Messages

I want to say "Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?"

I only disagree about 80%.

I think that adventure games are a great way to tell a story, and a step towards doing so, but the art of designing games is quite different from the art of filmmaking.

Adventure games and graphic novels both come fairly close to film, but they operate in completely different ways.  Also, they have their own learning curves and challenges.

Making a simple adventure game might be a good way to plan out your movie, but I wouldn't rely on it as a means to that end.

I like board games and card games.  Last ones I played were:

Yahtzee
Blokus
Monopoly Deal

Good stuff.   

Looking nice, Paul.  But... there's a mirror, where's the beard?!?!

The beard in the mirror is yours!

But seriously, I am still very much looking forward to this game.  It looks to be coming together quite nicely.

Good luck at the festival!  I hope it provides you with many opportunities.

After the first sentence, I thought it was going to be a sort of 'whine and play the victim' type of a talk.  After listening further, I realized that wasn't exactly the case.  She's not playing the victim, she is the victim.

When the talk was concluded, I did understand more why she turned off the comments.  The horrible threats she was receiving were beyond the normal YouTube reaction.  I still think that keeping the comments open would serve well to expose the kind of bigotry on the internet, on YouTube, and in gaming culture, but I understand why she deactivated them and I have no further complaints about that point.

Having said that, I disagreed with 2 comments she made in the TED video.

She said: "Its not 'just boys being boys.'  Its not 'just how the internet works.'"

The sad reality is that it is boys being boys, and it is how the internet works.  On the internet, no matter who you are (male or female) you will receive awful degrading and threatening comments, mostly from 'boys.'  I say 'boys' here rather than men, even though the large percentage of them will be grown men.  The reason I say 'boys' is because these men lack the maturity to handle themselves appropriately, and enjoy the anonymity of the internet when it comes to spouting vile thoughts.  The attacks are not exclusively made upon women, as these 'boys' are equal opportunity bigots.  Everyone will get their fair share of hate on the internet.

None of that was said to excuse that behavior in any way.  These 'boys' are wrong, no matter who they are attacking.  One can accept the attacks and choose to ignore them (as most of us will), or speak out against them.  Speaking out tends to inflame the situation, increasing the amount of hate, which is why most of us don't.  But I felt that she has developed a thick skin, otherwise she would not have discussed the issue in that TED Talk, and she wouldn't be continuing her video series.

So you can say she just needs to get over it, or accept it, but I think she's handling it appropriately.

I'll agree with Jared, though, and say that she's not always the best at constructing and researching her points.  I feel that she only tackles the issue from one side, but then again, that's her angle.  More statistics and numbers would do wonders in illustrating her point of view.  So, while she may not be the best choice for a spokesperson in regards to women in games, she has become a popular voice.  As such, I will support her efforts, and hope that she will be able to hear the more constructive criticisms and improve her approach.

While we all wait for her next set of videos, I thought I'd post this TED talk given by Anita Sarkeesian:

[embed=560,315]http://youtu.be/GZAxwsg9J9Q[/embed]

I didn't realize that there was such a massive campaign against her.  This certainly explains why the comments were turned off on her videos, and gives me more reason to support her cause.

These videos have created a phenomenon, propelling Anita to the forefront of the discussion on women's representation in video games (and media).  This is a great thing, because it gives the overall movement a voice.  Anita is no longer just a feminist blogger on YouTube, she is becoming a spokesperson.  With all of the support she is receiving, she is also becoming the kind of voice that people will actually listen to.

Is Denise his sister?

Gotta love that gun-toting, jump-kicking Chuck Norris. 

The game looks nice so far.

Good luck with the campaign!

This game sounds really good.  $10K is quite a bit, but I wish you luck in getting it.

Great job so far, the visuals are beautiful.

I had trouble finding some of Ben's games at first.

That said, I don't care.  I love the titles.

The board game thing is a good point and would cover the similar product, didn't Double Fine have to rename Iron Brigade / Trenched because a board game had the same name?

I believe that's so.

Also, of course, Sierra's popular Quest for Glory franchise was renamed because of the board game Hero Quest (which is fun in it's own right).

Overall, it's a good looking room.

I think the lines on the floor would become further apart as they approach the viewer.

Andail's paintover covers the rest of the major issues.

Good work!

Nice concept!

I'm looking forward to submitting a track.

I wanted to say that I think the term you are looking for Dactylopus is egalitarianism. I personally identify with egalitarianism, but I gladly accept the term feminist (inter-sectional) too because while in many ways things have improved significantly for women in the western society (although we still have a long way to go), there are clearly still issues that need addressing and this term reminds us that we are looking at issues of inequality pertaining to the oppression of women.

