If I Believed an Awards Show was Racist, Sexist and Morally Repugnant I Would Simply Not Attend It
No subhead required
These are all from the same person:
The game awards don't represent gamedevs. They represent the people abusing gamedevs. Where are the gamedev awards?
Anyone have a Game Awards ticket for sale? It's for a friend!
Any friends going to the Game Awards? I will be!!
This is not an evaluation of The Game Awards. I’m not looking to convince you that the show was disrespectful, that producer Geoff Keighley was cowardly for not mentioning layoffs or Palestine, that the show was sexist for not featuring enough women, or of any other of the common complaints. But if you believe these criticisms are valid - that the show is sexist and cowardly and celebrates abusers, that the industry being honored fuels anti-Arab resentment and indirectly kills them - why would you attend it?
That’s not a rhetorical question. It’s not a trick question, and I don’t think it’s an unfair one.
Goofus and Gallant: Influencer Edition
Goofus has heard that Chick-fil-A is anti-gay but he hasn’t looked into it and he’s not really “into politics”. When a friend says “let’s go to Chick-Fil-A” he responds with “naw, I’ll just stay in,” mostly because he’s lazy.
Gallant on the other hand, being well-informed and politically active, knows that Chick-fil-A is anti-gay. One day Gallant, while a bit hungry, walks by one. Next door is an In-And-Out but here’s the thing: Gallant likes chicken sandwiches more than hamburgers. So Gallant does what any reasonable modern influencer type would do: he takes a picture of the Chick-fil-A sign, tweets it out with “yikes homophobic much?” - then gets in line.
Can you see where I’m going with this?
Gallant regularly excoriates The Game Awards. They’re juvenile. They focus too much on Hollywood celebs. They’re all ads and product placement. They celebrate abusive higher-ups who lay off workers and gin up hatred against minorities. When Gallant says these things people like and retweet with “ur so brave Gallant, thank u for speaking up.”
But here’s the thing: speaking up against The Game Awards makes Gallant feel good and appear influential, but so does attending them.
So Gallant does what any reasonable influencer type would do: he attends the awards but live tweets his disgust.
Activism is Sacrifice
Sacrifice gives activism power, because real sacrifice indicates real belief. Someone standing in front of a moving tank probably isn’t “virtue signaling.” Even if you think their principles are way off you have to admit they at least have some.
Mike Rose, from game publisher No More Robots, advertises himself as an “ally.” (Before you get mad I’m not burying Mike Rose, keep reading) A few years ago there was an event called “Pro Indie Dev” that was a series of talks aimed at aspiring game developers. Here’s what the website first looked like:
I’m not the most perceptive of or invested in diversity topics. I don’t have pronouns or acronyms in my bio or a profile pic of me wearing a shirt with “this is what a male feminist looks like.” I’m not conservative, I’m not “anti-woke” and I’m not a “centrist / traditional liberal” (which is usually just a different way of saying “anti-woke”) - but I would never stick an “in this household we believe” sign in my yard.
Even I immediately noticed that this picture indicates a very limited character creator. (I saved this image as “allloooksame.jpg”)
Mike Rose quickly dropped out of the event so that someone more diverse1 could take his place.
This was a sacrifice. Not a huge sacrifice - he didn’t stand in front of a tank. But dropping out gives up the exposure these events confer.
Another presenter at this event, who also curated good guy ally vibes, said he didn’t notice the lack of diversity on the panel (even after the website was published!), then claimed that expecting him to research the exact makeup of the panel was an unfair burden. He was an ally up until it involved the backbreaking labor of quickly glancing at the event website. (I’m sure he would describe it very differently)
Science fiction author John Scalzi is well-known for being “progressive” - maximum air quotes. He once launched a series of tweets angry that a science fiction convention had too many panels full of old white guys and not enough minorities. At the same time he complained that he was only on a couple panels. Maybe you think diversity at conventions is a big issue, or maybe you think it’s “woke” nonsense, but either way I think you have to roll your eyes at “there are too many white guys here - one of you other guys should step aside.” (Nudge nudge)
A game developer once announced that he was boycotting Nintendo - he had no games on Nintendo systems and was at best starting work on porting to Wii U, which was probably a money-losing endeavor. When the Switch took off his boycott ended. People pledged to boycott PAX because the creators of Penny Arcade “mocked rape victims”, but when they had game collections to promote or panels perform at - when PAX could help them make money - those boycotts similarly ended.
