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UO Writer:"Women dont call themselves "gamer" because its sexist, Women constantly stalked by men epidemic, Women should lead gaming communities."

Constantly entering my dreams, gaming is a large part of what makes me happy and is a significant of who I am as a person. But I do not identify as a “gamer”.

For many, the term immediately serves as a reminder of Gamergate, the 2014 raid encouraging violence and harassment toward women for criticising the gaming industry. It was a momentous occasion for gaming, and not in a good way. Suddenly, gaming communities were featured in mainstream news articles scrutinizing gaming culture. The already commonly-held-belief that video games can cause aggression gained momentum, as gamers made headlines for their death threats toward women.

I learned to be silent in the first online gaming community I ever experienced, which happened to be from Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. I had played the game a lot with my siblings, and I would watch my brothers play online and talk to strangers. When I eventually became pretty good at the game, I decided to give this a try. I was only 11 years old, but I immediately adopted a behaviour that I still stand by to this day: never leave your mic on.

JUST AS I LEARNED TO BE ASHAMED OF MY GENDER AS A CHILD, BOYS LEARNED THAT THEY COULD DO AS THEY PLEASED.​
I’m 23 now. I exclusively use the name “Ash” as a gender-neutral shortening of my full name. Gaming has been a large part of that decision. Yet even with this protection in place, I will sometimes be harassed by men who ask if I am a woman. I think that the mere fact of the name being neutral can give it away; some men seem to be constantly searching for the women who hide in their gaming circles.

When this is the community it stems from, it is no wonder that women avoid the label “gamer”. But even worse than the word “gamer” is the phrase “gamer girl”.

The second entry for the term on Urban Dictionary describes it as “the chick that goes on voice chat . . . to act all ditzy and flirty”. I have never encountered a woman who does this, and I find it hard to imagine that the abuse one would receive for being a woman — and worse, a dumb woman — is something anyone would actively seek out.

Interestingly, the entry goes on to say that the alternative to the gamer girl is the girl that plays games, who “will sometimes hide her gender and play as a male in games . . . that require an avatar.” Even though the entry acknowledges that women often camouflage themselves while gaming, it does not indicate that this is for any particular reason.

It couldn’t possibly be because when a woman tries to use voice chat and rebuffs a man’s advances, he turns around and claims she was flirting with him and acting stupid. It certainly isn’t because of men like the one who had written that entry in Urban Dictionary.

The gamer girl myth is prevalent in most gaming communities, despite there being very little evidence that anyone acts this way. Search for the term, though, and you’ll find forums and animated videos in which men mock this kind of person relentlessly. Meanwhile, there is very little acknowledgement of the harassment that is so plentiful, that you can hear a personal anecdote of it from any woman who games.

There is no perfect solution to fix the gaming community, but the last thing we need is for women to go even further off the radar. Zoe Quinn, the initial target of Gamergate, still receives threats to this day. To her critics who tell her to simply go offline to avoid threats, she says, “[we can’t] cede the internet to whoever screams the loudest at the most people, and just hand over this amazing technological achievement to the nastiest people.”

Imagine if gaming communities were spearheaded by women, and harassment was kept under check. It’s a world that feels so far away from ours that I don’t even dream about it. But I want it so much more than whatever game I’m going to play when I get home tonight.

There a lot wrong here, this reads like someone who's paranoid that everyone's always after them, AND it's clear that it's putting all blame on one group and acting like their group has never done anything wrong, so by default this makes it hard to approach this person in reality for a rational discussion.

Says Women leading gaming communities would suddenly act like a magic wand when we have seen women who would not do it justice. Not to mention some communities run by men have done all they can to bend over so are you saying those don't count and ALL men are inheritly sexist? Only Women can not be sexist?

She seems to think that most women are hiding even though stats, for consoles at least, show a different result with women openly choosong their gender, girl names, and cam streams for YouTube or twitch where you can clearly see them, but this person acts like it's an epidemic. Like there are assassins sent out by Mencorp to kill them.

