The Felicia Day/Destructoid situation

[FieryTrainwreck]

Self-publishing through Facebook and Twitter does and should have consequences. You can't make such outrageously unpopular comments when your job depends entirely on drawing popular interest. Destructoid had no choice.

 

[kyogen]

Perez' question carries undercurrents of sexism because it implies that he thinks any woman who works on the public/promotional side of the games industry is nothing more than a pretty face and an empty smile handing out cheap swag to drooling men and boys.

But it doesn't. It carries a whole river of implications directed at Day and only Day. If you want to explain exactly how his tweets carry "undercurrents of sexism" then please go ahead, but I doubt anything valid will come out of it.

It's another case of people seeing sexism when they want to see it and ignoring it when it's actually present, but inconvenient for them.

I already explained why there are undercurrents of sexism. Perez' comments and question refuse to address the quality of any specific part of Day's work (which would have been professional) while simultaneously implying that any woman acting and writing on behalf of the games industry is nothing more than an empty sex object. Since he doesn't direct such comments at a male actor, and since there is no significant "booth dude" phenomenon, the result is an undercurrent of gender-specific hostility in his overt ignorance and lack of professional sense. You're free to disagree, obviously.

I don't think that perceptions of sexism--real or imagined--are the main problem for Destructoid, however. The problem for them is that one of their contributors clumsily provoked an internet dust-up and then continued to make it worse by publicly insulting people who criticized his remarks rather than explaining his point of view and attempting to salvage the situation in any way.

 

[Weealzabob]

Snip

Actually, yes, it is. If your personal conduct reflects badly on your employer, then they're well within their rights to let you go. Had he not followed up the way he did - his comments to Wheaton, for example, he may have had a chance to make amends, do a "mea culpa" and had it all go away. But instead he chose to act like a petulant child, refusing to show an ounce of contrition or regret for the way he handled himself. If your boss tells you that you screwed up, your first response should be "How would you like me to fix it?" not to crank everything up to 11.

He made a hotheaded decision and unfortunately chose to have his meltdown in public. Destructoid made the right call cutting him loose. He needs to grow up a bit before he tries to do this as a living.

Well fair enough. I don't have any real knowledge about the procedure for dealing with an employee going off the rails in such a manner.

Anyway the guy may be the complete dickhead he seems too be, and despite any of his excuses he invited this situation on himself, (If you can sign into twitter, write those opinions down with correct spelling and punctuation, you don't have the defense of being drunk.) and I still think it sucks that he got fired.

 

[Fappy]

T'all ya fine dandies, prancin' aboot with yer heads full of eyeballs:

Felicia Day does voice acting. Or at least she voiced Veronica in New Vegas (and did a pretty good job in my opinion). That's "contributing to gaming" in a completely literal sense.
Is she a good actress? Fuck if I know. Is she pretty? Well, it's really not my business what people find pretty. But the guy was factually incorrect about her.

Really? That's what counts as "contributing" nowadays, doing a bit of voice acting?

Technically yes. Anyone listed in a game's credits contributed in some sense... except maybe some of the "Special Thanks" listings.

 

[everythingbeeps]

T'all ya fine dandies, prancin' aboot with yer heads full of eyeballs:

Felicia Day does voice acting. Or at least she voiced Veronica in New Vegas (and did a pretty good job in my opinion). That's "contributing to gaming" in a completely literal sense.
Is she a good actress? Fuck if I know. Is she pretty? Well, it's really not my business what people find pretty. But the guy was factually incorrect about her.

Really? That's what counts as "contributing" nowadays, doing a bit of voice acting?

Yes.

Doing voice acting contributes. She also did the voice for a character in the last Dragon Age 2 DLC, and that wasn't a few lines.

She's almost certainly going to do more voice acting. So unless you're suggesting that someone needs a minimum of five games voice-acted in order to have "contributed", you have nothing to stand on.

 

[sethisjimmy]

T'all ya fine dandies, prancin' aboot with yer heads full of eyeballs:

Felicia Day does voice acting. Or at least she voiced Veronica in New Vegas (and did a pretty good job in my opinion). That's "contributing to gaming" in a completely literal sense.
Is she a good actress? Fuck if I know. Is she pretty? Well, it's really not my business what people find pretty. But the guy was factually incorrect about her.

Really? That's what counts as "contributing" nowadays, doing a bit of voice acting?

Technically yes. Anyone listed in a game's credits contributed in some sense... except maybe some of the "Special Thanks" listings.

What drives the point home even more is that Perez didn't do anything like that, he simply wrote ABOUT games, never actually contributing to them.

Either way I think it doesn't matter. Who cares what you do or don't contribute, if you like video games and want to be a part of them in some way, I don't see why you should have to justify every "contribution" you've made to the industry.

 

[Fappy]

T'all ya fine dandies, prancin' aboot with yer heads full of eyeballs:

Felicia Day does voice acting. Or at least she voiced Veronica in New Vegas (and did a pretty good job in my opinion). That's "contributing to gaming" in a completely literal sense.
Is she a good actress? Fuck if I know. Is she pretty? Well, it's really not my business what people find pretty. But the guy was factually incorrect about her.

Really? That's what counts as "contributing" nowadays, doing a bit of voice acting?

Technically yes. Anyone listed in a game's credits contributed in some sense... except maybe some of the "Special Thanks" listings.

What drives the point home even more is that Perez didn't do anything like that, he simply wrote ABOUT games, never actually contributing to them.

