The Big Picture: With Great Power

[Deadagent]

As far as I know she didnt but thats rather irrelevant as far as im concerned.

She didn't have stretch goals, or she didn't predict how much money she would get? I mentioned the stretch goals to demonstrate that even if she was pushing for more money after she hit her $6 000, which, as we said, there is no proof of, it doesn't prove she was just after the money. As for her predicting, I think it matters because I don't think that many people would be accusing her of this if she had received an amount closer to what she was asking for.

The reason I find it irrelevant is because $6000 for 5 youtube videos is already very suspicious, then when you add in the fact the only purpose she says the money was going to in the original kickstarter video was "research". That's rather vauge if you ask me so getting more details as to what this research consists of would have given her much better ground to stand on. As far as we know the only thing the money MIGHT have gone to was the games, and even then that means that the backers only gave some feminist video games for free so she could get her preconsieved notions to fit into them.

And as a sidenote, I did ask her about where she spent the money via E-mail, never heard back from her.

TL;DR: Even $6000 for 5 youtube videos is way too much, and nobody has any clue where the money went. And thats why I find her stretch goals irrelevant

 

[oooooooooooooooooooooooooo]

I don't think Anita was implying that gaming was somehow directly responsible for domestic violence, especially since she explicitly stated that "We typically don't have a monkey-see monkey-do, direct cause and effect relationship with the media we consume.". I think it's more of an issue with trivialization. A lot of people already have really fucked up views about women (and men too) who suffer from domestic violence, and the trivialization of the issue does not really help. I mean, she says:

Anita
Even though most of the games we're talking about don't explicitly condone violence against women, nevertheless they trivialize and exploit female suffering as a way to ratchet up the emotional or sexual stakes for the player.

To use another example, I think it's fair to say that the trivialization of prison rape in popular media is problematic. It's not responsible for prison rape but it reinforces the fucked up views people already have of prison rape.

Also, saying that popular media has an effect on peoples attitudes and opinions is not the same as saying that popular media causes violence. Those are two different things, and it's not really a 'slippery-slope' situation where admitting the first part legitimizes the second part.

Yes, perhaps I should have phrased my post better because I don't believe that was her claim either. I was rather saying that given the spectrum of the bigger underlying issues relating to domestic violence, to bring videogames into the mix and lay some of the burden on them is unfair. I definitely agree that the perception of women in the majority of videogames needs to be changed and the trivialization of violence towards women is one of the main issues and it certainly can't be helping the cause, but I also don't think it's a major enough factor to be worth mentioning. Entertainment media does alter perception, but not that much, and certainly not enough to make a dent in the effects of environment, etc that I mentioned. That's why I brought up the school shootings thing, because I think there is a similar argument to be made of what sort of effect the media has had on them in relation to the way they act. I think there is also a distinction between this and the prison rape example as, for many of us, our only understanding of prison rape and general prison treatment comes from the media, while we develop a first hand perception of women and how they should be treated over our entire lifetime. I'm also not comfortable putting any sort of social responsibilities on entertainment media because that essentially becomes censorship. As I was kind of saying before, we should rather be looking to achieve a better perception of women on the creative level, which I believe was actually the point Sarkeesian was trying to make, but which she also undermined by sticking social responsibilities in on that level as well.

The reason I find it irrelevant is because $6000 for 5 youtube videos is already very suspicious, then when you add in the fact the only purpose she says the money was going to in the original kickstarter video was "research". That's rather vauge if you ask me so getting more details as to what this research consists of would have given her much better ground to stand on. As far as we know the only thing the money MIGHT have gone to was the games, and even then that means that the backers only gave some feminist video games for free so she could get her preconsieved notions to fit into them.

And as a sidenote, I did ask her about where she spent the money via E-mail, never heard back from her.

