how NOT to make a complaint of sexism

Here on MacGameFiles, a comment about the dating sim Summer Session.

Kind of mindless yet an interesting concept. However, the game doesn't really go anywhere; not satisfying. Sexist; shallow. ParisH.-types would love it.

Sexist and shallow.

Maybe it is. But... how, exactly? Are the portrayals of the female characters offensive? Are the portrayals of the male characters offensive? In what way?

Just saying "That's so sexist!" helps nobody.

If you're out there, malama, please elaborate!

the world becomes Ender's Game

Article about making videogame interfaces for actual war machines.

in which I prove the stereotype

well, the "feminists have no sense of humor" one anyway, because I'm sure someone's going to accuse me of that.

Apparently the upcoming Fallout 3 includes a "Lady Killer" perk, which has two benefits - bonus damage to female opponents and 'special dialog options' when talking to female NPCs.

Assuming that these special dialog options mean that you're better at charming and flirting with women... ewwwwww.

Having a "Ladykiller" perk that meant bonus damage to females is funny in a dark way, it plays off the word.

Having a "Ladykiller" perk that just means you're a suave fellow and better at scoring with the ladies is fine, although I'd want an equivalent for flirting with the boys.

Combining these two is tacky at best. It's not funny.

On the other hand, it's always possible that this "Lady Killer" badge is their way of bringing over something similar to the "Child Killer" from previous games (that is, a very bad reputation) and that the special dialog options consist of NPCs considering you to be a right bastard because you like to hit girls. And that's not a problem for me.

Since at this point no one seems to know for certain exactly what's involved, all I can do is be uneasy.


edited to add: One commenter on the eurogamer article says that the game DOES include an equivalent 'Man Eater' perk, so at least it's balanced. Which makes it seem not quite so bad. :)

Lord British heading for space?

And using most of his money to do it, according to this story.

I've never interacted with the guy myself, but I've heard some tales of his Eccentric Parties...

(Also, I vaguely knew someone who was on UO2 and met his fate at the You're Fired Barbecue. Ah, mainstream game development!)

our honored forebears

Adventure Gamers has a retro-review up of Quest For Glory IV: Shadows of Darkness, which is my favorite of the series and would be a strong contender for best Sierra game ever, if not for the BUGGINESS. It was difficult to get through it at the time because a key puzzle didn't work right 9 times out of 10. It got impossible shortly after that, because a hardware timing issue would cause it to crash at important points. Also, there was a godawful annoying copy protection routine that required you to quit the game in order to look things up (although I think this was removed in some versions. It's been so long that I can't REMEMBER what the situation is with the CD of the game I'm carrying around).

I loved the story. I loved the rpg/adventure mix that allowed multiple solutions to puzzles, sometimes having to do with objects, sometimes having to do with your skills. I even liked the combat and the ability to set it to strategy mode so I didn't have to DO the combat. :)

I hear there are enough fan patches around that it should be vaguely playable in DOSBox nowadays... I wonder if I can get it to work in Linux and bully certain people into trying it.

eye-searing pink

Yeah, I'm one to talk, with this blog. :)

New Puzzle Quest clone apparently coming out, hanging off the 'Mean Girls' movie brand.

There won’t be magic spells. Instead, according to press materials the game’s publisher handed me today, there will be “rumors, pranks and putdowns.”

If they're busy dying it hot pink, they'll probably also dial down the difficulty... I suspect. I do not know.

ignorance never shut me up either!

Picked up on slashdot, another "woe, adventure games dead, people don't like to think anymore" story which ignores basic facts like

1. traditional retail PC adventure games are STILL being produced, with at least a handful hitting wal-mart every year

2. they're picking up new fans now that they're available on portals

3. there are interesting DS adventure games coming out too (Another Code, Professor Layton, Hotel Dusk, Time Hollow, Phoenix Wright....)

4. the insanely popular hidden object game genre on the casual game portals is developing a tendency to include some adventure game puzzles as well (Although probably with a much lower difficulty. I can't really say, as I don't play these games myself.)


On a related subject, a mainstream games review website which believes that you don't need to play an adventure game to know that they're all crap and a niche games review site which happens to like adventure games are throwing poo at each other.