It's kind of like South Park. When it's on, it's on.

When it's not, it's just a bunch of lazy, half-assed observations cloaked in middle school cynicism, usually accompanied by a big heap of straight white guy "Well, this doesn't bother ME, so why should it bother anyone else?" privilege.

Add to that some completely…

"When you say bigot, I feel like you're including anyone who use "fag" as part of their online "banter"."

Mm. No, I wouldn't call all of them bigots. Some are clueless, oblivious, or...well, assholes.

I'd have some less-than-kind things to say about people who persist in it and get all defensive when called on it,…

"I got the impression that you were only introduced to the idea that gun-owners are marginalized on Wednesday (correct me if I'm wrong)."

Okay. You're wrong. I've had this exact discussion probably a hundred times now.

"If that's true, I have to say that it's quite remarkable that you could thoroughly scrutinize it such…

Huh, I went back and looked at that photo of them and you're right.

I dunno why I thought mixed race. Something about her appearance just seems like there's some Asian ancestry in there. Oh, well.

I think "SEGA in general" would probably be just about as accurate.

I mean, I love some of their games, but holy crap does it sometimes seem like they don't actually want to be in the games industry.

"When the "certain formula" is so broad that nearly every portrayal universally falls into it, thatis why I think it's silly."

Not so. Again, I point to my discussion of how trans characters are portrayed. Virtually all portrayals fall into a few narrow categories, and those categories are pretty toxic and dehumanizing.

…

Lee is actually a great example. And now, in season 2, the playable protagonist is a young girl (who appears to be black/mixed race, maybe)?

If you want to see it done poorly, look at Prototype 2. Heller is basically the "angry black man" stereotype made manifest.

Well, yes, but that doesn't make him any less of a self-absorbed asshole.

(Which also applies to GTA 5)

I really like GTA 5, but it just gets dragged down by a lot of its so-called "social satire". I like how one person I saw before described it: it's like the Holden Caulfield of video games, obsessed with ranting about how "phony" everyone else is while being totally oblivious to its own bullshit.

On rare occasions, the…

"See, that's an annoying response, isn't it? If you don't want to go point by point that's fine, I don't have a gun to your head, but don't pretty much literally assert that you're right but can't be assed to explain why."

Sorry. This is a conversation I've had...well, too many times. I could go through if you -want-,…

I'm really not even sure what you're arguing. You basically seem to be saying that he shouldn't have leaked the info in the first place. I mean, that's the only way to ensure that it's "safe", right?

As for staying: no. Just no. Look at how Chelsea Manning was treated (and how receptive the government was to pleas for…

"This is only a guess, but I would imagine that PAX couldn't exist if you omitted those you would deem a bigot. I can't help but feel your bigot threshold is set to a place that would decimate the whole games industry, if you had your own way."

Based on what, exactly? I'm curious: what do you think my "bigot threshold"…

The thing is, I don't really buy that "gun owners" are a marginalized group. It just doesn't hold up to scrutiny.

As for the treatment of LGBT people and how it reflects on the game industry: if the game industry were a magical wonderland where none of that discrimination, bigotry, and oppression from society at large…

Huh, glad I backed this one (though because of iTunes shenanigans, a lot of us backers will have to wait a couple more days for the gifted codes to go through.)

Still, that's no big deal, and I'm glad to see that the game actually came together nicely.

That's a whole lot of supposition. Besides, without knowing the contents of the entirety of the data he gave to the Guardian, it's impossible to know whether or not it matters if those foreign entities might find out what's inside.

On the other hand, we know he helped bring to light NSA programs that were incredibly…

Eh, for more recent runs, those can be REALLY hard to read.

Well, presumably, any info the Guardian publishes will end up in the hands of other governments by virtue of being, y'know, in the public record.

I'm not sure what he did that was so terrible. He fled prosecution, yes, and took refuge with the Russians (but only because the U.S. was doing stuff like grounding the plane of the Bolivian president to look for him).

He did not, as some people have reported, give confidential info to rival countries. He didn't have…

"Even I can't make heads or tails of their ass-backwards and sometimes contradictory complaints sometimes and I'm ostensibly who they're fighting for!"

Feminism is a diverse movement that contains lots of differing opinions. This is a feature, not a bug.

"the truth is a lot of the bigots that you're advocating for…

"I could not give less of a shit about Penny Arcade."

...but we're talking about PAX, so it's relevant.

As for why people can't just "shut it out": because power dynamics are different. Because social treatment of certain groups is different.

Look, I'll discuss trans people here, because that's the area I'm most…