Owenmoz

If you have the endings in mind you can corelate your actions to them yes. But as newbie the whole thing is unpredictable. If nothing else, the trajkov ending is very unpredictable. The game works hard to portray him as a canister crazed power hungry military autocrat invader up to the last minute. Only the ending shows different. Only trully predictable ending i guess would be the obeyer. And thats ignoring the one major thing making the game unpredictable:

Finding litalia on g5 was neat. Erica's final fate too. As one person said, the ornata ziggurat was also another. X's final fate and his whole being. Corruption core origin stories. SHANTI! Yes, and the final revenge on that plot line. Nicodemus's items in avadon 1 I guess there are others. I cant remember though

A game that had very random and to a degree unpredictable ends was singularity. I didnt like it very much since all of them were bad endings. I think geneforge 1 also had relativelly unpredictable endings. If i remember correctly, the drakengard series had something of the kind too. But it was dark as hell. I didmt touch the game again. So I dont think its that hard to make the ambiguous or unpredictable endings. I figure introduction of hidden factions would be pretty neat like the trajkovite in geneforge 4. Cept more hidden ish. I think the best example of such option is the darkstalker kaathe in dark souls 1 even if the ending itself is available even if you dont find him. And i have to second idonotexist on sci fi fantasy hybrid working well for geneforge of all spiderweb games geneforge is the only one that brings something new to the genre. Avernum has a place in my heart for amazing diversity and extraordinary writing and it manages to keep a damp dark cave upbeat and with a sense of humour and very much alive but it doesnt bring much new cept possibly the vahnathai. And it mostly doesnt have factions (and tbh the two games with factions turned up to be my least favorite ones). Avadon fails on both aspects with the writting while still good doesnt really compare to avernum. And it really doesnt bring any novelty to it. I was most interested in the corruption, but it didnt quite save the game. Also the wanderer while an intetesting character and likeable to a degree was obviously anti pact. I don't think any one got mindblown by his alegiance or identity. Only thing i was mindblown by was how horrifyingly weak the dude was.

Utilitarianism is all good and dandy but it often only presents a choice of the lesser of two evils when there could be better alternatives. As such i really don't mind the philosofy. Just don't like things being seen only through it. At least its not zero-sum.

Looking at the colloured map i realise i travel way too much and way far from most folks here! Exciting! I.e. for the next 2-3 years im in nairobi, kenya. I figure i gotta make my peace with skype meetings.

Now thats something that cannot happen in excess. Orgies of feet long shrimp. Means more shrimp and they are a foot long. The perfect size! Unlike lobsters they taste good and are easier to season. i mean ecosystem balance fades in comparisson to the overly delicious shrimp only sometimes dwarved by the equally delicious squid.

Aiaiaiaiaiai. Jesus. How to put it. Alorael, ends justify the means. But one ibnoxious ostentateous person giving money to a homeless person and in that way shaming other people into doing the same does a lot of disservice to the community too. I agree a homeless person wont give a hoot. They'd rather not be used as a publicity stunt but honestly not enough to refuse it. Not even enough to be tempeted to refuse it. On the other side the people who are shamed into giving money to the homeless are affected in a bad way depending on how they cope with their self image. Some are confident. Most that are shamed into doing it are not, of those we have folks who will get over thinking they are a bad bad person quickly and then there are those who will stop their lives and ask God or whatever they believe in for forgiveness and dedicate some considerable ammount of their time to their percieved atonement. Of course strugle for survival might seem more important than these kinds of strugles. Maybe they are, i am really not a judge of these things. But both are bad. And honestly ends justifying the means is a rather stunded way to view things(this case being maybe one of the many exceptions) as the ends also depend on the means. Technically destroying all human race is a means of achieving world peace. But thats not considered thinking clearly as the ends are always rather subjective. Some see world peace, others see extinction, others see oportunity. And the same goes everywhere. The means will shape the end if not for everyone it will be for the ones affected by the means. Of which the ammount varies from negligeble to significant but in the end that kind of thinking is a constant choice of the lesser of two evils when some simple improved selection of means would erradicate that choice.

Yeah, in theory i'd agree woth you trenton, but i honestly dont know if this might make people uncomfortable or not. Turns out it didn't. Which is good. Also zaego it depends on your facebook friends and who you follow on twiter but i gotta agree its generally what you said. Back to the main argument. Imagine you're trying to seem good for yourself. But your good actions arent always to help people around you or ease their lives but to make some weird part of your ego feel better. Even that i dont have a problem until it starts interfering with your life and emotional help since i dont think a starving homeless person would care much if you feed him out for him or for you. Its complicated, i always say personality traits have both good sides and bad sides. So being overly attatched to one or overly ashamed of the other is rather foolish. And being selfish or selfless whatever your motivations and however you percieve it have good points and bad points reggardless. Which is why i strongly agree with galactic maiden and ADoS. Even if as explained above i agree with you, Thaluikhain and Alorael. When you say good actions are good for society and in general and most people can agree on that and try to make the world a better place. I guess "most" can vary but i figure its more than half. My point is dont let it take over yourlife and understand that doing things for yourself is good too. After all you are also a person.

