Seems I got a fairly good idea from your answer and OPs post.

Seems VP1 is more optimistic in its outlook by comparison as your companions seemed to have already been qualified to be tested to join the ranks for Ragnarök. But seems to place more value on an individual character as it has effect on the meta-narrative value.

I do know that CotP deals with some pretty heavy topics of the reality of the period and I did appreciate that rawness to it as it helped sell the setting and provide sufficient investment to see how far the rabbit hole went.

I have only played Covenant of the Plume - not sure that falls in the franchise - and I recall that game was grounded in human politics and the exploring the personal stories of the characters one interacts with.

It seems to be a more personal journey as the characters that one has access to and what type of story arc one plays is decided by the decisions one makes through the story and having to weigh the value of human life against a backdrop of colourful characters.

Seems the games are similiar in concept and design with some differing gameplay mechanics

Reading that, seems you were fortunately not traveling too fast, as I can imagine traveling along, the sudden stop, falling over face first into the packed snow and just sort of enacting an image of your one foot being propped like a hand trying to pull excalibur from the snow.

I understand that

It was years between the robbery ( headed back home after spending time with my then girlfriend) and the attempted assault ( work decided to have me work around that area) and I would always be uneasy but trying not to look like a too easy a mark again while thinking of “what if” scenarios as it feels like one’s intution is on a fine tuned edge being alert for anything that seems suspicious.

I guess it could be described as practical fear

After the attack, I was insistent and since then do my utmost to keep as far away from that area as possible.

I will admit, I also felt apprehension like how you might have felt like when I started posting details

I was paranoid as I was robbed in that area before to which I froze, but the police were around then and arrested one of the suspects.

The paranoia part comes from thinking that they might have wanted revenge as I ID’d and provided a statement that allowed it to be prosecuted ( got a call from a prosecutor) for the robbery.

So the immediate thought was if it was payback, as they said nothing through the whole ordeal, but realistically, if it was they would have not run away so quickly or took advantage of my poor positioning.

The most rationale thinking in hindsight is that it was a bunch of meth-heads were looking for quick score and by me escalating they decided for a quick and dirty robbery instead.

That area where I used to work is dangerous and I know I got really lucky considering considering the type of incidents that do happen there

Reminds me of what a friend told with his grandfather when he was cutting wood for a carpentry project with a handheld wood saw, it slipped out of his hand and, I guess on instinct, tried to grabbed before it fell, if I recall he got some nasty lacerations from catching it on the blade before switching it off.

So I can only imagine what it might feel working with something that cuts before you can even register the damage. That was a close call, especially with the momentum of your movement could have done some irreparable damage to your hand.

Also lucky that that the impact of the fall didn’t cause any other damage to your legs as it took the impact like a champ from the momentum of the flip and sudden stop if I am assuming it was something like a 1-story distance from the deck to the ground?

Thank you for the clarity

And that must have been an experience to say the least, feeling the “edge of death” with every foot step

That is scary to think of having no control for who knows how long and when coming to a stop and realise that you missed the worst part of it at the end.

Thinking on it, must have been an experience - knowing something worked just enough to remind one of how much it protected them.

I am not knowledgeable about the ballistic resistance of a helmet, but to me that seems like a quality helmet to be able to stop a bullet in its tracks - especially if it was a caliber higher than a pistol, I make the assumption.

That is like the opposite of something out of Final Destination

That was lucky that you didn’t react yeah

Reminds me of when I was in high school playing rugby and I ended up in a position where I was on the ground. As I want to get up, I barely see someone running full speed backwards towards me and in the time I saw them and turned my head to brace I got blunt metal togs slamming against my head.

The outer most tog ended up hitting me just on above my eye on the bone along my eye brow with the other togs going up towards my hair line.

In my case, reacting saved my eye ball

I played it a long time ago, but still recall how the way of open fist and closed fist symbolized I guess concepts

Closed Fist, was a philosophy selfish desire and domination with the ideal of only the strongest getting to make the rules

Whereas open fist was selflessness with the ideal that one’s strength is only as strong as the weakest link

The morality was binary choice with the environments changing somewhat accordingly, but I recall it having a more noticable effect on the “kung-fu” you could learn and it was an interesting mechanic to try and match one’s fighting style to the philosophy one follows.

I recall open-fist felt more disciplined and “soft” in its impact whereas closed-fist had a more viseral feel with the intent to cause harm and show superiority

Although the choice was either open or closed fist it did leave a stronge impact on how different the ending sequence played out which at the time was something I really felt impressed with as the difference in tone during the last moments - showcasing that both paths can achieve the goal.

