Who is Anita Sarkeesian anyway, and why should I (or you) care what she has to say?

What annoys me is not so much the fact that she is making some crackpot internet videos (millions of idiots express their worthless opinions every day). It's not that she is holding speeches and seems to be one of these painfully disturbing and disturbed extreme feminist types.

What annoys me is that despite all, to a large extent, she is right.

In a lot of games, female characters are, indeed, mostly naked, perversely dysproportionate abominations, which frankly, make me want to kick the apparently 13-year-old designers who make these models for wearing down my eyes from watching that crap.

Now of course it doesn't need an Anita Sarkeesian and her craving for recognition to tell you that.

And sure enough, the problem with these disturbed people is that they're just as disturbed as the people who only make female models with cup-G breasts that wear lingerie -- but since they're vocal and can demonstrate that they have valid points, they get attention. And with that attention, they are able to impose silly legal or de-facto legal restrictions on everybody and everything (e.g. if Walmart and Amazon refuse to sell your title or if it isn't admitted to Steam because some disturbed populistic person doesn't like it for whatever reason -- religion, feminism, blood, whatever -- it's as good as if it was illegal). Which sucks even more than those badly designed games (since you can avoid the latter if you don't like them, but can't avoid the former).

Any DVD videos that I can buy are censored (even things like How I Met Your Mother and some movies that are explicitly made for children) because the fucking Greens and left-wings are so desperate to tell everybody what's good for them and what isn't good for them. I have to live with this fucking cold LED light because the Greens think traditional warm lightbulbs are the Devil's work. I have to pay 20% more for electricity now because of the same nutters (who would rather buy Czech nuclear energy from prehistoric power plants rather than produce it here with state-of-the-art technology) think that nuclear energy is the Devil, too.

And again, what's worst is that actually they're not entirely wrong -- except they all have an iPad and an iPhone and consume a lot more energy than I do (and more fossil fuel, with their 15-year old cars) and keep shouting "say no to atom", but offer no real alternative other than bird-killing windmills, which they're now trying to outlaw too, after building them in the first place.

Someone named "censorship" earlier. Dictatorship is probably a better term. Social dictatorship.

...

I believe most of the list can be condensed to: respect your characters (for example "would this special ops operative be wearing this kind of outfit on a mission"), and respect your audience.

Anita's work is valuable in calling attention to developers, to be aware of the choices they're making and how they may alienate part of the audience. What I don't agree with is saying that some elements should not appear in games ever (though number 7 is quite ridiculous not to follow.) No-one is seriously suggesting eg. abolishing Harlequin novels for whatever influence they may have, so I don't see why "male power fantasy" games should be treated any differently.

As for the "damsel" plots, back in the 8-bit days it was something you'd quickly slap to the game's instructions and packaging (+ maybe a sprite animation or two at the end) to get some half-hearted motivation for the player, in nowadays' productions it would be more comparable to a movie or TV script containing such element and will therefore have more opportunity for characterization, subversion, shifting power dynamics etc. Plus very rarely it would be the whole plot. For example Half-Life 2 arguably contains it at parts (the main game + EP2). IMO it's something you should be conscious of and not use for a shallow reason (having been so blatantly over-used in the past) but if your story honestly becomes stronger for it, for example to show a bond between characters, then I'd say go for it.

Also, there have been developers who have been striving for better female character representation and avoiding lazy trope use long before Anita, so once in a while it would be nice to rather see the media discussion revolve around the good examples instead of the negativity and outrage-generation.

No, I have no agenda, just opinions and concerns. Like why is it that game journalists fought Jack Thompson when he claimed video games contributed to real world violence and crimes, but are siding with Anita Sarkeesian when she takes the stance that video games contribute to real world misogyny and sexism. Yes, I hate Obama, but almost every American does [numerous polls have been done during the two terms to show that] and any dumbass that thinks America is the world is delusional considering the issues in other countries, the most recent being ISIS, as well as hunger, women's rights in 3rd world countries, etc. There are more important things in this world than a hobby, but seeing as this is a site dedicated to game development I wanted to get feedback on my concerns. I know no one has paid attention to the whole GamerGate controversy, but numerous journalists have voiced on Twitter that they believe they control the game industry and many of them openly sided with Anita's stance. Now the tweets saying they control the industry may be just them trying to fear monger, but it is at least working with me.

