Jim Sterling (The Jimquisition)

Cawthon deserves all the flak he's getting right now, but I'm also surprised people are... well, surprised at this development.

Maybe it's more how awful the people he's been donating to are than anything, but his work portfolio from before Quintuple Evenings at Frederick's was pretty fundamentalist in nature between video games and unlicensed CG movies. The donations to the actually the worst people in America are disgusting but not surprising, as the old M84 adage goes.

I don't know how the word came about but "simping" usually means some form of sexual attraction to someone such that you'd give them everything you own just for an ounce of attention. And, by lord, I hope that doesn't apply to any indie devs let alone someone like Cawthon.

(...why is this the pagetopper.)

Edited by NesClassic on Jun 14th 2021 at 8:24:32 AM

...but to me this is another example of people rallying around the creators of things they enjoy despite those creators being horrible people.

Despite or because?

It's the internet. No slang word means what it used to anymore.

Edited by PhysicalStamina on Jun 14th 2021 at 8:25:16 AM

A little of column a and a little of column b. I'm sure homophobes and other bigots are defending him bc they agree, but some people just don't want to deal with or care about cawthons issues.

Frankly there's little difference

It's even less surprising since The Desolate Hope, the game he released right before the FNAF series, had an intentional anti-abortion message.

I'd argue that in some ways the people who support Cawthon despite his awful viewpoints are worse than the people who support him because of those awful viewpoints.

It's akin to how I feel about the people who vote for Trump despite him being an awful piece of shit than because of it.

Edited by M84 on Jun 14th 2021 at 8:31:18 PM

Jim Fucking Sterling son shouldn't have reviewed Chippers and Sons co to avoid all this shit /s

I wonder if he’ll cover the failings of the Square Enix livestream on its own video or not.

I'll be honest: I don't typically look into a creator's history or belief system before playing one of their games. I believe that a media product should stand on its own merits, not rely on knowledge of its behind-the-scenes legacy or a belief in the infallibility of whoever is creating it. (See: M. Night Shyamalan)

There are some exceptions, of course. I'm not coming into Civilization VI blind; I've played all the other games before it. But that's because of the games, not because I have some abiding love for Firaxis or Sid Meier.

However, when a creator goes out of their way to make their belief system known and that system is abhorrent, one is faced with a dilemma. It's especially true if the creator attaches their identity to a product, so that one isn't just buying Shooty Death Game but Blive Carker's Shooty Death Game.

It's understandable if not everyone wants to be faced with that sort of moral or ethical choice when they just want to play a damn game. But if their choice is specifically tied to the identity of the creator and that creator is a morally questionable person, they are now implicitly approving or at least condoning that person's actions.

The resulting cognitive dissonance leads to anger at anyone who criticizes the creator, since the creator is part of the reason one is buying their products. "I'm not a bad person, so my choice to buy this game can't be bad. Since I bought this game because of Scott Cawthon, or Tom Clancy, or whoever, an attack on them is an attack on my own moral values."

One can understand this behavior, but it's still awful behavior.

The people who support Cawthon precisely because he's a fundie Christian, however... they can go right to Hell.

Edited by Fighteer on Jun 14th 2021 at 8:45:13 AM

There's also the fact that he's getting money from these games, and he's donating a not insignificant portion of said money to bigots.

Edited by M84 on Jun 14th 2021 at 8:45:58 PM

I wonder if anyone exploring that avenue has looked at which politicians EA, Activision, etc. spend their money on... Anyway, we profess to like indie publishers because they aren't big, rapacious corporations, but that doesn't make them good people. The tie between the game and the person is just a little more direct, that's all.

One thing i will give Cawthon props for is sticking to his beliefs. Too many times creators will try to snake their way to through a non-apology or ignore the issue altogether but he at least adressed it, defended it (albeit half-assedly and a with a lot of deflection) and accepted that maybe his fandom will move on without him.

He may be shit but at least he has convictions and it sucks that you have to acknowledge that as a positive compared to the other trash in the industry.

According to Open Secrets, EA has donated almost entirely to the Democratic Party since 2008. They made a massive contribution to the GOP in 2008, but not in any other year.

Here's the link.

Activision-Blizzard donated more to the GOP in 2016 and before that, but afterwards switched more to the Democratic Party.

Here's their link.

Edited by M84 on Jun 14th 2021 at 8:52:58 PM

How reliable is open secrets?

It's pretty reliable. It's the same source that showed Cawthon's political donations.

Edited by M84 on Jun 14th 2021 at 8:53:45 PM

Not sure why gaming companies would ever donate to the GOP considering how much they despise video-games.

Free market stuff. The GOP is ostensibly the party of big business, and AAA publishers are big business.

Its so the politicians don't suddenly decide to look into regulating their industry,think of it as a bribe

"We give THIS much and you won't even try to regulate us,deal?"

Okay that makes sense now.

Shit.

@The FNAF shit

Waiting for the inevitable tidal wave of "SUPPORT ART NOT ARTIST LOL WHAT DO YOU MEAN HE PROFITS OFF OF THIS AND GETS CONFIDENCE TO ACT WORSE WHEN HE HEARS ABOUT SUPPORT LOL"

Incoming Death of the Author

Maybe he'll at least lose his fricking toy deal. I'm tired of the little dolls of his Chuck E. Cheese ripoffs scaring my toddler on the toy isle.

Don't think so,it would take something especially bad for that to happen,like something that would make him super radioactive

I once called Scott Cawthon Affably Evil on OTC when this was brought up. Given that Sterling mentioned near the end that Cawthon's a very "nice" man and then pointed out that nice doesn't mean good, Sterling would probably agree.

Sterling may not have straight up called Cawthon evil, but they did say they don't think he's a good man.

Edited by M84 on Jun 14th 2021 at 9:57:33 PM

The sheer out of tough arrogance of claiming that you donating to and voting for for a party that at best wants to make LGBT+ people a second class citizens as better for them in the long run is fucking gross and shows he is uninterested in actually listening to them.

And considering his donation to Klacik and how she "truly wanted to help the black community", I would add black people to the list of groups he doesn't actually care to listen to.

I doubt he listens to anyone except his own religious peers and his cult of fans who defend everything he says and does.