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Boogie2988: I Am NOT A Bigot. Are You?


Alright, I'll concede that point.

That doesn't explain how that image is relevant though, since the guy isn't part of the discussion, didn't use the hashtag, and harrassed someone who is only tangentially (IF that) related to the discussion.

Framing the guy as a gamer typical (or even atypical) of the gamergate group seems disingenuous at best.
 
Koji, you aren't being unreasonable with your points. I'm not trying to paint anyone in this thread as being bigoted or unreasonable (and trust me, if you saw the thread about Anita's death threats, you'd know exactly what it looks like when I am talking to people I think are bigots).

However the whole 'notallmen' thing, or 'notallgamers' I think just makes us look bad too.

No, we aren't all bigots, but why do gamers appear to have more bigots in this community than I see in the other communities online I spend a good deal of time in?

I can see two valid answers to that, maybe there are others. The answers to that that I can see are these:

1. We genuinely have more bigots.
2. We have a normal number of bigots, but the bigots we have feel more comfortable in being openly bigoted than bigots elsewhere do.

Either way I think it means that gaming is overall a more comfortable place for a bigot. That isn't to say we are 'accepting' of them or anything like that, but that due to the 'boys own' appearance that big budget games have, and due to the largely male environment of places like NeoGAF, bigots feel like this is a mans place for men where they can talk openly about their negative feelings towards women.

It's a gentlemens club. It's a no women golf club. Sexists feel free to be openly sexist as a result.

We can all do something about that. Ignoring it, is harmful. Circling the wagons when we get outside criticism, is harmful (remember when the Catholic church was doing more to remind us that not all their priests were pedophiles than they were trying to track down the pedophiles and how that looked?). If you see a gamer being a shitbag online. Criticise them. Report them.

Let them know it's not okay. Let other people who share their feelings understand that they should keep them to themselves... and things will start getting better.

All this anger from 'my side' of this issue is a good thing. You shouldn't want to be seen as a bigot. You shouldn't feel comfortable being openly bigoted.

Way too many bigots don't seem to care in this community and they have given us all a bad name.

If you want to get upset that a minority of hugely unsavory people within a group can give it a bad name... I guess you can be... but I don't see what you can actively do about that, because telling the people who have been given that wrong impression that they are wrong isn't going to do squat.

*Showing them* that they are wrong, by actively trying to address the issue though? That's not only going to work better in convincing people that gamers aren't all bigots, but it's going to make things better for female members of this community too.
 
It's not about both sides being 'equally wrong', and engaging in that as a metric for a discussion gains nobody anything. "Yay we're team less wrong!" isn't exactly a great position to hold either.

Target the assholes. Game developers should be more proactive in banning people who spew vitriol in general. Game communities have mods and devs who should be banning such people (one of the reasons NeoGAF is such a strong community IMO are the stricter, but still fair, guidelines for the community). Game journalists should be promoting communities and developers and encouraging others not living up to those standards to do the same.

Are there ways around bannings? Yeah, but if someone has to spend $40 to rebuy a game every time they want to go on a sexist rant they'll start thinking about it a little bit harder.

How about some call to action on the leaders of communities/games that can actually make a difference instead of labeling an entire group as bad?

Christina Hoff Sommers is a real feminist and she is sided with the gamer at the moment. She has quite good influence and I would say she could be our leader
https://twitter.com/CHSommers
 
Are both sides equally wrong?
The #gamergate side is full of this sort of shit, especially at the start:
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BwEefh5IcAAG_ob.jpg:large[IMG]

It was full of people misleading other people into believing that impropriety was happening when it wasn't.
It was started based on an alleged claim of a breach in journalistic integrity yet was dominated by discussions about a dev's 'infidelity' with much fewer mentions of the invented breach of ethics from the journalist.
It involved hacking a game developer to the point where they closed shop (he prolly hakked hisself, lol).
It involved an attempted hacking attempt into a games journalist that forced them to quit the field.
It involved repeated attacks on women in gaming and repeated attacks on people that wanted to defend equality.

Yeah, both "sides" have done wrong but to claim that both are equally shitty is a misdirection.[/QUOTE]

Both sides are wrong for different reasons, saying one side is more wrong then the other is counter intuitive. There are legit problems being brought up about both issues (those issues specifically gaming journalism corruption and harassment/attacking of publishers/developers/pretty much anyone who says something someone else doesn't like) the problem is that they have been set up against each other in a vocal war (I only say the word war because people on those sides are now calling it a war) where neither side can realistically give the other what it wants because the other side is not in a position of power to do so.

