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Expanding on the recent theme of the last several entries... I've been meaning to tackle this issue for years, and am just now getting around to it. If you're a gamer, and a regular denizen of the various interwebs, then you've probably heard the name Anita Sarkeesian at some point. (In fact, you're probably sick of hearing that name.) I'm not sure how relevant this issue still is, or if it's drifted away from the spotlight, but for some time, Sarkeesian was making quite a bit of noise about sexism and the misrepresentation of women in video games. If you're unfamiliar with Sarkeesian, it will probably only take about one minute of watching her content on youtube to know all you need to. In short, she seems to believe that if a man finds a woman physically, sexually attractive, in any context, under any circumstances, then it's sexist and wrong. (Perhaps a little bit of an unfair generalization of her, but it doesn't seem too far from the mark.) She makes quite a lot of displeased noise about women being depicted as sexual objects in games, and offered as rewards and such. Now, I happen to agree that there is indeed some problems with sexism in video games, but the solution is not what Sarkeesian would propose. (If Sarkeesian got her way, she'd probably just destroy any hint of sex appeal in games.) Let's be blunt and get straight to the point. Let's talk "bikini" armor, or "sexy" armor. Let's talk about this: Is it wrong to have scantily clad women in fantasy games? Or other games? (Mostly fantasy games.) Is it wrong to prominently display sexuality and sex appeal this way? Is it wrong to have women wear a ludicrously impractical metal bikini for armor? If you've read my previous blog entry, you can probably guess that my answer to all of these questions is a resounding no. It's not wrong. I'm one of the most sex positive people you'll ever meet, and a huge proponent of a healthy celebration of sexuality and sex appeal, and beauty in general. This may sound shallow to some, but I don't see it that way. It's just another wonderful aspect of life to enjoy. An appreciation for this part of life doesn't automatically mean an unhealthy objectification of people. In fact, I submit that appreciating and enjoying sexual beauty, and sexually objectifying people are mutually exclusive. I can enjoy beauty and still look at people (or even video game characters) as complex individuals. Back to the bikini armor--Anita Sarkeesian makes the assertion over and over again that such things are not armor. Well, no sh*t P.I. Rarity. Who said it was? Of course these revealing swimsuit outfits aren't going to protect characters in battle. It's a GAME. It doesn't have to be realistic. Why can't we have some sexy outfits if we want 'em? What's the harm in that? Is is really so evil? Well, according to Sarkeesian, you bet your sweet patootie it is. (Oh, whoops. Shouldn't have said patootie. That's evil and sexist, too.) And Sarkeesian's answer to the question, "what's the harm?" is that is will create a society full of men who don't know how to respect women. We're gonna be a horde of Dothraki, that's what it is. Well, it's not true. And I'm going to give the same response I do when it comes to children with respect to NSFW internet content: just comes down to parenting. Watch what your kids are playing, teach them properly, demonstrate how to treat women in real life, both by your words and by example, and don't let your children play mature games until they demonstrate mature behavior. Don't blame your problems on games, and don't expect the ESRB to do your job for you, and definitely, (and I can't stress this one enough), definitely don't take away my goddamn sexy games because you don't like 'em!! I love me some sexy games, and I love me some sexy characters, and I don't see anything wrong with that. I respect women, just as I respect all people, I don't mistreat real women, and I don't objectify them, and yet I still enjoy a scantily clad fantasy game character, a phenomenon that Sarkeesian would probably deem impossible. So, I stated that there is a problem. And here it is: The problem is that we often have sexualized female characters in revealing outfits, but their male counterparts are always these giant tanks wearing so much armor that they look more like a vehicle from Mad Max: Fury Road. This is a double standard, and it's unfair. (Unless you actually have a valid, story based reason for it.) So, what's the solution? Well, it's not to cover up all of the females, as Sarkeesian would like. It's....*drumroll*....yup, you guess it! Let's show some skin on the males! Offer equally revealing, equally sexualized male variants. I'm arguing for equality, but not equality by censorship. I argue for equal celebration of sexual beauty. Depending on the game, it could also make sense to offer "real", practical armor and "sexy" armor for each sex, and let players choose what they want. Now, revealing armor and sexy outfits don't have a place in every game. It all depends on the game. I don't want revealing, silly armor for my Spartans in Halo. Some games are serious business, and it would ruin the story to have impractical garbs. Skyrim was another game that made the right choice to have practical armor. But Final Fantasy games?! Kingdoms of Amalur?! Heck YEAH! Sexy all the way! Just offer both for players who want it, and offer the same types of outfits for male characters. Now, if it seems like this idea wouldn't fly, I'd like to take a moment to point out this: I mean, these guys are in armored bikini briefs, for Celestia's sake. They're heavily sexualized. Now, maybe it was actually more practical for them to be able to move, but the point is that we just need more options like this for male characters in games. But too often, we see the armored bikini goddess, as in that first picture, and the male tank, as in the second. Just, y'know, take a lesson from 300. It's not rocket science. God of War did it. Have realistic attire in games that warrant it, have sexy attire when applicable, offer both when feasible, and offer equally revealing outfits for males. Incidentally, I'd like to place Warframe on a pedestal for managing to simultaneously be the most equal, least sexist, and (in my opinion) sexiest game ever made. It is possible.

