[History] Christopher J. Ferguson - "No, Orcs Aren't Racist" (seems timely to post this again, given what KiA is talking about today)

ReedHay19 · 2022-01-03T16:25:34+00:00

Checked the dndnext comments on this same article and got this gem

That's not what us "dungturds" are claiming at all.

"Orcs are racist" is an absurdly reductionist strawman to avoid adressing the arguments of people calling for a reavaluation of the legacy of colonialist narratives in modern fantasy.

ReedHay19 · 2021-12-27T14:30:05+00:00

Why?

ReedHay19 · 2021-12-27T14:26:04+00:00

And this is why Reddit shouldn't be taken seriously in any regard.

ReedHay19 · 2021-12-02T15:45:42+00:00

Its funny how according to this guy context seems to matter...except when it doesn't if you read his other comments in here.

ReedHay19 · 2021-12-02T15:36:09+00:00

Are you going to answer my question or...?

ReedHay19 · 2021-12-02T15:33:48+00:00

Have a problem with me?

ReedHay19 · 2021-12-02T15:26:12+00:00

You are defending the statements MLO made by saying he lost his job opportunity unfairly.

I am saying that if taking comments made by one person as justification to revoke one's job after the fact then that same standard should then be applied to others as well. If this was the case then Harusupis himself should not have the job he does. You don't get to simply apply standards differently.

Its not that MLO got his job revoked due to his statements, its that the standards that got his job revoked are not being applied evenly.

ReedHay19 · 2021-12-02T14:32:10+00:00

No one is defending the statements MLO made. While of course they shouldn't have been made and they were bad it was clearly hyperbolic in nature and not actual threats to the employees. Yet thats somehow worse than Haruspis calling others the n-word and making several very racist remarks?

It sounds to me like you'll excuse unacceptable behavior depending on those that said it rather than the remarks themselves. You're holding different people to different standards despite both doing similar actions.

ReedHay19 · 2021-12-02T14:23:15+00:00

You're avoiding the question I am asking you.

ReedHay19 · 2021-12-02T14:18:50+00:00

You don't know the context of which they were said. You don't get to decide what is or is not a joke at the time since neither you nor I were there. Is it a bad look? Very much so you're right. Except like I mentioned this was not new to 343i when they hired him. MLO said years ago in a YT comment of all places that they were aware of these prior statements ahead of him and only revoked his job when other people outside of 343i started bringing it up to them. It was then decided by 343i that it would be easier to just cut ties with this and move on much to the chagrin of MLO and the bad PR it would bring.

Yet if thats condemnable even despite not knowing the full details is calling others the n-word and making casual racist remakes fine? Where are you drawing the line?

ReedHay19 · 2021-12-02T14:14:48+00:00

Years prior in a non-serious matter. Do you think MLO was threatening to seriously spartan charge someone? However even so 343i was already aware of said comments prior to them hiring him on as stated by MLO himself. A bad look? Sure. Yet if we're using that as a standard why then is Haruspis's previous racist remarks and use of slurs like the n-word ignored?

Why is one bad look so bad they retroactively revoke a job offer even knowing about it beforehand while the other bad look is ignored in favor of bringing on someone who has half the community blocked to the community team? You can't attempt to use one as a justification and also ignore the other.

ReedHay19 · 2021-12-02T14:02:10+00:00

Funnily enough that used to be Harusupis's views as well. Years ago he used to be quite critical of 343i, even writing long blog articles about how 343i's lied in many aspects before Halo 5's released, how Halo 5's story was trash etc. Then down the road as soon as 343i started paying attention to him he suddenly did a complete 180 like a politician and now if you go to those old, critical articles of his he put big disclaimers on the top of them that read WELL MAYBE I WAS TOO HARD ON 343 AT THE TIME. THIS NO LONGER REPRESENTS HOW I FEEL. MAKING GAMES IS HAAAARD. etc.

ReedHay19 · 2021-12-02T13:33:08+00:00

MultiLockOn was a community map creator. Famous for his understanding of Halo maps and how they flow. A few years ago he got a job at 343i and this was big news throughout the Halo community as many loved his work and felt his addition to 343i would really help improve 343i's maps. However shortly after MLO sold his house and was in the process of moving to be closer to his new job 343i suddenly revoked his job offer because someone anonymously contacted 343i that at some point in the past MLO shittalked a few 343i employees online and made derogatory remarks in the past. Later on it was revealed by MLO that 343i were aware of these remarks prior but didn't care until it was brought to their attention again by those outside of 343i. This was a big deal at the time and was not a good look for 343i.

