ellen zone

ellen juniper kaplan ☆ dev support analyst @discord ☆ bylines @Waypoint, @pcgamer, etc ☆ author, "Coping with Gender Dysphoria," Rosen Publishing ☆ author, "Pioneers of LGBTQ+ Rights," Rosen Publishing ☆ she/they #pluralgang

[ellenzone]

Yesterday on the Hebrew calendar was my friend Christien Glitch Rodriguez’s yahrzeit. As with last year, I’ve written something to share with those who remember him. Though this piece is less about his death, I’ll put it after the jump just in case. TW: death, passing, mourning, suicide. 

Yesterday was 27 Adar I 5779 on the Hebrew calendar, the 5th yahrzeit I have observed in your memory since your passing on 27 Adar 5773. In those 6 years, it has not once become easier. Each year when this time rolls around I try to be mindful and patient with myself. I record my feelings diligently; the ones I have for myself, for you, for your family, for our mutual friends. It is never easy. It will likely never become easier.

In observing yahrzeit, people of my faith celebrate the lives of those we lost. Your life, then, persists through mine. In honoring your life, it's my sincere goal to bring with me the lessons you taught me, to share your story with as many I can, and to ensure that your light is not extinguished by the passing of time. Each year, that act becomes harder.

Little by little, pieces of your light diminish; I forget your laugh, your smile, your voice, your presence. It's during this time of year that I set aside time to rekindle as much of that light as I can. I'm fortunate I had the time with you that I did, that I continue to stay connected to your memory through the people we shared. I'm also fortunate that I live in a time of greater memory, and that if I ever begin to forget those pieces of you, I can visit your Facebook and see your smile and hear your laugh in an effort to make my memory whole again.

In reconnecting with my culture, I took time to pray and meditate today to the end of honoring your memory and wishing you peace. I still don't know how much of my own faith I believe, but I'd like to hope that you heard me today. I'll keep telling your story, as much as I can, and in honor of your yahrzeit I made a donation to the Sylvia Rivera Law Project in your name. I would sincerely like to continue making charitable donations to organizations that further the kind of work you did in your life every year, and I will do my best to continue that practice going forward. 

You are loved and remembered by many. For all those who remember Chris with me today and always, זכרונו לברכה -- may his memory be for a blessing 💙

[ellenzone]

[Trigger warning: it’s March 8th, so it’s the time of year where I write about losing a friend to suicide. If you need resources, message me, okay?] 

Today marks five years. Yesterday you would have been 28. I think about you every day. I’ve got a playlist on my phone full of music I wish you could’ve listened to, or that reminds me of you. I’ve got little bits of you everywhere now. One of your Mexican flags, the bookmark your mom made with your poem on it, pictures from the art show. I have a drawing of yours in a frame. A couple days ago, I stepped on the frame after Bradley knocked it off the nightstand. The drawing’s fine. I like to think Bradley remembers you. He was so little when you knew him. He’s nearly six now. His body finally caught up with his head. I remember how small he was when you first met him. He fit in the space between your elbow and your wrist. The toughest part about this time of year is reflecting on what you’ve missed. Every year, inevitably, that list grows longer. Trivial things side-by-side with major changes in our lives. I wish I could share them with you. Even just the last year; my first books, my engagement, the solar eclipse, Kendrick’s new album, Black Panther, the rallies in the East Bay last spring and summer. I dedicated my second book to you for a reason. You, and the way you left, challenged me to think about the world differently. Knowing you, getting the chance to see your activism first hand, hearing the way you spoke about your passions, shaped me as a writer and as a person. I won’t forget that. When I came out, you were leading the first T Time meeting I ever went to. I think about how little I knew about myself and about the world then. It feels so long ago now. I still think about the way you asked to borrow my car to go to campus that day. I wonder if you’d still be here if I’d been able to let you drive it, if I hadn’t had work. Instead, you went to campus with friends and you didn’t come back. I remember getting the frantic texts at work. I remember texting you, asking you where you were. I remember driving back from work in the car and getting the text about the report in the campus newspaper, that they’d identified you. I remember going to campus that night and finding your shoes on the third floor. Last year, I deleted those texts. I thought it’d help me forget. It didn’t. Nothing does. It’s like all the other bad memories; it never really goes away. Victory is the days I don’t think about it. Bad days are the days when I’m pulled right back there. It never stopped. There’s before and after. I’ve got a lot of bad memories, but this is one of the big ones. I miss you so much. I’m lucky - someone recorded a video of you laughing. I can hear what your voice sounds like, all I gotta do is go online. There’s pictures of you happy, smiling. There’s nothing else, nothing bad. You never told anyone why. You didn’t leave anything behind. I remember seeing you sad, but I had no idea. Hindsight is a perfect science. I remember you told me, watching Cosmos with me, that you felt like you were watching it at the right time. That Carl Sagan was giving you permission, that a greater force was telling you from the beyond, that it was okay to explore the universe. You were gone like three weeks later. I know that whole time was a mess. I understand what was hurting. That time in our lives was so scary, and I can only speak how it felt for me. I will never have any idea how scared you were. UCI set up a fund in your name after you left, but while you were here it was money that stopped you from graduating. It makes me so angry. I’m... I’m glad I was able to give you shelter, for however long that lasted. It was hard. I didn’t do a very good job of keeping shit together, but I can’t blame myself. It’s not my fault. We were all depressed, and there was a force in that place that none of us could control. I don’t blame anyone. You made the decision that I didn’t. Five years later, I’m very glad that I didn’t make it, and I’m really sad that you did. The hardest thing I’ve had to learn is giving myself space and acknowledging how all this makes me feel, even now, half a decade later. There’s stories I haven’t told yet, and I’ve gotta be here to tell em. A lot of those stories have you in them, and they’re the ones that are hardest to tell. I’m trying to get better at it. I miss you everyday. I think about you all the time. If I saw you again the first thing I’d do is hug you a bunch before slapping you upside the face. I’d get real mad at you and then I’d play you that playlist. It’s got some real bangers on it, I think you’d like it. Maybe I’ll share it some day. I’ve accepted that it’s okay to be mad. I’ve come to terms with the fact that I’ll never forget you, for better or for worse. It still hurts. I wish I could say it didn’t. I wish I could say it stopped. It’s subconscious. Every year this week rolls around and I end up dissociating and just thinking about what could have been. I don’t know if that ever goes away. Sorta wish it would. I love you, Glitch

