Reyturner

I think its important to remember that m00t believed in anonymity the way Hotwheels believes in free speech: its a good unto its self and the bad things are the cost of doing business. It's my understanding that the verboten nature of doxxing (to 4chan) is not the safety issue so much as it is antithetical to capital A Anonymity. It's also brought up in Jay Allen's chan culture article; part of the reason 4/8channers go after individuals, and women in particular, online is that they are identifiable as individuals, and individuals can't be anonymous and, as such, cannot be tolerated. https://www.ted.com/talks/christopher_m00t_poole_the_case_for_anonymity_online The Q&A is pretty prescient. Ironically, (this video was made in 2010), the TED audience claps when he talks about the doxxing and arrest of the cat abuser made possible by the same MS Paint conspiracy methods made famous by gg.

I find lock-on to be a must since you can tag guys with long view through walls and then move yourself to a on open line of fire and blast them, even if they're off screen. Then again, I also find mouse and keyboard way better, but that's just a taste thing.

I've had mild anxiety / depression for most of my life, and I'd be interested to see if I can relate to anything in this. I'd be interested to know what are your criticisms are (but maybe a thread in the Books section would be a better forum).

Yeeesss? Click middle mouse button on man.

A common thread I'm seeing in people critical of 2 is that they played 1 fast and loose and don't like the careful play 2 often requires. On C&C, Thursten mentions hardly ever using lockon, the far look or guns and resented needing to do so in 2. I can't imagine not using those. I also played 1 as more of a puzzle game than as a test of frenetic execution, so the fact that it leans more heavily in that direction hasn't harmed my perception so far. Also that he played it in long sessions over the course of a few days. I'm playing maybe a couple levels a day and I'm not getting burned out. I do think it's weaker than the first, but still pretty great.

You really can't break your character at creation. It's more figuring out what kind of things you want to do and filling out the character to match. Nothing speeds up character creation more than having an idea in mind for what you want to build. And if you're interested in doing weird stuff, just let everyone know. It makes it a lot easier for the DM to give you things you want to do.

I'd like to keep character creation to under an hour, so this gives me a good incentive to figure out how to do that. Alternatively, tell me what class/race you want to play and I'll just make you a premade and you can miss the session without worry.

What? No! Crap! 27th

They... don't usually do that. Most of the time, when they're not napping or looking for scratches (Loki purring like an idling Peterbilt), they're beating each other up (like brothers do).

OK! March 27th! 8pm PST to ~1030pm! D&D 5e! Skype! Character Creation and opening delve! You can use the free pdfs or the Players Handbook. Does this work for y'all? Edit: Updated the date to be correct

This is Loki and Bartleby. Brothers we rescued from a shelter about 5 years ago. This is Loki and Bartleby looking to stage right.

I agree that Papers, Please is another really good example, but I still think Depression Quest belongs but I don't feel super strongly about it. I'll concede the point to avoid a derail.

IMO, Depression Quest's impact comes from its systems, or subversion of systems. Choose Your Own Adventure is the oldest form of narrative game there is and it mirrors life in a very basic way. Look at the options, and make the best move: easy. But, like in life, Depression removes your ability to choose "the best move", even though to a normally functioning person, the choice seems obvious and simple. One of the most hurtful things about people's misunderstandings of depression is the assumption that the sufferer is simply choosing to be miserable. "Why can't they just be positive? Get some exercise, call a friend. That's what I would do." In presenting options that would clearly be the right move and removing your ability to select them, Depression Quest gives you a glimpse into the experience of depression a traditional narrative lacks.

