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[Garrett Hawke]

As a white male, my hatred of white males is soaring these past few days.

To anyone who is reading this post and on the side of thinking what's gone down is wrong regardless of the fact that it's Phil Fish, this post isn't about you.

Spoiler

This person means entitled close minded white male gamers, not all white males.

 

[TheLostBigBoss]

To anyone who is reading this post and on the side of thinking what's gone down is wrong regardless of the fact that it's Phil Fish, this post isn't about you.

Spoiler

This person means entitled close minded white male gamers, not all white males.

#notallwhitemales

 

[mattp]

honest question to all of you that are even entertaining the idea that phil leaked this stuff himself:
what the fuck is wrong with you?

 

[Pyroclastic]

To anyone who is reading this post and on the side of thinking what's gone down is wrong regardless of the fact that it's Phil Fish, this post isn't about you.

Spoiler

This person means entitled close minded white male gamers, not all white males.

so that person hates fucking douches? me too! let's start a collective.

 

[Toxi]

Has Phil Fish contacted the police yet? what happened is a crime, if he did it there is no doubt he was really hacked and doxxed.

That's probably the first thing they did.

 

[RazielCuts]

As a white male, my hatred of white males is soaring these past few days.

I didn't know you could gleam a persons race and gender by their haxx or internet avatar, cool.

 

[Marlowe89]

So you are saying that the anonymity and lack of moderation are irrelevant, while then pointing to the bannings here as proof that this place has just as many pricks despite the fact that they get banned for being pricks? There's a major fault in your logic their, chief.

Pretty much. Unless you have the magical ability to count "the number of sexist pricks on /v/" vs. "the number of sexist pricks on NeoGAF", your argument isn't substantiated in the slightest and at best, you're playing a game of bitter turf war because you can't handle the fact that bigoted individuals exist on every corner of the internet.

Keep posting these little love letters to me though, your rage is deeply gratifying.

Do people actually still use the "U MAD!" argument? I expected no less from somebody with a fucking Keanu Reeves avatar. See, I can resort to ad hominem fallacies too!

 

[FlammableD]

honest question to all of you that are even entertaining the idea that phil leaked this stuff himself:
what the fuck is wrong with you?

haven't you heard, everything is a feminist conspiracy

 

[Corto]

Those tweets (not from Renaud) are insane. Such a hostile reaction to someone elses misfortune. Disgusting behavior.

The tendency to discredit the victim instead of the attacker just on principle is baffling to me. A skeptic stance can be healthy. Wait until the dust settles and then try to understand all this mess. But jump on the victim right from the start distrusting his report of the situation, when we can see for ourselves the end result of these attacks is just... ridiculous.

What is more reasonable to believe on its face value? A toxic group of people attacked Polytron to target Phil Fish personally because of his outspoken and aggressive online personality with the guise of wanting to stop a supposedly social justice agenda in video games personified in Phil Fish, or Phil Fish fabricated this whole thing for attention publicising critical personal information and of his company to his own detriment?

 

[fadetoblack]

Anyone who doesn't think that this problem isn't something fairly unique to gaming needs to wake up.

This doesn't happen in theatre, opera, film, academia, literature, whatever. That's not an exaggeration. It doesn't. Even at their most vitriolic, I've never seen any creator/critic from any of those industries have their private lives publicly displayed for all to abuse. It's embarrassing. Well, I'm truly embarrassed.

Video games is a medium that is displaying all the right signs of maturity: self-reference and parody, discussion of complicated themes and issues, confluence of visual aesthetic and gameplay mechanics, purposeful adaptation of art styles. And yet the level of immaturity that pervades the community is frightening, destructive, and hateful.

It doesn't exactly fill me with hope.

 

[lefantome]

That's probably the first thing they did.

It should be.

 

[Altazor]

honest question to all of you that are even entertaining the idea that phil leaked this stuff himself:
what the fuck is wrong with you?

well, apparently we're all "dumb-as-shit useful tools" (and I quote directly) for NOT believing this is fake.

