Nobody Famous
Roih Uvet
Nobody Famous
Roih Uvet
Nobody Famous
Most people seem to believe they mean status quo as far as status of women in video games since it seems to be women they target. Or so says the "corrupt media". And the women they target.
Except practically nobody objects to women in video games. Certainly not the majority of #GamerGate supporters. This "boys' club" nonsense is just that. You aren't tho byught of as lesser by your average video gamer or your average GGer. It's just incorrect, and speaking to these people would reveal that.
I'm on the fence about that. Personally, I haven't had that many issues with other gamers due to being female. But then again, I don't play multiplayer that often, and I'm hearing stories from others who say they have and had to deal with a lot of rude statements. Plus there's been a lot more noted outrage targeted at female developers and writers for issues that seem almost disproportionate to whatever wrong people think they did than I've seen for guys. Doesn't mean they're gamergate or that gamergate supports that, but it doesn't help my impression of them when the most I'm hearing about them involves threats and harassment of people.
The objections you're most likely to hear are about pushing a political agenda in the games. For example they have much more of an objection to Anita Sarkeesian's outlook that catering to men in video games at all the form of having sexy women and violent plots is "problematic" than to women playing games. there is a very real sentiment among many feminists that women are entitled to half representation video games and that women not being catered to directly is inherently bad. Especially if you "sexualize" them.
As for respecting multiplayer: that's unheard of. Sometimes people can be nice in multiplayer but don't expect it. Pretty much everybody gets s**t talked on multiplayer games. It's an inevitability. Yes the fact that you will be spoken to in an unreserved and hostile manner is influenced by the male input, but that does not mean that treating women with the same level of open hostility is misogynist.
Video games truly are a male space. Man, not women, are what's made video games popular and relevant in the first place. This does grant them the power to dictate the rules to some extent. In order for women to gain influence in games they are going to have to produce more games. Men as a collective have no more obligation cater to women as a collective than vice versa.
Men catering to other men is not misogyny. Creating a product or service with men as your target audience and demographic is not misogyny. Women have every right to influence video games and media in general by producing video games and media in general; being the one that makes something means you have every right to make it your way. You are not however entitled to dictate to others how they ought to make their media. This is called freedom of expression. In trying to strong-arm into making games your way you undermine that freedom.
In conclusion if you want to influence culture you must contribute to it.
Your post here sounds a bit misogynistic and while I doubt it's your intent, it sounds like you're saying video games are for men and that the main problem is women infringing on that by being involved. Video games are no longer a male space when
reports are saying almost half of video game players are women. And in multiplayer, while there is no doubt that there's negativity thrown at all players,
reports show a notable increase in derogatory statements towards players that are believed to be female.
Women do try to contribute to video game culture. The problem is that the women who are contributing to it also tend to have lynch mobs screaming for their blood for various perceived ills, even when said ills are outright disproven or never had anything to do with them in the first place. All things considered, Anita Sarkesian, Zoe Quinn, Jennifer Hepler all contributed in some ways and all of them received torrents of angry responses, trolling, and death threats. They may not be ways you necessarily agree with, but they and others still made contributions and they were all harassed for them.
So explain this double standard to me, then. Women have the right to contribute but when they do they're vilified for it. You say women have the right to influence but apparently not the right to express an opinion like any critic or even anyone with an opinion does because them sharing their opinion is strong-arming as opposed to the people who are posting death threats against them for sharing said opinion. Strong-arming requires some measure of force or threat to require the person gets their way. Other than making videos expressing an opinion, what did Anita do that was strong-arming anyone? Other than making a game showing a point of view about a mental health issue, what did Zoe Quinn do? Hell, what did poor Jennifer do to warrant being considered a "cancer" for being part of the team making Dragon Age 2 when she wasn't even the one in charge? You and everyone else could have easily ignored them all. No one FORCED you to listen to Anita's videos or play Zoe's game. No one FORCED you guys to buy Dragon Age or blame Hepler for issues she didn't even have part in. And no one FORCED anyone to resort to harassing people just because they didn't agree or just didn't like what those people came out with.
I have seen worse statements made about games by Ben Croshaw, James Rolfe, and Joe Vargas and yet I haven't seen of them harassed. Ben has even
blasted his own audience for supporting mainstream cookie-cutter games over anything new, and has expressed support of independent games. Hell, one male developer I did see harassed was Phil Fish just because he spoke out in support of Zoe. If anything,
when even a good number of the current game developers are speaking out against the harassment, that should kind of tell you something about the people who do influence the video game industry and the direction they're leading it in.
I guess what I'm saying is that their opinions are opinions, just like everyone else's. We don't have to agree with them, but nobody needs to resort to harassing them for it either. You're fully capable of ignoring them just as easily as political is sides ignore the news companies and people they don't like.
I don't think you understand what a contribution is. Critiquing an industry is not contributing to it. Consuming it is not contributing to it, unless you're bringing money to the table. Even then, it's a relatively minor contribution.
Anita Sarkeesian does not contribute to the games industry. Zoe Quinn makes "games" so bad that you have to put quotes around the word "games" in order to justify the use of that word. I don't even know what Brianna Wu did aside from get a death threat on Twitter, which shows how important she is.
These women are not antagonized for contributing to video game culture. Their "contributions" to video game culture are negligible, anyway. They are antagonized for demanding, with a straight face, more than they are due (which is nothing), just for being women, and for gaining media support for this demand. They are antagonized for having openly anti-white, openly anti-male views. And before you say it, yes: complaining about "white men" and how ******** up they are is in fact both anti-white, and anti-male, and these women are notorious for that kind of commentary.
You are not, as a woman, entitled to the product of someone else's labor. Men have no obligation to cater to women, and failing to do so is not misogyny. Men do not exist to serve you. Even if they are white men. Let that simple fact sink in.
While I'm not a fan of the death threats these women have received, they are definitely due some antagony for their serious attitude problems, for their brazen sexism and racism, and for the level of media power they wield. Even though I do not approve of the threats, the simple fact that they are blowback is something you must recognize in order to call yourself a rational, sane human being. If you b***h and gripe and moan about "white men" and how evil they are, don't complain when one of them takes offense to this and decides to give you a hard time over it because yes, you do have that coming to you.
Also, part of why I don't take the death threats seriously is because these women routinely conflate disagreeing with them or not liking their content with harassment. Remember, Anita Sarkeesian did disable up/downvoting her videos on YouTube to avoid "harassment." You know, like downvoting her video is quintessentially harassment, since she is, after all, entitled to a good rating. These women cried wolf one too many times and now even if the threats are real, I just don't care anymore. The harassment card has been overplayed and now it means nothing. Just going to have to suck it up, buttercup.
The ultimate contribution to an industry, especially an artistic one like video games (or any other media for that matter) is to create original content. This is how the video game industry is not misogynist: you are allowed, as a woman, to create video games. There are no binding, legally required credentials to make a video game. You can just do it. Thanks to free speech, you can make it however you want. You can make an outright gynocentric video game if you like. Go create a Kickstarter and talk about how feminist it is. I'm sure there are people who will finance it. I mean, Anita got like $100k just to
complain and
gripe about video games. She didn't even make one! Just imagine how much money you could make from actually creating something?
And I guarantee that as long as you keep your s**t within the scope of the s**t you create -- that is, if you refrain from telling everyone else who makes video games how to make theirs by pain of being morally inferior to yourself -- the GamerGate crowd won't be calling for your head. They probably won't even notice you.
In conclusion, "make your own, then" is a valid rebuttal to the collective critiques on video games that feminists levy. Happy developing.