The very few game journalists who called out 'gamer' do not represent anyone but themselves they don't speak for all game journalists (many of whom have not spoken about this discussion at all!) so even if the these people were talking to each other (and not AT each other which is what they are currently doing) they are not in a position of power to speak for anyone except for themselves.

On the other side there is not a single 'leader' of gamersgate who speaks for everyone because many of the people within gamersgate don't want the people who are the cause of the harrassment and abuse to identify with them but they are away and no one can stop them from doing that even if they call them out for it.

So in the end you have thousands of people identifying with or speaking out against one side or the other without any real discussion going on so the entire thing is completely pointless. There is no way to 'win' for either group because the shitty people who do shitty things like harassment and abuse are not going to stop simply because we tell them to and even if a few gaming journalists were to agree that corruption needs to be looked at, the problem with that corruption is that there is so much of it and so many people are just flat out in bed with publishers that they don't even identify it as corruption!
 
It's not about both sides being 'equally wrong', and engaging in that as a metric for a discussion gains nobody anything. "Yay we're team less wrong!" isn't exactly a great position to hold either.

Target the assholes. Game developers should be more proactive in banning people who spew vitriol in general. Game communities have mods and devs who should be banning such people (one of the reasons NeoGAF is such a strong community IMO are the stricter, but still fair, guidelines for the community). Game journalists should be promoting communities and developers and encouraging others not living up to those standards to do the same.

Are there ways around bannings? Yeah, but if someone has to spend $40 to rebuy a game every time they want to go on a sexist rant they'll start thinking about it a little bit harder.

And that is exactly what the "SJW" people are arguing for. For stakeholders to speak up! Yet they are met with a huge wall of denial, while concurrently being targets of harassment and bullying to the point of harm.

And instead of actually targeting the assholes, people are piling on the ones speaking up about doing something against the assholes.

How about some call to action on the leaders of communities/games that can actually make a difference instead of labeling an entire group as bad?

And there's your misunderstanding! No one is labelling "an entire group as bad". The articles centering around the death of the gamer is targeting the gamers who contribute to misogynistic and self-centered and selfishly ignorant worldviews, not everyone who just happen to play video games.
 

Rather than isolating myself, I just make it an important aspect of who I am. I do not like the sweeping generalizations still.
Also, the attempt to paint certain people as 'leaders' is a joke. It started long before they even got involved.
I know it's easier to paint the whole movement as a misogynistic monster that only conveniently cares about other things, but it falls flat on it's face when looking at how many different people from different backgrounds and for different reasons have supported it
 
Both sides are wrong for different reasons, saying one side is more wrong then the other is counter intuitive. There are legit problems being brought up about both issues (those issues specifically gaming journalism corruption and harassment/attacking of publishers/developers/pretty much anyone who says something someone else doesn't like) the problem is that they have been set up against each other in a vocal war (I only say the word war because people on those sides are now calling it a war) where neither side can realistically give the other what it wants because the other side is not in a position of power to do so.

The very few game journalists who called out 'gamer' do not represent anyone but themselves they don't speak for all game journalists (many of whom have not spoken about this discussion at all!) so even if the these people were talking to each other (and not AT each other which is what they are currently doing) they are not in a position of power to speak for anyone except for themselves.

On the other side there is not a single 'leader' of gamersgate who speaks for everyone because many of the people within gamersgate don't want the people who are the cause of the harrassment and abuse to identify with them but they are away and no one can stop them from doing that even if they call them out for it.

So in the end you have thousands of people identifying with or speaking out against one side or the other without any real discussion going on so the entire thing is completely pointless. There is no way to 'win' for either group because the shitty people who do shitty things like harassment and abuse are not going to stop simply because we tell them to and even if a few gaming journalists were to agree that corruption needs to be looked at, the problem with that corruption is that there is so much of it and so many people are just flat out in bed with publishers that they don't even identify it as corruption!
Please define the two sides as you perceive them to be. Outline what you think their goals are. I'd love to know, because I can't for the life of me figure out what the two sides are when people start banging on about 'both sides'.
 
There are quite a few people on twitter right now saying shit like this constantly:

BX5Cc6Z.png

This is how I feel when people post things like this on Twitter:

grandpa_simpson_yelling_at_cloud.jpg


Who is boogie? Why does he take the Zoe Quinn/Anita Sarkessian stuff so seriously?
 
If a politician bribed the press about what they wrote, should we leave the politician alone and grill the press only? Why should Zoe be left alone, is what she did morally OK? You do realize that offering a bribe is as much an offense as taking one?

