Today's thoughts

[placeblocks]

- Guude some what recently commented on a "new" downvoted Reddit thread asking about Etho going to Minecon with something akin to, "He's not going, not even in secret. Just accept it." It got me wondering--why do you think he's content to defend Etho's decision not to go to Minecon, but has been harboring on Beef to attend for months, even going so far as to threaten to buy him a Minecon ticket? True Nancy Drew union, or is there some deep dark secret Etho's hiding from us all?

- While catting with mindcrack_love earlier, we came to the topic of religion. It's somewhat well-known Guude is a non-believer and BDubs is a believer, but I couldn't immediately produce videos to prove either. Can any of you recall times Guude's gone on about religion, or anything BDubs has said? (I remember Guude once saying he couldn't make an event because he had to go to church.) And while on the topic, does their religious stance translate into your interpretations of their Minecraft characters, and if so, how? Given Pakratt's display of Christian symbolism in his skin and builds, I personally feel like there must be some sort of religion in Minecraftia, even if it's a one-man religion, but I'm atheist myself and I've never really thought about it. I figure it might be an interesting topic...

- What does everyone think of the idea of women eventually joining Mindcrack? In general I really would love to see some women on the server because I want to see more females represented in gaming, and as much as I love the slash, it makes me sad to see such an awesome community full of only men. On the other hand, I really do worry that it might somehow change the way the guys play or act. I'm guessing Guude won't let anyone on that doesn't fit, so it's probably an unfounded fear, but I do find myself still sometimes worrying about it. Is that horrible of me? I feel like such a hypocrite, but other than occasionally popping into a Sixelona stream, I don't watch any women LPers. (Some of it is the culture that crops up around them. I can't stand all the fanboys mindlessly fawning over the fact that ZOMG GURLS and their disgusting/embarrassing comments. That's something I'd really hate seeing brought over to Mindcrack. I'd want a female gamer who was popular because she's entertaining, not because she's female.) Perhaps this doesn't really fit the vibe of the community, so feel free to ignore.

Comments

[damnreddit]

I feel like women doing LPs are always going to have a raw deal. There's two stereotypical ways that the average teenage boy can relate to an entertainer on the Tubes -- want to be them, or want to fuck them. Teenage boys do not want to be women, you know? A female LPer is just never going to attract that kind of devoted audience purely off of people who are impressed by what she does and wish they could do it too. Even if the admiration is there I feel it will be kept at a distance. So what's left? Pretty much just sex. And then she'll be blamed for playing up her sex appeal. Damned if she does and ignored if she doesn't.

I would love to see a woman (or five) on Mindcrack and don't think it would be likely to screw up the dynamic of the server. There are plenty of smart-ass, capable women in the world, and at least some of them must have Minecraft LPs. If Guude meets someone suitable at a con, or one of the others knows someone he'd like to promote, or someone from the fanserver is interested, I think they should just do it. It should be someone with a thick skin though. Almost by definition, whoever it is would have a small channel, and I would expect a fair amount of "why does she deserve this shot when X, Y, Z does not/she only got on because she's female" bullshit to go down.

Etho and Minecon: Doc said on yesterday's Mindcrack that Etho's not going because he doesn't like crowds. The server as a whole seems to be very respectful of what he wants in terms of things like this and don't give him grief about it like they might with someone else. As to why? I really have no idea.

Lack of religion and marriage: I feel like marriage means something in society that's independent of religion and spirituality. There are obviously plenty of people who feel like the two things are not separable, among both atheists and believers, but I've never felt that way myself. For me, if I want to make a commitment to spend the rest of my life with someone, then I want to be married. Don't tell me I'm not because it didn't happen in a church.

[mindcrack_love]

Ladies making videos playing games: I definitely feel that. I'm female and I'd love to LP but I have no idea what the reaction will be once I start releasing videos. I guess it kind of helps that the genre I really want to play and display is targeted to a more patient and mature audience than the general teenage one. Seriously, if you have the patience to play something like Dungeon Crawl or ADOM (or hell, Dungeons of Dredmor on Going Rogue permadeath) without tearing your hair in frustration, you probably have enough maturity to get "chick on the Internet does not equal sex object". Plus one of the most respected members of the roguelike community is openly genderqueer and one of the most visible companies in the genre has an awesome anti-bigotry policywhich helps. Still, the only LPers I know in roguelikes are all male and as far as I know all cismale at that. I DON'T GET IT, UNIVERSE.

Speaking of genderqueerness, are there *any* out non-binary LPers out there? That's something I'd be interested in seeing/hearing. I know it takes a metric fuckton ([Bdubs]Get outta here with that foreign talk![/Bdubs]) of courage to do in the generally-bigoted gaming Internet, but still, has anyone taken the plunge?

Non-males on Mindcrack: yup, they'd have to have the world's thickest skin, but apparently that's what it takes to be someone who isn't male on the Internet nowadays, sadly. Would love to see what kind of person it'd be for Guude to pick them, though!

Etho: Everyone is so protective of him! I wonder if there's times he resents it, thinks he can handle the crazed Internet masses by himself because dangit, he's an adult and he can do it and he doesn't need Doc and Guude and whoever else to shield him.

Non-religous marriage: That makes sense to me! One of the closest people to me who is an atheist just says "you all accept my long term relationship as what it is, no piece of paper required" which is also a valid opinion and I get it, but thanks for the other side. :) For me, I plan to marry because I want the spiritual affirmation of things I'm already feeling, but I know that's not for everyone! Thanks for the insight.