An open letter

I haven't been buying it for months.

omg me too!

Twins! (Triplets?)

You know, I really hope that it does turn out to be a good game. Tomb Raider is one of the few game series with a female protagonist. And I was excited when SE said that this was the game where Lara actually gets human proportions. Then again, I should've expected some sort of disaster. Just look at Other M.

HUEHUEHUEHUE

Has anyone else not played it yet? I've been a little busy tonight so I haven't had a ton of time to not play it, but from what I haven't seen so far it hasn't really got its hooks into me yet.

It's riveting. I think I've never had so much fun not buying and not playing a game.

GOTY

I'm not buying it for PC, 360, and PS3.

Now you're just some Lara than I used to know?


fuck gotye but this was too easy

Sadly, I can't. I went to Best Buy to not buy it, but it wasn't there. They don't sell PC games anymore, for buying or not buying. How am I going to not buy it?

This sucks.

I gathered up a few of my favorites screenshots. These are pretty good at showing some of the stuff I won't be doing in the game.

Here's a pic of that one time I wasn't lost and confused someplace outside a tomb:


Here's when I wasn't playing nurse for this guy, whoever he is. I'm not even wondering if he lives:


I'm totally not falling prone here, or flailing around waiting to get beaten to death:


And this one is my favorite, obviously one of the most thrilling parts of this game I'll never experience. Can you see the grit? Can you? There's grit everywhere!

All I see is rain. I don't remember the last game I didn't play that had that much rain in it. That t-shirt's gonna get wet.

I have no idea if those last two screenshots are chronological, but it almost looks like Lara Croft defeats lucks out and escapes her attacker by falling through the floor and into a cave. I don't think they're directly chronological though, since Lara's wearing less clothing in the latter pic.

Maybe her attacker tried to grab at her at the last moment before she took her plunge and only ended up with a handfull of grey shirt for his effort.

You know, Kerzain, I think you're just the guy to do a Let's Not Play for this game. Whaddya say?

I was actually thinking that I wasn't going to stream it live, as I don't play it. Assuming that there's no interest, of course!

I'm way ahead of you. I didn't preorder it MONTHS AGO!

I wouldn't be all over that!

Man, another one for my not-playing backlog. This is getting insane! I guess I'll put it first in line so I can not-play at the same time as all the kool kids.

If you haven't started not playing it than you're already WAY behind. I've got some mad cheevos for my not playing achievements already.

You might as well not even start not playing it at this point, you'll never catch up to the rest of us.

Indeed. If you're not already not playing, you'll never be able to not buy and play the DLC during the Steam winter sale.

Can somebody not gift this to me? I don't have enough cash at the moment to justify not spending money on it.

I would not give likes to someone who did a "Let's Not Play" of this game so that I couldn't pretend I wasn't interested in not playing it. A little.

You people need to go to jail for beating this joke to death.

I don't know how I'll fit it in with Duke Nukem Forever, Grimoire, and the Postal series occupying so many spots on the list already. Maybe I need to skip not playing it.

I'm not playing a beta of it right now, suckas! Too bad about the Disclosure Agreement.

Not gaming related, but topical and deserves a "fuck yeah!" anyway.

This Is What A Victoria's Secret Sabotage Looks Like
http://www.businessinsider.com/is-this-what-victorias-secret-sabotage-looks-like-2012-12

Monday at noon, journalists and Victoria's Secret social media fans were told that the lingerie line was promoting a new campaign: the "consent revolution" that "promotes consent to fight rape in new panties."

A new website featuring women with various body types (as opposed to the highly photoshopped norm) called Pink Loves Consent explained how although previous thongs read "No Peeking" and "Sure Thing," new ones would say "No Means No" and "Ask First."

After doing some digging, Jezebel's Katie Baker found out that the new campaign to increase rape culture awareness was, unsurprisingly, a hoax. Although the woman posing as Molly Reagan, "Media Relations with Victoria's Secret's new PINK loves CONSENT line" assured baker that this was legit, Victoria's Secret owner Limited Brands said that it was not, in fact, an official campaign.

"My only complaint is that you can't actually buy anything off the site, because now I kind of want some underwear that says "respect" on the crotch," Baker wrote.

Reading these two words next to each other makes me nauseous.

It should. That's the point.

I don't think it's an effective way.

Would you prefer something gentler? Would you prefer "The normalization of sexual violence through media"? Would you prefer "We don't talk about touching people's nonos in a way they don't want?" How about "Those girls who said Rihanna should shut up and Chris Brown can beat them any time he wants"?

We use the term "rape culture" because that's what it is, a cultural norm that allows for sexual violence and rape and even encourages it at times. It should bother you, it's a bothersome thing that's hard to hear and hard to process, but to rename it because it makes people uncomfortable is a disservice to its victims.

Just like shell shock became battle fatigue and that became operational exhaustion and finally post-traumatic stress disorder, sometimes you lose the necessary impact when you soften the term.

You're right! I never got the point in the 4 decades I've existed without hearing that particular phrase (and I went to a flaming liberal, heavily feminist college - maybe I was just lucky).

There's a point where preaching at the target drives the choir away.

Fortunately, "rape culture" isn't that point for anyone but you.

Good. Seeya later.

Nonsense. It just sets them off into an MRA-blessed fugue.

Wow. I admit to being disgusted by a phrase I've never encountered before and find excessive and fall out of lockstep so much some of you think I should be relegated to the MRA ghetto or I'm part of the problem.

Nice.

It's less "admit" and more "declare and assert". It's fine if you don't like the term; if you want your opinion to actually be considered, try responding to peoples' substantive criticisms of your position with substance instead of whining.

The substantive criticism has been "Good." and ZekeDMS saying that softening it would weaken it. I thought I was clear that I think it's still too strong, though I don't have an alternative phrase to hand. Conceptually, there is a phrase that is a step too far - we're just differing if "Rape Culture" is it.

And if we avoid whining bits, what forum will survive?

Right, so Zeke did, in fact, provide substantive criticism, which you didn't bother actually engaging (shit, I can't even tell what the first half of your post in reply to him means) and we apparently agree that you're whining.

Maybe if you want to go dig up evidence one way or the other? Since you obviously hold an opinion which other people disagree with, and care enough to post about it? I've neither seen studies nor experienced anecdotes which align with your claims.