Activision-Blizzard Proving Again That They Just Don’t Care
Activision Apologises and Removes ‘Insensitive’ Quran Pages from Call of Duty: Vanguard. Seriously? I mean, really? I did my basic Arabic studies and I know that the Quran (like the Bible and the New Testament) is Islam’s holiest tome and they do take it very seriously with how you treat iconography. But even if you didn’t know that disrespecting the Quran would whip up Islamic people into some kind of rage, imagine what it would feel like to you (or your more religious friends/family members) if there were pages of your religious texts on the ground where everyone is expected to walk. Or, because you’re one of the hugest game companies in the world who want to sell your games to as many people as possible, have some freaking sensitivity consultants.
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The Only Way Out is Through
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Doggos: As Above So Below
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Beautiful Sky
Saw this on my walk this morning. Just wanted to share. Have a good.
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Make time to loaf yourself
I use this Keto Almond Bread recipe with some modifications. — SGHF, Eran
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Just wanted to let you know our dogs are cute floofs
— SGHF, Eran.
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Found this outside one day
That’s it for today. — SGHF, Eran.
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Far Cry 6, PETA, and are Games Educational?
Recently, PETA criticised Ubisoft for including a cockfighting mini-game in their recent franchise title Far Cry 6. And that got me thinking about what is ok or not ok to include in a game. I completely understand why Far Cry 6, which occurs in a Cuban-esque island country called Yara, includes that aspect. Cuba, a country under heavy sanctions, makes due with whatever they have at hand. And, as far as entertainment goes, while cockfighting is a horrible practice in your regular western-aligned countries, it is not exactly frowned upon in Cuba. So, Far Cry 6 appropriating this symbol for immersion purposes is understandable. On the other hand, I also completely understand why PETA would criticise this. Far Cry is a very popular franchise. At the time of writing, it has sold poorer than its predecessor but that still puts it above 10 million units moved. That’s a lot of people being exposed to this segment, engaging with cockfighting in a way that might be unhealthy in the future. In the game itself, you do play the cockfighting mini-game in a fighting game style, as a animal encouraged to viciously peck, rip, and tear another animal, both of which were probably forced into this against their will. So, think about that 13-year-old kid who just got his hands on the new, popular AAA title all their friends are playing and this is the first time they sees something like cockfighting. If that’s the first time they engaged with that sort Continue Reading →
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Villains, bullies, dicks, and Hanlon’s Razor
I’ve recently read an article that was actually about work environment and building and maintaining a supportive team but one sentence struck me in a way that made me think about real life bullies and how villains are portrayed in media. […] Management expert and author Douglas W. Hubbard [in his] book The Failure of Risk Management: Why it’s Broken and How to Fix It [rewrote Hanlon’s Razor as]: “Never attribute to malice or stupidity that which can be explained by moderately rational individuals following incentives in a complex system of interactions.” […] not only are people’s actions rarely malicious, they’re most likely not about you at all. Malice is simply not a probable explanation for people’s actions, and it’s not reasonable to assume it is. So, if you take that to the realm of story villains, the best ones are not just there to be an antagonist but would exist and do their thing even if the hero wasn’t there at all. A good villain is not about the hero. A good villain is only about themselves and what they want to achieve. Think about that when you craft your next villain for your story or game, either forwards as who they are, what’s their motivations and what incentives exist that they will follow down the wrong path; or backwards as what you need the villain to be and come up with the system of incentives that could put someone in that position. But this same conversation got me Continue Reading →
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