the gaming muse

the gaming muse: Soul Calibur V: Sexism and Stereotypes

kryptoswag:

thegamingmuse:

robbieggg:

I guess I can understand how you feel… but you just described way more than video games. You described the world.

“Constantly being reminded that women are supposed to be desirable, beautiful, in love with a man”

Hell, that’s practically every Disney Princess. This is a “formula” that’s been here since the beginning of time. 

I just don’t get it… Like I understand the hatred of stereotypes. (I have to deal with it because I’m not exactly the typical gay) but I don’t think I’ve ever heard someone compare a video game to real life. They’re nearly all fictional, based in fictional worlds, and just fantasy. Getting upset about it just seems ridiculous to me.

Also, no one is forcing you to play them.

“There’s a lot about gaming that is problematic, but if gamers can inform themselves and begin to think more critically about what is in the games they play, change might start, slowly and surely.”

I like my games as they are, I don’t see the issues you do.

If you don’t see any issues, you aren’t paying enough attention.  I can promise you I’m not the only one critiquing games this way; as I said, do some research and you’ll find plenty of sites dedicated to ridding video games of homophobia, transphobia, racism, sexism, ableism, and many other issues which exist.

The world is like this, yes, but I’m not trying to fix the world.  I don’t have the knowledge or the strength.  I’m only trying to make video games - my favorite industry - better.

‘I don’t have to play video games’?  I want to - and I should be able to without feeling out of place, or unrepresented.  By your logic, anyone who is angry about not being represented in video games should just suck it up, and keep playing games which ignore them, and focus only on straight cis white males.  News flash:  That’s not right.

Change is already happening my friend, whether you see the need for it or not.  Some video game developers have already felt the change in the wind and are starting to diversify slowly but surely.  Keeping your head in the sand and saying you don’t see reason for it doesn’t change the fact that there are problems - it just makes you ignorant.

But I’m afraid I’ve wasted quite enough time in this discussion.  The internet is there for you, my blog is there - I have many more essays like this which point out flaws, including games that are homophobic, racist, sexist, and so on - and it might help you to read some of them.  If you want to educate yourself, you will.  If you don’t, no amount of responses from me will help.

Muse, I’m surprised you stuck with the argument so long.  I keep seeing you trying to rationally explain things while people keep making the same exact generalized arguments that every single marginalized group has heard 30 million times before about why a certain industry is [insert -ism].  I admire your willpower. 

My favorite is undoubtedly the “it’s just a game; no one is forcing you to play” defense (actually, probably not my favorite; it’s hard to choose which ridiculous argument is actually the worst).  It’s dismissive.  It’s easy.  It’s a way out of looking at issues.  No one wants to look at issues within an industry they actually like.  That’s too difficult.  That requires work and awareness.  People want to just enjoy their stuff uncritically and damn those who dare to want change for the better.

I will never ever understand the arguments against sexism in the gaming industry.  Men somehow think that it’s not there or that it’s not that bad or that they have it just as bad as women, when throughout humanity’s history women have always been discriminated against in different areas for no reason.

Gamers, video games are no different.  Games aren’t the sacred utopia where there are no problems.  It’s the opposite.  Video games being as young as they are are going through all of the problems that other industries went through and still are going through.  In many cases, video games are worse than others because they haven’t had the time to mature and it’s not going to change as long as a majority of people refuse to look at them critically, stand up and say “hey, that’s wrong.”

Video games are a window into how our society thinks.  They aren’t just games.  There are actual flesh and blood people behind these things that make them and they are making these games based on what they have learned and experienced through society; a society that is still sexist (homophobic, transphobic, racist, xenophobic, etc.).

Posted 3 months ago — 48 notes