TL;DR: Even $6000 for 5 youtube videos is way too much, and nobody has any clue where the money went. And thats why I find her stretch goals irrelevant

Well you've pretty much answered it for yourself. She was doing research on the perception of women in videogaming, so it's likely to assume games is where most of that money was intended to go. You may have your opinion about giving her money to buy and play games, but that doesn't make her in anyway suspicious or immoral. And I can't imagine she responds to most emails from strangers, especially given that a good chunk of them are apparently death and rape threats.

 

[Grampy_bone]

MovieBob used the term "cisgendered;" his argument is invalid.

How and why does that render his argument invalid?

I think it may have to do with the fact that the word has been so abused by the Tumblr Social Justice idiots, that any use of the word becomes associated with them.

It's a damn shame, really. It's an actual word, used in academia. But it has all this baggage attached to it.

Cisgendered is a feminist buzzword. It's used to imply the speaker is superior to others and that people who don't use it are bigots.

 

[Machine Man 1992]

MovieBob used the term "cisgendered;" his argument is invalid.

How and why does that render his argument invalid?

I think it may have to do with the fact that the word has been so abused by the Tumblr Social Justice idiots, that any use of the word becomes associated with them.

It's a damn shame, really. It's an actual word, used in academia. But it has all this baggage attached to it.

Cisgendered is a feminist buzzword. It's used to imply the speaker is superior to others and that people who don't use it are bigots.

I'm glad someone agrees. The modern feminist rhetoric is about 80% buzzwords and 20% thinly veiled misandry.

 

[SurrealFactory]

I think it's important to add to the discussion that minority groups aren't the only ones capable of being excluded and treated unfairly. What about people who are different from us? People who may have different interests or talk differently. Just because someone wears a backwards baseball cap, that doesn't automatically make him a jerk.

 

[oooooooooooooooooooooooooo]

Our very own Bob Chipman and Jim Sterling do extensive research-driven projects on a weekly basis, so do PLENTY of other Youtubers and bloogers/vloggers across the web, and they didn't need $150,000 of Kickstarter money to do so...

MAYBE, MAAAAAABYE if later on in these videos we see that she used the money to go out and track down developers or whatever to conduct interviews or something (somehow, I doubt it). ANYTHING other than her traditional set-up that doesn't show an OUNCE of improved production quality in ANY facet.

If people donated their money to this project, they have the right to know exactly what it's being used for. And if it doesn't look like it's being used toward anything substantial, they have the right to ask questions. Hell isn't it REQUIRED that you keep your backers relatively informed about where all the money is ACTUALLY going? All Anita really does is hide behind her "the Internet peoplez are meanz to me" shield to avoid ALL confrontation no matter how valid/reasonable they are (which again, there have been plenty of and are easily findable).

Anita only wants us to know that she's this big victim of all this meanie poo hatemail, but we don't know SHIT ELSE about this project of hers, and she isn't interested in telling ANYONE, INCLUDING her backers, about it it either. For someone rallying against the so-called "dis-empowered Damsel In Distress" trope, she sure as hell is acting like one. And it's all by design...

As I've said earlier in the thread, she didn't ask for $150 000, she asked for $6 000, which is not an unreasonable amount if her intention was to buy enough games to get a more wholistic perspective on how the videogaming industry sees women

 

[Atmos Duality]

She picks up a hodgepodge of trends and unflattering female depictions of characters and says they're bad while not going beyond a surface level of WHY they're bad, how they came to be in development, what some better examples of female characters in games are, why those characters are better and how other female characters in game could be made more like them.

I guess she deserves credit for casting light on this ugly undercurrent of misogynistic attitudes in gaming but I hope she does more with all that kickstarter money than she is now.

She won't. Her rhetoric as I've seen it isn't based in logos, but ethos and pathos.
Sarkeesian aims to shame the viewer into compliance rather than educate them. Her latest video could best be described as a slideshow of abuse towards fictional female characters without any call to action beyond an implied "Don't do this".

Until that rift in gender demographics within mainstream gaming become noticeably less significant, those tropes aren't going to change. Why? Because that shit sells and to a for-profit company, as long as it won't land them in legal trouble that's all that matters.

