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Vivian James

Vivian James

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About

Vivian James is a fictional character conceived through a collaboration between 4chan's /v/ (video games) board and the indie game developer group The Fine Young Capitalists. The character can be viewed as an anthropomorphized avatar of the /v/ board community created in response to Zoe Quinn's purported attack on the second-wave feminist organization The Fine Young Capitalists (TFYC)[5] while they were trying to fund a Game Jam to assist women's projects in gaming development.

Origin

On August 18, in a Reddit thread,[4] an user named SillySladar claimed that Quinn intentionally sabotaged a female-centric game development event on the grounds that the idea was oppressive, in order to promote her own similar event, Rebel Jam (shown below, left).[2] On August 19th, The Fine Young Capitalists released a soundcloud recording containing their explanation as to what was going on and why they were doxxed.[1] On August 21, TFYC also gave an audio interview talking about the whole happening (shown below, right).


Depression Quest dev claims harassment and misogyny. Facts come out showing she's lying (imgur.com) 136 submitted 4 hours ago by MannoSlimmins ( d'A 。 Oh 4chan, please stop this literal r--- 71 comments share all 71 comments sorted by: best▼ [-] Sillysladar 156 points 4 hours ago* She f------ doxxed me, ruined a production for women, refused to contact us and is currently taking money for a game jam with no start date, no location and no judges Okay here is my story We ran a group that literally said, "Any woman come up with an idea for a video game, we'll give you concept art so you can pitch your game, and we'll put all the pitches online. The internet will votes on the best one and we'll make that game and give the profits to charity. If you get a lot of interest online and want to make the game on your own, you can leave the contest at any time." Literally everyone that was in the top 5 didn't have programming experience so they couldn't make their game on their own She was like "Why do you expect woman to work for free to make games," we said well they get 8% of the money as royalties and they just have to give an idea, other people will make the game and the profits go to charity Doesn't matter, it's oppressive. She started a f------ twitter storm, crashed our website, got my personal information doxxed, got us banned from Twitter. We email reporter what up and their like "Duhhhh if Zoey says it oppressive it must be true. Maybe you should give her money for Rebel Jam which has no start date, location or any other information but totally isn't a scam." This happen at 3 major online publications. We literally said we'd pay her to consult on future projects and we'd close down the contest if she would explain to us what is exactly offensive No response, no response at all, unless a reporter contacted her and then she's the victim All this information is f------ online, the pitches are online, we did everything we said but no online journalist will publish the story http://www.thefineyoungcapitalists.com/Voting Please vote, even if we don't raise enough money if show there is enough of a interest we can get the winner a grant to make their game. I am literally making no money on this contest, I just wanted to focus on something other then woman being oppressed I wanted to show that they made good games and everyone said "That not what women in games want to talk about."

Spread

4chan and TheFineYoungCapitalists Cooperation

On August 21, 4chan's /pol/ (Politically Incorrect) board came up with the idea of helping The Fine Young Capitalists with the objective of boosting the image of the whole imageboard. The board planned to help TFYC recover from Quinn's previous attacks and spite her in the process. Shortly after, the /v/ (Video Games) board also decided to join the Operation. This was also covered by the gaming media website Attack on Gaming a day later.[3]


Anonymous 08/21/14 Thu)23:16:05 No.34399202 File: 1400331548821png (92 KB, 256x256) OPERATION CHEMO >>34399263 >>34399305 >>34399502 >>34399672 >>34399785 >>34399918 We will look really good if we donate to this https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/the-fine-young-capitalists--2 >SJW Game >Sperg Circle doesn't support this >Funded by 4chan - Support TFYC's game jam that Zoe tried to shut down - Donate on indiegogo - Spread the word to other sites to get more people backing it - Expose SJWs as hypocrites, while 4chan supports women in gaming There will be a lot of asshurt [spoilerJThe Games don't look terrible either [/spoiler] AnonymousL 08/21/14 Thu 23:36:00 No.34399968、>>34400109 34400135>>34400143>>34400203-34400207 234400279>>344004682234400597 34399785 Oh god, this idea is so deli Push donations to TFYC on all boards New plan: We sponsor TFYC. We adopt and support it, become its rallying cry for "breaking down the merit wall for women in gaming". We get coverage on sites that are sitting up and taking attention now, reporting on the SJW b------- Can you imagine? 4chan attacks the cancer and simultaneously sponsors the chemo AT THE SAME TIME. We'd be PR-untouchable icious
[Click on the image for the full infograph]

Before starting the Operation, 4chan contacted TFYC via e-mail, getting a more detailed explanation about the boycott of their event and later coming to an agreement on how the donations would proceed (shown below).


