Gromnir

Were they HIS design or he simply wrote the dialogues? does original concept = HIS character? in any event, we has seen the interviews that reveal that chrisA did the in-game writing for dove (handmaiden retread?) and gann. supposedly, chrisA also were given credit for nwn2 as follows: "Chris Avellone wrote most of the companions and edited/improved the story throughout the game." go through blogs and you will see where chrisA speaks of his contributions to various Kotor2 characters, most notably atton, handmaiden and kreia. revisiting your comment 'bout design v. wrote, we recalls that visas marr were not written by chrisA ('cause we criticized the writing of that character and some other obsinate were thrown under the bus,) but various blog entries and interviews suggest that visas were chisA's idea. etc. you look hard enough and you can find numerous sources linking chrisA to various individual characters. from a practical pov, we thinks the writing is more important than the initial concept... which is what we were getting at earlier. a wacky concept as the totality or majority o' character development is a common failure o' japanese anime... and chrisA characters. HA! Good Fun!

am one of the few folks 'round these parts that has been unimpressed with chrisA work post planescape. sure, ravel were a fantastic character, but since that time chrisA has been churning out wacky anime inspired characters that is all premise and no substance. closest thing to a well-developed character post ps:t were kreia... who were kinda a ravel redux. so, with ap being a game that not offers chrisA a fantastic setting to create jedi, hagspawn, or talking bears, we is curious to see what he comes up with when forced to develop a human character that is compelling 'cause of what they do 'stead of what they is. so... am kinda morbid curious 'bout ap. others o' interest: fo:nv da and me sequels HA! Good Fun!

our recollection were that there has been a total of 1 (possibly 2) combat losses for the now retired f-117 and the downing were more a result o' American complacency than anything else. f-117 were never complete invisible to radar; it could momentarily show up, and then disappear. during the conflict in Kosovo, the U.S. kept sending their f-117's along the same route, so sams were set up according. the plane in question were downed using a combination o' guesswork and visual (night vision and infrared) tracking. blip lets you know that an f-117 is on the way. make visual contact at point A. you know that it takes between 1 minute and 50 seconds and 2 minutes and 10 seconds for a f-117 to travel from point A to point B. use some guesswork and get a little luck... *shrug* if there were some magic bullet for downing American stealth fighters, then how come they only shot down 1... back in 1999? also, as already noted, the f-117 is retired 'cause the stealth tech were antiquated and has been improved in the next-gen planes. you think anybody in the U.S. military is worried 'bout oby's linked material? HA! Good Fun!

*shrug* you wonder why is no comparison? answer: there is no comparison. not only were there no actual rape in the game you mention (though the game were so ridiculous and poor made that perhaps folks could imagine a rape scenario into the game based on the box advertising,) but the media covered custer to death, whereas the only reputable media outlet we seen giving the current rapelay attention is a snippet from cnn. HA! Good Fun!

"David's most famous asset has been lost." well, one of 'em has. our recollection is that David's most famous assets is his hands. while the rest o' the David is matching real human proportions, the hands is overlarge. lower-body is also small compared to torso and head, but that were taking into account a human viewer viewing from below. (a prof we had also insisted that the eyes were not correctly rendered, but on the one occasion we had to see the genuine article we were not able to observe such a defect... though am guessing it cannot be seen unless one is at David's eye level.) hands... not junk. HA! Good Fun! ps please note that Gromnir knows very little 'bout art and we could be complete wrong... am just parroting what some prof told us in a lower division art history class at Cal.

as wretched a piece o' computer porno as custer's revenge were, there were not any rape content, though the box advertising implied as much. "revenge" were the name o' the female protagonist, and custer's aim were to... well, you know. some o' our relatives were genuine angry over this thing, so we gots a bit more knowledge o' it than we might like. btw, considering that this were pre-internet, the game got considerable attention back in the 80's... is not as if custer's revenge were ignored, but rapelay got attention. *sigh* internet makes fools o' so many. read some snippet online and thinks you is an expert? yup, game were made and box advertising suggested rape... but no actual rape content. also, other than the internet cnn article, we has seen very little press coverage of japanese rape entertainment, whereas the custer game got nation-wide press here in States covered by both local and national media outlets... which probably led to increased sales. HA! Good Fun!

