Is a fanfiction depicting the murder of Randy Pitchford ok?

[sweetylnumb]

completely disregarding the people involved.

Ofcourse it is completely alright, It's fanfiction, it's a story, why must it be "wrong" just because it is controversial.´Seriously sometimes I think people really do want more censorship, for no good reason, since the truly twisted things never gain enough popularity to do any serious harm.

Seriously your on the internet, become more tolerant of twisted things guys, otherwise you'll never survive it and eventually the internet will become some bland place controlled by governements and corporations in the interest to protect everyone.

Also if your opposed to this for the simple reason that there is a person that dies in the story that exists in real life, then you need to start making threads about oh so many other works of fiction as well.

The only reason anyone gives two shits about this is its Anita who's been naughty and needs a good spanking. And everyone comes in their pants when Anita can be even slightly proved wrong. I personally stopped giving a shit about her after her first video -.-

 

[thebakedpotato]

Three thoughts popped into my head.

"Who?"

"Why should you care OP?"

And "Shouldn't this qualify under turnabout is fair play?"

And a fourth emerges... "Should I care about this? If so, why?"

 

[Caiphus]

I just read the fan-fiction in question. It's not as bad as the title of the thread makes it out to be. It's clearly stupid, bizarre and in no way resembles any kind of serious desire to kill Randy Pitchford. It's so weird that Spiderman's cameo appearance barely even registers.

Now, in some cases supporting violent fan-fiction would be pretty bad PR. But then again, it's bad PR. People can do or say dumb things to make people not like them all they want. Karma is lovely like that.

 

[Generic4me]

Let's completely ignore the fact that Anita has been harassed through the internet for months now, has had death threats, rape threats, assault/battery threats, and probably everything else a sick mind could possibly think of. Her posting of a fanfic that she herself says is "surreal and bizarre", and seems to be more "humor" oriented than an actual threat? Yeah, what a sick ***** right?

No, it's not funny, and it's frankly pretty bad and should be taken down, but let's not forget that she's being hyperanalyzed by us gamers here, the slightest fuck-up and everybody gets that ammunition to "discredit" all of her videos.

Yes, she's going to do a stupid thing every once in a while, she's only human. I'm sure every one of you posting here on the Escapist have posted/done something stupid once on the internet. Rational solution? She takes it down, we accept the idea that she made a mistake, and move on.

Every single thing that Anita does is defended with "she received death threats so that makes her right"

Absolutely not. Just because she was victimized doesn't mean she can get away with doing whatever she wants, but she perhaps deserves the tiniest bit of slack?

This is the first time I've ever seen any thread about her making any kind of mistake. No, it doesn't mean she's off the hook, but compared to the kind of harassment she received, people saying that "THIS IS DISGUSTING!" are just grasping for anything they can to try to use.


tl;dr: It's wrong, give her a little slack, one mess up doesn't mean she's an evil person and should burn in hell forever.

 

[ThatDarnCoyote]

tl;dr: It's wrong, give her a little slack, one mess up doesn't mean she's an evil person and should burn in hell forever.

Yeah, no one should consign her to hell for this.

We may, however, snort slightly more derisively the next time she tries to give us a moral lecture.

 

[Nonomori]

Fictionalized real person. It is not rare in parodies or satires. Unfortunately, I'm certain that the words "the systemic problems of sexist depictions of women in the games needs to be stopped" never left Pitchford's mouth.

It's a valid response. I mean, I don't find offensive because of the tone; the true criticism and humor is about the games and not Pitchford as a person, but I get it that makes you feel uncomfortable.

These lines make me wonder if you would still say "it's not offensive because of the tone" if it was a fanfiction of a guy murdering a woman, someone in Randy's position and had done the same thing as him. I find it quite hypercritical that people are fine with men being depicted this way but whenever a girl is on the receiving end it's magically wrong even when done the exact same way for the exact same reasons.

Your post makes me wonder if you are willing to believe that everyone who disagrees with you has a secret agenda or bias, which I find quite amusing, mainly because my opinion was very clear. I'm hoping that you're just really interested in hypothesis and not very sensitive about anything feminism related, but I fear the worst.

 

[Smeatza]

Hello, my name is Anita Sarkeesian and I think that it's disgusting that I am insulted and joked about just for doing my job.
Now please enjoy this fan-fiction that insults and jokes about someone just for doing their job.

It's not like we needed more evidence of her double standards and complete lack of self awareness.

