Gromnir

You can unlock every special power of your squadmates as soon as you get their loyalty. At least I could. And on my first playthrough, too. I had like 6 or 7 powers in the end, IIRC. True you don't see them from the start but if you make any upgrades at all (which is true for most players I guess) you will see them. regardless, your initial list is more than a bit misleading. loyalty missions come After recruitment, and some npcs is not even initial recruit-able. HA! Good Fun! Granted, but what was the point? That there are less possible combinations for a character in ME2 than in ME1? That's only true at the beginning of the game. And ME1 has less options in the beginning, as well. You get more options after you become a Spectre and then some after the mission on Luna (if you take that mission). Do the powers not count because you have to earn them? again, you is being misleading. a me 2 sentinel built by enoch or Gromnir or you will look pretty much identical by level 30. sure, maybe you got 1 point in a bunch o' bonus powers, but 'cause such powers is only available very late, your sentinel will not be very different from Gromnir's. as for me 1 spectre... is apples and oranges. spectre in me 1 can be unlocked 'round level 12 in a game where you easily reach level 40 on first play... and spectre bonuses does not cost additional points to provide a benefit neither. Gromnir rare put more than a handful of points into the spectre line from me 1... just enough to get first level o' unity. even so, we benefited from the choice between operative or commando when playing a me 1 infiltrator. greater diversity were created, even if it were largely illusory. HA! Good Fun! ps: similar to enoch, we is very curious about warp ammo... but it were available late in game and as such it were not worth exploring. warp kills everything, so is warp ammo analogous? the problem is that we do not know at this point, and we already finished an entire game. btw, as difficulty is increased, the value o' tech armour, shields and fortification powers seems to diminish. cover is 10x more important than armour or shields. on a high level o' difficulty we might alter enoch's suggested build by decreasing tech armour and increasing something else.

You can unlock every special power of your squadmates as soon as you get their loyalty. At least I could. And on my first playthrough, too. I had like 6 or 7 powers in the end, IIRC. True you don't see them from the start but if you make any upgrades at all (which is true for most players I guess) you will see them. regardless, your initial list is more than a bit misleading. loyalty missions come After recruitment, and some npcs is not even initial recruit-able. HA! Good Fun!

Then you are simply not thinking hard enough. In ME1, a Sentinel has: Pistol talent branch Throw -> 3 different major levels, giving you the ability to knock around even Armatures when maxed Barrier Decryption -> again, 3 different levels allowing you to open containers of various difficulties First Aid And can unlock: Lift - same as with Throw, max lift allows you to lift Armatures and Primes, making it worth it to max out Stasis Electronics - same as with Decryption Medicine - for Neural Shock You can combine different proficiencies in those in any number of ways, and get a "prestige class" for added variety. Whereas in ME2, a Sentinel gets: Throw Warp Tech Armor Overload Cryo Blast Without dramatic differences between levels, except for the lame "evolutions". Refer to jags' coffee analogy, about those. ME1 could have done without the granular progression without making much of a difference, but that's not the point. There are less possible combinations in ME2, if you can count. But hey, it's always fun to argue against mathematical facts, right? In ME2, a Sentinel gets: Throw Warp Tech Armor Overload Cryo Blast Reave Slam Shockwave Armor piercing ammo Geth shields Fortification and some more a bit of a misrepresentation, no? some powers you list is unlockable late in game, and some is only available on a subsequent playthrough. the average player with no meta-knowledge of game does not have such a robust list to choose from. HA! Good Fun!

Mathematics can't tell me which one is better, it can just tell me which one is "MOAR". ME1 throw has 3 different levels with a lot of filler, ME2 throw has 4 different levels, with the 4th level branching into two different options. The boosts you get at every level in ME2 are like the ones ME1 has as "new" versions of the power - not the minor percentage boosts to partial effects in between. Again, just because there's more little boxes for you to tick (indeed, a mathematical fact), does not necessarily mean = better. Just like level 60 isn't automatically more than level 30. dismiss mathematics if you will, but the math does show that given the number of skill/power points available, diversity o' character builds necessarily diminishes as you decrease the number of skills/powers upon which the player may spend their points, and for many folks such a result is antithetical to the spirit of a rpg. unlike numbers, Gromnir would not have made a quantity v. quality argument regarding differences in character development options 'tween me 1 and me 2. that being said, numbers has a valid point. at level 30 your me 2 sentinel or infiltrator will look much the same as Gromnir's or number's or enoch's. making meaningful gameplay and character development choices is typical what sets crpgs apart from other genres, no? sadly, me 2 character development scheme gives the player only one vital character development choice: your choice of class. is not a matter of "dumbed down" or quality, but me 2 does offer the player very few meaningful character development options once you exit the tutorial portion o' the game. lack o' character development options does not make me 2 a bad game, but for the folks who live and die by the rule of Meaningful Choice to judge crpg worth, me 2 is found wanting compared to previous released original bio titles, including me 1. HA! Good Fun!

