A) You need to learn what misogyny means.

B) I'm just gonna quote @razielcuts here:

Shots fired?

A lot of the people who seem to have a problem with her are citing that they don't want her involved in the game because she's a "SJW." So, no, I don't think the ship has sailed.

#Teammb

@starvinggamer: So what suggests she's not qualified? She was hired to be a community manager. Stop trying to blow it up into some powerful position that's going to have a dramatic impact on the success of the game. She needs to know about the game and communicate with fans on a message board. It's not exactly rocket science.

Just to clarify, because I've been dragged into watching some of the youtube reaction videos to this news, this is what I understand to be the demanding forum post about gender options.

One user posted (not the new community manager) -

"I'd like to see the topic of Call covered. Particularly as she relates to female gamers. We're are being ignored as a target demographic. WE EXIST DARNIT! We do. Please - re-evaluate your existing design decisions on Call (less cutesy/stereotypically girly/pink) and consider her as a playable character. Even if you she doesn't have a seperate play style and is basically a skin swap - I don't care!

It'd at least be recognising that we exist as a demographic. We're almost half the American gaming population now (and over half of the >20 demo)!

I mean, I'm pledging at the 99 dollar level regardless. But.. I'm just sick of this sort of game being such an immense 'boys club.' I feel ignored and Inafune-san is supposedly pursing a more modern style of game design. Part of this is acknowledging that the female demographic is there and is important to recognise."

To which the now community manager replied -

"I have to join my voice with Lani's, as someone who cares about gender representation in games. Please make Call a playable character, or even better, make Beck a female bot alltogether. It shouldn't and won't affect gameplay!
I started on some Mighty No 9 Fan Art myself as a way to promote this KS/express my wish:
[link to an image, an early draft of the more finalised image used on the community manager update]
Will post final soon!"

Just wanted to check, this is the controversial post people have been using to drag someone's name through the mud on youtube? Really... I mean... really... VIDEOGAMES

I think the people claiming that there's no reason for any unrest are just as bad as the people screaming "oh god femnazi will ruin everything."

She said she was hired as a community manager and art director. Her art is subpar and on her first day on the job as CM she lied to the community. Those are extremely valid reasons to be upset as a backer.

I'm gonna assume you're replying to my first comment and not my second one so now I'm going to quote myself quoting @razielcuts

EDIT: Man, I never said one word about her gender outside of using proper pronouns and never suggested there was anything more to her position than as a CM and still the aggro replies come, you people sure are tetchy.

Sexism: prejudice, stereotyping, or discrimination, typically against women, on the basis of sex.

Misogyny: the hatred of women.

If the issues people had were purely because she was a woman, sure, throw out those words. Otherwise you're only cheapening them while also antagonizing alot of people, more often than not derailing discourse.

This. The idea that Inafune just hands over decisions to the community manager because, why not, is pants-on-head ridiculous.

Wait a minute. I knew she was the community manager but not the art director too.

I really want to know what kind of "sway" you think a community manager could possibly have on this project.

Also, have you read the comments section? You're in complete denial if you honestly believe that the community is only worried about "lack of experience."

Alex Favermanabout 22 hours ago

Feminist propaganda and political agendas have no place in a sci-fi action platforming game. Dina has no place on the design staff for MN9. Especially since she has never played a Mega Man game prior. I want my money back

Eric Bickerdyke3 days ago

Comcept,

I support Mighty No. 9 wholeheartedly, but I cannot agree with bringing in a SJW to the team. If she has any influence on the projects quality, I will be demanding a refund, regardless of whether or not it is possible to receive one.

Matthew K. Day3 days ago

I honestly can't understand why an SJW was let on to the team.

This is probably the death knell of unbiased conversation and discussion on the forums, considering how fervent white-knights and other SJWs are in regard to women working in the video games industry.

I hope this new wasp's nest doesn't effect my end product.

emperor253 days ago

Is Dina an anti-Capitalist/Communist? Oh my god.

Wreltmaun3 days ago

This is the sort of introduction I would expect of a 12 year old to make on the Gaia Online forums. It is not one I would like to see from one of the staff in a project I have invested money in.

