Hello, everyone!

Please click here, or check your e-mail inboxes, for the 7th issue of Volume 2 of The Stonewall Times!

A special thank you to our new Senior Editor, Mike T. (@DakonKor), for his hard work in brining us the first ever SWTOR section and a brand new layout! Also, big thanks to this month's contributers is in order! Kudos to you all for one of our best issues yet!

Your feedback and comments are greatly appreciated; feel free to post them here or send them to times@stonewallfleet.com.

Enjoy! :)

Episode 371 - Deep Space Nine - "Return to Grace" - 02/05/1996

http://www.allstepisodes.com/megvid.php?n=3414

Dukat seeks Kira's help in regaining his rank in the Cardassian Empire.

Enjoy!

DakonKor. Yah, very good outlook on the issue. The SGRA thread gets so contentious sometimes, it's hard not to respond in kind. People say some hateful things there. The mods shut it down regularly to clean it up, so yes they do care about the community. This was the first time I was actually warned about a post, so I learned a lesson. The silence from Bioware is deafening, but am giving them the benefit of the doubt for now.

I would love to do some role playing. How do i join this channel? :voy:

As someone who is in publishing, I'm always careful about the words that I choose, and the sources I cite.

Discrimination at the very core of it's definition, is discernment, taste, acumen, or perception.

Discrimination isn't by default, a bad thing. Every time you make a choice for dinner, or which route your are going to take on a trip, is discrimination.

That said, "discrimination" as it's being used here gets thrown around too easily. Discrimination should be taken very seriously, and throwing the word around with little regard to the availability of factual information cheapens it.

I stand by my earlier statement that BioWare has an excellent track record of inclusion in the games that they develop (KOTOR, Dragon Age 1 & 2, and Mass Effect 3). There has to be a very good reason for them to NOT be including SGRA, and a similarly good reason for them NOT to announce why yet. In spite of all this, the very fact that the Mods keep recreating the SGRA Voting thread every time it reaches a certain size tells me they aren't "discriminating". In fact they keep encouraging the discussion, even as they remain tight lipped on their reasons why.

"Discrimination" is the last word I would be throwing at BioWare right now. Especially when we have no facts upon which to base what should be a very serious accusation, and BioWare's previous track record. If they come out tomorrow and say, "we didn't include the SGRA romances because we hate fags," I'll join you in harping on them. But for all the rumors flying around it could be anything from lack of development hours to contractual obligations or any number of other reasons.

The now infamous "no" answer to SGRA tells me that BioWare CAN'T talk about it right now. Heaven knows the folks at BioWare are a talkative bunch and the delivery of the answer is as out of character as the answer itself is. I suspect, in time, BioWare will have the discussion when they can.

I published this today on the SWTOR SGRA website. It got deleted by the mods because it apparently was not on topic and caused alot of argument about semantics. They gave me a warning for hijacking the thread, oh well.

So, CALL IT WHAT IT IS

One group gets romantic stories tailored for their orientation, another group is left out from that opportunity. What might you call that? Make up your own mind after reading the definition below.

From the definition of the word "discrimination" in Wikipedia:

"Discrimination is the actual behavior towards members of another group. It involves excluding or restricting members of one group from opportunities that are available to other groups.[2] Moral philosophers have defined it as disadvantageous treatment or consideration."

Remember discrimination does not have to be intentional for it to be such. I know many of you balk at such a harsh word, but really ask yourself, is there a group of people being excluded from a certain kind of immersion, identification of story, and enjoyment that another group has available to them? If so, again refer to the definition above. Or do you simply object to this definition? Or does the premise that anyone is being excluded totally miss the mark?

We should be seeing the announcement on Tuesday :) It should include benefits comparison charts, LTS vs Monthly info ETC

I'm curious how this will look for me--someone who closed his account paying month-to-month, who will restart it under FTP. I worry that I will lose some of the features currently belonging to my toons that I worked for months to get.

Episode 370 - Deep Space Nine - "Crossfire" - 01/29/1996

http://www.allstepisodes.com/megvid.php?n=3413

Odo's hidden feelings for Kira surface when the visiting Bajoran First Minister begins to court her.

Enjoy!

Quote by tuvak

I would like nothing more than to pull up to Starbase 24 or one of the asteroids in a mission and try to fly my boat-ass assault cruiser through the drive through at a McDonalds stationed there. Right across from that, a Starbucks of course. And...get this...they take coupons!!! If anyone is up for it, a foundry mission that went over the top like that would get some kind of Stonewall Fleet award. (McStonewalls would be a nice touch).

