While browsing the League of Legends subreddit, I noticed that there’s a new sub–sub reddit for gaymers who play LoL. I found this extremely interesting, since the LoL community isn’t known for being the most open-armed group of people, so I went to check it out.

I was pretty disappointed to see the top thread being about the danger of a cease-and-desist summons over the term “gaymer.”

The summons comes from a fellow named Chris, creator of the website gaymer.org (which as of the time of this post, is curiously “account suspended”), who wrote an open-letter to the /r/gaymer community on reddit about his choice of action.

The reaction has been, unsurprisingly, negative. His site has been around for quite some time, and in his address he tried to garner sympathy by explaining how much blood, sweat, and tears has gone into his project and community. He has allegedly wordmarked the word “gaymer” and is trying to protect the brand that he’s built.

I gather he’s trying to sound worried about his site and the subreddit being mistaken for one another, as if the opinions of /r/gaymers might negatively affect his site. Or something. But I’mm not buying it. Sounds more like he’s not happy that searching the term gaymer results in the subreddit being top with his site second on the list (that could just be me, though.)

Truly, the term gaymer has been used for far longer than his site has been around. And I completely agree with the members in this community when they say he has no right to trademark an identity. That’s like trying to trademark the word “gay” or “GirlGamer” or what have you. It’s silly and uncalled for.

 I’m not too sure of the timeframe of this development; Gaymers subreddit posted their warning of the CAD at around  10 pm EST yesterday, Sept 9th, and the admin of Gaymer.Org posted his response (partially fueled by the initial nasty reaction he got) at 1pm EST today, Sept 10^th.  So the fued is ongoing for the time being.

What do you guys think?

The post Gaymer.org vs /r/Gaymers. Ready your weapons, ladies and gents. This could get ugly. appeared first on IzzieBytes.

Even with little experience, I’m pretty stoked about the movie and will definitely be seeing it, especially considering Ubisoft’s allegedly firm stance on retaining creative control. Most of us gamers have been sorely let down by film adaptions of popular franchises, so it’s easy to be cynical on whether or not the film will be worth seeing. I’m hoping it will.

So here’s what I’m not too excited about: they announced the casting of Michael Fassbender apparently as a lead according to this article from  Variety. It’s specficially worded as:

“Michael Fassbender was our first choice” to play the franchise’s iconic hooded hero

That’s kind of a let-down, assuming they follow the games and that hero is Altaïr Ibn-La’Ahad, a very Syrian kind of guy.  It’s ironic to make such a casting and then conclude with these sentiments:

By controlling more of the creative through UMP, Ubisoft hopes it doesn’t wind up with another “Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time,”

Funny, since one of the biggest critisims was that film’s casting of predominately white actors.

“It’s not like we’re gonna see his face, right?”

I know the subject of white-washing and gender-equality in the video game industry and Hollywood at large is a touchy subject for a lot of people. It’s something that I actually ignored on a whole for many years, but as someone who’s still a gaming-industry hopeful, and a hispanic woman to boot, it’s become pretty important to my life in a lot of ways.

I’ll start by saying I think things are getting a lot better all around. Producers and developers are certainly recognizing the plight of under-represented groups both in terms of consumers and the characters they portray in their franchises. So I do give them props for making an effort to incite some change, albiet a small and slow one.

Assassin’s Creed has a very interesting element in that it spans over many eras and many locations, thus lending itself to some awesome cultural leanings we don’t see too often in games. Of our main assassins, we have Altaïr (fun as hell to say) who is Syrian; Ezio Auditore da Firenze, an Italian noble; and Connor Kenway, the half Native American, half English lead for the upcoming ACIII whose birth name is Ratonhnhaké:ton (have fun with that one). *

That’s really one of the main things I love about this series. The fact that the nationalities of these guys is so diverse also seems pretty intentional, actually, especially considering Connor could have very well just been an American colonial.  It makes Desmond, the modern-day decendent of all of them, an ethnic mixing-pot which is realistic considering how common that is modern society.

But that’s also what makes it frustrating that they’d settle with a white actor at all, and especially if he winds up playing Altaïr. And it’s Ubisoft themselves making this choice; so that borders on almost surprising.

I don’t doubt the actor they chose is a good one. I don’t pay attention to Hollywood enough, honestly, so I couldn’t give my opinion either way (I did see Prometheus, and he was wonderfully creepy in it). But I do know there are many great actors of color who would do the role justice, as well, and it bothers me that they’ve seemed to settle on a token white dude for it.

I mean, I get it. Entertainment industries are afraid if you don’t cast a white man as the main character, nobody’s gonna want to see the movie. That is a real concern, but something that also really needs to change, and they can start by trying to have some faith that people will be willing to see a film, play a game, read a book if it’s good and not base everything on race. Tons of people play the AC games. Most of them are probably white. They also don’t seem bothered Altaïr is not.

No amount of sexiness or whiteness can save a bad movie. Just saying.

So here’s a thought; an independently produced film based on an already beloved franchise has a lot of potential to break that mold and still come out on top. Assassin’s Creed has a great story to tell, be it an adaptation of existing stories or adding new lore to the universe, and a lot of fans who will be dedicated to the film if it is done well. Instead of worrying about whether or not people are gonna turn up their nose if you have a brown guy play a brown guy, give consumers some credit. The golden rule is create good content, and people will see it. If Ubi’s really taking creative control, I have no doubt they’ll do their own franchise justice, so I don’t see why they should worry about catering to this mystical rule of lead roles.

Edit: A few additions
* 1) Lovely fellow blogger Verene brought up an important omission that I wasn’t aware of due to my limited knowlege of AC’s story. In addition to the fellas listed above,  the protagonist for the upcoming ACIII: Liberation is Aveline, who’s both female and of mixed heritage:  French-African. Which, again, feels like deliberate diversity.

2) Since I wrote this this morning, a few discussions cropped up between myself and my wonderful twitter network on the subject. It was pointed out  we don’t know for sure whether or not the film will be an adaptation of the existing games / lore or a stand-alone addition to the universe. Which is totally a valid point (made some edits to reflect this). Even so, I stand by my suspicions. This is a franchise that has a precedent for ethnic characters, and while not as bad as white-washing a specific persona, choosing a caucasion lead in this case seems unfitting, at least to me. Your milage may vary, though.

So what do you guys think? Is Assassin’s Creed risking the white-washing problem? Do you think the movie will follow the games at all? Who would you cast as Altaïr and/or Desmond? 

The post Is the Assassin’s Creed film already starting out on the wrong foot with white-washing? appeared first on IzzieBytes.

I’ve never been an angel. I was a huge pirate during my high-school / college years; at my most ignorant I’d brag at how many thousands of dollars worth of stolen content I owned.

But now, as a functioning adult and someone who’s hoping to break into an industry that is victimized by piracy (gaming, and art to an extent), I am doing my best to rectify those choices by paying for the content I enjoy as much as possible. I can thank Amazon, Pandora, Netflix, Steam and even iTunes for that. Through these websites I have discovered new shows, movies, games, music, books, and the like, all of which I am able to watch and enjoy knowing I paid for it or supported it legally.

Something of note, though: In my many years as a rabid fangirl of many franchises, I can say with upmost confidence that 90% of the time, discovering the series’ and artists that I currently love was through a method that would be considered illegal either by current or future “laws”. I think that stands true for a lot of people in my generation, and likely most in those after me. I can’t even tell you how many songs and artists I discovered from fan-made music videos on youtube or gaming streams. Or how many shows I got into because I saw them at a college meeting or a clip online. How many games I discovered playing on a friend’s account. How many old passions were rekindled because I ran into a great fanart or fanfic or an animated GIF.

Legislation like SOPA and PIPA would do nothing but hinder this process of discovery and the spread of quality entertainment. In fact, I believe it would cause the complete opposite by encouraging a shadier and perhaps more risky internet “black market” by  making content harder to discover and enjoy.

The big issue is the entertainment industry’s reluctance to work with new media. They are loath to embrace streaming and other forms of digital distribution out of fear; fear that they can’t monetize a site the way they can profit out of ads. Fear that they can’t easily track or control who and how and what when it comes to their content.