HA! Good Fun!

don't know if such info is helpful. HA! Good Fun!

apologize in advance for being a tad crude, but am gonna admit that the resource acquisition mini-game felt like a big bioware FU to all those folks who complained 'bout the mako. " You thought the mako sucked? Fine, we got rid of the mako you whiny plebes. Are you happy now? If you decide to b!7ch about me 2 ammo or excessive reliance on cover, keep in mind how we "improved" planetary exploration between me 1 and me 2. Ungrateful little..." HA! Good Fun! ps am not honestly suggesting that me 2 resource acquisition were a result o' biowarian vindictiveness... but it felt that way as we slowly mapped a dozen or so planets looking for iridium and platinum.

am gonna suggest that thane is the actual carth stand-in for this bio game. as for pc v. xbox... pc versions is almost invariably superior, but Gromnir's left hand is damaged... manual dexterity needed to use wasd is too much. can still manage a gamepad. no pc support of gamepad for me 1... didn't bother to check for me2. HA! Good Fun!

if me 1 were so close to perfect, the developers wouldn't have had to make any real changes... such as getting rid o' the mindless planet exploration you like so much. me 1 were enjoyable, but if you can't see the flaws you ain't looking... or you is willful oblivious. to get the ratings me 1 received from reviewers required vol level myopia. as for advertising... *shrug* am personally not concerned with numbers of additional sales. more significant to Gromnir is that the publisher clear ain't thinking of me 2 as a niche product for a smallish sub-group of gamers. HA! Good Fun!

2 quick observations... 1) reviewers is hamstrung by their review of me1 if a reviewer gave me 1 +90%, then assuming me 2 is a better game they gotta give me 2 better than +90%, no? some o' the reviews for me 1 were ridiculous high; the game were good, but it weren't as orgasmic as many reviewers suggested. would have been more surprised if bioware hadn't fixed some o' the obvious busted stuff from me 1. 2) just witnessed a me 2 commercial that were shown after the 2-minute warning of the nfc championship game. wow. that is a premier advertising slot. am recalling when crpg were considered niche. HA! Good Fun!

you gots a fully realized fantasy setting with political and religious factions that is intriguing if not genuine compelling. am not certain that "dark & gritty" is an applicable or appropriate descriptor, but there is some portions and aspects that is, at the very least, darkER than previous bio games. is standard fantasy with some minor horror aspects thrown into the mix... is no aspect of the gameworld that amazed Gromnir. on the other hand, after we had finished playing we were curious 'bout, and had anticipation regarding, locales and peoples that were described only briefly during the course o' the game. the fact that we finished the game hungry to uncover more o' the world map in future da games is, in our humble estimation, a good sign. is not all that original or dark or... anything. HA! Good Fun! ps didn't like da elves. implementation were too schizophrenic, particularly the dahlish. the writers demanded that we sympathize with elves. the writers wanted us to see the dahlish as a proud people. *snort* one of the dahlish quest is to aid or hinder a timid and impotent hunter in winning the heart of a fair maiden. developers gots a handful of characters and quests to develop the Character o' the dhalish, and they waste resources on a banal and vapid little teen romance scenario? am having a hard time sympathizing with the Biowarins regarding material cut from da if they consciously chose to save such trite and inane piffle as we saw in the dahlish portion of the game.

