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[TheBryanJZX90]

You are implicitly supporting that minority of douchebags by putting the blame on her and her "ilk", it doesn't paint a pictures of "gamers", it does paint a bad one of you.

This.

 

[Brawndo Addict]

If you could point to anything I said that made you think I don't agree with this statement, that would be great. In fact, my first post pretty much said that gamergate types should just let them be and let them do what they do.

Leigh Alexander and her ilk are not victims. They're frequently, purposefully, antagonistic.

People who share her views and support them. And excuse all her shitty behaviour.

? Not sure how else we're supposed to interpret the claim that they are not victims.

 

[Fantastapotamus]

pure distilled garbage

Think about that, though.

I wonder if they actually hired somebody to come up with that. That is the single funniest thing he could have said after that statement. Seriously.

 

[Zabi]

Earlier I said that this mess was confusing because the gaters were talking about promoting a form of goodness and yet I have never seen the internet hate machine so fired up.

Now I say I give up on making sense of this mess. If I go to a pro-GG place, what I hear is "We're pro-diversity and we want to see more games of all kinds being made!" and they post things like infrographs to show that the harassment is heavily exaggerated but if I come someplace like here not only is the opposite said but stuff is posted to show how the gaters are talking nonsense

I'm going to log into Final Fantasy XIV and level up goldsmithing because I can at least make sense of that even if I am slow in the head.

 

[captainnapalm]

But there are many, many people in GG who as you put it "excuse their shitty behavior". Many out right call it a false flag as we've just seen in the recent female dev being attacked. So we shouldn't excuse Alexander and friend's behavior but GG's behavior can be hand waived with "it's just a minority" .

Saying it's a minority isn't excusing it. It isn't being an apologist. It's simply saying it's a minority and is not representative of all "gamers", which has now become sort of code for white, male gamers, I guess.

As for Alexander, I read about how she swaggers around on Twitter threatening to end people's careers. How she uses 'nerd' pejoratively like it's 1985 or something to belittle socially awkward dudes. Is there any wonder you're creating antagonism when you hold someone like that up as a hero? Wasn't it that awful article she wrote about how gross"gamers" are, which then got repeated like 10 more times, that more or less spawned gamergate?

 

[Lime]

I'm pretty sure some project or idea have been shelved thanks to GG. Good job with the censorship.

 

[L Thammy]

As for Alexander, I read about how she swaggers around on Twitter threatening to end people's careers. How she uses 'nerd' pejoratively like it's 1985 or something to belittle socially awkward dudes. Is there any wonder you're creating antagonism when you hold someone like that up as a hero?

This adds a bit of flavour to your argument.

Wasn't it that awful article she wrote about how gross"gamers" are, which then got repeated like 10 more times, that more or less spawned gamergate?

I don't know, was it? Did you read the article?

 

[Tetsuo9]

With all the talk about "#GamerGate is not about this" and "#GamerGate is not about that" and "these guys don't represent #GamerGate", what even is it that the "moderate" supporters want at this point? Is it still about "game journalism ethics"? I seriously don't get how someone rational can support something that is clearly a hate movement.

I think that's because some people just don't want diversity in games, they don't want any change on the current videogames politics (or they think: no politics). And when the media they read everyday starts pressing the issue they feel annoyed enough to tweet about it or posting on forums. It's that simple to me.

 

[JumpJeff84]

Wow, that's just.... His initial dismissive "b-but Amy Hennig doesn't say she's harassed, therefore harassment doesn't exist!" comment was awful enough but he's just been sinking lower and lower. This guy really wants to be sure I'll never give him my money, or something. Well, okay then. Too bad, I found the game interesting.

What does the '#BASED' on his shirt refer to?

 

[kyoya]

I will outwardly admit that I didn't agree with the beginning of Leigh Alexander's Gamasutra article "Gamers' are over", but I sure as hell am not going to threaten anyone over their viewpoint.

I wish there wasn't hate from both sides in the general "I hate people" context. In regards to Alexander's intro to "Gamers are Over", the opportunity to stand in line at an expo (E3 or PAX) is very rare for some. Some of these people that she writes about struggle with day-to-day with just social interaction or maybe mental illness (social anxiety) or autism. I remember seeing that YouTube video of awkward MineCon moments, where attendees were being mocked.

For some (including me) standing in line to acquire an actual physical item related to a game might be the only opportunity in this ever increasing digital copy world. Even just going to a gaming event is rare due to distance and money.

