Unigames Meeting without Notice - 31/1/2021

Attendance

• Alistair
• Taylor
• Jackie
• Emerald
• Alice
• Ash
• Josh
• Kyle

Meeting open: 2:20am

This meeting is being conducted under the rules of "super-quorum", as listed in section 10.4.1. of the constitution.

CONTENT WARNING: NSFW, Child Abuse, Shrek

The purpose of this meeting is to discuss the existence of unsavory internet content featuring Shrek and whether this will result in negative associations if the Unigames logo is styled after him.

The issue:

• Emerald was under the impression that the Shrek Dragon (SD) was a joke that was going to be used as a way to drive up other options
  • Because of this she hadn't brought this up previously to avoid unnecessary conflicts
• There was an internet meme regarding sexually explicit content involving Shrek and underage people
  • The meme in question is commonly known as Shrek is Love, Shrek is Life (SiL,SiL)
  • This was originally a 4Chan greentext story thing
  • Got expanded into a series of explicit animations
• Emerald is concerned that this is going to be a thing that freshers may think of when they see our logo.
• When Taylor suggested this she was unaware of the existance of this content having not been in highschool when it was largely around, most other members of committee had forgotten about its existence but experienced it at some point
• This meme first appeared Jan 2013
  • The first videos appeared Nov 2013
  • The majority of committee members were in or entering high school around this time
  • This continued to circulate for several years afterwards
• Many people around the clubroom over the course of Uncharity have mentioned the phrase SiL,SiL however not all of them have realised the context behind it

The logo:

• Taylor proposed a Shrek logo, with the Unigames dragon being coloured in green similar to the Shrek palette and the ears being replaced with Shrek ears
  • This was to make a joke about it being the 20th Anniversary of Shrek 1 coming out
  • Taylor has been thinking about this for roughly a year since last year's Uncharity, it was suggested as an option very late in the night and wasn't able to compete
• In terms of design, Taylor recommended the version of the SD designed without the vest so it was more of a little detail to notice the ears, partially to not be overly referential and to assist with visibility
  • Part of the reason Taylor suggested this was to try move away from the purple/blue theme that has persisted for the last several years
• Logo colours/designs have been vetoed by committee previously based on them being overly similar to previous years or in the case that it would be too much of a redesign
• There have been 3 pop culture themed logos in the past
  • Two logos that were Pokemon themed
    • 2020 Dynamax dragon
    • 2016 "Who's the Pokemon" dragon
  • 2017 was Hello Kitty themed
• Currently, SD has roughly 750 votes for it to be the logo in 2021
  • Taylor specifically has put in a large amount of money for this before the issue was raised. Kyle has also put money in and encouraged others to do so
    • Kyle and Taylor and both happy to move his votes elsewhere in light of this being raised

Resolution:

• Taylor is happy with changing the logo to remove the Shrek ears and maintain the colour or to see what the mockup of the Bumblebee Dragon will look like, for the purpose of her votes as someone who has many
• The other option is to use the Blue-Eyes White Dragon and lean into the metallic white and avoid too many blue highlights
  • BBD and BEWD are the other two options that have been roughly on track with SD before the auction resolved
• At least one member of the club has come to us and told us that this is something that they still associate with Shrek and the related content. We also know of another member of the Cameron Hall community that has serious negative emotions regarding Shrek. It is unknown if it is related to the current topic.
  • Because of this, the committee is generally uncomfortable with continuing to use the SD as it has currently been proposed
• Due to the way Uncharity and plutocratic voting works, Jackie and Taylor entering into a bidding war in the auctions
  • This resulting in Taylor having 512 votes on the logo colour, which is enough to completely sway the entire vote
  • The bidding war was largely motivated by Jackie's desire to not have votes go to the SD and she would have backed out earlier
    • Taylor personally was planning on donating a large amount of money so doesn't feel hard done by for spending so much, as she may have done so anyway at a different point in the night
  • Kyle would have been trying to hype the option other than BBD if SD hadn't been an option in order to promote donations, so a bidding war may still have occurred
• When we announce whatever decision we make we should make it clear that the content is NSFW and people should beware if they want to look into it themselves.
• Even if the likelihood of someone having a negative reaction to this is very low, the severity of such a reaction would be sufficient to classify this as a major risk

Plan going forward:

• Committee are in favour of removing the SD as an option
  • The option was floated to remove the Shrek ears and keep it the same colour, however we have decided that that would not be a strong enough measure
  • There is another green dragon option on the board currently, so if the people who voted still want a green dragon that is available
• Anyone who put votes on that option will be permitted to move their votes to another choice if they want to
  • Unfortunately anyone who voted for SD who has since gone home will not be able to move their votes around unless they see the announcement on the facebook event before the closure of Uncharity
  • The number of these votes is likely to be very small so it will probably not affect the outcome

Meeting close: 3:18am

This Week's Action Items: