I'm sure you've all seen the recent news surrounding "Gaymercon"; the gaming convention for the homosexual community. If you haven't, I will now give you a brief summary of it. Gaymercon is currently a kickstarter project. It is a gaming convention designed specifically for gamers who are homosexual but, according to currently known information, is not excluding the participation of the heterosexual community.
As with all things that have a social background or impact, a gaming convention for homosexual gamers has gained all kinds of attention; both positive and negative. I will discuss, hopefully briefly though that isn't a certainty with my style of writing, both sides of the coin.
The Positive Attention: This is, largely, from the LGBT (Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender) community who see this as a step forward for their rights and a venue for them to gather with people of common status, free of being subjected to heterosexual themes and any recriminations. In defending themselves against the negative views, they state that straight gamers (and people) can't know what it's like to be gay and thus can't understand why a convention like this is both progressive and necessary.
The Negative Attention: This, unfortunately, can be seen as coming from 2 sides. The one side is homophobic and hateful. The other side is only in the negative area because it isn't in the positive area. That is to say that it has nothing to do with homophobia, more about a different kind of logic. Many, and yes this includes myself, do not see any reason for such a convention to exist. The stance is that sexual orientation is irrelevant to being a gamer. What you do in bed has no impact on your games or your gaming skill or why you love to game. In defending themselves against those on the pro-convention side, they state that this convention is creating more divisions among people and fostering further segregation. It is now not a matter of being gay, it is a matter of being a gay gamer.
In the world we live in, we have far too many labels separating us. We create these divides and state that they exist so that they won't exist. It is a vicious paradox that seemingly has no end. Some say Gaymercon is a safe haven for the LGBT community to gather and discuss their favorite hobby. Others say that it promotes homosexuality as a difference that should be separated from the gaming community at large. This is a topic that will see no resolution.
I submit to you though that there should be no additional labels in the area of gamer. I say that "Gamer" is its own label. The only qualification to be a gamer is that you game regularly. Your race, gender, sexual orientation, religion, or breakfast choice have nothing to do with your ability to pick up a controller (or keyboard, phone, or tablet) and play your favorite game. When you're playing online, you'll win or lose based solely on your skill (unless someone is cheating) and not on any other aspect of your being. That label, the label of Gamer, should be the only one that matters. Girl Gamer, Guy Gamer, White Gamer, Black Gamer, Gay Gamer, Straight Gamer, they all have one thing in common. At the end of all of those labels is the word Gamer. Eliminate the other labels and exist solely as Gamers.
Anime conventions, sci-fi conventions, comic book conventions; all of these things have something in common. They aren't labelling the people who go to them as anything other than fans of the specific theme of the convention. There is no "Gay Anime Fans Convention" or "Asian Star Trek Fans convention." So the idea that a Gaymercon is necessary is pretty illogical. Games aren't a platform for fixing society, they are entertainment. Games shouldn't be used to further an agenda, they are for fun.
Just be a gamer. It doesn't matter if you're gay or straight, black or white, short or tall, fat or thin. You're a gamer, that's all that matters. If you're going to separate yourself from the rest of us, don't get upset when it works against you.
Happy Gaming my fellow Gamers. I think this issue should be an eye opener to developers/publishers to release games in the summer so that we don't have so much time on our hands.
Nirav from GL writes: "If the makers of a GOTY competitor that outdid sales and Game Pass expectations and owned by the richest company in the world cannot stay open - what hope is there for everyone else?"
***If the makers of a GOTY competitor that outdid sales and Game Pass expectations and owned by the richest company in the world cannot stay open - what hope is there for everyone else?***
None if you stay in an arena of corporate driven metrics. And this is what happens when you allow publishers to buy up massive amounts of studios and IPs. There's only so much internal competition and the focus in the end will remain on those who look best on a spreadsheet.
Players can be so driven by what is best for them and only see what is put right in front of them. But that's not what is best for them. They are being lied to constantly, as seen by Microsoft's ridiculous praise for Hi-Fi Rush and Phil's lies about Redfall prior to release and how big of a supporter of both studios he has been. But, instead of thinking "wait, this corporation wants me to think this way, should I be listening to them and believing them?" players eat it up and go "OMG, did you hear what they said! They're just like us and they know what's best for the industry."
And because of this single-mindedness of the majority of gamers, we are where we are now. Massive layoffs. Massive studio closures. Games that we were told were representative of the core values of said corporations shelved and studios behind them shuttered. The truth is coming to bear because the truth all along was only what the numbers in an excel spreadsheet told the corporate suits.
