"Gaming in Color", a Kickstarter Documentary on LGBT+ Gaming

[Schadrach]

Frame the narrative so that we see it isn't one particular group that has problems, but that the gaming community as a whole just isn't very accepting of anyone outside the norm (homosexuals, women, squeaky English children,etc.)

The gaming community isn't very accepting of anyone. Period. If you have an idetifiable feature that makes you part of a group that has pre-existing epithets or mean jokes about, then you get those otherwise you get a random spattering from all such groups (just in case they can hit a nerve) and more generic insults. I once got death threats connected to a forum post a few years ago on the WoW forums about class balance. I even got a few people that created characters on my server to harass me (I posted under my main). I just ignored them as they came. Simple enough. I'm not in any of the right demographics to monetize victimhood though, so I basically dealt with it and moved on.

As for this Kickstarter...

KickTraq for this project: http://www.kicktraq.com/projects/gamingincolor/gaming-in-color/#chart-daily

Looks pretty typical for a KS progression, especially one that hasn't made any news headlines and hasn't done something to create a controversy around them.

No trolling 4chan to encourage them to attack, and then playing the media about the horrible trolling they've received just for wanting to do this project (read: victimhood for fun and profit).
No blatant violation of KS TOS that would be disregarded because PR/PC.
No bait-and-switching the project descriptions when the old description stops bringing in the funds.

I literally can't see anything *wrong* with this project that I can identify, in the sense of pulling anything underhanded.

Hopefully the 48-hour spike [footnote]There's usually a large jump in funding during the final 48 hours of a project -- this happens because if you star a project, you get emailed about it when it hits 48 hours to go and a lot of people will wait until then to decide to jump in or not[/footnote] will put them over the mark [footnote]It will if enough people are interested, but my KS funds are tapped out for a while as of the 95th project I backed -- Dwarven Forge Game Tiles[/footnote], so good luck to them and all that.

 

[LetalisK]

Oh, you guys. You are all such lovely, positive, supporting people. You are such a joy and pleasure to be around. I am renewed and uplifted every time I set foot on this forum, knowing that I am welcomed and embraced.

I love you all.


Thank you for your attention.

Assuming you're being sarcastic, look on the bright side. At least the dissent was along the lines of an apathetic "Huh? Sexuality? Why do we care about that?" instead of a bunch of slurs and homophobic comments. >.>

 

[Beffudled Sheep_v1legacy]

All right! The project made it to $35,000 and it still has a week to go!

This is a good thing, even if the remaining time is somewhat troubling. But still, we all ought to have hope even when times grow darkest.

Don't worry too much. A lot of projects get massive funding boosts in the last couple of days. I think they'll make it.

 

[Hagi]

Won't donate myself, there's other causes that I have more affinity towards that I'd rather donate to.

But I really don't see the harm this is doing. Why would it be politically correct to hear people, from a specific community, talk about their experiences in gaming? I mean isn't the whole idea behind political correctness being bad that making others feel they can't voice their honest opinion is bad?

It seems rather hypocritical and paradoxical to go about 'achieving' that end by making others, those who'll feature in this documentary, feel bad about voicing their honest opinion so that you, in turn, don't have to feel bad about continuing to voice your own honest opinion.

 

[Darken12]

Assuming you're being sarcastic, look on the bright side. At least the dissent was along the lines of an apathetic "Huh? Sexuality? Why do we care about that?" instead of a bunch of slurs and homophobic comments. >.>

No, I was genuinely being positive. It's a new thing I'm trying, for my blood pressure. No sense getting angry.

I may have exaggerated a little, but oh well.

*snip*

Thank you for your extremely informative post, I will link to it in the OP.

Don't worry too much. A lot of projects get massive funding boosts in the last couple of days. I think they'll make it.

That's genuinely encouraging, and does put some of my concerns at rest. Thanks!

 

[RicoADF]

Well I as thinking more along the lines of explicitly LGBTQ+ characters like in Bioware's games. Whenever a LGBTQ+ character is in a game, it's usually their only relevant attribute that gets mentioned over and over again, almost to stereotypical lengths if they're not walking stereotypes themselves *cough*ZEVRAN LILEANA*cough*. The gaming industry is bland as hell in all departments, don't get me wrong.

Oh I agree, and the industry is bad at doing that for all characters, making them all about their traits not who they are as a character.

 

[thenoblitt]

my problem with all of it, is that devs are forcing lbgt into games instead of really thinking about them so instead of having actually good interactions its all forced and unnatural and crappy.

 

[Genocidicles]

Although with a name like that I thought it'd be about racial issues in games or something.

 

[rbstewart7263]

seems alot more positive than other works aiming at equality in gaming. hell I may support it.

 

[SageRuffin]

The same happened in Brazil we used to have good humour in mainstream media but it was slowly choked to death, in fact a few comics have been sued recently *sigh*

Filling a diversity quota(like it happens in some movies) would be a terrible thing yeah.
*SNIP*

Exactly, like I know they mean well and are just trying to fix some real issues, it's just unfortunate that it goes from one extreme to another. Why our society can't just have 1 rule for all, no special treatment no discrimination, everyone treated 100% equally. Ofcourse those that need help (eg: disabled) can get it, but no more "group one must be given a certain % of a job" etc stuff, as it's just making the problem worse IMO.

I think part of the problem is that most of us (in the US at least, not sure how it is in other countries) are taught specific things when it comes to ethnicity and nationality and whatnot (ethnocentrism I think it's called); the classic nature vs. nurture argument, in essence. Here's the long and short: you know that one guy/girl who says "Why are there no black/white/Hispanic/Greek/Portuguese/etc in [insert media franchise here]?" That's basically what it is, according to my observations at least.

