Whose "side" am I on? by TotalBiscuit published on 2014-10-26T17:42:23Z I read my latest lengthy blog post. Comment by FairDispute There are a lot of calls being made. ENORMOUS PHONE BILL! 2015/07/20 09:50:19 +0000 Comment by FairDispute Just a little bit 2015/07/20 09:47:58 +0000 Comment by Nicholas Perry @ultimape Does a religious preacher go to town square for attention, or ideology? 2014/11/26 16:04:25 +0000 Comment by RagingGamer It has done nothing to slow us down, and not only has it not done anything to slow us down. But i personally am going to increase the numbers on GG favour by the thousands. By reaching out to different gamers from 2 different countries. I swear it that I will make sure GG gets all the support it can. And if it is the last thing I do I will watch all those who think of us as a bunch of immature trolls, to their knees, and unemployed. 2014/11/06 15:27:48 +0000 Comment by AeluronLightsong1989 TB Always knows what to say. 2014/11/05 21:39:39 +0000 Comment by briansimon @mancheeze: GamerGate is NOT about harassing anyone. The only people who claim that GamerGate is about harassing women are people who are against GamerGate. The websites that are accused (and have proof against) of corruption are the same ones who started the rumors that GamerGate is about harassment. Coincidence? I think not. 2014/11/05 00:21:14 +0000 Comment by GardenPirate Good on you TB. Civil discourse is the only way to move forward in such a complex situation. 2014/11/01 23:48:38 +0000 Comment by DiscordedDiscord Wellsaid TB. 2014/10/31 18:46:21 +0000 Comment by Karmashock I really really really hope this can be fixed without a massive permanent boycott of large portions of the game media. But frankly, they're not admitting fault. They're still publicly and privately insulting anyone that suggests they did anything wrong. Your interview with Steven sounded like one of those absurd congressional investigations of a corruption politican or CEO where they repeatedly say they have no knowledge of things directly under their authority and seem utterly disinterested in getting to the bottom of anything. They frankly are smiling at us all with contempt and condescention. They will patronize you and humor you and play along just far enough to trick you into thinking they take any of this seriously. But they very clearly take none of it seriously at all. Not even a little. And I don't say that with hatred but rather with regret. Many of these people built good organizations and have talented passionate people working for them. But somewhere along they way ethics just became a sound. It isn't even a word to them. It's just an animal noise they make at some point for reasons they've long forgotten. I don't think they're even consciously making this choice. We've seen this with extremely corrupt officials in the US that when called on clearly illegal behavior that ultimately leads them to a prison cell... they often are baffled as to why the thing they did is unethical much less a felony. I don't want a purge of games media... It is just that absent some admission of fault and demonstration of reform there is really no alternative. This is all very sad. The good news is that at least we have some really amazing people on youtube to fall back upon. Well... at least until that goes to hell as well. Lets be real. There is a tendency for things to get corrupted and someone is going to figure out how to get to you or people like you. And when that happens... let us just hope we have something else to move to or we're going to be in the position of past generations that had to deal with an endless parade of corrupt newspapers and literally no alternative media besides word of mouth and common sense. 2014/10/31 10:31:15 +0000 Comment by A.COE Thankyou, Based Biscuit. 2014/10/29 03:26:07 +0000 Comment by gilless429 @mancheeze: Except it only talks about women and misogyny because SJWs and feminists started bugging its members about it. It's a movement about journalistic ethics first and foremost. I wish you stopped and thought about this instead of being an aggressive smartarse as soon as you possibly can. 2014/10/28 23:01:27 +0000 Comment by user99508982 @mancheeze: If you're going to spout bullshit, at least LISTEN to the entire god damn soundcloud. 2014/10/28 21:51:39 +0000 Comment by Mancheeze Let's hear these ethics claims? Oh right, there are none. Asking people to join you to talk about something you must present something to talk about. You haven't. 2014/10/28 21:41:53 +0000 Comment by HazelTove @andrewmushel: Thank you for clarifying. I agree that female characters are getting better (Which I said previously). But with a lot of the better female characters they still feel compelled to give them hugely exposed cleavage or something along those lines which often doesn't fit with what is going on in the game in regards to the setting/story and has no purpose other than to be eye candy for men, it’s unnecessary. I’d just like for the female characters to be covered up to begin with and an option to have them wear something more revealing as an alternative/later on in the game. It just feels really awkward running around a battle field with my characters breasts about to fall