I'm no expert, but I can see how some viewers are put off by her methodology of arguing her point of view. Imagine last year, when Abby weighted her argument against other games for being sexists and throwing ass in your face all the time and you replied, what about the crotch of all those guys in dating a dad simulator, and she went, "sure, whatever, I don't f'ng care". I think it goes for all participants in this new format and old one. Opinions are valued, arguments are expected and this is executed with a professional courtesy of actually listening to and acknowledging the counter parts interpretation. Dismissive and boarder line obnoxious behaviour in this regard, doesn't become any of them. And I mean any of them, because they've all gone down that rabbit hole at some point. I just believe that Abby gets more attention and heat for it, because she's new, hasn't settled in to a format we are used to and sometimes applies an otherwise relevant perspective on the perception of women in this gaming culture, in a less applicable way, attacking the premise for a game rather than the intent of the world and it's surroundings. You can't turn the same argument to your advantage in support of a game you fancy and against others when you don't like a game. Regardless of it being genderbased or game mechanics specific (Brad) etc. My father was once quoted in the papers, seing he was the first male to hire a female vp, that he was baffled how movements on one hand craved we acknowledged equality between genders, denying men and women thought differently, yet on the other hand argued for more women in leadership, because they had female ideas that could add special benefits to a certain field. You can't have it both ways :) however tactically smart you may find it in these deliberations.
My husband who is Scandinavian just taught me how to count. Out of the five major characters in the game from the Norse mythology, two of them were men, one was a woman, another one was genderflipped into a woman and the last one was gender neutral. I'm no math genius, but I consider that an even spread and historically accurate to the framework of Norse mythology more than what I believe is a symptom of the studio's lack of caring for coherence in the world they created to make sense of it.
As a woman and mother and media journalist, I'm displeased with the notion of a giant bomb staff member trying to seemingly make everything out to be offensive, intrusive and all about gender battle, whenever possible. Same thing occured last year, grasping for straws and it's doing certain groups a genuine disservice. I'll keep listening though and I hope the rest of these podcasts will be more naunced and reflective onwards. I do enjoy the new format all in all.
kawsylvania's comments