By Kieron Gillen on March 22nd, 2009 at 7:18 pm.
Sundays are for every organ in your body giving up the ghost and lying still, slowly twitching, as an enormous firey orb in the sky mocks you with beams of light. And slowly – ever so slowly – compiling a list of interesting game related reading we collected across the week for your delectation, while trying to not pollute what’ll surely be my last will and testament with a link to something music related. I’ve got to try, even though my will – and, in fact, everything else – is weak.
- From Yahoo Tech, I found this thought provoking - online life and real-world death colliding: “When Jerald Spangenberg collapsed and died in the middle of a quest in an online game, his daughter embarked on a quest of her own: to let her father’s gaming friends know that he hadn’t just decided to desert them.” More here.
- I’m not sure whether I’m relieved or disappointed that the whole Res Evil 5 racial-insensitivity thing is out of our purview. For the record, I think Evan Narcisse’s piece for Crispy Gamer is one of the clearest argued pieces on what the actual issues are. Well worth reading.
- Leigh pointed this at me. It’s one of the more craft-based Gamasutra features, Marianne Krawczyk (God Of War) and Susan O’Connor (Far Cry 2/Gears of War) talk about game writing “from the inside out”. Specifically, problems of protagonist and motivation inherent in the medium, and how they wrestle with them.
- And one from Cliffski, where Jeff Vogel of indie-RPG stalwarts Spiderweb Software starts a multi-part series where he lays down the finances of one of his games – Geneforge 4. I love seeing these kind of maths for indie games – hell, games generally. In a real way, it’s stuff like this – i.e. what can be made for what and sold to how many people – which determines the future of the industry.
- Jim was amused by this Eve Mutual Fund site. Specifically because he doubted anyone who came to it without knowing anything about Eve would realise it wasn’t a “real” financial site.
- Dev Blog of week: The Night of the Cephalpods chap starts blogging. Woop!
- Charlie Brooker does a column for the Guardian about games. Bless him.
- Eurogamer delve into the state of play on Gold Trading: “Is gold selling like pornography: something more of us do than admit?”. No, we admit to using pornography all the time. Hell, get us drunk enough, and we’ll probably make pornography. And we will, if RPS financial situation doesn’t improve. If you don’t want to see Walker working my shaft while Jim cradles the balls lovingly, get donating. Now! Quickly! Before we scar you for life.
- For those of you with Spotfy, Ecko from the forum starts a collaborative playlist for everyone to add tracks to. Of course, if you prefer the DICTATORSHIP OF ALEC AND I, here’s the official RPS one.
Failed. But less failed than usual. It was almost relevant.
22/03/2009 at 19:23 hydra9 says:
Quickly! Before we scar you for life.
Too late. The mental image is enough.
22/03/2009 at 19:24 Chris says:
PLEASE POINT ME TO YOUR DONATE BUTTON.
22/03/2009 at 19:32 jives says:
NO ONE DONATE
22/03/2009 at 19:36 The_B says:
Wait, what’s Alec doing during all this?
22/03/2009 at 19:37 Mike says:
I’m with hydra on this one.
22/03/2009 at 19:43 Sum0 says:
If RE5 is racist, then what about Empire: Total War – a game that has actively encouraged me to wipe out Native Americans, shoot them in droves, crush their religious beliefs, and taught me that Native American buildings had inferior bonuses to population and economy growth? To which the answer is – it’s only a setting.
22/03/2009 at 19:46 Kieron Gillen says:
Sum0: Don’t knee jerk. Read the piece.
KG
22/03/2009 at 19:50 Markoff Chaney says:
I almost want for some eyemuffs and a memory eraser. At least I can hope for the one off where Leigh Alexander is on the floor of her kitchen and it’s more than just Kieron there this time… Something has to be salvageable or made enjoyable in my future projection memory creative synaptic explosion that went off due to that colorfully vivid imagery.
