Comment by boyaka | Hacker News Reader

Comment by boyaka | Hacker News Reader

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So basically this game is creepypasta where you are supposed to get horrified about how violent and uncaring gamers are, have a meaningful conversation with your friend where you just try to understand his problems (video games?) without getting frustrated, then call your mom to save you in order to win. Then it lets you go back to save your friend from video games because you understand.

THEN you find out it's all just feminist propaganda to talk about how horrible the gaming industry is.

I thought it was pretty interesting in the end but it has not convinced me there is any issue with video games. I grew up on Nintendo since I was 3 years old and would certainly consider myself a gamer. I believe it has had very positive influences on my life, and I also believe that a lot of the power I have supposedly lost is superficial anyways.

There are plenty of good influences that can be gained from video games, and it's especially disheartening that the author blames Nintendo, which is not even responsible for the violent/repetitive gaming culture. I honestly don't have much of a say in this recent argument because most of my gaming was done from 1988~2011, and from 2002 and beyond it has been majority MMO and rhythm games (I have continued to play MMOs - FF14! - when I can, but I'm currently taking a break so I can progress in the game of life)...I did play through GTA4 with a friend and would like to play GTA5 when I have free time again. I suppose that people that are choosing to play these mainstream violent games a la Call of Duty and the ones the feminists are talking about may be negatively influenced by them, but I'm more in the camp that the video games let us immerse ourselves into worlds where we can just enjoy and challenge ourselves, and take part in amazing creative stories. They are sort of virtual reality books, and books have the same spectrum of playing with our human and animal mind, appeasing to us however we are instinctively prone to being appeased. They are a good way to relax and stimulate our brains. Meh, like I say, I'm not really part of the demographic that is playing these games that feminists have such a huge problem with anyways.

I'm sorry but I call BS. In the author notes it doesn't try to say that games are a bad influence at all. Nor does it try to shame the gaming industry.

The author notes go over why he created the game, and how his childhood experiences and the current state of the gaming industry both affected the creation of the game.

He doesn't even mention Nintendo what-so-ever in the notes, neither does he focus on violence.

You severely miss-interpreted what the author wanted to portray.

He focuses on how video games and their authors attempt to toy with our emotions, and how it can be a much more powerful medium to effect the way people think than with books, television or even social media.

I admit I could be misinterpreting a lot here. The author isn't being very straight forward about his opinions, but there is absolutely a negative light being cast on the gaming community, maybe because of exactly what you say, that it is a powerful medium.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but at least you could say that this entire creation is a response to the "gamergate" scandal that has been going on?

My take from this is that it is calling out mind controlled gamer zombies for attacking and persecuting women and minorities. This is precisely what is frustrating for me because my view is that video games are harmless and even stimulating for us, and that they are just a reflection of our inner instincts, not people manipulating us. The gaming industry is just giving us what we want. Here's the relevant part of the author's "On Topicalality" writing:

"We may not believe in the uncle who works for Nintendo anymore, but he is certainly still at work."

...[Edit:[I suppose I did misinterpret this as him attacking Nintendo, he's just using it as a line from the gamer community that they have secret ties into a hierarchy? He also mentions Nintendo Power, which I grew up with, and I suppose he is blaming these secrets and hierarchy for shutting out and attacking groups of people who aren't in the know. Nintendo touched my heart growing up and I'm glad to have been able to bond with other Nintendo gamers throughout my life. I never dealt with issues of people using this uncle line and I'm just a bit offended by the author's claim that the Nintendo/industry/capitalism is corrupted with people trying to control me. They have delivered much higher quality content than many other areas of industry]]...

"Women and minority voices are under attack. The finer details of this organized harassment campaign are, by this point, both fatiguing and immensely abhorrent. I will not bother to recount them here. Suffice it to say: the contingent of players taking up the flag of "gamers" are, in many ways, the realization of the thoughts, feelings, and behaviors that constitute the "enemy" of this game."

And here are the links from the "Gamers Being Over" section, one of which does strongly focus on violence (not that that is the main issue even I was talking about, the main issue is feminism's argument about the negative aspects of games and the response from the gaming community):

http://ellaguro.blogspot.com/2014/09/on-gamers-and-identity....

http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/224400/Gamers_dont_have_t...

"They don’t know how to dress or behave."

Thanks Gamasutra, it has been a long time since I read a opinion article this well argued.

go cry about women somewhere else

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