@Simplexity said:

Has anyone commented yet on how that fighting game dude looks exactly like that giant from Harry Potter?

He looks like a fighting game character from King of Fighters too: Chang Koehan

@ichthy said:

SRK has a nice write-up as well.

http://shoryuken.com/2012/02/29/back-to-basics-getting-beyond-the-drama/

I've seen this link posted countless times today, but in reading the post, I can't see how inkblot's words are of any use. It's little more than a pep talk for the community, does little to address the issues at hand, and offers up largely empty platitudes like this as "getting back to basics":

So what do I mean when I say “back to basics?” The formula that built the scene is remarkably simple. Play the game. Play to win. Watch what happens. That’s all you need, because when you do that, amazing things happen. All the time. What does the scene need to be successful? Stick to what we’ve done over the past 20 years, because it’s amazing.

Like Justin Wong said: Just play the game.

@ashriels said:

@BelligerentEngine: It wasn't just the ignorant argument he engaged in.

It was also his disgusting behavior ogling this poor girl on a live stream. I mean he was straight up acting like a fucking pig. He was so out of control with it that his male peers felt comfortable enough to contribute. They objectified her, talking about her breasts, openly enthusiastic about hacking her phone and finding "goodies", when she had to use the bathroom he asked what she was going to do in there, and openly discussed fantasy scenarios of her wrestling other girls.

Sorry bud, that is by definition sexual harassment and that is disgusting. And I, nor anyone else should feel bad calling him a fucking pig. If he has any modicum of shame left he won't ever get in front of a camera again until we forget about his atrocious behavior or better yet, changes his attitude towards women. You can't be a representative of a professional gaming event and act like that.

If he was apart of the underground, that's fine. Stay there.

My apologies I only listened to the segment about this, "controversy" on the bombcast and read the article. I did not watch the video until now, the content of which was not reference to any great deal, aside from the quoted comment about bra size. I agree he was out of line for what was acceptable(Though for the record I think your description of it is a little colorful.).

While without a doubt he was showboating for the chat, he should have considered the ramifications of his actions when they were presented to an audience that didn't approve of his behavior. More importantly he should have considered how Miranda felt about the continued pestering, one comment or two comments is bad, but something that can be brushed off. When you persist like he did, it makes me understand "some" of the rhetoric I've seen in this thread.

What kind of fat, stupidly-bearded human reject would equate violent sexual behaviour as the culture of a scene?

Oh, wait..

@huser said:

@ptys said:

People make mistakes, you shouldn't be held to randsom for slipping up occasionally. The problem is if one persists with antisocial behaviour, then people should get offended and take action. Seems like the internet (and the world) is so?.. angry nowadays that everyone is looking to punish anything that doesn't tow the line of politically correct. Its so common that people must prefer dishonesty to the actual truth of one's opinions.

So repeatedly and publicly asking a girl her bra size is slipping up occasionally?

Whoops my bad, never actually fully read the article, just thought it was more of the same. That's actually pretty bad, that guy sounds like a dick... ok reading now ;)

@ashriels said:

@BelligerentEngine: It wasn't just the ignorant argument he engaged in.

It was also his disgusting behavior ogling this poor girl on a live stream. I mean he was straight up acting like a fucking pig. He was so out of control with it that his male peers felt comfortable enough to contribute. They objectified her, talking about her breasts, openly enthusiastic about hacking her phone and finding "goodies", when she had to use the bathroom he asked what she was going to do in there, and openly discussed fantasy scenarios of her wrestling other girls.

Sorry bud, that is by definition sexual harassment and that is disgusting. And I, nor anyone else should feel bad calling him a fucking pig. If he has any modicum of shame left he won't ever get in front of a camera again until we forget about his atrocious behavior or better yet, changes his attitude towards women. You can't be a representative of a professional gaming event and act like that.

If he was apart of the underground, that's fine. Stay there.

And he looks like a stereotypical neckbeard. I hope MSM doesn't see this, or they will have a field day.

@DesertDog said:

@ashriels said:

@BelligerentEngine: It wasn't just the ignorant argument he engaged in.

It was also his disgusting behavior ogling this poor girl on a live stream. I mean he was straight up acting like a fucking pig. He was so out of control with it that his male peers contributed. They objectified her, talking about her breasts, openly enthusiastic about hacking her phone and finding "goodies", when she had to use the bathroom he asked what she was going to do in there, and openly discussed fantasy scenarios of her wrestling other girls.

