We are committed to ethics, and absolutely un-committed to not-ethics.

February 18, 2016 3:44 AM

Point & Clickbait is the internet’s finest source for reliable, ethical, and above all true gaming news.

Full of news (Developer Commits Vile Act Of Censorship By Altering Game Before Release), opinions (I Hope There Aren’t Any Straight Characters in Dragon Age: Inquisition), reviews (Ubisoft Game: The Review), and much more, it's the ONLY video game site you'll ever need to read again.
posted by cthuljew (39 comments total)

In case you're wondering whose side this website is actually on the Kojima's relationship to women article includes a completely serious trigger warning at the beginning.
posted by Mr.Encyclopedia at 4:00 AM on February 18, 2016 [1 favorite]

I was enjoying the satire there for a little while but then, like most gaming sites, it got creepier and creepier and I noped right out of there.
posted by mmoncur at 4:05 AM on February 18, 2016 [2 favorites]

I play Rayman Legends :(
posted by 1adam12 at 4:19 AM on February 18, 2016 [1 favorite]

Man Just Wants To Play Violent Military Shooter About Global Conflict Without Critics “Bringing Politics Into It” is solid.
posted by thetortoise at 4:28 AM on February 18, 2016 [14 favorites]

This one [mildly naughty language in title] is scraping perilously close to Poe's Law. Well, really, most of the posts in this thing are.
posted by Halloween Jack at 4:28 AM on February 18, 2016

So this is what satire written by people without a sense of humor is like.
posted by Diablevert at 5:05 AM on February 18, 2016 [8 favorites]

I'm a little upset that none of the variations on the damaged book from Fallout 4 were considered in the top-5 damaged books of all time... Seriously - they're way better than the ones from Fallout 3 and Fallout 3:New Vegas.
posted by Nanukthedog at 5:08 AM on February 18, 2016 [2 favorites]

I laughed at “Batman v Superman trailer” Is A Search Term That Will Bring You To Our Website.
posted by Elementary Penguin at 5:10 AM on February 18, 2016 [4 favorites]

Well, this is gold.
posted by DoctorFedora at 5:13 AM on February 18, 2016

5 Disney Princesses Re-Imagined as Wario made me snicker.
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 5:24 AM on February 18, 2016 [9 favorites]

So this is what satire written by people without a sense of humor is like.

Nah, I think its pretty brilliant. Its the source material that is lame.

The source material isn't just the game, its far more about game journalism. How many click-baity top 5 games created by someone on their whim of the day clutter a gaming website. Do we really need to talk about re-imagining Disney princesses as Wario - I mean, slash fiction, weird fan fetishes, whatever... but fine there's a loss when every site has to find the right cross between two genres that just don't make sense and slap it on their front page.

Their commentary on sexism in games is totally on point. On most gaming news sites that are willing to touch the topic - they dance around it and try to make it a non issue so as not to piss off their advertising revenue quasi-loyal readers. The article about the guy that doesn't want to think about the political and social implications of his game and just wants to shoot the Chinese (since they must be our enemy in Battlefront), beat up hookers (since that's the only role of women in GTA) and otherwise not even remotely ponder the *why* is pretty awesome. Then there's the whole piece on the game developer that cries studio censorship despite the fact that he goes out of his way to do horrible horrible things to women in his games anyway... See the thing is - game journalism does its best to just brush this shit off and says "Well, you may have to act like Hitler in this game, but look at the beautiful art collection you get if your willing to put up with this sexism and rampant boy-man fantasy."

And then it takes the "fan" criticism of Dragon Age of "Why do we have to have gay people in this game?" and turns that into "Why do we have to have straight people in this game?" Which is simple, but unfortunately will fly right past the face of so many people that actually need to think about it.

On a positive note, this whole site is funny. It is all satire, and it is all lampooning the bullshit pedaled from and to gaming companies which maintains the status quo. The positive of this is this: Misogynist gamers and gaming companies will eventually find this, and may actually take a look at this and have a moment to actually reflect on how ridiculous this all sounds. Maybe they'll change slowly, and maybe they'll go back to making fart guns... who knows.

But this site is pretty awesome.
posted by Nanukthedog at 5:25 AM on February 18, 2016 [18 favorites]

In case you're wondering whose side this website is actually on the Kojima's relationship to women article includes a completely serious trigger warning at the beginning.

Right under a picture of a woman in a low-cut blouse posed to reveal maximum cleavage, so I guess I'm still wondering.
posted by layceepee at 5:37 AM on February 18, 2016 [1 favorite]

Said woman in a low-cut....thing is a prominent character in Kojima's latest game, and a major reason why there are articles about this in the first place.
posted by Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish at 5:51 AM on February 18, 2016 [1 favorite]

Right under a picture of a woman in a low-cut blouse posed to reveal maximum cleavage, so I guess I'm still wondering.

I take your point, but I'm not sure that they're that bad. If you look at the front page, there are two articles with women showing prominent cleavage. One is a criticism of a developer's treatment of in-game women with the ridiculous clothing that they are made to wear is one of the criticisms, and the other criticises the over-reactive fan cries of 'censorship' when artwork was toned down from Japan to the West. I did not get the impression that the author or the site approved of either image.
posted by YAMWAK at 5:54 AM on February 18, 2016 [1 favorite]

Where is my satire and why does it look like "haha we switched the viewpoints before we wrote this article and you clicked on the title anyway! Cha-Ching!"

