Worth Reading 04/12/2013

I don't think purchasing decisions should be involved in game criticism at all. I think one should be able to extrapolate a purchase decision from a review, but I don't think the reviewer should set out to give advice about a purchase.

Also, sure, there are some places where a film or music critic will only focus on horror movies or jazz, but those guys tend to be rank amateurs, and specialized sites are also a thing in gaming, from PC specific RPS to RPGgamer.

The point I was going for is that gaming as a whole is already kind of a niche, and gamers actively aim to keep it one, very often to the exclusion of other views, from art to casual gaming to gender issues. My hypothesis here being that Metacritic isn't too consistent because Metacritic is bad or because number ratings suck, Metacritic is too consistent because game reviewers are all gamers, and gamers are too consistent and exclusionary in their views of games, art and everything.

I agree that the depiction of revolutionaries as being just as bad as their racist oppressors is in no way troublesome and is perfectly fair and that anyone who has a problem with it is the real racist.

He didn't demonize her. He made her complicated and compelling. A character you wanted to sympathize with but have trouble doing so due to their actions in one instance of self-righteous fervor. He made her an interesting person. Look at all the rest of the characters in Bioshock and Bioshock Infinite and try to name just one for me who hasn't done something horrible in their past (or future). Even the player character is not free from this in either game. He treated Fitzroy fairly, as an equally complex character regardless of her race.

sorry that you're colourblind

Sorry that all you see is color.

@noelveiga: I didn't say he was doing anything "wrong," I just said I didn't like his review style because I don't think it would help me make videogame purchasing decisions in the current climate. Unfortunately technical merit still matters and game designs and review has not yet reached a point where one can easily find a niche reviewer to review his favorite niche game type, like one can with books, movies, and music.

Not really... Ignoring race, just thinking that race is not the thing in that equation that you should focus on. You focus on race way too much. Which is funny, cause in your understanding that would make you racist, while I think you're just looking for something to gnaw on.

Revolutionists are violent. Black people were opressed. It's really the ideal way to show the grayscale in the world. Yeah, black people were opressed, but a revolution is a cruel thing. That's the focus here. I have no idea while you focused on the race, when there's nothing about the revolutionists that makes it racist. They could be mexican, spanish, japanese or jewish. It doesn't matter.

It doesn't matter. Like this conversation, cause I don't think I can get through to you.

shakin my damn head at your insinuation that people who write about gender/race inequalities are doing it for publicity and not because they're, you know, actually adversely affected by shitty bigoted attitudes people express

you cannot disregard the kind of message that's being sent by making your "crazy idealist lady yearning for vengeance" the only WoC in your game. claiming to ignore race (and subsequently, racism) does not make it go away contrary to what white people seem to think

As if it's some cardinal sin against art to identify how a work of art is racist or problematic. There are great works of writing that are significant in terms of literature that are totally racist too. That doesn't mean the good parts aren't good, and it also doesn't mean the bad parts aren't exclusionary and oppressive. Do you really think identifying both parts and saying to ourselves, "Hey, let's maybe learn from the cool stuff and ditch those shitty bits" (i.e., being politically correct, i.e., not being racist) is gonna slippery-slope us down the path to making art watered-down and impotent? If I roll my eyes any harder, I think they're going to fall out.

Dear future,

This is why you're screwed as hard as you are.

Best Regards,

The Present. [EDIT: The Past]

I see it, it doesn't mean that's racist. Not everything's about race. You see her as a black person, why can't it be just... a crazy idealist lady yearning for vengeance.

Also, Leigh Alexander's article is disjointed and makes a lot of "aha!" statements and never follows them with anything substantial. Nay I say to that. Nay.

kinda staggered that you can't grasp that racism can be embodied in written works a result of the writer's own prejudices. not all racism is overtly aggressive! in fact i would wager that none of the writers for BI were being intentionally racist in how they wrote the vox!

when the entire fist half of the game builds its narrative around a hyper racist society and says "look at how ridiculous this is, these people believe people of color are murderous savages", and then ends the first act with sincerely depicting oppressed PoC as murderous savages, that's racist! when fitzroy, the only main black character, is suddenly written as a "reverse-racist" child-killer and killed off unceremoniously to clumsily give elizabeth some character development, that's racist!

