Kickstarter "Tropes vs Women in Videogames"

[Tempest]

I really enjoyed Sarkessian's video series' and found them to be mostly informative. I can't believe people are threatening to kill and rape her because she is taking an academic approach to explore an important area. Their behaviour shows that this study needs to be done, and perhaps, more importantly, one on gamer culture in general. Sure, some of Sarkessian's points are broad, and there were one or two that I don't fully agree with, but this is a new area of study and an important issue to explore. I'm grateful she has had the courage to do this study and to continue despite the threats. Even if all she ends up doing is creating a broader awareness of the portrayal of women in videogames, and the poor attitudes of gamerdom in general from the responses she's received, then she's done something great for the industry and humanity in general.

I've enjoyed reading people's thoughts in this thread: I'm glad to see not all gamers are a bunch of misogynists.

[benderx]

Sarkessian is pretty lame. Her kickstarter went down hill, she took too long to make those videos and used wikipedia as her source. I feel like she needs a real job that helps people instead exploit ideas from video games. Zoe Quinn is another issue, Its like they want attention and talk about their threats out online.

[Forlorn Drifter]

The number one problem I have with Sarkessian's videos is how she uses those clips in her videos without giving credit to the people she took them from. That's not cool, and to me slashes off some points from the "academic" angle.

[ZeroAX]

There's nothing academic about her videos. They are just opinions....which makes the people who backlash even more pathetic. Seriously, why does there exist so much cyber bullying over opinions? Do game reviewers who bash people's favorite games get death threats? Did egorapto get death threats when he said Ocarina of Time sucked?

I know WoW developers have gotten death threats and other forms of cyber bullying.....oh humanity.

EDIT

And also on the validity of her opinions I don't think the fact that she stole footage should influence anyone's agreement/disagreement with her.

[Fragems]

Haven't got a chance to read it but apparently Game Informer interviewed Anita Sarkeesian. Noticed it when I was browsing through the new mag I got today but I haven't gotten a chance to read it yet.

[Tempest]

There's nothing academic about her videos. They are just opinions....

As an academic myself, I recognise she is studying a cultural phenomenon using academic methodologies. Granted, her approach is not strictly academic (her references demand some work) but she is drawing from academic, philosophical, and feminist epistemologies.

[ZeroAX]

As an academic myself, I recognise she is studying a cultural phenomenon using academic methodologies. Granted, her approach is not strictly academic (her references demand some work) but she is drawing from academic, philosophical, and feminist epistemologies.

As I mentioned in the previous page I have very strong feelings on why I consider her work not to be even near an academic level (not to mention the fact that she doesn't actually play the games herself, which I don't really want to bring up because it's an argument the mysoginist gamers use against her), but just as she is entitled to her opinion, so are you and I and we'll probably just keep going in circles.

But I feel there should be a separate thread about women in the gaming industry, a separate thread about the portrayal of women in games, and this thead which really is about her opinions and how she got threatened for having them

[BoneSnapDeez]

Academic, you say?

[ZeroAX]

Academic, you say?

She's a lot more likable in that video compared to some other of her stuff I've watched. I have to say (as someone who suffers from the same problem) it would have been much easier for her to get people to listen to her if she didn't speak so aggressively all the time.

[Forlorn Drifter]

I don't think she means to speak aggressively, I think that is just the way it sounds when she uses that flat line, no nonsense voice she uses in the Tropes videos.

I just pointed out the stolen footage and my dislike of it because that's a no-no in academic circles, at least from what I understand. If she can't take the time to play the games and collect the footage herself, or at least give credit to those she got them from, why should I care what she has to say? (Not really what I think, but what some might take out of it.)