Worth Reading: 12/20/2013

It's only 3AM on Saturday, but it's a strong forerunner for stupidest thing I'll hear all weekend.

I do not always think what Patrick writes is especially interesting, the retweets really do lack any sort of context, and I don't always agree with the opinions he presents, but Worth Reading is still my faveroute part of this website.

If you're the sort of person to post some tired kneejerk complaint about either it, or the author, perhaps you're some kind of idiot.

Also, that shit about Depression Quest is just disgusting. What the fuck is wrong with people?

The Mattie Brice article isn't about video games at all.

What? Journalism degreees are based around talking about and reporting on other fields. It's not the same thing at all. I'd have preferred if the tweet just said "20somethings giving business advice with no experience in the subject", but either way is valid.

oh my god that bargnani story ahahahahahah

I'm not an expert on Russia, I'm not Russian (I'm British), but I do have a passion for the history of the Soviet-era (a side-effect of being a leftie really, the need to analyse just where everything went fucked up and how to avoid that in the future). And yeah, the USSR was in a pretty bad way by the fall because of spending far too much on the military in competing with the US, among many other flaws, plus a general inefficiency in their economy. But after Yeltsin came into power there was a rapid liberalisation of the economy which ended up with all the countries natural resources in the hands of a very small oligarchic class, and after removing price controls from the Soviet era inflation went insane and average people couldn't afford basic necessities like bread. I'd recommend reading up on the "Shock Therapy" proposed by Yeltsin's advisers to show

Put yourself in their shoes, what do you prefer, a time where had to queue for bread, or a time where bread was simply unaffordable? A time when employment was guaranteed or a time where it's not? The problem is that today's Russia is more or less a one party state again, with a jingoistic leader posturing against the west in order to distract from domestic problems, there's really a lot of similarities with the Soviet era in today's Russia. And Stalin is still regarded as a hero to a lot of Russians, especially those who lived through World War 2, he's up there in regard with Ivan The Terrible, Alexander Nevsky, Alexander Surorov, Mikhail Kutuzov as heroes who helped hold off invading forces, despite his many, unaccountably horrible crimes. In 2008 Russian TV did a "100 Greatest Russians" program and Stalin came in 3rd, Lenin came 6th. The 2nd largest party in the Russian state Duma is the Russian Communist Party (their 20% of the vote is miniscule compared to United Russias 53% but still).

Plus there's the general frustration of Russian gamers being fed up in general of their country lazily being the bad guys, which I can understand. Russian's are every bit as patriotic as American's.

ugh a fucking jess conditt article.

I'm sorry, that's crap? I wholeheartedly disagree, "Bishop." Are you some sort of scumbag? What exactly would you like to see written on Giant Bomb? Hmmmmmmmm? I SURE WOULD LIKE TO KNOW!

@fonzinator said:

I think the more frightening thing, and the thing that your comment seems to be kind of glossing over, and correct me if I'm wrong of course, is that the person is having the internet comments spiral out into real life harassment. From what I gather from the piece, she is having people call her telephone and harass her by "jerking off" into it when she picks up, as an example. Of course, they could be faking it, or it could be they're really doing it, it doesn't matter. If a person went up to a police officer and said "Hey, I just called random person and jerked it and they were totally grossed out and hung up" then guess what that police officer would probably do? If you guessed arrest them, or at least summons them for harassment by telephone, you're correct. This shit that people do, taking online forum crap and name calling, and taking it to another level of actual real life actions, is messed up and should not be tolerated or hand waived away as internet stuff. This is becoming, or has become, real life criminal acts against a real life person, not just an internet avatar.

I know that the internet can be a crappy place to have a different opinion. XBox Live can be a crappy place to be a woman in an online game. I know this from personal experience and tacitly accept that there's not a whole lot that I can do to help it besides call it out as shitty and hope other people realize its shittiness. And I also use tools to flag people that are especially egregious, though I haven't had to do that for a long time, mainly because I tend to limit my own online interactions with people I don't know. But, you better believe if something I said or did on the internet suddenly garnered this type of response I would be reacting much the same way. There's a point where you say "No this is fucked up and I won't take it anymore."

