Obviously, it's too soon to make a real, informed decision about the quality of this game (animations will be cleaned up; graphics engine will be optimized; etcetera).

I'm glad they've chosen to cleave close to the Elder Scrolls games of the past with regard to the combat system, though. I was initially concerned that we were in for another round of WoW/WAR/Rift/ToR style, boring key-bind face-rolling.

I'm sure that it'll be moderately successful out of the gate -- but I predict a slow, ignominious The Old Republic-style slide into disappointment.

Taiwanese, Chinese, South Korean, Chinese, South Korean, Taiwanese: are we seeing a trend here?

;)

"Attracted" is probably the wrong verb to use in describing the method by which users were brought to Origin. I would've employed "dragged kicking and screaming to the vast, stinking behemoth", since EA *forced* us to use their crappy system in order to access online content for many of their games.

It seems that a significant quantity of people have forgotten that people bought and sold items during the Diablo II era. The only difference here is that, instead of some greasy Chinese nerd getting your money, it'll be going to the company who made the game and who isn't *actively* trying to steal your credit card information.

Got my beta invite the other day, so I'll finally be able to make an informed decision about this one and find out how readily we'll be able to look past the admittedly shoddy character models/animations.

I'm not an economist/market analyst, but I find myself agreeing with the assertions put forth by the experts that GameSpot's consulted here.

Removal of the used-games market from consoles would just push me deeper into the PC-games-only territory that I already inhabit.

The only thing promising about that trailer was Michael Gambon's narration.

Amen, brother.

So in the interest of speaking from a defensible position I did some research on "homosexuality as aberrant behavior" and couldn't find a single scientific or medical article supporting that stance dated after 1995. Clearly my original assertion was incorrect. Though I'm still inclined to classify exclusive homosexual behavior as *some* sort of non-standard human behavior (and yes, I'm aware that instances of homosexuality occur in over 400 non-human animal species), simply because as an exclusive sexual orientation it largely precludes reproduction of the species (barring the intervention of a medical procedure so the homosexual couple in question can raise a child -- which actually lends credence to homosexuality *not* being as deviant as some would claim). Thanks to humanity's extremely high intelligence and capacity for social adaptation we, as a species, are entirely capable of adjusting to allowing for really any number of humans to pursue a life in which they are exclusively attracted to members of the same gender. I imagine that it's really just a matter of time before we don't really distinguish (and certainly don't ostracize and persecute) homosexuals from heterosexuals.

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