Not to mention gamer was already an underused tag for women BEFORE gamers gate, in fact Is argue more bio women gamers call themselves gamers POST GG then before. Because most people will do the opposite of what they are being told not to do. Also she speaks for all women, apparently.

Anyway there's other issues but I wanted to see what the community's position on this was, as this will be a controversial enough thread as is. What's your position? Do you agree or disagree with the writer, Ms. Ashley Gomez?

https://universityobserver.ie/gamer...ough-a-lifetime-of-harassment-in-video-games/
 

Fuz

Banned
"“[we can’t] cede the internet to whoever screams the loudest at the most people, and just hand over this amazing technological achievement to the nastiest people.” "

...is she talking about SJWs?
 

Dunki

Member
I wonder what which Era Account is this one.


In the end this is just ridiculous. I have nothing else to say really. Except: That there was a big study during gamergate that has shown that women harass actually more than men do. But I need to find it again...
 
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Quezacolt

Member
...is she talking about SJWs?
Sounds like it, even if it her intention. Handling gaming to these crazy people would be one of the worst thing to happen to gaming. They don't really care about the medium, they just want to change it to fit the ideology.
 

angelic

Banned
Why does gaming attract such egotistical victim bloggers? Do people go on motor mechanic forums and pour their bleeding hearts out about their childhood? Or post tales of how ashamed they were when their first period arrived on car insurance comparison sites.

There should be a test. Have you finished Halo 1 on legendary? If not, then fuck off, I don't want to hear your mewlings. Stop using people's hobby as your platform.
 
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I don’t call myself a gamer either.

I can understand if you as a woman feel like the harassment you get online is because you are a woman. Honestly you need to stop being so self centered with how you look at the problem. I'm not trying to be mean saying it like that, I just don't know how else to.

The same people harassing you for being a woman would be harassing you if you were a man. They don't like you, what you post, what you think versus what they think. They single you out first because they don't like what you are saying, then they harass you for your gender, race, avatar, post count... whatever they can.

They aren't agreeing with you and what you think, then finding out your gender... then disagreeing with you. It's not how bullies operate.

It's not a "gaming" thing. It's that way with most fanbases.

Honestly platform holders (PSN, XBL, Twitter) just haven't done a good job enforcing a universal no harassment setting. But most give you the tools to ignore those individuals.

But if you are playing Siege for example and you don't clutch the 1v4 in casual in a lobby of randoms, you are gonna get harassed. If they know you are a woman, they will say sexist shit. But you will receive some kind of hate. And neither Sony nor Ubisoft is doing much about this.
 

Mr Hyde

Member
I don´t identify myself as a gamer either, no more than I identify myself as a "reader" or a "Movie watcher". My hobbies shouldn´t be the ones to define who I am as a person. It´s a bullshit term, simple as that.
 

Quezacolt

Member
I don’t call myself a gamer either.

I can understand if you as a woman feel like the harassment you get online is because you are a woman. Honestly you need to stop being so self centered with how you look at the problem. I'm not trying to be mean saying it like that, I just don't know how else to.

The same people harassing you for being a woman would be harassing you if you were a man. They don't like you, what you post, what you think versus what they think. They single you out first because they don't like what you are saying, then they harass you for your gender, race, avatar, post count... whatever they can.

They aren't agreeing with you and what you think, then finding out your gender... then disagreeing with you. It's not how bullies operate.

It's not a "gaming" thing. It's that way with most fanbases.

Honestly platform holders (PSN, XBL, Twitter) just haven't done a good job enforcing a universal no harassment setting. But most give you the tools to ignore those individuals.

