Here we go again: Anita Sarkeesian and the gaming community

[Haerthan]

The shitheads that flung shit at TB should have been found and jailed. I still however think that he should have stuck neutral, regardless of the wall of noise. Kinda like Jim Sterling, he stuck neutral, condemning all harassment. Also guess what the pro-GG camp put Jim fucking Sterling son on the SJW list apparently. So yea. Both sides got their issues, both sides need to stop harassing.

It is hard for the public figures to stay neutral when both sides put the public figures on one side if they dont tow the party line.

TB didnt condemn only GG and so Anti's labled him Hitler.

Sterling didnt condemn only Anti-GG so pro-gg labled him hitler.

Examples like that are why i just ignore both sides. The loud voices on all sides are fucking idiots and they are all made for eachother. Rogue "pay me to go away", King of Pol is insane, IA went nuts because people werent being Dickish enough and all the youtube people have more Reach than stretch armstrong.

by the same token the anti side has Alex the son of a weapons manufacturer, that butts character who does as much reaching as Pro GG in some of his "Definitive proof of X" posts, Cheong, arthur "I dont want to talk about Zoe. Now about zoe." chu and how can we forget Geordie "Gas all the things" tait.

If all of the public voices on all sides would heed the advice of sane people then this would all go away. GG would fade into obscurity and the entire internet could Stop fucking talking about it. And on that day Satan will be skating to work.

Actually Sterling condemned both sides' harassers and still managed to keep himself neutral in the thing. Thing I admire, he kept to his guns. Don't know about TB's condemnation so I will take you at your word about that. Besides I am anti-GG, but I condemn harassers from both sides. That is my opinion. And the guys on my side need to reign in the harassers from our side. The guys you mentioned on my side fuck them.

(Isnt King of Pol a freaking Neo-Nazi? Also "Gas all the things" that shit sounds so cringeworthy it becomes hilarious- Still needs to be reigned in though)

Captcha: French Toast. Goddamnit Captcha stop

 

[Adultratedhydra]

Actually Sterling condemned both sides' harassers and still managed to keep himself neutral in the thing. Thing I admire, he kept to his guns. Don't know about TB's condemnation so I will take you at your word about that. Besides I am anti-GG, but I condemn harassers from both sides. That is my opinion. And the guys on my side need to reign in the harassers from our side. The guys you mentioned on my side fuck them.

(Isnt King of Pol a freaking Neo-Nazi? Also "Gas all the things" that shit sounds so cringeworthy it becomes hilarious- Still needs to be reigned in though)

Captcha: French Toast. Goddamnit Captcha stop

oh i know Jim is still neutral and its just Pro that label him anti. At first i sympathised with GG more but really this has all become a clusterfuck. its 2 echo chambers against one another and both are setting their respective sides back years. The best i can equate this whole situation to is Occupy. Occupy had a good enough message but then the Crazies got involved.

And yea, Kop is Stormfront levels of /pol/ack when he gets his frothing rage on. All of the twitter E-celebs are endless amounts of cringe comedy though so atleast something good is coming out of all this.

Edit: TB's stuff is mostly in his Twitlongers from about a month and a half ago i think he started getting involved, telling both sides to cut the shit and iirc he got harangued by Anti for not outright demonising gg. I dont have them on hand since i dont rabidly bookmark everything.

 

[MrBaskerville]

I don't see a problem, if they didn't want her input, they probably wouldn't hire her as a consultant. So what's the big deal? I swear that gamers are just looking for things to be angry about these days, just for the sake of being angry, it's a bit sad :/.

Hell, she isn't even going to design anything, she's just going to comment on stuff they show her and if they agree, they will change stuff based on her feedback. It's harmless and no one is being unwillingly forced into anything. But if it pisses gamers off, then it's probably the best thing to do, just for the hell of it. I hope more developers does something similar, just to piss overly angry people off.

 

[BarrelsOfDouche]

"Consulting" is just a word that really means "hovering over the art department and writers without actually doing any work."

But at least a lot of consultants are familiar with games...usually...

Let's face it. This is happening because EA wants to appear more 'politically correct'. Barring that, the ONLY people who should be allowed to work on something like are the artists and designers themselves...way to hand over creative control of your games to the Politically correct police.

 

[themilo504]

Eh, I haven?t watched her videos so I don?t know if the criticism she gets is justified, even if it is I highly doubt she?s going to ruin the game.

 

[Callate]

From a distance, I don't know if this was a good idea on EA's part or not. It will probably get them some hate mail, maybe even threats. It will also probably cause some people to pick the game up who otherwise would not have done so. I really don't have a strong sense how the balance will shift, or if the hypothetical harassment, trolling etc. that is likely to ensue will be worth what is likely to be positive media attention.

Similarly, it's hard for me to say what Sarkeesian herself might bring to such a production, though I'm inclined to think that if it means bypassing or subverting certain common tropes, it might be positive for the overall story and/or script.

Closer to home? I don't love Sarkeesian, and I have mixed feelings about how something like this might increase her perceived standing. To be clear, I also don't hate Sarkeesian; some of what she has to say is quite true, and much is certainly worthy of discussion. I just sometimes wish there was someone else under the mantle of "The Voice of Feminism in Gaming"; someone with a little more care for research, a slightly more open mind, a little less eagerness to stick to a particular narrative.

