Table of Contents
In the MSM we trust. Here are a few recent highlights:
Pseuds:
IGN on Rings of Power’s Galadriel: “Even in warrior mode, she seemingly effortlessly channels that ethereal elven energy, but not so much that you don’t root for her when she’s arguing with Aramayo’s endlessly charismatic Elrond.”
IGN on Space Marine 2: “Other times you’ll see flying Tyranids swarm through the sky like a murmuration of starlings.”
The Guardian on Rings of Power episode 7: “Did anyone else think of music hall star Sandy Powell and his catchphrase ‘Can you hear me, mother?’ when Theo was wandering around shouting ‘Mother!’ at the start? Maybe the showrunners are fans of British variety from the 30s and 40s?”
Polygon on The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild: “These assumptions and their casual misogyny reveal that particular kinds of gender are a priori to the very land and cosmos of Hyrule — that the Triforce both represents and enshrines the subordination of women to men in the kingdom’s religion, and that courage and power must only be an essential trait of men.”
Polygon on Monkey Man: “When he strikes, it’s with whipcrack fluidity and control, but also emotional conviction — there’s a plausible desperation or rage to the way he moves.”
Eurogamer on Skald: Against the Black Priory: “When you enter the town of Horryn, for example, the scenes of devastation are only made more vivid in how the art abstracts it.”
Eurogamer on Prince Peach: Showtime!: “Honestly, I'm reminded of Valerie Solanas - the radical feminist writer best known for unapologetically shooting Andy Warhol in 1968 - who defined the slimy struggle against patriarchy in her 1967 SCUM manifesto, an instruction manual on eliminating men for the sake of world peace.”
The New York Times on The Bear: “Every experience you ingest, every memory, every hurt becomes part of you, like it or not. You are what you eat. You can internalize the bad stuff until it curdles in your gut and leaves you heaving in the back alley. Or you can externalize it into something new, maybe no longer sweet, but with tang and richness and umami depth. Leave the trauma. Take the cannoli.”
Reliable Sources:
Kotaku on Undead Labs: “One former developer recalled men asking women to take notes during meetings, ignoring their expertise, and even making sexist remarks like, ‘You don’t look as pretty as normal today,’ and ‘I’m surprised a girl like you has this job.’”
Kotaku on Nintendo: “‘It’s usually guys [who get promoted]. They’re usually all friends. They watch the Super Bowl together.’”
Polygon on Dune: Part Two: “The cast members of Dune: Part Two do not like each other, according to people online.”
Polygon on We Have Always Lived in the Forest’s Chantal Ryan: “She described an incident with a promising investor that turned weird when the man became too interested in her personally.”
The Nazis are Coming!:
IGN on Pinocchio: “This is by no means a sanitized version of the story and its antifascist messaging is pretty timely.”
The Guardian on The Fall of Númenor: “Fearful about 2022 and what’s to come? You will find uncomfortable resonances here. They reflect Tolkien’s anxieties about dictatorships and the approach of war when he first developed the story in 1936–7.”
Polygon on Warhammer 40,000: “But according to Aaron Trammell, assistant professor of informatics at UC Irvine, fascism in wargaming is not a new phenomenon, and it will require more than public statements to make the hobby more welcoming and inclusive.”
Oppression Olympics:
PlayStation Universe on Dustborn: “Keeping hope alive in a world that hates you.”
PC Gamer on Dustborn: “Within these familiar trappings is an unabashedly (pop) punk story about queers fighting cops and corporations exploiting workers.”
Polygon on Star Trek: Discovery: “As Captain Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green) approaches an alien planet, she turns to a crewmate and marvels, full of awe, at how the planet has three genders. Except Captain Burnham’s ship, the Discovery, has (at least) three genders represented on board!!! Within that context, that makes Captain Burnham sound like a captain who, at the very best, forgot she has a nonbinary crew member on board, and at worst doesn’t respect that crew member’s gender identity.”
Kotaku on Activision: “The case against Activision Blizzard is proving what many women already knew—misogyny in the industry doesn’t come down to just a few bad apples at a few companies. It’s deeply ingrained in the culture at the heart of how the games business has operated for decades.”
PC Gamer on Baldur’s Gate 3: “People with dwarfism live every day with the prejudice and inconvenience caused by a world unwilling to accommodate them, and I can't know what that's like.”
Polygon on Black Josei Press founder Jamila Rowser: “When we spoke to her earlier this year, she was about to lose her health care and preparing to navigate the Medicare system as a queer Black disabled woman.”
Polygon on Monopoly: ”It’s yet another story of a woman sidelined by the machinations of corporate intrigue.”
Polygon on gaming industry investment: “Investors and publishers spend billions of dollars on the video game industry each year, but just a small fraction of that money goes toward funding game companies led by women and those from other marginalized groups.”
Eurogamer on in-game character creation: “LGBT+ representation is often lacking too, as developers fail to include sufficient pronoun options or tie gender expression to binary choices.”
Deadspin on Spider-Man (PS4): “It’s dumb to expect video games to be responsible reflections of real life, but it is also impossible, for me at least, to not feel some ickiness about the game forcing me into cahoots with even a fictionalized version of the NYPD, an organization that routinely oppresses some of the most vulnerable residents of the city I live in.”
Polygon on asexuality: “Any blueprints for where I might find it or what that love might be instead were a mystery, as I quickly found that asexual representation in media is an absolute travesty.”
OK, Groomer:
Polygon on She-Hulk: “[The] She-Hulk director wanted to make a sex-positive show that kids could also watch.”
Polygon on I was a Teenage Exocolonist: “You play as a colonist on a foreign planet, growing up from age 10 to 20…The game is also unabashedly queer, with numerous romance options, including a number of poly characters — and I imagine I’ll keep playing until I’ve romanced each and every one of them.”
GameDeveloper.com on Harry Potter: “Why do none of the students appear to be attracted to classmates of the same gender? The romantic interests of Harry, Ron, and Hermione dominate books 4-7, but they never speak of any same-sex attraction among them or their friends.”
Hot Takes:
Rock Paper Shotgun on Still Wakes the Deep: “Caz' personal scramble for survival and forgiveness is just one way in which its disturbing tale can be read. It could also be interpreted as the screeching vengeance of a planet being bled dry. As a lament for the worker who is driven to destruction among the pipes and machinery of capital. As the tragedy that comes of a father's abandonment and thoughtlessness. As a dirge for male friendship, a sorrowful acknowledgment that banter and football is a laughably weak social glue, a mere coping mechanism for the passing down of violence.”
The Guardian on One Day in October: “TV and cinematic narratives often work as othering machines in this way. At its worst, One Day in October, if unwittingly, follows the same pattern. All our sympathies are with relatable Israelis. A mother texting farewell messages as she dies from gunshot wounds. A girl sending cute pictures of her playing with friends to her mum, who is cowering in a toilet cubicle, hoping the terrorists she can hear breathing outside can’t hear her. By contrast, Hamas terrorists are a generalised menace on CCTV, their motivations beyond One Day in October’s remit.”
RadioTimes.com on Doctor Who season 14: “As Ncuti Gatwa and Millie Gibson began their first full season on Doctor Who, the show received close to its lowest overnight viewership ratings ever - but, as any fan knows, that's far from the full story.”
Twitch streamer Psyche on Twitch’s Pride Month efforts: “You're having to deal with people who aren't interested in being part of your community so your growth is slower."
Polygon on Taylor Swift fans: “In early November, Swifties in Argentina spoke out against the right-wing political candidate Javier Milei, forming a group called ‘Swifties Against Freedom Advances’ to try and convince other fans not to vote for him. However, in the end it wasn’t enough to move the needle, and he ended up winning.”
Eurogamer on Prince Peach: Showtime!: “Nintendo has historically disparaged womanhood as Peach's biggest liability.”
Polygon on Hasbro: “In a way, those layoffs mirror the story of Monopoly itself, with those who performed the labor of creation becoming disenfranchised from the revenues that would have otherwise rewarded their success.”
Polygon on Monkey Man: “[Dev] Patel is one of the actors most frequently fancast as James Bond.”
TheGamer on gaming: “We deserve more mentally ill protagonists in Triple-A games.”
Toxic Crusaders:
Polygon on Scott Pilgrim vs. the World: “If the past decade has taught us anything at all, it’s that the Nice Guys of the Earth weren’t the cure for what ailed toxic male culture; they were just another symptom of it. Milder, maybe, but just as contagious despite that.”
