JonCole

Well, women in the gaming industry get shit for just about anything they say whether or not it's about "these issues". Part of what makes this whole thing so ridiculous particularly as it pertains to gaming is that people say "well, she's a stupid woman for giving that game I like a 6 because if a man reviewed it, I'm sure it'd do better".

This is my interpretation, so don't take this as his representation of his own views - I think what he's trying to say is that if there's no semblance of objectivity or a shared sense of what's sexist, you can only apologize from your limited perspective as a male that can't inherently identify his own sexism without the arbitration of a female. As a result, we're dealing with two kinds of sexism that are related in some ways, but are divided by individual female perspective versus shared consensus. One doesn't trump the other, they're just two problems that need to be addressed that will have some effect one each other. This is highlighted in something I agree with in theory, but can't universally accept in practice - the idea that women have no responsibility to inform men about what they're doing wrong. The reason why this is a belief held by many feminists, in my estimation, is that placing the burden of education on women unfairly shifts full responsibility to women, when in fact everyone is responsible for properly respecting their fellow woman or man. How this belief is practiced, however, sometimes amounts to the following: Man: [says something with some inherent, pervasive sexist element] Woman: "Hey, that's sexist and I don't like you!" Man: "I'm sorry. I didn't know that was sexist. What did I do and how can I not do it again?" Woman: "You're the 20th person to treat me in that same exact way today, if I spent my time explaining it to every person I'd be out of a job. Get out of my face!" Man: [dejected because he was unable to receive the guidance of a woman, has no cultural consensus to consult for self-guidance] So, obviously slightly exaggerated in a couple ways because I can't help but be a little bit of an ass, but I hope you get the general idea. I think you guys need to get away from the idea of a cultural consensus being absolute and overriding of the individual female experience, instead an independent but not mutually exclusive concept.

I don't really have much to add to this particular discussion, I think all sides have been represented by well spoken dudes. I will agree with Problem Machine's point that "some line needs to be drawn between 'sexism' as systemic discrimination and 'sexism' as personal experience" because they are separate, important issues that are not mutually exclusive. Combating systemic discrimination is a valuable effort that can be partially accomplished by combating personally experienced sexism on an individual basis, but it's hard for me to imagine that there will be a large effect in the other direction that could be measured. On a somewhat unrelated note, a female friend of mine expressed some distaste for the word "empower" as it pertains to women's rights. I thought it was interesting as it's a term oft used for the disenfranchised minority, but empower suggests that power is being bestowed. Feminism not trying to empower, but it's trying to release some of the power that has been imprisoned by man. There are few things that men inherently hold over women, so thinking we somehow need to add something to the women's side of the scale rather than move women's inherent power from the men's side to the women's side is a bit silly. Anyways, thought that was an interesting point.

I feel like there needs to be a wiki full of these regional idioms. There probably already is one, right? That's how the internet works?

I feel like Titan has the least useful special in PvP - I've seen tons of people use both that Warlock black hole thing and the Hunter 3-shot mega pistol to great effect. I think the Iron Banner is definitely the most interesting mode, because it actually takes the level and stats of your items into account for the PvP so it could really make grinding for good loot worthwhile in all aspects of the game.

I think sniper rifles will have to be rebalanced, because there's basically no counter to them and special ammo is everywhere in PvP. It's not like Halo, where there's only one or two on the map and ammo is ridiculously scarce. They could either more severely limit ammo or make the sniper a heavy weapon for the sake of PvP. I hope that they go a conventional route with PvP in the final game, because the territory control is getting old. I usually like Deathmatch and CTF gametypes and I think that those modes would be more complementary to the way the game and weapons feel. I also hope that there are no shortage of "Strike" type PvE instanced dungeons, because I'm continuing to have a lot of fun with the one they included in the beta. The bosses are really fun to contend with.

There are still wizards, their place of origin is simply unconfirmed.

I had a lot of network errors earlier in the day, but they've cleared up this evening for me. Also, my games were super laggy but then I decided to hook up ethernet and a ton of it was cleared up. Hadn't played any competitive games on consoles in a little while, so I didn't need any ethernet until this.

