I've reached level 29 now after some relatively hard core sessions with only 2 days EGA. But I'm starting to see the variation as I have 3 of the full 5 companions available to each class now. So some people have droids, some have various alien races and some have human females/males. It does start to change as peoples preferences change.
From a story point of view, you could certainly play 2 of a class but you could do that with the 2 variations via the advanced classes that are available as your primary story is based on the initial 4 choice selection. That means you could play a Sith Juggernaut as a goody two-shoes and then a Sith Marauder as an evil bastard. The choices really do affect the quests in a way I've never experienced before in an MMO and I love that.
A completionist alt-lover may get through all the variations, but for me, 1-2 classes is all I ever bother with as I focus on one normally but I want to experience some of the differences, just the way every quest giver addresses Sith differently to bounty hunters or imperial agents is a lovely touch.
You are missing the obvious answer which is to simple ban religion and all the stupid my god is better than your god crap... Although, it may just become my football team is better than your football team, although the St.Louis Rams Crusades probably wouldn't get off the ground!
Holy cow, I'd give my left testicle for a 1 to 1 remake of Magic Carpet 2, just update the textures maybe and make sure it runs on Windows 7 and I will give you £40 immediately.
As an Englishman do you even read what you write and imagine how it sounds? You (USA) demanded a foreign national be handed over from a sovereign nation because you wanted to charge him and do any other stuff you can think of because you say so? Any government around the world should tell you to shut up and come back with something more substantial.
Seriously... Your America FUCK YEAH attitude reeks from the post. You have no right to destroy another nations government because terrorists attacked you. If 8 English guys had carried it out would you be in my town, tearing down my government because we "allowed it" to happen?
The world is a shit place to be sometimes, but America's actions in foreign nations are disgusting. The 3000 odd people didn't need to die, but America's response means I don't give a shit about what happened because what you have done is far far worse, including crippling your own economy with the costs of fighting. I think 80 something English people died (notice how I don't even know the number... because its a tiny number compared to say, cancer or road accidents) and the fact that we have been at war as your lap dogs for all these years is a total disgrace...
I don't mean this to be overly hostile to you directly, but more to your attitude that you had any right to respond in the way you have in Iraq and Afghanistan.
If somebody is competing in something, I physically or mentally could not do, and that is sufficiently impressive and tactical, with clearly defined rules and a objective. That sounds like a sport to me.
I don't know about other people, but this really doesn't phase me at all for two primary reasons:
It existed in D2 as a very shady underground, much rather it was supported properly if I was ever to want to sell anything. But mainly, they have specifically stated it won't be active in Hardcore mode, and to be honest, that's the only mode that matters to me and my friends. We will rush the original game to completion in order to start the Hardcore characters (if it behaves like D2 did pre-expac/patches) and then play the REAL game where the challenge is. I still have active games of D2 now, and am looking forward to D3, nothing I have seen yet puts me off.
My singular gripe with it is 4 players max in co-op, that will mean my friends and I will have to run multiple games instead of playing all together like before, which is sad.
These kind of things can only go one way. If people are forced to submit to iris scans on whim, how long before they become common practice to be scanned on entering public buildings, then private companies would latch on to the idea for staff checking, time clocking (a great love of many industries) next thing you know you are tracked around the city.
I know I am probably exagerating a little, but there's no good that can come from this. Living in the UK sometimes I dream that we had a beautiful document like the consitution that you have over in the USA, but it pains me to see a well crafted protector of the people being completely ignored on a daily basis. This TSA stuff, police filming, etc what the hell happened to the country where anyone could achieve anything through free enterprise. In the next couple of generations America is going to change a lot, and currently I don't see many good things in the pipeline. When I was a teen I used to think America was this super cool place I wanted to go to someday, now I don't want to fly there because I have a urostomy and I don't want to be felt up by some TSA agent etc. You've changed America and not in a cool fun way, in a scary as WTF is going on kinda way...
