15 Questions about #Gamergate



THE SINGLE MOST IMPORTANT BATTLE OF HISTORY!

 I'm hoping that by the time I publish this, it's subject matter will no longer exist. I'm sort of a late adopter, and I mostly sat out of the whole ruckus of Gamergate.

From the beginning I had my doubts. I couldn't muster any anger about some lady doing some sex things to some people from some sites  I didn't even frequent. I haven't had a console in roughly 4 years. Money problems is all.  And really, the whole thing where there where so many accussations and counter accusations...I wrote like 3 articles about it I never posted because it hardly felt right. Even the one I did post kind of makes me feel a little stupid, in retrospect.

But in that time I also watched. Gamergate was not about the pretty blond lady who made a text game, or the lady dressed as a sultry lumberjack, it's members said. They claimed that the media had them figured all wrong, and if we only listened. 

But if I don't assume Gamergate is about what it absolutely looks like it's about, by all the evidence and, frankly with most of it's supporters replies on Facebook (it rhymes with Shmarassment of Shwomen, and Shmear of Shmeminism), then I have to ask a question or 15 of them. Speak now, Gators. I will listen.

15. Why don't you harass men more?

I mean, yeah, not ALL the Gamergators or whatever, threaten women with death and rape. Some threaten some men, too. But...there's a disproportionate amount of hate towards females, who, like Leigh Alexander, aren't even being extreme: they're just disavowing the harassment.

This threats make you look bad and sexist. You should be equal opportunity harassers and harass some men. It's not like there's a shortage of men that disagree with your opinions.

People of all genders and creeds agree that Gamergate is just a bunch of idiots from 4Chan out to spook women for laughts. Won't you prove them wrong?


14. What are you gonna do when games grow up?

Continue

Public Domain Rescue Jam 2014!

Update: The Jam now had a different name, Public Domain Rescue Jam, because some other people also did a similar jam in May with the same name. Frankly, I'm completely envious and trying to come up with a way to differentiate our jams, even though mine does not have a specific theme. For now, it's still what it is.


A new year brings a new hope! And at least, it used to bring new books, and songs and stories to the public domain, until the laws got changed here in America. Thanks to a retroactively extended copyright of over 75 years, no works have, since the mid 90's, or are even going to enter into the public domain until 2019!

Stay out of this, Anderson.

​Bestgeekever thinks that copyright durations have gone from "(promoting) the Progress of Science and useful Arts"  to basically hindering creativity and creation. To create awareness of this, I bring you, the people, the Public Domain Jam, where I challenge you to create any game you like, starring characters and settings in the public domain. A Don Quixote fighting game? A puzzle attack game with Pinochio and Dracula? A bullet hell game based on Alice in Wonderland? As long as it's not under copyright (and, don't  use someone else's take on the characters. No Disney Princesses here.) do what you will.

Look at it and think to yourself: not like this.

If you're not quite sure which property you will adapt it is you're gonna do, here's some of them.
​Public Domain music

​Public Domain Superheroes

​A small list of public domain books

​List of Public Domain movies.

I'm giving you the whole month of January to really bring your best. If you don't agree with my cause, it's at least an interesting challenge, no? Here's the 3 governing criteria, explained.


Come on, bros! You're skeeving Hitler out...

Overall Quality and Enjoyability
This is the basic element of the videogame. "Is this game fun or anti-fun?" More fun is better

No more Dracalas

Rareness of the characters
Zombies and Dracula are pretty much staples of the popular culture. More obscure characters is better.

Actually, I've never seen Dracula with an Ukulele

Creativity
Did you take your own spin on the material, or did you place the characters where they always where, doing exactly what they did in the book, looking exactly like they did? More own spin is better.

Not like this dead asshole.

Pro-Public Domain
If your game has somehow presents some kind of message against excessive copyright durations, you get a cookie.

Submission open from 01/01/2015 to 01/31/2015. Stay Tuned to THIS PAGE for more information. If this Jam is a success, Bestgeekever promises to do it again next year,  maybe with a theme narrowed down.

