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I tend to hear and see a lot of stupid things on Twitter as I spend a lot of time on social media in general. However, even so, there´s only a handful of people that dominates that particular field on Twitter, and Miss Brianna Wu (owner and CEO of the indie studio Giant Spacekat) just happens to be one of Twitter´s most recurring personalities when it comes to statements of that kind. So as you might imagine, i get to see a lot of Wu´s tweets as we got almost 43,000 followers on Twitter. Normally, I try to ignore things such as this, but due to the fact that we got a lot of Gamer fans, readers and viewers of all colors, religions and genders.

I just couldn´t turn the blind eye to Miss Wu´s recent nonsense gambit on Twitter. At least not this time, as she made a lot of statements about games, female (and male) Gamers and the games industry as a whole. So I took the liberty to add some of Wu´s Twitter statements to this article, and you will find them down below (I will give my thoughts on them further down the page as well).

I agree that there should be more protagonists of color. But there´s actually quite a few games that has a black protagonist.

It’s pretty much impossible to satisfy all minority groups. But people are free to create whatever games (and protagonists) they want.

Sexualized female protagonists is an interpretation kind of question if you ask me. As some people even see Bayonetta as an sexualized female protagonist…

It´s all about supply and demand. And like I stated earlier, people are free to create whatever games they want.

So in other words. You want to make the games boring in order to appeal to female gamers? Ehrm…

So I’m going to take you guys through all of this, step by step. Well, for starter Miss Wu often claim that she knows what the feminine side of the game’s market craves for. Great! However, at the same time, Miss Wu seems to forget that female players don´t “just’ play ‘The Sims,” “Super Mario” and “World of Warcraft” anymore. No, girl and women Gamers plays all kinds of games nowadays. “Mortal Kombat X,” “The Witcher 3,” “Dead or Alive 5,” “Battlefield 4,” ‘Starcraft 2’ with many, many more.

Video games aren’t a gender-related thing anymore. In the matter of fact, female Gamers are now almost 50% of the consumer base when it comes to video and PC games. So I see no need for an dumbed or tuned down “female” version of any game on the market. Nor do I see any reason why all (or a lot of) developers should make (or just aim for) “girly” games either (games that’s specifically made for females).

Don´t get me wrong, there´s a market for games that were made for a female audience (especially younger girls). I´m just saying that more developers should make games that everyone could enjoy (no matter what gender or race you are), and it would be really awesome if more games had the opportunity for you to choice your gender and skin color for your character as well.

“feeling that emotional connection with other human beings”. I have had that connection ever since i played on my Sega Master System in the 90s, and it´s called the “Player 1 and Player 2” experience.

That way everyone wins, and no one get´s left out. “But what about other minorities such as disabled people, homosexuals, and transsexual then?” I think that it would be rather hard for all developers to add every minority group, there is to their games. However, in games such as “Mass Effect,” you actually get the chance to choose gender, skin color and your sexual orientation for your protagonist.

And that was a huge and important step for the games industry, and we have come a long way since “Mass Effect 1” had it release back in 2007. However, I agree that there´s still a lot of room for improvements when it comes to adding these options to more genres and games in the industry. I have to point the following things out though, as Miss Brianna Wu seems to have the desire to remove everything that´s fun with games (literally).

It also seems like she has no clue (whatsoever) what female Gamers really wants. Because like I stated earlier, games are now unisex. I have played with (and against) female gamers in all sorts of games (mainly FPS, fighting and RTS games) over the years. So I think that it´s rather safe to say that the games industry has changed a lot since the 80s, 90s and early 2000s.

So what about the part about that concerns sexism in video games then? (“The Witcher 3” Is the number one most talked about game when it comes to sexism right now) Well, there exists sexism in games (even Brianna Wu´s own game “Revolution 60” got accused for being sexist not so long ago) just like there exists sexism in our everyday life and reality, and that´s of course really saddening.

However, there´s a big difference between “real” sexism and the kind of sexism that SJWs and feminists love to label games, movies and books (or whatever) which they don´t like (for whatever reason, there may be). And some people don’t seem to understand that beautiful and sexual attractive characters is NOT the same thing as sexism. So when you have people who scream out sexism from the top of their lungs (and racism for that matter) over nothing and everything. Then it overshadows the “real” issues with sexism, and that becomes a problem in itself.

It also seems like most people don´t even know what sexism really is? Some might even see it as a “interpretation” kind of thing. Since it´s also a matter of how sensitive a person would be (remember the beautiful and sexual attractive characters Vs “real” sexism point that I made earlier?). One might also ask him/herself where the line between sexism, beauty and sexiness goes?

So what do you guys and girls think about all of this? And what are your thoughts on Miss Brianna Wu´s statements?

Resources:

Fifa 16 gets female teams – Sexist and angry rants follows

http://thegg.net/general-news/the-witcher-3-gets-in-trouble-over-sexist-game-design/
http://thegg.net/indie-games/brianna-wus-revolution-60-gets-accused-of-sexism/

Pewdiepie is accused of being a sexist by Swedish media

Two sexy Asians coming to North America – Blade & Soul and Black Desert

***Disclaimer***
This is a personal opinion of the writer, and it doesn’t necessarily represent the other writers (nor The Gaming Ground´s) opinions.

Robin “V-Act” Ek
The Gaming Ground
Twitter: @TheGamingGround