hmmmm the main quest were hit & miss as is typical o' most bioware games. there were a few "wtf" moments for Gromnir; some quest resolutions either felt incomplete or just plain wrong. nevertheless, for the most part, we didn't feel as if the main quest were noteworthy for its crapulance. there were genuine only one portion o' the game that made us feel as if we were playing some kinda diablo-clone exp grind, and ironically, as much as we loathed the repetitive darkspapwn swarms (in tunnels), the dwarfy stuff were our favorite portion o' the game. but yeah, if the combat (in tunnels) had been differentiated a bit more, then we suspect that we woulda' liked the dwarf portion to an even greater degree. the story makes sense, but some characters behave... strangely. those wtf moments we reference earlier were far too common and most were related to our inability to accept the behavior o' key party and non-party npcs; it makes us wonder how the biowarians edit their writing. am aware that canadians is a polite people, so perhaps they is too courteous to tell fellow writers that a story or character has as many holes as a vol argument. level scaling was... odd. is our understanding that most portions o' game didn't utilize level scale. however, the aforementioned tunnels supposed had scale. likewise, Gromnir is certain that the denerim thugs scaled. additionally, at least a few random encounters scaled. the scale in the tunnels and the back alleys o' denerim were tuned a bit higher than Gromnir believed were appropriate, but even so, there simply weren't that much scale in the game. given the size o' the game, Gromnir experienced very few noticeable bugs. however, as the rules/game mechanics is hidden from Gromnir, there ain't no way for Gromnir to identify if some peculiarities were the result o' bad design or bugs. the most common bugs in d&d games is simple data entry mistakes: fire balls do wrong damage, charm spell has faulty duration, flamberge o' unholy darkness does lightning damage 'stead of cold, etc. is no way to check such stuff in DA. that being said, it sounds as if the DLC resulted in more bugs for people than were evident in the core game. go figure. the end were meh... sorta. the denouement were handled okie dokie, but the climax, and the couple hours of gameplay leading up to the climax, sucked. however, in spite of its Many flaws, Gromnir enjoyed da very much. we played through the entirety o' the game in a short period o' time, a task which required more than a few marathon sessions ending 'round 2:30 am. and while we did not manage a second complete playthrough, but that were 'cause o' rl concerns and responsibilities. am gonna concede that we were disappointed with the impact (non-impact) o' the origins later in the game, and we loathe da's hidden and seeming counter-intuitive rules/mechanics. even so, we do not regret the purchase and play of da... not one bit. HA! Good Fun!

even if the interviewer is a moron it don't mean that his info is worthless. is the reason why Gromnir bothers to read your posts in spite of your... handicap. as for the topic at hand, Gromnir don't like the notion o' the pc only having access to 6 skills... unless there is Far fewer skill points available in the pool. choice o' class becomes more important? how is that good? is a level 1 decision in a 40 hour game. now, because o' the ridiculous number o' skill points available to me-1 characters you end up with same result by an alternative route: all characters of same class end up looking pretty much identical. if you are able to max virtual every skill, then it don't matter if you got 6 skills or 60. everybody looks similar and character development choices after level-up become less meaningful... is the reason we hated original d&d... once you roll attributes and choose class you pretty much end choice. HA! Good Fun!

Poorly trained paramilitaries are hardly the threat you seem to think they are. Besides, if there's a revolution, it will have an appearance of propriety. Your reaction would seem disproportionate and wild to most. A revolution here is not going to occur tomorrow in some kind of socialist putsch. It will be the product of a generation's work, and of months of hard labor before the actual act. In 1904, it would seem as bizarre and insane to think of a socialist Russia as it is today to think of a socialist America. No sense of humor! Evidently you did not get it, you are the one who said there are no rights that are sacrosanct. Gun owners beleive the right to keep and bear is. So the ones who beleive in rights are the ones that own the guns. It was meant to be a little joke but I guess I did not set it up all that well. Besides, you strike me as a humorless fellow anyway. People who push for "second amendment rights" are usually nutcases. Give me one good reason why it should be an unquestionable right to own a device which exists almost exclusively to kill other people? 1) it is part of the constitution like it or not, it is a fundamental right on par with free speech. if you think it is antiquated then there is a process for getting rid of it. if it were genuine only nutcases who wanted to keep 2nd amendment, then it would have been dumped a long time ago. the problem with gun-control nutcases is that they know they can't swing an amendment, so they tries to pull off legal sleight o' hand without considering what that would mean to the OTHER fundamental rights. use commerce clause to render the second amendment impotent? well, then what is to stop folks from using the commerce clause to try and render the first or eighth amendments meaningless? 2) the US is the product o' a revolutionary government right to bear arms were important to founding fathers not only to has an effective militia, but also 'cause folks like patrick henry knew that a well-armed citizenry is more difficult to push around. sudden create an oppressive tax without the approval o' The People? founding fathers knew that with armed colonials the tax man would feel far less secure in trying to collect. create a 2010 law to dispossess hillbillies from their land in the ozarks? *chuckle* good luck. 2nd amendment is not needed now, but 2nd amendment weren't created for now. imagine instead an oppressive federal government that is draconian and abusive. 2nd amendment makes Future revolutionaries and armed dissenters more possible and the founding father thought that such were a good thing. you only asked for one, but Gromnir is generous. HA! Good Fun!

