Bjorn

Seriously, don't read unless you want terrible visions. Edited to add: Fuck yeah, and exceptional new page post if ever there was one.

gamergate is the Charlie Sheen of video game culture.

I unintentionally screw up my habitual time about once a year, usually because of having a weird schedule traveling, and it sucks. It's just like totally random for weeks. I saw something super gross that was poop related this weekend helping a friend clean out a building he just bought. I don't know if I should share or not though, it's like, the worst.

Neat! The Internet Archive is expanding its gaming section to include 900 classic coin-op games. I'm glad to see more work being done to preserve gaming history in legal and open ways.

Oh yeah, don't know if this got linked before, but On The Media had a couple of gaming things on last week's show. Chris Grant came on and talked about gg. Then Leah Reich spoke about her experience a decade ago writing an advice column for IGN that often covered dating and sex. It's hard to imagine that column being able to exist today. The two gaming pieces are linked at the bottom of the list of segments if you don't want to listen to the whole show.

That whole thread of replies is fucking priceless.

Good to see this thread has gotten back on track!

Thanks for the reminder! I had forgot to buy it yet, can't wait to see the local co-op in action.

Have got through quite a few episodes since last time I posted, and hit the big spoiler moment for Zhaan in Season 3. Going back a bit, it made me super happy to realize that someone on the show's staff must be a Warren Zevon fan, since the final arc in Season 2 is called "Liars, Guns and Money" a riff on Zevon's classic " ." Zevon is likely my favorite song writer of all time. There are even some parallels with the lyrics of the song and the plot of the episodes, "Send lawyers, guns and money, Dad get me out of this." "A Clockwork Nebari" just makes me want to see more Nebari episodes, as they seem like a fascinating species with an interesting villainous take, but it doesn't seem like they're going to end up being major players with the focus on the Peacekeepers and wormholes. Also, at least once a season, the creators were bound and determined to make people squirm right the fuck off their couches with eyeball shit. Speaking of disturbing shit, "Eat Me" could have ended up being a hell of a lot more disturbing than it was. I'm kind of surprised they didn't push the envelope there more, though they may not have wanted to savage one of the main characters, as they tend to have trauma last and someone would have had to witness it. I love how naturally self-destructive so many of the characters are. Chiana and Jothee's arcs are completely believable. Honestly, quite often Farscape is pretty messy in terms of the actual plot going on in any given episode, but the characters and ideas are all so fascinating that the show transcends its problems with plot and story.

I'd agree with this. I wish I had some better advice, but all I can really do is speak from my own experience. I dropped out of college for a variety of reasons during my original sophomore year, and it took me 2-3 years to really get my feet back under me. I even moved back in with my mother for awhile to have some more stability in my life. I just kind of worked and existed during that time, but it was ultimately good for me. I eventually took some classes at a community college, which proved to be really good for me. They were (intentionally) easier classes, which was a good confidence booster and I met some good people in a comparatively low stress environment (compared to the really competitive fast track I'd been on originally at university). I know a lot of people worry about dropping out because it can be hard to go back, but it is possible and if your health needs you to take a break, take a break.

Cine, I'm glad you're still with us dude, seriously. And I'm glad that you're getting some help.

The last year we did the JPAG santa, we used a third party tool to organize it, as the guy who had been organizing it found it to be a surprising amount of work. I'm pretty sure it was Elfster we used. Kept everything nicely anonymized. The other thing to think about is to maybe limit it to established forum accounts. The biggest headache from the first year or two of the JPAG was people joining who weren't established in the community, and then flaking out.

I did the Joystiq Podcast Appreciation Group's Secret Santa for two or three years, and it was a lot of fun! I think I usually spent ~$30, including shipping. So I'd definitely be up for doing one.

I don't have much to add other than House of Cards (Netflix version) is really good stuff, and seems to draw in people who would normally be turned off by a political drama/thriller. I know a bunch of people who wouldn't normally be into something like it, but love HoC.

As long as we've derailed this thread, I might as well talk about butthurt as well. I had never really thought about its possible origins, which may well be antigay, just childishly juvenile or both. But even if it were intended to be a kind of gay bashing thing, its kind of hilariously ignorant as anal sex is one of the universal forms of sex that any combination of gender or sexuality can engage in. Obviously anal sex is more associated with gay men, but that's the result of a cultural myth more than anything. At any rate, interesting food for thought. Oh, and I always thought butthurt referred to hemorrhoids, which is a silly insult we would use in junior high. Because we thought it was a hilarious word.

Because they don't really want to talk about ethics. They want to talk about SJWs and the dangers of progressive thought in the games industry. I think talking about all the things you brought up earlier are all super valuable topics. The rest isn't a specific reply to you synthetic, just thoughts about all the other things that have gone on here. Even though some people were more abrasive in this thread, there isn't a mandate that you engage with people you think are being shitty to you. A person always has the choice of who they want to reply to. Tim chose to reply to the gamer definition part, and not anything else. His choice. Twig mentioned this, but I think it's worth actually linking to one of the articles about the state of sexism in France. One is of course entitled to one's own opinions and experiences, but that does not discount the experiences of others, particularly women in France. Tim, should you check this thread out again, while you do appear to have some good goals for the games you are making, that doesn't not mean that you are immune from having said things that are sexist or immune from criticism. The last few years have taught us quite well that there are many people who have made important contributions to the world who are capable of saying shitty things. Doing one does not make you immune from criticism for the other. As for twisting your words, when you say "The entire work of Anita Sarkeesian consists of saying video games are making you sexist.", you've made a very simple and direct statement that deserves to be opposed, because it's ridiculous.

It was time for it to go. In other news, I keep freaking myself out when I look in the mirror. I think I'm going to keep it shaved for awhile (and skip out on No Shave November) to see what I think of it.

I'm bumping this just to remind myself to check it out tomorrow. Also, I'm very excited about playing through some dahd jokes.

I listen to Christmas music year round, fuck y'all, I don't care!

Does anybody own an Ouya? I've got a couple of Ouya games (Broken Age and Neverending Nightmares) that I am never going to redeem.

Luigi is what makes that so, so good!

Our friends' Halloween party last night was partially Jeff Goldblum themed, both because a bunch of us love Goldblum and there's one person who absolutely hates everything to do with the man. So yes, we themed a party mostly to troll one of our friends. Pictures are Me and the lady as Jeff Goldblum and Geena Davis from Transylvania 6-5000 (she didn't want to dress as Jeff) Independence Day Buckaroo Banzai and Jurassic Park - Jersey from BB is so freaking good David Duchovny playing Jeff Goldblum on SNL All of us together, with our trolled friend as well

Holy shit, one of our friends showed up as gamergate for Halloween!

I've done the lazy man's dude custom and just worn a bathrobe to a party before I actually keep debating on it. The main reason I have long hair is that I hate haircuts, and just never get them. But if I shaved it off, I could just let it grow back out and not worry about a haircut for quite awhile. Maybe next Halloween. I'm never going to be Kurt Russell, so I guess Brimley works.

Apparently accounts are getting temp banned left and right, not clear where all the report flags are coming from. KiA is blaming it on anti-gg or a third party (of course).