Ok so I just finished the most recent episode of "The Flash" and I had a theory about the whole reason why Reverse Flash is there and I wanna get it on record in case I'm right (or totally wrong but I'm hoping for right) as I will be mentioning comic book stuff here so possible spoilers ahead.
So here's our first look at the Fantastic Four reboot. Not much to see here other than this most definitely are in an alternate universe. We can see a little bit of Johnny, Ben and Reed using their powers towards end of the trailer but not enough to get a real sense of how they will look in longer scenes.
I wonder how Doom fits in all of this, is he a part of the space mission? Is he going to have a personal grudge against Reed or will he just villainous just to be a villain? What was that giant light beam....a signal to the devourer of worlds? Only time will tell but I'm still not expecting much here, prove me wrong FOX!
If you've paid any kind of attention to the crapshow that is Sony Pictures, you've undoubtedly saw that they are freaking scrambling to salvage the Spider-Man brand (seriously they were even considering doing an Aunt May film...seriously) and this of course brought up talks of Marvel and Sony making a deal; so I figured why not just speculate the crap out of this like everyone else has?
Ever since the DCAU rebooted after the Flashpoint film, I've been waiting for film I feel is worthy of the legacy of a DC animated film. Does "Throne of Atlantis" fit the bill? Well yes and no.
Over at Joystiq there is a piece by Jess Conditt titled " Gaming While Black" which, as you might have guessed, talks about how it is to be part of the community (be it as developer or player) as a black person. Now Jess is not a black person so she was going off the experiences of others and for the most part they weren't that great; yeah there is a few good bits there but it's not a general positive overview of things and I for one am tired of all the negativity so I've decided to share my own experiences.
I've made a post before about why I'm a gamer but I never really talked about my race, that's mostly because it doesn't really factor into the equation. I'm not an idiot, I know that when you play online that you are gonna run into jerks that will hurl every racial epithet in the book, but I get that in spite of my race and it doesn't make me wanna isolate myself into a specific corner and not interact with others; why? Because I have been gaming since as long as I can remember and I can handle a few idiots, just wreck them in the game and watch them cry sweet tears. The gaming communities have been the most welcoming ones i've been apart of, the only time I've had to mention my race is when the media or some "pop culture hackers" decide to make everything political; forcing every minority that identifies as a gamer to play race politics just to defend our hobby. I enjoy playing videogames because my race does not matter, I am not barred from purchasing or enjoying a game simply because I'm black. Do you know how nice it is to have that? To not have your race be a determining factor in how people treat you? I thought gaming was the one place that I could go to in order to escape the realities of the world but now I see people trying to force that reality into my fantasy; I don't like that at all.
Now I am fully aware that there are not a ton of minority protagonists in gaming and those that are, often fall into a stereotype ( especially the black characters). I would love to see more diversity in that regard but I don't feel like I'm unable to enjoy the game simply because the character I am playing isn't black; I am able to enjoy my games while also being aware of the lack of representation for some but that doesn't make my existence as a black gamer something of melancholy. I actually hate the term "black gamer" I am just a gamer and I think it's high time we stopped adding race/gender as a prefix. Gaming is an inclusive hobby that cares not for race, religion, gender or orientation so I think we shouldn't focus on the consumer's race, religion, gender or orientation; at the very least not as something to prop up to show how good of a person you are, instead if you really want to help us out then showcase us in a positive light. Show black gamers at fighting tournaments, profile black concept artists, spotlight black dev teams, show us succeeding in the industry in spite of everything...that's something that we never get to see and I guarantee you it will have a more profound impact than saying "look how terrible blacks have it in the industry". But hey what do I know? I'm just a gamer.
