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

But did you realize it was also a joke?

shutters fall, new understanding is achieved

http://gameological.com/2013/01/it-belongs-in-a-museum/

This is probably the best reaction to that thing yet, which talks about it like it was a deliberate piss-take of the worst excesses of early 21st-C vidja game marketing

You could argue that the figure doesn’t deserve consideration as art, because it wasn’t created by an “artist” per se, and Deep Silver didn’t mean to send up the worst impulses of big-budget game studios. But that only makes it better. You’ve heard of outsider art? This is insider art, crafted by forces deep within the beast. The fact that it was meant to showcase the most appealing aspects of Dead Island is the cherry on top of the depravity sundae. It’s rare that we get to bear witness to an expression of awfulness this pure—it’s perfectly ugly. I hope to see it in a museum someday, as a relic of a bygone era.

that last paragraph you quote especially is tops

it BELONGS in a MUSEUM

haha

It BELONGS on EBAY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X6p5AZp7r_Q

most of the way through this, seems pretty women's studies 101
weird that they're not talking about japan v US takes on this stuff tho

this fucken guy is hysterical
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NfkS9YS_T0k

oh man i need to not look at youtube responses like ever

argh what a fucknut

"We, the audience, are not allowed to have an opinion, it seems"

Except by, you know, MAKING A RESPONSE VIDEO OF YOUR OPINION, POSTING IT ON YOUTUBE, THEN POSTING A LINK TO IT ON YOUR BLOG.

dude is very angry that he wasn't offered a chance to express his dissenting opinion, but has assembled a 9-minute video about the video which... does not express a dissenting opinion

I mean I'm sure he has a very cogent and rational counterargument to why this might be a slightly regressive trope, as must all the people going "lol rape" and "lol show tits" under his video, and am very sad that I didn't get to hear it, obv

MAKING A RESPONSE VIDEO OF YOUR OPINION, POSTING IT ON YOUTUBE, THEN POSTING A LINK TO IT ON YOUR BLOG.

You forgot "blogging about your opinion, making a response video reading out your blog post, posting it on youtube, then posting a link to it on your blog". Don't forget to put some purchase links for random you-related merchandise in the video description!

Yeah her video is pretty damn spot-on, and it's a testament to how big a problem sexism is in the culture that dudes are getting up in arms about something that has nothing to do w the content. That bit about them taking a female-centric game, scratching it, and demoting the lead character to a damsel in a new Starfox is pretty ugh.

that's the guy who did the /v/ga bit on her, right? that was a terrible fake awards show.

xp Yeah, that was definitely the most interesting bit of the video for me. I've never played any of the Starfox series and don't plan to start, but I'd love to play that original game.

Shigeru Miyamoto is a hero to most but he never meant shit to me so I'm kind of bummed out but she seems to have a reasonable case in calling him out in particular, too ;_;

This guy thinks his signature is worth $30 on top of the cost of the $19 for an unsigned copy of his book? Kind of the icing on the 'privileged white male just doesn't get it' cake.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JeXDNg7scyU

Awesome

See, I watch that and can only think "why were the second and fourth screens switched?" and "since when can you win the level by coming up to the left of Kong?"

lol i was thinking the same thing. also, how much i hate Donkey Kong deep down

http://www.themarysue.com/pax-tomb-raider-cosplay/

What happens when a game journo dude decided to play the "cosplay is consent" card with a group of Lara Croft cosplayers

Wizemann had been interviewed in the past and said everything seemed normal. That is, until the interviewer asked his first question, “How does it feel to be at a convention where none of the men could please you?”

meanwhile at GDC this week, "scantily clad female dancers" at developers association party
http://www.polygon.com/2013/3/28/4157266/igda-gdc-party-brenda-romero-resignation

these guyz :-( http://yetizen.com/

good thing they're a strategic keystone with an innovation lab

feels like it was only yesterday that "do you come with the car" "OH YOU" banter was pretty much the norm. when did that stop? when E3 was last open to the public?

i'm pretty sure it's still the norm at these international weapons dealer conferences except it's "do you come with that surface-to-air missile?" and "get out of my dreams and into my amphibious assault humvee"

flashbacks to http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_McI_KJIXOq0/SwYQrHIVgaI/AAAAAAAAGQ0/0OrqMYy9Q-Q/s1600/DealCentury1.jpg

pretty much the most disheartening week ever for me. this whole thing is just disgusting. meagan is a friend and former colleague and frankly some of the stuff that happened to her was things that happened when i worked with her that i was unaware of. this shit is terrible and i'm not sure it will ever change. a hobby filled with mean, angry little boys. the comments she's been dealing with on her blog and various comments sections and facebook this week have just been unreal, i can't even fathom people anymore.

another blog from these week, more, complicated i guess, and even more depressing, can't even believe some of these stories

http://trixie360.wordpress.com/2013/03/28/sexism-in-games-a-mea-culpa/

but we've all been passively complicit in it, every fucking person in the industry myself included & i don't know where to even begin.

do u know who the journalist is?

no. i can't really get into specifics but we were involved in the reporting on an incident relayed in her original blog post regarding someone that worked for a publisher.

http://meagan-marie.tumblr.com/post/46396481491/what-would-you-do-if-you-werent-afraid#_=_

i did not attend pax

to my knowledge said person is not employed at that publisher any longer

fwiw, i sub'd to GI for many years bc it was not puerile, sexist, maxim in video game skins like all the other mags. a force for good imho.

i know you avoid posting on ILG m@tt since it runs a lil too close to your day job but i really appreciate you stopping by here to take a stand on this issue form an industry perspective.

that trixie360 blog post was good, wish I'd set myself on fire instead of reading the comments though

I mean I know this is basically the one constant truth of the internet but there I went

i feel like the funny ("funny") thing is that the motives of a lot of (not necessarily "most" but maybe?) people in industries that tend to traffic in casual sexism and even racism aren't taking part in advancing it because they themselves find it "admirable" but because they're cynical and feel like this is just giving the people what they want, and tbh their own careers matter more than mildly suggesting that such elements be toned down. i speak from another perspective in another industry which certainly has people working through the moral quandaries of sexism and the odd bit of winking racism, and unfortunately the ones who runs things immediately-to-far above my standing are the ones who more willingly embrace it.

anyway somewhat off topic.

i'll probably start an ilm thread but fwiw, i am producing this talk regarding (somewhat tangentially, we'll see) sexism in the performing arts programming industry:
http://www.housingworks.org/events/detail/noteworthy-a-conversation-with-women-at-the-forefront-of-the-nyc-arts-progr/

M@tt, are you going to Pax Prime this year?

Nah with a 2yr old I avoid travel if I can, e3 & gamescom for me this year, though I welcome our new once monthly pax convention overlords

But yeah like forks said I don't go to ilg because I'm way too glib & chatty on ilx & I think the only way to be a game journo anymore is to have complete & total paranoia about the internet, but yeah this the treatment of a friend in regards to this stuff was just so gross I had to vent

Bioshock is pretty great tho

is that a new game or something?

What's Gamescom like?

www.youtube.com/watch?v=p6gLmcS3-NI

This video showed up in my related videos section. it sucks shit.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p6gLmcS3-NI

Sarkeesian is such an easy target for internet trolls. I honestly wish she were a little more challenging and interesting but she's still among the better video game essayists if only due to the low bar.