My only beef with the whole thing is the quality of it vs. how much she got from Kickstarter, nothing to do with her message. Honestly I've started to lose faith in Kickstarter, and everyone who says its actually their fault for bad business practices... I agree. And its not that I'm mad because I actually funded it either. I'm mad because you could probably go on YouTube, right now, and find more in depth discussion by women and men alike on a topic like this that they recorded in their spare time in their pajamas. And, more than likely, some of those people probably make decent ad money in comparison to the costs they put into their video- which for most is close to none.

More generally, all non-player characters are servants to the player's experience-- I would be unhappy in any game if an NPC had a bigger role in resolving the plot than me regardless of its gender. You could say the same about a player character as well given that he or she is distinct from the player. That makes it really really easy to cast any video game character in a feministically unfriendly way: if the player character is a woman, does that mean that she's just a puppet for her a player, statistically likely to be male? If the archvillain of a game is a woman, does that mean that the player is out to destroy a powerful woman? Certainly these arguments, and limitless others, could be made. That doesn't mean that they're right, just that they can be analytically valid.

And I think this is a perfectly good argument as to why her points AREN'T completely valid, at least not the way she delivered them. In the end, characters are ALL objects, objects of our amusement... regardless if they're male, female, or asexual frog people. They're ALL puppets in a plot, to tell a STORY. Mileage may vary if you do or do not like the story (I knew I grew out of the "rescue the princess" plot when I was... like six), but that's all it is. Encapsulation of the human experience. Again, it is a symptom not a cause of the real, actual problems I would agree with a feminist any day that actually, really exist. Stories about objectification and sexual exploitation are grossly common, but that's because its a sad part of human nature we need to change in REALITY.

Of course I want video games with more empowered, more female-centric plots and less stupid damsel characters... because that's going to be the moment where video games stop being a gross mass media and start becoming an art. Telling the stories of general, real human experience and not just the stories an 18-35 year old male want to hear.

EDIT:

">Here, video on same general topic, taking a slightly different angle, and making a good interesting argument in under 8 minutes.

Also, do you really need to repeat this tired old cliche? Actually, back in this thread (http://www.gamedev.net/topic/639144-sony-and-the-ps4-im-impressed-your-thoughts/page-3) you were rightly criticizing the stereotyping of men as "sex-hungry dolts". So why the change?

Because it can in this cased be used to support my stance on the topic.
Name a single human who does not wheel certain facts into his or her direction for his or her own sake.

In fact I was really hoping someone would call me on that and point it out. Thank you so much.

And we return to my original point.
Why am I the least-bothered by this video?

Because I truly accept that everyone has a view on a subject.
Yep, I have my views on “Take a running start here” in those same PlayStation Portable ads in your link prompting people to to commit train suicide.
And just now I mentioned that instead of the “Your girlfriend’s white bits here” part that I originally mentioned.
Why? Because it supports the point I want to make more.
Exactly what she did during the entire video.

That is not to say she is entirely wrong. I mean you can skew things in your favor, but sometimes those things are really true.
The basic fundamental idea is that I believe no one is special. We all skew things. No one is immune.
Not me, not you, not even Hodgman.

As long as I can accept that reality this video does not bother me.

I am a scientist and I do care about facts, but if you can’t distinguish between personal things and scientifically provable things then you are in for a world of hurt.
But past that a lot people do know what is science and what is not, but still put their feelings into it.

I watched the video and as a veteran of the industry I certainly know the history more than she does. I can easily give her credit in some spots because there were a few details I did not know. And I was just happy to learn.

If you are a person who only seeks knowledge and cares nothing about ego, do you not see her video the same way as I do?
Being in the industry for so long of course I knew most things on the video, but really I did also learn a few things.
The fact that her viewpoint is not my own is not a factor in the “I have gained new knowledge and thus become a better human overall” equation.

Sorry but I am absorbed in this selfless attitude in which people can present tons of information in strange and maybe biased ways, but as long as I feel I have learned something true I am satisfied, regardless of peoples’ biases. I do try to sort out their biases, but as long as I feel I am doing that correctly I am fine. And by this point any mistake is my own fault.

The fact that their ideas are not my own do not factor into this. Not even remotely. I didn’t even consider that was possible.
I guess I got carried away with this idea which is why it shocked me that this would ever go beyond a single page.


Seriously, how much is there to discuss??
Her views do not align with your own. End of story?
Please?

My only beef with the whole thing is the quality of it vs. how much she got from Kickstarter, nothing to do with her message. Honestly I've started to lose faith in Kickstarter, and everyone who says its actually their fault for bad business practices... I agree.

I still think that is profoundly unfair to her, and represents a fundamental misunderstanding of kickstarter's model.

She didn't ask for that money (she only asked for $6,000, or about 3 months living expenses). She was freely given the extra $150,000 after a bunch of assholes created massive media coverage for her. And for I'd say that the resulting quality/length/research is about right for $6,000 - not every project scales infinitely.

Kickstarter isn't a microinvestment platform (where you would expect a return on your investment), and it isn't a sales platform (where you expect goods in return for your investment). It's purely a platform to fund creativity - you see something you think would make the world a better place, you donate a few bucks to make it happen. If it doesn't happen, or the result sucks? No loss, you only spent a few bucks, and you'll know better next time...

I dunno. There's a lot of youtube content creators that didn't need $6,000 to make very high quality videos. The fact that she needed any money at all should indicate a higher level of quality than the average youtube video.

Everyone has living expenses - either those youtube content creators do it as a hobby while working a day job, or they are making a living from ad revenue/sponsors.

Do you think there is something wrong with wanting to make a living from what you love, rather than just doing it as a part time hobby?

And rent on a serviceable apartment is like 250$.

Where do you live? In American cities big enough to have some software companies to work for, I haven't seen apartments that cheap, basically, ever.

I worked in a smaller city in the 1990's and at that time and place about the cheapest you could go was $400 a month -- and even that is certainly not possible now, even there.

Seriously, how much is there to discuss??
Her views do not align with your own. End of story?

Life would be incredibly boring if people just stopped talking to each other when they don't agree. Welcome to internet forums :)