A popular video game randomizes race and gender and many white men are furious(vox.com)
vox.com
A popular video game randomizes race and gender and many white men are furious
http://www.vox.com/2016/4/17/11442730/rust-experimental-race-gender-random
1 comments
What's the side of Gamergate where women didn't get harassed just for sharing their ideas?
This article isn't calling out any games for forcing the player to play a white male. The article is pointing out the outrage over one game that forces players to (sometimes) play non-white and/or female characters.
This article isn't calling out any games for forcing the player to play a white male. The article is pointing out the outrage over one game that forces players to (sometimes) play non-white and/or female characters.
There wasn't a side in gamergate that didn't get harassed. Men and women, arguing for, against, or for neither side, got harassed and received death threat and had family members being targeted. The best anyone could argue in the end was that their side had received more harassment and did less harassment themselves.
Any honest discussion was quickly drown, and
Any honest discussion was quickly drown, and
The other side of gamergate are documented to have pulled similar if not worse stunts, but this goes unmentioned. There are no winners in GG, and few of those involved can claim to wear a halo. When a journalist fails to mention important facts like this the article loses any value it may have had.
>This article isn't calling out any games for forcing the player to play a white male.
I think the 2nd para I quoted does exactly that. Additionally, a journalist without an obvious agenda would provide a balanced discussion and bring up, Idk, things like the fact that Rust players are talking over mic a lot, so when you are playing as a woman but your voice is of a gruff man, you sound a little silly and look like you are trying to fake your identity. I can see why players are uncomfortable about it, it reminds me of the trope "every young girl on the Internet is a middle aged man". You friend a woman in-game, only to find out later that that the woman is a 40 year old male divorcee. It doesn't sit right in so many ways.
As the article states too, this was implemented as a patch to the game, so people who paid money, their own money for the game, are now forced to put up with it or abandon their purchase, which seems to me at least to be unethical and not a little bit sneeky.
>This article isn't calling out any games for forcing the player to play a white male.
I think the 2nd para I quoted does exactly that. Additionally, a journalist without an obvious agenda would provide a balanced discussion and bring up, Idk, things like the fact that Rust players are talking over mic a lot, so when you are playing as a woman but your voice is of a gruff man, you sound a little silly and look like you are trying to fake your identity. I can see why players are uncomfortable about it, it reminds me of the trope "every young girl on the Internet is a middle aged man". You friend a woman in-game, only to find out later that that the woman is a 40 year old male divorcee. It doesn't sit right in so many ways.
As the article states too, this was implemented as a patch to the game, so people who paid money, their own money for the game, are now forced to put up with it or abandon their purchase, which seems to me at least to be unethical and not a little bit sneeky.
The second paragraph you quoted doesn't judge the games for their characters. It's just showing a quick example of characters that have a pre-set race/gender and pointing out the lack of outrage from women and racial minorities over having to play that.
> Or worse, such complaints would fall on actively aggressive ears. Consider Gamergate: The movement began in part as a response to journalists trying to encourage more diversity in the gaming industry — not just by opening the door to more women and minority developers, but also making sure that games reflected the potentially diverse audience playing them. This was widely perceived as such a vitriolic concept to a large group of gamers that they rose up and harassed the journalists and activists pushing for this increase in diversity, which Gamergaters said was an attempt at ruining games with political correctness (which doesn't exist).
This isn't discussion, it is exactly what gamers are at places like /r/kotakuinaction are complaining about, the rewriting or at least bias editing of history, providing only one side of the story.
Edit:
>The issue is that many of the same people complaining now would probably be rolling their eyes if a Hispanic man or black woman asked why they aren't well represented in Halo, Call of Duty, Metal Gear Solid, The Witcher, The Legend of Zelda,...
Again, Call of Duty is set in WWII (the earlier games at least), which let's face it wasn't mostly black women fighting, it was mostly white men fighting against white men, MGS & The Witcher I'm not familiar with, but Link from the Zelda games isn't even human, he's some kind of anime elf creature. Probably Japanese.