The Zoe Quinn Conspiracy..

[TheSelfishGene]

Ok, her initial kickstarter was for equipment, research materials etc to make the videos. That was her defence for why she needed 5k for making videos.

So research materials meaning games and original hardware to play them on. So did she have that beforehand or not? Why would someone who's not a gamer have games and hardware?

[Wrathborne]

I'm not. It's just pointing out the main absurdity of your response to me that it's 'just the internet' and 'people who want attention get attention' which excuses the range of responses people give, rather than actually looking at the problems that cause and allow for this... which is the point you still ignore to discuss, rather focusing instead of Anita's problems of making a web video series being a scam and the personal issues which you have with her web series. The latter I'm entirely fine with, but you're not exactly responding to the background issue other than to say it's just what it is.

Well if thats how you feel, then I am completely right and justified in my calling Anita scam artist taking advantage of a longstanding media marketing issue, because you already vilified me you've only proven my point further because this is your response to my criticism of Anita, which you've shown you have some trouble with. Using your previous argument as an example, wont do this again in this response.


You've tried to say it's just trolling and the way the internet works, so how is this not any different to you?
You're saying that the internet and trolling/bad behavior dont go hand in hand? Activities like swatting, scamming, hacking, identity theft, and government cyber intrusion are the norm. I wish it wasn't, but I have no say in this. Not unless I'm a wealthy government organization I suppose.

Basically someone stole pictures of famous people from personal albums, and have exploited them on the internet, simply because they're famous and will often be people who use their fame for profit in otherways right?
Yep. I hate this paparazzi shit BTW.

So by the logic you're telling me about Anita and Zoe and anyone else here being treated poorly because 'thats just what happens' is exactly the same. The same trolling, the same sorts of doxxing criminal activity, the same disrespect and labeling, and the same sexist outcomes.

People get treated like shit, because the internet is filled with thousands and thousands of unscrupulous shitty people.It HAS become a norm, whether you're aware of this or not. And it happens to everyone, not just women out there promoting themselves, instead of what they claim to be promoting. Its an issue with credibility.

And as for Zoe shes been caught staging harassment on 4/chan(as she did previous with wiz/chan, despite the evidence being overlooked because all the gaming journalism outlets were friends with Zoe.) and shes continuing to get support from sites out there despite being a shady player in a corrupt system.

So, no... it's not an insulting implication, it's just me trying to point out what I don't understand your defense of the levels of internet trolling that go well beyond the norm much like in both cases.

I'm not defending internet trolling dude, you're missing the point, I'm saying that this isn't uncommon and it isn't something so bizarre, sexist or out of the norm. Its something that we all need to thicken our skin at while we try to find ways to deal with it other than publicizing "how evil the internet is" and glamorizing the victims/"victims". Some people are legitimate victims and there are legitimate people out there who need help. Anita Sarkeesian is not one of them.

Sadly neither you nor Wrath can separate the idea of her and your issues of her from the point of the videos, and in Wrath's case, use this as a further point to excuse the general behavior of the internet as a whole via-a-vie this as a one example, when really the reverse is true and it's a better example of the internets reaction to women regardless of who or what they are doing if they push against any level of status-quo.

Whoa, wait a minute there Bud, what do you mean we cant separate her opinions from her issues from the point in her videos? You mean we cant separate her, from her opinions that she makes in her videos about her criticisms with video games?

Once more, You're saying that we cant desperate her from her opinions? Where do her opinions comes from in not from her own beliefs, a six legged cabbage tree? Shes presenting her opinion on issues she sees as issues against women, right? I don't see this as that big of an issue against women, you know what I see as issues against women?

I see the GOP slandering womens importance in society, the military, and the work place as an issue. I see the military covering up the thousands of cases of rape against both men and women, as an issue(ore women than men are still raped in the military, but it doesn't change the issue itself). I see politicians slander women who are pro-choice and women who want to marry women are an issue. These are legitimate problems and issues that should be given more attention than they are.

I see how women are represented in video games as a constant irritation when its a badly written female character who is a trope. Because in the end, its still the same marketing gimmick used in comics, movies, and TV. THIS is where the issue is, and where the blame should be aimed at. Yet from the perspective Anita, and the gaming journalism trolls that are supporting her, the real problem comes down to the people who play these games and not the practice itself.

Your assumption that I'm pro-trolling/lax on trolling on the internet and implying that I'm anti women is really telling Rombie. I'm more than willing to disagree with you, or anyone else here, because its a disagreement. Yet you're taking it farther than that and passive aggressively stating "I'm just using your own argument against you", well is my argument that good that yours wasn't worth using to begin with? Is it more important to make me eat my own words than just say "Dude, sorry, I can't agree with that because "blank" and I honestly feel that "blank". Because we dont need that passive aggressive stuff here, we're all on the same side for the most part.

I'm still not quite been given an answer on exactly how this is a scam... again, just because you have equipment doesn't = scam.

What do you mean you haven't been given an answer on how the kickstarter is a scam? I've said it twice and you acknowledged it previously.

I said that if she really believed in what she was doing, she would have just done it.She had the means, and obviously the time to do so, she was already getting donations from her other vidoes and I believe was a Youtube partner as well. That strikes me as suspicious.

This isn't a huge project where she has to rent a large studio room, pay a crew, or a writer dude. Its a simple shoestring budget set up and you know what? There's nothing wrong or shameful about that, its someone presenting their argument in front a green screen and cutting away to show examples. That is absolutely 100% fine.

So I ask again, why did she need 5k to continue doing what she was already doing? She did it because she wanted to get paid for all her time and effort, but she claimed it was for new equipment. All it takes is a receipt showing how much was spent on the new equipment. It could have cost her $2k for what she wanted and I would have understood that the remaining 3k would have gone for her other expenses as I can see the time she puts into these projects.

But she has yet to provide any evidence that she spent any of the money on what she said it was meant for, especially since she got 150K instead of the initial 5k. That doesn't exactly establish credibility or responsibility to the thousands of people who supported this project.

If you're asking for legitimate evidence, thats something different, and I'm afraid I've none to offer :/

I can understand if she's really not a gamer that might bug people, but as Gene said, regardless her observations are based on gaming and still make relevant comment on the gaming industry.

EXACTLY! Yes this is not a bad thing, an outsiders opinion is never a bad thing...But why did she lie about being a gamer in the kickstarter to begin with? Again this also hits her credibility.

In the scheme of things too, she's actually making the series... you can't say the same about some Kickstarter funded projects.

This is true, however I'm not going to lie, I find her scripts with the arguments and the evidence she uses to not be that difficult to piece together, and not really that difficult to write a script around. Shes up to video 5 now, and its been 2 years since the kickstarter I think...She should seriously be a lot farther along.

For her to put out 3 videos a year, she would have to spend 3 months or so of research, 1 month of shooting and editing and I don't think shes putting out that much work into this. Writing a script is a terribly daunting process that consumes you, I know I've been doing it for 12 years and have headed back to school because I need to brush up.

