GamerGate: An Autopsy

The Summer of 2014 was a literal nightmare. In early-June, hours before Shavuot, I received a call from a friend of my dad informing me he’d had a massive heart attack. As that was starting to sink in, the news of three Israeli teens being kidnapped and murdered became the talk in Jewish circles. It didn’t take long for a war to break out soon after in that region. Factor in the Ferguson riots, and I thought it couldn’t possibly get worse.

I was wrong.

This August marks the 8-year anniversary of GamerGate. Some of you are probably wondering why I’ve waited so long to discuss this, while others are probably wondering what that even is. Either way, GamerGate was a contentious issue for almost 3 years. It was nasty, aggressive and spiteful, and while much of its presence no longer exists, its shadow remains large and can be felt in various political movements. It also, even now, fills me with dread mentioning it, as I never know if someone will attack me over it.

What’s GamerGate? It began with a rumour that a then-female game developer had slept around with reviewers to boost her game’s morale. The rumour became so widespread that it led to harassment and doxing, to the point where she had to move. It culminated in a disgraced actor coining the term to model after Watergate. The rest is history.

Yes, this is an oversimplification of what transpired. But it doesn’t matter. What does matter is the malicious nature of the rumour and how it turned into a movement. For one, what a woman does in the bedroom is none of my business. (Unless she’s married to me and is having an affair, in which case it’s totally my business.) And two, even if that happened, it didn’t work. The game’s reception, supposedly, didn’t change.

I’d like to clarify that I’m talking in past-tense. The individual has since come out as non-binary, so it’s inappropriate to call them a woman. But given that this was a snapshot of history, it’s the only way to accurately discuss this controversy and its ripple effects. Especially since it swelled to include other individuals, mostly women, too. In particular, three people were targeted, all advocates for better representation in gaming.

Coming back from a 10-day vacation to something like this was a shock. It was also a reminder that 2014 was a miserable Summer, and that the internet was largely to blame. These days my Blocklist on Twitter is nonpartisan, but in 2014 it was mostly GamerGate proponents who claimed they were “peaceful debaters tackling the lack of ethics in games journalism”. Except that they called them “journos”, like they were villains in an RPG. They also called their critics “SJWs”, or “Social Justice Warriors”. And while not every “SJW” turned out to be a saint, the scales were largely tipped against GamerGate.

I’d mention some of the conversations I had, but it isn’t worth the pain. Yet the bile and hatred that stemmed from this movement made my life a nightmare. I lost friends from my days as a g1. Conversations about GamerGate had to be censored, and I needed to verify that I wasn’t talking to the wrong groups of people. It wasn’t fun, and while GamerGate, and its offshoot “Not Your Shield”, purported to be sensible, their rhetoric and actions spoke otherwise. Because you can’t claim to be peaceful and openly mock outsiders for speaking up about harassment.

Perhaps the biggest irony was using a fictional teenager as a spokesperson. Not only was Vivian James not real, hence she lacked agency, she wasn’t even consistent. Her presence ignored how women don’t always argue in good-faith, and her credibility was struck a serious blow when, despite her being a teenager, fan porn started circulating online. It was a self-fulfilling dead end, and it helped make GamerGate a further laughing stock. Or, rather, a laughing stock that tormented people for speaking out.

So what quelled GamerGate? A few events. The first was when comedian Stephen Colbert invited Anita Sarkeesian onto his show, The Colbert Report, to discuss GamerGate. Colbert had a reputation for being a faux-Republican mocking American conservatism subtly, and here was a controversial figure being interviewed and portrayed in a sympathetic light. This was seen as a betrayal by GamerGate, but it highlighted how public the movement had become. It turned it into a joke.

The second was when prominent political figures began calling it out. One such figure was then newly-elected Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, a younger politician who understood the internet. Trudeau’s favour has soured since then, but he initially had a lot of support from young, tech-savvy voters. Him condemning GamerGate was an additional blow.

But the third and most-important event wasn’t an event. It was an acknowledgement that GamerGate never really disappeared. It merely blended in with other hate groups. Some of these hate groups were even active in politics, influencing up and coming American politicians. It was through this that the movement gained traction in Fascist circles.

And that’s the biggest tragedy of them all. GamerGate no longer “officially” exists, but its shadow looms large. It made online doxing a real phenomenon. It showed that targeting victims was easy and effective, forcing individuals to go into hiding. And it demonstrated that any toxic movement can mainstream its way into politics.

I get that GamerGate was 8 years ago. I also know that people can change. I’m sure some of GamerGate’s biggest defenders have worked to rehabilitate their image. But it doesn’t matter. The amount of damage the movement did is irreparable, and in some ways it won. Even Comicsgate, its short-lived successor, caused so much hurt to those it deemed unworthy of their hobby. That’s scary and sad.

In some ways, I consider writing this my long-overdue therapy. Talking about seeing people I respected fall victim to hate is upsetting, but it’s my closure. I owe it to myself, and I’m disappointed I didn’t act on it sooner. And yes, it’s likely I’ll receive backlash for Publishing this. But I no longer care as much as I used to.

There are powerful lessons to be learned from GamerGate. It was a hate movement, but it revealed a vulnerability in the gaming community that many had ignored or thought didn’t exist. Personally, it also reconfirmed something I’d known since Nintendo’s E3 2008 conference: that gamers can be self-entitled and nasty. It’s merely too bad this dam didn’t burst for another 6 years, but hindsight is usually 20/20.

Goodbye Twitter/X-A Letter

Dear Tweeple:

It’s with a heavy heart that I announce my departure from Twitter/X.

When I joined on December 2nd, 2011, I was excited at what the platform had to offer. After all, this was during ScrewAttack’s twilight years, and that site was a mess, so having a presence outside of that was a great way to expand my reach. I remember posting regularly and hanging out with g1s, getting to know their interests and interacting in live-time. Call it naïve optimism from a 21 year-old Jewish Canadian in the thick of his university education.

My early years on Twitter/X were standard: I shared my work, opined occasionally and grew my Followers. I even managed to occasionally attract the attention of bigger names, including my then-favourite anime reviewer. While I rarely shared my political opinions, I had a unique enough base that they rubbed off anyway. I credit Twitter/X with helping me gain a socially-active conscience. It’d help me later on.

My first red flag came in the form of GamerGate in 2014. I’ve written extensively about it, but GamerGate was when I realized there were cracks in the platform’s moderation. While uttering the term led to squabbles with people who didn’t have my best interests at heart, the Block tool alleviated much of my anxiety. To this day, I don’t regret it, since my Followers kept growing.

The last year of enjoyment on Twitter/X was 2015. That was the year SCOTUS legalized gay marriage, as well as when I started this Blog. It was also when Donald Trump announced his presidency, something that worried me, but was on the back-burner. For the time being, I was enjoying promoting my work, engaging with fans and growing my base. Even with GamerGate fading into irrelevancy, 2015 was the last year I’d consider Twitter/X a beneficial investment.

Everything really began to crash with Trump’s presidency in 2016. The next few years revealed the façade that was Twitter. It didn’t help that my Followers peaked in early-2017 at 575, a number I’ve never returned to since. Twitter/X began to enrage and annoy me, with many friendships fully-dissolving and others being tested. My social conscience was now refined by a sense of Jewish pride, and the two felt in conflict over certain topics. It wasn’t pleasant being there anymore, but I kept at it.