22/03/2009 at 19:50 James G says:
The Crispy Gamer column articulated a lot of my thoughts about the RE5 criticisms. Unfortunately too often the subtle arguments got lost among the people who seem to desire to polarise the debate. It was never a choice between ‘OMG! Vile racist game ban it!’ and ‘Sunshine and lolly pops, this game has now racial connotations whatsoever.’ Yet too many people seemed to treat it that way. As a result more nuanced debate is lots in the shouting, as people pile it in with strawmen and the misguided extremist. Discussion becomes more difficult, as people are forced to defend their corner, rather than consider it.
22/03/2009 at 19:51 jalf says:
What’s wrong with kneeing jerks now?
22/03/2009 at 19:56 BrokenSymmetry says:
The Gamasutra article about game writing was really interesting. Especially the idea that it may be best to let the player be the hero of the game, but have an NPC be the protagonist (with everything on the line). Games I’ve played that did this (Final Fantasy XII, Prince of Persia 2008) worked well in that respect, but it left myself at times thinking that I’m not really all that necessary…
22/03/2009 at 19:58 Del Boy says:
Trust Alec to be watching. Always watching.
22/03/2009 at 19:58 hydra9 says:
Brooker’s piece was fun (no sexual innuendo intended). And that gardening game looks very promising.
22/03/2009 at 19:58 loci says:
re5:
“I want more black people in my videogames”
wonder if he interlocked his fingers and said “melting pot”
22/03/2009 at 20:00 roBurky says:
Chris: You can find the donate button just below the search box on the right.
22/03/2009 at 20:04 Sum0 says:
No jerking of knees here. I did read it, and it’s a well thought-out piece, but I’m still not clear on the problem. Yes, if you dig hard enough, you can come up with the conclusion that brutal savage zombies is a little close to the colonial image of brutal savage African tribes, but that’s digging too far; it’s making parallels that just aren’t relevant. They’re zombies!
Granted, I haven’t played the game (and I know those are scary words), and if I do I may well change my mind, but Narcisse’s piece just failed to convince me that there’s a real issue.
22/03/2009 at 20:09 Mil says:
Funny thing the EVE Mutual Fund (EMFi) being mentioned here, I just learned of its existence earlier today when I was reading [url=http://www.eveonline.com/ingameboard.asp?a=topic&threadID=940185&page=1#2]this fascinating account[/url] of two of EVE’s largest (at least as far as is publicly known) Ponzi scams. The account is written by the author of one of those scams in a fairly obvious self-aggrandising tone, and probably not everything in it is strictly factual (given what can be gleaned about the author’s personality), but the writing really works. And reading what people were saying in the EVE forums at different stages of the scams is very educational, if not exactly conducive to a greater faith in humanity.
22/03/2009 at 20:12 Mil says:
Ok, so I messed up the link. I’m now logged into the forums and still no edit button. Halp?
22/03/2009 at 20:17 Gap Gen says:
Sum0: Interestingly, Empire is the first Total War game in years not to include slaves as a tradable resource.
22/03/2009 at 20:22 Xercies says:
Charlie Brooker is one of those people that you like online and on his TV show but you know will get up your nose if you ever met him.
Also having played a bit of Resi Evil 5 i can’t say its racist, but it does use tired African streotypes very easily and almost at every single encounter. It is a good discussion to have, and not be ignored by the gamers who would probably just say no or the people who are hard lined to say its racist.
And also finally someone actually posts up what a game costs them, this has always interested me. And any budding creator would find this kind of information a gold mine and very invaluable. everyone should do it. Including all media, on the extras of DVDs there should be a “how much this movie costed” guide same with games. i would find it so interesting since I’m going to have to figure it out when I start creating stuff.
22/03/2009 at 20:23 roBurky says:
Sum0: At least the first trailer I saw, they didn’t act like zombies at all. They were just angry mob people.
22/03/2009 at 20:52 The Hammer says:
“If you don’t want to see Walker working my shaft while Jim cradles the balls lovingly”
Best image ever.
@Sum0: Go read N’gai Croal’s comments. Srsly.
22/03/2009 at 20:56 Oak says:
Sum0:
Give the article another once-over. Narcisses’s point was that you don’t have to dig hard at all.
22/03/2009 at 21:14 Dozer says:
The Hammer: be banished from the Internets for causing the scarring image to be repeated!
