Jaguar Victory
Member
"If you took an entertainment genre that was entirely brought into existence by the technological interests & work of young men and then inverted all the characters, they wouldn't be so happy" - um, great insight?
Again, there is no ethical imperative or even gain whatsoever to "more people should play core video games." It's just a particular set of products whose every trope, novel idea, and genre flowed directly from the niche of consumers around whom it grew into being.
This notion that it somehow benefits young women to play in men's fantasy worlds is a stupid as trying to convince the world that girls reading dumb superhero comic books would be a net gain or empowerment for them. Again, who cares? There are genres that organically appeal to women (take Mario Kart, which has always been universal, and which I also adore), but this isn't even about that--this is about the nonsense where companies try to convince you that it would make the world a better place if more women played Doom or whatever. An absolutely trite and meaningless goal, which only dumbs down and waters down what is distinctive about different genres, which always derives from the peculiar interests of their unique base of consumers.
I think the idea that videogame storytelling is isolated and not an organic offshoot from other media like books and movies is false. What we're taking about is a certain genre of story telling in gaming.
It's funny you mentioned how Mario Kart appeals to you as a male and to women as it has plenty of male/female (and lizard) representation. Not shocking right? Think about other games both genders enjoy: Overwatch, Fortnite, Roblox, Minecraft, League, WoW, Final Fantasy XIV, Sea of Thieves - All games with representation.
The point isn't that every game needs full representation. The point is what's the fucking harm in having some games that appeal to not you?