Within the last week, the drama surrounding the streamed fighting game competition, Cross Assault, has traveled through various Internet forums and gaming websites like an earthquake and its following series of aftershocks. Amidst the commotion have emerged incredibly disconcerting responses both from gaming media and community members alike. From the side of gaming media, websites such as Destructoid and Penny Arcade have held Aris Bakhtanians, and even the fighting game community as a whole, up as symbols of the most deplorable manifestations of sexism and sexual harassment. Interestingly enough, some of the same sites condemning such behaviour have been accused of using sexual abuse as a point of humour in the past (Penny Arcade's strip 'The Sixth Slave' comes to mind).
The other common response I have seen emerge has been the polar opposite, placing contestant Miranda Pakozdi as the point of blame. The most frequent method of allocating blame to Miranda had been to question her response, or apparent lack thereof, on stream. Some, mostly men, asserted what they would have done in the situation. Of course, the point that they had missed was that men in a masculine space would never be in this situation. Upon noting this, the almost immediate response to me was: “What would you have done?”
It is this series of responses that prompted me to write this article, because I believe that no woman's experience or hypothetical reaction should be used as a singular model that can and should be applied to all women. To ask what I would have done is irrelevant; I am not Miranda. I am a woman shaped by my own experiences, which have included a long history of being bullied and having spent years in chat rooms, on gaming forums, and developing a propensity for heavy sarcasm because I am, to quote Horse ebooks, 'a full-time Internet.'
Above all else, my desire to write this article comes as a response to the casting of Aris as, unquestionably, a villain. In demonizing him, the larger picture is missed and worse, it is replaced by a more easily solved, overly simplified and more tangible problem. The problem within gaming communities cannot be confined to one event; the problem is a social structure that pervades communities across time and space.
Click to read more ...
The Phantomnaut;)
Hori has been in a roll with their arcade sticks this year. One of their major releases was the Fighting Edge line. A luxury-style stick while not being too expensive but still looking sleek and playable with Hori's own and well made arcade parts. Months after its release, Hori took the chance to give their other sticks, specifically the current Real Arcade Pro generation, that similar treatment for those who can't afford the Fighting Edge. The result is a mix of the old and new in the Real Arcade Pro V3-SA and VX-SA models. Is the bang enough for the buck?;)
;)
;)
;)
;)
;)
;)
