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

[Michael Dunkerton]

Gameplay is one part of a game experience. There are others--graphics, story, characters, themes, music, etc. To insist that the only part of a game that matters is gameplay because that's the one that has the word game in it seems extremely limiting. Games are a lot more than that and *most* people care about more than the raw gameplay. That's why all that stuff is included in the reviews. I think you'd be hard pressed to find a review that only mentions one or two.

Perhaps sites should program in checkboxes so that it would only display the elements you care about: one person can look at gameplay and story while another looks at music and themes, etc. Then it would calculate a new score based only on those elements.

Or, you know, people could just read the reviews and choose to dismiss complaints that address elements they don't care about, and realize that the final score is not of any use one way or the other, so you should probably just read the review, determine if the complaints are going to make or break the game for you, then decide whether you want the game or not.

 

[Elvis Starburst]

I obviously want people's opinions on games. I just don't want the opinions of people who discuss things that are changing in the gaming industry, where some things are actually good points if we actually would get our heads out of our asses and listen, instead of being completely ignorant and just wanting to ignore it

I also fixed that for you too. You can thank me later~

I'm about as tired of it as you are. But let's face it, a lot of this recent stuff kicking up the ground beneath us is some actual legitimate criticism on gaming itself. There's a LOT of crap tied to it, I hear ya there. But let's not forget that some good changes are gonna be made in light of it (But god damn, if there wasn't a huge shit storm involved to get the points across). That's just how its been going down recently.

It might be hard to find a review without politics in it, that's for sure. Some people have helped you out there. But, others have ripped you a new one for the way you went about asking. Wording is the most important way to ask a thing or get something out there. Otherwise, like others have said, all it does it show us just how you view things, and your level of tolerance for all of it.

Because if the writing in a game effects someone so much they can no longer play it properly then I'd wager they're a candidate for psychiatric help.

Case in point. Post smart, Escapist users. It might just save you your reputation!

Side note: You could, you know... Just read a review and take everything except the political stuff out of it and make your own opinion. Maybe watch some spoiler free gameplay and think "Oh, I think this reviewer is wrong in this sense, but I agree with the rest!" and decide for yourself if the game is worth your time. Reviews aren't there to tell you if a game is worth your time. It's to help you understand the game itself a bit better, and what that reviewer liked and disliked about it. They aren't making the decision for you. If you need a review to tell you that much, and need a politics free one on top of that, maybe go back and see if some reviewers dislike a game you love.

Interesting what changes, huh? That's cause you formed your own opinion, instead of following everyone elses. Reviews are a guideline, not the bottom line.

 

[Teoes]

I think it would be helpful to all involved if OP could provide some specific examples of the sort of reviews he finds problematic or objectionable. We can then take the discussion from there.

Granted, this will possibly cause OP to be giving ad revenue to the sort of sites he doesn't want to support, but hey - we all have our crosses to bear.

 

[Methodia Chicken]

I can legitimately see an argument for calling it shit. Personally, I can see some arguments for sexism/racism/homophobia in games but like 95% of it is complete an utter garbage that's so out of tune with the actual game it makes me wonder if the person saying it actually played the same game as I did.

They didn't. Everyone's experience of a game is different and effected by their unique viewpoint, they come from a background where such issues will be more important to them and that will effect the way they experience the game.
You are just lucky enough not to be effected or concerned by such things. apathy wins again.
they aren't fabricating anything it's not "shit" or "garbage" they are just looking at it from a different angle.

As for the OP I don't know if you really deserve all this, if you don't want to read this content don't.
a few people have recommended destructoid where there is plenty of pure gameplay discussion and most articles of the type you want to avoid are pretty clearly marked and you can just pass them by if you want.

 

[Abomination]

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).

 

[Thaluikhain]

isn't sexist, it isn't racist, it's SATIRE.

Bit off-topic, but they aren't mutually exclusive. A satire of something has to be fairly close to what it is satirising, and it's easy to blur from one to the other, or to be misunderstood by the audience. Dave Chappelle comes to mind.

 

[Abomination]

isn't sexist, it isn't racist, it's SATIRE.

Bit off-topic, but they aren't mutually exclusive. A satire of something has to be fairly close to what it is satirising, and it's easy to blur from one to the other, or to be misunderstood by the audience. Dave Chappelle comes to mind.

The funny thing is that perception, despite many a philosopher's claims, doesn't actually define reality.

GTA since San Andres has held that "Satire" torch up high for all to see. Those in the know, those with experience with the series, understand that what is portrayed in GTA is NOT the opinions of the developers. It's hyperbole at times and damn near indistinguishable at others save for the fake names of the locations. Such is the nature of satire.

It seems that only video games today are viewed as though the setting = the developer's dream utopia. Rather than just being the setting of a particular story.

It's the whole rock & roll causes violence, pregnancy and drug abuse argument all over again, just with a hyper-liberal paint job.

 

[Genocidicles]

While it definitely is not major by any stretch of the term, I think ChristCenteredGamer might actually fit the bill content wise. Hold on, I know it sounds crazy, but hear me out.

