Geek Girls Rule! #93.5 – EA Apologizes, sort of…

From Kotaku: 

“We understand there’s a lot of debate right now around our “Sin to Win” promotion at Comic-Con and wanted to clarify a few things. We created this promotion as part of our marketing efforts around the circle of Lust (one of the nine sins/circles of Hell). Each month we will be focusing on a new Circle of Hell. This month is Lust. Costumed reps are a tradition at Comic-Con. In the spirit of both the Circle of Lust and Comic-Con, we are encouraging attendees to Tweet photos of themselves with any of the costumed reps at Comic-Con here, find us on Facebook or via e-mail. “Commit acts of lust” is simply a tongue-in-cheek way to say take pictures with costumed reps. Also, a “Night of Lust” means only that the winner will receive a chaperoned VIP night on the town with the Dante’s Inferno reps, all expenses paid, as well as other prizes.

“We apologize for any confusion and offense that resulted from our choice of wording, and want to assure you that we take your concerns and sentiments seriously. We’ll continue to follow your comments and please let us know if you have any other thoughts or concerns. Keep watching as the event unfolds and we hope you’ll agree that it was all done in the spirit of the good natured fun of Comic-Con.”

Translation for those playing along at home:  “We’re sorry you’re a bunch of humorless feminists.”

Yes, because there is absolutely NO WAY on the planet that ANYONE could miscontrue “Commit acts of lust” to be more than taking pictures, I mean… Geez… Come ON. 

Is there any adult supervision at EA Games?

While some of the Kotaku comments are really hateful, many of them came out in support of the people who got angry, spearheaded by “Booth Babe Hauls Off on Dante’s Fiasco.”   There’s the usual amount of victim blaming.  “Well, if girls wouldn’t go around looking all sexy, we wouldn’t have to be dicks,” to paraphrase some of the most egregious commenters.  Seriously, guys?  That’s your best answer?  Really?  Victim blaming and shirking any responsibility you might have for being a decent human being?  Your mother must be so proud.

Gah. 

Ok, I’m going to go take some aspirin, possibly some scotch, and lay down for a while.  Talk amongst yourselves. 

PS.  I still wanna know where the hot Booth Boys were for the girls to photograph, jerks.

 

Geek Girls Rule! #93 – What the HELL, EA Games?

You have got to be kidding me.  THIS is repulsive on so many levels…  I keep saying I’m not going to swear so much in this column, because people keep telling me their kids read it, but son-of-a-bitch!!!!!

So, EA Games has decided to run a contest at SDCC.  The rules are “1.  Commit act of lust” by getting photographed with a booth babe.  “2. Prove it” by posting it online via Twitter or Facebook and “3. Repeat.”    The prize for the guy with the highest number of entries is a date with “two hot babes,” I’m guessing the aforementioned booth babes.  After a day or two of being the victims of “acts of lust” committed and memorialized for posterity by sweaty, mouth breathing assholes, that should be a fun night, hey. 

Just how do you put “be a ‘willing’ victim of mass acts of sexual harassment” into a job description and fly that by any legal department worth a damn?

I swear, this entire week has been an exercise in giving me a stroke.  Good thing I’ve started going back to the gym so I can work some of this anger off. 

I’ve been a surrogate booth babe for friends’ booths at smaller conventions than SDCC, and it kind of sucks.  I mean, I LIKE being friendly and flirty and talking to people.  But after a few hours of lame come-ons, open ogling and sweaty palms, not to mention the assholes who seem to think your position as advertising for your buddy’s goods means you’re public property and who try to sneak pinches or grabs, your smile gets brittle and strained, and you start to really, really, REALLY hate the male half of the species. 

It’s a phenomena you’ll find in a lot of women who do work which involves them playing the part of sexual fantasy girl in any sort of capacity.  And I don’t just mean booth babes, car show models, strippers or peepshow girls.  I also mean, bartenders, waitresses and any number of other service industry jobs, where, because of the sexism inherent in our society, women are expected to be nice, kind, friendly and accomodating.  Where your income and living depend on being nice to the kind of mouth-breathing douchebags and slimy, smarmy assheads you’d rather beat to death with a barstool. 

I mean, at least strippers have giant bouncers whose hobbies include “asshole origami” to protect them.  I highly doubt EA has hired any bouncers to protect these women.  I hope at least one of them knows Krav Maga or Jiu Jitsu and puts some neanderthals in the hospital, then EA winds up covering the bills for it. 

I just don’t know what they hell they’re thinking.  Do I really have to explain why this is a shitty and stupid contest idea?  Do I?  I mean, if you’ve been reading here for any length of time I’d think you’d have grasped a few of the basic tennants of Feminism. 