What a bum. I guess I'll be sticking with Lelianna. Er... things didn't turned out the way I'd planned, actually. After the drudgery that is the "final battles", Suddenly, before I could take a single step, a cutscene started and Damn, was I ticked off! am thinking that we is more disturbed by Di reaction than we is by the bio implementations. the two-timing trollop character she decides to play manages to be perturbed by allistair's selfishness AND by his unalterable sacrifice and confession o' love. ... is not that Di's reasoning is incomprehensible, is just disturbing in the same way we find much of female reasoning to be... peculiar. HA! Good Fun!

So it's an acceptable self-dellusion? Well unless you're one of the initiated, and then well you know, because you've had it proven to you... It's all against reason. love. honor. beauty. faith. none o' the aforementioned gots any objective reality... is all pleasant self-delusions. at least for Gromnir, those things worth dying for... those things worth Living for is all no more than self-delusion. we do not feel the least bit diminished by our admission o' self-delusion. HA! Good Fun!

hypothetical: Gromnir creates a rather unoriginal Moral Philosophy that exhorts folks to be kind to one another. however, because we claims that we is speaking the Word of God our philosophy becomes a religion... the fact that there is some wackiness in our philosophy (believers should avoid orange skinned fruit as such vegetation carries with it the seeds of human downfall, the world will end on july 7, 2777 at 7am gmt, etc.) actually aids in our philosophy being embraced as a religion. 100 years after Gromnir is dead and buried, the ironic named Church of Orange commits many heinous acts o' violence while managing to become the world's second largest private owner o' real estate holdings. followers of Gromnir's religion systematic kill buddihst monks, cal-trans workers, and sunkist employees. question: is the moral philosophy o' Gromnir busted 'cause o' the actions o' his followers? HA! Good Fun! ps the bible is an interesting read and as it is arguable the most influential written work in the western world, it is worth study. the bible is also frequently as wacky and self-contradictory as a vol post.

... we would argue with some on your list, but am not having the energy. even so, am glad we weren't drinking when we read the above... woulda' sent kool-aid shooting across our monitor screen. HA! Good Fun!

no i don't. taks sure you do, but we will have to agree to disagree... and while we agree with the " i think it could easily be better than what we have now (certainly communism isn't better)." you still ain't provided even the smallest fraction o' a solution. get govt. out causes at least as many problems as it solves and is really no different than lof advocating a solution by calling to get rid of the capitalists. let market conditions determine minimum safety and health guidelines? really? again, back when triangle shirtcoat factory fired happened there were far less government entanglement in business... and virtual 0 fed entanglement. *shrug* distinguish 'cause of depression or immigration and suggest that such times is aberrational? okie dokie, but is looking like most of USA history is looking aberrational, which would be silly, no? gentleman farmers is a nice prosaic picture (if inaccurate) but even if we ignore slave labor (which is offensive but fair) that were pre-capatalism. weren't no capital, just land. you got 100 years between mid 1800s and the mid 1900s during which workers fared... well, how does you think they fared before the socialists started mucking things up? we already has your admission regarding how bad things were during the depression, and upton sinclair writes The Jungle in 1906-- is a good read and is supported by considerable documentation to be showing how the Chicago meatpacking plants operated. Triangle shirt were 1911 and subsequent investigations revealed that Triangle were norm more than the exception. The Pullman strike were 1890-ish and the Haymaker strike/massacre were in the 1880s (?). am not gonna guess how many railroad workers died during late 1800s and early 1900s. the famous lochner case informed us that a max 60 hour work week were unconstitutional (which were good law but hardly a boon for all those teen and pre-teens working in textile factories at the time.) sorry tak, but largely unrestrained capitalists were given near 100 years to show how protective and wise they could be regarding their most valuable resource: workers. unrestrained capitalism is what made the communist bogey-man something other than a bad joke. working conditions got bad enough and the democratic process were impotent in bringing 'bout change til it appeared that an eventual worker's revolution were not only possible, but inevitable. Gromnir is a big fan o' capitalism, but am not gonna delude self into believing that the the capitalist gear-works ain't using the blood of workers to keep moving. without government intervention, the average worker is at the mercy o' capitalists and market forces. but heck, am personally ok with a system that is unsympathetic towards the unlucky or the unmotivated. our humble beginnings, and our refusal to accept govt. aid at any level, is personal proof that peoples can succeed. am a dyed-in-wool and unapologetic will to power proponent... but am not dishonest 'bout it. HA! Good Fun!