The reviews themselves are focused 99% on the game's content; world building, graphical quality, mechanics, and execution and glitches. The whole christ-centered aspect comes in in 2 forms. First, at the end of the review, the reviewer will have a one paragraph overview covering things like level of mandatory drug-use, how the game treats sins like murder and theft (good, neutral, or evil acts), the kinds of things concerned parents and conservative christian types might care about. Secondly, the reviews have two sideboxes, one, called highlights, has strong points and weak points, which are focused solely on the game, and morality warnings, which are things of specific interest to the prior mentioned groups. The second is the keeping of two separate scores; the first is, again, the game score using a percent score, based on x/50. x Is the total of the subscores; gameplay (rated 0-20) graphics, sound (both 0-10) stability, and controls (0-5). The morality score, which again is separate and has no bearing on the game score, is again percent of x/50, and is made of violence, language, sexual content, occult, and ethical/moral, all having up to ten points.

The reviews themselves are detailed and well-written, and do a good job of conveying the in game experience of the reviewer, which, as noted, and in spite of the name, don't go into conservative/christian moral perspectives until the end "morality paragraph", otherwise being solely focused on the game itself. I think this might be up your alley, regardless of your beliefs, since the site does an impeccable job of separating moral and cultural arguments about a game from discussion and overview of the quality of the game as a game.

That sounds interesting, I'll have to give it a look. The 'morality paragraph' sounds helpful too. If other reviewers could keep their tumblresque complaints to a little avoidable paragraph at the end then I don't think I'd really have that much of a problem.

Does it though?

Carolyn Petit gave GTA V a 9/10, mentioning feeling uncomfortable as a woman for about 4% of the video review. Would you ever think twice about somebody giving GTA V a score 9/10 if they hadn't said that? Is somebody giving a score of 9/10 to GTA V something that you cannot wrap your mind around in that you must conclude that the score was hurt by this perceived hostility on the part of the reviewer?

Well if the only negative thing mentioned in a review is the sexism then I'd assume that yeah, it got a point docked because of it.

This is you right now:

Am I supposed to consider what others might want when looking for things for myself?

Part of the process of growing up is realizing that no one is ever going to align perfectly with your beliefs and that your beliefs aren't relevant to every damn thing. Just because a feminist wrote a review does not mean the review drew entirely, or even at all, on feminist ideology. In life, there are going to be people who are religious, or atheists, liberals, conservatives, moon landing deniers, and whatever else including feminists, and you're not going to have a choice about what the people around you believe, and if that's your attitude then you're going to be a miserable and lonely person indeed. People aren't defined solely by what causes they identify with. It's really shallow to think "this person believes differently than me, therefore I can't respect his opinion on anything regardless of its relation to the subject on which we disagree."

I'm not telling people what they can and cannot believe. I know I have no choice over that, but I do have a choice on whether or not I should listen to them... and if they are the kind of person who thinks that sexism is a valid reason to dock points from a game then they are not someone I want to listen to.

Sure, but that wouldn't mean that it's pointless to everyone. If the Escapist was a music-related news site, then there would no doubt be some metal stuff discussed. It might seem trivial to you, but you're not the only person the Escapist serves. Some people actually are interested in the place of video games within society and that means we can't ignore the social influences of games and the social influences that effect how they are made. You don't have to read them if you're not interested, but don't come into such a large platform as the Escapist and then complain that it doesn't cater only to your interests.

I'm... not? I'm asking for somewhere that does cater to my interests. If people want to read about how games promote rape then more power to them, I'm not going to stop them. I just don't want to read that stuff, and would prefer to give my patronage to a place that doesn't consider such discussions important.

Not to say the Escapist is like that. As a whole, the Escapist is pretty much great for me as long as I avoid Movie Bob. I'm inquiring about new sites as the current layoffs from the Escapist has me worried that it might not be around much longer.

So, if a game gets 0.5 (or even less) points taken off at the end for something you "don't care" about and view to be "unimportant", you require another reviewer or review site altogether?

How petty are you?

Incredibly petty.

That would be like me saying I don't care about graphics and believe them to be "unimportant", so I refuse to consume any reviews where points are docked because the reviewer didn't like the graphics.
Oh, and I also demand a site/reviewer cater to my specific tastes on graphics.

I'm not demanding for my tastes to be catered to. I'm asking if anyone knows a place where my tastes are already catered to.

The issue is not his question, but his tone.

They're just tone policing me :'(

 

[Ytomyth]

Advocating tolerance whilst being intolerant of intolerance isn't that funny, or tolerant. xD

OT: Good luck.

 

[Genocidicles]

*sigh* Wow. This is just amazing.

So, if one doesn't enjoy the story of a game, a quintessential part to make the whole experience enjoyable, and he doesn't continue playing it... he is a candidate for psychiatric help?

Or do you really want to spin it in a way that people claim they are physically not able to play those games?

Fucking joke...

The original point made:

On the contrary, if I'm playing a game and get distracted because of its negative portrayal of women, I won't shoot straight, which will cause me to die a lot and become frustrated in real life, so I'll throw my controller across the room, striking my dog and making him so mad that he fatally mauls a nearby toddler. DIDN'T THINK OF THAT, DID YOU?

