So I wasn’t planning on commenting on the whole Vox Games thing because when I saw the list I thought oh, ho hum, another collection of men writing about games, how fucking fresh.
But then Nichole Leffel pointed out this bullshit and well you know me.
Imma just go ahead and quote Nichole’s series of tweets, because I think she said it pretty well.
So the Vox Games thing: Team of all male writers (hand-picked based on experience and fit) assemble for a shiny new games criticism site.
Vox Games then posts on Facebook with an implication that, based on popular vote, female games journalists will be considered.
(Whether or not this was the intention remains unclear, what is clear is the fact that some 150+ people clearly interpreted it this way.)
I mean, no matter what, you’re really fucking Doing It Wrong. Implying your “token woman” will be decided by popular appeal? Damn dudes.
Who made the comparison to the “Vote for FemShep!” thing? Men are perfectly selected. Women are crowdsourced for mass appeal.
So whether they intended to or not, that’s what Vox Games stepped into. I guess my sympathy is missing because OH WAIT THIS WAS AVOIDABLE.
Not having women writers? Whatever, dudes, you don’t stand out from the crowd. These are sharp guys, sure, but after awhile they all start to look the same to me. But then when you ask about female writers…
I mean, first of all, wow, fucking wow. You wouldn’t have had to ask this question about men, would you have? Obviously not, as we can see from your list. But female games writers? Jeez, what a head-scratcher. Gotta crowdsource that shit! Was anything directly said? No. But the implication is there, as evidenced by how a bulk of the commenters read it that way.
Big huge bag of sigh. What a wasted opportunity.