This Is The Underwear Department, Honest
Comment by: Sarcasmancer
Nominated by: Benguin - viking riding a manticore
There are two kind of guys who wear video game boxers: The kind who is confident that his raw sex appeal will be able to overcome any derision that arises from his choice of undergarments, and the kind who is dead certain that nobody other than himself will ever see his undergarments.
PSPgo Has ESRB Ratings Packed Right In
Comment by: Sir-Lucius has no pictchar!
Nominated by: andrewwyatt
'm pretty sure people like that do exist.
You would think that, but they're few and far between. I had one woman come into my store, had her 6 year old kid bring up GTA: San Andreas, tell me she didn't approve of the game but the kid has already played the game before so there's not much she can do, and then bought it and walked out. I shit you not.
Now maybe I missed something, but when I was a kid if I did something my parents didn't approve of they stopped me from doing it. Regardless of whether I had done it before. I used to play Mortal Kombat with my cousin when I was a kid (6-10), but my parents never let me own the game. They knew what was in it, didn't think it was appropriate, and wouldn't buy it for me.
Sure, I'd sneak playing it with my cousin when he came over or I was over at his house, all kids will sneak things, but that doesn't mean that as a parent you should just give up and let your kids play whatever they want.
She knew exactly what the game was about, but just let her kid walk all over her. It was pathetic. Tell the kid it's not appropriate and get him/her a different game.
As good an idea as this is, it will be wasted on most parents. Quite frankly, they don't care. They're 8 old year old brat brings up GTAIV, I read the list of things on the back of the box, tell them it's a game intended for adults and people with more maturity than an 8 year old, and they just wave they're hand at me, swipe their credit card, and then continue on their phone conversation.
I'm not saying all kids should be banned from playing M games. There's one father and son that comes in to the Gamestop I work at that are actually pretty cool. The kid is maybe twelve or so, but he loves shooters and plays games like Gears, L4D, and Halo fairly regularly. But from talking to him, you can also tell that he's mature enough to play those games and not be obnoxious. His dad is involved with what he plays and always asks about the ratings of games before buying. He's even brought a few back saying that they weren't appropriate for his son.
The gaming industry can do all it can to make information available for parents, but it's irrelevant when the parents can't be bothered. And the most annoying part is that the ones that pay the least attention will be the first to blame a game when something bad happens.
/rant
Racial Term in DS' Scribblenauts? Unintentional, Developer Explains [Update]
Comment by: RyanXP
Nominated by: doubtful
As a black 25 year old, I sure as hell know what Sambo is. "that Ryan fellow seemed really down to earth, and then we had that discussion about sambo and he looked like he wanted to punch me in the throat. I wonder what happened?" People using a word that they don't really know the history of is simply an error of ignorance, and once they know where the word came from, can choose to use something else. I'd rather tell people its history than sit and seethe in silence - and I don't hold it against anyone if they honestly didn't know.
While it is 'the past' for many people, it's not for all of us. I've been called the n-word within the past 2 years, so how 'past' can it be? There are a lot of people in this country who grew up with these caricatures and still believe the insidious things they suggest about people who look like me. It's not putting them on a pedestal, its enlightenment. If someone looks at the word and deliberately says it, knowing its meaning and history, then they deserve the condemnation it brings.
(For the record, 5th Cell's explanation makes perfect sense. The only fault I can find with them is choosing to re-use the watermelon image instead of choosing another, or creating its own entry, and it's not that big of a deal. )
Wii Price Drop Looks To Hit First Week Of October
Comment by: Bialia
Nominated by: captain zach america
Whatever, I'm not buying one until I can play all my PS2 games on it.
Minority Report: The Non-White Gamer's Experience
Comment by: Jakelshark
Nominated by: (Starman) AnalysisDialysis
Im white and noticed how most games that arent sports and such have predominately white male casts and what females there are tend to be the damsel in distress [I think an equally big issue]
That being said, I never thought it to be that big of a deal. It follows suit with traditional media. They need some character to be a badass space marine? Well base them off the stereotypical action type from Hollywood... who just so happen to be white as well.
So really the large amount of white characters is partially based off what is the norm in media. So take it up with Hollywood
And the other thing, in my opinion which is the bigger factor, is that people get in a riot when you have a non-white character do anything of questionable nature. Remember the hell raised over GTA San Andreas because it featured a black protaganist? It wasnt an issue when he was a white guy (or European in GTA4).
So there is something of an issue when it comes to including any non-white character (particularly black) because if they have them do anything of questional nature, people freak out and say its racist. And then going back to the guy complaining about his avatar being too-white....well if game devs did do things more associated with the actions and verbal style of blacks, hispanic, etc... then hell would be raised over sterotypes being resorted to. Like Coletrain didnt come off as a racist stereotype in my eyes because I know people who act like that who just so happen to be black. It was just a former athlete akeen to a sport like football that was written to be large and loud who just happens to be black.
I agree that diversity is great and all in game developing, but at the same time I dont think its a big deal. The game devs write and design characters based on what they know (themselves and Hollywood)...overcompensating by putting more ethnicities is still racist because you are doing it on purpose.
Example: Louis in Left 4 Dead just so happens to be black. And as pointed out about fighting games, black people tend to be put in on purpose for their drastically different appearence.
Then again, Im white...
It is a bit annoying when you see a lack of ethnicities in large groups where you know there is diversity. COD4 put in some diversity in the soldiers to a degree (as opposed to the others, then again...the Army was segregated in WW2 [note on how there hasnt been anything featuring the black corps, then again...you can argue they had a diminished role]). Assuming COD6 is about Vietnam, which seems to be the indication, I will be pretty annoyed with TreyArch considering how big of a role the desegregation of the Army played in that war when it came to dynamics of the platoons.
I may sound a bit like a hippocrite saying it doesnt matter if the main protaganist is white and its annoying if the other ethnicities arent represented when it comes to a group; however, you need to realize the difference between a protaganist who happens to be white verse a group of characters that lack any diversity for no particular reason.
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