Not Without Honor

[christian]

http://www.reaxxion.com/2026/the-pettin ... -reviewers

I wrote this. When Reaxxion first launched, they were hungry for articles, and I saw an opportunity here to reach a wider audience with my writing. The quality of the typical Reaxxion article was, however, quite poor. Not to mention Reaxxion had strong links to GamerGate and the manosphere scene, both of which I wanted nothing to do with. So I used a pseudonym to disassociate myself from them when I submitted the article.

But as I continued to write, I realized that there was no way I could continue publishing on Reaxxion. The content of my articles deeply conflicted with the objective of their site, which was to create a "safe place" for themselves, and so I started to look elsewhere for a publisher. But as I looked into the matter further, I soon discovered that there were no suitable places for me to publish my work. And so, I created Victory Game Center.

[christian]

Republished here, under its original title: http://victorygamecenter.com/not-without-honor/

[christian]

Psalm 1:1-2

Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and night.

And what does the law say?

Leviticus 19:15

Ye shall do no unrighteousness in judgment: thou shalt not respect the person of the poor, nor honour the person of the mighty: but in righteousness shalt thou judge thy neighbour.

[christian]

Mark 6:4

But Jesus said unto them, A prophet is not without honour, but in his own country, and among his own kin, and in his own house.

I titled it as such because it seems that Call of Duty is especially maligned among its own kin. Fellow developers, gamers, industry folk. Etc.

[christian]

Psuedo-gamers laugh at games. Gamers play them.

The horrors I saw working at a game studio were the inspiration for this.

[christian]

https://www.facebook.com/jgunn/posts/10152514306101157

Whatever the case, the truth is, popular fare in any medium has always been snubbed by the self-appointed elite. I've already won more awards than I ever expected for Guardians. What bothers me slightly is that many people assume because you make big films that you put less love, care, and thought into them then people do who make independent films or who make what are considered more serious Hollywood films.

I've made B-movies, independent films, children's movies, horror films, and gigantic spectacles. I find there are plenty of people everywhere making movies for a buck or to feed their own vanity. And then there are people who do what they do because they love story-telling, they love cinema, and they want to add back to the world some of the same magic they've taken from the works of others. In all honesty, I do no find a strikingly different percentage of those with integrity and those without working within any of these fields of film.

If you think people who make superhero movies are dumb, come out and say we're dumb. But if you, as an independent filmmaker or a "serious" filmmaker, think you put more love into your characters than the Russo Brothers do Captain America, or Joss Whedon does the Hulk, or I do a talking raccoon, you are simply mistaken.

[christian]

Literary Taste: How to Form It - http://www.gutenberg.org/files/13852/13 ... 3852-h.htm

Not the greatest dramatist, not the greatest composer, not the greatest actor can prevent an audience from laughing uproariously at a tragic moment if a cat walks across the stage. But why ruin the scene by laughter? Simply because the majority of any audience is artistically childish. This sense of the ridiculous can only be crushed by the exercise of moral force. It can only be cowed. If you are inclined to laugh when a poet expresses himself more powerfully than you express yourself, when a poet talks about feelings which are not usually mentioned in daily papers, when a poet uses words and images which lie outside your vocabulary and range of thought, then you had better take yourself in hand. You have to decide whether you will be on the side of the angels or on the side of the nincompoops. There is no surer sign of imperfect development than the impulse to snigger at what is unusual, naïve, or exuberant. And if you choose to do so, you can detect the cat walking across the stage in the sublimest passages of literature. But more advanced souls will grieve for you.

I've seen many a person hallucinate a cat walking across the stage of some of the most excellent videogames ever made. Fitting too. Since most all of them are Internet addicts. Of course it would be cats. Cats everywhere. And the guffaw is soon to follow.

[christian]

https://twitter.com/BradBirdA113/status ... 2979399680

cats.PNG (54.79 KiB) Viewed 13725 times

[christian]

Everybody Wins: Games Keep Growing Up - http://www.appunwrapper.com/2015/08/13/ ... rowing-up/

A few days ago, Juliet Kahn wrote an article on Boingboing about her 17-year-old sister who used to love video games but no longer does. She says “My little sister wants games to be for her exactly what they are for boys and men: easy to love. Why does that have to be so hard?”

And I’m thinking…what? I love so many games. There have been some I’ve even shown off to friends who have no interest in them, like Contre Jour, World of Goo, Oquonie, Monument Valley, The Room, and most recently Her Story and Prune. I know there are plenty of other women out there who love games and they’re not all playing first-person shooters (FPS).

The author goes on to say:

We’re not gamers. We don’t play real games. We should stay out. My proximity to nerdhood, her proximity to the mainstream—neither matters. Video games did not grow up with us; video games did not grow up for us.

I’m not sure where they got this idea that video games haven’t grown up with us. The majority of my site’s audience are adult women. If you grew out of video games, maybe it’s simply because you have other things going on in your life and you don’t really have the time or need for them. That was my situation in college. Her sister is a cheerleader and runs a One Direction Twitter account. It sounds to me like she simply found other interests. Why blame games for that? Why even be bothered by it in the first place? I have plenty of male friends who don’t play video games because they simply have no interest. They wouldn’t even know the latest popular AAA game. Not everyone wants to play games and that’s completely fine.

You can’t expect to learn about all the great things in the world from advertising!

The same goes with games. You need to put in a tiny bit of legwork if you want to find the games that appeal to you. It’s not that hard, though. Most of the information can be easily found online. And even the games themselves are online! Most games are digital now, which makes them more accessible than when they were only available in stores. I believe we’re living in a golden age of games. I only play on my iPhone and iPad, but some PC games have me strongly considering getting a new PC to play them. Gone Home, Dear Esther, The Vanishing of Ethan Carter, the upcoming Fran Bow and Tsioque, just to name a few. I tell myself I don’t play PC or console games because I don’t trust myself to have a life outside them if I start. But just the short list above has me strongly reconsidering.

The author’s sister says she wants more Cooking Mama and games on her phone. A quick Google search — not even the App Store, but Google! — brought up a Cooking Mama mobile game for both the iOS App Store and the Google Play store. A little research can go a long way! I don’t think it helps our case for inclusiveness to ask for games that already exist.

Now here's a great article in a similar spirit to mine, which took Vestal to task for writing nonsense about a brilliant game he didn't care about. Similarly, the author here saw Juliet Kahn bemoaning the terrible plight of women who can't find any games out there for them to love. This naturally struck her as highly unusual, considering that "we're living in a golden age of games" (same conclusion as my own), and that the only way someone could come to any other conclusion is if they hadn't put any effort into discovering what was out there. It really isn't hard. You just have to want to find it. The author's even put together her own list of recommended titles for all the world to see, doing more than her part to help spread the good word.

[christian]

A lovely RPS article praising the merits of the pursuit of photorealism.

Photorealism is crucial - http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2015/09 ... s-crucial/

But I know this feeling is forbidden. I should care about games, not the empty pursuit of photorealism. But oh my, it’s so exciting, and not empty. In fact, I think that right now photorealism is becoming crucial to games, and that we should celebrate it.

From the comments:

this relentless, passionate pursuit is something beautiful.

An article that strays from the current “indie” orthodoxy. Predictably received by the crowd.