Game journalism backlash - the microcosm theory

[Dan_Theman]

At one point in time, I had a much more public job than I do today. I received a few death threats over the phone, presumably having to do with my name appearing in some things. The police set up a tap on my phone and a trace that I could activate by immediately dialing out to a certain number after I received one of those calls (the whole “keep them on the line” thing you see in movies is apparently pretty outdated, if it was ever real in the first place). However, that was over the phone and not online. I don’t know if it’s that the police don’t take online threats as seriously or if they’re just not equipped to chase them down in that medium, but it sure sounds like these people received very different treatment.

[Alstein]

Keeping them on the phone is not to help trace the call, it’s to get them to give away information that makes them easier to catch. I remember learning this during military training. We were the weather guys, every time we screwed up someone wanted to kill us… ^_^

[Quaro]

I feel the need to clarify something here, because a few folks seem to misunderstand it.

When I say someone like Wu shouldn’t give into terrorist demands, this is not a suggestion that those threats are somehow ok and that she just needs to grow thicker skin. This is not a condemnation of her as weak.

Again, it is simply a statement of fact that caving to those demands will not achieve the desired result. That is, it will not at all increase the safety and security of the person giving into those demands. Giving in to terrorists does not work. You end up sacrificing your own liberty and freedom, in exchange for absolutely nothing. Because it does not, in any way, result in a lower liklihood that they will attempt to do you harm. And it will most definitely result in an increased number of threats in the future, leaving you in the exact same position once again.

This is why it’s never the right answer.

At no point is it ever acceptable or productive to allow someone to control you by threat of violence. It’s not a legitimate and rational demand, and thus you cannot expect rational responses to any action you take. The chances of them attempting to harm you if you cave into their threats are EXACTLY THE SAME chances of them attempting to harm you if you refuse their demands. Your security situation is exactly the same, regardless of which path you choose. Thus, the correct choice is the one that does not sacrifice your freedom and does not encourage further threats.

This is why thinking, “Well, she can’t be expected to endanger her employees” is wrong-headed. Because by refusing those terrorist demands, she is not in fact endangering her employees at all. The threat against them is exactly the same as if she acquiesced to those demands. The mistake people make when dealing with such demands is that they mistakenly think that the terrorist is arguing in good faith, as though it were some sort of legitimate negotiation. But that is not the case. If someone is disturbed enough to attempt to harm Wu or her employees simply for attending PAX, does anyone believe that they are going to go back to being a normal, non-violent human being when Wu limits her pressence at PAX? No, of course they will not. Any person who would turn to violence in that case is inherently irrational. Their decision to commit violent acts is determined by the voices in their head, and their own warped perception of reality, not any actual actions taken by real people in the real world. In reality, being at PAX is way safer than anywhere any of those people are going to be the other 99% of their time. They are no safer having not gone to PAX.

So again, the most likely result of rejecting terrorist demands is nothing in this case. They are empty, and will do nothing that requires more effort than typing mean words into a computer. And in cases where the person is crazy and is going to hurt someone, your own actions are irrelevant in their decision. The only difference between the two courses of action is that in one, if you choose to cave to terrorist demands, you have given up freedom and control of your life and encouraged more threats in the future. Everything else remains the same. Thus, that decision is ALWAYS WRONG. Not wrong from some high seated morality perspective, but wrong in the most basic sense. It will not achieve a desirable result in any possible way. It will result in an outcome which is worse in many ways, and better in none.

A response from her:

“She’s attending her panels anyway!”

Yes, because this is my choice. I wanted to go to PAX. Our decision to withdraw is about respecting my team’s wishes. I’ve had difficult conversations with husband if it’s worth it to put our lives at risk standing up to Gamergate. We made choice to speak up. I cannot make the choice for my team to interact with thousands of strangers a day with 46 death threats. Many are parents, one is pregnant.

[Quaro]

Want to improve the reputation of gaming and gamers? This is how you start

It’s much harder to want to bring people I care about into the fold these days, knowing they could cop weeks of hate over something as trivial as drawing fan art of a character. We’re not creating new gamers anymore, we’re creating more targets. The pattern has been going on for years, and unless we stop it, it’s hard to see a future where mainstream audiences accept games the same way they do films and books.

[B]When Anita Sarkeesian started her Tropes vs. Women series in 2009, she went on to make many videos that addressed sexist tropes in books, TV, movies and toys. None of those groups saw her as a threat to their mediums.

