I like your version of the future, and would love to live in it.
However in my present, every ninety seconds, somewhere in America, someone is sexually assaulted. Tens of thousands of girls and women are trafficked for sex, and one out of 3 women are sexually assaulted in their lifetime.
Our society is fucked up around sex. It's not LSL's fault, but it certainly isn't helping.
It pisses me off that someone is trying to raise 500 thousand dollars to put LSL on an iphone. Is it their right? Yes. But it pisses me off.
I'm actually a little confused. You list some very negative things, which I strongly deplore, and then you say it "isn't LSL's fault, but it certainly isn't helping". Those are, indeed, very negative things! But...
A lot of things can be described as not being at fault, but not helping reduce the number sexual assaults in America. Apple pie. The Toyota corporation. Cows. Vegetarians. The colour blue. If LSL really isn't at fault, as you say, then why is it problematic that it isn't helping? Just because it has sexual content? I don't understand. Doesn't your criticism apply to, well...almost everything in life? (But especially almost every PG or higher rates movie and a huge number of television shows? Most of which have vastly higher budgets?)
(There's also, of course, the question of whether this is even a useful avenue of attack. There is some - confusing and contradictory, admittedly - evidence that violent games reduce violent crime, and pornography reduces sexual assaults. We have a lot of experience trying to repress basic human nature, and we have very little evidence that it ever works.)
Edit @rogerbruan: I've certainly been accused of being overly literal before. :) Still...
The original comment said that LSL isn't at fault. You're saying that it is a part of problem. I'm not sure how to square those two ideas. Either LSL fosters sexism, rape culture, and sexual assaults, or it doesn't. If it does, then it's at least partly at fault for these ills, and if it's not, then it's not bad for society, right? Still, I think you're broadly right: The original commenter was trying to blame LSL, and just phrased it oddly.
You are taking this too literal. "LSL isn't helping" means that it perpetuates a view of women and dating that is bad for society. I know it is a parody, but even so, it is a small part of the larger problem we have with sexism in our society.
LSL was never the most politically correct game out there, granted.
On the other hand IIRC the game was basically about some loser who thought he was a stud but was outwitted at every turn by smarter women.
I played some of the games when I was probably a little too young but if anything they showed me that sex was something that could be laughed about and that things in the sexual marketplace were not always what they seem.
In any case it's content was pretty tame, far far more hardcore stuff is only a google search away.
It was precisely from countless discussions like this that I began to see my sexism. Through patient, non-judgmental, and intelligent discourse, I started to see how I was trained by our society to see women differently, and how my often well-intentioned choices were hurting the people I care about.
I am really really grateful for discussions like this. Messy? Yes. Useless? Hell on.
The exercises I've suggested for others applies universally, I reckon.
1) Oral communication: Advertise your office/skype/mobile phone number in your sig or any comms with colleagues. Then solicit them to phone you for any reason. You will get calls. Then talk to them instead of letting it go to voicemail.
2) Written: Prefer e-mail over twitter/sms/irc. Never write one word or sentence rattles unless it is a response in kind. If someone has written a thoughtfully written, detailled and professional email to you, return the favor.
3) When it is more convenient to fire off a quick email or text to someone sitting across the hall, get up and go talk to them instead. This is even more important if you don't know them personally. Introduce yourself, engage in conversation.
4) Nerves are for the nervous. If you aren't nervous in front of friends, relatives, or complete strangers at the grocery store, you shouldn't be nervous in front of your colleagues or bosses. They cut and bleed just as readily as the rest of those you know.
I get told fairly often that I write/communicate well. I learned a lot of that by participating in online discussions. Trying to say something clearly so it is not wildly misinterpretted is really challenging. Having the chance to clarify when it has been wildly misinterpretted is a valuable growth experience. I suggest you start posting a lot more than you do currently, if not here than elsewhere.
Clearly it's not just you. But I still find their way of doing things to be inspiring and thought-provoking. They're making their own rules, and I respect them from that. I found the post refreshing.
jekyll on S3 is a pretty killer combo for a cheap blog that scales infinitely and automatically. You'll probably like it, especially since you're a ruby guy.
Imagine you owned a small, boutique t-shirt store. Your business depends on local artists bringing you t-shirts that they designed, you display them, and sell them. Taking your cut, to pay your bills and send your kids to school.
On a cloudy Tuesday afternoon, the Feds show up. They take your merchandise, close down your shop, and shut down your bank account. Nobody tells you why. There is no court case and no due process. Nobody you can talk to about this.
You are confused by this and depressed. No idea what happened. You go to the movies to take your mind off of things. And then it hits you, you now know who came after you...
You remember that one of the artists supplying you with t-shirts designed a t-shirt that had a girl, with a dragon tattoo on it.
However in my present, every ninety seconds, somewhere in America, someone is sexually assaulted. Tens of thousands of girls and women are trafficked for sex, and one out of 3 women are sexually assaulted in their lifetime.
Our society is fucked up around sex. It's not LSL's fault, but it certainly isn't helping.
It pisses me off that someone is trying to raise 500 thousand dollars to put LSL on an iphone. Is it their right? Yes. But it pisses me off.