15 Replies to “234”

  1. I appreciate that you’re bnirging up the contradiction between criticizing sexual assault in games while not criticizing murder in games. I haven’t fully reconciled how I’ll play a game where I can shoot people when I’m actively antiwar, antipolice brutality, etc. IRL. I’ll do direct action against war or have a showdown in the street with cops at a protest, but I love how empowered I feel inhabiting my female Commander Shepard when I play ME. Games are produced in a culture that both tolerates and encourages violence against women and certain forms of murder (those enacted by the state, such as war and police killings), and games reflect and perpetuate the culture that produces them. I’m curious why we socially minded gamers are more critical of sexism in games than other forms of violence. My current hypothesis is that if we were to extend our criticism to other values that games promote (militarization, war, using violence to solve conflicts etc.) we may have to demand an end to such content in games, as we demand an end to sexism in games. And I’m not sure I’m ready to play videogames that aren’t violent!This is just something I’ve been thinking about and want to write on, but haven’t thought it out all the way yet. I’m not looking for a heated debate right now since these are just initial thoughts, but I’d love to hear what others think.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *