When will girl gamers get some respect?

Now I’ve been on a computer since I was 2, before it was even in vogue to have toddlers mashing on child sized controllers. So needless to say I’m a fairly avid gamer. From Halo to Splinter Cell I’ve battled aliens and spies with the best of em and yes I’ve even played The Sims…

So when I came across another review by Ben “Yahtzee” Croshaw (aka zero punctuation) on Sims 3 I was eager to hear his rant.  His reviews are often filled with sarcastic comments, amusing if sometimes crude analogies and the occasional F-bomb (as does this one…FYI for those who may be offended).

Unfortunately, it seems Zero Punctuation was unable to come with anything creative that week and settled for an insulting rehashing of girl gamer stereotypes and with a few hints of misogyny thrown in for good measure.  It wasn’t even the fact he assumed the only people who would want to play Sims 3 are women…it was the fact he suggested if you play this game you’ll somehow lose you masculinity (crudely put as “yes my new vagina is growing nicely”). Along with a cheap period joke…and topped off with an off topic rant about how “all women are evil…bewitching innocence with their emotions and absorbing our manhoods into their rank blood streak spam sandwiches“.

WTF? A) what does that have to do with Sims 3 B) Joke or not…when did it become ok to be so blatantly sexist?