Hello, Tap-Repeatedly –
I wanted to write an actual roundup of games I played in 2017 – there were a lot of good ones – and I promise that I still will. But today I am merely stopping by to direct your attention to others. This hashtag that I’ve seen on Twitter over the last week fills me with joy. I must bask in it.
Some people seem to be favoring #womenbehindthegames, and that’s also totally fine.
Why is this so, so important to me? Please click on it. Either one. Both.
Regrettably, it won’t surprise anyone that the internet – and gamers with internet access – are not always the most forward-thinking bunch. One of the latest instances of this is the response to the Tropes vs. Women Kickstarter to do a series of videos based specifically on women in video games.
Unfortunately, this is just one in a long line of issues, whether with the portrayal of female characters in video games or the treatment of female gamers or the position of female game developers, to hit truly repugnant levels. There’s an outcry and blogs and strings of comments everywhere, some inflammatory, others seconding opinions.
But everyone’s preaching to their own choir, most of the time. The state of women in games is complex, to say the least, and some of the hard parts of the issue get lost in all the shouting. Dix and AJ try to have this conversation, maybe ask some difficult questions, and try to feel out the facets of what is, plainly, more than just a two-sided topic, with a minimum of sandwiches and death threats.