Who Hunts The Hunters?

Obvious title is obvious.

I play a lot of video games. I mean, a lot.

Primarily, I play cooperative game modes. In some of those cooperative game modes, sometimes the interfaces are poorly coded, such as in Mass Effect: Andromeda. In these more poorly coded interfaces, often the voice chat is on by default, and there's a surprisingly generous portion of the playerbase that doesn't realize this. As a result, you often hear a lot of background noise: dogs barking, heavy breathing, televisions, cars driving by, jackhammers, people having sex, someone being horribly murdered in the background, or a combination of any of the above.

Stay with me. This is relevant, I promise.

Over the last week or so, Bully Hunters was announced. It is ostensibly an elite squad of possibly female gamers on call 24/7 to hunt down and exact revenge on toxic male gamers that harass other female gamers that are just trying to play a game. They announced a livestream event, an hour to show off their system in action, hunting down a bully live and providing statistics on why they're necessary.

And then the stream happened.



An hour turned into 35 minutes of unadulterated cringe.

The experts they brought on parroted Gender Studies talking points, which really came as no surprise. The in-game footage they showed was choppy and looked like it was either poorly encoded, pre-recorded footage or was being played on a computer from 2002. The presenters were stiff and uncharismatic, the audience was lifeless, and the event cues were ripped straight from a garage-level presentation of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire. But it didn't stop there.

The statistics discussed by the 'professionals' -- a clinical counselor with a focus on living with diabetes and a clinical psychologist with a focus on marriage counseling -- were revealed to have been extrapolated by a self-reporting survey of 874 people on social media platforms Twitter and Reddit, and inflated from the 874 respondents to a total of 3 million women being driven out of gaming.

One "casual gamer," therosethorn, was revealed to be not only the casual gamer with a level 1 account owning only one game, but the bully, the bully hunter, and several other bully hunters as well. Not to mention that one of her previous names (and the url of her profile page) was testbhv1 (test bully hunter victim 1?).

Full disclosure here: this screenshot was taken from my own Steam account while I was writing this, as I'd lost the original screenshot. That's right, it's still there.

An additional problem arises in that, unless I'm mistaken, you can't hear the enemy team (let alone join a game in-progress if you're playing competitively) in Counterstrike: Global Offensive. If she was able to hear the bully, that means they were on the same team, and if she invited the Bully Hunter in, then she'd go to the same team, thereby making that glorious knife kill from earlier nigh-on impossible. If she somehow joined the opposing team, then due to the hectic nature of a CS:GO match, she'd stand just as much a chance of killing the person that called her for help as she did killing the bully, or even being killed by the bully herself, which is something that happens anyway. I'm not kidding, you play one of these games, and you die a lot. One more death will mean literally nothing to you.

A few watchful eyes happened to notice the prominent SteelSeries branding backing the Bully Hunters, and asked them directly about it. SteelSeries, a fairly well-respected gaming peripheral company (I even have a Fallout-themed headset they made) initially stood their ground when asked, but eventually buckled after being confronted by the shady nature of the entire event.

And I can't blame them at all. After Bully Hunters host and spokesperson Natalie Casanova aka ZombiUnicorn was exposed as having used a slur on a livestream several times (something that poor PewDiePie was crucified for), and using a gendered slur in several tweets, people kept digging, and found that the entire thing was slapped together by marketing company FCB Chicago. Eventually other sponsors Vertagear and, ironically, the Diverse Gaming Coalition also folded, throwing FCB Chicago and, in the case of the latter, ZombiUnicorn under the bus.

