![Vivian James Vivian James](https://i.kym-cdn.com/entries/icons/mobile/000/016/296/vivian.jpg)
Vivian James
Part of a series on GamerGate. [View Related Entries]
![“…I’m not oppressed you ungodly c---.”](https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/newsfeed/000/816/515/d04.png)
About
Vivian James is a fictional character conceived through a collaboration between 4chan's /v/ (video games) board and the indie game developer group The Fine Young Capitalists. The character can be viewed as an anthropomorphized avatar of the /v/ board community created in response to Zoe Quinn's purported attack on the second-wave feminist organization The Fine Young Capitalists (TFYC)[5] while they were trying to fund a Game Jam to assist women's projects in gaming development.
Origin
On August 18, in a Reddit thread,[4] an user named SillySladar claimed that Quinn intentionally sabotaged a female-centric game development event on the grounds that the idea was oppressive, in order to promote her own similar event, Rebel Jam (shown below, left).[2] On August 19th, The Fine Young Capitalists released a soundcloud recording containing their explanation as to what was going on and why they were doxxed.[1] On August 21, TFYC also gave an audio interview talking about the whole happening (shown below, right).
![Reddit post from /u/SillySladar "Original /r/TumblrInAction post":https://archive.is/aHMDD](https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/newsfeed/000/813/691/405.png)
Spread
4chan and TheFineYoungCapitalists Cooperation
On August 21, 4chan's /pol/ (Politically Incorrect) board came up with the idea of helping The Fine Young Capitalists with the objective of boosting the image of the whole imageboard. The board planned to help TFYC recover from Quinn's previous attacks and spite her in the process. Shortly after, the /v/ (Video Games) board also decided to join the Operation. This was also covered by the gaming media website Attack on Gaming a day later.[3]
![c7b.jpg "Imgur":http://imgur.com/nhgXQMW](https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/newsfeed/000/816/539/c7b.jpg)
[Click on the image for the full infograph]
Before starting the Operation, 4chan contacted TFYC via e-mail, getting a more detailed explanation about the boycott of their event and later coming to an agreement on how the donations would proceed (shown below).
![Dear Polnareff Re: Zoe Quinn, Female Game Developers, and Transgendered persons From: "Super Admin" <admin@thefineyoungcapitalists.com> Tuesday, August 19, 2014 8:00 PM . To: Jean-Pierre Polnareff Full Headers Printable View You journalist are an odd bunch, I will answer your question here so I don't have to wait to days 1. The Fine Young Capitalists's policies on transgendered women were "backwards" due to how TFYC defined what qualities counted as being transgendered When shown a link containing the policy on the website she claimed that the current transgendered policy has been changed from what she is describing Transgender politics are in an absurdly poor place at the moment. Many people jump to anger without reading anything. The guidelines were and always were As long as you self identify as a woman, you were considered a woman. This was explained in both videos and on the page. The only cut off point was that you had to self identify before the contest started. This is the same language we use for our other contest Snless regarding Race, and will be the same language we use in every contest This language was used for two reasons 1.) It allowed people with out identification to apply (And as the contest was global this would be impossible in certain areas.) 2.) It prevented people from switch gender identity to gain access to the contest. This was an issue because we estimated 10% of our applicants would be men lying to get in. This turned out to be 8%. We did not want to enter situation where we would have to arbitrate the gender identity of person 3.) It written so you have to self identify before a certain date, this is so if question by authorities in a country where being trans was illegal the person would not be swearing to the fact that they are currently trans This text was approved by a lawyer and designed by a socialogy student Further more we did a video explaining the gender is a construct and this was released 2 month before Zoe spoke with us (Grief you can see it here and rather explict in defining gender as a construct. She was sent the video and she found it offensive or at least said it was on her twitter. We did use the word transition in the FAQ it is defined by GLAAD as Altering one's birth sex is not a one-step procedure; it is a complex process that occurs over a long period of time. Transition includes some or all of the following personal, medical, and legal steps: telling one's family, friends, and co-workers, using a different name and new pronouns; dressing differently changing one's name and/or sex on legal documents; hormone therapy; and possibly (though not always) one or more types of surgery. The exact steps involved in transition vary from person to person. I understand that she may consider transition to require a sex change we do not. We can not find