[ellenzone]

Review: OK KO Let’s Play Heroes!

With hits like Superbrothers: Sword and Sworcery and Critter Cruncher on their resume, and the mysterious Below continuously grabbing attention when it shows up at festivals, it’s clear that CAPY is at the forefront of the indie scene. It might come as a surprise, then, that their first game in four years is a licensed title.

OK KO Let’s Play Heroes isn’t the first time Cartoon Network works with an indie studio to bring their animated worlds to life. CN Games and Adult Swim Games have both attracted attention for working with renowned indie studios like Devolver Digital and releasing shockingly beloved licensed titles, like Pocket Mortys and the Steven Universe: Save the Light series. What’s curious about OK KO, then, is that it’s the first CAPY Games release since Super Time Force in 2014. With hits like Superbrothers: Sword and Sworcery on their resume and the mysterious Below grabbing the spotlight whenever it shows up at a game festival, it’s certainly surprising to see CAPY working on a licensed game. Make no mistake, however, OK KO Let’s Play Heroes is as fun as anything CAPY’s worked on, and it’s imbued with a sense of childhood wonder that makes it unforgettable.

I’ve written about this game before – I was fortunate enough to get some hands-on time with it at Day of the Devs, and I’m glad to see the game hasn’t changed much sense then. For the unfamiliar, Let’s Play Heroes is based on the ongoing Cartoon Network show OK KO Let’s Be Heroes. The cartoon, from powerhouse creators Ian Jones-Quartey (Steven Universe) and Toby Jones (Regular Show), follows the journey of a young boy, KO, who dreams of being a high-level superhero like his mommy. To become the greatest hero he can be, KO works at Gar’s Bodega, a convenience store for superheroes run by the legendary Mr. Gar, and defends Lakewood Plaza Turbo from the machinations of Gar’s rival Lord Bossman. Heroes and villains are all assigned POW Cards, trading cards that track their individual levels, and KO dreams of having his own POW Card someday.

As KO, your work at Gar’s Bodega consists of accomplishing tasks for your coworkers and defending Lakewood Plaza Turbo. On any given day you get to choose which coworker to finish tasks for. The dialogue and adventuring and the mishmash of gameplay styles are deeply reminiscent of Night in the Woods, in the best way possible. Side plots flesh themselves out through the missions you accomplish, players get a chance to choose from various dialogue options to spice up the conversations, and along the way you can make other plaza denizens happy by helping them recover stolen items or finding hidden objects throughout the plaza. In all of these activities you learn more about the people you’re helping, and it’s hard not to become invested in KO’s mission to help as many people as possible.

In the midst of helping your friends and allies, KO is tasked with beating up Boxmore robots sent by Lord Bossman to attack the plaza. There’s a healthy mix of random battles and forced encounters. Players can choose to take on as many random battles as they’d like, with battle difficulty connoted by the color and size of the boxes they encounter, or they can for the most part avoid brawling until it’s absolutely necessary. That said, I absolutely wouldn’t recommend skipping out – for a studio that’s never built an arcade brawler, Let’s Play Heroes makes CAPY look like 90s Konami. It’s not super advanced - there’s only a punch button, there’s no light/heavy attack, there’s no kicking - but a combination of charged punches and dash attacks makes brawls into fluid and fun affairs. By the time you’ve leveled KO up in stats, you’re granted access to a swath of really fun-to-use attacks, and racking up high combos requires a significant amount of skill.

Certain brawls change things up by adding in platforms, drone villains, and other light touches, and the game doesn’t hold back on its difficulty. If you go in expecting a light-handed cartoon game, you’ll be surprised at how tough some of the bosses get, and high-level play requires. Random brawls do lean on being repetitive, as you’ll be fighting the same set of Darryls, Shannons, and Jethros throughout your days as a plaza employee; however, I never got bored in that repetition, thanks to a constantly evolving moveset and a seemingly endless selection of super moves, or Powie Zowies.

Those Powie Zowies are really what surprised me the most. When I got my hands on OK KO at Day of the Devs, I was only able to try a scant few. By the final boss fight in OK KO, provided you’ve done all the chores for the plaza’s denizens, there are some 20 specials that you can call on a whim. Aerial slams from Mr. Gar, a rainstorm of bullets from KO’s coworker Rad, and a fearsome ground combo from KO’s mommy Carol are some of the ones I relied on the most early on. As I continued to play, I unlocked fun new special moves like a burrito truck that drives through and knocks into all the enemies on the field, and Godzilla-like foot to stomp on enemies and deliver massive damage. Tougher battles require tapping into these specials and building strategies based on how long they’ll take to charge and what they’ll do.

