Mr. Fahey, while I really enjoy your articles and your reporting skills (and your ability to sign karaoke), I sometimes worry the assignments you are given might hurt your well being.
I understand it is your job to report on such things as RPGs and MMOs and the like, but Littlest Pet Shop the MMO? This is frightening not only because of the effects of such a product on little girls, but the effects it might have on a grown man (!) like yourself.
I worry that your usual ramblings about my favorites games might devolve into simple reports like, "It's so kawaii!" or "Cutey-wutsy-licious!" I suspect that your job brings you into contact with games like this all the time, but it's only so long before the Cabbage Patch Kids: Death Lurkers from Eternity the MMO creeps up on you and steals you away from Kotaku, Mr. Fahey.
So from all your starving fans (or not so starving as the case may be), please, Mike: don't give into the darling lil' puppies and kittens and horsies and giraffies.
@Yossarian: Well, it's not the signing you're thinking of. This type of sign requires poster board, Sharpies, and pretty handwriting.
Glitter Sharpies are preferred - they best communicate Madonna- and Cyndi Lauper-style karaoke. The sparklies remind most viewers of 80's pop music stars.
If MMO's are going to be degraded to this kind of evil then the world is falling to pieces. Next you'll probably deal with Barbies shopping MMO with the worlds largest pinkest girliest nightmare fueled mall. Dear god helps us all.
@mitch_93: As a father of young girls, I'll support this just because it *isn't* Bratz, or Hannah Montana, or Barbie.
Stupid as it may be, at least it is about cute virtual animals (and their plush real life counterparts), and NOT about unrealistic portrayals of women/tweeners where materialism rules all.
@D-K, Oh sheeple..: They're 10, 5, and 3 (and the 10 year old isn't around much), so that might skew a little old. I'll be keeping that on my radar as well, though.
Kotaku pointing out and deriding another publication for their sexist treatment of women is probably the most laughable thing I've read all day. If you don't like it when other people do it, perhaps you should stop doing it yourself and people would take you more seriously.
Oh, and to some of the commenters - if you think sexism is ok because it's popularly accepted as a part of a country's culture... that means you are a sexist too.
@NowhereGirl: Looks like it's "play the heel" week for me.
Whatever happened to "the thoughts and opinions of the writers and readers expressed are the ones responsible for content, and are the sole opinion of the commenter. Kotaku (and it's readers) may or may not share the opinions expressed herein.
tim rogers is one writer. There are other writers. each, like us, have varying opinions.
Soldier_CLE says DON'T STOP AT THE STAR! REVOKE THE WHOLE DAMN THING, OWEN!!! was starred
Soldier_CLE says DON'T STOP AT THE STAR! REVOKE THE WHOLE DAMN THING, OWEN!!! was unstarred
Don't take this the wrong way, but this is the most sensationalist piece of bullshit I've ever seen published on this website, and that's saying a lot.
I knew Kotaku was hard up for writers when I saw the contest, but this is fucking ridiculous. And when you say something LITERALLY says something, try to put up an accurate translation. æ–°é‹ doesn'T mean "first-timer", it means "promising", "cutting-edge", or "up and coming."
If you want to talk about sexism, feel free to talk about the doe-eyed lolita centerfolds, fuck this flamebait bullshit about an article highlighting a woman's role in game development.
No offense, but you are a fucking tool. bye kotaku.
I am humored to see people getting touchy about an article from an authority on gaming (ARGUABLY *THE* AUTHORITY ON GAMING) that is posted on a gaming site!
Let me ask you this, if you are REALLY THAT OFFENDED, how do you stand the other websites? We're you offended with this year's American Election?
Soldier_CLE says DON'T STOP AT THE STAR! REVOKE THE WHOLE DAMN THING, OWEN!!! was starred
Soldier_CLE says DON'T STOP AT THE STAR! REVOKE THE WHOLE DAMN THING, OWEN!!! was unstarred
@The Amazing Exploding-Man: But where do you draw the line? That's the dilemma. "It's okay to treat group X like Y, because it's their culture." Would you let the encourage the practice of genital mutilation in a given group, because it's their culture? Do you let a mother and child die, because it is their culture not to accept help in childbirth from doctors who are standing by waiting to help? It is too easy to excuse everything we perceive as injustice as "projecting our version of justice onto others." There being no singular form of justness or rightness anywhere, you're always going to end up projecting your version onto someone else's. Always. And that leaves you with messy situations.
