Jade Raymond and male chauvinist pigs.
201 XP
Submitted by sirriamnis on Wed, 11/28/2007 - 23:14.
Basically, since Ubisoft has featured Jade Raymond heavily in their ramp up to the release of Assassin's Creed, a certain segment of the console gamer population has apparently decided that because Ms. Raymond owns breasts and vagina, it is obviously those attributes that got her where she is, not her skill and intelligence.
http://www.mediagauntlet.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=3...
Too much sexist crap for me to let it lie, I'll tell you.
I see where it comes from...
I would disagree with the assessment that the driving force behind the comic's creation was male chauvinism and the inability for certain gamers to accept the idea that a woman can be successful. Though I feel the comic was quite distasteful and concede that there is some misogyny in the comic (and many of the forums it spread through), the comic has another distinct message that I (and one of the articles at the bottom of the link you posted) see: one that is critical of Ubisoft for using Jade prominently in its publicizing of the game. Jade's talent or ability is irrelevant in terms of this issue; there is grounds to argue that Ubisoft used Jade simply because she "owns breasts and a vagina" and there is a segment of the market that reacts positively to those things (see: boothbabes at past E3s).
But how does one strike out at Ubisoft? There really isn't a good way to do so: the people of authority in the company are largely unknown to the gaming community at large, so parodying them isn't really effective. In the end, one is stuck with the most public person you can find, Ms. Raymond herself, despite the fact that she likely isn't at fault, Ubisoft is.
You know, a friend of mine
You know, a friend of mine suggested a way to make the comic a commentary on Ubisoft (by having a male Ubisoft exec unzip the Jade "costume")... But still, that depicts her as little more than a figurehead, and that's not ok either.
And again, from what I gather it's really common to have the team lead give interviews for the ramp up to a game release. Jade didn't wear anything low cut or sexy in the pictures or video. Should they have passed her over for this just because she's female? That hardly seems fair.
Wow. I did some seaching
Wow. I did some seaching and found the offensive comic that you were talking about.
I can hardly believe it. As a gamerchick this is worse than Imus's whole "nappy" incident on national TV. It makes me so mad. How do we teach Ubisoft a lesson?
How do we teach the bullies to play nice without peeing in the sandbox and ruining everything for everyone.
Jade was the game design
Jade was the game design lead. The person in that position usually does the publicity for the game. Ubisoft was not at fault for expecting her to publicize the game. Any man in the same job would have to be the public face as well.
The fault lies in any person who thought that a woman couldn't possibly be qualified for such a job. I recommend looking at her resume. She had all the right previous experience to take that game design lead position.
Her looks are irrelavant, except that like all people who have to become a public face of a product she probably had to have consultants for how to dress and hair styling. Male public faces of products need to do the same.
Jade was not made game design lead because she was "hot". She was made game design lead, because she had a lot of experience managing sucessful gaming design teams.
Assasin's creed was delivered On-time (rarity for video games) and to critical acclaim. Additionally, it was popular with my male and female friends. Few video games can say that.