To make matters worse, a quick research reveals this person has some strong opinions about feminism. Can we trust Dina to maintain a neutral profile while dealing with the community, and not to use her position to further any personal agendas she may have? Time will tell, but I did not get a good first impression from this.

Stian2 days ago

I'm not sure I like how a political extremist is hired as a community manager for a game which focuses on community feedback.

C.2 days ago

Why on Earth would you hire somebody like her to be a community manager? She's a trouble-causer, an extremist, and most of all a talentless imbecile that does nothing but attract negative attention to herself. Can somebody please explain the logic behind hiring her? Because I'm starting to want off of this wild ride.

Nicholas Dayabout 14 hours ago

This is a bad idea guys. I don't want any anita sarkeesian feminism all up in my megaman reboot. I don't want a sjw monitoring the forum, deciding who has good opinions and who has bad ones.

Ryan Gadsbyabout 17 hours ago

I'd rather have backer money spent on someone who clearly knows what they're doing instead of some ridiculous SJW with no experience

I just figured out what SJW stands for.

Where does it say she's the art director?

@milkman: You are a hero and also responsible for me puking a little in my mouth.

The sad, sad thing about these "controversies" is the veneer of rationality that hostile nerds tend to put on top of their blatant exclusionist opinions. Exposing these as the mass of hostility that they are as a group shatters the illusion of each individual part of them being level-headed in the slightest. Well played.

Are people having earth shattering heart attacks JUST because she said she didn't grow up with Mega Man? You can't seriously tell me it has nothing to do with her pretty innocently asking for stronger female representation. You're out of your fucking mind if you say people are beating her down solely for not playing a game.

@noelveiga said:

So because some people are raging assholes on the internet, anyone else with a more rational take on the same general opinion is automatically discredited? Well reasoned.

@milkman said:

Designer, not director, my bad.

"I am now a community manager AND designer!! BOTH!"

"End of a great work day! Designing robots FTW!"

@starvinggamer said:

I don't see how "familiarity with your product" can possibly be a concern for a product that isn't actually finished yet. She has more than enough time to be brought up to speed internally so she can perform her job as a community manager (which is, as has been said before, essentially a forum rep and glorified PR flack, not some position of critical importance), and having a bunch of prior knowledge does nothing to help her do her job better other than earning her "cred" from the community, which should be irrelevant because she's not actually making any decisions about the game's design. (And if you're honestly afraid that she'll be purposely distorting the community's feedback or something to serve her own agenda, whatever that may be, you're paranoid).

Being a fan of past Mega Man games is not a requirement for being a community rep on this game. In fact, recruiting a die-hard lifelong Mega Man fan as your community rep might actually be a worse decision than bringing on someone who has a more distanced and detached perspective. Managing the community and relaying information back and forth in an honest way is important, and intense fandom for that particular product could very easily complicate things.

In short, you guys are making something out of nothing. The fact that all of this "anti-SJW" stuff is getting mixed in to the community's message only further serves to undermine your chances at earning sympathy.

EDIT:

A few days ago, this backer was made the community manager. Naturally, [...] people started digging up information about her. Apparently, she made a number of tweets in the past that upset people when found.

As I said earlier, this seems like typical internet fanboy outrage and I have a hard time feeling sympathy for this sort of thing. When you go digging deep into somebody's tweet history, it's only because you want to find something to get upset about, so you're digging for dirt. They would've found something, no matter what. It just happened to be this that was the easiest weak point to attack. Why would the internet want to attack her so passionately, though? Hmmmmm...

No one (rational) is saying "solely", but some people are pointing out that there are valid complaints being levied amid all the bullshit and that we shouldn't throw the baby out with the bathwater by automatically dismissing any and all criticisms of the hiring of this CM.

This is why I no longer support kickstarters. All this drama and social justice crap make me want to bomb thumblr.

I agree give megaman bewbies

Frankly, as someone who worked for over a decade as a community manager for a number of different charities as part of their online presence, having experience of the topic or subject can help or hinder.

Chances are being unfamiliar will lead to problems but can be addressed with experience and through their engagement with the company and team building the game.

