Poll of the Day > Anita Sarkeesian is done with video games

(+) Yeah! (+)

http://mashable.com/2017/04/27/anita-sakeesian-end-of-tropes-vs-women-video-games/

Did you see this? She'll be making videos about other social justice topics, but not focusing on video games.

Are you happy? I guess it was time for her to end her series on sexism in video games; she seemed to be saying the same things about women being powerless over and over. In her final video she says that most of the time when you have a female NPC helping you in a game, she's there only to unlock doors and toss you items; but I don't know if that behavior is really more widespread among female helpers than male helpers. I would think it would be common among all helper characters in games, since it doesn't require much AI. At least, I didn't have any pre-existing image in my mind of helpers as female or male, whereas if I think of someone who needs to be rescued in a game, I do reflexively think of a princess.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4BrKqEtG-2w

Slightly surprised.
While she obviously doesn't care about video games in the least and had no business talking about them, one would assume the show was good enough money for her to keep doing it anyways. Good on her, taking a risk.

Don't particularly care though. She never seemed terribly insightful.
---

She'd be losing a lot of money from this, guess she doesn't have the guts for business due to her being a woman and all...

*wink wink*
---

At this point, I think she said everything that needs to be said. So it's kinda natural to want to move on to new scopes wider than video games.

So what?

I didn't even know she was still going on about them. Shows how much I care.
---

in that thumbnail she has Ashley from resident evil 4

despite that there's been more female leads in that series than male
---

The only time I ever heard about her is when people were complaining about her. Honestly if the people who hate her had just ignored her, her videos probably would have gotten far less exposure.

I think she has kind of outgrown the game beat anyway. Might as well focus on something more productive.
---

OmegaM posted...

In her final video she says that most of the time when you have a female NPC helping you in a game, she's there only to unlock doors and toss you items; but I don't know if that behavior is really more widespread among female helpers than male helpers. I would think it would be common among all helper characters in games,

Kind of a running theme in all of her videos where something happens to a guy it's okay but "wtf! how could this happen to a woman!" One more reason why nobody takes her seriously or bothers to follow what she's doing.
---

Her hair and eyebrows look horrible
---

Jen0125 posted...

Her hair and eyebrows look horrible

Ugly is like a badge of honor among feminists.
---

Princess from ICO? :D
---

wwinterj25 posted...

I didn't even know she was still going on about them. Shows how much I care.

---

She looks like one of her grandparents was a rabbit. That's probably where her anger comes from. I saw the aftermath of one trying to kill another and it was gross.
---

HellHole_ posted...

in that thumbnail she has Ashley from resident evil 4

despite that there's been more female leads in that series than male

That is kind of her M.O.: Find one example of a "weak" female character (which I find funny because Ashley is literally a spoiled rich kid, doesn't matter if she is female or male) and harp on it completely ignoring any context or anything else the series does.

Even things like Dead or Alive can be torn apart because the story is literally a strong female lead that is so powerful a multi-billion dollar corporation tries time and time again to clone her and she keeps beating the clones. But, ZOMG BOOBS!!!
---

Dikitain posted...

HellHole_ posted...

in that thumbnail she has Ashley from resident evil 4

despite that there's been more female leads in that series than male

That is kind of her M.O.: Find one example of a "weak" female character (which I find funny because Ashley is literally a spoiled rich kid, doesn't matter if she is female or male) and harp on it completely ignoring any context or anything else the series does.

Even things like Dead or Alive can be torn apart because the story is literally a strong female lead that is so powerful a multi-billion dollar corporation tries time and time again to clone her and she keeps beating the clones. But, ZOMG BOOBS!!!

If she made valid points, her channel would get zero attention.
---

*something something where is the $150,000 U.S. something something*
---

She already got all she can out of it. Advisory roles at major studios. Speaking to the UN with Zoe Quinn about online harassment.
---

Lightning Bolt posted...

Slightly surprised.
While she obviously doesn't care about video games in the least and had no business talking about them, one would assume the show was good enough money for her to keep doing it anyways. Good on her, taking a risk.

It was good money. But she got her money in advance. She already took it and ran without providing what she promised.
---

Miroku_of_Nite1 posted...

She already got all she can out of it. Advisory roles at major studios. Speaking to the UN with Zoe Quinn about online harassment.

It's not just a huge career booster but a huge ego trip as well. We should all get into pointless agitation over nothing!
---

Metro2 posted...

