Zeusthecat

Thanks guys. Luckily I already got through Full Throttle so it sounds like I'm good to go.

I'M SO OFFENDED!!! You turdface* *Turdface in this instance is also used as a term of affection. I'm not actually implying that you have a turd for a face and I'm really just jealous of your good looks.

We don't exist in a vacuum. A big part of how we understand words comes from how they are used in society. If I hear a word used exclusively in a negative context, it will have a negative connotation for me. Likewise, if I hear a word used exclusively in a positive context, it will have a positive connotation for me. I see a lot of value in taking terms that carry a negative connotation and turning them into something positive. Growing up, I identified as a nerd but that term was only really used as an insult. Now, nerds around the world carry that title with pride because, for the most part, that term was subverted and lost a lot of its negative connotation.

If a term is generally used as a pejorative, then hearing that word will most likely carry negative connotations. If, over time, the pejorative use is stripped from that term, hearing that word will most likely not carry the negative connotations it once did and it can actually become a positive thing (I think Bjorn's nerd/geek example is a perfect illustration of this). What is so hard to understand about that?

I'm not sure I can spell it out any more clearly than I already have. It sounds like you are unwilling to be convinced so let's just agree to disagree and move forward with the conversation.

You first asked the question in this post: Then you answered the question in this post: The value in reclaiming words is that the understanding of what that word means to a person can change to something positive and the word can cease to cause harm or at least carry a much more positive meaning.

So this directly proves the value in reclaiming a word.

This is absolutely not true. I have inadvertently used words in the past that have caused emotional harm to another person even though I used them with no malicious intent. Certain words can be trigger words regardless of how they are being used.

Bjorn, that was an excellent post and I think the geek/nerd example is a perfect illustration of the benefits of reclaiming a word.

Yes to this. I think her perspective on games would be an excellent complement to the Idle Thumbs podcast. And crazy idea: what if they stole her from Polygon and hired her full time to play games and write about them on Idle Thumbs in addition to being a permanent cast member? Having some words on the site would be awesome. (I can dream right?)

tabacco, thank you so much for your diligence in weeding out the unsavory folks that slip in from time to time.

Having recently witnessed the glory of several of Tim Schafer's games for the first time, I think this is a mandatory listen. Even without the lens of nostalgia I am finding these games to be quite excellent and I am super interested to hear what he has to say. I'm in the middle of playing through Grim Fandango for the first time though and just wondering if I am safe to listen to this cast in it's entirety or if I should skip the GF stuff until I finish.

On a positive note, you guys interrupting each other on the cast and bouncing between discussions has greatly improved my brain's multi-threading capabilities.

Thanks for the hint! I wasn't sure if it was supposed to be solvable yet. Now I know.

So is the Windows 8.1 update going to be available for all phones currently running Windows 8 or will it only work with new hardware? After having had it for over a year now, I still really like my Windows 8 phone but I haven't heard much about their phones in recent months so I've been a little concerned that interest has been waning. I'll be up for an upgrade soon and I'm on the fence about whether I should stick with the Windows phone in the hope that it will continue to receive support and gain more features/apps or if I should jump ship back to Android.

Fair enough. And thanks for the good discussion. I think my opinion has been swayed enough at this point that I can't reasonably defend the way this kind of language was used in the game.

I have started paying attention to what the race announcer is saying and I suspect I might get some hints from that. Also, I'm not sure if the day I am on is Kitty Hat Day or not. I don't think it is and if it isn't, then I'm guessing the ticket I print out will be one for the previous Kitty Hat Day and I will somehow be able to glean from the announcer or someone else, which cat won the race on the last Kitty Hat Day. This post sounds really weird.

This is true, but I honestly can't imagine how a game could get away with reflecting that reality in a constructive way. It may be lazy or unrealistic to only have the bad guys talk this way but I think it would be far more problematic if you had random "good guys" using that same language as might happen in real life. After seeing some of these other posts I'll definitely concede that the writing in this regard was pretty lazy and they could have excluded the misogynistic behavior altogether and had a better game for it. Personally, though, I think the sexualization of every female character in this game is far more problematic than what we're talking about.

Along those lines, here's another angle to think about. The bad guys in this game exhibit misogynistic behavior and the good guys do not. I think one could argue that having that contrast, at least at some level, does make a statement about that kind of behavior not being acceptable. So while they may be presenting that kind of behavior as the norm, it seems clear to me that they are certainly not endorsing it. Edit: I just saw Ben X's post above mine and, seeing it framed that way I feel like I don't have the strongest of arguments.

For what it's worth, I also kind of struggle to understand why some of the enemy barks towards catwoman are considered so problematic. Frankly, that is the kind of language I would expect horrible bad guys in a prison city to use towards a female (I think it is safe to assume these guys probably have sexist tendencies) and it would just sound a little off if they only went with gender neutral profanity. If the argument is simply that there is an imbalance in gender specific profanity towards batman and catwoman then I can kind of see the point. But even then, it seems reasonable to assume that the bad guys would be more inclined to think they could intimidate catwoman, who they might unfairly assume is weaker. But I really don't have a strong opinion on this, just sharing my thoughts. JonCole, you make some pretty good points in your post above but I'm still not entirely convinced that there is anything inherently wrong with the bad guys saying some of the sexist things they say. I think it is important for games to try to promote gender equality but at the same time, if you are aiming to portray certain characters as "bad guys" it kind of makes sense that they would do and say things that we recognize as bad.

DEEEEEERRRRPPP! By mouse click I meant key press.

Not a whole lot more to post about at this point but I did play some more on Sunday. Unfortunately I had had a few beers and had reached that miserable point where I kept dozing off after every third mouse click. What I do remember though, is that I was able to throw the passed out sailor guy's ID tags onto one of the sprouted bodies that the mortician guy was trying to identify. Nothing happened after I did this so I moved on, assuming some results would come out of this later on. I went back to Maximino's place after this and saw that his lawyer guy was in the main restaurant area going over some paperwork. After I talked to him, he left and I was able to pick up his cigarette case. I had to stop playing at this point though because I just couldn't keep myself awake any longer. I've given some more thought on what I have left to accomplish in Rubacava and I'm still not entirely clear on how to solve the remaining puzzles. First, I still can't quite figure out how I am supposed to impress those guys in the poetry lounge place. When I talk to the 'hep chick' and ask her to lay down some lines, she either repeats what I last said, or recites a poem that I am unable to copy due to the lines I am limited to when I attempt it. I'm guessing that when I figure this out, I will be able to take the book to the worker bees so they can organize or something like that. Then I still need to figure out how to get some kind of metallic object hidden on my body so the metal detector lady will give me a strip search. I also haven't quite figure out the cat race ticket thing but I've started to listen more closely to the race announcer guy so hopefully a clue comes out of that. And finally, I'm still not sure what to do with the forklift.

Yeah, that is a sad and disgusting series of events. Good on the developers for walking out and not putting up with Matti's shit. He seems like an utter disgrace of a human being.

I... think I need to start using this one.

When my wife and I argue, I sometimes pull out the "You're being a turdface!" card. That always stops a pointless argument dead in its tracks and neither of us feel like arguing afterwards. This is a word I cannot bring myself to use any more. I used to not think it was that big a deal but I have since learned that of all curse words, that is the most likely to get people's blood boiling.