For you to say it's not okay, yup, you're projecting your idea of right and wrong onto someone else. But you're only ever going to get subjective ideas re: right and wrong. Maybe in Japan it's commonplace to treat women like second-class citizens and, on occasion, little better than pets. But if you step up and excuse this based on cultural precedent, you're allowing a whole slew of questionable, deprecatory practices to continue, with that logic.
Why am I not surprised? Oh, because since coming here I've seen around 20 women grovel at the feet of their male overseers. And been spat on. That was yesterday. That was fun, let me tell you.
I don't see it being possible to come as a woman raised in more woman-friendly traditions (at least in law and theory) and not leave this place deeply embittered. Between having the office females dress up as sextoy elves for the Christmas party while the fully- and regularly-dressed males got to get drunk and watch, and listening to my formerly more-or-less decent human being colleagues collapse into sexist modes of speech and manner they would never have dared use at home, in English, it's kind of a grim place to be.
No doubt rabid apologists are heaping up in the comment section even as I type, and I normally would try and reign in the snideness for the sake of my blood pressure and civil discourse. But what's the use in discourse? Japan does not care what we think. Nor should it. Japan is Japan, and we don't have to like it. But I don't feel called upon to forgive it, the culture, the state of affairs, for producing ridiculous circumstances such as these. Not going to march or ring bells or sell dumb t-shirts or try and convert other females to my cause over it--I have no cause!--but not going to quiver in self-appointed Guardian of Japan fury either.
Jade Raymond doesn't matter. Gaming mags in Hong Kong, Pittsburgh or that rag you xeroxed 20 copies of at Kinko's when you were 14 don't matter. They referenced her by her sex. They should have referenced her by her damn name.
@svetlana: I think the very violent (and red) reference by gender was meant to grab the readers' attentions rather than to put women down. We do stuff like this in America, too. "First ever woman to do xxxxxx!" It's not meant to offend or be sexist, it's meant to get people reading.
Yes, I still think it's terribly annoying that people do that, but I doubt it's done in a derogatory manner. Most people still get really excited when they realize women can do what men can.
@stovebot: "Most people still get really excited when they realize women can do what men can."
...they do? seriously? that's immensely sad. i would think by this point we'd know better than that. practically the only things men can do that i can't is pee freely and lift very heavy objects.
i'd love to see five hundred years in the future. i'd really like to know what the global gender climate will be like.
@svetlana: I'm nominating this for comment of the week. I agree, and even if I didn't, it was written so damn intelligently that it'd still deserve the spot. Your writing is better then tim rogers'.
10/01/09
So yeah cut the hourglass thing and tell how much it is for the full night.
10/01/09
10/01/09
10/01/09
10/01/09
They are all way out of proportion.
10/01/09
10/01/09
Damn night shifts again..
10/01/09
10/01/09
10/01/09
10/01/09
I understand it is your job to report on such things as RPGs and MMOs and the like, but Littlest Pet Shop the MMO? This is frightening not only because of the effects of such a product on little girls, but the effects it might have on a grown man (!) like yourself.
I worry that your usual ramblings about my favorites games might devolve into simple reports like, "It's so kawaii!" or "Cutey-wutsy-licious!" I suspect that your job brings you into contact with games like this all the time, but it's only so long before the Cabbage Patch Kids: Death Lurkers from Eternity the MMO creeps up on you and steals you away from Kotaku, Mr. Fahey.
So from all your starving fans (or not so starving as the case may be), please, Mike: don't give into the darling lil' puppies and kittens and horsies and giraffies.
10/01/09
10/01/09
Glitter Sharpies are preferred - they best communicate Madonna- and Cyndi Lauper-style karaoke. The sparklies remind most viewers of 80's pop music stars.
10/01/09
10/01/09
10/01/09
Stupid as it may be, at least it is about cute virtual animals (and their plush real life counterparts), and NOT about unrealistic portrayals of women/tweeners where materialism rules all.
