OK, let’s see if I’ve got this right. Apparantly someone at the snarky humor Web site Something Awful posted a cartoon that made some rather tasteless, sexually graphic and sexist fun of video game developer Jade Raymond, who recently produced the highly anticipated game Assassin’s Creed.
Anyway, Ubisoft is really ticked off about the comic and is threatening legal action against Something Awful unless they take the image off their site. (Which they seem to have done. Good luck finding a copy of the comic online. Not that you’d want to.)
The comic in question, by the way, was apparently created by Dave Cheung, who’s also responsible for Chugworth Academy, a strip which, if this site hasn’t made fun of yet, absolutely should and soon.
Update: Cheung attempts to defend the strip.
November 20th, 2007 at 9:43 am
Ugh. Classy all around.
It seems that Cheung was trying to parody Ubisoft’s obvious hyping of Raymond’s role in developing the game due to her looks, but the end result exploits her even worse and completely backfires on his point. Irony isn’t something that everyone can do, particularly socially-deficient gamer types with too much time on their hands.
The real loser here is not just Raymond, who doesn’t deserve that kind of embarrassment, but any woman working in the video game field.
November 20th, 2007 at 9:49 am
the comic isn’t funny at all – the one in question or Chugworth. he is just some boy spending too much time on chan sites and drawing, as one article put it, wank material.
i wonder why someone would take so much time to create something of so little worth?
November 20th, 2007 at 9:53 am
The comic wasn’t THAT hard to find, actually. It’s totally tasteless and unfunny, but I can’t believe UbiSoft has given this guy so much attention. Now people are going to actively try to find the comic in question. The first poster is right about how Cheung’s attempt at the parody of commercial whoring misses completely. There’s a line between parody and just being a dick.
November 20th, 2007 at 10:16 am
Cheung is a total douche, period.
I mean seriously… Chugworth Academy is probably one of the most painfully unfunny webcomics there is. And I’m not talking about ‘Hilarious trainwreck’ unfunny… I’m talking about ‘the urge to punch the computer screen’ unfunny.
Plus I think there’s a fine line between parody/satire and all out hate. This particular comic about Jade (her official/unofficial website just seems so pretentious) is just so vile and hateful. =/
November 20th, 2007 at 10:36 am
It is actually very easy to find the comic in question if you just google it. Thanks to the baseless lawsuit, it has gotten far more attention than it would have otherwise. I’m pretty sure it isn’t illegal to post a link to a crude comic strip parodying a public figure on a web forum.
November 20th, 2007 at 10:54 am
I’ve been following this over on NeoGAF for a bit, and am interested to see it pop up here.
I don’t see any argument that this isn’t in excessively bad taste. It may have started as satire, but it went into pure misogyny.
However, the CBLDF donator in me says it shouldn’t be actionable.
Can I be disgusted with the cartoon without wanting someone sued?
November 20th, 2007 at 11:02 am
Man, I don’t even know where to start with that. Dave Cheung must have a LOT of suppressed rage to puke up something that childish and misogynistic.
November 20th, 2007 at 11:04 am
“Can I be disgusted with the cartoon without wanting someone sued?”
This is a good point. Jade, herself, may have a point to make againt Cheung but I don’t know if UbiSoft’s action is really all that necessary. I think it may be one of those times where you let it slide right off and look down your nose at it.
Then again, I’m sure after all her hard work, Jade Raymond wants blood. It really is just so pathetic to think you can work on something so hard and some little idiot can ruin it. I know people should have thick skins when dealing with the internet but this is just poor taste.
November 20th, 2007 at 11:16 am
Another intersting take on things. I guess the inner gamer geek of some gamers still doesn’t know how to deal with an attractive women, both in Ubisoft and out in consumer land.
http://brokentoys.org/2007/11/19/clearly-we-do-not-deserve-nice-things-andor-people/
November 20th, 2007 at 11:21 am
http://www.thebitbag.com/index.php/2007/11/20/artist-dave-cheung-responds-to-jade-raymond-drama/
“Q: What statement are you trying to make with the Jade Comic?
A: If you would take some time to read the links I originally posted along with the comic, you see that the primary reason for it’s existence is the “Jade Hype” on videogame forums, blogs and “news” sites like Kotaku (lolz). Although Ubi-Soft UNDOUBTEDLY whored Jade out to an extent, it really wasn’t any more than how say, Cliffy B whore’s HIMSELF out. The difference is, forum nerds, bloggers and Kotaku (lolz) got rather more hot and bothered for Jade than they would for old Cliffy.
So, I suppose Jade could be classed as “Collateral Damage”, which may not be very fair, but honestly, if you really care about something as trivial as a comic, you’re a collossal faggot (that goes for you ladies too). A joke is a joke, and is only as harmful to you as you let it be.”
Wow, now that’s what I call world class douchebaggery.
November 20th, 2007 at 11:22 am
Let’s be more accurate here…
The comic was posted, originally, on DeviantArt by Dave Cheung of Chugworth Academy.
A user on Something Awful’s FORUM posted it on their forum, and UbiSoft made a completely irrational legal threat towards a website that has absolutely nothing to do with the comic.
By the same wavelength, UbiSoft should go after DeviantArt, Chugworth Academy, and hell, even this page for featuring a portion of the comic in question.
It’s over done, ridiculous, and without merit. Much like the comic in question. Ironic.
November 20th, 2007 at 11:28 am
Even cursorily reviewing the forum thread shows that Something Awful didn’t post anything. The image was posted by an individual user on their forums while being hosted on an image hosting site completely unrelated to SA.
This is like if Daniel Way had sued Newsarama when a forum poster accused him of blowing Quesada for his writing gigs.
November 20th, 2007 at 11:38 am
Yeah, even if the image itself were libellous (which is arguable), SA’s not at fault for third-party linkage.
At least it shouldn’t be by any reasonable interpretation of the law (though when it comes to situations like this interpretation often ISN’T reasonable).
November 20th, 2007 at 11:41 am
Having found the cartoon in question:
Puerile but clearly in the realm of “parody”. Or else someone’s gonna get sued for putting out those reprints of Tiajuana Bibles.
November 20th, 2007 at 12:16 pm
Well, at least Cheung himself admits that his work/comics/art are trivial and should not be cared about by anyone.
November 20th, 2007 at 6:44 pm
Wow. It certainly helps your case when you use homophobic hate-speech.
Meaning that it helps everyone know exactly what kind of douchebag evolutionary failure you are.
November 20th, 2007 at 8:21 pm
Apodaca: My thoughts exactly.
November 20th, 2007 at 11:38 pm
I am forced to agree that this strip is not necessarily an actionable offense, at least definitely not against SomethingAwful, and most likely not against the original cartoonist either.
That said, though, it’s fairly clear that hatred of women ain’t just an comics industry problem. In some ways, it would appears gamers are even worse. Good going, guys.
March 17th, 2011 at 4:49 pm
im pretty sure there are ton of gamer pervs out there and if they came across this chick talking about any game they would buy it just because a hot chick is talking about it. you cant say that im lying either because i bought the game soon as i saw her face and hope to see it more often cuz she is simply beautiful… im not the only one who bought this game for that reason either…