 

[Gindil]

That's entirely irrelevant to showing how her Kickstarter was spammed in 4chan as the Kickstarter proceeded which has been the point for quite some time now.

Alright, well I'll simply say then, there is no proof at all that had anything to do with her. There's absolutely no reason why we should she treat her in any way other than innocent until proven guilty.

Actually, after watching this* it makes a lot more sense that Anita has a motivation to do exactly that which also addresses her issue of no trope solving as well as showing where she gets her arguments...

*https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fiUvJNMlqxY

Hyperbole isn't "slipping words into your mouth". All I'm saying is that if she wants to make a claim that video games cause domestic violence and that "games are misogynist against women" then she needs some data to back up her argument. All I've seen is her opinion and out of context examples that once you look at them holistically, they aren't as dire as she claims. So again, show me an example.

And if you like being manipulated, that's your choice. I just think it's entirely stupid and pointless in creating an argument that only supports a minority of viewers in the first place.

Perhaps not, but it's also not addressing the points I'm actually putting forward. That's also not her claim, as far as I am aware. I admittedly haven't seen most of her work, but I haven't heard her claim that videogames cause domestic anywhere. Also, 'games are misogynist against women' isn't quite accurate either, rather that games tend to fall back on tropes that tend to be misogynistic out of laziness. And yes, she does outright say she believes it's usually out of laziness. You want examples of misogyny in videogames? I could probably give dozens, I certainly think many of her examples were valid. As I said though, this is not the thread for it, so you know, pick the thread or say you want to discuss it via pm and I'll certainly follow you to that. Also there's no need for this 'if you like being manipulated' or accusations of ranting and raving stuff, lets just stick to addressing each other's arguments.

She did the politician thing of linking domestic violence with video games. She stated "Every 9 seconds a woman is being beaten by a spouse or loved one" (paraphrase) as if there's a causal link. Also, no. If you can look at this** chart and try to find a trend of sexism and misogyny, you're trying to come up with a presupposed conclusion. And seriously think about the technological limits that created Mario and other core games that didn't have that mechanic. You think that the original Mario Bros relied on this trope? It doesn't

Also, before we go on, if you're going to give me examples, I want full context, not things you don't agree with. When I pull up Carlos' death in Saints Row 2, in showing how men are brutalized and disposable, I'm going to tell you how you had to kill him to ease his suffering***. If you mean misogynistic as merely something you don't agree with, we're going to have a disagreement based on the semantic and etymological level. I'm talking about an actual hatred of women instead of merely villains. Oh, and Bowser is in the friend zone. ****

**http://videogamegeek.com/thread/885657/video-game-genre-percentages-per-year

*** Male - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Of6IIRjUhO8
***Female - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q2OExIA4JDo

**** http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QP-4-8iKnpI

...

And just at those examples, I can bring up one counterargument: Adria Richards. She manipulated people and of course, she received bad press by being dishonest to others. The point here is, if you want to say bad things about other people, expect a response. But you can't just dismiss everything as trolling when there's legitimate criticisms that might help the argument. You also can't focus on the trolls that aren't a part of the gaming community except when they attack someone who misleads people in the first place.

No, I'm saying whether or not there was valid criticism isn't relevant. Sexist attacks aren't a minority view point, they're not a viewpoint at all and any sort of discrimination should be addressed immediately. Sure, loads of people have perfectly valid criticisms of Anita and power to them for that, but are you trying to say that somehow justifies the others acting like sexist assholes? Like I said before, you seem to have made the mistake in thinking that I'm here championing Sarkeesian's arguments, I'm not, I'm here saying there are no circumstances, context or anything else that make any sort of sexist attack on anyone even the slightest bit acceptable. You say later that things aren't just black and, you're entirely right, but you need apply that everywhere, just because I have a problem with misogyny doesn't mean you can lump me in with the Sarkeesian bunch. And that is why I shall say yet again, this isn't about her. There could have been anyone pushing anyone pushing any sort of agenda or argument in place of Anita and I would be here saying a misogynistic reaction to them is unacceptable. I don't think Anita is as bad as you claim she is, she has some valid points and some points that are nonsense, but even if everything she said was complete garbage, that wouldn't justify anyone treating her in a misogynistic manner.

