Vainamoinen

A merely destructive cultural phenomenon — scarcely related to the art and craft of games, prospects of storytelling, emotional impact, which are the more worthy field of study. What interest academia has in games today seems, to me, to be more of a prematurely archeological one. As in, the contemporary witness/historians of the cultural suicide. Not that it shouldn't be documented...

This proves nothing as to the modes of digital representation. It doesn't prove that gamergate draws on a vast army of supporters, nor does it prove that at its core, it's only just a few agitators. Numbers are irrelevant — the cultural suicide is there for us to watch. The withdrawal of e.g. academic interest is real. So are a heap of other destructive effects. The interesting thing is of course the repeated statement that "gamergate is winning" (or recently even "gamergate may have already won"). I find that sentence so strange. If the perceived flaws in the industry have been ironed out by gamergate's heroic actions, why continue with the heroic actions? If gamergate is about protecting game designers from "SJW" influence, and if the "SJW" influence is a vast dystopian conspiracy, wouldn't we assume that "the price of freedom" principle applies and gamergate would have to continuously watch over their protected territory, never reveling in the security of total victory? Aren't we facing more of a communist scare scenario in the future, with fingers pointed at "the SJW" in gamergate's own ranks?

...and what kind of support would that be? http://www.vg247.com/2015/05/11/metal-gear-solid-5-quiet-figure-playartskai/ Oh. I see. 14 year old gaters need their first sex doll. Okay then. I don't share Anita Sarkeesian's theory as to Japan's 'traditional values', but, yeah, what we're seeing from there is 1950s gender roles.

Indeed, after eight months, gamergate has attempted to churn out the ultimate website to prove that it's only ever been about ethics in game journalism. Haven't seen the word "SJW" mentioned once there! Of course, not that many people in that database are actually journalists, age old two line twitter conversations have to stand in for undisclosed relationships, and they're even going with a Quinnspiracy version that her creepy stalker/ex-boyfriend doesn't support. If as a journalist you dare to dislike a game for its portrayal of women, you commit sensationalism, i.e. you're an SJW and you need to be put out of a job by the game defenders aka gamergate idiots. They find your name on a journalist mailing list? Collusion, you're not supposed to talk to other journalists, or other people for that matter. And to boot, they're linking to all those petty harrassment sites like Ralph for further reading and "proof", because those are all they have at their disposal... So, a good laugh that site is. The most reasonable looking depiction of gamergate's cause there will ever be, and it STILL comes across as a crazy, all encompassing, boundless witch hunt. I do hope most of the depicted people, journalists and the heap of others, will sue for copyright at the very least.

That is the truth, yes. To get some kind of depiction what they are afraid of needs digging deep into their ideological territory, places where no feeling of shame would ever keep them from unveiling what's in their hearts (just out of spite, I'll use the term trigger warning for this article). In this definition on the (arguably?) largest gamergate website, almost all story based games are SJW games. I find the present developments and this year's controversies to be fairly interesting. In the last gater discussions I've seen, the only overt example for "SJW game colonisation" they bring up is the replacement of six lines of backer created content in an already published game (with a potentially more offensive result). And that means that the brunt of that colonisation is happening behind the scenes, as part of the conspiracy, and influence on game developers is visible only in the results, the finished games. I've seen some gaters describe their doings as "defending game developers". Yet, as long as the "SJW influence" remains so indirect and diffuse by the gater description, what they think needs to be done can only be described as a war of aggression.

strawpoll.me - I have the direct link researched, but posting it could influence results (in any direction). At present however (at 1700 votes), the consensus is rather to pick option two (now at 7%) and ignore the journalism corruption nonsense altogether... The path is still very clear. What's wrong with video games consists of the "SJW colonisation/conspiracy", and the "con artist" term is needed so mere game critics like Anita Sarkeesian can also be attacked.

"Ethics in journalism": What gamergaters actually think. 97% going with the SJW conspiracy nonsense... I didn't think it would be that bad. But alas.

It's not quite true. Crosby was, most of all, disappointed by her character and character arc. Which was understandable seeing how the male counterparts of the bridge were featured while Yar essentially got the "warrior woman" treatment. However, she was satisfied with the center stage cameos she snatched in later seasons. The wikipedia entry on Crosby omits any source for the quote, but it seems like she was of the opinion that Tasha Yar had to die for her to get the "best episodes".

Wanted to provide itsamoose with some relevant statements from Cross' twitter, but came across a repulsive gamergate meetup poster there, remembered that it might not be the time to post outrage inducing pictures back here, so I just... ...didn't.

