Can we talk about 'Gamergate' ?

[Guest corespore]

 

You know that wouldn't be the first time a white-knight ran into a thread and had it shut down by being an outright ass (cough cough, banned from nexus). One good thing is that i never forgot your advice on how to update my ignore list so now my lurking experience is more SJW free and I much prefer it that way. 

Just because a majority of participants in a thread agree with each other and shit hits the fan when someone else disagrees doesn't make that odd one out guilty of getting the thread shut down. The blame is at the very least shared by people so used to preaching to the choir that any sign of disagreement was met with hostility.  Over time the boundaries of what was acceptable in there got pushed inch by inch until shit went way out of line and any attempt on our part to get people to take it down a notch was completely ignored. What do you expect?

 

If this thread continues down the line of "misogynist" here and "SJW" or "white knight" there, people arguing against what they assume must be the other side's position because they already pigeonholed them with one of those monikers, then it'll get shut down too. And sure, there'll be bitching about us taking sides with whoever, and crying about censorship, and nobody'll look to their own part in it, and everything'll start all over again in some other thread, which against all judgment born from experience we'll keep open a tad too long, again, just to be able to say we gave it a shot. Same old, same old.

 

(On a side note, my entire world was SJW-free until about a month or 2 ago when that acronym became all the rage in here.)

 

Did i poke a nerve?

[Guest corespore]

 

 

Dunno. I had the feeling that I've read a lot more SJWs and whiteknight accusations + le funny maymay pictures about just that than 'white cis male scum' or whatever the hardcore tumblerists use these days. But I will admit it depends on where you look, I'm pretty sure on some sites you will read that, on others this.

 

HOWEVER, it's a sad fact that you have to read any of this shit here. Not only in this thread, the paranoia about SJWs lurking around every corner waiting to destroy everything you hold dear spilled into other threads recently. Well, at least into the Dragon Age thread, that is. Dunno about others.

 

For once, you're right.

Video games should be about video games, not social bullshit. If I've learned anything over the years, it's that attentionwhores leave nothing good in their wake and nothing good ever comes from giving them the attention they seek. SJWs, Biodrones, whiteknights, tumblrfags...to hell with them.

I'm going to buy Inquisition, and I'm going to tell everybody in the game who offends me to go fuck themselves. I bet it will be much more productive than arguing in circles with a bunch of people I don't know. It might even be, god forbid...fun.

 

Which is the point most of us are trying to make. We couldn't have given a damn less until we had this crap shoved in our faces. This whole thing should have died down after many of the offending sites changed their integrity policies to match most of the GG supporters main complaints. We had all the reason we need to walk away. It's only a matter of time until most of this dies down, until then i guess we just have to watch our enthusiasm of gaming being blamed for all of societies woes yet again, same thing happened in the 80's, and most of the 90's as well.  

[GrimReaper]

 

 

For once, you're right.

Video games should be about video games, not social bullshit. If I've learned anything over the years, it's that attentionwhores leave nothing good in their wake and nothing good ever comes from giving them the attention they seek. SJWs, Biodrones, whiteknights, tumblrfags...to hell with them.

I'm going to buy Inquisition, and I'm going to tell everybody in the game who offends me to go fuck themselves. I bet it will be much more productive than arguing in circles with a bunch of people I don't know. It might even be, god forbid...fun.

 

 

Or maybe you're just not wrong for once. Herp derp.

 

As for what a game should be about, well. That lies in the hands of the developers and the people that buy games. All I can say is games have moved past Pacman and Space Invaders. Today it's not only about the gameplay, it's also about telling a story, building a world and all those neat little things. A game that takes place in a world full of problems and injustice is much more intriguing than a game that's all about "here, aliens. shoot them to get a new highscore" or "perfect world gets invaded by baddies, kill baddies to save perfect world".

 

At least for me. Although simple games like Serious Sam, Painkiller or Diablo have their rightful place in the gaming world, more complex games are welcome, too.

[inei1888]

The only argument I have heard about it is the feminist side of the argument - that it's a problem of male harassing, bullying, and threatening female gamers for simply asking for the industry to recognize that many gamers are female and to stop alienating female players. 

 

Can anyone provide me with some trustworthy literature on the topic that gives a good in-depth description of the issue?

Unbiased scientific or academic literature is a bonus, but if you have to go for blogs and media, please avoid conservative blogs, pseudofeminist tumblr pages, anti-feminist sites, and other pages that will inevitably suffer from confirmation bias.

 

I hate it when people are vocal and passionate about issues they know nothing about and I'm not about to start being one of those people. I want to educate myself so I don't end up on the idiot side of the argument.

This...is going to take a while to get through, I'm just going to dump a massive load of info here.  The problem with GamerGate is that we're going against the media, and the media controls how we're portrayed, so it is going to be VERY difficult to find a news source that is well respected and fair to both sides, considering that, at best, the larger news organizations cited the game journalism sites we're against as sources and, at worst, they purposely misrepresented us.  

