itsamoose

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Everything posted by itsamoose

  1. Social Justice

    That's probably a function of this being a primarily US centered forum, and most of us (myself included) not having much knowledge of Japan's history or the larger history of Asia. Not to mention that the material covered in US history classes would have you believe basically everything east of Turkey just popped into existence during World War 2. Since the topic of cultural appropriation and colonialism is so reliant on specifics, is there anywhere you could recommend going to learn more about this?
  2. We've been talking about the craft of comedy in fits and starts in other threads, so let's do it here now! I'll start... I've always been a big fan of stand up comedy, mainly political comedy or for cathartic reasons. Recently I've been really getting into Bill Burr's standup routines, which I've really enjoyed because of his ability to talk about very uncomfortable things in a funny way. Now it doesn't always work, and he does cross over into offensive territory from time to time, but what I appreciate about his brand of humor is he has a great way of always making fun of the situations people find themselves in as opposed to the people themselves. He tends to take a topic and come at it from many angles, then talks about how it relates to him usually to great effect.
  3. Feminism

    I haven't played a Metal Gear solid game for a while, for those of you that have, do you get the sense that Kojima is trying to make some kind of a point with Quiet's character? I'm not trying to give him a pass here, I'm just wondering if there is some cultural element to her portrayal that I'm not aware of or some grander point that isn't immediately visible. The Eurogamer article seemed to think that wasn't the case, and given that I learned about a weird boob wobbling mechanic in MGS4 with the latest Tropes vs Women video I would be inclined to agree.
  4. "Ethics and Journalistic Integrity"

    I didn't mean to suggest that this is an excuse for wanting the revenue, but an excuse for why the game might not have done well. Look if the developers want the streams removed or to get a cut of the revenue then fine, I just don't think it's worth the effort. Again, many of the claims I hear around youtube and the like are just anecdotes--I have yet to see any hard evidence on this. For every story I hear about a person not buying a game because of a Let's Play I hear another story of a person who bought a game because of a Let's Play. Also, for the law literate among us, I'm pretty interested in the infringement described in this article. Particularly the sentence "For example, there have been music cases holding that copying a single guitar riff or some opening notes can potentially constitute copyright infringement even though they were a tiny percentage of the overall work. What mattered is that they were distinctive enough." What would this example translate to in the gaming world? Perhaps a story twist? Playing through a scripted event? I'm interested if there are any particular examples where the copyright was obviously infringed upon in your opinion.
  5. "Ethics and Journalistic Integrity"

    Well I'm sure it depends on the game to some degree, but yeah I bet many of those streamers were solicited by the developers or given free codes. If until dawn were a movie I'd see a problem there, but since it's a game I just don't buy the argument that this hurts your sales. There are hordes of playthroughs for other financially successful adventure games, I just don't see this argument as anything other than a convenient excuse.
  6. "Ethics and Journalistic Integrity"

    From my experience Youtubers are seen more as marketing tools than anything else, so I don't know that the revenue angle will be relevant for anyone except large companies or those who tightly control their properties. Personally I don't think devs should get a cut of the streamer's revenue anymore than Universal Studios should get a piece of Jimmy Fallon's ad revenue. To go back to the talk show host comparison again, both serve a similar purpose in being given access to the material for free in exchange for coverage. Perhaps if the streamer in question is selling the video there might be a reason for some kind of licensing fee there, but otherwise I don't think YouTube personalities are analogous to licensees so much as they are cheap and effective marketing. I've often heard the claim that youtubers cause more copies of the game to be sold, but I'm curious if anyone has any hard data on that, specifically if you can tie say TotalBiscuit to an increase in sales vs other marketing stuff. Edit: I may have some data on this point to share in a few days, more on that later.
  7. Social Justice

    Came across this article today, seems relevant to the current focus of the discussion. http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/09/the-lefts-attack-on-color-blindness-goes-too-far/403477/
  8. "Ethics and Journalistic Integrity"

