When women, in conversations online, point out the ridiculously tiny percentage of video games that feature women as protagonists, they tend to get flooded with responses from indignant gamebros telling them that if they don’t like the games out there, they should just make their own.
The gamebros mean their comments to be conversation-enders. Just as Vivian James, #GamerGate’s imaginary girlfriend, tells game critics to “shut up and play,” these guys are telling critics of the retrograde gender politics in gaming to “shut up and make games.”
It never occurs to them that some of the women they smugly tell this to … might already be doing this.
One of the more entertaining aspects of following the Twitter account of much-harassed game developer Brianna Wu — known in #GamerGate circles as Literally Who 3 — is watching clueless gamebros try this “argument” on her.
LOVE IT when men tell me, "Don't like how women are represented? Make your own games!" Lol. http://t.co/LlkDLnmOVs pic.twitter.com/n0BgqwvH2B
— Brianna Wu (@BriannaWu) October 26, 2014
The whole thread is here if you’d like to see what an unpleasant fellow this Simon Wood really is.
Oh, but there’s more:
It never ends:
Of course, some of her, er, critics seem to realize that she already makes games. But somehow this doesn’t keep them from yelling at her to make games anyway.
@iMatthewCM @Swispy @SmegmaKing @Spacekatgal fuck the trolls. If you have a bitch fit about gender/races in a game, go make one twats
— Timothy Sleeper (@Sleeper83091) October 26, 2014
https://twitter.com/mchugepants/status/524445877398544384
Others demand that she start making GOOD GAMES.
https://twitter.com/BABPEEGTWO/status/525769579595718656
(Huh. Seems like a decent number of people think the game she just releaased is good.)
And this demanding GamerGater wants to know why she doesn’t make MORE games.
Oh. That.
This guy apparently thinks that instead of criticizing the game industry, Wu should be personally training a new generation of girls to make games.
@Spacekatgal Just because they are mostly designed by men doesnt women cant enjoy them and if they don't, teach women so they can make games
— Dragonslay3r94 (@Dragonslay3r94) October 22, 2014
It must be hard to find time to make games with all these dudes yelling at her to make games. And then yelling at her more when she does.
The stupid is strong in GGers. Wow. It burns. And the glasses? They do nothing.
I find the indifference of the world towards this obnoxious assholes disturbing.
*I meant <i<these
“Make your own” is a standard reply that these guys trot out when they have nothing else to attack you with. It is funny to see it turned on someone who actually makes games. XD
“Just make your own game! I mean, not that game. A different game. No, not that one either. A REAL game. And by that I mean a gritty FPS with lots of blood and a white male antihero lead.”
P.S. Seems like as good of a place as any to leave this: (Possible CW if you don’t like monsters) http://i.imgur.com/pgRQew1.png
“WHY DON’T YOU LADIES JUST MAKE YOUR OWN GAMES!?”
Oh, I dunno, because if I happen to have a venegeful ex-boyfriend or a sex life of any description, I might become the target of a sustained campaign of harassment, culminating in being hounded out of my home by death threats?
Blargh. Who cares about actual facts when you can just splurge words are people, eh? Bloody gaters. :
Hell, I’m not a game developer by trade, and even I’ve made a game or two with a female protagonist.
This argument exists solely as a deflection. A mindless regurgitation by people who are afraid of change.
It’s not a ‘casual’ game, either — I was a playtester for Revolution 60’s ‘girlfriend mode’ (the hardest difficulty) and uh let’s just say my skills were adequately tested.
No Gaters have trotted this line out at me yet, but part of me hopes they do: http://inurashii.xyz/games/
I make one game a month at minimum, half of which feature explicitly female protagonists and only one of which has an explicitly male one. ‘course, 75% of them are text based, which means they aren’t ~real games~
Something else been hilarious? The fact when they are told to make their own Gaming Publication they jump bonkers by saying they are a customer and they have the right catered to.
Dude, this hypocrisy cannot run deeper. But, of course, I just jinx’t and that will happen soon.
“Aside from Revolution 60, what have you made since?”
Yeah, man, that game came out, like, LAST MONTH. How long are you going to rest on your laurels? It’s not like games typically have development cycles measured in months or years…
The Simon Wood guy from the first tweet convo here describes himself as a ‘generally top bloke’ on his own Twitter profile. Proving once again that the more you have to describe yourself as something the less likely you are to actually be that thing – see also the Democratic Republic of Congo
And then when someone says “If you don’t like game reviews that consider cultural and artistic merit of games when we review them, go make your own review site.” GooberGoats lose their shit because they are quite sure that everything ever in existence is meant to be catered directly to them.
Bloody hell, I literally can’t understand how this has gotten so out of hand. Good luck to all the lovely ladies involved.
Is that a Strogg in a fedora? Or just some generic alien cyborg in a trilby?
Take it as a sign that the world at large failed to notice their presence.
Wow. There’s nothing that these jerks throw at people that they won’t turn around and freak out if you suggest it to them, so there’s that.
Also, “You haven’t made a game in six weeks you don’t even count as a developer anymore GOSH” huh.
It’s easier to understand this when you notice that the important part of the message is not “make games”, but “shut up”.
I’d be interested to know how many people saying how simple it would be to make your own game are developers themselves. (Not to mention, as ginnyn56 said above, the horrified reaction to the idea of ‘make your own publication’!)
Shouldn’t Gamergators like this game since it’s about weird-looking anime girls in miniskirts?
If women are making games (and I assume that the games they are making would conform to their expectations) then why is their an issue? The “dudebros” can have games that appeal to them and feminists can have games that appeal to them. Everyone can be happy.
Why is it necessary for feminist friendly games to replace (rather than coexist with) dudebro friendly games?
Before all of this shit I used to wish that people had suggested ‘Video Game Developer’ to me as a viable career choice for girls. I probably would have loved it… up until this point. So it is both a great regret and great joy which is… confusing.
At least a future in academia only offers an introverted sort of Game of Thrones-style competition, elitism and backstabbing.
Hm. Wait.
Gotta love the brigading bad scores against her game on MetaCritic.
You can’t win with these people.
Oh, and since David Futrelle linked the MetaCritic page — it’s worth pointing out Revolution 60, like pretty much every game featuring strong female characters or by a prominent female developer, is being spammed with negative reviews by people who despise games by, for, or about women.
And of course we have a few reviews from the obligatory Men-Pretending-To-Be-Feminist-Women. (GG is explicitly advising its supporters to do this; it’s #notyourshield all over again.) And anyway, what is it with MPTBFW and the word “wymmyn”? It’s a pretty reliable giveaway, guys — I don’t know a single woman, feminist or otherwise, who spells it like that.
… but it’s about ETHICS IN JOURNALISM, really!
None of these people mentioned GamerGate, why is it that they are roped in with GamerGate? This just seems like tweets taken by random people to be used as more bait against GamerGate so Brianna Wu can be even more “harassed”(get more mentions among GamerGate because of her popularity and misguided hate of GG she and her followers have)
I’d like to note that I really respect Brianna Wu as a developer, and for wanting/fighting for more women in the gaming industry. But she actually has nothing to do with GamerGate except for when she and the media inject their agenda/narrative into it.