Carolyn Petit

Yes, yes, people all hate Gamespot and zomg it's the end of Giant Bomb. That's fine. Gamespot takes a different approach than GiantBomb in their coverage and that's fine, to me at least. I'll openly admit I don't follow Gamespot. And I'm not a member on Gamespot, so I have no opinions on their actual content. I'm not gonna bash them for it. But I'll understand if people don't like Gamespot. None the less, I think Gamespot deserves major credit for hiring Carolyn as an editor, and I think huge props are due to Carolyn for being so open about her transition. So, I hope GiantBomb duders at least give Gamespot credit for being so progressive.

This could have been a blog post, and maybe at some point it will be, but I'm rather tired right now.

You should have made this a blog post. Because there doesn't seem to be a whole lot of discussion value here.

But maybe I'm crazy.

The only thing I don't like about Gamespot is trying to read through the comments to their reviews and/or news stories. Holy hell, if you think people flip out on Giant Bomb whenever a game they like get a bad score, take a look at Gamespot and enjoy what we have here.

If you really think about, the rest why people hate Gamespot is because of it's userbase, not the actual people who work there.

@Cincaid: Ho, man. The comments section, especially on Carolyn's videos? Painful.

Placing value on an Editorial choice, due to someones societal standings is shortsighted and idiotic. I don't give a fuck what Carolyn is going through personally, or has gone through in relation to a professional editorial perspective. On a personal note i have only but support for Carolyn. Its great that society is moving forward, and that companies like GameSpot wont discriminate based on arbitrary circumstances in relation to the actual demands of the position. But in the same manner you shouldn't automatically attribute respect of integrity within the profession, due to circumstances that have no relation to editorial integrity.

GiantBomb should not give credit to GameSpot for their progressive stance on human rights. More so society should give credit to GameSpot for their progressive stance ( Even though they don't really have a choice unless they want a human rights lawsuit on their hands.) . GiantBomb should only give props to GameSpot in terms of editorial integrity, professionalism, transparency etc. On the other hand the crew can be grateful in the capacity of a member of society. You can be a great person, but that doesn't translate to professional respect if you suck at your job. You shouldn't mix the two concepts. Can i repeat myself in any other fashion?

On that note, i'm indifferent about Carolyn''s editorial work.

I'm not saying that Giant Bomb should give Gamespot props for editorial integrity. I'm not trying to even insinuate that, nor am I asking for the posters on GiantBomb to give Gamespot editorial integrity props. Way to misread. Or maybe I didn't communicate clearly enough. I was just commenting on what I observe: people hate on Gamespot for their approach to games journalism, and have concerns that the merger with Giant Bomb and Gamespot means Giant Bomb will become Gamespot-lite. I'm coming from a 'societal' point of view. A humanitarian point of view, I guess. I just think it's rad that Gamespot is so open about Carolyn's transition. And I think it should be acknowledged, at least--yes, from a human rights point of view.

We are assholes, unfortunately. Not Giant Bomb users, but, yes, to be cliché, us as a society. We identify people as something, and that's all we do. That influences everything about them. As soon as Carolyn's transition process came out, people condemned her, and Gamespot. It was no longer about her editorial ability, but her transsexuality. And it made me fuccccccccccccccking loathe Gamespot's userbase.

Who?

@deathstriker666: Man that became a woman. Works at gamespot

@Willtron: Your op is directly relating GB to GameSpot, and does not mention anything about a societal point of view. Neither does it include anything relating to the GameSpot user base. So yes you did not communicate clearly in any sense of the phrase.

Because GB is part of society. I didn't figure one could connect editorial style to a transgender person. But that's my own thinking--one thinks they can be understood because shit makes sense in their head. I didn't make it obvious enough, obviously. I'll, uh, separate it into some paragraphs--no I won't, I'm lazy. But, uh, sorry? Calm yer tits there. O_o

The GB crowd is more mature than the GS crowd in some ways... But that's because GB caters to a different type of audience. By the way, the comments about Jane Douglas on the Star Select videos are pretty bad too...

