Sexist Ad Lands EB Games Australia In Trouble

[chadachada123]

I have a small problem with the statement "47% of gamers (in AU) are female."

Without defining "gamer," this statement is meaningless, and seems to include people that play Angry Birds once in awhile on their iPods or the occasional Farmville on their computers or solitaire on their iPods.

I'd be interested in how many ACTUAL gamers are female, and not just how many people with access to technology are female.

 

[chadachada123]

While I'm sure they are out there, ask yourself when the last time you've seen a girl who was seriously into "Roguelike" games, like say Nethack or ADOM... The kind of game that is complex, brutal, and typically doesn't have much in the way of visual eye candy. The kind of game that has your typical "Halo Rules" player scratching their head, not finding any visual candy or immediate gratification, and then declaring it sucks or is "too retro" to go back to shoot off guns while engaging in back and forth potty mouth with 9 year olds. This is just one kind of hardcore gaming (mentioned because such games still have a thriving community) but it's a point to consider when making judgements. While they are there, you don't find many girls, kids, or other similar, profitable groups engaged in those kinds of games. Attempts to add graphics and such to the roguelike concept has generally gone along with an extreme simplification of gameplay. What's more especially when looking at the games running off of ASCII (which are still incredibly popular) it should be noted they exist almost entirely as an intellectual exercise consisting of pure gameplay and learning, rather than being dependant on a lot of flashy graphics and sound.

Funny, because I was thinking myself of Dark Souls, which does NOT provide immediate visual satisfaction, and is incredibly fun and arguably a real "hardcore" modern game, yet I do not know a single female that plays that game, despite knowing as many females as males that play Modern Warfare 3.

 

[WolfThomas]

Who the hell carries John Monashs (100s) anyway? Banks and atms always seem to give money in fifties.

 

[Mouldy Cheese]

I don't mind the slightly-sexist ad. You have to take stuff like that with a grain of salt. It's human nature to poke fun of ourselves! What I DO mind is going into an EB store looking for the latest installment in the Gears of Wars series, having the store clerk tell me that "it's a bit scary with all the shooting and aliens" and "maybe you'd prefer something like Plants vs Zombies or this game called Furries; they're a lot cuter than shooter games".

>:|
I want to kill aliens, not pop little cute balls of fluff against each other for points.

 

[XSin]

Yeah this fails on so many levels but I've gotta say that it ultimately comes off as offensive, no doubt about it. -1

 

[Project_Xii]

Hahaha.

I work in Australian EB Games, and the first time we put the new in store disc in and I saw this ad, my jaw dropped. I knew it was going to cause contraversy and piss people off, and so it should. Even I was appalled at it in a "Wtf, this isn't the 60's" kind of way. Man, our marketing department can be completely retarded sometimes.

 

[Jimmybobjr]

This is about as sexist as I am female.

[small][sup]You see, it's funny because the topic is about sexism. No? Anybody? Not even a giggle?[/sup][/small]

Anyway. Yeah, really not seeing the issue here. If it was the other way around, with a woman buying the game and the bloke moaning, would anyone care? Seems like whining for the sake of whining to me.

This, really. I found nothing sexist with this advert, at all, ever. its a MANS guide anyway; i doubt its meant o be serious.

 

[Joos]

I'm not sure about you other dudes, but this reminds me of my GF. Spot on, EB games!

 

[Therumancer]

While I'm sure they are out there, ask yourself when the last time you've seen a girl who was seriously into "Roguelike" games, like say Nethack or ADOM... The kind of game that is complex, brutal, and typically doesn't have much in the way of visual eye candy. The kind of game that has your typical "Halo Rules" player scratching their head, not finding any visual candy or immediate gratification, and then declaring it sucks or is "too retro" to go back to shoot off guns while engaging in back and forth potty mouth with 9 year olds. This is just one kind of hardcore gaming (mentioned because such games still have a thriving community) but it's a point to consider when making judgements. While they are there, you don't find many girls, kids, or other similar, profitable groups engaged in those kinds of games. Attempts to add graphics and such to the roguelike concept has generally gone along with an extreme simplification of gameplay. What's more especially when looking at the games running off of ASCII (which are still incredibly popular) it should be noted they exist almost entirely as an intellectual exercise consisting of pure gameplay and learning, rather than being dependant on a lot of flashy graphics and sound.

Funny, because I was thinking myself of Dark Souls, which does NOT provide immediate visual satisfaction, and is incredibly fun and arguably a real "hardcore" modern game, yet I do not know a single female that plays that game, despite knowing as many females as males that play Modern Warfare 3.

Actually it does, Dark Souls is not an ugly game at all. However a game doesn't have to be ugly or devoid of cutting edge technology to be hardcore, it's just a general tendency for that to happen with hardcore games as most of the development efforts go into the depth and gameplay.

