NSFW Best Thread Ever [No SJW-related posts allowed]

[Palomides]

What's wrong with KKK?

 

[hoopy2]

Here are some important Border House updates.

A reminder of why safe places need to exist

Tonight some of the Border House authors (and at least one reader) decided to join up for a game of Team Fortress 2. Sadly, a fun game with friends turned into a lesson for why safe places like The Border House exist.

Like anyone who plays online, they got harrassed by a troll. Their solution is to build a fascist police state where nobody can say anything that could conceivably offend them:

No one should ever expect harassment. No one! The fact that this is the internet is not an excuse. We need to create a better world than that. We need enforcers. We need people in charge that will ban players who continue racist, sexist, or homophobic behavior. [...] There need to be power structures in play so that banning such people is possible.

When players behave poorly sometimes the outrage of other players is not enough to stop them.

These guys always accuse dissenters of being trolls, but when they encounter the real thing they fall for it hook, line and sinker.


Sex Negativity & Skyrim

By my current statistics, the game tells me that I have killed 1081 people and about 1300 other various zombies, animals, robots and demons (most of whom I have stabbed in the back). I have stolen 2498 items, including 1659 straight from my victim’s pockets. So why did I take such umbrage at being asked to slut-shame a woman in her own home?

...

Speaking with Svana will open up a miscellaneous quest that knocked me out of the fantasy world of Tamriel. It brought me back into a world where at least one in four western women will be sexually assaulted in their lifetimes and where women’s clothing choices are brought forth as justification by authority figures for random sexual attacks; where girls in schools everywhere are ostracized for their choice to become sexual beings or even just the rumor that they have. I don’t like this world. This world makes women ashamed of their bodies and afraid to express themselves sexually and freely. I hated that my fantasy gaming was colliding with such ugly reality.

He was knocked out of one fantasy world only to fall into another.

And what is it that makes Haelga so “Wretched”?

“It’s not just the work. It’s everything about her. She’s disgusting. I think she takes her worship of Dibella a bit too seriously. Do you know she slept with three different men in the last month alone? What kind of woman would do such a thing? Just for once I’d like to see her squirm...to rub her nose in it.”

Yes, rub her nose in it. Like you might a dog that has ruined your rug. This is an unattached woman having consensual and spiritual sex in her own home.

A character expressing opinions different than mine (that are appropriate for the game's setting)? Preposterous.

I think my problem with this quest was the lack of any kind of moral spectrum. She was either a wanton whore and therefore in need of punishment or I could just choose to not do the quest. There was never a time when I could side with Haelga.

The game consistently makes a mockery of player freedom, but clearly this one particular quest is special because it offends the author's fucked up sensibilities.

Bobby Arthur is a freelance writer and marketing communications professional living in Toronto.

All these tragically oppressed feminist types have white collar jobs and live in major cities.


Characters in Mario Kart 7

So, of a total of 16, we have 12 male characters, and 4 female ones.

To me, the saddest part of all this is that Nintendo are meant to be a company that pride themselves on targeting a broader demographic than just 18-35 year old men. Nintendo games are meant to be the sort of games that anyone can play, regardless of age or gender. Come on, Nintendo, you can do better than this.

Only four female characters? Rest assured that no girl is going to play this travesty.


An Escape of One’s Own

I exhibit qualities similar to someone who has posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in relation to my transgender identity. [...] There are events in the gaming community that triggers these experiences for me, especially the overwhelming hopelessness of under-representation. [...] When journalists, developers, and average gamers tell me gaming is for just for people who play games, looking for that escape, what they are actually doing is requesting me to settle for someone else’s escape, where I am still marginalized.

I decided to transgender myself and now I'm suddenly underrepresented and marginalized? What the hell?!


Arkh, a 3D RPG in development for queer people of color

The Arkh Project is a group of amazing people getting together in an attempt to raise funds and create a video game completely off the beaten path. People of Color are often tokenized in video games, leaving them to play one of very few roles. Queer people are consistently left in the dust in meaningless relationships, or relationships that are mocked. We’re looking to subvert that and turn it upside down. This game is for people who don’t get to be fantasy and sci-fi heroes! This game is to help normalize the millions of other people who play video games!

A dating sim with blacks and gays in it? Not even BioWare would dare to develop something like this.

