Tropes vs. Women in Video Games

[Brian]

Hey, someone took her rant and did something constructive with it!

http://dresdencodak.tumblr.com/post/47724463171/inspired-by-anita-sarkeesians-video-game-tropes

I would play that game.

[Kt3]

The art looks very nifty, and the concept looks like it could be fun.

I'm a bit annoyed at the 'nintendo is 2 sexist to make this happen!!1' comment by someone else on the bottom though.

As well, there's a couple of pitfalls that need to be avoided (but that happens in any game).  One of the things that needs to have happen is to make sure that Prince Link actually connects with the audience, that is, he becomes someone that the audience would actually care about and want to help or rescue.  I think it'd be too easy to just end up not giving a flying rat about Prince Link unless his characterization and relevance is top notch.

And just as well, I hope there's no sort of "oh look, all the royalty are male, patriarchy blahblahblah" sort of backlash.  I think there would definitely be people trying to argue that, and they'd be missing the point.

More than gender in video games, though, I think it'd just be cool to play a Zelda-esque game with someone who plays a little differently (Zelda being more acrobatic and mobile than Link).  Hell, bring on Ganondorf!  I'd enjoy playing a Zelda-esque game as a big hulking bruiser.

[Brian]

Well, in any case, it won't happen.  It's still nice to imagine, though.

The 'Zelda' concept was really neat.

[Bezzerker]

I concur. My only real nit-pick would be the inability to max all three magic path upgrades, and that is due in part to both the fact that most other Zelda games don't have a similar mechanic to them that I am aware of, and that I'm just plain ol' greedy like that. :P

[Grahf]

I can honestly say that I've enjoyed the responses, this one included, more than the actual source itself. Hopefully people keep coming up with clever stuff for the rest of them as well. More videos from the woman running the Kite Tales channel that Brian linked would be excellent.

[Kt3]

Curse you Brian, you have somehow stolen credit for that link!

/fistshake

[Brian]

Strange.  The credit magnet is almost always toggled to 'blame'....

[Grahf]

Whoops, sorry Kt3.

I don't think this one has been linked. It provides a rather nice rebuttal, from what I've watched.

[JonBob]

Part 2 of Damsel in Distress is out.

[Brian]

We were discussing this in IRC a bit.

Admittedly, I've not watched the second video, and I don't plan to.  I've given up on following her; I don't feel she's trying to be constructive.

[Grahf]

I'll admit that I watched it. I felt that overall it suffered profoundly from lack of context about a lot of what was going on. One of the tropes that she harped on a lot was where a woman was corrupted by whatever evil force was present in the narrative and had to be fought by the man. Needless to say she took a pretty dim view of that, but at the same time she never got into details like the fact that the women in question would in most cases rather fight and even die before becoming monsters. It was pretty much just that kind of thing where it's the most shallow, surface skimming view of the trope so that it's easy for her to admonish it as being bad.

Disappointing, really.

[Brian]

It was posited by someone else that her goal isn't to establish a meaningful dialog, but to cast herself as a beleaguered victim, and profit from the sympathy that engenders.  It's unfortunate, but I can't really disagree -- it's possible this is not the case, but all I can really see is that she's not being constructive in her methodology.

I might actually watch the twelfth video,  as it is in theory going to be constructive, but the rest....

[Dracos]

I am a cynic.  And therefore I say cynical things.  Like the twelfth video will probably showcase a bunch of efforts that failed in the marketplace years ago, despite lots of effort funding them.  That someone who's been uninterested in showing greater insight the entire time will not suddenly become meaningful when she's not talking negatively.

I watched a very short bit of the second one.  I reached her smugly deridding that any of the games she referenced in the first one had existed, or would continue to be made by modern developers.  Nevermind that some of the games she whined about were made in 2006 or later the first time around and she failed to hold to a given decade, going all the way from the mid eighties to present day in her previous whinefest, the mere suggestion that a significant block of communication ought never be had is just pathetic and the smug correctness with which she says it communicates that she has nothing worth listening to herself.

I suppose I'm not quite cynical to suggest she's treading hate speech lines in a way that's hard to pin her on and that's why she gets such a noisy and angry following, because frankly...It's Za God Damn Internet.  You know what normal people do?  Don't spend their time looking at Feminish Frequency, Zionist Perspective, or any other "We're a Minority, listen to our problems" blog.  Why?  Because they don't care and it isn't silly cats or even something as meaningful as political banter over local or national events.  Who is the audience for those sites?  People who already believe and folks who want to find something they'd feel good about ranting or hating at.

It's the internet.  It's not actually a broad stream of individuals you get when things get posted.  It instead is narrowcasted to the extreme.  Anyone neutral isn't even aware you exist.  So it's only natural that a handful of angry hateful trolls appears hundreds because they're the only ones paying attention every time and posting every time.  It's the same way on most forums less than 5 percent of the forum population makes up the lion's share of the posts.  Because most people aren't posting 10,000 posts, they're posting <100 times a year (twice a week~!)

I actually mind the variety of news pundits circling these pieces for their controversy dollars a lot more than I mind the obnoxious victim couch scholar for money that's producing them.  It's them more than anything else that has given this specific voice its reach over far more reasoned ones, and that's unfortunate since its a particularly undereducated voice who's masquerading as an academic study.

I foresee a day in the future where college as an institution won't be there anymore.  I think one of the sad reflections is that more and more people won't be able to recognize something like this as non-rigorous and non-academic.  The entire thing doesn't step out of her personal opinions, and the way she used the funding to purchase herself an enormous collection of modern games instead of utilizing renting and library functionality is something that really should be viewed as a shameful act.  But hey, she's gotten lots of money and too much of our time by being a victim of 'hateful trolls on the internet'.  Clearly she's important.

P.S.: Being surprised that Japanese Video Games are sexist shows a misunderstanding of where feminist culture is in Japan relative to much of Europe or North America.  Using those as the root of an argument lacks a greater view of culture.

[Dracos]

http://victorsopinion.blogspot.be/2013/07/anitas-sources.html

Got linked this today.

Apparently, she's been very free with stealing other people's efforts without credit, and is being legally pursued by at least one artist who's art she appropriated with for commercial purposes as well.

[Jason_Miao]

I haven't followed her work at all.  Is she using more than 5 seconds of footage?