Worlds are colliding: Roosh Valizadeh, the reactionary, woman-hating pick-up guru, is starting a #GamerGate inspired game site, just as #GamerGate itself is descending into a morass of mutual recriminations and generalized douchebaggery.
Reaxxion – the title presumably a reference to Roosh’s neo-reactionary political views – doesn’t seem to have officially launched yet, but it is up, and looking a bit threadbare at the moment, with only a handful of articles posted yet. Billed as “a safe space for gamers who support #gamergate,” the site is an obvious attempt to cash in on #GamerGate anger. Roosh’s timing is a little less than perfect; he’s jumping aboard this money train as it seems to be derailing.
Roosh introduces the site in a post that is one of the most inadvertently ridiculous things he’s ever written. He begins by introducing himself, boasting about the page views his sites generate. And then he writes this amazing paragraph:
I have written well over one million words, but less than 2,000 of those have been taken out of context to paint me as an extremist, misogynist, and rapist, accusations that my friends, family, and women I’ve had relationships with can’t understand. I must state that I have never once committed assault against a woman or been accused of assault, but … such accusations are being used as weapons to marginalize speech.
Well, since he brings it up, I might as well quote the 311 of his words that have been, er, “taken out of context” to “paint [him]” as a rapist. In his ebook Bang Iceland, he recalls one of these. er, bangs:
While walking to my place, I realized how drunk she was. In America, having sex with her would have been rape, since she legally couldn’t give her consent. It didn’t help matters that I was relatively sober, but I can’t say I cared or even hesitated. I won’t rationalize my actions, but having sex is what I do.
The context for this passage? A book offering men advice on how best to manipulate women into bed, in Iceland.
Anyway, back to Roosh’s amazing little introduction. After some more complaints about the alleged evils of the SJWs, Roosh drops this little confession:
I’m not a gamer
I’m starting a video game site even though I haven’t played video games seriously since the year 2000 (Starcraft was my jam). I don’t even play mobile games. I won’t blow smoke up your ass by pretending I’m a gamer or have a deep commitment in furthering game technology.
Huh. A dude who couldn’t give two shits about gaming is starting a site to capitalize on #GamerGate. ETHICS, yo!
So why, aside from sheer opportunism, is Roosh starting the site? Well, as he sees it, he’s doing it to stand up for the rights of the truly oppressed.
I aim to protect the interests of heterosexual Western males, a category I’m in.
How are these poor creatures being oppressed? Well, as Roosh sees it,
The far-left is trying to censor and criminalize masculine behaviors that are normal. They want to relabel consensual sex as “rape” and relabel innocent flirting as “harassment,” and as I learned with #gamergate, they’ve successfully infected the gaming industry and gaming journalist sites by damaging the very nature of gaming development to fit their extreme political agenda. So while I don’t play video games, the idea of starting a pro-#gamergate site is compatible with my overall mission.
Apparently he wants to make video gaming safe for … date rapists? Sorry, date consensual-sex-that-has-been-relabeled-as-rape-havers?
He tells the sad story of his younger brother, an actual gamer who likes games with stories to them. If the evil SJWs get their way, Roosh warns, his poor brother will have to endure game narratives that include, you know, girls.
The infiltration of SJW’s into gaming may mean that my brother will have to put up with their narrative in his games. It may mean that his entertainment options become more limited because a developer was subtly threatened unless he inserted another “empowered female” in a game where such a character simply doesn’t fit.
We wouldn’t want to limit his brother’s choices, huh? Like the choices available in Grand Theft Auto V, in which players can switch between three different protagonists, none of whom are icky females.
Roosh acknowledges that he’s got an ideology of his own, but assures readers that he won’t impose it on them like those terrible SJWs do.
[I]f you don’t don’t agree with ROK, that’s fine, because Reaxxion will not try to jam ideology down your throat like the existing gaming sites. We won’t tell you to go to the gym and live in Eastern Europe to sleep with thin women, behaviors that I currently engage in.
But dudes, you totally should go to the gym and move to Eastern Europe to sleep with thin women instead of those uppity Western fatties. Just sayin.
Heck, Roosh’s site is so committed to not shoving ideology down anyone’s throat that it has a special page setting forth a list of prescribed “Reaxxion Community Beliefs,” which include:
1. Men do not become more violent, sexist, or racist because they play video games.Gamers should not be shamed for a hobby that does not cause harm to others.
And:
7. Heterosexual men should not be shamed for enjoying things designed to appeal to heterosexual men. There is non-harmful entertainment value in traditional story lines involving masculine men and feminine women.
