Why defensive videogame fanbases display the exact same sensitivity they claim to abh

November 8th, 2013, 21:31 Posted By: wraggster

There are several elements of predictable crowd behaviour when it comes to the highly anticipated launches of huge-budget videogames. First, the game is liable to receive generally high reviews, with minor variations among outlets. Second, the outliers on that narrow range will be subject to scrutiny – the perfect score must have been ‘bought by PR’, while the ‘half-point lower than the median’ score is a travesty whose text Internet commentators must analyse line by line to unveil certain discrepancy and conspiracy.Beyond that, there are other certain triggers: if the outlying review score is written by a woman, the proportionate fervour increases. If the woman dislikes some element of the game readers can correlate to her gender – the portrayal of female characters in the game, to use an obvious example – that objection will become shorthand for her entire opinion, even if the review is generally good.A release the size of Grand Theft Auto V is the perfect showcase for this reliable crowd behaviour, and the gaming community met its launch exactly as expected. Carolyn Petit’s disappointment with some of the game’s misogyny only moderately affected her highly scored Gamespot review, but attracted close to 20,000 comments, most of them outraged, some even abusive. Readers were so eager to disprove misogyny, or censure any complaint thereof, that they surely committed it.It’s strange: a corporate giant publishes a game with a budget of over $260m (that swiftly earns more than $1bn), and gamers act like it needs protection from pesky ‘social issues’. In a recent column I said I find it weird that game fans, once creative outsiders, now demand such frenzied loyalty to expensive tech and corporations. I also find it troubling that the word ‘misogyny’ is such a reliable trigger for consumer rage and defensiveness.

http://www.edge-online.com/features/...laim-to-abhor/

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