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Gamergate: A Scandal Erupts in the Video-Game Community

Totenkindly

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That's BULLSHIT. I demand my female orcs in leather thongs and skimpy chainmail, bikini type armour.

So I looked up a few things and I think people are pissed (more on that) because she seems, at times, to distort the facts. Like criticizing Watch Dogs for example, for showing naked women on a stage being auctioned off. But leaving out the part that it's a mission to expose and stop a sex trafficking ring.

There's other examples, but she does seem annoying on several points.

Yeah, I found her a little single-minded in her approach and I suspected that she might not be looking at full context of some points she made. But just as you say, there is no reason people should be threatening to kill her and those who attend her events. It's like they can't make an argument and instead just have to justify stereotype by threatening real-life violence -- what a horrible horrible irony. :(
 
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Yeah, I found her a little single-minded in her approach and I suspected that she might not be looking at full context of some points she made. But just as you say, there is no reason people should be threatening to kill her and those who attend her events. It's like they can't make an argument and instead just have to justify stereotype by threatening real-life violence -- what a horrible horrible irony. :(

Hey, nothing says "I'm not a violent misogynist" more than "I'll kill you bitch!"
 

PocketFullOf

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"champions of mental gymnastics of the oppression olympics" LMAO 100% agree.

LMAO @ oppression fetish. GAWD how I hate tumblr.
 

Magic Poriferan

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From what I can tell there are several movements afoot.

First there were the allegations that Zoe Quinn was boning some journalist in exchange for good reviews. This was ultimately bogus, but a bunch of gamers have since banded together against that sort of corruption in video game journalism. Even though that specific incident was not true exactly there is still a lot of corruption in video game journalism, where certain critics from certain publications are given perks, kickbacks and favourable access to the latest products in exchange for good reviews.

Then a splinter group of misogynist idiots started attacking feminist critics who were critiquing the video game industry for (still) being blatantly sexist, under the guise that these feminist critics are also corrupt and playing favourites. These idiots are the ones who have been threatening feminist writers like Anita Sarkeesian.

The media jumped all over the rape and death threats and painted the whole 'movement' with the same brush, thereby quashing the criticism from the greater group of gamers who are peeved at the way the incestuous relationship between the video game developers and video game reviewers has tarnished the integrity of video game criticism. So all those people who are pissed off at the video game reviewing industry for being in cahoots with the developers are now painted as misogynist virgin nerds who are angry about the effect of female developers and less overtly male-centric games that are and will be coming down the pipe, because it's attacking the "gaming culture" or some such BS.

So then all of those people who have legitimate beefs with the integrity of video game reviewers are now pissed off at so-called "Social Justice Warriors" who have glommed on to the feminist cause and are painting them (the gamers) as misogynist virgin nerds because it's 1) insulting, and 2) squelching legitimate criticism by using feminism as a rallying point even though it has little to do with the overarching issues that these gamers are mad about.


At least this is the play-by-play as far as I can tell.

My inside experience (which maybe you have, too, I don't know if you're a gamer or not) is that few people really cared about ethical journalism and references to such are often dog whistles. If find the claims about journalistic integrity kind of like people talking about how the American Confederacy fought for state's rights and economics factors and basically anything other than slavery. Truth is, it fought for slavery, but that position is impossible to justify in our culture at this point, so sympathizers have to make up something else.

As has been pointed out in many of the articles published on this, if these people really wanted to attack the problems in gaming journalism, why do they choose such non-influential targets? And being such a long running problem, why did it only blow up into something after a faux scandal involving a woman's sex life? It's not hard to read between the lines.

What I'd say to those who tag along with this narrative because they really do care about journalism in gaming is this; realize your image problem and the problem faced by your message is because of those misogynist assholes, and that they are your main target if you want to get away. Don't associate with the, don't use their phrases, and make a point to explicitly reject them. Understand that these guys have warranted the attention, and the attention is very justifiably negative, that is the reality you have to deal with now.

Try this as analogy. Let's say your primary goal is bringing investment to public goods in poor rural areas. Sounds great. Let's say somehow in the process of that you are joined in your mission by the KKK. Following this, suppose you freely accept the KKK's support, borrow phrases from the KKK, refuse to condemn the KKK, and just get mad at everyone else when they express criticism of your relationship. In that case, you are screwing up, and you're screwing up your goal, too. Your problem is the KKK, not the people who noticed that problem.
 

