I appreciate the fact that

I actually didn't poison the distillery because the rats terrify me and the game told me that fucking people's shit up would make the rat problem worse.

But ... but ... an old woman TOLD me to do it.

Also, yes, the rats are freaking terrifying. I LOVE that. Especially because people are largely non-threatening as you sneak up on them, strangle them and toss them into a pile somewhere. So I spend quite a lot of the game standing on boxes and squealing like I'm in a 1960s sitcom.

Also, again, SPOILERS, I was well impressed .

But the difference between lying in a game and lying over the internet or via text or whatever is much smaller.

Heh, yes :) As long as we're not leaping to "aaaaaahhh d'you see how we are DESENSITISED TO ATROCITY" ;)

I have been torturing and murdering my way across an entire city and I feel bad because I broke my word to an NPC.

If nothing else, it’s concrete proof that computer games have basically nothing remotely sensible to tell us about morality.

Hah! I guess it's just that games have gotten us used to murdering and stealing from NPCs, but not really lying to them. I'm sure if there were lots of games out there that consistently rewarded dishonesty and made honesty next to impossible, you wouldn't care about that either.

Also, if you think about it, murder and theft in games are far removed from their real-world counterparts; it's not like you can kill someone by clicking on them with your mouse (unless you're a drone pilot or something). But the difference between lying in a game and lying over the internet or via text or whatever is much smaller.

I actually didn't poison the distillery because the rats terrify me and the game told me that fucking people's shit up would make the rat problem worse. D:

(I'm OK with the dudes being shipped off to a mine with their tongues cut out because their bro was all conflicted about sending me to kill them so the way I see it he can fish them out of the family mine and give them whale oil-powered steampunk voiceboxes if he really feels so cut up about it.)

Dishonored just made me feel really bad in the completely arbitrary, totally nonsensical way that only computer games can...

Basically I'm on Mission 2 (yeah, steaming ahead with the game, as usual) and basically I've adopted a non-lethal approach because yay!stealth. Essentially you get given assassination targets and you either just whack them the good old fashioned way with Mr Pointy or Mr Twang (no, your folding sword and crossbow are not called Mr Pointy and Mr Twang but they totally should be) OR you can do some complicated shit to discredit them. I've been going the complicated discredit route although I'm starting to come to the conclusion that just killing the poor bastards is slightly kinder - since in the second mission I ended up getting the dudes shipped off to some mines somewhere with their tongues cut out.

(I can't tell if this deliberate aaaaah d'you see or just badly thought through)

Anyway, this is a tangent. In this particular mission, to go the non-lethal route, you end up making a deal with some guy whose brewery I'd happened to have casually poisoned last mission because some random old woman told me to. I felt like a bit of a heel, actually, because I was standing there trying not to look guilty and he was all like "and some fucker poisoned my brewery so now everybody has the plague, who would do that" and I was like "I have no idea. People are scum. *blink blink*".

The deal was: you bring me the safe combination of some rich art dealer and I'll help you deal with your assassination targets.
So I was like: right on.

Anyway, the way you get the safe combination out of the art dealer is by cheerfully torturing him in a brothel.

This I do with no qualms whatsoever.

I actually have trouble *stopping* torturing him, after receiving the safe code because it's a computer game and in computer games I turn into a psychopath. Not for any deeply insightful reason but because it’s fun.

So I'm blinking across the rooftops back to I TOTALLY SCREWED YOU OVER AND THEN LIED TO YOUR FACE ABOUT IT guy and suddenly I think to myself. Well. Technically he's asked me for the combination to the safe. I can give him the combination to the safe. But there's nothing to actually stop me emptying the safe first.

I am fully expecting the game to stop me pulling this sort of avaricious bullshit but I loot the safe and it’s a good haul. I even close the door and re-seal it. Then I return to Screwed Over Dude and he’s like “oh thanks, I can tell you’re a decent fellow, I’ll keep my end of the bargain, have a nice day.”
And it is at this point that I start to feel mind bogglingly guilty.

I have been torturing and murdering my way across an entire city and I feel bad because I broke my word to an NPC.

If nothing else, it’s concrete proof that computer games have basically nothing remotely sensible to tell us about morality.

Oh hey, I was checking this list of PoC Speculative Fiction authors Pear posted a while ago, and it has a link to another list: feminist texts written by women of color, which it turns out was originally compiled by a dear friend of mine. That's pretty neat.

which seems to be a really popular attitude

Well, there you go. He started there because it's a popular misconception, and while he didn't debunk it in general, he did debunk it as far as ViolentAcrez was concerned.

Yeah, but it sounded like the writer was starting from the premise that "the troll" and "the real person" were essentially two different people only tenuously connected, which seems to be a really popular attitude. I admit that I didn't read much further after that. :/

(After reading the rest of the article I was entertained by the news that apparently Gawker links are banned on a bunch of subreddits. But what about free speech! :( )

Well, the article does basically say later on that there pretty much was no separation between the two personalities.

Yeah, I thought that the thrust of the article was how the writer failed to find any respect in which the flesh and blood guy is any less horrendous than his online persona.

Because if you do something via the internet it doesn't count, right? It doesn't reflect on the REAL you, just the online you!

What the fuck.

Well, the article does basically say later on that there pretty much was no separation between the two personalities.

This part was good:

Under Reddit logic, outing Violentacrez is worse than anonymously posting creepshots of innocent women, because doing so would undermine Reddit's role as a safe place for people to anonymously post creepshots of innocent women.

I am OK with that.

The Reddit fallacy: free speech means freedom from any and all consequences or disapproval.

...I hoped to find out where the troll ended and the real person began.

Because if you do something via the internet it doesn't count, right? It doesn't reflect on the REAL you, just the online you!

What the fuck.

A man who made/ran numerous subreddits about violating women's privacy (including the infamous /r/jailbait subreddit) just had his privacy violated.

I find myself unable to treat this as much of a tragedy.

@Arthur

Yes the was awesome.

Also I love the way the steampunk aesthetic actually seems to imply workable technology. Like when you first arrive in the city and they move your boat up by flooding a lock, essentially.

I am LOVING this.

Especially now I have my talking heart....

Stupid not-posting link.

Apparently, Daniel Abraham will be co-writing a Star Wars novel:
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10151201849798713&set=a.414408798712.177165.67519418712&type=1

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_S._A._Corey)

Interesting...

I'm playing it now.

Despite not being allowed to play the damn thing, I quite liked this article about story, writing and game design in Dishonoured.

Whales? We've got whales.

Oh no I have discovered this list each entry of which leads to pages with many other entries with fascinating titles... I'm sorry, it's nothing personal. I just desperately need to learn the history of Brighton Pavilion. And textiles in Ghana. And life as a Roman Emperor. And polymers. And star comparison.

Help.

For a second, I thought this was about steampunk whales.

I'm a little disappointed.

NOT IN ENGLAND THOUGH.

*THROWS TANTRUM*

Well, Dishonored is out, but more importantly, so is the full Drunken Whaler song from the trailer.

What will we do with a drunken whaler, early in the morning?

Hah, my girlfriend is a fan of Marina Abramović and a fellow ex-Yu emigrant. She told me about "The Artist Is Present" exhibition a while back; I'll have to show her the simulator, she'd get a kick out of it.