Is sexism in video games the core of the problem?

What's the issue, here?

Women are sexy. They are smart. They are daring. They are at times heroic and at times self-sacrificing. Women are exciting and interesting just as they are. If the gaming and movie industry ever figured that out, they'd get rich... er. (I suppose they do get it right, at times.)

The portrayal of women in video games ranges from realistic to mindbogglingly stereotypically sexist. The latter has gotten the attention of feminists, and has recently become somewhat of a hot topic. It is a heated debate that has grown to involve name calling, threats, violence, scandal, political movements, and so much more. On the one side are the people concerned for the injustice and sexism toward women. The opposition includes a group (Gamergate) focused on improving the standards of journalism in the gaming industry - it may not sound connected, but it really is.  The feminist side says that the interest in journalism is a front to hide the extreme sexism of the group.  This may be true of most of the members of the group.  I have no idea, and don't affiliate myself with either side.

Just like the topic of evolution and religion, some people are so tightly bound to their side, with so many good reasons, that saying anything at all against or for either side is seen as a declaration of fealty. I value women. I value good games. I value humanity and humanities. I believe we should honor womanhood, and that inasmuch as games fail to do that, there is room for important improvement.

I also value role models, and changes that are focused and effective.

I watched this video recently:

Real change requires better arguments

I don't know much about Anita Sarkeesian (I keep seeing her pop up), but I feel like she's being too casual about her argument. Is she arguing against violence? Or is she arguing against violence against women? I suppose she could be fighting both, but that's an awfully large fight. A big battle needs to be fought with big guns.

She needs to provide data that supports her claim - after all, she's taking on a major issue in a major industry. I love, and feel very close to my mom, my wife, my sister, and I hope to perhaps have a daughter some day. As such, I'm highly interested in women being respected. But this lady is careless, and as such can't do anything more than get people who already agree with her to make noise. I suppose she has also really bothered some people. Is that success?

The video brings up specific instances of violence toward women in video games. Female prostitutes being run over by cars? I see 2 problems with this point.

A) Prostitution is a real "profession" which is even legal in some states. I don't like it, but it's there, and the games didn't make it. Can we really give a game demerits for bringing attention to this actual phenomenon? Is media better if it produces falsely violent scenarios? They're presenting a story that represents a real part of life. An unsettling part of life that people prefer to ignore. Can we stop ignoring it, please? Can we do something about it?

B) You can run over anybody in the game. Should the game shut down every time you hit someone because, "Hey, that action isn't allowed!" The video makes a big deal about it, "You can kill the prostitute (Image of someone shooting her with a gun), or even run her over!" How is running her over worse than shooting her with a gun, exactly? But more importantly, running her over is a logical possibility given the reality of the game. Anything and anyone can be run over. The fact that you CAN run over a prostitute is... hardly surprising. Why you would want to is another issue entirely.

I'm in favor of increased respect for human life in the media. Ergo, I'm in favor of increased respect for women in the media. Why do the faces of such a movement have to represent themselves so poorly? Why do their arguments have to be so based in pathos? I believe the term for an argument so entrenched in pathos would literally be "a pathetic argument".

The real problem

I am saddened to see the careless hate that's being thrown at women who feel like Anita Sarkeesian. Messages of murder, rape, or other violent acts are truly saddening - even terrifying. She doesn't deserve such treatment. Furthermore, the morons who think it's clever to be so verbally violent, or heaven forbid, who actually feel that way... they just add fuel to her fire. They're the problem.

While making a point about violence toward women in video games, the video shows an image of the beginning of the game Dishonored where the queen is murdered. I can't help but slap my forehead. The queen is a respectable female leader, and she's killed as part of a plot to overthrow the government. Would it have been better if it had been a man? Those kinds of points are just so stupid. Argue that the protagonist should've been female, or argue about ways that women are misrepresented (there's quite a bit of misrepresentation of women). But there's plenty of violence to go around. In general, women are not singled out. If anything, there are far more frequent, and far more graphic deaths of men in games. Focusing on these weak points just decreases their credibility. (Could we please get a face on this problem that is credible?)

