zircon

Oh, it's a free update! Just grab the latest pack of SFZ patches here. http://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=315213

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The feedback loop I've described constitutes the basis for the conclusion of my argument - that we should encourage game developers to produce more games which appeal more to both genders. You're wrong that it equates to "interfering at any point in said loop". I'm talking about one thing and one thing only. I don't think this is a response to what I actually wrote. My point was that in gamer culture, women - actual women, not female game characters - are treated worse than men in the same culture. Yes, obviously adolescents tend to be hostile in general, but this doesn't change the fact that the hostility is particularly bad toward women. No, I don't have statistics on this. I don't think such statistics exist. But I've seen it firsthand in all corners of the internet, from YouTube to Reddit to playing games with voice chat to personal experiences from women gamers in my circle of friends. So maybe we can figure out if we even agree on this at all. Do you think women are treated worse in gamer culture, or not? Do you think that a male, any given male, gets the same level of harassment when playing online games? When streaming? Do you think they get the same comments about appearances, the same demands to flash their boobs? Do you think they are constantly hit on the same way? Maybe you do think all of this is true, and it is no worse for women than it is for men. In that case, we're at an impasse, since I don't think I can do anything to convince you otherwise. This is a straw man. NOBODY, least of all me, is suggesting ANYTHING that would limit freedom of speech. There is a difference between encouraging positive behavior and creating legislation. I am doing the former. It's no more of an infringement on free speech than it is to say "It would probably be nice for the Westboro Baptist Church to stop protesting at funerals." Countless commentators exist that seek to persuade game developers, Extra Credits being one of them. Are they trampling freedom of speech too? Also, you've been repeatedly using the "slippery slope" fallacy - if we start encouraging game developers to do X, then Y (a Bad Thing) might happen next. It just doesn't hold any water. Show me how Y will necessarily or even probably happen, or for that matter, what Y even is. Almost anything involving social psychology on this scale is very hard to prove, especially when we're talking about such a new medium. How can you quantify the kind of stuff we're talking about here, such as people's natural biases and emotions? If you want that kind of proof, again, I don't think it exists. We haven't even been able to reliably show that video games are connected to violent behavior, much less something more subtle like what I'm talking about. But let me phrase this another way. If I'm right and people ARE affected by participating in a male-dominated gamer culture hostile to women, and we can do things to make that culture less male-dominated (at a minimum), we are reducing that negative impact and influence. If I'm wrong, frankly, I don't see any negative outcome. There's really no risk involved here. No, I'm not unnecessarily coupling them in the context of my argument. Look at the last sentence of the paragraph you quoted. I brought up all those things as verifiable negative aspects of the game industry that dissuade women from participation. Explain to me how that is not true, or how some of those items do not belong on the list of "things that make the game industry a place where women do not want to work". Gamer culture obviously and by definition revolves around video games. Developers make video games. Therefore, game developers influence gamer culture. Whether or not you believe in the rest of the argument (that the culture influences people, and people in turn influence game developers), this component is practically self-evident. If you have a problem with the earlier components of the argument then you're going to have a problem with the conclusion, but the deductive logic by which I've arrived here is extremely sound. If gamer culture is mostly male and hostile to women, women don't want to be in it. If we are influenced by our environment, and if game developers are made up of people participating in gamer culture, then game developers will be mostly male and influenced by a female-hostile environment. If game developers influence game culture, then by influencing it to be more inviting to women, then more women will participate, more game developers will be women, etc. I'll return again to something I wrote earlier, which is the risk vs. reward. If I'm right, then by encouraging game developers to create games with more appeal to both genders, the ultimate effect will encourage more women to participate in gamer culture and game development. If I'm wrong, or if the results are minimal, I don't see any negative outcomes. I should have defined "gamer culture" earlier, but what I mean by that term is the community of people that actively discuss games in online forums, that visit and participate in gaming news websites, that attend gaming conventions, etc. In other words, I'm talking about all the things that surround the actual playing of video games. The demographics for this are decidedly not 50/50 as evidenced by things like the earlier link to (I think) IGN's ad demographics. It's the difference between "gun owners" and people that participate in "gun culture". You can own a gun and be done with it, or you can own a gun, be a member of the NRA, receive gun magazines, send letters to your senator, go to rallies, etc. Now, to Native Jovian: But I didn't make that claim, I said that gamer CULTURE drives away women, and games influence that culture. Furthermore, as I wrote to Dave earlier in this post, I'm separating "gamer culture" out from "people that play games". Most influential video game websites for example dominated by the 18-35 male demographic and so those voices come through the loudest. Developers listen to those voices. To PriZm: This is sort of an oversimplification. Imagine we were talking about racism. Let's say you grew up in an extremely racist area in the 1960s. I doubt that any ONE racist thing someone around you said or did made an impact on you, but the entirety of things that were done & said as you grew up perhaps did.