So they go crying to the government. But instead of trying to lobby politicians to block the spread of entertainment, what the industry needs to do is give up the fight on holding onto antiquated formats and get with the times. They can take a cue from the gaming industry here, where monthly subscription games, a model that is losing favor, are slowly being eclipsed by buy or free-to-play titles supported by micro-transactions. This is adaptation. This is working with, not against, your consumers. Let’s take a moment to think about many businesses that have gone bankrupt because of reluctance to evolve or embrace the changing of media. Blockbuster could have owned Netflix. Now they are bankrupt.

By struggling to hold on to “the old ways”, the entertainment industry is perhaps unwittingly causing  a huge snowball effect that is damaging everybody, creators and consumers alike. Television as we know it is on its way out. Trying to force people to sit at their TVs and sit through ads isn’t going to work for much longer. Canceling shows because they’re ignoring the much less lucrative views online and through TiVo is only damaging potentially great series. This is why Hollywood is being overrun with unstimulating and unintelligent reality TV and shitty cookie-cutter “blockbuster” movies while good, thought provoking ideas are getting cancelled left and right. But the thing is, those are the series that garner the lasting fandoms that will make the most money in the end.
So here it is. The times, they are a-changing. People are changing. Instead of fighting change, work with it, learn to adapt, and things WILL work themselves out favorable for all parties.

Consider this; already my teenage cousins predominately purchase their music and movies through iTunes. That’s a big deal because when I was 15 I was getting everything off Kazaa.

Tumblr’s Andrew McLaughlin speaks at the SOPA protest. Tumblr, a site that thrives on fandoms, would be heavily affected by these bills.

That brings me back to one final point I think the entertainment industry fails to realize; fans and fandoms are a POWERFUL tool, and one that they will slaughter if they have their way with legislation like SOPA/PIPA. I know plenty of great fans who spend a lot of money collecting box sets, comics, and other promotional items for the franchises they love. Many people are willing and able to do so. Yes, you have those who could care less about the work that goes into something and will go ahead and steal it anyway. So be it. That’s life.

Fans are a passionate and rabid bunch. Tap into their potential well enough; treat them with respect, offer them the option to choose when and how to enjoy their entertainment, and watch the magic happen.

Check out my G+ gallery from the protest, as well as a gallery of sites that blacked out yesterday:

The post SOPA / PIPA, Fandoms, and the Entertainment Industry appeared first on IzzieBytes.

So this might be kind of long-winded, but, I thought it was worth writing as a reminder to myself and perhaps as a form of venting.

9/11/06, 5 year anniversary

Moments of Silence

I remember everything about that day. I was 15. I had straightened my hair and was wearing jeans and a striped shirt. The weather was beautiful, cloudless and warm. I was sitting in gym class on the bleachers, doing nothing since it was the first week of my sophomore year.

When they called everybody who had family in the WTC to the library, I didn’t really think much of it. But my dad’s office had moved to the same block, and my aunt had worked across the street for years so I decided to go. As I walked the halls I started hearing rumors of a plane crash.

When I got there, it was confirmed. I called my mother and she said everything was ok. I wouldn’t find out for years that she lied, she had no idea where my dad or aunt were at the time.

The second plane hit and then the pentagon, and then the towers completely fell.  We knew it was no accident so I went to my biology class to tell my teacher that I was going to stay in the library until i knew what was happening to my family; my sister and then 5 year old nephew lived in DC and I was a wreck at this point.

When I walked into the classroom, everybody was completely lost. They looked at me, curious and worried. Were we under attack? What had happened? Nobody knew.

This was one of two moments that forever stick out in my mind about 9/11. I will never forget the faces of my classmates as I had to explain that the towers were gone, the pentagon hit, thousands were likely dead, and that we were most definitely under attack. The news was met with silence and shocked faces.

My mom eventually picked me up from school. My cousin and I went to the clay-pits, a big open field in the middle of town and took pictures of the sky where the smoke from the towers could be seen stretching the horizon.

Later that day, we went to pick up my dad at Metropark, the largest commuter train station in our area. The entire ride my eyes were fixed in the direction of New York, unable to look away from the smoke.

