GTFO, a documentary about sexism and harassment in the video games industry and within the gaming community has surpassed its funding goal of $20,000. With four more days to go, the documentary has managed to raise $23,829 from just 882 backers on Kickstarter. The documentary is being put together by New York-based filmmaker Shannon Sun-Higginson, who describes herself as a casual gamer.

Starbreeze Studios and publisher Sony Online Entertainment do not want to be associated with a video promoting a contest seeking "women" to star in a proposed movie based on the popular Payday game. The CEO of Starbreeze went out of his way to explain to Games Industry International this morning that the video featuring an office visit to the Overkill Software is not representative of the company's views. Some have called out the video featuring Top Model Sweden contestants Angner Sophie and Nina Strauss sexist in tone for its use of sexual language and jokes.

On this week's show, hosts Andrew Eisen and E. Zachary Knight discuss the first Tropes vs. Women video, "Bronies" and if rights holders should be a little kinder to fan projects, and the nightmarish launch of SimCity this week. Download Episode 44 now: SuperPAC Episode 44 (1 hour, 6 minutes) 60.4 MB.

The very first Tropes vs. Women video is alive and kicking and ready for your perusal. The video series by Anita Sarkeesian was crowd-funded by a very successful Kickstarter campaign, though some in the gaming community attempted to take Sarkeesian for being overzealous about misogyny and sexism in both the development and game-playing community.

The first video is called "Damsel in Distress: Part 1 - Tropes vs Women in Video Games" and is described by Sarkeesian on the Frequency Feminism YouTube channel as:

Your young son or daughter comes home and asks the one question you worried that you would inevitably have to answer since the day they were born into this world: "Where do babies come from?" Well as Apple used to be fond of saying, there's now an "app for that." It's called Birdees, and it is an educational app for iOS devices created by Vancouver-based educational entertainment software developer GoTo Educational Technology Inc.

The UK tabloid The Sun is running a feature length story about a saucy calendar featuring gaming and scantily clad women that is apparently all the rage in Germany - right alongside David Hasselhoff... The article is titled "Nerd is the word," and highlights the fact that the "calendar featuring classic gaming consoles and sexy girls" is a "big hit.." We think it's a big miss personally because it objectifies women in the name of geek culture.

Seduce Me, an erotic game created by Amsterdam-based indie developer No Reply Games, will never be sold on Steam, but it is for sale, and was released earlier in the week at its official web site. You may recall that the game was deemed too racy for Valve, who unceremoniously removed the erotic dating simulation game from consideration on the Steam Greenlight program in early September of last year. Despite this setback, developer No Reply Games continued to work on the game and managed to complete it for release.

A new Kickstarter campaign aims to fund the development of a gay/lesbian dating simulation called Coming Out on Top. A demo version of the game is already available here if you want to get a feel for what this game is all about. The creators of the game were looking to raise $5,000 to fully develop the game for Windows, Mac, and Linux. As of this writing they have raised $7,845 and have added a stretch goal of $8,500.

Popular porn destination YouPorn (NSFW) declared today that it will soon be on the Xbox 360 thanks to the introduction of Internet Explorer on Xbox Live later this year. Of course every other website will be accessible via Internet Explorer too - most notably GamePolitics - but you probably already knew that.

In Episode 22 hosts Andrew Eisen and E. Zachary Knight laugh at the ridiculousness of fan requests to give the ladies of Dead or Alive 5 bigger breasts, discuss region locking consoles, and talk about cable providers who are considering more game-related services. This episode will chafe you more than an iron thong on a female fighter who can't stand up straight because some Japanese guy gave her an unneeded mega boob job... Someone call a chiropractor!

Not exactly the press you want, a new article at Gamasutra features Team Ninja director Yohei Shimbori talking about how fans wanted female characters in Dead or Alive 5 to have bigger breasts.

Continuing to push the envelope ever-so-slightly, THQ announced that the next retail release to its popular and sometimes adult themed third-person sandbox action game Saints Row The Third will happen on November 6 and will be called "The Full Package." No one will ever think there's something sexually suggestive about that title... Whatever happened to calling this kind of compilation a "Game of the Year" Edition?

E. Zachary Knight makes a triumphant return in Episode 19 of the Super Podcast Action Committee. After a near-death experience (we might be slightly exaggerating) last week, he rejoins host Andrew Eisen to discuss getting older (be sure to wish him a happy birthday today!) Steam Greenlight's early hurdles, the latest GamePolitics poll, and Ubisoft's new DRM policy. Download it here: SuperPAC Episode 19 (57 Minutes).

GamesIndustry International has an interesting article featuring No Reply Games co-founder Miriam Bellard. Yesterday we reported that the company's erotic adventure simulation game, Seduce Me, had been booted from Steam Greenlight. Today the founders of No Reply Games explained what they had hoped and their disappointment in how Valve handled their game.

Amsterdam-based indie developer No Reply Games issued a statement yesterday saying that their first game to make its way on to Steam Greenlight has been kicked off the service. The game is called "Seduce Me," and is an erotic themed dating simulation. From the trailer we viewed of the game, it contains some nudity, adult language, sexual themes, and adult situations.

"Many people still view games as 'for children' in spite of the fact that the average gamer is 30 years old," said No Reply Games Miriam Bellard.

Researchers at Yale are developing a video game for the iPad that hopes to prevent HIV infection among ethnic minority adolescents through the use of interactive entertainment. Their research is based on the entire process appears in Games for Health, a new journal focused on using game technology as a tool for improving health and well-being.

