fair-and-balanced
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Some Assembly Required: On balance and fairness
Today it occurred to me that The Secret World's faction choice is meaningless. You're probably aware that the game features three organizations, but if you're not a regular player, you may not know that picking one is largely an aesthetic exercise. Sure you get different lines of dialogue in the game's numerous cutscenes depending upon whether you're a Dragon or a Templar, and you get Illuminati-specific outfits if you roll that way, but outside of these niceties and perhaps roleplay, TSW's factions are pretty pointless. They're pointless because there's no real consequence for picking one over the other, and there's no lasting impact on either the world or gameplay that results from in-game factional "wins." Anyhow, when I mentioned this to a friend, his very first comment was that "any changes would need to be fair and inclusive."
The Elven Agenda: What Hi-Rez doesn't want you to know
"In Global Agenda, there are no elves." That's what we've been told for over a year now. Hi-Rez's Spy-Fi shooter has almost staked it's entire existence on the removal of Elven kind from the gaming scene, which has certainly earned them a nasty reputation with the Sylvaen-American equal rights camps. But we here at Massively have confirmed, through a diligent study of Global Agenda, that Hi-Rez may be deceiving its own player base. While the company may take a hardline stance against elves, their actions speak very differently. Take, for example, the Recon class... or should we say the Elven class? Follow along readers, for we have evidence to back up our claims!
HANNSpree debuts line of plush TVs for tasteless tots
We all know how much children hate television, so sometimes it's necessary to be a little sneaky, especially when looking to give them their minimum daily requirement of the "Fair & Balanced" -- that's why we're lucky that HANNSpree is on the case. The company, known for it's particularly uglified and just plain bizarre display devices is debuting a line of plush animals (including an elephant, giraffe, panda, and polar bear) with televisions embedded in their sides -- just the thing for concerned parents who need to trick their kids into watching. With any luck, Junior will soon be rattling off the nine principles with the ease that you once let the names of the four Monkees roll off the tongue. Pretty sweet, right? It's time for you to get back to The Common Sense Book of Baby and Child Care -- but not before eyeballing that gallery below.
