I remember some on yelled at me that I needed to see what these radical feminists like Anita Sarkeesian were saying, that it was male-hating and threatening vidya. I had vaguely heard of her at that point but hadn’t seen any of her stuff so I looked up a video of hers on YouTube. Very quickly I was like “this is what the gamergaters are getting worked up over? This is pretty vanilla by feminists standards, even a bit boilerplate.”
Materially, we have set up a system where being right is what gets you punished, and people will hate you for doing something they agree with deep down. Because of the implications it makes about them. In the words of David Graeber, who calls the phenomenon 'Moral Envy', they're saying "How dare you act as if you are morally superior to me (although I do agree that your actions are morally superior to my own.)"
But we’re not talking about some major lifestyle change, playing some video games where the lead character is a woman whose personality doesn’t revolve around her being spankbank material isn’t a huge ask.
She didnt even REALLY say "hey play different games" she moreso was just asking to be critically aware of the content of what you're playing which is some incredibly basic shit.
he moreso was just asking to be critically aware of the content of what you're playing which is some incredibly basic shit
One of her mantras was something like "it's possible to enjoy something while also accepting criticism of it" and I've learned firsthand how impossible that is for some people.
I re-read Lord of the Rings recently. And you know what? It’s definitely got racist elements in it. It sucks. But I can still enjoy the books. It’s just whenever I talk about them now (or even think about them), I do talk about how I like them but the racist parts cannot and should not be ignored.
I agree and I also feel the same way about Dune and it's gender essentialist bullshit and its very on the nose Great Man Theory (granted, it presents the dangers of such a thing but it's not like all the chuds that use the name Mua'dib on the internet noticed).
But a lot of people see even the discussion of problematic elements as some existential threat that they want to about.
Yeah people react VIOLENTLY to being asked to do that. Im not even really clean on that becuase Ive done it before in my life. But some people literally cant do it at all.
because I said that maybe the artists working on the Mortal Kombat franchise shouldn't be required to view gory snuff films just for "authenticity" purposes to keep their jobs and that those artists weren't "privileged" in some magical way that made them deserve psychological trauma to make the treat more "authentic."
I've seen you mention this frequently but yeah thats fucked up. I like MK for the lore and characters (not so much the gameplay lol) but the gore is way too over the top and noone should have to go through that shit.
I've seen you mention this frequently but yeah thats fucked up.
I mention it frequently because it was fucked up. I see it as a high water mark of toxic shit, and I'm still baffled that that user wasn't banned for that and is still around.
I like MK for the lore and characters (not so much the gameplay lol) but the gore is way too over the top and noone should have to go through that shit.
I enjoyed it when it was campy/absurd violence instead of "realistic" and I lost all interest when the "authenticity" became the standard.
I enjoyed it when it was campy/absurd violence instead of "realistic"
Yeah I agree with this. My only caveat is a couple of my favorite characters (Cassie Cage, D'Vorah) come from the era of "authenticity" became the norm. And I did enjoy the story of MKX despite it being one of the "authentic violence" games. Also complete sidenote but the emphasis on guest characters in the current era of MK really puts me off. Not really related but I needed to mention it.
I've learned over time that almost nothing gets people on the internet enraged more than just the uncomfortable thought that maybe they're consuming something that might be bad in some way, be it how it's made, how it's distributed, who is hurt in its production, or just the damaging propaganda built into it.
I thought her videos would be super edgy based on how the gamersphere was acting about it. I watched it and it was clear she wasn't super familiar with the games and was only doing a mild critique.
Yeah you would think Anita is a hardcore feminist but she holds pretty tame positions. Which makes it baffling that gamers got this assblasted about her.
I mean that's way healthier than me. The first time I heard of her was assholes spamming /v/ with threads about how some youtuber I never heard of was going to DESTROY VIDYA by pointing out that their depictions of women were regressive and immature.
to be clear Anita Sarkeesian doesn't have anything directly to do with Depression Quest. That was a game by Zoe Quinn. Sarkeesian was targeted by a harassment campaign before Gamergate proper.
I remember some
on 
yelled at me that I needed to see what these radical feminists like Anita Sarkeesian were saying, that it was male-hating and threatening vidya. I had vaguely heard of her at that point but hadn’t seen any of her stuff so I looked up a video of hers on YouTube. Very quickly I was like “this is what the gamergaters are getting worked up over? This is pretty vanilla by feminists standards, even a bit boilerplate.”
radical positions like "harassing women is bad"
It's pure do-gooder derogation.
