@phlis said:
@nethlem:
No I completely agree :) Hence thanking the community for making everything so underwhelming. My point being that although people push the idea that it's difficult, it really isn't. Like one person said further up they've felt let down when someone has lied about their gender but understand that they've done it because they felt that they had to. That's not necessarily the fault of the community. Someone has presumed that they will received a negative reaction and thus chosen to hide who they are. But, one does have to question where it presumption comes from. I definitely think that it's media and propaganda fuelled a LOT of the time. Which means that someone somewhere needs to put out the fire so that we can get to a point where we can all just get on with it. If that makes sense.
In my mind it seems more sensible to get frustrated at the media for pushing a particular image/reaction/influence then the people who fall for it. It becomes much easier then to say "Ok, so you thought that this was going to be a standoffish environment because that's what you've been fed BUT come and take a look. It's not like that."
A lot of it is definitely BS but someone's responsible for spreading it. And I'm standing, waiting with my shovel :)
When I was little, Samus Aran turned out to be a girl, and I thought "Huh, that's different. Cool." And the Princess was the only character who could float in Super Mario Bros. 2, so I gladly played as her. And the badass protagonist of Alien and Aliens turned out to be the woman, and I literally thought nothing of it. Gender was absolutely no concern of mine with any of that "geek culture" back in the day.
But now, the internet has ruined all of that. Now the press has to find fault with white male protagonists, and people complain that female characters are only part of a game because of "social justice warriors," or people complain that a gay or black character is part of the "SJW agenda," and the press has to put a spotlight on these people who think that way, and the press has to attack and ridicule those people until they're even angrier, and the press has to conflate the worst of those people with anyone who disagrees with their opinions--outraging once moderate voices as a result, and the press has to talk about how ashamed they are to be gamers, and it all builds up into real hate, and anger, and resentment on all sides. Lines in the sand are drawn. "You're either with us, or against us," statements are made. All because of the internet.
On the other hand, the internet has also enabled me to play video games with a childhood friend of mine and his wife, who now both live in another state. I was once amazed to watch 30 minutes of video game related television a week, and now I can watch any game I can think of being played in its entirety, with or without commentary. And Mad Maze was pretty fun. So yeah, I guess I'll have to take the good with the bad.
@selfconfessedcynic: Also, the jerks are a crucial part of the world. No one would ever feel the need to be nice/change things for the better if there wasn't some horrid people/things going on.
That's actually a nice way of thinking about all of this. Sort of a "if it wasn't for the rain, you wouldn't appreciate the sunshine" kind of optimism.
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