=\

For the record, I have not only skipped class and work to play games in the past, I have fidgeted in my seat waiting to get home and play. Dishes went undone, the cat cried and bit my controller for attention, and I've even cancelled other engagements to stay home and play. The only reason, really, why fewer women play games is that they are socialised to concern themselves with different things than men, and the industry can hardly be considered to be as friendly to women as it is to men. Advertising has a huge influence feels targeted by a certain product or service, and most game advertising is saying, "BOYS ONLY!"

I thought you meant the original game. =\

I think virtual worlds are neat, but I lack the energy for them. It's just not worth the time spent away from the real world.

Competition is good, I suppose, but many have tried and failed. What makes the iPhone any different? Srsly.

It's always the case that I sit down to eat and play a little GTA or something, but then I never take my hands off the controller, and end up parking and listening to the radio while I munch. This would alleviate the problem with certain games, but I've had the good fortune of, despite my gluttonous predisposition, never becoming overweight. Would this... change that? I don't think I want to find out.

Although I refuse to believe he just happened to be recording himself when "that just fucking happened." Still, man. Nothing to be humble about.

Ah well, it was fun while it lasted.

*highfives*

@TalKeaton: A Force to be Reckoned With: Some people believe saying "fuck you" is rude, and you shouldn't do it. Some people think that because they have a legal right to say it, that they should, whenever and wherever and to whomever they like.

Those of us who think it's rude don't like the idea of having to listen to that kind of crap in a context where it's meaningless and inappropriate and they have as much right to say "I don't think he represents the spirit of the event and many of us would feel better if he wasn't the keynote speaker" as anyone else has to say "fuck you."

I honestly hate these stupid arguments about who has a right to say, feel, think, or do what. How freaking pointless. How does anything get decided, then? Or does it only apply when you agree with the person or sentiment under fire? We all have to agree at some point, and if people don't express themselves, shit won't get done.

My crime? I stared out the window or drew instead of paying attention in class and read books in the library during recess instead of playing with other kids.

I don't miss grade school. I'm freaking homeschooling my hypothetical future children.

I'm very interested in where they're going with this Sheva character, however.

I had more to say, but I feel really stupid.

When I was 15, a guy I met online flew across the country to meet me. Golly gee, would my parents have killed me if they knew. He stayed at a hotel in town and I contrived to have coffee with him all of twice (I have been a coffee drinker since the age of 5... maybe that's why I'm so bitter).

Anyway, he was stationed overseas and we lost contact. No harm was done. He never hit on me or anything. Would I approve if I had a child who did something so ridiculously dangerous? No. No, I wouldn't. I'm really freaking lucky.

I just want to add that I don't think this is true. I don't think GTAIV is hostile to women at all. I think one or two missions make me queasy as a woman, but for the reasons you mentioned at the end, "I think Rockstar's core tenet, actually, is to force people to consider moral depravity, not to beg them to embrace it." saying it's hostile to everyone is pointless. It's not hostile to anyone. It begs people to think about crime and social depravity; to examine it critically. I think the game asks us to think about think about misogyny, too.

@enigma89: No: Kotaku shouldn't have bothered to respond to her article because it was poorly written and full of misinformation. However, I assure you, she's a rational feminist. She had no idea what she was talking about, I'll concede that, because she hadn't played the game, but it's hardly fair to level such broad insults.

@myDingling: Thank you for taking the time to write all that.

No one said it was okay to twist representations of male forms into unrecognisable-as-human proportions as the obverse of boobs-bigger-than-the-head rule; just that it doesn't have the same alienating effect. I could go on... but really, I'm not saying anything that hasn't been said a million times by smarter people.

Oh well. Like I said, it wouldn't be a problem if you could just control the size (Can you control the size in this game? I don't know much about it). Look how you want to look is what I say. My problem is with having an ideal forced on you and being silenced by a million raving jerks if you don't like it.

You know, I've always wanted the ability to control body shape and bust size in my customisable characters, like in Oblivion and stuff (I'm strictly a console gamer). I am short and although by no means overweight, I'm not exactly a waif, either. Sometimes I want to play a fertility goddess instead of a fairy. You know?

It's not the most important thing in the world, and they're fixing the problem, so no harm no foul.

We shouldn't toy with such grave insults.

Also, this is adorably hilarious.

But he's right. This should be the minimum. Bioshock was not on the level of SotC or Portal. It was not as consistent or whole; parts were missing and the theme of choice was not well carried through. It was, however, still miles beyond what we've generally come to expect, and for that I was grateful. I was both sad and happy that the fat had been trimmed from GTAIV. In many ways I missed SA and previous GTAs for all their camp and non sequitor, with floating skulls and pills. At the same time, I thought, GTAIV has moved into a realm beyond which those things serve any purpose. They don't serve the story or enrich the setting, and so they were sloughed away.

And anyway, it's not like I can't still play the older games. They haven't gone anywhere.

Games have been the jumping off point for a few relationships, for me. For one thing, I have no interest in a dude who can't handle a controller, but for another co-op in Halo or level grinding FFXII and other such stuff have been serious bonding experiences.

@Crawl to China: I'd like more just for an excuse to return to it. I miss that game.

I'm a myope. It's what I get for being into digital illustration and video games.

Although really, I should say upset/disappointed. I'm not actually "offended."

I also said, if they hadn't bothered to justify this choice with "can't be arsed; it's not like it'll make it a difference" is offensive. It's not like women don't exist. There are probably women on their development team, in fact. They obviously thought about it, but decided against it. That was a choice. I get to be offended by that choice and it's justification as much as I get to criticise any other aspect of the game I may or may not like. You, me, everyone does. Why is this aspect so freaking sacrosanct? I'm a gamer, too, and I get to talk about the crap that matters to me.

...and if you were a Farcry developer, and you took offense that something you said or did offended me, I'd just think you were myopic and self serving.

As a woman who prefers shooters to other kinds of games, let me just clarify that the only reason this upsets me is that I was actually interested in the game until, as per usual, the developers went out of their way to say women don't really matter that much. As others have said, why get a choice at all, if that choice is meaningless? They could well have given us no choice at all, and this conversation wouldn't be happening. I have largely had no trouble playing as a dude in most shooters because the dude that I was playing had a name and a place in the narrative.

When I played Crackdown, however, the lack of female faces was noticeable and I found it profoundly frustrating. When you have a choice, and something as obvious as a token character that represents the other %50 of the human population doesn't exist when they've gone out of their way to include every racial minority in the U.S., it feels like a huge slap in the face. Maybe some of you don't notice because your faces aren't missing from picture, but a lot of you also recognised that.