zircon

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/03/opinion/sunday/this-story-stinks.html?_r=0 Here's the study.

Regarding the comments things, she had death threats, rape threats, her website got DOSed, Wikipedia page vandalized, people made games about beating her up, etc etc. This was beyond "u suck" in YouTube comments, this was really pretty terrible harassment. If you are the victim of that kind of thing it is certainly your right to disallow commenting, but remember, the comments were NOT off by default... she only turned them off after the hate stream begin. Really though, how often do you see an intelligent civil discussion in YouTube comments anyway? If 90% of the comments are garbage is it really worth keeping them open for the 10%? Most creators do not view comments as viable or important discourse. The real interesting discussion comes from written essays, articles, video responses, or forum discussions like these. As for the trope being 'harmful'... I agree with what Anita says. It's not that the games are terribly damaging or that we can't enjoy them. But they don't exist in a vacuum. We live in a world where a significant % of people think women are not equal (or SHOULD not be equal), that they deserve lesser rights, that rape is the woman's fault, or that they deserve no education. etc. The United States has become better about this but humanity as a whole certainly doesn't place women and men on equal footing. Video games have more influence than ever before so when games use stereotypes and tropes that enforce a very wrong and sexist world view, it just makes it that much harder for things to be balanced.

She didn't just get "troll comments", people threatened to rape her, sent death threats, etc. Her Wikipedia page has been repeatedly vandalized. I know it might be hard for you to wrap your head around but that's not 'discourse'. That's not another opinion, that's pure vitriolic garbage. This isn't just "Oh Internet, you silly!" Nobody should have to put up with that bullshit. The reward of re-enabling comments for an occasional glimmer of intelligence in 140 characters is not worth being called a fucking slut, cunt lesbian bitch, etc. over and over. Emperor: Sounds like you missed the point entirely! She said at the beginning that this trope is very old. The fact that it has been around for awhile isn't a defense. Also, she correctly pointed out that the trope IS positive... for the hero, who is usually male. It's all about them and their journey. The woman is just an object with no power when she is put in that situation. There really isn't much positive happening for them. The message is "You can't rescue yourself and be the architect of your own escape. You have no power." The title of the video is "damsels", not "pet frogs". How many games are there where a pet gets captured or kidnapped? Or a male character? She pointed out that overwhelmingly, it's women. And that's a problem. The trope isn't "objects, animals and males in distress", it's "damsel in distress". Why does it almost always have to be women? She explicitly said that. Again, how does this make it right or OK to continue that trend? How is that a defense...? There's nothing inherent to video games that is unappealing for women. The fact of the matter is, as Anita said, a lot of the earliest games (starting with Nintendo) established the damsel-in-distress trope as a lazy way of establishing gameplay, and other developers carried the ball from there. It's not like this was some sort of inevitable thing. What if the first games had all been about men and women working together or partnering as equals? Maybe they would have been more appealing to women from the start. We'll never know. This video was explicitly covering the history of the trope, not how it is today, nor did it touch on positive examples because those are all for later videos. But you overlooked her point that a lot of these old games with the distress trope are continually remade, ported, etc. Zelda is still getting captured in every game. So is Peach. The chick in Double Dragon is still getting punched in the stomach and carried away even in the 2012 version. Get the idea?

But... she did do that. She's had a YouTube channel for years with dozens of videos. http://www.youtube.com/user/feministfrequency/videos?view=0

Remember that she only asked for $6000. People donated her because they wanted to support her as an individual. Sure, the physical costs might not be SUPER high (high def shooting, video editing, buying games, greenscreen, whatever) but considering there are going to be over a dozen in-depth videos in the series, the main investment is time. Very few people are able to make long, well-researched, ultra-polished video series without earning revenue at the same time. Extra Credits certainly makes money, for example. As for that video response, I only watched the first 60 seconds before turning it off. The guy was complaining that she disabled comments. I saw a screencap of the comments for the video and they were universally disgusting. As to people asking for positive examples, that's already planned as part of the series. I can understand wanting to break down the issues one by one.

Well... she did point out that Peach is playable in many of the spinoff games, and Mario RPG (etc) is a spinoff. She's talking about the MAIN games, the ones that sell tens of millions of copies. Also, she agreed with you that the game's just use Peach as an excuse for gameplay - practically word for word. But it's like look, if we're going to use something as an excuse for gameplay, why does it have to be this tired trope that just happens to portray a woman as weak and helpless? Why not.. anything else?

I thought this was very well-done. Good writing and good examples (polished video editing, too). Seeing so many games using the trope one after another made me feel a little embarrassed for game developers, along with the sexist ads, Dragon's Lair, etc. Though I was familiar with a lot of the examples I still found it interesting, and it put a new perspective on some things, like escaping from captivity for a male character vs. female.

Yeah true, I am using the Kontakt version.

See I have to disagree completely about Ra. I got it many years ago when it first came out and it is still one of my very favorite libraries. It's not THAT deep but you get such a wide breadth of instruments that it is well-worth it, IMO. I have used instruments like the santoor, shakuhachi, saz and oud too many times to count.

