What is Adam Baldwin thinking?

[Rikadyn]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kantai_Collection

kinda what i thought the LRR Ships thread was gonna be about before I opened it.

[Deedles]

That video left me as clueless as before I watched it.

[korvys]

ships with a larger displacement tonnage are often depicted with larger breasts

ಠ_ಠ

[Matt]

Because of course they are.

-m

[korvys]

I read a thing, and thought it was good and now am sharing it here:

https://storify.com/a_man_in_black/gamergate-and-corruption

[JackSlack]

That is some really eloquent outrage.

[JackSlack]

@Soul_James on twitter observed this bit here. Erin wrote a feminist critique of the AFL Grand Final here in Australia, mainly aimed at the fans.

The result.

None of this is unique to games. We should be fighting it everywhere, but be under no illusions that gaming is unique.

[korvys]

You know what they say: 60% of Australians are casual racists. The other 40% are full time racists.

[JackSlack]

That hardly seems fair.

You're forgetting racists on contract.

[Rikadyn]

I played depression quest...

...that was not wise.

[empath]

But did it give you a better insight into someone under the weight of this sort of thing?

[RedNightmare]

I'm guessing it hit pretty hard. That's what I took from that comment.

[Rikadyn]

I played it mostly out of curiosity about the concept, not because of seeking some insight into depression. I don't need that insight, back in the spring I had the note written and the gun in my mouth...the game just kinda made me twitch for a bit...

[korvys]

Another one by the same guy, just killing it:

https://storify.com/a_man_in_black/what-if-every-video-game-were-the-same

[Deedles]

Began following him on twitter now. I just agree with what he says so much, especially the last tweet in the second link you posted.

[korvys]

Tonight he had a whole rant about agency/control in video games, leading into how to mechanically represent romance. It's just all solid gold. Does bring out the trolls a bit, still worth the follow.

EDIT: Spelling.

[Deedles]

Yeah, began reading through some of his agency tweets, and while I haven't played Mass Effect myself I do get what he means about the romance from when I watched my hubby play through the first game.

[AdmiralMemo]

And, as usual, Extra Credits did a show about bringing more "non-fun" games out 2 years ago, before this whole mess even started.

[Rikadyn]

I played a lot of MOBAs, those aren't about fun, more about schaudenfreude...

[King Kool]

Thunderf00t got his Twitter back.

I don't really expect to ever have anyone tell the real events that led to this to any satisfaction. I don't really think he'll tell an unbiased view of it, and he's about the only one who could tell at all. I don't even know if I'll ever feel sure that restoring his account was proper or not. All his tweets are back (unless he deleted them), so...

I had an epiphany yesterday while I was at the movies in regards to Gamergate. They are the video game equivalents to truthers and birthers. They see conspiracies everywhere and they are obsessed with something that... seemingly most people think is wrong. That doesn't make them wrong, but the trend to assign tiny bits of evidence enormous significance... that sounds like birthers and truthers to me.

I shared my epiphany on Twitter and got two GG loyals responding to it. I didn't even use the hashtag. I guess this is why the people opposed to it use "GG" instead, because that won't come up as clearly in Twitter searches. One of them said that anti-GGists were using the same techniques as the Maoists and the Khmer Rouge. I just plain didn't know what the hell to make of that.

On his Twitter... he had retweeted Thunderf00t's first tweet back from Twitter exile.

Oy.

I hate not knowing for sure if TF's suspension was legitimate. I hate that, if anyone on the other side of this actually did this to try to shut him up (rather than the potentially legitimate harassment charge), this gives him a big fat arrow in his quiver the width of a Christmas tree he can use to say he's being persecuted. And I hate that any argument, even good ones, still give ammunition to morons and cretins and scoundrels on the same side.

This is why I'm less worried about sides and more about the way we conduct ourselves. My theory is that the vast majority of behavioral problems on the Internet stem from the lack of empathy people feel when using it. I've seen people talk about when they write horrible emails to people, and when they respond, they say, "I didn't think you'd see it." It never enters their mind that the person on the screen is a human and will read it and might be affected by it. Their email may as well be a bottomless pit. It's a form of narcissism where the people through the Internet aren't real, and yet they must get some satisfaction from negative responses.

This is one of the reasons why I think "blocking" is a bad idea when a person just annoys you (rather than threatens you or something else heinous). Blocking is basically the affirmation that they are doing something "right" in their mind. I would much prefer a "mute" button that does not indicate to the person they were muted, so they can spout their bile and get no responses to it until that behavoir is extincted. Maybe even a system where someone has been muted enough times gets reviewed by a person to see if they're being abusive. At that point, they could be muted throughout the whole website and nobody would be able to hear them. They could still post stuff, but nobody would see it. (This would be tricky for something like Twitter, as followers might be able to determine that they've been globally muted and then they take that as the same badge of 'honor' they would if they were blocked.)

As far as when we'll see real change in the attitudes of the immature and malignant personalities online... well, I fear it won't be until the boys and girls born around 2000, knowing how badly they were treated, teach their children what not to do when they interact with people online. It might even involve some sort of monitoring system for youths as they interact with people on the Internet. The conduct some kids get up to online is astonishing, but how do you monitor it in the era where every kid has their own PC or tablet?

God, I wish I had the answers for this.

[JackSlack]

On smaller notes, Poe's Law is waving at me smiling.

I have no idea if this is meant to be parody or not.

Because if... if not, they're seriously trying to argue that Ebert gave a four star review to Fitzcarraldo, an incredibly well regarded film, because of his friendship with Herzog.

Seriously, what?

[korvys]

The link is dead, but I think I saw it today. The phrase "earning tens of dollars" makes me think it's not serious, but it could just be them trying to insult him at the same time...

[JackSlack]

Intel just pulled their support of Gamasutra after Gamergate boycotted due to Leigh Alexander's editorial.

I say again: Gamergate are winning this. We are losing. I hope we all understand this.

[Matt]

Gamergate are defending the status quo. Upending it is always the harder fight, as they hold the more easily defended position.

That they win some battles doesn't mean they'll win the war.

-m

[korvys]

Yeah, that's it really. 'Winning' for GG is things staying the same, and if there's one constant in the world, it's change. 'Winning' only means delaying the inevitable.