Leave it to Vox Day, the proudly reactionary sci-fi author and game developer, to say what most of his #GamerGate comrades spend so much energy denying: that their little movement is at least in part a backlash against women in gaming. At least against real women, with their own opinions.
As Vox writes in a post on his Alpha Game blog,
Games have long been an escape from women and social pressure for many young men, so it should surprise no one that they aren’t particularly keen on seeing their retreat invaded by the very things from which they are escaping.
So why exactly do guys want an escape from women? Well, as Vox once explained in an interview with “Dr. Helen” for her book Men On Stike,
Women can be entertaining, but they’re expensive, inaccessible for most men, and from the male perspective, shockingly unreliable.
What makes it worse, Vox suggests on his blog, is that the kind of guys who play a lot of video games aren’t exactly the guys scoring the top quality women.
When people ask a gamma or an omega if he wouldn’t rather be out and about “with a real girl” instead of playing games, they should first keep in mind what sort of “real girl” is probably on offer for him. And considering the alternatives, who can truly blame him if he looks at his choices and decides that games and porn are genuinely the better option.
Huh. Aren’t you a game developer, Vox? I thought the first rule of GamerGate is that journalists and developers shouldn’t insult their customers.
But GamerGaters were quick to pardon Mytheos Holt for calling them all a bunch of dateless losers, and I suspect they’ll do the same with Vox, because no matter how pathetic he thinks most gamers are, it’s clear he thinks women are worse.
@Shiraz You made me laugh out loud! I was thinking as I read the post that many women have a lot more they need to escape…
@Catalpa You’re so right about GG men’s not wanting games to be fair but unfair in their favor.
To be honest, part of what I love about games is
1) You can control all the variables
when I was in grad school and working full time and my marriage was hitting the rocks, it was nice to be able to apply some creativity in problem solving and *make it work* — real life is much too complex for success like that … often effort + good intentions + creativity + determination = failure.
Men who want women to be a certain way (obedient, dependent, etc.) and maybe grew up believing that’s how women should be probably take refuge in that (especially when the female characters act the way they want real women to act). They, in some ways, get to be gods (especially if they like Civ). And silly as it sounds, success in games makes you feel less of a failure overall.
2) You can immerse yourself in a world you like that doesn’t/can’t exist in real life…
for me that meant being able to wield magic…for others it might be surrounding themselves with ‘hot babes’ who all want to ‘do’ them … always being able ride to the rescue and get gratitude/fawning/sex.
That last part, being able to ride to the rescue is no joke. I actually had a woman tell me once that strong, independent women needed to show vulnerability sometimes or men would never want them … men, she said, need to feel needed and powerful.
GG men may be ‘escaping’ women by playing games, but the point of contention is where they are escaping to … places where they (often) get to be in control and women act the way they think real women should act. They learn rules and maybe some cheat codes and get to have everything they don’t have in real life.
If ‘SJWs’ get their way (I’m part of that ‘they’), games will no longer be a beautiful fantasy land in which they they are lords and masters (or at least not all games will be like that). Could you imagine games where the ‘hot’ chicks could have autonomy? (say no). Where women could ‘win’? (beat men, be protagonists, etc.). The shock and horror! What would be the point of gaming? Isn’t that just life?
[sarcasm]Yeah, because the wimmens don’t ever have to escape from anything right? I don’t want to be a badass dragon-killing, gang-running person to escape from my life where I have to deal with shit like this on a regular basis, right? RIGHT? I mean, what social pressures could a sammich maker even have?[/sarcasm]
*pours a couple shots of whiskey in the coffee*
I swear, the social awareness of these people is so painfully minimal. “We only want gaming to be a safe space for men! Men need a safe space! White, cishetro men especially! We’re so much more persecuted than everyone else! Waaaa!”
It sounds like the rallying cry of the Narcissist GameBro.
It must really piss off people like Vox that they’re only able to rant on their blog/YouTube channel/Reddit/comment sections because no media are interviewing them. And they know why they’re not being interviewed: the media view them as irrelevant and/or unimportant.
So the lack of contact from the media is reinforcing their feelings of being ignored.
Ha, good job.
I know this isn’t exactly news, but women aren’t people to this guy, are they? Or to these guys? Just a commodity, a toy. Never a fellow traveler. How fucking depressing.
