The Felicia Day/Destructoid situation

[major_chaos]

This is true, in that he would have never made this comment about a Felix Day who leveraged his Joss Whedon geek cred into voice-acting gigs in games. (You don't see this guy going off on Nolan North or Nathan Fillion, for instance.)

Well he did say Wil Wheaton was "an opportunistic puddle of miscarriage soup" so he is at least partly an equal opportunity asshole.

OT: Yea, guy is an asshole, deserved to be fired, but I really don't get his "so I've been seeing you everywhere" statement. The only things I recognize her from are two video game voice roles, The Guild and an episode of house, and while according to Wikipedia she has been in a fair number of roles, I don't see how she qualifies to be singled out as "everywhere" so it almost seems to me like the Destructoid guy had something against her. (not in any way trying to say what he did was ok, just wondering if there was a motive or if he just has a massive temper issue)

 

[mindlesspuppet]

snip...

regardless of weather or not it was gender related he was being a dick and was out of line...regardless

Being a dick is kind of par for the course on Destructiod.

 

[burningdragoon]

I'm sorry, but what male gamers for example? Most the time male gamers don't have to "prove themselves" because that's pretty much the first thing they did to gain notoriety.

If Yahtzee, Jim Sterling, Toby Turner, TotalBiscuit etc didn't make it painfully apparent they are gamers in the first place no one would know who they are. Hell, it was one of the first things Nathan Barnatt did before the crazy dance videos and he really didn't need to.

So you're saying that anyone who isn't immediately identifiable as a "gamer" must "prove themselves" before talking about or working in games?

AND if that person doesn't meet your arbitrary, meaningless and completely opaque standards you or people like you're get to ask "questions".

I don't want to put words into this particular guy's mouth, but there is a general trend you see in some parts of the "gaming community" where they essentially see people who don't immediately come off as "nerdy" (as defined by various arbitrary behavior/appearance markers) as intruders until proven otherwise. This makes about as much sense to me as readers getting mad at people who read books and don't wear glasses.

You mean I don't have to wear my incognito glasses whenever I'm reading something in public? That's a relief.

 

[Kahunaburger]

This is true, in that he would have never made this comment about a Felix Day who leveraged his Joss Whedon geek cred into voice-acting gigs in games. (You don't see this guy going off on Nolan North or Nathan Fillion, for instance.)

Well he did say Wil Wheaton was "an opportunistic puddle of miscarriage soup" so he is at least partly an equal opportunity asshole.

But in that case, he was:

A) responding to a pretty scathing remark.
B) not using a gendered insult.

So I don't really see it as analogous.

 

[TAdamson]

I'm sorry, but what male gamers for example? Most the time male gamers don't have to "prove themselves" because that's pretty much the first thing they did to gain notoriety.

If Yahtzee, Jim Sterling, Toby Turner, TotalBiscuit etc didn't make it painfully apparent they are gamers in the first place no one would know who they are. Hell, it was one of the first things Nathan Barnatt did before the crazy dance videos and he really didn't need to.

Oh really? Because when I saw the first Jim Sterling or a Yahtzee video I didn't know anything about him? They are just some guy on the internet they could tell you anything. For all you know they could just be looking stuff up on google! They could be just getting someone else to write the reviews!!! (Being sarcastic obviously)

Felicia Day has made it clear she is a gamer so the only problem is whether you believe her or not and clearly you don't just because she happens to have boobs.

May have missed the point. You likely would have never seen Jim Sterling or Yahtzee if, as I already said, they didn't prove themselves to begin with. Maybe when you saw them for the first time you didn't know what to make of them, but that doesn't mean they hadn't been at it for sometime. Many were first exposed to them here on The Escapist, but they had been doing their thing long before that.

How exactly has Felicia Day made it clear shes a gamer? People keep saying this, and acting like The Guild is some kind of proof, but it's not. Gaming is simply the situational basis for a comedy in The Guild, much in the way that actually Fantasy Football is a situational basis for the comedy in The League.