You're shooting the forest for the trees. Anyone can pick up troll behavior and say that's "representative" of the rest of the culture. That's exactly what Bob did here. A troll wants a reaction and works to get one. That's why they're a vocal minority. You ignore trolls because they're not there to support a viewpoint. They're there for a reaction. Saying that the gaming community is responsible for the behaviors of trolls is like saying a guy in California should put a leash on the dog in Florida. It doesn't make any sense. It doesn't make any sense that I'm to blame for the actions of 4chan and trollish behavior. Sure, the comments are bad. But they are a minority of the discussion.

Adria Richards manipulated people? I agree it was not okay to complain about those guy's jokes on twitter with a picture of them, but that's not manipulation and it doesn't even slightly justify her getting sent a picture of herself having been decapitated with the caption "when I'm done" as well as the other threats she's apparently received. There is big gulf between, expect a reaction, and expect threats of death and rape, as well as a load misogyny thrown her way.

Remember, she tweeted about them, didn't engage them and didn't engage people in charge of the show. She told the public and it got huge fast. Yet she made penis jokes and that's perfectly fine. It's hypocrisy. And no one would have known about her if she had handled the situation differently, ie with more respect to the people involved by just saying "Hey guys, can you cut it out?" instead of broadcasting them to the world. Again, I stress, you're shooting the forest for the trees by broadbrushing everyone and focusing on the few people that exhibit troll behavior.

You're moving the goal posts here. Anita claimed they were a coordinated attack and I responded by where that information is. That's dishonesty. Second, I'm specifically claiming that the "evidence" she has is mostly criticism and not sexist. You're focusing on one without a focus on the other and that's a biased viewpoint.

I'm not moving anything, Anita can claim what she likes, I keep saying this isn't about her and you keep trying to throw me back into her support group. And I agree, a fair number of those response, while not particularly well thought out, certainly weren't trying to be sexist attacks. But then again, a fair number certainly were and, as I say above, one doesn't justify the other.

... Yeah, that just makes no sense. "It's not about her, it's about the attacks she received." But then that is still focusing on the few attacks that she received as trolling responses over the criticisms that she hasn't responded to. It's an emotional plea that ignores actual conversation about the points raised. Politicians love doing this.

I'm going to go with the context doesn't justify the response point here again. Yes, a fair amount of the backlash was people being assholes in ways other than misogynistic ones, but there was a misogynistic response, and provoked or not, it wasn't justified.

"For every action, there is an equal but opposite reaction."

Not buying the argument that nothing happened besides her trolling 4chan for money. I don't think trolls are indicative of the gaming community and I won't buy that argument until I see actual data that supports her argument. And seeing as how she has closed herself off to all points of view besides her own, it shows that something is amiss since she can't hold up to criticism. Even now, you've just written that those comments were "negative insults" when I'm saying they're criticism of her work. And again... If you want to talk about sexism, you should recognize that she's perfectly fine with satire and parody and free speech so long as it doesn't affect the status quo. That's not free speech. That's a press release.

Well as I say, you lack the proof for your first point. Anyway, no one has said trolls are indicative of the gaming community, in fact I quite obviously said in my last post that these people are not the majority. But they don't have to be, they are a product of geek culture and we should addressing them as such. You also can't lump all the comments into one group. Sure, some of them were attempts to critique, though I don't think "oh shut the fuck up ****" or "as soon as women are as capable as men" fall under that definition, both of which are comments from her twitter link that I posted.

