The Gamer's Quarter

[Ryan - SuperWes' Bane]

Yeah, I just wanted to vent that I hate people that are so adamant about one system while never looking into the benefits or advantages of games on other systems. It's just retarded to say things like "Oh the PSP is sooooo much better than the DS" then the good games on PSP drop off and sweet games come out for the DS and they say "Oh I want at DS now!!!"

Retards ...

[Lackey]

And they prefer partners of the same sex!
_________________
| Little bird fighting against a bat sect game |

[dessgeega]

well, i'm queer, and the only console i'm loyal to is the pc engine.

so, if i may summarize your post, gay people are retards and you hate them.

now i'll summarize my post: get the fuck out of my forum. don't let the door hit your ignorant ass on the way out, kay?
_________________

[Zack]

It's very sad to see a joke trigger hatred. Comedians -- from professionals to nerdy kids -- are so transparently and desperately looking for acceptance. I was once in the audience for what must have been the most misbooked stand-up comedian in the world. It was totally unfunny. The entire audience hated him, including me. I wanted to feel sorry for him, but even in retrospect I could not overcome my hatred.

Comedy, even a throwaway comment on a forum, is a gamble, Ryan. You lost this one. Know your audience! That's more fundamental than proper timing, even.

[dhex]

don't you mean "slang" not "joke" ?

the issue here being a term which once meant of "a joyful nature or theme" and came to be a term of self-identification for homosexuals. then became a slang term of derision for the absurd/corny/negative.

which is the issue here.

even the term "retard" itself is a migration to slang, come to think of it. retardation being a medicalization of what used to be the domain of "slow," "moronic," "mentally deficient" and so forth. or, worse yet, mongoloid and mongoloidism, which as i've mentioned before was a reference to skin folds above the eyes - the word i was looking for was "epicanthal," proving once again if you don't keep your textbooks stay friends with people who did or happen to be anthropologists - and according to my ponytail'd source, mongoloid was once considered a polite euphemism itself.

Mongoloid, Caucasoid, and Negroid are all racial categorization terms which were once far more polite than the popular terms of the day, yet are now considered archaic at best.

now, what does this have to do with the present issue? nothing. i'm stuck at work abusing my large format printer, the rip is rebelling against me and all attempts to convince illustrator that my cmyk file is indeed cmyk and not an rgb file are failing. the point about politesse has already been made by desseega above.
_________________

[Zack]

I was using "joke" in a loose sense - an effort to make someone laugh and, in doing so, ingratiate oneself - and I stand by it. I want to believe that the original poster wrote what he did thinking that people would find it gently, modestly funny. Perhaps naive of me, definitely foolish of him. Thanks for the new vocabulary word, politesse.

The semantic shifts of gay and retarded aren't important. What's important is that the speaker and the audience were out of sync with each other. But I am curious ... how do Native Americans fit into the -oid system?

I should visit the introduction thread already.

... edited because i can't spell

[Swimmy]

I understand they would classify as mongoloids, having mostly decended from Asian nomads. I could be wrong, and that could be part of why it's considered archaic.
_________________

"Ayn Rand fans are the old school version of Xenogears fanboys."
-seryogin

[dhex]

near as i know, amerindian tribes would be mongoloid under the old system.

[SuperWes]

Just to clear things up, I'm actually fairly confident that the original post was intended to spark a conversation where we all start agreeing with Ryan that people with system biases aren't cool. I'm pretty sure we can all agree on that one.

The way he went about it - we'll just say it "lacked tact" to put it kindly. Zack is right about Ryan not knowing his audience, and - on a certain level at least - dess is right about the ignorance. What's very odd is that I happen to know that someone very close to Ryan is gay, and I think I know that because I've had this same conversation with him about not using "gay" in a derogatory manner.

The uprising in this thread should teach him at least one important lesson. Maybe he'll learn to know his audience before dropping the derogabomb in the future. I'd expect this at the very least.

Of course, the best solution to all of this would probably be to just throw a word fiter in that changes the word "gay" to "awesome". But then, what if we start talking about awesome games?

-Wes
_________________

[sawtooth]

Chou-Aniki was totally awesome. no, wait, I meant awesome.

change gay to INAPPROPRIATE PLEASE EDIT THIS WORD or something like that, maybe?

or change the word to a harmless non-sequiter (like, "cheeseburger"), but the covered-up word would be pretty obvious and the meaning would still carry through regardless.

[dark steve]

Just word-filtering it doesn't really address the actual objection. Far better just to warn or get rid of those people entirely.

