Is a little vidya too much to ask for?
Operation Supply Flop
Operation Supply Drop was conceived as a ‘for gamers, by gamers’ initiative. Playing his GBA was what kept Operation Supply Drop founder, Stephen Machuga, sane during his tour in Iraq, and video games were what enabled him to reintegrate into civilian life. It was with this in mind that he created Operation Supply Drop in 2010, a charity which supplied overseas troops with video game consoles and software, while facilitating gaming-related trips for them to expos and competitions. Owing to the nature of this niche charity, it became very successful off the backs of gamers, who found much to support in the concept of gamers banding together in appreciation for fellow gamers who were fighting for them overseas. It is too bad that gamers cannot have nice things however, as money tends to change everything.
After making several large donations to Operation Supply Drop, Glenn Banton was made CEO in 2014. Banton promptly set about isolating Stephen Machuga within the company, and appointing people to the board who shared his vision of leaving gamers behind in favour of pursuing corporate donations and going toe-to-toe with heavyweights such as wounded warriors. At first Glenn Banton adopted a softly, softly approach, by portraying changes in the company’s operations as diversifying the services they were providing, and by the time that Stephen Machuga noticed that something was amiss he was already powerless within his own organisation. Earlier this month Machuga was forced out of the company, and it was then revealed that Banton planned to change the name of the organisation from Operation Supply Drop to XVACS, losing all the gamer-related company insignia in the process. Operation Supply Drop was to become a subordinate brand under XVACS, and would have presumably been reserved for times when company strategy sought to shake down gamers for their hard-earned shekels. The only thing that has put a temporary halt to the rebranding of the company has been the employee revolt and mass exodus of volunteers [who have taken up positions within Machuga’s new charity, Stack-Up.Org]. One former Operation Supply Drop volunteer recounts:
“It started out as diversification. It didn’t start as, we’re shifting our focus. Then gamers started being pushed aside full force to the point where they just looked at gamers as a revenue stream and didn’t care at all about gamer culture. It was like, gamers can raise money for us to do the stuff we really want to do. They were looking at gamers as cash machines.”
In less than a year of being appointed CEO Glenn Banton had become unsatisfied with with this million dollar charity merely servicing the needs of a sizable niche of gaming soldiers and ex-servicemen, and had determined that he must grow it into a multi-million dollar entity capable of soliciting large corporate donations. Gamers, while generous, still were not sufficient to grow Operation Supply Drop to the scale desired by Banton, while at the same time he considered gamers to be the cause of his failure to attract multi-million dollar funding from corporate sponsors – so gaming had to go. A former Operation Supply Drop volunteer makes no bones about the fact that these changes have been implemented in response to the smearing of gamer culture by game bloggers, the mainstream press, and low-class productions like Law & Order SVU:
“I believe the general perception of gamers in the media is exactly what Glenn is concerned about. That’s the perception he doesn’t want for OSD. He buys into the vision of gamers as kids living in their parents’ basements.
I definitely believe that has a lot to do with his decisions, like the name change and removing the controller from the logo. They say they’re doing plenty in the gaming space still. Well, maybe. Until something better comes along.”
Banton claims that “We have done more in gaming this year than in the previous four years combined. Next year, we will most likely do more than the previous five.“, and yet he goes on to state that he is “frustrated with this concept of gamer-only water fountains and a trend of not letting non-gamers participate in gaming activities.“, proving that he does not care to understand the culture at all. In case those comments were a little too oblique, allow Banton to elaborate:
“As you continue to grow, and the need is out there, you start looking at the generational relevance and the fact that gaming, in and of itself, is something that a lot of people participate in… When you look at that, you have to realize that what we do is first and foremost for veterans. It’s not just for gamers, it’s not just for gaming veterans; it’s for veterans.
When I approach larger organisations, such as Intel, they will see Operation Supply Drop, with the video game controller, and their immediate reaction is, we are not a gaming company, we don’t know how we can help. We then have to tell them we are a veterans’ support organisation.
If we want to remain small and not grow and not listen to our beneficiaries, that’s fine. Maybe it’s me, but I know our board believes the same way. We’ve been given the opportunity to support veterans in a unique way. We have a duty, with this bigger challenge. Some people would rather see a tiny organisation that does a few things. I’m more interested in growing because it’s our responsibility to do so.”
Because why would Intel be expected to know about gaming, right? It is not like gamers are the ones driving demand for their expensive multicore i7 processors! It is not like Intel could immediately make the connection between gaming and the high power CPUs they produce. It would not possibly occur to them that donating hardware might lead to positive outcomes for ex-service men and active soldiers. Poor old Intel must be so confused when contacted by a gamer-oriented charity. No, the association with gamers is clearly what is holding Operation Supply Drop back!
The funny thing is that the smear tactics of social justice goons are being allowed to dictate the direction of veteran’s charities, when social justice goons, in most cases, demonstrate abject antipathy towards veterans. Who could really be surprised that SJWs hold contempt for wounded soldiers; after all, they are predominantly male, and they are mostly involved in fighting terrorist fucks. This is literally they type of person who plays the tune to which Glenn Banton now dances to, and the spineless cuck knows it:
“We’ve had some organisations where the bigger liability is veterans. We spoke to one medium-sized indie game studio who told us, ‘I would rather go bankrupt and live in a cardboard box on the street than support veterans.’ We hear that kind of crap all the time. It’s disgusting, in some cases.”