A "Soap Box" is an older saying for a box you stand upon to give a speech etc. In the context it really means you complain/preach/give speeches to the masses to try to change their minds.
He wants government sanctioned theft, it is a disgusting attitude that is present all over. Even in the UK I am hearing more and more about how we should steal other peoples money to pay for a failing public sector.
And people who felt this wasn't good enough security wouldn't fly. Then someone would start up an airline, maybe at first running one route per day on someone else s planes, and they would scan everyone or whatever, and all those that cared about security would use them, then the other people would catch on maybe some people want this, then you'd have high and low security flights as a choice to meet the markets desires. I personally would choose to fly on a low to medium security flight, I don't mind a no knives rule but I'd like to be able to take a drink on board.
I am totally fine with you killing yourself any way you want, I am a firm believer in personal responsibility and choice provided your actions do not harm others blah blah blah (you know the spiel)
What I am not fine with is as an Englishman I pay taxes into a public healthcare system, this guarantees when you keel over from some smoking related illness if you are fortunate enough to live in this decrepit countries economy rather than wherever you hail from you will be rushed to hospital at no charge, and made better as to the best of their abilities, at no charge, and then are able to keep smoking happily.
Now in a society of 2 people, I just paid for half of your health care, assuming all tax contributions between us were even. Why should I pay for half of your choice?
So yes, kill yourself with smoke, kill yourself with heroin, kill yourself with a gun to the head, I don't care. But I firmly believe that people who smoke should automatically "opt-out" of the NHS and be expected to buy their own health insurance, and if they don't have insurance I am fine with them being left alone.
Oh and if something else gets you, that honestly has nothing to do with your smoking, tough titties, consider it a risk of your habit.
p.s. This isn't directed personally at you, sub any "you" with "Smokers in general"
At one point during the TSL3 finals between 2 Swedish players (top prize $15,000) hosted by teamliquid.net in NYC there were over 65,000 people watching the stream in HQ and 20,000 or so in LQ it's not just them anymore:)
Everything you listed for Supreme Commander is why it is not a highly skilled professional gaming sport. Anyone stupid enough to mass queue marines in all their barracks won't be teching, or moving onto the next stage of their plan etc
Speed is rewarded, but not just speed, accuracy, formations? How boring is that to watch, I prefer to watch someone like Nani for example in the TSL finals control stalkers so carefully to beat an opponent
I cannot see how Supreme Command comes anywhere close to SC2 as a game that requires such control and speed and tactical thinking
How can you mention those two without a nod to Day9 ? He is by far the best thing in Starcraft commentating (alongside Artosis and Tasteless) google him and watch his 100th episode about his life in SC and why he does what he does on his daily, I used to love playing games all day long but now I'm 27 trying to make a career out of something I don't get the time to play hardcore like I used to so I love to watch the pro's.
It's definitely not "cool" like it was about 10-15 years ago when I was in school, now almost 30 there is one person in our social group that smokes, and he does that rarely when we are out because he can't be arsed to stand outside on his own. I love the smoking ban so much.
Not quite like that. You have your 4 primary callings. Warrior / Mage / Cleric / Rogue , under each is 7-8 "souls" which is essentially a tiered tree of skills, laid out almost exactly like a WoW tree.
If you choose Cleric for example, probably the most versatile, you can pick 3 souls through your normal leveling 1-10 (out of 50 levels) and then during your rifting you can unlock the 5 others you didn't choose. This is where the choice opens up. Any 3 of those souls can be active under 1 "role" (read spec) you can also pay to have 4 saved roles. So you can have 4 very different roles customized for different activities. The Cleric for example has a Main Tanking soul, 3 healing souls, 2 pure dps souls, and some more hybrid style ones. You could mix tank+group heals+dps, dps+tank+heal, dps+dps+hybrid, heal+heal+heal, all of these can be put together. You then get and to the even more complex part. You get 58 points over your trek to level 50 to spend in the trees, now each tree has around 55 points possible to spend in it, AND each point in a tree goes towards unlocking tree specific skills. So, you can do tri-spec's a little in each tree, pump one tree and unlock the 51 point "ultimate" or just go 30-40 points in one and pickup some starting abilities in the next trees.