This is bad. Not only does it paint people that play games in general in a bad light, but it also paints women that play games as personally helpless, having to bring in outside help to fight their battles for them. I've played with a lot of women in my time; some of my best long-term co-op partners have been women, and I've always trusted them to hold their own, whether they're tanking for my medic or I'm tanking for their medic, and have never been let down. But this? You don't stop 'bullies' by giving them air-time or more exposure. You don't give them an easily exploitable platform so they can play nice until they convince you they're hunter material. Instead, you starve them of oxygen. You give them no reaction until they get bored. Do you want to see the most effective weapon against in-game harassment? I'll show you:

Treading Old Ground to Finish the Fight

A hair over three years ago, I wrote about my love for the Halo series, and my sorrow over not being able to finish it, due to its exclusivity to the XBox 360 console. That's quite a while ago now, and I feel it's time to revisit that topic, due to a change in circumstance.

I've been toying with, and resisting, the idea of buying an XBox 360. The launch of the XBox One was almost three years ago, and during that time, the price is what drove me away, because there were only four games I was really interested in anyway: Halo 3, Halo 3: ODST, Halo: Reach, and Halo 4.

In the last month or so, Gamestop has lowered their prices on the 360 to a mere $50, and with the missing games ranging between six and twelve dollars apiece, it seemed a goal was finally in sight.

So I did it. I ordered an Xbox 360, with a copy of Halo 3.

I haven't owned a console since the Nintendo 64. It was a grand old thing, looking not unlike the hood of a muscle car (especially with the RAM expansion and hooded air intake for it), but it had no moving parts. It was silent as a ghost: just plug the game in, switch it on, and the only thing you heard was what came through the speakers. It was a bit of a contrast with my gaming PC, which has no less than eight fans in it -- three alone on the video card. My computer isn't exactly silent.

So, it was with some trepidation that I hooked up the system to my 40-inch LED television that's currently in service as the monitor to my computer, put the batteries in the wireless controller, and switched it on. The console loaded up perfectly fine, but it didn't seem to be reading the disc. Digging through the shelves my computer -- and now the console -- sat on, I found a folder of DVDs. Picking one at random (disc one of the X-Men movie, if you care), I inserted it, and it read fine. Shrugging, I polished the game disc and tried again. It worked this time, and I was off.

Pictured: Me, off. 

I played an hour or so before work, and about an hour after work. It happily picked up right where Halo 2 had left off, with it being close to two years since I'd last played it. 

And then it happened. I'd just finished the fourth chapter of the game, and it was loading the fifth, when...

THIS RIGHT HERE IS WHY I DON'T DO DISCS ANYMORE

So I'm off to Gamestop. I'm going to show them the disc, explain what happens when I try to play it, and hopefully obtain a replacement that will play past Chapter 4. (And also maybe a copy of Halo 4. I want to finish Chief's story before I start in on the side stories.) But this is the first disc-based game that I've played since PC's stopped requiring discs in the drive, and certainly the first pre-owned disc-based game I've probably ever played.

This is not, so far, a good experience. I'm hoping after this little speedbump is out of the way, things will go more smoothly.

Who knows, maybe I'll put out another one of these things when the XBox One is $50, and I've gotten my hands on a copy of Halo 5. Because Microsoft, in what has spurred me to this current decision, has graciously deigned to allow us to use the Halo Forge map-making program and maybe some multiplayer, but are still keeping the campaign exclusive to console. Which means that the preceding games will likely still never see PC release. I'm sure that if Microsoft could, it would snatch up every copy of the first two games and destroy them just to spite the PC market.

Do We Really Need A Video Game Awards Show?

     Joel McHale, as I understand, is a comedic genius under the right circumstances. I honestly haven't seen but a few episodes of Community, but I've been told... over.. and over.. that it's a brilliant show. He also used to do The Soup and, while I'm sure it was funny in its own right, was completely irrelevant to me as I'm not a terribly huge television watcher, let alone a follower of the genre covered by that show. What Joel McHale has proven himself not, however, is an apt presenter of a video games awards show.

     Normally, when I title an essay "Do we really need..." I'm going to be arguing that we don't. In this particular instance, I'm going against grain. I've made it clear, in the past, how much of a dedicated gamer I am. Go back and read any number of my previous diatribes, and you'll see my love for the medium. If I had to forgo all form of entertainment media and pick just one for the rest of my life, it would be games. The stories you can tell when you're part of the narrative are touching and personal in a way that, for me, other media just can't match. Aside from getting choked up over the odd episode of Doctor Who, I can't remember the last time I openly wept over something the way I did when Eleanor Lamb said goodbye to her father, or when Tiny Tina and the Vault Hunters made their peace with a great personal loss.

