Over my time with #GamerGate I’ve had the privilege of engaging with a number of LGBT gamers who have stepped up in defense of their hobby One of these gamers is a close friend of mine who I’ve known since primary school, and came out a few years ago to myself and a few other trusted individuals.
We disagree about almost everything when it comes to politics, but when it comes to video gaming we stand united. I wanted to dig a bit deeper into his thoughts on the quagmire and get a different, unique perspective on the matter.
A note, as he has not come out publicly, we will be referring to the interviewee as “Orc” for reference in any future parts of this series.
Let’s not waste any time, what do you think about #GamerGate?
“I think Gamergate is a very promising movement. In recent years I definitely felt an increasing sense of alienation within gaming. This is partly to do with some of the journalism, partly because of certain companies forcing political agendas within their games and also just the way our medium has come under fire from professional whiners. So whether Gamergate achieves its goals or not, I think just letting our presence known is half the battle. It truly is a relief to see that many gamers are not just about to bury their heads in the sand and let our hobby be ruined.”
You think that both games development and games journalism have kind of exacerbated things?
“I honestly don’t know whether they influenced each other or not. However they are all issues that I feel need addressing. These days, “progressiveness” and political correctness (aka: the stifling of free speech) has gotten out of hand where anyone can be labelled, for example, sexist simply for stating scientific facts about gender. This could be dismissed as the ignorance of one person but this kind of ignorance is commonly seen amongst social justice warriors and feminists who are extending its reach into video game culture.
I’m not surprised that they are succeeding. I think it’s a very vulnerable culture. For one, developers are more likely to communicate with consumers than, say, a Hollywood film director. For another, there’s still a lot of the stereotypical gamer virgins who are looking for friends (or girlfriends) so will fall prey to feminist persuasions. Ultimately I think it’s like blackmail; agree with us or you are racist, sexist, homophobic, etc. And of course when there’s a breach of ethics in games journalism they’ll hide behind this victimhood mentality. The Zoe Quinn case is a perfect example of that.
I personally think that this social justice warrior “movement” if you can call it that, is one of the biggest threats to gaming.”
You’ve mentioned previously that you’ve taken issue with transgender/gay depictions in Dragon Age: Inquisition. I personally thought Dorian was written really well, but the transgender character felt hopelessly crowbarred into the setting. Would you agree with this?
“Haha, well maybe I would have agreed with you, if I had gotten much further. I basically rage-quitted the game and am struggling to find the motivation to return to it. Basically, it’s no surprise that Bioware have shown their soft-side for “minorities” in the game. They’ve been doing this for as far back as 2003, maybe longer? But over the years it definitely feels less about giving fair representation and more about trying to tick a box and fulfill a quota. Of course if I am playing a game where romance plays a substantial role, then I greatly welcome the option to have same-sex relationships considering I am a homosexual in real life. And so in Mass Effect sequels I was initially pleased that I had the option to bum another bloke. But sadly the one I wanted was too busy with his calibrations. And the rest of the games felt dumbed down compared to the first, so I couldn’t help but wonder if in development the team could have spent less time on meaningless sex scenes and more time on improving the game mechanics? Rather than stripping it out and replacing it with alien eye candy.
And so we move onto Dragon Age Origins. Well I kinda wanted a piece of Alistair’s arse but by the time I realized I needed to provide his materialistic arse with tons of gifts to get him into bed, I lamented the fact I had given them all to other characters to make them like me and there seemed to be no other gifts left in the world. Still, I digress. Ultimately relationships in the games have played a very minor role for me and I simply don’t care about them that much, even when they are suited to my needs. I don’t like romance films in real life, so why would want that in games?
So, come Inquisition. I remember one of the first things I heard about this game was the news that it would have Bioware’s ‘first fully gay character’. I was already thinking “who cares”. Then when I saw the image I just facepalmed. It’s pathetic enough that in order to commercialize your game you have to resort to political tactics like that. Then it’s more pathetic if you think of the implications. They basically just announced “this game has a character that female gamers can’t romance”. Why not just make him bisexual? Give everyone an equal shot at him. It definitely seemed like a plea for attention. Of course, IGN and Polygon complied.
It’s EVEN MORE pathetic that they couldn’t even break the stereotype of the gay being a feminine, quirky, skinny mage (of all things) rather than a manly, gruff and hairy warrior with a battle axe!
It just angered me that everything Dorian said seemed to refer back to his sexuality constantly, about how much of an outsider he is, blah blah blah.
The transgender character was the last straw though. You don’t want to get me started on that.”
