Men’s Rights Redditor: Beware the stealth Sarkeesians infiltrating our industries!
Sneaky Anita Sarekeesian, trying to hide behind a stack of video games.
So Angry Harry, the dotty old British uncle of the Men’s Rights movement, has a post up vaguely warning that the virus software company Symantec just might soon have some sort of shareholders revolt on its hands because it dared to put a bunch of men’s rights sites on a “hate sites” blacklist, blocking access to them for some users of Symantec’s Rulespace software.
That’s kind of an old whine at this point, but what captured my fancy was this recent discussion about Harry’s article in the Men’s Rights subreddit.
Oh, where to begin with all this? I’m charmed, of course, by the idea that feminism is just ruining things — ruining things! - for all the nice ladies in the tech world. I mean, it’s not like feminists have anything to complain about with regard to sexism amongst male techies. They’re just complainy complainers. Ladies in tech are doing just fine, thanks! Don’t take their word for it. Take the word of some random dude in the Men’s Rights subreddit for it.
But the real treat here is Hamakua’s nightmare vision of an army of secret “imbedded” Anita Sarkeesians infiltrating major corporations and … doing what, exactly? Secretly making videos about sexist tropes in video games in hidden compartments underneath their desks, like that secret nap compartment George had built under his desk at work on Seinfeld?
Beware the stealth Sarkeesians!
(Found this through the AgainstMensRights subreddit.)
Posted on June 26, 2013, in a woman is always to blame, antifeminism, misogyny, MRA, none dare call it conspiracy, paranoia, reddit, the tech sector, women in tech and tagged anita sarkeesian, anti-feminism, antifeminism, men's rights, misogyny, MRA, reddit. Bookmark the permalink. 172 Comments.
Isn’t that what most people ended up doing with their Sims?
(Not a gamer, but that’s what I seem to remember people mostly talking about. Drowning seemed to be popular.)
By the way, there are plenty of non-violent MMORPGs out there. Off the top of my head, Second Life, Habbo, IMVU and a lot of the social MU*s. They all encourage creativity, expression and socializing (and occasionally sexytiming) as the core mechanic, rather than the level/grind/event of the World of Warcraft style fantasy game.
@CassandraSays: I never played The Sims, but I seem to recall that locking Sims away from their toilets was popular with the twelve-year-olds.
Master of Orion 2 can be completed without much violence on the part of the player, but if your ships encounter a wandering space monster, they’ll be destroyed automatically unless escorted by a military vessel, so warfare is necessary.
Civ III is mostly non-violent win conditions, which require beating every other nation in one aspect (Culture, Wealth, Science, or getting to Centauri) by the end of the game, although there is the War ending (be the last Civ standing).
> or are we basically playing a stripped-down version of Far Cry 3, but with better graphics (which isn’t saying much, given that Far Cry 3 on Xbox is a fucking eyesore)?
No, you got that right.The few puzzles somewhat close to what we’ve come to expect from a Tomb Raider game are primarily tucked away in optional areas.
The climbing/jumping areas are nicely designed though, but it’s much, much more of a cover-shooter than a puzzle plattformer.
I always loved the Sims because as a person who loves to write stories I make very complex stories in my head using the sims and the photo feature. I definitely don’t ever get bored with it and could play for days on end if I didn’t have any responsibilities and a better computer. And in the Sims 3 I especially love how customizable everything is. I wish I had a better computer so I could run it more smoothly. It’s system requirements basically force you to get a gaming computer which sucks. I actually wish there was a specific murder component to add to my stories. People had made some really great action hacks (I don’t know what to call them, basically making the sims do more things that couldn’t be written into the game by the manufacturers in order to keep the E rating) for Sims 2, waiting on some for Sims 3.
Thanks for the responses regarding non-combat RPGs. I remember participating in a Civ IV discussion board, and mentioning my preference for no-war games. Nobody was rude about it, but it was clearly baffling to them. “You mean, you just. . . Build stuff? For six thousand years? I’d go insane with boredom.” My personal favorite was when I’d get my Culture rating so high, cities on my borders would revolt and request to join my civ.
Then once I tried playing as an Objectivist civ. Wound up with the smallest population and highest wealth ever. Heh.
I am no good at warfare in the Civ games, or in Master of Orion. I spend too much energy trying to upgrade my cities/colonies, I guess. But then they don’t build anything very quickly if they’re not very efficient.
So what games are Manboobzers currently playing these days?
Rainbow Six 3, GRID, Deus Ex, Splinter Cell, Civ 5, Magical Diary (…shut up, it’s cute), Hitman. and Second Reproduction (also shut up - also cute).
Animal Crossing and Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate have been my universe lately.
If any boobzers wanna friend me, my FC is 2277-6670-5589.
I hearted Bioshock Infinite. Incidentally a good example of “damsel in distress plus other traits.”
@katz:
I was actually really disappointed in BSI. Yeah, Elizabeth was a well-portrayed character, but the way race issues were handled in that game didn’t pan out the way I was hoping they would.
also the frenetic nature of the combat really distracted from the incredibly artful environments and, IMO, from the plot.
Avernum, XCOM UFO Defense, Skyrim, Zelda (Wind Waker, Twilight Princess, Skyward Sword), Valkyria Chronicles, Metal Gear Solid 4.
