Women Gamers and Writers

Just goes to to show that diversity, race- or gender-wise, is always good for the workplace.

Read this interesting article about Dragon Age writers changing their perspective on a story angle after some surprising feedback from a team member.

And this thought occurred as well: if this had been a team with no female perspective present, it would have gone into the game that way. Had that female writer been the lone woman, would her view have been disregarded as an over-reaction? A lone outlier? How often does that happen on game development teams, ones made up of otherwise intelligent and liberal guys who are then shocked to find out that they inadvertently offended a group that is quickly approaching half of the gaming audience?

Found this via Twitter.

Save the internets

This can't be good. In December there will be a conference called World Conference on International Communications where they might decide to oversee the internet. And apparently, Russia is really pushing for this.

Russia's proposals would, if adopted, dramatically affect Internet governance, transferring power from engineering-based organizations such as the Internet Society and ICANN to national governments, all under the authority of the UN.

Source: CNET

Thanks, judge!

Ok, so this is just .. creepy and weird.

A federal judge recently made a strange ruling.

A group of women are suing an employer, Honeybaked Ham, for sexual harassment. According to them, their manager "groped women under his supervision and made sexual requests of them. The woman say the corporate office failed to take action to stop his behavior after it was reported."

As per the ruling, these women would have to hand over their social media and email passwords.

This was because their company argued they needed vital info on these sites to help their case. Basically, it was suggested that the women had discussed the case or instances relevant to the case at hand.

Won't this stop women from coming forward with harassment complaints?

Read the full story at arstechnica.

So, apparently, this happened.

Israel started bombing Gaza last week. And they announced this on Twitter.

In fact, Israel bigwigs and Hamas spokesperson have been at each other on Twitter, with updates on latest attacks, info on damage done, etc.

You can follow their Twitter updates here.

It's actually pretty horrifying.

If you are on the run from the cops, typically you would lay low.

That's not what John McAfee is doing. While on the run from Belize cops, he has set up a blog chronicling his days in hiding.

He even talks about the disguise he uses and how he is doing his own investigation to clear his name.

The whole concept is so bizarre, I keep wondering if this is a publicity stunt for a show or a book or something.

Then again, maybe I should wait until he starts talking about tiger blood. That should be a telling sign of what he's been up to.

Found his blog, The Hinterland, via CNET.

Forgot to watch this. Did check out the first episode months ago.

It's a funny 3-part web series by David Hewlett and his sister, Kate Hewlett.

They play siblings who are running a dating site.

Friday Links

I have not posted for months now. Guess that's what happens when work gets a bit crazy.

This story popped up yesterday. A group of musicians are protesting a new copyright proposal called Internet Radio Fairness Act. Looks like they think streaming services need to pay out more monies, or something. Couldn't help noticing Megadeth is on the list. Of course they are on the list.

Various news about Terry Pratchett. Firstly, his daughter, Rhianna, will take over Discworld when he cannot continue working on it. Secondly, did you know The Watch is being made into a BBC series?! Oooooh!

Saw this on twitter. There is a heated debate going on about the 'fake geek girl' comments and stories popping up recently. Did you see the guy who said women should take a written exam before they can cosplay at cons?