The Bill's Now Playing Video Game Thread (Now with Bames)

[fallbacktostone]

enough.

[Necrometer]

actually she's having the last laugh:

Creating these videos take a lot of time and money to produce. I will be researching and playing hundreds of titles from across the gaming industry (including some truly awful games that I wouldn’t wish upon anyone!).

/v/ wishes they could get paid $40,000 to sexistly bame

[james]

I think this thread is freaking out in an Internet Machine Code way. I am somehow missing the little bit or video that sparked this conversation. I'm somehow guessing that it was that girl who was posted in the INFAPTUATED thread?

[Necrometer]

top of 999 james

40 grand, huh? Sounds like she wants to make a full time job out of it.

she asked for $6k or something but the internet gave her more

Wait... what? You're completely missing the context here. I'm telling you video games is still a boy's club and that's why they continue to market to boys. I'm not saying it's a boy's club in reference to what she's doing in general and that her ideas are futile because of that.

I always thought the "boys club" thing connoted power structures - in that context her work is important because it strives to undermine the male power structure

if you're saying the audience is male to the extent that women will not be regarded... 40% of gamers are female (although I do think that far less than 40% of the game industry bux come from female pockets OR SHALL I SAY PURSES)... anyway yeah most of the gaming market is male, so marketing to a "boys club" in that way makes financial sense. IMO that doesn't mean there shouldn't be a critical voice pleading for less sexist brainwashing

[guardianoftheblind]

wait what are you guys talking about

[Necrometer]

top of 999 james

[james]

Thank you.

[Necrometer]

eh, this "either or" seems like nonsense to me. she's doing some novel research to present classic academic ideas in a new context. like I said before, I think her niche/specialty is translating heady/obfuscated ideas into the language of pop culture. she's a videojournalist. I don't think she tries to sell herself as anything more or less than the outline I just sketched. even if her research is merely a digest of old news, if it's new-to-her-audience, she's doing something... and I think she does bring some new ideas to the table, simply because she's tackling timely subject matter

[james]

That woman seems intelligent and I think that striving for socially-enforced universal human equality is cool. I want nothing to do with her personal crusade at all, though, and I don't want it poking around in my hobby. Feminism is a cool and awesome thing, but people are constantly using it (usually unsuccessfully) as a gigantic destructive phallus and trying to rape all of my interest with it. I like comic books, shock jock radio shows, abrasive juvenile standup comedy, and video games. Leave me alone.

The "Women in Refrigerators" concept she referenced in the video Ross posted comes from a Green Lantern comic:

SPOILERSPOILER_SHOW

Kyle Rayner, pictured in psychic space armor, discovers that one of his enemies has dismantled his girlfriend and placed her components in his refrigerator, in order to scare and hurt him. Anyone who has seen a superhero movie made after Superman 2 will recognize this as the realization of the spooky fear that the protagonist is always wrestling with, that somehow Aunt May or Lois Lane would be in serious danger if the secret identity rule was ever broken.

After this story was published, a writer named Gail Simone referenced it in an article, the point of which was simply that girls will be less interested in comic books if female characters are constantly being maimed to propel stories or raped to propel stories. It's probably a pretty valid point, and I like Gail Simone and some of the comics she's written have been pretty good.

Personally, though, I like the idea of having retarded muscle-people rip each other apart in fiction. I really enjoy these stories the way they are. If you want to fuck around with people's sexual perceptions and hack civilization in order to realize your vision of a better future, I'd just prefer that you do it somewhere else.

In most cases I think that the best comic books are informed by or have been written to exploit real-world political or social issues. I don't mind the idea of exploring real shit through the insane fake stuff. But I don't want anyone to try to change or repress my cape-paintings, video games or whatever else through external social pressure.

I absolutely do not think that gender relations are being hurt by Tomb Raider, gangsta rap, Batman comics or Maxim magazine. I just don't see it. I don't understand the model of objectification presented by some (not all) feminists, but unfortunately I find the most vocal and socially relevant complaints about the stuff I love very perplexing and occasionally threatening. Maybe I'm dumb and all this goes over my head, though. I don't want women to be exploited or for a generation of men to ingest poisonous media that somehow fucks everything up. But I don't think that that is embodied by fighting game characters with visible underwear or princesses who need to be rescued a lot. Am I dumb? If so please help

[spacehamster]

Wait... what? You're completely missing the context here. I'm telling you video games is still a boy's club and that's why they continue to market to boys.

The point could be made that it's the other way around, and the reason most gamers are male is because most games are designed to appeal to males. Which, given that the industry is apparently in a bit of trouble at the moment, might be something that's worth looking at for their marketing departments.

Personally, I think a much more interesting feminist research project would be to look at "the strong woman" and how that's become a shallow stereotype in entertainment media. Start with the expanded role of Gorgo in the 300 film adaptation and work your way from there. But I guess that's not allowed.

Anyway, this chick's pretty cute.