At this point, I think she said everything that needs to be said. So it's kinda natural to want to move on to new scopes wider than video games.

She has been rambling on for years and the game industry hasn't changed. Majority of video game protagonists are white and male, and when we do play as females they wear skimpy clothing that no girl would wear in real life. Maybe she can make headway in a different media form but I doubt it, majority of people dont care and just want to play a game or watch a movie that has a decent plot.
---

You know what's kind of a shame? She's not a bad-looking girl.

If only she would just. lighten. the f***. up.
---

rexcrk posted...

You know what's kind of a shame? She's not a bad-looking girl.

She's somewhat unattractive, but not unfuckable.
---

rexcrk posted...

You know what's kind of a shame? She's not a bad-looking girl.

If only she would just. lighten. the f***. up.

So you prefer your women to just shut the fuck up and look attractive?
---

SusanGreenEyes posted...

wwinterj25 posted...

I didn't even know she was still going on about them. Shows how much I care.

---

Jiggy101011 posted...

rexcrk posted...

You know what's kind of a shame? She's not a bad-looking girl.

If only she would just. lighten. the f***. up.

So you prefer your women to just shut the fuck up and look attractive?

You know that's not what I meant. C'mon, man.
---

tell me when she's done with life
---

Miroku_of_Nite1 posted...

She already got all she can out of it. Advisory roles at major studios. Speaking to the UN with Zoe Quinn about online harassment.

This.

The only reason she did it in the first place was because she essentially wanted to be famous, and video game nerds are both a) pretty ubiquitous on the Internet, and b) easily, almost childishly provoked. So shitting on all the things they loved was pretty much guaranteed to generate attention, abuse, and controversy - which then in turn increased her page/video views... which in turn raised her name recognition... to the point where people who otherwise would never have paid the slightest attention to her started treating her as if her opinions might actually matter.

This is even more telling when you realize that she was posting stuff online for years before anyone cared about her in any real way, and it wasn't until she realized that her work wasn't going to make her famous that she basically changed targets and watched her "popularity" skyrocket.

But she no longer needs that boost. She's already reached a point where her "fame" is self-sustaining, and she's parleyed manufactured outrage into paid speaking engagement, magazine articles and interviews, and even TV time. She's now one of the go-to "experts" a sensationalist news show is going to go to every time they want to discuss a feminist perspective for any opinion piece or editorial. And that reputation is going to last even if she diminishes her online presence (or, at least, her YouTube presence) to zero. Especially since now she's got the support of SJWs and Internet feminists vocally supporting her.

Now that she's effectively "established" enough to maintain those connections, she can stop doing the videos, because they no longer have any value to her. She never really cared about the actual content of the videos (kind of obvious if you've ever actually watched them), and she's hit the wall of diminishing returns for how much real world influence she can get from them - and also diminishing returns via ad revenue, because very few videos on YouTube earn major revenue after the initial early viewer bump (some YouTubers have implied that a majority of revenue on any given video is based on the first 12-24 hours worth of time after being posted, with value tapering off more and more the older a given video is, barring odd outliers that get a meme boost). And considering how YouTube's kind of been self-destructing lately when it comes to ad revenue, she might easily see no real future in trying to milk nickels out of YouTube when she can make bank on interviews and speaking tours or eventually writing a book.
.
Add in the fact that dropping them will probably quell a lot of her Internet detractors and potentially spare her some of the abuse and death threats she's been getting over them (because most people online have painfully short attention spans, and once they think they've "won" by "chasing her away", they'll lose interest), and it's pretty much win-win for her.

So basically, everyone who's ever spent a ton of time or energy ranting about her or shitting on her viewpoint online has basically given her every single thing she wanted, exactly like she knew they would, because the Internet is so damned predictable.

And it's not even like this is a new and surprising revelation, because people have been pointing this out ever since she posted her first damned video. She played the Internet like a fiddle, and it paid off in spades.

The best part, of course, is that she didn't even have to pay to do any of this, considering she financed her videos via Kickstarter money.


---

I'm disappointed cause I enjoyed these videos but I will watch her new stuf anyway
---

ParanoidObsessive posted...

Miroku_of_Nite1 posted...

She already got all she can out of it. Advisory roles at major studios. Speaking to the UN with Zoe Quinn about online harassment.

This.