Re: Zoe Quinn, Female Game Developers, and Transgendered persons From: "Super Admin" <admin@thefineyoungcapitalists.com> Tuesday, August 19, 2014 8:00 PM . To: Jean-Pierre Polnareff Full Headers Printable View You journalist are an odd bunch, I will answer your question here so I don't have to wait to days 1. The Fine Young Capitalists's policies on transgendered women were "backwards" due to how TFYC defined what qualities counted as being transgendered When shown a link containing the policy on the website she claimed that the current transgendered policy has been changed from what she is describing Transgender politics are in an absurdly poor place at the moment. Many people jump to anger without reading anything. The guidelines were and always were As long as you self identify as a woman, you were considered a woman. This was explained in both videos and on the page. The only cut off point was that you had to self identify before the contest started. This is the same language we use for our other contest Snless regarding Race, and will be the same language we use in every contest This language was used for two reasons 1.) It allowed people with out identification to apply (And as the contest was global this would be impossible in certain areas.) 2.) It prevented people from switch gender identity to gain access to the contest. This was an issue because we estimated 10% of our applicants would be men lying to get in. This turned out to be 8%. We did not want to enter situation where we would have to arbitrate the gender identity of person 3.) It written so you have to self identify before a certain date, this is so if question by authorities in a country where being trans was illegal the person would not be swearing to the fact that they are currently trans This text was approved by a lawyer and designed by a socialogy student Further more we did a video explaining the gender is a construct and this was released 2 month before Zoe spoke with us (Grief you can see it here and rather explict in defining gender as a construct. She was sent the video and she found it offensive or at least said it was on her twitter. We did use the word transition in the FAQ it is defined by GLAAD as Altering one's birth sex is not a one-step procedure; it is a complex process that occurs over a long period of time. Transition includes some or all of the following personal, medical, and legal steps: telling one's family, friends, and co-workers, using a different name and new pronouns; dressing differently changing one's name and/or sex on legal documents; hormone therapy; and possibly (though not always) one or more types of surgery. The exact steps involved in transition vary from person to person. I understand that she may consider transition to require a sex change we do not. We can not find a single LGBT rights group that does not define Transition using a similar definition to GLAAD. All of them specifically mention transitioning not require the person to have sex reassignment surgery. What it meant to them was left that up to the applicant which were the guidelines presented to us and we followed to the letter. She clearly jumped the gun and multiple people pointed it out to her over the course of the next hours and she repeatly correct them saying that people had to have a sex change but did not reference particular text. And we certainly didn't know how to correct her with out making her look incompetent on the issue which she apparently feel deeply about. We contacted her multiple times via phone to deal with the journalists. She did not answer, we contacted her via email and she has not responded after the fact , espically in relationship to the 2. She believed it to be "weird" that your company was taking the Intellectual Property rights to the games for themselves and distributing the profit not to the person who came up with the game idea, but to charity. We don't take the intellectual property rights. We license them from the creator, and then release the code open source and the art under creative commons We then monetize the software through traditional channels for people who are to lazy to compile it. The contest was aimed at people who are unable to program, and had an idea for the game that would not be made under normal circumstances and this was clearly labeled as "Any woman regardless of skill age or experience can submit an IDEA." They would then be paired with experienced professional in the industry so they could present the idea The creator had to provide their idea under creative commons and this was explictly said in the application form and in the contest rule This is not new, in Canada for instance the CMF will run funds where they can own up to 50% of a production, and thus be entitled to 50% of the profits for the production that they push back into their non profit (In this case the CMF which is used to fund further project.) We simply took a larger percentage and require significantly less upfront over head (I.E. None), and less experience. Valve runs contests where people design props for TF2 and the profits are donated in part to non profits and private individuals. And the Humble Indie Bundle does pay what you want charity drives continually. We no idea why anyone would have problem with this model as the applicant recieves 8% of the profits for writting less the 2000 words and is given first billing on the credits we are even more confused. We consulted with multiple people in the industry and in the activist field the majority had no problem with it I understand why she would think it is unusal, we don't understand why it's wrong. More over we don't understand why it's not an oppertunity for a woman to increase her portfolio. The losers all gained access to their art We personally think that this had less to do with malace and more to do with simply her inexperience on both topics. We completely feel she acted in an inappropiate manner and we assumed that we could contact her and let it blow over. Nether of these things happen. Zoe was one voice in multiple that shared these opinions and we have a list of other woman who acted in a similar matter that we will not be providing the public Unless there are other question consider this a complete answer. To: media@thefineyoungcapitalists.com 4chan Sponsorship of TFYC Hi, In the last few minutes some of us on 4chan have decided that a good thing to do in all of this is to show we're not anti-woman, anti-opportunity, woman-haters or any of the other vile things that're being disingenuously attributed to us by righting the wrongs that were done by others and helping to sponsor TFYC We saw that an advertising/sponsorship package is available for $10,000 or similar. We thought it would be ideal to have 4chan's name proudly emblazoned across your project, as we think it's excellent. I believe another participant of that discussion has/is contacting you already who claims to have the means to buy that sponsorship slot in their own right from some of their own capital pool. If that's the case, wonderful. But if we're being deceived (or "shilled", as we term actions of the thread infiltrators and agents provocateur- there have been many in the last few days) into inaction, here's my question: Can 4chan donate separately towards that common $10,000 pool? By placing "4chan" in the comments/name/whatever field of the donation form, might we collectively contribute to that $10,000 target'? Again, thank you for your efforts towards doing the right thing and I sincerely hope we can help make right what's been made wrong by others. Regards,