Which puts us yet again to the point you keep missing. You keep responding that this is a product of geek culture. This is not true. 4chan has a unique community the same as there are various gamer cultures. I love being a geek, gamer, or whatever else but I hate how people continuously lump me and people I enjoy talking to into the same pool as trolls. It's beyond insulting. We should have the conversation of Anita vs 4chan, not gamer culture. Because the gamer culture responded by showing that her arguments are illogical and shallow. So I implore that next time, learn why 4chan is known for trolling people and the reactions they want. Stop blaming separate cultures for things they did not do.

Let me repeat this for you...

4chan is a community. You also have the gamer community. You have a few gamers that are related to 4chan. There's a little overlap, but not a lot. You're dealing with two different circles of people and one is bigger than the other. It's not a black and white situation where "gamers = misogyny" which is the point of criticizing you for trying to confuse the two. All I'm saying is that if you want to confuse two different cultures that are very distinct, that's a ridiculous thing to do and hurts your argument.

*http://www.killerbetties.com/killer-women-jennifer-hepler/

** http://blog.bioware.com/2012/06/11/interview-with-senior-writer-jennifer-hepler/

*** http://kotaku.com/5886674/bioware-writer-describes-her-gaming-tastes-angry-gamers-call-her-a-cancer

A little overlap? I would be very surprised if the vast majority of 4chan weren't gamers. And again, no one is claiming gamers are all misogynistic, I have now in fact repeatedly said the opposite. Yes, a lot of gamers don't identify with 4chan, but a lot of 4chan users identify as gamers and that's what matters because it's the gamer side of things we're addressing.

Uhm... Your argument is that gamers make misogynistic comments based on not liking what Anita is doing because she's a woman. That's exactly what you're doing by claiming that gamers couldn't respond to her civilly (which she will never comment about anyway).

And as I've said, you're confusing those trolls with gamers that didn't care about Anita until she spammed Kickstarter for sympathy.

 

[Gindil]

I'm glad someone agrees. The modern feminist rhetoric is about 80% buzzwords and 20% thinly veiled misandry.

I gotta push back on this, even if I'm not a feminist... The problem comes in with anti-sex feminism that has a lot to whine about while not promoting feminine equality. This is Anita in a nutshell. She's able to manipulate people into helping her with her siren call and few people pay attention until it's too late.

The feminist theory is left wanting because it ignores economic theory in my view. It follows into liberalism and post structuralism, but you can't really translate feminism to the needs of the many. Most feminists focus on the CEOs but they don't focus on the needs of the poorest women and how they're hurt by austerity and other measures.

Further, people don't recognize that there's a Sex War going on beneath the surface. Anti-sex feminists like Anita, Jennifer Posner, and others get a lot of attention and they rarely give attention to the sex-positive feminists that make up the other side of the court. Sure, they rail against MRAs but when you have revolutionary tactics such as taking the word "Slut" and trying to change its meaning? They get off the bus.

In short, antisex feminists are authoritarians, just like evangelical conservatives, who look to attain power instead of helping out women being more equal.

 

[Uhura]

snip

Ok, I think I understand where you are coming from and I see how some might find the whole domestic violence angle a bit heavy-handed. I think we have to agree to disagree on the whole 'how big of an influence popular media really is' thing, because it's getting really off topic.

Our very own Bob Chipman and Jim Sterling do extensive research-driven projects on a weekly basis, so do PLENTY of other Youtubers and bloogers/vloggers across the web, and they didn't need $150,000 of Kickstarter money to do so...

I think you might find interesting what our very own Bob Chipman has actually said about Sarkeesian's Kickstarter funding:

And he also wrote a blog post about it http://gameoverthinker.blogspot.fi/2013/03/tropes-vs-women-launches-first-episode.html

 

[Deadagent]

snipsnap

I think you might find interesting what our very own Bob Chipman has actually said about Sarkeesian's Kickstarter funding:

And he also wrote a blog post about it http://gameoverthinker.blogspot.fi/2013/03/tropes-vs-women-launches-first-episode.html

Anita had the camera, mic, greenscreen and editing software before the kickstarter. So unless the equipment explodes after one use, then Bob's argument about the production costs goes out of the window.

