Girl's got game: Lucy Collette and Game reviews

I travel a lot by train and at Stupid O'clock in the morning. Sometimes a book is my only companion, most times I nap and other times I scroll through the day before's Tweets and conversations, which is what I did today, and I stumbled on an argument between some Tweeters and Lucy "Vixen" Collette the glamour model and Game reviewer for Nuts magazine.

It did get fairly personal in its nature, which was very uncalled for, but the original question was a valid one;

Does she actually play a lot of games or is she just the sexy figure head with a team of ghost writers?

Lucy claims that she does and what cause is their to disbelieve her?

Well, it is difficult, for some people, to believe that:-

a) A glamour model would be into gaming - after all surely it is the domain of geeks and kids?

b) The self same model wouldn't be able to formulate a review of a game without help.

This is pigeon holing and playing to stereotype. After all gaming is an open recreational pastime and although teenagers and students do predominantly control the market due to having more free time and money, there are also those who enjoy Call of Duty and Fifa games who are not in this bracket.

Gaming is also not gender specific, though mainly (from my experiences) a male pastime. However there are "Gamer girls" and more than you would expect. There are famous examples such as Ann Hathaway, Team Unicorn and Claire Grant. Again, from my own experiences I have met and know  some fantastic "Gamer girls" and even my wife has learnt to play and can use a Sniper rifle as well as anyone if not better. She has even surprised my mates (who presumed as a girl she was there to make up numbers and wouldn't be very good) with her savage tenacity and deadly aim!

I can understand the accusation that she is merely the face of the Games reviews as Nuts Magazine's demographic is teens and early 20s men and Lucy doing the reviews would attract more attention than say...me.

Let's be honest if you were in this demographic and wanted a games reviewer who would you want?

A redhead with cleavage and a Skyrim addiction or Miss Collette?

The other thing to bear in mind is that a Games review is a games review and ultimately if you want to read the review would it matter if the review was done by Lucy or by a nameless writer? Her presence definitely "Sexes up" the games section but it isn't a necessity.

Lucy does tweet about gaming - mostly Simpsons online, but there are others including an endearing picture of her beloved pet "Pookie" on one of her Controllers. People have based their judgements on the overall lack of tweets compared to other Glamour related posts.

Well that isn't a great basis, I was/am an avid gamer. My history of gaming stretches back to my teens (and an Amstrad 1512 CGA pc!!!) with addictions to games like Their finest hour, X-wing vs. TIE fighter, A-train, Dune II, GTA III, GTA San Andreas, Star Wars Battlefront (I & II), Force Unleashed (I & II) Fable III and recently Skyrim (blogged here and here) to name but a few.

If you read my twitter feed you will find very little about any of this except on the very rare occasion. Most of my boring stream is about Liberal Democrats, Medway Politics, Trains, my Kids and randomness.

If I started writing Games reviews would I be accused of having a ghost writer? It seems that the basis for the accusation is purely on the fact she is a Glamour model. The same could be said for complaints that she is aiding the objectification of women by writing the column. Forget for a moment that she also poses semi-naked elsewhere in the magazine, take her as the young, attractive woman (with a positive body image) who is breaking the mold of adolescent male Games reviewers and therefore a role model for "Girl gamers" by showing the world that women do game and they are as good if not better than many guys give them credit for and actually know what they're talking about. Gaming isn't about gender or background it is about your achievements and abilities in what ever genre of game you are playing - be it platform, strategy, sports, simulation or RPG. I was once outnumbered 15 to one by enemy fighters and still fought them all off and landed back on the air field with only minor damage to the 109. My wife made a head shot from across the Siberia map on Time Splitters future perfect, these small feats are to be celebrated why fixate on the gender or the background of the player?

I don't believe there is evidence to support the claim that she doesn't write the column or that she isn't a gamer and I think until given solid reason you should give her the benefit of the doubt - I believe Lucy is a gamer, I have also enjoyed her column so what's the big deal?

It is a sad commentary on today's culture and society that we immediately judge an attractive woman by her occupation and disbelieve that she is capable and must have ghost writers.

Catitonia: Mulder and Scully

Continuing my mid-life crisis and digging up music from my teenage years I thought of this song.

This takes me back to Sixth form days and the summer of 98 sitting about the common room playing Star Wars CCG - I never said I was cool!

Or sitting in my mate Tim's car in the carpark chillaxing to tunes.

ah... where have those days gone?

Still! Enjoy!!!

The continued Page 3 debate

Page 3 defender Peta Todd, Charity worker, former model

I'm probably about to draw a lot of flak from this but....

I agree with Nick on the subject of Page 3 and the sun. Liberals can, and cannot tell newspapers what to print as long as they are not infringing on other people's liberty by phone hacking or over intrusive journalism and unfortunately Page 3 is not one of those things.