I do wish that "gamer culture" consisted of people that could truly respect each other, because I really fear that this hatred is going to push more people to isolate themselves even further than before

I get that gaming is undergoing a transformation, it used to be that one would just move on from viewpoints they don't agree with, but holy shit this hatred against females is insane.

 

[More_Badass]

Saying it's a minority isn't excusing it. It isn't being an apologist. It's simply saying it's a minority and is not representative of all "gamers", which has now become sort of code for white, male gamers, I guess.

As for Alexander, I read about how she swaggers around on Twitter threatening to end people's careers. How she uses 'nerd' pejoratively like it's 1985 or something to belittle socially awkward dudes. Is there any wonder you're creating antagonism when you hold someone like that up as a hero? Wasn't it that awful article she wrote about how gross"gamers" are, which then got repeated like 10 more times, that more or less spawned gamergate?

Did you, ah, actually read that "awful article" where she essentially says how gaming is an inclusive medium that everyone takes part in, so that notion of "gamer = white male" is obsolete and hurtful to the culture and industry?

 

[BigDes]

Did you, ah, actually read that "awful article" where she essentially says how gaming is an inclusive medium that everyone takes part in, so that notion of "gamer = white male" is obsolete and hurtful to the culture and industry?

B-but she said gamers are dead, and I'M A GAMER She was attacking me!

 

[captainnapalm]

This adds a bit of flavour to your argument.



I don't know, was it? Did you read the article?

I did read it, and like most of the people on this forum, as I recall from the thread at the time, I thought it was absolutely awful.

 

[Trame]

Wasn't it that awful article she wrote about how gross"gamers" are, which then got repeated like 10 more times, that more or less spawned gamergate?

Actually, a tweet by Adam Baldwin (of "no hard evidence Obama doesn't want ebola in America" fame) about a conspiracy theory involving Zoe Quinn's sex life is the origin of gamergate.

So to answer your question: no, GG originally had nothing to do with harassing Leigh Alexander, it was about harassing a different woman altogether. They decided to harass Leigh later on, as a nice bonus, like a twofer. Or thousandfer.

 

[kcp12304]

Saying it's a minority isn't excusing it. It isn't being an apologist. It's simply saying it's a minority and is not representative of all "gamers", which has now become sort of code for white, male gamers, I guess.

As for Alexander, I read about how she swaggers around on Twitter threatening to end people's careers. How she uses 'nerd' pejoratively like it's 1985 or something to belittle socially awkward dudes. Is there any wonder you're creating antagonism when you hold someone like that up as a hero? Wasn't it that awful article she wrote about how gross"gamers" are, which then got repeated like 10 more times, that more or less spawned gamergate?

Maybe you should read her article because it doesn't say gamers are gross. Far from it. You don't have to agree with her or here tone but don't claim she said "gamers are gross". Also, it did not get repeated 10 times. It was linked to a few times and a few other folks said similar things in their articles. The articles deal with an idea that's been said before and the articles weren't as similar as folks make them out to be.

Basically you've seen screen shots of out of context tweets and judge her for it. No offense, but you don't have a good picture of what's going on. It's not just a minority. The rabbit hole goes deep and it's a nasty hole. I don't blame you for missing that or keeping up with the nonsense.

Also, Alexander and her friends aren't making the word "gamers" some sort of pejorative for striaght white dudes. That's a mischaracterization that I've seen to often.

Gamers need to stop being so damn kneejerk defensive when they think they're being attacked. No one is attacking us for enjoying the games we do, or attacking us for being male, or attacking us for being white, or attacking us for being straight. People are being called out for their shitty behavior. Of course it's not all gamers but the mob mentality of GG is a destructive one.

We should be able to talk about how games handles things like gender, race, sexuality, violence, politics, and representation without feeling like our hobby is under attack and not react poorly.

 

[Tetsuo9]

Actually, a tweet by Adam Baldwin (of "no hard evidence Obama doesn't want ebola in America" fame) about a conspiracy theory involving Zoe Quinn's sex life is the origin of gamergate.

So to answer your question: no, GG originally had nothing to do with harassing Leigh Alexander, it was about harassing a different woman altogether. They decided to harass Leigh later on, as a nice bonus, like a twofer. Or thousandfer.

