Oh yeah, I was so bewildered when I read “kanker, ga lopen!” for the first time!

“the internet was the domain of white, heterosexual, nerdy, generally well educated guys. And me being a white, heterosexual, nerdy, well educated guy… well… going online felt like coming home. Those were my people”

Thank you for putting it so clearly. Yes, it is completely valid to long for a time where the own niche was the in-group. As someone who’s been on the web from early on but a woman, it wasn’t really “my people”. It was never a safe space for me, but I totally understand where you are coming from. It’s great to be on the side of the “default”.

The only spaces I genuinely miss are phpbb forums. I honestly believe they are better than reddit, or the fediverse for that matter. Smaller interest groups have a self selection mechanism and better moderation. I think they could still foster a great environment today that would welcome nerdy educated people on a shared interest without specifically speaking to just one type of educated nerds.

And why is it a “trashy hot” woman despite the target audience being 99% young men at the time? This is what I mean. The ad speaks to a target audience that is not on the poster.

Honestly, it puts me off completely. I’m a woman and this is what gaming used to be: women are sluts. The ad isn’t even trying to be clever or anything. Like wtf is this this trying to say?

I like the part between your two paragraphs. The early gaming era was really shitty when it came to diversity and… It’s not even representation, it’s not having to play sluts or princesses or whatever.

The now-era is all AAA all-the-same sanitised stuff, nothing to do with lack of edginess. Just corporate safety in mainstream appeal. Currently, indie games are where the experiments and interesting ideas happen.