Blarghagh

That's messed up.

Looks like Nintendo, spurned on by disappointing Wii U sales, has finally decided to step into the mobile market, partnering with Mobage owners DeNA. It doesn't seem like Nintendo will develop any of the games themselves at this point. They also announced to be working on a new handheld concept called Nintendo NX that would not be a part of the DS series. EDIT: Correction, it's not yet known if it's a handheld or a console.

Mr. Too Elite For Me hit the nail on the head there. Essentially a leftover.

Someone sent me this and I don't know what to do with it.

Welcome to Life, the Universe and Everything.

Haha, that's hilarious. What's the FBI going to find? Their own IP on all those threats? Well, that makes sense then. I've lost all of mine already, they were all impacted at the same time. Not allowed to do more than two at a time for safety reasons, so they kept pushing for about a month. Undid a lot of the work my braces did when I was a kid too. But yeah, that will make you angry about anything.

In all fairness, I'd also argue that there isn't any meaningful anti-black sentiment in my country because we have a very low ( Would this reasoning be faulty? No. But your country probably didn't gas millions of black people to drive that percentage down. But again it's also not fair to claim the anti-semitism that existed 70 years ago is still there simply because Germany lacks the Jewish population neccesary to show it's true colors, allegedly. It's essentially guilty before proven innocent. As I said, racism stems from ignorant people needing a target to blame, and that target is going to be the most noticeable minority group. Black people and jews do not get targeted because they are not numerous enough. If you were to ask me if there's racism against Turks, Russians or Muslims in Germany, I'd answer "absolutely" with the clarification that it's not any more severe than the same kind of racism you'd encounter in any country. There isn't severe racism towards Jews because they are not large enough of a group to warrant that here. But to claim that WERE they large enough, anti-semitism would run rampant and therefore Germans are still anti-semites? That's guilty before innocent. And if you're argument is that following my logic, racism against jews WOULD exist if they were a large enough minority, then the point is I feel as though the implications being made are that Germany is especially bad about anti-semitism or something, as if Germans instinctually hate Jews or like we have a +10 attack bonus towards them or something. No, the same potential (keyword right there) that would exist here would exist anywhere. I'd actually bet it'd be more diminished here just because there's sooooo many Germans I know who dare not comment on a single Israeli issue or the like out of some kind of belief it's "not their place" to speak on something involving Jewish people. Moreover, to be fair, you're naming two of the biggest cities in the country. (and do you call it Küln in Dutch or was that a typo...?) You'll always encounter more crazies in the bigger cities. Anyone who's ever lived in a city can tell you this. I was born in San Francisco and I could tell you a dozen stories about the loons I or my family/friends encountered there; they're practically a gossip/small talk subject. But you can also find Neo-Nazis in the USA, or in any country. If we wanna name a country with serious Neo-Nazi problems, go to Russia. My main point is that I consider it unfair to attribute anti-semitism to Germany because that seems to be an argument based on Germany's history, and not on Germany's now. I feel just as likely to encounter a Neo Nazi in New York City as I am to encounter one in Berlin, and I would attribute the existence of many of the articles being linked as stemming from the fact that it's easy to see a Neo-Nazi in Germany specifically and get uncomfortable or make extra hoopla about it. That makes sense in a way because a German of all people should understand why it's wrong, but it's still very unfair to attribute anti-semitism to Germany because we happen to house the very same Neo-Nazi loons you can find in every country. The only country that has more serious issues with Neo-Nazis (aka, it's not that random idiot who lives on the streets or a rather small and powerless group of idiots, but rather a larger group with actual influence), to my knowledge, is Russia. tl;dr I feel you guys are unfairly exaggerating the percent of anti-semites within Germany because it's easy to do so given Germany's history, but the reality is that the same percent can probably be found within every first world country. Oh, I wasn't making percentage judgements. I was just responding to your anecdotal evidence with my own. And I believe Küln is the German name, right? I forget what the English and Dutch names are. I go there occassionally because the best amusement park in Europe is close to it and I'm a bit of a park nut.

I very much agree with this. Both disillusioned young people and young people who just want to look cool by rebelling will take any chance they get to appear anti-establishment, giving real neo-Nazis the perfect hook to get their claws into young people. Of course, some people will just blame it on the gaming community.

Fair enough, I'll defer to you - I rampaged through Y and didn't really pay attention too much. The only thing I remember from that one is that my starter was a ninja frog who wore his tongue like a scarf. EDIT: By the way, Liz Finnegan, better known to people who follow #GamerGate as @lizzyf620, is now writing for The Escapist. :D

Just an FYI for everyone, we're fine with people posting a handful of pictures or scans as preview or commentary. That is fair use and you're completely allowed to do that. But don't post scans or pictures of the entire book. That would be copyright infringement and we'd be forced to take it down. Carry on.

