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.
@Mary
…yeah, after reading the comments section, it’s not what you did so much as what you said, and calling the reaction of the regulars “reactionary wailing and gnashing” is a bit inaccurate. If you’re going to start talking about your parenting style (especially in lovely shades of teal) people are going to disagree.
Okay, done. Sorry if I’m accidentally resurrecting that thread, but it just seemed a bit passive-aggressive. Sorry again. (Is that too many sorries?)
Anyways, tell me if I’m being too necromancer or too teal. 🙂
@andiexist, I wouldn’t worry, you’re not the one resurrecting the thread of wank. This isn’t the first time Mary’s brought it up in a martyred ‘here’s an example of how badly I’ve been treated’ tone, and it’s passive-aggressive as hell.
@M the SJR,
That is genious. Steal.
Seconding Misha. You haven’t done anything, andiexist.
@Policy & Misha
Thank you for reassuring me. I managed to misinterpret something in another thread quite horribly, and so I’m a bit leery of having another communication fail. 🙂
I know David’s already banned thr troll, but I can’t let this bullshit slide:
Fuck you. Seriously. Fuck right off into the sun. KotakuInAction, well-known GG rallying point, brigaded a local radio station because they dared to interview Brianna Wu. And when the station head told them to fuck right off because he didn’t negotiate with terrorists, they bullied him into apologising while explicitly missing the point he was making in the first place.
Brianna Wu has been a target of this whole mess and pretending that “Literally Who 3” means GG is ignoring her is really insulting the intelligence of people who’ve actually been watching this disaster unfolding for three months now and HAVE SEEN HOW THIS SHIT WORKS.
*A woman makes a post complaining about lack of representation in video games.*
GG: “MAKE YOUR OWN GAME AND LEAVE OURS ALONE”
*A woman makes a game.*
GG: “GET OUT OF OUR SANDBOX. THAT ISN’T A REAL GAME. WE DECIDE WHAT GAMES ARE.”
So much self-contradiction and internal inconsistency! It’s almost like Gamergate isn’t really about ANYTHING, actually!
I paid for the full version of Revolution 60 and played it all the way through, and it didn’t make a single sammich!!
…
Everyone go buy her game, it’s fun.
Plus there are an awful lot of people who have zero interest in anything game-related. I wouldn’t have seen a thing about it if I didn’t read WHTM or Pharyngula.
It is too bad Revolution 60 is i-devices only, AFAIK. I only have Androids.
Most people who, when hearing criticism they don’t like, claim that the critic should “shut up and make it yourself!” have – being hypocrites lacking self-awareness – not actually done that themselves.
They assume that the way they enjoy it means they have some greater understanding of something than one who points out its flaws. Although, really, those who apply critical analysis to a work obviously have the respect to treat such material seriously. They might actually understand how to construct narrative and develop characters – whereas those who “turn off their brain” and simply consume it see it nothing more as a novelty and a distraction. The fact they have to get so angry over anyone like Sarkeesian making her videos, while never bothering to do something similar, says they’re incapable of enjoying Art on an intellectual level.
Plus it literally silences all reviews that are even somewhat critical, which makes no sense. I do not believe that these same people haven’t complained when their favorite movies/comics/shows were remade or when their favorite book became a movie. Apparently the proper response to any critic ever is “STFU and make your own version!!@#”. I would hate that world if it somehow managed to exist, which wouldn’t be possible.
Also, Mary, I mostly lurk but I have seen you bring up the previous argument a few times now, painting yourself a victim. I really don’t think that is a good path to continue down, especially if you’re not interested in rehashing the whole thing. Just my 2 cents which you can take or leave.
I own Rev60. I love it. I’m going to buy it again when it’s ported to PC because she’s going to change the game engine so it’s fun for PC and OMG I LOVE THE GAME ENGINE IT’S SO FUN OMG OMG OMG
buy the game. Buy iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit.
Because they’re solipsistic enough to think their personal standards are universal. So, only they’re allowed to glorify or degrade as they see fit and no one else is allowed to speak out of turn.
I wouldn’t be surprised if these same people who were FREEZE PEACH absolutists – who, ironically, see anyone disagreeing with them as “censorship.”
Get off that cross, Mary, it’s getting chilly outside and we need the wood.
On a more interesting note, I love when these dudes try to impersonate feminists. That’s not sarcasm – I really do love reading their attempts to present what they consider to be the feminist worldview, because they’re just so silly. For example, this.
Sorry, kid, but actual feminists know the word “patriarchal” and how to use it in a sentence. Strange grammar and, um, let’s just call is creative punctuation are angry online misogynist trademarks.
(It’s because English teachers are misandrists, as a former troll helpfully informed us. The poor boys are attempting jazz without ever having learned to sing Mary Had A Little Lamb properly.)
You get a $300 ticket for your first patriarchy violation and they boot your car if you get a second one in the same year. Don’t get me started on what that does to your insurance rates.
Due to widespread implementation of the three strikes rule your third patriarchy violation lands you in Man Prison, where the worst punishment of all happens – no porn.
Anita Sarkeesian was a guest on the Colbert Report tonight. I’m now busy giggling at various online reactions that are indignant at how “biased” the interview was.
Seriously, gators… do you even know what Colbert’s show IS?
Fix’d for what Gamergate really means.
When is somebody going to make a flash game titled ‘Social Justice Warrior’, where you play as a fat black lesbian who goes around telling fedora-clad gamergaters, MRAs, Nice Guys, white nationalists, objectivists, Tea Partiers, et. al. to check their privilege instead of shooting them, which causes them to scream and foam at the mouth before their heads explode? Davis Aurini, Theodore Beale, Matt Forney, et. al. would be the bosses, and it would end with you taking over the video game industry and forcing it to only make games with fat black lesbians as the protagonist.
Jesus Christ, that’d be the fucking bomb.
If anybody else has any further ideas for such a game, feel free to state them.
@aebars: that whoosh noise was the set of conversations on this blog flying over your head.
http://img3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20130328004900/glee/images/a/ac/Point_missed.gif
@aebars:
0/10
I could give a couple points for not misusing complicated words, but as a gotcha attempt that post was abysmal.