aceofspudz

I'll add my voice to this:

The heavy-handed moderation needs to stop. This isn't just about what's happening now--I had it out with Rorie in PMs a while back about this, and now it's just becoming absurd. I can't even talk about the details about the most major story happening in gaming news because someone might accidentally misogyny. Entire threads are getting blown away where 99% of the discussion had nothing to do with what is happening. Fucking ridiculous.

I don't see the point in engaging in discussion in this environment. Posts are getting vaporized and the mods haven't even bothered to explain themselves with a simple sticky.

I'm mad about archery.

That thing she's using in the promo art, what the fuck!

As a man, I hope to one day be able to point to my collection and tell my wife the medium is finally mature enough to handle stories from all walks of life and it is inclusionary to everyone looking for something that speaks to them. And her response isn't just shrugging of the shoulders while she smirks, looking at me and saying "..oh, video games.." in a disappointed tired voice because it's not true.

You do the same thing when talks to you about beads or scrapbooking or feminine hobby x. Just accept that she doesn't care about the same things you do and it's got nothing to do with politics, and you'll both be happier.

Trying to get girls interested in games (who are not already interested) is, in my experience, a degrading activity for both parties. Just enjoy what you enjoy and let her express an interest if she likes. That dismissive tone she is taking doesn't mean "video games aren't inclusive", it means "I don't care, don't bother me with this".

Speaking of scrapbooking, what's the deal with all the materials being frilly and cutesy? Why can't there be more cool looking and manly scrapbooking materials out there, to foster a sense of inclusivity. I'm sure all those middle aged men will drop their fantasy football leagues and start going to scrapbooking parties if that happened.

Guys, I've solved the mystery. Except instead of the supernatural, it's wrestling.

Part of the problem is your modern game critic thinks they are doing their job if they sit in a room and pleasure themselves until they come up with the perfect insight to base an article on. They regard their job as a closed loop that begins and ends in their head and they break up the monotony by giving the most softball interviews, ever in fear of losing "access" to precious press releases and farcical industry snow-jobs like E3.

Maybe that's the entertainment beat, or whatever, but I'd like to see a few more of them make telephone calls, occasionally question people to their faces rather than later on in the safe confines of an article or podcast, hit the bricks, and cultivate a few disgruntled anonymous sources when bad shit is going down. Game journos will never editorialize their way into relevance.

I'll add my voice to #teambrad.

Brad's got the power, got the touch.

But not everyone is off on weekends, so some players were pretty understandably unhappy that the event was only available for a short time. Adding to the frustration is the fact that many players played the mission, but didn't explore the area after that. There was a massive amount of content that could be missed that way, including a huge amount of underground scenery.

I don't actually think being unhappy about a time-limited event because you had to go to work is 'understandable'. The only thing to understand is that working is a decision people make that results in them not being able to use their time for other things. It's called an opportunity cost.

It's not Bungie's fault you were sitting at a cash register when they ran their event. You made that decision to work those hours, and the world is not required to bend around it. Some things you'll just miss out on. Who doesn't understand this?

The people who ran the event and went unrewarded for their lack of curiosity should probably take it to heart rather than blaming someone else. Bungie delivered them a valuable life lesson as far as I'm concerned.

Breaking: No games to be released in 2014.

"Let's just call this one a mulligan." say industry leaders.

Like you, I also had a divergent experience playing female shepard: I always found it jarring how my twiglike Femshep manhandled people (even Krogans) in cutscenes. I rationalized it by saying they were blindsided by her attitude and authority. She's technically a cyborg after 2, mitigating the dissonance a bit, but that strikes me as a copout.

Rather than turning her into a brawny amazonian to explain this, I would have liked if Femshep had occasionally different animations or even dialog options that brought home the fact that she was literally weaker than her opponents. My Femshep was an infiltrator and didn't need James Vega-levels of musculature to do her job.

So neither of us was 100% happy. In an ideal RPG there are different models and animations and dialog trees for every possible choice you make as a player which conform to your internal mythology. In reality (of AAA titles like ME) there is usually just one thing that is supposed to fit everyone.