Be Respectful and Considerate - Mighty No. 9 Kickstarter Explodes With Misogynist Rage

“Be respectful and considerate.” Advice that usually gets people far in life, and that goes a long way on the internet, and it is also something Kickstarter asks of its users before they post comments. Unfortunately, many users have been anything but, as a ruckus broke out on Comcept’s Mighty No. 9 Kickstarter backer page yesterday over the hiring of a new community manager. 

This new community manager, Dina, presented a piece of fan-art which she made for the upcoming spiritual successor to the beloved Mega Man series, whereby she announced her presence to the community. This alone would not have been enough to raise anyone’s ire, but her artwork depicted the main character as a woman, which was apparently a grave sin for at least some very vocal fans of Mega Man. “After all, it’s Mega Man, not Mega Woman!” was one of the most frequently used arguments against the estrogenization of the beloved robot.

Finding fault with her presentation, these persons decided to pry into Dina’s personal life by combing through her Twitter account for other transgressions against the human race, and found that she had written tweets supportive of feminism and linked to one of Anita Sarkeesian’s videos. In a similar case, her being initially hired as a community manager and artist became tantamount to BioWare’s employment of Jennifer Hepler as a writer for the Dragon Age games—sometimes dubbed as the “cancer that is killing BioWare” by particularly well informed readers.

These vocal individuals went so far as to produce a video “calling out” Dina’s past with “dirt” on her—because sympathising with the feminist cause is indeed enough to demonize someone according to these people. The vocal, well informed fans have since been calling for her resignation from the developer. At this point, these individuals have flooded the game’s development forums, and are trying to hold the game hostage by asking for refunds. 

One user, a Mr. Nicholas Day, wrote: “This is a bad idea guys. I don't want any anita sarkeesian feminism all up in my megaman reboot. I don't want a sjw [social justice warrior] monitoring the forum, deciding who has good opinions and who has bad ones.”

For all the yelling and hooting there is about Dina’s supposed feminist agenda, all there is to see here is the anti-feminist agenda of a few, loud and very vocal individuals who might benefit from remembering what their parents told them about being “respectful and considerate.” - If their parents indeed did tell them. With some people, you never know.