Those aren't mutually exclusive..

I think Sarkeesian is right on with most of what she says.. I'm usually pretty nihilistic so it's not like I'm going to do much about it, but I agree with a lot of her sentiments.

If you actually want to flex some brain muscles, read this study:

http://my.psychologytoday.com/files/attachments/30298/dill-et-al-jesp-2008.pdf

No they're not and no other person on this forum will convince me otherwise. The FFXIII is pure shit. Period.

I don't think Totalbiscuit thinks stories in games are a complete waste, its like what YTblogger Errant Signal said in his The Last of Us review. (which for the most was hard to sit wel with but I got the point.) Instead of treating story and gameplay like two separate entities more folks could find ways to blend story and game together so that the mundane stuff is enjoyed just as much as the combat.

ME series does this with dialogue wheel. Telltale and Quantic games attempt through QTE, and Brothers: Tale of Two Sons, minimizes dialogue to make the in-game obstacles, and gameplay controls the means of storytelling. Not everyone is successful but after hitting graphicsgate, fleshing out gameplay could be the pursuit of the future.

At the very least my opinion is that cutscenes should always stand out as highlight events in the game, and never used as content filler

You sure do, and I'm not going to do anything about it except be the guy that tells you it's idiotic. If someone asks for an opinion on a video game they're thinking about getting, are they going to listen to the guy who just played the demo, or the guy who played the full game? The answer is simple and I don't even need to explain it.

They didn't shove anything down your throat, nor did they take your money. You've only played the demo remember? The people who buy it are the people that are fans of the XIII series. Move on already and stop being such a baby for no reason.

Fair enough. And I agree that developers should/could grow a pair. But I also think it's too easy to completely blame the developers for other people's social shortcomings. I can sit here and say these developers simply have to deal with all the hate, but that wouldn't be fair. I simply don't know what it would be like to be in that situation. I can imagine that not every individual can deal with all that aggression, no matter how much you prepare for it or are aware of how the media work. And I can understand that it must be frustrating if pretty much everything you do is constantly hated by a significant amount of people and that every attempt to defend yourself is met with more hate. There's no excuse for being an asshole, no matter how the internet and people work. And the whole Van Gogh example doesn't fully fly, because the massive scale of criticism by (often) ignorant and entitled people really isn't that old yet. And just because a lot of people can't handle the freedom of the internet (and many forms of freedom in general), doesn't mean we should just expect others to simply grow a pair and deal with it.

I also think we don't hear the same whining in film, music, etc. because people there have accepted there are different audiences and genres (and they stay within the context of that audience or genre). When it comes to videogames, there are a lot of people who still think videogames in general belong to a very specific group of people and that when they speak they express the opinion of the majority of gamers out there. They think their anger is the majority's anger. And they get their anger justified by other angry and loud people. That's the problem with the internet: there are always enough people who will support your opinion and keep the illusion alive that your opinion is the majority's opinion.

So, no, angry fanboys shouldn't be valued, because they have lost the ability to think straight. They should be fully ignored, until they can criticise with a bit of composure and respect.

It's really not that hard to see why Lightning is more popular than your might think. People seem to forget just how popular Lightning is among fangirls. A lot of fangirls, and even feminists, liked the whole "badass" female super-soldier thing that Lightning has going for her, i.e. like a female Cloud. And in Japan's case, fangirls make up a huge chunk of the fanbase.

While Terra, Rydia and Yuna might be better characters, they kind of lack that "badass" super-soldier attitude of Lightning, who's so self-dependent that she doesn't need any man to help her (I never completed XIII though, so can't say for sure). Yeah, she's a shallow jerk and an unlikable ice queen, but it's no different to how many fanboys love a good ol' ultra-masculine "badass" anti-hero regardless of how much of a shallow jerk he might be.