I’m Back

I didn’t specifically intend to take a break the last few days, but it turned out I kind of needed one.  I think going forward I may try for a weekday posting schedule.  We’ll see if that gives me sufficient time to recharge the idea tank from week to week.

The past few days have mostly been spent in Final Fantasy XIV, trying to get caught up with the rest of my Free Company.  I made it to level 50 in the bard job on Sunday, and have already upgraded most of my bard equipment to item level 90 gear with currency from daily and weekly hunts.  I’m at the second 8-man quest in the final bit of the storyline.  Another player in the company also hit 50 today, so I think we may try to do those quests as a company tomorrow.  We’ll see if that works out.  Tonight the rest of the company was busy running the Bahamut’s Coil raid for the first time, so I busied myself doing my crafting dailies and today’s hunts.

When I wasn’t playing FFXIV this weekend, I was reading through the Dungeons & Dragons 5th edition Player’s Handbook.  I’m going to be playing in a campaign with some friends from college to give it try.  Mostly it’s a bunch of the same people who participated in my first 3rd ed game back when that system was brand new.  Most of us are in the same area, but one’s in Shreveport and another’s way up in Delaware, so we’ll be using Roll20 or something like it to handle things.  Between the system looking really solid and the people I’ll be playing with, I’m really looking forward to it.  I’m betting I’ll get some amazing stories out of it too.

Source: Thalen Speaks
I’m Back

AggroChat #21 – Larva and Whales

This week we are back to the original show cast of myself, Ashgar, Rae and Kodra.  We talk about all sorts of things from lots of Final Fantasy XIV, some Lego Minifigures, and Kodra regales us of his adventures in a quirky game called English Country Tune.  Similarly he has been working his way through his Blaugust prize Closure another interesting puzzle platformer.  Reacting to the news of Wildstar switching to a Megaserver infrastructure, we ramble on about the importance of servers in games, and how the server we are playing on Cactuar has definitely increased our enjoyment in Final Fantasy XIV.  Finally Rae is unleashed and there is much League of Legends drama discussion as I try and grok the difference between the LCS and the Challenger scene.

Who Are the Creators?

Zubon at Kill Ten Rats wondered how much meaning “From the Makers of” really has.  It’s a good question, especially with the way the software industry works.  Big layoffs after games ship are not uncommon; case in point, ZeniMax’s recent layoffs.  Which parts of Elder Scrolls Online were the devs who are no longer there responsible for?  If another company ends up hiring a decent subset of those devs, does that mean the project they work on next is “from the makers of Elder Scrolls Online?”

It gets a little easier to anticipate what you’ll get when you start paying attention to individuals.  Of course that only works with the relatively rare superstar developer who makes a name for himself.  If Peter Molyneux, or Richard Garriott designs a new game, you’ll have a pretty good idea of what that game’s genereal feel will be before you play it.  When Double Fine was founded after Lucasarts decided to quit making games that weren’t Star Wars, I knew that these were the guys that made Day of the Tentacle and Grim Fandango, so I could feel pretty certain that whatever they made next, I would enjoy.  And sure enough, Psychonauts is one of my all-time favorite games.

 You see the same thing in other collaborative media, such as comic books.  Marvel Comics puts out a lot of books, and they vary greatly in feel.  Most readers aren’t going to like every single thing they publish.  You can follow specific characters, but you’ll find that as the creative team in control of a particular character changes, the feel of that character’s adventures will change too.  Spider-Man written by Todd McFarlane was vastly different from Spider-Man written by J.M. DeMatteis.  If you want stories with a particular feel, you’re better off following creators from book to book.  I know if I pick up a story by Mark Waid, or by Kurt Busiek, that I’ll likely enjoy it, no matter what characters are involved, or even which publisher it’s from.

Source: Thalen Speaks
Who Are the Creators?

Gamers Behaving Badly

I really didn’t want to have to talk about this.  I’m not a confrontational person by nature.  I much prefer to be diplomatic and avoid saying anything that could be divisive.  But ignoring the problem is part of what’s led to things getting as bad as they have.  So we’re going to talk about it.  Or at least I am, right here and now.

You’ve probably already guessed what I’m referring to.  I’m not going to use the stupid term that’s been coined for the whole mess because a) The original ‘scandal’ that it refers to is a tempest in a teapot and b) I refuse to contribute to the tired nomenclature.  Watergate was called Watergate because the apartments that were broken into were the Watergate Apartments.  Slapping ‘gate’ on the end of something to make it a thing is just old and tired now.  Please stop.  I digress.

A woman made a game.  Already this was enough to get her harassed by the scum of the internet.  It happened to Jade Raymond nearly a decade ago and now it happened to Zoe Quinn.  Then her ex-boyfriend decided to drag their personal past out and throw it up on the internet, and the hate parade really got going.

The level of hate on display is absurd, and at the same time nothing remotely new.  This has been going on for years.  Those responsible for the harassment claim to be trying to defend gaming from some horrible feminist-led conspiracy to control the gaming press.  A lot of them probably even believe what they’re saying. Conspiracy theorists usually really do think they’ve uncovered a secret truth.  But what this is really about is fear.

Video games have historically been viewed as a male space.  In reality, there’ve always been women playing video games, but men have been the majority and the medium primarily served that audience.  Over the years that view has been challenged.  More and more women are playing games, making games, and talking about games.   At the same time, women in general have been less willing to silently endure the constant background radiation of sexism that society exposes them to.  Put that together, and the He-Man Woman Haters contingent of gamers find their sacred space in danger.  In response they lash out, desperately trying to protect their ability to be sexist pigs on the internet, and just make things worse for everyone.

But here’s the thing; they’re going to lose.  These toxic gamers are a tiny subset of gaming as a whole.  They seem bigger than they are because of their bluster and bombastic rhetoric, but they’re in the minority.  And I think they’ve finally gone too far and shown the rest of us that this isn’t something that can just be ignored.  It won’t be quick, and it won’t be easy.  It’ll take those of us who just want to play games and have fun getting out of our comfort zone and confronting them.  But it’ll happen.  I have faith.

Source: Thalen Speaks
Gamers Behaving Badly