Continue

The simple answer to the women in videogame problem

Yes, it does turn out  you're the bad guy in the end.

Continue

A Gate for Gamers

As you may have heard, this last month we've seen a bit of trouble here in videogame liking land. That problem has been given the name Gamergate, and a few accompanying hashtag warcries tag along it now.

I dread to recap it, because it's the kind of topic everyone's already settled their minds upon, and any deviation from their version will probably end up in accusations of bias, missinformation, missoginy, and many more things. So let's break this down.

Some lady I don't know, and also a lady I kind of know, claim to have been targets of harassment by lowlives that happen to also like games. This leads many game sites to simultaneously claim that gamers are over/dead/unnecessary. This leads to some more backlash from gamers, who are now angry with the media for being full on the side of these ladies. They claim these ladies manufactured their own threats, and also screwerized actual profemale gamejams. I think I got most of it. Now put it in there in the comments that Bestgeekever is biased  against someone, because it is, and it's called EVERYONE.

I've always believed that most of the times, when we're looking for the truth in extremes, we're off the mark. So basically you're all wrong in my eyes.

Gamergate partidarians, I acknowledge that your sides accusations of media bias towards Whatever's side should have been acknowledged. And that's exactly the problem with begging everything with massive harassment. Even if Ms Whatever was the conniving succubus you claim her to be, no one likes to see a lady get attacked. I learned this in school, when I teased a girl who had teased me everyday, and some random kid punched me in the gut. "Not fair?" Fuck fairness, play to win with the rules that are in place!

It's natural that  claims of harassment will be heard over claims of "having em' rolled around her little finger". Why wouldn't they? Even if they aren't biased, as far as they know that's just the harassers falling into self defense! That's what I would believe!

And you media? How dare you? For shame! "Gamer's are dead now"? "Game's culture is a shame?" Weren't you at E3 just  a few months ago, sorrounded by those famous "adults in mushroom hats" you so now loath, telling about all the future upcoming products we were going to buy? And all of a sudden, because a few bad eggs did something, you want to disolve the whole thing? Kotaku ain't got no love for Gamers and Cosplay and Death Row?

And really, it is just a few bad eggs. Don't make this about Gamers. SOME ASSHOLES sent harrassing messages to those people, just like some assholes might yell insults at the players during a basketball game. You don't see Sports Illustrated going "We don't need B-Ball fans anymore, they're stupid." Because yes they do. Who's gonna buy the tickets and merchandise if not the fans? Who is going to convince others to get into it if not the fans? Do you think if they all leave some new type of fan will materialize itself, as if fandom was a naturally occurring phenomenom?

Some of us have been into gaming a while, is all. We have injokes. We remember certain things. We don't just play games every odd moon, we try to know about them. We don't hate people who don't play videogames as much as us. I knew this one family of like, 8 kids that all they had was baseball games (and also my Smash Bros cartridge that they never gave back...) That's okay too. But some of us like games in a more intimate levels.

And finally, to all you who want to see the games industry get some more variety overall, this I agree with. But, as I told  one of said ladies once, the point is not to nag the industry into compliance. The point is to create a niche, from where different kinds of games can grow. Prove that such different experiences have a market to them, and you will sow the seeds of change.

And finally, to all I say: disagree as much as you want. Democracy is made of people arguing until one argument is agreed more than the other. But remember that, just like using the Game Gennie on a single player game, you only cheat yourself if your arguments aren't truthful and fair.

And now you can witness my initial reaction for this and how right it was.

Now go inside and play.

Continue

Post-post 9-11

It's been 13 years since the towers fell. I'm sure most of you have been made aware of this. If not, well, I think we are under orders to never forget.

I was 16 at the time, essentially the middle of my life  up to this point. I remember where I was. But I also remember other  things from that year. I remember a Britney Spears interview from Summer where she spoke of how great a year it had been. We'd all gotten over our fear the Y2k bug/The Great King of Terror would end civilization. I felt well on my way to one of those optimist futures where food comes in pills and cars fly.