The irony is that the movement was originaly named #quinnspiracy, as a reaction to Zoe's ex-bf blog, but they changed the name to #gamergate to not make it about harrassment.

 

[TheBryanJZX90]

The irony is that the movement was originaly named #quinnspiracy, as a reaction to Zoe's ex-bf blog, but they changed the name to #gamergate to not make it about harrassment.

And then proceeded to continue harassing, encourage harassing, and support those who had started the harassment.

 

[More_Badass]

I did read it, and like most of the people on this forum, as I recall from the thread at the time, I thought it was absolutely awful.

You and many missed the whole point. She was advocating for the exact point you made, that "gamers" is more than just white young male, because the hobby is so widespread, that its audience is so diverse and varied, that to pigeonhole some gamer demographic just hurts the industry and growth of the medium

That's why "gamer" is dead. The definition is dead, not the actual hobby. Because the medium has matured beyond any single audience. Games are for everyone.

 

[FlyinJ]

I did read it, and like most of the people on this forum, as I recall from the thread at the time, I thought it was absolutely awful.

Seeing how you read it, can you give us the quote where she says "people who play video games are gross"?

 

[tonysidaway]

If I go to a pro-GG place, what I hear is "We're pro-diversity and we want to see more games of all kinds being made!" and they post things like infrographs to show that the harassment is heavily exaggerated but if I come someplace like here not only is the opposite said but stuff is posted to show how the gaters are talking nonsense

You could think for yourself. Does Anita Sarkeesian lie or exaggerate about her harassment? Well, what we have found out recently is that in March of this year the organisers of GDC received a bomb threat saying around two dozen people would be killed or maimed if Sarkeesian's award were not rescinded. The organisers called in police with dogs who searched the venue, and since nothing was found they let the ceremony go ahead. The organisers and Anita Sarkeesian kept quiet about that act of terrorism until recently, after a SFPD report mentioned the incident in passing.

So no, Anita Sarkeesian does not exaggerate the threats. The evidence shows that she has sometimes _minimised_ a threat or, at least, kept quiet about it.

So what does that tell you about Gamergate websites that say the opposite?

 

[Orayn]

The irony is that the movement was originaly named #quinnspiracy, as a reaction to Zoe's ex-bf blog, but they changed the name to #gamergate to not make it about harrassment.

To make it """""not""""" about harassment by making it about ever more ridiculous conspiracy theories centered on Quinn instead of just her personal life.

 

[VibratingDonkey]

(possibly) Unpopular opinion: I believe that the movement isn't inherently flawed as a whole, it has merit if it's current goals can be believed and actually implemented (a rather big 'if', the way it's going currently) and actual discourse is allowed for once.

The biggest problems seem to be
A) the fact that it's heritage taints it in almost every conceivable way: twitter isn't a good format to have such an important discussion; hashtag activism is idiotic (remember kony 2012?) and the fact that all of it was originally founded on a (to my knowledge) baseless accusation of a conspiracy that I believe the alleged participants would not have the capability or influence of pulling off even if they tried.

B) There is entirely too much generalizing going on on all 'sides', vile, vocal minorities are being pointed at by the opponent as sole representatives; it's quite frankly just sad to see this. (paired with the idiotic allegations of open IRC chats filled with trolls and other toxic individuals being represented as 'leaderships' as well as the portayal of feminists as 'men-hating vipers poisoning everything')
The fact that even in this very thread some people decry the entire population of a enormous movement such as GG as mysoginists is a little shocking to me.

Please do correct me if I'm wrong here, but that sentiment has been ever too present as a result of recent events and I feel it is just not right to stamp a rather big group as something just because of a small radical, psycopathic subset of individuals that can be (at times) only loosely affiliated with the group.
Maybe I'm just crazy, I just think it's not right to condemn entire public groups like this on the basis of a few vile few.
---------------------------------

I really have tried to understand both 'sides' for over a month now, and I do not feel comfortable to affiliate with either on this.
One one hand #GG was born as a stupid half-joke in response to a (quite franky) bad and inflammatory video, on the other hand fact that the change in it's objective is being completely dismissed under the blanket of complete generalization and other terrible decisions and happenings surrounding anti-GG (the gamer's are dead thing blowing up, censorship of any early discussion because of the unfortunate origin of the discussion, not to mention the TFYC thing and the allegations leveled at indiecade)

---------------------------------

There was and maybe still is a worthwhile discussion here that has to be had about the state of what we call 'games journalism', but I fear that that won't happen for a long time because of the possible future mentality of "the last time we tried talking about this GG happened, so let's not talk about it at all"


TL;DR, I believe GG has the potential to become worthwhile grounds for an actual discussion about 'games journalism' and it's integrity, but that change in topic can not happen while doxxing trolls/psycopaths are being fed at all ends with the endless shit flinging, blaming and generalizing everyone is involved in every time these despicable attacks on public female figures in the industry happen.

