Some notes on Bears In Games.

Episodes 2 and 3 are now up.





I think that I'm going to go for a once a week release schedule after this, as long as I can keep up with ideas for shows. I also might start making them a bit longer, but only if I have guest hosts with me; I can't really imagine myself blathering on about a game for more than ten minutes at a time! I've had a few offers for cohosts after my move to California, so that should be easier. I'm also all ears for any suggestions for future episodes, though my next one is going to be Fable II, as I've already captured all the footage that I need for it. It's also the first game that I'm going to cover which features textual, rather than subtextual, gay references.

I've also thought some about the practice of making really gay characters and flame-baiting out on XBox Live. When I play as Beanies, I'm not really flame baiting. I like Beanies as a character, and I love using a big bearish guy as a fast-moving fighter. As I say in the podcast, I'm absolutely lousy with the slow moving ones. I'm a bit of a button masher (combined with a thrower) so faster characters suit me better, offering generally easier-to-guess combos. As for HawkBear, I made him in order to create the gayest bear I could, just to see how it would turn out. I know from experience that putting him out there on XBox Live is asking for assholery. But think about this for a minute: I wouldn't get a word if I made a scantily clad chick. Yeah, I'm "asking for it" by going out and using this character, but within the context of the game, he's actually relatively clothed. Ivy's outfit has turned into a sliver of metal that barely conceals her watermelon-sized breasts, and rides up her ass. But such is the hypocrisy of the XBox Live user, I guess. And honestly, that was out of 20 or so matches that I recorded playing online, the only one with a negative reaction. Just goes to show that the average Soul Calibur player has a better head on his shoulders than the Halo or Call of Duty ones.

A vaguely related aside: in playing Project Gotham 4, I came across a woman whose alias was "LuvMyDoubleDs". She was in the midst of scolding another player for being a pervert about her alias. I suggested that perhaps her suggestive alias was the reason for such behavior, and she said something along the lines "Oh, make fun of my alias, how original."