I also remember a discarded magazine from the library. It was Time, from before 2000. It wrote of the things we feared might happen in The millennial new year.  Sure enough, Bin Laden's face was in there.

I wish those of you born after 2001  could see what I'm talking about. I don't want to let nostalgia grab hold, because I was fairly young, but in all my pre 9-11 life the major wars America was involved where nothing compared to Iraq and Afghanistan. The idea of carrying water or a Hockey stick into a plane was not something we had to watch out for. We had terrorism! But we kind of kept living.

We didn't just continue living in the Post 9-11 world. Not by a long shot. We decided whatever kept us safe, or felt like it would, was justifiable. The  2,977 that died on 9-11 are now joined by 6,717 that died in the War on Terror(I don't know if it's a succesful revenge to lose twice the people you are avenging), a conflict against the general idea of terrorism.  Said terrorism in this case took the shape of two sovereign countries who ended up  costing us 1.5 trillion dollars(so far) and being a detour from defeating the specific group that specifically Attacked America.

We sewed mistrust, and reaped it. After a few years of  war on terror, disillusion was born. Many, tired of the lies of the Government, turned abroad for their lies. Many fell in with conspiracy theorists. Yet many stuck fanatically fast to the government.  Much division ensued.

We did not rebuild the towers. We built a Museum to remind ourselves we once had towers. It's a poor choice if you ask me.

So am I saying everything used to be better? Absolutely not. This era is beautiful. Our phones used to only be useful for calling. And naked Batgirl drawings where a hassle to get.

But we're also still living in a Post 9-11 mentality. We're still looking over our shoulders. We're still thinking maybe we can stop 9-11 II if we let NSA spy on Americans, and hurt anyone we even suspect is a terrorist.

But this year, President Obama finally called used the T word instead of euphemising . It gives me hope, that maybe we're ready to move into a Post-post 9-11 mentality. A world where  we can live without feeling our choices are. getting  blown up by Dessert People or getting touched in the junk at the airport. A world where we don't have to roll our eyes when we talk about Freedom. A world where we're not at war anymore.

I don't know about you, but I'm ready for a Post-Post 9-11 world. Any old country can suffer a terrorist attack. It takes a truly great country to come out stronger.

Continue

For the newbs: Mecha, androids, Cyborg and Robots

I've grown to love Pacific Rim ever since it's on HBO. I didn't even care about the hype when it was being hyped, but now that I've seen it, I don't even know why I like it so much.

However, during said hype, mistakes where made. Mistakes regarding what a robot is and what a mecha is. So, for all those now gettin g into Geekery, this one's for you.

The word robot finds it's root in the word roboto, the polish word for slave. The word mecha comes from the latin mechanical.

A robot is an autonomous mechanical being. In fiction, at least, these usually tend to move for themselves, and act for themselves, without imput from the outside. R2d2 is a robot. So is Johny #5 and Sonny from I Robot. So are the Sentinels form the X-Men and the Transformers.

A Geth from Mass Effect is an alien robot.

Subcategories of the robot include the android, which is a robot in the general shape of a man. C3PO David from Ai  and David from Prometheus are androids.

The Robot Wall-E, while imbued with human-like personality, is not an Android.

 Gynoids, are robots shaped like women, which are somewhat rarer, and even more rare to be described as such. EVi from Mass Effect 3 is a ginoid.

Both the T-100(left) and the T-X(right) are robots, but T-1000 is an Android, while  T-X is a ginoid.

Not to be confused with Cyborgs. Cyborgs are humans with noticeable mechanical parts added to them. The Bionic Commander, Jax from Mortal Kombat and Will Smith's character in I Robot are cyborgs.

General Grievous substituted all his body parts save his heart for mechanical ones, thus becoming a cyborg. However...

