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But much like with Obi-Wan Kenobi and Jason Bateman, striking her down has only made her more powerful than you could ever imagine. This is one instance where a wholly unnecessary controversy actually resulted in something positive for its victim, since the bullying led to more media exposure and eventual support for Sarkeesian and her mission. She also raised over $150,000 for the production of her new series, which is still in the works, and is speaking at TED conferences, so I'd say she's had the last laugh in that respect. Still, there was no call for people to freak out about this the way they did. You don't have to agree with what she says, but you also don't have to watch her stuff if you don't want to, and you certainly don't have to make a shitty flash game degrading her in order to make yourself feel better. And when she finally finishes making the damn videos that started all the uproar in the first place, maybe then you can decide how much and how vehemently you hate them.
3) The ending of Mass Effect 3 (spoilers).
You knew this was coming. For about a third of the year it seemed like us gamespeople talked about little else aside from the disappointing conclusion to one of the most beloved video game series of recent memory. Actually, "disappointing" doesn't cut it: that ending sparked impossible, Richter-scale quakes of nerd rage and confusion. Now, I'm not arguing that the three endings are great or anything. I'm not arguing anything, except that we spent way too much time and energy arguing about the ending of a videogame. The Federal Trade Commission got involved, then the Better Business Bureau, and then Bioware finally just released an extended cut, which doesn't sound like it was that much better but seems to have helped ease the pain somewhat. The way this whole thing played out is a little unsettling. Do fans really have the right to complain until a company changes the game they made, just because they don't like it? Will this set a dangerous precedent for the future? Who can say? But if you ask me (and I know you did), the solution to problems like this is not more DLC, but more time spent during development to iron out the kinks with huge titles (part of the reason I'm 100% ok with all of the Bioshock: Infinite release date delays). Of course, it turns out we're not done with Mass Effect at all, as a new game was announced to be in the works. It won't be out for a while, though, so we've all got plenty of time to start thinking of things that will probably be wrong with it and getting upset about them in advance.
2) "Fake Geek/Nerd Girls."
At this point, there have been about as many articles written in response to this obnoxious brouhaha as there have been perpetuating it, but if we must: this year, an overwhelming amount of convention attendees appear to have been attractive women in revealing costumes, who were obviously just doing it for attention (he said sarcastically). This apparently bothered people like CNN contributor Joe Peacock, and the result was a completely unnecessary cataclysm of hate, followed by a seemingly endless counter-cataclysm of articles debunking, analyzing or ridiculing this hate. Thus the "fake geek girl" or "fake nerd girl" paranoia was born.
Leaving aside the fact that there's a difference between women who choose to do this just for fun and "booth babes" getting paid to do it by game companies: why do we care? Why can't we just let people dress up to dress up, whether or not they're as nerdy as some of us, and get on with our nerd lives regardless? Even though there are very real issues here about geek culture and misogyny that we need to address, the fact that I'm not even the millionth person to make this counter-argument shows how exhausted the issue has become. I'm just tired of the whole damn affair. I think the concept is stupid and I don't want to read the words "fake nerd" in front of anything ever again. Hot chick or no, I don't give a fuck if you've never seen Battlestar Galactica or refer to Christopher Eccleston as the "first Doctor" (although I will correct you); to paraphrase Dickens, you keep the nerd spirit in your way and I'll keep it in mine. If this debate is a signifier of other conversations we need to be having, then let's have those conversations instead because this one's been beaten deader than Deadman and Deadpool playing Dead Rising on an episode of The Walking Dead.
1) Nerds bash the critics of The Dark Knight Rises and break Rotten Tomatoes.
