Swifthom

There's a crucial difference between 'YOU SUCK BALLS' comments and 'I know where you live, I have a chainsaw, I'll be around next Tuesday.' The kind of comments she was received were the latter.

Whilst there's never an intimation that Zelda is Link's 'property' the fact that she is rendered helpless again and again and again is fairly stark. As the video points out, Zelda is nowhere near the offender Peach is, but the evidence still stacks up over 25 years of repeated kidnaps etc.... And yes, in most games, taken on an individual case, there's no harm and there's always a plot sensitive good reason it's taken place. However it happens again and again and again... Have you heard of the dad who altered TWW so that Link was a girl for his children? He argued there's nothing in the game that would prevent this from being the case and there's no reason his girls shouldn't have a role model of their own. It's a perfectly valid point. I would also argue that TWW is one of the worst offenders of the Zelda damsel in distress meme. For half the game she's presented as a strong, practical, dominant female, but the moment she's revealed to be Zelda 'OH NO, YOU ARE FEMALE AND WEAK, DO NOT VENTURE OUTSIDE' followed by 'GANONDORF TAKES YOU' Again, the game has a story that it is following, but the shift is so sudden and so stark it's ridiculous. Why throw away one of the best characters in the game in order to follow a trope that does nothing good? And whilst Link has never said 'Zelda is my property' Ganondorf has again and again and again.... So yeah, sorry to harp on about one game series, but the problem isn't that the damsel in distress meme is inherently bad or a problem in itself, it's that it is used so often and unnecessarily. Guys save girls, guys save girls, and then once or twice, for a little variation; girls saved by guys.

Curious to know what anyone who feels strongly about this issue thinks about the series 'Becoming Youtube' by Ben Cook. Particularly this episode from last month: It's not video game focused but it was about the issue of male / female interaction in online media, focused of course on Youtube. Some thought it raised interesting issues, other declared it incredibly patronising. The fallout ended up with Ben Cook largely declaring on Twitter 'I AM A FEMINIST' as though his credentials were under threat, whilst one of the people he interviewed became the target of a feminist hate campaign because he made some unguarded (but potentially well intentioned) comments. The curious thing I find is when men raise this issue, as in Ben Cooks case, the angry response appears to be from feminists shouting 'your a man, you don't get our pain' whilst in the case of Feminist Frequency the angry responses I've observed have been 'mostly' males doubting her credentials. Generalisations, but interesting ones. (Edit: oh, and bu the way, Crypto, agree with you completely. His ramble irritated me no end and I turned off two minutes in)

Thought it was a well argued video presenting a strong case. True there was little in there I didn't know already but it did point out just how endemic this is fairly starkly. Although hopefully further episodes will get a little engaging with more modern examples and focus on some other aspects. Oh, and for female protagonists, check out 'The Longest Journey' series. Ragnar Tornquest (currently doing a Dreamfall Chapters Kickstarter for episode 3 of said series, check it out now) is a brilliant example of a female protagonist. In 2 games he's given us 2 of the most well rounded video game protagonists I've EVER seen; male or female

Looking forward to it. I picked up the trailer video and replaced your old song today, hope you don't mind It will see the light of day somewhere sometime soon, I just want to be sure it's perfect In other news: it's March now. Deadline: MAY. 2 months people Some final tracks have already started to arrive

The pictures of the FF1 and FF4 CDs look amazing. Right now I don't so much care about FF6, I just want those CD cases in my house right now But yeah, make a good album as well, that'd be cool

Genre wise i'm not going to post specific restrictions, we have a small range of different genres represented - go for an idea and a sound that you think will help you produce an amazing song. If you want PM me with a link to your first sketches and I'll let you know what I think. Or go over to KNGI and there you'll be able to hear some of the other tracks on offer. Looking forward to hearing it

It's still a 'shipped' product, even if the product being shipped is no more than digital code Interesting news about the sale. Hmm....

I'm going to laugh so hard if they announce Rayman Legends Demo shipped 4 million units, whilst the game only sells a few thousand. After all, there was a report recently that suggested games with demos sell less than games without If this 'challenge mode' is insubstantial I'll still feel ripped off and if its fully fleshed why bother buying the game? Hmmmm....

I read it as I get to play Rayman (lite) for free in April, and then in September if there are more interesting games around that grab my interest not buy the finished thing. Seriously, i'm not boycotting it, but my interest in Rayman Legends was premeditated around the idea i'd be playing it next week when there's nothing else interesting being released. In September things may be different.

