The Giant Beastcast: Episode 266

I do not understand the trans comments regarding the "antagonist" at all. Nowhere in the game does it ever mention or allude to them being trans. There is in fact no sub plot whatsoever regarding her gender. Where are people getting this? There are even scenes that perhaps show that they aren't trans. Women are allowed to be swole too without being a lesbian or trans.

Were there any texts posted up?

Appreciate the discussion a lot. As a minority that's been working in the games industry for 8 years now, it's still very much a straight-white-boys club even though progress has been made. Diversity alone is not the solution to end abuse, but it will help, and also make games better.

@theidlecritic: some of the early leaks falsely identified the "antagonist" as trans. The "antagonist" is also a heavily muscled female so it's easy for people to run with it.

I appreciate the honesty during the opening if the episode, I was unaware about the histories of some of these people.

However I do find Abby's statements about truth not mattering and believing all accusers to lack nuance. I think that's both dangerous and illogical. It's a very complex subject and I believe that there are some people out there absolutely getting what they deserve with cancel culture, but if you're considering someone guilty purely on accusation I find that to be problematic personally.

That said I'm not overly familiar with these case's specifics and I trust that the evidence is there if you're coming to these conclusions.

Thanks for another episode of the Beastcast.

I know most of the time that the sexual assault allegations are true but to hear Abby say that it didn’t matter if the allegations were true or not... that felt a bit unfair. I have represented a few young men that had terrible allegations made against them and those allegations were later found out as untrue. The allegations alone ruined their lives temporarily and placed a stigma on them for the rest of their lives.

I really hope she was just exaggerating a bit because if not, that is too far. Beyond that, I really appreciate the Beastcast being open and taking even more blame than they probably should. Most of the information about these guys being scumbags wasn’t available until recently. Don’t beat yourself up for not knowing when there is no way you could have known.

I very much appreciate the GB staff as during the pandemic their streams and archives have been keeping me company for most of my work week and down time.

The talk at the top of the podcast makes me even more proud to be a premium subscriber and makes me feel closer to this community.

Take care, keep safe and keep on upholding respect for others. <3

@theidlecritic: Yeah conflating masc features with trans women feels icky. But Abby said her trans friends had a similar read so I don’t necessarily think she’s meant it that way.

The TLOU 2 conversation is incredibly misleading and the character they are referencing is not trans. That rumor was started by disingenuous people who were angry at the perception there was trans representation

I think involving the Pascaul allegations as a part of the greater discussion was an error in judgement on their part. Nothing in those allegations rose to the level of needing to be public knowledge. But the crew's conversation painted him as an abuser. Even if they just said alleged every time, the entire tenor of the conversation was that he was guilty. I really hope next week Vinny talks about Matt's comment on the matter which he issued today, because now that they have discussed her allegations, it would look really bad for them to then ignore his response.

What exactly was Matt Pascaul accused of? I read his apology and without much context, the things he was apologizing for .....didn't seem that bad? None of us know the facts, and I'm not against the accuser. I'm just hoping things were that bad that it was worth calling someone out publicly over.

Alright it's been a fucking whole long-ass week of moderation for the moderators and the staff dealing with everything going on in the industry. As we've done in the past we'll be locking this thread for a bit to give us some time to relax and take our minds off of the site for a bit. If you want to discuss current events in the industry I'm sure you'll be able to find a place to do that for a while but as far as myself and the mods go we'll see you on Sunday.

Here's a well made thread about what emotional abuse can involve, the effects it can have and why it's so important to talk about in relation to what people commonly call more serious types of abuse.

I highly recommend everyone reads it through.

From where I stand, based on the public allegations, I find that at least five of those categories fit the description of the case regarding Matt Pascual.

And if additional sources, both public and anonymous, are to be believed, it's not just about a one time thing, not just this one ex that has gained the most attention for these allegations.

It appears to be something that has happened multiple times, i.e. it's a pattern.

It of course still remains to be seen if these allegations are true or not. But as of now, I will stand on the side of the accusers in this matter.

@400lb_gorilla: I agree. After reading what the issue was, I don’t think it’s fair to place him in the same group as those other guys.

Matt Pascual did not deserve this.

They are not saying he's equally as bad. It's quite clear they are not saying he's not equally as bad.
He has, however, if the accusations are to be believed, shown signs of very toxic behavior towards multiple women he's been in relationships with.

It's a bit frightening that people seemingly are willing to minimize how serious emotional abuse is just because it's not considered as bad as physical abuse and assault.

@rorie: Testing.

