The Fine Young Capitalists

The Fine Young Capitalists
Founder Matthew Rappard
Location
Website www.thefineyoungcapitalists.com

The Fine Young Capitalists (TFYC) is an organization that sponsored a video game design contest for women in 2014. They are primarily known for their involvement in the Gamergate controversy after users of the website 4chan provided significant financial support for the project. The project resulted in the game Afterlife Empire; a character created for the game, Vivian James, became a symbol of Gamergate.

History

Users of 4chan designed the character Vivian James to be used in the winning entry of TFYC's game design competition after offering the project significant financial backing

The Fine Young Capitalists corporation was created by a partnership between Columbian media developer Autobótika and Canadian organization Empowered Up.[1] It was founded with the goal of helping women and other underrepresented groups get involved in video game design.[2] Its founder is Matthew Rappard, who is the only member who is publicly identified.[3]

In 2014, The Fine Young Capitalists started a competition for women to pitch game ideas. The top pitches were given to an artist for storyboarding, with the art put online for public voting. The winning entry would be designed by Autobótika, with the winner receiving 8% of the profits and the rest going to charity.[4][1] The winner of the contest was Afterlife Empire, designed and written by Danielle Maiorino; Autobótika developed the game, which was released on Steam on August 21, 2015.[5]

After the Gamergate controversy began in August 2014 with attacks on game designer Zoë Quinn, users of the website 4chan who disliked Quinn began contributing financial support to The Fine Young Capitalists Indiegogo campaign. Quinn had been involved in a dispute with The Fine Young Capitalists; reportedly, 4chan users felt supporting a feminist group's game competition would cast them in a good light while spiting Quinn. They subsequently became the project's major donors.[6] During the group's fundraising efforts, TFYC's Indiegogo account was hacked and vandalized, and the campaign was briefly shut down.[7] During the campaign, 4chan users also sponsored a video by The Fine Young Capitalists about early game designer Roberta Williams.[8] By the end of the campaign, 4chan users had contributed over US$23,000 total in funds to the Indiegogo campaign.[9] The Fine Young Capitalists received criticism for their decision to work with 4chan.[6]

Subsequently, The Fine Young Capitalists allowed 4chan to create a character to be included in the final game. 4chan users created Vivian James, a character designed to appear like an ordinary female gamer; her name is meant to sound like "video games".[6] Vivian James met with criticism, mainly for the character's association with 4chan. Allegra Ringo of Vice called her "a character masquerading as a feminist icon for the express purpose of spiting feminists".[6] The character became a mascot of Gamergate.[10]

In 2015, The Fine Young Capitalists worked with pornographic actress Mercedes Carrera to create a scholarship for students studying in STEM fields. Fundraising included a live webcam show featuring Carrera; $11,280 was raised.[11]

Notes

  1. 1 2 Weber, Rachel (March 28, 2014). "New game design contest for women". Gamesindustry.biz. Retrieved September 16, 2014.
  2. ↑ Kidd & Turner 2016, pp. 124–125.
  3. ↑ Kidd & Turner 2016, pp. 124.
  4. ↑ Kidd & Turner 2016, pp. 125.
  5. ↑ "Afterlife Empire". Valve Corporation. Retrieved September 16, 2015.
  6. 1 2 3 4 Ringo, Allegra (August 28, 2014). "Meet the Female Gamer Mascot Born of Anti-Feminist Internet Drama". Vice. Retrieved September 16, 2014.
  7. ↑ Perez, Sarah (August 25, 2014). "Indiegogo Campaign Hacked This Weekend, But Wasn't Part Of A Widespread Attack". TechCrunch. Retrieved September 16, 2014.
  8. ↑ Khan, Imad (August 23, 2014). "4chan is actually behind this educational video about women in gaming". The Daily Dot. Retrieved September 16, 2014.
  9. ↑ TFYC [@TFYCapitalists] (September 11, 2014). "Final Total from the referral link is $23,601 from /v/ and 4chan." (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  10. ↑ Allen, Jay (December 31, 2014). "How imageboard culture shaped Gamergate". Boing Boing. Retrieved August 10, 2017.
  11. ↑ Chandrachud, Neha (January 23, 2015). "These Porn Stars Fisted for Charity". VICE. Retrieved 12 November 2015.

References

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.