Quaro
3441
I would appreciate if people took this ‘culture war’ and took the word ‘gamer’ out of it please. I used to like that word. Now I hesitate to use it because it’s so associated with assholes spending hours every day focused on their war and hurting people.
LockerK
3442
I’m not quite sure since I don’t follow patreon closely and since I’m not a backer it’s not really any of my business what it gets spent on. From my (limited) understanding Depression Quest was a one person job so considering it a “salary” especially since the game was released for free may not be far off.
Your imagination seems pretty epic. Do you imagine yourself standing, ripped and shirtless, on a heap of vanquished SJWs?
Edit: I might add I remember pretty clearly a time when we were actually de facto ostracized (and demonized in the press) for gaming. Nothing even remotely like that is going on now. Gaming is a completely acceptable mainstream pursuit (although a lot of the gaming that i do still baffles and puzzles people).
CraigM
3444
Heh, it’s kinda funny. My wife said it was weird when she saw me playing Europa Universalis or Saints Row. I then made the comment that she is never allowed to call anything I play weird, based on her choice of shows. We’re all weird in different ways, so whatever.
I’m not following. Who you are referring to as “culture warriors” in this context, and why is it odd that they want to change society? Almost every religion wants to change society in ways that they perceive as beneficial. Are you denouncing nuns and pro life rallies?
Nesrie
3446
Gaming is certainly an acceptable mainstream pursuit. It’s talked about all the time at work, and with friends and family now. Being a gamer though, isn’t. When someone tells you they spent the entire weekend playing the new COD, or discovering some new mobile game but then get all weirded out if you call them a gamer… that’s still a problem. It seems mainstream likes the medium, but they hate the perceived culture, and I am not talking just about the gaming community, I am talking about the industry too.
Busbecq
3447
Just about everyone loves drinking, but comparatively few people have the mix of pathology and self insight/hopelessness to self label as an alcoholic.
You work in a pretty geeky environment if you think that’s mainstream. The true mainstream wouldn’t have a clue what you’re talking about, and certainly doesn’t know that “gamer” means anything to anyone other than someone who plays games. At best, they might think it means they play games more than average.
In my experience, there’s a couple of kinds of “mainstream” when we talk about it in regards to gaming.
There’s our age mainstream - People have played 8-bit/16-bit Mario and stand-up arcade games. They may have owned an Atari or Nintendo system. They know about Pitfall, Space Invaders, and Donkey Kong, but if asked to supply details they’ll get them jumbled up and confused. Basically, gaming stopped for them when the industry crashed in the 80’s. They’ve heard about GTA, Doom, and Call of Duty. They know it’s what “the kids” play and they’re all extremely violent and you kill hookers in them. Gaming at our age is not normal and anyone that says they play videogames from our generation is weird and suspect.
There’s millennial mainstream - Gaming is hip, as long as you do it with a smirk and don’t take it seriously. They know the difference between Call of Duty and GTA, but it’s a blow-off steam casual thing. Anyone who spends more than a couple of hours a week console or PC gaming is kind of odd, because… Oh, Candy Crush! My gems have recharged!
Younger than that mainstream - Minecraft, Minecraft, PewDiePie, Minecraft
Im saying the solution to receiving abuse on twitter (i.e whatever ZQ receives, or the 150 or so out of the 20,000+ tweets the @femfreq team receives weekly) is not ranting about how society must change*, but probably insisting the messaging network does something technical involving filters, because anonymous abuse is not going to go away by people wringing hands and agreeing how awful those nasty trolls are.
*how I don’t know, SJW doctrine seems to offer lots of claims, insults and shouting but little in the way of solutions.
Agreeing that it exists and is shitty is a necessary precondition to making it go away (or at least, minimizing it and driving it underground into social unacceptability).
ranting about how society must change
Yeah like that MLK guy ranting on about his “dream”. How dare people express a desire for change!!
Once again we see this weird disconnect, treating GamerGate like a force of nature, an inevitable consequence of being feminist on the internet. Those trolls ARE people.
Actual human beings make a decision to tweet that shit. Zoe didn’t go into the sewer, people carried buckets of shit and threw them at her. So yes, people wringing hands will help. That’s how gaming culture gets better.
Quaro
3453
Ugh…
Poople need to find some hobbies. Like playing games…
Nesrie
3454
Our work environment is not that geeky, but there are a lot of us who grew up playing games. We know what games are and what gamers are, and non-gamers know too. It’s not that mysterious, and no it’s not just just Big Bang Theory fans either. One of our trainers that plays Minecraft, COD and Madden, also collects lego sets does not consider himself a gamer. Another thinks Tropico and Civilization are awesome games, hates multiplayer games, does not consider herself a gamer. One plays D3 and Hearthstone, still not a gamer there. They’re making conscious decision to play games and not be gamers, but they know a lot about games and are fans of them.
Of the 40-ish people in my department at work, I only know of one other person who actually plays any video games beyond Candy Crush Saga or Threes, and even he would be considered pretty casual by most standards.
CraigM
3456
In my department I actually have one coworker who streams to Twitch from his Xbox. I’ve gotten 3 hooked on Kerbal Space Program, Crusader Kings 2 AND Total War. Out of an area that consists of 3 people besides me.
Granted this does not apply at all to the wider company, printing tends to skew older and more analog, but still there’s plenty to talk about there.
You’d be shocked at the % of people who DON’T play (anyone else’s) games in companies I work for.
Games companies.
Been doing IT for almost 20 years and I’m almost always the sole nerd/gamer. Went to see Stan Lee back in 2005 and had to explain who the f*ck he was to literally every co-worker. Though we did just hire a new contractor a month ago who’s into his Nintendo Wii U.
Nesrie
3459
On my team, I would say about 80% of us play games, and most of us are under 40, goes to almost 100% if you include mobile gaming.
CraigM
3460
Well as long as they’re a programmer, or artist, or some other such similar thing it’s not too horrible. If it is a producer or lead designer? Be afraid, be very afraid.