Vote in the poll and argue away!

Which game do you prefer more Fortnite or GTA. For me I’d say GTA it’s a lot more fun.

What the title says. What are your favorite video game bosses? It could be anything, from any game, final boss or not. A couple of my personal favorites are Quadraxis from Metroid Prime 2, just an awesome fight, the scale is epic, I mean, it's a giant fucking Quad! And the music perfectly compliments the fight as well. And then Mother Brain from Super Metroid. Another amazing fight, and one that also gives me chills when the infant Metroid sacrifices itself to save you, and you totally wreck mother brain with the hyper beam.

We all have done ridiculous things in video games, what are a few things that you have done? My first was the Pajama Puncher, a playthrough I did in Fallout 3. Using only their fists and the sexy sleepwear, my character wrecked havoc through the wastes, killing practically everybody. And yes, I managed to punch a deathclaw to death once. Here is what they looked like: http://images.akamai.steamusercontent.com/ugc/525015346380522718/70C890FFC22D39DE142D2A5C8A21C4312E2F8058/ There was also the time in TF2 where I went on gamebanana and found the stupidest/silliest mods and installed them all into my tf2, this was the end result:

Legend of Zelda is a great game series. I want to know which games is your favorite. Vote above and post reasons below. My favorite is Twilight Princess. I know not many people like this one, but I really like this one. It was also the first one I had ever played in the series. It was very dark (I like dark) and had a great story. Also, it had Midna, the best Legend of Zelda character ever. Feel free to discuss the series as well.

I don't know if anyone has posted this yet, but I looked. What your favourite video game? Or games? Here's mine: 1. Star Trek 2. Sonic: lost world (I still love it) 3. The sims 3

Anyone going to be playing Anthem at release tonight? I'm playing on Xbox One and my GT is CheesyGNacho if anyone will be looking for a wingman

For most video games, enemies are a necessity and everypony has enemies they just think are absolutely awesome, me included, well the question is, what are your Top 5 Game Enemies? 5. Necromorphs (Dead Space franchise) 4. Deathclaws (Fallout franchise) 3. Big Daddies/Big Sisters (Bioshock franchise) 2. Timesplitters (Timesplitters franchise) 1. Hyperion Robots/Psycho's (Borderlands franchise)

Which is the better Franchise in your opinion. Legend of Zelda games or Mario games. Cast your votes.

