Amentep

http://youtu.be/eak26ohx1Y8

As always greed? Its a best-selling book, if he wins he can collect a pay check... That or those alleged remarks closed doors for him, which he needs to be open. As I understand it, he filed the lawsuit while Kyle was still alive; death doesn't stop a lawsuit, it just means a loss would effect the estate.

To clarify things, Kickstarter is not a store. You didn't pay for a product that you are now not receiving. You paid for the game to be created. Obsidian has decided - unfortunately for you and me both - that in order to fulfill the spirit of the pledge rewards that they'll be going to a digital distribution for one of the promised physical items and adding in a bonus unknown physical item to make up the difference. I pledged for physical rewards simply because I don't have a good way to do anything online other than post to simple message boards anymore. And that's not going to change without me moving locations, it seems. So there were already certain digital rewards in my pledge that would never be accessible; in that sense I'm a bit disappointed that one of the physical rewards that I as looking forward to has now moved into that glorious "unachievable" state as several others. But at the end of the day, I paid to make the game. Having the game is my reward, the other stuff is just gravy. Not really, I have blank DVDs. A connection that would actually download a media file of any length is what I lack. If Obs can put that in my shipment, I'd appreciate it.

Nope, not everyone. Just the less-annoying ones. Specifically for DA1 Alistair and Morrigan were only romance-able by opposite gendered Wardens. Leilana and Zevran were romance-able regardless of Warden gender. Race was never considered, as far as I recall. In DA2, each romantic interest were always interested in the Champion in the primary game (Anders, Fenris, Merrill, Isabella) but DLC companion Sebastion is only romance-able by opposite gendered Champion.

Coca-Cola has received criticism from an ad campaign recently for Diet Coke where the tag line was "You're On". Because some of the ads read "You're On. Coke" and people complained that it was promoting a drug abuse life-style.

you had me until about here I agree with him that IWD is better than BG2. I really liked BG2, but when it came down to which one I was more likely to replay, it was IWD. Now obviously there are things that BG2 does really well (and the whole companion thing IWD doesn't bother with) and if those are things you prize highly in a game I can certainly see why BG2 would rate higher. But in terms of the actual gameplay, I rate IWD better to me. I think that when people assume that a corporate entity has an "attitude", they'll end up in the wrong simply because a corporation is not alive even though it behaves as a living thing. The great Leviathan and as one, made of people who are ultimately who decide and influence said attitude. Without being privy to the internal culture inside BW all we can do is speculate. If I had to point something out it would be the thematic differences in their works, BW has become more about the romances/companion based narrative driven games and Obs keep doing unique RPGs and being awesome at it. Organizations do have a culture, and that culture can permeate anything. I don't think its unfair to say that culture can foster a mindset that is projected to the customer via the employees. Thus an "attitude". Multiple factors create that - its a gestalt projection, of course, of organizational culture, employees, policy and procedure all meeting and mingling. But its there even if its an unintended consequence of group psychology. I think this is an easy way for them to tie their continuity together, to be honest (even if - based on the nature of the way the series develops, the continuity is fairly loose) Pretty sure that I've seen it in the E3 DA:I interview Mike Laidlaw did. I prefer History of the World Part 1 Inquisition jokes.

In a perfect world, there would be a main DS series that keeps close to the spirit of gameplay of the original games, and side games that can explore different types of gameplay (like DS3) did. I think, in many ways, the biggest flaw in marketing DS3 was it being named DS3 instead of Dungeon Siege: Subtitle. It just brings in too many expectations the game wasn't intended to meet.

Isn't it all kind of moot since the EU as a whole has been declared non-cannon by the new STAR WARS heads?

Bioware Obsidian Well, they both use the letter "O", "B", "A" and "I". Other than that, they're completely different.

*snorts* it does. But then it replaces blue with pink, not white with pink.

Weirdly I still like Bio games (even if I admit that many have varying degree of issues) but I left their forums long ago (even before the infmaous "romance Bethany" thread, my connection with the place was tenuous at best; I just never gelled with the community there after the very early days). So I'm looking forward to DA:I, to be honest.

