clyde

For the week of September 1st, 2014 we will be playing: Some Bee Ess by thecatamites You can download the single game from here for free Or you can buy the entire collection of 50 games from here.

Seconded. That article expresses my frustrations on the issue much more clearly than I can.

There's a video-series that you should watch if you interested in this type of thing. It addresses a lot of your points specifically and clearly. Check out 18:30 for an excellent counterpoint to your view. It may be inconsiderate to call using harmful tropes by default "lazy", in many cases the author may just be unskilled. This being the case, it's a good idea for criticism to enumerate the tendencies of authors to bumblingly mimic previous works. It's helpful that critics are now providing clear explanations of how game-writers can better their craft. I don't expect every game-writer to actually create something well thought-out and intentional, but it excites me that the perspective of feminism is revealing low-hanging fruit for improvement in games-writing so that writers who have little ability to recognize their dependencies on duplicating sexist rubbish can actually express themselves instead of defecating oppressive cultural norms without consideration. Criticism that displays the artist's lack of ability to communicate their intention may remove some of the noise that you seem concerned with. I don't really see what the value of satire of sexism is if it comes off as sexist satire, until it is pointed out as a failure to communicate and its cause analyzed. The developer is already doing whatever they want. Regardless of whether or not the decision to not include playable females is reasonable or not, by not including them the developer is making a statement that they prioritize the perceived benefits of not including playable females over the perceived benefits of including them. So my question for you is whether or not you would prioritize a statistically likely representation of gender-roles in a historical setting over the benefits of playble females, such as the ability for much of your audience to be able to identify with the avatar.

I would be willing to call myself a "ludo solitairist" instead of a "gamer"(emphasis on single-player) if it was pronounced "soul-lit-tar-ist"; that would sound classy.

I had similar issues. At first I tried to commit to games, but then I realized that the problem is that they are just too long. The solution for me turned out to be access to infinite quantities of small, free games. If I don't know what I want to play, I just scroll through Warpdoor, pick one and play it. Typically it takes 15 minutes and often I am not sure if I finished it. Somehow, putting this default-action into my routine has made me start playing more larger games. I don't know why that is.

I'm learning a lot about Unity's animation system. I like how they look when they stop walking once they reach their target. Their new green shoes are pretty rad too. https://v.cdn.vine.co/r/videos/58227561BA1117903584236027904_230e01e86d7.0.2.8842287837726665089.mp4?versionId=0Bnh4py0HtjccxJb08qVRqYnEtSZsqkE

I know it's lazy to just say "This game is great", but I really want to just take a moment to talk about how much I enjoy Glory Days of the Free Press. Thus far, this is my favorite game by Thecatamites and my inability to find any discussion about it is why I wanted to start this club. Why do I like it so much? I fantasize about stuff a lot. One of the things I've noticed is that fantasies that are deeply developed by having their own genre (like the Old West and Astronaut Adventures) have certain advantages, having a buffet of established tropes allows me to play pretend much more easily. Glory Days of the Free Press genericizes a fantasy I've always had that I have never seen essentialized into the things I like about it. The fantasy of being an editor at a newspaper in their symbolic role as a person who presents The News to the populous of a city is particularly grand. I love having a game that makes me feel like the go-to director of the printing-press who can do no wrong. We have to get the paper out or there will be no paper! I love that the motives of the inaccurate and unreliable sources of content presented in the game's narrative aren't bribes, political agendas, or predjudices; you just need to get a paper out everyday and news is slow. Pressman 1: "I don't have a story sir." Me: "Then MAKE IT UP DAG BLAMMIT!" Pressman 1: "Yes sir." [i walk into the next office and slam the door] Me: "Fire Johnson!" Assistant: "He's got the day off sir." Me: "Oh well who was I just talking to?" Assistant: "That was Clark, he works the fifth district." Me: "Fire Clark!" Assistant: "Yes sir, who should we put on his beat?" Me: "The shoe-shine boy did a good job this morning, go grab him and give him a press-hat." Assistant: "Yes sir" Me: "Oh and Daniels, ..." Assistant: "Yes sir?" Me: "Fire Johnson when he gets back, no need to delay the inevitable." ---- Being able to walk between stations to check-up on everyone allows for me to enjoy the novelty of all sorts of make-it-up-as-you-go-along processes that are both humorous and kind of exciting in a newspaper-printing scenario. It's like a bunch of friends making a zine, but with a scope of historical importance. For comparison, just being a single journalist and being given a mad-lib or submitting stream-of-consciousness wouldn't give the player the sense of power and scope that Glory days of the Free Press gives. I feel like Andy Warhol walking around The Factory, I'm surrounded by creatives who just need me to give them a final say, or one piece of input. That piece of input makes it mine. The fantasy is incredibly vainglorious, but it is one of the most fun power-fantasies I've had in a game. I think it may be a consequence of my interests outside of it. I've wanted to have the wit and poltical momentum of H.L Menkchen. I'd love to answer some Dear Abby questions without having to deal with the guilt of them possibly taking the advice. I want to hang out in an apartment with Burroughs and Gysin while we try to come to a conclusion of whether or not the newspaper-stand burned down due to our cut-up audio-recording witch-craft*. But I don't want to deal with the realities and irresponsibilities of any of these power-fantasies, I want them in computer-games. I want to hurt some non-player character's feelings by firing them for insubordination and yell at Parker to get me those goddamn photos! *This additional example probably requires more explaination. I have an appreciation for the Burroughs/Gysin mythology for its obsession with trying to circumscribe the potency of mass-media through superstition and paranoia. From a distance, I can really enjoy their gnarled logics and psuedo-science they crafted. I view it as a colorful,surreal, folktalish vernacular that attempts to make sense of the exciting changes mass-media was producing in their time. The set-up in Glory Days of the Free Press seems like it could almost exist in their magical-reality. With a little more of a conspiratorial lean, the characters in Glory Days of the Free Press could be who Burroughs and Gysin were battling. This is probably way too fucking obscure, I thought I'd try though.