Gosh, nothing ideological here!
And since Roosh isn’t going to try to push his ideology on anyone, his site will presumably extend its welcome mat to everyone, huh?
Oh, wait.
Our goal is simple: create a safe space for heterosexual males who play video games. We won’t exclude homosexuals or attractive women from commenting on our articles, and we sincerely hope they find value in what we have to say, but understand that this site will be written by male gamers for male gamers.
Oh.
It aims to be a place where men can be themselves without SJW infiltration, judgement, and influence. In the year 2014, surprisingly, there are very few spaces for men online where their message isn’t attacked by white knights, man-haters, and SJW’s. I know an unmet need when I see one.
Finally, men’s voices will at last be heard!
And unlike some gaming site, Roosh’s Reaxxion will be all about ethics. Heck, he’s even got an official Ethics Policy setting forth how totes ethical his site will be. For example, he pledges that Reaxxion
won’t attempt to ruin individuals or companies. Any critical story is based on facts and properly sourced. We don’t publish articles with the intent to incite a mob.
So, no ruining or mob-inciting. I guess that’s better than the alternative.
We don’t bully, harass, threaten, SWAT, or dox anyone. Contact us if you see such activity in the comments.
Wait, what? You feel the need to announce publicly that you won’t SWAT people? That is, you won’t maliciously call 911 and report an imaginary crime in order to get a SWAT team sent to your victim’s house? Is this something that happens at other game sites? I mean, does Kotaku regularly send SWAT teams to harass makers of games they don’t like?
We will not publish clickbait with the intent to outrage. Authors will have 100% belief in what they write. Contributors who are found to be “trolling” will be blacklisted.
Yes, the dude behind Return of Kings, the publisher of pieces declaring that tattooed women are “broken” and offering “5 Reasons To Date A Girl With An Eating Disorder” is telling us that he’s not going to publish “clickbait with the intent to outrage.”
Anyway, Roosh apparently feels he’s got all he needs to run a totally kickass gaming site for cool dudes. He’s got a publisher – himself – who knows nothing about gaming. He’s got that ethics policy. He’s got a stable of expert writers … oh, wait, about that. Apparently he might be a little light on writers.
[S]end us your submissions. We want you to inject your DNA, your ideas, and your stories into Reaxxion. Instead of trying to silence you like the other sites, we want to make your voice louder, even if you are not a “professional journalist.”
Yeah, there’s no possible way Roosh’s site could turn into a complete fiasco that embarrasses everyone involved in it. Or is there?
Anybody got an opinion on Mount & Blade? GOG is giving it away free until Friday.
They don’t. Because MISANDRY!
I’m tempted to write a submission since I’m pretty sure there’s no level of sarcasm that’s high enough for mras to detect as long as the surface message supports their ideology. I think I’ll call it, “everything I ever needed to know about marriage, I learned from skyrim.”
It’s perfect. I’ll write about how my wife in skyrim, Lydia, gave me lip all the time, until I slew a dragon in front of her. After we got married, she mostly addressed me as “my love” (the marriage dialogue options conflict pretty badly with some of the NPC’s personality traits). She even cooks me food and carries all my stuff for me! I just won’t point out in the article that my character is a redguard woman.
If folks are looking for a fun diversion, my wife, my partner, and I have been having a lot of fun with Warframe. Warframe is a game about magical space ninjas fighting an oppressive futuristic empire; a friend refers to it as “Warhammer 40k by way of Exalted,” and that’s a pretty good description. It’s also free to play, as in actually free — the cash purchases are generally about convenience, not power, and you can enjoy the game tremendously without paying a cent.
The biggest downsides are being limited to 4-person groups (WHY? Are gamers only expected to have three friends?) and a new-player experience that is sometimes frustrating. Still, it’s the most fun I’ve had with an online game since City of Heroes closed down, and I’m part of a wonderfully inclusive and woman-positive community. Here’s an invite code, for anybody who interested. If you are, feel free to message me in-game as “GreyKestrel.”
(And oh yeah, there’s a WHTM Steam group, for those of you who haven’t yet seen it. Come on in, kick your shoes off, make yourself comfortable.)
Pocket Nerd: I’ve been playing a lot of that recently myself! Just with a couple of friends of mine that I know offline, since I have the social skills of a grapefruit, but it’s a great co-op game (as long as you’re a bit resistant to repetitiveness, but I find that as long as you can make your own fun it’s all good).
I’ve been playing it for a while now (~400 hours) and i’ve still only barely scratched the surface of what it offers.
Does anyone have any recommendations for free online games that you play alone? For whatever reason I only like to play solitary computer games.
