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Denver, 11:33 PM
Sat Nov 28
18 posts in the last 24 hours
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11/21/09
It's a shame most gamers had to first hear of them over MadWorld, but then again that's probably as far as most went to know them. Maybe if people actually read the article and not the title, they'd see through Owen's words that NIMF was more reasonable than sensational.
11/21/09
Seriously, though, FotF is losing Dobson, so PluggedIn will eventually collapse, so might it be that, gasp, parents will actually have to read reviews or take a FUCKING INTEREST in their children's activities before they purchase and expose them to things willy-nilly?
Perish the thought!
11/21/09
11/21/09
In-fucking-deed!
Not that any of them listened.
#speakup
11/21/09
Blame the media
Blame Video games
Blame violent movies
But never blame us, we love our kids.
11/21/09
Wait.... doesn't FotF do reviews of games? So I'm not sure what your statement means....
I mean wouldn't it be the people reading those reviews that ARE taking interest? As opposed to the parents who go out and buy their 7 year old GTA, just because they want it?
Meh, I dunno just a thought....
11/21/09
11/21/09
I mean, of course retailers shouldn't be selling M-rated games to kids, but those kids' parents need to be active in the decision-making process of what kids get to play. Do the parents complaining about video game violence believe that they need to spend more time with their kids, or figure out how to control them to some degree? Of course not, and considering that it still happens with TV, movies, books and music, I don't think that these parents are ever going to own up to their shit.
11/21/09
[www.pluggedin.com]
11/21/09
Yeah, I'm not really sure what the problem with that review is?
So you are saying parents who read overly conservative reviews of video games don't care what their kids are doing?
I would think it is the opposite... Those parents are being overprotective if anything... which... is pretty much their right as a parent...
I think the ones who read reviews like that are well aware it is their responsibility to 'filter' what their kids are playing...
#speakup
11/21/09
Put it this way, like any policy wonk group, their report card is mostly agenda-shaping and it plays to a particular media landscape that can sell well. Like when you need to announce that someone or something is destroying the nation (e.g. family, civility, sex education). Just for a counter-example, look at your local library's seasonal recommendations for young adult & childrens reading. The quality of the reviews are substantively better, not because they're apolitical or objective, by being well-grounded in competing standards/ideas about what we do when we "read."
What's being sold here aren't reviews but a very specific filter, a packaged lense to make categorical distinctions based on the absurdist logics that image=action. So yeah, nothing wrong with it as a lifestyle service but hardly a site for gaming reviews. They're not very well informed by educational development sciences either--so most of the "reviews" come from grossly unnuanced views of how children do learn and develop. "Media is toxic" might sum their premise of gameplay. This isn't to say you can't find a decent or competent summary there, but Amazon.com can do that as well (often better considering the avid gamers who buy off it). I'd rather tell parents to skip the site and buy a forthcoming 4 inch screen DSi. Then, sit beside your kid and let them play. Watch/observe/interact/talk/laugh/ as they play.
So, if we're really going to suggest parents understand video games so they can create limits and help their child's play, shouldn't we also defend the simple idea of better subjective knowledge? Even if you're conservative, liberal, or nothing of the sort, shouldn't we want that? Even if you're not a parent or in the family, don't we need reviews that do more than issue report cards?
It's a parent's right to keep themselves ignorant or ill-informed by only using certain filters; until the kid loses it, until they're in the media & court.
P.S. telling parents to be better-informed isn't the point; as gamers, we want reviews to be more than just opinions or judgments or another advertisement.
11/21/09
Very nice, very eloquent, thank you.
11/21/09
That site's reviews, at one point, seemed like they were even more unreasonable than some of Plugged In's reviews may seem now, but Al Menconi's site had an overhaul at some point and became much more receptive to games, even the more violent ones, without compromising the overall point of the site (giving parents a reasonable assessment of a game's content without damning a game just because it's violent, necessarily).
