Fronzel Neekburm

You know what would be amazing? If this was legit and their KS campaign actually succeeds purely because of people who pledged $1 only to tell Activision how much they suck in the comment section. :D

This is either an epic troll, or... God forbid they're actually serious about this https://twitter.com/sierra_games/status/498850248115355648

"Coming this gamescom! From the critically acclaimed mastermind that brought you the "Transformers" saga, "Cowboys & Aliens" and "Super 8" comes this summer's most highly anticipated interactive movie event OF THE YEAR!" (If you haven't heard of this game, google it. Prepare to have your minds blown!)

Most people seem to think that this will amount to milking old IP with F2P/mobile garbage or naming a new DRM storefront after a cherished (and perished) company. John Williams‘ reassurance makes me cautiously optimistic that neither will be the case. If it means more Sierra classics on GOG or a new company tasked with making adventure games with some of the old guard working on them, I‘d welcome that. If they're smart, they would offer the TGA and the Coles a helping hand in the form of moniez and manpower. In return, they'd publish SpaceVenture and Hero-U and get a share of the profits. That probably wouldn't cost them an arm and a leg and would immediately generate tremendous amounts of positive street cred among the Sierra fanbase towards the NuSierra brand. I‘d rather they first sort out whatever legal entanglement is keeping SWAT 4 from being rereleased. While most of SWAT 4 is fairly generic tactical shooter fare, it also contains two of the most disturbing, downright unsettling levels I‘ve ever played in any game.

That sentence is all sorts of depressing.

NOT THE POLITICS!!!!!!!! AAAAAAAARRRRRGGGHHHH!!!!!!!!!! MY EYES!!!!! AAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRGGGHHHH!!!!!!!!

I think I know the one you're talking about. Didn't the mods over there grace your username with a "village idiot" tag? No need to take your frustration out on me.

I wonder about that recent announcement that the first third of the game is basically finished. Does that mean that a third of the full game is finished or a third of Chapter 1 is finished?

As far as I'm concerned, they could just as well replace the woman in the first and last panel with a guy and the point would still stand. This comic isn't about women, it's about people who talk smack about video games without knowing the first thing about them (or even caring about them).

Thanks for the info, Collector! Although the news about Shivers doesn't sound too encouraging, I'm still glad to hear that it's on their radar. Strange that Activision only put Torin's Passage on GOG from the various standalone releases, I can only guess this might have been a "test the waters"-release for Activision. If I may ask, I suppose that similar bugs prevent a release of the Win-version of Phantasmagoria 2, right? I was always wondering why gog used the DOS version for that one.

No GOG release then? That's sad to hear. What about Shivers, Freddy Pharkas, Lighthouse, Hunter Hunted, Laura Box, EcoQuest,... are those all owned by Activision or are they in some sort of rights ownership limbo because nobody bought them at the time? Does one of you know?

Problem is, this comic is NOT about women! And considering that Sarkeesian habitually deactivates the comment section to her videos, I think this is actually a pretty legit observation. Only that she doesn't need to stick her fingers in her ears, she can use $100 bills instead.

Troels, you're just mad that this one doesn't involve a reference to necrophilia! :P Collector, maybe spread around this one instead. Gets the point across without anyone having to endure the smell of scrotum sweat:

Nah, that was just my own hyperbolical way to say that as far as I‘m concerned the thread has run its course. I for one don‘t really have anything else of substance to contribute and I think that both Gareth and I will agree that we‘re just running in circles now. And yeah, while it‘s nice to have the last word, I don‘t think I‘ve done a good enough job at getting my point across so far for me to warrant keeping the discussion going any further. At this point, the thread just frustrates the hell out of me.

