Tropes vs. Women in Video Games

[Dracos]

Pretty likely, but I'm not following it either and not willing to watch more.

I suppose it's possible it's all in 2-3 second chunks taken from various other folks.  She talks over it playing in the ones I did look at.

[Dracos]

Been some years.

The hate-engine has been running long in the meanwhile.  Gamergate happened, complete with enormous amounts of hate and marginalization going on involving this and related individuals.

Mmm.

Tycho some years ago said something that really resonated.  The best answer to bad communication isn't to censor it: It is more communication.  More voices, more diversity, more ideas.  I tend to buy into this, but I do sometimes lean toward the 'Shut the moron up'.  The whole fiasco and media hate machine that surrounded a lot of the gender issues over the last couple years definitely got me further into that vibe (Oh god, the horrible dragon's crown artist, what a villain with his tributes to 1980s era movie cinematography).

I got to read something recently that was kind of relieving.  An example of how more is better.  A good set of articles that got written because Tropes VS women existed.  Yay for more.

Anyhow, I share:
http://metaleater.com/video-games/feature/why-feminist-frequency-almost-made-me-quit-writing-about-video-games-part-1
http://metaleater.com/video-games/feature/how-anita-sarkeesian-indirectly-gave-me-new-hope-for-video-games-part-1

I thought these were good articles that came out of that whole bit.

[Kaldrak]

Well, those were very interesting to read.

My own personal opinion of Anita is somewhat...different. I believe she jumped into this whole thing with practically no knowledge of the video game industry she decided to critique. There's video evidence of her not knowing the difference between a first person shooter and a platformer, from fairly recently before she started her first kickstarter campaign for Tropes vs Women. You can see it in the rebuttal video from that dude who did the 'feminist vs facts' vids. In short, before she drummed up her whole idea, she decided she was an expert on something I don't believe she actually knew all that much about.

Why? Because...feminism?

I watched the first vid in her series and I don't think I'll watch any of the others. Maybe, maybe she's done more in depth research for the other videos, but for the love of pete, I've been gaming for over twenty years and her? She's been at this what, less than five years now? What that means, is that I know a hell of a lot more about games than she does and I'm likely more qualified to speak about her professed area of expertise on the subject e.g. the depiction of women in video games.

I've simply played faaaar more of them than she has and I actively seek out games with female protagonists. I've done that ever since I was little. Not sure why, I just...do.

I honestly think Anita's something of a con artist. Drum up a lot of fuss, drum up a lot of attention, drum up a lot of money and sympathy and say...what? The games she mentions in her first video are such low hanging fruit it's not even funny. I know far more egregious examples of poor depiction of women in video games than she does and whoever gave her that list for her talking points in that first video neglected to have her mention most of them. I honestly don't think she did bugger all for research for that first video and no, I don't think she came into this thing as a 'gamer'. She came into it as a feminist, which is fine, but please don't ask me to take the word of someone who doesn't know what the heck she's talking about, when I know so much more about the subject matter than she does.

Gee, I almost wish someone should pay ME a hundred and forty grand to talk about video games. Her idea worked beautifully, I'll give her that much.

Maybe that's changed by now. I honestly don't know. That whole Gamergate issue was just downright terrible and something I pretty much avoided due to not doing anything on social media. What it amounted to for me was a bunch of SJW's screaming at a bunch of vicious trolls calling themselves 'gamers.' And people on both sides did a bunch of really bad (and often illegal) stuff to each other all for...what, exactly? The whole thing was blown way out of proportion.

Anyway, to sum up what I think about this all, should we be thinking and talking about the depiction of females in video games? Yes. Also males and everything else. Do I think Anita really has much to say on the subject? No, because she didn't really say much in what I watched and what she did say was kind of twisted, honestly. The language she uses, from what she actually says to the very title of her video series, is deliberately inflammatory and designed to drum up controversy, which gets her attention, which gets her money from people sympathetic to the feminist cause.

Maybe her later videos in the series have her say more interesting things, but I honestly doubt it. Why mess with what works?