Let me just preface this by saying that most of this also applies to the wider gaming community, but it’s especially silly in the context of this little Southeast Asian country’s online spaces that I’m unfortunately a part of.
I previously wrote a post about how gaming discourse has gotten quite exhausting nowadays, and it hasn’t been any better. It reached a point where even spaces that shouldn’t logically be involved in such stupid “discourse” is suddenly getting way too embroiled in it, and it’s unfortunately been shoved right into my face by an algorithm that rewards fake outrage.
Bigoted Nonsense
To the uninitiated, the Philippines has always been an extremely conservative country, but not in the ways that you’d define it in western spaces, especially considering how economically liberal we are.
There’s heavy emphasis on Catholic values, family, and a rather unusual mix of both hating and tolerating the LGBTQ+ community, which sounds absolutely silly but… it just makes sense if you’ve lived here your entire life.
But I digress, I’m no political scientist and I never claimed to be one. We (not me personally, since I’m openly an ally) have a long way to go in terms of acceptance towards not just non-binary identities, but even plain intellectualism and non-Christian religions.
It shares little in common with the hateful talking points of the far end of either political spectrum of America, yet if you take a cursory glance at some PH gaming circles, you’d think you just stumbled into a Klan rally of sorts, except those under the hood are the brownest, most “moreno” people you’ll ever gaze upon.
The day before writing this, on the “PHgamers” subreddit (I know that Reddit’s generally awful, but smaller communities tend to have healthy discussions… sometimes), there was a repost of a grifter’s godawful misquote and misunderstanding of the Wolverine game’s narrative director on how Sabretooth and Wolverine’s antagonistic relationship was depicted.
I read the actual article by Gene Park and nothing even stood out as strange or poorly worded. It was basically how Sabretooth yearns for Logan like a scorned brother, which makes sense with their shared violent past and contrasting ways in which they treat their inherent bloodlust.
I suppose people who make outrage a hobby just don’t understand the word “yearning” or have any clue how non-romantic relationships work or even exist in general. I’m not gonna call people names here, but it seems to be reminiscent of how a certain “archetype” of dudes wrap their heads around the concept of love.
Now I’m a huge X-Men fan and have my own gripes with how these characters lean closer to their X-Men Origins counterparts, but it’s largely inoffensive. Guess what the forum full of Filipinos think?
It’s a comments section full of offhand homophobic and somehow even misogynistic remarks (e.g. “A woman wrote this”) that I’m confident these people would never have the courage to say out loud.
It’s a lot of incredibly narrow-minded comments devoid of media literacy and just plain human decency, and a lot of them openly admit to echoing the beliefs of problematic western content creators that any sane person can easily peg as a right wing grifter. Thankfully there’s been a bit of pushback, but clearly not enough to dissuade such blatant ignorance and stupidity.
“But why not debate them?” you may ask. Because gaming grifters will NEVER engage in any media discourse in good faith. Doing so would go against their bottom line, which is why they always try to spin the dumbest narratives that make it oh so tempting to call them out and inadvertently bring more eyes to their platforms.
It’s a waste of time and energy that is better spent highlighting good stuff, because these people are still stuck talking about the likes of Concord or Highguard like they’re their own personal boogeymen.
Peering Into the Irony
I hope my readers can see the tragic irony here. The so-called “Latinos of Asia” that constantly get mocked and ridiculed by the very same group whose beliefs they’re parroting are constantly growing in both numbers and boldness enabled only by their online anonymity.
Do these people think they’re part of the “in group” among these bigoted white dudes that attack any and every game for perceived “wokeness” and ditch their efforts the moment a game enjoys any bit of success?
I’ve no doubt my countrymen who act like this would be called a “DEI quota filler” by these miserable people, assuming they even pretend to consider them as equals at any point.
Those who are frequently online may remember that this same group of grifters in the west attacked Baldur’s Gate 3 while it was still in its infancy. Their reasons? A shallow hatred of optional character creation options and same-sex romance that nobody forces upon you.
Heck, some of these people get straight up enraged by the very concept of pronoun choices in games. Imagine getting angry at the English language; the only one they speak to begin with yet can’t understand or rigidly refuse to acknowledge the nuances of, because outrage is the only livelihood they have.
Funny how even these talking points make it into Filipino gaming discourse when a lot of our language is gender neutral (“mamsir” lmao).
A Problematic Development
There’s gonna be massive whiplash in this section, so just a quick trigger warning for real life violence here before we proceed.
Western anti-woke sentiment about media isn’t the only thing these types of gamers are copying from grifters. Some have spiraled right into fanaticism as neo-nazi circles have seeped into the country’s gaming ecosystem. This isn’t just some theory, and I’ll let local media speak for itself.
Just recently, there have been two school shootings across the Philippines in a short span of time. It’s a shocking and sudden phenomenon that never happens here. The culprit? It’s believed that it’s partly due to Discord communities that try to instill hateful rhetoric among the youth, specifically in smaller countries as a sort of testing ground for their propaganda machines.
They try to groom children into doing unspeakable acts, if not at the very least fantasize about doing so. Unfortunately, some of these kids have access to firearms due to negligent parents who work in law enforcement, which is another serious issue in itself.
Again, not just a theory, as this is the same reason why Facebook (which is prominently used here) has become a breeding ground of toxic partisan politics ever since the so-called “Davao Syndicate” rose to national power in this country. We’re being used as guinea pigs for disinformation and political propaganda, and it’s unfortunately also heavily affecting online communities for the local gaming scene.
This rant isn’t just about me airing out my recent frustrations with the Philippines’ gaming circles, but also as a way to hopefully open the eyes of others into how senseless hatred just drowns out proper discussion of video games as a whole. I yearn for the days when the worst thing you could hear about a game is how it has a terrible story and/or gameplay.
Nowadays, so many people try to spin some stupid conspiracy theories about how consultancy firms and largely uninfluential people in the industry are somehow making everything worse due to nonexistent movements tied to perceived identity politics. At its worst, people try to use video gaming spaces to recruit impressionable individuals into some ideological war with real-life consequences.
The “discourse” nowadays is just so pathetic and rooted in American politics, and it’s exhausting reading such talking points in places where these don’t even have any relevance (not that they would in their own region anyway).
It fosters irrational anger in a hobbyist community and creates an actually dangerous environment for both those within it and the members’ lived communities. Evidently, it can even devolve into actual violence, and you don’t need my rambling to know how abhorrent that is.
I’m done venting for now. I’m gonna go continue playing The Blood of Dawnwalker and maybe a bit of Wardogs to cool off. Catch you in my next review.