metadigital

How can everyone rate everyone when we haven't established the rating system (i.e. what are the attributes, flaws and merits of a TOMBS player)? First things first, people (or simulations)!

You say that with the expectation that we care.

He was brilliant, but his singing voice is not necessarily the brilliance we refer to; his attitude, his genre-creating boldness, his outright charismatic sex appeal, but not his singling voice (which wasn't bad, just doesn't compare to Karen Carpenter or Eva Cassidy).

That is a good point. I guess you have to establish what you want to hear, and how often you want to hear it. Current Projects, and Status Updates is all well and good, but the most efficient way to disseminate such information is on a website for us (the ausidnece) to pull down. Still, a reminder sent every time it is updated might be a nice additional service ...

Um, there are no 5s ...

I anticipate that it will take a few weeks to get the game under way.

I will be hosting the fourth Diplomacy game, as and when people want to play it. Feel free to send any correspondence to . Here are the basic rules. There is at least one person out there who wants to play a different version. I am happy to host any version, so feel free to debate the variation of the game. Here are some of the variants. (E.g. there is a global variant that only requires thirteen players, thirty-one player World Diplomacy on a spherical chart, or even a nine player variant of the standard map.) I still think it would be best to play a standard game, but if you have a suggestion: let's here it! Any suggestions or problems, please email me (only PM if it's urgent), and we'll work them out.

We don't! (But that, in the end, doesn't matter either.) Dun dun daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

He is an obviously mercenary, opportunistic, disingenuous prevaricator.

I have a suggestion, but good manners prohibit me from disclosing it here and now ...

Ha. The rivalry for the Ashes is worth a recap for those of you who aren't privy to the details. Just over a century ago (August 1882, to be exact) following a Test Match at the Oval (they only played one per annum)

Nope. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Ah, go and change your sig.

Depends on the genre. Pop doesn't require good singers, for example. One of the best male singing voices for ever is James Blunt. Women, though, seem to be able to create a more uniformly melifluous tone, witness: Eva Cassidy Karen Carpenter Just about every soul singer, like Aretha Franklin. Sure there are a few males who can produce a good tone, but they rarely provide a full "even" tone: more harsh and powerful. Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby, Andrea Bocelli, Dean Martin, et alia can all carry a tune remarkably well, but they don't seem to have the bredth of tone that the ladies do.

Who's opinionated? I'm RIGHT!

It's borderline, but you were obviously (?) more intent on inciting a response, so I'd put it down to trolling.

Can I suggest you email everyone's contact details to everyone?

Too much. That's trolling, not flaming. And the beauty of the process is that everyone carries on normally; the character sheets are merely a snapshot taken by others, and require no input from the person in question. Therefore, whether you are "in", or not, is unimportant and indeed irrelevant. If you continue to post, and you actually elicit interest from others, then those others will decide whether you are real or not and thus provide the character sheet.

Is the conventional approach to plural's out of style or something. Are apostrophe's the in-thing at present? <{POST_SNAPBACK}> I trust you were being ironic ... ... (Have you met Calax? I am convinced he purposefully and deliberately uses the exact opposite of accepted idiom for plurals and possessives ... ) Mark me down on your secret list of apostrophe-adherents ...

Having had to produce a a regular marketing newsletter, I know what a pain they can be (especially when there is no news); as much as I would love to get regular, meaningful updates I would want them to be both regular AND meaningful, but I would prefer meaningful to regular, if that were the choice I had to make. What I mean is, maybe the OE decision-makers would be more obliged to create a newsletter if it didn't have to be monthly; just whenever there is some news to put out. Having said that, I am subscribed to quite a few newsletters, e.g. including Valve and Steam, which I think have got it right (weekly). Last week, the update was: "... Lost Coast, Day of Defeat and Aftermath are in the final phases of development and being polished for release ..."; they would need to be bold enough to say "still working on it, sorry not finished". They would be acutely aware of wasted effort in the costs incurred to create a failed newsletter. Ones that don't get it right are very quickly unsubscribed: I think I had Atari sending me some garbage at one stage, but it was so market-hype-speak and irrelevant to me personally (as a gamer) that I immediately nixxed it.

If the heat of the beam is sufficient to change the molecular structure of the mirror (i.e. melt or immote it), then yes. Remember the Space Shuttle Columbia? That had a heat shield and it still burnt up. Think of a mirror being tossed into the sun; how long would you feel cool behind it?

Escorting missions can be fun if they're better developed than in Morrowind. All kinds of oddball travelling companions with weird behaviour and demands could make for some good laughs and tricky quests. It would be nice if you could join a Guild of Escorts (no, not that kind of escort ) and make a profession out of ferrying people around. Well, I'd enjoy it. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> And then, one day, your character provides a very special escort service...*cue intro music* " <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

... I would tend to disagree, most of the console "RPGs" I've played have this little concept known as save points generally preventing you from simply picking it up, playing for a couple of minutes, and then shutting the game down. (just earlier today I spent a good three hours on Makai Kingdom with no direct chance to save, but it's still incredibly fun ) <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Not sure what point you are making? You've played one game that you couldn't save for three hours, therefore all RPGs for the console are deeper? Is that what your point is? So PC developers can't make a good console, with or without save points? What "line of thinking" are you disagreeing with? You should try to elucidate a bit more, all I have gleaned from your post is that you disagree with me because you think I'm ignorant. Which, if it is your opinion, you're entitled to think; I'll let you infer what my opinion is about your response.

Ha. Reminds me of a psych tv show on a week or so ago. A group of men and women were sat in front of a tv, watching some fake newscast. The men all took more notice of the woman speaking, but couldn't recall a thing (to a man) about what she had said!

That Flintoff is the player I most respect in the English team: not only is he a quality all-rounder, but he is a good sport (as well as being a tough competitor). For example, just after hitting Brett Lee on his glove with a short, fsat rising ball, he went over to see that he was okay. Bring on game 3 in Manchester: Old Trafford starts Thursday!

Nope. Argentinian beef is world-reknown (I haven't tried it, so I can only report.) Also I would argue that Australian beef is the best in the world: initally it was too lean for the Japanese market, so they had to specially breed cattle that had more marbling (fat) in the muscle (to crack that market). Australian and New Zealand food is regarded as the least poluted (by growth hormones and antiseptics for parasite retardation). The freshest food has got to be Antartic fish, though it's a little difficult to get ...