Notch: Minecraft is Full of Hermaphrodites

[Zaik]

I'm not really sure hermaphrodite is the proper term when there is only one gender to begin with.

Also I'm not really sure there would be a way to make a blocky female character without it looking ridiculous. Either make it completely flat or give it bizarre square boobs. Either way seems odd and someone would inevitably *****. I like that the issue was completely sidestepped.

 

[Zipa]

Wait... people actually give a shit about Steve? Last I checked Minecraft is a interesting sandbox game where you can build shit not a front for any political agenda.

 

[Realitycrash]

The currently rampant BS out in the wild may be labelled "feminism", but it's really only a spin-off project of Communism, which might also employ rebranded diet/light versions like Socialism or Marxism. Ooh, politics! Well, you should be aware of the fact that feminism is but a political crowbar in gift wrap these days.

Its purpose is to mess with people's heads, it only serves to make everyone as unhappy and costly as possible, and it only serves the one purpose to help 'transform', cause chaos and help bring along destabilization of everything not yet ready for the scripted revolution.
.

What. The. FUCK!?.
Wow. That's sure is some...Uh.."Well-researched hypothesis" you have there.

Now excuse me, gonna go bang my head against the wall. Also going to save this comment for the next "Weird shit you have heard people say"-thread.

And no, not going to answer any comments. Washing my hands off this, right away. Have a nice day, sir.

 

[thethird0611]

So I gotta say this.... Does this mean we should all boycott Minecraft since it encourages homosexualism (ism... haha)? Oh wait, nobody has a problem with it here, so its not the devil of society.

Apart from that snarky remark (which I will inevitably get flak for).... Kinda agree with Notch, there's no reason to really be worried about gender in Minecraft. He makes a great point to, there shouldnt have to be a need to decide between the genders when your playing, its about creativity, not sex.

 

[Olas]

So the almost featureless default minecraft character is a bi hermaphrodite.
Though I think this has more to do with Notch being kinda lazy than him being super open minded. Next thing you know Namco will be claiming the ghosts in Pac-man were a mixed race alternative family.

 

[Headdrivehardscrew]

I have no idea what you're on about, but I just wanted to point out how hypocritical it is to jab at Minecraft as a complete waste of time on a video game forum openly called The Escapist. I guess your art games like Braid aren't wastes of time because they're so culturally enriching?

Thank you for keeping it civil.

As to your guess - sorry, missed by a mile and then some.

I liked, as in, enjoyed Braid for about half an hour, I still praise it for the novelty "rewind" mechanic. As to its (political) payload, I think it's shite and deserves to be put on the block for people to throw rotten vegetables at. I still recommend it for people to check out and play, though, because I do think it's worthwile and better than, say, Angry Birds, excessive wanking or Facebook.

In a typical trigger-response fashion, you seem to have missed me mentioning that I do not forcibly keep the kids from playing it, in fact I let them use my account to live the Minecraft dream, express themselves with blocks, get eaten by the green cock'n'balls grue at their own leisure, though there is a time limit, as Minecraft does not teach them to read or spell properly and it doesn't introduce them to the other varied intricacies of modern life.

I'm a true, very dedicated escapist. That's why I really love the idea of R&P being (in theory) restricted to the R&P section, which obviously would need draconian punishments doled out in order to be followed, and not constantly undermined by feminist thugs, egalitarian fascists and trojan ponies.

Also, I believe I tend to make it quite clear that these are all my opinions - which doesn't mean I need to respond to every fluffy pink Energizer Bunny trying to challenge my world view by vomiting ideology at me. It's just rude and gets boring really fast.

 

[Evil Alpaca]

So if blocky Minecraft Steve is a gay hermaphrodite, does this mean we are assigning genders to all video game characters regardless of relevance?

I have always been suspicious of the pong paddle. What's its sexuality?

 

[Headdrivehardscrew]

What. The. FUCK!?.
Wow. That's sure is some...Uh.."Well-researched hypothesis" you have there.

Now excuse me, gonna go bang my head against the wall. Also going to save this comment for the next "Weird shit you have heard people say"-thread.

And no, not going to answer any comments. Washing my hands off this, right away. Have a nice day, sir.

Well,

Thank you for your input. That's what Notch's square homo-pixels are all about. That's the purpose of this forum, even though we're a solar system or two off topic by now.

As to well-researched - I've read my fair share of Gender Study material, especially since I am no "Sir".

I've also joined my local Socialist chapter for a couple of years, so, yeah, I'm pretty sure I know what I'm talking about. We had a big spontaneous party with a bunch of our dearest political asylum seekers after 9/11 since it was to be considered super great fun that the evil Imperialists were thought a lesson. I had severe issues with that sort of cynical, diabolical joy and I've since quit and reconsidered some of my positions on God, the Universe and everything. So, yeah, I didn't have to research it as I've basically lived that fever dream myself for a while.

Now you go have a nice day, Sir.

 

[Headdrivehardscrew]

The traditional feminist response

For the sake of the civilization we should stop acknowledge feminists and their pointless demands. Jesus Christ, it's 2012, we have more urgent matters than such bs.

*rearms for second salvo*

http://i.imgur.com/O1Tfh.jpg
Mr. "i registered only to produce this aggressive comment", phuleaseeeeeeeeeeeeeee...

Thank you for your contribution. I raise by abusing a cute puppy.

http://www.wallpapers10.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/Yawning_Puppy.jpg

 

[The Great JT]

"Also, as a fun side fact, it means every character and animal in Minecraft is homosexual because there's only one gender to choose from," he wrote. "Take THAT, homophobes!"

Uh, Notch, more power to you man, but you might not want to say that. People have a tendency to be idiots about homosexuals.

 

[targren]

I liked, as in, enjoyed Braid for about half an hour, I still praise it for the novelty "rewind" mechanic.

Apropos of nothing, but you shouldn't praise it too hard. The mechanic wasn't all that novel since, while I'm not sure whether Prince of Persia came out before Braid, I am 100% certain that "The Killing Game Show"/"Fatal Rewind" beat it to the mechanic by 18 years.

Update: Yep, "Prince of Persia: Sands of Time" beat it too, by 5 years.

 

[chadachada123]

The issue here is that there are several meanings of the word "feminist," and Notch almost-definitely is using a different definition than the formal definition, which is not the same as the common person's definition.

The common definition of feminism is closer in meaning to femiNAZIsm. The 'I'm a woman and I'm better than men, who are all sexist pigs'-type women, who exist in no small number, but are still a minority. This is also the type of feminism that most Escapist members ***** about.

The 'true' definition of feminism involves striving for equality in some capacity, and at least strives for equality under the law. I am a feminist, in that regard. This is not the kind of feminism that Notch was talking about.

Yelling at Notch for using the common definition is justified, but ultimately a waste of time in this current climate. Since most other people use Notch's definition, we should just strive towards education rather than allowing anger to appear.

It's similar the "theory = guess" problem. If a politician or other person uses it incorrectly, yes, they're ignorant, but yelling about it won't solve anything. Educating the masses, however, will help solve this problem.

TL;DR Notch meant feminazism, not feminism. We should be sure to distinguish between the two until the rest of society catches up. Feminazism is a real problem, but feminism should be encouraged.

 

[RJ 17]

This seems like another example of Political Correctness out of control. By that, I mean there's no reason at all for Notch to have made such statements.

I'll give him the fact that cows have both udders and horns, but other than that there is absolutely no evidence of any gender-based issues in the game. For starters, was there really a problem with people calling Notch sexist or something due to the fact that Steve is a guy and there's nothing to suggest otherwise other than Notch's own words?

I have yet to see a Minecraft cow mount another Minecraft cow, go through a glitchy hump animation, and out pops a 3rd Mincraft cow. In a world were sex (hanky-panky) doesn't exist, Gender should have absolutely no meaning at all, as such there's absolutely no reason to simply say "Oh yeah, and all the animals are gay! Sure only the cows have characteristics that show both male and female traits, and sure the animals just spawn in rather than "get born", but they're still all gay just because there's only one gender!" Who's thinking about Minecraft sex in the first place? I know there's a little thing called Rule 34, and I honestly wouldn't be surprised to see some weird Minecraft porn. But the game itself has nothing to do with sex.

So what if Steve's a guy and every skin available for him renders him as still being a guy? Is it REALLY that big of a deal to the feminists? As far as I could tell, Steve is a miner, hence the name of the game as "Minecraft". I'm not saying it's impossible, but being a miner digging through the bowels of the earth doesn't seem like the type of occupation a female would even WANT to do...how is Steve's gender an issue here?

And why aren't we calling Mario sexist for the hero always being a male with a feeble kidnap-prone female helplessly screaming for her man to come save her? Why aren't we calling CoD sexist for there not being any female soldiers? Why aren't we calling Halo sexist because the only difference between the male and female armors is that the female spartan has an ass you can bounce quarters off of?

Honestly, if gender is/was such an issue in Minecraft, I'm surprised Notch didn't have to comment on the fact that Creepers apparently look like giant green exploding penises... >.>

 

[cobra_ky]

The issue here is that there are several meanings of the word "feminist," and Notch almost-definitely is using a different definition than the formal definition, which is not the same as the common person's definition.

The common definition of feminism is closer in meaning to femiNAZIsm. The 'I'm a woman and I'm better than men, who are all sexist pigs'-type women, who exist in no small number, but are still a minority. This is also the type of feminism that most Escapist members ***** about.

The 'true' definition of feminism involves striving for equality in some capacity, and at least strives for equality under the law. I am a feminist, in that regard. This is not the kind of feminism that Notch was talking about.

Yelling at Notch for using the common definition is justified, but ultimately a waste of time in this current climate. Since most other people use Notch's definition, we should just strive towards education rather than allowing anger to appear.

It's similar the "theory = guess" problem. If a politician or other person uses it incorrectly, yes, they're ignorant, but yelling about it won't solve anything. Educating the masses, however, will help solve this problem.

TL;DR Notch meant feminazism, not feminism. We should be sure to distinguish between the two until the rest of society catches up. Feminazism is a real problem, but feminism should be encouraged.

What you call "feminazism" is a particularly extremist form of radical feminism, and it is not a problem because no one credible actually still believes in it.

Notch never even used the word "feminism". Grey only introduced the word in his write-up, and the way he used makes it clear he's referring to feminism far more generally:

The traditional feminist response to that argument is that having the central character display traits of masculinity and then arguing that he is "genderless," perpetuates the idea that males are the "base" gender and that females are an exception or a permutation.

There's nothing even remotely radical about that statement, from a feminist perspective.

 

[ElPatron]

So if gender isn't a gameplay element then how come every creature is allegedly gay. And yet animals can breed......

Huh, you know that in nature some species do not have genders/have both genders and just reproduce with each other, right?

It's not a gameplay element because Stone Cold Notch said so.

 

[Nealg6]

Just fyi, Psychonauts is made by Double fine, and Tim Shaffer. Notch has nothing to do with it.