General Discussion [ Page 65 ]

The Stomping Land

The Stomping Land is a multiplayer survival game about dinosaurs. Create traps, salvage resources, form tribes.

Stumbled on this Kickstarter project when perusing the Massive Chalice, and was surprised I hadn't heard of it yet. One of the fellows that worked on Skyrim (Alex Fundora) is making his own game, that revolves around hunting all forms of dinosaur in a massive 3D world. What he's put together so far looks fantastic, and the first stretch goal has been reached, which is allowing him to bring in other designers to add polish and depth.

I've never played Monster Hunter to any real degree, so I don't know how this would compare, but the realism alone has me hooked.... Read All

Games in Movies: Super Edit

Many of these films I haven't seen but it was awesome to see them cut together.

Tiny Platformer: A Small 2D Platformer in HTML5

If you are interesting in making games in HTML5, you will want to take a peek at Tiny Platformer. Not only is one level of pure bliss, but the author goes over the methods for making the game with code examples. He uses the Tiled editor to make the level and then explains how he wrote the JavaScript and used the HTML5 Canvas element to make the game.

http://codeincomplete.com/posts/2013/5/27/tiny_platformer/

Tropes vs. Women in Video Games Part 2

EDIT: SPOILER WARNING. Major spoilers are included in this video. Most of the games are a few years old, but a pivotal moment in Borderlands 2 is revealed.

I have yet to watch this, but just saw it had been released and wanted to share. I'll be in with my thoughts later tonight.

The first video in the series caused quite a stir around the internet (see: http://www.feministfrequency.com/2012/07/image-based-harassment-and-visual-misogyny/), and this one seems to be off to a similar, if not as extreme, start. It was pulled from YouTube quickly after release due to bogus reports, but they restored it in under an hour.

This video moves into modern gaming and shows how current... Read All

jdodson Admin wrote on 05/29/2013 at 02:17pm

Ill write more of my thoughts tonight but this video contains mad spoilers for games.

For instance ive only played two games she featured in her video in Borderlands 2 and Prey and what she showed I hadnt seen yet.

Travis Admin Post Author wrote on 05/30/2013 at 12:50am

So I've watched this now and given myself an hour to process everything. In the first video I was all-in with what she had to say, but she loses me a little in this one. I still agree with her main point, but I think at times she makes some leaps just because she's looking for all the bad. For example, when someone says "Now I'm taking something from you" and shoots the protagonist's girlfriend, that does not suggest that she was his property. That's a thing people say. When a father dies in a tragic event, he was taken from you. She also calls the protagonist fighting his demon-possessed girlfriend "domestic violence." If a demon possessed my wife and I had to fight it to make it leave, it would not be domestic violence. I don't think this is good for her case, because she's giving people something to latch onto and use that to attempt to discredit her. I don't for a second think she should shy away from difficult topics, but making new problems where there may not be any doesn't help anyone. Those scenes were already bad for other reasons.

When used in certain ways, the tropes she discusses aren't necessarily bad. She even makes a point of saying this. Borderlands 2 and God of War spring to mind for me as two examples. The character mentioned from BL2 is essential, and has more depth than most of the characters. Further, in that game, Lilith is the most badass character around.

I think what it all comes down to is how overused it is. Even today, useless female characters are way overused. With the example about the demon-possessed wife, you could avoid your loved one's attacks while trying to find some magical thing to do something to help. There are many other options here, and that's the point she was trying to make, which I totally agree with. Partly, it's a matter of game plots being incredibly unoriginal, and publishers don't want to take chances. Regardless of the reason, it isn't very inclusive to women.

I think back to my time with the new Tomb Raider. What a pleasure that game was. Not only was it beautifully done, with tight mechanics and great visuals, but it was a woman who was overcoming obstacles, finding her strength, saving women and men alike, and (while there was a lot of shooting) using her mind and keeping her wits about her to get out of some really bad situations. There's a lot of action, but you're rewarded for keeping her archaeological interests in mind as well. How many games empower women like that, or even give you a female protagonist? Not many, and that's really disappointing.

scrypt Supporter wrote on 05/30/2013 at 05:42am

At about 22:36, Anita proposes her alternative perspective on the true motivator of men in these offending games as "weakness and or guilt in the failure to perform his socially prescribed patriarchal duty, to protect his women and children."