a single LGBT rights group that does not define Transition using a similar definition to GLAAD. All of them specifically mention transitioning not require the person to have sex reassignment surgery. What it meant to them was left that up to the applicant which were the guidelines presented to us and we followed to the letter. She clearly jumped the gun and multiple people pointed it out to her over the course of the next hours and she repeatly correct them saying that people had to have a sex change but did not reference particular text. And we certainly didn't know how to correct her with out making her look incompetent on the issue which she apparently feel deeply about. We contacted her multiple times via phone to deal with the journalists. She did not answer, we contacted her via email and she has not responded after the fact , espically in relationship to the 2. She believed it to be "weird" that your company was taking the Intellectual Property rights to the games for themselves and distributing the profit not to the person who came up with the game idea, but to charity. We don't take the intellectual property rights. We license them from the creator, and then release the code open source and the art under creative commons We then monetize the software through traditional channels for people who are to lazy to compile it. The contest was aimed at people who are unable to program, and had an idea for the game that would not be made under normal circumstances and this was clearly labeled as "Any woman regardless of skill age or experience can submit an IDEA." They would then be paired with experienced professional in the industry so they could present the idea The creator had to provide their idea under creative commons and this was explictly said in the application form and in the contest rule This is not new, in Canada for instance the CMF will run funds where they can own up to 50% of a production, and thus be entitled to 50% of the profits for the production that they push back into their non profit (In this case the CMF which is used to fund further project.) We simply took a larger percentage and require significantly less upfront over head (I.E. None), and less experience. Valve runs contests where people design props for TF2 and the profits are donated in part to non profits and private individuals. And the Humble Indie Bundle does pay what you want charity drives continually. We no idea why anyone would have problem with this model as the applicant recieves 8% of the profits for writting less the 2000 words and is given first billing on the credits we are even more confused. We consulted with multiple people in the industry and in the activist field the majority had no problem with it I understand why she would think it is unusal, we don't understand why it's wrong. More over we don't understand why it's not an oppertunity for a woman to increase her portfolio. The losers all gained access to their art We personally think that this had less to do with malace and more to do with simply her inexperience on both topics. We completely feel she acted in an inappropiate manner and we assumed that we could contact her and let it blow over. Nether of these things happen. Zoe was one voice in multiple that shared these opinions and we have a list of other woman who acted in a similar matter that we will not be providing the public Unless there are other question consider this a complete answer.](https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/newsfeed/000/816/444/583.png)
![4chan TFYC Sponsorship email "Imgur":http://imgur.com/QIcXAb2](https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/newsfeed/000/815/365/d23.png)
![The Fine Young Capitalists greenlights Operation ATTACK CANCER, FUND CHEMO Re: 4chan Sponsorship of TFYC Honestly this. If people individually want to donate, money that goes to the $10,000 goal, you can. I promise your logo will be done, and by promise I mean this. This is a legally binding decision by the board of the director of "The Fine Young Capitalists Inc." That a logo will appear, as long as it considered decent and does not contain pornographic imagery, or race hating. If we do not follow through we accept that legal ramifications which may include legal action. Just pick a charity, that all your money will go to, and we will give 4Chan a proxy position on the board of director for the Corperation that is created to own the video game rights. We honestly want to work with anyone that want to support woman in gaming. Don't care if you guy like pornt. I will update the site with this information if people want to do it](https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/newsfeed/000/815/325/fed.jpg)
Settlement
- 4chan's donors would be able to donate separately to prevent shills from destroying the operation.
- 4chan would also get the right to design a character ($2,000 reward).
- 4chan would choose to which charity the money would go.
The charity was chosen via Strawpoll (shown below, top image). The winner with over 50% of the votes to "chemo butthurt" was The Colon Cancer Alliance.[6] This was communicated to TFYC who later announced it on their Twitter (shown below, bottom image).