Y'know what really grinds my gears? When people call a game old, dated, or retro just because it's like two friggin' years old. Maybe it's just me, but I have a pretty wide range of what I consider "modern" when it comes to games. When I think old and retro, I think 8 and 16 bit Nintendo era or older. The other day I saw some website talking about Halo 3 as being a "retro classic". I know it probably just makes me sound like an old fogey, but Halo 3 is not a retro classic. I'm sorry, it's just not. It's a modern game. It's not new, but it is modern. If you're gonna call Halo 3 a retro classic, then what are you gonna call Super Metroid, or 8-bit Super Mario Bros, or Legend of Zelda, or friggin' DOOM? I tend to think of the modern era of gaming being at approximately PS2 and newer. I'm fine with Ocarina of Time and FF7 being called retro classics. Yeah, they are. But nothing on 360 or PS3 should be called retro or oldies. Gimmie a break, dude. I know games move quickly, but have a little perspective, man. I'm sure it does make me an old fogey, but I'm still blown away by the graphics of PS3 and 360 games. I play newer games, too, but every time I play Halo 3 or God of War 3 or Final Fantasy 13, I always just think, "Wow, this is just so gorgeous!" Most people probably look at Halo 3 today and think, "Ugh! What a muddy, pixel-y piece of garbage! I can't believe games used to look like this!", and that just kinda bugs me. Maybe it's just a generational thing that has to do with what gaming era you were born in, but I don't think I'll ever lose my appreciation for how good PS3/360 era looks. Well, that was just meant to be a quick, fun little thing, but somehow I could see this one getting me in a bit of hot water. Apologies if I ground anyone else's gears.