This stuff makes me sick. The Dark Knight Rises (I still wish they'd called it Batman Concludes) may have been the second-highest-grossing movie of the year, but it was also (troll alert!) massively overhyped, in many ways hoisted by the petard of its gargantuan promotional machine. Expectations were astronomically high, and we all should have known that whoever was going to be first to publicly proclaim the movie to be anything other than a cinematic orgasm would be crucified for it by fans. But no one could have foreseen that it would get this bad: after critics like Marshall Fine and Christy Lemire's negative reviews garnered a swelling of hateful comments on Rotten Tomatoes, the site's Editor-in-Chief Matt Atchity announced that comments for the film had been suspended. Keep in mind that this was before the movie was even released. Eric D. Snider even infamously went so far as to post a fake negative review just to see how much ire he would get, as he had done with The Dark Knight (I understand that he was not disappointed). It's yet another example of the ugly underbelly of fandom, a swarming unseen mass coming to the knee-jerk defense of a film that would have grossed a billion dollars if it had just been three hours of Michael Caine playing with his armhair. I get the feeling this is not the last time we will see this sort of thing happen, and though Atchity has not banned comments on reviews or required people to log in with their Facebook accounts yet, the implications are ominous.
Guys, this isn't cool. Even if you don't agree with a particular movie critic, even if they make you angry, posting hateful ad-hominem comments about them is immature and pointless. Behavior like this makes me ashamed to be a Batman fan, and it saddens me to see friends on my Facebook feed continuing this trend when it comes to blockbusters like The Hobbit. Atchity said it best: "If I could ask everyone for one thing, it's this: don't be a dick. Even if you think someone else is being a dick." If you take nothing else from this article, please let it be that: don't be a dick. That, and don't impale people, especially if you're British. That's all. Happy New Year!
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Dark Knight Rises really wasnt that great. It was ok.... Bane was cool.
also, there is no such thing as a fake geek girl. One must be a geek to dress up for cons at all.
Interrogating girls about their nerdy interests is like interrogating a guy with an Iron Maiden t-shirt about HIS fandom. Both parties might not be as knowledgeable as you on their respective subjects. Does not make them any less of a nerd.
Makes you an asshole though.
Did anyone actually read any of the Before Watchmen books? Are they at all not utterly crap?
@FabioRezende One of my friends is reading all of them and doesn't care for them that much; last we talked about it he was upset that JMS decided Dr. Manhattan used his abilities to make him team up with Laurie/SSII instead of Rorschach, giving him the ability to do whatever he wants, and Comedian outright being shown nowhere near JFK, which was semi-open and perhaps possible he killed him in the original books.
"But much like with Obi-Wan Kenobi and Jason Bateman, striking her down has only made her more powerful than you could ever imagine".--This line is golden diapers.
I have an issue with #6 being listed as 'needless' actually.
Firstly, in the books it's pretty clear that the characters are black (or at the very least non-white). Secondly, the level of vitriol and hate that was coming out, and the level of ignorance that was being slung around *needed* attention drawn to it.
That a large number of people revealed that in their minds 'sweet and innocent' were two traits that could not possibly be associated with a little black girl? Was kind of disturbing. The number of people who made that statement and threw in the N-word just to be certain we knew how upset they were? Also disturbing.
That shining a light on people for being racist jackholes, is as tiresome as the people being racist jackholes... is a pretty 'priviledged' position to take. I think you're conflating 'needless' with 'justifiable controversies that I just don't care about'.
i agree that the whole argument and controversy of number two is stupid for if a lady wants to dress up at a con that like those comic fans and star trek male fans is her right even if she is hired to do so. and still find it interesting that people got upset over bushes fake head on pike when all it did was make the dvd highly collectiable. as before watchman sadly dc had the right to do a sequel and prequel from the start and the controversy seems to have helped the thing that should have been left alone.
What joke trying to act that this site is not sexist to began with. First off the name Topless Robot and Robot Logo. Also not to mention that you are having a contest for a DVD where Nerds try to hook up with girls and have a naked girl on the cover. Also Most fan girls I know would laugh at that video. It was ment as joke and anyone with common sense know it. Almost all fan girls tend to have a good sense of humor and would laugh at it. That what makes them so fun to hang out with
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@goodwin2679 I'd suggest watching the Inbetweeners movie before writing it off as sexist (though I can understand why you wouldn't). I did say the cover of the DVD was misleading, and it is, unfortunately. That's marketing 101, and probably not the intention of the filmmakers.
Yes, the video is meant as a joke. The controversy is also a needless joke, as I think the article makes clear.
I didn't choose the name of this site, but I think it's pretty clearly a self-deprecating bit of humor. I won't claim nerd culture has no issues with sexism, but it's not my intention to gratuitously propagate it here. Nor, however, is it my intention to be so PC I offend nobody. It's a delicate balance I can't hope to maintain perfectly.