For the record, the only people who can give you accurate information are the project directors and site staff - so me, Larry, djpretzel, etc. Anything else is going to be speculation from people that don't have all the information, so please keep that in mind! The status is that we are 99% done with the music, just waiting for some recordings and tweaks to come in. We are clocking in at just about 6 hours total across 5 discs. We have a tremendous amount of bonus content for the DVD, and the art / website assets are basically wrapped up barring some director commentary. The delay of the project from our initial estimated due date has nothing to do with money, or rather ironically, the fact that we're all volunteers means that many busy professionals have had to work on it only in their free time. For example Jake Kaufman (virt) did an absolutely amazing take on the opera that he just sent about a week ago, and it took him over 4 months. We were able to get him the studio time he needed with our KS funds, but he still had to work on it only in what little spare time he has. It isn't my place to give a 100% specific due date yet, since a lot of the heavy lifting after this point will fall on Dave in terms of getting writeups created, setting up the torrent, etc., but I do think we are looking good for May.

Well, in this case, since game developers are overwhelmingly male.. then yes, the people who actually have the power to change things from the dev side are male. Sort of a truism. Can women help break the cycle too? Yeah, and they ARE trying. They just tend to get shat on for doing so. If you are a woman and you try to play a "hardcore" multiplayer game, you will be hit on, harassed, etc. almost guaranteed. Again, just for trying to play the game. We've all seen or heard it happen. If you're a female streamer, or YouTube video creator, then you will be attacked for your gender regardless of how well you play the game, or the content of your argument. If you're a female dev, you can expect to get paid less, get less respect, go to industry events and parties aimed at men instead of women, and generally be a minority and outsider. And you might also get harassed and demeaned too. Are there still hardcore female gamers, and women in game development? Yes, but pretty obviously a lot of people don't want to put up with that and don't bother, which isn't unreasonable.

The logical connection is the existence of a 'culture' among gamers & game developers, which influences people, and which is influenced by the games themselves. It's a feedback loop. "Gamer culture" is mostly dominated by men - even if there are many female gamers, the majority of marketing dollars are spent targeting men, most AAA games are made with men in mind, etc. Sites like http://fatuglyorslutty.com/ are a great example of how frequently women are treated when playing games online. Commenters on YouTube, Twitch, and so forth are quick to attack women doing game commentary or even just streaming games live. Bottom line; it's a male-dominated culture. Now, game developers do not exist in a vacuum; they are staffed by people who grew up being gamers, and probably continue to be gamers outside of work. And being mostly male, they sit squarely in the male-dominated gamer culture. I'm obviously not saying that makes them guilty of anything (unless they were out there trolling YouTube comments themselves, or being harassing jackasses), or that they have any sort of blame just for being male. However, they are certainly EXPOSED to the culture regularly, from game marketing, to art design, to seeing how shitty Kotaku commenters are, and everything in between. That DOES affect some people, on some level. To deny that would be to deny that what other people in society do has any impact on us, and I know you don't believe that. If you're a male gamer, you grow up in a male-dominated gamer culture, and maybe participate in it. You might become a developer, and bring along whatever biases and associations you've learned over the years. On the other hand, if you're female, you've been pushed away from day 1 by marketers, game designers, artists, and fellow gamers. It's a big uphill battle to be a part of the industry, and then when you make it in, you're subject (potentially) to harassment, to conferences with lots of male eye candy (which DOES reasonably make some women uncomfortable), to lower pay, etc. Is it any wonder that it's taking a long time for more women to get involved? The end point is that developers are a major part of that feedback loop. With fewer intensively male-targeted games (or fewer things like DDD boobs with jiggle physics), gamer culture will seem a little less like a male clubhouse, and more women will want to be a part of it. This then leads to more women in the industry, which leads to broader-targeted games, and so on. I think it's a pretty straightforward logical connection. When most everything from conventions to marketing to art design is oriented toward men, women are less likely to want to be part of it. The reverse is also true.

