Over on Return of Kings, one brave gamer dares to ask the question of our age: What will the world look like after the inevitable triumph of GamerGate?
I know, I know, just humor him for a few minutes. Because he has a rather, well, revealing notion of what triumph will look like, and it’s not one that’s compatible with the #NotYourShield propaganda that GamerGaters use to disguise its retrograde goals. Greendestiny, a veteran of TheRedPill and KotakuInAction on Reddit, sees in the video game “war” a new opportunity for gamebros to become Game Men:
It is my personal belief that, after GamerGate, video games will evolve to become a tool for raising a new generation of men. Our current education system fails horribly at providing real information on how the world works, what motivates people, and how to get laid.
Our education system is a disaster! Can you believe that not one college in the United States offers a major in Getlaidology?
More importantly, it pussifies men and turns them into starry-eyed believers in the Disney variety of life and love.
Huh. You know, there’s a cultural critic who’s made some interesting videos challenging the sexist tropes you can find in Disney movies and elsewhere in popular culture. Her name is Anita Sarkee… oh wait. Never mind.
The entire concept of sitting quietly and reading is meant for girls. Boys need the fight, the challenge, competition, and a test of their strength.
So why exactly are you trying to convince guys of this in a post you expect them to sit down and read? Shouldn’t your blog post be a video game or an arm-wrestling contest or something?
Games were always learning tools. Now they can become a tool for learning greater masculinity.
If by masculinity you mean “the proper sequence of buttons to push that will enable you to pull off an awesome combo.”
To become real men, boys must overcome challenges and find the true strength in themselves. Whether this is done in a virtual or real arena is irrelevant. By creating games that are consciously aimed at presenting a proper challenge, we can collectively make the world a better place for the next generation of men. And possibly help them get laid more.
“Hey, babe, I bet you didn’t know you were sitting next to a Level 90 Fire Mage.”
But seriously for a second: Yes, video games do teach gamers certain skills, and even something about the value of persistence. But why are the skills involved in, say, shooting dudes with maximum efficiency in Call of Duty any more intrinsically valuable, or “masculine,” than the skills involved in doing this?
I’ll be honest, and I know that’s a little off-topic, but that cup stacking video kinda blew my mind :O
I glanced over the article (and read some of the comments *shiver*) and it seems like they think we can’t take criticism? Like at all?
I suppose their idea of “criticism” is “let me threaten to [violent act] you because you’re a [insert slur here] and I don’t like you”, rather than the rational world’s definition of criticism which is “calmly stating that I don’t like a thing and here’s some logical reasons/opinions why and I don’t use threats to get my ‘point’ across”.
Also, in the comments of that article, they were talking about dismissing the opinions of the creator of the block app because she’s “an ugly white girl with blue hair”.
Yeah, because ETHICS IN GAME JOURNALISM, amirite?
That video was awesome and hilarious.
The idea that sitting there mashing buttons as part of a game where when you die you can always just start over again is a test of a man’s strength will never stop being hilarious.
So men are meant to be barely-literate louts. So much for the great thinky thinker men who tell us books and thinky stuff is for men, not for fluffy ladybrain types.
Make up your alleged minds, misogynists!
Also what the hell is going on with that alien weirdo with the sunken head?
(Mr. Futrelle, I believe you missed a ‘t’ in that image caption /nitpick)
And that kind if thinking always amazes me.
THIS time, this time we will finally crack the Female Mysteries, and figure out how to get women to bang us without all that tedious Relationship and Getting-to-know-You garbage.
THIS time, for sure, we have found the way to be Real Men, an easy and almost universally-accessible means to something intangible and largely socially constructed. That will also make women bang us.
It never works. The last several thousand things haven’t worked, either. It’s a never-ending Sisyphean quest that just ends with lots of stupid decisions, half-baked ideas and faulty logic making lots of people very angry at each other.
Also that girl has SKILLS. Nice to see stuff like that still being done. It washes the poison of those quote blocks away.
