Rebecca Mayes Muses: Love Song for Yahtzee

[Count Igor]

Sooo, did Yahtzee insult one of her favourite games or something?
And if I took it correctly, were you saying that he's a sexist? Because that's just lpain wrong.
Now onto the chorus, Is It Ok? That's the bit I've always hated about the songs, the fact that there's a chorus in there that is the SAME words, over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over . Annyoing, wasn't it?

That all aside though, and I liked the song.
*clap clap clap*

 

[Wolfrug]

Well done Ms. Mayes, a very catchy song, and well written. Deserving of a second listen-through as well. Loved it.

 

[Sansha]

I honestly never got into Rebecca's music. She's talented at making music, but when it comes to lyrics she falls flat.

 

[alexbaxthedarkside]

aw, was a lovely song Rebecca, it does a nice job of summing up most gamers love hate relationship with yahtzee.
think ill always buy into him as opinionated as he is.

is alot like how we all want to gain his approval, but well never get it because hes so gosh darn shrewd, but anyways im sure he will tell you so that he really appreciates it.

I think we all dont mind saying we love yahtzee, even when he pisses us off sometimes,

but hey, hes unique

 

[stretchyman1]

Loved it! Now I can't wait for the Zero Punctuation that goes with this

 

[cynik]

Nice song!
Point of content seems to be simple - stirring up the community and views-counter by referencing to escapist's main superstar Yahtzee. Success here. If it is not a pre-planned scheme then I wouldn't expect anything more than 2 seconds reference in Yahtzee's next review. But it got gamers posting on forums like madmen, even I got to finally poat something (Lords of Terra have mercy upon me...)

Little sidenote thou - whenever a girl tried to hit on me by mimicking my own cynical ways or being a smartass it has always been a huge turn-off.

Proud to be a white, straight male! Whisky induced or not.

 

[Lupie]

Rebecca, I love you for this.

 

[Neosage]

http://www.rhymezone.com/ use it.

 

[Sethzard]

This was truly spectacular. Good work, probably your best song so far

 

[Crazycat690]

Riiiiight, I'm going to leave now, slowly, peace bro...! I mean, woman!

 

[MaltesePigeon]

I've been a fan of Rebecca Mayes since she first came on the Escapist. Her songs are smart, multi-layered, cultured, and, by far my favorite aspect, deeply observant about games as an emerging art form and what they [the games] imply about our society.

So it goes without saying I love this song! It's one of her best ones (I liked "take me back to the 80s" best myself), and tackles a subject that seems impossible to review: Yahtzee! (Where did he get that nickname anyway?)

That being said, I am NOT pleased with the amount of flak she's getting for this song (and I know she's getting a lot of love too!). As an unpleasable cynical curmudgeon myself, I love me some Yahtzee as well. He's extremely funny, and he's fighting for the good guys! But just like Ms. Mayes, I find myself grinding my teeth every time he casts his ire at the finer sex. I know he does it ironically, as his EP post about Wet clearly states, but it's still undermining women and makes sexism seem socially acceptable. So yes, her disappointment for his sexism, even though it's false, is valid.

To me it seems like she's sure getting a lot of flak for having the audacity to be woman (She shouldn't be on the Escapist! RAWR RAWR), and it's not fair. In the game industry, women are hugely outnumbered, and they're easy targets. I for one am proud that there exists a female game critic as intelligent, observant, funny, and talented as Ms. Mayes. It helps that she has dreamy eyes, but that's beside the point.

And the idea that she's doing it for attention? If you have been watching her videos (chances are, you, the haters, have not), you'd know she's been preparing for this for months. Also, if you read her blog (You don't do that either, haters) she's getting plenty of attention in her home country in the UK, in newspapers and TV and such, and she doesn't even know what to do with it.

Anyway, great job Rebecca, I can't wait to see the response. It was ten times better than I thought would be, and I thought it was going to be great! As a cynical, negative, pessimistic, feminist MALE, I salute you!

