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Yea I can second Problem's point of view on the face, I think it looks quite British where as tzachs' example is very American, and I find the British style of sarcastic humour funnier.

However, please (please, please, please), don't hide the text with the shoe. It is SO annoying! I'm happy with it over the 'Happened' text but just simply move the 'story' line down to the very bottom of the poster. It can be the same distance away from the bottom as the 'wtf' line is at the top so it should work fine.

On a side note I quite like the fullness of the first idea but agree with the fading issue. I did a rough paint over to show an idea:

(I realised half way through I used the wrong font for it to be on a solid dark colour but you get the idea)

So after spending most of my time actually playing the game: Escape From The Chaotic City, by Christian Cammilleri (http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/site/games/game/1290/) - I didn't have too much time to sketch something up, what a huuuuuuuuge game!!

I played around with a few ideas in my head instead of drawing them and just went with the one I liked the best to save time.

Here is a small storyboard: (To give you an idea of what I was thinking - I wanted an alley or street, main protagonist with a baseball bat slung over his shoulder looking towards the camera but facing down the street-ish, zombies coming down the street and a pink butterfly on the bat)



Here is a sketch using some of the ideas material, it's very rough!

Death and rape threats are not something to be taken lightly. There is a difference between regular dumb ass trolling and threatening violence. They know her face, they know her name and I'm certain 4chan doxxed her so they know where she is. It seems ridiculous to just be like "Pfffft, no big deal, everyone gets trolled online." I'd be scared. I think it was brave of her to continue the campaign in spite of the threats. I'd be terrified one of those guys really was a psycho who would make good on a threat.

And like Waheela said, just because you don't see something, doesnt mean it didn't occur. I saw the comments on the trailer for her kickstarter project. They were sickening. Criticism is not the same as a violent threat. Why do people think its acceptable? "Oh, it's the internet, just take it on the chin! They'll get bored!" How do you know that? How do you know one of them isn't going to actually carry out the threats? There are some sick individuals in the world. Violence against women is not uncommon.

You know what else, being silent has never solved bullying and harassment in my experience. In isolated incidents maybe, but this isn't just about Anita, harassment against women is prevalent online, and it just allows it to continue unchallenged. I think showing that these things happen is important. I think taking a stand is important. As a community, the more people who say "That's not cool. Don't do that shit." the less people will do it. Social pressure affects change. There will always be a few jerks, but if the gaming community actually said "Guys this is fucking awful, stop it!" then maybe it would lessen considerably. If people just twiddle their thumbs while people send harassing messages like "I'm going to impregnate you and force you to have a late term abortion." (From the Jenny Hanniver story regarding rape threats on Xbox Live.)It's not acceptable to threaten someone like that as far as I'm concerned.

At the end of the day she doesn't want to subject her pages to a stream of violent threats for the sake of one or two intelligent comments. It's not like by disabling youtube comments she's somehow disabled free speech or criticism of her videos. We are discussing her now so what's the big deal? I think it's better she disable them than it become a stream of vile abuse. That doesn't do anyone any good. There are response videos with open comments so people can have their say there if youtube comments are so essential to this whole debate. Or youtubers can make a response video as many have.

I would also like to have the good counter arguments recommended to me for the sake of balance. I'm not inclined to sift through many angry response videos to find a few kernels of good content so if anyone has any of these good counter points they can direct me too I'd appreciate it.

I've seen plenty of sickening comments on plenty of YouTube accounts belonging to people of either male or female gender, fact.

My solution, which is rather cost effective, is to do the best you can by ignoring it (feel free to report to twitter/youtube by all means! Ban comments if you want less evidence though I guess?), move on and hopefully they will get bored and hopefully they won't murder you.

You provide a lot of points I agree with, in fact, I agree with everything you say.

But please explain your solution to the problem.

