On Feb 28, 2018 Motherboard published this article by Samantha Cole, entitled
Putting This PUA Game On PlayStation and Steam Normalizes Stalker Behavior
Which contained gems such as this:
Steam and PlayStation are set to launch a game that encourages preying on women as, well, a game.
In Super Seducer, you play as Richard La Ruina, "renowned seduction guru" and influential figure in the “pick-up artist” community. Pick-up artist, or PUA, culture promises men luck in love—or at least in getting laid—if they only prescribe to a set of behaviors and scripted moves that treat women (yes, it’s incredibly heteronormative) as predictable, manipulatable objects for men to acquire.
The purpose of the game, the Steam description states, is to test out pick-up tactics on virtual women: “Here’s the bottom line: if you make the right choices in the game, you’ll make the right choices in your life.” It directly intends to train men to behave in the ways this game rewards: Objectifying, harassing, coercing, and ignoring nonverbal cues from women.
This game is set to release on Steam on March 6, with a PlayStation release on the same day, according to La Ruina. PlayStation did not respond to a request for comment.
“When we give mainstream access to sexism, we allow it to proliferate and grow,” Emily May, co-founder and executive director of an anti-harassment nonprofit, Hollaback!, told me in an email. “We need to hide this game under a rock and starve it—and the whole PUA culture—of light and oxygen until it dies. PUA culture is what society tells men to be, and it starves men of options and different ways of being in the world.”
and this
The most concerning aspect of any of these scenarios—and what makes this game’s availability on mainstream gaming marketplaces like Steam and PlayStation—is that they’re not that outlandish for women who are the targets of this behavior. Many, many women experience any or all of these situations on a daily basis, where a man approaches them and there’s no way out but to placate him or continue an unwanted interaction.
PUA culture thrives on platforms like Reddit and 4chan, where they’re able to trade strategies for stalking and harrassing women under the guise of being good guys. But making a game based on these behaviors available to the mainstream is another level of normalizing rape culture.
“Gender-based violence is on a spectrum—and it starts with games like this,” May said. “These games create a culture where violence against women is OK, and in turn, it becomes more OK, and the world becomes less safe for everyone.”
Valve and Sony did not respond to a request for comment.
Note the highlighted lines. This appears to be a clear attempt by an activist journalist and left-wing activists Hollaback! to paint an alarmist Narrative, framing the game as being immoral and of causing societal harm, followed by an attempt to apply pressure to its sales platforms ahead of negative publicity.
Now today, I see this followup on Motherboard, also by Samantha Cole:
https://archive.fo/RzmcU
PlayStation Won’t Publish ‘Super Seducer’ Pick-Up Artist Game After All
Super Seducer, a choose your own adventure game that teaches men how to harass women using pick-up artist tactics, was set to be released on PlayStation 4 today.
However, PlayStation has confirmed to Motherboard that the platform will not sell the game in its store after all.
“My comment is that I have no comment on this,” Richard La Ruina, the game’s creator and "renowned seduction guru" told me in an email.
So yeah, looks like Sony caved.
...
Edit:
It should also be noted that the game has been rated 16+ by PEGI and hasn't to my knowledge been banned by any governmental groups due to concerns over its content.
http://www.pegi.info/en/index/globa...forms=&countries=&submit=Search#searchresults
Edit 2:
Motherboard tweeted this out along with a gif of Homer Simpson playing the trombone, which says it all about how much they give a damn.
https://archive.fo/eeBi3
Motherboard managing editor, Emanuel Maiberg
https://archive.fo/FdjNs
Something tells me this game is not going to actually be published on the PlayStation Store
Steam might ban it eventually if people get mad enough but they won't talk about it because that's how they roll
wow I can see the future:
the game is obviously live on Steam because Valve doesn't care. Lets check in with the community discussion
Edit 3:
Maiberg himsef tried a similar thing earlier in February too. Didn't work - so they amped up the rhetoric?
New 'Pick-Up Artist' Video Game Teaches Men How to Be Creeps
https://archive.fo/kHtFD
Criticism of PUA philosophy became a subject of national discussion in 2014, when a 22-year-old man named Elliot Rodger shot six people to death near the University of California, Santa Barbara. Rodger was a frequent poster to PUAHate, a site for men who bought into the PUA worldview, realized it was a scam, but still viewed women as objects that they were owed.
"He was speaking the lingo of the 'pick-up artist' (PUA) community that feminists have been raising alarms about for many years now, arguing that it’s a breeding ground for misogynist resentment and may even be encouraging violence against women," Amanda Marcotte wrote for The American Prospect at the time.
"When desperate men who shell out cash thinking it will buy them Game fail, they lash out online," Petula Dvorak wrote for The Washington Post at the time. "Not at the men who try to sell them Game, but at the women who didn’t buy the act."
You didn't outright say that this game might cause another mass shooting, but I know exactly what you were doing there, Emanuel - and you know exactly what you were doing there.
Another request for comment from the sales platforms
I've reached out to Steam and Sony and will update this post if I hear back. La Ruina told me in an email that Super Seducer will release on the PlayStation 4 on March 6 as well, but I couldn't find an active page for it on the PlayStation store.