EDIT: It's obviously NOT just about games journalism, it's also about game developers. It's about the whole unhealthy developer/journalist relationship, you can't isolate one and just go to town on that alone.
This might sound crazy, but I don't really think that's for me to judge. And even if I did, harassment isn't called for just become some random person violated my own personal morals. Anyone who honestly believes otherwise must keep pretty busy.
 
If you're reading it as labeling an entire group as bad, you are sitting there waiting with a touchpaper ready to be lit.

How can a great many of us here, all gamers, read articles which have spawned this entire thing and think "ah yes, that doesn't apply to me?"

Because we know the profile who it does apply to, understand it and realise that we do not belong to it.
 
Holy shit, all this for indie devs and it's been more than 10 years that journalists are flown all over the world to play the latests GTAs/ACs/Latest AAA Industry game with big marketing.
I guess that indie dev should have paid that journalist a hotel room to play her game and offered goodies and favors like the big industry does.
It's so hilarious to see this huge uproar on such a small issue.

It's literally suing into oblivion a city counselor of Toronto for having smoked a cigarette inside a building while letting that Ford dude alone.
 
Christina Hoff Sommers is a real feminist and she is sided with the gamer at the moment. She has quite good influence and I would say she could be our leader
https://twitter.com/CHSommers

Her Twitter feed reads like the front page of Jezebel.

If you're reading it as labeling an entire group as bad, you are sitting there waiting with a touchpaper ready to be lit.

How can a great many of us here, all gamers, read articles which have spawned this entire thing and think "ah yes, that doesn't apply to me?"

Because we know the profile who it does apply to, understand it and realise that we do not belong to it.

So, we should just not fight the symbolic murder of something that identifies so much of what we do and are as human beings? That's a terrible idea. Regardless if we are part of the problem or the solution, you can't just let something like this fly, no matter who is involved.
 
The thing is, there are a good amount of people who I believe would really love to do this. But they cannot, because they are targeted by a hate mob that uses "ethics" as a smoke screen to push them out of games entirely.

I mean, good thing you can, but you gotta admit this is a pretty damn sad state of affairs.

I think people that have too much time on their hands participate in this social media stupidity. Video games are supposed to be a bastion of peace and entertainment, not a battleground for discussion of sociopolitical issues present in our world. I see everything as simply stirring up drama in needless places.
 
I'm kind of concerned at how common it seems hashtags have become for not just encapsulating an entire debate for some parties, but in some cases it seems hashtags have actually supplanted debate itself.

I thought I was somewhat informed about the games industry on a functional basis. I've discovered this week that I now no longer have any idea about how and where the hot topic issues are even being discussed or argued about.

In principle this should be a good thing because it's a sign the medium is becoming more detatched from historical locii, but instead it seems like a hotbed of hostility, harassment and irrationality.

What I'm saying is not meant as a criticism about people debating with sincerity here and elsewhere. I am certain there are important debates worth having and happening. But I dont see that filtering through as a whole and it makes me feel irredeemably disconnected from this whole business.

Games should just be something anyone can enjoy and discuss and participate in. They should foster better aspects of human nature. Instead it seems the worst is on display. And I honestly cant understand why.
 
Koji, you aren't being unreasonable with your points. I'm not trying to paint anyone in this thread as being bigoted or unreasonable (and trust me, if you saw the thread about Anita's death threats, you'd know exactly what it looks like when I am talking to people I think are bigots).

*Showing them* that they are wrong, by actively trying to address the issue though? That's not only going to work better in convincing people that gamers aren't all bigots, but it's going to make things better for female members of this community too.

I think our viewpoints actually line up pretty much exactly. I may not be conferring that point as well as I'd like and I think part of the problem is I'm intentionally not quoting anyone directly when I'm making my statements, even though I'm trying to address certain ones in particular.

I'm not quoting anyone specifically, because that leads to people feeling they are being directly attacked (which, like you, I'm trying not to do as it causes people to be defensive and it becomes less of discussing the issue and more about personal defense).

Yes, definitely gamers HAVE to act against those that are acting out of line. If they can't be reasoned with, then they need to be removed from the groups and games, because leaving them there only gives everyone a bad name and allows it to spread (how many 10 year olds have you played games with start spouting these kinds of racist/sexist remarks? They are mostly just regurgitating what they hear).

My only point is it's not helpful to insult 'gamers' as a means to motivate them to make change. It's not helpful to paint a picture that if someone self identifies with a group that they can (or just plain are) the enemy. Both sides should be working together to improve the communities. Vitriol doesn't benefit anyone in this discussion.

