Thanks for the good discussion - and reading my overly wordy posts (It's a problem I have) :)

There's a lot of skill in Magic, but it often feels like level of competitiveness comes down to how much money you are willing to spend and time you are willing to dedicate. Deckbuilding games level the playing field and are generally a better option for people who want a more casual experience.

"I'm sure there are a lot of people that fit the acronym that aren't so focused on their sexuality that they actually feel excluded by the majority of the content on the site... Downright vilified we straight white males are when it comes to appeasing our own appetite for sexuality"

There are many people on here who are accepting and write intelligent, thoughtful comments, which is why I've been a reader for 5+ years, but there is also a strong boys-club culture here (which reflects the industry as a whole) and many people are only accepting up to the point where you suggest that it would be nice…

I don't get from her article that "everyone on Kotaku is a conservative homophobic", though reading through it again, I can see how her use of "Kotaku" as a singular environment could be interpreted to include everyone who participates in Kotaku.

Hearted.

From the intro text: I asked her to write a piece we could put on the site explaining why she doesn't feel welcome around here.

The "having your cake and eating it too" in Mattie's original open letter specifically refers to Kotaku (and specifically Joel Johnson's) conflicting claim that this site is intended to be welcoming to everyone while also continuing to post content that not only overwhelming appeals to a limited demographic, but also…

To everyone who responded - thanks for the good discussion!

I love the gamecube controller, especially the wavebird. If I had Ben Heck skills, I would put the guts of all my controllers into a gamecube controller. When I've used my friends' Xbox controllers, they've felt weird to me, but maybe it's because I'm not used to it.

Obviously Kinect and everything related to that would be exclusives, but I know Gears of War and Halo are some of the console-defining games. It's hard to know if the games I'm interested in would justify the purchase of an entire console. Sounds like maybe not. A lot of the big games that used to be Xbox exclusives…

That actually sounds awesome, and is the best description of the party-chat feature of that I've seen. I didn't really understand why it was better than PSN even though I have seen a lot of comments to that effect. I don't play a lot of online games, and I am rarely playing the same game as my friends, so I barely…

My Wii has been collecting dust too, but it's finally getting some use again with Skyward Sword. Great game, and it's reminding me why I'm a Nintendo fan which is something that I've been having difficulty remembering lately :).

This is well stated. Thank you.

Wow, triple the cost of comparable SD card storage. They just overtook the proprietary xbox hard drive for biggest ripoff.

I was one of these people, but I'm having a bit of buyer's remorse. I bought it from Amazon so I haven't received it yet. Right now I'm trying to decide whether to keep it or not. I got the 4GB Kinect bundle for $199, figuring that I could get a hard drive for around $100 in the near future. So, if I don't open it, I…

How could I forget about the "bounce physics"?

In fairness, people have actually died from being trampled in Walmart on Black Friday, so I can certainly see how someone could find themselves in a dangerous situation. A mob isn't something that you can just stroll away from. Walmart should have handed out vouchers for the big ticket items like consoles before they…

Zangief, fantastic! I knew we could count on you. OK first we're going to need to get rid of all the "excess" material' and turn that into a thong. Next we're going to make your bulge enormous. I mean really big. Like so anatomically absurd that there's no way you could move without being in pain. Next we're going to…

So pretty! I was very tempted by the Gamestop trade-in deal, but I just can't do it with the rumors of hardware revision, though if I was able to get that deal without dealing with lines and crowds, I probably couldn't resist.