Because the stories are in my head until I remove them by giving them form. Then again, that just makes room for more stories and the cycle continues.

"Gate: thus the Warframes fought there"? What the Empire side of the gate looks like would vary wildly depending on where they opened it, but either way the fire dragon and all opposition is screwed.

Free for anyone with the means and desire to enter them? Free markets are those whose entry aren't regulated by a governing body. If you want to open a haberdashery, you don't have to ask for permission, you just have to make sure it stays compliant with governing laws.

I saw an ad for a new Everquest expansion last week.

Well, hope springs eternal( they even have listed the unaccounted from both world wars), and as long as the US keeps existing and keeps fighting in conflicts where people might disappear, the number will keep going up instead of down.

According to DPAA.mil there's still 1574 unaccounted for from Vietnam, 126 from the cold war, and 6 from more recent conflicts. They're counted together because not all POWs get reported, some just go "missing".

Saving this for ideas.

I'm thinking: have all of the ores be alloys and you have to put them through a machine to get the basic metals.
Want Iron? You need to mine some steel ore then unsmelt it to get iron and carbon.

Well, yes. Where "Hard Science Fiction" tries to explain reasonable advancement to the level of the setting it takes place in, "Soft Science Fiction" handwaves the advanced technology to focus more on the effect it has on society and the people involved in the story.

Plan their next time travel destination, obviously.

I remember the game a little bit, what I most remember is spending hours digging through and learning the computer settings to get it to work.

My favourite was Armored core 2.

Definitely, if the game doesn't have areas or features locked behind main quest progression, I might never touch the main quest at all. If it does, then I try to do everything that I can in each "segment" of unlocks.

I'm not THAT old, but my first computer was a Packard Bell with Windows 3.1 and an onboard 16k modem. My best friend had both a Commodore 64 and a PC with Windows 98 on it.

There are a lot in the indie game sphere, but I agree that there can always be more.