Forum - View topicThe X Button - Excused Absences
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TitanXL
 Posts: 4036 |
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If you go by what people in the industry say (women, not men, for the record) then yes. They do seem to say they'd love to hire women but there just is none applying for these game jobs so they can't hire people who don't exist. While there might be an increase in women playing games, that doesn't mean there's an increase in women who want to develop them. As much as it might hurt some people to admit it, not all jobs are equally appealing to both genders, and expecting a 50/50 ratio is misguided. Does this mean sexism doesn't exist in these fields? Of course not, but that doesn't make it the main issue at stake.
She doesn't, at least if her misinformation on Dinosaur Planet and DokiDoki Panic is any indication. She states Krystal was the main character of Dinosaur Planet... she wasn't. She states Fox replaced Krystal... he didn't. She makes no mention of Sabre, the previous hero of Dinosaur Planet. Fox replaced Sabre, not Krystal. Sabre is not mentioned at all in her video, most likely because it would undermine the angle she was going for, or because she just flat out didn't know. Either way, it hurts her credibility. And that's my main issue with her, she never mentions stuff that can contradict or undermine her points. Her wording and phrasing is blatantly poisoning the well: it sets a tone, it's propagandaish, and all her statements already have a foregone conclusion and do not allow for the viewer to decide or think for themselves, she more or less ends everything with the conclusion that it's done for the purpose of being an "adolescent male power fantasy" and moves on. I don't hate Anita Sarkeesian, I just think she saw an opportunity and took full advantage of it. As much as her fans paint her as an innocent bystander, she's done things that are highly manipulative. She screened comments and only allows people who either agree with her, or blatant troll comments she can use as proof that people are attacking her. I and many others, actually did try to leave comments on one of her videos back in the day but they were never approved (mine was a non-confrontational correction to one of her statements on Bayonetta, like the Dinosaur Planet thing), but it was never approved and never appeared in her comment section. Meanwhile, I do see "go die in a fire you ****" comments get approved instead of my own, and doesn't exactly take a genius to see what she's doing. It also doesn't help she then used those comments in her presentations to show people attacking her to drum up interest for her cause. If you only approve the most vile and acidic comments to make the opposing side look bad, especially on a knee-jerk topic like feminism/misogyny, yeah, that's a good way to garner support and sympathy. She's clever, I'll give her that. Though unfortunately it seems she's disable ratings and comments on all of her videos now (and her Bayonetta video has mysteriously vanished) Which is a bit worse when you consider this Tropes VS Women video, because now even people who do support and agree with her (and most importantly, donated to her) have no say in her videos and can't discuss them with her. But most importantly it undermines the legitimacy of her claims since it indicates that her ideas cannot hold up under scrutiny. |
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ikillchicken
 Posts: 7272 Location: Vancouver |
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The thing about this line of reasoning is that it is almost universally put forth by people who, thanks to their gender, race, etc, have never once actually had to practice what they preach. Never once had to choose between dealing with something grossly offensive to their gender and playing a game they otherwise enjoy.
To be fair, we shouldn't assume this is off the table after just one video. But otherwise I agree completely. Too often I think we focus entirely on the negative. Not that there's anything wrong with criticizing negative portrayals of women. But it is an entirely destructive process. We also need to work at this from a constructive angle but praising and highlighting good female characters.
Okay buddy. Whatever you say. You've always claimed that we should still not tolerate misogyny when we do run across it. "Harping on douchebag Internet misogynists is so easy and obvious it shouldn't even be necessary" "I mean, what are you going to do about it, [...] Entreat every ignorant douchebag you see to change their ways?" "the only real valid response is to lead by example: show people that you are above this"
Another obvious strawman. It's plain as day that I never claimed this. And in fact, I explicitly stated otherwise. There will always be some people that act like this. But that doesn't mean we can't still drastically reduce this behaviour. And the argument "There will always be some [X] so we shouldn't even try to reduce [X]" is a classic fallacy.
I know right? People are allowed to be misogynist! And I'm allowed to criticize them for being misogynist! And you're allowed to criticize me for the way I criticize them! It's almost as if raising the issue of what people are "allowed to" do is utterly meaningless and therefore stupid! 
