James

[font=franklin gothic medium]Hm, when I read the thread title initially I think I got the wrong impression. I understand that people drink when they are sad - the same way that people can over-eat when they are sad - but I was originally thinking about other things that might make you want to drink. A celebration, for example. For me, alcohol is one of those things that I very rarely indulge in. And that's only because it's just not something I am generally in the mood for. Usually if I drink any alcohol, it'll be a glass of wine over dinner or it'll be cocktails at somebody's birthday or something like that. While I'm no conoisseur of alcohol, I will say that cocktails - especially truly great ones - can be both incredibly beautiful and surprisingly clever. Some of the combinations and designs I've seen have been absolutely amazing. When I was in New York I was lucky enough to actually watch drinks being made at an awesome little bar - it was like watching a magic show. The speed and precision of the bartender was remarkable. So for me, as a pretty light drinker, alcohol is usually associated with positive things rather than negative things. Alcohol, like anything, can obviously be very dangerous if it's used as a tool to escape reality.[/font]

[font=franklin gothic medium]Welcome, everyone. Hope you enjoy your stay at OB. If you have any questions, feel free to check out the Information Kiosk forum, the FAQ/rules or you can PM me if you need any help. HyattHyatt, I'm sure I remember seeing that War of the Vampires RPG - wasn't that quite a long one? Good to see you back.[/font]

[font=franklin gothic medium]My initial interpretation was that the issue with the idle time is when you don't click "Remember Me", but upon reading the inital post it looks like akiodie is being logged out even with that option selected. If that is indeed the case, then I think Desbreko has some good advice. But if it's happening without having selected Remember Me, then akiodie, I think there are some good options here for you to try. Let us know how it goes - I can understand how frustrating it must be.[/font]

[font=franklin gothic medium]Also I should mention that if I'm on a shared computer, what I do is click "Remember Me" but then at the end of my session I just click Log Out. I mean, yes it's an extra step and you need to remember to do it...but it's also not very difficult to do, especially when you get into the habit of logging out after each session. But Petie did provide some good alternatives, if you don't want to have to log out each time.[/font]

[font=franklin gothic medium]Currently the system is set to log people out after 15 minutes of inactivity (provided that you haven't checked the "Remember Me" feature, I think). I don't necessarily mind extending that, but it seems to be tied to the Who's Online feature as well. In other words, the same setting controls how long a user will be shown on the Who's Online screen after their most recent activity. I'm a bit hesitant to mess with that too much (in other words, I'd recommend just using "Remember Me" feature and then logging out whenever you're ready). But I'll discuss it with Des and Petie, I'd like to get their thoughts before making this change - I want to make sure we don't distort the Who's Online display too much.[/font]

[font=franklin gothic medium]Hi akiodie. You might be better off posting this in the [b]Information Kiosk[/b] forum. That's basically where suggestions and feedback go. That way everything's in the one easy place for us to follow up. :catgirl: [/font]

[font=franklin gothic medium]So it's okay for me to post again? I just have to re-read your PM to work out what I should post next. I'm thinking of including a few different things in my next post, so it might be a bigger one. We'll see, anyway.[/font]

[quote name='Lunar']More Dubstep. Stil listening to Burial, although I've found a new artist- Mt. Eden.[/QUOTE] [font=franklin gothic medium]Dubstep, eh? Are Burial and Mt. Eden both dupstep artists? My sister is very into it and I recently bought my first dubstep album. It's pretty good, although not as good as the stuff my sister has been listening to lately. Most recently I've been listening to a lot of Deadmau5. Just bought one of his albums and I'm liking almost every track.[/font]

[font=franklin gothic medium]It is compulsory for all primary school (elementary school) students in Australia to study Japanese, so I've done that. But I didn't continue it in high school. In high school I did 3.5 years of Indonesian (Bahasa Indonesia :P). Because I haven't really used it in the last few years though, I've forgotten much of it. Apa yang kamu kerjakan pada hari minggu? [i]What did you do on the weekend?[/i] There you go. :catgirl:[/font]

