News: Playing Video Games Does Not Cause Sexism

Study Reveals Anita Skeeter Is Full of Shit

For the longest time now we have been hearing pseudo academics and faux journalists alike peddling the same garbage, as the parasitic Anita Skeeters of this industry have based their one chief criticism of gaming on academic theory rather than academic fact. That primary assertion is that exposure to sexist content and attitudes within fictional worlds will lead to a person normalising such conduct and attitudes, and then externalising said sexism to the outside world. Not even this academic theory is original though, as it was originally conceived as ‘Cultivation Theory’, a theory which sought to tie violent television consumption to the increased perception that the outside world is a disproportionately dangerous place. Gender theorists, lacking an original notion of their own, appropriated this concept as their own, and Anita Skeeter began to speak about its overarching claims as though they were proven fact rather than untested theorising. This week the results of a three year study have surfaced to rain down shit upon the gender warriors parade!

In the article Sexist Gamers? A Longitudinal Study on the Relationship Between Video Game Use and Sexist Attitudes Johannes Breuer, Rachel Kowert, Ruth Festl, and Thorsten Quandt set about studying the effects that exposure to video games had on attitudes towards sexism over a three year period. The study randomly selected 902 subjects from a sample of 12,587 gamers. Subjects were all older than 14 years of age, and the sample as a whole averaged 24 years of age. Breuer et al. collected data on two occasions throughout the duration of the study – during year one and year three. Subjects were asked the frequency with which they were playing games, and genre preference was ascertained by having subjects rate action, FPS, and RPG genres on a five point scale. Sexist attitudes were then measured using the sex-role orientation scale by Brogan and Kutner. Age and education were controlled for.

Predictably, the only statistically significant influence which was seen to exert itself on the attitudes of the subjects throughout the three year period was the fact that increases in age and education have a negative correlation with sexist attitudes. On the other hand the only correlation seen between gaming and sexism was statistically insignificant, and thus meaningless. Further, there were no meaningful correlations between preferred genre and attitudes towards sexism. Sorry [not sorry] to all the gender hustlers out there, but frankly this study was a complete bust for anyone looking to hang shit on video gaming.

When the Going Gets Hard, Mattrick Gets Gone

How does one adequately relay a contented sigh to a piece of formal writing? No matter, this week it appears that Don Mattrick has determined that Zynga is a lost cause, and fled like a rodent from this sinking ship in much the same way as he exited Microsoft after completely bollocksing their strategy for the Xbox One – or perhaps it was the other way around. Of course Zynga has not admitted as much, claiming that the parting was mutual – which means that one party or the other was certainly cucked.

Mattrick will be remembered for ending diversity among the Xbox 360s first and second party line-up, bringing the Kinect to market, and overseeing the design and marketing of the Xbox One. Quite why Zynga thought he would be able to turn their business around is something of a mystery, yet thought it they did, and payed out of their buttholes as a result. Mattrick failed to turn around Zynga’s business, and cost much more in the bargain; as part of his golden parachute he will receive four million dollars paid over a period of two years, a further one million dollar bonus, along with millions of dollars in company shares. And so it is back to the future for Zynga, who have elected to reappoint failed CEO Mark Pincus to run the company farther into the ground – tanking the company shareprice from $2.90 to $2.60. Mattrick for his part has parted with an utterly vacuous defense of his time at Zynga:

“When I joined the company in July 2013, Mark and I shared a vision of building a meaningful company that redefines entertainment in an increasingly mobile world. I am proud of the progress we have made together. I believe the timing is now right for me to leave as CEO and let Mark lead the company into its next chapter given his passion for the founding vision and his ability to couple our mobile progress with Zynga’s unique strengths. As a company, Zynga is in a stronger position today to serve mobile consumers and take advantage of the unprecedented growth opportunity across our industry. I am excited about the company’s trajectory and wish the best for Mark, Zynga and NaturalMotion as I plan to return to Canada to pursue my next challenge.”

The Passing of a Legend: Richie Benaud 1930 – 2015

If there is one thing which symbolised the beginning of summer for any Australian, it was almost certainly the sound of Richie Benaud’s iconic voice as he enthusiastically rang in the opening of Australia’s domestic cricket season. It was a voice so iconic that all Australians from preschool to pension knew it instinctively, irrespective of whether they watched cricket or not. It was a voice full of warmth and dry humour, and it will be sorely missed.

Benaud’s career as an international cricketer began in January of 1952 and ran until February of 1964, from 1958 onwards he captained the side during which time the Australian cricket team did not lose a series. Throughout this time Richie became the first international all-rounder to accrue both two-hundred wickets and two-thousand runs, racking up 248 wickets and 2201 runs by the end of his career. Richie’s contribution to the game as a player was already enough to insure his immortality among the cricketing pantheon, yet it is for his parsimonious commentary that he will be most warmly remembered among fans of the game, particularly those which hail from Australia and England, for his work for Channel 9, Channel 4, and the BBC.

Richie was diagnosed with skin cancer in November of 2014 and died in his sleep on the 10th of April 2015. The family of Richie Benaud has been offered a state funeral by Prime Minister Tony Abbott, yet this offer was later declined:

“This is the greatest loss for cricket since the loss of Don Bradman and for that reason I’m pleased to have offered the Benaud family a state funeral. There would be very few Australians who have not passed a summer in the company of Richie Benaud. He was the accompaniment of an Australian summer, his voice was even more present than the chirping of the cicadas in our suburbs and towns, and that voice, tragically, is now still.”

Richie Benaud, Lusipurr.com salutes you. Godspeed!