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Intel Drops Gamasutra Sponsorship Over Controversial Editorials
An anonymous reader writes Processor firm Intel has withdrawn its advertising from Gamasutra in response to the site's decision to carry feminist articles. The articles had drawn the ire of the self-described "Gater" movement, a grass-roots campaign to discredit prominent female games journalists. Intel was apparently so inundated with criticism for sponsoring the Gamasutra site that it had no choice but to withdraw support. An Intel spokesperson explained that "We take feedback from our customers very seriously especially as it relates to contextually relevant content and placements" and as such Gamasutra was no longer an appropriate venue for their products."
They only care that people are complaining, it's a PR thing. They are pulling their advertising because there is some controversy going on with the site, so it's easier to pull out then pick a side and anger people. Intel would plaster their logo on the side of churches if they knew that people wouldn't complain about it.
Another would be that video game players(intel's customer) are kind of sick of feminist extremists posting articles about about how all gamers are a bunch of basement dwelling woman haters.
This medium seems to get attacked a lot by people who don't understand it. Which I kind of understand. If you saw someone playing GTA you'd probably think they're a murderous psychopath.
First we had Jack Thompson blaming games for school shootings. And now we have third wave feminists blaming games for some kind of rape epidemic.
The issue is video game reviewers and sites providing unearned positive praise for a product due to:
- Bias from personal relationships, including those of a sexual nature
- Political pressure to over-represent games which claim to be the product of a given minority group
If the 'customer' in this case, is the person expecting a fair and non-biased review of upcoming and current games, they are not served by these biases, especially when they're not revealed from the beginning. This is a basic failure of journalistic integrity.
This was further compounded by a backlash that centered around censorship of any discussion of these issues, no matter how applicable or tangentially related, which pointed these issues out, which is seen as patently unfair - not to mention draconian.
Perhaps the worst part of it all is that those trying to hide this discovery - or promote their side with no argument - chose something ethically sound to stand against, Women's Rights. This is unfortunate, because women's rights have nothing to do with this issue, and pretending it does only weakens future ACTUAL complaints that involve Women's Rights.
Pretty sure I didnt say it was, but this hair-trigger reaction to anything thats not resounding support is exactly the sort of drama I was talking about. I didnt immediately come out and defend Zoe Quinn, so I must be "the enemy".
This "movement" sure has a way of turning people off before they even have heard the full story.
Intel has pulled an advertising campaign from video gaming website Gamasutra after it reportedly received a number of complaints from self-identified gamers upset that the site was championing fair gender representation in video games.
When you write:
However, Women's Rights activist/advocates should be firmly expressing their disdain towards this horrible movement of Femi-nazi's.
Why? When people point out that "gamer" no longer includes just a small hard-core subset of males who orgasm over every new video card and think that all female characters in games should have "vital statistics" that would put a Barbie doll to shame, they're not being "femi-nazis." The appeal of games like Minecraft (58% female) shows that the word "gamer" is either an archaism or needs to be updated to include the new reality.
If the old guard doesn't like that women are "invading their space", they need to realize that it's simply not just "their space" any more.
You are missing the point.
Most gamers, male and female alike, just want to play video games. They want to be able to simply ask, "Hey, wanna play Street Fighter/Quake/Halo/Warcraft/etc?" without any drama, and 99% of the time that is how it goes amongst friends. Random idiots online are trying to get a rise out of you, don't pay attention to them. For most gamers, it doesn't matter if someone is male or female. There are plenty of creepy males and females online, but they're not the norm.
http://www.linuxjournal.com/content/girls-and-software is related to the above statement.
Apparently, also, Anita Sarkeesian, being a horrible human being undeserving of the attention they get, may have very well fabricated the death threats against herself. http://www.staresattheworld.com/2014/09/anita-sarkeesian-fabricate-story-contacting-authorities/
The major, and salient, point is the fact that there is an endemic corruption in journalism as pertains to gaming. Not just that, but most of them, except for IGN strangely enough, are connected to a sort of PR company (Silverstring Media) that is more focused on generating controversy than on anything related to gaming, equality of sexes, improved representation of strong women in video games, etc.
They're pushing a hardline, militant form of feminism, attempting to pervert the word further to gain more legitimacy, Feminism used to be about equality of the sexes, removing all institutionalized discrimination and attempting to foster an environment more conducive to viewing each other as equals, or perhaps even, view each other as just other human beings. Rather than "that black dude", or "that asian chick", etc, you think of them as people like yourself.
Another equally important point is the over-exaggeration of all gamers (and I myself view anyone who sets aside some of their free time specifically for playing a video game of SOME SORT (computer, console, handheld, cellphone even!) to be a gamer, hardcore gamer being the more nebulous term) as being mysogynists and constant desire to sexualize women in games as if their lives depended on it. I understand, in say, Dragon's Crown that the male characters are probably not even close to every woman's fantasy of their perfect man, and that the female characters (except the thief, whom is more modestly dressed) are quite sexualized... But I can accept the ridiculousness, you know why? It's all part of the game's style and aesthetics. Most of it is ridiculous!
Take a look at Mount & Blade, without any modifications mind, and play as a woman. You put on plate armor, it's the same shape as men's armor, because boob-plate would be ridiculous in a game attempting some realism (and make melee blows more likely to strike the center of the chest). There are other games like that, and other games that are on the more ridiculous sexualization side, though I feel it'd be better to
>You could keep your politics out of my entertainment
There is no such thing as non-political entertainment. Your entertainment came with political views, whether they were consciously put in there or not. You just can't see them because they're the defaults. So no, until you can find a way to engineer society in a way that there are no such things as "default settings", I will continue to inject my politics into everything, until they become the new default setting.
For the record, your examples of how "both genders get idealized" are stupid and don't equate. The muscular body-builder type of ideal is an ideal of strength, control, and power. The kinds of ideals we push women characters to aren't about those things - they're about looking attractive to men, and reduction of the character to a sexual object. When we reverse these ideals, the women who are idealized as strong, powerful, and in-control look about the same as the men who occupy that same niche. But if we look at how the men fare, well... If we just blindly apply the objectification tropes we apply to women, to the men, the kinds of people who think the way you do would be instantly offended. If we apply objectification, but tune it towards what women want, we get movies like Twilight and cartoons like Free, which again result in horrible backlash from the "I don't want feminism I want equality" people.
It seems that, when women are pushed towards the sexual object ideal, people like you are okay with it; but when we turn men into sexual objects you guys scream bloody murder. Now imagine a world where every time you see a man anywhere, they are either engineered (in the case of media representation) or are engineering their appearance to look submissive, inferior, or passive. Imagine a world where every man aspired to look, act, and be like Edward from the Twilight series. I think you would be a little justifiably pissed - but you can't be, because now you're just pushing your politics onto everything, and why can't I just enjoy a night looking at hawt guyz OMG LOL - queue rabid hate storm of angry Twilight-playing teenage boys.
Oh and by the way, "feminism" is such a ridiculously big-tent ideology that Sarah Palin qualifies as one, as well as the transphobic crazies that want to remove all hints of masculinity from existence. As well as many millions more of people who are reasonable, and just happen to see the obvious problems you are continually missing.