Gromnir

I do understand your point that tobacco/booze isn't weed (cats aren't dogs), & yeah, technically that's probably 'strawman', but... ... well shucks, don't sell yourself short. not only were you able to untangle, but you even admits strawman... though you inexplicably seem to rail against it. am guessing that that is ok because you admitted being illogical? lord only knows what "its fairly common" has to do with logic, reason, or strawman, so why you would continue to wanna draw parallels 'tween alcohol, tobacco and weed is perplexing. am suspecting that your unidentified reason for wishing to do so is all three substances may be able to be identified as recreational drugs. yes? that's it? *shrug* am honest curious: what Right does you believe is infringed 'pon by the prohibition of recreational weed usage? perhaps looking at the issue from a different perspective might help us understand. we is in favor o' legalization, but we is also dismissive of pothead rights... and potheads in general. our support o' legalization is lukewarm at best... so convince us to be ardent. don't bother explaining the practical benefits and drawbacks o' legalization as such things is known to us. as a student of law and a proponent o' justice, we wish to know what right you is being denied so that we might become justifiably irate in defense o' the cause. HA! Good Fun!

No, my argument is that long term study shouldn't hinder making a decision and alcohol and tobacco aren't psychedelic substances. The only reason that marijuana is illegal is because of Mexican aliens and hippies. Plus you are ignoring all the economical benefits that it could bring, this is a market that if legalized it would explode and give a much needed injection of life to the economy. ... you ain't making much sense... regardless, where does you see Gromnir ignoring economic benefits? we already said we is not opposed to legalization. nevertheless, our pov does not preclude us from exposing the weakness o' other pro legalization arguments. HA! Good Fun!

Yet cigarettes were in circulation before anyone knew the long term effects, which IMO are being exaggerated. Alcohol abuse also makes people dumber, both kill neurons. I really need to see numbers to believe that weed effect on the brain is as great as they say, plus Americans can't get any dumber otherwise their brain cavity might implode. what is with you people? the dangers o' tobacco and alcohol has 0 moral or legal relevance when considering the implications o' legalized mj. is your argument honestly that it isn't fair that pot smokers should be denied the same opportunities to legally endanger themselves? your observations is only persuasive in explaining why tobacco and alcohol should not be legal. "Well, Billy's mom lets him stay out past 6:00 PM." parents everywhere is unmoved by the traditional argument concocted by foolish kids. is less funny when adults try the same shtick. HA! Good Fun!

*chuckle* don't forget the baked goods folks. sudden increase in brownie mix sales following legalization? 'course, if general foods or kraft were heading the fight to legalize, we suspect they woulda' had more success. the reality o' the situation is that the persons advocating legalization is probable the primary reason we has seen virtual 0 progress since the 70's. with woody harrelson and krez-clones as examples o' your poster boys, you gots a serious image problem to overcome. HA! Good Fun!

there is considerable debate 'bout the long-term effects o' pot use. the only consensus we has seen regarding long-term dangers is related to early-teen users. if there is long-term physical harm from pot use for adults, it doesn't have much scientific support in spite of considerable testing. that being said, the short-term deleterious effects o' weed use is not in question. pot use does make the user... dumber... considerable impact on short-term memory and other cognitive functions. 'course, "short-term" is an inexact measure. as with so many chemicals and poisons, the impact on individuals varies greatly. short-term for bucket-head may be a few hours... or a few days. ... so why should Gromnir be bothered if people willingly wants to make themselves dumb? am all in favor o' such stuff. score a point for social darwinism, eh? HA! Good Fun!

How frequently did separate dialogue choices (at the same point) in the ME games speak the same line of dialogue? I didn't really notice, but wasn't looking for it either. Every Single Time again, that were the point o' the wheel. if there were 3 dialogue choices on wheel, at least two would have same vo spoken line. vo is very expensive, and the wheel allows 1-spoken line o' vo to be having multiple interpretations. unfortunately, from a crpg pov, this leads to funneling of dialogues rather than bifurcation. Just to make sure I'm clear here, you're stating that every single dialogue option (I'll assume you're hyperbolizing a bit, and will allow for the odd exception) in the Mass Effect games had options that you could choose different paraphrases where the PC would actually speak the same line of dialogue? we didn't test the entire game, but we did do a substantial portion o' feros with wheel testing as our goal. we got bored after a while, but there were always a funneling effect with the wheel... always: fewer actual vo lines than wheel options. am willing to concede that we had maxed charm, so often we were dealing with an additional dialogue option than those players with lower persuasion skills. HA! Good Fun!

