Why we can't have nice things #9,873

[lafinjack.livejournal.com]

Comments

[hardblue.livejournal.com]

Anita Sarkeesian has a statement in today's NY Times.

~ ~ ~

Instead of celebrating the expansion of the industry, though, some who self-identify as “hard-core gamers” attack these types of interactive experiences as too casual, too easy, too feminine and therefore “not real games.” Players from marginalized groups are also targeted because they’re seen as outsiders, invading a sacred boys’ club.

The time for invisible boundaries that guard the “purity” of gaming as a niche subculture is over. The violent macho power fantasy will no longer define what gaming is all about.

Those who police the borders of our hobby, the ones who try to shame and threaten women like me into silence, have already lost. The new reality is that video games are maturing, evolving and becoming more diverse.

Those of us who critique the industry are simply saying that games matter. We know games can tell different, broader stories, be quirky and emotional, and give us more ways to win and have fun.

As others have recently suggested, the term “gamer” is no longer useful as an identity because games are for everyone. These days, even my mom spends an inordinate amount of time gaming on her iPad. So I’ll take a cue from my younger self and say I don’t care about being a “gamer,” but I sure do love video games.

-- Anita Sarkeesian at NYT (http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/29/opinion/anita-sarkeesian-on-video-games-great-future.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=c-column-top-span-region&region=c-column-top-span-region&WT.nav=c-column-top-span-region&_r=0)

[kittymink.livejournal.com]

Great article.

[hindustar.livejournal.com]

Great read. Thank you.

[the-rukh.livejournal.com]

People be all shanking each other over who gets to be a real gamer, I'm just over here playing Sim City.


Sim City 4 that is. The new Sim City game is for posers.

[fizzyland.livejournal.com]

I thank the original Sims for teaching me I was unfit to be a parent.

[telemann.livejournal.com]

A friend just reinstalled the Sim City from 2000 on his computer, he missed it that much.

He had to install DOS Box to get the game to run, but it loaded just fine.

[chron-job.livejournal.com]

I do the same with MOO II

Been playing that damn game since the 90's. It's my version of Solitaire.

[anfalicious.livejournal.com]

Best of the series :P

[yes-justice.livejournal.com]

I love how popular the VM's and emulators are now. Saw one ported to a phone recently.

[telemann.livejournal.com]

Yeah it's great stuff. I use a UNIX VM for a software application that was written in the 1990s for the Acorn system, and ported to Unix by a math guru at Oxford. Works beautifully ;)

[yes-justice.livejournal.com]

It just blows my mind that we have hardware that is powerful enough to allow software to simulate the hardware of only two decades ago.

You have to wonder if our universe is a "virtual machine" or running "on the iron" so to speak:

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/16/opinion/sunday/is-the-universe-a-simulation.html

[telemann.livejournal.com]

Yeah it was a big help, because the friend of mine has literally 1000s of files in the Acorn format, and they were all worthless until I got the software, and the Unix VM set up. What's really cool are friends who have the IBM 3270 mainframe OS emulator set up on their PCs, complete with VTAM, and JCL ;)

[lafinjack.livejournal.com]

Excuse me, Sim City 4 is the last one they made, it IS the newest one.

It's also a shame the Duke Nukem sequel never saw the light of day, and that there was only one Matrix movie.

[drivebyluna.livejournal.com]

When are they going to come out with those Star Wars prequels? I think they would be a great idea.

[anfalicious.livejournal.com]

The 2013 version is just called Sim City, Sim City 4 is 11 years old (unless you're being all hipster like the rukh and denying its existence :P).

[lafinjack.livejournal.com]

[anfalicious.livejournal.com]

I totally would have got the joke if I'd read your post properly :P

[lafinjack.livejournal.com]