I think it's less that they think that the trope doesn't exist, and it's that they view it in the way they view reality and other people. We're aware that other people are there, we just don't turn our focus to them. It's more of a case of being blind to the trope because their brains react to it in a natural way.

OK, I hesitate for a very long time to call anyone in the circumstance 'decoration'. They're background characters, they live out their own lives independent of the story that's going on around them. It's not a bad thing, and it's certainly not a sexist thing, it's something that happens in real life outside of fiction even when we simply hang out with friends and loved ones.
I don't think I can even name a person that wouldn't want to see more female characters, and more interesting female characters. I think the concern that people have is that people are treating the games industry like they treat movies and TV, where you have to forcibly change male characters to token females due to the lack of room for new programs and movies.

I'm all for new games, even ones based on the style of old franchises with female characters, I just want to see new franchises, I want to see new ideas, I want to see something more then 'Roll, Dr. Wily has kidnapped Megaman, we need you to go rescue him with a new upgrade.'

Are we really still on this?

It keeps getting dragged up every so often, and honestly tropes are interesting enough to keep me yapping for a while.

The actual stuff, the boycotts, the calls for ethics, I think there's only so much you can say about the topic unless you're one of the people in a position to actually do something. So meh, it's a nice distraction for the time being.

This has to be one of the biggest threads I've seen on here in years,

I've got about 4-5 forum mafia games here that are still larger. Just depends how long this goes.

*grabs the popcorn*
*Sits in uncomfortable desk chair*
We shall see.

Jackpot.
The moment Anita fails to provide evidence for both points being true is the moment her claims can be ignored, right or wrong. If a trope exists but it's not "bad" - fine. If a trope is "bad" (very questionable whether this can ever REALLY be the case), but doesn't actually exist - not a problem.

The moment you claim that the your argument is on the grounds of subjective aesthetical experience is the moment I back the fuck away, palms raised, nod, and yield the point. This is a "gamer-side" perspective that I have absolutely no reason to disrespect.
If your argument becomes objective (or at least - decently intersubjective) aesthetical experience, we can have a tea party with biscuits and discuss games as art as much as you please. Not all aesthetical discussion I may be particularly interested in, not all points I will necessarily agree with, but this is a perfectly innocent thing in principle.

The moment allegations of ethical and social consequences are made is the moment the shit hits the fan.

The moment you use "the moment" six times in a single post... I laugh.

Three separate paragraphs where I merely used "the moment X is the moment Y". Yes, I probably could've used a simple "if" or anything of this sort.

Ultimately - the moment you snip an already extremely short post, only to ridicule my style of writing at 5am is the moment you can go fuck yourself :P. Meanwhile - I'll take this as a testament to my English skills, that any such inadequacies will get called out as exceptions, below expectations, not as the sordid, commonplace reality.

I feel like we just had a moment...

Just read the OP. What a load of sexist, voyeuristic, sensationalist horse****. I don't know how this thread has lasted 77 pages but for the first time I'm sincerely embarrassed to be a part of this community.

If you just read the OP then you've got a lot of ground to cover with how far this discussion has gone. I swear to god if I had a dollar for every time this happened I'd be on my way to being wealthy.

You people need to grow up.

Right on. If a woman wants to use sex and personal connections to suppress negative publicity, employ censorship, file false accusation and push her personal profit campaigns and political agenda while destroying charity campaigns, then that's entirely her personal business and no man should be allowed to stand in her way!

I mean come on, journalistic integrity? Professional work ethics? Yeah right, we weally know what this is really about. (seriously though, you have a lot of catch-up work to do, there is no way anyone in reasonable state of mind could disagree with GamerGate anymore)

It's one of the few places where comments weren't being removed. I personally don't care about any of this as I stopped caring about game bloggers back in 2009. I like to come here every so often because I hate myself.