HARMONIC'S PROFILE

author=slimeborgi
maps

I like the old one better. Reminds me of Startropics.

There is a lot of "politics" in my game design docs, but not in the actual game. It helps greatly in the creation of characters, especially ones that are nobles, monarchs, etc, in their motivations.

That said, depends on what you mean by politics. Some like to conflate it with pretty much everything that really matters. Or, if you just mean like "and duke so and so rules over the duchy of what-its-face and formed an alliance with count buttface, etc" THAT is dry and boring, of course. But, perhaps Duke So and So has a really fancy plot to overthrow Count Buttface, and there is "politics" behind his motivations, but this all just serves as a backdrop for the things that actually happen in game. Betrayals, forbidden loves, murders, rebellions, etc.

That said, I see nothing wrong with including totally optional literature/lore about the state of the world, or history. To me that's actually quite enriching. But that's only if I REAALLY care about this fictional world. For instance, I always read the books in The Elder Scrolls games.

author=pianotm

Housekeeping
I have no clue what the right course of action is

Maybe we could stop stirring up, supporting, and funding rebellions against legitimate rulers so that we can prop up dictators who'll do the U. S.'s bidding. That might be nice. It's pretty telling when even Wikipedia has an article on it (notice that this list is loaded with every bad guy the news told you to hate in the past six decades.).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_authoritarian_regimes_supported_by_the_United_States

By the way: Assad's regime? Democratically elected! Isn't that nice, we're supporting rebels trying to topple a democracy, and in its place attempting to install a totalitarian regime. That's actually business as usual for the U. S.

U. S., making the world safe for democracy, one puppet dictatorship at a time.

Odd how divergent paths cross on issues like this. Though probably not for the same reason, but I agree 100% with this entire post. It is not feasible to "bring western style freedom" to the ME. The best we can hope for for the foreseeable future is a secular government (like Assad) regardless of how shitty he is. The alternative is a power vacuum filled by ISIS, Al Queda, and Islamist theocrats. What we don't need is:

1) Sensationalized tragic event
2) See pictures of dead kids, muh feels
3) Time to topple a regime
4) Wait, where'd all these refugees come from?

Not sure what the solution is here because the entire Dem/Rep establishment is pushing this paradigm hard. Considering that the Clinton campaign was already rattling the saber before the election, a huge portion of Trump voters voted him in specifically to avoid this same old story, despite what you're told to believe (that all Trump voters are warmongers)

author=SnowOwl
vid

Great video. I really wonder what the defense against it would be.

In the past, I've used JIRA for QA management. It's really handy for remote, diverse teams of testers and those who fix bugs.