Open Bar: We're going to build a bar, and make the drinks pay for it!

[Eater of Clowns]

Also, while I'm here: kids today want to bitch about "annoying fetch sidequests" in video games?

I have two more people to kill and I'll have completed Threads of the Webspinner.  You little shits are spoiled rotten.

I love quest markers and minimaps and path highlighting, but for all the guesswork and frustration they eliminate from games, they also destroy a certain element of immersion.

Even in an massive, well crafted, and masterful modern game, any gamer will complacently follow the little blip on the map to just get where they need to be. Why wouldn't you? And in doing so there's a certain element that's missed out on. It's why I think Morrowind is the strongest Elder Scrolls. No fast travel, and vague at best instructions, and you're not chasing around a little yellow marker, essentially letting the game do the work for you.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Alright, I've narrowed down my potential PhD research program to one of 8 proposals.  Like to get some thoughts:

1.  How did the National Socialist Underground go undetected for so long?  LE and intelligence implications in the wake of the NSU killings.

2.  The internationalisation of far-right terrorism in Europe

3.  How does far right terrorism and political parties and organisations interact?     Institutionalised cooperation or creation of a conducive environment and narrative (re: Paul Wilkinson’s study)?

4.  Shifts in public debate as a precursor to far-right violence?

5.  Does right wing terrorism have unique strategic characteristics that make it harder to detect and counter (terrorism versus hate crime, rhetoric mirrored by government etc)?

6.  Russia’s response to far-right militarism

7.  Comparing Germany’s far-right anti-immigration terrorism of the 1990s with today’s terrorism: similarities and differences.

8.  Cumulative terrorism?  Assessing the validity of the concept and associated risks.

Personally, I am most intrigued by 3, 5, and 8.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

I'm not doing a super good job of thinking right now; I'll try to sum up some of the reasons I am intrigued on Sunday.

[Cain]

Well, there was no fast travel, until I enchanted a constant effect levitation ring...

[Cain]

I'm not doing a super good job of thinking right now; I'll try to sum up some of the reasons I am intrigued on Sunday.

OK cheers, and no rush.  Any feedback is both good and welcome.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Yeah, ideally I'd want more time to think about it, but the deadline being on September 1st definitely means focusing the mind somewhat.  And they want a somewhat detailed, 3000 word essay on the research proposal and how the study is to be carried out.

I'm hoping to do the actual writing during my time off in the next 2 weeks (though I must also attend a wedding...), and the rest of the materials they want are easy.  It's just that one, big thing...

If anyone can nail this, it's you.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

Yeah, ideally I'd want more time to think about it, but the deadline being on September 1st definitely means focusing the mind somewhat.  And they want a somewhat detailed, 3000 word essay on the research proposal and how the study is to be carried out.

I'm hoping to do the actual writing during my time off in the next 2 weeks (though I must also attend a wedding...), and the rest of the materials they want are easy.  It's just that one, big thing...

Yeah, 3000 useful words is a pain, given the time constraints, but I think you'll be fine.  It's not like you aren't an expert at this shit, and a column writer.

Sorry the job is dick & balls.  I feel you on the crappy management thing.

[axod]

Well, there was no fast travel, until I enchanted a constant effect levitation ring...

The answer is clearly #5.

[POFP]

Good Luck Cain! Interested to hear which one you choose.




So, the day after the fucked up wedding (Fuck, I forgot to add those details. Gonna do that soon.), I find out that my cousin in San Diego fell out of a 3 story building with 3 of her friends while one or some of them were on Xanax or more. It made the news, and my aunt made up some bullshit excuses on the broadcast to justify her awful fucking parenting. She shattered her ankle, and I'm sure her friends did too.

