davidmerrick

After seeing this, I feel safe saying that Alex has the best Twitter game of all.

Honestly, this is so, so sad. Years ago, Chuck Klosterman suggested part of the reasons games weren't considered art was because few if any critics approached them as such. I thought deeper critique of the medium was pretty much impossible until I discovered Cara's writing. Her "Gaming Made Me" piece about playing Tomb Raider as a young girl and all her S.Exe stuff completely reshaped how I thought people could write about games. I don't believe she and Leigh Alexander knew each other personally but their respective work was so fantastic you'd think they were trying to outdo the other.

Regardless, it's obvious that Embed With, GamerGate and her recent hand injury took a great toll on her (she actually almost lost her hand). I hope she gets some much-needed rest and finds something new and fulfilling.

Alex. He harnesses sadness and despair in a paradoxically hilarious way.

@sasnake: Thankfully, people can be diverse AND talented. It's not an either/or.

Okay guys, here's an uncomfortable truth: as great as Giant Bomb is, and and as interesting and insightful as its personalities are, the makeup of the crew is simply not representative of gaming demographics anymore. Look at the latest stats. Women make up half of the gaming population--and before you knock a portion of them for casual/mobile players, those games count and are covered by the site. There are a lot of people of colour in the larger gaming community. There are a lot of gay, by and trans gaming enthusiasts. Other sites have recognized this: you can bash Polygon, Kotaku, Offworld all you want, but the makeup of their staffs and contributors actually reflect modern demographics.

I see a bunch of people saying "it doesn't matter who they hire, as long as they're good." You have to understand how much it means for a woman/POC/LGBT person to see someone like them on the staff of a site they frequent. Not only does it feel tremendous to be represented to some degree, but it means that issues that are important to them are more likely to be raised. And before you get up in arms about issues/politics, those things are inseparable from entertainment and need to be addressed rather than swept under the rug. GamerGate happened because misogyny in the gaming community--a huge issue--reached a flashpoint. That didn't happen in a vacuum. We need to have people actively discussing and criticizing these things if they're not going to happen again in the future.

It's certainly shitty that Dan and Jason got some of the brunt of that hiring criticism, but also remember that Maddy Myers, Samantha Allen and others were HARASSED because of their criticism of Giant Bomb. And before someone whips out a "no true Scotsman" fallacy, these harassers were members of the GB community and were,unfortunately, representative of some of the attitudes I've seen here.

It may not matter to some of you gets hired, but I can safely bet that a good portion of you saying that are straight/cis white men, and you're used to seeing people like you represented en masse throughout the games press. Forget about yourself for a moment and realize it matters to others.

I generally enjoy Danswers but the Samantha episode was hands down one of the best things ever uploaded to this site. I don't think I'd listened to anything so moving on Giant Bomb since the "wake" episode of the Bombcast after Ryan's death.

Frank Zappa did three nicely off-kilter jazz/jazz fusion albums: Hot Rats, Waka/Jawaka and The Grand Wazoo. Wazoo is far and away the best. It features Zappa's excellent guitar work, George Duke's impressive keyboard improvisations and Aynsley Dunbar's incomporable drumming.

This is so dark and I love it.

I'm looking over your pictures again and I'm stunned by how much hormones can change one's appearance. Of course, styyyyyyle is also a factor, but now you certainly appear to be the purdy lady you are inside. Amazing!

I'm rooting for you, Lina!