The Felicia Day/Destructoid situation

[kyogen]

It wasn't a smart question. Nitpicks aside, the web series Felicia Day wrote and produced for the Dragon Age franchise showed that she had real familiarity with and respect for the game universe and its mechanics. It was certainly good enough to render the "booth babe" comparison thoroughly inappropriate. "Booth babes" do not design the promotional events in which they appear, and they do not do the hard-sell pitches that Ms. Day had to do to get her series made.

Mr. Perez appears to have confused "challenging and critical" with "rude and dismissive." It's an easy pitfall for journalists (especially but by no means exclusively young journalists) looking to make a splash with their "edgy" reporting. His evident failure to understand the potential explosiveness of social media like Twitter combined with his refusal to back out of the situation with a graceful clarification/apology demonstrates a profound lack of good judgment, which makes Destructoid's reluctance to commission further stories from him entirely understandable.

 

[Nomanslander]

Wait a sec, they fired a guy for asking a question? Has the whole world been P-whipped?

Being a prick or not, he asked a simple question, and because he asked it towards a women everyone got sensitive and Perez became the villain.

I'm sorry, this isn't like when that one sexist and racist DJ called a bunch of women from women's basketball "nappy headed hoes,' this is completely different.

He asked a questions that is honestly on a lot of peoples minds towards a lot of women in gaming. The fact is the industry wants more women involved, but name me a female personality in gaming that isn't "cute" at least and I'll show you the only reason they have their jobs. So the industry is sexist to begin with and firing a man that asked such a simple question is OUTRAGES!

OUT-FUCKING-RAGES!!

"JUSTIFY YOUR EXISTENCE TO ME YOU WORTHLESS BOOTH-BABE!" doesn't carry any sort of sexist undertones to it?

Umm, I've read his question he said:

"could you be considered nothing more than a glorified booth babe? You don't seem to add anything creative to the medium."

What you did there was blantantly putting additional words into a person's mouth to villify them.

Haha, yes, that's exactly what I did. You know why? I don't have to hold an image of professionalism on the Escapist because 1) I don't work for them and 2) My job doesn't depend on me holding said degree of professionalism. Because I'm commenting anonymously. Which is the opposite of what this moron did.

Questioning someone's worth and claiming that the only reason they're successful is because "geeks" find them attractive does not hold any standard of professionalism at all, and he deserved to be fired because of it.

Do you not see how FUCKING wrong that is?

No, not really. Do you not see how FUCKING OMG RAWRR wrong his comments were?

Don't comment back! I'm not interested in arguing with you further considering what I've understood from you this far on..>>

"DON'T RESPOND TO THIS POST! I KNOW YOU'LL JUST EMBARRASS ME IN FRONT OF EVERYONE AND I JUST COULDN'T HANDLE THAT OMG! YOU'RE OBVIOUSLY WRONG AND I'M SO SO RIGHT! NOW I'LL STOP TALKING TO YOU BEFORE I HAVE TO ACTUALLY DEFEND MYSELF!"

Haha, hey look, I can do it to you too.

How did you embarrass me exactly? You stated an OPINION of course that you agree he should be fired. So how is your OPINION going to embarrass me?

I said don't comment back because I know how productive it can be arguing with people like you and I'm not interested in a five page long "ENLIGHTENING" conversation in the least.

 

[J. Mazarin]

Umm, I've read his question he said:

"could you be considered nothing more than a glorified booth babe? You don't seem to add anything creative to the medium."

What you did there was blantantly putting additional words into a person's mouth to villify them.

Do you not see how FUCKING wrong that is?

Don't comment back! I'm not interested in arguing with someone that can't even read a simple twitter message correctly..>>

Booth babes are there to be sex objects. He states (though he phrases it as a question, it's not hard to see he doesn't mean it as one) that she doesn't matter, provides nothing, and is just a glorified booth babe.

From all I can gather about Felicia Day, it seems she's worked hard and actually has been directly involved in gaming (voice acting and motion capture work). So there's no validity to part of his argument where he says she's contributed nothing. So the "glorified booth babe" comment says that he feels she only has been given a place in the industry because she's a sex object, and not because of her work or talent. Not the best message to women who pursue the same path as Felicia Day.

And why did he get fired? Because he very publicly made an ass of himself and, by proxy, of the company he works for. And he's a nobody. Firing him doesn't hurt Destructoid at all. They have more to lose in keeping him than they do in letting him go. I don't feel bad for sexist assholes who don't have the common sense to keep their dumbass comments off of Twitter. Most any company who hires you nowadays will have a social networking policy you had to agree to. I know that's the case with me. Whether you like it or not, companies see what you do and say on Twitter and Facebook as at least somewhat a representative of them.

Fffff, dusty explained it better than I could.

[] Told
[] Super-told
[] No Country for Told Men
[X] Knights of the Told Republic

 

[Nomanslander]

Umm, I've read his question he said:

"could you be considered nothing more than a glorified booth babe? You don't seem to add anything creative to the medium."

What you did there was blantantly putting additional words into a person's mouth to villify them.