22/03/2009 at 21:29 Dorian Cornelius Jasper says:
In the comment thread, Narcisses makes the point that further humanizing the zombies (and doing so beforehand, setting up the context of the drop-into-action) would have made the tragedy sharper.
More emotional gutpunches in games can only be a good thing.
EDIT–On the topic of the good Mr. Meer: Someone has to hold the camera.
22/03/2009 at 21:33 Gap Gen says:
What was the point of Charlie Brooker’s article again?
As for the Eve article, it’s an impressive tribute to how a) it’s all very interesting to peer into from the outside and b) I will never play it. I suspect normal financial sites don’t use the phrase “Ghost Emperor” that often, though.
22/03/2009 at 21:34 Gap Gen says:
As for the RPS porn, I just had an idea for a pun based on “Tim’s Stones” then wished I hadn’t.
22/03/2009 at 21:54 Ian says:
Will there be knee-jerking in the porn?
22/03/2009 at 22:02 Hajimete no Paso Kon says:
Every time I see one of these Sunday Papers I think of the Omnibus, and shed a tear.
22/03/2009 at 22:05 DigitalSignalX says:
The RE5 topic touches on something we were discussing today about US pres Obama’s offhand remark on his bowling score and the Special Olympics. How quick everyone was to pick up and plaster the lable “gaff” and “insensitive blah blah” across the mediasphere. A celebrity ex-terminator’s wife said something to the effect of “what’s even more sad is everyone in the audience laughed.” We had to basically roll our eyes at that.
Being TOO sensitive is just as annoying as not being sensitive at all. Speaking of which, I second the Leigh/kitchen thing.
22/03/2009 at 22:07 Ian says:
On the Resi 5/racism thing, I really wish I knew where I stood on it. The suggestion in the article is that the problem comes from us not having seen the Africans in the game prior to being reduced to mindless savages by whatever this game’s bio-MacGuffin is called. But has ANY Resi game? Would it have seemed better or worse if Capcom had gone, “Fuck, we don’t want to seem racist. Better if show some happy black people before the events happened in case we get in trouble.”
I realise I’m simplifying the issue, and I do see where the accusations/concerns are coming from but you start to wonder sometimes whether people are already looking for racism before they get stuck into it.
I haven’t played the game, so I don’t know. Perhaps things are a lot worse than what I’ve seen in trailers and gameplay videos.
22/03/2009 at 22:33 Down Rodeo says:
“If you don’t want to see Walker working my shaft while Jim cradles the balls lovingly, get donating. Now! Quickly! Before we scar you for life.”
D:
Consider it done.
22/03/2009 at 22:35 skizelo says:
Pah. The Dev Blog of the week is now and forever will be Toady’s (he of Dwarf Fortress). That game will, eventually, become more detailed than life itself.
Actually, that was a bit knee-jerk. I hadn’t got to “Dispatch, there’s a plant in my way, please advise”.
And, since the coin came down heads, RE5 is not rascist.
ALSO: Kieron… did you just write slash fan-fic of your own web-site?
22/03/2009 at 22:47 john says:
“I want more black people in my videogames. I don’t even care if they’re good guys or bad guys, shallow or deep characters. But I do care if they remind me of ugly, racist stereotypes, even if that wasn’t the intent.”
reminds me of the way the police pad the “racist incident” figures here, if the “victim” thinks something is racist then its irrlevant what the actual truth is. I perceive mr Narcisse is a halfwit, so he is! Great way of thinking.
As for those ugly stereotypes about Africans, well being “African American” an having a “minor in Africana Studies” doesn’t mean you know anything about Africa, mr Narcisse, and the reality is often a lot uglier than the sterotypes.
22/03/2009 at 22:56 Nick says:
The point of Brookers article was to be entertaining I think..
22/03/2009 at 23:06 Unlucky Irish says:
On the Resi 5 issue, I think it’s weird how many people belive that Resi 4 was not racist as it was “just” Spaniards you were gunning down. I mean the image of a heavily armed foreigner massacring inferior, degenerate Spanish peasants brought forth images of Guernica and Facist “volunteers” during the Civil War.