I'm also slightly dubious about the 'massive campaign' against her. Maybe I stick to the more genteel areas of the internet, I don't know, but I've seen basically no abuse of Anita Sarkeesian. I've seen plenty of well constructed posts countering and debating things she has said and a couple of joke images (Her with some tangled up Christmas lights and a message saying "I bet the Patriarchy did this" - stuff like that) but nothing genuinely hateful. Due to the fact that she's done so much work disabling comments I can't evaluate for myself - I don't want to be unkind to her but I'm sceptical whenever somebody makes complaints about 'trolls' and 'abuse'. Having put up with plenty of abuse myself I have little patience for thin-skinned people and most people are prone to exaggerate the level of trolling around.

Again, sorry, I'm a little confused. Are you saying that because you haven't seen it in your circles, it doesn't exist? All this is documented on her website: http://www.feministfrequency.com/2012/07/image-based-harassment-and-visual-misogyny/

Welcome to the internet Anita, you must be new here.

I can guarantee (using the same scientific backing as Anita's arguments) that Rebecca Black has got and will still get far more trolling than Anita.

Ignore it, move on, they'll grow up/get bored eventually. Making a page like that probably just spurs them on more.

I think having that backup of a click track or metronome really adds a professional touch with the simple nature of the music you are creating. I don't mean that in a bad way, but when listening it's 100% focused on the one instrument so I did notice it swaying a little bit too much for my liking.

On a side note about digital music: I personally don't play piano, keyboard etc, just guitar. I also really dislike theory so only really know basic notes/chords and I leave the rest up to my imagination, what sounds good, sounds good type of thing. So when I write piano I always do it digitally, literally don't own a keyboard so I have no other choice. But I find it really easy and love making big pieces in midi. I use guitar pro (because I came from a guitar background I like writing in tab format), I then transfer the midi into a DAW (like Reaper, for example - can't big this program up enough) and then run the midi through a VST like Massive (bit expensive but you get the idea).

After practicing a bit with this method I can guarantee you I will never be going near a keyboard to even attempt to learn to play one properly as it will never live up to what I can create digitally. Obviously you have a lot of talent on piano so it might be worth getting a midi input but I think it's a bit of each to their own. I'm getting so into digital music now that I only ever use my guitar amp if I want to perform live, if I'm recording I just boot up Guitar Rig. Granted I only record on an amateur nature, but so few of the general public would ever know the difference between a VST and an amp.

And lastly, the music (I felt mean not giving some feedback about the actual songs!), I generally really like the songs. I wouldn't worry about them being repetitive if they are being used in a game either, it's almost better as the player shouldn't really be focused on the music so you don't want to have a beautiful 20 minute composition that the player only notices 1 minute of, unless you are a dedicated musician with a big budget and a long time-frame I think you're songs are of a decent length (perhaps even too long - more songs all around 4 minutes would be time better spent maybe?).

• "Smooth" I see as the opening scene and the menu with the game title etc.
• "Solitude" I would expect to be used in a more serious part of a game perhaps of a horror-ish/noir genre in maybe a large dining room, or a study (somewhere in a mansion basically - or similar) etc
• "For you" seems to fit perfectly for the end game credits or end scene.

Overall they are all pieces that I think would be best attached to a serious project with a real-life or very real sci-fi element.

Hope that helps!

Out of interest, were you playing to a click or a metronome?

Nice game, the background is a little grating after a while, but that's only me nitpicking as I couldn't really find much else to fault.

Puzzles were pretty well balanced and if not for the lack of possibly some more of the more inventive ones (you know which one i mean!) and a few too many basic object combining/using it really was a very professional set of puzzles.

Spoiler

The hoverboard was literally perfect timing for me as I was definitely feeling a little depressed at the thought of walking everywhere!

However, that did present one small bug (more of a glitch) in that you can select the hoverboard whilst in the hotel and see the large version of the pixely sprite of CD on the board.

[close]

Congrats on the release and I look forward to DHAMSB

It's one thing to say that her video caused someone to go away and develop that idea (obviously a good thing), but it's another to suggest that it will sway the big corporations (which we have already seen in LEGO's case was a complete disaster as they just created a barbie cupcake making LEGO set because they are idiots).