This concept of "group shaming" you're so hung up on is 100% your own made up interpretation not based on anything I have actually said. |
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Draneor
 Posts: 355 |
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Right. I think the issue is these are generally the only stories we tell in games. So when you look at an individual game it's probably OK to use a standard trope, but once you start compiling all the stories we tell (i.e., the meta discussion)--it's clear we aren't sufficiently covering the entire human experience. I love the standard Harry Potter narrative, and I don't wish it to die, but that doesn't mean we can't develop new compelling narratives as well. Harry Potter has thousands of years of cultural history behind it. It's easy to go with what we know. So it will take a lot of conscious effort to keep developing alternative ones. Having more female writers, producers, designers, and game makers (as well as diversity in other ways) will perhaps will help that. A lot of voices have been excluded from telling their stories. OTOH, if you were female, given how some very vocal "fans" hyper analyze and critique every thing you do... that's got to be a turn off to the career (not even considering the institutional barriers, lack of support, and general public ignorance).
The neutral ground would be not commenting on it. Assuming you're arguing under good faith, you can't go into a war zone, start asking questions of only one side (i.e. tossing grenades), and not have people assume you're not really neutral. Maybe there's a time for that. This is probably not one of them.
Again, not caring would be not reading about it or commenting on it. No one is forced to read yet alone write lengthy opinions about anything on the internet. |
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Pleinair92
Posts: 50 |
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This whole Sarkeesian Kickstarter kerfluffle is exactly the same as when the Angry Video Game Nerd asked for money to fund the movie he's currently making. Many internet-dwellers felt he had NO RIGHT to ask for money for something that would benefit them and when there was no evidence that he was pocketing any of it.
Even worse was when a guy requested money (this time, on Kickstarter) to make a fixed version of the ultra-rare Cheetahmen II prototype. The backlash could only be seen to be imagined. It spilled over to the Nerd, since he appeared in the Kickstarter video. Asking for money seems to be a very contentious issue to many gamers. |
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Chagen46
 Posts: 4377 |
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Nah, more like among nerds. There's this very prominent "eff Big Money" feeling among nerds and it leads to this "anyone who asks for money to do something is WROOOOOONG and NOT A TROO ARTEEST" feeling.
Because apparently you can't be an artist without starving yourself
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TitanXL
Posts: 4036 |
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You mean the Cheetahmen II thing that James Rolfe fully admitted was shady and it was his fault for being a part of it without checking out the facts first from the guy who approached him and he tried to fix it and back out of it but was unable to for contractual reasons? Just because people get upset over people asking for money doesn't make them haters, ignorant, no-lifes, or any other derogitory insult one can think of. One can easily turn that around and say only a fanboy would defend their internet idol's decision to death regardless if it was a right or wrong decision. Everyone has made mistakes and this includes these "internet celebrities". But I wouldn't compare that to this; not by a longshot. James had to temporarily quit his job, move halfway across America, rent a new apartment, trucks, cars, hire actors, build and rent sets and studios, rent catering, and tons of other stuff. Those kinds of expenses make sense. The reason people got upset at James was because he makes a lot of money to begin with, so him asking for money when, say, the Nostalgia Critic doesn't for his own movie things is what people were griping about. Here however, Anita got half of what James did and she has to do none of what James did in terms of expenses. That's what people are skeptical about since she's only going to actually use a fraction of the money for her blog videos. Personally, if I was her, I'd only accept the original amount and then donate the rest to, say, a charity that helps domestic violence victims or something. That'd be a good show of faith from her. |
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EternalKnight001
 Posts: 24 |
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... hmmm, I'd loved to see Steins;Gate make it here eventually (in whatever iteration possible- PSP/iOS/whatever), but looks like thats not going to happen.... unfortunate.
Looking forward to HDN V next week; but. Have to plat the original and start/get through/plat Mk2 first (so. it'll be a while). |
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kamui85
Posts: 267 |
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that STEINS;GATE image reminds meof the black rock shooter style... is it by the same artist?
