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

Good post flamoyant goon tie, but why do I feel like you're sercretly shilling for TurboTax?

I just think it's worth approaching this kind of thing from a position of "what good or harm am I doing by publicly applying my critical facilities?". Your chances of impacting the specific case in question are effectively zero, so no good is coming of it in that sense. But other victims who haven't yet told their stories are possibly (probably!) hearing you, and the message you're giving them is "if you want the truth of what happened to you to be known and don't just want to be victimised further, you'd better make sure you tell the story in such a way that you meet *my* critical standards", and all that can do is make it harder for people to feel they can identify predators, which of course is actively helpful to those predators.

Like, the full version of "believe the victim" should probably go "believe the victim and state publicly that you do, OR feel free to not believe them but if that's your position then at least keep quiet about it because really, how is your voice helping anything otherwise?".

And ok I get that the answer to the last question is probably "it's helping protect people who might be falsely accused now or in the future" but a) that's a much tinier group of people than the group of people who have been victims of sexual misconduct and b) it's already a much better protected group of people too, and worst of all c) if it's a group that you feel you're potentially a member of yourself then that slips into the "my self preservation is more important to me than my compassion for people who have had been through traumatic experiences" zone.

but I personally believe that all possible avenues of resolution should be explored before making public call-outs.

fwiw I do absolutely agree with you here, but I still can't bring myself to be critical of anyone who doesn't feel they can do that, and chooses the public callout route instead.

(Which isn't to say you *are* being critical of those people, I mean you've specifically stated you aren't being, so I guess "but" was just a bad choice wrong word in that sentence).

A good and powerful and grim post about the Night in the Woods developer: https://medium.com/@bombsfall/alec-2618dc1e23e

he posted on reddit a few days ago, saying he would follow up with a detailed post - this was it. really sad, but very thoughtful and explains things pretty well

Great essay.

That's an exceptionally heavy essay and very well written and compassionate as well. I have learned (too late, in one instance) that it's very good practice to stay far away from people who seem to have nothing but negative shit to say about their exes, or their former close friends.

@ JimD, I could type all day about my thoughts on this, but I don't have much luck communicating effectively my thoughts on this topic in forums. It's more of a conversation. In general, though, you're right, I'm not generally critical of the people who engage in call-outs, I am critical of the mechanism itself. (I say this, too, as somebody who has engaged in a call out, and found the experience to be exhausting, professionally harmful, and ineffective.) I don't think "callouts" generally have a good track record for helping survivors heal, or holding the accused accountable. Certainly, on social media, it's become more of a circus-of-bullying than anything even tangentially related to social justice.

Game publisher Nicalis, successful for smash hits like Cave Story and Binding of Isaac, has a dark side. A Kotaku investigation reveals employee exploitation, mismanagement, and a whole lot of workplace racism from founder Tyrone Rodriguez. My latest: https://t.co/S6U8RghwOO pic.twitter.com/btXZmWPPu8

— Jason Schreier (@jasonschreier) September 12, 2019

yikes

"please enjoy the comedy racism of Tyrone Rodriguez"

that guy & nicalis in general has always been extremely shady

yeh not surprised that terribly run company is run by a terrible person

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/23/style/women-gaming-streaming-harassment-sexism-twitch.html

https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2020/06/streamers-call-for-one-day-twitch-boycott-amid-harassment-allegations/

https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2020-07-10-interplay-silent-on-earthworm-jim-developers-racist-homophobic-remarks

No surprise that he's still a piece of garbage.

one of several original Earthworm Jim creators returning to work on a new exclusive entry in the series for the upcoming Intellivision Amico console

huh.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4R2CRuQNBzk

Finally, cornhole the way YOU want it

surely GenXSys would've been the better name

roid rage

https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2020-08-19-ex-rocksteady-writer-asks-for-name-to-be-left-off-suicide-squad-credits

https://www.wired.com/story/retro-gaming-violent-tragedy-rudy-ferretti/

https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2020-08-30-ubisoft-pulls-black-lives-matter-raised-fist-from-new-tom-clancy-game-following-backlash

Ubisoft pulls Black Lives Matter raised fist from new Tom Clancy game following backlash
Admits it was "insensitive and harmful"

Doesn't explain why they chose to go with the harmful image in the first place. They really can't claim ignorance to the symbolism of a raised black fist.

they can replace it with a facepalm

shocked that a Tom Clancy adaptation could even be insensitive or harmful, what has the world come to?

this is. a real good thread pic.twitter.com/X0zcL7oTmE

— Nunki (@blodhundur) October 20, 2020

https://kotaku.com/for-the-streamer-from-the-last-of-us-bunny-meme-virali-1846183478

She’s amazing!

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

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

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

yeah that is achingly stupid

I am wheezing

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.

Non-casual republicanism not accepted in video games

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

https://www.niemanlab.org/2021/07/female-video-game-journalists-on-what-to-do-when-the-mob-comes-for-you/

https://kotaku.com/over-1-000-activision-blizzard-employees-sign-letter-co-1847364340

https://kotaku.com/back-4-blood-beta-players-think-they-hear-zombies-yelli-1847443163

I mean

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.

I have a headache now

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

xp

i know exactly what you mean lol

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-

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

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

Uh.

https://www.fanbyte.com/news/activision-inexplicably-introduces-tool-to-rate-character-diversity-metrics/

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

https://www.pcgamer.com/doom-co-creator-john-carmack-is-headlining-a-toxic-and-proud-sci-fi-convention-that-rails-against-woke-propaganda/