Yeah Mage Hawke in DAII doesn't make sense with the setting realistically (but then again neither Bethany or Anders seem to make much of an impression on the Templars of Kirkwall - Bethany even using magic as part of the party when trying to get into Kirkwall infront of the Templars!). It makes even less sense when you can actually become a blood mage... I accept it as a the "gamest" part of the game allowing character creation, but it doesn't make a lot of sense, yeah. But then the only way to really have it work would be for Mage Hawk to have a separate storyline until the third year or so. That said, I think the "mages cannot inherit nobility" is specific to Fereldin, and Kirkwall is in the Free Marches.

Can't speak for all plans, but generally vision is broken into two categories. What medical insurance doesn't cover is vision correction (eyeglasses, contacts) but will cover medical related eye problems. My eye condition is covered by my medical insurance, despite me not having vision coverage.

THE MAGNETIC MONSTER (1953) - OSI (science agents, or A-Men) track a mysterious object creating radiation that kills AND magnetizes metal (including cars, planes, etc). Pretty unusual 50s Sci-Fi, part Dragnet, part-disaster film. Uses some interesting stock footage from the German film GOLD (1934) and stock shots of the old MANIAC computer* and UCLA's differential analyizer for fans of old science equipment. 1st of 3 OSI films from Ivan Tors. *this leads to one of the best lines in the movie, when Richard Carlson tells the police/military they're compiling data and feeding it to MANIAC, one of the police responds with "What maniac?" WARRIORS OF THE WASTELAND (1983) aka "The New Barbarians" - post apocalyptic sci-fi for those either (a) obsessed with dune buggies or (b) disappointed that THE ROAD WARRIOR played too coy with the homosexuality of the villains. Scorpion rejected joining the Templars (a group dedicated to killing all life because life caused the apocalypse) and instead he helps people while competing with Nadir (a super-warrior of the wasteland always looking for a fight). Pilgrims come through and are targeted for death by the Templars and the heroes try to save them. Some nice explosions and violence, really bad modded sci-fi cars, loads of goofy (and sometimes poorly explained) ideas and great bad dialogue (at least in the English language version). For example, the following during a speech from Templar villain, ONE: SHADOW: "The men I sent to make sure Scorpian was killed have returned!" ONE: "Punish those men, don't they know its against the rules to interrupt me?"

Mess up the 60s Captain America Cartoon theme song though - "When Captain America throws his mighty shield, All those who chose to oppose his shield must yield. If he’s lead to a fight and a duel is due, Then the red and the baby pink and the blue’ll come through. When Captain America throws his mighty shield." - just doesn't have the same ring to it.

Actually Duncan says Arl Eamon CAN send his troops in a weeks time. Just re-watched that bit (yeah the debate made me replay it). But you are right that Donall says the Arl was sick before the King fell. You could reconcile this thinking that Donall is saying that the Arl fell sick before word of Cailan's death reached Redcliff but it certainly isn't supported by what is said in the game. Duncan clearly saw a healthy Arl, though, since he doesn't mention the Arl being sick in any dialogue that I found. I don't see any support in game that Duncan and the Warden go to Redcliff. Duncan is clear in the voice-over they head south to Ostegar. Also from the way the game is made, the Warden is always picked up on the last stop. If Duncan already recruited someone from Redcliff - which he did since the Warden never met Ser Jory before Ostegar - why'd he go back to visit? The timeline with some of these events are unclear; I agree the stuff with Jowan seems hard to fit into a coherent timeline. If Jowan leaves the circle and the Future-Warden goes directly to Ostegar, then Jowan has be found by Loghain, and meet with Loghain to create the plot prior to the arrival of the Warden at Ostegar (since the Warden can meet Loghain there, Loghain has to be able to beat the Warden to Ostegar after meeting Jowawn and setting up the poisoning plot). Jowan has to be accepted as a tutor, show the kid something about magic (he tells the Warden he didn't teach him much so he had to do something), then poisons the Arl (some point prior to the death of Cailan). Its a pretty packed timeline from a mage-origin perspective. Bio probably should have done things a little different (like not made Jowan your pal, but used a different character, but have you talk about the disappearance of Jowan or something). The dialog I saw with Gregoir didn't imply he'd just sent a request for the right of anulment. Could have missed it though. It only said he was waiting the answer to the request. I don't think how long the mage's tower is under attack is an issue, though. There are going to be certain aspects of story that aren't going to directly match up because of the nature of a game than a strict narrative. Until you talk to the boat guy you don't know of the attack (so in theory, before you "trigger" it, the rumors of problems refer to the escape of Jowan). In a similar sense, the death of King Endrin was always three weeks ago, Redcliff was always attacked by undead not long before the Warden arrives and the Dalish people bitten by werewolves are sitting on those cots until the Warden shows up; that's just an aspect of the narrative being a game. Anyhow, with regard to Jowan, they do send Templars out after Jowan in the Mage origin, but without his Phylactary (destroyed in the Mage origin while the PC is there) he's just going to be a face in the crowd, assuming they ever see him *in* a crowd, since Loghain got him installed in the Arl's castle which typically isn't going to be the place you think he'd run to. I can concur the timeline of events from Jowan's escape to Jowan poisoning the Arl is not clear how it could have happened (unless you start supposing things outside the frame of reference of the game - including that Jowan is lying about meeting with Loghain).