I actually thought Resi 5 could be seen as a rather brave way of addressing recent atrocities in the African continent, the Rwandan Genocide or the abuse of “witch children” in Nigeria for example.
22/03/2009 at 23:07 Unlucky Irish says:
Damn, I appeared to have buggered up the tags their……..
22/03/2009 at 23:27 Electric Dragon says:
“Quickly! Before we scar you for life.”
Failed.
(But I donated anyway)
22/03/2009 at 23:49 Gap Gen says:
I’m holding out for the Porn version of RPS, personally.
23/03/2009 at 00:02 qrter says:
Good piece on Crispy Gamer. A lot of nuance gets lost in this debate, first and foremost that it’s actually a debate, not some kind of hearing, at the end of which the world will decide whether RE5 is a racist game and everyone who has played it are then racists by default.
I think people are scared of talking/thinking about this stuff, what does it say about you as a person if (historically) racist imagery pops up in a medium and you didn’t recognise it as such? People are scared of being tarred by (and through) a debate like this. Maybe it would seem better to try and ignore the whole question, say “look, let’s get over all this race stuff”. Which is a sad thing.
23/03/2009 at 00:39 symuun says:
I haven’t played RE5 yet, and I’m kind of disappointed that I’ve heard about the controversy beforehand. If I play it now and decide that I can see a racist subtext, I’ll be forever wondering if that’s because I’m looking for it or if I’d have seen it anyway. The debate interests me, but I think it might be that bit more difficult to have my own opinion on it now.
23/03/2009 at 01:02 FhnuZoag says:
You could have told us too that the “Night of the Cephalpods chap” is also “the chap who did the back cover of Scott Pilgrim 4, and who’s making a game with that as the goal of the art direction”.
23/03/2009 at 01:08 KBKarma says:
Rule 34 has been upheld.
I actually read/heard of most of those. Allen Varney has an article in the Escapist this week about online gaming vs real-life gaming, and expounding on the virtues of the latter while partly-mourning the death of the former. Read here.
23/03/2009 at 01:25 Radiant says:
N’Gai Croal wrote a smashing commentary on the racist underpinnings of Resi 5.
Essentially it’s that the imagery used has history.
And I’m very much inclined to agree with him.
It’s like cg artists using the slanted smoke imagery of the World Trade Centre.
There it is purposely used to invoke an emotional resonance; you are pre-conditioned to feel a certain way when you see it.
In Resi 5 it may not be intentional but god damn is it a massive mistake.
23/03/2009 at 01:42 poe_if says:
skizelo said – Kieron… did you just write slash fan-fic of your own web-site?
Its not fan fic if its their own website. Its canon.
23/03/2009 at 04:08 Muzman says:
On the RE5 race thing (a little late, but whatever):
While I don’t think the game is likely to be racist per se, the thing that really seems like an unfortunate coincidence is how the virus has apparently progressed, or something.
I haven’t followed the series but in every video for 5 I’m seeing the most active and tool using zombies yet. They even dodge attacks and back pedal and do all sorts of thinky stuff. Combine that with poor black Africans, machetes and so on and the imagery becomes a little startling after Hotel Rwanda, Black Hawk Down et al (actually I can’t think of anything else go go in that al, off the top of my head, except the news but there you go).
I haven’t played it, so maybe others can comment on this, but aside from dodgy eyes and open sores it looks like you’re facing not zombies but hoardes of angry drunk people. Angry, drunk poor black Africans. This is the nub of it. If you were facing rotting, shambling zombified locals in rural Africa I doubt anyone would bat an eyelid.
As it stands there’s a great opportunity for a Night of the Living Dead ending scenario on a large scale. Have the heroes not know quite when to stop shooting and wipe out a few uninfected villages along the way.
I guess the game doesn’t do this or we’d be talking about its social commentary genius instead of ‘racist:notracist’.
23/03/2009 at 05:57 Cunningbeef says:
“I haven’t played it, so maybe others can comment on this, but aside from dodgy eyes and open sores it looks like you’re facing not zombies but hoardes of angry drunk people.”