But if you are playing Siege for example and you don't clutch the 1v4 in casual in a lobby of randoms, you are gonna get harassed. If they know you are a woman, they will say sexist shit. But you will receive some kind of hate. And neither Sony nor Ubisoft is doing much about this.
The thing about this is, why should the companies have to enforce anything, besides ban in extreme cases, when people have the tools to defend themselves? Someone is being an a-hole to you on voice? mute them, is everyone else doing it too? mute them all, or ignore chat. People acting like that doesnt happen only in videogames, the same happens in real life when you play sports with randoms. Asking companies to enforce any kind of harassment setting will just push them to go overboard.
 

Bryank75

Banned
I dunno, I have a good few female friends on PSN and I never heard them complain about negative attention.... but what I do hear is how guys help them complete raids in destiny or get exotics through quests. Lots of nice stories about guys going out of their way to make girls feel accepted and valued.
 

angelic

Banned
Most things said to people online are targetting buttons to push, not because the person believes them. Boys like baiting girls online, whats the easist reaction to get? Insult them. Obviously its wrong...but there is so much over analysis of the meaning. People call me a dick in Rocket League because they want to put me off, so I lose. Boys in playgrounds push girls because they like them, and the boys aren't clever enough to process it. So they act stupid.

The PC crew can try to eradicate human behaviour all they like, but dumb boys will always act like dicks to girls. Decent boys will be nice to them.
 

Quezacolt

Member
I dunno, I have a good few female friends on PSN and I never heard them complain about negative attention.... but what I do hear is how guys help them complete raids in destiny or get exotics through quests. Lots of nice stories about guys going out of their way to make girls feel accepted and valued.
Same. I met girls in mmo's, and there's rarely any complaint. Most of the times they complain about someone, that someone is a jerk to most people in the game, not only women. I met my ex in an mmo too, like i also have many friends that are dating someone they met while gaming. If we let these people that think anyone that is a jerk to them online does so because they are girls control the medium, they will just spread this fear that guys online are just some uncontrollable pervs that will target them as soon as they find out they are women.
 
My youngest daughter is 10 and plays online games all the time (maybe too much). Overwatch, Apex Legends, and Fortnite are her go to games. Being only 10, she's not allowed to use the mic when playing with people she doesn't know in real life. Not once has my daughter come to me and complained that she's ashamed of being a girl gamer. Quite the opposite. I have to hide my new games because I know she'll sneak them off before I get a chance to play them (I recently got Soulcalibur 6 and the first thing she said was "dibs").

The author of this piece doesn't come across as a victim. She comes across as someone weaker and more immature than a 10 year old little girl. The first thing she needs to learn is that her unhappiness is her problem, not the world's.

Why does gaming attract such egotistical victim bloggers?
You write something moronic and outrageous and you can be sure Kotaku or Polygon will be there to hand you a megaphone. Honestly, you take down those two megaphones and gaming would improve tenfold immediately.
 

Teslerum

Member
I wonder what which Era Account is this one.


In the end this is just ridiculous. I have nothing else to say really. Except: That there was a big study during gamergate that has shown that women harass actually more than men do. But I need to find it again...

They do.

Thats also not a new discovery or even something you need a study for. It's visible in most workplaces and in society. Women are usually more prone to low key but constant bullying. Men are usually more prone to violence or namecalling/swearing but make up easier and prioritize work.

Neither is perfect and neither (all male or all female) leads to a Utopia despite what Era might think. Thats why we need to work together and avoid playing victim olympics.
 
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Saruhashi

Banned
There a lot wrong here, this reads like someone who's paranoid that everyone's always after them, AND it's clear that it's putting all blame on one group and acting like their group has never done anything wrong, so by default this makes it hard to approach this person in reality for a rational discussion.

Says Women leading gaming communities would suddenly act like a magic wand when we have seen women who would not do it justice. Not to mention some communities run by men have done all they can to bend over so are you saying those don't count and ALL men are inheritly sexist? Only Women can not be sexist?

She seems to think that most women are hiding even though stats, for consoles at least, show a different result with women openly choosong their gender, girl names, and cam streams for YouTube or twitch where you can clearly see them, but this person acts like it's an epidemic. Like there are assassins sent out by Mencorp to kill them.

