See above.
It used to be more difficult to be informed. Now with social media it’s difficult to not be informed.
When I first read Dragonriders of Pern I had no idea Anne McCaffery was nuts. At some point I read about her strange homophobic views and realized that she’s more than a bit objectionable. I always enjoyed James Woods as an actor, but it took some time before I realized he was an asshole. Lots of other examples.
I didn’t know about Anne McCaffery. Now I can’t enjoy… um… I guess I never really enjoyed her stuff that much anyway. Not my thing.
She was out there:
It’s not a matter of the rider emphasis becoming homosexual. Green and blue dragons choose people who are already homosexual. And even if circumstances arose, and a green dragon chose a heterosexual lifemate… Well, he would become homosexual. It’s a proven fact that a single [anal sex] experience causes one to be homosexual. The hormones released by a sexual situation involving the anus being broached, are the same hormones found in large quantities in effeminate homosexual males. For example, when I was much younger I knew a young man who was for all intents and purposes, heterosexual. He was mugged, and involved in a rape situation involving a tent peg. This one event was enough to have him start on a road that eventually led to him becoming effeminate and gay.
I’ve been gaming since the 80s. Only recently has the personal views of game creators (and other creative types for that matter) been considered significant.
Hahaha. Wow.
This isn’t correct. People have struggled with Wagner’s anti-Seminitism for decades.
But what has changed is that we’re less tolerant of assholes. Our values have changed, and for the better. I used to call my friends “fags” and “homos” in the 80s. It was funny and affectionate and socially acceptable. In my entertainment, women were plot points and minorities were side-kicks. A leading man in a movie could slap a chick on the ass and it was funny. Since then, diversity, representation, and respect have become important cultural values. Assholes aren’t as socially acceptable as they once were (even if the right has embraced assholery as a form of tribal identity).
-Tom
Though Wagner was also an asshole on a legendary scale. He manages to make Hans von Bülow come off as a sympathetic figure, and that’s no minor feat.
Or in modern times. One of my favorite metal albums is Iced Earth’s The Glorious Burden. It is a scorching concept album with a 30 minute title suite about the Battle of Gettysburg. To say it is in my wheelhouse is an understatement. Lead guitarist and songwriter John Schaffer is also a legendary asshole, and has been for years. This has been a problem in the past.
But it became insurmountable on January 6th, for me at least. Because he was one of those who broke into the capitol. I know @ArmandoPenblade has expressed similar feelings (with similar conflicts in the past)
Yeah. Schaffer went from concerningly patriotic war cosplayer/lizard person conspiracy theorist to Covid-denying insurrectionist at some point in the last fifteen years and now I’ve got all these badly scratched up much loved CDs to burn, I guess.
I’m glad someone else likes the album. Sure, Tim “Ripper” Owens brought a new sound to the band, but he did a fantastic job on the albums he appeared. I never liked the shit he got from I.E. fans.
And now I just want to see Jon Schaffer’s mugshot.
Who’s the “person in charge of the game” here? Rowling?
The Lead Designer, Troy Leavitt, had a YT channel chock full of Gamergate nonsense. It’s the story the bumped the thread.
Doesn’t seem like he hid it much. Makes me wonder how the Avalanche execs, amid the Rowling fiasco, thought this was no problem.
This was such a great comment Tom. Thanks for acknowledging.
This is more of the problem for me. I wasn’t even aware of that there was an issue with the developers (?) here? What becomes exhausting for me is that it feels like, for every product, clothing, game, book or whatever I want to buy, I first have to check if the producer is an asshat. I mean, I don’t actually DO it yet, but it feels like we’re coming to a point where everything is relying on the customer being so darned informed. I can’t keep up with that.
I bought a wine a few weeks ago, a wine I really liked, and brought it to a friend, where I was told that the producer has slave-like working standards. There I go with my delicous wine, feeling like I’m promoting slavery. The other day, another friend of mine told that Mutti, the boxed tomatoes I always buy for my pasta sauces, also have horrible conditions at their factories.
A little off topic, but I guess I’m trying to say it’s really hard for a consumer to be aware of EVERYTHING. I wish that rules all round were stricter, BEFORE products hit the shelves. (I do of course understand that political, even if shitty, views are a bit more in a gray zone than slave like conditions at factories, but I’m hoping you get my point).
Yeah he seems much more objectionable than Rowling herself, tbqh.
I think this goes back to the earlier point about why it applies more to creatives than the people who built your house or car or whatever. Ideally we have laws about working conditions and such to handle that, and really the right solution there is to vote and lobby your representatives. But for creatives (1) there’s less opportunity for social and environmental destruction as part of the creative process (with exceptions for things like gamedev crunch, etc), and–maybe more to the point–(2) creative endeavors are inherently about “opinions” in a way that tomato sauce isn’t, so a creative person having (other) opinions that we find reprehensible seems worse.
I will just say this: sometimes it is difficult to separate the art from awful things its creator may have done – but if you are ironclad in your unwillingness to do so, at some point you are going to 100% have your own hypocrisy on that subject smacked squarely into your own face.
What is “everything?” Whether or not a person who has views you don’t like makes a little money because you were ignorant of those views is surely immaterial in the long run. Your insignificant amount of money going toward this or that is not going to fundamentally change anything, and I guarantee you that almost every day of your life you have spent money that flows to someone with views you find abhorrent. This video game stuff is a drop in the bucket. There is no great change to be had here from your purchasing decisions, and “everything” doesn’t rely on you being an “informed consumer.” Don’t wipe yourself out over it.