Worth Reading: 06/22/12

@Darkstorn said:

Patrick, have you played through Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth? As a horror game fanatic myself, it made my skin crawl and appeased my Lovecraft bug in one fell swoop. Highly recommended if you haven't checked it out yet.

This for sure, it seems a lot like Amnesia as in avoiding/running away from enemies. Please to a video on it if you do play it, I want to see Patrick an co.'s reaction to the "mommy in the attic" part.

@Kirklebum said:

@Luthorcrow said:

@Binman88 said:

Katie Williams needed to immediately step up and say "no, I know how to play video games, let me control it like everyone else", or pose the question to the PR guy as to why he had to play it for her. She should have embarrassed the PR guy for making a stupid assumption and should have refused to view their game if he wasn't going to let her have the same experience as everyone else. Then name the guy and the company he works for, and the game she was being shown. Stop tip-toeing.

I'm absolutely not blaming her for what happened, but it does no good to sit there and end up with no information (as she stated), and then make a complaint on the internet after the fact. If someone is being rude to you, stand up to them and put them in their place. Someone made the comment on the article that women are afraid of looking like a "bitch" if they stand up for themselves, so it's not as "easy" as it is for men. Not if you're reasonable about it. Furthermore, if some asshat who clearly thinks less of you in the first place will think of you as a bitch for standing up for yourself, who the fuck cares? Let him think you're a bitch, just as he'd think you were a prick if you were a man standing up to him over something. If you're in the right you have nothing to worry about.

Don't agree with her about the Hitman thing though, but she doesn't really go into that.

Edit: Also: why in the fuck did Kotaku shine a spotlight on a guy who cheats in video games? Why not have an in-depth review with the 14 year old kid who called you a faggot on XBL while you're at it. Don't give these retards the time of day.

No doubt, it is disappointing that a professional journalist would let an under paid PR person treat them like a tourist. It doesn't change the fact that it clearly illustrates stupidity and sexism of the event. But at the same time my B.S. meter is getting a tickle. What do I mean? Let's face it what makes a better story, the one where she shuts the PR guy down with a sentence or to be a passive, take notes and write a story about it. Because the fact is if she actually confronted any of these PR guys with a sentence she could have shut them down and got her demo. So yes, I see a little of the writer purposely riding an experience for the purpose of a story.

On the other hand sometimes, you have to sit back and let people talk to find out what they are really up to so being a detached writer in this case might not be such a bad thing. On the other hand, here is cold hard fact kids, you have to fight for what you believe. So next time, confront the guy in the moment.

My initial reaction to the Katie Williams story was the same. She should have stood up for herself, however, as she wrote, it was her first time at E3 and being treated that way caught her off guard. She wrote that the condescending treatment continued throughout E3 but didn't elaborate on how she reacted to it. I hope she took control and asked about the games she cared about, but that isn't the point.

Time is a valuable commodity at E3 and she has every right to be upset about having to justify her existence at the event to PR person after PR person. Yes, she should expect to be treated different, it's a fact of life when you choose to work in a field traditionally dominated by people who look different than you, but that doesn't make it OK and it doesn't mean she should just shut up and accept it as her fate. It's E3 2012, not the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros.

I'm journalist in a field where women are the minority and often have to work twice as hard to do the same job I do through no fault of their own. When I interview people there's a certain amount of knowledge they assume I have because I'm a male who writes about sports. Young female sports journalists often have to work harder and dig deeper because many of the people they interview assume they won't understand an in-depth answer. No matter how much I prepare for an interview, I usually get the most interesting information and anecdotes through follow up questions, but her coverage of a game will certainly be hurt if the PR person dumbs down their answers because she is female.

It's disheartening when talent is held back by people's assumptions, fortunately, talented people usually find a way to succeed despite the obstacles and that's how change happens.

I think the one of the reasons she didn't speak up for herself was because journalists have a job of being a PR person for themselves. She seems like she is fairly new to writing about video games and maybe does not want to necessarily create negativity around her name as being possibly hard to deal with. It could possibly cost her, her job.

I don't know, though, but I do agree that she should have just stood up for herself. At least the very least, it's good that she wrote this article to shine the light on this apparent issue.

MGO1 (the online portion of MGS3S) was better. As far as this one, theres always the Japanese arcade version.

