Is ganking girl gamers a bad thing?

[V8 Ninja]

I was going to say some things, but...

snip

I'd argue it does matter. It's a tricky issue (since at the end of the day we're talking about your pixels dying), but I think you have to distinguish a person's actions from their motivation.

Ganking a random player and they turn out to be a woman? In this case you're doing things to just generally make people's lives harder because you get some sort of satisfaction out of it. A little dicky IMO, but hey, it's what you sign up for when you roll pvp. (I was on a pvp server for years, never did much ganking myself, but I rolled with the punches).

Ganking a player *because* of their sex or race or religion? Now you're making someone's life harder because you have some problem with one of those things, which is disturbing. Again, the end result still isn't that horrible (pixels), but it's the motivation itself that's pretty awful.

It's the reason there's a distinction in courts for hate crimes, motivation matters.

I really like this comment. I like it a lot. Thank you, Pirate-man.

EDIT: As for the whole "Is he joking?/Is he serious?/Poe's Law?" issue; I did some digging and in his "About Me" section of his Youtube page he specifically acknowledges some people would be calling him a "Woman-Hating Scum". Personally, if he was joking then I would imagine him keeping the joke to his little video series instead of expanding it. But hey, that's just me.

 

[ItsNotRudy]

Didn't know the word 'ganking'. Is this another of those things where somebody misspelled 'ganging' and everybody else lol'd so it stuck, like 'pwn' instead of 'own'?

(transitive, Internet, online gaming, slang) To kill, ambush, or defeat with little effort; used in online games.
Our group totally ganked this guy.
I hate it when corpse-campers gank me over and over again.


Not quite the same as ganging up, since it doesn't require multiple people.

 

[VanQ]

Why can only females be attention whores? Why not assholes like that guy?

Sexism, when it comes down to it. Just like you very rarely hear a guy called a slut if he sleeps around, as apparently it's only wrong if a girl does it.

Then again, on the other hand if a guy does absolutely anything wrong to a girl (calls her names, picks on her in a game), the assumption tends to get made that it was because she was a girl, when the chances are the guy is just an asshole who'd do it to anybody.

When it comes to gender, people on the whole are very immature.

To be fair, it's not like the guy doing the ganking was sitting with his chest brandished for all to see so he could make money off his videos. At least his videos showed the game and not mostly just boobs and a bit of game to the side. People watching his video are likely watching it for the game and PvP. People watching hers are most likely for the tits.

Oh, and she's taking money on her channel. So she's basically just a camwhore that plays games in stead of getting naked. And I should note that while the first video was dull and stupid. "Getting into the mind of a girl gamer" my ass, the second one had some legitimate PvP content and her nerd rage was worth a chuckle. She drew attention to herself and this is what happens when someone puts a glowing beacon on their head in a PvP server.

I mean shit, she was broadcasting her location while alone in contested territory on a PvP server. Hardly surprising someone used that to gank her.

 

[PeterMerkin69]

I exclusively target women sometimes. Not always, but I do find myself wanting to attack them more than male players if I know they're around. When I do, I will actually search for them, I will find them and, time after time, I will attempt to kill them. I'll take my shot even if I know it means their team mates will get me, too. I'm satisfied as long as I don't go alone. Sometimes I don't even have to know they're women. Sometimes attacking female avatars is enough.

Why? I like it. It's exciting. There's something predatory in me that makes it feel more satisfying than killing guys or just playing the game the "right way." Like a cat toying with a mouse. Sometimes my toys break, but there's pleasure in that, too. It's the same feeling you get when you dominate anyone, only more intense. It's the closest I can come to having a religious experience in a video game.

I don't think sexism has anything to do with it. I don't buy into the bullshit that women are inherently inferior to men. And I don't want to say it's sexual either. It might be, but I just... like women more than men. I like looking at them more, I like talking to them more, I like doing things to them more, why wouldn't I enjoy abusing them more, too? I do enjoy abusing male gamers as well, but it's not the same. Men are fast food, women are bloody rare venison with freshly picked morrells on a wood grill. Tender, juicy, succulent, and dripping blood. I can feel my eyes glossing over as I type this.