Well, the thing which sticks out to me is that they touted it as being the first in the series…which is a lie. The first transgender characters were in DA:O in Denerim. If you mean a character with some sort of narrative, even in Dragon Age this isn’t a new thing, the comics have featured one which is considerably better written.
“Well let’s go back to Mass Effect 1. There was an alien character, whose race I cannot remember the name of, who was essentially androgynous- maybe a hermaphrodite- I can’t remember entirely. But fair enough, it’s a separate species in a sci-fi game.
For what purpose is there a transgender character in Dragon Age? For one thing I feel it trivializes a serious mental condition and goes hand in hand with the “progressive” agenda. I think if you want to fully understand my standpoint you need to read up on some of Milo’s writing on the subject. Quite simply, gender dysphoria is a delusion and I do sympathize with people that don’t feel at ease with themselves.
However like with most delusions, I feel we should not encourage them but should rather try to treat and cure them. In Dragon Age this character that is naturally female considers herself to be a man (so from now on out of common courtesy I shall refer to her as him). Okay, that’s fine. But what happens when you talk to Iron Bull about him? He begins to lecture you on how you should get the pronouns right (I JUST DID) and how she really is a HE.
I’m sorry, Bioware, but this is not only insulting and condescending but it’s also very opinionated and definitely there for no other reason but to shove political views down our throats. In A VIDEO GAME. A VIDEO GAME I PAID FULL RETAIL PRICE FOR. I mean I bought a fantasy game with dragons and sword fights and magic- but instead of Dragon Age: the Inquisition I got Progressive Age: the Indoctrination.
Really, I’m starting to think the Swedes have it right, considering putting stickers on games indicating which ones promote gender equality. We need stickers on games warning us which ones are full of transparent propaganda nonsense.”
I do think it detracts from the experience in a sense. I don’t go about in real life slaying dragons, that’s the reason why I play games like Dragon Age and The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim. Introducing real world issues into my attempt at escapism, I think there’s room for it, but it can’t come across as too condescending. Once you reach that stage it becomes a turn off.
You see, Depression Quest as a piece of art is self contained. I don’t go into that wanting to slay dragons, I want to learn more about depression. That’s perfectly acceptable!
It’s concerning when you see figures like Ben Kuchera and Jonathan McIntosh demanding you take everything at face value. This whole death of the author type of ideal.
“Absolutely, and that’s why, as much as I like more options as a player, I feel Bioware and other developers should know their main demographic, which is of course straight males. I’d be happy for Bioware to miss out any gay and trans characters in future games. Is it not good enough that the players that DO want to pursue gay relationships in the game, have that option?
Is it necessary to actually force-feed players with minority characters just to tick a box? Even if it goes down like hard boiled semen (I dont know if that’s a thing) and detracts from your immersion as well as 90% of players’ enjoyment of the game? By the way, yes I pulled that figure right out of my arse.
There’s a thriving indie scene across PC and consoles. There’s plenty of opportunities for even unknown people to create games focused on these political or social issues who can target it to those that are interested.”
I think that’s what seems to be forgotten, the market is increasingly catering towards women because they are becoming a larger part of the market. That’s perfectly acceptable, but when you do look at the figures, you’re seeing women play more casual/mobile games.
That’s not to say that there are no women core gamers, there are more of them, and they’re great, but they’re still very much in the minority, it’s not necessarily a good thing, but it’s the fact of the matter.
“Frankly, I don’t think women are becoming a larger part of the triple-A market. I think they are becoming a larger part of gaming in general but more specifically the simpler indie games and whatnot as you already specified. I still know very few women that play triple-A titles, whereas nearly every man I know plays them.
Dragon Age, I can see it has more of a female following than a game such as Battlefield, but the players are still overwhelmingly male. If I were to guess I’d assume that over 9/10ths of Dragon Age players are male.”
Yeah, I mean, clearly there are examples where so called “SJW’s” aren’t going to be as impactful, Battlefield and CoD are a case in point, do you think that this is down to the difference in demographic? Consider that the stereotype of a standard CoD gamer is the jock type?
“Absolutely. I mean I do think Dragon Age is very “feminized” in that sense. What with the focus on relationships/romance, the option to use magic instead of swords, this might sound very stereotypical but it’s just more common for women to be into these things rather than just straight up, violent, bloody combat.
Also Dragon Age has a lot of important female characters. It wasn’t hours into Dragon Age until I could actually finally have an all-male party- which I thought would have been a no-brainer in a game heavily focused on combat”
I don’t think there’s anything wrong with it being feminized, but it’s when you’re seeing these very visible agendas being put in place, and when you do question them you end up being called privileged for doing so, free speech has become devalued.
“Well, I must say I am not a fan of feminization-if that’s a valid term. If you look back into the early years of gaming, most of the early games couldn’t be pinned down by gender market. They were very gender neutral.
