@Tenmar.
Oh that guy. I made it half way through his video last time.
However, I will agree with you in principle that it is important to play the game or at least have watched enough of other people playing it that you have a solid understanding of the game. (For instance, I have never played C&C 4 for myself, but I watched over the should of my brother who was in Beta enough that I could write exactly what is wrong about the game and why I had zero interest in buying it.) My defence of using let's play video clips is premised on having some sort of working knowledge of the game. And as far as story is concerned, I would actually include just sitting down and watching a Let's Play. I feel like I have a pretty good idea of the story of Legend of Link simply after watching Day9 play through it. I couldn't talk about the game controls and handling so much. But I could discuss major story concepts.
As to the clip between 9:10 and 11:47. I have a slightly hard time commentating on that as I lack context myself. I don't remember the original sequence of Sarkeesian's video and I don't know what clips preceded the Deadlight clips because although Repzion says there are other prisoners, he actually didn't show that part. So it's hard to make an accurate comment on it. But I would say based on what he has shown (which should be sufficient given that he was trying to provide the full context), then while he has a point, Sarkeesian's use of the clip is still fair game.
Based on the context Repzion provided, it was a 2 second clip as part of a montage. Already, his argument is an overly strenuous argument where she was quite clearly glancing over several games, but not giving them a full treatment. Were she to focus on Deadlight, I suspect we might hear a more nuanced view, but Repzion is asking for a detailed explanation for every montage and that won't work short of making a 5 hours vod. I think that is an unreasonable explanation and no I don't think that montages should therefore be dropped. There is a specific purpose to the montages, but they should not be interpreted outside of its purpose- we can always just have more videos.
But based on the full context of the clip that Repzion showed, then yes I agree it is more nuanced, but Sarkeesian's use of the clip was still actually fair use and legitimate. Remember Repzion wanted to show context. The context he showed was that the game focused on the stripping of a woman. There might have been other people, but Repzion didn't show it and the extended scene certainly didn't focus on them. So, yes there were more. But the focus was a woman. Now I assume the woman was a major character which would be the reason the 'camera' follows her. But that still plays directly into her hand that these tropes are all over the place- the one point of the montage.
Was it wrong of Deadlight to do so? No. And in many cases individual games have internal logic and justification for what they have and ought not to be changed. But it is a piece of a much larger puzzle and I think Sarkeesian's argument isn't that any one game is at fault so much how endemic it is in virtually every game. Not the individual game's treatement, but its prevalence. The inclusion of the clip from Deadlight isn't to show that Deadlight is this horrible, horrible game and that it needs to be changed. Rather what she is talking about is everywhere. Some to greater degree and others to lesser. From what I see Deadlight is on the lesser end, but it is still a piece (a very small piece) of the puzzle.
