Men + Women + Gaming

[D_Yeti_Esquire]

For lack of a great all-encompassing article, I thought I'd just post this.
http://www.theguardian.com/technolog...sian-zoe-quinn

This is one of those "distantly" near to my heart stories in the sense that at one time I was a big gamer. I got annoyed when Ebert said video games could not be art, lived through the Jack Thompson "video games are turning your children into psychopaths" media phase, and otherwise endured the phase when gaming was not actually mainstream.

It's just amazing to me the "talking past each other" nature of this story. So many issues are coming up. Women are being doxxed and threatened for having an opinion (regardless of what you think about that opinion). The entire gamer community is being tarred as misogynist by some or worse erasing the existence of gamers that are not young, white, and male. There's the gamergate story itself which speaks to incestuous nature of gaming press. There's also Sarkeesian's series itself which in all honestly has gone about proving exactly what it wanted to prove.

People are strange.

[AccountingDrone]

I posted an article about it to Straight Dope and more or less got called an idiot because I said that I really don't consider most women they seem to be calling gamers actually to be gamers. Sorry, I really do not consider sudoku and candy crush to be gaming. I have been a GM for SOE, alpha, closed beta, invite beta and open beta tester for 60+ no shit games [[PC, I don't do platform.] I have actively been playing sandtable games since I was 5 years old [Dad and I preferred Napoleanics] D&D from the time it was being passed around at GenCon by the developers [I liked it, Dad didn't, but I was already a fan of Tolkein and fantasy books.] AD&D when it came out, and single player RPGs on first the Amiga then on PC until 1999 when SOE came out with Everquest 1. I have played DAOC, EQ1, betatested EQ2, Beta's and then played WoW, beta'd and played Aion, beta'd and am playing GW2, played LOTRO, Eve Online ... and when playing EQ1 was in the top raid guild in the entire game, and on a secondary was a member and guild boss of the third oldest guild on Solusek Ro. I lived and killed in null sec in Eve, and knew Vile Rat.

Sorry. Nothing in Farmville gets me excited. When your cow can eat your face, give me a ring.

[TheHuckster]

I posted an article about it to Straight Dope and more or less got called an idiot because I said that I really don't consider most women they seem to be calling gamers actually to be gamers. Sorry, I really do not consider sudoku and candy crush to be gaming. I have been a GM for SOE, alpha, closed beta, invite beta and open beta tester for 60+ no shit games [[PC, I don't do platform.] I have actively been playing sandtable games since I was 5 years old [Dad and I preferred Napoleanics] D&D from the time it was being passed around at GenCon by the developers [I liked it, Dad didn't, but I was already a fan of Tolkein and fantasy books.] AD&D when it came out, and single player RPGs on first the Amiga then on PC until 1999 when SOE came out with Everquest 1. I have played DAOC, EQ1, betatested EQ2, Beta's and then played WoW, beta'd and played Aion, beta'd and am playing GW2, played LOTRO, Eve Online ... and when playing EQ1 was in the top raid guild in the entire game, and on a secondary was a member and guild boss of the third oldest guild on Solusek Ro. I lived and killed in null sec in Eve, and knew Vile Rat.

Yeah, it's kind of like when people call chess a sport, and equate it with rugby. There's nothing wrong with playing candy crush (unless you're addicted to it like I've seen where you rack up hundreds of dollars of microtransactions) but to equate it with games like Eve Online makes no sense.

Heck, even myself: I play Eve Online, but don't have the commitment to join a hardcore corp or even really venture out into nullsec much... I'm a self-described carebear, and thus I consider myself to not even be a "gamer" in that game. I'm more of a casual explorer than anything else.

I tend to stick to the single player games like Half-Life, although as you can tell, I haven't really played much since 2007. I'm planning on getting back into the newer games, though.

Besides that, I play games like SimCity 4, Civilization, and Flight Simulator... which again aren't really on the same level as games like EQ.

So, yeah, when people ask how much of a "gamer" I am, despite being a huge appreciator of the culture, I can't call myself one much at all, even though I do play games on the computer.

[Kheldarson]

Yeah, it's kind of like when people call chess a sport, and equate it with rugby. There's nothing wrong with playing candy crush (unless you're addicted to it like I've seen where you rack up hundreds of dollars of microtransactions) but to equate it with games like Eve Online makes no sense.

Heck, even myself: I play Eve Online, but don't have the commitment to join a hardcore corp or even really venture out into nullsec much... I'm a self-described carebear, and thus I consider myself to not even be a "gamer" in that game. I'm more of a casual explorer than anything else.

I tend to stick to the single player games like Half-Life, although as you can tell, I haven't really played much since 2007. I'm planning on getting back into the newer games, though.

Besides that, I play games like SimCity 4, Civilization, and Flight Simulator... which again aren't really on the same level as games like EQ.

So, yeah, when people ask how much of a "gamer" I am, despite being a huge appreciator of the culture, I can't call myself one much at all, even though I do play games on the computer.

Wait, so, because you-- and I-- don't play multiplayer games, we're not gamers?

Bullshit.

I play Civ 5, but mostly by myself or with my brothers. I play JRPGs on any console, puzzle platformers/adventure games like Zelda, Mario, and Sly Cooper, pure puzzle games like Must, and, yes, the point and click games like Candy Crush or Puzzle Quest.

I don't particularly play games for the social interaction MMOs require. When did those become the sole requirement for determining your gamer status?

[TheHuckster]

Wait, so, because you-- and I-- don't play multiplayer games, we're not gamers?

Bullshit.

I play Civ 5, but mostly by myself or with my brothers. I play JRPGs on any console, puzzle platformers/adventure games like Zelda, Mario, and Sly Cooper, pure puzzle games like Must, and, yes, the point and click games like Candy Crush or Puzzle Quest.

I don't particularly play games for the social interaction MMOs require. When did those become the sole requirement for determining your gamer status?

Frankly, I don't give a fuck what label people use for me (or you). As Popeye would say, I am what I am. You might call me a gamer, and that's fine. Other people might not call me a gamer, and that's fine. The term has become so friggen polarized I really don't think the term has any meaning anymore.

Ironically, it's the multiplayer idiots who use the "No True Scotsman" fallacy to label some people gamers vs others which has gotten me out of calling myself a "gamer."

I think the "gamer" status, like so many other things in life, is a spectrum. On one end you have someone who never plays video games at all, and on another end you have someone who commits a significant part of their life to compete on a wide open universe to conquer parts of galaxies or make it to the top-10 in the global high score list.

I, especially in recent years, have drifted towards the lower end of that spectrum, due to other commitments in life. I might get back into playing video games, but not nearly at the level I did back when I had more free time to do so.

[BlaqueKatt]

Wait, so, because you-- and I-- don't play multiplayer games, we're not gamers?<snip>I don't particularly play games for the social interaction MMOs require. When did those become the sole requirement for determining your gamer status?

When groups become large and encompassing enough that you start getting elitism?

I was a "gamer girl" before computers and consoles became a thing, RPGs like D&D, Spelljammer, and various other tabletops(I had over $3k invested in books an miniatures-my roomie had close to $7k) Then for some inexplicable reason it became preferable to sit at home by yourself and not use your imagination, and even though I had over a decade of "gaming" I was sneered at because "real gamers" have computers. Silly me, I had friends and gatherings of them weekly, spent hours coming up with campaigns and stories for the group, but letting someone else do all that and just typing on a keyboard was "real" gaming.

[Gravekeeper]

I lurk in low sec hunting anamolies and what not. I find null boring though because yeah, you need to be pretty hard core and have a corp to get anything out of null.

The problem is the term "Gamer" has largely been co-oped by the second wave CoD generation. Beginning with Halo and the X-Box. Halo was dull as cardboard by PC standards but somehow considered amazeballs by the new generation of console gamers. That next wave of FPS gamers has done a lot of damage in defining the image of the new "Gamer" in the media.

Whereas the rest of us still lurk in D&D, Civ 5, Skyrim, etc.

Gamer use to be synonymous with geek or nerd. Now its conflated with 13 year old screaming racists and misogynists. And some of the major publishers, always chasing that lowest common denominator ( Activision -.- ), have adapted to cater to them.

[Kheldarson]

And some of the major publishers, always chasing that lowest common denominator ( Activision -.- ), have adapted to cater to them.

*cough*4th edition D&D*cough*

[Bloodsoul]

4th Edition D&D is so six years ago. D&D Next is the one to hate on now-a-days.

[AccountingDrone]

Gamer use to be synonymous with geek or nerd. Now its conflated with 13 year old screaming racists and misogynists. And some of the major publishers, always chasing that lowest common denominator ( Activision -.- ), have adapted to cater to them.

But in EVE, they piss you off, you can gank them and then pod them

[Kheldarson]

4th Edition D&D is so six years ago. D&D Next is the one to hate on now-a-days.

I'll just stick with Pathfinder

[KabeRinnaul]

I'll just stick with Pathfinder

We could always try RuneQuest again.

[Kheldarson]

We could always try RuneQuest again.

*twitch* No. Just no.

[Gravekeeper]

But in EVE, they piss you off, you can gank them and then pod them

You can maybe. But most the "pvpers" I run into in low sec are more risk adverse than high sec players. They won't come anywhere near you unless they can bring a pair of T3's to your covert ops or 2 Gilas and a Loki after your Asteros. The barest whiff of danger and they'll jump straight back towards high sec.

I've only had one straight up toe to toe fight in my entire low sec career thus far. I was so impressed to run into someone that wasn't a completely gutless asshole that I paid for the guy's ship after I blew him up. >.>

[AccountingDrone]

You can maybe. But most the "pvpers" I run into in low sec are more risk adverse than high sec players. They won't come anywhere near you unless they can bring a pair of T3's to your covert ops or 2 Gilas and a Loki after your Asteros. The barest whiff of danger and they'll jump straight back towards high sec.

I've only had one straight up toe to toe fight in my entire low sec career thus far. I was so impressed to run into someone that wasn't a completely gutless asshole that I paid for the guy's ship after I blew him up. >.>

You can battle fit a hulk ... I also ran some mean little drones.
Damage Control II
Micro Auxiliary Power Core I

Medium Shield Booster II
Faint Epsilon Warp Scrambler I
Small Capacitor Booster II, Navy Cap Booster 400
Fleeting Propulsion Inhibitor I

Strip Miner I
Small Unstable Power Fluctuator I
Small Unstable Power Fluctuator I

Hammerhead II x5

Most non-indy pilots wouldn't really notice that I was only using one mining laser. Bad non-observation flaw.

Though this is good for hi sec can flippers or whenever hulkageddon is on. If you box in 4 accounts, with a cluster of 4 gank hulks lurking, you can really manage to deal a hella damage out if you are fast.