The other side of gamergate are documented to have pulled similar if not worse stunts, but this goes unmentioned. There are no winners in GG, and few of those involved can claim to wear a halo. When a journalist fails to mention important facts like this the article loses any value it may have had.
>This article isn't calling out any games for forcing the player to play a white male.
I think the 2nd para I quoted does exactly that. Additionally, a journalist without an obvious agenda would provide a balanced discussion and bring up, Idk, things like the fact that Rust players are talking over mic a lot, so when you are playing as a woman but your voice is of a gruff man, you sound a little silly and look like you are trying to fake your identity. I can see why players are uncomfortable about it, it reminds me of the trope "every young girl on the Internet is a middle aged man". You friend a woman in-game, only to find out later that that the woman is a 40 year old male divorcee. It doesn't sit right in so many ways.
As the article states too, this was implemented as a patch to the game, so people who paid money, their own money for the game, are now forced to put up with it or abandon their purchase, which seems to me at least to be unethical and not a little bit sneeky.
The second paragraph you quoted doesn't judge the games for their characters. It's just showing a quick example of characters that have a pre-set race/gender and pointing out the lack of outrage from women and racial minorities over having to play that.
>This article isn't calling out any games for forcing the player to play a white male.
I think the 2nd para I quoted does exactly that. Additionally, a journalist without an obvious agenda would provide a balanced discussion and bring up, Idk, things like the fact that Rust players are talking over mic a lot, so when you are playing as a woman but your voice is of a gruff man, you sound a little silly and look like you are trying to fake your identity. I can see why players are uncomfortable about it, it reminds me of the trope "every young girl on the Internet is a middle aged man". You friend a woman in-game, only to find out later that that the woman is a 40 year old male divorcee. It doesn't sit right in so many ways.
As the article states too, this was implemented as a patch to the game, so people who paid money, their own money for the game, are now forced to put up with it or abandon their purchase, which seems to me at least to be unethical and not a little bit sneeky.