All pretty violent, actually. Metal Gear Solid 4 is about the most juvenile of them all. Here’s a grim look at nuclear proliferation and the rise of the military-industrial complex … with fart jokes, cheesecake mags, and vomiting.
I could never get past the fact that Bioshock isn’t System Shock.
Animal Crossing New Leaf and Pokemon White, to be honest. Got a 3dS for cheap at the local pawn shop.
Regretting it now that I have sick kitty bills. =(
Inurashii: Yeah, the race/class handling was clumsy. Sometimes it was veering towards a really simple moral, and sometimes it was trying to do something more complex, and it rather ended up falling between two proverbial chairs. I still think it’s a great game, though. Big, bold, daring works often have big problems, but IMO they’re still superior to “safe” works.
Torchlight mostly, I got it for free in GOG a few days ago.
@leftwingfox
Sorry to hear about the kitty.
Hi everyone,
I’ve been visiting the site on and off for a few months; recently, I’ve started lurking more regularly.
Anno 2070 is an RTS with little to no violence (there are a few gunboats in case your trade routes come under attack). I found it fiendishly difficult, though, and have yet to avoid running up a massive budget deficit that stopped me from building anything. It looks really beautiful, nevertheless, and also promotes the consumption of tofu. Sadly, it seems to require Uplay, which I can no longer get to work on my machine.
Is it overly cynical of me to suggest that at least some of these men formed unrealistic expectations of what ‘geeky women’ would be like and then, on meeting them, were disappointed to find that they were actual human beings, with all sorts of awkward opinions and things? Guess that brings us back to tropes, right?
Torchlight worked for me six months ago, now it doesn’t. I has a sad.
If I hadn’t paid for it already from GOG, I would have snatched it up when it was free.
Hope everything will be all right with your kitty, leftwingfox.
Thanks all.
I’m not what anyone would consider a gamer, my games are mostly limited to ipad/phone games… Is anyone else here who games mostly on tablets or phones?
Also… my friend is out of the hospital as of yesterday. It was pretty scary for awhile, but I think everything is all right now. It sure was scary getting the “If I don’t see you again, know I love you” phone call when I am about 800 km away… in an area with no roads and crappy communcation.
Hrmmm… gaming…
My friend and I just finished Curse of Monkey Island. We’re debating on what to take on next-a King’s Quest Game, or some abandonware like the Callahan’s game.
RE: anti-racist games, I would enjoy ones with none that actually have PEOPLE in them. It’s easy to find anti-racist games as long as I play Pac-Man and Frogger and shit, come on. I don’t need other people to find those for me. We were a gamer, back in the 90s, don’t insult my intelligence.
(That said, I don’t really game much anymore, and though I know a lot of gamers… I can’t claim I have that high of opinions of them as a whole. They seem to fall into a lot of the same assholery I see in nerd/geek circles.)
@bad_dog, Glad to hear about your friend and @leftwingfox, Sorry to hear about your kitty.
Computer Gaming: Civ IV, online Flash Games (most specifically, Legacy of Heroes, a CCG-style superhero game).
TTRPG:
Savage Worlds/Rippers (Victorian Horror Mash-up): I play the good (mad) Dr. Reiniger, an expert at the new ‘science’ of Rippertech-taking pieces from monsters and grafting them onto people for the purpose of making them better monster-hunters.
Old World of Darkness: Online chatroom play, set in Los Angeles’ Chinatown, using their Year of the Lotus splat-books. Several characters.
Savage Worlds/Slipstream (Flash Gordon-style Pulp Action): Playing a scorpion-man with an intense hatred and personal vengence-quest against the evil space-queen (her troops took his right arm).
d20 Modern: Playing part of a team of government operatives fighting terrorist outbreaks globally. My PC is basically a grown-up version of Mathilda from The Professional.
Witch Hunter: The Invisible World-Colonial period swashbuckling horror game. Running the game for a group set in the colony of Quebec. (They tweaked history for this one. Since magic is real, the Aztec Empire still exists, and pretty much handed Cortez his kiester. Furthermore, the Black Death targeted men specifically, with a side-effect that women are pretty much social equals, because they had to take over so many ‘traditional’ male roles during that time period-a useful means to tweak it so women in the historical game aren’t forced to play either Joan of Arc or someone with no social power.)
Arcanis: the World of Shattered Empires. Playing the holy champion of the god of death and disease.
Oooo, Chinatown…having fun with the Kuei-Jin?
By the way, just leaving this here: If anyone is still interested in RPGs that allow ‘no combat’ roles, you should check out Undertale. It has a girl protagonist, optional combat (No enemy actually needs to die; there is always a way to resolve ‘combat’ without killing any of your opponents, though you can choose to if you like), and it is the baby of a guy who has had a lot of involvement with the excellent webcomic Homestuck.
There is also a Kickstarter.
Try the demo. It is…really interesting, to say the least. And without spoiling: If you get an unfavorable, shitty result for the last fight of the demo…try going back to your last save point and doing it differently. You’ll be glad you did.
I keep hearing Screechy Fist as if he were speaking through a butthorn.
@Bad_dog, so glad your friend’s getting better.
@leftwingfox, hope your kitty gets better!
Let’s see, games. Freecell and the occasional Tetris. Back in the 90s I played a lot of Welltris at work.
One owned by a guy named Torvis?