Over-familiarity is likely to bring, and you often see it bring, pre-conceptions and personal opinions that run counter to the, ideally, somewhat impartial position of community manager.

I suppose you'd ideally want a level engagement but too strong an engagement always set off far more alarm bells for me than a skilled person willing to learn. Usually that was how it turned out in the end, though you always get some great exceptions with a lucky hiring of a moderator, volunteer or community worker.

@milkman: Why do I need that thrown in my face? I don't share these views so don't try and lump me in with those people. Of course I don't speak for the entire internet or community surrounding Mighty No. 9, I was positing other theories (that obviously people don't want to hear) that don't include 'we hate all teh womens.'

A lot of people coming to this thread seem to have not read the entire OP or clicked the image linked of her now deleted tweets. She's not just acting as Community Manager but is pulling double duty now 'designing robots FTW' and doing art on the game. This is why people are worried. I'd be worried too if I was pitched one thing, paid my money, and then learnt down the line someone who '...never much cared for the Mega Man series' is designing and doing art for the game.

As for 'What does this have to with being a Community Manager?' First question I bet is bound to come up to anyone in a Community Manager role, especially one with a legacy such as this - 'How does this compare to past Mega Man games?' 'Errr...'

@zornack: That first link is to a NeoGAF thread about memory cards and the tweet is no way an indication of anything.

What rational takes? I'll assume you're talking about the people in this thread complaining about her "unfamiliarity" with the subject matter, which is absurd. A level of knowledge with the game that Mighty No. 9 is a spiritual successor to is not required, especially for someone who is working with the community, not on the game. I'm sure she's not the only one there who never worked on a Mega Man game and I'm sure she's not the only there who's never played a Mega Man game. The only familiarity that matters is her familiarity with the Mighty No. 9, which considering it's not out yet, is just as much as anyone else's.

Reading through this topic has made me thankful for the lack of drama coming from Project Phoenix. Then again, it's not coming out until the middle of 2015, so that's a lot of time for everything to burst into flames.

Don't fuck me, Kickstarter!

@milkman: Yeah, I messed up that first link. Fixed now.

"I am now a community manager AND designer!! BOTH!"

"End of a great work day! Designing robots FTW!"

@milkman: Except she stated in the past that she was bored during the Mighty No. 9 live stream and only supports the game because her BF & friends are working on it. That's not just an unfamiliarity with the subject matter, that's showing a lack of interest in it.

Someone should update the Wiki to say "Comcept has hired a new community manager and now the game is ruined."

So... is this where the coup against Patrick begins?

#TeamWorkOutOurDifferences

Can we maybe let her do her job for a few months or so and see how this turns out? If she does a lousy job as a community manager/art director/designer/whatever she does, sack her. Bitching about it now is silly and meaningless, even to someone like me who isn't really into this social justice thing. Let her work and if she abuses her powers to suit her personal agenda, then we can talk about firing her.

Also, being familiar with Mega Man shouldn't be a prerequisite since I don't know if anybody noticed, but it's not actually a Mega Man game.

I wonder what would happen if the internet found out how many people are currently working on Dark Souls 2 had never played Demons Souls before they signed up to make it. Because I have to think at least a few. And that would break 4chans fucking heart.

@milkman: @cloudymusic: We're just going to have to agree to disagree then. For the record, I actually don't have a personal stake in the appointment of this CM. But the name of the game from the beginning of this project has been nostalgia, nostalgia, nostalgia. Hey you people that are full of nostalgia for this thing give us money because we're going to be making more nostalgia. Now that we have your money we're (understandably) too busy to talk to you, so talk to this person that shares none of the nostalgia with you that we hired because of nepotism instead. It can come off as a bit dismissive/condescending.

@razielcuts: That's probably my fault because I kept quoting you o_O

I just graduated from University with a degree in Political Science. I can tell you that what video games are experiencing right now, with the SJW, people going nuts over the littlest things, flame wars is all normal in government. It's sad to see all of this bleed over into a hobby that I find really fun. (Playing awesome video games)

@razielcuts: My point is that those other theories are nowhere to be seen in those comments. The reason the community is rejecting her could not be more clear.

