Daily OpusEverything I write is freely rebloggable. Just keep the source and tell people about my books :D [Until I decide otherwise, my pronouns are Ze/Hir/Hirself. As in "Ze went to the shops to get hir medication hirself". Thank you for the respect.]
discussions of #suicide, #transmisogyny (note that the bottom of the full article contains screenshots of the harassment)
Online trolls urged trans game developer Rachel Bryk to jump off a bridge. She did.
Gaming communities across the Internet are mourning the death of prominent transgender game developer Rachel Bryk, who committed suicide on April 23, after suffering from a lifetime of health problems and months of anonymous cyberbullying. Bryk, 23, was plagued by chronic pain, as well as low self-esteem, long before she joined any online communities, but it was an anonymous harasser who urged her to jump off a bridge—just days before she took her own life by jumping from the George Washington Bridge in New York City.
We are living, right now, in a time of genocide. And I have NO sympathy for anyone who tries to remain “neutral” instead of doing everything they are able to combat the wave of fascist violence which claims more lives each day.
JFC this is horrible. RIP Rachel.
If I was ruling the world, there would be a task force designated to finding those little shits and making sure they spend the rest of their lives in prison for murder. JSYK.
Whatever your beliefs, you do NOT have the right to hurt people like this.
Here is the reasoning, that drive execs and marketers to pro-actively exclude women from their audiences and to pro-actively encourage a culture in which women do not feel welcome. This is why we can’t have nice things… or can we?
This is an excellent piece, by someone inside the industry, outlining quite clearly how and why so many games all but refuse to acknowledge women gamers even exist.
And it really is tough sometimes, in games. Perfectly good, reasonable people just succumb to the prevailing wisdom, feeling helpless. I’ve written female characters in games with attitude and agency, then been required to tone it down for fear of offending male players.
In one (unreleased) game, I was told to change a cut scene because “the woman NPC can’t try to save herself, the male PC must save her.” And the number of times I’ve had to remove snarky comebacks from a female NPC (“the player won’t be attracted to her”), I can’t even count.
And these were not horrible, raging sexists. But they were following market wisdom, doing what they knew publishers would require of them.
(I should add that these are all AAA games I’m talking about. The indie/mobile space I’ve worked in is so, so much more progressive.)
(Also saddening: almost exactly the same reasoning applies to the comic market’s obsession with superheroes.)
Anyway. Great article, well worth a read.
Interesting!
Game makers: “We have never really tried to market games to women. Let’s not bother with them at all.”
Women: Buy and play games anyway.
Marketing department: “Lets ostracise women and exclude them from gaming. That is sure to increase our revenue.”
Male gamers: “Fucking fake geek girls won’t jump on my dick when I aggressively quiz them about nerd trivia.”
Female gamers: “Uh. Just so you know, this is a really hostile environment. How about letting a few ladies play the lead?”