I love how so many people are quick to jump on Ryan Perez as sexist and then say this sort of trite "the only problem is whether you believe her or not and clearly you don't just because she happens to have boobs," with no regard. First of all, Felicia Day has boobs like your average teenage boy has boobs. Secondly, just no, I have issue with her specifically, not an issue with all females prominent in gaming culture.

It's the elitist opinions of people like you that result in us having less women who play games.

Why the fuck does she have to "make it clear shes a gamer"?

And on Ryan Perez: He got fired because he was an unprofessional retard. And by disparaging her her input into gaming culture by suggesting that she "could be considered nothing more than a glorified booth babe", he made himself a sexist unprofessional retard.

If he had just said "I don't think you know what you're talking about" he's still be unprofessional and a retard.

 

[6_Qubed]

Warning: Long post is long.

From Wikipedia, abridged and lightly opinionated for flavor; Felisha Day has been on several TV shows, several web serieseses including Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog, a whole slew of movies I've never heard of, is on the Board of Directors for the International Academy of Web Television, (which sounds impressive) and last but not least voiced a character in at least one popular video game that I liked.

So yes, she is in fact relevant to quite a number of things and interests, (Board of Directors, dude.) it's just that most of them aren't video gaming. It is however unfair to say that she's a "glorified booth babe" (Board of Directors, dude.) just because she hasn't written for or designed a game of her own. Most "famous" video game people haven't. We can't all be Yahtzee, folks. The human population wouldn't last past the current generation.

Felecia Day is an actress, and a geeky one at that, she just also happens through no fault of her own to be a gorgeous redheaded ladyperson. This is not an isolated problem; There is this pervading logic that exists that attractive does not equal intelligent. This is untrue, and here is some algebra to help illustrate the point I'm trying to make;

(Hot =/= Smart) =/= Truth

I've really got to find a "does not equal" button for my keyboard... Anyway! Felicia Day being attractive doesn't detract from her qualification for geekdom, and we've got to get it out of our collective heads that it does. Need a reason? Here's a real simple one; WE'RE SCARING ALL THE HOT GEEKY GIRLS AWAY. You know that girl that you see everyday in where-ever that you want to spend all day talking about Bill Murray movies and that one Skyrim character you made that's based on Bill Murray? She might actually be interested and not want you to know because she'd be in for a world of shit if she admitted geekdom.

I'd like to think, however, that this guy who said these things, if he were not merely posting them on his personal Twitter thing, (I wouldn't say "private" because if he wanted privacy he wouldn't be on fucking Twitter,) if he were actually voicing these questions to Ms. Day, he'd have the presence of mind to word them differently. An example would be "How are you relevant to gaming? What, of merit, have you contributed to the medium? Have you set your sights on any noteworthy video game opportunities?" That's a far better way to ask the question, keeping the directness with none of the hostility, and including an opening for the subject to actually answer the fucking question. Although the big thing to remember here is that he was not actually posing these questions to Felicia Day. He wasn't actually saying them, he was just musing to himself. Personally, I regularly wish death and AIDS on everyone I share the road with, but I don't necessarily want to hurt anyone, I'm just venting frustration. I imagine that's what this guy was doing.

So, to sum up and conclude; No, a person should not be fired for their personal opinion, assuming of course that they can keep it to themselves.

Which this guy couldn't.

 

[V8 Ninja]

At face value I don't see much wrong in those statements. Reword the "Do you matter at all?" statement and I think the statement is fine. I could easily see this as mistaken implications from everybody. However, judging from the rest of Ryan Perez's Twitter messages, I'm going to assume he didn't just forget to carefully craft his words to more accurately get his point across.

at face vaule it kind of implies "women are only in the gming biz because they are attractive"

but ASIDE from that its a real dick move to go around and say "justify yourself to me!"..regardless of weather or not its motivated by gender

I don't see how you're getting that first point (attractive women only existing in the video game industry because they're attractive) from his statements; he pointed out one specific person rather than saying "All women involved in video games are like booth babes!" and he pointed out a practice that involves women rather than pointing to the idea that women involved in video games is some sort of shameless and useless act. On the second point...yeah, that went under my radar.