I will, however quickly remind you all that I do think that some sort of age limit is needed on topless material as it is in movies. That would be the only way to remove this feature.

Page 3 is one brick in an entire ediface of similiar things.

The blunt fact of the matter is Sex sells. Women in various states of undress can be seen selling all sorts of things from Cars, deoderant, movies, Soap operas and even security hardware and it is that which captures the male mind. Afterall human beings are still just animals with the same base desires and wants and one of those is sex and clever marketing and advertising execs are happy to draw on that when they hit the market.

Do you think that teenage boys would buy lynx deoderant if the adverts were:

Lynx Africa - Smells great and you will too?

No! They see the army of scantily clad women throwing themselves at some average looking guy and their mind links the product to the ability to get women. I can tell you - it doesn't work!

Television programmes also use attractive and or scantily clad women to get people interested. Take Big Brother for example, not only did the casting teams deliberately try to cause conflict by selecting people who would grate on each other but also a bevy of young attractive people as well. There is no way it was a coincidence that Orlaith McAllister a former runner up in Miss Northern Island, Imogen Thomas a former Miss Wales and her runner up Rachel Rice were all selected at random.
Even Hollyoaks was accused of having far too many goodlooking buxom blonde actresses in it to attract some more male viewers - a problem rectified by a plot device using a Serial killer who only attacked attractive blonde girls!

Using women as sex objects in movies has gone on for decades! I hate to admit it but even Star Wars Episode IV Carrie Fisher was told not to wear a bra under her white Senatorial robes so there was more *cough* movement as she ran around. Sharon Stone said she felt pressured to do the revealing chair scene in Basic instinct and Kirsten Dunst once made reference to the famous Spiderman kiss in the rain scene where her shirt went translucent as Something for the geeks. It has taken decades for Bond girls to be more than just eye candy, in fact Golden eye was the first one with a strong female lead (arguably A view to a kill with Grace Jones) and even in some of the follow ups like Tomorrow Never dies Terri Hatcher's character is a throw back to the old days of Oh James!

I'm not saying it is something that we should accept, far from it. In the last century we have come along way in Women's rights and equal treatment, (not far enough) and with portrayals as more than a sex object. To be honest a good proportion of men (well the right kind) already know that about women because we were brought up that way by our parents.

Modern attitudes to Women can only really be changed by education from parents and indeed schools. It is a root problem that is only contributed not perpetuated by Page 3.

As to the argument that "Torso of the week" is just harmless fun - I'm sorry but it is fairly similar (and there are those who'd say the same about Page 3). The current Moonpig advert or the intermations in the Malteser advert - yes, even the classic Diet Coke advert...
I'm not saying it's right it wrong but meet me half way and admit there is a strong similarity and motivation. Why else would there be "Hunky Fireman" calendars next to the Girlie calendars?

At the end of the day the girls are willing to pose topless, they are not forced like a seedy Axis Comfort woman. Those who wish to look at semi-naked women over breakfast are free to do so as are we who don't are free not to read it.

The crux of it for me, as a liberal is the "not causing offence to others" part which obviously means not reading such material in public and exposing minors to sexually explicit images. Many would argue that "Fifty shades" is bad but it is printed text rather than imagery. I, personally think that a similar age rating on magazines should exist in the same way as movies. Who am I to tell someone what they can and cannot read in public?

My final thoughts are that this petition is only targeting the Sun not The Star or Sunday Sport.
Also, most kids have access to the Internet on their mobiles and even with the Vodafone filter you can still summon up pornographic imagery.

It is a minefield topic but I don't see any point in regulating printed material as to what can and can't be printed- tis very Mary Whithouse. The cultural attitude to women will not be changed by the removal of Page 3 and it is down to education.

Youth crime due to absent fathers?

I've been reading over David Lammy's comments in recent days about children from fatherless backgrounds and how it leads to crime.

Here and Here

As always, my notes on the subject are quite telling, including the word "bollocks" written quite clearly next to one paragraph.

I'm from a single parent background, my father embezzled a large sum of money from the rest of my family as well as from my sister's and my bank accounts before fleeing to the west country leaving our family in massive debt and even spending a week without electricity. I was about 8 years old.

My contact with my father has been very limited since then. The odd birthday card here and there, a few trips about twenty years ago and a brief meeting when my sister broke her leg in 1995.

It hasn't been until recently that we have spoken again, having been in contact through genesreunited whilst I was working on my family tree. Even then he told me that he had a terminal bowel cancer and was not expected to live before a miraculous recovery.

Any way, I digress.