it is important to be aware of the kind of stereotypes you may be depicting in any creative work lest you continue to perpetuate them. this is not 'pandering' or 'misguided', this is understanding that the majority of writing is still done by white men who often fill their works with casual racism/sexism/homophobia.

i know this isn't something you'll really consider since you think 'political correctness' is an insult (it's another way of saying 'hey maybe you should be more cognizant of the bigoted views you espouse), but hopefully someone else reading will

almost as soon as the only black characters in the game were shown as being oppressed, they were demonised for being violent. sorry you can't see it

Maybe it's because I'm a programmer, but I'm surprised (but at the same time, not really) that nobody's talking about that NES game-learning emulator. That stuff's crazy, you guys.

Video games!

You don't understand racism, do ya? Is a bloodthirsty black character instantly racist? Or is it racist because it was written by white people? This ain't about race, this is about poor people being horribly opressed, which results in a bloody revolution, as it always does. If you think that Fitzroy is a racist stereotype then by god, I hope you're not the creative type.

Looking over the Bioshock commentary, I can see why more games don't bring in any serious topics. Apparently unless you make the entire game about racism (or sexism, or class warfare, or poverty), address it in exactly the right way, and make exactly the points that the people calling for you address those issues want you to make, then you'll be accused of ducking the issue and/or being racist yourself. Also it helps if any minority characters are perfectly good, instead of complex characters driven by human emotions like hatred and revenge for obvious wrongs.

Racism is a reason for Columbia's growing discontent and eventual downfall (along with labor exploitation, extreme inequality, and other issues that were prevalent at the turn of the century). No-one is good in a city that is rotten to its core with those problems. And after that downfall, when the game moves the focus from the city to the characters, then those themes no longer show up. Why is that a bad thing? Why does a game with racism and racists have to be a game about racism?

@patrickklepek Funny you posted that AMA from the Road Rash developer. A Kickstarter was just made to create a spiritual successor to that franchise. Road Redemption is the name, made with the Unity engine. It's looking pretty swell! Also, the S.T.A.L.K.E.R franchise is fascinating! I would suggest the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Complete 2012 mod to spruce up some textures as well as some bug fixes if you plan to do some Spookin!

haha, you're a terrible person. "any great work of writing" so all great works of writing are written by white people? "politically correct" please don't use this awful phrase that basically means "cares at all about marginalised people". please understand that ken levine is white and wrote all of the dialogue and character progression of a black, struggling, female character and demonised her.

Agreed. The guy has a great voice and like most SA LPs he's pretty thorough in showing off the game.

You have a profound misunderstanding of racism and writing, and I sincerely hope it's because you're young, not misguided. What you just said is simply wrong. If it were true, it would mean any great work of writing, with any minorities in it, would have to be reduced to the exact same type of politically correct, pandering garbage as the work before it. Thank god it isn't. And thank god there are people like Levine not afraid to piss off people like you.

I'm really excited for you Patrick. The PC has been my exclusive platform for a few years now and there's a ton of great stuff out there.

Oh I will. I definitely will. ;)

"Naturally, I spent the first few days with a computer attached to my TV playing Singularity."

That is totally natural. I love Singularity. I recommend Waking Mars and Hotline Miami. They're not scary, just great.

Thanks for doing that.

Also, if some of you commenters disagree with one of the articles, why not offer your own opinion through a blog post here or somewhere else? Most of the people who write the articles featured here often listen to feedback, but tend to ignore the comments because they often turn into unpleasant places. So if you have an issue with something Courtney Stanton or someone else wrote, why not put those thoughts and feelings into a well-written blog post and send them a link? They would probably appreciate it.

cis het people perceiving themselves as 'the norm' is problematic and also one of the reasons lgbtq folks are not widely treated with the respect they deserve. please dont do that; thanks!

Seconding this recommendation And it's more than just the ghost quest, the game is genuinely scary throughout and has great writing/storytelling.

Yea that whole article was bull crap and a lot of the things that were said were completely wrong about the time things took place in, or the context for things that were said, awful awful article.