 

[Father Walker]

The Border House is a blog for gamers. It's a blog for those who are feminist, queer, disabled, people of color, transgender, poor, gay, lesbian, and others who belong to marginalized groups, as well as allies. Our goal is to bring thoughtful analysis to gaming with a feminist viewpoint and up-to-date news on games, virtual worlds, and social media.

 

[RK47]

....I'm sorry to hear your TF2 outing got ruined, Hoopy2. But you'll always find a home with us at the Codex. *Pinches hoopy2's avatar* So kuteeeee.

 

[Duckard]

You know, why do they use the term "people of color" if they're trying to be pc?

 

[Roguey]

That's actually the PC term to use: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Person_of_color

 

[RK47]

Whaddaya mean, white isn't a color?

 

[Gragt]

http://www.snopes.com/risque/homosex/sagging.asp

 

[CrustyBot]

http://social.bioware.com/forum/1/topic/315/index/8893954

I have not read the thread so maybe it's not that bad. But it's called "Open Romances and Interpretive Sexuality of Characters" and it's the first new thread in that section to reach 10 pages in weeks, if not months.

So yeah.

 

[Infinitron]

Looks like someone's upset because her super-awesome self-insert isn't getting universal adoration. And Gaider's gonna gaid:

Oh man, that's just perfect.

Related: Felicia Day on the Ultima Dragons MOO back in 1995.
The irony of her handle being "Codex" cannot be overstated.

 

[Black]

Looks like someone's upset because her super-awesome self-insert isn't getting universal adoration. And Gaider's gonna gaid:

Awww, is that because "cliche" is one of those words that best describe bioware games? Apart from "bad" and others.

 

[Xor]

Cliche is probably the word I'd choose to best describe every bioware game ever.

 

[Gragt]

I had to look on the net to find out who Felicia Day is.

 

[Akasen]

http://alphatown.wordpress.com/2011/10/02/in-defense-of-the-first-person-shooter-transmogrification/

Fallout 3 also released to critical acclaim. In fact, critically speaking, it’s the best-received Fallout game of them all, being the only game in the series that has scored over a 90 on Metacritic (PS3: 90, PC: 91, 360: 93). It won numerous GOTY awards after its release in 2008, and deserved all of it. Graphical weaknesses aside, it was, like Metroid Prime a solid, great game that nearly everyone I know enjoys. Like Metroid Prime, you might be tempted to argue that Fallout 3 was not an FPS, but, again, you’d be wrong. Mechanically, Fallout 3 is yet another variation on a theme, and that theme is a good one. People love it. New Vegas didn’t fare quite as well, partly because of atrocious world design (in terms of where things were placed, invisible walls, world flatness, and the awful NPC placement), and partly because its shooting mechanics relied more on silly RPG numbers. The shooting just didn’t feel right and felt more like a ploy to force players into VATS. As a result, the game didn’t feel right and wasn’t as fun to play, even if it did have more quests, more plots, and converted a host of mods into official gameplay mechanics. One of the top mods on the New Vegas Nexus removes that silly accuracy dice roll. Also, the FOV was a lot narrower than it was in Fallout 3, leading to an unpleasant gameplay experience. Still, it managed to receive RPGOTY awards in 2010.

This guy has many posts basically like this on his blog. I originally found him on a Kotaku usually writing on Portal 2 and VALVe titles.

 

[RK47]

...this thread isn't the same without sgc_meltdown hard-hitting images.

 

[Father Walker]

Haha, this Alphatown guy is hilarious.

http://alphatown.wordpress.com/2011/12/31/why-is-it-so-hard-to-define-an-rpg/

This is just me, but I always had the idea that an RPG was a game about role-playing, and that being turn-based and all that other nonsense were just abstractions that we never needed to begin with (no reason to have a dice roll regarding the success of a rat’s dodge; the AI, physics, and engine calculation of my sword’s swing can handle that now).

I’ve been thinking about this in part because, when I think about it, I did more role-playing in STALKER than I ever did in most RPGs.

The stuff we generally think of as RPG mechanics are often unnecessary! Being turn-based, for instance, is the only way to keep a DM sane. Having dice rolls is the only way to keep people from being mad at the DM when he calls the outcome of a thing–it’s a bit harder to dispute a dice than it is to dispute a guy who randomly decides whether you hit or miss, after all.

Computers can simulate all sorts of things that dice rolls previously controlled. Now we can do things like fluid classes instead of saying “okay, you are a rogue so you can learn these things, and for no reason whatsoever, that guy over there cannot.” Those elements were a result of RPGs being tabletop games and running on computers with crappy processors. We don’t have those limitations any more, so the abstraction can be removed and people can focus on role-playing without having to worry about the excess stuff.