Sorry bud, that is by definition sexual harassment and that is disgusting. And I, nor anyone else shouldn't feel bad calling him a fucking pig. If he has any modicum of shame left he won't ever get in front of a camera again until we forget about his atrocious behavior or better yet, changes his attitude towards women. You can't be a representative of a professional gaming event and act like that.

If he was apart of the underground, that's fine. Stay there.

That's exactly it. I don't see how any of this behavior in defensible in any manner. This was a disgusting human being making lewd and obscene comments towards a female member of his team. If this was a manager or coach of a professional sports team / league he would have been sued and probably arrested. What kind of person do you have to be to announce that you're going to guess a woman's bra size and afterwards sneak up behind her and loudly proclaim you are going to smell her hair while whispering her boyfriend's name all the while she is squirming and practically begging for him to stop?

Even worse what kind of person do you have to be to defend this piece of human waste?

holy fucking hell, I didn't watch the video... HE DID THAT? fucking gross...

@EternalGamer2 said:

@ptys:

Did you watch that video? It wasn't a random slip up. The dude went on about that woman's breasts and thighs for fifteen minutes. It was not only sexual harassment it was just plain embarassing to watch this disgusting horn dog get his rocks off in public like that.

Yeah, you got me, I didn't actually watch it. Now I have, I agree, he's a prick. I can imagine the girls folks tuning in to see their daughter on TV and they have to listen to that! He mustn't get that much time around girls if he thinks that's endearing or appropriate.

I love the Giantbomb community - people below, in this thread, are apologising to other members for not taking in the whole video/scenario and are openly saying they are wrong!

Seriously, why isn't the rest of the internet like this?

Keep on keeping on community, stuff like that proves that Giantbomb is a haven for the mature gamer/person.

You all fail to understand what is going on. You wanna know why? You. Weren't. There. Seriously it's as simple as that. You see video showing Aris doing all of this, but don't you all think Miranda should of handled this earlier? Yes she should. It's in some people personalities to just bottle things up instead of exposing it? Give me a fucking break, if she had a problem she should of said something day 1. Note: Aris stopped messing with her like that after Day 2. Aris made some bad statements and I agree, they were fucked up, but it's not his fault. We all say stupid shit when we are pissed off. Aris just happened to have been heard on a semi-global scale compared to everyone else. Jared is a huge threat in the FGC as he is trying to censor us, and tries to make it so everyone gets huge payouts like SC2, but no one cares about that if they can't be themselves. Also SherryJenix has also said that Aris isn't completely to blame for this, it's Miranda's fault too for pussyfooting around the problem. Read Sherry's tweets. She was actually there, Unlike the many fools here that weren't there, aren't part of the FGC, or know Aris IRL. He is the coolest dude ever and he always jokes around like that. I agree Aris should feel bad about what he said, but you guys act like Miranda isn't in some way to blame. Aris apologized. Sherry tried to help Miranda, but she just didn't care nor did she listen. Seriously talk to Aris in real life. He's fucking lovable.

@loryuo: You should look up a little something called Victim Blaming. The truth is, she isn't in any way to blame, and screw you for implying that she is. The person who made those comments, the person who ultimately holds the responsibility, the person who could have made the decision to restrain himself and not say those comments was Aris: The buck stops at him. He is solely responsible for his actions. It is not Miranda's fault in any way shape or form for the comments he made, she is not somehow to blame for his comments because she didn't ask him to stop sooner. Seriously, that's just stupid.

Also we all know you say heated things when you get angry, but he's still responsible for what he said. It doesn't somehow excuse him from what he said. The problem that many people have (myself included) is that when called out on his offensive speech, instead of just admitting that he did something wrong, that he went to far, and that maybe, just maybe, he was sexually harassing this woman, he decided to entrench himself farther and defend himself instead of admitting that he did something wrong.

I understand getting angry when someone calls you out for being an asshole, no one likes being an asshole, but seriously own up to it instead of digging yourself farther in and being more of an asshole in the process.

@LtSquigs said:

@loryuo: You should look up a little something called Victim Blaming. The truth is, she isn't in any way to blame, and screw you for implying that she is. The person who made those comments, the person who ultimately holds the responsibility, the person who could have made the decision to restrain himself and not say those comments was Aris: The buck stops at him. He is solely responsible for his actions. It is not Miranda's fault in any way shape or form for the comments he made, she is not somehow to blame for his comments because she didn't ask him to stop sooner. Seriously, that's just stupid.

