eurydicebound | The latest White Wolf debacle

I've said all I really plan to say about this in a friend's journal where the teapot definitely got a bit tempest-y. I assume that it got to be something of a furor because the page actually went live today, or something of the sort. The name had been around for a while, but I never thought they'd actually do it. I mean, FanPro put up elf porn art for April Fools, but you didn't see them rushing out to print a card game on it.

I bring this up, however, because I wanted to comment on one thing that seems to be going unobserved. In the midst of wormen objectified and general offense and defenders/apologists, etc., guess what this weekend is? I'll give you a hint: my kids had an assembly today to commemorate the battle for civil rights, and a man who led that battle and said things that nobody in power wanted to hear, standing up for the rights of the minority against the status quo and dreaming of a day his children would stand as equals with all other children, a world of oppurtunity available and no artifical barriers left between us.

Happy Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.

Superb timing, guys. Way to commemorate how far we've all come. Bravo.

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*nod* Jeff had brought that up to me yesterday when he told me that he had a three-day weekend coming up, and asked Heather (he was testing her) if she knew what Monday was. (She did.) I hadn't put the two (the holiday and the recent brouhaha) together until now. A sincere 'thank you' for the reminder.

Sometimes it feels like one step forward, two steps back instead of the other way around. :/

I dunno ... I was looking through some of the SRTCG art earlier today, and some of it comes pretty close to elf porn. ;-)

Yeah, I know. Sigh.

Yeah, but that was ages ago and a lifetime away, in another galaxy all together. Conversely, I'd love to be there for the conversation where you try to talk Rob, Christian and Rett into Elf: the Porno.

So would I, because I have no fucking clue how I'd pitch /that/.

Big guns. Lots of big guns. :)

Hrm. Big Guns, Hot Elves. Yeah, that might work.

They'd never hire me again.

Well, we'll do what we can and never mind the nay-sayers. I do wish I had more money or time. I'd love to contribute to a lot of organizations (NOW, ACLU, AU for starters). Until then, I guess I'll just keep rabble-rousing. :)

Yeah, but the conversation would be entertaining as hell. :Especially if Steve were there too. *grin*

Well, you did some rather effective rabble-rousing today. :-)

Four-day weekend for some. Today, Friday, is Lee-Jackson Day in Virginia, celebrating the birthdays of two Confederate generals.

Spike

Gee, I dunno. I'd think that the recent election is a much bigger slap in the face to civil rights than a silly little card game by a company from the publishing ghetto (i.e., gaming).

Tempest in a teapot. And as for MLK, just for some perspective, look at this (nothing earthshattering, just intersting).

Wow, what a slaes pitch. ;)

Paradox flaw!

Ummmm... what happened?

Yeah. Coulda knocked me over with a feather. I expected some dissenting voices among the me-toos, maybe some debate, but dang. I'm still trying to decide if it was a predominantly good thing or bad thing.

I agree. Wish I could have changed it. Can't change this either, and it's not an earthshaking calamity. It just makes me sad. I have looked high and low for the funny there, and cannot find it. What I find only makes me feel vaguely ill... and I did not go into this looking to be offended. It doesn't change my reaction, though.

A new game.

http://www.white-wolf.com/pimp/index.php?line=intro

It's legal to hire 13 year olds now?
Or is this a joke?
I can't get REAL worked up about this if it actually is real. Come on, we live in the country that had a $hit fit over a 1/4 second booby flash but are okay with such things as Fear Factor, Who's Your Daddy?, and Bahbwa Walters running a game show with a baby as the prize and trying to play the whole thing off as "news". We had our cultural priorities screwed up long before this. This is just another insult and degradation to our culture in general, not just to blacks and women.
Insulting? Yes. Surprising? Not really.

Actually, I think that a lot of particulars of the real pimp culture are a lot more insulting and damaging to women and blacks than White Wolf's little opus.

But I agree with you: There are many more disgusting fish in much bigger ponds.

BTW...Elf porn...have at it. You can't exactly objectify something that does not exist. Though there are some ways were elf=woman, but put some men elves in there, and okay.

BUT, don't tell me if I don't like elf porn that I am some kind of humorless, werido.

That is how you marginalize people. Period.

