Response to JF Sargent
Not to long ago JF Sargent posted this criticism of prejudices in video games on Cracked. He then got a shitstorm of responses with people who argued varying things about why Sargent was wrong. On Twitter he asked (rhetorically?) why so many people responded with such ire to this post on video games and not as loudly so a similar post from a few months ago about movies.
On Twitter he said:
Hey — why didn’t anyone freak out about my “Prejudices in Movies” article? Are those things more socially acceptable to point out?
I responded:
maybe hardcore gamers feel like games are more niche and less of a mainstream thing, like movies. They’re defensive about any criticism. Games are too violent, too sexual, too sexist, too immature, too racist. Any time anyone criticizes games gamers take up arms (almost more juvenile than comic fans) that those things ate important to the game. I mean, you know about Feminist Frequency and the shitstorm that happened because she wants to do an intelligent discussion on women in video games. The fact that anyone, let alone a woman, had the audacity to say anything about games and they became misogynistic twats. I should have just waited and written you an email. It also would have been a lot longer.
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