Mackenzie Craven, Rose Gold Lining:

Let’s rewind. I’m 26 years old. Freshly married. And healthy! That young, dumb kind of healthy that convinces you it’s okay to only see the doctor when you need a prescription filled. You drink green smoothies and run half marathons, therefore you’re untouchable – right? Life has been good in this blissful, newlywed, dumb-healthy bubble – perfect, even. Filled with morning coffee and walks to the farmers market hand-in-hand with my husband, Kenny. Bike rides to the breweries, hikes with our dog Hugo. I ate the chia seeds and I wore out my running shoes, so I was completely blindsided by my diagnosis. I have breast cancer?

Brilliant, brave, and honest. One of the best pieces I’ve ever read. Take a moment to read and appreciate this woman’s work. #KenzieKicksCancer

An all-star roster of games journalists joined Adam Rosser on BBC Radio 5 live’s Game On for a discussion on the “social justice warrior.” Some of my favorite moments below:

Pat Garratt, VG247:

I’ve seen many squabbles on the Internet and they do sort of go the way of the dodo. I think what we are actually seeing is this section of the gaming community is about to be pushed out. I think that’s why their so angry. It’s literally like taking a toy away from a child. If you actually take a toy away from a child, they just completely freak out. This is exactly what is happening, I think.

Dan Person, GamesIndustry.biz:

There’s an awful lot of psychology and studies into this idea of the online personality; This idea of the power of anonymity, and the keyboard warrior and what that kind of does to people when you take away the consequences of actions in that way. That’s still a relatively new area of study. The Internet is certainly, in human terms, a very recent invention.

I think when you get unfettered and unregulated communities of young, let’s face it, mostly men who are operating in this way without any kind of adult or intelligent supervision, they can become very quickly violent and vile and unpleasant. That echo chamber can accentuate that effect. And then when somebody comes into the playroom and says, “hey guys. You know you should stop doing that and perhaps behave like adults,” there is often that phase of tantrum, basically. And if those children happen to be handling a large blunt object, then that can become dangerous.

Keza McDonald, Kotaku UK:

The Internet gamifies people. It turns you into someone who’s not a real person. You’re some imaginary thing on the end of a Twitter handle. It makes it easier for people to behave inhumanly towards you. Anyone who basically decides to do cultural criticism of games that goes beyond just the assessment of software will probably come up against people who ask them, “why can’t you just talk about the game?” Again, for these people, games are systems that are self-contained and for them the community and the world of gaming is also a system that is self-contained. So as soon as you start trying to place it in a real world context or you start talking about it in a way that they’re not used to, I think that it really confuses people and upsets them.

Jenn Frank, The Guardian:

See, the best, most successful hate campaign dreams big. For some, it isn’t only about targeting one woman, two women, or a handful of women. The endgame is to frighten all women out of the video games industry – no matter what they write, film, create or produce – and to additionally frighten anyone who would support them.

Phys.org:

The computer games that appear to be most effective for the development of English vocabulary are those known as Massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPG), a genre of role-playing computer games in which a large number of players interact with one another in a virtual world.

“As a player you simply have to be able to understand what’s being said, to read English and to interact yourself by both writing and speaking English,” says Liss Kerstin Sylvén, Associate Professor at the University of Gothenburg, who conducted the study together with Pia Sundqvist, Senior Lecturer in English at Karlstad University.

I’ve always considered localization to be the bottleneck in the globally connected society; though, I’ve never considered it’s use in MMOs. Maybe I just assumed that all players were connecting to local servers. Apparently not.

My little sister was adopted from China at age 9. She hadn’t had any experience with the English language at the time, nor had she acquired the ability to read or write in her native language due to the lack of adequate education in the orphanage. All of our initial communication was handled through Google Translate. However, within months of being immersed in an English speaking culture, her use and understanding of English skyrocketed at an extremely rapid pace.

On a simpler yet similar note, my own typing skills (not necessarily my grammar) greatly improved by the use of AIM, mIRC, and Battle.net outside if school. Mavis Beacon or other education based software didn’t hold a candle to what I was learning through practical, real world use.

When forced to learn a skill because the greater population or infrastructure will not conform to your own methods while their’s is efficiently serving the same function, you are forced to learn. I believe this is the trick with edTech and game-based learning. Build a “core” game with limitations and challenges where the player is forced to apply different skills or types of thought to win instead of a “game” that is purely and unabashedly focused on teaching a particular skill. Flashing lights, fun noises, and achievements can only go so far. It needs to be an engaging (and possibly addictive) game to teach. Experiential learning is key.

Dennis Scimeca, The Daily Dot:

One of the complaints is that if Quinn were a man who slept with women supposedly for influence, the games press would have been all over the story instead of remaining silent and ignoring the story out of fear they’ll be tarred with accusations of sexism.

Au contraire. Were the story about a man sleeping with women it would be even less of a story. Readers would virtually high-five the male developer because we celebrate male sexuality and punish female sexuality in our culture.

Don’t take my word for it. There’s decades of scholarly research to demonstrate the point. But it’s kind of a lost cause to ask these audience members to bother with research. Anita Sarkeesian has produced some of the best-researched and documented studies of sexism in video games out there. Her critics accuse her of “cherry-picking” her data, however, which boggles the mind.

I’m with Fleishman.