Earlier today, Eileen Holowka announced via Twitter that her brother Alec — an independent game developer best known for his work on titles such as Aquaria and Night in the Woods — had passed away, likely as a result of suicide.

For those who hadn't been following the story, Holowka was the latest in a seemingly ever-growing list of people who had been targeted by what has come to be known as "cancel culture" — an odious trend online that sees accusations being made against a person, then the broader community uniting in a witch-hunt against them to dredge up (and in some cases, fabricate) further accusations designed to ensure the individual in question is never able to work, have a relationship and/or show their face ever again.

In this instance, Holowka had been accused of sexual misconduct, and like a number of other instances like this, the baying mob of social media had been quick to pillory him before he'd had any opportunity to defend himself — or indeed for there to have been any time to ascertain as to whether or not the accusations made against him had any truth behind them.

It's fashionable these days to say that you should "believe survivors" of abuse, and it's important that these people feel listened to and able to share their stories with the appropriate people without fear of reprisal or retaliation. But herein lies the problem: any time these accusations come up, they're always aired on Twitter rather than taken to the appropriate authorities who might be able to investigate them further and take legal action as necessary.

The reasoning behind this? Cancel culture. The alleged victims of such incidents want to feel like they are able to take down their supposed abuser in a very loud, very public manner. And if you were to take such accusations to the police, everything would unfold quietly, well out of the public eye in most circumstances. No drama there; no opportunity to demonstrate how strong and brave you are.

And the problem with this, of course, is that the court of public opinion (typically held on Twitter, as I've said) has no laws, no obligations to follow due process, no requirement to see evidence. There are certain situations where just the word of someone is taken at face value, and the supposed perpetrator's guilt is decided immediately. At which point their "sentence" is carried out: perpetual, never-ending harassment; personal relationships being poisoned; family and friends being turned against them; financial security and employment being whipped out from beneath them. And, in what I've regrettably learned has actually been several tragic cases at this point, this can ultimately end in death.

I'm sickened and disgusted that this sort of thing is still happening, and the problem appears to be worsening rather than getting better.

Sorry this isn't a cheerier post for the weekend, but this has actually made me rather angry and upset, and I think it's important to talk about.

Please don't be part of cancel culture.

I've been using my new Samsung Galaxy S10+ for a little while now, and I really like it. I was a bit concerned that it might come preloaded with a bunch of Samsung bloatware and it sort of does — I had to give it quite a stern talking to to get rid of something called "MirrorLink" every time I wanted to charge it up in my car, for example — but it's easy enough to disable the stuff you don't want and get it working the way you want it to.

This has been the main benefit of Android that I've found since I switched from iOS after my iPhone 4S. I'm not big into like "hacking" your phone and doing crazy shit with it (mine isn't even rooted) but I appreciate the slightly greater level of control that Android affords you… and the fact it's a bit more inclined to tell you what is actually going on.

One thing I noticed with Apple products in general the last time I used them is that in the never-ending pursuit of user-friendliness, they made a point of simply not telling you stuff. A Mac might be doing something, but good luck getting it to tell you what. Your phone might save a file, but good luck finding it. This might have gotten better in the last few years, but it was offputting; I like to know what my computers and computer-like devices are up to.

Of course, this is an issue all around computing at the minute. Windows is getting bad for it too, with its "something went wrong" error messages and the like; since everyone uses computers now, it seems a lot of hardware and software manufacturers like to appeal to the lowest common denominator in terms of technical knowledge. Which I suppose isn't so bad; it'd just be better if it was a bit easier to get a bit more information.

But I digress. I like the phone. I haven't used a ton of its features, but then I don't really need to. It seems to run smoothly, access the Internet reliably, connect to my car's Bluetooth without issue, and the camera is lovely.

The camera was the main reason I bought it, to be honest. I nearly went with whatever the Huawei with the nice camera is, but several reviews I'd seen had suggested steering clear of Huawei in general while the whole trade ban or whatever it is continues, so, with O2 offering the S10+ at a total of £200 cheaper than it normally would be over the complete term of the contract, it seemed like a good choice.

