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JonCole

"Ethics and Journalistic Integrity"

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Her color scheme comes from an image meme of Piccolo raping Vegeta from Dragon Ball Z. Yes, really.

 

I had seen that said several times, but hadn't actually gone to confirm it.  And yep, that does seem to be the case.  The color scheme certainly looks believable, and part of the whole meme was trying to specifically get those colors associated with rape.  Not going to link anything, but just google "picoolo rape vegeta gif" and you'll find it. 

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It only really hit me while reading these summaries that it would have made a lot more sense, even outside of rape jokes and disingenuous motivations on 4chan's part, for TFYC to have a mascot designed by a woman for their Female-Empowerment Game Jam.

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I've slowed down in peeking in on the GamerGate shit going on (I got hired for a job a couple days ago and frankly have more important shit to do now). The thing ongoing for the weekend seems to be harassment of GG supporters. Well, reported harassment (hey, if they want to question the shit Sarkeesian or others get, they can be questioned too).

 

But the first thing that comes to mind is the most likely scenario of what's going on; the same people that harass / dox / threaten Sarkeesian and others are focusing on doing the same to GG at the moment, if only to sit back and watch the group blame "SJWs" for it.

 

Sadly there's a lot of GG supporters falling for it. On the plus side, the people talking about GG the most now are its most devout members / believers. People seem to have moved on and its for the better. Like I said, even I'm looking in on it less now. I figure the next time it'll come up in the broader media surrounding video games is when the anniversary hits.

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Yeah - there doesn't seem to be an "anti-Gamergate side", exactly - just people who are more or less regularly impacted upon by its followers. That's partly a condition of the well being poisoned, I think - people who tried to engage initially in good faith found that they got responded to with spamming of the hashtag, to encourage a mass to descend on them. As a result, people have largely stopped taking the risk.

 

(This also helps to explain why it isn't trending, which is the source of another conspiracy theory: Topsy shows a lot of use of the hashtag, but it's concentrated usage by relatively few people - like, literally dozens of tweets a day.)

 

That isolation has its own problems, of course - primarily that it makes the gamergaters pretty easy targets for people who do reach out - who appear now to be progressively further-right ideologies, trying to recruit them like the Foot clan in the OG TMNT movie. I got kind of a shiver when I saw people talking about the evils of "Cultural Marxism"...

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This also helps to explain why it isn't trending, which is the source of another conspiracy theory: Topsy shows a lot of use of the hashtag, but it's concentrated usage by relatively few people - like, literally dozens of tweets a day.

 

I've definitely noticed that too. I've made some attempts at good faith communication early on for a thing I was writing, but since then I've also seen the people I talked to pop up many times when other people posted links to or screenshots of conversations they had or saw.

 

I'd honestly be curious to know what the people who are still keeping this going see as their endgame here, except maybe to burn down all games criticism in existence. It seems that at some point this whole thing became about keeping momentum going, and prolonging the existence of their horrible crusade, until maybe some genuine case of corruption comes along and retroactively legitimizes it. Except it won't, the same way that a real plot by the government to spy on people via the NSA doesn't "prove right" the tinfoil-hatted brigade that raved about black helicopters and mind-altering chemicals in their cereal long before that.

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Idk that seems like a reasonable response for someone who might not have followed this from the beginning, and may not understand that the hellish monstrosity of gamergate has consumed the allegiances of reasonable people by coopting arguments and retconning messages (like the self serving political entity it is). Doesn't make it right to immediately take a centrist stance and not to dive deeper, but assuming this person genuinely came into this without context, he would basically be the victim of the weird gamergate spin machine and the pure vitriol that exists.

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Yeah, but Mike Bithell got on those "DO NOT BUY FROM THESE SJWs" posters pretty early on.

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Were there any other sites besides The Escapist that kowtowed to these shitheads? Need to know if I need to blacklist any other places.

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I think the only really problematic bit of Mike's (full disclosure - I have met him once or twice at indie events) post there is "no one is saint or misogynist".

Edit: as pointed out in the Fem thread, saying he doesn't always agree with Anita is potentially troubling, but I bet if one were to push him on that they'd get a more specific and considered answer than the two related in that thread...

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I think the only really problematic bit of Mike's (full disclosure - I have met him once or twice at indie events) post there is "no one is saint or misogynist".

 

Yeah, I understand the spirit in which it was written, but there is a lot of really odd appealing to the center that resonates a bit much with everything I'm tired of hearing being said. Is the opposite of a saint really a misogynist? Is that a fair either/or proposition? Then what exactly do we call the people who spent weeks vocally fantasizing about harm being done to Sarkeesian and Quinn?