(tl:dr) Clickbait is easy. Writing something worth reading is hard.
posted by BYiro at 5:59 AM on February 18, 2016

... also I know enough people who are really sad that not all of the characters in DA:I are bisexual (with the exception of Dorian, who can stay gay) that I wouldn't blink at seeing that headline for real.
posted by dinty_moore at 6:19 AM on February 18, 2016

well that Ubisoft Game Review one really put a lot of my thoughts into a more interesting framing
posted by suddenly, and without warning, at 6:33 AM on February 18, 2016 [3 favorites]

... I feel like the complaints in this thread are written by people reading a different website than I am... Maybe this isn't your favorite style / brand of internet humor but there is a lot different posts that vary from silly to thoughtful. Thanks for the link!
posted by midmarch snowman at 6:39 AM on February 18, 2016 [2 favorites]

I mean, it's not exactly _subtle_ parody or whatever, but it's a fine site.
posted by kmz at 6:45 AM on February 18, 2016

opinions (I Hope There Aren’t Any Straight Characters in Dragon Age: Inquisition)

I mean, this is a very legitimate opinion
posted by Gordafarin at 6:48 AM on February 18, 2016 [3 favorites]

Really, Cassandra not being open to lady romancing is a crime for the ages.
posted by dinty_moore at 6:53 AM on February 18, 2016 [7 favorites]

I did not get the impression that the author or the site approved of either image.

I'm not sympathetic to the argument that "People who are exploiting women's bodies by using overly sexualized imagery for commercial gain are forcing me to publish overly sexualized imagery in order to condemn that exploitation." One way to express your disapproval of an image would be to choose not to use it.
posted by layceepee at 7:07 AM on February 18, 2016 [2 favorites]

Just because a stripe of activism isn't something you can endorse in every detail, that doesn't mean it's in opposition to the kinds of activism you do support wholeheartedly.
posted by 4th number at 7:14 AM on February 18, 2016 [2 favorites]

Clickbait is easy. Writing something worth reading is hard.

Makes me appreciate how rigorous the Onion & Clickhole are about tone and content.
posted by little onion at 7:16 AM on February 18, 2016 [3 favorites]

One way to express your disapproval of an image would be to choose not to use it.

And another way to express your disapproval would be to show the images to show how ubiquitous they are, to make the point that it's monotonous and lazy. Anita Sarkessian shows a lot of these images in her Tropes vs. Video Games videos.
posted by Elementary Penguin at 7:23 AM on February 18, 2016 [14 favorites]

As a nerdy gamer-adjacent type person, I found the headlines hilarious.
posted by Zalzidrax at 7:28 AM on February 18, 2016 [1 favorite]

One way to express your disapproval of an image would be to choose not to use it.

It's satire, though. It's condemnation via irony and exaggeration and a fake espousement of those views which it wishes to condemn.
posted by shakespeherian at 7:41 AM on February 18, 2016 [1 favorite]

Yeah, the dig at people who were all "I just flirted a little, why is Male Hawke having sex with Anders" while ignoring the straight sex prompts in Dragon Age 2 was spot on.

Also I think we can agree the real tragedy in Inquisition is Cullen and his total non-fanon sexuality.
posted by corb at 8:59 AM on February 18, 2016

Like, why is it that in these games occasionally I can try to have a relationship with an elf, but the second I make eyes at the dwarves, gnomes, hobbits and goblins, I find out that the developers forget that they are capable of love too?
posted by Nanukthedog at 10:26 AM on February 18, 2016 [1 favorite]

On the other hand, I was able to enter into a consensual D/s relationship with a 7ft tall minotaur guy, so...yay me!
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 10:29 AM on February 18, 2016 [5 favorites]

Yeah, but you had to be the sub, though admittedly that was true for both genders. Why can't you be the D half of that with the 7ft tall sexy minotaur? That would be amaaaaaazing.
posted by corb at 10:33 AM on February 18, 2016 [1 favorite]

Because being the D is exhausting?


Although, it might be fun to ride Bull around Thedas for a while.

Probably be the only time I'd ever use any of the mounts in the game.
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 11:33 AM on February 18, 2016 [3 favorites]

Clickbait is easy. Writing something worth reading is hard.

Makes me appreciate how rigorous the Onion & Clickhole are about tone and content.

OTOH there's the Onion which is a 70-employee institution with corporate backing and a 27 year history of honing a consistent style, and Tim Colwill is just some lone writer who maintains this site for funzies, it looks like.

Made me laugh, anyway.
posted by disso at 11:44 AM on February 18, 2016

Man Who Hates Anita Sarkeesian Refuses To Stop Watching Her Videos Or Reading Her Tweets

Yup, that sounds about right.
posted by el io at 12:18 PM on February 18, 2016 [8 favorites]

It's like penny arcade without the occasional good bits.
posted by Sebmojo at 12:31 PM on February 18, 2016

It's like penny arcade without the occasional good bits.
posted by Sebmojo at 12:31 PM on February 18

Honestly, the occasional good bits of PA are getting further and further apart.
posted by Vindaloo at 2:12 PM on February 18, 2016 [2 favorites]

folks, I'm at a loss for words right now, feminism has been destroyed.
posted by numaner at 2:14 PM on February 18, 2016 [1 favorite]

Honestly, the occasional good bits of PA are getting further and further apart.

I wish I didn't agree with you, but I do :(

The First Fifteen video clips are reliably good and funny though.

Back on topic, clickhole is really funny.
posted by Sebmojo at 6:13 PM on February 18, 2016

Said woman in a low-cut....thing is a prominent character in Kojima's latest game, and a major reason why there are articles about this in the first place.

No see, there are good reasons why Quiet has to dress that way, it has to do with she is a mutant who breathes through her skin and ... oh, who cares. Boobs!
posted by theorique at 10:04 AM on February 19, 2016