@Castermhief117 said:

The GB crowd is more mature than the GS crowd in some ways... But that's because GB caters to a different type of audience. By the way, the comments about Jane Douglas on the Star Select videos are pretty bad too...

gonna have to disagree with you on that one, buddy.

@Willtron: I don't necessarily agree that we should give them a ton of credit or praise for hiring Carolyn Petit, but we definitely shouldn't hold it against them or make a big deal of it. That would be idiotic and juvenile. What matters is whether Carolyn does a good job, and since she is decent, I don't think there's any reason to give them any special credit or crap about hiring her.

I'll praise Carolyn if her content is good and complain if her content is bad.

Who is she and why does Gamespot deserve props for hiring her?

@ShadowConqueror said:

Who is she and why does Gamespot deserve props for hiring her?

Carolyn Petit is a transgender game reviewer at GameSpot.

If reviewing games didn't get someone enough crap already, she also gets crap just for being who she is.

The comments section of her videos are pathetic.

@ShadowConqueror said:

Who is she and why does Gamespot deserve props for hiring her?

She's transgender, and puts up with an unimaginable amount of abuse from the gaming community because of it.

Welcome to 2012 I hear companies are even hiring them coloured folks too.

I'll give Gamespot "props", but it shouldn't be an accomplishment in 2012 to hire someone who is transgender. You're supposed to if he/she is qualified. It's the law not to discriminate. It's like the Chris Rock stand-up "I take care of my kids." "You're supposed to!" It would be a tad gross to pat one's self on the back for hiring a transgendered person, because the person's identity shouldn't matter. At all.

I remember her from the GS forums and followed her blogs years ago. I never read her "official" work, but I recall her first video review was put on Youtube and more than half the comments acted like they've never seen a transgendered person before. Shame.

And Giant Bomb has the same amount of assholes as anywhere else.

I think the gamespot youtube comments are worse whenever she does a review.

@will_leisure said:

I'll give Gamespot "props", but it shouldn't be an accomplishment in 2012 to hire someone who is transgender. You're supposed to if he/she is qualified. It's the law not to discriminate. It's like the Chris Rock stand-up "I take care of my kids." "You're supposed to!" It would be a tad gross to pat one's self on the back for hiring a transgendered person, because the person's identity shouldn't matter. At all.

I remember her from the GS forums and followed her blogs years ago. I never read her "official" work, but I recall her first video review was put on Youtube and more than half the comments acted like they've never seen a transgendered person before. Shame.

And Giant Bomb has the same amount of assholes as anywhere else.

Mostly agree with you. Your identity shouldn't matter, what matters is the work you produce.

However, being one of the major editors of a gaming website, your image is going to be shown and exposed to the internet community. Gamespot chose to hire an individual who would undoubtedly spark a lot of ignorant online debates and controversy. This "issue" could be sensitive to some people out there, enough so that Gamespot could lose readership just because they hired Carolyn.

Think of all the major websites, tv shows, and publications that denied people not because of their skills but because of their identity. But Gamespot chose otherwise, and for that I think Gamespot does deserve some credit.

@Castermhief117 said:

By the way, the comments about Jane Douglas on the Star Select videos are pretty bad too...

To be fair, Jane Douglas is rather attractive ;)

@TruthTellah said:

@ShadowConqueror said:

Who is she and why does Gamespot deserve props for hiring her?

Carolyn Petit is a transgender game reviewer at GameSpot.

If reviewing games didn't get someone enough crap already, she also gets crap just for being who she is.

Only in today's mixed up society does paying doctors thousands of dollars to drastically and permanently change your appearance equate to being yourself. In fact gender reassignment is the height of not accepting who you are. You can't transfer reproductive organs so these changes are largely cosmetic and superficial albeit incredibly dangerous and extremely unhealthy. Why does someone who resorts to surgery and dangerous hormone drugs deserve more credit and support than someone who actually accepts the body they were born with? I think the individual who is capable of finding happiness at a deeper level than what they see in the mirror is the type of person you should really admire. If an individual decides they're unhappy with the race they were born as decides to change their skin color the "progressives" don't cheer them on. When Jamaicans bleach their skin to try to appear white nobody says its a great thing representing "progress". What's the difference, neither person is happy with how they were born. I just feel sorry for these people, they're not going to find true happiness under a knife, there are bigger issues they're not truly dealing with.

