Ginger_Warrior

How is it not discriminatory? You're using a term which is discriminatory by definition. Behaviour doesn't necessarily have to be offensive for it to be discriminatory, it simply has to be targeted against one certain group. The word used in that screenshot is discriminatory without doubt because it specifically targets homosexual men as the butt of the joke.

The Nintendo fan base is a powerful one. We'd do anything for that company, ANYTHING! But I have to agree and say it's time Nintendo drop the large hardware. Nintendo has a strong foothold in handhelds with the PSVita looking like Dreamcast right now. I'll buy a WiiU no matter what; I love Nintendo. But I really think they should make games for their handles, tables, phones, and the other two consoles. I'd even drop into PC. I think heading that way would get more 3rd things they can say "Look, here is some 3rd party content we published from [insert indie gamer here] coming to you 3DS along with Pokemon." Imagine the sales they would receive. They survived this E3 playing it safe but next E3 will not be pretty. The main problem with this argument is that a lot of Nintendo's innovation at the moment seems to be centered around the features which are, at the time, unique to its consoles. That's been the case ever since the DS was revealed. Touch screens, two screens, microphones, styluses... these were all things that were radical in handheld games console design at the time and provided new tools to expand their games development with. When I say that, I'm thinking of games like Wario Ware: Touched! and The World Ends With You. The Kinect on the Xbox was arguably in direct response to Nintendo's success in the "casual" market with the Wii's motion sensor--a feature that was totally ridiculed when it was revealed in E3 2005. I would argue if you took away Nintendo's ability to design its own consoles, and limited them to Sony and Microsoft's consoles, you would greatly limit the creative options for its independent development teams, and ultimately that first party line-up would suffer massively for it. I had a longer post typed up but the glorious 4th mouse button took it. Anyway, basic idea was I expected something much substantial, like more info on Legend of Zelda, or Metroid, or a new IP in general, or what have you. Maybe even updating an old IP that hasn't seen much love (hint, F-Zero! Starfox! Even Ice Climbers!). I knew they were doing a new 3D Mario game, etc. I own a Wii U and have arguably the top three games for it so far (Lego City, NSMBU, and Nintendoland). I haven't touched it in a while because there's no reason to. There were two LoZ's on offer today, so I think that example is unfair, but I agree that Nintendo have become more... insular. Today's conference wasn't courageous in the slightest. For sure next year, they need to be bolder with some of their other franchises. There's only so many times you can appeal to LoZ, Pokemon, Mario and SSBB before people realise its the same trick being pulled on them again and again.

I wasn't really asking you to justify using that language in a private place. I was saying that the use of such language, whether it's in private or public, as a joke or otherwise, is itself an example of discriminatory behaviour. Once you've established that, it really isn't hard to understand why people outside the group (read: Jagex) might feel that the language is therefore inappropriate, although I agree with Alaz's point that muting people doesn't necessarily solve anything.

So you admit that in that situation, he shouldn't choose to be part of your group of friends because he's gay and because he'd take offence at your homophobic sense of humour, but you won't admit that that situation has only come about because of your own personal discrimination. I think you're trying to have your cake and eat it there. My point is that there are a dozen other ways to achieve the humour that's being attempted in that screenshot, but the choice of a term that is specifically homophobic is an interesting one. Especially when this is subsequently described as simply being "fun".

You make an excellent point, which is why anyone who says "Nintendo are dead because the Wii U is failing", I simply cannot take seriously. Nintendo have been surviving off the back of their handheld gaming success and first party titles since 1997.

Is it really ever appropriate to pass off homophobic language as "fun", even with friends? Doesn't that just encourage and reinforce discrimination and oppressive behaviour against homosexuals at a personal level? I'm not really making a point about Jagex here, I agree that we don't need Jagex to treat us like babies, I'm just querying your definition of the word "fun" and how that represents your clan/friend chat. Let's say that Joe, a gay man, enters your friend chat and sees that "banter"... does it continue to be appropriate then?

Today I had to kill a slug by pouring table salt on it. Euugghh... disgusting. I also found out my next nursing placement will be in GU medicine. Lots of sexually transmitted infections. Loovely.

Out of interest, what more did you expect from Nintendo? It feels like for the past six or seven years (since the Wii got released, basically) Nintendo have repeatedly been accused by people "expecting more".

Currently have a Wii, a DS and a 360. Haven't played the Wii in years, the DS is also outdated now, Pokemon Black was the last game bought for that in 2011. Bought the 360 eighteen months ago, mostly for Reach. That was the first non-Nintendo console I bought and at the time, I thought it was a massive step away, but looking back I think I've realised that I miss handheld gaming and I miss Nintendo, if the truth be told. I still like Halo but I feel like it's expendable now, and I haven't taken to Xbox's games like I expected I would do; I've grown up, my life has changed and the way I play games has changed with it, so Nintendo just suits me more now. I don't really want to work hard all day to come home and compete hardcore in online MM, I want games that "dream" along with me and relax me. That's why I've enjoyed playing MineCraft so much over the past twelve months in XBL Arcade. On that note, I'm really overjoyed that the new Animal Crossing game got such great reviews. Probably buying a 3DS first, then a Wii U later, knowing that although I'll miss out on the full range of third party games on the Xbox One and PS4, I'll still get some. E3 was never likely going to influence my decision because those reasons are more personal.

