Any good game/general geek sites that dont moan about sexism/racism/homophobia?

[NeutralStasis]

This thread represents EVERYTHING I dislike about gaming culture currently. Nothing that the more "social aware" members of this discussion will be able to say that will impact the OT thinks or feels. The OT may have not approached it in the best possible manner, but people on here took serious offence to this person not wanting any social agenda to be a part of his game review process.

On top of that, those that questioned everyone being a dick to the OT and provided some locations that this person might find what they are looking for are immediately told how they are WRONG. It is this kind of shit that makes a bad name for those who genuinely want to see more diversity and inclusion in gaming. Using catchphrases like, "check your privilege" does much more to put people on the defensive than trying to perhaps understand our point of view. But no, we use catchy phrases and attacking language and images to get our "correct" viewpoint across. I mean, after all, we are right. We should be able to say what ever we want to those that disagree...right?!?

Having the "moral high ground" does not make us right in all things. The argument "the OT started it" is the same thing my 4 year old says when she is trying to justify her poor decisions. We are better than that. Why not just help this person find the outlet they are looking for and hope that at some point someone will be able to better articulate why having some open discussion of the portrayal of minorities in games is important. This will not be accomplished over a thread. It honestly feels that we need to attack those that do not agree with us to justify our point of view. That sucks.

OT, I hope you find what you are looking for in a game review site or channel. I hope that someday you might revisit why you feel that discussions about how media of all kinds portray different people is unimportant, because it is indeed very important. Clearly that is not what you are currently seeking, so I simply wish you well.

 

[Roxas1359]

People here can be very overzealous sometimes, but it was the OP that set the dismissive tone in the first place.

Oh I know, but it wasn't helped with some of the replies as well. I'm not defending the OP's dismissive tone at all. And I've seen it caused by a lot of other people, to the point in which I actually started putting people on my ignore list, and I never do that.

[qoute]I agree though, I really wish we could spend more time talking about other aspects of gaming. And it doesn't even have to be just about the game's themselves. There are so many things that inform a game during its development: culture, history, technology, etc. Why can't we broaden the discussion every now and then?[/quote]
Not enough politics, 0/10, not able to make enough condescending snarky comments. XD

I guess when people like Thunderf00t and Brianna Woo are constantly shouting in your ear it's hard to focus on anything else.

Hell I actually avoided everything for 2 years, but nowadays it's gotten so loud that the conversations about games themselves tend to get buried fast. It's honestly been very hard for me to stay on this site in general because of how bad it's gotten. Really the only reason I'm still here is probably because of a few small groups of people on the site. :3

 

[BloatedGuppy]

"Check your privilege" has a lot of nonsensical baggage attached to it that a phrase like "the world doesn't revolve around you" doesn't. Likewise, the former is far more needlessly confrontational and dismissive than the latter.

"Check your privilege" does indeed seem to have a lot of nonsensical baggage attached to it, as determined by the Great Twitter Wars of 2010-Present, but in terms of messaging, "The world does not revolve around you" is significantly more confrontational and judgmental. It implies the person in question literally believes they are the center that all of creation spins around. It insinuates profound degrees of selfishness, ignorance, and delusion.

"Check your privilege", as loathsomely buzz-wordy as it is, means "review the ways in which the innate advantages you enjoy in life due to race/class/place of birth might blind you to issues encountered by those less fortunate". It's not nearly as hostile. We're just knee-jerk about it because it's become a calling card for buzzword activism.

You could almost say people are TRIGGERED by it hurr hurr hurr.

Nothing that the more "social aware" members of this discussion will be able to say that will impact the OT thinks or feels.

1) Implying the OP is incapable of reflecting on their posting style is rather a dire condemnation of the OP. It's probably one of the nastiest things anyone has said about them in this thread. Expect the OP to challenge you to a duel, post haste.

2) I could give less of a shit what the OP thinks of social causes, I don't live with or date the OP so they are welcome to whatever views they want. If OP is incapable of phrasing said views in a non-confrontational fashion, OP starts little flame wars that shit up the forum. Hence the feedback about tone.

And OP is hardly fresh to these debates, and I think you can bet with a fairly high chance of success that OP was perfectly aware of their tone and chose it deliberately. Thread was half "Anyone know of good sites" and half "Fuck yo social justice".