Not to mention gamer was already an underused tag for women BEFORE gamers gate, in fact Is argue more bio women gamers call themselves gamers POST GG then before. Because most people will do the opposite of what they are being told not to do. Also she speaks for all women, apparently.

Anyway there's other issues but I wanted to see what the community's position on this was, as this will be a controversial enough thread as is. What's your position? Do you agree or disagree with the writer, Ms. Ashley Gomez?

https://universityobserver.ie/gamer...ough-a-lifetime-of-harassment-in-video-games/

I mean if it REALLY would be a magic wand for all the ills in the industry then by all means let women run the whole thing.
It seems doubtful that reality would support that course of action.

However, she is referencing Anita Sarkeesian and Zoe Quinn in a videogame article in 2019.
There are MANY seriously talented and capable women in the industry and it's surrounding communities but AS and ZQ are not part of that.
ZQ created a single obscure indie game and that's all. She seems to have moved on to writing books and comics now.
AS isn't even part of the industry at all and was always just an academic Feminist who put games under that lens. Spoiler: All her biases were confirmed.

It's like she wants to have women in more prominent roles but she can't even name drop a single prominent or successful or even just promising woman out of those in the industry TODAY. There are loads of women who are way more relevant and worthy of a mention.

When I read articles like this I end up questioning how well the writer actually even understands the subject matter.

For example, with men and women who play games, this 50% and 48% figure. OK. Got it.
Buuuut the specific complaints are around games that have voice chat or have some kind of text communication.
This narrows the field significantly.
How many of those 48% of women are playing a game where the kind of shit this lady experienced can even happen?
Then, isn't it more of a problem with those games specifically.
So why is it "gaming" that has an issue when the issue can only be encountered under specific circumstances?

Same with the points about "communities".
Within this 50% to 40% split what % of either gender are participating in gaming communities at all?
Again, which types of communities have these specific issues.

It's more of a pep talk than something with any real substance because I suspect the writer does not understand what the fuck they are on about.

Really, what is "The Gaming Community"? It's not just "Call of Duty voicechat" but it's not just Twitter either. There are different communities within the larger field of videogames. It's just as dumb as thinking Videogames = Grand Theft Auto and that's it. GTA has violence and sex therefore videogames are condemned to bear that label.

It's shite. Someone who plays only single player games could consider themselves a gamer and also can be a million miles away from these controversies.

The word "gamer" has a bad reputation because people smear a word that represents something almost infinitely broad in such a way that it now refers to an extremely narrow set of circumstances. Evil Gamers never did that. People like this clown did.

Gamergate. It is estimated that Sony sold 91.6 million PS4 consoles. How many of those PS4 owners have even heard of Gamergate, nevermind actually understanding what it is/was? Yet, here we are. Gamer = Gamergate.

Again, does the writer even understand the subject matter or did she plan to reach a certain conclusion and tailored a version of reality to suit?

I'm not dismissing harassment and abuse etc but at least let's try to hammer out exactly what we are discussing.
How many games even have voice chat? Are we including mobile games and the like?

It seems to me that the level of abuse being described here can only happen under a very specific set of circumstances in a particular subset of games.
So why does the term "Gamer" need to be thrown under the bus?

My opinion of the article itself is that the writer doesn't understand the depth of the industry and it's communities.
Rather it seems like she set out with a goal, to whine about the "community" and suggest that men are the problem and women the solution.
The actual problem seems to be mostly concerning voice and text chat though.
I don't know how ZQ and AS play into all of that since they could hardly be described as relevant figures in gaming but, of course, people who know more about Feminism that they do about videogames might feel compelled to namedrop those 2 in particular.
Seems like the writer has an axe to grind.
 
I still don't get what's so fucking wrong with calling yourself a "gamer". I am also an audiophile and cineaste (or movie buff as you americans call it). Oh, I'm also a bookworm.