Thanks guys!! Couple news items - one, there's a public video update for all (not just backers) - http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/jillianaversa/jillian-aversa-atlantis-awakening-vocal-new-age-al/posts/462123 Also, we will have an announcement soon about some NEW collaborators on the album.. some big credits & names, at that!

It stems from female developers straight-up saying "this stuff bothers me and makes me not want to work in the industry". That's why there was a whole GDC talk about it, that's why there was a social media phenomenon with #1reasonwhy. Unless you think all the female game developers out there are just making stuff up about how they were treated, made uncomfortable, pushed out, etc. The people who are actually IN the trenches, like Brenda Romero, are the ones saying this. I'm not just pulling it out of thin air. Again, females actually in the industry (or previously in the industry) are the ones speaking out here. Maybe "hostile" is a strong word, perhaps "highly unwelcoming" would be better. Just because it hasn't happened before doesn't mean it's a bad idea, so this isn't persuasive. But it's not false when actual developers are saying that industry practices and latent sexism are pushing them away and making a "strongly unwelcoming" environment. If people weren't actually saying this, and I wasn't actually seeing and hearing it myself from people I personally know, I wouldn't be arguing with you. Just about every female developer I know (and I use 'developer' to include anyone involved in the creation of games) has expressed dissatisfaction with how women are treated in games and in the game industry. It's not a stretch to say that more than a few women have seen how shitty it is and decided not to bother. Not to beat a dead horse, but let's look at some actual words from female developers.... "Because I get mistaken for the receptionist or day-hire marketing at trade shows. #1reasonwhy" "Because I am not his arm candy, motherfucker. I make games. #1reasonwhy" "The worst sexism is the "harmless" assumptions. I'm sick of being told art is the only appropriate career for a woman in games. #1reasonwhy" "#1ReasonWhy because your studio never orders any women’s t-shirts in swag orders, and certainly not in sizes bigger than XS or S." "#1reasonwhy because my male colleagues are allowed to occasionally be obnoxious, silly, immature, annoying, drunk. i'm not." "None of my women developer friends will read comments on interviews they do, because the comments are so brutally nasty. #1reasonwhy" "I've had prominent designers compliment my games, while complimenting my wife's appearance, when we develop together. #1reasonwhy" "Because conventions, where designers are celebrated, are unsafe places for me. Really. I've been groped. #1reasonwhy" "Because I'm sexually harassed as a games journalist, and getting it as a games designer compounds the misery. #1reasonwhy" "My looks are often commented on long before the work I've done. #1reasonwhy" "Being mistaken for male co-founder's assistant ...three times? four? #1reasonwhy" "@b_1st #1reasonwhy because female devs' input get repeatedly dismissed in a studio making games "for women" (how about that one)." "After being told she was hired to "look pretty & make the guys happy", my old boss got him to repeat this in an email to HR. #1reasonwhy" "Because once I've been told "we don't need women in order to know what female players want from this industry" #1reasonwhy" "Because every disclosure of harassment feels like risking never being hired again. #1reasonwhy" "I've had guys turn to the men I hired to help at the booth for information on the game I wrote. That has my name on the cover. #1reasonwhy" Just... search for more of these. You can argue away at any of these individual things all you want, you can call these people unreasonable or whatever, but you can't dismiss everything. It's not that people see one booth babe and call it quits. It's all of these little things adding together, which is the point of the #1reasonwhy hashtag. It's lots of assumptions, remarks, actions, comments, decisions, etc. that add up to an unwelcoming environment.