I want an option in Max Payne 4, where you can bypass objectives by pushing a button, and your character just runs off shouting "NOT MY JOB!!"

(I'll write something more constructive later.... maybe)

Sparklepop wrote on 05/30/2013 at 06:19am

I am just going to share a few thoughts I had while watching this video, from a female gamer's perspective.

My first one, "What kinda crazy is this woman on?" Yup, that was my first one.

While she had a few good examples, most of it felt like (to me) that she was grasping for straws. I am a woman that plays video games. I have played a fair number of the games she made mention of. And never once have I ever thought anything of it.

I'm not much a feminist, some would say, because I'm completely okay with traditional gender roles. That's not to say I'm not willing to work while he stays at home to take care of the kids, or whatever else, but if they are traditional, I don't care. But I am a feminist in the fact that feminism is about equality.

To say that women shouldn't be cast in the roles, because of the messages that they send, is completely absurd. If she's that concerned, she should be saying that there shouldn't be violence in any game against anyone. And honestly, who wants to play a video game like that?

I've never once not played a video game because of how a woman is dipicited in it. And the men that I surround myself don't think violence against women is okay nor have they been desensitized to it because they see it in a video game. If either case is true of any man, it is because they have issues within themselves they need to work on, not because they saw it in a video game.

Travis Admin Post Author wrote on 05/30/2013 at 04:32pm

"To say that women shouldn't be cast in the roles, because of the messages that they send, is completely absurd."

Yeah, it is. In the last few minutes of the video she tempers everything she says in the first 20ish minutes with reason, but some of the claims she makes throughout the first part are a bit absurd.

Scrypt, to your point, I have played games where a woman is guilty for not having saved someone. Was she also socially prescribed a patriarchal duty? Is it only a problem if men have these feelings?

I dunno, again I think this is overuse of standard plots. I think how we've gotten to where we are now could be a sign of sexism in how the plots were conceived, but laziness or lack of scriptwriting budget could be just as much of a contributor to this (if not more).

The further I get from this video, the more I dislike it. I certainly think there are sexist elements holding back gaming, but I don't think this video helps much in that regard. It's disappointing. I want to see more strong female protagonists, and I want to see more varied stories in games, but those problems can be discussed more constructively than this video. In fact, I think a discussion about what the indie scene is up to, and why those plots and mechanics engage players in different ways (and arguably better ways) could help push things along. But that doesn't get as much attention, I guess.

jdodson Admin wrote on 05/30/2013 at 04:42pm

I really enjoyed her first video in her series quite a bit. It was short, concise and made some very good points. Plus it really ignited a discussion and I was glad to see that.

This video didn't strike me in the same way the first one did. I think partly because I have nearly no association to the games she presented(I've only played 2 of them) but the style is a bit different. She spends time responding to her detractors which I can understand, but don't really think is useful.

Its good to see modern examples of this trope, but again since I had almost no association with the games it seemed "fuzzy" to me. Not to say its not real or its not useful to see modern examples, it just seemed, well fuzzy. Best word coming to me now.

Beyond the spoilers, which suck but im not petty so ill let that go. :D

I think she brings up something in the video that I need to mention. Only because I am dork that likes camp. Never played the new Bionic Commando game but she mentions the dudes arm is actually his wife. She shakes her head during the video and laughs. Well ok. So I kind of view that in the same way I view Planet Terror or Army of Darkness. In Planet Terror one of the female characters loses her leg and replaces it with a machine gun she uses to kill Zombies. Yeah, its camp and I love that sort of thing.

That said, it was a fine jaunt but im not sure was needed after how strong her first video was.

Travis Admin Post Author wrote on 05/30/2013 at 08:03pm

http://penny-arcade.com/report/article/the-use-of-violence-against-women-to-justify-and-propel-the-stories-of-mode

Ben Kuchera with the important bits. I seem to agree with exactly what he's saying here.

scrypt Supporter wrote on 05/31/2013 at 02:38am

@Travis - "Scrypt, to your point, I have played games where a woman is guilty for not having saved someone. Was she also socially prescribed a patriarchal duty? Is it only a problem if men have these feelings?"

The way I understand the deeper feminist points on such things: it's a male driven society that has assigned the duty of the protector to the male, and as such implies that women are helpless and need their protection. A game that assigns such a role to a woman could be deemed as just using role reversal, and thus the same judgement would apply. Placing a sexist, male attributed role onto a female is still a role that operates within the parameters of a male dominated perspective. It isn't an example of how a woman would really act in that situation, rather how a man thinks a woman should act. Did I get that right?

