The Arkh Project
thanks to a mouse at wank_report for the write-up
So, the Arkh Project is a game in development, made by queer POC and focusing on queer characters of color. True, they've been targeted by bigots, but that's only served to bring more attention to the project. All good, right?

Well... maybe not so much. For starters, they're ultimately trying to fundraise $100K-250K to make this game, which seems a bit... ambitious for crowd-sourcing. It gets iffier when you find out that none of the people involved seem to have actually completed a game and that they explicitly chose IndieGoGo because it wouldn't require them to refund the money if the project goes bust. To make things even worse, all they have so far is some concept art; there's no concept or design document, and they plan to farm out all the art, design, and programming to other people (as detailed on their IndieGoGo campaign). They do plan to release a design document by the end of the month, but that's about it for now.

To make things worse, there's evidence that one of the main people behind the project, dumbthingswhitepplsay, is gisei_nashi_ni:
see this chain of links: Sf_drama

plus they were the only genderqueer person working for Kinou Games, last seen being hounded off various LJ communities for being a hypocritical, abrasive jerk (greatest hits at sf_d, trigger warning for racism and rape ).

Anyway, I hate linking to tumblr, but some notable posts (+notes) include:
anti/criticism posts:
http://ardeb.tumblr.com/post/16890249680/okay-ive-been-wanting-to-make-this-post-for-a
http://ardeb.tumblr.com/post/17144475360/alright-this-is-a-more-in-depth-post-about-the
http://privilegedenyingdude.tumblr.com/post/16599011960/image-courtesy-of-a-commenter-on-themarysue-com

pro posts:
http://dumbthingswhitepplsay.tumblr.com/post/16892324535/bay-sick-all-lee
http://clitt-tastic.tumblr.com/post/17116402049/reasons-why-i-say-fuck-all-of-you-that-are-boycotting
http://alexandraerin.tumblr.com/post/17183434038/anybody-who-thinks-that-when-people-are-offering-to

You can also look at the tag though not everything is tagged, of course.

There is also a new post at SF_D, with highlights in the comment including links to gnn talking in other communities on lj about working on a game that clearly is The Arkh Project, and possible tracing of some of the character art that The Arkh Project has posted.

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	seiberwing 2012-02-12 02:23 am UTC (link)
	It's sending some rather unsettling messages, too... (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

ekaterinv
2012-02-12 02:37 am UTC (link)

"Rather unsettling" is putting it mildly. It's victim-blaming garbage. I tried to figure out how to dress to avoid harassment throughout high school. Guess what, nothing worked. Wearing big flannel shirts buttoned to the neck and baggy jeans got me harassed. Wearing a black pencil skirt and nice blouse got me harassed. Wearing a t-shirt and jeans got me harassed. The only thing that worked was not being in the same room with my harasser, and I had no power over that.

My only comfort is that this despicable junk will never become an actual game. I don't know how anyone could support it. It's worse regarding ideas of a strict gender binary, ableism, and just general ickiness than any RPG I've played in a long long time.

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	sepiamagpie 2012-02-12 04:55 am UTC (link)
	I've been hearing other things that are evident in the gameplay, like apparently GNN has a slave/master kink and not the bondage kind either. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	ekaterinv 2012-02-12 06:28 am UTC (link)
	O_o GNN is one of the more memorable people I've seen on the internet, I'll give them that. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	ilinana 2012-02-12 06:44 am UTC (link)
	yeah there's a part on the wiki for it about how Haruka (the male-identifying character) was basically a gift for Ain and how they grew to love each other and their love is omg forbidden because he's not an Arkh like her. :/ (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	sandglass 2012-02-13 08:27 am UTC (link)
	The kind-slavemaster loving their slave and earning their slave's love back is a feature of more than one of their games, too. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	cmdr_zoom 2012-02-14 01:43 am UTC (link)
	which I would argue is a case of trying to transform the historical, horrible, not-at-all-consensual-or-romantic sort of slavery into consensual BDSM play. If not for most, then at least for the speshul protagonists. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	sandglass 2012-02-14 01:53 am UTC (link)
	Which would be fine if they showed any awareness and weren't putting that tired kink into a game that's supposed to be inclusive. Plus, in the world there's no way it can be consensual. It's a fictional fantasy but it's still a fantasy of rape. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	ekaterinv 2012-02-14 02:31 am UTC (link)
	"that tired kink" Did you really have to bring kink-shaming into it? There's a world of difference between fantasies and play in a personal setting and what they're doing. (Reply to this)(Parent)

seiberwing
2012-02-12 06:24 am UTC (link)

The more I find out about this, the more it feels like the queerness is just a set of labels slapped on over a game concept ranging from mundane to disturbing depending on what part you're looking at. They complain of tokenism and yet our PoC are palette swaps and our queer people are pronoun swaps of gender binary relationships.

It's like they knew hitting the minority/diversity button would get people going no matter what was hiding behind the project.

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	sepiamagpie 2012-02-14 06:28 am UTC (link)
	Which, if this shitpile was enough to make people hopeful, is a sad enough state of affairs about games in general. (Reply to this)(Parent)

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