But this is for writing a movie. Shes doing 20 minute pieces about her opinion on a subject, or sub-subject of said subject. While its not as difficult as a movie, I honestly cant see her putting more than maybe 4-5 weeks on each of these scripts.

That being said 5 videos in 2 years is still not establishing much in the way of her credibility. Is she literally going to put out 3-4 videos in a year while still collecting donations and ad revenue from youtube? This sounds more like a business than a cause when I think about it(she is a blogger afterall).

To me failure to make something is a real scam, but hey your viewpoint on this clearly differs that when she's producing what she said she'd do she's scammed a bunch of people to do and reaped the profits.

Yeah this is where we differ, but agree. You're right, she hasnt taken the money and run, but shes running this like a business. Not a cause. A cause is something you believe in fully and regardless of the price you pay. Adding a pricetag to it before you begin feels insincere and disingenuous.

Shes already shown shes not that credible a person.


Again though, she only asked for a small amount. As Gene already said, anyone who still gave her money above 6K and visited that page for whatever reason knew they didn't have to give money if they didn't. It's like you can't allow for anyone to make their own decision to fund something just because you don't agree with it.

You're assuming again, and no 5k is not exactly a small amount. If she had asked for $2k for this project, I wouldn't question it. I've already explained why, please dont make me retype or repost what I'd said previously here.

I don't agree with whose is presenting the opinion, even if I agree with her about the practices shes against.

To take your point about a person without knowledge benefiting = scam.... well you know they often bring outside consultants into most companies that don't have have squat to do with the industry right?

Naughty Dog has proudly showcased that Anita worked the them of "The last of us" actually and now that her audience has grown due to her kickstarter and support by the yellow journalism in gaming I cant help but see her an emerging "Hayes code" of gaming with all the scumbag journalist and sites that are worshipping her.

My old housemate was a business consultant, he spent a year working with a major bread manufacture cutting costs. He knows nothing about bread. He used his business insights to help them and observed their business and commented on it from an outside perspective. Saved them millions, made himself a tidy bonus. By your thoughts, that's a scam.

Your continued passive aggressive assumptions and vilification of me show how black and white you see things in this issue and that you cant look at this from any other perspective than your own. :/ I've looked at this as a gamer, as a filmmaker, as a writer, and I've done my best to look at it from you and Genes perspectives as well. There are good arguments to be made on both sides and in the end we all do agree with eachother on the issue. Yet you're more interested in shaming me because I don't agree with you.-_-

I still don't even get why we're arguing the merits or lack their of in regards to the maker of the content, neither of you have ever stated a position if you think there is even a reason why someone might want to even make a series like this, regardless of scam. The closest I've seen is when Wrath said he'd like to have seen a no-budget version because it takes away scam/bias/profit incentives but that didn't really answer the question.

It did answer the question, but it wasn't the answer you were looking for so now you're disregarding the answer itself. You just had to say " I don't agree with that" and I'd understand completely. I'm not THAT thickheaded.

a) do you think there is sexism in gaming, specifically related to women in games,

Define sexism in gaming. Do you mean female characters in video games, do you mean against women who play video games, or both?

b) do you think there are people who step beyond the lines of normal internet trolling in response to women's opinions/positions (regardless of who they are),
There is, this isn't uncommon. However, you see the same type of harassment against LGBT people online too. The internet is a cruel place, theres a specific type of troll for every type of person who dares to express an opinion online. I'm not supporting it, I'm asking why its so much more horrific when it happens to Anita Sarkeesian, than when it happens to say, Salman Rushdi who faced death threats and had to live in hiding for years.

c) if you do, do you by and large think it's a predominantly male thing, and
Men make up a larger internet population, though that number has been decreasing over the years, but this is the same thing with video games. Women up until maybe the last decade haven't exactly been as interested in video games as men are. The entertainment industry runs things and is a boys club, in the end it all comes down to the audience which is mostly male. Can Marketing become sexist?

d) if you do as well do you believe it feeds back into the point of question a. ?

Gotta specify question A before I can answer it.

Now answer my question Rombie, through out this argument both Dracarys and I have both taken the opposite viewpoint of yours and Gene. I've provided some evidence in my opinions and tried to be polite about them knowing you and Gene wouldn't agree, and Dracarys chose to be more blunt about how she feels about Anita, calling Anita all kinds of names(not condemning ya Drac, just pointing this out) why between the two of us have you only responded to me, the male critic of Anita who spent a good 20 min-30 minutes to respond to each question and try to not insult you or Gene in anyway while ignoring Dracarys until this final response?

Is there a reason you've chosen to not question Dracarys opinions on the matter? Was it because she shared most of my opinions or, was it awkward to argue with a female gamer who sees Anita Sarkeesian the same way the male gamer that you chose to vilify in this argument?

You dont honestly have to answer that, because I'm not trying to change you or Genes opinions on Anita. They are what they are and the ironic thing about all this is you'll find we ALL agree on how women are portrayed in the media, but we disagree with one aspect of the issue and thats who is leading it.

[Dracarys]

Ok, her initial kickstarter was for equipment, research materials etc to make the videos. That was her defence for why she needed 5k for making videos.

That was a lie. She already had all that. Therefor, it was a scam.
She said as a lifelong gamer she would make these videos...except she wasn't, another lie, so a scam.

The fact she ended up with so much funding is because people were showing support against the dickheads making threats etc. Doesn't change the fact the initial idea behind the need for funds in the kickstarter was false and her representation of herself was false.

That is one of the major reasons her initial dislike started, that it was a dodgy kickstarter, the difference between hers and some others that get criticised is that she then threw out the sexist gamers defence which just pissed off a lot of and really got the hate train rolling.

If she was so squeeky clean and honest she wouldn't run about trying to hide or delete evidence of herself being deceitful or caught in a lie.

Not sure what this meant to accomplish but...

a) do you think there is sexism in gaming, specifically related to women in games,
No, I think there is sexism in gaming related to both men and women.

b) do you think there are people who step beyond the lines of normal internet trolling in response to women's opinions/positions (regardless of who they are),
Obviously.

c) if you do, do you by and large think it's a predominantly male thing, and
In Anita's case yes, are examples of the reverse though. It depends.

d) if you do as well do you believe it feeds back into the point of question a.
No, because I disagree with A.

[TheSelfishGene]

Btw just because people threw money at her kickstarter doesn't make it not a scam, the point of scams is to get money. Since when does a scam being successful make it not a scam. She already had equipment, she already had research material, she already had funding and she lied about her history with gaming which is meant to reflect in her videos. Can you say how many people backed her kickstarter because they believed she was a gamer fed up for years with how women are portrayed in games...which was a lie.

Still no substance to the scam argument. Show me evidence she stole money from someone. Show me evidence she hasn't delivered on promises of what she said she'd do. Show me evidence she willfully deceived people to get her project funded. That's what it would take to convince me that she's a scammer. Why is there a presumption that she's doing something deceitful?

On the contrary; what evidence would it take to convince you that it's not a scam? Not that she owes an explanation, but what could she possibly do or say to convince you? Or do you assume every kickstarter is a scam? If there was any solid evidence for this being a scam, I'd totally agree she should have to answer to the claims. But there's no hint of that.

