Recent content by RyVal

Yes, and while he did commit many atrocities, what he did was pretty much par for the course in the mid-1600s. Do bear in mind that the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland came only half a century before the Great Northern War of 1700-1721, which is infamous for its brutality. War crimes were the...

The Great Famine was a result of the Potato Blight, which was an entirely natural phenonemon. Sure, you could criticise the Dublin Government for mismanaging the crisis and failing to adequately react and maintaining food exports, but you can't blame them for the famine itself. Hanlon's...

No genocide was involved, actually. Strictly speaking, genocide is a deliberate attempt to destroy a race of people. While the English certainly had a low opinion of the Irish natives, they certainly didn't try and wipe them out. After all, what would be the point? I don't know where you...

I'm sensing a somewhat Anglophobic viewpoint, here. The Scottish Enlightenment, for example, happened post-Union. Since Scotland was a part of the British Empire, its achievements were Great Britain's achievements, just as the achievements of Texas are the achievements of the USA...

Don't know about the "ideas" thing. We took plenty of natural resources, manpower and wealth, etc. But if there was any flow of ideas, it was most certainly out of Great Britain and into the colonies, rather than vice-versa.

The history curriculum is basically as follows: The First World War (1871-1918) Appeasement (1933-1939) Germany (1815-1939) Russia (1905-1939) British Social History (1800-1900) It's a shame, because the history of the British Empire is very interesting.

A John Major reference? Now, that -is- obscure.

Which had a lot more to do with the fact that it was a mediocre [http://www.metacritic.com/games/platforms/xbox360/emenchantarm?q=Enchanted%20Arms], obscure JRPG than the fact that it had an openly gay character. Coincidence does not equal causality. Because it is a role-playing game...

Meer just sounded like your average male video game protagonist fresh from The Harrison Ford School of Monotone Mumbling and Faux Badassery. Hale managed to imbue her voice with life. Even when she was doing her awful British accent in Mercenaries 2, she was still more interesting to listen to...

There is a wealth of sci-fi which incorporates male homosexuality. Wikipedia even has a list for it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGBT_themes_in_speculative_fiction Again, this is a ridicilous claim. The whole point of RPGs is that there is no canon. BioWare may play their Shepherd as...

So it would be unrealistic to have gays in space, but not lesbians...? What would you define as a "gay personality"?

I would point out the fact that homosexuals would be more inclined to purchase a product which catered to them, so it does hurt sales in that regard. Furthermore, it probably would not hurt sales to simply have a cast composed entirely of white men; that does not mean it is advisable or...

No, they only appear female so that BioWare could have an immediate response to any one who complained about it featuring lesbians. Don't even get me started on "The Asari don't count, they're monogendered!" That's a transparent cop-out. Furthermore, Jack - a human female - alludes to having...

Again, you fail to make the distinction of "pandering". I am not saying that BioWare themselves are homophobic. What I am saying, however, is that they are pandering to homophobia by including "hawt lesbians" and quietly shelving gays. Why have they decided to do this with Mass Effect but...

The whole matter of having inter-character relationships does not matter at all, yet it is still included. Mass Effect is as much about character building as it is about sci-fi. If people just wanted to blow shit up, they'd be playing Gears of War or Halo. ME is touted as being mature and...