Also we all know you say heated things when you get angry, but he's still responsible for what he said. It doesn't somehow excuse him from what he said. The problem that many people have (myself included) is that when called out on his offensive speech, instead of just admitting that he did something wrong, that he went to far, and that maybe, just maybe, he was sexually harassing this woman, he decided to entrench himself farther and defend himself instead of admitting that he did something wrong.

I understand getting angry when someone calls you out for being an asshole, no one likes being an asshole, but seriously own up to it instead of digging yourself farther in and being more of an asshole in the process.

This. Not getting all the backlash Jared is getting from the FGC. Y'all should read his latest write up, it's very moving. http://jaredrea.tumblr.com/post/18539985553/did-you-hear-the-one-about-how-im-a-gay-racist

@LtSquigs:

You might as well say "screw" me then, cause I disagree with the blame. It's both of their faults. Aris wrote a quick reply regarding the situation, and it doesn't sound that great to some people. It's a badly worded apology, I admit, but I'd like to see someone else write an apology to the world in one day. It happened. Nothing you can do about it now. This is already bad enough for the community only getting attention for things like this, but we get no attention at all when we do large scale events. It's like a Fox News Story. All we can do is.....well not us, but Aris himself, is to learn that there are some people in the community that can't handle being messed around with like that.

Also everyone seems to forget about a more dangerous culprit in this; The stream monsters aka the trolls in the chat. Did anyone here know that the thighs and sexual harrassment talk all started from another Stream called FGTV, that talked about SherryJenix's thighs? Most of those monsters went to Crossassult and started talking about it and started talking about Mirandas and started making GIFS and horrible names revolving around her body parts. I really wish Aris didn't give in to the stream monsters and ask her the questions they were asking like "what's miranda's bra size?" and "Can you zoom in on her body?" I feel like none of this wouldn't of happened if Aris didn't read the chat, cause to be honest; Aris didn't do ANY of that until the stream chat started talking about it, and I suppose he wanted to keep them entertained.....damn it Aris.

as someone who watches their fair share of streams, i can tell you Aris is a loud mouthed asshole. He can be funny at times, but in the end he is a jerk. I was and still am amazed that Capcom chose him as the coach for Team Tekken, especially when you pair it against Alex Valle, the coach for Team Street Fighter. Valle is a great coach, and a well respected Ryu player, who rarely speaks out of turn.

What it boils down to in my opinion is that Capcom wanted people to generate press, this is a reality show after all. Aris and team Tekken has done that. By giving in to stream monsters and trolls in the chat, the Team Tekken stream has become the cross assault steam to watch, where as the Street Fighter team is considered to be the team that is taking the competition more serious. Its a shame that Capcom seems to be actively trying to kill the chances for the FGC to be taken more serious by putting people like Aris in front of the camera as a representative of the FGC, even if a lot of people feel he isnt. There are so many respectful people in the community, that get hype without using offensive language, although Yipes has been known to say some off-color things, its never anything that would get someone offended(as a example, calling Magneto's all white costume 'bukkake magnus'). The FGC is at a crossroads. People need to learn the correct place and time to use their off-color remarks. If you are on a sponsored stream or a major tournament doing commentary, maybe you should tone down your language, and leave the swearing and off color remarks to night time 'after hours' money match streams.

@RurouniGeo said:

@DesertDog said:

@RurouniGeo said:

@InternetDetective said:

@RurouniGeo: Oh yes, Dr. Sub Zero. He is very respectful of women. You have seen his audition video for the show right? He is very proud of being exactly the same kind of dirtbag Aris is.

Keep defending these guys and maybe they will be friends with you. You and Aris can watch anime tentacle porn and trade button bushing strategies.

MIRANDA LOVES DR. SUBZERO. Wow see you guys are completely set on just one thing. HE GAVE HIS WINNINGS TO HER WHEN SHE FORFIETED. PATRICK TOLD YOU GUYS THIS IN THE ARTICLE!!!! She took to twitter and called him a gentleman up and down in several tweets. Do your research detective.

She hugged him and was visibly very excited for dr. subzero on day 7 the day after she quit when Dr. Subzero won his match to get to the final event for the $25,000 matches.

Button bushing? At least have the decency to spell things correctly if you are not going to have the decency to admit when you are wrong and to not make personal attacks. Stay free.

He's talking about his audition video. Perhaps something in him changed between the time he made the audition video and when he decided to donate all of his winnings to Miranda. I can admit that there is a possibility that at this point in time the reality of what was shown in the audition video is not the same as how he has behaved since then. Perhaps watching Miranda get treated the way she did changed something inside of him but at the time he made the audition video he wasn't any better than Aris.

