Great.
One of my clients just gave me the Tin Box Set (complete with Altair doll) as a late birthday present. I haven’t bought the game but I’m thinking of adding this gift to my time capsule. My shrink-wrapped eBayable time capsule. Anybody know what the doll looks like?
Yeah, it was a pretty offensive comic.
But not half as offensive as comparing a rude comic to sexual assault. In terms of offensiveness, they’re not even in the same ballpark.
I’d fault a man for doing the same thing, assuming he were in the same position.
I wouldn’t. I’ve got no problem with someone wanting to be seen in a diferent light. I can see where someone would have a problem with it, however.
Wait a sec – the comparison was to excusing something offensive because someone “had it coming”.
HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!!!
I thought that was hilarious, crude or not.
According to an article on Kotaku, she denied the Maxim thing and actually seemed offended that people would think she’d want to pose.
But really, the comic is a natural (and extremely exaggerated) extension of all the public facetime Ubisoft has made her do for Assassin’s Creed. She’s everywhere and apparently her only previous game experience is working on a browser-based version Jeopardy for Sony and The Sims Online. She wasn’t the director or even the lead designer, but just a member of the team. You’d think she made the whole thing by herself with gum and plywood after what Ubisoft did.
Say what you want about women in games, but her facetime for AC does not compare to what even other famous game designers do for their latest creations.
Yes, I know that. But that comparison is only meaningful if you also compare a mean webcomic to sexual assault. You’ve criticized people in this thread for defending the comic by comparing them to people who defend sexual batterers. Implicit in that is a comparison between the webcomic and sexual battery.
But, honestly, what’s troubling here is that you find this comic more offensive than the behavior it is parodying. I’m a gamer, but I’m also a feminist, and as such, I’m often troubled by the way women are presented in video games, which is almost always hyper-sexualized and extremely shallow. This has been a steady source of criticism for the video game industry for years now, and it’s depressing to see one of the major players in the industry now extending this behavior to the production team of their games. Jade Raymond isn’t getting all this attention because of her input to the game, or because of her extensive experience in the video game industry. She’s getting it because she’s got a nice rack. Frankly, that bugs the hell out of me. The comic? All the comic is doing is making explicit what is implied by UbiSoft’s skeevy promotional gimmick. UbiSoft is saying, “Buy our game, and maybe, just maybe, you’ll get to have sex with this hot chick.” The only exageration between the comic and reality is changing, “maybe” to “definitly.”
So, if the question is, “Did Jade Raymond deserve to have this comic made about her,” my answer is, “Yes, she did.” That is in absolutely no way similar to saying that a rape victim deserved to be attacked, and the idea that there is any commonality between the two positions is far and away the most offensive thing that’s been posted in this thread, including the original promotional stunt and the webcomic it inspired.
I didn’t criticize anyone, nor single someone out (which I explained above). I said that it bothered me. And precisely which letter of “YMMV” do you not understand, considering I said it twice?
I said no such thing. Please stop putting words in my mouth. Thank you.
Fine, I can see your position. My answer would be that nobody deserves something like that, especially using their real name and likeness.
And goddamn it, I’ll say it again: Your Mileage May Vary.
Actually, you singled out El Cid Viscoso. When you directly quote someone, and then comment on what they’ve said, you’ve just singled that person out. That’s sort of what the phrase means.
Which letter of YMMV makes an offenisve statement not offensive? Would the comic have been acceptable if the artist had stuck “YMMV” in the last panel?
I put no words in your mouth at all. I made an observation about your behavior in this thread. You’ve complained about the comic. You’ve complained about people defending the comic. You haven’t complained about the promotional event at all. The obvious conclusion, therefore, is that you find the comic and the defence of the comic more offensive than the promotion.
Why not? She’s the one who decided to put her face and her name out in the public eye, and she’s the one who decided to use her sex appeal as a marketing gimmick, instead of her skills as a game designer. If she wanted anonymity, she shouldn’t have agreed to take point in the game’s advertising campaign. If she didn’t want to be treated like a sex object, she shouldn’t have presented herself as one in a national promotional event.
Yes, I get that, thank you. Doesn’t change anything I’ve said in this thread.
I can’t find any information on this “Win A Date With Jade Raymond” thing. Did it actually happen?
In a subsequent post, I explained that I was not singling him out. Please re-read.
YMMV means, “that’s my opinion, I can understand if someone else doesn’t feel that way.” Which I can. Stop being an offenderatti.
I’ve never even seen the flipping promotion. It’s utterly beside the point to me. I’ll repeat it for you: To. Me. But, you know, your mileage may flipping vary. I’m fine with that.
I’m going to go out on a limb, and suggest that there never was a “Win A Date With Jade Raymond” competition at all, and the whole shemozzle is based on nothing but fanboy bullshit.
In which case, Ms Raymond’s only “crime” for this revolting comic strip is for being attractive while acting as Spokesperson for a video game she was a Producer on.
So, hey, fun game!
After doing a little googling, I agree that the Jade Raymond contest was probably a hoax.
But do you agree that Ubisoft trotted her out for demonstratins and promotion on the game above and beyond that of a typical producer and beyond that of most high-profile directors as well?
If that’s the case, I retract my above defence of the comic.
I have no idea. I hadn’t even seen her associated with the game until this thread, but since Googling her I have seen her name come up a lot as spokesperson, with tons of interviews and articles and appearances. But as I am not a gamer, I don’t know if this is more than normal.
It’s possible that she has been chosen deliberately because she’s attractive, but really the evidence for that is slim-to-none and it is speculation. And even so, what’s unusual about choosing a photogenic frontperson? It’s not as though she’s otherwise unsuitable; she clearly has had direct involvement in the production of the game.
I do think it’s quite repulsive how the lowbrow geek fanboy crowd has reacted to her. It’s creepy and embarrassing.
I just got back from grocery shopping and my review copy was in the mailbox. Also inside was a preview of the photo shoot. Gosh, this is a pretty gir- I mean game. Really. It’s just such a beautiful game I’d like to take it on a ski trip and exclude my current wife. What a gorgeous, gorgeous game. Wow.
More details to follow.
Generally producers will go out and shill this much, but it only tends to be the recognisable name people who’ll do it. She didn’t have much of a rep (as far as I know) before this game came out. I would say it’s probably equal amount of them using her attractiveness (not that they really need to with this game) and people saying “Aha, she’s hot, clearly she’s being used to entice nerdy gamer guys”. Maybe half and half? But yes, speculation.