I'm fine with people talking about it, I just fail to see why it's such a big deal. Meshugger in particularely seemed rather upset about it. Okay so I can't really discuss this in the order you bring it up, so let me try to summarize: A book like Robert McKee's STORY is vastly different than the IGDA supporting something it calls "Best Practices". In my line of work when a body publishes "Best Practice" the intention is for these to become industry standard. Often, there will end up being penalties if you do not follow these Best Practices, including no longer being able to participate in the organization that published the Best Practices because you don't follow their Best Practices. Who do I think its geared for? Its Best Practices. Its intended to be an industry standard. Otherwise it'd be "Some friendly suggestions" or even "Localization: Some Pitfalls You Might Want To Think About If You Like To Do That Sort Of Thing". Sure I may be making a lot of ado about nothing. BUT there is language that I've seen before in other industry standard Best Practice documents in my own line of work so I have a hard time accepting that the goal of the document isn't to become industry standard. And it DOES effect game development. To you in a negligible way, to me in a worrying way that makes me see developers second guessing their ideas so as to not offend some theoretical person "out there". I didn't see this post because of the page break, sorry. Anyway, I guess we're going to have to agree to disagree and I'll take your word on what "best practices" means since I'll have to be quite honest in never having seen it before. In any case, IGDA doesn't hold enough sway to make something industry standard - it's a fairly controversial group, even before #GamerGate. Many game developers view them as con artists.

Well, by that definition this very forum is an outside influence because people in the PoE section are constantly posting long game design rants about how a game should be made. Doesn't make it required. Or significant.

So the entire thing is about post-development localisation except for one paragraph that essentially says "if you're afraid localization will be difficult or a lot of work, you could decide to keep it in mind during the design level" and now it is entirely about how you make the game? That seems a leap to me, I guess. Also, outside influence? Again, nobody is obliged to do any of these things, they can just choose to if they find it important. That way any single programming tutorial or design guideline could be counted as an outside influence in the same way. I wrote a couple of resources on tension arcs and storytelling back in school for fellow students, does it mean I'm an evil outside influence on the creativity of everyone who reads it, even if they choose not to use it? And who do you think this is geared towards? The artiste indie dev who writes a game about the holocaust that will obviously have offending content? Or that company that makes educational, cartoony games for kids that are meant to be non-offensive due to target market? Again, it just seems like much ado about nothing. Looking for malice where none exists.

But - if someone actually is offended...will they actually care? I mean if I, for example, were to provide documents indicating that GAME ELEMENT A is actually statistically very likely to exist in the setting of the Game. And that GAME ELEMENT A is important to the story of the game, and therefore relevant to the experience created. And that after much consideration that we kept the element in knowing some people would be offended by it because the context really indicated we needed to keep it. You think that would *matter* to the offended? That they would stop their protests about the game, stop petitioning to have the sale of the game stopped because "Oh well, they explained it, we're all good"? The only way to appease the offended would be to never do anything to offend them in the first place, yes? I'm not sure I agree with your interpretation. That seems like a design level thought, this cannot exist solely at the time of localization. Yes, that particular bit is design level thought - suggesting the possibility of considering localization beforehand because that would mean that you would have to change less would you find localization important as your personal developer choice. I'm still not seeing it as a big deal. This is essentially "do you find localization/not offending people important? here's some tips".

Gambling was replaced with Voltorb Flip? Battle Mansion is something different. Emphasis mine: They actually ARE saying that. Are you kidding? I know you to be an intelligent poster so I'm a bit surprised at this level of misreading or misunderstanding of a text. No, they're not saying that. They are absolutely not saying that. First of all, they're talking in a business sense, regarding target market. Meaning a developer choice to make the change if they consider the target market to be important - they are completely able to not give a crap and release it anyway. This is all about changes they suggest you make if they want the game to fit in more with that target audience. But more importantly, they suggest only making minimal changes, especially because it says cultural issues are very rarely major. About that, it solely states that it can occur that an entire game's premise could be considered offensive, but it does not state what the developer should do if this would occur. It only states what to do for minimal issues. IGDA had the business sense to add gg_autoblocker to its twitter account and blocked their own members. So excuse me for being suspicious about their suggestions and senses. So this is a grudge rather than having actual issue with the content then? Listen, I don't like the IGDA any more than you do. In fact, I met one of the founders and the guy is a complete and utter tophat wearing joke of a man who can't wait to shove his opinions down your throat. I believe I described him as "he should be wearing a sign that says 'come hither women, I will protect you as you are too weak to do it yourself'". But being suspicious and and attacking specific pieces of output for issues that simply do not exist in said output just makes you look like a paranoid conspiracy nut. It's not like all the IGDA does is "SJW all over the place" - they've been releasing resources for developers for a long time now and most of their output is useful, and not everybody in the IGDA supports their #GamerGate stance (such as their South American representative who got put on the autoblocker). What you're doing right now? That's guilt by association right there, that thing that everyone else uses to paint you and me as harassers. You can't pretend to be better than these jerks if you're not actually better. As i said earlier, this is not some random memo. It's from the executive director that has the trust of the board of directors. If she steps down, i will concede to your point. What? The IGDA one wasn't written by a woman. Or do you mean the person who promoted the autoblocker, then changed her mind and removed it again?

