firecracker22

It's weird, I've played most of the AC games, since the very first one. I'm currently playing Origins...still haven't touched Odyssey even though I own it. I bought AC Rogue, too, but haven't played that yet, either.

I really didn't like Syndicate, though. Can't say if Unity is any worse, because I kinda messed around with that one. But, so far as an AC game I played through to completion...I think the love that Syndicate's gotten was lost on me. For whatever reason, the controls were constantly fighting me. I'd run up or jump across or dive when I was trying to the opposite. The setting seemed like a good idea on paper, but at some point traversing the smoggy, grey palette backdrop wasn't doing it for me, either. And I don't know, I think I came out at the end wishing they'd done more with Evie and Jacob. I ended up enjoying the DLC much more, though. I thought the setup of having the Occupied England map, and having a more focused and smaller map for that to have been much cooler than I expected.

@allodude said:

@firecracker22:

Ha! Yeah, that's the one.

The comic book recommendations made my day. I've never read the Alan Moore story Austin mentioned, but have heard a ton about it. The things he mentioned about it are similar to the good things I've heard about a recent Superman comic book run titled "Superman American Alien". I've heard people claim it's the best Superman run since All-Star, which was one of my favorites.

The thing Jeff mentioned about Superman vibrating sounds like the thing Barry does on The Flash, but he only does it with his face. Also, c'mon. He's the fastest man alive. Of course he's faster than Superman. The Flash is so fast, time travel is a thing for him. There's also a pretty funny panel I've seen floating around of The Flash telling Superman that everytime they tied in those races it was for charity, and let it be a close race.

Funny thing about Watch Dogs is that, largely, I think everyone had an idea of what it could have been and it's been interesting to see some views on that. What I'd hoped for before, and still think would be great, is essentially making Person of Interest the videogame. Even if you omit the major aspect of Person of Interest (The Machine), there's still a ton of potential in storytelling within a modern world and how surveillance state with people subverting said surveillance state.

@slag: Thanks, man. And yeah, I think you're right. I've noticed how, even in other media, that people seem to worry more about the characters being diverse and not the creators. I've noticed it the comic book industry as well, for example. Which can be a weird thing, because if I had to choose what's more important to me it'd be on the creator side of things, because of you mentioned. If you have people with different background on the creative side, alot of this stuff would come out organically and maybe there'd be less instances of people getting ticked off. Or maybe not, it's still the internet after all. But, you'd probably manage to avoid some things, like the mishmash described in the email about Overwatch, if you just had someone on the creator's end of things who could probably spot something like that because it was part of their background.

@thatpinguino: Well, to be fair (mostly to myself here), I never referenced Moosa's piece. Mostly, because the sentiments that I was talking about had nothing to do with his piece, really. Moosa's piece, and his comments on twitter since then, on The Witcher 3 have been very nuanced on that subject. Ontop of that, he's one of the game's biggest cheerleaders (he loves the game and recognizes Geralt as a SJW, funny enough). Hell, he's even outright defended CDPR on the racist claims. The problem is it's the internet...and social media, so there's no room for nuance. So, it's sad that people read his piece and thought that meant he was saying that CDPR is racist or that The Witcher is racist. Which isn't what he said or meant.

Problem is, that was the take away from alot of people. So, you had people angry at him and people angry at CDPR. And alot of the comments I saw on social media seems like Westerners wagging their finger at this Polish developer over that and the use of sexuality. On those two aspects, when I take a step back, it feels like Western sentiments wagging it's finger at Europe. Especially on the use of sexuality, which ends up feeling like conservative America to me. Especially how it seemed to hit them harder than most other American developers, which I would imagine would be held to a different standard because we're supposed to be the melting pot of the world. The whole situation, and how it kinda exploded on the internet, seemed to be missing alot of context to me.

I end up feeling the same way whenever this stuff happens with a Japanese game, as well. There have been times that people have gone after a Japanese developer, like Hideo Kojima, over something and it winds up feeling like people are ignoring some cultural context and I wind up feeling like it seems as if it's Westerners trying to drag other people not from our culture into our way of thinking or something. Not saying that's the case, but it's how I can best describe the icky vibe I can feel about how it goes down.

I still stand by what I posted, because it's how I feel. And speaking as someone who is too Latino to be white, but too American (and apparently too light skinned) to be full-Latino...I come from the point of view that there's alot more to diversity than just dark skinned people and light skinned people. I honesty think it's something that's often lost people here in America.

