[1.Local]: WoW Insider's local chat comments this week

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

7-11-2008 @ 2:47PM

Iwanttobeasleep said...

Ginka's comment really rubs me the wrong way. So, someone wants to use WoW to escape societal expectations? Why should I have to put up to that? I want to escape societal expectations, too, but I don't want to escape the people who expect me to not be an asshat, I want to escape the people who expect me to be pretty, flirty, and straight.

It's important to have discussions on sexism (racism, homophobia, etc), including the subtle "Playground of the Id" stuff, because it's not just a playground, those jokes hurt people, and ignoring them because we think criticizing them does nothing just continues a system of passive approval, and it devalues every change that's made by people pointing out that something is wrong. Because for every asshole who is going to keep making rape jokes no matter how many times it's pointed out that's wrong, there are countless people who make an honest effort to change something they've never was hurtful.

7-11-2008 @ 4:14PM

Badger said...

I dunno if that's what Ginka was actually saying.

He (She?) seemed to be suggesting that racist / sexist attitudes rear their ugly heads without the player's realization, as the player is not "technically" the person who is expressing those attitudes. (See John Gabriel's "Internet Fuckwad Theory" for a more in-depth illustration of this phenomenon.)

Ginka did not seem to be suggesting that players actively seek online games and communities as a "safe haven" of sorts for the expression of their innermost hatreds.

Maybe that's not what you meant to suggest, either, but that's the way I read your input about "escaping societal expectations." *shrug*

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