Marcem wrote: So you suggest men keep making games unwelcoming to women and everything will work itself out? Wtf
Why should we make games more welcoming to women? Men and women tend to like and do different things. How many women was there in the crowd at the cs go dreamhack finals this year, in according to rankings, the 2nd most gender equal country in the world? What is the men/women ratio at a hockey game? How many women watch fpsrussia on youtube? Is someone stopping them? Different things cater to different audiences. This is simply a result of men and women being different. Right or wrong, that's how biology works. (I know that some feminists like to ignore that there is a science of biology and neurochemistry but that's beyond me.)
I think part of the defensiveness that comes out as a response to Anita is that video games is one of those rare spaces that still works as an unfiltered outlet for the male mind. Most mainstream media doesn't do this since it has to cater to all audiences and gets watered down in order to not offend anyone.
And to adress Minos point, that videogames are a reflection of larger patterns and workings of our societies.
Why can a woman walk the streets of Bangkok at night without feeling unsafe? While walking the streets of Manila in Philippines would put the same woman at risk of being raped. I doubt it has to do with sexist videogames, probably something more in line with higher corruption and different religions and so on. It's a bit of a paradox that women can safely walk the streets of the sex tourism capital of the world.
Japan is another paradox. Probably the safest country on earth for women but with the most sexist and fucked up media consumption in any country ever.