Why is casual racism/sexism more accepted in video games than other forms of media (these days)?

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Yeah I think this is pretty easily chalked up to creators pandering to (and being born of) the overwhelmingly 15-35 male demographics of AAA game buyers. The women and men who like and play AAA games but don't like sexualized representations of women in these games (and also comic books) make their voices heard but the majority of the audience would be bummed if you took away their lizardwoman tits.

raw feel vegan (silby), Wednesday, 4 April 2012 20:57 (twelve years ago) link

duh DJP you cant be racist against italians anymore, the godfather fixed that forever

sfdgafhtehw (jjjusten), Wednesday, 4 April 2012 20:58 (twelve years ago) link

it's well documented that gaming community demographics are a) incredibly skewed towards white males and b) fairly skewed towards people with poor social skills, which seems like a believable cause of misogyny and just general misanthropy all around

ciderpress, Wednesday, 4 April 2012 20:59 (twelve years ago) link

did Mario ever say those lines or are we forcing racism on the poor guy? are we blaming his video game char for his cartoon version? important issues in my work day

bnw, Wednesday, 4 April 2012 21:00 (twelve years ago) link

"it's a-me, Mario!" the sound of booting up Super Mario 64 iirc.

raw feel vegan (silby), Wednesday, 4 April 2012 21:01 (twelve years ago) link

haha

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7jF8_badV4

God, Music and Romeo and Juliet (DJP), Wednesday, 4 April 2012 21:02 (twelve years ago) link

lol gg then

bnw, Wednesday, 4 April 2012 21:02 (twelve years ago) link

fyi listening to that may drive you crazy

God, Music and Romeo and Juliet (DJP), Wednesday, 4 April 2012 21:03 (twelve years ago) link

the Mario Kart one is also insane

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zszjSeK_F5Q&feature=related

God, Music and Romeo and Juliet (DJP), Wednesday, 4 April 2012 21:05 (twelve years ago) link

"So long, gay Bowser!"

beanz meanz lulz (snoball), Wednesday, 4 April 2012 21:05 (twelve years ago) link

Alot of this sounds like hes sleeping with someone. *barfs*
PeachyzeldagirlXD 3 weeks ago

og (admrl), Wednesday, 4 April 2012 21:06 (twelve years ago) link

Do u say "ravioli!" when u fuckin?

og (admrl), Wednesday, 4 April 2012 21:07 (twelve years ago) link

did they really get roberto benigni to do the voices?

Philip Nunez, Wednesday, 4 April 2012 21:07 (twelve years ago) link

Everybody knows that Mario's wet dreams involve pasta and Bowser.

beanz meanz lulz (snoball), Wednesday, 4 April 2012 21:08 (twelve years ago) link

it's well documented that gaming community demographics are a) incredibly skewed towards white males and b) fairly skewed towards people with poor social skills, which seems like a believable cause of misogyny and just general misanthropy all around

I worked at a gaming geek/comic book store for a couple years and this kind of stuff is everywhere. the idea that females without massive bobs existed at some point is lost on these people

Estimate the percent chance that a whale has ever been to the moon? (frogbs), Wednesday, 4 April 2012 21:11 (twelve years ago) link

haha awesome typo

"I like the writer but does the artist have to make every female character's hair so big?"

God, Music and Romeo and Juliet (DJP), Wednesday, 4 April 2012 21:12 (twelve years ago) link

i'ma luigi. nambar wan.

goole, Wednesday, 4 April 2012 21:14 (twelve years ago) link

oh man my old college roommate used to say "yeah, peach has got it" in a squeaky ass voice all the time. mad nostalgia.

goole, Wednesday, 4 April 2012 21:15 (twelve years ago) link

http://images.wikia.com/logopedia/images/6/63/Bobs1.jpg

og (admrl), Wednesday, 4 April 2012 21:15 (twelve years ago) link

I never played the Horde side of WoW with any regularity so I didn't realize that the trolls were all Jamaican until way way late in the game when I started a troll character because I was bored. Reading the quest text for most of the starter area was PAINFUL.