Of course, the only question remaining would be: why would Phil Fish do this? Internet attention? Sure. This "fake hack" conspiracy bullshit falls under its own weight.

 

[Munin]

Anyone who doesn't think that this problem isn't something fairly unique to gaming needs to wake up.

This doesn't happen in theatre, opera, film, academia, literature, whatever. That's not an exaggeration. It doesn't. Even at their most vitriolic, I've never seen any creator/critic from any of those industries have their private lives publicly displayed for all to abuse. It's embarrassing. Well, I'm truly embarrassed.

Video games is a medium that is displaying all the right signs of maturity: self-reference and parody, discussion of complicated themes and issues, confluence of visual aesthetic and gameplay mechanics, purposeful adaptation of art styles. And yet the level of immaturity that pervades the community is frightening, destructive, and hateful.

It doesn't exactly fill me with hope.

It's a medium whose most devout audience (unlike in film and literature, where it is usually decades older on average) is between 14 and 29. A lot of them people with a lot of free time on their hands, who may be "nerds" to some degrees, technologically competent, perhaps bullied at school, who now have the means to meet like minded people online and live out their power fantasies there

Hardly surprising if you ask me.

 

[kidko]

This is terrifying. I like the idea of white hat hackers but the people behind this attack are the worst of the worst scumbags

 

[DrROBschiz]

Anyone who doesn't think that this problem isn't something fairly unique to gaming needs to wake up.

This doesn't happen in theatre, opera, film, academia, literature, whatever. That's not an exaggeration. It doesn't. Even at their most vitriolic, I've never seen any creator/critic from any of those industries have their private lives publicly displayed for all to abuse. It's embarrassing. Well, I'm truly embarrassed.

Video games is a medium that is displaying all the right signs of maturity: self-reference and parody, discussion of complicated themes and issues, confluence of visual aesthetic and gameplay mechanics, purposeful adaptation of art styles. And yet the level of immaturity that pervades the community is frightening, destructive, and hateful.

It doesn't exactly fill me with hope.

Maybe not doxxing specifically but horrible shit does happen to people all over. You just have to be a target for the internet

Its just more common in gaming since thats where a lot of these "hackers" interests lie

Anonymous used to do shit like this all the time to various targets of interest

 

[Armaros]

well, apparently we're all "dumb-as-shit useful tools" (and I quote directly) for NOT believing this is fake.

Of course, the only question remaining would be: why would Phil Fish do this? Internet attention? Sure. This "fake hack" conspiracy bullshit falls under its own weight.

Of course he did it himself to himself.

Why else would he air out personal information that is vital to your ability to maintain your identity to the Government and to every modern business in the world.

Also I am sure he deliberately aired out private deals with major companies such as Sony and Microsoft and Valve, all of which most likely have ironclad NDA agreements to keep them confidential.

I am sure Phil Fish would completely and utterly ruin his private and business identity JUST to spite 4chan.

/SARCASM

 

[Deitus]

This doesn't happen in theatre, opera, film, academia, literature, whatever. That's not an exaggeration. It doesn't. Even at their most vitriolic, I've never seen any creator/critic from any of those industries have their private lives publicly displayed for all to abuse. It's embarrassing. Well, I'm truly embarrassed.

Have you never heard of paparazzi? TMZ and Gossip magazines? Any person above a certain amount of noteworthiness absolutely has their private lives dragged through the gutter at every opportunity. Female celebrities regularly have their cell phones hacked so that scumbags can post private pictures on the internet.

Now stealing identities, and revealing banking information and social security numbers is obviously several steps beyond your average paparazzo in terms of vile behavior. But it's dishonest to claim that the gaming community is alone in violating the privacy of celebrities.

 

[Riposte]

Anyone who doesn't think that this problem isn't something fairly unique to gaming needs to wake up.

