In Which I Ramble Again. TV Edition

So Fucking Lost. That fucking show. Actually alot of shows, but now that show. First I finally got around to watching season one of Downton Abbey. I highly recommend that show.

Its nothing more than a Sunday Soap (or whatever the fuck that and Mad Men are considered) but it's a goddamned good show. The high points for me are the period piece nature of the show, covering nobility in early 20th century England, and the upstairs downstairs shtick. I cannot have enough upstairs/downstairs in my life. It's good and engaging and a little funny all at the same time. Ok, so go watch that damn show. If you're an Amazon Prime member you can watch season one for free right now and apparently season two by the end of July. So what are you waiting for? Get off your ass, (or don't, just use your sex-station and watch it on your TV) and watch the Damned show.

And now in which I discuss some Lost: I decided months ago to re-watch Lost. I then took a break after watching the first three episodes, but have picked back up with a flurry. I'm not sold that Locke is ever Locke. From the start. If anything I'm formulating the opinion that there are either 2 or 3 'lockes' during the show, but that in any case flashback Locke is never the island Locke. At any point. Discuss. I'm also already dreading my decision to re-watch because the episode where Charlie dies is already playing out in my mind (as is my reaction, losing my shit because he dies). Also the Jack-Kate-Sawyer thing heavily weighs on my emotions while I watch this show.

Lost delivered me through a dark time. I think I've said that before, and anyways for me there are a lot of emotions wrapped up in this great re-watch of mine. So far so good, but in many ways watching this show is like listening to your therapists tapes of your sessions. Kinda skin-crawly weird. So this brings me to wanting to soapbox/talk a bit about games and all that. I'm 27. I'm on a second marriage with a second kid and I have a pretty good idea how things progress for the next twenty or so years of my life. More or less ballpark but I kinda see where things are going. I've learned a shitton about myself and the world in the process of royally fucking things up for so long, and few things get to me.

So here's the thing. On the one hand, subject matter is subject matter. I remember I used to feel like I had to look away from the TV screen when a pair of breasts would show up in a movie. I've kind-of gotten past that. Breasts are breasts are breasts. Think about it for a minute and the stigma (extreme positive or extreme negative) kinda dies away. They're cool, and there there. So that's that. And when it comes to violence and sex in my games, it's kinda like movies to me. Sometimes it's too much. Sometimes it's not. I almost walked out of Crash. The first time I saw a History of Violence I walked out (both times with someone else, who was very uncomfortable). I've not gone back to Crash because I kinda don't like the whole 'cop uses his power to cop a woman' scene. I've watched A History of Violence and enjoyed it. Not enjoyed the weird stair-rape-sex scene, but enjoyed the story, enjoyed the themes and message of a Man living a world barely chained to civility.

On the other hand you have attitudes and perceptions about all this. You have this idea that everything is 'fine' on this very basic level. You have this idea that not everything is 'fine' on this same basic level. And on the one hand you have people who think things are 'fine' and would rather the other camp just shut their mouths about it, and on the other hand you have people who think things aren't 'fine' and want to be more vocal about it. My education was in Philosophy. As far as I'm concerned, the truth to this particular matter is quite elusive. It may be that our acceptance or nonacceptance of violence, sexuality and/or violent sexuality is entirely subjective. I'm not chained to this notion, but I'm fairly certain our ability as humans to properly work out the truth of this matter is beyond our collective moral and intellectual capacity.

There's more or less one thing I feel like everyone can do better in this collective argument however. It's the mud-slinging. Let me list some things that are not true. Women who are feminists are not sluts. Men who value feminists are not gay. Men who enjoy pornography or boobies or whatever-the-fuck are not pigs. Women can enjoy those things to. Men, in fits of depravity, can talk about wanting to have sex with someone in open ways that would seem abnormal except when you consider they're depraved. Women can do this to. While on a forum, a woman posting something to the effect of "I'll suck the dick of the first guy who replies" might garner lots of replies, men in the real world would not quite dig this. Similarly, Women don't appreciate these kinds of open sexual advances, except (almost always this is true) in a trusted relationship. Words like fuck and slut when used in a sexual context are pretty damn insulting, and most of the women I've ever known don't like the word Fuck for sex. It tends to turn them off. What am I getting at here? Chill the fuck out everyone. I think Ryan's twitter comment about not manufacturing a boogey man is totally appropriate. Don't manufacture a boogeyman. Don't be myopic about what there is to find in video games that also exists in other media types. I think comments expressing shame on people posting hyper-nasty things on the internet in response to Women attempting to raise awareness is equally appropriate here. Seriously. To use @Sweep 's words "Grow Up." I don't know if you meant it in this context as well as game design (and I'm damn lazy), but grow up people. a) there's a way to discuss shit and b) there's a way not to come to an agreement on shit.

Now that being said, I have a daughter. She's young which makes me glad for the moment. But if in the future the hyper-agressive response women got on these issues weren't just relegated to forum comments and threatening emails and shit, I'd cut your dick off. I'd sooner do hard time protecting my daughter then let any fucker dick her around. That's just food for thought. In other words, context is everything.