seven5three

I still won’t be buying an Xbox One, but today was a win for the gamers who will.

You can ask me anything and I’ll answer honestly, but only with yes and no.

Let’s play this game. Anyone got questions for me?

I can only say yes or no.

“If you have nothing to hide, why are you so worried?”

Rhetoric like this is put up with on a daily, perhaps hourly basis to anyone who speaks out about surveillance. Big Brother isn’t a thing, it’s fiction! We’re talking about keeping the world safe, after all. Surely cameras are helpful!

Although the Constitution of the United States does not cite it explicitly, presumption of innocence is widely held to follow from the 5th, 6th, and 14th amendments. 

There’s a maxim called “the presumption of innocence” that most civilizations claim to hold. We’re all familiar with the term “innocent until proven guilty”. But we no long live in that world, and that’s a problem.

To an extent it can be blamed on the rise of the Internet. On the rise of social media, and on the connected world we wake up to each morning. We’re more aware of war and turmoil in foreign countries. We’ll turn on our local news and listen to a story about an incident that occurred several states over. And it’s only gotten worse in a Post-9/11 world.

The fact is, we’re all cynical. We’re all suspicious.

We’re all assumed to be bad people. If you don’t answer that text message right away, the person on the other end “worries”. We’re constantly explaining ourselves, our thoughts, our actions. Mental warefare on a global scale from blaming the President for bills brought to light in the Senate to eyeing that guy standing alone in the cat food aisle.

TERRORISTS ARE EVERYWHERE our screens yell at us. ANYONE COULD BE A BOMBER! ANYONE COULD BE GUILTY.

Paranoia is the norm. We need protection. We need saving.

This is dangerous thinking. Miscommunication is the number one cause of conflict. And think about it - when you go to speak to someone when you’re agitated, you’re going to find something to prove your anger was justified, aren’t you?

Surveillance programs like PRISM assume every one of us is guilty. It doesn’t matter if you’re “a good person”. It doesn’t matter if you think you have “nothing to hide”. Context is important. Think about it. If you’re a student in college and you’re reading up on Nazi Germany you might be tempted to check out a copy of “Mein Kampf”

Someone who doesn’t know you - doesn’t know you were studying Nazi history - doesn’t know you’re Jewish - someone who sees your name pop up on an automated list of people who have checked out “Mein Kampf” may, just may, automatically assume you’re a Nazi sympathizer. And they’ll flag you for monitoring. And you’ll be watched.

You’ll be watched and every action you take will be scrutinized. What you choose to eat for dinner. If you’re late to work. If you’re short on change. Who you talk to. What phone calls you make. What you’re searching for on Google. Who do you e-mail? What do you flag as SPAM?

And maybe, just maybe, you’ll be escorted to a local jail and questioned, while your things are taken without your foreknowledge. Men who don’t know anything about you will tear into your internet history and read the Tumblr post where you talk about your ex-boyfriend and how hurt you were when he broke up with you. And they’ll read the Skype logs where you talk about Tom Hiddleston with your best friend and talk about how bad you want to just take him and do terrible things to him. And they’ll notify Tom Hiddleston’s people to have a restraining order placed on you.

And your friends will wonder why the police broke into your house and took your things. “OH MY GOD,” they’ll say. “I KNEW she was into SOMETHING, I just didn’t know what.” Your neighbors will see the police cars and assume you’re a drug addict, or assume your father was abusing you.

Your picture will show up on the local news and they’ll have just enough information to mention you’ve been late to work and that you’ve been “reading up on Nazi propaganda”. Your confused mother will appear in the story with cameras and microphones shoved in her face, crying, saying “you’re a good kid”.

And even after all of that if you explain your actions, if you’re allowed to go home and your things are returned to you and no charges are ever filed, you’ll have to live with people looking at you from the corner of their eyes. The suspicion. “Oh the cops didn’t find anything -this- time,” they’ll think. “She got lucky.”

But hey, you had nothing to hide.

Andrea told me I should ‘start taking commissions’ making designs in New Leaf.

There are times I really dislike being a gamer. There are times I really hate being a white male. These two are not mutually exclusive.

I woke up to some of this today:

Why does the games industry have such a problem with female protagonists? — an article discussing the abuse women have to put up with in the gaming community particularly when they speak out about said abuse.

https://twitter.com/jennatar — Jenn Frank, a female gamer and games journalist discussing what happens all too often at gaming event after parties, including last night when two (self-described) Bungie employees harassed her and her friend.

http://meehighmeelo.tumblr.com/post/52769228724/part-1-2-yoo-jae-myung-animation-director-of — An interview with the Korean animation director for “Legend of Korra” wherein he explains how hard it was to get funding and approval for a cartoon featuring a female lead.