Speaking broadly about objectification etc... as we had talked about on IRC, right now the game industry is a particularly hostile one for women. EVEN compared to other tech industries, film, etc., there are simply fewer women in game development. When you eliminate non-development jobs like HR, marketing, etc. the percentage is even lower... something like 96% of game programmers are male, and in most studios programmers are the backbone of the team and serve on many teams (design, art, audio). There was a whole talk about this at GDC, by some prominent female game devs: http://www.polygon.com/2013/3/28/4155650/women-in-the-gaming-industry-share-their-number-one-reason-to-be-in http://www.gdcvault.com/play/1018080/ <- Full talk here A symptom of the male domination of the industry is stuff like booth babes, which are of course appreciated overwhelmingly by males, and which tend to make women feel uncomfortable. After all, it's entertainment and eye candy for men, and not women, so by definition it is not inclusive. This is the kind of stuff that pushes women away from the industry. Likewise, if you're a company specializes in fighting games with scantily-clad women whose boobs bounce all over the place, it's not hard to understand why women might not want to work there - you're producing games primarily for men. I posit that this IS a problematic state of things. If we do care about games as an art form, then it stands to reason that we want a broader range of perspectives involved in game development. The current state of things is turning women away from game development despite the fact that many females of all ages ARE interested in and DO play games. I think this is a very black or white view. Nobody is talking about legal censorship, certainly, but instead the self-censorship of overused tropes or practices that appeal exclusively to men. I think that games as an art form can "withstand" Ivy's boobs being a little smaller, or female armor in JRPGs actually being practical as opposed to metal bikinis. Right? Without passing moral judgment at all, and admitting that we (as men) love boobs and looking at them, it still seems like a good tradeoff for the advancement of the industry to make a little sacrifice and try to make stuff that appeals to both genders, as opposed to just one.

I don't think you read my post where I linked to the same study and said the same thing, that physical activity (at a very high level) is what prevented the actual heart disease. But the vast majority of people in 1st world countries, especially America, are not anywhere near that level activity. How active is "active enough" to avoid CVD while being riddled with atherosclerosis? Can you say for sure? Isn't it safer to just avoid the kind of diet (high in saturated fat, red meat) that causes atherosclerosis in the first place? I think it is absolutely worth continuing this discussion, even if you don't want to, because I feel strongly that you are misinforming people here. Red meat IS dangerous and DOES lead to heart disease unless you are extremely active, and even then, remember that the Maasai also eat a cholesterol-lowering agent commonly in their diet. Without that agent, they DO get heart disease. Simply put, it is not good advice to say "eat a lot of red meat", and that's true beyond a reasonable doubt.

Most people don't listen to the recommendations, if you haven't noticed already, so that doesn't really make sense as a counter-argument on any level. Well, where to begin? First of all, as you should know, nobody (including me) is saying "red meat gives you cardiovascular disease", but rather, red meat is a contributing factor. You can have risk factors or contributing factors and not develop a disease or condition. The average American has numerous other factors that would contribute to CVD but most notably, a major difference between us and modern hunter-gatherers is that they are getting exponentially more exercise which of course makes a huge impact on combating heart disease and a host of other ailments. Meanwhile the average American is sitting 12+ hours a day. Chances are the average American is also overeating and all things being equal, eating less is generally better for you than eating more (caloric restriction studies etc) To further dismantle things, please note that the Maasai actually have extensive atherosclerosis, which is exactly what you would expect from too much red meat consumption. http://aje.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/95/1/26 This puts your example in a coffin and lays it to rest permanently, quite soundly, as the conclusion is also that their Olympic level physical activity is what keeps them going. To an average American who is NOT getting that extensive activity, that sort of diet is a death sentence, like I've been saying. As if that weren't enough, according to Wiki (sourced, etc) the Maasai eat quite a bit of "acacia nilotica" which is a cholesterol lowering agent. So it's like the whole society is on Lipitor already. Those who don't have access to the plant actually do develop heart disease. Sorry man.