Lego are far from idiots. The girl-oriented "Lego Friends" line was the result of trying to answer the question "Why are so few girls playing with Legos?" and involved serious and thorough research into how girls play and pick toys, and how adults choose which toys to buy for them. What they came up with was successful both design-wise and commercially.

Agreed, but you're missing my point as I was too broad with that statement, my bad. What I mean is that yes, LEGO will make something that sells (let's not go down that route again as we all know something needs to sell). LEGO are idiots in the respect that in an effort silence feminists they thought that a pink cupcake making machine was going to work. I mean, come on. (Yes, I'm well aware silencing feminists is a broad statement, but that HAD to be at least ONE of the goals of that LEGO set.)

I have no idea what most of the trophies are when I look at someone's signature.

^ This.

Okay, this is getting a bit wordy, but I want to touch upon something that is being repeated everywhere, here and in comment sections throughout the web:

Do something constructive instead of whining! Create a game of your own, dammit!

This is absurd for two reasons:
1. Anita clearly isn't a game maker.
2. Anita isn't simply saying that we need more games with strong female characters, she's saying that we need to stop producing games with stereotypical gender roles. It's not like she can undo others' doings.

I mean, it would be a totally differnt thing if I made videos and started blogs complaining that games need more profound stories, because a) I'm a game designer, and b) by creating a game with a more profound story I'm actually remedying the situation. So that's simple. But saying that Anita should make a game and stop complaining is like telling an animals' rights activist that he can create his own laboratory, where he's free not to torture animals. While an interesting thought, it doesn't really undo the wrongdoings of others.

A lot of people here are saying that she doesn't provide a solution, she's just complaining. I think she's said quite clearly what the solution is: Stop depicting women stereotypically. It's not like she's telling people to invent some kind of brand new vaccine or something; it's actually a simple suggestion. "Hey, I see you're planning on giving your female character huge, gravity-defying boobs and a big cleavage. How about rendering those breasts more realistically, and dressing her more practically? Just a thought."

Yes, the first argument is painfully obviously wrong. We know this, it's been said by almost everyone in rebuttal, let's just put that down to someone not being able to formulate his/her argument very well.

Yes, she does indeed make a point, a point that could be explained in 30 seconds (very much like you have done in the above paragraph) that she instead decides to bury in 10 minutes of complaining and showcasing all the games she hates so much.

What the 'create your own game' remark should be saying is: SHOW US EXAMPLES of games that prove your point Anita for the MAJORITY of your video. Since Anita's point is only opinion (I don't ever see this social 'scientist' ever presenting facts or figures?) she can easily switch the positive/negative parts of her video around, in my opinion

Anita doesn't provide a solution, in my opinion, because she is making points like "How about rendering those breasts more realistically, and dressing her more practically? Just a thought." which plain and simply are aimed at totally the wrong place. She is not going to change the minds of huge gaming companies that make unrealistic breasts because as has been pointed out a billion times, what sells, sells. She needs to educate the CONSUMERS so that when they see unrealistic breasts, instead of thinking "Sweet, I love big jiggly boobs, I'll buy that!" they think, "Wow, that's a shoddy representation of a woman, what a crappy developer just trying to get my money with rubbish like jiggly boobs, I will not buy that!". Her videos are not aimed at consumers, so I don't think she's doing anywhere near as much good as she could be doing.

Funnily enough, the more I read comments from users on this board, the more I dislike Anita's videos (and I'm talking about the people defending her). I tend to agree with almost all defence of her because at the end of the day, she's doing nothing wrong with producing these videos and they will do some good for the world (I'm just nitpicking because I feel like it and it's my right to do so if I want to, in response to why I don't moan at Zero Punctuation (which is completely different anyway as it's for comedic value)). I just think it's funny that almost all of the people defending her put their points across in a better way, they are far less condescending, patronising and also enforce Anitas videos to the point where I think you should get in touch with Anita and tell her to add your points so that less people can complain about the videos!