Thus Spake Zaraweirwoodtreehugger:
“Free,” “online,” and “solo” is a difficult combination to find. If you can live with two out of three (“free” and “solo”) I could make a recommendation or two:
The Ur-Quan Masters HD is a high-definition remake of Star Control II, for my money one of the most brilliant games in history… and surprisingly forward-thinking on social issues, overall.
As somebody else pointed out, Mount & Blade is free on GOG until the end of the week. It lacks some of the depth and polish of later games in the series, but it’s still fun.
Canabalt is a fun-little time waster, although there’s a limited amount of depth to it.
And, of course, there’s always NetHack, a classic and still lots of fun (if you’re okay with a complete lack of modern game design theory, like an intuitive interface and a gentle learning curve).
But really, Warhammer 40K is about ethics in gaming journalism.
@Falconer: I’ve not seen it, but I could give it a neutral review for you:
Mount & Blade is a computer game. It has files. Some of the files are sound files. Some of the files are graphics files. If you turn up the volume on your computer, you can make the sound louder. If you want to stop the game using your computer’s memory, you need to shut the game down. It has colours too. Some of the colours are pretty, other colours are not.
You can thank me now. 🙂
@pallygirl: Who are YOU to judge whether colors are pretty? I bet you’re not even a real gamer. Real Men™ don’t care about pretty colors in their vidya games anyway. Stop feminim… femim… femininin… stop GIRLYING UP our games!!!!!1111
@pallygirl: Thanks! Although your review sounds suspiciously like a couple of book reports I wrote in elementary school.
Objective review of Google Chrome v. Firefox v. Internet explorer.
Google chrome is an internet browser. You type urls into the box at the top, and it takes you to webpages. If you type in the url wrong, it takes you to the wrong webpage or tells you the webpage does not exist. It is represented by a circular logo with yellow, red, blue, and green.
Firefox is also an internet browser. You type urls into the box at the top, and it takes you to webpages. If you type in the url wrong, it takes you to the wrong webpage or tells you the webpage does not exist. It is represented with a logo that looks like an abstract fox hugging a blue ball.
Internet explorer is also also an internet browser. You type urls into the box at the top, and it takes you to webpages. If you type in the url wrong, it takes you to the wrong webpage or tells you the webpage does not exist. It is represented with a logo that looks like a blue e with a yellow halo.
Much more fun than Roosh – this guy. Observe what happens when someone in Iceland hears that Aussies are arguing about the merits of daylight savings time.
weirwoodtreehugger:
Does anyone have any recommendations for free online games that you play alone? For whatever reason I only like to play solitary computer games.
You could try some Interactive Fiction (“text adventure”) games. They have gotten more player friendly over the years. They are almost exclusively free PC single player games. They generally better representation of women and minorities than AAA games and a wider range of stories. Emily Short is a particularly good author http://emshort.wordpress.com/ http://ifdb.tads.org/ Has a large collection of games.
@Pocket Nerd, I’m female and I don’t wear green and purple stripes, so clearly I can’t be a gamer. QED.
@Falconer: yeah, as I was typing that out I had a feeling I might have turned in a few book reviews written like that when I was about 8.
In conclusion: all gaming reviews must be written by unpaid 8-year olds.
@ cassandrakitty – Oh, thank-you for that!!! I have lived far enough north that I know exactly what Oskaar was on about. What he didn’t tell you is how it never gets dark in the summer, which is almost as disturbing as the endless night!
A neutral music review for @cassandra (just please credit me when you use this): this piece lasts for the same number of seconds as is shown when the piece loads to play. It is made out of sound. There are some harmonics. The singer sang lyrics. Some of the syllables in some words were held for longer than most of the syllables in most of the words. Some sentences rhymed. There was a chorus, and it was used more than once.
Neutral zombie movie review
This movie had zombies in it, and also people who were alive. There were special effects. Some people died.
@cassandra
How about a spoiler alert before saying people died!
Neutral review of War and Peace: “Events keep occurring.”*
*Full disclosure – concept stolen from a New Yorker.cartoon.
pallygirl’s neutral reviews have all the win. 🙂
This take on Reaxxion by Popehat is delightful.
http://www.popehat.com/2014/11/13/roosh-vs-rexxian-website-kicks-off-exciting-era-of-gaming-ethics-and-innovation/
@proxieme
There is a a story arc that you can follow, but once you open up certain areas there are a lot of options for side quests, as well.
Or there’s always this one… /shamelessselfpromotion
Oh my lord that photo. 😀 I haven’t laughed this hard in a looooong time.