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JonCole

"Ethics and Journalistic Integrity"

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Well, the GG morlocks paid actual money for a dildo and then sent it to Chris Kluwe. Because that'll show 'em.

It is now being auctioned off for charity. 

 

People, I'm torn. 

 

While it might be that I would be overjoyed if they were to clump together like a Katamari and then roll into a volcanoat this point they are serving as a perfect example of why changes need to be made in our culture. They are like a weakened strain of a cultural disease and, maybe, they will eventually be consumed like some sort of vaccine. Or something. I dunno. I'm done for the day. 

 

Cheers, dear sane people! May all your enemies be as clueless as Gamer Gate.

I've actually been thinking about this too. GG has done more in the last 6 months to expose the misogyny and inequality in the Video game, tech and science fields/industries than all the op-ed pieces of the last decade. The GRANDEST irony of this movement will likely be that they will unintentionally change the world for the better because the internet loves nothing more than to forget passion causes within days, but since they're SO DEDICATED to the constant campaigns of harassment and threats, it doesn't LET the internet forget.

 

Someone trying to advance the cause of equality couldn't have planned it better...I wouldn't be surprised if THAT'S their next move: try to blame all this on the "SJWs" by claiming GG started as a false flag operation to try and bring attention to inequality in video games...

 

That's what I orginally thought. But the problem with people who aren't particularly certain what they are fighting for, who are protesting one thing and mean another, they are primarily a destructive force. And not particularly vulnerable to embarrassing exposure.

 

Thankfully, game designers are mostly giving a shit about gamergate. The public's interest in indie devs is much the same as before gamergate. The problem is that they are stemming a tide of hate on twitter and elsewhere, and that is a very stressful thing that may well have an influence on their creativity.

 

As to the larger developers and the largest publisher, gamergate doesn't approach them in any disrespectful way. I find that continuously baffling. 

No need to be baffled: these people are at war with indie games that feature characters other than Whitey McLanternjaw. They never go after "big" publishers because those are the publishers who make the games they love (and I love! I love me some Arkham games, and I can't WAIT for the new MKX, partially because it looks like I won't have to explain to my fiancee why all the female characters are dressed like Renn Faire prostitutes) and they seem to operate under the misguided notion that the more indie games come out, the fewer AAA games will come out. As though there were some arbitrary limit...

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The first listing was taken down because it was in the wrong category, the second is in the right category, but ebay doesn't let people in the UK look at it because porn laws.

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Damn, I had some eBay Bucks, and was going to make a bid on it just for the fun of it, but it's already $125.  New listing if anyone is curious (still NSFW).

 

 

Also, on the "reading comprehension" skills of KiA, a bunch of them got mad at this Polygon article about the animator for Mass Effect originally starting with a female model, thus proving FemShep is the real Shep. 

 

Because it seems (to me anyway) like Polygon is spinning this like Anita did with Dino Planet -- as a powerful female character hijacked by evil men.

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Ah yes, spinning it, despite the fact that it's pretty clear that if you follow the video game industry at all, you know that a lot of companies will work in conjunction with marketing and test teams to produce low-risk fare - usually meaning a male protagonist. It sells well. 

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Get that into your brains, people. A bunch of totally clueless losers wishes to define what 'apolitical' means for diverse gaming sites, and then goes on to assume the authority to put journalists out of a job based on that clueless definition of the apolitical. Only one possible goal of gamergate, but a widely respected one. And, of course, a blatantly fascist one. Assuming control of the free press in order to achieve, yes, a political goal.

Zak Smith recently tumblr'd about The Worst Art Critic In History which is very relevant to the mentality of the gators. NSFW

tl;dr guy develops the critical theory "stop liking what I don't like", inspires literal Hitler

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I hate Hitler comparisons. Granted, I brought up the fascism, and I stand by that.

 

And of course the hunted video game critics can be seen as artists in their own right (according to Oscar Wilde at least), so I guess we're reeeeeally not that far off... 

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I think when you're actually into fascism, you don't get to use Godwin in your own defense.

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I think when you're actually into fascism, you don't get to use Godwin in your own defense.

 

My go to reference whenever I see that now is just this bit of Review, when Forrest is reviewing being a racist, at 4 minutes in (since I don't seem to be able to pass the timecode to the embedded player):

 

The sad thing is that, with GG where it is now, I could absolutely see some GGer saying something like that totally non-ironically.

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So on the topic of the sea lion comic, David Malki ! has errata:

 

It has been suggested that the couple in this comic, and the woman in particular, are bigots for making a perjorative statement about a species of animal, and then refusing to justify their statements. It has been further suggested that they be read as overly privileged, because they are dressed fancily, have a house, a motor-car, etc. This is, I suppose, a valid read of the comic, if taken as written.

But often, in satire such as this, elements are employed to stand in for other, different objects or concepts. Using animals for this purpose has the effect of allowing the point (which usually is about behavior) to stand unencumbered by the connotations that might be suggested if a person is portrayed in that role — because all people are members of some social group or other, even if said group identity is not germane to the point being made.

