Apparently Davis Aurini is capable of sometimes telling the truth.
As you may recall, the bald, semi-Nazi stain on humanity released his version of The Sarkeesian Effect (that was officially not his version of The Sarkeesian Effect) last week to something less than universal acclaim, with one critic describing the “film” as “worse than a dead squirrel in your wall.”
Ok, that was me.
Weirdly, it turns out that Aurini actually agrees with some of my criticisms. While still maintaining that his not-version of The Sarkeesian Effect is a “damn good film,” he admitted on a livestream last night that the section of his film critiquing Anita Sarkeesian’s alleged lies was “crap.”
He then suggested it would have been much better … if he’d actually watched Sarkeesian’s videos.
Yep. He spent a year — and tens of thousands of dollars of other people’s money — ostensibly making a film about Sarkeesian. But somehow he never got around to watching any of her videos.
ETHICS!
You can hear the whole segment on “Bechtloff’s Saturday Night Livestream: Secret Crisis of the Infinity Hour” on Youtube here. (The link should take you to the relevant portion of the livestrean, which starts just short of an hour and twenty minutes in.)
Here are the highlights.
In this first clip, Aurini responds to someone with a question about his attacks on Sarkeesian’s alleged dishonesty.
This clip ends a bit abruptly because Aurini was cut off by Bechtloff before finishing his sentence. Luckily, he went on to elaborate on his point. And threw in in a racial slur while he was at it, because why not?
And here he admits he didn’t bother to watch Sarkeesian’s videos.
It’s about ethics in making an entire film about someone without actually knowing anything about them.
EDITED TO ADD:
We Hunted the Mammoth has obtained this footage of Davis Aurini as a child.
H/T — Thanks to the alert reader who pointed me to the relevant section of the livestream.
@Orion
In extension, the examples she gives are pervasive in many, many games. A huge majority. They are, indeed, tired tropes and lazy writing that games shouldn’t rely on as much. Many movies, books and TV shows do the same things, and they are criticized for it, and games, being just as a legitimate of an art form, should be criticized for being tropy as all get out too, which is what Anita Sarkeesian is doing.
This isn’t to ruin video games but to get them from overusing boring, cliche stories and shortcuts. People deserve more than the same story or set pieces with the same characters presented a slightly different way.
Of course, Call of Duty, the iPhone of video games (or is the iPhone the CoD of phones?) is pretty popular still after, what, a dozen games? Maybe people don’t mind being fed the same thing with a slightly updated graphics every time?
Ugh, those were proven false/staged so many times! You stupid feminists! Everyone knows that, so citation not needed! /s
Another thing to note is that GGers want video games to be taken seriously as an art form, but don’t want any of the legitimate and academic criticism that can come from that.
They just want to have their cake and eat it too. They want to be taken seriously as “gamers” and they want games to be considered legitimate art forms instead of children’s toys or mindless distractions, but they can’t break the childish habit of throwing a tantrum any time one of their precious favorites is criticized* thus setting games (and gamers) back twenty years. No one is taking, or will take us seriously because of these assholes and their hatred of anyone telling them that their games aren’t perfect and can do better. They are becoming what people see when they hear the word “gamer”.
Leah Alexander was right though, “Gamers are dead”. There’s so much diversity in who is playing games that it makes no sense anymore to try and identify ourselves as “gamers”, especially now that the term is connected to such toxicity.
I used to think differently though. I always figured “gamer” could become a term for someone who was really passionate about games, like a “bookworm” or a “movie buff”. But now…leave the title to the maggots who want to cling to it for all I care. They’ve killed it for me.
I’m still going to play games. I’m still going to love games, and I’m still going to continue to follow the gaming world. I’m just going to avoid the roaring river of outdated sewage that is GG.
*They’ll say they don’t want their games being ‘policed’ by feminists and what-have-you and they just want ‘objective reviews’, which makes no sense in such a subjective kind of medium where everyone’s experience is different. Jim Sterling proved why it’s a silly idea with his 100% Objective Review of Final Fantasy XIII as an example.
@kupo
There was a single time when a single unidentified protester pulled the fire alarm at a feminist-critical lecture led by a woman in Toronto, delaying it temporarily. Which now means feminism as a whole is guilty of doing things “like pulling fire alarms” whenever men try to talk about their own issues.