10/01/09
LPS lets kids have a fun time with cute animals. Bratz teaches kids how to look like mini-sluts.
10/01/09
10/01/09
10/01/09
10/01/09
10/01/09
I now get to look forward to my weekends spent helping my girls figure out how to play this.
I'd just pretend it didn't exist and never tell them about it, but then I'd feel guilty, blah blah blah...
12/19/08
"Female Candidate for Vice President!"
"Female Candidate for President!"
"Female Secretary of State!"
12/19/08
Oh, and to some of the commenters - if you think sexism is ok because it's popularly accepted as a part of a country's culture... that means you are a sexist too.
12/19/08
Whatever happened to "the thoughts and opinions of the writers and readers expressed are the ones responsible for content, and are the sole opinion of the commenter. Kotaku (and it's readers) may or may not share the opinions expressed herein.
tim rogers is one writer. There are other writers. each, like us, have varying opinions.
Did we somehow manage to forget this?
12/19/08
I knew Kotaku was hard up for writers when I saw the contest, but this is fucking ridiculous. And when you say something LITERALLY says something, try to put up an accurate translation. æ–°é‹ doesn'T mean "first-timer", it means "promising", "cutting-edge", or "up and coming."
If you want to talk about sexism, feel free to talk about the doe-eyed lolita centerfolds, fuck this flamebait bullshit about an article highlighting a woman's role in game development.
No offense, but you are a fucking tool. bye kotaku.
12/19/08
I am humored to see people getting touchy about an article from an authority on gaming (ARGUABLY *THE* AUTHORITY ON GAMING) that is posted on a gaming site!
Let me ask you this, if you are REALLY THAT OFFENDED, how do you stand the other websites? We're you offended with this year's American Election?
By your logic, you should be.
12/19/08
12/19/08
Regardless, this is taking something out of another culture and putting it in negative western context for a cheap article. This is also shameful.
12/20/08
For you to say it's not okay, yup, you're projecting your idea of right and wrong onto someone else. But you're only ever going to get subjective ideas re: right and wrong. Maybe in Japan it's commonplace to treat women like second-class citizens and, on occasion, little better than pets. But if you step up and excuse this based on cultural precedent, you're allowing a whole slew of questionable, deprecatory practices to continue, with that logic.
It isn't that easy.
12/19/08
12/19/08
I don't see it being possible to come as a woman raised in more woman-friendly traditions (at least in law and theory) and not leave this place deeply embittered. Between having the office females dress up as sextoy elves for the Christmas party while the fully- and regularly-dressed males got to get drunk and watch, and listening to my formerly more-or-less decent human being colleagues collapse into sexist modes of speech and manner they would never have dared use at home, in English, it's kind of a grim place to be.
No doubt rabid apologists are heaping up in the comment section even as I type, and I normally would try and reign in the snideness for the sake of my blood pressure and civil discourse. But what's the use in discourse? Japan does not care what we think. Nor should it. Japan is Japan, and we don't have to like it. But I don't feel called upon to forgive it, the culture, the state of affairs, for producing ridiculous circumstances such as these. Not going to march or ring bells or sell dumb t-shirts or try and convert other females to my cause over it--I have no cause!--but not going to quiver in self-appointed Guardian of Japan fury either.
Jade Raymond doesn't matter. Gaming mags in Hong Kong, Pittsburgh or that rag you xeroxed 20 copies of at Kinko's when you were 14 don't matter. They referenced her by her sex. They should have referenced her by her damn name.
12/19/08
Yes, I still think it's terribly annoying that people do that, but I doubt it's done in a derogatory manner. Most people still get really excited when they realize women can do what men can.
12/19/08
...they do? seriously? that's immensely sad. i would think by this point we'd know better than that. practically the only things men can do that i can't is pee freely and lift very heavy objects.
i'd love to see five hundred years in the future. i'd really like to know what the global gender climate will be like.
12/19/08
12/20/08
12/19/08
because nobody could stop me no matter how funny they looked at me.
12/19/08
oh yeah, and gimme my magazine, chauvinist! :P