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An email I sent to Giantbomb

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The best weird burger I ever ate was in New Orleans. This may be common in some places, but I had never heard of it. I was in a place called the Absinthe Bar, and asked where to get a good burger. And this big motherfucker sitting at the bar perked up (I'm a big guy, and he dwarfed me), looked at me and said with this Jersey accent, "What you're gonna do is go up the street, take a right, go two blocks down and go into Yo Mama's, then you're gonna order the Peanut Butter Burger, with a slice of American cheese. And they're gonna wanna put all this other shit on it, and you're gonna tell them no. You want the Peanut Butter Burger with a slice of American cheese, without any of that other shit.  Trust me."

When the big motherfucker at the Absinthe Bar tells you to go order a Peanut Butter Burger, that's what you do. And it was delicious.

That actually sounds potentially amazing; I would definitely order that to try.  I wonder how selection of peanut butter would affect it, whether crunchy peanut butter would make it better or worse and would PB with more or less sugar be better.  I would also (by default) ask for only the peanut butter and cheese and burger (and buns), because I always get my burgers and hotdogs plain (this is a weird quirk I have among many (most of which are probably OCD related I would guess)).

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It was really good.  They used a crunchy peanut butter, and I would describe it on the low to medium sweetness scale for peanut butter. 

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Point #1: I've had a cheeseburger on Krispy Kreme donut buns. I have lived. It is not an experience you ever, ever repeat. All things in moderation. (It was at least not the stick of butter fried up and put on a stick. Oh Wisconsin, you amuse me so.)

 

Point #2: As a counterpoint to "reading the most negative" into something Dan said about just having fun in video games, a frequent refrain to my criticism of video games from a feminist standpoint has very loudly been, "Oh my god, will you get OVER yourself already? video games are for FUN. You take this WAY too seriously." It's not a far stretch to see the link between those things versus assuming some of us are pulling this reading of it out of thin air, that's all. It's very rare that I make a conjecture on someone's meaning with no evidence behind it. I've just unfortunately had so much static from gamer dudes for picking apart their favorite games, and a lot of it had to do with how video games are for fun and how I'm a big sourpuss feminist killjoy.

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I mean, I needed reminding of it and was glad to see it. But whatever; if people want to ascribe the worst possible connotations to everything the guy says then I guess that's their prerogative.

 

Did you read the replies? I don't have to imagine the connotations, people are picking up on his statement as a way to say "yeah, fuck off SJWs, stop taking everything so seriously and have fun!" It's a problem when it's used as a mandate instead of a suggestion. Like I said, I don't think Dan intended it this way even a little bit, but it's an incredibly common refrain for people who are dismissive of thinking critically about games, and it does show Dan's ignorance of that.

 

In Dan's defence, he does play and talk emphatically about some unconventional games, so I can't fault him on taste and I don't think he ascribes to the whole "non-game" thing. I guess I just wish he was a bit more cognisant of what he was saying.

 

I think its perhaps a bit tone-deaf to go around touting your happiness this year...but I would assume and hope that's what people are upset about (and not upset that Dan is actually in a state of happiness right now...after all you don't control you emotional states and demanding he do otherwise would be a bit terrible, but asking kindly that he perhaps not publicly revel in it while others suffer I can completely understand).

 

Also just gonna agree with this. I think it's fantastic that Dan is enjoying himself, and I really enjoy his happy-go-lucky attitude most of the time. I guess in a more general sense I find it a little troubling that, in the instances where he does display his ignorance, he always seems kind of proud of it because of how happy he always is. In a vacuum this is fine, but he's broadcasting this to an audience who seem to be revelling in and even encouraging this behaviour. When so much of the current climate is informed by people whose only stake in the conversation is how their enjoyment, or FUN!, is being impacted by people "taking things too seriously," I just think some shitty people might see Dan as an unwitting ally. So really, it's not about Dan himself so much, it's just an unfortunate symptom of how shitty things are right now.

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Trust me, I would love to be happy go lucky and playing games, and while my life personally in and out of video games was somewhat positive this year, it absolutely was shitty for us as a community in general.

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Oh, wait, one thing about Dan that really does bother me is how... gleeful he gets during videos when particularly aggressive/violent acts happen. Off the top of my head, it happened once during the Destiny QL and then when they were looking at Shadow of Mordor during its quick look and end of year stuff. Maybe this is the result of who I'm listening to/reading but whenever I see positive discussion of combat it's often praising technical and mechanical elements. Though Dan seems to like that stuff, he is also very into the violence of it as well.

 

It's... gross.

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Oh, wait, one thing about Dan that really does bother me is how... gleeful he gets during videos when particularly aggressive/violent acts happen. Off the top of my head, it happened once during the Destiny QL and then when they were looking at Shadow of Mordor during its quick look and end of year stuff. Maybe this is the result of who I'm listening to/reading but whenever I see positive discussion of combat it's often praising technical and mechanical elements. Though Dan seems to like that stuff, he is also very into the violence of it as well.