In regards to that female journalist article: Maybe I have a skewed view being a male, but if know what I'm doing at a keyboard and someone tried to take the controls from me to show me how to play, I'd let them know to back off. I don't want to play "blame the victim" here, but complaining about something on the internet without naming names and not addressing the problem in the moment doesn't really do anyone good.

If you want your dog to stop pooping in the house, you have to stop them in the act. Not complain about it online.

EDIT: Apparently I completely missed the back 'n' forth on this topic already. Mea culpa.

@mrpandaman said:

@Kirklebum said:

@Luthorcrow said:

@Binman88 said:

...

...

My initial reaction to the Katie Williams story was the same. She should have stood up for herself, however, as she wrote, it was her first time at E3 and being treated that way caught her off guard. She wrote that the condescending treatment continued throughout E3 but didn't elaborate on how she reacted to it. I hope she took control and asked about the games she cared about, but that isn't the point.

Time is a valuable commodity at E3 and she has every right to be upset about having to justify her existence at the event to PR person after PR person. Yes, she should expect to be treated different, it's a fact of life when you choose to work in a field traditionally dominated by people who look different than you, but that doesn't make it OK and it doesn't mean she should just shut up and accept it as her fate. It's E3 2012, not the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros.

I'm journalist in a field where women are the minority and often have to work twice as hard to do the same job I do through no fault of their own. When I interview people there's a certain amount of knowledge they assume I have because I'm a male who writes about sports. Young female sports journalists often have to work harder and dig deeper because many of the people they interview assume they won't understand an in-depth answer. No matter how much I prepare for an interview, I usually get the most interesting information and anecdotes through follow up questions, but her coverage of a game will certainly be hurt if the PR person dumbs down their answers because she is female.

It's disheartening when talent is held back by people's assumptions, fortunately, talented people usually find a way to succeed despite the obstacles and that's how change happens.

I think the one of the reasons she didn't speak up for herself was because journalists have a job of being a PR person for themselves. She seems like she is fairly new to writing about video games and maybe does not want to necessarily create negativity around her name as being possibly hard to deal with. It could possibly cost her, her job.

I don't know, though, but I do agree that she should have just stood up for herself. At least the very least, it's good that she wrote this article to shine the light on this apparent issue.

Nowhere in a journalist's job description does it say anything about being a PR person. She wouldn't be fired for standing up for herself and asking for equal treatment, at least, not if her editors are worth a shit. You don't have to be rude to stand up for yourself so I don't think her reputation would be harmed, not that it matters, you need thick skin to be a journalist because some people will dislike you no matter what you do.

@Kirklebum said:

@mrpandaman said:

I think the one of the reasons she didn't speak up for herself was because journalists have a job of being a PR person for themselves. She seems like she is fairly new to writing about video games and maybe does not want to necessarily create negativity around her name as being possibly hard to deal with. It could possibly cost her, her job.

I don't know, though, but I do agree that she should have just stood up for herself. At least the very least, it's good that she wrote this article to shine the light on this apparent issue.

Nowhere in a journalist's job description does it say anything about being a PR person. She wouldn't be fired for standing up for herself and asking for equal treatment, at least, not if her editors are worth a shit. You don't have to be rude to stand up for yourself so I don't think her reputation would be harmed, not that it matters, you need thick skin to be a journalist because some people will dislike you no matter what you do.

I'm saying that they represent themselves and their respective employer as much as a PR person represents the game and its developer when a game is shown to the public. In her mind, maybe it was better to deal with it for now since the article said that she was pressed for time and was stressed out then and it could possibly turn into confrontation. One bad instance can hurt reputation. It all depends on what she might have said to the people showing the games. And clearly, she is thick-skinned, because she was able to deal with it for the whole of E3.

So when you say 'we'--and what i really mean by 'you,' patrick-- and by 'we' need to move past stuff like sexism in social surroundings focused on video games, 'you' really mean that 'us' (see entire paying gaming populous) need to buy games without chauvinistic hooplah. that makes sense and all but don't 'we' (the informed gaming public) need more presence from varied genders of gamers/journalists in our new-age hip intranet media such as our adored giantbomb?

Seriously, you can't keep your old boy's club alive while simultaneously saying 'we need to move past this' with an issue that isn't bound to take care of itself without careful reconsideration about what the game industry is and what power 'your' presence in it means. time to hire new staff maybe?