     I'm firmly in the camp that gaming is an art form, and we need to show appreciation to the creators in an art form. Someone needs to have their name out there and a little trophy over their fireplace proclaiming that they told the best interactive story, or crafted the best accompanying music, or were instrumental in introducing the most revolutionary mechanic in a game. We need heroes in the industry that can give clear goals to up-and-comers to aim for and topple down the line, and we need to make a big goddamn deal when someone crafts something so perfect it evokes a genuine emotional response.

     The Spike VGA/VGXs are not the way we need to do that. There's highlight reels out there (if highlight is the right word). I challenge you to watch them. The first time I tried, I got a minute or two in and just closed the video out of complete discomfort. It doesn't help that I'm biased against Geoff Keighley, the main host, to begin with. Dead-eyed Geoff Keighley, sandwiched between a Halo 4 poster and a table full of Doritos and Mountain Dew, long-suspected and outright accused of being a schill for games publishers with his smug gobby face and his awkward diplomacy. He's practically the poster-child for corporate meddling in gaming journalism. I genuinely don't like this guy. He rubs me the wrong way in an (at least in my eyes) irrational way and I feel sorry for the guy.

Courtesy of Eurogamer. This is not a photoshop.

     The previous Spike VGA shows were hollow, overblown mockeries of other shams like the MTV VMAs, which fit right at home on Spike. I'm not fond of Spike, either. Marketed as "The First Network for Men." Apparently Mens programming involves Pamela Anderson, Professional Wrestling, and syndicated prime-time dramas. That's another article in and of itself. This year's "VGX" was re-branded and down-sized, which I think really helped, but still couldn't save it. Joel McHale seemed determine to undermine the subject matter with jokes about female orgasms, Cheetos encrusted fingernails, and taking shots when hearing the words 'next-gen.' Constantly going off-script and blathering on about the teleprompter and being needlessly disrespectful not only to Keighley (which I'd have been ok with), but Reggie Fils-Aime from Nintendo and Double Fine's Tim Schaefer. We get it, Joel, you're drunk and you don't want to be here. Do us all a favor and go home. Get someone who'll appreciate it like Felicia Day, Wil Wheaton, Chris Hardwick, Veronica Belmont. Someone who's played a game recently and can actually muster some genuine enthusiasm. I hate Geoff Keighley and I could have done a better job.

     What really didn't help was when they cut to some rap group I've never heard of who contributed to the GTAV soundtrack that went on to shout things like POTATOES and MY SUIT HAS SHOULDER PADS in between listing the most violent things you can do in a GTA game as why they love games. Way to make gaming look like a pastime for mature adults, guys.

     Fortunately, there are alternatives. The GDC, Game Developers Choice Awards, the Independent Games Festival, and the BAFTA Interactive Entertainment Awards exist. If only we could funnel the attention and funding that Spike gets for the VGA/VGX into one or more of those, broadcast them over the internet, and get someone notable - and related to the industry - to host them, we wouldn't have situations like this year's debacle. Few things make me ashamed of being a gamer. Joel McHale just managed it, though.

Boots in the Dust

     There's a chill in the late autumn air, a wind carrying a warning of a coming bitter cold, of unnatural creature and desperate men. My boots crunch on the blasted gravel and dust of the hillside. I shift my rifle's weight from one shoulder to the other, adjusting the uncomfortable metal plate of my leather vest. Cresting the hill, I sit for a moment on a shattered piece of concrete, grimacing at the foul taste of the dirty water, choking back a momentary wave of nausea. Probably mild radiation poisoning. Have to get some meds for that in the next town, otherwise I could grow a third breast or fingers on my leg. At least, that's what the overseer always told us.
     Behind me, there's a shifting noise. I tense up, my rife falling from its sling on my shoulder as I drop to one knee, taking aim at the hill I just climbed and blowing the hair from my eyes. The safety catch releases as a silhouette comes into view and my finger approaches the trigger...




