Earlier this week, Gear of War designer Cliff Bleszinzki blogged on this very issue. He wrote this:
“We’re the gamers, the dorks. We’re the ones who were on our computers during prom. We’re the ones that were in the back of the lunch room who were playing D&D instead of tossing a football around on the quad. We were supposed to be the open, friendly ones, the ones who welcomed all into our wonderful geeky circle.
“We’re not supposed to be a mob that’s storming the gates with our pitchforks and torches.”
It’s time for reasonable people to pull away. To form something else. To take everything they’ve learned about agitation and protest, and apply it in a very different way. Don’t have all this on your conscience.
We need to create an industry in which people can question practices and conventions, but also where all are welcome and safe. For a start, however, we need to create an industry in which, whatever you think of their views, Quinn, Sarkeesian and Wu can go home.
We just have to make sure they can go home in peace.
via Brianna Wu and the human cost of Gamergate: ‘every woman I know in the industry is scared’ | Technology | The Guardian.
rePost::GamerGate: A Closer Look At The Controversy Sweeping Video Games
As I said in my last note on the subject: “Bring me a chorus of voices, of opinions. I want them all. I want a loud cacophony of differing viewpoints. Agreement is the death of creativity.”It’s up to all of us to make this happen.#GamerGate isn’t about conspiracies. It isn’t about scandal and corruption. It isn’t about feminists or misogynists. It isn’t about any of these things, and it’s about all of them all at once.In the end, it’s about gamers upset with the status quo and demanding something better. It’s about a group of consumers and enthusiasts not simply feeling that their identity is threatened, but believing that they’re being poorly represented by an industry and press that grow more and more cliquish and remote every year. And it’s about the ad hoc, messy series of uncoordinated events that got us here.Perhaps none of this is the answer. Perhaps the only answer is to encourage honest debate between people who truly care about video games. A conversation is a powerful thing.
via GamerGate: A Closer Look At The Controversy Sweeping Video Games.
Growing Up Sixty-Four
Kotaku has slowly turned into a haven for decent if not excellent writing about and sometimes not primarily of games.
Case in point is this article which is closer to the writing style of someone wanting to write for The New Yorker than the sensationalist gaming press we have come to know and expect.
It’s suppose to be about the N64 except it is not, and what follows is more a meditation through remembrance of an important part of the writer’s past.
I hope this starts a trend on affiliated sites like io9. Keep up the good work Kotaku!!
I was recently sitting on the sofa at Action Button Entertainment Headquarters in Oakland, California, with a good autumn breeze coming in the windows. Me and Action Button Entertainment programmer Michael Kerwin were working on our game VIDEOBALL (coming QX 20XX (please buy it (I need to go to the dentist (it hurts so badly)))). The breeze was excellent. The sun was bright. I opened a YouTube tab. I put on a thirty-minute extended audio-only video of the Super Mario 64 castle music. It filled the room. Kerwin and I worked while the music played.
It took a minute for me to notice I’d put on that music. Why that track, of all tracks? It’s a nice and friendly track. It sounds like a crisp late-summer day. It also reverberates like the interior of a building. I had the windows and door wide open. We were both outside and inside at the same time.
It was sunny and breezy and cool, and a strong memory of Super Mario 64 jumped into my skull with sudden ferocity.
So I thought about the Nintendo 64 for a couple of minutes, and five anecdotes emerged which I suppose summarize how I feel about the system.
via Growing Up Sixty-Four.
'Dota 2': the 1,000-hour review | The Verge
Without the internet, there is no Dota, 1 or 2. This game is built on a legacy of organic participation and collective creativity that’s inspiring and affirming of the best aspects of the web. Its continued existence and the funding of professional competitions are also directly dependent on the engagement of its players. While I’d prefer to see more decorum and maturity among said players, there’s still a chance for these online encounters to bring disparate people closer together. Dota 2 allows me, a Bulgarian living in London, to watch an Australian in Berlin commentating on a match taking place in China between teams from Malaysia and the Ukraine. Calling this game’s headline tournament The International is as fitting a title as any in gaming.
The humbling experience of having your face repeatedly slammed in the mud is what builds the incredible loyalty and commitment that Dota 2 enjoys today. NBA player Jeremy Lin describes it as a lifestyle rather than a game, and my experience this year has confirmed that in every way possible. I have a relationship with this game. It’s built on the trust of knowing that every screw-up and every triumph is my own. At a time when gaming is growing more cinematic and prescribed, Dota is pure, unadulterated, interactive fun. No training wheels, no assistant popups, no pausing to gather your thoughts. Thank you, internet, for being this awesome.
via ‘Dota 2’: the 1,000-hour review | The Verge.