2020 was when everything hit rock-bottom. On one hand, Trumpian politics were weighing on my mind. On the other hand, the populist left was pushing me in, their idealism forcing my sensibilities into a box. What was it that I wanted? Who could I trust? My Blocks got an intense workout, and the site was no longer enjoyable. Especially with COVID paranoia causing extremes to meet.

Following January 6th, 2021, it was clear I had to make a decision. But I was hesitant to leave. I liked the accessibility of Twitter/X’s user-face, and I didn’t want to give up the friendships I’d made. It was making me anxious, made worse by Elon Musk’s purchase of the site the following year. All the trolling and hate under the surface was now bubbling up. Which leads to 2023, particularly the last month or so. I could withstand GamerGate and Trump on Twitter/X. It was annoying, but I knew who I could fall back on and trust.

What I couldn’t withstand, however, was those same people turning on me and other Jews over something no one wanted: October 7th. Violence in Israel was nothing new, but I’d lost over 1400 brothers and sisters to an enemy who wasn’t hiding their intentions. That alone was traumatic, but even more traumatic was the world’s response: they were praising it. Considering I’d often fought alongside and for many of these individuals in the past, to have them then turn around and not reciprocate was alarming.

But I guess that’s expected. Horseshoe Theory’s a real concept, and extremists on the far-left harbour similar views to those on the far-right. These views include Antisemitism and attitudes over the Jewish state, and while Antisemitism’s open on the far-right and blatantly-transparent, to have the far-left embrace similar tactics, while not surprising, is upsetting and disappointing. It’s as if they refuse to acknowledge Jews, or “Zionists”, as individuals, and the walls and straw-men they make up to avoid confronting their own problems speaks volumes. It’s as if the bigoted boogeyman never disappeared, but merely changed stripes and blended in better.

So yes, you’ve beaten me. You’ve won. You’ve gotten me to abandon my future on Twitter/X in favour of your petty, partisan politics not rooted in logic or compassion. I was hoping Elon Musk would break Twitter/X completely before leaving, but I guess he wasn’t my biggest concern after all. I hope you’re proud.

Sincerely;

Whitly, aka Captain Raccoon.

P.S. Rest in Piss.

There's Nothing New...

(Note: this piece was adapted from a lecture I’ve been prepping for 11 years.)

In the words of Kohelet:

“That which hath been is that which shall be, And that which hath been done is that which shall be done; And there is nothing new under the sun.”

Kohelet, considered a penname for King Shlomo, wrote this early in his scroll, which is read on Sukkot. The verse stands out because it hasn’t aged a day; after all, humans don’t invent, they reinvent. Maimonides, one of Judaism’s great philosophers, allegedly predicted airplanes during Islam’s Golden Age, calling them “iron birds”. If that happened in the 12th Century, it’s safe to say that “nothing new under the sun” is accurate. I’ve yet to see a good counterargument.

This doesn’t have to stop at inventions. It can apply to ideas too, particularly controversies. We’re plugged into the world constantly, and sooner or later its scandals and hot-button issues flock to us. I’ve seen it with geopolitics, but even minor debates have blown up thanks to the fascination people, particularly Jews, have with taboo subjects. This is a good springboard for me using four such examples. They’re weird, perhaps even esoteric, but I’ve wanted to discuss this for over 10 years. Bear with me.

    

The first one extends back to the early months of 2015. We all remember the dress scandal, right? What colour was the dress? Was it blue and black, or white and gold? The debate raged for months! However, it highlighted how something asinine could generate conversation about perception.

I won’t delve into the later scandal surrounding the owner’s relationship with her husband, as that’s not relevant. However, I want state that I never cared about the dress. Like the “Yanny VS Laurel” debate, it was wasted energy. It was a dress! Who cares what colour it was? Will it cure world hunger, or reverse climate change?

However, this debate actually got me started on this drasha, as I think it connects to a similar case about perception: tzara’at. Tzara’at, or “leprosy”, was a Biblical punishment caused by lashon hara, or speaking falsely about others. The disease was highly-contagious and covered the skin, forcing the afflicted to isolate. However, because it was difficult to differentiate from other skin diseases, it was up to the Kohen Gadol, or High Priest, to examine it and determine if it was tzara’at. As Vayikra 13:1-3 states:

“GOD spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying: When a person has on their skin a swelling, a rash, or a discoloration, and it develops into a scaly affection on their skin, it shall be reported to Aaron the priest or to one of his sons, the priests. The priest shall examine the affection on the skin: if hair in the affected patch has turned white and the affection appears to be deeper than the skin, it is a leprous affection; when the priest sees it, he shall pronounce the person impure.”

The implication here is that the Kohen Gadol is announcing “This person is contagious, stay away!” in order to protect everyone else. But why is it the Kohen Gadol’s responsibility? Isn’t it obvious that the person looks afflicted? Perhaps it’s because of perception issues, lest there be debate and everything gets worse. And now we see how this ties into the dress, if loosely.

  

Next, there’s GamerGate and Vivian James. I’ve covered this before, but for those unfamiliar, here’s a rundown:

Back in the Summer of 2014, a rumour circulated around the internet that game designer Zoë Quinn had slept with various video game reviewers to court favour for Depression Quest. Started by her ex-boyfriend, it took root in forums like 4chan and gained the attention of Adam Baldwin, who coined “GamerGate” to suggest a conspiracy ala President Nixon’s Watergate Scandal. Despite the pretense that this was about “ethics in game’s journalism”, a growing list of women, including Brianna Wu and Anita Sarkeesian, became targets of harassment and doxing.

Around this time, a group known as TFYC donated a massive sum to have a character created. Named “Vivian James”, a pun on “vidya games”, she quickly became GamerGate’s mascot. Despite the copious amounts of inappropriate fan art, due to her being a teenager, the question of whether or not a fictional avatar can be a spokesperson for a movement, especially when she had no agency, took centre stage. Was it appropriate to use a fake character as a mouthpiece?

I try not to dwell on GamerGate. I lost a lot of friends over it, some of whom I’d known for many years. However, the part that miffs me to this day is that Vivian James was being exploited by toxic gamers. And she was a teenager, one without any agency. Assuming she was real at all, where was her perspective? Was it fair to misuse her?

Such parallels are found, in my mind, in a section of The Mishneh Torah pertaining to divorce, particularly the Gett:

“When a man whom the law requires to be compelled to divorce his wife does not desire to divorce her, the court should have him beaten until he consents, at which time they should have a get written. The get is acceptable. This applies at all times and in all places. Similarly, if gentiles beat him while telling him: "Do what the Jews are telling you to do," and the Jews have the gentiles apply pressure on him until [he consents] to divorce his wife, the divorce is acceptable. If, however, the gentiles compel him to write [a get] on their own initiative…”

Honestly, the Gett is one the hardest parts of Judaism to swallow. Not because it isn’t necessary, especially since men aren’t trustworthy historically, but because withholding it causes the wife unnecessary pain. It’s boorish, and yet it happens so frequently! Not giving a Gett also creates an agunah, or a chained woman. And if this agunah ends up pregnant from another man, her child is a mamzer, a bastard whose lineage is cursed for 10 generations! That’s not something any sane person wants.

Ignoring how many modern marriages have civil prenups that automatically enforce Getts, I can’t help feeling for the woman here. After all, she’s being abused! And she’s given little-to-no agency! I also can’t help wondering what’d happen had women had an active role in formulating the Halacha, but it’s too late to fix that. Perhaps that’s why women need to be listened to…

We all remember the riots in Ferguson, Missouri. They weren’t that long ago, and they shed light on systemic abuse from law enforcement. Unfortunately, the situation hasn’t gotten much better. All the riots did was bring attention to how racist police officers can be, as well as how little accountability they have. ACAB, as they say.

