2254: The Irritating Trend of Gleeful Negativity

Earlier today, a rumour broke that Nintendo would supposedly be stopping Wii U production by the end of this year. Nintendo subsequently denied this, of course — even if it turns out to be true, Nintendo keeps an Apple-esque veil of secrecy over all its upcoming plans and doesn’t tend to comment on rumours and speculation.

Predictably, as soon as the first report was published, everyone was all over the news like vultures circling a still-warm corpse. The Wii U is arguably tied with the Vita as the gaming industry’s favourite whipping-boy, and it honestly makes me feel a little disgusted at the amount of glee some people seemed to be directing at the prospect of what is a very good console — albeit less powerful than its Sony and Microsoft counterparts in this generation — going the way of the Dreamcast.

Nintendo aren’t particularly popular with certain groups of gamers at the moment, largely due to the controversy surrounding the English localisations of Fire Emblem Fates and Bravely Second due to perceived unwelcome pressure from sociopolitical groups. Regardless of whether or not the decisions made for those games were mistakes or not — and sales figures for Fire Emblem certainly seem to suggest that there are a lot of people who aren’t particularly bothered — Nintendo is still in a unique position in the business, however: they have a console platform that is completely separate from its competitors, which is the only place to play certain games, and which is still the only place to play first-party Nintendo games.

Platform exclusives might not be as much of a big deal as they used to be — both Sony and Microsoft’s first-party work in recent years has been a little lacklustre for the most part — but they’re still Nintendo’s bread and butter. Super Mario, Mario Kart, Super Smash Bros. and Zelda are all staples of any Nintendo platform, and with the Wii and Wii U generations we’ve added Splatoon and the Xenoblade series to that list. All very strong, polished games; all games that make the Wii U a unique console with a ton of its own character.

This is what bugs me, y’see: the most important thing about a games console is the software library that runs on it — the games. And the Wii U, despite not being the most technologically advanced system on the market, has some of the very best games in recent years available for it. Not only that, but it continues to fly the flag for family-friendly gaming while Sony and Microsoft primarily court the gritty realism of modern triple-A titles. Wii U games, for the most part, are awash with primary colours, cheerful music and the clear self-awareness that they are games; they’re not trying to be movies, or works of art, or anything like that: they’re just trying to be a ton of fun for their audience — and succeeding.

But despite that strong (albeit small) library of games for the system, it’s everything else about Nintendo’s system that gets criticised: so much so that the worthwhile achievements of the games — and make no mistake, there are enough good games available for Wii U to make purchasing one worthwhile — get overshadowed. Their online system sucks! (Except all these bits that don’t!) Their marketing is rubbish! (You’re not helping!) The controller is weird! (Play Splatoon with it, then tell me that’s not infinitely better than playing an FPS/TPS with a regular gamepad!) You can’t buy new GamePads! (Then don’t break it!) Their downloadable games are too expensive! (Then don’t buy them!)

I’m being facetious to an extent — there are valid criticisms to be made of much of what Nintendo has done in recent years, but there’s also a lot to praise. And when it comes down to it, none of these criticisms are particularly important to the Wii U doing what it is primarily designed to do: to play games.

Which is why I get so frustrated when I see people who don’t own Wii U’s revelling in its “failure”. And why I get so frustrated with a media who will post 57 articles about the latest mediocre triple-A blockbuster game to be released on Xbox One and PlayStation 4, yet barely mention the incredible technical achievement of something like Xenoblade Chronicles X. It’s part of an increasingly overwhelming culture of gleeful negativity in all aspects of society: schadenfreude has always been a thing, of course, but there seems to be an increasing number of people out there who do nothing but piss, moan and complain about absolutely everything rather than finding something they do like and enjoying it — either quietly or, as I tend to do, as loudly as possible so other people might be able to discover and enjoy the things I’ve grown to love.

Still. If the Wii U does fail and does cease production this year, it’s all but assured a place in gaming’s Valhalla alongside Sega’s Dreamcast: consoles dead before their time, with libraries of great games that only a few people played when they first came out, and that more and more people regret getting rid of when they become super-rare a few years down the line. Yep, I’ll be holding on to mine for sure; I may not have a ton of games for it, but those that I do have are among my favourites in my game collection.

And no, you may not borrow Xenoblade Chronicles X in five years’ time.

2181: Coming to a Head

I generally try and steer clear of Internet drama as much as possible, but sometimes it’s impossible not to see what’s been going on when it’s all over a website you use regularly.

Most recently, Twitter has seen some interesting happenings that make it feel like the ongoing culture war between “loudmouthed, self-professed progressives (who aren’t actually all that progressive at all)” and “people who just want to be left the fuck alone to talk to their friends about things they enjoy without being shamed for it” has been coming to a head. And it’s been kind of fascinating to watch, particularly as the most recent happenings make one wonder what role — if any — sites that provide a means of communication, such as Twitter, have in these sort of sociopolitical debates.

The most recent drama surrounds one Milo “Nero” Yiannopoulous, a writer for the conservative/right-wing news site Breitbart. Nero is, to put it mildly, something of a controversial, divisive figure: he’s brash, opinionated, flamboyantly homosexual and vehemently against the rise of “third wave” feminism — that particular ideological offshoot that we’ve seen in the last few years that seemingly concerns itself more with scoring “victim points” than actually promoting any sort of societal change for the better. At the same time, he’s also someone who stands up for what he believes in, protective of people and groups he cares for and willing to go against the grain when he believes that the “grain” is going in the wrong direction.

I find him quite amusing to read at times. I don’t follow him on Twitter, but in my occasional (non-participatory) explorations of what GamerGate subreddit KotakuInAction is up to, I tend to keep abreast of what he’s been up to, and occasionally feel inclined to read some of the things he’s posted on Breitbart. I don’t agree with everything — many things, if I’m honest — that he says, but I do agree with some others. I find his writing entertaining to read, though, and challenging to my preconceived notions about particular issues. His writing makes me think, in other words, and contemplate how I feel about something, whether or not it’s the same as what he thinks about the thing in question — and that’s something that journalists should aspire to, in my opinion, wherever they are positioned on the overall political spectrum.

Anyway. The issue is with Nero’s behaviour on Twitter, and with his subsequent treatment. He frequently comes under fire for “harassing” people himself, and for “inciting harassment” by drawing attention to things that people have said by using Twitter’s built-in “quote and comment” functionality that they added to Retweets a while back. So strong is the backlash against him that a couple of days ago, his “verified” checkmark was removed from his Twitter account, seemingly as a punishment for the way he had behaved.

Thing is, the “verified” checkmark is not supposed to be a mark of good behaviour or anything; all it’s supposed to be is an indicator that yes, this particular Twitter account is indeed the person or company that it claims to be. And Nero is Nero, no doubt about that. Taking it away for the way he has behaved on Twitter — whether or not you feel that was justified — is, frankly, insane, because it doesn’t stop him being the person he is.

Naturally, as these things tend to go, the Internet reacted immediately, with a wide variety of Twitter accounts immediately rebranding themselves as “Milo Yiannopoulous” and adopting his avatar as their profile picture, making the timeline an occasionally extremely confusing place to navigate. Alongside this, the hashtag #JeSuisMilo — a reference to the #JeSuisCharlie hashtag movement from around the time the offices of French satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo were attacked in Paris last year — was launched in an attempt to show solidarity with Nero and disapproval for Twitter’s peculiar (and, as of the time of writing, unexplained) actions.

Various people, including writer and former Conservative MP Louise Mensch, did some digging and discovered the Twitter account of Michael Margolis, aka @yipe, the “engineering manager” at Twitter itself. Examining Margolis’ retweets, likes and replies to people made it look to some like there were some conflicts of interest going on, with many people alleging that Margolis was inappropriately using his position at Twitter to do favours for “progressive” types — such as reporting Nero through means other than the usual channels.

All this is hearsay and conjecture, so far as I can make out, but it raises some interesting questions, for sure. Twitter is intended to be an open, free communication platform for everyone to use. It’s not supposed to be moderated or policed — with the sheer number of users and messages that are exchanged every day, it’s simply impossible to do so. Instead, Twitter operates on the (arguably flawed) assumption that, much like society, people will naturally peel off into their own groups and interact with one another, with any cross-cultural clashes able to be resolved through use of the mute and block functions — or, in extreme cases, through Twitter’s formal reporting processes.

I have some experience with Twitter’s formal reporting procedures. Some of you may recall a couple of years back I suffered a campaign of targeted harassment from a notorious group of Internet trolls known as the GNAA. At the time, this group were targeting people who were fans of the My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic TV show, and since I’d recently discovered this, I had the word “Brony” (the term for an adult-age fan of the show) in my Twitter profile bio. This, it seems, was an invitation for the group in question to start accusing me of being a paedophile, even going so far as to look up the WHOIS information of websites I’d linked to from my Twitter profile or this site, then phoning up the owners of said websites (which, in this case, were the owner of Games are Evil, a site I was running at the time, and my brother) and repeating said vile accusations.

It was an extremely unpleasant, scary experience, not so much because of the torrent of abusive tweets coming my way — those were easy enough to ignore and block using Twitter’s basic tools — but because it was spilling over into the real world like this. Consequently, rather than simply shrugging the situation off, I reported it to Twitter and to my local police station. The latter were unable to do much about it — I suspected as much, but I thought it was worth doing anyway — and the former were simply useless, claiming that they were unable to intervene in this situation because it amounted to a “disagreement” rather than “harassment” by their definition.

In other words, under Twitter’s definitions, you have to be receiving some pretty damn vile harassment before their formal reporting procedures will actually do anything — or, at least, this was the case back in 2013, anyway. For everything else, you have to just deal with it, or leave the site altogether — which I did for a while, but came back after I felt worse about being alone and isolated than I did about being targeted by trolls.

In a way, I understand the way Twitter reacted the way they did to my situation. I wasn’t directly in danger or anything, and in retrospect the behaviour of the trolls was little more than the sort of casual abuse-hurling you’d get in the schoolyard. This isn’t defending it by any means, of course — I had certainly done nothing to deserve such treatment, and I was genuinely very afraid while it was all going on — but in the grand scheme of things, it perhaps was barely a blip on the radar of Bad Shit happening in the world. By acting upon it, Twitter would be setting a public precedent, and this would then have to be followed up on in future to ensure that their policies were being enforced in an even-handed and fair manner — and I got the distinct impression that Twitter support felt that the whole thing was rather more trouble than it was worth.

This little digression is an explanation of the fact that Twitter is generally very hesitant to intervene in situations where people “disagree” with one another by their definition — and their definition of “disagreeing”, at least as it stood in 2013, was rather, shall we say, lenient. So for a Twitter employee to put across the impression of giving preferential treatment towards particular individuals is not a particular fair and even-handed way to approach the situation. Moreover, Nero’s behaviour in the instances where he was accused of “inciting harassment” wasn’t anything out of the ordinary — he was simply using Twitter’s own tools (in this case, the “Quote Tweet” function) to highlight some things he wanted to discuss or bring to the attention of his audience.

Several interesting questions are raised as a result of this debacle, however. The first is whether or not popular Twitter users such as Nero should be held responsible or accountable for the actions of their followers when they do something to make a conversation or comment public. Twitter does have tools to minimise contact with people you haven’t specifically authorised to talk to you — most notably the ability to make your account private, locking it down to everyone except those who follow you — but at its core it’s designed to be a means of public discourse: the world’s biggest cocktail party, where anyone and everyone is free to wander around, listen in on what everyone is saying and contribute their own thoughts and feelings to a conversation, regardless of whether or not they know the existing participants.

In this instance, Nero was simply using Twitter as intended, so is it his fault if some followers took it upon themselves to be unpleasant little scrotes towards the person he quotes (whom, it has to be said, appears to be a fairly unpleasant little scrote herself — not that this justifies any sort of abuse)? I certainly don’t have an easy answer to that.

The second question raised by all this — particularly Margolis’ alleged involvement, which is yet to be conclusively proven — is whether or not social media companies as a whole or their employees have any sort of obligation to make decisions about users based on political or ideological viewpoints. The argument in this instance is whether or not the removal of Nero’s verified status — his “punishment” — is justified on the grounds that he disagrees (there’s that word again) with the views of third-wave feminism. Or, to take it as a broader picture, whether or not any user should be punished in any way for expressing an opinion that differs from the accepted “norm”, or which some claim to find “offensive”, or which is regarded as “unacceptable” in some way.

You get into dangerous territory with that last section. Twitter is a private company, however, so it is, of course, free to police its platform however it pleases, and if it wants to become some sort of “safe space” where third-wave feminists and their white knight “allies” can happily skip through fields of flowers (not white ones, though, because white people ruin fucking everything, apparently) then that is the company’s decision entirely. Since it has always sold itself as a means of free expression and communication for people all over the world, however, there’s an argument that we are taking a few tentative steps into a somewhat Orwellian area — though it is also worth noting that should Twitter actually decide to go down this route wholeheartedly, the market will be flung wide open for a new, alternative means of communication and expression for people who are no longer welcome under the New Tweet Order.

Personally speaking, I would rather Twitter remain completely apolitical, and continue to act as a means of free communication for groups all over the world covering a wide variety of viewpoints and ideologies, many of which would clash with one another if they came into direct contact. It’s been a valuable tool in times of crisis, such as during the massacres in Paris, the assaults in Cologne over the New Year period, and during the riots in Egypt a while back. More than that, though, it’s brought people together who may never otherwise have had the chance to talk to one another. It’s allowed friendships and even relationships to blossom, and it’s allowed differing viewpoints the chance to interact and attempt to understand one another. It’s been inestimably valuable from that perspective, and for it to start pushing one particular political viewpoint or ideology as somehow “superior” or “correct” would go against this openness that has been its most key feature ever since day one.

More than that, though, regardless of whether or not you think Nero is a twat or a genius, removing his verified status as a “punishment” is just plain stupid. What kind of message, exactly, is that supposed to send? “You said the wrong thing, so you are no longer you?” What utter nonsense.

Perhaps this is why I don’t run a huge, successful social media enterprise. Or perhaps the rest of the world really has gone completely and utterly mental.

2178: Some Love for Marvelous Europe

I received a package from Marvelous Europe today, containing five adorable chibi Senran Kagura figurines depicting Homura’s Crimson Squad at play (or, in Hikage’s case, as close to “play” as she could probably figure out). I was the lucky recipient of these figures because I retweeted or favourited something they posted on Twitter a short while ago, and I was fortunate enough to be selected as a “winner” of one of the prizes that was up for grabs at the time.

To be honest, I’d completely forgotten about it, since “RT to win!” Twitter posts are ten-a-penny, and also I very rarely win anything that involves the luck of the draw. I was delighted that Marvelous made good on their original offer, though, since I really like the figures a lot, even if they were a bit fiddly to put together. (There’s a teeny-tiny accessory for Yomi that I have no idea where to put, for example.)

This pleasant little interlude got me thinking about Marvelous Europe and how they appeared out of nowhere a little while back. Previously, games such as Senran Kagura made it over to Europe via a convoluted string of people and companies — Senran Kagura Burst, for example, was localised by XSEED and then brought to Europe by, if I remember correctly, PQube Games. Senran Kagura Burst actually got a physical release in Europe through this convoluted process, however, which made Americans super-salty because it only got a digital eShop release over there. They got their revenge with Vita follow-up Senran Kagura Shinovi Versus, though, since this was digital-only in Europe but had a special edition physical version in the states. Vita games are region-free, though, so fans such as myself simply imported.

Anyway, I recall being particularly aware of Marvelous Europe once Senran Kagura 2: Deep Crimson was first announced for Western release. Preorders for some ambitious-looking limited editions went up early, and I decided what the hell, I’ll jump in. After all, the limited editions put out by Idea Factory International — a very similar operation, bringing niche Japanese games to the West and giving them plenty of love and attention — had proven themselves to be rather lovely, so I had a good feeling about Marvelous Europe’s offerings.

So much so, in fact, that I also preordered both Corpse Party: Book of Shadows and Senran Kagura Estival Versus when they became available. Estival Versus is yet to be released, but both the Senran Kagura 2 and Corpse Party special editions were gorgeous, and both are releases I’m very happy to have in my collection.

The main reason I feel Marvelous Europe sets a great example for other publishers is that they clearly know their audience well. Their Twitter account is very “human”, often sharing irreverent, dry humour — particularly when the prudes of the games journalism business start whingeing about boobs, as they are so often wont to do these days — and interacting with fans rather than acting purely as a news outlet. Their positive attitude towards the games they release, their pride in their work and their total lack of shame in bringing controversial titles to an eager Western audience means that I’m more than happy to keep supporting them for as long as they keep releasing quality games for me to enjoy.

Keep it up, Marvelous Europe. You’re doing a marvellous job.

2042: Question Time

For today’s post, I’m going to raid my Retrospring inbox for questions, then answer them. (I’ll be posting these answers on Retrospring as I go, too, so if you follow me on Twitter and have read these already, you can safely skip this post.)

Let’s begin!

Is chivalry dead?

I wouldn’t say it’s “dead” per se, but I do feel like it’s almost frowned upon in today’s hyper-sensitive culture surrounding gender. Acts that one person believes to be “chivalrous” can be interpreted as “benevolent sexism” by another, so it feels almost like chivalrous acts are being discouraged — at least when it comes to traditional things like a man holding the door open for a woman, “ladies first” and all that sort of thing. Personally speaking, I think this is a load of old tosh, but in the interests of keeping people quiet I just try and be a decent sort of chap to anyone, regardless of gender.

Ever regretted something you’ve done even though you know it’s really just a small and unimportant thing?

Oh yeah! Many, many times. As I sit here I’m having trouble thinking of a specific example, but yes, most definitely. With the anxiety-riddled way in which my mind works, too, I inevitably end up spending hours or even days worrying about whether or not I should have done that thing.

I guess a good example would be from back before I started doing Slimming World; a hefty proportion of my weight gain could probably be attributed to simply not knowing when to stop, and consuming, say, an entire bag of sweets even though I’d maybe start feeling a bit queasy halfway through the bag and should probably have stopped then. I regretted doing that every time it happened, because I could see the consequences. It took a long time to pluck up the courage to admit it was a problem and finally do something about it, though. Now I’m 4.5 stone lighter than I was when this was an issue, and I certainly don’t regret that particular decision.

What are some of your favorite Japanese Role Playing Games?

I really have trouble picking favourites, as I tend to have a positive outlook on whatever I’m playing, and it’s pretty rare I will abandon something completely — I usually try to “see the good” in things where possible, because that’s much more fun and rewarding than writing something off immediately. As a result of this, I’ve become a fan of many games that have either flown under the radar or been poorly reviewed by the media.

