Journalism and Bias in the Gaming Industry

[Nonek]

 

 

 

IGDA DC people react to the bomb threat. Not.

 

Those comments really show that it is actually possible to stuck your head so far up in your own **** that the only thing you see is your own ****.

 

They are behaving worse than the avarage group of 14-year old girls.

 

These aren't just some random people. Chris Totten for example is co-chair of IGDA DC, has written for Gamasutra, frequent speaker at GDC and DIGRA.

 

 

Well, well, well. Look who just responded to the same thread:

 

 

 

Good Lord but I feel for this poor man, no doubt he is already being besieged, villified and ostracised in equal measures.

[Legbiter]

 

They're rallying. They're rallying to their king!

 

So it's a civil war?

 

More like a circular firing squad.

[kirottu]

Collection of social justice harassment towards Joss Whedon. Contains harsh language.

 

I wonder if Saint Anita will come to his defense.

[Volourn]

LMAO

 

LMAO

 

LMAO

 

LMAO

 

LMAO

[Meshugger]

Someone should draw him being a baby who's embraced by a motherly Vivan James.

 

I am thinking in the vein of all those orthodox iconographs depicting Mary and Jesus.

Edited May 5, 2015 by Meshugger

[kirottu]

Future of gaming. Still better hiking simulator than Oblivion?

[Blarghagh]

 

Language warning.

[BruceVC]

 

Language warning.

 

So let me get this story straight, the Black Widow character said to the Hulk that she is  " also a monster because she can't have children as part of her training included  sterilization  " 

 

This then enraged certain people who had an issue because the Black Widow character has really demeaning to herself because she said  " I am a monster because I can't have children " ?

[Blarghagh]

Warning, this post goes into possible SPOILERS about a movie that's barely out.

 

That is one of the reasons, yes - I feel Boogie hasn't looked into it very long, since I've heard more complaints. Here's the objections I've heard so far.

 

- Black Widow refers to herself as a monster because she cannot have children, which exploits female emotional pain.

- Black Widow refers to herself as a monster because she cannot have children, this demeans women by implying their worth is in childbearing.

- Black Widow refers to herself as a monster because she cannot have children, this is transmisogynistic because transgender women cannot have children by default.

- Black Widow falls for "a nice guy" with "anger issues" and says she loves him because at his core he is a nice guy, which is supposedly a representation of women abused by their significant others.

- Black Widow gets captured and is rescued by a man.

- Black Widow gets upset when a man she loves leaves her behind.

- Black Widow black widow black widow.

- Black Widow is portrayed as helping the men rather than being a hero in her own right.

- Black Widow is called upon to be the caregiver that calms down the Hulk via maternal behaviour.

- Black Widow sideboob, exploitation, duh.

- Black Widow tight uncomfortable form fitting leather suit, exploitation, duh.

- Scarlet Witch is portrayed as needing a man (her brother) to protect her in an "owning way".

- The male characters (Iron Man and Thor in this case) brag about which trophy wife is superior.

- Iron Man, at one point, jokes about bringing back Prima Nocta. This is, apparently, a rape joke.

- Last but not least, the heroes engage in masculine conflict resolution reinforcing patriarchy.

 

Writing the word Widow so often makes the word look odd, like I'm suddenly more aware of the shape of the word than the meaning.

 

These are the complaints I read, 90% of which are deliberately negative interpretations or blatant lies and the rest is just nonsense or overreacting.

 

I feel bad for the guy, nobody deserves this amount of online abuse. It's funny that some news sites report it as "bullied by feminists is just a narrative, these are just anonymous internet trolls" yet if it was anyone else they wouldn't have hesitated to label them a hate group (something Joss himself was guilty of, referring to GG as "KKK Daycare").

 

There's a little sense of poetry to it, not only because of his earlier stances, but also considering he recently dogpiled the creators of Jurassic World on twitter by bashing it for being "70's era sexist". But either way, it still sucks and just goes to prove that that they eat their own.

 

Another thing Boogie tweeted about sums it up (paraphrased): If Joss Whedon wasn't enough of a feminist for you then your standards might very well be impossible for a man to achieve. By design.

Edited May 5, 2015 by TrueNeutral

[BruceVC]

Warning, this post goes into possible SPOILERS about a movie that's barely out.

 

That is one of the reasons, yes - I feel Boogie hasn't looked into it very long, since I've heard more complaints. Here's the objections I've heard so far.

 

- Black Widow refers to herself as a monster because she cannot have children, which exploits female emotional pain.

- Black Widow refers to herself as a monster because she cannot have children, this demeans women by implying their worth is in childbearing.

- Black Widow refers to herself as a monster because she cannot have children, this is transmisogynistic because transgender women cannot have children by default.

- Black Widow falls for "a nice guy" with "anger issues" and says she loves him because at his core he is a nice guy, which is supposedly a representation of women abused by their significant others.

- Black Widow gets captured and is rescued by a man.

- Black Widow gets upset when a man she loves leaves her behind.

- Black Widow black widow black widow.

- Black Widow is portrayed as helping the men rather than being a hero in her own right.