Perhaps, but the idea that you need to document decisions if someone wants to complain that it was culturally insensitive...? Does anyone tell a writer to document why they wrote something in case someone complains?1 Is it just because people think books are irrelevant? This may be a knee jerk reaction to this - BUT it is IMO very important for creative endevors to not be shackled by things other than the vision of the creator. No one is sitting there telling Stephen King (or even Kingsley Stephens of Pebblebrook Missouri)2 when writing his novel he needs to be culturally sensitive. You just don't think about that with literature (even "low" literature). Why do we accept it with games? Its not like bookselling isn't a business. I dunno, this just bugs the **** out of me, I admit. Maybe its a wrong impression, but man reading that document really did feel like reading a big "We're not telling you how to make a game...but let us tell you how you should make your game." 1Its not like any of the offended cared why Salman Rushdie wrote the SATANIC VERSES back when the fatwa was issued on him. 2You could make an argument that the editor serves this function; maybe its even true. And of course the publisher is not under an obligation to publish a work just because it exists. But this conceptually feels very different to me than what this document suggests. This isn't about how to make your game. This is about localization. The game you've made for your core audience remains the same, you're making a version fit for another territory. The Japanese have been doing this for decades. You'll have a Japanese version and a US version. An example would be that they took the slot machines out of the American releases of new Pokémon games - because Americans don't want gambling in their games. It's a tiny mini-game, it was replaced with another tiny mini-game. How does that change the core experience of the game? And as stated, this is simply advice. No one is obligated to follow it. Also, as someone who has read a handful of books in two languages, I can tell you that they very much do localize books further than translation, and that's only from American to European sensibilities. EDIT: And in game development, pretty much every decision gets documented anyway.

Emphasis mine: They actually ARE saying that. Are you kidding? I know you to be an intelligent poster so I'm a bit surprised at this level of misreading or misunderstanding of a text. No, they're not saying that. They are absolutely not saying that. First of all, they're talking in a business sense, regarding target market. Meaning a developer choice to make the change if they consider the target market to be important - they are completely able to not give a crap and release it anyway. This is all about changes they suggest you make if they want the game to fit in more with that target audience. But more importantly, they suggest only making minimal changes, especially because it says cultural issues are very rarely major. About that, it solely states that it can occur that an entire game's premise could be considered offensive, but it does not state what the developer should do if this would occur. It only states what to do for minimal issues. IGDA had the business sense to add gg_autoblocker to its twitter account and blocked their own members. So excuse me for being suspicious about their suggestions and senses. So this is a grudge rather than having actual issue with the content then? Listen, I don't like the IGDA any more than you do. In fact, I met one of the founders and the guy is a complete and utter tophat wearing joke of a man who can't wait to shove his opinions down your throat. I believe I described him as "he should be wearing a sign that says 'come hither women, I will protect you as you are too weak to do it yourself'". But being suspicious and and attacking specific pieces of output for issues that simply do not exist in said output just makes you look like a paranoid conspiracy nut. It's not like all the IGDA does is "SJW all over the place" - they've been releasing resources for developers for a long time now and most of their output is useful, and not everybody in the IGDA supports their #GamerGate stance (such as their South American representative who got put on the autoblocker). What you're doing right now? That's guilt by association right there, that thing that everyone else uses to paint you and me as harassers. You can't pretend to be better than these jerks if you're not actually better.

Emphasis mine: They actually ARE saying that. Are you kidding? I know you to be an intelligent poster so I'm a bit surprised at this level of misreading or misunderstanding of a text. No, they're not saying that. They are absolutely not saying that. First of all, they're talking in a business sense, regarding target market. Meaning a developer choice to make the change if they consider the target market to be important - they are completely able to not give a crap and release it anyway. This is all about changes they suggest you make if they want the game to fit in more with that target audience. But more importantly, they suggest only making minimal changes, especially because it says cultural issues are very rarely major. About that, it solely states that it can occur that an entire game's premise could be considered offensive, but it does not state what the developer should do if this would occur. It only states what to do for minimal issues.

Either way, the IGDA holds pretty little sway anyway. It's not like their thing means much. Majority of artists and programmers don't know the thing exists.

This is far more business related than ideology related. Nobody is telling anyone to change allegorical meaning. This is more, if your game includes being a butcher, in India you may want to change the beef to something else. Hardly self-censorship rather unless killing cows is core to your experience. Plus, IGDA isn't telling anyone they have to do this, it's just and article describing things you may want to keep in mind if you choose to localize your content. I'm not entirely sure what the big deal is.

Let's take it further. Book translations often end up changing puns and whatnot around. Is that cultural marxism?

That's weird, I don't even live there, I've just spent maybe 3 weeks total in my life there, and I managed to encounter neo-Nazis in both Berlin and Küln. EDIT: To be fair, in Berlin it was in the zoo and I can't be sure they weren't tourist hooligans bored and stirring up trouble, so I'm not sure they were German. They got thrown out, too. But in Küln they were literally passing out leaflets with neo-Nazi propoganda, so I'm positive on that one.

Saw this on Deviant Art, by the talented Sandara.

I have a massive migraine. Not fun.

Doesn't sound like it worked for you this time.