December 2011
16 posts
http://www.destructoid.com/the-second-annual-destructoid-christmas-album-218352.phtml
Destructoid (@Dtoid) is pretty much my favourite of all the websites contained within the numerous tubes of the interwebs. They’re a lovely bunch of guys and girls and they write loads of bloody awesome posts about video games. But they also do stuff like this.
They didn’t have to do this for their fans. We’d have settled for an adorable photo of a corgi in a Santa hat and that would have been more than enough for us. But for the last 2 years, they’ve gone that extra mile and created a Christmas album. And this years is brilliant.
From the awesome opening of Chad covering “What’s This?” from The Nightmare Before Christmas (possibly my all-time favourite holiday movie) to the lovely festive message of “Kwanzaa Chameleon” by Max, this is some seriously heart-warming stuff right here. (Ok, some tracks - I’m looking at you, Jim, and your contribution of “Mummy’s Not Moving” - might not be quite as heart-warming. But it’s still good!)
So thanks to all the staff at Destructoid for taking time out of their busy schedule to make this little treat for all their fans. Happy holidays!
http://blogs.citypages.com/blotter/2011/12/gay_marriage_amy_koch_michael_brodkorb.php
This is my second post about gay marriage and I’ve only been here for like a week, but this was something I just had to share.
Hey, bigoted homophobic scumbags! If you’re campaigning to make gay marriage illegal because it “threatens the sanctity of marriage”, the last thing you should do is engage in a bit of casual adultery yourself.
In case you weren’t aware, cheating on your spouse does far more damage to the so-called sanctity of marriage than allowing two people who love each other to have that bond recognised by the state, regardless of their gender or sexuality.
Then again, if you feel the need to cheat on your husband or wife, you probably aren’t aware of exactly what this “love” thing is.
Idiots.
Bravo to the gay and lesbian community of Minnesota for sending that brilliant letter.
http://kotaku.com/5868595/nerds-and-male-privilege
Really well-written article about females (or the unfortunate lack thereof) in nerd culture. The depiction of women in games and comics has been terrible as of late. For every lady that’s strongly characterised and empowered without being overly sexualised or an insulting, walking cliché, there’s a handful who essentially strut around in the buff and do nothing to help females feel like they’re being welcomed into nerd culture.
I’ve been guilty of the “white knight” mentality before in the past - there’s nothing more attractive than someone who shares your interests and hobbies - but I grew to realise that I was contributing to the problem by basically shining a spotlight on such girls and yelling “Hey look! She’s a girl AND she’s geeky! Look how amazing she is!”
I imagine it’s already hard enough for females to get involved in games or comics or whatever, by virtue of the fact that a lot of female characters are extremely off-putting or offensive; the last thing they need is to be singled out and focused on by guys simply because, in terms of nerd culture, they’re in the minority. And that sucks.
On a related note, this article (http://madartlab.com/2011/12/14/fantasy-armor-and-lady-bits/) really hit home with me. I’ve always had a problem with how some female video game characters are designed. It makes zero sense for men to be decked out in head-to-toe steel plate armour while the women have to walk around in chainmail bikinis. It’s ridiculous. It’s insulting to women. It perpetuates a negative stereotype: “nerds buy things with pretty women in them, so we have to show a lot of female skin to entice them, regardless of how much sense that actually makes.”
That’s bogus. Not only does that make it sound like male nerds are a bunch of sexual deviants, but, far worse than that, it effectively excludes females; how are they supposed to suspend their disbelief and relate to these characters when they’re so patently ridiculous? How can they grow attached to these avatars?
It’s even worse when a game does one character really well while another is the polar opposite. Let’s use the Soul Calibur franchise as an example. Soul Calibur is a series of fighting games where combatants duke it out in weapon-based battles. One of my favourite characters is Hilde:
Hilde is super cool. She has an awesome suit of armour that not only looks aesthetically pleasing, but is also practical and functional (obviously the lion head shoulder piece is purely ornamental.) The joints look flexible enough to allow easy movement while providing sufficient protection. All of Hilde’s internal organs are covered, and with the possible exception of some sort of crotch-plate (guess you can’t win them all) this is a perfectly sensible costume to wear in a battle.
At the other end of the spectrum, there’s Ivy:
Ivy is ridiculous. I despise Ivy. In my eyes, she is a terribly designed character. Is she supposed to be attractive to guys playing the game? I can’t think of any other reason why a female would wear these tiny strips of fabric and claim it’s an outfit suitable for fighting in. I know I’m supposed to suspend my disbelief - after all, it’s a game franchise about swords and sorcery, featuring zombie pirates and demonic suits of armour among other outlandish characters - but this costume is just too off-putting.
You know there’s something intrinsically flawed about your character when her legs are the least exposed part of body. Everything about Ivy comes across as tacky and unpleasant. Not even her back-story as a dominatrix-style character makes her more appealing; sure, it fits with her design, but that doesn’t make me suddenly want to play as her. Hilde is an honourable knight who proudly fights for her king and country - that’s something I can respect.
I don’t know. Maybe I’m just suffering from “Male Guilt”; perhaps I am trying too hard to convince others (and myself) that I can’t stand how females are represented in some forms of media as a way as a way of distancing myself from those that actively engage in belittling and demeaning behaviour. All I know is that if I was trying to convince a female friend to play a round of Soul Calibur with me, I know which character I’d use to show her how interesting the cast of the game was, and that would be the redhead.