Either way I think it doesn't matter. Who cares what you do or don't contribute, if you like video games and want to be a part of them in some way, I don't see why you should have to justify every "contribution" you've made to the industry.

Apparently he was under the impression that he was having a popularity contest with Felicia Day.

 

[drummond13]

Felicia Day is a geeky actress who plays video games. When has she ever claimed to be anything more than that?

 

[J. Mazarin]

snip

Again:

"You keep bringing up Sterling for no real reason. He's obviously worth something to Dtoid, Perez obviously isn't. Not too hard to comprehend."

He was fired because he stirred up shit without being important enough to keep. Could've easily been avoided if he'd have just sticked to making coffee like he was supposed to.

 

[Sangreal Gothcraft]

I have a question, may sound dumb..but who the FUCK is Felicia Day?

 

[Eyelicker]

Or...it's someone questioning someone's perceived over-representation in a medium, and nowhere near as one sided as you put it. I'm sure he knew about her and her contributions, and felt sick off seeing her so much in place of people he felt were more deserving. This is his opinion, no matter how inflammatory it obviously is, and he has the right to express it.

You like metal, so I'll give you this analogy: It would be more like a journalist questioning the relavance of the chick who plays keyboard for Bleeding Through, who was over represented as fuck a few years ago, and interviewed everywhere, despite playing nothing but simple as fuck parts. Your Nergal analogy would hold up if it was directed at Gabe Newell, but not here.

That's just the thing though, Felicia Day isn't over represented in the gaming community. Never has been. I didn't even know who the hell she was until Dr. Horrible's Sing-along Blog came out. The simple fact is she is not over represented.
And the journalist wasn't expressing an opinion. He called her a glorified piece of eye candy. Or did you think booth babes actually did something else? Felicia Day does quite a bit in the gaming community. So no, it's not the same as a sub par keyboardist.

"I don't know who someone is"
"Therefore she isn't over represented"

And how the hell isn't that expressing an opinion?

And quite a bit =/= a couple of voice parts and some youtube videos, as well as pushing an annoying "GRRL GAMER XD" persona. And even then the only real "contribution" is the voice parts.

I liked you more when you were shoving irrelevant Polish black metal down my throat.

 

[Ragsnstitches]

Technically yes. Anyone listed in a game's credits contributed in some sense... except maybe some of the "Special Thanks" listings.

She contributed to a game, not the gaming "industry". There's a big difference. She didn't improve the pitiful working conditions developers have to suffer, she didn't fight for gamer rights, she did jack fucking shit apart from getting a couple of jobs because of her popularity, that's it.

Doing voice acting contributes. She also did the voice for a character in the last Dragon Age 2 DLC, and that wasn't a few lines.

See above. Unless, that is, you're suggesting Jessica Chobot also contributed to "ze vydia industreh" because if you are, this discussion is over.

Oh right, so what is the Game industry?

 

[sethisjimmy]

Technically yes. Anyone listed in a game's credits contributed in some sense... except maybe some of the "Special Thanks" listings.

She contributed to a game, not the gaming "industry". There's a big difference. She didn't improve the pitiful working conditions developers have to suffer, she didn't fight for gamer rights, she did jack fucking shit apart from getting a couple of jobs because of her popularity, that's it.

Doing voice acting contributes. She also did the voice for a character in the last Dragon Age 2 DLC, and that wasn't a few lines.

See above. Unless, that is, you're suggesting Jessica Chobot also contributed to "ze vydia industreh" because if you are, this discussion is over.

As if everyone whoever contributed to the game industry does that. What a joke. Game developers themselves hardly even do that.

 

[itsthesheppy]

Technically yes. Anyone listed in a game's credits contributed in some sense... except maybe some of the "Special Thanks" listings.

She contributed to a game, not the gaming "industry". There's a big difference. She didn't improve the pitiful working conditions developers have to suffer, she didn't fight for gamer rights, she did jack fucking shit apart from getting a couple of jobs because of her popularity, that's it.

Doing voice acting contributes. She also did the voice for a character in the last Dragon Age 2 DLC, and that wasn't a few lines.

See above. Unless, that is, you're suggesting Jessica Chobot also contributed to "ze vydia industreh" because if you are, this discussion is over.

As if everyone whoever contributed to the game industry does that. What a joke. Game developers themselves hardly even do that.

As far as I'm concerned, the guy who empties out the trash bins in the cubicles at night contributes more to the industry than our friend Percy here, who may very well represent a negative contribution level.

 

[Idlemessiah]

Many roles. TV mini-star. The Guild (short series), VA work (New Vegas, Guild Wars 2), 10+ years acting history on Imdb. Lot more talent and brains than spiteful shlub.

Hssst. Nature of opinion debatable but irrelevant when failing basic qualification of profession. Suggest he make hats instead. /Mordin

I was just cruising through threads, and then BAM! Salarian logic. Love it.

OT: Yeah, Day hasn't done much specifically for gaming as a general medium, some VA and The Guild. So what? Do you say that about EVERY VA who's had only a few roles? No. Oh but because they're more famous than you? Riiiight.

I agree with an earier post which said something along the lines of "Why would you call somebody out to explain their existence to you."

I think this whole thing smells of jealousy.

 

[Techno Squidgy]

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?

I didn't know her by name, so I looked her up. It's Dr Marten from A Town Called Eureka! I'm not sure what she has to do with videogames but you know, surely any game she's in she's improved.