Re: 4chan Sponsorship of TFYC Honestly this. If people individually want to donate, money that goes to the $10,000 goal, you can. I promise your logo will be done, and by promise I mean this. This is a legally binding decision by the board of the director of "The Fine Young Capitalists Inc." That a logo will appear, as long as it considered decent and does not contain pornographic imagery, or race hating. If we do not follow through we accept that legal ramifications which may include legal action. Just pick a charity, that all your money will go to, and we will give 4Chan a proxy position on the board of director for the Corperation that is created to own the video game rights. We honestly want to work with anyone that want to support woman in gaming. Don't care if you guy like pornt. I will update the site with this information if people want to do it

Settlement

  • 4chan's donors would be able to donate separately to prevent shills from destroying the operation.
  • 4chan would also get the right to design a character ($2,000 reward).
  • 4chan would choose to which charity the money would go.

The charity was chosen via Strawpoll (shown below, top image). The winner with over 50% of the votes to "chemo butthurt" was The Colon Cancer Alliance.[6] This was communicated to TFYC who later announced it on their Twitter (shown below, bottom image).


STRAW POLL embed What charity Should we sponsor? eFriends QfnThe Colon Cancer Alliance 7% 1% 190 votes (52%) Colon Cancer Alliance Colon Cancer Al.. Prostate Cancer Foundation . MANKINO Initiative (Charity for Abused Men> 4. SUrvivors UK (Male R--- and Sexual Abuse support) . Jewish Internet Defense Force (JIOF) 6. Friends Of The IOF (FIOF) Prostate Cancer 74 votes (23%) 13% 37 votes (10%) 25 votes (7%) 24 votes (7%) 5 votes (1%) 265 total vote APP CREATED BY DANDIRKS

TFYC @TFYCapitalists-21 de ago. I can't believe I just wrote that. 13 ★28 TFYC @TFYCapitalists-21 de ago. 4 Chan's Referal link is indiegogo.com /projects/the-f... and they wish for their profits to go to Colon Cancer Alliance to "chemo butthurt." 2 142 ★132 Ver resumen

Donations

Enthusiastic members of /pol/ and /v/ started donating to the Indiegogo campaign of TFYC,[7] becoming the main donators to said campaign by donating over $5,000 on the first day. This was later confirmed by a tweet from the TFYC (shown below).[10] On August 25th, TFYC shared an update via Twitter, stating that over $13,000 of the campaign's funding had originated from 4chan.[12]


SOS only 1:31 am 23% KIn Dear This email confirms you have paid Indiegogo.com $300.00 USD using PayPal. It may take a few moments for this transaction to appear in the Recent Activity list on your Account Overview page. Payment details Receiver email: paypal@indiegogo.com Amount: $300.00 USD Transaction date: 22 August 2014 Status:Completed TFYC @TFYCapitalists 22 de ago. We humbly apologize ior commiti ing ihe "lost horrible sin one cin do on the Internet by spelling 4chan wrong. わ2 11 ★26 TFYC @TFYCapitalists-22 de ago. Chan helps raise over $5000 in one day for wornen Read: tl.gd/n_1s57ilh わ2 73 ★61

On September 11th, the Indiegogo campaign reached its final goal of $65,000 in donations.[11] That same day TFYC also shared on their Twitter that over $23,500 of this amount had originated from 4chan.[13] The campaign ended on September 26th with a final amount of $71,496 raised.


