SilentBtAmazing

agree!

Sorry what I meant re: change is that this incident points out underlying power dynamics within the Video game industry that probably need to be changed or somehow mitigated if we think this kind of behavior towards women in the industry is wrong. At least that is what I get out of the various articles here; and that's what I was trying to compare to the military in a previous post. I care much much less about an individual perpetrator's level of contrition than "what can be done to protect future innocents." Because sure this was just a few Facebook posts but 100% guaranteed the same dynamics have led to some kind of sexual assault in other cases. The hotel room invitation anecdote in one if these articles to me suggests that kind of power-based sexual misbehavior has to take place. Dudes like that don't just attempt that kind of shit one time, and they're never the only one. Sorry for rambling so long about this but in the military I felt like I saw systemic things that led to sexual assault over and over and these articles suggest pretty strongly the games industry has many of the same structural underpinnings.

I don't think the apology really relates to trying to change power structures, and "justice" isn't really the objective here. I think the objective here is change or consideration of change, and is best served by her disclosure and the discussion that ensues. I think a public apology is meant to persuade us that so-and-so is not such a bad person (typically so we will maintain our relationship with the public figure or company). For me this fell short but that's an individual judgment call. I can see how others would feel differently but it just rang the bs alarms in the basement of my brain. Maybe it would be different if I were more familiar with this guy or something though.

I didn't find his apology very compelling at all and the newer Kotaku article I think points out that disingenuousness somewhat (e.g. They weren't actually "friends"). Also using an excuse while saying you aren't using an excuse doesn't make it so; I'm sure many of us have had rough times but managed to avoid sending repeated xxx private messages to business acquaintances.That said, the main thing I credit kotaku for here is highlighting the power balance issues in the games industry. I spent time in the US military and you get the impression that the same dynamics that propagated / continue to propagate our sexual harassment problems seem present in the video games industry. It's sad that this stuff goes on and that the commenter attitudes remain so prevalent - BUT - at least we are having these conversations, which I don't think people really had even 20 years ago

Any chance you are referring to Daniel Abraham's The Cambist and Lord Iron? The details are slightly different but thought it was worth suggesting

Did anyone read Neil Gaiman's The Ocean at the End of the Lane? I have had it on my Kindle since last summer and it just won a book award of some sort, but I have just failed to break away from sci-fi and fantasy junk food reading. Anyway like I said I haven't read it but his other work was pretty good and accessible so maybe something to consider.

Honestly I think the more recent reviews seem more refined - good work!

Excellent! I hope to join you guys next Saturday,

I know it is a zillion years later, but I recently started playing this game and really enjoyed your points from the past. This game will still blow your mind! -ign.com

This was great, thank you

Um so like .. anyone else crazy into this game despite being terrible at it? I have played like six hours, died 3 times including one time when I had to starve myself to death because I glitch-spawned into the middle of the ocean, and have yet to see a gun. The only time I had any kind of weapon was a baseball bat I found on a dead guy along the coast, and that time I died because of a glitched zombie jumping onto my face and then teleporting me up into the air. The thing I have going for me now is that I found some cammie pants, which have a lot of pockets. Yeah. Why do I like this???

Please be my friend. I am so scared out there in DayZ all by myself. http://steamcommunity.com/id/silentbtamazing

http://m.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-25727110 No way that linking robot and human brains can go wrong, right?

I just wanted to say good luck and I love the site. Also really enjoyed the how-to above. Lulz at trying to make the music paragraph interesting if possible. I wonder if there are in-jokes to be had in some of this formatting, like to highlight if the music includes percussion instruments (or whatever)

I thought of this thread when feeling guilt and shame over getting screwed by micro transactions in NBA 2K14, just wanted to flag this Kotaku article which has it exactly right. I will say though: when it works NBA 2K14 is arguably the best sports Video game of all time. It is just pure gameplay mechanics bliss ... which gets ruined by unnecessary micro transaction -driven DRM bullshit. http://kotaku.com/if-you-combined-battlefield-and-forzas-outrages-youd-1492456387

The brief but brilliant life of Erkki the Evil, Pirate King

We played Mario Kart and Bash Bros with my kids when they were that age and both work ok. Kart can be a little rough depending on the kids coordination and which MK you are playing.

This actually really annoyed me! For some reason probably related to my irrational love for customizable costumes in games.

You guys read some smart books. Meanwhile I enjoyed the first two Owner books by Neal Asher best out of all the sci fi and fantasy I read.

I love the Far Cry 2 (fake? jokey?) obsession around here. I played the game a few years ago for maybe 15 hours and recall it as an open world brushfire sim.

I agree with your gripe, that was mentioned an awful lot for never getting resolved. In general I found the ending underwhelming and the broad arc of the finish was really pretty obvious, right? I thought the other books / stories were just great about having interesting endings so the grand finale seemed a little extra bland by comparison.

My kids are also older-ish with my boys in their teens. We play a fair amount of games together but they definitely are way into Twitch etc in a way I am not. Otherwise they generally remind me of how I was at those ages (mostly as in they would die of bedsores from gaming endlessly if we let them).

Is it possible to just ignore the story and role play pirate king out there on my island? It seems that way... ?

Crackdown, Fable, Gears of War series but I am not positive which of those games stayed exclusive. Personally I think first party stuff is the pits outside Nintendo. The weirdest game I played and think was exclusive was that 3d Bionic Commando which was psychotically long and janky as hell but for whatever reason made a lasting impression on me.

Thank you for bringing up this thread, you reminded me that I bought Shift and Dust (omnibusi) but never got around to reading them. So over the holiday weekend I read Shift and the first third of Dust, in general I was pretty impressed. I think those first couple Silo stories were overall better but it's hard to say if that is mostly because you are learning what is going on (and so it's not that the rest are bad or anything).