No Dr. Sub Zero is the same person he's always been Since over 10 years ago when Street Fighter III first came out. Out of all the guys on the stream Bronson (her teammate who is joking to host a reality show to give a date with Sherry Jenix to the winner right now and who both Sherry and Superyan have retweeted the joke) and Dr. Sub are the ones she is closest with on the show and they also happen to be the most perverted players on the show. Did you watch some of the other auditoin videos? The chun li cosplayer holding a shakeweight in a candlelit room for 5 minutes? There are alot worse ones and by the way Capcom saw that video and still picked DR. Sub.

You think people were being real in those videos? Alot of stuff you see in videos and on streams is staged sometimes. Only a few submissions like Miranda were being real and that is one of the reasons she was picked.

Dr. Sub Zero is raunchy. He has a tumbler he helps runs that releases gamer girl nudes to the internet. He is also a nice guy and a gentleman and well liked by Miranda even though she knows all about that and his gimmick. You can bash Aris but dont try to bring Dr. Sub Zero, who for all intents and purposes is the hero of this story because of what he did to try and make things right; down with him nor should you bring down the rest of the fighting game community either.

Let me be clear as I've been stating all day. We accept women, gay, transgender (one of the most popular players in japan and here in the states Is KayoPolice a male to female transgender). There are the same pig headed, ghetto, bad mannered people in every community but its not 100% of the community like all you guys are making it out to be.

THIS

The Difference between Dr Sub and Aris is that Dr Sub is a persona. I don't believe that about Aris, i feel like aris is an asshole 100 percent of the time. Where-as Dr Sub just seems like he turns it on for his podcasts and whenever he is appearing in public. There is a reason that Aris is the one embroiled in all this mess. Dr Sub is raunchy, but harmless, he never has really gotten out of control on Cross Assault, except for when he was egged on by Aris. He's been very respectful to the ladies for the most part. Especially when you put him against Aris, who is like the /b/ of the FGC.

@Phished0ne: you don't check his twitter don't you? lmao

@loryuo said:

@Phished0ne: you don't check his twitter don't you? lmao

You mean the twitter where he talks about how he is a nice guy, but knew he couldnt get on cross assault without playing up his raunchy persona? yeah...i read that twitter.

Nice work Patrick. This story is interesting. :)

As little as I want to care about this when I listened to some of the comments made it was ridiculous how much I lost my faith in humanity.

Banter in gaming is always going to be there but there is a big difference between banter and harassment and this is an example of the latter.

Not what I was thinking, but I understand his point. Regardless his point is about the battle, not the words and Jared's is about the words not the battle. If they came to understand each other they'd possibly have an agreement.

@Phished0ne:

yep you didn't read it at all. This is the problem lol.

Thought you guys might be interested in Jared Rea's take on the story:

http://jaredrea.tumblr.com/post/18539985553/did-you-hear-the-one-about-how-im-a-gay-racist

@loryuo said:

@Phished0ne:

yep you didn't read it at all. This is the problem lol.

Wait......we are talking about Dr Sub Here right? Not Aris?

https://twitter.com/#!/AskDrSubZero/status/174412697369194496

https://twitter.com/#!/Super__Yan/status/174412555744329728

@Phished0ne said:

@RurouniGeo said:

@DesertDog said:

@RurouniGeo said:

@InternetDetective said:

@RurouniGeo: Oh yes, Dr. Sub Zero. He is very respectful of women. You have seen his audition video for the show right? He is very proud of being exactly the same kind of dirtbag Aris is.

Keep defending these guys and maybe they will be friends with you. You and Aris can watch anime tentacle porn and trade button bushing strategies.

MIRANDA LOVES DR. SUBZERO. Wow see you guys are completely set on just one thing. HE GAVE HIS WINNINGS TO HER WHEN SHE FORFIETED. PATRICK TOLD YOU GUYS THIS IN THE ARTICLE!!!! She took to twitter and called him a gentleman up and down in several tweets. Do your research detective.

She hugged him and was visibly very excited for dr. subzero on day 7 the day after she quit when Dr. Subzero won his match to get to the final event for the $25,000 matches.

Button bushing? At least have the decency to spell things correctly if you are not going to have the decency to admit when you are wrong and to not make personal attacks. Stay free.

He's talking about his audition video. Perhaps something in him changed between the time he made the audition video and when he decided to donate all of his winnings to Miranda. I can admit that there is a possibility that at this point in time the reality of what was shown in the audition video is not the same as how he has behaved since then. Perhaps watching Miranda get treated the way she did changed something inside of him but at the time he made the audition video he wasn't any better than Aris.