I'm really sick and tired of the fact that "geeks" or whatever you want to call yourselves assume that you're even real people. You are aware that you're all subhuman nobodies that really have nothing creative to offer to culture at large,right? I mean, you do know that you're all several steps below a fat behemoth slut housewife watching daytime tv and drinking straight from a magic shell bottle. If you aren't then the myths about your vaunted "intellect" (laughing so hard it hurts) need to be seriously analyzed by REAL people. You know, all us out there that actually can think for ourselves and live real lives. It's seriously disconcerting that you actually buy the fact that your opinions amount to anything other than a giant pile of dog crap. You're allowed to believe you're important, but there's not one shred of proof that anything you do counts. EVER. You are mere consumers that will never have any ideas of your own. You have to have them grown for you by people that spend time away from their collection of action figures and actually engage in constructive behavior. You're the absolute bottom of the barrel whiny consumers known to man. You are cattle, and think you're not. It's seriously funny!
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@disnywhite A page view is a page view is a page view, and they're all good for me. By all means, keep coming back and telling us we suck!
Being one of those douches who "calls out" fake geeks, whether they're genuine or not, is no different to being a bully or a hipster.
"Oh, so you're wearing an X-Men t-shirt? I bet you can't name all of the first generation X-Men."
Those loathsome mother fuckers is the reason why my wife stopped attending cons, since she got sick of being asked if she was only there to be with me. Mother fuckers.
@the_crazy_daisy2000 thing being that those douches would still be douches without the "fake" thing to bludgeon people with
it's irrelevant to the argument
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@Gallen_Dugall @the_crazy_daisy2000 Whatever, the fakes can stay for all I care. They're avoidable (and much less frequent than the internet makes out), and - for me anyway - not really that annoying. The douches, I can't say the same for. If I had a magic wand with only one wish, I'd wish away the douches before I'd wish away the fakes.
@the_crazy_daisy2000 @Dudley_Dawson I'm sorry but as a consolation prize I will award you the original GI Joe prototype.
@Dudley_Dawson @the_crazy_daisy2000 Uh, uh, uh pressure. Lets see, there was Spider-Man, Thor, Robert Downey Jr and Benedict Cumberbatch! :3
Did The Crazy Daisy do good? :(
@the_crazy_daisy2000 I will give you a magic wand if you can name the first generation of X-Men.
@Gallen_Dugall @the_crazy_daisy2000 Well that's your opinion, which I can respect, but I don't mind 'em. There are fakes in every culture, and, as far as I'm concerned, the sooner that's accepted the better time we'll all have. They successfully got in, congrtulations. More power to 'em.
@the_crazy_daisy2000 the fakes are less annoying and less pervasive than the douches, but they're still wrong
In the end, the reason why I didn't bring up "the fakes" at all in my OP - and said something which is irrelivent is because posers don't personally bother me. I frankly don't a rats ass about them.
I'm not denying the existence of fakes, posers and what have you. They exist in every sub culture. What I'm saying is that I don't care, and weirdly, I find them to be part of the shenanigans of con fun. And, if they're really just there for attention, hey, more power to 'em.
It's the douches who I find to be the real problem. I read a few of your posts below, so I know you think that both are the problem, which I can respect. I just know that I don't care about them, and find them to be part of the craziness.
This may be one of those "agree to disagree" kind of things, that's all.
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@DovenDeath Ugh. I don't like Sarkeesian's videos; there really is immense amounts of BS in them. Still, the extremes that some people were going to in decrying her was fucking awful and stupid.
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@mjgollschewski @DovenDeath Your not wrong, people went way out of line, but that doesn't excuse the fact that she scamed people using kickstarter, and all her videos are summed up to men are pigs, and they should be ashamed of being straight and having dicks.
@DovenDeath I never heard that this was the source, however it seems to follow. The amount of vitriol spewed at everyone who thought the subject deserved some consideration is classic Nazi debate format which basically says "My position is indefensible therefore anyone who disagrees with me is evil and should be destroyed."