I've known her on Gamespot since 2007, I'm pretty sure she was hired because of her well-written reviews. She had been on the site since 2004, but only showed herself on video at the end of 2007. That's when the shit hit the fan.

@Castermhief117: As far as credit goes, I think they already got quite a bit of credit back when she was brought on board, even if most of the reaction to the news was "Wait, GameSpot is still around?"

So, more credit now is unnecessary. I'll regard GameSpot well because I trust Jeff when he says they're doing some good things there, but for this move almost a year ago, GameSpot shouldn't get any special regard now. When it comes down to weighing whether they're a good site to like or a bad site to dislike, their content is what truly matters.

@Willtron: Caro is a great reviewer and someone i played some games with in the past, shes very approachable and actually good at games which lends her some credibility.

@buft said:

@Willtron: Caro is a great reviewer and someone i played some games with in the past, shes very approachable and actually good at games which lends her some credibility.

unlike Brad.

You know, Carolyn worked at Gamespot before she became a woman. He was in one of the button mashing episodes as a dude. A girly dude.

I have got my pronouns all mixed up. I AM CONFUSED

I love Carolyn, and I usually agree with her assessments of games. She's like Kevin VanOrd's love for "art games" mixed with Jeff's love of pure mechanics.

@Daiphyer said:

You know, Carolyn worked at Gamespot before she became a woman. He was in one of the button mashing episodes as a dude. A girly dude.

I have got my pronouns all mixed up. I AM CONFUSED

Get it?

@Marz said:

I think the gamespot youtube comments are worse whenever she does a review.

as opposed to...? For the love of Pete, does a Youtube post contain anything positive in the comments section? As to Caro, she's a good writer and a good reviewer. She writes her opinions about video games. We aren't talking about striving for a Pulitzer here. Even with the duders here at GB, we aren't talking about journalism about important things. We are talking about people that write about entertainment.

@Willtron said:

Yes, yes, people all hate Gamespot and zomg it's the end of Giant Bomb. That's fine. Gamespot takes a different approach than GiantBomb in their coverage and that's fine, to me at least. I'll openly admit I don't follow Gamespot. And I'm not a member on Gamespot, so I have no opinions on their actual content. I'm not gonna bash them for it. But I'll understand if people don't like Gamespot. None the less, I think Gamespot deserves major credit for hiring Carolyn as an editor, and I think huge props are due to Carolyn for being so open about her transition. So, I hope GiantBomb duders at least give Gamespot credit for being so progressive.

This could have been a blog post, and maybe at some point it will be, but I'm rather tired right now.

Not really any context here that explains who Carolyn Petit is or why we should care . . . ?

@Cincaid said:

The only thing I don't like about Gamespot is trying to read through the comments to their reviews and/or news stories. Holy hell, if you think people flip out on Giant Bomb whenever a game they like get a bad score, take a look at Gamespot and enjoy what we have here.

The primary issues I've always had with GameSpot are that their forums/comments are as bad as the worst comments on any Youtube video and that the website always seems so full of advertising and spam and attempts to generate unnecessary additional clicking and page-loads that they're almost more "search engine spam content farm" than "gaming website". Also, nothing about it feels like a community.

@CL60 said:

The comments section of her videos are pathetic.

@ShadowConqueror said:

Who is she and why does Gamespot deserve props for hiring her?

She's transgender, and puts up with an unimaginable amount of abuse from the gaming community because of it.

Well, if that's true, then I'm sure all of those twelve year old kids will grow up and stop giving a fuck, since they'll inevitably end up working alongside one or more transgendered persons in their life time. I had a colleague that was named Mike the first time I met him (we work in different geographies and every few years, have business events to attend to on the campus headquarters). A few years later, I met him again. His name was now Michelle. It was a surprise and kind of a shock and it didn't matter a god damn and nobody else cared, either.

I think a lot of these kids will grow up and, without living under the roof of their own parents indoctrination of ignorance, will mostly conclude that some people feel differently than they appear and that there are very complex and sometimes explainable motivations behind why they do what they do or change who they are or appear to be and that unless you're that person, it's pretty fucking irrelevant.