God, Music and Romeo and Juliet (DJP), Wednesday, 4 April 2012 21:16 (twelve years ago) link

there's a ton of gender normalization in movies too, yeah?

dayo, Wednesday, 4 April 2012 21:16 (twelve years ago) link

im def not saying that movies are immune but i dont think you can make the argument that movies even approach the overt O_O aspects of video games wrt either of these

sfdgafhtehw (jjjusten), Wednesday, 4 April 2012 21:18 (twelve years ago) link

(I also used to play WoW with the sound off and either Vent or iTunes going, so I missed a good chunk of the voice acting)

God, Music and Romeo and Juliet (DJP), Wednesday, 4 April 2012 21:19 (twelve years ago) link

oh yeah for sure, and movies as a genre are much more mature. but it seems to me that anytime you throw a lot of money at a project (either a blockbuster movie or a blockbuster game) you're gonna end up w/ some pretty unreasonable gender representations

dayo, Wednesday, 4 April 2012 21:20 (twelve years ago) link

re: relative badness of video games to movies, for that to be true then the racism/sexism would have to be toned down in game-to-movie adaptations, and it seems like in most cases it just got worse.

Philip Nunez, Wednesday, 4 April 2012 21:21 (twelve years ago) link

also feel like games HAVE to make gamers empathize w/ the game in a way that movies do not - movies can take more risks that way

dayo, Wednesday, 4 April 2012 21:21 (twelve years ago) link

Todd Solondz presents: Happiness, the Video Game

dayo, Wednesday, 4 April 2012 21:22 (twelve years ago) link

I always thought Tomb Raider the movie was made just to quiet all the feminist groups that complained about the video game, saying things like "no REAL woman could possibly look like that", well, lo and behold

Estimate the percent chance that a whale has ever been to the moon? (frogbs), Wednesday, 4 April 2012 21:24 (twelve years ago) link

also in movies you actually have real actresses whereas if you're making a game you can just crank up the boob slider

ciderpress, Wednesday, 4 April 2012 21:24 (twelve years ago) link

re: relative badness of video games to movies, for that to be true then the racism/sexism would have to be toned down in game-to-movie adaptations, and it seems like in most cases it just got worse.

Can you give an example of this? I think in many cases, it's more the medium of being presented something as a movie rather than a game making it easier to notice the source material's dodgier aspects.

God, Music and Romeo and Juliet (DJP), Wednesday, 4 April 2012 21:24 (twelve years ago) link

i know i am probably missing some counterexamples here but it seems like the new fallout stuff has actually done a pretty good job of avoiding these pitfalls considering what a massive game francise its been

sfdgafhtehw (jjjusten), Wednesday, 4 April 2012 21:25 (twelve years ago) link

oh man I remember reading an interview with the creators of the first Tomb Raider game where the art director almost verbatim said "you're spending 20 hours staring at this character's bum so it might as well be a nice one"

God, Music and Romeo and Juliet (DJP), Wednesday, 4 April 2012 21:26 (twelve years ago) link

also in movies you actually have real actresses whereas if you're making a game you can just crank up the boob slider

there are a few real actresses I'd like to introduce you to

Estimate the percent chance that a whale has ever been to the moon? (frogbs), Wednesday, 4 April 2012 21:26 (twelve years ago) link

casual sexism is pretty accepted in rap music, along with casual homophobia and racism in the form of anti-semitism

congratulations (n/a), Wednesday, 4 April 2012 21:27 (twelve years ago) link

I remember an interview with the creators of Tomb Raider, a few months before it came out, where they were like "if you're gonna spend the whole game looking at a butt it may as well be a really nice ass, high five broooooooseph *jumping chestbump*"

1986 tallest hair contest (Z S), Wednesday, 4 April 2012 21:27 (twelve years ago) link