Such is the case with this comic. The sea lion character is not meant to represent actual sea lions, or any actual animal. It is meant as a metaphorical stand-in for human beings that display certain behaviors. Since behaviors are the result of choice, I would assert that the woman’s objection to sea lions — which, if the metaphor is understood, is read as actually an objection to human beings who exhibit certain behaviors — is not analogous to a prejudice based on race, species, or other immutable characteristics.

My apologies if the use of a metaphorical sea lion in this strip, rather than a human being making conscious choices about their own behavior, was in any way confusing.

As for their attire: everyone in Wondermark dresses like that.

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Note sure if anyone saw this, but just in case you were curious if Brad Wardell was still a miserable pile of shit, he is.

wZwSdsB.png

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Video game journalists unfortunately have the tendency to be scared shitless by the gaters.

 

Okay, not to get angry at you again for something I mostly agree with, but that sort of depends on your definition of game journalists. I agree that big sites haven't responded well by actually caving to some of their demands for pointless updates to ethical policies. GG goes "Prove to us you aren't lizard people!" and they go "Well, maybe we really haven't been clear enough on the us not being lizard people matter." It's super weird! But a lot of people outside of those sites have found deservedly harsh words for this hate group since its inception. Thinking of folk like Lana Polansky, Katherine Cross, Zolani Stewart, Jenni Goodchild, Maddy Myers, Brendon Keogh, etc. etc.

 

You can say that those are critics and bloggers, not journalists, but the distinction is fairly arbitrary. It's almost a kind of self-fulfilling prophecy: they're not journalists (or appear at big sites) because not enough people read them, and not enough people read them because they're not journalists (or appear at big sites). As someone who moves in those freelancer circles, it gets kind of infuriating after a while that people are forever wondering why big sites - with their nonthreatening dude writers and their nonthreatening opinions - don't do x or y, but never looking at the people who actually do those things and desperately want to be noticed, to climb up the ladder.

 

The biggest concern for a lot of people I know isn't so much GG, fucking gross as it is, but that they have to deal with it on their own while the existing structures continue to leave them out in the cold.

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You got angry at me before? Good thing I didn't notice. ;)

 

Interpret the "tendency" correctly. Of course there are journalists out there making a stand. It's just that you find cave in behaviour on the side of journalists that I just don't see happening on the side of developers. Also, that's "journalist" as in "journalist"; I've been following e.g. Cross for quite a while now, but a journalist she is not. ;)

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GG goes "Prove to us you aren't lizard people!" and they go "Well, maybe we really haven't been clear enough on the us not being lizard people matter."

 

I feel like a better analogy might be how GG reacted to Kotaku's statement that Grayson's coverage of Quinn's game was unaffected by his relationship with her in pretty much the exact same way certain people would react to Obama's birth certificate showing that he isn't a secret Kenyan Muslim.

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Okay, not to get angry at you again for something I mostly agree with, but that sort of depends on your definition of game journalists. I agree that big sites haven't responded well by actually caving to some of their demands for pointless updates to ethical policies. GG goes "Prove to us you aren't lizard people!" and they go "Well, maybe we really haven't been clear enough on the us not being lizard people matter." It's super weird! But a lot of people outside of those sites have found deservedly harsh words for this hate group since its inception. Thinking of folk like Lana Polansky, Katherine Cross, Zolani Stewart, Jenni Goodchild, Maddy Myers, Brendon Keogh, etc. etc.

 

You can say that those are critics and bloggers, not journalists, but the distinction is fairly arbitrary. It's almost a kind of self-fulfilling prophecy: they're not journalists (or appear at big sites) because not enough people read them, and not enough people read them because they're not journalists (or appear at big sites). As someone who moves in those freelancer circles, it gets kind of infuriating after a while that people are forever wondering why big sites - with their nonthreatening dude writers and their nonthreatening opinions - don't do x or y, but never looking at the people who actually do those things and desperately want to be noticed, to climb up the ladder.

 

The biggest concern for a lot of people I know isn't so much GG, fucking gross as it is, but that they have to deal with it on their own while the existing structures continue to leave them out in the cold.

 

I think you're understating the difference in what these people do. They are critics, not journalists. They don't do news.

 

There's very limited room for criticism in paid games journalism because the market's just not there for it. Most of these writers have found that writing for generalist publications is a much better bet because people there are willing to read criticism and if it's about video games, well, that's kind of novel. The big enthusiast press sites serve a different market, one that's far more interested in validation and hype than analysis and criticism. So it goes.

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I don't really understand why it's valuable to argue this journalist vs critic, big sites vs small sites thing. This is pretty deeply in the weeds. Isn't it a forgone conclusion that bigger publications are tied much closer to general, conservative business interests of the industry particularly since a lot of the advertising and such is endemic? As a result, I'm sure publications have a directive to discuss or not discuss hot button issues. Developers are actually more transparent in this - a lot of the developers who are bullish are also independent and thus have no great investment in not pissing off "potential customers" in the same way that a big corporation might be. The only big developers who have had people speak out on the issue have taken a stance as a company, like EA or Volition.