OK typing that took longer than I thought, but it's a really interesting system and works quite well, it certainly gives the illusion of choice, but my level 30 rogue isn't end game so I can't comment on how much freedom people will really have inside the roles/souls/trees.
I had to take a stab at this, I'm from the UK and know most of my information on your government structure etc from the insightful/informative posts on here and the news/personal research, and my guesses are (without google I promise!)
Senate, House of Reps, and Courts
Once was an infinite number of times too much, now these days we gamers might complain that things were better in the past, but nothing smashes your immersion level and ruins the feeling on a new world to explore like someone saying, PLEASE PAY FOR MORE OF THIS GAME in the game itself.
Whilst that's an entirely fair comment, we are talking about an attack helicopter hovering a good distance away from the van. Who could they ambush? I know some reports said there was further action down the road and that they thought this group was setting up an ambush, but again that seems like excuses after the fact.
It would have been easy to wait another 1-2 minutes to see if the people in the van took up any sort of positions, rather than just ferrying people into the van surely? There was definitely not immediate threat to any ground or air targets.
The engagement of the people on the ground bothers me, but hey, that's a shit part of "War" and target identification, but what really gets me is the shooting of the van, and then the callous remark of them bring children into a war zone or something, bearing in mind it was my countries (UK) and the US soldiers that turned their homes and streets into that war zone.
If anyone watched the introduction to Blizcon this year Metzen did a great speech which I enjoyed where he would say "Geek is..." and then show a picture of something classic like a screenshot from a game, or a toy, and you'd hear the crowd react in different waves to the image. Then I realised the simple fact that I watched Blizcon is mostly what makes me a geek
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I've reached level 29 now after some relatively hard core sessions with only 2 days EGA. But I'm starting to see the variation as I have 3 of the full 5 companions available to each class now. So some people have droids, some have various alien races and some have human females/males. It does start to change as peoples preferences change.
From a story point of view, you could certainly play 2 of a class but you could do that with the 2 variations via the advanced classes that are available as your primary story is based on the initial 4 choice selection. That means you could play a Sith Juggernaut as a goody two-shoes and then a Sith Marauder as an evil bastard. The choices really do affect the quests in a way I've never experienced before in an MMO and I love that.
A completionist alt-lover may get through all the variations, but for me, 1-2 classes is all I ever bother with as I focus on one normally but I want to experience some of the differences, just the way every quest giver addresses Sith differently to bounty hunters or imperial agents is a lovely touch.
You are missing the obvious answer which is to simple ban religion and all the stupid my god is better than your god crap... Although, it may just become my football team is better than your football team, although the St.Louis Rams Crusades probably wouldn't get off the ground!
Holy cow, I'd give my left testicle for a 1 to 1 remake of Magic Carpet 2, just update the textures maybe and make sure it runs on Windows 7 and I will give you £40 immediately.
As an Englishman do you even read what you write and imagine how it sounds? You (USA) demanded a foreign national be handed over from a sovereign nation because you wanted to charge him and do any other stuff you can think of because you say so? Any government around the world should tell you to shut up and come back with something more substantial.
Seriously... Your America FUCK YEAH attitude reeks from the post. You have no right to destroy another nations government because terrorists attacked you. If 8 English guys had carried it out would you be in my town, tearing down my government because we "allowed it" to happen?
The world is a shit place to be sometimes, but America's actions in foreign nations are disgusting. The 3000 odd people didn't need to die, but America's response means I don't give a shit about what happened because what you have done is far far worse, including crippling your own economy with the costs of fighting. I think 80 something English people died (notice how I don't even know the number... because its a tiny number compared to say, cancer or road accidents) and the fact that we have been at war as your lap dogs for all these years is a total disgrace...
I don't mean this to be overly hostile to you directly, but more to your attitude that you had any right to respond in the way you have in Iraq and Afghanistan.
