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Cross The Line - Sexual Assault... ok, maybe just Sexual Harassment!

You wouldn't happen to know where in the archive I can find this? I watched his stream for quite a while before I went to bed, but I didn't catch this.

I have no idea. All I know is that it was after Art got into his room, was there for a few minutes and Haunts came in and answered some questions on the stream.

I don't think he was specifically downplaying his words, but I think he said that we shouldn't take him so seriously when asked about what he had said. Of course, note that Arturo avoided the topic altogether and was around when it happened, so...

Either way, I kind of gave up on the show after that and all information I got I learned through reading the thread. After that day, and then later going back and watching the second day stream with all the nonsense happening, I became pretty mad at the whole situation, but realized as a random dude I didn't have much of a voice in the matter :(
 

JeTmAn81

Member
Why is Aris so popular on the Tekken scene, anyway? Is he supposed to be some kind of dominant player? I couldn't find any EVO placings from him outside of 4th in Soul Calibur II for EVO 2003.
 
Why is Aris so popular on the Tekken scene, anyway? Is he supposed to be some kind of dominant player? I couldn't find any EVO placings from him outside of 4th in Soul Calibur II for EVO 2003.


He's like the raunchy James Chen of 3d fighters. He taught a lot of stuff through his podcast and etc.
 

Doomshine

Member
Why is Aris so popular on the Tekken scene, anyway? Is he supposed to be some kind of dominant player? I couldn't find any EVO placings from him outside of 4th in Soul Calibur II for EVO 2003.

If I remember correctly he started playing Tekken seriously with 5 and he was just outside of top 8 both times in Tekken 6 and he usually places high in tournaments. His popularity comes from his commentary and the work he has done for the Tekken scene with podcasts, tutorials, interviews e.t.c.
 

AAK

Member
Why is Aris so popular on the Tekken scene, anyway? Is he supposed to be some kind of dominant player? I couldn't find any EVO placings from him outside of 4th in Soul Calibur II for EVO 2003.

Taken from here:

- Placed top 8 in 7 Regional tournaments in Tekken 6 including Nationals
- Qualified to represent the US in the Tekken 6 world tournament in Japan
- Qualified for SBO 2010 for Tekken 6
- Soul Calibur 2 world champion
- Soul Calibur 2 nationals, 5th
- EVO 2003, 4th Soul Calibur 2
- Won over 100 Soul Calibur 2 tournaments
- Qualified for nationals, Soul Calibur 4 - EVO 2011, 9th MK9
 

zlatko

Banned
Aris showed up in the final round stream and is getting a lot of support.

SMH

Why would that make you SMH?

Dude is popular within the scene, has many friends, and honestly outside of this Cross Assault fiasco he has been a supporter of the scene and done things to make it bigger/better.

His heart is in the right place, and while he may be a giant moron with these turn of events, I don't see it as something he can't get past and keep doing what he's been doing or maybe more for the FGC.
 

Apollyon

Neo Member
Why would that make you SMH?

Dude is popular within the scene, has many friends, and honestly outside of this Cross Assault fiasco he has been a supporter of the scene and done things to make it bigger/better.

His heart is in the right place, and while he may be a giant moron with these turn of events, I don't see it as something he can't get past and keep doing what he's been doing or maybe more for the FGC.

Also, I believe there's a substantial amount of people that are just ready to move on from this shit. To quote Justin Wong:

izM6R.png
 

Doomshine

Member
Aris showed up in the final round stream and is getting a lot of support.

SMH

At some point you have to ask yourself what people like James Chen and MarkMan have to gain from defending him and realize that there might be something to it and that letting him learn from this is the mature thing to do.

Stream chat is stream chat though, don't know what you're expecting from them.
 

-COOLIO-

The Everyman
i was wondering why this topic was so big

goddamn this is a fucked up story

sort of continues to support my suspicions that heavily geek communities are far more prone to sexual harassment than other communities, due in large part to a feeling of so frequently being rejected by the opposite sex or simply being unable to know how to act due to social ineptitude. So these people compensate in a really negative way

i'm sure it's certainly true to at least some extent.