Favourites off the top of my head include the Hyperdimension Neptunia series, Tales of Xillia and its sequel, Criminal Girls, Omega Quintet, Final Fantasy XIV, ZHP: Unlosing Ranger vs. Darkdeath Evilman (really must beat that one day) and… oh, too many to list.

In games where you have the option of playing Good or Evil, which side do you generally pick?

Good. Always. I find it way too difficult to play Evil; I get emotionally attached to things very easily indeed, and I feel really bad mistreating them, even if they’re just a collection of pixels. The only time I ever really successfully played “evil” was when I worked through the Dark Brotherhood storyline in Oblivion. Even then, once I was done with that and the Thieves’ Guild’s quests, I couldn’t resist embarking on a journey of redemption and was pretty much a paragon of virtue by the time I was finished with that game.

How do you feel with ecchi in anime when it’s not central ?

I like it! I’m a red-blooded male and I enjoy some tits and ass as much as a typical red-blooded male can be expected to. I feel ecchi is most effective when it’s incorporated as part of a work’s overall aesthetic, though, rather than just dropped in for the sake of a quick panty shot just to say there’s a panty shot in there. Senran Kagura is a good example, though that’s a game, I know: there, the ecchi is simply part of the game’s overall look and feel, and after spending some time with the game it’s simply What It Does.

Would you rather talk online publicly or privately?

I can’t really give a straight answer to that one, because it’s different for different situations. I talk about things privately with my friends when I don’t want to “go public” with something, or if it would be inappropriate, unprofessional, a breach of an agreement or outright illegal to do so. But I also talk about things publicly, because that’s one of the main ways you meet new people and find out more about them on the Internet. Without talking about things publicly, I wouldn’t have made some of the great friends I’ve made on the Internet over the last few years.

Ever felt like pretty convincing evidence is staring you straight in the face but you still fervently deny whatever it is the evidence is pointing at?

I’m sure there are plenty of examples of this, but admitting what they are wouldn’t be fervently denying them now, would it? Human beings are stubborn creatures; when we get an opinion on something, we sure as hell don’t like to change our minds about it.

ＤＯＹＯＵＬＩＫＥＴＯＣＹＢＥＲ－ＴＥＸＴ？

Sure. The written word can be a powerful, uh, stimulus. To the… imagination. Yes, imagination.

Do you own any collector/premium/limited editions of things you like?

Yeah! I didn’t used to bother with limited editions, but since getting into Japanese games and anime, I’ve been much more inclined to pick up special editions where possible, I think perhaps because I’m aware these things are “rarer” by their very definition of being more niche interest than, say, your Assassin’s Creeds or your Call of Duties. I’m enjoying being a collector of these things, and I proudly display them on my shelf at home. They’re a conversation piece as well as being something that brings me comfort, as strange as that might sound.

All right, I think that’ll do for now. If you want to ask me random stupid questions now and again, pay my Retrospring profile a visit here — you can even ask questions anonymously if you want!

2027: Questions, Questions, Questions

I like questions. They’re a good starting point for conversations, and they’re a great writing prompt. For this reason, I’m very fond of social sites like Retrospring and Ask.FM, though it can sometimes be a challenge to get people to actually ask interesting questions.

Today, then, inspired by the fact I’ve been playing with Retrospring a bit recently — ask me anything here (caution: Umaru boobs) — I thought I’d work through a few questions as writing prompts. Rather than just being lazy and using my Retrospring answers, though — which is tempting, believe me — I thought I’d make use of the dearly-departed Plinky.com, and use some of its writing prompts that it still has available. I’m not going to spend more than a paragraph on each, mind.

All right! Let’s begin.

Was there a toy or thing you always wanted as a child, during the holidays or on your birthday, but never received? Tell us about it.

Lots of things, I’m sure! Every child wants absolutely everything because they have no concept whatsoever of what money is or how it works. (I remember when I was young and my mother remarked that they were a bit low on money that month, and in my primary school wisdom I suggested they just “go to the bank and get some more”) Specifics, though? Hmm. I quite wanted Red Venom, the evil counterpart to the awesome Manta Force toy that I had, but never got one. I also wanted a Mega Drive to go along with my Super NES, but never got one. I’ll probably live.

Write about a noise — or even a silence — that won’t go away. (We’ll let you interpret this in different ways…)

Thanks, mysterious question master. Well, there are indeed lots of ways this can be interpreted. It could be interpreted as something simple like tinnitus — I like to listen to music loud in the car and on headphones, so occasionally give myself mild bouts of this — or it could be used to describe an “earworm” of a piece of music that just won’t go away. In the latter case, I think the opening theme to Monster Musume definitely counts as this, particularly the bit where Centorea is doing her “whooshwhooshwhooshwhooshwhoosh” bit with her sword.

What’s your learning style? Do you prefer learning in a group and in an interactive setting? Or one-on-one? Do you retain information best through lectures, or visuals, or simply by reading books?

Whoa whoa whoa there, sparky, one question at a time. My learning style… uh… I’m not really sure, actually. Depends somewhat on my mood, but I’m quite good at learning by myself using books. I like to have practical examples of the things that I’m learning and ways I can practice those skills. If I’m learning under someone, I generally prefer one-on-one as there’s less scope for embarrassment if you can’t do something while everyone else can. I loathe passive lectures, though; they put me to sleep, particularly if the subject matter isn’t something I’m particularly interested in in the first place.

You have 15 minutes to address the whole world live (on television or radio — choose your format). What would you say?

Given my self-imposed “one paragraph” rule, I’ll paraphrase: I’d tell people that they need to be better to one another, and that they need to stop judging each other on stupid things, be it skin colour, race, gender, sexuality or even tastes in entertainment. Everyone is different, and that’s something that should be celebrated, but we should also enjoy it when we manage to find people on the same wavelength as us. Worry less about what’s “problematic” and “troubling”, and focus more on the positives. Stop listening to blowhards like Anita Sarkeesian, Jonathan McIntosh and Michael Pachter. (One of these things is not like the others.) Make up your own mind about how you feel, and don’t berate other people if they feel differently. (Unless, of course, they’re actually hurting someone, in which case you can give them a swift kick in the genitals.) Above all, don’t be a massive cunt.

Do you play in your daily life? What says “playtime” to you?