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-205_162-57588786/microsoft-apologizes-for-rape-joke-at-e3/ — Microsoft’s reaction to an “unscripted” rape joke during the recent pre-E3 Xbox One press event. One I picked up on while watching live.

—-

I could keep going. I could talk about the vitrol, hate, and abuse Anita Sarkeesian has had to put up with since she first dared to talk about women’s roles in Video Games. Something the first article I linked actually brings up briefly.

Guys, gaming, the internet, the world isn’t a “boys’ club”. It never was. But more to the point we’re talking about nerdy things like video games and cartoons here — meaning by far and by large an audience of people who were bullied at one time or another. Shunned by peers, made fun of, possibly beaten and abused.

It makes absolutely no sense at all — none — for you to act out against women in this way. You aren’t better than women. Every single one of us was birthed by a woman. Why is it so easy to forget that?

The majority of us who grew up in a single-parent home grew up with our mothers. (Protip: I grew up with two moms. Yes, I’m straight. And celebrated my 10th anniversary last month.) I do not understand the utter hate and abuse we spout toward women in the gaming culture.

The only thing I can think of is maybe you’re railing because at some point (or more likely more than once) were rejected by women in your life and this is just “getting back” at women in general? Well here’s a shocking announcement: keep up this kind of behavior and women aren’t going to want to be around you.

And it’s not because girls don’t like nice guys. It’s not because women don’t appreciate your fine collection of dapper fedoras. It’s because you’re a dick. It’s because you’re hateful and abusive.

Nerds - and by extension the majority of gamers - know what it feels like to be shunned, overlooked, forgotten, bullied, hated on, and misunderstood. This is what you’re doing to women. What you’ve been doing to women who dare to pick up a video game or a comic book. 

In other words, you’ve turned into the asshole that used to shove you into your locker. And remember how much you liked that guy? Do you remember how happy it made you to stand there whimpering as he and his friends laughed at you and called you a faggot?

You’re the bully now.


Would you kindly knock it the fuck off?

minishcap:

Iwata could probably just say “super smash bros. 4” during the direct tomorrow and all of tumblr would break

$399 USD!!!

Oops. I went over my daily Twitter limit. lol.

Hey gang!

Another reminder that I really need to add people to my friend list on Steam! I’ve got a ton of games — some even multiplayer. >.>  So if you’re on Steam, maybe you should add me!

http://steamcommunity.com/id/seven5three

nahima20:

I am looking for new friends so when I play Animal Crossing I can meet you all!

4312-9859-5097

MEGAZORD SEQUENCE HAS BEEN INITIATED. vine.co/v/b3tWludOzPj

— Tam (@seven5three)

June 4, 2013

We’ve really got to get past this whole “You mean women can WRITE?” mentality. I genuinely don’t know where it came from.

People, the entire GENRE of SCIENCE-FICTION was INVENTED by a then-nineteen year old girl. Mary Shelley. I assume you’ve heard of her at some point. You know, for “Frankenstein, or, The Modern Prometheus” among others. Maybe you’ve heard of “The Last Man”, which is an apocalyptic sci-fi novel first published in 1826?

What about D.C. Fontana, originally Gene Roddenberry’s secretary. She would go on to write for Star Trek with episodes like “Friday’s Child”, “The Enterprise Incident”, and “Journey to Babel” which, you may recall, introduced Spock’s parents. She’s written for shows including Babylon 5, Earth: Final Conflict, ReBoot, Transformers: Beast Wars, and more.

Should we forget good ol’ J.K. Rowling? Do I even need to mention what she’s written? And say what you will about Ayn Rand but her novels would later inspire the narratives in the Bioshock series of games.

You want to talk comics? Okay, Amber Benson, Jo Duffy, Kaja Foglio, Devin Grayson, Marjorie Liu, Gail Simone, Kelly Sue DeConnick, Jill Thompson, Danielle Corsetto, Lynn Johnson…

What about Manga? Hiromu Arakawa, the writers at Clamp, Rumiko Takahashi, Naoko Takeuchi, and many, many more…

We could continue on with Hollywood movies, or screenwriters for television. We could get into comedians like Carol Burnett, Lucille Ball, Roseanne, Rita Rudner, Whoopi Goldberg, Gilda Radner, Tina Fey — do I really need to keep going?

The simple fact of the matter is throughout history women have proven that they can keep pace with men in every single category whether it’s cooking, writing, advancing science, construction, inventing new technologies, or doing mundane things like playing Call of Duty. My wife kicks my ass at Street Fighter, my sister rocks Counter-Strike like nobody’s business, and my mother when she was still alive used to chew through Castlevania on the NES for breakfast.

And if all of that drives you crazy, if mentioning women this whole time makes you uncomfortable, I’ll end on a familiar name.

Joss Whedon is a feminist.

Think about that.