@policy. What? He’s a weakling and coward aka. A mangina. Are you a FAN of Theodore Beale?
@libarbarian
are you some kind of moron, thinking that making the “female body part = appropriate term for weak cowardice” equation somehow makes you better?
Diana: this is an OLD video but it encapsulates what you’ve just said.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=lsqiSknjHK8
Oops, take 2.
@sunnysombrera
That was funny-awesome!! Thanks for the link. Made me giggle.
Nice sexism you got there, dude. Would be a shame if anything were to happen to it… >eyeing the “e-mail mods” button<
To remind myself that people who love video games (as I do) are generally good folk, I watch Many A True Nerd on YouTube. I adore this guy, and his Fallout 3: Kill Everything run is a thing of beauty. Everyone watch and love him!
He also does short, helpful how-to’s like ‘How to Cake’, and this one:
Male fantasies of violently killing/conquering monsters and other men and everywhere in the gaming market. There is definitely a correlation between a game that lacks this and then get’s labeled as “casual”. Male fantasies involving women are less common in games, though of course that’s what internet porn is for I suppose. However in my personal experience such male fantasies don’t make for a better escape.
PUAs never hid the fact that they only consider the hottest women to be worth your while. The idea that women are only valuable for being hot, and that hotness is based on an ostensibly objective metric rather than your personal tastes are also implied. I definitely agree that this basically means that the claim “20% of the men get 80% of the women” really just means that surprise! conventionally attractive women go for conventionally attractive men.
Nooooooooooooooo embed monster whyyyyyy
Here are more reliable options for men like Vox:
http://themockdock.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/Image-100.png
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/weird-news/live-in-dolls-meet-men-love-4641967
When is Libarbarian going to be banhammered? I’ve seen wet paint more interesting than this dillweed.
you heard it here, folks – only men ever fantasize about being the hero!
Libarbarian,
I regret to inform you that your trolling is getting sadder over time rather than improving. Please won’t you try harder to entertain us?
M. the SJR; Libarbarian is boring but he is so cute. Can’t you picture him in his sparkly Unicorn PJs trying to keep his typing silent so he doesn’t wake up his Mom and Dad? Think of how the spittle sparkles in the light of the monitor as he sees one of his zingers fall flat with a dull thud and how, tired out by his futile rants, he falls asleep with his thumb in his mouth.
Shorter Pox: “Women who don’t blow us on demand are not allowed to play OUR video games because it makes us sad to be reminded that women aren’t our own personal sex dispensers.”
Also, expensive?
What? How? I don’t even… You don’t buy women, shithead.
WWTH,
I’m afraid that’s too much to ask of him. He’s giving it all he’s got already. After all, if he had any wits at all, he wouldn’t be a Libertarian or a misogynist. Sadly, this is the best he can manage.
Poor thing. Bless his heart.
Also, if men only play games to avoid women, why don’t they just get another hobby or not play games with women?
I think these guys should take up snake handling or crocodile wrestling. That’s alot more macho than sitting on your butt fighting imaginary dragons as a cartoon with a sword. (Thus ends my knowledge of Skyrim, other than everyone else in my house loves it and there are actual recipes for Skyrim Stew that are awesome.)
@Tracy
I’ve never played that game, but the video is neat. I like how the guy asked “Is the body going to be ridiculously naked again?” And of course, because the body is a lady body, it is 🙂
I don’t know how anyone can say playing most games isn’t about sexualizing women. Even when sex is not involved, women are sexualized. I know, duh … Anita’s given countless examples. Just seems sad-funny. You can pick a game not meant for young children at random and see it.
PS: Even Arcanum, which I loved…had issues.
The game included female prostitutes whose services male characters could solicit.
Soliciting prostitutes is not something I would ever do in real life, but as a bi woman, I had to know…if a female asks she can’t. But if I remember correctly, the female player can temporarily BECOME a prostitute.
Then there’s the priestess of the goddess of beauty cult who invites characters to an orgy…course she invites anyone.
And the gentleman’s club that won’t allow female players inside….and on and on.
If women are so inaccessible, why do men need to play games to get away from them?
Serrana: because inaccessible to them means “she exists in my life but I can’t bang her because she says no”. So they have to “get away” from the discomfort of seeing someone they can’t have sex with. The rest of us just accept the outcome and emotionally move on.