Selinker & Stepto Shoot an It Gets Better Video
Channel: Mike Selinker
Date: 06/04/2012

Game designer Mike Selinker (@mikeselinker) and online gaming expert Stephen Toulouse (@stepto) come together to deliver a simple message: It gets better. What could possibly go wrong? Mm-hmm.

In case you were wondering, here is our explanation:

An Exegesis for "Selinker & Stepto Shoot an It Gets Better Video"

The short version: We made an It Gets Better video!

The long version: We made an It Gets Better video, and we hope you'll watch it. It's not like a lot of other It Gets Better videos, but we hope you'll give it a chance anyway.

See, the thing is, Stepto and I are professional gaming geeks. That's a ridiculous thing to be. We're paid to do ridiculous things, like use "exegesis" in a headline. When we're happy, we do more ridiculous things. Even when we're angry, we do ridiculous things. That's kind of our move.

One thing that makes us very angry is to see hate speech against gays on the internet and on gaming networks. We've had to deal with it a lot. Stepto and I have had the great fortune to work for massive corporations who stand on the right side of this issue, and to be surrounded by friends and fans who stand there too. Usually that's enough.

But sometimes, in an unexpected way, anti-gay bigotry works its way into our lives. That's what happened to me, and predictably, it was in a ridiculous way. So we decided to poke fun at an anonymous bigot who came to stand for every anti-gay loonbucket we've met in our travels. It's a true story, but we expanded it and took it into the realm of ridiculousness. Like I said, that's our move.

That doesn't change the fact that to us, anti-gay bigotry on the internet is a subject we care deeply about. It makes us hulk out with rage, actually. But nobody likes a ragey ridiculous person. So we remain true to what we are. If you like our silly video, we hope you'll take it to the masses. If you think we should have been more serious, well, we're sorry we're not very good at that, but we're still glad you're on our side. And if what we've done puzzles you, we hope you get our message loud and clear.

But seriously, don't call people "gay" on the internet. You don't wanna see us hulk out.

On behalf of Stepto, Liz, Ras, and our special guests, thanks for watching.

Mike Selinker
Lone Shark Games, Inc.