This doesn't happen in theatre, opera, film, academia, literature, whatever. That's not an exaggeration. It doesn't. Even at their most vitriolic, I've never seen any creator/critic from any of those industries have their private lives publicly displayed for all to abuse. It's embarrassing. Well, I'm truly embarrassed.

Video games is a medium that is displaying all the right signs of maturity: self-reference and parody, discussion of complicated themes and issues, confluence of visual aesthetic and gameplay mechanics, purposeful adaptation of art styles. And yet the level of immaturity that pervades the community is frightening, destructive, and hateful.

It doesn't exactly fill me with hope.

Many celebrities have been doxxed, which would includes actors/actresses (i.e., film) and musicians.

 

[Altazor]

Of course he did it himself to himself.

Why else would he air out personal information that is vital to your ability to your identity to the Government and to every modern business in the world.

Also I am sure he deliberately aired out private deals with major companies such as Sony and Microsoft and Valve, all of which most likely have ironclad NDA agreements to keep them confidential.

I am sure Phil Fish would completely and utterly ruin his private and business identity JUST to spite 4chan.

/SARCASM

yeah, man. Damn you Phil Fish and your victim complex. You ruined your own life with your fake hack after you ruined our lives with supporting a feminazi... damn you all to hell! /s

 

[lt519]

Of course, the only question remaining would be: why would Phil Fish do this? Internet attention? Sure. This "fake hack" conspiracy bullshit falls under its own weight.

"I have a bright idea. I know a bunch of people on Twitter hate me, some may even want to kill me, but the best way out of this sticky situation is release all my personal info on my company website so even more people can harass me. At the same time I'm going to throw a bunch of other Polytron folks under the bus. This'll be a grand ole' time."

 

[aly]

It's a medium whose most devout audience (unlike in film and literature, where it is usually decades older on average) is between 14 and 29. A lot of them people with a lot of free time on their hands, who may be "nerds" to some degrees, technologically competent, perhaps bullied at school, who now have the means to meet like minded people online and live out their power fantasies there

Hardly surprising if you ask me.

This is how I feel about why it seems the gaming community has behavior like this. Younger audience+ free time+ tech and the internet can be a bad combo not seen as often in other communities. I think its disappointing, but not surprising especially since devs are in such positions to communicate with their audience.

 

[OdysseusVA]

Was this a plan to divert attention away from Zoe?



Tune in next week when we uncover the truth!

 

[Pyroclastic]

Anyone who doesn't think that this problem isn't something fairly unique to gaming needs to wake up.

This doesn't happen in theatre, opera, film, academia, literature, whatever. That's not an exaggeration. It doesn't. Even at their most vitriolic, I've never seen any creator/critic from any of those industries have their private lives publicly displayed for all to abuse. It's embarrassing. Well, I'm truly embarrassed.

Video games is a medium that is displaying all the right signs of maturity: self-reference and parody, discussion of complicated themes and issues, confluence of visual aesthetic and gameplay mechanics, purposeful adaptation of art styles. And yet the level of immaturity that pervades the community is frightening, destructive, and hateful.

It doesn't exactly fill me with hope.

how do you go about responding to something like this?

 

[bryehn]

I dislike Phil's general attitude quite a bit, but this is way too far.

This doesn't happen in theatre, opera, film, academia, literature, whatever. That's not an exaggeration. It doesn't. Even at their most vitriolic, I've never seen any creator/critic from any of those industries have their private lives publicly displayed for all to abuse. It's embarrassing. Well, I'm truly embarrassed.

This is one of the most naive statements I've ever seen on GAF.

 

[fadetoblack]

It's a medium whose most devout audience (unlike in film and literature, where it is usually decades older on average) is between 14 and 29. A lot of them people with a lot of free time on their hands, who may be "nerds" to some degrees, technologically competent, perhaps bullied at school, who now have the means to meet like minded people online and live out their power fantasies there

Hardly surprising if you ask me.

