A new culture war has been taking place in the streamer world, and Destiny‘s just thrown his hat into the ring. The centrist political streamer took aim at Asmongold‘s recent tirade over “manly games,” arguing that the latter’s time spent collecting World of Warcraft mounts disqualifies him from any opinion on the subject.
The dispute started with a new clip from Asmongold, who recently came out with a new take on how games used to be more “badass” and “made by guys for guys,” whereas in ‘modern’ times games have been made “for women” by women who have “gotten into videogames.”
Many have pointed out that this take is vapid and confusing, and largely without merit. Women have always worked in the videogame space, albeit often uncredited due to both industry sexism and the general lack of credit in older titles.
For instance, famed gaming composer Yoko Shimomura had her work on the original Street Fighter 2 go uncredited, and the same was true for the whole of Capcom’s 80s sound team, which was almost entirely female.
Destiny, himself renowned more for an interest in debate than in proper investigation, used the moment as an opportunity to lampoon Asmongold’s gaming habits, saying, “My brother in Christ, you grinded mounts on World of Warcraft for 20 f***ing years. What the f*** place do you have to talk about ‘real’ gaming?”
A tired discourse
This current back-and-forth has 2016-esque, Gamergate-era discourse written all over it, and it’s hardly surprising that many don’t even want to engage with it. Those looking to have a deeper discussion about the subject have already pointed out how repetitive this discussion has become.
The controversies of Asmongold and Destiny are well studied, and neither really have widespread trust on political issues. The absurdity of trying to tie games to something as fickle as gender is self-evident, but both interlocutors here argue as if there is some real connection between a type of game and a type of masculinity.