    So given the current understanding of ownership of digital goods, basically you own a license to use a thing as opposed to owning that thing, does anyone know if Let's Plays and the like are covered by those multi-page user agreements that I totally read every time?
  9. "Ethics and Journalistic Integrity"

    Anytime game developers ask for more money they get called greedy, I think it just goes with the territory. To build up on that point Gaizokubanou made, what is the real difference between selling fan art and the works that produce them? Aren't these just two different parties doing the exact same thing? When you say fanart should be monetizable, what is the difference between a drawing of the Hulk purchased at Comic Con booth vs. a drawing of him in a comic book? Why should a fan be able to use and monetize images of marvel's characters but some other comic book label shouldn't? Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think the concept of fair use covers things being sold for profit, and the only reason it works on youtube is because they are paid via ad revenue indiscriminate of the product.
  10. I think the reason for the 3 month window is somewhat of a legacy thing (3 month retail shelf life) but also I think this pans out somewhat in the digital world. Yes the game has a much longer tail, and each new sale will bring in some revenue, but you still end up making the largest chunk of predictable money in those first 3 months.
  11. "Ethics and Journalistic Integrity"

    I might be alone here, but I've always seen Youtubers as kind of the talk show hosts of the video game world. Also related to the DMCA copyright claims on youtube, as I understand it any claim made initially will take the video down, but then at some point a human will review the claim and decide whether or not the claim is valid. Now I'm sure by whether or not the claim is valid is really just Google determining if they can get sued for it, but it doesn't seem like the draconian mess people tend to make it out to be.
  12. Plug your shit

    Alright, last time I post about this, I promise. Rack N Ruin is now available on steam, available for Windows, Mac and Linux, with a 40% discount for the first week. http://store.steampowered.com/app/378080/
  13. Feminism

    The one thing I've learned about stand up comedy is that there are way more bad comics than good ones, and they are usually louder. I think it comes from, funnily enough, years ago when swearing wasn't allowed on TV and comics like Carlin and Pryor turned that on it's head. Now that it's commonplace I think some take it to be a virtue unto itself. By the way would anyone be interested in a comedy thread? I'm pretty big into stand up but I feel like we've derailed this one enough.
  14. "Ethics and Journalistic Integrity"

    I don't know that is just a European thing, anytime you bring up societal issues in the US people tend to point out how it is worse somewhere else, or it is diminished in the US to the point of it not worth being talked about. I think it's just part of the whole "everyone else is the problem and I was right all along" mindset that has permeated society today, particularly in the political realm. There are usually racist or sexist undertones to the argument but it all seems to be based on what I believe is called the error of designation--where people see something as a quality inherent to their character as opposed to a product of circumstances and motivations.
  15. Feminism

    Donald Trump is the Gamergate of political candidates. I think this article puts it best--his popularity is one of those things that only seems so large because of all the media coverage, and his support is largely incoherent. His treatment of Megyn Kelly is paying off at the moment with a very angry and racist/sexist/insert-discriminatory-sentiment-here groups, but even noted sexists are disgusted by his comments. He's been making these comments for a while, and as long as he keeps bringing in the ratings I don't see Ailes and Fox taking a real stand against him. Also we should probably have an election/civics thread at some point.
  16. One Evening Games!

    It's a bit of an older one, but I think my favorite quick game is the cat and the coup. If you enjoy games that aren't afraid of politics it's about the CIA coup against Mohammad Mossadegh, you play as his cat.
  17. Ferguson

    I can't find any at the moment, but I've come across a few news stories of police unions and fraternal orders (kind of like a VFW for cops) plotting and carrying out character assassinations against anyone that criticizes them.
  18. Social Justice

