Star Stable & Gender Video Essay

Hey guys, for a while I’ve really wanted to get into making video essays especially ones related to Star Stable. After talking with some friends I think the first one I wanna do is a discussion on how gender is handled in SSO, its other media and in SSE’s (the company’s) social media and outreach to the player base.

I would like to shoot for finishing it this year but I also know the last few months of the year typically get insanely busy for me. If you’re interested in this project I’m going to be posting updates as I go on this blog and possibly @jadesjunk which is my art blog. The final video will be on my Youtube JadeTheMage.

Lastly, if you’re interested in helping out I’d love to hear folks thoughts especially via the survey I made! Feel free to reply, reblog, ect on this post to spread the word or tell me anything you’re interested in sharing about your thoughts related to gender and SSO.

Link to the survey and my Youtube channel can be found in the reblog so this can show up in tags. (Kindly please focus on reblogging that version if you have time, thank you!)

SSO Gender Video Essay Update 5

Just wanted to post a quick update so you guys don’t think I’m dead or this project is lol. I’m not certain on expected timeline for the essay because I would like to get it done by spring or around spring. However for my own mental health I’m taking a break from SSO. I’m not planning on quitting or anything and I certainly am not planning on dumping all the work I did on the essay.

If I can’t manage to make it into a video or two, I’m going to finish cleaning up my scripts so far (which are getting rather close to done so yay!) and will just release them as written essays instead of visual video ones. But for anyone who has been following my blog for updates (or the tag) I wanted to make sure you guys weren’t left completely in the dark.

If you’re still following me on this, thank you so much and I hope I can finish this project soon and create a meaningful discussion about gender not only in SSO but also in games in general but especially those for girls or other young children.

SSO Gender Video Essay Update 1

Hey guys so just gonna toss a (sorta) quick update out there to keep this active. I’m working on building a script for the video and already it’s looking like this one might work better as a two part set. I’m on a second attempt at an intro and I’m starting to realize maybe it would be best to tackle a lot of general info and discussion in part 1 and then come back and talk about specific elements like character diversity and representation for example in the second one.

I also wanted to announce this right away, I have no intentions on bashing SSO or the Star Stable franchise as a whole being “for girls” or being targeted towards a feminine audience. I want to talk about how SSE can approach the game as they seem to intend it as one meant for female players while still being diverse and inclusionary towards non-female players and gender groups. You’ll see more on that in the actual video but I hope this can help clarify things while it’s still a work-in-progress. I whole heartedly believe SSE needs to take a very strong look at how they are attempting to be inclusive and understand why this isn’t always something their player base approves of. But I don’t want to ignore where they are stepping up and making progress either. I’d like to show both the good and the bad and I hope it can start discussions that are both respectful and thoughtful about how gender is portrayed in Star Stable media and in the industry today.

The survey is still live and I am hoping to toss it up on instagram and twitter soon. However I have pretty much no presence on those platforms so if you know folks there please try to spread it. Link is in the pinned post on this blog!

SSO Gender Video Essay Update 7

YOOOOOOOOOOOOOO okay so no release just yet but I have the first audio draft of my final script done guys! Sorry for the long wait, winter was hell on me and my job has been stupid busy. BUT we are in the home stretch and I’m gonna chug away on it this month to hopefully release in time for June (and of course pride <3) so please keep an eye out next month for the final release of my video essay!

Hope everyone’s having a wonderful spring and see you all in June!

SSO Gender Video Essay Update 3

Been a bit since I released a proper update so to fill folks in, I’ve been working on the script draft for the second video. I was originally going to include a part about SSE’s social media presence and how they treat the player base. However, with how long the script is already getting just covering the first section I think I’ll have to drop it or else it might become too bloated.

I would love to do a whole ‘nother video just covering official Star Stable social media and how SSE treats the player base but for now I’m going to focus on getting this set of videos done. However, I am considering hosting some roundtable discussion style livestreams. If you’re interested please let me know as that’ll help encourage me to get stuff prepped! I was thinking about hosting one following the release of the gender essay videos. However if I don’t have time and energy to also do any videos on social media I’d love the chance to just openly talk about that with folks over live stream as well.

If I cut out the social media section from the second video then the first half will focus purely on discussing characters, gender rep and how SSO showcases gender for women, men and queer characters. The latter half will then focus on gender expression for the player, going over how that works currently with the outdated models we have now vs what we’ve been seeing SSE trying to do with their updated ones and likely touching again on how the survey responses feel about both. I’ll also discuss why diverse gender expression is important and talking about the merits of allowing a wide range including high femininity, high masculinity, androgyny and everything in between. 

That stuff aside, the scripts are coming along pretty well, I think I might close the survey soon, perhaps at the end of the month or end of September depending on when I finish the second video’s draft. My plan is to flesh out video 2′s script to give people time to submit for the survey then go back to video 1′s script and rework it with the feedback I received. We’ve hit OVER 200 RESPONSES! Which is awesome and way above what I was honestly expecting to get as someone who has almost no real presence in the fandom.

If you haven’t done the survey yet please do so before it closes, you can find info about it on this post.  If you already have then thank you so much, I would really appreciate if you can share it as well! I’ve posted about it on multiple social media platforms including reddit and the Jorvegian Collective’s instagram and twitter! 

SSO Gender Video Essay Update 6

Just wanted to post a lil update so folks don’t think I’m dead or abandoned this project. As much as I would love to dig into the nitty gritty details and ramble across two videos, I’ve decided to attempt to condense everything back down into one video. The idea of writing two separate scripts and creating and uploading two separate videos has become stressful for me to think about and the whole point of my hiatus from the game has been to reduce my stress related to SSO.

