brace yourself (to prevent further injury)

I knew from the minute that a Black genderqueer person reported in December 2021 that Forspoken had zero Black writers and zero Black consultants it was going to be a mess

But to see the conflicting views on length of game, followed by the absurd PC requirements, discovering that Square Enix fudged their review trailer to sound better than what reviews were making of it, and then to actually hear the dialogue they made this woman read is a lot

like 'chatty bling' will be burned into my head for eternity, and I'm sorry but it's worth talking about because the writers they had on deck were sheer powerhouses---

that should've absolutely read the idea/script and went 'oh the lead, antagonist, and most important people are Black? this isn't for me, let me get the right people on the horn'

anyway hire Black people so you're not this level of embarrassing
it is absolutely WILD that in 2023 this still has to be said especially when you consider we just had not one but TWO banger AAA games that did Black representation extremely fucking well

sorry pals, there's just no fucking excuse at this point
even white creators and YT reviewers are advising to not buy it, and that is especially egregious like that's not me being a meanie for serious what was the play here

like
I'm still a Black queer person when you done talking about it so, uh
you gotta miss me on this one, this is pretty bad

SNES composer: Hm. The player is only going to be fighting this boss for maybe a few seconds, right? Makes sense to compose a track that long. Plus, this will save a lot of space on the cartridge.

Autistic girl: I am going to listen to this for FIVE HOURS

I've noticed that I'm getting more followers and attention in the wake of some recent announcements and popular posts, and I'm overdue for some kind of "About Me" introductory posting anyway, so may as well use this as a brief but convenient excuse to delay doing meaningful work for a little bit...

Hi! I'm Mark. Most folks I know online or through gaming communities call me Shout.

• I'm married, and am a proud (if frequently exhausted) dad of a twins (daughter "Potato" and son "My Dude") who'll be turning 4 this year.
• During business hours, I'm a Senior Technical Program Manager for a tech company. Basically means I make sure people are working together and driving project towards completion. It's one part cat herder, one part air traffic controller, and (when folks aren't playing nicely) one part marriage counselor.
• I'm also involved with Games Done Quick, where I've been volunteering (mostly hosting) since 2018 and on staff as part of the prize team since 2023. While I'm proud of my career work, GDQ is the thing that I actually brag about doing.
• I stream on Twitch. Sometimes. Not as often as before kids, but kids have a way of upending schedules...
• I'm a giant nerd. Building my own computers, reading sci-fi, playing with Legos, cooking, whatever. As a consequence, have a very broad but shallow knowledge of a lot of things.
• I like to tell stories. A lot. Maybe too much. You may notice some long posts on here.

Uhhh... I think that's it? May edit later if I realize I've omitted something critical. But anyways, welcome! Thanks for stopping by!