I know I haven't been talking about #Gamergate a lot but I am still very much still in support of it, I just thought that after nearly 5 MONTHS of it the media would start to realize that "gee maybe this isn't about harassing women" but then this happened:
I have no choice but to once again correct the media and attempt to stop this ridiculous narrative. I'm not gonna even go point by point here because that would be a waste of my time, instead I am going to illustrate just how much they adhere to the narrative of how women in the gaming industry/culture are treated like total crap. Within the first 5 seconds of the video they have set the tone of segment but incorrectly portraying the videogame Grand Theft Auto ( GTA) as a game wherein you violently beat/kill women; that is only half true, in the game you can kill thousands of npcs (non player characters) of both genders at your discretion, there is no impetus to solely kill women unless you solely kill women. Heck in that game the majority of the people you have to kill are male, but of course they won't mention that fact because it goes against their carefully crafted violence against women narrative. #Gamergate was not created so that 150,000+ people could band together to harass women online, that's an idiotic assumption to make especially since the internet has the collective attention span of 5 mins and this has been going on for century in internet time; we've come together to express our disdain with how the current games (and now mainstream media) has lost it's way and favors agenda over the truth. The harassment this women have received cannot be traced to gamergate, I mean just look at Anita...she's been getting harassed since 2012 ( which is terrible and I don't condone it nor do I like it) but gamergate started late last year so how can it be from us? The same for Wu and the others, why would trolls create a hashtag to harass you when they were harassing you just fine before? When you start to actually understand how the internet works, you realize that trolls are not so committed to pretending to be something they are not that they would donate over 120k dollars to charities, go on streams, send emails to businesses, or any of that; they would however dox people, post their addresses on multiple boards online, send death threats and do all the stuff that the media and detractors have accused gamergate of. They are willfully ignoring the concept of 3rd party trolls because once again it does not play to their narrative of gamergate being a bunch of cishet angry white bros, it's the same reason they ignore any pro gamergate women.
Speaking of pro gamergate women, it's pretty sad that the media is so concerned with portray women as these weak, helpless creatures that they ignore the majority of women in the gaming industry. A lot of female gamers, devs and content creators do not like the idea of being silenced or spoken for by the media and if the media cared as much as they claim to then why haven't they reached out to this women? Why is it that Brianna Wu, a person who had almost no visibility until she injected herself into gamergate, gets all these interviews yet a woman who is a success in the industry does not? Surely it would be much more beneficial to cover all the positive women in gaming, the heads of studios, the heads of departments, than all this negativity right? But then if they were interested in actually getting women into gaming they'd of did with the Fine Young Capitalist did and help them make games or start a scholarship fund or something; it's all well and good that Anita and Intel are teaming up but why she didn't do something to help women before that is anyone's guess. I am all over the place I know but sometimes it's very hard to keep it all straight when there is bs coming in all over the place.Why Wu even being interviewed? She makes all these claims of harassment and having to leave her home yet there is evidence that she never once left her house and possibly made up those claims. Why do none of these women who claim to care about women in gaming do nothing to actually encourage women to get into gaming?
Going back to the video for a second, all I can say is shame on Abc for drinking the kool-aid and doing zero research about anything. How has journalism fallen to such a point where you can be corrected with a 2 min search of Twitter? Is this narrative so damn important that you would willingly portray not only gamers as terrible people but women as these helpless creatures who need you to protect them? I am so sick and tired of half truths being presented as gospel, so tired of criticism towards Anita or anyone of her peers being taking as misogynistic harassment, deathly tired of the hack jobs on #gamergate done by the hands of the media and I am goddamn tired of this misogyny narrative. You want to join the gaming culture? You wanna be in the community? You want to have your voice heard? Then instead of silencing everyone and taking your ball and going home, sit down and listen to the people you want to join. Stop talking for all gamers and women, quit taking things at face value, be critical of the information you receive, start getting rid of your biases and go into this as objectively as possible.
I'm sorry for the rant, usually I have pictures and it's a bit more humorous but I am running out of things to laugh at about the situation, its gone on far too long and the detractors don't even realize that they are the ones that prolong it, not us. Anyways, watch that video and you'll see exactly what I'm talking about, look at the comments too because there are some valid ass points in there. Later.
Well if you weren't excited for this film before, you definitely need to make sure if you are a living person to begin with because who wasn't excited for a new Avengers film? I mean really? Oh but this trailer is kick ass and has a bunch on new scenes (Natasha in an asylum?) and the Hulkbuster armor....oh yeah. Anyways just watch the trailer and speculate your ass off until May 1,2015 aka the month no other movie is gonna think of coming out.