I've never had the opportunity to single someone out because of their religion. I think I would enjoy that too, but not nearly as much.

You might want to waggle your finger at me and say this is something I shouldn't do, but ask yourself: wouldn't you rather I expressed this side of myself on willing participants in a virtual world where no one can really get hurt?

 

[barbzilla]

Back when I played WoW, this was a long ago, we use to like heading into PvP zones like Strangalthorn Vale and have a blast murdering each left and right and getting murdered back. But it seems like - at least from this video and an article from Kotaku, that it is just about as similar as harassment.

0.o

Now if a person does it for the sole purpose because the opposing player is a female. Then that dude has issues. But to call ganking similar to rape... well. I think you're starting to miss the point of video games in general, especially competitive ones.

Now ShrineNI, the guy that made video on how to go around finding gamer girls is an asshole. I got that idea after watching his videos. But then again what he's doing in the end - killing female players - isn't exactly what I call as harassment because EVERYONE does that in WoW to each other all the time. At least they did before the game was turned carebear but I'm not going to talk about that.

Hell, I remember being singled out by certain players in WoW many times when I'd quested in certain areas over a course of a few days. So was I being stalked too? I mean, if you don't like being ganked, games like these have PvE zones where you can't be "harassed" if you feel ganking is harassment.

I don't know, I guess what I'm getting at is is this a case of white knighting where gamers are taking a matter like this way too seriously just because some douchbag likes to single out female players. Or not?

If the guy was singling out female players and sending inappropriate messages to them. That there is definitely harassment by all it's definition. But in a game where players stalk and murder each other all the time, is it wrong to do it then?


http://kotaku.com/5972869/faith-in-humanity-slowly-depleting-this-jerk-and-his-supporters-find-joy-in-harassing-women-gamers

Yes, it is a sickening thing actually. It pretty much flips the bird at diversity and puts up the proverbial "no girls allowed" sign up in WoW, and frankly its just going to perpetuate this image of male gamers that does not need to be animated, yet lives with so much zeal in the minds of Americans.

At what point was the US brought up in this? If you notice, not a single person talking in that video was American. I'm getting rather tired of the US bashing on this website.

OT: If he was going around ganking other people it would be fine, but the fact that he singles out one particular sex to hunt down makes it sexist. He is trying to make it his personal mission to kill females, and I think that takes a rather disturbed individual.

 

[Bocaj2000]

Is singling out girls in PVP harassment or bullying? No. It's a video game and isn't relevant to reality. If he did that every day to the point of getting the person to quit the game, then yes. It has transcended the virtual world and affected reality.

As for the article and the guy in the video... [rage] The guy's a complete fucking ****. Who gives a shit who donates to these girls or why? They aren't doing anything unethical nor are they forcing your money into their pockets. If what other people do with their money is bothering you that much, then tough shit. If killing the EVIL girl gamer in a video game is your big revenge scheme, then you're a fucking looser. If you really go out of your way to cyber-stalk these girls just to kill them in a video game, then you're an even bigger fucking looser. Congrats, you beat a girl in a video game! You win the internet! Now go outside and get fucked. [/rage]

(As a side note, I despise the phrase "white knighting". It demonizes the idea of having morals and makes you look like a man-child.)

 

[Chadwick Huntington III]

Might be a controversial opinion, but I think this guy is hilarious.

 

[Sabitsuki]

To be fair, it's not like the guy doing the ganking was sitting with his chest brandished for all to see so he could make money off his videos. At least his videos showed the game and not mostly just boobs and a bit of game to the side. People watching his video are likely watching it for the game and PvP. People watching hers are most likely for the tits.

Oh, and she's taking money on her channel. So she's basically just a camwhore that plays games in stead of getting naked. And I should note that while the first video was dull and stupid. "Getting into the mind of a girl gamer" my ass, the second one had some legitimate PvP content and her nerd rage was worth a chuckle. She drew attention to herself and this is what happens when someone puts a glowing beacon on their head in a PvP server.

I mean shit, she was broadcasting her location while alone in contested territory on a PvP server. Hardly surprising someone used that to gank her.