Which is where the crux of the “nothing new” argument lies: they were exactly the same in Resident Evil 4. Just downtrodden Spanish farmers (who’s heads sometimes exploded into massive tentacle monsters), who seemed more irate than infected.
I think the fact that this argument has even developed is a sign that people are actively looking for things to complain about, and the entire thing reeks of liberal bullshit.
23/03/2009 at 06:02 perilisk says:
“As it stands there’s a great opportunity for a Night of the Living Dead ending scenario on a large scale. Have the heroes not know quite when to stop shooting and wipe out a few uninfected villages along the way. I guess the game doesn’t do this or we’d be talking about its social commentary genius instead of ‘racist:notracist’.”
Yeah, a game that suggests that a normal person wouldn’t be able to tell the difference between a drooling, hyper-aggressive zombie and a normal African would probably sidestep the whole “racism” debate and go into “genius”.
23/03/2009 at 06:36 Matzerath says:
They should have set it on Wall Street.
“Are you sure those are zombies you’re shooting?”
“No!”
23/03/2009 at 07:11 Deadend says:
Perilisk
“Yeah, a game that suggests that a normal person wouldn’t be able to tell the difference between a drooling, hyper-aggressive zombie and a normal African would probably sidestep the whole “racism” debate and go into “genius”.”
You forgot about the lovely history of Africans being painted as subhuman savages who want to eat the flesh of the living. So yes, the game can both be racist and not racist. It uses very loaded imagery that apparently no one at Capcom has ever seen before. It also had some guys in grass skirts chucking spears and arrows at you while you were in a boat in the marshlands. It’s like what ‘Heart of Darkness’ the game would be like!
The gold farming article forgets the real reason why people buy gold.
People buy gold because they want to play WoW and do their raids or their PVP. But to do so at the high level of quality that is demanded, they not only need all the epic gear they have EARNED, they also need consumable goods. Such as potions of strength, armor repairs, enchantments for every piece of gear, gems, glyphs, more potions for different uses, and high level food items that give buffs that stack with the buffs from the potions they need.
One of my friends buys gold, I can see why, he spends a few bucks every few weeks so that he can get the potions and other junk he needs so that he can play the damn game without having to spend hours doing the daily quests again and again to get money… which he will have to do again and again.
WoW is full of money sinks to take money out of player circulation, hell, that is the reason why most gear is unsellable. What is left of the ingame economy is selling 3rd rate gear, potions, gems, food and glyphs. Of those things, only potions are consumable. So when it comes down to it, the only thing players need money to trade with other players for are potions. Which have sense gone up in price as they are the only real commodity in WoW, and even then only useful for the hardcore.
Also, the biggest reason companies hate gold selling? They are not the ones doing it. As if they did, people would call them out on all the bullshit money sinks in the games.
23/03/2009 at 07:17 Muzman says:
I assume that’s sarc. It doesn’t side step it so much as come at it from a different angle and an angle that might make for an interesting experience.
An elite team/duo of soldiers sent in to clean up a disease outbreak runs afoul of the locals and ends up not being able to tell the difference (as it’s fairly marginal difference to begin with), and/or the situation deteriorates to such a point that in combat terms the difference is largely academic.
That has all sorts of social commentary potential about race and colonialism (in a ‘shades of Black Hawk Down’ kind of way). Precisely the sorts of moral murk that is fashionable in the games industry as well as being good old fashioned zombie movie fare.
23/03/2009 at 10:42 Crane says:
“…because there’s a history of demonization and subhuman portrayals with regard to people of African descent, there’s a certain sensitivity around that.”
“Spaniards don’t have a long, loud history of being portrayed as scary, subhuman savages. The average American citizen that previous Resident Evil games have used as enemies don’t have a long, loud history of being portrayed as scary, subhuman savages.”
This bugs me.
What the crux of the issue seems to be is: “Oh, there’s a history of African people being portrayed as subhuman monsters, so it’s more racist to kill them than it was to slaughter hordes of Spaniards!”