Even if you don’t mind cops, the reality is that they’re human beings. And like any humans with authority, they’re flawed. They make mistakes, they screw up, and sometimes their mistakes are deadly. After all, if politicians are recognized as shady, why are police exempt from that? As Alan Moore once wrote, “Who watches The Watchmen?”.

Perhaps the weirdest ripple effect involved a cop who was dismissed for a weird reason. As The Anime Herald wrote on May 14th, 2015:

“Last night, Florida’s WFTV News reported that an officer in the Casselberry Police Department. Police officer Matthew Blunt was suspended for one shift (10 hours) without pay, after sending an off-color text message to his supervisor.”

This is putting it lightly. Blunt, apparently, had been excited about winning the local Powerball lottery, and he wanted some of the money. It wasn’t a lot of money-$32 USD-but even a sushi dinner at a Kosher restaurant is something. However, Blunt using an anime image with a racial epithet was, apparently, going too far, and he was suspended. Interesting.

When Blunt’s story went viral, a debate over whether or not his suspension was justified tagged along. The most-troubling question was “Why this?”. I’m not defending Blunt, he should’ve known better, but between the profiling, beatings and, yes, even shootings police have been guilty of, being suspended over a racist meme is suspect. It begs the question of what police can get away with.

Judaism isn’t a stranger to critiquing authority figures. King David was punished by God for seducing a married woman, having her husband killed and impregnating her. Yet the one passage that sums up this best involves Yoav ben Tsuriah. Yoav was David’s nephew, and he was his highest-ranking general. Nepotism aside, he was a formidable strategist, serving David well. But his hamartia was a bad case of wounded pride. He routinely disobeyed protocol to settle personal scores, including the tragic death of David’s son, Avshalom, after his hair got caught in a thicket. David never forgave him, and it didn’t get any easier once Shlomo took over:

“When the news reached Joab, he fled to the Tent of GOD and grasped the horns of the altar—for Joab had sided with Adonijah, though he had not sided with Absalom.

King Solomon was told that Joab had fled to the Tent of GOD and that he was there by the altar; so Solomon sent Benaiah son of Jehoiada, saying, “Go and strike him down.”

Benaiah went to the Tent of GOD and said to him, “Thus said the king: Come out!” “No!” he replied; “I will die here.” Benaiah reported back to the king that Joab had answered thus and thus, and the king said, “Do just as he said; strike him down and bury him, and remove guilt from me and my father’s house for the blood of the innocent that Joab has shed.

Thus GOD will bring his blood guilt down upon his own head, because, unbeknown to my father, he struck down with the sword two men more righteous and honorable than he—Abner son of Ner, the army commander of Israel, and Amasa son of Jether, the army commander of Judah.

May the guilt for their blood come down upon the head of Joab and his descendants forever, and may good fortune from GOD be granted forever to David and his descendants, his house and his throne.

(Melachim II, 28-33.)

Clearly, Yoav staked his claim with the wrong person, which cost him his life!

The final example I wish to discuss involves Tilly Norwood, whom I’ve also written about. Tilly Norwood is an A.I. actress created by Xicoia, a division of Particle6 Group, in 2025. Her creator, Eline Van Der Velden, desired to experiment with her. Despite never intending for her to replace real actors, Norwood created an uproar in Hollywood and the online world, with people accusing her of talent poaching and performance theft. After all, how can her acting be genuine?

Hollywood has blacklisted Norwood, yet her presence touches on a bigger issue surrounding A.I. It might be a hot commodity nowadays, but is its presence warranted? And is it a tool for change, or merely a fad? There’s plenty that can be said, but I won’t bore you. Instead, I’ll keep my thoughts brief: I’m not a fan. At all. In fact, I try to not rely on it, even at the expense of errors or misinformation. It can’t match up to human ingenuity on a good day.

I had to think hard on what would be a good compliment Tilly Norwood, but I settled on this story about Maimonides:

“There is a beautiful story of a disagreement that Maimonides had with a philosopher. The philosopher claimed that he could change a cat and make him act like a person. Maimonides said this was impossible. They agreed to make a contest. When the day of the contest came, the philosopher brought a cat that he had trained to be a waiter. The cat served an entire meal, and the audience was amazed. Just as they stared and assumed that Maimonides had been proven wrong, Maimonides took out a container from his pocket. He opened it up and a mouse ran by. The cat saw the mouse, dropped the tray of dishes that he was holding, breaking them all, and ran after the mouse. Maimonides was proven right, and everyone agreed that no matter what, a cat is a cat. As much as he may be trained to act in a particular way, he is still inherently a cat and must be treated as such.”

Pretty straightforward, right? Maimonides disagrees that animals can transcend their nature, he’s supposedly proven wrong, and then he games the system and ends up being right. The obvious lesson is to not second-guess a rationalist, which Maimonides was, but further research revealed that this might not be his story. Yeah, it’s a midrash, a parable meant to teach a lesson. It’s also a remix of an Aesop’s fable! You ready for this?

“The Cat and Venus

A CAT fell in love with a handsome young man, and entreated Venus to change her into the form of a woman. Venus consented to her request and transformed her into a beautiful damsel, so that the youth saw her and loved her, and took her home as his bride. While the two were reclining in their chamber, Venus wishing to discover if the Cat in her change of shape had also altered her habits of life, let down a mouse in the middle of the room. The Cat, quite forgetting her present condition, started up from the couch and pursued the mouse, wishing to eat it. Venus was much disappointed and again caused her to return to her former shape.

Nature exceeds nurture.”

Big thanks to George Flyer Townsend for translating this. However, that Aesop had covered this prior shows that even Jewish midrashim are responses to previous texts. That’s not necessarily bad. It simply shows that Judaism was self-aware, using prior stories as springboards. You simply can’t deny that.

But this all goes back to that Kohelet verse. Judaism doesn’t exist in a vacuum, as much as we sometimes want it to. Because Jews are a byproduct of the world. This extends to how we perceive and digest media. And if these controversies are indication, the issues present, such as that of perception, aren’t new either. Our sages and texts were grappling with this, and they too were influenced by the world around them. We should definitely remember and appreciate that as we grapple with contemporary issues.

NintenD'OH! Paper Mario and Business Practices in the Gaming Industry

Let’s talk ethics.

It should be no surprise to people who’ve known me for a long time that I like Nintendo. They’ve been making affordable consoles for as long as I can remember, and I’ve been an admirer of their games for so long that I requested a Gamecube as a Bar Mitzvah gift in 2003 from my parents, which was then followed up with a Wii in 2007. Keep in mind that gifts of that calibre were a rarity growing up, so for me to request a Nintendo console meant that I clearly respected their work. This was around the time that the competition was trying to be “edgy”, so a bright spot of colour and fun was a breath of fresh air. And even after my hobby of choice transitioned to movies/anime, that feeling never left.

All the more reason why Nintendo’s recent controversy is such a disappointment. The whole ordeal stems back to something that started in 2014 called GamerGate. I won’t elaborate too much on what GamerGate is, you can read up on it if you’re so inclined, but the ordeal has lost me a lot of friends online. The movement’s goal is to promote “ethics in gaming journalism”, but words and actions are totally different. Either way, it’s not something that I enjoy seeing brought up in mainstream entertainment when not necessary, whether as a celebration or a mocking of it. It’s like I said on Infinite Rainy Day when a company called FUNimation Entertainment decided to mock it for no reason in their dub of an anime called Prison School:

“Unless the material calls for it, you don’t mess with something for the sake of airing your own dirty laundry. Especially when the original writers are trusting you with a decent translation of their work…[y]ou don’t parody your material and insult your audience, because some of them actually care and will be pulled out of it with such blatant disrespect.”