This specific point is interesting to me, only in as far as the feeling of guilt by the character is concerned. I work in insurance, and have recently helped two different people in two unique, yet similar, situations. One was a father who has a son that wanted to go to a friends cabin for the weekend. The dad didn't think it was a good idea, even though supervision would have been present, because the state wrestling tournament was coming up, of which the son was a highly ranked participant. The son complained, said it would be okay, and after a couple days of deliberation, the dad agreed to letting the son go. Over that weekend at the cabin, tragedy struck, and the son was seriously injured due to an accident on an ATV, and thus could not compete in the tournament. Similar situation with the other person, a mother, who allowed her son to go to a friends house against her better judgement. The kids were messing around late at night and somehow (alcohol, I don't know...) the son was struck as a pedestrian by one of the other kids in a vehicle, breaking his right leg. This son was just accepted to college on a sports scholarship and was due to leave in a month for training camp. The common theme, aside from the tragedies, were the overwhelming sense of guilt that came from each parent. Had they just been there, or stuck to their guns and said "No", the accidents would have never happened. It's a real and valid feeling, one, I'm convinced, independent of societal structures.

Travis Admin Post Author wrote on 05/31/2013 at 03:02am

I just don't agree that this feeling is sexist. Yes, perhaps it's more likely that society has pushed men into the protector role, but survivor's guilt is strong regardless of gender.

I guess it's a matter of its overuse. It may all be down to the fact that there are more male protagonists and that's an easy plot device. Again, I want more strong female characters and interesting plots. I'm just not sure Sarkeesian has her sights set in the right place.

scrypt Supporter wrote on 05/31/2013 at 03:14am

Also, on the Ben Kuchera article, and the closing of the comments section: I get it. I think it's silly, but I get it. I certainly don't agree with his "shut up, and listen" perspective, but it's his article and can do as he wishes. There are good conversations going on out there, that unfortunately get pushed aside with the rantings of the angry mobs. I think it would serve a better purpose to have these types of things heavily moderated, rather than shunned altogether. We need to listen to both sides, have a conversation. I think it's sad that most people think that there is only one side to consider, and that any opposition is driven by hate or anger or confusion or anything other than a valid perspective. That, I don't get.

scrypt Supporter wrote on 05/31/2013 at 03:22am

@Travis - "I'm just not sure Sarkeesian has her sights set in the right place. "

This is what I've been trying to say from the beginning ;). I think her topic is valid, but her approach is weak and unproductive. I also think it's funny when people defending these video game tropes videos act like they are new projects for her, and we need to give her a chance to say her piece. She's been saying the exact same thing for years! The only variation, is that now instead of movies or TV, she's focusing on games. For my ears, it's become little more than empty rhetoric.

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Humble Bundle 8

"Seven excellent indie games to bring your day from good to amazing. Humble Indie Bundle 8 features seven incredible indie games that will keep you enthralled for hours on end. Pay what you want and get the immersive first-person narrative adventure Dear Esther; the extraterrestrial action platformer Capsized; the colorful and cartoonish multiplayer action platformer Awesomenauts; the endearing minimalist puzzle-platformer Thomas Was Alone; and the witty and charming sandbox puzzler Little Inferno. If you pay over the average, you’ll also receive the gory fast-paced top-down action game Hotline Miami and the audio-visual exploration and discovery game Proteus."

Heard... Read All

Cheerful Ghost Events Reveal

I am very happy to be able to bring you the totally new and completely awesome new Cheerful Ghost Events! Cheerful Ghost Events is a system designed to make it easy to schedule games with your friends by:

Magically translating all events to your local time. Even if your friends live in Hong Kong and you live in Portland the event will show up translated for your local time.

Some online games allow 30 people to join, some are 1 on 1. We let you specify how many people can join your events and also show you how many spots are open for events you want to join.

After you create or join an event you can easily add it to your Smartphone or Google Calendar for a reminder.... Read All

Jonathan Blow talks about The Witness

After Microsoft's XBox One reveal, it seems Sony is pushing the Playstation 4 efforts in a very different direction. Sony released a interview with indie developer Jonathan Blow(of the Braid fame) about his new game that will debut on the Playstation 4 called The Witness. Instead of focusing on TV, movies and sports, Sony seems to be focusing on games and indie developers.

