Bigots Ruined Gaming

Destroying a beloved art form

6 min read

Just now

Something that is very unfortunate when considering the general makeup of the gaming community online is how reactionary it all is. If you look at some of the largest gaming creators out there, the likes of Asmongold, Mark Kerr, and others, these are people who obviously have very large voices, but they are also completely toxic. This problem infects gaming discourse in a number of really toxic ways, and one of the most obvious is how the community has become so transphobic/homophobic over the last few years.

Gaming for a long time has been a hobby enjoyed predominantly by (white and cis) men. While this certainly isn’t a problem in itself, when you have major figures in a community who are made up of people traditionally at the top of the social hierarchy, this can muddle some of the discourse that happens surrounding gaming. I remember over a decade ago now, when feminist critic Anita Sarkeesian made videos offering basic artistic analysis of the gaming medium in how certain games propagate misogynistic ideas, and gamers went into a frenzy.

This specific example is interesting because even now, you still find people attacking Anita Sarkeesian for what were, really basic takes regarding art and the tropes often expressed in gaming. Gamers viewed this as an attack on them personally, and I really think this…