Sorry, I'm not particularly liking your logic here. So, it's perfectly justified for a person to judge someone to be undeserving of the attention they attempt to receive, and make videos encouraging the harassment of someone, all because you see this someone as a sort of whore; and obviously whores deserve to be harassed and judged because they whores?

If he wants to go out and gank someone for whatever personal reason, that's one thing. It becomes frightfully disgusting when it gets twisted around in such as way as if the ganker is dealing out some sort of internet justice to the unworthy and encourages others to follow his example.

 

[maninahat]

In the video, he is clearly directing his criticisms at "girl gamers" not "unisex WoW players".

Sure & in the other video those girls were trolling that one guy because he's a guy. So what?

Oh & lets be clear here, that guy is not trolling female players, he is trolling female players, e-begging on a treaming system. Something that he couldn't do if they were not e-begging in a streaming video.

What are you actually saying? That because you can find a case of a group of girls bullying a guy, we shouldn't complain about a guy bullying girls? All right, lets talk about that other video. Those girls were harassing a guy and they were being sexist in their own way. So with all things being equal, they are just as bad as the the WoW player in question.

But they aren't the subject of this discussion, because all things aren't equal. Video game culture has a terrible reputation for acting like a boys only club, and now that we have only just gotten around to acknowledging women in mainstream gaming, we are long over due to confront the casual mistreatment of women in gaming culture when it crops up. This is an entirely different ball game to when a group of girls get together to bully one guy, because women mistreating guys in gaming happens on a far smaller scale. I'd like women to not do that kind of thing, but as it is a far rarer occurrence than the case of institutionalised discrimination against female gamers, it isn't going to get into the headlines.

You say he specifically targets e-beggers, but that sounds like a poor justification, even if it were true. It isn't any of his business what female players do with their time, and if he really has a problem with e-begging, he should be taking that up with the men who give these women money, not the women themselves (who are merely taking advantage of a demand created by horny men). All of this is all academic though, because he spends most of the video talking about going after "women gamers", not "e-beggers". I get the impression he targets e-beggers because they are easier to find via their own live streams and publicity. His complaints against e-beggers are a petty rationalisation for his asshole behaviour, and don't really explain his hang ups about girl gamers in general.

 

[Mr F.]

WoW has ganking in it. The ganking is what makes the PvP realms more interesting. It actually feels like shit is going down when a random horde of players storm the gates of SW and lowbies accidentally rightclick them, activating PvP and getting the shit kicked out of them. Red Ridge mountains, combined with my epic flyer and "Track Humans" was almost the sole reason I played that Hunter, to track down and slaughter lowbies. Its what I did. Its what the PvP meant to me.

That is what a PvP realm is about. Constant battle. Never being safe. Shooting people who are trying to mine in the back of the head and stealing their stuff, fearing people into groups of mobs, you name it. As long as you are an indiscriminate asshole there is absolutely nothing wrong with this behaviour. I had a character or two on PvE realms, back in the day, because I got bored of getting ganked.

This guys (Whos vid I watched ages back when this controversy was fresh) is a dick. He makes a bunch of sexist statements and then tries to encourage people to hunt down and kill female players for fucking stupid reasons. "Oh, but they are attractive and they have a live stream which shows both the game and them! BAD PEOPLE". You might as well ***** about the Slender videos that have chicks in them cause watching people get scared is fun.

Sorry. This guy is a dick. Is ganking girl gamers a bad thing?

No! Hell no! My sister gave as good as she got!

Is tracking down players to gank them a bad thing?

No! Hell no! I made a hunter just to do that once Cata was a thing!

Is tracking down female gamers because they are female and ganking them a bad thing?

Yes. It is different. If I kill everyone I see in a PvP game, I am a dick. Or just another person. If I track people down based on race, its racism, if I track them down based on gender, its sexism. Thats it. Its discrimination against a particular group of people.

Is this bad? Yes. Very bad? Not really, no. There are far larger issues in gaming then shit like this. Then again, an important distinction I made to a friend of mine was this: Just because this is not the LARGEST issue, we should still try and stop it. During the civil rights movement, Rosa Parks sat at the front of the bus. Was blacks being forced to sit at the back the LARGEST issue they were facing? Hell no. Was it still important to change? Yeah.