 

I can give you a brief overview of the history:

 

In August (on the 16th, I think) The Zoe Post is released, a few people look in at it and it seems like a cringe-worthy break up story.  People laugh about her cheating on him with 5 guys, then people realize who the three named people are: Nathan Grayson, Robin Arnott, and Joshua Boggs.  A journalist who has favorably written about her game, a judge at IndieCade who got her game nominated for an award, and her boss.  Discussion of this got censored EVERYWHERE Reddit, game media sites, various forums and fucking 4chan. People thought, "wait, what the fuck? Is there more to this?" and began to dig.  They found that MANY game journalists were donating to her Patreon, they are financially tied to her and still writing about her, big no no.  They found that Zoe had crippled The Fine Young Capitalists with help from her PR person, Maya Kramer.  Someone supposedly doxxed Zoe, this dox gave completely wrong information, so, not entirely sure that was real, but she was apparently doxxed again, that time giving real info.  The doxxing was done by individuals, no one aside from trolls supported it, we all think Zoe is a shit person, but don't wish ill upon her.  Phil Fish was doxxed and his site was hacked, the info from his site was leaked online.  A few people have this information and it has lead to discoveries that IndieCade, the IGF, etc. are engaging in some potentially illegal dealings.  Game Journalists and other such people act like total lunatics on twitter, mocking those investigating this whole thing.  Adam Baldwin (Jane from Firefly) stumbles upon Internet Aristocrat's videos and coins the hashtag GamerGate.  Game media releases 14 (I think) articles in one day claiming the death of the gamer identity.  GamerGate expands massively.  People discover that game media has been blacklisting devs for holding different political views, destroying their public image and generally gatekeeping in the industry.  A few devs begin to leak information anonymously.  Breitbart journalist, Milo Yiannopolis releases several articles showing collusion between multiple news outlets in a mailing list GameJournoPros.  Some time passes with more leaks and more shit flinging from Anti-GG.  GamerGate continues to grow.  Several main stream news outlets produce stories about GamerGate citing game media sites that we are up against, many people join Anti-GG, GG starts revealing to these new people what has been going on, MANY of these new people join GG.  Colbert Report interview with Anita Sarkeesian, Colbert fans smell bullshit, some don't but many do, both those who do and don't investigate, GG shares info with them, GG grows.  Topkek.  Blizzcon happens, Geoff Keighly says head Blizzard guy's statement against online harassment was a statement about GG being evil.  WoW fans get curious about GG, investigate GG, come to the conclusion that GG is right.  GG grows.  Topkek.  Geordie Tait, an anti-GG SJW says GG should be rounded up and gassed.  Not joking, he really meant it.  He is interviewed by KingOfPol, Tait is seen to have a cult-like mindset.  

 

There has been harassment on both sides, threats from both sides.  Brianna Wu, Zoe Quinn, and Anita Sarkeesian have been threatened.  All three of whom and Felicia Day have been doxxed.  Milo Yiannopolis has been doxxed, a syringe has been mailed to his house.  A dead animal has been mailed to his house.  KingofPol has been doxxed.  A knife was mailed to his house, the fire department was called to his house, this could have been a poorly executed attempt at Swatting.  Mike Cernovich was doxxed, he was almost SWATed, but found out early and was able to alert the police.  Margerett Gel was doxxed and SWATed, no info on whether or not it was Anti-GG, but likely to be a result of the doxxing.  Steve Tom Sawyer was assaulted because he supports GamerGate and GamerGate has been said to be a harassment campaign and a gathering of misogynists.  He is currently homeless but staying with a GamerGate supporter who was able to take him and his cat in.  GamerGate has donated $100,000+ to charities and causes to help women enter game development.  Yes, we are apparently a harassment campaign.  So far, we have caused Escapist to update their ethics policy, IGN to update theirs, SEVERAL sponsors to leave Gawker, Gamasutra and others.

 

As someone who has been there from the beginning, I would suggest the following:

 

Read the Zoe Post: http://thezoepost.wordpress.com/.  Reason why: to see what it really is.  Zoe is not at all important anymore, she wasn't all that important to begin with.  She was the door to the underground network of tunnels filled with skeletons, in a sense, but considering that we've been said to exist to harass an innocent game Developer (that's an insult to game developers, honestly, her game is a cheap 90's tier web page she called a game).  The foul actions detailed in the Zoe post are just the beginning lessons on what a shit person she is.  You're going to read a bunch of shit about it being a hateful screed against Zoe by her scorned ex (trivial tidbit, he dumped her).  At the very least, read through the chat logs.  There are pages of them.  While reading, consider this: If they're faked, how much effort would it take to a) fabricate them get all the details right, also, why hasn't Zoe come forward with alternative chat logs that prove those are fake?  If they're real, what does that say about Zoe's character and Eron's?  Is he the victim of emotional abuse?  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n_UKErD0uGQ This video goes into detail about a few types of emotional abuse that could be present in the chat logs.

 

Watch David Pakman's videos interviewing GamerGate and Anti-GamerGate.  GamerGate interviews are Totalbiscuit, Milo, Jennie, Lianna, The Fine Young Capitalists, and Hotwheels.  The anti-GamerGate are Brianna and Chu.  I ordered each on level of quality, TB being best example, a baseline reading of how the GamerGate side responded to the interview questions.  Watch them all if you want, but the key important thing to note is that GamerGate supporters are far more willing to answer questions.  Also, the other GamerGate videos show how David's videos were received by Anti-GamerGate.  https://www.youtube.com/user/MidweekPolitics/search?query=GamerGate

 

 

Go on Twitter, post "What is #GamerGate?" people with better sources will answer any questions you have. Or, got to 8chan's /gg/ board and ask there.  Though, it IS an anonymous message board so trolls are likely.  

[RideOfTheValkyrie]

Eh, just a bunch of femnazi bullshit to my ears. I couldn't find a fuck to give about the whole situation even if I grew them in the garden. Third wave feminists are being asshats and the media is making gamers out to be sociopaths. That's really nothing new. 

[~magic~]

Eh, just a bunch of femnazi bullshit to my ears. I couldn't find a fuck to give about the whole situation even if I grew them in the garden. Third wave feminists are being asshats and the media is making gamers out to be sociopaths. That's really nothing new. 

 

>Member since a few hours ago

>1 post

 

[DoctaSax]

Did i poke a nerve?

 

That has to be the worst imaginable moment to start trolling me.

Closed for repeated breaches of rules 2, 7 & 8.