I'm not doing the whole 30 thing. My only problem is that I feel like I could lose some weight (10-15 pounds) just to feel better about myself. I don't have a problem with digestion or energy otherwise. So the thing is Joe, that is really great that your wife felt better. But I'm not arguing against diet changes or low-carb at all. I HAVE done low-carb in the past (South Beach) and I did lose weight. I am the last person to argue that the average American diet is any good, as we tend to eat way too many refined/processed carbs, too much sugar, processed stuff, etc. There's also growing evidence that many of us don't process gluten properly, or that the sort of gluten we end up eating is just not what we've naturally evolved to eat. So I am honestly not surprised your wife felt better after cutting a lot of that stuff. What I'm arguing against specifically is the idea that eating tons of saturated fat and red meat is good for you. Very very specifically arguing against that. I'm not saying red meat is bad overall or that low-carb is bad, simply that there is a lot of evidence against *red meat* and eating too much of it. The evolutionary angle makes sense sometimes but I don't think the red meat deal is one of them. Natural selection tends to only care about child-bearing age and our ancestors certainly didn't live very long. Cardiovascular disease is not a factor until you're MUCH older, far beyond the point where evolution would "care" so to speak. Frankly I think it's irresponsible of you (Ecto) to espouse eating so much red meat which might be good in the short term, but could be very damaging later. You can't tell me with any certainty, especially as it goes against the vast majority of the medical & scientific community's consensus, that you and your friends won't have cardiovascular problems later in life as a result of your diet now.

I guess the thing is, when there are dozens upon dozens of large-scale studies showing the same correlation in different cohorts, with animals, with humans, etc., that to me indicates there IS actually a problem. We keep seeing the same correlations across the board. http://archinte.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=414881 http://archinte.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=1134845 You can say "oh maybe it's antibiotics" or whatever, but we keep seeing these results all over the world. The fact that the mechanism isn't 100% known with certainty isn't actually relevant. We don't know the mechanisms for a great majority of things but through the scientific method and repeated studies/testing we can observe what appears to be cause and effect, and make decisions based on that. Germ theory developed long before we had any hard evidence of germs themselves, and was mostly based on observation / epidemiology. Nonetheless, once people accepted conclusions like "gee, washing your hands seems to cause less hospital deaths, even if we don't know why", society benefited. I think you're being willfully ignorant if you can look at the mountain of accumulated evidence and dismiss ALL of it out of hand. There's too much out there to simply say there are errors and confounding variables in every single case. It goes against logic and common sense. The mantra of 'correlation doesn't mean causation' doesn't negate the value of entire fields of study.

Out of curiosity, what do you have to say about the studies (such as the recent one concerning red meat & gut flora, in both rodents & humans) supporting the hypothesis that red meat consumption is linked to heart disease? ie... http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22583051 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23451121 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21912836 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23001745 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23388667 http://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/new-study-links-l-carnitine-in-red-meat-to-heart-disease-201304176083 I bring it up because I was discussing my recent exercise & diet stuff with my dad (also my doctor ) and he pointed out that there really is a lot of consistent evidence, such as that latest gut flora study, pointing toward excessive red meat consumption being bad for you.

Okay, noted. The ground beef was about $6 for a pound of 80/20 (they didn't have any leaner) but I plan on excessively draining it as I cook anyway. The angus steak was about $11 for a pound. Cost isn't a big deal though. One thing my parents impressed upon me was that you should never try to save on groceries by buying crap. You are literally made up out of the stuff you eat, and personal health is really important (especially given that I have a sensitive stomach), so it doesn't make sense to try and save a few bucks every week by buying microwave dinners and junk.

Trader Joe's happened to have 100% grass-fed beef. Not cheap but I picked up three pounds of ground beef (chili, meat loaf, burgers) and a pound of angus steak. We'll see what happens.

Thanks for all the advice, man. Is there a succinct summary of what Whole30 is anywhere? ie not behind a paywall? I'm guessing the jist is basically "don't eat carbs or sugar", right? I did do that with the south beach diet phase 1, so I know it's doable, I'm just skeptical that I can find enough to eat without feeling heavy/sick/hungry or some combination. I will definitely look around for a farmers' market. I just hate driving when I don't have to. There is a large grocery store across the street... literally, 100 feet away, so it's very hard to convince me to drive anywhere But if I get like 5-10 pounds in bulk, that's another story.

As far as I know, there aren't any farmers' markets around here. I live in a bedroom community-kinda town. That may be so, BUT... with any given food item, an organic version is practically guaranteed to have less crap. Comparing organic tortillas vs. non-organic for example, there are fewer additives and other junk in the organic, plus more fiber/protein. Same goes for whole wheat bread (nature's promise vs. wonderbread or whatever). So at worst there's no benefit some of the time, but most of the time it's reducing the amount of processing & additives and generally the nutrition facts are better on the organic side. I always check of course. Wow, sounds really compelling. I will give that a shot starting tomorrow. Hard to believe 8 mins of exercise could really be that much better, but hey, those studies ain't lying. I don't think I could live without carbs, sugar, etc. I really enjoy cooking and I really enjoy a good meal. It's often the high point of my day. I did the south beach diet for some time, and it was fairly effective, but that was when I could eat lots of salad & broccoli to fill up.. which I can't do anymore. I mostly buy chicken breasts which are ultra lean and 97% lean ground turkey.

I have an antithrombin deficiency. It's genetic and severe. When I was 23 I had an extremely serious blood clot (8 cm) in my superior mesenteric vein, and that was after taking heparin injections before a flight. So yeah, blood thinners for life, no option there. I don't know, actually. I generally make it a point to buy whatever the most natural, unprocessed food is at the grocery store. I would have to keep my eye out for grass-fed specifically. But I generally eat very little red meat. Chicken & lean ground turkey is generally what I eat when it comes to meat. Can you summarize this for me? Like exactly what am I supposed to be doing? The idea behind his recommendation was that I have unexplained atrial fibrillation, and all my tests came out completely fine, therefore the best thing to do would simply be to improve my overall heart health & efficiency. I've had stomach problems from various things my whole life. It's always been very sensitive. When I was a baby I had colic. When I was around 9-10 I had ongoing nausea which turned out to be h.pylori (treated). In high school I was diagnosed with IBS. There was like a 5-6 week period the summer before college where I was eating nothing but soup because I just had nausea, cramping and abdominal pain with anything heavier. It then went away on its own. Early in college I had appendicitis. Then the blood clot which was also in my abdomen causing stomach discomfort. I've had numerous CT scans & MRIs (for the blood clot stuff), allergy tests, blah blah, nothing conclusive. When I'm stressed out my stomach feels terrible independent of what I've eaten, so I think it's just something I can never really fix or change. Not to go into graphic detail but none of this has been 'serious' in the sense that I've never had bad constipation or diarrhea, haven't vomited in 15+ years, no blood in the stool ever, etc. It's just an annoyance. I also have a very high sensitivity to fat. Like the last time I ate a sundae with actual ice cream (maybe 3 years ago) I felt terrible that night, like I was going to throw up. I have a prescription for donnatal to help with those bad episodes. I have significantly fewer episodes now that I've greatly cut down on my greasy fat intake (I used to have candy bars somewhat regularly for example & more fried foods). I mean I still cook with canola oil, Smart Balance, and peanut butter, but I'm very rarely eating anything with a lot of saturated fat and it seems to help.

Thanks for the feedback a few pages ago. A few things that I guess make things a bit more difficult for me personally: 1. Due to medication I'm on for a blood problem, I have to limit vitamin K intake. That means most green vegetables are off the table unless I can consume a lot of them consistently, but that increases the risk of a problem if I miss even a single day. IE. If I have a large salad AND broccoli in a single day, my blood gets messed up. 2. I'm supposed to be doing cardio specifically because I've had mild atrial fibrillation several times in the last few years and there are no other apparent problems with my cardiac system. My cardiologist recommended 30 mins at the gym doing cardio 3-4 days a week. I don't have time to do that AND weights, not to mention last time I did weight lifting I found it was kind of hard on my wrists (which I kinda need) 3. I've heard plenty of great things about paleo, and like I mentioned, I HAVE gone to eating more lean meats etc. instead of grains, and if I do eat grains it's only whole grain/brown rice. I eat virtually no processed stuff if I can avoid it. That being said, I've also always had stomach problems which are made way worse by eating too much meat. It just makes me feel sick as its harder to digest and process. So if many veggies are off the table and I can't eat that much meat, that doesn't leave that many options honestly. Obviously the answer is just eat less and work out more, so I guess I'm just posting to vent more than anything else, but again it's demoralizing to put time into it and make lifestyle changes and not see a result. I feel like I'm expending willpower and time for nothing, which makes me much much less motivated to continue those changes. What's the point if I don't feel any better or weigh less?