A much more serious phenomenon is brought up in the video. The reality is far worse than the portrayal in video games. It is how women are actually treated that is just appalling. Sexist, sexual, violent, or simply rude comments to female gamers just make the world a worse place. The gaming community demonstrates that some people (and it doesn't take long playing online to find such a person) simply haven't been effectively taught values of compassion, integrity, mutual respect, or kindness to strangers. If these things sound old fashioned, I'd argue that they are the important values of the future. Gone are the days where you only see strangers when you venture outside your front door. We now have strangers visiting our homes via our computers on a regular basis. General values for mutually respectful behavior are more important now than ever before. And as the world becomes more connected, these values will only become increasingly important.

Why is Anita Sarkeesian attacking sexism in the video game industry instead of taking on this much more pressing issue?  Perhaps it's just easier.  But real girls are actually mistreated online every day.  The violent backlash against Anita Sarkeesian is an expansion of that behavior.  It isn't because they're girls - it's not their fault. It's because their assailants are uneducated in valuing human life.

When are we going to start addressing the heart of this issue?

Update#1: After visiting her website, feministfrequency.com, I have to admit that the video I've linked above does a poor job of representing her stance or methods.  For example, in one video, she discusses how refreshing it is to see mutual respect between the lead female protagonist and her male sidekicks; my own opinion mirrors her comments in that video.  Also on the website, she does present data regarding some issues.  In the interest of forming your own intelligent opinion, I recommend visiting her website, and seeing what Anita Sarkeesian has made.  Does she do the issue justice?  I'm still forming my opinion.

Update#2: After watching hours of videos, reading pages and pages of ideas and even turning to some textbooks and primary literature to clarify issues for myself, I feel that the ABC video does a terrible, terrible job representing Anita Sarkeesian.  They represent her as an object/target/victim of aggressive sexism.  She is, rather, the perpetrator/subject/activist of exposing sexist cultural norms - and she doesn't hate the games that she's talking about; if anything she loves them.  In return, as a response, she has been hated extremely violently and aggressively.  Furthermore, I believe that her analysis of sexism in video games is based firmly in the accepted philosophical underpinnings of moderate feminism, and does not exaggerate the problem, despite focusing exclusively on the problem of sexism in video games.  In contrast, the responses to Anita Sarkeesian have been extreme, illogical, and self-righteous.  I'm inclined to say that she's made a feminist out of me - it may sound crazy, as a week ago I'd never have said I'm a feminist, but Anita Sarkeesian is really grounded and logical, contrary to what I understood previously.

Baymax's most impressive superhero powers

When my kids watch the movie "Big Hero 6" I'm sure that the coolest things Baymax does include flying, shooting his fist like a rocket, and doing karate.  However, I'm impressed by the plethora of healthcare functions he performs.  Not only does he diagnose and treat healthcare problems, but he does so without external aid.

When spraying Hiro's arm with bacitracin, he does so using his finger.  This suggests that he either has a container of bacitracin within him, or a means of chemically producing any substance.  Either way, this is impressive.  As bacitracin is not the only antibiotic that might be used, if he has a container of it, he probably has a container of every known drug.  If he internally produces the chemical, then the technology within him is unprecedented.  A mobile,  human(-ish) sized machine that can create any chemical?  Bank.

Equally impressive is his scanning function, which, at one point in the movie, identifies Hiro's peanut allergy.  It's already impressive enough that it's able to determine a person's blood levels of neurotransmitters and their blood type.  To do so would require identifying molecules inside the person, which is unfathomably impressive.  But to identify a peanut allergy is a billion times more impressive.  He would have to run peanut allergy simulations on every immunological binding protein in the body, of which there are innumerable.  Based on the scanned structure of every molecule in his body, Baymax would have to recognize the potential for peanut molecules to bind and activate the immune system.  With neurotransmitters, you could estimate a quantity based on an approximate density in a particular area or something.  But to recognize a peanut allergy would require a lot more precision, or you might miss it.  And it could be life-threatening to diagnose someone as having no allergy when they actually have one.