That's another problem with the wheel, though you're going into an hyperbole. I don't see much difference between that and offering you 10 unvoiced options which are answered the same way though. *chuckle* is amusing that you would indulge in hyperbole to identify Gromnir hyperbole. in any event, we will observe that having some responses seeming unaffected by your chosen dialogue is hardly unreasonable. no doubt you has been involved in a conversation in which you came to realize that no matter what you said, the person you were speaking to had already made up their mind. in any event, we does admire biowarian chutzpah. honestly, it takes some guts and guile to sell a resource saving device as a Gaming Innovation. if bioware had been honest and admitted that the real purpose o' the wheel were simply to save vo resources, people woulda' moaned, groaned and complained. instead bio convinces people that the wheel is a groundbreaking feature. amazing. btw, ap is a notoriously short game. no mystery. HA! Good Fun!

it is very difficult for the da to successful prosecute con-men. the single greatest obstacle to such prosecutions is getting the duped to testify. successful and seeming intelligent citizens not want the stigma o' being exposed as fools. HA! Good Fun!

How frequently did separate dialogue choices (at the same point) in the ME games speak the same line of dialogue? I didn't really notice, but wasn't looking for it either. Every Single Time again, that were the point o' the wheel. if there were 3 dialogue choices on wheel, at least two would have same vo spoken line. vo is very expensive, and the wheel allows 1-spoken line o' vo to be having multiple interpretations. unfortunately, from a crpg pov, this leads to funneling of dialogues rather than bifurcation. dialogue wheel may be a necessary evil to makes full vo possible, but we is personally offended by the flimflammery that bioware indulged in when selling this "feature" to the gaming public... and as much as we is offended by the attempt to mislead and misdirect, we is even more surprised by their success. how did the biowarians pull off such a monumental Dr. Mesmer routine? HA! Good Fun!

observing that "that there should be a law against it" does not necessitate a belief that the law will effectively cure a social ill. HA! Good Fun!

So you prefer to guess what your PC is going to say? With bad voiceacting to boot? Because that was my experience with the wheel in ME. Wasn't nice. At all. What do you mean with "guess". I knew exactly what I was saying in ME. And what do you mean with bad VO? Jennifer Hale rocks. And you haven't heard Hawke yet. ... you do realize that the actual point o' the dialogue wheel is to conserve expensive vo resources, right? the reason we get wheel in da2 is because we is getting full vo for the player, and the wheel allows a single line of spoken dialogue to gets multiple interpretations. instead o' dialogue bifurcation you gots dialogue... funneling. you is being cheated and you don't even realize 'cause the biowarians did an effective snow job, aided by easily duped members o' the gaming media. HA! Good Fun!

am gonna call strawman. am not sure the naivete you envision is quite so pervasive as you suggest. how many folks genuine believe that criminalizing an activity will makes it disappear? *shrug* deterrence is a goal of many legally mandated punishments, but is rare the totality for the reasoning behind such criminalizations. HA! Good Fun!

What worries me about this is, are we going to see from the narrator: "and after Hawke accomplished x he went under the radar for awhile, now we skip ahead six months to a time when Hawke resurfaces and this is what happened next..." The game spans ten years, and if that's how it's done... meh. I'd rather have one continuous adventure. dunno... am actually looking forward to the decade aspect. in a typical crpg your character goes from being an incompetent b00b who has trouble dispatching the rats in a tavern cellar, to world-saving demi-god in a matter o' weeks/months. if bioware can find an elegant way to embrace a more plausible time-frame for our inevitably epic ascension, we is gonna be appreciative rather than dismissive. HA! Good Fun!

