Gorth

Is this what you were thinking of? [quote name='Karl von Clausewitz (Prussian soldier and military theorist)' date=' 1780

I *think* I said something in that direction (but you know, I'm not always eloquent enough, so I resort to bluntness), if it came up close and personal, my self preservation instincts would most likely take over, but also, that I haven't been put in such a situation and therefore can't think of anything from the top of my head that I would go out and die for. No noble causes, bring peace and justice and c++ to the rest of the world etc. It would be easy to sit here in the comfort of a soft chair, a glass of red wine in my hand and claim that I'm particularly righteous and would do this and that for the sake of goodness if I wasn't too old to join an army somewhere, but truth is, I wouldn't, so I just stick to being honest about it. :">

I think we can agree on that one

Computers... they predate that particular war. The internet, it came after it, although it has it's roots in the cold war, but wouldn't that be more of a political conflict than a military one ? >_

Yes and no. All in my oppionion and all that disclaimer stuff, but... Hasn't the last two decades seen a rapid growth of all kinds of technology without the necessity of the countries involved fighting for their very existance ? My theory being, that war promotes technology advances allright, but usually the kind that requires human sacrifice (virgin or not), whereas peace brings a different kind of technology. To me, it looks more like existing processes and ideas gets streamlined and made more efficient during times of war more than becoming "innovative". You have to make "Gadget X" before the enemy, and there is no shortage of resources to develop it, nor opportunities to test it, either on "them" or "us". The ancient romans believed that the ballista was such an awesome weapon, the weapon to end all wars, because how could anybody stand against the might of the roman army when equipped with ballistas >_ As for Verdun, the picture wasn't chosen randomly, because it shows one consequence of leaving peace in the hands of politicians. All the major european powers of their time were convinced of their own cultural and historical superiority and were busy making a tangled network of treaties to ensure that when (not if) conflict came, theirs would come out on top. In the end, one shot was all it took to set off the chain of events that lead to war on a massive scale (for glory of etc.), leading politicians, who had never been at the business end of a gun themselves, to send millions of young men to war. So to answer the original posters question, no I would not look down upon somebody who shirks away from taking up arms, unless they are a truly firm believer themselves in what they do. Not just obey instructions blindly beacuse somebody else tell you that it is the right thing to do for the glory/benefit/expansion of "the cause".

Well, it made you write this constructive post, which can now be used for a (hopefully) constructive reply. I'm a manipulative SOB sometimes... :cool: It's all hypothetical at the moment, as I was born too late for the last war on danish territory. The thousands of young danes fighting abroad at the moment are all volunteers. Their reason for volunteering eludes me (apart from it being a paid job offering some fringe benefits in the form of training, education, good references etc.) If I were to grossly simplify my attitude towards what I would fight for right here and now, it would be survival. Not particularly glorious, but the truth. Again, I know other peoples mileage vary and they get all upset about politics, religion and power structures in other parts of the world. My passions are more mundane (Sp?). The very same lack of passion for the previously mentioned things makes it hard for me to understand the mindset of people who both die, kill and commit atrocities for them. Deep down I'm still a primitive being though, if threatened enough, I *suspect* some kind of adrenaline induced behaviour would take over and make me excessively violent. Thats what all participants in a war says If they happen to be born on the right side of a line on the map, the line on the map being where it is for whatever reason, they may have that option. Last time I checked, citizenship was a requirement :D I always did and always will consider war an incredibly waste of human resources, and I'm not talking about money. Perhaps the guy that survived another fifty years did more to contribute to the wellbeing of his fellow country men/party members/faithful/ethnic group ? Death is such a final thing, so we can only speculate, was the bottle half full or half empty. Did his dying or his living contribute more ? >_ Was it Clausewitz (Sp?) wrote something along the lines of war being too serious to be left to politicians, they give up peace way too easily (not a precise quote).

http://www.alcohol.vt.edu/Students/alcohol...s/brainBody.htm

Ah yes, all the young men, fighting and dying nobly for the glory of God and country, whichever one it may be... A typical working day at Verdun Notice how the young men in the foreground has been given the privilege of donating their bones as a new fixture of the disputed area, showing true willingness to go all the way for their cause. Thats the spirit boys, we envy you

Yeah, lets see how the size of the single player campaign stacks up against the size of the ads...

:"> I don't really hang around a lot in Star Wars forums :ph34r:

http://starwars.com/episode-iv/release/vid...ws20060503.html The first Star Wars DVD's that I might ever buy. The "unaltered" original trilogy

And as somebody once said to me, if you don't like here, why don't you just leave ?...

The Atari guy who promised it got fired :D

Perhaps you should ask him if PNJ is even in full production mode... PG might have overtaken it in the fast lane. Well, just a suggestion

Somebody ? Anybody ? I can't be the only one with questions... From the tricky question department: How do you (Feargus) feel about outsourcing of work overseas, on a personal level and on a professional level ? If it was viable, would you outsource work to places like India, China, eastern Europe, whatever to lower the cost of development ?

Is that one or two persons ? Well, Mr. Sawyer sort of hit the spot, nobody really has a definite clue until the game is completed...

Well, one from the "controversial" category (I thought I would put it here first) :D How does Feargus feel about outsourcing of work to other places in the world, where the cost of labour is less than in Orange County. As I understand it, assets are a major cost in the development of a game. There must be hundreds of millions of starving artists out there, willing to work for a loaf of bread and a bottle of clean mineral water, easily capable of doing modelling, composing etc. Edit: Perhaps I should rephrase it for the sake of clarity. If it was viable, would he outsource work to places like India, China, eastern Europe, whatever ?

I like my games long With all it's flaws and overdone easter eggs, length was the factor that made me like FO2 better than FO (which really was too short). There are exceptions, like when the content is exceedingly dull (NWN:OC), then length works against the game, but otherwise, I prefer to just spend time in a setting and game that I like. The more the better... I'm going to wait a few months after NWN2's release before making my mind up as to whether to get it or not. If it rocks, it will still be full price at the time, if not, it might alread have hit the bargain bin

I'm cheating outragously and posting two questions in one post: 1) Business Development Manager being part of your description, what is in your personal assessment at the time of writing the most profitable (ROI ?) market gaming wise and will you/Obsidian have a go at that market ? Why/Why not ? Not so much platforms, but game genres and demographic target groups. 2) How do you (and your fellow Obsidianites for that matter) feel about merchandising ? Will we see g-strings with Obsidian logos, t-shirts with your resident artists concept art on them, coffee cup with your portrait on it etc. I for one would buy at least 5 cups, one with each company founder on it, if it would support one of those less profitable isometric party based crpgs being self published and developed...

Presuming that Feargus got his finger on the pulse of the gaming market, what is at the time of writing the most profitable (ROI ?) market gaming wise ? Will you/Obsidian have a go at that market ? Not so much platforms (yes, yes we know, unfortunatedly thats consoles), but game genres (MMO's, FPS etc.) and demographic groups. If Obsidian had been a boy group, they would already be busy selling merchandise, from g-strings to life size posters with the developers for all the 14 olds out there (which seems to be where the record companies find the loose money).

The last two good space sims I played was X-Wing vs. Tie Fighter (never could find a store that had X-Wing Alliance) and before that Elite II I also had Freelancer (at least I think that was the one) which came as bundled software with some hardware, but ironically, it didn't run on my computer

Hmm... stranded on a deserted Island I would probably wish to be stuck with either Accept or Sisters of Mercy. Not sure which one though

The astrophysics guys and the philosophers are still arguing that one. Threads and posts (and posters) seems to "disappear" every now and then, giving rise to the theory that the realm of TOMBS is not infinite :p"