Roosh Valizadeh — the pickup artist and would-be video game media mogul — is still trying to convince gamers that even though he’s not one of them he’s on their side. Earlier this week, Roosh reached out to GamerGaters with a paid advertorial in The Ralph Retort, a GamerGate-centric internet tabloid, in which he tried to explain who he was and why gamers should trust him.
But he couldn’t even make it to the end of his little spiel without insulting the dudes his new video game website Reaxxion is trying to appeal to, contrasting the escapism of video games with the difficult but necessary work he and his followers do. By which he means the hard work they do trying to convince drunk women to have sex with them.
[A]ll guys devote a certain amount of time of their day to consuming entertainment that breaks up the drudgery of life. Meeting girls, make no doubt about it, is work. Approaching women and dating them is difficult and takes a serious devotion of energy and mental resources. Playing games, on the other hand, while tactically challenging, is more relaxing for men in that it’s a method to unwind from life’s stresses.
Also, if you’re trying to pick up women, you have to remember to clean out the boogers in your nose and wipe your ass. And we know how Roosh feels about that.
I do have to wonder how many Channers who claim to be autistic actually are. I would not be surprised if some of them self diagnosed because they’re socially awkward and have trouble relating to people then used that self diagnosis as an excuse to be an asshole. Just the way they talk about autism from what I’ve seen doesn’t seem genuine at all.
It’s quite condescending and ableist to act like autistic people are not capable of learning the difference between right and wrong or modifying inappropriate behavior. My brother is on the lower functioning end of the scale than anyone in the chan culture is and he can do it. So can they (if they are telling the truth in the first place).
The blaming bad behavior on autism trend really, really needs to die in a fire.
@kirbywarp:
Sorry, it’s a bit late for a reply, but I’m not sure I understand what you were telling me. I mean, it was pretty obvious from the start that GG was not about gaming, however I’m still wondering why in the nine hells people would make “Thing X” the core of their movement’s identity (even though we know it’s just an excuse) and then ally with people who have a history of insulting “Thing X”. Then again, I’ve seen stranger bedfellows, so I shouldn’t be surprised when it happens. I’m reminded of the time when the late Andrea Dworkin got stuck campaigning against porn alongside the religious right.
(Or something like that, I think. I was too young to be aware of all that at the time, and I’m going from what I seem to remember reading. Please do correct me if I’m wrong.)
By the way, I keep seeing the word “sealion” used in the comments. I guess I must have missed it, but uh… what does it mean? :-/
@M Tremblay
“sealioning” is when a commenter produces a #notallmen, but words it in such a way that they can pretend they are polite and genuinely interested, and definitely aren’t just trying to shut the conversation down. I think the name originated here:
http://wondermark.com/1k62/
M. Treblay:
Sealion is a reference to this cartoon:
http://wondermark.com/c/2014-09-19-1062sea.png
Basically, a person who enters a space and are impolite despite using ‘polite’ — or just thinking they are using ‘polite’ language when they aren’t really — and consistently try to debate or JAQ-off.
In case you don’t know what JAQing off is, it’s when someone disingenuously insists that they are Just Asking a Question, when they really aren’t interested in an answer, or are just going to debate everything for the sake of debating, and not debating for the sake of finding a truth.
Sealioning basics.
I’m just gonna note that this was an interesting read: https://storify.com/a_man_in_black/how-chan-style-anonymous-culture-shapes-gamergate
It also somehow reminded me of “Life of Brian”, specifically of the scene where Brian shouts “You’re all individuals!” and the crowd echoes back, “Yes, we’re all individuals.”
@Plaatsvervangende Schaamte:
When I turn on my Playstation, I hear the angered chords of a horde of feminists enraged that a man is logging on to rearrange colorful blocks for a few minutes, and expressing themselves through chamber music.
http://youtu.be/yyoFHGQHbOI
So. Furious.
@Plaat:
I’m trying for the umpteenth time to get through Baldur’s Gate 2. The furthest I’ve ever gotten was into the Underdark; there’s a small dwarf mine there where you can rest and buy some stuff.
It occurs to me to wonder why so many vendors outside of the actual city sell you basic arms and weapons. Is it verisimilitude? There was a chance in Baldur’s Gate 1 that your gear would break, because of the iron crisis. But by the time I’ve done even just a couple of quests out of the Slums in Athkatla, I’ve got more magic armor than I can wear (given that three of my party are multi- or dual-classed mages).
I enjoyed Icewind Dale 1, but didn’t get very far in Icewind Dale 2. I am looking forward to exploring how the latter game implements the 3rd Edition rules.