I'm nothing more than a hobbyist game developer, an utter nobody to everyone other than my wife and son so any agenda I could try to run would fail within less than an hour.

I was shocked that she used Peach and Zelda for damsel in distress and stated they were a trophy for the player to get back. The story to them makes it obvious that they aren't. When they both are ruling their kingdoms are in peace, when the villain takes them the kingdom falls into darkness with monsters, Mario and Link are just trying to get them back so the kingdoms can be at peace again. I don't view it as making them an object, but that is just me.

However, this is the angriest response in the whole thread. If I was going to choose anyone here who seems incredibly threatened, it would be you.

I'll take that. Since being given the mod title I always try to stay professional and level headed, and usually will close a thread rather than write a snarly reply.

But yesterday I resorted to calling someone a fucking moron.
Sorry for the personal attack BHX, I'm sure you mean well...
If not in the lounge, I'd expect to be downvoted for swearing at people.

But you know what? I do feel threatened by that level of stupidity. The idea that a critic must be stopped because their suggestions are conflated with censorship -- that right there is fucking moronic far right wing authoritarian nazi bullshit, and when enough people fall for it, it is dangerous. There's people out there who genuinely believe that Critique==Censorship so deeply and passionately that they're willing to risk imprisonment by making threats against lives and property. Stupid people, when riled up, are very dangerous.
Outside of gaming, these kind of people burn, shoot, behead and bomb critics and their works... It's offensive that in this day, we wouldn't *all* stand up and just say, "if you don't like their critique, don't read it". Or even better, "suck it up, buttercup, read the work of every critic with an open mind, try to read between the lines and interpret things as favourably as possible and develop yourself into a level-headed, productive, enlightened member of society instead of a book burner".

So ironicly, yes, I'm scared of these completely illogical, stupid ideas and think they should be shut down, not by censorship, but pointed ridicule of the core irrationality. Fascism in all forms should be ridiculed and declared for what it is.

Looking at the OP's twitter feed (yes I cyberstalked to see where this idea came from), it's endless retweets of hateful/smug #GG nonsense, so it's easy to see where this particular irrational fear was regurgitated from.

If you want to debate the validity or relevance of points raised by a critic, great!
But if you want to say that critics are just wannabe censors, you can fuck right off to Syria.

Sorry for the personal attack BHX, I'm sure you mean well...
....
Looking at the OP's twitter feed (yes I cyberstalked to see where this idea came from), it's endless retweets of hateful/smug #GG nonsense, so it's easy to see where this particular irrational fear was regurgitated from.

I'm not sure he does mean well, and frankly, after reading his bullshit on twitter, I think you were on the money with the fucking moron comment.

I came into this thread planning to drop some heavy handed moderator beat down. Having read the posts so far... You guys are fine. I am proud of our little corner of the internet :P Just keep it friendly. Unfortunately I do not think the OP of this thread is being honest or on the level - he's using this thread to gain sympathy with his idiot twitter friends - but that's okay for the time being. Just ignore it.

As far as Anita - I agree with some of what she says. I disagree with some. She's a critic, and that comes with all the standard trappings of criticism and creators. These conflicts date back literally millenia. (See History of the World Part 1 ;)) I thought a good amount of her commentary was simply obvious to anyone who actually has a background in, you know, something a little bit wider than games. (Self identified gamers don't seem to know much literature or film for starters.) She's stuck educating mental children, while taking a clearly biased viewpoint. Still fine, but it often falls flat. I hope that the process of creating a game is educational for her. It is always educational for me.

I do find it fascinating that so many people are threatened by a critic. Oh no, she wants games to be... Gasp.... DIFFERENT. Who cares? Listen to her or don't, and make the games you want to make and play the games you want to play. Don't act like there's some existential threat. The hilarious part is, nobody cared all that much originally. She only became an industry figure AFTER the Twidiots flipped out and forced things into mainstream press. They created their own monster.

BHXSpecter - your feeling towards not joining the industry is probably the right instinct. This isn't the place for someone so easily threatened.