I used Roguelikes as an example because they have been around for a very long time, and have had a consistant community, and represent a pretty solid, easily verifyable example of something that would be considered a hardcore game. While not every hardcore gamer is going to like every hardcore game, anyone reading this wanting to see if they can get into a hardcore game could go download something like Nethack or ADOM totally for free (as opposed to needing to spend $60) and try it. While not liking these games would not mean anything in of themselves, if someone was to download them and find themselves sinking hundreds of hours into them and seeking out and joining the surrounding commuinities which can in some cases be well over a decade old... that would be a sign of someone being a hardcore gamer even if they did play other things.

It should also be noted that a hardcore gamer is not nessicarly someone whose GOOD at that level of gaming, simply someone who primarily plays games of that sophistication, with things like shooters (if they also play them) merely being a sideline.

On an unrelated note I will say that while many RPGs are hardcore games, especially real RPGs, that doesn't nessicarly go hand in hand either. There are tons of introductory, and casual, properly stat based RPG games. Many of which tout their sheer mind-numbing length as the major obstacle to completion, rather than the depth or the system or a need to master them.

 

[Wintermoot]

it looks bad but not entirely sexist it,s made as a bit of a 1950,s PSA spoof.
just because gamer girls exist doesn't mean that ALL girls are girl gamers some girl,s are like this.

 

[Darkmantle]

I think the article is a bit dramatic and I have seen more sexist ads before.

I mean this commercial is somehow bad while the standard axe commercials depicting woman as hormone filled sex addicts who will through themselves on a man because he SMELLS good is SOOOOO much better?

come on people, this is too much

 

[ACM_Shadow]

whoever made the add i reckon should've been fired.. not that its sexist, but its just a generally crappy ad.
On the sexism part i can see how people are raging over it..... and i can see how EB tried for the 50's style, both parties here i see are in fault.

Another point, last time i traded in for a $100 game (dam AUS price rise) i had to trade in 6+ games, and those games he trades (skate, wii tennis, NFS underground) would probably net him $50-60. FALSE ADVERTISING DEMONIC CORPERATION!!!!!!!

 

[kurtzy23]

Its an add
If its offensive dont watch it
Anyway its just bad humor why is this even a topic

 

[jackanderson]

I'm more offended by just how fucking terrible the ad is more than anything.

 

[Vrex360]

Now while I agree that this ad isn't as bad as some are saying it is, it still is kind of bad on the face of it. It displays unfair gender stereotypes such as the man being an ignorant man-boy who doesn't even listen to his wife (something for which you'll notice the ad never actually points out is a BAD way to behave) and the woman being a naggy uncaring lady who will scream annoyance at her husband 'wasting his money' but is then made utterly complacent thanks to a fancy dinner and will happily do the housework while her husband gets to play video games.
Look it's not some kind of misogynist nightmare fantasy but it's also far from enlightened. It still reinforces the mindset of the majority of the games industry that 'only heterosexual males play video games'. Now again, I'd hardly call it devastating or get up in arms about it but in and of itself it still isn't a particularly good thing.

Also to all the people arguing that it's 'satirical' or 'ironic' or 'just a joke, grow up'... this is an excuse I heard before with Duke Nukem Forever and to me it still doesn't hold ground. I could explain why that is but fortunatley someone else already did it for me.
Take it away, Anita Sarkessian:
So yeah it's basically what she said, this whole use of over the top silly sexist imagery or exploitation or gender stereotypes is NOT a 'parody' of sexism.
It just is sexism, and while this ad is a mild example and not really much in terms of impact the fact still remains that even if it's claiming to be a parody of old fifties style ads in reality it's a crappy ad focusing on gender stereotypes in order to convey information to the audience in order to sell a product.
All else is secondary. The word 'satire' is not a magical shield that protects you from criticism.

Look I can understand people being surprised that this ad is even an issue, but while in and of itself it's just one small thing that isn't even much of a big deal it still represents a small part of a much larger issue. That the gaming industry still considers itself to be a 'boy's club' almost exclusively, and honestly if we just made more ads that catered to, or at least acknowledged, the female presence in the game community, it wouldn't be such a problem.

 

[Piorn]

Everyone in this thread has watched the Ad, and that's exactly what they wanted to accomplish.

 

[Vrex360]

To put it bluntly, even if one argues it's a "negative" stereotype (OMG, a woman doing housework, how horrible!), it's no worse than how men are portrayed in other advertisements where they are schlubs who can barely rub two brain cells together that always get one upped by their far more clever, and savvy wives/female interests without whom they could not possibly survive.

Yes it can be viewed as sexist... BUT how many ads out there potray a male as nothing more than a dimwitted grunt who can't feed himself compared to the ultra-intelligent and always right woman? Oh I don't know... EVERY OTHER AD EVER MADE!!!! I think we can let this one go, right...?