I wish Nintendo had heeded that advice. Instead, they decided to prod the serpent too, except with the exact opposite approach: mock the victims, not the oppressors. In the recent translation pics of Paper Mario: Color Splash, they decided to make a direct reference to the Five Guys controversy that ruined game developer Zoe Quinn’s career…as a joke. To quote someone I worked with at day camp, “Oh dear!”

As expected, it blew up on the internet. Some were defending the translation, calling it a “harmless reference to Five Guys Burgers and Fries” and stating that people shouldn’t get worked up. Others, however, flipped out and claimed Nintendo was demonic, stating that they’re “no better than those GamerGate monsters that keep pestering the gaming community”. Either way, it was obvious that Nintendo’s PR department would have their hands full trying to deflate the situation. Personally, I’m a little torn, but not in the way you’d think.

On one hand, I recognize this is an issue. Nintendo of America’s localization team boobed pretty badly, and the person who thought this was a good idea should either be reprimanded or fired. Because it’s Nintendo; if they’re so concerned about keeping a family-friendly image, then they shouldn’t be condoning baseless hatred of women. If they’re so concerned about editing the cover of the most-recent Fire Emblem game so that a scantly-clad woman isn’t in plain view, then they shouldn’t be condoning baseless hatred of women. If they’re so insistent on firing their former PR person, Alison Rapp, over moonlighting sex-work because it “portrays a negative image of their company”, then they shouldn’t be condoning baseless hatred of women. Basically, if Nintendo is so insistent on remaining “innocent”, then they shouldn’t be condoning baseless hatred of women. Because this does exactly that.

It’s especially troubling because the gaming industry has come under fire in recent years for its horrible treatment of women. Developers like Brianna Wu and Zoe Quinn have frequently been harassed for speaking up against their treatment in the workplace, while Anita Sarkeesian, host of the controversial “Tropes Vs. Women in Video Games”, has been attacked for her feminist analysis of video games to the point of caricatures ala Jewish-blackface. So for Nintendo, the beacon of family-friendly entertainment in gaming world, to suddenly include this joke, especially considering the Alison Rapp controversy I mentioned in the previous paragraph, is really not helping the situation.

On the other hand, I think the backlash against Nintendo is a little extreme. For one, it’s a localization joke that can be removed. It sucks that it snuck in there at all, but it’s not permanent. The game comes out in almost an entire year, that’s plenty of time to change the line. And if Nintendo’s smart, which I’m sure they are, that’s exactly what they’ll do.

Two…it’s a localization joke. That means there’s always the option of region importing the original game should the line still bother you. I know that newer Nintendo consoles have the option to change the country of origin in their settings, so if you really want to, as tedious as it may be, you can.

And three, the boycotting of Nintendo as a whole is ridiculous. Not only did said boycotters forget to boycott when Rapp was fired because Miitomo was launched the next day, I’m sure they’ll forget to do so again. Also, what good will it do, other than potentially harm innocent workers? Because trust me, when it comes to boycotts of big corporations, the average Joe is usually the first to go. I know because that’s what happened with Ma’ale Adumim’s Sodastream plant when the Boycott and Divestment Sanctions group, or BDS for short, began protesting Israeli products over their perceived treatment of the Palestinians in Gaza and The West Bank.

I think we forget that sometimes, especially in the modern-Capitalist world. Like it or not, boycotts of corporations often do more harm than good. You might think you’re sending a message to the higher-ups, and it might work in the short-term, but in the long-term it hurts the grunt workers and employees trying to make an honest living. That doesn’t mean that those who are upset shouldn’t express concern, but not like this.

Rather, it should be directed in a more helpful manner, i.e. a petition, letter or email requesting to revoke the joke. Alternatively, writing a piece about it, like I am right now, or expressing concerns via Twitter, Facebook or Nintendo’s website are options. Because while Nintendo might be a business, they’re run by people! If enough people speak up, then they might be obligated to fix the problem if it means keeping an audience. It’s worked on a variety of other controversies, so why not here?

Nevertheless, to the person who thought this line was a good idea: you’re a jerk. I’m still planning on buying a WiiU at some point, but it won’t be because of you.

Vivian's Coming Out

In my Infinite Rainy Day days, I wrote about a then-circulating discourse over Samus Aran being trans. I won’t get into why I scrapped it, but I was mean-spirited in hindsight. I argued that even if Samus was trans, that was neither relevant nor important in the grand scheme. I not only unintentionally gaslit the trans community, I was being incredibly transphobic. And I’m sorry.

I mention this because the remake of Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door’s right around the corner. Specifically, because of the recent confirmation in the translation that one of the characters is trans. This is actually a correction of the GameCube original’s script, highlighting the difference in attitudes over the last 20 years. It’s big. It clarifies why the character in question, Vivian, was treated badly by her sisters: it wasn’t simply that she was “weak”, but rather that they were transphobic.

This is a huge deal! For one, Vivian’s design and personality make more sense as a recently-transitioned woman who isn’t accepted by her family. Transitioning’s challenging for family members because it requires reframing their relationship to their trans relative. And often, perhaps too often, it leads to denial or rejection, to the shock and dejection of the individual. In some cases, it even leads to ostracizing, violence, self-harm and suicide. Simply look at news stories and statistics.

Negativity aside, consider it a win for trans people. Queer representation in media, particularly Japanese media, has a long way to go to achieve equity, something reflected in longstanding attitudes about those on the LGBTQ+ spectrum. I’m no expert on Japanese politics, but I know queerness is still more taboo there than here. We see this with how queer characters in Japanese media are either thought of as “romantically transitioning” to heteronormativity, or openly shafted. With transness, they’re even forced to “re-embrace” their original gender. It’s something that’s, fortunately, changing now, but the wheels of progress turn slowly…

Nintendo of Japan’s also more openly accepting of queer folk than many companies, even making international headlines. Having Vivian be trans is another example of this, and that the game she’s in doesn’t shy away from that is admirable. Doubly-so that it’s in the English translation, as transness isn’t quite as taboo here. Plus, it explains why her sisters are cold and nasty to her.

While this is a win for queerness, the crowd having the hardest time is Western gaming. Ever since Vivian was confirmed as trans, the community, particularly those “against censorship”, has had a meltdown. This includes comments and videos calling it “lies”, saying that Vivian “was never trans”. Ignoring the inconsistency and insincerity, this is sad. It’d also be funny if it weren’t maddening: you can handle a female character being overly-sexualized, but if she embraces something outside the norm it’s “bad”? Are you 12?

Perhaps I’m projecting, but this reeks of GamerGate’s leftovers. I won’t repeat all my thoughts, but that GamerGate’s stench can be smelled here is upsetting. This movement made three women into martyrs despite their personal politics, and all because they didn’t cave to misogyny. This same movement made an underaged stock avatar their mascot, and it made life a nightmare for anyone who criticized them. GamerGate also lost me many friends. I don’t need a reminder of that.

Besides, what’s wrong with Vivian being trans? This isn’t a head-canon decision, it’s fact. Vivian’s not only trans, she’s openly mocked for it. It’s a part of her identity and character arc, and it makes her who she is. That’s intellectual honesty.

I’m not even sure what’s gained here. The game’s coming out soon, and the script’s been translated by Nintendo. Vivian being trans was the original intent. You want to argue with Nintendo? You’re wasting time and energy.

