Rock, Paper, Shotgun - Top Ten Things that Made People Mad in @ 2008

I guess I did my part to contribute to the nerdrage on GTA IV. That is one of the sorriest ports that I have ever encountered.

Am I the only one who finds this article stupid?

doctor_kaz said:

I guess I did my part to contribute to the nerdrage on GTA IV. That is one of the sorriest ports that I have ever encountered.

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But wait - isn't an over-rated game released in nearly unplayable state cause for folks to be angry?

JemyM said:

Indeed. I was kinda in a hurry and didn't check well what the thread was about.

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That makes me MAD!!! Or should I say that it was gay for you to post in the wrong thread?!?! Or ... aw crap, what the heck IS this thread about anyway!?!?!?!?!

Essaliad said:

Oh. Oh, I see, RPGWatch is striving toward the ideal of RPGCodex! Man, people should've given me that memo, so I can go around calling people fornicators of their mothers.



While I've already acknowledged that the writers of this article were using the word in irony, people who go the opposite of "the PC police" are just as irritating. Trivializing the problem will not make it go away, and "reclaiming" the words only works if you're part of the minority in question--that's why no one will blink twice when a black person were to use "nigger" in a joking context, for example. When you happen to be part of the dominating majority and you keep insist on solving the problem by an "oh, let's just joke about it," it tends to be your privilege showing. Hence the white, middle-class heterosexual male guess. You don't speak for homosexuals or people of color, thanks.

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You get angry when people don't see things your way. Perhaps you should rethink the way you approach things if you want a better reaction. Almost every post by you is a direct lash out at someone's comment. You seem very angry about alot of things and you lash out at other posters intelligence. This is not a great way to influence people at all. It also does not make you look intelligent either.

A little honey goes a long way

I dont like the "it's ok for this person to say this because theyre a member of that group" thing. Either it's offensive, it's in bad taste, or it's not. It's ridiculous to have to interpret whether it's "ok" for someone to say something. Isnt that prejudice in itself?

It's especially confusing when written, I dont know whether to be offended or not if I cant immediately determine the race/weight/alignment of the person making the off-color comment. Google image real quick on who wrote that, I dont know whether what they said was offensive or not!

Oh, and I live in California - trust me, the gay community is outwardly, quite different than the straight, Ess. It's more than just a slight lisp, and a penchant for pastel colors and v-neck shirts.

I was reading this thread, and thinking to myself 'sheesh, like this gay thing has anything to do with RPGs', and then I thought, imagine if there was a game based on stereotypes...
Character types translated to d20:
Black: -1 INT, +1 DEX, +1 CON. Alignment: any chaotic
White: +1 INT (no negatives, because, they're superior)
Gay: +1 CHA, -1 STR
Man: -1 WIS, +1 CON, +1 STR
Woman: +1 WIS, -1 CON, -1 STR
Asian: +1 WIS, +1 DEX. Preferred class: Monk
Jew: +100 gold/level
Hispanic: -1 to all stats, but +1 to all stats for each extra hispanic in the group. Must take a nap each day or suffer an extra -1 to all stats
French: -10 to morale checks to flee
Arabs: alignment Lawful Evil. Must keep a beard of at least 2" per level. Double experience gain but they randomly explode and die doing 1d6 per level to anyone near.

Hmm... that'd be an interesting game I think, but I doubt it'll ever be made

Essaliad said:

DArtagnan said:

The reason racism and homophobia are still huge problems is because we still treat those differences as a big deal, and because we talk about it as if race or sexual orientation was particularly interesting. I propose that it's not and we get over ourselves.

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You get over yourself. I suggest keeping in touch with reality, it'll help you sound less like a naive whining child.

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Dartagnan makes some good points. Don't mistake the reality you are choosing to see for "the" reality. Many of us live in a great reality where race and sexual orientation just aren't remotely issues any more, and words just have the power that we choose to give them - i.e. none at all. Sure, every so often we bump up against people living in other spheres of reality where there's still massive struggle and oppression and lots of magic words, but I'm not feeling any obligation to start adopting their reality instead of my own.

Sure, I try to be sensitive to it and coexist with them as painlessly as possible, but just as I acknowledge their right to maintain a reality of righteous indignation I affirm my right to maintain a reality of not taking things so seriously.

Now, if I lived in a muslim country or a rural backwater where genuine homophobia was rife and my reality was overwhelmingly in the minority I wouldn't be able to maintain my more chilled out reality. And perhaps the necessary step to move away from homophobic and racist cultural realities is to move to the next stage where the magic words people used to use to express their hatred are stigmatised for long enough that people forget how to express that hatred and in time forget the hatred itself (or at least yield to the next generation that's never encountered acceptable expression of hatred and wouldn't know where to start).

The step after that is to move away from it being an issue at all though in my opinion. That does mean those in the interim stage might get offended by casual, hatred free use of the magic words, but it's the only sensible place to move to as a species.

Mind you, I'm finding it tough to take this as overly light hearted and satirical.

But then in my reality tunnel republicans = evil.

EDIT - although surely in anyone's reality tunnel Rush Limbaugh = evil.

txa1265 said:

That makes me MAD!!! Or should I say that it was gay for you to post in the wrong thread?!?! Or ... aw crap, what the heck IS this thread about anyway!?!?!?!?!

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I find the whole argument to be pretty gay.