out of her outfit --- Sometimes I like my characters wearing outfits like that I just feel that it should be optional so you can give consent to play a more sexualized character, if that makes sense? That I’m not forced/expected to be a sexualized character decided for me by the game (When that’s of no relevance to the plot). That’s my main concern really the inability to consent to wearing revealing clothes on characters. It makes it harder to relate to my character as being a version of myself trying to battle evil when I feel that character is just there purely for men to stare at. It often doubly shows in how underdeveloped/predictable these female characters are story/role-wise in comparison to the male characters. Games aren’t negatively affected by making the female characters more relatable, approachable, and interesting. It would actually make them better in my opinion so I’m not sure why so many gamers are so opposed to adjusting female characters slightly. It’s not like it would apply to ALL games just your average/mainstream game. There will always be sexualized games out there and that’s fine with me as long as it’s not common practice. I don’t think that’s an unreasonable request. I mean I will be playing games regardless as I have my whole life this is just something I’d like to see change a bit --- As for the industry being mainly men this is obviously problematic but not a big deal. I suggested in my blog that game developers aim for 50/50 gender ratio in their alpha testers. That way even if the developers are predominantly male their source of feedback will be more evenly balanced and they can adjust their characters accordingly until they hit the sweet spot. I think that as games become more and more approachable and inclusive to women the more of them will become interested in jobs within it. 2014/10/28 21:41:35 +0000 Comment by Mancheeze As soon as you mention an MRA, you're done. This is hilarious. Harassment is what GG is about. Telling media to not talk about it? lolwut? Gamergate doesn't talk about ethics. It talks about women. 2014/10/28 21:38:56 +0000 Comment by Andrew Mushel @hazeltove: Re-reading, I think I may have gone on a bit of a tangent; a caveat that got out of hand. Stream of consciousness took a detour. I mostly agree with you. 2014/10/28 21:11:00 +0000 Comment by Andrew Mushel @hazeltove: You said the "persistent way of portraying women in all forms of media combined is harmful to women." My apologies if I misunderstood your claim or your intent (you seem pretty reasonable to me), or worse jumped to conclusions (very possible in light of much less reasonable people I have engaged with recently), but that seems pretty straight-forward. Tying nebulous media influence to self-esteem issues is problematic. You acknowledge that "men get it to," but they "have less unrealistic ideals to conform to," which I think is a tenable claim. Most male characters are idealized cliches as well and I think videoames have been trending away from ridiculous battle bikinis for years now. Ultimately, if women want the portrayals of their gender to appeal to their ideal standards, I think the most practical solution is to involve themselves in greater numbers with the industry to reflect their increasingly important role as consumers. At the moment, unfortunately, the majority of the people actually making games (especially outside of indie scene) are men. 2014/10/28 20:33:55 +0000 Comment by HazelTove @andrewmushel: I don't think you understood what I said as the things you're saying aren't related to anything I said or anything I actually said/think. I also disagree with the majority of what you stated. That said, I'm glad we're both on the same page in regards to making games more appealing to women which is my ultimate intend with this and all that ultimately matters. :) 2014/10/28 19:41:58 +0000 Comment by Andrew Mushel @hazeltove: My personal issue with the assertion that "portrayal of women is harmful to women" is that it is largely not supported by any actual information. Don't get me wrong: I'm all for diversifying games and particularly their protagonists to appeal to broader audiences, but I think it's a bit disingenuous to tie female self-esteem issues to idealized proportions of 100% fictional characters in media, as opposed to the larger feminine commercial culture. And if that were the case, it would be logical to assume, in the absence of evidence either way, that muscle-bound walls of meat like Marcus Fenix (Gears was an odd choice, given that the women are wearing exactly the same armor as the men) or even more reasonably proprotioned, but no less attractive male characters like Nathan Drake (whose female counterparts are dressed much the same) would have a similarly negative impact. However, no such assertions are being made and the sole difference between the male idealization and the problematic female idealization seems to be a perception of sexualization. Who is picking up their standards from videogames, film, and television characters instead of from magazines, fashion, and other more directly relevant cultural examples? The problematic standards for women in film certainly aren't established in the medium itself, but rather in the fetishistic culture of celebrity that surrounds it. No such culture exists in videogames, which makes the forced comparison and hyperbolic language from many critics who identify as feminist utilize appear to me more self-serving and self-centered than it is altruistic and worthwhile. That said, I understand your perspective, and it would be nice to see more games appeal to women. 