«Previous post | Next post»

Ever since CD Projekt Red released the much-anticipated sequel to “The Witcher 2,” there have been a lot of rant and complaints about “sexism” and “women are nothing more than sex objects” in “The Witcher 3“. That´s why I even wrote my “The Witcher 3 gets in trouble over sexist game design” article in the first place (checkout the comment section on that article for some really good facts, points and information). I thought that I was done with that subject, but I was wrong.

As I just got dragged back into the subject again thanks to Jonathan McIntosh (which would be the driving force behind Feminist Frequency), since he has made some really bold statements about “The Witcher 3” on Twitter just recently. So this will be my response to those tweets by McIntosh, but first, please allow me to show McIntosh´s nonsense tweets:

What´s the deal with McIntosh and masculinity anyhow? (real as fictional).

Why does McIntosh keep on ranting about the lack of male emotions in games all the time? When it´s already a proven fact that there´s quite a lot of male emotions in games?

First of all, Geralt of Rivia does indeed show emotions in “The Witcher 3” (at more than one occasion). But obviously McIntosh hasen´t paid all that much close attention to Geralt´s facial expression´s throughout the game, just take a look at this picture for example:

Geralt of Rivia shows no signs of emotions huh?

Does this picture of Geralt of Rivia really look like his expressing no signs of emotions (whatsoever)? I don´t think so. And every time that he meets Yennefer and Triss in “The Witcher 3”, Geralt shows a whole set of emotions. ***SPOILER WARNINGS!*** There´s even a big romance throughout the game, something of which actually affects how “The Witcher 3” ends. And I’m far from the only one that has called out Jonathan McIntosh on his false statements about “The Witcher 3”. In fact, Forbes did that some days ago.

Not that McIntosh cares all that much about it though, as he continues to rant about “masculinity“, “violent male outburst” and the lack of “masculine emotions” in the game. I´m not an evil or bad person, nor do I like to wage drama wars when I don´t have to. Nevertheless, Jonathan McIntosh is dead wrong about “The Witcher 3”, so I couldn´t ignore McIntosh tweets. And let´s just say that I’m not a huge fan of his (Feminist Frequency for that matter).

I have talked to a lot of players and fans (male and female) of “The Witcher 3” over the last couple of days. And most people think McIntosh is wrong about this matter, some fans also claim that he hasn’t even played “The Witcher 3”, that McIntosh is simply causing drama for free PR and Patreon money. Which probably is closer to the truth than anything else at this point.

I doubt that Jonathan McIntosh will admit his faults though, nor will he back down either. As he loves to target big franchise names and whine about them for days, weeks and months. That´s probably why I’ve seen (and heard) a lot of jokes about McIntosh being like a man-child/feminist hybrid version of Jack Thompson (you know, the lawyer that went on a crusade against violent video games?).

Resources:
http://thegg.net/general-news/the-witcher-3-gets-in-trouble-over-sexist-game-design

http://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/2015/05/31/why-feminist-frequency-is-dead-wrong-about-the-witcher-3/

Robin “V-Act” Ek
The Gaming Ground
Twitter: @TheGamingGround