The entire gender in games argument becomes more infantilizing every day.  I feel completely left out, on one side you have mouth breathing bigoted troglodytes and on the other you have sycophantic, simpering toadies.  One side is completely fucked, and the other has good intentions but makes awful, self-serving (and aggrandizing) arguments.  I can't agree with someone for having the right idea when half of everything they say insults the intelligence of even the average.
 
The worst of all is the "hey guys we need to do better..." posts, like we've been getting every week in this feature.  You are the roadside gawkers of fireball wrecks.  You feel like you're in the right because you said "oh well someone should do something" but that someone sure as hell isn't you, and even if it was you wouldn't know the first Goddamn thing to do.
 
This is the argument I put forth whenever I hear "we need more X in games", whether it's women, or isometric RPGs, or 4X strategy or whatever; go make some games, or support the development of some, or do something to actually get what you want.  You will never get what you want out of video games by making posts on the internet.  But complaining on the internet is so much easier than actually working to get what you want.  If you want more isometric RPGs, don't rail and moan because BioWare aren't doing it anymore, go support someone who is making those games.  If you want fuller developed female characters, don't stamp your feet because Namco is in the cheesecake business, go support games that have well written female characters (and I mean well-written, not feminist approved Mary Sues).

I'm looking into getting System Shock 2, but have no idea where I can download it digitally. Anybody want to stop arguing for a moment and help me out?

@Brodehouse said:

The entire gender in games argument becomes more infantilizing every day. I feel completely left out, on one side you have mouth breathing bigoted troglodytes and on the other you have sycophantic, simpering toadies. One side is completely fucked, and the other has good intentions but makes awful, self-serving (and aggrandizing) arguments. I can't agree with someone for having the right idea when half of everything they say insults the intelligence of even the average.

The worst of all is the "hey guys we need to do better..." posts, like we've been getting every week in this feature. You are the roadside gawkers of fireball wrecks. You feel like you're in the right because you said "oh well someone should do something" but that someone sure as hell isn't you, and even if it was you wouldn't know the first Goddamn thing to do. This is the argument I put forth whenever I hear "we need more X in games", whether it's women, or isometric RPGs, or 4X strategy or whatever; go make some games, or support the development of some, or do something to actually get what you want. You will never get what you want out of video games by making posts on the internet. But complaining on the internet is so much easier than actually working to get what you want. If you want more isometric RPGs, don't rail and moan because BioWare aren't doing it anymore, go support someone who is making those games. If you want fuller developed female characters, don't stamp your feet because Namco is in the cheesecake business, go support games that have well written female characters (and I mean well-written, not feminist approved Mary Sues).

Or you could make a noise about the games industry being (for the most part) a big ol' patriarchal circlejerk WHILE supporting and buying games from more progressive developers. I don't know if it was your intention, but your whole post comes across as 'Well fine rail against misogyny if you like but don't bother me about it!'

Also feminism is not 'Women are flawless godbeings who should never be portrayed in any kind of negative light', it's 'Women are people'. A lot of folks seem to be under the bizarre impression that feminism strives for women's superiority, rather than equality.

Good haul this week, thanks Patrick!

Wonder if there's going to be Quick Looks or Endurance Runs of SS2 or Eternal Darkness for Halloween!

@Lightningproof said:

@Brodehouse said:

The entire gender in games argument becomes more infantilizing every day. I feel completely left out, on one side you have mouth breathing bigoted troglodytes and on the other you have sycophantic, simpering toadies. One side is completely fucked, and the other has good intentions but makes awful, self-serving (and aggrandizing) arguments. I can't agree with someone for having the right idea when half of everything they say insults the intelligence of even the average.

The worst of all is the "hey guys we need to do better..." posts, like we've been getting every week in this feature. You are the roadside gawkers of fireball wrecks. You feel like you're in the right because you said "oh well someone should do something" but that someone sure as hell isn't you, and even if it was you wouldn't know the first Goddamn thing to do. This is the argument I put forth whenever I hear "we need more X in games", whether it's women, or isometric RPGs, or 4X strategy or whatever; go make some games, or support the development of some, or do something to actually get what you want. You will never get what you want out of video games by making posts on the internet. But complaining on the internet is so much easier than actually working to get what you want. If you want more isometric RPGs, don't rail and moan because BioWare aren't doing it anymore, go support someone who is making those games. If you want fuller developed female characters, don't stamp your feet because Namco is in the cheesecake business, go support games that have well written female characters (and I mean well-written, not feminist approved Mary Sues).

