Xisifer

Night Watch was fucking brilliant. Pratchett's best work, IMO. But as far as awesomely pithy quotes go, this theory has proven itself true again and again and again and again.

“The reason that the rich were so rich, Vimes reasoned, was because they managed to spend less money.

Take boots, for example. He earned thirty-eight dollars a month plus allowances. A really good pair of leather boots cost fifty dollars. But an affordable pair of boots, which were sort of OK for a season or two and then leaked like hell when the cardboard gave out, cost about ten dollars. Those were the kind of boots Vimes always bought, and wore until the soles were so thin that he could tell where he was in Ankh-Morpork on a foggy night by the feel of the cobbles.

But the thing was that good boots lasted for years and years. A man who could afford fifty dollars had a pair of boots that'd still be keeping his feet dry in ten years' time, while the poor man who could only afford cheap boots would have spent a hundred dollars on boots in the same time and would still have wet feet.

This was the Captain Samuel Vimes 'Boots' theory of socioeconomic unfairness.” ― Terry Pratchett, Men at Arms

Truly, Sam Vimes is one of the foremost economists of our times.

As a former member of the 501st (worldwide Star Wars cosplaying charity group), I can definitely vouch that no way in hell is an iPod going to cut it. If you have any kind of helmet, you're going to need a portable speaker, much like the one that tour guides use. They're quite loud enough to be heard in a con, and it's easy to pick up an unobtrusive paintball throat mic to wire up under the costume.

Stick the speaker somewhere invisible on your body with velcro (Scout Trooper armor actually comes with belly pouches, VERY handy!) and you're golden.

EDIT: Bah, I actually have a Youtube clip around somewhere of myself at Fanime with my whole getup, showing off the speaker and everything. However, it's almost impossible to make out. I sound like The Pyro. :(

Have you tried the new XCOM 2?

"Okay, I'm shooting the gun on my screen. Do you see the bullet holes on your screen?"

"All right, I'm disconnecting. Is the character still there for you?"

Fellow QA tester here. NDAs absolutely do apply to unreleased games.

However, most NDAs also have an expiration date, like "you can't talk about any games/products/IPs you see here while working here and also 5 years after you leave the company".