I mean, if you're fucking someone and a few weeks down the road they're like "hey, so I used to be a dude/chick", then -- yeah -- freak out and be weirded out and upset. But short of that, the only impact it has on anyone is in making them confront their own senseless anger and hatred every time they see the person. Because it doesn't bother the rest of us, while they work themselves all up over it like a religious-nut shitting their pants trying to argue how there's no way they believe "humans came from dirty chimps!".

@Branthog said:

I mean, if you're fucking someone and a few weeks down the road they're like "hey, so I used to be a dude/chick", then -- yeah -- freak out and be weirded out and upset.

If you've seen a person totally naked and have done the sex0r with them but couldn't tell they used to be a different gender, does it really matter?

I guess if the sex wasn't so good and you needed to get out of that relationship, that would be the perfect excuse, but still.

We should congratulate GameSpot for hiring someone "different?"

She knows her stuff and does a good job with what she's doing. That's all that matters.

@Marz said:

I think the gamespot youtube comments are worse whenever she does a review.

as opposed to...? For the love of Pete, does a Youtube post contain anything positive in the comments section? As to Caro, she's a good writer and a good reviewer. She writes her opinions about video games. We aren't talking about striving for a Pulitzer here. Even with the duders here at GB, we aren't talking about journalism about important things. We are talking about people that write about entertainment.

Y'all are crazy. We don't have to give them credit for hiring Carolyn. She's a good writer and has a huge library of game knowledge. I mean huge. The review comments suck but so do all review comments.

@Ravenlight said:

@Branthog said:

I mean, if you're fucking someone and a few weeks down the road they're like "hey, so I used to be a dude/chick", then -- yeah -- freak out and be weirded out and upset.

If you've seen a person totally naked and have done the sex0r with them but couldn't tell they used to be a different gender, does it really matter?

I guess if the sex wasn't so good and you needed to get out of that relationship, that would be the perfect excuse, but still.

Yeah, I don't see why someone would be upset either. If all appearances were that they were the gender you thought they were, then that's what they were to you.

@BrockNRolla said:

@Ravenlight said:

@Branthog said:

I mean, if you're fucking someone and a few weeks down the road they're like "hey, so I used to be a dude/chick", then -- yeah -- freak out and be weirded out and upset.

If you've seen a person totally naked and have done the sex0r with them but couldn't tell they used to be a different gender, does it really matter?

I guess if the sex wasn't so good and you needed to get out of that relationship, that would be the perfect excuse, but still.

Yeah, I don't see why someone would be upset either. If all appearances were that they were the gender you thought they were, then that's what they were to you.

That's like saying that if I convinced you that I'm a sexy spy and you discover that I'm actually a carpet salesman, all that matters is that you thought I was a sexy spy. There are plenty of reasons someone might be put off by that discovery. For one, no matter how open minded you are, you might find it kind of oogy for your own sexual involvement. And if nothing else, you at least deserve to have the information so you can make that determination yourself. Second, there's a trust/honesty issue. And, finally (though there are probably other things I haven't thought of), perhaps you want to have your own biological children naturally. Misleading someone and not giving them the right to make their own determination is pretty devious - whether it's that you're married, you have an STD, you have kids, or you used to be another gender. Especially if you've made a significant change to yourself based on the same premise that you have the right to make informed decisions about your own life.

Although I don't know how that necessarily applies to a one-night stand. Maybe that's a different case. It's not like any of this is my place to judge other than for my own self, anyway.

And, of course, we're nowhere near the capacity for medical science to accomplish a transformation that is so seamless, anyway -- so I'm not sure there are that many actual instances of "well holy shit, I didn't know until like a month into the relationship!".

Unfortunately, a big chunk of our society is still hung up on "gal'dern, you mean dudes liken' other dudes? That just ain't right" and "we don't take kindly to none of that intermixin' round here!", so people who feel that their physical gender doesn't match their psychological gender are going to continue to have a difficult time for a very long time to come. :/

What does it matter if shes from Iran?

Sadly the clip misses out the epic fist fight between the two of them....