Why does gaming attract such egotistical victim bloggers?
Because it's pretty much the only place in media they've successfully invaded. They know they can't do much against Music, Film and TV... but gaming is still relatively new and they do have lots of "allies" in Silicon Valley to signal boost their voices.
 
Why does gaming attract such egotistical victim bloggers? Do people go on motor mechanic forums and pour their bleeding hearts out about their childhood? Or post tales of how ashamed they were when their first period arrived on car insurance comparison sites.

There should be a test. Have you finished Halo 1 on legendary? If not, then fuck off, I don't want to hear your mewlings. Stop using people's hobby as your platform.
It isn't video games. It's media as a whole.

Most of the bloggers from the well known, popular news sites tend to live in the same small area. Due to their (generally) middle class upbringing and hanging around people with extremely similar lifestyles, they tend to have the exact same mentality - a sense of victimhood without actual victimhood. They congregate around each other, and feed off each other bullshit.

The internet only amplifies this problem more, due to the fact that they can isolate themselves solely to those that share the same views as their selves, and ostracise those who don't.

This is occurring in all forms of entertainment and media. It's not just video games.
 
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Kamina

Golden Boy
I got cancer from reading this.

I don´t identify myself as a gamer either, no more than I identify myself as a "reader" or a "Movie watcher". My hobbies shouldn´t be the ones to define who I am as a person. It´s a bullshit term, simple as that.
Agreed mostly. But if I lift, I‘m a lifter.
 

angelic

Banned
A liberal media does help propagate these brave career victims. I do hope people see through them quickly, It also makes me laugh, do these women not realise how men speak to each other? I don't know any women who greet each other with an insult...but men..it's almost a prerequisite..."hey cocksucker, how you doing?". "Aye, spot on ya c**t",
 
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Fbh

Member
The problem isn't sexism or gaming as much as it's assholes (often teens) empowered by the anonymity and safety from online interactions.
I'm male and in the days before party chat became the norm I left lobbies and matches more than once because someone (or more) took issue with my accent or because I dared to quickly say something to my friend in Spanish. Lots of "go back to your fucking country" (from which I was playing btw) and stuff about drugs and mexico and shit (even though I'm not Mexican).
I also stopped playing LOL once a few other friends did because every other game with randoms devolved into insults and name calling.

Assholes will be assholes, they'll go after you for being from another country, or being bad at the game, or being female and if video chat was a thing in games they'd most definitely go after your for any number of physical features. You can do as the rest of us and just stick to party chat and playing with friends or you can make it all about yourself and make up this scenario where only you and people sharing a specific trait get to encounter these people.
I think morally Sony/MS/etc could probably do a better job regulating this stuff, but economically I'm not sure it would make sense.


Incidentally in the real world (and this is obviously just based on personal experience) I've never seen this being an issue. I have a bunch of female friends that play videogames and while they have encountered assholes online, in the real world no one gives them shit for playing games, no one has issues playing with them and everyone is happy if they want to join an online party to play something (where they are treated as anyone else in party)
 
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Northeastmonk

Gold Member
Its hard to always understand why there's such a struggle because I've grown up with girls who bad mouth games for being the childish hobby that you only do when you're young. Its something they buy their kids, but never play themselves. The girls I do know who game don't like multiplayer at all. Hence the issue never comes up when we talk about games.

These pieces are great eye openers if you're actually part of the problem.
 

Quezacolt

Member
A liberal media does help propagate these brave career victims. I do hope people see through them quickly, It also makes me laugh, do these women not realise how men speak to each other? I don't know any women who greet each other with an insult...but men..it's almost a prerequisite..."hey cocksucker, how you doing?". "Aye, spot on ya c**t",
Yeah, a friend of mine once asked me why her bf and i always insult each other, while i talk normally with her, and i had to tell her that's just how most guys are, we insult each other, but in a playful manner, but i guess some people can't see that.
 