I don't know that I'm comfortable with psychoanalysing a consumer base. I would agree that a lot of it does have to do with the technological competence that DrROBschiz mentions below.

Maybe not doxxing specifically but horrible shit does happen to people all over. You just have to be a target for the internet

Its just more common in gaming since thats where a lot of these "hackers" interests lie

Anonymous used to do shit like this all the time to various targets of interest

I know there have been raids in the comment section of websites, youtube, and so on. But has Anonymous ever doxxed someone in the arts? Haven't their targets been mostly government, politics related?

 

[Conan-san]

Of course he did it himself to himself.

Why else would he air out personal information that is vital to your ability to maintain your identity to the Government and to every modern business in the world.

Also I am sure he deliberately aired out private deals with major companies such as Sony and Microsoft and Valve, all of which most likely have ironclad NDA agreements to keep them confidential.

I am sure Phil Fish would completely and utterly ruin his private and business identity JUST to spite 4chan.

/SARCASM

You're forgetting the part where this is Phil Fish we're talking about. If anyone is bananas enough to try and pull this shit off (and let it be clear that I'm not taking this view, only noting that Phil is two slices short of a sandwich) it would be him.

 

[Neoriceisgood]

Was this a plan to divert attention away from Zoe?

Y'know there's probably people who legitimately think that.

"Phil Fish hacked himself to white knight zoe by distracting people."

 

[jim-jam bongs]

Pretty much. Unless you have the magical ability to count "the number of sexist pricks on /v/" vs. "the number of sexist pricks on NeoGAF", your argument isn't substantiated in the slightest and at best, you're playing a game of bitter turf war because you can't handle the fact that bigoted individuals exist on every corner of the internet.

Oh I can handle that fine, but basic logic dictates that people who openly engage in bigotry will be more likely to congregate in places where they are tolerated and validated by those around them. It's not just a 4chan thing, sure. However, the strict moderation on GAF means that it's not a major thing here. People outside here with abhorrent views actively attack moderators here like besada and mumei on other boards for not tolerating their bullshit.

Do people actually still use the "U MAD!" argument? I expected no less from somebody with a fucking Keanu Reeves avatar. See, I can resort to ad hominem fallacies too!

Since you've basically attacked me personally in every post you made, starting with "grow the fuck up", this is pretty rich.

 

[Zuhzuhzombie!!]

Phil Fish is able to get plenty of negative attention without hacking his own business and releasing his social security number on the internet.

 

[Faustek]

Of course he did it himself to himself.

Why else would he air out personal information that is vital to your ability to your identity to the Government and to every modern business in the world.

Also I am sure he deliberately aired out private deals with major companies such as Sony and Microsoft and Valve, all of which most likely have ironclad NDA agreements to keep them confidential.

I am sure Phil Fish would completely and utterly ruin his private and business identity JUST to spite 4chan.

/SARCASM

You must understand that when under the direct influence of the Warp herself even the most stalwart Spacer will...I can't finish it. Of all "conspiracies" I would rank this one just a step below the Lizard People.

Was this a plan to divert attention away from Zoe?



Tune in next week when we uncover the truth!

Can I buy early access for it?

 

[CambriaRising]

This doesn't happen in theatre, opera, film, academia, literature, whatever. That's not an exaggeration. It doesn't. Even at their most vitriolic, I've never seen any creator/critic from any of those industries have their private lives publicly displayed for all to abuse. It's embarrassing. Well, I'm truly embarrassed.

At the risk of discussing this more than we should, music and film have their fair share of internet vitriol, especially on twitter. You even have online and printed publications that exist solely to sniff out scandal and sensationalize trivial shit just to razz the mob and boost circulation.