I haven't played ME2, but isn't that a problem Bioware has had since forever? The only game I don't remember having this problem was Baldur's Gate, but the companions were practically mooks at your orders. bg2, kotor, and me1 jnpcs (with some notable exceptions such as carth) is models o' well-adjusted mental health compared to the broken dolls who comprise the me2 crew, and as you already noted, the bg1 npcs were developed little beyond their character record sheet and a catchphrase. HA! Good Fun!

the thing that bothers us the most is that biowarian storytelling errors is typical very obvious and fixable. the villain for da were terrible. a crpg protagonist is necessarily ill-defined. so, bioware decides to has an ill-defined protagonist AND a villain devoid o' personality? how on earth did the biowarians allow such stoopidity to go beyond the earliest planning stages? also, more than one da joinable npc had a wtf moment, and wtf moments is the result o' poor development more than anything else. how 'bout me2? the me2 Big Revelations were pretty anti-climactic when one considers how me1 concluded... and the biowarians went serious overboard with their infusion o' Drama into the crew o' the normandy. given all the me2 characters who got abandonment/daddy issues, one might suspect that the biowarian writers is a collection o' teenage girls. maybe for their next game bio should do a kissy-vampire story... a twilight saga crpg seems suited for their current writing talents more than does epic sci-fi or traditional fantasy. ... am honest curious what the biowarians thought process were regarding some o' the me2 and da story aspects... perhaps the kanadians is too polite to provide each other with useful feedback and criticism. maybe hire some American or Irish writers/editors would help. HA! Good Fun!

*groan* am not needing more of that wretched sleight-o'-hand nonsense. is a cheap way for bio to create an illusion o' multiple dialogue responses; it is a resource saving device that the biowarians somehow bamboozeled folks into seeing as a feature. HA! Good Fun!

nevertheless, it sold very well. so what is biowarian motivation to make wholesale changes? conventional wisdom suggests that with a sequel it is far lass risky to give people more o' what they want rather than trying to come up with a new approach, no? HA! Good Fun!

there is no evidence to suggest that the da2 protagonist is any more pre-determined than the grey warden o' the genesis game... at least as far as we has seen. is possibly little different than the nwn2 'hero'... with a gender neutral given name. every protagonist in a story driven crpg is predetermined, whether you realize it or not, but am getting what mc means. however, from the info released so far we cannot tell the degree to which player freedom is being handicapped. that being said, Gromnir were very much unimpressed by the da origins which resulted in largely undifferentiated gameplay regardless o' the origin chosen. perhaps the biowarians also realized that origins approach were a waste o' resources and has chosen to abandon such nonsense. as such, we is not as discouraged as is mc... although to maximize player freedom and increase potential for story building, we would prefer to see less of a focus on the protagonist, but clearly that ain't the direction bio has chosen for their development scheme. HA! Good Fun!

am gonna disagree with the "curiosities" being equivalent to the gateway impetus... and also with hurlshots observations 'bout the social acceptance o' weed. as for gateway, weed IS having a low physical addiction rate, but it also is less effective in producing a high as dosages and frequency of use is increased. nimh (national institute of mental health... the guys from the rat books) has actually done some very interesting studies on mj... worth reading. so, what do you think happens to the typical stoner as he smokes more and more pot and it becomes less and less efficacious? as weed is not particularly addictive, it is easy for the user to trade-up, no? what makes weed such a gateway candidate is its rather peculiar coupling o' low addiction with decreasing efficacy. if you wanna keep getting high, you gotta either use ridiculous amounts, or... the "or" is why weed is so often labeled as gateway. as for social acceptance... how on earth hurl equates cheech & chong movies with acceptance is beyond our ken. movies and television does not makes weed use seem particularly glamorous. weed use and weed users is, understandably, the but o' jokes in media. see a $800 an hour attorney with a glass o' single malt scotch in his hand is shocking? hell no. legal or not, picture the same attorney with weed. even so, we thinks that legalizing would go a long way towards making weed acceptable as more than punchline fodder. enough hollywood types and athletes use pot regular enough even now, but using openly would helps make it kewl for the same generation that likes twilight films and speed-texting. regardless, the notion that weed is currently having a level o' social acceptance beyond berkeley or heyward is perhaps myopic. hurl is in the bay area, so am thinking he might have a slight odd pov regarding the acceptance aspect. the biggest problem for the weed crowd is the folks advocating. most o' us who graduated university can recall being accosted at least a few times by some clown with a flier advocating the legalization o' pot. ever seen the folks who speak on behalf o' weed legalization on college campuses? is kinda like the folks who claims to have seen ufos and bigfoot... a more sorry and pathetic collection o' human detritus is difficult to imagine. if the most vocal proponents o' weed legalization were not hippie-wannabees with questionable hygiene and damaged reasoning skills, the Movement woulda' made considerably more progress over the past few decades. HA! Good Fun!

