Gorth

Maybe devaluing isn't the right word, but "destroying it" is such a loaded, emotial word. It does remove a potential avenue of sale. The market reacts to it in typical market economy fashion. It's now heading towards everything being software as service. There will not be downloadable products in the future, just a few influential corporations offering online accounts, giving access to play on their servers. Same is slowly happening in the movie industry with the likes of netflix. A sign of tomorrows digital distribution market. In the case of gaming, it's the diversity and the prices that are going to suffer, because there will be fewer outlets offering competing products. Australia is a good example of what *could* happen, price fixing makes digitally distributed products between 50-100% more expensive (without any added cost of distribution) simply because of lack of competition (bless their little hearts at Gamersgate and GoG).

Lawful Neutral is so dull... (said the Chaotic Neutral guy). As for Gromnir... don't let the lack of skill points in diplomacy fool you. Just stay honest. Welcome to the squad TrueNeutral. it's a task that does indeed sometimes require two personalities, which needs to be kept separate.

Most likely dangling something attractive in front of their noses and having the audacity to charge money for it. I'm pretty sure that we both know very well how the music industry (as a very obvious example) has been treating both consumers as well as artists, in that light I can't help but feel that your interpretation of my words is rather disingenuous. I fail to to see anything "disingenuous" in that. Please explain exactly how the music industry is forcing people to take matters into their own hand then. The hyperbole used in the post referred to makes it impossible to take it serious.

Most likely dangling something attractive in front of their noses and having the audacity to charge money for it.

Somebody seriously needs to get a grip on themselves somewhere... Racist would be to call them clowns because of race. I don't see the cartoon doing that. I see it calling them clowns because of (sub)conscious choices done by the party members and their voters rather than genetics. If their first reaction is to try to put a foot down on free/opposition press, you are headed in a very bad direction. Bonus question: How *would* you draw a stereotypical South African? White, Black, Asian? MCA's stickmen?

Can't say I've ever heard the name before But: 1. Consider myself lucky that the cyclones, floods and bushfires usually don't happen in my area (and grab an umbrella if more than 200mm rain is coming down in one day and I have to get out). 2. Lament the loss of a good sportsbag. 3. Christmas tree... like those on postcards???

When you give the ebook to the next guy, do you delete it from all your devices? Otherwise it sounds very much like copy infringement if you copy the ebook, keep a copy for yourself and pass the copy onto someone else. Pretty much this. As implied in the word "copyright", it's who has the right to make copies of his/her work. If you lend somebody a paperback book, you are not copying it (i.e. a new paperback book doesn't pop out of thin air so you both have one). No idea how ebooks work, but if creating multiple copies of the product, you are entering copyright infringement territory. If you were to give the other guy the actual physical device the ebook resides on, so you don't have it anymore yourself... I guess you could argue you didn't copy it, but actually lend the one and only copy to somebody else.

Oh, yeah. Didn't read it properly. Oops So effectively add an extra user to the server that is the "jukebox"?

Moved to gaming section, as gamers are more likely to use for teamspeak I've used it myself every now and then (as well as raidcall). Teamspeak 3 has app specific settings for audio devices, so you can select sound and sound recording device independently of your windows settings. In short, I use my usb audio device (an external amplifier gadget) for headset and mic, standard soundcard for speakers, so I can get speech in my headset and game sound in the speakers.

Now I start feeling like some cheap "Made in China" replica of the real thing... Whatever happened to good old craftmanship and creativity in your creation?

Dinosaurs are so yesteryear... I liked the first movie though. saw it in the cinema. Great entertainment. Sat through the second one when it was shown in "free tv" (what ever commercial financed tv is called in your part of the world) and found the commercials better than the movie. Saw first half of the third movie, switched to football during a commercial break and didn't get back to it. The fourth movie will have to present a pretty convincing case.