As for a reason why videogaming may seem like it has more of this, I'll provide the perspective that the internet and gaming kinda go hand in hand for the most part. They have mostly grown up together, and due to the social advents in both mediums of the early 00s, there is likely a lot of cross over with social media that may not be present in other cases. I think videogames breed a natural attraction to technology that makes someone more likely to engage with message boards, and images boards. I could be wrong.

 

[Bossun]

Anyone who doesn't think that this problem isn't something fairly unique to gaming needs to wake up.

This doesn't happen in theatre, opera, film, academia, literature, whatever. That's not an exaggeration. It doesn't. Even at their most vitriolic, I've never seen any creator/critic from any of those industries have their private lives publicly displayed for all to abuse. It's embarrassing. Well, I'm truly embarrassed.

Video games is a medium that is displaying all the right signs of maturity: self-reference and parody, discussion of complicated themes and issues, confluence of visual aesthetic and gameplay mechanics, purposeful adaptation of art styles. And yet the level of immaturity that pervades the community is frightening, destructive, and hateful.

It doesn't exactly fill me with hope.

Yeah, no I'd argue that video game is far from maturity. Shitty vocal community ready to go to extreme length to feel powerful or intelligent. Afraid of every little changes that are trying to be made on their supposedly passion.
Unable to accept game as they are and prefer to destroy the devs instead of just not playing the game for a power trip.

Workers that are lacking common PR or communication skills and that shouldn't be in contact with the community, especially the vocal one at all.
Devs that should just do the games they want, talk about the message they wanted to put forward and accept that those small steps will have effects on the game industry as a whole later instead of coming gun blazing and spitting on the whole industry and trying to change it in one day.

Too much journalists that barely have any journalistic skills and ethic.

 

[Deadbeat]

As a white male, my hatred of white males is soaring these past few days.

This self loathing comes off as ignorant and lame.

 

[Kabuki Quantum Lover]

To anyone who is reading this post and on the side of thinking what's gone down is wrong regardless of the fact that it's Phil Fish, this post isn't about you.

Spoiler

This person means entitled close minded white male gamers, not all white males.

You read me loud & clear.

This is nothing against Fish. It's this whole war against 'SJWs' (dumb term) that I'm stereotypically assigning to basement-dwelling white males.

 

[fadetoblack]

how do you go about responding to something like this?

I've known a few writers who just disengage with social media entirely. People who sort of pester them constantly and it gets to them. Just completely block out that social aspect of their work. They go on book tours and give lectures where the audience is likely amenable (if you pay to go to a launch or a lecture just to shit on the speaker rather than their ideas, you are a real special type of scum).

Brain Crecente advocated much of the same. Just drop off of twitter entirely.

 

[Gestault]

This person means entitled close minded white male gamers, not all white males.

To be fair, that explanation sounds horrifyingly similar to people I speak with who say "I don't mean black people when I say 'n-word', I just mean people who act like n-words." Both labels in situations like this are (a) loaded, pointlessly broad descriptors and (b) sound almost unbelievably ignorant. The post you were clarifying sounded like normal venting to me; I can get behind that sentiment. Your explanation though, I felt compelled to respond. I wish people would take the time so say what they mean instead of a shorthand that insults a huge part of the population and requires that sort of explanation.

 

[dubq]

This doesn't happen in theatre, opera, film, academia, literature, whatever. That's not an exaggeration. It doesn't. Even at their most vitriolic, I've never seen any creator/critic from any of those industries have their private lives publicly displayed for all to abuse. It's embarrassing. Well, I'm truly embarrassed.

Celebs have their phones hacked all the time. This was happening like every other weekend a few years ago.

 

[Jarate]

Do I think Phil hacked himself. No, that's awful and stupid

Do I think /v/ hacked him, its a possibility that someone from /v/ attempted to do it, but all signs point to this not being the case

Anyone think that this was a 3rd party hacking group that used the 4chan name just to fan the blame onto 4chan? Its been done plenty of times by other hackers (a lot of hackers use anonymous and such to make it seem like they are from 4chan) but I dont think 4chan has hacked or doxxed anything major since like the late 2000's.

