Another weekend and another new episode of Splash Damage!
Five Nights at Freddy’s Scott Cawthon retired not long ago after Kotaku and others attacked him for daring to be a right-leaning Christian. Now, months later, Kotaku has taken another jab at him by calling him “weird” for his beliefs. We discuss the game industry’s intolerance to Christians and rightwingers along with the Grand Theft Auto remakes being censored, Kotaku getting mad at a new developer for having only male employees, PC Gamer getting upset at Call of Duty marketing that actually benefits real veterans, and why not every video game can be accessible to all people.
You can listen to the episode here or on your favorite podcast app. Thank you for listening!
Standard Disclaimer: I'm not Scrivonaut nor am I associated with the podcast, I'm just a fan that feels others should check out the show
So here's the dealio - apparently the jannies over at half-KIA decided that it'd be in their best interest to nuke Scrivonaut's post about the latest episode of Splash Damage shortly after he posted it. They claimed it was going to run afoul of the SEKRIT ROOL about not saying anything bad about you-know-what-group. I didn't even know it had been posted until the podcast turned up in my podcatcher app over the weekend and I noticed it this morning on the way to work.
As such, here's the text of what should have appeared over on plebbit (which I would normally copypasta here), and a link to the Patreon page with the podcast:
Military shooter Battlefield 2042 has a character named Emma who looks like a woman but goes by they/them pronouns. We talk about this pandering tokenism in a game that glorifies warfare, of all things, along with Riot’s decision to eliminate chatting with opponents in League of Legends, CSI pushing its anti-Gamergate narrative, Dave Chappelle landing in hot water for his trans jokes, Superman becoming bi, Amazon’s Lord of the Rings series including black hobbits, and plenty more.
Standard disclaimer - I'm not Scrivonaut nor am I associated with the podcast, I'm just a fan that feels the show deserves a signal boost
Another new episode of Splash Damage comes with the weekend. On tap from the original post over at half-KIA on Reddit:
Waypoint writers are paid big bucks to cover video games and can’t even make it more than a few hours through the games they cover, including Far Cry 6. We talk about Waypoint’s moral qualms with the series along with Kotaku’s offense at Twitch streamers being predominantly men, the ridiculous levels of censorship seen in the upcoming virtual reality remake of Resident Evil 4, the ongoing moral purge in World of Warcraft, a hilarious change to how gender is handled in Halo: Reach, and the bad news that Brianna Wu is making a Gamergate TV show.
You can find the episode here or on your favorite podcasting app. Thank you for listening!
Standard Disclaimer: I'm not Scrivonaut, nor am I associated with the podcast, I'm just a fan that wants to signal-boost the show.
Another weekend, another new episode of Splash Damage appears. On tap this week, per the original post from half-KIA on Reddit:
Happy Mag published an article asking if Grand Theft Auto V’s “harmful” depictions of trans people should be retroactively censored. We dive into why censorship is never permissible along with China’s endless quest to censor games, an actor complaining the Super Mario Bros. voice actors are too white, Bungie’s hilarious efforts at “diversity and inclusion,” and more.
You can find this episode on your favorite podcasting app or here. As always, thank you for listening!
DISCLAIMER: As always, I'm not Scrivonaut, nor am I affiliated with the show, I'm just a fan that feels the show deserves a signal boost.
The weekend brings new things, and with it comes a new episode of Splash Damage! From the Reddit post over at half-KIA:
Kotaku has a new black writer who believes Skater XL is too white. We discuss how Kotaku and its staff treat blackness like a personality trait, elevating race above all else, along with games media’s silence when it comes to abuse allegations against a woke female game developer, Diablo II: Resurrected’s hilariously ironic profanity filter, Daniel Craig’s views on a female James Bond, and a Marvel executive who thinks the term “X-Men” is outdated.
You can find this episode for download or streaming on your favorite app or here. Our last episode was our most downloaded episode yet by far!
Disclaimer: I'm not Scrivonaut, nor am I affiliated with the podcast. I'm just a fan that feels the show deserves a signal boost.
The weekend is here and with it comes another episode of real talk from Scrivonaut and Norayla: Splash Damage! From the original post over at half-KIA on you-know-where:
Tripwire Interactive President John Gibson resigned last week after he tweeted that he is pro-life. We discuss the groupthink pervasive in the video game industry that makes it impossible for anyone to tolerate anything but leftist worldviews, God of War: Ragnarok including a black character, activist Sam Maggs’ role in the Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic remake, Kotaku complaining about Ubisoft hiring a white man, Evil Hat Productions saying only ideologues can play their game, and more.