Here's some counter-evidence. In the original kickstarter plea she's asking to make 5 episodes of 10-20 minutes. She's said shes making 12, and each PART of the ones she's released so far is 25-30mins. Looks like she's put those funds into the project to me.

[Rombie]

Um, what? Okay so in this ideal world I'd love to see what sort of video or points you have to make to be able to comment at all about females in videogaming. Between you and Wrath, I'd conclude it would have to be a budget self-funded web series from a famous existing female gamer that basically praises all gaming, makes no errors, only uses self sourced footage, while basically saying 'sometimes there are women in games and their position in those games is often poorly thought out to some people' with the constant disclaimer 'but thats just my opinion' at the end of every second sentence (just so people won't possibly get confused) and cant make any questions to make people think about anything else because that might lead to trouble. Oh and they have to respond to every piece of questioning ever, regardless of who it comes from - even if they make threats, sexist comment, and hide behind anom masks. Is that about correct?

Sadly neither you nor Wrath can separate the idea of her and your issues of her from the point of the videos, and in Wrath's case, use this as a further point to excuse the general behavior of the internet as a whole via-a-vie this as a one example, when really the reverse is true and it's a better example of the internets reaction to women regardless of who or what they are doing if they push against any level of status-quo.

I'm still not quite been given an answer on exactly how this is a scam... again, just because you have equipment doesn't = scam. I guess I'm going to have to start using situations I can think of as examples:

My friend covers Hockey in New Zealand, he has his own equipment, every year the funding body decides to give him a budget for that season to make it work, financed by contributions from all of the teams in the league. The first season he needed lots of equipment obviously, but he still had a set budget, but the contract allows him to use that budget on stuff that his company gets to keep. Each year the budget hardly changes, but it's not like they change it because they know he has equipment... it still costs to produce the content and each year he gets funding he manages to expand it's potential. So asking for money when you have kit is just asking to invest in expanding the potential of a project to me. How you're both blind to this I don't understand.

I can understand if she's really not a gamer that might bug people, but as Gene said, regardless her observations are based on gaming and still make relevant comment on the gaming industry. In the scheme of things too, she's actually making the series... you can't say the same about some Kickstarter funded projects. To me failure to make something is a real scam, but hey your viewpoint on this clearly differs that when she's producing what she said she'd do she's scammed a bunch of people to do and reaped the profits. Again though, she only asked for a small amount. As Gene already said, anyone who still gave her money above 6K and visited that page for whatever reason knew they didn't have to give money if they didn't. It's like you can't allow for anyone to make their own decision to fund something just because you don't agree with it.

To take your point about a person without knowledge benefiting = scam.... well you know they often bring outside consultants into most companies that don't have have squat to do with the industry right? My old housemate was a business consultant, he spent a year working with a major bread manufacture cutting costs. He knows nothing about bread. He used his business insights to help them and observed their business and commented on it from an outside perspective. Saved them millions, made himself a tidy bonus. By your thoughts, that's a scam. I don't think he'd agree, he'd say it's his job. But whatever.

I still don't even get why we're arguing the merits or lack their of in regards to the maker of the content, neither of you have ever stated a position if you think there is even a reason why someone might want to even make a series like this, regardless of scam. The closest I've seen is when Wrath said he'd like to have seen a no-budget version because it takes away scam/bias/profit incentives but that didn't really answer the question. So lets put this out straight and see what we get from both of you:

a) do you think there is sexism in gaming, specifically related to women in games,
b) do you think there are people who step beyond the lines of normal internet trolling in response to women's opinions/positions (regardless of who they are),
c) if you do, do you by and large think it's a predominantly male thing, and
d) if you do as well do you believe it feeds back into the point of question a.

?

Answer those things and I'll probably have said enough and I'll leave you alone.

[Dracarys]

She comes off as more of a misandrist than a feminist to me, the feminist image is just a shield to hide behind. Her videos and points are full of double standards which is the opposite of what feminism is meant to be about.

She has ignored everything about a female character and focus on one single thing about them , or event that happens to them and argue the character is a victim of some sort and so the entire character is worthless and is evidence of what is wrong with the industry. Her career is built on playing a victim, is she worthless then and we can ignore everythig about her?


Btw just because people threw money at her kickstarter doesn't make it not a scam, the point of scams is to get money. Since when does a scam being successful make it not a scam. She already had equipment, she already had research material, she already had funding and she lied about her history with gaming which is meant to reflect in her videos. Can you say how many people backed her kickstarter because they believed she was a gamer fed up for years with how women are portrayed in games...which was a lie.

[TheSelfishGene]

Ok just watched the first Repzion clip you mentioned, his rebuttal to Damsel's in Distress.
After conceding that he agrees with her on some level, he paraphrases her argument to

"Her main argument is that women are made out to be an object and a "Damsel in distress" where a woman is not the main protagonist of the game, and how video games are primarily all male protagonists and she uses Super Mario Bros for example.Princess Peach always the person who's getting captured by Bowser. Mario always has to rescue her and because he always has to rescue her that somehow is degrading of women at the fact that Mario has to rescue Peach and rescue the "Damsel in Distress",which somehow affects the female; there's not enough 'female role models' in the gaming community. That was her main argument

and then he spiels off a litany of games which have female protagonists. Not countering any of the points she made. Here's a quote from her video (transcript here: http://www.feministfrequency.com/201...stress-part-1/)

One way to think about Damsel’d characters is via what’s called the subject/object dichotomy. In the simplest terms, subjects act and objects are acted upon. The subject is the protagonist, one the story is centered on and the one doing most of the action. In video games this is almost always the main playable character and the one from whose perspective most of the story is seen.

So the damsel trope typically makes men the “subject” of the narratives while relegating women to the “object”. This is a form of objectification because as objects, damsel’ed women are being acted upon, most often becoming or reduced to a prize to be won, a treasure to be found or a goal to be achieved.

For Repzion to even be engaging with her he'd have to provide evidence of how in something like SMB Peach isn't the object of Mario's mission (which is preposterous). For Peach to be a fleshed out character. If SMB was about Mario going through 8 worlds to go and get a kebab the game would be no worse off; that's how little Peach adds to the game. Why isn't it ok to point out that women are little more than a "prize to be won" in games like this?

At its heart the damsel trope is not really about women at all, she simply becomes the central object of a competition between men (at least in the traditional incarnations). I’ve heard it said that “In the game of patriarchy women are not the opposing team, they are the ball.” So for example, we can think of the Super Mario franchise as a grand game being played between Mario and Bowser. And Princess Peach’s role is essentially that of the ball.

That's what she's talking about. Nothing to do with there being too few women in games as protagonists...

[TheSelfishGene]

Ok Gene, this took a while to gather up but I wanted to make sure that I got all your Q's addressed. I want you to know that going through all her manipulative, biased videos, theories and opinions is not easy. I absolutely detest selfish, corrupt, greedy, self glamorizing people like Anita. I get that you support her and I don't want to insult you or your view in any way, but I want ya to know I've done some footwork here and this isn't the opinion of a "mysogonistic woman beating rape promoting patriarchy agent", as Anitas gender hating supporters would imply.

