spamantha

I really hope the other thumbs (and some forumgoers) check out The Uncle Who Works For Nintendo. "It's an itchio!" (It's also name-your-own-price, including $0.) It was made by my friend Michael, and it's been very exciting to see a thing he worked on be recognized as cool and interesting! I also hope this and other things lead to more horror games that don't have screamers, as I love horror but hate jump-scares to the point where I can't really play many scary games or even watch playthroughs of them. Horror is so much more than a ghost popping out and yelling. Anyway I'd love to hear what everyone has to say about UWWFN (and I'm sure Michael would too!), even if it's just in a forum post or on twitter or whatever!

I haven't read the whole thread yet (too tired to process it all), so apologies in advance. I just wanted to share a thing that happened earlier this year, because this episode and the previous one reminded me of it. In January Chris tweeted a link to an article (after a little googling, I'm pretty sure it was "Why Women Aren't Welcome on the Internet") and got some shit for it. I thanked him for linking it and then we had this small exchange (sorry, the whole thing isn't threaded properly for some reason). In the months since that, a lot of internet people have been revealed to be, if not outright misogynists, then generally shitty people. It has made me appreciate the Thumbs crew a lot more. That "low bar" is pretty much all I have to hold on to sometimes. I think it's important for people to talk about issues like this, at least in part because there is often no way to tell if a person is a misogynist (or any kind of bigot) until they let something slip. People going out of their way to support a less-privileged person or group make it harder for the secret bigots to hide. It sucks when you find out someone you like is shitty, but it's also important to know who you can rely on, even if what you're relying on them for is goofy jokes about video games for a couple hours a week. It's nice to have a chunk of time where I know I won't get harassed or insulted and can just hear some people who are friends talk about things. There has been a fair number of people I liked/respected who turned out to be either misogynists or people who sit the conversation out, whether because they're afraid, or uninterested, or convinced the truth is somehow "in the middle" and will balance itself eventually. The people who choose to engage are the people I feel safe putting a bit of trust in. If I were somewhere like PAX and something gross happened, I have a mental list of people I feel like I could approach and be unafraid of their reaction. The list is very small, but I think choosing to engage online is the first step to expanding that list enough that everyone feels safer.

Yeah, it's hard. I hung onto a friendship from junior high for way longer than I should have (several years into college) simply because I made friends with her at a time when I had no other friends. I felt like I was abandoning her the way my friends had abandoned me in the transition from elementary school to junior high. Somehow her treating me like garbage didn't seem relevant to my thought process. We were friends for ~9 years, and I hated being friends with her for about 6 of them. Eventually I moved on and spent my time with people who cared about me. She sent me emails and texts for a long time afterward, trying to get me to make up with her. I tried to once or twice, then realized she wasn't going to change how she treated me. Anyway! Now I have great cool friends and it's awesome. <- that is my friends and me being cool together.

I'm glad to hear this! Sometimes you have to hear something from the outside of a friend-group for it to really hit you. Also, awkwardness is sometimes just a symptom of growth! It's good that you value your friendships enough to change. Some people don't. In those situations, it's not fair for one person to sit around and hope that maybe the other person will change for the better. I feel like Sean and Chris's remarks go with Danielle's advice. If I am upset by one of my friends, it's important for me to tell them that. But if I am repeatedly told (either directly or indirectly) that my feelings are not relevant to my friends, it's important that I find friends who respect me and how I feel. Bad friends aren't worth anyone's time. Luckily for you it seems like you're trying to be a good and respectful friend. That's really all anyone can ask for.

I just started the episode, but since Jake is not on this podcast I doubt anyone is going to pronounce the title as "Dota T'Dota," which is how my brain immediately said it.

The city I grew up (near Cincinnati, Ohio) in was pretty small, but in the 40s GE opened a huge airplane manufacturing facility nearby. A lot of new people started moving in, so hundreds of cheap houses were built in our city and the surrounding area, using the same handful of floor plans over and over. There are roads with dozens of identical houses, except with three different porch designs and a few different paint jobs. I guess what I'm saying is, maybe everyone in the future lives in a weird boom town around a factory?

Only a few minutes into this podcast, but I immediately knew what Sean was going for re: babywalling, and when he mentioned RoboToaster RollerCoaster Tycoon, I even said "yes!" aloud. Once my brothers and I would get stuck on a scenario in that game, we'd go back to an early one where we had huge amounts of money and awesome rides, and we'd buy a single square of land. Then, we'd trap a single dude in that square. His feedback would always be "I want to go home," but he couldn't get to the exit. Sometimes we'd fill the square with dozens of costumed mascots to cheer the guy up. Sometimes we'd buy a little more land and make him able to reach a ride that would make him puke every time. We'd never put a janitor in to clean up the puke. Eventually we'd get bored and decide either to release the guy back into the park, or we'd lower the land, flood the square, and kill him, along with all the mascots. Strangely, I think every time we killed people with roller coasters, it was accidental.

Which episode had them talking about StarCraft commentators and Nick doing a Korean Eddie Murphy impression? Edit: Oops, they were talking about Henry Hatsworth being marketed to hardcore gamers and played on Korean Television. It's in (old) Episode 25 around 40 minutes in.