Boy gamers are so self-centered they act as though women haven’t been playing video games for decades, and then act horrified when the female gamers who have always been there actually become visible and vocal about the rampant misogyny that has infected the gaming world.
Like seriously, how entitled do you have to be that women saying “it sure would be nice if I wasn’t treated like shit while enjoying the games I play” translates to “I must be catered to” when video games have LITERALLY been catered to men for decades?
Not only is delisting older video games from digital shops anti-consumer, but it also communicates to the consumer that your company doesn’t have faith that it has made a superior product that is worth whatever you’re charging for it.
Obviously, in some cases this lack of faith is justified, such as the GTA3 era re-releases. But then I look at Sonic Origins, which includes features like an interconnected story, Knuckles in Sonic 1, the Hidden Palace Zone in Sonic 2, etc. And so on the surface it looks like a much more worthwhile package than previous releases. But then I look at the delisting and think to myself, “Just how badly do those coins they introduced fuck up the whole experience?”
In the latest edition of the video game series Grand Theft Auto you can approach a female sex worker, choose what sexual act to engage in from a price list ($50 for a blow job, $70 for a half-and-half, $100 for everything), engage in the chosen act (and thus increase your life points), pay, and then kill the sex worker and get your money back.. You cannot, however, play a female character. The creators of Grand Theft Auto V have made it very clear: women are objects to be toyed with, not human beings.
This game, which allows the player to enter first-person mode, not only objectifies women, and particularly sex workers, it glorifies and trivialises violence against women. It turns it all into fun and games. The game allows you to kill a sex worker for no particular reason. It makes it cool to buy services from a sex worker and then physically harm her. It even rewards you for these acts!
Video game creators are free to create any scenarios and universes they want, yet this is what they choose to create. And this is what people chose to play. The existence of this game and its popularity are clearly a reflection of the misogyny in our society. There’s no doubt, we’re a long way from gender equality.
