Video Game Thread 2.0

[Askold]

The fact they chose to make the Vox Populi be just as bad as Comstock was a stupid. I mean, Comstock is manifestation of colonialism, racism, and militarism in American society, but what are the Vox Populi a manifestation of?

The radical anarchists/communists of the 1900s-1910s.

I never actually thought of them like that, the fact there leader was black made me figure they were a floating black panthers metaphor.

That being said, I kinda think they should have gone less for a "both sides are equally evil" and made the Vox to be more a "language of the unheard" kinda deal. I feel that by showing the the options being only two extremes they forget that historically, apathy and unnecessary moderation (I speak of "maybe we wait a bit for your peoples voting rights" moderation), have been just as dangerouse,  if not more so, than outright malice.

The point wasn't that the Vox populi were in the other extreme. They already had that with Ryan vs Lamb comparison between the first two Bioshock games.

The problem with the Vox was that they were hypocrites who abandoned their ideals the moment they were in power.

[I am lizard]

I know that, what I'm getting at is that the message feels to much like it's trying to paint people who use violence to fight oppresion as being just as bad and dangerous as the people doing the oppression. (This isn't helped by Booker saying he distrusts the group before he even learns of its atrocities).

And could have just been warning about extremist civil rights advocates, that messages seems pointless considering while colonialism, racism, and militarism are still relevant aspects of American society, weathermam type groups haven't ever been a truly comparable issue in 20-30 years*.

Plus it dampens the "Heart of Darkness" feel Columbia had going for it.
Mainly the last thing really.




*PETA doesn't count because the Vox have respect for racial minorities and women

[Cloud3514]

Yes it does. It shows the racism and opression in Comstocks society quite clearly. It does not show the society in ruins like the previous ones because this one is worse in a certain way. Ryan and Lamb failed because their utopia did not work with the way people are. Comstock SUCCEEDED because people were ok with the racism and oppression. His town was utopia for the rulers and hell for the slaves and those who did not fit in.

No, I mean in comparison to the Vox Populi. The game is very obvious on why Columbia sucks while under Comstock's rule.

[Vypernight]

I thought one of the creators of the Bioshock games said that the main message is the danger of extremism and how any ideal can be twisted in dangerous ways.

Personally, I ignored the story in BI after the first play-thru, especially after spending half the game checking out Elizabeth, only to find out the ending.  After that, I just played the game until right after the final battle.  Then, right after it saved, I went back to the main menu and started over, since I loved the gameplay and combat itself.

[Ultimate Paragon]

I know that, what I'm getting at is that the message feels to much like it's trying to paint people who use violence to fight oppresion as being just as bad and dangerous as the people doing the oppression. (This isn't helped by Booker saying he distrusts the group before he even learns of its atrocities).

And could have just been warning about extremist civil rights advocates, that messages seems pointless considering while colonialism, racism, and militarism are still relevant aspects of American society, weathermam type groups haven't ever been a truly comparable issue in 20-30 years*.

Plus it dampens the "Heart of Darkness" feel Columbia had going for it.
Mainly the last thing really.




*PETA doesn't count because the Vox have respect for racial minorities and women

Except Columbia isn't based on 21st Century America, it's based on Gilded Age America.  And left-wing extremism was responsible for a lot of violence and terrorism.  The assassination of William McKinley is probably the most famous example.

[ironbite]

Notice that the second the VP get any form of power, they immediately go around the city scalping people?  They go mad with power, wanting revenge on all who have wronged them and all who have kept them in chains and shackles.  The Vox are not nice in some realities and that's the message that was trying to be given.

Ironbite-of course you could'v had the original plan where the Vox and the Founders where the last of the major power groups fighting it out in the streets.

[I am lizard]

I know that, what I'm getting at is that the message feels to much like it's trying to paint people who use violence to fight oppresion as being just as bad and dangerous as the people doing the oppression. (This isn't helped by Booker saying he distrusts the group before he even learns of its atrocities).

And could have just been warning about extremist civil rights advocates, that messages seems pointless considering while colonialism, racism, and militarism are still relevant aspects of American society, weathermam type groups haven't ever been a truly comparable issue in 20-30 years*.

Plus it dampens the "Heart of Darkness" feel Columbia had going for it.
Mainly the last thing really.




*PETA doesn't count because the Vox have respect for racial minorities and women

Except Columbia isn't based on 21st Century America, it's based on Gilded Age America.  And left-wing extremism was responsible for a lot of violence and terrorism.  The assassination of William McKinley is probably the most famous example.

