Thread by @javierabegazo

One of the most important talks at #GDC2022

@anitasarkeesian ‘s “It’s been 10 Years Since Tropes Vs. Women in Video Games: What’s Changed?”

Live Tweet 🧵:

@anitasarkeesian:

“In one hand, I hold trauma and fear and anger And then the other hand I hold tremendous and enormous pride at the contribution that trips is made to the shifting tide of games culture.”

@anitasarkeesian:

“proper social decorum tells me to be humble, but I think that in this moment, in this talk in this room at this point in history, I get to say that Tropes opened up a conversation that fundamentally changed this industry for the better.”

Massive applause

@anitasarkeesian:

“This talk was about winning. It's about what we won. And more than that, it's about how much more we have to do. So let's get started.”

#GDC2022

@anitasarkeesian: “It's really it was like a geyser opened and a flood of extremely violent hate spewed forth in ways that I think really startled and frightened us all.”
#GDC2022

@anitasarkeesian: “The fear that female characters will become less objectified less victimized, more humanized more centered in games, and that games as a whole would become less exclusively geared toward the tastes and interests of presumed straight male players —“

@anitasarkeesian: “— with fairly standard patriarchal fantasies was so earth shattering to some people. #GDC2022

@anitasarkeesian: “So when Assassin's Creed Unity came out, people started asking why the game had four male protagonists and one of the devs said something that turned into the meme of women are too hard to animate.” #GDC2022

@anitasarkeesian: noted the bomb threats she received AT GDC #GDC2022

@anitasarkeesian: “I actually see this event as a mark of progress, because, you know, developers have been saying stupid shit like this for years without anyone batting an eye. And also for a long time, journalists had rarely even said asked these kinds of important questions.”

@anitasarkeesian: “Questioning the lack of female representation in games are the ways women were represented by and large just wasn't done. ” #GDC2022

@anitasarkeesian: E3’s Year of the Woman #GDC2022

@anitasarkeesian: “in most years, there were more games that let you play as a car then.” #GDC2022

@anitasarkeesian: “It matters when games give us specific female characters who we have to play as an order to play that game. a limitless pantheon of defined male protagonists, Mario, Link, master chief, Nathan Drake, Marcus Phoenix, Fox McCloud, Kratos, the list goes on ”

@anitasarkeesian: “Strategic butt covering” LOL #GDC2022

@anitasarkeesian: “And then we followed all of that up with a three part series called queer tropes about the history of queer representation in gaming. through it all experienced tremendous resistance, tremendous reactionary hate and harassment. ” #GDC2022

@anitasarkeesian: “We are seeing changes across other entertainment industries, and the larger society as well. Social Media gave rise to voices who were historically silenced.” #GDC2022

@anitasarkeesian: “What we have right now isn't equality. It's not like equality, but it's still enough to enrage the old guard because when you've been used to privilege the quality feels like prejudice.” #GDC2022

@anitasarkeesian: “Did you were one of the people in 2012 who did not understand why I was making videos about misogyny games, or why I would withstand years and years of abuse for that work. but now you do.” #GDC2022

@anitasarkeesian: “So we know the stories about riot + Ubisoft + Activision Blizzard, where CEO Bobby Kotick presided over and directly contributed to a culture of toxicity & gender based harassment + he now stands to make an extra 22mil on top of his already exorbitant income.”

@anitasarkeesian: “because this isn't fundamentally a problem of money, it's a problem of power.” #GDC2022

@anitasarkeesian: “Last week, you learned about some indie studios where abuse is and was and is rampant, and maybe you already knew about them, and maybe you can name a couple other handful of studios where abuse is happening right now.” #GDC2022

@anitasarkeesian: “I like to think of it as an iceberg. Thank you to the people down here who introduced me to this concept. The stories that make the headlines, the most escalated examples like murder, rape and sexual violence. ” #GDC2022

@anitasarkeesian: “That's the bit floating above water, but underneath the surface are all the everyday harms that feel ubiquitous, but not that the problematic jokes and language the stereotypes of microaggressions the verbal threats and harassment, the objectification- #GDC2022

Ahhh there’s so much more to share about this talk.

I’ll revisit this when I have more time so I can share more about what was covered.

It’s so vital that studios and companies watch it.