What platform, Chris?

Some Thumb (can't remember which) posted this article on Twitter, which is probably my favorite thing ever - My 14-Hour Search for the End of TGI Friday's Endless Appetizers

Gera is British, I think. This is what she said on Twitter: That sounds like something I could kinda agree with, but frankly that point was so incoherent in what was actually written. I usually like Gera's writing and I follow her on Twitter, but that article needed some serious editorial massaging before being posted.

Actually, not true re: GMG considering they have a 20% off code that lasts for another almost 4 hours - P36EYA-K5JYKT-ABO7X9 Using that code on Wolfenstein (http://www.greenmangaming.com/s/us/en/pc/games/shooter/wolfenstein-new-order/) would bring it down to $24.

I've been on most nights, but with the Destiny Beta coming I'll probably be on less. Nonetheless, I'll make an effort to be around that time tomorrow.

I don't really know how it's valuable. It makes a point, if not incredibly well - Patreon is a platform for people (usually individuals) with a following to make money. It's not really Kickstarter, at least in practice. I think there needs to be a more nuanced exploration of the value of Patreon in the game's journalism space. But I don't find myself offended or particularly confused by this article. Also, I don't know why it's not marked as opinion or editorial. Edit: Actually, the more I think about it the more I'm bothered by this. Seems like a very ivory tower-style article to write, particularly coming from Polygon. The point I mentioned above would have made a premise for a more coherent, helpful article. Instead, I think it reads like a privileged perspective from a monolith media company. Some people don't have a choice but to use Patreon, because freelance is barely good enough for anybody let alone the less entitled members of society who are at a disadvantage from square one.

Can we get a Thumbs-based hoodie? I wear my old CafePress (I think?) Thumbs hoodie all the time, but it's a pain because it's pullover and not incredible quality. I'd pay top-dollar for a zip-up, lightweight hoodie.

Oh yeah, ActRaiser is super fun but I think it's only on Wii VC. I was stumbling through old SNES ROMs with my wife (then girlfriend) one night a long time ago and that sure was an unexpected gem, particularly since I only heard its name once or twice before.

Yeah, I super enjoyed the British version and found the American version repellent in the first season. Once I heard that the some and then all of the leads left the British version, I stopped catching up on the backlog because my hopes for the series were already sabotaged by the news. At the same time, I heard tons of nerd outcry when Being Human US was being cancelled so I guess the tables turned at some point.

If you watch the American and British versions of Being Human side by side, they feel very culturally-specific if not for any particularly good reason.

Jeremy Parish, resident retro games expert at USGamer (I made up that title but it's undeniably true), put together this nice list of essential 3DS VC games - http://www.usgamer.net/articles/15-must-have-games-for-3ds-virtual-console In addition to Super Metroid and LTTP as you mentioned, Yoshi's Island, Earthbound, Warioware, and Mega Man X are all solid Wii U VC games off the top of my head. Probably any of the later Castlevania games or early Mega Man games (1-3) are worth trying out too.

I like him when he's on Stop Podcasting Yourself. Also, he is indeed following me.

So, a relatively popular Canadian comedian confused me with someone he's going to be performing with: I don't know what to do with this, but I'm entertained nonetheless.

I think some element of reviews is context and if a game purports to have a level of scope and vision and then delivers something that doesn't meet that mark, I think there's something to be said for criticizing it. Also, when a game is like "I'm like X game but with MOAR" and then it's actually "like X game but with LESS" I think there's a little bit of culpability. Not that every game should be directly compared with every contemporary that looks somewhat similar, just that if a publisher/developer invites the comparison it's fair to criticize based on that criteria.

Total side note: I like Cards Against Humanity because a lot of my friends are people who speak English as a second language, so we have a house rule where if anyone gets a card they don't understand the others have to try to explain what it means. The whole ESL thing also obviates the whole personal hilarious alternative, because most humor between us tends to be visual or highly referential to a moment so inside jokes between us are minimal.

I actually really want to play Jade Empire, I own it on PC so I guess I should give it a try.

Mington could have kept quiet about Olly's lack of acknowledgment. Instead, he chose to perform interpretive dance.