I’m not in full-time work at the moment, so all day is technically “playtime”. That’s not true at all, of course; I spend a considerable proportion of the days when I’m not working worrying about the fact I’m not working and that I’m not earning any money, then attempting to be proactive about getting some work to do. Playtime, though, is extremely important, as it helps you to unwind and switch off from the stresses of the day. Everyone should play. Exactly what “play” means is different for everyone, but you should find something that (preferably) has nothing to do with your job, and indulge in it until you feel happy and content.

Are you good at what you do? What would you like to be better at?

It’s difficult to say “what I do” these days. I’ve been through so many jobs and things that I’m really not sure what my “identity” in this regard is any more. The one real constant has been writing, though, and I think I’m quite good at that. I’d like to be better at music and computery things on the technical side (both hardware and software); these are both things I was really good at when I was a youngster, but my knowledge hasn’t really “moved with the times” over the years, unfortunately. I’ll happily throw myself into attempting to learn things, but some stuff just doesn’t stick; I can still program complicated things in Atari BASIC, for example, but I can never remember how fucking JavaScript works.

Share the story of a time you felt unsafe.

I’m not good with any situation where I worry I might hurt myself, so I try and avoid them whenever possible. One example that springs to mind is a time some university friends and I went up to Sheffield to visit a friend who had moved there. During our stay, we went walking in the impressive hills nearby, and several of our number decided they wanted to climb a rock face, and did so without too much difficulty. I got a few inches off the ground, became utterly terrified and refused to go any further. I’m not proud of that, really, but I’m also glad I didn’t go through with it, as the shoes I was wearing really weren’t suitable for that sort of thing, and I probably would have hurt myself.

Think about something that drives you crazy. Now, think about something that makes you happy. Does it change your perspective on the former?

Nope, unfortunately, because the thing that drives me crazy is the way people act towards the thing that makes me happy. Get out of that little paradox, if you will.

(Last one for now.)

What’s the thing you’re most scared to do? What would it take to get you to do it?

I’m scared of all sorts of things — many of which would appear to be stupid to the average observer, but such is the nature of anxiety-related issues. I think the thing I’m most scared to do is simply the mundaneness that is finding a job that is worth my time and effort, sticking with it and accepting that that is who I am: nothing special, nothing remarkable, nothing out of the ordinary. Or perhaps I’m just too proud to do that. Either way, it’s something that isn’t happening at the moment, and it probably should; ultimately, it’s going to be that ol’ faithful motivator money that makes me do something about it, I guess.

2014: Making Connections

Although I’m not pretending to have any real understanding of social interactions in general — in fact, as I often mention, I go through life feeling like I really do’t know what to do in a lot of “everyday” social situations — I find the way little communities and cliques develop to be fascinating, both to observe from the outside, and to be a part of from within.

I have a few examples in mind. First, and most prominent, is Twitter. I’ve drifted from group to group a bit since I originally joined Twitter a number of years back. Originally, my use of Twitter was primarily to have a means of talking to my online friends with whom I used to interact on 1up.com. After “The Great Exodus”, when 1up’s specialised forums were mashed together into a NeoGAF-style monstrosity of just “Games” and “Not Games”, a significant proportion of the community left the site’s forums, and many of them found themselves on Twitter. Over time, people changed, moved and became involved in different things. Some gave up on Twitter altogether; others started using it for professional purposes; others still “rebranded” themselves.

I fell somewhat into the latter category. After suffering a fairly serious instance of doxxing and harassment back in 2013 — see, it’s not just women it happens to, contrary to what the media would have you believe — I left Twitter, initially intending not to return, but after realising what a pile of crap Facebook is for actually interacting with people in a meaningful manner, I returned. After realising that the interminable social justice yelling on Twitter was setting off my depression and anxiety, I left again. This time when I came back (they always come back) I decided to “reinvent” myself a bit, and follow fewer of the people I felt I “should” be following, and instead focused on people who posted things I found interesting or enjoyable to interact with. Consequently, these days I find myself on the fringes of “anitwitter”, a subculture on the social network that discusses, posts screencaps and generally enthuses about anime and games. I, as you might expect, fit right in.

Elsewhere on the Internet, the Discord server I mentioned the other day (which, dear reader, you’re still welcome to come and join) has been developing slowly but surely, but it’s our Final Fantasy XIV Free Company server that is perhaps the more interesting example. Taking cues from the in-game friend who introduced me to Discord in the first place, I added an “NSFW” (Not Safe for Work) channel to the server. It immediately became the most active channel in the place, though initially people weren’t quite sure what to post in there, i.e. whether or not it was okay to post filth. (It was, though someone stumbled accidentally into it and complained a bit at being confronted with a wall of hentai, so we’ve since made it invite-only — community management at work!)

What’s interesting about the NSFW channel is that the usual boundaries of “politeness” that are up when interacting with other people online in real time — in my experience, anyway; I tend not to hang around with the sort of people who hurl insults and abuse at one another — are nowhere to be seen. I don’t mean that people are rude to one another; quite the opposite, in fact. The NSFW channel is a place where everyone can be open and honest about the things that they like, and where no-one judges one another for the things they talk about and post. (Or, if they do, they keep that to themselves.) It’s pretty refreshing and liberating, actually, and makes it abundantly clear that there should probably be more places for people — particularly, it has to be said, men — to be able to talk about things like sex, fetishes and all that sort of thing without fear of judgement or anything like that. I shan’t go into any further details than that, but suffice to say we’re all having a jolly old time in there.

Anyway, yeah. Online communities. Just as interesting as real communities, I think you’ll agree…

2011: Let’s Talk!

A little while ago, I wrote about chat app Discord and how I thought it was a jolly fine piece of software that had all but replaced Skype and various other solutions for, among other things, in-game voice chat.

Besides high-quality voice chat, Discord is also pretty great for creating text chat servers with custom channels (each of which can have their own permissions set if you so desire) and various other bits and pieces here and there. The app is clearly largely designed with the Final Fantasy XIV community in mind, given its built-in commands to search sites like XIVDB and Gamerescape, but it’s also a flexible, lightweight, easy-to-use and cross-platform chat app that is super-easy to get signed up for and really easy to use.

So I’d like to invite you along to come and chat! I created a server named after my other website MoeGamer, along with a bunch of channels. The server is primarily intended for people to talk about Japanese video games, anime, manga and the like, but there are a selection of other channels for people to talk about what they might be interested in. I’ve had a few people sign up over the course of the day, but not really much participation as yet; understandable, really, since no-one wants to be the first person to say something!

A request, then, dear reader. If you’d like to have a chat with me and hopefully some other like-minded individuals, please do two things for me.