I'd like to talk for a few minutes about adult gamers, and the surprising mindset still lingering in a few people today that video games are but a child's toy that a mature adult has no business playing. Considering where I am at the moment, the MLP forums, I'd be willing to make a deal to eat my computer if there's a single person on these forums who harbors this opinion, however, this opinion is still floating around in the world. There are still those who hear about an adult who plays video games, shake their heads, and says, "Ugh. How can a grown man/woman waste their time with children's toys? Grow up." I recently watched a old video by Boogie2988 about this very subject. I'm sure many of you are familiar with him. Here's the video if you're interested. It's old, but not old enough to be irrelevant by any means. The following story is basically a response to that video, and a story you can tell if you ever meet someone who says games are just for kids. I am 31. I have been a die hard gamer for my entire life. I started gaming practically before I could walk. About five or so years ago, my mom got into gaming. She would have been....~57 at the time. She had her first taste of video games, as many older folks have, with Wii Sports. She has never been interested in gaming before. She never gave it much thought. It didn't seem to her like something she'd be interested in, or indeed able to do. It was a young person's thing. But she was instantly intrigued by the Wii Sports. (And props to Nintendo, here; they were really ingenious with Wii Sports, and the Wii in general. It attracted so many people outside of the regular demographic. They expanded their market so much. It really was a smart move, and a brilliant business model.) So, my mom asked if she could try it, and I did it with her, and to all of our surprise, she loved it. She asked me to play it with her all the time, and I gladly made time to do so, even though I wasn't all that interested, to be honest. I'd rather play Final Fantasy, or Skyrim, or Halo or something. After awhile, my mom wanted more, and became curious about what she could do. I took it upon myself to become a gaming mentor to her, and to try to expand her horizons. We bought some simple Wii games to get her started. She loves CSI and Project Runway, so we got the Wii games of those. Little more than animated menus, these games can hardly be called games. They are rudimentary point and click apps that would be best suited to a phone. (Indeed, I have mobile app games that are more robust than those.) She devoured these quickly and was hungry for more. We graduated to some more substantial games, and got her Final Fantasy: Chocobo's Dungeon, Epic Mickey, and Disney Universe. She loved them. I mean, she absolutely loved them. She was just madly in love with Epic Mickey and Chocobo. She played them non-stop. She had a lot of trouble along the way, but I helped her every step of the way. She then had her first experience with a sh*tty game, which every gamer has to square with at some point.. She tried Cursed Mountain on Wii. When she got stuck, and I tried to help, and I can attest to the fact that that game was definitely sh*t. She resold it back to the used game place. She played a few other simple Wii games after that, but she quickly started running out of options. Her needs were growing a bit specific: she needed a real, robust game with enough challenge to be interesting, but not so hard as to become a roadblock when she runs into a boss she can't handle. After all, she was very new at this. A small fish in a small pond. I tried to think of what would fit the bill. I did some research, watched tons of Wii reviews. Nothing where the game would stop if she can't beat a boss. No God of War games. That wouldn't do. She needed freedom. I had a wild idea, and I decided to pitch it out of the blue one day. After helping her with something on Mickey, I said, "So, mom, would you like to learn how to play Skyrim?" She was surprised, a little hesitant, but then said, "Yeah. Absolutely." And so, we undertook the epic journey. I had already mastered Skyrim inside and out, so I would be her guide and mentor. I gave her semi-formal lessons. I even formulated a bit of a curriculum in my head before-hand. We would sort of alternate between lessons on smithing, enchanting, perk constellations and all that stuff, and hands-on combat training. She did amazingly well. Over the months, I watched her grow from bumbling around like an idiot, getting stuck in a corner and helplessly spinning in a circle while looking at the floor, to playing completely proficiently, crafting dual-enchanted Daedric armor, killing Alduin, getting stealth kills, riding her horse, and using an infinite alteration set to hold a piece of fruit with telekinesis to level grind. Oh, she was no pro-gamer by any means, and certainly could not survive Legendary difficulty, but she was absolutely proficient. She LOVED it. So much. She had the most fun she's had in years. She was blown away by how much she loved it. She did everything. Every quest, every house, every thane task, every misc objective. Everything. She milked Skyrim for every drop it was worth, and she wanted more. I recently picked out a new game for her. It was a bold choice, and I wasn't sure how it would work out, but my instincts told me she'd love it. Red Dead Redemption. Now, here's the odd thing--I've never played Red Dead. (Yes, yes, I know--crucify me, right here and now.) I own it for PS3, but I've never played it. It's sitting, along with many other great titles (Last of Us, for one) in my to-play stack. The only reason I haven't gotten to it is simply time constraints. I'm just too busy, and I tend to put more of a priority on the multiplayer games that my friends are into on Steam. But I'm a GTA 4 veteran, and I knew Red Dead would be similar, and I knew enough about it that I knew I could trust the game and the developer. So we bought it for her on 360. She knew I had never played it, so she knew she would be sailing into uncharted (yes, that's in my to-play stack also) waters. She wasn't in the small pond anymore. She was in the middle of the f*cking ocean. I gave her the Celestia-type speech: "I'll still be here to help and guide you, but this is your game now, and you must rely on yourself now. Remember everything I've taught you." I am immensely proud of her. It's amazing. So little experience, such a newbie, such a green gamer, and she is handling herself remarkably well. Sure, she dies a lot, and combat is tough at times, but she plays that game. I mean, she plays the hell out of it. She completes missions, kills the bandits, rides horses, plays mini-games, collects money, harvests resources, hunts animals, explores the world. She really does it, and all on her own, and she f*cking LOVES it. She is so excited to play it. She never imagined that she'd enjoy shooting bandits and hunting game in the wild west; it's so far removed from the norm of her life, but she absolutely f*cking LOVES it. Just loves it. Gaming has become a fantastic new hobby for my mom. Her life was getting a little...shall we say...routine, and gaming has given her so much new fun and excitement. And there's no question that it's sharpening her mind and dexterity as well. And she's even playing Final Fantasy VI from the Wii virtual store on the side! And you know what she loves almost more than gaming? Telling people she's a gamer! She doesn't go around broadcasting it or anything, but when it comes up naturally, she gets such a big kick out telling people, and she just loves their total shock that an older woman plays f*ckin' Skyrim, Final Fantasy, and Red Dead. It just tickles her to death. She is extremely proud of her hobby, and I'm so happy for her. My mother is 62 years old, and she plays the hell out f*cking RED DEAD REDEMPTION, and loves it. Games are for everyone. That's all I have to say. *EDIT* Update a few months later--She's now working on the Halos. Finished 1 and loved it. Nearly done with 2. And she got Fallout 3 for later. *RE-EDIT* Update a year later--She finished the Halos, Fable, and Fallout 3. Next it's Farcry 2 & 3, and then... drumroll.... RED DEAD 2!!!!! Prolly Farcy 5 after that, I imagine.

