The recent hubbub over Mass Effect has been the focus of some attention on this site, as well as just about every other site devoted to gaming. Some of that attention has been well deserved-the inaccurate statements should be publicly corrected, as should any untruths. Electronic Arts Vice President of Communications Jeff Brown has come out asking for a correction of the record by Fox News, and he is completely right to do so. The actions of gamers, on the other hand, are a bit off.
Dennis McCauley, Political Editor for the Entertainment Consumers Association, recently published a Joystiq blog entry on the whole ordeal. In his post, he praises the acts of gamers for their emails and calls to the radio show of conservative author Kevin McCullough, who pretty much got this whole mess started when he picked up a story from the Cybercast News Service. McCauley then goes on the slyly praise the cyber vandalism acts of gamers for their comments posted to Cooper Lawrence’s Amazon book listings. In fairness, he does state he cannot condone their acts while with a sly wink praising the gaming community to have the guts to do what game companies will not. His analysis is that such acts “represent a new kind of guerilla activism that says gamers don’t intend to be societal punching bags any longer.” Great, just what gamers need-more bad press.
While to the Internet community bombarding people with emails and flooding Amazon with negative book reviews might seem like activism, to the mainstream community it just seems thuggish-at best. McCauley says the gaming community is tired of being labeled “nerdy, weird, obsessed, desensitized, perverted, violent,” and this is how they respond? These sorts of reactions simply justify the first three outright in many minds, and I’m sure somewhere there is a message board posting raving for an assault on Fox News headquarters. The fact that this whole mess is over criticism of a sex scene does help with those stereotypes, either.
Yes, there is nothing intrinsically wrong with sex in games. Every form of entertainment involves sex in some manner, so it only makes sense that games would, as well. However, like it or not, video games are still not viewed by the non-gaming crowd as the “interactive stories” that many gamers view them as. To many they are still simply Pac-Man or Super Mario Bros.-again, at best. Responding to any criticism by going personally after the critics (read the Amazon postings for such comments) or by apparently freaking out to the mere insinuation that someone may take your simulated sex scenes away makes the gaming community look just like the stereotypes they so despise.
If the gaming community hopes to ever be taken seriously then it will have to adapt the way it responds to critics. Harassing critics is not the way to go about it. Presenting positive images and defending them rationally is. Until then, the stereotypes will remain, unfortunately, true.
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By Iliad on Apr 27, 2008 | Reply
They view our incredibly tame manners of protesting the deplorable way mainstream society treats us for the same reasons they did it to every other generation with every other scapegoat… no matter how reasonable the manner in which we fight their tyranny they will always call us thugs for fighting back at all, this article proves my point itself,
“bombarding people with emails and flooding Amazon with negative book reviews”
How could anyone possibly see such actions as “thuggish” that is the fault of the shameless old men, fear mongering and grandstanding, remaining willfully ignorant in the face of greater, almost overwhelming evidence that they are wrong in every possible way.
Shame on them and shame on the writer of this article who dared to even imply that WE don’t deserve respect because of THEIR shame full behavior.
By Ari on Jun 10, 2008 | Reply
Incredibly tame or not, thuggish or not, these protests aren’t helping the case of gamers everywhere. Pointing fingers at the old men only further promotes the view of gamers as a bunch of irresponsible, immature brats. While we can’t really change public perception about us gamers, at least not in a single generation, we also can’t expect them to budge on their opinions. Time will soften the views of most people, and most gamers in the US are now of voting age, but to ask ‘how they could dare imply such a thing’ is just leaping on the same high horse as the opposition which, by the way, has the weight of public approval behind them. We’re the ‘nerds in their mom’s basement’ here, not them.
I agree that most public perception of video games and gamers is dead wrong, but demanding respect in such a way won’t get us anywhere.