Powie Zowies are unlocked by helping the denizens of the plaza. While unlocking these are mostly optional, the mystery of what each is going to do drove me to do whatever I could to unlock them quicker. I was pleased to see how well these systems flowed into each other in practice. I needed money, Techos, to buy an item for a townie to unlock their Powie Zowie; thankfully, I had unlocked a special ability where Teamster, the self-cloning construction hero, runs onto the field and throws all the Boxmore badniks into glitch mode. I used Teamster to glitch the robots, knocked out a rapid-fire combo to beat microchips out of them, and sold the microchips to KO’s hacker friend Dendy for quick cash so I could, for example, buy a snack for A Real Magical Skeleton from the bodega, or buy antenna gel for Rad from the rooftop barbershop.

That the various quests and brawls don’t feel like distinct halves but rather gel together as a full experience is the real magic that makes this game special. 100%’ing OK KO is something that comes naturally; unlocking the game’s various POW Cards and completing the story go hand-in-hand, and I left the story absolutely wanting more. Fortunately enough, the Lakewood Plaza arcade has a fight simulator, so I can return to the game’s brawls whenever I’d like.

Admittedly, I haven’t actually 100%’d the game yet. For the most part, Powie Zowies are unlocked after receiving a villager’s card from the POW Card vending machine and accomplishing tasks. However, there are four POW Cards that don’t show up in the vending machine packs, meaning there are Powie Zowies I don’t have. Also, there’s constant references to mystical “Zappy Wappies” that apparently make Powie Zowies stronger… but the game doesn’t *give* them to you. Curiously enough, there’s a code machine on the POW Card vendor that takes three-symbol inputs, and the only Zappy Wappy I was able to get came courtesy of a cute little promo goodie that CN Games sent me. I was absolutely stumped when it came to unlocking more Zappy Wappies and filling out my card binder… that is, until I watched the cartoon again and looked closely. I’m well on my way to completing the game, now, but in order to *finish* it I’ll need to watch the rest of the season and come back to the game when I find what I need. I’m trying to be vague about this because I want you to discover this on your own as I did, but ultimately, I’m really excited that the game’s given me a reason to come back, and being a fan of the cartoon anyway, having a reason to rewatch every episode isn’t exactly a bad thing.

There’s a charm and a structure here that makes me feel right at home. Being a hero is more than just fighting a bunch of robots. KO doesn’t earn levels on his POW Card by taking on baddies, he earns them by making his friends happy and helping them earn their levels back. A lot of the missions are ridiculous, and many of them feel like mini episodes of the cartoon. Enid wants the cool teens in the alley to notice her on social media, so KO asks Dendy to help him make a gif of himself getting hurt. Rad becomes embarrassed after not being able to beat his box lifting record, so his muscles ask you to gather goodies for a gift basket they’re going to give him as an apology. There’s an endearing sentimentality that runs through the show and CAPY has clearly worked to bake that same feeling into the game.

I credit CAPY with that sentimentality because all of this stuff was done in-house. The animation and art style mimics the show but is absolutely its own thing. CAPY wrote the scenarios and dialogue themselves, and thanks to the delivery from the show’s wonderful voice cast the cutscenes are really fun and quite funny. The flow of the overworld, where players move in and out of different static “scenes”, feels stylistically like a Paper Mario game, and though this can lead to minor confusion with regards to movement it’s honestly gorgeous to look at. Overall, it’s super unique, and it’s all clearly done from a place of love for both the OK KO series and cartoons in general.

Granted, the game’s not perfect. It’s a tad repetitive, moving about the overworld can be a chore at times, and there’s some audio mixing weirdness that makes the cutscenes louder than everything else. Also, it *might* bug you that completing the game means watching the entire series. I don’t know if that’s really all that negative, though – like the game it inspired, the cartoon is endearing, really cute, and super fun. Come for the solid arcade brawler, stay for the heartfelt story about a kid trying to do his best.

I’m glad to say that CN Games has genuinely succeeded in bringing another cartoon to life as a really fun game. Thanks to the hard work of studios like CAPY, animated worlds like Steven Universe and OK KO are getting the games they deserve. It’s been a long time since we’ve gotten our hands on a CAPY title, and I’m glad to say this one’s absolutely a knockout. 

Disclosure: I received a code for the PS4 version of OK KO Let’s Play Heroes from CN Games.

[ellenzone]

San Francisco’s New Overwatch League Team Takes on the World

The San Francisco Shock, the Bay Area’s own Overwatch League team, began its first season this month. We break down the team’s roster and spoke with the team’s owner about

For The Bay City Beacon, I interviewed Andy Miller, owner of the San Francisco Shock, to capture his thoughts on the future of Overwatch League in the Bay Area.

[ellenzone]

For Many Players, Lootboxes Are a Crisis That's Already Here

Stories from the pits of our in-game casinos.

In my first piece for Waypoint, I shared the stories of those struggling with in-game spending and explored loot boxes through the lens of gambling disorder.

[ellenzone]

In the Midst of Tragedy, Blocked from Donating Blood

Despite some policy changes by the FDA, members of the queer community find that donating blood is still complicated, if not impossible.