But yes, couldn't give a monkey's about who the reviewer is when I read an article to be honest and I dont think GameSpot deserves any "special" credit aside from perhaps picking up a good reviewer? As for GameSpot, Ive never felt moved to sign up there, its not exactly welcoming.

Welcome to ...4 years ago isn't it? She's been on the site for awhile so I dunno about you but we should be past this coming up

When I first saw Caolyn, I just thought she was a gay dude, then I saw the name and got super confused. She just doesn't register as a woman for me.

@Branthog said:

@BrockNRolla said:

@Ravenlight said:

@Branthog said:

I mean, if you're fucking someone and a few weeks down the road they're like "hey, so I used to be a dude/chick", then -- yeah -- freak out and be weirded out and upset.

If you've seen a person totally naked and have done the sex0r with them but couldn't tell they used to be a different gender, does it really matter?

I guess if the sex wasn't so good and you needed to get out of that relationship, that would be the perfect excuse, but still.

Yeah, I don't see why someone would be upset either. If all appearances were that they were the gender you thought they were, then that's what they were to you.

Although I don't know how that necessarily applies to a one-night stand. Maybe that's a different case. It's not like any of this is my place to judge other than for my own self, anyway.

And, of course, we're nowhere near the capacity for medical science to accomplish a transformation that is so seamless, anyway -- so I'm not sure there are that many actual instances of "well holy shit, I didn't know until like a month into the relationship!".

Unfortunately, a big chunk of our society is still hung up on "gal'dern, you mean dudes liken' other dudes? That just ain't right" and "we don't take kindly to none of that intermixin' round here!", so people who feel that their physical gender doesn't match their psychological gender are going to continue to have a difficult time for a very long time to come. :/

I was referring to a "one-night stand," not a long term relationship. I would definitely agree that in the long term, transgender issues would be something two people would want to discuss in regard to their relationship.

I simply think, just like being homosexual, your manner of sexual identification, whether gay or straight, male or female, is up to you. It isn't effecting me, so regardless of whether or not I understand it, or feel comfortable with it, or agree with it, it just isn't something I am qualified to make a judgement about. It's cool for people to have opinions about whatever they want, however misinformed they might be, but people don't have a right to impose their will upon others when they aren't being effected.

This is going beyond the ken of the original conversation conversation, but it is merely to say that people who have serious issues with transgender issues, or any other sexual orientation issue, shouldn't be hating on other people just because they are different.

@Tearhead said:

When I first saw Caolyn, I just thought she was a gay dude, then I saw the name and got super confused. She just doesn't register as a woman for me.

Thankfully, her gender and sexual identity are not predicated on you understanding it.

Gamestop proper is fine but I think they have a piss poor community and they kind of did back in the heyday as well. Honestly, when I was big into 1UP and that community it sucked too. Look back at all the old 1Up Yours...they took more questions from freaking NeoGaf than they took from their own community.

@Toms115 said:

@Castermhief117 said:

The GB crowd is more mature than the GS crowd in some ways... But that's because GB caters to a different type of audience. By the way, the comments about Jane Douglas on the Star Select videos are pretty bad too...

gonna have to disagree with you on that one, buddy.

Yeah, im sure everyone remembers the comments about Sara when we used to have the happy hour, ranging from insulting to down right sickening, the majority of folk here seem to be well adjusted and mature but it only takes a vocal minority to bring the tone of the place down.

@kagato: That's what the mods are for. If people are acting like idiots then let us know and we will get rid of them. If people were less tolerant of shitty behaviour then this website, and the internet in general, would be a much nicer place.

@Sweep: I totally agree but we just had a big live show and once again we had insulting comments about Sara again and various ones about Norman Chan and both of the contestants on the comic question quizz. Its hard for the mods to be everywhere and i have to say, Zombiepie was right with his concerns during the premium feed. People need to be more respectfull and think how their comments effect others, sure it just annoys me to see members of the community i love and belong to acting like jackasses, but the people they are targeting could really be hurt by those comments. I dont know, i guess i just hold our community up to a higher standard than most and feel really disapointed when they let all of us down.

I wouldn't be so quick to praise Gamespot for their support of Petit. Let's face it, anything other than unconditional support would probably result in a law suit.