Hurlshort

Beat the crap out of the shaman with melee fighters? <{POST_SNAPBACK}> He turns into some wierd earth elemental after I beat him down the first time. Basically, he cheats.

It's odd that you are willing to spend hundreds of dollars on a system to play Bioware games, but that $15 a month is unthinkable.

I keep getting my butt handed to me by a Lizardman shaman in act III. Seriously...I need a new strategy or something.

Actually, in my eyes WoW has pushed the idea of storytelling in MMO's forward. The game is much more dependant on quests than previous MMO's. It isn't until you get into the upper levels that "grinding" really becomes necessary. In fact, my highest level character is only 54 because I refuse to do anything that isn't directly related to a quest. Sure, some of the quests are generic kill 10 skeletons, but I still see those in single player games too. The problem isn't with storytelling, it's with character impact upon the world. WoW tells quite a few stories, and it even has a few in game cinematics, but you're not making an actual impact on the gameworld. There is no easy solution to this problem.

Yeah, the DM and Modding would need to be pretty active. It would have to be either a very small group of actual players, or a pretty big building team. Interesting idea. There are a few servers that allow you to build stuff, but you usually need to have a good relationship with the admin team. In ALFA, I was constantly trying to save money to build a temple of Tempus, but my Cleric died before it came to pass.

You speak truthiness

Didn't Jim Carey already make this movie?

what does "kickin A" mean? <{POST_SNAPBACK}> I think it's Cherokee for "He who flies with eagles and swims with sharks".

Lots of people? That's an exaggeration. It's probably about 1%.

Bloodlines was the only game I actually played through as a girl. Typically I stick with males, and also human instead of other races. I guess I just like playing myself in these games, albeit a more physically fit and better with swords self.

Uh, they both look like snowglobes. I see what people are saying about the 3D effect that NWN1 nailed. I just don't really care. I enjoy both spell effects. I think the actual character models in NWN2 are so far above what I had in NWN1 that it just doesn't bother me. edit: Thanks Deraldin for posting an actual comparison shot!

I decided to pump all my interest in Shandra. I liked her better than Elanee. Let me tell ya, I nearly cried myself to sleep last night over that bad choice.

Actually, I've yet to see many comparison pics between NWN1 and NWN2. My guess is because NWN1 looks ugly in comparison, but hey, I'm not making these insane lists.

Just watched The Break Up with Vince Vaughn and Jennifer Anniston. It was decent enough. Not really a romantic comedy, which might be why it got trashed a bit in the reviews. Vaughn makes it worth seeing with his line delivery. Pretty cool Chicago scenes if you've ever visited, that alone was fun for me to watch. It's not a movie I'd enjoy without my wife, as we were able to relate to certain tendancies in the film.

Happy Thanksgiving to all those celebrating. I'm actually very thankful for this community. I've had a great time here over the last couple years discussing gaming and various odd topics. All the forum members make this easily the most entertaining board I've ever been a regular on. Thanks everybody!

It's funny, I hated how expensive my textbooks were, but I use quite a few of them in my career. Granted, I was a History major and now teach that in school. But I also use a fair amount of literature books. I'm glad I sold back my Biology books though.

Sorry, my response was more directed at Fenghuang and Gorgon. A new thread is fine.

Why? The thread is about UCLA. Sure it started out focused primarily on the tazer situation, but that is finished. It's now a discussion on the university system. Seems pretty natural to me. I don't know why we need to stick EXACTLY on topic in a WOT thread.

What country are you talking about here? In the US, children of the wealthy don't finish college, at least not as often as children of the middle class (percentage wise). I read that a few years ago, can't remember the source. Wealthy children actually have a pretty low graduation rate, but of course they don't really need the degree to live a life of luxury. Unfortunately folks below the poverty line are even worse off.

http://www.xbox.com/en-US/live/marketplace...stv/default.htm I posted this on the Microsoft forum, but it was generally ignored by rabid fanbois. I figured I'd post it hear and see what y'all think of the Video marketplace. "I was extremely excited to hear about the video marketplace. It makes the Xbox so much more than a game machine, and has the potential to really engage a new audience. But the current pricing model gives me a headache. I'm not saying all the content should be free, but I'm saying there has to be a better way to make this work. Right now I'm better off paying the cable company and Tivo a monthly fee. The Xbox marketplace needs to be a BETTER alternative if it wants to appeal to a large audience. 1. TV episodes - I should be able to get a decent price on an entire season. $25.00 for a season is not competitive with Blockbuster of Netflix. Many stores sell the boxset of a season for this price, and that doesn't take up a chunk of my precious hard drive space. A 20 minute show costs the same as a 45 minute show. Recommendation - Throw in some commercials to create revenue. I know it's hard to get people to advertise in a relatively unknown medium, but if they lower the costs, they'll have more folks downloading, and that creates better numbers to show advertisers. Recommendation 2 - Raise the Xbox Live Gold membership by $5 and make TV shows free for download. Or create another monthly membership category where you pay extra for TV shows. People pay $30 a month for unlimited cable TV. The video marketplace doesn't have nearly as much content, but it does have a customization factor. Most people will not cancel their cable for the Marketplace, but they will probably pay a bit extra per month to access shows when they want. I pay $11.99 a month for my Tivo. That is Microsoft's direct competition. They don't have HD, but the Marketplace does not have everything on TV. 2. Movies - The rental policy is decent. It's much better than Pay Per View and faster than Netflix. I'm not sure why the 24-hour limit after play is in place. Is this a liability issue? Also, exactly why are HD movies more expensive? Does it really cost $2 more in bandwidth? Is it really that much of a business cost for the Marketplace? I think HD is still in the early stages. If you really want to attract HD-TV owners, I think the pricing should be the same across the board. It's about $4.00 for a regular definition movie, and that's a great price range for a rental. It's cheaper than Blockbuster and more convenient. I also would really like to know exactly why Microsoft went with the current business model. I'm sure they have a good reason, but it seems like it's overcomplicating things for the users. Paying for each individual episode of Beavis and Butthead is not something that a lot of people are willing to do."

I wish Sand would go back to using Judge Hades. I always knew what to expect when I saw that little portrait. Sand doesn't stand out as much and occassionally I forget it's actually Hades.

It's a dysfunctional family, for sure. I don't have friendly fire on.

I don't know much about Europe's University system, but can anyone attend college? Isn't each country different? UCLA is actually a state university, but it's not necessarily a public university. They have limited enrollment, but anyone can attend certain classes. It's complicated. Also, I don't know where julianw got the impression that the US university system is failing. The k-12 education system is failing, but the university system in the US is still incredibly strong. People come from all over the world to attend US universities, public and private.

How are they not covering the Ducks-Sharks game? That's a heck of a match up.

I think it's hard to rate any console until you get the 2nd generation of games. Right now is a good time to review the Xbox360. They've developed a lineup of games, and even have a few platform unique titles that weren't thrown together for launch. The UI has been patched a few times and upgraded as well. The PS3 needs about a year to get its bearings. Heck, the PS2 didn't really hit its stride until about 2 years in.