Firstly, join the server here. (You can use Discord via the Web, but I recommend downloading the standalone app for the best and most flexible experience.)

Secondly, participate! Jump into a channel you like the sound of — the invite link I’ve provided will take you to a “welcome” channel that gives you a summary of what all the other channels are all about — and start talking. Even if no-one seems to be saying much to begin with, people who join the server and channels will see the conversation history when they come along for the first time, so if there are some comments, thoughts and even pictures for people to respond to when they sign up, new members will be more inclined to start participating themselves.

I’d love to build this server into a nice little community where we can chat, share stories, share pics and share our thoughts on all things anime, gaming, manga and whatnot. Discord is a great means of doing just that, and I’d love to see more people making use of it and supporting the great work the developers are doing — it’s currently only in alpha, and is already a really well put together piece of software. And who knows? You might even make a few new friends or discover a few new interests in the process.

See you there!

1994: The Beginner’s Guide to Twitter

Longtime supporter of this blog and regular commenter Jud joined Twitter recently, and seems to be at a bit of a loss as to what to do with it. I remember feeling much the same way when I first joined the site; it was quite some time before I got a feel for what it was all about and how it worked. So with that in mind, today’s entry is dedicated to Jud and anyone else who doesn’t understand what Twitter is, how it works and how to use it.

What is Twitter?

Twitter always used to position itself as a “microblogging” platform; a means for people to express themselves in deliberately short snippets of text: no more than 140 characters. Over time, it’s evolved, and can now be used for a lot of different things: as a means of staying up-to-date on topics that interest you; as a means of socialising with people who share your interests; as a means of staying in touch with friends; and as a means of yelling abuse at random strangers on the Internet.

The most important thing about Twitter is that it is a public means of communication. That means that anything you put on Twitter can be read by anyone on the Internet, and they don’t necessarily have to have a Twitter account to do so. There is the option to make your account “private” — which means only people who are already following you or people you specifically grant the ability to follow you after they request it can see your tweets — but using that kind of misses part of the appeal of the site, which is coming into contact with people you may not have otherwise “met”.

The best way of thinking of Twitter in metaphorical terms is that it’s a bit like being at a party, but a rather strange party where everyone present is constantly making speeches in the hope that someone will listen to them. Someone who follows you is someone who is listening to your speech; your tweets themselves make up the speech. This is the simplest possible use of Twitter; use it to express short snippets of thoughts and opinions into the world, and hope that someone, somewhere finds it interesting.

Key terms

Timeline: the main screen you see on Twitter, consisting of all the tweets from people you are following. The most recent tweets are at the top, and as you scroll down the page you’ll see older and older tweets. The screen will keep scrolling forever in most circumstances, so don’t try and reach the bottom, otherwise you’ll be there all day.
Tweet: A single 140-character public message that may or may not include mentions.
Mention: A tweet that includes another user’s username.
Direct Message: A private message between two or more Twitter users.
Profile: An individual user’s Twitter page that shows just their tweets along with some brief biographical information they may have chosen to share. You can access any user’s profile by going to http://twitter.com/username, replacing username with the username of the user whose profile you would like to see. For example, to see my Twitter profile, you’d visit http://twitter.com/AstralFireIII.
Avatar: (also “avi”) The small image a user uses to represent themselves on Twitter. The default avatar is an egg on a coloured background. Since a lot of people habitually ignore “egg avatars” as they’re a common sign of spammers, it’s best to put some form of personalised image here as soon as possible; it doesn’t have to be a picture of yourself.
Banner: The large image that appears at the top of your profile.
Follower: Someone who has chosen to follow you and have your tweets appear in their timeline.
Mute: An option that allows you to stop seeing tweets from people or that contain particular terms without outright blocking them.
Block: An option that prevents another user from interacting with you or seeing your tweets.
Retweet: An option that allows you to reshare someone’s tweet onto your follower’s timelines (optionally with a comment of your own), even if they aren’t following the person you retweet.
Livetweet: A slang terms used to describe someone using Twitter to provide “live” updates on a situation that is unfolding. Most commonly used during press conferences or big news events where things can be announced, revealed or happen dramatically and quickly.

How do I interact with people?

There are several ways you can do this:

Mention: Also known as “@replies”, mentioning someone involves including the “at” (“@”) sign followed immediately by someone’s username somewhere in your tweet. If you do this, the recipient will receive a notification that you have mentioned them.
Important to note about mentions is the fact that if you put the @username at the beginning of the tweet, only people who are following the recipient of your mention will see your mention in their timeline. If you want your reply to be more “public” and visible to everyone, even if they’re not the recipient, you can either put the @username elswhere in the tweet (at the end is common) or put something before the initial @username such as a full stop. The latter practice is often known as “dot-replying” and is considered bad form by some people.

In our “party” context from earlier, this is like replying to someone’s public speech and having a public discussion that other people can overhear.
Subtweet: I include this here only because people complain about it all the time. Subtweeting is a made-up word used to describe passive-aggressive tweets that don’t directly mention someone, but which are clearly and obviously about a particular person. While it’s delightfully easy to be passive-aggressive on Twitter, subtweeting is considered the height of bad form, so avoid it.
In our “party” context, this is like making pointed comments about someone without actually mentioning them or talking directly to them. (“Someone should have looked in the mirror before coming out tonight!)
Direct Message: Also known as a “DM”, a Direct Message is what you use if you want a private conversation with one or more other Twitter users. Direct Messages do not appear on your respective timelines, and instead appear in the Messages tab. To send a Direct Message to someone, either go to a user’s profile or the Messages tab.
In our “party” context, this is like dragging someone off to the bathroom (or room of your choice) for a private conversation.
Favourite: Clicking the “star” icon (it sometimes appears as a “heart” on some Twitter apps) under a tweet has a similar effect to the “like” button on Facebook. It’s an interaction that basically says “I like this” or “I want to keep track of this for later”. You can revisit your favourites from your own profile page, or look at other people’s favourites from theirs. Favourites are public!
In our “party” context, this is like nodding approvingly at something someone has said. Alternatively, some people use it like making a note of something someone said to revisit later.
Retweet: If you see a tweet you particularly like, agree with or just want to share for one reason or another, you can retweet it. This means it will appear in all your followers’ timelines, even if they don’t follow the person you retweeted. You can optionally add a comment to a retweet if you want to add your own thoughts on it.
In our “party” context, this is like repeating something someone said to you earlier to someone else.
Hashtags: Adding the hash sign (“#”) to a word (or cluster of words with no spaces) turns it into a hashtag, which your followers (and you!) are then able to click on to see other people talking about the same thing. This is most commonly used by marketers or communities who want to keep track of discussion on a given topic easily without having to follow hundreds of individual users. Some hashtags become mini-communities in their own right.
In our “party” context, this is like all the jocks clustering in one corner and talking among themselves, all the nerds in another corner talking among themselves, and all the Game of Thrones fans sitting in another corner giving their own play-by-play commentaries of the episode that is currently on the television.

