davidmerrick

Perhaps it feels that way to you, but to Simins and quite a few other female games writers it's not about meeting quotas, it's about wanting to be part of a conversation they're normally excluded from by default.

If it is Dan, good on him. I haven't seen a lot of his work, but his stuff on the Bombcast has been thoroughly funny. But after seeing some of Elizabeth's Simins' tweets on the E3 Bombcasts, I really hope at least one of the new hires isn't another white dude. Patrick addressed this on his Tumblr today, but with the crew having admitted in the past that the site could use a little more diversity I would actually groan if they didn't follow through on that.

It's funny, without Jeff on the show for this week's Bombcast, Drew is a lot more talkative and assertive.

That's right.

Drew is being oppressed.

The amount of Polygon hate is really saddening. For every great, in-depth feature Patrick writes, Polygon has three. Granted, they have more people on staff able to write said features, but it really is a wealth of nuanced coverage. Russ wrote a fantastic piece about Vlambeer's troubles with Ridiculous Fishing getting cloned, and it's on par with Patrick's Threes! piece (in very different ways; Patrick focuses on the mechanical and philosophical aspects of cloning; Russ writes more about how it affected Vlambeer as a studio and Rami and JW's morale).

Also, all of the supposed clickbait-y, "trash opinion" articles written over the E3 week were insightful, levelheaded discussions about gender and minority representation in gaming. It's an issue that warrants further discourse and sadly few websites are covering it. Polygon and Giant Bomb are, in my experience, the sole exceptions.

Also, and I say this as a happily straight dude, Patrick and Drew are goddamn studs.

@jadegl: "I don't know how to describe it. It's like being back in middle school and never being picked for the group project because people think you'll be a liability somehow. Yet you know you're just as invested in the subject and you know that you probably know more than the people doing the picking of the group. But, for whatever reason, you can't get anyone to pick you or even notice that you're sitting there, waving your hand frantically. You feel invisible. And then if you say "Hey, I feel invisible," you get the response that you should just be happy with the one time a year ago that they picked you. Remember that one time when we were reading Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH and we picked you and you even got to design the poster for the presentation!?! Why can't you be happy with that one time we picked you?!? I know it seems like a silly comparison, but emotionally it strikes a similar chord."

That might be the single best post I've read on the subject. Thank you, Jade.

Perhaps they were the most capable candidates for the job? What saddens me is your complete disrespect for their skills and experience. You act like Polygon places an emphasis on appearance over talent but as far as I can tell you're one of the only people emphasizing Tracey and Megan's looks rather than their work.

@deathstriker: Tracey and Megan and Polygon's other female writers aren't freaking eye candy. They do great work--work that you may disagree with in opinion, but they carry their weight as much, if not more, than their male colleagues.

@oldirtybearon: This is a good time to mention that Japanese culture has a huge issue with racism, particularly pertaining to the portrayal of black people. It wasn't just tone-deaf to U.S. relations, but feeding off of conscious or unconscious prejudice.

Dude, the initial trailers for that game depicted a huge, powerhouse white dude strolling through an African settlement and mowing down crowds of mindless black people with his guns. It made Birth of a Nation look progressive. It wasn't until after people voiced concerns that they introduced Sheva and non-black villagers.