Materially, we have set up a system where being right is what gets you punished, and people will hate you for doing something they agree with deep down. Because of the implications it makes about them. In the words of David Graeber, who calls the phenomenon 'Moral Envy', they're saying "How dare you act as if you are morally superior to me (although I do agree that your actions are morally superior to my own.)"
But we’re not talking about some major lifestyle change, playing some video games where the lead character is a woman whose personality doesn’t revolve around her being spankbank material isn’t a huge ask.
She didnt even REALLY say "hey play different games" she moreso was just asking to be critically aware of the content of what you're playing which is some incredibly basic shit.
One of her mantras was something like "it's possible to enjoy something while also accepting criticism of it" and I've learned firsthand how impossible that is for some people.
I re-read Lord of the Rings recently. And you know what? It’s definitely got racist elements in it. It sucks. But I can still enjoy the books. It’s just whenever I talk about them now (or even think about them), I do talk about how I like them but the racist parts cannot and should not be ignored.
You might enjoy this: https://existentialcomics.com/comic/175
I agree and I also feel the same way about Dune and it's gender essentialist bullshit and its very on the nose Great Man Theory (granted, it presents the dangers of such a thing but it's not like all the chuds that use the name Mua'dib on the internet noticed).
But a lot of people see even the discussion of problematic elements as some existential threat that they want to
about.
Yeah people react VIOLENTLY to being asked to do that. Im not even really clean on that becuase Ive done it before in my life. But some people literally cant do it at all.
Once, I was told to (CW: suicide, gore)
spoiler
slit my own throat and die
because I said that maybe the artists working on the Mortal Kombat franchise shouldn't be required to view gory snuff films just for "authenticity" purposes to keep their jobs and that those artists weren't "privileged" in some magical way that made them deserve psychological trauma to make the treat more "authentic."
And that user still posts here.
I've seen you mention this frequently but yeah thats fucked up. I like MK for the lore and characters (not so much the gameplay lol) but the gore is way too over the top and noone should have to go through that shit.
I mention it frequently because it was fucked up. I see it as a high water mark of toxic
shit, and I'm still baffled that that user wasn't banned for that and is still around.
I enjoyed it when it was campy/absurd violence instead of "realistic" and I lost all interest when the "authenticity"
became the standard.
Yeah I agree with this. My only caveat is a couple of my favorite characters (Cassie Cage, D'Vorah) come from the era of "authenticity" became the norm. And I did enjoy the story of MKX despite it being one of the "authentic violence" games. Also complete sidenote but the emphasis on guest characters in the current era of MK really puts me off. Not really related but I needed to mention it.
Wasn't Robocop present once?
It's woke communism that is literally destroying bideo bames.
cries in vegan
That's one of the most time-honored sources of moral envy, that's for sure.
I've learned over time that almost nothing gets people on the internet enraged more than just the uncomfortable thought that maybe they're consuming something that might be bad in some way, be it how it's made, how it's distributed, who is hurt in its production, or just the damaging propaganda built into it.
Ok this is slightly embarrassing but the first time I heard of Anita Sarkeesian was from a Hbomberguy video
I first heard about her on ShitRedditSays, before everyone flipped the fuck out.
I thought her videos were kind of boring feminism-101 stuff that should be uncontroversial and nobody could possibly need.
Whoops.
I thought her videos would be super edgy based on how the gamersphere was acting about it. I watched it and it was clear she wasn't super familiar with the games and was only doing a mild critique.
It was deeply disappointing.
Yeah you would think Anita is a hardcore feminist but she holds pretty tame positions. Which makes it baffling that gamers got this assblasted about her.
I mean that's way healthier than me. The first time I heard of her was assholes spamming /v/ with threads about how some youtuber I never heard of was going to DESTROY VIDYA by pointing out that their depictions of women were regressive and immature.
I read that as DESTROY NVIDIA at first
same, I played depression quest and everything and didnt hear about her till years later.
to be clear Anita Sarkeesian doesn't have anything directly to do with Depression Quest. That was a game by Zoe Quinn. Sarkeesian was targeted by a harassment campaign before Gamergate proper.
good to know!
It's okay, it's easy to get misogynistic harassment campaigns mixed up
I heard about her from a Jim Sterling video, and it was and still is probably the best take on the whole situation.
Please do not dead-name.
Calling them Jim Sterling is not dead-naming.
https://twitter.com/JimSterling/status/1355989748846907401
Thanks for the back-up! linking the video again, because I stand by what I said.
This isn’t that weird. If you’re not a gamer - and most people aren’t - the whole gamergate thing is pretty unknown.