The only reason she did it in the first place was because she essentially wanted to be famous, and video game nerds are both a) pretty ubiquitous on the Internet, and b) easily, almost childishly provoked. So shitting on all the things they loved was pretty much guaranteed to generate attention, abuse, and controversy - which then in turn increased her page/video views... which in turn raised her name recognition... to the point where people who otherwise would never have paid the slightest attention to her started treating her as if her opinions might actually matter.

This is even more telling when you realize that she was posting stuff online for years before anyone cared about her in any real way, and it wasn't until she realized that her work wasn't going to make her famous that she basically changed targets and watched her "popularity" skyrocket.

But she no longer needs that boost. She's already reached a point where her "fame" is self-sustaining, and she's parleyed manufactured outrage into paid speaking engagement, magazine articles and interviews, and even TV time. She's now one of the go-to "experts" a sensationalist news show is going to go to every time they want to discuss a feminist perspective for any opinion piece or editorial. And that reputation is going to last even if she diminishes her online presence (or, at least, her YouTube presence) to zero.

Now that she's effectively "established" enough to maintain those connections, she can stop doing the videos, because they no longer have any value to her. She never really cared about the actual content of the videos (kind of obvious if you've ever actually watched them), and she's hit the wall of diminishing returns for how much real world influence she can get from them - and also diminishing returns via ad revenue, because very few videos on YouTube earn major revenue after the initial early viewer bump (some YouTubers have implied that a majority of revenue on any given video is based on the first 12-24 hours worth of time after being posted, with value tapering off more and more the older a given video is, barring odd outliers that get a meme boost). And considering how YouTube's kind of been self-destructing lately when it comes to ad revenue, she might easily see no real future in trying to milk nickels out of YouTube when she can make bank on interviews and speaking tours or eventually writing a book.
.
Add in the fact that dropping them will probably quell a lot of her Internet detractors and potentially spare her some of the abuse and death threats she's been getting over them (because most people online have painfully short attention spans, and once they think they've "won" by "chasing her away", they'll lose interest), and it's pretty much win-win for her.

So basically, everyone who's ever spent a ton of time or energy ranting about her or shitting on her viewpoint online has basically given her every single thing she wanted, exactly like she knew they would, because the Internet is so damned predictable.

And it's not even like this is a new and surprising revelation, because people have been pointing this out ever since she posted her first damned video. She played the Internet like a fiddle, and it paid off in spades.

The best part, of course, is that she didn't even have to pay to do any of this, considering she financed her videos via Kickstarter money.

Shit, we need to get into that racket. Otherwise, I've always had an even-handed approach when it came to Anita: explain to people what she is and just encourage them to ignore her. That's the only way these people go away.
---

Zeus posted...

rexcrk posted...

You know what's kind of a shame? She's not a bad-looking girl.

She's somewhat unattractive, but not unfuckable.

The funny thing is, posts like this talking about her overall level of attractiveness, or posts where people dismiss her by pointing out that they think she's a dog, or rating her in terms of fuckability (which usually make up about 25-50% of all posts in any topic where her name comes up) are really just playing into her hands by effectively proving her claims of institutionalized sexism, since apparently we're all demonstrating that a woman has no real intellectual or philosophical value whatsoever by sexually objectifying her. Clearly, culture or biology has rendered all men incapable of actually listening to a woman or trying to reason with her logically or rationally, because that clearly gets in the way of the baby-makin'.

And yes, I know one of the main arguments is that it's hard to argue rationally and logically with someone who isn't really being rational or logical and who is basing a lot of their presumptions on flawed data or outright lies, but it really doesn't matter because she can still point and yell sexism and there will always be people willing to believe it. And like most debates online, the TRUTH doesn't even remotely matter in the slightest, because online debate has NEVER been about "truth". It's been about "winning" via rhetorical tricks and deliberately manipulative language. And that's generally true regardless of the topic, be it social issues, politics, religion, or whatever - and it always comes from BOTH sides of every argument. There's no real moral high ground when pretty much everyone is wading waist-deep in a river of shit.


But also, I'd totally throw my sausage down her hallway if she wanted to have a go.


---

Zeus posted...

Shit, we need to get into that racket.

For all my pretensions of super-villainy, even I'm not that evil.

Nah, who am I kidding? I'm just too lazy to implement a long-con of that level of involvement, and I've never really felt the overwhelming desire to be famous or "important" enough to want to go to the trouble. Besides, I'm a hetero cis-male WASP - I'm pretty much a member of the Illuminati by default anyway. Which reminds me, I have to get back to working on this month's price-fixing plans to screw over poor minorities for shits and giggles.