by contrast, Gromnir were not the least bit offended by da dlc ploys. am still baffled that some folks would be angered and insulted by the glowing exclamation mark. don't like... don't want? don't purchase. solution were simple... much as Gromnir ain't compelled to purchase kasumi or alternative appearance dlc for me2. sure, such stuff shows up on cerberus network scroll every time we play me2, but am not angered by such stuff. dunno... am just not understanding the vitriol that were resulting from the glowing exclamation mark. ... actually, we thought the da dlc approach were kinda clever. HA! Good Fun!

Key point is, God isn't 'lawless'. God does have rules and order and a logic of his own (i.e. the logos in the bible). The point is not that God is outside human logic, the point is that God has divine logic and it takes precedence for Christians (and I guess Muslims?). Maybe that's still not palatable at all for some. That's fine. I'm not exactly a no-turning-back born-again devout believer myself, more trying it out. I just think "God doesn't make sense according to contemporary logic" isn't really a valid reason for dismissing him. there is an argument that old testament (particularly genesis) was written by Hebrew scholars to show that God/The Universe were chaotic and unpredictable. why does God place the tree of knowledge in the garden of eden and then tell human not to eat the fruit? why does Noah curse Canaan? why does God task Job? etc. given the similarity 'tween hebrew genesis and the babylonia creation and flood myths, it is plausible to read old testament in a similar light. the tigris and euphrates flooded at irregular intervals, bringing both life and destruction. by comparison, the nile valley flooded at regular intervals and as such the egyptian creation myths and gods were far more predictable. regardless, hebrew scholars choose to adopt/adapt a myth similar to the babylonian chaos model. old testament God were not always humanity's friend, as such, there were no need for an Adversary. as bible grows beyond Genesis, and particularly with the coming o' the new testament and christianity, the notion of a Benign and Loving God takes root. A capricious God not need a Satan counterpart, but a God-Is-Love deity resulted in a metaphysical vacuum which needed to be filled. Satan were thrown into the void. of course, such a reading is not possible if you needs to make all books o' the bible harmonious as opposed to recognizing an evolution. is just one interp... HA! Good Fun!

one reason Gromnir did not purchase da:a is 'cause of price. almost $40 for 15 hours o' new gameplay? is not that we is hurting for cash, but we hate to be exploited. by waiting a few months we can probable get da:a for $20-$25... and we will also get a far more stable product by waiting. bio/ea releases kasumi for the bargain price o' $7. the dlc offers approx. 1 hour of gameplay and one watered-down jnpc. sssoooooo... would be difficult to justify the kasumi purchase to self. if we forgo da:a primarily 'cause o' cost, how could we possibly accept a $7 me2 dlc? is virtual free money for ea/bio. no package and distribution costs, and based on placeholder being present in core game, am gonna guess that this were developed contemporaneous with me2 core product. is our understanding that the past year were not kind to ea. no doubt the publisher wants to squeeze every possible farthing and penny out of their handful of win games. also, as the paid dlc model for crpgs is still in its infancy, it makes sense that ea would inflate the price a bit; is easier to lower price of a product than it is to raise. *shrug* $7 for 1 hour and a half-baked jnpc? am not willing to subsidize ea stupidity by paying so much for so little. HA! Good Fun!

doing so is technically illegal in many states and counties. sure, people still do so, but that sorta disposal o' animal remains is prohibited; there is good reasons for prohibiting folks from burying Fido or Rex in their backyard. also, from a practical standpoint, the ride home from the vet woulda' been mighty uncomfortable. Gromnir drives a ford f-150. throw the dead dog in back? aside from the fact that it were raining that day, am thinking that our sister woulda' objected to such treatment o' the remains. ask our sister to hold the corpse on her lap the entire way home? kinda callous. no doubt vol wouldn't mind, but our sister is a bit more... human. ... but lord knows we ain't gonna debate with vol... Mr. Jurant is far more insightful. HA! Good Fun!