I never played the original Mirror's Edge, and I'm not hugely likely to play the second; the reviews I read of the original were decidedly mixed. But again, Sarkeesian's presence might help shore up the storyline, which was apparently more than a little lacking in the original, so that would be a good thing. I'm certainly not going to advise anyone else not to play it, but... (Looks at list of unplayed games on GOG and Steam)... Yeah.

 

[Lovely Mixture]

oh i know Jim is still neutral and its just Pro that label him anti.

Pros label him a hypocrite. He constantly advocates for consumer rights but when his journo friends get called out he gets flaky.

 

[Adultratedhydra]

oh i know Jim is still neutral and its just Pro that label him anti.

Pros label him a hypocrite. He constantly advocates for consumer rights but when his journo friends get called out he gets flaky.

The hypocrite label isnt wrong either. It's clear now more than ever that jim plays whatever fiddle he feels is going to get him more views. It doesnt change the fact that everyone involved on both sides of this shit fight are idiots who will in the end accomplish nothing. They will pat themselves on the back for percieved victories but in the end their input into it all will probably be minimal.

The entire debacle will go down in internet history as the internets longest running slap fight.

 

[IceForce]

This thing here, the whole petition and the general reaction to this has shown me one thing. Or well, reminded me of something:

Discussion on the internet is pointless. Mostly because people don't read what they are presented. The OP himself edited the opening post including a statement from Anita that she doesn't work on the game. We still have people rambling about the "SJW" or "PC" boogeyman.

The comments section on the video (the first video in the OP) still has people raging on about the subject, even though the entire story is false and fabricated.

You may as well be watching a group of tinfoil hat wearing conspiracy theorists freaking out over chemtrails, for all the relevance and usefulness this has.

 

[Lazy Kitty]

Well, I'll be interested to see how it turns out.
Not gonna make any sort of judgements beforehand.

 

[Dizchu]

If Sarkeesian's consultancy ends up improving the game then she may earn herself some redemption.

But I'm not counting on it. Anita has bizarre gender views and an overwhelmingly negative attitude. It's like asking Pat Robertson to be a creative consultant for Pokemon.

I actually wonder if Mirror's Edge 2 will end up with MORE sexism than it would without Sarkeesian's input.

(By the way, this is almost definitely just bullshit scaremongering from anti-Sarkeesian people)

 

[Zhukov]

(By the way, this is almost definitely just bullshit scaremongering from anti-Sarkeesian people)

Ayup.

Some time back, and we're talking years here, she was invited to give one of her talks to some DICE employees.

And that's it.

But from that humble seed was spawned a hardy little rumour that never quite died. Somewhere along the way a nifty little quote was conjured up to effect of her saying that Mirror's Edge's controls were too complex and that they should be simplified for poor butterfingered women like her. She has denied ever saying any such thing and I have never seen anyone produce a record or first hand account of it. Which doesn't stop those desperate for a reason to hate from circulating it as the immutable word of God.

In truth, she's said that she actually rather liked Mirror's Edge. (Which makes sense. It's about a suitably dressed, mixed race female protagonist who can kick butt but can also be played as a pacifist. Right up her ally.)

So hey, this petition is guaranteed to succeed. She'll lose the job on account of her never having had it in the first place.

 

[keniakittykat]

Well, it will be a great opportunity to prove her critics that she does indeed know what she's talking about.
I have no real beef with her, and I think some of her ideas are pretty solid. So, yeah, I'm curious.

 

[VoidWanderer]

I have known about this for months. I just didn't say anything because I don't care about Anita or Mirror's Edge.

You understand this is confirmed false, right?

http://www.destructoid.com/blogs/TheKodu/the-sarkeesian-the-dice-and-the-mirror--235992.phtml

While I care little for the game, I wish it was false,

 

[Something Amyss]

http://www.destructoid.com/blogs/TheKodu/the-sarkeesian-the-dice-and-the-mirror--235992.phtml

While I care little for the game, I wish it was false,

You provide a two year old blogpost that speculates with zero sources as backup (written by our beloved TheKodu, a frequent poster here). The OP provided a video (not even two months old) where Anita Sarkeesian herself debunked this rumor.

I wish people would actually check up their sources (when they try to do their research).

On top of what TheKasp said, Kodu has had absolutely no problem fabricating things outright here and specifically making up things and attributing them to others. That we are to take things on his word alone is enough for me to not believe it. But the fact that there's no evidence otherwise, including from EA, and Anita has said it's not true?

Yeah, this is bullshit.

 

[Something Amyss]

The comments section on the video (the first video in the OP) still has people raging on about the subject, even though the entire story is false and fabricated.

You may as well be watching a group of tinfoil hat wearing conspiracy theorists freaking out over chemtrails, for all the relevance and usefulness this has.

Saying RTU's audience is like conspiracy theorists is missing the part where, for a large portion, they are.

 

[Metalix Knightmare]

You know what is the worst that could happen? The tropes that she brought to the forefront in her videos are just going to disappear. I stopped calling myself a gamer back in August 2014, when the GG thing started. I am really ashamed of this community. Just how the hell did we get at this point?

Too many people taking claims of harassment at face value, and pretty much claiming all criticism made against certain people were all sexist.