jpz719 said:
You obviously haven't seen the "Gifs of people falling into Satan's parlor" post then.
http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/portal-to-hell
Or did you just mean the progressive side of Tmbl?
How can "gamers" and "social justice warriors" get along?
- Thread starter Burnouts3s3
- Start date
Recommended Videos
You obviously haven't seen the "Gifs of people falling into Satan's parlor" post then.
http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/portal-to-hell
Or did you just mean the progressive side of Tmbl?
Well, if you want the easy way, gamers can keep ignoring problems and the people that care about equal and egalitarian societies just keep pushing on and accept that a lot of the gamers just aren't interested because they are in a state of cannot be bothered. I could point out that ultimately worrying about this stuff is important because small issues are symptomatic of bigger ones. White straight male protagonists being the default in almost every game, and the fact that we seem to view the idea of any kind of diversity in that as being a great burden or something little seems kind of, well petulant.
In a similar argument, is it really SUCH a big deal to demand that a certain kind of people sit at the back of the bus instead of the front? Or to say that we don't think that CERTAIN people showing affection in public is appropriate? The fact is that we are saying as a society that one group or another is unwanted or lesser. It matters in video games too, when the 'default' is the same kind of person it says that culturally we think that that is what a hero is, that is what and who can get things done, the fact that most of our ability to get a minority or female character are in avatar type games is fairly telling, apparently studios aren't really interested in portraying women or others unless it's in something that also tends to options of other species (elves, orks, aliens, etc.) with a couple of exceptions. Hell, COD with it's endless samey military shooter crap can't even be bothered to give us female soldiers, because of course only men can be heroic badasses in vaguely racist military power fantasies right?
The problem isn't that the social justice warriors are whining, it's that gamers are whining about being called on their privilege or to maybe think about what they play. You yourselves aren't being accused of being part of the problem, the industry is mostly to blame for this and it can be fixed with people showing that our culture is better than that. But if you're going to whine and cry at the idea of other people being given a seat at the table, if you think there has to be justification for a hero to be something other than a white guy who's straight...well then maybe you are part of the problem, and if that bothers you, then think about trying to fix it.
In a similar argument, is it really SUCH a big deal to demand that a certain kind of people sit at the back of the bus instead of the front? Or to say that we don't think that CERTAIN people showing affection in public is appropriate? The fact is that we are saying as a society that one group or another is unwanted or lesser. It matters in video games too, when the 'default' is the same kind of person it says that culturally we think that that is what a hero is, that is what and who can get things done, the fact that most of our ability to get a minority or female character are in avatar type games is fairly telling, apparently studios aren't really interested in portraying women or others unless it's in something that also tends to options of other species (elves, orks, aliens, etc.) with a couple of exceptions. Hell, COD with it's endless samey military shooter crap can't even be bothered to give us female soldiers, because of course only men can be heroic badasses in vaguely racist military power fantasies right?
The problem isn't that the social justice warriors are whining, it's that gamers are whining about being called on their privilege or to maybe think about what they play. You yourselves aren't being accused of being part of the problem, the industry is mostly to blame for this and it can be fixed with people showing that our culture is better than that. But if you're going to whine and cry at the idea of other people being given a seat at the table, if you think there has to be justification for a hero to be something other than a white guy who's straight...well then maybe you are part of the problem, and if that bothers you, then think about trying to fix it.
Like Gamers being offended at someone pointing out that their favorite game might have some serious problematic implications?LAGG said:
Actually she went to the papers to complain about it, and others marched on her behalf and argued. And if there were internet message boards they would have also been utilized too. Also, by and large I don't buy games that don't interest me, I don't buy call of duty, and remember me was interesting and had I not been flat broke when it came out I probably would have bought it. (as it is I can only buy games during a steam summer sale, and even then only if my finances aren't hit with emergencies). I also never said anything about specific game companies appeasing me, you seem to like building strawmen from what I say.ultreos2 said:
My point was that *gasp* maybe we need to look at the underlying views in the arguments made. I also never claimed to be part of a massive group, and I find it interesting that you ignored pretty much all of my points. The point that I brought up was that it seemed like the people here on your side of the argument were saying that any nonwhite main character had to have their existence justified. THAT was the point of my argument, and that if you were going to say that it wasn't a big deal that there is a rather extreme dearth of minority and female characters that there were other situations that might be seen as analagous. The affection one matters to, I have no problem seeing gay or straight couples out together in public or showing affection to each other, but I have seen people that do, i have heard them harass them and I have told them off for it but such people do exist. I'm also not claiming that I'm some great person or anything else, I'm another schlub sharing my opinion.
If you want me to prove it, ok, then explain why it doesn't seem odd or abnormal for every default character to be a white straight male unless the game is an avatar style game? Explain why there has to be justification for a minority or female hero option let alone existing as a main character for there not to be cries and laments of PC overload or diversity for the sake of diversity. And yeah, Remember me didn't sell as well as it could have, but there are also a lot of COD clones and the like that fail too, we don't look at those and assume that COD is dying (no matter how much some of us may wish it were).