- Black Widow is called upon to be the caregiver that calms down the Hulk via maternal behaviour.

- Black Widow sideboob, exploitation, duh.

- Black Widow tight uncomfortable form fitting leather suit, exploitation, duh.

- Scarlet Witch is portrayed as needing a man (her brother) to protect her in an "owning way".

- The male characters (Iron Man and Thor in this case) brag about which trophy wife is superior.

- Iron Man, at one point, jokes about bringing back Prima Nocta. This is, apparently, a rape joke.

- Last but not least, the heroes engage in masculine conflict resolution reinforcing patriarchy.

 

Writing the word Widow so often makes the word look odd, like I'm suddenly more aware of the shape of the word than the meaning.

 

These are the complaints I read, 90% of which are deliberately negative interpretations or blatant lies and the rest is just nonsense or overreacting.

 

I feel bad for the guy, nobody deserves this amount of online abuse. It's funny that some news sites report it as "bullied by feminists is just a narrative, these are just anonymous internet trolls" yet if it was anyone else they wouldn't have hesitated to label them a hate group (something Joss himself was guilty of, referring to GG as "KKK Daycare").

 

There's a little sense of poetry to it, not only because of his earlier stances, but also considering he recently dogpiled the creators of Jurassic World on twitter by bashing it for being "70's era sexist". But either way, it still sucks and just goes to prove that that they eat their own.

 

Another thing Boogie tweeted about sums it up (paraphrased): If Joss Whedon wasn't enough of a feminist for you than your standards might very well be impossible for a man to achieve. By design.

 

Thanks for the detail. I can only comment on the Black Widow aspect and her views on " being a monster" 

 

I know women in RL who cannot have children due to some physiological problem and some of  them do feel like a failure as a women, its like there is this maternal instinct that says  " as a women you have to children by this age  to be defined as a real women " and even though  they know logically its not there fault they still blame themselves on some subconscious or conscious level. This is despite the fact they are very successful and respected in there personal and public life .So I can understand how the Black Widow may feel that way and considering the fact she is basically a killing machine she sees herself as monster....but Joss is not suggesting all women who cannot have children are monsters. This is a particular example and I see it as very moving and emotional part of the writing as in a way Black Widow is identifying and reaching out to the Hulk...." no need for shame, we are both monsters in our own way " 

 

 

 

'

[Blarghagh]

Yes, that's my view as well. A couple of years ago my girlfriend nearly died from an ectopic pregnancy and fell into depression for a long time after that partially due to the physical reaction of the hormones resetting and rebalancing themselves, so I am very aware of how fertility issues affect real women and I consider shaming women for naturally feeling that way to be much more offensive than anything on that list. In fact, if someone were to call my girlfriend sexist for having been depressed about it to my face, I'm not sure I would be able to stop myself from seriously hurting them.

[Namutree]

 

I feel bad for the guy, nobody deserves this amount of online abuse. It's funny that some news sites report it as "bullied by feminists is just a narrative, these are just anonymous internet trolls" yet if it was anyone else they wouldn't have hesitated to label them a hate group (something Joss himself was guilty of, referring to GG as "KKK Daycare").

 

I don't. He's rich.

 

 

 

I know women in RL who cannot have children due to some physiological problem and some of  them do feel like a failure as a women, its like there is this maternal instinct that says  " as a women you have to children by this age  to be defined as a real women " and even though  they know logically its not there fault they still blame themselves on some subconscious or conscious level. This is despite the fact they are very successful and respected in there personal and public life .So I can understand how the Black Widow may feel that way and considering the fact she is basically a killing machine she sees herself as monster....but Joss is not suggesting all women who cannot have children are monsters. This is a particular example and I see it as very moving and emotional part of the writing as in a way Black Widow is identifying and reaching out to the Hulk...." no need for shame, we are both monsters in our own way " 

 

How dare you tolerate Black Widow being flawed or have emotional issues! Proper female heroines don't have self image issues or anything else people can relate to. You need to listen and believe more.

[Meshugger]

This reminds me of the whole Internet hate-circus that occured during Witcher 1, when Geralt due to his Witcher-training has become sterile and cannot have children with Triss. The amount of people hating the writers for trying to make Geralt to be seen as monster was excruciating. Poor guys where hounded of the internet forever.

 

Oh wait, that's not what happened. That's not what they were angry about. Wasn't it something else?

[Malcador]

This is pretty funny to see.

[Blarghagh]

I feel bad for the guy, nobody deserves this amount of online abuse. It's funny that some news sites report it as "bullied by feminists is just a narrative, these are just anonymous internet trolls" yet if it was anyone else they wouldn't have hesitated to label them a hate group (something Joss himself was guilty of, referring to GG as "KKK Daycare").

I don't. He's rich.

That's fair.

[Namutree]

This reminds me of the whole Internet hate-circus that occured during Witcher 1, when Geralt due to his Witcher-training has become sterile and cannot have children with Triss. The amount of people hating the writers for trying to make Geralt to be seen as monster was excruciating. Poor guys where hounded of the internet forever.