Free to play should bring a whole different element to the game as well as to the fleet. People who wouldn't want to pay a monthly fee to play may now join which would give our membership a potential boost. My only concern would be any "crazies" who decide to start playing. A deterrent to hecklers and those who cause disruptions is the price to pay. In this new structure I just hope the same moderation abilities apply and people "play nice."

Jamie.

ATTENTION CREW, due to the exemplary job you all did with the borg encounter, lunch is on me. Helm set course for the nearest Galaxy McStoneWall! :lol:

I would like nothing more than to pull up to Starbase 24 or one of the asteroids in a mission and try to fly my boat-ass assault cruiser through the drive through at a McDonalds stationed there. Right across from that, a Starbucks of course. And...get this...they take coupons!!! If anyone is up for it, a foundry mission that went over the top like that would get some kind of Stonewall Fleet award. (McStonewalls would be a nice touch).

Free to play should bring a whole different element to the game as well as to the fleet. People who wouldn't want to pay a monthly fee to play may now join which would give our membership a potential boost. My only concern would be any "crazies" who decide to start playing. A deterrent to hecklers and those who cause disruptions is the price to pay. In this new structure I just hope the same moderation abilities apply and people "play nice."

Jamie.

Quote by Van

I might have to give Star Trek Online a go, it seems to be a pretty good game from what folks are saying and from the website.

STO has it's gems as well as it's flaws, no doubt about it.

The biggest thing I'm hoping for with SW:TOR is that it is story driven. I'm tired of quest hubs where you gather a dozen quests then head off. I want a large cohesive story that builds of off the previous mission without me needing to read pages of text before I get started. I've been waiting for a KOTOR sequel for many years and hope that this lives up to be many KOTOR sequels wrapped up into a single game that also allows for cooperative (and competitive) play.

Build the story, give it to me in bite size chunks that keep the action flowing. I loved some of City of Heroes arcs (particularly the Sky Raiders arc), but after a while, you stop making time to stop and read the walls of text.

My biggest fear, having seen some of the Game Con videos is that it is going to play like a WoW clone inside a story-driven wrapper. I'm not sure I can stand to mash the same hotkey power chain over and over again in yet ANOTHER game.

Tomorrow at noon pst is when initial weight needs to be turned in by.

Good luck to everyone!

Quote by Van

I might have to give Star Trek Online a go, it seems to be a pretty good game from what folks are saying and from the website.

Might as well once it goes free got nothing to lose at all, oh wait except for some hard drive space :P

Quote by Angelsilhouette

Thinking of it, that would be hi-freaking-larious. I'm imagining the eye of Sauron (?) underneath a pair golden arches. xD

nothing cool about it: http://images.brighthub.com/20/d/20ddec59a99160f7dd44a5f2b4d4b9083dfca7b1_large.jpg

this one appears in the minimap from time to time tough: http://3.bp.blogspot.com/__7gfP4Zk94Q/S5q4T86TLmI/AAAAAAAAAU0/qPOcc8WT7ds/s200/eye-minimap.jpg

http://computered.wordpress.com/2011/09/01/daniel-stahl-sto-goes-f2p-cryptic-and-perfect-world-and-more/

Dan Stahl talking about F2P and promises more and regular content. Interesting he admitted that PW leaked the news before they were ready for it to be known.

Quote by nniicc

Quote by Angelsilhouette

Suddenly I had this vision of orbital billboards around all of the major, inhabited planets. Warp to Vulcan: COLGATE, "GAH!" warp to earth: McDONALDS, NOOOOOOOO!

In LOTRO the user interface is unfortunately filled with buttons to access the store.

The McDonalds store? >.>

Thinking of it, that would be hi-freaking-larious. I'm imagining the eye of Sauron (?) underneath a pair golden arches. xD

I might have to give Star Trek Online a go, it seems to be a pretty good game from what folks are saying and from the website.

Quote by NicholasJohn16

I'm pretty sure that we'll be focusing on a PvE server.

Yeah! big hugz!!!!

Quote by Angelsilhouette

Suddenly I had this vision of orbital billboards around all of the major, inhabited planets. Warp to Vulcan: COLGATE, "GAH!" warp to earth: McDONALDS, NOOOOOOOO!

In LOTRO the user interface is unfortunately filled with buttons to access the store.