Also, a tweet that says "DESIGNING ROBOTS FTW!" does not really mean much of anything. If Comcept comes out and says "yes, she is now our lead art designer" then sure, I'd listen to the complaints. But a couple of tweets about designing robots, which could be as insignificant as someone asking her "hey, what do you think of this robot dude?", are not confirmation of any kind. Even if they do take her input on art design, do you honestly believe that one person's input is going to throw this whole project off the rails and ruin the art? That's crazy.

As for your last complaint, community managers are briefed on these kind of things. If she's good at her job, she's obviously going to be able to answer that question. Do you think they just hire these people and immediately throw them to the wolves? It's a process, like anything else.

I backed it, I don't care about any of this; if this game turns out well, it won't be because of the story, it will be judged on how well it plays, nothing that people are apparently flipping out over has anything to do with how the game will play, and community manager's are pretty low on the totem pole as far a game development decisions go, I wouldn't worry about her having any real effect on the game other than bringing good ideas to the team, if she has an agenda that includes bringing the development team shitty ideas, that doesn't magically mean they will get into the game, it just makes her shitty at her job.

@mb: Except when there's actual and blatantly obvious sexism.

I once got a summer job at an office that works as a registry for building and construction contractors because my dad worked there. I had zero interest in construction contractors. I did my job just fine.

As long as she isn't working on the mechanics, the way the game controls, enemies, etc. I don't see the problem here (not yet anyway, did she even make any actual in-game art so far?) And besides, not being familiar with Mega Man might be a better way to come up with something different, thinking outside the Mega Man bubble. So just give her some time and if she does a bad job then she should be reduced to just being the community manager.

Might as well make a black, transsexual, homosexual, half-mexican, half-jaimaican, female shaolin monk immigrant paying her college playing women football and get everything out of the way. No offense intended.

I don't understand the outlash against her, are these manchildren only learning now how the world (through nepotism) works?

The way the people treated her was awful, but at the same time the way people reacted to the story is just as gross to me. Neither side seems to be doing anything but bullying each other. I really appreciate the way @viking_funeral has laid out the information to help people understand the situation. I wish I could see that more often.

I find it amusing that people are complaining about nepotism in the forum of a web site where half the staff got their job because they were high school friends with Jeff.

I agree, and I think it's a tad odd for people to suggest that everyone on the project has to have played Mega Man games. The fact is, this is Mighty No. 9, and even if it's a spiritual successor to Mega Man, that doesn't mean every person working on it has to be the most hardcore Mega Man fan. This is a new game, and it's a Kickstarter. A lot of people with less experience are a part of Kickstarter games, and as long as they do a fine job, I don't see why there needs to be any issue.

It seems to me that a lot of the heat is coming from them not liking her comments about wanting a female option, and this appears to be a followup on that old argument. I really don't think this is where backers are wise to take their stand. If she does a poor job, the staff will get rid of her themselves. Have some faith in the staff you invested in.

"MB has been stripped of his moderator position after inappropriate comments towards a member of the Giant Bomb staff." - Rorie, 12/13/2013

I fucking hate all of videogame culture I swear...

@milkman: Okay, what about her posting on the forums that X is her favorite mega man, tweeting that she's never actually played a MM game, then deleting that tweet? I don't care that she hasn't played MM, but I do care that she's starting off her job by lying to the community.

You are right. Damn guess i am on #TeamTruthTellah now.

I don't know if you're aware of what PR is, but it's basically people paid to lie to you. It's something to be aware of when you make it into the real world, so this is probably a good, innocuous way for you to get comfortable with the concept.

Ok I get she was lying and had a very bad start. And I can see people are concerned about this. The most important thing as a community manager afterall is the trust to their fanbase and honesty. Especially with a project financed by the fans.

But I really do not see the sexism stuff? Yes some people wrote sexist posts but there are always assholes in between. But this has really nothing to do with Sexism. Stop trying to make everything a gender conflict.... No wonder people are ignoring important issues and are totally annoyed about this. It is because of shit like this.

You guys know the fable about they boy who was shouting wolves all the time? In the end with all your shouting you will not be heard when it is really important that people listen.