I totally appreciate the effort you've gone to. It's clear that you've researched it. I don't support Anita in any way, other than that I think her videos make some good points. I didn't provide and funds to her kickstarter or any of her projects. I only heard of her when the hate train left the station, and went and watched her videos and found myself agreeing with the majority of the points she made.

Anita already has a green screen, lighting equipment, a good camera, and editing software. But lets look beyond this for a moment, first question that should have been raised is, why didn't she provide an itinerary for what she was going to purchase for this series?
Why? Does any other kickstarter have to do this? Why is she unique in this case? Why does she deserve such scrutiny? Why is she being held to a different standard than other backed kickstarters if she's not required to do this.
And the whole scammer thing? Every cent donated to her kickstarter was done willingly. Everyone who donated past $6000 knew it was being funded. And she's making the content she's promised she would. What has she done that's disingenuous?

Her argument is fine, but shes not present an argument, shes providing an argument as a fact,instead of an opinion. Anita is a pop culture critic, not a researcher. I say that because a researcher would provide more than an opinion, they would cite studies, they would cite references, links in their videos and they would do it more. She cites the games in her video in her vid description.
It's an opinion piece. It's not a debate. There's no requirement to hear any other point of view. It is biased. It is not impartial (let me qualify that. Only one side of the case will be heard. That does not mean that what she says is automatically wrong, and her contention should not be automatically dismissed because of her bias). From when I've watched her videos, I've seen things I think are factually wrong, and can think of counterexamples to refute some of her examples. However the overwhelming weight of evidence is on her side. Look at the title of her website. Feminist Frequency. No one should be surprised that she's pushing a feminist agenda. Her audience should have the critical faculties to analyse her points, the examples she uses to illustrate her points, and then agree/disagree. Everything I've seen is people disputing pieces of her evidence, and neglecting to address any point she's made.

Well, why is it bad for game developers to have busty scantily clad women in games, but its not bad for Hollywood to have busty scantily clad women in their movies? Or for comics to do the same thing?
There's Hollywood critics who criticise gratuitous nudity and sex. But for some reason they don't raise the ire of the collective internet. It seems only criticism of games does.

...You cant fault game developers for using the same trick that the rest of of the entertainment industry uses.
Sure you can. I'm sure as a feminist she's unhappy about the way women are used as background decoration in some movies. But the videos we're talking about are her talking about problems in games. Her saying she has a problem with games in a video series about games doesn't mean she finds what any other media do acceptable. But it's a good thing that she says that developers should aspire to more than one dimensional blatant sexism (my words not hers).

Her complains about juvenile gamers who cant take criticism is invalidated automatically by her blocking all comments on her videos, " Sadly, we have been forced to close comments on YouTube due to continued harassment of this channel but please feel free to post and share this video with your own social media networks to facilitate discussions."
I agree in a perfect world she should engage with people who've thought about the issues as much as she has, and can hold their own in an argument. As I said in the earlier post, I haven't seen one good refutation of any of the points she makes (will expand below). But I know that if she allowed comments on her videos the flamers would pile on and have a field day.

Ok Gene, well there are literally hundreds of videos about refuting what shes says, how she comes to her conclusions, as well as calling her out for being a bullshit artist.

Heres Thunder00t. Crazy British scientist teacher who happens to be disgusted by the current feminist hate train and its fallacies. His series is called "feminism vs.facts". every time Anita posts a video, he posts a video about her video pointing out all the fallacies, the lies, and the agenda she has.

Here is Kitetales, a female gamer.Shes offering a counter viewpoint.

Mr.Repzion,Just a youtube gamer.

The Amazing Atheist, yeah hes a douche but heres his first video. Hes not attacking her, he was initially complaining about her disabling comments.

His second video about her, hes less kind.Still annoyed that shes refusing to face criticism. He also points out about story structure that she doesnt seem to get, or chooses to ignore.this is a BIG part of video games, the story.
Will endeavour to watch these over the coming days.

Shes not there to make better female characters in video games, shes here to promote herself and her agenda. She is her own product, and she has a price. If she was honestly doing this for the sake of trying to get developers to put out better female characters in video games, she would be out there doing all of this for free and for everyone benefit. Ya know, like someone who actually cares about what they're doing and sees how much more important than monetary gain.
So why do you think she's doing this? Honest question. If not to bring up some of her gripes to a wider audience? I haven't seen any substantiation to the fact she's scammed money.

Yes I can Gene. She isn't a victim, She plays the victim card, and she plays it frequently. Yes shes harassed for having an unpopular opinion, yes there are thousands of trolls out there who get off on this shit. Guess what? You can block and ignore trolls instead of going to twitter and saying how mean they are while panhandling for more donations.

Anita just claimed she had to move because of death threats. You know what you do if you get a death Threat? You go to the police, or the FBI. You don't go to twitter.http://imgur.com/a/1JGSk/noscript
And she's not a victim? Why should she have to put up with this shit for criticizing video games. It's insane. And I'm sure she has the sense to contact authorities before she tweets about it...

Here is her latest death threat.

http://i.imgur.com/CNVoCVL.jpg

Latest public death threat. Who knows if she even took this seriously? Why can't she? Why should someone be able to harass her like that? And who knows what kind of private correspondance she gets.

And here is Polygon coming to her defense showing her tweets about reacting to this.
http://www.donotlink.com/framed?530661
That whole article is very matter of fact. Only hint they are supportive is the line "Please watch every episode of Feminist Frequency's Tropes VS Video Games below" If you asked me it's just a way for them to get views; the link dump is tangential to the story, and there's no editorial line.

Anita is a scam artist, part of the Zoe Quinn gaming journalism scam and she doesn't deserve your respect, time, or money guys. People like Anita make a living off of people like you, who are good people that want to try to make the world a little easier for everyone, this is why I've taken so much time here to put up this post to you and Rombie.
All the money was given to Anita voluntarily. I don't know why she's in the mix with Zoe Quinn (I don't know much about how their paths intersect, other than the internet seems to have a vendetta against both. I haven't given her money, and she hasn't 'scammed' any off me...

Please don't just look at one of the video links and say "this is too long" or "I dont like these points of view because they contradict mine". Watch them. Watch them all. Be skeptical, I encourage this. The reason I listed these vids arent because I think the people who made them are infallible perfect creatures who cant make mistakes.
In all honesty I'll listen to them rather than watch them. I usually just listen to documentaries on wireless headphones around the house or while I'm cycling to work. I'll put these on over the next few days. If there's anything visual I'll make the effort to see.