And hell, if you’re gonna do that sort of thing, why not have Booth Hunks for the Fangirls to “commit acts of lust” with?  Oh, that’s right… Women don’t play videogames and we certainly don’t like checking out hot men…  I certainly hope that sarcasm’s coming through loud and clear for you, there. 

As I’ve said many, many times before… I am not against being pretty or sexy, or whatever.  I am not against finding people hot.  I AM against setting up your employees for sexual harassment, and probably some sexual assault as well.  People, male or female, have a tendency to behave badly when feeling anonymous in a crowd.  Add that to this society’s view of women’s bodies as objects and public property, then give them permission to engage in one level of bad behavior…  The stupid starts to stack up pretty quickly. 

Ok, that’s enough for now.  I have to go lay down, this aneurysm I’ve got going is starting to overwhelm me. 

I think I’ll name it “Frank.”

Geek Girls Rule! #92 – Single Gender and Multi-Gender Gaming Groups

Every so often someone “calls me out” because they perceive a hypocrisy between my insistence that girls should be made welcome in gaming, and the fact that I run a single gender “Girl Game.”

Ok, guys, seriously, nowhere have I EVER told you that you couldn’t have all-guy games (or if I have I mis-spoke and will accept my spanking).  What I have told you is that girls can game, girls want to game, and that I think gaming with girls is good for you.  I have told you how to attract girls to your game, and how to keep them there.

Mostly, if you want to have that all-guy game, what I want you to do is examine why you feel the need to, just as I examined why I wanted to do an all-girl game.

Roleplaying can be a very intimate experience, and some girls, hell, some guys, are intimidated by doing that in front of others at all, let alone in front of others of the opposite sex.  Much of our society sets the primary two genders (male and female) up as adversaries, and who wants to be vulnerable in front of adversaries?  I get that.

I weighed the pros and cons of having guys present in the Girl Game.  I had girls who had bad experiences gaming with guys.  I had girls who had awesome experiences gaming with guys, but wanted to see what an all girl group would be like.  And I had girls who hadn’t gamed before for whom the thought of doing it in front of guys was intimidating.

I can tell you that even when the only guy present is the Geek Husband What Rules, the dynamic changes. Quite frankly, I do not care for how the dynamics change and want to keep that roleplaying experience as undilute as I can.  Partially, it’s my own damage that changes the dynamics.  He’s my primary GM, and I have a tendency to defer because of it.

Now, if your game is just organically all guys, that is a totally different thing than only gaming with guys because “girls suck and will ruin gaming.”  Thankfully that attitude seems to be dying out, but it still rears its ugly head from time to time.

Or there may be a specific group of people you want to game with and they “happen” to be all guys.  It does happen absent malice. I recognize this.

Or maybe your group has “that guy” in it, and while he’s a great roleplayer and a good friend otherwise, you know he’ll suck around a girl for whatever reason (doesn’t like them, turns into a horndog, etc…).  So you decide to keep him and forego gaming with any girls, that’s valid, too.  Of course, it’s also valid to tell him to suck it up and grow up, and deal with having a girl in the group as well.  Honestly, I find a lot of the hostility from Geeky guys towards girls to be a lack of healthy exposure.  Once you demystify the vagina-bearers, we’re a lot less scary.

BUT all of that said, you need to remember that male gamers still outnumber female gamers by a HUGE margin, which is why I keep hammering at you to include girls in your gaming groups.

At the incredibly girl-friendly GoPlayNW, which had 70 attendees, there were 8 girls that I recall.  That’s a nearly ten to one margin.  Granted, I am far less likely to be the only girl at a gaming convention now than I was ten years ago, so I see the progress.  But it can be intimidating being the only girl at the table.  Particularly in a convention setting where you will probably be outnumbered at least ten to one.  Not only is it a little nerve-wracking to be roleplaying with strangers, but being surrounded by guys they don’t know well also tends to trip the internal alarms that have been societally conditioned into most women.*

If you don’t game with girls, who will?  Yes, I’m female and I game and GM, but there aren’t that many of me running around.   Probably more than I think there are, and far fewer than I hope.  And by excluding girls, you may well miss out on some awesome fellow gamers.  Plus, you want to keep the hobby going, right?  More gamers means more gaming books sold… I’m just saying.

Edit:  Here’s a link to the Stabbing Contest podcast where I discuss this exact issue with Clyde from Theory from the Closet. 

*This is a societal conditioning thing, and if you need it explained I can point you to the Polimicks blog.

The Artists What I Know Link Category

These are all folks I know well, have met, etc…  I own pieces by a couple of them, and enjoy their work highly. 