     I've been visiting some old stomping grounds recently. The Fallout series and I have some history, as most old school gamers do with it. I played the old games off and on, probably never actually finishing any of them, but spending plenty of time wandering about in them. Fallout 3 is a touchy subject for me, though. It was an outstanding game, a revelation in gaming even, as it was basically an Elder Scrolls game that wasn't about swords and sorcery. For those of us who wanted that kind of an experience but had no interest in the D&D type worlds, this was our world. All vacuum tubes faux-Leave it to Beaver and nuclear age paranoia.

     Fallout 3, though, was a difficult game. Due to the sheer size of the world and all the tiny little details of it, it was an incredibly unstable game. Even after fan patches, official patches, and countless mods, I still can't run it. I've rage quit the game twice, once the first time I ever tried to play it and once only six or seven months ago when I tried to play it again. Only after playing its quasi-sequel Fallout: New Vegas did I force myself through the game despite its  crashes, but for some reason or another it just flat-out will not play anymore on my system.

     Then I found the Tale of Two Wastelands mod. The entirety of Fallout 3, imported into Fallout New Vegas's more stable, improved, and more moddable engine. I'm about 5 or 6 hours back in now, just long enough to reach the second major settlement, Rivet City (a massive  aircraft carrier beached in a dried riverbed in Washington, DC) and it's a joy to be back. I have every intention of playing these two games to their conclusion yet again, even if it takes another 200 hours.

     I sincerely recommend the DC and Mojave wastelands as vacation spots for anyone that wants to chill at their games console or computer and get lost for hours and hours at a time. Don't be surprised if you start getting attached to certain things, too; thinking of Megaton as a home, or sharing quiet moments on a hillside with Rose of Sharon (don't call her Whiskey Rose) Cassidy. There's a kind of serene, broken beauty to be seen, and tiny stories to be told in graffiti left on buildings or the remains  of people huddled together in abandoned houses. I thought I'd had my fill of it, but this place will probably never not feel like home.

     Fallout 3 and Fallout New Vegas are both available on Steam for cheap (and probably cheaper come the Winter Sale in late December).

Bioware, sit down. We need to talk.

     There comes a time in any relationship where you have to evaluate the good times and the bad times. You have to sit back and look at the broad scope of that relationship and see if it's at all healthy for both of you to carry on. It's a painful, heart-breaking process that requires objectivity and analysis, and can get you out of a situation that's just hurting you, or reinforce a bond that's stayed strong.

     My first real exposure to Bioware was Knights of the Old Republic. Unlike most sci-fi fans, I've never really been a big fan of Star Wars. My interest in the franchise peaked around Episode 1, but then quickly fell off again, but I've always enjoyed a good Star Wars game. I've even enjoyed a few bad Star Wars games. Knights of the Old Republic was far and away so different from anything I'd played before. I was mostly platformers, first-person shooters, or J-rpgs until I found this game. KOTOR had depth, story, and took the Star Wars franchise in directions I'd never seen it go, and really enjoyed seeing. A few years later, Jade Empire happened. An action-focused RPG set in Dynastic China, it sadly was not as well-received or remembered, but was a great experience nonetheless.

     Then came Mass Effect.

     I have never had such an emotional investment in a series as I have in Mass Effect. Commander Justine Shepard was the first time that my recurring character had a name and a consistent face. I remember slowly winning over Amazing Space Racist Ashley Williams and the first time I heard the smooth, dulcet tones of Garrus Vakkarian, who I would later test out 'reach and flexibility' with. The broad strokes of the game are stories that are easily recapped, but the emotional beats, growing to really care about these fictional characters, that stays with you.