Anita has earned her share of hatred, not for having a different opinion, but for being a lying man hating scam artist.
Substance to this claim please.
When I was 13 years old, my mother was raped by a "friend" who was drunk. It took years, but my mother got through it, found religion, and forgave the guy. To his face. Shes moved on with her life and is a much happier person. I have not. This was one of the most damaging things that ever happened to me in my childhood, and it didn't even happen to me personally! It took years to manifest into a guilt, a self loathing rage, a confusion, an anger that will not go away. Its one of the reasons why I've never managed to have a real romantic relationship, and I'm 34 years old. Its still there, burning inside me like a furnace and it keeps me from getting close to anyone. And yet, with all this inside me, I can live with it. I can live with being another solitary white guy whose metaphorically dead from the neck down.
Really sorry to hear that. I'm glad your mother's come to peace with it and that you've found a way to live with it.

To this woman who you respect, and all the lunatics that support her I'm a woman hating rapist in training who gets off on torture and violence, because I'm another solitary white guy who plays games.
I don't think that's her argument though. She's saying that games (wrongly) give people the vehicle to virtually abuse, assault, neglect, use and ignore women. That doesn't mean that everyone that plays the games shares those opinions or qualities. Can you find a quote where she does?

[Rombie]

You needed to resort to an insulting implication why? That was completely uncalled for. We can disagree without these comments dude. -_-

I'm not. It's just pointing out the main absurdity of your response to me that it's 'just the internet' and 'people who want attention get attention' which excuses the range of responses people give, rather than actually looking at the problems that cause and allow for this... which is the point you still ignore to discuss, rather focusing instead of Anita's problems of making a web video series being a scam and the personal issues which you have with her web series. The latter I'm entirely fine with, but you're not exactly responding to the background issue other than to say it's just what it is.

You've tried to say it's just trolling and the way the internet works, so how is this not any different to you? Basically someone stole pictures of famous people from personal albums, and have exploited them on the internet, simply because they're famous and will often be people who use their fame for profit in otherways right? So by the logic you're telling me about Anita and Zoe and anyone else here being treated poorly because 'thats just what happens' is exactly the same. The same trolling, the same sorts of doxxing criminal activity, the same disrespect and labeling, and the same sexist outcomes.

So, no... it's not an insulting implication, it's just me trying to point out what I don't understand your defense of the levels of internet trolling that go well beyond the norm much like in both cases.

I care because if she really believed in what she was doing, she would have just done it. She already had the means, the equipment, Asking for a large sum, while already receiving donations from her other videos and her site doesn't sound kosher to me. It feels disingenuous and greedy. She could have saved up the donations she was already receiving and used them for her project.

Uh huh, and again, if this was you and you had your equipment and still asked for 5k would you expect us to question you for it? You'd set what you think is a suitable goal for the project, and any and every dollar above it would be a bonus.

The excuse 'if they really believed...' is silly. You need funding and capital to do anything self produced. I'm currently looking to change my work halfway around the world, I want to do this, I believe in getting a new and exciting job, but I sure as hell need money to live on to do it... I can believe in it all I want and want to do it, but plane tickets, accommodation, other transport, time to look for work isn't going to happen for free. Much like if I had a project I wanted to get funding I'd be setting a reasonable goal to cover the costs. I still don't see your problem here.

People often have means and equipment and still ask for money for Kickstarter to fund the actual product they plan to release. And again I don't see how this is a new or problematic issue for you, it doesn't effect you, the content doesn't appeal, so I wonder again why you actually care because you've just told me the same thing you did earlier. Are you jealous of the success of a kickstarter that got funding for a goal you don't like, that also you believe is disingenuous, then I can say 'thats a reason'. You might as well be honest.

I'm currently reminded of the scandal caused by Zach Braff kickstarter funding his recent film when clearly he should have plenty of cash assets already himself to do it, and then outside of the funding got a distribution company to bankroll further funding anyway, causing a big stink. Of course in this case more people were pissy about the latter than the former for some reason, and his funding amount was much much more than 5k. But still I never saw the same level of personal attacks in this case either... so go figure.

Looking at the earlier videos which I've just gone back to, there seems to be at least some level of visual improvement, implying either new lens sets or a camera. I can only take a well educated view on this, but I might be wrong. I have noticed on her site which I visited there was a picture of the studio they've done the recordings in, which is well soundproofed and they're using a red-drop for the chroma key. The way it's set out tells me unless the guys job is video/green screen work anyway, it's more likely not their space and it's borrowed from someone, because it's setup reasonably professionally, and therefor they've probably been borrowing it and wanted to pay something for it's use in the budget.

Again, I didn't see any blame put upon anyone... she just asks for developers to be more considerate about the design and concept of games. That her place to ask just as much as anyone. The irony of your issue with this is it seems more than anyone it's game developers who've taken this as a challenge. Just like any opinion videos, there is for and against, much as videos you've posted show - and I don't expect anything less than that. People should challenge ideas, and I never said that was wrong, but there is a difference between challenging concepts and slanderous comments which somehow you don't want to separate and just blame as being "the internet". Very big differences.

I suspect also Anita's lack of response stems from a) the original response she got and b) not taking time away from the video project she got funded and owes to her backers. If you were making a hit game and then had to spend all your time responding to your critics, do you think you'd have time to make more content? Your only hope for that is that at some point when she finishes the main series she makes another video responding to mistakes made, questions asked, and other thoughts she'd had on peoples responses. But no one is ever owed a response to questions on an opinion piece. I'm not, you're not, no one is... the person who makes it gets that choice to direct response.

In the end we'll probably just disagree over Anita's content, and that doesn't bother me one bit because of the exact point that it's about discussion... and that's cool. But the difference here is I also won't excuse peoples ignorance in the face of what they think is anonymity to think they're able to say whatever they want online, and that there is a far bigger fundamental issue here which you continue to label, twist, and ignore.

[Wrathborne]

I enjoyed the irony of this massive leak of nude celebs in the middle of this all happening too... go to most forums or on twitter and you'll see the same sort of things being said about them... of course given what you've been saying, you'll probably come back and tell me all the celebs are attention whores so it's only likely they instigated this for their own self promotional purposes I'm sure.

You needed to resort to an insulting implication why? That was completely uncalled for. We can disagree without these comments dude. -_-

I question why you care.
I care because if she really believed in what she was doing, she would have just done it. She already had the means, the equipment, Asking for a large sum, while already receiving donations from her other videos and her site doesn't sound kosher to me. It feels disingenuous and greedy. She could have saved up the donations she was already receiving and used them for her project.

She could have done this project so many ways on the cheap and still maintained decent video and audio quality. I get wanting to be paid for your work on these projects, believe me I understand this as a starving artist. I've been doing the game for almost 11 years now and not a day goes by that I don't wish I could get paid an incredible sum for my work. But I'm in the niche, I try to not be too controversial or step on too many toes(though I'm getting a bit bitter about this now) and for the most part I just keep trying.

But I find it incredibly repulsive that someone comes out with this type of kickstarter, a vanity project, gets threats from idiots online and is white knighted to a figure in the gaming industry who gets accolades and positive press from a corrupt bunch of self promoting arrogant wankers. She went for a controversial topic and spends her time blaming the male centered audience for why video games aren't the way she thinks they should be. She got over $150k for this. That offends me that by generalizing a topic and creating drama she was able to succeed like this. Its manipulative and so...Fox news.

