Batman, Arkham Origins Planning Session

Scene: A few dozen management types sit in front of a speaker.

"Now, in the previous Batman game, the Joker died, and the voice actor said he won't do this game. Given all that, do we have any ideas for the main villain of our next game?"

All hands go up

"Do we have any ideas that aren't the Joker?"

All but one hand goes down

 "Yes, you have an idea that isn't the Joker?"

"Well, sort of. I was thinking we could do the Joker?"

Ten hours later...

"So, anyone that isn't the Joker?"

Silence

Bechdel Test

The Bechdel Test is a good tool, and it reveals a level of sexism more profound and more prevalent than most of us would have guessed. But it's like BMI, it's not to be used as a judgment on a specific subject, it's a judgment on the whole culture in which it exists.

In other words, we shouldn't critique individual shows based on their ability to pass the Bechdel test, there are lots of reasons why it might not. Instead, we should look at the larger world of media as a whole and condemn it for having so few products that pass.

Has anyone compiled numbers on the male version? It must be nearly universal.

RPG Concept: Scrambled Supers

I like the idea of characters not being entirely created to be the optimal solution to a problem, but a more complex figure. One idea to make things less optimized and more like actual super stories, where a hero has to figure out how to use their powers, is to have people design their character before super-powers, maybe 100 points, then have their super powers as another 200 point "package". Then you have everyone swap super-powers with the person next to them.