No. It's not worth having a discussion with these people. All that would accomplish is legitimizing the movement, elevating the dregs clinging to it. They do not deserve a platform or to be taken seriously. They have nothing to say but useless nonsense at best, harmful toxic bullshit at worst. This is not something I've arrived at after looking at it for ten minutes. This has been going on for two months. If they haven't managed to achieve anything useful in this time period, it is not going to happen. Look at what has happened. We've had enough patience with ggate. It does not matter whether it's the majority or not, enough people supporting the movement are bad apples and the ones who aren't, are doing nothing but supplying them with momentum.

It was not born as a half-joke, those people were quite serious about their false accusations, bizarre conspiracies and misogynistic attacks. They still are.

What change in objective? The only things that ever change is what ggate is trying to excuse or deflect, and what positive thing they claim to be about.

There was nothing bad about not talking about this mess during its origins. It was obvious garbage driven by misogyny that deserved zero attention. I feel like we're back at that point now. Only now it might be too late to just ignore it. I don't know. To ignore or denounce, that's the question. (I'm leaning towards one of them, if you could tell.)

I don't know what the allegations against indiecade were, but I'm fairly confident they were false and baseless, because every other allegation brought by ggate has been. They've cried wolf over and over and over. And they are the wolf. Ggate's allegations are not worth taking seriously, or even listening to.

The discussion ggate has proven is worth having is how to prevent harassment/mobbing on social media, how to discourage bad behavior and enforce consequences online.
If you want to discuss ethics in games media, you can do that too. Without having all this bullshit distract from and obscure your points. I remember having said this weeks ago...

I had to do that for Daniel Vavra. Dude won't stop going on about it. And then, wearing that shirt in the latest Kingdom Come video...

Yeah I'm feeling increasingly bad about having backed that game. He's not an actively terrible ggater, but he sure is vocal and adamant, and what's on that t-shirt displays what appears to be his biggest issue. Having your feelings hurt by misinterpreting an (admittedly inflammatory) article, does not justify giving tacit approval to all that's done under the ggate banner. That slight is not proportional, at fucking all.

 

[Moon_frogger]

Has anyone from GamerGate explained the cognitive dissonance between claiming this is about "ethics in games journalism", and ever bringing up Anita Sarkeesian?

Anita Sarkeesian is not a journalist. Her entire profession has literally nothing to do with games journalism or whether or not she's "ethical" in her profession.


So if GamerGate is about "ethics in games journalism", why the fuck is Anita Sarkeesian ever included in the topic at all?

because she 'colludes' with the 'swj' 'hivemind' to 'censor' and 'wreck' games. Jesus I'm out of air quotes

 

[Menome]

Just caught up with the latest batch of news regarding The Escapist. If Gamergate wasn't already an absolute joke this time last week, it sure as hell is now.

It baffles me how anyone beyond the misinformed or wilfully obstinate can even bring themselves to be associated with it anymore.

 

[Lime]

Funny how this is more relevant than ever (and the writer, Allen, was driven out of the industry a couple of months ago by the bigot gamers) http://www.reactionzine.com/an-open-letter-to-games-media/

Neogaf gets a mention in there by the way.

 

[Quote]

Funny how this is more relevant than ever (and the writer, Allen, was driven out of the industry a couple of months ago by the bigot gamers) http://www.reactionzine.com/an-open-letter-to-games-media/

Neogaf gets a mention in there by the way.

Read most of it (on a break at work so I'll finish it later). I wish the NeoGAF mention was more about the diverse discussion in this thread or the policeing instead of grouping us with Reddit/4chan. But that is really just a small issue compared to the bigger one.

 

[partyphone]

Read most of it (on a break at work so I'll finish it later). I wish the NeoGAF mention was more about the diverse discussion in this thread or the policeing instead of grouping us with Reddit/4chan. But that is really just a small issue compared to the bigger one.

it was written a year ago when things were more lax here.