Threatened? Sympathy? You apparently haven't read my Fear WP entry, if I wanted sympathy I would just spam that on my twitter account. Insulted? Absolutely! I've tried disputing some of the things I've retweeted with little luck and then you add game journalists tweeting they control the game industry and agree with Anita so of course I have serious concerns. Again, sympathy, if I wanted sympathy I would pull a Wu, claim harassment and when a reporter calls facts to prove me wrong I would declare it a hit piece while getting money through patreon. If I truly wanted sympathy I would go on about my problems with my family not tweeting about being insulted by people I looked up to.

If you looked at my feed closer you would realize the only interaction I get is from retweets and calling bullshit on different things from both sides. If you notice I made the industry comment an hour ago and no one acknowledged it, but as soon as I started questioning a Pro-GG journalists covering GG and if it was technically unethical people started tweeting back.

No, you are looking for ulterior motives that aren't there. I'm a nobody on twitter just like I'm a nobody here. I know some of you have viewed my profile from time to time, but until this thread I wonder how many bothered with my twitter, facebook, linkedin, or my personal sites before I took them down (guessing none since my stats for the site only showed me going to the pages :P).

I've left sites for insulting me and quite a few for insulting my wife and son. I'm done with industry because I'm not going to sit around wondering what next dev or programmer will insult me or my family just because they don't like my concerns or views. I refuse to subject myself or my family to that.

I'm done with industry because I'm not going to sit around wondering what next dev or programmer will insult me or my family just because they don't like my concerns or views. I refuse to subject myself or my family to that.

Let's take a breath and look at the landscape a moment. The industry is a big beast. Vocal people aren't going to change that immediately. So if you choose to, things are still business as usual for some time. The number of games put out each year is massive, as long as your game isn't in the top 0.1% most offensive games, nobody much will care. There's no reason to put yourself out of a job.

Where things get tricky is being really vocal on a hot-button issue. And let's be honest, regardless of your exact views on the specifics you do focus on GG a lot and do use the hashtag a lot. Given the popular opinion of GG that's unlikely to be a popular choice. You of course have a right to say what you want about it. If being vocal on the topic causes trouble for your work, you have to weight that up. If your field was construction or insurance it wouldn't matter so much. Personal insults, especially against family... I'm really sorry to hear that. You probably don't deserve that, and your family definitely doesn't.

Threatened? Sympathy? You apparently haven't read my Fear WP entry, if I wanted sympathy I would just spam that on my twitter account. Insulted? Absolutely! I've tried disputing some of the things I've retweeted with little luck and then you add game journalists tweeting they control the game industry and agree with Anita so of course I have serious concerns. Again, sympathy, if I wanted sympathy I would pull a Wu, claim harassment and when a reporter calls facts to prove me wrong I would declare it a hit piece while getting money through patreon. If I truly wanted sympathy I would go on about my problems with my family not tweeting about being insulted by people I looked up to.

If you looked at my feed closer you would realize the only interaction I get is from retweets and calling bullshit on different things from both sides. If you notice I made the industry comment an hour ago and no one acknowledged it, but as soon as I started questioning a Pro-GG journalists covering GG and if it was technically unethical people started tweeting back.

No, you are looking for ulterior motives that aren't there. I'm a nobody on twitter just like I'm a nobody here. I know some of you have viewed my profile from time to time, but until this thread I wonder how many bothered with my twitter, facebook, linkedin, or my personal sites before I took them down (guessing none since my stats for the site only showed me going to the pages ).

I've left sites for insulting me and quite a few for insulting my wife and son. I'm done with industry because I'm not going to sit around wondering what next dev or programmer will insult me or my family just because they don't like my concerns or views. I refuse to subject myself or my family to that.

To be fair, you created a rather insulting topic (implying that considerations of women are either "concerning or laughable"). Playing the victim when people are genuinely upset by your comments seems more than a little disingenuous and it feels like you're going out of your way to martyr yourself, for whatever reason. Perhaps examine your own behavior and responsibility in all this before simply assuming you're sitting on the moral high ground.

You created a thread on an obviously controversial topic, there are of course going to be passionate responses to that. I think you knew absolutely what you were doing when you made the thread, and knew what to expect in response to your comments and views. All in all, I think most of the responses you've gotten have been incredibly tempered, all things considered.