Zeropoint

I'd love to have a sniper rifle in 25 x 137.
 
Have.
 
Not "shoot".

Good. I hope they all get caught and get the harshest punishment available under French law.
 
I also hope that the nations of the West, including the US, can find the moral courage to continue welcoming the Syrian refugees with open arms, instead of giving in to fear and hatred like Daesh wants us to.

I like my tauren female warrior. I originally went with the female tauren because I specifically wanted a holstein-patterned tauren and that coat wasn't available in male (not that you can see any of it now). Over time, the character design has grown on me and now I consider the tauren women to be quite attractive, and I enjoy seeing a depiction of an attractive woman who isn't a waif, and who dresses like her main fashion concerns are kicking ass and not getting hurt.

I wouldn't say that the female character designs "kill it for me". (The reason I'm not getting the game is that I don't like that genre of shooter, not because of anything to do with the character designs.) My initial reaction to the female characters was to appreciate their sex appeal, even--especially the one showing some thigh, Symmetra. It's just that after having someone point it out, I can take a step back and agree that yeah, the designs ARE a bit sexist, when they didn't have to be.
 
 
I don't find any of the female character designs offensive individually, in much the same way that there's absolutely no problem with any individual game having a muscular 30-something white male with a crew cut for a protagonist. When you start seeing the same thing over and over and over again, though, then it looks lazy and unoriginal at best.

I missed a few posts while I was composing my last one.
 
 
That's a big part of it--I would argue that the cliches they're following have been informed by sexist attitudes.
 
 
Not gonna lie, part of the reason I like her design is seeing a different flavor of sexy. The only thing I don't find hot about her is my fear that a woman with a physique like that wouldn't be interested in a flabby nerd like me.
 
 
Not really, but when all the women have the same pinup girl body, it starts to look a bit odd.
 
 
Yeah, the fact that 4/5 of the original women are dressed in skin-tight, curve-hugging outfits that are designed more to show off their bodies than to look practical (and even Pharah's power armor leaves NO doubt about the sex of the person wearing it). This kind of costuming design makes it look like the designers think that a woman's first priority on the battlefield should be looking sexy for the men watching them.

I'd play a game with a female Link working to save Prince Zelda . . . I wouldn't mind a female Link and a Princess Zelda either, but that would be for other than dramatic reasons.
 
Regarding the whole "Ms. Character" phenomenon and why it's bad, it seems to me that it's because it treats "being female" as being in this weird space where it's simultaneously considered a noticeable difference but also only cosmetic. We get "Regular Batman" and then, for example, "Steampunk Batman", "Medieval Batman", "Future Batman", and . . . "Female Batman". I can see why women would be upset about having their gender applied as a gimmick. How would we men feel if, instead of having Ant-Man, we had "Mr. Wasp"? "He's just like the Wasp, except he's MALE . . . and can't fly." Would we Caucasians find it appropriate if a new comic character was explicitly positioned as "the white Luke Cage"?
 
(Okay, I have to admit that those examples don't really hit home, because "male" and "white" are positions of relative privilege, so those of us in those categories don't really feel the pinch of prejudice like minorities do.)
 
On another topic, does anyone else find the character designs for Blizzards new game "Overwatch" to be a little problematic?

I'd play a game with a female Link working to save Prince Zelda . . . I wouldn't mind a female Link and a Princess Zelda either, but that would be for other than dramatic reasons.
 
Regarding the whole "Ms. Character" phenomenon and why it's bad, it seems to me that it's because it treats "being female" as being in this weird space where it's simultaneously considered a noticeable difference but also only cosmetic. We get "Regular Batman" and then, for example, "Steampunk Batman", "Medieval Batman", "Future Batman", and . . . "Female Batman". I can see why women would be upset about having their gender applied as a gimmick. How would we men feel if, instead of having Ant-Man, we had "Mr. Wasp"? "He's just like the Wasp, except he's MALE . . . and can't fly." Would we Caucasians find it appropriate if a new comic character was explicitly positioned as "the white Luke Cage"?
 
(Okay, I have to admit that those examples don't really hit home, because "male" and "white" are positions of relative privilege, so those of us in those categories don't really feel the pinch of prejudice like minorities do.)
 
On another topic, does anyone else find the character designs for Blizzards new game "Overwatch" to be a little problematic?

I still think that Mark Hamil's joker was the best one. Heath Ledger was good, and that whole franchise was an interesting take on the Bat-verse, but the "Batman: the Animated Series" version is going to be hard to dethrone as THE Joker for me.

I still think that Mark Hamil's joker was the best one. Heath Ledger was good, and that whole franchise was an interesting take on the Bat-verse, but the "Batman: the Animated Series" version is going to be hard to dethrone as THE Joker for me.

I still think that Mark Hamil's joker was the best one. Heath Ledger was good, and that whole franchise was an interesting take on the Bat-verse, but the "Batman: the Animated Series" version is going to be hard to dethrone as THE Joker for me.

Wow, I knew that the Pancor Jackhammer was a rare gun, but I didn't know that there was only ONE in existence! Thanks for the video link, Freakboy6117.

Well, next time I'm up around Powell's City of Books, I'm going to get myself a copy of "Dark Beyond the Stars".

If they brew illicit alcohol in a moon colony, will they have to call it earthshine?

If they brew illicit alcohol in a moon colony, will they have to call it earthshine?

Wait, what are time flies? Are they like Langoliers, or related to clock roaches?

But that's where I keep all my stuff!

All penguins, ostriches, emus, kiwis, and cassowaries in India will be issued personal ultralight aircraft.

It's like a girl's Trapper Keeper, but without the cheesiness!

It's like a girl's Trapper Keeper, but without the cheesiness!

It's like a girl's Trapper Keeper, but without the cheesiness!

Well, that doesn't make me feel any better about being 38 and not having my four-year degree yet.
 
Good for him, though.

If wireless bandwidth were cheaper and more available, we could also start wearing cameras ourselves, and stream the video to a more or less secure server somewhere. Maybe include a panic button that would signal the server to put the video (starting a minute prior to the button press) up on a web page and send out alerts unless a password is entered to cancel. Be sure to have the "wrong password" result for this look and act exactly like actually canceling, to make it harder for the cops to force someone to stop the broadcast. No more of this "confiscate your phone" business; by the time you make that "request" it's already too late.

If wireless bandwidth were cheaper and more available, we could also start wearing cameras ourselves, and stream the video to a more or less secure server somewhere. Maybe include a panic button that would signal the server to put the video (starting a minute prior to the button press) up on a web page and send out alerts unless a password is entered to cancel. Be sure to have the "wrong password" result for this look and act exactly like actually canceling, to make it harder for the cops to force someone to stop the broadcast. No more of this "confiscate your phone" business; by the time you make that "request" it's already too late.

If wireless bandwidth were cheaper and more available, we could also start wearing cameras ourselves, and stream the video to a more or less secure server somewhere. Maybe include a panic button that would signal the server to put the video (starting a minute prior to the button press) up on a web page and send out alerts unless a password is entered to cancel. Be sure to have the "wrong password" result for this look and act exactly like actually canceling, to make it harder for the cops to force someone to stop the broadcast. No more of this "confiscate your phone" business; by the time you make that "request" it's already too late.