This whole thing is incredibly stupid. A designer called a skilltree in Borderlands 2 girlfriend mode. Not girl mode by the way, girlfriend mode. He's not actually saying women are shit at games. He's saying people who are in a relationship might want their partners to be able to enjoy BL2 while not being particularly skilled at it.
Let me tell you about all the anecdotal experience this guy gets. He goes to Gamescom and sees guys play his game. He goes on forums like this and sees that the overwhelming majority of users and even the overwhelming majority of content creators are male. He looks at the gaming industry at large and sees that the only female, remotely famous developer he can think of is someone like Jade Raymond. Oh wait, nobody cares about Jade Raymond anymore. In fact, you've probably forgotten who she is after you read about her game, Assassin's Creed.
I know that when guys read all these sensationalist articles and get all these accusations by journalists and people like Anita Sarkeesian, it's natural to pretend that the reality is this kind of flowery, equal world. But we're not there yet, guys. Really. You know there aren't actually as many female gamers as there are male ones. What someone like Zydrate now implies with statements like "Hrrng" is that if we acknowledge that this is how it is, that means we say this is how it is supposed to be. And that's not actually true. It's the same reason there's this huge resistance to evolutionary psychology. You automatically jump to a godwin-esque accusation scheme of sorts. Admitting that we're not quite there yet and admitting that it's pretty damn understandable and actually justified that someone like this dev would say girlfriend mode instead of boyfriend mode is an important step in moving away from this onesidedness. If you make yourself believe that gamers are an equal-gendered audience because it makes you feel less like the asshole Anita Sarkeesian is saying you are, we'll never get to a point where we can actually come to any kind of conclusion about what we can do about this.
This is pretense. "Hrrng" is pretense. It's the worst kind of "I don't need to defend my position, I'm right because me being right is the more desirable state of affairs for both of us" arguing that ignores real problems because admitting they exist is uncomfortable and leaves a bitter taste in your mouth. Tough shit. Let's actually look into why this guy said what he said, instead of screaming misogynyst at him like he's some kind of weirdo who hates women.
