In Cologne, Germany, where "the mother of all Saturn houses" is (Saturn is a very old and well-known electronics shop chain), the main shop was completely rebuilt on the inside.
All music and film was tranfered to an - in comparison to its former size - absolutely tiny part of the electronics wares shop (Radios, Computers, washing machines, coffee machines, phones, etc.) of the same chain nearby (on the other side of the street).
THat newly rebuilt store now is some kind of "Gamer's Paradise". It is *entirely* dedicated to gaming and to "gamers".
What struck me was its total ascwnse of any noticeable colour.
Of course, there are monitors showing some colourful MOBA games, the red of Bull's and Logitech and a few others green or red linies and the Saturn chain signs …
… but apart from that, the whole store was - as its main colour - completely BLACK.
Yes, black being the whole store's main colour.
You can see how it looks like here :
https://www.xperion-saturn.de/
And here :
https://www.saturn.de/de/shop/xperion.html
And in fact it is darker than on these fotos, because, as I said, black is its main colour, even although there are a few spots with lighter colours there, and of course the open entrance & windows.
Most notably is the total absence of bigger parts of the shops coloured in green, yellow, red (although red is a colour liked becaue of its aggressiveness) and light and dark blue.
Especially green.
To me, this isn't something surprising me. If I look at game launchers of various firms, and at web sites of various firms selling "gaming hardware", then all I can see is this one colour : Black.
Steam : black
Ubi Soft launcher : black
GOG launcher : black
Web site of Asus : black
Web site of NVidia : black
Most PCs of today : black
AMD : black - and red
So, why is there black everywhere ?
Is that a mere fashion ?
I have come to the belief that black - blackness - is a colour oriented (by the marketing groups) towards the main gaming audience, and this are men.
So, black is a "manly" colour.
I can see the opposite when men try to insult others. What do they use : They try to insult other men by telling them that they are unmanly. Telling a men that he is "not a real man" seems to be the ultimate insult.
So, how is it effective to insult someone by telling he is "not a real man" ? By using everything that is the opposite of manliness.
So, what's typical ?
Women often wear colourful clothing. So that's "womanlinke". Good for insulting a man, to be "womanline".
Children often play with colourful toys. So that's "childish". Good for insults, to tell a man that he is childish.
Cuteness. Children often play with cute looking toys. So that's "childish", too. Good for insulting as well.
One of the results of this "reasoning" is the insult "Go play Hello Kitty !" I have read this several times, especially among PvP discussions.
It combines all three parts : Colourfulness, cuteness and childishness.
Black, on the other hand, is nothing that can be used to insult someone by telling "he is not a real man". I do NOT mean skin colours here !!!
So, in my opinion, black is the direct opposite of these 3 C's. Therefore black = manliness.
Therefore black -> aimed towards male gamers.
Plus, black is an essentially humorless colour.
As is white as well.
I'm expanding the examples from above a bit. And I'm adding a slight undertone to show what I mean.
So, what's typical ?
Women often wear colourful clothing. So that's "womanlinke". Good for insulting a man, to be "womanline".
Children often play with colourful toys. So that's "childish". Good for insults, to tell a man that he is childish.
Cuteness. Children often play with cute looking toys. So that's "childish", too. Good for insulting as well.
Colorfulness. Only "naive paintings" have light colours. So that's "naiveness". Good for insulting as well.
Colourfulness. Only primitive cultures use light colours. So that's "primitive". Good for insulting as well.
This shows an undertone which leads into racism. As the exhibition catalogue to the exhibition "Gods in colour"
https://buntegoetter.liebieghaus.de/en/ shows , people still believe that antique statues always were without any colours, and that this belief was broadly spread during european Fascist times. Colourfulness was believed to be a sign of primitive cultures and of "naive paintoings", with "naive" meaning a little bit more that "mentally challenged" in this Fascist hate-speech meaning.
White, marble-white statues were considered to be superior over anything with colours. Diggers wiped colours away from found statues, because "this is only dirt". This can also be read in the book and in the exhibition.
I see a link there. White and Black are both "non-colours". I sense that there is still a belief working in the underground which I call it "white manliness".
This "white manliness" is connected with the absence of
- (light) colours
- cuteness
- humor
If you look at the Fascist colour palette, then you'll notice that there are no colours as well, and especially no light colours. Red bein the only exception because of red = blood, aggression.
So, to me, I see Fascist aesthetics and even racism ("primitive cultures") coming back by the back door into gaming.
I'm quoting the exhibition book :
"The U.S.-american Archaeologist Sarah Bond had made a connection in an interview in 2017 in the magazine Forbes between the "white supremacy" theory of the US-american ultraright and the erroneous vision of a white marble antique of the Europeans. In this she referred to our research, which she used as proof for a colourful european antique. Sarah Bond recived death threats after this political statement. other articles were following, among them a precisely researched one in The New Yorker, but also 2019 a pointed one in the satire show of Samantha Bee."
I also see a link there - between the
absence of colour and humour and racism, ultimatively.