The disdain for fellow humans. The lack of fiscal responsibility. A medium-sized indy game studio. One is calling it now – Operation Supply Drop got shot down by Tim Schafer! And yet this is the type of gamer-hating imbecile that Glenn Banton is now bending over backwards to placate in order to encourage corporate donations. The question remains however, why on earth would anybody donate to Operation Supply Drop/XVACS now? Their success until now has been built on the backs of gamers as a result of the organisation’s niche appeal and specific functions, yet Glenn Banton has now thrown gamers [along with Stephen Machuga] under the bus in order to chase after corporate donations. But why would XVACS be awarded with corporate donations when Wounded Warriors is so much more well established and capable? Gamers too now have a better option in the form of Stephen Machuga’s Stack-Up.Org, which operates under exactly the same pro-gamer premise that Operation Supply Drop used to. In short Operation Supply Drop/XVACS is now a useless organisation. It attempts to do things that other organisations do better. And it is headed by a cartoon villain.
THANKS, NEOGAF!
More SJW Censorship Woes From Nintendo and Capcom
This is becoming an uncomfortably common occurrence. First there was the news that Nintendo had censored out bikinis from Fatal Frame V, this was then promptly followed up by evidence that their forthcoming December release of Xenoblade Chronicles X had been censored for much the same reason. The fifteen year old character Lin has been modified so that a previously skimpy bikini is now much more conservative. All that pales in comparison however when viewed along-side Nintendo’s latest censorship efforts. Nintendo has been so cowed by Social Justice hellions that they have now seen fit to remove the breast slider from Xenoblade Chronicles X‘s character creator, forcing everyone who wishes to main with a female character to make do with medium-small jubblies. Great going Nintendo, less player choice is always best – and goodness knows that large breasts are shameful and should be hidden away!
Not to be outdone, Capcom has managed to give Nintendo’s regression a good run for its money this week with the censorship of harmlessly cheeky sexiness in Street Fighter V – a move that has effected at least two of the game’s characters. The character R. Mika previously gave herself a cheeky slap on the butt during the animation to her super, yet now the move has been edited so her cute backside has been cut out of the framing of the sequence. Then there is Cammy’s intro sequence which used to have a low-angle shot of her backside, but has not been edited so that her leg is in the way. Of course the SJW defense force have been shilling for this regressive edit big time, with one of the five guys, Kotaku’s Patrick Klepek, even claiming that it is not censorship because she is slapping her butt[???]:
“Not censorship. You’re fussing over a character slapping their butt.”
According to bendy SJW logic something is only censorship if the content being censored meets the minimum standard of some sort of arbitrary goal they have set concerning taste. Protip: that is stupid and wrong. At any rate, readers may record their objections to Capcom’s censorship of the title here if they so wish. It is currently unknown whether all versions of the game have been effected, or whether it is simply an alteration that has been made to the Western version of the game in response to the atmosphere of chilling repression that has been foisted on us by Social Justice puritans. If the latter proves to be the case then PS4 owners should be able to import the title in order to avoid a gimped experience.
Link at every size.
Nintendo Tries to Meet the SJWs Halfway
Ever since Zelda U was unveiled awful feminists have been shrilly demanding that Nintendo transvestite Link into a woman. This week during the first Nintendo Direct since the passing of Iwata the company showed that they were actually listening for once, and were willing to meet SJW naggers halfway. They have created the Female character of Linkle, who is basically a gender-swap version of link, and she will debut in the 3DS version of Hyrule Warriors, which is scheduled for release in early 2016. Initially one thought this quite a bad decision on the part of Nintendo, in much the same way as apologising to SJWs is a bad idea, since they will never accept anything less than full obeisance. Thus, I imagined that SJWs would appreciate Linkle, but that they would not be satisfied with this peace offering, which would ultimately renew their angry totalitarian demands that Link be made into a girl for Zelda U.
Funnily enough Nintendo’s concession did not even buy them this much leeway, with many SJWs instantly hating Linkle for myriad [often conflicting] reasons. They hate Linkle because of how derivative she is of Link as a Mrs Male Character, but they also hate Linkle because of her differences from Link in that she lacks his sword, circular slash, and the fact that her name is Linkle instead of Link. Most egregious of all is she is cute is all heck, which is an unforgivable heresy in the eyes of SJWs. It is also for this precise reason that gamers have taken to Linkle rather fondly, a fact evidenced by the vast quantities of sexy Linkle art that have already pervaded the internet. In short, Nintendo’s overtures were completely wasted on SJWs because even they do not know what they want, but creation of the character was not a total loss, as she seems quite charming. At any rate, one looks forward to further butthurt once Zelda U releases featuring shitlord Link in his full misogyist glory.
Representing the very best in clip art!
Anime Spotlight: Lupin III Part IV
After a thirty year hiatus Lupin III is returning to television screens for a fourth entry in the storied television series. The titular character, Arsene Lupin III, is an Italian thief who always leaves his calling card in this adventure-comedy-drama. Fans of the legacy series will be happy to hear that that the fourth series retains its original composer [Yuji Ohno] along with its original production studio [TMS Entertainment], so it sounds pretty solid in terms of continuity.
Lupin III Part IV began airing on the first of October in Japan, and there are currently seven episodes available. Oddly the series actually began airing in Italy before it did Japan, commencing on the thirtieth of August and finishing up on October 19, meaning that the entire series is actually available if one is content with the Italian dubbing. Stranger still, the series is not being simulcust on Funimation or Crunchyroll, meaning that Lusipurr.com readers will have to rely on their guile if they wish to view it within any sort of reasonable time frame.