Edit: Also Patrick thank you for posting that Tresspasser LP that LP is one of the best on the internet it is incredibly professional and informative go watch that entire thing.

holy moley dude. characters in fiction are not living breathing creatures with their own motivations. when your only black character of note is written [by white men] as a savage child-killer, that is racist.

hope that helps!

Cheers :D

Black Annex loots a lot like the original Syndicate.

I don't even want to read that article because i'm 90 percent sure it will be the same old Americans not understanding racism and being racist in the process with their ignorance.

I feel like everyone's allowed some weird peeve that just super pisses them off, and seeing the constant hyping of The American Eve Online Dream is one of mine. It is nowhere near that interesting for 97% of players, it is nowhere near that fun for 97% of players, it is a chore to play unless you want to be a megalomaniacal corp leader's cannon fodder, it has a darkly mean spirited and sociopathic streak going through a lot of it's community, and most of the time it's barely enjoyable as a game.

The headlines that come out of that game are far more interesting than anything you, the average player, will ever accomplish there. It's completely unfair of me to say this, but I dread the Iceland coverage, because then there will be even more ignorant EVE praise coming out of this site than before.

"Shouting down with exclusionary tactics" ... So having the temerity to disagree with something. To have the audacity to disagree whether or not someone's feelings are based in fact means that I don't have empathy. I find it extremely hard to feel like I'm a monster who silences others by daring to disagree with them publicly when I constantly hear about how the comment sections need to be get rid of.

Is this the "you have the right to free speech up until you potentially offend someone" play?

And oh my God, Courtney Stanton is the worst.

And with all that said, that Black Annex trailer is pretty great.

Also... so DreadOut is about a Japanese girl looking for her twin sister in a spooky ancient Japanese village surrounded by a spooky forest and her only way to fight ghosts is her camera.

@patrickklepek - Thanks to this week's Worth Reading, I signed up for indiegogo just to contribute to DreadOut. Indonesian horror...? We rarely see anything coming out of anywhere other than North America, Europe, Japan, or South Korea, so it's a very welcome alternative.

I'd love to see to see a Quicklook of the demo, even a Quicklook EX. I could see the exposure getting this game fully funded and then some. During this lull is the only time this game will get to shine, when it releases most likely it will be going up against new consoles and will be completely overshadowed.

@patrickklepek: Dave gave Cryostasis four stars back in the day, I stand by that. It ain't perfect, but you can cut the atmosphere in the game with a knife and there's so many avant-garde gameplay mechanics you most like won't ever encounter again, big endorsement from my side. Perfect fit for spooking with scoops.

Edit: I'd REALLY recommend you check out some mods for Amnesia: The Dark Descent. Some of the content out there is about as powerful and varied as the full game itself.

Mind elaborating a bit on that, mate? I played through the game about a year ago and from what I recall, finished it, for what's most like the 7th time. Just curious, is all.

@patrickklepek One game I'm sure has been mentioned in the past (I think I've mentioned it) is vampire the masquerade:bloodlines. Fantastic role playing game, and the quest "a ghost... at midnight" in the ocean house hotel is probably my favorite bit of horror in a game ever. You should totally play that for spookin' with scoops.

There's a bit of effort to get the game to work well (hey, it's a Troika game, after all) but it's not a lot of effort and with the community true gold patch applied I've played through it from beginning to end 4 times or so under both windows 7 and 8 without issue.

I'm glad that we're now seeing a fight back against the extreme feminism that has dominated discussion for years now on all games journalist websites. But then you have intellectuals like Leigh Alexander come along to make us all feel like we're back to the stone age.

That blog at gamasutra makes a lot more sense than pretty much anything else that has been associated with the 1reasonwhy stuff.

I really like Leigh Alexander's piece on Bioshock Infinite. Very close to perfectly matching my issues with the game.

Glad to hear the new PC is going well. The articles on Bioshock Infinite made for an interesting read.

@ildon: I see. Can you explain the bougie part then?

On an unrelated note. when I think "cis" and "trans" I immediately think of cis and trans stereoisomers from organic chemistry...

EDIT: Nevermind I consulted urbandictionary.