No matter what you say, you can’t really immerse yourself in the other RPGs. The second that you level up (yes, I get it, Skyrim does this too–I said it was an evolution of the RPG, not its apogee) or watch XP numbers fly in the air or watch your character do something for you… you’re not immersed. The game is being a game and pulling you out of the experience.

Read and learn, Codex.

 

[Duckard]

The game is being a game and pulling you out of the experience.

This is the stupidest shit I've ever read. The game is being a game, how terrible. The game should clearly be a move, or a novel, or true art!

Wait...

I made this comment on RPS.

Now it all makes sense.

 

[Skittles]

"RPGs" he mentions in that article:
Daggerfall
Morrowind
Borderlands
The Witcher 2

...

JRPGs...?

 

[CrustyBot]

He mentions in another blog post he doesn't even really like RPGs. He likes Immersive Majestic Simulators.

http://alphatown.wordpress.com/2011/12/27/daily-think-immersed-vs-engrossed

So why does he keep trying to make his arguments about RPGs?



Also:

http://social.bioware.com/forum/1/topic/315/index/8893954/14

It's not about the visual. It's about realism.

The fantasy game should be more realistic. Some women should only want to romance you if you have a certain amount of gold; some women should only want to romance you if you're a certain race; some need to judge on appearance; and personality can be thrown in here and there for added realism.

Because a person's sexuality is a huge, huge part of someone's character. I once knew these identical twins who liked all the same things and had all the same opinions except that one was gay and the other was bisexual. For that reason alone I could tell them apart; it was just so huge that it became glaringly obvious who was whom. Even when they were dating another set of identical twins I could tell them apart because the one was bisexual.

And, really, that's what these games are all about. We need more realism like that. If we don't have it then these characters just become these meaningless "avatars" of real people instead of believably real people with individual personalities.

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

Entirely unrelated edit: Good lord, my avatar has become reality. For new year's eve I was sitting here feeling mostly content and happy with the world and drinking a beer and eating a baked potato. That's not an avatar THAT IS A WEBCAM VIEW OF ME

 

[MMXI]

Haha, this Alphatown guy is hilarious.

http://alphatown.wordpress.com/2011/12/31/why-is-it-so-hard-to-define-an-rpg/

Read and learn, Codex.

Fuckers who know absolutely nothing about RPGs shouldn't write about RPGs. Playing an RPG is not the same thing as role playing. It's like some people believe that Gygax invented role playing and that 1974 was when humans realised that they could pretend to be people they are not. Fuck, even Jesus was a role player. Does that mean Christianity post-dates D&D?

 

[thesoup]

http://www.destructoid.com/why-nathan-drake-would-make-a-fantastic-homosexual-218743.phtml

Jim Sterling gonna Jim Sterling.

 

[I ASK INANE QUESTIONS]

Looks like someone's upset because her super-awesome self-insert isn't getting universal adoration. And Gaider's gonna gaid:

That tweet is a goddamn gold derpmine.

Well. Let's follow the great trail of derp!

Notice the strange emphasis on female here. TV Tropes goes on to say that is took a long time for the male counterpart “Marty Stu” to be used. “Most fanfic writers are girls” is given as the reason. So when women dominate a genre, that means people are on close watch, ready to scorn any wish fulfillment they may engage in. This term could only originate if the default was female.

Mary Sue is considered the worst insult to throw at a character as it renders them worthless. But since when are idealized characters automatically worthless? Aren’t all heroes idealized in some way? Don’t all heroes represent the author in some way? Aren’t these characters supposed to be people we look up to, people who represent human potential, the goodness that we strive for? Fantasy by nature is idealized, even the tragic ones.

If you look at the TV Tropes page for Mary Sue, it’s ridiculous. You can be a sue for having too many flaws, or not enough, for fixing things or messing things up, for being a hero or a villain.

And that’s why I don’t call characters Mary Sue anymore. There’s really nothing bad about a power fantasy or wish fulfillment. It’s what’s fiction’s about.

 

[Infinitron]

Hah. It was a female Star Trek fan fiction author who coined the term! I believe "Mary Sue" was the name of an actual character in her parody fanfic.

 

[Roguey]

Whaaaaaa? How did this happen? I won't be silenced from posting screen captures of publicly viewable tweets.