Aneurismic.com is the blog of my buddy Fes who is currently in school for computer animation.  He’s a super sweet guy and a talented artist.  When he’s done Pixar or Disney would do well to snap him up, or maybe we can coax him into doing indy animation of the sorts of things we’d all like to see. 

Jeliza.net , the site for Jane Patterson.  I’ve known Jane for several years.  Her graduating exhibition “Happy Pill” remains one of my favorite art installments, and I don’t think she’s done any work I haven’t liked.  She does offer prints for sale, and other merchandise. 

Sarmonster.net is the business webpage for my friend Sarah Steever, someone else I’ve known for ages and ages.  She’s done some great artwork, both original and in photo manipulation.  She’s an uber talented web designer, and did the Valerie Strangiato site for me, based off of my rather nebulous, “Oh, I don’t know… something boudoir-y…” 

Tormented Artifacts  are the work of Dmitri Abracauskas, who I have known tangentially for several years, but we’ve only really started interacting in the last few.  I really enjoy his art, and just recently bought one of his prints to frame and hang in my office. 

Just a note, most of the stuff I promote here comes from friends of mine, or they are things I really, really enjoy and think everyone should be exposed to.

Look! It’s gone all funny!!!

Yup, I think I’m done with a lot of the change-y stuff.  Really, WordPress is awesome for this sort of thing.  Please feel free to let me know what you think.  I loved my old template, but I really needed the three columns to be able to make this place anything like navigable.

In the ensuing days I’ll be giving you guys the rundown on the new link categories on the side and who some of these folks might be.  Well, hopefully, I’m still on the project what won’t die at work, and desperately busy afterwards, so we’ll see if I keep that promise.

Also, Friday I intend to buy this game:  The Path.  It’s a computer horror game (available on both PC and Mac) about girls encountering their own personal “wolves” in the forest.  Yup, it’s a Red Riding Hood hack, and I am all about altnerate fairy tales.  Several friends of mine have already downloaded it, after hearing about in on NPR.  And have raved about it.  I’ll be buying it next weekend.  I can’t wait.  Darn budgeting issues.

That’s about it for now.  Later on I’ll talk more about all these new freaks I’ve linked to and why.

Changes are a coming!

Do not adjust your monitor… I’m playing with the appearance and layout of things here at GGR, and hopefully it will be a touch more navigable, as well as including links to cool things I like and think you should see, read, support, what have you.  Soon to be listed is a “Buy Cool Shit from Cool People” link category, and other nifty things. 

I’m not sure how long this whole process is going to take as I’ll be doing a bit at a time as I can. 

May need to find a good header picture for this place.

 

ETA:  Ok, so I’ve added some link categories, and moved some stuff and added some stuff and deleted some stuff.  Will do more this weekend.

Review: Blackest Night #1

There’s only one thing in the universe more awesome than zombies. Zombies with power rings.

This year’s big event from DC Comics is the Blackest Night miniseries and its tie-ins. Yes, I know it’s easy to get burned out on big events when they occur far too often and so often fail to live up to the hype. I’m pleased to report that the first issue of Blackest Night lives up to the hype and then some.

There were seven known Lantern Corps: four positive ones­-Green, Violet, Blue, and Indigo­-and three negative ones­-Yellow, Red, and Orange. Now the eighth stands revealed, the deadly and evil Black Lantern Corps, composed of reanimated corpses whose power rings cry out for flesh as they seek their hosts. Most of the Black Lanterns are deceased superheroes, now wholly corrupted by the power of the Black Lantern Corps.

Geoff Johns has consistently been one of the best writers working in superhero comics the past few years, and this miniseries will only enhance that reputation. This is one of those stories where one simply can’t turn the pages fast enough to find out what happens next. The shocking conclusion to this first issue hits like a two by four to the side of the head, leaving one stunned but eager to read the next installment.

The art by penciller Ivan Reis and inker Oclair Albert appropriately captures the tone and nuances of Johns’ writing, visualizing everything from a big celebration to two characters talking to hordes of the undead with equal skill. From the intimate to the epic, the art is suited to the material.

Blackest Night #1 is a winner, and hopefully the miniseries as a whole will be every bit as good. It’s not going to redefine comics as we know them, but it’s a cracking good read.

Zombies with power rings. You know you want to read it.

Geek Girls Rule! #91 – LEGO Batman

LOVE IT!

Review over. 

Seriously, I picked this up over the weekend, having previously enjoyed the LEGO Star Wars:  The Complete Saga.  I expected to like dinking around with it, and occasionally handing it over to the Geek Husband What Rules when I got  bored and hadn’t hit a save point yet. 

Nope.  I spent most of Saturday and Sunday hunched over the DS, happily climbing, grappeling, gliding and exploding my way through the levels. 

