as my own direct immediate list of game grievances i hate that stardew valley expects you to side against a wheelchair user who is upset that he was moved without his consent. i hate that the mass effect trilogy gives you visible scarring as a direct result of choosing mean dialogue and heals it if you’re nice. i hate that the vampire the masquerade ttrpg has a monstrous player class that can appear as horrible vampiric monsters or as visibly disabled people and both of these appearances are mechanically the same. i hate that dark souls games have a difficulty level implemented in a way that cannot be adjusted for disability. i hate that i can play as a mermaid or a werewolf or a horse in the sims games but can’t use a wheelchair. i hate that the ace attorney games have so much flashing and not all of the games can disable it. i hate that disability is constantly something that happens to teach a lesson, i hate that disability is something that happens as a punishment, i hate that disability is either compensated perfectly with no drawbacks or something that is endlessly sought to be cured. i hate that no character customization will ever include the mobility aids i use, that the player avatars that represent me will never look like me. i am so goddamn annoyed and so goddamn tired.
KOKOBOT - The Airbnb-Owned Tech Startup - Data Mining Tumblr Users’ Mental Health Crises for “Content”
I got this message from a bot, and honestly? If I was a bit younger and not such a jaded bitch with a career in tech, I might have given it an honest try. I spent plenty of time in a tough situation without access to any mental health resources as a teen, and would have been sucked right in.
Chatting right from your phone, and being connected with people who can help you? Sounds nice. Especially if you believe the testimonials they spam you with (tw suicide / self harm mention in below images)
But I was getting a weird feeling, so I went to read the legalese.
I couldn’t even get through the fine-print it asked me to read and agree to, without it spamming the hell out of me. Almost like they expect people to just hit Yes? But I’m glad I stopped to read, because:
What you say on there won’t be confidential. (And for context, I tried it out and the things people were looking for help with? I didn’t even feel comfortable sharing here as examples, it was all so deeply personal and painful)
Also, what you say on there? Is now…
Koko’s intellectual property - giving them the right to use it in any way they see fit, including
Publicly performing or displaying your “content” (also known as your mental health crisis) in any media format and in any media channel without limitation
Do this indefinitely after you end your account with them
Sell / share this “content” with other businesses
Any harm you come to using Koko? That’s on you.
And Koko won’t take responsibility for anything someone says to you on there (which is bleak when people are using it to spread Christianity to people in crisis)
They also use the data they gather from users to conduct research and publish papers. I didn’t find them too interesting - other than as a good case study of “People tend to find what they are financially incentivized to find”. Predictably, Koko found that Kokobot was beneficial to its users.
So yeah, being a dumbass with too much curiosity, I decided to use the Airbnb-owned Data-Mining Mental Health Chatline anyway. And if you thought it was dangerous sounding from the disclaimers? Somehow it got worse.
(trigger warning / discussions of child abuse / sexual abuse / suicide / violence below the cut - please don’t read if you’re not in a good place to hear about negligence around pretty horrific topics.)
There are young people on tumblr that actively seek support from KokoBot right now, if you check the tag for recent posts. Those people did not get paid to promote it, so do not harrass them. If you can, direct them towards resources about Kokobot (like this post) that are more transparent about what this company is up to.
I’ve seen a number of people say “why don’t they just make up fake military vehicles instead for games” in regards to the War Thunder debacle. Now, the average tumblr user’s autism isn’t about military hardware, so I get why it would be no different to them, so I’ll instead put it in language that makes more sense.
In Stardew Valley or Animal Crossing, if you were planting fake crops, catching fake fish, and using fake tools, it would undoubtably change how the game feels. If instead of corn you bought kernelshucks at the general store, and you tilled the soil with a dirtscratcher instead of a pitchfork, it would be weird, right?
Now, hold your hoofbeasts. I probably wouldn’t believe my ganderbulbs for a minute or two, it’d be a real nugbone scratcher, but after a few minutes I think I’d be able to wrap my puzzle sponge around it. It’s nothing to blow my pump biscuit over, right?
I don’t think I’ve talked much about having a service dog on here, but maybe I should
Boom used to be my service dog, I got him the summer before my last year of high school bcuz I needed a nurse 24/7 to ensure I could eat/sleep/stay alive due to a recent very traumatizing event in my life and my mom came up with the service dog idea.
Getting him was hard. And expensive. No trainers were up to my standards. I, who could barely take care of myself, had to train my own dog. The problem is no matter how hard I worked, my own family or other trainers would ruin it all by messing up my commands, by letting my dog do things I had trained him not to do. It wasn’t training anymore, I ended up simply having breakdowns because everyone kept ruining my dog. People close to me thought they could be an exception to the rules I had taught my MEDICAL AID because surely my DOG would learn the difference between them and strangers.
Eventually I brought him to school. Printed papers explaining what a service dog was and how to behave around him and I plastered them all over the place.
People barked at him, petted him, tried to grab his attention.
His harness was hot pink, patches and signs on it that very clearly said “DO NOT TOUCH” and shit like that.
Someone defaced one of the papers.
Going to school was already hard, I could barely leave the house, my mom had to accompany me to the school doors every morning and then a social worker at school would greet me there and take care of me throughout the day.
I had my own locker at a floor mostly unoccupied so I wouldn’t see other people much and my dog wouldn’t be too distracted.
But it was still to much and I ended up dropping out four months before graduation.
I couldn’t leave the house. I had Boom but he wasn’t perfect yet. People kept ruining him.
But eventually I managed to leave the house. Go to a shopping mall from time to time with him to just walk and have fun.
Too many times people came up to me to tell me the gear I used was hurting my dog. Too many times people came up to me to tell me that their own dog died. Too many people came up to him and pet him without even acknowledging my presence. Too many people telling me they wished they could bring their pets anywhere. Too many people disrespecting me and my service dog.
I stopped going out. I stopped being with my dog.
All this stress and trauma drove a wedge between my dog and I. I consider him my mother’s dog now.
I had to learn to handle myself alone when I went out. It took me years to learn to go out by myself. Only last year I started doing that.
My dog doesn’t live in my room with me anymore.
Having a service dog did still save my life. But those around me ruined that. They made it about themselves. They prioritized my dog over me. My dog that LOVES working. If you tell him “do you want to go to work” chances are he’ll get so excited he will attempt to do a backflip.
We used to have a deep bond. That bond is now broken. People took that from us.
So I guess what I’m trying to say is:
Let people and their service dogs alone.
You are not an exception.
You are not special.
You are disrupting the dog’s training and distracting it.
You are endangering a human life because you can’t resist petting the cute dog.
This isn’t about you. This is about a disabled person trying to simply live their lives.
You don’t know what you’re talking about, your advice is unsolicited and lacks understanding of what the life of a working dog is.
