Like, I literally cannot fathom what is going on in the forums right now. Have I been gone that long? Clearly, but this is sort of the type of thing that's very insular to the specific topic. I mean, on one hand you have Patrick's op ed. about booth babes and how in the long run it makes everyone look bad. And on another, you've got the community's reaction to Anita Sarkeesian's kickstarter project. And to say that the community is negative would be the understatement of the ages, only comparable to say that water is wet.

Let's get this straight, and this is very important to Patrick's main point, the whole booth babes thing makes everyone look bad. In fact, to be very specific, the current use of models in these conventions makes everyone look bad (A point that reached the epoch in mention of the DMC pole dancers). Yes yes, I know, auto shows do it too. But let's get this straight, I can't find anybody who thinks about model use in an auto show and doesn't think it's silly. And auto shows are pretty much for the guys (Again, don't exactly have much data to show otherwise), but games are not. Again, games are not just for the boys, and games stand up on their own merit to the attraction and likelihood of people going to see them, and you certainly don't need scantily clad and attractive women to bring people to see the games, people are kind of already going to go see it anyways. What is the point of the booth babe? And know what, since the medium isn't as guy focused as we pretend it is, why not have male models too? If anything, it just shows that the industry is still stuck in the past, and are reinforcing a negative stereotype of gamers. Do we want this? No. Should we get rid of cosplayers? Never. Should the industry apply the slightest form of tact and maturity towards the real demographics of the audience they are going to sell the products to? Do I have to answer that last question? Exactly.

I think it's important to note this, gamers are really really bad at introspection. If there's one thing to take away from the kickstarter thread, it's not that a lot of duders are sexist, but rather it's that they don't dare allow any criticism of games at any point and anyone who dares to make a critique is essentially a bad person and deserves what they get coming to them. There is no other reason for the reaction against Anita, and the reaction pardoning the people who harassed her. "Well it's the internet" is no justification and will never be a justification for all the threats she received. And no, the amount of money she got by the end for the project especially does not justify it, and you using that as an example just makes you look too lazy and stupid to think of a real reason to be angry.

What is going on? Are the people who play video games truly this disrespectful as a whole? Certainly not, but it's quite scary how most of the reactions to Patrick's article and Anita's kickstarter are entirely negative, and attack the person writing it, while entirely making everyone look bad. If people who think the news medias of the world are making video gamers look bad, they certainly need a good hard look at themselves. Because anytime any criticism comes up of gamer attitudes in online play, or lazy design choices in games, or just how male oriented the attitudes of the industry and community come off, the first thing that we see is a collective "HOW DARE YOU" from a large portion of gamers. This has to end, not because of any moral reason, but because it makes us all look bad and stupid. It's bad enough that people were bitching about Aisha Tyler. Yes, Aisha Fucking Tyler.