Three years ago there was an article about how game developers were receiving death threads over proposed changes in games. ( http://kotaku.com/5904367/another-day-another-death-threat-from-gamers-to-the-people-who-make-video-games )
With that in mind, it probably isn't very shocking to see that same (extremist) "gamers community" also can't tolerate critique, especially when it's a feminist perspective on games. But it should be (shocking, that is).
From: http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/jan/30/gamers-criticism-censorship
Games are part of the cultural landscape now, but somehow investigating and discussing them, especially from a feminist perspective, is actually dangerous. Critique has become warfare, and while it’s a war that no one can win, it’s a war that games as a culture can definitely lose.
“This is the Internet,” says Bogost. “And since the Internet is now where we live and work in large part, this is our lives. It is a horrifying thought.”
Why is that the (extremist) "gamers community" is so different from any other, like film buffs? Who do they resort to threats? Is this what those very games teach?
I do hope not.
On a related note, I do think that the perceived relative anonymity of the internet makes it easier for certain types to behave extreme.
In all, the loud and noisy few make the gaming world look bad. In its widest definition a "gamer" is someone who likes to play video games. By that definition I am a gamer myself, ever since Pong made it into the living room. But I don't feel at all associated with the noisy few!
Frustratingly, this environment disallows discussion about what the Tropes vs Women videos are actually arguing. “There are clearly valid critiques to make of Sarkeesian’s work [...] we tend not to see those,” says Ian Bogost, game designer and academic. “Instead we see way out of line Internet abuse.” Anthropy agrees. “It’s tough, because how do you open a nuanced discussion of someone’s work when another group is loudly shouting for her head?”
It's a mad, mad world!
Other sources of interest relating to women suffering from the (extreme) "gamers community" see:
- http://www.polygon.com/2014/7/22/5926193/women-gaming-harassment
- http://kotaku.com/the-problem-with-the-casual-cruelty-against-women-in-vi-1626659439
- http://kotaku.com/another-woman-in-gaming-flees-home-following-death-thre-1645280338
- http://leighalexander.net/but-what-can-be-done-dos-and-donts-to-combat-online-sexism/