A year or more ago (I don't really keep track, because I'm usually trying to forget about her.), my aunt decided to cheat on her husband through an online relationship with some musician in New Zealand, divorce her husband, and then run off to California with one of her daughters (The one that didn't really have a choice because of her age) to couch surf, have group sex in front of her daughter, and do all this without actual plans for jobs or careers in mind. She went from Middle-Class vegan housewife, to druggie teenager retard loser in a matter of weeks, and has mostly stayed that way for awhile now. And it's obviously having an effect on her daughter, my cousin, as can be seen by her constant abuse of drugs and amplified compulsive dishonesty. And now she's falling out of 3 story buildings on pills.

The thing is, I could easily set all of this straight if I had a bunch of money saved up. I'd plan a multi-stop camping/hiking trip that would last just a few weeks to a month, and bait her into it with hints at having a few simple drugs. What she'd found out is that she's actually going to be spending a lot of time outside, getting clean, and feeling better, spending time with her favorite cousin.

But I don't have the money saved up. So all I can do is watch her life turn into a fucking disaster while her mother fucks off and doesn't give a shit.

[Sung Low]

I am so goddamn amenable it's ridiculous. I have got that core though.

People people people.

[Q. G. Pennyworth]

4 am worst am. Also 5 am. And soon 6.

[Freeky]

I know them feels.  Fuck those AMs.

[The Wizard Joseph]

Also, while I'm here: kids today want to bitch about "annoying fetch sidequests" in video games?

I have two more people to kill and I'll have completed Threads of the Webspinner.  You little shits are spoiled rotten.

I've been quit of most gaming for about 6 or so years now. Been watching my friends play this ESO TU(so clever) and considering playing a character. Strange thing is I'm turned off by how they dispensed with the weight based encumbrance system for a limit of total items.

I played Daggerfall back when Liches were cool.. I got into Morrowind some before my self-imposed exodus from most gaming. I saw them remove passwall and thought that was understandable, if weak. Then no more levitation but at least poison works correctly... well ok.Now this item count shit and gods know what else I missed them chop off in Skyrim and I'm thinking I should just accept it as a different game in different times. It DOES look fun...

[Cain]

Well, MMOs are a slightly different beast in my opinion.

Skyrim does have a similar question, No Stone Unturned.  It's made somewhat cheaper by the ability to fast travel from the map, but otherwise it's somewhat similar.  Throw in some other mods, like say Frostfall (to make travel harder) and Requiem (to make everything else harder) and it's actually something of an achievement. 

If you want a full list of differences between at least the last three games, look here, it should give you a rough idea.  IMO Skyrim was way too rushed to be considered a complete game anyway (civil war...unfinished, at least two faction questlines plots so flimsy as to not even be worth it, so many bugs...) but they did show they were following up on at least some of the problems highlighted in Oblivion (levelled loot and enemy lists).

[The Wizard Joseph]

Well, MMOs are a slightly different beast in my opinion.

Skyrim does have a similar question, No Stone Unturned.  It's made somewhat cheaper by the ability to fast travel from the map, but otherwise it's somewhat similar.  Throw in some other mods, like say Frostfall (to make travel harder) and Requiem (to make everything else harder) and it's actually something of an achievement. 

If you want a full list of differences between at least the last three games, look here, it should give you a rough idea.  IMO Skyrim was way too rushed to be considered a complete game anyway (civil war...unfinished, at least two faction questlines plots so flimsy as to not even be worth it, so many bugs...) but they did show they were following up on at least some of the problems highlighted in Oblivion (levelled loot and enemy lists).

I'll look into the stuff provided thanks! I definitely get needing to make some concessions for an mmo format. I'm just cranky and a little hide bound.

Turns out it's a moot point now. I was a bit misinformed about the timing of a move out to California with a friend. I had thought I'd have a month or two, but I guess he was shooting for about a week from now if poss, two max, and won't have time or facilities for gaming for months probably. Gonna be living rough at first in the redwood forest of NW Cali, the so called Emerald Triangle. I'm about as excited as I can get these days. It's my first time living outside of Wisconsin and I'm looking forward to some serious changes and new opportunities.