 

[Ympulse]

Also Felicia Day is quite famous and pretty damn awesome and not very random.

Personally, I've always known her as "that actress chick that nerdbaits"

The only thing she's done in gaming is play a sexed-up lesbian in F:NV (That I'm aware of). THAT is why she's famous.

Frankly, it's embarrassing that a b-level actress is fawned over so much JUST BECAUSE she is a female. for funzies, let's make this a comparison. Vin Diesel, that action movie guy, is an absolute role model and also loves him some D&D. Why does the tabletop gaming community ignore that fact that he exists? If Vinny was an equally "gifted" female and nothing else changed, just how much attention would be thrown his way?

So yes, in closing, FDay is just a nerdbaiting B-level actress with nothing worthwhile in her resume.

OT: Calling her out publicly when you're an intern is a bit stupid, gotta say.

 

[Not G. Ivingname]

Who is Felicia Day and why should we care about what she contributed to gaming or not?

OK, I actually know who she is, but the question stands - how is she connected to video games and all the rest?

She is an actress that has been a voice actor in games (she was Veronica in Fallout New Vegas) and appeared in several gaming related web shows (such as guilds), and noted to be a HUGE nerd (said she is addicted to World of Warcraft).

 

[Vault101]

So, to sum up and conclude; No, a person should not be fired for their personal opinion, assuming of course that they can keep it to themselves.

Which this guy couldn't.

but its not as harmless as a personal opinion...its some dick going out of his way to say to somone "justify yourself to me!"...not saying he deserved that

social media (and the audience) are a fickel thing...and sadly this error of judgment cost him dearly

Being a dick is kind of par for the course on Destructiod.

Point. Do you have one?

 

[J. Mazarin]

Certainly celebrities never take on a public persona to garner a specific audience, I'm sure that never happens...

...And that obviously proves that's exactly what she's doing. Obviously. Because when I want any kind of insight into Ms. Day's mind, I come directly to the Escapist to talk to my good pal Salvan. After all, he knows Felicia's deepest, darkest secrets about how she really doesn't like games at all and is just in it for teh nerd credz.

No but seriously, what you're saying is silly in ways that I'm having a hard time conveying.

So... let's work with this quote here:

Ever think she's acting like a gamer because she's not attractive enough to be a leading lady and not talented enough to be a dramatic actress?

If I was a complete fucking assclown (in addition to having a healthy disdain for you personally), using your logic I could say something along these lines:

"Hey! Hey Escapist! Hey everybody here! You see this mindlesspuppet guy? You see how he wrote some reviews for anime? Well, I think the only reason he did that was because he's too much of a talentless hack to write about news or games. So, in order to get some reviews in, he just acted like he enjoys anime because everyone knows people who like anime are shallow tools who have no taste in writing."

But I would never say something like that, because it would be both rude and incorrect to you and anime fans alike; you know a great deal about anime, and it shows in your writing. In my experience, such a knowledge comes from genuine enjoyment of something.

And that "enjoyment" is what a lot of people feel they share with Felicia; a love of games.

So tell us great one, what information do you have that proves she's just playing up the gaming crowd? Because right now, your argument seems to be "C'mon, she's totally a fraud. Trust me."

But way to comment with no real insight, argument, or anything of value.

That's the majority of posts on these forums, haha. Glad you're not the one in charge.

 

[Evan Waters]

I'm sorry, but what male gamers for example? Most the time male gamers don't have to "prove themselves" because that's pretty much the first thing they did to gain notoriety.

If Yahtzee, Jim Sterling, Toby Turner, TotalBiscuit etc didn't make it painfully apparent they are gamers in the first place no one would know who they are. Hell, it was one of the first things Nathan Barnatt did before the crazy dance videos and he really didn't need to.