Ok. I sure don't want to defend anybody who actually uses his status to hurt and abuse people. BUT: When I hear things like: "He won't appear on the site ever again. " I think of german weather-man Jörg Kachelmann. His ex accused him of rape. He spent time in jail, was discredetet, lost his job. Eventually got acquitted cos the accuser lied so much and badly, that they couldn't convict him, much as they wanted. Innocent til proven guilty. Just a reminder. Oh, these people probably aren't. Still... we were not there. We do not know what happened. Let's sometimes remember that.

@toxicantidote: I don't think they said anything about him being just as bad as the other guys. It just seems the conversation about the other men was how they preyed on and force themselves on other women. What Matt did could be done by either a man or woman so grouping him with other men that are essentially predators did not feel right to me.

My main agreement with the first post is that since the accuser was hear, Matt should be heard on the issue as well.

I did not intend for my comments to come off diminishing what impact emotional abuse can have on people. I guess a similar comparison could be that while drug dealing and stealing from others are both wrong acts, those acts are generally very different in nature and should not be judged as being in the same category of wrongdoing.

Plenty of people now have commented on TLOU2, but I guess I'll just echo it even if just to hear myself talk.

Abby isn't a trans character. She's muscular. I'm a straight, cis male, so maybe my perspective on LGBTQ+ issues isn't worth as much, but I find it a little denigrating to trans people and cis women to say, "This person doesn't conform to my gender expectations, therefore they must be trans." It draws a false equivalency between abnormality and transgender, and does not serve to close the divide between cis, trans, gay, straight, etc. And it implies that women can't grow muscles, muscles aren't feminine, muscles on women are undesirable, etc. Hell, I go to the gym, and I'm tired of the "I don't want to lift weights, I don't want to get bulky" thing - as if thinking about a barbell will add an unwanted 10 pounds of muscle to your frame. If that was the case, I'd be in WAY better shape than I am right now.

Muscles take hard work to grow. They're not exclusive to one gender or another. And the presence of muscles on a woman doesn't mean she was born male. Assumptions otherwise, especially based on exactly nothing but appearance, are harmful.

Just want to say that I appreciated the crews discussion on everything that’s been going on. I am particularly impressed with how Abby talked about things. She really put things in a way that I was feeling, but couldn’t properly express.

In regards to mistakes Giantbomb has made, I don’t want to excuse them, but I feel like GB has always come from a position of trying to do good and continually trying to do better. I started watching Giantbomb around 10 years ago near the end of high school and have continued since. I honestly believe Giantbomb has influenced me to be a more mature person, to account for my mistakes both past and present, and to do a better job of listening to people who are different than me.

Thank you for highlighting my sentiments in your first paragraph specifically. Very well said, and wholeheartedly agree.

Maybe let’s wait more than a week before we start getting into spoiler territory???

In regards to Matt, I have never quite understood why the public feels that they must be apologized to when they weren't the one that were wronged. I realize that a person may be called out publicly for some very shitty shit they have done in their private lives but that doesn't mean they owe the public anything.

I don't see why you even feel the need to apologize for bringing that person on your platform when you had literally no way of knowing about any of that stuff. It makes zero sense.

I also found this incredibly disheartening. I also can't believe the way that Tadthuggish was treated on like four separate occasions for calling out Max. The mods who deleted his comments, banned him from posting, and stifled his attempts to improve the state of the site's community, should be absolutely ashamed of their actions.

Vinny and the staff in recent days have stated that they wanted this site to feel as safe as it can be, and largely, it has felt that way since the start, everyone is human and makes mistakes, and I feel like they have done as good a job as can be expected, apart from Max.

I've been a fan of this staff's creative output since before the site has existed, and have rarely posted, other than to try to stop them from blowing up their own spot, and nobody probably cares but me, but it is beyond belief that drawing some fanart in the early days of the site, or being very visible around the site, or posting a bunch of wiki edits, or creating user reviews, or whatever ended up landing them those positions was all it took to get them there. I find it highly irresponsible, especially for something now owned by a large corporate interest, which deserves no extra respect, but could result in the site being wiped away for good.

This site has always been something important to me, and this isn't enough to make me never come back, but I don't fucking know man. Serious mistakes were made.

@gregtkeg:Completely agree. I don't know why one would presume anything, I didn't think anything except "Wow, Abby is fit af" until Abby said she was trans.Abby's quickness to judge and make this about social justice and transphobia when none of it was accurate kind of turned me off the rest of the episode.

I really don't follow news or social media related to people so I didn't know about any of the people discussed at the start of the show. Damn. I'm gonna need to start researching folks and companies.