I got a good lol out of the latest post on femfreq though, which seems to amount to "I like this video by moviebob because it actually agrees with me unlike the vast majority of people on the planet."

 

[RicoADF]

Your post makes me wonder if you are willing to believe that everyone who disagrees with you has a secret agenda or bias, which I find quite amusing, mainly because my opinion was very clear. I'm hoping that you're just really interested in hypothesis and not very sensitive about anything feminism related, but I fear the worst.

It'd be the former, as I'm not phased by the fanfiction (and thus your view wouldn't be disagreeing with me). People often see something differently if viewed from another angle, if you'd be fine with the same thing happening with a woman in that position as you are with Randy then theres no issue. Personally I think he's an idiot, although I find the fanfiction odd/in poor taste I don't care strongly about it (as I said it's more of a "that's odd" than "how evil!")

 

[KOMega]

This is an outrage! Spiderman totally needs more witty one-liners!
/joke

seriously, I see no issue with this.
I'm pretty indifferent to all this stuff about Anita,
but a lot of these reactions to her are giving her more power imo than actually doing anything.
Publicity is publicity after all.

Look if it makes anyone feel better, they can write their own fan fiction and I'll read it too. okay?

 

[Vivi22]

What he is trying to say is that the game got flak, being anti women

a story that is anti man gets a free ride, why?

Wow, trying to compare a game that was sexist in it's intent to a fan fic that isn't sexist at all in it's intent to display how some people are hypocrites? Give me a break.

 

[Eclectic Dreck]

Is this ok? Don't know about you, but I don't think its ok. Because it shows she is a hypocrite, that its ok to kill someone you don't like. And to anyone who says, "You are just trying to hate on her" and "It's just a joke"

Hypocracy isn't the problem; morality being such that it is, it is more or less impossible to avoid even if you actively attempt to do so. The problem, I'd say, is that someone depicts murder as a reasonable response to an underwhelming video game.

This isn't even a legendarialy bad video game - hell, it's a game where you can, from time to time, see ways that it could have been good. Had it been released five years ago, it would have seen a much fairer reception. The game's most egregious sin isn't the mechanics - it's functional in that regard (People who assert that the aliens didn't seem deadly enough clearly don't recall that the Marines lost the first skirmish becuase they were effectively unarmed, surrounded, and had no idea what the hell they were even trying to shoot at. Their second and third encounters were wildy successful even though they were dramatically reduced in number and had incredibly limited ammunition supplies). The problem was the liberties that were taken with the story. Having Hicks survive the events of Alien 3 requies a hell of a hand wave to move past and while the explanation could have been plausible if handled correctly, it falls apart on a basic level when it fails to make any sense at any point from the question of why would they want to do such a thing to how precisely they pulled it off. Sillier still is the fact that the nuclear detonation that we observed at the end of Aliens was estimated to be in the multi-megaton range. Nothing should have been left of Hadley's Hope but a smoking crater even had the blast been a fraction of that.

To claim that the proper way to handle dissapointment in an entertainment product is violent death is beyond hyperbolic. Given the such products are utterly optional and further that there exist plenty of viable means to determine if the game is actually worth your time or money available right around the time the game is available for sale (if not earlier) places the blame for such dissapointment squarely on the consumer. Gearbox has their name on a bad game - consumers choose to buy it either without consulting the available information, choosing to gamble by purchasing before it was released, or simply choosing to ignore the warnings. It's like advocating death to a Waiter because you got food poisoning at a resturant that has a health and safety notice indicating a strong possibility you'd get food poisoning if you ate there posted on the door as you walked in.

 

[Lovely Mixture]

Legally? I don't know, depends where you live I guess.
Morally? No, it's tasteless and stupid.

For "social justice people who get offended by pin dropping" I'd say it's more shocking that she thinks this is perfectly fine.

snip

The best part is that the Aliens line is a throw-away, and the actual reason she's killing him is for bringing back Duke Nukem. WHAT A CRIME!

 

[Silvanus]

Here is why I find it hypocritical, the fact she is against killing of fictional female characters in a game, and yet is alright with a story about a real life person being murdered, and for a pretty insulting reason.

You're misunderstanding her point. She's not simply against female characters being killed; she's against the imbalanced portrayal. Women used solely as victims; their purpose being entirely to motivate a man.

If an FPS came out in which some of the opponents are women and are killed in the same way we kill men in countless FPS's, that'd be fine.


