On Gaming While Female
April 19, 2012 1:24 PM Subscribe
This post was deleted for the following reason: No biggie, but this mostly feels like a resolved little bit of Internet Drama with not much to say at this point. -- cortex
As someone who games only on Steam, I can believe that the Oatmeal's misunderstanding stemming from lack of experience with Xboxboyz and Playhaterz is genuine, but yeah, at best he is awfully sheltered.
But his apology seemed genuine, and donating $1,000 to anti-abuse charities is pretty emphatic.
posted by mightygodking at 1:28 PM on April 19, 2012 [7 favorites]
But his apology seemed genuine, and donating $1,000 to anti-abuse charities is pretty emphatic.
posted by mightygodking at 1:28 PM on April 19, 2012 [7 favorites]
Everyone ready for the two minutes hate?
posted by R. Schlock at 1:28 PM on April 19, 2012 [1 favorite]
posted by R. Schlock at 1:28 PM on April 19, 2012 [1 favorite]
UPDATE: Inman has apologized "to any female famers who I offended. I didn't mean to perpetuate the idea that women are treated more nicely while playing games online. It sounds like in a lot of cases the opposite is true." He says that, having stuck with playing on Steam, he's been unaware of the verbal abuse female gamers often receive. He's donated $1,000 to the Women Against Abuse foundation for good measure.It isn't good that this happened, but at least he seems to have learned something.
From personal experience, what he describes happens on rare occasions, but mostly I hear gendered insults and slurs.
posted by charred husk at 1:29 PM on April 19, 2012
IT'S JUST SO UNFAIR that women get the red carpet treatment in one guy's anecdatum about video games online!!!!
Seriously, until I read the actual comic, I expected to find that The Oatmeal was being sarcastic and that Kotaku was missing the point.
posted by gauche at 1:30 PM on April 19, 2012
Seriously, until I read the actual comic, I expected to find that The Oatmeal was being sarcastic and that Kotaku was missing the point.
posted by gauche at 1:30 PM on April 19, 2012
To expand:
I've been playing Teamfortress 2 since it came out, and even on pub servers, even after F2P, overwhelmingly the players have been female-positive and quick to condemn female-hate. This is why Teamfortress 2 is so much fun. Well, that and hats.
Ditto on most FPSes I've played on Steam. Ditto on most RTS games. Et cetera. Although they generally don't have hats.
posted by mightygodking at 1:30 PM on April 19, 2012
I've been playing Teamfortress 2 since it came out, and even on pub servers, even after F2P, overwhelmingly the players have been female-positive and quick to condemn female-hate. This is why Teamfortress 2 is so much fun. Well, that and hats.
Ditto on most FPSes I've played on Steam. Ditto on most RTS games. Et cetera. Although they generally don't have hats.
posted by mightygodking at 1:30 PM on April 19, 2012
he impressed me with how quickly he admitted he might be talking out of his ass. i love the oatmeal and this just made me like it more. i'm glad i didn't see any hint of the story until it was all resolved.
for anyone who doesn't want to go through kotaku - here is his tumblr which has the strip, the first response, and the second response. and here is fat, ugly, or slutty.
posted by nadawi at 1:31 PM on April 19, 2012 [1 favorite]
for anyone who doesn't want to go through kotaku - here is his tumblr which has the strip, the first response, and the second response. and here is fat, ugly, or slutty.
posted by nadawi at 1:31 PM on April 19, 2012 [1 favorite]
Ha, yeah, not quite, unless by "compliments and flattery" you mean "creepy people assuming that you are a coin-op box which might dispense sexual favors over X-Box, given a sufficient number of references -- crude, gross, grossly crude, or the ever-elusive 'otherwise' -- to your gender".
That said, the author of the comic seems to have gotten the picture, so it looks as if an educational time was had by all!
posted by vorfeed at 1:31 PM on April 19, 2012 [2 favorites]
That said, the author of the comic seems to have gotten the picture, so it looks as if an educational time was had by all!
posted by vorfeed at 1:31 PM on April 19, 2012 [2 favorites]
Interesting contrast to the PA dickwolves fracas, which we've discussed here before.