People have created inspiring female Lego sets off the back of it being brought to their attention. Sarkeesian bring attention to issues, there is nothing wrong with that. Showing people there is a problem isn't a bad thing. It allows other people to find solutions. She can see a problem and bring it to light without having the skills or power to fix it. Complaining doesn't solve problems, but it does bring them to peoples attentions and personally I dont see her videos as her just ranting about things. She is trying to show people there is an issue and then a few people watch them and say "Hey I can do something about that!"

Here are the minifigs that are being petitioned

Totally agree with that. In fact, I find myself thinking more about gender stereotypes when looking at game trailers etc, which is a good thing, and I am aware she is not just ranting

However, you only really enforce my point by showing me that link. If her video had mostly been about the link you described (and others perhaps?) then I would have genuinely enjoyed it, as I thought those female mini figs look absolutely awesome!

It's one thing to say that her video caused someone to go away and develop that idea (obviously a good thing), but it's another to suggest that it will sway the big corporations (which we have already seen in LEGO's case was a complete disaster as they just created a barbie cupcake making LEGO set because they are idiots). The trouble is, she needs to change the view of the people buying the LEGO, so that they either don't buy it or tell LEGO to start making the stuff like in the link before they do buy it.

She's not a game maker though. She's a feminist and a social scientist... ...The problem with saying "Don't complain!" or "If you dont like it fix it yourself!" Is that it is an incredibly reductive attitude... ...Sarkeesian makes videos about feminism and runs Feminist Frequency. She isn't a game maker. Her not producing a game does not make her criticisms or arguments any less valid

I'm personally (I know that wasn't necessarily aimed at me) not saying she needs to go away and create a game or cook a meal, but don't make a video with 90% moaning about something being bad and 10% showing games which she likes, do it the other way around. Explain what the games she likes do better. Tell me where I can get better food etc.

You can still be a feminist and a social scientist and not just moan about what is bad about the world.

You know who is the solution to the problem? Game makers, especially those without a specific agenda. When we show that we can make games that are popular and fun without being sexist (which she did show with examples like Fez)then we pave the way for consumers to get used to that sort of content. We show publishers that these games can exist and be successful.

I don't agree with that entirely. You need more than a few indie developers that make a minimal impact on gaming to change it. Much more importantly, you need to get to the consumers directly and begin to change their point of view as well, and frankly, she doesn't do this very well (if at all).

I personally believe in the power of symbols, even the most subtle ones. I believe we're profoundly affected by the tinies signals, if we keep being exposed to them.

Most posters here have testified that their personal opinions would never be influenced by stereotypes seen in games or movies, but most people also don't believe they're influenced by commercials when they shop for groceries. And then we haven't even mentioned yet how young, impressionable children are affected.

I once held a sex ed course (yeah, really) for my 8-9-graders, and the amount of misinformation, stereotypes and prejudices they harboured was staggering. It was so obvious how their views on women (and what they're supposed to look and act like) were more or less a direct product of mainstream media, and especially video games.

Absolutely spot on point, which I also believe highlights the larger point of why I dislike a lot of her videos.

Andail is effectively saying that children are influenced by video games that (for example) portray a world with no women, or perhaps only thin woman with large breasts etc, however, no one has discussed how that problem is fixed, or sorted out. Just mentioning that there is a problem is not an effective way to fix a problem in a large amount of cases.

Which is why I think she should be highlighting and discussing what games are moving forward with the times, rather than harping on and on about boring tropes and stereotypes. They exist, get over it, moaning about them isn't going to change jack sh*t. Create a video aimed at kids that highlights cool games they can play (that don't portray gender stereotypes) and then if you want to include a classroom learning element, sneak it in there subliminally like an advert would.

Also, the LEGO argument is a classic example of moaning doing absolutely nothing to further her cause. Why not use all that massive amount of time she spent researching how rubbish LEGO was at creating a product for women to actually sit down and develop a product example for LEGO to go away and test. Present to them an idea for how she thinks it should be changed and try to get LEGO to actually go out into the world and try it out. I want to see some facts, figures, examples, not some one-sided opinion!

