UBON'S PROFILE

author=kentona
to defeat it, you must remain steadfastly obstinate until the superboss throws up its hands and leaves, muttering under its breath

COWARD. I WILL NEVER LOG OFF.

author=kentona

author=slash
Y'know, since we're already floating in the ether discussion-wise, I really liked Sooz's line of thinking a few pages back. Specifically, the fact that you can add diverse characters without needing to specifically acknowledge it, right? Like, the idea that you only include a black character or a gay character or a trans character when you're trying to create some sort of message is silly. I think that's a pitfall a lot of us trip into.

the flipside of this is if you nonchalantly add a diverse character, others will assume you are making a statement about whatever group that character is identified as belonging to, regardless of what you intended. Furthermore, the slightest misstep there can land you in a PR nightmare. So I am not surprised that people sidestep this potential hassle entirely and just make the characters non-descript 30 something buzz cut white hetero males. Which leaves only the developers who are making a statement about a particular group. Which just further reinforces this cycle.

I guess we need more brave (or apathetic) game developers to be more cavalier about the diversity of their cast of characters.

Personally, though, right now, if I had a plan to include a boorish asshole as a character, I would not make him, say, homosexual, lest it be perceived that I think all homosexuals are boorish assholes. I might not even consider making him a "her". Not until it becomes more normalized to see diversity in games as a whole where my game could blend in with the masses. I don't have the anonymity or PR skills or personal strength to handle any kind of fallout or drama otherwise.

the risk of this becomes far less pronounced as long as you aren't just putting in one marginalized character to bear the weight of the audience's expectations. most concerns about tokenism, or the appearance of tokenism, are solved by this.

I'm pretty happy with that progression! I was heavily, heavily into that same smug 'pff, amateurs' mindset myself until not too long ago, and it's good to see it falling out of favour.

the term! it's been in fairly popular circulation here for a little while, so I'm wondering how and when it was popularized.

few people self-identify as an 'SJW' except as a bad joke, and also there hasn't been a decades-old multi-billion dollar industry focused on creating 'SJW' as a buyer identity to sell products by promising not only instant gratification, but also moral and intellectual superiority based on purchasing decisions. visit any gaming con and you'll clearly see what I'm talking about when I mention 'gaming culture'. visit activist groups, and you'll see little of what people attribute to 'SJWs'.

there are problems in feminism and activism at large, certainly -- but we already call those by their names. white feminism speaking over black women, trans-exclusionary feminists attacking trans women, and so on. none of these problems are acknowledged with the useless and senationalist umbrella term of 'SJW', whose only consistent meaning is 'activist who Takes It Too Far' -- 'too far' being, potentially, literally anything the speaker dislikes.

'gamer', though, is characterized by consumerism and a desire for gratification and superiority based on purchases, an observable behaviour in any large-scale event aimed at this self-identified subculture. a common consequence of this, associating personal tastes with personal worth, is a large part of why gamers are uncomfortable with harsh criticism of things they enjoy; to them, that parses as 'you're a bad person for liking this bad thing', when what's being said is more complex than that.

to put it plainly, 'gamers' define themselves by the way they engage with their hobby, while 'SJW' is an externally-imposed label stuffed onto anyone the speaker finds inconvenient. just because two things seem like ideological opposites doesn't mean that they're both equally true.

you see how I'm not accusing anyone of being a 'gamer' as though that would dismiss everything they're saying? that's the difference.