Or you could make a noise about the games industry being (for the most part) a big ol' patriarchal circlejerk WHILE supporting and buying games from more progressive developers. I don't know if it was your intention, but your whole post comes across as 'Well fine rail against misogyny if you like but don't bother me about it!'

Also feminism is not 'Women are flawless godbeings who should never be portrayed in any kind of negative light', it's 'Women are people'. A lot of folks seem to be under the bizarre impression that feminism strives for women's superiority, rather than equality.

My point (regarding the 'oh someone should do something') comes across as ridiculous because you've decided to reduce it into something ridiculous. It's a pretty simple thing to do. My point is clear; all the platitudes and hand-wringing solve nothing, it exists only for people who do nothing to feel like they're a part of the solution that other people have to actually accomplish. Bastardizing my view into pure selfish nonsense is gross and offensive.

Regarding Feminist Mary Sues... bad writing is bad writing. But social critics don't call you a bigot for writing characters who are 'too smart' or 'too funny and well socialized'. It's actually what stops female characters from being 'real women' is that they have to be a character and represent all of womanhood at the same time. It actually makes me really sad, Master Chief is a space marine, Samus Aran is a lady space marine. What Master Chief does reflects on nothing but himself, what Samus does reflects on women everywhere. That's tough for everyone involved.

The thing about 'maybe you should actually support or get involved yourself'... maybe this explains it better.

I don’t understand what it is about the idea of a “medium” that people find so confusing; it’s a conceptual space where works that share certain characteristics may occur. Nobody is going to approve of the entire continuum. There’s no shortage of games for the broadest possible audience - there isn’t, and grotesque sums are being made seeking the wide part of the curve. There are also niches, as in any ecology. You can certainly find things you don’t like, but those things aren’t anti-matter; when they come into contact with things you do like, there is no hot flash which obliterates both. This totalizing dialogue, where “everything” and “everyone” is this or that, and here are the teams, and morality is a linear abstraction as opposed to its three dimensional reality is a crock of fucking shit.

The swooning and fainting and so forth about this stuff, the fever, is comical in its preening intensity. There is clearly some kind of competition to determine who is the most scandalized. It reminds me of church, frankly; I don’t do church, either. I have no common cause with perpetually shocked viziers of moral pageantry. Indeed, I think it is fair to say that I am their enemy.

The answer is always more art; the corollary to that is the answer is never less art. If you start to think that less art is the answer, start over. That’s not the side you want to be on. The problem isn’t that people create or enjoy offensive work. The problem is that so many people believe that culture is something other people create, the sole domain of some anonymized other, so they never put their hat in the ring. That even with a computer in your pocket connected to an instantaneous global network, no-one can hear you. When you believe that, really believe it, the devil dances in hell.

Like I said, the 'oh this is awful, someone else should fix it' gawking really accomplishes little besides that person's emotional center. I said this before; I really wish Anita Sarkeesian would take all that overfunding she got for her kickstarter and donate it to games with equal (or even female-first) representation. Because at least in that case we'll end up with new games, ones with well written ladies (and gentlemen, hopefully). Instead it exists only to scold someone else into doing it. I can't get behind it, even if I agree with the long term goal.

Patrick has inspired me to finally start playing Amnesia, wish me luck. Maybe I should start a kick starter for a new pair of pants.

@Amhotep said:

Patrick has inspired me to finally start playing Amnesia, wish me luck. Maybe I should start a kick starter for a new pair of pants.

If you pledge $10, you get everything from the previous reward tiers plus a premium piece of the pants used while playing the game.

Videos of System Shock 2 would be great and, yes, Pathologic is a game Patrick (being a survival horror fan and all) simply must check out at some point.

@Brodehouse said:

@Lightningproof said:

@Brodehouse said:

The entire gender in games argument becomes more infantilizing every day. I feel completely left out, on one side you have mouth breathing bigoted troglodytes and on the other you have sycophantic, simpering toadies. One side is completely fucked, and the other has good intentions but makes awful, self-serving (and aggrandizing) arguments. I can't agree with someone for having the right idea when half of everything they say insults the intelligence of even the average.

The worst of all is the "hey guys we need to do better..." posts, like we've been getting every week in this feature. You are the roadside gawkers of fireball wrecks. You feel like you're in the right because you said "oh well someone should do something" but that someone sure as hell isn't you, and even if it was you wouldn't know the first Goddamn thing to do. This is the argument I put forth whenever I hear "we need more X in games", whether it's women, or isometric RPGs, or 4X strategy or whatever; go make some games, or support the development of some, or do something to actually get what you want. You will never get what you want out of video games by making posts on the internet. But complaining on the internet is so much easier than actually working to get what you want. If you want more isometric RPGs, don't rail and moan because BioWare aren't doing it anymore, go support someone who is making those games. If you want fuller developed female characters, don't stamp your feet because Namco is in the cheesecake business, go support games that have well written female characters (and I mean well-written, not feminist approved Mary Sues).

Or you could make a noise about the games industry being (for the most part) a big ol' patriarchal circlejerk WHILE supporting and buying games from more progressive developers. I don't know if it was your intention, but your whole post comes across as 'Well fine rail against misogyny if you like but don't bother me about it!'

Also feminism is not 'Women are flawless godbeings who should never be portrayed in any kind of negative light', it's 'Women are people'. A lot of folks seem to be under the bizarre impression that feminism strives for women's superiority, rather than equality.

My point (regarding the 'oh someone should do something') comes across as ridiculous because you've decided to reduce it into something ridiculous. It's a pretty simple thing to do. My point is clear; all the platitudes and hand-wringing solve nothing, it exists only for people who do nothing to feel like they're a part of the solution that other people have to actually accomplish. Bastardizing my view into pure selfish nonsense is gross and offensive.

Regarding Feminist Mary Sues... bad writing is bad writing. But social critics don't call you a bigot for writing characters who are 'too smart' or 'too funny and well socialized'. It's actually what stops female characters from being 'real women' is that they have to be a character and represent all of womanhood at the same time. It actually makes me really sad, Master Chief is a space marine, Samus Aran is a lady space marine. What Master Chief does reflects on nothing but himself, what Samus does reflects on women everywhere. That's tough for everyone involved.

The thing about 'maybe you should actually support or get involved yourself'... maybe this explains it better.

I don’t understand what it is about the idea of a “medium” that people find so confusing; it’s a conceptual space where works that share certain characteristics may occur. Nobody is going to approve of the entire continuum. There’s no shortage of games for the broadest possible audience - there isn’t, and grotesque sums are being made seeking the wide part of the curve. There are also niches, as in any ecology. You can certainly find things you don’t like, but those things aren’t anti-matter; when they come into contact with things you do like, there is no hot flash which obliterates both. This totalizing dialogue, where “everything” and “everyone” is this or that, and here are the teams, and morality is a linear abstraction as opposed to its three dimensional reality is a crock of fucking shit.

The swooning and fainting and so forth about this stuff, the fever, is comical in its preening intensity. There is clearly some kind of competition to determine who is the most scandalized. It reminds me of church, frankly; I don’t do church, either. I have no common cause with perpetually shocked viziers of moral pageantry. Indeed, I think it is fair to say that I am their enemy.

The answer is always more art; the corollary to that is the answer is never less art. If you start to think that less art is the answer, start over. That’s not the side you want to be on. The problem isn’t that people create or enjoy offensive work. The problem is that so many people believe that culture is something other people create, the sole domain of some anonymized other, so they never put their hat in the ring. That even with a computer in your pocket connected to an instantaneous global network, no-one can hear you. When you believe that, really believe it, the devil dances in hell.

Like I said, the 'oh this is awful, someone else should fix it' gawking really accomplishes little besides that person's emotional center. I said this before; I really wish Anita Sarkeesian would take all that overfunding she got for her kickstarter and donate it to games with equal (or even female-first) representation. Because at least in that case we'll end up with new games, ones with well written ladies (and gentlemen, hopefully). Instead it exists only to scold someone else into doing it. I can't get behind it, even if I agree with the long term goal.

Brodehouse, let me preface this by saying that I don't necessarily disagree entirely, or at all, with your post. I'd also like to say that it's refreshingly well written. However, allow me to play Devil's Advocate for a moment (because your post rather bothered me, and because this is the Internet and a forum).

There's a certain delicious irony to be had that you sat down and wrote out a long, belabored comment that will ultimately accomplish nothing saying that we should do something about people who write comments that will accomplish nothing saying that we should do something. It's like Inception, but with uselessness instead of dreams.