Egalitarianism is the closest, I suppose, but isn't specifically related to gender equality.  That's why I didn't use it earlier.  It'll work well enough, though.

When we are looking at things like female genital mutilation, breast ironing, forced marriage, honour killings, domestic violence (I'm not disputing men are never victims) and reproductive rights, the people campaigning and fighting for these causes and people tend to have been feminist organisations. I'm not really aware of an egalitarian charity focussing on these sort of things, but I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong.

These are most certainly feminist issues, or women's rights issues, or more generally, civil rights issues.  I am in no way trying to argue otherwise.  I can see how they relate to the discussion in a very broad sense but we're getting further and further away from the discussion on tropes.

Also, this whole "we shouldn't call it feminism, we should call it egalitarianism" is a bit insulting to the femininst movement.
Up until 100 years ago, women couldn't vote, couldn't inherit and were practically considered legally incompetent. This didn't change thanks to a bunch of self-contented men saying they prefer the term "egalitarianism", no it was really hard work by feminist organisations.

You can't just say that you prefer everyone to have equal rights and expect that to change anything. It's called feminism because that's where the focus is, that's where its roots are.

Fair enough.  I'm not in any way trying to insult feminists (I would be insulting myself).  I am fully aware of the rights that feminists fought for and won, I'm not an imbecile.  Yes, it was hard work, and yes, there is still more work to be done.

To explain where those comments were coming from:  I felt like the conversation was drifting into broader issues of gender inequality, not just improving things for women, but for men as well.  As has been said, patriarchy perpetuates gender roles and gender inequality, and both men and women suffer as a result.  This, I feel, is an egalitarian issue in the general sense.  Each individual aspect may relate to women's rights (equal pay, abortion) or men's rights (child custody, insurance), but the overall goal of equality and reducing the disparity between the genders is egalitarian.

I didn't mean any harm by those comments, and I apologize if any harm was inflicted.  Risking a tone argument here, I'll say that I think more men would be on board with feminist ideals if we could all identify as egalitarians.  I'm not speaking for myself, because I have no problem identifying as a feminist.  I am merely pointing out how powerful language can be.  The word feminism can be seen to (even though it doesn't) imply a superiority of women as a goal.  This can be especially true when considering some of the radical feminists of the past, those who have contempt for and openly hate men.  Feminism has come a long way, that's absolutely true, but I know men who get that 'feminazi' connotation from the word, and I'm merely suggesting that on some issues, using the word egalitarian may actually lead to a conversation rather than a gut reaction.

I'm not trying to derail the conversation here, though.  I got swept up with the discussion, as most of us did.  Snarky did a good job of trying to steer us back on course:

I do want to get back to the original topic, though. I don't have time to write at length right now, but some bullet points:

(Probably) non-controversial points

• We should definitely aim for better and more varied representations of women in computer games
• More women in more important positions in the industry would hopefully help with that, and would be a good thing in itself

(Maybe) more interesting opinions

• Sexualized portrayals are not inherently bad. Enjoying the portrayal of sexy people is perfectly natural
• However, ubiquitous sexualization is unhealthy on a personal and societal level, and the commercialization and exploitation of sex (because "sex sells!") demonstrates the problem when capitalism intersects with lizard-brain instinct (see also: junk food, gambling addiction, ...)
• Pop-culture has the potential to effect great changes in people's thinking and attitudes, and that gives creators a responsibility to think about the message their work communicates
• OTOH, worrying about every possible stereotype or implication can be creatively crippling, and PC over-sensitivity often produces bland, non-challenging works
• It's hard to come up with and tell a story, and the thing with tropes like "damsel in distress" is that they work
• A lot of these tropes are quite old, and once meaningfully reflected aspects of society. Do we need more new, modern tropes that acknowledge and bolster greater gender equality? What would they be?

I agree with pretty much everything said here, and feel that this is where the real discussion on the "Tropes vs Women" videos belongs.

dactylopus: I'm curious what argument you thought I was going to make (about the image, no need to keep quoting it).

I thought it was going to be the old argument that she doesn't look like a gamer.  It's not that I thought you would feel this way, just that I've heard it a lot about different things and it seemed like that was where you were going in the first half of the sentence.

Such comments are sadly common, like how girls in cosplay as comic book characters don't look like they'd actually read the comics, or the Idiot Nerd Girl meme:

[not]

It's a crying shame that not all decent women and men want to call themselves feminists, and I think the blame for that is about 50-50 smears by their opponents on the one hand and shooting themselves in the foot on the other.

