It would be funny to see a game do the opposite of Wolfenstein and mock the player for picking harder difficulties.

D.Va’s appeal for me has always kind of been that a) she’s a mech pilot (awesome), b) she’s badass, and c) she likes cute things, but she also kind of employs them in an antagonistic way that would probably irk her opponents. Like, “ugh, this MFer just de-meched me and on top of it she’s giving me a peace sign,…

Making games hard is one thing, arbitrarily punishing players for making mistakes is another. The fact that a lot of games (Celeste in particular comes to mind, but also things like Meat Boy and VVVVVV) are generous with checkpoints and let you basically try again almost immediately after failing makes them still feel…

Regarding Dark Souls it doesn’t matter much since no matter what the community is by and large absolute garbage monsters who will ridicule you or go out of their way to be as unhelpful as possible.

As a D.va player, I’m not comfortable with this costume choice.

There is a reason why cheerleader and catholic school girl costumes are in high demand on Halloween and it’s not because are just really hyped about reliving that portion of their lives (especially given most who buy them have never have). Fetishism is a thing and while it’s not nice to yuck someone’s kink, if your…

there’s porn of all her skins

You can’t believe it because you’re privileged enough not to have to deal with the actual issues that the people who are made to wear these sorts of uniforms in real life have to deal with, and you’re also not empathetic enough to understand the perspective of another fellow human being, and how such a thing might…

I’m disappointed that the first comment is already dismissive of the entire concept of thinking critically about topics like this. I found the article very informative and enlightening, and I think we should be having conversations like this. Writing it off as “just cosmetics” isn’t helping anything. Caring about…

Yeah probably not the best idea to put the only Asian woman in a school girl outfit. This is more lazy than anything else.

That would actually be a legal relationship in most U.S. states, either because the age of consent in most places is 16, or because of near-in-age laws.

For a nation of people who think themselves culturally superior and enjoy turning up their nose to American tourists, that is fucking insane!

True but that 30 year old has lived life as an autonomous adult and has a fully formed brain so IS going to be more mature than a 15 year old no matter how immature for a 30 year old they are..

I think part of what is most alarming here is how child rape is classified in France. In many countries with a defined age of consent, the victim of the crime does not have to press charges against the rapist. You were caught having sex with a 12 year old, and the prosecuting office can automatically charge you with a…

But the problem is given human biases, prejudices and the limited ability human beings have to read other human beings’ mind, the actual legal system that govern the societies we all live in need some bright lines.

That movement challenged authority and “fought against imperialism, capitalism, racism, sexism and homophobia.” At the same time, it argued for “[liberating] children from the domination of their parents and allow[ing] them to be full, sexual beings.” Matzneff, of course, was among those advocating for such…

Suddenly, people begin asking: How did anyone ever think that was OK?

Because rebels and oppressors aren’t the same... An act of violence committed by an oppressed group is not the same as an act of violence committed by an oppressor. That’s how power asymmetry works. A slave killing their master is not the same thing as a master killing a slave. There are good ideas and bad ideas.…

Speaking as a guy who’s been gaming since the days of green-fan-fold paper Hunt the Wumpus, do keep it up. While there’s a vocal contingent of losers out there threatened by women, there are more of us who enjoy smart, capable women and like seeing those characters in games.

Fantastic write up, Maddy. And thank you for reminding me how utterly shitty Bioshock Infinite’s politics are.