Games don’t exist in a vacuum and therefore can’t be divorced from the larger cultural context of the real world.

Of course. That quote from Feminist Frequency’s Women versus Tropes series makes sense. And this truism is exactly the reason why this list exists. I consider the “real world” work of Feminist Frequency damaging to the world of video games, and will try to show how and why.

Let’s start with something possibly unexpected. Are there things I like about Feminist Frequency videos? Yes. They are well produced, not boring, and Anita Sarkeesian is a charismatic speaker.

(Speaking of the speaker, please remember that Feminist Frequency is a duo, and there are two writers: Jonathan McIntosh and Anita Sarkeesian. It is debatable who does the majority of the work or if they both contribute equally — but there is little doubt that Sarkeesian as the speaker was the right choice for Feminist Frequency due to her charisma.)

The other thing I like about Feminist Frequency is the fact that their videos started a very long, very interesting debate. Yes, that debate was started for the wrong reasons. It’s like discovering a long lost love letter on the floor just because the bed covering it was stolen along with all other furniture. So yes, of course, I do think that the debate on the quality of game writing or design could have been kick-started in other, more positive way. Still, it is what it is and we all learned a lot thanks to the whole affair.

That’s about it as for the good things. There’s so much wrong in the Tropes versus Women series it’s mind-boggling. It actually starts with the title of the series itself. Tropes are tools, like metaphors. Imagine a series called Metaphors versus Women.

My initial personal experience with the series was a very short one. As a designer I am very interested in anything design- or writing-related that can teach me or inspire me, so I was curious what the series is all about. I watched about ten minutes of the first episode, laughed at the incompetency, sighed at the contempt and the condescending tone, and closed the page.

I never anticipated the series to gain any real traction, or to be deeply influential. I was clearly wrong. The episodes were and still are heavily promoted by basically all of the major gaming press, and with the help of the aggressive idiots and harassers — who Feminist Frequency expertly aikidoed into boosting their recognition and influence — the series gained incredible level of popularity. The first episode of the series has over 2.3 million views. There is a significant 50–70% drop for the later videos, but the numbers are still impressive.

There are three reasons why I care about this.

First, if you only read the mainstream gaming press, you would never guess a critique of Feminist Frequency exists, even if some of those videos have hundreds of thousands of views. And even if you could find a mention, it more often is a link to the defenders of Feminist Frequency “proving” how bad that critique was than anything actually challenging Feminist Frequency work. Meanwhile, I have been writing this post for over a month mostly because the sheer amount of the critique was astounding, and thus the research took me weeks.

Second, I would probably not care as much if not for the fact that the alternate reality created by Feminist Frequency along with some of the mainstream gaming press is affecting game design and writing, and not in a good way. Players are already complaining about the blandness of the latest Borderlands or Dragon’s Age: Inquisition (example discussion here). I have written on the cardboard “strong female characters” in Dying Light myself. The work of Feminist Frequency is one of the reasons for the stifled creativity we start to observe in game writing and design. This is basically censorship through social pressure.

Note that neither censorship nor social pressure are inherently bad. We don’t show pornography to children, and this is obviously a good thing in our book. But in this case, the pressure exists for all the wrong reasons and ruins the work of designers and writers who cave to it.

Third, at the end of the day, it’s simply about the truth, the right and wrong, and separating the wheat from the chaff. Sure, I am bothered by the press not offering their megaphone to the opposite voices, but lots of gamers rejected Feminist Frequency work anyway, and, as this post proves, produced a great number of counters. Sure, I am bothered by the politics negatively affecting the work of fellow developers, but I’m sure some of them go for it because they deeply believe in the worldview of the extreme left, and not because they’re afraid that the press will destroy their game for featuring a sexy NPC (because sexism) or racist NPC (because apparently NPCs = creators). Although that is certainly something to be at least a little bit concerned about.

I do care, however, about logic, reason, and truth. There will be people who read parts of this post, find something they do not like and their bias will dismiss the entire list wholesale. But I hope that others will try to dig in with an open mind and find the post useful, even if imperfect.

For two years Feminist Frequency have not addressed any real critique of their work, and neither of the writers has ever engaged in any sort of debate with any of the critics. This list — as a compilation, even if personal — is a proof that the quality critique exists. Hopefully it will not only help some people understand the problems with Feminist Frequency work, but also inspire them to continue the adventure of looking deep into the issues and challenges of writing and design. It’s a fascinating subject, way bigger than whatever we talk about here.