@bishop113: the only crap pushing I see are posts like these from idiots like you.

Yeah, when it's put like that, I suppose I can understand. I still find it very unsettling to know that many of them consider Stalin to be a hero though, considering everything he had done, though I suppose that may account for how aggressively Russians tend to play online games, haha.

Plus, I think I'd also get annoyed of playing the villains in every game as well too.

"I think what's really missing from games coverage is 20somethings w humanities degrees offering business advice to multinational corporations."

I actually really dislike this tweet. I think it perpetrates the lie that big business is more important that being decent. I feel that multinational corporations have already won on the business side (they make impossible amounts of money) and need to learn how to better do their business by putting people first. If there's one thing that these enormous corporations lack it's humanity.

Maybe Erich Dams thinks there's too much of it but I don't think there's enough.

As someone who loves eSports(particularly Starcraft) I cannot disagree more with trading handles for real names. Their handle to me has become their identity. And honestly you grow a certain attachment to your handle. In fact a lot of players and casters have cashed in on their handle. I mean look at Day9 for example. He has done an excellent job of using that at his marketing tool. Plus to me handles are a way of saying "hey, this is still a video game, just played in a highly competitive tournament for real money" idk, as a fan and a guy who's games have been cast before I enjoy the use of handles.

I'm only half way through the main story of AC IV, but I find the game's approach to showing day-t-day slavery an interesting choice - straight forward for being there, yet still not dealing with it as deeply as they could. It really does just lightly touch down on the topic in the main game. You spy on and steal from several plantains across the entire Caribbean. You are hired to kill especially malicious owners, slave merchants, a a few people openly abusing slaves in various ways. But that is it in the main game for game play, there are some story points for Adéwalé which are okay too.

I think having the major DLC be form Adéwalé point of view and him as the main protagonist is smart and just proper, I don't think we need yet another "heroic" white man saving the day as a story.

Overall, I'm glad Ubisoft tried to address slavery even if they didn't get much subtle nuance or complexity to the story. I have looked around at the website Assassin's Creed: Initiates which does have some in-depth history that is informative for those willing to read through the site. I cannot 'ding' them for trying and to be honest I think you have to gear what you teach and how you teach to the audiences you have. The game is thin on the 'slavery' part of the story, the DLC which is optional is more pointed, and Ubisoft's supplementary website is just educationally informative as a small museum woudl be on the subject.

They tried...and now it is up to the players to say what they think.

A narrower viewpoint, you prefer, yes?

Concerning the tweet about 20somethings with degrees in humanities telling companies what to do: You don't have to be a politician to criticize your government. You don't have to be an artist to critique a work of art. I think the same thing applies here. Obviously there is some difference between giving your critical feedback/opinion on something, and simply getting mad about something and making broad claims and assertions about it. But generally I do think it is a good thing that people are comfortable expressing their opinions online. Not everyone will be as open to discuss or think about certain things as others, but that's just because people have the right to choose how much they want to engage in certain discussions or not.

"Most of us have given up on trying to make it better, leaving the terrifying status quo as it stands. It's upsetting, it's wrong. And we have to stand up for these people."

Think where we'd be today if some incredibly brave people hadn't stood up and fought for their Civil Rights. We must fight this harassment and stop ignoring it. People acting deplorable, no matter the situation, is not something we should continue to ignore.

You clearly haven't been reading Bishop113's posts. Good for you!

It does help that most big publishers do BLATANTLY STUPID BULLSHIT. You don't be a rocket surgeon to figure out a method doesn't work.

Finding a working alternate method is harder, hence "NINTENDO SHULD BE 3RD PARTEE BUR BUR BUR".

The "article" about using real names was terribly misinformed and poorly written. The cons of using real names vastly outweigh the pros and the comparison to real sports doesn't work. Would Korean Starcraft players be nearly as popular if non-Koreans had to memorize all their names (which to us seem very similar) or even vice versa for something like DOTA. Should Koreans have to memorize all the Western players just so they can follow the action? Meanwhile the players would be handicapping themselves in marketing and sponsorships.