My mother, like Mr Lammey's, worked hard to bring my sister and I up, we knew right from wrong, we got very good grades in school and now my sister is lecturing in psychology at the Uni of Derby and I am doing alright for my self too. We had no ever present father figure but my two grandfather's did what they could. Pop, my paternal Grandfather, was always a phone call away and was very supportive and I guess he did fill the father shaped void but he was always distant and it really was up to my Mum to do all the basic hands on stuff. Gemma and I were also Cubs/Brownies, Scouts/Guides and finally both Venture Scouts.

Although I do agree with Mr Lammey's comments about how successive schools and Governments have failed the youth of today and that many young people's lives will be over before they have begun. I do not take the argument that;

He lived alone, he rarely see's his mother and his father left home years ago.

This is not an excuse to assault a Police officer. No matter what you're upbringing you have the choice whether or not to commit a crime and surely hitting a Police officer is clearly wrong?

Perhaps the most important choice of all, though, was the one made by his father to walk out on his life. (that's where I wrote the word bollocks, after all I lived alone when I was 22, I rarely saw my Mum and my father had left when I was 8 - did I turn to crime? nope)

Your circumstances do have an effect on you but I think it is overly simplistic just to say that the boy didn't grow up with a father. After all with the statistics up to 25% coming from single parent backgrounds surely all of us should be turning to crime.

Personally I think that we should be looking elsewhere for blame. This gang culture which results in postcode wars and innocent passers by being sprayed all over the insides of newsagents when some Uzi wielding teenager comes hurtling through the door. Or consumer culture that dictates your "social standing" just by the type of trainers you are wearing and how expensive your stuff is. Is it because there is no discipline in society anymore with Schools powerless to do anything about disruptive kids, police officers similiarly hogtied and with a general apathy from governments and councils until the whole country descends into madness.

Also you need to look at the notion of fatherhood. The ideal father would indeed teach you how to be a man and help enforce discipline in the home with your mother. It is a role I'm hoping to aspire to and I hope in years to come I do become a good dad to my two kids. However I'm only human and already Sophie is picking up some of my interests. How many two year olds turn around and say;

Daddy, can I watch Darth Vader please?

Or have a plastic Dalek on their night stand to scare away the monsters?

Now, what if I wasn't a geek and was in fact indulgent in crime? What if the same gangs my boy wants to be part of are the same gangs I'm already in? When a child sees what a parent does they want to copy it, it is the norm. Whose to say that if some of these young ruffians father's had stayed that they wouldn't have turned out the way they are?

In David Lammey's case, he states his father turned to alcohol before he left. Surely you are better off with no father as a role model than a father who is drunk, possibly violently so?

In my own case, my Mum has told me of how impatient my father was with us. How he was too ready to give us a clip round the ear or discipline us for no reason, I also know that in later life he too has turned heavily to drink. I think myself lucky not to have his influence on my life.

Maybe it does have something to do with it, but I think that it is more likely one of many factors that are effecting the youth of today. I feel it is overly simplistic just to blame absent fathers and that we should look at all the causes of such behaviour. Youth crime is definitely something that needs to be looked at, as does this rising gang culture which is even filtering down to places like Medway (with gangs like the Gillinghambois and similiar gangs in Chatham and Strood) coming over from the States. Personally I think we need to toughen up on it, make some examples and make it clear that crime is not acceptable.

No matter what your circumstances, you ALWAYS have a mental choice as to whether to commit a crime or not - having a father or not should not mean that you can think that stabbing someone, robbing, rioting, looting or murder is in anyway alright.

Culture in the UK needs to change for new age of Austerity

There has been a definite change in the Social approach to Austerity and personal finance over the last century.

Really Chris in a whole century? Through changing times of War and prosperity as well as vast social upheaval and change?

Well yes, obviously things have changed but if you scratch away at the surface the same pressures that threatened our Great-great Grandparents are the same as today yet approaches have changed.

A level of greed and a "Something for nothing" culture have developed as more people believe that they the state will, and should, help them out.

An acceptance of the Nanny state and having everything done for them has led to people not being able to do things for themselves.

For example if a child is failing at School parents are quick to point at the school and ask what they are doing rather than asking what, if anything, can be done at home to help.

Capitalism and mass marketing has affected us all and the need for bigger and shinier stuff has lead to more of our disposable income being spent on "Luxury" items. Who really needs the new Garbage album? Or Diablo III? or War Horse on DVD?

We all know what kids are like at Christmas and Toy manufacturers have perfected their technique for for appealing to kids and parents find themselves caught by the dreaded "I wants" - believe me in four years I'm going to have my children striking me and I shall join the vast hordes of people who become indebted at Christmas.There is also Social pressure to have the "Latest thing" and not just in kids, my wife had wanted an I-phone for well over a year and kept trying to figure out where to get the money or contract.

