As an American who\'s opinions are often considered against the government and the current president, i feel the Bush saw Iraq as both a possible threat and as a possiblity for oil resources.  

Since the attack on pearl harbor (and more recently the cold war) our government has tried to become the policeman of the world and this idea has grown into the fabric of our public (i hate this idea and feel that our country has exploited this throughout the years).  It is my opinion that the average American feels superior to most other peoples of the world, even if they do not consciously realize it.  But, most patrioic nations have this problem and our country is full of flaming patriots.

These \"issues\", as well as the paranoia that set in after 9/11 (caused by years of complacency and arrogance), was all that the government needed to gain public support for any war against a nation that they labeled terrorists (with only a little propaganda).  So, IMO, my government had many intentions for the war in Iraq:
1. Eliminate a possible threat (even if they had no real info of Iraq as being a threat)
2. Make any gains that are possible (oil, an ally in the Arab/Muslim world)
3.  Regain the Public\'s trust with a real war (Afghanistan had not had the desired effect to public opinion)
4. Eliminate a blemish from the Bush family record (a conspiracy theory of my own).

P.S.  And even with the mess that Iraq is still in, Bush stated in a speech on monday that he still plans to hand over control of the country to the Iraqis on June 30.  just amazing

*wonders if anyone actually read his post*

Has anyone ever played the Shadowrun games for SNES or the Genesis? I have the genesis version and it is one of my favorite games of all time and about once a year i will break it out and play...an excellent game IMO.

Tygerwilde: i posted this about 3 posts before you did

Still a great game, i wish someone would remake it. I think that it would could be an excellent MMORPG.  However, i think i read somewhere that MIcroshaft aquired the rights to any future games from the franchise

thank you for the response Grono

As for those interested in how the Arena has been made, we can all thank Artician for his great work. According to some dev who\'s heard some things, the whole structure is roughly 120k polys (\"So just the arena in CB is 50% more polys than all of MB combined\" ), and is made of somewhere between 10-12 sectors. So we definitely have something to look forward to in CB.

*drools in anticipation of epic gladitorial battles*
That is totally awesome.  It makes me long for the glory that will be CB.

The pics of the arena are not actually screenshots, but renderings.  I must say that it does look promising through

While i do agree that this would be an excellent way to encourage teamplay, i also believe that it will cause the gap between new players and veterans to be much more exaggerated.   Because of this, the \"stupid noob\" stereotype would be perpetuated (sp.) causing new players to be frustrated even that much quicker.  

The idea is good, so long as the community of players does not allow it to get out of hand.

My thought:
In the distant past a powerful group of dark mages opened a portal to a previously undiscovered plane.  Upon passing through the portal, they found a species of creatures with amazing magicla abilities.  Thinking that these docile creatures could be used as powerful weapons of war, they returned with them to the world of PS.  However, when they returned they discovered that the creatures could survive no more than a few days in the world.
To solve this issue the creatures would form a sybiontic bond with a being of this plane and share their life force and enabling them to survive.  When in this symbiosis the creature are in a form of stasis where their magical properties are greatly reduced, however the remaining percentage of their \"abilities\" is passed onto the being in which they share the symbiosis.

Then the story can turn in any number of ways to explain the existance of many of the symbionts.

I like the idea of having symibonts, however the use of symbionts should be rare and extremely difficult to achieve.  
IMO the best way to actually use symbionts ingame would be to associate them with a cult like group or a feared religious sect.  A group that was never before been known in the world suddenly appeared and began a great war.  These people were extremely powerful due to their use of the symbionts, and they were defeated only because the opposing forces used the symbionts as well.  
A story alongs these lines would be an excellent way to explain the symbionts existance in the world.

The way your are describing the symbionts is as draining a small amount of HP, MP, etc. to give you a bonus to some ressitance, magic damage, etc.  I think that the symbionts should be creatures that \"share\" the life force of the player.  They should be creatures that were brought from another plane and are unable to survive in the PS world unless they attach themselves to a person.  The symbionts then give a bonus because they understand that if the person they are attached to dies, they will die as well.