 

[Krejlooc]

But has Anonymous ever doxxed someone in the arts? Haven't their targets been mostly government, politics related?

Anonymous isn't an entity. It's not an organization or group, hence trying to pin anything on anonymous is inherently flawed. I think of Anonymous as a sort of personality descriptor, not really an affiliation. As such, "anonymous" doesn't have targets really. It's a collection of angry vaguely hackerish people with no set agenda.

It would be impossible to say something like "anonymous has never doxxed someone in the arts" with certainty, because, by very nature, the makeup of anonymous is impossible to discern. Like, for example, say I went out and doxxed, say, Maya Angelou (RIP), then said I subscribed to the anonymous ideology. Viola, "anonymous" has now doxxed Maya Angelou. That's how "anonymous" works.

 

[fadetoblack]

Yeah, no I'd argue that video game is far from maturity. Shitty vocal community ready to go to extreme length to feel powerful or intelligent. Afraid of every little changes that are trying to be made on their supposedly passion.
Unable to accept game as they are and prefer to destroy the devs instead of just not playing the game for a power trip.

Workers that are lacking common PR or communication skills and that shouldn't be in contact with the community, especially the vocal one at all.
Devs that should just do the games they want, talk about the message they wanted to put forward and accept that those small steps will have effects on the game industry as a whole later instead of coming gun blazing and spitting on the whole industry and trying to change it in one day.

Too much journalists that barely have any journalistic skills and ethic.

Sure, a lot of the stuff around the games themselves are infantile, including the language we use to talk about them. But I think games themselves have been absolutely on the right track as a form.




And I take everyone's point: celebrities get their personal lives invaded constantly. The phone hacking example is a good (i.e. horrible, awful) parallel.

 

[Sylas]

Anyone who doesn't think that this problem isn't something fairly unique to gaming needs to wake up.

This doesn't happen in theatre, opera, film, academia, literature, whatever. That's not an exaggeration. It doesn't. Even at their most vitriolic, I've never seen any creator/critic from any of those industries have their private lives publicly displayed for all to abuse. It's embarrassing. Well, I'm truly embarrassed.

Video games is a medium that is displaying all the right signs of maturity: self-reference and parody, discussion of complicated themes and issues, confluence of visual aesthetic and gameplay mechanics, purposeful adaptation of art styles. And yet the level of immaturity that pervades the community is frightening, destructive, and hateful.

It doesn't exactly fill me with hope.

Yeah man it's not like there are entire websites, magazines and blogs dedicated to posting inane shit about anyone and everyone in the public light. It's not like celebrities aren't constantly under a ridiculous amount of scrutiny and/or receiving death threats on a semi-regular basis.

I'm not justifying the behavior by any means. It is objectively bad. But it's amazingly short-sighted to say that it's a problem unique to video games.

 

[Krejlooc]

I've known a few writers who just disengage with social media entirely. People who sort of pester them constantly and it gets to them. Just completely block out that social aspect of their work. They go on book tours and give lectures where the audience is likely amenable (if you pay to go to a launch or a lecture just to shit on the speaker rather than their ideas, you are a real special type of scum).

Brain Crecente advocated much of the same. Just drop off of twitter entirely.

Unfortunately, for independent developers, this really isn't an option. For the average indie, their success is inherently tied to their guerrilla marketing tactics, of which the primary tool is social media.

Dropping off of twitter, or facebook, or whatever, for many indies, might as well be dropping marketing all together.

 

[Patryn]

Just read a retweet from a person I had thought was sensible about how this isn't about Zoe and Phil.... it's about how people fake harassment and how we have to be skeptical if people claim harassment.

There aren't enough eyerolls in this universe.

 

[Oxymoron]

Anyone who doesn't think that this problem isn't something fairly unique to gaming needs to wake up.

