Tropes Vs. Women in Video Games Ep1

Episode 1 is live gang. Watch and discuss.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X6p5AZp7r_Q

I think these videos make some good critical points about her previous work, but I'm looking forward to watching this new series and judging it on its own. It's a serious subject, so I hope she does a better job with things this time.

And here...we...go...

Really, really good so far. Had no idea Star Fox Adventures was originally going to be a Krystal-centered game. That sax music. Jesus. This is fantastic work.

She goes after Shiggy hard in this one.

@officegamer: Still doesn't make it any less awful.

This'll surely turn out well...

@drdarkstryfe: And she backs it up with evidence. It's almost like she knows what she's doing! (Not saying you were skeptical, just to all the assholes on here)

Awesome. Glad the popular internet consensus of her just taking the Kickstarter money and running for the border has been disproven. Now maybe people will shut up about it.

I watched about 3/4 of the Damsel in Distress video and it seemed, for the most part, pretty objective about the subject matter it was tackling. I sort of expected it to get real preachy but I'm pleasantly surprised with what I've seen so far.

Way to go, Anita, and way to go, Kickstarter.

@pbhawks45 said:

Being awful is OK as long as you're not being racist or sexist my friend.

Her simple-minded view of artistic license has already been thoroughly debunked. Must we continue giving her attention?

It was a very well done video. She did a great job explaining the history of the trope, and how gaming has used it since the early days. She never spewed any vitriol and presented her proof in a very logical matter.

I'll be too busy playing Tomb Raider to watch this.

Or any of them, probably.

I'll be too busy playing and enjoying video games.

YUP. Good luck getting that through awful people's heads on here. Disgusting.

Looks well made and produced, and the content was presented well. Overall I think it's high quality material on a subject worth exploring.

Note: I was not a backer for this project.

I'm only going to say this once: keep it civil. If you can only say something that makes you sound like a dick then don't say anything at all.

Yeah lots of common stuff but I miss an analysis or some own stuff. You really have to love the "It is Nintendo's fault that games are like his" bullshit. but yeah lets see how she will cover modern games.

quoting this guy as i was just about to say the same thing.

and im running away from this thread

WHAT IS THAT BULGE IN PEACH'S CROTCH!?

I don't know, man. This video felt more like a history lesson than anything else. Good on her for finally delivering though.

Oh boy.

Can somebody explain to me why it took over $150,000 for what looks like a youtube series in which a woman basically reads facts from Wikipedia? I was expecting some kind of production value at least but, uh, it's kind of just a woman talking into a camera with clips from games showing in the corner.

I don't hate her on principle, in fact i'd love her to make something that genuinely made me think. This however just comes off as stating facts and doing nothing with them.

Where this discussion will go... only time will tell.

Wow, this is actually extremely well-done. Honestly, I wasn't a big fan of a lot of her past videos but this was fair, thorough and extremely well-researched. She just gained a fan.

Hah. I forgot it was that much money. Yikes. But I don't know. Who knows how much these videos cost? I don't. They could be $5 or $500,000 for all I know.

The real thing to be mad about is how she pronounces Karateka. GAWD

I think a lot of her examples can be easily explained by the fact they are old ass games, which are way more gameplay focused. They had precious little time to explain a plot, and the get the girl trope is a pretty easy plot to explain to the player in ten seconds. I think most sexism here is extrinsic to video games, and is based around ancient storytelling achetypes, which anybody can instantly recognise. Also the French seemed really pointless. Some good points though.

I have to say though that Starfox Adventure scene is super goofy though.

I wasn't feeling optimistic about this video series, but I must admit, I thought that was well done.

I think that was her point with all the re-releases and remakes. With all these old games constantly being released again and again on new hardware, it makes the trope relevant again.

This was much better than I expected, given her previous work. I'm not just talking about her Bayonetta video, but many of her previous videos that just have extremely feminist viewpoints. The song "Baby It's Cold Outside" essentially being about rape, and the the fact that The Big Bang Theory is sexist because most of the characters are male being the two most ridiculous examples that I can remember.

