The Legend of GayBlade

https://blog.archive.org/2020/08/28/the-legend-of-gayblade/

by polm23 • 6 years ago

210 121 6 years ago

blog.archive.org

jonny_eh• 6 years ago

As mentioned in the article, this was covered in the Netflix doc series High Score (episode 3): https://www.netflix.com/title/81019087

skc• 6 years ago

Yes, found that docu-series highly frustrating because they left out so much.

But I suppose there was only so much time.

Nacdor• 6 years ago

It never claimed to be an exhaustive history of the video game industry so I'm not sure why so many people levy this criticism against it. It reminds me of the G4 show called Icons, with each episode covering a specific game, developer or piece of gaming hardware.

I thought it did a great job of covering the topics that were chosen. It wasn't quite as good as The Toys That Made Us but it was still very enjoyable if you're into video games and I really hope they're making another season.

hnick7• 6 years ago

I get your point but I liked it a lot despite this. They had some big names but the focus on the little people (players), the Nintendo call centre, and stuff like Gay Blade was a part of history I hadn't really seen especially as a non-US person.

Finishing at Doom seemed an odd place to stop, though I guess an argument can be made that's the start of the modern era even though it was nearly 30 years ago now. There's definitely setup there for a sequel covering things like MMOs.

userbinator• 6 years ago

I thought this would be related to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beyblade , but actually predates that by a few years.

bap• 6 years ago

Perhaps this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zorro,_The_Gay_Blade

Lammy• 6 years ago

leeoniya• 6 years ago

wonder if this was an inspiration for

https://drawntogether.fandom.com/wiki/Xandir

valuearb• 6 years ago

Is this Gaytekeeping?

“ One thing to say though, is that perhaps you should be careful to have an accurate historical record? Queer theory did not exist until ~mid 1990s, so perhaps none of these games are LGBTQIA+ — they’re Gay and Lesbian works.”

hvs2• 6 years ago

Strikes me more as pedantry.

foxdev3• 6 years ago

How to frame history with understanding that didn't exist for the people in it is probably a whole field of study. Most of the letters in the acronym existed (if not by the same name) before then, though meanings have evolved.

vanderZwan• 6 years ago

Eh, I think it's comparable to how some musicians sound really punk but were ten years too early to be labelled as such (and hence are often considered rock & roll of the "proto-punk" variety, for example)

prvc4• 6 years ago

Feels like a submarine ad for Netflix.

yabai_yatsu• 6 years ago

What's a submarine ad?

rzzzt• 6 years ago

An advertisement that entices you to buy a submarine.

Actually, it's a reference to Paul Graham's observation that when news articles start to appear about anything almost simultaneously, it might be the result of a deliberate effort on someone's part to sell something along with all the generated talk: http://paulgraham.com/submarine.html

ohyeshedid• 6 years ago

Sponsored content.

the_af3• 6 years ago

It comes from an essay by Paul Graham as far as I know: http://www.paulgraham.com/submarine.html

"One of the most surprising things I discovered during my brief business career was the existence of the PR industry, lurking like a huge, quiet submarine beneath the news. Of the stories you read in traditional media that aren't about politics, crimes, or disasters, more than half probably come from PR firms."

I see nothing that would indicate this is an ad, covert or otherwise. It was posted by Jason Scott -- whose reputation should be familiar to readers of HN -- on the Internet Archive, and has a legitimate reason for being posted there. This is as good as it gets for "not for profit" and "not an adverticle".

vmception• 6 years ago

Out of curiosity why are you searching for that? Like if that's your only comment it makes it seem like the possibility of it being an ad dilutes the message they are writing about?

Many articles are sponsored. Many are ghostwritten.

Protip: Often times the second company/solution in the article about the solutions is the one that paid for it.

Who cares?

You want the FTC to step in with an "AHA! #AD!" banner forced on everything?

ganstyles• 6 years ago

Well, it's an important concept to know when something is an ad or not and to, even in general, know or be able to reason about the motivations of the writer of an article. I think that's why it's important. This is especially relevant when it's a submarine ad, as the person to whom you're replying mentioned.

