"Gender Issues" in gaming - politicaly correct gone wild

[PrincessFrosty]

I bust my ass 40 hours a week with another 10 hours spent driving to and from work to pay for these stupid games. The characters better have some freaking knockers on them or I am not buying.

LMFAO

See, this ladies and gentlemen is called the free market.

I have a demand for certain things, like 1D characters with 4D breasts and people can make them games and free trade occurs between the supply and the demand. Only the feminists are stepping in to tell you that it's harmful, immoral or otherwise damaging to women.

Anyway I like Karen, I've followed her nearly since the start, she's a great advocate not just for males and protecting our rights and liberties but she's also just a really great educator and makes some really smart arguments. Every time I watch one of her public speeches about gender or feminism I learn something new about our history or biology.

She's the perfect anti-feminist.

 

[imaheadcase]

If woman care about what is in games, make one yourself. You dont hear the woman that make games now up in arms..

 

[poofyhairguy]

No, the part gamers want fixed is being addressed one company at a time.

That means I still have no clue what gamergate is.

 

[TheSlamma]

I see you went on college of assumption. Good for you...

No I went on the PROOF of you caring enough to mention her.

And speaking of assumption you assumed that Americans care about these "stunts they pull" and that Europeans don't. I could survey my neighbors in a mile radius and I bet not one of them even knows about any of this or would even care.

My bet is if you really are from Europe then you have never even been to the US and if it's a lie and you are just a self hating American you have never even been to Europe.

 

[Craig234]

I have no problem with advocating for improvement against discrimination in games.

There is going too far with that, and that can be opposed.

But any time there's a situation of discrimination, there are the people who are discriminating who enjoy it just fine and complain about any change demanded of it.

And they're wrong.

Some people love to use the phrase 'politically correct' to try to label all such advocacy as excessive. And they're wrong.

To prove the point, you can imagine cases that are actually worth opposing. Imagine a crusade to get rid of handicapped parking, handicapped transportation, assistance for the blind, calls for restoration of legal segregation, racial housing covenants, and slavery, people calling not only for viewing the holocaust as a good start but bringing it back, a call for implementing the stoning of people from gays to adulterers (which a majority of some countries support), the free use of insulting slurs for groups, etc.

Any of these things fit the situation were you'd have people saying 'that's wrong' and defenders saying 'screw you, politically correct person'. And the defenders are wrong.

When something crosses the line between 'going too far' and 'justified' is something of a gray area, but I think the advocacy against discrimination is good.

And of course it creeps into areas of society where the discrimination is perpetuated - female reporters not allowed to interview in locker rooms, computer games, etc.

And of course, freedom of expression is valuable as well. Sometimes the depiction of terrible things - even things like rape - can be artistically justified, and we not want all the art to be limited by the most restrictive people. It's a two-sided issue - I'm just saying there is a justified side for opposing discrimination, and the issue isn't one-sided that there are no legitimate cases of trying to improve games where discrimination isn't justified.

There are fine lines to distinguish between 'justified' and 'wrong'.

 

[Aikouka]

That means I still have no clue what gamergate is.

I don't purport to be an expert on the subject, but from what I've seen over all this time is...

It all started when an ex-boyfriend of an indie developer revealed that the dev had been sleeping with people from some gaming website. (You can tell how much I care about the drama-filled aspect given how I remember the exact names. ) One of these people had written articles and stuff about the developer's game (Depression Quest), but there was nary a mention of this sordid affair! (dun! dun! dun!) This is where the two schisms of GamerGate occurred. I'll see if I can separate the two out:

1) People were mad that the relationship was not disclosed as it could represent a conflict in interest. This prompted a sort of witch hunt on unethical journalistic behavior. Some websites that lacked any visible code of ethics would go on to publish them on their website to help ensure readers that the site takes its credibility seriously. There have been quite a few other instances of unethical behavior or possibly problematic relationships that have been revealed since then. The most recent that I saw was some Ubisoft employee and a guy at PC Gamer. Said guy had written articles about Assassin's Creed: Unity.