No Dr. Sub Zero is the same person he's always been Since over 10 years ago when Street Fighter III first came out. Out of all the guys on the stream Bronson (her teammate who is joking to host a reality show to give a date with Sherry Jenix to the winner right now and who both Sherry and Superyan have retweeted the joke) and Dr. Sub are the ones she is closest with on the show and they also happen to be the most perverted players on the show. Did you watch some of the other auditoin videos? The chun li cosplayer holding a shakeweight in a candlelit room for 5 minutes? There are alot worse ones and by the way Capcom saw that video and still picked DR. Sub.

You think people were being real in those videos? Alot of stuff you see in videos and on streams is staged sometimes. Only a few submissions like Miranda were being real and that is one of the reasons she was picked.

Dr. Sub Zero is raunchy. He has a tumbler he helps runs that releases gamer girl nudes to the internet. He is also a nice guy and a gentleman and well liked by Miranda even though she knows all about that and his gimmick. You can bash Aris but dont try to bring Dr. Sub Zero, who for all intents and purposes is the hero of this story because of what he did to try and make things right; down with him nor should you bring down the rest of the fighting game community either.

Let me be clear as I've been stating all day. We accept women, gay, transgender (one of the most popular players in japan and here in the states Is KayoPolice a male to female transgender). There are the same pig headed, ghetto, bad mannered people in every community but its not 100% of the community like all you guys are making it out to be.

THIS

The Difference between Dr Sub and Aris is that Dr Sub is a persona. I don't believe that about Aris, i feel like aris is an asshole 100 percent of the time. Where-as Dr Sub just seems like he turns it on for his podcasts and whenever he is appearing in public. There is a reason that Aris is the one embroiled in all this mess. Dr Sub is raunchy, but harmless, he never has really gotten out of control on Cross Assault, except for when he was egged on by Aris. He's been very respectful to the ladies for the most part. Especially when you put him against Aris, who is like the /b/ of the FGC.

That's because Dr. Sub knows there is a difference between the internet and real-life, and how to ham it up appropriately.

Wow, I didn't know he was doing new podcasts. Hot damn. Something new to crank at work.

So yesterday there was a stream by Level | Up, at one point Marn and TNR were commentating and joked about this story in a pretty stupid way. They are now banned from future events.

http://www.levelup-series.com/statement-regarding-wednesday-night-fights/

Personally I'm happy that Level | Up are taking a proactive position against this kind of bullshit, I like to watch their stuff and I don't need misogyny in my entertainment.

@Phished0ne:

scroll down. you'll see girl gamer pics

@benson said:

So yesterday there was a stream by Level | Up, at one point Marn and TNR were commentating and joked about this story in a pretty stupid way. They are now banned from future events.

http://www.levelup-series.com/statement-regarding-wednesday-night-fights/

Personally I'm happy that Level | Up are taking a proactive position against this kind of bullshit, I like to watch their stuff and I don't need misogyny in my entertainment.

Looks like SRK has released a statement along similar lines. Also, I believe they have pulled the seeding from WNF and removed their sponsorship.

http://shoryuken.com/2012/03/01/hurtful-speech-time-to-take-a-good-look-in-the-mirror/

Also looks like Aris has made some more comments on his Twitter account:

http://www.twitlonger.com/show/g70sgt

@benson said:

So yesterday there was a stream by Level | Up, at one point Marn and TNR were commentating and joked about this story in a pretty stupid way. They are now banned from future events.

http://www.levelup-series.com/statement-regarding-wednesday-night-fights/

Personally I'm happy that Level | Up are taking a proactive position against this kind of bullshit, I like to watch their stuff and I don't need misogyny in my entertainment.

I put Marn in the same douchebag category as I've put Aris in, but honestly if that video on Kotaku is the worst of what they said, then I think a lifetime ban is quite an overreaction. Sure it was stupid and ill-timed, but was it seriously overly offensive?

You know what? Nevermind, the FGC as a whole are terrible rapists forever. Just look at this video.

And not to mention the unsavory past of Jared Rea which he quickly glosses over in his latest blog update. I mean, it's impossible to grow up and change as a human being.

@Homelessbird said:

@benson said:

So yesterday there was a stream by Level | Up, at one point Marn and TNR were commentating and joked about this story in a pretty stupid way. They are now banned from future events.

http://www.levelup-series.com/statement-regarding-wednesday-night-fights/

Personally I'm happy that Level | Up are taking a proactive position against this kind of bullshit, I like to watch their stuff and I don't need misogyny in my entertainment.

