When is the all male focused issue of the escapist?

[Void(null)]

Every other issue focuses on male issues. Just because it's not clearly stated doesn't mean it's not there. Would you demand a 'straight' issue if they did one focusing on 'gay' gamers?

I love it when white, middle class men complain because there isn't something special for them. *rolls eyes*

Wow... how amazingly arrogant and judgmental of you.

You don't know my race, or my social class nor my sexuality (which you infer to be Straight, White and Middle class... swing and a miss by the way.) Nothing inferred from the topic denotes Race or Social class, let alone sexuality... as if any of these things have anything to do with the topic anyway.

You don't see that as a form of racism, prejudice and discrimination? I certainly do.

 

[Void(null)]

Now, if you weren't just being sarcastic:
Ignoring the obvious response of "every other month", there actually were multiple male focused articles if not entire issues.
Time for you to hit the archives. http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/issues/issue_149/4900-Ive-Got-to-be-a-Macho-Man

I honestly don't believe every other month is male focused. I think the escapist is very aware of the other 40% and does a wonderful job of ensuring their articles are mostly gender neutral, appealing to "Gamers" not "Male Gamers" or "Female Gamers" but "If you like Video Games you may find this interesting."

The "I've Got to be a Macho Man" article was good, but I would love to see something more in-depth. There are a lot of subjects that are specifically male gamer focused and yet never addressed or discussed, as a lot of people have pointed out this is probably because it makes us uncomfortable to talk about, perhaps we are not really to deal with our own deeper concerns. There is also a good portion who are not so concerned, that don;t take games too seriously, treat it as a healthy distraction and know the difference between reality and make beleive.

But it would be nice to see a reminder that although the gaming industry itself may be marketing to the boys club, we have many of the same issues on the other side of the fence.

 

[More Fun To Compute]

Well, games being seen as ridiculously hyper-masculine to appeal to teenagers who feel the need to overcompensate is more of an issue to some than games occasionally having tits.

Actually, I think that escapist have covered this before.

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/issues/issue_149/4900-Ive-Got-to-be-a-Macho-Man

It took me minutes to find that, so act grateful. (even though I was beaten to it by a post I didn't read.)

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

The problem isn't that they're "middle-class white men." The problem is they're "middle-class white men" who don't believe there are cultural differences: the minute someone talks about different demographics, they go on a screed about "reverse racism" and "equality" and contribute nothing to the conversation because they have no perspective.

I mean, I'm a middle-class white man, and I've never felt like I was unable to talk about these sorts of things on this forum.

Surely that's the basic problem? The only people allowed to have an opinion on the subject are minority groups, whether or not they actually have suffered cultural problems. That's surely far more dangerous when you're excluding someone who actually may have suffered in favour of someone who believes they must have?

Does being a minority really give you a perspective on the majority? I mean, disregarding dividing lines that we're trying to close, aren't all of us in a minority of 1?

Just as a thought on "problems" faced by the "majority", how about Clothing, Relationships, Stress, Heart Disease (If ever there was a middle class white disease), Coping with Rejection, PTSD, Schizophrenia, Suicidal Tendencies, Guilt (You could also add in spoof articles on How to make Munchies for Games?). Not REALLY topics that can be covered by the Escapist, to be fair, but having a look at the lifestyle of programmers, for instance, (Pimp my Cubicle perhaps?) would have a MCWM view to a MCWM audience. And I don't believe we've seen an issue on that before?

Even if we, and I use that sense the loosest of all, are a majority, does that mean that anything not targetted gets lumped onto us? I understand that there are issues which frankly don't concern us, and that's fine, but denying us chance to speak because of how we were born/grew up? That seems a little odd to a community that wishes to take in all views.

 

[Void(null)]

But I do think the content would be better if the audience didn't turn into such crybabies any time gender or race or whatever came up at all.

Equally if any discussion of gender/race identity wasn't blamed on "middle-class white men thinking they have a hard time."

If we keep naming specific groups as "able/unable to talk about these sort of things", we're just reinforcing the lines that divides us. If we're more and more open to cultural differences, shouldn't we also be open to cultural differences within our own demographic?

The problem isn't that they're "middle-class white men." The problem is they're "middle-class white men" who don't believe there are cultural differences: the minute someone talks about different demographics, they go on a screed about "reverse racism" and "equality" and contribute nothing to the conversation because they have no perspective.

I mean, I'm a middle-class white man, and I've never felt like I was unable to talk about these sorts of things on this forum.

Funnily enough, I am neither middle class, nor straight. I am however Caucasian, yet half my family is black. I do not have a single white cousin on my fathers side and I grew up with my cousins as close to me as brothers and sisters and I went to a school where I was the only white kid in my class, everyone else was either Indian or Black.

I have never found being "White" to be an advantage in any situation, at work or in social settings. Nor have I found social class, race of sexual preference clearly identifiable simply by discussing gender equality.

Must be one of those magic tricks like "Gaydar" that Middle class, Straight White American Males possess. (See what I did there? Lets all throw out random ignorant judgmental stereotypes in an attempt to validate our opinions!)

 

[YuheJi]

I am reminded of every child who ever moaned to his/her parents ''If there is a mother's day and a father's day, why isn't there a childrens day?''
The correct response to this is (and always has been) ''Every day is childrens day, child!''
Now, would you like some cheese with that 'whine'?