I'm a long term Yahzee fan. I'm also a woman, and a feminist.

If Rebecca wants to call anyone misogynist it should be the industry. Some of the points in Rebecca's song are spot on, but I don't think Yahzee is in any way, shape or form a misogynist. He ragged on Ruby from Wet, because she is a bloody atrocious character, and a completely fair target. He's taken the piss out of plenty of boneheaded male characters too.

Fact is, the number of decent female protagonists in games are few and far between and it's incredibly frustrating. I want to play cool women but unless the game is an RPG where I can create my own character it's very rare that I get the opportunity. Women in games are portrayed 90% of the time as either a convenient kidnap or murder victim (God of War, Alan Wake, every Mario game ever), or big-titted, oversexualised bitchy bimbos (Wet, Bayonetta) the rest of the time. The only franchise where there's a female playable character that's in any way cool is Tomb Raider- and I don't play those because Lara handles like a shopping trolley. I think the last non-RPG game I actually played with a lead female character that didn't make me want to scoop my eyes out was Silent Hill 3.

There are a couple of games with intriguing female support characters like Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, and Silent Hill 2 but they're rare as hen's teeth. There are plenty of us girl gamers out here who are fed up of playing jar-head space marines and psychos like Kratos. We'd like representation that amounts to more than a witch in a catsuit made of hair. For example, I love Red Dead Redemption, but I would have loved it ever more if I could have played as a Calamity Jane style female gunslinger.

The homophobia thing is mind-boggling as well. Has Rebecca never played any online games? Been called a fa**ot and then had her corpse tea-bagged? It's already "socially acceptable" to be homophobic in the gaming community. Ever seen a gay or bisexual male lead character in a mainstream game?

I think Rebecca has more worthy targets for her ire than Yahzee. That said, the amount of crap she's getting from mouth-breathing Zero Punctuation fans is proving her point.

Bonnie MacFarlane in RDR would have been an awesome "Janesque" female gunslinger. Ranch in danger, with only some guy that got shot to help. No good brother and whatnot. I'm a man, fyi, but the game kept telling me about good/bad guy's wife and kid I needed to save. In the end I liked Bonnie better than the wife. But I reckon' strong women don't fare well in male fantasy.

About the homophobia thing, calling someone a ****** is always wrong. But I think tea-bagging is a product of the limited choices that gamers have.

 

[Rakkana]

Ok. Not sure if that was a love or hate song and I think Yahtzee will get the same impression.

 

[MetalGenocide]

People will hate me for this.
I can't believe so many....liked this....this.... I don't know what to call it.
So I will let him speak instead:

Spoiler

0:00-0:40

The only interesting thing would be a Yahtzee response. Though I would personally respond with silence.

 

[L-J-F]

I've been a fan of Rebecca Mayes since she first came on the Escapist. Her songs are smart, multi-layered, cultured, and, by far my favorite aspect, deeply observant about games as an emerging art form and what they [the games] imply about our society.

So it goes without saying I love this song! It's one of her best ones (I liked "take me back to the 80s" best myself), and tackles a subject that seems impossible to review: Yahtzee! (Where did he get that nickname anyway?)

That being said, I am NOT pleased with the amount of flak she's getting for this song (and I know she's getting a lot of love too!). As an unpleasable cynical curmudgeon myself, I love me some Yahtzee as well. He's extremely funny, and he's fighting for the good guys! But just like Ms. Mayes, I find myself grinding my teeth every time he casts his ire at the finer sex. I know he does it ironically, as his EP post about Wet clearly states, but it's still undermining women and makes sexism seem socially acceptable. So yes, her disappointment for his sexism, even though it's false, is valid.

To me it seems like she's sure getting a lot of flak for having the audacity to be woman (She shouldn't be on the Escapist! RAWR RAWR), and it's not fair. In the game industry, women are hugely outnumbered, and they're easy targets. I for one am proud that there exists a female game critic as intelligent, observant, funny, and talented as Ms. Mayes. It helps that she has dreamy eyes, but that's beside the point.