But I’m not all talk on this, I have actually managed to get a new single video draft together from the old ones. It’s pretty long (over 9000 words at the moment) but unlike my previous drafts, I have sorted through the survey results and fully implemented them. Along with that, I managed to bring up some topics that have come and gone since I was initially working on the essay. I hope to include a somewhat brief section addressing parts of SSO’s social media regarding gender.

I won’t be able to cover everything so I can only hope that others might take inspiration from what I produce and continue the discussion in a respectful way. But I know how dramatic fandoms can get so if this is my only contribution then I’ll be happy with that. Gender is only one of the many many things that needs to be addressed about Star Stable but I hope maybe shining some light on it can help people understand a often overlooked part of the fanbase. I also know that there are far too many facets to this topic that I cannot shine a light on such as its relation to race, neurodiversity or disability and I hope others can help contribute their voices about the topics I didn’t have time or appropriate experience to touch.

Anyways, I hope everyone’s having a wonderful February and for those like me stuck in the middle of winter, stay warm out there! I hope to see you all in the spring with a finished video essay <3

SSO Gender Video Essay Update 2

Hey guys, I hope everyone’s having a good summer! (Or winter if you’re in the southern hemisphere lol.) So far I’ve been working on splitting the essay into two videos and it’s been going great. I’ve got the first basic draft of part 1 done except for the player base input since I’m still accepting feedback via the survey post here!

I’ve been still gathering up the feedback though and reading through it. I gotta say it’s amazing being able to see so many thoughts and impressions and I really hope I can properly express them in my videos. I want to try and get as many folks’ thoughts as possible so we can have a strong impression of the player base. We’re already at 74 responses at the time of writing this update so let’s work towards 100 responses! The player base is huge but I’m hoping if I can get a good sample size maybe we can get the strongest idea of what most players are feeling when it comes to gender related to SSO.

So next task (besides getting those responses) is to start tackling the second video’s script drafting as well as refining part 1. The second video will be focusing more on specific elements such as characters (namely I’d like to touch on the soul riders and dark riders just to name a couple) and certain aspects with social media such as the “Mad Idea” video. Basically part 1 will be a general overview while part 2 will be more of a deep dive into specific elements in the game and outside of it.

So with that, I hope if you have time please take a look at the survey, it takes about 5 minutes to go through. If you've already done it then please make sure to share the survey with your friends! It has also been posted on Instagram and Twitter on the official @jorvegiancollective accounts! (@jorvegian.collective on Instagram and @jorvegian on Twitter.)

Again, if you have any questions feel free to reach out to me here via replies, reblogs or asks. Thank you guys so much for your interest in this project and I hope you stay tuned here for more updates!

SSO Gender Video Essay Update 4

Hey guys, progress on the essay has slowed down as I expected since the end of the year tends to get very busy for me. I do want to let folks know though the survey will be ending pretty soon, I’m thinking about closing it at the end of October to give folks one last chance to enter any thoughts.

I do have some slight concerns about the player character model part of the series since at least 90% of the entries were before the beta’s release and I honestly didn’t expect SSE to bum rush the beta so fast. I have my own opinions (especially as a 3D artist) about how fast they’re attempting this character update but that aside, I don’t know if it’s worth releasing another survey to gather opinions or if I should move forward with what I have.

I’d hate for my videos to end up in limbo trying to get feedback so they might just end up being a snapshot of thoughts prior to the beta test which I’ll of course clarify that in the videos. (Of note, the beta test also was incredibly limited at the time of writing this both for number of players able to access it and in regards to what was available to test so honestly, I don’t feel it’s too big of a loss. People still are predominantly going off of screenshots rather than in game content.)

I’m not sure if I’ll be able to finish the videos before the end of the year but I hope to have the scripts at least completed by then and leave the editing to be completed January or February next year if I can’t finish it sooner. If you have any thoughts you’d like to share, please let me know via the replies, an ask or a reblog. If you or anyone you know is interested in the survey check out the link on this post here!

SSO Gender Video Essay Update 8

I really wanted to be able to make this update as the final one and tell you all the video is done but life has continued to be a rollercoaster throughout this project. However it’s not all bad news! The video is about halfway done in editing and I only have the survey section and talking about the player model left.

For anyone wondering why it’s taken the entire month of June for me to get here despite planning to finish this way back in spring, I of course had a lot of things come up in my life. I work a full time job and managed to find a new apartment during this spring. After work slowed down end of May, I’ve been in the middle of attempting to pack and move all throughout June and will be finalizing that in July. (Expecting to be at my new place this weekend fingers crossed!!)

Despite my busy schedule I’ve been trying to stay on top of editing but didn’t hit my soft due date of before the player release. I wanted to finish it before end of June but given I’ve been in the midst of finishing my packing and I’m exhausted (it’s just me and a couple other folks helping) I don’t think I’ll hit that goal.

But I’m certainly not giving up finishing this project despite the bumps I’ve hit along the way. My biggest issue right now though is dealing with the aftermath of the official character update as that drastically outdates everything I had prepared. I won’t be running another survey to finish this video but I’m left debating if I should re-record that section or go with my (admittedly long winded) prior recording.

Regardless of which direction I go with the latter half of the essay, I will be aiming to get it done before the end of the year. My new goal is planning to have it complete before September (I’d love to say end of July but we’ll see lol) and hopefully once I’m fully settled at the new place I can work out a fix for the last half of the video.

For anyone who’s stayed interested in this project, I wanna say thank you and I hope you’ll still be around when I finally do upload it on my channel. <3