We're listening to all the entries now; each judge is picking their top 5 tracks and we'll tally up the results within a week. Of course everyone is being considered for the project itself regardless of whether they place in the top 3 or not!

Oh wow, how did I miss this?! Do you guys have an email list or something? I would love to do a big band arrangement.

I am not, so send again if you think it didn't go through.

Just about 24 hours left, LET'S DO IT!

Do your best. I would rather you submit a great arrangement than nothing at all.

I think some people actively working on AAA dev could confirm this but I'm pretty sure that isn't accurate... I think the advantage of consoles is that they generally 'just work' without having to worry about lots of other factors. Every week I hang out with Level99 and we routinely play games on his gaming computer hooked up to a TV. Relative to a game console, it's not bad, but it suffers from random controller connectivity problems, controller configuration problems, lag/performance issues, operating system bullshit popping up, etc. Being able to pop in a game on 360/PS3 to play with your friends is generally going to be a smoother experience. Again IF you have a gaming computer that you've already spent a lot of money on, and IF you have controllers, and IF you can hook it up to a large TV without messing up your workflow, then yeah, there's not much of a point in getting a console (except for exclusives). But many people aren't in that situation and don't have the ability to move their computer (assuming it's good enough for nextgen gaming) next to their TV. Console is just an easier solution for that. Simply put, consoles are devices for the living room. That's the big difference and the big advantage.

Well, the nice thing about PSP (regarding UMD grind) is that many games were downloadable. In fact many of my favorite games were not on disc. Also, with a hacked system (easy enough) you could just dump your game and run it off an SD card, way faster.

No, I agree. I think the PSP (after the first or second iteration) was an excellent handheld. The library of games is just amazing. I have 0 interest in getting a 3DS but I'm still enjoying my PSP today.

Not having PS2 compatibility did not hurt the PS3 in the long run. Not having PS3 compatibility won't hurt the PS4. The issue is that the PS4 apparently uses a totally different architecture. Soft emulation would be impossible and hard emulation would probably be WAY too expensive, so they picked the best option: don't include it.

PSP was really good pretty much the whole time. A little weak on launch titles, but seriously, what console / handheld HASN'T been weak? It's always been very moddable besides having great hardware and an amazing library. The RPGs on the PSP are among the best around. As for PS3 being a financial failure, you know that it has now sold more units than the 360, right? Well, "ease of use" on a PC hasn't gotten drastically better with often-shaky PC ports and hardware compatibility issues. We're ALL enthusiasts here, but the average person (and below average person) is not. There are still a lot of console exclusive games (particularly Japanese ones) which is a major selling point. The TV connectivity thing is a big one. Even if you have a computer that can run modern games well (maybe not too uncommon), the average person is not going to want to put it next to their TV unless they have ANOTHER computer, which most people don't. There's stuff you have to deal with there to get it hooked up properly, messiness of wireless mouse/keyboard, buying gamepads, etc. It's still a pain in the ass. However, I think console sales are going to suffer this generation for a number of reasons unrelated to "PC is better" (and btw I do 95% of my gaming on PC): * WAY more people are gaming on mobile devices than ever before. Some time and money that would have gone toward traditional console gaming is now going toward mobile gaming, which is often much more convenient, cheap, and time-effective. The game industry has been severely disrupted since the launch of the PS3/360 thanks to mobile. * Sort of related, but there's also a lot more gaming going on within the browser (not just Facebook games but... well, that's a lot of it). These can be played on any computer and most mobile devices as well. As with the above, this is cheaper and more convenient than console gaming, and time/money is spent here instead of on console games. * The jump in graphics/functionality from our current generation to the upcoming generation is almost assuredly going to be much less pronounced than the jump from PS2 -> PS3. PS3/360 games still look great today. No, they're not as amazing as maxed-out PC games. But the level of realism is objectively much higher, framerates are better across the board, physics are better, etc. In other words, there are diminishing returns at work and so the increase in hardware power is not going to be as much of a selling point as it was before. * Our economy still sucks and people (especially young people) seem to have less money than ever. Health care is more expensive. Food is more expensive. Employment is harder to come by, especially good employment. College is more expensive. Insurance is more expensive. Gas is more expensive. Thus even if the above factors weren't true, ALL spending has slowed and large luxury purchases like a new console (especially if one has an existing, perfectly functioning console) are going to be especially scrutinized.