So you're saying that anyone who isn't immediately identifiable as a "gamer" must "prove themselves" before talking about or working in games?

AND if that person doesn't meet your arbitrary, meaningless and completely opaque standards you or people like you're get to ask "questions".

Nope not at all.

Remember MTV cribs back in the day? Practically every celebrity talked about playing Xbox with their friends and such, this was fine. None we're going out of their way to be a part of gaming culture, acting like any sort of authority on it, or stating that they played Xbox to increase their fanbase.

So... what? Again, what evidence is this that she's lying about her gamer status?

Also, nah, plenty of talent writers and artists in the gaming industry don't give two shits about gaming -- it's just a job to them.

Jennifer Hale has been in a ton of games because she is an incredibly talented voice actress. She has never pandered to the gaming audience, hell, the first we really heard from her was ala ME.

Felicia Day is significantly less talented, but gets work and featured at expos because of notoriety she gained via gaming communities and her niche audience of gamers that put her on a pedestal because she's "female gamer".

Less talented in your subjective evaluation, you mean. I'm not going to knock on Jennifer Hale, she does very good work (though I'd argue KOTOR was her big breakthrough in the gaming world- of course, she'd done video game VA work before.) But Day's been pretty good in the stuff I've seen her in. She's not undeserving of success. Is this really just resentment that Day gets more or at least comparable press to Hale? Because the latter ain't exactly hurting for job offers either.

 

[Moonlight Butterfly]

Also Felicia Day is quite famous and pretty damn awesome and not very random.

Personally, I've always known her as "that actress chick that nerdbaits"

The only thing she's done in gaming is play a sexed-up lesbian in F:NV (That I'm aware of). THAT is why she's famous.

Frankly, it's embarrassing that a b-level actress is fawned over so much JUST BECAUSE she is a female. for funzies, let's make this a comparison. Vin Diesel, that action movie guy, is an absolute role model and also loves him some D&D. Why does the tabletop gaming community ignore that fact that he exists? If Vinny was an equally "gifted" female and nothing else changed, just how much attention would be thrown his way?

So yes, in closing, FDay is just a nerdbaiting B-level actress with nothing worthwhile in her resume.

OT: Calling her out publicly when you're an intern is a bit stupid, gotta say.

Erm firstly you know I'm a woman right? I'm hardly fawning over her. From what I have seen of her work she is an actress that really gets into gaming and general geekdom just the same as Nathan Fillion. The reason why Vin Diesel doesn't get so much attention along with self professed gamer Megan Fox is because they don't get involved very much. Whereas gaming and geekdom is definitely Felicia's 'thing'

Why do women have to go the extra mile to prove themselves when it comes to gaming while guys are just believed off hand? It's so bloody noxious.

 

[major_chaos]

This is true, in that he would have never made this comment about a Felix Day who leveraged his Joss Whedon geek cred into voice-acting gigs in games. (You don't see this guy going off on Nolan North or Nathan Fillion, for instance.)

Well he did say Wil Wheaton was "an opportunistic puddle of miscarriage soup" so he is at least partly an equal opportunity asshole.

But in that case, he was:

A) responding to a pretty scathing remark.
B) not using a gendered insult.

Fair enough, I was mostly trying to be humorous, as I'm cursed to not be able to take anything %100 serious unless the situation is life threatening. Also that is most certainly the fastest I have ever had someone reply to me, I envy your ability to type quickly.

 

[mindlesspuppet]

snip

Nice knock at her there with the boob comment. Nice to know what really matters to you!.

You brought them up, not me. But, yeah, it was too easy to overlook.

She has mentioned gaming many times in her interviews done specific work for games and this is from her blog

I know, for ME, when I started this road with The Guild, I had NO women to look at who were not wearing bikinis while they gamed. There was no ?relatable? woman/girl figure for me to look to, and that?s why Codex, Clara and Tink are EXACTLY NOT THAT: Because that?s not who I personally gamed with, that bikini-chick. I gamed with moms and angry college students and shut-ins. So to be accused of pandering Girl Gamer, of BEING A CASUAL (whatever the EFF that means)?well, it hurt. But the comments from MY viewers, who didn?t wanna be bullied, that made my night. So thanks to all of you who commented, even if you didn?t like the video, who defended ?casuals? and ?girl gamers?. Whatever label you slap on it, it?s just another way to hate.