TFYC@TFYCapitalists 3h On Reaching Goals - The Fine Young Capitalists have reached our goal of $65,000. Thank you everyone for… mblr.co/ZU9Q7o1QZnGnH 2-102 ★107 TFYC @TFYCapitalists 4h Final Total from the referal link is $23,601 from /v/ and 4chan 2 140 ★ 138

Vivian James

By reaching at least $2000 in donations, 4chan gained the right to have a character of their design be placed in the video game that would result from TFYC's Game Jam. When /v/ noticed that they had reached the character design reward, multiple threads where created to brainstorm for ideas. This eventually led to the idea and design for what later would become Vivian James (shown below).


□N 4chan's custom character Anonymous 08/22/14(Fri)09:42:33 No.259206461 m >>259206638 >>259207054 >>259207165 >>259208678 >>25920887: >>259210468 >>259211617 >>259212057 >>259212113 >>259212775 >259213097 >>259213445 >>259213781 >>259214003 >>259214582 >>259214986 >259215119 >>259216472 >>259216991 >>259220414 >>259221547 259222093 >>259222647 >>259224618 >>259224789 >259225227 >>259227758 $2,000 uso Character Design Realy want to design character for video game, but worried about being judged by our panel of experts? Skip the udges and have our talented concept artists work an your design, whether they lke it or not! The final product wil be a polished digital painting ready for mass production 259227971 >>259228506 >>259230485 >>259233445 >>259233662 >>259233773 >>259234160 >>259234768 >259235535 >>259236702 >Skip the judges and have our talented concept artists work on your desigr, whether they like it or not https://nrw.indiegogo.com/proiects the-fine-young-Capitalists--2/contributions/new?perk amt=2000&perk id=2242804 Alright Mi as a group we've raised over $5000 so what's our custom charac.er going :o be? Anonymous 12 hours ago No.259206573 A guy who hates women but likes t--- Anonymous 12 hours ago No.259206575 d--- butt Comes with all previous Perks Note: Shipping and Handling to be billed separately O out ㎡ 5 claimed Anonymous 08/22/14(Fri)10:05:21 No.259208875 >>259209813 >>259210009>>259214108>>2592 5239 >>259216338 >>259223863 >>259224385 >>259225436 >>259225820 >>259227876 >>259228705 >>259228781 >>259228889 >>259229248 >259229346 >>259229886 >>259231335 >>259231912 >>259232023 >>259232219 >>259233336 >>259235990 >259236057 1344377061190.jpg (117 KB, 492x492) google iqdb >>259206461 (OP) Just an average female gamer to troll everyone All the tards in the media will expect some sort of pedocrap or LOLSORANDOM s--- and we will just give them a simple average girl Anonymous 08/22/14(Fri)13:40:23 No.259233336 >>259233508 >>259233561 >>259233674 >>259233749 >>259233793 >>259234136 >>259234489 >>259234568 >>259234732 >259235107>259235139 >>259235307 >>259235497 >>259235610 >259235614 >>259235931 >>259236202 >>259236359 >>259236754 norm.jpg (69 KB, 294x581) google iqdb >>259208875 Something like this?

It took a series of polls to eventually reach the final character design and her name. Afterwards the character design was sent over to TFYC, who subsequently shared Vivian James and her final design on their Twitter account (shown below). Some aspects present in Vivian James' visual design represent 4chan's /v/ board, such as her striped sweater being green and purple, a reference to the infamous daily dose images, and the four-leaf clover on her headband.




/v/ has finished yelling at each other. Here are what's been decided:

Profile:

  • Name: Vivian James (joke here is that slight pronunciation corruption makes it "vidya games", /v/s term for our hobby).
  • Nickname: Clover (4chan symbol).
  • Online Handle (should it ever for some reason come up): Level (Level → lel →lvl →/v/).


Plenty of excited discussion around personality was had, but that's something I think you should be free to work around. The only thing we'd like you to keep in mind (should relevant situations ever come up) are the things that are obvios from her designs and our board's attitude towards the current controversy:

  • Tough-loves video games.
  • Loathes dishonesty and hypocrisy.
  • Low-affect, grumpy, perpetually fed up and tired.

Ultimately it's your game and the game of the ladies that pitched whatever concept wins.


Backlash

Following the creation of Vivian James and the cooperation between 4chan and TFYC, The Fine Young Capitalists received negative feedback on both Twitter (shown below, left) and Tumblr (shown below, right) from certain feminist groups and supporters, claiming TFYC to be hypocrites, for dealing with 4chan in a friendly manner and accepting money and help from them.


