Oh boy, here we go.
Fanboys: For someone called the annoyed gamer this was a really calm and not-so-annoyed approach to fanboys. While I agree with everything he has said here, one thing I want to point out is the “drop in the water”. I say this about petition all the time in gaming, if 20,000 people want something, that isn’t enough to move a company. Also, consider that the internet is not the whole ocean either. One of the biggest things that peeves me is when people say “Well I only know of mainly male gamers, so I don’t think that women take up 50% of the market”, which in itself is a logical fallacy. Of every female gamer I know, and I know quite a few and many of them are most hardcore than a lot of the male gamers I know, they don’t spend time like me on the internet. They just don’t. Then there’s all those people you don’t have mics playing, they could be female. My point is, “drop in the ocean” is how most people should see their thoughts when speaking on the internet about the whole world.
Sexism: Speaking of sexism…
So first off, wow does that topic veer way off topic. It was a pretty nice redirect talking about PR and shitty game journalists. But I want to share my thoughts for a second on the “girlfriend mode” comment. I saw that site, I read that article. I can kind of see where they are coming from and I don’t think it was suppose to be this big, even though it was pretty angry. Think about it like this, and this might not be as powerful, but imagine if they had use the N word. Think about what the word represents. That is what, I imagine, any woman who wants to be taken seriously in the game industry or in gaming culture must have felt like when the offhand remark was called “girlfriend mode”. That article talked a lot about how, despite more and more women playing games, the people in the industry and culture still think of women, as a whole, as people who don’t play games. Because even if that beginner’s mode is a nice feature it does sound like an easy mode. Again, imagine if game had the normal mode of the game called “Normal mode” and the easy mode called “Mexican mode” or something stupid like that. Uh, people aren’t going to take that sitting down, not by a longshot. I wouldn’t, nor do I stand for someone in the industry calling the “not good at FPS games” mode the “girlfriend mode”.
Now, I do think this issue has been overblown, but I also think that people, are too quick to throw it under the rug. What confused me about Marcus’ argument is that he is calling out for a real discussion of sexism in the gaming industry, while calling out an article that does just that. The main argument against it, from what I read by the commenters on various sites and what I saw in this video is that “oh, it was just an off-hand remark, geez give it a rest.” But guys, uh, why do you think there is sexism in the gaming industry and in gaming culture? Why is taking a female gamer seriously still such a hard concept for some guys to grasp? Many, many people don’t have a clue what goes on inside the gaming industry and so when we get those rare glimpses into the minds of the developers, to find this kind of backwards world stuck in the 80′s, it’s a bit uh…disheartening. I think these issues get overblown because people want to pretend it doesn’t exist. Even if it’s small, it can still be tasteless and I’m willing to bet that the reason why Borderlands 2 called it “BFF mode” and not “girlfriend mode” is because PR was like “are you guys insane?”
One last, over arching thing. Trollbait. Internet, come here for a second, I want to seriously talk to you about opinions. Everyone has them, and everyone judges them. This right here, is only my opinion and I’m hoping that my past writings and this one has convinced you to understand me as an educated person who not only plays games, but makes games, and wants to be in the industry I just kind of ranted about. Listening? Okay. It is always worth reading opinions you don’t agree with. Even if you don’t think sexism, racism, fanboyism exists or even if you just have an undying loyalty to your cause, you will never learn ANYTHING if you don’t read, listen, and open your mind to dissenting opinions.
This is why I urge against Marcus’ call to just ignore “trollbait” articles. Sure, “Top 10 Reasons why Nintendo Sucks” will most likely get you riled up, but maybe you’ll learn something you don’t know. Now I’m not saying that they will always be good, trust me, I’ve read enough Nintendo sucks articles to know they aren’t always good. But that is the risk for actually having an open mind about other people’s opinions. I don’t even like Marcus’ Beer and disagree with almost everything he says, but I watch his videos, despite Annoyed Gamer sounding like Trollbait itself, because I do learn things.