That site quit reviewing games but moved some of them here:
[www.reviews4parents.com]
Another possible alternative is [www.whattheyplay.com] , which (if I'm not mistaken) was founded by two ex-1Up members and serves a similar purpose.
08/02/09
Someone brings up an issue about diversity and the majority of gamers throw a hissy fit like irritated nine-year-old's getting their toys taken away.
People like to see identifiable characters in all entertainment mediums - from movies, to books, to sports. Why should video games be any different? AND why are gamers getting so agitated whenever this issue is brought up?
08/02/09
08/02/09
08/02/09
08/02/09
08/02/09
08/02/09
08/02/09
Thank you for the refreshing comment. You explain exactly why diversity is needed and why there is a need for something besides the same old shit we have been playing for decades.
08/02/09
08/02/09
Thats something else to take into account. You probably have more representations of Orcs, Elves, locusts n elites than humans.
08/02/09
Off topic, is this site being really slow for anyone else?
08/02/09
But I agree, no one isn't going to be buying a game because of the sub cultures represented in it.
Most games all you see are your hands, and there's alot of games that now let you choose your character, so apart from being a different racial type you can be a completely different species too.
08/02/09
07/20/09
07/20/09
07/20/09
Blame men and society all you want, but when nearly every girl a guy will hear on a TF2 server does nothing but hammer on the mic about how they merely ARE a girl it can get annoying quickly, and leads to bad feelings.
I could also bring up about a million stories of girls acting like dastardly attention-craved demons from my time in a top-end WoW guild, but I could probably write a book and make more money that way.
The fact of the matter is, is that while there are probably 5 women who game that do not fit my description for each one that does, the ones who do are what stick in many peoples' minds and lend themselves towards these negative sentiments. It is an issue both genders have to work out.
07/20/09
07/20/09
Interestingly enough I don't think I've ever run across that sort of gamer girl. Most of the ones I know are completely normal. Or slightly insane, but not in the way you're describing.
07/20/09
07/20/09
Oh, you're soooo persecuted, gamer girl ... Only the majority of the guys in the world fantasize about you.
07/20/09
Go blow yourself.
07/20/09
I still consider "girl gamers" to be hard to find; I know only a couple of girls who play games, and they play puzzle games. Conventionally, anything of rarity is to be held in a higher regard than usual, and finding a girl who enjoys your misunderstood hobby as much as you do is, understandably, something to be desired.
If this isn't accurate, and there really are almost as many girls playing Halo as there are guys, then we have an issue where either girls aren't comfortable with letting people know they play games, or guys just aren't paying attention.
[God DAMMIT K. I don't like my text disappearing when I click outside the box]
It may be fair to say that the industry has only just reached mass market, and so we don't yet know how to interact with everyone else, including women, on this platform. It might also be fair to say that games are inherently competitive, and that the male proclivity towards this kind of competitiveness is offputting for women.
There's so many factors to consider as to why, if this actually is the case, many girls don't feel comfortable playing games - far too many than I care to outline while my comments disappear everytime I click outside this box. It is probably because we consider "girl gamers" special or exceptional, and that there has been enough social pressure on women to adhear to stereotypes, that they don't feel comfortable with it. Compound this with how misrepresented video games are as a whole, and you've got a pretty steep hill.
Being male, my insight is obviously limited. I'd still go out of my way to get a girl that plays games, but only for the same reason that I was excited when I found out my last girlfriend liked 24 and Led Zeppelin.
07/20/09
07/20/09
07/20/09
I agree. I will tell someone I play games and suddenly something changes. Those who don't realize that girls play games (see above comments) need to know they they do. I would love to play a match on Halo without having someone make a big deal (usually in the negative) about me being female. Especially because I am not very good at Halo which seems to make for even better cannon fodder. If people just stopped going "OMG ur a gurl?" or "You play gamez?!?" maybe all the hype would die down. And that would be good for gamers everywhere.