v-s.net v0.6

Tuesday, 10:44 am in Life

In a similar vein to what I posted about below, I ganked a somewhat interesting link out of ~starfyre [h]’s journal the other day on No More Mr. Nice Guy. It’s interesting I guess because it’s usually men accusing women of being passive-aggressive, yet Nice Guys are all over the place (or situation; as it gets pointed out in the comments, Nice Guyism is a sliding scale, something that comes and goes with situation), especially amongst nerds.

I don’t like Nice Guys, or Nice Girls for that matter (and I’ve probably known a lot more of the latter). I try not to be one; not always successfully. The thing no-one mentioned, I think, is that it’s so easy to be Nice. In a lot of situations you have to consciously reject that mode of thinking. I dunno why; probably something about pop culture or how we’re raised or whatever.

Anyway, reading the long and arduous twist of comments gave me a link to Heartless Bitches International. HBI is a funny site (in an intellectual way more than a ‘har har’ way); a kind of post-feminist simultaneous rejection and embrace of feminist ideals. The Rants section has an interesting cross-section of tripe and treasure, including more on aforementioned Nice Guys/Girls and an interesting article on women in comic books which pretty much sums up why I loathe superhero comics.¹

One can’t help but wonder, however (and I’m sure this has been covered many, many times before), that if HBI isn’t shooting itself in its own foot by naming itself on the terms of the ideology it aims to oppose. Just a thought.

Oblivion is like Morrowind only prettier. This is probably the one thing I could possible have hoped for, so yeah; no complaints! The new character creation is cool, lots of sliders to play around with, though I suppose my one quibble is that – like Morrowind before it – Oblivion suffers from some extreme uglification. This is particularly noticable in the character bodies; which always look far, far too blocky. I dunno, maybe it’s just because we get so used to seeing spandex-like armor models that coming across a game where plate mail actually looks like it’s sticking several inches thick out from the torso now looks weird and clunky. And don’t get me started on how rare it is to find a game where all armour doesn’t automatically turn into a bikini when applied to a female character.

The ragdolling in IV is the funniest, however; there’s something infinitely satisfying about watching a huge monster go flying off to the left and roll gently over a cliff on death. I just have to remember to stop killing armed things on grassy slopes; mobs drop their weapons on death, and the same physics applies to all lose objects, which means if that Ebony Longsword starts rolling down that hill you can kiss finding it goodbye.

Now if only I didn’t keep running out of lock picks; who heard of a game where mass theft was actually kind of underground? What do you mean I can’t just walk into someone’s house and rummage through their drawers? Geesh.

For some reason I have a stupid urge to go and buy pop psychology books at lunchtime. I never did manage to finish that book on female bullying…

1. On a side note, I was skimming through an article in the back of one of those ‘how to draw comic book’ style books yesterday at lunch which included an interview with Some Guy who writes/draws/jerks off for Marvel. He was asked a question about the sudden massive influx of manga, which he kind of brushed aside as being a ‘fad’ and ground he hopes will be regained by the American comic industry.  Some Guy, I’ve got news for you. You will never regain the manga market. There is one very, very obvious and very glaring reasn for this that you have apparently missed, keeping as you are your head shoved up Elektra’s tits; diversity. Manga caters to more markets than teenagers who want to jerk off over spandex. Start providing Western audiences with more than just your usual cycle of shallow all-American crap you’ve been recycling us since the 1950s. ^

• Tags » feminism, gaming, geekgirl, opinions
• Comments By » ~Mat [h]
• Mood » working