I'm not particularly a supporter of hers, but a great deal of the criticism she gets is based on misunderstanding her points (intentionally or otherwise).

 

[oZode]

Yes. Fan fiction of any sort tends to be awful, so I see no reason how this is any different. It just sounds like some lame revenge fantasy, what's the big deal?

 

[wearesoneutralthatithurts]

Here is why I find it hypocritical, the fact she is against killing of fictional female characters in a game, and yet is alright with a story about a real life person being murdered, and for a pretty insulting reason.

No she is not. get your facts right. This is so annoying. This thread is interesting because of the question whether it is okay to write fanfics or ever books about the murder of a character which is clearly to be intended a real person is a good question*

But the basis for one of your question is just a damn straw-man. She never said the thing you think she have said and also she has no religious believing-fans,. that is just your idea and its BS.(and i believe that you wrote that Bs with the knowledge THAT it is bs. And that annoys me because it disturbs any serious attempt for a good discussion.)

*to the interesting question.. Here in Germany, one author Martin Walser wrote in the year 2002 a Book, named "death of a critic" in which a character, clearly intended to resembling the literary-critic Marcel Reich Ranicki gets killed in a gruesome way. Ranicki went to court.(He is Jew, so the Idea of anti-Semitism might come to mind. Also Ranicki survived the Nazis, most of his family was murdered/gassed, so he is a bit touchy about this subject(understandable, IMHO). (Also I think Ranicki has a terrible character, but well...) I thought this Situation could be interesting because of the similarity.
here are two links: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/2169245.stm
http://www.gadflyonline.com/06-17-02/comm-critic.html

So yeah, is it okay? I think yeah, art should be able to do that unless it is a direct threat against that person and not labelled as literature or fan-fiction.
BUT I think also that its totally okay to criticise this text and say that I don't find it okay, because its below standard or just not nice or whatever..(Well, i find Randy as shitty as Mr Ranicki and as a person of interest7 a public person which stands in the interest of public and is better known and has the privilege to publish his rants and opinions everywhere, i think these people just have to live with that.
(if they get threat-emails or someone makes a game in which you can kill them or beat them up**, that is another case because that's clearly intended to silence or threaten.(but those privileged people cant be silenced easily)

I can stand for the right to write and publish such story's or books but I don't have to like them, I think

**(except its a beat-em-up where they can played and win. A game where the objective is to beat someone up and you win if the person is bloody enough and the battered character has no means of defence or reactions is not the same as a beat em up where the other character reacts and tries to win as well.)

 

[V8 Ninja]

I find the act of writing a fanfic about killing Randy Pitchford...alright. If not, ~I would have to scrap my fanfic about Batman killing Hitler~ I would view all media that depicted real people dying as offensive or disgraceful, which is an over-judgmental opinion to have.

As for Ms. Sarkeesian posting it to her Tumblr; I couldn't care less. Tumblr has meant nothing to me and probably never will.

Also, as I can tell that this thread will just jump down the rabbit hole that past threads of this nature have gone, I'll confront the issue now rather than later; Sarkeesian may have a good intent, but her sketchy nature and her overuse of the Procrustean Bed undermines much of what she wants to do.

 

[Vault Citizen]

I'm... I'm not seeing it, I'm afraid. It's not exactly hypocrisy; Anita Sarkeesian hasn't said anything about not depicting any deaths. It's not condoning murder, when it's done in such a clearly tongue-in-cheek fashion. I mean, "For Aliens: Colonial Marines"?


People get killed in video games, films, books, etc, all the time-- granted, it's not often just "for a joke" (though that happens in GTA and others frequently), but it's still hardly giving death the dignity and gravitas it has in real life. Why should Anita be subject to any other standards?

Here is why I find it hypocritical, the fact she is against killing of fictional female characters in a game, and yet is alright with a story about a real life person being murdered, and for a pretty insulting reason.

She isn't against killing female characters, she doesn't like how female characters have been killed off solely to provide motivation for the male hero and she doesn't like certain ways in which certain death have been portrayed. That doesn't mean she is against any female death in any game all of the time.

 

[Bocaj2000]

But it was still bullying. Even you admit that.

Is any criticism of her bullying? I mean it's not like he posted it directly to her.

I never said that you shouldn't criticize her. In fact, that's the opposite of what I said. I said that the flash game was a continuation to her already extensive bullying. There's a difference.