The Professional Gamer - May 15, 2017

Hi everyone! There still isn't a whole lot to report on my end. I've been running a lot this past week to get ready for the Bolder Boulder which will be coming up in a few weeks. This hasn't left me with a lot of time to very many geeky things. I've spent most of my evenings watching Crystal play Breath of the Wild and finishing Ouron High School Host Club. I'm not ready to start talking in depth about BotW yet, so let's talk about Ouron instead. Although the rest of the series is largely a clever satire of shoujo tropes, there are some problematic parts to the series. Let's take the points one at a time.

Transphobia

First, let me lay out some assumptions, since these things are not well defined within the series itself. Ryouji Fujioka's gender identity and sexual orientation are not explicitly defined in the anime; therefore, I will be assuming the Ryouji is a straight (or possibly bi) male identifying person who enjoys cross-dressing. Having gotten through that, other characters referring to him as a "tranny" is highly offensive. Even if "tranny" is the most straightforward translation of the Japanese used in series, the adaptation staff could have spent a few minutes to explore alternatives. Perhaps, "queen" or "drag queen". Maybe the intention was to show that although the Host Club is tolerant of Haruhi cross-dressing, they are not accepting of a man cross-dressing. But without a moment in the script of someone (especially Ryouji or Haruhi) pointing out that this is a slur, this comes off as both the original creators and the English adaptation staff condoning transphobic language and attitudes.

Poor Pacing in Late Series

After a leisurely pace in the middle of the series, taking full episodes to develop most of the members of the host club more fully, the end of the series is incredibly rushed, with a bunch of new characters, completely new plot lines, and character developments that come out of left field. This leads us to the last issue:

Poorly-defined Character Motivation

Kyoya and Tamaki's fathers are introduced in the final episodes. They are initially portrayed as very hard-nosed, thinking only of the family reputation and profitability of their companies. By the end of the final episode, however, they are joking about how they were actually nice guys after all. Eclair is a similar case. She's comes out of nowhere in order to cause trouble for Tamaki and the host club, with no real defined motivations. She seems to just enjoy jerking people around, but even this is not established as a trait that has some grounding in a personal history. Nope, she's just a jerk cause she likes to be a jerk.

I think I've talked enough about that at this point. Come back next week and see what I've been up to. Game on!

The Professional Gamer - May 8, 2017

Hi everyone! Not much to report this week. I've mastered all of the lives in Fantasy Life and have now started dedicating my game time to clearing through lots of quests and challenges. Still having fun with it and its a great way to spend time away from home. But that's it! I was too busy most of the time at my conference this past week to do much else. Have a great week and game on!

The Professional Gamer - May 1, 2017

Hi readers! I'm in the middle of two weeks away from home. I mean...technically I'm home right now, but I was away from Monday to Friday last week and will be away from Monday through Thursday this week. Anyways, I didn't have a chance to play an Zelda this past week, but I did attend ComicFest with Crystal. I also brought my 3DS with me and spent a lot of time playing Fantasy Life. In fact, I have now mastered 8 of the 12 "Lives". I don't often have a huge desire to play Fantasy Life, but sometimes when its the most interesting thing that I have access to, I can really get sucked into it. Maybe this next week and I can master another life or two.

I don't have much to report on ComicFest, largely because there wasn't very much there. I think there were 4 or 5 people selling their own comics, a few others selling prints and crafts, and several selling collectible comics. We had a few visitors at our table, but never a lot of traffic. From the sound of it, StarFest (of which ComicFest is a subsidiary portion) did not make a strong effort to cross-promote the other parts of the convention. But, I'm not privy to all the inside information.

That's all I have for this week. Have a great time and game on!

DINK 2017

Hi everyone! No "Professional Gamer" article this week, as I have been out of town with no opportunity to be a geek. I will however, spend a few minutes today talking about DINK (the Denver Independent Comics and Art show), which I attended last weekend. There were a few organization mishaps, including some miscommunication and scheduling errors, but overall the show was well run and well attended.  

Let's talk about the comics a bit. I haven't had a chance to read a lot yet, but let's look at a list of what Crystal and I bought.

• Toxoplasmosis by Melanie Gillman
• Sketchzine by Lye Lawrence
• Good Kitty by Mike Freiheit and Bad Dog by Isabella Rotman
• Just the Grass Ones Gen One by Lye Lawrence
• Minor Deviation Part 1 by Darla Okada
• Please Destroy My Enemies by Michael Sweater
• Nimue by Cait Zellers
• Cats of the Internet by Ally Shwed
• The Have Issues edited by Zoe Sugg, Jami Jones, Jessi Jordan, and Katy Rex
• My Cats are Jerks by Cait Zellers
• Afar by Leila Del Duca and Kit Seaton
• Horizon Anthology Volume One edited by Jeremy Lawson
• Carbon Issue 1 by Justin Madson
• Witchlight by Jessi Zabarsky

Of these, I've read Toxoplasmosis and My Cats are Jerks, and enjoyed them both. The first is cat horror and the second is cat humor, so you can see why I will have prioritized these two. That's all I've got for this week, but I'm hoping to have more next time. Have a great week and game on!

Overwatch Uprising Event has Started

Overwatch has started a new seasonal event called "Overwatch Uprising". Taking place before the fall of Overwatch this event takes place on Kings Row during an Omnic uprising. You can read the primer to the event in the most recent comic here. From the looks of the trailer this looks very akin to the Junkenstein's Monster event from Halloween. Here is the teaser for the event.

So there you have it. So you have until May 1st to get your fill of this event, so get to it!. The world could always use more heroes.

Colorado Anime Fest - Floor Photos

Goods news! I have gone through the photos fro the floor for Colorado Anime Fest! 

You can also find the full gallery here.