But when she started applying exactly the same ideas to video games, many gamers went ballistic! This is embarrassing! It’s embarrassing that so many gamers are so much more sensitive about ordinary critique than fans of other mediums. It reflects badly on the rest of us.[/B]

Gamers whose only concern is who they hate in games culture today, who don’t really talk about what games they’re playing or making or have anything interesting or insightful to say about games, need to either learn to control their anger or channel it into productive means, or we need to create better cultural spaces away from them.

Want to improve the reputation of gaming and gamers? This is how you start

[Timex]

That’s a reasonable perspective from a boss. It’s not good to force our employees to do things they don’t want to do.

But at that point, everything I just said just shifts to those employees. THEY are then the ones who are allowing a terrorist to control their lives, and they are receiving absolutely nothing in exchange for that sacrifice. They are no more secure, and they will inevitably receive an increasing number of threats in response to their actions.

Again, it’s not a condemnation of Wu or the employees as being weak-willed or whatever. It’s merely an explanation for why that course of action is wrong, and will not achieve the desired result.

[Wallapuctus]

She should get keys for her game into the Pax swag bags. That would be the ultimate F-you to the people threatening her.

[Aleck]

At one point in time, I had a much more public job than I do today. I received a few death threats over the phone, presumably having to do with my name appearing in some things. The police set up a tap on my phone and a trace that I could activate by immediately dialing out to a certain number after I received one of those calls (the whole “keep them on the line” thing you see in movies is apparently pretty outdated, if it was ever real in the first place). However, that was over the phone and not online. I don’t know if it’s that the police don’t take online threats as seriously or if they’re just not equipped to chase them down in that medium, but it sure sounds like these people received very different treatment.

This is much closer to what I was told by law enforcement friends. If they think the threat is serious, they track folks down because making the threat is, itself, a crime (linking back into Timex’s point about law enforcement). The only way law enforcement is at all preventative, in those instances, is with things like restraining orders (which, again, are generally issued after a crime has been committed but are there to stem off future crimes).

This, specifically:

http://ohdeargodbees.tumblr.com/post/107838639074/august-never-ends

I shared that with a friend in law enforcement back when it first showed up; her response was that either the poster didn’t actually follow through with what the agency was asking them to do, or the agency completely dropped the ball, because that sort of experience should not happen if threats have already been made. She indicated that if you’re the target of numerous threats, and you can document those threats, local law enforcement should be working with state law enforcement (or for interstate stuff, the FBI) on tracking this stuff down because the threats themselves are violations of the law. She’s a fed, so she may be a cut above the local cops Quinn was dealing with, but there is help available – it’s just that, like everything in government (and life), it takes longer than it should and requires finding the right person, which can be extremely frustrating.

Quinn did mention that some legal action was already being taken. I know Sarkeesian also said something about that (last fall, I think)? Part of my confusion is why there doesn’t seem to be any forward movement on this, since a criminal prosecution or three would likely tamp some of this unacceptable behavior down.

[Dan_Theman]

Keeping them on the phone is not to help trace the call, it’s to get them to give away information that makes them easier to catch. I remember learning this during military training. We were the weather guys, every time we screwed up someone wanted to kill us… ^_^

LOL - understood, and I believe it

[playingwithknives]

At one point in time, I had a much more public job than I do today. I received a few death threats over the phone, presumably having to do with my name appearing in some things. The police set up a tap on my phone and a trace that I could activate by immediately dialing out to a certain number after I received one of those calls (the whole “keep them on the line” thing you see in movies is apparently pretty outdated, if it was ever real in the first place). However, that was over the phone and not online. I don’t know if it’s that the police don’t take online threats as seriously or if they’re just not equipped to chase them down in that medium, but it sure sounds like these people received very different treatment.

It’s a different world now, from the swatting wiki page.

“Caller ID spoofing, social engineering, TTY, prank calls and phone phreaking techniques may be variously combined. 911 systems (including telephony and human operators) have been tricked by calls placed from cities hundreds of miles away or even from other countries.”

Tor/proxies>VOIP was mentioned in the swatting thread.

Online/offline abuse is as much a technological challenge as it is a social one, especially with the international aspect. It’s not as if these people don’t have gaming buddies in Russia, Belarus or Ukraine. The US could turn into Harrisonbergeronland overnight and its not going to impact them.

[Alstein]

The average person who is dumb enough to send in threats to the Briannas of the world is dumb enough not to use that equipment, or to do something else to get caught easily. It’s the not-average ones that are the worrying ones. Thankfully most criminals are stupid.

[playingwithknives]

I would assume the more realistic threats are birthed on baph* offshoots, IRC or torchan. The idiots (over here anyway) get arrested really quickly.

*now defunct, as the admin got doxed and kicked out of home by his mom for being a satanistpaedo. Oh, and they doxed a federal judge.

