I play video games, but my “identity” as a “gamer” is not important enough to me to care about defending the label.

If someone says “gamers are trash,” you either know exactly the type of person they’re talking about, or you are the type of person they’re taking about.

I have no desire to argue “well I’m a gamer and I’m not like those people” because I don’t give a damn about the “sanctity” of such an arbitrary label. Also, not only are there tons of toxic gamers who are guilty of all the -isms, but there are also a lot of gamers who are all-to-eager to minimize the shitty actions of the former group and I don’t want to be associated with them either.

“That’s just how online gaming is” or “You think that’s bad? You should’ve seen call of duty lobbies back in the day” are common refrains from people who may not be hyper-toxic themselves, but they’re completely adjusted to bigotry being the status quo for the hobby and they don’t even see it as a problem to be corrected.

Also, I’m white. Seeing people criticize racism in gamer culture and jumping to the defense of the label as if that’s the problem feels very on brand for the way that white people tend to prioritize things. The bigotry is a much bigger problem than my “right” to call myself a gamer without the extra baggage. It feels a bit like still trying to defend twitter. I play video games, but yes, gamers are trash.

playing Dark Souls 3

EVERY time a female character, npc, or even artwork appears

without fail

message on the ground

woman therefore beating to a pulp required ahead

200+ likes

I feel like there’s a lot of white dudes in here that are like “what do you mean? I’VE found it so easy to avoid the toxic minority of chuds. Must be a you-problem? If anything, YOU’RE discriminating against ME by bringing this up.”

It is a very offensive and exaggerated meme for the gaming community, by the way.

Look, just don’t bring your damn politics to my game about war and politics. We are just here to shoot ̶b̶r̶o̶w̶n̶ people and relax. I don’t want to think about the implications behind the media I am consuming.

It’s not just games anymore. Hence all the chuds losing their minds about “The Odyssey”.

Wat

Is this about chess?

Do you realize that you’re currently doing precisely what you’re trying to mock? — Discriminating and generalizing a group of people based on their hobby.

i don’t want colored folks in my historically accurate game about dragons and wizards!!!

Sound off if you’re a gamer from the majority of the world where whites are a minority of the population <3

[EDIT: This meme has to only work in like, the Northern American continent and Europe, yeah? Is homosexuality a political issue in Europe?]

Don’t forget the two religions: Protestant and Political. We get the Straight White Anglo-Saxon Protestant. Or SWASP

I think it’s undeniable there are a lot of very stupid people, and many of them are loud gamers.

One of the problems is humans are social creatures. Facts don’t change minds. In-group pressure changes minds. (And sometimes horrific trauma, but only sometimes*). The typical person, confronted with an idea that contradicts a non-trivial belief, will evaluate primarily if the person presenting the belief is in-group. The same kind of message delivered by different people has very different outcomes.

With the Internet, idiots and assholes can find their own social groups to reinforce their shitty beliefs.

If we want to fix this, we’d have to do the long, expensive, and thankless work of getting them to see us as in-group, and getting them to then adopt better ideas. Incidentally, that’s how the right wing has been operating.

Laughing at them for being fucking morons is satisfying, but it’s like picking at a scab. It’s not going to heal.

I just want a fun game like KOTOR