There are 2 ideas here that are somewhat tangled: 1. Video Games are better at exploring themes with systems (mechanics) than with narrative 2. Identity politics are a distraction from the systematic (ie: "real") problems facing humanity The first I can get behind. As a medium, I believe video games allow players experiment with alternate experiences, inviting the opportunity for insight in a way deterministic narratives can't. This isn't to say that deterministic narratives CAN'T provide insights, but I would argue that the body of work produced to date suggests that games are better at doing it with the former method than the latter. Cart Life, SimCity, Real Lives 2010, Depression Quest, Problem Attic, Dys4ia, they provide you with systems to struggle with, which force you to make decisions you wouldn't normally have to consider. Typical video-game-assed video games with Messages, like Spec Ops: The Line, typically just provide video game obstacles to over come on the way to the next bit of expository text. So far, at their best, those games do deterministic narrative about as well as mediocre movies and books. The second point, however... hmmmmm. Saying marginalized people should wait their turn until the "real" injustices are addressed, to stand united for the Greater Good, has been a thing for a long time. And it has typically been pushed by non-marginalized people; white, able bodied, first world, neural typical, cis gender, heterosexual, men. And those "real" problems usually concern economic injustices that affect marginalized and non-marginalized people equally. As a perfect example of such a non-marginalized person, I can say that it feels like a perfectly reasonable stance to take. And everyone is always very willing to accept world views that are in tune with their feelings. And, as such, it is tempting to ask why issues of identity, issues that don't inform my lived experience, are so important. Why ARE gender neutral bathrooms such a big deal when unaccountable billionaires are slashing and burning the future to feed their temporal and unlimited greed. Why does it matter if there's only 1 woman on screen for every 3 men, when wages have been stagnant for 40 years, while social services have been dismantled and consumer debt is exploding. Of course, anyone who doesn't fall into my perfect storm of privilege probably doesn't feel the same way. And expecting marginalized people to suck it up, stop rocking the boat and get on message isn't going to make their lived experiences magically stop sucking. What I find strange is that Point One and Point Two so frequently get conflated to the point where the rationale for one feeds the other, and not just by Bogost. For some reason there does seem to be a correlation between people who espouse both point one and point two. If I didn't go out of my way to find marginalized voices who decry the call for ideological harmony, I would probably be one of them. But I don't know why one opinion seems to accompany the other so frequently.

Reading Chris Thursten's review especially, I got the impression I'd feel the same way but I wasn't sure. Maybe I'll jump on this game now instead of waiting for a sale. I also liked Only God Forgives (though not as much as Drive).

His article, for context. http://m.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2015/03/video-games-are-better-without-characters/387556/ I've seen the usual goober drivel every article even mentioning GG without the required deference gets, but Progressive Video Games Twitter has also been pretty offended by it, but for reasons I can't really figure out; I just see lots of side eye and subteeeting. Does anyone have any good reaction articles? I don't want to dive into random twitter conversations for fear of sea lioning. Edit: o i c

Kern seems like he's trying to get Kluwe to recite some kind of loyalty oath before he's willing to condemn the gators talking about his kids. Opportunistic and idiot are good adjectives for this guy.

I think you mean Episode VIII: The Proper Noun Verbs (or perhaps The Adjective Proper Noun or even The Verb of the Proper Noun)?

It's also the normalizing factor. It's kind of like prison rape. It's a horrific problem, but its so engrained in the publish consciousness that we not only make jokes about it, we actually accept it as part of the punishment we serve to any offender and we accept serious people in real power using the threat of prison rape against real people without power.

My favorite part was when Nicky advised the Danswers audience to try her sexy handsome Australian friend's technique for breaking the ice at a bar.

Agree with Megaspel. GG makes perfect sense if you imagine everything they say coming out of the mouth of a 15yo. Well, it kind of is to some degree. The trick is being able to incorporate new information and perspectives when you find out, instead of descending into a siege mentality.

I've had to use one at work for the last few years and Apple computers are literally just PCs at twice the price. I don't understand the appeal.

Speaking of things popping up to draw young people into the "industry" of games, GG has created a new hashtag and community called Solution6Months (WHICH HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH GAMERGATE DO BASIC RESEARCH IMBICILE) to repair the damage(?) done to the indie games industry(???) by ~them~ by creating a "safe space" (safe because it is apolitical) for people to learn how to make games. If I had more time, I'd start a thread there about learning Twine, just to see what would happen

Watching twitter work it self into a lather over the $10,000 iWatch and then descending into affected worldly cynicism and ennui over 10 minutes was fun.

Wtf is going on at pax right now? Twitter makes it sounds like the Enforcers have been taken over by gators or something