Since I'm guessing that you're a human being behind that keyboard and not a robot (and if I'm wrong, I'll sell out John Connor if you let me live), allow me to attempt to impart something that I've learned in my life experience (and not in an anonymous-internet-asshole kind of sarcastic way, either, but earnestly). I'm not going to say that you're a smart person, but you at least seem to think you're a smart person judging by your excessive use of big words on a videogame site and forum where the most common word has to be "fuck" and people argue over stupider shit than they argue over in real life.

Given this condition, let me earnestly share some wisdom with you, on a human to human level. Giantbomb.com is NOT the place to make your point. In fact, the internet in its whole, massive, porn filled entirety is not the place to make your point. And while using your big words may impress in real life whoever you have to impress with them, your jumble of judgmental juxtapositions of amazingly articulate alliterations accomplish exactly jack fucking shit for making your point. Because I don't even think you know what your point is. If you knew what your point is, then you would probably fucking do something about it, not post a fucking comment about it on the internet. I mean, fuck, wasn't that the whole "point" of your comment to begin with?

I realize that there's a certain sense of irony that in a sense and to a certain degree I'm doing the same thing as you...I'm making an excessively long comment on a forum where I have myself admitted trying to make a point is pointless. So what is my point, then? My point is not a broad generalization or something intended for masses. I direct this specifically at you, whatever human you are behind whatever keyboard you type on in wherever the fuck no doubt wonderful place you live in. Next time, save your time (and mine) and don't type out a fucking comment, because it is constructive in exactly 0 fucking ways.

Call me a hypocrite, but I have the time to waste at this particular moment to type this out, and if I can convince a fellow human being to save some of their time from doing some pointless, mindless cacophonous yelling just like every other motherfucker on the internet, even just one time, then maybe I made the world a little bit better by making one person a little bit less of an asshole, even if to do that I have to be an asshole myself.

Anyway I'm going to sleep now, just do me the service of thinking about what I said for a minute, please. Call it a favor.

Good luck, have Batman.

@Brodehouse: I would also like to say that none of what I said probably makes sense and that's because I haven't slept in a very, very long time and had a very, very long day. Don't take it personal! After all, man...fucking videogames. They're pretty fun, and we should play them more instead of talking about them or around them.

@paulunga said:

Wow, you didn't know about Satellaview? That's kinda crazy. I figured you should've heard about it around the time you and Ryan did the Chrono Trigger ER, what with the sequel/side story, Radical Dreamers, only being available through that service.

Not to mention the exclusive Zelda game which was sort of a modded Zelda III, I think.

@

Regarding Feminist Mary Sues... bad writing is bad writing. But social critics don't call you a bigot for writing characters who are 'too smart' or 'too funny and well socialized'. It's actually what stops female characters from being 'real women' is that they have to be a character and represent all of womanhood at the same time. It actually makes me really sad, Master Chief is a space marine, Samus Aran is a lady space marine. What Master Chief does reflects on nothing but himself, what Samus does reflects on women everywhere. That's tough for everyone involved.

The thing about 'maybe you should actually support or get involved yourself'... maybe this explains it better.

Excellent point. Don't feel like adding anything, but excellent point.

I'm really sick of feminism hearing its ugly head and reaching towards video games. Thank God the last few weeks are going to blow over.

Those post-mortem interviews with Looking Glass employees are really good and I haven't even played any of their games yet. There was clearly an awful lot of talent in that group.

What's annoying about the whole plight of women in gaming is that we're supposed to accept women as just another person playing a video game, but at the same time they want to act like a protected class as if being dumped on was something special to their sex. I hear far more antisemitic and anti homosexual remarks during online sessions, but it's not because those people actually hate gays and Jewish people. It's because they're acting like immature assholes. People can act like assholes from time to time, and what's more some people even feel entitled to acting like an asshole. It's not that they're inherently a bad person they're just acting out. So let's stop with all this self righteous none sense. How about a truly honest article about the emotional and intellectual maturity of the average gamer?

@AMonkey said:

I'm really sick of feminism hearing its ugly head and reaching towards video games. Thank God the last few weeks are going to blow over.

Yeah, all this talk of gender parity and acceptance is such a drag.

WINE = Wine Is Not an Emulator
 
Calling it an emulation wrapper is inaccurate as it's not emulating any part of Windows. Doing so would be illegal. WINE is a compatibility layer which duplicates functions of Windows using its own alternative implementations of the DLLs Windows programs call.