This doesn't happen in theatre, opera, film, academia, literature, whatever. That's not an exaggeration. It doesn't. Even at their most vitriolic, I've never seen any creator/critic from any of those industries have their private lives publicly displayed for all to abuse. It's embarrassing. Well, I'm truly embarrassed.

Video games is a medium that is displaying all the right signs of maturity: self-reference and parody, discussion of complicated themes and issues, confluence of visual aesthetic and gameplay mechanics, purposeful adaptation of art styles. And yet the level of immaturity that pervades the community is frightening, destructive, and hateful.

It doesn't exactly fill me with hope.

Gamers are awful but until there's an assassination attempt on Phil Fish...

 

[Krejlooc]

Yeah, no I'd argue that video game is far from maturity. Shitty vocal community ready to go to extreme length to feel powerful or intelligent. Afraid of every little changes that are trying to be made on their supposedly passion.
Unable to accept game as they are and prefer to destroy the devs instead of just not playing the game for a power trip.

Workers that are lacking common PR or communication skills and that shouldn't be in contact with the community, especially the vocal one at all.
Devs that should just do the games they want, talk about the message they wanted to put forward and accept that those small steps will have effects on the game industry as a whole later instead of coming gun blazing and spitting on the whole industry and trying to change it in one day.

Too much journalists that barely have any journalistic skills and ethic.

He's speaking of a maturing medium, as in the medium of video games (or perhaps interactive electronic entertainment is a better term) is reaching a point in its life cycle where it's undergoing the same sorts of artistic maturation that all other expressive mediums go through (i.e. self-referential works of art, etc).

You are speaking of those who play video games, make a living following the industry, or otherwise work ancillary to the medium.

 

[paolo11]

This is sad news. We all know Phil Fish's actions on Twitter are controversial but it does not warrant for him to be hacked or his identity to be leaked.

I will pray for him. Identity leak or getting hacked is a nightmare.

 

[fadetoblack]

Unfortunately, for independent developers, this really isn't an option. For the average indie, their success is inherently tied to their guerrilla marketing tactics, of which the primary tool is social media.

Dropping off of twitter, or facebook, or whatever, for many indies, might as well be dropping marketing all together.

It's a good point. I think it's correct to say that most indie developers are left in a really difficult position.

I'm not sure how you really avoid getting the shitstorm of the internet thrown your way. As a dev, do you just keep your head down and avoid getting caught in the muck heap that is social issues in games, even if you feel passionate about these issues? Block and report abusive tweets you get thrown your way?

 

[faceless007]

Yeah man it's not like there are entire websites, magazines and blogs dedicated to posting inane shit about anyone and everyone in the public light. It's not like celebrities aren't constantly under a ridiculous amount of scrutiny and/or receiving death threats on a semi-regular basis.

I'm not justifying the behavior by any means. It is objectively bad. But it's amazingly short-sighted to say that it's a problem unique to video games.

You really think this is a valid comparison?

 

[Sylas]

Unfortunately, for independent developers, this really isn't an option. For the average indie, their success is inherently tied to their guerrilla marketing tactics, of which the primary tool is social media.

Dropping off of twitter, or facebook, or whatever, for many indies, might as well be dropping marketing all together.

Honestly, I just can't see a good solution. No matter what you do, angry and dumb people will shout into the crowd and eventually gain traction. It's a problem pretty inherent to any large gathering of people, either in real life or the internet.

I know actual marketing budgets are not viable for most indie developers, but people like Dan Adelmann might end up being more and more necessary. Someone, or someones, to handle the consumer-facing elements that are not the product itself. I mean, it's easy to hate on PR-talk, but knowing how to speak to a crowd without pissing someone off is an actual, valuable skill. There is value in having a faceless blockade between you, the developer, and the knee-jerk mob.

 

[CambriaRising]

You really think this is a valid comparison?

I'm curious as to why you think it isn't. (Especially when you take the post he was responding to into consideration)