I think his lack of conceptual thinking and lack of education in the field of systems and system life cycles prevents him from really grasping the subject for the necessity to maintain the institution of presidency in the US. In most EU countries the power divides between the prime minister, the president and the chief of armed forces while in the US that power converges in the presidential institution. Yes there is the secretary of defence and such but in the end the president is the ultimate representative of power. And this power gives him the ability to crush through decision deadlocks and this ability is the most important thing in any crisis situation - to make a decision on a course of action even if it is a really bad one because doing nothing like the eu in the refugee crisis is the worst possible course of action. If believable and result oriented action had been taken such entity as "the soldiers of odin" would not exist and spread through europe. Most people can relate to lives lost in the course of action, most people cant comprehend the loss of life while watching and doing nothing.

Activating the Division protocol would be one of these decisions. It might not make sense until you consider the premise as Iraq/Afghanistan scenario on US soil. The decision behind not sending in regular infantry and armor would most likely be that they can't differentiate between friend and foe. As with all events of these magnitudes someone has to be hanged for the crimes in the end. The US army represents what is militarily known as overwhelming force. When faced with such a force the bad guys would just hide behind civilian disguise. Small groups can gather intel and achieve goals which a direct assault might not. And no system can withstand a dedicated and determined assault of a single individual. Just look at the short history of humanity which is full of examples how a single person changes the course of history. However make no mistake such a result as depicted in the Division on the US soil is completely ridiculous. The viral attack is of course a possibility but everything that comes after it (especially the gangs depicted in the game) is completely stupid and over simplified.

Also the game seems to depict the citizens of NY as some kind of suppressed psychopaths who just wait for a chance to go on a murderous rampage. The evidence known to me does not support this premise. Also the US army mantra is we leave no one behind which sticks with people even after the tour of duty. There was a video where two russians measured the time until someone came to help you in US and Moscow.The time was around 2 minutes in US and 40 minutes in Russia.

Then there's the Riker Island. The game seems to treat those prisoner as some sort of a group with similar values and goals which is of course complete crap. Considering there are about 100000 prisoners of different social backgrounds, racial heritages not to mention values - to believe they would walk hand in hand on a murderous spree across NY is completely ridiculous. In reality the group would splinter in 5 seconds flat.

His biggest problem seems to be in the value of human life and civil rights. During the martial-law you have no rights and your life isn't worth sh't and that's why the army is used as a last resort only. It's like using a huge sledgehammer when all you need is a screwdriver. Some of his remarks are heavily influenced by the game's necessity to reward the player (otherwise people would only play it once) and this leads to problems. "Helping to form an ad-hoc dictatorship? It’s a statement that started to get to me, to get under my skin. As I ran back and forth, killing and collecting, I started to wonder what this game is really about." The presidential system is already in place so he is not helping anyone to form anything and in a real life scenario the private security companies used in such cases do not kill and collect loot from the event zone because their equipment is already top of the line and combined so as to maximize mobility and efficiency.

What we are witnessing here is how a person is beginning to understand that in the greater context of a crisis the single human life is irrelevent, namely his .

Was that a quote or did you write that yourself? Just curious.

To respond to Ox, yea, the game is basically an RPG like Guild Wars with some shooter elements thrown in. Having FPS skills is a necessity.. if you're not on target, you're not going to do damage. It's also cover-based, like gears of war or various other games. If you're not in cover, you're going to get pwnt. Enemies will chuck grenades at you, grenade launchers, and they will try to flank you. As you get toward the end game, this becomes pretty serious... you get hit by a grenade and you're probably toast. If you get flanked, you're toast. If you're peeking over your cover when a sniper is firing (you can tell because their scope suddenly lights up like it's a freaking camera flash) you will get messed up.

Otherwise though, you're collecting loot gear with various randomized stats and of different kinds... shotguns for excellent close in work, submachine guns for slightly more range and slightly less damage but high rate of fire, assault rifles for more range, less damage (but a good medium), and sniper rifles for long range, high damage, but typically lower firing rate. For sidearms you either get a pistol or a double barreled sawed off shotgun.

Regarding the plot, it's pretty holey. And you run around killing lots and lots of gangs, because... yea. Why not? There are actually 4 types of enemies.