For The Bay City Beacon, I covered the FDA policies that bar thousands of LGBTQ+ individuals from donating blood every single year, and how Bay Area blood donation agencies are dropping the ball.

[ellenzone]

The Struggle of Trans Positivity

I think I’ve talked about this before, but it’s worth writing about again in light of recent alarmism and potential threats to portions of the Affordable Care Act that protect trans folks. I wrote a book for 12-17 year olds called Coping with Gender Dysphoria. It acts as a primer on what gender dysphoria is, what being transgender can look like, and the strategies trans people and their allies can employ to combat the impact of gender dysphoria.

I wrote this book over most of January and throughout some of early February. Being that it's a book primarily for kids and teens who are dealing with gender dysphoria, my goal was to make the book accessible, practical, impartial, and realistic. I wanted the advice, strategies, and definitions within the text to be applicable across a wide swath of trans experience; to be immediately relevant to the book's audience; and instill a feeling of hope in the young adults reading it, whether they're trans themselves or they're merely trying to help a loved one cope with dysphoria.

I tried to write a book full of actionable strategies. It's aimed at an audience that's largely in the US, with some advice that could perhaps be relevant and accessible for readers in Canada. Even with that kind of a target, it was hard to provide advice that could equally apply to a reader in the Bay Area and a reader in, say, Tennessee. In pursuit of being transparent with the reader, I tried to make it clear that their rights were in flux. While the book comes from a place of optimism, and ultimately argues that things have been worse, I trusted the reader to understand that the strategies that would work for one kind of person in one particular place wouldn't be universal. I attempted to provide resources and advice that would work for everyone, even in the face of that struggle, but I fear the words I wrote may quickly become outdated by the time the book actually ships.

Writing this book throughout January was difficult. Watching the inauguration and the stream of conservative appointments, I became immediately worried that any optimism I shared would become moot, and that some of the advice I gave would become impossible to act upon. That fear became more visceral as news of religious freedom orders and rejections of trans-friendly policies flooded my Twitter timeline and sent my friends into a panic. I did my best to stay strong - I needed this book to have a positive message for the audience reading it, even if I worried that positivity was pointless.

I think back to election night. I remember staying up for hours, worrying about what might be. Talking with my then-girlfriend about our vague plans for getting married and the necessity of making that happen sooner - we got engaged just over a month later. I panicked, as my legal identity change was a process I had put off, and I set about to fill out court documents and secure a date for my name change as soon as humanly possible. I remember my friends doing the same thing, I remember the fundraisers and the pro-bono legal advice and the people offering to do impromptu marriage ceremonies before inauguration. I began to fear the ramifications of losing all these points of progress I had taken for granted. Somehow, all of this, even just months ago, feels so distant.

As much as I feared losing these essential rights, I reiterated each of them as if gospel in the book I wrote. I feel guilty for that. I tried to be realistic with the reader, expressing the danger of challenges to these rights and offering potential backup strategies in response to their loss. Even still, I couldn't let my fear dictate my work, and I needed to go off reality. The reality then is the reality now: many of the essential rights we fear losing are still in-tact, even as recurring threats loom on the horizon. I often remind myself the same thing I reminded the people who will read my book later this year: even if threats to our rights exist, we have options for survival. We need to cherish the progress we have made and defend it.

Fear is overwhelming and very powerful. Sometimes, it can prompt you to feel like you've already lost. I feel that way, occasionally, when I read about the havoc being wreaked by this administration. It's so very hard to hold onto hope and positivity and progress in light of how quickly things seem to be evaporating. In writing this book, I tried to remember exactly how far we've come and how much we have to lose if we don't fight. I wanted my audience to know that no matter how tough things get, there are more people that support them than ever before, and they have more options than ever before. Those options, that progress, it's all worth fighting for.

I followed up that book pretty much immediately with a second, one on the history of the queer rights movement, for the same audience. It was a sobering book to write - and much more difficult, mind you. The first book was rooted in far more personal experience and knowledge. The second, however, involved a lot more research. I'll be the first to admit that there is so much about our history that I had yet to learn. The exciting thing about writing that book is that I truly believe I learned about as much as my readers will. Doing the research for that second book, learning about how far we've come and the people that fought before me, reminded me just how much progress we've gained.

There are days when it still hurts. There are times when it aches and it feels like everything I care about is being taken away in an instant. However, I've realized something in having to be positive for the sake of queer and trans kids. Staying glued to that hurt, focusing on loss over progress, and feeling powerless instead of feeling the will to fight aren't going to help. We aren't going to win if we don't do everything we can to survive. Sometimes that doesn't feel realistic. Sometimes, it feels foolish and ignorant. But on days like today, when I read again on Twitter about the impending loss of all our rights, it's what I need to hold onto.

I don't want to keep fighting either. I want a victory to be a victory, I want progress to be permanent, and I want the struggle for equality and dignity for queer folks and all people to end. As much guilt and worry I might feel for talking about rights and strategies that may be gone some day, I want to believe I was telling the truth to those kids. I'm driven to ensure that the strategies I discussed in that book remain viable and are one day expanded upon. We need to hold onto the progress we've gained as best we can. We have survived so much - writing that history book taught me that as much as anything else. I feel compelled to believe in a better future, for the sake of those who fought before me and of those who look to me to fight for them.

[ellenzone]

Challah Cinnamon Roll French Toast Bake

This morning, I adapted a different recipe and made this:

Do you wanna make this too? Of course you do. It’s after the jump.

