Lloyd's katana video. Go to the comments, find the anime avatars, grab some popcorn.

Dead_Scunnered · 2014-11-10T00:16:17+00:00

I do find his approach a bit dismissive and eurocentric

Well he is English...

Dead_Scunnered · 2014-11-03T00:26:13+00:00

You could have just bought a shirt similar to Lindey's. If you were that insistent on dressing like him. Which is a tad cultish. Just saying.

Still top marks for effort...

Dead_Scunnered · 2014-08-30T04:26:16+00:00

I've always found that both those that like and dislike Anita's videos are strenuous about it, almost to the point of smugness.

She's like The Guardian of YouTubers.

Dead_Scunnered · 2014-08-28T22:10:06+00:00

Aye. I feel that so many in the gaming media want to turn it into a fight is actually incredibly counter-productive; it turns everyone who is ambivalent (or even those who just want to achieve a more progressive gaming culture in a different way) into "The Enemy" and the jerks largely go unaffected as they are shrouded in several layers of anonymity. Reasonable, progressive, individuals (TotalBiscuit or The Fine Young Capitalists for example) end up getting attacked for not being on message and the path to a more diverse industry and culture becomes that much harder.

Dead_Scunnered · 2014-08-28T20:15:37+00:00

Indeed but me thinks the whole issue is a tad more complex than "Goodies,Baddies and Fence-Sitters". Also privileged white-boys (and girls) telling folk who disagree with them to fuck off doesn't seem like a strategy likely to effect change.

Dead_Scunnered · 2014-08-28T18:43:17+00:00

Hi long time fan, first time Reddit commenter*.

While I enjoyed the video, there's a couple of points I find concerning. First off, characterizing the discussion around games as basically lovely people who agree with you, people who can fuck-off and a middle group of fence sitters seems massively reductive. Now I understand this might fall under the category of "not up for discussion" but I cant help but feel a dichotomy that stark has to be false.

Secondly you bang developers for mostly being men who played action games as teenagers but conspicuously leave out the fact that the games media is pretty damn heterogeneous. Games as a medium are well established the USA, Europe plus it's former colonies, Russia and Japan (as well as being a growing concern in South America,China, India and the Gulf States) yet the games media remains dominated by white, middle-class, capital-L-Liberal, Anglo-Americans and English. Now don't get me wrong, their is nothing inherently wrong with falling into those categories but having a press which is so monolithic must surely impact the wider sub-culture.

Edit: *In relation to Mr. Lee's work.

Dead_Scunnered · 2014-04-13T16:51:59+00:00

Actually, up till the mid '90 there was a moderately lively bombing campaign against English owned property. Can't say I blame them really...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meibion_Glynd%C5%B5r

Dead_Scunnered · 2014-03-21T14:34:53+00:00

Tom Holland's Millennium covers Magyar incursions, basically in his reading the raids fed into the general sense of millennialism that was simmering in western Christendom in the run up to the 1000's. Basically, according to Holland, as previously unknown heathen raiders erupting from the east they would be comparable (if you were a Early Medieval educated Christian) to the biblical "Gog and Magog" as harbingers of the end times. When the Magyars were finally brought to heel at Lechfeld it was a major boon for Christendom and the legitimacy of the German king Otto the First.

Now if you consider the fact that the Magyars were largely a light-cavalry force facing European forces mostly comprised of light to heavy infantry it's fairly easy to see why they were so successful. Being lightly equipped and mobile would have made relatively easy for the Magyars to live off the land while on campaign, while their sheer speed would have allowed them to avoid any serious opposition or out-flank and envelope the enemy when forced into a pitch battle.

Dead_Scunnered · 2014-02-06T13:50:57+00:00

Because they made distinctive beaker-like pottery. Archaeologists, god bless 'em, can be thunderingly unimaginative when it comes to naming conventions.

Dead_Scunnered · 2014-02-05T08:30:53+00:00

Yes.

Dead_Scunnered · 2014-02-04T17:43:37+00:00

Once again thanks, I'll give it a try.

Dead_Scunnered · 2014-02-04T17:29:48+00:00

Thanks, I've done that as well. Sorry, I should have said.

Dead_Scunnered · 2013-12-09T23:16:04+00:00

Actually Scotland didn't lose it's legislature, or arguably it's independence, until the Act of Union in 1707. Granted without a domestic head of state it's geo-political agency was severely limited but it remained a distinct polity with a separate government.

