Quote from Nekrodrac
Oh yes, making society a safer place is so inhumane. Gotcha.
Making society safer is not one of the "benefits," of the death penalty, nor was it in your analysis. I like this game where you make up a new reason each post and each one falls flat.
Quote from Nekrodrac
When you consider society as a whole, it has much to gain through filtering out those detrimental to it even if the process isn't 100% reliable- security and money-wise. That's pretty much it in a nutshell.
This is still absolute jargon that has nothing to do with justice or the efficacy of the death penalty. Further automation doesn't magically create better data, nor does it eliminate the politics and bias that historically made capital punishment synonymous with racism, classim, and political manuvering. Sorry, but this argument has no weight either.
Quote from Nekrodrac
The computer will try its best to be impartial, fair and avoid being over-zealous, I promise.
Oh, you promise, well that clears that up. Perhaps you are privee to some kind of superior AI i've not been made aware of, but unless your computer can literally see events of the past and future, it's in no position to dictate wether or not a person should be put to death.
Quote from Nekrodrac
At this point I feel rather worried that you might have some issues with processing what you read. Is that like the straw man argument you mentioned in that other thread- making something out of nothing and actually using it as a point to refute on?
Anyway to help you-
I said there was no indication I was empathic towards these issues because...I was presenting the state of matters and nothing else. Read, re-read several times if need be. Eventually you will get it(I hope).
I know, quite condescending but you leave me with little choice with your continuous baseless assumptions. I haven't divulged any of my actual feelings towards starving children or prisoners forced to live like animals nor is there any need to, to back up my point.
You're waffling on the issue and attempting to create a "have it both ways," political position on the matter. The point is simple and just as clear as the first time I made it: Prisons can be reformed, lives cannot be given back. Your argument has no merit. No amount of re-directs changes this and I simply pointed out the irony in your statements.
Quote from Nekrodrac
It can be compromised yes, but only by humans who fail to synthesize or analyze strong or weak evidence. The thousands you mentioned are an excellent testimony to that.
About 'barbaric' capital punishment...Meh..I did say that I was vouching for it in a specific context. Also I did talk about hypocrisy(or humanity, whichever you prefer), so I won't go at it again.
I must have missed the part where these magic machines transcended all problems of human input error and had perfect data to work with. Sorry, it doesn't exist, and I doubt it will in our lifetimes. What I argued was never couched in your contextural pleas. I made the, rather obvious, statement that capital punishment is not a deterrent and that it's enaction is tantamount to killing innocent people since no justice system is perfect. I further argued that it is quite ineffective as a fiscal-reform to the penal code since the vast majority of inmates are incarcerated because of minor drug laws that should be repealed for much greater savings. Anyone with a modicum of ethical self-awareness can see just how flimsy the arguments for the death penalty are once the finality of the action itself is considered.
Is this the part where you loose the argument and pretend you've been trolling the whole time?
:golfclap:
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And I think the part where we get off is that I'm not really into the whole "buyers" and "masters" and "overlords" theory. I've heard it from George Carlin many times (one of my favorite commentators), but.. I dunno. I just started really looking around and I don't see how it could be possible. One could argue that they don't want you to see it because they're most effective that way, but I would still have a hard time believing it. I guess we'll just have to agree to disagree. If I were investigating government corruption, the first place I would look, personally, would be the Supreme Court because, frankly, the election of 2000 was bullshit.
And I favorited that video you linked, I'll watch it later. I watched the first two minutes of it and listened to the guy and we carry a lot of similar sentiments, but I stopped watching soon after. It's pretty interesting.
What do you think about the Green Party anyway, Link?
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Thank. You.
I don't get it. I don't get why people expect the film to be better than the book. That very rarely ever happens. The book will always be better, these fuckers need to get their heads out of their asses and realize that either they like the movie for what it is or like the book for having all the stuff that didn't make it in the movie that they hold so fucking dearly.
The only movie that I can consider better than the original text that the movie is based on is Kenneth Branagh's adaption of Hamlet. Absolutely fucking brilliant.
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In other news:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KaqC5FnvAEc&feature=player_embedded
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=erbqFQ6GjHM&feature=related
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The only memorable part about it was that my friend and I chilled in a hot tub at his grandparents' house. It's really nice where they live cause there was hardly any light pollution and you can see the stars really well.
And I just got $40 today. I fulfilled the American dream at $10 an hour doing good yard work for a person I didn't even know and that same friend.
I think that I should start a campaign to get people to realize that America is a beautiful country and we should try to keep things the way we found them. I live by a fireworks hub (the Muckleshoot Casino) and people light all their stuff in an area apart from a parking lot where all the stands sit and it's just absolutely disgusting. I think that we should just try to clean up after ourselves when we throw huge fireworks shows (we don't have a scheduled show over there, people just choose a time to light off a shitload of fireworks.
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I'll just leave this here.
The story of my fuckin' life:
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Here's an updated feature list:
Graphics
The game's engine is brand new and written specifically for Skyrim.
All mountains can be scaled, flowers can be picked, and tufts of snow can be pushed and knocked from trees. There is an immense amount of micro-detail.
