Merus

There is such a thing as too silly, when it derails the game for everyone else (I've played with a group with someone who'd decide that they'd open a pub and retire, for instance) but I don't think any good GM would begrudge a group for having some fun. To repeat from the previous thread: I can really only do Friday nights American time, I'd prefer fortnightly games, and I can run D&D5, Numenera and Eclipse Phase.

And I'm playing it actively now.

What a useful thread. (Christmas appears to be a much bigger deal in the UK than in the US or Australia, where don't get me wrong it's still a big deal, but the entertainment industry doesn't seem to be quite so busy.)

GG is casting its shadow over PAX Aus - there's been one reported sighting, but people (including musical acts) have mentioned it at panels. Someone has a Zoe&Anita&Leigh&Brianna shirt.

So, Americans: how full do the concerts usually get? Because two years in a row PAX Aus hasn't been able to even half-fill the concert venue. Is that normal for PAX, or are they screwing up the concert organisation?

Zack and Wiki's waggle had problems that crystallised in the final level where you had to use an inventory item with absolutely broken controls. Just the worst.

Yeah, the metaphor is a shitty way of saying 'thoughtless contrarianism' which is totally something I say because I like to use 5-dollar words and 'fuck' in the same sentence.

All those gaming journalists killed by gamers I am having difficulty interpreting that in a way other than the man being unhinged

I think they're used to the idea that they're the only ones on the Internet (which is a big fucking red flag, actually). It's 2014 guys. There are a generation of girls on the Internet.

I think it's worth keeping it in context: this is Colbert, appearing on the show is always a tacit endorsement, and the guest's job is to usually allow Colbert to make their point for them by making the opposing views look stupid and ill-informed. You can see how Colbert works by looking at how quickly he transitions from talking about how he enjoys women with very large breasts and very skimpy armour, to that being okay because they are damsels in distress. The Colbert Nation is usually sharp enough to understand what's going on, and that this is someone Colbert has declared is worth listening to.

My favourite bit is the Freudian slip of 'dysentery' for 'dissent'. Yep, you know you're shitposting. But of course the flaw in that thinking is that she would have made it to the Colbert Report if they hadn't been so desperate to silence her. Their tactics made her a hero. This isn't a Rosa Parks moment by a long shot, but their desperate attempts to disguise their misogyny compared to Anita's fairly clear, straightforward speaking style made it pretty obvious which way this was going to break if it made it outside.

I'm really worried about the potential for radicalisation. The manosphere and white supremacists have already turned up, looking to convince vulnerable nerds that their fears and concerns are valid and caused by Others. I don't want this to die down on its own, because that means a good portion of them have been successfully recruited, and then convinced to work towards other, more dangerous goals.

Oh boy you guys are going to flip out when you... play an ARG that shut down years ago... ...you'll be fine

Yeah, that was also my immediate thought. I think this is how you're going to have to end it: with giant prints of your art with the cast. Deny all knowledge.

fuck Sean congrats Sean

Hey guys are we talking about Jessica Rabbit in here because I have fanfict-- ow

My favourite thing about the DLC is how the 'base game' sticks to the Mario universe and all the ideas that'd be a little weird and maybe not very Mario are in optional DLC. Like, racing in Hyrule and having a track that changes every time you play is pretty great, butttttt it's not really part of the Mario universe is it. But it's DLC! It's explicitly Optional.

The messy and unpleasant process of trying to grapple with a reactionary mob without just taking up needlepoint instead continues.

The climate change skeptics and Tea Party have a more established milieu where they are able to avoid checking their opinions against reality. Most people suffer small amounts of cognitive dissonance daily - where are my keys, I was sure I left them here - and are usually happy to abandon their existing identity when it involves a fairly small shift. To leave the climate skeptic milieu, for instance, requires someone to give up the idea that environmentalists are always wrong and that conservative thought is usually right, as well as all the self-serving justifications for such. That's a tall ask at the best of times, and it becomes taller when the milieu is as effective as the Fox News echo chamber is, and doubly so when the evangelical movement is happy to demonise environmentalists because it makes their political allies happy (and it conforms to the paranoia of the John Birch Society which still has an influence on the evangelical milieu). This is complicated by the milieu reinforcing the idea that people outside the milieu are not to be trusted - not merely 'wrong' but less human. Gamergate, by contrast, is relatively small-time. Its milieu is 8chan, mostly - it used to be 4chan but they got excluded from 4chan - paranoids, anti-semitics and MRAs, none of whom have significant presence in the gaming subculture and many of whom have been happy to throw games under the bus to preserve their own milieu. Their dehumanisation is mostly limited to a handful of people. It's small, and unstable, but much more vicious. Confronting them head-on, as you point out, is ineffective, as it's an attack from outside the milieu. But the vulnerability of the milieu is important; while the most effective strategy is to have them leave the milieu, even temporarily, and see from the outside how poisonous it is, satirical jokes can be effective in highlighting the inconsistency of the milieu.

I don't think calm discussions with Gamergaters help much, as I think I've made clear. If the problem was what they believe, it wouldn't be two months later. The problem is how they believe, and that's a much stickier wicket. Having the opportunity to make light of the situation chases away some of the despair, which is definitely helpful. I'm working on something that I hope will help - it's coming from the direction of 'how', not 'what'.

Yeah, but occasionally you get people who don't really do anything with Friday nights so it doesn't hurt to ask. I did kind of know going in that scheduling would be tricky, and if it doesn't work with me there's another GM that can step up.

Sorry I am talking Friday night in America time, which is Saturday morning for me. Saturday afternoon means all the Americans go to bed, and I don't want to step on my Sundays because I have another game I play then, and two games in a day seems like a bad idea and I need to leave another weekend free for visiting the parents once in a while.

I agree with Ben that what separates this trope from 'a character is sexy and there is/is not a reason for it' is the effort involved in making it totally non-sexual you guys. Jessica Rabbit doesn't require very much work to justify her presence in a noir parody. I don't think it's particularly useful to have it just be 'a character is sexy and the creator gives a reason for it' because then we're taking every work where there's a sexy character and dividing it in two, and I don't think that means very much.

Okay, so I'm looking at good times to organise a game, but unless people can do Friday nights the scheduling might be too difficult.