This is how I’ve always been, why I could never have been a gamer, and probably why The Last of Us is my favorite console game. Traditional storytelling, with a beginning, a middle and an end, isn’t that way just by coincidence. Reaching the end of a great story can be a profound experience. Games that don’t provide…

Never said I’d be into it. I’m being hyperbolic because the sexualized anatomical exaggeration of the female characters is hyperbolic. Point was simple: male and female characters aren’t equally objectified in this game, and those who claim otherwise aren’t just victims of “skewed perception.” Voldo’s definitely a…

Good points. I’m exiting the field on grounds of futility. Always worth checking to see if there’s any chance of getting someone to think a little differently. Seldom worth banging your head against a wall of infinite denial.

That’s the bigger question according to you. To some people, the bigger question is: why doesn’t the game offer female players character-options that are mainly powerful-looking instead of mainly there to be squirted on by male players. But even if your question is super-duper important, why are you so comfortable…

Perceptions are skewed on this issue because we live in a skewed reality. The game was designed for a young, straight, male audience. Might still be true today; definitely true 12 years ago. The bare-chested male warriors are meant to look awesome and the giant-racked females are meant to look desirable. Denying…

Honesty from the designers would be such a treat. If they like watching inflated toon-boobs wobble, or if they think the wobble brings in X% additional sales, or if (more likely) it’s both - all of that could be part of a real conversation if they’d just cop to it. This shit about “jeepers, no, those giant knockers…

This, though, is a great stance (on your stance). Living in uncomfortable ambivalence is so appropriate for the hard issues that get discussed here. But so rare.

It’s “the whole gamut.” Not gambit. Not the end of the world, but, since it was a phone interview, the transcript is putting a malapropism in her mouth.

Um, yes. Coming up on two years into this reality, why can’t we wrap our collective heads around Trump’s actual personality? People need to just stop talking about him and reacting to him as if he has positions, plans, a philosophy or an ideology or any consistent traits besides reactive neediness.

Bam. Sounds like the way to make everyone happy is to offer the choice of playing on the Allied side with women and POC, or playing as a Nazi where all the character options will be white and male. You get your “historical accuracy” if you want it, your inclusive sanity if that’s more your bag, and the bonus is that…

Yes. Wish more people felt this way.

I’m just sayin’, you’re wrong. I study evolution for a living. Gets tiring, watching people who don’t know much of anything (about how human behavior evolves) make big claims about what would or wouldn’t be possible in conditions where the species needed to adapt to survive.

Good point. But I don’t think he’s trying to claim games shouldn’t be violent, just that he wants his games to treat violence as a weighty thing instead of bubblegum. Storytellers use heightened violence in every medium. Not just in games. It’s in the Illiad. It’s in The Wire and Breaking Bad. Higher concentrations of…

I’m just sayin’, you’re wrong. I study evolution for a living. Gets tiring, watching people who don’t know much of anything (about how human behavior evolves) make big claims about what would or wouldn’t be possible in conditions where the species needed to adapt to survive.

Grant that your heart’s in the right place. So after intentions there’s a purely rational, data-based question of what does or does not change things. What’s the best way to get from here (gaming is sexist as fuck) to there (a place where everyone interested in gaming meets the same degree of encouragement and…

She’s awesome. Can’t wait to show my son. He just went back to DSIII for the fun of trying out a high-dexterity, high-strength, “glass cannon”-type build (at least that’s how he describes it to me). I don’t think he’s very aware of this aspect of streaming culture yet (he’s 11) but I know he’ll be impressed to see…

4. Trump pre-re-gifts the invite to “real winner” Roseanne Barr.

I’m in the maligned grays for life, and this dude is verified. No justice.

Waiting for the passage for time to just make things better is clearly a mistake. But it’s also a mistake to think that we, today, are fully in touch with how much has changed.

Such a juicy story.