This is a community that’s, you know, 15 or 20-years-old and the sexual harassment is part of a culture, and if you remove that from the fighting game community, it’s not the fighting game community

there are only two elements which are integral to a fighting game community. fighting games, and people who play them.
 
Well that's how things are.

Grownups forgive (forget, maybe not)

Kids hold grudges.

Yeah, sexual harassment... forget about it and be an adult! Only kids holds grudges about it.

What the fuck am I reading? Someone with this philosophy is calling others kids? The irony is so thick I'm drowning in it.
 

zlatko

Banned
Yeah, sexual harassment... forget about it and be an adult! Only kids holds grudges about it.

What the fuck am I reading? Someone with this philosophy is calling others kids? The irony is so thick I'm drowning in it.

Why not just go find Aris in real life or get a hold of him on twitter and hash it out.

Clearly you want to get this settled your way somehow. I'm not sure what you are expecting here. Apologies went down.

You let us now what his proper punishment should be.
 
I don't think people are simply forgetting about the issue of sexual harassment, merely moving forward from this specific case, like with other incidents in life.

If you want to spin that as everyone in the "FGC" as not caring about the issue at all, that's up to you.
 

QisTopTier

XisBannedTier
Yeah, sexual harassment... forget about it and be an adult! Only kids holds grudges about it.

What the fuck am I reading? Someone with this philosophy is calling others kids? The irony is so thick I'm drowning in it.

Damn you seem to have some sensitivity to the issue. No one said to forget anything.
 

Threi

notag
Yeah, sexual harassment... forget about it and be an adult! Only kids holds grudges about it.

What the fuck am I reading? Someone with this philosophy is calling others kids? The irony is so thick I'm drowning in it.
If you want to call it irony it's your prerogative. But like I said forgiveness is the "adult" thing to do. I did not say to forget it, read my quote again. It's not very long.

And again seeking punishment just for YOUR (not the victim's but YOUR) satisfaction is childish.
 
Why not just go find Aris in real life or get a hold of him on twitter and hash it out.

Clearly you want to get this settled your way somehow. I'm not sure what you are expecting here. Apologies went down.

You let us now what his proper punishment should be.

I'm responding to a comment that says the people "holding grudges" against sexual harassment are "kids".

What does that have to do with me needing to find aris in real life? Or twitter? I don't need to be personally involved to think that sweeping this under the rug and "just playing" is bullshit.

But you're the one putting some of the blame on the girl earlier in this topic, so I really don't know why I'm responding to you at all.

And again seeking punishment just for YOUR (not the victim's but YOUR) satisfaction is childish.

Because this is a problem across much of the (hurts me to call it this) gaming community, and that forgetting about it so easily is detriment to everyone?

Am I not allowed to seek resolve in court cases if I'm not personally involved? What about politics? Domestic problems? Graffiti? Violence? Any wrong-doing ever?

Do you realize what you're typing?

Damn you seem to have some sensitivity to the issue. No one said to forget anything.

Because treating a girl like this sickens me. Day-over-day harassment to the point of making her drop out of a tournament to win $25,000. And then being shoved into the "kid" category because the "adults" are the ones who want to forget about it and play fighting games.
 

zlatko

Banned
I'm responding to a comment that says the people "holding grudges" against sexual harassment are "kids".

What does that have to do with me needing to find aris in real life? Or twitter? I don't need to be personally involved to think that sweeping this under the rug and "just playing" is bullshit.

But you're the one putting some of the blame on the girl earlier in this topic, so I really don't know why I'm responding to you at all.

Yeah not like I was missing information when I made those comments, and not like I apologized for my dumb comments. Oh wait that was the case.

Who's sweeping it under the rug exactly? What more do you need is the real question? Let's let him try to act on his owning up to it and his apologies, and see if he does tone himself down and be more aware of his actions.

I'm not getting what more you could possibly want from Aris himself or what kind of punishment you want on him for you to feel like he got what he deserved for his actions.

What exactly do people need to be doing to not sweep it under the rug in your eyes? Talking about it to no end day in day out? I'm not seeing what good is going to come from that. It happened, it was shitty, the guy apologized, apologized more, and now it's the well let's see if he can act on that sincerely.