93JC

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My inside experience...

I don't have "inside experience". I play video games occasionally, but I am not a 'gamer'.

And don't write in second-person unless you're directly addressing the reader. Especially when you're being preachy. You quoted me, so you're directly addressing me. Don't tell me what to do about it; I'm not going to do anything about because I'm not involved.
 

Magic Poriferan

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I'm still appalled that people would actively be threatening to murder fellow citizens just because they attended an event she was at. How far gone do you have to be to not realize how messed up you are in that regard?

I think the general response is more disturbing. The reason is that we all know there are some really disturbed people here and there, and maybe this comes from one of those people who incidentally started buying into this gamergate stuff instead of anything else that could fuel their disturbed impulses. You can shrug that off in a way. What's scarier is all the people on forums and comment sections responding to this by trying to minimize it in some way. Treating it as a joke, saying it's messed up but not unprovoked, attempting to simply stop discussion about it in favor of their own grievances, or craziest of all, actually claiming that this is a "false flag" used by Sarkeesian and others to get more publicity or strengthen their attacks on gamers. That suggests something about a broader culture which is either paranoid or lacking compassion (probably both).

I don't have "inside experience". I play video games occasionally, but I am not a 'gamer'.

And don't write in second-person unless you're directly addressing the reader. Especially when you're being preachy. You quoted me, so you're directly addressing me. Don't tell me what to do about it; I'm not going to do anything about because I'm not involved.

You might have noticed the use of the word "you" following the statement "what I would say to those who..."
 

Mane

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"Gaming used to be for smart kids, the geeks & nerds, now it's everybody. Now sport games brought in the jocks, any brainless shit can play a shooter and you don't even need to know how a keyboard works with a console."
- the entitled thoughts of 5 dumb little kids (Myself among them), circa 1995

 

93JC

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You might have noticed the use of the word "you" following the statement "what I would say to those who..."

Oh I did. Don't tell me what you would tell them, tell them what you would tell them. Or if you want to tell me what you would tell them, write in third-person, because you...

...don't write in second-person unless you're directly addressing the reader.
 

1487610420

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Oh I did. Don't tell me what you would tell them, tell them what you would tell them. Or if you want to tell me what you would tell them, write in third-person, because you...

Phobik is very confused by what I'm reading.
 
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I found the link within that article by 8 year NFL veteran and 26 year gamer, Chris Kluwe, speaking out against gamergate people to be far more my style:



These paint-huffing shitgoblins think they’re “gamers,” and it pisses me the fuck off.

You slopebrowed weaseldicks with zero reading comprehension and even less critical thinking skills who think an article claiming “Gamers are dead” is something bad? Fuck me sideways with a sandblaster.

Every time I see one of you slackjawed pickletits link me something like “I’m a moderate #Gamergate’r,” or “#Gamergate in sixty seconds YOUTUBE CLIP,” or “Here’s an anecdotal story from this one woman we found that completely negates an entire history of misogyny and abuse of women, not just in videogaming but in the entirety of human existence so support the REAL GAMERS,” it pisses me the fuck off because you are ruining something I enjoy.

When people — everyday people who watch the coverage on CNN of Anita Sarkeesian having to cancel a speaking engagement due to death threats — think of “gamers,” they are going to think of you, and that irritates me. It enrages me. I want to punch down a wall, and I like my walls. They’re nicely painted.


https://medium.com/the-cauldron/why-gamergaters-piss-me-the-f-off-a7e4c7f6d8a6
 

lowtech redneck

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For anyone interested in getting the other side of the story, there's the first page of this monolithic thread: The Escapist : Forums : Religion and Politics : GamerGate Discussion, Debate, and Resources.

I lean toward supporting gamergate, albeit not without reservations; these two articles, and the 'agree with us or you're a misogynistic shitlord who is worse than ISIS' rhetoric among many of its opponents are essentially why:

https://medium.com/@ryansmithwriter/a-weird-insider-culture-d1c3cc644c29

#GamerGate: Destructoid, Corruption And Ruined Careers | One Angry Gamer

Also, in response to all of the 'gamergate is a misogynistic hate movement dedicated to harassing women and driving them out of the industry' nonsense: #GamerGate Is Not A Hate Group, It's A Consumer Movement - Forbes
 
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