tberton

I don't know if people have already seen these, but I just read a pair of essays about Monica Lewinsky: one she wrote for Vanity Fair last year, and one from The New York Times this week. Both are gut punches and are essential reading, I think, for conversations about women in the public eye. Be warned: they get pretty heavy in places, talking about depression, public shaming and thoughts of suicide.

I'm posting in this thread because tegan has "found the worst possible AMV. Like, the WORST." But she doesn't want to quadruple post. ,

Well, Immaterial Girl is focusing mostly on Emily, so I don't know how much Dave will factor into it.

That's fair, although I'll say that, in terms of Phonogram, The Singles Club holds up a lot better than Rue Brittania. The standalone policy is a good one, though. Also, not sure if you're aware of this, but Phonogram Vol. 3: Immaterial Girl is coming out this summer, so that's something to look forward to. Back to Ninja's request, one other thing I thought of, if you'd like something a bit further off the beaten path, is Emily Carroll's Through the Woods. It's a collection of scary stories told in comic form and it's top notch.

The first trade of The Wicked + The Divine would be a great choice.

I can't believe you guys went with "Snood Snob" and not "Snood Snoot." You're losing it! Also, what the fuck is Snood?

Psst, Nels, the game store in Toronto is 401, not 405. Great show though! Karmaka sounds super interesting.

Keep going with it. Seasons 3 and 4 are awesome.

In Canada, city taxes are basically just property taxes, except for a few allowances in big cities like Toronto where they have the power to institute gas taxes and liquor taxes, but in practice don't really.

I can't argue with that critique, but I'll just say that I enjoy talking about games after playing them as much as I enjoy the playing itself and Hanabi lends itself really well to after-game conversations.

Cara 'Bout Games.

Yeah, there's definitely a way to use "nonfiction" in order to mean "better." If we're talking about terms that do that, though, I think "serious games" is the guiltier party. I really don't like that phrase and what it implies. I know that it comes out of academic game studies circles, but haven't looked very closely into its history, so I'm hesitant to throw it entirely under the bus. I think all of us here would argue that we'd like to see more serious games. It's just that the way Serious Games is thrown around feels like it's saying that only games made with a specific intent and in a specific form should be considered Serious and I can't get on board with that.

I guess what I'm saying is that if you're going to allow "nonfiction" as a category of anything, it seems reasonable to include games like SimCity in it. Now, I agree with you that "nonfiction" is a bit of a lie no matter what we're talking about (if something's meaningful, it has a fictive element). But I think Bogost is on the same page there.

I think we're being a bit unfair to Bogost's argument here. I don't think he's saying that systems-based games are objective or that they should be. In calling them "non-fiction" games, I think he means that the primary thing you use them for is to learn something about the world, whereas "fiction" games are about being told a story. "Non-fiction" here shouldn't be read as "objective": Bogost is a scholar and any scholar who's writing as though their work is objective is ignoring the last 60 of scholarship. Likewise, I think the core of his argument is that last paragraph: the biggest issues in the world (capitalist exploitation, racism, sexism, environmental destruction) have systemic roots and thus are best understood at the systemic level. Games are better at exposing systems than any other medium and they're better at exposing systems than they are at anything else, so it's a shame that we've left that by the wayside. Like I said, I have some issues with this argument. Are high level systems really the best way at getting at these processes, or is a hybrid method such as the one in Cart Life more effective? Have games really left systems by the wayside, or can we see them in other areas, such as tabletop games. And if we see systematic games dominating in other areas, but not having the political impact that Bogost argues systems have (as I would argue is the case in tabletop), are systems really the thing that's missing, or is the political will? These are the questions I'd like to ask him. But yeah, I think if you're reading this as an attack on social justice or subjectivity in general, it's worthwhile to give the article a second read.

Nope, somebody just linked it in this week's episode thread, but I think I'm the only one who responded. This seems like the best place to discuss the article.

I'll repost what I said in the other thread this came up in: I quite enjoyed this article and agree with a lot of his points, but slight condescension toward narrative games is annoying. I'm also not sure that systems-based games vs. character-based games is as neat a dichotomy as he'd like; it allows him to conveniently ignore games like Cart Life and Papers, Please, which seem to model that "cog-in-the-machine" feeling that he wants better than a game like SimCity. Also, and I've encountered this in other writings of his, he's got blinders that focus on video games solely, to the exclusion of tabletop games. I think any discussion of systems-based game design needs to include tabletop to be instructive.

I quite enjoyed this article and agree with a lot of his points, but slight condescension toward narrative games is annoying. I'm also not sure that systems-based games vs. character-based games is as neat a dichotomy as he'd like; it allows him to conveniently ignore games like Cart Life and Papers, Please, which seem to model that "cog-in-the-machine" feeling that he wants better than a game like SimCity. Also, and I've encountered this in other writings of his, he's got blinders that focus on video games solely, to the exclusion of tabletop games. I think any discussion of systems-based game design needs to include tabletop to be instructive.

Hanabi is my favourite co-op game and one of my favourite games ever.

The Waterdeep insert is amazing, but unfortunately doesn't work with how people store their games. It needs to be flat for everything to stay put, which is annoying.

If anybody's interested in a fairly radical analysis of maps and urban planning, I recommend James C. Scott's Seeing Like a State. It covers a lot more topics than just cities, but there's a chapter about how modern cities were designed to be easily understood and controlled by governments. It's pretty fascinating.

In Canada, Quebec and Ontario both have big incentive systems for game companies. I think BC probably does too. Quebec's tax breaks are the reason why Montreal has such a big development community.

They should all be ashamed for firing Sean last week. Those puns were way worse. EDIT: Just want to be clear that I love puns. Don't ever change.

I just got the pun in "Embed With..." Also, my biggest surprise starting grad studies in History was how often we have to chokehold crocodiles. EDIT: Jesus, these poo puns. That's it. I'm done. Podcast over.

Sculley and Hitchcock? They're the best.

I think you mean 55-WIZARDON.