     In Mass Effect 2, I felt the heartache as my ship was blown out of the sky. I felt impatient at Jack's rage and saw past Miranda's outer perfection to the insecurity that underlie everything she said and did. I had a moment with Garrus, and bonded a little more with Tali, who became my little sister when I shouted down the senate of her people in her defense.

     But the cracks were starting to show. Then came Mass Effect 3, and while the character moments still hit you left and right, there were these little... things that you just couldn't describe as anything but lazy. They gave you a hundred different types of weapons to choose from (and even builds where the weapons were superfluous), but you'd still be carrying the Predator pistol and Avenger rifle in the cutscenes. There were more SMGs, but the accuracy on them suffered, and you couldn't help but think "If only they'd hold them correctly, there'd be no reason for all these assault rifles." Apparently, no one in the Mass Effect universe understands the concept of a fore-grip. There was that ending that folded up all the branching differences in the story into what was essentially one result with differing colors. Letting EA keep the game off of Steam, where the other two games were and are still available. There was the multiplayer mode which, while great fun, was saddled with an in-your-face cash shop. Bioware's continued insistence to leave gamepad support out of the PC versions of their games, while still making the interface obviously pad-driven. While these things may have been disappointing, the worst part was Bioware sitting there on high basically saying "if you don't like this, too bad, you just don't get our artistic vision."

     DLC was released, first in the form of an overhaul to the ending and then later with the Citadel DLC which had a) a bonkers storyline and b) tons of content with your squad-mate family, but by then it felt too little, too late. Like bringing flowers when a relationship was falling apart. I think what I'm trying to get at with this painfully overstretched metaphor is that, Bioware, I think I'm breaking up with you. It's kind of scary knowing that there won't be that series there waiting for me with the next installment, even though you're already talking about a new one, but I think it'll be good for me to step out, try new things, play some bad games and good ones. Regret a few Steam purchases.

     Because, in the end, this relationship isn't a good one for me anymore. Shh. Don't look so surprised. To paraphrase one of the critics of ME3, it was always going to end this way.
    
     Doesn't mean there won't be a drunken hookup with ME4 is on sale for $5. I mean, nobody's perfect.

The Creed, or I am an Assassin.

Gentle reader, I come today to discuss Assassin's Creed. Not as a game or a series, although I could speak at great length about it, but as a concept. As a philosophy, as a way of life. Specifically, the eponymous Creed itself. What drives these pseudo-ninja, these white-robed zealots? What motivates them to take a life? And how could that fit into a modern society?

The Creed itself is the maxim, the basic guideline of the Assassin Order that must be followed lest you be turned away from your brotherhood. First introduced in the original Assassin's Creed, these rules were reinforced in a scene in which the protagonist, Altair Ibn Al'Ahad, kills an innocent, and is symbolically killed himself in front of the entire Order, stripped of his privilege and badges of office, and forced to re-prove his worth.

I want to take a look at it, and how it might apply to a normal, non-stabby person's every-day life.

• Stay your blade from the flesh of an innocent

This is the first, and most important, part of the Creed. In any of the games, if you kill innocents, you lose. Now, political murders are less and less common these days, but there's an important lesson to be had regarding picking your targets and not lashing out against people that don't deserve anger.

• Hide in plain sight

Getting attention and standing out is fine, but sometimes you just want to disappear. Personally, I've found it quite useful to cultivate the ability to blend into a crowd at times, and step out and act like I'm supposed to be there at a moment's notice.

• Never compromise the Brotherhood

The people you consider your closest allies, your family, your friends. Value them, and never put them at risk.

• The Three Ironies
• The Assassins seek to promote peace, but commit murder.
• The Assassins seek to open the minds of men, but require obedience to rules.
• The Assassins seek to reveal the danger of blind faith, yet practice it themselves.

Contradictions are useful things. On paper, it's easy to forget that the real world is not black and white, a field of moral absolutes. The world works, and has pretty much always worked, on a sliding scale of moral relativism and shades of grey. Remembering these things can keep your mind open to new ideas.

