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It’s funny how deja vu things are in the games industry at the moment, because just recently I wrote a little OP about how today’s games journalists like to inject social activism and SJW nonsense into pretty much everything that they cover (I got another OP coming up about GDC 2017 on the topic of social activism in the games industry). Well, it appears as if I will have to cover a similar story yet again. You see, I was just informed that Jonathan Holmes (writer for Nintendo Force and Destructoid) said the following in an interview with Polygamer (the interview took place yesterday, 2017-03-01):

“It’s not the same kind of sexual objectification that I think could make things like the Dead or Alive series of fighting games problematic because they just actively promote like beating a woman”– Jonathan Holmes, via Polygamer (36:00-36:15)

Holy jumping Gaming gods…“the Dead or Alive series of fighting games problematic because they just actively promote like beating a woman”. I’m going to try my very best to digest that one (I take it that Holmes was serious about the matter, as he sounded pretty serious to me). Right off the bat, since the dawn of fighting and beat-em-up games there have been female and male characters who have beaten the living hell out of each other (female vs female, male vs male, female vs male). Furthermore, every single female character in the DOA series are a deadly fighting machine. Simply put, I wouldn’t even think about jumping in the ring with them in real life. As I know that I would receive a lot of heavy blows to my body (I’m not a fighting pro like they are).

I also don’t like the idea of hitting a woman in real (that’s just how I am). However, the DOA series is fictional. So I don’t have any second thoughts about punching the lights out of a female opponent that tries to do the same thing against me, and that is how I’ve been thinking for years (from old-school titles like “Street Fighter II”, “Streets of Rage” to up-to-date releases like “Tekken 7” and “King of Fighters XIV“).

Sure, Jonathan Holmes is free to think and say what he will. Even so, I just couldn’t help to feel that his statement about the DOA series was very bizarre. Especially since he could say the same exact thing about every fighting and beat-em-up game ever released (pretty much). It’s also worth pointing out that Polygamer is an anti-GamerGate site:

“Full disclosure: I support Zoë Quinn and Randi Harper and previously supported Brianna Wu on Patreon.” – Ken Gagne, owner of Polygamer 2015-08-26

Furthermore, Holmes (who’s a anti-GamerGate supporter and friend of Zoë Quinn) is the person behind the “There are gamers at the gate, but they may already be dead” article, and that post is considered to be part of the “Gamers are dead” media blitz that took place back in August of 2014. In other words, his one of the reasons behind why #GamerGate even got started in the first place. So I take it that’s the reason why Holmes mentioned his beef with GG in his recent interview with Ken Gagne of Polygamer. As Holmes stated that GG used to be after him, but not so much anymore as they are too busy being Trump supporters (I find it hard to believe that every single GG supporter is a Trump fan, but that seems to be what Holmes believes).

In the matter of fact, Holmes stated that GG even tried to get him fired from his job…And that GG tried to hack his credit card, bank account and Steam account (Holmes states that around 31:00 in his interview with Polygamer). However, I’m not aware if Holmes have any evidence to back that claim up (funny enough, Polygamer’s Ken Gagne didn’t ask Holmes if he could prove that to be true), but I know for a fact that he did mention that he doesn’t feel safe writing about #GamerGate. I’m sorry to hear that, but quite a few people have been lying about GG harassment in the past. So I have no idea if there is any truth at all to that. I can tell you about the other side of the coin though.

As I’ve been receiving a lot of personal insults and threats from SJWs and anti-GG folks as of lately (you will find an example of that in the picture down below). Well, let’s just say that the so-called “good” guys (SJWs, anti-GamerGate) are anything but nice folks. Hell, one of them even said that he would try to track me down in real and smack my head in with a baseball bat (that “incident” took place last year when I wrote about FFXV).

All In all, though, since I’m more than sick and tired of political correctness, corruption and SJW/feminazi propaganda in general (which goes on 24/7 in Sweden). I simply couldn´t help myself from cringing like crazy when I listened through the whole interview with Holmes. As I buzzwords like “problematic“, “sexist” and “CIsgender male” set the tone from the very start. Holmes also stated that #GamerGate’s “witch hunt” after Zoë Quinn was absolutely disgusting, since she’s innocent (which he did around the 33:00 mark in his interview with Polygamer). So I’m going to leave it at that, and you guys can give Polygamer’s interview with Jonathan Holmes a listen for yourselves. Then you can decide what to make of it on your own. I’ll have you know that he doesn’t like the deepfreeze website all that much though…

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***Update 1 – 2017-03-13 – 14:10 CET***

I (Robin Ek, TGG) was just informed that Jonathan Holmes have published a response post to my OP about him and his statement about DOA games = Promoting beating of women. Well, I can’t say that I’m all that surprised by Holmes response really:

“That’s the quote attributed to me in the article in question. Did I actually say that? Probably. I didn’t listen to the episode myself, and we recorded it weeks ago, so I don’t really remember. But I’m going to trust that this quote is accurate. Maybe it was during the tangent where I talked about how Lollipop Chainsaw can be empowering and fun? I’m not sure”. – Jonathan Holmes, Destructoid



The quote in question:

“It’s not the same kind of sexual objectification that I think could make things like the Dead or Alive series of fighting games problematic because they just actively promote like beating a woman”- Jonathan Holmes, via Polygamer (36:00-36:15)



Sure, Holmes did try to explain his point more thoroughly. Nevertheless, he did a really bad job defending himself against the points that I brought up in this post (“Did I actually say that? Probably. I didn’t listen to the episode myself, and we recorded it weeks ago, so I don’t really remember.”– That sounds like something a politician would say when the person in question has been caught with his or her pants down). Furthermore, Holmes didn’t even bother to add a link to my post either…So it’s pretty much impossible for the Destructoid readers to get any context at all to what Homes talked about in his post (both sides of the story). Oh well…I did what I could. So feel free to read Jonathan Holmes response post to me and shape your own opinion on it.

And with that said, what is your take on this matter? Let us know your thoughts in the comment section down below!

Source:

Destructoid

Polygamer

The Jonathan Holmes interview with Polygamer

Steam

The GamerGate Boycott List

Gameobjective

Credit:

Just Lyle

DukeMagus

***Disclaimer***

This is a personal opinion of the writer, and it doesn’t necessarily represent the other writers (nor The Gaming Ground´s) opinions.



Robin “V-Act” Ek

The Gaming Ground

Twitter: @TheGamingGround

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Tags: Dead or Alive, Dead or Alive 5, Destructoid, DOA, Jonathan Holmes, Nintendo Force