Irrationality: Gillette and So-Called “Toxic Masculinity”

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - Everyone is up in ARMS, and there's nothing worse than that.

All of a sudden, venerable American shaving company Gillette got into the news over a commercial they made. In their over 100 years in business, it might be the most attention-grabbing commercial they've ever put out, which probably means it was a great success.

Gillette markets bladed razors to mostly men and sometimes women, with their slogan being “The Best a Man Can Get”, created 30 years ago. In honour of the 30th anniversary of that slogan (having their anniversaries matter is their first mistake; though I suppose going 87 years without a notable or existing slogan is chronologically the first mistake before that), Gillette released this commercial (pretentiously referred to as a “short film”) known as “We Believe.”

What does Gillette believe in? Well, here's the embed of the commercial. I want you to, if you haven't already, watch the whole thing without any preconceived notions.

Just to make sure that you're not mishearing something, or if the video gets deleted or you're not allowed to listen to audio from where you're reading this article, here is the video's OFFICIAL transcript. You'll notice nowhere is the phrase “toxic masculinity” used by the Gillette narrator, unlike in the title of this article.

KoopaTV's January 2019 Review Newsletter

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - Look! I got the 2019 in there correctly!

What an incredibly quick month January 2019 was! And the question on all of your minds is... did KoopaTV get off to at least a decent start for 2019? Let's find out and get right into it.

KoopaTV's Top Five Recommended Experiences of January 2019

Every month in the newsletter, we give the best KoopaTV experiences (articles) from the month the newsletter is about. Everything published on KoopaTV is fantastic, free content that is worth your time investment, but we just like giving some extra attention to some of our super-favourites. Here is the January 2019 list, in chronological order:

1. Phoenix Wright Impersonator Arrested For Poisoning—Exclusive Fight Footage Inside! — Phoenix Wright and Furio Tigre have an intense fight, with a court battle and the very question of identity on the line. KoopaTV has exclusive footage of that fight, so we're the best source of information on that.
2. Splatoon 2 Family vs. Friends Splatfest: White Ink Was A Bad Idea  — Splatoon players have been clamouring for over three and a half years now. They got it in the Family vs. Friends Splatfest... and it was an atrocious undertaking. Ludwig explains why.
3. What Is A Good Game Purchase? — Wendy O. Koopa cares a lot about her coins, so she wrote up some tips from her experience about the criteria that make up a good videogame purchase.
4. Irrationality: Gillette and So-Called “Toxic Masculinity” — There was a very controversial advertisement that shaving & grooming company Gillette released, and KoopaTV felt the need to provide a unique take on it. Packed with gaming references to justify the article's existence on a gaming site.
5. Booyah! Is Significant. Booyah! Back In Splatoon 2 — Yet another piece of superb Splatoon 2 content this month, this time about the very important “Booyah!” phrase that's so prevalent in Inkopolis culture.

KoopaTV's 2019 GOTY Nominations!

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - And other categories.

These were decided and talked about in our Koopa Keep Discord server. Behold!
 
The déjà vu from years past is intentional. (To be eligible, those running have to start their existence in the United States of America from January 1, 2019 to December 31, 2019.)

And just so you remember, that stands for “Game of THAT Year”. That's the KoopaTV touch.

But yeah, this isn't just about gaming, but also ourselves. ‘cause we're art to be recognised and applauded, too. Just to make it clear, we have an “each KoopaTV article may only be nominated once, total.” rule that obviously doesn't apply to the gaming half.

This article is such a rehash of the 2018 one that I just erased part of the 8 to make it a 9!

Phil Spencer and Games as a Unifying Force

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - Some reactionaries are upset that Microsoft wants Xbox to be safe.

Yesterday, Microsoft published an op-ed in Xbox head Phil Spencer's name, entitled “Video games: A unifying force for the world”. The post outlines Microsoft's commitment to “building a safe and inclusive gaming space for everyone”. I don't really know what the impetus of the post is—Microsoft updated their Code of Conduct over a year ago and it was no big deal (contrary to reactionary hysteria). I guess I can't judge ‘em, since KoopaTV is untimely all the time.

Perhaps it was spurred by the ESA's recently released 2019 Essential Facts survey, since Microsoft indirectly cites their high-level (and misleading, especially given that Xbox doesn't have casual smartphone-player demographics) conclusions about gender and game playing. Maybe Phil Spencer got really excited about how Microsoft collaborated with the Special Olympics, especially when he wrote that, in terms of games, disabled people stand on equal footing with non-disabled people. (Sincerest good luck to the disabled in trying to play complicated games.)

The op-ed boils down to these three action items:

1. The Xbox Safety team will moderate the Xbox ecosystem, per the code of conduct/community standards
2. Club community managers and parents will be able to curate member/children experiences
3. Microsoft will share safety, security, and privacy best practices with other game industry companies

None of that is objectionable and it's really standard stuff. But some people are certainly taking it the wrong way...

KoopaTV's Live Reactions to The Game Awards 2020

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - Or, Ludwig reacts to Sephiroth, and mind-numbingly says The Last of Us Part II won awards for hours after.

Every year, charlatan Geoff Keighley somehow tricks millions of gamers into thinking that The Game Awards is something worth watching. This awards show goes on for hours and hours with weird skits and commercials and world premieres, and gaming companies are fine with supporting it, since it's a great advertisement opportunity.

KoopaTV hates The Game Awards, but we still have some kind of token reaction to it every year because we want to be part of the conversation, and the industry sort of forces The Game Awards to be the conversation at the start of December every year. Still, you should treat this article as us doing you a favour if you haven't watched it yourself, since it's a miserable 200-minute slog.

To complicate matters, Nintendo told everyone to watch The Game Awards 2020 because the identity of the next downloadable content character coming to Super Smash Bros. Ultimate would be announced. Based on The Game Awards 2018 where Joker was announced as DLC for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, we would have to wait until the very end to get the announcement. We expected this year that the character would be something that panders directly to the sort of lowest common denominator that The Game Awards appeals to.

Things were different in 2020. And here are the reactions, mostly from myself, but also Heavy Lobster briefly chiming in at the start until it quit: