Messages

2641

Forum Games / Re: Sid Jairo's Europa Forumalis: DEFCON - COLUMBIA WINS! (1971)

« on: October 20, 2014, 08:49:36 PM »

sorry that does not exist it is not/was not part of my empire therefore is not a country

2642

Forum Games / Re: Sid Jairo's Europa Forumalis: DEFCON - COLUMBIA WINS! (1970)

« on: October 20, 2014, 08:28:59 PM »

hm true but we will UPGRADE it!!!
do not worry it contains religious sentimental value for the religion of germany so it will not be legally/rightfully taken away!

IT BELONGS TO SERJIA WHICH IS IN BALKAN STATE!

2643

Forum Games / Re: Sid Jairo's Europa Forumalis: DEFCON - COLUMBIA WINS! (1970)

« on: October 20, 2014, 08:16:35 PM »

germony producers of military stuff super secretly plans a ship


it is put where nobody will ever find it

in the "serbian book of religion and military history" book in a small german town's library

also whatever research happened before is finished and research of carrier begins

Balkans want this book back!

Also battleships are horribly outdated at this point in time

2644

Off Topic / Re: My sister is illegally holding alcohol

« on: October 20, 2014, 07:53:40 PM »

No.  He's using satire to try to condone those who say "Don't be a richard" when ignoring the fact that it is against the law.

What are you even implying?

^

are you one of those kids that doesnt drink

I was a kid once, never went through that whole drinking thing

2645

Off Topic / Re: My sister is illegally holding alcohol

« on: October 20, 2014, 07:17:13 PM »

muh rebellious phase
my angst
my right to break the law!

2646

Games / Re: #gamergate megathread

« on: October 20, 2014, 07:14:13 PM »

I don't think you have any idea, at all, what that conversation was about

I'm pretty I do. The premise of this argument was about the use of large words to sound smarter that what you really are. How often are you going to use a word like inconspicuous, ubiquitous, or in cognitive? Not often. Of course using those words will add a lot of heft to argument, but the reality is no one likes an ass, especially a smart one.

2647

Games / Re: #gamergate megathread

« on: October 20, 2014, 07:02:01 PM »

wow, you mean, when you're trying to sound pretentious, you sound pretentious? what a surprise

I'm glad you see it that way because that is that the guy who wrote this is:

Gamergate is a twitter hashtag that represents an uprising by "gamers" (video game enthusiasts) calling for better transparency and ethics among the people who cover video games professionally.

That is the idealized version of it. The reality is that GamerGate is like any social-media based movement: it's sheer and utter chaos with very little structure, no clear message and a cacophony of voices with many different axes to grind. Some noble, some significantly less so.

Twice I've started writing huge pieces breaking the whole thing down step-by-step and stopped halfway through because the whole thing is just so loving depressing and disappointing. I'm going to try to do this as concisely as I can.

An indie developer was outted by her ex-boyfriend for sleeping around and generally being a bad girlfriend. Some potential ethics issues arose out of said revelation. The internet responded in the stufftiest fashion possible (harassing, private investigating and threatening said indie developer). Because of said reaction, the gaming press (as well as the majority of the prominent internet forums) responded by banning all discussion of the topic. While their intention was noble (protecting a person from harassment and not contributing to a witch hunt), their complete lack of discussion of the potential ethics issues caused a full-on Streisand effect and made the whole thing seem far shadier than it actually was.

When there finally was a response, the gaming press released a strangely simultaneous group of a dozen different opinion pieces with the same thrust: the gamer identity was dead and that game developers and the "real" gaming community needed to rise up out of the ashes of that identity to form a newer, better (more diverse and less caustic) community. Once again, while their pursuit was noble (condemning the harassment of mostly female developers and voices and asking for more civility), there was little to no mention of the kerfuffle that prompted these pieces and a few of them were awash with pejoratives and general disdain for the video game community. Those who were already mad became apoplectic and those who weren't familiar with the preceding story didn't understand why they were being attacked.

As there was more or less no place to discuss any of this (the major gaming subreddits, most major website forums and eventually even 4chan), people started congregating on Twitter (the worst place for civilized discussion of anything anywhere ever). Adam Baldwin, actor and conservative firebrand, suggested using the hashtag GamerGate to centralize all discussion of the topic.

A lot of things have happened since then (some of it just hot air, some of it legitimately eyebrow raising) and extremists on both sides of the "discussion" continue to harass, dox and threaten each other.

What to make of all this?

There are two separate discussions taking place: the first is a long-time coming, honest outcry for a serious look at how the video games press operates. Not the old, childish arguments about Sony/Microsoft/Nintendo paying for positive coverage or the need for totally "objective" reviews. Serious discussions about how you can take an industry seriously when a large portion of its revenue comes from advertisements bought by the people whose content they're supposed to cover. How little transparency there is regarding the coverage of indie games particularly in light of how these games can succeed and fail simply based on the amount of exposure they get (as they largely have no marketing campaigns outside of the press) and how tight-knit the development communities and press are.

The problem is that all of these legitimate questions are difficult to take seriously because of the second discussion: an ugly identity politics pissing contest where the majority of folks sit in the middle (desiring more diversity in game development, game journalism and game players without some of the more negative yellow journalism) and two extremes (love-negative, "rape-culture" feminists in one corner and the conservative misogynists and dimwits who think that said feminists are coming to censor and neuter video games) loudly and publicly throwing stuff at each other on Twitter.

There are no easy answers to this. More press could do what The Escapist did and address those first issues head-on and attempt to make amends with the larger community but I'm sure most feel like that would be cowing to a vicious, bloodthirsty mob. And even if they did attempt to have an honest discussion, the trolls, children and extremists will still exist. Death threats will continue to happen and twitter will still be a terrible place to discuss anything. The larger question is what positive steps can be taken so that we at least learn something from all of this negativity and hatred?

2648

Off Topic / Re: T̶u̶m̶b̶l̶r̶ Meme Megathread - Happy Mommy Dom Monday

« on: October 20, 2014, 06:55:58 PM »

Bowser was buffed, I'm feeling it.

2649

Games / Re: #gamergate megathread

« on: October 20, 2014, 06:53:52 PM »

To be fair, XOXO Fest was diverse. It included hipsters of all loveualities, head-mates, shapes and sizes.

except color

yes

These ethnocentric mindset of these nefarious persons and individuals who collaborate malice misdoings under the camouflage and guise of equal opportunities, fairness, and justice to combat misogyny are truly vile and toxic to this clique and great diversion that we share as well as this terra that we call our domain. You sir should eliminate such pompous and misguided behavior and ideals that plague us all.
Also

2650

Games / Re: #gamergate megathread

« on: October 20, 2014, 06:29:54 PM »

2651

Games / Re: #gamergate megathread

« on: October 20, 2014, 02:18:50 AM »

Can we hug it out?

2652

Off Topic / Re: T̶u̶m̶b̶l̶r̶ Meme Megathread - Happy Smegma Sunday

« on: October 19, 2014, 07:49:57 PM »

Is estimated by the us defense(or is it war) department that if we invaded Japan it would cost around 1.5 million Japanese civilian and soldier deaths and around 500000 us deaths

uh-oh! is tumblr trying to defend a stupid view again?

I'm tempted to make a history blog.

2653

Forum Games / Re: Sid Jairo's Europa Forumalis: DEFCON - TROUBLE IN THE SUEZ~ (1968)

« on: October 19, 2014, 07:25:00 PM »

Zatasava auto plant begins manufacturing T-34-85s and su-100 assault guns.

Aid is sent to North Korea:
20 IS-3 Heavy Tanks
40 T-34-85s
200 SU-85 assault guns.

More aid
100 IS-3
200 T-34-85
230 SU-85
100 SU-37 Mobile Flak guns

2654

Games / Re: #gamergate megathread

« on: October 19, 2014, 06:26:43 PM »

I've never heard of that term in my entire life.

^

2655

Forum Games / Re: Sid Jairo's Europa Forumalis: DEFCON - COLUMBIA WINS! (1970)

« on: October 19, 2014, 06:06:07 PM »

Make Maxwell Scotland, Badger Ireland, and Swat England. Now they can all be celtic anglo saxon people who live on the island of bad teeth and drinking.