Worldwide Web of Whiners

  I'll go ahead and warn you now: this post will be long and pretty serious. It's about gaming, but not Eve specifically. The short of it? I'll be talking about bigotry in the gaming world. I may get a little..heated and graphic for which I apologize in advance.

  CrazyKinux, the blogfather of the Eve blogosphere, linked an article on his Facebook today that I absently clicked on to see what it was about. Little did I know what I was into then.

  In the world, there has always and will always be bigotry in one form or another. Which is why it is hardly surprising that it is so prevalent in the digital world. Thus the Internet Fuckwad Theory. What am I babbling about? The vile and unmitigated hatred directed at women gamers.

  To which my question is this: W. T. F. is wrong with you?

  When I was growing up, a woman gaming was like the holy grail. If you could find a chick that could beat you in Mortal Kombat then you proposed on the spot. So how is it that the perception that women have no place or right to be in the gaming world has become ok and almost expected? Something's not right.

  Some light smack talk as a ribbing between friends to push each other to keep up the fight or to get someone to stop station spinning in lowsec...that's cool with me. Done it plenty myself. But when someone hears a feminine voice on the other end and suddenly it turns into derogatory slander of slut and the various iterations of ugly...you're just being a dick. And proving you don't have one. This type of smack is meant to mentally cripple women and provide such a hostile, hateful environment that they don't stay. Idiocy.

  It's this kind of behavior that keeps new blood, and some of the best blood I might add, out of the gaming industry. Close minded, loud mouthed, small dicked sons of motherless goats that think it's the cool thing to abuse women. And that's what it is. Abuse.

  Got the balls to say trash without that cloak of the internet? Didn't think so.

  And the anonymity afforded an individual means the law can't keep up with anything, so that leaves it in the hands of us. We the gamers are the front and most important line, the defining line. I would hope this is not so ubiquitous in Eve, but I don't get out of wormholes much so I can't really say with too much certainty.

  In Eve, there is the Women Gamers of Eve Online and there are some movements against the bigotry in the links above. We have some of the best women gamers in ADHC and I know of others like Aevynne.

  My whole point to all of this is that it needs to stop. I know my readers don't only play Eve, so being proactive about shutting this behavior down wherever you game is important. If you think it's no big deal, that I'm making a fuss over nothing or that women have it coming...this isn't for you and I suggest you stay quiet. Whine elsewhere.

  The industry needs more people and women can be even more passionate about it than men. Troll the trolls and get 'em to shut up.

  All I know is that it makes me sick and if I ruled the world for a day, I'd beat these types senseless. And for those that harass with rape cartoons? You'll burn in a special hell.

  Be better, do better. You're gamers, not muhfucking animals.
-Mem

  Ninjaedit: I can only be a single voice in this. This is one blog in the sea of blogs. So I will put a challenge to my fellow Eve bloggers, as well as any others that read this. Add your voice and make this a worldwide movement. Information dissemination is key to success for these kinds of things. Corelin, at Mad Haberdashers, beat me to the issue and took up the mantle. Will you?