Shadow Complex

[SineSwiper]

Very fun! Worth the $15 from XBL. Much like playing a combination of Super Metroid and BC:Rearmed. Though, I think the Hyperspeed is pretty much borrowed from Super Metroid.

[Chris]

congratulations on your donation to NOM. I finished the game saw that fuck's name and was immediately glad I had a code as it meant I didn't have to give him money. but I still feel dirty for having played and enjoyed the hell out of it. I doubt you will see me playing it again though.

[SineSwiper]

congratulations on your donation to NOM. I finished the game saw that fuck's name and was immediately glad I had a code as it meant I didn't have to give him money. but I still feel dirty for having played and enjoyed the hell out of it. I doubt you will see me playing it again though.

Who the fuck is NOM? It was developed by Chair, the same guys that did Undertow.

[Chris]

congratulations on your donation to NOM. I finished the game saw that fuck's name and was immediately glad I had a code as it meant I didn't have to give him money. but I still feel dirty for having played and enjoyed the hell out of it. I doubt you will see me playing it again though.

Who the fuck is NOM? It was developed by Chair, the same guys that did Undertow.

I was developed by chair in conjunction with Orson Scott Card. Right along side of him. mr. gay marriage will destroy democracy. A guy that has said things that would make Fred Phelps say "Holy crap that guy is crazy" who also happens to be a board member of The National Organization For Marriage. Because a storm is coming.

[SineSwiper]

So, a game with about three cutscenes of story is considered to be "based on Orson Scott Card's Empire books"? I thought the story was pretty shitty, to be honest, so I don't really know what the hell was actually used from the book. If I was OSC, I wouldn't really advertise that the story came from his book.

[bovine]

Topical Article

[Mental]

Nice article, bov.

The fact is, Card made money from Shadow Complex. He may still be making money from it. He might make a buck for every download Chair has. For some people, purchasing Shadow Complex is akin to putting money into the pocket of a homophobic bigot. However, before we ask the question, "Should we boycott Shadow Complex?", we have to ask ourselves this, "Should we boycott anything involving someone whose political opinions we disagree with?"

If your answer to that question is yes, then you need to seriously rethink how you participate in the world. It's highly likely that everything you enjoy, from the TV shows you watch to the food that you eat, is benefiting somebody who holds views you disagree with -- views potentially more extreme than Card's.

I agree with that.

I really don't know how I feel about it all. I've already given Card money over the course of reading his books, and I don't know that I regret it. Ender's Game happens to be one of the best and most thought-provoking books I've ever read, and that doesn't change whether or not Card is indeed a bigot about gay rights. But I also was on the fence about Shadow Complex, and I do actually find myself turning against the purchase because of this.

I'm saddened and surprised to hear this about Card, because the ouevre of his work does not indicate a shallow or inherently small-minded viewpoint on life, in fact I think he's quite a deep thinker about a variety of things...just not this, I guess.

[Chris]

Nice article, bov.

The fact is, Card made money from Shadow Complex. He may still be making money from it. He might make a buck for every download Chair has. For some people, purchasing Shadow Complex is akin to putting money into the pocket of a homophobic bigot. However, before we ask the question, "Should we boycott Shadow Complex?", we have to ask ourselves this, "Should we boycott anything involving someone whose political opinions we disagree with?"

If your answer to that question is yes, then you need to seriously rethink how you participate in the world. It's highly likely that everything you enjoy, from the TV shows you watch to the food that you eat, is benefiting somebody who holds views you disagree with -- views potentially more extreme than Card's.

I agree with that.

I really don't know how I feel about it all. I've already given Card money over the course of reading his books, and I don't know that I regret it. Ender's Game happens to be one of the best and most thought-provoking books I've ever read, and that doesn't change whether or not Card is indeed a bigot about gay rights. But I also was on the fence about Shadow Complex, and I do actually find myself turning against the purchase because of this.