So it's down to you whether to believe her or not. Like I said. Just like whether we believe Nathan Fillion or Yahtzee.

Everything in that quote is simply fluff. I could write a similar paragraph as my experience being a female gamer, despite the fact I'm not actually a female. If you've seen interviews with her from expos and such, they don't really play well to her favor when the topic is actually gaming. So yes, I choose not to believe her.

 

[Evan Waters]

Also Felicia Day is quite famous and pretty damn awesome and not very random.

Personally, I've always known her as "that actress chick that nerdbaits"

The only thing she's done in gaming is play a sexed-up lesbian in F:NV (That I'm aware of). THAT is why she's famous.

Frankly, it's embarrassing that a b-level actress is fawned over so much JUST BECAUSE she is a female. for funzies, let's make this a comparison. Vin Diesel, that action movie guy, is an absolute role model and also loves him some D&D. Why does the tabletop gaming community ignore that fact that he exists?

We don't. Dude got to write the intro for an anniversary D&D book and in any gaming forum I've been in, there's a general acknowledgement that Diesel is One Of Us and it's cool that Riddick's a gamer.

Granted, it doesn't lead to him getting much more work but that's because tabletop roleplaying games generally don't have a lot of use for acting professionals.

 

[Mark Hardigan]

What does Ryan Perez add to gaming? Isn't he, and all reviewers, just glorified neck-beards that get paid to spread their useless opinions around on the internet?

See? I, too, can play this game. 1. Pick out something you dislike about someone (apparently with Ryan, it was "it has a vagina") 2. use such thing as a spring board to suggest that person does not add anything to X and therefore is useless. 3. ??? 4. PROFIT!

People like Ryan are nothing short of arrogant neck-beards with nothing better to do than to justify their own existence by demeaning others. At best, his "argument" is just misogynistic ad hominem/feminam.

 

[Kahunaburger]

The only thing she's done in gaming is play a sexed-up lesbian in F:NV (That I'm aware of).

Uh... what? From what I remember of Veronica from FO:NV, she wore monkish robes (and upgraded to power armor, because companions who like to melee with shotgun gauntlets don't do it unprotected on my watch,) talked fast, and had some unresolved differences of opinion with the Brotherhood of steel. Not exactly the first character I'd choose to describe as "sexed-up."

THAT is why she's famous.

It's probably more accurate to say that she's famous because Joss Whedon. See also: Nathan Fillion.

Frankly, it's embarrassing that a b-level actress is fawned over so much

Nerds, man. The B-list is our A-list. No need to bring sex appeal into it.

 

[Vault101]

I don't see how you're getting that first point (attractive women only existing in the video game industry because they're attractive) from his statements; he pointed out one specific person rather than saying "All women involved in video games are like booth babes!" and he pointed out a practice that involves women rather than pointing to the idea that women involved in video games is some sort of shameless and useless act. On the second point...yeah, that went under my radar.

it doesnt matter if it was one specific person, sure theres no way I could say for certain if his comments are gender related.....but its kind of hard not to see it that way, the attitude towards women in the "gaming" comunity is....not exactally what you'd call great

...And that obviously proves that's exactly what she's doing. Obviously. Because when I want any kind of insight into Ms. Day's mind, I come directly to the Escapist to talk to my good pal Salvan. After all, he knows Felicia's deepest, darkest secrets about how she really doesn't like games at all and is just in it for teh nerd credz.

.

I think I once read that stuff like twitter and the internet makes us "feel" closer to people than what we actually are, hence why people are so willing to make assumptions/judgments

 

[Tanis]

'Forced fired because he had an opinion'.

Wow...bonk Destructoid .