There was also the other thing with the Warren Farrel CAFE lecture being temporarily barred by protesters but seriously fuck Warren Farrell.
@Kupo
Hell, there’re people I’ve come across who act like reading more than two sentences may as well be a pilgrimage to Mecca. Weird how these same people will nonetheless think watching a repetitive, hour-long video of people ranting isn’t so arduous (’cause they agree with it already)…
Nor surprised that Aruni never watcher her videos – though it wouldn’t be surprising if that goes for most of her “critics.” Even if they do, they either completely missed the point or use incredibly tortured logic as to why her pointing out sexism is somehow wrong. It isn’t like she’s being inflammatory nor does she use any of her examples inaccurately. The fact she has to clarify that she’s not claiming these games are bad because of those issues is absurd, because you’d think that’d be obvious. You can obviously still like something and still dislike some aspect or another of it – but GGers and their ilk seem to have an all-or-nothing attitude about it. Plus, honestly, they all sound as if reading from the same script.
Arthur Gies and Carolyn Petite did incredibly positive reviews for The Witcher 3 and GTA5, but they got backlash for even bothering to point out how some elements came off as misogynistic. They didn’t say it ruined the game – just that it was a flaw. Everything, in some way, has flaws and pointing them out shouldn’t be treated with such hostility. Unfortunately, I see it more and more these days in online discussions.
I’ve always wondered why microwavable food has “Contents will be hot after heating” written on it – What Is A Man has given me my answer.
@Paradoxy:
I agree with your second clause here, but not with the first. I don’t think they actually do want video games to be taken seriously as an art form. They say they do, don’t get me wrong, but that’s because they don’t actually understand what an art form is. They think art is something people venerate without trying to understand, not something that people interpret and discuss.
As you say, fuck them. I stopped identifying as a gamer during that period too. Now I’m just a person who, like most people, has some video games as part of his mix of hobbies.
Y’know, if MRAs as a whole had a better grasp on how language works, their “Arguments” could be zen koans.
– Creature who demands that other people be forbidden to criticize him or anything he likes, while simultaneously claiming to be a warrior for free speech, and who will in addition interrupt every internet comment thread with tedious whining about how people aren’t paying enough attention to his boner.
– What is a man?
@EJ (TOO): That’s kind of what I said though. They say they want games to be taken as seriously as other forms of art, but they aren’t willing to allow people to critique it as such beyond “Frame rate drops” and “Controls don’t work as they should”, which is bullshit, because as I said earlier, games are fucking subjective by nature.
They want games to be taken as an art form, but they don’t want all the “bad” things that go with that, like critique and academic discussion.
Here’s a post I read a while back from an archivist who says that GG has pretty much set their profession back to “not a serious thing to archive”.
Since no one is taking games seriously anymore because of GG, they’re either achieving their goal of ruining games for everyone but them, or they’re not achieving their “goal” of making people take games seriously. So, I think you’re right, they really don’t care if games are considered art or not, they just want to make noise and have it sound like it’s coming from a rational adult.
Sorry if this doesn’t make sense, I’m tired and really should be in bed
playing DuoLingo to up my French scorewatching YouTube videossleeping.Also, slightly more on topic: GamerGhazi is discussing the same thing we are, and they were linked to this very article!
Hi GamerGhazi people! [waves]
@IP
beepbeepbee
Judges? … correct. I would have also accepted ‘eloli’, ‘Ruprect’, or ‘whatever the other guys’ name is’. You have control of the board.
@Paradoxical, it seems we are in the same boat tonight! I am gonna be a mess tomorrow.
Tomorrow, I’m going to make some roast pork for dinner, but I’m also going to attempt to make some bacon and curry okonomiyaki, because I found a simple recipe for curry-flavored ones on YouTube, and the same channel had a simple recipe for the sauce.
I would try mayo on it, but we only have gross light mayo, and we certainly don’t have any good Japanese mayo.
roast pork sounds lovely – i just looked up okonomiyaki, it sounds fantastic! I have been increasingly nauseous and unwell over the past couple of days, myself, so food in general has not been my friend, but savoury designer pancakes sound pretty darn good overall.