I believe in my own silly creations. Even after 10 years and the little bit of green I've made of my works, I still keep trying. I'm in a tough spot right now and for the first time am actually asking to be paid for my work from my own small fanbase. $50 for a 10-11 minute toon. The green is going towards my heading back to school to pursue an AA in screenwriting. Thats about as far as I can manage to self promote myself outside of posting a link here and there, because I cant fool myself. I'm a starving artist trying to make a few dollars on the web in a rotten economy. Theres no noble intent, or discussion to be had there.

And yet someone can have a legitimate issue with gaming, but point the fingers at so much of the community, while ignoring her critics, put out an unnecessary kickstarter despite her already having the means to do her project, and laugh all the way to the bank and continue to accumulate status and wealth all because of choosing a subject that she was able to put a dramatic, finger pointing spin on. That offends me to my core, but her offending me isn't going to do anything but offend me. Its not like I'm going to start up a kickstarter and ask to be paid because I'm offended. Because the second I do that, I'm no different than she is...minus the success and money.

The sexist hatred and shit will always be around, this is the internet. You can't change people acting like dicks, thats how it is and thats part of humanity I'm afraid to say. This isn't new and shouldn't be branded as something so shocking that people are getting off on being dicks on someone, any more than all these game sites being as corrupt and distasteful as they are. And yet,we're all still surprised by it in some ways.

She did this all to start a discussion, right? So why is this something she wont discuss with the audience? Because of all the trolls making stupid threats and insulting her? Thats not an excuse. People get legitimate death threats for disagreeing with religion, or making fun of it, or not being part of someones religious sect. Thats a more legitimate concern for someones safety than creepers making twitter accounts and posting stupid, but vile, threats that are obviously trolling.

Why is it huge news when a pop culture critic gets trolled? Because it all goes back to kotaku and these other sites promoting an agenda to appeal to their new neo-feminist audience. Its about money in the end, thats the least surprising aspect of it.

[Rombie]

Actually Rombie, its not just hatred of Zoe for the corruption, its the journalism industry as a whole. Zoe is a key player in this, but shes not the real issue. Thats the gaming news industry, they are getting hatred for this and people are starting to figure this shit out.

The journalism thing is a long running debate going back to corruption in gaming print media since the early 90's. This isn't anything new, no one is 'starting' to figure this out, it's just the same old stuff with new reasons to pick holes. I can go back to the GameSpot debacle with Kane and Lynch, the comments squared at 'official' magazines preferences, the Keighley Doritosgate, complaints about EGM's old advertising content, various 90's gaming magazine reviewing demos as full games, etc. etc. The whole gaming awards system is one other massive issue with the whole industry.

As for Quinn, regardless of what you or I think, people seem to be spending far more time talking about her than the corruption. I can just google her name and it shows me that.

Also, the reason most people don't like Anita Sarkesian isnt because "Anita Sarkeesian for doing nothing more but making videos on her opinion and the history of female gaming tropes." Its because shes a scam artist.

Uh huh. Regardless of if she's a scam artist or not, or the content of her videos, I've seen personally the comments which were left on various things she's posted prior to them either being closed down or where she stopped allowing comment and much like Quinn I've seen dozens of forum topics and other videos. I can tell you that for her opinions right or wrong, the level of response goes well beyond sane levels and certainly lots I saw with my own eyes certainly said different thing that she was a scam artist. To counter your blanket view on what people were saying, people were already making comments about her earlier videos even before the kickstarter began... so I'm not quite sure how they could say someone was a scam artist before they were supposedly scamming anyone.

Her kickstarter wanted, what 5k? to research video games as well as purchase new camera equipment for her web series.

Personally I'd say 5k for a webseries is probably a good amount, depending on what equipment you'd have to hire, locations to rent, graphics design, time spend researching, plus the kickstart fees etc. I saw your reply to Gene implied there was no breakdown, but most Kickstarters don't anyway. But most people will break down the numbers, especially in the US, because they're required to pay taxes on it. I also don't see why someone shouldn't get paid for their time, especially if they eventually turn it into a full time thing like she did. Plus anyone who gave money over the 5K chose to, it's not like she went around with guns to peoples heads. Plus even if there was a level of marketing involved, why does it bother you? If you don't like it you don't have to give any money. I didn't give any. But if I had a project I wanted to kickstart I'd be happy to get as much as I could. I question why you care.

I've seen the clip where she says she doesn't play games. I've seen that she uses others footage (and artwork sometimes) under a fair use claim, thats bothered a bunch of people. I never said that wasn't an issue. Some people asked for credit, some people asked for money seeing as she got paid. I know some people got credits in links under videos, no idea on money. This is a different point than attacking someone based on gender though isn't it?

I've watched about three or four of the videos, not the whole series, and I think she's stating opinions and backing them up with reports from various people in rights field and writers (the articles are mentioned and in the newer videos it looks like she puts up photos of the person where she can). I didn't see presentations as facts, just statements and interpretations, using other peoples statements and concepts along with hers to place thoughts on women in gaming. If you see facts, I can't quite understand why, but that's your choice. Still doesn't answer the responses I saw from some people. Nor does her place invalidate any potential for the place of opinion, much like Gene said, which she's as welcome to make as you are to have a grudge I guess.

In any case, regardless of all of this, labeling people as attention seekers and victims, you're still ignoring the point of peoples reactions online to any of this... what I've been seeing on forums and twitter in discussion about these people goes beyond the general concepts you're outlaying. There is a lot of sexist bile and hatred flying around.

I enjoyed the irony of this massive leak of nude celebs in the middle of this all happening too... go to most forums or on twitter and you'll see the same sort of things being said about them... of course given what you've been saying, you'll probably come back and tell me all the celebs are attention whores so it's only likely they instigated this for their own self promotional purposes I'm sure.

[Kaneco]

she's also been caught cutting important plot points from cutscenes off her videos and using as leverage to take it out of context and to fit her theme and agenda.

I can edit the same videos and make it seem that 'men' aren't correctly portrayed and used for abuse by just posting every cutscene of Solid/Naked Snake suffering/tortured in many ways and call it a day, just to push my 'agenda' that men are abused in the media.

I agree with every point Dracarys & Wrathborne! Everything that's been happening for the past few days has been filled with 'nepotism' in the gaming industry and a 'Watergate' scenario of sweeping everything under the rug and 'DON'T LOOK AT THE MAN BEHIND THE CURTAIN!'...corruption to keep them afloat through 'nepotism' and 'click-baiting' articles about what they define what's 'wrong' with the gaming community, instead of actual 'game reporting'...that's too much work, so they decide to write opinionated 'articles' that just happened to be 'glorified' blog posts!

Face it! They're leeches, opportunists & bloggers that hide behind the title 'Gaming Journalism' with no sense of morals and ethics.

The standard is so low, that I can myself a 'Journalist' if I wanted to...no need to interview anyone, or actually do any sort of research! Just write an 'opinionated' blog piece and call it a day! That's all it takes to become one nowadays!