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Cecilthedarkknight_234
 Posts: 3820 Location: Louisville, KY |
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I wouldn't care as much but the agvn has 2 games that are alone worth over over 40,000 dollars combined. |
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Fencedude5609
 Posts: 5088 |
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Yes, the original Steins;Gates designs are by Huke, who created Black Rock Shooter |
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Fencedude5609
Posts: 5088 |
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I assume you demand this of all Kickstarters that exceed their stated goal. You do, right? |
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Draneor
Posts: 355 |
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It's clear her fault for missing the requirement to submit her accounting paperwork to TitanXL in triplicate for prior approval before the launch of her Kickstarter fundraising effort. At which point, if it checks out, it will be posted on Reddit for an upvote or a downvote. You have to think of the poor, poor people that donated their hard earned money. How could they have known that the money would be spent on making YouTube videoes as opposed to saving orphan golden retrievers from sinkholes? He's quite the unselfish chap, really. Not everyone would care so deeply about other people's money. |
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Zac
ANN Executive Editor
 Posts: 7912 Location: Anime News Network Technodrome |
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If you were her you'd be a whole lot more tolerable. |
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Kyogissun
 Posts: 676 |
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She completely blew off one of my favorite characters in Bastion (Granted there are only, what, four? Five?) by calling her 'the female' and saying she had no impact on the story in a Destructoid interview. Zia has an entire enemy gauntlet/wave room dedicated to telling her backstory and she often gives commentary on the events of the game (via Ruck's narration) and her opinion. I don't even 'remember' what her appearance was, what has left an impact on me for a game I played over a year ago was the behavior alone. But most important of all is the speech she gives to The Kid near the end of the game and works to convince him to make the right decision and spoiler[activate the Bastion's Flight mechanics to take them to land unaffected by the Cataclysm and attempt to start over and make better decisions this time for, hopefully, a better society and future. The game, IIRC, goes so far as to tell you that after siding with Ruck to use the Bastion to turn back time, the Cataclysm is destined to repeat itself. I.E, you are stuck in a time loop unless you follow Zia's advice]. The game is blatantly saying spoiler[DO NOT TRUST THE STUBBORN OLD MAN, GO WITH THE CLEAR HEADED WOMAN OF ANOTHER RACE YOUR PEOPLE USED TO OPPRESS, SHE IS TRYING TO GUIDE YOU IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION.] For her to take the pot shot at Bastion is absolutely disgusting, a game that itself doesn't have a super grand message to it and is just looking to make an enjoyable, beautiful and well written game. So, for completely snubbing a character and showing absolutely no professionalism in that interview, her integrity as a 'journalist' or an 'academic resource' should be completely questioned. I dislike her because she represents the figure of someone looking to make a quick cash grab in a hot topic (or just gain some form of popularity), claiming to bring people a source of information and open the eyes of the masses, only to use the most basic analysis of the situation at hand like some sophomore high school student trying to get by in his/her english class with a Satisfactory paper. Except rather than admit the said 'phoning in' of research and effort like the student was, she is committed to the lie that she is putting in college graduate level effort and will not accept any legitimate criticism and would rather sweep myself and many others who do not give a flying **** about her gender and her concerns about feminism and are more concerned about who she is as a person and how she may be a scam artist. She doesn't have to cater to my whim and start behaving a certain way, but for her to continue to sit by and not acknowledge her flaws and faults only continues to frustrate people like me and make us feel like we're being blown off with all the 'misogynists' she has no interest in hearing anything from. Rather than tune out pointless hate speech and accept constructive criticism, she's shutting out any and all criticism of her content. Anyone going into speaking out about any social hot button topic should be prepared to acknowledge every form of criticism, be it completely unproductive rantings of the opposition or suggestions and advice to improve what HAS THE POTENTIAL to be interesting commentary. Instead, we have Anita providing the most poor example of how to respond to negative feedback and doing nothing (so far) to advise how we can improve this 'sexist mindset' prevalent in popular culture. She just wants to 'bring things to light' rather than actually do anything about it, AFAICT, and this is really annoying for someone who agrees with the problems of sexism (and racism, homophobia and the general promotion of hate speech) in the gaming community and games in general and would like for someone to attempt to help start some growth and change, but instead have to put up with people like Anita. tl;dr I do not buy the sincerity in this project to attempt to do anything other than 'bring information to the table' rather than actually do something about it. I can't stand people who are all 'you have the information, now what can you do about it' because it reeks of the inability to make decisions and act like an adult. |
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TitanXL
Posts: 4036 |
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All? Of course not, context is important. If it's a game, then that money can be put into additional stuff. A crowd-funded game could easily use the extra money for extra characters, levels, whatever. In fact, that generally is what happens with the various tiers and levels of donations for indie games and the game can be better depending on how much is donated. See: Wasteland 2 Kickstarter. For a series of vlogs that have grossly been overfunded over twenty times their original goal and have zero breakdown of what the money is even being used for? Yeah, probably. Especially if her intention was to somehow improve the lives of womenkind with her videos. |
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