The reason I bring up you needing to contact Aris, is because you are coming off like you don't want this to ever end and that he is the anti-christ in your eyes. This topic in general seems super touchy for you in general from your comments, and if it's something you are THAT opinionated on, then maybe you should get in touch with the source of your anger(Aris) and try to speak your mind to him and why you are so upset.
 

Threi

notag
Because treating a girl like this sickens me. Day-over-day harassment to the point of making her drop out of a tournament to win $25,000. And then being shoved into the "kid" category because the "adults" are the ones who want to forget about it and play fighting games.
You know what sickens me as well? Physical assault over videogames, to the point where there is property damage. But as much as i despise those actions those people worked it out on their own. The aggressor apologized, the victim made up with the aggressor and they moved on from it. Maybe the aggressor should have had charges pressed on him for physical assault and property assault. But they decided not to.

They are not all just cave-dwelling nerds as some would like to paint them as. It is a bad situation but it is not right to feel that you have a sense of moral superiority over them because of this situation. Like it has been said many times, the fighting game community is not one governing body, it is not one hivemind. But one mindset has been universally common: What Aris did WAS wrong. What should be done about it? Well that differs.

But if Miranda herself wants to move on (and thank the FGC for their support as well) then who am I to say otherwise? She is a big girl, she can make decisions for herself. I don't see why others need to seek justice on her behalf. She is free to take Aris to court on charges on sexual harassment if she so pleases.

Also...for the umpteeth time: FORGIVING IS NOT EQUATABLE TO FORGETTING. STOP USING THAT AS AN ARGUMENT.
 

7Th

Member
What Aris needs to do is admit the perspective he presented as "the heart of the FGC" is wrong and offensive; I'm sure the mainstream media would be more forgiving if he retracted his statements. A fauxpology in which he defends his questionable philosophy won't change anything.
 

Imm0rt4l

Member
Yeah, sexual harassment... forget about it and be an adult! Only kids holds grudges about it.

What the fuck am I reading? Someone with this philosophy is calling others kids? The irony is so thick I'm drowning in it.

Well if he harrassed you in someway I would expect you may hold a grudge, but it wasn't you. It's not like he can't try and mature/move on from this.
 

kitzkozan

Member
The thing is the FGC doesn't have a community-wide problem that's any bigger than any other gaming community. You can't honestly tell me that all female and minority gamers are welcomed with open arms by EVERYBODY in MMOs, shooters, and the rest. There are many "Aris"s out there but we just got unlucky in having one in a very public position.

I used to have a subscription on ESEA for 5-6 years and while they did a good job at issuing temporary bans for racism and direct harassment, there was plenty of sexism and ignorant remarks in CS. Even the bans weren't long enough to be significant. Public servers are worse. You didn't mention other shooters but Halo, COD, and others don't really seem as accepting of diversity as the FGC.

It's not the same type of "gaming" I guess but the MTG community is currently under fire and had to have community leaders issue the same type of statement after a female player was being indirectly harassed while placing highly in a tournament.

Like you said, SRK and other members of the FGC are doing a great job at tackling the incident and shunning those involved. However, gaming in general has a long way to go to be completely accepting of female gamers.

This happen in almost every environment where there's a skewed ration of male/female unfortunately (where I live, I'm hearing it's fucking brutal on construction sites where the ratio is 99% male for 1% female) . :[ Boy's club have existed since the dawn of time or close to it and it's not exclusive to gaming or "nerdy" hobbies :p

I also know that there was some controversy over the years in WoW. Some guilds wouldn't accept women or making questionable remarks and it would make the forums explode with sexism. Gaming communities ain't paradise for women, but it's about time that people grow some balls and denounce trashy or braindead behavior. I see it as a good thing that Aris got lambasted and that Marn got his ass handed to him for stupidity. It will take time, but it will help the FGC to slowly mature. ;)
 
I've been throughout this whole thing been one of the biggest advocates of there being some kind of substantive punishment for what Aris did, but ultimately, at this point it's in Miranda's court if she should want to litigate, but her seemingly final statement on the matter doesn't make it sound like she's lawyering up for a legal battle. More than likely she wants to move on---though I'm sure she will probably make sure she can avoid tourneys where she's likely to run into Aris. In addition, given that it happened under Capcom's watch, the SRK illuminati or any other prominent figure has no leverage to punish the organization.