 

[Quote]

it was written a year ago when things were more lax here.

Oops, missed the date. That explains it, thanks!

 

[BlastProcessing]

Leigh Alexander and her ilk are not victims. They're frequently, purposefully, antagonistic.

Leigh Alexander and the ilks sounds like a kick-ass punk band.

Also I am going to assume that "Leigh Alexander and her ilk" = "Women who make their opinions public"

That's what Leigh does, she voice a supported opinions online. They are opinion pieces. Things that have happily existed since the beginning of media. You don't have to agree with them. I know it sounds radical, but you don't even have to read them.

The people who rail against Leigh seem to have this pathological fear of what she says. It's not good enough to ignore it; it has to be eradicated. There seems to be this assumption that the public can't read an opinion and come to their own conclusions, so you have these concerned citizens who have to step in and save us by chasing the bad Feminist's away.

 

[Mowki Kowski]

I had to do that for Daniel Vavra. Dude won't stop going on about it. And then, wearing that shirt in the latest Kingdom Come video...

That's the least based shirt I've ever seen.

 

[Lime]

This is super depressing to see, coming from a Polygon senior reporter (basically false equivalence):

Also, Erik Kain is apparently being lectured by that Milo transphobe on journalism ethics while having discussions with the Internet Aristocrat. Just so you know what to expect from him in the future.

So yeah, it doesn't look like some of the mainstream outlets and some parts of the gaming journalism segment are moving in the proper direction in terms of fighting this hate campaign. I still don't know why GiantBomb and others aren't taking a stand, especially after Brianna Wu's horrific experience yesterday.

 

[Zerin]

He's obviously referring to people just being outraged because hey its what you do on the internet. Many of the responses twisting his words to suit whatever agenda they'd like demonstrate this clearly.

 

[Lime]

But shouldn't we be outraged that now the THIRD woman in the games industry have had to leave their house because of death and rape threats? And shouldn't Owen Good recognize this outrage? Yet what he is doing is basically “I’m being called out for not acting, the people calling me out are wrong”

 

[GamerJM]

That's the least based shirt I've ever seen.

This might sound strange, but as a Lil B fan it's super upsetting to see people take the phrase "Based," and use it to describe bigots/homophobes/racists/etc. Lil B supports the LGBT community and diversity. Seeing these GamerGate people used "based," to describe Christina Hoff Sommers really makes me think that the word has lost all meaning.

 

[JumpJeff84]

Yeah I'm feeling increasingly bad about having backed that game. He's not an actively terrible ggater, but he sure is vocal and adamant, and what's on that t-shirt displays what appears to be his biggest issue. Having your feelings hurt by misinterpreting an (admittedly inflammatory) article, does not justify giving tacit approval to all that's done under the ggate banner. That slight is not proportional, at fucking all.

What does that shirt mean? I genuinely don't get it. I've been following this issue for the most part, but I missed the significance of '#BASED'...

 

[Corto]

Leigh Alexander and her ilk are not victims. They're frequently, purposefully, antagonistic.

Sorry to pull this after so many hours. Was working and I'm catching up. That's some rich bullshit right here. A women needs to stay silent, don't feed the trolls and keep her head down. And while we're at it, dress appropriately, show good manners, and talk only when she's told to. Was Khamyia a women and she would be trounced by mostly the same that cheer his bluntness when treating with his trolls. Leigh Alexander reacted to a month of continuous attack towards a women developer that was used as the epitome of nepotism/corruption in the gaming press by a group of harassers with zero substantive proof. In fact, every claim or smoking gun of this mob was promptly disproved. She was reacting to the shift in focus that that hate mob was enacting at the time trying to disguise their heinous activity and objective with a nebulous fight against corruption in the gaming press towards a more ethical press in this industry. All bullshit. All diversionary bullshit.

Right, let’s say it’s a vocal minority that’s not representative of most people. Most people, from indies to industry leaders, are mortified, furious, disheartened at the direction industry conversation has taken in the past few weeks. It’s not like there are reputable outlets publishing rational articles in favor of the trolls’ ‘side’. Don’t give press to the harassers. Don’t blame an entire industry for a few bad apples.

Yet disclaiming liability is clearly no help. Game websites with huge community hubs whose fans are often associated with blunt Twitter hate mobs sort of shrug, they say things like ‘we delete the really bad stuff, what else can we do’ and ‘those people don’t represent our community’ -- but actually, those people do represent your community. That’s what your community is known for, whether you like it or not.