Hey guys, thank you so much (from both of us) for the support. We really, sincerely appreciate it - hard to believe the goal was hit within 12 hours! Jill has added some really neat stretch goals now that the goal has been surpassed, such as... * PDF sheet music with melody, lyrics, chords and guitar tabs, free for all backers (physical bound editions for high backers) * Music videos * More live instruments including live strings, percussion and winds - possible collabs with ReMixers Jeff Ball and AeroZ! * A remix album FREE for all backers, to be released later in the year, and featuring arrangements by lots of cool folks If you want to see those things happen, definitely check out the project page and consider backing if you haven't already http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/jillianaversa/jillian-aversa-atlantis-awakening-vocal-new-age-al Jake - yes, the song "Daughter of the Rain" is a heavy arrangement and expansion of "Bouzouki Groove" with almost all new instrumentation, new melody, etc.

The album is released! Get it now! Awakening to visions of a civilization long buried beneath the sea, she begins to wonder if they are mere dreams or memories from a past life. Aletheia: in search of truth, her timeless journey begins... "Atlantis Awakening" is the third album by veteran ReMixer, staffer, and (my) spouse, Jillian Aversa! You may have heard her previous two vocal New age/World albums "Origins" and "Through Sand and Snow", released back in 2008; this one is even deeper, richer, and more polished, with an amazing story and some very talented collaborators. If you enjoy beautiful, ethereal vocals over atmospheric textures and hybrid world/electronic rhythms, I think you'll really like this one. Thanks to YOUR HELP, "Atlantis Awakening" was Kickstarted in 2013. We've been tirelessly working on the album since then, joined by the likes of... * The Philadelphia Boys Choir and Mens Chorale * World-famous cellist Tina Guo * The illustrious violinist and composer extraordinaire Jeff "some1namedjeff" Ball * Grammy-winning composer and new VGM legend Christopher Tin * From the lands of Tamriel and beyond, vocalist and YouTube star Malukah * The man with a thousand drums Doug "DrumUltima" Perry * Duduk virtuoso Sandro Friedrich * ... and the new hotness, Joe "XPRTNovice" Zieja on acoustic guitar And now, Atlantis Awakening is done and released! Physical and digital copies are available on Bandcamp, and Kickstarter backers either have their rewards already (digital) or will be seeing them soon (physical). Get the album!

Boy or a girl?! Either way, congratulations!

Brandon: Stop making stupid posts please. Next time you do you are banned for a week. Final warning. I think you're mischaracterizing some arguments here. While I do think the Soulcalibur character design is somewhat sexist and pandering, I still enjoy the game and had no problem working on it. It's not hypocritical to enjoy something while still finding fault with parts of it (as Anita eloquently stated in the video). Likewise I don't really have a problem working on such things either since audio has no bearing or impact on character design. Now if I were a character artist and my job was to draw only scantily-clad characters with giant boobs, I might hesitate and question whether such a job is worthwhile. Maybe. I don't think these are equivalent at all. "The feminist agenda" is vague because there are many kinds of feminists with many kinds of agendas. There is no one unified agenda, period. On the other hand, when people refer to "the patriarchy", they are referring to a state of society where men generally have authority and power in various aspects of civilized life. You can debate whether or not this exists, or to what degree in a specific society, but I would say it has a pretty clear definition. "The feminist agenda" can't be defined because there isn't any one agenda.

PCs have a ways to go before they're competing in the same space as consoles. They're certainly not interchangeable (yet) for something like the Ouya. For that to happen, PCs need... * Far more standardized hardware for compatibility, optimization, and troubleshooting. * Accessible standardized tech support options (Geek Squad anyone?) * Much more compact form factors. * Universally faster boot & load times. * Streamlined interfaces oriented toward gaming (i.e. no reliance on mouse/keyboard to get things booted up and running). * Lower price points. It's true that everyone has a computer, but relatively few people have the flexibility of hauling their computer to a living room to use it with a TV. This can require hardware and furniture that the average person might not have or be able to afford. Once it's set up, you still need to rely on a cumbersome keyboard and mouse to operate the OS and get to your games, which is less elegant than a standard controller. If you have problems with the hardware, you have no universal tech support number to call, no warranty for the system itself. Note that I'm not disparaging the PC for gaming at all... I do most of my gaming on a PC. I'm just saying the defining point of a console is a cheaper, optimized, easy-to-use hardware unit with a small form factor, built from the living room and completely idiot-proofed. PCs are not there yet.