WTF??? Xpost

1986 tallest hair contest (Z S), Wednesday, 4 April 2012 21:27 (twelve years ago) link

hahahaha

God, Music and Romeo and Juliet (DJP), Wednesday, 4 April 2012 21:28 (twelve years ago) link

ha there is probably something to the idea that the minute graphics got past the 8-bit stage the next logical progression was for game designers to think "oh shit now we can model T&A far more accurately"

sfdgafhtehw (jjjusten), Wednesday, 4 April 2012 21:28 (twelve years ago) link

has anybody ever seen Z S and DJP in a room at the same time before

dayo, Wednesday, 4 April 2012 21:28 (twelve years ago) link

boob slider:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dead_or_Alive_Xtreme_Beach_Volleyball

dayo, Wednesday, 4 April 2012 21:28 (twelve years ago) link

also in movies you actually have real actresses whereas if you're making a game you can just crank up the boob slider

... why does my lizard lady have tits.

This thread is comedy username gold

og (admrl), Wednesday, 4 April 2012 21:29 (twelve years ago) link

wd play all the games with massive shadebobs

http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=shadebobs&tbm=isch

instant coffee happening between us (a passing spacecadet), Wednesday, 4 April 2012 21:29 (twelve years ago) link

Seriously didn't see that since I'm Zinging it and I'm slow. that interview was apparently very influential for us!

1986 tallest hair contest (Z S), Wednesday, 4 April 2012 21:29 (twelve years ago) link

The Dead or Alive series spent an inordinate amount of time working on a super accurate physics engine just so they could claim to be the fighting game with the most realistic breast bounces

lol this was xposted by dayo

God, Music and Romeo and Juliet (DJP), Wednesday, 4 April 2012 21:30 (twelve years ago) link

there's something to the argument that the fleshing-out of things is responsible, and that more sophisticated graphics/sound enables greater racism/sexism, but the dodgier aspects of movies are made dodgier by the movie. it's not as if it somehow revealed ugliness lurking beneath, e.g. casting leguizamo as luigi in super mario movie.

Philip Nunez, Wednesday, 4 April 2012 21:31 (twelve years ago) link

They didn't really say broseph - it was a more innocent time.

Andrew Farrell, Wednesday, 4 April 2012 21:31 (twelve years ago) link

there's some interview w/ the doa creator where he says he cares about the physics so much because he considers all the female characters his daughters or something

puff puff post (uh oh I'm having a fantasy), Wednesday, 4 April 2012 21:32 (twelve years ago) link

wait, why is Leguizamo worthy of mention but BOB HOSKINS isn't

God, Music and Romeo and Juliet (DJP), Wednesday, 4 April 2012 21:33 (twelve years ago) link

hoskins transcends race and racism?
i'm pretty sure battleship: the movie is going to contain all sorts of jingoism and boobplay that wasn't inherent in the game.

Philip Nunez, Wednesday, 4 April 2012 21:34 (twelve years ago) link

IGN: Is there by chance a trampoline game in DOAX2? We think that would be an excellent addition to the mini-games.

Itagaki: So we have to pick from a long list of minigame ideas and I'm pretty sure trampoline minigames were part of the initial list, but we didn't pick it. That's because of the kind of game that DOAX2 is; we have to be really careful not to make it seem vulgar. Certain activities show the women in a negative light.

So it's not so much about bouncing per say. The key to the game is love. When they love the character, how do they feel when they see the character do whatever she's doing? We don't want to make them feel bad.

(Laughter.)

puff puff post (uh oh I'm having a fantasy), Wednesday, 4 April 2012 21:35 (twelve years ago) link

If you need another reason to avoid anything related to Harry Potter: https://kotaku.com/hogwarts-legacy-lead-designer-used-to-run-anti-social-j-1846316222

RZA Minnelli (Leee), Sunday, 21 February 2021 20:24 (three years ago) link

one month passes...

this is just hands down the funniest image ive seen in a while. intel is making automated bleep software and im howling at the backend pic.twitter.com/w4fRq9qYIX

— bea (@beesmygod_) April 7, 2021

G.A.G.S. (Gophers Against Getting Stuffed) (forksclovetofu), Thursday, 8 April 2021 19:14 (three years ago) link

"Just some misogyny and a few slices of apple servant. Perfection."

