Also, writing a comment on a blog with a Wiimote is a huge pain in the ass.

Damn.

If the Editor of Kotaku is going to say that he goes out of his way to avoid creating a “boy’s club,” then I think it’s fair game to call him on it when he’s obviously lying.

This. Although taking a look at the NSFW link, I would say that it feels more like a gentlemen’s club than a boys’ club.

Re: anime characters in maid costumes, my only comment is that at in America you really only hear about the stereotypical “young girl in maid costume.” Believe me, the real dark underbelly (or in this case, the dark potbelly) of the anime culture is the “fat middle aged man with unshaved legs in maid costume.”

The otaku subculture is soul-shredding.

Yeah… but that link also includes a video of a fat guy in his underwear playing video games.

Come on. Seriously.

But I check the site fairly often (as I still think they’re by far the best source of gaming news), and I don’t see this kind of thing happen that frequently anymore.

That’s sort of like patting someone on the shoulder because he doesn’t hit his wife that much anymore. When you do it at all you create the environment. In this case it creates an exclusive “boys only” environment.

I just don’t think they should be scared about creating a “boy’s club”. They certainly shouldn’t be trying to exclude women from their site, but I don’t see a problem with appealing to their audience.

Although I and others have criticized Brian for creating a “boys only” environment, it’s Brian himself that is violating his own stated goal. If the Editor of Kotaku is going to say that he goes out of his way to avoid creating a “boy’s club,” then I think it’s fair game to call him on it when he’s obviously lying.

But I check the site fairly often (as I still think they’re by far the best source of gaming news), and I don’t see this kind of thing happen that frequently anymore. Looking at it now, I see a story about anime characters in maid costumes on coffee cans and… some sort of mahjong porn a few pages back. I’m not sure that this kind of thing makes them sexists, though.

But I’m not sure why they bother defending themselves. That’s just seems like its asking for more trouble. I mean, if their blog’s going to cover games from Japan, or just gaming in general, it’s inevitably going to end up dealing with this sort of thing all the time. The vast majority of the people playing video games are going to be men, so half naked women just sort of come with the territory.

I just don’t think they should be scared about creating a “boy’s club”. They certainly shouldn’t be trying to exclude women from their site, but I don’t see a problem with appealing to their audience. Looking at the most read articles and the kinds of comments they attract, they’ve already got one anyway. Either way, I think people might be over analyzing the thing too much. It’s just a gaming blog. If CBS news was doing this, that’s one thing. But the internet’s a big place.