent ostracism. I'm sure some people can repress their homosexuality and live a straight life. There are plenty of priests that manage to repress sexuality completely. But that doesn't mean every homosexual should be forced to live that way, just like not everyone should be a priest.

If you are eating quiche, then you might want to ask yourself a deeper question.

Yes, most of the influential ones were, as far as we can tell, deists. I wonder if there are active Unitarian groups today? I actually identify with that line of spirituality more than many I've seen. I guess I would consider myself a Pro-Christian Deist otherwise.

Sorry, definitely meant the 18th century. The website I linked to defined them (founding fathers) as deists, which is interesting.

As a married man, that is hilarious. I have to cling to my delusions!

But you have to admit that some of the founding fathers were, indeed, nonbelievers. I'm not sure where you get that. We can guess at their true beliefs, but there isn't any hard evidence. I know you will think it's funny that I'm pulling out evidence to prove they believe in something that has no evidence to support it http://earlyamericanhistory.net/founding_fathers.htm

"Under God" was added to the pledge of allegiance in the 50's in order to root out communists. The original intent of a separation between church and state was really about creating a barrier between organized religion and the government. In a lot of ways it is about protecting the freedom of religion. Having no official state religion allows many denominations to coexist. It prevents one denomination from taking over i.e. the Anglican Church in England. In the 17th Century, the concept of atheism was almost non-existent. Organized religion was an issue, but the concept of God was generally accepted. That is the sandtrap I see many people getting in when we argue about religion. Believing in organized religion and believing in God can be two completely different things.

Is that because lots of MMORPG'ers tried it out, then went back to WoW only? Or was the interest in either one just not sustainable due to poor game design? Or something else? I'd say a combination, AoC really lacked sustainability. I think the WoW expansion is probably hurting WAR a bit, plus that game has had technical issues. These games have difficult launches.

You mean the book doesn't have magical properties that will strike down anyone with an impure soul who touches it? That's against all the teaching of the Christian church!

I'm not sure that any MMO developers are realistically trying to dethrone WoW. Turbine, SOE, NCSoft, and Funcom have all had pretty good success with smaller subscription bases. The biggest issue I see is that the last two releases, Age of Conan and WAR, both sold very well in the first month, but aren't maintaining those numbers. They need to be careful not to go crazy with the money they make at release, prepare for a significant drop and plan for a long term.

Zing! I'm confused where the zing is?

I'd say it is a safer proposition than it was before WoW, to be honest. I'm not saying it isn't risky, but there were an awful lot of MMO's that crashed and burned, or never saw the light of day, before WoW came out. Now it seems like the odds are better that an MMO will get to the store shelves, but of course that doesn't guarantee success.

Actually, a few minutes of harmless fun is exactly what I'm looking for in my Nintendo DS games. I just can't stare at that little screen for very long. I need games that can be completed in a 5 to 10 minute bathroom session. But puzzle games are a fairly unique genre, they are simple and open to a pretty wide audience, and they can be played in a lot of different ways. Tetris is kind of the ultimate example. Sure, you can play it as a flash game, or a cell phone game, or in a thousand other formats. But surprisingly people are still willing to plop down some money for it. Puzzle Quest is basically Tetris with an RPG storyline.

Not everyone in the government swears in on the bible. I know a Muslim senator recently was sworn in on the Qu'ran, and I believe some non-religious congressmen have sworn in on the Bill of Rights or the Constitution. The trick is getting elected to the office of President as an atheist. Good luck with that.

Yep, I didn't even notice the text over the bulge. Sweet.

The lighthouse crib seems kinda pointless, being so out of the way. I had completely forgotten about it until your post. Also, I just recently completed all levels of all activities. Yay me. There's a few cool things to do on the prison island, but yeah, it puts you a bit out of the way from the rest of the game. It's only a problem if the helicopter doesn't spawn, I've found.