I think Mass Effect probably had its early roots, in regards to morality system, from Jade Empire with influence from KOTOR as well.

[Indubiously] Forta would be filled with pride knowing that. [Bewildered] Imagining having to script all of Hamlet with all that pretext

To be fair the greatness of experiencing Elcor Hamlet was intended to be seen through his actions not emotions.

[Regretfully and with much sorrow] One cannot truly experience it in its 14 hour splendour

[Restrained Optimism and sadness] It will be a different game considering the people behind it and the aftermath of the trilogy. [Wistful Contentment] Having the next Mass Effect have some grounded world building and, if need be, mix elements to a compromise of old and new

That is fair, I prefer renegade femshep as well. Jennifer Hale, for me, does her renegade lines with more menace and she carries authority better.

Male Shepard, I feel, does the vulnerable moments well, especially in 3… maybe it is a bias in the display of male lead vulnerability. I feel like Mark Meer does the more meme-worthy comedic moments better.

Generally I lean towards light hearted paragon MaleShep and badass renegade FemShep on voice preferance

Jade Empire, takes me back. Great game and had a nice morality system that effected how your character developed with skills and how the playable character interacted with the world and how it had a strong effect on type the ending that would play out.

Also thank you for the link, will have a look

Disppointed there are no insert

Greedy Corpo:

“Aah yes, 👐 A.I. 👐 we have dismissed those claims”

Jokes aside, at least in regards to Mass Effect both voice actors bring something to the game for me

Although, I admit female shepard is consistently better throughout the triology, male shepard has his charm as Mark Meer improved on his performance throughout the trilogy. The human element can do much to elevate a weaker performance and in its own way leave a stronger impact, at least for me.

It is a grindy game, eventually you will need to make use of platinum ( premium currency) to unlock slots for warframes, weapons, pets or to unlock skins and convenience items like forma - which can be farmed but fully completed ones are a rare drop and to build 1 takes 23 hours- ( item used to allow great customisation of frames and weapons and resets forma’d object back to level 1) and there are a few other things spending platinum on mostly for slots, but that is in spoiler terriority to mention.

One can farm stuff most of the stuff if you have the time and patience, besides the “prime” version of mods and weapons and warframes.

Prime stuff is essentially the “best” version of something and considered “best in slot” for the space it takes( prime mods are a bit more complicated in regards “best”)

The prime mods one gets from a trader that pops up every 2 weeks and exchanges currency that is earned by cashing in prime parts for currency and use the currency to buy from the trader.

Prime warframes and weapons are rotated over time and put in a “vault” when its time has run its course. There are a few primes that not vaulted, but for the most part one just has to wait if they are looking for a specific prime.

Platinum can be traded for items, but is probably best to trade platinum on the unofficial market site.

Generally it is a good game with good gameplay, but is very, for lack of better word “gated” by a lot of timers and daily caps that either the impatient can use premium currency push through either by buying the stuff they want or speeding up the forging process

It is probably been said, but roll with the failures in disco elysium, sometimes the failures bring out a better result. It systems do a great job commenting on your decisions and whether you do your job as a cop or not, it still drives across a very human story

In regards to a game with a good story, I can say OneShot surprised me. It breaks the 4th wall by having you be the character that guides the protagonist through the world as they wake up in another world and go on a journey trying to get back. Simple graphics and one has to read everything, but by the story’s end was I left feeling some emotions in regards to its conclusion.

Tldr:

Having too many cultures that have not established a “market share” in politics makes the, people who run a country, job harder as it has to contend with dealing with the potential of new cultures forming and the inevitable culture clashes that follow as differing values and ideals will demand different things.

It fractures and dilutes points of control which encourages politics to try ensure loyalty though aligning itself with views of the majority.

End tldr

Unironically, Stellaris is probably a decent example of the thought experiment played out. Unless a species is built with ideals of the intergration and/or has its proper foundation set then it can quickly spiral out of hand as you have to deal with " a hunded voices asking for one thing".

It is far easier to control and secure a foundational majority based off of one species as it can be more easily guided towards an established outcome.

Adding too many “outsiders” has the potential to cause an imbalance and a shift in thinking which then requires a new paradigm to “herd the sheep” as it were, while still trying to maintain a standard that the base species has become accustomed to.

If it not carefully controlled, it can potentially lead to a fracturing of opinion and thoughts which is a lot harder to manage and “guide” as one runs the risk of isolating one group and in doing so opening up the potential cascade of problems if the ignored minorities builds up steam which then forces leaders to contend with trying to figure out a way to maintain control over the many species bases while still doing it in a way that causes the least amount of disruption to their control.