I thought you South Africans were out in the bush, wrestling wildebeests and zebras to the ground, snapping their necks, then dragging them off and frying them over big bonfires... at least that's what a South African friend of mine tried to convince me of The Biltong isn't so bad though, i think I could get used to that

Just bought "Warlock 2: The Exiled" from steam. Time for some turn based strategy goodness soon.

Yeah, this thread is in dire need of an update

Splitting my time between "oldies" (Warlock - Master of the Arcane, Watchmen - The End is Nigh and a few others) and then SWTOR and Wildstar Beta, the latter being open for this week, it even had my characters from the previous open beta which I managed to grab a key for (thanks Gromnir). They did announce that current characters would be gone next time though.

Just curious if any 4X geeks out there has played this one The Last Federation If so, I would love to hear some opinions on it. Nothing has really, truly managed to fill the void that Moo2 left behind (thank goodness for dosbox).

Thanks for sharing decado. Reading now...

Gorthfucius !!!! Where have you been, it seems like ages since I read one of your erudite and omnipotent posts Just keeping a low profile... Lurking a lot, but not playing a wide variety of games at the moment and only a cursory interest in remote world events (and local events being rather yawn inducing), simply haven't had much of value to add to discussions. I know silence is golden, but sadly the world market hasn't put a dollar per ounce price on it yet.

I was lazy yesterday. Left some steak in some marinade in the fridge for a few hours and tossed it on the BBQ. Put some potatoes in the Microwave and 10 minutes later, dinner was ready. Add a bit of butter and garlic salt to "baked" potatoes.

Done and gone Thanks guys for still putting work into this.

Ah, so more like a reputation thing? Has anyone tried the server character transfer recently? Just curious if it works better than when it was introduced, when all apac customers got screwed over royally in more ways than one (not just Bioware ninjaing/hijacking all player names for their testing and not selling for hard cash releasing until a year later, but also completely messed up achievements etc.). Got 2 level 55 characters I would like to transfer to Harbinger, but still a bit apprehensive after those 2nd degree burns from the first involuntary experience. Finished leveling op my operative healer "girl". Agent story was fun enough to play a second time. Leveling up a healer as a healer spec is bloody hard work. Hats off to those who have more than one of those for their persistence. I sure missed the resilience of my tank characters and the damage dealing of the rest. Companion AI is just not good enough to make relying on them a fun experience. They (companions) *seriously* need something you can chose to make them avoid circles on ground and leave stunned/cc'ed opponents as their least preferred target in their target priority list (rather than the preferred target). Speaking of companions and targets... an option where you can disable Ashara and Nadias tendency to suddenly run off half the map length and charge a peaceful mob half a kilometer away and then refuse to leave combat (because you can't select passive when they have run away from you) is a bit annoying. Ah well, my assassin is now level 49 and almost halfway through Corellia. I did sort of enjoy the Inquisitor story quite a bit the second time through too. Jedi Consular is probably the only story I truly dread having to do a second time. @Gromnir: I've heard some of the guys mentioning Wildstar in passing in chat (and ESO), but never really knew what it was. Went to their website now and checked out a bit of info and the trailer. I liked the visual style very much, but I guess I would have to follow it a lot more closely to have the faintest clue how the game plays mechanically.

With 16+ toons, legacy storage is one of those things I've been pining for since... well, since I created my second toon I suppose Now if they could just get rid of unmoddable armour (lots of cool looking stuff gets sold to stim vendor because it's outdated pretty fast) and stuff that is bound on pickup (make stuff bound to legacy instead), I could save a gazillion credits by not having to use legacy armour/guns to ship stuff around between toons.

Nice (I don't mind waiting a few more months) The planetary conquest things sounds suspiciously like the game mechanic of the Realm vs. Realm fight in Warhammer Online.

Yeah, I didn't really mind Gault's personality, it was the way you got stuck with him that made me want to shove him out the airlock (together with Doc and Kaliyo). At least Skadge is just boring. My bounty hunter mostly use Mako and Blizz (when respecced and geared for dps) anyway.

I'm sure Christopher Lee would have been a better fit