[font=franklin gothic medium]I just bought God of War III, after having never played the first two. It was kind of an impulse buy actually and when I got it, I kept the EB Games receipt because I wasn't sure if I'd want to return it or not. After getting a few hours in, I'm really glad I didn't return it. At first, the gratuitous violence is almost off-putting, but not because I'm offended by it - rather, it gives the game a very one-dimensional feel at the start. It takes time to begin to appreciate the gameplay system a bit more, I think. Unlocking new moves and weapons/tools is really what gives the game the slight variety it needs. Puzzles are well-placed and not too numerous, but also not too light. They feel very balanced. The visuals are incredible and it's actually really good to see places like the Underworld rendered in such glory - especially if you're familiar with Greek mythology (and even moreso if you're familiar with Paradise Lost). Admittedly I'm coming in late because I never played the first two games, but I feel like this is probably the best in the series anyway.[/font]

[font=franklin gothic medium]There are some specific awards due to be unveiled, but these are different from the Nifty Fifty nominations themselves. The former is really just where people submit anything and everything that they find nifty and the committee chooses not solely based on number of "votes". So it's not really about voting, it's just a qualitative thing I guess. But the actual awards, which are few in number, are literally based around voting as far as I know.[/font]

[font=franklin gothic medium]Okay, I've posted. I hope that my post correlates with everyone's thinking on what should happen at the Dreadnaught Estate. I figure at this point Leonhart is getting seriously worried about his lack of control over the situation (thus his threat towards Cole). I imagine that this will be the beginning of the end, so to speak. :catgirl: If there are any issues with my post I'm happy to edit it, just let me know. Darren, over to you![/font]