 

[Fappy]

"Check your privilege" has a lot of nonsensical baggage attached to it that a phrase like "the world doesn't revolve around you" doesn't. Likewise, the former is far more needlessly confrontational and dismissive than the latter.

"Check your privilege" does indeed seem to have a lot of nonsensical baggage attached to it, as determined by the Great Twitter Wars of 2010-Present, but in terms of messaging, "The world does not revolve around you" is significantly more confrontational and judgmental. It implies the person in question literally believes they are the center that all of creation spins around. It insinuates profound degrees of selfishness, ignorance, and delusion.

"Check your privilege", as loathsomely buzz-wordy as it is, means "review the ways in which the innate advantages you enjoy in life due to race/class/place of birth might blind you to issues encountered by those less fortunate". It's not nearly as hostile. We're just knee-jerk about it because it's become a calling card for buzzword activism.

You could almost say people are TRIGGERED by it hurr hurr hurr.

Buzzwords do nothing but poison the discussion. It's a shame :/

As someone who self identifies as a feminist, a lot of the language used by modern feminists makes me cringe. Some of them abuse these buzzwords (and phrases) to actively antagonize the people they should be trying to win over! There's no point pandering to your ideological peers; it just makes you look like a smug jerk.

Sorry, went off on a tangent there lol

 

[BloatedGuppy]

Buzzwords do nothing but poison the discussion. It's a shame :/

As someone who self identifies as a feminist, a lot of the language used by modern feminists makes me cringe. Some of them abuse these buzzwords (and phrases) to actively antagonize the people they should be trying to win over! There's no point pandering to your ideological peers; it just makes you look like a smug jerk.

Sorry, went off on a tangent there lol

Are you calling me a smug jerk? That's like the 11th time today. I've had it. Pistols at dawn, Fappy.

PS - What's this about a Steam group?

 

[Fappy]

Buzzwords do nothing but poison the discussion. It's a shame :/

As someone who self identifies as a feminist, a lot of the language used by modern feminists makes me cringe. Some of them abuse these buzzwords (and phrases) to actively antagonize the people they should be trying to win over! There's no point pandering to your ideological peers; it just makes you look like a smug jerk.

Sorry, went off on a tangent there lol

Are you calling me a smug jerk? That's like the 11th time today. I've had it. Pistols at dawn, Fappy.

PS - What's this about a Steam group?

Dammit, should have picked the pistol perks

PS - IDK, shit's craycray right now. They just made a Brovengers steam group and a LadyBits skype group. There's proably other stuff going down too. If you don't already have me on steam do so ya' pleb!

 

[BloatedGuppy]

A video game being 'docked' a point due to 'sexist themes' or whatever, is not something you're likely to see coming out of any reputable review site particularly often. (Because let's be honest here, any mainstream site that starts doing this is going to be flayed alive)

Wow. Disagree. That's horrible. Games should be subject to the same kind of critique as any other medium, ESPECIALLY when so many of them ape classic narrative format from films and books. Game play can be judged on its own merit. If you have a story and characters, we have language that exists to critique and evaluate them. Why do games get a pass?

Secondly, why is there still this importance placed on review scores?
I'm a firm believer that review scores and ratings should be abolished altogether. A review should stand on the merits of its content, not on some arbitrary numeral or star count at the end.

Wow. Agree! That's wonderful.

No seriously, fuck review scores. People are jackasses about them and the number of individuals I see who very clearly read a score and NOTHING ELSE is astonishing.

 

[BloatedGuppy]

Dammit, should have picked the pistol perks

Hahaha, let's see what my perks are in. What the...BARTER? God damn f....

PS - IDK, shit's craycray right now. They just made a Brovengers steam group and a LadyBits skype group. There's proably other stuff going down too. If you don't already have me on steam do so ya' pleb!

I don't have anyone on Steam! Not since that time my account got hacked. I'm paranoid of everyone. EVERYONE!

Who are you on Steam? Oh wait. Tell me in personal messages. Make it extra personal, with little hearts and shit.

Or wait, private messages, that's even better. Do that instead.

 

[Fappy]

Dammit, should have picked the pistol perks

Hahaha, let's see what my perks are in. What the...BARTER? God damn f....

PS - IDK, shit's craycray right now. They just made a Brovengers steam group and a LadyBits skype group. There's proably other stuff going down too. If you don't already have me on steam do so ya' pleb!

