RPG Writer, Chris Avellone, Strikes a Righteous Blow Against #MeToo
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 03/26/23 at 03:22 PM CT
It seems like everything terrible that could happen did happen in 2020. In addition to the pandemic and race riots, there was a major uptick in the usage of the hashtag #MeToo to, allegedly, give women a voice they didn’t have to speak out against those who had sexually assaulted them. Unsurprisingly, accusations came crawling out of the woodwork, flying gratuitously across the warped, surrealist landscape of Twitter.
Of course, even though we really just want to be left alone to enjoy our nerdy hobbies, gamers – specifically Role-Playing gamers – were dragged into the #MeToo debacle due to the accusations of sexual misconduct leveled at Chris Avellone, a long-time writer in both the cRPG and tabletop RPG spaces, giving him a legendary curriculum vitae featuring some of the biggest titles and IPs in gaming (plus a few blunders, but nobody’s perfect).
In 2021, Avellone was forced to respond to the increased pressure and Cancellation attempts placed on him by the public …
Of Games and Passes and the Intersection Thereof
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 03/19/23 at 02:31 PM CT
Microsoft has had a shockingly good few years recently with regard to positivity surrounding their gaming endeavors. Perhaps they have finally managed to shake off the stigmata of their terrible early versions of Windows and their identity as primarily an office-based software developer, as more and more people forego office PCs and just do everything on their phones. Regardless, for the first time that I can remember, Microsoft has a bona-fide legion of fanboys trolling the Internet gaming communities.
What do these fanboys do? Why, they sing the praises of Gamepass, of course! Or, as they refer to it, “The Best Deal in Gaming.”
Xbox Gamepass debuted in 2017, at the beginning of the 9th Generation of console gaming. The service is a unique take on gaming, which erodes the audience’s investment in gaming products by providing an all-you-care-to-play buffet of heavily DRM’ed, lightly-curated digital game downloads for Xbox (and/or Windows) in exchange for a $15/month …
He’s Everywhere VII!: MOAR Pokemon Edition
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 03/11/23 at 03:30 PM CT
It’s March, again, and that means MeltedJoystick’s favorite fur-bearing, idiosyncratic cryptid, Chris, is another year older, and another year more set in his ways. Last year, I listed a number of D&D “Monster Manual” denizens that remind me of Chris, but this year, I’m going to do a sequel to the second ‘He’s Everywhere!’ blog post from way back in 2017, when I listed the 10 most Chris-like pokemon. Of course, there are always more pokemon being added to the Pokedex, so it’s unsurprising that there are a number of new Christophers in the mix (plus a few I may have skipped over the last time around).
10. Galarian Stunfisk (#618)"Stunfisk is a circular, flat pokemon that exists primarily to get stepped-on. The Galarian variant, however, is, like every other Galarian variant, a bit more nasty and vindictive (like Chris), adapting itself with steel spikes reminiscent of a bear trap. So, while it still exists to get stepped-on, it’ll ruin the day of the thing doing …
Review Round-Up: Winter 2022
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 03/05/23 at 02:19 PM CT
Welcome back to another installment of the MeltedJoystick Review Round-Up. Here’s what our staff has reviewed since last time:
Nelson’s Reviews:
I got off to a roaring start in 2023, finishing 10 games, including ALL of my Backlog Ablutions before the end of February. Unfortunately, most of what I played turned out to be mediocre or crap. What a strange world we live in, where a series of retro hentai games managed to outshine everything except for the excellent – and previous MJ Game of the Year winner – “Psychonauts 2.”
“Battletoads (2020)” – 1.5/5
“Thronebreaker: The Witcher Tales” – 3/5
“Tower and Sword of Succubus” – 4/5
“Midnight Castle Succubus” – 4.5/5
“Sable” – 2.5/5
“Just Die Already” – 2/5
“Ocean’s Heart” – 4/5
“Castle in the Clouds DX” – 4/5
“Psychonauts 2” – 4.5/5
“Eiyuden Chronicle: Rising” – 3/5
Chris’ Reviews:
Chris got a good start on his Backlog Ablutions already, …
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