I understand the annoyance about how ads show men as being dumb oafs who can't figure out how to work a microwave or washing machine might come across as offensive but I'd like to take a moment to point out how it makes the women look in these ads.
We watch these ads where women just sigh with a little smile and leap to do all the simple household tasks that their husbands can't muster, never demanding that the husbands learn to do these basic skills for themselves and eagerly doing it for them, no questions asked.
Implying that despite being incompetant oafs, these husbands have no fear because their super hot and doting wives will leap to help them and it also implies that a woman's primary area of power and skill remains the home.
Men can be soldiers on the battlefield or the leaders of huge companies but according to ads women's only area where they can be made the leader is in the house.

And honestly if someone were to ask me who is clearly in charge in this relationship, the oaf who keeps getting everything he needs handed to him or the 'super smart wife' who is always eagerly leaping to do everything for him I'm going to say the oaf is clearly in charge here.

I could say more but The Mary Sue actually says it better for me:
http://www.themarysue.com/dumb-men-commercials/

P.S I hope I didn't come across as hostile or judgemental in my post, I'm trying to avoid making any upcoming debate into an angry and enraged one.

P.P.S As a side note, I myself, am male.

 

[Vrex360]

It certainly lacks tact, but isn't as bad as that new Dr. Pepper ad. I noticed the "Man's Guide To Trading" at the start. It is just as bad. The creators should be canned/reprimanded for the poor ad.

What Dr. Pepper ad? Is it that bad?

Yeah, alienating half of their consumer base. Brilliant move.

Yeesh, that is a really stupid and really offensive ad. I really don't want to imagine what the thought process what when they made that.
But still, unfortunatley, there are even more sexist advertisements out there that make this one look enlightened.
A few examples in the videos below:


Seriously, liquor ads have to be the worst examples of chauvinism being celebrated.

 

[MasochisticAvenger]

To put it bluntly, even if one argues it's a "negative" stereotype (OMG, a woman doing housework, how horrible!), it's no worse than how men are portrayed in other advertisements where they are schlubs who can barely rub two brain cells together that always get one upped by their far more clever, and savvy wives/female interests without whom they could not possibly survive.

Yes it can be viewed as sexist... BUT how many ads out there potray a male as nothing more than a dimwitted grunt who can't feed himself compared to the ultra-intelligent and always right woman? Oh I don't know... EVERY OTHER AD EVER MADE!!!! I think we can let this one go, right...?

I understand the annoyance about how ads show men as being dumb oafs who can't figure out how to work a microwave or washing machine might come across as offensive but I'd like to take a moment to point out how it makes the women look in these ads.
We watch these ads where women just sigh with a little smile and leap to do all the simple household tasks that their husbands can't muster, never demanding that the husbands learn to do these basic skills for themselves and eagerly doing it for them, no questions asked.
Implying that despite being incompetant oafs, these husbands have no fear because their super hot and doting wives will leap to help them and it also implies that a woman's primary area of power and skill remains the home.
Men can be soldiers on the battlefield or the leaders of huge companies but according to ads women's only area where they can be made the leader is in the house.

And honestly if someone were to ask me who is clearly in charge in this relationship, the oaf who keeps getting everything he needs handed to him or the 'super smart wife' who is always eagerly leaping to do everything for him I'm going to say the oaf is clearly in charge here.

I could say more but The Mary Sue actually says it better for me:
http://www.themarysue.com/dumb-men-commercials/

P.S I hope I didn't come across as hostile or judgemental in my post, I'm trying to avoid making any upcoming debate into an angry and enraged one.

P.P.S As a side note, I myself, am male.

I think there has been a problem with the quotes. I only said the second quoted paragraph, not the first.

All you are doing is reading into the ads what you want to read into them. I could do the same thing with this ad. I could say that this ad portrays men in the stereotypical role of a bad husband who thinks more about his own gaming needs than of his wife. Whereas, the wife is seen as the more sensible of the two, thinking about their long-term future rather than some short-term luxury item. Therefore, I could say the ad is saying that women are smarter than men because all men are just obnoxious douches who do nothing but play games.

See... it's not that hard.

Also, we're clearly talking about different kinds of ads, though they are slightly similar. This is what I mean:


Or this one:


Are you telling me that EBGames ad is any worse than those ads?

 

[Hugga_Bear]

Not sexist. Just dumb.

Okay to clarify: it's not sexist because it's parodying the stereotyped roles of men and women using the base of the 50's (see music/behaviour of the woman) and the extremely polarised gender roles they had then. It's dumb because it's a terrible advert, humourless, poor advertisement for something everyone knows how to do and the parody is not only nonsensical in regards to what's being advertised but weakly executed which is why this debate exists at all.

So, not sexist, just dumb.