It's particularly bad when it comes to the black American youth (again, according to my observations). I remember growing up watching DBZ wondering where all the "urban elements" were (horrible term, I know - just roll with it) - there was no urbanwear, no rap music, no hip-hop elements... the list goes on. Only now that I'm in my mid-20s do I realize how fucking ridiculous those thoughts were.

On a related note, here's a brief interview with Morgan Freeman about Black History Month. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mh8mUia75k8]

I kinda forgot where I was going with this, so I'll just leave it at this here.

 

[SageRuffin]

Well I as thinking more along the lines of explicitly LGBTQ+ characters like in Bioware's games. Whenever a LGBTQ+ character is in a game, it's usually their only relevant attribute that gets mentioned over and over again, almost to stereotypical lengths if they're not walking stereotypes themselves *cough*ZEVRAN LILEANA*cough*. The gaming industry is bland as hell in all departments, don't get me wrong.

Oh I agree, and the industry is bad at doing that for all characters, making them all about their traits not who they are as a character.

There's Samantha Traynor in ME3. Her sexuality is just kinda there on the side, as it should be, right?

I'd include Cortez, but given that his sexuality is actually part of a major character arc for him (grieving over his husband who was KiA), I don't feel he really qualifies as an exception. :/

 

[Wintermute_v1legacy]

Well, at least we can all agree that the internet gaming community in general isn't insulting this Kickstarter. Otherwise they would have over a million dollars by now from everyone feeling they had to defend the creators.

 

[JEBWrench]

I can't see any reason why this wouldn't at least be an interesting bit of perspective into the industry itself at least.

Of course, this could just be a full-length documentary on M.U.L.E. and I'd still be interested.

 

[OtherSideofSky]

That name sounds like it would be a better fit for a documentary on the fairly widespread racism that none of the people writing about discrimination in the gaming community ever seem to bother addressing.

 

[generals3]

This is an interesting fear that people tend to have, but I don't see where it's coming from.

The whole talk about "these groups" and their way, is strange because I've never seen [not proof I admit] "these groups" say "I want all games to cater to my opinions all the time". From what I've gathered they're just asking for a bit of balance. Besides there are always going to be smaller big developers that won't give a shit about political correctness and will make the game they want to make, regardless of what others think.

A similar situation that doesn't receive the same reaction is the talk on the over saturation of the shooter. I've seen numerous videos calling for a stop to the Grey Brown MMS, but no one there responds, "They're trying to take away the fun", or "They're going to ruin games"

edit: It also implies that the only things you find fun about games are the things that offend someone else.

Capthca: Such a Dag

Fuck you captcha, fuck you.

But here's the problem: how do you determine what is "balanced" and how do you enforce it? Asking for balance is all fine and dandy but in itself it is meaningless. And what people fear is that there is more behind this demand for balance and that it could actually do much more than just "balance" things.

And i don't agree with the implication you stated. Even if you also like things that don't offend some people you're still gonna be against the removal of things you like and offends people.

On topic: I really don't see the point of this documentary. I mean, understanding how people are treated in games is in my opinion the must pointless endeavor ever conceived. And that's simply because everyone, regardless of sex, sexual orientation or skin color is going to be treated like shit by some people. People get insulted and trolled for every conceivable reason on the internet.

 

[RicoADF]

On a related note, here's a brief interview with Morgan Freeman about Black History Month. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mh8mUia75k8]

I kinda forgot where I was going with this, so I'll just leave it at this here.

I LOVE that interview with Morgan Freeman and how he views racism, 100% agree with him. Thanks for posting that vid.

 

[wulf3n]

I don't know about others, but personally I've seen political correctness kill off good things, eg: comedy shows in Australia. The outrage and complaining made the channels simply abandon the shows rather than go through the minefields.

Which ones? The only Australian comedies I really remember from a while ago were full frontal and fast forward. Since then most comedies of been intentionally not politicly correct E.G. Fat Pizza, Housos, and Swift and Shift, and have done pretty well.

I think the reason it bothers people is because if a standard gets set that everything needs to be perfectly politically correct then it will take the freedom of creativity from games. Nobody can just design the characters how they want they all have to fit guidelines and we always have to have characters be from a certain heritage and the list goes on.

I question that it will restrict creativity. I believe that only the Big companies act like that, and I wouldn't be surprised if they focus group the characters any way, so it wouldn't be much different.

But here's the problem: how do you determine what is "balanced" and how do you enforce it? Asking for balance is all fine and dandy but in itself it is meaningless. And what people fear is that there is more behind this demand for balance and that it could actually do much more than just "balance" things.

Balance probably wasn't the right word. The thought was more along the lines of "Offended but not calling for complete abolition".

And i don't agree with the implication you stated. Even if you also like things that don't offend some people you're still gonna be against the removal of things you like and offends people.

Not my best statement.

 

[thenoblitt]

my problem with all of it, is that devs are forcing lbgt into games instead of really thinking about them so instead of having actually good interactions its all forced and unnatural and crappy.

Citation please?

This is one of those things I'm hearing that supposedly happens, but nobody can ever point to an example of the Secret PC Police putting a gun to a developers head and saying "now make this character gay! We must have an illusion of equality through diversity!"

the entirety of dragon age 2 was just lbgt pandering, none of the romance options were well thought out or written, none of them had depth or meaning, it all came down to who you wanted to have sex with, it was terrible and just forced.