I made an incredible realization about my own mind while playing God of War III. In fact, it's so strange that I'm actually having trouble believing it. There are several mini-games in God of War III that involve flying up and down the Chain of Balance, dodging obstacles and debris. Here is one such scene. In this scene, you use your Icarus wings to fly up the chain. Just watch long enough to get the basic idea. Now, during this scene, I find that I must have the y movement axis inverted. My brain expects this to behave like a flight sim. It feels like it should play like Starfox. I should tilt the stick up and move down, and vice versa. If I use normal axes, I can't play it to save my life. I die every time. With inverted, I pass it on the first try every time. Now check this out. In this scene, you free fall down the chain. During this scene, I have to have normal controls, or I can't do it! With an inverted y-axis, I can't play, and I die every time! With normal controls, I'm flawless every time. There is absolutely no functional difference between these scenes whatsoever. Literally the only difference is that you can see your wings in one, and not the other. The only explanation for this phenomenon is simply the knowledge that I'm ascending in one, and falling in the other. For some reason, my brain expects ascension to behave like a flight sim, but free falling to behave normally. If the devs removed the wings from the first scene, and told me that I was falling, I would probably need normal axes, and vice versa on the second scene. This stunning realization about the expectations of my mind has me reeling. I don't like feeling so uncertain. I'm the type of person who wants all things to make logical sense. I want to be able to play these scenes consistently with ONE control type (I don't really care which). But I can't. This phenomenon duplicates itself every time I play. It's not a problem, and it's kinda neat, really, but it makes my brain itch because it feels like my world won't cohere. This is irrefutable proof of how belief and expectation can radically alter your brain's entire way of functioning. How f*cking crazy is that?!!

Games. Games are fun! Definitely. Well, not always. Sometimes. games can be frustrating and not in a good way either. A game can sometimes anger us and just make us feel oh so frustrated and the results may not be good. For some of us this may happen rarely but for others it could be a common occurrence due to one reason or another. So I want to ask and discuss, do video games tend to frustrate you easily? What is your history with this? Me, they do frustrate me easily. My whole life I have had anger problems, yay for bad mental health. It has been a big problem in the past and nowadays, I try my hardest to avoid playing games that could potentially frustrate me to a high degree. Often, if I get frustrated enough, this could result in a meltdown and that never ends well, since it can result to me...well, hitting my face. I am autistic before you ask. So those moments are not good, especially in combination with my anxiety problems, so I try to avoid those moments at all costs now.

So, what is everyponies favorite classic games? As in the older consoles/handhelds such as, NES, SNES, N64 PS1, PS2, gameboy etc. I'll start. My most favorite classic game series was Final Fantasy. I enjoyed playing through them. Especially FFVI. Which is cool that they ported it to steam not to long ago. So I have gotten it again. Out of handhelds, I really enjoyed playing Pokemon back in the day on Gameboy Color. Favroite was Crystal. ^^ So, whats your favorite classic games?