In short, no one wins if online handles disappear entirely.

@forkboy: As a (trained but lapsed) Russian historian - kudos. You beat me to the punch. Nice summary.

When people make excuses about how the Internet is "just like that," and tell victims to ignore it, and ignore when others are being bullied...I think those are ways of tolerating abusive behavior. And I think there are a lot of people who do those things. I'm not saying that they're bad people, it just seems misguided, as though ignoring a problem will make it go away. When it could possibly be saying to bullies that we don't care how they act. There's nothing wrong with chiming in to call out nasty behavior. If we let hateful people drown out everyone else, then the 99% you're talking about are gonna seem to not really care, you know?

It was just a snarky goof I made, but it was interesting to see how many retweets were from games devs and designers. There's probably some truth in there in that some of the "How to fix Nintendo" or "What MS Should do in Japan" articles and posts we all see from time to time are right up there with the two "just have to tighten up the graphics" dudes in expertise. But I wouldn't try to read too deeply into my (or anyone's) thoughts on a nuanced matter based on 140 characters.

And I'm not down on humanities degrees, come on.

But when there are constant articles basically making some random asshole's horrible tweets and forum posts instantly famous, aren't we actually empowering that behavior. These are sad, pathetic people trying to get attention any way they can. We're obliging them.

@joshwent:

Then how do you suggest we stop the problem? Ignoring won't work; when you ignore a bully, they simply get louder.

@bishop113: I find it amazing that someone would have a problem with the very idea of Patrick featuring articles written by women. I mean, if you disagree with a specific point in one of them that's fair enough, but to write them all off because of the author's gender is fucking insane. Do you only digest media written by straight, white men?

@joshwent: There's also the train of thought that the people we disagree with most are the ones we should be paying the most attention to, lest we become trapped in our own most personal and compartmentalized world-views. Attacking them with loaded language is the way we place them on a pedestal and glamorize them through controversy.

Since I found this video I am obligated to post it in any vaguely related Knicks discussion.

@grantheaslip:

In my experience, it isn't. That is all.

Buddy, if I knew, I'd be doing it right fucking now. In my real life experience, though, you can defeat a bully by just not giving in to their demands for attention.

Watch Jeff's most recent Jar time where he talks about this exact problem. He explores the complex idea I've been trying to wrap my mind around and get across for a while; these people doing horribly sexist things... probably don't even qualify as actual misogynists. So you sort of have to rule out the content of their harassment to even get a grip on the cause. They are screaming, "LOOK AT ME!!!", and since women and gender representation in games is getting a lot of media focus now, picking at that scab is the easiest way to assure some people will care. I honestly think the intention isn't to somehow keep female devs off Steam, it's to incite anger and provoke. If the lack of Black characters as heroes in games was getting articles on Kotaku and Polygon everyday, I bet we'd be seeing all of the same horrible hate, just directed at people of color instead.

"Ignoring" is tricky, because it can mean many things. In venues where you can retaliate, say, "XBox Live" than every act of hate can easily be reported and publicized. If someone harasses you, call out their gamertag. If someone in these threads starts spewing insults at anyone, delete those posts and ban their ass. Telling someone to ignore it there is the wrong move, because positive action can be taken. Maybe even reach out to those people and just confront them with their actions?

Of course, the larger problem with these issues is that harassment can also be anonymous, where we literally have no recourse. In that situation, I honestly think that "ignoring" the problem can make a difference. To be absolutely clear, no one should ever have to deal with this shit. Technology has moved faster than our ethics and there have been some destructive consequences, but that's a larger societal behavior problem that articles on the internet can't fix. If people got together online to assault someone and did, but got no reaction, I believe they would move on. They just have this need to get a reaction, and giving it to them is basically a huge public way of saying, "It worked."

To use probably way to extreme and inapplicable of an example, consider MLK and Ghandi. The power of their peaceful resistance was in showing the powers controlling them that they would lead their lives on their own terms, no matter what oppression was imposed on them. Had they fought back, their opposition would have felt justified in their horrible actions. When they did nothing, the hypocracy of the ruling classes violence was thrown back in their face, leading to a deeper understanding all around.

