Sheri

its worth fighting for 🌷

Writer of word both truth and tale. Video producer, editor, artist, still human. Hire me?

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Slowly making a visual novel called We Will Not See Heaven, demo is free. Sometimes I stream, or post adult things. Boys' love novel enthusiast. Take care, yeah?

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maxkriegervg
@maxkriegervg

imo, much of the discourse on fashion in the games industry runs back to the complex of masculinity, power, and youth running through every aspect of this industry - how it is idealized, worshipped, exploited, extorted, intruded upon, used to influence or even abuse others.

there's an inherent youthfulness we associate with play that seems to bring a devil-may-care "we have fun here" culture into games, which so often trots right over barely-defined borders into blatant unprofessionalism - in the office, at social functions, etc.

at the same time, the upper rafters of this industry run on concentrated ego, manifested in control and command of massive amounts of labor power to make dreams manifest. there's a sort of divine mandate of creative self-actualization there, no matter the cost.

a man's world and a boy's club at the same time - and this image so often sold as freedom AND power is reflected in the classic blazer/jacket+tshirt, pretty much on its face!

i feel so often that men in this industry dress in a way that combines:

-a show of power/seniority that comes with age -a clashing appeal at youthfulness in an effort to buck the responsibility that comes w/ their command -vulnerability (that they have the privilege to display!)

as an indie who's burning through the youth that so often carries the appeal/momentum of indie successes, i can't /not/ consider this.

including boundaries - it's so important for men in this industry to understand that being a "funmaker" doesn't give you the keys to everything!

this doesn't even touch upon how this is reflected in the influencer/streamer/games cultural space, and the massive disparities in presentation, agency, and taboo between masc-presenting and femme-presenting people there...

(example relevant to tonight: troy baker fashioning himself a tiktok zoomer and what that communicates.)


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in reply to @maxkriegervg's post:

I'm fully aware that this all about fairly rich people doing things that only matter to other rich people, so overall I don't really care about where this came from.

At the same time, as someone who can maybe buy a new pair Jeans once, or twice per year, I find most discussions around how people dress incredibly frustrating, because it always just assumes that the way someone dresses is completely up them and not also dependent on other factors.

I have a much simpler take on this: What you wear to an awards show or other huge industry presentation, especially on camera, is a costume. To interpret this as Culture more broadly speaking is to take it as face value, which is a mistake. The Game Awards is not what a game developer looks like, even at the office. It's like going out on Halloween and concluding that your neighborhood is genuinely haunted.

If your purpose is to impress, you pick an outfit that culturally reads as impressive--be it wise and cynical, earnest and ambitious, or friendly and approachable. Not only are these reads defined by culture (and gender as a subset of that), the goals that make most sense to aim for are defined by culture--if you have time and options, you likely wouldn't wear the same fit to events in Japan and the US. Here, the norm is that if the target audience is teenaged gamers, devs want to appear creative and charismatic, but also brash and irreverent--a little bit of punk rock, to get kids who are uncomfortable with society to feel like the makers of their games are in their corner. But in Japan, devs have to come off as harmless, playful, affable, childlike, while also with the dignified formality befitting a respected corporate professional. (Reggie Fils-Amie was a master of switching between these modes.)

The event does not define the cultural values of its host country, it is circumscribed by them. The game theory involved makes an earnest expression of self at a big professional event impossible, even if the game you are promoting is, itself, an earnest expression of self. You're not at an awards show to express your personality--it's not like being an actor at the Oscars, or even chatting with other devs between panels at a convention or an industry mixer. Awards are marketing. You're there to sell your work, as a human billboard--the only personal part is accepting the industry's recognition of you if you win.

On the flip side, anyone who judges you by how you present at these events does so at their peril. 95% of the developers of the greatest games ever made are anonymous nobodies, they don't understand the social rules and it's not their job to, everyone in the industry knows this. It's pretty much the job of the big names you have heard of to deflect all the big media attention to themselves, even if they are not the most interesting people on their team. This is true even in indie--you want the GamerGate types to come after the nerdy-looking EVO-looking Asian-American gamer exec in a company hoodie in their phpBB forum death threats, not the purple haired enby Palestinian art director who has to put up with enough of that shit already. (But the enby purple haired ethnic minority community manager--that one signed up for it voluntarily, and has internet drama combat experience, and is ready for war. A similarly functioning lightning rod, for the opposite reason.)

What I'm saying is: someday, a famous community manager or project director is going to show up at E3 or something dressed in a perfectly fitted suit, when everyone else is there in cheap leather jackets over company polos, and they are going to slay like a Mick Gordon soundtrack is blasting in the background. Especially if that person is not a man.

That person is going to go home and come back into the office the following week in a T-shirt and slacks and nobody is going to bat an eye.