I am slightly creeped out that I heard that perfectly in my head...
If somebody is competing in something, I physically or mentally could not do, and that is sufficiently impressive and tactical, with clearly defined rules and a objective. That sounds like a sport to me.
I don't know about other people, but this really doesn't phase me at all for two primary reasons:
It existed in D2 as a very shady underground, much rather it was supported properly if I was ever to want to sell anything. But mainly, they have specifically stated it won't be active in Hardcore mode, and to be honest, that's the only mode that matters to me and my friends. We will rush the original game to completion in order to start the Hardcore characters (if it behaves like D2 did pre-expac/patches) and then play the REAL game where the challenge is. I still have active games of D2 now, and am looking forward to D3, nothing I have seen yet puts me off.
My singular gripe with it is 4 players max in co-op, that will mean my friends and I will have to run multiple games instead of playing all together like before, which is sad.
These kind of things can only go one way. If people are forced to submit to iris scans on whim, how long before they become common practice to be scanned on entering public buildings, then private companies would latch on to the idea for staff checking, time clocking (a great love of many industries) next thing you know you are tracked around the city.
I know I am probably exagerating a little, but there's no good that can come from this. Living in the UK sometimes I dream that we had a beautiful document like the consitution that you have over in the USA, but it pains me to see a well crafted protector of the people being completely ignored on a daily basis. This TSA stuff, police filming, etc what the hell happened to the country where anyone could achieve anything through free enterprise. In the next couple of generations America is going to change a lot, and currently I don't see many good things in the pipeline. When I was a teen I used to think America was this super cool place I wanted to go to someday, now I don't want to fly there because I have a urostomy and I don't want to be felt up by some TSA agent etc. You've changed America and not in a cool fun way, in a scary as WTF is going on kinda way...
A "Soap Box" is an older saying for a box you stand upon to give a speech etc. In the context it really means you complain/preach/give speeches to the masses to try to change their minds.
Burn the Heretic! Kill the Mutant! Purge the Unclean!
He wants government sanctioned theft, it is a disgusting attitude that is present all over. Even in the UK I am hearing more and more about how we should steal other peoples money to pay for a failing public sector.
And people who felt this wasn't good enough security wouldn't fly. Then someone would start up an airline, maybe at first running one route per day on someone else s planes, and they would scan everyone or whatever, and all those that cared about security would use them, then the other people would catch on maybe some people want this, then you'd have high and low security flights as a choice to meet the markets desires. I personally would choose to fly on a low to medium security flight, I don't mind a no knives rule but I'd like to be able to take a drink on board.
I am intrigued by your ideas and would like to subscribe to your newsletter
I feel sorry for your ' key, it was probably having a lazy Friday until you hammered it into oblivion!
I am totally fine with you killing yourself any way you want, I am a firm believer in personal responsibility and choice provided your actions do not harm others blah blah blah (you know the spiel)
What I am not fine with is as an Englishman I pay taxes into a public healthcare system, this guarantees when you keel over from some smoking related illness if you are fortunate enough to live in this decrepit countries economy rather than wherever you hail from you will be rushed to hospital at no charge, and made better as to the best of their abilities, at no charge, and then are able to keep smoking happily.
Now in a society of 2 people, I just paid for half of your health care, assuming all tax contributions between us were even. Why should I pay for half of your choice?
So yes, kill yourself with smoke, kill yourself with heroin, kill yourself with a gun to the head, I don't care. But I firmly believe that people who smoke should automatically "opt-out" of the NHS and be expected to buy their own health insurance, and if they don't have insurance I am fine with them being left alone.
