Bjorn

I know people who identify as bibliophiles, or cinephiles, or for whom golfer is a dominant part of their self-identity. But I agree that gamer carries a significantly different type and volume of information along with it. For some reason this reminded me of the Male Novelist Joke, poking fun at how seriously the budding (and sometimes actually successful) male author takes himself.

The relative lack of coverage by gaming journalists of this is both laudable (Quinn doesn't need every site writing about this), but also unfortunate because clearly this is one of the dominant conversations going on, but there aren't necessarily easy entry points written by credible people to learn about it that are going to pop up in your news feed. I was talking to a friend in real life last night, a gamer who pays only slightly passing attention to gaming news and culture. I brought up the Quinn/Sarkeesian stuff, his reply was along the lines of it just seems like everyone on all sides is an asshole. Which on one hand is kind of infuriating to hear, but somewhat understandable if you're only glancing into the monkey cage of the Internet every once in awhile, and every time you do it just looks like all the monkeys are throwing shit at each other.

I've never seen someone even come close to using that gif appropriately here. Well done.

I'm going to play more of it, I'm not to the point of quitting yet. But I think the next time I play I might just not allow myself to use the Sniper (or use her very sparingly). She's absolutely the most powerful and useful character, I might find it more challenging and enjoyable if I just set some rules for myself about character use, like maybe having to cycle through characters in order or something. Because I can see how shield guy is useful for setting certain things up, but he's almost never necessary.

Has the US version of Intelligence Squared been recommended? I think there is a British original as well, though I haven't checked it out. It's a lot of the same talking heads you'll see show up on TV news, but with the hour format they get to dig into issues without having to cram everything into a 3 minute scream-fest for cable viewers.

I am pretty ignorant to the technical elements of game design, but does anyone know why some games are mechanically tied to framerate? It's not something I've ever understood. I assume there must be some advantage, otherwise you wouldn't do it. As for STF, I'm not sure this is a game for me. It's fun, it is brilliantly designed, and I imagine there are people out there who will think it's the best game released this year. But I'm through two and a half areas, have unlocked some more characters, and it's just not clicking with me. It's really easy, I'm actually enjoying the puzzle rooms more than the main game, as I have to think about them at least. I'm just skipping the cutscenes and dialogue now. It's too dumb to be enjoyable. The Thumbs awhile back had the rant against reference humor, and I think this game is a perfect example of that.

Anytime someone says, "historically accurate", what I hear is "presenting a view of history that matches with my view that has been shaped by my education and pop culture, no matter how terribly misinformed that is." Whatever you think you know of history, it's probably wrong in very important ways, even if you've tried to educate yourself from a variety of sources. Edited to add: Remember when people said that the way gender was presented in LA Noire was historically accurate. That was cute. And wrong.

Wait, the diverted flight from earlier was because of shitheads making bomb threats about the plane because the president of SOE was on it? I saw the headline about it being diverted earlier, but hadn't seen anything else on it. That piece is also terrific.

It wasn't Jetpac, was it? Platform isn't right, but it's possible that it got a pirate port or cloned, since shit like that happened all the time.

I gave up my fedora because of the association. I miss my fedora, I really liked it. But I can't remember the last time I saw someone I genuinely liked and respected wear one, it's almost always tools and asshole (who don't even know how to pick a hat that fits their head or body well, which makes it worse). Now when I need or want a hat, I've got a western, gambler style wide brim I use. In the midwest, it's something I can get away with in both formal and informal situations. Edited to add: I also find people changing forum avatars so disorienting. I almost never look at names.

Fuck, link to story, emails and tweets about Sarkeesian leaving her house for awhile.

I think it's fabulous!

That's actually known, they are in a partnership with a very successful company that hasn't previously been involved in games.

Deadspin is running it's annual "Why your football team sucks" series. The Chiefs entry got some genuine chuckles out of me.

I haven't listened yet, but I'm assuming this is about Zoe Quinn and everything. Short version is that an Internet goonsquad whipped up a hate maelstrom against her because an ex posted a giant manifesto about what a horrible person she is. Anita Sarkeesian released her next Tropes vs Women episode this week, which fed fuel to the hate fire that was already raging. The Feminism thread has a ton of discussion about it starting here.

I agree, I'd love for that list to just be absurdly long, like to the point you'd have to stop gaming it included so many people. If for no other reason than to show the shitheads just how far deviated they are from the people they are fans of.

Reading through the Tweet history, the creation of that is, in part, inspired at Remo's disappointment that they weren't on the spoilered list.

I read it, just making fun of imagining how some media outlets might report it.

Headline: Japanese discover that all cats are in fact tiny British people.

Capsule, it's really good. I'll see if I can find the discussion on it in an episode thread. Edited to add: It was Ep. 164. There are Capsule posts scattered throughout the thread. FWIW, it's one of my favorite games I've played this year, does so much with so little.

I'll just hold out for the Groupon deal to buy Groupee Coins, which I'll buy in bulk thanks to the purchasing power of my Bitcoin Group.

Thanks for linking that, the ban on Patreon contributions bugged me, but I hadn't thought of a good rebuttal. That pretty much nails it.

@Dewar, I don't disagree with those points (particularly not Kickstarters where you can pay to be part of the end product), but I also appreciate why creatives push back against this. There are a lot of people who've written very eloquently on this subject, with far better perspective and knowledge than I have.

TRAILER! Damn, looks fun. https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=a1aQgQFijHg

I agree that it was in good faith and was not meant to be exploitative, but that doesn't erase the issues around it. We have plenty of examples of companies doing this shit unethically, and allowing other companies to do it in good faith just reinforces that it is an acceptable practice. It having just come up in the Feminism thread is one of the reasons I was pointing it out here. No one thinks that the Dreamfall devs are bad people, but are still willing to criticize them when they are perceived to have crossed an ethical line.