not idealized? hmmm. sadly, you have backwards regarding law. as already noted, law is, by its very nature, govt. intervention. how you fix law by getting govt. out of the picture? insurance might indeed be "fixed" by a withdrawal o' govt. intervention. of course at that point it would go back to being a luxury that only the extreme wealthy could afford. small business ventures, which is already risky, would become even far more likely to fail. "in a system that was not as intermingled as ours is the shirt factory guy would have been charged with negligent homicide for creating the conditions that resulted in the fire (uh, i'm assuming people died - i don't otherwise know the details). either way, this is not a result of capitalism. it is, if anything, a result of the corruption of capitalism by allowing government into business affairs. " lots of assumptions, and more than a few flaws. there were no negligent manslaughter in 1911. you assume that we would have negligent manslaughter w/o govt. intervention? why? you ain't seen how laws develop organically, has you? also, regardless o' the criminal charges, in 1911, when there were far less govt. intervention than there is now in the areas o' corporate insurance and worker safety claims... the families o' the individuals who died (+140 or so) won their civil case and were awarded approx. $100... and no matter how much you wanna talk 'bout inflation, that is still a pittance. am pretty sure that the insurance company actually paid more than they were obligated to as a result o' public outcry. "i've read, btw, that the reason she and her lawyers went for the throat was they originally stonewalled even requests for insurance payments, but i don't buy that as a legitimate excuse." is not a matter of "going for the throat." punitive is not based on how much the person suffered. punitive damages is, as the name implies, a way o' punishing the defendant. how much o' a fine would it take to get taks to keep his dog from crapping in our yard? a couple hundred bucks... maybe a couple thousand? what is McDonalds is our neighbor instead o' taks? what sorta a fine is necessary to alter McDonald's behavior? (Gromnir has actually used the poop-on-the-lawn shctick in the past... show tak's yearly income on a blackboard/whiteboard... then show McDonald's yearly revenues below. same amount o' zeroes it takes to make tak's income = McDonald's is what we adds to the poop-on-the-lawn hypothetical fine. juries like the simplicity). 'course, without those govt. interference punitive, then the little old lady, is pretty much limited to actual damages. how much you think the little old lady can show in actual damages related to a burned lap from coffee? what lawyer is gonna take such a case? you think is different for employee and employer? what lawyer is gonna take the average employee case if is over a matter of a few hundred or thousand bucks? get rid of those govt. intervention class action suits... since we is all in the show-me stage, how do you intend to fix the legal system so it protects workers and is less dependent on govt. intervention and then mayhap we will not call your notions idealized... 'cause while am certain that you beleive that what you is asking for is simple or reasonable, from our perspective it does sound utopian. HA! Good Fun!