I think this is a little more than ridiculous. * The PSP was a fantastic system. TONS of great exclusive games, great ports, superb modability (emulators, ROMs, etc), good battery, great screen, great control. Getting ~PS2-level games in a handheld was a pretty fantastic feat in and of itself, but they also had forward-thinking internet features/wifi, micro USB charger / disk drive, store functionality, output to TV... I mean really, it was an amazing system. * Can't speak to the Vita... * ... but the PS3 turned out pretty amazing after the price dropped. Not sure how one can dispute this. Compared to the Xbox 360, it has more power and often gets superior ports that run better. Excellent exclusives like Infamous, Journey, and Ni No Kuni. Built-in wifi for free (unlike 360). Great library of PS1, PS2, PS3 games, retro classics, etc. A very sleek online platform that is free (again, unlike 360) and not filled with bullshit avatars, advertisements, etc. Built-in Blu Ray. Compared to Playstation Plus, if you like that sort of thing, Live Gold is an absolute joke. Free games, free content, huge discounts, etc etc. Not to mention the PS3 is less proprietary than the 360 or Wii in the hardware you can connect to it, just a little bonus. I was laughing at the PS3 when it first came out as well; at $599 with a weak library, it was a joke. But fast forward to today and my 360 is collecting dust. I prefer the PS3 exclusives, the FREE online experience & wifi capability, the Blu Ray player, and the fact that most games simply look + run better on it. Not to mention it has a bigger built-in hard drive than my 360. The backwards compatibility thing is stupid but honestly, nobody cared with the PS3 (sales picked up quite a bit just due to price dropping) and nobody will care with PS4. That being said, I probably won't get one myself until the price comes down to the <=$300 range and it builds up enough games for me to be interested in.

Give me your remixes

If you don't think you can finish by the 28th, try anyway and submit. Remember we're not just using this as a contest, but a way to find new talent for the project.

HEY it's another contest! Come on and enter!

The Contest Last year, we ran a remix contest to help find new artists (and complete unclaimed sources) for the FF6 Balance & Ruin project. The contest was a huge success and we brought a number of new people on to the roster. The majority of the project is now done, but we still have a few tracks left that we could use arrangements for; these sources tunes were either overlooked, or the ReMixers who previously claimed them ended up dropping out for time reasons. This is your opportunity to try your hand at arranging one (or more!) of these themes for the project! The Source Tunes The Mines of Narshe The Unforgiven http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=llw2SLyM4Mo Metamorphosis http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YR9kw69Z4-A The Wedding Waltz ~ Duel http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YRggPOU8dEQ&t=2m32s The Fierce Battle Umaro http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dd0fnITPGPE The Fanatics http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VpolIKYChFA Guidelines * You may arrange the source tune(s) in whatever style you want. However, I encourage you to try to keep with the general mood and 'feel' of the original. For the Fierce Battle, you could try a rock or metal mix, an uptempo electronic track, or even a chaotic jazz piece. But I wouldn't recommend a soft New Age arrangement. * Feel free to team up with other ReMixers, though you will be splitting the prizes amongst yourselves. * Please do NOT use any sampled audio from the game - even sound effects. * You must predominantly use at least one source from this list. You may use multiple sources, or sources not on this list, but preferably to a lesser degree. * Try to adhere to the OCR standards of production and arrangement. Voting In the interest of time, the judges panel will be selecting the winners for the contest (along with myself and McVaffe). We WILL be anonymizing all the entries beforehand, of course. Prizes All entrants and submissions will be carefully considered for addition to the Balance & Ruin project. However, our three favorite entries will receive the following (guaranteed): 1st place: A physical copy of Balance & Ruin, the entire zircon discography, any three libraries from Impact Soundworks. 2nd place: The entire zircon discography, any two libraries from Impact Soundworks. 3rd place: The entire zircon discography, any library from Impact Soundworks. Submission / Deadline You MUST submit your entries VIA EMAIL in MP3 format (192kbps and above please) to aaversa@gmail.com. You can attach the files or use WeTransfer.com / YouSendIt.com. You should of course keep the full-quality 24bit WAV render on hand as well. ALL SUBMISSIONS must be received by February 28th, 2013 at 11:59PM EST! GOOD LUCK! RESULTS OK! We've finally collected all the votes and combed through them. Each mix was voted on in terms of arrangement creativity, and production (to a lesser degree, given the short timeline). It was actually very interesting seeing all the votes (each staffer picked their top 5 mixes). The spread was close and no two people had the same top 5. That speaks to the effort of everyone who contributed a mix, so thank you! THE WINNERS 1st Place: Archangel with "Umaro's New Groove" (tied with XPRTNovice's "Narshemellow") 2nd Place: Patrick Burns with "Following Forgotten" 3rd Place: Mustin with "Now is the Winter" Again, the voting was VERY VERY close, so I feel I should also give shoutouts to... Honorable Mentions: Adam Kirby with "Endless Stair" and Jakesnke17 with "Gizmo Loving Sasquatch" If you placed in the top three, please email me (aaversa@gmail.com) with your choice(s) of ISW libraries! Overall, there were so many good entries that we will definitely be inviting more than those listed above to the project - so even if you didn't "win", keep your eyes peeled for an invite nonetheless. Thank you so much everyone for participating, and you can find a RAR with ALL entries below! http://zirconstudios.com/FF6_Contest_2

Most AAA Steam games debut at $60, just like they do in a brick and mortar store. And while Steam does have bundles and sales, it's also much cheaper to get physical games if you wait a little while too. Markdowns in stores like Gamestop, Best Buy, Walmart, Kmart, Target, etc., holiday sales, doorbusters, used game sales, trading sites like Goozex. You only pay a premium (regardless of whether it's PC or console) if you buy right when the game comes out.