Have you ever tried making your own mayo? it is worth trying once, if you have a food processor and a bit of time. Hard to do by hand, but it is a vital ingredient of a Regular Ordinary Swedish Meal Time. It’s good for you!
@Paradoxy:
Trufax. You should go to bed and
make sure your crops are properly wateredsleep.It’s been said before, but I think a lot of the #GG fear of video games being taken seriously comes from an atavistic memory of Jack Thompson. Back then, the gaming community defended itself by insisting that games had no effect on their audience and were just a silly meaningless toy. Nowadays, that mantra has come to limit the development of video games as a genuine and meaningful art form, but they keep repeating it out of fear of the Big Scary Bogeyman.
They’re pathetic, of course, but they’re genuinely terrified; and like all terrified people they can do a lot of harm to those they mistake for enemies.
It’s probably apocryphal but supposedly mayonnaise originated when the British and French were fighting at Mahon and the French cooks knocked up a sauce with the only ingredients available.
(That’s the same battle where admiral Byng was executed leading to Voltaire’s quote about “to encourage the others”)
@Scented Fucking Hard Chairs
Those warning labels are only useful if someone reads them.
Kind of like scientific papers.
Misogyny and sexism in games may not be the cause of misogyny and sexism, but are symptoms of them.
However, it seems likely rehearsing such attitudes and fantasies doesn’t do any good, and probably reinforce them.
Much as this article would suggest:
@proudfootz The name Carol Tarvis rang a bell. A bit of Google and I find she’s the co-author of “Mistakes were made but not by me”, which is an awesome book. Looks like I have to add ”Anger: The Misunderstood Emotion,” to the stack waiting to be read.
Tavris also wrote The Mismeasure of Woman, which I think is a really important book to help us get how pervasive the idea that ‘men are people, women are women’ is.
Like any antifeminist YouTube twit has watched a single Fem Frequency video. I’m willing to bet not a single GamerGrumper watched them, either, yet places like KiA won’t shut the hell up about it.
Bunch of hypocrites. The lot of them.
Everyone has done a lovely job of mocking What is a Man and his Incredible Dancing Goalposts, for which I thank you all. But this was the part of his first comment that made me laugh out loud.
“Even assuming?” You mean, even taking Aurini at his own word? Our new friend WiaM has such a healthy sense of skepticism that he apparently believes there’s some room for doubt on this point. “Hey, maybe he watched the videos 5 times each! You don’t know!! People lie all the time, okay? But hey, for the sake of argument, let’s assume he’s not making things up to make himself look bad.”
“Misogyny and sexism in games may not be the cause of misogyny and sexism, but are symptoms of them.
However, it seems likely rehearsing such attitudes and fantasies doesn’t do any good, and probably reinforce them.”
prior to Gamergate, I had fully convinced myself that the fact school shooters are sometimes shooter-games obsessed was fully coincidental, because no way could games cause bad behavior, because I like games and please dont take my games away.
GG was precisely what convinced me that the messages in games can probably reinforced or make worse bad ideas in at least some people. I just dont think its a coincidence that people who consume a lot of bigoted & violent messages in media, coupled with perhaps getting those messages in their general circle and not hearing other messages countering it, act out violently on bigoted beliefs in life. Gaming culture clearly spawned a sub culture of bigoted violence that went beyond edgelord shit-talking. We may not have scientific proof, so I cant be fully certain, but its enough for me to be wary, at least.
“was a single time when a single unidentified protester pulled the fire alarm at a feminist-critical lecture led by a woman in Toronto, delaying it temporarily. Which now means feminism as a whole is guilty of doing things “like pulling fire alarms” whenever men try to talk about their own issues.”
except they werent there to discuss men’s issues, they were there as an anti-woman hate group. Which is why dude’s whole premise is a false equivalency anyway. Women have every right and reason to want to shut down hate groups. You will never hear of, say, an all-men-only AA meeting being shut down by wasscally feminists.
“Hey Aurini, if you dont like Anita’s vids, dont watch them!
…wait…
I’m not into computer games and I only know about the people referenced peripherally through posts here; but this article gave me a sense of déjà vu. And now I’ve remembered why….
http://youtu.be/Mp_EArT4H_E