That sounds neat.

Whoa. I don't know much about Mao Tse-tung, but he seems like a scarry meglomaniac. I can't stand people that believe that if someone can't express their dissent, then it shouldn't be respected. Those people tend to be intimidating in conversation so that those who oppose their views won't express dissent.

Favorite quotations: Spoilers:

Since we are asking questions, I got one. So is the diplomacy going to be deeper than that of Brave New World?

Listening to this episode was straight up cathartic for me. Like y'all talked about, there's just been a lot of news and happenings lately that are real bummers. My view that the three current-events I have taken particular interest in have all been cases where the aggressors are successfully manipulating the public's reasoning, to make dissent I empathize with look like an attack, has literally made me lose sleep. This month has made me feel like everything is not going to be alright which is directly opposed to my default optimism. I'm having to create a new foundation in the way I see this world, one in which I still want to encouarage compassion and capability regardless of whether or not it has a chance of success. It's emotionally draining. To hear y'all talk about the issue with clarity and confidence after seeing so much passionate confusion was very helpful. I took a three-hour nap afterwards and I feel better than I've felt since I originally heard about Quinn's harassment. I might even feel better than before I heard about it actually, new layers of realism make my sense of participation in society seem more vivid. To me, the majority of the concerns seem like an additional attempt to find dirt on Quinn. I think that the campaign against her is attempting to intimidate game-journalists and game-critics to associate any potential coverage of her to be an invitation for the internet hate-machine to comb through anything they have ever done that might sully their reputation if explained with a bunch of red-line connections or angry vlogs. On these very forums, some members have stated they they do have a sincere interest in the possible implications of a journalist funding a developer's patreon-account, but I think they have found that trying to discuss it at a time when the reason it has come up is its use in visible hate-campaign, is difficult and leads to a lot of involuntary distrust that takes a lot of effort to assuage.

Choosing your spacecraft for a non-representational, initial knowledge-bonus is such an interesting decision (18:30 in the video Cordeos linked). I love this idea. The bonuses on that list are things that would greatly influence that particuar match for me. The representational bonuses like +10% production are things I think hard about when choosing between, but I often forget what I have chosen. In comparison, something like immediately revealing all coast-lines will inspire grandiose plans that will determine how I remember that match regardless of whether I succeed ot not. This is exciting.

Here is an article about the convulsive death of the gamer-identity. http://dangolding.tumblr.com/post/95985875943/the-end-of-gamers I'm starting to think that this crazy-as-shit reaction to inclusiveness should be compared to other identity poilitics like nationalism or religion. The reactions are so similar, the need to draw proper boundaries between who is an authentic member and who is not, the calls to protect the purity of their identity.

This guy appears to get it. https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=10203381145224158&set=vb.1077431496&type=2&theater

Itch.io just updated its ethics-guidelines. There was a reason for it. Now you can't post a game that participates in or promotes harassment. http://itchio.tumblr.com/post/95941507899/games-that-hurt-people-arent-cool-updates-to-the

Oh, cool. Yeah I don't know much about how the stuff is calculated. I just build shit and try not to go to war.

My interpretation of how additional cities give you a happiness-penalty is that the populous always wants to be ruled by local power. It would make more sense to accumulate a penalty based on giving counting the tiles between it and the capital (more distance would give more unhappiness) divided by how many turns it takes a trade-route from the capital to reach the tile's associated city, and then adding them together for the penalty.

I believe that the public's inability to see harassment for what it is can be explained or atleast put into perspective by reading the "early evidence" and "theory" portion of Wikipedia's article on Just-World Hypothesis. http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Just-world_hypothesis The basic idea is that research has shown that our minds have a tendency to search for excuses to not like someone who is suffering (unless we know that they are being paid for it). One suggested reason is that this happens because we would have a hard time remaining capable if we believed that we may be made to suffer without deserving it (or eventually getting rewarded for it). I recommend giving the "early evidence" and "theory" portion a look-over, it's short.

When I was in Athens, Georgia, I became friends with a vinyl-record dealer. He was really good at dealing records. Before Spotify or Pandora, I could give him a list of the albums I liked and he could hand me one I would fall in love with. Similarly I've had discussions with friends about music where they explained how to enjoy a song and then I would have the ability to appreciate something I never could before. These are the two ideals I have in mind when I'm reading about games. So you can see how ethical guidelines are of no use to me.

I'm reading this as "She deserves it." What am I doing wrong here?

Do y'all look at the ethics-policy of a site when you are deciding which site to read? This thread is making me realize how different my consumption of games-writing is from others.

Edit: oops double-post. i'm just going to leave it here. Well here. Talk about this one instead so you won't be confused for intentionally contributing to the misogynistic witch-hunt.http://wip.warpdoor.com/tag/data-stains/ http://www.patreon.com/user?u=263521 To be clear, I have no problem with a developer contributing to a writer's Patreon. But for those of you who do, I'd prefer if you distance your discussion from a female developer who is intentionally being mobbed punitively.

Well here. Talk about this one instead so you won't be confused for intentionally contributing to the misogynist witch-hunt. http://wip.warpdoor.com/tag/data-stains/ http://www.patreon.com/user?u=263521 To be clear, I have no problem with a developer contributing to a writer's Patreon. But for those of you who do, I'd prefer if you distance your discussion from a female developer who is intentionally being mobbed punitively.

Are you talking about the part where she is explaining how games are different than other mediums because the player is encouraged to play with the objects in the world to see how they react?