Problem Machine

We've already seen what happens when no one publicizes these threats: The people who receive them feel that much more isolated and alone and threatened. Making these threats public make it something that we can all oppose, if only by decrying them, rather than something that must be opposed alone. I think that's more powerful than the thrill of power that those who make threats gain from seeing public reactions -- but who knows? All I know is that the old way was not working, and it seems increasingly to be a silencing tactic masquerading as helpful advice.

I like it. There's a paucity of interactivity, but what's there works, and just the feeling of trudging through these endless and endlessly shifting corridors captures the feel of a certain kind of dream quite well. The scenarios range from mildly creepy to genuinely unnerving depending on which path you take, and the forked paths are generally subtle enough that it doesn't feel like there's a big obvious decision sign, but noticeable enough that you can figure out how to take a different path if you want a different ending. There's a chapter select, so finding endings isn't a huge waste of time either. I'm probably going to write a more thorough analysis later this week, and I'll link it here when it's done. There's a number of interesting thematic threads running through, some of which have a bit different meanings depending on which ending you end up at.

This is something I've had to deal with a lot myself. I spent a big part of my early life telling myself I was calm and collected, that I wasn't ruled by fear, etcetera. Telling yourself things like that can feel like it's working, because it makes the named emotion go away, but the actual feeling underneath that emotion remains, and becomes impossible to name since you've killed all your words for it. I'd end up just getting tired instead of scared or angry because I denied the existence of that emotion. Denying emotions doesn't make you strong, it just makes you beholden to forces you've rendered yourself incapable of understanding. That's why these GGers are so endemically incapable of self-insight: Their identity rests on being logical and unbiased, which makes actually examining their own logic and biases impossible.

From the language in the quoted email it doesn't even sound like it necessary was someone calling in. For all the information we have, it's just as possible his boss saw him tweeting GG support and was like "...no." I know if I worked at a game studio, there's a decent chance I'd surreptitiously check my employees twitter presence at a time like this to see what was getting out there.

This whole thing has revealed a problem with Godwin's Law, in that it makes it really hard to be taken seriously when the people you're arguing against are are trumpeting their support by someone who is literally a nazi. Told you, dude. Sea lions.

I was all about arena mode in TF2. Shame it's the mode that Valve forgot. The balance has always been not-great in it, but I love it because it's the only opportunity to pit the classes directly against each other in a controlled manner -- by which I mean, I can think about the advantages I have vs the advantages they have and formulate a plan based on that, and if something goes wrong it's because of a mistake I made, not because someone came from spawn at the worst time and ruined my play. Optimal play in standard TF2 is by necessity a numbers game, choosing the play that works out most often even if it's boring or predictable: I think it's a lot more interesting to actually have to get in my opponent's head, figure out what they want, and move to counter that. ... I really, really wish that arena got more love. Bringing those kinds of fighting-game-style headgames into an FPS environment is super-exciting to me. Anyway, that's why I mostly played spy Yeah from what you were saying a few posts earlier that's probably the case. Arena was a bit of an acquired taste at any rate: Just like CS, if you're new a lot of rounds will just end with you dying without achieving anything,

An interesting viewpoint on how #gamergate may have inadvertently benefited feminists Come to think of it, it might have been Anita's harassment that first made me seriously think about feminism as well. Hmm.

Intel issued a rather bland statement on the subject

"Ye best start believing in misogynist gamer cultures, Mr Biscuit... YER IN ONE!"

I think it's still hilarious that gamergaters think that they're the core audience of gamasutra, a site for developers -- a group which by and large detests gamergaters. Maybe a group of developers, the ACTUAL audience of gamasutra, should clue Intel in on this fact.

I would feel a lot more pity if they weren't still a huge angry mob that pose a fairly direct threat to a number of people I respect. Just because they're pathetic doesn't mean they're not dangerous.

Accountability!

Holy shit. The way that dude totally lost his shit that Leigh, A MERE WOMAN, would dare talk back to him is super telling.

YOU WIN THIS ONE, GADGET. NEXT TIME, NEXT TIME.

Yeah. If you have one clock that's 2 minutes fast, and one clock that's broken and always says it's 6:37, the correct solution is not to find the average of the two values.

In general, I have very little time for 'critics' who are chiefly interested in tearing the works of others down, disregarding a| whether they're the intended audience, b| whether the piece in question has other merits, or c| whether their audience can glean any useful information from the review. I believe he would respond to this criticism by saying he's primarily an entertainer: Fine, then. He's an entertainer who entertains by being an asshole to other entertainers and artists. As popular a niche as that one tends to be, it's not one I personally have a lot of respect for. That he's also turned out to be a passive-aggressive fence-sitter has done nothing to endear him to me, but I didn't have an especially high opinion of him before. That said, a couple of years ago I did get a kick out of his Terraria LP with Jesse Cox. It's pretty much Dumb and Dumber.

I mean, yeah, he's a British Man with a Top Hat. That's peak rationality! You can't get more objective than that!

https://vid.me/VFj

Finished a couple weeks ago. Just wrote a bunch of words comparing thematic elements of Transistor and Bastion, if anyone's inclined to read 'em.

Shit, I haven't seen these since I was a kid. I should reeducate myself sometime.

"I'm not bad, I'm just pre-rendered that way"

I believe that capes saw military use around the times of early handheld firearms to confuse the silhouette and make it more difficult for marksmen, so I think it makes sense. I don't have time to look up sources on that at the moment though. All of this is probably rather off-topic, but i do like talking character design

I think the cape is actually quite clever, and avoids the problem with capes noted in The Incredibles. The zippers are seemingly pointless, since she has the belt for storage, but could be wired to hidden devices instead? Hard to tell with the belt, I don't know what issues it would present since I've never seen something like that worn. Boots seem similar to standard issue combat boots -- I tend to trust military surplus for pragmatism, though maybe she should be lacing them differently?

I like the look of it though I think there are some practicality concerns (of course, less than with the stilettos design obviously). Mostly, given her acrobatic style, I think the coat would bind at the shoulders and belly/back. Some knee protection would be nice too. It is cute though.