Unsafe Arkh-itecture
So as you may or may not be aware, I look for my stories on multiple fronts. 4chan, Tumblr, Twitter, Facebook, and even right here on WordPress. And one hot-button issue that was sticking out to me for a long time was this indie video game called “The Arkh Project.” Now, it’s not in my nature to “write off” an indie title, so to speak, but I do have strong feelings when it comes to gaming of all kinds. So naturally I looked into their work, their business practices, their attitude, the quality of their product, and did my best to soak in as much information as I could. Now, normally this is nothing to report on, but I took it as far as I could and had a long exchange with the face of the Arkh Project, operator of the “Dumb Things White People Say” blog, a gender-neutral party called “Riley.” I won’t paste the entire exchange here, because my journalistic integrity prevents me from superficially bloating my article, and while I dislike the notion of giving their blog hits, I much prefer sharing the information at its source than I do wasting space on my own site. Instead, I’ll provide you with the cliffnotes, to spare you the arduous task of having required reading to understand this article.
(Warning: Clumsy pronouns. “Riley” is described as gender-neutral, and therefore is referred to as “they” instead of “he” or “she.” I’m not much for it because it sounds off, but for the sake of politeness I can’t object.)
Stage One: I submit an “ask” on their blog, requesting simply that they explain why they respond with negativity to new and sincere questions, when their blog is designed to welcome inquiry. They direct me to the comments on the post, instead of answering the question on their own. The comments do not serve to answer my question, and instead the nature of questions is discussed, and how people dislike what they call “loaded” questions, despite my sincere desire to receive an honest answer.
Stage Two: A mutually long-winded discourse followed after I posted a follow-up question. At every turn I am asked to define words that I use. Not because they misunderstand these words, but because- as will be obvious to you, I’m sure- they wish to direct the conversation away from the original point using something that isn’t quite infinite regression, but certainly felt like it.
Stage Three: After various instances of verbal riposte on my end, and as their side of the discussion became more and more adamant about inconclusive instances- for instance, to paraphrase, “how do you know you can trust someone?” or “what gives these people any special insight on my particular situation?”- the conversation began to break down on their end. While I remained stalwart in my generous responses, doing precisely as they asked and defining every word at every turn, they did their best to attack the credibility of any party that was not them. Does this remind you of anyone?
Stage Four: The discussion dissolved, and they did not post my final response, instead opting to make passive aggressive post-discussion remarks about how the definitions I provided were “arbitrary.” Despite them being paraphrased or cohesively derived from longstanding dictionary definitions.
But that doesn’t approach the technical nitty-gritty of what I discovered. Let’s start with low poly models. Now, I know all about alpha graphics. Double Fine Adventure, Bastion, I’ve seen how bad they can be. But let’s pair this with their concept art. And let’s combine the two of those with their abandoning Kickstarter for Indiegogo- presumably because Kickstarter forces a refund if you don’t get the appropriate funding within the allotted window, and they couldn’t take the heat of pitching an not-engaging-whatsoever concept and not getting money thrown at them for it.
From this whole exchange, and all this information, we can discern that The Arkh Project is a do not buy, past, present, and future. Doing so supports bigoted individuals who do not maintain interests beyond themselves, and those kinds of people are the exact individuals doing major damage to the games industry. I urge you, reader, to ignore this product outright beyond this post. No boycott, no outcry, but most importantly, no financial attention. Voting with your wallet is the most powerful message you can send. Pull funding, put a stop on your transactions, devote your resources toward a project that actually cares about people, like a relief fund, or maybe something to feed the starving and destitute. Not this. Not a slap in the face to gaming, the LGBT*Q community at large, and to social progress everywhere with this backward attempt at personifying reverse plain ol’ racism in a digital, interactive form.
That’s anti-gaming, anti-social, and anti-decency. And that, obviously, is bad.
Gears of War has Augustus “The Cole Train” Cole, just off the top of my head. He’s as well-trained and competent as his brothers in arms.
Katamari Damacy represents everyone equally as a speck on the ever-growing Katamari.
Jet Grind/Set Radio comes to mind as well, as titles that are inclusive to otherwise underrepresented people while also appealing to a large audience of so-called “regular” gamers.
Rockstar’s “The Ballad of Gay Tony” DLC for Grand Theft Auto IV is both respectful to the parties it portrays and appealing to people who love the game.
But if you want me to create a game idea that’s inclusive of underrepresented parties, that’s easy. How about a young female necromancer from the jungles of South America who goes on a mission with her mummified ancestor to activate a beacon in Chichen Itza and call down Quetzalcoatl to purge the world and set the stage for her to rule it?
How about a game where you play as a Chinese dragon tamer and have to work together with your flying reptile familiars to overcome obstacles and fight against deadly monsters?
How about a head-to-head game with a double campaign where one player is the South American necromancer and the other player is the Chinese dragon tamer, and they have to fight each other in the end to determine the fate of the world?
No offense meant, of course, but all it takes is the mildest spark of creativity to come up with something more compelling and engaging than what the Arkh Project is offering.
For more information on deviating from the “norm” of fantastical writing, you can check out “Not Playing in Tolkein’s Yard,” another article on this blog.
Quick! Create a game idea inclusive of minorities that will also appeal to regular gamers! :p
I agree that plurality comes off as too impersonal, but “Riley” has provided no other adequate way to refer to them. I wouldn’t want them to spend a whole article referring to me as “Metal Slug Girl,” so I’m just abiding by that Golden Rule I love so much. I do apologize if that section reads clumsily, as per the warning.
I would not personally disagree using a gendered pronoun to describe a non-gendered or transgendered entity, given such restrictions in English. Plurality comes off as too impersonal or formal in this given context, in my opinion.
Goodness, that would be too clumsy. And it’s on “Riley’s” own request that I use “they/them” pronouns. The preference was made known on their blog.
Riley isn’t a “they”. The word “they” is a plural pronoun, and should never be used to refer to one person. I know exactly where you got the idea that it could be used in the singular form from. Please edit the pronouns in your post to “it”.
You raise some good questions. First and foremost being why I would be curious about a company’s attitude. Then you made some allegations about why you thought I would do so, but those were incorrect.
Fact of the matter is, consumers have a right to know the people behind their product. If these are people that would treat a potential customer poorly due to their gender identity or racial identity, then the consumers need to know. It’s as simple as that. If the creator of a product discriminates, and you don’t wish to promote their behavior by buying their product, you shouldn’t buy the product. Simple as that.
The name “Riley” was maintained in quotations just as I’d expect someone to put my name, “Metal Slug Guy” in quotations. Because there is no way of knowing what my actual name is. Likewise, “Riley” has an avatar of a character from The Boondocks, who is named Riley. It really is that simple.
My readership is not simply tumblr, and some people may not understand gender pronouns. And with the preferred “they/them/their” being what I had to work with, I shared with my readers that I found it clumsy to use, because “they/them/their” also applies easily to plural parties, but I was referring to a singular entity. I did not want people to be confused. There’s nothing wrong with that.
Now, I will admit fault to the usage of “reverse racism,” because in hindsight, just “racism” says enough. Anyone who discriminates against others due to their race is plainly a racist, no bones about it.
My feelings and sense of pride have nothing to do with my work as a blogger. I write my articles based on events that have taken place, not how I personally feel about them. I advocate for consumers on this blog. As a consumer advocate, I advised against funding the Arkh Project because it is- as has been made public knowledge through various avenues- a poor financial decision.
I hope, sincerely, that this response clarifies things as much as we can agree is necessary. And I hope, with equal sincerity, that you have a wonderful day- or night, depending on where you are. Thank you for stopping by.
I really don’t want to give you attention because you seem to want it so badly, but this post grossed me out to the point that I just have to say something. Or a few things. When you discovered Arkh, why was investigating the company’s “attitude” one of the most important things to you? I don’t think I’ve heard that as something to look for in a video game team. So what’s up with that? Did something about a project from PoC trigger the idea of angry minorities to you? Did you feel that it was your job to police them? Honestly, take a good long look at your motivating factors. Next, why did you have to put Riley’s name in quotes consistently? If you’re kidding yourself by saying you were going for a journalistic standard, no style sheet is going to support you, so you managed to fail that, too. Nah, what it looks like is a sad attempt to undermine Riley’s identity. And that? That’s really fucked up. And speaking of fuckery–the disclaimer that OUT OF POLITENESS, you’ll use what you think are clumsy pronouns. You know that’s a rude sentence. I was planning on making a drinking game to this post as I went along, but at that point, I had to finish my drink early. Transphobic remarks as a way of showing your integrity? Cool. And then you actually said “reverse racism.” Like that is a thing. You said “reverse racism” like it’s something that exists. I can’t even.
Listen, I’m white, too. And it takes work to stop being an asshole because you were brought up in a racist society. If you honestly try, though, you can make strides towards it. Trying starts with letting go of your ego and listening to people. Can you imagine how much shit Riley has to put up with for being strong enough to demand the rights and respect they deserve? People get real fucking angry when Black people dare to want a semblance of what we white people get. I know your feelings got hurt in this, and, more devastatingly, your ego did. That’s nowhere near the burden that Riley deals with every day for running such a needed blog. Making this post wasn’t the decent thing that you “advocate” for. Walk the walk, man.
Sure thing, it’s never my intention to be offensive. It’s good of you to say please.
Riley isn’t a “she.” I don’t know where you got that idea from. Please edit the pronouns in your post to they/them/their.