BadHat

I'm so fucking furious. I told myself I was done but I just had to probe a bit deeper. I came across this from someone I used to watch and enjoy, and I'm floored. http://www.twitlonger.com/show/n_1sjdndv Any angle. Any possible angle to deflect negative PR, as long as they don't have to budge in the slightest. I just had someone compare this to reddit's jailbait boards, and how conflating GG with this is the same as presuming that the average reddit user is a pedo. Except... reddit got rid of those boards. Because of exposes and loud public outcry. After they stubbornly refused to remove them because of "free speech." Kind of just like fucking this. And people are seriously suggesting that he's just grandstanding for SJW brownie points? Fuck this earth.

I just realised I haven't played Shadow of Mordor in a few weeks, so I guess I'm done with that. I was pretty pumped when I got to the second map, was really looking forward to messing around with all the mind control stuff, but I guess it didn't really grab me? I think I just found it too easy after a point. The head of Monolith shows up in Gamespot's GOTY video (spoilers) and actually confirms my feelings on it: the testers who were the most competent with the combat also found the nemesis system the least engaging, because it needs failure and conflict to feel real. Guess I played too much Arkham...

In more positive news!

Did I seriously just read someone say "unalienable human rights" as a defense of exploitative images of children?

I don't know if the "broshoots" thing even represents GG that well, or at least not it's most forward-facing players. Two of the most prominent developers in favour of GG are Brad Wardell, head of the company who makes niche strategy games, and Daniel Vavra, head of the company making a niche medieval combat game (which I'm actually kind of looking forward to). I'm not trying to legitimize the whole "radfems trying to ruin our games!" angle at all, but they definitely have a pretty hardcore contingent. And, having been on my share of message boards, hardcore fans of a certain subgenre or era tend to also be the most protective of the things they see as representative of their niche. In other news I googled Daniel Vavra to make sure I had his name right and popped in on his twitter. He's circulating an image of Randi Harper dying her dog blue, because...? A few people point out that there are safe ways of doing this but I guess they're trying to dig up any dirt they can. Which, you know, isn't the whole public shaming thing a rotten SJW tactic? Why am I even posing this as a hypothetical when they practically flaunt their hypocrisy at this point. It was a facebook post from 2012, too, which I just find endlessly creepy. Soooo I followed the rabbit hole a little deeper and went to the source, one Mr Fart, and found this? https://twitter.com/fartchives/status/547008289104752640 So "social justice extremism" now constitutes getting funding pulled from a site that openly hosts questionable images of actual children. Gotcha. Thanks for drawing that line in the sand, person who GGers apparently listen to and care about!

First they came for the dead prostitutes, and I didn't speak up because I didn't play GTA. Then they came for the lurid porn camera angles, and I didn't speak up because I didn't play Bayonetta. When they came for my skimpy loli belly dancers, there was no one left to speak up for Etrian Oddysey.

I saw Kevin Smith's latest one, Tusk, and... I don't even know.

Sorry if this was already posted, but this is a really, really great video that dissects GG as a movement instead of just criticizing them based on their "accomplishments." Not that there's anything wrong with that, but I've had some thoughts simmering about the larger political message behind GG and this guy does an excellent job at elucidating some of those things. http://blip.tv/foldablehuman/s4e7-gamergate-7071206

They could at least get their facts straight, since, you know, gamergate is all about the facts. The artist wasn't harassed, a bunch of people contacted the developer about it and the artist's boss decided to tell him to change it based on feedback. I guess in gamergate's twisted world that constitutes "self-censorship"? Followed! I honestly don't check curators too much any more but I just wanted to throw my number in as a small gesture, considering the amount of "lol feminism" groups on the curator list already. Social Justice Wario was already pretty great, too.

Can't even escape this shit in my dumb grindy babby games.

Anyone following the Eric Andre Show? Maybe I'm just a sucker for absurdity and non-seqitors but I like it so god damn much. It's into season 3 and hasn't declined in quality at all, but maybe that's the benefit of only having ten minutes to fill per episode.

Been playing with a couple friends but we keep dying to dumb stuff. There's an item you can craft that resurrects your friend's ghosts, but it takes a toll on your health when you craft it. Friend died to an enemy the other night, and I narrowly escaped with 2 health. Ran back to base to revive him and neither of us realised in time that I was crafting my own demise.

I came here to recommend everyone do this. Con some friends into playing with you, buy them copies if you have to. It's excellent fun and latency isn't a huge obstacle for online multi either (I play with people I have ~250ms to and still kick their asses sometimes). Edit: Haha crap I'm too late. Well... keep an eye on it I guess!

