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.
Silent Hill 2 remake will be exclusive to the PS5 until October 8, 2025, so don't expect an Xbox port or announcement it expires.
why does it feel like we are living in the early 00's again? Sony paying for either full exclusivity or timed was the thing back in the day... and its been 'remastered' for this generation.
Uncover the spending behind Xbox's Game Pass subscription. Discover how Microsoft invests a billion dollars annually in securing third-party games for the service.
Good.
Now that you´re releasing games and making big money from every gaming platform, you should double that amount and give us even more day one third party games!
I like how they twist cannibalising game sales into "invests".
No lifetime sales with MS, they'll F-up gaming the same as streaming services have done to the movie industry and it's workforce.
we know this, we have known this since last year.
this is not new or news.
"The Hamburg-based (Germany) indie games publisher Daedalic Entertainment and Rome-based (Italy) indie games developer ONE-O-ONE GAMES, are today super happy and excited to announce that their gripping narrative thriller "The Suicide of Rachel Foster", is now available for the PS5 via PSN." - Jonas Ek, TGG.
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...