Game journalism backlash - the microcosm theory

Soapyfrog · 2014-11-06T10:05:13.000Z

hepcat:

…or he’ll be fine and everyone will continue to ignore the childishly insulting posts of folks like you two.

You’ve got to admit he has a Koontzian bent though…

hepcat · 2014-11-06T10:15:01.000Z

I’ve not read enough Dean Koontz to say.

BrianRubin · 2014-11-06T10:17:27.000Z

path12:

I find myself fascinated with this thread as well and I’m not sure why. Maybe because between GamerGate and the MRA/PUA fallout from the Eliot Rodger shooting earlier in the year I’ve learned (a white guy in my 50’s who is surrounded by females in my life) that I had not realized the degree of shit that women have to put up with – online or in their daily lives. Because I asked around and nearly all of those women in my life have dealt with this on some level.

So increased awareness of just that alone has helped this one random person on the internet to become more enlightened and determined to help in the ways that I am able to.

Same exact boat here.

Tortilla · 2014-11-06T10:21:37.000Z

Brian Rubin:

Same exact boat here.

Man look at you guys being all enlightened and shit. I’m following this thread in particular and gamergate in general because I’m a misanthrope who loves a good trainwreck.

BrianRubin · 2014-11-06T10:24:57.000Z

I’d say this thread is a microcosm of that very train wreck, which is part of why it’s fascinating to watch.

hepcat · 2014-11-06T10:26:12.000Z

I’m with Brian. It’s a way to experience Shark Week without actually being in the tank with them.

path12 · 2014-11-06T10:39:05.000Z

Tortilla:

Man look at you guys being all enlightened and shit. I’m following this thread in particular and gamergate in general because I’m a misanthrope who loves a good trainwreck.

Well, there is that too. The enlightenment part was an accidental benefit.

Aszurom · 2014-11-06T11:07:31.000Z

Busbecq:

Aszurom’s posting behaviour sounds hypomanic. The chains of epiphanies, the endless tl;dring, the conversations with himself, the quasi-messianism.

I don’t get quasi-messianism. I’m confused.

Chains of epiphanies is because omg I’m actually having a non-static opinion as this thing goes along. Would you prefer I came in and went out with the same wrong assumptions? That’s how politics is played, but that’s also why congress has a 10% approval rating.

The TL;DR stuff is me thinking out loud in some cases. Many cases. The entire point that I started the thread for was to crowd-source a centrist understanding of what was going on. It got kinda experimental for a while, to get people to express their reasoning more. Then I said “Ok, enough fooling around, let’s figure it out”.

I’ve never seen anything like this before. And definitely never this up close. Rather than just forming an opinion and sticking to it, I realized very early on that I couldn’t possibly form an accurate opinion of this… so I’d just struggle with it with crowd assistance.

Your assessment of my psychological state is pretty inaccurate. Thanks for the attempt tho.

Aszurom · 2014-11-06T11:11:43.000Z

I tuned in the Sargon stream just a bit ago. Never actually listened to him before because he seemed like just a dedicated social justice opponent. Didn’t interest me. But they’re discussing the blowout that happened yesterday.

Can’t say I’m particularly impressed with this “Becca” person. Sargon really dressed her down harshly for being insincere and she said “Well, I’m just here to fight social justice people” at which point :rolleyes:.

[train wreck intensifies]

Gonna stop wasting time on that thing right now.

ShivaX · 2014-11-06T20:24:30.000Z

Ken said what I’ve been thinking for a long time much better than I’ve been able to.

Aszurom:

Your assessment of my psychological state is pretty inaccurate. Thanks for the attempt tho.

You started on his side and then weren’t on it, therefore it must be some sort of plot or the like and he’s going to call you out on it.

Telefrog · 2014-11-07T07:45:36.000Z

Another company back away from GamerGate.

Literature & Latte is most certainly not aligned with GamerGate in any way, and we have been somewhat caught off-guard. To be honest, I hadn’t even heard of GamerGate until a few hours ago. We have, unfortunately, been rather naive. We received several emails complaining about our involvement in promoting Scrivener through a particular company of which GamerGate disapproves. We were entirely unaware of GamerGate and its associations, and the emails we received provided links purporting to prove sexist and bullying behaviour on the part of said company. As our company is - naturally - against bullying and sexism of all kinds, the person on our team who responded to those emails said that we would refuse further marketing approaches, unfortunately before researching the matter further. That is the entire extent of our involvement. Had our member of staff been aware of GamerGate and the harassment with which it has become associated, our response would have been much more circumspect. We were certainly most surprised to see our reply to a user’s email posted on social media as if we were endorsing GamerGate - we were not.

Literature and Latte is committed to equal opportunities (our company itself comprises an equal number of men and women across all positions on the team). Bullying and harassment, whether online or off, is abhorrent and Literature & Latte does not tolerate such behaviour in any form.

We would like to apologise unreservedly for any offence we have caused in our naive and un-researched responses.

Telefrog · 2014-11-07T07:52:57.000Z

It’s totally about ethics in gaming journalism! Here’s the proposed GamerGate Bill of Rights: https://medium.com/@CriticalKelly/dear-gaming-journalists-why-im-still-here-c5f4ce3fa871

We, who love games, did not vest them with the power to dictate to the market, “what games are”. If the act of reviewing a game triggers a need to write a page and a half decrying its content, maybe that game isn’t for you. Please consider passing that review off to a journalist on your team who might enjoy the content.

magnet · 2014-11-07T08:12:22.000Z

The right to be rated between 7 and 9 shall not be infringed.

Aszurom · 2014-11-07T08:19:19.000Z

I’m hearing some messaging from blogs that PR sites are blacklisting them for having been gamergate active, on either side.

Not sure if that’s in their best interests or not, but apparently it’s a thing.

Ginger_Yellow · 2014-11-07T08:22:00.000Z

I love the random capitalisation. That’s how you know it’s serious.

Dave_Markell · 2014-11-07T08:23:01.000Z

Wow, that’s dismal. They might as well say that reviews should be all positive all the time. Which is another way of saying useless. Thou shalt not insult my toys!

Telefrog · 2014-11-07T08:25:28.000Z

I do like that the core GamerGate folks have pretty much abandoned all their other goofball planks and have decided to drill down to “ethics = keep liberal criticism out of the industry”.

playingwithknives · 2014-11-07T08:25:56.000Z

Heh the email campaign these days

“Hi, I’m a self employed plumber, I do not advertise on the internet, I do not know what this Kotawker and Gotaku are.”

“Guys, another one down, we’re winning!”

Aszurom · 2014-11-07T09:09:54.000Z

Hey, Joe the Pumber really was influential in politics.

playingwithknives · 2014-11-07T09:41:18.000Z

Anything gamergate has left will pretty much be a Lake Balaton Offensive at this point, although I’m sure the hardcore remaining are awaiting some kind of wunderwaffe to turn the tide.