Ingredients:

1/4 cup melted butter

1 can refrigerated cinnamon rolls

1 loaf challah, preferably a day old or more

6 eggs

1/2 cup heavy whipping cream (or, 1/8 cup melted butter + 3/8 cup milk)

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 cup chopped pecans (optional, I skipped this)

1 cup maple syrup (optional, I skipped this)

Topping Suggestions:

Powdered sugar

Refrigerated cinnamon roll icing

Maple syrup

Cookie butter

Nutella

Fruit or fruit preserves/jam

Pre-heat your oven to 375 or 400, depending on your oven and how fast you want this sucker to bake. I did 400. Melt the butter in your microwave or over a low heat. Coat the bottom of a 13x9 glass casserole/cake pan with the butter.

Open your cinnamon roll can, separate the rolls, and cut them into bits (quarters or pie slices works great). Slice some of the challah loaf and cut it into squares as well, making sure the bits are about the same size across both pastries. Cover the pan with the resulting bread bits, making sure that ever inch of the pan is covered with sweet, delicious bread. Beat 6 eggs in a medium bowl until scrambled. Add the cream, cinnamon, and vanilla and beat the custard base until reasonably mixed. Pour your custard base gently over the roll and challah bits. Don’t worry if they’re not all covered, but if there’s part that’s exceptionally dry, ensure it gets at least a little bit of the custard.

If you want to use the pecans and maple syrup - which I would have done, if I had them in the house - drizzle them on top of the custard and bread now. Bake for 20-28 minutes or until golden brown. If you wanna make sure it’s ready, poke a cinnamon roll bit near the center with a fork and ensure it comes out dry. I erred on the side of baking it less, though the original recipe offers a wide range of cook times.

If you’re using icing, I recommend microwaving the container without its lid for like 6 seconds. Once it’s out, top the french toast bake with powdered sugar and the icing from the cinnamon rolls. Serve with maple syrup, cookie butter, nutella, some sort of fruit thing, or basically anything that seems good to you - like, I’m sure chocolate syrup or whatever would be fine. If you need protein, this goes great with bacon, I can personally vouch for that. Enjoy!

[ellenzone]

Social Justice in Games: How "Sonic the Hedgehog" Can Help Fight for Trans Rights

[[This is the transcript for a talk I gave at the TRANSform Tech conference in San Francisco, CA on April 13, 2017]] Hi, I'm Ellen McGrody, author, mother of a very loud cat, and founder of Run for Our Rights, an annual charity event benefitting the Transgender Law Center. I wanna tell you about our first event in November, why I believe games and tech can be a positive space for social justice, and the challenges that can get in the way of progress in emergent spaces. The idea for Rights Run came about thanks to my desire to tap into the passion of an existing community and celebrate the anniversary of one of gaming's biggest mistakes. I've been a devoted games enthusiast since I was small. Like many queer kids, games provided me a space to escape and explore my identity. When I was five, my mom got a SEGA Genesis for the house, and from then on Sonic the Hedgehog became a lifelong obsession. I'm not alone in that obsession. Sonic has always had an extremely passionate core fan base, even when times got rough. If you're familiar with Sonic, you know that, over the years, SEGA's hedgehog mascot hasn't exactly received the best treatment. While the original titles that pulled many fans, including me, into the series are regarded as classics, many of the more recent titles in the franchise are infamous for their flaws. No title stands as a stronger example of this infamy than 2006's Sonic the Hedgehog, better known as Sonic 06. Sonic 06 is a... so, okay, let me explain to plot to you, briefly, to give you an idea. Dr. Eggman, the series' big bad, steals an artifact from a princess, and Sonic runs off to save her. Meanwhile, an entirely different superpowered hedgehog, who rides a motorcycle and is a secret agent for a shadow government, finds a separate artifact, which releases a demon, who steals the *first* artifact, unleashing an ancient fire deity and teleporting *both* hedgehogs into the future, where a *third* superpowered hedgehog, this one with psychic powers, blames Sonic for the apocalyptic future they are all now trapped in. Using yet another series of magical artifacts, the heroes travel back to the past, recover the original artifact, only for Sonic to be killed and then brought back by a kiss from the human princess, who has fallen in love with Sonic the Hedgehog. The three hedgehogs then unite to kill God. Don't ask, it's complicated. That, *extremely compelling*, story is marred further by load times, poor controls, and game-breaking glitches. So, as you can imagine, people totally love this game, and as some are compelled to watch a bad movie, I committed to marking the game's tenth anniversary by playing it in full, start to finish, until it was done. Which, in my original estimate, would take 19 hours to accomplish. Three friends offered to join me, and my wonderful fiancée made the suggestion of turning that live marathon into a charity event. Almost serendipitously, the games 10th anniversary aligned nicely with Trans Awareness Month, and so Run for Our Rights was born. Why turn a video game marathon into a trans advocacy event? The games space, as I mentioned previously, has rich potential for diversity and solidarity, given its ability to provide queer and trans youth with escapism and community. We drew inspiration from AGDQ and other charitable efforts in the space, and followed the example set by notable trans members of the games community including speedrunners Narcissa Wright and Protomagicalgirl, fighting game champion Ricki Sophie Ortiz, and games journalists Sam Riedel and Heather Alexandra. We tapped into the passion of the games community, particularly the excitement shared by Sonic the Hedgehog fans, in order to build an exciting event. Immediately, we wanted to work with the Transgender Law Center, and sought sponsorship in order to create a successful event. We worked with progressive games organizations, including Feminist Frequency, which advocates for positive representation of women and marginalized people in games and media, and MidBoss, whose LGBT-focused GaymerX convention has been held in the Bay Area four times while spawning international spin-off events. We also worked with the livestream platform Twitch to make sure the marathon could tap into as many viewers as possible, and we reached out to SEGA, where we received promotional support from the leader of Sonic's social media team and the franchise's voice actors. The event was more successful than we could even have imagined. We played Sonic games for 24 hours straight, capping off Sonic 06 as predicted at the 19 hour mark. In that time, thanks to the promotional work of our partners and positive reception by the games community, over 100,000 people watched us play a very terrible game, and received an outpouring of fan art and support, with many choosing to donate to support our efforts. All donations went directly to the Trans Law Center, and combining direct donations with employer matching, we earned nearly $20,000 for the TLC overnight. These successes were overwhelming. We *never* believed we could earn that sort of support. That first event happened just days after the election, and I was humbled to be able to provide that sort of positivity during a time of need. As we look into the future and begin planning our second event, I want to be open about the challenges that we faced. Gaming in general can be a really divisive space, especially for women, people of color, and LGBT folks. While games and the communities that love them are on a path to diversity, regressive forces have attacked those who have tried to make games more inclusive for everyone. Marginalized individuals have been harassed, threatened, and victimized by those who seek to maintain gaming's status as a violent boy's club. Some of you may have heard of GamerGate, a movement that under the alleged guise of "transparency in games journalism", attacked women and outed transgender people, eventually working to fuel the rise of what we now call the Alt Right. In running Rights Run, we were ever-present of this threat. We worked with our partners, particularly Feminist Frequency, to minimize risk factors. We called the local police department to abate the threat of "SWATting," or malicious false reporting of crime. We're thankful for our community, whose members took the role of community moderators, working to ban people who joined our chat room with the end goal of harassment in mind. Rights Run, and events like it, remind me how the games community, and tech as a whole, and work to benefit the causes of social justice, diversity, and inclusion. Like all avenues of our society, the challenges are great, and the forces that seek to silence our progress will stop at nothing in their attempt to hold us back. If there's any lesson I learned in making Rights Run happen, it's that making social justice happen in games and tech means being well-aware of the opposition and being prepared to confront them. Stay strong in your march to progress, and don't waiver in your support of marginalized people. And, be creative! Tap into peoples' passions, get them excited about advocacy, and play a really bad video game for 24 hours straight. Even with all of the challenges, you're going to find a core community that wants to join you in your fight for social justice.