And there's your misunderstanding! No one is labelling "an entire group as bad". The articles centering around the death of the gamer is targeting the gamers who contribute to misogynistic and self-centered and selfishly ignorant worldviews, not everyone who just happen to play video games.

Someone dinged me on this earlier for saying "no one is disagreeing that what the assholes are doing is wrong." So now I'll ding you as well :)

Yes, there ARE people making this stand that 'gamers' are bad. I think we too are on the same page but rather are getting hung up on little things :)
 
If you're reading it as labeling an entire group as bad, you are sitting there waiting with a touchpaper ready to be lit.

How can a great many of us here, all gamers, read articles which have spawned this entire thing and think "ah yes, that doesn't apply to me?"

Because we know the profile who it does apply to, understand it and realise that we do not belong to it.

Pretty much. When I see people 'celebrating people for standing with gamers on this issue' with the #gamergate hashtag and all that nonsense, clearly they aren't standing with me, so are they saying I'm not really a gamer? Should I get upset at them for characterizing me with a group I strongly disagree with?

Nope. I know who they are talking about.
 
This might sound crazy, but I don't really think that's for me to judge. And even if I did, harassment isn't called for just become some random person violated my own personal morals. Anyone who honestly believes otherwise must keep pretty busy.

If she paid the reviewers in money would you be morally OK with passing judgement? Does having the right kind of genitals or sexuality exempt one from law? I understand your hesitation but I don't agree with it, at all.
 
Her Twitter feed reads like the front page of Jezebel.



So, we should just not fight the symbolic murder of something that identifies so much of what we do and are as human beings? That's a terrible idea. Regardless if we are part of the problem or the solution, you can't just let something like this fly, no matter who is involved.

This is one of her tweet during the Gamergate incident.
http://imgur.com/DYef77T
 
This is one of her tweet during the Gamergate incident.
http://imgur.com/DYef77T

Fair enough; does she have any articles/blogs/etc. about this issue, per chance? (I didn't see any on her feed, but I didn't make it past the 'BITCH MEDIA' post. I'd just love to read it and maybe drive my feminist friends crazy on FB with it)

I see she retweeted a ton of other tweets in seeming support of us level-headed gamers, too. So she's like Jezebel if Jezebel actually cared about the heart of feminism and not just the showmanship of it?
 
Please define the two sides as you perceive them to be. Outline what you think their goals are. I'd love to know, because I can't for the life of me figure out what the two sides are when people start banging on about 'both sides'.

I have no idea what the end goal of either is at this point but the 2 groups were defined in the post you originally quoted. On one side gamersgate the people who have a problem with corruption within games journalism and then on the other those who have said that the term 'gamer' is dead or at least vile in nature now to them as it means those who abuse and harass those who don't agree with them. The problem with the latter is that it generalizes everyone within gaming as being the same thing, the problem with the former is that it is made up of many of the people who are the cause of the abuse and harassment (or at least okay with it being done) that has lead to this being taken completely out of control. They hide within gamersgate sounding like well meaning individuals against the corruption but really hide their own misogynistic agenda.

There's more to it then that and again there are shitty people doing shitty things on both sides (more so on the gamersgate side currently) with no clear resolution even being available. As I said in a previous post, these people are talking AT each other, not to each other. It's not possible to have anyone 'win' in such circumstances which is why it has boiled over and is now out of control.
 
I agree, but, Quinn was not a prominent woman in the industry. I never even heard of her or her game till this whole mess started.

She's very prominent in the indie development scene. Especially so if you're entrenched in the social justice conversation.

The fact that you've never heard of her or her game is more a statement about your apathy towards an entire section of gaming than her notoriety.
 
I like how over the top posts in certain circumstances are hilarious.
Yet trolling has become the equivalent of terrorism in certain parts
Yes because threatening to kill someone isn't an attempt at terrorizing a person, right?

If you want to be intentionally obtuse that's fine, but don't expect a lot of rational people to be.
 
I think our viewpoints actually line up pretty much exactly. I may not be conferring that point as well as I'd like and I think part of the problem is I'm intentionally not quoting anyone directly when I'm making my statements, even though I'm trying to address certain ones in particular.

I'm not quoting anyone specifically, because that leads to people feeling they are being directly attacked (which, like you, I'm trying not to do as it causes people to be defensive and it becomes less of discussing the issue and more about personal defense).

Yes, definitely gamers HAVE to act against those that are acting out of line. If they can't be reasoned with, then they need to be removed from the groups and games, because leaving them there only gives everyone a bad name and allows it to spread (how many 10 year olds have you played games with start spouting these kinds of racist/sexist remarks? They are mostly just regurgitating what they hear).

