Scattered Thoughts On Feminism and Video Games

I just wanted to talk a little bit about two massive debates going on in the feminism in gaming debate. Two tracks out there are 4chan vs. Zoe Quinn and Anita Sarkeesian’s video series.

I was actually intrigued by the initial pitch of the idea. Like, oh cool, one of those online videos but about how women are presented in video games, some compelling discussion of roles, where there are positive figures in gaming, where there’s stuff to improve upon. It seemed like a fun discussion. I don’t know how it got to be so blown up initially but I know Anita was a figure who went courting for controversy before her Kickstarter.

I supported her Kickstarter at the time and I must say it has definitely felt like just tossing money down a hole. That’s not unique to her because that’s the overall feel of Kickstarting anything. But she definitely has promised stuff which I’ve never even seen. There’s a lot of stuff I’ve supported where I only get crickets in return. My beef with her is solely in this department. She hasn’t delivered on her project promise.

The videos are standard…vaguely around WatchMojo quality…Donna is far less charitable. And from what I’ve heard discussed, the meat of the videos themselves is best, lacking. Now if this were hard-hitting, informative and provocative stuff then I could say, yeah, she did her homework over the now years she’s been in-production on this stuff.

Compare your average Youtuber who can put together daily or weekly content without the support system of over 100,000 dollars for a production. That’s motion picture level funding. Granted, she was only asking for a few thousand to start and that was likely more than enough. It’s entirely fair to question why only a handful of the promised series have been produced given the excess of funds and time. But again, same thing for all Kickstarters.

That said, the loudest people against her are complete assholes. They would be complete assholes anyway. You go and threaten her family and shit like that, you deserve to be kicked into a deep hole Spartan-style. You’re not adding anything to a discussion.

Now the other thing was Zoe Quinn and 4chan. I am going to lay out the details as best as I can understand it. The Fine Young Capitalists, a group planning to create a game jam event focused on female game devs funded through Indiegogo. 4chan jumped at the 5000 dollar mark for a custom character….Vivian James, the anthropomorphic version of /v/ in female form. Close enough to zappy to make me smirk. Also the proceeds would go to charity.

Then they got shut down. There was a lot of talk about Zoe Quinn railing against them

This video offers a lot of the background so far as I understand it. I don’t know how far Zoe Quinn actually went to sabotage the game jam, doxxing and whatnot. It’s the internet, it’s hard to prove some shit. But it seems clear she was behaving selfishly against the campaign.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=1d6Q3V…

4chan’s Vivian James kinda caught fire as a neat fan creation. Along with still wanting to make the character, there’s a lot of charity shirts and donations for….I’m not sure of the organization but I think they wanted to put it towards The Colon Cancer Alliance….I’m sure you can figure out the comment being made about Zoe Quinn on your own.

In short, I was exceptionally proud of 4chan….as much as I think I could be…with qualification. I think the two situations kinda paint a picture for me.

The problem is the extremists. There are a lot of extremists on both sides and they’re honestly a minority. As it often is in situations like this. The problem is that I see Sarkeesian and Quinn also as extremists in this debate. Unilateral and unwilling to engage in debate but rather “I want what I want” as a message instead of any progress. So it’s like extremists bumping heads against each other…

Also I gotta say I’m disappointed with Joss Whedon jumping in to the fray. I’m no fan of frays. Ultimately, gaming has vast systemic issues beyond mere gender roles. It’s like saying “society’s problem is gender roles”….that’s one issue. There’s so much more and it has so many threads running through it.

What do you do? Well the 4chan campaign is an example of a good start. A community sourcing an idea for a character that isn’t your usual female game character. It seems to be something everyone wants. I’d honestly be happy if Ubisoft let there be more choice in assassin genders. It’s all about choice for me. I want zappy choice. I want all sorts of choice. I want fun. I don’t want rote clichés walked out there.

There’s plenty of good examples out there but they’re not the blockbusters. If we just had more opportunities to create the fun stuff. Create zappy, create interesting characters, create new types of games….I think gaming as a whole would be a lot healthier than “we need that floor to look all glossy on 4K resolution.”

Priorities...

This reflection kinda petered out because I really have no idea which part of the mess of problems needs addressing first but I feel 4chan, more than anyone else, is leading the discussion the right way….which is probably the most disturbing notion I’ve ever faced…but there it is.

Not much going on with me. Still writing. I have a nefariously cute plan for something but that’s about it ^^.

PS - My last comment on the Sarkeesian issue is summed up thusly. If you gave a youtuber like Stephen Georg 160,000 dollars to make videos about women in games, you bet your ass you would get a hell of a lot more production-wise, discussion and content (and probably still have a lot of money left over for even more things) than you can shake a stick at....especially since he's nearly as frugal as my friend Donna.

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And now for NEWS, PICS, and PONIES.

NEWS
[link] - New 3DS.
[link] - Live Anime.
[link] - Can Doraemon overcome Frozen?
[link] - No pantsu.
[link] - Titanic Titan figure.
[link] - What we fear.
[link] - Bureaucratic Hell.
[link] - Singing Volcano.
[link] - Sexualized comic males.
[link] - Sheeple.
[link] - Gothic.
[link] - Light.
[link] - Fly!
[link] - Alternate Endings.
[link] - Take that!
[link] - X_X…
[link] - Prepare for Left 4 Dead 2 or The Last of Us in reality form, which ever comes first.
[link] - Yay!
[link] - Watson.
[link] - Implantable tech.
[link] - Future.
[link] - Netflix.
[link] - Random Wikipedia Entry.

PICS
[link] - In your own skin.
[link] - ANT POWER!
[link] - Two ways.
[link] - O_O.
[link] - Hmm.
[link] - windy.
[link] - Tail.
[link] - More tail!
[link] - Pink.
[link] - In shadow.
[link] - Rainbow.
[link] - Nom.
[link] - The world of Madoka.
[link] - Sunflowers.
[link] - All’s right in the world.
[link] - More sunflowers.
[link] - Penguin.
[link] - Flappy Flan.
[link] - Silica.  
[link] - Wind.
[link] - Since she’s not a kitty.
[link] - Space.
[link] - Tilt.
[link] - Painted Garage.
[link] - Poof!
[link] - Pixel.
[link] - All the arts.  
[link] - Heh.
[link] - Splooosh!
[link] - Twitchy.
[link] - Faces…
[link] - Finish off my favorite way.