Gender Diversity / Politics in games (was Tropes Vs. Women)

[Dudley]

Wasn't Too human the one where they literally stole Epic's code?

[Spacehost]

I really don't know what the management at Silicon Knights were thinking, but yeah, they sued Epic for not getting the engine out to their liking, and then Epic promptly countersued for copyright infringement and they had to pull Two Human and X-Men Destiny from sale and remove every line of Epic code from three unannounced titles, plus pay $4.5 mil to Epic in damages, etc.

If you're going to pick a thing that killed SK it was the press or even X-Men Destiny, it was stealing trade secrets from Epic and being stupid enough to try and sue them. The $4.5mil would've killed most studios, but having to throw out the engine they were going to use for their next three games and start over from scratch on them totally sunk them.

[Blunt]

they had to pull Two Human and X-Men Destiny from sale.

Oh it's even better than that: they were ordered to destroy every unsold copy of those games.

Dyack is a delusional little shit who blames everybody but himself for his multiple failures. I can still remember that infamous podcast were he advocated for NeoGaf to be monitored by the FBI, and the subsequent drubbing he got on the forum after he made his stupid wager. Him joining GG is perhaps the least surprising thing ever. He probably thinks they'll shower him with money if he panders to them enough.

[Opinionated Ham Scarecrow]

I feel dirty for enjoying Too Human now. Guilty pleasure that is.

[Spacehost]

Yeah, not only did they manage to wind up giving probably every penny they made off the sale of Too Human and X-Men Destiny to Epic, they were also unable to sell another copy of them ever, and also had to restart development on their entire future title slate more or less from scratch. It's a pretty incompetent CEO who manages to not only get rid of all past earnings and make it impossible to earn anything in the present, but also push back earning any future money by years.

[Blunt]

It's also worth remembering that Dyack got his panties in a bunch about a less than glowing preview EGM gave Too Human and then argued that game journalists shouldn't be allowed to talk about games when they were showed in an unifinished state, or some such nonsense. Truly a paragon of ethics that guy.

[Spacehost]

The classic preview process:

"Here, look at this game in an unfinished state."

"This game in an unfinished state is not good."

"Why are you commenting on a game in an unfinished state! Fuck you!"

[Jarik]

I just meant that since Gamergate refuses to have accountability, maybe it's time that some it's more high-profile 'adherents' take some, whether they like it or not.

"I'm with Gamergate."

"Okay. How are you going to deal with rampant misogynistic abuse & when can we expect the defined list of ethical standards that your movement is fighting for?"

[rumblecat]

It's a nice idea but people in GamerGate don't agree what the movement is about. There have been moves to define it but it always splits the community. There are those who freely admit they don't care about ethics in game journalism and for them it's about fighting back against the attempts of the SJWs and feminazis to control and change popular culture.

Although anytime anyone uses the phrase SJW you know that there's little point in having a conversation with them. It's a weird thing when people are so desperate to push back against something - anything- (maybe because they're looking to be defined by pushing back- gives them an identity, a cause, a commonality) that they actually invent an enemy that doesn't exist.

Defining what GG is about, giving it figureheads, all these things would mean that there had to be some agreement on what it is and what it wanted- and the moment they do that then there's the possibility of it ending. And a lot of these people are in it for the social side and don't want it to ever end.

[Sprite Machine]

Gamergate is the sort of movement that my bowels have.

[Capwn]

Belts is back!

[ZOK]

What a moron. I had to stop after he claimed that cargo shorts were more practical than cargo pants.

[Spacehost]

They're more practical if your aim is to get your anus infested with millions of bees.

[Opinionated Ham Scarecrow]

Who doesn't though, right?

[jonathanhoey]

Dyack's a baddie? Damn, I really liked Eternal Darkness back in the day.

Might replay it and see how Alex Roivas stands up as a character. I wasn't really very aware of what feminism was ten years ago.

[Alex W.]

On the basis of SK's later work, I suspect that everyone who made Eternal Darkness and Twin Snakes decent left the company shortly after.

[Spacehost]

On the basis of SK's later work, I suspect that everyone who made Eternal Darkness and Twin Snakes decent left the company shortly after.

My understanding is that by the time X-Men: Travesty was in crunch they were just hiring university graduates straight out the gate to fill most roles and they'd be lucky to have staff retained for six months. Once you hit that kind of turnover you're finished.

[Comrade]

[Spacehost]

7/10 not enough skulls.

[SweatyTravolta]

The thing is I can't tell if that is a parody or if he is doing movie reviews with puppets now

[Alex W.]

It's far more professionally lit and shot than anything he's done.

[The Bag]

And it's only three and a half minutes instead of an hour.

[deerokus]

I saw Belts popping up to whinge in the comments section of an interview with George Miller. What a fuck.

[Scribblor]

I'm seeing Fury Road tomorrow. It had better be SJW to the bone, or I'm going to write a very strongly worded letter.

[Spacehost]

I hear there's a devastating scene where Max shits in a fedora and makes a guy with an inadequately maintained beard eat it.

[joeplus]

With recent discussion, it's worth checking Sarkeesian's latest tweets, which give a counterpoint to the "Mad Max is Feminist" idea. Not seen it yet myself, it'll be an interesting watch with the storm of opinion I've already taken in.

[Capwn]

Mark Kermode pointed out a contrast between the writing of MM which is at odds with the way it's directed. In particular the 'supermodel' characters, where apparently the camera shots are there to make them seem more sexy or something. Not seen it myself.

[Blunt]

In particular the 'supermodel' characters, where apparently the camera shots are there to make them seem more sexy or something.

This couldn't be further from what's actually in the film. Kermode is way off there.

[Fury4k]

There is one shot when Max first meets them that is specifically there to make them look sexy, but its a POV shot and isn't exactly gratuitous. I thought it was played for laughs to be honest.

[The Bag]

This couldn't be further from what's actually in the film. Kermode is way off there.

I don't think he is, that set of shots of

the brides with the hose

does feel a bit tonally out of place with the way things are handled in the rest of the film.

At the same time I think Anita has a very surface and simplistic read on the film. She's getting a lot of push back from people who would normally agree with her.