I love videogames, always have and always will. What I don't love? These 5 things:
1. Poorly implemented microtransactions
The kings of microtransactions
I understand that the F2P market is fairly large and you want to make returns on that, I have no issue with buying a few things here and there in those types of games; however, when you are making me pay for things that directly affect my enjoyment of the game, that's when I take issue. You could pretty much pay to win Dead Space 3 and let's not even talk about those games that pretty much penalize you for not buying extra crap ( Oh you want more inventory space and access to basic game content? Open up your wallet you money pig); all of this needs to just not be in non free to play games. Why can't I use in game currency to purchase things? Why do I have to spend more money to get virtual things? Why does EA exist? So many questions
2. DLC
Also the kings of crappy DLC tactics
Maybe I should specify here: I am not against DLC that furthers the narrative/gameplay of a game, I believe that is what DLC should do in the first place. You wanna know what I am against though? Day 1 DLC that should have been in the game but they took it out just to sell it back to you for more money. Look at Destiny and you can pretty much tell that the game was gutted so that they could charge you extra bucks for expansion packs that should have been in the original game ( seriously that game is freaking barren as hell out of the box). I know my picture is of EA again but they aren't the only ones who egregiously misuse the "content" part of DLC, Capcom is another company that seems to think its ok to charge like 5 bucks for 1 costume change...why not give me a character or more modes? Oh that's right, you gotta release the next superlative addition in 6 months. You know what game had DLC done right? Crackdown. I could spawn cars, weapons, barrels, go into godmode, just wreck the game and it was a blast..let's bring more of that in 2015 and less horse armor shall we?
3. Post Launch Review Embargoes
Because this game didn't get enough crap right?
If you ever needed a reason against withholding reviews, Assassin's Creed Unity provides a stellar example as to why post launch review embargoes need to embargo... I apologize for that. Relying on the name alone to sell is crappy but not illegal, however I take issue with companies that make review sites sit on a review until the sales numbers come in just so that their finances aren't hurt by bad reviews; if you put out a crappy product then the consumers should be informed of the quality of the product before they buy it, we shell out 60 bucks of our money and deserve to know if it's worth our time or not. If you're that afraid of the reviews then maybe you shouldn't rush to push out an inferior product just to make a holiday deadline, especially if you are at the helm of a major AAA franchise that has a huge fanbase that will wait for them ( just look at what Valve is doing to the Half Life fans). I know that embargoes are set so that it sorta levels the playing field for different gaming sites but they should only be in place up until launch and not a second longer.
4. Day one Patches/ releasing alpha builds as final builds
Who doesn't love needing to immediately dl a patch to play a game?
Stop.Putting.Out.Games.That.Aren't.Ready.Yet! I don't even care about the crunch for a deadline or anything like that because at the end of the day, gamers much rather have a playable game a month after it's supposed to come out than game that needs so many patches it's nominated for a purple heart medal. Again, just give us a good game that is ready to play and we will not regret giving you our money. Honestly what kind of sense does it make to release half done games? Sure you get some cash but you hurt your brand name in the long run, stop doing that dummies.
5. MAKING ME PAY FOR ON DISC CONTENT
Accurate photo is accurate
I know this is number 5, but this pisses me off the most. How dare you make me pay money for content that is already on the disc? Never mind gutting a game and selling the rest as DLC, you are actually making me pay money for a game I already paid money for in order to access content that is already there. This is like buying a car and being told that if you want the keys you'll have to pay extra, there are just certain standards that should be upheld here. Do y'all remember the whole TekkenxStreet Fighter thing from a few years ago?
Or very recently, the discovery of on disc dlc for Destiny? I don't care why Bungie decided to do it, they are just another company in a long list of companies ( (for more examples, go here) who have let their greed grow a wild amount. If the content is already on the damn game then I should be able to play it, it's that simple.
So there you go, 5 things I don't like and want to die an terrible, agonizing death. If you want another list, pay me 10$ and I'll release the posts I've kept in my drafts.
In another act of sheer brilliance, Hollywood has yet again gone with the honor tradition of whitewashing characters by casting Scarlett Johansson as Motoko Kusanagi. I'm sure I will hear a ton of excuses as to why she should be her and I'm gonna tell you right now; I don't care, I'm tired of this happening all of the damn time nowadays, do we really need to make every character white? It's the beginning of the new year and I'm already seeing that the old ways are still here, much to my dismay.
