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Did you see the Q&A? Did you read his follow up comments? He regretted everything that happened after the intial comic. You're also confusing "they" with "Mike"

by pyrocat 13y ago

Did you see the Q&A? Did you read his follow up comments? He regretted everything that happened after the intial comic. You're also confusing "they" with "Mike". Did you really see his reponse to the trans stuff as a "not sorry" response? Here are his responses, from the horses mouth http://www.penny-arcade.com/2013/06/19/twiiter-sucks-sometimes http://www.penny-arcade.com/2013/06/19/twiiter-sucks-sometim... http://www.penny-arcade.com/2013/06/21/well-that-escalated-quickly http://www.penny-arcade.com/2013/06/21/well-that-escalated-q... http://www.penny-arcade.com/2013/06/21/going-one-step-further http://www.penny-arcade.com/2013/06/21/going-one-step-furthe... http://www.penny-arcade.com/2013/06/21/also6 http://www.penny-arcade.com/2013/06/21/also6 Yeah he's made mistakes. You can take his apologies as genuine and believe he wants to get better or you can think he's just playing lip service in order to save face. Having met the guy and talked to him several times, as well as listened to him on the podcasts/PA show/strip search, I believe it's the former.

wonderzombie 13y ago
See my reply to my own comment regarding the first point. (Not sure what HN best practice is on this one.) Regarding the trans stuff: I did really read it, yes. For what it's worth, I've been reading Penny Arcade since 2000, and it's been in my RSS reader as long as I've used one. Did you any of what he said on Twitter? The man's sincere in his contrition, but his shoot from the hip style without thinking about what other people think plus his penchant for lashing out is insane. I don't think he's just paying lip service. I think he's probably a nice guy at heart. If you want my honest opinion, I think he's unaware of a lot of (dare I say it) privilege that he has, and reacts with hostility when called on it. So again I am willing to take his trans apologies at face value. But it's part of a pattern, and maybe after stepping in it a few times, the guy could take at least a little more care. I don't think this makes him a villain, and I suspect he'd find this criticism fair, as he has explicitly discussed this in the past. I give him credit for being self-aware. Maybe I can summarize it like this: it's strange to hear people (not necessarily you) intimate that a) he has nothing to apologize for because he's a flawed but nice guy, and b) he's apologized so stop with the criticism. We wouldn't be here in the first place if the guy maybe thought a little bit more about how he communicates. And neither of the above invalidates this as a jumping off point for a discussion about the widespread insensitivity/hostility in gamer culture when it comes to folks who aren't cis, hetero, white males.
- pyrocat 13y ago
  Yup, I totally agree. And I don't think people should stop criticizing at all, I think it's a valuable thing to do and is part of bringing about the change we want to see. I just wish there was less overblown under-researched clickbaity criticism.

by pyrocat 13y ago

wonderzombie 13y ago

See my reply to my own comment regarding the first point. (Not sure what HN best practice is on this one.) Regarding the trans stuff: I did really read it, yes. For what it's worth, I've been reading Penny Arcade since 2000, and it's been in my RSS reader as long as I've used one. Did you any of what he said on Twitter? The man's sincere in his contrition, but his shoot from the hip style without thinking about what other people think plus his penchant for lashing out is insane. I don't think he's just paying lip service. I think he's probably a nice guy at heart. If you want my honest opinion, I think he's unaware of a lot of (dare I say it) privilege that he has, and reacts with hostility when called on it. So again I am willing to take his trans apologies at face value. But it's part of a pattern, and maybe after stepping in it a few times, the guy could take at least a little more care. I don't think this makes him a villain, and I suspect he'd find this criticism fair, as he has explicitly discussed this in the past. I give him credit for being self-aware. Maybe I can summarize it like this: it's strange to hear people (not necessarily you) intimate that a) he has nothing to apologize for because he's a flawed but nice guy, and b) he's apologized so stop with the criticism. We wouldn't be here in the first place if the guy maybe thought a little bit more about how he communicates. And neither of the above invalidates this as a jumping off point for a discussion about the widespread insensitivity/hostility in gamer culture when it comes to folks who aren't cis, hetero, white males.

pyrocat 13y ago
Yup, I totally agree. And I don't think people should stop criticizing at all, I think it's a valuable thing to do and is part of bringing about the change we want to see. I just wish there was less overblown under-researched clickbaity criticism.