When you decline to create or to curate a culture in your spaces, you’re responsible for what spawns in the vacuum. That’s what’s been happening to games.

She acknowledges those are a vocal minority, but that they do represent us. They are the self-proclaimed "games defenders", they title themselves as the video games consumer ombudsman group, they are representing us, wether we like it or not. They damage the image of our hobby and the industry doesn't react exactly because of their influence as the alpha hyperconsumers that they are. It should be us denouncing this and disassociating with this bullshit with all our strengths. Show press, publishers, developers, that they don't represent us at all. If we keep silent they'll fill that silence with their nonsense.

 

[Xscapist]

Every few days a new horrible event happens that makes everyone feel terrible. When and how does all this end?

I really wish there was an easy answer. Although Gamergate has recently been able to act as a giant magnifying glass for extremists -- focusing, magnifying, and weaponizing their resistance to change -- what their reacting to are growing pains that are happening all over in "geek culture," and that have been happening for quite some time.

For example, the harassment of Jade Raymond and Kathy Sierra both date back to 2007. The difference now is that there's an echo chamber that continues to escalate everything.

Maybe things getting so much worse is a sign that things will soon get better, the extremists lashing out at the inevitability of change? But even if the word "Gamergate" is retired in the next month, it's not going to stop that subgroup from expressing their anger.

It's not like everyone was immediately fine with women getting the right to vote the moment it was passed (and the group against it even included women #notyourshield).

 

[VibratingDonkey]

This is super depressing to see, coming from a Polygon senior reporter (basically false equivalence):

Also, Erik Kain is apparently being lectured by that Milo transphobe on journalism ethics while having discussions with the Internet Aristocrat. Just so you know what to expect from him in the future.

So yeah, it doesn't look like some of the mainstream outlets and some parts of the gaming journalism segment are moving in the proper direction in terms of fighting this hate campaign. I still don't know why GiantBomb and others aren't taking a stand, especially after Brianna Wu's horrific experience yesterday.

Danny O'Dwyer explains why he thinks Gamespot needs to treat this delicately.

 

[Mowki Kowski]

This might sound strange, but as a Lil B fan it's super upsetting to see people take the phrase "Based," and use it to describe bigots/homophobes/racists/etc. Lil B supports the LGBT community and diversity. Seeing these GamerGate people used "based," to describe Christina Hoff Sommers really makes me think that the word has lost all meaning.

That's exactly where I was coming from with that comment. On the other hand though, it's a bit difficult to get behind someone whose lyrics often contain lines like "hoes on my dick cuz I look like x".

 

[VibratingDonkey]

What does that shirt mean? I genuinely don't get it. I've been following this issue for the most part, but I missed the significance of '#BASED'...

Some rapper once used the term in some song and then internet things happened. I don't know that I know the officially agreed upon definition. This is it, I guess.

 

[ClosingADoor]

Danny O'Dwyer explains why he thinks Gamespot needs to treat this delicately.

I agree with him. You can cover incidents about it, like the threats to women in gaming. But you can't cover the 'movement' since it is not really something concrete. What do you talk about and cover if there are tons of Gamergate people going on about tons of different things. There is nu subject to tackle, since Gamergate does not know itself what they are about.

 

[Lime]

Danny O'Dwyer explains why he thinks Gamespot needs to treat this delicately.

So basically they are afraid because their women in their staff might get harassed.

 

[chrominance]

Danny O'Dwyer explains why he thinks Gamespot needs to treat this delicately.

I'm not really convinced by his reasoning. Sure, Gamergate is a complicated issue with moderates and extremists and death threats and whatnot, and it could pose a risk to your employees by addressing the issue poorly, and what have you. Guess what? The answer is to write something that addresses the complexities of the issue and doesn't address the issue poorly.

I mean, if we're going to talk about "hey people should take games journalism seriously and not just think of it as an enthusiast press": does the New York Times stop sending reporters to the Middle East because reporters get captured and beheaded? Do they stop commenting on ISIS because one of their own might be the target of retribution? Certainly no one decides they're not going to publish editorials condemning terrorist groups because they don't want to "legitimize" them.