G.A.G.S. (Gophers Against Getting Stuffed) (forksclovetofu), Thursday, 8 April 2021 19:15 (three years ago) link

yeah that is achingly stupid

rob, Thursday, 8 April 2021 19:17 (three years ago) link

I am wheezing

Dana Jel Pey (DJP), Thursday, 8 April 2021 20:15 (three years ago) link

two months pass...

https://www.polygon.com/22538276/five-nights-at-freddys-creator-retiring-scott-cawthon-fnaf-new-developer

I have no appreciation for Five Nights at Freddy's so... yep, don't let the door hit your ass on the way out.

Nhex, Thursday, 17 June 2021 14:21 (two years ago) link

Non-casual republicanism not accepted in video games

Clara Lemlich stan account (silby), Thursday, 17 June 2021 14:44 (two years ago) link

one month passes...

Hadn't seen this mentioned (the details of the case raised by the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing can be pretty harrowing tbh)

https://kotaku.com/the-activision-blizzard-lawsuit-fallout-is-what-women-h-1847350882

The cherry on the cake is who put out the "nothing to see here" statement

*squints* wait the Bush-era torture lady is an exec at Activision? https://t.co/fiOJ8AnOIl

— 10,000 Motivated Rats (@bombsfall) July 23, 2021

Andrew Farrell, Sunday, 25 July 2021 16:18 (two years ago) link

https://kotaku.com/boyfriend-dungeon-is-being-subjected-to-tumblrs-messies-1847506425

there's a lot going on in this article, some of it tangential to this thread, i think, some of it not. some of it has to do with Fan Service stuff, and what Fans are entitled to. but also some of it is about how to respond to games where the professor has the hots for a student, or vice versa.

Karl Malone, Wednesday, 18 August 2021 16:13 (two years ago) link

I have a headache now

a gentle push against my Wonder Bread face (DJP), Wednesday, 18 August 2021 16:30 (two years ago) link

it's just another flavor of reactionary gamer harrassment campaign against women and queer creators, this time from people who claim to be progressive

ciderpress, Wednesday, 18 August 2021 16:32 (two years ago) link

xp

i know exactly what you mean lol

Karl Malone, Wednesday, 18 August 2021 16:41 (two years ago) link

i think where i come down on this is that i am

anti-anti-anti-anti-anti-anti-anti-anti-anti-anti-anti-anti-anti-anti-anti-anti-anti-anti-

Karl Malone, Wednesday, 18 August 2021 16:42 (two years ago) link

https://kotaku.com/boyfriend-dungeon-is-being-subjected-to-tumblrs-messies-1847506425

there's a lot going on in this article, some of it tangential to this thread, i think, some of it not. some of it has to do with Fan Service stuff, and what Fans are entitled to. but also some of it is about how to respond to games where the professor has the hots for a student, or vice versa.

― Karl Malone, Wednesday, 18 August 2021 16:13 (twenty-nine minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

this seemed very much to be assuming a thing that is huge in all anglophone culture is actually a product of the specific corner of anglophone culture the writer grew up in to the point i decided to stop reading it before i also got a headache

the ghost of tom, choad (thomp), Wednesday, 18 August 2021 16:44 (two years ago) link

two months pass...

Just when you think that Activision/Blizzard can't be more of a cluster than it already is: https://kotaku.com/bobby-kotick-actually-wrote-fran-townsends-deranged-co-1848069983

Nelleee Hooper (Leee), Wednesday, 17 November 2021 02:04 (two years ago) link

five months pass...

the classic 'try so hard to be woke you loop back around to phrenology'

ciderpress, Friday, 13 May 2022 23:41 (one year ago) link

one year passes...
nine months pass...

The users of that Discord are some of the most pathetic people on the internet

Coverage and (derisive) commentary from the Western Kabuki podcast: https://westernkabuki.podbean.com/e/gamergate-15/

Glower, Disruption & Pies (kingfish), Wednesday, 20 March 2024 23:25 (three weeks ago) link


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