it's about privilege, stupid

So, while searching around last night for spoilers--er, cheats...er, hints! yes! hints! on who's romance-able in DA2*, I came across this post, which led me still further... to something both hysterical (in the screaming without reason sense) and horrifying. 

Straight White Male Gamers neglected

In essence: poster complains that DA2 neglects its primary demographic, the Straight White Male, because! wait for it! four out of the five romance-ready characters in DA2 go both ways! AND! Indignity! The men will HIT ON YOU if you're a male PC. The game is unreasonably bisexual.

Also, the female love interest options are evil or sluts.

That's not why the link is worth reading, though. The answer to the poster by one of the game's writers--also a straight white male--is one of the reasons I will buy and play Bioware's games.

He writes:

The "rights" of anyone with regards to a game are murky at best, but anyone who takes that stance must apply it equally to both the minority as well as the majority. The majority has no inherent "right" to get more options than anyone else. [...]

And if there is any doubt why such an opinion might be met with hostility, it has to do with privilege. You can write it off as "political correctness" if you wish, but the truth is that privilege always lies with the majority. They're so used to being catered to that they see the lack of catering as an imbalance. They don't see anything wrong with having things set up to suit them, what's everyone's fuss all about? That's the way it should be, any everyone else should be used to not getting what they want.

Yes. Exactly.


*my favorite being untouchable, apparently. Le sigh.