Reminds me of that as well. I recently heard about parents at a high school complaining about the lack of "white history month", as there is a black history month and latino history month (someone had been giving a presentation on black history month, I believe). Well, the history most high schoolers ever learn is white history.

 

[DoctorDisaster]

Suggesting that white men can't talk about issues like gender and race in games is stupid. You're free to talk about whatever you wish. What bothers you is that your audience is just as free to disagree with, mock, or dismiss what you have to say. Unfortunately for you, your point here -- "there isn't enough male-oriented material in this online gaming magazine" -- is particularly ripe for disagreement, mockery, and dismissal.

There are two main reasons for this. One of them has been pointed out -- the Escapist hosts a ton of male-oriented content. Most of the staff are male, most of the video contributors are male, and the general gaming audience is majority male. You don't notice male-oriented content because you aren't thinking about it.

An example: There Will Be Brawl is a parody of a movie with no significant female characters. It features two significant female characters: Peach and Samus. In contrast to almost every other character in the parody, Peach doesn't depart wildly from her official incarnation, remaining a helpless damsel in distress -- simply a less cartoony one. Samus departs from her official incarnation in that she is a stripper.

Don't get me wrong: I like TWBB! But to pretend it isn't male-oriented would be ridiculous.

The second point, which hasn't been mentioned yet, is far more important. To wit: the Escapist exists in a market dominated by male-oriented material, and distinguishes itself by being particularly friendly to material that breaks that mold (and others). Women contribute a lot of the content and hold key editorial positions. Gender issues are a staple of the features page and have been for some time.

This is part of what seems to me a consistent strategy to orient the Escapist toward growing, rather than established, gaming audiences. Women, minorities, casual gamers, and gay gamers get a lot more focus here than in most gaming enthusiast publications, as do any issues of gaming in its societal context. It's a way of filling a niche that is often neglected by the IGNs and Gamespots of the world.

Quite frankly, that's what makes this site more interesting to me -- a white male -- than the IGNs and Gamespots of the world. I come here to read stories that I won't find elsewhere.

 

[SantoUno]

Simply put we don't care, we have "pride" and "self-respect".

Seems that unlike female gamers, us boys can just turn our backs and pretend like we don't care what others think about us.

 

[TsunamiWombat]

*dons his Dragonscale and ring of flame resistance* I agree with the OP.

The point of this isn't to demean the idea of ethnic or cultural diversity. The idea is to point out that we, the male gamer, do have a point of view and cultural backround that exists to be other then just the setup for the differences others have. What about the emotional restriction that you aquire simply by being male? Do you believe that men simply feel less then women? A certain attitude is drilled into the male persona from birth just as with women, a hard template is formed, and those who deviate from that template are 'unmanly'.

This isn't about ethnicity or white people either, this is simply about GENDER. Responders made it about Race, and Race is a whole other can of worms - hopefully to avoid delving too deeply into it, the idea that 'most learned history is white history' is an incredibly broad stroke - the greeks weren't 'white'. The Romans weren't 'white'. The Venecians weren't 'white'. The Asiatics were (mostly) not white. Now you can say AMERICAN history is white history, but even then it intersects, affects, and is affected by native american and african history.

 

[Mr.Pandah]

I love how this went from "male-focused issues" to "Whitey needs to shut his mouth because he don't know nothin 'bout the hard times we minorities face!".

Everyone goes through hard times, whether black, white, yellow, red, blue, or purple. There is no point in bickering over something like that. Problems come in varying degrees and all shapes and sizes.

As for the topic at hand...I have to go ahead and say that being in a male dominated market...most of us don't care how "we" are portrayed. I personally rather play some buff psychopath then some skinny(or fat) kid that deals with life's every day problems.

 

[DoctorDisaster]

...the greeks weren't 'white'. The Romans weren't 'white'. The Venecians weren't 'white'.

Whoa, whoa, wait, what? Italians and Greeks have been broadly accepted as whites since the 40s or so. Even before that they were only lumped into the catchall racist-bait "colored" group because they were recent immigrants.

Not to flame but... sorry, they're European. It's a fact of geography.

EDIT: Allow me to demonstrate.

Greeks [http://www.olemiss.edu/depts/classics/achillesmosaic.jpeg]
Romans [http://booksofart.com/wp-content/gallery/roman-art/roman-art-08.jpg]
Venetians [http://portraitxpress.files.wordpress.com/2008/10/mona-lisa.jpg]

 

[Alex_P]

But I do think the content would be better if the audience didn't turn into such crybabies any time gender or race or whatever came up at all.

Equally if any discussion of gender/race identity wasn't blamed on "middle-class white men thinking they have a hard time."

If we keep naming specific groups as "able/unable to talk about these sort of things", we're just reinforcing the lines that divides us. If we're more and more open to cultural differences, shouldn't we also be open to cultural differences within our own demographic?

I don't think middle-class white men are incapable of talking about "these sorts of things". If I thought that, I wouldn't be in the conversation, being middle-class, white, and male myself.

However, there are folks who really can't contribute anything to the conversation, because their immediate reaction to its mere existence is to try to shut it down. And, well, is it any surprise that those who introduce their middle-class-white-male-ness just to shut everyone up ("Where's my white pride parade?") get their experiences dismissed rather than affirmed?

-- Alex