Why is casual racism/sexism more accepted in video games than other forms of media (these days)?

As I wrote last week, gaming journalism, populated by well-meaning liberals, has forgotten what it is for and become consumed with social justice activism, at the expense of writing intelligently about games.

maybe i'd be more sympathetic to this point if gaming journalism had ever been accused of "writing intelligently about games," as opposed to aggregating screen shots and previewing a list of dragon shouts that'll be in the new elder scrolls game. by comparison social justice activism is a huge step up and who knows? maybe learning to write acc to this critical lens will prep them for other critical analysis as well.

if kotaku keeps writing about feminist critiques of video games, will they still have time to publish 20 photos of the same Kratos promo bust??

bigger issue there i think is the assumption that being "consumed with social justice activism" would make it impossible to write intelligently about games, which doesn't compute at all to me because yeah, it'd anyway be something to subject the games to or test them by, which indeed, isn't really happening AFAIK.

btw, omg, i was thinking about bloopblorp just yesterday. "...then blorp them back!"

all those guys sending roger ebert angry letters begging him to let games be art and now it's like wait wait wait -- criticism!?!

(from girls!?!)

some art "isn't for the critics"

Metal should only be listened to by metalheads who only listen to metal

its a conspiracy http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2014/09/new-chat-logs-show-how-4chan-users-pushed-gamergate-into-the-national-spotlight

I am so sorry guys, my hateful speech was because 4chan was goading me on. i am a cool guy, i did not say those things of my own volition :(

Good caption from that article: "A man harasses a woman while another man kind of stands around doing nothing. A beautiful microcosm of recent events."

anyone up for some ~thoughts~ from an indie dev

http://techraptor.net/2014/09/08/indie-developers-toughts-on-state-gaming-industry/

What made you decide to speak out now?

50% personal fears and 50% of historical experience with my country.

As I mentioned before, my game is about a taboo topic, and I am doomed to be called sexist, a misogynist and victim blamer by some in the media. In a healthy industry, every game would be judged by quality and not by how it reflects current agendas. If games are art, we must agree that art is not a concrete substance. Realism is a valid form of art. I love realism. Frankly reality is gray. So, excuse me if I don’t buy irrational feminists white and black ideas that men are inherently rapists and women are victims. As an artist, I want to explore every side of the issue.

Warlock • 2 days ago
I almost stood up in place and started to clap after I read this article. This dev is one boss guy.

sincerely,

Warlock

My game is a 3D puzzle/horror and the topic taps a taboo subject – false rape and sexual harassment accusations. I am trying to capture the horror of false accusations in a man’s life.

The fact that he comes from a Post-Soviet Union country, which as you will see in the interview, also plays a role in forming his worldview.

i've mentioned this before on ilx but the most hardcore republicans i know are all former soviets

some of the best 3D puzzle/horror/false rape accusation games were made by former soviets

An indie developer, who has requested to remain anonymous

They probably shouldn't have used a still from Indie Game: The Movie.

Or no, I guess the interviewee is someone else.

The main reason I decided to make an indie game was a well-known movie about the indie scene where now well-established developers posed themselves as artists.

this indie developer sounds like a treat

http://the-toast.net/2014/09/11/im-gamer/

loooooooool

http://www.gaming-age.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/dew-doritos-xbox-one.jpg

diabetes?

I've had diarrhea before, Xbox

The ultimate image of loneliness.

GamerGate is still happening

I mean, lol

How do they manage to keep a fake scandal going when for weeks there's been nothing new to say about it?

It's the new hot MMO.

Apparently WikiLeaks has now picked a side.

I think at this point it's worth answering this thread's titular question with "no, casual racism and sexism are no more acceptable in video games and their attendant conversations and communities than anywhere else, and the people flinging shit and protecting their right to bigoted animus in games are either impressionable teenagers without much emotional intelligence or garbage adults worthy only of exposure, scorn, ridicule, and censure."

they're either shitty kids or shitty adults, got it.

so the answer is actually "because a lot of gamers suck, also welcome to our racist/sexist world"?

*thread question was "accepted" not "acceptable"

also the original question wasn't a yes/no question

*thread question was "accepted" not "acceptable"

― anonanon, Tuesday, September 16, 2014 11:38 AM (4 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

also the original question wasn't a yes/no question

― stacked as fuck & imposing (DJP), Tuesday, September 16, 2014 11:41 AM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Yeah I know but in light of the gamergate dustup the thread title was feeling increasingly fatalistic

there's a lot of people in video games who have audiences who have taken this opportunity to be crystal clear with those audiences how unequivocally not OK harassment and bigotry is and even if it's a drop in the bucket in our shitty world I don't want to cede the whole territory to the shitlords

misread that as "gamergate dubstep" and was irrationally happy for a second

instead of struggling with that "they're not alllllll bad" line i prefer the "gamer as an identity is dead" line that's popped up out of all this. i can't take "the gaming community" seriously enough as a concept anymore to care about the microcosms within it, i'd rather just separate "self-proclaimed gamers who won't shut up" into their own microcosm within the general population

nb i haven't read any of this thread or any of those articles i'm just bored

How do they manage to keep a fake scandal going when for weeks there's been nothing new to say about it?

I actually know this - Milo Yiannopoulos, who wrote one of the Breitbart pieces upthread, rang iFred, the charity that Zoe Quinn mentioned on her site, saying "Can you confirm how much money you're getting from Depression Quest?" and the charity said "We have no record of that" and then he was carried around shoulder high because Journalism.

And then Zoe Quinn said "Yes, I paid that money to iFred personally and will talk to them" and iFred said "Yes, she's talked to us and our records confirm that", and then the GamerGaters largely peeled off leaving only a layer asking for payment details and dates and asking to speak to the legal department, while iFred very politely says "We have only one full time paid member of staff and we're trying to actually do policy work on depression, Please Fuck Off"

lol/sigh

the other day i saw a very convincing long-form multi-step jpg diagram of how anita sarkeesian was never harassed out of her home and that milo dude's reportage was strongly relied upon.

We need to find some way to etch those jpgs on to plexiglass, or future generations will never understand what this is about.

You could seriously get a poll's worth of options of, what is the dumbest recurrent line used by shithead gamers with regard to Gamergate, I am leaning towards "...and she has never addressed the VERY SERIOUS objections made to the ACCURACY of her BULLSHIT VIDEOS which spew LIES" although the old goldie where letting it be known that you're being criminally harassed is a classic PLOY to get ATTENTION for your AGENDA. Sigh. I mustn't read the comments, I mustn't read the comments...

here we go guys

https://twitter.com/Nero/status/512292578042347520
https://twitter.com/Nero/status/512331257238519810

I'm not going to click on beetbort, what does the article say?

not posted yet i don't think

it's up - tried to read it, laughed, closed window.

For his professional work he's @Nero but when he wants to get personal he uses @Caligula.

Makes perfect sense.

it is? are you going off that pinned tweet from a few days ago?

first line: "The video game community is perhaps the most inclusive, gender neutral and colourblind on the internet."

http://s2.quickmeme.com/img/e9/e9a2295b3db9b45c8f5484a09033c1c71cf88e3375bb7ff60456bc81c29a4e04.jpg

i think this is it:
http://www.breitbart.com/Breitbart-London/2014/09/17/Exposed-the-secret-mailing-list-of-the-gaming-journalism-elite