![Strawpoll- Butthurt Incoming "Imgur":http://imgur.com/AxfejAu](https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/newsfeed/000/816/470/6f8.png)
![An expensive joke "Imgur":http://imgur.com/OUukCcW](https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/newsfeed/000/816/471/517.png)
Donations
Enthusiastic members of /pol/ and /v/ started donating to the Indiegogo campaign of TFYC,[7] becoming the main donators to said campaign by donating over $5,000 on the first day. This was later confirmed by a tweet from the TFYC (shown below).[10] On August 25th, TFYC shared an update via Twitter, stating that over $13,000 of the campaign's funding had originated from 4chan.[12]
![An anon with a big heart SOS only 1:31 am 23% KIn Dear This email confirms you have paid Indiegogo.com $300.00 USD using PayPal. It may take a few moments for this transaction to appear in the Recent Activity list on your Account Overview page. Payment details Receiver email: paypal@indiegogo.com Amount: $300.00 USD Transaction date: 22 August 2014 Status:Completed](https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/newsfeed/000/816/472/16b.jpg)
![e9e.png "Imgur":http://imgur.com/ZMwl3Pi](https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/newsfeed/000/816/527/e9e.png)
On September 11th, the Indiegogo campaign reached its final goal of $65,000 in donations.[11] That same day TFYC also shared on their Twitter that over $23,500 of this amount had originated from 4chan.[13] The campaign ended on September 26th with a final amount of $71,496 raised.
![9c0.png "The Fine Young Capitalists on Reaching Goals":https://twitter.com/TFYCapitalists/status/510143822240972800
"The Fine Young Capitalists Final Total from 4chan":https://twitter.com/TFYCapitalists/status/510137763161968640](https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/newsfeed/000/828/502/9c0.png)
Vivian James
By reaching at least $2000 in donations, 4chan gained the right to have a character of their design be placed in the video game that would result from TFYC's Game Jam. When /v/ noticed that they had reached the character design reward, multiple threads where created to brainstorm for ideas. This eventually led to the idea and design for what later would become Vivian James (shown below).
![4chan "Imgur":http://imgur.com/KNRlnri](https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/newsfeed/000/816/532/3cf.png)
It took a series of polls to eventually reach the final character design and her name. Afterwards the character design was sent over to TFYC, who subsequently shared Vivian James and her final design on their Twitter account (shown below). Some aspects present in Vivian James' visual design represent 4chan's /v/ board, such as her striped sweater being green and purple, a reference to the infamous daily dose images, and the four-leaf clover on her headband.
We have received /v/'s design and we are going to see what we can do to have the character appear in the chosen game. pic.twitter.com/f7PKVyM7ee
— TFYC (@TFYCapitalists) 22 augustus 2014
/v/ has finished yelling at each other. Here are what's been decided:
Profile:
- Name: Vivian James (joke here is that slight pronunciation corruption makes it "vidya games", /v/s term for our hobby).
- Nickname: Clover (4chan symbol).
- Online Handle (should it ever for some reason come up): Level (Level → lel →lvl →/v/).
Plenty of excited discussion around personality was had, but that's something I think you should be free to work around. The only thing we'd like you to keep in mind (should relevant situations ever come up) are the things that are obvios from her designs and our board's attitude towards the current controversy:
- Tough-loves video games.
- Loathes dishonesty and hypocrisy.
- Low-affect, grumpy, perpetually fed up and tired.
Ultimately it's your game and the game of the ladies that pitched whatever concept wins.
Backlash
Following the creation of Vivian James and the cooperation between 4chan and TFYC, The Fine Young Capitalists received negative feedback on both Twitter (shown below, left) and Tumblr (shown below, right) from certain feminist groups and supporters, claiming TFYC to be hypocrites, for dealing with 4chan in a friendly manner and accepting money and help from them.