@Falconer,
Not very well, in my opinion. Partly it’s the 3rd edition rules’ fault. They actually implemented stuff like level adjustment for supernatural creatures that were disastrous in tabletop as well. But frankly, most of the innovations of 3rd translate poorly to the crpg format. Baldur’s Gate 2 actually implemented a lot of the best things about third edition, like sorcerers, monks, and barbarians, and its “kits” were on par with feats. Icewind Dale 2 isn’t bad, but it doesn’t feel radically different from the Gate. It’s pretty much more of the same.
@Orion
I second the notion. Notion, not motion. No real rule-making here!
That said…
(This terribad misappropriation of biological, evolutionary, ecological, and taxonomic nomenclature is now over…)
@kootiepatra I’ve heard so much of that in response to the UVA case. Right away the college president and a bunch of pundits jump in with ideas about bystander prevention and who can serve what kind of alcohol and someone might put something in your drink… not a word about how RAPISTS are the problem. No one in that story was raped by a beer, but by a PERSON. Rapists aren’t coming up with fresh new ways to get away with their crime – they’re accessing the same garbage culture that has enabled them all along.
How about trying to create a culture that respects women and our autonomy and agency? Too complex for academia?
@Orion:
You can play powerful creatures in Icewind Dale 2?
Yeah, I was giving this the side eye yesterday and I’m one of those women privileged similarly to Crissa.
And needs to be a Wondermark cartoon soonest! I’m noodling about in the archives right now…
You can play Drow, Duergar, and I think maybe Deep Halflings.
IIRC
Deep gnomes, not deep halflings. But Tieflings and Aasimar are in.
Oh my glob, Icewind Dale 2… that takes me way back. I never finished it, even though I started loads of times on different computers over the years.
Now I want to know how it ends! Excuse me while I find a synopsis online…
(Also any Neverwinter Nights fans here?)
re: CTA harrassment
one of the most heartening things I’ve ever seen on the CTA involved a guy roaming around being obviously inappropriate when another man walked up to him, said “you’re creeping me out. Go stand over there” and basically put the creeper in time-out. He then stood guard over him until the guy got off the train.
@Orion: So what’s so disastrous about level adjustment? Yeah, it means that one friend of mine who’s always wanted to play a beholder has to get used to disappointment, but I played in a six- or seven-month campaign and Beloved played a tiefling wizard and we didn’t think the one level she lagged behind us was a big problem.
@saphy: I played Neverwinter Nights until all the areas started to blend together and I started to miss having a full party. But it was fun. I enjoyed Neverwinter Nights 2, but I haven’t finished it yet (are you detecting a pattern?).
maistrechat, that is wonderful. <3
@Falconer
I found the original NWN to be SO buggy that I had to give up just as I reached the final battle. Infuriating but I had had enough.
I have finished NWN2 several times! I like the relationships within the party, how it affects the gameplay in different ways. I liked to play as different characters: as myself, as the other gender, as an evil bastard, etc. I was disappointed that being a bad leader of the keep and army didn’t really negatively affect the later battles, though.
Also the limited romance options were annoying. Hetero and even then only one of each gender available for romancin’.
@saphy: Well, the game is several years old. The trans character in Dragon Age Inquisition seems to be the only thing anyone can talk about, regarding that game, so there’s progress.
I started to see, more than a pattern, a formula in Bioware games of the 00s. You’ll get to the end of the game and have to fight the woman that started you on the plot. You fight the paladin in Neverwinter Nights, you fight the Jedi Bastila Shan in Knights of the Old Republic … I never got very far in Jade Empire, my computer kept looping around the first ornithopter minigame and depositing me in the Doomed Hometown I just left.
@Falconer
It seems a pretty standard “Woah look where the narrative has gone now AREN’T YOU SURPRISED AND CONFLICTED” plot device for the lazy or formulaic writer, doesn’t it?
The main thing that bothered me with NWN2 was the same thing that bothers me in a lot of narratives: the timeline. So the player character was wounded as a baby by the sword belonging to the warlock who fought King of Shadows, and it’s a major plot point driving your whole ‘hero narrative’, and then you get to talking about it with other characters and they’re all like “Wow what is the King of Shadows” or inferring that it was ages ago and partially lost in the mists of time and I’m like “wtf, my standard human character is probably about 25, WHO FORGETS AN EPIC SUPERNATURAL SHADOW BATTLE IN 25 YEARS”. It can only work if you’re playing as an elf with a few centuries under the belt and even then it’s not quite satisfactory because there would be loads of other old elves who would remember it.
ARGH.
@Newt & contrapangloss: Oh dear, now I understand! Thanks! (Plus, looks like I got a new webcomic to read, yay!)
I already knew about JAQing off, though, but thanks anyways! 😉
I must be getting old in Mammotheer years: every time I see NWN on this page I think for a moment it’s NWO, as in Owly.