Well, these more recent tweets take a bit of the edge off of his views, but they're still fuck-ignorant so w/e. My biggest problem with his (and the thousands of other mouthbreathers who brought it up before him) view of "having a voice" is that the presence or absence of a comments section does not actually rob anyone of their "voice." I don't think Ken was directly referring to her (since he said "articles"), but Anita is actually the perfect example of this: People are clearly not wanting for a platform to say and distribute whatever stupid shit they want about her, with or without her permission to do so below her own videos. Setting aside the ludicrous idea that a fucking youtube comments section is in any way conducive to worthwhile debate, I think recent events have clearly shown there's a darker side to comments sections (and twitter, and facebook, and etc), which is that the most overwhelming voices on a controversial topic are often those whose only voice is a comments section. Gamergate, if nothing else, has shown itself to be a petri dish of disempowered* people who turned comments, tweets, emails into tools of self-empowerment, and the few people with a loud enough voice to rile them into a righteous fervour. The insistence on "having a voice" in the form of comments, or something with a similarly low barrier to entry for anyone with 3 seconds to hurl their opinion like a molotov through a window, seems to me like someone read this article and took it as a mandate instead of a suggestion. (While on the topic of WWIC, here's a great piece in the same vein - http://www.nickcapozzoli.com/blog/2014/11/21/wwwgc#.VJC1GiuUewV) * Just to clarify - I don't mean disempowered to mean unprivileged (though it certainly doesn't preclude that). I mean people who feel disempowered in their own lives and lack an outlet for their frustrations. I know this feeling pretty well and GG reeks of it, as others have already observed.

I really hope that if metalgate shows anything, it's that these movements are reactionary in the purest sense of the word. They're trying to rally people around their cause with the thinnest pretence imaginable, and the great part is that almost nobody seems to be taking the bait (aside from the lead singer of Disturbed... really?). If you want some reassurance that most sane people know shit when they smell it, here's the one and only thread on the topic posted to /r/metal. https://www.reddit.com/r/Metal/comments/2p69pg/so_metalgate_is_now_a_thing_on_twitter/ The one thing that's slightly disappointing is how many people who categorize themselves as "neutral" still perceive it as being a choice between two sides in opposition. The idea that there's an anti-metalgate already and that they're implicitly demanding your support is such an unfortunate assumption. Even if metalgate dies out immediately (which I expect it to), GG and their ilk will have won a small victory by further driving a wedge between people who might have otherwise been supportive of certain causes, and "SJWs" who are seen to be fighting a petty culture war over non-issues. Not that people who speak about social justice don't have their own perception problems (like any other vocal group), but it certainly doesn't help when the average bystander comes away with the conclusion that both ends of the spectrum are equally inane (b-b-b-but radfems called me a cishet!). The perfect expression of this is TotalBiscuit's posts in that medium blog. He obviously views himself as immensely "neutral" and level-headed in all this based on his hilariously ignorant but condescending twitlongers, and yet he immediately reacted to the news that metalgate was even a thing by decrying a response that didn't exist. Then he realises that it was a complete non-event and casually brushes it off later, like, "Oh, that thing I reacted to with zero information or insight? Not really a thing FYI, just thought you ought to know." Clearly the voice of impartiality. What pisses me off the most is this is the same guy who constantly harps on about not twitter mobbing people because he sees @ replying someone with as many followers as he has as an invitation to harass. And then he goes and lends his considerable weight to a movement that is fucking predicated on twitter mobbing. How un-self-aware do you have to be to not see the conflict there?

He is 100% the Karl Pilkington of the Bombcast.

Aw dag, new Cloudkicker album. I really like the production on this one.

Looks bad. http://www.giantbomb.com/videos/dan-decides-terminator-genisys/2300-9768/

Linked with love. http://www.somethingawful.com/photoshop-phriday/male-feminist-gamers/1/

Neat! I'm kind of ambivalent towards bearded/unbeared Chris, but I fully approve of no glasses. I never realised he had such striking... eyebrows.

Super Replays are great. The Illbleed one is also excellent (mostly for how ridiculous the game is), and Overblood has some classic moments. Also for the 3 people who haven't seen it, is an amazing feature and gives you a bit of insight into how he turned out the way he did. Speaking of Dan and his dad...

I'm still playing FFXIV, for some reason! Here are some lovely vistas, of which there are many in this game.

I saw Guardians of the Galaxy and thought it was a lot of fun! Very smartly written, even if some of the gags smacked a little of tryhard Whedonism. Only real criticism I have is that, because a lot of plot seems heavily abridged to make room for all the stuff they tried to cram in, many character moments wound up feeling very forced, like they happened more because they "had to" than because they were a result of anything that was set up beforehand. Like, it's not a crime for a big dumb action movie to crib heavily on established tropes, but when it's using them without a lot of the substance that usually keeps those tropes afloat, it starts to feel a little like they're exploiting the audience's tacit acceptance of those things in lieu of actually earning an emotional response. BUT, at least it's not another fucking superhero original story where nothing happens.