My mind went super pretentious on the way home, trying to construct a Discordian theory of academics. Basically a normative theory using terms like discourse, deconstructionism, hegemony and e-prime to deconstruct language itself and liberating man in the process. I have had too much coffee today so the theory kept collapsing on itself. I think I better do something braindead, like playing Star Wars: The Old Republic, to save myself.
The idea that perhaps the way women are portrayed in fandom is aleetle sexist is regularly met with denials, justifications and outright dismissal of the issue. [...] Part of the notion of male privilege in fandom is that nothing is wrong with fandom and that suggestions that it might benefit from some diversity is treated as a threat.
Harris O’Malley, who usually writes over on Paging Dr. NerdLove, allowed Kotaku – yes, Kotaku – to repost his article on nerds and male privilege. It’s absolutely worth a read and he does ask an interesting question about how criticism like this is often seen a threat. If you doubt that, you don’t have to look further than the comments.
Today was finally the day that I could go to my retailer to pick up my Collector’s Edition of Star Wars: The Old Republic. I went there two days ago, but even if they had the boxes in stock they wouldn’t give them out – it wasn’t at all frustrating to hear. Either way, it is now mine. It’s huge, it’s beautiful. I’m such a sucker for CEs, that I pre-ordered it the day it was announced. Luckily, I also paid for it at the same time; something I could do back then, since I had an actual pay-check. As a freelancer and student, my current economy would never allow such a luxury.
Since I was a bad boy yesterday and didn’t write anything here, I decided to grab my trusty iPhone (I am lazy and didn’t get my real camera) and take pictures while I unboxed it. Take a look at the photos below to see it in action. It’s yummy. Remember that you can scroll through the pictures using your keyboard’s directional arrows.
(For collectors of Star Wars toys – yes, there are some weird painted symbols on my AT-ST. I was 12 and tried to convert it into a Warhammer 40K Ork vehicle. And yes, I want to go back in time and slap myself for it.)
I guess this means that the game is officially here, even if some of us have already been playing for a few days. Hope everyone that ordered the boxed Collector’s Edition are happy with their purchase. I’m very satisfied myself.
I had dedicated myself to writing a blog post every day. Today I didn’t. The picture above is the reason why. So sue me! The smell of a fresh new MMO is in the air. It’s almost a magical thing. I’ll be back with Star Wars: The Old Republic-impressions tomorrow. Now I need to go to bed and dream about Coruscant.
I’ve had a pretty lousy day today, so I’m not sure I have the brain capacity to actually write something clever. The great thing is that other people have that capacity! Two different texts turned up on Twitter as I settled in for some brainless skirmish-running in Lord of the Rings Online – two texts that I think you should read.
‘Ooh, if you can’t take it, get off the internet’ comes the call from over clutched handbag. Well if you can’t speak to a woman without resorting to wholly unimaginative sexist copypasta, how about you get off the internet? He who repeats sexist tropes wins? I think not. Sexism can be funny, same as racism, homophobia and so on. But only when it’s used to actually say something.
Mark Sorrell takes on sexism in the games industry, looking mostly at the comment-sections of sites like IGN. The piece by Emma Boyes linked in his text is awesome (I felt similar about Saints Row 2), yet the comments make me want to curl up in my sofa and never talk to another living human being again (you have been warned). They are not only filled with sexist bullshit, they are also filled with blatant anti-intellectualism. Something the world, and the US, doesn’t need right now.
And speaking of comments…
One of the common comments I frequently find beneath game reviews I’ve written goes something like this: “You forgot to mention x, y and z!” with x, y and z equaling whatever pet peeves or mandatory videogame features that a particular gamer holds near to his or her heart. [...] I didn’t mention x, y and z in my review because I don’t care about x, y and z. The fact that I don’t give a squirt about frame rate or the ability to invert the y axis doesn’t make me a negligent critic. It just makes me a critic with way different concerns than you.
Gus Mastrapa looks at one of the most annoying comments you can get when you publish a review of a game. We’ve all been there. I am amazed that we still, after so many years, have to point out that reviews are subjective. That you and me, as reader and writer, probably won’t feel exactly the same about a given game. “Find a critic that is after precisely the same thing you’re after and you’re set for life,” Gus writes. “Just don’t get your hopes up.” That’s something many of us have been saying for years. But it’s worth saying again and Gus puts it eloquently. Bookmarked and saved for future linking.
