Any good game/general geek sites that dont moan about sexism/racism/homophobia?

[RavingSturm]

A lot of onionskins reacting to a simple request for referrals. Ugh! (Slithers back in portal leading into....)

 

[Teoes]

I can't believe this thread is still going.

Has the question been answered yet? Or better still, has the OP provided some tangible examples of the types of reviews he doesn't want to read?

Yep, still going. Nope, no answers given. Nope, OP hasn't provided any examples of what he doesn't want - I've asked too..

Edit: well.. there's been some answers given. My bad.

A lot of onionskins reacting to a simple request for referrals. Ugh! (Slithers back in portal leading into....)

This has already been discussed - it wasn't a simple request though was it? OP was needlessly dismissive/combative, so people responded in kind. He dun brung it on hi'self.

 

[Abomination]

or another example (and this is a hypothetical I made up on the fly) lets say we have an action flick where manly mcShoot comes home to find his love interest has been raped, wherein he goes on a bloody path of revenge and kills everyone, at the end his love interest jumps into his arms and they make sweet post credits love..the end

so whats the problem there? rape is bad yes? and the movie says rape is bad doesn't it?

it does except when we really look at it its really full of issues. The main one being is that love interest isn't treated as a person her rape was merely a plot device, we don't see how SHE feels, what her experience of rape is, she has no voice. We only see how it relates to HIM, the rape was merely a device to get him to go on a violent killing spree (also subtly feeding into that old old idea that the rage comes not from her welfare but from the "damage" of his "property") not only that but by the end she's "fine" implying its something she can just "get over" [sub/]though on that note the problem there is implying that rape is the ame for everyone, that your damaged forever ect hence why current ideas on sexual assult are harmful, and why the perspectives of women both real and fictional are important[/sub]

See, that's the projection of a bias. According to me he's pissed someone would harm someone he loves in such a manner and found the action abhorrent. Rape bad. Rapists bad. Revenge!

I also believe anything can be used as a plot device and in doing so it doesn't "feed" into an idea unless it's one you already hold. Call me crazy, but a movie about how a rape victim deals with the emotions of the event isn't going to sell as many tickets as one about a guy (or girl) avenging her.

What does the movie intend on being? By your description it's an action flick wherein a fellow beats/kills the living shit out of a bunch of irredeemable degenerates. You judge it based on the action scenes, fight chirography, special effects and camera work. A plot device isn't a message, it's just a plot device. Nothing more, nothing less.

When I want a review of an action movie I want it to tell me about the ACTION in the MOVIE.

OR, of course, you could read into it showing how men are base repulsive or violent creatures.

Intention is oh so significant when it comes to judging a piece of art. I'm not going to talk about how a hammer has issues because it's claw performed poorly as a screw driver and stripped the baring from my screws.

 

[Vault101]

[snip]See, that's the projection of a bias. According to me he's pissed someone would harm someone he loves in such a manner and found the action abhorrent. Rape bad. Rapists bad. Revenge!

yeah thats the intention and how its read but my point still stands, there's still a lot of problematic shit there when looked at through a critical eye

again most of the crap you see is for the most part [i/]unintentional[/i] because its a product of our society and our society has issues with women, or if not that the fact that male characters usually get the spotlight more often than not, I can list the dumb archtypes women often get shoved into but we'd be here all day

[quote/]I also believe anything can be used as a plot device[/quote]
yes but that doesn't mean it can't be fucked up royally especially when made by people who lack a certain perspective...see also: the rape scene in Show Girls which mabye not the *most* offensive thing ever was completely nonsensical

[quote/]and in doing so it doesn't "feed" into an idea unless it's one you already hold.[/quote]
whatever ideas one holds will come through via framing, and even then it doesn't nessicarlyl makes somone overly sexist it just might mean x never occurred to them

[quote/]Call me crazy, but a movie about how a rape victim deals with the emotions of the event isn't going to sell as many tickets as one about a guy (or girl) avenging her.[/quote]
we can get into genres/quality/whatsells/the really annoying way people worship capitalism when it suits them later because this point is both vague irrelevant and quite frankly disingenuous

[quote/]What does the movie intend on being? By your description it's an action flick wherein a fellow beats/kills the living shit out of a bunch of irredeemable degenerates. You judge it based on the action scenes, fight chirography, special effects and camera work. A plot device isn't a message, it's just a plot device. Nothing more, nothing less.

