?

It is, in fact, a simulation; a computer-game of sorts, designed by a lonely creature not unlike ourselves, for its amusement. While he used to play us actively, and even once took on an avatar for a truly immersive experience, he soon moved on to a different project, while leaving us to run in the background. As the simulation runs the non-player-character race of Humanity develops and develops, till its technology can peer out to the edges of the simulation, and finally discern the nature of the simulation itself. As they gain more and more understanding of the simulation, they discover a rudimentary way to contact the simulation's creator. Entirely surprised and rather delighted by the ingenuity of its creation, the creator decides to respond, and establishes an active dialogue with simulation earth, fully enlightening us on the nature of our reality as the idle pet project of an individual.

Atheists/Christians: in this hypothetical scenario, would you acknowledge this creator as God?

So I'm playing Black Flag and really rather like it.The piracy element is tons of fun, I love sailing the ocean taking down ships, discovering new locations, seizing forts, etc. The problem is, I generally hate the 'Assassins Creed' element of the game. 'Tail' missions are excruciatingly dull and frustrating, for example... and are typically completely inane as well. Every time my high-seas shenanigans is interrupted for some 'do it this way and only this way' ground mission, I like the game a little less.

Is there a game, either out now or in the works, that plays in a similar style to Black Flag, but that focuses on piracy? Lets me bargain with enemy ships/forts, start up a fleet of captured ships and choose which one I want to sail? Marry a governor's daughter and start up a family?

Oldschool expansive pirate experience stuff as from those awesome old DOS games with Black Flag's modern graphics, play-style and combat mechanics would be fantastic.

There's no question that the US secretly harbored Nazi scientists to work on various military/medical projects, some with exceedingly dubious ethics. I've seen it often suggested however that Mengele was one of them, whereas the usual history on Mengele suggests he was hiding in south America until his death. Is there any truth, or even a bit of solid evidence, to suggest Mengele was involved in Operation Paperclip? I'm not looking for personal beliefs/blog-sphere theories, but actual documentation.

I've got a BQ-390 Panasonic Quick Charger that I typically use with a pair of Panasonic rechargables, with symbology like 'Ni-MH', 'AA(R6)','HHR-3EPA' attached. Charger works great, batteries work great, but I recently had my sister load a pair of duracell rechargables into it. I took them out as soon as I noticed, but it had been about ten minutes, and there were no apparent complications.

So I'm wondering what brands of rechargeable batteries would work in the thing.. specifically, are Duracell Rechargeable 'StayCharged' batteries, with info like AA/HR6/X1500 NiMH/1,2v/2000 mAH attached, compatible?

Considering getting Borderlands 2. Never played 1, so folks who wan't to ***** about how much like 1 it is don't bother, means nothing to me. I'm just seeing nothing about it containing PVP, and am wondering how PVP would work, if at all.

Couldn't get onto Netflix, so I went to check the website, and its not working either after checking on a few different devices. Is Netflix' entire service down?

I'm a big fan of the Alien movies, and Aliens is one of my favorites, though I don't own any of them on anything but VHS. Every time I catch Aliens on TV though, even on Movie Channels who don't have commercial breaks or reasons to show 'abridged' versions of the film, there's a particular scene missing:

the one where they all nervously wait as the Aliens match themselves against the Auto-Guns, using up near every bullet before retreating. Every time I see Aliens, both the set-up for that scene and the scene itself are gone! I'm curious, is this omission just about it being a 'TV version' of the movie meant to save time, or is the Auto-Gun scene from some directors cut I didn't know I was watching as a kid? Makes no sense to me that movie networks without advertisements would show a shortened version.

out of the available New Vegas expansions, (Dead Money, Honest Hearts, Old World Blues, Lonesome Road) which would you say are the best, and why?

**SPOILERS**

So I've beaten Mass Effect 3, having completed all the content available to me. When you get to the end and are talking to the Illusive man, he presents you with a series of blue/red choice options. The very last one gives a choice between 'but you already have' and 'then you've failed humanity.', but neither option is highlighted. My reputation seems to be maxed out, I'm mostly paragon with only a tiny bit of renegade, and there's really no way I could have possibly gotten more rep.

So how does one unlock this choice? Does it require you to have accessed the online missions or something? I don't have/can't get X-box live, so that would be incredibly lame.

What originally inspired me to beat ME2 on insanity was a loadscreen message that seemed to suggest doing so would have an effect on your ME3 playthrough. Is this true? Is there any measurable reward/effect on gameplay?

So I need an item with 'fortify smithing' to disenchant if my orc's armor is ever going to be as badass as it could be, but I missed my opportunity to get the 'silverblood ring', as the dumbass who gives it kept attacking me on sight upon completion of the quest, so I had to take the other route. The Silverblood ring is the only 'sure thing' I'm aware of where smithing gear is concerned, except the Ironhand gauntlets, which are a quest item and cant be broken down. This means my only option is a random drop, and after 51 levels and not a -single- random drop smithing item, I'm having doubts they'll even appear in my current play-through.

My Question: is anyone aware of a shop or vendor that has a good chance of generating random smithing gear for sale, or know how I could get my hands on some another way?

A long shot, I know. 10 points for the first useful answer.

playing the X-box version of Skyrim, was storing my dragon-priest masks in a container I -thought- would be safe, a chest on top of the tall shelf in the Harbingers room of Jorvaskr (after becoming harbinger.) Well, wouldn't you know it, after going to drop one off for the first time in 10 levels (well past the 'reload a save' mark) I've found the chest empty, -all- my Dragon Masks gone. I'd found seven, now I've got just one. Am I royally f-u-c-k-e-d here, i.e never able to complete the 'get all dragon masks' aspect of the game? Or is there any way to retrieve significant items that have vanished from containers?

I'm trying to make the absolute ultimate set of caster's Daedric Armor. I've got the armor, armorer and enchanting are more or less maxed out, but if I want it to be the best of the best, I'm also going to need some strong potions to boost my smithing/chanting skill. I reaalllly don't want to waste too many perks in apothecary though, so I'm wondering: is the Benefactor perk relevant to my goals, or should I stick with stacking up on the first perk and leave it at that?

I once read something about an obscure passage in the Bible which suggested God wasn't able to bring his wrath down on a certain army because their weapons/arms were made of a certain material, either steel or bronze. Anyone know what that might be in reference too?