I don't have anyone on Steam! Not since that time my account got hacked. I'm paranoid of everyone. EVERYONE!

Who are you on Steam? Oh wait. Tell me in personal messages. Make it extra personal, with little hearts and shit.

Or wait, private messages, that's even better. Do that instead.

I should send you a gift over Steam just so I can make creepy-as-fuck "To" and "From" names.

Also, I have perks in Speechcraft. Totes gonna bribe you to kill yourself. Wait, wut?

 

[MrFalconfly]

Some games like Hatred are stated to be purely offensive, but something like God of War's ridiculous sex mini-games are still sexist, but in a completely different. The developers thought it would be fun to put those in as a joke or bonus or whatever. They probably didn't think it was sexist, not because they're misogynist pigs or whatever, but because our culture has said that stuff like that is normal. That's what Feminism and LGBT rights are all about. These discriminatory beliefs are intrinsic beliefs because of the past, so recognizing them in muted forms is hard, and changing them is even harder.

No one hates you

Regarding that some small elements of games might be misogynistic.

I'm sorry but even when you try be very specific that it's only small instances within games, and not the entirety of the game, that might have gender-discriminatory imagrery, there's still way too much noise, clogging up the system. We're still talking 90% of hysterical bellends talking bollocks, and unfortunately they seem to drown out the valid points.

Case in point would be ms Sarkeesian's (I'm assuming she's ms, and not Mrs), "critique" of the Strip-Club sequence in Hitman: Absolution.

She said that the female strippers were put there as backdrop decorations in a "Carefully concocted mix of violence and sexual arousal".

Hell her gameplay vid, showed her, going out of her way to kill those strippers. Something no other player ever did.

At the most that's not an issue with the game, but rather an issue with the person playing it.

A car shouldn't be judged because I crashed it, and GTA 5 shouldn't be judged as "mysoginistic" because one or two bellends out of thousands go out of their way to kill hookers.

ERRATA: Some player might've actually gone out of their way to be bellends, but they're still in the minority as far as the data I've seen suggests.

 

[Vigormortis]

"Check your privilege" does indeed seem to have a lot of nonsensical baggage attached to it, as determined by the Great Twitter Wars of 2010-Present, but in terms of messaging, "The world does not revolve around you" is significantly more confrontational and judgmental. It implies the person in question literally believes they are the center that all of creation spins around. It insinuates profound degrees of selfishness, ignorance, and delusion.

"Check your privilege", as loathsomely buzz-wordy as it is, means "review the ways in which the innate advantages you enjoy in life due to race/class/place of birth might blind you to issues encountered by those less fortunate". It's not nearly as hostile. We're just knee-jerk about it because it's become a calling card for buzzword activism.

Egh, I'm still not sure I entirely agree.

Telling someone that 'the world doesn't revolve around them' has an air of sarcasm. As if to imply the thought figuratively and not literally.

Saying 'check your privilege', given it's inherent baggage, feels more literal in its implications. It feels more accusatory.

I understand the point your trying to make, though.

You could almost say people are TRIGGERED by it hurr hurr hurr.

Spoiler

 

[BloatedGuppy]

That's not the point I was making. (Because I don't believe games SHOULD get a pass)

I was referring to how infrequent and uncommon it is that review sites "moan about sexism/racism/homophobia" in their reviews.

In other words, I think the OP is scared of a bogeyman that largely doesn't exist, or at least isn't as fearsome as they're making it out to be.

Well....just pretend it WAS the point you were making, so I can shout at you some more. I need a good shout.

Being afraid of bogeymen that don't exist is de rigueur around these parts. Get with the program, Fusion!

 

[BloatedGuppy]

But accusing the OP (in my first post of this thread) of being afraid of bogeymen that don't exist, would mean I was stooping to the same levels of passive-aggression as everyone else in this thread!

Ah well, if you can't beat 'em, join 'em. XD

I think telling someone they're afraid of bogeymen qualifies as active aggression. You're in the clear!