Fully agree just until that point. I'd go further and say that not only that narrow political spectrum, but indeed the whole political lens isn't any basis for a discussion of movie or game narrative. Diversity and equality are motifs in narrative throughout time. Whether some political party in some far away country picks up the motif – I could not care less.

Equality is equality. Men are fighting in court for custody of their children, and they lose because exactly the kind of gender roles are in place that feminism would love to see gone. But all this may be better discussed in the "feminism" thread. This really isn't connected that much to feminism. It's connected to online discussion culture and the direct contact people can now have with the creators of narrative media. I do miss studying literature and reading feminist criticism about the works of long dead authors, because that was the perfect meta level. It never felt like an attack. Feminist authors could love and condemn Hemingway at the very same time. Not sure how many people even have the ability left to discuss a story and its implications without the vitriol and backlash to the creator we're seeing on twitter today. 140 characters will certainly never suffice. What the discussion needs might be exactly the kind of detachment Anita shows in (most of) the Tropes vs. Women videos.

Well, it DID occur in DC, which could explain the interest of the police. Which is great, you know – the police actually responding to threats made online! So much more than Quinn or Sarkeesian could ever hope for. It's pretty irrelevant where that tweet came from (as much as gaters hope their asses off, it probably wasn't Arthur Chu). We're in a time and age where chan-style activism and outpouring of hate can come from just about any 'side' (see Joss Whedon's goodbye from twitter over AoU controversies). The important thing is to condemn what has happened here. Bomb threats are the instrument of terrorists, plain and simple. If people would like to meet up with Milo "Obama probably loves these riots" Yiannopoulos and Christina Hoff "they don't teach you to interpret study results in philosophy" Sommers, why shouldn't they? In peace and all. Go forth and meet your heroes, unharrassed by anyone. It really, really is just video games.

Gamergate isn't necessarily about the failure to understand the progress of an art form. The situation we had only two decades ago and somehow seems to reemerge today – i.e. lots and lots of indie developers, three people in a garage – seems particularly scary to gamergate culture (see youtube comments on for ample further reference). As such, it isn't really a conservative movement. It is not just scared by the structures of tomorrow, it is scared by the structures of yesterday as well. The way out is, of course, to totally romanticize the past. A past in which only Electronic Arts ever existed and video game journalists never, ever had a friendly beer over an interview with a game dev/coder, anywhere in the world.

The origin of the hashtag has never justified that doubt, sadly. Gamergate is about ostracizing video game critics and indie developers with a thematic focus on diversity and other societal issues as outsiders to the medium. Women in particular. Interpreting the diverse approaches of gamergate's supporters becomes quite easy if this common goal is kept in mind. The continuous sleight of hand, track covering, evasion maneuvers and smoke screens notwithstanding, this is where they're going 24/7. The ideology has been there for a long time, but last August seems to have served as a rallying call. And that is why Gamergate HAS to defend Eron Gjoni. He HAS to be the good guy. It is, arguably, gamergate's most transparent lie. But they must defend it fervently, because it is the root out of which their precious thornbush grew. Yet it does serve a purpose to discuss these roots, as we've seen: The first reply makes the base lie as obvious as it will ever get; the second is interesting in light of the claim first uttered before gamergate even became gamergate: "It's not about Zoë Quinn any more". Seems like it was, all along, for eight months. We're still right there and August DID never end. To understand the Quinncident means understanding gamergate.

Oh, speaking of Star Trek TNG and Eron Gjoni, gaters trying to make Lt. Worf drink the gaterade: https://twitter.com/akaWorf/status/593234588597522432 short version: NO DEAL

What did I miss?

It's not easy to look back eight months into the abyss of how this whole thing started. Still, I'll remember Eron Gjoni as the guy who actually killed game culture. http://www.bostonmagazine.com/news/article/2015/04/28/gamergate/

Kotaku tackles "politics in games" (not sure if linked once before on this thread) — not the greatest article, but certainly written with the kind of boldness we now need considering the expected backlash. http://www.kotaku.co.uk/2015/03/23/why-everyone-should-want-politics-in-their-video-games I expect game journalists to talk about the issues, and to defend their right to write about those issues in game culture.

I've received my Blu Ray discs of Star Trek TNG on April 2nd, so I'm binge watching these episodes until my head explodes. There's one, just one episode that has received an extended cut, and it's The Measure of A Man. As the tears started rolling, it dawned on me that this is it. This is the kind of story the Sad Puppies and gamergate are fighting against. Full to the brim with social issues that allow analogy to the present day, and that is what actually MAKES it great. It even has Whoopi Goldberg comparing an army of androids to slavery. It doesn't get much more overt. The actors loved this episode, two of them naming it the best of them all. The audience loved the episode. According to the wikipedia, it was used in a lecture on Computer Ethics at the University of Kentucky. That greatness, it's getting attacked.