I didn't actually hear about that, to me it seemed like it was meant to be a metaphor for modern day America.
That being said, I feel that they should have been based more on the Various IRAs and the Spanish Nationilists. I would have liked for the story to depict the group as not only needlesly violent, but also doomed to eventually be utterly destroyed by a much more powerful group.

[Second Coming of Madman]

http://www.ign.com/articles/2015/04/09/esa-says-preserving-old-games-is-illegal-because-its-hacking

The ESA also proposes to reject research bodies from exemption, essentially barring them from modifying consoles as tools for research. The ESA suggest that researchers should use cloud computing to conduct their research, rather than hacked PlayStation consoles.  IGN Logo

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A4CofbOiKj0" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A4CofbOiKj0</a>

[Askold]

This is the first time I heard about this ESA (rather than the European Space Agency) and I already dislike them.

[MadCatTLX]

Ok, so I woke up this morning to an Email telling me my WoW account has been banned for buying or selling gold or something. There's a few problems with that, biggest of which being that I do not now, nor have I ever played WoW. How an account I don't Have can be banned I don't know. I'm assuming it's a phishing email, but I thought it would be a good idea to ask you all what you think is going on. The mailers name was just the date and time "2015-04-14 17:27:13" with the actual email address being "a0952060155@gmail.com". Hmmm, that seems totally like a legit email address and name Blizzard would use. /s The weird thing is that the links seem to be for the official site, but I'm not clicking to find out. Here's the email in question.

(click to show/hide)

***Notice of Account Closure***

Account Name: [redacted]

Reason for Closure: Terms of Use Violation -- Exploitative Activity: Abuse of the Economy

This account was closed because one or more characters were identified exchanging, or contributing to the exchange of, in-game property (items or gold) for "real-world" currency. This exchange process negatively impacts the World of Warcraft game environment by detracting from the value of the in-game economy.

Even if this is the result of account sharing, the account owner can still be held responsible for the penalty because of the impact it had on the game environment.

We've found the above behavior is many times directly related to groups responsible for compromising World of Warcraft accounts; we take these issues very seriously. To better understand our position against exploitative activity and the risks involved, please review this article: http://us.battle.net/wow/en/services/anti-gold/

The exploitative activity that took place on this account violates the World of Warcraft Terms of Use. We ask you take a moment to review these terms at http://us.blizzard.com/company/legal/index.html. Note that additional Terms of Use violations may result in more severe actions against this account, up to and including permanent closure.

If you believe your account was compromised, please go to the following website https://us.battle.net/account/support/account-recovery.html. Our support staff will assist you as soon as possible.
Regards,

Customer Services
Blizzard Entertainment

The other possibility is someone stole my email account and used it to sign up for a WoW account to use for gold farming or something. Which really begs the question of why do that and not just make a throwaway gmail account. Last night happened to be the first time in a while that I've logged in to my email from my computer, which happened to be the email I got this message on, and I had to enter my password which could have been stolen then I guess. How a virus got on to my computer is also a mystery as even before I installed anti virus the computer rarely had virus problems. I now have Kaspersky, which I happen to be using right now to do a full scan on my laptop, desktop, and tablet because of this.

I haven't enough time all day to really do much looking (I would have spent the time typing this message anyway) ti see if there are any reports of this happening to other people. I did however quickly look this morning and found reports of a poorly done WoW phishing email from a few years back, but it had the obvious "go here to prove it's your account" phishing links. I also found a report of an email that from what I remember briefly skimming it, looked almost exactly like this one, but the other people posting on the thread said it was legit.

So, anyone got any advice? Do you think it's a random email spammed to all addresses the spammers can find? Should I go and change passwords on all my accounts everywhere?

[Ironchew]

There's a few problems with that, biggest of which being that I do not now, nor have I ever played WoW.

So...ignore it? People don't have to have access to your e-mail to sign up to services using your address.

[RavynousHunter]

From what I recall, WoW doesn't require a confirmation email to make an account, so any valid email address will do.  Though, it couldn't hurt to change your password, just in case.

[Sigmaleph]

Did you mouse-over the links to check they are going to where they say? You can just write http://www.google.com and have it link elsewhere.

If that's the case, it's almost certainly a random phishing attempt and changing all your passwords is probably unnecessary.

[IanC]

Super Smash Bros Wii U/3DS has an update out now, adding DLC support. If you registered both versions your MewTwo codes should be waiting for you. Downloading update now on my 3DS, taking awhile.

[Art Vandelay]

Replaying GTAIII. It's like revisiting an old friend. Gotta love the odd bit of nostalgia every now and again.