It seems “gamer” has become a bit of a pejorative term of late.
Maybe it always has been to some, but recent controversy has roused the subject again.
The usual suspect – video games are too violent – has been replaced by the “video games are too sexist” debate. Centered on whether gamers are inherently misogynistic, the debate comes with a hashtag, #GamerGate.
While the GamerGate issue really started last year – and sexism is hardly a new topic in gaming – a recent “Law and Order: Special Victims Unit” episode brought it to my attention.
Ignoring the fact the show used just about every cliched bit of gaming jargon I can think of, exploited tired generalizations, showed video games that looked 10 years old and bastardized a serious matter, it ultimately left viewers with an ending that seems contradictory to the purpose of shedding light on the issue at all.
The episode starts at a gaming convention, where a female gamer is assaulted because she’s a woman, and ends with a female video game developer quitting the gaming world and acknowledging the bad guys won. That’s it?
The message the plot left me with: Women shouldn’t be involved in the gaming world. And that doesn’t settle well with me.
The real-life GamerGate started after a female indie game developer was outed publicly by her ex-boyfriend for allegedly cheating and trading sex for good reviews. The Internet troll community responded how trolls do: in the worst way possible. They released personal information online, made death and rape threats, and generally just made all gamers look bad.
What’s most concerning is that some of these people aren’t just trolls – they genuinely hate women. How do even-minded people combat such ignorance? Why is gender even an issue when it comes to video games? From what I’ve read and experienced, these misogynists are a small but loud subset of gaming society. These social terrorists take what many people love and turn it into something horrible. It’s deplorable.
As a lifelong video game enthusiast, I would like to say these so-called “gamers” are the exception, not the rule. This is where I draw a clear line in the sand. Most gamers are normal people who, like me, love gaming as a hobby because it’s fun. I’ve tried to get every girlfriend I’ve ever had interested in gaming – because I want them to enjoy what I know to be an excellent medium. Why all of this hatred came to be associated with it, I may never know.
Not being a woman, I cannot and never will be able to speak from that perspective. I have great respect for women, largely from the many strong female role models in my life. I’ll pick up a game with a strong female protagonist and a well-developed storyline any day over bikini-clad women playing volleyball or a role-playing game where the female characters’ armor barely covers their bodies (that makes no damn sense).
But my “privileged” white male situation means I’ll never fully understand what it’s like. Do I think video games are too sexist? Sometimes, yes. More than other forms of media? No. I’ve seen much worse in movies and cable television. But video games are plagued with many of the same problems. Protagonists are mostly white men. Characters of different races and sexes don’t get their fair shots. Women and sex are used as selling points. But I’m seeing slow growth.
My favorite game to date, 2013’s “The Last of Us,” features a 14-year-old female deuteragonist, whose character development is beyond any I’ve seen in other art forms. I left that game with such a profound knowledge of loss and the father-daughter dynamic, and I have little real personal experience in either of those areas.
The PC video game purchasing platform Steam allows users to tag games, and the “female protagonist” section continues to grow with worthwhile entries.
Still, it’s simply not enough. In terms of the history of entertainment, gaming is still in its infancy. That by no means excuses its faults; it does mean the industry and its fans have a lot of maturing to do. I love gaming. It’s my greatest passion. I won’t let the negativity dissuade me.
But that’s easy for me to say. I’m not a woman. The best I can do, and the most reasonable suggestion I can think to make, is to speak up when others are subject to discrimination. Otherwise, nothing will change.
Springfield Business Journal Web Editor Geoff Pickle can be reached at gpickle@sbj.net.[[In-content Ad]]