Well apparently LoZ: Link To The Past 2 was renamed to LoZ: A Link Between Worlds, and they even had a trailer for it, which looks absolutely gorgeous: But they didn't put it in the Nintendo Direct recording. Beats the [bleep] outta me.

My stance on the Nintendo Direct: lots of old rope for people like me who've always gained enjoyment from Nintendo games, precious little to attract new customers. They seem to have moved focus away from the "casual" market, at least during conferences like this, saying that Wii Party U and Wii Fit U were delayed for "new features", with no attempt given to explain what those features were. Perhaps they no longer see conferences like these as being particular effective at targeting its casual market; the focus on casual games has traditionally angered "hardcore" Nintendo gamers before. New Pokemon games, 3D Mario for the Wii U, Donkey Kong Wii U, LoZ: Wind Waker Wii U, Mario Kart Wii U... lots of first party development as predicted, but we already knew about all of those (the DK title came as a small surprise from the Retro studios). Several of those titles also scheduled for 2014 releases. The most significant moment for me was Bayonetta 2. Here's a hack and slash series that was never released onto the Wii, which only saw action on PS3 and 360. Now it's a Wii U exclusive. The title getting most excitement is, quite rightly, the new SSB for both consoles... a tried and tested formula, very successful in its own right, looks visually gorgeous, new characters. I felt like there wasn't enough there to fend off two new console releases (especially given the delays to expected Q3/4 2013 releases back to 2014, and SSB's expected released date 2014), even as disastrous as one of those consoles seems to be. On the other hand, however, we don't know for sure which way the next generation will go. If, as consumers, we continue to look for new, exciting and fun ways to play games, Nintendo are certainly the most innovative option on the evidence of this year's E3 conferences. However, if we decide we've had enough of the gimmicks and want to go back to basics (racing games, dark-themed shooters), then Sony's package is definitely better.

God forbid a high reward, high risk minigame in Wilderness carry the risk of other people PKing you. What's all that about?

Aiel's point was less about public ownership of communication (which does happen, contrary to your misguided insistence that it does not) and more about self-responsibility. In other words, if I find something offensive, there's an ignore list, there's a report button, there's a chat filter... it doesn't require a third party holding my hand to determine what I find offensive, if indeed, I even find it offensive in the first place (re: Leik's post). Fine, they have every right to do whatever they want in terms of censorship, but it doesn't make any practical or pragmatic sense to do so, and there's easily an argument to suggest it's a collective responsibility of everyone to promote respectful behaviour and shun abusive behaviour, rather than being solely the responsibility of Jagex.

FIFA 14 announced to be on all platforms including the Wii... but not the WiiU. Only reinforces the perception that Nintendo fails to connect with the "mainstream" gaming market. PS4's surprisingly low pricing means that Nintendo will surely be forced into either a price reduction on the WiiU (this is already happening at the retailer level), or some fairly generous bundles, using their first-party line-up to charm people instead. One hour until the conference starts, there's already a massive amount of expectation on Nintendo to roll out Mario, Link, Pikmin and co., even more so than usual. Also, perhaps this conference is significant to the future of E3. No awkward stage "banter"; no half-arsed speeches aimed to deliver at gamers, shareholders and corporate suits alike; a pre-recorded message which will likely not answer as much as people would be happy with, and will probably leave more questions to be answered at future conferences which Nintendo has more control over.

Erm... Royal Mail is government-owned, and I see no issues around "freedom of speech". Before you raise the "private sector" card, a lot of them do their business through Royal Mail.

He was being flippant. It probably takes more than a few hours too but, certainly less than a day, sure.

Aww... you're telling me there's no spinach rolls any more? :P

People won't be happy because it's essentially an XP nerf, but it did need drastic changes.

There's a theory around genetics and telomeres losing their effectiveness at preventing DNA deterioration more as the body ages but I haven't found anything even bordering on evidence for that (Downs Syndrome obviously being an example of genetic disease).

Did you mention pain relief? If it's a joint injury, apply normal Rest Ice Compress Elevate and take ibuprofen (so long as you're not asthmatic).

I just caught up with the price tag on the Xbox One. I'll reduce this into US dollars so most of the forum users here can understand just how much of a rip-off this is if you're non-American: US price: $499 UK price (GBP to USD): £429 leading to $668 That's a whole extra 33% onto the console, and we haven't even begun to discuss how much it will cost to own some games. Or... not own some games as the case may actually be. The price is actually more expensive than the PS3 launch, whose disastrous performance was blamed solely on pricing themselves out. Nintendo will always be fairly steady because its franchises, but surely the goal is wide open for PS4 now, having already confirmed no DRM and a sub-400 GBP price tag.

I have another suggestion: [hide][/hide]

Perhaps this isn't the right thread but... Less than 1,500 people were playing the main slayer playlist on H4 yesterday morning when I logged on. There are very few people who will argue the Halo franchise is a major player in the online competitive FPS scene. H4 was flawed on release in so many small ways, it definitely felt like a case of "too many chefs". More time is now spent playing Reach than H4, which just about sums up how much of a disaster H4 was and how much trust people lost in 343. They may as well focus on story-telling and lore because, if truth be told, no-one except Halo fanboys (myself included) gives a shit about Halo MM.

I usually do my Vyre tasks because it provides bodies to burn for the flail/blisterwood boost but, if I had already cremated 500, I wouldn't be bothering. It's easily one of my worst tasks experience rate-wise. Which I suppose is counter-intuitive but... hey hoh.