I am a middle-class, I.T. white guy in his mid-thirties who grew up gaming, and loving video games. I never saw gaming as sexist, racist or any other -ist, because I assumed they were just another way for people to have fun.

And I will be the first to say that this woman, Anita Sarkeesian, is courageous and heroic.

Gamin…

I guess when someone who knows what their talking about breaks down gender studies into smaller and smaller pieces, some of the audienceCOUGHGAMERGATEAHEM interprets that as her laying it on thick. She's not. She's studying and critiquing and collecting data and analyzing and that's not a bad thing by any means. It…

Unfortunately, that's how gamers are nowadays.

If she were calling for laws punishing people for creating sexist games, your comment might be relevant. As is, all she's doing is saying "games would be better if they were different in these ways." What power does that have to stifle creativity, exactly? If anything else, it's encouraging artists to be MORE creative…

Just when I forget about the ignorance in the video game community, an article comes out and I read the comments, and then I am reminded again. Make no mistake I don't really agree with most of what she says. She has some valid points maybe she's even right, idealistically, but I mean, they're just games. Toys. I…

Yeah, critics are the worst man. It's just terrible when people express their points of view and wish that things were better.

Exactly! I think this is a point that so many people can't seem to get through their heads. She is not saying that the creators of these games are misogynists, she's saying that there is a lot of internalized social norms that creep into everything we do and create and that in turn reinforces those norms. All she's…

I see and accept many of her points. Often it does bug me how large of a distinction is made between men and women in games. The destiny example is prime when talking about animations and poses.

Totally agree. I'm sure FAR more people have watched my wife's chest bounce than have seen my junk jiggle.

A weird fact about TF2 is that there are no female classes because the team simply never thought to have female classes, the idea never came up. This isn't a purposeful act of anti feministic design, it's being done passively and that's what needs to be solved more than anything.

I am having a hard time typing right now because my hands are shaking with such Male Rage, but I will attempt my best effort.

For once, I would love to see folks attack the points and not the messager.

There should be more fat chicks in video games.

Yes. Most of us do.

It wouldn't be that hard to implement some of this stuff, especially in games where the player character is customized from the start of the game. Idk, it's not that fucking hard, but it's perceived as such if somehow, video games are a "bastion away from women" because IDK, they're out to get us men or something.

I feel like if tomorrow, every game developer made immense changes to the way they handle female characters from here on out, it still wouldn't effect a majority of male players. Everyone who complains about Anita and her criticisms isn't actually affected by any of this. So what's the problem? It seems to be people…

The fact that this has any stars at all is so deeply and profoundly concerning to me.

Wow that was just full on depressing. Yes he screwed up, but now he's going to pay for it for the rest of his career. Damn he pretty much accepted his life is going to suck now.

People still watch Mel Gibson movies. People still cheer for Steve Austin. He had a domestic violence problem or three. So do Ozzy Osbourne, Charlie Sheen and even James Brown. Most people can separate and approve of one personal's talent (music, acting or football skills) and cheer them on. What they do off the …