Talk:Cobra Club/GA1

GA Review
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Nominator:

Reviewer: A412 (talk · contribs) 17:26, 26 March 2024 (UTC)

I'll do this one. ~ A412  talk! 17:26, 26 March 2024 (UTC)
 * What have I gotten myself into. ~ A412  talk! 23:06, 26 March 2024 (UTC)
 * Haha, I'm retrospectively sorry. Should have been one maybe for a LGBT WikiProject. Appreciate it. ＶＲＸＣＥＳ (talk) 08:28, 27 March 2024 (UTC)
 * I will get on this today. Thanks for braving the horrors of the subject matter again. ＶＲＸＣＥＳ (talk) 21:28, 28 March 2024 (UTC)
 * Alright. All done. Welcome to address any additional comments you may have. Appreciate your help and the standard of your review is high as ever. Let me know if I can return the favor on any media-type nominations. ＶＲＸＣＥＳ (talk) 22:51, 28 March 2024 (UTC)
 * Thanks for the additional comments - I've actioned them. ＶＲＸＣＥＳ (talk) 23:21, 28 March 2024 (UTC)
 * Ah sorry, I was still going section-by-section. I'm done now. Ping me for another pass. ~ A412  talk! 01:19, 29 March 2024 (UTC)
 * No problem, all sorted below. ＶＲＸＣＥＳ (talk) 02:38, 29 March 2024 (UTC)
 * I did some light copyediting. . ~ A412  talk! 03:57, 29 March 2024 (UTC)

Spotcheck

 * [2] - Is download the pictures taken onto the player's desktop supported by the source? ✅ Strange - not a single source cited mentions this. Must be a wayward citation; will remove and focus on the filter aspect.
 * [14] - I'm not sure this source found the game to be a comic and sympathetically disarming subversion of the act of taking and sending dick pics. It describes Critique My Dick Pic as "wonderful and welcoming", but that's not the game, and I don't see it describing the game as "comic", "sympathetic", "disarming" (although it does quote Yang using this word), or "subversive". ✅ Agree, definitely unwarranted editorialisation on my part. Just edited down to say both are positive about it in contrast to their comments about it being negative in the real world.
 * [22] - The sentence In contrast, Dr. Todd Harper expressed that whilst the game was "clever' and "fun", he felt the game was not an "accurate representation" of the culture of taking dick pics, critiquing the game's avoidance of exploring "risk", threat of evaluation and "fear of judgment" to portray the "vulnerability" of sharing intimate information probably doesn't need so many quotes, we can paraphrase more, and "fear of judgement" doesn't appear literally in the source. ✅ Yes, edited that down a little.

RS

 * [1] - Reverse Shot checks out as a publication of the Museum of the Moving Image, but is there a way to add that as a field so it's more obvious why this source is reliable? ✅ Done.
 * [17] - Is molleindustria a reliable source? ✅ Pedercini is a notable creator of political and art video games, and teaches experimental game design and media production at Carnegie Mellon University's School of Art, so I feel he is reliably qualified to offer a view on an experimental queer game. But on surface value, yes, without this context the reliability of the source would seem to be limited.
 * [20] - Who is Eron Rauch, and why are they a reliable source? ✅ Eron Rauch is an adjunct professor at CalArts on fine arts and a freelance writer for several RS. The Video Games for the Arts website seems to be a self-launched and self-published venture to "[bridge] the conversational gap between video games and the fine arts world", which implies his contributions on video games extend from his academic qualification to talk about fine arts. I agree but for this fact the source would be dubious.
 * [22] - Who is Todd Harper, and why are they a reliable source? ✅ Todd Harper is postdoctoral researcher and professor at the University of Baltimore on game studies, simulation and digital entertainment and researcher at the MIT Game Lab. Again, but for this fact I agree that the blog would be blatantly unreliable.

CV

 * 21.3% to ([20]), 12.3% to  ([2]) but both are quotes, so checks out. ✅ I drafted this article a little earlier on when I had yet to start taking on board GAN feedback to minimise WP:LQUOTE so definitely something I can still tidy up here.

OR

 * Nothing uncited.

Images

 * Present, relevant, licenses check out.

