WHITE GUY DEFENSE FORCE GO!

[SlashCo]

Personally, I "get" the comic and what it's trying to say. I don't find it funny, however, because it's very ham-handed and strawmannish.

First of all, who said that gamers can't identify with black people in a video game? Hmm, that must be why GTA San Andreas, The Walking Dead series, or hell, Diablo 2 were such flops that no-one heard of, right?

Secondly, oh look, it's time to make fun of white people again. What I find ironic is that the comic mocks someone saying that (hetero) white guys are the only remaining acceptable target to make fun of, then proceeds to prove it by doing exactly that.

What's next? Mocking fat guys and people who wear fedoras. Because anyone who isn't an ultra-leftist social justice warrior who deeply cares about feminism, minority rights and all the other popular causes du jour, must be a fat basement-dwelling fedora-wearing neckbeard, right guys? LOL, so funny and original!

Moving on - mocking charts and figures as if they're useless? This is coming close to "leave me alone with your facts and logic, all that matters is how I feel!!!" Tumblr-SJW territory.

And finally, "Zimmerman mode?" Really? Al Sharpton would be proud.

 

[Shadowstar38]

There's also no evidence to support this "friend" wasn't a connection for illegally obtaining prescription strength Codeine.
I mean, Martin was found with Skittles and a fruit drink, it's not like he had candy and soft drink that's two thirds of a narcotic cocktail which induces paranoia that Martin had been known to consume when he had bragged about it almost a year prior on his facebook chat.

I wouldn't care if he had a bag of backing soda and some zip lock bags. Point is, he was doing nothing illegal at the time. Painting Martian is a criminal is just a red harring to distract from the fact that Zimmerman could have prevented this whole thing.

Anyway, the proof thing was just some random bullshit to pour fuel on the fire. As you can tell by some of my responses, I'm not taking this all too seriously. Kind of astounding that this case is taking up so much of the discussion when there's so much else going on in the comic.

 

[Ickorus]

No, in the first-world you are not going to get discriminated against if you're a straight, white man.

I disagree, the funniest thing about discrimination is that it is indiscriminate; anyone, anywhere can discriminate against another person for any number of reasons.

 

[Mrsoupcup]

"lol look at them they're fat and wear fedoras and have WRONG opinions, let's make fun of them"

"but hey, it's totally not cool to judge someone based on their appearance. sexists"

When will this end?

 

[RJ 17]

Good god...IT'S STILL GOING! Granted this post doesn't help since I'm just adding to the post count, but seriously...I don't think I've ever seen a webcomic generate this kind of response. Then again...

Ugh. The hypocrisy in this thread is rather galling.

ATTENTION: Anyone who was offended by this comic and has ever expressed annoyance and/or displeasure at the discussion of sexism or racism in gaming is a massive hypocrite and needs to physically castrate themselves immediately to prevent your particular brand of stupidity from contaminating the gene pool.

If you fall into that category, i have but three words for you: "Deal With It"

Now, I'm not offended by the comic, but what if you're annoyed and/or displeased at all of the discussion of sexism and/or racism in gaming because the threads constantly clog up our forums and dissuade people from making and engaging in otherwise much more interesting and potentially amusing threads? Because the threads about sexism and/or racism in gaming always end up the same way, with the same people shouting the same arguments at each other and no one gets anywhere because we're a bunch of people on an internet forum and there's nothing we can do to actually impact the situation in the industry?

There's a good discussion to be had about potentially racist or sexist individuals making the decisions in the industry. I won't deny that. But the day it's actually had on the internet is the day people stop starting flame wars over My Little Pony, the day people stop smugly accusing rap or metal of "just being noise", the day people can acknowledge that Call of Duty is generally a solidly-built game and not literally the worst thing in the history of the human race (exaggeration). And I, for one, don't think that day will come in my lifetime.

This brings up a fantastic point, and this comic's comment section is a perfect example of what shrekfan is talking about. What with "the same people shouting the same arguments" over and over again. And shrek's right: I do groan every time I see a topic about genders/racism/sexism/anything that's "controversial" because I know 2 things are going to be true about it:

1: It's going to have a MASSIVE post count and I suspect that's really the only reason the topic was created in the first place.
2: It's going to have two herds of goats just bleating repeatedly at one another and, as shrekfan points out, nothing will ever actually get resolved because we're all just a bunch of random jackasses with a keyboard and a computer screen.

