VH1 Game Break Stuns Kotaku Geek
Not that I'm trying to start beef, following the Kotaku vs. IGN incident, but VH1's Game Break has a post up sharply criticizing Kotaku's treatment of women, and referencing a Michael McWhertor post from last weekend.
In the post, McWhertor comments: "So, you girls want to come into our boys club and play our video games. Fine. A lot of us like girls. But you've got to understand our natural instinct to harass you over the internet at the slightest hint that you might be the bearer of actual breasts—the naturally occuring kind, that is, not the masculine version borne of fistfuls of Peppermint Patties and Cheese Puffs.”
VH1's Harold Goldberg rants: "Kotaku wants girls to spend $99 for a tech item so they won’t be harassed when they play an MMORPG? Why not simply say, “Hey, guys, grow up: don’t harass”? And by saying that a guy’s natural instinct is to harass women is pretty low … and pretty scary. Sounds like the “He-Man Woman Hater’s Club” with a gamer bent. At its best, it’s written by a guy who’s afraid of girls."
Wait, but here comes the capper from Game Break: "At its worst, McWhertor is promoting something religious extremists like the Taliban would enforce: the idea that it's a girl's fault that a guy harrasses her. She was the one that didn't have a veil on her face (or in this case, a voice changer on his mic, right)?" Yay, jihad reference!
Here's our view on it - McWhertor, who posted a few times on GSW in his day and runs GeekOnStun, has been getting very much 'this way' on his personal weblog, such as this one - but we think it's highly, highly ironic and significantly based on the UK Resistance school of being well adjusted and playing at being heavily maladjusted. Does this mean some people won't take it the wrong way? Probably not!
Comments
Every time an issue like this pops up, there's always a bunch of men who wants to play white knight in shining armour and defend (or rather, impress) the girls - usually in an extremely humourless way.
Posted by: black knight | July 11, 2006 6:53 AM
I agree McWhertor is probably being ironic, but Kotaku has been very offensive to women in the past without his input. I remember them loudly slagging off a woman behind her back for having a biohazard tattoo while at the Konami E3 press conference, which they then BLOGGED ABOUT. I was right there and they came off as total idiots.
Posted by: aerisdead | July 11, 2006 8:07 AM
Come on, we already knew Kotaku was the shagless tabloid of gaming press anyways.
Posted by: briss | July 11, 2006 8:20 AM
Mathew - Actually, that Konami press event moment *was* a product of my idiotic input. I was immensely confounded by one's decision to have a biohazard symbol tattooed right above their ass crack. I did not, however, post that entry about it.
Beyond that, I really don't know what else to say about the VH1 Game Break post that wasn't covered in my comment at the blog. I won't try to defend my non-hatred of women to people on the internet, but I do appreciate Simon considering the possibility that this weekend's Kotaku post was attempting, however unsuccesfully, to be ironic.
Posted by: Michael | July 11, 2006 8:43 AM
I hear VH1 Game Break is also outraged at Johnathan Swift for suggesting we eat the Irish.
Posted by: Hunty | July 11, 2006 9:08 AM
This is all hilarious. The hubbub has been entertaining to watch, but kind of makes me worry about peoples' sense of humor. The writer of which we speak was clearly making fun of US. The BOY gamers. It just seems that there are a lot of people out there who are reading these completely casual and "fun" blogs, and taking them way too seriously. I go to Kotaku to have some fun - if I wanted to be spoon fed boredom, I would go to ...well. that VH1 blog.
Posted by: Super Hawk | July 11, 2006 10:24 AM
I am baffled that anyone would take that post 100% seriously.
It's funny to think that maybe they hired Michael Ian Black to be on all those I Love the Etc. shows because he is so sincere.
Posted by: 20XX | July 11, 2006 10:44 AM
Kotaku is garbage.
Posted by: Anonymous | July 11, 2006 12:41 PM
^^^ This post is garbage.
Posted by: Anonymous | July 11, 2006 1:25 PM
Kotaku is garbage.
Posted by: Anonymous | July 11, 2006 2:43 PM
Men do the same thing to other men, but we call it male bonding.
Posted by: Anonymous | July 11, 2006 3:22 PM
Sweet. Perhaps all this in-fighting is a sign that gaming blogs are finally coming of age -- the age where most of the posts on said blogs are not about games, but about...other gaming blogs.
Coming soon: GAMING BLOG WARS I.
And GSW will likely be playing the part of that guy in the corner with the spit bucket. :)
Posted by: RedWolf | July 11, 2006 4:10 PM
I also don't see how they witook that post 100% seriously. When I still read kotaku I liked when Michael took the helm just to break up the monotony of boring, lackluster posts that fill it's pages. The last straw came after I commented here about their lack of quality and my commenting privileges disappeared from their site. Huh, imagine that.
I pretty much discounted the VH1 blog at the first line: "You have to like Kotaku because of the slavishly researched items about games and culture the site presents." - A blogger who doesn't recognize irony and thinks there is some hardcore research going on at kotaku. Bad blogger, no cookie.
Posted by: d | July 11, 2006 9:07 PM
I can think of plenty of reasons to rip on Kotaku, but that post certainly wasn't one.
Posted by: Tetsuo | July 12, 2006 12:01 AM
The more I think about this, the more I believe that VH1 blog post was thickly layered in sarcasm, and this whole potential beef is moot!
d - We've been having issues with our commenting system for a few weeks now (I finally got access this weekend, after being comment silent for almost a month). Please write us and let us know about the issue.
Sorry to turn your comments section into a message board, Simon!
Posted by: Michael | July 12, 2006 3:50 AM
I figured that was the issue Michael, as I didn't say anything really nasty or ban worthy, and said nothing on kotaku. I didn't seriously think gawker has a hit squad that looks for dissadents and pulls their commenting privileges, though that would be quite funny. :)
Posted by: d | July 12, 2006 4:42 PM
I like your 3d article
Posted by: 3d scanning | August 12, 2009 6:57 AM