Besides which, the "illegitimate" Gamergate movement has already forced three people out of their homes due to threats and harassment. They've convinced Intel to pull ads off Gamasutra. They're already doing damage without this mythical "legitimacy" given to them by the gaming press. Exactly how does the movement get worse if Gamespot publishes an editorial condemning threats and harassment in the gaming industry aimed at women?

 

[ClosingADoor]

Hit next tweet literally says that is not the reason they don't cover it.

From a journalistic standpoint it is just incredibly difficult to cover a subject which does not know what it is about itself. So you will end up with a dozen or so disjointed articles about everything which add nothing of value to the discussion and are not informative to your readers.

 

[Anthropic]

I just saw Arthur Gies's series of tweets where he basically says he's deleting the Twitter app from his phone and leaving Twitter for the rest of the day (presumably) because of the people trying to convince Polygon to publish something about Brianna Wu's harassment.

Um....Why is this somehow a better strategy than just publishing something about Brianna Wu's harassment?

Owen Good seems to be saying that they can't criticize GamerGate as a movement because it's too diverse (which I think is a load of crap, but whatever) but that's not the point. The point is that they need to publish something about the harassment.

I'm loathe to speculate here (because outrageous conspiracy speculation is what the GamerGate trolls excel at) but is it possible that a lot of these sites are gun-shy after the appearance that they had all worked together to support Zoe Quinn after that vile blog post and subsequent doxxing and harassment?

My view of that at the time was that it was news that a developer people would recognize was being harassed. Additionally several indie developers had come under attack and that too was news. That's why they covered it. It was actual news.

But, it was soon twisted to to look like they had somehow "colluded" to help protect Zoe Quinn.

Brianna Wu's harassment is news, plain and simple. It should be reported on by the videogame media.

 

[eyeball_kid]

You and many missed the whole point. She was advocating for the exact point you made, that "gamers" is more than just white young male, because the hobby is so widespread, that its audience is so diverse and varied, that to pigeonhole some gamer demographic just hurts the industry and growth of the medium

That's why "gamer" is dead. The definition is dead, not the actual hobby. Because the medium has matured beyond any single audience. Games are for everyone.

No, what Ms Alexander did is culture-shame most of our community with statements like:

It’s young men queuing with plush mushroom hats and backpacks and jutting promo poster rolls. Queuing passionately for hours, at events around the world, to see the things that marketers want them to see.

They don’t know how to dress or behave.

...a generation of lonely basement kids...

...these wailing hyper-consumers...

She mistakingly (or intentionally) conflated the appearance, culture, and habits of gaming enthusiasts with a subset of people (many of which are probably not even very active in the gaming community, just serial misogynists and bigots who latched onto Gamergate) who are engaging in abusive behavior. You can feel the disdain in her words. She would make a great character in an 80s movie, rolling her eyes at the nerd outcasts in the school. She certainly isn't advocating, as you say, that games are for everyone. They should just be for well-dressed, hip, social-conformist people like her.

I get it. She wants to go upmarket. It's the same as the people working at AAA studios who clamor for more 'immersive' and 'cinematic' experiences because they really wanted to be a film director. She certainly has the right to say what she wants to say, and Gamasutra has given her a platform on which to do so. But you can't change a community when you're shaming it from the outside. I don't support Gamergate at all. But neither do I support that article she wrote.

But shouldn't we be outraged that now the THIRD woman in the games industry have had to leave their house because of death and rape threats?

We should. But the most positive change you can make is to direct outrage towards Twitter for not having a more proactive policy against abuse and threats.

 

[Mman235]

I just saw Arthur Gies's series of tweets where he basically says he's deleting the Twitter app from his phone and leaving Twitter for the rest of the day (presumably) because of the people trying to convince Polygon to publish something about Brianna Wu's harassment.

Um....Why is this somehow a better strategy than just publishing something about Brianna Wu's harassment?

Huh? He outright says on the profile why he's going off; because he's sick of Twitter having no policies against harassment and similar stuff.

 

[axisofweevils]

Gamasutra is covering the latest.

http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/...n_games_driven_from_her_home_by_harassers.php

Some of the tweets she received... ugh...

 

[Ommadawnyawn]

Is there a gamergate manifesto, and how is Milo Yiannopoulos transphobic?

 

[Anthropic]

I know he was talking about Twitter's abysmal anti-harassment policies last night.

I might be mistaken here, but this seems like he's unhappy with what people (anti-GamerGater people) have been tweeting at Owen Good (who I assume is the person he cares about):