[ellenzone]

On Federated Social Networks and Socialism

Earlier today, I made a thread on Mastodon about why I believe federated social networks are fundamentally socialist and worth supporting. Here's a hasty transcription of that thread:

I want to thank @[email protected] for bringing up the very valid issue that Mastodon's burgeoning popularity may damage the federated system. The responsible way forward is to promote federation in every way that we can. I know there's a temptation to believe in the idea that there can be one simple, easy-to-explain alternative to Twitter that works for *everyone*, but the truth is there literally can't be. Federation is, in a way, a socialist approach to dismantling the control that Facebook and Twitter have over the way people communicate online. It can be hard to explain, but I truly believe we'll develop the language quickly enough. We figured out how to explain what the fuck a social network even *is* in the first place, after all, we can do this too. I feel pretty strongly about Mastodon and the things it does right, but I'm going to be the first person to say that it's not going to work for everybody. The beauty of federation is that it doesn't have to.

Some folks like Mastodon's interface, some don't. Some want a local timeline that's specific to a particular topic. Some folks don't like CoCs. Under a federated system, all of this is actually possible to curate. http://social.guhnoo.org is a great way to figure out which instance does what, and which users they cater to. I like Mastodon for the interface, the local community, the caring dev team, and the CoC. All of these things are important to me and are why I think Mastodon is an instance worth using. There are so, so many others! 

@[email protected] brought up a really good point, which is that not everyone has the resources or ability to roll their own instance. That's why I think tools like http://social.guhnoo.org are worth spreading, as they make navigating pre-existing instances significantly easier. My fundamental support of this system is very much rooted in my belief that the world needs publicly owned social networks as much as it once needed publicly owned mail and still needs publicly owned ISPs. Federation is fundamentally socialist because it has the potential to radically shift the way communication is controlled, giving people the potential ability to manage online communications at an individual and community level. While I don't necessarily have the ability to do do this, there is now a theoretical possibility that I can create a system of communication that only intends to conclude those within my personal community (say, my house, or my city, or my state) while still having a connection to a larger system. That's pretty hecking cool. 

Please continue to promote the system, whether that means getting people on Mastodon or encouraging folks to find their own little node that works for them. This system is good for all of us.

This is a list of instances that specifically use Mastodon's interface. Each is described in minor detail: https://github.com/tootsuite/mastodon/blob/master/docs/Using-Mastodon/List-of-Mastodon-instances.md 

If you appreciate Mastodon, consider donating to @[email protected] https://www.patreon.com/user?u=619786 

In addition, @[email protected] linked me to social.guhnoo.org, which is a brilliantly curated list of federated options with helpful descriptions of how each option differs.

[ellenzone]

Why the Switch Can’t Spy

Could this Switch be covertly tracking how long this user is playing Skyrim? No, not really.

