Gamergate was almost 10 years ago and today you learned Depression Quest was actually a free game the whole time.
this post was submitted on 02 Aug 2023
0 points (NaN% liked)
games
20513 readers
6 users here now
Tabletop, DnD, board games, and minecraft. Also Animal Crossing.
-
3rd International Volunteer Brigade (Hexbear gaming discord)
Rules
- No racism, sexism, ableism, homophobia, or transphobia. Don't care if it's ironic don't post comments or content like that here.
- Mark spoilers
- No bad mouthing sonic games here :no-copyright:
- No gamers allowed :soviet-huff:
- No squabbling or petty arguments here. Remember to disengage and respect others choice to do so when an argument gets too much
founded 4 years ago
MODERATORS
I think Anita started something that has now been moved in on by people who do it in a far more entertaining way, essentially pushing her content out of the space. Combined with obviously the fact that her name still carries (unwarranted) negativity for people who grew up affected in waves of gamergate reactionary culture.
Either way she did a lot of good. Hope she knows it.
fought the good fight for 15 years
and her tropes vs women series had a banging intro song
I remember some 
on 
yelled at me that I needed to see what these radical feminists like Anita Sarkeesian were saying, that it was male-hating and threatening vidya. I had vaguely heard of her at that point but hadn’t seen any of her stuff so I looked up a video of hers on YouTube. Very quickly I was like “this is what the gamergaters are getting worked up over? This is pretty vanilla by feminists standards, even a bit boilerplate.”
radical positions like "harassing women is bad"
It's pure do-gooder derogation.
Materially, we have set up a system where being right is what gets you punished, and people will hate you for doing something they agree with deep down. Because of the implications it makes about them. In the words of David Graeber, who calls the phenomenon 'Moral Envy', they're saying "How dare you act as if you are morally superior to me (although I do agree that your actions are morally superior to my own.)"
cries in vegan
That's one of the most time-honored sources of moral envy, that's for sure. 
I've learned over time that almost nothing gets people on the internet enraged more than just the uncomfortable thought that maybe they're consuming something that might be bad in some way, be it how it's made, how it's distributed, who is hurt in its production, or just the damaging propaganda built into it. 
But we’re not talking about some major lifestyle change, playing some video games where the lead character is a woman whose personality doesn’t revolve around her being spankbank material isn’t a huge ask.
She didnt even REALLY say "hey play different games" she moreso was just asking to be critically aware of the content of what you're playing which is some incredibly basic shit.
he moreso was just asking to be critically aware of the content of what you're playing which is some incredibly basic shit
One of her mantras was something like "it's possible to enjoy something while also accepting criticism of it" and I've learned firsthand how impossible that is for some people. 
I re-read Lord of the Rings recently. And you know what? It’s definitely got racist elements in it. It sucks. But I can still enjoy the books. It’s just whenever I talk about them now (or even think about them), I do talk about how I like them but the racist parts cannot and should not be ignored.
I re-read Lord of the Rings recently. And you know what? It’s definitely got racist elements in it.
You might enjoy this: https://existentialcomics.com/comic/175
Ok this is slightly embarrassing but the first time I heard of Anita Sarkeesian was from a Hbomberguy video
I heard about her from a Jim Sterling video, and it was and still is probably the best take on the whole situation.
Please do not dead-name.
Calling them Jim Sterling is not dead-naming.
My name is James Stephanie Sterling, but Jim Sterling remains the "brand" name. Jim, James, James Stephanie, Stephanie, Steph.
Take your pick!
for all the rage she has generated over the years.
I remember when gamers made a flash game where you punched her in the face complete with blackening her eyes or busting her lip.
Extremely normal people having a normal reaction to a woman who mildly critiqued their hobby.
Yeah her takes are pretty lukewarm. She's just like "it'd be cool if we had some female characters that don't exist as ornaments and have some agency" and straight up starts all the videos in her series off with this:
I can’t believe you can accurately trace the alt right directly back to people mad at her videos about games.
What a stupid timeline.
Problem is: she wasn't exactly good herself... but her comments were tame beyond measure.
They were tame and people still beat her up for them.
And it spawned a lot of ultra-right and alt-right people too.
Problem is: she wasn't exactly good herself
I know nothing other than her making losers mad. Explain please?
It was mostly technical tier pedantic stuff, like how actually killing the dominatrix nuns in the Hitman game wasn't actually rewarded by the mission design therefore everything else she said objectively wrong 
I always felt like she was kind of shooting fish in a barrel. It used to be really rare for games to have nuanced, good writing and it's still kinda rare. It wasn't that long ago that any depiction of a woman in a game required enormous cleavage and the ability to perv on her. Metal Gear Solid games have modes where you can make a woman do risque poses and take photos of her. There's a Hitman game where you fight against sexy nuns in bondage gear.
That stuff still exists but I think there are a lot broader depictions of women now. We're living in a simultaneous golden age and dark age for games. It's weird. There have never been so many charming, innovative indie games as right now. There are even games with good politics.
So I'd like to think at least Sarkeesian was part of that, helping to let people know games didn't have to be about grunting white man looking at tits and shooting a gun.
How DARE YOU talk shit about MGS when you're absolutely right and the series has a bad track record for treating woman characters.
no, no, you see she breaths through her skin like a plant. this absolutely is a better explanation than just admitting i was randy while designing the character
nooooo it makes sense in the lore!! you will be ashamed of your words and deeds!!! - kojima
vs
i like looking at pretty girls lol - nier developer
I searched her name on twitter and holy shit the takes are insane
"Sir, a second Sarkeesian has hit the Twin Towers."
Yea that one in particular is probably trolling but the chuds eat it up either way. Literally every single tweet I looked at said she destroyed the gaming industry
Just insane, how, in what form, did she ruin gaming? Because games now have very token representation but still pander to white men?
Because some female characters now have more of a rugged warrior look instead of exclusively existing as big tiddy eye candy that isn’t allowed to speak
I remember I thought she was "thunderf00t" on youtube because that obsessive freak used her in so damn many video thumbnails.
Thunderfoot has undergone a weird shift to where his new obsession is bashing Elon Musk. I scrolled through his twitter a while back and was surprised that I couldn't find a single tweet complaining about wokeness or anything, it's literally exclusively making fun of Musk and arguing with Musk fans. Critical support?
amazing atheist also shifted his content and became less reactionary, though his heel turn was way more public. these things are a process i suppose, but i figure trump was a real "choose your side" moment for many.