A reminder: it's been debunked, and no one brought it up here, and no one defended it after you brought it up, so you didn't need to argue against it in the first place, and you definitely don't need to argue against it again.

: Connecting video games to bad behavior has been tried for years, and I say
: video games, to whatever extent they teach anything, more often teach good things.

If that was what you took issue with you could've made that a lot more clear.

: When people start criticizing my entertainment and overstating its
: negative effects on me, I usually call those people puritanical scolds.

Yeah, except whether you or I agree with it or not, it's not coming from the the same place.

: I thought I honestly made that clear to Cody, and I’m not the first person to
: refer to modern feminism as puritanical (cf. Paglia).

I know you're not the first, that's part of what bothers me. Your argument resembles some common and indeed stereotypical arguments against what is admittedly an... issue-y(?) brand of feminism or gender equality or whatever. (No, I shouldn't hold the opinions of other people that have similar arguments against you, and I'm trying not to.) There is hypocrisy to be found, and other problems, but it's almost impossible to actually talk about unless you specify which philosophy and which group you're talking about ("third-wave feminism" and "Tumblr feminism" mean very different things to different people, and some people will make a distinction between what they're supposed to mean and what they mean in practice).

: Nope. I thought the bruce had good points—is that who you’re referring to?

Yes, I was referring to those conversations, and obviously I still think he did not have good points. If I was going to get more in depth on it again, I might use the word "puritanical" myself.

: The new Cortana was sexual to a point where she was distracting, and made
: the game problematic for younger players.

I fully disagree with both of those statements.

: I don’t want to engage them directly. To give the subject its due would
: require going places that I don’t think is appropriate for this forum. And
: by the way, I wasn’t referring to anyone here. I didn’t read much of the
: thread—I was stating my reaction to the video.

You say that, but you often speak up when these kinds of issues come up. What is it, you change your mind every time, or somehow it only becomes inappropriate when it's more than one post? Whatever it is, you keep avoiding elaborating on what you mean and what you have the opinions you have and what your thought process is (and it's not super easy to get ahold of you).

: She does to me. I didn’t really mind it, frankly, but I’m not a parent.

Why should that make a difference?

To address it directly, seeing a naked-ish blue AI lady (or even something more realistic than that) is not going to traumatize anyone, not even a kid, unless they have it driven into their head that it's something they should never see, or have some other massive psychological misgivings tied to it. Having to answer uncomfortable questions is an integral part of parenting-- I know it's hard, I've been on the receiving end of those questions despite not being a parent, but I have little sympathy for someone trying to avoid them long-term. Did I miss anything? I feel like I did, but the only arguments I can think of are "How do I tell little Jimmy about penises?", "It'll scar my kids for life!", and "How do I get them to keep their clothes on if they think it's OK to go around naked?" (which is a problem for that's common for very young children regardless of what they see).

: PAX 2012. I’m not going to argue with you about what you find frumpy or
: perky, but I think your last non-parenthetical sentence is insane.

Well that sure is a nice way to say that, isn't it?
How about this: You take a poll and see who thinks Cortana looks the best in Halo 4. If it's more than the expected number then you may have a point about them making her more sexualized w/r/t cultural attachments. I can pretty much guarantee you that's not what you'd find, because her form in that game does not fit the typical Western etc. etc. In other words, she's not hot in Halo 4. Attractiveness is a subjective thing, but there are commonalities to be found, otherwise advertising would be much much harder, among other things. Maybe they did model her on a, well, a model, and I'm sure it's what some people like, but I have seen only a minority preferring that version of Cortana.