Still unsure if I will pickup a Playstation 4, but so far Sony is pushing this a bit closer to my style.

In the video Jonathan talks about being an indie developer and that he can pick what games he wants to create. He talks a bit about The Witness and there is some video showing it off. Whenever I... Read All

The Firehouse: ANNE Funded, D3 Comics + New Humble

A.N.N.E. the awesome new 2D metroidvania Kickstarter was recently funded and the games creator shared his excitement in the video above. Awesome to see the game to drop early next year and for more information check out my interview with the games creator, below.

http://cheerfulghost.com/jdodson/posts/1272

Blizzard will be releasing a new Diablo III graphic novel "Sword of Justice" next month. Written by Aaron Williams and art by Joseph Lacroix this will be a pretty nice addition to your Diablo collection of awesomery.

http://us.battle.net//d3/en/blog/9762740

New Humble Weekly Bundle dropped today featuring Alan Wake. More reasons to pay what you want for games you might... Read All

Site Development: Comment Sharing & Gaming Events

comment sharing

After Travis posted about the new XBox One I commented in that post and realized I wanted to share the comment on Twitter. I didn't want to make up a post and then share that, I just wanted to share the comment in Travis post. So this evening I added a share button to the comments that allow anyone to get a URL that links back to any post comment. This lets you share any comment on the site you find useful. I have read some really epic comments on Slashdot and Reddit I have linked to and this allows you to do the same. But don't take my word for it, head into an active comment stream and check it out.

new event system - coming soon

For quite some time... Read All comment sharing

After Travis posted about the new XBox One I commented in that post and realized I wanted to share the comment on Twitter. I didn't want to make up a post and then share that, I just wanted to share the comment in Travis post. So this evening I added a share button to the comments that allow anyone to get a URL that links back to any post comment. This lets you share any comment on the site you find useful. I have read some really epic comments on Slashdot and Reddit I have linked to and this allows you to do the same. But don't take my word for it, head into an active comment stream and check it out.

new event system - coming soon

For quite some time people have told me they want it to be easier to play games with the Cheerful Ghost community. In the past, someone had to create a post and then people commented if they wanted to play. When the time came to play, sometimes people forgot or didn't join in because of timezone strangeness. Needless to say, it works for some but its not awesome.

For the last month I have been working on an awesome new system for Cheerful Ghost to schedule gaming events with the community. The new Event section will allow anyone on the site to join and create events easily on the site.

If you want to schedule a session of Left 4 Dead on Steam Saturday @ 1pm you will easily be able to do that. Since we all live all over the world the new event system will automagically translate the event times for you. So if I create an event in Portland with a start time of 1PM, when Travis looks at the event in New York he will see 4PM. It doesn't matter where you live, Cheerful Ghost will automagically translate the event time for you to your timezone.

Left 4 Dead 2 only supports 4 players so the new event system has a mechanism to hard limit the amount of people that can join if you say it should.

Events in many ways act like posts and as such after you create your event you can comment in it and share it easily on Twitter, Facebook & Google+.

I am pretty busy and as such use my calendar to schedule my life. Once you join an event you can easily add it to your Smartphone, Desktop or Google Calendar. This is a really hot feature and I just added it this evening. Its so magic seeing the event get added to your iPhone calendar :D

I am still in deep development on this but its already working well. I plan on doing a soft beta launch very soon and plan on releasing a teaser video in the next few days so keep a look out for the new goodness.

New XBox called XBox One

EDIT: Putting this at the top because it's a hot-button issue that people have been wondering about. CVG is reporting that installing games is mandatory, and that installing the same game by a second user will be behind a paywall. It isn't exactly blocking used game sales, but there will be some sort of fee.

http://www.computerandvideogames.com/407912/microsoft-confirms-pre-owned-fee-for-xbox-one/

It's a pretty slick looking box, but can we just talk a sec about the name? How many kids are going to get a used original XBox for Christmas?

It boasts a lot of interesting features. Here are a few:

THEY FIXED THE D-PAD

It will be all in one system, has TV capabilities, and will... Read All

jdodson Admin wrote on 05/21/2013 at 06:44pm

Watched the stream up until half way and then it cut out. Not a bad thing, it was interesting up until the EA stuff and I sort of got bored. I don't really care much about hearing from EA personally.

