Way off, but you already know this, so I'm going to try to say this and pray it doesn't fall on deaf ears.
Have you ever seen the part of a sit-com where a husband and wife are arguing over paint colors and they can't tell the difference between different shades of blue? To one person, they're entirely different and the choices represent the variety. But they're still just shades of blue.
"A variety of target audiences" is a misnomer. You inherently can not target a variety of audiences. What you see as a variety is just different shades of blue. If you're not into blue, this kind of sucks for you.
I like this idea that if you don't like something, if you want it to change, people paint it as this unreasonable sin and that you must simply be offended it exists. It conjures up the image of you being this Victoria-era woman in a frilly dress who is fainting at the sight of something that disturbs her delicate sensibilities and all other onlookers, being normal people, view this as weak.
It's never presented the other way. It's never shown that people who feel marginalized or left out by something that should be inclusive are stronger or more courageous for wanting to share the highs everyone else gets to experience all the time. No, they're offended ninnies, because we have no concept of people aren't us being, you know, people.
She fundraised a video series to point out problematic aspects of games with regard to how they treat women. She then released a breakdown of where all that money went. None of it was a "Fuck you" to an industry any more than, say, a kickstarted Shovel Knight is a fuck you to modern video games.
As an aside, as someone that's preparing a similar kickstarter this year, I can't wait to be accused of hating video games despite dedicating the better part of my life to them.
This is not David fucking with a sleeping Goliath here, Goliath's been awake for a while and a dick for longer than that. The industry has problems - all industries do. None of them are perfect, but the video game industry has been the only one that rejects criticism of it angrily. Movies, TV, they all say "We can do better." They don't, but they recognize there's a diversity problem and try to fix it. Video games, and especially fans of video games, find the idea repulsive. We've become a bubble and will kill to keep anyone from popping it.
An actual industry debate would be GREAT. I'd love that. What you simplify as a backlash is, in actuality, people with poor social skills who are taking years of angry frustration out on others because they have been raised in an age where there's no consequences for anything. Which, I'll grant you, can effectively describe the industry, but I don't think we want it to.
Is "Fuck You" German or something for "I'm going to rape you, murder you, tell the world you're a slut, send nude pictures of you to unrelated people and accuse them of cheating on their spouses with you, find your address, post it on the internet, then openly discuss how I want you to be thrown in jail"?
Because, wow, German is a really efficient language, if so!
Criticism is not picking a fight. Anyone who thinks it is is a caveman who does not belong in a creative medium because they can not actually take it. Criticism is the silver bullet of artistic expression because it lets artists grow and it lets the medium reach people who never thought they could be touched by particular works. It allows us all to keep moving toward something better without leaving anything good behind.
A teacher grading your essay is not picking a fight. A person going to a movie and not liking it is not picking a fight. Pointing out that Song of the South is an incredibly racist depiction of black people and is better left on the Disney vault floor is not picking a fight.
Describing it as "picking a fight" is picking a fight.
), and that's pretty much it. funny maybe once or twice. IMO you are reaching if you call them relevant NPCs.