Do you not see how FUCKING wrong that is?

Don't comment back! I'm not interested in arguing with someone that can't even read a simple twitter message correctly..>>

Booth babes are there to be sex objects. He states (though he phrases it as a question, it's not hard to see he doesn't mean it as one) that she doesn't matter, provides nothing, and is just a glorified booth babe.

From all I can gather about Felicia Day, it seems she's worked hard and actually has been directly involved in gaming (voice acting and motion capture work). So there's no validity to part of his argument where he says she's contributed nothing. So the "glorified booth babe" comment says that he feels she only has been given a place in the industry because she's a sex object, and not because of her work or talent. Not the best message to women who pursue the same path as Felicia Day.

And why did he get fired? Because he very publicly made an ass of himself and, by proxy, of the company he works for. And he's a nobody. Firing him doesn't hurt Destructoid at all. They have more to lose in keeping him than they do in letting him go. I don't feel bad for sexist assholes who don't have the common sense to keep their dumbass comments off of Twitter. Most any company who hires you nowadays will have a social networking policy you had to agree to. I know that's the case with me. Whether you like it or not, companies see what you do and say on Twitter and Facebook as at least somewhat a representative of them.

You see ONE, this is how to respond to a comment. Respond to people like this and you might get them to take your OPINION more seriously and not end up getting reported.

 

[J. Mazarin]

Wait a sec, they fired a guy for asking a question? Has the whole world been P-whipped?

Being a prick or not, he asked a simple question, and because he asked it towards a women everyone got sensitive and Perez became the villain.

I'm sorry, this isn't like when that one sexist and racist DJ called a bunch of women from women's basketball "nappy headed hoes,' this is completely different.

He asked a questions that is honestly on a lot of peoples minds towards a lot of women in gaming. The fact is the industry wants more women involved, but name me a female personality in gaming that isn't "cute" at least and I'll show you the only reason they have their jobs. So the industry is sexist to begin with and firing a man that asked such a simple question is OUTRAGES!

OUT-FUCKING-RAGES!!

"JUSTIFY YOUR EXISTENCE TO ME YOU WORTHLESS BOOTH-BABE!" doesn't carry any sort of sexist undertones to it?

Umm, I've read his question he said:

"could you be considered nothing more than a glorified booth babe? You don't seem to add anything creative to the medium."

What you did there was blantantly putting additional words into a person's mouth to villify them.

Haha, yes, that's exactly what I did. You know why? I don't have to hold an image of professionalism on the Escapist because 1) I don't work for them and 2) My job doesn't depend on me holding said degree of professionalism. Because I'm commenting anonymously. Which is the opposite of what this moron did.

Questioning someone's worth and claiming that the only reason they're successful is because "geeks" find them attractive does not hold any standard of professionalism at all, and he deserved to be fired because of it.

Do you not see how FUCKING wrong that is?

No, not really. Do you not see how FUCKING OMG RAWRR wrong his comments were?

Don't comment back! I'm not interested in arguing with you further considering what I've understood from you this far on..>>

"DON'T RESPOND TO THIS POST! I KNOW YOU'LL JUST EMBARRASS ME IN FRONT OF EVERYONE AND I JUST COULDN'T HANDLE THAT OMG! YOU'RE OBVIOUSLY WRONG AND I'M SO SO RIGHT! NOW I'LL STOP TALKING TO YOU BEFORE I HAVE TO ACTUALLY DEFEND MYSELF!"

Haha, hey look, I can do it to you too.

How did you embarrass me exactly? You stated an OPINION of course that you agree he should be fired. So how is your OPINION going to embarrass me?

I said don't comment back because I know how productive it can be arguing with people like you and I'm not interested in a five page long "ENLIGHTENING" conversation in the least.

I don't really have to do anything else, dusty and I already told you exactly why you're wrong and exactly why this Perez moron was fired. There's no "opinions" to it.

TL;DR

The guy was an asshole.

His employer didn't like him being an asshole, and he was fired.

Now, the only counterpoint you could possibly make would be to prove that this guy isn't an asshole, and considering everything he's said on Twitter I don't really think that's possible.

Good luck, though.

EDIT:

You see ONE, this is how to respond to a comment. Respond to people like this and you might get them to take your OPINION more seriously and not end up getting reported.

Sure, I'm a dick, whatever. Refute his points or you're still wrong.

 

[Nomanslander]

[] Told
[] Super-told
[] No Country for Told Men
[X] Knights of the Told Republic

Wow!

lol

Just, don't comment back...please?

lol

 

[J. Mazarin]

[] Told
[] Super-told
[] No Country for Told Men
[X] Knights of the Told Republic

Wow!

lol

Just, don't comment back...please?

lol

"It's not about winning, it's about fun!"

And I'm having so much fun. So much.

Hey, remember that time you said you wouldn't comment back? Those were some great times. Wanna do it again?

 

[Goofguy]

I'd be interested to see what prompted his initial comments (apart of just some drunken thoughts). Putting aside the Felicia Day fanboyism and misogynistic undertones, his comments were essentially a spontaneous attack against her. Unless there's something we're not privy to, she never insulted him or gave him reason to do so. Therefore, the guy is kind of a douche.