So, I guess science fiction is cool to kids and grown-ups alike.  No news there. :)

Music and Video Games

Yeah, yeah, video game music is a lot of fun.  I could hum the megaman 2 themesong for hours on end as much as the next guy.  Or the kefka themesong.  Or try to make clicky-tongue-noises to the final fantasy 7 urgent timed mission music (ticky-tocky-ticky-tocky. DUN. DUN!  DUN. DUN!)

But there's a place where music from video games overlaps with music in the real world.  It is a zone where the real becomes magical, and the imaginary solidifies.  So, I'm sharing some of these things that are truly wonderful.

First, the title song for the game Civilization 4.  The song is called Baba Yetu.  It is the Lord's Prayer in Swahili, and the song is absolutely glorious.  Below is a rendition by Peter Hollens and Malukah, who do lots of cool vocal stuff.

The second song I'd like to share is called "The Queen of Blades".  It was written and performed for a competition in 2010 at Blizzcon.  The song is based on the lore from the video game Starcraft, and it is just very well done.

The third song is based on the lore from the game the Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.  It was written and performed by the fan Malukah (who also performed in the first video above).  I can't get enough of this stuff!

There are obviously other musical performances based on videogames that are high quality, but I thought I'd share these, which are among my favorite.

Barbaric Pain

For a few moments, consider some things.

First, we are able to create 3D CG movies of immense detail and outstanding quality. For example, Disney employed exciting new lighting technology in the movie Big Hero 6.

Second, we're able to wirelessly transmit all of that information to a 3D television.  That's right.  The extreme detail of the movie can be wirelessly sent via specialized transmitters.

Third... 3D television!!!  It's amazing enough that we have been able to display anything we can imagine on a flat surface.  Now we can trick our brains by using stereoscopic rendering and polarized glasses.  Not to mention the amazing glasses-free technologies on the horizon.

Now, consider that we have sophisticated maps of neural pathways, and unobtrusive techniques for scanning an individual's brain.  Consider also that the primary distance-covering method of neurotransmission is simply electrical.

Consider further that pain is a matter of hundreds of billions of dollars each year.

Then, in light of aaaaaaall that, considering aaaaall that stuff...  Think about our primary method of treating pain.  We give people chemicals that have really poor specificity, and seriously negative side effects!

I'm blown away thinking about all that.  It isn't like there's no motivation to find the best pain treatment.  Someone could get seriously rich off of this, and powerful companies have massive work-forces dedicated to discovering treatments for pain.  Not only are the workers real people who probably are highly interested in solving the pain problem for humanity, but also the companies would benefit immensely by solving this problem.

So, why can't we wirelessly transmit pain relief to people's neural cortexes?

Research into treating phantom limb pain wirelessly is promising.  How far off is unobtrusive pain relief?

You've got to admit that this is a compelling issue.  Thoughts?

Cool things you can do with google's search engine (besides searching)

Google has a variety of features that are quite useful.  Here are a couple:

1) 10 minute timer - or any number of minutes.  If you type X minute timer into google, it starts a timer for you.  If you leave the tab open, then when the timer runs out, it will beep incessantly.  Since our microwave timer beeps quietly 2-3 times, it's really useful to have this annoying timer.

2) what's my ip address - Typing this into google's search box will not only pull up sites about your ip address, but will also tell you directly.  At the top of the search, your external ip address is printed in big bold text.

3) hunger games mockingjay release date - or any movie.  Typing a movie followed by "release date" in google's search box will tell you the release date.  Similar to the ip address, it'll print the release date in big bold text at the top of the list of search results.

4) hunger games mockingjay rating - or any movie.  As before, typing a movie title followed by "rating" will display it's rating.  The MPAA rating appears in big bold text at the top of the search results.