All this gay, racism, etc. is really not about sexuality or inferiority of some race. It's about breaking somebody. You find a weakness and you keep hitting the guy until he breaks. It's a constant battle between males about who's the top dog.

So everyone teases/probes everyone for a weakness, constantly. You get a letter from home, your buddy asks if your wife got a boyfriend already. You get your 14-y old daughter's photo (and you are white), somebody gonna say that she likes some black dick. You get all kind of insults daily. If you are an immigrant from Europe, they ask if you wear speedos under your fatigues. And gay/race insults are the easiest ones, so they are the most common.

So i don't buy this "let's joke about race/sexuality", by telling "jokes" you are subtly trying to dominate somebody, show that you're better then them. It makes you feel better, otherwise you wouldn't do it, right?

And what's about that article ?

You know, from RPS ?

BlackVoid said:

All this gay, racism, etc. is really not about sexuality or inferiority of some race. It's about breaking somebody. You find a weakness and you keep hitting the guy until he breaks. It's a constant battle between males about who's the top dog.

So everyone teases/probes everyone for a weakness, constantly. You get a letter from home, your buddy asks if your wife got a boyfriend already. You get your 14-y old daughter's photo (and you are white), somebody gonna say that she likes some black dick. You get all kind of insults daily. If you are an immigrant from Europe, they ask if you wear speedos under your fatigues. And gay/race insults are the easiest ones, so they are the most common.

So i don't buy this "let's joke about race/sexuality", by telling "jokes" you are subtly trying to dominate somebody, show that you're better then them. It makes you feel better, otherwise you wouldn't do it, right?

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What a tremendously unfortunate point of view that is, and I can only say that I think you're dead wrong.

I'm not sure what you've been subjected to in life - but with an outlook that says that everyone making this kind of remark is subtly trying to dominate somebody - it must have been rough.

It's not about telling jokes and being all happy happy, it's about the essential and shared knowledge that sexual preference is never in itself good or bad. It just is. What's relevant or interesting is the individual, and how the individual thinks and acts. It's equally obvious that some differences are prevalent when dealing with various sexual preferences. Therefore, I think it's very wrong to pretend that we're all alike. Equality isn't relevant because there can never be a way to measure a person's worth - but one thing is for certain and that's that we're all different - and our various physical and mental variations are all just tiny parts of a whole. It's truly a sad thing that some people have been undermined and trotten upon to such an extent that they can't make fun of themselves or believe that others are making lighthearted remarks to demonstrate an openness and willingness to not be formal or pretending. Such an approach can be very inviting in that way.

For my part, I use these kinds of techniques as an icebreaker to let people know that I'm not a cold or pretentious person. I make fun of myself even more than I do of others, and I can take more than I dish out - because I realise that I'm human and I'm flawed just as anyone else - and I have quirks. Yes, my boring heterosexual disposition can be made fun of and even considered a flaw in character - and why not. But I have no problem with wanting to be with women, and I see no reason why gay people should have a problem with wanting to be with their own sex. But that doesn't mean I can't make jokes about them being overly sensitive or whatever prejudice you can come up with.

I think a great many people need to realise how natural it is to be different, and disregard those that don't understand such an obvious truth. Don't be insecure - be yourself and accept the occasional challenge - whether it's meant as a positive or not. If you're secure about who you are and what you are, then what does it really matter what others say?

since the likelyhood of someone being both gay and female and visitinging this site is pretty slim, how about a scenario from that perspective...
http://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/Support-Pours-in-for-Gang-Raped-Lesbian.html

its a shame more straight males aren't raped (or have to live from fear of it), outside of prison of course.

oh an shout out to any hatemongers from California who voted yes on Prop 8.
Tinky Winky will be coming to pummel you in your sleep wielding a "Gay Basher Basher" +1 to smack the love into you.

so should we call you "Bi-Curious" from now on instead?

the women of earth would have to go extinct long before that comes about i think. nope-- my wifes the only one who fits that bill.
and i'm as happy as donald the duck is intelligable at the moment.

I have to say I find these discussions even harder to take seriously since seeing avenue Q. Nowadays I just get the Everyone's a Little Bit Racist song in my head whenever it gets onto something like this.

curious said:

since the likelyhood of someone being both gay and female and visitinging this site is pretty slim, how about a scenario from that perspective...
http://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/Support-Pours-in-for-Gang-Raped-Lesbian.html

.

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Horrible story, as an example of humanity though did anyone read the comments? A horrific hate crime against homosexuality, and then the first disapproving comment - "I just knew these punks would be Latino"

I bet the person writing that was feeling all self righteous about how awful it was that anyone could feel that way about gay people as well.

BlackVoid said:

It's a constant battle between males about who's the top dog.

So everyone teases/probes everyone for a weakness, constantly. You get a letter from home, your buddy asks if your wife got a boyfriend already. You get your 14-y old daughter's photo (and you are white), somebody gonna say that she likes some black dick. You get all kind of insults daily. If you are an immigrant from Europe, they ask if you wear speedos under your fatigues.

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Have you ever thought of finding yourself some friends that aren't total arseholes? Although if you yourself think in terms of such primate power struggles I fear you'll probably just gravitate towards others of similar ilk anyway, it's hard to form constructive friendships with people who don't buy into the macho competition thing when you're macho and competitive yourself.

Seriously, I couldn't even imagine getting those kind of insults even from people I know let alone people I like. Sure there's an exchange of good natured piss taking from time to time but generally with some sophistication and not a simple, crude racist / sexist type remark.