 

[JimB]

Cisgendered is a feminist buzzword. It's used to imply the speaker is superior to others and that people who don't use it are bigots.

I see. Thank you for answering, though I wonder what your answer really has to do with anything: How a word can be used does not invalidate its meaning (if it did, "socialism" would refer to radical communism rather than, you know, actual socialism).

However, I'd just like to point out that this post of yours [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/6.820668-The-Big-Picture-With-Great-Power?page=12#19821108] is more or less the definition of misogyny. With words like "invade" and "infiltrate," you've made it clear that you consider women a collective enemy who need to be battled; and "territory" further clarifies it by saying your enmity springs from them not being content to stay in their place. People do not accuse your statements of misogyny in an attempt to silence or shame you: They do it because you say misogynistic things.

 

[JimB]

Anita had the camera, mic, green screen and editing software before the Kickstarter.

Do you have proof of this? I've never watched any of her videos myself, so I'm actually asking.

 

[Deadagent]

Anita had the camera, mic, green screen and editing software before the Kickstarter.

Do you have proof of this? I've never watched any of her videos myself, so I'm actually asking.

Well first off you can compare any of her videos done before the kickstarter to the tropes Vs women videos, and then there is this from her kickstarter pitch video http://youtu.be/l8I0Wy58adM?t=2m28s . She was already in High Def and nothing about her sound has changed. The flashy intros are now different kind of flashy intros, which does indeed require work, but does not require any additional money on her part.

 

[JimB]

http://youtu.be/l8I0Wy58adM?t=2m28s

When I clicked that link, the first video along the right-hand side of the screen is a rebuttal from some modern-day wit going by the handle of Dildo Faggins.

The above observation is not intended to reflect on you or your link. I only wrote it because I have to deal with the weariness of having to know that, and I want to spread my misery some. Jesus Christ. Anyway, what were we talking about?

She was already in high definition, and nothing about her sound has changed.

Oh, right, that.

I don't know how to respond to this. Ultimately, I seem to be in the position of deciding whether I trust your anecdotal evaluation of the quality of her work or Mr. Chipman's. I feel you've been polite and reasonable to me, so I don't wish to give you offense by saying this, but I think I have to go with Mr. Chipman's, since he has the authority of being a professional in the field of internet video production, whereas you, as far as I know, do not.

 

[Uhura]

@Deadagent
You don't really know what equipment she owns and if she has upgraded any of it recently. She asked for 6k for "production costs, equipment, games and downloadable content." In her blog, she has said that there has been "equipment, software and website infrastructure upgrades, that she has purchased over 300 games for the project and has hired a fulltime producer for the series. You have to pay money for things.

 

[leviadragon99]

Those "homophobic, sexist, trolls" you rail against are just that-- trolls. They aren't going away, ever, no matter how much mainstreaming is done.

So man the fuck up and deal with it.

And what do you care anyway? You, by your own admission, don't play games online, outsider.

He didn't say trolls, you did. Unless you're quoting someone else in this thread and forgot to actually quote them.

No, we shouldn't have to deal with that crap, and there are ways to disown the trolls, to let them know they're not welcome in the community, to refuse to play with them, to ban them from forums, they'll still exist, but they won't be among us if we just put a little freaking effort in to calling them out.

Oh, and nice job being open-minded there about people that don't play games online, wanker...

I'm used to posting on TVtropes. If I could, "outsider" would have been a link to "Joking Mode" but whatev's.

You do realize the only way to make trolls go away is to just ignore them right? It's kind of ironic that your solution to discrimination is MORE discrimination, when a FUCKING MUTE BUTTON EXISTS.

Honestly, am I the only one who knows that there is a way to silence players you don't like? Am I the only one who looks in the goddamned options menu, and checks to see what my voice chat settings are?

Why has it gotten to the point where individual initiative has taken a back seat to molly coddling thin-skinned whiners, who can't handle the fact that people say mean things on the internet?

Given the tone of the rest of your commentary, the notion that you were joking about the "outsider" thing was in no way readily apparent.