Gah. See... man. I don't know how to express this. I'm not trying to try White Wolf in absentia over some cosmic crime. I'm sad that this really bothers me, and that a company I've had a good relationship with is behind it. That means that people I know did this, and I'm having problems reconciling that.

I mean, this isn't the first tasteless/disturbing product White Wolf has put out, and it won't be the last. I've never had a problem with the stuff they did before, but I'm having a problem with this. I'm trying to sort out why that is,.

I guess in part it does come down to, yes, our nation has had its cultural priorities messed up for a long time. Too many people over too many different places who can't even agree on where to go for dinner, much less where to spend money and who is worthy of help when it comes down to it. My friends and acquaintances didn't number within that greater, faceless mass of society, though. They were people I knew and in whom I felt a relative degree of trust. And now a company I've worked for is putting out something hat is really troubling to me, which makes it all too real. It may be a small fish in a small pond, but it happens to be my pond too, damnit.

Just because greater problems exist doesn't mean that noticing the small ones isn't worthwhile. I can't suddenly erase the pimp culture and make it all better everywhere. I can finally stop being polite and say, okay, I've had enough. If it takes a card game to do that... well, then so be it.

You wanna get REALLY depressed? Go rent or buy "Network" and watch it. Then come back and try to figure out what from that movie has NOT been tried by cable or regular network television since then.
And it was supposed to be a parody/sad sommentary on pop culture...

Well if nothing else, it got LJ active. :)

I can see that as a good thing.

Course I am a notorious optimist so my advice might not be the best. :)

Fair enough. I don't know. My personal philosophies keep intruding on the issue, I guess.

Do what ya gotta do. I'll buy you a cuppa at Origins and we can talk. :)

Another depressing thing is...
You know why they put this out? Because people will buy it. Anymore it seems you can call a man's mother a whore and piss on her grave in front of him and he will pay you for the privilege of watching you do it as long as:
1. He doesn't have to expend effort
2. You can make him giggle somewhere in the performance
3. You can run an ad TELLING him to like it
We can despise this and rave against all we want but it won't stop it because in the end money talks and good taste walks.

My gods but I'm jaded as all hell. And I got this way AFTER having a kid.

You're on. :)

So, just let me know when you start shaking your cane and telling those damn kids to get off your lawn. :)

What it has me wondering is whether it will be on sale at Origins, or whether it will be considered the equivalent of "Prison Bitch." (Just curious; I'm not going to be buying a copy.)

Spike

You're a humorless weirdo. *MooCow ducks*

Yeah, but I don't NEED to be told that. ;-)

ROFLMAO
Actually, I continually see myself growing up to be like Red Foreman from That 70's Show. Only not QUITE as bad.

And probably with less hair. *Sigh*

So all they had to do to make Pimp acceptable was put some elf ears on all the characters? Or maybe make them all vampires? Or both! Vampire Elf Elf Pimp: The Bloodsucking Bow-swinging!

Disclaimer: Above all meant in jest.

Not exactly. If you read my actual objection to the whole thing, they can print whatever tacky shit they want. I don't have as much of a problem with the subject matter as I do the fact that they are telling people if you don't like it, there is something wrong and weird with you. That is the very definition of marginalization.

If it were elf pimps, or orc pimps mocking this, but it still had the same "statement", then I would still be pissed. Though if you take the human aspect off of it, it does in fact defuse some of it. I liked the tymiscaran's idea of making all the pics, white high school boys. See the difference?

I also feel they have a greater responsibility to the gaming community due to their market share. They need to consider that. I have been talking to a lot of Vamp players. If anyone wants to put in a competitive vamp game, then I think they need to put it on the front burner. Gamer chicks don't like being told what to do.

So far my whole take on the issue was that WW is not telling people "there is something wrong with you" so much as them responding to everyone who is saying they are making an offensive game that belittles abuse and/or has racial stereotype undertones.

Again, it's just my take on it, but it seems to me that WW is replying to the above mentioned people that "we aren't trying to do any of that, we're making a game that is built on exaggeration and humour."

. I liked the tymiscaran's idea of making all the pics, white high school boys. See the difference?

Yep.

And just to say, the original comment was all in jest (points to reply he made to it) but glad I can better understand your stance on it.

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