Looks like SRK has released a statement along similar lines. Also, I believe they have pulled the seeding from WNF and removed their sponsorship.

http://shoryuken.com/2012/03/01/hurtful-speech-time-to-take-a-good-look-in-the-mirror/

That's a great article on this issue and it's nice that it's coming from inside the community, no one can whine that's it's written by an outsider who just want to get clicks by bashing the FGC.

I'm kinda surprised (in a good way) by how quickly the community is reacting. Originally I just expected that there would be some half-hearted debates and that 2 months from now it would be business as usual but no, real actions are being taken.

@TeflonBilly: I think most people understand that the fighting game community is a generally light-hearted group of individuals.

But when you, as a community, are embroiled in the middle of a controversy, it's simply not wise to get on a mic and openly mock that same issue, as if it's something that you don't care about. At best, it's misguided and ill-thought out. At worst, it's intentional shit-stirring.

Perhaps the specific things they said aren't the most offensive things they could have said. But when the entire discussion is currently about how the fighting game community handles sexism... don't you think the companies and organizations that operate within the FGC would be best served by distancing themselves from folks like Marn and TNR who are making themselves, essentially, spokespersons for not taking sexism seriously?

I think that Level Up, and to some extent SRK, have little choice.

@Homelessbird: Oh, I agree that action had to be taken and am happy that they did. As I said, it was stupid and especially illtimed.

I'm just beginning to fear that this has the makings of becoming an all out witchhunt now.

@TeflonBilly said:

I put Marn in the same douchebag category as I've put Aris in, but honestly if that video on Kotaku is the worst of what they said, then I think a lifetime ban is quite an overreaction. Sure it was stupid and ill-timed, but was it seriously overly offensive?

You know what? Nevermind, the FGC as a whole are terrible rapists forever. Just look at this video.

And not to mention the unsavory past of Jared Rea which he quickly glosses over in his latest blog update. I mean, it's impossible to grow up and change as a human being.

To me there are no "overly offensive" and "acceptably offensive" but "bigoted" and "not-bigoted". Then again I've often been called the PC Police and a feminazi so I might be biased. Still, I have never insinuated that " the FGC as a whole are terrible rapists forever", just that in the past it's been too complacent towards its most assholish members. I also disagree that " it's impossible to grow up and change as a human being", you should always try to improve.

I've heard a lot of people express their distaste of Jared but I'm still not sure of what he has done that's so terrible, could you explain why he isn't liked?

@benson: I totally agree it's great to hear a voice from the fighting community that's not engaged in trying to mitigate. Very refreshing.

I'm not that surprised, personally, because (as I just posted @TeflonBilly), I think this scandal has become big enough to force a response. If we hadn't had this secondary incident (or had some of the things being said in forums all over the Internet), this might have died out like you described, but I think after the WNF thing, people were really forced to address it.

@TeflonBilly: I really hope this doesn't become the defining characteristic of the FGC in people's minds, either. That's why I'm happy to see SRK's response - it shows that there's a definite other side of the argument, that isn't just forum posters saying "we're not all like that" and getting super defensive (which is understandable, but perhaps couterproductive).

It's just that personally, I have a lot of positive FGC associations to compare this stuff to. A lot of people don't... and I share your worry about that.

Great. The issue has been put to rest. No, need to drag this out at the expense of those involved. That is totally not going to happen.

Great. The issue has been put to rest. No, need to drag this out at the expense of those involved. That is totally not going to happen.

The FCG coaches are going to have to learn how far they can take the trash talk and hazing as some people respond to it better than others...some people it pushes to do better and others it cracks. FCG commentators, like any sports commentators, should adhere to the decency rules set out by the organization behind whatever tournament they are casting.

As the FCG/esports/whatever you want to call it gets bigger you will see more mainstream and professional behavior in the big leagues with the extreme crowd making their own underground. It will ultimately be self-correcting as more money and more viewers and thus even more money starts being on the line.

However, I also can't blame the FCG for being naturally defensive as competitive gaming usually gets poor coverage on major gaming sites and the coverage it does get is generally written with an undercurrent of contempt comparable to most of the same sites' JRPG reviews.

@TeflonBilly said:

@Homelessbird: Oh, I agree that action had to be taken and am happy that they did. As I said, it was stupid and especially illtimed.

I'm just beginning to fear that this has the makings of becoming an all out witchhunt now.