And ignoring a problem doesn't make it go away, it just hides from it while the problem continues to fester.

Yeah, we all know about the mute button and use it, but that hasn't done anything to stop people spewing that hatred, hasn't stopped them from putting off people playing for the first time who don't yet know that apparently the only way to enjoy a game online is to mute people left, right and center, and it doesn't stop people spewing hatred in text chat or forums, your solution is only a bandaid for one manifestation of the problem.

And again, it is totally okay to discriminate against people who by their ACTIONS have proven themselves hateful, petty, infantile or otherwise not good company, if a kid goes around punching other kids in daycare then they get sent to time out, we don't tell the parents that they'll just have to provide their kids body armour or hand-to-hand combat training.

We shouldn't have to put up with such shit is the thing, it is not being thin-skinned to point at a relentlessly racist, sexist, homophobic person and say "you're a douchenozzle, GTFO." We don't put up with such shit in our real life social circles or in real world sports, so again, why should we put up with it in videogames? Why should we prove we can endure or ignore it endlessly?

If a tree falls in a forest, and nobody is around to hear it, does it make a sound?

If a troll is saying hurtful things, but nobody can hear them, do they really matter?

And yet people do still clearly hear them, because they're still an issue that exists, because they're still loud and creative enough to force themselves to be heard. The very fact that we're having this discussion proves that they are being heard, because we know the problem exists and is putting people off even if you refuse to acknowledge it.

And honestly, if people are put off because someone (who, again, can easily be silenced) is saying mean things, then fuck 'em.

What would you have me do? This whole "we need to stop saying hurtful things on Xbox Live!' thing is garbage, accomplishes nothing, and in fact accomplishes less than nothing because it just tells the trolls that they're getting a reaction.

If you refuse to acknowledge them, you deny them their power. Trolls only look for a reaction, and the more passive aggressive the reaction (ie bitching about it on forums), the more direct and forceful they become to get a direct action.

Annnd here's the point where I tell you you're full of shit.

I'm one of those that was bullied for years back in primary school, never the physical stuff funnily enough... save for once, there was this particular douchenozzle that I made a point of ignoring, and he threw tambark (those woodchip things you see in some playgrounds) in my face, damn near blinded me.

In the years after, ignoring stupid kids didn't quite have that same escalation factor, but nor did it stop them from doing it. Again, if people are still being trolls despite you and presumably a lot of other people muting and ignoring them, this proves your approach is ineffective.

What exactly is wrong with a time out for people who do the wrong thing? Either they shape up and learn something from their time being cut off from the games they play, or they don't and keep getting temporarily banned, right up until the point they prove they'll never learn and get perma-banned.

 

[Deadagent]

@Deadagent
You don't really know what equipment she owns and if she has upgraded any of it recently. She asked for 6k for "production costs, equipment, games and downloadable content."

in the original kickstarter video she asked the money for research only and never specified it beyond that. If that quote comes from somehere else then I havent seen it . And the equipment, well she could use them before without any money so it's a fair bet that she could still do it without funding. I've stated in my other posts before that none of this is concrete proof (and mark my words that there will most likely never be concrete proof). But the side of her beeing in it for the money seems to carry much more weight to it from where im looking at it anyway.

In her blog, she has said that there has been "equipment, software and website infrastructure upgrades, that she has purchased over 300 games for the project and has hired a fulltime producer for the series. You have to pay money for things.

And that was after the money was in her pocket. Am I saying shes lying? Well, again no proof, but specifying where you spent the money AFTER you have the money is kinda the opposite of what you're supposed to do on kickstarter, plus she lies and twists the truth in her videos anyway so I wouldnt put it past her.

And before you ask for proof of lying in her videos, I can say that just check the Dinosaur Planet thing yourself for starters. From there you can watch the number of youtube stuff tearing her video to sherds. And don't dismiss it just because whoever does the video swears too much but actually listen.

Im suggesting this mostly becuase replying here every 5 minutes gets tiring.