Other than that, meh. Is there anything to see here? This sort of just seems like a thing that happened on the internet today.
posted by Admiral Haddock at 1:32 PM on April 19, 2012
Other than that, meh. Is there anything to see here? This sort of just seems like a thing that happened on the internet today.
posted by Admiral Haddock at 1:32 PM on April 19, 2012
If You’re Female, Online Gaming Is A Festival of [uninvited, out of place, entitled] Compliments and Flattery,
...Followed by blinding, blistering rage-outs and streams of "ugly" insults, if the response is not deprecating, "cute" or positive to the "attention" (first time I have seen Oatmeal guy take a step back from one of his anecdada comics, so, thats different from the other times).
posted by infinite intimation at 1:35 PM on April 19, 2012 [1 favorite]
...Followed by blinding, blistering rage-outs and streams of "ugly" insults, if the response is not deprecating, "cute" or positive to the "attention" (first time I have seen Oatmeal guy take a step back from one of his anecdada comics, so, thats different from the other times).
posted by infinite intimation at 1:35 PM on April 19, 2012 [1 favorite]
This sort of just seems like a thing that happened on the internet today
Welcome to the front page of Metafilter!!!
posted by josher71 at 1:35 PM on April 19, 2012 [2 favorites]
Welcome to the front page of Metafilter!!!
posted by josher71 at 1:35 PM on April 19, 2012 [2 favorites]
I'm no big fan of the Oatmeal, but that apology was as genuine as they come. So I hope this wasn't posted as outrage-filter. Everyone should go check out Fat, Ugly or Slutty for a nice depressing time, though.
posted by naju at 1:36 PM on April 19, 2012 [1 favorite]
posted by naju at 1:36 PM on April 19, 2012 [1 favorite]
Is it surprising that Inman is pretty clueless about this? I don't regularly read The Oatmeal, but most of what I have read strikes me as pretty sheltered. I'm glad this is a learning experience for him or whatever.
posted by muddgirl at 1:38 PM on April 19, 2012
posted by muddgirl at 1:38 PM on April 19, 2012
Basically at age 12 all human beings should be placed in a special reservation, called "The Zone" with no internet access and only allowed out once teenagerhood has passed and they can prove themselves to be human adults. Some people may never leave.
The neatly trimmed grass of The Zone's perimeter, on which no teenage may tread for fear of instant laser death from one of the many automated guard turrets, is to be known as "The lawn".
posted by Artw at 1:38 PM on April 19, 2012 [6 favorites]
The neatly trimmed grass of The Zone's perimeter, on which no teenage may tread for fear of instant laser death from one of the many automated guard turrets, is to be known as "The lawn".
posted by Artw at 1:38 PM on April 19, 2012 [6 favorites]
Everyone should go check out Fat, Ugly or Slutty for a nice depressing time, though motivation to pray for the zombie apocalypse to come quickly and cleanse the earth.
FTFY
posted by Doleful Creature at 1:40 PM on April 19, 2012 [3 favorites]
FTFY
posted by Doleful Creature at 1:40 PM on April 19, 2012 [3 favorites]
Honestly, "Person on the Internet Gets Something Incredibly Wrong, Listens To and Learns From Feedback, Apologizes, Makes Significant Gesture of Amends" is such an unusual event that I'm glad we have this thread.
posted by Sidhedevil at 1:40 PM on April 19, 2012 [17 favorites]
posted by Sidhedevil at 1:40 PM on April 19, 2012 [17 favorites]
Basically at age 12 all human beings should be placed in a special reservation, called "The Zone" with no internet access and only allowed out once teenagerhood has passed and they can prove themselves to be human adults.
"At age 12, a boy should be placed in a barrel and fed through the bunghole. At age 18, drive in the bung."
posted by DU at 1:40 PM on April 19, 2012
"At age 12, a boy should be placed in a barrel and fed through the bunghole. At age 18, drive in the bung."
posted by DU at 1:40 PM on April 19, 2012
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posted by Sidhedevil at 1:27 PM on April 19, 2012 [1 favorite]