The problem with the "witchhunt" analogy is that you're really kinda stupid for even making it in the first place. A real witchhunt was wrong because there are no witches in real life. You can use the word "witchhunt" when the things (in that particular case witches) don't exist but people are overreacting and panic is being caused by the "hunters". There is no overreaction. This is proper reaction. There are sexist/racist and generally offensive elements within the FGC and it is to the best interest of that very same community if they stamp out this crap with extreme prejudice.

What's on the line? The entire FGC being taken seriously by the entire world.

The reactions have been absolutely great. People should be calling on the FGC community to conduct a witchhunt because the witches actually exist. Starting with Aris the fattest witch of them all.

@DesertDog: Well, I was more alluding to Marn and TNR being banned from all future events, something I see as a rather severe reaction. I'm not saying they shouldn't have gotten any reactions, but by labeling it a witchhunt I was making a point of overzealousness taking over this supposed crackdown and will end up with a lot of unfair bannings and penalties in the future.

Also I appreciate how you had to call me stupid and had to take a jab at Aris' physical appearance. Very classy.

Dear FGC leaders. You are the face of a growing global community that receives a lot of perks for representing industries that understand how to foster and protect an image even if you don't. If you do not like the attention and you do not like being 'judged', then turn in your swag and go back to your mom's basement where you can be as juvenile as you want. Otherwise, stop the whining, shut the hell up and deal with the fact you represent something bigger than yourself.

@Mechabolic: Just letting you know that you fighting the good fight against the tide is appreciated.

@InternetDetective: You would beat someone up for the content of that video?

I found the video to be half boring, half amusing. It was a joking atmosphere, she laughed along, and participated by walking up and showing her nails to him at like the 8 min mark. He asked some other dude to see his feet and he refused so put on the horse head. It was an interaction between the stream, and Aris goofing off, with a lot of participation from everyone in the room.

All of you people who are treating that video like some graphic, malicious hate crime... I genuinely can't imagine you as real human beings in the actual world outside. If that causes you to believe in physical retribution, you must strap in to suicide bomb after an episode of the Jersey shore.

@loryuo said:

@Phished0ne:

scroll down. you'll see girl gamer pics

Yup. People email Dr Sub nude pictures of gamer girls, he posts them, well the people that run his tumblr do. But guess what, both Sherry Jenix AND SuperYan were friendly with him during the show, why? because although he does that, he isnt a fucking creep like Aris is.

And dont get me started about Marn and ETR(ITS ETR, GET IT RIGHT GUYS =P ) being banned from commentating. especially concidering Christian(ETR) was one of the better commentators at LevelUp, besides UltraDavid and James Chen. He rarely says anything offensive, unlike Marn and always points out interesting things about the matches(unlike Marn). Its really a shame he was thrown into the crossfire. When you are part of a commentating team, its really hard to completely stop your partner in his tracks, and although he did crack a few jokes, it was mostly marn being the jerk(if you even want to call it that). I really think LevelUp screwed the pooch on this one.

Edit: Also, fuck Kotaku for being the video game press equivalent to an ambulance-chasing lawyer. The reporter who wrote those articles probably watched WNF and waited for someone to say one thing, just so they could write an article about it. When it really was nothing, part of a commentary job is talking about goings on in the community, and its always been so. I strongly suggest everyone interested read this blog post that ETR posted on his personal blogspot today.

@Phished0ne: Just wanted to say: although I disagree with some of your sentiments (I won't go into it, as I think the argument on both sides is pretty clear at this point), I want to thank you for posting the link to that blog post.

It seems that we share a feeling that it's important for all sides of this story to be heard, and whatever I think about sites like Kotaku, they, and other enthusiast press sites certainly haven't been forthcoming with publishing links to all of the varied responses to this issue. As someone with some, but not a huge amount, of experience with the FGC, I feel like my perspective on this issue has been greatly expanded by reading Jared Rea's response, SRK and Level Up's statements, and now this blog, but I've had to go through users/my own detective work to get that perspective.

So thanks, again, for helping keep this a fair debate.

ETR completely gets it and what he writes makes me respect him a whole lot.

ETR: I do not think matters like this should be taken lightly, and if there was a point where I lost that perspective, even for a slight moment in time, that is solely my responsibility and nobody elses.

I hope he doesn't feel too alienated from the scene and quickly comes back.

@benson said:

ETR completely gets it and what he writes makes me respect him a whole lot.

ETR: I do not think matters like this should be taken lightly, and if there was a point where I lost that perspective, even for a slight moment in time, that is solely my responsibility and nobody elses.

I hope he doesn't feel too alienated from the scene and quickly comes back.