I know that Hollywood is all about the bottom dollar but when are we gonna have more representation of different races on the big screen? I am 100% not for this casting decision at all ( nothing against ScarJo) and I am at a loss as to why they would cast a non Japanese ( Non asian for that matter) as the lead role in a movie based off an anime? Did they not see Dragonball Evolution? Well ok most people didn't but still, it's always a disaster when you try to pass something off as western based when it clearly is not. I guess only time will tell if the film is any good.
Dragon Ball Z is a ridiculously popular anime that has been finished for over a decade and enjoys success until this day. From re releases to videogames to a movie that will not be named, DBZ has permeated throughout pop culture and I've decided it's time to put this series under the microscope. You might be asking why I would subject a cartoon that's best lines of dialogue include long protracted screams and the answer is simple: I obviously have nothing better to do than scrutinize a beloved childhood show because ruining fond memories makes my soul stronger....I mean because reasons...whatever....let's just do this.
The Saiyan Saga starts from the very first episode of DBZ with the arrival of Raditz ( Goku's older evil brother) and he is just in the worst mood because Goku has killed every single person on Earth. Raditz runs into Piccolo, after using his scouter to find the highest power level, and here is my question: Why didn't Raditz just kill Piccolo right then and there? Remember he was upset that Goku hadn't killed the population of Earth so why would he spare Piccolo? I know that he suddenly sensed Goku's power and took off for him but he could have easily ganked Piccolo and then left ( it's not like it wouldn't have taken more than a minute. What kind of Saiyan runs from a battle anyways?)
Raditz meets up with Goku and instead of just killing everyone who wasn't a Saiyan on the spot, he makes Goku and offer to join him (which obviously doesn't appeal to Goku) and kidnaps Gohan. Why go through all the theatrics? Why even look for Goku when you could have just started killing the minute you got to Earth? You killed the farmer with the shotgun with no problems but suddenly you're all too busy to kill Piccolo or any other human? What does talking to Goku solve? It's been like 20 years and people are still alive so obviously Goku made a decision to not kill them. Furthermore, why does he even think Goku is still alive? It's not secret that he was sent to Earth because he was weak and they thought he'd have an easier time killing them, but if the humans were still alive wouldn't you think (unless you have some sort of esp that let's you know that Goku hit his head as a child and forgot what he was programmed to do) he was dead since..ya know..everyone is still alive?
Ok so he did ko Krillin but still
After Gohan is taken away, Piccolo arrives to do a team up with Goku ( which is fine ) but only Piccolo teamed up with him. You mean to tell me that the rest of the Z fighters weren't available to help their good friend Goku? Mr Roshi couldn't phone Tien, Yamcha or Chiaotzu to help Goku out? What a bunch a of crappy friends if Goku's mortal enemy is the only support he gets. Team Goolo ( GokuxPiccolo) finds Raditz and the fist start flying. It's all "Whoosh" "Bang" "Pow" " AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
See, fast punching
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA" and then really fast punches followed by more screaming. This all proves to be ineffective so Goolo decides to divide and conquer, fails, Gohan hits Raditz, it's super effective, Goku holds Raditz and Piccolo drills them both...with his special cannon from his fingers. Both Raditz and Goku die and for some reason Goku's body just disappears and I have no idea what happened to Raditz's body but let's just say Piccolo ate it because he looks like he would do some sh*t like that. Before he died though, Raditz told everyone that 2 Saiyans would be arriving on Earth, because the scouter was also a communicator, and I have to wonder why the hell he would tell them that because obviously they would prepare for them, way to go Raditz.
I can't help but feel like it would have been much better if Raditz had arrived on Earth, started killing humans, he catches the attention of Goku and the gang, they go meet up with him, shit goes down, both he and Goku die and the story still continues. At least this way, everyone gets a taste of how powerful a Saiyan can be, which would spur them to train super hard, and it would show Raditz is a formidable opponent being able to handle the Z fighters + Piccolo. I guess they were saving that leave of destruction for Nappa, which I will be talking about in part 2 of my " Let's Overly Analyze" topic. Feel free to comment, make additions/corrections or just complain because that's what the internet is for.