Despite this fact, however, I feel somewhat okay with it because ultimately I feel like Aris is going to be paying for this for a long time. His friends in the community may welcome him back openly, but any newer blood in the scene are likely to treat him with disdain or just suspicion. Not only that, but he will likely encounter strangers outside of the community who will know who he is because of the terrible things he did and said. Plus, whatever he does in his life after this, his name will forever be linked in the public record with this incident.

I'm generally all for punishment that takes on a substantive form, but I think he's going to pay plenty for what he did in at least that sense.

And, ultimately, the thing that he ultimately argued for in his now infamous dialogue with Jared is unlikely to remain the case. Given the way inkblot laid down the law just yesterday, the scene is likely to get "cleaner" in exactly the kind of way he probably doesn't want. If he grows to dislike what the scene that he's put a great deal of his life into becomes, he will always know that his actions were a great deal of the reason for that
happening.

So, in a sense, yes, maybe he's getting away with no consequences, but I think when you look at the bigger picture he "lost". And I feel mostly okay with that.
 

Mechazawa

Member
Plus, whatever he does in his life after this, his name will forever be linked in the public record with this incident.

This is actually a really good point. Google's record keeping is one of the better punishments I could want for someone doing something really, really stupid.
 

QisTopTier

XisBannedTier
I'm glad level headed, smart people like MarkMan and the other people that have influence are higher up in the chain of things :3

I mean it I'm not kissing your ass for a stick I can't even use them lololol xD
 

Terrell

Member
And now we know why everyone stopped going to arcades.

I hope this guy knows that, by saying this out loud and having his name linked to articles about this incident, he's made himself a permanent bachelor. And the world is better off for it.

I'd say this fellow is worse than cancer, but I wouldn't want to defame cancer that badly.
 

QisTopTier

XisBannedTier
And now we know why everyone stopped going to arcades.

I hope this guy knows that, by saying this out loud and having his name linked to articles about this incident, he's made himself a permanent bachelor. And the world is better off for it.

I'd say this fellow is worse than cancer, but I wouldn't want to defame cancer that badly.

Is this post serious? -.-
 

alstein

Member
And I stand by that.

I don't want we should be aiming to lose anyone in the community. I'd have no problem having Aris back if he understands that things have changed, and doesn't do the same thing again.

That said, we do need to clean up the community, so more folks can be part of it and wish to be part ot if. I'm willing to do my part in that.

I do think some folks in the community are afraid of "gentrification" and are afraid of change period. Talked to a few of those yesterday.

Markman, I'll try to say hi to you today, you were a little busy yesterday so I didn't.

BTW if I had to estimate the female percentage among attendees this year at FR: my guess would be 5%. Guessing the percentage of females actually playing is lower though.
 
And now we know why everyone stopped going to arcades.

I hope this guy knows that, by saying this out loud and having his name linked to articles about this incident, he's made himself a permanent bachelor. And the world is better off for it.

I'd say this fellow is worse than cancer, but I wouldn't want to defame cancer that badly.

lolwut.gif
 

Zuly

Member
People are treating this sexual harassment issue as if Miranda got raped or something. Judging from what I saw, and the statements from Aris, Miranda and Sherry, it seemed as teasing gone too far. Furthermore, Aris' actions don't represent the whole community. Sherry has said many times that she has never been a victim of sexual harassment from the community because she has shown that when things get too far for her, she knows when to put a stop to it, and that's something that Miranda didn't do on time. As a female myself, and a member of my local FGC, I haven't been sexually harassed either. Yes, I've heard typical immature sexist jokes but none have been directed towards me and the times that they have it's been with my closest of friends and it was all in jokes. The FGC community is ready to move on and I believe everyone should.