2) As is unfortunately common on the Internet, some people decided to be less than savory about the developers affair and give her crap... lots of it. This included the usual death threats, rape threats, etc. A lot of this sparked an outcry from other females either in the industry or outside of it (like Anita Sarkeesian). Well, as you can guess, the hatemongers didn't let them go unscathed either, and all that ended up doing was adding more fuel to the fire. It didn't help that multiple news sites were posting reports that "Gamers were dead" (even venerable sites like ArsTechnica). Now, even those that had nothing to do with the terrible remarks were being lumped in as misogynistic, and they were not happy.

So, in short, it all started as a crusade against unethical conduct in gaming journalism, but a separate issue very quickly spun off about misogyny and the poor representation of women in gaming. The biggest issue about the schism is that no one cares about the former because it isn't nearly as polarizing and is too specific of a topic. I don't think I've seen any talk of the lack of ethics (real or proposed) in the national news, but they've definitely talked about the treatment of women on the news.

 

[Dannar26]

I care more about the quality of games.

Games are idealized in nearly every aspect. Your skills, combat, and your image are always idealized. Real combat is horrible and scarring...but I just killed hundreds of things that resemble humans in Dragon Age. I will not have a psychotic break; I will sleep at night...because it's an idealized simulation.

Are any of us angry about the fact that nearly every male in games is in supernaturally good shape?

I actually wish games like Skyrim and dragon age would use more than one model for female bodies. It would enhance the emphasis on who is supposed to be beautiful from a story telling stand point. Morrigan, Wynne, and a random sculery maid shouldn't all be packing the size 0 waists with D's up top. But this is just a request for small bits of realism to better enhance the whole.

 

[Maximilian]

Did you guys even watch the video? She's being satirical, and making fun of male feminists..

Exactly, I like her videos shes pretty perceptive. Male feminists are cringe worthy D:

 

[railven]

I don't think I've seen any talk of the lack of ethics (real or proposed) in the national news, but they've definitely talked about the treatment of women on the news.

As someone who's workplace started blocking just about every website I use to frequent but for some reason NOT Reddit, I've learned a lot about Gamergate.

The above is easily simplified with this little image:

 

[Blue_Max]

If woman care about what is in games, make one yourself.

When feminists use gaming as a platform for their agendas, you get garbage like "Depression Quest".

I'm glad there are some actual game developers more interested in the product, not the political platform. The fact that some happen to be female is nice, but completely irrelevant!

True gender neutrality: I don't care what gender you are, just do your freakin' job and if I like what you made you get my money! :twisted:

(I'll watch the video when I'm on my own inet.)

 

[BSim500]

Morrigan, Wynne, and a random sculery maid shouldn't all be packing the size 0 waists with D's up top.

To be fair, Claudia Black (Morrigan's voice actor) has been in pretty good shape since Farscape & Stargate SG1... () :awe: :thumbsup:

 

[exar333]

No, the part gamers want fixed is being addressed one company at a time.

The video pertains more to the radical feminist shift taking place in America. The reason why it pertains to gamergate is because gamers were the first to tell them to back the hell up.

Now, before you go off on some tangent, read this article
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2012-10-24-lost-humanity-18-a-table-of-doritos

And watch this Totalbiscuit video.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S2keHyS_Ooo

They're both from 2012. You can say what Rab Florence said in 2012, is what is happening now.

Oh, and Rab Florence was fired the next day for writing that article.

Seriously, thanks for posting this. I didn't know Rab was fired for that article...it was well-written and on the nose. I love video games (have for almost 30 years now) and I still think the industry is as rotten as it comes in respect to journalism. To put this in perspective, if the movie industry was the same, we would have 7 sequels to Rob Schneider's 'The Animal' and it would have won a few Oscars and grossed a few Billion dollars (aka Call of Duty series). :/