oatmeal:

*update from the author*

A lot of people seem grumpy about my latest comic about online gaming as a girl.

I wasn’t implying that girls suck at games. I was implying two things:

  • When girls play, often times no one takes them seriously. 
  • If they screw up, often times the room is filled with lonely dudes who say things like “LOL that’s okay! Will you marry me?”    If I screw up I get eviscerated.

In short: a terrible female gamer gets away with way more than a terrible male gamer (like me).


This came from my recent escapades playing Left4Dead online.

Again, I meant no ill toward lady gamers.

-Matthew

Matthew has been getting a lot of cyberbullying hate from the usual fauxgressive suspects here on Tumblr for this cartoon.

Let this be a lesson to you Matthew: No one, not even other women, are allowed to have opinions or share personal experiences that contradict the radfem notion that all women are perpetual victims. In service of that idea those perpetually angry misandrists will deliberately misinterpret messages and refuse to acknowledge or understand all attempts by the “offender” to clarify his or her point or call “bullshit” on the misinterpretation.

Just remember that such trash are not actual feminists, they have mistaken being loud for being right, and they are a minority online and on Earth. Ignore the silly twats and keep doing what you’re doing. When people like that are pissed at you, you’re doing something right. — Ryking

Kurt Andersen of Vanity Fair penned a great article this month on the comparative lack of cultural innovation over the last 20 years. Andersen notes that in architecture, art, fashion, music and other aspects of popular and consumer culture, there is very little difference between the culture of 20 years ago and that of today. By contrast, think of the enormous differences between 1992 and 1972, or between 1972 and 1952, or 1952 and 1932, or 1932 and 1912. Technology has changed significantly, of course, but styles haven’t…

Andersen speculates on a number of reasons, not all of which I find convincing. But one reason occurred to me immediately while reading the piece, which Andersen does eventually address: the fact that culture and media are increasingly dominated by shareholder-interested, risk-averse conglomerates that have too much to lose by taking significant creative initiative…

The malaise of large-scale corporate domination of our economy isn’t just political and economic. It’s cultural, too. It’s the slow death of conformity and creative strangulation disguised as cool and individual expression through ironic nostalgia and the commodification of discontent.



Creative decay, courtesy our corporate overlords

After first going after Girl Scout cookies, Family Research Council president Tony Perkins is now attacking the game Star Wars: The Old Republic for allowing same-sex relationships. Stephen Reid of Bioware announced that players in the MMO (massively multiplayer online game) could have “same gender romances with companion characters” as part of “a post-launch feature.” But enabling players to be in same-sex relationships is too much for Perkins, who in a radio bulletin entitled “Rebel Fleet Surrenders to Gay Empire” slammed the game for having “gone to the dark side.


FRC: ‘Rebel Fleet Surrenders to Gay Empire’

Nyan Cat: Lost in Space. Available for the iPhone (link opens iTunes).

Say goodbye to your free time.

Tags: games China news

Flash game lets players gun down Palin, Bachmann, Fox News hosts

Cue the hypocritical faux outrage from the same right-wingers who think “liberal hunting permits” and t-shirts that say “Rope. Tree. Journalist. (Some assembly required.)” are high-larious.

Angry Birds Board Game.

Which is only topped in awesomeness by a playable Angry Birds birthday cake.

Angry Birds Board Game.

Which is only topped in awesomeness by a playable Angry Birds birthday cake.

Sony’s PlayStation Network has been down for nearly a week, and the company finally admitted that an unauthorized person had stolen personal information belonging to 77 million account holders.

An attacker gained “illegal” access to personal information stored on both the PlayStation Network and the Qriocity online music and video service, Sony announced on its blog on April 26. The information included names, addresses, log-in and password credentials, password security answers, email addresses, and birth dates. User purchase history and credit card information may also have been compromised.

“While there is no evidence at this time that credit card data was taken, we cannot rule out the possibility,” Patrick Seybold, senior director of corporate communications and social media, wrote on the company blog. The message was also emailed to account holders.



Sony PlayStation Network Data Breach Compromises 77 Million User Accounts

The Big Lebowski Monopoly game. 

(NOTE: Not a real version of Monopoly — yet.)

The Big Lebowski Monopoly game.

(NOTE: Not a real version of Monopoly — yet.)