Ten_Fold

Member
It isn't video games. It's media as a whole.

Most of the bloggers from the well known, popular news sites tend to live in the same city. Due to their (generally) middle class upbringing, they all tend to have the exact same mentality - a sense of victimhood without actual victimhood. They congregate around each other, and feed off each other bullshit.

The internet only helps to amplify this, due to the fact that they can isolate themselves solely to those that share the same views as them, and ostracise those who don't.

This is occuring in all forms of entertainment. It's not just games.
I 100 percent agree I was trying to find what to say lol.
 

angelic

Banned
The problem isn't sexism or gaming as much as it's assholes (often teens) empowered by the anonymity and safety from online interactions.
I'm male and in the days before party chat became the norm I left lobbies and matches more than once because someone (or more) took issue with my accent or because I dared to quickly say something to my friend in Spanish. Lots of "go back to your fucking country" (from which I was playing btw) and stuff about drugs and mexico and shit (even though I'm not Mexican).
I also stopped playing LOL once a few other friends did because every other game with randoms devolved into insults and name calling.

Assholes will be assholes, they'll go after you for being from another country, or being bad at the game, or being female and it video chat was a thing it game they'd most definitely go after your for any number of physical features. I think morally Sony/MS/etc could probably do a better job regulating this stuff, but economically I'm not sure it would make sense.


Incidentally in the real world (and this is obviously just based on personal experience) I've never seen this being an issue. I have a bunch of female friends that play videogames and while they have encountered assholes online, in the real world no one gives them shit for playing games, no one has issues playing with them and everyone is happy if they want to join an online party to play something

Precisely. And what's the fastest route to insult someone? Racism, or sexism. Yes saying the things is wrong, but the reason is to be a dick. No one's propagating old fashioned racism or sexism...society isnt like that. They just want to annoy people, and so called smart "analysts" try to make out society is massively prejudiced. No it's not....it's just full of idiots.
 
Its hard to always understand why there's such a struggle because I've grown up with girls who bad mouth games for being the childish hobby that you only do when you're young. Its something they buy their kids, but never play themselves. The girls I do know who game don't like multiplayer at all. Hence the issue never comes up when we talk about games.
Wait, growing up, I remember all those girls dismissing video games as a childish hobby too. Maybe articles like this just prove that they were only saying that because they were secretly jealous! Just think, all those girls who used to roll their eyes around gamers were secretly thinking, "Lucky bastard".... This changes everything.

These pieces are great eye openers if you're actually part of the problem.
The people who write these pieces are part of the problem. They want everybody else to change what they are doing to suit their insecurities, while being completely unwilling to compromise or meet halfway. For example:

Zoe Quinn, the initial target of Gamergate, still receives threats to this day. To her critics who tell her to simply go offline to avoid threats, she says, “[we can’t] cede the internet to whoever screams the loudest at the most people, and just hand over this amazing technological achievement to the nastiest people.”
Why should Zoe Quinn change what she is doing which will absolutely have the immediate and permanent effect of reducing harassment against her? That would be LOSING. No, it is much more reasonable for us to demand EVERYBODY ELSE IN THE ENTIRE WORLD change.
 

BTHR Zero X

Member
Yeah, a friend of mine once asked me why her bf and i always insult each other, while i talk normally with her, and i had to tell her that's just how most guys are, we insult each other, but in a playful manner, but i guess some people can't see that.
I have just had to explain this to my GF since in the UK we are very verbal to one another, and being from the US she did not quite understand why we were so harsh to one another.


its just a difference of how we grew up. Where insults are like water off a ducks back.
 
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I have just had to explain this to my GF since in the UK we are very verbal to one another, and being from the US she did not quite understand why we were so harsh to one another.

its just a difference of how we grew up. Where insults are like water of a ducks back.
Similar attitude here in Ireland as well. We often joke to foreigners that the more you insult someone, the more you love them. But it's also partially true. We're not being serious 99% of the time, and we're just making each other laugh.