[doomeddisciple]

Just finished my first playthrough of The Witcher 2. Awesome. But if felt a bit short or something - Obviously there's a whole opposite path to choose, but yeah - Awesome game.

[spacehamster]

Uuuh, unless I've missed something, the PS3 isn't backwards compatible with the PS2, and while most PS1 games probably play, they specifically say they don't guarantee that either.

[caldwell.the.great]

still, i'm not convinced feminism even needs to exist in the grand scheme of things

[caldwell.the.great]

I thought they were backwards compatible with both systems...

well forget that...

nope, though you can download a bunch of PS1 classics off the Playstation Network. Some PS2 games have been "remastered" for the PS3, but your existing copies won't work.

Though I thought I remembered reading that older systems were capable of handling PS2 games and that back-compatibility was something they hacked after the first or second generation?

Here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Pl ... tion_games

[spacehamster]

I'm not 100% sure because I didn't have a PS3 until '09, but I think basically what happened was that first-generation PS3s could run PS2 games, but it was eventually deemed to expensive to produce, so the necessary hardware was removed. They've now started tossing a lot of PS2 titles on the PSN for download, but unless they managed to pull something off with a firmware update that I don't know about, that's the only way you can run PS2 games on it, just popping in the discs won't work.

[copstache]

A couple of years ago sony said something along the lines of how the ps3 was probably powerful enough to software emulate ps2 and then nothing ever came of it.

You can get a ps2 for like $30

[spacehamster]

A couple of years ago sony said something along the lines of how the ps3 was probably powerful enough to software emulate ps2 and then nothing ever came of it.

At times they also said the opposite, and about a year ago they announced there'd be a separate device to run PS2 games that you could plug into your PS3. Seems like they change their mind every week. I just hope they realize this is a major fuckup and don't do it again with the PS4, but this is Sony, so you never know.

[Necrometer]

Personally, I think a much more interesting feminist research project would be to look at "the strong woman" and how that's become a shallow stereotype in entertainment media.

Her thesis was titled “I'll Make a Man Out of You”: Strong Women in Science Fiction and Fantasy Television”, which tries to cover the issue of how post-feminist pop culture generates empowered female protagonists by shoehorning them into the masculine archetype. It's really hard to think of many cases that would get her seal of approval but I guess Ripley and The Bride (Aliens, Kill Bill) might make the cut? Thesis is only focused on TV, and disappointingly it only seems to cite negative examples. Download: http://www.feministfrequency.com/wp-con ... AL-web.pdf
This is the first time I've bothered to look at her academic writing, and it seems weak - but I don't know how that field works. Regardless, as I said above I think her "bridging" role is important and I can't wait to watch her vids. Her kickstarter made another $2k in the last 12 hours.

[james]

A couple of years ago sony said something along the lines of how the ps3 was probably powerful enough to software emulate ps2 and then nothing ever came of it.

You can get a ps2 for like $30

Used ps2 + free mcboot and a stack of DVD-Rs is like a 50-dollar retirement plan

[Krieg]

A couple of years ago sony said something along the lines of how the ps3 was probably powerful enough to software emulate ps2 and then nothing ever came of it.

At times they also said the opposite, and about a year ago they announced there'd be a separate device to run PS2 games that you could plug into your PS3. Seems like they change their mind every week. I just hope they realize this is a major fuckup and don't do it again with the PS4, but this is Sony, so you never know.

I am not a Sony fan, but I do not think it is a major fuck up. Backwards compatibility is always a pain in the ass and end up handicapping a new system. You have two choices, add hardware to run the old software or emulate the old hardware via software. The first one might end up being expensive and the latter is just bullshit, and in both cases you end up with something that is not exactly the same.

I would say fuck the old generation, if you want to play the old games then keep your old system and if you do not have one then buy one. Legacy support my ass.

[spacehamster]

This is the first time I've bothered to look at her academic writing, and it seems weak

She's running a kickstarter campaign to fund a series of Youtube videos. Hardly surprising if her writing isn't that great.

Anyway, I really don't want to derail this thread completely with a discussion about feminist academia, but I have to agree with Jame and copstache that there really isn't anything worthy of note or discussion going on here.

[Necrometer]

She's running a kickstarter campaign to fund a series of Youtube videos. Hardly surprising if her writing isn't that great.

Mike... that's genius.

Am I dumb? If so please help

Maybe her video series will help cure your dumbness!

[james]

Which of my many dumbnesses? I'd like a description of your vision.

[Necrometer]

Well at least the one where you don't even understand why anyone would have a problem with all the THE PROBLEM things. That should be an easy one, I hope? Just so we're absolutely clear, I want you specifically to know that my stance on the gloriousness of ejaculating on female faces has not waned... quite the contrary.

[james]

Well at least the one where you don't even understand why anyone would have a problem with all the THE PROBLEM things.

I just don't want them to try to deal with their problems by fucking with my hobbies and interests. I don't think that that's unfair.