I'm saddened and surprised to hear this about Card, because the ouevre of his work does not indicate a shallow or inherently small-minded viewpoint on life, in fact I think he's quite a deep thinker about a variety of things...just not this, I guess.

he's a scary fucker on a lot of issues. he's someone Dick Cheney would look up to

[Mental]

However, also,

I think that punishing the development studio at Chair for someone's stupid political views is not productive.

This is probably right. I don't feel like holding it against the development studio that they were willing to work with Card based on one of his properties. He's a world-reknowned writer for a reason, his universes are well-constructed and compelling, and that holds even if his own political views are unfortunate. It's not the fault of the Chair employees, especially the rank-and-file ones not involved in any part of the green-light decision, that Card is the way he is. They made an awesome game, and I think as far as a purchase goes, it's more worthwhile to focus on the rewards given to an up-and-coming studio that did a great job than it is to focus on the money Card is getting from his, which in all reality is probably piss in a bucket compared to the revenues from his writing empire anyway. If Shadow Complex never sold a single copy Card would still have absolute gobsmacks of money to fight gay marriage rights with.

[Mental]

he's a scary fucker on a lot of issues. he's someone Dick Cheney would look up to

I'm reading his Wikipedia article now.

It makes no sense to me that he's so in-the-tank neoconservative and such a booster of the "War on Terror", particularly because I feel like Ender's Game is one of the most devastating critiques of militarism, a manipulative military-industrial complex, and populist demagoguery that I've ever read. O_o It's as if George Orwell, immediately upon selling his millionth copy of 1984, had turned around and endorsed Soviet Russia as the pinnacle of 20th-century human governance, or something.

I mean, did I just completely misread that book or something?

[Mental]

Shit, Ender's Game is practically one of the books that started the FORMATION of my own views about the futility of military industrialism and war between cultures that can't understand each other.

[Chris]

However, also,

I think that punishing the development studio at Chair for someone's stupid political views is not productive.

This is probably right. I don't feel like holding it against the development studio that they were willing to work with Card based on one of his properties. He's a world-reknowned writer for a reason, his universes are well-constructed and compelling, and that holds even if his own political views are unfortunate. It's not the fault of the Chair employees, especially the rank-and-file ones not involved in any part of the green-light decision, that Card is the way he is. They made an awesome game, and I think as far as a purchase goes, it's more worthwhile to focus on the rewards given to an up-and-coming studio that did a great job than it is to focus on the money Card is getting from his, which in all reality is probably piss in a bucket compared to the revenues from his writing empire anyway. If Shadow Complex never sold a single copy Card would still have absolute gobsmacks of money to fight gay marriage rights with.

wrong. The Empire series as a whole was developed in conjunction with chair. It is not an OSC property. It is an OSC/CHair property. The two are intertwined completely.

[Blotus]

Next time you go to eat a bag of chips - THINK TWICE - the guy who designed the cogs in the packing machine was a racist.

Also, the little Chinese boy who made your shoelaces raped his own sister.

Finally, Satan invented dancing.


Shadow Complex is a fantastic game.

[Chris]

it is a fantastic game. and I'm damn glad I didn't have to pay for it.

[Mental]

Finally, Satan invented dancing.

By God, you're right. Gin clubs? Juke joints? The lambada? THE MACARENA??!?! Surely it must be so.

[SineSwiper]

Many people liked (and still like) L. Ron Hubbard's earlier sci-fi books, including Battlefield Earth, despite his links with the largest cult ever created, and the horrible movie that came from that.

[Mental]

wrong. The Empire series as a whole was developed in conjunction with chair. It is not an OSC property. It is an OSC/CHair property. The two are intertwined completely.

Oh. Well then. Maybe I will let it tip me away from purchase after all.

I just still can't reconcile Ender's Game with Card's Bushian politics. I would love any help from anybody who can reassure me that I didn't completely misread what I *thought* was Card's measured, thoughtful, deeply felt warning about the dangers of industrial militarism.