I’m a bit disappointed that we went through the whole episode 66 of CSICON‘s resident podcast Claims of the Normal without making a single reference to Order 66. Especially since we talk about both Star Wars: The Old Republic and Star Wars Galaxies. The latter will be facing its own Order 66 later this week, while the former will spring to life. It’s the circle of life of MMOs, or something.
Anyway, we did record another episode. We do not only talk Star Wars MMOs. We also talk about Skyrim (and Naked Fridays in Whiterun), how Jon Shute smells, Ark’s impressions of Everquest II: Age of Discovery and how boring Breki is being with his World of Warcraft. Then there’s Quiz Kids and Deathmatch of Death and More Death. As always.
Head over to CSICON to download the episode (and subscribe to the podcast while you’re at it).
It’s not hard to find the root of the problem here: You think we’re dumb. You think your audience is so stupid that they’ll be amused by YouTube rants and health potion gags. You think we get our jollies out of watching girls bite cupcakes off conveyor belts. You think videogame references make a good substitute for humor.
Games journalist Jason Schreier writes an open letter to the Spike VGAs.
All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain.
Games are constantly in motion, usually only captured motionless in official screenshots and gamers pressing their print screen-button to catch that perfect shot. Most of the resulting screens, just like in normal photography, tends to turn out pretty bad (and official screenshots, for some reason, tend to be quite uninspired). Dead End Thrills have collected some of the most amazing shots though and some of them – including the picture from Alice: Madness Returns above, or a shot of a dragon swooping in against the player in Skyrim – are truly beautiful. They are true representations of the creativity of the graphical artists working in the industry.
(Thanks to Vicachu for the tip. The link is in Swedish, but he’s collected a whole bunch of amazing screenshots in that blog entry so it’s still worth checking out.)
I’m in complete denial that Andrew has shaved his head. Even if he makes that shit look awesome. (This is really for Victor, since he clearly needs to do some homework.)
Twi'lek smuggler? Of course.
Next week, Star Wars: The Old Republic will open its doors to the masses. It’s the biggest MMO-release of the year and for Bioware and EA it’s one of the most important games they’ve ever released. I was pleasantly surprised by the beta and can’t wait to get into a new Star Wars-game from the same studio that gave us Knights of the Old Republic. I’m also supposed to review this thing for a Swedish magazine, so I got the feeling that a lot of my spare time will have to be dedicated to it. That’s not me complaining, really.
But am I ready? I had plans! Things I wanted to do before The Old Republic came out.
I wanted to reach Rivendell in Lord of the Rings Online. Yes, I could potentially run there from the Forsaken Inn, even at level 25 (my Hunter, my Rune Keeper is level 34 or so), but that would be cheating! I have been playing LOTRO on and off since release and my goal has always been to reach Rivendell through normal adventuring. I won’t start compromising with that yet.
I wanted to finish Skyrim. Do you ever finish Skyrim? I guess you do, but I’m not even close to that point. At level 25, I’m currently going through the Thieves’ Guild storyline, having abandoned the main story ages ago. Things just seem to take so much time in that game – there’s always a cave to crawl through, or a village to rob completely blind. The thing that has started to get to me is that there is so much dungeon crawling in Skyrim and many of the dungeons look more or less the same. I guess I should invest some time in crafting instead or something. Or just finish the damn thing.
I wanted to at least get a peek at Everquest II GU 62. I wanted to do the Frostfell-quests. It seems like that’s not going to happen.
I wanted to leave Empire space in EVE Online and go back to null-sec, cozying up with some nice alliance. I’ve made initial contact with one and I hope to find the time to talk to them in the near future. I guess that is one of those things I will simply have to make time for, somehow. I have no idea how, though.
So in the end, it looks like I just have to accept defeat. Star Wars: The Old Republic is coming out. It’s even coming out sooner than we expected it to, with the head start (for some) kicking into gear on the 13th instead of the 15th. I hope to be in as soon as possible, as I need as much time as I can possibly get for the review. With school being another constant in my life right now, and with a paper to write during what is usually known as the “holidays”, I hope to at least get a glimpse of the sun at some point.
How about you? Are you ready or do you have a mental bucket list of things you want to get done before your soul is sucked away by the new MMO-monstrosity?