Sensitivity has always baffled me.
 

#Phonepunk#

Banned
Constantly entering my dreams, gaming is a large part of what makes me happy and is a significant of who I am as a person. But I do not identify as a “gamer”.
Imagine if gaming communities were spearheaded by women

edit: i've re-read this. i can agree with it to a point. if women want to take more charge in the gaming community then they should do that. the idea of saying "gaming is toxic MRA world" and just leaving it at that is cowardly. BE the change you want to see.

it is really sad to see how the left has just abdicated all responsibility in this area in the name of easy clicks. gamers do not need to be toxic. gamers in reality are not! more people play games than ever so this is less true than ever.

i grew up in the 80s, my first gamer friends were all girls, and they were not looked on as freaks. people like videogames, boys and girls. it's a fact. stop trying to make it this toxic thing that isn't reflected in reality. complaining about Urban Dictionary? give me a fucking break.

we need to make room for positive depictions of gamers. merely complaining over and over about the abstract idea of "gamers" when you are doing nothing to encourage positive movement in that is toxic in itself.
 
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Shifty

Member
T223cmA.jpg


> Conflating the gender-neutral term 'gamer' with some amorphous current-year 'men bad' narrative
> Quoting a random asshole's Urban Dictionary entry as some sort of empirical truth
> Acting as if open-mic chat with randoms isn't abusive and awful for anyone who isn't a belligerent asshole, regardless of what they have between their legs
> Clearly missing the boat on assassination of the gamer identity. Did this article fall through a time portal from 2014?

Id-pol drivel of the highest order.
 

BTHR Zero X

Member
Similar attitude here in Ireland as well. We often joke to foreigners that the more you insult someone, the more you love them. But it's also partially true. We're not being serious 99% of the time, and we're just making each other laugh.

Sensitivity has always baffled me.


Yeah like when my EX did something silly I would jokingly call her a daft cow, and she would retort back calling me a stupid prick xD.

Its just playful and its how we are here in the UK and well Ireland it seems too :3
 

angelic

Banned
I have just had to explain this to my GF since in the UK we are very verbal to one another, and being from the US she did not quite understand why we were so harsh to one another.


its just a difference of how we grew up. Where insults are like water off a ducks back.

Forget you, you muddy funster.
 

mcjmetroid

Member
Similar attitude here in Ireland as well. We often joke to foreigners that the more you insult someone, the more you love them. But it's also partially true. We're not being serious 99% of the time, and we're just making each other laugh.

Sensitivity has always baffled me.
This is very true. You would seriously want to be able to take a slagging if you're serious about making friends in Ireland.
 

wzy

Member
She's a victim of the gamer branding, and being too stupid to see it for what it is. There are lots of others. Like the guy who suggested that beating Halo be the litmus test, for example. None of the cultural gatekeepers involved in GG et al. would welcome anything between 9/11 and Barack Obama to the big secret list of cred games, and certainly not anything that appeared on the cursed original X-Box. That's like saying Fallout 3 achievements and a limited edition 12-pack of Game Fuel are the hallmarks of a true gamer. You got tricked! The whole point is that there's no substitute for a shared history, which the majority of people who today identify as "gamers"--girls or otherwise--simply did not participate in. The point of the branding is to let you feel like you did. It's like someone under 50 being a huge Beatles fan. Yeah, okay, if you say so.

All the cheap swag they sell with retrograde pigslop is designed to let you buy into the identity itself. So you get the canvas bag or the figurine or the t-shirt or whatever and now you're in-group. Only there actually is a group who participated directly and in-person with the medium during the period that's now being cored out and re-mastered to sell back to morons, and they hate all of this garbage. Imagine your worst enemy being able to buy your nostalgia. It's fucking crazy! No wonder people are furious.