But that is the case in the U.S. too. The bar is just a lot higher (lower?). sorry, but no. likelihood that a listener will be offended is NOT considered when free speech is the issue. in fact, as with the aforementioned "ridiculing religious figures in Hustler" example, the Court observed that the more outrageous the insult, the less likely it would be deemed to have offended the First Amendment... don't care about offense to listener unless it is likely to provoke an immediate and violent response... and even then the Court looks at such stuff with a jaundiced eye. is not simple that the bar for a defamation plaintiff is higher in the U.S., but there is a fundamental difference in the manner in which Free Speech issues is reviewed compared to what you seems to believe. there is a category o' unprotected speech in the U.S. identified as "fighting words," and the lay-person could misinterpret so as to believe that it might apply in the present context. am gonna save you some time: Chaplinsky don't apply in the present case. if you is genuine interested, the following is helpful: http://supreme.justia.com/us/315/568/case.html http://supreme.justia.com/us/485/46/index.html http://supreme.justia.com/us/505/377/case.html HA! Good Fun!

What we need is you Brits to reform your defamation laws. If the British courts can punish the publisher of anything controversial that happens to wash up on their shores, speech rights around the world are chilled. am always a little stunned by the manner in which Free Speech is addressed beyond the borders of the US. no matter where you go, most folks seems to approve o' free speech, but... if the speech has the tendency to Offend a religious group... if the speech is insulting to __________... if the speech is unnecessarily harsh... for chrissakes, the only speech that requires protection is the stuff most of us sees as offensive, unnecessary or wrong. the Majority view don't need protection. ... ridiculing religious figures in Hustler. nazis having a parade in Skokie. performance artists pi$$ing on the stars and stripes. we protect such speech in spite of fact that we know that virtually everybody will be offended. no doubt our origin as a revolutionary government explains the fervor with which we Americans protect our freedom o' speech. even so, Gromnir is always a little bit surprised when we hear folks from elsewheres argue that free speech is great... so long as it don't offend. *snort* talk 'bout missing the point. HA! Good Fun!

am trying to figure out the standard for "FAIL." if a buggy release is cause for fail, then planescape were FAIL. some of you kids do not recall the release of ps:t, but it were delayed and ugly with bugs... including that memory leak issue that made game unplayable for many folks. also, as has been discussed many times, ps:t were a FAIL as far as return on investment were concerned... took far too long to eventually get into the black. and no, a million flies cannot be wrong. game development and game publishing is business. if you do not make money, then you will not stay long in the business o' game development. if those million flies are able to pony up the money necessary to purchase games, then no, they cannot be wrong. could guido have saved torn? is our understanding that lithtech engine were FAIL. blame black isle for failure to recognize that lithtech were less than advertised, but am not sure a producer woulda' been able to resurrect the torn development. am also not certain how guido coulda changed fate of bg iii or fo iii. furthermore, am confused by complaints... delay of alpha protocol results in a FAIL, but unfinished and buggy is also resulting in FAIL. well? only way to not result in fail is to release on-time w/o bugs? fair enough... but perhaps you have some examples o' such games? in addition, if ps:t is 'posed to be the best game evar, then fact that motb is not as great as ps:t is hardly a noteworthy criticism, is it? given the absence o' standards for success v. failure, it is difficult to take the FAIL list serious. also, we hate bad logic. failure to show some correlation 'tween guido contribution and success is a FAIL. HA! Good Fun!

yes... and we played a male shep. the exchange you identify were almost as fun as Mordin's Gilbert & Sullivan moment. as for the hammerhead... we wish we could aid you, but we played xbox 360. am suspecting that driving the hammerhead poses a different challenge for pc users. that being said, we did pop into the kitchen as we transitioned from science station to the exterior/volcano... the load time were dragging a bit and we had observed a simultaneous auto-save. returned within less than a minute later carrying a tuna fish on rye and a glass o' lemon-lime kool-aid only to discover that we had died in action. re-load. we did not lolly-gag the second time. HA! Good Fun!