Gank whomever you like, without distinction. When you start making distinctions, not based on the game (Hunting down Night Elves? Logical. Hunting down women? Bad.), you are becoming a ****.

 

[The Great JT]

Ganking ANYONE is a bad thing.

 

[maninahat]

http://imgur.com/a/y8jII

Three guesses as to whether that was a real article or not.

As I stated three posts up, /v/ does not like Patricia Hernandez.

Oh god, those are hilarious. Its funny because the people mocking her writing style are doing it so accurately.

She is a truly terrible writer.

http://kotaku.com/5914348/three-words-i-said-to-the-man-i-defeated-in-gears-of-war-that-ill-never-say-again

"I raped you."

If words could lynch someone, then this was the moment for it. The post-game scoreboard said I had technically won, so I'd shown them all, right? No, no I hadn't. The avalanche of trash talk was one thing?you play online enough, you come to expect it?but the laughter, the laughter stripped meaning from my victory. The laughter made me feel like I was shrinking, like I was in danger of disappearing at any moment.

Again.

"I raped you."

The words weren't coming from them. No, they were coming from me. Me. The rape survivor. I was the one saying those words, which now hung tremulously in the air after they failed to find a target. Shaking, I got up from my seat and turned the Xbox off.

I really don't understand why this is sticking in people's throats. Hernandez made an introspective article in which she discusses the disconcerting tendency for gamers to diminish the subject of rape into a joke or a taunt. As a gamer and rape victim (or survivor, as she prefers) she has an interesting perspective on our use of language, and on how easy it is to fall in with the crowd and join in with the harmful banter. It only requires a modicum of compassion and perspicacity to get what she's saying. So just what am I missing?

 

[WindKnight]

Snip

I really don't understand why this is sticking in people's throats. Hernandez made an introspective article in which she discusses the disconcerting tendency for gamers to diminish the subject of rape into a joke or a taunt. As a gamer and rape victim (or survivor, as she prefers) she has an interesting perspective on our use of language, and on how easy it is to fall in with the crowd and join in with the harmful banter. It only requires a modicum of compassion and perspicacity to get what she's saying. So just what am I missing?

Some people don't like the idea that language they use off handedly and without really thinking through the implications of, can cause actual, legitimate distress and harm to someone, and would prefer to portray the victim as being thin-skinned or oversensitive.

They want the right to say what they like without the responsibility of having to consider what they should say.

 

[Batou667]

Is whatting girl gamers a bad thing?

Whatever it is, it sounds wrong.

 

[Evil Smurf]

Treat everyone equally, if you gank guys, gank girls as well, and visa versa.

 

[aba1]

Not sure if I was watching the right video or not but I thought the guy was kidding. All of his decisions were based on such stereotypes and it was so silly I just assumed it was a joke.

 

[Windcaler]

I think I can sum up my thoughts very easily here. If your treating any player differently just because of their gender, sexuality, race, and/or political/religious beliefs then youre guilty of a new kind of discrimination. Note that I say "just because" as in thats the only reason you target them over others.

Captcha: Face the music

Very appropriate captcha, thank you

 

[VanQ]

Sorry, I'm not particularly liking your logic here. So, it's perfectly justified for a person to judge someone to be undeserving of the attention they attempt to receive, and make videos encouraging the harassment of someone, all because you see this someone as a sort of whore; and obviously whores deserve to be harassed and judged because they whores?

If he wants to go out and gank someone for whatever personal reason, that's one thing. It becomes frightfully disgusting when it gets twisted around in such as way as if the ganker is dealing out some sort of internet justice to the unworthy and encourages others to follow his example.

Not quite. I likened her to a whore because she's offering her body as a service for money.

My logic for it being okay to gank her was because she was broadcasting her in game position openly with no escort of any kind while in contested territory on a PvP server. I'd gank her too, regardless of whether she was a male or not if I was bored enough. All is fair on a PvP server.

Ganking ANYONE is a bad thing.

No. No, it is not. Especially not on a Player Vs. Player Server, where Player Vs. Player interactions are encouraged.