Dating sites that cater to gamers are already viably questionable to begin with, but a new site called Shag A Gamer (NSFW) hopes to take that concept to the extreme. The UK-based website is more akin to Adult Friend Finder than it is to Match.com... Shag A Gamer was created by the same company that created Date A Gamer, and is a reaction to the behavior of adult members (over the age of 18) who were looking for casual sex instead of a relationship.

Porn publisher Liberty Media is trying out a new tactic in fighting against illegal downloads of its adult films: suing Wi-Fi network owners with negligence. The tactic, which it tested in the Southern District Court of New York (LIBERTY MEDIA HOLDINGS, LLC, v. CARY TABORA and SCHUYLER WHETSTONE) failed miserably.

Feminist Frequency, a web series run by Anita Sarkeesian that explores “representations of race, gender, sexuality, class and ability in popular culture,” launched a Kickstarter campaign a few weeks back for a new series of videos entitled Tropes vs. Women in Video Games.  The project will examine and comment on female video game character stereotypes throughout gaming’s history.

According to a GamesIndustry International report, Electronic Arts has become the target of a letter writing campaign by family advocacy groups who are upset with same-sex relationships in several of its games including Mass Effect 3 and Star Wars: The Old Republic.

Adult video streaming company SugarDVD is expanding its service with a new app for the PlayStation 3. The saucy adult video service is already available on ROKU, BOXEE, and Google TV. For around $8 a month adult users can watch unlimited streaming titles divided up amongst various categories (which we're not going to mention here). There are also DVD and streaming combo packages, with the most expensive plan - 8 DVDs out at a time and unlimited streaming - for about $40 a month.

In a Quarter to Three article called "BioWare plays the gay card," Tom Chick explains why having same sex relationships in games like Mass Effect 3 is the right thing to do in this day and age. He also takes a few shots at the clumsy relationship mechanics and writing in the game. First he offers some examples of how male Commander Shepherd doesn't flinch when a crew member on the Normandy talks about his husband.

Indie game studio Size Five Games has won a BAFTA for controversial sex education game, Privates. The game won the Learning Secondary BAFTA.

"It’s a complete honor and a total shock,” Size Five’s Dan Marshall said about receiving the coveted award that honors the best and brightest entertainment that the United Kingdom has to offer. "I was excited enough about being able to start all my Press Releases from now on with the words ‘BAFTA-nominated’, but winning one is a whole other level."

While those who don't know anything at all about video games are quick to use them as an excuse for many of society’s ills (crime, violence, obesity, attention deficit and a myriad of psychological disorders), now everyone thinks they are bad. In fact a growing number of academics see the value in video games as teaching aids. For example, a Yale professor is trying to use them to teach sex education.

New research efforts at MIT explore how games handle gay, bisexual and transgender characters and storylines... badly. Inspired by the lack of serious LGBT characters in mainstream video games, Singapore-MIT GAMBIT Game Lab has developed a game called “A Closed World,” which hopes to answer straightforward questions such as "How can video games present LGBT content and what are the challenges that a development team faces when trying to include content about someone different from the perceived norm?"

A new iOS game called "Supergay" earns the distinction of being the very first game title to deliver a story about a protagonist coming to grips with his sexuality while beating up beautiful models.

In the game you jump into the role of Dr. Tom Palmer, who is working on a controversial cloning project while wrestling with his sexuality and a pending marriage to the boss' daughter. This leads to Tom embracing being gay and becoming a superhero named "Supergay," who must beat down clones of sexy ladies with big breasts and fabulous uniforms. The game features the first chapters the story arc. The gameplay is a combination of different game genres including fighting, stealth, racing, and a rhythm dancing mini-game.

If you want man-on-man and woman-on-woman action in the next Mass Effect game, you'll be happy to hear that BioWare has made your wish its command. According to a tweet from executive producer Casey Hudson, Jane and John Shepard will support a wider array of romantic options, adding that the writing team is handling love interests of existing characters "with sophistication" and will do their best to "preserve character continuity." From his twitter feed:

"Happy to confirm #ME3 supports wider options for love interests incl. same-sex for m&f chars, reactive to how you interact w/them in-game."

Hudson also revealed "love interests won't all necessarily be permanent squad members." Fans can look forward to love across the universe, it would seem.

One gay gamer has put together an online petition asking BioWare to fire Dragon Age 2 lead writer David Gaider. The same guy that vehemently defended BioWare's decision to include same sex encounters in its games has become the target of gamers who are upset with the portrayal of one gay character in the game. The unnamed complainant calls it a disrespectful stereotype of homosexuals.

An online petition, found here, lays out the case against Gaider:

Welcome to "Public Service Gaming." What the hell is it? Apparently it is a game that is part of a campaign that teaches people about important issues. One such game teaches youngsters in London about sexually transmitted diseases and  encourages them to get a free test. The game is called Checkurself and is located at www.checkurself.org.uk/game. In it players shoot infected bunnies with antibiotics to treat whatever nasty disease they have. It makes sense as rabbits like to do it like.. well .. rabbits.

While most looked at that We Dare trailer and thought "hey this is pretty silly," some regular haters in the United Kingdom are stepping up to complain about Ubisoft's adult-themed Wii game. Speaking to the Daily Mail (a regular hater of all things fun), Leicaster East MP Keith Vaz released a statement that was constrained and to the pint: he thinks the rating for the game may be too low. Even pro video game fans might tend to agree with him:

"The new 'We Dare' game has clearly been wrongly marked as a 12 plus. As a family friendly console, Wii must ensure that there are proper checks and a full consultation before games are graded for use by children. This game should not be released until these checks are made."

Fair enough. The game does contain mini-games that I wouldn't want my 12-year-old engaging in.. like spanking another 12-year-old.. But I suppose that's all up to their parents.