Luke Skywalker lost his hand, and had it replaced with an indistinguishable replica. Luke Skywalker is a cyborg.

But a Mecha is not a robot. A Mecha is a vehicle designed  with the appendages of a quadruped. It has no will of it's own. The Jaegers from Pacific Rim are Mechas. So is the Power-loader from Aliens, the vehicles used by the Zion resistance in Matrix Revolution, and the Evas in Evangelion.

A pilot ascends into his mech in the dormant Mechassault franchise.

So, hopefully this will clear up any confusion about that before the Pacific Rim comes out. I know many are not "in the know" of Mecha, because it's a bit of a niche concept here in the west. Robot is more popular. In fact, we tend to refer to a cyborg as "having a robot arm". We need to be working on the jargon, because how are you supposed to enjoy Mecha beating up on kaiju without correcting this technicalities?

The Probe Droid is not piloted, but the Walkers are. Thus walkers are Mecha, and the Probe Droid is a robot.

Continue

Unlicenced Lawyer : Van Damme's Guile

There once was a time, then a Street Fighter movie did not exist. Not a single one. There were not enough cartoons and animes and comics about Street Fighter to fill a Wikia. There was no Alpha, no Ex, no "Assassin's Fist" and certainly no "VS Tekken". There was only "2", 12 characters whose lives as far as we knew revolved solely around hurting each other in.

Ok, there might have been some.

In that world, full of optimism and potential, the announcement of a Street Fighter movie did exist. Back then, we weren't "tired" of remakes and adaptations(I guess with the record breaking millions these adaptations are making now, you could argue our tiredness can only carry us so far.) A Street Fighter movie was not a horrible suggestion: it was the alternative to no Street Fighter movie.

So the movie was made in 1994. They made some...choices with it. Some of those choices do not sit well with the most hardcore fans, who's clinging to a "sola interactiva" philosophy is as commendable as it is ill advised.

"They ruined T. Hawk!" yelled no one.

There's plenty of deviations that I would not have done, should this have been MY Street Fighter movie. As many, the 20 years since have mellowed my views on it, perhaps nostalgia catching hold, but that doesn't mean we can't have a better version. However, I am here to speak on behalf of one of the movies most fought about elements, it's lead character  Guile, played by Jean Claude Van Damme.

It's easy to see why they would be angry. Of all the National charicatures in Street FIghter, Guile is easilly the harder to screw up: A big, American military man. Why they went with a guy with a heavy Brussels accent, we might never know. We do suspect it having to do with getting a big name in there. Yeah, they where obviously only thinking about only the almighty dollar. But what do we know about Guile? Well, he looks like this.

Wait a minute: American military, huge muscles...early 90s... things that were popular... people with jowls and pronounced chins...

If you think about it, it makes sense to think that, when trying to represent an "American" martial arts/stock character, Capcom's designers would look at what was popular in American Cinema, and nothing was more popular than Arnold at the time. You can accuse Capcom of being ripoff artists, and you'd be right about that. But not only where they not the only ones, but they where pretty good at it, too. They put John Matrix in the hair of some nazi guy from Jojo's Bizarre Adventure and then boom! New character.

In this sense, Jean Claude Van Damme is the perfect choice for Guile:  a thickly accented action movie star. There's no way they would have gotten Arnold at the height of his career to play a big, cartoony setting like this, at a time where he was selling movies for himself. And besides, as far as having someone  doing stuff like this:

It makes sense to bring in a guy who can do stuff like this:

I say we have all been a bit unfair to Street Fighter: The Movie in this sense. Now, was giving Van Damme a moving speech a bad idea? Maybe. Was making his pants blue instead of Green a betrayal of SF cannon? Perhaps. Should The Boxer have been working for Bison and the Russian Guy have not been? Definitively.  Is the movie perfect? No. Is Van Damme the Worst Possible Guile? Not on your life, bud.

Now, who wants to hear about how I think Charlie should be played by Tom Cruise?

You know I'm right!

Continue