"Prove, prove how? I'm only relying on those same references. I think it's plausible considering the rampart drug experimenting going on in the scientific community back then. " ... how to prove? admissions is nice. eye witness accounts from credible resources might help. medical records or police reports has been used to "out" other drug users. can you find such for Einstein? Einstein's brain was removed shortly after his death, cut into little pieces, and studied... lots. is funny that such studies o' his brain never mentions drug use, eh? do you have Any credible source linking Einstein to cocaine usage... other than your belief that drug use were rampant in the science community during Einstein's lifetime? is not like we asked for irrefutable proof, but you ain't offered any credible proof. why would you do such a thing? there is more than a few world-changers whose drug use is well-documented, so why throw Einstein's name into the mix? am not even gonna bother shredding your religion and drug influence points... HA! Good Fun! ps you should remove the word "most" from your vocabulary until you learn how to use it properly. am gonna recommend "some" as an alternative, and perhaps "many" if you is feeling particularly bold. avoid "most."

first, list some folks who used drugs not come anywhere close to an offer of proof regarding Most. second, you stated that "There'd be no art without drugs, no psychology, no religion." clearly you claimed a causal link. however, if you is willing to back off from that pov, we is gracious enough to pretend you never made such a statement. no link 'tween brilliance and drugs. no proof of most. so, what were your point? also, please prove einstein drug use. we has heard some infrequent references to Possible opiod use late in life, but nothing quote worthy. HA! Good Fun!

your reasoning is suspect. 1) am suspecting that you would need to define "users/abusers of drugs" before we could take your notion serious. if every shlub who ever had a glass o' wine with his pot roast gets counted as a drug user in your book, then yeah, we suspect that you could say that "most" brilliant peoples has been drug users. 2) prove "most". using an acceptable definition o' drug use, you is gonna have a hard time proving that Most brilliant persons has been drug users. 3) prove that the drug use were a causal link between the brilliant persons and their brilliant discoveries. is just as likely that these brilliant folks you allude to made their discoveries in spite of their drug use, rather than because of it. HA! Good Fun!

if stranded on a desert island and an adequate fresh water water supply were available, Gromnir would want booze and broad-spectrum antibiotics... and we don't even drink alcohol. distilled spirits is less likely to perish and is more loaded with carbs than virtual any other alternative. die from infection is probable near as likely as starvation in a primitive and hostile environment, therefore we would be wanting those antibiotics. 'course am doubting we would has the luxury o' being able to plan for being marooned. we also uses various alcoholic beverages as ingredients when cooking. as such, we always has bottles o' pinot noir, pinot grigio, and sherry on hand. however, other than for cooking and our How-To-Survive-On-A-Deserted Island-Plan, booze has almost 0 influence on our daily life. nevertheless, 'cause wasteoid krez missed the point, using alcohol/alcoholism as the benchmark for healthy living alternatives is foolish and... stoopid. we can easily name dozens o' activities that ain't near as self-destructive as habitual alcohol consumption, but to suggest that all o' those activities is benign would be ludicrous. alcohol is legal IN SPITE of the human cost. duh. whatever arguments krez and others may find for legalizing mj use, compare to alcohol is ironic obvious and dumb. in any event, we again encourage widespread weed usage as it cannot help but benefit non-users such as Gromnir. HA! Good Fun!

I love this post for multiple reasons: it perpetuates myths about marijuana, it does so whilst highlighting gromnir's ignorance of the topic at hand, and it's a classic example of gromnir using arrogance to sate his inferiority complex. And besides, where else am I going to find a post claiming that I'm some kind of hectic stoner? Oh gromnir you rascal! clearly krez is too stoned to notice that we didn't perpetuate any myths 'bout mj... 'less he is arguing that weed Does make folks smarter. HA! Good Fun!

am always seeing arguments that mary jane is less harmful than alcohol. *chuckle* one thing is for damned sure... weed ain't never made anybody smarter. yeah, is a selfish motive, but add a few more krez clones to the workforce can only help to make Gromnir look more smarty and dependable by comparison. therefore, we is in favor o' enabling the pot heads... 'cause why should the alcoholics have all the fun, eh? HA! Good Fun!