Hundreds of people waited as train after train and bus after bus came, unloading passengers from the city hoping their loved ones would be coming. Again, there was dead silence, mostly.

Every now and then, someone would come out covered in dirt and/or blood. Every time the passengers stopped coming, a woman nearby would start wailing, asking “Where is she?!”

This is the second unforgettable moment of that day, that entire scenario and the moment my dad walked out of the station. He cried when re-watching footage of the day; he had seen people jumping to their death in person.

Jeanieann Mafeo

Roses for Jeanie and Cathy, 9/11/05

Jeanie’s story is intense and perhaps a big graphic, but it’s amazing and deserves to be told. 

She was family by marriage, cousins to my cousins, and very Italian from Brooklyn. I didn’t know her well; she was older and I didn’t see her much outside of family functions. Still, I had spent the previous thanksgiving at her house and her voice (that accent!) and outgoing personality was unforgettable.

She was waiting to transfer buses at the WTC, then a very large commuter hub, when the first plane hit. Burning jet fuel from the impact fell and burned her body severely, over 90% 3rd degree.

She made her way inside the lobby of the hotel between the towers where a good samaritan, Ronald Clifford, saw what had happened to and came to her aid, covering her body with his jacket and eventually getting her to an ambulance. Because of this, he was away from the buildings when the second plane hit and then eventually fell.

The tragedy of his story is that his sister and niece were on the second plane that crashed.

Jeanie lost her battle over a month later, her body unable to recover (official cause of death, as I recall, was kidney failure). Over that month, our family waited anxiously. I remember listening to my aunt on the radio, 1010wins, talking about her progress and their hope for her survival. Her funeral was astounding; hundreds upon hundreds of people came each day. Scores of NYPD officers also came to show their respects, as the Mafeo / Centeo family had many ties with them.

It was a sad moment, but I guess that funeral was sort of the conclusion of that chapter for myself. But the story was far from over.

10 Years of Aftermath
Since then, the rest of this tale comes back in moments.

There were times I suddenly remembered when I was little every time we drove between the Twin Towers to go home through the Holland, I’d stick my head out the window, much to the dismay of my parents, and just look up at the twin towers reaching to the sky. It was particularly amazing at night. I realized I’d never be able to do that again, but perhaps I was lucky to have those memories in the first place.

That Friday, Sept 14th, the country held a candlelight vigil. My best friend and I spent hours walking around town declaring with everybody else that we would not falter in the face of terrorism. Never had I felt so American in my life. Never had I truly felt that despite so many quarrels and differences the people of this country had, we could still stand together.

My niece and I in front of downtown Manhattan, circa 1997

Next, I recall sitting shocked and appalled as we bombed Baghdad and wondering, in whose mind was this justice? Half of this country thought it was right. The other half was disgusted. This was the first of many splits to come.

There were all the times we’d drive the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway to abuela’s house in Bushwick for countless holidays and gaze at a skyline forever changed.

The news that soldier’s caskets returning from the middle east could no longer be shown on TV.

The friend who went to fight in the war right after high school and came back feeling his life was worthless and unable to adjust to normality. He eventually went back, because it was all he knew,  and I haven’t heard from him since.

This very year I recall sitting on a train on my way to work in NY and crying, because news of Bin Laden’s death came and I had no idea what to feel but sadness.

It took me five years to garner up the courage to go to the WTC site. I had driven past plenty of times having moved to New York for college 3 years after the attack. The WTC was right by the exit to the Holland Tunnel, so it was impossible to avoid whenever coming to and from school. Downtown NY was still a ghost-town, the streets lined with closed stores, lingering debris, and a haunted, lonely feeling. Back then you couldn’t go within 3 blocks of the area without escort.

Another two years passed and I finally went to pay my respects to Jeannie, and another victim I later learned about, Cathy Smith.  I had never met her. She was the domestic partner of a very important family member, though, and it was a situation that brought up the injustices for same-sex couples when it came to aid and compensation. Here we could walk up to the gates surrounding the site in designated areas. It was still a giant hole in the ground. But even then I could see the area starting to bounce back.

