I think it's more or less defined in the same way vegetarians argue about whether you can eat eggs or not. My understanding (and how I'll play it) is that I won't fight anything unless provoked. If provoked, I'm going to allow myself any of the Illusion control spells, any Restoration spells, and Alteration spells.…

I was thinking about doing a "pacifist" run with Skyrim, and this is good to know! I was afraid of getting in fights with dragons and giants, but it's good to see that there are some crafty options available.

Didn't have any apocalyptic Bowie songs? Was lacking.

The important part, in my mind, is that at least the guy could sing and dance. Empty and soulless or not is unimportant with popular art - to me, it's a pass-fail measure of whether these "artists" at least pass what can be thought of as technical proficiency. I know that's not how the marketers and CEOs measure it,…

1) I'd argue that we could analyze pulp, and, in fact, there's precedent for it thanks to postmodern literature becoming as popular as it has. I mean, we've got people getting their postgraduate degrees hinging on theses about Harry Potter and Twilight. In large part, academics are much more accepting of what might be…

I agree. However, I'd also add that even pop-culture art can be held up to the standards of scrutiny that any work of art can be held to. I don't think you're insinuating that pop-culture gets a free ride in terms of how it's put together, but I'd say that some people might certainly argue this. I mean, I think that's…

Probably an exceedingly pessimistic - if not pompous and misanthropic - question to ask, but:

Three here, one here. Tiny, tiny audience, for sure - but at least it's promoting a discussion instead of shutting one down. If you disagree with the discussion occurring in general, then I suggest you politely and quietly disengage from it.

I figured you wouldn't. I thought I'd write it out anyway, just in case I was talking to someone literate. (Also, there's a tl;dr for ya, but apparently four lines of text is too much to handle.)

I'm assuming you're under the impression that Bioware writes great stories? Well, spoilers ahead, but I'll explain why ME3's inclusion of the Protheans is proof positive of a literary failure on a massive scale. (I could go into why I think Bioware's other stories have been lackluster, but, suffice to say, I don't…

Used art dealers like used book stores, used record stores, &c. I probably should have used "vendor" more so than "dealer," but eh. They're all art dealers (again, so to speak) all the same. Wonky wording on my behalf, though.

Hmm...

While I'd normally say that causing a stir doesn't do anything, it does serve an important purpose for this sort of thing. I don't think Bioware'll budge on this one at all, but drumming up a hullabaloo and then not buying the game works as an important one-two punch. The complaints - when well-thought-out and neatly…

This is a collective problem that the whole community needs to address - the article's damn well straight-shootin' on that issue. However, the article might as well back the scope up even further. This isn't just a gaming problem. We've got a pretty in-the-shitter political system, our education system's…

Two words: DOS. Box.

It's still a little bit of a shocker to me that games' websites will usually have appropriate font use, but the games themselves make dreadful font decisions. I guess the developers generally want immersion in typography more than comprehension of the actual text, where the webmasters want readers to stick around. I…

I've recently been noticing something of a growing issue with game writing and content creation in general for video games which really came to a head with news of Bioware's day-one DLC for ME3. That is: there's not a whole lot of restraint in game writing these days.

"Just-one-more-thing" for only four to six hours? Clearly Bioware's never played Civilization. I've lost years to those games. YEARS.

I know this isn't a particularly widely-held believe in these sort of situations, but:

'Taint anything but the taint to me.