When I want a review of an action movie I want it to tell me about the ACTION in the MOVIE.
[/quote]
these things are not irrelevant

[i/]"I don't want nun ah that thinkin in muh mo-shun pictcha's cuz thinkin ain't waht ah go to thuh mo-shun piccha's for"[/i] <-much like the acceptance of capitalism this is something people ONLY do when somone brings up sexism, you can';t just claim something isn't supposed to be thought about to absolve it of criticism, much like "its a joke" or "satire" are not "get out of criticism free" cards

yes people enjoy dumb shit all the time and YES people judge something for what it is, Everobody loves raymond is a dumb American sitcom but its actually funny for a dumb American sitcom....and it ALSO skirts the line on some tired BS old gender stuff,

if I want to call Everbody loves raymond or dumb action movie sexist [b/]then they are perfectly valid critcisms to make[/b] ESPECIALLY considering both of these things can be considered big cultural fixtures so damn fucking right they are worth anaylyisis and criticism and appealing to the fact theyre "just x" is disingenuous at best and willful ignorance at worst

 

[Abomination]

[snip]See, that's the projection of a bias. According to me he's pissed someone would harm someone he loves in such a manner and found the action abhorrent. Rape bad. Rapists bad. Revenge!

yeah thats the intention and how its read but my point still stands, there's still a lot of problematic shit there when looked at through a critical eye

again most of the crap you see is for the most part [i/]unintentional[/i] because its a product of our society and our society has issues with women, or if not that the fact that male characters usually get the spotlight more often than not, I can list the dumb archtypes women often get shoved into but we'd be here all day

And I in turn could do the same with men. But that's the thing - everything, by those standards of a "critical eye" is sexist/racist.

[quote/]I also believe anything can be used as a plot device

yes but that doesn't mean it can't be fucked up royally especially when made by people who lack a certain perspective...see also: the rape scene in Show Girls which mabye not the *most* offensive thing ever was completely nonsensical [/quote]What perspective do they lack? It's a hypothetical revenge flick we're talking about here. Just because a rape occurs does not mean that rape is somehow acceptable, washed away, not considered or anything of the sort. It just means a rape happened to the main character's spouse and it enraged him. To jump to the conclusion that it's because she's his "property" should be backed by showing him treat her as property - otherwise it's just confirmation bias.

and in doing so it doesn't "feed" into an idea unless it's one you already hold.

whatever ideas one holds will come through via framing, and even then it doesn't nessicarlyl makes somone overly sexist it just might mean x never occurred to them

No, the ideas are already held by the viewer but you are right in how the media can be framed determines a lot. But unless it's framed in a way one shouldn't assume the worst of intentions/messages when there are viable alternatives also available. It's possible to just say "not enough proof either way" before condemning a piece of media as racist/sexist.

Call me crazy, but a movie about how a rape victim deals with the emotions of the event isn't going to sell as many tickets as one about a guy (or girl) avenging her.

we can get into genres/quality/whatsells/the really annoying way people worship capitalism when it suits them later because this point is both vague irrelevant and quite frankly disingenuous

It's hardly irrelevant since it's the primary function of action flicks - make money. They're not art pieces, it's about getting bums on seats and sales at the ticket counter. It's about watching a man inflict righteous vengeance upon a bunch of other men for daring to harm an individual he holds dear. It's possible to be protective without being possessive.

What does the movie intend on being? By your description it's an action flick wherein a fellow beats/kills the living shit out of a bunch of irredeemable degenerates. You judge it based on the action scenes, fight chirography, special effects and camera work. A plot device isn't a message, it's just a plot device. Nothing more, nothing less.