[indent][center][img]http://i228.photobucket.com/albums/ee132/Runaway511/almagest%202/gustave_achard-1.jpg[/img] [img]http://i228.photobucket.com/albums/ee132/Runaway511/almagest%202/Victoria_Ann.jpg [/img] [img]http://i228.photobucket.com/albums/ee132/Runaway511/almagest%202/Liana_Prideux.jpg[/img] [img]http://i228.photobucket.com/albums/ee132/Runaway511/almagest%202/cole_dreadnaught.jpg[/img] [img]http://i228.photobucket.com/albums/ee132/Runaway511/almagest/leonhartavatar.jpg[/img] [img]http://i228.photobucket.com/albums/ee132/Runaway511/almagest/catherinesaraavatar.jpg[/img] [img]http://i228.photobucket.com/albums/ee132/Runaway511/almagest/beatrist-chronicle.jpg[/img][/center] [font=garamond][size=4][right][B]A Family Torn Apart[/B][/right][/font][/size] [font=palatino linotype]Victoria Ann perched herself in the middle of a large armchair in the entry hall. Liana occupied a seat next to her and was twiddling her thumbs. The sitting room was behind them; Catherine had ushered Gustave inside upon his arrival. The discussion was apparently too serious for the girls to hear. Meanwhile, they had both heard another steamcar pull up somewhere just outside the front door. Shortly afterward, Victoria heard her mother's voice - but this was interrupted by Cole's deep, muffled drone. "I wonder what's happening out there?" pondered Liana aloud. The secrecy was obvious. Adults, thought Liana to herself, never give children quite enough credit - the more they said [i]"it'll be all right"[/i], the more they worried the two girls. Victoria shrugged. After her experience in Czenovia only a short time before, very few things surprised her. With some difficulty due to its immense depth, Victoria slid off the chair and approached one of the windows near the front door. The windows were stained glass and it was therefore difficult to see the goings on outside with great clarity, but Cole's tall, slender figure and long, dark hair were unmistakeable. He was standing next to his steamcar, apparently talking with several of his staff. Beatriste was nowhere to be found; perhaps she'd entered the Dreadnaught Estate via the east entrance? Nobody seemed to be using the front door, in any case, which struck Victoria as strange. As Victoria pondered this, she noticed that Cole was moving away from the steamcar and out of view in the direction of the front gate. His staff seemed to be following closely behind. "I have no idea what this is all about," said Victoria, as she turned back towards Liana. "But something is definitely wrong." Cracks were beginning to appear. The hunt for the Xear artifacts, which had commenced in secret with a small team, was now rapidly growing out of control. Macey Ellen had reported her findings back to Leonhart, who had in turn acquired further information about Olivier's map. Finding Xear artifacts was, in and of itself, of paramount importance - especially to Leonhart. He strongly believed that those who controlled the artifacts would ultimately have the power to control the entire Globe. The idea that Anovans should have this power incensed him; it was his ancestors, after all, who discovered and commercialized magitechnology. If any single group should be entrusted with the powerful Xear secrets, it should surely be the very family that had been the custodians of the world's most advanced technology for generations. What did the gullible and foolish Anovans know about Xear technology? In Leonhart's view, the Anovans would be likely to destroy the Globe by accident, simply because they did not have the expertise - or perhaps, the right lineage - required to posess it. This question had now become bound up with Olivier's map, which was important not just because it potentially indicated the location of further Xear artifacts, but because it was one key to the truth behind the Mine War - the fact that Laurent Achard [i]did not[/i] poison Reuben Almagest. Almost nobody in the Globe knew this, including most members of the Almagest and Achard families. But Leonhart did know. And so did Olivier. The cover-up continued for many reasons, not least of which being Olivier's inability to provide hard evidence as well as Leonhart's strong desire to maintain the myth behind his family's rise to prominence. "Close the gates!" roared Cole, as his walk broke into a jog. The Dreadnaught Estate guards obeyed his orders. The giant iron gates protested as enormous cogs grinded against one another. As they closed, an elegant streamcar stopped just outside the estate, its brakes whistling furiously to avoid slamming right into the thick iron columns of the gate. The driver did not even reach the rear door before it flung open and a tall, older man with a disctinctive copper top hat emerged. The driver and another staff member followed him, as he briskly approached the gate. "What is the meaning of this?" demanded Leonhart angrily, waving his cane at the heavy gates. Cole raised his open palm. "I know why you're here," he said as calmly as he could. "You want to ask me why I ordered the--" Leonhart's eyes widened. "What?! [i]You[/i] ordered the Anovan expedition? Is that what you plan to tell me?" He removed his top hat and held it in one hand. Such was his grip that the brim began to buckle in his fist. Cole approached the gate - Leonhart was standing almost with his nose pressed right against it - and he looked Leonhart up and down. He took a deep breath. "What are you doing?" he sighed. "You've come all this way for what - to reprimand me for organizing an expedition? Is that it? It may interest you to know that the first artifact was located at the Vosper Summit - in [i]Anovan[/i] territory. Are you going to tell me, with conviction, that we have no right to explore our own lands?" As Cole said this, he heard noise coming from the front door of the estate (which was well behind him). He glanced over his shoulder and saw Victoria, Liana and Gustave approaching. Apparently they'd heard the commotion from the house. Leonhart pressed his face closer to Cole's - his temple was almost touching the iron bars. "Listen to me very carefully, son," he growled, "everything you have here - your business, your home - only exists at the pleasure of Czenovia. Your lifeblood comes from this town [i]and this town belongs to Czenovia![/i] You eat from our nation's generous hand and yet you see fit to take what is rightfully ours?" Cole could not believe what he was hearing. Had the man gone insane? He had expected Leonhart to be upset about the Anovan expedition, but he did not have the slightest idea that the reaction would be so fierce. "Look, Leonhart, I think you should leave. I don't think--" With unexpected and sudden force, Cole slammed against the gate. Leonhart had dropped his cane and his fist was wrenched tightly around the front of Cole's shirt. Cole attempted to pull away, but the old man's grasp was unbelievably firm. "Give up now and I promise I will not take all of this away from you," whispered Leonhart. His eyes were focused on Cole's, unblinking and large with anger. The grey irises seemed to penetrate him. Now he understood why Leonhart's rivals feared him. "What if I can't make that promise?" stammered Cole. Leonhart's eyes widened further. He did not blink, nor hesitate. "Then I will take it from you - all of it. You will be left without a home, without a town and without a [i]country[/i]. Refusing my demand will be the biggest mistake you have ever made, I assure you. Do not make that mistake, son." "Hey! What are you doing?!" cried a third voice, just behind Cole. A strong hand appeared and pulled at Cole's shoulder, dislodging him from Leonhart's grip and almost sending the two men tumbling backwards. A piece of Cole's shirt remained in Leonheart's still-tightly balled fist. "This is none of your business, Gustave!" barked Leonhart. Gustave pointed a finger at Leonheart. "Get out of here! What kind of example are you setting for your niece?!" Leonhart paused for a moment. He hadn't noticed Victoria, who stood just a few steps away, her eyes wide with horror. She looked as though she were about to burst into tears, but she seemed too afraid even for that. At this, Leonhart blinked and his eyes shifted down to his shoes. He leaned down and picked up his cane, placing the top hat back on his head at the same time. "Remember what I said, Cole. My last warning." And with that, Leonhart turned on his heel and strode towards his steamcar. As he disappeared inside, a rough square of white fabric drifted from the dark interior and landed on the dirt. It was from Cole's shirt. [/indent][/font]