As long as the companions are interesting and reactive, I don't feel that romance needs to be in the game. Not every story supports romance (nor should it).

I'm sure that type of health care might work well at the convent, but for the majority of the human race, sex and health go hand in hand. I think what WoD is referring to is that you don't have to have sex, whereas you can't, for example, stop your heart and wait for that clogged artery to unclog itself. Although then the argument shifts back to, in the case of heart disease (excluding genetic factors), whether poor diet is a choice (as many think it is) or an effect of socioeconomic factors (access to/cost of better, healthy food) combined with mental health issues (which - lets face it - aren't well treated in the US). Frankly I've always preferred the idea of hitting the pocketbooks of companies that do things we don't like by not supporting them to legislating them to do what we want them to do, although I acknowledge that sometimes legislation might be the only way to make it happen.

boooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooring Well...to be honest, I kinda am. I might eat something grilled.

She was supposed to be young for an Asari (106 years) and had thrown herself into proving her work after she'd broken with her mom. I'd suspect the intention was that she hadn't been in a romantic/sexual relationship before but I don't know if they come out and say that. And while I agree with the distinction you're making regarding the terminology of "bi-sexual" with regard to the characters in the game, I'm not sure that matters to the person making the initial arguments.

i. Okay, I'll go with that since my memory of it isn't strong. ii. Sure it is; your basic point - as I understand it - is that the game tells you up front the Darkspawn corrupt all they touch but that the game's don't bear that out. You're arguing, again as I understand it, that the game is changing its premise. I'm arguing that the game is showing us that the Chantry isn't right. iii. That's fine, I still don't see why it couldn't be a year, but to be honest I can't say it bothers me one way or the other when I'm playing the games. iv. Sure. And what the Chantry believe most of the human population believe. It doesn't make it true, but its difficult to fight against that belief. v. I didn't say it wouldn't. But even the Church would research the new relic just like the Catholic church researches supernatural phenomena to give a basis for Sainthood. vi. Well obviously we'll have the disagree; if the book establishes it did, somehow it did. vii. And what I'm saying is that what you see as "inconsistancies" are actually places where Bioware are telling us that what the Chantry says, what the Grey Warden's say may not be the truth. viii. Right. But you still need to get the Grey Warden to the Archdemon and you need the one Grey Warden to strike the final blow, so him dying before you get to that point would be bad. Like swooping. Right. I'd always assumed that much of this took place in the time that the Warden was unconscious following the Tower of Ishal where the Warden was "almost killed" followed by the time it takes to get out of the Wilds without getting caught by Darkspawn. I can't remember if Morrigan or Flemeth say specifically how long the Warden was out after being saved (is it just one day? Two?) but I do recall they say it may be difficult to get out of the Kokari woods after leaving Flemeth's protection and not be sensed by the Darkspawn. Since the remnants of the army have already passed by Lothering, I've always assumed it takes a bit of time to get out of the wilds. Lothering is already inundated with refugees fleeing the blight, as well. Since this is an assumption on my part, I have no clue if the game supports it.