Vox on House of the Dragon episode 9: “Every episode of this show contains a different thesis about the ways misogyny undermines society, and this week that thesis is ‘look how misogyny turns love toxic.’”
Polygon on Scott Pilgrim vs. the World: “As the franchise prepares to make its return to screen life on Netflix soon, it’s worth asking the question: What does Scott Pilgrim’s fight against toxic masculinity look like in the world of today?”
Fun Police:
The Red Cross on gaming: “Every day, people play games set in conflict zones right from their couch. But right now, armed conflicts are more prevalent than ever. And to the people suffering from their effects, this conflict is not a game. It destroys lives and leaves communities devastated. Therefore, we’re challenging you to play FPS [first-person shooters] by the real Rules of War, to show everyone that even wars have rules—rules which protect humanity on battlefields IRL [in real life].”
The Correct Answer Is…Communism!:
Polygon on gaming industry investment: “Handing out money to underrepresented studio founders to develop games won’t fix the industry’s underlying problems, but it is one potential way to move the needle.”
Polygon on gaming industry investment: “The obvious undercurrent to the industry’s funding problems hinges on an incentive structure that exists in capitalist society. The impulse to grow financially — above all other priorities — doesn’t align with an industry that values workers.”
Gonzos:
Polygon on Undaunted: Stalingrad: “My own personal collection of board games is divided roughly into two halves. On the one side are the dozens of titles that I have distinct memories of playing with my family and friends. On the other side are all my wargames, and very occasionally, I will dust them. That’s why Undaunted: Stalingrad has me perplexed. It’s a wargame that those closest to me might actually enjoy playing because the mechanics are light, fun, and incredibly fast. But it is absolutely a wargame — a gritty little thing with slick mechanics, the rare tactical gem that requires planning in order to succeed. I simply don’t know which side of my collection it should go on. Maybe in the middle?”
Eurogamer on Outer Wilds: “An aside here, but it's important. Our chaise longue is not fancy or vintage, but it does the job. What job? There is something about a chaise longue - stick with me - that makes me feel like Jimmy Stewart. I'm suddenly very aware of my arms and legs and how long and awkward they can seem when arranged like this. I am suddenly all angles and elbows. And, channeling Jimmy Stewart in something like Harvey, I instantly enter the Jimmy Stewart frame of mind, too. I am whimsical all of a sudden, prone to idle thoughts and sudden rabbit holes. It's a pretty nice state to be in.”
Eurogamer on Nobody Wants to Die: “Dragon Age: Inquisition completely caught me off guard, with NPC reactions to my Qunari Inquisitor feeling way too close to my experiences as a very visible trans woman.”
Freudian Slips:
IGN on freelancing opportunities: “We’re always on the lookout for original left of center stories.”
The Guardian on journalism appointments: “We have a huge global team of climate writers around the world and have recently appointed an extreme weather correspondent.”
Overhead Projector:
The New York Times on Little Women author Louisa May Alcott: “All this leads me to wonder: Is Alcott best understood as a trans man?”
Never Enough:
Polygon on The Acolyte episode 4: “In The Acolyte, Osha only asks about Bazil’s pronouns, not those of any of the other people she meets. This reveals more about Osha than I think The Acolyte’s writers were intending; the exchange implies she is actively othering Bazil and assuming he (yes, it is later revealed Bazil uses he/him pronouns, which makes all of this even sillier) must be gender-variant because he looks odd to her.”
Polygon on “non-binary” characters: “These examples clearly seem to be the result of showrunners and writers who mean well and want to be inclusive, but stumble along the way. It ends up othering nonbinary and genderqueer people even more when you consider which characters get placed in that position, and when other characters ask about pronouns.”
PC Gamer on Hogwart’s Legacy: “The game also includes a trans character, although the choice has been criticized as ‘performative’.”
It’s the Climate Apocalypse, Stupid:
Polygon on the demise of E3: “There’s also the consideration of the carbon footprint of flying half the industry to California during an escalating climate emergency.”
Polygon on Earthdivers: “In the climate apocalypse of 2112, a group of ‘outcast Indigenous survivors [...] figured out where the world took a sharp turn for the worst: America,’ and hatched a plan to ‘send one of their own on a bloody, one-way mission back to 1492 to kill Christopher Columbus before he reaches the so-called New World.’”