Yea, that video was 95% rubbish. I think I could sum in 30 words what she took 10 mins to insanely patronisingly, one-sided-ly, 'explain' to me about LEGO. I think that's the last one I'll watch but I wish her luck with the various points I agreed with in her other videos.

I can't be bothered to watch the 3rd part, but since it hasn't been mentioned in this thread: the latest Tomb Raider game. Not only is it amazing in almost every respect, it's heroine is a plausible, real, strong woman. Does she mention the game? Cause it doesn't appear in the lists of the 2nd or 3rd part.
Seems like a weird omission, given that it is a perfect example of what I guess Sarkeesian wants to see more of.

I don't believe she does mention Tomb Raider, possibly due to the irony of the original being exactly what she doesn't like about female protagonists

I agree her delivery can be a little monotonous and patronizing, but she's clearly explaining concepts to people that may have never heard anything like this in their lives. Her videos are also designed to be used in a classroom setting or as a teaching aid for parents and kids. They aren't flashy, but they are rich in content and easy to pause and explain and so it makes more sense when you view them as a teaching aid.

Hang on, I actively chose to watch those videos, and I found them boring but pained my way through as I could understand it wasn't all bad. Trying to use a boring video to teach a class of kids about something they don't really want to hear about sounds like a nightmare haha

One point, (which I believe was made by an idiot) which went something like: "If you want to see more games about females etc etc, go and make them.". This rings quite true to me unfortunately, although the point is made in a stupid way, obviously you don't need to go and make a game to be able to argue for games to change. However, surely the best way for her to get her point across would have been to focus (and heavily promote) the games that exemplify her point of view rather than those that don't. Rather than watching the videos and then feeling like playing Mario, she should of made the user want to go and buy Beyond Good and Evil or To The Moon etc.

Totally agree about the comments as well. If anything, turning them on would help prove her point even more.

Isn't that the whole point of satire? It's supposed to be ironic and funny. It's supposed to laugh at these ridiculous tropes.

Is anyone actually offended by this? Is this actually a bad thing?

What do you guys think?

The point at which she started discussing satire was really difficult for me. I don't think she could of got that more wrong, but I let it slide as she mostly stayed on the right track. I think comedy/satire is a completely different discussion and she should of left it out entirely, someone joking about sexism/sexist topics is TOTALLY different to someone on purposely being sexist, unknowingly being sexist or being sexist with intention of hurting someone else, pretty much end of!

Am I the only one who thought these videos were well thought out, raised a good point, but were, really, really, boring and drawn out?

I think the fact that games are made to fit a market is sort of missing the point (sorry kconan), because surely it's the fact they are made to fit a market which doesn't understand that they are having games made to 'fit' them that is the issue.

e.g. If these videos were shown to all gamers, a lot might think to themselves "Oh yea, I have been playing horribly sexist games and never realised!". Which in turn might change the way they think about/buy games in general, which in turn might make developers develop games with a larger variety of tropes/stories/etc?

However, I think there should be a video which is more of a summary, that highlights the main points and the main games which are either side of the spectrum. Once the user has watched this more 'accessible' version of the argument, then the three videos that are currently available could be extra reading and a more in-depth version of the argument.

P.S. I must be a rare breed of 'man/bloke/male/etc' as I just really don't care about tropes and blah blah blah blah blah. If a game is/looks fun and enjoyable, I will buy it and I will play it. I really liked Beyond Good and Evil, what an awesome game, I also really like Zelda. I played Mass Effect 1 as a female, I played the second as a male, I could go on but I understand this is more about the mass market.

Well, I set myself the task of learning to draw, so I guess this is pretty much perfect, so sign me up please and fingers crossed I don't insult someone's game too much

Well I'll give it to you nihilyst (if Surplusguy is happy with that!), close enough for me

If you are having trouble with a custom inventory, but don't know how to code an inventory, then you should be using a template, plain and simple!

House of the Dead 2 I believe