The values and beliefs that one has certainly aren't going to be changed because some faceless name on the internet was more than happy to tell them how wrong their values and beliefs are. But I suppose that's why they call these things "flame wars", because that's all it ever amounts to: "You're stupid because of x, y, and z!" "Oh yeah? Well you're a hypocrite because of Straw Man, False Equivalency, and other fallacies that I just learned about in Public Speaking 101!"

Just for the record though, shrekfan, CoD doesn't get hated on because of the way it's built. It is indeed a fantastically made FPS with good controls, good customization, and fun game modes. CoD gets hated on because of the stereotypical types of players that play CoD. By that I mean your cursing 13 year olds, your racial-slur spewing jackasses, your perfectionist "I dashboard-out if my KDR falls beneath 10 to 1" people. Basically the types of people that send death threats to the game developers because a patch made the reload time for their favorite gun go from 1.02 seconds to 1.07.

 

[ShakerSilver]

Is this supposed to be funny? Yes, I got the comic, but where's the joke? Is the joke that white people are racist? Because if it were, then that's an awful generalization. And even if the joke is about a vocal minority, the comics still mocks the use of charts and stats, and calls these people murderers.

Remember when we used to talk about video games? I don't. Seriously, almost all of the "hot topics" I hear about games now are about all the different "-isms" that make conversations about politics and agendas of the creators/critics than the actual game content.

Spoiler: Reminds me a lot of this conversation on /v/.

I'm actually saddened by the fact that 4chan, of all places, is the only place where I can talk about games without any of these topics being brought up.

Spoiler: They also seem to be having a good time editing the comic.

 

[Hover Hand Mode]

Congratulations. You've thoroughly rattled enough cages to earn my respect and caused me to join the forums. Congrats! Will be following your comic from now on.
I decided to share this comic on Facebook before heading to work yesterday. Once I got there, I started to worry. Why worry? Because I have friends who resemble the members of White Guy Defense Force! Thankfully, everyone's still talking to me and my roommate appreciated the comic as much as I did.
So I just noticed that Alpha is sporting a popped collar. Nice touch!

 

[shrekfan246]

Just for the record though, shrekfan, CoD doesn't get hated on because of the way it's built. It is indeed a fantastically made FPS with good controls, good customization, and fun game modes. CoD gets hated on because of the stereotypical types of players that play CoD. By that I mean your cursing 13 year olds, your racial-slut spewing jackasses, your perfectionist "I dashboard-out if my KDR falls beneath 10 to 1" people. Basically the types of people that send death threats to the game developers because a patch made the reload time for their favorite gun go from 1.02 seconds to 1.07.

It's a little bit of both.

The overreacting people are certainly a big part of it, but that doesn't really make the game itself terrible, as many people around here love to claim. It can be argued that a multi-player-centric game lives or dies on its community and as such the relative quality of the game can be judged on the quality of its community, but for some reason I don't get the impression that many of the CoD-haters are really considering it that deeply. Or at least, I never see the arguments get that type of actual backing; Usually it's just "CoD sucks because of all the idiotic kids playing it!!!" And I don't really approve of that kind of unsubstantiated claim, because years of playing World of Warcraft has taught me that no matter what game you're playing online, if you're going into something with a group of randoms, there's an 85% chance it's going to suck and you're going to be miserable. (And before somebody jumps on me over that, yes, I know "85% chance" is a made-up statistic and unsubstantiated claim. That's not the point.)

Of course, occasionally you also get the people who claim that CoD is terrible simply because it's a massive seller in the industry right now. I've tried to engage on this point, as well, as "Well, [Previously Single-Player Franchise] is adding multi-player!" isn't indicative of a developer trying to 'appeal to the CoD crowd' (especially if the franchise in question isn't even a shooter). I've tried to ask them to prove the impact Call of Duty has had on even the influx of military shooters; Medal of Honor is dead, Spec Ops only just became relevant after years of being around because it satirized Call of Duty, Battlefield is the only other direct competition to Call of Duty, and things like ArmA are too niche to really be considered as having the same effect on game releases. On the grand scale of things, that's a tiny number of games being released per year that are military shooters, regardless of how many copies they might move.

...

