A Counter-Punch to Tony Streamer’s piece on Video Game Politics.
Written by The Reverend Emily Falwell
In the interest of full disclosure, I used to go to college with Tony Streamer. We actually used to be part of the same D&D group. Not that we were the best of friends: I was always complaining about how he would always hijack the group in order to act out his violent, misogynistic power fantasies, and he wasn’t a fan of how I would use most of my spell slots on fire and brimstone when I was supposed to be the party healer. Eventually, we kicked him out after a heated debate in which he insisted that having the kingdom ruled by a queen instead of a king was historically inaccurate for a game set in medieval times. When someone went on Wikipedia and pointed out that there were a number of kingdoms ruled by queens during the Middle Ages, he went off on a lengthy rant about how liberal feminists were rewriting history to further their own agenda. When my friend responded to Mr. Streamer’s rant by calling him a historically illiterate misogynist and accusing him of getting his facts from Infowars, his response was to flip over the table, empty an entire bottle of Mountain Dew: Code Red over the Dungeon Master’s head, and storm out. And that was the last I heard of Tony. Streamer, until last week, when he posted an editorial on this site which claimed that the video game industry was the victim of a sinister plot, going all the way back to the 80’s, by the progressive left to make games more inclusive.
Personally, I think it’s a good thing that most modern RPG’s ask you to choose your gender, but I have to wonder: why don’t they let you change it in the middle of the game? Doesn’t the industry realize that it’s sending the message that gender is fixed at birth and immutable? Just like the genderless, interchangeable blocks of Tetris helped normalize gender neutrality back in the 80’s, it’s time for the game industry to become inclusive of everyone, including genderfluid shapeshifters. Personally, I think the next generation of RPG’s should let you change your character’s gender at any time, for any reason.
Mr. Streamer may believe that anything less than 100% representation of straight white men among video game protagonists means that a sinister left wing agenda is at work, but these are the words of someone who, unlike many of us, has never had any shortage of games starring someone like him as the main character. Growing up, I always felt that most video games were far too restrictive in forcing you to adopt the roles scripted by the game designers, until I discovered the creative freedom of tabletop gaming, where you are free to create your own character, from their stats and abilities to their backstory and personality.
It was at my Christian school that I first heard the name of the most infamous and forbidden book of occult knowledge in existence: the Dungeons & Dragons Player’s Handbook. According to my religion teacher, this book not only challenged conventional ideas about identity by allowing you to create an alter ego, it was also full of actual spells that you could cast in real life. I was instantly captivated, but I didn’t want to be used as an example of what happens when someone pursues forbidden knowledge instead of following the flock, so I tried to put it from my mind. But then the Book began to whisper to me in my dreams of freedom and love and magic, which kept up for weeks, until I gave in and bought a copy of the Book at the local comic shop, and became instantly popular at my school.
Not only did Dungeons & Dragons help me come to terms with my gender identity, it also sparked a lifelong interest in the fine art of casting actual spells. Before long, I graduated from the gaming table and joined a circle of spellcasters, who instructed me in how to cast spells out of the Book. But I knew that this knowledge was too important to be confined to basements and dorm rooms, so I started my own church to counteract the religious right’s propaganda campaign against art, magic, and gender diversity.
By the time I met Tony Streamer, I knew that his complaints about inclusivity in gaming were part of a right wing assault on freedom and diversity that goes all the way back to the Satanic Panic of the 80’s. But he really shouldn’t be worried that the gaming industry will stop catering to male power fantasies any time soon, because such games are a dime a dozen, from the glorification of U.S. imperialism and militarism found in the Call of Duty series to the glorification of violent criminality in the Grand Theft Auto series. But rather than enjoying what he likes, Mr. Streamer would apparently rather complain about how chess is offensive to men because the queen is the most powerful piece on the board, and how Legos promote gender anarchy because of how you can mix and match the pieces without regard for the gender binary. Mr. Streamer may find this freedom of choice threatening, but for many of us, it has been instrumental in discovering our true selves.