- gang members. These are just lowly criminal types wearing street clothes and concealing their faces.
- cleaners. These are guys wearing hazmat suits and wielding flame throwers. Supposedly they were city workers that decided the only way to save the world is to eradicate the virus. With fire. Of course. They spend a lot of time burning innocent people.
- rikers. These are escaped prisoners from Riker's island. They're led by a nutbag chick that got them out and united them, or something. The game makes a point of saying not everyone from Riker's island is a crazy, but you sure don't meet any normal ones.
- mercs. The last group are mercenaries. These guys are actually really dangerous. They have good gear and they try really hard to keep you locked down and flank you. This is a mercenary group that was hired to protect Wall Street when the outbreak started, were left behind, and the leader decided to hammer out his own little fiefdom.

As for areas where you meet other people, just safe houses and the dark zone. The dark zone is a pvp-free area... you can attack anyone, including people in your own group. If someone dies, they drop some of their loot they're carrying. If you kill someone (or shoot the crap out of them) you get 'flagged' and anyone else can kill you without penalty, plus they get some experience or something. If you survive long enough after killing someone for your flag timer to run out, then you get the xp and you get unflagged.

Bleh, I got sidetracked. Let me know if there are any more questions.

No, that summed it up pretty well I think. Thanks. I like the flagged system, definitely 'borrowed' from the MMORPG genre but I think it makes more sense in a game like this where your combat prowess is more skill-based. In an MMORPG all classes are designed to be somewhat balanced and combat is not typically skill-based, so being flagged just plain sucks. In The Division, you could theoretically be a total scumbag if you have the skill to back it up. Pretty neat.

I also like Peltz' take on the article. Nicely written.

Even if it sometimes feels like we are just 4 people talking in circles around each other on CK, I always enjoy the quality of conversation.

Expansion delayed

https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2016/0 ... -the-game/

Yea, they're wanting to work on fixing the core game mechanics. And yea, it's pretty broken. There are only a few armor sets that are worth it. There are only a few skills that are worth it. there are only a few guns that are worth it. The Dark Zone sucks and is just inhabited by gankers. Bleh. I still enjoy the core gameplay and it's a lot of fun to run with a 4 man group of people I know, but they don't play very often, so neither do I lately. But I own the season pass, so I'm in it for the long haul.

I'm hoping this makes the game more enjoyable. If not, oh well, I've gotten hundreds of hours of gameplay out of it. Even if I never play it again, it was worth the investment to me. (I do still play, just not every day)

Isn't the point of the dark zone that it's full of gankers?

Or do you mean that it's so ridiculously full of gankers that they might as well do away with the rest of the game and set up a PVP arena? You'd imagine that "irl" you'd run unto gankers once in a while and friendlies sometimes as well. But yeah, not a constant killfest.

What makes the dark zone interesting to me is that it's basically a large free roam area with a bunch of really tough bad guys and some good loot. The other players running around potentially killing you was never something I was happy about, but I would just avoid them and take the occasional death. But it's just gotten worse with time, imo. I don't even go in there any more. I wish there were a large, free-roam area like it with no pvp.

http://www.gamespot.com/articles/play-t ... 0-6446267/

Free this weekend on uplay.

BTW, the survival expansion is pretty awesome. You basically get dropped into a freezing version of New York with crap gear. You're diseased, you need to eat, drink, and take meds to keep the disease at bay. Meanwhile you forage, upgrade your gear, and try to make it to the center of the map to get extracted. It's tough... like really tough. Typical game takes 1 - 1.5 hours, unless you die early. But man, it's fun. When you play it, you get dropped into the map with 24 people total.. there are pvp and non-pvp versions.

One game I was doing poorly... all bad guys and lootable containers are global, so if someone beats you to loot, you're out of luck. I was late to everything, but then I saw a guy get pwnt by some NPCs, so I looted his crap. Then I ran to a couple more dead guys and got more gear, before finally entering the dark zone and successfully extracting with only minutes left before I died from the disease. Good stuff.

I wasn't particularly impressed with the free weekend. It wasn't bad but it was mediocre enough for me to pass on buying it. I am glad that you are enjoying it. But i guess this is one of those games best enjoyed with a friend (which i don't have, the one who plays computer games).

Yea, it's just a mode. It's kinda permadeath, but it's not like you're investing more than an hour and a bit of change into these characters. And you keep the loot. *shrug*