An impassioned answer to the question that nobody was asking

Last week, Christina Sommers released a video as part of her series The Factual Feminist asking the question “Are video games sexist?” (A bizarre and inflammatory headline and not a question anybody has ever asked, but nevertheless). You can watch this video below.

Sommers’ video has seen overwhelming support from people who feel “social justice warriors” are taking over gaming, but she has also been labelled as a conservative and neocon by her critics. However, Sommers political leanings — and she’s a registered Democrat voter, for what it’s worth — are wholly irrelevant.

What is relevant is that the arguments she makes in her video are, despite the research cited, wide of the mark, ignorant, and largely irrelevant to current calls for better representation in gaming.

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Group of rich, white men quietly confident that nation’s most vulnerable can tighten their belts

Federal Treasurer Joe Hockey, who earns over $230,000 a year, has delivered his stunning vision overnight for an Australia in which everybody who isn’t staggeringly rich can “fuck off and die”.

“This is a budget full of tough decisions that will help get the country back on track, after Lame-bore totally ruined it, I guess,” said Hockey.

“When we say ‘tough’ decisions we mean ‘decisions that will affect those who are doing it tough’, of course,” Hockey added. “This is basically entirely driven by ideology. If you’re poor, just kill yourself now and save time.”

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Ha Ha, Whee: On The Relevance of Game Reviews in a Post Fuck-You Era

Game reviews are shit and I hate them.

Earlier this month I reviewed Thief for work and, in many ways, it epitomised why I hate doing reviews now. As editor I get to basically cherry-pick the reviews I want to do and everyone else can suck shit, which is good because it means that I only have to play games I’m interested in but bad because the way reviews currently work (for a given value of my perspective only, your mileage may vary, consult a doctor before reading to the end of this paragraph) means that I end up getting mad at them and often end up slightly resenting their very existence.

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12 Months You Won’t Believe: Why Everyone Is Talking About What These Two People Did In 2013

So 2013 was kind of a big deal for us, and we’re kind of a big deal as it is, so frankly the last twelve months have been kind of a big deal. As basically everyone who is reading this knows (hey, whatup) we moved from Perth to Sydney in February this year.

It turns out “moving to another state” isn’t just as simple as getting on a plane: we spent pretty much all of January packing and getting ready, throwing out boxes and boxes of crap, and moving the boxes of the crap we did want to keep into a gigantic shipping crate. It also turns out that gigantic metal shipping crates get quite hot in the heat of summer — on the final day it was an insane 52 degrees inside the crate, which made moving the last of our furniture in there and strapping down an almost literally hellish task.

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A Critical Reading Of “Stay The Night”, by Zedd ft. Hayley Williams

Fear of the unknown has always dogged us as a species, ever since we first crawled out of the primordial soup. It’s this fear that drives us not only to build, to achieve, to mark our territory with our urine, but also to seek comfort in others. In the dark of night, the loneliness of the mind envelops itself, and so naturally it is in these times that we turn to others for reassurance. In asking if we will stay the night, Williams is the one reaching out: to us, to another human, for comfort.

What dark terrors are running through her subconscious? Is her hedonistic life catching up with her? Are her friends whispering behind her back? We may never know. What we can see is a woman in need, crying out for help, reaching out a hand in the hope of finding another human soul in the endless void.

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