 

[mecegirl]

Considering the OP's stance is anyone surprised? I think it's fair to assume that most people play games to have fun. I think we can also agree that (insert ist, ism, or phobia here) are not fun. So for those of us who have to deal with such things in our day to day lives having them pop up in media that we are trying to enjoy puts a dampener on the fun. He may be tired of hearing people's complaints about it, some of us are tired of dealing with it. And he can be tired of hearing it all he wants, but to dismiss others concerns as "pointless bullshit" is pretty self absorbed. The phrase "check your privilege" may be used to death but why avoid using it if the shoe fits? And I don't see how using it is any less dismissive than telling the OP that the world doesn't revolve around him (like a lot of posters are doing in this thread). All in all the meaning of both phrases are the same, one just has the specter of "SJW's" behind it.

Mmmm, I disagree on the phrases being the same.

"Check your privilege" has a lot of nonsensical baggage attached to it that a phrase like "the world doesn't revolve around you" doesn't. Likewise, the former is far more needlessly confrontational and dismissive than the latter.

And again, as I keep saying, I'm not defending the attitude of the OP. I personally disagree with it, in fact. I was just offering a suggestion for a site that tends to avoid political posturing as much as possible.

Bloated has said a bit of what I would have so I'll just add on. Personally I could care less about the terms baggage and see no reason why anyone should feel the need to try and prevent the "political posturing" of other posters. Especially in this case since you don't seem to have an issue with what the term means. Add in that a large portion of this thread's participants have basically told the OP to check their privilege without using the term "check your privilege". Even the poster who used the term. Her first few posts were basically "check your privilege" and later she used the term.

The term isn't overtly hostile some folks just choose to react in a hostile manner after hearing it.

 

[Caiphus]

I'm actually in the market for a game review site that only hands out scores based on the level of sexism/racism/homophobia contained within.

But let's all be friends, guys. Come on. The dinosaurs wouldn't have wanted this infighting. After all they did for us.

 

[Colour Scientist]

I'm actually in the market for a game review site that only hands out scores based on the level of sexism/racism/homophobia contained within.

Do you get more or less points based on how racist/sexist/homophobic a game is?

Like, 3/10, has problematic representation of women.

10/10, hates blacks.

 

[Caiphus]

]

Do you get more or less points based on how racist/sexist/homophobic a game is?

Like, 3/10, has problematic representation of women.

10/10, hates blacks.

Ideally, the site would eschew all numerical scores whatsoever, and just give the game a certain number of erect penises to symbolise the Patriarchy and all it stands (pardon the pun) for.

Although I guess that would still be a score, which doesn't answer your question. I do beg your pardon.

The game would simply receive higher scores for poorly representing any race, gender or creed, but would gain points if they did so while employing a funny accent.

Murdering scores of wailing black women: One erect penis
Murdering scores of wailing black women who all sound like Christopher Walken: Nine erect penises and one half-chub. GOTY contender

 

[BytByte]

See, I agree and I know where the misunderstanding comes from: so many people are completely condescending when it comes to this that in all honesty it sounds like they are actually in fact calling developers, or the people that enjoy the games, misogynists, racists, etc. It's to the point in which I don't even post anymore because I fear I'll get jumped all over because I don't agree with the 100% black and white that both sides have painted, and in all honesty there are many on the site who feel the same way.

Note, I'm not defending the OP for being rather rude, but being rude back just makes things worse in the end. I too personally would love to have a place where it's not so damn political with everything, as the reason I stopped following politics and current social issues in the first place is due to my mental health. Sometimes I just wanna talk about a game, and not the "underlying political message" it sends out. People can talk about it just fine, but for me on this site it gets harder and harder to stay the hell out of it when it's so prominent everywhere.

Well that is a bummer that you feel the hostility is that bad. No doubt there are just plain rotten people on any side of an argument. You're right how everything has been made into a false dichotomy, so it just means that you get to be the person that makes the conversation more civil if you so desire.

Regarding that some small elements of games might be misogynistic.

I'm sorry but even when you try be very specific that it's only small instances within games, and not the entirety of the game, that might have gender-discriminatory imagrery, there's still way too much noise, clogging up the system. We're still talking 90% of hysterical bellends talking bollocks, and unfortunately they seem to drown out the valid points.

Case in point would be ms Sarkeesian's (I'm assuming she's ms, and not Mrs), "critique" of the Strip-Club sequence in Hitman: Absolution.

She said that the female strippers were put there as backdrop decorations in a "Carefully concocted mix of violence and sexual arousal".

