Ubisoft is trying to sue Lowtax.

[Benevolent_Ghaleon]

Ubisoft is threatening to take legal action against Richard "Lowtax" Kyanka because a member of the Something Awful forums sent (did not create personally) a comic depicting Jade Raymond fellating nerdy gamers to get them to buy Assassin's Creed.

I think this is hilarious. i've seen the comic and the comedy is epic. i also think Ubisoft should have seen this sort of thing coming since they basically used Jade's sex appeal to help the game out. They clearly don't like people noticing this and doing something comedic with it. again, the image wasn't created by a member of the forum and lowtax simply runs SA. Ubisoft is also ridiculous for thinking they could possibly eradicate this comic from the internet with legal threats. battling the whole net doesn't work.

discuss.

[ilovemyguitar]

I smell a ploy to generate more press coverage for their product.

[Nobiyuki77]

1) It wasn't a suit from what I understand. It was a cease and desist letter.

2) I agree that they're barking up the wrong tree, but I won't defend the comic. To be honest, it's quite tasteless and depicts the woman as someone who'll suck anyone off just to sell the game. There are plenty of far more mature and responsible ways this comic could have been done that might have made it funny. I'm all for free speech (especially as a comics artist myself), but I will not defend Chugworth on this one.

[Benevolent_Ghaleon]

Maybe i should rent it. From what i hear, Jade's game feels so good.

from what i understand, a member of the SA forums sent the comic to Ubisoft hoping that Jade would see it. maybe now they won't use sex appeal to help their games along.

I know it was sent to them by an SA Goon, but other than that it has no connection to lowtax. was he targeted because he's the only one to target that might have any money?

[Nobiyuki77]

That, I do not know. I'm not defending Ubisoft here. But I won't defend Chugworth either.

[Werefrog]

See... this is one of those things that show me that I'm not a gamer anymore. I had no clue about who Jade is or that UBIsoft is using sex appeal to sell the game.

I'll say it's a bit unfair to target UBI though. Have you ever been to a con before? Heck... have you ever seen photos of E3? They're definitely not the only ones that do it.

[Benevolent_Ghaleon]

i'd be beaten with plastic swords while writhing in a fit of pain/laughter if i ever entered a con. at least one that included cosplay, anyway. plus i hear it smells like body odor at those.

[Alunissage]

It surprises me not at all that you would find content like that hilarious. Of course one example of the all-pervasive sexism in marketing completely justifies a considerably more degrading version if it's funny.

How funny would it be if it were, say, a black male prostituting himself for game sales to white males?

The use of sex in all marketing is extremely disturbing, moreso than you may be able to imagine if you're not a member of the sex class (more commonly called "females"). However, given how very widespread it is, all this smacks of is a spurious excuse to enjoy and make humorous further degradation and pornification of a member of said class while claiming the high ground of protest. I avoid SA for obvious reasons (although I will sometimes read threads and such when directed there; I certainly won't claim that all the humor is revolting) and I think the woman depicted in the comic and Ubi would both be well within their rights to be furious. The link between the comic and Lowtax seems far too tenuous to be defensible, and knowing only what I see in this thread I don't think Ubi would be justified in doing more than requesting (demanding?) that the comic be taken down if it's posted there, but I'd like to hear of the creator of the comic getting a very hard kick where it will hurt the most.

On other topics, sometimes I feel I wouldn't mind braving a con in the hopes of seeing some good cosplay. I got really sick of the skanky skin&silicone variety at E3, but I rather liked this group:
http://pwrsrc.net/~charlie/DSC01594.JPG

[Sonic#]

OH, another Roman re-enactment group! I'm with the Fifth Cohort... we're much younger than the average ones, which look about like that. We've never gone to a con, but we do hold events.

I'll look up the comic in question later. Before that, I don't feel qualified to say anything else. ^^;;;

[phyco126]

Chugworth? WHERE?! I've been angry because that webcomic went down and was never updated after a while or put back up. Is it put back up? If so, WHERE?!

In other news, sex is a fact of life, and unfortunately, so is a bunch of young teenagers doing it too. Still, even Chugworths Academy, who obviously protrayed stuff like that, kinda put me off. I love the comic, but I just don't like seeing stuff like that portrayed. Then again, I'm on of those people who know the truth, but I don't want to have visual acknowledgment about it either.

[Benevolent_Ghaleon]

why a BLACK male prostitute? did alun just make a big penis joke? and to answer that question, i think it'd be hilarious. draw it up.

This isn't about degrading women. this is making fun of a woman for using her appearance to help sell a video game. a lot of a joke is the exaggeration. this time they took a some flirty behavior in a couple of interviews and a few other things and exaggerated it into her fellating gamers left and right.

sonic, i could PM you a link.

[phyco126]

You oughta PM me the link with this so called, evil comic of sexy advertisement.

[Werefrog]

why a BLACK male prostitute? did alun just make a big penis joke? and to answer that question, i think it'd be hilarious. draw it up.

No. She just replaced one minority with another to make the point that this wouldn't fly with other minorities, so why would it with a woman as the subject?