    That's a great suggestion, I'll do the same. I think we're all in agreement that cultural appropriation exists and is generally garbage, but now seem to be discussing the finer points of it, what constitutes it, and how it could possibly be rectified. I hear a lot of arguments floated with respect to this such as give credit to the original author, but even when this does happen it tends to be glossed over or ignored as far as the mainstream understanding goes, and doesn't necessarily turn into similar gains when noted. The other argument I hear is that some form of reparations need to be paid, which I get in terms of slavery, but if you are a person of color and your ancestors were not enslaved by members of the southern states, aren't you still at the mercy of the situation as it exists today? I think a lot of the arguments I see forwarded related to how to combat or lessen the effect of things like this tend to not hold up to any kind of scrutiny or even require a doubling down on the systems that help to institutionalize slavery in the first place (capitalism, recognition of "the other", etc). Ta-nehisi coates wrote an article called the case for reparations (a fantastic read regardless of your interest in this point) where he talks about backing governmental initiatives to both recognize formally the presence of racism in society and to fund studies examining it's impact, mainly based on the idea that you can't have an understanding about things you have so little information about.
  19. Social Justice

    To the point about giving credit, what exactly would that look like? I've read over a few interviews with Elvis, and he wasn't shy about saying who his influences were though the press at the time didn't really care. How would one go about giving credit to the original inspiration in a way that would satisfy this requirement?
  20. This is a cool idea, but I'm skeptical of any investors biting. Typically what happens now is when an investor wants to make a game they tell the devs to get some percentage of the money with kickstarter (to prove interest), and then fund the remainder themselves. This may open the field to smaller investors, but I don't think this significantly changes the MO of the larger investors who would rather own a significant portion of the company rather than throwing some money to this group for a small percentage of the company's equity.
  21. Feminism

    I caught this last night, it's an interview with the author of the article that the one above is responding to. I don't think the author of that piece accurately describes the original author's argument, at least from my reading of it. The article itself seems to be a condemnation of the university system and the incredible emphasis on money, which has lead to a situation where professors are afraid of challenging their students' ideas or even mediating between them because one angry student might mean the end of your career. I get the sense from reading these and other articles that the university isn't allowing any of the professors to, well... profess. Probably based on the amount of money involved, the universities seem more interested in conforming to their students' expectations than they are to challenge the students or even moderate between them. Flanigan (in the original article) outlines a few situations where a student said something they weren't aware was a micro aggression, and as a result they were publicly berated and labeled a bad and even violent person; this coming from the same school of thought that says one action does not define an individual.
  22. The Wolf Among Us

    I admit my feelings about the game are mostly informed by my expectations, which isn't really a fair standard to hold the developers to. I will say that in playing the game I loved it, but I found the detective mechanics were kind of getting in the way of the parts I liked and that the parts I liked seemed forced as a result. Overall I still like the game, and am looking forward to another one, and to be perfectly honest I would even prefer it if telltale just decided to remove all the detective mechanics in favor of making a more linear game. To me the game tried to strike a balance between letting me explore a bit and have the choice-consequence moments, but as a result some of the more important plot points felt forced and the mechanic parts tended to feel like a slog more often than those elements succeeded.
  23. The Wolf Among Us

    I think I had pretty much the same reaction as syntheticgerbil. I loved the atmosphere and characters but I felt as though the game was lacking when you tried to get a little bit deeper. One bugbear for me, and I think this is just a trend in adventure games, is that the devs only make plot relevant items interactable. I played it a while ago so I may be mistaken, but I can't recall a time when the game asked me to make a decision as to what evidence to consider or tried to lead me off the path. I'm sure this is due to budgetary constraints, but I found myself almost ignoring the environment and instead just scanning for those little blips to do the next thing. I think going in I expected more of a detective game, whereas this was more like a mystery novel.
  24. Feminism

    I had a slightly different reading on the article, mainly it being a condemnation of the universities' handling of trigger warnings. Sure students will try to get out of doing work, but the way the university handles trigger warnings allows them a reasonable means of getting out of doing that work, and possibly even preventing other students from realizing the full extent of their education. The students seem to now have the means to determine what is worth learning, and in some cases any challenge to these notions results in some punishment for the professor. The article's premise, at least from my reading of it, isn't that students are whiny babies but that universities are creating highly sanitized, anodyne environments for financial reasons.