We have a house rule where you do not need a monopoly to begin building houses. Kept every game under 2 hours with lots of money changing hands as the properties began to be developed. It did however bring it even quicker to the point of a "dumb luck" instant death once everything had hotels on it.

Wasn't there a Slashdot article a little while ago about bulbs being regulated so they never lasted longer than some specific number of hours or that company would get a fine? How does that work out?

Dude, don't make fun of Thor. See? He has a smaller ID than you.

No Alpha Centauri? The quotes alone by the major characters change your world outlook!

My sister and I establish one simple house rule when playing Monopoly with friends so it is over quicker and the mechanic of luck works differently: No "monopoly" is required to begin building houses and a hotel.

Then it becomes a game where you have to balance buying everything you land on against buying houses. The luck element ends up yo-yoing cash between players as they land on each other's developed lots, but can be mitigated by smart management of finances and knowing when to risk development. The game is over very quickly as all properties become purchased.

Really? If you pay off the full year in advance at US$45, that works out to US$3.75/month. Which seems reasonable to me. Even better with the exchange rate to GBP where it becomes £2.25/month.

It can't turn left. A problem it's had since it was created.

I never saw that early trailer. Had no idea it was going to be something that reminds me of Phantasy Star IV, a weird blend of fantasy and sci-fi. I only saw the near-release trailers and at the time was excited that there was an alternative to Anarchy Online if anyone wanted an MMO sci-fi fix.

I didn't know any of that. Thanks for enlightening me. A shame it didn't get it's chance.

Didn't Tabula Rasa have a shrinking player population problem soon after launch?

Funnily enough, the Shield's size was a deal breaker for me too. I have the Nexus 10 and I'm still very happy with it and its screen real estate. I had zero desire to get any other tablet until I saw and read about the shield. Expecially for that price point. But I just can't see the point of dropping 2" in screen size when I'm an avid digital comic/manga reader.

I'm not even that keen on the gaming, I'm just blown away by all that processing power for less than the price of my Nexus 10 from two years ago!

Fascinating. Thanks for answering.

I agree with you but only partially. A D-Day style beach invasion with today's tech would truly be suicidal. These days though, no amphibious assault would be considered without air- and naval-superiority being firmly established with a control zone measured in the hundreds of miles around the beachhead first.

Only an adversary of similar tech-level would be a threat since there is no real defence against super long range missile artillery like cruise missiles. The UHAC's advantage here is that it will be a small (relatively speaking) moving target, not some bunker with a fixed ventilation port.

I might be made fun of for this but I'll ask anyway: If negative mass could be practically harnessef, would it allow for the antigravity/repulsorlift/mass effect technology of science fiction to be real?

Not the impression I got from the Reddit thread that popped up around this issue. All anecdotal, but mostly positive with only 2-3 fps lost and at least one where the fps improved instead.