5) Date of the moon landing - Some historic events will result in their date being printed at the top of the search results.  Other historic events will have a small description, including the date.  For example, typing "date of the end of world war 2" pops up a brief description, including the date.

6) US minimum wage - Typing this in google's search box pulls up the current US minimum wage (currently 7.25).  Replace "US" with a particular state and you'll see that state's minimum wage (California - 9.00, Texas, 7.25)

7) income tax rate in Colorado 2014 - Similar to the minimum wage thing, you can get a description of income tax rate in a particular state.  The response on top is an excerpt, rather than the income tax rate, but the excerpt includes the rate.

I'm sure there are tons of other things you can search for like this.  Google will simply provide the information, rather than making you wade through the pages of search results to find it.

Lastly, and most importantly, everyone should experience the image search for "atari breakout".  Make sure you do an image search of exactly that phrase, and it will surprise you.  Do it! :D

Modding Skyrim: hours of work and no play.

Lately, I have been rather uninterested in playing video games, which is unlike me.  I've looked at lists and lists of hundreds of games and nothing catches my eye.  Although the upcoming Star Citizen looks amazing, and promises so much amazing gameplay, I just can't buy it.  For one, I've been burned by early access already, and I've decided not to  go in for an early access game without a darn good reason.  Second, I almost never buy a videogame at full price, and I hope to get a bargain on Star Citizen... some day...

Which eventually led me back to the modern classic, The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim.

A Brief History of The Elder Scrolls (TES).

Arena

In 1994, Bethesda, a company that worked primarily on sports games, released "The Elder Scrolls: Arena" for PC.  There may have been other open world games (Betrayal at Krondor), but I think it's fair to say that open world games are much more common today than they were back than.  Not to mention that PC gaming is somewhat more mainstream.  I've gotten it working on a DOS emulator, and it definitely felt like the ancestor of the modern elder scrolls games, albeit a lot...  older feeling.

Daggerfall

I don't know about the popularity of Arena, but I do know that TES 2: Daggerfall was at least talked about when it came out.  Daggerfall is much harder to get working on modern systems, and while I did once get a version of this game running, it was sufficiently difficult to keep running that I didn't play the game much.  But, it was at least popular among it's fan base... for what that's worth.

Morrowind

Now, TES 3: Morrowind was utterly popular.  It is a legend among open world games, and many modders continue to try to recreate this game in the modern game engines of its successors.  Open world RPGers often compare modern games to Morrowind.  It is held on an untouchable pedestal by some, and at least considered a good game by most gamers.  My confession: I only ever played this game for about 15 minutes.

Oblivion

TES 4: Oblivion was the first TES game that I played, and it blew my mind.  At the time, truly open world gaming was not really very common.  A few games mimicked TES, but Oblivion was definitely the first open world experience that grasped me.  The game had a massive scale, which continues to be hard to compete with.  The world was just enormous, detailed, and rich with subplots.  Just look at this aerial view of the imperial capital (below).  There are book stores, magic shops, general merchants, weapons and armor merchants, a thieves guild, a port and harbor, the castle, housing, a prison, a gladiatorial arena, military executive buildings, the armory, religious structures... and a lot of other places and people, with many personal vendettas, love stories, underground activities, or whatever other number of quests, personalities and stories you'll find. Now, think about how in the distance, beyond those mountains, you could find dozens of other cities. 

I remember having to turn off the grass to be able to play the game, since the grass textures overloaded my computer.  In fact, it wasn't until I got a better computer that I was able to play this game on anything with graphics settings above unbearably mimimalistic.  Below is an image that illustrates just how minimalistic the game can look.  Even those shrubs on the bottom left and right spruce it up a bit.  But the game had a lot of detail, when settings were up high enough.

Now, for TES 5: Skyrim.

This game is an amazing successor to the TES series, but it was a very unstable video game.  You'l be playing, and then out of the blue, it crashes.  Not to mention, it takes like 10 minutes to start the game and load your last save, which makes a crash all that more frustrating.  In fact, the terms CTD (crash to desktop) and microstutter (where the game renders somewhat like a slideshow for a second or two), while associated with poor graphics/game performance in general, are more commonly associated with this game than any other.  What a disappointment!