[dessgeega]

i think "awesome" is a really great replacement for "awesome".
_________________

[Tablesaw]

[Ryan - SuperWes' Bane]

I think censorship is fucking stupid. I've grown up to the point where I"m sick and tired of being politically correct. People have been using gay, retarded, and what now for years and have NEVER meant it literally. People need to lighten up and not always take the words for what they seem to be. Using the word retarded doesn't mean SOMEBODY WITH DOWN SYNDROME. Using the word retarded means SLOW, as in TO SLOW DOWN A REACTION. You retard a reaction and thus slow it down ... duh. And well gay, jeez just lighten up. You damn well no I wasn't referring to homosexuals, and that the word gay was used in this context WELL before the whole Politcally Correct crap started.

If I wanted to offend people, I'd start throwing around racial slurs and talking about nazi's and blah blah blah. Honestly people . . . this is a video game forum and not the Oval Office. Don't feel like you need to appease everybody. I'm not trying to. I'm just trying to get my point across in a manner as wes described it. And yeah, my bro is gay . . . he doesn't like me saying that word either, but it just doesn't have the same context as that. It's more like a homonym these days. Gay can mean stupid, and gay can mean homosexual . . . but in no way does it mean stupid homosexual. Capish?

[Shapermc]

Just keep in mind that what is common to you may not be to others. Censorship won't happen here (unless it is something silly) but just keep sexually derogatory remarks out of conversation. It becomes offensive when someone takes offense to it. I won't have tolerance for truly sexually derogatory remarks. I do know that you were attempting to use it in a non-offensive manner, so I don't think we need to blow this out of proportion any further.

[Dracko]

This thread is totally awesome.
_________________
"This is the most fun I've ever had without being drenched in the blood of my enemies!"

[DonMarco]

No it isn't.

I would call it premature.
_________________
Collector of over 1,538 strategy guides. That's weird, right?

[Tablesaw]

[ApM]

A lot of us here are writers. Words are important to us.

It's funny how "gay" means "stupid", but "straight" means "honest".

Here's a sledgehammer to drive a point or two across.

But really -- to say something, have someone take grave, serious offense, and then to tell them that they are wrong to feel offended because people who take offense to that sort of thing are fucking stupid? That's flat-out jackassery, sir, and an apology is owed.

[Lackey]

The whole "politically correct" thing is a bit of a strawman anyway. Am I using strawman correctly? I'm always worried that I'm going to misuse it. I mean, I know what it means, I'm just not sure if it applies.

Anyway, I've always thought that calling someone a fanboy is like the contrary insult of calling someone pretentious. Are there any other videogame related epithets like these?
_________________
| Little bird fighting against a bat sect game |

[dessgeega]

[Dracko]

[dark steve]

[dhex]

no, you're not using strawmen correctly.

a strawman is a caricature of your opponent which is easily knocked down - i.e. "party x only argues for policy a because he thinks it will make puppies come out of the sky and serve everyone ice cream. everyone knows that puppies don't like ice cream" (this is assuming policy a has nothing to do with puppies or ice cream)

[Lackey]

I was thinking like, citing the term in order to associate someone's actions with the negative conotations of that term.
_________________
| Little bird fighting against a bat sect game |

[Zack]

[Faithless]

Whenever I see a thread developing on this topic, I always want to throw in my opinion ... but I really don't have one on it. I don't personally take offense to "gay" being used to describe "negative," despite the fact that I'm gay myself.

I'm also a working comedian, so I know that language is a weapon.

I guess what I'm saying is that if you do offend someone with the words you use, you should apologize to them. Even if that's frustrating. Then come up with another way to convey your ideas, and convert your audience with your wiser choices.
_________________
www.call-to-adventure.com
Don't Refuse.

[simplicio]

Ryan, slurs don't have to meant literally to be harmful. They just have to perpetuate a link between a population and a derogatory meaning. So ignorant kids pick it up and repeat it, and the LGBTQ members of their community have are stigmatized before they even have a chance to identify as such. That's how it starts and that's why it's so fucking damaging, because through little things like that, a homosexual is never given the opportunity to stand on equal ground with the rest of society. And because these slurs are socially accepted in an astounding number of communities (as opposed to racial or sexist remarks), you end up with an American society that's as grossly intolerant and ignorant as the one we live in today.

[Ryan - SuperWes' Bane]

I'm not really going to humor this discussion anymore. I feel my opinion is my opinion, and the forum's overall PUSH to get me to change will end fruitlessly. The words I used are not often used at all, but merely slang and used in sarcasm. My brother has learned you can't let everything piss you off, but to just take everything in stride and not out of context. Why can't you all mature to let things slide every once in a while? Staying on you high horse all the time preaching down to the peons below and trying to create a utopian society where everybody is nice to everybody and nobody is offended . . . well all you're doing is setting yourself up for a great big fall.

And also, those people belittling my intelligence because I used a few "vulgar" words. Get a life and lighten up. Why don't stay on topic of the thread.

[dhex]

[dark steve]

No one cares if you change. People want you to leave.

[sawtooth]

[SuperWes]

Hey, I have a good idea!

-Wes
_________________