Assuming this really does bother people, the GameCube version also exists. You know, the one that gamers hold dearly? It might be hard to track down now, and also expensive, but snagging a copy isn’t impossible. I even bought one on eBay a few years ago. Since gamers love shelling out money for obscure titles, why not do that instead?

This doesn’t help video games be taken seriously as a hobby, either. I’d argue they already were, but part of having the industry be recognized means it isn’t exempt from tackling real-world issues. If anything, refusing to makes the art-form look childish. And is that what we want? Will that solve anything?

I know this is a shock to many people who grew up with the GameCube version. It’s not my favourite entry in the franchise, that’s still the N64 game, but even I appreciate why the game’s well-loved! Though is Vivian being canonically-trans a dealbreaker? Because if so, I have to wonder if you really love the game. Especially when this version has a more accurate script.

Besides, Vivian’s transness isn’t even the biggest issue worth addressing. If I had it my way, the game wouldn’t joke about Princess Peach stripping. Or have Madame Flurrie’s physique be a punchline for fatphobia. Or have Mario the butt of unwanted affection from the female characters. These aspects most-likely haven’t been removed, so it’s strange that an actually-positive change is getting all of the attention.

Whatever, it’s not worth getting upset. Especially when there’s a new Switch game to look forward to!

Let's Talk About Toxic Nerd Culture...

I don’t know how many of you are aware of this, but I’ve been writing for Nintendo Enthusiast since late-May of this year. It’s tough and doesn’t pay well, as most writing tends to be, but it’s been providing me with great experience. I’m not only flexing my editorial muscles, I’m learning to be succinct and adapt my style to SEO’s algorithm. But don’t take my word for it, you can find my profile here.

Unfortunately, I’ve also been reminded of the internet’s nastiness. Let’s face it, it doesn’t matter what I write. I can put out something well thought-out, but if it dares to be out-of-the-box…you know. It’s like I said in a recent Facebook post, the internet won’t hesitate to skewer me. It’s that unforgiving.

It’d be one issue if this were about me. I don’t like ableism or bigotry, but I’m an adult. I know how to laugh off slurs, I’ve been doing it for years. And none of this is new by now. But it’s not only about me. The internet, or nerds in general, are a toxic and vitriolic group of individuals.

This isn’t an original sentiment, either. Nerds being gross, bigoted and mean-spirited to outsiders was made well-known in 2014. It became public knowledge because of GamerGate, despite what its defenders may claim. But I’d argue that this goes back even further. Like Me Too and sexual impropriety, nerds being bigoted to outsiders spans decades. However, for the sake of tangibility, I’ll stick with when I first noticed this behaviour.

The year was 2008. Super Smash Bros. Brawl had recently been released. Despite strong sales and excellent reviews, a certain backlash began to circulate. Gaming nerds, who’d anticipated this game’s release, were unhappy with the final product. Yet instead of voicing their concerns maturely and thoughtfully, they acted petty and yelled down fans. I should know, I was one of those fans.

I can’t find exact quotes anymore, it’s been 11 years, but I remember the in-fighting. I remember the complaints over how Super Smash Bros. Brawl was “for babies”, as well as how The Subspace Emissary was “boring trash”. I couldn’t understand how a piece of programmable plastic could drive so many of my fellow gamers that crazy. Then again, it was already a-year-and-a-half into the Wii’s lifespan. If the reaction to the Wii’s existence was indication, I shouldn’t have been surprised.

Nintendo’s E3 conference that year didn’t help. Gaming nerds were waiting for them to kill it, only to be let-down. They were expecting something, anything, to be thrown their way, but they ended up with Wii Music instead. And sure, Wii Music was probably not the best way to end a gaming exposition, but you’d think the world was ending tomorrow. Nerd culture wouldn’t let it go, something they kept reminding everyone about for a year.

This was around the time I started writing for ScrewAttack as a blogger. Initially, my stuff sucked. But while I’d improve, I noticed that the toxicity within gaming nerd culture wasn’t getting better. If anything, it was getting worse. And I, a guy with special needs, kept experiencing that first-hand.

My first real brush-up with this toxicity came with my first rant on ScrewAttack, which I remade for this blog. In it, I discussed gaming difficulty, how subjective it was, and why demanding a uniform standard was gatekeeping. Looking back, the rant was awful. But the responses I received weren’t helpful either.

The next few years would see me flirt with this issue off and on, until 2014 hit. I was in a bad space at the time, too: it was the Summer of my dad’s heart attack, Israel was at war (again) and I had undiagnosed mental health issues. But once nerd gaming’s toxic elements began merging with mainstream toxicity via GamerGate, I was done with it all. I’d long-since moved away from gaming as a hobby, but I couldn’t escape the daily attacks on “SJW culture”. It should also come as no surprise that GamerGate would become Comicsgate when games were no longer the direct target of outrage.

Which leads to now. Having come back to gaming via my position means that I’m seeing this vitriol all-over. And it’s still really bad, even if I’ve learned to not let it get to me. What’s worse is how nerds have also doubled-down with the rise of Me Too and its direct offenders, many of whom are nerds themselves. It’s as if everything has come full-circle. And I’m tired.

I don’t mean to blast nerds collectively here. I’m a nerd myself. I also think nerd culture has a valuable role in shaping art and entertainment collectively. But shaming people and using ableist language isn’t helpful. It’s reductive, and it makes us look childish.

I also think attacking those who think unconventionally, like myself, isn’t flattering. It doesn’t matter if I don’t like hard video games. It shouldn’t be an issue that I’m against time gimmicks. And it especially shouldn’t be a problem that I think newer Pokémon games lack the streamlined simplicity of older ones. You’re entitled to think differently, but ableism doesn’t help your cause.

It’s not only me, like I said. I’ve seen creators, developers and writers get attacked for expressing themselves unconventionally. I’ve seen marginalized folks be ostracized for simply demanding to be heard. I’ve seen it all, and it stinks. And it doesn’t have to be this way.

Nerd culture is in an exciting time right now. Classic books, games and comics are being adapted for the mainstream, and they’re being adapted well. They’re also getting the awards and recognition that nerds craved for decades. Even portrayals of nerds in media, like in Stranger Things, are becoming much more respectful, instead of the garbage we used to see. Being a nerd, essentially, is cool now! So why are we shutting that out?

It’s like we’re stuck in the 80’s and early-90’s with our mindsets, acting like the bubble is still super-enclosed. True, it sucked being a nerd for a long time. I remember being picked on by other kids, sometimes violently. But that was then, and many of my tormentors have long since extended olive branches. If they’ve made an effort, then why can’t I?

By not recognizing this, nerds are isolating themselves further. By continuing to live in the past, nerds are becoming hostile and toxic. And by continuing to harbour deep resentments, nerds are becoming more dangerous than their original tormentors. This isn’t healthy.

I wouldn’t be saying all this if I didn’t think we could be above pettiness. But we can. Yet we’re not. And it worries me because it’s not helping our public image. It also worries me because it’s causing irreparable harm. And is that what we really want?

One Marvelous Scene: Heil Hydra!

In honour of The Avengers: Endgame, I figured I’d hop on the “One Marvelous Scene” train in-between my mini-series; after all, everyone on YouTube’s doing it, so why can’t I?