The stuff around The Witcher had me feeling odd about the whole thing for a bunch of reasons. For one, most of the stuff about it being sexists was just wrong. Like, factually wrong. There seemed to be alot of conservative beliefs playing into how offended people in America are with sexuality and stuff.

And the lack of diversity stuff felt weird to me because it wound feeling like the West was shaking it's finger at Europe, with Westerners telling Europeans that diversity is about skin color, and not ethnicity. Listening to Danny O'Dwyer talk about how he almost cried with the variations in accents and different aspects of European culture came across in The Witcher 3 sounded pretty profound.

It also felt weird how many American developers have been allowed to slide, and this Polish developer was taken to task on the internet. The whole thing just had me feeling weird.

You know, the email about the cultural suits in Overwatch and the talk the crew had got me thinking about how cultures and minorities come across in videogames, and media in general, and how sometimes there's no "winning", so to speak. I think about Delsin, from the last inFamous game, and how I enjoyed that he was Native American character who was portrayed as your average young American, with a Punk/ Anti-establishment edge to him. Now, I liked that because his heritage and his cultural background didn't define him. It was a major part of him, if you followed the storytelling in the game. But, I identified with the angle they took in approaching Delsin as an American minority. Speaking as Latino-American born and raised in New York I can appreciate a character like Delsin seeming more or less the same as your average American who happens to have this diverse background rather than taking his cultural background and making it this major aspect of him that clearly defines him, to the point where when you see said character you immediately know he's a person of color.

And, to be fair, I saw enough people who were bothered by Delsin's Native American background not being more noticeable, as if they were hiding it or something. People who felt that because there aren't many characters like him (with his background) that they needed to call attention to it more visibly. But, that sentiment bothered me because it winds up feeling that if you have someone who's non-white, that their culture needs to therefore be useful to the storytelling or his characterization. And if it's not, then what's the point? He/she might as well be white if you're not going to use their cultural background. I think my background as a storyteller and my cultural background gives me a different view on this, but it feels counterproductive to what most people want, which is the normalcy of having a diverse cast of characters.

I think The Witcher also got me thinking more and more about how diversity in America is only seen as a matter of skin color, when it's more nuanced than that. I've found myself thinking more and more about what that really means.

You know, it feels like a real missed opportunity for WB to not have included Arkham Origins (and all the DLC) in the upcoming Arkham collection. I mean, the rumor seems to be that WB Montreal is working on two projects...and my guess is they're the ones who will take the mantle after Rocksteady. But, it's mostly sad because Arkham Origins has the best writing and storytelling in all the Arkham games. By a mile, too. Felt like WB Montreal had writers who understood the characters and relationships very well, and did right by many of it's characters. They even managed to have Bruce's anger serve as a part of the storytelling (because, man, he is fucking up everyone, including cops. He's fucking up cops, on the same level as criminals really). The weakest aspects of the Rocksteady Arkham games has always been the writing and storytelling (ie: they use the damsel writing tool way too much, and sacrifice characterizations to hit the story beats they want). The weird thing, too, about this whole "trilogy" and "quad-trilogy" thing is that within Arkham Knight...they openly, and clearly, welcome Origins as a part of the series. Everything that happened in Origins is canon, and most of it is mentioned in the world in quests in Arkham Knight. One would think that they'd avoid it, seeing how Origins as been publicly treated by WB and Rocksteady.

But, I'd be very excited with another WB Montreal Batman game. I'd be curious what they could do on the technical/gameplay side if they have the reigns. But, I'd be most excited by what they could do with the writing and storytelling just because it was so good in Origins. That was was a great Batman story, and could talk on and on about everything they did well with those characters and story...even cleaning up a few messes made by Rocksteady before (ie: Bane).

If they'd added Origins to the Arkham collection for current gen, too, I think it would have been a much easier sell for me. Kinda like the Uncharted collection for PS4 seemed like a good deal because it's all three. In his case, paying $50 for two out of three...I don't know, it's a harder sell considering they're not adding anything. And, far as I know, the PS3 exclusive playable Joker maps haven't even been mentioned at all.

@austin_walker: Yeah, that makes sense. And I can understand knowing your tastes and it being a known quantity. I don't even think you need to play it to have an opinion. Just doesn't sound like it's your thing, and I'd rather hear about something else like Stellaris (a game that would otherwise not be on my radar or even up my alley) because how much enjoyment you seemed to get from it. But, it was also surprising to hear how annoyed you were by the hype. The "aahhh", I guess did it for me.

Also, it's feeling like every Naughty Dog release has a kind of blowback effect on hyperbolic reviews that sours people on it. I remember the whole "Citizen Kane of videogames" comment becoming it's own animal.