i. Do Templars really cast magic, though? I confess, I never played much with the Templar template and never paid much attention to whatever Alistair was doing. ii. I don't trust the Chantry's account of anything in Dragon Age. They have too much self-interest (same as the Grey Wardens). Remember Duncan's line in the VO is "The Chantry Teaches Us..." which leaves a lot of room for uncertainty. iii. I don't see why it couldn't have been 1 year. iv. How did the Warden-Mage prove they weren't like the propoganda? The propoganda is, even a mage who is pure in heart can become during sleep possessed by fade demons and kill everyone. So the Warden-Mage defeats the Arch-Demon (either way) why does that tell the average, mage fearing population that the Warden-Mage has proven that Mages can't be randomly possessed by fade demons? Arguably, since Pride is a fade demon, the chantry believers would probably be thinking that it's entirely more likely having become a big-wig that the Warden Mage would fall. I'm not saying no one would think better of mages, but changing the views of people who have been propogandized by the chantry for at least 9 centuries isn't going to happen overnight, no matter how good the Warden-Mage was. All it would take is a town to be ransacked by blood mages and people would be "Yeah the Warden-Mage was awesome, but..." v. I wasn't trying to imply it wouldn't have impact, but we've already seen that long held Christian Icons (like the Shroud of Turin) are considered suspect. In fact I believe there was a recent "find" of part of the crucifixition cross that came under fire. Sure there's interest, but interest in this day and age is also tempered by doubt. And I don't agree that most people think Andraste is a myth in Thedas. There seems to be a lot of belief there. What the Chantry would want to do, however, is not announce the finding of the ashes before they'd confirmed it else they'd potentially create a situation where the site was ransacked before they had a chance to study (and control) it. vi. Don't read the novels, so can't make an argument about them. Having not read them, I'd have to assume that in some place the novels explain how the situation in Kirkwall lead to a larger Mage/Templar rebellion. vii. Well I'd rather not be forced to be a Grey Warden to be honest, and I don't trust their organization as a whole. viii. Yeah, DA:O where you have an army of people, 3 Grey Wardens (one who dies) and a party of "Awesome NPCs" to keep things going. And they still come close to loosing; the city is destroyed. And what if the other two died it, how would they stop the blight then if they only had 3? Imagine how dicey that scenario would be with one? Look I agree they don't NEED an army of grey warden. But having one is probably a better idea than not (and again, i think its in the Grey Warden's interest to make it seem like they need an army - it keeps their powerbase strong since, supposedly, they can't have children (morrigan-child notwithstanding) ix. Right, I know they were in the library. They'd have to be if they were to study them. Its only after the fact that it hits them they've been naive. As I recall, Duncan informs King Cailan that Arl Eamon is ready to send his troops if they wait a few days and it is Cailan who says that Arl Eamon just wants in on the glory and, essentially, they don't need him (oops). Remember the player & Alistair don't hear the Arl is sick until after they get out of the woods (in fact, if I remember correctly, not until after Alistair talks about the people they can recruit for the army after Lothering) Since Duncan's voice-over indicates that he and the PC left directly for Ostagar after the Origin was over, it indicates that Duncan was at Redcliff before the Player's Origin (which we know he was since one of the new recruits came from Redcliff). Arguably in that case, Jowan was captured by Loghain's men and met with Loghain while Duncan and the PC was headed to Ostagar. Jowan would have poisoned Eamon sometime after he arrived; we don't know how many days it took Duncan and the PC to get to Ostagar but we do know that Duncan would have been hampered in ways Jowan and Loghain may not have been with regard to travel.

In those kind of instances, yeah I agree.

IIRC, the penalty on Mage/Thief was that you could wear leather armor, but you couldn't cast spells wearing leather armor.

I'm not crazy about timed events, to be honest. I understand, logically, their appeal but they're off-putting to me when playing a game to feel like I *have* to do certain things by certain times, or I'm no longer allowed to enjoy my game/have to start over. It may not be realistic, but its what I like from games.