New animation system makes for more realistic, smoother looking character movement and combat.
Combat
Characters can dual wield just about any combination of weapons, spells, and shields.
Skyrim features true dual-wielding -- each hand is controlled separately, and attacks can be combined for more powerful ones.
Players will be able to perform special execution moves to finish enemies off.
Interface
Skills will be increased the way they always have been -- by frequent use. Skills will automatically improve and characters will get better at them the more they are used.
Level-ups will grant characters perks, which can be viewed in the interface as constellations of stars. Each star in the constellation functions as the next perk that can be learned.
There are 280 different perks.
The interface is very in-depth and will allow players to view all items, weapons and armors in 3D, allowing them to rotate and examine each item in greater detail.
The overview map is simply a pan back of the entire world of Skyrim. What you see on the map looking down is exactly what is there in the world.
Weapons and skills can be hot-keyed for quick access and switching between sets.
World
Guardian Stones exist throughout the world that can buff your character. Only one stone can be active at a time.
Any job an NPC is performing in the real world is one that can be taken up by the player.
The economy of each town can be sabotaged if the player is feeling a bit like a trouble-maker.
There is weather changing throughout the world.
Not all enemies will scale with the player's level. Some areas will be inherently more difficult than others.
There are over 150 different dungeons, each one uniquely hand-crafted.
Dragons
Dragons will roam as per their AI and are entirely unscripted, causing havoc as they please.
Players must slay dragons in order to obtain Dragon Souls, which are used to level up their Dragon Shouts.
General
It is estimated that the game's main quests will take players around 30 hours to complete.
As for additional content -- they estimate that around two to three hundred extra hours of gameplay.
The game will host 60 different voice actors for all of the characters in the game, compared to the 14 for Oblivion.
Source: http://www.examiner.com/video-game-in-newark/e3-skyrim-round-up
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I mean, really, you're taking a book for its cover from about 20 yards away. God damn...
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"Alright... let's close up shop, boys..."
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And I agree with Siaynoq that the "courier" quests (which is almost all of them) are total bullshit. Completely stale.
And replies to all of Equinox's points:
1) If you find depth in the multitude of combat systems, then it will certainly add depth for you. I find depth in other places (like environments, moods, ect), and I love winter environments, so I think that I can immerse myself quite fine with just the environment.
2) In my opinion, the game does have a lot going for it. Adding on to what Siaynoq said, the quest now involves you to stop a band of dragons from completely destroying an entire region of Tamriel. That is much more involving than the main quest in Oblivion. Also, the way the economy works in Skyrim and your ability to do a lot more things that add to the feeling of "you're a part of this world and not just a spectator to the tumultuous events occurring around you" certainly help with the immersion involved in the game. I say that's a step up from the poor job that Oblivion did, in that respect. Also, while the game doesn't have spears or crossbows, it does have dragon words that add a completely different combat system altogether; stringing together words to make spells.
3) Last time I heard, they are attempting to make the leveling system more like Fallout 3 was. That's just what I heard.
4) As far as customization goes, there is also more than Oblivion had; the perks (a la Fallout 3), the removal of having to choose your class in the beginning of the game (which was a big problem that I had with Oblivion), their attempt to more "streamline" your resulting character into what you use the most (using a sword more makes you a better swordsman), and just the removal of the fluff skills like mercantile and making leveling up simpler by removing the whole "you have to use these skills to gain levels;" that's what I hated most about Oblivion, you were forced to choose skills and, to gain levels, you were forced to use them. That's a lousy system and I feel that the removal of that system will help make my experience more enjoyable rather than a math equation.
5) Nobody knows how crossbows or spears would work in the game, so it's kinda, I don't know, arrogant to say that they're lazy because they aren't including either in the game. For one, they probably have a lore reason for not including crossbows in the ES world. As for the presence of spears in Morrowind and their absence in later games, I don't know. I never noticed it and I never necessarily heard my friends complain about their absence.
6) I should've learned from the last time I said something "wasn't a big deal;" if I remember correctly, the whole thing with the D3 cursor got people all riled up because their need for nostalgic reminders of D1 and D2. "How can we have D3 without a mouse cursor that is a hand?!"
That's a lot like this conversation is; perhaps this is where I lose grasp of the importance of these little things that make a game what it is. Again, I don't care about crossbows and spears and whether or not they're in the game because I'll probably never use them. If I played D3 with a hand cursor, I would never notice it, but the people who appreciate those little things will certainly get a jolly from that. I think I just tend to look at the bigger picture; it doesn't take a lot to impress me. The reason why I still play Oblivion is because I like it (for some odd reason that I can't put my hand on). It's almost why I still play Diablo 1; I am just drawn to the game and, in that sense, I think that's where the true worth of a game comes in. If a game has the ability to draw me in that much, much to the point where it's hard for me to ignore it.
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I mean, sure, it's still a Diablo game, it's still Hack-n-Slash, but D3 is definitely in its own league when compared to D1 and D2.
And the pics are pretty cool. Good find, Dauroth.