Now, what this says to me is “Oh, Africans got screwed over in the past, so we have to treat them differently now!”
Shouldn’t we be treating them THE SAME WAY WE WOULD ANY OTHER RACE?
Positive discrimination is still discrimination.
23/03/2009 at 10:43 Ian says:
Genuine question (rather than possibly sounding like a loaded question, I’m not sure):
Is there a way they could have set the game in Africa with the enemies basically just being black ganados (which is the impression I’m getting) without it potentially being seen as racist?
23/03/2009 at 10:54 Nick says:
In the porn version of RPS would Horace the Endless Bear be a fat hairy bloke who practices tantric sex?
23/03/2009 at 11:04 Heliocentric says:
I wrote a long post, it died. Short form: re5 is racist just like re4. Only the subject matter differs this time. By racist i mean they use the concept of race to create an uneasiness. In re4 it was dirty europeans in re5 its tribal africans and notably in the previous games corporate and suburban america. These environments and their inhabitants are the horror of resident evil. Not something magical, or even the overlayed science but people are the cause for the for horrific events. The next re will likely have something much less contraversal, im thinking asian undead, but capcom being asian might not see this as alien enough to merit focus. Oh, and it’ll be racist then too.
23/03/2009 at 11:22 Ecko says:
Does the whole RE5/racism issue not beg the question, why would Capcom intentionally create a game with racist intent?
Seems like we’re happy to get the pitchforks out just for a laugh, no?
Also, success!
23/03/2009 at 11:30 Jockie says:
I can’t help but think Farcry 2 got away lightly to resi in comparison, being that most of the enemies in the game are mindless black savages who attack you on sight, and most the npcs i met in the game were greedy doublecrossing butchers. Then again i didn’t play it til the end so perhaps there was something in the text about the white man (the arms dealer dude with the terrible voiceover) being the root of all evil.
Charlie Brookers article is ‘about’ what his column is always about. Charlie Brooker being rude and amusing about stuff.
23/03/2009 at 11:44 Über Nerd says:
However Farcry2 actually presses different buttons, mindless savages are a limitiation of AI. In FarCry 2 manipulative whites and power hungry blacks combined you get yourself a short summary of Africa. If you really dig for “Racism!” you will find harsh reality, and maybe the “white!” men “sort-of” solving the crisis instead of “black!” men.
23/03/2009 at 11:49 Ian says:
@ Ecko: Somehow these days it seems it’s worse when people are unintentionally racist.
23/03/2009 at 12:33 bonuswavepilot says:
“If you don’t want to see Walker working my shaft while Jim cradles the balls lovingly, get donating. ”
Am I the only one who finds the most disturbing aspect of this the change from “*my* shaft” to the rather indefinite “*the* balls”? Which balls? Do his own count? If so, will he have sufficient hands to cradle all the balls available?
23/03/2009 at 12:38 Ecko says:
Of course, unintentional racism is careless at best, and deeply worrying at worst, I merely believe that this reeks of strawmen for the ‘intellectuals’ of the internet to poke at, so as to look nice and progressive.
Having black drunks to shoot at as enemies is vaguely insulting to all persons, but it’s hardly the BNP infiltrating Capcom. One would hope that the average black person could take it in his stride, it seems so petty!
23/03/2009 at 13:04 Malagate says:
@bonuswavepilot, the balls are a seperate entity that are clearly integral to the RPS hive mind, if the balls are not lovingly cradled at all times then the magical articles are not written and Walker’s shaft-working technique suffers. Jim is actually just standing in the background whilst holding four spherical objects that look a little bit like purple kiwi fruit, in a loving manner.
23/03/2009 at 13:36 mrrobsa says:
Man I’m so frustrated by this Resi furore! My thoughts as soon as people started arguing; ‘I’m sure it’s not racist, there just happen to be black African enemies, and Capcom would be smarter than that’.
Played it last night. Not only is there a section of normalcy at the start, contrary to what Evan Narcisse’s piece says, but there’s just nothing racist about it. Any marauders are quickly highlighted as infected, the hordes are of mixed race, and there are several positive black characters too.