And the idea that she's doing it for attention? If you have been watching her videos (chances are, you, the haters, have not), you'd know she's been preparing for this for months. Also, if you read her blog (You don't do that either, haters) she's getting plenty of attention in her home country in the UK, in newspapers and TV and such, and she doesn't even know what to do with it.

Anyway, great job Rebecca, I can't wait to see the response. It was ten times better than I thought would be, and I thought it was going to be great! As a cynical, negative, pessimistic, feminist MALE, I salute you!

I'm a long term Yahzee fan. I'm also a woman, and a feminist.

If Rebecca wants to call anyone misogynist it should be the industry. Some of the points in Rebecca's song are spot on, but I don't think Yahzee is in any way, shape or form a misogynist. He ragged on Ruby from Wet, because she is a bloody atrocious character, and a completely fair target. He's taken the piss out of plenty of boneheaded male characters too.

Fact is, the number of decent female protagonists in games are few and far between and it's incredibly frustrating. I want to play cool women but unless the game is an RPG where I can create my own character it's very rare that I get the opportunity. Women in games are portrayed 90% of the time as either a convenient kidnap or murder victim (God of War, Alan Wake, every Mario game ever), or big-titted, oversexualised bitchy bimbos (Wet, Bayonetta) the rest of the time. The only franchise where there's a female playable character that's in any way cool is Tomb Raider- and I don't play those because Lara handles like a shopping trolley. I think the last non-RPG game I actually played with a lead female character that didn't make me want to scoop my eyes out was Silent Hill 3.

There are a couple of games with intriguing female support characters like Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, and Silent Hill 2 but they're rare as hen's teeth. There are plenty of us girl gamers out here who are fed up of playing jar-head space marines and psychos like Kratos. We'd like representation that amounts to more than a witch in a catsuit made of hair. For example, I love Red Dead Redemption, but I would have loved it ever more if I could have played as a Calamity Jane style female gunslinger.

The homophobia thing is mind-boggling as well. Has Rebecca never played any online games? Been called a fa**ot and then had her corpse tea-bagged? It's already "socially acceptable" to be homophobic in the gaming community. Ever seen a gay or bisexual male lead character in a mainstream game?

I think Rebecca has more worthy targets for her ire than Yahzee. That said, the amount of crap she's getting from mouth-breathing Zero Punctuation fans is proving her point.

Quite true, as for the gay/bisexual male lead character, I very much doubt any large publisher/developer would go for that since it would appeal to a smaller fan base -> less sales. For the same reason they will never take any game element to it's fullest and instead stick to the middle of the road like pretty much every single game ever created.

 

[DeepComet5581]

I've been a fan of Rebecca Mayes since she first came on the Escapist. Her songs are smart, multi-layered, cultured, and, by far my favorite aspect, deeply observant about games as an emerging art form and what they [the games] imply about our society.

So it goes without saying I love this song! It's one of her best ones (I liked "take me back to the 80s" best myself), and tackles a subject that seems impossible to review: Yahtzee! (Where did he get that nickname anyway?)

That being said, I am NOT pleased with the amount of flak she's getting for this song (and I know she's getting a lot of love too!). As an unpleasable cynical curmudgeon myself, I love me some Yahtzee as well. He's extremely funny, and he's fighting for the good guys! But just like Ms. Mayes, I find myself grinding my teeth every time he casts his ire at the finer sex. I know he does it ironically, as his EP post about Wet clearly states, but it's still undermining women and makes sexism seem socially acceptable. So yes, her disappointment for his sexism, even though it's false, is valid.

To me it seems like she's sure getting a lot of flak for having the audacity to be woman (She shouldn't be on the Escapist! RAWR RAWR), and it's not fair. In the game industry, women are hugely outnumbered, and they're easy targets. I for one am proud that there exists a female game critic as intelligent, observant, funny, and talented as Ms. Mayes. It helps that she has dreamy eyes, but that's beside the point.