Displacer Iguana-Ironic art and translation mix-ups mostly because it makes no sense.

361. Displacer Iguana In context, an expression of overintellectualized pain. Reptiles have no feelings in the usual sense. Humans feel pain in various forms including emotional. But usually think that they can rationalise it away etc... On a side note. I actually have chinua achebe's all things fall appart for about 2 years but never bothered to read it. From this i will say two things. One; i'll read it starting after i finish the book im in now. Two; *slow clap* you make on the list of the most ( is it cult or cultured?) People im aquainted to. Kudos.

Well true... what harms me may not harm you and so on. But i guess there is a normalisation curve for it so the broad meaning of harm can be somewhat general. But as you said. We both have laws and society(i.e. wisdom empathy and lynching) to control that. Even so makes my point rather moot. Arbitrary Ideas and Imprecise Words come from overabundance and underselection as slartibus said. Ever so applicable to most my posts In other words. This is getting too abstract for me(not that I have anything against it but its like my brain is playing ping pong) My main point is that people should stop hanging on to the idea of goodness from the moment it starts interfering negativelly with their lives.

Aha! These were exactly the words i was looking for. So long as you dont harm anyone just do you. If you can help people on the way, great. If you cant. Hell the world will still be a better place simply because there is one more happy person. But i can agree with thanulikan(you'll forgive my spelling) that helping folks out or whatever brings good to the community(even if it brings about judgemental people). But i must stress that it shouldnt be at the cost of one's well being. Megh... im horrible at words.

Yup thats it. But to be honest the whole good/bad person thing can be rather subjective and judgment fueling which is bad too. But maybe it(judgmentality?) is a fair price to pay if it makes the world a better place.

Thought the same thing but there are no matrix related clues a bit disapointing tbh. I would have gotten most matrix references including plato's alegory of the cave.

Yeah for the harmony of the world. Im really cool with it so long as folks don't put their lives and stability because of it. There is plenty of good you can do while still putting yourself first you know? I mostly posted this cause im tired of seeing a friend of mine not prioritising her life all for the sake of being good. She's not at all assertive when people cross lines or take advantage of that.

361. Displacer Iguana-Other side of my secret identity, maybe. Because im sure you're a drakon overlord xD 362. Oracle of the Pills and Raves-Beats fall appart. You lose sense of rythm if you do too much drugs on a rave? 355. Dam Canals-Paper airplane domination? Ignore the fact that any water related things would be the death of paper planes.

i was just about to post this!

Yeah. I know that. Just wish more folks did.

344. Arbitrary ideas and imprecise words spill from the-Overabundance and underselection. If you have many ideas it will be complicated to give one that is not arbitrary. If you don't select your words carefully you will throw your points across in an imprecise manner ?

I think people worry too much about being a good person. They go great lenghts to have a neat image of themselves. But that leads them to forget about themselves and thats in simple words "bad". This all in the new episode of dramaland featuring some friends selling themselves short and me being somewhat bothered by it. Ok but really. Its okay to be selfish now and then folks. (I realise this might be an unusual post more fit in tumblr than here. Feel free to remove it if it seems spammy, offensive or against any rules.)

355. Dam Canals Solving two humanitarian crises with one expatriation program This could be about the panama crisis and suez crisis. In irony to how united states has some intolerance to latino imigrants but have vexed interests in their internal afairs same although more cross generational with the refugees from the middle east. As in your problem isnt our problem but our problem is your problem Edit: can one clue be used for two usernames? Edit 2: never mind. Since to protect and serve wasnt removed. Im sure i got this wrong. I like the analogy though so im leaving the post 340. Crouching Ihrno Sleeping Dragon-Natural state for a liquid. My brain keeps screaming beowulf to me. On this one

I thought they were together xD Separated they make little sence connected to the first part. Still... cause im stubborn: 344. Arbitrary ideas and imprecise words spill from the-Immaturity easily mistaken for destructiveness

344. Arbitrary ideas and imprecise words spill from the-Immaturity easily mistaken for destructiveness In context, an expression of overintellectualized pain 340. Crouching Ihrno Sleeping Dragon Ironic art and translation mix-ups 337. Devoid Man Devoid Just a pile of unhappy words Ok this contest seem like travelling to a paralel fantasy universe. But not only that. Traveling to a past existance of said universe. Its like time travel meets teleportation meets alternate realities. Its pretty neat That and I'm having trouble recognising most references!(so im prolly wrong) Sheesh.

Its pronounced skedoold you unhappy peasant >.>

Tech meaningfull replayability is a good thing. On the lines of more worth for you money or something. But most spiderweb games do that relating to factions and so. I'd rather have the geneforge/avernum thing were you could build anything and very possibly do everything. Here its simpler and more straightforward the lack of options really make choosing your skills easy. And then the retrain option makes it easier still. Of course triumph is right. Tech you have around 5 classes and each of them have a set of abilities but having to choose on that aspect makes it: 1 more constraining. 2 easier. Eg. Only part the agent in geneforge "cant" focus on is shaping skills. As such the rest of the agent's skill points have to be carefully/strategically distributed for your desired build. Which both gives you freedom and is more complicated which really rewards good planning.