I wound up at ground zero this summer by accident, the first time I had been there directly since my last visit. Although I had been downtown a few times and it was.. inspiring, honestly, to see just how much has changed.

The area is alive again, completely. The memorial is well under way, with construction on the surrounding area making great progress. The building my dad worked in is still not open to be used, but it’s starting to look almost completely renovated. People were everywhere having lunch and going about their business.

While seeing this brings a lot of warmth to my heart, there’s a darkness I can’t ignore.

United We Fall?

In my eyes one of the worst tragedies of all is how we’ve changed, because in the past 10 years that unification and togetherness has all but shattered in the face of childish political schisms and abuse of power in the name of security. It’s sad because, in my mind, the terrorists have beat us. Bin Laden may now be dead, but our entire way of life has changed because of the dark intent of himself and his followers. We’ve lost a lot since 9/11. That unity is gone. We turn a blind eye constantly to our basic rights being invaded without question, and yet scoff at the idea of helping one another.  We squabble and slow down progress because nobody is willing to yield and compromise for the sake of moving forward. At times I am enraged but moreso I’m heartbroken because I know we can be so much better than this. I know it, because I saw it. I was there, on September 14th, 2001 when an entire nation swelled with pride and support in the face of trauma.

I don’t want to get too political. I understand that has a lot to do with it, but, in it’s basic form, a lot of this is social, too. We live in a world where we’re constantly informed, connected, and provided the outlets to discuss ideas. We have so much power to make a difference, a good difference, but we sit idly by regardless. Why?

I guess in the end, as we solemnly give our respect to the past decade, I hope that people take a moment to remember what it felt like back then and make better choices. And most importantly, not lose faith in our future. Because in the face of that reality, so much of what’s going on seems so petty and useless. I just don’t want it to take yet another tragedy, another natural disaster or attack on our home to bring us together again. We should just do that by default. We should be at our best at all times, not just when we’re in a crisis of any kind.

Anyway, this is for you, Manhattan. For all the years of triumphs and tragedies, you’re still an amazing, resilient kingdom.

The post September 11th, 10 years later. It still hurts. appeared first on IzzieBytes.

There are countless theories coming from as many sources, a good chunk of which are sometimes completely contradictory. Religious and scientific, personal and global.

I thought about it after reading an article from Deadspin linked by @Wired about how a robot apparently was able to write a better news story than a human. In the end, it isn’t particularly surprising that a program could create an automated report based on facts, data, and randomly interjected descriptive words. But it has people wondering; will human writers be replaced by robots? Is this the start of something we’ve seen way too many times in movies but coming eerily close to reality?

Everything evolutionary can be argued as an adaption for survival. Even some of the most beautiful displays mother nature has to offer have some sort of practical function. Attracting mates, pollination, camouflage. Very few creatures in the animal kingdom display a true creative flare; even less do it for no reason at all.

cogito ergo sum

Humanity’s ability to think creatively and innovate is what I feel TRULY sets us apart. There are still tons of other practical factors, of course. Our bodies’ efficient energy usage, for instance, as being bi-pedal helped us out-endure our prey. Advanced communication abilities. Our intelligence. And then we used tools to help us, we created machines to do what we couldn’t do ourselves, and we dominate the world to work for us. We were able to solve the problems that would otherwise have been our downfall. Irrigation allowed us to rely on plants for food, allowed us to become stationary and create communities. Domestication assured us we’d always have the meat or protection we’d need. This is both a blessing and a curse, but in the end it’s the idea of abstract thinking that I believe puts us ahead.

As an artist, I think the other large part of what makes us different is our ability to create for the sake of creation. At some point in our history, we started to draw pictures. Further down the line, the pictures no longer needed meaning. We create music, write stories, and express our emotions not for survival (although some may argue that in a therapeutic way, it is) but just because. We want to. It feels good. So we do it.

That’s what sets us apart from animals. But what about robots? What about AI?

Computers can do amazing things it’s almost frightening. They can even think, so to speak. Anything involving numbers and algorithms, formulas and facts, a computer can do better than most people. But what they cannot do, not yet anyway, is create. Not truly. Yes, we have robots who draw, but all that is really based on software with pre-set factors and/or  randomization at best.