In any case, your comment seems very aggressive.

thinkingemote• 6 years ago

"I agree with people when they manipulate me only when I agree with them"

hnick7• 6 years ago

The article is definitely capitalising on the show, but I think it's more of an ad for the Internet Archive and the value it brings. A lot of people will be searching for that game after the show, and it makes sense for them to post about it.

plorkyeran• 6 years ago

Clearly your comment is the real submarine ad here to rectify the fact that the article didn't mention anything about how to watch the documentary.

everdumb• 6 years ago

When I was a child, Smear the Queer was a game all the boys played. Fag was a commonly used slur. When I was in high school the state of California told gay couples to go fuck themselves. Societal progress is a wonderful thing to see.

xref• 6 years ago

It is a great thing to see, California is described as some sort of lefty-socialist-liberal bastion today but like you said it was only 12 years ago they (unconstitutionally) voted in a ban on gay marriage

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_California_Proposition_...

loeg• 6 years ago

California was also considered a lefty-socialist-liberal bastion 12 years ago.

eru2• 6 years ago

but like you said it was only 12 years ago they (unconstitutionally) voted in a ban on gay marriage

Shouldn't that be as follows?:

but like you said it was only 12 years ago they voted in an (unconstitutional) ban on gay marriage

Or was the vote itself deemed unconstitutional?

gliese1337• 6 years ago

When I was in high school the state of California told gay couples to go fuck themselves.

Except, they actually wanted them to do exactly the opposite....

tombert• 6 years ago

Just for the sake of pedantry, I should point out that California was ok with them fucking themselves, just not each other.

0xcde4c3db• 6 years ago

For those who aren't familiar, Smear the Queer is a playground game in which one person has to keep a ball away from the rest of the group, who tries to tackle them. It's sort of like a cross between "reverse tag" and gridiron/rugby football.

(The gay-bashing element is just a metaphor, you see.)

parsimo20102• 6 years ago

The "queer" in the game's name probably means odd, not homosexual. As in the person holding the ball is the odd one, and everyone should try to hit them. That doesn't stop people from misinterpreting it, since queer mostly means homosexual or some other sexual minority. It's slightly more pessimistic to think that the game is teaching our kids to kill homosexuals vs. some undefined oddness.

JohnBooty5• 6 years ago

This game has many, many regional names. I heard it called "smear the queer" but we usually called it other names.

It's semi-interesting, though, that the "queer" was the one with the ball.

It took serious guts to be the "queer" for any length of time - after all, it was you vs. everybody else trying to tackle you. The kids who spent the most time with the ball were the fastest, toughest kids. So "queer" was a slur but also, the "queer" was the fast/strong/brave one.

Of course, there are many regional variations. It sounds like in some places, there was no ball involved, and "smear the queer" was just a name for an ass-beating.

I detest this slur now, and I hate that I used to use words like that as jokes/insults. Today I would be fighting alongside my gay friends against folks using those words.

djaque2• 6 years ago

Not sure how old you are, but even in 2010 when I was in high school our boy scout troop played smear the queer and the first time I learned the word gay was as an insult. Didn't really help with the whole growing up gay thing.

onionisafruit• 6 years ago

I played smear the queer as a kid and had no idea queer meant gay. That was a few decades before you played it though. I think I was in my twenties before I knew queer meant anything other than “unusual”. I even had a couple of gay friends who never let me in on it.

devenblake4• 6 years ago

If it makes you feel any better, I'm a senior enrolled in a Maine high school right now and there's very little homophobia. In fact, a not-insignificant amount of the school is queer. Growing up I only ever heard "gay" used as an insult on-line. Times seem to have changed, and for the better!

hnick7• 6 years ago

I play games with people in their mid-20s and a few have let out "that's gay" as a synonym for something being bad.

I don't think any of them would qualify as homophobic, it's just more a case of hearing something so much that it creeps into your lexicon and comes out by mistake sometimes in a moment of distraction or emotion. It took me a while to unlearn it myself because it was extremely common in the 90s at my school (even among guys who later came out as gay, I guess you have to fit in).

bhfasdhjgdgsuyv10• 6 years ago

They probably aren't explicitly homophobic, but it's disrespectful and a tiny bit homophobic to not adjust your language a tiny bit, because it's obviously negatively impactful to gay people (not everyone, but I know it is to me).

matthewheath• 6 years ago

This was such an interesting read. As a gay man, I'm pleased some of our culture is being unearthed from the past like this.

cblconfederate• 6 years ago

I think a lot of the gay culture is not well known , even though it's such an important and disproportionally influential little part of western culture. Part of it is because parts of it are considered too racy for todays generally conservative world.

xmars• 6 years ago

What about gay music? Gay ice cream?

duncan_bayne• 6 years ago

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Gaytime

Given the intentional double entendre and commercial success - it's now a cultural icon - I'm going to optimistically interpret its existence in a positive light. I mean, I can't imagine this product existing in many (most?) countries at the time.

krapp• 6 years ago

What about gay music? Gay ice cream?

[zoidberg] why not both? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2w02QxQZGQc [/zoidberg] (NSFW)

The Legend of GayBlade

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