When I want a review of an action movie I want it to tell me about the ACTION in the MOVIE.

these things are not irrelevant

[i/]"I don't want nun ah that thinkin in muh mo-shun pictcha's cuz thinkin ain't waht ah go to thuh mo-shun piccha's for"[/i] <-much like the acceptance of capitalism this is something people ONLY do when somone brings up sexism, you can';t just claim something isn't supposed to be thought about to absolve it of criticism, much like "its a joke" or "satire" are not "get out of criticism free" cards

I don't know, is Michelangelo's David the worship of the superior male form? Is it just the art of human sculpture? A feat of trade application? It's also possible to criticize incorrectly - especially when one is condemning media as sexist/racist.

yes people enjoy dumb shit all the time and YES people judge something for what it is, Everobody loves raymond is a dumb American sitcom but its actually funny for a dumb American sitcom....and it ALSO skirts the line on some tired BS old gender stuff,

if I want to call Everbody loves raymond or dumb action movie sexist [b/]then they are perfectly valid critcisms to make[/b] ESPECIALLY considering both of these things can be considered big cultural fixtures so damn fucking right they are worth anaylyisis and criticism and appealing to the fact theyre "just x" is disingenuous at best and willful ignorance at worst

I would say the shoe is on the other foot. You don't go to Burger King expecting a gourmet meal and you don't go into an action flick expecting it to deliver a message as to acceptable gender roles.

Bad things happening to women isn't sexist. Men doing good things isn't sexist. Neither is the opposite.

These are stories, reflections of society. Tropes maybe, containing adult content possibly and can cause discomfort in some viewers probably... but it's NOT sexist by any reasonable definition of the word.

There is no message that what is happening is expected of particular genders.

Was John Wick sexist?

 

[Flibbertigibbet]

Just use the GGBlocker chrome extension. When it redirects to archive today you know the site is tagged as "problematic"

The reason why the "problematic" reviews issue is so obnoxious is because those people never have legitimate complaints, it boils down to dishonest pushing of agendas, basically propaganda no one wants shoved down their throats. If something really is "problematic" I expect proof, and basically every time they have nothing other than the fact that they are offended based on their own ignorant view of the world, and that doesn't add value to any discussion. Its just the new puritanical/religious fundamentalist mindset which cloaks itself under the guise of being "socially aware", when they are just the busy bodies who have existed in one form or another in every decade... the whole "I worry about violence/sexuality" having an affect on you is the new "I pray for your soul"...

Have you heard about the word? The word of god? Do you want to be saved?

Have you heard about the word? The word of feminism? Do you want to be saved?

Have you heard about the word? The word of social justice? Do you want to be saved?


Its no surprise that most of the media outlets which do resort to such "problematic" reviews pushing their "socially aware" agendas are themselves staffed by one type of person, mostly white people of a certain type, diversity is never something that they actually practice for themselves...

 

[Sexual Harassment Panda]

Websites? Don't know about websites. I have some youtube channels that I take with varying amounts of salt.

- Worth A Buy

- Gggmanlives

- Elder-Geek

- TB (largely for the technical information)

Maybe give them a try.

 

[Dr. Crawver]

Oh...this thread again. Looks like it's been pretty gone over though, so I'll just sigh at the fact that these sorts of threads keep popping up.

Honestly the first post nailed it. You're not going to get it because games don't exist in a cultural vacuum, and these issues, while not important to you, are important to others.

 

[Dr. Crawver]

Frankly, I'm amazed. Where do you guys get your reviews from to have such an oversaturation of politics and social issues in reviews? I have to really go out of my way to find such commentary, in nearly all cases reviews treat games as objects, not discussing any artistic themes, underlying messages or politics but just listing down functionality and at best a synopsis of the plot with "uh, the twist at the end is 100/8 bacons" or "I liked/disliked it".

But bayonetta 2 didn't get a perfect review that one time and the reviewer said he thought it was sexist, therefore corrupt SJWs.

Or something like that, I dunno. Whenever people then start talking about points being docked off I wholeheartedly switch off. I rarely look at the score of a review, I care more about the words inside it.

 

[MrFalconfly]

Hell her gameplay vid, showed her, going out of her way to kill those strippers. Something no other player ever did.

... How do you know that? How the fuck do you know if "no other player ever did" that?

I researched.

I watched other people's playthroughs, other people's Let's Plays.

Conclusion regarding the usual clientèle, of the Hitman games: They are perfectionists who want to go through the game efficiently, and with as low a bodycount as possible.

