ItsMeYourFriend

maybe you do, but if everything were reduced to simple geometric blobs or replaced with cutesy cartoon animals would you still play those games? the setting and characters play a huge part in the appeal of certain games and that generic shooter guy does appeal to the power fantasy on some level

we're on 'ceres' post merge!

that's a good point. I think most people who are even remotely attuned to feminist theory have been aware of video game's ridiculous portrayal of women for ages, but there are very few examples of people taking the time to explain what is going on, why it's ridiculous, and then gather lots of examples to back it all up. also i like it because i love it when people are all thorough about things!!

compare to: http://www.gameranx.com/features/id/13224/article/the-mystery-and-fraud-of-tropes-vs-men-in-video games/

oh man, apparently the update that gives you account wide unlocks is going to be released next week! That's great, it makes hopping between servers a lot more manageable now! I won't feel like i'm missing half of my stuff anymore! although now i still need to earn a billion certs on ceres or whatever server we're on

ulotrich, that sucks! it was a good time though! playing like we did is my favorite, it's just great to sort of fuck around and try to do stuff but not take it too seriously.

yeah, making an event is the best way to notify people but i can't do it either

hey we should play today!!!!

i had plans this week, but i hope to make it to next week's game!

did nobody show up to today's event? i hopped on about 15-30 minutes ago and there was no one in the idle thumbs outfit online!

me! i'm a VS, what faction are you?

i haven't played in a few days, have they worked out the issues they were having after the big game update came out? i was getting some pretty massive graphical glitches at times.

sorry i left so abruptly yesterday! i had to let the dog out and then go run a bunch of errands. it was fun though! we should make this a thing!

i'm really excited for this patch, i feel like it's totally going to change the feel of the game

normally i'd volunteer, but i'm most likely not going to be able to make it on saturday!

oh lol, my main character is a vanu on that server

so when we were playing last saturday, somebody mentioned having a radio while we were all in a sunderer or galaxy. this might be a way to do that?? http://www.reddit.com/r/Planetside/comments/17k3t0/psa_custom_voice_channels/

so i'm having a hard time trying to describe what i'm thinking, so please bear with me! so dead space 3 uses 'in the air tonight' and gears of war used that minimal 'mad world' cover, both of them heavily featured popular music in an attempt to lend a sense of gravitas to their goofy games. what other game trailers have attempted to do this? Do any of you feel like it's effective at all? I feel like there have been several but I probably just immediately dismissed them

oh! also i thought i'd mention that you passively earn cert points for some period of time (several hours? a day?) after you've logged out. It's not a lot but it helps out, especially in the beginning when upgrades still cost less than 50 certs Sometimes I'll log in with my character just for a second so I can earn some certs when I don't have the time/desire to play.

i don't see it in the steam group! somebody with access should add that event in!

seconded

i've only played it for maybe 3 hours, but it's overflowing with charm. it's so studio ghibli so far, where you're a very polite young child who is trying to help everybody out. i had read that the actual gameplay was very much inspired by classic 90's rpgs, so i think i had a good idea of what i was getting into. i'll take polygon's review with a lump of salt, i've only read a few but they all seemed to written with the intent to stir up a bit of controversy. i'll have to read it again once i get further into the game and see if they have a point

also don't get shot

hey i live in chicago. There are a few food items that are considered iconic Chicago: the chicago style hot dog, the italian beef, and the chicago style pizza. There are a bunch of places to get chicago style hot dogs in chicago and there aren't any that are considered the definitive version so you've got lots of options. If you don't mind waiting in line for a million years, Hot Doug's offers a lot of interesting variations on hot dog style sausages, including a foie gras version. I've never been there though because the line is never ending and ridiculous. There are also a lot of places to get an italian beef, Portilo's is a good place to grab one. I'd recommend getting the entire thing dipped (they dip the entire sandwich into the juices that the meat is cooked in). There are a few local/regional chain restaurants that most people think of when they think of chicago style pizza (Giordano's, Gino's East, Lou Malnati's) and while those are fine, if you can make your way over to My Pie or Pequod's, that's the way to go. Besides food, I'd try to check out a few neighborhoods because those are one of the defining features of Chicago. While every neighborhood is still very 'chicago', there's a very different feel between each neighborhood and they end up catering to different groups of people. There's the Loop, which contains all of the skyscrapers that make up the skyline and it's the main commercial district in chicago, but not a ton of people live there and it tends to be fairly dead after 7 pm or so. I'm assuming that your friends that are going are in their 20s or 30s, so I'd recommend looking into Lakeview, Wicker Park/Bucktown, Lincoln Park, River North, and Logan Square. There are a lot more areas that are great, but exploring those areas should end up taking a long, long time. Check out millenium park and look at the bean, going to the museum of science and industry, going to the art museum, catching a play (the book of mormon is playing in chicago, although you'll have to book far in advance), go see a band play (there are a lot of great, small venues in chicago that get really great bands), go on an architecture boat tour, these are all good things to do!

like deleric said, there aren't really any explicit goals or win conditions. I know that this was an issue for a few of my friends because they were used to games like battlefield where everything is broken down into discrete rounds with a clear victor. ps2 leaves all of that up to your own interpretation. i've found that i really like establishing my own goals and trying to accomplish them, but it can be hard to come up with ideas to do when you're first starting out because you're not really aware of the possibilities that exist. Running around with a good squad or platoon is amazing and gives you a good idea of what you can do in the game and how to work together to accomplish a goal. the learning curve on the game is remarkably steep in the beginning. it's kind of ironic that this is a game that doesn't force you to sit through a tutorial (or really have a formal in game tutorial at all) but it's one that would probably benefit from it. Trying to find an organized squad or platoon will help you a lot and running around with the Idle Thumbs crew would be useful too.