You can find the episode here or on your favorite app. Thanks again for listening!
Standard Disclaimer: I'm not Scrivonaut and this isn't my podcast, I'm just a fan who feels the show deserves a signal boost
Another weekend means another new episode of Scrivonaut and Norayla's Splash Damage - Pulled from the original Reddit post over at half-KIA:
Under a new law in China, those younger than 18 are limited to only three hours of gaming a week. Kotaku has, of course, defended the tyrannical country from accusations of government overreach. We discuss what this means for the industry along with the irony of Kotaku being upset that Call of Duty: Vanguard is rewriting history, Kotaku defending Boyfriend Dungeon from censorship as a thinly veiled attempt to bash men, Sony backtracking on its promise to allow players to freely upgrade their PS4 versions of Horizon: Forbidden West to the PS5, and more.
Check out the podcast episode here or on your favorite podcasting app. As always, thanks for listening, and you can support us on Patreon!
Disclaimer: As always, I'm not Scrivonaut and this isn't my podcast - I'm just a fan that feels the podcast deserves a signal boost.
Another weekend brings another new episode of Splash Damage, featuring Scrivonaut and Norayla! From the original post over at half-KIA:
Volition’s upcoming reimagining of the Saints Row series will not feature the over-the-top humor and offensiveness that made the game stand out in a sea of generic third-person, open-world shooters. We discuss how today’s political landscape led to a watered-down version of a beloved franchise as well as Twitch socialist Hasan Piker’s hypocrisy in buying a multimillion-dollar mansion, the upcoming live action Cowboy Bebop butchering Faye Valentine’s look, Blizzard’s decision to rename Overwatch’s McCree to placate fans, why not every piece of media needs to cater to all identities at all times, and more.
Find the podcast here or on your favorite podcasting app, and thanks for listening for 50 (!) episodes!
Disclaimer: And, as always, I'm not Scrivonaut, nor am I associated with the podcast, I'm just a fan that wants to signal-boost the show.
Another weekend means another new episode of Splash Damage from Scrivonaut and Norayla:
Actress Geena Davis released a report blaming men and video games for violence and sexism. We go over its more ludicrous claims and debunk them and also discuss Rhianna Pratchett’s disappointment in Grand Theft Auto V not having female protagonists, a developer using her race and gender to express disappointment in Fortnite stealing Among Us’ game concept, the irony of hypersensitive weirdos sending death threats to a Boyfriend Dungeon voice actor because they’re triggered by his character, Wikipedia labeling GamerGate a harassment campaign, and more.
You can find the episode here or your favorite podcasting app. As always, thanks for listening! Our episodes have been blowing up lately, especially in Brazil?
Disclaimer: As always, I'm not Scrivonaut nor am I affiliated with the podcast. I'm just a fan that feels the show deserves a signal boost.
Yet another new episode of Splash Damage has dropped, with Scrivonaut and Norayla at it again. From the original plebbit post over on half-KIA:
New studio Raccoon Logic got heat this week over the sin of being an all-white, all-male studio. We discuss the irony of Jason Schreier crying about a studio’s lack of diversity along with the fallout at Blizzard, a Respawn developer being fired for comments made 14 years ago, Kotaku reporting Back 4 Blood zombies are screaming racial slurs, Game Rant’s weird idea of how to protest sexual misconduct allegations at Ubisoft, how men who play as female characters are actually misogynists, and how the Dead Space remake might be censored.
You can stream or download the episode here or on your favorite podcasting app. Thanks for listening!
Disclaimer: As usual, I am not Scrivonaut, nor am I affiliated with the podcast, I'm just a fan that feels they deserve a signal boost.
For those who aren't familiar with it, FX recently announced a new direct-to-streaming series on Hulu, titled "Y: The Last Man". It's based on the 2000s-era Brian K. Vaughan-written Vertigo comic book of the same name, where an incident occurs that kills every mammal with a Y-chromosome on the planet - except for one dude named Yorick Brown, and his pet male capuchin monkey. With half the population instantly dead, you can imagine that chaos ensues, especially when you factor in that a good majority of infrastructure support jobs are handled by - you guessed it - men. (And that's not even taking into account the death of uncountable species across the world as they will no longer be able to procreate, the destruction of food supply, etc).
