Messages

kconan, this looks like Jon Voight playing Basil Exposition.

Yep, it does!  I'll drop a hint, the director is French.  Also, as a lesser hint, it has above an 8 rating on IMDB.

Haha, no...Here is my favorite Lone Wolf McQuade poster.

One of my favorites from an awesome director.

Invasion U.S.A.?

I am not sure it this is the right spot for editor suggestions.. But, I would like to see the "Import Sprite" window become adjustable in size. Sometimes when trying to grab larger than the window sprites, I have to monkey around a fair bit. Anyone else agree?

Agreed.  I'd like to see the window bigger or sizeable.

 Looks good, and I like the premise...Good luck!

[Ponch]

Baron AKA Writing Comp Kommandant: I really want to vote once per so as to make vote counting easier and help avoid ties.  Also, its hard to trust a system where Stephen King is tied with Aesop 
Sinitrena: Yea, I rarely use subtle characters...Its something to work on if I care about variety in my stories.

Character: Ponch - I really like the main character and his weird line of thinking.
Plot: Sinitrena and Ponch.  Yea I fibbed on not choosing two, despite Ponch's being basic and short I like the meteor ray being literal.
Atmosphere: Sinitrena - Sinitrena knows this era of kings and noble houses, and enjoyed writing that story.
Background World: Sinitrena - I like the politics and conspiracy. 
Word Choice: Chef! - Short, but enjoyed the ryhmes.  Strangely, when I read this I actually heard beatboxing in the background in my head and the verses worked in an old school rap kind of way. 
Message: Adeel - The message is there loud and clear.

  I mix them up in writing and everyday conversation, and the only time I have trouble is if I'm with old friends in the United States and I use the term "American Football".  Much like if I'm outside the U.S. and I use the term "Soccer".  I'm not sure about in academia these days, but I don't think the average reader cares one way or the other.  You may want to think about it if you have characters with an international background where it really makes sense, or obviously if you have a character that is from a small town in Mississippi, never visited elsewhere, and hasn't been exposed to the outside World at all.

e.g. If these videos were shown to all gamers, a lot might think to themselves "Oh yea, I have been playing horribly sexist games and never realised!". Which in turn might change the way they think about/buy games in general, which in turn might make developers develop games with a larger variety of tropes/stories/etc?

That's an optimistic viewpoint, and it might work for some of the older male gamers.

For me personally as a gamer, I get tired of the lazy and unoriginal storytelling that goes hand-in-hand with most of these kind of games.   

It's a frustrating situation and I think its just pandering, easy money, and lazy writing that win 9/10. 

  I don't think it will change for the mainstream games until game publishers and developers can no longer make the easy money of off portraying women as hourglass voluptuous, or they see - and it has to hit them in the face and not be seen as a risk - an opportunity to make more money by doing less of that and making changes like adjusting armor to be more practical for women.  For the major game companies, I don't imagine a cigar-chomping, knuckledragger CEO swilling beer in one hand while doing hammer curls in the other as he barks orders at a bunch of frat guy developers.  I think it comes down to easy money with less risk. 

  The bottom line has to be affected in terms of direct sales or a developer seeing the success of more practical armor in another game and understanding that this is money left on the table.  That Lollipop Chainsaw game, unfortunately, rewarded the developer with record sales.

  According to Wikipedia: "Lollipop Chainsaw is currently Grasshopper Manufacture's most successful title, selling more than 800,000 units worldwide."  I had never heard of the game until now.  I've played the No More Heroes games made by the same developer and most aspects of the games were fun, but some things were outright strange and annoying like charging your weapon.  Anyway, as long as publishers and developers are rewarded with sales I don't see trends changing.

  I don't like what it implies either, but I know there are alot of guys out there in there teens and early 20s that will cheer on a Duke Nukem character.  That is a big market.  Basically, I just don't understand why a company ships out a Duke Nukem unless it believes money is to be made.

Also, "the market is male so games are made for men" misses the point by a nautical mile. The point here is not that we should be making games *for* women but rather that the current gaming culture is *hostile* to women and reinforces negative gender stereotypes.

It is the point, and explains WHY it is hostile to women.  If less teenage (and 20s) boys/men and more women bought and played popular, mainstream games there would be less Duke Nukems and stacked Lara Crofts.

He then goes on to talk about games that fit his definition of "boring" such as Christine Love's don't take it personally, babe, it just ain't your story or Dys4ia (and let's not talk about King's Quest!) when those games are/were actually pretty popular (and thus, not considered boring by at least a good number of people).

Ok I don't agree with every single one of his points (I haven't played Dys4ia), but I believe that every "King's Quest" and other awesome games designed by women out there makes a case better than complaining does.  The target market is young guys, complaining doesn't change that.

His list appears to mostly boring games, but I of course disagree with his point that women can only make boring games.  Sadly, there aren't any popular and hugely successful ones that I know of outside of King's Quest.

  As mentioned above, the target market is mainly younger guys.  I don't expect Cosmo magazine to run a 10-page editorial on monster trucks, much like I don't expect the mainstream games designed to appeal to young guys to somehow attempt to appeal to women.  Its also why many of the mainstream game plotlines are basic and lame, (sadly) most young guys don't want a deep story.  Even if Max Payne 4 tried to silence the critics, the "feminine" sidequest would be shoehorned in and poorly written.

I agree with Maddox: Sexism in Gaming

Edited: Agree with specific points of his, such as what do you expect when the target market is young dudes, and making an awesome game is better than complaining.  Disagree with anything about women only making boring games.

  Cool!  Is there a rough release date?

...Russian movie COME AND SEE

Yep, that's it.

Shaft In Africa?

I think you mentally insert Shaft into all movies.

[Ponchvision]

[imgzoom]http://imageshack.com/a/img856/5624/wfri.png[/imgzoom]
[/Ponchvision]

Spoiler

^{Hehe, "insert Shaft".}

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My favorite war movie of all time.

Shaft's Big Score?