And the idea that she's doing it for attention? If you have been watching her videos (chances are, you, the haters, have not), you'd know she's been preparing for this for months. Also, if you read her blog (You don't do that either, haters) she's getting plenty of attention in her home country in the UK, in newspapers and TV and such, and she doesn't even know what to do with it.

Anyway, great job Rebecca, I can't wait to see the response. It was ten times better than I thought would be, and I thought it was going to be great! As a cynical, negative, pessimistic, feminist MALE, I salute you!

I'm a long term Yahzee fan. I'm also a woman, and a feminist.

If Rebecca wants to call anyone misogynist it should be the industry. Some of the points in Rebecca's song are spot on, but I don't think Yahzee is in any way, shape or form a misogynist. He ragged on Ruby from Wet, because she is a bloody atrocious character, and a completely fair target. He's taken the piss out of plenty of boneheaded male characters too.

Fact is, the number of decent female protagonists in games are few and far between and it's incredibly frustrating. I want to play cool women but unless the game is an RPG where I can create my own character it's very rare that I get the opportunity. Women in games are portrayed 90% of the time as either a convenient kidnap or murder victim (God of War, Alan Wake, every Mario game ever), or big-titted, oversexualised bitchy bimbos (Wet, Bayonetta) the rest of the time. The only franchise where there's a female playable character that's in any way cool is Tomb Raider- and I don't play those because Lara handles like a shopping trolley. I think the last non-RPG game I actually played with a lead female character that didn't make me want to scoop my eyes out was Silent Hill 3.

There are a couple of games with intriguing female support characters like Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, and Silent Hill 2 but they're rare as hen's teeth. There are plenty of us girl gamers out here who are fed up of playing jar-head space marines and psychos like Kratos. We'd like representation that amounts to more than a witch in a catsuit made of hair. For example, I love Red Dead Redemption, but I would have loved it ever more if I could have played as a Calamity Jane style female gunslinger.

The homophobia thing is mind-boggling as well. Has Rebecca never played any online games? Been called a fa**ot and then had her corpse tea-bagged? It's already "socially acceptable" to be homophobic in the gaming community. Ever seen a gay or bisexual male lead character in a mainstream game?

I think Rebecca has more worthy targets for her ire than Yahzee. That said, the amount of crap she's getting from mouth-breathing Zero Punctuation fans is proving her point.

It was a love song. Not a feminist statement.

You can't make or break love. It happens. Rebecca fancies Yahtzee, so she will write a love song about Yahtzee.

Yahtzee's opinions are his own. I have noticed he tends to go after female characters more than male characters. But thats to be expected. He is a white, British male. We are practically born misogynist.

But if you want to debate games, i'm more than happy to do so.

You say that its socially acceptable to be homophobic in gaming communities. Umm... no. If I saw someone being homophobic in a game, then I would see that they are dealt with in an appropriate manner depending on how they behaved.

Also, you say there are no gay or bisexual lead characters. Have you completely forgotten Fable and Fable 2? Where the lead character could be both? You also only give 2 examples of games with a strong female companion. Half-Life 2? That had the most empowered woman I've ever seen in that kind of game.

Might I also point out that the protagonist of the Metroid series, Samus Aran, is a woman, and that the protagonist of Deus Ex: Invisible War, Alex D, could be chosen to be a woman. Also, Invisible War was full of female characters that didn't just play eyecandy roles (Billie Adams, Klara Sparks, Leila Nassif, Nicolette DuClare etc).

On a final point, you say that these points apply to mainstream games. Most gaming companies will tell you that the mainstream consists of a large percentage of males. This means that they have to create games that appeal directly to MEN. Why do you think there have been loads of crappy things released for the Wii? They are Nintendo's attempt to corner the female market.

 

[MammothDuck]

I just liked it because it was awesome =D

 

[fleischwolke]

That's a love song the way that I am a lion seal.