Yet over the years it seemed that men showed most interest in these games. In fact it is men that made video games into a, what is it, $90 billion industry? I know personally that I’ve put numerous thousands of my hard earned cash into this hobby and there are countless other males that can say the same.
Ultimately I feel that the developers should have some decency to remember who made them rich and reflect those people’s interests in their games rather than that of a childish vocal minority of third-wave feminists.”
Yeah, I mean, consider Pong! Not much gender preference in there!
“I mean I saw this girl on YouTube talking about Assassin’s Creed Unity, which of course came under fire by social justice warriors for alleged “sexism” because of the lack of playable female characters.
This girl on youtube is very down to earth about it and talks about how it’s just common sense that it is a business whose main consumers are male. She is actually a fan of Assassin’s Creed and she is happy to play as Arno. She says something along the lines of, if these women aren’t happy to play as a handsome man like Arno, they aren’t going to be happy any other way.
She also praises some of the secondary characters in Assassin’s Creed that are female, and says how they are actually very strong characters.”
I think there’s a very real discussion to be had, I mean, look at Lara Croft and her origin, her original design was intended to be as attractive to men, or at least as attractive as a bunch of polygons can be. Then you compare it to the modern remake, and for me, I would certainly consider her attractive in a different manner.
The problem is that when you have someone like Anita Sarkeesian spouting stereotypical and and twisted views without opposition, you stir up a beehive of discontent within the “native” population.
Do you think with things as they are that there will EVER be a reasoned discussion to have?
“One thing is for certain. With people like Anita Sarkeesian, there is NEVER a reasonable discussion to be had.
The problem is, while I’m sure most people of GamerGate listened to her side. She would not give us the same respect. Removing comments and ratings from her videos are evidence of that. The fact that she used a bunch of troll attacks as a reason why gaming is sexist only further proves this.
Frankly, she didn’t do this study to find out whether there was a culture of misogyny or not. She decided beforehand that there was and then found some “feminist research” that she felt could back up her claims. This was clear the moment she stated that she wanted to make a bunch of investigative videos on sexism in gaming BEFORE she had done any research.
Considering she failed to even source any of her quotes and “research” only gives more confirmation (as if more was needed) that she had no intention to do this with any decency or honesty.
Honestly, Anita is just the figurehead of the anti-GamerGate movement. From what I’ve seen, her sycophants are just as bad, if not worse. I’ve had one of her followers tell me that the patriarchy provides men with better access to resources like transport. I still don’t know what he was getting at.
I can tell you that I do believe there is a disproportionately high amount of scantily clad women in gaming compared to men, but this is the same as the way there is a disproportionately high amount of scantily clad men in women’s magazines compared to men.
This is just how business and marketing works.”
What’s your perception of homophobia within the gaming community?
“In my experience, the amount of homophobia in the gaming community is no higher than it is elsewhere. In fact I’d go as far as to say that the gaming community is more open minded and tolerant than any other community, even the LGBT community!
Now you are probably thinking I’m being ridiculous, but in my experience within the LGBT community you have many masculine gay men that hate the feminine gay men. You have a number of gay men that don’t like lesbians. You have many lesbians that hate all men. You have lots of people that resent trans folk. You have many queer folk that hate straight white males. I could go on.
I’ve never seen such in-fighting within gaming based upon gender, ethnicity or sexuality. The only fights take place in fighting games. Well.. and console wars, but it’s not personal. Hell, when I came out to a gaming forum I had been a part of for years, the community, while mostly thought I was trolling, didn’t give two shits. Your sexuality ain’t important in gaming. What matters most are your thumbs (or fingers in general in the case of PC gamers).”
Do you think there’s now a degree of politics in Gaming that echos the LGBT community? You mention that there’s a degree of hate/dislike between different strands of the community and it looks to me to replicate the divide between casual/core etc.
“Oh of course, but isn’t this the case with everything?
Look at metal music. You get the elitists or purists against the scene kids that listen to metalcore.
Look at film culture, you’ve got the film buffs that praise obscure avant-garde cult films and berate those that watch mainstream films by Michael Bay.
Look at comic books, you have Marvel fans vs DC fans.
I mean when a medium or art form extends its reaches, develops and grows to accommodate many different styles and directions, it is only natural that its consumer base will divide, and as a result there will be arguments as to which faction is superior.
I think it is inconsequential. It’s just an inevitable result of a medium that is thriving. Surely that can’t be a bad thing?”
We’re hoping to do some more of the discussions. If you’re interested in hearing more of the Orc’s wisdom, tweet at us with your questions on @PowerGamerHQ!