"if someone gets hurt, and you get sued, yes. of course, the system in many countries is broken to the point there is no recourse, as lare has conveniently pointed out (which proves MY point, einstein) for us. even in the US the red tape involved (a result of government interference) severely limits workers' ability to effectively respond to such situations." ... if capitalism is necessarily tied to an idealized legal system to function, then that is another flaw. legal systems is, by their very nature, govt. intervention. as opposed to letting two parties negotiate their own resolutions on an ad hoc basis (with the predictable and unacceptable likelihood of resulting violence), we gots State imposed rules, regulations, and penalties. also, Gromnir has never seen/witnessed an ideal civil legal system, so am not sure what one might look like. in theory, law protects the powerless from the powerful, and without any legal system the folks who would suffer most are indeed the powerless. however, am not sure what kinda resources you is willing to provide to fix the legal system... and how you intend to fix. regardless, is a State intervention fix. GE and Microsoft can hire teams o' lawyers. am guessing you could "kill all the lawyers" but that would even further skew the odds in favor o' the corporate haves. with no lawyers, the lone worker/employee probable has less resources with which to mount an effective case 'gainst an employer. is insurance the problem? many corporations are able to effectively indemnify themselves from serious financial loss resulting from non-punitive legal losses. 'course, that is another aspect that should be self-correcting in a capitalist system. obviously the insurance rates should rise enough to discourage corporations from doing wrong by employees. we would be interested to see this work right in practice. no punitive damages? punitive damages is the reason why we gots a multi-million dollar reward 'cause some old lady burns herself with coffee at a McDonald's drive-thru. is punitives necessary for a good legal system? no... hell no. 'course without punitives we gots company bean counters who is able to put a relative low price on the price o' a single lost eye or limb... or life. democracy fixes everything perhaps? after all, there is more workers than ceos, so it should mean that the workers can get laws enacted to protect themselves from business exploitation, no? let us know when that happens. the triangle shirtwaist factory fire occurred in 1911... before the depression. two years after the fire, the initial civil trial, and considerable public outcry, Max Blanck (owner of Triangle) was arrested for some o' the same safety violations that led to the initial fire. am recalling that he were fined approx. $50. it were only when conditions got horrendous bad during the depression that laws were enacted and changed. honest. if you is depending on legal system to adequately correct the predictable power gulf between the corporation and the worker, then you is being more than a little optimistic. the Harrison Bergeron approach o' communism is naive in the extreme, but am honestly not seeing any absolute faith in undiluted capitalism either. people is greedy and short-sited whether they is corporate or worker. expecting corporate entities to conform to some minimum level o' decency because it is ultimately in their own self-interest ignores the history of corporate stoopidity AND success. regardless, is not practical to depend on the courts to fix. even the best legal system... sucks. HA! Good Fun! lof, one o' the reasons you ain't taken serious is statements such as the following: "Oh, so it's not a linear function, thus rendering your point about it being in their best interest to pay more so they don't have to higher more irrelevant nonsense? I would never have guessed. rolleyes.gif" am not sure what posts you is reading, but your logic is horrible. as much as we disagree with taks on some stuff, you is engaging in straw man and circular arguments ad a host o' other wacky fallacies and foibles without restraint. pay people more to work harder? sure. what does that have to do with effort = productivity. ... a few years ago, Gromnir were asked to help "fix" a Japanese law firm. if effort had equaled productivity, they woulda' been world beaters. with the exception o' a few individuals, these folks had gambatte tattooed on their soul, but they were crippled by social, personal and corporate politics and their "organization" were self-defeating. we found out during our brief stay in Japan that most Japanese offices is similarly Charlie Fox'd. has minions doing a single prescribed task flawlessly ad nausem? yeah, the Japanese are great at such stuff, but it is scary how crippled they is by the possibility o' failure. bah. whatever fear we mighta' had o' the Japanese corporate juggernaut were dispelled by a brief dose o' reality. cars and steel? sure. information age innovation and adaptability? *chuckle* you wanna know what was the kicker? we were informed both before and after our little consulting adventure that nothing at the Japanese firm would change... everybody would work super hard to implement suggested changes, and as soon as the consultants were gone, things would go back to the way they was before we arrived. Gromnir asked, "so why did you bring me in as a a consultant if you knew from the start that nothing at the firm would change?" our friend smiled enigmatically and replied, "You do not understand the Japanese." Gromnir were tempted to punch her... really. if Gromnir were a boss we would rather have +50 employees who would gargle with broken glass if we asked 'em to do so... as 'posed to +50 typical American office workers who thinks fridays is always a half day. nevertheless, anybody that thinks effort = productivity is nuts. also, Gromnir ultimately don't give a damn 'bout effort, less it impacts morale or end product. if bob can be a slacker and get more accomplished in 1 day than bill does in 3, then if Gromnir can squeeze two days worth o' effort from bob during a 5 day work week, what is our motivation to keeps bill around? effort? who cares 'bout effort? we want results.