---

ParanoidObsessive posted...

Zeus posted...

rexcrk posted...

You know what's kind of a shame? She's not a bad-looking girl.

She's somewhat unattractive, but not unfuckable.

The funny thing is, posts like this talking about her overall level of attractiveness, or posts where people dismiss her by pointing out that they think she's a dog, or rating her in terms of fuckability (which usually make up about 25-50% of all posts in any topic where her name comes up) are really just playing into her hands by effectively proving her claims of institutionalized sexism, since apparently we're all demonstrating that a woman has no real intellectual or philosophical value whatsoever by sexually objectifying her. Clearly, culture or biology has rendered all men incapable of actually listening to a woman or trying to reason with her logically or rationally, because that clearly gets in the way of the baby-makin'.

And yes, I know one of the main arguments is that it's hard to argue rationally and logically with someone who isn't really being rational or logical and who is basing a lot of their presumptions on flawed data or outright lies, but it really doesn't matter because she can still point and yell sexism and there will always be people willing to believe it. And like most debates online, the TRUTH doesn't even remotely matter in the slightest, because online debate has NEVER been about "truth". It's been about "winning" via rhetorical tricks and deliberately manipulative language. And that's generally true regardless of the topic, be it social issues, politics, religion, or whatever - and it always comes from BOTH sides of every argument. There's no real moral high ground when pretty much everyone is wading waist-deep in a river of shit.


But also, I'd totally throw my sausage down her hallway if she wanted to have a go.

The only way to stop people from trying to un-normalize those behaviors is to embrace the normalization. If we don't comment on her looks then ultimately she wins. Sure, you could argue that this also plays into her hands, but if both options play into her hands I'd rather go with the behavior I prefer.
---

i thought she already was supposed to have been "done with video games"? Then she came back to it
---

To this day I've never heard her name mentioned outside of this board.
---

Mead posted...

To this day I've never heard her name mentioned outside of this board.

I've heard it mentioned on NPR and occasionally on Youtube.
---

YouTube? You mean, like, where she hosts her series? That's super weird
---

ParanoidObsessive posted...

Zeus posted...

Shit, we need to get into that racket.

For all my pretensions of super-villainy, even I'm not that evil.

Nah, who am I kidding? I'm just too lazy to implement a long-con of that level of involvement, and I've never really felt the overwhelming desire to be famous or "important" enough to want to go to the trouble. Besides, I'm a hetero cis-male WASP - I'm pretty much a member of the Illuminati by default anyway. Which reminds me, I have to get back to working on this month's price-fixing plans to screw over poor minorities for shits and giggles.

If only you were born cis female PO. You could be raking in the Youtube/twitch gold right now. But I fear your too old, so you would have to be born at least in the late 80s early 90s to really catch that boat.

And I fear you wouldn't be the same magnificent bastard.
---

Mead posted...

To this day I've never heard her name mentioned outside of this board.

---

Mead posted...

To this day I've never heard her name mentioned outside of this board.

Most people just tend to ignore her screeching....

Well i'm kind of glad she is done making the videos, so people can stop being angry over minute things.

Don't get me wrong, I'm glad she shine a light at women in videogames. But is this really big of a deal when we have bigger problems in the world? Say they do "fix it", how does this solve world peace or poverty or even equal rights?

I don't even know how they can fix it, because she never told us how it can be fix. All the solution i could have came up with she said that's not the right way of fixing the promblem. If they do try to "fix it" i feel like the story be less or equal relatable as it is now..

Like putting a woman as a playable character in Spec Ops won't change how i feel toward woman or the military.

If they change peach has to save mario. I see it the same as mario saving peach. I have never seen it as damsel in distress. i see someone need my help. i will help them.

If they change mario has to get the coins at the end of the level. I'm cool with that. But i care for people more than i care for objects. Just like Donkey Kong has to get the bananas in DKC.
---

ernieforss posted...

If they change peach has to save mario. I see it the same as mario saving peach. I have never seen it as damsel in distress. i see someone need my help. i will help them.

that really isnt the same, and they already tried that formula, Super Princess Peach bombed.
Then imagine that, before feminists were ever screeching about peach getting saved, she could be played as and could be used to beat the entire Super Mario World game.
---

well that super princess peach didn't feel like a mario game either.
---

ParanoidObsessive posted...

