The Nerdz Lounge.

http://www.ign.com/articles/2015/01/15/tom-hardy-drops-out-of-suicide-squad?read

Figures

 

Who's going to be watching the season premiere of 'Helix' tomorrow night on SyFy?

 

I'm watching syfy's znation on netflix

I won't be seeing helix until it returns

 

As in "tomorrow night"? Lol

 

As in 'until netflix airs season 2'

I have hulu and all but they don't air cable shows the following day like they do with network tv

 

That bites.

 

What do you think of ZNation?

 

I think it's purposely cheesy and doesn't take itself too seriously

It wouldn't make since for it to be a cookie-cutter syfy version of the walking dead...it has to be different

I knew the score when I seen fucking dj qualls in gotdamn army fatigues and zombie tornadoes lmao

It's not a bad show if you keep all that in mind

 

Right! I actually really enjoy it for all it's silly, over the top goodness. It's like a TV version Return Of The Living Dead. And actually, the plot is pretty sweet.

 

Seriously you have to give studios credit for putting their own spin on a show, in a genre that's been beaten to death

The walking dead serves it's purpose...we get it...you want us to believe theres no humor during the zombie apocalypse and everything is so gotdamn bleak and serious

Then you have znation with it's cadre of oddballs and nutjobs and whacky events

 

I actually like Z Nation way better. They actually have a purpose other than just surviving and were able to produce an original idea with the Murphy character.

 

They each serve a purpose

If you want a show where, as one of the characters said, it takes two people to take down one zombie....znation is for you

The game changes when one person can't take down a horde on their own

 

Gaming While Black

GAMING WHILE BLACK: RACISM TO CAUTIOUS OPTIMISM​

NPR's Planet Money reported last year on a culture shift in 1984 that drove many women away from pursuing computer science degrees. Computers were more readily available at stores that catered to men and advertisements pushed the narrative that these new-fangled home devices were made for men. Pop culture followed suit, depicting men as computer geeks in movies, books and journalism.

One thing that Planet Money found notable about computer ads in the 1980s was that they featured "just men, all men." Another aspect the ads shared was that they overwhelmingly starred a specific type of man: white.

Information about race in the gaming industry is hard to come by. The Entertainment Software Association doesn't address race in its Essential Facts about the Computer and Video Game Industry report, though it offers a fellowship program designed to encourage minority students to get involved in gaming. Most reputable diversity studies hinge on the breakdown of men and women in gaming, a hot issue in the current conversation – and a relevant one, considering the ESA estimates that women compose 48 percent of the consumer gaming market.

There is less conversation about the racial diversity – or homogeny – of game developers. The IGDA offers one of the most relevant summaries of race and ethnicity in gaming with the IGDA Developer Satisfaction Survey 2014, which collected responses from 2,202 developers worldwide between March 17 and April 28.

The IGDA found that 79 percent of respondents identified as white, while 2.5 percent identified as black. From a diversity standpoint, these numbers are better than the 2005 results, which found 83 percent of respondents identified as white and 2 percent identified as black. In nine years, the number of black developers in the gaming industry rose by just .5 percentage points. Compared to the numbers for women developers – 11.5 percent in 2005 and 22 percent in 2014 – this growth is particularly insubstantial.

"The games industry is hurting badly as a creative medium in terms of diverse voices," Treachery in Beatdown City developer Shawn Alexander Allen told me. "We don't see many prominent black or Latino (or really any other minority populace) representation in protagonists, critics, marketing or creators. I mention prominent because while many other cultural forms like music, movies and writing have a dearth of black voices, they at least have people who are out there making their culture better at all levels and are very visible."

​

Allen handled publishing aspects, marketing and minor game development duties at Rockstar Games from 2007 to 2012. He now owns his own studio, Nuchallenger, where he writes and designs. Nuchallenger's About section includes the following line: "The goal is to eventually build into a company that can help train, employ and empower those who do not have voices in the games industry."

Allen is biracial, black and white. He said he'd never experienced "outright harassment," but he described scenes from his time in the industry that contained elements of harassment, or at least subtle forms of racism. Last year at E3, for example, someone asked him, "What are you?"

"I have been the victim of disparaging remarks about my racial heritage, I've had to check numerous people for overuse of racial slurs even in context of them being relevant toward cutscenes in games, and I have heard of terrible interactions between higher-ups and other people where there was clearly race-driven lack of respect," he said. "I don't feel safe diving in too specifically for fear of reprisal from these abusers, should they stumble on this article, because the abuses are very specific instances from very specific people."

The stories Allen could tell probably wouldn't surprise Dr. Kishonna Gray. Dr. Gray is an Assistant Professor at Eastern Kentucky University's School of Justice Studies, and the founder and director of EKU's Critical Gaming Lab, a hub for researching the immersive online environments within console gaming. She studies gaming and harassment from the player's point of view.

"Most gamers of color have isolated themselves into private parties, private chats, or just don't engage verbally at all," Dr. Gray said. "And that's sad because they can't take full advantage of the gaming experience that they paid for. So what's happening is a virtual ghettoization of minority gamers. [...] Because a person's identity is automatically revealed when a person speaks, they are targeted. I call it linguistic profiling. As soon as someone hears how you sound, they engage in this practice. They hear how you sound and react based on that. So a lot of black gamers are called derogatory terms because of how they sound. They don't have to do anything but sound black."