So… Women are capable of becoming decent people merely by verbal instruction, but men require active teaching and challenge to do the same. Roosh V, clearly thinking highly of his fellow men.
My sons game constantly and are physically unfit, and do not socialise as much as I would like them to. It really DOES matter if you game instead of doing things IRL. I am hoping that they will broaden their horizons, but I cannot see it happening any time soon. And the results of a whole generation of men living their lives online and gaming 10 hours a day? Well, at best they will be (even more) socially inept, antagonistic towards those who do not share their interests, etc, etc.
Now I have to go and watch the Skrillex track that the cup girl is on.
Yes, dubstep is a guilty pleasure of mine!
Like any music, dubstep can be amazeballs when done correctly. I love the older Flux Pavillion stuff.
Ira Shantz-Kreutzkamp, LOL! You’ve summed them up beautifully.
The screenshot of that young woman is such a delight – she looks so utterly joyous!
Hold up hold up hold up. So we’re replacing the Disney notion of romance with the video game notion of romance? Let’s take a look at some classic video game love stories:
A man who is constantly chasing a woman who is always with another guy (or in another castle)
A boy/man who crosses the time barrier to ??? (I challenge you to find a love story between Link and Zelda in an actual game) a woman who becomes an untouchable sage while fending off the advances of a fish princess and a perpetually underage girl who both also become untouchable sages.
A man who falls in love with a science experiment who is then killed by another science experiment and then sorta half-settles for his childhood friend
Countless men who watch their families slaughtered before their eyes because motivation
Everyone is into you, just hit A at the right points to get the goods. Oh, wait. That’s what they want anyway. Why cry about being “duped” by the notion of romantic love if you don’t even want it?
Magical computer games that somehow transform immature boys who don’t spend times with real people in real life into testosterone filled sex machines… Yep, I can see how that would appeal to gamergaters. Obviously it’s much more appealing than the actual hard work it is to transform immature boys into actual adults (not just grown ups).
@kittehserf Thank you! After a while, this stuff blends together so much the trend’s more obvious than the details.
As fo the picture, my guess is something wonky happened to a character model after the skeleton twisted during a “getting hit” animation. The head got stuck(somehow?) and hasn’t been reset, thus the monstrosity.
Not to mention that testosterone-filled sex machines don’t exactly sound like things people would want to be around.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fPLMGmCZwHM&w=420&h=315%5D
Perhaps boys, as a whole, would be doing better in school if nimrods like you weren’t constantly cutting boys down and calling them gendered slurs for doing well at music, drama, art, and other academic achievements. And if you weren’t constantly denigrating universities as useless pointy-headed ivory towers of elitist foppery. Like kittehserf said, you need to make up your minds whether thinky stuff is good or bad.
Also, the “boy crisis in schools” is overblown. Sure, girls do better at behaving and sitting still and following directions, but where does that get them in the workplace? The raises, the promotions, and the corner offices tend to go to the rule-breakers, the risk takers, and the well-connected. Yes, there’s unfairness and disparity in our culture, but it’s class-related, not gender-related.
Ira – so their wonderful real-life game character just turned into something out of Looney Tunes. Ha!
Sitting and reading quietly is for girls! Now, sitting and clicking quietly: this is the true crucible of the next generation of Men. And they’ll get laid more probably.*
*The contractually obligated “oh and they’ll get laid more” clauses tacked on incongruously are the funniest parts.
This is on the same comedy level as calling competitive gamers (e-sports) ‘athletes.’
Also, I love glitch pics. The ‘Please reconnect controller’ gives this one an added touch to the hilarity. Snagged for the library!
@kittehserf:
That’s what it looks like when an MRA’s head goes a little too far up his ass.
It’s a game glitch that has messed up the character rendering. Same type of thing that results in your character getting stuck in a wall.
Truly, there is no higher form of comedy in games than getting stuff stuck in the level/wall joins and watching it freak out.