2014 was a tough year. Academically, it was when I graduated from university, a feat I was once told I’d never achieve. Socially, I jumped ships from the then-dying ScrewAttack website to the now-defunct Infinite Rainy Day. Personally, it was the year of my dad’s near-fatal heart attack and my Birthright trip to Israel. And politically, there were the riots in Fergusson and another war in Israel, both of which left a huge impact subconsciously. It was also when GamerGate started, but the less said there…

If there’s one area that really solidified 2014, it was the maturation of The MCU through two movies: Captain America: The Winter Soldier, and Guardians of the Galaxy. Both proved that it could be taken seriously outside of Iron Man and The Avengers, and both are considered fan-favourites in the Phase 2 roster. Yet while Guardians of the Galaxy may have been funnier and better-directed, Captain America: The Winter Soldier is far more-ambitious. It made Captain America a character to be reckoned with, after all! And it managed to have my favourite scene in The MCU.

I wasn’t a big MCU stan pre-Captain America: The Winter Soldier. I enjoyed it as a time-waster, but nothing, save for Iron Man, truly blew my socks off. Yet Captain America: The Winter Soldier showed the franchise deserved my respect. And it did so by highlighting an issue that, in hindsight, probably shouldn’t have been so ambitious.

The scene that really grabbed me most is halfway through, when Steve and Natasha, now fugitives, come across SHIELD’s birthplace. They enter an abandoned warehouse, get to the basement and are amazed to discover a room with super-computers. Natasha uploads a USB drive to the mainframe, and it reveals a surprisingly familiar voice. What follows is an exposition dump that flips the movie on its head and re-centres what the we thought we already knew: that Hydra, that fascist organization Cap fought and defeated in WWII, was alive. And not only alive, but thriving. And not only thriving, but thriving under SHIELD’s own nose.

I should first mention that The MCU, up until this point, hadn’t done twist-reveals too well. Iron Man 3 was an enjoyable enough, but its Mandarin reveal was divisive amongst fans: some loved it, while others thought it was awful and disrespectful to a classic villain. I’m torn on it, but I’ve already shared my thoughts. Regardless, The MCU didn’t have such a great track-record when it came to plot twists, and here they were attempting another one.

And it works. It also passes both of my personal criteria for a good plot twist, namely that: a. it fits into the story that came before. b. it progresses the story in a good direction afterward. It explains why SHIELD was after Cap and Natasha, and it reframes everything about SHIELD as being a lie. But it also shows that, sometimes, not everything is as it seems.

I remember in the months following that some people derided this twist as a cheap attempt at transferring real-world problems to Nazis, cheapening their ramifications. I can see why, it does feel like an easy way out, but I still think it fits the narrative. Ignoring how this came out two years before Brexit, Trump and the resurgence of Nazism, hence feeling prophetic in hindsight, that Hydra was secretly SHIELD is still brilliant. It demonstrates the sly cunning and persistence of evil throughout history, mutating like a virus to suit the times. Hydra might be Nazis, but they could be a stand-in for anything. They could range from anti-Zionism being a stand-in for Antisemitism, or even MAGA being a stand-in for a lot of bigotry.

How did Hydra manage to become so big? Simple: by infiltrating SHIELD and slowly corrupting it from the inside. It didn’t happen overnight, that’d be too difficult. Instead, Hydra would topple governments in foreign countries, not unlike how The CIA does in real-life, by installing puppet leaders through coups. When these leaders turned, or the people fought back, Hydra would, through its SHIELD persona, sell this as propaganda to get American citizens to surrender their rights and freedoms willingly. It got to the point that the average citizen became vulnerable.

The parallels to The CIA and military interventionism by The US government are no accident: by making the big baddie Hydra, Captain America: The Winter Soldier’s secretly commenting on The US. It’s alluding to American imperialism without directly calling it out, and it makes sense: The US has been a cause of its own shame and folly, routinely making everything worse while simultaneously claiming to “help”. It’s gotten so bad that there are, arguably, real Nazis working in positions of power, ironic given that the Nazis were “the enemy abroad” a little over 74 years ago.

It’s like Arnim Zola says: cut off one head, two more shall take its place. That’s how evil actually works, when you think about it. The sooner one hate movement dies, the sooner another one takes its place. It’s not enough to cut off its heads, you have to strike it down at its core. Its base needs to be dealt with, something we keep forgetting.

If anything, the only way to solve the problem entirely is destroy the root cause. It was SHIELD that brought in Zola as part of a secret operation in the 50’s. It was SHIELD that fostered Zola and nurtured his talents. It was, therefore, not surprising that SHIELD and Hydra became one-in-the-same, even ordering hits on their own when people became too suspicious (see Tony Stark’s parents). Considering that Hydra wasn’t a bug, but a feature, of SHIELD, it only seemed right that SHIELD had to go. And go it went, considering how Captain America: The Winter Soldier ends.

It helps that, even outside of the aforementioned layers, the scene is also expertly crafted. It’s well-directed, the muddied lighting fits the aesthetic, it has its moments of tonally-appropriate levity (like when Steve punches a monitor and Zola resumes talking like nothing had happened), and it’s suspenseful. Most-importantly, like any good scene, it gets you to think critically. How this level of subtext went by unchecked still astounds me, even five years later.

Will The Avengers: Endgame have a scene that tops this? I’ll know in a month, but don’t spoil anything!

SAG-AFTRA and AI

Tomorrow marks a pivotal moment in Hollywood. The Screen Actors Guild, or SAG-AFTRA, is voting to go on strike, much like The WGA did. While the situation in acting’s different than writing, an overlapping concern is about AI replacing the human element. Like how writers are concerned machines will replace them, so too are performers. While this, together with residual cheques, has been years in progress, it’s only now gotten bad enough that people are putting their feet down.

Which begs the question: why aren’t more consumers sensitive to it?

Recently, the voice acting world was faced with said apathy. Erica Lindbeck put out a request on her Twitter account to stop people from using her voice without permission. Rather than respect that request, she received harassment from Tweeters who didn’t think it was a big deal. The attacks got so bad that Lindbeck deactivated her account, leading to other VAs coming to her defence.

This should be a no-brainer: an individual in the entertainment industry requested that she be respected. She wasn’t, and she got attacked. Normally this’d warrant self-reflection, but since Twitter misunderstands consent, it isn’t surprising. As someone who survived GamerGate, I know that all too well. Also, Twitter sucks.

What bugs me more is the aftermath, particularly the fallout. While I appreciate VAs coming to Lindbeck’s defence, I don’t like people not understanding what they did wrong. To be fair, most individuals understood this was a blunder. But the few that didn’t, the loudest voices, acted like they were the victims and continued harassing VAs. It’s a classic case of entitlement, which is concerning in an age when people can anonymously steal someone’s likeness.

This circles back to a growing fear about overstepping boundaries in art. I’m not entirely against AI. I think that it has potential to assist artists when used correctly. Unfortunately, that’s not happening to the degree that it should, hence the concern. Basically, instead of complimenting artists and their work, AI’s being used as a total replacement for them. As an artist myself, that’s quite worrying.

It's also worrying because of the long-term implications. AI, as of right now, is in The Uncanny Valley: it can’t draw limbs properly, it makes blurry copies of other people’s work without their permission, and in the off-chance that it gets someone’s voice right, it still feels too calculated to pass as human. However, that might not last. Technology’s constantly getting better, and we already have near-perfect deepfakes that can be swapped with real actors. If AI ever becomes indistinguishable from reality, who’s to say it won’t replace the jobs of real people permanently?