Just watch MundaneMatt's & InternetAristocrat's videos on the matter, if you want to be informed...do your own research and then make your own informed opinion about the matter. The whole thing stinks, and it's been stinking for years!

Best way to live life is with 'skepticism'...most people in the world are shitty/selfish and out for the themselves, no matter what gender they represent! It's always good to remember that, especially with people you don't know on a personal level.

[Wrathborne]

Ok Gene, this took a while to gather up but I wanted to make sure that I got all your Q's addressed. I want you to know that going through all her manipulative, biased videos, theories and opinions is not easy. I absolutely detest selfish, corrupt, greedy, self glamorizing people like Anita. I get that you support her and I don't want to insult you or your view in any way, but I want ya to know I've done some footwork here and this isn't the opinion of a "mysogonistic woman beating rape promoting patriarchy agent", as Anitas gender hating supporters would imply.

From the Kickstarter itself (https://www.kickstarter.com/projects...in-video-games) it says "Your support will go towards production costs, equipment, games and downloadable content."

I think there's no way you could get that under $5k. Rombie might know more about editing and post production costs. But her videos are of a certain standard which was probably worth her while to pay for, since she can't just be dismissed as an idiot in their basement and webcam and opinions.


As a matter of fact, yes, there is. And thats if you do it all yourself, as she is doing(AA in film production and some experience with all this equipment and experience working on these projects.) Anita is the director, the host, the writer(co-written by her BF) and it looks like all she doesn't do is the motion graphics and music. Shes basically doing about 75% of the production herself, I dont see an editor listed so I'll assume its her as well.

Anita already has a green screen, lighting equipment, a good camera, and editing software. But lets look beyond this for a moment, first question that should have been raised is, why didn't she provide an itinerary for what she was going to purchase for this series?

If she listed "sony PSX camera, $1200, New Halogen lights, $300, External HD $400, and new Boom Mic $100" I probably wouldn't question where the money went. Not only has she not provided any list of what the money was going to be spent on, she hasnt provided any proof that she spent the money on any of this equipment either. If shes spending some money on the motion graphics or the music, why isn't that listed either?


She's making an argument and citing evidence to back up that argument. Pretty basic stuff. She's often got multiple examples of games which prove her point it in each video, and I'm sure it's not an exhaustive list. In a lot of cases I think she's on scraping the tip of the iceberg.

Her argument is fine, but shes not present an argument, shes providing an argument as a fact,instead of an opinion. Anita is a pop culture critic, not a researcher. I say that because a researcher would provide more than an opinion, they would cite studies, they would cite references, links in their videos and they would do it more. She cites the games in her video in her vid description.


Gonna have to call you out on that one. Unless you're talking about her conduct outside of her videos.

This is where the problem lies, the conduct outside her videos is the same, because what she says outside of the videos she says inside the videos. Not to mention this is a vanity project all about her and there isn't much of a difference between what she says in the videos and outside of them.


It's much more nuanced then that. I think there's a lot of criticism of developers, who are designing games for a certain demographic. How many people are the stereotypical basement dwelling hygiene neglecting mountain dew swilling gamerz (you know the stereotype) is certainly up for debate, as is how relevant they are in the scheme of things. And the times where she does say players are juvenile or crude and can't take criticism; every hater and flamer who has a shot at her proves her point further.

Well, why is it bad for game developers to have busty scantily clad women in games, but its not bad for Hollywood to have busty scantily clad women in their movies? Or for comics to do the same thing?

This isn't something thats just on video games, this is something about entertainment. Its marketing to the widest demographic and something thats been done for probably 50 years now. You cant fault game developers for using the same trick that the rest of of the entertainment industry uses. If she really believes that its evil to use sex to sell your product, then why does she even appear in her videos? Why cant she just narrate them instead?

Why is it so important that we see her for about 75% of each of these videos? Would we not understand a woman voice when we hear it?

Her complains about juvenile gamers who cant take criticism is invalidated automatically by her blocking all comments on her videos, " Sadly, we have been forced to close comments on YouTube due to continued harassment of this channel but please feel free to post and share this video with your own social media networks to facilitate discussions."

This is bullshit, pure and simple. She is putting out a topic, but refuses to hold any discussion with anyone who has issues with her opinion. Yes shes going to get thousands of hate responses, yes they're all going to be awful and disgusting, block the people who do it and actually communicate with the people who have legitimate criticisms. Instead shes saying "have a discussion somewhere else".-_-


Absolutely not true. That's just not how arguments work. It's not like scoring points in a game of tennis and all the points are moot when a 'game' is decided.

As a matter of fact yes it kind of is Gene, for every time she manages to prove that female characters in video games could be better developed, its followed up by her reasons as to why they aren't well developed. This is always followed by how game developers are there to create women for male gamers to oppress. Or how these poor defenseless women only exist to be virtually raped by masses of perverts.


I'm absolutely interested. I haven't seen one good refutation on any of the arguments that she makes.

Ok Gene, well there are literally hundreds of videos about refuting what shes says, how she comes to her conclusions, as well as calling her out for being a bullshit artist.

Heres Thunder00t. Crazy British scientist teacher who happens to be disgusted by the current feminist hate train and its fallacies. His series is called "feminism vs.facts". every time Anita posts a video, he posts a video about her video pointing out all the fallacies, the lies, and the agenda she has.

]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QJeX6F-Q63I

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aGAvjwQPCHE&list=UUmb8hO2ilV9vRa8cilis88A

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c_O1R7Zq9EI&list=UUmb8hO2ilV9vRa8cilis88A

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WuRS...V9vRa8cilis88A is the video of Anita admitting not to be a gamer, and not even liking video games.

Thunderf00t can be a bit much, so here are normal gamers out there providing their input.

Here is Kitetales, a female gamer.Shes offering a counter viewpoint.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HJihi5rB_Ek

Mr.Repzion,Just a youtube gamer.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=la9i2np0WTU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yCsfXkbzRI4

The Amazing Atheist, yeah hes a douche but heres his first video. Hes not attacking her, he was initially complaining about her disabling comments.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NfkS9YS_T0k

His second video about her, hes less kind.Still annoyed that shes refusing to face criticism. He also points out about story structure that she doesnt seem to get, or chooses to ignore.this is a BIG part of video games, the story.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=25o0EZiogw0

This doesn't invalidate any of the points she's made of portrayal of women in games.
It doesn't, but shes not there to make better female characters in video games, shes here to promote herself and her agenda. She is her own product, and she has a price. If she was honestly doing this for the sake of trying to get developers to put out better female characters in video games, she would be out there doing all of this for free and for everyone benefit. Ya know, like someone who actually cares about what they're doing and sees how much more important than monetary gain.

Can't really comment on the other two, but Anita's got my respect. You know, doing her research, writing opinion pieces and putting her name to her work like a good journalist should. And you seriously can't tell me that she isn't a victim. I mean look at this shit http://www.newstatesman.com/blogs/in...rassment-looks : for critiquing VIDEO GAMES...[/QUOTE]

Yes I can Gene. She isn't a victim, She plays the victim card, and she plays it frequently. Yes shes harassed for having an unpopular opinion, yes there are thousands of trolls out there who get off on this shit. Guess what? You can block and ignore trolls instead of going to twitter and saying how mean they are while panhandling for more donations.