I know, this will PROBABLY be the wrong place to talk about this (the place of this topic), but I really am too tired to change it. Sorry! (sorry if this is rude, I'm just SO tired, and I have school in the morning)

Since My Hero: One's Justice has been out for about a month. I thought it would be cool to make a discussion for others, who may have the game, or those, who may be interested in said game. I like the cast of characters you get to play from the anime. Even certain dlc characters that are available are interesting to play as. Some characters seem to be overpowered in how they play, but they aren't unbeatable. While there is only one button for combos, I like how the game allows you to extend your combos throughout the fight. Whether it's canceling a button press or adding support sidekicks into the combo. It makes the fighting unique and interesting to make a combo seem stylish. I'm not really a fan of the online system. When playing ranked, you get paired with someone at random instead of finding someone to fight. There's only ranked and player matches. I felt there could have been more options to play online, but I guess it's better than having no game at all. Hopefully, if there's ever a sequel, the creators can fix up the online mode. I'm also surprised they didn't add a lot of music to the game. At most, I believe there is about 3 to 5 songs. I felt there would be different songs, while on a certain stage. However, I guess there may have not been enough time to make different songs for other stages. At any rate, I do like how we get to fight at certain places from the anime. What are your thoughts of the game. Have you enjoyed playing the game, so far? Hopefully, we can have a fun discussion and learn to play and have fun on the video game. I've hard from others that this game is somewhat similar to Pokken Tournament and the Naruto Storm series. Speaking of the game, who are your mains and/or what would your main be in the game. So far, my only main is Kyoka Jiro. I like her style of play and her way of fighting is pretty cool.

I'm not much of a completionist, but I'm quite curious. What games have you completed 100%? Do you enjoy doing it, or are you content with just completing the core game? I'm typically fine with just beating a game, but I don't mind going for 100% when given the opportunity. Although, I only engage in the endeavour of going for a full completion rate, with games that don't require hundreds to thousands of hours worth of play time.

As fellow gamers, we've been fighting loads of RPGs Action and Adventure games. But out of all the bosses we've fought in each game, which of the boss battles was your favorite? My favorite boss battle would be the Groundshaker from Kingdom Hearts 2

Has anyone seen future arc and seen the hope arc? I was crying so much! Who are your favorite characters? And any ships! First game: Asahina, Chihiro, Taka, Hagakure, Ships: AsahinaxSakura, TakaxMondo, MakotoxSayaka, MakotaxKirigiri DR2: Nagito, Chiaki, Akane, Gundam. I absolutely hate Sonia tbh Ships: HajimexChiaki, HajimexNagito (lowkey), AkanexNekomaru, PekoxFuyuhiko DR3: Kyota and Chisa Ships: Candy girl and ninja dude, ChisaxMunakata, MunakataxEdgy Mondo

There is a similar topic about worst games in your favorite gaming series and I haven't found one for best so I thought why not make one for best. Mario: Super Mario Brothers 3, it took all the great things about Super Mario Bros and improved upon the formula that formed the standard for the series. Zelda: Tie between Ocarina of Time, A Link To The Past and Skyward Sword. A Link To The Past is everything Zelda I is only better, Ocarina of Time was a very successful transition for the series into 3D by honoring what makes the series great while keeping everything fresh and exciting. I normally don't like motion control very much but they work quite well in Skyward Sword and along with great graphics and an engaging story make for one of the best games of the previous console generation and worthy addition to a great series. Sonic: Sonic and Knuckles, it continued the awesome gameplay of the first few games and introduced my favorite character of the series.

I'm not sure if someone's created a topic on this recently, but I'm starting a new thread here on the Fire Emblem series. Favorite game? Favorite lord? Favorite hero (non-lord)? Favorite villain? Favorite class?

I wish that Equestria would be in a Kingdom Hearts game. I mean I would love to see Sora, Donald, and Goofy team up with the Mane Six.

It happens all the time with major franchises. Look at the Sonic the Hedgehog series for an example. The series used to be make a lot of good games in the past, but now it is rare to see a good Sonic game nowadays. The Powerpuff Girls is another example, since everyone loved the first 4 seasons of the show, but a lot people hated season 5 and 6. The Star Wars movies is also another example, since everyone loves the original trilogy, but about half of the fans hate the prequel trilogy and most of the fans hate the sequel trilogy. While I do love the Kingdom Hearts series, I have a feeling that after Kingdom Hearts III, the series is going to start going downhill.

Mine was Super Metroid for the SNES.