I find LEGO Batman easier to navigate than LEGO Star Wars.  Getting from place to place is more intuitive.  I also like that switching between characters to do things is far more integral to the play than before, and not just for opening doors.  I enjoy the comic style cut scenes in the story mode, and find the LEGO art highly entertaining and engaging. 

I give LEGO Batman two thumbs up.  And the cats are pleased with it as well, seeing as it makes Mom immobile for fairly large chunks of time. 

The only downside is it takes the damn thing forever to get past the title screens and everything.  Yes, I know… I also hurry the microwave.  I’m impatient, I can’t help it.  Oh, and Poison Ivy’s the only “boss” you don’t get to fight with physically.  Sigh.

Review: Torchwood: Children of Earth

The third season of the groundbreaking British science fiction television show Torchwood arrives as a five-part miniseries broadcast across five nights. It’s easily the best five episode bloc the show has ever put together, and just might be one of the best single seasons a science fiction show has given us in a long time.

All of the world’s children come to a standstill at the same time, chanting the ominous message, “we are coming.” When the Torchwood team­–Captain Jack Harkness (John Barrowman), Ianto Jones (Gareth David-Lloyd), and Gwen Cooper (Eve Myles)–begin to investigate, they come up against a decades old conspiracy involving the British government.

The miniseries also deals with the romantic relationship between Jack and Ianto, Ianto’s relationship with his sister Rhiannon (Katy Wix), some surprising news for Gwen and her husband Rhys (Kai Owen), and secrets from Jack’s past coming back to haunt him.

Of course, prior to the events of this story, things have been rough for Torchwood. Two team members died at the end of the previous season, and the remaining team members played instrumental roles in the defeat of Davros and the Daleks at the end of the 2008 season of sister show Doctor Who.

Creator Russell T Davies wrote the first episode of season one, then handed the show over to handpicked showrunner Chris Chibnall for the next two seasons. With Chibnall moving on to Law & Order: UK, Davies returns to serve as the new showrunner, writing the miniseries with John Fay (a former Coronation Street staff writer) and John Moran (who’s previously written episodes of Torchwood, Doctor Who, and Primeval). The result is an intense, edge of the seat thriller with more emphasis on character than on action, although it has quite a bit of the latter, too.

This is Davies at the top of his game, reminiscent of his work on the 2005 season of Doctor Who. Once the story begins, it never looks back as it spins around some dramatic curves with the white-knuckled Davies gripping the steering wheel, only stopping after a heartbreaking, kick in the throat finale. Although there are some lighter moments early on, it eventually finds its way into the shadows of the human soul. It’s also explicitly political, touching on class, the power of bureaucracy, and the cost of blindly following orders. This is a tragedy writ large, and reminds us that science fiction at its best is about people and ideas not visual effects.

Director Euros Lyn, a veteran of Doctor Who, shows a strong hand with the material, as equally adept in thriller mode as in character-driven drama mode. He doesn’t take a single misstep. The mood of suspense and oncoming disaster he creates kept me on the edge of the seat from start to finish.

The quality acting in this miniseries is what makes it so easy to fall under the story’s spell. Although John Barrowman has never had great range as an actor, with this material and this director he delivers the most compelling performance I’ve seen from him. Gareth David-Lloyd, Eve Myles, and Kai Owen also stand out with their best work ever on the show. Paul Copley gives a moving performance as a mentally ill man connected to what’s happening to the world’s children.

Other performances of note include Peter Capaldi as Home Office Permanent Secretary John Frobisher, Susan Brown as Frobisher’s personal assistant Bridget Spears, Cush Jumbo as Spears’ junior assistant Lois Habiba, Liz May Brice as the mysterious Agent Johnson, Katy Wix as Rhiannon, Rhodri Lewis as Rhiannon’s husband Johnny, Lucy Cohu as a woman named Alice with a connection to Captain Jack, Nicholas Farrell as the British Prime Minister, Charles Abomeli as Colonel Oduya of UNIT, Colin McFarlane as US Army General Pierce, Nicholas Briggs (best known for providing the voices of Daleks and Cybermen since 2005) as Rick Yates MP, Ian Gelder as civil servant Mr. Dekker, Rik Makarem as Dr. Rupesh Patanjali, and Tom Price as recurring character PC Andy.

British television has a tradition of great science fiction television going back to The Quatermass Experiment in 1953. It would be no stretch at all to include Torchwood: Children of Earth in that tradition. Simply outstanding.

Seriously, Marvel?

Guys get costumes, we get lip gloss?

http://marvel.com/news/.8597.Marvel~apos~s_Summer_Style_Guide

Just fuck you in the ear.