Truth is a bitter pill.

With the Gamergate movement being all the rage nowadays, I thought it would be a good idea – for my own sanity, if anything – that I contribute my two cents that no one wants or cares for. And with that, let me begin by saying this:

Humans are shallow.

It doesn’t matter how much you, I or anyone else tries to establish the notion that we are advanced beings in the animal kingdom, the fact remains that primal impulses still dictate our lives in one way or another. While most of them like the urge to eat, drink, breathe and sleep make sense because we’ll die without them, one doesn’t when you want to emphasize our supposed superiority over the rest of the animal kingdom, and that is the urge to procreate. That ensures the survival of the species, and as long as that instinct is part of our genes, we will always be shallow.

Take news for example. How do you draw the attention of people into motorsports, especially people with no interest in motorsports? Babes. How do you draw people’s attention to the launch of a new piece of computer hardware, when quite often people who aren’t nerd or geeks have less than absolutely no interest in them? Babes. In another field like, say, advertisements; how do you convince people to try your beer when it’s no secret that your beer tastes either like water or piss? Babes. What do you put on your advertisements or products to increase the chances of people seeing them and trying them out? You guessed it: babes.

What I’m saying is, sex sells. That’s why people are more likely to care about a lad or lass that was trotting about a street halfway across the globe in the nude than the local homicide.

Which brings me to my next point, and that is the fact that Anita Sarkeesian is a blithering idiot.

Now, I understand that there are many people rallying behind her so-called cause. I also admit that I don’t know what the hell she is up to now, nor do I bother to care. The fact remains is this: she was once – and maybe still is – against the way females are portrayed in videogames. So am I, but I realize a fact that she didn’t – or still doesn’t or refuses to accept – which is the point I was elaborating on above.

To sell videogames, people doing the sales and marketing have only one thing in mind and that is to make as much money as possible. That’s not wrong. That’s part of their job anyways. And to do that, the surefire way is to pull the primal impulse bait, and what better way to do it than sex. You can’t sell using food and drink because they could just buy the food and drink that they can actually eat and drink. You can’t sell via sleep either, since there is no alternative to actually going to sleep. And the world will end before breath is no longer free and hassle-free. So they go for sex. Sure, nothing beats the real thing (not that I have first-hand experience), but it is the only one that is not easily within reach, and where unless you have the real thing, no amount is ever enough (again, not that I actually have first-hand experience).

But I digress. So back to selling games. The men – or indeed women – in their suits tell the designers to put in muscly men and scantily dressed women to entice people to buy them. And of course, this strategy works perfectly. That’s why it’s been done over and over again. Rarely do you see developers, especially those with big names, go for some risk-taking and do something unorthodox, untested and unproven, because in the end if it doesn’t sell, it’s a complete flop no matter how well done the game is.

Take Clover Studios, for example; the small team of developers consisting of what was once Capcom’s finest. They decided since Capcom’s coffers were deeper than space, they would use some of it to just come up with the best games they can, no sales gimmicks or any of that shit. And they did; they came up with Viewtiful Joe, Okami and God Hand. The only scantily dressed woman was in God Hand, and she was in a denim miniskirt – she might as well be heavily armoured by today’s standards. All three games received critical acclaim. Success in every sense of the word, except financially. And so Clover Studios was shut down, and the three aces of Capcom scattered because they were denied their livelihood, which is to make the best games they possibly can instead of the best games that can possibly sell.

So yes, games sell because the people who want them to sell used the method that will not fail for as long as we have the primal instinct to reproduce. And instead of addressing this issue – not that it can be addressed anyway – this lady known as Anita Sarkeesian goes on beating about the bush talking about a problem that cannot be solved for as long as the root of all evil is what makes the world go round. Maybe, in the distant future where humans have evolved to be androgynous and asexual, then she may have a point. But until then, she makes about as much sense as those anti-vaccine advocates.

I suppose at this point I should mention that I have nothing against other people who have been negatively affected by this so-called Gamergate movement like Brianna Wu or Zoe Quinn or anyone else that were doxed and threatened with death, nor am I with or for the violent ‘retribution’ of Gamergate. I am also not saying that Anita Sarkeesian deserves all the death threats or anything. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, even if they are blithering idiots. That’s why all the anti-vaccine fools have not been – to quote Jeremy Clarkson on a different case –  shot in front of their families. Nor has Somalia been nuked for all the pirates and up to 98% of people practicing female genital mutilation there (or so says Wikipedia, which cites a 2013 UNICEF report). So yes, everyone has a right to their opinion, even if they’re wrong.

And on that bombshell, adieu to y’all.

P.S.: I should mention also that these are my own views and I’m not saying any of this on behalf of anyone but myself. So if anyone’s going to get doxed or threatened with death for this it should be me and me alone. Not that it’s a likely scenario since, who the hell am I anyway?