My only point is it's not helpful to insult 'gamers' as a means to motivate them to make change. It's not helpful to paint a picture that if someone self identifies with a group that they can (or just plain are) the enemy. Both sides should be working together to improve the communities. Vitriol doesn't benefit anyone in this discussion.
I'm not too worried about being seen as taking the moral high ground.

I will, and have, thrown vitriol at people over this issue where I believed it appropriate. I've seen nothing in this thread worthy of it... but I know few other ways of demonstrating to people that functional bigotry (whether the person thinks they are a bigot or not) is not something I will personally tolerate.

What some people on GAF were saying in the death threats thread... What they thought they could get away with saying. What they thought didn't deserve vitriol... well... some of it did.

But I don't think someone saying 'Why are gamers so sexist?' deserves vitriol. And I don't think someone saying 'Hey, wait a second, we aren't all sexist' deserve it either.

Obviously I think the second of those two kinds of people deserve debating, and advising about how their actions resonate... but yeah. Vitriol remains firmly on the table for me for anyone who thinks they can be openly sexist (even if they don't think they are sexist).
 
If she paid the reviewers in money would you be morally OK with passing judgement? Does having the right kind of genitals or sexuality exempt one from law? I understand your hesitation but I don't agree with it, at all.
Are you suggesting she paid reviewers in sexual favors?

Maybe it's a difference in time of when we grew up, but I have been bullied just as much, if not more, by other gamers online as I have been bullied by non-gamers in real life.
Yeah, basically. The community I'm in for my biggest hobby and passion should be a safe place to escape harassment I otherwise face, not harbor more of it.
 
It's only real feminism if it's on your side.

I'd probably define 'real' feminism, in his case, as feminists who simply don't just take statements made by men, swap the genders, and call it a day. Those kinds of people aren't furthering the cause of feminism (creating equality for all), they're just taking arrows lobbed and them and firing them back and going FEMINISM!

That's not feminism, that's laziness. For what it's worth, Christina scolds feminists who are all about just relentlessly attacking men as much as she scolds men. There is something different about her from what most in modern culture would call a 'feminist' (Someone up above me called her a misogynist..I...I don't know. I'm really, really torn on that tweet. haha. I want someone else to bring better examples!)
 
She's very prominent in the indie development scene. Especially so if you're entrenched in the social justice conversation.

The fact that you've never heard of her or her game is more a statement about your apathy towards an entire section of gaming than her notoriety.

Wait, what?
 
Fair enough; does she have any articles/blogs/etc. about this issue, per chance? (I didn't see any on her feed, but I didn't make it past the 'BITCH MEDIA' post. I'd just love to read it and maybe drive my feminist friends crazy on FB with it)

I see she retweeted a ton of other tweets in seeming support of us level-headed gamers, too. So she's like Jezebel if Jezebel actually cared about the heart of feminism and not just the showmanship of it?

I remembered she tweeted that she would make a video about it soon, but I could be wrong.
 
I already didn't like his Frankie schtick.

This #notallmen act isn't doing him any favors in my opinion.

He just sets up a straw man that doesn't exist and then attacks it and not super effectively. I don't think anyone has made the argument that anyone who plays games is bad person who should feel bad about playing games. In fact, the very people pointing out some of the issues with the industry are themselves gamers.
 
I'm not too worried about being seen as taking the moral high ground.

I will, and have, thrown vitriol at people over this issue where I believed it appropriate. I've seen nothing in this thread worthy of it... but I know few other ways of demonstrating to people that functional bigotry (whether the person thinks they are a bigot or not) is not something I will personally tolerate.

What some people on GAF were saying in the death threats thread... What they thought they could get away with saying. What they thought didn't deserve vitriol... well... some of it did.

But I don't think someone saying 'Why are gamers so sexist?' deserves vitriol. And I don't think someone saying 'Hey, wait a second, we aren't all sexist' deserve it either.

Obviously I think the second of those two kinds of people deserve debating, and advising about how their actions resonate... but yeah. Vitriol remains firmly on the table for me for anyone who thinks they can be openly sexist (even if they don't think they are sexist).

Just so we're clear, I wasn't implying that you were using vitriol in this thread :)

I do disagree though that vitriol should be used at all, even with the people who truly are incredibly sexist or saying horrible things. If someone is doing that they are either super ignorant, or a super asshole. If the former, there is a chance at education and improvement that 'mean words' won't solve. If the latter, they have then succeeded in bringing you down to their level. You won't convince an asshole not to be an asshole. The only thing you can do with people like that is isolate them as best you can from public communities to keep it from spreading.
 
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