That’s what Lindbeck’s situation, as well as SAG-AFTRA’s strike vote, is about. I don’t think anyone’s bemoaning AI’s existence. It’s used in many fields, including CGI modelling and rendering, and it’s not going away. But even with that, there still has to be a balance. The AI component can’t, and shouldn’t, override the human one, or we end up with inferior, calculated simulations of reality becoming the norm and drowning out lived experiences. That’s the real problem.

I’m also not happy with living, thinking individuals not comprehending this. Sure, Lindbeck’s one person, and I’m positive sexism also played a part with her. But if the VA response is indication, I doubt she’s an isolated example. And that people are continuing to ignore real artists’ wishes to not have their art replicated without permission because “AI is cool” is telling and naïve. Because who’s to say it won’t one day impact them too? Does it only matter when they’re on the chopping block themselves?

I won’t fix this problem on my own. I’m one person, and I have relatively little clout. I also know that even if I did have clout, it wouldn’t be enough to reverse the damage that shameless AI promoters are causing. However, I know I want my voice to be respected, and I know what it’s like to have it diluted. I’m sure I’m not alone on that.

As for the video that used Lindbeck’s voice without permission? I can’t take it down, I don’t have that kind of power, but I recommend no one watch it. I don’t care how “good” or “funny” it is, it’s a breach of consent. If Erica Lindbeck requests that her voice be respected, we should be sensitive to that. There’s no arguing around this.

Finally, regarding the SAG-AFTRA situation, I wouldn’t worry too much. Yes, it’ll suck to have film sets shut down, especially since no one will be working on new productions, but there’s more than enough content as is that it’s impossible to not have a personal backlog. Plus, people have a right to demand better working conditions, even if they’re famous. Human lives are more important than personal grievances over that new movie you’ve been looking forward to not coming out right away or being put on pause. That includes AI as well.

Leave MovieBob Alone!

This is Bob Chipman, aka MovieBob:

Considered one of the most-polarizing figures on the internet, for better or worse, MovieBob got his start as a video essayist on ScrewAttack via The Game OverThinker. After becoming a site regular in 2009, MovieBob gained a reputation as a “loud, angry voice” who fed into video game edginess. His over-the-top rhetoric divided audiences over whether or not he was making the reputation of gamers worse. He also was the first non-ScrewAttack/GameTrailers/AVGN-related gaming content I watched.

My opinion of MovieBob has swung back and forth. Initially, I thought he was an amusing pastime. Then I started getting frustrated with his lack of etiquette. Then I took a break, moved on to other creators, and came back to discover that he’d softened a lot. Then he became annoying again following GamerGate and Trump. Now…I’m neutral on him.

Don’t get me wrong: MovieBob’s no saint. Aside from questionable politics, which have ebbed and flowed, he has one of the most-obnoxious Feeds on Twitter. The latter’s so bad I’ve made an effort to avoid most of his Tweets. He also occasionally has pop-culture takes that are baffling. But that’s why I don’t Follow him on Twitter.

You’re probably wondering why I’m mentioning him; after all, he can advocate for himself! He doesn’t need me to stick up for him, right? Well, I’m doing it anyway. Not because I’m his #1 fan, but because much of the criticism directed at him is couched in disturbing and unsettling blowback. Let me explain.

One of the “critiques”, if you can call it that, that keeps getting tossed at MovieBob revolves around his weight. Essentially, MovieBob’s fat. He’s never tried hiding that in his on-screen appearances, either. Even his most well-known photo, him dressed as Mario for Halloween, accentuates that fact. It’s not a secret.

Unfortunately, it keeps getting used as an insult. Whether it’s being called “MovieSlob”, or having his well-intended critics attack his weight in jest, it’s become really tired and overused. We get it, MovieBob’s fat. Lots of people are fat. How’s this funny?

Perhaps it wouldn’t bother me if I weren’t underweight, always trying (unsuccessfully) to gain weight my whole life. Perhaps it also wouldn’t bother me if I didn’t know people who are overweight, always struggling (again, unsuccessfully) to be thinner. There are many sympathetic reasons for someone being overweight. Also, not everyone metabolizes food the same way.

By frequently bringing up MovieBob’s weight, people are dabbling in body-shaming. And isn’t that supposed to be bad? Isn’t it largely-accepted that if we strive for body-positivity, we should be accepting of all body types? How is criticizing MovieBob for something he can’t control meant to elevate your cause? Shouldn’t you focus on something else?

Another area people like calling out MovieBob for is his intelligence. He routinely gets attacked for being “stupid”, something not helped by his Twitter Feed coming off as ableist and pretentious. That last part was the main reason I stopped Following him on Twitter, by the way. I was having enough trouble with my own self-esteem that I didn’t need him adding to that.

But guess what? I don’t Follow him anymore. And ignoring that, many people on Twitter, even some who are more-respected than MovieBob, have ableist and pretentious Feeds too. In some cases, it exceeds MovieBob. It’s Twitter, home of the garbage hot-take! If you think the site won’t corrupt you somehow, then you haven’t been paying attention!

While some of MovieBob’s Tweets have angered me, he’s shown the ability to be introspective too. He’s messed up plenty, but he’s also apologized, made amends, been embarrassed by his past views and learned to temper his politics. MovieBob, like all people, isn’t static, and he’s grown as a person since 2009. He still puts his foot in his mouth regularly, but he’s not as bad as he used to be.

MovieBob might have critics on the left and the right, but many of them aren’t saints either. I’ve seen videos and Tweets that’ve tried calling him out, yet have either fallen prey to the same issues they’re calling out, or have done worse. It’s the classic example of, “People in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones”. I also wonder how effective the pushback against him is when it’s ableist, pretentious, or body-shaming in nature, often all three simultaneously. Can’t we do better?

Arguably the biggest issue people have with MovieBob is how much of a “know-it-all” he is. I can’t argue with at, going by some of his comments. But guess what? He’s not alone there! Plenty of more individuals have made remarks that are equally as obnoxious, if not more-so. Some are even people I respect! Besides, MovieBob has the humility to acknowledge his ignorance and refer to experts, which many of his critics lack. If a “know-it-all” is capable of that, then there’s no excuse.

I guess this boils down to critiquing MovieBob honestly. Because so many people, even intelligent ones, don’t know how. And that’s sad. MovieBob’s easy to criticize for many reasons, but those reasons are frequently unmet. It’d be embarrassing if it weren’t upsetting, given the aforementioned.

I’m not saying people shouldn’t criticize MovieBob. You want to call him out? To quote Clint Barton from The Avengers: “Get in line.” But when that criticism lacks intellectual honesty, you might as well be what you hate. And no one wants that.

Besides, if Lindsay Ellis has forgiven him for an admittedly-creepy Tweet he made years ago, even when she had all reasons not to, then we can dial it down on the criticism.

On Difficulty in Video Games...

10 years ago, I wrote an angry rant on ScrewAttack about gaming difficulty. To say it was poorly-received is an understatement. To say the backlash scarred me is an even bigger understatement. Yet I’ve been meaning to re-write that rant for years, being held back by life and my inability to say anything. Since the urge hasn’t dissipated, I guess it’s only fair to write it now.

I’m sure this is no surprise by now, but I’m not good at video games. I’m, honestly, quite terrible at them. Part of that’s because of my learning disability, and part is because I struggle with everything. And while my struggle with gaming varies, that struggling part remains consistent.

I mention this because gamers can be pretty gatekeeper-like. GamerGate, for example, was about keeping games out of the hands of women and “casuals”, despite what you may have heard. But long before that, video games fitting a specific challenge level had been floating around as an idea for decades. It was propagated when I was young, it flourished when I was a teenager, and it finally reached a head as an adult. Even now, 10 years later, the idea that “all games have to be hard” is one that persists. If anything, it’s gotten worse.