[font=franklin gothic medium]Congratulations guys, this is really fantastic. I love the banners. And the idea of using quotes and medals is awesome. Funnily enough I only just noticed this thread the other day. When the actual awards are up, we'll have to announce the whole thing here and on theOtaku. Well done everyone![/font]

[font=franklin gothic medium]In response to the original post, I'm sure that we've all seen (or experienced) some situation where two people stayed together purely out of love, even when they may have been in a very dysfunctional relationship. Being in that kind of situation is tough, but I think it takes more than love to make a relationship work. And you have to ask yourself - is love enough if you're always being treated poorly? In terms of pregnancy, I think I can only say the obvious - having children should be a choice you make when you are in a stable situation. I also think that if your relationship is not in a good place, children should be the last thing on your mind. Having children only places additional pressures on a relationship. Even the very best relationship will be tested with the addition of children, because it's a heavy responsibility and a lot of work - so both parents need to be able to work together and rely on each other. Using children as a form of emotional blackmail will not only further damage (or destroy) an already-bad relationship, but it is also incredibly unfair on the child themselves. I understand that accidents can happen, so I know that this is not always a conscious choice - I'm only talking about cases where people deliberately try to get pregnant for the wrong reasons.[/font]

[font=franklin gothic medium]I know this is a thread about XIII, but I have to say...XII's battle system is really elegant. And the Gambits are actually really fun to mess around with - they allow for very deep strategy but they're inherently simple to understand. The combination of depth and intuitiveness in XII's battle system is, I think, pretty much unrivalled in Final Fantasy games. That is, at least, until XIII. I'm maybe five or six hours in, so I still haven't uncovered everything there is to know about the battle system. What I can say, though, is that it kind of borrows from the Gambit idea...and just injects greater speed and simplicity into the process. I actually like the general streamlined feel of XIII. The game just keeps pushing forward, it doesn't generally feel like there's too much unnecessary crap going on. For me, that's a great thing, but I know that some hardcore Final Fantasy fans may not like that.[/font]

[quote=Magus]Now you're kinda scaring me away from the game. I've only played the demo for FFXII (a friend did say it was pretty different from the actual game itself), but I didn't care for it at all. [/quote] [font=franklin gothic medium]Wait, you only played a demo? Hm, well, you should really play the full game. Final Fantasy XII was, in my opinion, just what an increasingly stale series needed. In the same way that you can't really grasp Final Fantasy XIII's battle system until maybe the 10 hour mark, you aren't going to get a full impression of XII's from just the demo. I recommend giving XII another look. Now that it's Platinum, too, you should be able to pick it up pretty cheap.[/font] [quote name='Magus']The main reason I play RPG's in the first place is for the characters (and looking at the pretty magics, summonings and limit breaks if they're in the game), and it's bad enough that I haven't been liking what I've been hearing about Vanille, and I tend to have a low tolerance for characters like her. Seeing you say that it almost ruins the game for you is almost making me do a 180 and just leave this game alone. Lightning (or someone that gets a lot of screen time) would have to be even more of a dominating character for me to put up with her.[/quote] [font=franklin gothic medium]Ironically, one of the main reasons I liked Final Fantasy XII was the maturity of the plot - it felt somehow a whole lot more grown up than previous Final Fantasy games. I hesitate to say this, but it was almost more [i]western[/i] in nature - that is to say, it wasn't filled with over-the-top Japanese cliches. And it didn't include a lame romance sub-plot, which allowed it to place more emphasis on the core geopolitical side of the story. In terms of XIII, yes, there's Vanille. And for me, she's painful. But having said that, she's not nearly as bad as some of her contemporaries. Plus, the fact that (at least so far) she's relatively inconsequential...it makes her fairly easy to ignore. Also, in many parts of the game she's paired with Sazh, who is one of my favourite characters in the game. In some ways, Sazh is a bit like the player's conscience - he asks the questions that the player has in his or her mind. He's also a wonderful force for moderation between the extremes of the other character personalities. For once, we're seeing a black character that is [i]not[/i] like Barrett from Final Fantasy VII (although Barrett did have his positives, he was admittedly a bit of a Mr. T rip-off). Anyway, my suggestion would be to first go and grab Final Fantasy XII. It's seriously worth the effort. Maybe take a look at Final Fantasy XIII down the road. Or wait until you have played a few hours of XII to help make up your mind. Either way, I do highly recommend XIII. Despite my criticisms, it's a fantastic game. I'd say, for me, it has the potential to become one of my favourite Final Fantasy games.[/font]