You can see the trailer here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0EEQ5Lj-cXM
Obviously this series was written back before the huge push for inclusivity started, so its comic book iteration is not as horribly woke as it could be, but I'm just waiting for the shoe to drop on the TV version. Obviously, nature and genetics don't give two shits about your fee-fees and what you identify as, so that means if they go the full nine yards on this they're either going to have to:
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Ignore the existence of trans people entirely,
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Break the narrative and have it do something stupid like leave M-to-F trans alive but sterilize them,
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Downplay the whole event by claiming it killed "trans-women" as well, or
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Accept that M-to-F transgendered people genetically aren't women and lean into it and just show them as dead as well.
Somehow I think it's probably going to be option 2 or 3, but if it catches traction then the amount of salt this show is going to generate could season the world's popcorn for decades to come.
Cossposted from half-KIA over on Reddit. From Scrivonaut's OP over there:
The last “respectable” video game journalist, Jason Schreier, admitted he knew about the sexual misconduct occurring at Blizzard years before it came to light. He claims he wanted to corroborate the allegations before reporting him, but that caution never stopped him from signal-boosting the paper-thin allegations against developer Chris Avellone. We discuss Schreier’s hypocrisy and agenda-based reporting along with the latest in the Blizzard controversy, Ash Parrish leaving Kotaku, Destructoid saying a lot of nothing about gender in games, Mary Sue bullying a Twitter nobody over his benign opinions, and Susan Arendt buying a game based on nothing but its protagonist’s appearance.
Stream or download the episode here or on your favorite podcasting app. Support us on Patreon!
DISCLAIMER: I'm not Scrivonaut, nor am I affiliated with him, I just dig him and his wife's podcast and feel it deserves a signal boost.
Cross-post from Half-KIA over on Reddit, reposting here for a signal boost:
With Psychonauts 2 having an invincibility toggle, the debate about video game difficulty has resurfaced, with at least one games journalist proving how incompetent she is by saying she refuses to play on anything other than easy mode. Other topics covered this episode include the new lawsuit against Blizzard, updates on the Chris Avellone allegations, Kotaku embarrassing itself in more than a couple ways yet again, a game developer’s very bizarre Twitter thread about making female characters look less feminine, and plenty more.
You can download or stream the episode here or on your favorite app.
Also, as we mentioned last episode, we launched a Patreon! If you like our show and want to support us, please consider donating. Income will allow us to make the show even better. If not, no worries; we plan to keep making it, and I plan to continue writing articles and making videos as well. Thank you so much for your support!
Further spiraling down the rabbit hole into uselessness (following their recent FUBARs in changes to donation levels and generally crappy customer service), Humble Bundle offered up this gem:
Humble Book Bundle: Bikes by Microcosm
Now, if one were to judge a bundle by its title, one might assume that this is a batch of small-press books on bicycles and the cycling lifestyle.
Not a chance in hell. It features such wonderful titles as:
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Bikes in Space: Feminist Bicycle Science Fiction
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Taking The Lane - a series of Feminist and Trans 'zines about dealing with misogyny and the like in bicycling culture in Portland
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Bikes Not Rockets: Intersectional Feminist Bicycle Science Fiction Stories
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Trans-Galactic Bike Ride: Feminist Bicycle Science Fiction Stories of Transgender and Nonbinary Adventurers
I couldn't make these up if I tried. Out of the whole bundle it looks like there are maybe three or four books that might have something real to read about cycling culture. The rest are in the same vein as the above-listed feminist and trans rhetoric.
I have but one thing to say: We needed this bundle like a fish needs a bicycle.
Here's the link to the story over at Bleeding Fool that gives their take on the story.
tl;dr: DC is trying to do like Marvel did where they're pushing a newer, younger, more "diverse" version of the heroes, but with the same names as the old ones, in their crossover event "Future State".
I'll let you read the story if you want, but here's some highlights:
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Wonder Woman being replaced by a Brazilian woman
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Batman will also likely be replaced with a diversity hire
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From the promo art, it looks like The Flash is going to be replaced by a woman with prosthetic legs (I wish I was making this up)
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Aquaman is getting replaced by Kaldur'ahm from Young Justice
Now, granted, this is only supposed to be for a couple months, but it has all the markings of a SocJus shit-show. Sadly, all the specu-leeches that still exist in the comics world will still snap these things up like a fat kid on a tray of cupcakes because ZOMG FIRST APPEARANCE, but we all know how well that goes for the market.
RIP DC comics. You were supposed to be the savior, but you turned out to be just as corrupt as Marvel did.