The argument that no one is exploiting the nerd sub-culture is illogical (all cultures and sub-cultures have parasites) and the argument that exploiting the nerd sub-culture is a good thing is fallacious.
let me see if I can get your video set right
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GHbuhoD9s9Y
@DovenDeath @Gallen_Dugall thank you for posting it
I too have a love for documentaries, and it makes some very good points about the difference between real documentaries and a lot of what is made now-a-days
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first off fuck Anita Sarkeesian. The reason most people hate her is she has never played a video game in her life yet she is the self proclaimed expert on female portrayal in videos games, lets look at that NEVER PLAYED A VIDEO GAME, IS AN EXPERT ON VIDEO GAMES. Not to metion she never goes out side of the typical feminazi argument of all men are stupid pigs instead of trying to give ideas on how to fix how women are shown in games, she just shames men for how they are shown. Also where are all those videos she was gonna make after she got 5 times amount she needed off of kickstarter, that most people on youtube would do for free? Anita Sarkeesian is a fucking scam artist who played the damsel in distress because of all those mean mean men who called her on her bull shit, and dumb asses like you ate it up. Here is video that helps describe it better than I.
I just copyed and pasted my old comment because the video wasn't working right. thanks gain Gallen for fixing it.
Great list I pretty much agree with all of it. Surprised Amazing Spider-Man 700 didn't make it though. Poor Dan Slott getting death threats over a comic book was fucking disgusting. Characters die and come back all the time in comics, Parker's not the first and he won't be the last, not to mention I think everyone can agree the real Spider-Man will be back in time for the next movie.
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Talked about the Mass Effect 3 thing on my podcast. The real disappointment was that after you've spent three games getting to care about these characters and dealing with the consequences of choices you made two games ago, you reach the end and your choices are Death, Death, or Death. And then the credits end with a nice little "Be sure to drink your Ovaltine" message about buying the DLCs.
@captaindefenestrator I don't mind people being upset. what I mind is the CONSTANT bitching any time something even tangentially related comes up. I get it, you're disappointed.. isn't it great your problems are the first world kind?
@bearfoot.fb @captaindefenestrator Honestly, I was kind of willing to just call it a sucky ending and move on, when I started getting pissed off about it was when the game journalist started acting like that if you didn't like Mass Effect 3's ending, it was because you had no imagination and didn't "get it". At that point I felt obligated to point out the emperor had no clothes. The other thing that bothered me was everybody acting like rolling out a new ending in DLC was going to be a major game changer, everybody seemed to forget that Bethesda already did it in response to the outcry over Fallout 3's ending.
@bearfoot.fb @shawnppickett @captaindefenestrator Yes and no, Bioware was at fault for putting out a substandard product, but my point, which I was not clear on, was that most of my "activism" on the topic was spent on pointing out the flaws with the product to the journalists that claimed that people just didn't get it.
@shawnppickett @bearfoot.fb @captaindefenestrator Even worse, that means your complaint wasn't even Bioware's fault.
@bearfoot.fb @captaindefenestrator Nerd problems are ALL first world problems. If we were more concerned with real-world problems, we should be on TR at all.
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The thing with Mass Effect 3, however, is that the ending did not live up to it's advertised awesomeness. We were supposed to get unique endings that took all of our choices into consideration. Instead, they just changed the color of the explosion to match our choices.
We weren't upset that the ending sucked (even though it really did) we were upset that it wasn't the ending that we were promised.
@Xaotikdesigns I was upset that the ending basically did not match the narrative that had been built up until that point, and then when they released something to "fix" their ending, they doubled down on all the problems with it. I have basically washed my hands of it.
BioWare used to be a video game company that cared about releasing an actual story to go with their games, but apparently that's no longer a consideration anymore.
@ketsuko, agreed, it's like they just didn't know what to do anymore, realized that they couldn't do what they told us they were going to do, and hastily wrote the ending(s) at the last minute.
Asking if we, the consumer, should complain about it is like asking if consumers should complain when they find that their dictionary skipped the letter Z. Of if you went to a restaurant ordered a fancy 4 course meal with an extravagant desert, only to find that when desert comes around, you just get one scoop of half melted vanilla ice cream.
Nerd news, humor and self-loathing. Edited by Luke Y. Thompson