That said, objectively this looks like a really wicked sweet console. Won't be perfect, but it looks like it handles the TV, Movies, Music and lastly games workflows well. I think that important to note because it seems like Microsoft isn't making games the larger focus. Not condemning it, just noting.

I have an outstanding thought that next gen consoles will suffer because everyone has enough magic in their living room in terms of stuff under the TV. Plus Smartphones. So will people buy yet another thing that is more better? Some obviously, but I wonder if the poor Wii U sales are just how this next console generation will be? Just a question really.

Again, looks like a cool system but not aimed at me. I can Netflix, DVD and BluRay to my entertainment satisfaction and I don't watch live TV. But I could see where this would be a insta-purchase for some and the first consoles some actually get, the use-cases are quite striking for who they are targeting.

hardeyez wrote on 05/21/2013 at 10:05pm

Here's the microsoft site for it http://www.xbox.com/en-us/xboxone/meet-xbox-one

scrypt Supporter wrote on 05/21/2013 at 10:30pm

From Microsoft's Xbox One site: "Xbox One gets to know you. It learns what you like and what you don’t."

Pretty sure it won't pick up on the fact that I hate advertisements on my paid-for product, but whatever. This is pretty much what I was afraid of, more of the same. Microsoft is moving the Xbox further away from a pure gaming experience, and they can keep it. The ability to play games after installing, without a disc, is something I've always wanted, but not in this package. And a fee for used games? Forget it.

jdodson Admin wrote on 05/22/2013 at 04:48am

Yeah, if you are not keen on Microsoft's design choices I don't think the XBox One is going to be for you scrypt.

Hey Travis, are you going to pick this up?

Travis Admin Post Author wrote on 05/22/2013 at 01:38pm

It depends on their plans for used games that they haven't disclosed yet, how backwards compatibility works, and how fully-functional the Windows install is.

With used games, I generally don't bother anyway. It's only $5 cheaper at Gamestop, and if you want to get it cheaper you have to go to Craigslist or eBay or something like that. So I prefer getting new anyway. I may not like the decisions MS makes here, but really when is the last time you played a used PC game? I think this is the way things are headed whether we like it or not, and it doesn't affect me greatly anyway.

But if their Windows install will let me install VLC and connect to a server where I have all my media shared, and especially if I can use Steam on it, then it's probably going to get my money. I can effectively replace two machines.

That is, of course, assuming I can still play my 360 games. Since it's on different hardware I'm assuming there would have to be some kind of software emulation here, and I don't know if they'll have that.

jdodson Admin wrote on 05/22/2013 at 05:07pm

Yeah, it looks like it won't be backwards compatible with 360 games. http://www.theverge.com/2013/5/21/4350662/new-xbox-has-no-backwards-compatibilty

I do the used thing on consoles, generally with older titles that are $10-$20. Its a nice way to try something I wouldn't have otherwise and got a few ps3 games that way. Its how I got into the Elder Scrolls series, picked up Oblivion for $10 on PS3.

AdamPFarnsworth wrote on 05/22/2013 at 05:56pm

"Xbox and the NFL are partnering to shape the future of football — forever changing the game. Xbox One will transform the way fans experience the NFL from the living room, through an unparalleled, integrated fantasy experience on the television that is truly social and personal, and new innovations in connected experiences with Skype and Xbox SmartGlass. Xbox is proud to be the Official Interactive Content Provider of the NFL."

I saw this paragraph on Best Buy's site. It might have just tipped the scales from PS4 to One. But I'll wait and see of course.

jdodson Admin wrote on 05/22/2013 at 05:58pm

Yeah in the reveal video the fantasy integration looked pretty good. If you watch live TV and play fantasy football on ESPN this might be your jam :D

Travis Admin Post Author wrote on 05/22/2013 at 06:31pm

Adym-- http://i.imgur.com/h6CI5Gc.png

AdamPFarnsworth wrote on 05/22/2013 at 06:35pm

LOL! Good call Travis :D

I still need to watch the revel video. It's blocked at work, and last night I was busy, but I look forward to it!

jdodson Admin wrote on 05/22/2013 at 07:12pm

Hahaha. Both. I have a Mac Mini, Wii & PS3 under the TV. Id have to start tossing out systems to add another one and each one serves a purpose. Only one new system (as of now) will be compatible with all the gear of the old one and thats the Wii U. Say what you will about Nintendo, but they do that part right.

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