 Banks ceased to be interested in your balance and more in the Customer's situation. Earlier in the week it was reported that one person who wrote into the Citizens advice bureau in Medway had over 60 credit cards! One load was got out to pay another loan and the debt is just moved around. It seemed that in the mid to late 90's the credit card became more and more prolific. Banks, or at least my bank, began pushing them, adverts fell out of magazines, adverts on TV with Rowan Atkinson and the message was;

"Buy now, pay later. - You can even spread the payments over time!"

The boom years brought economy air travel too so you could go clubbing in Ibiza for an affordable amount and pay it back slowly.

Obviously debt is not all self inflicted and situations and life can throw you a curve ball. Students studying for their finals and not able to work, long term illness, house repairs or even death within the family but they result in the same, though there is no blame and these are the people the Welfare state is meant to help. Too many people are relying on the state to pay out, true the Welfare state is there as a safety net to help those who fall and in need of assistance but it seems that more people are jumping off the cliff on purpose. These may sound like sweeping generalisations but how many people have quit their job and signed on just because they don't like their job? How many people keep having Children just for the increase in Child benefits?

I always thought Liberalism was about freedom of action from state interference and a strong belief in people being able to make their own decisions. Well we're all adults and we have to make adult decisions in life and that means sacrifices. No, I can't afford to buy Skyrim for £44 this month, I can't afford that holiday to Prague next year unless I save up and make sacrifices, our family budget cannot stretch to another child so we won't try to have another one.

The problem is debt spirals and you only need a wild month and you're up a famous creek without any oars.

Society and culture was more geared for living in the "here and now" rather than worrying about the future as the use of credit cards meant you could defer. Our parents and Grand parents who'd lived through real austerity in the 30's and 50's were a bit more sensible and stowed money away for a rainy day or leaner times. Haggling was much more common  and both my Grandfathers had a keen eye for a bargain and banter with shop owners. War time tips for making things last have long been forgotten. When was the last time you heard of someone darning a sock?
Make do and mend is a term lost to the mists of time as are the war on waste. Yes I realise that there are no longer U-boats sinking grain convoys and bread is fairly ubiquitous and cheap but pennys add up so why waste things?

Years ago we all knew our neighbours and cooperatives would help each other out. For example my Great-grandfather used to breed rabbits so during the leaner times he would trade rabbit meat for vegetables from one of the his neighbours. There were also occasions when trades would be shared for favours or discount. Now it seems we all hide behind the drawbridge of our own little castles and watch suspiciously over the ramparts. Community has died out in larger cities and towns for a lot of people and there isn't the help there was.

A new approach to Austerity needs to be taken and in some places has already begun. When I was at school the kid whose parents dressed them up in Charity shop clothes usually bore the brunt of many cruel jokes. I, a mouthy somewhat arrogant ginger kid took enough flak as it was but it was made worse by the market bought tracksuits and the lack of "named brand" trainers. There was also only a small spattering of charity shops on high streets and in towns with the charity bookshop doing very well in university towns where students could sell on their old tomes.
Now charity shops have become more and more prevalent, especially in towns like Gillingham where other larger shops can not find a market or sustain themselves. People like my family go in and pick up good quality children's clothing for our daughter, who is at the age where she grows out of things really quickly. I can assure you that she is always smartly dressed. My wife has an eye for nice clothes and we have saved a small fortune buying from Cats Protection rather than Mothercare!
We as a nation need to make things last, take better care of things and yes be prepared to mend things rather than throw out and buy new.

Keep in mind; "Can I really afford this? Do I really need this?" and if the answer is no then walk away, you'll find yourself better off in the long run.

The State does, however, need to intervene with banks and legal loan sharks though. The banking industry must again see the public as cash cows and instead see us as people who will need help. Part of this whole crash was due to over lending to people who just couldn't pay it back. Why would you keep loaning money to someone who is £43,000 in debt? Sound a ridiculous figure? Well it is in fact the AVERAGE debt of those who have contacted Medway's Citizen's Advice!
As for legal loan sharks, the APR is ridiculous and if you don't pay back in a timely fashion you could find yourself locked in spiralling debt with no way to get out of it. Government needs to cap the level of APR that they can charge so that they can at least be some hope.

Yes Culture has changed over time but there are lessons that we can adapt and adopt that were our Grandparents' to save money and resources. We also need to change our approach to life in that we need to make serious decisions and not keep thinking the state will keep bailing us out - that's not what they are there for. We're all adults and should make adult decisions. However the state must also do its part and support those who do need assistance, the elderly, the sick, those who have suffered tough times and they need to redraw the lines with banks and  legal loan sharks to make try and protect the people form predators.