Worth Reading: 07/20/12

These 'Worth Reading' articles are so dense with links to great content. Thanks, Patrick!

This is a great Worth Reading. My two favorite parts are the Pokemon iPhone clone and the interview with Randy Pitchfork. Great reading another article from you Patrick! Keep up the great work!

Time to get addicted to the Epic Sax Game again. Dammit Patrick.

Great article Patrick.

Man, Randy Pitchford has to be the most delusional guy working in the game industry today. I mean, I can see being kind to a project so near and dear to your heart, but standing by a statement like "It's as good as Half-Life 2" just makes him sound like a crazy person.

In no way am I trying to put down Giant Bomb, but "Worth Reading" is why I come to this site and apart of my morning news intake. Keep up the good work Patrick!

@KO4U said:

In no way am I trying to put down Giant Bomb, but "Worth Reading" is why I come to this site and apart of my morning news intake. Keep up the good work Patrick!

I love the flavor I get from the Bombcast and Quick Looks, but Patrick has brought some class to this here shitshow (with all due respect, it's an awesome shitshow). For one, any kind of compilation listing a bunch of interesting articles is an A-OK in my book, but Patrick brings in such a cool variety that I'm getting a bit of everything - a bit of indie, a bit of game politics, a bit of design, etc.

While Worth Reading is as perfect as one can expect it to be, I would love to see a bit more of a proactive approach to interviews, specifically indie developers - maybe a Spotlight day-a-week article dedicated to exploring one studio at a time many may not have heard of.

“I have been on the Internet since 1993,” I replied. “I got over being on the Internet long before I ever got over being a girl.”

The prognosis is negative. She's progressed to writing essays about feminism; that's like stage IV GOTIS.

Jenn Frank is awesome. I remember her from 1UP (R.I.P.).

@CH3BURASHKA: Yeah, I wound up following the second response to IGN article at the bottom to at least 3 other stories. Don't know how Patrick finds some of the more obscure stuff.

Colin Moriarty writes:

"Don’t get me wrong; you can be offended by anything you want. You can let other people’s words, deeds and art get to you however you deem fit. But the second you start confusing your own subjective notion of good taste with what that means for everyone else and project your own offended posture on the rest of us, you’ve crossed the line."

Kate Cox answers:

"In the end, Moriarty asks: "When are we going to acknowledge that this mentality is destructive? When are we going to come to terms with the fact that by strangling creativity because of abstract notions of being offended and hurt feelings, we are doing a major disservice not only to ourselves, but to the people who want to give us new stories full of new ideas?"

The answer is: never, because that's not the case. To stifle criticism is no better than to stifle creativity. A work needs to stand on its own, and either to defend itself, or to fail. To ignore valid offense, and to insist that audience feelings don't matter, is to do a major disservice not only to ourselves, but to the makers who want to give us new stories full of new ideas. To leave old, hackneyed, dated ideas unchallenged is to prevent us from getting new stories full of new ideas. To accept whatever we are handed without challenge, without thought, and without critique is to ensure we will never get new stories full of new ideas."

The way i read it. What Colin is trying to say, is that the few projecting their idea of what is ethical on to the masses, not by engaging in constructive criticism but by trying project their own sense of good taste onto everyone elses and disguising it as some sort of sensus communis, is what is strangling creativity by forcing self censorship on developers and scaring the moneyhats, as with konami and Six days in Fallujah.

I don't disagree with Kate's response i just don't think it applies to the original article when read as a whole, instead of select statements.

Thereby not stating that Colins article is bulletproof or above criticism, i just think any criticism on what is not the heart of the matter is pedantic and superfluous. Unless you're his teacher trying to make him focus on his subject.

-Entirely ironic that i should harp on minutiae i know, but there you go.

Colin Moriarty writes:

"Don’t get me wrong; you can be offended by anything you want. You can let other people’s words, deeds and art get to you however you deem fit. But the second you start confusing your own subjective notion of good taste with what that means for everyone else and project your own offended posture on the rest of us, you’ve crossed the line."

Kate Cox answers:

"In the end, Moriarty asks: "When are we going to acknowledge that this mentality is destructive? When are we going to come to terms with the fact that by strangling creativity because of abstract notions of being offended and hurt feelings, we are doing a major disservice not only to ourselves, but to the people who want to give us new stories full of new ideas?"

The answer is: never, because that's not the case. To stifle criticism is no better than to stifle creativity. A work needs to stand on its own, and either to defend itself, or to fail. To ignore valid offense, and to insist that audience feelings don't matter, is to do a major disservice not only to ourselves, but to the makers who want to give us new stories full of new ideas. To leave old, hackneyed, dated ideas unchallenged is to prevent us from getting new stories full of new ideas. To accept whatever we are handed without challenge, without thought, and without critique is to ensure we will never get new stories full of new ideas."

The way i read it. What Colin is trying to say, is that the few projecting their idea of what is ethical on to the masses, not by engaging in constructive criticism but by trying project their own sense of good taste onto everyone elses and disguising it as some sort of sensus communis, is what is strangling creativity by forcing self censorship on developers and scaring the moneyhats, as with konami and Six days in Fallujah.

I don't disagree with Kate's response i just don't think it applies to the original article when read as a whole, instead of select statements.

Thereby not stating that Colins article is bulletproof or above criticism, i just think any criticism on what is not the heart of the matter is pedantic and superfluous. Unless you're his teacher trying to make him focus on his subject.

-Entirely ironic that i should harp on minutiae i know, but there you go.

@m1a1da83 said:

Ahh, S.C.P we meet again.

It's like the internet wants me to throw my computer out of the window screaming, "NOPE! NOPE!"

@aceofspudz said:

“I have been on the Internet since 1993,” I replied. “I got over being on the Internet long before I ever got over being a girl.”

The prognosis is negative. She's progressed to writing essays about feminism; that's like stage IV GOTIS.

Yeah, she's writing about feminism because she's the problem. Sigh.

@dr_mantas said:

People get mistreated. Anonymity makes that easier, so the internet increases it.

Of course there is a problem about how women are treated on the internet. But feminism is not the answer. Feminism is not for equal rights, it's for the rights of women. Feminism will defend women on the internet, but will not defend how boys are treated in schools, how men are treated if they're around children, how family courts treat dads, how domestic violence effects husbands.

Women's rights are important, but so are Men's rights. Everyone's rights. Egalitarianism.

The internet was male dominated for a very long time, and as a such, it will take a cultural shift, a change of generations for women to become completely integrated into it. Imagine a man going to work in a kindergarten, or chaperoning a sleepover, or even be seen with his daughter in a park. Sometimes people imagine the worst of things.

If someone is an asshole with no reason, call them out. If someone threatens you, shut them down. Everyone deserves respect, but they shouldn't hold is as a given.

However, if you can't take a joke, then deal with it. If you feel like you're being treated unfairly in this society, join the fucking club, cause you're not alone.

Oh good, men's rights. Super

@pbhawks45: Haha, sure.

Here's a classic for yah. You wanna hear a joke?

Women's rights.

@President_Barackbar said:

Man, Randy Pitchford has to be the most delusional guy working in the game industry today. I mean, I can see being kind to a project so near and dear to your heart, but standing by a statement like "It's as good as Half-Life 2" just makes him sound like a crazy person.

If only he could win the rights to Half-Life in a poker game on a riverboat gambling casino.

I don't despise the man or anything, but he comes off as a crazy grifter.

Love these articles, they are indeed worth reading.

I encourage anyone who hasn't browsed through the SCP Wiki to do so btw: http://www.scp-wiki.net/

Some of the entries can be pretty cool.

@Morningstar: @mrpandaman: Oops, you're both right. I feel stupid.

Patrick I want to genuinely thank you for getting material like Jenn Franks article on here. It can feel really lonely as a (male) feminist gamer and it makes me very happy that my favourite website has the courage to suggest articles like these.

Thanks and keep up the good work.

Nice compilation of interesting thoughts: definitely worth a read

Played that sax game. Did alright. Thanks, Patrick!

@Funky_Student_101 said:

I find it sad how demoralized woman are in this industry. Personally it never mattered to me whether a person was a man or a woman unless it came to relationship-like things. I wish the internet would grow up a bit :/

Except they aren't.

@sissylion said:

@LordCmdrStryker: Perpetuation of rape culture, restriction of female reproductive rights, slut-shaming, the holding of women to a far more aesthetic-oriented scale compared to their male counterparts, etc.

