Anna Sarkeesian of Feminist Frequency has been running Tropes vs Women in Video Games series for five years (!) and apparently she’s putting a wrap on it, and moving on. Not because of a lack of material, I’m sure. Whatever is next for Anna and Feminist Frequency, I’m sure she can be proud of the work that she’s done and the impact that she’s had on video gaming culture.
If you haven’t watched any of these pieces, I highly recommend them - some of the most thoughtful work to go in to analyzing video games that’s been done.
i don’t blame her for ending it, since she seems to have thoroughly covered the topic. i really enjoyed that series – so much research went into it. i am looking forward to whatever she does next.
I feel that she has been one of the most important figures in all of the video game industry’s history, being a significant leader forging a path that exposed some truly horrible things. In the past five years we saw the threats against her which caught many men (and less women) by surprise, the birth of a special vindictive and organized force of trolls against women in gaming that were the beginning of Trump’s sudden rise in political theater, gamergate, and now things have evolved so far so fast that even strong gamergate supporters at the time have changed their tune. Her influence will have a positive impact on the world and I hope the torch gets continued from here on.
I say all this, defend her against random internet assholes I encounter, and consume all of her video content… because I still don’t think her channel is very good. I really like her videos when they are well conceived and funny and provide examples for what things could be like, but they are less than half of her videos which have been produced at a staggeringly slow rate with poor production values. Even so, I’m sad to see them come to an end.
i really hope she’s managed to open some developer’s minds to the casual and lazy way women are treated in games. it was great to see people in the industry ( tim schafer comes to mind ) highlighting what she was doing.
it also seems really useful to have a language for labelling the tropes that appear. the videos she’s made will make a good reference. i’m glad she took her time with them, and didn’t just dump some off handed thoughts into the world and call it done.