That comic gave me eye cancer, thanks patrick

For those who are interested, Katie Williams wrote a great follow-up to her Kotaku piece that addresses some questions. Some people here have asked the question, "Why didn't you stand up for yourself?", and she deals with that one first.

@supercubedude:

I can tell you EXACTLY why she didn't stand up for herself. She spent 2 hours researching what the WASD keys were before writing her article because she's completely full of shit. She calls people emailing and tweeting her with the question, "Why didn't you stand up for yourself?" a negative comment? Who the fuck calls that a negative comment? This is the equivalent of a gay dude claiming harrassment because the straight guy turned down his advances. Pull up your big girl panties and HTFU.

@supercubedude said:

For those who are interested, Katie Williams wrote a great follow-up to her Kotaku piece that addresses some questions. Some people here have asked the question, "Why didn't you stand up for yourself?", and she deals with that one first.

Her explanation of "my entire life I've been talked down to so I just don't bother standing up for myself" isn't very uplifting for women out there. Saying that writing her Kotaku article was the definition of standing up for herself is also not really a great way of doing so. The extremely flowery prose of her WASD affection and how it opened up worlds to her was all good and well, but at the end of the day when you're PRESS and you've come to participate in a hands on demo - and you just let someone play the game for you then thats your fault. The truth of the matter is that there aren't a lot of hardcore female gamers that enjoy military shooters. Not when compared to the percentages of males that play games to those that don't. So if you're a minority in a sea of male-gamers then like it or not you'll have to make the extra effort of saying "No thank you, I'm fine, I can play this myself" as opposed to turtling in and sobbing inwardly about the cruel misogynistic world of gaming.

edit; also that female journalist story is disgusting

No wonder marketing people still think it’s, on some level, OK to have a trailer feature a man ripping into a band of sexy nuns.

no wonder the promotional side of games is so sexist

@atomic_dumpling said:

@paulunga said:

Wow, you didn't know about Satellaview? That's kinda crazy. I figured you should've heard about it around the time you and Ryan did the Chrono Trigger ER, what with the sequel/side story, Radical Dreamers, only being available through that service.

Not to mention the exclusive Zelda game which was sort of a modded Zelda III, I think.

There was also a remake of the original Zelda. And the Zelda III based stuff was much more than that. They were episodic games and depending on the time you were playing different areas of the world and sidequests were accessible based on a real world schedule. They had voice acting for cutscenes plus a narrator. It's nuts what they pulled off in the mid-nineties with that stuff. It's a really interesting read. Worth Reading, even: http://bszelda.zeldalegends.net/info.shtml

A great read, as always.

@patrickklepek If you think Satellaview is crazy, check out Hugo, a "live one-player multi platform interactive game show".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugo_(franchise)

The tl;dr version is that it was a TV show, people would call in with their phones, and then one lucky player would get to play, via the keypad, the game that was being broadcast in real time. Kind of insane.

Despite generally agreeing with it, I did have a concern or two about that comic you linked(mainly some of the ironically prejudiced, insensitive text from the artist alongside the comic), but after seeing much of the comments in response to all this hullabaloo... I think I'm alright. I don't even want to give the slightest impression I'm on the side of some of what has been said against a few of these articles.

I used to really enjoy MGO but it ended up that there would be hardly anyone to play with. It wasn't exactly the type of game that was easy to get into either as you had to grind up your skills and there would often be lobbies available where people would do just that.

It was great fun and I loved putting other players into CQC holds. The game mode where you could play as Snake was likely where Rockstar got the idea for Payne Killer from Max Payne 3.

I still have fond memories of that game but I think they split up the player base by releasing pricey expansion packs.

I just saw Thief Gold and Thief II on steam... Perhaps there is hope for SS2 as well.

I'll totally buy that game again. I've kind of misplaced my CD so that will work out nicely.

Satellaview was way ahead of its time. I've always dreamed of the UI being carried over to the new generation. Imagine being able to walk around your very own system as if it was a RPG world with your customized avatar(mii or otherwise) that is fully integrated with the internet. You would be able to turn this feature off, which would display the "world" in an easy to navigate top-down view akin to the traditional main UI. It's a shame that Satellaview was destined to be played by few and never took off.

@arch4non: *BIG WORDS ALERT THAT NO ONE WILL CARE TO UNDERSTAND*

No wonder he just said Emulation Wrapper.

@arch4non: *BIG WORDS ALERT THAT NO ONE WILL CARE TO UNDERSTAND*

No wonder he just said Emulation Wrapper.

