Zeusthecat

I couldn't find a thread for this type of thing so here it is. Here are three that I recall liking off the top of my head. I'm sure some of you have seen the Randy Pausch lecture but if not, I highly recommend it. http://www.ted.com/talks/simon_sinek_how_great_leaders_inspire_action.html

No, I mean Nick. I just listened to the last four casts back-to-back-to-back-to-back and the three prior to this one had the most Breckon I've heard in a very long time.

I have mixed feelings about this. On the one hand I really enjoy hearing them talk about off-the-radar games that I would normally never hear about because it encourages me to go out of my comfort zone to try something new. On the other hand I do sometimes lose interest in the conversation when I am only hearing about games I have never previously heard of and when all of the opinions about those games are so unified. My favorite episodes have always been the ones where there is at least some conversation about a big game that I am aware of (e.g. Dishonored, Bioshock Infinite, Last of Us) followed by some conversation about less popular games. It gets me much more excited to play a "Thumbs game" when I hear them talk about what they dislike about a certain AAA game and then follow that discussion up with talk of a lesser known game that they believe gets those things right. That being said, the last several episodes have been fantastic and hearing the Crusader Kings II stuff has been absolutely fascinating. Danielle was an awesome guest and it was nice to get a different perspective on some of those games. Edit: And Nick Breckon has finally been getting some words in lately! Something about Nick's enthusiasm is very infectious.

We took our daughter to see this, and yeah, pretty much what you said. It was a pretty said ripoff of Revenge of the Nerds if you ask me and was predictable all the way through. It was okay at the surface level I guess for just an average, stereotypical college movie but it was definitely the worst Pixar movie by far. I don't understand why it was even made. I sadly still haven't seen The Incredibles. I loved/hated Up. Parts of it were beautiful and inspiring and parts of it were just plain stupid. The talking dogs that flew airplanes ultimately pissed me off and left a pretty bad taste in my mouth. This movie was going in one direction (Up) at the beginning and took a fucking nosedive at the end. I didn't really enjoy Rango all that much either. I get what it was an homage to and everything but it just didn't click for me. Maybe it was because I thought Toy Story 3 did that same story much better or maybe it was because there was a giant rattlesnake with a chaingun for a tail. Or maybe I've just seen enough of the "take a standard story and replace the humans with animals" type movies by now. I'm probably going to get massive shit for this but one beloved Pixar movie that I hated was Ratatouille. I just never understood what was supposedly so special about this movie. Between the granny blowing her house to pieces with a shotgun while going after a rat, the rat talking to a human ghost cook (or thinking he is talking to a human ghost cook), the rat being able to talk to humans, and the main guy acting like a marionette puppet when his hair was pulled I just felt like everything in the movie was surface level dumb stuff to make kids laugh. Maybe there was something deeper that I missed but it didn't seem like it was anywhere near the level of Toy Story or Wall-E. Of course, these are stupid opinions from a stupid person and I am in the minority here. So I just have to assume my tastes aren't refined enough to appreciate what is special about those movies.

Yeah Tegan, that sucks. At least you got to be Batman though. For the last few weeks I have been having pretty fucked up dreams too, probably because of my broken sleep schedule. I can't really post them here but they are the kind of dreams that cause me to wake up feeling instantly frustrated and depressed. Sometimes I hate the places my brain goes when it is completely unrestrained by conscious thought.

Awesome contest SecretAsianMan, that was fun! But you killed a day and a half of productivity. Now to find a project to bill that time to.

Wow, I just finished eating jalapeno hummus right now. I don't think I'm dreaming though.

But there are important life lessons to be learned. Like what to do if you find a dumpster baby. (Don't worry, that show only comes on after she goes to bed)

I've watched that video dozens of times and my daughter cracks up every time.

No worries, that's what this thread is for right? I just thought it was going to a funny place at first and then... poor kitty. Sorry man.

Damn dude, that was fucking depressing to read.

Congrats syntheticgerbil. Also, subbes and shammack, glad to hear your cat pulled through. Just don't try to put baby socks on him.

Okay, bear with me here. I used that example because of how clear it is that that would be incredibly racist. Of course that game should not be made because it is racist and reinforces racist stereotypes. Now apply that same logic to your example of a game for women that caters to the "woman" stereotype and replace the word "racist" with "sexist". If you still can't see it I don't know what else to say to convince you. I could try to clarify further but I think it should be pretty clear to you, especially based on the negative reaction you got, that your example of a woman game is sexist in a very similar way to my racist game. Edited for grammar.

thestalkinghead, since you're talking about making games that cater to all of the different stereotypes, do you think it would be appropriate for a game to be made for black people where the point of the game was to eat watermelon and fried chicken, rap, and commit crimes?

I really didn't see it that way. I think he was just trying to point out why people are taking issue with some of the things you are saying because you seem to have a hard time understanding what the problem is with your point of view. I think a lot of people here, myself included, are trying to give you the benefit of the doubt but it's kind of gone into weird, unintelligible territory now. I'm sure you mean well but it might be good for you to take a break from the conversation. Edit: what Gormongous said.

So the 360 isn't dead in these forums after all. If you have any interest in trying to get a multiplayer session going on any of those games just let me know what times you are available in your time zone. Weekends are all I really have time for in the short term and I have LucasArts commitments but I would love the opportunity to play some good multiplayer if the stars align.

Every spare second I can afford is going to this game, I promise!!! However, with the little one I need to be close by to help my wife retain her sanity during these sleepless nights. So the DS is great for short segments of gaming during this phase. God, just listen to me. I sound like an addict. I need to keep doing at least a little bit of heroin. A little bit is okay right? I'm so tired, sorry if I'm not making any sense.

I've become super jealous of everyone who owns a 3DS and Animal Crossing New Leaf so I recently decided to start playing Wild World again on the original DS. I'd forgotten how fun and relaxing this game is and it's been perfect for limited play sessions in the evening. I'll get a 3DS + New Leaf eventually but Wild World is a good fix in the meantime.

I have some crazy beard dandruff today. I need some COAL TAR!!!

I would add that these stereotypes cause games to be much more dissonant than they otherwise should be. When I turn on the news and hear about the crazy goings on in the world and people being rescued from certain death it pretty much never has anything to do with gender. There are powerful women and men shaping the events of the world, men rescuing men and women, and women rescuing men and women. I honestly have a very hard time thinking of any real life examples of some burly man coming and rescuing a helpless, innocent woman. Maybe that happens but I doubt it ever happens in the highly romanticized way it does in video games. It makes games much more un-relatable when that is the dynamic they choose to focus on.

I'm sure there's a lot they're not telling us for our own good.

You lost me completely. I'm not quite sure what you're trying to argue but it sounds like a straw man to me.

Hmmm, I thought gravity and peristalsis worked together to move food through the digestive tract. Not that you can't digest food in the absence of gravity, just that it is more difficult.

I wanted to share some thoughts and personal observations somewhat related to the conversation going on here. Specifically in regards to this statement: I am a very optimistic person and I like to think society has made a lot of progress in how women are viewed but I have seen and heard a few things recently that have really bothered me and make me question how much of this "progress" is only at the surface level. The first one came from one of my wife's friends. They were having a play date with the kids one day and she started talking about her religion and how she goes to Bible study all the time. As the conversation continued she proceeded to tell my wife that she started going to a Bible study group where the theme was "how to be a better wife". In this group they "taught" women how it is important to have dinner ready on the table every night, to never be impatient with your husband, and to make sure the house is always kept clean. Because this is a woman's job in life. The sad thing about this is how enthusiastic she was about this class and how great she thought it was while being completely oblivious to how harmful this kind of message is to a woman. The second one came from a (very religious) co-worker in our DISC personality assessment workshop last Friday. We were going over an example of how different personality types would prepare a meal at home and halfway through the exercise he proclaimed "Well this doesn't necessarily apply to all of us because it is obviously geared towards women". He wasn't trying to be mean or anything, he just honestly believed that that is how the world works. Thankfully, two team members immediately remarked that what he said was very sexist (which he was shocked to hear) and the conversation moved on. I like to think things like this are isolated and rare occurrences but I'm not so sure that is the case. The reason I pointed out that both of these people are religious is to illustrate why I think this is still a very real problem in society. If this is the prevalent mentality in religious circles and over 80% of people still identify as religious, then shit is still pretty fucked up. And it is especially troubling to see how many people are still completely oblivious to how wrong this type of mentality is. I'm not sure if what I'm saying is very coherent so I'll just finish by saying I 100% think that it is imperative for video games and media as a whole to do a much better job of eschewing the "damsel in distress" (for lack of a better all-encompassing term) mentality. Without any substantial level of effort being made to produce works that abandon these tropes I fear that these ignorant viewpoints that lie just under the surface for so many people will remain prevalent and unrecognized.

I just want to give a shout-out to Inside Out Boy. Repressed memories of this show from my childhood have recently emerged and I realize it was the cause of my fear of going too high on the swing set.