After months of toxicity, complacence and what amounts to the implementation of “there are good people on both sides,” I quit Twitter. While there was a straw that broke the camel’s back, it’s something thats been building since about 2014. Twitter has been a corrupt, hateful, toxic place that generates Jack Dorsey money, and destroys our national dialog — not because of the format of Twitter, but the greed of the company.
Jessica Price and rage of the Reddit Mob
On July 5, 2018, Jessica Price, narrative designer for Guild Wars 2 developer ArenaNet was fired over a conversation she had on Twitter. The resulting fallout from that discussion, the Reddit Mob, and everything that’s come since has been a battleground for the discussion of women, sexism, and gaming.
Why I left the Church
Recently I was watching Season 2 of Queer Eye on Netflix, and it hit me with all the feels, and made me reflect on my own experiences with the Church. The episode, titled “God Bless Gay” follows the Fab 5 as remake Miss Tammy, a woman who’s given her whole life to her community and her Church. At the end of the episode, Miss Tammy launches into a sermon about love and acceptance and all the guys were sobbing, and I lost it. She is absolutely the best that Christianity has to offer.
Book Review: The Stone Sky
Recommendation: Must Read
The Stone Sky, the final book in the The Broken Earth trilogy is a satisfying conclusion to the series, but not a feel good one. The underlying feeling of despair and fatalism remains. While the ending was positive, it was still dark and bitter. All of the story threads are neatly wrapped up, this is far from a fairy tale ending. It has a feeling of, “We passed this hurdle, but the race isn’t over.”
What’s Next – The Lock-box Debate – Part 4
It’s been a very bad week for EA. If I had to pick a company whose greed was going to come back and dropkick them in the head — it would have been EA. That faith in EA’s greed and ineptitude was well placed. Last week, EA’s ham-handed attempt to turn millions of gamers into foaming gambling addicts whilst planning their own Scrooge McDuck-style tower full of gold backfired as gamers finally freaked out because EA pushed the buck too far with Star Wars Battlefront II and lock-boxes.
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Book Review: The Obelisk Gate
5/5 Stars – Great character development, snarky dialog and epiphanies for both the reader and the character make The Obelisk Gate a sequel that exceeds the original and left me excited to read more.
Book Review: The Fifth Season
5/5 Stars: The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin is a wonderful, dark view of a world on the brink of collapse. She brings a unique perspective to the fantasy genre that you won’t find in any other author. While the book at the beginning is confusing and there are lots of pieces that you don’t necessarily understand, The Fifth Season tells a dark story of a desperate mother and desperate world on the brink of collapse–and it doesn’t pull any punches.
Bringing it Home – The Lock-box Debate part 3
Now I’ve looked the what of lock-boxes and the potential increases in profit, whether lock-boxes are gambling or not, and finally what makes lock-boxes in games different? For all the parallels we can draw between gambling and lock-boxes today, they are still different and those differences shouldn’t be glazed over–they are definitely important.
Continue reading “Bringing it Home – The Lock-box Debate part 3”
Is it Gambling? The Lock-box Debate – Part 2
We’ve established what lock-boxes are and how they are used in games. Next, I want to tackle fiercely debated topic in lock-boxes: Are lock-boxes gambling? After several hours of research through lots of court opinions, the answer is a resounding not yet. I spent an afternoon reading to understand the leg whats and whys of lock-boxes and gambling in virtual worlds.
Continue reading “Is it Gambling? The Lock-box Debate – Part 2”
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