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In a normal society, this would have been the end of things. But because everything is now part of the larger culture war, SNK’s apology became the latest rallying cry for reactionary gamers looking for examples of “cultural Marxism” and “SJW ideology” infecting the medium. This outrage manifested itself in two distinct ways: anger at the women (longtime fighting game players with a vested interest in the community) for bringing up their discomfort, and backlash against SNK itself. Much of the latter settled on senior programmer Jim Bulmer due to his history of speaking out on social justice issues. Once it was found that Bulmer had previously reached out to those women with an apology, the chuds came out in full force. Bulmer has since deactivated his account.

SNK has not responded to a request for comment.

For as much as a vocal minority of gamers treat women as interlopers, this whole Iroha situation has been a gigantic clusterfuck of non-fighting game players acting like they have authority over women who have actively engaged with the community for years. Many of the accounts responsible for the harassment offer zero indication that they’ve ever put their quarter up at the arcade, or even used a fightstick. That’s not to say you have to be Daigo Umehara to have an opinion on something that happens in fighting games, but the hypocrisy is stark. It’s a clear indication that none of the concern trolling amounts to anything but fear of women being allowed a seat at the table.

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SNK’s social media team got too horny on its Samurai Shodown account. This made some folks uncomfortable. SNK removed the posts and apologized. And now the next few days are going to be full of idiots who probably couldn’t have picked Iroha out of a lineup before now telling important members of the fighting game community that they don’t belong. Please, let me off this ride.