I have to also say, it really irks me to read, ""Most of us have given up on trying to make it better, leaving the terrifying status quo as it stands. It's upsetting, it's wrong. And we have to stand up for these people."

First of all, I live every day of my life trying to make it better for everyone. A lot of the publicity around online harrassment is rife with shaming language that really discourages action from anyone. Blaming innocent people is clearly not the way to help.

Second, the battle cries of, "We have to stand up for these people". I find very frustrating. Again, the implication is that we are already not and same on us, which is unhelpful at the very least. But the deeper frustration is that it's still a call to do nothing at all. I've read so many articles talking about, "We have to stop harassment, we have to make forums better, we have to..." and none of them talk about solutions, or even the ways to start to form solutions. And yet those articles are re-tweeted by the hundreds and widely praised, despite their lack of actually helpful content. My fear is that "we have to" has become enough for some people. And that folks with that mindset think, "Yeah, we have to do something!", see an article where someone is behaving terribly, think, "It's so tragic that people act like that. Why are they such jerks?" and then move on, feeling like their acknowledgement of something bad is action in itself.

We all absolutely must stop harassment when we see it, but it does no good to admonish folks for not "standing up" to problems they could never affect in the first place.

Okay, I'll stop. Sorry for that LONG ASS post, but this has all been stewing in the 'ol noggin for months. So sorry if none of that even makes any sense.

Basically, the problem is bad. Really bad. I think there can be solutions, but many of the calls to action so far may be hurting the issue more than helping.

Its that damn agenda again!

There's nothing "horse shit" about being a decent human being. I truly hope that you understand that someday.

Is a Humanities degree really a degree, though?

In the article that highlights Internet bullying problems. Ironic.

I wasn't aware that publishing articles that require a voluntary willingness to read and that are not compulsory to consume in any way is somehow an act of force-feeding.

We get it, bishop113, you read stories you don't have to read just so you can whine about being on the wrong side of history.

@wolfhazard said:

What's wrong with Jess Conditt?

Even if I were to take this statement at face value, the articles written by Jessica Conditt and Maddy Myers have zero to do with "horse shit gender politics" in any sense, which either tells me;

A) You actually didn't read them before going off about Patrick and his "over the top agenda", and or;

B) Content is irrelevant, an article even being written by a woman is pushing that agenda, hence it is something to do with women.

Why is a woman writing an article, even if it's not about the topics you despise discussion of, an immediate black mark?

Game of the year? There weren't any good games this year. -____-

Great job on that Tedx talk by the way. Well done.

Glad to hear it. Still not a fan of what you said but thanks for clearing it up.

@danm_999: I wasn't talking about the articles featured in this post, I'm talking about Patrick's worth reading article he posts every Friday, this thing we're all commenting on. I have nothing against women writing articles. Patrick is basically here to talk about indie games and "intellectual" shit like racism and sexism and moral issues, when you know maybe Giantbomb could hire an actual woman and have someone who actually knows what they're talking about when it comes to these subjects in place of Patrick the pseudo intellectual judo master.

Private message Jeff and see if he'll allow you to do the hiring for Giantbomb. You're right, Patrick is the absolute dumbest person and never knows what he's talking about. They need a "real" intellectual. How could Giantbomb be so stupid to hire such a boner and allow him to be a part of this website. I'm on your side bishop. He should be fired because he talks about racism, sexism, and moral issues. Kill whitey.

"Don't read it if you don't like it" is the lazy man's counterargument. Obviously, the person has already read through it, you telling them not to is useless and doesn't welcome conversation in any way.

Anyway, I'm beginning to question what exactly needs to be done about Internet trolls. Patrick and the thread he links say "SOMETHING must be done" and Zoe sort of takes it a step further and offers people her ear and empathy, but....that doesn't really solve anything, does it? If Kid A steals Kid B's bike, how does Kid B talking to Kid C and D solve anything? There needs to be more than just offering a shoulder to those affected. There needs to be consequences to the offender.

I guess you have to have a vagina to know what feminism is.