Hi
First time poster - short time lurker.
I'll be brutally honest guys. I suspect if I talked politics with any of you guys some of you would consider me a 'SJW'. One of the things I usually counter, 'it's political correctness gone mad' with is, 'what is it that you actually want to say, that you feel you can't?' And I felt pretty smug about that because I felt that people complaining about being PC usually wanted to say something bigoted and brush off their white privilege.
So well done Big Purple. The last few months they have proved me absolutely completely fucking wrong. If you read that board you'd think that most gamers in the US are white male rapists groping women all the time and actually heterosexual white dudes are pushing trans and women, people of colour etc. out of the hobby. I find it terribly frustrating their ridiculous moderation of every single topic about inclusion. How the fuck does creating a giant echo chamber help make the hobby 'safe'? It's blatant scaremongering and open for ridicule.
I've been a committed anti-fascist all my adult life. I'm definitely left wing and abhor sexism and racism - as most normal people do but for fucks sake you cannot discuss anything over there! Dude talks to a woman once - gets handy 'oh my gosh I feel sick and I can't buy from company x again' is a typical response. The recent threads outing sex offenders was a joke. Cue the swathes of 'I believe you' posts from sanctimonious dudes. The notion that ANYONE could go on there under a new user name and say 'game designer x did this' is completely lost on them. This isn't about belief or not - it's about common sense.
X-cards, treatment of gypsy's, how should I portray fantasy Africa - it's so fucking tiresome. And whilst people look for a myriad of reasons why games are 'wrong' there is only one result - boring games.
Everyone knows certain games that are a piece of shit. Am I being stupid or could most of this SJW / safe space gaming be resolved by just common sense and good manners? If I'm gaming people GOOD MANNERS prevent me from running, 'this game is about rape and lynching'. If I want to run or play anything challenging it's good manners to check in that everyone is chill with it. What normal people don't do is look for potentially offending material to keep the game safe. RPG's are largely based on the 'racist' assumption of breaking into someone's home, killing everyone and stealing their stuff - it's colonialism, blah blah blah. It's also a laugh!
One of my characters in a game is a gay man. As far as I know in the rules and fluff there has never been any mention of homosexuality. In rpg.net this game would be considered problematic and need to be rewritten or something cool. And yet, I can run him exactly as I see fit in keeping with the universe.
Seriously, I don't get what kind of games the SJW crowd actually play? Just searching through emotional issues?
It's notable that a number of my games are online with 'inclusive' people (like me). Unsurprisingly challenging subject matter and adult themes are addressed maturely without anyone getting a stick up their ass.
I guess what pisses me off the most is at one time black people made cities burn because of the shit they got, gay men and women marched up front and proud saying 'fuck you' to the haters, women burnt their bras and were up front and centre in their liberation. On big purple they've been reduced to quivering wrecks in tears because they don't like a drawing or they 'can't find people like me' in rpg's. I never really got the 'snowflake' insult until I digged into rpg.net. Where I grew up, people were a lot more spiky and wouldn't put up with intolerant shit. These lot are all so tearful about everything. They should grow some fucking balls and challenge genuine shit when they see it. Why do I get the notion that most posters on there are middle class and privileged and have no real idea how ordinary people live their lives.
Willmark's image above is bang on point. Puritan witch-hunters. Forums are 'safe' because they constrain debate and discussion. They are afraid of culture, art, expression. Cover those chair legs. A discussion is typically an exploration of views - not a repetitive group wank.
Anyway, rant over. I also want to say I'm quite pleased to have found here. Sure, I don't agree with much on this particular sub-forum but the openness of views is refreshing.
Enjoy your gaming