Edit: Oh its back up again. There’s a thread up doxing CIA directors, FBI and NSA management, a whole bunch of high ups in the Pentagon (all the DoD senior staff) and Neocon politicians which looks to be a genuine leak out of TOR and even looking at that thread probably now has me flagged in a dozen intel databases. Its like a website has virtual herpes or something I feel dirty even going there. Thanks 8chan!

Anyway, these don’t look like people bothered about what the authorities can do, or people who could be influenced by media or social pressure.

[Starlight]

Oh, the truth-is-stranger-than-fiction crowd are at it again, I see.

[ShivaX]

I would assume the more realistic threats are birthed on baph* offshoots, IRC or torchan. The idiots (over here anyway) get arrested really quickly.

*now defunct, as the admin got doxed and kicked out of home by his mom for being a satanistpaedo. Oh, and they doxed a federal judge.

Edit: Oh its back up again. There’s a thread up doxing CIA directors, FBI and NSA management, a whole bunch of high ups in the Pentagon (all the DoD senior staff) and Neocon politicians which looks to be a genuine leak out of TOR and even looking at that thread probably now has me flagged in a dozen intel databases. Its like a website has virtual herpes or something I feel dirty even going there. Thanks 8chan!

Anyway, these don’t look like people bothered about what the authorities can do, or people who could be influenced by media or social pressure.

Maybe government officials will start taking things seriously if they’re the targets. Probably not.

[Brad_Wardell]

Sure you do. I have read dozens of posts by you in forums and blog posts complaining about all the shit you have gone through because of the “SJWs.” You publicize the shit out of it.

Oh really? Find a post prior to the start of gg where I bring up the death threats. Anywhere.

I bring it up NOW because people act shocked, shocked that vocal game devs get death threats.

Hell, I still have barely mentioned things like getting a box of shredded newspapers delivered to my home with he label “Elemental materials”. Hilarious…

[playingwithknives]

And here, the third wave SJW twitter outrage mob turn on the second wave activists who actually achieved breakthroughs in equality by attacking systems and institutions, not personal attacks.

@petertatchell: Twitter mob who vowed to kill me over #MaryBeard letter are just...

Please note the language used to attack Peter Tatchell, a man who alone has achieved more for equality than the entire SJW movement. Not just language, tactics too. ‘No platforming’ had been a key feature of the culture warriors from day one.

Also “yet I am now being condemned via the McCarthyite tactic of guilt by association”

Ive heard that before.
.

[zx81-Amd64]

‘Death threats prompt PAX East exit for Brianna Wu’s Giant Spacekat’:

Death threats prompt PAX East exit for Brianna Wu's Giant Spacekat

A team vote indicated fears over safety, Wu has received 46 threats on her life in 5 months

Brianna Wu’s Giant Spacekat has withdrawn from PAX East due to fears about the safety of the company’s employees.

Wu was the target of harassment in October last year, forcing her and her husband to abandon their home when it became clear that the perpetrators knew where she lived. In a blog post published yesterday, Wu made it clear that the threats have not stopped since then; specifically, her life has been threatened some 46 times in the last 5 months

“They often target me by name,” Wu wrote. “The most frightening ones say who, what, where, why and when I will be murdered… Despite the credibility of those threats, and despite attempts by one of these criminals to follow through on his violent threats, very little has been accomplished by law enforcement towards the goal of apprehending these criminals.”

[playingwithknives]

You can prove Brianna had both been subject to threats and that Brianna had sent threats to herself so its a bit more murky than the statement appears.

One thing is clear though, Wu is damaged and should have been left alone from the start.

[Kemper_Boyd]

You can prove Brianna had both been subject to threats and that Brianna had sent threats to herself so its a bit more murky than the statement appears.

One thing is clear though, Wu is damaged and should have been left alone from the start.

The bolded part of the above led me to look into this further. To me, her posts seem like poor attempts at sarcasm, but I am way outside of this issue. Creating a bunch of accounts to make your point is a dumb idea and using text based communication for sarcasm is also foolish.

All of the transgender stuff brings a whole new level to this as well. Not sure if Wu is the best spokesperson for women’s rights since she is actually transgender.

In the end, I think I agree with playingwithknives final thought.

[Brad_Wardell]

SJWs in action: https://archive.today/p0om1

If they can ruin you, they will. Correct thoughts are rewarded. Incorrect thoughts punished.

[Kemper_Boyd]

Wait, isn’t that just people voicing their distaste for a speaker? The whole “fearing for my safety” deal is a bit overwrought, but it is not like they are shutting down the event or anything.