I agree, and actually do see myself as a feminist.  I just wish there was a term for it that implied equality for everyone a little more concisely, because, as Andail points out:

There are a number of areas where men suffer from conservative gender roles

Patriarchy affects both men and women, and my support of feminism is support for more equality in gender roles.  This means women should be paid what men are paid for the same jobs, and men should pay the same low rates as women for car insurance.  Equality, preferably by enriching the lives of the underprivileged, is the goal.

Pop-culture has the potential to effect great changes in people's thinking and attitudes, and that gives creators a responsibility to think about the message their work communicates

Think about, yes.  But I don't feel they have any responsibilities beyond awareness.  I'll change this to echo an earlier statement:
Skimpy clothing has the potential to effect great changes in mens thinking and attitudes, and that gives women a responsibility to think about the message their work communicates.
Again, think about, yes.  But they have no responsibility to dress more conservatively because of this.  Another example would be pop stars like Britney Spears.  Many women and girls see her as a role model, and believe that because of this she has a responsibility to project a certain behavior.  I feel she only has a responsibility to think about, to be aware of her possible impact.  At the end of the day she is an artist, and she should be free to express herself in any way she sees fit.

OTOH, worrying about every possible stereotype or implication can be creatively crippling, and PC over-sensitivity often produces bland, non-challenging works

I'll absolutely agree with this statement.

A lot of these tropes are quite old, and once meaningfully reflected aspects of society. Do we need more new, modern tropes that acknowledge and bolster greater gender equality? What would they be?

In answer to the first question here, I believe that the answer is yes.  We do need more modern tropes.  I sadly have no idea what they should be, but I do feel the need for them.  I also believe that they will come as culture grows, and as more varied examples are provided.

There are actually a lot of women in the gaming market:

What's funny about this image is the fact that the woman depicted clearly is not a gamer, as can clearly be seen from the positioning of her hands. The man sitting beside her is holding the controller exactly as any of us who play games would do. She is holding her controller as if it is a week-old rotting fish.

I was about to roll my eyes in the middle of your first sentence, before you mentioned the controller, as I thought you were going to make a completely different argument.  I hadn't noticed the positioning of her hands, but now that I do, it is actually pretty funny.

Here's some honesty about myself and likely a lot of men, when I see a woman at the bar wearing a cleavage shirt and/or short shorts, I see her as a sexual object because that's what she's dressing as. I have very little respect for these women. Their only use to me in that social environment, in the clothing they're wearing, is the view they offer. I am massively more attracted to a woman in a simple t-shirt and jeans. This woman, now I would like to know her as a person.

I honestly feel the same way... It's silly to the point of being obscene, but "modest is the hottest" is something I personally find to be genuinely applicable. Provocative dress floods the male brain with hormones that elide rational thought or true emotional connection. That's not to say that women shouldn't be able to dress how they choose, or that there isn't a proper time and place for dressing that way, but if a woman is seeking a relationship (as opposed to casual sex), then she should at least be aware of what she's wearing.

I agree with this as well.  I tend to be a little more conservative about my own sexuality.  For example, I am not interested in one night stands or casual sex.  I wouldn't want to sleep with someone unless I was either in a relationship with them, or such a relationship was a likely outcome.  As such, I perceive a woman dressed provocatively as not being my type.  She is 'sluttier' than I am, and would probably be more interested in a similarly 'slutty' man.

In fact, any speeches / narrations / discourses / stories that is not [edit:itself] a meta-speech / critique can be easily  stretches to be accused of being patriarcalistic. Try ! The olny game 100% kosher will be something like a Q&A game where the player has to identify the thropes.

I agree with you that pretty much anything could be argued to be patriarchal or anti-feminist.  I'll also state that sometimes it's actually appropriate, as are many of the ideas in these videos.

Thank you for sharing!  This is all very valuable information, and I'm sure it will be useful to many of us.

In some console games, I have enjoyed playing after completion to get Achievements.  Assassin's Creed and Grand Theft Auto are good examples.

I'm not sure how well that would translate into adventure games, though.  If the Achievement was an extra, and seemed a worthwhile challenge, I might enjoy it.  For example, if there are rooms you don't need to visit to complete the game, but there is an Achievement for visiting all rooms, I'd probably replay to get it.  Mostly, though, I would be replaying to see what I missed.  Or if there was an Achievement for killing a boss in a specific way (although not as complicated as Ghost's idea), like killing him without getting hit, or killing him with a weaker weapon, that might be seen as a fun challenge.

I'll agree with cat as well, and say that giving me an Achievement for simply making progress in the game seems a bit lackluster.  It should be for a bonus, or an extra, not for standard completion.

I have no idea what most of the trophies are when I look at someone's signature.