Miroku_of_Nite1 posted...

She already got all she can out of it. Advisory roles at major studios. Speaking to the UN with Zoe Quinn about online harassment.

This.

The only reason she did it in the first place was because she essentially wanted to be famous, and video game nerds are both a) pretty ubiquitous on the Internet, and b) easily, almost childishly provoked. So shitting on all the things they loved was pretty much guaranteed to generate attention, abuse, and controversy - which then in turn increased her page/video views... which in turn raised her name recognition... to the point where people who otherwise would never have paid the slightest attention to her started treating her as if her opinions might actually matter.

This is even more telling when you realize that she was posting stuff online for years before anyone cared about her in any real way, and it wasn't until she realized that her work wasn't going to make her famous that she basically changed targets and watched her "popularity" skyrocket.

But she no longer needs that boost. She's already reached a point where her "fame" is self-sustaining, and she's parleyed manufactured outrage into paid speaking engagement, magazine articles and interviews, and even TV time. She's now one of the go-to "experts" a sensationalist news show is going to go to every time they want to discuss a feminist perspective for any opinion piece or editorial. And that reputation is going to last even if she diminishes her online presence (or, at least, her YouTube presence) to zero. Especially since now she's got the support of SJWs and Internet feminists vocally supporting her.

Now that she's effectively "established" enough to maintain those connections, she can stop doing the videos, because they no longer have any value to her. She never really cared about the actual content of the videos (kind of obvious if you've ever actually watched them), and she's hit the wall of diminishing returns for how much real world influence she can get from them - and also diminishing returns via ad revenue, because very few videos on YouTube earn major revenue after the initial early viewer bump (some YouTubers have implied that a majority of revenue on any given video is based on the first 12-24 hours worth of time after being posted, with value tapering off more and more the older a given video is, barring odd outliers that get a meme boost). And considering how YouTube's kind of been self-destructing lately when it comes to ad revenue, she might easily see no real future in trying to milk nickels out of YouTube when she can make bank on interviews and speaking tours or eventually writing a book.
.
Add in the fact that dropping them will probably quell a lot of her Internet detractors and potentially spare her some of the abuse and death threats she's been getting over them (because most people online have painfully short attention spans, and once they think they've "won" by "chasing her away", they'll lose interest), and it's pretty much win-win for her.

So basically, everyone who's ever spent a ton of time or energy ranting about her or shitting on her viewpoint online has basically given her every single thing she wanted, exactly like she knew they would, because the Internet is so damned predictable.

And it's not even like this is a new and surprising revelation, because people have been pointing this out ever since she posted her first damned video. She played the Internet like a fiddle, and it paid off in spades.

The best part, of course, is that she didn't even have to pay to do any of this, considering she financed her videos via Kickstarter money.

You should post this on NeoGAF.
And then get banned.
---

Honestly I think she'll be more effective in other mediums. I'm not a fan of hers, or her particular sensationalist, black and white morality method, but I do agree with a lot of the topics she tackles. I don't wish ill on her though, and I hope this new course in her life works out well for her.

Cue the gamergaters calling me a white knight

Is it weird I want her to pose nude?
---

Zeus posted...

The only way to stop people from trying to un-normalize those behaviors is to embrace the normalization. If we don't comment on her looks then ultimately she wins. Sure, you could argue that this also plays into her hands, but if both options play into her hands I'd rather go with the behavior I prefer.

There was always the "ignore her" option that not enough people took early on. Her haters proved sexism better than her content did.
---

Newhopes posted...

Mead posted...

To this day I've never heard her name mentioned outside of this board.

Most people just tend to ignore her screeching....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E-qBxONi8GA

ss4parrothair posted...

Is it weird I want her to pose nude?

Considering she's a 3, yes. But some people are into the whole hate-fucking thing so they find repugnant people whose views they despise attractive.

Golden Road posted...

Zeus posted...

The only way to stop people from trying to un-normalize those behaviors is to embrace the normalization. If we don't comment on her looks then ultimately she wins. Sure, you could argue that this also plays into her hands, but if both options play into her hands I'd rather go with the behavior I prefer.

There was always the "ignore her" option that not enough people took early on. Her haters proved sexism better than her content did.

Which is why you need to normalize it so it's seen as an everyday thing rather than sexism. She called out a normal behavior and tried to spin it negatively.
---