I am referring, of course, to your recent move to make the launch party for the military shooter, Battlefield 3, exclusive to males. I have to admit that I'm generally against gender exclusion in all organizations and events, especially geared toward people over ten. But if you just left it as a sincere "gentlemen's retreat" that you're pinning it as now, it'd leave a bitter taste in my mouth, but I certainly wouldn't burn down any houses over it. But this is the reason you cited when making your choice:
"Nothing ruins a good LAN party like uncomfortable guests or lots of tension, both of which can result from mixing immature, misogynistic male-gamers with female counterparts. Though we've done our best to avoid these situations in years past, we've certainly had our share of problems. As a result, we no longer allow women to attend this event."
I know that you changed the wording, so it now sounds more like a "hey ladies, we hate these pervy guys as much as you do, so we're going to make sure to give these jerks a good stern talking to so they know better next time" sort of thing*. And I commend you for doing it reasonably quickly in response to the reaction the gaming community had to your open and unapologetic punishment of the victims of bullying and slurs whom you were too lazy to get off your sorry asses and defend.
Something like this really speaks for itself, and most everyone has commented about sexism, how you're an absolute disgrace to gaming, how you're putting us all back, how it's blatantly unjust, and how hypocritical to the point of ironic it is that you're too lazy to do anything but ban your female participants and simultaneously do nothing, either positive or negative, in regards to other groups that face unfortunately common insults and attacks, such as racial minorities or members of the LGBT network. And while I'm not sure what was going through your head during all this, I'm willing to not buy into the idea that you really are the ignorant, grass chewing pig dogs you're currently presenting yourself as.
But redundant or not, I'm gotta say it--they're absolutely right. You're encouraging a mentality that holds gamers, male and female, as a bunch of liable, drooling sheep that can only be herded off to separate pens instead of actually be treated like human beings. People are in the right to be angry that you're too busy spending their money to take a cheap and lazy way out of helping and protecting your customers and improving your community's PR. And even though everyone who wants to participate has just as much potential for spending power, you're punishing and excluded a whole group of them from your products before they can even decide if they want to buy them, which is both really stupid, and really, really jackassy.
I hate to bring money into all this, but you've really dug yourself into the red, guys. You're earning yourself some serious flack right off the bat; almost every prestigious gaming blog screaming about this, and the sun hasn't even set on this yet. You shouldn't be worried about this costing you revenue, because you're already losing it. If you really are hoping to get the 11 million units that you're banking out of this game, then you better back up and apologize right now. If you haven't already lost a big chunk of that from alienating the girls, there's a good chance you will. They're not the only ones who are pissed off at you right now.
But if for whatever reason, you really are a member of the same community of knuckle-dragging, ill-spoken dicks that you're implying the gaming community is at an essence (thanks a lot for that by the way), and all you really care about is a couple bucks wasted on a guy to tell people to go home if they start harassing the players, then fine. See this? It's a few twenties that can be spent on your new game. Kiss your wife good-bye, bitch. You aren't going to see her where she's going.
Regards,
S-Type
*bullcrap, bee tee dubs
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