2014/10/28 17:17:37 +0000 Comment by Andrew Turcan Nice . Good job on these speeches. I don't understand the fuss around this. Anita Sarkeesia isn't that bad. 2014/10/28 15:48:00 +0000 Comment by HazelTove @aaron-a-adkins: I didn't say that designing women in an idealized way is sexist rather that it causes people to see and/or treat these characters in a sexual way. I’d personally like to have more of a choice in whether the character I play is half naked or not but the majority of the time this is not the case. Also this persistent way of portraying women in all forms of media combined is harmful to women. Just look at how many women have serious self-esteem issues because they are expected to look and act a certain way and how as a direct result they are treated in a not very positive way. That kind of portrayal has a real effect on real people (yes, men get it too but have less unrealistic ideals to conform to and less pressure in general to appear a certain way). So, I didn't say that these characters shouldn't exist it would just be nice to see more characters that don't pander to men's fantasies. Also, it's the industry that makes those games and decides these things so yes I am aiming my feedback at them and criticize their design decisions. It is getting better, but it could be even better. I also didn't say men cannot make good female characters but rather that the industry should ask more women for feedback in general on what they would like from video games (my opinion is only one). Games are aimed too much at a male audience so balancing this out a bit more would be nice seeing as an ever increasing amount of gamers are female and no by this I do not mean turning everything Hello Kitty Barbie pink I like chainsawing mutant heads in GoW2 as much as the next gamer. I would just like to see more relatable and better written female characters that aren’t overly sexualized. Again not saying they shouldn’t exist, in some cases I like playing those characters more it’s just that it doesn’t make sense in the context of a battle field to run around in a metal bikini, imagine you were forced to play a character in a gritty shooter wearing a mankini…. yeahhh… immersion breaking much? 2014/10/28 13:15:04 +0000 Comment by Wut Da Zog? A voice of reason. 2014/10/28 10:52:27 +0000 Comment by Daniel Ward 80 This why i like watching/listening to you you tell it how it is keep up the good work good sir :D 2014/10/28 03:38:18 +0000 Comment by Aaron A. Adkins @totalbiscuit: Is character diversity an issue in games writing? Are we willing to recognize it has little to do with gender and race? Seems like that's all people tend to focus on when having diversity for the sake of diversity is even more flat than generic game writing for characters. A good character can be anything, it comes from within the character, not outside in starting with gender and politically correct design. 2014/10/28 02:26:47 +0000 Comment by Aaron A. Adkins @hazeltove: I don't get this. It's not sexism to make a female a certain way, even if it's generic and flat. Nor is it sexist to design women in a fantasy, idealized way. I don't think they need to do anything, games exist on their own merit. If one, or multiple game studios design women to look like sluts, judge the games, not the industry. To say this is a result of women not being in the industry and that women can create more natural women is not only sexist in its own indirect way, but it's negating how many women have made women who are unique, even in some cases where they don't look unique. 2014/10/28 02:14:44 +0000 Comment by Leo DS @faikcem1: I know you are joking, but I think even so saying such a thing is completely agains averything TB expresses in his opinions. His whole effor is to not generate folloers, is to inform and give people tools to search for their own paths. 2014/10/27 23:47:57 +0000 Comment by Leo DS @totalbiscuit: Isn't the fact that Zoe Quinn wrote an article herself for Kotaku also sort of a conflict of interests? Shouldn't the fact Zoe was one a contributer to the website also be disclosed? Not to mention, that obviously means Steaphen Totilo has allways known about involvement between Zoe Quinn and Kotaku. 2014/10/27 23:42:19 +0000 Comment by XartaX Just a nice video retorting the "#gamergate people are bigots": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SYqBdCmDR0M 2014/10/27 18:47:24 +0000 Comment by MegaMan Trigger @theunc: And my bow. 2014/10/27 17:20:14 +0000 Comment by MegaMan Trigger @kelly-overholser: Aye, tell it like it is. ZQ is not the source of the problem. She was just the match that lit the fuse, the straw the broke the camel's back. Her issues are no more important than those of any other corrupt individual -- she merely happened to be the first one to be fired back at. 2014/10/27 17:19:51 +0000