Not going to happen this way. All that is going to accomplish is that you get the illusion of „progress“ while everything stays the same. No, I just loathe the ignorance and self-importance of people who think that reshaping the world in their image will autimatically make it a better place. Especially if they‘re working from a position that people are thinking like idiots who need to be "educated". I‘m not sure if „you" is supposed to refer to me personally, feeding into the ridiculous notion that I‘m somehow conservative or anti-equality or anti-women. Or even anti-feminism, for that matter. Frede did a good job at pointing out that there‘s both perfectly reasonable feminists and that there are raving lunatics. Maybe you should consider avoiding the Hotline Miami series then. Subtlety certainly isn‘t one of its strengths. You‘ll miss out on a great game with an awesome soundtrack though, but at least you won‘t have to face the lazy tropes or stereotypes that the game is playing with. Reminds me of this: Point taken about the lack of LGBTQ protagonists in games though. (I can come up with two: Moebius and Phantasmagoria 2, possibly three if my theories about BioMenace‘s protagonist turn out to be true. Oh yeah, and then there‘s The Sims). Still, I think it‘s silly to assume that LGBTQ lack the capacity to relate to video game characters that aren‘t explicitly introduced as gay. In turn that would mean that if a company released a game with a LGBTQ lead, then the heterosexual players would avoid this game, because they can‘t identify with the main character. And I don‘t think that‘s the case, unless you‘re talking about homophobic shitheads, but there‘s no helping those either way. I say make the game you want to make, just don‘t make any lazy, half-hearted concessions just to get on the right side of a particular crowd of people. If someone wants to make a game that deals with LGBTQ issues and characters, by all means they must make that! Because you‘re absolutely right when pointing out that there are too few about these games and that variety is the spice of life. On the other hand, what I don‘t want to see is random alterations merely for the sake appeasement. Don‘t say: „There‘s too few characters that the LGBTQ crowd can relate to in Street Fighter, so let‘s make Honda gay and Chun-Li transgender.“ The same goes for including token female characters („Let‘s replace Ken with a new character named Barbie“) or token coloured characters („Let‘s make Guile black“). It‘s lazy, hypocritical and insincere and it doesn‘t amount to anything. Wrong, have a look at page 1, that was because of something PurpleTentacle said. Maybe you should be having this whole discussion with him instead. I‘m probably the last person you want to ask, since (as I wrote time and again) I‘m at least partially sympathetic to the cause. I simply get fed up with people who are convinced that their way is the right way and that everyone else must adhere to their every whims or else they‘re backwards troglodytes who need to be "educated". It‘s odd that you‘re telling me that I‘m having an angry, visceral reaction, while you seem to be the one can‘t get past the idea that there are people out there who might disagree with a PC agenda that they consider to equate to censorship. You might think otherwise, which is fine. We both don't know the real motivation behind the examples I brought up. You see benevolence (a sincere attempt to make video games, therefore the world, a better place), I see malice (instead of actually changing the world for the better, a vocal minority indulges in de facto censorship by pressuring designers into catering to their demands). You agree to disagree and move on.

Certainly not the criticism itself. Truth be told, I think that the RPS article shoptroll posted is much, MUCH worse than the Ellison piece. Because that one pretty much explicitly calls for a removal of the things she objected to (or, at the very least strongly implies that this would be the right thing to do). And that's the other problem I have: NOBODY's played the game because it isn't even out yet! Dismissing a game wholesale because of one scene that made you queazy is one thing. But asking for that scene to not to be in the finished game because it, well, made you queazy, THAT I think IS a problem. Because then, the game as it was originally intended never gets to stand up. The decision whether or not it's still a good game despite (or even because of) that scene is no longer up to the players, because Cara Ellison and the RPS crowd have already made that decision for them. And I object to that.

Ugh, having a difference of opinion is getting to be a full time job. No, instead you‘re saying that your offspring won‘t be able to enjoy a large variety of games regardless of their gender (or sexual orientation, or religious beliefs, or ethnicity, etc.) as long as they‘re the domain of adolescent white males. Seriously, if you think that is a dialogue, I feel sorry for you. The interviewer‘s questions are worded in a very accusatory manner, like they commited a crime or something. Instead of starting with, say, "Did you expect such a reaction?", it's straight to "What are you doing about it?“. He refers to elements of the games as issues“ (as in "issues that need to be resolved“) and contemplates that "the whole thing just felt icky". The implication that permeates this "interview" is that Dennation did something wrong. It's not a dialogue, it's a witch hunt. "Do you relinquish the errors of your old ways and accept Jesus Christ as your new lord and saviour?" When Wedin replies that he kinda understands the point and that the scene has been removed for now, the "reporter" feels good about the whole thing because his confirmation bias has been validated. It's disgusting, really. Well, yeah it did. Remember that boss fight where you threw a trophy into a scantily clad woman's face, bashed her head on the floor, watch her crawl around helplessly and then bash her head in some more? It might not be sexual violence, but it sure as shit is sexualized violence. "Sexualized" violence in Hotline Miami 1 "Sexual violence" in Hotline Miami 2 Frankly, I don't see much of a difference between the two, apart from the fact that the one in the sequel is actually supposed to be a ham-fisted meta comment about the role of women in slasher movies. As I said before, I‘m just an asshole on an obscure forum. Feel free to disagree with me on my own (cynical) observations, I won't be the one to force you into accepting my worldview or accuse you of "thinking like an idiot" because you disagree with me. I'm not into the whole "You're either with us or against us" mentality. Depite your (wrong) assumption that I must be a conservative anti-PC bore, I not defending any world. In my opinion, it would probably be best if we tore it all down and started all over again. Same goes for this thread. "Fire away, Mr Kim!"