Oh and I don't consider a Twitter account to be private if it is completely accessible to anyone with an internet connection.

 

[Lilani]

-snip-

It doesn't matter if he was "right," what matters is he couldn't have worded it any more rudely and he said it over Twitter. Not only did he openly insult her, but he did it in the most cowardly and tactless way possible.

And yes, he does deserve to be held accountable and for opinions he holds, because if he puts them on Twitter they aren't private. When your job relies on public image and public perception, then everything you say on and off the clock matters. You can't be a total prick on your private Twitter then switch over to charismatic games journalist on the clock and not expect people to hold you accountable for what you say in both places.

Should he have been fired? I don't know, but I'm sure Destructoid was just wanting to separate themselves from the situation as much as possible while eliminating the risk of it happening again with him. He probably was fired as an example, but really, he should have been old and mature enough to know what he said was incredibly rude. And he should have been aware enough to know his job was reliant upon his public image.

 

[Jynthor]

Just when when the whole sexist topic started to cool down, something had to happen. Of course.

 

[InsanityRequiem]

This all is really rather stupid. Instead of smart, informative comments to give this Mr. Perez guy an understanding about Felicia Day, you all go 'Sexist Misogynistic Pig' on the guy. Which in turns makes you all look like sexist misandristic behavior.

I hear a lot about Felicia Day, but do I know anything about her? No. And if I asked her that, or anyone else, I expect to be enlightened. Because yes, in some aspects, someone that knows nothing will see her as a 'glorified booth babe' as he says. If I didn't know anything about Nathan Fillon, I'd call him a 'glorified booth dude'. But I know some things about him, so I really can't.

Instead of getting him fired, which ultimately was an overreacted response, he should have been given all the information regarding what Felicia Day has done.

Quite disgusting how it was handled.

 

[Skops]

I don't know who Felicia Day is so, first question is: Hot or not?...... Eh, yeah. I won't say I've done better because I haven't, but on the celebrity scale she's okay.

After reading up on her, she's done her part in a few Voice Acting parts for video games so she's definately 'contributed' to the industry. So in that degree I actually would say she's probably contributed more to the industry than he has. Guys just a dickbag really, It's not like she's one of those hot blondes with a microphone asking redundant questions to developers and does nothing else.

 

[dreadedcandiru99]

Instead of getting him fired, which ultimately was an overreacted response, he should have been given all the information regarding what Felicia Day has done.

Or he could have taken five seconds out of his day to do a Google search. Just saying.

 

[Dryk]

There are a lot of celebrities who claim to be into gaming that I could see this directed at, but Felicia Day actually knows her stuff. Even then he was a complete dick about it.

Jeez, between this, Spoony, TotalBiscuit... am I missing Rage Month?

 

[InsanityRequiem]

Instead of getting him fired, which ultimately was an overreacted response, he should have been given all the information regarding what Felicia Day has done.

Or he could have taken five seconds out of his day to do a Google search. Just saying.

This is a guy that asked her directly what she does, in a somewhat antagonistic manner. Even with Google on hand, some people just don't have the realization that google is even there. I know I've had the problem with some things, asking others about something instead of googling it.

 

[dreadedcandiru99]

Jeez, between this, Spoony, TotalBiscuit... am I missing Rage Month?

TotalBiscuit? What'd he do?

 

[dreadedcandiru99]

Instead of getting him fired, which ultimately was an overreacted response, he should have been given all the information regarding what Felicia Day has done.

Or he could have taken five seconds out of his day to do a Google search. Just saying.

This is a guy that asked her directly what she does, in a somewhat antagonistic manner. Even with Google on hand, some people just don't have the realization that google is even there. I know I've had the problem with some things, asking others about something instead of googling it.

Yeah, okay, I've done that too. And asking someone a question is one thing, but asking them to immediately justify their existence while casually and needlessly insulting them is something else. In her place, I probably would've responded by going "you first, dickbag."

 

[Dryk]

Jeez, between this, Spoony, TotalBiscuit... am I missing Rage Month?

TotalBiscuit? What'd he do?

Made the mistake of venturing into the comments section on one of his videos. Got into an argument.
http://www.youtube.com/all_comments?v=o0CAJvU7Dhg&page=7

Nothing has come of it though and probably nothing will.

 

[DoPo]

Instead of getting him fired, which ultimately was an overreacted response, he should have been given all the information regarding what Felicia Day has done.

Or he could have taken five seconds out of his day to do a Google search. Just saying.

This is a guy that asked her directly what she does, in a somewhat antagonistic manner. Even with Google on hand, some people just don't have the realization that google is even there. I know I've had the problem with some things, asking others about something instead of googling it.

So you're saying that it's not at all unprofessional for a writer who is employed to be a gaming journalist to not know how to use Google?

Go and read Chuck Wendig's piece [http://terribleminds.com/ramble/2012/07/01/the-wreck-of-the-s-s-censorship-or-how-writers-steer-their-careers-into-the-rocks/]. Then come back.