Polygon on Viewfinder: “For this East Coast writer, the choice of the red-tinged sky was made all the more haunting by the ongoing wildfires in Canada and their downstream effects on air quality across the Eastern Seaboard. Also brought to mind were the images of the day the sky turned orange in San Francisco in 2020. This is all to say: Viewfinder is sci-fi, but nearer to realism than one might want to acknowledge.”
What’s Love Got To Do With It?:
Eurogamer on Grand Theft Auto VI: “This is Florida, where a former president now lives and where he once stored nuclear secrets in - what was it? A spare bathroom? Yes, all of that.”
Polygon on Magic:The Gathering: “JD Vance’s favorite Magic: The Gathering card was banned for good reason.”
RockPaperShotgun on Khaligrad: “I was partial to a scrappy little strategy game even before idiot billionaires doomed the planet, and the UK, to brain-steaming heat just when you thought we'd escape it this year.”
Polygon on Tomber Raider Remastered: “Lara is a privileged British explorer plundering ancient artifacts and murdering plenty of wildlife along the way.”
PC Gamer on Palworld: “It's over-committing to the bit, except the bit in this case is, well, abusive labor conditions and animal cruelty.”
PC Gamer on Frances Townsend (Activision Blizzard): “Townsend was a controversial figure before joining Activision Blizzard. In the early 2000s, during the invasion of Iraq, she held the position of Assistant to the President for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism under George W. Bush. The Washington Post reported in 2004 that Townsend toured the infamous Abu Ghraib prison during the height of the US military's torturing of prisoners at the facility. According to the Post, an officer at the prison told US Army investigators that Townsend pressured him to extract more and better information from prisoners in his capacity as head of the Joint Interrogation and Debriefing Center at Abu Ghraib.”
D.I.E.:
Dungeons and Dragons: “While the D&D team is racially, ethnically, gender, and cognitively diverse, we don’t want our marginalized employees to be burdened with the task of reviewing content for cultural competency. That’s why we leverage the expertise of outside cultural consultants.”
Pearl Clutchers:
Ars Technica on Elon Musk’s Twitter takeover: “One Twitter contractor was laid off mid-update to child safety.”
The Guardian on House of the Dragon: “Hopefully it stops featuring gratuitously insensitive childbirth.”
Polygon on Anita Sarkeesian: “Sarkeesian’s first work predated the period of time now called Gamergate — a movement that is now considered a watershed moment in the rise of far-right extremism, a channelling of decades’ worth of bigotry and hatred embedded into systems, platforms, and communities both online and off.”
Polygon on Avatar: The Last Airbender: “The live-action Sokka sexism issue is actually worse than you fear.”
Polygon on Dragon’s Gogma 2: “You’ll even get a sense of other players’ tastes by way of how they’ve customized their own pawns. A lot of them are minimally dressed and showing lots of skin, so be warned if you have delicate sensibilities.”
Game Developer on Activision EVP Lulu Cheng Meservey: “How can one achieve excellence if they don't feel they have the right to advocate for themselves and their coworkers?”
The Haunting:
PC Gamer on Hogwarts Legacy: “I'm impressed by my first 32 hours, but also haunted by JK Rowling.”
Polygon on Viewfinder: “For this East Coast writer, the choice of the red-tinged sky was made all the more haunting by the ongoing wildfires in Canada and their downstream effects on air quality across the Eastern Seaboard. Also brought to mind were the images of the day the sky turned orange in San Francisco in 2020. This is all to say: Viewfinder is sci-fi, but nearer to realism than one might want to acknowledge.”
IGN on Pikmin 4: “More often than not, people play games to escape from the tension of impending deadlines that haunt us in school or work.”
Timeless Pearls:
The Washington Post on the Washington Post: “Democracy Dies In Darkness”
The Guardian on the Guardian: “Always free from commercial or political influence.”
Polygon on Polygon: “As journalists, our responsibility is to bring awareness to systemic injustice, hold the powerful accountable, foster transparency, and provide the public with the information and tools necessary to improve their lives, their workplace, and the world.”
ANTIFA
Submissions very welcome, here.
