Gizmodo Girl Writes Scathing "Magic" Article

[pseudoidiot]

Someone elsewhere made the joke, "I wonder if he tapped that."

It took me a minute to get it, but... well played.

[Endless Mike]

Tapping adds +1 to fame at the cost of 1 life point.

[rigwarl]

Someone elsewhere made the joke, "I wonder if he tapped that."

It took me a minute to get it, but... well played.

A friend joked that she had Vigilance.

Spoiler:

Attacks without being tapped, for the non-Magic crowd.

[The Mighty Thesaurus]

She's a cheap white weenie with echo

[Enokh]

She's Black.

[Glmclain]

You can't use 'racist MAGIC:TG jokes!'

I invented those! Mine!

[phlip]

A friend joked that she had Vigilance.

Spoiler:

Attacks without being tapped, for the non-Magic crowd.

That's horriblawesome.

[mister k]

While I disliked the original article, cause, you know, its just a really bad piece of journalism (hey I went on a date with a guy. Nothing much happened, we weren't right for each other.), the reply article is kinda genuinely awful. I mean spending that much time talking about drinking (seriously, apparently people who get drunk have no judgement?)

[ducksan]

It sure would be terrible to date someone who plays silly games for a living! I can't imagine that any girl would want to date a professional footballer or Olympic medalist.

Zing.
Very well done. I guess I'm a bit biased against normal sports, but still.

[Decker]

It sure would be terrible to date someone who plays silly games for a living! I can't imagine that any girl would want to date a professional footballer or Olympic medalist.

Zing.
Very well done. I guess I'm a bit biased against normal sports, but still.

After watching someone hit a small white ball with a stick and run around white squares in a certain order while other people try to touch him with the small, white ball, I'd argue your definition of "normal."

Then again, I've been know to be argumentative about what constitutes "normal."

[Dark567]

While I disliked the original article, cause, you know, its just a really bad piece of journalism (hey I went on a date with a guy. Nothing much happened, we weren't right for each other.), the reply article is kinda genuinely awful. I mean spending that much time talking about drinking (seriously, apparently people who get drunk have no judgement?)

Yeah, that's pretty insulting. I just wanted to be like, "fuck you, I deliberately get drunk and enjoy it!" Also seriously there are various extremes of "drunk", some of which I don't really feel like impair your judgement that bad. In short fuck both of them.

[nasalhernia]

Hilarious. The moment she mentioned Jon and M:TG champ, I already had the name "Finkel" pinned down. I am doomed to die alone.

I wonder if her reaction would have been different if she asked how much money he's made from winning tournaments.

[Dark567]

Hilarious. The moment she mentioned Jon and M:TG champ, I already had the name "Finkel" pinned down. I am doomed to die alone.

I wonder if her reaction would have been different if she asked how much money he's made from winning tournaments.

Probably not a lot different, she already knew he was a hedge fund manager*, probably from his profile.

*Loaded

[Jessica]

http://www.starcitygames.com/magic/misc ... ghter.html

[setzer777]

http://www.starcitygames.com/magic/misc/22786_To_My_Someday_Daughter.html

He made some good points and had some good anecdotes. I found his execution of the "letter to hypothetical daughter" conceit rather obnoxious and treacly. Given the bluntness of some of his other criticisms, I think he was unnecessarily diplomatic towards the original article, and I disagreed with his suggestion that gamers should have had "thicker skin" to respond "constructively" to her underlying points. All the gendered shit in the responses to her article was bullshit, but if a writer goes on a tech blog and talks about how participants in your hobby are losers and dweebs, you are perfectly okay in dismissing them as a fucking asshole.

[Dark567]

And in reality, there is nothing more geeky about Magic:The Gathering, then more mainstream games like fantasy football. Both involve a constant obsession over numbers, played with a very mechanical set of rules. Only the public's perception of them is different.

[eculc]

well, it's gizmodo. should it *really* be all that surprising? it's not like they haven't done this kind of thing before.

[doogly]

http://www.starcitygames.com/magic/misc/22786_To_My_Someday_Daughter.html

He made some good points and had some good anecdotes. I found his execution of the "letter to hypothetical daughter" conceit rather obnoxious and treacly. Given the bluntness of some of his other criticisms, I think he was unnecessarily diplomatic towards the original article, and I disagreed with his suggestion that gamers should have had "thicker skin" to respond "constructively" to her underlying points. All the gendered shit in the responses to her article was bullshit, but if a writer goes on a tech blog and talks about how participants in your hobby are losers and dweebs, you are perfectly okay in dismissing them as a fucking asshole.

Calls for someone to have thicker skin are almost universally wrong-headed.

[Kag]

It's kind of hard to fault him for saying that, though, considering the ridiculous amount of fuss this has gotten.

[PeteP]

I agree with him about sexism in the gaming community in general and about the response to Alyssa's article. While I have problems with Alyssa's article a huge part of the response was how he described it, which sucks.
But I would consider the article mediocre. I thought he was rambling, a problem I see with many things which try to put their point in a framing device (in this case a letter to his imaginary daughter.)
Compared to the length of his text he didn't say all that much, I think you could cut it in half without losing anything important. But I guess that is a personal preference in writing styles.
And comments like " subway-groping attentions of the otaku" weren't really necessary.

[Jessica]

Well, he was talking about more than the original article.

[big boss]

My high school english teach always told his class "good writing is concise writing." Which I think he didn't do too well, but that does not invalidate his points.

I do think he was overly forgiving of Alyssa, and I was angry that he was so convinced in thinking that she was not being shallow by acting the way she did. Yes maybe Alyssa did think in the same manner he described (his hobby taking up to much of his time and not leaving any time for her etc.), but I'm not so convinced she just wasn't superficial because her words definitely made her sound superficial. A good writer wouldn't leave room for his/her words to be interpreted in a way different from that intended (in this sort of writing at least). When I meet a potential romantic partner that has a hobby they are very active in I don't immediately think the hobby is going to be more important than me and I don't think many other people do either.