of course. we're talking about an extreme circumstance in which the demand for goods dropped to almost nothing, and the supply of workers shot through the roof. when 20%+ of your workforce is suddenly on the streets, there will be problems with any system. exactly. this, of course, has nothing to do with capitalism. taks it is precisely those horrible and catastrophic scenarios that inspire folks to embrace an alternative system. heck, lof will argue that it were unrestrained capitalism that led to the great depression in the first place... and more than a couple experts would agree with him. is now 80 years after the start o' the Great Depression and we still sees new theories emerging 'bout causes. even so, ignoring the Great Depression, history shows us that the normal economic cycles does have some pretty extreme peaks and valleys, and a system that not account for such is flawed. today, given the current economic climate, the average office stiff is gonna need to be foolish or brave to says "no" to working on weekends, and Gromnir has seen many new faces at the local soup kitchen where we volunteers. heck, am betting that many of us experienced a much more reserved company/business/firm christmas party this year than in years past. every business is looking for ways to cut fat, and the single largest Cost o' virtual any business is employees. cut employees. cut benefits. cut safety? why not cut safety or workman's comp? is not sound business to indulge in such stuff if it will put you out of business, right? am not seeing a reemergence of Triangle Shirt Company mentality, but without government interventions the motivation for companies to treat employees decent understandably takes a back seat to survival instinct. terrible economic conditions is inevitable. a system that not work in bad conditions is flawed... 'course communism is just as bad/worse, 'cause the only times sane and rational folks would seriously consider communism is when economic conditions is catastrophic. HA! Good Fun!

"The workforce will do what is in its best interest and so will the corporation, as it should. " not true. workforce and corporations is myths. ultimately, people make decisions, not workforce or corporations. golden parachutes and quarterly report myopia is not in the best interest of a corporation, but it may be best for the members o' the board. 'course, individual workers is no less greedy and self serving than capitalists. middle-class socialist punks who has never worked a +10 hour day doing back-breaking manual labor has some pretty peculiar notions 'bout workers. is the problem with both communism and capitalism: they fail to adequately consider human nature. as between the two, communism would seem to be more grounded in naivety than capitalism, but capitalism also ignores some obvious truths about human nature and human intelligence. even so, there IS a functional insurmountable gulf between capital producing and resource producing Nations, but your average modern socialist is 'bout 100 years out of touch. HA! Good Fun!

bulimics and anorexics is in constant danger o' heart problems, particularly if they abuse laxatives and diuretics. no doubt you have seen in the news: a healthy high school football player dies during practice... find out latter that due to insufficient potassium and electrolytes an otherwise healthy kid is dead. your average abuser o' laxatives and diuretics is creating the same potassium deficiencies, but the difference is that the bulimic and anorexic is complete aware of what they is doing to themselves. Gromnir has never met a person with bulimia or anorexia that had a healthy blood pressure/heart rate. anorexia and bulimia is emotional disorders, but tests doctors typical employ is electrocardiogram (to check for abnormal heart rhythms) and blood tests (to check electrolyte levels). shouldn't be much o' a surprise that folks with eating disorders such as anorexia and bulimia might keel over and die from heart attacks. is actual more surprising that the number o' bulimic and anorexic deaths due to heart problems is as low as it is. have met more than one person with an eating disorder that expressed surprise and disappointment that they had not yet died of a heart attack... it doesn't make sense, but somehow the person with the eating disorder feels less guilty 'bout killing self by inches than they does 'bout an overdose o' sleeping pills or slit wrists. would not surprise us in the 'least if ms. murphy suffered from an eating disorder. would not surprise us if it were discovered that she had suffered from heart problems related to an eating disorder.

Yeah, same store that sells the super regulated, hard to get, lyrium to anyone who waltzes in from the street The setting doesn't really appeal to me. It just never 'clicked' in my mind. Most of my companions area a bit on the two dimensional side too, making Dog, Sten and Zevran my favourites. Some of the things in the game that do shine are those little details that you notice and often forget afterwards, like the extras in a movie. Some of the non-joinable npcs are just priceless, like Dagna who wants to study the theory of magic or the wonderful duo (Herren and Wade) in Wades Emporium. I guess "discovery" is the main appeal for me in the game ... am betting that you is a big fan of monty python. as for Di, the best way to remove unwanted mods is the extreme approach: backup your saved games and uninstall da. the extra 20 minutes it will take to complete reinstall da is your best bet for insuring that your helmet-mod is real and truly gone... and is the same advice we has heard dozens o' times from developers of other games that has been modded by well-intentioned fans. HA! Good Fun!