 

Oh wait, that's not what happened. That's not what they were angry about. Wasn't it something else?

I don't know. You tell me. I'm not doing any research.

[Meshugger]

 

This reminds me of the whole Internet hate-circus that occured during Witcher 1, when Geralt due to his Witcher-training has become sterile and cannot have children with Triss. The amount of people hating the writers for trying to make Geralt to be seen as monster was excruciating. Poor guys where hounded of the internet forever.

 

Oh wait, that's not what happened. That's not what they were angry about. Wasn't it something else?

I don't know. You tell me. I'm not doing any research.

 

 

No.

[Amentep]

Wait, wait, wait...

 

...so people think that Black Widow referred to herself as a monster because she couldn't have children and NOT because of the flashbacks we were shown indicating she'd been trained since childhood to kill people, including having to shoot a person execution style as a pre-teen in her training - a past that she's already implied had indelibly ruined her being able to redress by being a "good guy" in the first Avengers film and was used to attempt to blackmail her from releasing SHIELD files to the public in order to keep her from exposing Hydra in CA: Winter Soldier?

 

Seriously?

[Ineth]

These are the complaints I read, 90% of which are deliberately negative interpretations or blatant lies and the rest is just nonsense or overreacting.

 

I wonder if these tumblr/twitter feminists realize that their actions give filmmakers (and similarly, game developers) an incentive to not try to include strong female characters in their stories.

 

Think about it from the perspective of the creators:

• Choice A: Do not include strong female major characters.

  Consequence: Some minor grumbling and sighing on social media, mostly by people who were looking for an excuse to (re-)tweet about the Bechdel test anyway. But they move on quickly - there's no harassment or significant bad publicity.

   

• Choice B: Do include strong female major characters.
• Consequence: 65% chance (completely unpredictable) of a huge bat-sh*t crazy sh*tstorm exploding based on some minor detail of the character being allegedly "offensive" under some (usually ridiculous) interpretation.

It's clear which one is the safer choice.

Edited May 5, 2015 by Ineth

[Namutree]

 

 

This reminds me of the whole Internet hate-circus that occured during Witcher 1, when Geralt due to his Witcher-training has become sterile and cannot have children with Triss. The amount of people hating the writers for trying to make Geralt to be seen as monster was excruciating. Poor guys where hounded of the internet forever.

 

Oh wait, that's not what happened. That's not what they were angry about. Wasn't it something else?

I don't know. You tell me. I'm not doing any research.

 

 

No.

 

I'll spend more effort to get you to tell me about this than it would take to just look it up. This, I swear.

 

Now tell me about what people were angry about in witcher 1!

[Amentep]

 

 

 

This reminds me of the whole Internet hate-circus that occured during Witcher 1, when Geralt due to his Witcher-training has become sterile and cannot have children with Triss. The amount of people hating the writers for trying to make Geralt to be seen as monster was excruciating. Poor guys where hounded of the internet forever.

 

Oh wait, that's not what happened. That's not what they were angry about. Wasn't it something else?

I don't know. You tell me. I'm not doing any research.

 

 

No.

 

I'll spend more effort to get you to tell me about this than it would take to just look it up. This, I swear.

 

Now tell me about what people were angry about in witcher 1!

 

 

There were cards of nekkid women you could collect by sexxoring the women in game, as I understand it.¹

It was changed to pictures of scantily clad women you could collect by sexxoring them in the US version

 

¹At least this is the only controversy I recall...

[Blarghagh]

Googling "Witcher SJW backlash" gets me nowhere.

[Namutree]

Maybe if I tell you a story you'll fill me in on the witcher thing.

 

This one's about Calvin Coolidge, the mostly silent president:

 

Both his dry Yankee wit and his frugality with words became legendary. His wife, Grace Goodhue Coolidge, recounted that a young woman sitting next to Coolidge at a dinner party confided to him she had bet she could get at least three words of conversation from him. Without looking at her he quietly retorted, "You lose."

[Namutree]

 

 

 

 

This reminds me of the whole Internet hate-circus that occured during Witcher 1, when Geralt due to his Witcher-training has become sterile and cannot have children with Triss. The amount of people hating the writers for trying to make Geralt to be seen as monster was excruciating. Poor guys where hounded of the internet forever.

 

Oh wait, that's not what happened. That's not what they were angry about. Wasn't it something else?

I don't know. You tell me. I'm not doing any research.

 

 

No.

 

I'll spend more effort to get you to tell me about this than it would take to just look it up. This, I swear.

 

Now tell me about what people were angry about in witcher 1!

 

 

There were cards of nekkid women you could collect by sexxoring the women in game, as I understand it.¹

It was changed to pictures of scantily clad women you could collect by sexxoring them in the US version

 

¹At least this is the only controversy I recall...

 

Oh. Good to know.

[Keyrock]

What the hell happened to Miles Cheong....?

 

Ian Miles Cheong is the Big Show of Internet Flame Wars.  I suppose only long time rasslin' fans will likely get that reference.

Edited May 5, 2015 by Keyrock