What else can I do on Twitter?

Besides following people and interacting with them via the means listed above, you can also group people (including those you aren’t following) into Lists, each of which then gets its own individual timeline — this is useful for collecting together things that you might want to keep track of, but don’t want to clutter your main timeline with.

There’s also a powerful search function that lets you look for users, hashtags, topics and even specific things people have said.

What should be the first things I do on Twitter?

Update your profile. Make sure that you can be found (assuming you want to be found!) by including your name (or a known pseudonym you use) and some biographical information, optionally including your location.
Add an avatar. Egg avatars are habitually ignored, so put a new picture in as soon as possible. Go to your profile and hit the Edit button and it’s simple to do.
Follow some people. Twitter is made for socialising, so follow some people you find interesting or want to stay in touch with. Don’t feel obliged to follow all the people they follow, because you may have different interests. Instead, over time, gradually curate your following list until your timeline looks the way you want it to.
Interact with people. People won’t follow you back unless you give them a reason to. Interact with them, talk with them, engage with the things they’re saying.
Try not to get into any fights. Twitter’s brevity is a blessing and a curse; the 140-character limit protects against waffling somewhat (though many people get around this by simply chaining long strings of tweets together by replying to themselves) but this also means that, on occasion, certain nuances can be lost. Discussions on contentious subjects can escalate quickly!
Gratuitous self-promotion. Twitter is used by a lot of people as an important means of getting their work in front of as many people as possible. Don’t be afraid to link to things you’ve written or otherwise produced that you particularly want people to take a look at.
Enjoy! Twitter can and should be fun and useful. If it’s not, though, don’t worry! Some people simply don’t get along with it as a means of communication and happily go about their lives without it. Follow the tips above, though, and you should be getting the most out of it in no time.

1991: Reddit in Trouble?

I find online social networks a fascinating thing to observe and sometimes participate in. Twitter is the main one I’m a part of, and over my time using it I’ve been part of a number of different subcultures that make use of the site as a means of talking to one another about common interests, regardless of geographical location.

In this sense, social networks are a bit like real life; you tend to gravitate towards people with whom you have common interests, and you drift away from people you find objectionable or simply don’t mesh well with. It’s exactly the same online; I know exactly the sort of people I’m likely to get along with, and exactly the sort of people I want to avoid at all costs. The nice thing about online interactions is that you can — for the most part — take a lot more control over your experience than you can in reality. You can’t, for example, choose the people that you work alongside, so if you dislike, say, your manager or another member of your team, you can’t get away from them. You can, however, mute or block people you don’t gel with online; while there’s an argument that this can lead to an “echo chamber” effect in which people are unwilling to have their viewpoints and opinions truly challenged, for the most part I find this a good way of minimising the stress that social interactions (be they real or virtual) can sometimes cause me.

One social network that I’ve never quite managed to integrate myself into is Reddit, and that’s simply because Reddit as a whole is such a hugely sprawling entity that it’s difficult to know where to start. There are popular subreddits for pictures, jokes, games and all sorts of other things, as well as highly specialised subreddits for niche interests or simply running jokes. Effectively, each subreddit is like a forum with message threads and discussions that follow on from an original post, but there’s also a sort of “metagame” aspect to the site, where you earn points for posts and comments according to the community’s overall reaction to them. This metagame doubles as the site’s main means of automatic “curation” — high-rated content shifts to the top and becomes more visible, perhaps even hitting the front page of Reddit (which often describes itself as “The Front Page of the Internet”, though Facebook might like to believe differently) if it’s really popular and transcends its original context.

Reddit’s an interesting site to browse even if you don’t actively participate, though. It’s the birthplace of a number of now-commonplace Internet memes and jokes, and the community as a whole can usually be relied on for some highly entertaining, quick-witted responses as well as scathing takedowns of stupid, ignorant or bigoted people. Assuming the subreddit you’re in isn’t specifically designed for stupid, ignorant or bigoted people, of course.

Now, this latter aspect is where things have got a little bit interesting recently. Reddit has traditionally positioned itself as being a bastion of its interpretation of “free speech” online, trusting individual subreddit moderators to set the rules for their individual communities and enforce them accordingly, while at the same time ensuring that nothing actually outright illegal is posted, and if it is, that it is removed quickly. To date, it’s worked pretty well; while there are some subreddits that are the online equivalent of a notorious dark alley you probably wouldn’t wander into alone if you didn’t have a very good reason to be there, for the most part each individual community has kept itself to itself, content with its own little space of the Internet for its discussions, even when said discussions might not be welcome elsewhere on the Internet. (“Gamergate” subreddit “KotakuInAction” is a good example of this, and there are plenty of others along the same lines.)

But there have been Happenings recently. As someone who isn’t an active participant in Reddit, I haven’t really been following the whole drama, but so far as I can make out, Reddit brought on a new CEO recently known as Ellen Pao, and she has not been a popular “leader” for the site. The popular conspiracy theory is that she’s attempting to “clean up” Reddit prior to selling it off to the highest bidder — likely Facebook, who would doubtless very much like to get their hands on “the front page of the Internet” — and in the process is ruffling a whole lot of feathers of people who have traditionally found Reddit to be a good home for their discussions and activities.

Pao’s actions coupled with a widely-criticised lack of communication between the overall Reddit administrators (who run the site as a whole, and have the power to ban and “shadowban” users according to their behaviour) and the firing of a number of Reddit employees for seemingly questionable reasons have been causing rumblings of discontent for some time, but it seems that today, for whatever reason, was the tipping point; a number of popular subreddits, including front-page, “default” subreddits that are automatically included in a new Reddit user’s list of subreddits, have “gone dark” in protest against Pao’s management, the aforementioned lack of communication, a very inconsistent application of the “rules” for the site as a whole and, in some cases, a rather opaque sense of what the “rules” actually are. These subreddits have “gone dark” by setting themselves to “private” mode, meaning that only users who are already approved to post there (usually just subscribers to that particular subreddit) can see what is going on and being discussed; casual browsers, those who are not logged in or those who are not subscribed, meanwhile, are simply shown a default page explaining that the sub is private, and the reasons for it.