It’s easy to take a zero-consequence moral stand. And in the age of social media, especially in politically charged circles where moral grandstanding is a currency, it can be lucrative. But if you’re unwilling to make even the smallest sacrifice for the principles you claim to hold you’re just posturing.
Skipping an Awards Show is Very Very Easy
I’ve read so many pieces to the tune of “there’s no such thing as being apolitical - if you don’t take a side you’re supporting the status quo - an active and conservative political choice.”
Attending an event is an active show of support2 - when you attend the event you are the event. The organizers get your money and attention, they record your excited yells and enthused faces. You make up the attendance numbers they show to advertisers.
“If you don’t approve of the show you should skip it” makes skipping sound like the effortful choice. But the natural state of the universe - the path of least resistance and most inertia - is you not attending the show. You don’t have to choose to skip it; if you do nothing at all the show will pass on by.
To attend a show you have to get dressed up, get a ticket or finagle an invite. You have to get to the event location, which for many includes flying in. That’s a lot of work! Simply doing something else is no work at all.
Eat the Rich but Also Eat Finger Sandwiches with Them
Carolyn Maloney (pictured above) and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez both attended the 2021 Met Gala.
It did not go over well.
The Met Gala is an event you attend to hobnob with rich people. It’s fundamentally rooted in inequality - a celebration of the haves.
The picture above is particularly striking. There’s not even the pretense of equality. The stars - the rich people - wear whatever they want and the help wear uniforms. The servants wear masks but the celebrities don’t. That’s particularly galling in that Democrats are supposedly the “follow the science” party - “the science” doesn’t say that only waitstaff can communicate COVID.
AOC wore a dress that said “tax the rich.” But this party is full of people who pay their accountants good money to avoid taxes.
Prior to the Game Awards, Kotaku ran a number of serious critiques. They also had someone attend and complain in real time. After the event their front-and-center story is….a celebration of the show fashions.
The tonal whiplash from this-cowardly-show-won’t-acknowledge-Palestine to check-out-these-people-glitzing-it-up is really something.
It’s not that some people are wagging their fingers at The Game Awards and other people are treating them like a glamorous party, and when you combine those groups you get an aggregate hypocrisy. It’s (often) the same people.
I wasn’t impressed by AOC’s “tax the rich” dress, but hey, at least she wore that dress. I’m looking at these pictures of fashionable Game Awards attendees and I don’t see many “free Palestine” dresses or even discrete pins. Would that have ruined the drip?
The Judgement-Free Conclusion
I don’t think attending the Game Awards makes you a bad person, on the whole or in that moment. Personally I think the show is….fine. Better than the Spike TV incarnation, at least.
But you should abide by your own loudly stated morality.
If you think the Game Awards celebrate abusers don’t attend them! It’s not complicated and it’s not “nuanced.” Yes there’s some nuance but the word “nuance” isn’t a magic shield.
It’s fine to say “you know what? I don’t think a video game awards show it the place for geopolitics and labor disputes - let’s just have fun.”
It’s also fine to be mad for real - to skip the event and do literally anything else.
What’s not fine is being pretend-mad.
You can’t be very angry about the event while eagerly attending it, especially if you know exactly what to expect. (And you do!) In that case you’re Gallant bashing Chick-fil-A while standing in line at one. AOC wearing a “tax the rich” dress to an event celebrating tax-avoiding billionaires.
You can’t effectively protest the thing you actively participate in, when not participating is the tiniest sacrifice imaginable.
Before you come back with “but there’s no ethical consumption under capitalism” read the second half of that sentence again please.
Attending The Game Awards doesn’t make you a bad person. But if according to the morality you espouse the event is unworthy of your support, just don’t support it! Instead of attending the event do absolutely anything else. That is, quite literally, the very least you can do.
If I believed an awards show was racist, sexist and morally repugnant I would simply not attend it.
That’s just me.
Not his exact words
I saw someone say it was their first time attending and they left half-way through so some exceptions apply, sure
Not totally related, actually maybe the inverse now I think about it, but I do work for Palestine that I would say is a bit above the average and all that, so one manifestation of what you're talking about is getting lectured by someone cause I bought a Starbucks. Their reasoning is that you should boycott it (even though it's not on the official BDS list) due to their ever expanding personal boycott list. I get lectured to about 'supporting Palestine' by someone who has effectively gerrymandered their own non participation into a moral stance. Regardless of how ineffective that personal boycott strategy is
It's so weird how there is now this aesthetics? identity? of activism (a word I also hate over just saying political work or something less wanky) that neurotically cares about everything the work involves except doing the actual work.