Links? /edit: Ah. http://www.themarysue.com/calgary-expo-gamergate-evicted/

Yesterday in the fabulous land of gamergate: For episode 3 of Dreamfall Chapters, Red Thread Games has released concept art showing the protagonist with her hair cut short. GATERS DEFINITELY NOT AMUSED. The exact source of gater irritation is still unknown. Recently, his gamergate holyness Roosh V. has written an — as always, higggghhhhly and unnnndoubtedly satirical — article protesting about women cutting off their hair: (safe link: http://wehuntedthemammoth.com/2015/04/15/pickup-guru-roosh-v-women-who-cut-their-hair-short-are-committing-self-harm-and-should-be-monitored-by-authorities/ ) Some people seem to be of the opinion that women with short hair are automatically lesbians. As gamergate continues to tell us, there's really really nothing wrong with lesbians, but portraying them in video games is leftist political propaganda, so essentially should never be done. Add to that the strong unease of gaters when episode 1 of the game dared to show a future political system with actual party names you'd find today, and their misguided notion that the game somehow favored the games' "social democrats", I'm really surprised that Ragnar Tørnquist doesn't deal with these idiots more often.

/edit: Comment made no sense due to misunderstanding stuff. But hey, what's with all the not showing the faces of the important dudes and dudette.

Gamergate argument history: Anita Sarkeesian is making a video series about tropes vs. women in video games. Isn't that great? You *****g greedy ****** ***** charlatan, I'm coming to your house to **** *** **** * ********! We didn't say that! It wasn't us! This is not gamergate! We didn't harrass the **** ***** ! We could, you know, talk about the issues instead, no? But these games have soooo many positive female characters! No they don't, but anyway, you can't identify tropes VERSUS women if you focus at the few positive examples. This is cherry picking! She wants to censor our games! She doesn't even like games! No, she enjoys games just like you do. She just points at aspects she finds problematic in games she possibly loves while explicitly saying again and again that there is nothing wrong with enjoying these games. For example, she talks about binge playing the Zelda series on the Idle Thumbs podcast. Yes, Zelda. Huge fan. Despite damsel and all. But where are the positive examples? There's supposedly a video in her series coming up more at the end of the series that talks about positive examples exclusively. It's in the Kickstarter, right there, since 2012. That isn't enough! We can't know whether she really REALLY likes games! Sarkeesian's 'gamer cred' has never been that relevant anyway. Here! Look at this reaxxion article! She's getting loads of money from Intel now! And, here, look at the actual data in the PDF reaxxion "analyses". She's announcing several new projects, among them an entire new SERIES of positive female character portrayals in video games. Makes sense to make that a separate series for above reasons... OMG look at this new video! The positive character she talks about doesn't even LOOK like a woman and hardly anyone ever CALLS her a woman! Man, Sarkeesian really sucks at feminism! So now you got what you asked for, but you're too stupid to understand it? Oh-ka-hay. Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaalso, her promotion didn't even boost sales! Wait, who the what now? Promotion? The 'success' of Sarkeesian's previous series was never measured in the inexistant damage she does to the year old games she criticises, but when she gives positive examples, suddenly the effect on sales is supposedly relevant. Wow, just wow. /edited for mimicked insults; they weren't met with universal approval.

Okay, which major gg outlet websites and what figureheads participate in that truegendering crap?!

*sigh* Still it would be a nice thing to have. A lengthy evaluation of Sad Puppy manifesto: http://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2015/04/09/the-sad-puppies-are-goddamned-idiots/ "Idiots" is not even particular hyperbole. These are sci-fi fans who don't understand sci-fi. Here's the strategy of vote manipulation laid out for the puppy followers. Note how in this outlet, "the SJW" is the enemy figure that basically justifies obliterating basic democratic structures: http://monsterhunternation.com/2015/02/02/sad-puppies-3-the-slatening/ Militarist puppy anthem, 8chan style: https://otherwheregazette.wordpress.com/2015/04/10/the-sad-puppy-anthem/ Won't tell you what that reminds a German of, I really wont. Linking to Martin's blog again, this time to a later part. What Martin literally says here is that the puppies' entire quarrels are simply made up. http://grrm.livejournal.com/418285.html Central quote: In the exact same way, gamergate is fighting to regain what they never even remotely came close to losing. The sci-fi world, I'm convinced, will listen to reason. It will not continue to stumble in the dark like my dearest games culture.