No word yet, although we have had some comments back from WIP moderators that I've redistributed to artists. Consensus from pretty much everyone is songs just aren't quite finished yet An album like this that isn't 'official' OCR and isn't from people with a clear 'OCR' track record to prove our credentials probably needs to be 99% done before we'll get the word back from above. If we're not though there are other options for release and I'm happy this will be a great album either way Of the people who have heard it even our harshest critic yet gave us a tentative thumbs up overall. Reminder people: work on your songs. You have until MAY

Not sure I'd 100% rule it out - there was twitter talk from one of the developers that they were working on something Earthbound related. Maybe that was just the VC release in Japan, maybe it wasn't... If it does come though it definitely wont be in the $0.30 sale. Come on, they are a business after all Oh and 1) Rayman's annoyed me but I will get it eventually 2) 50HZ issue in europe still not sorted 3 weeks in and the EU Balloon Fight Miiverse is STILL up in arms about this. F Zero is coming soon. We'll see if they've paid attention

Looking forward to hearing it Sad news i'm afraid, one of the tracks from our trailer has been lost. It is being replaced but it does mean that what I was planning to show off pretty much now is going to have to be shelved. I will work out a replacement soon - promise On the plus side we're all working really hard to make sure our mixes are as strong as they can be.

Awww, it's one of my favourites The Billy Hatcher stage is the one I hate. Those turns at the end just after the boat section, they are just.... aghh.

Hmm, doesn't look like the Wildman Kickstarter will make it. Which is a shame... They 'were' asking for a lot. Still, it's not a 'lot' more than Dreamfall Chapters who are already 60% in 48 hours: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/redthread/dreamfall-chapters-the-longest-journey?ref=category So stoked about that one In the meantime, Cryamore has moved to UNITY http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/robaato/cryamore-a-true-first-class-take-on-the-action-rpg What does that mean? Loads actually, and the potential for console releases are there. Not guaranteed if they don't reach the stretch goals but it would now be a possibility

I dont buy many games, but i'd kind of tagged rayman legends for march. Of ALL the launch titles it interested me the most... Now.... Its 7 months, loosing interest every second, so depending on what else is out... Yeah, doubt it'l be a day 1 purchase now

http://uk.ign.com/articles/2013/02/07/rayman-legends-delayed-no-longer-wii-u-exclusive I preordered this from Amazon using a £50 gift card 3 days ago... ... 6 months. Bugger it. How do I get gift card money back from Amazon?

No reply, so I'll just add my voice to this. It's a sensible idea

Bad news first eh? Sadly last week one of our tracks (Maritime Battle - ) was pulled.So Maritime Battle is now free. Someone come take it, please, I love that song Good News: To make up for that I have brief WIPs from Chernabogue and TheRexAsaurous so we're 1 track up overall Other news: I'm still sitting on the trailer with just one further edit to make before I'm happy. It will be done, I promise

Hmmm.. It needs varying up a little. From 0.30 0 1.30 the repeating single note bass beat is the same volume and nearly almost the same tone right the way through that section. Eventually it started to annoy me. Perhaps have it start loud, get quieter, then come back in? Or add some extra verb/distortion/whatever to vary it up, or have it shift from left to right speaker a little? An extreme idea that occurred to me, I counted 9 beats per sequence could go like this: beat 1, 3, 5, 7 8 & 9 left speaker, beat 2, 4 & 6 out of right. At the very least that'd vary up the song and reduce the power of that beast, although it may unbalance the song entirely. (I'm more of a mad engineer than a musician, someone else may appear to tell me it's a horrible idea All I'm saying is there are a thousand and one ways to vary this up) Either way, I would recommend making it not quite as prominant. (Same goes for the equivalent beat from 2.24-3.00 and the other sections where it comes back in.) I mean it's important that it's there but it does dominate the song and it's not the most interesting of sounds. Bring the melody forward a little if you can, that's the interesting bit and its being majorly overpowered by that single beat. The choral section - same as above applies but even more so. Or perhaps make them a full held chord rather than a single obtrusive note, then you can add some articulation in the additional beats to give the song additional depth) I'm not going to talk about the samples you've used for the drums, but I will say whilst the sequencing is okay it isn't exceptional. I.E. From 0.37 - 1.35 I couldn't hear a a single fill or a break to change them up. The actual beat you have is fine but there's nothing interesting going on. Both those areas should be fairly simple for you to look at as it's just a question of rebalancing what you have. Good luck with it

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/robaato/cryamore-a-true-first-class-take-on-the-action-rpg?ref=category Cool, if Cryamore doubles their income they are console bound! Thats brilliant news. It's only taken a few days ro get here so chances are good . Edit: Noctermis is a horror-adventure Wii-U, 3DS and Vita bound, apparently. A little perturbed there's no in game footage, just screenshots, but the art direction is mint... Might be too late to reach final stretch goal but for a final push here: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/643653261/noctemis?ref=category

Have on order. Should arrive soon

Well whilst avoiding unfortunate comparisons between my work and someone else's is always a plus I think I'm man enough to take the hit There's definitely an ace remix out there waiting to be cracked. +1 votes for Steiner's theme. I spent an hour playing around with it the other weekend but I don't think I've any solid ideas I can bring to the table. But is that all your lacking... Wow, good job

It's 90% done, i'll PM you a sneak peak if you want. I'm just working on the opening 10 seconds, definitely the most important and definitely the part it's lacking I'm waiting on some art assets that might allow me to snaz it up.