DanJW

Good find! Not to mention that the same virus programs etc seeded by police could also be used by criminal hackers.

Did this come up already in a different tread? In any case there were other reports earlier last year that employers were looking favourably on people in WoW guilds, as they require quite high levels of organization, cooperation and management techniques. edit: also I believe that one of the comments in the thread of that article points out why the 'news' story is a bunch of shite. It's basically one guy speculating wildly. edit edit: that comment was in the original blog post that spawned this story. Well done The Guardian on your wonderful levels of research. You just turned a rumour into a news story.

I like your reasoning. Have you considered politics?

Forget Superman! I want to see it in the next Bond movie! It would make a great update to the union-jack parachute opening of The Spy Who Loved Me.

Nick, the no doubt have crazy sponsorship. I'd be up for it! Who of you will sponsor me?

We accidentally the whole log_out.

Who would want to log out?

Talking of Microsoft... This year's Royal Institution Christmas Lectures were about computing. I caught my mother watching them and she found it fascinating - I don't think she'd ever really wondered how computers work before. Anyway, Bill Gates joined in via satellite link, to answer kids' questions (although he evaded a lot and didn't really say anything very much in the end). If you're not familiar with the Christmas Lectures I highly recommend them. They are aimed at secondary school children, although the science is a lot more 'truthful' then most stuff on school curriculums and explains things that most teachers would struggle with. Plus they do entertaining experiments like swing a huge steel pendulum an inch away from the lecturer's face (to demonstrate the predictable nature of classical physics). In any case I always enjoy them.

It's the Millennium Bug! It's late.

Me thinks the lady doth protest too much....

No no, you're good. That section is pretty well done and can be negotiated in several different ways, with no particular Right Way. She was probably pissed off because her father had her interrogated as to your whereabouts and you didn't come to her rescue. You can feel guilty about that if you want to.

Karimi!! Also: Having said that I enjoyed the game a lot.

Games here are hideously overpriced, mainly just because they can get away with it (same as with PC hardware). Amazingly, even priced in Euros, Steam will probably still be cheaper than UK stores (where the prices are nearly the same figures as above, but in pounds sterling...)

What? A bunch of years passed in Fahrenheit? I'm pretty sure it was only a few weeks or months: Not that it means it didn't fail to convey that. I've always found the Metal Gear Solid games to be pretty good in giving me a clear sense of time and events. It's a bit like the TV series 24, in that time is critical and so every hour and day is counted. I think RPGs do suffer especially from the weakness you describe. Probably because the nature of the events, travel and character progression would logically take much longer than they appear to in game-time.

Most epic. Splash screen. Ever.

Are you sure he's not confusing her with Amy Winehouse? I get them mixed up all the time.

Sexy Mental Patient lol

I know what you mean Toblix; most game writers have a hard time writing evil protagonists - like you say it rarely makes sense and most of the time comes across more like a brainless school-yard bully than actually evil. The only previous RPG I've played where the 'dark side' path made sense is Mass Effect. I intended to play Fallout 3 as neutral, but winded up having lots of good karma. However the impression I got is that the negative karma pathway is pretty well done. The whole setting is amoral anyway, with survival being placed above everything else. There's some nice little roleplay perks hidden in there too - I took "child at heart" which gives you extra dialogue with children... and it turned out that more often than not that extra dialogue is geared towards theft and finding out things you shouldn't.

While the link to ethics is a sound hypothesis, it's wrong to say that it has "stood the test of evolution". It hasn't been around long enough to be affected by biological evolution, and as a meme it is more behavioural than genetic so the same mechanisms may not apply. Even then, evolution can throw up some artefacts, like men's nipples (they need to form in case the foetus turns out to be female, but if it is male then they have no purpose). Religion could be the cultural equivalent of a man's nipple. edit: Brkl, actually there are sound philosophical atheistic reasons for acting in a moral manner. Game Theory is, coincidentally, an excellent place to start if you want to read into the matter. Of course early humans didn't have Game Theory.

I think that's a bit harsh. The game is still years away - the footage at this point will be only slightly more than test anims. As for the story - yeah story isn't as utterly devoid from other MMOs as they make out. But since that is the major complaint by non-MMO players, it makes sense for Bioware to call out to that audience early on (they have already said they are trying to get new MMO players rather than just steal them from WoW and other existing games). Of course there are still plenty new things that could be done with story in an MMO, and with their RPG experience Bioware could well be the best people to do it. The potential of the companion NPCs alone has me excited. As for the actual MMO gameplay part - well I have nothing at all to go on. Almost every MMO has teething troubles with the engine and balance it seems.

Keeping with this rapidly evolving thread, I read some fascinating essays a little while ago about the so called "Lost Colony" of Roanoke, the first British colony in America that disappeared with little trace. I can't remember where the essays I read were (in print I think), so here's the wikipedia article. From my reading of it, sounds like they got caught up in an inter-tribal war. I also find it fascinating that the missing included the first British child born on American soil.

Heh, that is fairly provable up to a point. Of course it becomes less believable depending on what you think ley lines are supposed to be. While the general understanding is that they are meant to be 'lines of force', there are other theories that they were simply ancient roads or water courses. And in that case it is logical that ancient worship sites would be well connected to any travel routes.

Yeah the Saint Nicholas connection is well known, and the one that the church promotes. But you have to ask yourself where the Sinterklaas figure traditions themselves came from. There are conflicting stories about the real historical figure and, as with Jean d'Arc and others, most of them were pre-existing before becoming attached to the christian saint. Christian saints tend to become conflated with their pagan god predecessors. Wherever you find a church dedicated to saint Michael, it is almost always on the site of a temple to a sun god like Lugh or Bran or Balder. Churches of the virgin Mary are on the sites of earth and fertility goddess associated areas. This list goes on, and Saint Nicholas happened to be conflated with Odin-type figures. The horse, the rod and the book are all Odin symbols, and the Zwarte Piets correspond to the Svartálfar ('dark elves') of Norse lore.

To be fair I think all the lyrics in that particular song are meant to be sarcastic and/or ironic. Which adds a smidgeon of freshness in that regard - not that the legions of fans will even notice and will probably take the song to be an endorsement of consumerism and fame-seeking. Good points about the voice though, I hadn't noticed that trick in the chorus. edit: actually Lily Allen is one of the better of the bunch (I think Duffy might be better than most too, but I can never bear to listen to the radio enough to form that strong an impression). She's consciously influenced by R&B but not derivative in that direction (just other directions). And how can you not like this video?

"It" is considered derogatory because it denotes an object or animal rather than a person. Or it has done for a long time. Marek, I've found that "she" has become the default when speaking of hypothetical people in non-fiction. Some authors even give over a sentence in the introduction or something to say so. I got used to it pretty fast. I guess it is pre-emptive feminism or something. Nowak, actually I really like "y'all". I use it occasionally, but I hadn't thought of it in this context. All it needs now is some tenses