Thursday, August 5, 2010

Prop 8, Starcraft 2 and Leigh Alexander

Prop 8 was finally defeated in court yesterday, and although I'm certain there will be an appeal it will likely be defeated again. The thing about the constitution is that it applies to everyone, not just whoever you happen to be. So the second amendment applies to people like myself who want a .22 to take to the firing range, and it also applies to Tea Party members who want to open carry 2 AK-47s (modified to be semi-auto, naturally!) and 3 glocks into a Starbucks. The funny thing is how different people react to the realization that the Constitution exists to protect the rights of all from the tyranny of the masses. When a gun control law is defeated in court, most progressives shrug and say "welp" while Republicans cheer and say "awwww hell yeah second amendment" but with regards to Loving V. Virginia or the Prop 8 decision, the Conservative consensus is "DAMN THESE ACTIVIST JUDGES OVER-RULING THE WILL OF THE PEOPLE!".

If you don't like living in a constitutional republic you're more than welcome to get the fuck out, GOP.

Leigh Alexander wrote an excellent article on Gamasutra found here which I found fascinating because it not only confirmed suspicions I had about micromanagement of acquired brands at Activision, but also answered a lot of questions about why we see so few games with female protagonists. I myself had played DJ Hero to completion and wondered why there was an abundance of licensed male DJs, yet absolutely no licensed female DJs (or fictional ones wearing more than a bikini). I also think this helps explain away the weirdest moment of SC2: The Scientist Lady who shows up, hangs around for like 6 missions which have nada to do with the plot, then kisses Jim Raynor goodbye and begs him to shack up with her. This was the single most immersion breaking moment in any Blizzard game, right up there with time Thrall performed a tap dance to win over the Tauren as allies.

Damnit that Paragraph got away from me, but at any rate, notice the reaction of gamers to Alexander's post? When a male author makes even a baseless claim about Activision being horrible the general consensus is "that's right bro!" but GOD FORBID a woman see fit to cite actual sources and criticize Activision, as the resulting consensus among the brodudes is "FEMINAZI ATTACKING OUR GAMES! QUICK THINK OF A REASONABLE SOUNDING LIBERTARIAN MIND FART BASED COUNTER ATTACK!".

2 comments:

Darth Rachel said...

it was really frustrating (and yea.. infuriating) reading the comments on Leigh's article.

Pretty much everyone missed the point of the article - that Activision is DEF controlling artistic vision and instead trolled on and on and OOONNN about women and gaming and how women aren't the majority of gamers so shaddup blah blah blah.

other than most of them being shitheads for reactions .. do they honestly read what they type? REALLY?

PS - this being my first year with an internet handle that identifies me as a girl (the old one that i still bounce around with is DuneManic) i am def getting a lot more girls suck and feminazi (fuckk i hate that word) crap from people. now i know why Leigh is hesitant to out herself as a woman half the time.

The Fremen said...

It seems like lately the sexism in geek/nerd culture is REALLY apparent, between Gamasutra and sdcc last week. The thing about trolling is that there is a time and a place, there should have been a really important discussion going on in gamasutra about how the huge publishers are destroying any chance of creativity in games, the same way the hollywood studio system does.

Also, perhaps you should go with a name that more clearly identifies you as a Dune fan? At least then the usual band of misogynists will call you a "Bene Gesserit witch!" if anything.

But seriously, the women hating wing of nerd culture should just stick to the asshole of the internet, and leave the rest of us to create an egalitarian nerdtopia.