She doesn't want the "gamer" label now, of course, but she wouldn't be writing if there was no original crisis of authenticity. She did what all women of a certain age are trained to do (wrongly! I agree) which is sniff out little deposits of social capital and either acquire it for herself or nuke the site from orbit so no one else can get in there. This is pure sour grapes and nothing else. She should be mad at the people who sold her a terrible dream. Anyone who buys their way into a culture is bound to get ripped off.
 

StormCell

Member
The author is a bit sensational. I don't disagree that girls get bullied in the gaming communities, but then so does just about everyone. At this point, I'd probably be eating a ban on a certain other forum for saying the truth, but the truth is that society is generally pretty nasty. If you think we need regulations to fix that, well you're wrong. I don't want to live in that kind of society. Go look at the forum that perfectly exemplifies what the author's world would look like. We don't need helicopter public servants policing at every turn. What we need is to be mature and self-confident enough to stand up to people and not let their crap slide.

Everyone should at least try to be excellent to one another. That a few people out there ruin it for others is a moral failing of the whole.
 
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"Women should lead gaming communities."

Leadership is typically the result of merit and performance.
By all means, create and lead your own gaming communities. There is literally nothing stopping you.
 

angelic

Banned
She's a victim of the gamer branding, and being too stupid to see it for what it is. There are lots of others. Like the guy who suggested that beating Halo be the litmus test, for example. None of the cultural gatekeepers involved in GG et al. would welcome anything between 9/11 and Barack Obama to the big secret list of cred games, and certainly not anything that appeared on the cursed original X-Box. That's like saying Fallout 3 achievements and a limited edition 12-pack of Game Fuel are the hallmarks of a true gamer. You got tricked! The whole point is that there's no substitute for a shared history, which the majority of people who today identify as "gamers"--girls or otherwise--simply did not participate in. The point of the branding is to let you feel like you did. It's like someone under 50 being a huge Beatles fan. Yeah, okay, if you say so.

All the cheap swag they sell with retrograde pigslop is designed to let you buy into the identity itself. So you get the canvas bag or the figurine or the t-shirt or whatever and now you're in-group. Only there actually is a group who participated directly and in-person with the medium during the period that's now being cored out and re-mastered to sell back to morons, and they hate all of this garbage. Imagine your worst enemy being able to buy your nostalgia. It's fucking crazy! No wonder people are furious.

She doesn't want the "gamer" label now, of course, but she wouldn't be writing if there was no original crisis of authenticity. She did what all women of a certain age are trained to do (wrongly! I agree) which is sniff out little deposits of social capital and either acquire it for herself or nuke the site from orbit so no one else can get in there. This is pure sour grapes and nothing else. She should be mad at the people who sold her a terrible dream. Anyone who buys their way into a culture is bound to get ripped off.

Genuinely unsure if I've been insulted or praised.
 
Using an Urban Dictionary entry as a definition to validate an academic argument for the positive.

Like I don't even... The irony.
 
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Norse

Member
"learned to be ashamed of my gender"
Wtf? Sounds like you had a shitty set of parents. Or at least was never taught to believed in yourself. The issue isn't gaming at all, it's the lack of confidence in yourself. Lots of self pitty talk inside that head of yours isn't doing you any good.
 

PocoJoe

Banned
15 y old kid calls me a faggot = I laugh
Same kid calls woman a bitch = cry all around

People should not be so damn sensitive, why care about some random bastard? It just gives what they want, a reaction
 

TGO

Hype Train conductor. Works harder than it steams.
I mained a female character in GTAV online, mainly because I wanted to switch things up.
What I learned from have the two characters is people aren't as aggressive towards you when you are female.
In fact I can do missions without being attacked to offen
I get the usual players coming up to me waving and some even come my aid.
Yeah I get the few "are you really a girl messages" and some players waiting to show me their car collection and stuff they own.
Now login to my male character and I get bombarded with everything from War Stock.
 
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