For obvious reason I am not including my own critique in the list, but I will mention it here to show I ultimately did watch and analyzed all of Feminist Frequency videos before I even attempted to compile this list. You can find a trilogy of longer essays here: Context Matters: On Feminist Frequency, Joss Whedon and Cherry-Picking

If you follow me on Twitter, you know I sometimes tweet on the subject as well, and here’s a couple of my favorite ones.

Now, we’re finally getting to the actual list. It’s divided into three parts: Consider Reading/Watching, Should Read/Watch (#10–6) and Must Read/Watch (#5–1).

Note this is a quite personal, subjective list. I am sure I missed something great (let me know if I did), but if I kept digging we’d see this list in 2016. And even that is not a guarantee, as new great articles keep popping up all the time— apart from the ongoing discussion on various forums.

More importantly, all critiques here — with only three exceptions as far as I recall — have two common elements: a) quality, b) civility. There might be some mildly offensive stuff here and there; Feminist Frequency can mock developers and call their work “crap”, there is no reason why their critics cannot do the same to their work.

However, I still tried to choose only the best cool-headed writers and YouTubers. One can rarely convince anyone to truly change their mind through aggression and anger. Sure, expletive-ridden rants with good arguments can have some use — they offer your fans some fact ammo for future conversations outside of the echo chamber — but sooner or later someone needs to be civil in order to be heard.

Also, I have focused as much as possible on the critique of the Feminist Frequency work and not anything surrounding it, as most of such critique is weak at best. For example, some people cannot live with the fact that Feminist Frequency disabled the comments under their YouTube videos. Something I would also do and recommend if I were certain that half of the posts will be incoherent ramblings offensive enough to make a sailor blush and faint. That is not attacking the freedom of speech, and this particular thing cannot be assumed the fear of criticism.

The stuff listed here is not without its own problems. Nothing is perfect, and neither is this list. If you really dig deep, you might even find that one critique contradicts another, e.g. on the question of NPC agency. However, unlike the work of Feminist Frequency — the problems of which form their own ten-dimensional universe — nothing here is outrageous enough to warrant a wholesale dismissal.

Finally, this was not my intention, as I do not judge the book by the author’s cover — but somehow the critics of Feminist Frequency work listed here are people of all colors, genders, and sexual orientation. Again, this was not done on purpose, and I have only noticed that after I had the list compiled. Still, I am quite happy about this.

CONSIDER READING/WATCHING

There are tons of articles and videos that did not make this list. And there are tons of articles and videos that did, just weren’t impactful or deep or inspiring enough for me to choose them over other entries in my Top Ten. Sometimes it was, for example, just the question of length; an article might have been brilliant, just very short.

But whatever is the reason, let’s be absolutely clear that there might be stuff here that would be your number one if you compiled the list instead. It’s all good critique with some interesting observations. In general, don’t get to too hang up on what article/video is at what place or in which section. This numbered list is mostly just a fun framing for a serious subject.

Here is the select ten:

SHOULD READ/WATCH

Continuing my personal selection of Feminist Frequency critique, here are five articles and videos that I recommend if you don’t want to limit your experience to the absolute must-reads/sees only.

10. The Broadcast on Feminist Frequency

If you want to understand how bad Feminist Frequency is, watching their videos is a good place to start. Here is an extremely short (1:20) video that has some of the Feminist Frequency problems perfectly encapsulated.

Watched it? Fun, clever video, right? How can it be a manipulative lie?

Take a look at just one sentence:

“Ultimately what you dudes are saying is that in addition to Edward being emotionally abusive you want Edward to be violent, sadistic, and physically abusive.”

First, I am stunned that apparently anyone wanting a vampire to be a vampire is doing it wrong. You are bad and you should feel bad for expecting a vampire to be “physically abusive”. What’s next, a shark that can’t bite? A villain that can’t offend?

Second, note the bolded fragment. This is simply a lie. No one said that or implied that. Not that it would be wrong to do so — more on that in a second — but quite simply no one said that, period. That is putting words into someone else’s mouth.

Third, what exactly would be wrong with a movie about violent, sadistic, physically and emotionally abusive guy who plays the supporting role to the female protagonist? Say, like Silence of the Lambs?

So yes, not many things will open your eyes to the awfulness of Feminist Frequency better than Feminist Frequency themselves. Just be aware of the manipulation and enjoy the ride. And let’s not get our knickers in a twist here, it is all just entertainment, and Feminist Frequency never claimed their work should be taken too seriously, or used as an educational help.