This is a false dilemma. Do you know people in real life who are "social justice warriors"? I know one, and only one. But I know many feminists. They tend to be very reasonable.
The "shirtgate" story got spread precisely because it created outrage. Outrage goes viral. But most feminists are not bullies.
Whereas the problem described above appears to be pervasive in tech. I've seen enough stories here on Hacker News that fit into the same trend. I have no reason to doubt these women.
You're contrasting a broad system of oppression against a (vocal) minority within the community that criticizes this system. It's not apples to apples.
Also, out of all the "leaders" on the anti-GG side, I can't think of a single one that could be described as a "social justice warrior". Neither Wu, Sarkeesian, nor anyone else has ever said that all men are bad, called people "shitlords", advocated censorship, or done anything else attributed to "SJWs". From my perspective, they have tried very hard to maintain civil and reasonable discourse, even in the face of this GG onslaught.
As a man, I have never felt threatened by anything these women have said. On the contrary, I enjoy watching Sarkeesian's videos, since they made me realize just how toxic and passé these tropes were, and how much more interesting our games could be if they went without them. Most recently, I played Valdis Story as Reina, and man, I felt like a badass. I wish more games let me play characters like that.
Agreed – my main reaction to Sarkeesian's videos was “Imagine all of the better plots we'd have if the writers weren't phoning it in with lazy tropes?”. It's really hard to see a downside here…
90% of everything is crap (except crap). Making a video about bad games does nothing to solve that. Maybe people are simply failing in making good games? That's life, not sexism.
Besides, there are already more good games available than any normal human being could play in a lifetime. That's why the "gamers are misogynist assholes" theory is insulting and just wrong. You could make the same kind of video about movies, or books, and claim moviegoers are misogynist and readers are misogynist. The only reason this game hater campaign sticks is because people were always suspicious of gamers to begin with. Hating on a large, inhomogeneous group can never be correct, it's the same mistake that makes racism and sexism work.
What would help in making more good games: creating good games. Criticizing the efforts of makers is just lame, especially if you are not interested in their products to begin with.
I'm not a fan of many of the "tropes" in video games myself. I feel insulted if a game tries to win me over with naked girls and violence. However, if some other people enjoy it, why should it bother me? Those games are not produced with tax payer money, they are produced with private investments. Why not let the free market sort it out?
I don't understand how people like you fail to see the inconsistency of your own argumentation: you are gamers yourself, yet you accept the accusation of gamers being misogynist. I assume you don't think of yourself as misogynist. So it should be obvious to you that the Sarkeezian-accusations are bullshit.
The "shirtgate" story got spread precisely because it created outrage. Outrage goes viral. But most feminists are not bullies.
Whereas the problem described above appears to be pervasive in tech. I've seen enough stories here on Hacker News that fit into the same trend. I have no reason to doubt these women.
You're contrasting a broad system of oppression against a (vocal) minority within the community that criticizes this system. It's not apples to apples.