It’s popular belief that the moment of eclipse when robots take over the world is when one can truly feel something real. Have an abstract thought, question existence, feel love or hatred. I wouldn’t disagree, however, I feel the pre-cursor to this evolution is when AI can truly create something new and beautiful and purposeless without being guided to do so by programing.  It’s a scary thought because while the idea of AI being able to think freely or feel emotion is a long-way off, their ability to be creative seems much closer to home and realistic. What if creation is the stepping stone to emotion?

I don’t know much about science or programming or AI, honestly. But I guess the whole human vs robot apocalypse isn’t so far-fetched after all. There still has to be a lot of factors to allow it to happen, of course. Free-thinking and creative software on its own can, at best, completely shut us out of the digital world. A social shock perhaps, yes, and westernized nations reliant on anything computerized will find themselves extremely vulnerable. But we still have the ability to go outside and farm ourselves food and hunt.

Svedka is turned on by the robo-pocolypse. You should be, too. Maybe. 

What the AI would need is the hardware (body) to function in, and manipulate its environment. It would also need a lot of bodies. Power in numbers, after all. Lastly, an unlimited power-source. So that’s the golden combination. Solar-energy powered self-thinking painterly robots en masse will be humanity’s downfall. One can only hope mercy is a part of that formula.

The post What Makes Us Human: Will AI ever fully replace the human mind? appeared first on IzzieBytes.

It actually didn’t make me want to kill myself:
http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=21940

This is always kind of a touchy subject, but it also sparks some interesting thoughts. I really like the way this writer explained her neutral view on things: why do companies think making games “female friendly” means having to cover them up more?

Don’t get me wrong, I think sometimes we have some extreme ridiculousness when it comes to female game characters.
Among some quick thoughts:

In retrospect, these girls make Lara Croft look saintly.

But is it that much different when Kratos runs around in a loin-cloth?

A lot of the places we see of the over-sexualizing of female characters in games also happens to be from our favorite nerd country, Japan. And while I don’t want to be the target of fanboy terrorism, cause I know some gamers hold Japanese games in high regard, but it’s also a reflexion of culture. Women in Japan are not as liberalized and independent as Americans are. And the way the Japanese deal with sexuality is a completely different story. Obviously, those cultural aspects are going to leak their way into their games.

I feel like American gaming definitely has come a long way. In fact, I feel like we never really had the issue with exploitation as badly as the Japanese have. Still, we do have to keep in mind that up until fairly recently the market was always geared to your 18-35 fan base. The companies have caught on that we ladies like games, too. But gearing games towards women doesn’t necessarily mean dumbing down the eye candy (it’s not like we don’t have our share of topless dudes to stare at), but more an education of the masses. Girls like games, we like the stuff in games that guys like. We like the bloodshed, kicking ass in combat, explosions and shooting zombies.

The issue is lots of people don’t realize that, and sometimes the guys expect or assume that we don’t. In return, a lot of the casual girl gamers themselves may not realize they would most likely also enjoy what makes a game tick, cause advertisements suggest it’s for guys. Sometimes, they don’t want to be open about it for fear of being poked fun at.

In retrospect, I also feel like guy gamers should take a step back and think “Is this really how I want the companies to feel about me?” The fact that catering to male fan base is assumed to be successful with lots of cleavage and bouncing boobs. I personally would feel super offended if game companies thought posting up a Brad Pitt clone with swords was supposed to make me want to buy a game. That could just be me, though, and it’s not JUST a gaming issue. Being in Graphic Design and dealing with advertisement, I would know. Sex sells.

I’ve always been open about being a chick online and in games, and I would defend myself to say it’s not for attention, but more a wake-up call to the people that, hey, girls play games, it’s not that big a deal. I hate special treatment, or comments in vent. Is it really that surprising? Really?

Helping boosts sales for the females is simply a matter of waiting it out and not making stupid assumptions. A growing up of the community is needed, but it’s already happening, so I think with time, that balance will come.

Random thoughts.
~Isa

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