![Feminist Frequency Ariel Connor @MissAngerist 1m @DelTorro @TFYCapitalists it's YOUR fault your trans policy wasn't crystal clear. You're supposed to be a company, where's the PR? わ ★ View conversation Ariel Connor @MissAngerist 2m @TFYCapitalists Dirty money. わ ★ View conversation Ariel Connor @MissAngerist 3m @TFYCapitalists I'm not seeing any justification for using 4chan misogynists' money for this project. You owe the women you represent this わ ★ View conversation Ariel Connor @MissAngerist 4m @TFYCapitalists It disgusts me that you guys are letting 4chan misogynists contribute to your cause. Shame on you. わ ★](https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/newsfeed/000/815/317/509.jpg)
![What feminists think 4chan is donating money for Follo Anonymous asked "if speaking out against one woman is speaking out against all woman, then think of all the people you would..." Do you not get the difference between disagreeing with one woman's belief system and outright hating her? 4chan doesn't just disagree with Zoe's brand of feminism, they f------ HATE her guts, her sex life, her games, her very BEING. She's an outspoken woman, so they hate her. Your support of them is worrying. No wonder 90% of your backers are men. Think really hard about WHY that is. We have thought about it, and our issue is this. If we refused money from a person based on religion, race, political affiliation, gender identity or sexuality it would be wrong. All of those are more integral to a person's belief then going to a silly website. And we don't have enough allies as it is, so... we will take any that wish to fight with us. I'm sure there are people on 4chan that I would not like to assoicate with. That being said I'm on tumblr now and am experiencing the same reaction. Right now in fact 16 notes Aug 22nd, 2014 はー](https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/newsfeed/000/816/157/110.png)
In reply to the accusations, The Fine Young Capitalists defended their stance regarding 4chan, claiming that should they wish to stop them from taking part in the project, they would have to oppress 4chan and that they didn't wish to do that (shown below).[8]
![TFYC - Standing up for 4chan ;_; On Opression and Narrative Please members of serious social justice movements. When you say that 4chan can not take part in a project, you are oppressing them. By the very definition of the word you are. You harm your own movement and you destroy the narrative the media has created. If you wish only to destroy the narrative, then support them. If you oppress them you only create more publicity for the project and actively harm your own I care about the world being a better place, and there are still serious issue involved in social justice. Preventing 4chan from giving money to support Butt Cancer and Woman is the least important issue l can think of. Changing the mind of the small minority that are misogynists is far more important. #4chan #activism #feminism #empowerment](https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/newsfeed/000/816/678/0e4.png)
Hack & Deletion
On August 24th, the campaign page on Indiegogo appeared to get closed and subsequently removed. It was rumored that the page got hacked and was edited to look as if it were taken down by Indiegogo (shown below). The Fine Young Capitalists subsequently shared this message on their Tumblr account,[9] and said that they would try to get the project repaired with the help of Indiegogo. The funding page was temporarily repaired that same day, but it took another day for it to be back up completely.
![Hacked THIS CAMPAIGN HAS BEEN CLOSED StoryUpdates 3 Comments 217 Funders 1,556 You are an idiot! $25,466USD RAISED OF $65,000 GOAL you are an idiot 3996 O 34 days left This campaign started on Aug 12 and will close on September 26. 2014 (11:59pm PT) σ Fixed Funding @ CONTRIBUTE NOW SELECT A PERK 582 1.417 12 A sharet8EmbLinkowin $2,000 uso CAMPAIGN CLOSED: Women making video Games For Charity 9 Toronto, Ontario, Canada Gaming THIS CAMPAIGN HAS BEEN CLOSED Character Design Really want to design a character for a video game, but worried about being judged by our panel of experts? Skip the judges and have our talented concept artists work on your design, whether they like it or not! The final product will be a polished digital painting ready for mass production. Dear N/ Comes with all previous Perks We think it is abhorrent what you are doing to Zoe Quinn and other indie devs Indiegogo does not support hacking or other illegal activity that comes from your message board, We are shutting this fundraiser down before things get more out of hand. Note: Shipping and Handling to be billed separately O out of 5claimed Sincerely The Indiegogo Teamm Do you think this campaign contains pronibited content? Let us know](https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/newsfeed/000/817/264/06b.jpg)
External References
[1] Soundcloud – The Fine Young Capitalist Confession
[2] Rebel Game Jam – Rebel Game Jam
[3] Attack On Gaming – 4Chan TFYC Support
[4] Reddit – Related Thread
[5] The Fine Young Capitalists
[7] Indiegogo – The Fine Young Capitalists
[8] Tumblr – The Fine Young Capitalists on Opression and Narrative
[9] Tumblr – The Fine Young Capitalists on The Conspiracy
[10] Twitter – The Fine Young Capitalists
[11] Twitter – The Fine Young Capitalists on Reaching Goals
[12] Twitter – The Fine Young Capitalists The current value of all 4chan contributions
[13] Twitter – The Fine Young Capitalists Final Total from /v/ and 4chan
Top Comments
Mr.Unicorn
Aug 23, 2014 at 08:27AM EDT
Alex Mercer Moderator
Aug 23, 2014 at 08:30AM EDT in reply to