The Video Games Thread

[Wolfenstein]

I don't get why female gamers just take abuse. If I were a female and got abused over the internet I would just accuse them of having small penises.

[black bart]

I myself have suffered online gaming abuse (QOOC thread beckons again). One chap flagrantly took my online name in vain and started calling me "Black Arse" ..." I kill you so many times I call you Blackarse" he quipped

[Roland Deschain]

I'm sure I can re-admit you to the QOoC hall of fame given a couple of minutes.

I know many, many female gamers. I wouldn't say it's 42%, but still a large number, far larger than most people know. I think a lot of women are into the social gaming aspect, more so than men, although social gaming is not limited to women by a long shot, and neither are women limited to it. Most of the ones I know love RPGs, FPSs, Strategy, and Survival Horror.

I play online with Yurpeans, and mostly they're a nice bunch, with a fair few phallic objects thrown in (mostly UK-based phallic objects). When playing with 'Murkins however, the number of phallic objects rises, and depending on whether you're on a PC or a console, it can do so quite dramatically. I think it's partly a cultural attitude, although i'm not sure that's the whole picture. Maybe it's because they are so much louder, or because female gamers come predominantly from certain areas of the US with healthier attitudes towards women, with the males they meet online coming from certain areas with less of a healthy attitude. Kids, and younger people in general, generally have a worse online attitude than the older players, that's for sure. That's all generally speaking. Overall, i'm not really sure where it comes from exactly, but phallic objects in the online world definitely aren't restricted to 'Murka, not by a long shot.

As an example of Yurpean phallic objects, when Playstation Home was new over here, I made a few avatars. One was a sad, fat, male clown, who always drew good-natured laughs from people who were generally friendly. Another avatar i'd made was a tall and skinny skinhead female, with dark clothing and dark make-up. She really did look like a cross between someone from Combat 18, and one of the witches from Roald Dahl's The Witches. I was going for an unusual, kind of emaciated, look, and it worked well, but the racist aspect wasn't what i'd intended. Well, I had two random black avatars come up to me on her second outing and start giving me abuse about how I was a racist bitch, and things along those lines. Now these were obviously people who didn't understand the nature of the MMO, and naturally assumed that the person you saw on the screen was the person behind the controller (i'd predicted this sort of thing happening before Sony gave the social MMO to the masses). I gave them a reasoned explanation of how digital is not equal to real world, but I think it was mostly lost on them.

As another example, again Yurpean and on Playstation Home, I also made a sexy female avatar (large boobs, if you want to know; mostly men make female avatars with large boobs), and took her for a spin. I had a lot of attention, with someone even inviting me to their home for a private cybersex session. Now this was all done for the lulz, and to troll, obviously, but I was receptive to my little fan base, teasing them and giving them the come-on (the innuendo flowed smoothly). After a few minutes, I suddenly changed into my "sad, fat, male clown" avatar, which brought several derisive comments, a quick emptying of my crowd, with a couple of people continuing a small tirade aimed at me, ending in threats to report me (i'm sure anyone receiving those complaints would have appreciated the lulz, too). A few others who watched this on the side-lines knew exactly what I was doing, being veterans of the online world, and came up to me to give me their appreciation of the show. The word "n00bs" was exchanged.

People's real natures were coming out, along with all the nasty things they may or may not say in the real world. It's an interesting thing to observe from a psychological perspective, as many people, naive about life and the internet, assume a number of things when online, but mainly they assume a level of anonymity they do not have. This assumption of anonymity, along with not taking seriously the conventions of polite society, allow them, in their minds, to do as they please. They do not realise that when you interact with someone online, it's pretty much like doing so face to face, but to them the interaction is disassociated from a real person as they cannot see one. The human psyche is a weird thing.

[daftbeaker]

[Roland Deschain]

^ That says far more succinctly what my wall of text attempted to get across.

[gronank]

Lunar Flight

If you don't know the difference between velocity an acceleration, you're in for a rough first few tries playing this game.

[Wolfenstein]

My friend is sending me a 7 day trial for Star Wars: The Old Republic. I shall have no life for 7 days.