What's the screenshot on the macbook? Looks a lot better than SS2

@arch4non said:

WINE = Wine Is Not an Emulator Calling it an emulation wrapper is inaccurate as it's not emulating any part of Windows. Doing so would be illegal. WINE is a compatibility layer which duplicates functions of Windows using its own alternative implementations of the DLLs Windows programs call.

Noted!

Oh, And This Other Stuff

1. There's a fascinating story on Kotaku about a player who cheats, and a response from a pissed off developer.
2. It's unfortunate this female journalist had such a rough experience at E3. We need to move past this.
3. Most of the big-budget horror flicks that come out of Hollywood are crap. Sinister looks really good.

1. That guy is a loser of the ultimate degree. Some of the stuff he does isn't even cheating to win, it's just cheating to ruin other people's experiences. Having said that, there could be a market for someone to make a Matrix-style game where you are the computer and the whole point of the game is that there are bots playing a FPS and your goal is to do as much as possible to make sure one side loses and you can buy with in game currency or real world money hacks like aim bots or kill everyone glitches.
2. That's unfortunate. These stories always end with the woman taking it and then blogging about it. I wonder if this type of stuff would happen less if rather than silently taking it like someone getting bullied in school, they'd actually get loud and catty and cause a scene, publicly embarrassing the person who was doing it.
3. Could be good, but it's from the people behind Paranormal Activity and Insidious so I've got my doubts. Trailers always look decent enough to me.

@supercubedude said:

For those who are interested, Katie Williams wrote a great follow-up to her Kotaku piece that addresses some questions. Some people here have asked the question, "Why didn't you stand up for yourself?", and she deals with that one first.

Thanks for posting the link. In my opinion, that follow-up was worse than the original article, really. I'm having a hard time feeling sympathetic for her now, and not just because I'm a horrible person! Something about her recollection of her time getting a games degree just sets off fucking warning bells in my head. In my experience, there are some people who always have a fucking problem, and gender doesn't matter, man or woman they think the whole world is against them. I'm getting that vibe from her articles. Maybe I'm wrong, I could very well be.

I decided to scroll down a bit, and found this little gem:

"Who fucking cares if I suck at a game? Who cares if I’m even good at a game? Why does a women need to be skilled to be respected as a person with a hobby? Why can’t she just be respected because she’s a human being?"

This is someone who clearly doesn't understand why skill matters to gamers. For those of us who grew up in the arcades, skill was how we attained social status among our peers. We respected people who were good, and trash talked people who sucked. That kind of behavior is actually GOOD for the game because it motivates people to get better. The arcades are long gone now, except in Japan of course, but the culture is still very much there.

All that said, I am for sure not trying to chip away at her position in some kind of horrible sexist plan to marginalize women by nitpicking at her articles. How she was treated was definitely shitty, and it's not at all her fault. However, if I had a bad experience and I got a bunch of comments in the vein of "why didn't you do XYZ," and XYZ was a perfectly reasonable thing to do, I might admit that maybe I should've done that. It sucks that she doesn't feel like she has the power to change other people, and that they ought to just change on their own, but in my experience you can never really count on that happening.

Patrick Klepek : Enjoy playing System Shock 2 man. A lot of it still holds up pretty well. :)

Oh god bleed and perspective look amazing!

I wish I wasn't so picky about old games. Didn't play alot of the classics

Please do Amnesia, no way in hell I'll ever finish that game on my own, jaja.

@shodan2020 said:

Patrick Klepek : Enjoy playing System Shock 2 man. A lot of it still holds up pretty well. :)

I totally agree, it's my favorite game of all time. Just re-installed it on my PC with some of the best mods around and I'm looking forward to play it again after a few year break. I got my friend that I got into BioShock to do the same now.

Eternal Darkness if one the of the best Gamecube games of all time, been hoping for a sequel for many years, but seeing Silicon Knights troubles it seems ever so likely that will change anytime soon.

Be warned about Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem. I'm not even talking about how scary it is, though it is scary. Though it is fun and interesting, it has a serious flaw in it. You have to play it THREE TIMES all the way through to get the real ending. The first two endings feel like there's something missing, and the real ending isn't really that great. So if you are sensitive to bad endings like I am, get ready for hell. This isn't a game that has a lot of replay value, either.

@arch4non: Lol save it for people who care about what you have to say, seriously.