The Video Game thread

[GardenoftheDead]

Having never seen those movies I can't speak as an authority. But there's a difference between "this a is a work of fiction about a terrible person" and "if you have any criticisms of our work you just don't understand satire/are being a PC censorship hound."

[D.o.S.]

Oh totally. I think gamer culture is astoundingly obnoxious.

But I'm not sure you can level the same claim at Rockstar the company?

[coldbrightsunlight]

Interestingly, I don't think anyone has lodged similar criticisms of Goodfellas or Scarface.

to clarify; other than identify them as such. You can say Scarface is misogynistic, and you'd be right.

I've never seen either so I can't say. I definitely agree with you in that my biggest problem with the game in this regard is actually its fans because of how they rabidly protest any suggestions that the games aren't necessarily written that well or that the games could very easily written to be less mysoginist/other stuff. These online gamer dudes seem so terribly threatened and get disgustingly angry about the whole thing.

While rockstar may make the games, I guess they're entitled to make games in whatever way they choose, and the best thing I can do about that is just not support them. We just should not be seeing the vitriol in people "defending them against the PC feminazi (w)hor(e)des", like having one decently written female character would somehow ruin the entire game.

[D.o.S.]

Oh totally. I think gamer culture is astoundingly obnoxious.

However...

NSFW: show

I think there's actually a lot of validity to RR Bigman's point that tends to get overlooked because of the personal investment inherent in playing video games, which differentiates it from more traditional, passive media interaction. There seems to be this unspoken equivocation that because the gamer is playing the game-- at it's core, participating in an activity that is offering a positive reward (i.e. feeling of accomplishment) for the successful completion various in-game tasks--the gamer should have some say in the development of the game's story, tenor, and tone. Which strikes me as counter-intuitive to all the people that tell me video games are or are capable of being art, because 'art' seems to imply some kind of core, essential distance between the creator and the audience; just because you're literally playing out a predetermined series of depicted events instead of watching them unfold from a page or a cinema doesn't change your core role as an audience member.

I'm not going to read Crime and Punishment and get all pissed off that Raskolnikov doesn't just shut the fuck up and deal; I'm not going to read The Invisible Man and get all pissed off that there's no valid white perspective; I'm not going to watch Twilight and get all pissed off that these badass superbeings spend the whole time moping over their feelings; and I'm not going to play Grand Theft Auto and get all angry that they're not operating with a high level of delicacy. It's willfully ignoring the artistic/commercial rules of engagement, and the wrong way to grapple with the cognitive estrangement of virtual depictions of a world similar-to, but decidedly unlike our own.

[coldbrightsunlight]

I can't really disagree with that! If more people defended games as rationally as that I'd have about half as many arguments on the internet, and wouldn't that be great? I think sometimes I get caught up in attacking games because I begin to associate the assholes defending them in the WRONG way (ie since it represents ME fine why the fuck should I care about anyone else, and that it would somehow make the games worse if they wrote a few different characters), but really a game that deals with certain issues in a way I don't like is just something I'm not too fond of.

What is a cause for concern is the toxic culture surrounding games, and the fact that misrepresentation and a lack of representation of various groups of people is an industry-wide problem. I think GTA gets talked about specifically a lot because it's a very prominent game, not really because it's the worst example of this stuff.

[Andrew]

Just installed a shit ton of Skyrim Nexus Mods.


My TES hiatus has come to a close

[Achtane]

Good luck with the crashes, man.

[D.o.S.]

I can't really disagree with that! If more people defended games as rationally as that I'd have about half as many arguments on the internet, and wouldn't that be great? I think sometimes I get caught up in attacking games because I begin to associate the assholes defending them in the WRONG way (ie since it represents ME fine why the fuck should I care about anyone else, and that it would somehow make the games worse if they wrote a few different characters), but really a game that deals with certain issues in a way I don't like is just something I'm not too fond of.

What is a cause for concern is the toxic culture surrounding games, and the fact that misrepresentation and a lack of representation of various groups of people is an industry-wide problem. I think GTA gets talked about specifically a lot because it's a very prominent game, not really because it's the worst example of this stuff.

Agreed. I think some of it comes with the fact that a lot of gamers came up feeling ostracized for playing video games and being geeky/nerdy/whatever--that's why so many of them espouse a hyper entitled Freedom of Information pseudo-libertarianism.

So you have a cultural mass of people with this massive chip on their shoulders and an entrenched us-against-them/everyone for themselves philosophy, and they tend to lash out with extreme hyperbole at people who come at video games from a different perspective because they've got a Nietzsche for Dummies book and the buffer of the internet between them and whoever they're raging at.

Also, Rome II is the shit.

[Andrew]

Good luck with the crashes, man.

I was gonna say.

It's worse than finding the bad cable on a pedalboard

[THEBEERHAMMER]

Im starting to hate this fucking forum.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MpJGkG1g-Lk[/youtube]

[GardenoftheDead]

Played Dust514 or tried to because lag prevented me from doing anything. The boring tutorials about menu functions were great though, way to recreate the EVE experience CCP.

Also fuck Maddox and fuck you. If you hate it leave, don't bitch about it like a whiny little pissant.

[THEBEERHAMMER]

bitch about it like a whiny little pissant.

[Greenfuz]

men can't write good female characters

they just can't

[D.o.S.]

men can't write good female characters

they just can't

Looks like you need to read more.

[Haki]

men can't write good female characters

they just can't