SecretAsianMan

I think a son of Robin Williams would still be subject to harassment (because this is the internet after all) but I don't think he'd receive nearly as many rape/death threats. I put it in the Feminism thread partly because of that and also because it took something like this for Twitter to at least partially recognize there's a huge problem with abuse, most of which is aimed at women. Like Merus said though, I don't expect much to actually happen apart from some empty words and promises. As for calling people sociopaths, hardly anyone uses the term properly or in accordance with a clinical definition. It's basically just become another way of calling people crazy or assholes. Psychopath is the same way, although some medical definitions equate sociopathy and psychopathy.

I would also suggest Extra Credits.

I first learned that a smoke orb was called a censer in Edgar Allen Poe's The Raven. And not from reading it, from watching the Simpsons version of it.

Earlier this week, Robin Williams died. So naturally, sections of the internet responded by harassing his daughter. This led to her decision to leave Twitter. This in turn led Twitter to vow to improve their policies. I'm not very optimistic that Twitter will actually do much though. Mostly I'm mad that it took this long for them to even say anything at all.

I agree with both of those thoughts. I was just taking exception to the idea that because a game isn't explicitly "about" a topic it can't be discussed or analyzed with respect to that topic. If that's not what you were saying then I misinterpreted you and I apologize.

I read that too quickly the first time and thought you were suggesting he throw it out a window.

The debate isn't whether or not the game is trying make any social commentary but whether or not the game's setting and presentation are appropriate and what the message people get out of it is. I think everyone knows that it's not going to tackle any hard hitting questions but that doesn't mean that asking those questions is pointless. A game doesn't have to be about racism to be racist.

I imagine the realistic thing is it will probably be delayed until they think it's been long enough that people won't make the connection anymore. As a tangent to that, RPS had a piece today about the single player trailer but they've since removed it given current events.

It feels like a mix of both. Ferguson is an example of what a militarized police force is like, Hardline is an example of what it could become, albeit to the extreme. I also just want to say that Hardline actually presents an equivalent response since the criminals are just as armed and dangerous as the police while Ferguson is entirely one sided. That's not a point in Hardline's favor, just an observation.

Due to issues at home, work, and current events (namely Ferguson), I'm pretty mad about everything right now. It's not healthy.

This is stupid and nitpicky but the "O" in Oracle isn't an omega, it's a theta. The omega is actually the "C". The name is stylized as ΘRΑΩLE

Yeah, I guess you're right. Even if the men are the ones acting submissive, the porn is likely still being made to service men. So I basically don't know what the hell I'm talking about. I'll just shut up now.

I imagine there's stuff out there that has the opposite case where the woman is dominant and the substitute men are submissive but still depicts the woman fully and the man minimally. But that's speculation and not something I care to actually research. Your second point I totally agree with though.

Cases like that are certainly wish fulfillment, I'll grant you that. But there are also cases where there's not a man at all (such as the oft repeated tentacle porn). I suppose this is also wish fulfillment for some but I don't think the intent is to be a proxy for the viewer so much as to create a spectacle. If we're defining it to mean diminishing one's personhood, agency, worth, etc. then I would argue that a substitutable phallus driven by nothing but lust is also reductive, if not objectifying per se.

I want to highlight this because it shows that in a way, hentai (let's just call it what it is) can also objectify men by reducing them to a phallus. They become a faceless tool, many times an easily replaceable one at that. Not to say that women aren't also objectified, but I somehow doubt a disembodied set of breasts is nearly as common as a phantom penis. Basically, everyone's an object.

Chris's opinion of jargon also describes how I feel about memes in general. Except of course for Idle Thumbs memes. Puffin wizard horsebag.

Whoops. I've been avoiding the Gamescom thread because I haven't had the opportunity to look at anything that's come out of it yet so I missed that you put it there. Oh well, still worth repeating in this thread.

Surprise surprise, Tomb Raider isn't really "exclusive" after all. Phil Spencer told Eurogamer that the exclusivity has a duration, which I guess makes it a "timed exclusive" or whatever other bullshit term is used. After some undisclosed amount of time after the holiday season the game is free to come out on whatever platforms Square Enix wants to publish it on.

I like those tricks but the vast majority don't have any practical use. They're fun though and they sure look cool if you can pull them off. I've done them all at one time or another. One trick that isn't shown there is another way of robbing the shopkeeper. If you stand on the item furthest from the shopkeeper and closest to the door, and throw a bomb and jump at the same time, it will trigger the shopkeeper but you'll come down from your jump directly on his head. From there's it's a relatively simple matter to grab the shotgun and finish him off. If you have good timing, you can shotgun the shopkeeper into the blast as well. It uses a bomb unlike the method shown in the gifs, but I've found it to be much more reliable for me. When I tried the jump and whip method, I would often grab one of the shop items instead of the shotgun. The jump and bomb method throws the shotgun toward the shop entrance and away from the items, although the bomb blast may also scatter them around.

That's a fair position and one I'd probably agree with if I knew more about the game than what the discussion so far has covered. I'm always hesitant to take the "they should have been aware of it" stance though, because you can't reasonably be aware of every possible view and how everyone will react. I do agree that they should own up to what they did do though. I don't think it's necessarily wrong to unintentionally do a thing that could offend someone, but it is wrong to deny someone that view or reject the notion that's what it means. I'm going to bring out my old standby statement of "intent and outcome don't always match up".

How very on blade* *substitute other Idle Thumbs reference as desired

Count me in the group that have not yet played TWD so I have a largely uniformed opinion, but could that not also be the intended design? Maybe having a character act that way was on purpose to highlight and contrast with Clem since she is the main character, or so I understand. Having everyone respond the same to a given situation is unrealistic and uninteresting so I can't reasonably blame anyone for not doing it. But again I have no idea what their intentions were. It could also have been designed as an easy out for all I know.

I suppose a mounted camera could be used to take a selfie, but it would seem to violate the spirit of it as a casual or spur of the moment thing.

Just so you don't feel totally alone I have the same association as you. Kids these days.

Sadly, my first experience with a flight stick was to use it to play the Star Wars Episode I game.