Over the course of the day, more and more subreddits have “gone dark” in protest, effectively crippling Reddit’s traffic as a result. It’s been absolutely fascinating to see, and while I don’t 100% understand the reasons for the protest at this time, I think it’s a potent reminder that when you create something as sprawling as a social network, as much as you’d like to think you can stay in complete control of it, ultimately the site it made or broken by its users. Without users, the site is completely useless, so if you piss off those users then you’re going to have a big problem.

It remains to be seen whether Reddit will pull through this debacle, or whether a young pretender like Reddit clone Voat is ready to pick up the baton and try not to make the same mistakes. (I mention Voat specifically because they have reported record amounts of traffic since the controversy really exploded today.) This isn’t the first time this sort of thing has happened, after all; Reddit originally grew to prominence thanks to the once-popular Digg fucking itself up beyond all recognition, so while it may seem dramatic to contemplate that this might be The Beginning of the End for Reddit, it’s certainly not beyond the realms of possibility.

Basically, the lesson from all this appears to be pretty simple: don’t think you know better than your users. Because you probably don’t.

1971: don’t bully!!

Here’s a curious paradox for you: how much of the supposed epidemic of “bullying” and “harassment” going on on the Internet these days is down to people bringing it upon themselves?

This isn’t a question of “victim blaming”, as the buzzword has it, but it’s an actual phenomenon that I’ve observed — and, in my younger days, even engaged in myself. I can’t explain why I did such a thing, but I know I did it, I know that I was aware I was doing it even at the time, and yet I simply couldn’t stop myself.

I suffered dreadfully at the hands of bullies in primary school. I’m not sure what it was about me — my hair, my accent, the fact my ears appeared quite large in comparison to my head (I’ve since “grown into” them, I think) or some combination of all of the above and a few other things besides — but I was a regular target for some of the schools more notorious troublemakers. And it wasn’t to do with my friendship group, either, as on a number of occasions my supposed “friends” actually sided against me in an attempt to win favour points with the bullies (who, inevitably, were the “cool” kids). Perhaps it was self-preservation, perhaps they’d really had enough of me; either way, it was a betrayal, and it hurt.

But I know that I was partly to blame for some of the incidents that happened. I recall deliberately goading the bullies on more than one occasion — swearing at them, insulting them, trying to attack them — and inevitably being knocked to the ground, winded and crying. The teachers on duty would do their usual “come over and look concerned” bit, but then nothing would ever happen to the people who had assaulted me. And so the cycle would repeat, over and over again.

Perhaps it was an attempt to claw my own little bit of “power” on the playground, because I was very much at the bottom of the food chain. Perhaps it was an attempt to let out my frustration about what I now recognise as social anxiety and difficulty interacting with some people. Perhaps I was just a little cunt. I honestly don’t know the reason. But what I do know is that despite the fact I was the “victim”, I was also genuinely to blame for a goodly proportion of those incidents — not all of them, mind, but a fair few of them.

And I’m reminded of this as I watch interactions on social media today. Mr Brandon Orselli, the chap who runs NicheGamer, an independent games site that I’ve become quite fond of, regularly has to fend off people who start attacking him, his work and his staff without any sort of provocation. Their reasoning? His site has, at times, been sympathetic to the consumer revolt known as “GamerGate”, which has now been raging for some ten months and, despite a considerable amount of evidence to the contrary, is still regarded as a “hate group” of “misogynists”.

Now, I’m not here to talk about GamerGate and whether or not it’s right (largely because I know it’s a topic of discussion that tends to become irrational very quickly — both “sides” are very much at fault in this regard, and frankly I want nothing to do with the perpetual arguments and finger-pointing) but one glance at the front page of NicheGamer will tell you that it’s absolutely not any sort of GamerGate propaganda rag. Rather, it’s an up-and-coming independent site with a clear focus, a staff that is obviously passionate about their work — including some highly knowledgeable specialist writers — and an editor-in-chief who is not afraid to stand up for himself, his work and his site.

Orselli does admittedly, at times, come across as a little arrogant on social media — but you know what? I understand the pride he takes in his work, and the pleasure he feels when things go well for his site. And I very much respect his choice to take the bull by the horns and engage these “critics” in an attempt at conversation even as they are, at times, spreading information that simply isn’t true.

Why am I reminded of my own playground experiences? Well, the sort of people who are attacking Orselli and his staff remind me of the young me. They poke and they poke and they poke and they goad and they goad and they goad… and then they call foul (or, more accurately, “harassment”) when the person they’ve been poking and goading bites back. (It has to be said, mind you, that it’s not quite the same situation: Orselli is not a “bully”, has shown admirable self-restraint and civility in these interactions, and has been a lot more calm and collected about them than I probably would be!) In other words, observing from the outside and recognising this behaviour as something I once did (as a child!) makes it seem very much like those attacking Orselli, his site and others like them are specifically going out and looking for trouble so they can further their “harassment” narrative.

Certainly nothing I’ve seen of NicheGamer’s output — and since I’ve pretty much stopped following big games sites as they don’t cover many of the games I’m interested in these days, it’s one of the few sites I do check in on semi-regularly — warrants the sort of unpleasantness I’ve seen hurled at Orselli and his team on a seemingly daily basis, whatever your feelings on GamerGate (which, as previously noted, is not the same thing as NicheGamer). If anything, NicheGamer should be applauded for trying something different in a world of identikit big magazine-style or blog-type games sites, and catering to a specific audience rather than casting a very wide but very shallow net.

But anyway. It hopefully goes without saying that this isn’t any attempt to diminish any instances of genuine harassment that actually goes on on social media — after all, I’ve dealt with it myself, so I know how shitty it is. But this sort of behaviour — deliberate provocation — just rubs me up the wrong way, particularly as I’ve suffered at the hands of bullies many times over the years, both by bringing it on myself and through no fault of my own. So in the words of Twitter’s favourite anti-bully ranger:

https://twitter.com/antibullyranger/status/609751052125016064

Or, to put it another way, don’t be a cunt.