It is a good game but it failed to capture my interest. Here is a video of me doing the hardest space mission.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MKzZXj7YGR0

And here is a translation of the lyrics of the song I used

They came from the open sky out of black holes in space
Little green men with enormous cocks.
Put your hands up, pull your pants down.
Kneel before rules of the universe

An alien invasion - booze is flowing cities falling
An alien invasion - booze is flowing cities falling
An alien invasion - booze is flowing cities falling
An alien invasion - booze is flowing cities falling

From dark death galaxies out of homophile empires
Little green men with doubtable believability
Put your hand out, bring out the cunt
Humanity takes its last dying breath

An alien invasion - booze is flowing cities falling
An alien invasion - booze is flowing cities falling
An alien invasion - booze is flowing cities falling
An alien invasion - booze is flowing cities falling


There is not need to translate the hoohuu:ing. And incase you wonder, the song is a dedication to the Church of Scientology.

[Wolfenstein]

And on an unrelated note here is a video of me tanking Illidan in World of Warcraft. I should probably have posted it in 2008 but I don't care. I was a warlock!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GtAnUPMrR2E

[black bart]

It wasn't you who called me "BlackArse" was it?

[Roland Deschain]

My friend is sending me a 7 day trial for Star Wars: The Old Republic. I shall have no life for 7 days.

It is a good game but it failed to capture my interest. Here is a video of me doing the hardest space mission.

Very nice. I'm assuming that it has been sped up somewhat.

I have my main character now up to level 23, and my first alt up to level 11 (i've left little Rowland on the Republic Fleet, while Meetal levels up to 50 first). I'm absolutely loving it to death. I'm on the Luca Sene server, which has a light population, to say the least, but seeing as i'm back in my old SWG guild (3 years I played that for), it's just like old times, but 3000 years earlier. The storyline is amazingly good, and has me hooked already. I bought the game and a 3 month subscription to start with, and will definitely be renewing it in future.

With a potential 8 characters to make, and with 8 main classes to choose from (16 if you count specialisation within the classes), I may end up with one of each, although i'm leaning towards having mainly Republic characters rather than Imp ones. My guild (Eutopia) has always been Rebel/Republic, with a separate guild set up for Imperial characters (Dystopia), so the gameplay options should be higher than many others. I'm a Star Wars obsessive, so the fact that I can run around with a light stick is always something special to me, and I never tire of hearing its sweet song. I went Jedi Knight (Sentinel) with Meetal, and Smuggler (Gunlinger) with Rowland. Should be two very different storylines to keep my interest there.

If you ever feel like stepping back in, whisper me on Luca Sene if you want. That's assuming you join a European server, of course.

[black bart]

It's just that the geezer who started calling me 'BlackArse' was Eastern European, Polish or Russian or something and I got the feeling that, after a huge vodka drinking contest, we would have become firm friends.

[Wolfenstein]

Diablo down on Hell. Inferno here I come.

[Wolfenstein]

If you ever feel like stepping back in, whisper me on Luca Sene if you want. That's assuming you join a European server, of course.

I am actually on Luca Sene EU to. I am a Sith sorcerer. But I don't play any more and I think my game time till run out soon.

[Roland Deschain]

If you ever feel like stepping back in, whisper me on Luca Sene if you want. That's assuming you join a European server, of course.

I am actually on Luca Sene EU to. I am a Sith sorcerer. But I don't play any more and I think my game time till run out soon.

That's really weird. In all the servers in all of Europe, you had to sub onto mine.

Ok, so character transfers have come to SWTOR now, and my entire guild have transferred to The Red Eclipse. This is a good move, as the server appears to have a much higher population, with 100 people on Coruscant, and 40 on Nar Shaddaa, even at 2am. For those who love PvP, it's a dream, the next match ticking up as soon as you get out of the previous one. I'd forgotten what a decent population could look like.

[Wolfenstein]

That's really weird. In all the servers in all of Europe, you had to sub onto mine.

I got the Founder title so technically you subbed to mine.