A diversity of opinions is healthy.
A diversity of opinions
is healthy. But that doesn't mean you automatically have to respect
every opinion no matter what it is. "I prefer Nethack to Angband" is an opinion that should be accepted and respected. Maybe disagreed with, but it's a matter of taste. On this topic at hand, "I don't think it matters what famous people say," would be an OK opinion. "I don't really like Felicia Day" would be and OK opinion. "I disagree with her assessment of TOME or roguelikes in general." Those opinions aren't invalid, they
should be respected, and they're something you can actually build a discussion around. More importantly, someone holding and expressing that opinion isn't doing any harm.
"Women aren't real gamers, they only like games about dressing up dolls" is, while not exactly the most
harmful sexism that's ever been thrown around, is still not only sexist, but just plain incorrect. There are plenty of women who like a wide variety of games. And if some woman interested in playing or making roguelikes comes to this board and the first thing she sees is a long-standing member of the community making these kinds of comments, and everyone else "respecting his opinion," you think she's likely to want to stick around? Even if the basic premise is true that women generally like different kinds of games and certain types of games will never be broadly popular with women, that doesn't mean that
no women will like them. I mean, we've got a freaking example of a woman who likes a roguelike in the first post in this thread!
When you're a niche genre that generally gets overlooked, ignored, or disliked (because of gameplay reasons) anyway, alienating entire groups of people is really not in your best interests.
People's "opinions" aren't some magical protected category. "Opinions" about other groups of people have been used to oppress those groups of people throughout history. Being intolerant of intolerance is not intolerance. Especially because, guess what? "Opinions" can be changed. Race, sexually or gender (generally) can't.
As a thought training: who do most women wear makeup? I mean, there is no need for that, women are already beautiful, more so than men. Why do they want to look more beautiful? Don't say it's because advertising or culture.
Seriously? "Why are things this way? And don't say the actual answer to why they're this way."
(By the way, men have used makeup in various cultures throughout history. And right now there's a growing trend in South Korea of men wearing makeup. Why are they doing that? Don't say it's because advertising or culture.)