And just because a game gives you the freedom to be a prick, or fuck up, doesn't mean it's sexist. Especially not when the player does something that's counter to the design and implementation of a level (killing innocent bystanders, whom you are there to help).

 

[MrFalconfly]

@MrFalconfly (because quoting is broken for me atm)

I did that.

Your research is invalidated.

On a more serious note: Oh boy, really? A few lets play videos of people who most likely completed the game multiple times and did this exact thing you claim they didn't?

Your evidence and research into it is shit. Easy as that.

And you behaving like the mother of all bellends in a game, means that the game promotes bellend-behaviour?

Sorry mate, I don't see it like that.

At the most such behaviour only puts a mark on you, the player, and not the game.

Let me rewind back to this sequence in the game. Why would the players kill those bystanders (strippers)? What would they get out of it? What would motivate the killing of the very people you are meant to help?

There's literally no reason to kill those bystanders except for maybe trying to force a point that the game might harbour "problematic" content, and even then it only showcases that the player is an arse of such titanic proportions that a fart would result in the entire East Coast being flattened.

 

[Pseudonym]

Maybe if you can give a single good reason why discussions of racism, sexism and homophobia are "pointless bullshit" in the context of videogames,

Because racism, sexism and homophobia have no effect on the gameplay, which is the most important part of a video game.

Yes, I played through all of Mass Effect, Spec Ops: the line, Bastion, Fallout 3 and NV, the stanley parable and plenty of other games for their gameplay. It had nothing to do with the story, the music, the graphics and art, the message or anything else. The medium of videogames is entirely onedimensional and determined by gameplay. The only thing that matters is the gameplay. And anyone who doesn't agree with me on that needs to be boycotted until they see games in the same shallow way I do. So everyone can walk in lockstep behind me. Cool story, brah.

 

[MrFalconfly]

@MrFalconfly:

All fine and dandy but your rant is irrelevant to the issue at hand.

You claimed that no player ever did that. I quote you:

Something no other player ever did.

It is a very bold claim that can be easily demonstrated false by doing that. Your evidence is flimsy at best and I called you out on it.

Everything else is irrelevant and defensive ranting on your side.

Alright, that one is on me.

Of cause, nothing is ever categorically true (unless it's math).

But statistically the vast majority, will not kill bystanders, but I can't answer for the idiots who think going Jack the Ripper is the objective.

However that still doesn't make the game sexist. It makes the offending players utter bastards.

Just like you don't call a Ferrari dangerous, because the driver crashed it. It was the driver who was "dangerous".

 

[MrFalconfly]

@MrFalconfly:

Well, there is plenty to argue that the dev created this scenario with the rules of the game had all kind of experimentation in mind. The devs know that players in the games like to do both, murder everyone and do silent runs. So I 'get' the assessment that the player is invited to do all kind of crazy shit to those NPCs (like every other in the game).

Does this make the game sexist? Not really. I have yet to see people claiming that the game as a whole is sexist but I can understand how this part is problematic, like I understand how one particular scene in the "Son of Batman" is a prime example of toxic masculinity and sexism (against men) but this still does not influence the rest of the movie.

Is the dev sexist? Not really. Well, not in a way I'd call 'sexist'. In nearly all cases where one would try to ascribe "fault" to a problem one would not try and blame the dev but society, point that out and hope that people learn. This ties with my issue above: While I was baffled as to why one would ever write such a scene I knew the answer: Because males are supposed to like sex and the rape of males is mostly used as a punchline. The writer at the end is just a part of the chain leading to the actual issue.

Overall I'm glad you took that one iffy statement back, you can feel free to quantify the amount of players that done that, I myself won't even attempt to do that one.

I won't discuss this any further until my forum interface works properly. It is a pain in the ass to only see one line of the text I write, I have no fucking clue how the formatting will be and I don't want to PM anymore that I answered to people.

Well, I've always said that when shown to be wrong I'll gladly admit it, and if possible make an errata.

I might be a stubborn bastard, but I try my damnedest to at least be truthful, and/or accurate.

 

[Phasmal]

I ma sorry but most of that information you saw in the ABC interview about video games and nerd was fucking shit.