Er, I went off on a tangent. Sorry 'bout that.

Anyway, looks like this thread might finally be winding down. I wonder how proud Grey is feeling of his work right now?

 

[madwarper]

Point is, he was doing nothing illegal at the time.

I completely agree. However, neither was Zimmerman doing anything illegal when he saw Martin, grew suspicious, got out of his car and followed after him.

Painting Martian is a criminal is just a red harring to distract from the fact that Zimmerman could have prevented this whole thing.

First, simply saying this could have been prevented by Zimmerman is ignoring the vast, complex chain of events that lead to that event that night. There are several people that could have prevented this.

Second, portraying Martin as he was is not a red herring. His parents claiming that he was a sweet, innocent little cherub, that in no way could have started the physical altercation is, though not unexpected from parents, the red herring.

Anyway, the proof thing was just some random bullshit to pour fuel on the fire.

So, you admit to being a Posting inflammatory, extraneous or off-topic messages with the primary intent of provoking readers into an emotional response or otherwise disrupting normal on-topic discussion...

As you can tell by some of my responses, I'm not taking this all too seriously.

No, I couldn't. Poe's Law and whatnot.

And, I am a bit sad that this tragic incident can be treated so flippantly by people to serve no purpose other than a cheap laugh by trying to get others in trouble.

 

[Hover Hand Mode]

Is this supposed to be funny? Yes, I got the comic, but where's the joke? Is the joke that white people are racist? Because if it were, then that's an awful generalization. And even if the joke is about a vocal minority, the comics still mocks the use of charts and stats, and calls these people murderers.

Remember when we used to talk about video games? I don't. Seriously, almost all of the "hot topics" I hear about games now are about all the different "-isms" that make conversations about politics and agendas of the creators/critics than the actual game content.

Spoiler: Reminds me a lot of this conversation on /v/.

I'm actually saddened by the fact that 4chan, of all places, is the only place where I can talk about games without any of these topics being brought up.

Spoiler: They also seem to be having a good time editing the comic.

A lot of confusion about this comic tends to come from a lack of familiarity with certain men's movements on the internet. Personally, I've had enough run-ins with Men's Rights Activists and Pick-Up Artist types that the comic made perfect sense to me. If you haven't seen paragraphs of gibberish from an MRA type, then I envy you.

The comic deals more in racism than sexism, but I think the parallels are there regardless. I'm not too surprised that an individual who is racist would also have a bit of a sexist streak to them (Alpha jumping straight to hitting on the one woman in the room at the time).

 

[Superlordbasil]

Big old note to any would be reader of this comments thread...

Don't it will only annoy, upset, get your hating hat on, cause despair, make you part of the KKK or the black panthers at the same time (go figure), make you decry the fall of western civilization, hail the rise of the ubermensch, turn you gay and homophobic at the same time(go figure again), and cause butt(something)

you have been warned

 

[RJ 17]

The overreacting people are certainly a big part of it, but that doesn't really make the game itself terrible, as many people around here love to claim. It can be argued that a multi-player-centric game lives or dies on its community and as such the relative quality of the game can be judged on the quality of its community, but for some reason I don't get the impression that many of the CoD-haters are really considering it that deeply. Or at least, I never see the arguments get that type of actual backing; Usually it's just "CoD sucks because of all the idiotic kids playing it!!!" And I don't really approve of that kind of unsubstantiated claim, because years of playing World of Warcraft has taught me that no matter what game you're playing online, if you're going into something with a group of randoms, there's an 85% chance it's going to suck and you're going to be miserable. (And before somebody jumps on me over that, yes, I know "85% chance" is a made-up statistic and unsubstantiated claim. That's not the point.)

Well you're certainly right about that. I too served my time in WoW from the very start till the end of Burning Crusade when I decided enough was enough. I thoroughly enjoyed my time spent there and don't regret it.....much. Though I won't deny the negative impact it had on my social life.