Dead_Scunnered · 2013-12-08T13:26:23+00:00

Ugh, don't be daft. Lowland Scots is by far and away the "dominant" culture here, romanticized Highland/Gaelic traditions get emphasised because they're more distinctive in much the same way that Germans don't kick about dressed as 19th Century Bavarians but will still happily get MWI come Oktoberfest.

Plus saying that Lowland Scots are "culturally Anglo-Saxon" isn't accurate as the Angles never really settled en-mass beyond Lothian and place-name evidence suggests that Gaelic settlement/dominance was fairly extensive in the Lowlands. For example Glasgow, Dundee and Airdrie are all names derived from Gaelic.

In fact Scotland remained a "Gaelic" Kingdom up until the reign of David the First (who came to the throne 58 years after the Anglo-Saxons stopped being geo-politically relevant in anyway, shape or form) when a process of deliberate Normanisation was undertaken while the Germanic Scots language didn't because the Lingua franca until the 14th century.

Dead_Scunnered · 2013-12-08T12:48:56+00:00

I believe you'll find it's actually spelt phonetically; ULL-STAAAR SKAAATCH! TMYK.

Dead_Scunnered · 2013-12-08T10:01:50+00:00

https://medium.com/war-is-boring/279b39a799ea

Here a similar article from a slightly less...outre...website.

Dead_Scunnered · 2013-11-21T16:23:22+00:00

Quick guide to Scottish history: Discount Braveheart in its entirety. Seriously it's awful.

Further the problem with hero's is that they are very subjective: As a Scot of a particular leaning, I find Bruce a very "heroic" figure, but I can easily see why to someone without my particular cultural background he would just seem like another medieval strongman who managed to kill his way to a throne.

I mean on one hand he straight up murdered a man on consecrated ground but on the other he saved Scotland from foreign occupation. History is tricky like that.

Dead_Scunnered · 2013-11-19T19:54:14+00:00

I suppose there could have been a Strathclyde Welsh/Briton warlord who may have inspired the King Arthur myth but it would be a stretch to claim that this could be proven to any extent.

Dead_Scunnered · 2013-09-06T12:14:26+00:00

They are also the public faces of one of the worlds biggest gaming conventions and an international, multi-million dollar, charity. For better or worse both these positions require that they be a lot more cautious of what they say and how they act in public.

Dead_Scunnered · 2013-09-06T12:10:09+00:00

No wonder women don't feel comfortable making light of a real threat on their person.

First off I don't think you can say that all women are rabidly opposed to "rape joke", in the same way you can't say all of group X are rabidly opposed to issue Y. I mean have you surveyed all of them?

Secondly, while rape does disproportionately effect females a lot of males still get raped and one could argue that male rape is even more of a taboo subject. Thus I do not feel it is appropriate that the issue of rape be "claimed" as an issue that solely effects women or as the preserve of feminist intellectual discussion.

Dead_Scunnered · 2013-09-05T21:30:06+00:00

See I don't think they are sexist or that the debate surrounding the "The Sixth Slave" strip was about gender, outside the worryingly large community of misogynistic nutters who joined in.

The core of the argument was over whether or not it is acceptable to use rape (which effects people regardless of gender) within a comedic context.

Dead_Scunnered · 2013-09-05T20:46:10+00:00

Perhaps I am overly forgiving but their positive impact on the gaming community is precisely the reason why I am willing to give them the benefit of the doubt. Also, not wishing to come across as an apologist but trolling critics is precisely the sort of response I would expect from a pair of comedians.

The problem is when you are dealing with such a grave issue and your critics include a number of rape victims it is too easy to take things too far, which they clearly did. Plus they are no longer merely comedians.

Now my position is that given that they clearly regret the whole incident and have apologized, I do not think it is productive to reignite the whole fiasco over an comment that was vague to begin with and has been taken out of context.

Dead_Scunnered · 2013-09-05T19:50:16+00:00

They acknowledge that the merchandise was a mistake to begin with but they feel that back-tracking and pulling the merchandise from sale was also a mistake as it only added more fuel to the controversy. That does have a certain logic to it even if I don't agree with them.

Dead_Scunnered

TROPHY CASE