If you truly want what is best for the industry, what is best for developers, then you need to support Indie games, support developers that maintain control over their IPs and direction, support boutique publishers who only exist to help Indies make it out the door and don't own the IP. Stop supporting major corporations with your money or you devotion. Stop playing their games, and I don't mean video games, but their marketing, their double speak, their guy without a tie who says things you want to hear PR, their future of video gaming concepts as if we were hurting for new ways to play games other than installing/downloading and playing them, and especially any slogan from them that gives the impression that they are for you, the consumer. They are not. You're merely a value on a spreadsheet.
The latest round of Xbox studio closures has further revealed Microsoft’s inability to be proactive and responsive in its communication.
There's a pattern. It seems like in May every year there's some blunder. Last year Phil was crying and mad at ABK possibly not going through and how Redfall sucked. Year before that Redfall and Sf getting delayed.
Next months all will be forgiven by Xbox fanboys because they put on a great show or whatever. Then come next year MS creates more fires in their house rinse and repeat. This happens every year don't fall for this trap this year.
Microsoft have no idea what they are doing in gaming. It's time for them to just leave the gaming scene.
It would be better if some other company took their place as the third console developer, beside Sony and Nintendo.
Mark my words... If Hellblade 2 flops in sales, Ninja Theory will be killed off.
XB fans better buy those digital only copies of Hellblade 2 instead of renting the game through GP otherwise Ninja Theory will be next.
Excellent combat and clever enemy design make up for Stellar Blade’s otherwise bland story and questionable aesthetic choices.
Let me guess (without reading the article) the "questionable aesthetic choices" is the main character being too attractive. Did I get it right?
I just think that the two labels together for a convention is silly. I'm not saying they can't, I'm not saying it's discriminatory, I'm not saying they aren't allowed.
But I am saying that "gamer" and "homosexual" have no immediate connection what-so-ever. It's no more a "sub-category" than race, gender, eye color, bra size, height, weight, etc.
So, yes, I wholly agree with your blog.
Regarding the necessity:
I really don't see why it's a problem that the Con exists. If you don't want to attend, then don't attend. If you don't see the point, don't attend. Why you would argue and debate over the purpose of it seems like you are wasting more time talking about something you have absolutely no care over rather than just letting people enjoy what they want to enjoy.
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Regarding "labels":
It's easy to talk about labels being a barrier when there is no barrier to the individual making that statement. In an ideal world, we'd all recognize one another as equals. We'd never say "I have a black friend, so..." And we'd always know that when someone makes a joke that there's nothing racial about it.
We don't live in that world. We live in the real world where people are racially profiled. Jokes are made about black people taking over basketball and football because "that's what they're good at." Jokes are made about gays being neat and stylish "because they all do that."
Furthermore, we live in a world where people find it okay to spew words. Words I can't type here because it's against the ToU. But, you know them. One begins with 'F' and ends with 'T' and the other begins with 'N' and ends with 'R'. You can throw in the word 'sand' before one to make it another racial slur, and this happens a ton. And people who play games deal with this on a daily basis because the world hasn't learned that saying something on the Internet like this isn't okay. The Internet doesn't suddenly release you from following common decency and respecting other races.
So, a white person who sits on XBL and gets called these names but isn't either gay or black or middle eastern or whatnot? Yeah, it's easy for you to sit there and brush it off. It's just an idiot on the Internet. But, if you are that, if you are gay or black, to hear someone say it so casually and in a derogatory manner? That's gotta hurt. It's gotta tell you that no matter what someone on N4G says in a well-written blog about us "having too many labels" and "being divided" that hiding away your religion, sexual orientation, race, and similar things isn't going to prevent those labels from disappearing. White people are calling other white people racially insensitive and derogatory names as if it's acceptable.
So, yeah, the ideal world of there being no labels? Awesome. The real world we live in? Not so awesome.
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Regarding it being illogical:
If this is our biggest concern, I would say it would be more logical to continue educating and teaching others to be acceptable to the differences of others and treating them as equals as well as continuing to respect them by the words we chose to use in our daily life and gaming life than to waste time worrying over a convention we have no interest in in the first place.
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Regarding the following bit from you post: "don't get upset when it works against you"
Truly a progressive statement to make. Essentially, don't get upset when people deride you for your choice even though you made the decision to start this convention because you've already been derided for your choice and wanted to come together with others of like minds and choices in life. Truly progressive.
Hi this blog is FABULOUS!!!!
dammnnnnn... columbo got butthurt.
I agree 100%
Although I must say that there is a gay anime convention, its called Yaoi-con or something but its not really a convention about gay anime fans but rather about the genre of Yaoi in itself. See thats acceptable because it does have its fairly big fanbase (mostly girls believe it or not). The whole idea of a gaymer-con is just redundant, its basically a gaming convention with what? gay people? What are they going to be doing there? play games? its redundant and unnecessary and I agree with you on this blog.
But seriously though, just IMAGINE all the Halo and Call of Duty kiddies running around there...