Also, in the other post you describe that women have "power" over men due to their sexual attributes. This comic says otherwise. It suggests that all the sexual "power" gets them is mockery. I haven't seen the comic yet, but it just really seems more and more sad to me. I checked in on this Jade person found out that she was one of the producers of the game. This changed my opinion of it since I have a fairly low opinion of people in marketing. The comic here seems to be misdirected. The really subject should be the marketing team who most likely instructed her to behave in such a way (it happens all the time during a press tour). Really, it's no wonder that women aren't entering CS and by extension the game industry when they're treated like this.

Also, if a man exhibited "flirty" behavior to a woman during an interview do you really think it would be an issue? For some reason, I don't think so.

[Benevolent_Ghaleon]

The world is full of all sorts of people with all sorts of opinions. some men will be moved in the way the women want, some men will find it something to mock.

and i know that in society as it is, there IS a double standard there. i don't agree with it. i hate the whole thing where a man that bangs a lot of women is a "stud" and the same thing makes a woman a whore.

[DezoPenguin]

I checked in on this Jade person found out that she was one of the producers of the game. This changed my opinion of it since I have a fairly low opinion of people in marketing. The comic here seems to be misdirected. The really subject should be the marketing team who most likely instructed her to behave in such a way (it happens all the time during a press tour). Really, it's no wonder that women aren't entering CS and by extension the game industry when they're treated like this.

Okay, let me get this straight. One of the producers of "Assassin's Creed" (a game about which I know nothing about other than the TV ads--themselves tasteless) is apparently a reasonably attractive woman, and the marketers apparently requested that she sexualize herself in some, presumably live, appearance to help sell the game?

Tasteless as it is, the sad irony is that the comic does no more than put into explicit words exactly what that kind of marketing promises anyway. "Drink this beer and hot women will sleep with you." "Buy this video game and you'll get masturbation material for weeks." "Use this body spray and you'll mind-control any woman nearby into being your sex toy." Honestly, I find it more offensive that anyone would ask this "Jade Raymond" person to act like this than the comic was made--and to a certain extent, I'm also a bit annoyed that she would agree. Miserable, sad situation all around, and if done well, that comic could brutally skewer it.

One suspects, however, that "done well for the sake of wielding the sword of irony against social injustice" isn't on the menu, there...

[Benevolent_Ghaleon]

i love you

[Sonic#]

Tasteless as it is, the sad irony is that the comic does no more than put into explicit words exactly what that kind of marketing promises anyway.

You got me with those words. You really got me.

I looked up the comic. I don't find it that funny, but looking at it in the way you describe, I can see the scathing angle it takes against the extreme appeals of advertising. In that sense, it is apt. It is no different than extrapolating from a body spray commercial, or anything like that. The outrage at it is part of its effectiveness, and that it should be directed at UbiSoft and others' techniques in using women's sexuality to sell to men.

Part.

The artist plays a risky game though, because in doing this he is using Ms. Raymond's image in a sexually degrading manner. Reducing her to a person without any skill at producing except to sell the game sexually (is this *really* true?), they commit the same blasphemy that they are supposedly speaking against. And put in humor form, one question to ask is whether the humor is simply making fun of the situation or undermining it, protesting it. I feel the former.

However, given how very widespread it is, all this smacks of is a spurious excuse to enjoy and make humorous further degradation and pornification of a member of said class while claiming the high ground of protest.

And now I realize that Alunissage reached the same point before me.

[DezoPenguin]

Part.

The artist plays a risky game though, because in doing this he is using Ms. Raymond's image in a sexually degrading manner. Reducing her to a person without any skill at producing except to sell the game sexually (is this *really* true?), they commit the same blasphemy that they are supposedly speaking against. And put in humor form, one question to ask is whether the humor is simply making fun of the situation or undermining it, protesting it. I feel the former.

Hence the reason for my concluding comment about "done well not being on the menu." From the initial description and commentary the opportunity for withering social satire was missed in favor of low-grade "humor"--and as you point out, there's also the issue of using a real person's image instead of the dozens of artificially-acted characters that exist in tasteless sexualized advertising.

[Nobiyuki77]

My problem with this comic, as I've said before, is that he could have made the exact same point without the offensiveness and it would not only make the same point, it could actually be funny.

Example: If I were drawing up this comic idea, I'd simply draw her in a bikini modeling the game and having endless droves buying the game simply because she's modeling it. It conveys the same message, without the smut or implication of slutiness.

Any good comic knows how far to push a joke. Good comics also know how not to take a joke waaaaaaaaaaaaaay too far. The thing about comics and comedy is maintaining that balance. This comic, despite it's supposed "message", took the joke waaaaaaaaaaaaay too far. Plain and simple.

[phyco126]

Heh, I saw the comic, I thought it was great. Then again, I'm an hormonal ass.

Still, it could be considered illegal in civil court. Think about it, it's defamation of character, which is illegal to some capacity.

Edit: Oh yeah, I just did a google on her. She is a very attractive girl. Rawr.