Oh and if something else gets you, that honestly has nothing to do with your smoking, tough titties, consider it a risk of your habit.
p.s. This isn't directed personally at you, sub any "you" with "Smokers in general"
At one point during the TSL3 finals between 2 Swedish players (top prize $15,000) hosted by teamliquid.net in NYC there were over 65,000 people watching the stream in HQ and 20,000 or so in LQ it's not just them anymore :)
Everything you listed for Supreme Commander is why it is not a highly skilled professional gaming sport. Anyone stupid enough to mass queue marines in all their barracks won't be teching, or moving onto the next stage of their plan etc Speed is rewarded, but not just speed, accuracy, formations? How boring is that to watch, I prefer to watch someone like Nani for example in the TSL finals control stalkers so carefully to beat an opponent I cannot see how Supreme Command comes anywhere close to SC2 as a game that requires such control and speed and tactical thinking
How can you mention those two without a nod to Day9 ? He is by far the best thing in Starcraft commentating (alongside Artosis and Tasteless) google him and watch his 100th episode about his life in SC and why he does what he does on his daily, I used to love playing games all day long but now I'm 27 trying to make a career out of something I don't get the time to play hardcore like I used to so I love to watch the pro's.
It's definitely not "cool" like it was about 10-15 years ago when I was in school, now almost 30 there is one person in our social group that smokes, and he does that rarely when we are out because he can't be arsed to stand outside on his own. I love the smoking ban so much.
Not quite like that. You have your 4 primary callings. Warrior / Mage / Cleric / Rogue , under each is 7-8 "souls" which is essentially a tiered tree of skills, laid out almost exactly like a WoW tree.
If you choose Cleric for example, probably the most versatile, you can pick 3 souls through your normal leveling 1-10 (out of 50 levels) and then during your rifting you can unlock the 5 others you didn't choose. This is where the choice opens up. Any 3 of those souls can be active under 1 "role" (read spec) you can also pay to have 4 saved roles. So you can have 4 very different roles customized for different activities. The Cleric for example has a Main Tanking soul, 3 healing souls, 2 pure dps souls, and some more hybrid style ones. You could mix tank+group heals+dps, dps+tank+heal, dps+dps+hybrid, heal+heal+heal, all of these can be put together. You then get and to the even more complex part. You get 58 points over your trek to level 50 to spend in the trees, now each tree has around 55 points possible to spend in it, AND each point in a tree goes towards unlocking tree specific skills. So, you can do tri-spec's a little in each tree, pump one tree and unlock the 51 point "ultimate" or just go 30-40 points in one and pickup some starting abilities in the next trees.
OK typing that took longer than I thought, but it's a really interesting system and works quite well, it certainly gives the illusion of choice, but my level 30 rogue isn't end game so I can't comment on how much freedom people will really have inside the roles/souls/trees.
Marvel Vs. Capcom 3, insert disc, game loads, "This will now be installed to your HDD" or whatever it said.
I had to take a stab at this, I'm from the UK and know most of my information on your government structure etc from the insightful/informative posts on here and the news/personal research, and my guesses are (without google I promise!) Senate, House of Reps, and Courts
Once was an infinite number of times too much, now these days we gamers might complain that things were better in the past, but nothing smashes your immersion level and ruins the feeling on a new world to explore like someone saying, PLEASE PAY FOR MORE OF THIS GAME in the game itself.
Whilst that's an entirely fair comment, we are talking about an attack helicopter hovering a good distance away from the van. Who could they ambush? I know some reports said there was further action down the road and that they thought this group was setting up an ambush, but again that seems like excuses after the fact.
It would have been easy to wait another 1-2 minutes to see if the people in the van took up any sort of positions, rather than just ferrying people into the van surely? There was definitely not immediate threat to any ground or air targets.
The engagement of the people on the ground bothers me, but hey, that's a shit part of "War" and target identification, but what really gets me is the shooting of the van, and then the callous remark of them bring children into a war zone or something, bearing in mind it was my countries (UK) and the US soldiers that turned their homes and streets into that war zone.
If anyone watched the introduction to Blizcon this year Metzen did a great speech which I enjoyed where he would say "Geek is..." and then show a picture of something classic like a screenshot from a game, or a toy, and you'd hear the crowd react in different waves to the image. Then I realised the simple fact that I watched Blizcon is mostly what makes me a geek