Earlier, a writer on The Verge wrote a piece about the burgeoning jailbreak procedures for Nintendo’s new Switch console, detailing how certain hackers were using known exploits in the older version of WebKit used by the console’s heavily limited browser to take further control of the system. This is nothing new - crackers have been using WebKit exploits in outdated browsers on Nintendo hardware to execute third-party software for years, with hacks like this easily accessible on both the Wii U and all models of the 3DS.

Reporting on this development is fine, though the system is so new that it’s not quite clear what jailbreaking would be useful for. This kind of thing is, as mentioned, relatively common for Nintendo consoles, and has in the past been used for both legal and illegal activities. Hacking has allowed owners of Nintendo consoles to run homebrew games, create backups of their digital content, access third-party emulation software, and, of course, run pirated games. The Switch and its respective jailbreak are new enough that the possibilities of such hacking are still theoretical. It’s unclear that these techniques will even work moving into the future or what exactly they will do.

The piece itself posits, in its conclusion, that hackers could theoretically turn the Switch into a surveillance device, a buried lede which Verge-adjacent Polygon decided to run with in a tweet promoting the piece. It’s irresponsible to run with such a loaded statement considering the actual facts of the Switch’s jailbreak and the history of Nintendo cracking. The idea that the Switch could be some sort of surveillance device is nearly as absurd as Kellyanne Conway’s laughable statement on microwave espionage.

It’s pretty clear that, compared to its home console brethren, the Switch is a relatively limited device. It has no camera, no microphone, and a browser only suitable for entering passwords into one’s social media services. Its most sophisticated networking operations are the eShop for buying digital games and online gaming. The console’s forthcoming paid online service is slated to have online chat functions, but those will occur through and app on one’s smart device, not on the actual device. 

Due to these limitations, the jailbreak procedure is one that must be run manually by pulling some tricks within the console’s browser. This means that, as of now, these “hacks” can’t be executed remotely. As of now, the jailbreak that exists doesn’t even have kernel access to the system. This means that running sophisticated software using exploits is, at least for now, off-limits, and it’s unclear whether this outdated version of WebKit will be what the console runs into the future.

Nintendo’s history does tell us that they’re notoriously bad at handling and blocking exploits like this, but even then, jailbreaking the Wii U or the 3DS has been an arduous ordeal, one that requires explicit user input and has several limitations. While hackers have had kernel access on those systems and are able to execute sophisticated software, at this point, those hacks are unable to do things crucial to espionage such as spoofing official software or key logging. A user can execute basic tricks, such as tricking the 3DS eShop to believe that a pirated copy of a given game is legit and was purchased by that user, or forcing their region locked system to run international games, but advanced espionage techniques such as keylogging or hijacking of the systems’ on-board cameras and microphones are not yet possible.

To suggest the Switch can be used as a surveillance device assumes that it has surveillance capabilities in any capacity. Not only does the history of Nintendo system hacks show that worrisome techniques haven’t been an issue, but the realities of the console’s hardware and features make advanced surveillance eminently less possible or impossible entirely. It’s not as if the 3DS has been hijacked in any way to be a portable 3D espionage unit using its outward-facing cameras, for example. The Switch has no microphone and no camera. The absolute worst that could be done is using a keylogger to capture users social media passwords upon Facebook/Twitter login or Nintendo account creation, or capturing their credit card numbers in the eShop, but without kernel access or historical example it’s blatantly irresponsible to pretend these things are even theoretical. Further, any jailbreaks executed on the Switch need to be done with direct user supervision - “hackers” can’t just break into your system and control it without your input, as is possible on internet-connected televisions and refrigerators and older versions of Android.

Ultimately, in today’s climate, where hacking and espionage are commonplace on consumer devices, and users’ refrigerators are being used to commit DDOS attacks, it’s the responsibility of tech outlets to be reasonable and realistic in their reporting on technological surveillance. It’s clear at this point in time that the Switch can’t be used to spy on users, and suggesting as much is simply irresponsible clickbait.

[ellenzone]

zelda feelings 1

There's this innate feeling of personalization to the experience that so many other games lack?? This world is designed with such richness that there are wonderful surprises around every turn. It remarkable in practice. Hyrule feels so real as a space. The systems that govern its earth provide a solid foundation. Everything feels consistent. There's particular kinds of animals *here* and they exhibit pack behavior, this expanse of grass grows a particular kind and color of flora, leaves fall off of these trees according to the way the wind is blowing, this rock is going to fall a particular way because of the bend of this hill and of course it's going to do that it's only natural it's not like the rock is mysteriously anchored to its environment like some sort of set dressing. Everything has weight. Everything works the way it's supposed to. There's a ton of thrill in just figuring out new recipes and realizing that, yeah, shooting that lantern with your bow and arrow makes it fall to the ground and activate the explosives below it. Because these systems work and are consistent, it's so easy to get lost in discovery, pulled deep into thoughtful imagination of what you can do and where you can go.

[joii-o-deactivated20170517]

[zandraart]

some foxes

[ellenzone]

Sonic Speeds Into LEGO Dimensions

It’s pretty cool, and not just because his minifig is super cute.

This morning, the LEGO Dimensions team shared a highly-discussed trailer that revealed a host of new entertainment properties being adapted for last year’s toys-to-life title. You may have seen the list already. The announcements are exciting for fans of LEGO and the many properties alike. For many of these brands, like Adventure Time and Gremlins, this marks the first time those characters will be rendered in official LEGO form. It’s no secret, however, that my most anticipated of all these new announcements is Sonic the Hedgehog. I freaked out about it on Twitter enough to prove that.