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New article up at REAXXION, the site to plant your 'borrowed' cultural war enraging speeches!

 

And boy is it a hilarious one.

 

Tying Everything Together

Gamers have been always scrutinized by various groups. If SJWs thought they could come in and scrutinize gamers then they have picked the wrong group to fight against, something they don’t seem to understand. In 2014 we’ve seen more and more people speak out against SJWs, even including women.

 

So Robert Conway does think that gamergate essentially is a war that is mostly taking place against women. Huh, count all those women towards all the male social justice warrior white knights, and you'll come out with a pretty superior army against gamergate kids that "even include women".

 

The social justice warrior is crafted to be a derogative term in much the same way as the "socialist" in American politics. People might be best served if they started proudly calling themselves exactly that or, to lend from Jim Sterling, slight alterations like the "Social Justice Bard".

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New article up at REAXXION, the site to plant your 'borrowed' cultural war enraging speeches!

 

And boy is it a hilarious one.

  

So Robert Conway does think that gamergate essentially is a war that is mostly taking place against women. Huh, count all those women towards all the male social justice warrior white knights, and you'll come out with a pretty superior army against gamergate kids that "even include women".

 

The social justice warrior is crafted to be a derogative term in much the same way as the "socialist" in American politics. People might be best served if they started proudly calling themselves exactly that or, to lend from Jim Sterling, slight alterations like the "Social Justice Bard".

It is one of my absolute favorite things that they're using as a pejorative something that sounds objectively AWESOME.

 

My only fear is that it works like how "liberal" worked in American politics.

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I think the jokey corruptions of it are fun, but I bristle when anyone refers to me as an SJW, since it's passed into the parlance even from other social justice allies, because it's short. And no, I'm not an SJW. I am a feminist. It's a term I chose, it's not derisive, it's not pegging me as some horrifically angry woman all the time. 

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I think the jokey corruptions of it are fun, but I bristle when anyone refers to me as an SJW, since it's passed into the parlance even from other social justice allies, because it's short. And no, I'm not an SJW. I am a feminist. It's a term I chose, it's not derisive, it's not pegging me as some horrifically angry woman all the time. 

Oh I understand that intent is, ultimately, more important than actual word definitions (we can't ALL be as cool as the kid in Wet, Hot, American Summer who says the line "Douches are hygienic, I take that as a compliment" after all), it's just, to me, emblematic of how hilariously slipshod this whole operation is.

 

As I said further up: when we look back in ten years, they may very well be the catalyst for a lot of positive change entirely in spite of themselves and their abhorrent actions.

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You got angry at me before? Good thing I didn't notice. ;)

 

Not really I guess. Angry the way a kitten gets angry and then falls over.

 

They are critics, not journalists. They don't do news.

 

Journalism includes more than reporting. That distinction isn't wrong, but I don't think it's what this general conversation is about. Most of GG's complaints aren't about news writing, they are about the integrity and objectivity of their precious reviews, which is where those fields intersect.

 

Don't have to tell me twice about the lack of money in this field, but then again, it doesn't have to be like this.

 

I don't really understand why it's valuable to argue this journalist vs critic, big sites vs small sites thing.

 

I don't think it's important to argue about the distinction, which is fairly arbitrary to begin with: a lot of people I know have worked both fields and continue to do so as gigs come up. I think the divide is important because it lets you see the historical continuity leading up to the current cowardice of big sites: their game of musical chairs for big name white dudes, them being asked to do something about their comments, them making fun of how the disenfranchised try not to starve, etc. etc.

 

There's a long standing history here of them doing shitty things while people who'd know better than to say certain stuff are right there, going "Just give me a shot!" So just as a general way of being productive about their failings, I think it's important to not only get ineffectually mad at them for a while, but to promote other voices. Don't just link to a silly article Kuchera wrote, link to somebody who has written a better article on the subject.

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I can absolutely vouch for the court/police stuff she talks about, it's literally the same rigamarole I went through a couple years ago. Law enforcement in most places has literally no idea how cyberharassment/stalking works or why it's so damaging.

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hard to believe more departments don't have an advisor/more training for things like this in 2015

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I got caught up on Adventure Time last night, and it turns out there was an episode from November that has a Gamergate joke in it.

 

Not that Gamergate, though.

 

The other Gamergate.

 

Prior to differentiation as a gamergate, a dominant female worker must physically inhibit its sisters. For example in the case of Diacamma australe, the first females to reach maturity will clip off the thoracic gemmae of their sisters. This mutilation greatly reduces the attractiveness of the female as a mate. Thereafter persistent domination of worker females by gamergates via physical aggression all but ensure that they will not produce male offspring.

 

There's a metaphor in there for something, but hell if I know what it is.

 

 

 

(incidentally, the episode was written way back in something like May and this was just an unfortunate coincidence)

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