I am sorry but all the news outlets calling gamers fat nerd who dwell in basements does drive people away from there sites.

Spoiler: U wot mate

Please tell me more about these mysterious creatures called gamers! Clearly I have no experience with them outside of a video you've decided that has informed all my opinions.

Never mind that I literally mentioned nothing about gamers except to say that some of them are women.
Not sure why you felt the need to quote me at all.

 

[KingsGambit_v1legacy]

I've found myself more recently frequenting metacritic for my reviews. Bringing up a given title usually results in multiple reviews from different sites and I'll pick a positive one, a moderate one and if those two aren't enough, another in the hopes of clarifying/confirming the first two. I occasionally read the negative ones but not often.

The nice thing about this method is that since my sources are "random" and from sites I wouldn't otherwise frequent it's often fairly easy to build a picture of a game and its mechanics and I can't really recall encountering much, if any, social crusading on issues I don't care about and have no interest in in the context of a game.

In fairness, I'm rarely interested in AAA these days. I have no interest in military shooters, anything (re)released annually, generic third-person action-adventures and the rest, and its those titles that come under the most scrutiny by SJWs, white knights, feminists and their ilk. That or I've simply been lucky that the games I do play are either overlooked or approved by them, else have nothing about which they might complain (eg. Racing, space sims, etc)

 

[The Lunatic]

Amusing that this thread never seemed to evolve beyond the "Stop wanting choices" phase.

As for myself? Well, honestly, I don't frequent many review sites.

I mostly take a lot of information in from word of mouth and that kind of thing.

Steam Curators are a pretty good option, assuming you're subscribed to the right people.

That, or there's always 4chan, which really isn't as bad as people seem to think. It's just an internet forum really.

Obviously just by visiting the Escapist forum, I tangentially pick up on a lot of Escapist stuff too. So, yeah, Escapist isn't too bad honestly, a lot of the more "Social" people of the site went the way of the dodo recently, which, I find odd, but, it does reduce the amount of that kind of content.

 

[Erttheking]

Amusing that this thread never seemed to evolve beyond the "Stop wanting choices" phase.

Eh, I have a hard time looking at it that way. The OP never really said anything along the lines of "I want choices", he didn't say "I just want a politically neutral review site." It was him saying he didn't want to listen to people "moaning" about sexism racism and homophobia. And since a lot of people on this website talk about those things, it pretty much came across as him calling him moaners.

Word choice matters.

 

[Ishal]

I want news about games/movies/comics, I don't give a shit about whether or not something is 'problematic'.

Are there any major sites that keep this shit out of their reviews, previews and basic discussions? I don't want to give ad revenue to any company that thinks these things are relevant in the discussion of video games, tv shows or comics or whatever.

I found a decent smaller site that I've taken a liking to, OP.

It's called TechRaptor. Look it up. They do some good work and have some pretty insightful writers from what I've seen so far. Given that I just built a gaming PC. I've been able to jump in to more of their articles since they're now relevant to me.

 

[weirdee]

You're basically asking for people to compartmentalize when untraumatized human brain activity consists entirely of interconnected thoughts, feelings, and memories, and even if they never made direct mention of them, it'd still show in the work anyway. If you can't shut out the concepts you don't like reading or thinking about by your own effort, what makes you think that it's easy for everybody else to do it for you, for basically free? If anything, the main reason why it's so prevalent now is that it was largely suppressed in the past, and to continue doing so would probably ruin everything for everybody, including you, in the long run, when that bigger dam cracks. The closest thing you could achieve would be willfully lying to yourself and surrounding that with other people corroborating that lie, and if you want that, you know exactly where to find it, and what kind of people would resort to it.

The only place where something could exist without any influence from nearby sources or historical events would be outside this universe. To feel sorry for yourself, to be subjected to the expressions of other people, is a direct consequence of prior events that EVERYBODY in this community feels, not just you, and many others have had it worse. Feel free to join the circle of lies, but know that doing so, you are actively contributing to the problem that is currently nagging at you. Or look at the thing you dread, address it, and help to drive it out of our lives completely, by resolving it. Then you will have the peace you seek.