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Btw, I'm writing a long ass thing about this after this "exchange" I had with Mike. This has been bugging me for weeks now, and as much as I do not want to fucking write it (all of this Gamer Gate shit has drained me emotionally and mentally), I need to do it to keep my sanity, lol.

 

So look out for that? *fart* 

 

EDIT: By the way, I'd appreciate it if anyone wants to help me edit this shit, since I think it's kinda long and I'll probably do fuck ups. If anyone wants to help, I'd extremely appreciate it and I'll share what I have so far as I'm writing it. And obviously, credit you for helping me out.

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hehe, seriously, check Wikipedia on the bus

...what

That has to be one of the most punchable tweets I've ever read.

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Yeah, that plus the Google one. This would explain your initial *grumble*, Cine..!

 

Edit: also, I fucking hate "hehe". It's "hee hee" (or possibly " heh heh" depending on what you're trying to convey).

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I might regret saying this (as if that has stopped me before!) but I don't think those tweets flatter either of you. Honestly I've flirted with unfollowing you a couple of times, Cine, because you're absolutely uncompromising on race in a way that I find really confronting, and while I understand it's because I'm less aware of my racial biases than, say, sexism, it feels like you'd attack me just as soon as the openly racist dickbags you're currently angry at. Becoming socially aware is a process of growth which takes time, and it often feels like you, and many people like you, get really impatient with people not far enough along that process, encouraging them to run backwards away from what they perceive as a state where people become always angry at everything. It's understandable, no-one has that much patience, but that doesn't mean it's not real.

 

From Mike's perspective, it seems like he's trying to see the good in his customer base, because if #gamergate is at all representative of his audience, and he doesn't want to make things for fuckwits, then he'll need to get a new job. It's certainly the thought I've had over the last couple of years weeks - why should anyone make video games if you're making them for gamers?

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EDIT: By the way, I'd appreciate it if anyone wants to help me edit this shit, since I think it's kinda long and I'll probably do fuck ups. If anyone wants to help, I'd extremely appreciate it and I'll share what I have so far as I'm writing it. And obviously, credit you for helping me out.

 

I'd be glad to have a look. 

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Meanwhile checking in on GamerGate today,

 

- Pretty much the same shit repeated

- No mentions of the Steam Curating thing having possible issues, aside from non-GG folks asking GG about it

- Shout outs to Emma Watson while also saying SJWs are against her because reasons

- Something about not buying products from those that bully GG, because... journalists make games and not write about them right?

 

Edit - Oh yeah someone is saying Chris Hardwick (nerdist) is an enemy of GG or some shit and to not watch @Midnight. Which is dumb because that show is pretty goddamn great.

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Well yeah, if they talked about Steam Curation being problematic they'd have to talk about one of their trinity of YouTube gods TotalBiscuit putting games on his list for promotional purposes.

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Well yeah, if they talked about Steam Curation being problematic they'd have to talk about one of their trinity of YouTube gods TotalBiscuit putting games on his list for promotional purposes.

While I didn't see mentions of Steam Curation along with it specifically I did see GG accounts saying they "stood by" TotalBiscuit and his integrity. I figured it was related.

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I just had a customer cuss me out and call my business ethics "deplorable."  Been awhile since I've had that happen.

 

Nothing to do with journalism.  Just thought I'd share. 

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What's the over/under on this having the COMPLETELY unintended consequence of shining a light on the shitty ways that women are treated both within the industry and from consumers? This stuff all used to be fairly under the radar (which is one reason some people who aren't overtly awful think that this is making much of a "non-problem") and now there's mainstream news coverage of these rocket scientists threatening Emma Watson. When sexism (or racism, or really any negative -ism) is subtle, it's most dangerous because the average person won't see or encounter it. When it's THIS overt, no one can sit on the fence because it's so very obvious.

 

Meanwhile checking in on GamerGate today,

 

- Pretty much the same shit repeated

- No mentions of the Steam Curating thing having possible issues, aside from non-GG folks asking GG about it

- Shout outs to Emma Watson while also saying SJWs are against her because reasons

- Something about not buying products from those that bully GG, because... journalists make games and not write about them right?

 

Edit - Oh yeah someone is saying Chris Hardwick (nerdist) is an enemy of GG or some shit and to not watch @Midnight. Which is dumb because that show is pretty goddamn great.

 

That last part is not surprising to me, Hardwick is actually one of the few men to have his "nerd cred" questioned out of the gate since, I guess, he's a reasonably handsome dude who got famous on MTV. So he can't POSSIBLY be a "real" geek. It wouldn't surprise me if, for that alone, he's sympathetic (aside from just being a decent person).

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