The lessons taught by the Assassin Order, which are based heavily on the 1930s novel Alamut (named after the fortress the original Hashashin lived, which in turn was the base of the fictional Assassin Order) are, I believe, still relevant today. Pick your fights, and your words, carefully. Know when to stand out and when to blend in. Protect the ones you care about.  And step back and look at the bigger picture.

I leave you with the words of one Ezio Auditore da Firenze, in my opinion one of the most well-developed characters in all of gaming:





"To say that nothing is true, is to realize that the foundations of society are fragile, and that we must be the shepherds of our own civilization. To say that everything is permitted, is to understand that we are the architects of our actions, and that we must live with their consequences, whether glorious or tragic."

This is not a remake, just a re-imagining of the original post I wrote on the topic.

     So there's a remake of The Tomorrow People on The CW network. I'm really not sure how I feel about this, either, as I've watched approximately half the episode and don't feel terribly compelled to watch it further. It just feels like a rushed, poorly-paced remake of Mutant X; pretty, pretty people with superpowers and a government organization hunting them in a world where everyone knows martial arts. Which was fine in the 90s. Everyone knew martial arts in the 90s, and every gang was made up of middle-aged white dudes with receding hairlines and chunky sunglasses. The new version even makes a point of apologizing for its own name, which is far more shameful than embracing the corny sci-fi that birthed it. It was nice to see TIM again, though, as the first remake didn't have him. Big Finish's audio did, though, and I highly recommend anything they make.

Which brings me to remakes. Tricky business, remakes. A lot of people get all up in arms over them. How dare you violate my childhood, what was wrong with the original, all that. What purpose do they serve? When is it necessary, appropriate, acceptable to make a remake of something?

I know I've mentioned the Resident Evil series a few times in my past blogs, and for good reason. It stands tall amongst horror and gaming aficionados, and has changed and grown a great deal over the years. The first game is a classic, no doubt. That said, it hasn't aged terribly well. If we're completely objective here, the graphics are primitive, it has clunky controls, and the dialogue and voice acting is abysmal. 6 years later, a remake was made, which not only introduced the new face of Jill Valentine (which has been a consistent feature since in the series) but also had gorgeous visuals, some gameplay tweaks, and a mostly rewritten script with new voice acting. It probably would have been a smash if it weren't only released on the GameCube, a moderately profitable system (which in Nintendo terms means it was a dismal failure).

The next one is probably going to earn me some funny looks. I can't stand the original Total Recall. I'm sorry, I just can't. I don't like Arnold Shcaalkwwzrenger as an actor, the tone of the film was inconsistent, and the entire visual design just screams 1980s despite it taking place in the 2080s. That said, it's looked highly upon by a lot of people. The remake, despite its consistent tone, its slick visual effects, and its actors who were actually acting, it just felt... unnecessary. Personally, I liked it, but it just didn't need to be made.

And then there's Star Trek.

Star Trek's been around for almost 50 years now. It's so old that we've lost several of the original cast. The franchise has done everything, been everywhere. There's just so much lore and history that it's impossible for anyone to enter in fresh without being completely intimidated. The various series and movies stand on their own merits (well, except Spock's Brain. And Insurrection. And all of Voyager), but in order to bring new fans into the fold or give the old fans something fresh, that reboot/remake/re-imagining/re-whatever you want to call it (riversong.png) might just have been necessary. Yeah, it's a bit shallow, but Star Trek: The Motion Picture isn't exactly a stellar (sorry) example of paced storytelling. The first one and Into Darkness have given the new films a chance to flex their muscle and show us what they can do. Now all we need is a quieter, more introspective piece, and the new series of films can easily justify their place.

So, in closing, I'd say sometimes a remake is needed. Seeing something through a fresh pair of eyes, making something more accessible, or simply using better technology and hindsight to make a superior product is a good thing. Sometimes, it's a terrible, terrible thing that shouldn't have been done. Michael Bay, please stop this Ninja Turtles reboot.

I'm still waiting on the remake of Robot Jox, too.