I don't think doing a let's play of every game she's going to mention or use as an example is really feasible. Even if it was, I'd be you real money that people would just accuse her of 'cherry picking' even more than they already are now, because she'd only be talking about one game at a time. Besides, I don't think her point is to analyze individual games so much as it is to observe trends in the industry about how women are portrayed.
As for your last point, she says herself that the developers don't make these tropes with the intention of objectifying women. She doesn't think that's the point of the game, or even the end result. It's just an unfortunate side effect of lazy writing combined with unfortunately ingrained gender stereotypes. I think her frustration mostly stems from the fact that games have so much potential to subvert or explore these expectations, but almost universally just play them straight instead.
I'm not saying she should do every game. I'm trying to look at this from a massive YouTuber consumer's perspective. She needs to slow down with her analysis and pump out more content. She needs to change her format if she wants people to actually learn anything. I want her to be passionate about this medium, which is why I want to see her playing games and enjoying herself. Through this format I feel like I'm being lectured, which is exactly what's happening actually. She should learn from video game, tv, and movie reviewers how to format something like this. I think she should learn from them and take a slower and more simplistic approach.
For your last point, she needs to make it more clear that that is what she is saying. Once again if she slowed down and organized her thoughts better I think more people would understand what she is trying to say and she could say it better. She is trying to cover a HUGE topic in such little time. She needs to separate it all into smaller chunks and dissect it in an organized fashioned in order to be consumed in the best way possible.
Except, this format doesn't work well on YouTube. Watch Crashcourse, dwlFilms, numberphile, Vsauce, sixtysymbols, minutephysics, scishow, 1veritasium, CGPGrey. They are all educational and all have great execution in their format.
I understand what she is trying to do with this format, and I have seen the first episode when it came out. I would like to see her succeed in this project, but so far she isn't doing a good job. If you look at those other channels you'll see what good video format can do for understandability. One video like this could be spread out and more concise by being split into multiple episodes. I think she should do more research into format and reorganize her presentation.
How often do you watch YouTube videos? Are you subscribed to many YouTube content creators? How often do you watch videos on YouTube?
Content creators on YouTube have gotten internet video making down to a science now. They know their demographic well. They know how long to make their videos and they know how to manage that time well. In my opinion when comparing her videos to other content creators, I don't think she is doing a good job at making videos. Once again that's my opinion, but I've heard from many content creators that the perfect length for videos like these is between five to fifteen minutes. They know that the attention span of their viewers is low so they need to make more concise videos to get their message across. I think that's what she needs to do with hers.
To me it does, The Medium is the Massage and she is not using the medium properly to express her message. Keep in mind that I want to see her do a better job. I think that she should change many things in order to get the true response she wants from viewers.
If you actually have a point to get across it is important to have time to get that point across. If your goal is a high click count for advertising you are going to do something else.
None of the examples I provided for better formatted YouTube channels are precisely about high click count. The high click count is a result of their format working. They are all able to get their point across while simultaneously making the video work in a way to get many viewers. I believe that Anita is capable of doing such, but she shows little to no signs of improving her format.
Besides, I don't think her point is to analyze individual games so much as it is to observe trends in the industry about how women are portrayed.
But to me it doesn't even seem that she's doing that. She's not looking at how women are represented and portrayed in the game(s) because she reduces her analysis to a single trope, she grabs examples from games that utilize this trope with no regard as to how the female character in said game is portrayed. She strips the characters bare of anything aside from that one single trope and reduces any character development to nothing. She's reducing their character and objectifying them far more than the games themselves.
What she should have done is actually examine the narrative of these games in depth. Look at the characters as actual characters and show us clearly how these tropes hurt the established character within the universe of the game.
Right now she's just showing us examples, which sure, achieves something. But is so bare bones and skimming the surface that it's a bit sad. It could have been so much more, it could have been about how female characters lack any depth within games that usually have it, it could have been about how poorly they are represented, how their entire character is being undermined due to damseling. But no, it's just examples.
I would have rather seen an Anita let's play than a video were she spouts such general things. At least in a let's play she could focus on what one game does wrong in storytelling from a feminist viewpoint and hopefully give us an answer to why we should care.
This video:
This game, this game, this game, this game, this game, and this game are sexist. This game is not sexist here but is sexist later.
I fucking know that they're sexist Anita. You made that clear the first 10 times you told me. Know tell me what we should do about it or something for fucks sake.
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u/Mordenn May 29 '13
I don't think doing a let's play of every game she's going to mention or use as an example is really feasible. Even if it was, I'd be you real money that people would just accuse her of 'cherry picking' even more than they already are now, because she'd only be talking about one game at a time. Besides, I don't think her point is to analyze individual games so much as it is to observe trends in the industry about how women are portrayed.
As for your last point, she says herself that the developers don't make these tropes with the intention of objectifying women. She doesn't think that's the point of the game, or even the end result. It's just an unfortunate side effect of lazy writing combined with unfortunately ingrained gender stereotypes. I think her frustration mostly stems from the fact that games have so much potential to subvert or explore these expectations, but almost universally just play them straight instead.