Anita Sarkeesian’s New Video May Have Ulterior Motives

When I first heard that Anita Sarkeesian had released a video about positive examples of women in gaming, I initially ignored it. “At least she’s focusing on something positive” I thought. Then I heard it was actually only on one game, an indie game. I was immediately skeptical, so I took a look at the video. Her video is essentially a lavish review of the game Swords and Sworcery, with no critical analysis at all. She blindly praises all aspects. The only mild criticism she offers is “While it does include some combat” which she utters with mild disdain, before justifying that it’s mostly puzzle based.

The first thing that struck me was how utterly sexist her “strong female character” description was. She praised the idea of a character who you only know is female if you pay attention to the text and note the female pronouns, who does not speak, who is controlled completely by the player with no agency as a standalone character, and who she says is an excellent female character simply because she’s a silent protagonist which is a traditionally male role. The fact that most male characters are still fully established as male is besides the point. This aggrivated me to no end, as she was basically advocating for female characters who don’t speak and don’t have opinions. She describes a character in the game who goes along with a quest in which she gains nothing, only to sacrifice herself in the end. A fascinating story, but absolutely not anything empowering for women.

The second thing was: why is her first example an indie game, the only one made by the development company Superbrothers? And an iOS game at that. Surely there are more prominent examples she could have chosen from. Unless of course, there are other reasons she chose this game…

Meet Nathan Vella, a collaborator on the game Swords and Sworcery, and a prominent member of the “elite” indie crowd, a term I use here to refer to people who are not necessarily established as veterans of the industry or as people who have offered excellent and popular works, but simply as people who made their name by getting in with the indie awards and companies like the GDC. Nathan is a member of Indie Fund, working with members of the ever controversial IndieCade. Indie Fund was one of the organizations involved in the scandal involving the International Games Festival, in which it was found that judges had a personal or financial interest in the winner, Fez.

Now, the GDC have been big fans of Anita Sarkeesian, and tend to work closely with the IGF. It seems reasonable to assume that Anita likely heard of the game through Nathan or someone with a personal interest in his company, Capybara Games. That in itself isn’t problematic, but Anita doesn’t even mention the developers, let alone who they are in relation to her. Since Anita isn’t a formal games journalist, it would be convenient to to say “Well she has no responsibility to disclose” but as a media critic it almost makes disclosure more important, since you must approach things from an even less biased view point, as the subject matter is very sensitive. Given that her justification for the character being a good character violates many of her own arguments about “Ms. Males” and the like, it becomes easy to question whether she was simply trying to promote the game itself.

Also the fact that the video reads more like a marketing video than a review or a critique — it is unending praise, and of the short runtime, probably half of it has nothing to do with the character she’s talking about, but simply promote other irrelevant aspects of the game, like the game play mechanics and artwork. Why would a media critic talking about strong female characters dedicate so much time to promoting the game as a whole?

As well, Nathan Vella has been an outspoken opponent of #GamerGate, and by connection, many of Anita’s critics. It’s pretty easy to assume that if Nathan were anything but this, Anita likely wouldn’t have chosen his game to review. It stands to be seen what other games she’s going to discuss (and it will probably be a long while before we ever see it, as she loves nothing but to keep us waiting) but it’s strange she would start with a relatively obscure indie title rather than one of the mainstream titles she has praised in the past such as Portal or Mirror’s Edge. It makes more sense to start with a bigger game, than a smaller game. Unless of course, your intention is not to give an honest critique of a female character, but promote a game made by someone who has been involved in rewarding you before…

NOTE: Some wording has been changed for clarity as of April 2, 2015 3:41PM PST.