Videogames, Sexism and Idiots

For a while now I wanted to write a little about GamerGate and Feminist Frequency, but I was not inspired and time passed.

However, I have seen some post recently that still talk about it, and I though I should finally write about it even if a lot of time has passed and it is no longer in the news.

So, for those who do not know, in a  summarized version: a while ago Zoë Quinn, a girl that has developed videogames, left her boyfriend. The guy was bitter and made a false claim saying that she had slept with some reporter in exchange for favourable reviews. That's it. That's the whole original story.

Of course, the situation quickly worsened when, all of a sudden, lots of self-proclaimed "Gamers" (usually guys, but I guess maybe some women joined this as well) started to say this was shameful, that she had slept with a guy for a good review showed she was a bad person/slut/etc., that the reporter was immoral, that these practices were immoral, that she should be punished, etc. Things got to the point of death threats to her, and brutal harassment. They stalled calling this "GamerGate", imitating the "Watergate" scandal name format. (People keep calling scandals "somethinggate", as if "Watergate" was referring to some water scandal or "gate" meant scandal, when it is just a hotel name and it is stupid to use "somethingate", but oh well....)

The thing here is that there has been lots of other cases of confirmed corruption in videogame reviews, but nobody made such a fuss about integrity and other topics when it was big publishers and big magazines. So the whole complains were less about integrity and more about the one blamed being a woman,, who did a video game not very mainstream.

Then lots of these "Gamers" started to complain also about how feminist women, progressives and other such groups were trying to change videogames for the worse,  and started to threaten other women related to games development. They also threatened a feminist activist, Anita Sarkeesian, that had started an online video series where she talked about sexism in videogames. The "Gamers" accused Queen, other women and Sarkeesian of trying to ruin videogames and such other things.

Feminist Frequency, the website that Sarkeesian has, explains with examples, videos and interesting facts why games are sexist sometimes, and proposes changes in games stories and game play,  sometimes, to try and change that, while recognising that a game can still be fun to play if it has these issues. Some of the points raised may be questionable or debatable,, and she may be wrong in some aspects, but plenty of times it manages to make valid points and the videos tend to make you think about certain sexism that is given for granted in games. 

People reacted as if she was personally raping each one of their relatives.

The whole thing is ridiculous and shows that a worrisome amount of gamers do not understand games, women, or higher thought processes (I'm amazed they don't suffocate the moment they try to play and breathe at the same time, since clearly their brains cannot handle such complexities). Some people said that the complain was against political correctness, ethics in reporters and other higher goals, but the reality is that most complains were hysterical fits against games not meant for or done by white heterosexual males. 

In Zoë games and Saarkesian videos somehow "Gamers" got threatened by the idea that games could be something else than ultramasculine action games. This also matches the idea of a lot of publishers that, unless the main character is male and white, white males won't relate to them and won't buy the game (even when white males are not, by far, all the people that buy and play such games).

It is funny, but most games that are very masculine, I find them kind of....gay. Nothing wrong with that, but I find it funny that a lot of these "Gamers" would find it offensive if they heard that, for example, Gears of War seems really gay. As an heterosexual male, I don't see the point of controlling a muscled warrior around. It is usually also boring and uninteresting, unless the character has some depth on it, or some funny trait. But by preference I'd rather control other type of characters. For sure I  prefer a female character because I like their appearance, but it is much more than that.

I know how to be a white heterosexual male because I am one, and I do not need games where I control white heterosexual males to feel empathy towards them. Games allow you to play at being someone else, so I'd rather embrace this opportunity by being something else and relating to that.

I'd rather be a teenage girl of unclear sexuality, like in Life is Strange. I'd rather be a murderous female human-alien hybrid with complex motivations, like Kerrigan in Starcraft. I like to play as a female special ops. soldier like in Dino Crisis. I prefer to be represented as a renegade female Sheppard than a goodie-two-shoes male one in Mass Effect (I played both ways and the other one is more interesting). I'd take Claire over Chris Redfield anytime in Resident Evil. I would even argue that Master Chief and Cortana (don't be fooled, plenty of times you play as both in one body) are much more interesting than just Master Chief.

Sure, maybe some of these games are still very sexist in some aspects, but by just putting yourself in the position  of a female, they already do something slightly different than a lot of other games.

Hell, opening the scope to race and species, I'd prefer to be anything apart from the typical, boring, white heterosexual male. I'd rather be a Dark Elf, a Zerg,  an Asari, a Quarian, a Geth Platform, an Orc, part of the Chaos, a Gene Stealer, a Monster, a Zombie, a Dungeon Master....

THAT'S THE FUCKING POINT OF GAMES!

Going on and talking about game play.  I am happy with destruction and slaughter, and some days that's what I want, but I love a good implementation of time control and conversation-based puzzles and stories, or platformers where the simplest game mechanic gets new spins. I love scary games where you cannot kill the thing that follows you,  and games where the puzzle solutions are not evident but still (usually) logical.

And continuing with the story, I love games where the traditional tropes are not used. Games where the damsel does not need rescuing, or games where your actions are not always good and nice, games where you may be the villain, games that question the "you must" approach. Games that punish you for playing. Games that mess with your mind and your feelings.

Games are full of potential, and capable of amazing diversity. And to create such diversity,  we need diverse minds and people changing the shape of games, developing games and analysing games. 

Complaining that women should not complain when they are not represented in them or treated as objects,  complaining that the traditional "rescue the damsel" works fine and doesn't need to change, complaining that some games now are trying to explore game plays that you find boring because you're not killing things while playing, complaining that games should appeal to your sexual tastes, complaining that games can be ruined by increasing diversity and possibilities....it is not just missing the point. 

It is missing it so hard that you shot yourself in the head instead (which could explain your clearly diminished cognitive abilities).