Start with this, to learn how GamerGate actually started, what it’s actually accomplished, and then decide if you really want to continue associating with it.
No one denies it’s good to talk about questions of ethics. The problem is that GamerGate hasn’t actually discussed any actual problems of ethics.
If you truly want to start talking about it, then give some actual examples that are backed by actual verified sources, and stop associating with GamerGate.
GamerGate’s original claims are that Zoe Quinn slept around for coverage favors. This was debunked literally months ago. And yet it persists.
[ul][li]Kotaku shows that Nathan never wrote the articles he was accused of writing [quote]On March 31, Nathan published the only Kotaku article he’s written involving Zoe Quinn. It was about Game Jam, a failed reality show that Zoe and other developers were upset about being on. At the time, Nathan and Zoe were professional acquaintances. He quoted blog posts written by Zoe and others involved in the show. Shortly after that, in early April, Nathan and Zoe began a romantic relationship. He has not written about her since. Nathan never reviewed Zoe Quinn’s game Depression Quest, let alone gave it a favorable review.[/li]
[li]Rock Paper Shotgun: This is the only article Nathan ever wrote on Rock Paper Shotgun that mentioned Depression quest.[/li][li]GamerGate has not provided any other evidence to back up this assertion[/li][li]Even though Nathan Grayson is the journalist accused of this unethical behavior (and he never actually wrote the articles he was accused of writing), and GamerGate insisting this is about “ethics in journalism”, they can’t seem to stop talking about Zoe Quinn (not a journalist) and Anita Sarkeesian (also not a journalist)[/ul][/li]
Other bullshit about Zoe Quinn
[ul]
[li]Zoe Quinn was and still is today regularly accused of doxxing herself.[/li][li]Zoe Quinn was and still is today accused of faking death, rape, and other threats.[/li][li]Zoe Quinn doesn’t actually sell the game she’s accused of sleeping around to get coverage of. It’s a free game about Depression, called Depression Quest, created to help others learn to live and deal with the disease. She does take donations, and was accused of lying about giving those donations to charity. However, the charity confirmed the donations were actually received[/li][li]When accusations of those lies first arose, GamerGate started donating to that charity in her place. After the charity confirmed receiving the donations, GamerGate started harassing the charity and threatening it with legal action because they claim they “didn’t disclose publicly” they had received donations from her (even though that is not actuall illegal). This is a charity is made up of volunteers and a part-time paid intern, helping people deal with depression[/li][li]Zoe Quinn is frequently accused of winning an award (instead of Papers Please) for Depression Quest because she slept with someone. In actuality, her game didn’t receive an award, but just an honorable mention. Papers Please did indeed win the award. No evidence backs up the claim she slept with someone to get the…honorable mention.[/li][li]Zoe Quinn was accused to have “deliberately sabotaged, DDOSed, doxxed, and shut down” TFYC (“The Fine Young Capitalists”) because they were “competition” for Rebel Game Jam. The reality is that it’s yet another bunch of bullshit accusations against her.[/li][/ul]
Other bullshit about Anita Sarkeesian
[ul]
[li]Anita Sarkeesian was similarly accused of faking threats. Still happens regularly.[/li][li]The FBI confirmed the threats were real, currently under investigation.[/li][li]Anita Sarkeesian needed to cancel an appearance for a talk at a university because of extremely specific and violent threats against her and the students.[/li][li]Reminder: Anita Sarkeesian is not a journalist. She makes videos about video games, and that’s it. Any attack on Anita Sarkeesian masquerading as “a fight for ethics in journalism” is automatically and instantly misplaced.[/ul][/li]
Even more bullshit
[ul]
[li]There is a mailing list in which games writers talk to each other. Warning: Breitbart link. This fact was presented as inherently controversial, but not really explained why. Absolutely nothing worthy of discussion was ever found on this mailing list. Just people who happen to share the same job, joking with each other, and asking each other uncontroversial questions.[/li][li]One frequent accusation of journalist collusion is that there was a collected and coordinated effort to write “gamers are dead” articles to attack gamers. In actuality:[list][/li][li]The first article, written by Leigh Alexander, was targeted at developers (the audience of Gamasutra), explaining how the gamer stereotype no longer has to be their focus, since games are so much broader. She wasn’t attacking gamers, she was attacking the outdated stereotype[/li][li]The subsequent articles are all related to and reactions of the first, not indepedent takes at a coincidental time indicating collusion.[/li][li]Rock Paper Shotgun is often accused to have written their own “Gamers are dead” article. They didn’t. They quoted one in a weekly round-up.[/ul][/li][li]Jenn Frank was accused of failing to disclose a conflict of interest. She actually did disclose this in her initial draft, but before publication this was “removed by editors because [it] did not fulfill the criteria for a “significant connection” in line with the Guardian’s editorial guidelines.”[/li][li]Maya Kramer was accused of colluding/sleeping with the IGF chairman to secure an award for The Stanley Parable, a game she’d done PR for. This award was actually the Audience Award, and is decided by a public vote on the website and consequently immune to this alleged impropriety.[/li][li]Phil Fish, developer of the game Fez, is acused to have fixed the IGF 2012 awards. But while Fez’s backers were part of the judges, they did not actually have a say in the vote since they weren’t a part of the jury that makes the decision.[/li][li]The Escapist ran a horribly misguided attempt at interviewing GamerGate supporters who are developers. Pretty much everything that could have gone wrong, did go wrong.[ul][*]Titles of the articles are “game developers” and “female game developers”. Um. What?[/li][li]None of the female game developers felt safe to share their actual identities[/li][li]The questions are ridiculously loaded[/li][li]The male game developers were sourced straight from 4chan…you’ll never guess what happened next[/li][li]One of the male developers interviewed was directly involved in coordinated attacks against Zoe Quinn, Anita Sarkeesian, and others including baseless accusations like tax fraud. [/ul][/list][/li] [/QUOTE]