Lead

 * General comment: this paragraph is pretty long. I'd consider splitting at the sentence that starts with Upon release. ✅
 * as customisable user-generated photos of their character's penis - user-generated is technically true but probably redundant, we already know the player takes them and that they are customizable. ✅
 * to an online Tumblr page - Would it be useful for readers unfamiliar with Tumblr to write this as to a page on blogging website Tumblr? ✅
 * "safe space" here but "safer space" in body, which one is the quote? ✅
 * Delink second occurrence in section of dick pics. ✅
 * outside of the real-world context - Redundant with simulate. ✅
 * Structural thing about this sentence - we can either use simultaneously and have both verbs (provide and making) be the same tense, or not use simultaneously. So:
 * Yang developed Cobra Club to simultaneously provide..., and make the player aware..., or
 * Yang developed Cobra Club to provide..., whilst making the player aware... ✅ Chose this one.
 * Delink second occurrence in section of Tumblr. ✅
 * We can probably pipe a sectionlink to Tumblr actually. ✅
 * Consider linking censorship and queer. ✅
 * The last two sentences aren't in chronological order, if I read the development section. Maybe swap them, because as-is it reads as if Yang reuploaded the remastered version as a reaction to the adult content bans. ✅

Gameplay

 * fictitious mobile application in which the aim is to take and receive ingame dick pics - Maybe the distinction is irrelevant, but is the goal of the game to take dick pics, of which the mobile application is a generic photography app, or is this specifically the aim of the simulated mobile application as well? ✅ Switched the sentence parts around so it's clearer the aim is to take dick pics, through which the app is the in-game medium to do so. The sources don't state this but the design of the game's interface and fictitious app is clearly imitating a hookup app like Grindr, so I think the concept of the app being a thing merits mention.
 * to take pictures of themselves - I think the lead wording is clearer that they take pictures of their character ✅
 * and options to change its appearance in unrealistic ways - Grammar: its appears to refer to penis and testicles, which is plural. ✅
 * purporting to be other users of the application - Suggestion: purporting to be from other users of the application? ✅
 * Delink second occurrence in section of dick pics. ✅
 * to which the player receives - from which the player receives ✅
 * After 15 to 25 minutes of play, the player will be notified that their images, "chat transcript" and username hashtag have been uploaded to a "government spy database" named 'COBRACLUBB'. - Does "chat transcript" need to be quoted? Can we just say username instead of username hashtag? Is 'COBRACLUBB' purposely single-quoted? ✅ Still trying to unlearn the excessive overquoting of concepts as opposed to quotes. Getting there more recently!
 * the social features of Cobra Club are not automated - I'm unclear what this means. Are the messages received by the player connected with this Tumblr page? It'd be nice to expand what this means. ✅ Fair call, I think I can be a bit more explicit on what is meant here.

Development

 * First paragraph
 * I wonder if it's useful to include some contextual information about Yang, such as that he had previous developed other adult art games. ✅ Just keeping it simple, wikilinking some other titles sourced from his page, which also provides a self-stated source about his games being in a series about sex.
 * Consider linking New York University Game Center ✅
 * primarily taking inspiration from an interview between John Oliver and Edward Snowden on Last Week Tonight - Maybe an April 2015 interview or a 2015 interview ✅
 * including Adam4Adam and Grindr - Probably belonged in spotchecks, but source doesn't appear to mention Grindr. ✅
 * Second paragraph
 * Delink second and third occurrence in section of dick pics. ✅
 * Consider linking body shaming. ✅
 * I feel like positive representation or representation of bodies should wikilink somewhere, but nothing on representation seems to fit. I've edited this down so this may sidestep the issue, but if you think it's worth playing body positivity somewhere in there it's one angle. Otherwise I'm not sure either.
 * Yang was conscious of the representation of bodies in the design of the player character, randomising the skin colour and dimensions of the player character in each playthrough, and preventing first-time players from immediately changing these attributes - This sentence is a bit long. the player character is repeated, and first-time may be unnecessary. ✅
 * However, Yang also sought to deconstruct the "fantasy" of this experience,[7] stating that that "art and meaning" of the game was focused on the game's twist of disclosing the player's efforts without their knowledge and consent to illustrate "how surveillance and systems of control work - I'd suggest, with less direct quoting, However, Yang also sought to deconstruct this experience,[7] stating that that game's meaning was focused on the twist of the nonconsensual disclosure of the player's efforts to illustrate "how surveillance and systems of control work". ✅
 * Third paragraph
 * In December 2018, in reaction to the announced ban of adult content on Tumblr on December 17 - Probably don't need to highlight that the reaction also happened in December: In reaction to the announced ban of adult content on Tumblr on December 17, 2018, and also can sectionlink Tumblr. ✅
 * "policing sex and queerness" and limiting the "audience and community" for games that depicted "intimacy or LGBTQ experiences" - not a huge fan of the tiny quote fragments here ✅ Agree, edited down.

Reception

 * First paragraph
 * Consider linking publication names. ✅
 * Second paragraph
 * Per MOS:DOC Dr. should not be used. ✅
 * For the non-wikilinked people in this paragraph, if we can source it, it would be helpful to include a couple words about who they are. ✅ Let me know if the approach I've taken is too wordy.
 * Dr. Rob Gallagher characterised Cobra Club as a "playful" and "explicitly political" game that "poses questions about privacy, technology, identity" and "consent" by subverting the player's understanding of the fictional and real dimensions of their interaction with the game - I don't have access to this source, but I wonder if we can reduce the number of small quote fragments here. ✅ Yep, simplified this one.