Hell her gameplay vid, showed her, going out of her way to kill those strippers. Something no other player ever did.

At the most that's not an issue with the game, but rather an issue with the person playing it.

A car shouldn't be judged because I crashed it, and GTA 5 shouldn't be judged as "mysoginistic" because one or two bellends out of thousands go out of their way to kill hookers.

I don't want to talk about Anita too much because she makes people mad around the internet, but the issue of the person playing it in a certain way stems from the way the game is designed. Again, it may be unintentional, but it was still put in the game the way it was, and that means something all the same. It's an us against them mentality, while it should be everyone trying to examine everything, including themselves.

EDIT: Bellends is a funny word =D

 

[MrFalconfly]

Again, it may be unintentional, but it was still put in the game the way it was, and that means something all the same. It's an us against them mentality, while it should be everyone trying to examine everything, including themselves.

EDIT: Bellends is a funny word =D

Sorry, I'm a bit of a petrolhead so car-analogies are incoming.

If we compare games to cars, then they both have the characteristic of the design influencing the use.

However just because an Opel Astra OPC (Vauxhall Astra VXR to the British, and "wuzzat" to the US Americans because it isn't sold there, and they'd be pretty suspicious at a 280hp FWD hothatch) can do 250km/h, and accelerate from 0-100km/h in 5.9 seconds, but that doesn't take away the responsibility of me, the driver.

Comparably. Just because the game gives you the freedom to be a prick, that doesn't mean you can blame the game for you behaving like a prick (figuratively, since I don't actually think you're a prick). No prickish behaviour can only be blamed on the player, and never on the game for not restricting the player.

EDIT: Grammatic nonsense. Being tired does a number on your grasp of your second language.

 

[Alatar The Red]

Shame on everyone who jumped on the OP simply for asking for suggestions. Just like reviewers who condemn games as sexist in their reviews the OP is just expressing his opinion that all this identity politics BS is BS, an opinion doesn't mean that he/she is claiming that something is universally true. It's his opinion and has very little to do with his question, so could we just please answer the question instead of attacking him?

To answer your question OP, sites (English ones) that try to keep the politics to a minimum are quite rare these days (which makes it quite ironic that some people on here are calling the OP privileged because honestly the crowd that wants to read identity politics crap already has 95% of sites to choose from so in this regard it's those people who are privileged).

However what I'd suggest is just checking the important big news from sites like IGN (or possibly forums) and then relying on youtubers for your review-ish content.

Youtube reviews, streamers doing reviews etc. are much better as buyers guides and pro consumer guidance than the narrative/story focused, characters and themes criticizing, politically charged mainstream reviews.

I too have the OP's opinion when it comes to video game reviews. I understand some people like to read into the underlying "themes" present in games and jump to all sorts of conclusions as to the developers motives - but I certain as fuck don't.

I like me some racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, pro-republican, or what have you content in my video games. And just because a game contains that type of content doesn't mean the game is pro/anti anything.

Killing dudes ain't pro-murder so therefore a woman getting smacked around isn't pro violence against women. A gay getting insulted for their homosexuality isn't an anti-homosexual game.

I enjoy reviews that review the game for what it is, not for some click-bait hyper-sensitive over-reactionary bullshit. GTA5 isn't sexist, it isn't racist, it's SATIRE. Hitman isn't a sexist game and neither is The Witcher (yes, even one, with the sex cards - guess what, Geralt is a womanizer, that's his CHARACTER).

This is pretty much me. I'm glad to see that some people still feel this way.

Fictional murder, corruption, rape, sexism, torture, war crimes what have you are all great. I have zero problems seeing those employed in games if they fit the setting and the story. In fact I want more of all that in games. And even if the devs don't completely succeed in using those things in their games I'd much more like to applaud the effort instead of labeling the devs monsters who've set back society 20 years.

Getting to see and participate in nasty stuff is part of the appeal of games. And there's nothing wrong with that because character meshes made from polygons, textures, lightmaps etc. don't actually have any rights nor should they have.

If a game has some of the stuff I mentioned above I'd much, much rather read a review that explains to me as a consumer why the game is a good game or a bad game and why different people might like it or dislike it. What I do not want to read is that the game is an abomination for portraying something the reviewer considers distasteful. Could we hear more about whether a game succeeds in doing what it set out to do?