There are technically five cameras. I don't really know why, but there are. From what I understand, each side has at least two so you can create blurred-background "bokeh" effects by basically taking a picture of the background with a blurry lens and taking a picture of the foreground with a focused lens. Or something. The back camera also has a third lens for wide-angle shots, which is pretty neat.

The back camera(s) are also capable of shooting slow motion video, which is a lot of fun. Super-slow motion can only shoot 0.4 or 0.8 seconds of video (slowed down, obviously) but it looks really cool if you time it right, while normal slow motion can, I believe, go indefinitely. It's not something I'll likely use all that much, but it's fun for the odd silly message to send on WhatsApp.

The thing that I mainly wanted to use the camera(s) for — shooting video — is great. The quality is noticeably better than my old phone (you might have noticed in more recent Atari A to Z videos) and even the microphone quality is better. Not quite enough to eliminate my desire to use the lavalier mic when speaking to the camera, but pretty good.

Anyway, I'm pleased with it, and glad I signed my soul over to the Devil for another fixed-term contract. Hopefully the device will last the duration!

Hello! Over the weekend, Chris and I will be recording a new episode of The MoeGamer Podcast, and we decided we'd do something lighthearted and fun after last time's fairly academic discussion!

Specifically, we were interested in talking about some of our favourite boss encounters (be they regular or final — though final bosses are probably an episode of their own!) and I thought it might be fun to involve you fine people if you feel like it.

So if you have a particularly memorable boss encounter you'd like us to mention in the show, drop me a comment below with a few thoughts, and we'll do our best to talk about them during recording. Then the new show will follow on Monday, all being well!

Hope you're having a lovely evening. I'm about to settle down for an hour of Peach Beach Splash before a pre-bed gym session. I wish there were more hours in the day!

You hopefully know me by now, dear reader; I have no particular desire to be any form of "famous", be it "Internet famous" or "actually famous". In fact, the prospect brings me a great deal of anxiety — especially given the "cancel culture" we presently live in.

There are times, though, that I'm glad I have a platform, and I'm glad I have the opportunity to use it to actually do something good. That has very much been the case in the last week since I published my article We Need To Get Better At Talking About Sex.

Those who have been following me for a while will know that I've long been dissatisfied with the way the mainstream games press treats Japanese games with sexual content, be that content fully explicit or simply fanservice. I've expressed those frustrations on numerous occasions, but no time I've attempted this has hit home as well as my article last week.

This time around, though, something's been different. People have been listening. People outside of the particular subculture who are continually concerned and annoyed by this have been listening, too. And there's a lot of agreement; moreover, there's a lot of people thinking that I'm somehow brave or otherwise doing something remarkable for speaking up about this.

One such example is Liana Kerzner's video which I've linked above. Liana, if you're unfamiliar, is a sex-positive feminist commentator who has, over the course of her career, worked in television, the commercial games press and YouTube. Her current YouTube work is particularly interested in, in her words, "improving the dialogue around video games" — something sorely needed — and explores a variety of topics, including politics and mental health, among other things, as they relate to both gaming and feminism.

Liana was kind enough to devote an entire video to my article, as she found it worthwhile and noteworthy. She praised me for having the courage to speak up about something like this, and reassured me that the things I said had value.

I won't lie, I'm both flattered and incredibly moved (I may have had a little cry earlier) that someone with a way bigger following than I do would do something like this for an article mostly written out of frustration. But more than that, I'm glad it's got people talking — and people outside of "preaching to the choir" territory, too, as will be abundantly clear from how Liana doesn't know how to pronounce "eroge", bless her!

I find it particularly noteworthy that in the week since I published this piece, I haven't had any negative or unpleasant comments, either — and I was expecting some, believe me. But no; I've had one just plain weird comment that I still don't really understand, and a parade of supportive and grateful comments from people who have been similarly frustrated about this topic, but felt, for whatever reason, unable or unwilling to speak up.

I just want to share one comment I received today as an example:

 

“the fact that emotional intimacy often brings with it the desire to be physically intimate, too. And, I can’t emphasise this enough, that is very much OKAY!”

This bit honestly moved me to tears. I’ve been so confused for my whole life about the validity of physical intimacy (thanks Catholicism), and while I’d kinda grasped at this idea earlier, I’m so happy to know that my feelings are normal.