Sonic’s minifig might be adorable, but his inclusion in the game’s upcoming expansions is notable for several reasons. Sonic being represented by various LEGO toys lays the groundwork for a lovely little series of LEGO tributes to the franchise. Other successful branded LEGO sets, like LEGO Star Wars, Minecraft, and Harry Potter, have provided fertile ground for imaginative building play through interesting environments, unique builds, and loads and loads of minifigures. Sonic levels offer interesting geometry, with colorful settings and rich terrains. These would make for very interesting builds in a LEGO context, certainly sets that played off the classic checkbox aesthetic.

The Minecraft sets and their success prove that LEGO fans enjoy reconstructing their favorite pieces from the games they love and having play adventures with the matching minifigures. There are two kinds of dominant LEGO play - sets that are primarily meant for those who like the act of building, like the Creator sets, and sets that are primarily meant for imagination and adventure play, such as licensed sets or the Ninjago line. There are LEGO enthusiasts whose most memorable experiences with LEGO are those spent moving their minifigures around environments and vehicles built specifically to the instructions with no variations. The Traveller’s Tales games reflect that kind of play, and thus, Dimensions does as well.

I genuinely believe Sonic is well-suited to this kind of play as well. Take Metal Harbor from Sonic Adventure 2 as an example. Imagine this as a multi-layered LEGO set, including the massive loop at the stage’s start and the rocket ship from the end of the level. Picture it coming with minifigures representing this part of the game’s plot – Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Amy, Rouge, and Shadow. Think about a classic Green Hill Zone set with classic minifigures and a brick-by-brick recreation of the iconic wrecking ball boss fight. Sonic makes a very interesting property for adaptation in LEGO and would provide house of play for builder and adventurer alike. For now, all we know is that Sonic is going to be in LEGO Dimensions, but with LEGO now holding a license for the hedgehog, it may not be long before we see ideas like this come to life.

This isn’t the first time Sonic has been licensed to other developers for a video game, though it does present an interesting challenge for the LEGO series. From a gameplay perspective, TT Games is tackling the challenge of capturing Sonic’s characteristic speed in a context that’s relevant to the LEGO games. If you’ve played any of TT’s LEGO games, you have an idea of what that formula is supposed to feel like. While Dimensions offers some spins on that formula, those spins mostly hinge on the unique physicality of the Dimensions title - something that sets it apart in the toys-to-life genre - while gameplay elements feel very familiar to those who have experience with any of their LEGO titles. Each character is set in a class, each class has specific things they can do to alter the flow of each level, and the rest of their individual quirks are cosmetic. Harry Potter and the Green Lantern can both grab and manipulate a far-off item with the same ease, one just does it with a wand instead of a ring. Given that Sonic’s a speedster, it may be relevant to look to their treatment of Quicksilver and The Flash in LEGO Marvel’s Avengers and the LEGO Batman series respectively to glean an idea of how Sonic might play in his Dimensions release.

As you can see, Quicksilver is fast. He can run the races in the open world faster than any other character and he can run on water and do other neat tricks that relate specifically to his speed. TT puts specific work into their LEGO worlds to give each character something to do - even if a handful of characters can do a specific thing, it’s only that handful of characters and no others, giving players a reason to want to play as a member of that handful. I’m certain the upcoming LEGO Dimensions levels, like the massive Ghostbusters-themed Story Pack containing six new levels for the game, will offer players a reason to employ Sonic’s speed, even if that reason is just yet another Gold Brick. It’s unclear if Sonic will be released as a “Fun Pack,” which would leave him with no levels of his own and make him only a playable bonus for the rest of the game, or as a Level Pack, which would be his minifigure along with a few playable levels themed around the Sonic franchise. Either way, this won’t even be the first time the people on the LEGO team have worked with the hedgehog.

Sonic’s appearance in LEGO Dimensions is a homecoming for Traveller’s Tales. They have worked with the character before. Many people still at TTGames actually worked on Sonic 3D Blast some 22 years ago, including Jon Burton, who is credited for Program Design and Implementation and 3D Blast and is now the head of Traveller’s Tales and one of the lead programmers on many of the LEGO games; James Cunliffe, lead artist on 3D Blast and several of the LEGO titles; and Neil Allen, level designer on 3D Blast and, again, on several of the LEGO games. Many of these people also worked on Sonic R, the racing game for SEGA Saturn known best for its catchy Eurobeat-inspired soundtrack. This team has experience with carving new ground for Sonic, adapting his gameplay in the contexts of isometric platforming and racing to mixed success. It will be interesting, two decades later, to see how they treat the character and adapt his gameplay to this new environment.

Overall, I’m very intrigued by this news, and I think it’s fertile ground for discussion for both Sonic fans and LEGO fans alike. Sonic’s sudden appearance in this game was unexpected save for some vague rumors in the Dimensions community a few months ago, and for Sonic fans, this marks the first major news break in months. Even if this just works out to be a cash grab for the character’s 25th anniversary, it’ll be nice to have even just a minifig of Sonic on my desk, and the possibilities of Sonic being in the hands of The LEGO Group are endless. I look forward to seeing where this goes.

[ellenzone]

Hey friends! I'm compiling the experiences of transgender and gender-variant folks in retail and customer service! If you're not cis and you have ever worked in retail or customer service, please consider taking the time to fill out my survey!!

[alt-zelkova]