However I hated going with PUGs for a dungeon. The chance of finding a quality group was slim to none, and you're right about how that translates into CoD. I played Modern Warfare, World at War, MW2, BLOPs, MW3, and just a bit of BLOPs2. In all my time with CoD I hated playing with anyone who wasn't in a party formed of people on my friends list. Why? Because I knew my friends were players that I could count on, while randoms (or Green Arrows, as I liked to call them :3) were almost entirely undependable. It really was pretty amazing how more often than not a formed party of friends would beat out a team of randoms almost every time. It got to the point that I started living by a motto: "If a Green Arrow is behind you, you're about to get shot in the back." Obviously the reason I call random teammates "Green Arrows" is because that's how they show up on the mini-map, so if you see a green arrow behind you, chances are they're NOT going to shoot the guy who just came around the corner behind you. The sad part is that once I actually started taking this joke-motto seriously, my skills actually improved noticeably. >.>

Of course, occasionally you also get the people who claim that CoD is terrible simply because it's a massive seller in the industry right now. I've tried to engage on this point, as well, as "Well, [Previously Single-Player Franchise] is adding multi-player!" isn't indicative of a developer trying to 'appeal to the CoD crowd' (especially if the franchise in question isn't even a shooter). I've tried to ask them to prove the impact Call of Duty has had on even the influx of military shooters; Medal of Honor is dead, Spec Ops only just became relevant after years of being around because it satirized Call of Duty, Battlefield is the only other direct competition to Call of Duty, and things like ArmA are too niche to really be considered as having the same effect on game releases. On the grand scale of things, that's a tiny number of games being released per year that are military shooters, regardless of how many copies they might move.

And I was going to touch on this in my previous post as well but it slipped my mind. A lot of people don't like it purely because of how popular it is. I think it's just a form of good ol' fashioned "Hipster Mentality". "Look at all these juvenile, immature pleebs playing their modern military shooter. PISHAH AND PISH! I'm far too refined to find such a mainstream game to be entertaining." As I mentioned the one thing you can't criticize CoD for is being poorly made. As Yahtzee pointed out in his Gears of War 2 review: "Sometimes it stands to remember that popular things are popular for a reason." Really the only reason I fell out of CoD was simply because my friends stopped playing it. And the only reason they stopped playing it was because they suddenly received the genetic enhancements necessary to join the PC Master Race.

EDIT:
As for how Grey is feeling about unleashing this monstrosity of a comment section upon the forum, I'm pretty sure this sums things up:

Spoiler: I've already posted this twice, might as well post it once more:

 

[ShakerSilver]

snip

Heh, that last panel is just golden.
Never change, /v/.

 

[TheRightToArmBears]

Oh man, that was good- One of those comics that creates a comment thread possibly even funnier than the comic itself. Mocking all of the worst cliches that some people on the Escapist fulfill only to have them come and defend themselves in the same manner (really badly) is comedy gold. If you feel offended by this and come here to defend yourself with a load of pretentious tripe, you are the punchline. Good job.

Also, it's pretty admirable (although perhaps a touch misguided) to see Grey actually getting involved. Not many contributors do, but I can't say that I could be bothered to engage some of the people who are outraged about it.

 

[Abomination]

Why did YOU assume I was trying to paint black people as worse than white people?

Because that's what you did.

How is that not clear?

No, it is not what I did. It is how you read it or what you assumed I meant.

Again, why did you assume that's what I intended?

 

[Hover Hand Mode]

Comics like this aren't going to stop so long as there are people out there who use "whiteknight" as a verb.

 

[lord.jeff]

The real punchline to this comic is the comments.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Isn't the Zimmerman thing moot in this scenario? He's Hispanic, not the cis hetero white fanboy/jock/hipster types you're parodying.

snip

Too perfect. The second to last panel from the miscarriage that was the Penny Arcade miscarriage story arc was an especially nice touch. Although I'd really like to see this redone with actual white knights armed with Wacom tablets. I'd find that a little more fitting.

It's Ctrl+Alt+Del, Penny Arcade's mirthless close.

 

[JimB]

Isn't the Zimmerman thing moot in this scenario? He's Hispanic, not the cis-hetero white fanboy/jock/hipster types you're parodying.

George Zimmerman is only partially Hispanic. Without bothering to look it up, I believe he's also got some Polish in him.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Isn't the Zimmerman thing moot in this scenario? He's Hispanic, not the cis-hetero white fanboy/jock/hipster types you're parodying.

George Zimmerman is only partially Hispanic. Without bothering to look it up, I believe he's also got some Polish in him.

Whatever he is he's hardly the model of what they're supposed to be deriding.

Spoiler: Mod edit: Please add spoilers to your images!