Anita just claimed she had to move because of death threats. You know what you do if you get a death Threat? You go to the police, or the FBI. You don't go to twitter.http://imgur.com/a/1JGSk/noscript

Here is her latest death threat.

http://i.imgur.com/CNVoCVL.jpg

And here is Polygon coming to her defense showing her tweets about reacting to this.

http://www.donotlink.com/framed?530661

But this woman does not deserve your respect Gene. Her research is flawed and never goes beyond scratching the surface, her bias is thicker and the shit she spews out in regards to gamers. Shes a hard core neo-feminist leading a wave of tumblr and twitter lunatics who outright hate men, because hatred is apparently empowering.

You know who needs empowerment, support, strength and help? Women in The Middle east. They're facing most of the shit that these new-feminist gripe about. So why arent they doing anything to help the people who need it? Seriously, take a moment and think about how these groups that are in no way poor, are ignoring the very people who need their help?

Anita is a scam artist, part of the Zoe Quinn gaming journalism scam and she doesn't deserve your respect, time, or money guys. People like Anita make a living off of people like you, who are good people that want to try to make the world a little easier for everyone, this is why I've taken so much time here to put up this post to you and Rombie.

Please don't just look at one of the video links and say "this is too long" or "I dont like these points of view because they contradict mine". Watch them. Watch them all. Be skeptical, I encourage this. The reason I listed these vids arent because I think the people who made them are infallible perfect creatures who cant make mistakes.

Its because they're right, and because they're representing everyone who recognizes that Anita is full of shit and out there promoting herself and her viewpoint for money. Anita has earned her share of hatred, not for having a different opinion, but for being a lying man hating scam artist.

When I was 13 years old, my mother was raped by a "friend" who was drunk. It took years, but my mother got through it, found religion, and forgave the guy. To his face. Shes moved on with her life and is a much happier person.

I have not. This was one of the most damaging things that ever happened to me in my childhood, and it didn't even happen to me personally! It took years to manifest into a guilt, a self loathing rage, a confusion, an anger that will not go away.

Its one of the reasons why I've never managed to have a real romantic relationship, and I'm 34 years old. Its still there, burning inside me like a furnace and it keeps me from getting close to anyone. And yet, with all this inside me, I can live with it. I can live with being another solitary white guy whose metaphorically dead from the neck down.

To this woman who you respect, and all the lunatics that support her I'm a woman hating rapist in training who gets off on torture and violence, because I'm another solitary white guy who plays games.

-_- This is a reality thats forming online from Anita and her cronies. Please watch the vids I linked guys.

[Dracarys]

Obviously a bunch of twats who cross the line, but she uses the extremists to dismiss all valid criticism, just lumping them all together as misogynists (even women) and even plays into it for more publicity. If people have valid criticisms then you fucking well address them, not blanket ignore them and label them as haters/sexists.

Not gonna multiple quote but to address some points, she has been caught lying about playing games she has talked about and claimed to love, then caught trying to cover up the evidence proving it. Instead of defending this she, as I said, puts anti-women labels on people as an excuse to ignore any valid criticisms.

Some reason people say her kickstart was a scam is because she was already getting donations as well as monthly subscribers for her projects, she also before her kickstarter project ran a donation drive for a new computer to keep making videos. Also tweeted about playing shitloads of games as research...so if she was playing the games already, had a new computer and was receiving funding....what did she need a kickstarter for? What is she doing with $150k or so also, since it is apparently non-profit.

Most of the people who dislike her aren't sexist, or hate women, or hate feminism, they just dislike her since she is a liar, is hypocritical and is extremely manipulative.

[TheSelfishGene]

Also, the reason most people don't like Anita Sarkesian isnt because "Anita Sarkeesian for doing nothing more but making videos on her opinion and the history of female gaming tropes." Its because shes a scam artist.

But most of the criticism isn't about this point. From the evidence I've seen it's pretty flimsy (she has been releasing videos after all). I totally agree it's really scummy to use footage that others have made without attributing their efforts. That doesn't mean she hasn't played those games though.

Her kickstarter wanted, what 5k? to research video games as well as purchase new camera equipment for her web series.

From the Kickstarter itself (https://www.kickstarter.com/projects...in-video-games) it says "Your support will go towards production costs, equipment, games and downloadable content."

I think there's no way you could get that under $5k. Rombie might know more about editing and post production costs. But her videos are of a certain standard which was probably worth her while to pay for, since she can't just be dismissed as an idiot in their basement and webcam and opinions.

... theres also the fact that what shes presenting is not evidence, as she claims. Its her opinion, which she presents as facts.

She's making an argument and citing evidence to back up that argument. Pretty basic stuff. She's often got multiple examples of games which prove her point it in each video, and I'm sure it's not an exhaustive list. In a lot of cases I think she's on scraping the tip of the iceberg.

Not to mention the fact that she presents a very noticeable bias against male gamers in general and isn't shy about calling them all sex starved manipulative rapists murderers.

Gonna have to call you out on that one. Unless you're talking about her conduct outside of her videos.

...she talks down to her audience about how evil male gamers are, and how video games are all about enslaving women and empowering men. No. That says so much more about her than it does the gaming audience.

It's much more nuanced then that. I think there's a lot of criticism of developers, who are designing games for a certain demographic. How many people are the stereotypical basement dwelling hygiene neglecting mountain dew swilling gamerz (you know the stereotype) is certainly up for debate, as is how relevant they are in the scheme of things. And the times where she does say players are juvenile or crude and can't take criticism; every hater and flamer who has a shot at her proves her point further.

But I am going to say that whatever points she makes, are negated by everything that she gets wrong.

Absolutely not true. That's just not how arguments work. It's not like scoring points in a game of tennis and all the points are moot when a 'game' is decided.

I'm tempted to leave a few video links from people who have refuted her as they can explain their own points better than I can paraphrase them, but from your position on the situation I'm not sure you'd be all that interested in the vid links.

I'm absolutely interested. I haven't seen one good refutation on any of the arguments that she makes.

Still, I'll leave this vid of Anita basically confirming what a lot of us figured out pretty fast. She isn't a gamer and doesn't like video games(despite her claiming to be one in her Kickstarter vid).

This doesn't invalidate any of the points she's made of portrayal of women in games.

Women wont get respect in the industry acting like Anita Sarkeesian, Zoe Quinn, or Maya Cramer. All three play the victim, and all three are toxic human beings out there to promote themselves, and nothing else.

Can't really comment on the other two, but Anita's got my respect. You know, doing her research, writing opinion pieces and putting her name to her work like a good journalist should. And you seriously can't tell me that she isn't a victim. I mean look at this shit http://www.newstatesman.com/blogs/in...rassment-looks : for critiquing VIDEO GAMES...