It’s always bothered me, too. Why does every video game need to be challenging? Video games aren’t a science, they don’t have to conform to one difficulty. Some games, like the Ninja Gaiden series, might revel in challenge, but others don’t. And there’s a spectrum to challenge in video games, with many varying depending on their objectives.

I know some of you aren’t convinced, and I get it: why would I play a game that isn’t testing me? Why wouldn’t I want to exert that effort? Isn’t half of the reward knowing I’ve persisted? Well, yes…but difficulty’s also subjective. What might be easy for you will probably be difficult for someone else. I should know, I find every video game challenging!

The complaint about every video game these days being “too easy” is based in a lie. There are games out there that are still really challenging. But the claim’s also based in a misunderstanding of older games. You know those classics that gamers always tout as being “incredibly hard”? Most were based on the video game arcade model: they were short, and they were designed to eat quarters. A good arcade game can’t be a cakewalk, it’d disguise its limitations, so it was forced to be difficult. Early console games, therefore, followed suit.

This approach doesn’t work anymore, as video games are big spectacles now. They have in-depth worlds filled with lore, so designing challenge around limitations is no longer feasible. But even if it were, would you want that? You can beat a classic video game in less than a half an hour, assuming you know what you’re doing. The same can’t be said now.

Besides, so many early video games don’t hold up anymore. Remember how I said that older games were short because of their technical limitations? A lot of those limitations also impede their playability now. The Legend of Zelda and Metroid, both ground-breaking in their heyday, have been called “virtually unplayable” because of how unfriendly they are to newcomers. Super Mario 64, one of the most-influential games of the 3D era, is touted as having a similar problem. We can debate this forever, but that doesn’t make the complaints disappear.

I’d much rather a game be “easy” and fun than hard and unenjoyable. So many difficult games push me to my limit and make it hard for me to enjoy them, hence I stop playing them once I beat them (if at all). Conversely, many breezy games, like Yoshi’s Story, I find myself routinely returning to, as their lack of challenge is what makes them welcoming. I know it varies from person-to-person, but for me this approach works!

I think gamers need to stop touting a “perfect difficulty”. I remember that term once being tossed out as a response to my rant, and I strongly disagree. I don’t think a “perfect difficulty” exists. It’s way too subjective, as everyone’s different. What works for one person may not work for another, and that’s okay.

Another claim that needs to be phased-out? “Holding the gamer’s hand.” This gets thrown around a lot now, and it’s misleading. For one, video games are more complex than they used to be, introducing mechanics that weren’t possible in the 80’s and early-90’s. And two, gamers are a bigger group than they used to be. When you factor in both points, it’s inevitable that more information would be needed for new games.

Finally, complaining that gamers “use cheat codes” and “online hints” to help beat modern games is hypocritical. This existed in The NES days too, let’s not kid ourselves! I remember the Game Genie, and how I’d play around with it to get different results. I also remember Nintendo Power, and how that’d give hints and tricks for games you couldn’t beat otherwise. Online might be more readily-available now, but don’t think you can get away with lying about the past!

If it sounds like I’m all-over the place, it’s because I want to be thorough. Yes, a game should be challenging to an extent. Yes, old games were notorious for being hard. But no, that doesn’t mean every game has to follow a uniform standard of difficulty. Insisting that they should is classic gatekeeping, and it makes you sound old. And no one wants that!

Gaming on Strike!

(Note: The following was written about a rapidly-changing situation. Please take any outdated content with a grain of salt.)

Breaking news: the video game branch of SAG-AFTRA might be going on strike.

For those shocked, don’t worry. I didn’t know there were strike talks at all, only that the industry’s struggling with mass-layoffs. That said, considering this is a possibility, I’m intrigued. Video game production’s long and difficult, and the medium’s creators have long gotten the short end of the stick. So this is overdue.

In terms of what the strike entails, it’s really about A.I. That’s what last year’s writer’s and actor’s strikes were about. Yet while that was made public, this has been under the radar due to video game development being more underground. It’s a shame, as video games are a form of artistic expression deserving as much attention as other mass-media art-forms. I support its programmers and artists getting fair treatment, essentially.

It's also worth noting which studios will be impacted: Activision, Blindsight, Disney, EA, Formosa Interactive, Insomniac Games, Take-Two, VoiceWorks and Warner Bros. Some are crossovers of Hollywood studios, like Disney and Warner Bros., but these studios are all huge in the West. No joke! EA, or Electronic Arts, is quite noteworthy in the video gaming world, while Insomniac Games is a Sony subsidiary. These 9 studios comprise a large chunk of the industry, so it’s nice to see some accountability. And trust me, they need it.

I should reiterate that last point. Video games have had an abuse problem for ages. Even before GamerGate, which was disgusting itself, the “niche nerd” mentality has allowed for insular toxicity. Women and minorities have been harassed and threatened constantly, and anyone who’s spoken up has faced scrutiny. Remember the overarching conflict in Free Guy? Where a giant publisher absorbs an indie game and blacklists its programmers? That happens a lot.

Then there’s A.I. and how it harms performers. Like in film and writing, SAG’s video game division wants protections from that. Human hands need to guide A.I., or we’d get hollow imitations of art, and we’re seeing that happen with mass-layoffs in favour of it. Remember, there are talented creators who deserve proper compensation for their time and effort, something they’re not getting right now.

But why stop there? Why not also strike for protections from abuse? The current Activision-Blizzard controversy attests to that behind closed doors, and it’s one example! Though hey, Activision’s one of the 9 companies on this list! Fancy that!

I know it sounds like I’m rambling, but I want to stress how bad the situation is. Video game development burnout’s real, and it’s made many talented people leave. That’s upsetting given that the industry’s worth almost $250 billion, and it’s only expected to grow. For such a powerful juggernaut, you’d want its workers treated properly, right? I’d say so!

Since this is so fresh and surprising, I’ll mention two specific points here. The first is that this is a Western strike. The East has issues too, many of which overlap, but they’re not going on strike. I’m not even sure how they’d handle a strike of this magnitude, but I won’t speculate about something I’m unfamiliar with. Nevertheless, Nintendo, Konami, Capcom and the likes aren’t on the chopping block (yet).

The second is that this is something worth showing solidarity over. Yes, many games will be put on hold. But it’s a small price for a healthy industry. If that bothers you, then take a long, hard look in the mirror. Seriously.

It’s easy to freak out if you’re into video games. The world’s uncertain and scary, and video games provide an escape from that. But like TV and movies, video games aren’t going anywhere. They’ll still be around in 5-10 years, and there are plenty of backlog options right now. You’re not going to “die” if you can’t get the newest video game, not when all three big players have an online catalogue of classic titles available.

Please also remember that getting a video game shouldn’t come at the expense of the well-being of those who made it. I know it’s easy to forget, but game developers are people. And like everyone else, they deserve respect. Many of them aren’t getting that, so shouldn’t that be a priority? Or is basic human dignity not a factor? Because, if so, that says more about consumers than those going on strike.

It’s quite simple to compartmentalize all of this when you’re in gaming mode. I used to be self-centred enough to not care, too. But that was a long time ago. I’ve grown and matured a lot since high school, and I think that’s healthy. Because we should be supportive of the people who make our entertainment, regardless of format, even if we sometimes have to pause our consumption of it. After all, how else can we appreciate something than by standing up for those in the industry? It’s only fair that we reciprocate that passion.