On average women make more money then men. Make sense of that for me. I'll repeat it for you. Women make more money then men. Why? Because you are a woman. You will also find women at higher tiers of management at an average business, holding less experience and years on the job then a male counterpart. Why? Because you are a woman. You can look up the statistics if you don't believe me.

What is my point with all this? The more you try to control how things are being done in the country with PC agendas, the more things will become "unfair".

There is no "war on women" in the US. This is a myth pushed along by the progressive left. Give me a break with your buzz words. "Rape culture"?, "slut-shaming"? Go get a job, work hard, live a good life, and stop posting nonsense on video-game forums.

People want to turn video games into a sterilized politically correct socialist institution, and not one driven by the free market, is a correct statement made earlier in this thread, and it applies to all areas, not just video-games.

Great article but I agree with Colin's piece 100%

Jenn Frank is one of the best writers on the Internet.

@FreedomTown: I won't argue with you because you're beyond help, but I will give you a tip for debating in general: It is the job of the opposition to provide evidence of their contradictions. You can't challenge someone's statement and then tell them to do their own research into it. That's not how argument works.

For your own sake, I hope one day you'll find some love, platonic or otherwise, for a female and recognize the error in your ways.

Maybe it's just my comp, but there's a significant and frustrating keystroke delay in ESG that makes the studio section much harder than it should be. I do rather like that I can play every note at once, though. That's some sax!

Remind me to never look at gamers' comments on feminism ever again. For my health.

@WarlordPayne said:

Jenn Frank considers Leigh Alexander to be one of the best games journalists...I don't think I care what her opinions are.

i`ve never agreed with a comment more.

Also, worth watching (definitely wotrth it):

http://criticalpathproject.com

An amazing collection of interviews with a whole bunch of game industry stars, including Will Wright, Jason Roher, Nolan Bushnel etc...

Definitely give it a look, I have been loving it so far!

@FreedomTown: "Socalist," "Free Market," "Agendas."

Give me a break with your buzz words...Go get a job, work hard, live a good life, and stop posting nonsense on video-game forums.

I thought I'd make it clear what you sound like.

@LordCmdrStryker said:

@Turambar said:

So, anyone wants to place bets on how many people makes a comment about dismissing Jenn Frank's article out of hand without reading it due to her comments on Leigh Alexander? I say 10 in the next hour.

Leigh Alexander's article was typical sensationalist Kotaku bullshit, so count me as one.

@Funky_Student_101 said:

I find it sad how demoralized woman are in this industry. Personally it never mattered to me whether a person was a man or a woman unless it came to relationship-like things. I wish the internet would grow up a bit :/

I wish women on the internet would grow up a bit. Who the hell said everything had to be equal for everyone all the time? Are there big attitude problems in the video games industry? Hell, yes. But here's a newsflash for you: IT'S A PROBLEM IN LOTS OF OTHER AREAS, TOO. The games industry is NOT SPECIAL. People have shitty ideas about women all over the place but, believe it or not, America has it pretty damn good. And writing articles like these are exactly preaching to the choir - the people who need to hear it the most are the ones least likely to actually read them. What we really need are some studios run mostly by women. What do you mean there aren't enough women in the industry for that? Well, shit, I suppose we have an entirely different problem, then. The industry will change when the people making the games change. Shaking your finger and being indignant will do fuck all.

By the way, I really love it in Ms. Brice's article where she writes that people should change what they say if they're being unintentionally offensive, but she can do it all day because she's offending people on purpose. Classic. EDIT: OH! She also wants to turn video games into a sterilized politically correct socialist institution, and not one driven by the free market, because "Gaming isn’t and hasn’t been a cheap hobby to upkeep, so to say those with the money should decide the kind of content of games is plain lazy when that is mostly white heterosexual men." Fuck. You. Lady.

I know it's a slow news week and all, but after the Phil Fish bullshit and that Randy Pitchford tabloidesque hit job, I'm really considering swearing off video games "journalism" for like 6 months.

I've always thought that 'video game journalism' was an oxymoron...

If not that, it's a lie.

Hello,

I really enjoyed a lot of Jen Frank's comments on the recent 1up.com Retronauts "retrospective" podcast. She has a unique perspective, and it is great to see she is still posting great columns. Thanks Patrick!

Cheers,

Mark