I successfully touched someone with my writing, reassured them that something which had clearly worried them for a long time was, in fact, normal, healthy and perfectly okay, and seemingly generally made their day a bit better. That… feels pretty good.

I hasten to add that I don't wish to come across as if I'm bragging here; I genuinely think this stuff is important, and I'm glad that, for once, I've had the opportunity to make a difference, however small it might be in the grand scheme of things. But I got people talking. And that's good.

Thank you to everyone who has been kind enough to support my work in general and this piece specifically; it really means a lot.

I went pretty hard at the gym this evening, so I'm absolutely knackered. I'm pleased I pushed myself a bit more than usual, though; although being super-sweaty is gross, it's also extremely satisfying when you know it's the result of actually making some effort rather than just, you know, existing.

There's nothing worse than just sitting there sweating and not really being sure why you're sweating, other than the fact you're a fat bastard who should have made better life choices at numerous points along the route to where he is now. But oh well. Hindsight is 20/20 and all that.

Anyway, I'm rambling because my head is swimming with post-exercise endorphins and the enjoyment of the piece of toast I just had (seriously, toast is, like, the best) so I apologise I don't really have anything more meaningful to say right now, but I just want to have a shower and collapse into bed!

Oh, I did start Peach Beach Splash. It is a lot of fun. Also super-gay. Like, even more than usual for Senran Kagura. I am going to enjoy this.

Good night!

I sat down and spent a good few hours polishing off every last story in Senran Kagura Bon Appétit today ahead of writing about it on MoeGamer, so finally, at last, I'm ready to move on to the next game.

And I'm excited about this, because it's a game I've had on my shelf for… (checks) two years now! And I've been meaning to jump into it ever since I got it, but for one reason or another, I have never gotten around to it.

The game in question is Senran Kagura Peach Beach Splash, which I'm greatly looking forward to because, like Bon Appétit, it's something a bit different from Senran Kagura's norms. I actually have no real idea what to expect from it, because like with most things I know I'm going to cover at some point, I've deliberately not read anything about it, not watched any videos, not even looked at many screenshots of it. I'm going in as blind as it's possible to be in this modern age, and that delights and excites me.

There's another reason I'm quite glad that I've left it this long to jump in, too, and that's the fact that we live in the Age of Updates. The Peach Beach Splash I'll be playing from tomorrow onwards will likely be somewhat tweaked, refined and improved from the version that was originally released, and that means I'll have a perspective on it that launch day reviews won't have. In theory, at this point, two years after release, I should be getting pretty much the optimal Peach Beach Splash experience — but I guess we'll have to wait and see about that!

Anyway, I don't know how long Peach Beach Splash is so I'm going to make no grand promises as to when my article(s) on the subject will appear… but know that I'm working on it, and I'm really genuinely excited! 🙂

I've been much more productive today; I managed to record all the videos I wanted to get recorded, so now I just have to edit them. And that shouldn't take too long, so I'll probably get 'em all out of the way tomorrow so I don't have to think about them.

I thought today was going to be a repeat of yesterday as it was hot, sunny and sweaty all day. Partway through the day I just decided to head upstairs and sit in bed with the aircon on while playing Senran Kagura Bon Appetit, but after a while I felt my eyes getting heavy, so I thought I'd lie down for a nap.

I woke up at 6pm. It was a good nap. And, once I got up and had some dinner, I managed to plough through all the things I wanted to achieve without any difficulty, analysis paralysis or other forms of mental anxiety whatsoever. Just goes to show, then, that if you're struggling to maintain your focus (or indeed achieve any sort of focus in the first place)… you should probably have a nap!

I'm not sure where today's gone! We got up quite late, because Saturday, then took our cat Meg to the vet for her annual vaccinations, then Andie went off to Pride for the day. (I remained at home because I don't like crowds, I hasten to add; I hope those celebrating had a great time!)

I'd intended to be productive today and make a bunch of videos, but somehow I only managed two Atari A to Z Flashback episodes. That's better than nothing, I guess — and I beat level 2 of Adventure for the first time ever! — but I was hoping to get a bit more done.

