In 1980 something, Nintendo of America made the decision to sell the Nintendo Entertainment System as a gendered toy

This would later be considered a bad idea and roundly mocked

I think the early 2000s PS2 era was the peak of modern gaming. Colourful games, decent 3d graphics. The FPS era hadn’t fully began on consoles yet.

The less said about the late 2000s, the better. That’s when all the “gatekeeping, misogyny, toxic masculinity and general chuddery” really got kicked into overdrive. Every game got a sepia piss filter as well. And after that we got the blue filters which were somehow even worse.

I don’t care that much tbh because while the “gaming community” is indeed dogshit (personally I’ve stopped playing any sort of public multiplayer game since voice audio became the norm anyway), we also seem to be in a golden age of independent awesome video games, including specifically ones with dialogue and story. And the small sub-community of players of those are usually much saner and welcoming.

The SEGA ads of the 90s were something.

These people should be locked in a room and forces to play nothing but 50 turn Mario Party rounds for the rest of time

I think a big point is also the transition of everything being so damned online now (not gaming but communities and discourse) that what initially was gaming in the 90s and early 2000s (casual gamers, kid gamers, and then weird grown ass chud adults) were very much compartmentalized and separate. Nowadays with Youtube you had the fallout of gamergate create a self feeding subculture that propagates among dissatisfied mainly white young males who utilize one of their hobbies (gaming) as escapism from all the shit capital loves to do (alienation) and create an exceedingly angry stigma to project on anyone entering “their” space that does not conform. Add in how chuds screech the loudest and angry engagement clicks and comments lead to algorithm feedback and you have one of the worst video genres ever of usually a scruffy bearded angry being gobsmacked they have to look at a minority in a video game for even a single fucking second but utilizing safe dogwhistles such as “woke” and “sjw” to “debate about it” (though that second one is falling out of style).

G*mers never had a chance.

The 70s saw the development of really old games like Dnd, essentially some STEMlord’s pet project. Many of these ancient games were tied to Dnd, where the reactionary Gary Gygax’s influence in Dnd was completely dominant.

The 80s continued that tradition with games like Rogue and Nethack. This was also when Nintendo exclusively marketed the NES as a “boy toy.” Both of what could be retroactively labeled as indie and AAA gaming were firmly men only. Arcades tended to be dominated by men as well.

The 90s further perpetuated this trend with the console wars between Nintendo and Sega, with Sega pushing really hard as the cool and definitely being played by dudes with 'tude console. If you looked at Sega ads during that time, they were all hyper-trying-too-hard-masculine.

The 00s, while carrying the misogynist torch, reflected a qualitative shift in its misogyny. The 00s, or more specifically, 2001 was when Halo 1 was released on the Xbox. This game, more than any other, was what pushed gaming from some nerdy shit into the mainstream. With the mainstreamification of gaming came the dudebros. The previously misogynist nerds were transformed into misogynist dudebros, and the dudebros carried their toxic competitiveness into gaming.

The 10s was when esports, or more specifically L*ague of L*gends, became commercially viable. The esportification of games began and along with it, the toxic competitiveness seeped even in games that weren’t designed to be competitive. And it pains me to say this, but speedrunning contributed to this as well. Suddenly, you started hearing about the “meta” and “optimal strats” in some indie platformer. And of course, G*merg*te sealed the deal by politicizing gaming, making g*mers consciously reactionary.

I have checked out of gaming so I can’t give you a rundown of the 20s, but it’s more of the same shit honestly. The seeds were sown during the 70s, with each subsequent decade nurturing the seedling, until it blossomed into some hideous plant with G*merg*te.

I dont understand how MOBAs becomes one of the biggest esports when gameplay consists of farming and the teamfights are full of visual bloats that unless you spend 100 hours reading the wiki including the fcking patch notes you understand absolutely nothing. Like just to give you a glance"buy physical attack because everyone does this and this guy wields a sword" but also stuff like “buy this magical attack because these dagger wielding assassin scales magic attack”. Why is the goddamn dagger considered magical?

Like at least in stuff in counter strike the game despite some other tactics such as lineups it still overall easy to understand (plant the bomb and kill the enemies),.

I agree with your complaints towards the apparent predominant gaming culture. But I also believe that there have never been more indie games that are contrary to that culture or just ambivalent to that culture than ever before.

games mechanics become watered down due to the profit motive and challenging games are fun, this whole thread feels like just contrarianism to spite a vocal minority turning being a HARDCORE GAMERRRRR into a personality trait

gamergate was unironically the mainstream debut of the alt-right and I will stand by that assertion

The “ethical game journalism” days, to gaters, looked like this. https://i.imgur.com/P37EDfX.jpg

I know that’s an ad, not journalism, which is the point. They don’t want journalism. They want hype waves and to feel bazinga about what they buy without any downer talk whatsoever.

I honestly think the skinner box click button get dopamine cycle of single player action games is specifically damaging to a human 🧠 in ways we won’t understand for decades. Between that and gambling type games that are just gambling with extra steps, we have a wide array of ways to do weird harm to yourself while being alienated under capitalism

A better world exits. MMOs allowed for beautiful social experiences. MUDs and like VR chat allow for self exploration. Fighting games have a diverse worldwide community dedicated to sharing and self improvement. Sport games allow people to explore important parts of their lives in new ways. Plenty of things I missed besides. But all way better than Gamerism.

Hardcore gaymer = fighting game enjoyer

Casual g*mer consoomer = everyone else

Remain convinced the only good community in games is the fighting game community. But, alas, they engage in the bad shit too from time to time.