It draws on iconography from Africa’s past, but I’d expect that wherever the game was set. I’m sure if it was set in China there’d be dangerous icons from China’s past to start the chills. And to say that because of Africa’s past of oppression we can’t have a game where Africans are the villains, seems more racist to me, like positive discrimination or something. The stuff that happened centuries before I was born is REALLY SHIT, but I think I’m a good guy who treats everyone how I’d like to be treated, and I think it only fair that all nations of the world should be included in my virtual pew-pew games.
I’m probably a racist now, right? ;p
Also, Resi 5 is not very good. :(
23/03/2009 at 15:55 The Hammer says:
EDGE have a nice bit about the RE5 thing in their 200th issue.
It’s probably the thing this year I’ve most been thinking about when it comes to games. I just watched the ending of Birth of a Nation today, and hells, there was quite a lot to compare to what I’ve seen of RE5 (particularly, vulnerable white women).
23/03/2009 at 16:00 syrion says:
I think Spiderweb games would do much better if Mr. Vogel freelanced out the art. He could get better graphics out of an art school student or two, who would work for cheap, and could use the graphics for several games.
Of course, I’m not an expert on this, but I think he really undervalues the presentation side of it. I bought Avernum 5, but I’m an atypical gamer. How many people would be more willing to spend thirty bucks on a game if it didn’t look like something from 1989?
23/03/2009 at 16:10 The Hammer says:
Oh, and away from the POTENTIALLY VIOLENT DEBATES, the online article is really something special, at least to me. I have a lot of friends on WOW, and there are times you don’t see them for weeks without any prior warning, and it really does worry you. Some you can probably guess lost interest, but with others, it’s just a really abrupt departure. I mean, these are guys and gals that, not only do you see almost every day, but they’re also ones that belong to social groups, social groups that work how they do because of the people in them.
I’d like for my online friends to know if I’d kicked the bucket, or even if I’d been in a non-fatal accident. Otherwise you have an unexplainable emptiness.
23/03/2009 at 18:07 N says:
lol, the whole “and that’s worth discussing” repetition was annoying to say the least, in the re5 article, yes.
23/03/2009 at 18:14 dhex says:
the graphics for geneforge five are actually pretty nice. i wasn’t totally wowed by the demo but i haven’t had a chance to go back, but it’s far from ugly.
23/03/2009 at 18:22 Dinger says:
Yeah, my money’s on “Naked Crying Watching Judging”; that or putting on his pained today face. (or is that painted day-face?)
23/03/2009 at 20:52 undead dolphin hacker says:
I’m just glad the double-standard of racism has finally spread to video games. Now our media can have pseudo-intellectuals chase their pseudo-intellectual tails with pseudo-intellectual ramblings about colonialism and negroes and we’re all closet racists and mumblemumblemumble huffinstuff huffinstuff too.
And we can end our articles with little pithy quotes like “let’s do something about it, guys!” without actually advocating any kind of solution, because everyone’s too much of a pussy to come out and say what they really think of the matter, and to advocate a solution would be to acknowledge it’s a problem.
Except, apparently, Jim Sterling, who pretty much sums up what appears to be my generation’s (you know, the one who elected Obama) take on this nonsense. The R-word didn’t even cross my mind until the wannabe intellectuals came out of the woodwork. The game’s set in Africa, the zombies are Africans, a people which tend to be… you know, black. I didn’t even blink.
But ohymgosh racism, or I didn’t read the article, or I’m an exception that proves the rule, or whatever it takes to preserve the poorly written, meaningless pontificating that we consider products of gaming intelligentsia.
24/03/2009 at 02:48 Muzman says:
It’s good to see the violent, defensive overreaction to people even brining up the word racism, or any discussion following such (as well as anti-intellectualism and a blinkered view of history) has finally spread from right wing Talk-back radio to video games sites.
The word still has some power, I see.
26/03/2009 at 06:40 Psychopomp says:
On the subject of RPS porn, I know someone who will do commissions of damn near anything, for “THIRTY DORRAH.”
We’ve discussed commissioning that in the RPS chatroom.
For the lulz, of course.
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