Anita Sarkeesian; A Cancer to Both the Feminist and the Gaming Community

As I mentioned in last nights blog entry, I think she is awful, and I have intentions to do several more blogs posts pertaining to some of her ignorant inaccuracies of her video series on YouTube about video games. So here is a more detailed explanation of why I think she is so terrible.

Let’s start with why I think Anita Sarkeesian is a thief. What follows is a screen cap from her KickStarter page showing what her monetary goal is vs. what she actually received from you lovely people and your donations.

Okay so she raised 26.487 times the amount she asked for. Good for her, awesome. Now lets look at another screen cap of her page explaining what the goals were. You will see 4 different groupings stating if this goal is reached, those are the achievements that will be made. You will also see that all of them are listed as “achieved” as she raised such an unreal amount of money.

Okay, sounds good! Now Anita, by when do you plan to deliver this project completed?

Wait a second, it's now June of 2015. So your'e overdue by two and a half years, so let's see the progress you have made.

That’s seven videos. One of those is a “hypothetical game concept” and three of those are extensions of the points you made in previous videos. So really, in two and a half years, you’ve only made three of the games you promised.

Damsel in Distress

Mrs. Male Charcater (which was actually meant to be video number 8)

and Women as Background Decorations (which was actually meant to be number 5)

I know deadlines are hard to meet, but Anita has not even made an attempt here it seems, I think we can agree that’s a little bit ridiculous, and while deadlines may be hard to meet, they can’t be that hard to meet.

The Amazing Atheist is able to upload 12 videos in just two weeks.

Then the other thing I would like to address about her KickStarter is the second stretch goal that says “Let’s Bump up the Production Quality!” because I don’t believe this has been done.

This first picture is a screen cap of one of Anita’s videos that is not a part of her series you donated money to see happen.

And now here is part of her Tropes vs. Women in Video Games series

I don’t know about you, but I’m not seeing any increased production quality. Also I’m not even going to talk about how many people (including myself) vlog for free. (oops I just did though). She literally sits in front of a solid colored background and talks while a picture in picture image displays with some interruption for clips of game footage. Not exactly a $150k project.

So where could all of your money have gone? Maybe into all the artwork and footage in her videos! NOPE wrong again. Neither she nor any team that works for her creates any of the artwork she uses in her videos. She created some but not all of the footage. All of this is taken from random artist or off other people’s let’s play footage. This is taken without permission of the original artist and without even contacting them to inform them of her use and then given no credit. Anita has been caught by one of the artists, and this artist tried to contact her about it as it was a copywriter fan art image. This person has received no response from Anita, despite countless attempts to contact her.

Now this is why I think, all gaming aside, the woman is crooked and no one should continue to support her in any way.

Now from a gaming aspect I’m going to address why I am so bothered by this woman, but I’m not going to pick each of her videos apart just yet because each of her videos will be granted it’s own full length post. So let’s just summarize.

Prior to making her KickStarer she made it known that she wasn’t a fan of video games. The original clip I saw only quoted Sarkeesian so I don't know if that Flight of the Conchords thing was something she actually did or if someone later edited that in but what she said still stands. So my question is this: if you don’t even like or care about video games, why is anyone supposed to put any credit in anything you say regarding the topic?

And here is more the point I’ll be making with my 12 part series of posts addressing the Tropes vs. Women in Gaming videos that will be completed within a year (or 3), all you need to do to see this happen is donate $6k+! Nah just kidding, I actually do plan to dismantle several of her videos though, however I’m not making a promise and I am also doing it for free.

Okay jokes aside, my big problem with the woman is the cherry picking. The information and examples she gives her viewers is not rooted in ANY fact. She completely ignores large chunks of the story or options that allow you to do good or choose an alternative route, refuses to tell viewers that some of the things she’s complaining about you actually have to go out of your way to do such, and she acts like things are mandatory to the game, even if they are optional or in some cases not recommended and discouraged. She’s wildly dishonest because she knows her audience. Most of the people who watch her videos and buy her utter garbage are teenage girls who’s entire knowledge on gaming begins at Facebook games and ends at app games they download to their phone. What we are talking about here are console games. If you don’t play console games, these issues don’t effect you and it’s none of your business.

Okay, for now I am ready to hold my tongue. The rest of this can wait until my first “why are you such a liar” post.