 

It's... gross.

 

 

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It's... gross.

Why? I like violence in video games. I'm fully capable of enjoying that aspect of certain video games while also being appalled by violence in real life. I guess I'm gross though. Oh well.

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the thing about dan is he is completely two dimensional. He also has very little empathy, the complete opposite of the other giant bomb staff.

 

Also at some point he has to be a little bit more aware of what is happening in a conversation and realize when it is appropriate to insert wrestling references and when it is not. 

 

 

One last thing : I think he is super bad at game criticism (but that is me personally)

 

Ps: I think he is overall a good person, but I couldn't ever be friends with him. He makes me super uncomfortable all the time.

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Oh, wait, one thing about Dan that really does bother me is how... gleeful he gets during videos when particularly aggressive/violent acts happen. Off the top of my head, it happened once during the Destiny QL and then when they were looking at Shadow of Mordor during its quick look and end of year stuff. Maybe this is the result of who I'm listening to/reading but whenever I see positive discussion of combat it's often praising technical and mechanical elements. Though Dan seems to like that stuff, he is also very into the violence of it as well.

 

It's... gross.

 

I honestly love the way he does that "fuuuuuuuuuuuuck... YOU!" every time he does something really satisfying in a game.

 

Also, maybe it's just me, but I think by condemning Dan for enjoying violent content you're also implicitly condemning the content itself? Which is fine, I actually think that kind of criticism is pretty healthy, but isn't that also kind of illuminating? Like, Dan is basically the most un-pretentious person you could ask to give you an impression of something (not to be confused with "most objective"), so I totally see how people would disregard his criticism as shallow or whatever, but doesn't that have some value in itself? In many ways Dan might actually represent the target audience for these games better than your average games journalist coverage person. Maybe it's not the worst thing to be exposed to those raw reactions to violent, indulgent content more often.

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Also, maybe it's just me, but I think by condemning Dan for enjoying violent content you're also implicitly condemning the content itself? 

 

Yes, absolutely. I'm not saying anything new by pointing out the ease and consistency so many popular video games use violence as a player's primary interaction with these virtual worlds and characters. It's disappointing.

 

I think a lot of the folks I follow in video games have pointed out something similar, which I think is highlighted in the Bombcast clip- a self-awareness of how messed up this trend is.

 

 

In many ways Dan might actually represent the target audience for these games better than your average games journalist coverage person. Maybe it's not the worst thing to be exposed to those raw reactions to violent, indulgent content more often.

 

Dan Ryckert is the Malachi Constant of video games?

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Hmmm.. I may have to read The Sirens of Titan again some day.

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I drew a thing during Mario Party Party 3.

 

 

7W3hIUx.png

 

 

 

This picture is only a few hours old and it is by far the most popular thing on my tumblr.

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Tegan, that's beautiful! Like, a genuinely good fan art, I'd retweet it. Drew is like, stupid hot.

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In the most recent podcast they discussed Saints Row and Dan admitted to not knowing who Jane Austen was. He then told a story about having to call the police after a drunken guy tried to break into his dorm room and stab him; that it ends with him saying that they are still friends is not the outcome I was expecting. So conflicted.

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I think the more interesting Citizen Kane anecdote is that Dan is the owner of a Film Studies degree who has never seen Citizen Kane. Also, he has only seen the first half of The Godfather because he turned it off for being boring.

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I think I'm firmly in the Sean Vanaman "who cares" camp of which movies you have or haven't seen. Even in film studies. Citizen Kane might be one of the few exceptions, since it's so often cited as the turning point to "modern" film. I am sometimes curious how many people feel that way who feel the same about The Wizard of Oz.

 

e: I would also potentially be willing to argue that even though I've also never watched Citizen Kane I have, in fact, seen it.

 

"Citizen Kane is the Metal Gear of movies" -Dan Ryckert Film Studies Ba. 

 

"So what you're saying is that Citizen Kane is the Metal Gear of movies?" is way closer to what he actually said.

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I, for one, think you need to have seen the Lumiere brothers complete works before you can say absolutely anything about film. And you need to watch the entirety of Battleship Potemkin to truly appreciate the 80s action movie montage. And I just don't understand how you can appreciate a show like the Office without having seen I Am Curious (both blue AND yellow, mind you) along with, say, Symbiopsychotaxiplasm and other parodic representations of the cinema verite documentary heritage.

Elitism about film is pretty dumb is the point I'm getting at.

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Hell, Alex on the PAX South panel was incensed that Dan hadn't mashed potatoes before as if that was the bar for cooking things.  Maybe elitism about pretty much anything is dumb.  

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I think that's more weird than outraging. As a man who uses the phrase "Kentaco Hut", the fact that he hasn't even had KFC garbage mashed potatoes is kind of shocking. Actually, didn't he say he's had KFC Famous Bowls? Those have potatoes in them.

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I wonder if at this point most of Dan Rykert's persona is seeming so affably sheltered that he can troll people about stuff he's supposedly never had, but has.

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