Ariel Connor @MissAngerist 1m @DelTorro @TFYCapitalists it's YOUR fault your trans policy wasn't crystal clear. You're supposed to be a company, where's the PR? わ ★ View conversation Ariel Connor @MissAngerist 2m @TFYCapitalists Dirty money. わ ★ View conversation Ariel Connor @MissAngerist 3m @TFYCapitalists I'm not seeing any justification for using 4chan misogynists' money for this project. You owe the women you represent this わ ★ View conversation Ariel Connor @MissAngerist 4m @TFYCapitalists It disgusts me that you guys are letting 4chan misogynists contribute to your cause. Shame on you. わ ★ Follo Anonymous asked "if speaking out against one woman is speaking out against all woman, then think of all the people you would..." Do you not get the difference between disagreeing with one woman's belief system and outright hating her? 4chan doesn't just disagree with Zoe's brand of feminism, they f------ HATE her guts, her sex life, her games, her very BEING. She's an outspoken woman, so they hate her. Your support of them is worrying. No wonder 90% of your backers are men. Think really hard about WHY that is. We have thought about it, and our issue is this. If we refused money from a person based on religion, race, political affiliation, gender identity or sexuality it would be wrong. All of those are more integral to a person's belief then going to a silly website. And we don't have enough allies as it is, so... we will take any that wish to fight with us. I'm sure there are people on 4chan that I would not like to assoicate with. That being said I'm on tumblr now and am experiencing the same reaction. Right now in fact 16 notes Aug 22nd, 2014 はー

In reply to the accusations, The Fine Young Capitalists defended their stance regarding 4chan, claiming that should they wish to stop them from taking part in the project, they would have to oppress 4chan and that they didn't wish to do that (shown below).[8]


On Opression and Narrative Please members of serious social justice movements. When you say that 4chan can not take part in a project, you are oppressing them. By the very definition of the word you are. You harm your own movement and you destroy the narrative the media has created. If you wish only to destroy the narrative, then support them. If you oppress them you only create more publicity for the project and actively harm your own I care about the world being a better place, and there are still serious issue involved in social justice. Preventing 4chan from giving money to support Butt Cancer and Woman is the least important issue l can think of. Changing the mind of the small minority that are misogynists is far more important. #4chan #activism #feminism #empowerment

Hack & Deletion

On August 24th, the campaign page on Indiegogo appeared to get closed and subsequently removed. It was rumored that the page got hacked and was edited to look as if it were taken down by Indiegogo (shown below). The Fine Young Capitalists subsequently shared this message on their Tumblr account,[9] and said that they would try to get the project repaired with the help of Indiegogo. The funding page was temporarily repaired that same day, but it took another day for it to be back up completely.


THIS CAMPAIGN HAS BEEN CLOSED StoryUpdates 3 Comments 217 Funders 1,556 You are an idiot! $25,466USD RAISED OF $65,000 GOAL you are an idiot 3996 O 34 days left This campaign started on Aug 12 and will close on September 26. 2014 (11:59pm PT) σ Fixed Funding @ CONTRIBUTE NOW SELECT A PERK 582 1.417 12 A sharet8EmbLinkowin $2,000 uso CAMPAIGN CLOSED: Women making video Games For Charity 9 Toronto, Ontario, Canada Gaming THIS CAMPAIGN HAS BEEN CLOSED Character Design Really want to design a character for a video game, but worried about being judged by our panel of experts? Skip the judges and have our talented concept artists work on your design, whether they like it or not! The final product will be a polished digital painting ready for mass production. Dear N/ Comes with all previous Perks We think it is abhorrent what you are doing to Zoe Quinn and other indie devs Indiegogo does not support hacking or other illegal activity that comes from your message board, We are shutting this fundraiser down before things get more out of hand. Note: Shipping and Handling to be billed separately O out of 5claimed Sincerely The Indiegogo Teamm Do you think this campaign contains pronibited content? Let us know

External References

[1] Soundcloud – The Fine Young Capitalist Confession

[2] Rebel Game Jam – Rebel Game Jam

[3] Attack On Gaming – 4Chan TFYC Support

[4] Reddit – Related Thread

[5] The Fine Young Capitalists

[6] The Colon Cancer Alliance

[7] Indiegogo – The Fine Young Capitalists

[8] Tumblr – The Fine Young Capitalists on Opression and Narrative

[9] Tumblr – The Fine Young Capitalists on The Conspiracy

[10] Twitter – The Fine Young Capitalists

[11] Twitter – The Fine Young Capitalists on Reaching Goals

[12] Twitter – The Fine Young Capitalists The current value of all 4chan contributions

[13] Twitter – The Fine Young Capitalists Final Total from /v/ and 4chan

Related Entries 12 total

Recent Videos 7 total

 

Recent Images 789 total


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