It's a shame that people see some anime or manga and think OMG THAT'S HOW JAPANESE PEOPLE REALLY ARE!!1 This will apparently come as a surprise to some folks, but the way the world works in games and movies and books and whatever, isn't necessarily the way it works in real life. Crazy! again, in case it is getting lost, Gromnir ain't suggesting that meek women allowing themselves to be getting raped on trains in Japan is normal. the games represent a fantasy scenario that ain't plausible. however, these and other Japanese games depicting rape, incest, and pedophilia is readily available in Nippon. to ignore such entertainment entirely and dismiss as the last resort o' a disturbed fringe element would be a mistake. "Cop Killer," the rap song, garnered a great deal of attention when it were released. now to suggest that the song realistically depicted how all/many young black male Americans were advocating the killing o' police officers would be a ludicrous suggestion. that being said, you would be foolish in the extreme if you completely ignored the significance of such entertainment. the increasing numbers of young black males dying through violence, and a growing element in the black community that saw their relationship with law enforcement as adversarial had a basis in fact. ignore the significance of a culture's entertainment? *chuckle*

what is it with the strawman in this thread? who said that the Nippon perspective could not be understood by westerners? not Gromnir. we did say that the Japanese pov is different; to apply western standards to Japanese issues leads to inevitable confusion. we does agree that the train-rape scenarios is largely fantasy, as we already observed; however, the number o' reported sexual assault cases per year in Japan does not mesh well with your example. reported sexual assaults is very low when compared to other western nations. another Japanese quirk: official sexual assault statistics is not tracked male v. female. in the west it is pretty much accepted universal that women is far more likely to be victims o' sexual assault. typically, we sees western figures for assaults per 100,000 females. males as victims is counted separate. Japan does not separate. official stats for sexual assaults in Japan COMBINE male and female.

those of you likes to utilize google might wanna try this: find a study conducted by a governmental body in Japan that examines the issue of unreported rape cases. we could be waiting a long time. you can find that the incidence of reported rapes is very low. you can see that the number of reported rape cases that is actually prosecuted is very low. you can find numbers relating to the number of rape cases that fail 'cause the victim recants. etc. but try to find a japanese study that estimates the number o' unreported rape cases... is not hard to find such studies in western nations. ugly numbers suggesting that many rapes go unreported here in the United States is easy to locate, but try to find any similar Japanese study and you will discover a void. ask self: why?

I don't know if it's true or not (I'd guess it partially is) but basically it comes from the fact that Japanese train cars are so packed that if you were to start groping somebody, they couldn't really do much about it because they're stuck in place by the mass of people. bs. Gromnir has used trains in tokyo, osaka, hiroshima, nagasaki and a half-dozen other cities in Nippon. trains is packed tight, but not so tight as to prevent a woman from being able to scream at, or lash out at, a would-be assailant. do not think like a westerner. a western woman would scream, and punch/smack/kick her assailant if she were being assaulted on a train. japanese entertainment suggests that the Shame Impulse is so strong that victim will remain meek and quiet during her assault. it is the relative anonymity granted to an assailant by being part o' the faceless mass o' people on trains that supposed leads to the fantastical train-rape scenarios. ... haji and mura hachibu is powerful and enduring concepts in modern Nippon. btw, do not get the wrong idea; Gromnir likes Japan and the Japanese people very much. however, our experience in Japan taught us that you must be willing to let go of your western pov when dealing with fundamentally Japanese issues. example: the game in question is Not new. last year, as the result of negative backlash from western media sources and pressure from the UN (yes, THE UN,) rape games were banned... including the aforementioned rapelay. however, the governing body that banned rape content (EOCS) chose to leave the parameters and definitions of the ban unspecified resulting in a ban in name only.

fixed. *shrug* the only drawback to the vindicator is the limited ammo... and squaddies never need worry 'bout ammo. am not certain why we would ever have a squaddie equip geth pulse in favor of Vindicator. +25% damage to shields w/vindicator v. +35% damage to shields w/geth pulse rifle = Big Win for Vindicator. vindicator base damage is near 10x as high as geth pulse... so why is Gromnir using geth? in any event, our best approach to dealing with mechs is to take miranda and garrus as they both got overload... btw, we noticed on xbox 360 version o' me2 that we typical seems to get benefit of squad disruptor even if we only got 3 tiers o' disruptor ammo for our soldier. is a bug? we switch from warp squad to disruptor and then observe that garrus and miranda weapons has the little disruptor icon attached to their weapons. is... odd. HA! Good Fun!

I'm proud of you Di. I have seen the sun rise on the sandy beaches of Hawaii. I have seen the sun set on the coasts of Honshu. But neither dusk nor dawn compares the sumptuous beauty of the Geth Pulse Rifle. Nb - make sure you use it with maxed out inferno ammo, and you'll never have to ammo switch again. there is a problem with the geth rifle... if you has been using the vindicator. sure, the geth has loads o' ammo, but it does far less damage per shot; it takes longer to kill stuff using the geth rifle. after +10 hours using the vindicator, you gets comfortable with seeing foes die quickly. when you first switch to the geth rifle, it seems as if your soldier has sudden become teh suk 'cause you is emptying clips into foes, but they just ain't dying like they should. am not minding switching ammo. we will happily switch disruptor, warp and cold during the course o' a single battle... 'cause as a soldier we got no powhaz save for ammo and adrenaline burst anyways. what we does mind is seeing a paltry pack o' varen shrugging off our geth pulse shots like water falling from a duck's back. when Gromnir shoots stuff with the vindicator, it dies. we not get the same warm fuzzy feeling o' certain ownage when using the geth pulse. HA! Good Fun!

I just think there is a really skewed perspective out there that says, Japanese are just screwed up perverts, that really ignores what in fact is a very general and very universal spectrum of sexuality and sexual pleasure that is one of the key components of modern Western media. straw man. am doubting that most folks here, or else-wheres, believe that the Japanese (all-inclusive) are "screwed up perverts." nevertheless, compared to the typical westerner's outlook, the Japanese cultural pov regarding rape, incest and pedophilia IS different. the Japanese salaryman recognizes that rape, incest and pedophilia is socially unacceptable, but he is not offended or revolted by their depiction to the degree that Di is. the salaryman will, in public, agree with Di that rape is a reprehensible crime, and pedophilia is abominable, but his genuine/private thoughts on such matters he will not share... just as he will not share with you what he were really doing on his "business" trip to singapore or bangkok. to ignore the cultural differences o' the folks from Nippon would be no less ignorant than stereotyping 'em as perverts. HA! Good Fun!

the plot o' me2 were just sorta a massive post script to me1. so, me2 didn't really change or add much o' anything to the Mass Effect story. reapers is still the Ultimate Evil intent on wiping out sentient life in the galaxy. HA! Good Fun!

the moonbase also were another example o' the danger o' ai... and admiral hackett were pretty clear that at least publicly humanity weren't so "stupid" as to genuine mess with ai. also, our sheppard grilled tali pretty rough regarding geth and ai. drawing some kinda conclusion that humanity is ok with ai based on me1 material seems unfounded. HA! Good Fun!

I really don't understand how do you see immersion as silly and flexible, which can't be achieved wihout being impractical? Then again, I don't understand half of the stuff you write am betting you understand... you just don't realize or wanna admit. what is immersion? how is immersion achieved? that which breaks immersion for deathdealer is likely to be same for Gromnir, vol, and enoch? please. anybody that has spent as much time on these boards as your post count implies is fully aware that "immersion" is a very fluid term and meaningless without context. most developers when faced with "immersion" criticisms become understandably brusque. so... Gromnir cuts out all the unnecessary "lets define immersion" nonsense and got straight to point where such discussions must inevitably end: practical solutions. skip the "immersion" prattle and suggest practical approaches that would improve "immersion." HA! Good Fun!