Yeah as i stated earlier, its really a shame that he had to be thrown into the crossfire. He seems to be well liked and respected in the community from what i've seen(hell, he followed me, a nobody on twitter, so he cant be a bad guy right??). it's a shame LevelUp couldn't be more lenient with him. Not even giving him a warning? seems pretty crazy to me, especially when LevelUp had been grooming him and helping him become a better commentator for so long. Seems so weird to just outright ban him, especially just because Kotaku covered it. Level up is starting down a slippery slope, i just hope they know when to stop. I remember a few scant months ago when TastySteve would continually refer to Nemisis as 'the big retard', Saying things like "he's got that retard strength" or "he's calling out the retard". Now I didnt personally find that offensive, but where do you draw the line? In all fairness, i would be the first to call for banning Steve from the mic, as i find him a worthless commentator. But what if Kotaku decided to write an article about how "this fighting gamer thinks mental handicaps are funny". With the whole ETR thing, he'll come back eventually i am sure, as he has a passion for fighting games and commentating. But i cant see him doing commentary anywhere but a LevelUp ran event, and who knows how serious LevelUp will be with their ban of him.

Edit: I dont know if this has been posted here either. http://www.twitlonger.com/show/g7543k Super_Yan's response to whole thing. Also, she pretty much calls out the Kotaku article.

"Maybe some people (like the people who wrote the@Kotaku article) don't understand that it was just one person who did this to me. I understand it looks like this is the FGC's fault, I felt that way too until I got home and had a couple days to process everything that happened."

Before that she praises the VAST MAJORITY of the FGC for supporting her. I think it might be time that people calm down a bit. The 'FGC' isn't terrible, the internet is terrible. The few bad apples like Aris are terrible, but that will happen anywhere.

@Phished0ne: I agree with you, a warning would have been more appropriate, but are we sure that LevelUp took this decision only because of Kotaku? I watched the stream live and I remember thinking "Oh God ETR please make that sociopath Marn shut the hell up, cut his mic, do something".

Don't get me wrong I have nothing but contempt for Kotaku like any sane individual and I feel like they did their article to profit off the controversy, but I think it's entirely possible that LevelUp decided on their own to show that they were willing to take action.

@benson said:

@Phished0ne: I agree with you, a warning would have been more appropriate, but are we sure that LevelUp took this decision only because of Kotaku? I watched the stream live and I remember thinking "Oh God ETR please make that sociopath Marn shut the hell up, cut his mic, do something".

Don't get me wrong I have nothing but contempt for Kotaku like any sane individual and I feel like they did their article to profit off the controversy, but I think it's entirely possible that LevelUp decided on their own to show that they were willing to take action.

It's worth noting that it was Kotaku's article that provoked inkblot at SRK to write a more serious column on confronting the issue when just yesterday he posted that cheerleading fluff piece. It's funny how fast he went from "we need to confront this eventually" to "we need to confront this right now."

@benson: Well, no one can say for sure, but with the way Kotaku was covering the whole thing, i think it would be a safe assumption to make. I mean, Kotaku posted the article about Marn and ETR at 11:45. While it is true Leveup's statement was released around 4 pm, they INSTANTLY fired off a tweet to the writer of the article to let them know they handled the situation. I'd say its fair that the negative press coverage pressured them into taking action. Look at it this way, Levelup has never felt the need to ban anyone from the mic for off color remarks, even after the statements from TastySteve i listed previously.

If you watched that *amazing* kotaku recap video, they pointed out the "nos girls" moment. The writer at K felt it was especially bad when the commentators talked about the attractiveness of the women and 'which ones they have dibs on'. Not something to be done in front of a bunch of people on a live stream, so of course a judgement error. But That tweet featuring a photo of attractive women in bikinis didnt appear out of nowhere. There was a producer(Offcast or AJ Potatohead) who decided it would be a good idea to put that up on the screen. Maybe putting that specific tweet up on the screen given what was going on currently wasn't the best idea. Once again, just pointing out how many different ways there are to look at this. But Of course Kotaku isnt going to point those things out, or cover anything positive, like ETR's blog post.

In the end, its something they touched upon in the latest bombcast, its not just a problem with the FGC, its a problem with gaming in general. Women get treated like shit by male gamers. Its something that is going to have to be overcome. But Kotaku's 'reporting' isnt going to help. Especially when they go "oh its a problem with THOSE people, not us, we are the normal people". Hell, lets broaden this more, as we've seen on these very forums, it isnt even a problem with women in video games, its a problem with women on the internet in general. It's a terrible thing, but its something that we are still currently dealing with.