
A popular video game randomizes race and gender and many white men are furious - fbrusch
http://www.vox.com/2016/4/17/11442730/rust-experimental-race-gender-random
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kagamine
Blogspam, all the quotes are taken from a Guardian.com piece, linked from the
article but in a sneaky way.

> 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.

~~~
reflexorozy
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.

~~~
kagamine
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.

~~~
reflexorozy
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.