And yet, the game is so immersive and vast, that a committed gamer may overlook these awful aspects to participate in the adventures of Skyrim.  In fact, it is quite possibly the most highly modded game ever, with almost 40,000 files boasted at Nexus Mods, a major modding site.  Mods include everything from improved graphical quality to diverse alterations of gameplay.

Graphics mods make the game look uber good.

This picture shows a close-up of a texture from the ground, demonstrating the quality improvements available.

This image demonstrates a mod that makes the meshes of various objects look much better... for example, chains are no longer flat, and apples aren't 12 sided objects.

And this picture is just to demonstrate how very beautiful the game can look.

And gameplay mods add really exciting features and interesting challenges, as well as improving various aspects of the game, such as the level system and enemy AI.  Some mods I've really enjoyed are:

Frostfall - creates an "exposure" system, where you need to keep your character warm while in cold weather by wearing warm clothing, building a fire, and/or seek shelter in storms.

iNeed - creates a hunger, thirst, and fatigue system that requires meeting your characters needs in order to function at peak performance.

Hunterborn - Takes away the original system where animals have coins and weird things, and replaces it with a field dressing, skinning, and carving/harvesting system.

So... the problem with all this is that the game isn't stable, as I said before.  The more mods installed, the less stable the game becomes.  But as one begins modding Skyrim, it becomes difficult to decide where to stop modding.  For many modders, it seriously gets to the point where they are trying to get the game to start at all.

There is plenty of software designed to aid modders in setting up mods in the most functional possible way.  Nexus Mod Manager, Mod Organizer, BOSS, Load Order Optimization Tool, Skyrim Performance Monitor, TES5Edit, Wrye Bash, and many, many others.  I've used all of the above, and many others.

To make a long story short... at this point... I've gotten the game to the point that it starts with about 300 mods installed.  The experience is awesome... but it microstutters and crashes to a frustrating extent.  I guess it doesn't matter too much, since I've not been in the mood to play games anyhow.  But it is simultaneously very exciting and frustrating!

Squares and Oats: A long kept secret.

I'm going to tell you a secret...

The truth is...

...that I am a semi-famous guy in the video gaming world.  I know, I know, I'm a nerd.  But I'm a semi-legendary nerd.

My online handle is SquarelyCircle.  I've used this nickname in most online games, but the name is most famous for publishing the once popular Starcraft II mod called "Desert Strike version Square".  In its prime, the mod commanded 60,000 hours of gameplay each day, and continued to see such gameplay statistics for almost a year after I released the mod.  To this day, the most popular versions of the Desert Strike mod are based on my original version for Starcraft II and give credit to SquarelyCircle.  Of note, and to give credit where credit is due, my version was highly based on a previous version of the "Desert Strike" mod for the original Starcraft game by Queen Gambit.

The degree of fame that SquarelyCircle has is pretty impressive.  When using the handle in forums or videogames, I frequently get comments like this one:
"You wouldn't happen to be THE SquarelyCircle from the SC2 WoL mod Desert Strike that has a bunch of popular ripoffs without credit to you, would you? (Awesome game btw, I put quite a few hours into before I got bored of winning :P)"
This particular comment comes from the Starbound forums, but I've been approached dozens of times.  Being called "THE SquarelyCircle" is a fun experience.

This youtube video demonstrates some of the features of my version of Desert Strike.

Another interesting thing about SquarelyCircle is that there has been a professionally written song about him.  After withdrawing from medical school, I felt lost and somewhat depressed.  I spent some time playing DoTA 2, and made many interesting friends.  One of them, whose handle was ZeroCrossing, worked in music composition, and he wrote a song to cheer me up.  I love it.  Listen to the song, it's fun!

Anyway, there's the truth.  Be gentle with my nerd side...