[font=franklin gothic medium]I think it's worth getting, whether you like Final Fantasy games or not. It just depends whether or not the streamlined nature of the game will be a deal-breaker for you or not. If you love spending hours tweaking your characters, then this probably isn't the game for you. On the other hand, there's still plenty of customization to be had. I'd say that XIII is probably the closest to X, generally. I just personally think it's better. So it does somewhat depend on what you're looking for. If you didn't like the battle system in XII though, then you may not like XIII - Paradigms are very similar to Gambits and in battle, you will need to swap Paradigms regularly on the fly. If this isn't your cup of tea, then XIII may frustrate you more than anything. However, for me, the Paradigms are great. They're strategic, but not in their initial setup - the strategy comes in battle, especially with timing. I prefer that kind of strategy, rather than spending obsessive amounts of time pre-planning.[/font]

[font=franklin gothic medium]Sometimes I just find these oddities amusing, but I can imagine being frustrated by them in everyday life. Lately I've been playing Final Fantasy XIII and one character - Vanille - is such a ridiculously over-sexualised stereotype that it actually almost makes me angry. Her ability to giggle at completely inappropriate moments, or her frequent grunts, moans and groans (often for no apparent reason) become incredibly tiresome. So tiresome, in fact, that there are times where she almost single-handedly ruins the game for me. Not in terms of gameplay, but in terms of the story and characters. And because I see this trend so often in anime, it's no surprise that, as a consequence, I don't watch a great deal of anime (especially these days). I don't view these types of characters as a charming element of Japanese culture - I actually view them as a grotesque element that we could really do without (even if just for the sake of promoting variety among female characters).[/font]

[font=franklin gothic medium]There are a million unfunny (and often seriously disturbing) things about Japanese culture, but I guess this helps to explain why western people are generally so fascinated by it. I am going to Japan in September. It's only a short trip, but hopefully it'll be a good one.[/font]

[quote name='Heaven's Cloud']I don't think anyone has posted a review because this game is like crack. It is absolutely by far the best Final Fantasy game yet. I'm about twenty hours into the game and I am still being introduced to different aspects of the weapons system and battle system.[/QUOTE] [font=franklin gothic medium]I just got it a couple of days ago and I'm about 4 - 5hrs in. I posted some preliminary thoughts at [url="http://www.theotaku.com/worlds/otakuboards"]OB World[/url], but even an hour after those impressions were posted I'm already discovering more. I might write a full review at the very end (or near to it).[/font]

[font=franklin gothic medium]Good to see that some of the original members are still around! I'm sure I see a lot of older members around now, but I probably don't recognise many of them due to name changes. It'd be really great if our profiles could show a list of all the names we'd ever had, but that might be asking a bit too much! :catgirl:[/font]

[quote name='chibi-master'] I had seen him at a Starbucks at one point a couple months earlier. The Starbucks was later closed, but he still kept coming in with his daily cappa-frappa-foofy-puff whatever drink. I got the extra credit.[/QUOTE] [font=franklin gothic medium]Haha, that was quick thinking. I don't think I'd have had a good answer for that. :catgirl: I also think it's kind of funny that your teacher was incredulous when you said you'd achieved enlightenment. Had you said something equally implausible but referenced a different religion, you'd likely have been taken seriously.[/font]

[quote name='chibi-master']My Global teacher actually offered me extra credit if I could discover a lost tomb of an Egyptian pharaoh, so... But this is the same guy that offered me extra credit if I reached enlightment when we were studying Buddhism... :[[/QUOTE] [font=franklin gothic medium]Maybe you can just say you've reached enlightenment. You can walk in one day and proclaim "I'm enlightened!" Unless there's some kind of enlightenment test, though. Then you're in trouble. :confused:[/font]

[quote name='chibi-master']That's actually been recommended to me before, but i don't know where to find any... I ADORE ancient Egypt! It has always been something that fascinates me! It's always interesting to learn about the many different gods and such! I really liked reading about Anubis! He's my favorite...:animesmil[/QUOTE] [font=franklin gothic medium]Cool - I actually just bought a huge book on ancient Egypt from my bookstore thing at work. I think I could easily have become an Egyptologist! Haha. Anyway, I can't think of a great resource for Dreamtime off the top of my head, but I'll try to find something good and I'll share the link with everyone here. :catgirl:[/font]