There's enough actual sexism/racism/etc in the industry to worry about that, rather than worrying about totally innocent things which enjoy massive support from a lot of people, including people of good will whose ears you will require the next time actually outrageous behavior happens.
If one were, hypothetically, of the mind that the cultural signifiers of geeky tech guys needed to be demonized to avoid scaring e.g. women out of the profession, one would be advised to tiptoe around that conclusion and avoid explicitly linking those cultural signifiers to evil behavior, because one will shortly be forced into making arguments like "Mentioning Diablo 3 in a job interview is spiritually akin to sexual harassment." One will lose those arguments, in a flamboyantly destructive fashion, and the next time one makes well-founded arguments such as "Corporate outings at a strip club are not appropriate", one will be remembered as some variant of an "implacable harpy who would be equally offended if the meeting had mentioned Dungeons and Dragons."
P.S. I am probably not the guy who you'd want as your #1 ally on this issue, but I know that guy, and he literally has Warhammer tattoos. If you're making an anti-Xism movement which can't accept him as an ally because he's culturally alien to you, your anti-Xism movement will have less success than you probably want it to have.
It isn't that cultural signifiers of geeky tech guys are demonized; it is that racist and sexist video games like this are grossly inaccurate signifiers of geeky tech guys. Equating the two unfairly tars us with the brush of every foul-mouthed 17-year-old on XBox live.
That's not related to any specific game. It does show up exponentially more in games where you are paired up with an anonymous matchmaking system. The majority of online games on consoles use that type of game finding.
Alternatively, games like Counterstrike or Minecraft are made up of servers that are privately run. Most of these are actively moderated by the owners and/or a consistent group of players. If you don't follow the rules and guidelines of the server you are kicked and banned. It can take a while to find a server you like, but once you do, the gameplay experience is vastly better.
Comments
There's enough actual sexism/racism/etc in the industry to worry about that, rather than worrying about totally innocent things which enjoy massive support from a lot of people, including people of good will whose ears you will require the next time actually outrageous behavior happens.
If one were, hypothetically, of the mind that the cultural signifiers of geeky tech guys needed to be demonized to avoid scaring e.g. women out of the profession, one would be advised to tiptoe around that conclusion and avoid explicitly linking those cultural signifiers to evil behavior, because one will shortly be forced into making arguments like "Mentioning Diablo 3 in a job interview is spiritually akin to sexual harassment." One will lose those arguments, in a flamboyantly destructive fashion, and the next time one makes well-founded arguments such as "Corporate outings at a strip club are not appropriate", one will be remembered as some variant of an "implacable harpy who would be equally offended if the meeting had mentioned Dungeons and Dragons."
P.S. I am probably not the guy who you'd want as your #1 ally on this issue, but I know that guy, and he literally has Warhammer tattoos. If you're making an anti-Xism movement which can't accept him as an ally because he's culturally alien to you, your anti-Xism movement will have less success than you probably want it to have.
It isn't that cultural signifiers of geeky tech guys are demonized; it is that racist and sexist video games like this are grossly inaccurate signifiers of geeky tech guys. Equating the two unfairly tars us with the brush of every foul-mouthed 17-year-old on XBox live.
Diablo 3 is a racist sexist video game?
I think we may be a little far 'round the bend here.
The original comment was
> players exploit the veil of anonymity to be sexist, racist, homophobic, etc
Not that the game was racist or sexist. Not a gamer, but have heard that the verbal communication on some networked games is rough.
Not sure if that should reflect on the game, though. It's a phenomenon of anonymous systems (see chat roulette for example)
That's not related to any specific game. It does show up exponentially more in games where you are paired up with an anonymous matchmaking system. The majority of online games on consoles use that type of game finding.
Alternatively, games like Counterstrike or Minecraft are made up of servers that are privately run. Most of these are actively moderated by the owners and/or a consistent group of players. If you don't follow the rules and guidelines of the server you are kicked and banned. It can take a while to find a server you like, but once you do, the gameplay experience is vastly better.