This was much more measured, and while I didn't agree with all of it, I did agree with most. It is kind of sad that Toad has to join another Toad to rescue the princess yet again, when Nintendo could just come up with SOMETHING else that would allow Peach to join in on the action.

She did a good job.

I find her face extremely annoying, and that makes it hard for me to listen to anything she has to say.

That might make me a dick, but whatever. Judging from her other vids, whatever she has to say probably isn't very important.

150,000 dollars and not even in 1080p? Should could have gotten a Red Epic camera.

Is it sexist if I say she's hot?

She asked for $6,000. It's not that hard understand. Good god, people.

I just finished watching the video, and I found it very interesting and well-produced. The Damsel in Distress trope certainly feels like a lazy plot device, and it's certainly something that the Mario and Zelda series could move away from. I'm excited to see some analysis of modern uses in the next episode.

Yes, but the way Kickstarter works is earning more than your goal amount means you have more money to spend on your project. It's not like the second you hit more than you wanted you can say "Well I guess I can just pocket the rest!". I'm not saying she has to make something huge, but more than an okay camera and some youtube clips would be nice.

Yeah, but the point is that they are remakes and re-releases, they have mirror the previous games to sell to the nostalgia crowd or what would be the point otherwise. There has to be some sort faithfulness to the original source for posterity.

I agree with the Zelda example, I think the adherence to the same overplayed story is a serious issue for the franchise. More widely with modern games it is disappointing that games still fall back on the same story that some stressed programmer probably thought up in the 80's; beyond any feminist arguments its just fucking boring. So yeah, leave the re-releases alone but question it in ongoing franchises.

So this took at least $6,000 and over a year to produce, and it's just her talking to a camera with some trailers and commercials thrown in with the help of Sony Vegas. If this is how the rest of the series will go, then I have to wonder where all that money went, and why it took so long.

The video itself was alright. Nothing new or surprising, but then again, she spent 23 minutes talking about sexism in video games....from 20 years ago, and I'm fairly positive the culture has changed since then. Unless she pulls something out of her hat in episode 2, this episode was wholly useless. And using Dante's Inferno as a preview for "modern damsels in distress" is a little bit of a misdirection. It's a modern game based off a centuries old story.

Yeah I definitely agree that for $150k one 23 minute movie really doesn't seem like value, I really think she should turn this a series of videos, possibly dozens. That would be the smart thing to do, just one video is really a scam!

It reminds me about that one time that some game company asked for $150k to add one character to a video game. How could it cost that much?! Obviously it's a scam!

Also these videos are so late! Sure it funded way over target but one should always plan for the unexpected, like the game that raise 3.4 million, that was due out in August of 2012 and it's also so late, what a big bunch of scams kickstarter is!!

well this was well done. she did her research, and although the presentation's a little dry- i enjoyed it! the only bit i slightly take issue with is the mention of double dragon neon- that game is so acutely self-aware that to be critical is redundant. she's not wrong, but it's like citing that sam jackson shaft remake as a blaxploitation film.

It is going to be a series of videos. Dude above me (I'm on my phone so I can't @ you).

EDIT:

@Salarn

There that's better.

Eurgh.

OK, just to make things a lot easier for the mods, if you see someone being a twat in this thread please do not quote their comment. Flag it or @reply it but don't quote it. Makes it a lot easier for us to remove. If we work together we can get through this. Alright? On 3....

1, 2, 3, BREAK!

@salarn: It says "Part one" and i'm pretty sure it was always going to be a series of videos.

After watching the video (twice) I have to say I think this first part is a good introduction to the topic. The audience needs to be educated on how the trope came about. One thing she did not mention (and I hope she does) is that the Japanese are far more sexist than the west is. Things have gotten better but back in the 80's women were teated as nothing more than objects in all media. Not just games.

@Sweep: i don't envy you guys in threads like this. god help you all should patrick (perhaps rightfully so) decide to comment on the piece.

http://youtu.be/SmHeP9Sve48