Amentep

To be honest I can't really make a distinction between indie and AAA companies; the truth is what draws me to a game is an interesting hook and what keeps me playing is solid execution of that hook. There may be some adjustments to cosmetics (I'm not going to expect AAA graphics from an indie product) but generally speaking story, gameplay something is going to have to draw my attention.

True story, I liked IWD better than BG and played it more times than BGII.

My point is that just because a person is female doesn't mean they're inherently unbiased anymore than a person being male would be inherently biased (or at least unaware of their bias). Rather than argue the power of a message because it comes from a preferred gender, wouldn't it be more informative to discuss - in the context of feminism - the idea of latent bias created by a patriarchy? Or to just dispense with and allow people to voice their opinions and argue politely but intelligently against their points with your own? We would agree, however, that the experiences would be anecdotal though? Interesting as they may be you'd need a large pool of women's experience to try and make a generalization about the population as a whole that would stand statistically. I certainly welcome women posting here, but I also think that we have to acknowledge that most of our arguments in serious topics are heavily influenced by our individual experiences (mine included). I agree, as more women become game developers, there will be more diversity of input into game design. I think part of getting more women interested in game development has to be through interesting them in being gamers themselves, though, and expand that ability to see them translate their interest in a game into envisioning themselves making that game.

Nope. Grinding has become a moot issue after those interesting posts above. The remaining one is this: Should the game reward the player for combat? Wouldn't it be important to define what would be a valid "reward" for combat here as well? Because a reward could be in form of loot, it could be in the form of XP, it could be in the form of satisfaction over you're prowess with the combat system, but not all of those will be seen as rewarding by every group.

Not defensive, I dislike the intellectual argument path that this seems to be following. If we're all molded into gender-bias by the patriarchy, then a woman's view has the potential to be just as influenced by patriarchal thinking as a mans; the only value in their view would be if they recognized their own capacity for gender bias. But asking for more women in the thread is not arguing for more self-aware posts by those who recognize the influence their society has towards gender norms and expectations and instead is valuing an opinion simply because it comes from a preferred gender which seems to fly in the face of equality in representation. If we're not accepting the patriarchy induced gender bias, and we accept it is okay for some things to be gender biased, then we're still arguing for a random grab-bag of anecdotal evidence rather than trying to get a gauge of gender groups as a whole. I thought Oby was a guy, but that's my point. Do we even have one active female member ? How can you be sure any poster is actually male or female over the internet? But side-stepping that concern, I believe there are several posters who've identified themselves as women still posting on other areas of the forums.

Did the former female members tell you they were chased off by us? You started this thread, but expected us to not comment?

Its just not that kind of game; a bit unfair IMO to criticize the game for something it never tried to do, or even pretended to have (in the same way that its unfair to criticize BG for not having PST's story).

Am I the only one who wants to see the PoE forums taken on like this...

Beat the expansion for DIABLO III. Overall I thought it was well done, a lot longer than I figured it'd be. Now starting over with my Witch Doctor, a character I'd played a bit with previously but never followed through with.

Watched Stephen Chow's JOURNEY TO THE WEST (2013) which is a sort of a "origin story" to the classic novel. Its similar to Chow's Kung Fu Hustle which is alternatively hilarious and serious. How it plays out is pretty clear to anyone familiar with the story, and the end isn't as satisfying as it could be as it trades on knowledge of the novel story to maintain a satisfactory conclusion. Also watched AS ABOVE, SO BELOW (2014) which I thought was really interesting. Its part horror film, but its also an occult journey, with ideas similar to those about the path of alchemistry/magic. In that way it can be seen as both a horror film and an occultist film. The story is kind of an occult horror "National Treasure" with an archeologist trying to validate her deceased father's research into Nicholas Flammel and the philosopher's stone.

The problem is that the definition in the dictionary *is* the definition. That another group has tried to tie a second meaning to the word so they can kill that word and declare victory is part of the issue. Just as feminists don't want to be labeled as feminazis, we have to be clear that its inherently wrong to declare that gamer - a word that applies to anyone who games by definition - is now just privileged white male game players who don't want women playing their games in a concerted effort to break opposition by making the word toxic, making the "society" of gaming toxic. Its important to understand the difference between definitions and labels.

I liked the page layout and the design sense. But the author reveals some suspect logic, IMO, very quickly - followed by Emphasis mine, but isn't "Maida's point" that there shouldn't *be* a distinction (ie there shouldn't be an aisle for Maida, but an aisle for all kids with all kinds of toys), not that there hasn't been enough stuff made for her (to form her own aisle)? Good post, I am glad you like the article. Its an old one that Alan posted last year but I found it again recently To answer your question I see where there is a contradiction in the points you listed. Yes there should be only one aisle that contains games suitable for boys and women. But I think the highlighted part is not what Maida wants, in other words her own aisle, the author is just highlighting the fact that you couldn't full a Maida aisle with games for her even if you wanted to There's an implication in the author's statement that the lack of history of a "girl's aisle" in video games (after gender neutrals Pong and Tic-Tac-Toe) is a problem in the industry, but this conceptually misses Maida's point. The author is trying to draw a conclusion from Maida's dissatisfaction in toys and draw a conclusion to gaming that doesn't parallel Maida's thoughts. Instead the author continues to perpetuate the idea that - unlike what Maida actually wants - what she needs is an aisle of games just for her. The thing she's saying is wrong with the toy system.

