Everything wrong with gaming fandom in one comment

[yendi]

So there's a great piece by Carolyn Petit on Denial of the Self: Queer Characters in Persona 4. It's exactly what it sounds like, a great analysis of a problematic element of an otherwise-good game, and exactly the sort of good analysis that gaming sites should provide.

So of course the first doucheswallower to comment is an inbred asshole called "Double Wide," who manages to smash these words into the keyboard: "Whatever happen to just sticking to video games on a I dunno...VIDEO GAME website? If I wanted to read far left librial [sic] propaganda, I would have went to the Huffington Post's website. Calling this relevent [sic] journalism or even journalism altogether is a joke."

You know what? Fuck every asshole in games who thinks that way. It's not like Gamespot (or Polygon, or Giant Bomb, or Kotaku, or any of the gaming sites out there that happen to have superb writers actually thinking critically about games these days) doesn't also spend time on things like breaking news, or traditional reviews. And if that's all this cretin wants, he can get it, just as he can skip all the sections of the newspaper with the long words that confuse and scare him. Their existence doesn't do shit to affect him*.

And yeah, people like this are holding on to a game industry that's been changing for years, and one that was royally fucked-up.

For a mild unicorn chaser, here's Rock Paper Shotgun telling Double Wide and his ilk why they can go to hell.

*And nine times out of ten, it's a "him," and often as not someone playing life on the lowest difficulty setting.

Comments

[storme]

That is an excellent piece indeed. Thank you for linking to it.

[yendi]

No problem. I got it from this article, which is also awesome if you're a JRPG or Persona fan.

[cucumberseed.livejournal.com]

I like to think of myself as a person who can see many points of view, even ones I find abhorrent, but I cannot, for the life of me, but on this subject, I can't find what or where Double-Wide (as synecdoche)'s point of view is, let alone see it. I can understand not seeing the value of criticism applied to games, sure. It's shortsighted and precludes a lot of better games (even better DUDEBRO shooters and whatever) that might be made in the future, but I get that one. What I don't get is the source of defensive rage. Is it fear of games other than the ones they prefer? Is it fear that the games they prefer will be supplanted by other games? Is it a fear that they will lose gaming as a forum to be odious in ways they already feel oppressed for it being unacceptable elsewhere? Is it just a fucking behaviorally ingrained response?

Why did those questions suddenly start sounding rhetorical? I didn't set out for them to be. Okay, I think I answered my own question.

[yendi]

Is it just a fucking behaviorally ingrained response?

I think it's likely this one.

[minkrose]

I would suspect that a (perhaps small) piece of this relates to a defensive "*I* don't get it, so I will insult it/put it down in order to diminish its importance, and look cool." I remember this from high school -- people who didn't understand what was going on in class saying that it was stupid & a waste of their time. I'm not even sure they realise that's what it is; they've already decided that this thing is (or makes them feel) Bad, and they reflexively speak out against it.

Clearly, there's a lot more going on that JUST that element, though the high school experiences are what I remember most strongly in these moments. Especially since I was lucky enough to change a few minds before we all graduated. It's easier to do that in person, especially in a small group.