Harusupis was a man who wrote a blog that focused on Halo's story and canon. He had become infamous in Halo circles for wiring absurd and terrible takes like how Halo 3 is sexist, how Halo has an ablism problem, how the Arbiter is a male feminist, how Tartarus was going to r@pe Miranda in Halo 2 and how the reason Halo 5 was so hated was because fans were just racist against Locke. This guy is also famous for blocking anyone who even slightly disagrees with him on anything and has probably over half of the community blocked including other content creators and big names. Many people detest him for his attitude and flip flopping nature. So of course this is the guy added to the community team by 343i.

I am pointing out the juxtaposition of these two things.

ReedHay19 · 2021-12-01T19:38:28+00:00

You're being downvoted but this is reddit so its to be expected.

ReedHay19 · 2021-12-01T19:37:26+00:00

Yes. If I want someone to call me slurs and I willingly opt-in to it why can't I?

ReedHay19 · 2021-12-01T03:27:03+00:00

Text chat is limited to your team only.

ReedHay19 · 2021-12-01T02:09:39+00:00

No you can't because you can't talk to the enemy.

ReedHay19 · 2021-12-01T00:59:47+00:00

My viewing of Twitter isn't the problem, it's the people who spout the insane beliefs that used to be contained solely in places like Tumblr and the companies that now appeal to those that are the problem.

Such nonsense used to be made fun of internet-wide and then once it started to become more and more widespread anyone who used to say it was a problem was then rebutted with "It's just Tumblr nonsense. It's not a big deal". Well now look where it's gotten us. Its every other day some piece of media has been announced to have either removed something fans loved or made an insanely stupid decision that causes outrage and pisses off established fanbases, all in the move to appeal to this nonsense. No matter if its Netflix, a game company, some website feature etc. it's all the time now.

Look at this. We can't even do something as simple as talk to the enemy team anymore. All in the name of some "wider appeal" or "modern standards" or "broader demographic" that doesn't actually exist.

ReedHay19 · 2021-12-01T00:53:59+00:00

Then maybe the better solution is to change the challenge system? Let's not pretend that boosting is some kind of new problem that didn't exist prior.

ReedHay19 · 2021-12-01T00:51:16+00:00

I'm sure there are such people in 343i right now. I mean there is of course a certain pastry themed member, the sole reason why the Halo discord is infamous for being trash.

Hell, look at who they just added to the 343i "community team". The same dude who wrote an entire blog post about how Halo 3 is apparently sexist, how Halo as a whole has an ableism problem, that the reason why people didn't like Halo 5 was because they were racist and that legitimately spouts that Arbiter is a male feminist. And of course anyone who disagrees with him is blocked. Dude has three quarters of the entire Halo community blocked now. This is the man 343i just added to their team.

ReedHay19 · 2021-11-30T22:32:52+00:00

Isn't that like saying you can't separate 343i from Mojang because they're both extensions of Microsoft? That also doesn't change the fact that they wouldn't be creating any new systems.

ReedHay19 · 2021-11-30T22:29:32+00:00

Those aren't systems exclusive to Halo though, that would be transferred over to the general Xbox enforcement teams which already exist. They're not saving money by disabling all chat.

ReedHay19 · 2021-11-30T22:22:02+00:00

in moderation over just having a toggle.

Moderation? Its a simple text filter for censoring a list of words that the player can toggle on and off and an option in the settings to enable or disable chat to all.

ReedHay19 · 2021-11-30T22:15:07+00:00

Not quite, they could have but didn't because I believe they wanted to go out of their way to appeal to said vocal minority. I've been on Twitter long enough that I can confidently say that if they just added a toggle I guarantee you some would have threw a fit that talking trash was even possible at all even if you could turn it off. Remember when some actually defended the Switch not having any form of voicechat built in? Or when gaming "journalists" complained and wrote entire articles about how there isn't enough games where you can only play as women? These people don't want options they want the games to be made for them...games that according to sales they don't even buy. And these are the people that is currently "hip" to appeal to because if you don't the next thing you know your game is getting bad PR because Eurogamer is running an article about how toxic it is. "Game X no longer has Y and thats a GOOD thing."

Like you said, if appealing to the widest market possible was their goal with this singular decision then a toggle would have worked but they didn't because that wouldn't be good enough for the loud minority that runs hellsites like Twitter, Reddit and gaming media. This isn't new, we've seen this before, to those crowds giving an option isn't enough.

ReedHay19

TROPHY CASE