Nah, the backlash is because the book is empty, pandering trash that doubles as a pathetically sad self-justification for Ernest Cline for not having any kind of self-identity beyond the pop culture he consumed as an adolescent and continues to obsess over as a middle-aged man

I'm a huge video game nerd and I found it embarrassing, pandering, and completely empty.

I rewatched C.H.U.D. last night (I didn't realize the three leads were all old buddies, that must've been a blast) and you know what? For as much as that movie is kinda treated like a joke, it's pretty damn good. Silly as hell and the monster effects are awful, but it's pretty well-written and acted and its depiction…

Because in spite of the show being aware that Cartman is an awful sociopath, the actual butt of many of the jokes are still punching down. For comparison: the South Park episode unambiguously mocking trans people, vs. Always Sunny's treatment of Carmen, where while it's still not…great, it makes clear that Mac is the…

except that he goes out of his way to point out that South Park is far, far from being the only factor or cause in all of this, so good job on the willful misreading.

"a pushback against SJW culture and the insane ideologues that had infested nerd spaces" ah yes, how dare those darn SJWs ask to be treated with the barest minimum of respect and get decent representation in the art that they consume.

lol don't get too triggered there tough guy

this is such a perfectly succinct summation of their and the show's worldview

Their overriding principle is that if you've ever cared about anything, regardless of political orientation, you're a piece of shit. That sounds like nihilism to me.

I also have to question the supposed fearlessness of two obscenely rich and powerful (seriously, I just did a cursory Google search and their combined net worth is $700 million) straight white dudes with a track record of targeting considerably poorer and more vulnerable demographics. They're "fearless" because…

"one of the funniest satires ever produced" [citation needed]

I was just thinking the other day about if, after the Simpsons ends (if it isn't actually one of those self-powered engines that keeps spinning for eternity), they'll package a complete series boxset. How big would that fuckin thing be?

I'm not sure I've ever played a video game with a more unpleasant cast of characters I was ostensibly supposed to like (and optionally bone).

Well yeah, but it also means that your armor is considerably less good as a result. I'm still not SUPER good at the game so having my ancient armor maxed out is basically the only thing that keeps me alive when I fight Lynels.

I liked Final Fantasy XII when it first came out, even though I only got about 10 hours in before stopping. I might pick up the remaster somewhere down the line, if only because Balthier was the first fictional character I was attracted to post-realization that I liked dudes. Gideon Emery's voice should be illegal.

Is Persona 5 your first Shin Megami Tensei game?

I fell into The Secret World for a few months a couple years back and haven't really paid attention to it since. Is Legends another MMO?

I've been playing Breath of the Wild pretty obsessively, and while I mostly love it, I gotta say I really, really don't like the armor progression/upgrade system. Rare material hunting is rarely if ever fun in any game, and it's pretty egregious in a game where in order to max out my Ancient armor I have to fucking…

Seacrest heard that @Midnight was ending and realized he needed to fill the "bland white sycophant" void that Chris Hardwick will be leaving.

There is an INSANE amount of rationalizing the thoughts of a known pedophile going on here. Holy shit, AV Club.