I don't really know what happened either; I think it was just the general heat and sun that was kind of exhausting today, even though I was indoors. I'm in the UK, remember, so air conditioning isn't really a thing (except in our  bedroom, which we bought a portable unit for — one of the best investments we ever made!) and thus in the summers we've been having for the last few years, it's easy to just fall into a sweaty, heat-induced haze. And I guess that's what happened today, because before I knew it Meg was badgering me for dinner — it was six o clock. That cat's internal clock is faultless.

Anyway. It's a long weekend so my mostly wasted day doesn't make me feel too bad, as I have two more days to get things done. And then a whole week off in a couple of weeks!

I also had a great gym session this evening where I pushed myself a bit harder than usual, and I've done a good job on eating well today. So the day hasn't been a complete write off.

That's that then. I hope you've had a good day!

It's the end of the week at last… and here in the UK we have a long weekend ahead of us for the August bank holiday. I feel like I really need it; this week has been kind of exhausting!

Now that the week is over, I feel like everything has just sort of "caught up" to me a bit and I'm feeling kind of overwhelmed. I'm really glad that I posted my "We Need To Get Better At Talking About Sex" piece, along with a detailed exploration of Love³ and I'm even more glad that both of them seemingly got people talking… but man, getting even a bit of attention on you is kind of exhausting!

I am, however, pleased to say that I've not had any sort of negative attention from this, as I was slightly fearful I might have. I remember on one previous occasion I made a comment under a Kotaku article objecting to the way they had portrayed something or other — I forget what it was now, as to be honest I've tried to blot it out of my memory — and I subsequently received a ton of very unpleasant replies and messages. I am thankful that this hasn't happened this time around, even if I did kick the hornet's nest a little by posting my Love³ in the replies to both Kotaku and Nathan Grayson's tweets sharing Grayson's obnoxious article.

No; thankfully I've had nothing but pleasant comments from those who have actually said something, and a lot of "silent support" (likes, shares, retweets) from people who evidently feel I said what needed to be said. This feels pretty good. I'm under no illusions that I'm any sort of "big-shot" at this point, I hasten to add, but I do really appreciate that some people feel that my words carry some sort of weight — and that I said things that were worth saying.

I always struggle with whether or not I should speak up on occasions like this, for a variety of reasons: whether it's even worth perpetuating the "culture war" that gaming has been embroiled in for nearly a decade now; whether my points actually have any merit to them; and, of course, whether any of it actually matters. There's always some sort of "bigger issue" that people are supposed to care about; right now it's the whole situation going on with the Amazon rainforest.

At some point, though, I tend to think you have to say "well, which of these can I actually do something positive about?" And, well, here we are. I did something positive where I could make a noticeable, tangible difference. I spoke up in support of people I saw who had been hurt. And if I made a few people feel a bit less alone in the things they like and the things they pour their time, money, effort and passion into… so much the better. The little things are important too; they're the things that keep us all sane in trying times.

Now I think I need a very long lie down! Have a lovely weekend, everyone.

Good morning! Apologies for the lack of post yesterday, but it was after midnight by the time I finished that epic Senran Kagura music post — which you can check out here, and please do, as I really enjoyed putting it together — so I just wanted to go to bed! I didn't even have time to go to the gym. Ah well; I'll make up for it this weekend.

I've had a pretty good week, which is nice. I've had nothing but a positive response to my piece about "We Need To Get Better At Talking About Sex", and that article actually exceeded the previous day's views before I'd even written anything yesterday! It's always nice when you write something that resonates with people, and a lot of new followers and readers have showed up as a result.

A few of those new followers even seemed to assume that my Twitter account was representing a larger website than MoeGamer actually is, and were rather surprised when I gave them a personal response and indicated that no, it really is just me working on all this. That's kind of flattering, really; I'm proud of what I've created over the course of the last five years, and to have someone mistake it for something a larger team of people had put together gives me a nice shot of self-confidence.

So yeah! This is all good stuff, and I'm happy with how the week has gone. I need to cling on to times like this, and think back to them on those occasions when I find myself feeling low. There are things I'm good at, there are things I do that people appreciate, and I can be proud of how I enjoy, appreciate and express my passion for my hobbies.

I'm looking forward to the upcoming long weekend, though; I feel I deserve a nice long lie-in tomorrow morning!