You lie, you care enough to post that you don't care. Is it care, or narcissism that lead to my post? You decide! but do you care about usc cheerleaders? honestly, the last few years has seemed like a bit o' a drop off... the ucla squad mighta' been superior. sadly for Gromnir, Cal cheerleaders is rare amongst the nation's best, and the UCI/UCSB (our other alma maters) might not even current have cheerleaders. sad. HA! Good Fun! Can't say that - in the scheme of Cheerleaders - that USC has really left much of an impression on me. *This* is the winning argument for my side. I wish it were the logic of our arguments, which I believe are sound. I wish it were our clever delivery or witty repartee, which I don't think everyone appreciates. Simple inertia and the fact that it's already implemented on one side and the fact that the majority of folks probably don't care will be what wins the day. I think the mass of backers want the devs to go with their primary instincts. Not really inertia (I didn't care when it was announced before we saw the implementation). Philosophically I don't think there is a "one style fits every game" approach to XP delivery. EDIT: Damn punctuation. I think I'm going to become the ****ing e e cummings of the board just to keep from editing posts for missing a question mark or a period or a full stop/period or an ellipsis or a guillemets or whatever...

I didn't vote because I don't care.

What else are you going to call someone with a doctorate in Witchcraft; Dr. Witch? Witch, M.D.? Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman?

Back when I was a regular USENET user, there was a poster on a forum I went to who'd start new posts with people he'd gotten into arguments that were titled "> is a child molester". He'd make 10 or 12 of them each time the person he didn't like argued with him in an attempt to back them off (at which point he'd declare Internet Victory)*. You don't have to have an agenda to be a bully online. That said, I think its human nature that groups that tend toward homogeneity will bully the outsider to their group, even if the outsider is another group. Anyhow, sorry about the BleedingCool tempban. If it wasn't against my principals I'd go there and find the thread you were tempbanned in and act like an asshat until I got temp banned (or full banned) in solidarity. *in the end he finally did it to a guy who hired a lawyer and the lawyer filed a libel suit against him which he won. The guy's ISP dropped him and when he returned he didn't continue that debate "tactic" anymore.

Sound to me like its MATT: ...and just now came out with...I mean just maybe last month right? That south park... Feargus: uh...a few months ago. MATT: Yeah a few months ago we got South Park the Stick of Truth... Unless they're more specific later on, that's what I remembered (and double checked, about 1:20 in on the video).

If you miss a lot do you get a perk called "shooting blanks"?

I don't disagree, necessarily with your position. But you don't have to be a radical feminist to destroy someone's reputation if that's your goal.

http://witchwind.wordpress.com/2013/12/15/piv-is-always-rape-ok/ This is what we are dealing with folks. They can not be reasoned with, have no problem destroying lives to further their agenda, and are likely in need of mental health services. While I agree that the position of the piece is fairly radical, I don't see anything in that article that indicates a desire to destroy lives and am loathe to argue mental health issues just because I don't agree with a position. I think when you start throwing around accusations like rape, you can inflict serious damage on the personal and professional lives of people. As to mental health, I just don't see such logic coming from a sane person. What she's writing about isn't an accusation of rape at least not in a legal sense and I doubt her arguments would mean much in a legal proceeding. Mind you she'd blame that on the patriarchy, I'm sure.

He'd just had his wizard cast "Grease" you see, and...

http://witchwind.wordpress.com/2013/12/15/piv-is-always-rape-ok/ This is what we are dealing with folks. They can not be reasoned with, have no problem destroying lives to further their agenda, and are likely in need of mental health services. While I agree that the position of the piece is fairly radical, I don't see anything in that article that indicates a desire to destroy lives and am loathe to argue mental health issues just because I don't agree with a position. Vis-a-vis Leigh Alexander - if a person talks like a bully and acts like a bully, they're a bully. She just doesn't seem to care that she is one, but it doesn't make her any less so.

Ah well, I didn't find it on a search, but my search-fu is having some trouble.

Why couldn't Diablo 3 just call the class "Shaman"? Shaman. One word. ONE word. Witch Doctor my arse. My guess is stereotypes; there are many different types of Shamans. Witch Doctor - even though the origin applied it differently - has in common use really tended to refer to West African shamans and shamans derrived from West African traditions. It'd be nice to see something like that (although the expansion class is a surname rather than a place name and the first word is just a Latin word).