People are acting as if women are the only victims of teasing in the FGC. Are you forgetting that the stream monsters, and even members of the community pretty much tease everyone? Watch a stream and notice how stream monsters pretty much bash on everyone. e.g. Marn, F.Champ. Combofiend said he was hated when he started playing MvC2. How about Kayane? I've never heard any issues with her. What about Nina? How about asking other females in the community what their experiences have been instead of focusing on what happened with ONE?

And now let's focus on this moment. This is what the FGC is all about.
 

SpiffyG

Member
Every single stream I watch that has a female player, some really cringe-worthy, offensive comments are made towards them. I'm glad that it's finally making news, something needs to change in the fighting game community.
 
Yeah, sexual harassment... forget about it and be an adult! Only kids holds grudges about it.

What the fuck am I reading? Someone with this philosophy is calling others kids? The irony is so thick I'm drowning in it.



How about you chill and let people handle their own drama? so many of you are trying to paint this in an objective light-- like Aris is a bad person and everyone should hate him. Guess what? Miranda forgave him....I think it's safe for the rest of the world can do that too now. So, everyone can drop the exaggerated outrage now.
 

Zuly

Member
Every single stream I watch that has a female player, some really cringe-worthy, offensive comments are made towards them. I'm glad that it's finally making news, something needs to change in the fighting game community.

...and the same can be said with fat and homosexual (or "homosexual looking") players. This is more of a social problem than a FGC problem.
 

kaioshade

Member
Every single stream I watch that has a female player, some really cringe-worthy, offensive comments are made towards them. I'm glad that it's finally making news, something needs to change in the fighting game community.

That is just people being people. I dont think that particular behavior is limited to the FGC.

As for Aris, i say the torches and pitchforks can be put down now. A hard lesson was learned, and it was an ugly blow for the FGC, but if they can forgive him, and be willing to give another chance for what was obviously a bad judgement call, then everyone else can too.
 
Every single stream I watch that has a female player, some really cringe-worthy, offensive comments are made towards them. I'm glad that it's finally making news, something needs to change in the fighting game community.



are you talking about the stream chat? cause you can just forget about it, it's one of those murky things you can't really control, like /b/. At some points, it's just nonsense, but usually during good matches, people are pretty focused on the fights. Like yesterday, when spooky's stream first started, people were spamming sexist/racist stuff just to be irreverent, but then during UMVC3, the chat was just commenting on the hype fights. Commentators don't usually make comments like that at all.

it's better to disable the chat anyway, the video seem to run much more stable without it.
 
Stream monsters make fun of everyone, you can find the same kind of comments on youtube videos which I think numerous people have stated before. They should not be taken as representatives of the community at large.
 
I respect that. I'd give Aris I ton of shit about this if I were one of his friends and I'd continue to remind him that he needs to shape up, but this community has never been about abandoning(not immediately at least) the people who stood by you so long when the scene was barely scraping by.

What he did is fucked up, but I felt this from the moment that the whole debacle started... we are not a community if we are willing to throw everyone overboard at every turn. We have to learn, we have to self correct and we have to police OURSELVES because no one else was doing it since this culture surrounding the genre sprouted some odd twenty years ago. This is a good thing. We are obviously aware of the issue at hand and people at the top are taking responsibility and appropriately distancing themselves from this behavior without cutting the fabric of the community to shreds.
 

joeposh

Member
...and the same can be said with fat and homosexual (or "homosexual looking") players. This is more of a social problem than a FGC problem.

No, that means that sexual harassment is just part of a larger, overarching problem within the FGC. The fact that people tolerate it and sit silently or passively laugh as it occurs (even when they don't agree with it) means that harassment and misogyny have become the norm within the community.

Hopefully the profile of this incident can help begin to change that, and spur players to speak up when things cross the line. I also hope that corporate sponsors of the larger tournaments and promotions will finally begin to enforce some standards, and use that to set an example for the community at large.

It's not asking the NBA to play Football. It's having behavioral standards for the players (that's why fines, ejections and technical fouls exist), so that the shit talking doesn't become a larger focus than the actual competition.
 
I've just barely stated to read this thread, its so annoying to not have post limits but oh well.

My thoughts: While I'm not part of the FGC and don't care for it fighting games much, its sad that it will be dumbed down by the P.C. police. Everything gets worse when they interfere.
 
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