Odd, the link works fine for me. Maybe try this instead? If that doesn't work either, go to youtube, search for "VIDEODROME (1983) Interviews with David Cronenberg, James Woods, Rick Baker and Deborah Harry", skip to 6:54 and listen to the King of Venereal Horror's words of wisdom. Ahh, the "Broken" movie! Not exactly what I'd call snuff (Doc probably had something more akin to "Saudi Candid Camera" in mind), but a nice bit of transgressive nastiness indeed. The soundtrack of my youth! I remember once showing the "Closer" video in a music lesson (couldn't bring myself to show "Happiness in Slavery" and didn't have access to the internet for the full "Broken" bootleg, unfortunately), out of pure spite for our music teacher, who would always, every single time, nag about what shitty music the students brought along to play. Sure enough, he hated "Closer" and turned the DVD off after about three minutes, talking some shit about "S&M symbolism" and "Who's that supposed to appeal to?". Instead of quietly taking the abuse, I retaliated full force, with stuff along the lines of "This is one of the most important bands of the Nineties!", "Have you ever even HEARD of industrial rock?!", "This is ART, you're just an illiterate if you can't see that!" After some back and forth between me and the teacher, some other students, who've had their favourite songs shat upon during previous lessons, started chiming in "You always hate the music we bring along! You don't even give it a chance!" It led to complete chaos for the rest of the lesson, it was glorious! Those were the days!

No, you can‘t. You can‘t say „These are pixels, Cara. Just pixels.“ about a snuff movie. I‘ll let David Cronenberg explain on my behalf.

Yes, manipulation tactic. Conservative politicians like to use the exact same one whenever they attempt to pass a law that would enable them to arbitrarily restrict access to websites however they see fit under the guise of fighting child abuse/terrorism/what have you. Censorship is always easier if it‘s done under the pretense of a just cause. Her saying "The sexual violence at the end of that tutorial will single out a fifth of the female audience who have experienced sexual violence. I’m thinking about them when I turn back to the game." basically equates to Mrs Jovejoy‘s "Won‘t somebody pleeease think of the children!" Sincerity and manipulation aren‘t mutually exclusive. In your previous comment you stated the following. See, I disagree here: there's nothing "edgy" or dangerous about the video games that are currently released. They're a sanitised pastime, a diversion, commercialised to the bone. It's 100% pure escapism. And when I read this: ...I feel that what the author describes is a feeling that pretty much no game ever achieves. It makes you feel shitty about the game, about yourself for playing it, about the makers for shoving this scene down your throat. These moments of (self-)reflection are so completely absent from today‘s video games that they should be cherished instead of censored. What do you mean by "those sort of games"? And just to quickly clarify: So far there haven‘t been any accusations made AT ALL against GK. At this point, this is purely hypothetical: I think the new game will get some shit because of its content (which is identical to the 1993 game, which never had any problems as far as I know) while Frede doesn‘t think it will happen.

See, that's what I mean when I'm talking about disagreeing with the methods. Disagree with Cara Ellison and you‘re automatically accused of insensitivity towards rape victims. I wonder how many of those 20-25% are cool with having their personal tragedy be used as such a cheap manipulation tactic.

You're throwing so many balls in the air that I'm at a loss at how to catch them all. You'll have to give me some time to draw up a compelling response, especially since you largely base your point on assumptions (including some dead wrong assumptions about my own personal beliefs). In the meantime, I just have two simple questions for you (or indeed anyone who wishes to comment on these): - Assuming you played Gabriel Knight 1: If a member of the gaming press calls its content racist and sexist and people in the comment section reply with statements along the line of "Wow, I never played this game, but this sounds absolutely appaling! Won't be playing this dross!" In your opinion, is that a helpful or a harmful situation? - Please read this article (FYI, this is the very piece of writing that tipped my opinion towards the SJW crowd from one of indifference to one of hostility). My question: What the fuck gives Cara Ellison the right to air herself as the spokesperson of rape victims?

Something about your post gives me the weird impression that you never read my (lenghty) original reply to Frede. So anyway, here‘s my standpoint on outrage over video games (faux or otherwise): In other words: Feel free to replace the word „faux“ with „misguided“ in every post I made on the matter. That way nobody needs to feel unfairly marginalized. Better solution: Get rid of those in charge. PROTIP: It‘s not gonna happen if your focus is on promoting social justice in video games and rattling off inane rants on tumblr. THE MAN KEEPING YOU DOWN doesn‘t care about either. I thought pretty much the same way about both games and I feel that my silly little arbitrary ratings reflect that. For a 1.5 hour game that offers near-zero replay value, a 6/10 rating is actually really, really good.

Malachi isn't sexist, he hates everybody equally. Strawman season, anyone? I don‘t even know what the fuck you guys are trying to argue here. That I‘m just an evil old oppressor and that therefore Dear Esther is in fact the Citizen Kane of video games? Come off it!

I completely forgot about that one. That video alone makes me want to retract my earlier claims (to some extent at least, he still sucks at games). Also, The Fly is pure unadulterated brilliance!