To which I replied that if someone really reacted like that to 'problematic' elements, they should seek psychiatric help.

 

[Vigormortis]

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.

 

[Lieju]

Maybe if you can give a single good reason why discussions of racism, sexism and homophobia are "pointless bullshit" in the context of videogames,

Because racism, sexism and homophobia have no effect on the gameplay, which is the most important part of a video game.

So you would then also be equally offended by reviews that talk about the cutscenes, story, how alive the word feels, graphics, artstyle etc?
Soundtrack perhaps?

Different people find different things interesting in games, and even same people can find very different things important in different games. There are games I play just for story, while some for the gameplay, for example.

You just need to be able to find reviewers that agree with you or know how to read them. For example if they are bothered by the game's portrayal of women, and you know you won't be, you can still take their opinion on the gameplay for example if you know you have similar taste in that.

 

[hermes]

This is you right now:

Am I supposed to consider what others might want when looking for things for myself?

It might help if what you are looking for is the opinion of other people...
Reviews, forums, playthroughs, etc, are made by people other than yourself, so yes, you should consider what other people might think when looking at their content...

 

[TheMigrantSoldier]

Often, in game review sites, you have a cast of different reviewers. Maybe Destructoid? I found some of their reviews, strictly gameplay speaking, questionable (Dark Souls) but not the way you'd see it. If you don't mind video-based channels, I'd also recommend Classic Game Room for even more recent titles. Its reviews consist of context (makers, date made, yada), mostly gameplay elements and little bits of plot, characters and graphics. There are no final review scores so you'll have to listen for details.

Or you could find an independent reviewer with preferences similar to yours? Heck, he/she could be on this site, even.

I think we all should go back to political correctness. As least I never saw any neo-nazis flagrantly using that phrase.

You'd be surprised. I've seen suspicious accusations of "PC" on similar topics.

 

[BytByte]

I can legitimately see an argument for calling it shit. Personally, I can see some arguments for sexism/racism/homophobia in games but like 95% of it is complete an utter garbage that's so out of tune with the actual game it makes me wonder if the person saying it actually played the same game as I did.

Again, this comes back to different readings of the game. You can totally have the opinion that there are little or no discriminatory aspects in a game while someone can look at the same game and, because they are not you and different from you, find those very same aspects discriminatory. You can both have those opinions and debate them, but when you call a different viewpoint shit, it projects an aura of arrogance and condescension on your part.

I think there are 2 main things that cause people to get upset when there games are criticized in this manner. First, it's the assumption that if a reviewer notes something sexist or racist or whatever, then they believe the entire game is that. It's not. And people who disagree know its not, but it is used to simplify someone's review so that they can ignore/hate on it. Games are now massive in scope most of the time, so if someone talks about something for a paragraph or a few sentences in a review, they are not condemning the entire game.

Secondly, and more importantly, is the often misunderstood affect of any -ism. Most games are not intentionally trying to be racist or homophobic or sexist. 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

 

[FieryTrainwreck]

YouTubers. Most major gaming sites are hopelessly, irretrievably poisoned by identity politics.

I'm sure the rise of YouTubers and the steady tumble of traditional games media have nothing to do with this, by the way. You're obviously in the minority for requesting gaming journalism that doesn't constantly pander to manufactured controversy and radical, irrational ideologies. That's why such bastions of honesty and integrity are barely scraping by while those filthy YouTube peasants swallow ever-more market and mind share.

 

[Gorrath]

A good site that caters solely to straight white guys?

Huh...

Eh? I presume you're being facetious, yes? You're not actually asserting that the only way those issues aren't important to you is if you're straight and white and male, right? I mean, I am all of those things and these issues do matter to me. It strains credulity to think that not wanting political/social discussions in your game reviews is dependent on the factors you mention. Choosing to write a review that does not address those points of topic doesn't inherently mean you are catering to a specific demographic, right?

Again, I presume you're being hyperbolic here, just want to make sure before I challenge you on it. Cheers!

 

[CrystalShadow]

good greif. So... Because reviews contain information that is irrelevant to you personally, those reviews should not be allowed to exist?

I... Don't even know where to begin with this.

Maybe you'd get the signifigance of some of this stuff if it actually affected you personally, but of course you probably live in some weird bubble that makes it seem perfectly justified for the consideration of anyone else's needs other than your own to be so unimportant that you must actively have all such information scrubbed from anything you read...

I don't like saying it, but... 'entitlement' comes to mind...

Anyway, good luck with that. Maybe you can find someone as myopic about what they consider important as you are... Though I doubt it, because even if such people exist, chances are what they consider important would be different to what you do.

Ugh. Seriously... >_<

 

[Roxas1359]

Secondly, and more importantly, is the often misunderstood affect of any -ism....
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

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.

 

[Fappy]

Secondly, and more importantly, is the often misunderstood affect of any -ism....
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

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.

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

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 games 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? Gaming is a human creation, but the current dialogue encompasses so few aspects of humanity.

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