Developer Dain Saint has directly experienced at least one instance of linguistic profiling while gaming. Saint's parents emigrated to the United States from Jamaica in the 1980s, and he's now co-founder of Auditorium studio Cipher Prime and a driving force behind the independent development scene in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. I asked him if he felt there were issues of racial inequality in the gaming industry.

"I'd love to say no, but the frequency with which I'm called a nigger by people while playing Counter-Strike begs to differ," he said. "It's worth noting that every slur thrown out on voice chat – 'nigger,' 'faggot,' 'pussy,' 'dyke' – is really code for 'different', in the same way that 'relatable' when spoken by a marketer is shorthand for 'straight, white and male.' But I don't think it's unique to the game industry at all. The racial issues we deal with are endemic in our society; just so happens the gaming industry is a part of society as well."

Dr. Gray's research agrees with that last bit.

"Gaming culture is a direct reflection of our society," she said. "The only reason racism and sexism run rampant in gaming is because racism and sexism run rampant in society. But in physical spaces, mostly, it's not overt. It's subtle. It's covert. So, yes, these issues manifest in a similar manner in gaming, but I contend that they present themselves worse. It's not subtle. It's in-your-face racism. A black person may not be called a nigger to their face, but they can almost guarantee it will happen in virtuality."

​

These virtual worlds tend to reflect the white male majority found in their development and audience, meaning representation of black characters in games is also anemic. A 2002 study from the Kaiser Family Foundation found that 56 percent of human characters depicted in games were white, and 22 percent were black – but 87 percent of all human heroes in games were white. The seven top-selling games specifically designed for children starred only white human characters, the report read. A separate study from University of Southern California Professor Dmitri Williams in 2011 studied 150 games across all platforms and ratings, and found that 10.7 percent of characters were black, though they were mainly athletes and gangsters.

In Joystiq's own Top 10 of 2014 list, none of the default, box-art characters are black – except maybe Shovel Knight and the Dragon Age: Inquisition cover character, both of whom are wrapped in full-body armor. One of Valiant Hearts' four human protagonists is black, though he's not featured in the box art, and both Sunset Overdrive and Dragon Age: Inquisition feature robust character customization options.

"The issues facing black players are the same issues that have been facing black people for decades – misrepresentation, stereotyping and latent prejudice," Saint said. "When Jason Richardson won Philly Geek of the Year, he talked about the fact that black nerds are often introduced as 'the whitest black dude I know' – as if it was impossible to be both black and nerdy (no disrespect to Weird Al). So I think there's this kind of unspoken rule that once you're 'accepted' into nerddom, the experiences that led you there become irrelevant. That kind of whitewashing prevents a lot of black stories from being told, and it's hard for the community at large to pay attention to issues they aren't even aware of."

The IGDA's 2014 report asked respondents, "Do you feel there is equal treatment and opportunity for all in the game industry?" Just 28 percent of responding developers selected "Yes." Forty-seven percent said, "No," the game industry did not offer developers equal treatment and opportunity. The IGDA notes that one black developer "was shocked that a colleague used the 'N' word at work without repercussions."
_____________________________

You can read more on this at this link: http://www.joystiq.com/2015/01/16/g...-cautious-optimism/?a_dgi=aolshare_googleplus

 

The more things change... I always get happy when I pick up a game that has the option of giving your character black skin and I love it when my son self-designs his characters that way.

And in case anyone is wondering, SyFy Fridays is kicking butt! 12 Monkeys was good and Helix is off to a great start.

 

If it's any consolation...when playing a basketball game online, the servers were populated with black guys (black guys dominating basketball online - surprise) making fun of the odd white guy who'd show up with a white character

It was quite different than the usual black bashing in games dominated by white players

And yes...I self design my characters to be black in every game I play.......because I'm black by popular demand

[YOUTUBE]4F1w2aiweJM[/YOUTUBE]

 

You need to rock some theme music when you make a statement like that.

 

Nah, I'm not real big on action comedy. ZNation works, but I much prefer TWD because it's more about the human condition. It's serious drama with the walkers being the back drop. I wanna be damn near depressed after each episode or I'm not pleased.

But, that's how I am though. I much prefer Star Trek over Star Wars because it tries to get at something deeper. Hell, even my favorite Trek episodes are the "talky" ones (A Measure Of A Man being at the top for me).

But, with that said, ZNation had me at the baby. I was hooked from then on. It was so absurd that it was cool.

 

Lol the rabid baby was fucking bananas

 

As long as the game industry is comprised of white majority developers in big gaming houses and the majority audience are white males, then you're basically getting one sort of perspective of a multitude of gaming genres. Even the Japanese, which are dominant, would create games where characters tend to be white or white looking. But the racism aspect and the sexism aspect do need to be addressed regardless, which is why I do have some sympathy for the likes of Anita Sarkeesian.

 

Yep me too.

When ever possible I always play as a black male character.

I remember when I played World Of Warcraft. someone messaged me, and asked me why my character was "black" (Human Shadow Priest) When I told him it was because I was black, he seemed genuinely surprised. He said he didn't think black people played those kinds of games.