SecretAsianMan

I can see how the use of bitch falls under the same umbrella, it just seemed odd to me to pick out that of all things to take umbrage at. I figured if anything was going to get people going it was going to be stuff like the jokes about what Ivy and Catwoman might be "doing" together since they were seen in the same place. But I suppose that topic has been discussed myriad other times about other games. Edit: Basically what JonCole said while I was typing this post.

I spent a good 15 seconds making sure you balanced your parens.

I like that scenario Bjorn. Thanks for a good example.

There are barks that show some of that stuff. If they see Batman and you move away, they'll call out insults or taunts, unless you've intimidated them in which case they'll be freaked out. There are also conversations you can listen in on where a bunch of them will talk about how they're afraid of Catwoman/Ivy/Harley and don't want to cross them. I think I agree that maybe it would be better if they had avoided using words like bitch at all, but I still think the amount in the game is very low, disproportionate to the level of scorn that seems to exist.

This fills basically zero gaps in my life so I have no interest in buying one, but the fact that they have a game studio to actually make games for it means I'll keep an eye on it.

To the people saying it's lazy writing, let me ask, what would not be lazy writing? No snark here, I genuinely want to know.

I'm going to ask the question that's been asked a million times before: does it need a reason? The game clearly has no intention of social commentary. It seems odd to me to thrust one upon it. I'm not one of those people who says that games should just be about fun, but I certainly think some games are and this is one. Also the norm they are presenting is the comic book one. Not that I condone it there either, but it's not like the world of Arkham City was created from nothingness. Of course I've also argued that intent and outcome aren't the same thing and often don't align. As I said, the game has no aspirations of social commentary so their tone is trying to be consistent with their source material. I can see that said tone rubbed some people the wrong way which is unfortunate because it distracts from what I feel is an excellent game. One other thing I'll mention is that there are 4 prominent women in the game (Catwoman, Poison Ivy, Harley Quinn, and Talia al Ghul) who are all pretty heavily sexualized both in their design and by the other NPCs in the game. That struck me as much more gross than a few random barks calling one of them a bitch, which I still maintain are few and far between.

Responding to JonCole's second post: I think normalization is a better word and I'll agree with you there. Presenting criminals who call a woman a bitch or a hot piece of ass or whatever does create an impression (possibly a correct one) that this is the norm, at least in this context. But I do think there's a difference between presenting a norm and endorsing one. My comparison of violence and misogyny is the slipperiest of slopes. It is somewhat reflective of my surprise that this became an issue in the game though.

I've moved it over. I'll try to keep any future discussion of this out of here and confined to that thread.

Transplanting a discussion from the Arkham City thread to this one. Apologies for all the text.

Before I respond any further, should this discussion be moved to the Feminism thread? I'd hate to fill another game topic with a discussion that's not about the game itself, especially when a thread for the subject already exists.

I do hear them call Batman a son of a bitch, which is as gender specific as bitch, although I suppose son of a bitch is still misogynistic since you're calling the mother a bitch. I can't completely buy into the idea that just by creating a world with certain elements you are inherently endorsing those elements. The game has people being beaten, shot, stabbed, fed to sharks, frozen, poisoned, etc. Are those things being endorsed by their existence in the game? Gamers have long argued that a violent game doesn't make a person violent, is it really so different with misogyny? Why are we comfortable with smashing a man's head in but not hearing a woman called bitch? Mind you I am NOT defending misogyny. I'm being intentionally argumentative to provoke a (hopefully thoughtful and civil) discussion.

They do say they want to use Picard to help facilitate Humanity's assimilation, but they're the freaking Borg. It's so completely unnecessary, but it made for good watching which in the end is what matters so I'm gonna stop complaining.

My biggest problem with the Queen is that Picard recons her existence. He says that he remembers her presence when he was assimilated. If they already had an individual to speak for the collective, why did they need Picard?

I did see that, but is it just people calling Catwoman a bitch? Because if that's all, frankly I'm still not getting it. I'm not really hearing it that often and in my mind, these people are thieves and killers. They're not supposed to be liked. If one of the "good" people called her a bitch that would be a different thing. I didn't read the Metal Gear thread so sorry if I'm covering a similar idea.

Based on your screenshot, I don't think you could have gotten into the door to hell anyway. It looks like the spot where Olmec fell into the lava is maybe too far from the doorway for you to go in. Regardless, congrats Cine.

Haha, that sounds awesome. I could actually see Hugh Jackman being a pretty good Harry.

Life Line is also the episode that introduces the two way data streams between Voyager and Earth (although not the real time video one used in Author, Author) in case you were confused how that got started. As for the thing you want to check the wiki for

Chris has made my dreams come true and recorded "Set Sail for Campo Santo" from the Quarterly Review. THIS IS THE BEST THING

I thought that Dukat and Sisco's final confrontation was too comic booky. I mostly blame this on the whole Pah-Wraith concept which I thought was dumb from the start. On the other hand I liked how Odo's story ended, although I don't get why

Gone Home: it'll send a terrible chill down your spine

It's from the season 6 episode Life Line, which apparently I forgot to bold. It's mostly a Doctor episode, but it has Barclay and Counselor Troi in it as well. I'll hide the explanation in a spoiler in case you want to go back and watch it

In fact you would be trapping yourself in the same room as the ghost.

Phil Fish just tweeted this https://twitter.com/PHIL_FISH/status/450999474731880448 I'm pretty sure it's a joke...

Posts in any of the threads in the Idle Banter section aren't counted.