I can STILL hear SDCC from here.
Jul. 29th, 2009 11:50 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kyburgEA Games SO PW0ND...'Win For Sin' Runner-up? Oh, a guy. VERY much a guy. JUST NOT THEIR GUY.
While I'm grateful for the team 'randomly' choosing me as one of the runners-up for your #Lust contest, it seems as though the internet has once again made it difficult to relay tongue-in-cheek humor to the desired recipients. I became aware of your contest through one of the many blogs decrying it. I think the contest was somewhat sexist, misogynist, and exploitive, especially since you were sending fans upon ANY booth babe at SDCC; however, as a gay man, I also saw this PR stunt as missed opportunity that resulted in what appears to be a narrow minded view as to what your game's audience can truly be. While I'm not sure if it was intentional or not, this stunt projected a view of your target demographic as lustful heterosexual males, when in reality a larger and larger portion of the gaming population are women and LGBT people.
Funny thing is, just last weekend in the Bay Area, EA corporate put on an event with GLAAD [www.glaad.org] in which they were discussing homophobia in online communities. One of the major points brought up was that many game publishers/developers still have this "boys club" idea of who buys and plays their games. The truth is that there are many people out there that don't care to be in that type of boys club (as I'm sure you notice from all the negative tweets you got) and dislike that stereotype being thrown in their faces.
From that viewpoint, I sent in my photo of me with a burly man that I took at PAX last year as a humorous portrayal of how your contest is not only misogynistic and demeaning to the women that attended the conventions, but also to anyone that doesn't follow the hetero-normative ideal. I know booth babes (and guys) get paid to man those booths and deal with gawkers, but there are also PR, production, and development people at those booths caught in the crossfire of dealing with people trying to do "acts of lust" with them to win your contest.
And then he suggests what they can do with their $240.
(Hat tip to![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
neintales. Oh very yes, I'd do his taxes. And make him cannoli.)
While I'm grateful for the team 'randomly' choosing me as one of the runners-up for your #Lust contest, it seems as though the internet has once again made it difficult to relay tongue-in-cheek humor to the desired recipients. I became aware of your contest through one of the many blogs decrying it. I think the contest was somewhat sexist, misogynist, and exploitive, especially since you were sending fans upon ANY booth babe at SDCC; however, as a gay man, I also saw this PR stunt as missed opportunity that resulted in what appears to be a narrow minded view as to what your game's audience can truly be. While I'm not sure if it was intentional or not, this stunt projected a view of your target demographic as lustful heterosexual males, when in reality a larger and larger portion of the gaming population are women and LGBT people.
Funny thing is, just last weekend in the Bay Area, EA corporate put on an event with GLAAD [www.glaad.org] in which they were discussing homophobia in online communities. One of the major points brought up was that many game publishers/developers still have this "boys club" idea of who buys and plays their games. The truth is that there are many people out there that don't care to be in that type of boys club (as I'm sure you notice from all the negative tweets you got) and dislike that stereotype being thrown in their faces.
From that viewpoint, I sent in my photo of me with a burly man that I took at PAX last year as a humorous portrayal of how your contest is not only misogynistic and demeaning to the women that attended the conventions, but also to anyone that doesn't follow the hetero-normative ideal. I know booth babes (and guys) get paid to man those booths and deal with gawkers, but there are also PR, production, and development people at those booths caught in the crossfire of dealing with people trying to do "acts of lust" with them to win your contest.
And then he suggests what they can do with their $240.
(Hat tip to
neintales. Oh very yes, I'd do his taxes. And make him cannoli.)
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no subject
Date: 2009-07-29 08:28 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-07-29 09:11 pm (UTC)So's your LJ name, by the way. Awesome, that is :D
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Date: 2009-07-29 08:54 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-07-29 10:43 pm (UTC)