Reddit's r / Games Farm for the April Fish, and here's why

Reddit's Games, one of the largest gaming communities on the internet, is closed today for the April Fool's Day. In a message posted today on the popular subreddit, the mods explained that they were taking things "a little more seriously" this year, which meant closing the games for the day.

"In recent times we have found that what has to be a forum for the potential dissemination of knowledge and participation in video games has become a battleground of conflicting ideas," explained the mods. "Usually this is not a problem, the discussion is, by its very nature, undeniably an argument, but when this argument turns into vitriolic attacks between individuals on a regular basis, with no possibility of decay, then that something must happen to give. "

The mods added that r / Games was becoming "more and more responsible" for perpetuating the "combative and pejorative streams of thought" surrounding misogyny, transphobia, homophobia and racism, among others. "The time has come to block the flow of regressive ideas and prevent them from ever becoming the norm," the mods said.

"Although some memes (such as" players stand up ") around the game are widely regarded as a humorous rendition of a state of mind, the background of humor is a set of problems very serious that affect all gaming enthusiasts, "they explained. "By showing contempt or outright rejection of minority and marginalized communities, we become more insular, thus losing the opportunity to show compassion to these people, but also to develop our own community and to diversify the demographics of our communities. these communities. " involved in that. "

While mods act against authors by removing comments and banning bad actors, an underlying fundamental problem persists: "It is acceptable or acceptable to ridicule and demonize the traditionally marginalized and marginalized members of the gaming community." , said the mods. "This is not just a problem in r / Games or Reddit only, it is a problem deeply rooted in the depths of the Internet, and often in the communities that are focus around the games discussion. "

The mods added that they continued to see "condescending, dismissive, vindictive and pessimistic attitudes" on r / Games, and they had published examples of some problematic comments and topics they regularly observed. "We must look closely at our own communities, with the goal of encouraging acceptance and inclusion, in order to create a healthy community in which we value empathy and respect."

Although there are a lot of deep problems, the mods said, there are also reasons to be optimistic.

"While the industry as a whole has suffered many hardships and tribulations, we are also fortunate to be at a time when there seems to be an overabundance of fantastic games, ranging from great AAA titles to almost anonymous independent projects that come from nowhere.

"So, let's take advantage of what is available to us and also appreciate the myriad contexts we are players in. Our differences in experiences include the diversity of the content we consume, and by allowing us to appreciate these differences, we change our perspectives. and interpretations, this applies not only to games, but to life as a whole. "

In this April Fool, the Games mods are asking people to consider contributing to charities that support LGBT + communities, women's health, points of contact and others. You can see a complete list of charities and find out how to support them in this Reddit article.

r / The games should reopen on April 2nd and that day, the mods will hold a discussion about the decision to close the subsite.